u in good hands? the calcium they take because they don't take it with food. switch to citracal maximum plus d. it's the only calcium supplement that can be taken with or without food. that's why my doctor recommends citracal maximum. it's all about absorption. as radical as ryan. let's play "hardball." let me start with this right wing radical, paul ryan, and what he wants to do with this country. he wants to junk medicare instead of a voucher program that sends a big new slice of money to the insurance companies. he wants to use the rest of the money to eliminate on all people

who make money off money. did you hear the rest of his health plan? hemts to basically criminalize abortion by declaring the fertilized human egg an abortion. this is why newt gingrich calls this guy a radical ring wing social engineer and last night -- but is he, mitt romney, willing to defend what ryan has done? is he ready to stand in national debate with president obama and say i'm for dumping medicare, for making abortion premedicated murder? is mitt ready to climb aboard the ryan express and let the right wing social engineer change the direction of this country? with me now, michael steele and long time democratic strategist bob shrum. want to start with shrum. last night, he told a green bay station that when it comes to medicare, his plan and ryan's

are the same. let's watch. >> paul ryan and my plan for medicare i think is the same. if not identical. it's probably close to identical. >> i think what we're seeing here is the same kind of evolution on the ticket we saw with w. and cheny. here we have a right wing social engineer as mitt romney calls him basically setting the tune. tell you what you think about what's going on. the identical nature of their health care plans. the far out right wing position ryan takes on abortion basically criminalizing it by saying t ii a person you just killed. >> romney was running remarkably contentless campaign designed to be just a referendum on the economy. if the republicans could gum up the works in the house, things were bad, blame the president, vote for me.

so when he picked ryan, that gave it content and they've been all over the lot the last few days. first they said as romney said in the primary, he would sign the ryan budget, it was marvelous. one of his advisers repeated that. then they tried to back away. then put out this phony ad on medicare and obama, cuts in waste and efficiency in terms of provider, but last night, he just went out there and embraced the ryan plan and i'm going to tell you, it is a terrible mistake politically for him to be out there arguing for a plan that is going to privatize voucherize and end medicare as we know it. this puts florida very much i think headed toward obama number one. and number two, it's going to hurt in lots of other states. >> well, the question i guess mike, an analytical question, what point will romney say i'm not ryan, on eliminating the capital gains tax? on voucherizing medicare, i'm

not him on this personhood, which criminalizes abortion rights. where is he going to say look, ryan's a radical. i'm a center rightist? >> number one, ryan is not the top of the ticket. romney is, so you will not hear mitt romney say i am not ryan. you will likely hear and i expect to hear certainly about the time you get to the convention, ryan saying that i am romney. i think that's the order of things. i think what you're seeing, i would agree with bob on this point. there has been sort of a disconnect or a disconcerted effort to try to bring all this together. quite frankly, if you're going to go and open up this election, which i think it should be, to a choice election, where you're going to bring ryan in, then you'd better have that script together. be on the same page from the

first interview with cbs and 60 minutes where he started distancing himself saying i got my own plan, to what you just played last night where he goes well, our plans are pretty much the same. you cannot start this argument. again, i agree with bob, this national debate on substance where you're showing that well, maybe we haven't worked out exactly what the substance is. >> whatever your politics watching the show now, you want to know what these guys are going to do if they get in there. we know what obama's going to do. so the question is what is romney going to do. when you get married with somebody, the person with the strongest convictions on something like going to church or where you live, how to raise the kids, tends to get the other hand because the other person in the marriage says okay, you really care about this thing, i'm going to let you have it. mitt romney is wishy washy. you called him multiple choice

once on abortion rights. if ryan's on the ticket because of his conviction, why would you throw the conviction off the train? you would throw the wishy washy off. he said last night, the fact is, romney said he's identical with ryan on the whole health care issue and that, to me, is amazing. >> i don't think michael's arguing with that, i think he's saying that romney's doing the wrong thing. they should have been on the same script from the beginning. romney should have said if you're go run with me, here are the rules. but one of romney's problems, to get this nomination, he got it in a struggle against the weakest field of candidates in either party. he had to say he endorsed the ryan budget. that it was marvelous. that he would sign it. if he tries to back away from it and that's what a lot of republican pros hope, he's going to get some real blow back from the base in the republican right wing. if you get a romney ryan presidency, you're going to see an attempt to voucherize

medicare, to privatize social security, you're going to see taxes rolled back to zero on interest and investment income and mitt romney's going to pay less than 1% on taxes on $21 million in income. >> i would say i'll tell you quite honestly, i have no problem with that debate. let's debate that. i think that's -- >> we'd love to debate it. >> okay. we're going to get to some more radical thinking. if your message isn't work, what's left to do? today, romney pulled a prop to help illustrate a point about his medicare plan. let's watch mitt romney and his white board. >> i want to bring as much clarity as possible, so i prepared a small chart here. my plan presents no change. the plan stays the same. no adjustments. no changes. no savings.

the president's plan cuts medicare, excuse me. well, let's see, there we go. by $716 billion. cut. >> you know, michael, i'm going to give you a minute to describe this to me because i think there's a problem here. it seems to me he said last night i'm with ryan completely for the voucher program, the whole approach, which is quite radical, but a difference from what we have now. then he writes on that little white board, no change, no cuts. does he pay attention to what he says? >> look, chris, i don't get the white board escapade. i understand this was put together very quickly. it was kind of rushed. the press was kind of rushed into this. again, it goes to the overall approach. you rolled this out. you invited this debate by bringing someone who is the architect of the very thing we're now talking about. so you should hopefully have the

plan and schematics in place to make the argument and again, from sunday to today, we've seen three or four different alliterations of where romney is on the question of the romney, ryan plan. we should be talking about the romney plan if we're going to talk about this. and we're not. >> okay. that's total confusion. to the issue of tacks. for months now, it seems the issue is that romney won't tell us if he's paid taxes. now, saying well i'm not going to release my tax returns. i'm going to tell you what they are, like the old judge approach of nixon's. i'll tell somebody. he won't even tell somebody. he made the news insisting to reporters that despite what harry reid said about him not maying taxes for ten years, he's paid around 13%. let's listen to romney describe what he says have been his tax returns. >> i just have to say given the challenges that america faces,

23 million people out of work. iran about to become nuclear. one out of six americans in poverty. the fascination with taxes i paid i find to be very small minded. compared to the broad issues that we face. but i did go back and look at my taxes and over the past ten years, i never paid less than 13%. i think the most recent year is p 13.6 or something like that. paid taxes every year. harry reid's charge is totally false. >> okay. before he decided not to release them, he decided not to release them, then looked at them. i think he went back and looked before he decided not to release. i don't expect him to release them anytime soon, obviously, however, here's what ann romney told nbc's "rock center." let's watch. >> we have been very transparent to what's legally required of us.

but the more we release, the more we get attacked. the more we get questioneded, pushed. and so, we have done what's legally required and is going to be no more tax releases. given. >> there's a statement from the candidate's wife. interesting choice that she would make that statement, no more releases, period. >> three things. one, that's a peculiar defense. says the more we released, the more we get attacked. there's obviously something in those. number two, romney says well, i paid 13.6% every year. then he should release the tax returns. that would put this issue to rest. because people think he paid 1% or nothing. number three, i don't want to use this word, but i think he could be lying because he was lying in the medicare presentation. the fact is the president's plan doesn't cut $716 billion in medicare benefits. it cut savings and it cut, it

has savings and efficiencies and cuts waste and paul ryan had those in his plan. mitt romney endorsed them. the difference is that ryan uses them for tax cuts for people at the top and obama used them to close the prescription drug donut hole for medicare recipients so they don't pay 100% of their drugs between 2,000 and $5,000. under romney and ryan, they go back to doing that. >> michael, why would a guy say i pay 13%, but not release the retur returns? >> because he doesn't feel he has to release the returns. he feels he's put out two years and that's enough. he went back, looked at it. he's given us a number and that 13%, it represents investment income. may be just general. who knows. his broader point, which i would agree with, who cares. >> i care. >> i'm glad you do.

>> the american people do. >> i didn't cut you off. >> finish my point, please. the bottom line is you know, in the overall screheme of things, the american people to your point, bob, will judge this as to whether or not it's serious enough. i think what they're going to hold against both candidates if they fail to have a discussion about how we're going to create jobs in the country. >> thanks for that. but a -- the reason people care about his taxes, he wants to cut corporate taxes even lower. he wants to -- he wants to give all the rich people more taxes. >> everybody. >> no, no, the rich get almost all of it. >> you're totally wrong. no, they don't. >> read the numbers. >> i did. >> talking points, not numbers. >> shifts tacks to the middle class. thank you, michael, good case. coming up, if the republicans

think ryan causes trouble with seniors, what about women? he cosponsored a bill to give -- full rights as citizens. this is going to be serious business and includes iuds as well as abortions. what are we talking about? "the new york times" says this can be murder charges. also, momentuzzling joe biden. yes, he goes off message in terms of his language occasionally, but is it really necessary for his staff to keep trying to muzzle him? according to reporters, that's what's going on. and ohio republicans failed to respond, expand voter hours in republican areas. get it? keep democrats from voting. encourage republicans. boy, that's democracy. and finally, a new low in negative advertising. >> i'm mitt romney. americans say there's been too much negativity in this campaign and i agree. from now on, i pledge to focus on the positive. for instance, i'm positive that barack obama is a communist. >> that's positive. now, it's just a parody from jimmy kimmel that you'll see on

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new poll numbers in some key battleground states. starting in florida. in a new poll from purple strategies, gives mitt romney a one-point edge. in ohio, has romney up by two points. and according to the same poll, romney's up three in virginia. those three states look a little different than other recent polls. so keep looking for these numbers. in colorado, it has president obama at 49-46. in new hampshire, puts obama in front. 49-46. we'll be right back. thing about this country! including prilosec otc. you know one pill each morning treats your frequent heartburn so you can enjoy all this great land of ours has to offer like demolition derbies. and drive thru weddings. so if you're one of those people who gets heartburn

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welcome back. mitt romney has moved to the right on abortion since his days of running for governor of massachusetts, but his vp pick is even more so. in 2010, he said i'm as pro-life

a a person gets, then last year, paul ryan cosponsored what's been called a personhood bill which would declare life begins once an egg is fertilized, after conception. is that what republicans have in mind when they want to get rid of obama care? kate and maggie -- kate, thank you for joining us. just seems to me so radical. to declare abortion basically murder. that's what "the new york times" said. the concept of personhood is a fundamental tent of the abortion movement and under this, some forms of birth control could be construed as murder and in this case, it would be premeditated murder. are these people crazy and do they know what they're doing when they start playing around with common law and what a

person is? >> i can't speak for them. i don't know that they know what they're doing. what would happen, it would make every abortion at any time during pregnancy illegal. it would be murder. women would be subject to criminal penalties. doctors would be subject to penalties and go to jail. think of a doctor trying to treat a woman having a miscarriage. this would be extraordinary. and congressman ryan has been very devoted to this mission of making, taking away from women any role in for them in determining their reproductive lives. >> maggie, you're a straight reporter on this and may have your own views, i find when you, or i, newt gingrich referring to radical social engineering, this

is the babe b by. when you start talking about abortion's probably going to be on issue as long as we live. i think people should think more clearly on the law. when you start talking about law and say there should be a person, you put a position where a woman using an iud is a murderer. in fact, a premeditated murderer. do they really mean this? >> one of the things that is going to be interesting here has been on medicare, almost entirely on medicare. there are other issues about ryan's record that the democrats are going to highlight and you are focusing on one of them. democrats were looking to paint mitt romney as extreme on issues of women's health. there's a planned parenthood ad, which strategists on both sides have said is pretty effective against mitt romney and basically paints mitt romney as a throwback on the issue of birth control. says something like this isn't the 1950s, so i think having

paul ryan on the tick is going to make it harder for mitt romney to get away from that issue. you are going to see it, just in a more focused form now. >> you worked in this field for so long and figuring how women especially vote and they may vote if some cases, the economics of their family. perhaps their spouse has a good income. so you think republican. then this issue of personal freedom and rights. how do you talk to them about delineating how they should be voting and not just knee jerk voting. how do you get to them? >> i don't think it's at all you know, terribly, what's terribly difficult to get to the kind of voters you want to get to, but when women learn about ryan's stance and what it would mean if he were the vice president and i think that romney's choice of

ryan puts to rest any question about where governor romney is on the right to decide. so, i think that women and we've known in the past that this kind of issue can really swing women's votes. especially pro-choice republican women, independent women. they don't want an extremist like this. who's plans and programs and policies are adamantly antiwoman, antiwomen's health. everything about ryan's program is anti woman. reaching women in the suburbs, reaching independent women, young women. i think it will have a real resonance and it will have an effect on their voting patterns. >> i couldn't have said that better. thank you so much for coming on and maggie, i wish we had more time. i'm thinking this is the last thing the republican ticket wanted to be talking about.

they've got a time bomb here. they thought they were just going to talk about the economy and the budget, they have created a real frankenstein's monster and putting this guy on the ticket with this background, supporting personhood and criminality of abortion. up next, a double scoop of embarrassment for the president and first lady.

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us . it's kind of incredible. these two campaigns. they're going to spend close to $2 billion insulting each other. like the world's most expensive comedy central roast. romney vowed to focus on the positive and for the time being, that seems to be the plan. >> i'm mitt romney. americans say there's been too much negativity in this campaign and i agree. that's why from now on, i pledge to focus on the positive.

for instance, i'm positive that barack obama is a communist. i'm positive that he hates freedom and favors saton. >> that's jimmy kimmel. well mitt romney of course called the the president's campaign one of division, anger and hate, but as i said last night, look at his crowd. here's jon stewart. >> rhetoric on all sides can be hateful, but are republicans -- >> one prominent republican who even comes close to what like the alan graysons, joe bidens come up and spew to the american public. i can't think of one prominent republican who talks the way they talk. >> does the lake behind you have reflective properties? >> her opponent is someone who sees america as imperfect enough

to pal around with terrorists. nancy pelosi is a dean bat. washington elite. they're like a bunch of dead fish. >> only two explanations for that. one, not even sarah palin believes she is a prominent republican anymore, or two, sarah palin can no longer hear herself speak. >> palin, newt gingrich, donald trump. they've all been questioning even obama's basic americanism. also, romney meets nascar. you may remember when the candidate botched an opportunity at the daytona 500 in february. >> not as closely as some of the most ardent fans, but i have some great friends that are nascar team owners. >> well, touting he's buddy buddy with nascar team owners. earlier this week, mitt romney and his running mate toured the

nascar technical institute in north carolina. but that's not the nascar news getting buzz now. guess who held romney -- at a fund-raiser yesterday? that's right, nascar's ceo and other team owners. next, a spokesperson for a chicago shopping center calls it a marker for the community and tourism, but new york magazine dubs it as an embarrassment. in 2007, the president told o about his first kiss with michelle. on our first date, i treated her to the finest ice cream baskin robins had to offer. get this. that memory has become an historic marker, printed word for word on a plaque and then placed at a exact chicago curb where the first kiss occurred. local businesses hope to attract businesses to the spot and now,

you see what new york magazine was getting at that the obama girls might get. up next, joe biden's known to go off message every now and then, but now, there it goes. his own staff is trying to keep him away from the press. you're watching "hardball" from nantucket as you're just hearing, the place for politics this week. so, what's the problem? these are hot. we're shipping 'em everywhere. but we can't predict our shipping costs. dallas. detroit. different rates. well with us, it's the same flat rate. same flat rate. boston. boise? same flat rate. alabama. alaska? with priority mail flat rate boxes from the postal service. if it fits, it ships anywhere in the country for a low flat rate. dude's good. dude's real good. dudes. priority mail flat rate boxes. starting at just $5.15. only from the postal service.

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good afternoon. the dow higher by 85. one of its best days in week. s&p up ten and nasdaq added 31. better than 1%. walmart shares did not participate in today's rally though. its revenue fell short of expeck tases.

facebook shares also slid big time hitting a fresh low. it ended down more than 6% after the company's so-called first lock up period ended. and on the economic front, weekly jobless claims up by 2,0 2,000. that's it from cnbc, first in business worldwide. now back to "hardball." welcome back. in today's politico, jonathan martin writes about covering joe biden and opens the piece with a description of aides interrupting the vice president with shouts of let's go as he was trying to describe his personal reaction over the virginia tech memorial. biden revailed and here's what he said -- >> received a call out of the

blue that began like how could this happen? >> let go, guys. >> well jonathan martin reports quote the moment never would have taken place if he, vice president biden, had not effectively overruled his would be handlers. one of the staffers reports -- smack of disrespect, joining me now the jonathan martin and mark halperin. let me ask you about your reaction when you saw that happening. the vice president basically being interrupted by his staff when he was trying to make a very personal point. >> this is the knee jerk reaction of really any staffer with a candidate for high office. when they are with the candidate, with the principal and the press tries to ask an

impromptu question, the reaction is always to try to cut it off and say, thank you or let's go or no questions. or something like that. so i think that's what you saw yesterday, but ultimately, it can be self-defeating. yesterday is an example of that. because the vice president is at his best when he's talking about heartfelt, emotional issues like the tech shooting because he of course himself has lived through such a similar tragedy and losing his wife and daughter when he was 29 years old. it's one of those examples of politics where the reaction of staff to sort of you know, keep the candidate, the principle sequester sequestered, can ultimately harm what you're trying to do in the first place, which is trying to help the cause, help your candidate. >> mark halperin, your experiences with the vice president in this kind of a situation that you've witnessed? >> to things that might seem contradictory, but they're not.

joe biden of early days in the senate, as a presidential candidate in 1988 would be stunned and maybe is stunned if he saw what it's like today. in '88, i didn't cover him them, but he was widely accessible to him. amongst the most accessible and fun to cover candidates i've cover. he's come a long way. on the other hand, he's less cloistered than anybody else running in big time politics today and the notion his staff can control him very much is pretty farfetched. he's much more assessable. open, available to the press. on the other hand, again, he's far less assessable. i approached him on a rope line in las vegas. he answered one quick question, but nothing like it would have been semi. >> let's watch what you were able to get on camera.

>> mr. vice president, can i ask you a question? how are you? what do you think of governor romney's idea, the administration putting off the se quuser for a year? >> we can act now and get it done. >> this is the jesse brown memorial scholarship winner. >> how are you? where are you from? well, congratulations. >> i could. >> i'm the proud mom. >> hey, mom. you look like an older sister. how old are you, child is this. >> so, were you told the turn off your camera? >> i was. nice young man said could you shut off the camera. again, if it had been mitt romney or barack obama -- on the other hand, no one's ever asked me to shut off my camera. it's more of a cocoon than ever.

he's much more open and available to us. than anybody else out there. >> you could get a question -- >> your view. your own -- tell me what's going on here as you see it as a reporter. is joe biden being gagged by his staff people? is there some kind of control on him that people believe that if they cut him off, it will stop him from being joe or somebody they don't want to be joe? >> i think the response to joe biden when he commits a gaffe is to pull the reigns tighter and to try to limit the access. now, mark makes a fair point, by some standard, he's more accessible than certainly president obama or governor romney. at least with vice president biden, you can get to the point where you can ask him a question like i did at tech and like mark did in that video that you showed there. now, what happens after that, as your viewers just saw, the staff will swoop in and try to cut it off. either yelling or having you

turn your camera off. but at least in biden's case, you can ask a question. this is the campaign 2012, chris. it is harder and harder to ask these candidates questions. when you do, you're immediately cut off. there is no space anymore for kind of impromptu interaction. i think the voters are the real losers. >> let me ask you this, mark. is the vice president being told to shut up or are the press being told to shut up? you're laughing because it is a hard one to call. do you ever get the sense watching biden that he wanted to say something and the staffers told him, the boss, don't say it. >> i get the sense that happens a fair amount. he understands the rules of the game. he likes to talk to reporters, in general. his staff is pretty much independent of the west wing. to a large extent and his staff wants to try to make sure he doesn't do anything in the last 75 days or so that sets back their chances of winning. he's a competitive guy.

he wants to win. there's no question he's being handled more than ever, but it's not much compared to even most u.s. senators. he's out there. >> that sounds pretty healthy. jonathan, is he telling his staff you know, i tend to go on too long. just cut me off. i want you to do that. or is it a sense they're doing it against his will? >> i don't know if they're doing it against his will. i think he being in politics for the last 40 years, is conscious of his own shortcomings, but look, i don't think he's asking his staff to do it. i think they are taking steps here to ensure that he essentially is not harming himself. in doing so, this is the the point of the piece i wrote. in doing so, they limit the lest of joe biden, at least in the eyes of a lot of observers, which is this sort of raw, real, down to earth politician who can really connect one-on-one when his staff tries to stop him from hurting himself, ultimately, that runs the risk of missing

some real moments where biden shines and i think that's unfortunate for the press and it's really fortunate for voters. >> let biden be biden, literally. >> not verbally. >> i've never had the experience where a politician has let a staffer shut him up. maybe my old days with tip o'neill. the idea of telling tip o'neill, excuse me, mr. speaker, you've got to stop talking. he wants it. must be the theory. thank you. coming up, ohio republicans failed in their attempt to expand voting hours in republican areas while cutting the them back in democratic areas, but there's still a problem. they're still keeping black voters from doing what they like to do. vote in person. rather than by absentee ballot. we're going to talk about that and what effect it can have in this coming election in ohio. this is "hardball." the place for politics. [ angela ] endless shrimp is our most popular promotion at red lobster. there's so many choices.

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now to congressman paul ryan's on the republican ticket, here's a potentially potent line of attack. congress is at its all time low in public approval. only 10% of americans approve the job congress is doing. by the way, congress includes paul ryan. as president obama's pointed out, ryan's one of the idea logical leaders of the republican controlled house of representatives. right there in the belly of the

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welcome back to "hardball." iowa's just the latest state where republicans are trying tamp down the democratic turn out this november. here's the background in ohio. republican counties there, republican and democratic election officials in those counties voted 4-0 so extend voting hours, but in heavily democratic counties, republicans voted no and the republican secretary of state john houston

broke the 2-2 tie and decided to keep polls open. the move caused such an uproar that yesterday, houston did away with all early in person voting across the state on weekends leading up to the election, but even that is not fair because history shows that blacks who vote before election day tend to vote in person. so in person opportunities to vote hurts democrats more. with me now is the former governor of ohio and investigative reporter of the cincinnati inquirer. the republicans are so flagrant here. to first of all try to shut down only democratic counties where people are going to vote for president obama and then to win so far in saying he can vote by absentee ballot. you're not going to vote the way blacks like to vote, show up at the opportunities they have before election day. once again, you have something 90,000 people voted last time in

2008, the weekend before the election, now, they won't be able to vote. this is another screw job, it seems. your thoughts. >> they had no shame, chris. and across the country, what's happening in is not as bad as what's happening in pennsylvania and florida and some other states. but only -- to reverse his course and to bring uniformity to the voting hours. still this year ohioans will have fewer opportunities to vote than we had four years ago. what's the difference between now and four years ago? four years ago jennifer brunner was the secretary of state and she was advocating for expanded opportunities to vote. mr. husted is wanting to condense the opportunities to vote in ohio. and it's just terrible. it's shameful. it's a threat to democracy if this continues to happen across the country.

>> barry, anybody who studies political history knows restrictions on voting opportunities help republicans. they're tougher voters. rain or shine. democrats aren't always going to vote. education challenges, economic challenges generally. if you want to win an election for the republicans, make it harder to vote. and here they go again. is any motivation to shut down early voting in person? >> what the secretary has said is that under a new plan in ohio this year, every registered voter about 7 million people will be getting in the fall an absentee ballot application. his argument is that gives you 750 hours in which to cast your ballot without having to leave the ez-chair in your living room. and the argument is valid. the problem is, many african-americans actually prefer to vote in person for a variety of reasons. not least of which is the degree

of comfort that comes with handing your ballot to an elections board official as opposed to dropping it in the mail hopes the postal service does their job. >> is there also a black vote tradition of after church. >> there is. and there was a meeting today at the elections even though it had little to discuss after the directive yesterday. but nearly 200 people jammed into that meeting and there were a number of black ministers who said you can cut back the hours but i guarantee we still bring the buses to the board of elections. you'll see us no matter how compressed. >> so they're going to stand to the closed doors and try to vote? >> well, the extended hours that the secretary announced yesterday will keep boards of election open until 5:00. then the final two weeks before the election until 7:00. the law is if you're in line at 6:59 p.m., you can have a thousand people in line, those thousand will be counted. so there may be a way to

effectively extend the evening hours. even though the hours as the secretary approved are less than we saw in 2008. and the real anger this time is over the loss of weekend hours. those were very popular last time. nearly 93,000 people statewide cast votes in 2008. very predominantly for barack obama. >> and they won't be allowed to vote that weekend this year, right? >> they're trying to restore the 72 hours which were removed. we'll be hearing on that. there's some who say don't be surprised if you see another lawsuit trying to do something about the absence of weekend hours earlier in october. >> governor, let me go back to you. this is "hardball." if one side has an advantage in the legislature like they do in pennsylvania where i grew up or in your state of ohio, they're going to use it. the republicans are using what strength they have in the

legislature making it harder for the president to stay in office. it's very partisan. >> it's very partisan. i've concluded that the republican party leadership has decided that they are afraid of the american voter. and so they're doing everything they can. and as i said, it is without shame. they are blatant about this. fortunately we're not requiring a photo i.d. in ohio. but in states where photo i.d.s are required, i think they are the equivalent of a poll tax. taking us back to a time we would all like to forget in this country. where there is an effort to keep minorities and poor people from having the access to the ballot. and i think we're seeing that in subtle ways and in some not so subtle ways. this is blatant. the republican party leaders ought to be ashamed of themselves. >> i agree. i think that's an objective assessment on any republican to justify what they're doing in these states.

they're making it impossible for poor people to vote. thank you ted strickland and barry horstman. when we return, let me finish with the awkward blind date mitt romney has found himself in with paul ryan. he didn't know what this was all about before he got into it. you're watching "hardball," the place for politics. only one man can save the day... ♪ with his sweet and nutty, sweet and nutty crunchy nut ♪ delicious! [ male announcer ] kellogg's crunchy nut. it's super delicious. by what's getting done. measure commitmenty nut. 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 -

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let me finish tonight with this. think about a blind date. remember them? it's when you go out on a potentially romantic evening

with someone you never bet before but somebody who trust says you'd click. poor mitt romney has the look of someone stuck on one such blind date. he's trying to say it's all going smoothly with paul ryan. they both laughed at the same time at the movie, but there seems to be something wrong here, this date of his. deadly serious about things. he couldn't be less like mitt romney. he wants to see what comes along, make the best deal. enjoy things. he's not a serious about getting serious. his blind date is deadly serious. he wants to look for someone who works the way he does. this thing we're all watching this tango between mitt and paul is not going they're way. the other wants to just get through the day. one's a person of deep and serious conviction, the other is op