>> i understand not giving pawlenty keynote speaker, but to completely shut him out of the convention, did they have to do that to my boy tim? ari melbourne gets tonight's "last word." as radical as ryan. let's play "hardball." good evening i'm chris matthews. let me start with this right wing radical paul ryan and what he wants to do to this country. he wants to junk medicare instead of a voucher program that sends a big new slice of money to the insurance companies. we know he wants to use the rest of the money to eliminate all taxes on the top 1 rst of people in this country. the people who make money off money. he wants to eliminate the

capital gains tax, period. did you hear the rest of his health plan? he wants to basically criminalize abortion by declaring the fertilized human egg a person. if you use an iud a murderer. this is why newt gingrich calls this guy a radical ring wing social engineer and last night his new paul mitt romney says his plan is identical to ryan's. is mitt romney willing to defend what ryan has once done? is he ready to stand in national debate and i'm i'm for dumping medicare and making abortion premeditated 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 two politico pros. michael steele and bob shrum. i want to start with shrum. mitt romney finally admitting he's running on the paul ryan plan. last night he told a green bay station 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. >> shrummy, i think what we're seeing here is the same kind of evolution on the ticket we saw with w and cheney where the vp set the pace because the vp has deep convictions like cheney did and w didn't have them. here we have setting the tune for his new partner romney. tell me what you think about what's going on, the identical nature of their health care plans. the far out right wing position that ryan takes on abortion basically criminalizing it saying it's a person you just killed. >> listen. politic's a vacuum and he's running a campaign that's designed to be a referendum on the economy. if republicans could gum up the worst in the house, things are bad.

blame the president vote for me. when he picked ryan, that gave it sub tantive content. they've been all over the lot the last few days. it's like the keystone cops. first in the primaries he said he would sign the ryan budget. it was marvelous. one of his advisers repeated that on one of the sunday shows. then they tried to back away a bit. then they put out this phony ad on medicare cuts from obama. it's cuts in ways of efficiency in terms of providers. then last night he went out there and embraced the ryan plan. 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. number two, it's going to hurt in lots of other states. >> the question, i guess, on this analytical question, at what point will romney say i'm not ryan. i'm not ryan on eliminating the capital gains tax. i'm not ryan on the medicare tax. although he is. and these abortion rights. when is he going to say ryan's a radical, i'm a center rightist. >> number one, ryan is not the top of the ticket, romney is. you will not hear him say i'm not ryan. you will likely hear ryan saying that i am romney. i think that's the order of things. what you're seeing right now i would agree with bob on this point. there has been sort of a disconcerted effort to try to bring all of this together. and quite frankly, if you're going do go and open up this election from being a referendum on the last four years 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. you've got to be on the same

page from the first interview with cbs and 60 minutes where he started distancing himself away saying i've got my own plan fop what you just played last night where he says our plans are pretty much the same. you cannot start this argument, this discussion -- again i agree with bob -- this national debate on substance when you're showing that well, maybe we haven't worked out exactly what the substance is. >> well, let me get back to what the voters have to worry about in the stakes of this election. whatever your politics watching this show right now, you want to know what these guys will do if in there. we know what obama is going to do. the question is what is romney going to do. when you get married with somebody, the person with the strongest convictions like going to church or how to raise the kids tends to get the upper hand because the other person in the marriage says okay, you really care about this thing. i'm going to let you have it. the one who's wishy washy doesn't set the course. 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 the train and go with the conviction. 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 going the wrong thing. they should have been on the same page since the beginning. romney should have said if you're running with me, here are the parameters. he got it in a struggle against the weakest field of candidates in modern history in either party. he had to say he endorsed the ryan budget, that it was marvelous. that he would sign it. and 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 blowback from the base and the right wing. so i think if you get a romney/ryan presidency, you're going to see an attempt to voucherize medicare. you're going to see an attempt to privatize social security. you're going to see taxes roll

back to zero on interest and investment income. and mitt romney is going to pay less than 1% in taxes on $21 million in income. that's not the election the republicans should have wanted to have. >> i would say, but i'll tell you quite honestly, i have no problem with that debate. let's talk about that. let's debate that. and i think that's -- >> i'd love to debate it. >> okay. we're going to get to some more radical thinking. let me get to this. if the message isn't working, what's left to do? today romney pulled a prop to explain 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. i think there's a problem here and i don't think you can unentangle it. it seems to me he said last night i'm with ryan completely for the whole approach. a difference from what we had. then he writes on the 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 rushed into this. again, it goes to the overall approach. you rolled this out. you invited this debate by bringing someone who was the architect of the very thing we're now talking about.

so you should hopefully have the plan and the schematics in place to make the argument. and i, again, from sunday to today, we've seen where romney is on the question of the 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. let's get to the issue of taxes. for months now it seems the issue the democrats is romney won't tell us whether he paid decent taxes or not. now romney is saying well, i'm not going to release the tapes, i'm not going to release my returns. i'm going to tell you what they're like. i'll tell somebody. he won't even tell somebody. he's telling us now. he made the news insisting to reporters that despite what harry reid said about him not paying taxes for ten years, he's always paid taxes around 13%. let's listen if romney describe what had have been his tax returns. >> i just have to say guinn the challenges in america, 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 13.6% or something like that. i pay taxes every single 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 that is out of order. i think that's common sense. why would he not release what he didn't even look at? i don't expect him to release his tax returns any time soon, obviously. here's what ann romney the wife of the candidate 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 questioned, the more we get pushed. so we have done what's legally required and there's going to be no more tax releases. >> there'll be no more. there's a statement from the candidate's wife. bob shrum, an interesting choice she would make that statement. no more releases, period. >> three things. one that's a peculiar defense, saying the more we release the more we get attacked. so there's obviously something in those tax returns. 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. 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 that medicare presentation. the fact is the president's plan doesn't cut $716 billion in medicare benefits. it cut savings and -- it has savings and efficiencies and cuts waste. and paul ryan had those in his

plan. mitt romney endorsed them. the difference is ryan uses them for cuts for people at the top and obama uses them to close the prescription drug doughnut hole for prescriptions. under romney and ryan they'd go back to doing that. >> okay, quickly michael, why would a guy say i pay 13% but not release the returns? >> well, because he doesn't feel he has to release the returns. he feels he's put out two -- he's going to put out two years and that's enough. he went back and looked at it. he's given us a number. and that 13% whatever it is, it represents investment income. maybe just general income. who knows? but i think his broader point which i would agree with, who cares? >> i care. i care. >> well, i'm glad you do. >> the american people care. >> i'm glad you do. >> 63% of them want the returns

released. >> bob, i didn't cut you off. let me finish my point, please. the bottom line is, you know, in the overall scheme of things the american people will judge this as to whether or not it's serious or not for them to hold it against them if he doesn't do it. what they'll hold against these candidates if they fail to talk about how we'll create jobs in the country. >> thanks for that. but the reason people care about his taxes is he wants to cut corporate taxes lower, pushes for the bush tax. >> this is a good thing. i don't see a problem. >> he wants to give the rich people more cuts. >> the rich get almost all of it. >> no, no, guys. you're totally wrong. >> they get almost all of it, michael. read the numbers. >> i did. >> no, no. >> shifts taxes to the middle class. thank you, michael. good case. bob shrum. coming up, if the republicans think paul ryan causes trouble with seniors, what about women? ryan cosponsored a bill to give fetuses fertilized eggs full rights as citizens.

from the moment of conception it's murder. it includes iuds as well as abortions. new york times says this could be murder charges. also muzzling joe biden. yes he goes off in terms of language. is it necessary for his staff to keep muzzling him? and block the vote. ohio republicans fail to expand voting hours in republican areas while voting them down in democratic areas. get it? keep democrats from voting and encourage republicans to vote. that's democracy. and a new low in negative advertising. >> i'm mitt romney. americans say there's been too much negativity in this campaign and i agree. now i plan to focus on the positive. for instance, i'm positive that president obama is a communist. >> well, that's positive. now it's just a parody from jimmy kimmel that you'll see on the sideshow. this is "hardball," the place for politics.

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new poll numbers in some key battleground states. let's check the "hardball" score board. starting in florida. in a new poll from purple strategies, gives mitt romney a one-point edge. 48-47. in ohio, has romney up by two points. 46-44. and according to the same poll, romney's up three in virginia. 48-44. those three states look a little different than other recent polls we've seen from those same states. so keep looking for these numbers. in colorado, by the way, the purple poll has president obama ahead 49-46. finally in new hampshire, university of new hampshire poll puts obama in front 49-46. we'll be right back.

welcome back to "hardball." mitt romney has moved to the right on abortion since his days of running for governor of massachusetts. but his vp pic is even more so. i'll say. in 2010 he told the weekend

standard i'm as pro-life as a person gets. then last year paul ryan cosponsored what's been called a personhood bill. which would declare legally that life begins once a human egg is fertilized. in other words, after conception. is this what republicans have in mind when they want to get rid of obama care and replace it with their own plan? kate michaelton and abby haberton. it seems to radical. talk about radical engineering to declare abortion basically murder. in an objective statement, the concept of personhood is of the anti-abortion movement. and under this definition iud stz could be construed as murder. 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 we know will happen, however, if this were to become law as you said, it would

overturn roe. it would make every abortion under every circumstance as 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 who's having a miscarriage. the -- this would be extraordinary. and congressman ryan has been very devoted to this mission of making -- taking away from women any role for them in determining their reproductive lives. >> maggie, you're a straight reporter on this and you may have your own views. in terms of straight reporting, i find when you use the phrase -- not you or i but certainly newt gingrich radical social engineering. this is the baby. this one here. when you talk about abortions going to be an issue as long as we live. i think people should think for

clearly about the law than their positions on the philosophy on it. when you say a person, you take a person using an iud is a murderer. in fact a premeditated murderer. do they really mean this? >> i think that one of the things that's going to be interesting here is we have seen the focus since the paul ryan rollout has been on medicare. there are other issues about ryan's record that the democrats are going to highlight and you're focusing on one of them. democrats were already looking to paint mitt romney as extreme on women's issues. there's an planned parenthood ad by the campaign which strategists say is effective against mitt romney and it paints mitt romney as a throwback on the issue of birth control. says something like this isn't the 1950s. so i think having paulyan on the ticket is going to make it harder for mitt romney to get away from that issue. you're going to see it in a more focused form now. >> kate, you worked in this field for so long with how women

vote. and they vote with economics to their family. like their spouse maybe has a good income. so you think republican. then they come along to this issue of personal freedom. and rights. how do you talk to them about delineating where they should be really voting and not just knee jerk voting for people that get a better tax break because they're in the higher brackets. how do you get to them? >> well, i don't think it 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 issue

of a woman's 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 whose plans and programs and policies are adamantly anti-woman, anti-women's health. everything about ryan's program is anti-woman. so i think it will -- reaching women in the suburbs, reaching independent women, reaching young women, i think it will have a real resonance. it will have an effect on their voting patterns. >> i couldn't have said that better. thank you so much for coming on kate michaelman. and maggie, i'm wishing we had more time. i think this is the last thing the republican ticket wants to be talking about. they've got a time bomb here. thought they were going to just

talk about economy and budget. they have created a real frankenstein's monster with this guy supporting personhood and criminality. thank you for coming on. up next, a double scoop of embarrassment for the president and first lady. that's next. this is "hardball," the place for politics. optond neem

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it's kind of incredible. these two campaigns, they're going to spend close to $2 billion in insulting each other. it's like the most expensive comedy central roast played out. romney vowed to focus on the positive. 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 satan. and i'm positive he wants to kill your grandma. how's that for positive? vote for mitt romney. i'm positive. >> back to "hardball." that's jimmy kimmel citing the angry turn the race has taken. romney called the president's campaign one of division, anger, and hate. here's jon stewart. >> the rhetoric on both sides can be hateful sometimes. but are republicans that blind to the depth of their own? >> name one prominent republican who even comes close to what, like, allen graysons, the harry reids, the joe bidens come up with 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? >> our opponent is someone who sees america as imperfect enough to pal around with terrorists.

nancy pelosi is a ding bat. a left wing liberal washington elite. they're like a bunch of dead fish. >> there can only be one or two reasons to that. one, sarah palin no longer thinks she's a prominent republican or she no longer hears herself speak. >> that fact, they've all been questioning even obama's basic americanism. who are they to be complaining of negative campaigning? also romney meets nascar. you may remember when he botched an opportunity to attract average joe appeal back in february. he was asked if he followed nascar racing back then. >> not as closely as some of the most ardent fans, but i have some great friends that are nascar team owners. >> touting he's buddy buddy with >> touting he's buddy buddy with team owners. earlier this week mitt romney and his running mate paul ryan toured the nascar technical

institute in north carolina. but that's not the nascar news getting buzz now. guess who helped romney rake in over a million dollars at a fund raiser yesterday? that's right. nascar's ceo and other team owners. next, the spokesperson for a chicago shopping center calls it quote, a marker for prosperity and tourism. new york magazine dubs it an embarrassment for sasha and malia. back in 2007 the president told o, the oprah magazine, apt about hiss first kiss with michelle obama. on our first date, i treated her to the finest ice cream baskin robins had to offer. our dinner table, doubling as the cur b, i kissed her. and it tasted like chocolate. that has been printed word for word on a plaque and placed at the exact curb where the first kiss occurred. local businesses hope to lure tourists to the spot. and now you see what new york magazine was saying with the

potential lack of excitement the obama girls might get from that curbside memory. wow. up next, joe biden is known to go off message every now and then in his wordage, now his own staff is trying to keep him away. this is "hardball" from nantucket, your place for politics this week.

here's what's happening. the suspected gunman who allegedly shot a security guard at a conservative group was

charged today with murder. floyd lee was held without bond. welcome back to "hardball." in today's politico, martin writes about covering joe biden. he opens with aides interrupting the vice president with shouts of let's go as biden was trying to describe his personal reaction to viewing the virginia tech shooting memorial. biden prevailed over his staff. here's part of what he said. >> it's that call out of the blue. you're just like, how could this

happen? >> and what about the recent shootings? >> let's go, guys. >> let's go. >> well, jonathan martin reports, quote, the moment never would have taken place if biden had not overruled his would be handlers. the staffers reports efforts to publicly muzzle the vice president smack of disrespect. joining me now is jonathan martin and mark halperin who's also an msnbc senior political analyst. let me ask you about when you saw that happening. being interrupted by his staff when he was trying to make a personal point. >> look, it is not just the vice president's staff. this is the knee jerk reaction of really any staffer with a candidate for high office when they're with the candidate with the principle and the press tries to ask an impromptu question, some form of

spontaneity, the reaction is always to try to cut it off and say something like 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 was an example of that. because the vice president is at his best when he's talking about a heart felt emotional issue like the tech shooting. because he himself have lived through a similar tragedy losing his wife and daughter when he was 29 years old. so it's one of those examples of politics where the reaction of staff to sort of keep the candidate, keep the principle sequestered can ultimately harm what you're trying to do in the first place which is help the cause, help your candidate. >> mark halperin, your experience with the vice president in this kind of a situation that you've witnessed? >> i'll say two things that might seem contradictory but they're not.

joe biden as jonathan writes in his piece were the joe biden of the early days in the senate as his times of a candidate in 1988 would be stunned and maybe is stunned if he saw what it's like today. when he was a candidate in '88, he was widely accessible. he was widely accessible in 2008 amongst the most fun to cover candidates i've covered. he's come a long way now. he is more coastered than back then. he's less than anyone running in big time politics today. the notion his staff can control him very much is very farfetched. he's more open and available to the press. again he's far less accessible. i approached him in vegas. i was the only to get to him. he answered one question. nothing like it would have been if he would have went semicocooned. >> here's a video you provided us before you were told to shut off the camera. >> mr. vice president, can i ask you a question? how are you? what do you think of governor romney's idea of the administration putting off the

sequester for a year within an agreement? >> thank you. >> i think we should act. we can act now and get it done. >> how are you? where were you from? >> western virginia. >> well, congratulations. >> can i? i could. sorry? >> good to see you. >> so were you told to turn after your camera by a staffer there? >> i was. his traveling aide said could you shut off the camera. if it had been mitt romney or barack obama i wouldn't have been able to walk up to them. on the other hand, no one's ever asked me to shut my camera off before. i was taken back by that. they saw me there. it's more of a cocoon than ever for joe biden. but i'll say again, he's much more open. he literally -- i'm not being

facetious. he's more open and available to us. and jonathan saw that on the trip. >> tell me what's going on here as you see it as a reporter. is joe biden being gagged by his staff people? now, i know sop of this myself. is there some kind of control on him that people believe that if they cut him off, it'll stop him from being joe or somebody they don't want him to be. >> i think the response to joe biden when he commits a gaffe is to pull the reins tighter and try to limit the access. mark makes a fair point. which is 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 the video you showed there. what happens after that as your viewers 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.

but 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's no space anymore for impromptu interactions when the press core and the candidates. and i think the voters are the real losers. >> let me ask you this, mark, then last question to j-mar. are the press being told to shut up? did you get the sense watching biden he wanted to say something but the staffers told him don't say it. >> i get the sense that happens a fair amount. he likes to talk to reporters and 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 that he doesn't do anything the 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 not much compared to even most u.s.

senators. he's out there. >> same question to you. so that sounds pretty healthy. j-mar, jonathan is he telling his staff i tend to go on too long, cut me off. i want you to do that? or are they doing it against his will? that's the key question here. >> i don't know if they're doing it against his will. look, i think he being in politics for the last 40 years is conscious of his own shortcomings. but i don't think he's asking the staff to do it. i think they are taking steps here to assure that he essentially is not harming himself. and in doing so, and this is the point of the piece i wrote. in doing so, they limit the best 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 real moments when biden shines.

i think that's unfortunate for the press. it's unfortunate for voters. >> let biden be biden literally. >> i have no experience -- i've never had the experience with a politician has let his staffers shut him up. maybe my old days with tip o'neil, the idea of telling tip o'neil, excuse me you've got to stop talking. i would have been gone in about three seconds. he must want it. it must be the theory. thank you. coming up, ohio republicans failed in their attempt to expand voting hours in republican areas while cutting them back in democratic areas. but there's still a problem. they're still keeping black voters -- they're effectively 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 the coming election in ohio. a must win state you could argue for the republicans. this is "hardball," the place for politics. those little things still get you.

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now that congressman paul ryan's on the republican ticket, here's a potential line of attack for the campaign. congress has hit its all time low in approval. only 10% of americans approve the job congress is doing. and congress includes paul ryan. and as president obama has pointed out, ryan's one of the leaders of the republican controlled house of representatives.

he's there in the belly of the beast. no doubt we'll hear a lot and plenty of congress bashing from the president and its allies in the weeks ahead. that's fair. they're the one bs that's been screwing him all these months. we'll be right back.

welcome back to "hardball." ohio is just the latest state where republicans are trying to tamp down the democratic turnout this november. no surprise there. here's the background in ohio. republican counties there, republican and democratic election officials in those counties voted 4-0 so extend voting hours so they want republicans to vote more often. in heavily democratic counties republicans voted no and republican secretary of state john houston broke the 2-2 tie and decided to keep polls open on weekends in democrats areas. no shows for the democrats. the move caused such an uproar

that yesterday houston did with all early in-person voting across the state on weekends leading up to the election. even that is certainly not fair because histories show that blacks who vote before election day tend to vote in person than absentee. with me, ted strickland, the former governor of ohio, and barry horstman of the great "cincinnati inquirer." great to have you on, governor strickland. the republicans have so flagrant here to first of all try to shut down only democratic counties where people are going to vote democrat or for president obama then to win so far in basically saying, yeah, you can vote by paper absentee ballot, but that's a republican way of voting. you're not going to vote the way blacks especially and democrats generally like to vote, which is show up at the opportunities they have to vote before election day. once again, we have something like 90,000 people who voted last time around in 2008, the weekend before the election, now they won't be able to vote. those are largely democrats.

this is another screw job it seems. your thoughts. >> they had no shame, chris. and across the country, what's happening in ohio is not as bad in my judgment as what's happening in pennsylvania, in florida and some other states. but only public pressure caused the secretary of state to reverse his course and to bring uniformity to the voting hours. but this year, still, ohioans will have fewer opportunities to vote than we had four years ago, and chris, what's the difference between now and four years ago? four years ago, jennifer bruiner, a democratic was the secretary of state and she was advocating for expanded opportunities to vote. mr. houston is wanting to condense the opportunities to vote in ohio, and it's -- 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 that any restrictions on voting opportunities helps republicans. they're tougher voters.

they go rain or shine. democrats aren't always going to vote because economic opportunities aren't there, they have education challenges or transportation 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 there any motivation for the decision to shut down early voting in person? >> well, what the secretary has said is that under new program in ohio this year, every single registered voter, about 7 million people, will be getting in the fall an absentee ballot application. his argument which we'd heard a lot over the last two weeks is that gives you 750 hours in which you can cast your ballot without even having to leave the easy chair in your living room. as far as that goes, the argument is valid. the problem is, as you pointed out inhe intro, many african-americans actually prefer to vote in person for a variety of reasons, not least of which is the added security and degree of comfort that comes with actually handing your ballot to an elections board official as opposed to dropping it in the mail then hoping the postal service and others do their job so that envelope ends up in the counting room.

>> isn't there also a black church tradition of going to vote after church? >> there really is. there was a meeting in cincinnati today, at the hamilton county board of elections even though it had little to discuss after the secretary's directive yesterday, but nearly 200 people jammed in to that meeting and there were a number of black ministers who said, you can cut back the hou s but i guarantee you we're going to bring the buses down to the boards of election. you're going to see us no matter how compressed the timetable is. >> so they're going to stand at the closed doors and try to vote? >> well, the extended hours that the secretary announced yesterday during the first three weeks of october will keep boards of election open until 5:00 and 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 1,000 people in line. those 1,000 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. as you mentioned, nearly 93,000 people statewide in the final weekend cast votes in 2008. very predominantly for barack obama. >> and they won't be allowed to vote that last weekend this year, is that right? >> there is a federal lawsuit in which the obama campaign is trying to restore those 72 hours which were removed by a state legislation. we'll be hearing something on that, and there are 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 jusshows politics is hardball, and if one side has an advantage in the legislature, like they do in pennsylvania, where i grew up, or your state of ohio, they're going to use it. the republicans are basically

using what strength they have in the legislature to make it harder for the president to stay in office. it's so partisan. >> well, it's very partisan, chris, and i 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 that we all would like to forget in this country where there was a systemic 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 -- >> i agree with you. >> -- ought to be ashamed of themselves. >> i agree. i think that's an objective assessment. i don't know how any republican can justify what they're doing in ohio and pennsylvania, making it impossible for poor people to vote. ted strickland, barry horstman. when we return, let me finish with the awkward blind date mitt romney found himself in with paul ryan. he didn't know what this was about until he got into it.

"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 met 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 like the same restaurant. they both laughed at the same time at the movie, but there seems to be something wrong here, don't you think, this date of his is deadly serious about things seems stubbornly committed to what's important. that's paul ryan. turns out he couldn't be less like mitt romney. he wants to play the field, mitt does he's not that serious about getting serious. his blind date on the other hand is deadly serious, why he went on this date in the first place to find someone who looks at things the way he does. if this thing we're all watching, this tango between mitt and paul seems like it's not going swimmingly, the reason is in their faces. one of the guys believes deeply of what matters in the world, that's ryan. the other wants to get through the day. a person of deep and serious conviction, that's ryan. is it going to work? if life is any example, the fern who really cares about something, religion, deep political belief, is the one who