sunshine strip clubs and skinny dipping. no, it's not prince harry in vegas. the republican party is heading to tampa. and nerdland asks, are these guys fit for office? good morning. i'm malice that harris-perry. by now we all know congressman paul ryan is into keeping his body fit and healthy. as we were being introduced to the man of ideas, there's been a ryan p-90x palooza.

check out these headlines. p90x maker exsitesed to have crafted paul ryan's abc. we are so happy for him. or maybe what it takes to do 9 p90x, paul ryan's workout. that is not tell megaabout his policy plans. how about, paul ryan shirtless, mitt romney's vp pick exposed in vacation photo. really, people? it is like we are trying to make ryan into one of these guys. ♪ >> and it's not just ryan, remember romney's not-so-subtle jab at the elder john mccain in his 2007 campaign ad? take a look. >> at every step he's met extraordinary challenges. mitt romney, the engine and experience to turn around washington. >> i'm mitt romney and i approve this message. >> our interest in presidential

physiques is nothing new. back in when taft was president, a tabloid has to be pried loose by his advisers. the story has stuck and is now a presidential legend, but why run a fat joke about a president? what do bodies have to do with our politics? well, the answer is, a lot. taft enemies wanted to make him look pitiful and incompetent, so they created the nature of a bareneighborhood president needing the help of his advisers. romney wanted to see strong and capable, thus we see him running. but let's be fair, congressman ryan's focus on fit sns the result of the tragic loss of his father and others in his family, losses that happened prematurely due to heart attacks, but the p90x thing is cultivated a certain image of control.

the 7% body fat paul ryan is in total control of his body. and he would like to be in control of yours, too. ever since paul ryan joined mitt romney's ticket as his vp choice, there has been a nonstop discussion of bodies. last week all the talk was about elderly bodies. specifically focusing on the cost associated with caring for our seniors' bodies as they age and require medical attention. this week the news was all about women's bodies and the kind of magical tricks they can perform. no, i'm not talking about the middle super human feats performed at the strip clubs in tampa, but the gop is dubbing the strip club capital for their convention has been fodder for the funny paper this is week. i'm talking about this magic trick that women's bodies apparently can perform. >> what about in case of rape? should it be legal or not? >> if it's a legit gnat rape, the female body has ways to try to shut the whole thing down.

>> wait, those were congressman todd akin's comments, not paul ryan? you can't blame ryan. in fact, the gop mobilized against the insidious and poor science comments, but in spite of the mobilization against akin's remarks, that didn't stop him from taking to twitter asking for contributions. one tweet said, will you chip in $5 to help me fight the party bosses? retweet this image if you'll join me. and before you assume akin wouldn't reach his goals, think again. on thursday akin made claims to have reached more than $100,000 in contributions. now this was in spite of mitt romney disavowing akin and calling him to drop out of the race. and ryan could call on akin because they have legislative history together. last year they joined as co sponsors of the no taxpayer funding for abortion act. under that act only medicaid patients who experienced forcible rape could get funding for abortions. the two also co-sponsored the

sanctity of human life act of 2009, a personhood bill to bestow the same rights to the fertilized egg as that of a human being. so their history on relations to abortion could be wipe he gave a tend response to romney's stance on the issue. >> i'm proud of my record. mitt romney is going to be the president and the president sets policy. his policy is for rape, incest and the mother, it's a good step in the right direction. >> on tuesday the republican party approved platform language that they will vote on this upcoming monday by the full convention. and its language to put the regulation of women's bodies front and center. although the rnc has not confirmed the language, here's what's been reported on what it will contain. quote, faithful to the self-evident truth in destroying the declaration of independence we affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed. it goes on to say we support a human life amendment to the constitution and endorse

legislation to make clear that the 14th amendment's protections apply to unborn children. seems like a pretty clear stance on bodies and abortion to me. look, ryan being in control and concerned with his own fitness is one thing, but a person taking control of their own health should not mean that they get to take control of your body or mine. i'm less interested in knowing how fit my politicians are physically than knowing if they are consistently fit for office, which includes knowing what their platforms are and how much they think we should spend to care for older bodies and how much citizens are allowed to make autonomous choices about our own bodies, which are not the same choices they would make. at the table, buddy roamer, former governor of louisiana and former presidential candidate and now chairman of the reform project.org. alicia menendez, jonathan cape hart, msnbc contributor and emily douglas, senior editor at

"the nation." thank you all for being here. >> good morning, melissa. >> you're saying i'm objection fied? >> right. here's the question, are they fit for office? we are playing on this idea of fit, but as you look at sort of what they're offering here, are these two folks fit to be president and vice president of the united states? >> well, i think at least with ryan there is a consistency that you've seen in his platform position. to me, mitt romney is much more alarming because he's flip-flopped on this issue. he's really had every position on choice that one can possibly have. that means when he goes into office, if he were to go into office, i don't think you know where he would stand on this. >> you are not completely certain which romney you're going to get, governor romney, bain romney, 2012 romney. >> when i was talking to shante about this yesterday, i remembered the russian dolls you pull out, there's another smaller one inside. mitt romney is one of the big russian dolls.

you paul off romney, you find paul ryan and that's it. because as alicia said, we know exactly where paul ryan is on a host of issues, whether it is the budget, medicare, choice politics, we know exactly where he stands. and that quickly can be showed congressman ryan saying it's a step in the right direction where mitt romney is. i mean -- >> right. so if we keep pulling open the dolls, do we end up with congressman akin, which in a certain way only goes to your point because you wrote in "the nation" we are having the wrong argument about exceptions for incest, for rape, for these sorts of cases because the point is, none of these should be reasons that the government can legislate a choice on your body. >> that's right. that's been one of the really lotable feminist responses to this, has been to say that a rape exception, we should not be in the business of deciding for women why they can have an abortion or not. and the republican party is

trying to carve out very narrow exceptions, if any at all. actually, women have a legal right to abortion and should not need to justify that decision. also, let's remember that the rape exception does not work. there were 32,000 pregnancies in 2010 that resulted from sexual assault. there were 9,000 terminations and medicaid only paid for 331 of them. so there is a rape exception right now, in which case women who need to have support for their abortion funding or supposed to get it through medicaid but clearly don't. so exceptions of this nature just do not work and we should keep that in mind when we are trying to create legislation around it. >> i'm a pro-life by the way i was raised, my church. as a politician i have always insisted on the allowance of exceptions. as governor of louisiana, i vetoed two bills that allowed no exception. it cost me dearly at the polls, but that was my belief that that

was fair. so i don't want to dismiss this question of exceptions. it is an important question. i agree with you, but it is not the most important question. and i don't want to dismisthose americans, and there are many of us who consider ourses pro-life but are not rigid on these sort of exceptions. >> i think this is such an important point that goes to two different fundamental questions. one is this deeply troubling reality about the beliefs about what constitutes life, right? and these are not easily answered questions. look, i was pro-choice as any person can be. i'm also a parent. and i'm not just a parent, i'm a parent who had my own pregnancy and bore my own child. so there's no question in my mind that there, that i had a relationship with my daughter and named her and all that at some point before the moment in which she was born, right? but also, and so i think to not make that sort of clear ethical

claim that we have an understanding that there can be some sort of humanity that exists before birth and that there's also no clear way to adjudicate at what point that happens. and for me, therefore, the libertarian impulse has to be that the law must be silent on it. that we can both talk about the difficulty of managing that reality and say, and therefore law cannot step in because i can't tell you whether it happens on week one or two or 20. certainly forgetlization seems unscientific, right? but i also know at some point before i actually had her i had a relationship with her. and i feel like -- we can come to a place of truth there. >> individually we make up our minds. there's no question about it. however, let me make this point. >> i'm going to promise, i will let you make the point. they are calling me to break and i do want to talk about this issue by letting women who have their own message about controlling their own bodies. the video is going viral and it's getting louder every day. we'll see it when we come back.

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this is my body. i do what i want with it. >> this is my body. i make my own decisions. >> this is my body. i use it as a canvas, tattoo it, decorate it, pierce it. >> i take medicine if i want to and only undergo medical procedures i choose. >> i eat what i want. exercise for my health or where what i like. >> it's a simple but powerful message in response to the assault on bodies these women and more are starting to say, but this is my body. and from the looks of the lineup of speakers of the democratic convention, that takes place in

less than two weeks and it appears the democrats have taken notice. sandra flew and eva longoria and planned parenthood action fund president cecile richards are a few of the names to grace the stage. a strategic part on the move of the dmaktds democrats to deliver the message of your body, your choice. joining me back here around the table, isn't it politics to keep pandering it this far? please, akin, ryan and up, we'll put women on the stage that both republican women and end pen dentd women will consider coming over to the party. >> the point i was going to make before we broke is that while women have the power and the need to make these decisions and to be fully informed about the consequences, because it's not one life here, it's two lives. and it has to be, it has to -- i think, just as a human being,

that you would want every person to realize that. and then decide what is in the health interest, what is in their best interest. i can live with that. even with my pro-life stance. however, the debate in the united states congress, when i was there 30 years ago and it still rages today, is what do we do with public money when the public university does not support a certain policy? and that, you know, i know we can call it politics and i know the republicans have beened ament on this and i think the democrats are going to take political advantage. i think you're right, but it is a legitimate on all projects and issues. we are spending the public's money for an individual decision. >> sure. i think two things. we have to remember the majority of women who seek termination of their pregnancy are women who already have children, so for the most part they have a great deal of personal inherent knowledge as well as medical knowledge on what a pregnancy

is, and the second thing is public money, part of the nature of public money is none of us get to make choices how each piece is individually spent. so, for example, if you are a medicare recipient and i don't like your politics and i don't like the live choices you're making and you're not a good guy, but you need a liver transplant, well, you're going to get one with the public money. if my president is going to go into the war in iraq, my tax dollars are going to pay for it. i don't get to opt out of paying taxes once we have made a collective decision. but this point is interesting, let's look at democrats going to exactly this. we'll look at the new ad by democrats that includes gop women for obama on exactly this question. >> one of the thing that is makes me really upset about it is the attitude toward birth control contraceptives and abortion. >> if you truly believe in a small government, that government shouldn't be deciding what i can and cannot do with my own body. >> right. so every woman in that commercial is a republican. they all say i'm a republican

and make that point. if you believe in small government, don't make it so small to end or fit on the end of a transvaginal probe. >> clearly democrats are seeing their support of these policies pay off. now this is a moment where women's rights act viss need to push the democratic party further on the issue and not let them be complacent. there's democrats, anti-choice democrats are included in the party and we need to use this moment as a time where women are speaking with one voice saying the right to abortion is a real fundamental part of being a democrat. >> jonathan, it feels like it is connected to controlling the bodies. controlling brown bodies to come across the border. we have to build a fence to keep them out, right? and we have to keep bodies that love other body that is are the same sex from them from being able to marry, but a lot of it, despite claiming to be libertarian that we see from ryan and others on the right,

this attempt, not only to control their body with 7% body fat but to control everything your body and my body can do. >> paul ryan and mitt romney are in a republican party that if it does not broaden its base, it's going to die. right now the republican party is a reactionary party. and is keeping out latinos over immigration and a whole lot of other issues. keeping out the lgbt community because of its opposition to same sex marriage and a whole lot of other things. there's a poll out just this week from logo television where they asked self-identified gay people if mitt romney and barack obama had the same position on gay rights issues. would you be more likely to vote for mitt romney? mitt romney got 20% of those people! that would have put barack obama and mitt romney tied for the gay vote. can you imagine? >> and this is someone who had a

much more reasonable marriage equality position in his -- in the romney, one poll in massachusetts. >> romney said he stood a better chance of being better for the gay community than senator ted kennedy because he was a republican and he could go to the other side and be sort of the ambassador to bring them along. now look where he is. >> and this question of getting ready to go do this show, i was reading paul ryan and where he stands on choice. he makes an eloquent argument about the dread scott decision and one case of the court deciding individualism and he pivots to roe v. wade. in his estimation, individual question is not the woman carrying the pregnancy but the fetus. he confers personhood on that fetus. it's a fundamental different understanding of the individual then that i can't relate to, i don't agree with but it is then consistent with his principles.

>> that dread scott thing, they have been doing that. if you remember there was a moment when george w. bush was responding to a debate and said something about the dread scott, you would be like, why is he talking about this? >> it is genius. >> but it is also wrong. >> look over here, not over here. >> look over here where there's slavery. up next, we'll stay on this topic. mitt romney channels his inner donald trump. was it a gaffe or a dog whistle for the tea party base? yes, birtherism is back. ♪ atmix of energies.ve the world needs a broader that's why we're supplying natural gas to generate cleaner electricity... that has around 50% fewer co2 emissions than coal. and it's also why, with our partner in brazil, shell is producing ethanol - a biofuel made from renewable sugarcane. >>a minute, mom! let's broaden the world's energy mix. let's go.

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and raised. >> it is like you cannot believe it was happening when he said it. it was just -- it was just almost too much to watch. back with me our buddy roemer, alisha menendez, jonathan capehart. before we move to the birther issue, let's stay on choice. i want you to make the point you just made to me during the break. >> i made the point that we need an honest full discussion of the two lives involved here. as governor of the state, i had a daughter in her early 20s who came to me when the bills came up, and i was prepared to sign them. she talked me through it that women are involved and their lives are involved here. and you must give these kinds of exceptions at a minimum. she says, dad, i'm pro-choice and i know you're pro-life, but there's some middle ground here where we can work together. don't let these bills pass. and i vetoed them. >> buddy, that middle ground is exactly the ground on which the personhood amendment was

defeated in mississippi, right? because mississippi, as you and i both know, it is not some kind of pro-choice area, quite the opposite. but that personhood amendment was for more reason thinking mississippians a step too far. in many ways the birther comment is similarly a step too far for reasonable thinking americans who are like, okay, i don't support the president, i don't support his policies, maybe i even think bad things about him, but really, the idea that he's not an american citizen. >> you're out of the primary. you don't need it anymore. >> pivot! pivot! >> to me, this really reveals what they say about us when we are not in the room. that they are on such a feedback loop that he doesn't know that this is now out of step with the average american because the rooms he's in, this is what they are saying and repeating it back. this is how you get jokes about "i love lucy" from sonya society toe mayor during confirmation

hearings. people stop believing that these are not correct. >> he said this was not scripted, he didn't mean it. this was not intentional. but in the clip you showed, he says the joke. the crowd roars. then he stands there and soaks it in. at no point do you see any visual recognition, oh, my god, i just stepped in it. oh, my god, this is really bad. there's no recognition from the governor's part on what happened, but there certainly was a recognition by his campaign because they moved quickly, very quickly to get it out there that, no, no, it's not what you think. >> and that quote on birtherism sounded much like that of the legitimate rape. ost, that's not what i meant to say, those weren't the right words, but i meant some other kind of rape story. but it's like the out of the room thing. >> do you think he's sensitive

to it? romney i'm talking about, horse did he know exactly what he was doing. >> it sounded very call lated to me. that's the only conclusion i can come to. >> i don't know, maybe i'm a little soft here, but i think, i think governor romney is one of those guys, i don't think it was calculated. i think he's so bumbling and awkward when it comes to just sort of being a regular person that he just -- he just stumbled into it. >> you also pointed out the crowd roaring, ever since ryan's come on the ticket, you can see, like, ryan moves the crowds, right? it is very much like palin. and it is almost like you can see him trying to get his emcee on, like i need to get the crowd. i don't know if you noticed it is romney/ryan, not the other way around. but let me just ask this question then, we are going to tampa. and tampa is, in fact, in

florida it is the swing state. there are independents to be gotten, moderate republicans, if the republican we are looking at, at least the one we have seen leaked so far, is that the platform to bring the voters along? >> i don't think so, at least not on the choice question we discussed this morning. it seems the rnc is sending different signals on whether there's exceptions on the human right amendment stance. that to me seems deliberate, they are aware that having a ban on abortion with absolutely no exceptions is incredibly unpopular with the american people. but they seem to need to continue to signal to the base they are extreme on this. so it seems to me like they are really trying to push out both sides of the story and i don't know how successful that will be for reaching moderates. >> immigration, the immigration stuff in there is absolutely crazy, building a fence along the u.s./mexico border, not giving federal funding to

universities that allow in-state tuition for undocumented students, supporting arizona's style of immigration laws for the entire country, this is a wild platform. >> what you would like to see instead is a comprehensive immigration solution and approach. comprehensive. i mean, we can build america. and we need immigrants. and we need the best and the brightest. and we need young spirit. but we need a comprehensive policy because it means something to be a citizen of america. >> look, i think part of what's so distressing to me in watching the party do this is, look, i actually do think that you need a healthy robust republican party. if democrats are the only, if they are just over here talking to themselves, then they -- the whole nature of democracy is the debate and the critique and the challenging one another. but if one of the parties is just gone off, then they are not contributing to the discourse. >> here's the thing about it, either party's platform.

it is supposed to be a sock to the base and you ignore it once the election is over and then you go and govern. the difference this time is you have a vice presidential nominee who believes that abortion plank in the republican party platform. now this is george w. bush ignored the party platform when he was president for those two terms. now you have a situation where the platform is not going to be ignored. when you look back over the last campaign, everything you just mentioned, all those things in the party platform are all the things that -- >> that they are going to run on. >> that they are going to govern on. thank you, emily douglas. the rest are back for more. up next, a teachable moment on how babies are made. todd akin, this one is for you. shoeds shoeds ♪

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with all this talk about bodies, especially women's bodies, i thought it was time to pause for a teachable moment on how our bodies work. this, my friends, is the female reproductive system. congressman todd akin, you may want to pull up a chair. let's pause for a moment to appreciate the wonder of this system, because it is extraordinary. for women, the whole show gets started in the ovaries. there, there and there. and every baby girl is born already in possession of about one million eggs in her ovaries. that's kind of cool, huh? hit puberty and along with the ainsurance that you know everything and that your parents know nothing comes the hormones that gets the eggs moving. about once a month an egg reaches maturity and it pops on out of the ovary and starts heading down the fallopian tubes, one on each side. there and there. now, the whole trip ends in the

uterus, that's the big gal right there in the middle. now if the egg shows up and there's no sperm available, it dissolves or is shed. if it does meet a sperm, then the process of fertilization works out. the if that works out the eggplants and the process is really quite amazing, but it is not magical. congressman akin, this is the key part. the egg can't tell whether the sperm is from consensual sex, rape or in-vetro fertilization. lately all the political controversy ore abortion focused on the fertilization and implantation. the quickly mass of dividing cells is a person of rights, but this week congressman akin moved the drama out of the uterus and back up the system through the fallopian tubes into the ovaries. i had to wonder why it is so many think they know so little how this whole thing works? well, let's pay congress akin's home state of missouri for example. at the end of the last school

year missouri was among 29 state that is didn't mandate comprehensive sex education to public school students. and if a public school in missouri voluntarily chose to teach sex ed it was far from comprehensive. the school would be forced to stress abstinence only. but a policy review stated there's no evidence that abstinence-only-education delays sexual activity. research shows abstinence activities made contraception use among sexually active teens reducing the risk of teen pregnancy and stis. though teen mothers have dropped again, states with no mandate for comprehensive sex ed, some of them have the highest teen birthrates. when it comes to stis, the story is more grim. while the national average for transmitted infections for women age 15 to 19 is 100.8 out of 1,000, missouri's average is

119.6. reproduction is an extraordinary process. but it should not be at the center of the political process. in fact, common sense sex ed is one of the best ways to be sure that we can have intercourse without getting screwed. up next, 172 women are currently nominated to run for congress. why is that number still so low? we'll ask one of the candidates. becoming a fulltime indoor cat wasn't easy for atti. but he had purina cat chow indoor. he absolutely loved it. and i knew he was getting everything he needed to stay healthy indoors. and after a couple of weeks, i knew we were finally home! [ female announcer ] purina cat chow indoor. and for a delicious way to help maintain a healthy weight, try new purina cat chow healthy weight.

this is the plan that revolves around you. introducing share everything. unlimited talk. unlimited text. and a single pool of sharable data that powers up to 10 devices. the first plan of it's kind. share everything. only from verizon. add a smartphone for just $40 monthly access. we have been talking about the politics of women's body and it is time to get more women into our body politic. we have told you before but cannot tell you often enough the united states ranks 78 in the world for the number of women elected to the legislative body. behind afghanistan, rwanda and tanzania. a record 298 women have filed to run for congress this year. and as of this past tuesday, 155 have won their primaries for the

house of representatives. my next guest is one of the women running. she's a democratic nominee in ohio's fifth congressional district and is taking on the incumbent described as one of the most conservative members of the house. joining me from toledo, ohio, is angela zimmerman, a mother, pastor and college professor and member of the united states congress. good morning. >> good morning, melissa. how are you? >> i'm just fine. there you are in ohio. >> here i am. >> and the gop ticket is in your state campaigning today. >> i am campaigning here in northwest ohio. like you mentioned, i'm a mom, i'm a pastor and professor. i'm an engineer. and i'm here this morning to talk with you and folks all over the district. >> i want to start a little bit with your opponent because, in many ways, your opponent representative bob lotta is not that different than paul ryan who is the running mate of mitt romney, who is actually in ohio today.

and according to the national journal, representative lotta is among the most conservative members of the u.s. house of representatives. what made you decide to take him on? >> my opponent is ranked number one. i think he's tied with a few other people, most conservative. it's really interested. my story of why i decided to run has to deal with the real people in my real life. like i mentioned, i'm a pastor and have been a foster mom. i want to tell briefly, there's a story i like to tell people when they ask why i'm running about a woman named kim. kim is a person involved at my church. she discovered a lump in her breast. because she didn't have adequate health care insurance she didn't go and get it checked out. by the time she did go to the emergency room, she has stage four breast cancer. now she can't get the care that she needs, she can't go to a hospital in her neighborhood and doesn't have the health care she needs. she was told she had stage four breast cancer over the phone

instead of in a doctor's office. so i'm running for someone like kim. i know that my background is pretty diverse and it allows me to have a good insight into a lot of different facets of society where people are coming from. as an engineer i work with management, i work with unions. as a professor i work with college students and as a pastor i work with pea from the tea party and republicans and libertarians. i have the opportunity to work with people all over the spectrum and believe that makes me the ideal person. >> i want you to stay on that point just a little bit. because ohio, part of what's interesting about ohio is this notion that as ohio goes, so goes the nation. and i what i hear you saying is you're concerned about things that are addressed in president obama's affordable care act, that steel can have conversations across the aisle. when you look at the republican ticket on the national level, are these folk that is understand that sort of need to

come together and solve the problems facing people like work constituents? >> i think the people in my area are absolutely the folks that believe that moving to the middle is the best solution. they are not radicals like my opponent. i see the ryan budget as a radical budget that hurts students, that hurts the elderly. people in need of social security and medicare. people in need of student loans. the people in ohio, they are, it is a swing state. and i live in the most swing district in this swing state with 165,000 new voters in this district. it has a very slight democratic means, so we have this wonderful opportunity to get the most conservative member of congress out. the people here are not that conservative. they identify themselves as middle-to-the-road moderates, thinking people, pragmatists. i grew up in a family -- >> they with me, being in the swing district and the new voters is exactly what we are

going to talk about when we come back. because ohio is not only a key battleground for the election, it's a key battleground on voter suppression. that's next. stay with me. y house! this new flavor lock pack from maxwell house helps seal in freshness. wow! that is fresh! am i still yelling? [ male announcer ] maxwell house flavor lock. always good to the last drop. [ male announcer ] maxwell house flavor lock. ♪ atmix of energies.ve the world needs a broader that's why we're supplying natural gas to generate cleaner electricity... that has around 50% fewer co2 emissions than coal. and it's also why, with our partner in brazil, shell is producing ethanol - a biofuel made from renewable sugarcane.

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cheating has been in the news big time this week. headline on the sports pages late thursday night with the fall of lance armstrong known as one of cycling's greatest ever. he lost his seven tour de france titles and any chance of racing professionally again. armstrong said in a statement that enough is enough. i have the same sentiment when i think about another form of cheating, voter suppression. forget the sports world, the entire world depends on our political system running cleanly, running well, running honestly. and if you have to done up to win, what's the message we're sending? joining us from the buckeye state is ohio congressional candidate angela zimmann, and my

round table again. so in ohio, we have language that once again seems to be suggesting that this, that these voter i.d. laws, of closing down polls so we don't have as much early voting, is not about voter fraud but instead it's about making sure that conservatives can win. is this or is this not -- what's going on right now? >> voter suppression if it's real, the law has to carry out its duty. but if we are talking about photo i.d., presenting a valid i.d., it is legitimate for someone participating in what is a privilege of being a citizen in this country and casting his or her vote in an election should prove that he or she is who they say they are. i don't think the majority of the people, there was a poll that came out that said the majority of the people agree

with that. >> so i want to push on that a little bit, but before i do, i want to bring in angela zimmann in ohio. you have a real shot in your district because of all the new voters, because it's a newly-drawn district in 2010. when you hear about closing down early voting, making it difficult for certain populations to get out to vote, what does that sound like to you? >> what i'm most concerned about in ohio is the fact that what is a bipartisan belief that everyone has the right to cast a ballot to elect our leaders, voting hours are being restricted. and that's my number one concern. evenings, evening voting is gone. the three days before the election, that's being restricted. so folks who are shift workers and we have a good number of those folks in our working class district, they cannot get to the polls. they cannot cast their vote. they have every right to have every opportunity in a democracy, casting a vote should

be the number one priority and we should make every opportunity available to all of our voters all the time. >> so i want to come back with angela's point, she's saying two things. one, you use the language of privilege and she used the language of right. as she talked at ohio, we are talking about shift workers and economic circumstance where tons of people can't take a tuesday off if they take a tuesday off that may mean the end of their job. why wouldn't we make it, because this one doesn't even go to the pennsylvania voter i.d. this is about just making voting excessive. >> i don't disagree with that. >> there is with the ohio -- >> i'm just saying me personally. i think we should encourage more citizens to vote. i think it is dismal. in fact, there are numbers that we get when an election year happens. you look at other places in the world, turnout is a lot higher. yes, encourage participation. that's important, but part of a democracy. >> is this the strategy? is this the win strategy, the reason you can pull far to the right, the reason that you can

have the other positions because, well, you're just going to steal it? i don't know how else -- >> millionaires and billionaires can draw up as much money as they want in october and -- i do think it is about the structural pieces. if just, let's say, for example, people were coming from the place as he's coming from, then you would see the measures coupled with other measures to make sure everyone who doesn't have an i.d. could get an i.d. this particularly affects senior citizen who is don't have to drive, don't travel and don't have the ichings they need, identification they need. >> i think it is great to win an election straight-up, and i'm not a fan of buying an election, but if your vote is for sale, i'm still less worried, if you have enough money to buy the election, our rules have enough money to let you buy the election. that sucks but oh well. it feels less to depress the ability for people to cast a vote. angela, i want to come back to

you for a second. we saw this in ohio in 2004 when ken blackwell as secretary of state passed a variety of rules very close to the election just like we're seeing now. are folks in ohio mobilized against what is happening there? >> absolutely. in fact, i have two attorneys on my campaign team who have been active in protecting the vote for quite some time. people are engaged and active. they want to vote. this is exciting. it's exciting for people to want to cast their ballots. we should encourage more of it. if someone wants to suppress a vote, you have to wonder why. if someone is trying to suppress a vote, it must be because they are afraid that you're going to vote against them for a very good reason. i encourage everyone to vote. come on out and vote. make the decision. it is yours to make. that's what it means to live in a democracy in the united states of america. >> what are the strategies here? >> what are the strategies of the people -- >> well, i mean, the pushing back against the strategies. what are the options that are

facing voters on the ground in ohio right now? >> well, look, what voters have to do, not just in ohio and pennsylvania and florida, but all around the country, what they should be doing right now, right this very minute is to find out if they are, indeed, registered to vote. if they are, indeed, signed up if their region station is current. and if it is not, to get in touch with their local party to find out what can be done to ensure that when they cast a ballot on november 6th that it's legal, that it's -- that they can go in and vote. because otherwise we are looking at a really complicated situation just happening in ohio. what's happening in ohio is different from pennsylvania and florida. the best way to push back against this is to be informed. >> thank you so much to angela zimmann in ohio. thank you for joining me. >> thank you. >> and coming up, does it matter who will introduce mitt romney before the candidate's exception speech in tampa? i absolutely do.

do you know who it is? if you don't know, come back!

welcome back. i'm melissa harris-perry in new york. i always enjoy watching how the characters are cast. in the lead the stern, competent, no-nonsense businessman, mitt romney. the sidekick, his running mate, paul ryan. the tough but sweetheart, the moral conscious, wife, ann romney. the imprudent but always entertaining tag-alang, chris christie, but the cast needs one more player to step out the story and he'll step to the mike to introduce the star on monday. you know, the role of the one diverse person in the crew, florida senator marco rubio. no matter what he talks about in the speech, the presence of rubio is an appeal to the increasingly powerful block of

latino voters, those not happy with mr. romney at the moment. according to this week's nbc news wall street journal telemundo poll, romney controls 28% of the latino vote trailing president obama by 35 points. on wednesday a national co-chair for romney's extended leadership team told "the hill" newspaper that the campaign is to get 38% of the hispanic vote and is worth noting that the campaign is not even trying to reach the level of latino support that the last republican to win the white house had. yes, george w. bush in 2004 won re-election with more than 40% of the latino vote. that same nbc poll this week showed romney underperforming with white voters. and if that stays true, romney will need the latino vote more than ever. given his previously stated and ridiculed policy of deportation for undocumented immigrants and the fact that romney passed over

rubio for paul ryan who wants to build a fence along the mexican border, what can we do to fix this? joining me from washington, d.c. is manuel roy frenzia. i have buddy roemer, alicia menendez, "the washington post" jonathan capehart and mr. roy ortega. what will he say in his introduction of mitt romney? >> he'll stick to the script and talk about how romney is going to help him, help america get more jobs and improve the economy. and he'll also talk about you can be sure something along the lines of american exceptionalism, he used his own family store to talk about how america has a special obligation, special place in the world and a special prominence. >> i find rubio so interesting as his choice standing there

between the two candidates n part because he was baptized mormon, went to latter-day saints youth groups but then actually converted to catholicism and latter-day saints, but also he and i apparently share a favorite artist, which is on nicki minaj, are we going to see marco rubio talk about his own story of immigration, his own interesting exceptional american narrative? >> i might add when i was working on my book about marco rubio that people who worked with him on the campaign said, boy, he can spit, he can spit lyrics. he also likes snoopdogg, so it is not just -- >> i love that! >>s the not just nicki minaj. >> when he would rap when introduced romney, i would be very happy. that would be really something. i want to ask you about this

number, like the idea of just setting a goal of 38% for latino voters. why set a goal that is below what george w. bush did when trying to expand the big tent? >> that's a good question for republicans. i think that you have to be realistic, too. they don't have a lot of time to catch up. but you're right, it's going to be absolutely critical, particularly in adverse swing states. i think rubio and romney need to have a compelling message only the economy and the american people still give governor romney an edge. we know that hispanics, the issue of the economy and unemployment continues to be atop of the poll. he can contrast that with the fact that the unemployment rate for hispanics is over 10%. that's where governor romney has a chance. >> i hear you that the economy is at the top and the immigration story really matters. while he has an immigration story that you uncovered and actually told him himself, right, about his own grandfather, that sounds to me

as though, it's actually an opposition to the very policies that the romney/ryan ticket represent. >> yeah, when you talked about self-deportation, i couldn't help but think about marco rubio's grandfather, victor garcia had come to the united states legally but then left and ran afoul of visa requirements when he tried to come back in he was ordered deported by a judge in miami. but he did not return to cuba as he had been ordered. he did not self-deport. he was not put on a plane by the authorities. and he stayed in the country for five years before his immigration status was worked out. he was an undocumented immigrant in the same way many millions of undocumented ill grants are in the united states right now. >> so, alicia, will rubio have a leg to stand on as he has this conversation with latino voters, particularly in florida and tampa next week? >> i don't think that's a conversation he's going to be having. i don't think he's out there to

talk about imgraduation but he's out to talk about small government, the american dream and american exceptionalism. i don't think this is about winning hispanics in the southwest. i think this is very specifically about florida. i think they believe that he has the capacity to turn cubans out to energize them and also turn out other hispanics in that key state. i don't think he plays -- with 80% of the hispanic population mexican, they have a very different immigration story and very different latino story that marco rubio, but i don't think he's out there for them. he's out there for mainstream conservatives. >> that's a very critical important point. part of where the 38 comes from if the math they are doing is an assessment of conservatives in florida and assume they can get a marco rubio pull on that and some assertion of pro-life -- >> which are older people. if you look at the numbers from 2008, young cuban americans in

miami-dade, 18 to 29, turned out 60% for barack obama. inverse numbers for older cubans. you are seeing a shift among cuban-americans in miami on these issues. i think we'll see that again this year. >> i think it is more than about mitt romney. i think this is one of the most important speeches we'll hear next week. it's about the future of america and the republican party. it's got to come together. and that's why he will talk about immigration. that's why he must talk about immigration. he'll have other monumented in his valley, but he has to talk about the kind of america he believes in. what an opportunity for this guy. >> right. it's a huge opportunity. why not choose him for the v.p.? >> maybe mitt romney didn't think that senator rubio was ready for the job. one of the criteria was could be president if something were to happen. if something were to happen to him. >> same thing with sarah palin. sorry. >> but that was 2008. now we are talking 2012.

paul ryan compared to senator palin, i think, meets that criteria. but i hope your right, governor roemer, that marco rubio does address immigration in his speech. i think whether hispanics will be open to mitt romney, i don't know. i'm not there yet. but i do think that, and i would hope, that hispanics watching the convention will be listening for, does this ticket, does this party care about me and my family, my relatives, i might not have an immigration issue or immigration worry, but i know lots of people who do. if i'm going to cast my vote for a person who represents a party who couldn't care less about me and wants me to self-deport in all the mystical things, then i can't go there. no matter what the economic message is, no matter what american dream story you can present, i can't go there. >> i just want to take a quick look at this chart, we are calling it the tiny, tiny tent.

the big tent of republicans is to expand, in part, by bringing in latino voters. but the tent is getting smaller and smaller from 40% down to 31% and currently polling at 28%. is marco rubio at all a relevant sharpa for the romney/ryan ticket? is there anything he can say thursday night in tampa that will signal that at least the future of the party will build that tent back out large her? >> yeah, absolutely. he's someone who will be able to communicate on the campaign trail in spanish. he's talked about changing the tone on immigration and the republican party. the problem that he has is his positions, opposition to the dream act, in favor of e-verify, said he would vote for the inner zone immigration law, are somewhat in conflict with that. so it will be an interesting rhetorical challenge for him. i will say, though, that he is

in a very elite class of speakers in american politics and i would not underestimate him in this spotlight moment. >> thank you for joining us from washington, d.c. i greatly appreciate it. the name of your book is "the rise of marco rubio." so my question is actually, we are going to exactly what alicia suggested, which is whether or not this is not really a moment about mitt romney but a moment about marquise rubio that might actually look a bit like another young senator we saw at another convention. that is up next. (cat purring) mornings are a special time for the two of you... and now you can make them even more special... with new fancy feast mornings. mornings are delicious protein rich entrées... with garden veggies and egg.

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tonight a particular honor for me because, let's face it,

my presence on this stage is pretty unlikely. i stand here knowing that my story is part of the larger american story. that i owe a debt to all of those who came before me. and that in no other country on earth is my story even possible. >> now that was, of course, state senator barack obama, soon to be senator and future president giving the keynote address in the 2004 democratic national convention, wearing the same suit jonathan capehart is currently wearing at the nerdland table, which was kind of cool to see. but that said, it's interesting, those words out of his mouth could be out of marco rubio, right? this notion of i owe a debt to this country, only in this story my country is possible. and we know john kerry buzz a bit of a road bump, a speed bump on the road of history and really ultimately became senator obama then president obama's night. 2016, if mitt romney does not

win, bobby jindal, nicki hailey, marco rubio, paul ryan, probably chris christie, that is, that's a pretty deep bench. is this really just a show for 2016? >> well, it's more than that, but it's that, too. so you can't dismiss that. i mean, we each talk about where we are, where we'd like to go. and great speeches do both. >> and will he, with that recognition, that understanding of what obama did as a state senator and then ultimately president, will he give a speech that is less about introducing mitt romney and more about introducing marco rubio? >> he'll have to walk a fine line, but yeah, he's got to be thinking about his career. he knows his stock is on the rise and the republicans know that he's got to be at the top of the list for the next presidential election. and so what you'll see is you will hear the themes of american exceptionalism. he can speak in terms that

really ez night with a number of americans, including hispanics. his parents were conservatives in the streets, this is the kind of stuff that will come up in the speech. >> will it fundamentally change the dynamics, you have bobby jindal, hailey barbour, this will make for an interesting 2016. >> then you have to watch the republican party as it is right now deal with that. >> that will be fascinating. >> we go from birther jokes yesterday to, oh, my god, one of these people, one of these brown people could be the nominee. what do we make of that? >> would it split the party? would they eat themselves or would you just come into the 21st century. >> i don't think that will happen, no. look, marco rubio, florida, there are a lot of parts of florida that are rural. he won the senate seat there, so i think you have conservative support whoever the candidate would be. >> we are focused on senator rubio, but you mention all those other names, we are going to --

everyone is going to be watching these people because they are the future of the party. is anybody really, really interested in what governor romney has to say on that night? it's as if he's being overshadowed by everyone. everyone else is getting all the attention. >> poor mitt. >> tiny phil could walk across the stage and overshadow mitt romney. >> phil is the groundhog. >> oh, there he is! >> you knew, once state senator barack obama gave that speech, and i was in the hall that night, and i remember going, wow, i have not heard a speech like that since mario cuomo's speech when i was a kid, when was that, 1984 in san francisco? >> yep, 1984 in san francisco. >> this guy has it. this guy's got it. and i think we'll see that from rubio. we are definitely going to see that from paul ryan. and, you know, mitt romney, gosh, sorry, guy -- >> you're wearing state senator

obama's suit that ultimately led -- >> and tie. >> right, that led him to become president. you have called mitt romney both a russian doll where each time you open it up there's something more and you also suggested he could be overshadowed by a groundhog. you can come back to nerdland any time. up next, a very serious topic and one very close to my heart. seven years ago this week hurricane katrina hit new orleans. i don't live there then but i do now. coming up, you'll take a tour of my house. don't miss it. 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

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gustav approached new orleans republicans held off on the first day of their convention, not out of safety concerns in minneapolis, but out of sensitivity to what the people of the gulf coast could have been facing. seven years ago this coming week the levee breach that devastated new orleans after hurricane katrina will be remembered in the city i call home. seven years later the city continues to rebuild but progress is slow. a new report by the greater new orleans data center shows that more than one in five properties in the crescent city remains blighted. one in five. there are homes destroyed by the homes abandoned by their owners and now there are safety hazards and depressing eyesores. i live directly across the street from just such a place and decided it was time to enact my very own extreme home makeover, so please come along with me as we visit my new home. this is the home that my husband

and i just bought. and it's the house that in many ways became, for us, the site of crime in the neighborhood. to try to address that, we have purchased this house with the goal of completely renovating it, bringing it back to life and contributing ultimately to the safety and security of this neighborhood. you literally look directly through this home because it only has three walls. it has a front wall and two side walls. truly exquisite and beautiful home. and, for me, this house is very much representative of new orleans. and what we are facing since the storm. that if you just glance at it, all you see is the destruction. but if you look at it and look at the bones of it, of what it represents, if you still even see the pink paint that was on it, that was probably a little girl's bedroom at some point, you see there's real life here, just like there's still a lot of life left here in the city.

my house in new orleans' seventh ward is just one example of the destruction left by hurricane katrina. but the lower ninth ward, the area so connected with katrina's devastation remains the place where work is still left to be done. here's an image of a lot of what has and has not happened here in this neighborhood. here you have an empty lot and what we call the stairs to nowhere, front steps that would have, at one point, led up to a family home. you'll see a renovated home, somebody whose come back here to lower nine, it's a family home surrounded on all sides here by empty lots where basically vegetation has grown back up. down the street i met mrs. anderson. lower ninth ward resident for 35 years. >> we are all connected to something like this. if i had money i still wouldn't

have left, but i had to do what i had to do. >> pa trish that jones is one of the people trying to get the ninth ward back on track. >> this is an example. this is what we want to see building. this is what we are working on. he's high grass. it's houses still needing to be torn down that are not torn down. it's abandonment. it's a lack of power and community. that's what this is. and we fight every day to not have that to be, every year, less and less of it in our community. >> government, where is government in all of this? >> government is -- you know, there are things we call photo ops and come when the cameras come, oh, look what we did over here. you can look around ward nine to see it is not where it needs to be. when the media leaves, we are still here cutting grass, getting another group to do this, packaging up another loan product for a family, affordable products so they can become

homeowners. for us, i'm tired of the political shenanigans. >> hi, jeff, how are you? to get answers, i met to meet with jeffrey abear, the director of the new orleans housing authority. >> we are coming up on seven years after the storm where the state is no longer able to control the property. in fact, you're going to become the largest property owner here in the parish of orleans. some folks would say you'll become the largest slum lord in the patch irof orleans as you get properties in blighted condition. what does that mean for you? >> we have been working on this for two years. that number was 5,000 at the beginning after katrina. over the past several years we have worked that down to 3,000. 2,000 of those have been sold either through auction, through development agreements or through lots next door. a thousand of them are lots next door where folks acquired the property next door to them. we'll use the same strategy to go from the 3,000 left all the

way down to as far as we can. at the end of the day, we estimate there will be about 800 left. >> this kind of street corner looks like what people think new orleans is and, you know, things coming back in a traditional shotgun home and all that, but what i need to tell the woman in the lower ninth ward is i call everyone in the city and can't get my grass cut. >> the majority of those are in private ownership. they are not owned by the city. they are someone who walked away from the property, but it's a tremendous task to take care of all that property. it's a huge drain on our resources. >> which brings me back to my own front door. it's just the thing. it's just a physical thing and yet it represents so much more than that for the people of new orleans that ultimately, look, this is my neighborhood. this is my community. but it's also for me to be a symbol of hope. >> when we come back, we are

asking about the continuing legacy of katrina. [ thunder crashes ]

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seven years ago in august of 2005 the national disaster devastated the mississippi gulf coast. on friday, august 26th, a state of emergency was declared in mississippi and louisiana as both states braced for impact against hurricane katrina. one of the most powerful storms to ever form in the atlantic ocean. it was three days later on august 29th that the man made disaster helped along by the hurricane devastated the city of new orleans. hurricane katrina, which passed just east of the city, didn't make the direct hit that had been forecasted. but that was the day the first of new orleans' protective levees, the only defense against catastrophic flooding was breached, that water poured into the city. flooding left 80% of new orleans under water, in some places up to 20 feet high.

an estimated 80% of the population left new orleans after a mandatory evacuation order. the remaining 20%, nearly 100,000 people who would not or could not leave were left behind. some were stranded on rooftops, others sought refuge inside the hot, dark and crowded confines of the new orleans superdome and the convention center when they spent days without food and water. it took nearly six weeks to pump the water out of the city, but when the waters receded this is what remained. more than 1,800 people confirmed dead. more than 700 still missing. 75 billion dollars in estimated physical damages. more than 110 billion in economic impact to louisiana and mississippi. and in new orleans, more than 200,000 families displaced from their homes. the abandoned houses that remain in the city today is evidence of the more than 140,000 left and never returned. back with me is former governor of louisiana, buddy roemer and presidential historian doug brinkley, author of "the great

deluge." nice to see you. >> thank you for having me. >> so, you know, i always feel such mixed emotions about talking about the continuing legacy of katrina in the city i love. because the city part of me wants to say, come on down, spend your tourist dollars, we are making progress, things are good. but, you know, the citizen in the city part of me wants to say, hey, there's still too much left to be done. >> yes. it's devastating. i mean, when i go back, my daughter lives in new orleans, my granddaddy lived on bourbon street with a milk company. high and dry. the french knew where to build, i'll give them that, but when i go back now it blakes breaks my heart. there's no one on the ground, there's no governor, there's no president, there's no one in charge of rebuilding. and i think it's because the ninth ward will feill will decet human bodies, but they didn't have a bank.

they were just gone. and i think some people are glad they are gone. >> we have heard some of the discourse of folks being -- and that there are specific policies, right, that have made it harder. so we hear the language about, oh, this is a bad thing or a devastating thing, but then you have a program like the road home program, that was sposed to give people a road home. it was meant to be a secondary insurer, but it worked on pre-storm value of the home, if you know real estate, means location, location, location. so black neighborhoods got less money to come back. and it was written into the federal formula. i mean, policy actually matters here. >> absolutely. and remember, many people still want to come back here and can't. look at the lower ninth ward or new orleans east, let's say you're living in houston and want to come back to new orleans and you go to the lower ninth. banks won't give you proper loans. the insurance companies don't want to cover you. garbage pickup doesn't occur.

>> can i tell you getting homeowners insurance on that property i just showed you has been, like, i mean, it has been -- it has been impossible. >> exactly. you might have a little bit of sway, but a lot of those people that you said were disenfranchised or lower middle class and are struggling. so unfortunately it's a whole different city. it was always the tail of two cities above sea level and below, so we can celebrate the saints are playing coming up september 9th against the redskins. they might win and can celebrate mardi gras and the great things, but unfortunately there's a lot of pain and suffering and it's an embarrassment that the united states didn't do more to save the great city of new orleans. >> the saints is an interesting example, we showed images of the superdome and the suffering occurring there. i'm the mixed mind, on the one hand there's nobody a greater saints fan than i am on sunday afternoons, but i always wonder, here we are playing football in a place that has no marker for the suffering that occurred here.

that doesn't mention the people who died of dehydration in this place when our government did not respond. >> it's the story of poverty in america. the greatest country on earth. let me just -- i love it, but poverty is something that we have pushed aside, that we have forgotten. and we even step on, we feed on them. we ignore them too often. i don't know what the answer is, melissa, i have thought about it a million times. what could you do, buddy roemer, how could you make a difference? i'm not sure. i have a bank and we thought about building a bank in new orleans. we were around the state, we have never been in new orleans, but we are thinking about maybe trying to do that. i don't know what the answer is, but i will say this. as a former politician, no politician at the state level or the federal level has reached out to new orleans enough. no politician. >> yeah.

i agree with that and there's a couple other problems. one, if yo you go up the mississippi river in minnesota, st. paul, there are more than 25 fortune 500 companies. how do you bring people back to new orleans? you have to have good schools, good roads, an environment. there's no sense of environmental consciousness. the wetlands are still disappearing. we used to have how many football fields, every day the gulf of mexico is getting closer to new orleans. with the disappearing of the barrier islands and wetlands, when a storm or hurricane hits, it's going to hit harder against the levee walls. the city is one of the number one homeland defense priorities, but with most politicians wanting to treat it out of sight, out of mom. >> my mom is home in new orleans watching and she's very nervous

about isaac. you just said that, i just want to look at mom and say, everything is okay. i'll call as soon as i'm off air. but up next, i want to ask whether or not the republican party can ever outrun the political legacy of katrina. more on that when we come back. abigail higgins had... ...a tree that bore the most rare and magical fruit. which provided for their every financial need. and then, in one blinding blink of an eye, their tree had given its last. but with their raymond james financial advisor, they had prepared for even the unthinkable. and they danced. see what a raymond james advisor can do for you.

the words are going this way-there's no way. oh, the lights came on. isn't technology supposed to make life easier? at chase we're pioneering innovations that make banking simple. deposit a check with a photo. pay someone with an email. and bank seamlessly with our award-winning mobile app. take a step forward... and chase what matters. the legacy of hurricane katrina can be measured not just if in lives lost and political upheaval in new orleans, but also in national politics. in 2004 president george w. bush won 11% of african-american voters and believed that bush's message of christian values aligned with their own interests. then they watched a year later

the rest of the nation with the bush administration dragging its feet in responding to the visible sufferings of victims of hurricane katrina. one month after the storm president bush's approval ratings among african-americans fell to an all-time low of 2%. voters seemed to be echoing this sentiment from kanye west. >> george bush doesn't care about black people. >> and now mitt romney inherits that legacy. the latest nbc new wall street journal poll shows president obama with 94% among african-americans and mitt romney with zero. i didn't misspeak, zero. nada. still here with me, buddy roemer, jonathan capehart and israel ortega. jeff isaac, the editor of perspective on politics wrote in the new addition, all about sort of the post-katrina moment, new

orleans encapsulates very important themes in the study of politics, power in the urban crisis, post-disaster reconstruction, the development of the complex intersections of race, class, gender and sexuality, you can add culture and the importance of environmental questions, everything is right here in this moment, in the place that is new orleans and we did not do a good job of managing it. and in particular, the republicans did a failing job in managing it. should they be allowed to manage the country given that seven years ago they could not manage this crisis? >> don't look at me. >> no. anybody else want to talk about this? >> that same crew is not running again. we have to be fair in looking at this. >> okay. so i will give you that. it was a democratic mayor who did not do well. >> democratic governor. >> melissa, the reason why i was a little silent and speechless is because, yes, you can blame president bush for his

non-reaction for the looking out the window over new orleans, flying over in air force one and the slow response. but when i saw those, when i saw those pictures from new orleans, when i saw my fellow citizens screaming for help, as you have the graphic behind you, people begging for help, this wasn't a republican failure. this was an american failure. this was a failure of the federal government to safeguard its citizens. so no matter who the president was, whether it was a democratic president or republican president, for that to happen is a failure of the federal government. >> okay. but let me push on this just a little bit because a lot of the images we saw were the images of people with flags. oftentimes with very large flags, people wrapped in the flags. you have to ask yourself, if you're evacuating your home and get on the roof, there's water coming in, where is there a flag that you both know where it is and you have to go get it as you evacuate? there's only one kind of flag people care that much about, and

it's the flag from a casket of a veteran. people were literally wrapped in the images of the citizen ship of those people who served and died on their families and got called over and over again on tv refugees because we could not see them as our fellow citizens. in so doing, we produce the moment that is now the birther moment. when you look at black bodies literally wrapped in flags, of fallen soldiers, and look at them and call them refugees, and you cannot imagine that's america, are we surprised that seven years later we are looking at the american president asking where is his birth certificate, those things are deeply connected and were part of this. >> george w. bush was awful and was not an inspirational leader and there are big problems with what he did. he saw fema as a jimmy carter feel-good program so they ghe o ghetto-ized this.

what do you think you're going to get? the brownie moment or the -- >> how did brown get his job done? he gave a $10,000 check to t campai campaigning. >> i hear you but still think there's insufficient attention from the obama administration on this question, but the fema head is an actual disaster expert, not like some guy -- >> that is an improvement. >> that's a learning moment for the government. >> they are stepping it back up to where it was under president clinton. >> i'm sorry. >> i was just going to say i don't think president bush doesn't like black people, but what president bush was fearful of black people. so when there was a bogus report of rescue helicopters being shot at, which never happened, they immediately quarantined a whole

city, we don't want a lot of black people looting. video footage in the white house of african-americans going into a drugstore to get supplies to stay alive where suddenly they turn into criminals overnight. just the incidences on the bridges alone would happen. we are dealing with, as he's put it, a national racism. and as you put it, a story of poverty in america. everything is there. and we are still living in katrina. >> black victims were criminalized, right? they actually suspended search and rescue. but including the democratic governor, however, us is spentded search and rescue in order to go to law and order for 24 hours. i'm just saying at every level. >> we are to blame. the police department in new orleans, supposedly trained, supposedly professionals, look at the examples of cruelty they had to people in trouble. it never ends! >> one thing we know is natural disasters are going to happen. if we can learn anything from

seven years post-katrina is what with are we doing now in the country as a state and local level. that we are the vulnerable cities and areas in the country because natural disasters are going to happen. >> and yet this was only -- yet this was only partly a natural disaster. the other piece was the levee failure. >> not just the levees but the wisemen of the new orleans in the '50s aproufed the mississippi gulf outlet, thank goodness it's now bulldozed out of commission. >> that is stopped. >> it's stopped because that created wind funnel effect. and the idea was green. they were going to turn the fresh water port of new orleans into a seaport and compete with galveston. it was the worst boon dock imagine blg. so there were many failures in the infrastructure of new orleans, which saddens me because the ducks were able to save afternoon ster dam, amsterdam. new orleans, to sit in our culture, it was a great american

city and was neglected, by and large, by the american people. >> no one should take my passion and anger to mean anything other than it is a fantastic city, particularly this language of it being a symbol of our culture. it is home and i do love it as so many of us do. >> the good news is an engineer that i know says we are prepared. he endorses the billions that have been spent. he said, buddy, it won't wreck it. >> did you hear that, mom? buddy roemer says we are. more in a moment, but first we'll have a preview of "weekends with alex witt." >> that's good news if buddy is right. new video and details on the empire state shooting. how did nine people end up wounded? we'll have the latest on a live report. new information on hurricane isaac this hour. it could be worse than first thought. and we are now hearing it could directly affect the tampa republican national convention. he plans on crashing the gop party. libertarian party candidate gary johnson with some surprise comments about swing states in

the coming election. i will talk with him. and he's had a front row seat following president obama's every move. here's the first of his kind and back in the white house with a new book on his experience. we'll explain all that one to you. that interview. >> thank you, alex. up next, no papers and no fear. the changing life of undocumented immigrants. [ male announcer ] if you stash tissues

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my name is torres and i'm 41 and i've been living in phoenix for more than 18 years. >> what are you doing here in new orleans? >> we are sharing our experiences and also sharing our knowledge in how to fight for our rights against the police department, sheriff's department and anyone that is attacking our community. >> that was har ard dough torres. earlier this month while in new orleans i was fortunate to meet him and many of the other roughly 30 men and women who have decided to expose their

immigration status and drive across the country to spread their message in unfriendly territory. their slogan, no papers no fear. it began in july 29th in arizona, and it's scheduled to last six weeks. their final stop the democratic national will convention in north carolina. they travel by bus, a vehicle they called undocubus. >> for seeing the beauty in the lives of the people who are undocumented so they must be in the shadows but the bus is supposed to carry that message that, no, you don't have to be in the shadows. come out and be a butterfly. >> on their many stops the riders are meeting with local groups and exchanging information and organizing. they're visit historical civil rights sites like the bridge at selma. a 65-year-old domestic worker and organizer from california said this -- as we walked over the bridge i thought of all the kids that had

died. their fight was and is really the same as ours. lots of racism, hate and segregation. the undocu bus is also driving through places with documentation laws striblgt, alabama and georgia. in this video playing next to me, you can see the group protesting at a briefing in alabama on the impact of state-based immigration laws. the u.s. commission on civil rights who organized the event chose to have crisco back as one of its speaker. he is one of the -- the undocu-bus is on the road to the democratic convention because demonstrators are trying to bring voice to specific issues. they're protesting the record number of deportations under president obama and the rise of state laws modeled after sb-1070. some of the bus passengers are eligible will for deferred action for the childhood arrivals program or doca that

president obama declared by executive action in june. and while the passengers laud the president's move, they say it's not enough. >> i qualify for the d.r.e.a.m. act. i'm 29 years old. what about our family, our parents? we can get a working permit but what with about my mom, my sister, and the community, you know? >> the passengers on the indocu-bus say they're starting to have an impact. for not being afraid, to risk everything they have, these modern-day freedom riders are our foot shoulder soldiers of the week. that is our show today. thanks to our guests today. thanks to you at home for watching. i'll see you tomorrow morning at 10:00 a.m. eastern. we're going to take a look at the shadow party of 2012 and the new boss in republican politics. here's a hint, he's the same old

boss. coming up "weekends with alex witt." breathe, but with advair, i'm breathing better. so now i can be in the scene. advair is clinically proven to help significantly improve lung function. unlike most copd medications, advair contains both an anti-inflammatory and a long-acting bronchodilator working together to help improve your lung function all day. advair won't replace fast-acting inhalers for sudden symptoms and shouldot be used more than twice a day. people with copd taking advair may have a higher chance of pneumonia. advair may increase your risk of osteoporosis and some eye problems. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking advair. if you're still having difficulty breathing, ask your doctor if including advair could help improve your lung function. get your first full

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