and main street found its might again. and main street found its fight again. and we, the locals, found delight again. that's the power of all of us. that's the power of all of us. that's the membership effect of american express. good morning from new york, i'm chris hayes. president obama paid tribute to neal armstrong last night. spirit of discovery lives on in all the men and women who devoted their lives to exploring the unknown. legacy sparked by the man who taught us the power of one strong step. he died yesterday at 82 years old. the first night of the republican national convention, which was set to begin tomorrow has been canceled because of

tropical storm isaac. the official nomination of republican presidential candidate mitt romney is now slated for tuesday. we'll be talking about romney and his party's platform in just a moment, but with florida now in a state of emergency, we want to get the latest from bill c e karins. >> heading for key west overnight tonight. overnight it hasn't strengthened, and that is good, but has plenty of time to do that. here's a look at it on radar this morning. you can see all the spiraling bands and the black line on the bottom of your screen is the center of the storm. not really a high-impact event today from naples to key west and this is a strong tropical storm going through but for this region of the country, a lot of squally weather and i don't expect too many power outages. as far as the storm itself, 1 165-mile-per-hour winds and where is the storm heading? it does appear it is likely this

tropical storm wind force field will head through south florida and then off the gulf coast and possibly clipping areas like tampa. as far as the forecast path of the storm goes, here it is. we expect monday to intensify well off the coast of florida heading up towards the northern gulf. as far as the new orleans area is the most significant impacts and tampa will see gusty winds, but they're not going to get the brunt of the storm, far enough off shore, but, of course, they already canceled the events by monday and hopefully by tuesday night they can get everything back on schedule. back to you. joining me now we have joan walsh, author of "what's the matter with white people." i'm two chapters into it and it's fantastic. i recommend you check it out. elise jordan and former speech writer for secretary of state condoleezza rice and sofia nelson author of "black women

redefined." now columnist for our sister website. great to have you here. the 2012 republican national convention begins tuesday in tampa, florida. the party gathering to vote on the gop platform. a statement of the positions and values. for the past week, the committee has been hashing out a draft of the document, versions of which have been obtained by nbc news and politico the party's extreme disconnect. the abortion committee makes no mention of an exception of rape, incest or even to save the life of a mother a. a week after his now infamous comments according to a dispatch news poll released yesterday. instead, the platform calls for a human life amendment granting 14 amendment rights to fetuses. drafts call for a constitutional

amendment and denial of federal funds to universities to provide in-state tuition which could block states like texas from federal education money and in a true knowledge to the ron paul faction of the party a commission to study a return to the gold standard. as elements of the platform started to leak out, a chorus of republicans rushed to distance themselves and mitt romney from it. >> i worried about doing this speech -- >> this is the platform of the republican party. it's not the platform of mitt romney. >> republicans would like you to believe the party platform is unimportant and they would like you to ignore and focus on mitt romney. as it is a maxmist organization, this election is much about the nature of the republican party as it is about its candidate. today, i want to ask, what is the republican party? who controls it and what answers does this document provide to those questions? i'll start with you.

there's a few theories about who's driving the train in the moderate republican party. so, the theory that you hear often on our network and the one that i think i'm partial to, but i think is plausibly rebutable is that the hard right is driving the train of the moderate republican party and if you look at the votes, you look at what the agenda of say the house republican caucus has been. it has been been to observe the conservatives and generally has had an ideological flavor that is to the right of where the center of america is and certainly to the right, rightist part of the republican coalition. there's an argument that actually when you look at the last two nominees john mccain and mitt romney, i'll argue both sides and then i'll let you talk. if you look at the nominees, john mccain and mitt romney, that the right wing base of the

party didn't get its wish with either john mccain and mitt romney and i'm curious to get your feedback. this is not mitt romney's platform, this is the republican party. >> i'd say a couple things. excuse me. in both parties the activists are always going to be driving the agenda and the platforms are the ones pushing the candidates to adhere to certain principals. how the republican party activist base has evolved. in the 1990s more of this social conservativi conservatism activists. it's very much about the debt and that's the driver of the republican party in a way that 15, 20 years wasn't true. >> people say that and i don't buy it. this was the story we were told about the tea party, oh, gone are the days of evangelicals on the cover of "time" magazine, george w. bush. do you guys feel that is the case, they made this turn away from social issues.

>> the house republicans come in and one thing they try to do is defund planned parenthood. the thing about todd aiken is the tragedy for todd akin is it has given lip service and this bad on abortion since 1992. very few people realize it because the party had the strategy of winking and nodding at their base and putting forward a more moderate public face around this and only talking about we wouldn't allow abortion in cases of rape and invest. todd akin has brought that hypocrisy right out in front. you see this man who is not backing down and now mike huckabee going to holy war on his behalf because they're tired of having this platform look this way but the candidates say, oh, it's not our platform. this is mitt romney's party. they're not getting away with it any more. >> here's someone who troubles me. i grew up in a republican party

when christine todd whitman was the first republican i worked for right out of law school in new jersey. he was definitely a conservative socially, but that isn't what he argued about. he was passionate about the cities in this country, kind of like mitt romney's dad in a sense. but the republican party has drifted in a direction that i don't understand. if you think about it, i consider myself more of a libertarian. for me, i want small government. i don't get why you're telling women, can they have abortions or not, or some of these social issues they truly don't fit with a true republican party. >> they do fit with a true republican party. >> if you believe in small government, chris, you don't believe that government should be telling people what to do. am i right? >> i absolutely agree. you looked a would george h.w. bush be able to be a contender today? i don't think so. i think that's a treel trreal t.

bob dole saying recently that we're going too far right and i think it is a trend who they might be attracted to the republican platform and in terms of fiscal conservatism. no, get out of the bedroom, we like gay people. >> so, i'll take the other side of that. i think the evolution has been much more towards economics and we see this naturally with the millenni millennial. one thing is that interesting in the last 20 years, it used to be the center of the gop was texas. i lived there, i love texas. right now what we see, what is the political center of gravity of republicanism? it's wisconsin, it's michigan and that upper midwest is historically what it has been for 100, 150 years and i think that's what we'll see as millennials continue to get older and as the social issues, the consensus on social issues changes. i'm not sure it will change on abortion, actually. 50% of americans are pro-life now. >> depending on how you ask the

question. should abortion be illegal in all circumstances, which is the official position of the republican party in the platform which is a small -- >> it is on the other -- >> it's a mistake and it's a total distraction from what should be the real issue in this election in the economy. >> i don't understand -- >> oh, absolutely is detracted. >> you have akin out there talking about legitimate right and refusing to stand out and it's absolutely horrible and republicans were rightfully outraged. >> someone who is pro life, i consider myself prolife but i don't have a problem with other people making a choice and abortion should be legal and safe in this country. >> you're exactly why the polling on this is a total mess. i'm prolife and believe in legalized abortion, fine. g gallup says 50% are pro life. >> i just want to stay on this, who has the power thing, right? obviously, different strains in

the republican party and the classic kind of three-legged school or national security conservatives right and that dwru out of this anti-communist economic and sound money and fiscal prudence, although that is not really the record of the party, but smaller government, let's say and social conservati conservatism. and one of the things that happened is i think social conservatism was quite dominant during the george w. bush years. so much coverage of the evangelical base and then the tea party was all about the sort of economic turn. whatever the emphasis was, the fact remains, it's still the same folks. the same people in the coalition. >> so, when you have something like the hhs contraception mandate. why should the government be telling us what insurance policies must cover. the social conservatives get upset. >> that's why.

i think that's why republicans saw that as such a huge political opportunity, not necessarily because of the political gains to be won among independents, although it was part of it, a delightfully unifying issue for different parts of the coalition. it's a part of the then diagram. >> what becomes critical is look at the 2010 midterms. if the same electorate that comes out for the gop and the african-american vote is suppre suppressed. i'm talking about the standpoint african-americans not as excited about president obama this time, right, i think it will be an interesting dynamic because mitt romney has a shot of winning this white house, a real shot. i think that really becomes what issues drive this. is it social or economic tea party issues? >> also a case to be made, this is what i want to address. when you talk about the balance. social conservatives will make this case. american conservative once ran a cover story on this and in the reporting where they say, yeah,

we're the ones that get screwed. they give us a lot of lip service. this is in some ways the tom frank to outlaw abortion and this famous riff that he has in the beginning of what is the matter with kss. the people calling the shots are the mitt romney sheldon addison, i want to talk to michael steele about charlie crist endorsing the president. it's time to live wider awake. only the beautyrest recharge sleep system combines the comfort of aircool memory foam layered on top of beautyrest pocketed coils to promote proper sleeping posture all night long. the revolutionary recharge sleep system... from beautyrest.

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i want to bring in msnbc political analyst michael steele former head of the committee. michael, first up, you are getting some flack for the convention being, no, let me say it, for the convention being in tampa during hurricane season. i want to say this, it is a stroke of genius to put the convention in a hurricane prone

area and then put all the speakers you might want to cancel on the first night so that you have an out. i think we're going to start seeing this be the norm for all political conventions. i just want to commend you on this brilliant move. >> thank you. i'm just, look, i'm just a brother trying to help folks out, that's all. >> you're trying to help out mitt romney so mike huckabee, oops, too bad, mike huckabee, my bad. are we going to see mike huckabee, what's the deal? >> they'll readjust this. look, i give blame for everything, aapparently, for everything a these days. i'm convenient. i guess i'm the convenient truth for them or whatever. but the fact of the matter is, this is going to be a great convention. folks act like we haven't done this before. in 2008, we were in minnesota and we canceled and the reality of it is, we set this in motion two years ago. like we could forecast the weather, et cetera. but they have plans.

i don't know what plans this particular rnc had, but i know what we had planned for putting on this convention. the reality is it will go forth and everyone have a great time and you'll be a little wet, but no worse off. >> if we don't get an act together, all conventions will be in alaska. i'm not joking. all right, in news in the morning, michael -- >> i have my carbon suit, i'm ready. >> former republican governor of florida endorses charlie kristin "tampa bay times." republicans gather, americans can expect to hear tales of how president obama failed to work with their party or turn the economy around. an element pitched so far to the extreme right on issues important, they have proven incapable of governing for the people. president what his decisions would mean for the people than his political fortunes.

that is why i'm proud to stand with him today. this is a case that business been made by a variety of people. olympia snowe has made this case and jim jeffords has made the case and a variety of folks made the case that the republican party lurched to the right and political scientists have produc produced. what is your reaction to charlie crist's endorsement this mo morning? >> i don't have. that's charlie crist's decision. he has always shown himself to be a somewhat independent person when it comes to the people in florida, in particular, and his view on politics. look, this is the beauty of the american political system. you can have someone do that cross party thing and it's not a problem. i've always been amused that republicans, you know, love it when democrats come out and endorse, you know, our candidates like joe lieberman did, as you recall. but then we get all, you know, put off when a republican sees some virtue of value in a

democrat candidate. so, those individual choices and, you know, god bless them, the folks for mitt romney is not whether crist has endorsed him. the focus for mitt romney this week is to make sure america gets to know him and understand his vision for this country. he has got to start speaking specifics. >> he has been running for five years -- >> i get that, i get that. i understand where you're going with that. i agree he has been doing this for a long time. >> it's not like he's a new face on the national political scene. >> that's true. that's the nature of politics. you know, there are those moments where you have to reintroduce yourself. you do have to come back and let people know the other side, the rest of the story. this is what the convention opens up for him, that opportunity to do that. >> i think we spend too much time on the candidates as individuals and less on the political coalition and constituencies that they will have to deal with once they're in office. that's part of the theme of today. the platform is a document.

not waved by a magic wand into law. but he is going to helm up and be at the set of interests, a set of constituencies, those people all have desires that are bigger than what mitt romney is like when he rasles with his boys when they get home. >> mike and sofia, how are you? >> good, how are you. i think this past week was bad for mitt romney and the gop with akin and his comments. what is your sense how they will shift this back to economic issues, versus the conversation we have been having about issues of female reproductive right in this country and also how the female reproductive system works. >> you know, i live in virginia which is a battleground state and the ads have already started. i have seen more ad as about choice than i have in years.

i want your thoughts on how romney shifts this thing back to what he wants to talk about, which is economics. >> that was exactly the point i was making earlier with chris, that's what this week is about. to start to frame that argument and come out and talk about his economic plan to reorient the conversation around the economy and jobs, et cetera. the problem is that there is a lot of thickets in the way before you get to that clearing and you just touched on a few of them. of course, you know, folks now you're focusing on the tropical storm and all of that and the fact of the matter is, you at some point are going to have to narrow this conversation to clearly define where you are. you cannot, on the one hand, say, because i know a lot of folks, i'm from the base, i know the base, they don't want to hear their nominee as they produce this platform and go, oh, that's not my platform or the party chairman say, that's not his platform. that doesn't mean anything to him. they don't want to hear that. all that does is stir up more passions. >> we have this conversation

every four years. >> we have this conversation every four years about every platform. it's a sport. every time it's a platform they say this is different from what the consensus in the country is and we always talk about it and then we forget about it. at the end of the day, it is about the candidates. >> you're basically saying the entire thing is a purely cynical exercise to write things in paper -- >> i think it is a statement of what activists in the party, the consensus among activists in the party should believe should be the core of activists, conservative activists or conservative liberals. that is a different than what a conservative in the center of the country is trying to do. >> how much purchase do they have in the white house? that's the question, right? >> very little. >> do you hear that republican activists. you have very little purchase on a mitt romney presidency. i just want to get your thoughts, we have to take a quick break.

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i believe abortion should be safe and legal. >> i not only talk about prolife, i believe in being prolife. >> number two, i believe that humans contribute to that. so i think it's important for us to reduce our emissions of pollutants of greenhouse gases and they won't be significant contributors to the climate change. >> my view is that we don't know what's causing climate change on this planet. >> we do have tough gun laws in massachusetts. i support them. i won't chip away at them. i believe they help provide us and provide for our safety. >> i support the second amendment as one of the most basic and fundamental rights of every american. >> little montage of mitt romney's journey of self-discovery over the past ten years. >> getting to know himself. my favorite one, actually, is the climate one because it's only nine months to separate those two statements. we're talking about the base of the republican party and

basically who controls it and the alternating theories. i think, i think there's a lot of evidence of this, the party has moved to the right and the party has moved to the right in ways that there is ways you can track the score of house votes and also if you look at exit polling. i was pouring through exit polling last night the past few elections and ideological in the last few elections, republicans have won conservatives by large margins and they've lost and they lost moderates. self-described moderates by proportions. there has been a real shift in that. there's more self-identified conservatives and there are self-identified liberals in the country, which is why they can still lose elections, but you said something interesting before we went to the break, which is, the base is not going to be controlling things in a mitt romney --

>> the base influences things for sure. so, they influence the terms of the debate and influence the primaries and who get elected to congress and who staff an administration but there is a need to win elections and both move the debate in your direction and appeal to people in the center. so, as activists your job is to move the debate in your direction. prolife activists try to move it in a -- that's what activists do. the political, the candidates reflect how that debate changes over time. >> i think what is most noteworthy about this convention whoop the keynote speaker is, chris christie of new jersey a moderate republican, but one who overwhelmingly enjoys across the board republican support. >> i don't think he's moderate, in terms of the actions. he is not as socially conservative as other members, but, you know, there's an ideological spectrum on the ideological problems.

>> he is a social, he's -- sorry, i'm getting all tangled up. he's fiscally conservative. >> well -- >> occasionally he says tolerant things about muslims. >> to his great credit. >> we have some law language in the republican party platform. >> he is a very honest politician and i think that americans are really responding to that across the board and it's what republicans need more of. they need to be more honest. >> he's a regular guy. >> tells reporters to shut up. >> elise is calling for more honesty, but wasn't todd akin being honest? i'm serious. i'm not even making a joke. >> he said he misspoke. >> one man's honesty is another man's gaffe. and that's how it works. but, yeah, i think there's a lot of truth to the idea of being honest. in terms of addressing and dealing with these issues and, certainly, on the social side of the spectrum, you were speaking earlier and i think absolutely,

i think joan made this point and she was absolutely right. a lot of social conservatives feel when they go looking back even to the 1980s in the reagan era that they had a one-sided bargain and the idea was to come in and to, you know, vote for us, support us and we'll take care of your agenda and your issues and for 30 plus years on the particular on the prolife side, they have not seen that movement towards solving their issue. this roe versus wade, et cetera. you see now that activism taking place at the grassroots. >> but, also, we should draw a distinction between what is happening on the court and legislatively. there has been a tremendous about of victories and in the hide amendment first and the late-term abortion bill that was passed and signed. sandra day oo'connor on the issue of roe v. wade and

reexamining casey, but it doesn't mean there haven't been legislative victories on that. let's put aside for a second social conservatism. i have been on my hobby horse the entire campaign is that there's this totally false notion that the republican party stands for fiscal conservativism and you will get smaller deficits and zero imperical basis for that that we just ran the experiment in which we had the republican party control both the elected and executive, government as a percentage of gdp grew, the deficit grew massively and now we're all told that everybody had their road to damascus moment and they are walking away from this terrible years of george w. bush, a name you will never hear. and you probably won't hear once in tampa, amazingly.

and i just don't buy it. i don't buy it. what we're going to get, huge increases in defense spending and we are seeing them fight in the sequester. the draft platform of the gop my favorite line in the whole gop platform it attacks the national security strategy document as being "budget constraint." the adjective it used to insult it, budget constraint. we will not see smaller deficits. i want to hear you guys respond to that after we take a break. mm. some laxatives like dulcolax can cause cramps. but phillips' caplets don't. they have magnesium. for effective relief of occasional constipation. thanks. [ phillips' lady ] live the regular life. phillips'. [ male announcer ] sponges, take your mark! ♪ [ female announcer ] one drop of ultra dawn has twice the everyday grease-cleaning ingredients of one drop of the leading non-concentrated brand... ♪

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we're talking about the, what is the exruessential core of the republican party, i would say. fiscal conservatism and the addison yiss of the world and the base that have different abortion and social issues. but even turning our attention to fiscal conservatism

quote/unquote, i don't buy that the republican party will shrink government. i think it will change who the government benefits and run massive deficits because there is no evidence. >> the ryan budget runs deficits to 2040. if you want to give massive tax breaks to the richest people, you'll still have a deficit and even the level of spending that he is slashing which is significant and horrible doesn't get you down. not enough of those programs for poor teepal that they want to slash to make a dent in the deficit. dick cheney ultimately told the truth. now, he should have added a paraenthetical except when democrats are involved. the deficit will become, we can't care about the deficit. we have to defend the country. we've got to give these tax breaks. it will just be completely. >> here's the great question, though, i think of this debate and i hope this is what we actually talk about. the reality is social security and medicare are programs that

we have to reform or they're in trouble. social security, medicare, i don't believe will be there for gen xers and millennials. now, if i'm the republicans i'm saying look under george w. bush and he decreased deficits and spending but he would argue we had two wars he was in and that is a whole other can of worms. but i'm making the point, that's why they would say the defense spending was up. in this election, i would love to know what everyone thinks about this. there is a question on the table, who is america going to be because, let's face it, countries are growing at 10% and growing at 1%. our jobs have been shipped away. we don't have the jobs that we used to have here. this is where the real americans live and went on, i think they're both trying to talk about it, but i don't think anybody has a plan, that's how you shrink deficits. >> i'm glad you brought up

social insurance, which other people call entitlements. social security is fine, more or less. you can tweak with the margins. medicare is a genuine problem, mostly because of the rise of health care costs and you were here -- >> we were here two weeks ago and everyone was saying so great paul ryan is on the ticket and we'll jump on that and show that republicans are extreme in what is happening in the last two weeks. that's not what played out. >> what happened in the last two weeks is that paul ryan has gone out and told everyone, no, no, no, they're the ones cutting medicare, we're the defenders of medicare. that's what he's done. >> and long-term reforms that will make the program. >> yes, yes, that's in the final text. but the thing he's leading with. the thing they're leading with is, don't worry seniors of america, we will not cut the social contract for you. the point is, they want to have it both ways and this is further evidence of my thesis that they will not cut government. they will change who government benefits. >> democrats are the ones saying, paul ryan is going to push granny off a cliff, so

republicans have responded with a plan that protects current seniors and makes long-term -- >> and privatizes the program. >> sometimes we have to do something about it, my point. we can't keep having the discussions that taxing one group of people and not taxing others and we can't believe we're going to tax our way out of this. we're not going to tax our wait out of this economic problem in this country. >> need to have a debate and this is what we're doing, but, also, ask yourself, am i better off than when obama came into office. what has government done for me? i feel like his rhetoric, his class warfare rhetoric is really damaging. >> one fat cat comment. >> how about the private jets a couple summers ago, that sent the jet industry tanking. >> can i just establish a fact that is important for this whole debate? taxes as a percentage of gdp.

taxes is a percentage of gdp on the federal level is at a 60-year low. the last time they were this low was in eisenhower. >> because of the poor economy. >> not just because of the poor economy. no, both, it's a combination of both. it's both the fact that we had a succession. >> less people pay taxes. 50% of the people in this country almost don't pay taxes. >> of course, they pay taxes. they pay payroll taxes. sure, it's still taxes. >> you know why we do that? you know why we have the earned income tax credit? this is what is wrong with the republican party. that was a republican idea. gerled ford signed it into law. milton friedman's idea. now, it's not a good idea. your party is committed to slashing it. you pushed women into the workforce and we slashed welfare and we will have the earned income tax credit and we will encourage work. >> what is wrong with women in the workforce? >> it's terrific. we slashed the welfare roles and

we raised the earned income tax credit. it's a good thing that we raised the earned income tax credit and now your party wants to come and snatch that back, we snatched the welfare and we said, take these low-wanl jobs and we'll help you out with the earned income tax credit. you get it because you're at a low-wage job -- >> they're going to -- >> i know that you have a good heart, sophie. when you say that -- when you say we only half people don't pay taxes, that's part of what you're talking about. i really think that is your party's idea. you should embrace it. >> you're saying the earned income tax bracket. the ryan budget is also going to cut food stamps and reduce medicaid quite significantly. >> who wants to cut food stamps when one in six people are in poverty. >> thank you for coming in, we really appreciate it. we'll bring in cory robin and,

michael, i'm sorry, i didn't go to you via satellite the whole time. but i want you to stick around because i want to talk about the future of the republican party in a nation that's changing demgraphically after we take this break. >> sure. s. afternoon's overhaul starts with more pain. more pills. triple checking hydraulics. the evening brings more pain. so, back to more pills. almost done, when... hang on. stan's doctor recommended aleve. it can keep pain away all day with fewer pills than tylenol. this is rudy. who switched to aleve. and two pills for a day free of pain. ♪ [ female announcer ] and try aleve for relief from tough headaches. 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

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plus you can use four times less versus the leading value brand. don't worry, there's plenty left for you dad. we all go. why not enjoy the go with charmin ultra soft? . want to bring cory robin to the table at the university of new york, author of fantastic book "reactionary mind." cory, great to have you back here. >> thanks for having me. >> michael, here's what i want to talk about. the country is changing demgraphically, obviously, in its racial composition. i think this is a well-known fact. the census projection is the country will be essentially only 50% white by mid-century. i want to show a chart of the racial breakdown of the delegates of the rnc in 2008. we don't have this breakdown yet for this year, otherwise we'd show it. 93% white, 5% hispanic.

this is the institutional nature of the party. that's not necessarily if you look at exit polls the way things break down. the institutional nature of the party, although republicans are polling at about 0% in the presidential election among african-americans and down in the neighborhood of 20% among latinos and hispanics around what mccain was. when you see that chart, is that concern for you? >> oh, my goodness, yes. absolutely. the fact of the matter is, i mean, i remember the 2008 convention and walking around the floor and counting 36 african-americans present. so, that is not the future of our party. because it's not been our past and what annoys the heck out of me is the fact that we forget our past. we have something from which to build and on which and the whole cross section of people who do

for a whole host of reason identify philosophically with our ideas that sofia was talking about on economics, for example. that is an opportunity lost when we get in the muck and meyer of one dimensional politics. when it is zero sum attitude towards communities, it's not helpful. as chairman of the party, i try to break that down. created a department of coalition and funded it to a tune of $1 million a year. we built coalitions a around the country with the idea of reaching out. i hate that term, per se, but the idea was to touch people and be with them where they are and we had some success with that. i think that is not been, of course, since i left, but it needs it be, otherwise, in five years, folks, we go the way of the wigs. we become a party that is an absolute minority with no coalition to rely on for support nationally or locally. we'll be dead to the electorate.

>> the shocking thing, our old friend pat buchanan says the whole country is going away and the republican party is disappearing. but he had a playbook for 2012 and maybe 2016 where you just double down on that white vote. you try to make the electorate look the way it looked in 2010, not in 2008. you keep the young and minorities away from the ballot box. look, i'm a democrat, on some level it's all fine with me and my party is going to do better because of what this party is doing. on the other hand, i think it's really tragic. coming of age politically in the '80s and '90s a real debate about where the growing latino and asian population were going to wind up. good reason to think latinos might listen to the republican party family values asian immigrants were coming from communist countries and they were very hostile to government. they were not necessarily won over to the democrats but driven

away. even this year, you know, that awful ad debbie spend it now with the woman speaking pigeon in the c-- the common racism tht flares up drives people away. >> how republicans need to reach out more, et cetera. it's true that republicans should reach out more, but two sides to this coin. every republican is racist, every republican, devolving government -- >> who says, what democrat in national politics. i may have heard that in a campus meeting that free markets are racist, but national democrat free market program. >> it's the down stream logic of cutting taxes is racist, having more free market. >> yes, michael. >> can i just address that because that, you know, with all due respect and i really, this

disrupts me when i hear that. i don't have time to worry about what thuter g the other guy is about me when i'm doing my job. you can talk all day long about markicist and racist because black people will know from me how i feel about them. the problem is, they don't, they don't know that. >> where want to back fill the history here and, cory, i want to get your take. there is an amazing little clip of kevin philips articulating this very important strategic decision that the party made. i want to take a look at that and cory i want to get your thoughts right after we take this break. why not use all your vacation days this year? get points you can easily redeem for your vacations, with chase sapphire preferred.

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>> white voters in the south -- am i on? okay, good. cory, i wanted to get your thoughts on this because it fits into the broader framework that

you talk about as backlash politics all the way book to burke. >> with all due respect to michael steele, very hard for the republican party to reach out to african-americans and other voters because it's part of its dna going back to the 1960s to reverse attack, stall whatever verb you want to use the civil rights movement. that is how it became a majority party. a lot of times people think it was the backlash against roe v. wade. that's not true. the whole assault preroe v. wade was all about activist courts and it's, like i say, it's part of the dna and part of the code of the party. you just don't get rid of that with the fundamental overhaul and i just don't see that happening. it's telling that the party has to revert back to 1860 and abraham lincoln. if you have to reach back a

century and a half, that's a sign of a problem. >> can i say this? the gop to 1860 to 1870 was the best party america ever had. just so that's clear. >> try running on that as a platform. >> oh, obviously. >> i would be remiss if i did not say, however, it was democrats, southern democrats fled the democratic party because of the civil rights issue and became people like trent lott -- >> and republicans. >> so, the republican party i'm seeing, it flipped personalities because democrats came over. let me just be clear about that. >> the southern whi-- >> that's just a historical fact and what's amazing about our politics when i'm reading eric's book on reconstruction right now. here's the 1860 republican platform adopted by the national

convention in chicago. parties opposed to any change in naturalization laws and the rights of citizenship to immigrants from foreign land in favor of giving a full and efficient prediction to the rights of all classes of citizens republican party 1860. more on the future of the republican party when we come back. reat taste of untopped triscuit, register your complaint online [ screams ] for a free box. oh. [ male announcer ] 100% whole grain woven for an untoppable taste. [ crunch ]

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for an erection lasting more than four hours. stop taking viagra and call your doctor right away if you experience a sudden decrease or loss in vision or hearing. this is the age of taking action. viagra. talk to your doctor. well, from new york i'm chris hayes. with me i have avik roy and cory robin, author of "reactionary mind" and sofia nelson, author of "black women redefined discovering fulfillment in the age of michelle obama." we're talking about the core of the modern gop idelogically in

terms of what coalition of interest it is and the demographic foundation is and we're talking about race and the ethnic and racial composition of the party and the fact that, you know, the defining feature of american politics for a long time, obviously, was essentially the legacy of the civil war and the parties, the modern two-party system as it was created was created when the republicans displaced on the abolitionist, as part of the abolitionist movement and in the wake of that, two parties, republicans and democrats. we had that more or less since the civil war with progressive party and those have been the two major parties and they have essentially switched entirely in terms of racial composition and the democratic party was a white supremacist party in the wake of reconstruction and started to change in many ways. the coalition was a dexterous ballet act between getting a people into a coalition, some

who hated each other. the southern strategy. i just want to cue up. this is kevin philips who is one of the masterminds of what we call, republican strategist for nixon, 1976 and he is talking about his vision for the future of the republican party, take a look. >> everybody knows about the division of the north and the south, school boys learn that georgia and vermont were democratic. >> would you describe what you call the sun belt. >> the sunbelt is a demographic and political phenomenon which has become extremely important since world war ii. basically a function of a large migration of the american population and a growth of a technological middle class very mobile culture. >> philips also cites figures showing voters are declining in importance. he doesn't think the republican future lies in the big decaying cities but the suburbs and the smaller towns. as for the black voters, philips

say they may begin using the democratic party in his phrase, the way the irish used it to pull themselves up by their own boot straps. as a republican, he does not see a place for blacks in his party. >> that last sentence is pretty intense. joan, you basically had just written a book about this moment in american politics and what is your understanding of how this transformation happened? >> well, it's really interesting because the other part of what kevin philips winds up saying, although he says the cities don't matter in that interview -- >> the big decaying cities. >> he's from the bronx, he's a bronx boy. so, he really has a lot of insight into what he calls the lawrence welk masses which was my family and really inunderstands the catholic sidewalks of new york were also part of the southern strategy, he had a northern strategy and he saw that the northern white

catholic ethnics were really coming to identify the democrats as the party of black people and there were a lot, he and pat buchanan convinced nixon there was a lot they could gain in the north, as well as the south. a northern component that was every much as devastating to the democratic party. >> a large part of that has to do getting back to the backlash theory. the civil rights movement move north. >> absolutely. dr. king goes to chicago and says that people in mississippi ought to go there to learn how to hate. he's pelted with rocks and children are out there screaming curses. so, horrible things went on in the north. the other thing that i think liberals sometimes forget is that it wasn't all racism. there was a lot of civil disorder, the crime did go up and urban riots scared people. i think it's important to talk about the sense of social unraveling that happened that people like kevin philips and pat buchanan were very smart on

blaming on democrats and that it wasn't all racism. in my book, i look at the fact that my father stayed the course but my mom who voted for jfk got more fond of richard nixon because her brothers one was a cop and one was a firefighter. they were going into that decaying, dirty city that was going up in flames and she was afraid. i would never say she was racist. her big claim to fame, well, you'll love this, jackie robinson was a republican and sammy davis jr. loved nixon. she thought she had permission on civil rights ground to vote for nixon. >> you bring up an interesting issue which is the law and order issue which was so central in alliance with the racial issue in 1968 to the rise of the republican party. i spent last night reading the parts of the republican party draft platform that are available on the web and what was most interesting to me in that entire document that i managed to read was the section on law and order was this was

the blood and the guts of the rise of the modern conservative movement. it really drove things. if you read the document today, it could have been written by the sorus institute. it is so bland, so bloodless. >> this is progress, though, isn't it? you say it sort of -- >> no, but my point being is that it shows you the diminishing power of those republican -- >> i want to disagree with that because we have matt drudge and rush limbaugh and race war over there. >> the question is, how far can they take it, though? >> the drudge report -- >> the question is they wrote that as a majority party. the question is whether or not it is now echo -- >> law and order was a legitimate republican policy problem. so, the success we've had in the last 20 years of dealing with the crime problem has helped blacks and minorities more than anybody. good thing it helps minorities. >> i'm thought debating whether it's good or bad, my point was

this is such a salient issue and it works -- >> can i say two things as intervention. michael, i want to get your response to this. is it mass incarceration is now a legitimate social policy issue and disproportionately affects people of color. legitimate policy issues and democrats have not been great on mass incarceration. they voted for a lot of bills that increased mandatory sentencing, et cetera, et cetera. i went back and read goldwater address and extremism -- >> in defense of liberties and defense of justice is no virtue and i read that last night. it's fascinating. the two issues that are the pillars of it law and order and that is not -- there is no real anti -- let's look at barry goldwater and i will say this before we throw to barry goldwater. independent of its racial subtext. the fact of the matter is, it

was both a legitimate issue and also with a candidate who was imposing the civil rights act, there was a taint there from its beginning. here's barry goldwater in '64 with that famous call. >> republicanism so focused and so dedicated not be made fuzzy and futile by unthinking and stupid labels. i would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. and let me remind you, also, that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue. >> michael, what's your sense of the effect of the kind of, the southern strategy, these 30 years later and how the party pivots away from the legacy of that, if that is the idea in terms of producing a more diverse party? >> well, i'll be very clear about it. when i became chairman the day i

accepted the vote, i declared very emphatically that the southern strategy was officially dead. that the party would shake that dust from its heels and move forward in a new direction focused on different things. and new communities of people. and that, i think, has been, should be the broader push here. jeb bush, for example, i think in recent weeks and i know he's on "meet the press" today and has said very directly that the future of this party is not hunkering down and cowering in a corner, but being bold and accepting that the old strategies will no longer work for us. our demographics are shifting. internally, even within the party, you have people that silent majority now has and should come forward and speak to those better angels, if you will, that look at diversity as something that is not a vice, but it is, in fact, a virtue for

this party. and i think it's a very important step before us. to corey's point earlier, i would agree with you, this is a long, hard road that you cannot undo 40 years of craziness. however, you can take that baby step. the problem with it right now, it refuses to take that baby step. it is comfortable in the zone that it is. mine is national chairman at the time and it remains as republican. they are not running me out of this party because they don't like me. deal with me, baby, i'm not going anywhere. this is something i freely chose at 17 years old to be a part of because i believed in those virtus and those values that my mama taught me that had no label on them. i decided to put a philosophical and republican label on it and call them republican because that's been our root. i think we have an opportunity here with the jeb bushes of the world going forward to really speak a new language. we have to get through some storms. we have to take those baby steps, but they're important steps for this party to take, if

we want to survive what lies ahead. >> michael steele i cannot help but note that your prescription for fresh blood is jeb bush. i don't know what that means whether he's a republican party -- maybe we can reanimate the corps of prescott. >> i get what you're trying to say with that. but listen to what the man is saying. don't just be so generic. listen to what he's saying. >> i am just being snarky. >> i know you are, that's why -- >> thank you for joining us, really, really enjoyed it. >> thank you. more on backlash politics and i'll hear from you right after we take a break. vide better employee benefits while balancing the company's bottom line, their very first word was... [ to the tune of "lullaby and good night" ] ♪ af-lac ♪ aflac [ male announcer ] find out more at... [ duck ] aflac! [ male announcer ] ...forbusiness.com. [ yawning sound ]

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sofia nelson, we had to say

good-bye to michael steele and building a republican party that is multi-ethnic. >> two points i want to make. one, michael steele was that first step. disclaimer, michael and i were friends for 20 years and we grew up in the republican party when it was different. when george herbert walker bush was president, a much different climate around racial politics than there is now in the republican party. so, michael steele was undercut and this was my position. very successful as a chairman. he won the 2010 midterm elections. the biggest walloping of the democrats since the '40s and the guy gets run out on a rail, frankly. there weren't people that didn't like he wanted to change things. why is that important? let's put this in context. we were talking off camera about other issues of importance in this country. republicans can't even engage in this dialogue because they're afraid of being called racist. the reason they're afraid of

being called racist they don't have anybody that looks like me, you can't trot out condoleezza rice and others when it is convenient for you at the convention every four years and not have them in the party. who is advising mitt romney who is a high-ranking atalking to hm about issues that matter to people of color in this country. you must have people who reflect the diversity of this culture and they don't have it. on incarceration issues, what are they going to say? if i'm mitt romney i'll afraid to talk about the high number of african-americans. he goes to the naacp and he gets booed. >> let's remember george romney, his father, marched in the civil rights movement. >> that he did. >> i think the romney family has plenty of street cred. >> but continue the story, continue the story of george romney, that was essentially the moment in which he broke from the republican party precisely over that. if i'm not mistaken, he doesn't

attend the '64 convention -- >> he walks out. >> he attends and he walks out precisely over the opposition of the civil rights act. >> didn't walk out of the republican party. >> i want to shift back to what you were talking about before i came on. fiscal matters. a different story that needs to be confronted for the democrats. how we switched from the democrats to being a white supremacist party to the party of civil rights. another fundamental switch throughout the two parties. the republicans were the party of balance budgets, worries about deficits and the democrats are the party of tax and spend and in the '70s the republicans conservative activists came to the realization that pushing on deficits was just not going to do anything. all they were doing, basically, being the tax collector of the welfare state. they came up with the strategy, star of the beast. john kenneth who first saw what was up with that strategy back in the '60s and basically the

strategy was just cut taxes and that will force a cut on spending. it hasn't happened with the republicans. they haven't been able to cut spending. what has happened, however, the democrats take on the responsibilities for austerity. that's a problem for the democrats because they, essentially, it's before the republicans were the tax collectors for the welfare state and now the democrats are the astairians for the tax cut state. this is -- and the democrats are the caretakers of this and so long as we are stuck in that pattern, the democrats will never be able to break out of the consensus. they will always just be the responsible, you know, big parent. >> i mean, and when you look at the recent history, right, you get huge deficits and big deficits under the reagan bush years although george h.w. bush does spell his political demise and signs this bill because of raising taxes and, obviously, bill clinton's first priority is to balance the budget. >> and then when obama passes

health care and all the rest of it. >> the first budget doesn't get no republican vote. >> when obama comes in and starts pushing for things like health care, you know, the fundamental thing it has to be a balanced budget thing. that's a fundamental shift on the part of the democratic party and it puts a real constraint on the kind of social policies. it means the democratic party is essentially an eisenhower party and it will never move forward in terms of agenda, so long as that remains the case. >> i read about this in the book. barack obama goes in front of the cameras and essentially brags that he has reduced, he has reduced spending. >> but at the modern conservative movement they realized we are on a losing streak. we have to break out and they did and they created a new majority. the democratic party is going to have to do the same thing. >> let me say this, nothing points us home more than the way the aftermath of the sequester

is being dealt with. debt party ceiling, they lock them selves into this deal, which is if we can't come up with the supercommittee, then each of us will experience cuts from things that we hold dear, the democrats and nondefense discretionary funding and for republicans it's defense spending. now, the supercommittee didn't work and we're now headed towards the sequester and what do you see? one party is very vocally and a long section in the draft platform getting out of the sequester. not only getting out of the sequester, this was the deal made to make sure that people cut spending to get to a balanced budget. they are in the platform and john mccain is going on the sunday shows talking about it, et cetera. total asymmetry. you do not see democrats running around. >> it was predictable from the get go when they signed that deal. you could have just seen the writing on the wall and they did it and now we're exactly in that spot and it's going to affect the democrats in terms of,

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ask your doctor if lunesta is right for you. then find out how to get lunesta for as low as $15 at lunesta.com. there's a land of restful sleep. we can help you go there on the wings of lunesta. here are some fun facts about the city you'll be hearing for the next week as the republicans hold their convention there. second in the nation for pedestrian deaths. the commuting the worst among the 60th largest metro areas and according to one magazine, the fourth saddest city in america. a recent article in salon.com america's hottest mess. low levels of walkability, heavy reliance on automobile transport and this kind of landscape is a fitting setting because tampa itself, like other cities that voted democratic, smaller

suburban centers like tampa make a up the spatial foundation of the republican party. of all the political divides in the country, a few more potent. one look at the county electoral map from 2008 makes very clear. a sharp political divide by outer ring suburbs that vote highly democratic turn sprawl and land use into culture war proxies. one theme the rnc chose for the convention is, we built this in a stadium built with taxpayer funds. rick scott turned down over $2 billion in federal money for a high-speed light rail. transportation policy means technocratic but a highly polarized issue, a symbol of left wing collectism and planning and on freedom loving suburbanites. here's stanley kurtz speaking with lou dobbs on fox business about urbanism. >> it's an all-out attack on

suburbs. >> lou, i was surprised myself and i have written about obama's past, but what i discovered is barack obama wants to appallish america's suburbs. that might sound hard to believe, but for nearly two decades barack obama has been a huge supporter of a movement whose goal is to have city governments swallow up and control suburban governments. the idea here is to have cities somehow get a hold of suburban tax money. ultimately, president obama wants to redistribute the wealth of the suburbs to the cities. >> for the land use and regional planning policy section of the show, joining us now -- that's a way to really tease a tv segment windle cox, a senior fellow at the hartland institute and former director of public policy for the american legislative exchange council and now a public transportation consultant and michael bell and fopro-fessor fopro-feprofessor

and showcasing his work on cities, including a plan for a development in tampa, florida. let's start at the level of the most abstract level before we get am to land use and regional revenue sharing and things like that. it does seem to me there is a culture war overlay about suburbanism and urbanism and at some level it's a kind of preference thing. people of a liberal coheart and having auto dependent development is good. i want to play this clip of a fox, a fox segment about your redevelopment. >> i was wondering if i could bring that up, but you have. >> you did this exhibit. the idea behind it, it was a kind of commissioning a bunch of

architects to think of redeveloping spaces which has created vacancy and opportunities for new use to push in a more urbanist, high density, walkable commission and you had one of the projects and it's in tampa and this is how it was described on fox. fox business. >> this exhibit is from the elites, telling us how we should live. we should all live in cities and if we don't live in cities, we should turn our suburbs into cities. that's the way we should live. isn't that the elites going at us and telling us how we are mere mortals. what is wrong with you? why are you such an elitist? >> the first thing that was really brilliant today in terms of getting at this kind of artificially created culture war, people weren't seeing it this way in this suburbanization issue, there are artificial divides that are producing this

kind of situation. low-income housing has been made like market rate housing. kind of the same technique with tax crediting meaning how it is built. what is going on with all of this is that cities, suburbs, inner ring, all getting built through the same financial mechanisms and the divide of who is elite and who's not. to answer you more directly, i think it's artificial. to answer it more directly, where what we have is 50 years of suburbanization that is reaching the end of its rein and everybody knows it and i think, so, whether you're elite or whatever you are, somebody is going to get involved in redesigning. >> please respond. >> one of the big problems with the whole movement at the moment so much focus on the central city. i admire a lot of the new urb urbanist designs and i spent a lot of time living in paris. but the fact new york starts at new brunswick in terms of the

urban area goes from new haven down to ocean county. now, the point is that the city is much bigger than the intention that is being given to it at this point. we need to understand, this talk about tampa. tampa is fairly normal. it is right in the middle. and we need to understand this whole idea of sprawl. what is sprawl? nothing more than the organic, natural expansion of the city in relation to population growth so that, very quickly finish, that we have sprawl everywhere in the world except singapore and hong kong where it is not possible because the land is already used. so, for example, 100% of the growth in urban metropolitan areas have been in suburbs, not central cities. >> it's not organic. we can argue a about that. it's not organic, subsidized by fha loans and -- >> there's no fha --

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want to bring in tampa's mayor bob. where the things stand with the city's preparations for tropical storm isaac. >> we're in full preparation. we're implementing any plans we need to implement. as floridians, chris, we deal with this all the time. this is nothing new to us. this is a minor distraction as it relates to the rnc. what we have prepped our vit citizens to do what they normally do. we have sandbags available, if necessary, but we don't think but for some wind tomorrow and some rain, there will be no tidal surge of any significance. this convention, even though it was delayed a day, which was the right decision, i might add. it will go forward and great event for tampa and the convention. >> that's great to hear.

i would like your perspective from the mayor of the city of tampa. you had some initiatives that are pushing in a kind of, in the way of a lot of the downtown revitalization we've seen over the last 10 or 15 years trying to create a life for the downtown urban core of the city after work hours, et cetera. some public investment in that respect. why are you pursuing that envision and how have you found the politics of that in tampa and the county around you, hillsborough. >> it only makes sense, chris. if my two daughters come home to tampa, florida, some day and i am able to compete for the best and brightest from all around the country, intellectual capital is mobile. they will choose to live wherever they want to live. they are not going to be tied to a location based on a steel plant or an automobile plant. that intellectual capital is mobile. those young people either here in this community or looking to relocate from somewhere else want a city that is hip, cool,

diverse, welcoming and opportunities for them to do whatever it is that they want to do. if they want to write code all day and skateboard all night, we have that is flexible for them. for me -- >> i didn't want to cut you off. thaths a perfect summary of richard thesis. >> it is, chris, but it's reality. i see the patterns and i see who is moving back into our downtowns and the types of people who are coming and i see what they want in terms of retail, in terms of amenities and in terms of opportunities to exercise. downtown is where they want to be. i'm not trying to master plan the world, i'm just a mayor. i don't care if folks want to move to the suburbs or not, i think we need those choices. but the economic engines, certainly in florida are always going to be the urban areas and we need to create an environment that encourages that type of growth. >> wendell, please. >> i think we all need to be

careful about the creative class things and richard florida, good researcher, had a lot of respect for him, but a very small percentage of the people. let me suggest -- >> let me just quickly lay out the thesis. >> it's sort of as the mayor indicated, the hip, cool cities that will attract the people and all that. the history of urbanization is the attraction because of jobs and economic growth. >> exactly. >> cities do not grow because of fountains and designs. and let me just very quickly defend tampa. tampa, we have been told, is one of the worst places on earth this morning. the fact is, traffic congestion is less than average in tampa, the journey to work trip is less than average in tampa and, by the way, after adjustment for costs, per capita income in tampa is almost as high as new york. finally -- >> you're saying because the real estate is so much cheaper. >> because everything is cheaper. but the final point is, in the

2,000, 2,080 people who moved to tampa from the rest of the country -- >> if tampa is so, if this kind kind of landscape that we're describing and if tampa itself is so desirable, mayor, why, why are you bringing your socialist agenda to change it? >> well, you know, i've been accused of plotting this hurricane because i'm a democrat and now i'm being accused of a socialist agenda. i am neither. i wish i had that much power. but, wendell, thank you for that clarification. that interpretation of this great city was totally off base. it is a wonderful place to live. i'm not trying to engineer any social trends. i'm just trying to create an environment where those jobs of the future, where we can change tampa's economic dna because florida has been driven by real estate for years. it is not a sustainable economy. we have to transition from that

mentality to create those value added jobs that will attract the creative class that wants to live in the urban areas. it's not about fountains, it's about opportunities. i'm trying to create an environment where they will help us pay for those fountains. >> a political divide, a cultural divide in the ways that we think of red and blue in this country and who lives in dense, walkable san francisco and who lives at the farthest reaches of the atlanta metro area and also this cost issue. dense, urban walkable areas are more expensive and getting more so. that is part of the issue. are the costs right now of living in a place like tampa and a place like new york are they constructed by the social policy we have? michael, want you to address that right after we take this break. why should saturday night have all the fun? get two times the points on dining in restaurants,

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♪ we live a life that is downright grand ♪ ♪ a world that has all been planned ♪ ♪ tampa st. petersburg tampa st. petersburg ♪ that's a 1970s promotional video for the town of tampa and i wanted to match my tongue in cheek. >> i know a lot of people who say, i want to live in, in say washington, d.c., inside the urban core of the city that is dense and walkable and people end up living, primarily school and costs are the two big reasons. are the costs that we have the right costs? are we getting the prices right? natural outgrowth of the market

or social policy that is making those costs what it is, michael? >> i think it is all of these things. let me turn this down. people spending 50% of their gross income on housing and transportation. the questions of costs can vary. people in new york city probably have a higher income. what i was trying to get at earlier is regardless of tampa versus new york or boston versus san francisco, et cetera, santa monica or glendale, et cetera, all of these things are a prototype and reality when it became a reality that was highly, highly engineered, not in some mischievous but it is a set of financial protocols over the history of building this country that had a structure and i think cost, et cetera, is now all in there. cities like new york, of course, global cities, los angeles, they have incomes, et cetera, they

have real estate prices that are global and local and that's not necessarily true for tampa. that is going to be a crisis in the future as cities that are attractive for work on a global level and we see this now, new york is part of a constellation of global cities more than perhaps related to upstate new york, which we all know. >> we need to understand the differences in housing costs in this country are largely related to regulation. okay. we have very strong in new york area, los angeles area, the boston washington area and portland, seattle. their prices have gone up relative to incomes. where we do not have the strong, very much favored smart growth regulations in places like dallas, indianapolis, et cetera, you have housing prices that are at their historical norms which all of these other places were until they got this regulation. >> but the regulation, i mean, in the case of washington, d.c., for instance, the limit on

building signs, right? that artificially creates -- >> i'm talking metropolitan area and loudoun county which won't allow building on the fringe. when you draw a line around the city like it has happened in london or portland, you force prices up and less discretionary income for households. >> i kind of want to try to find, i feel like it becomes yes or no to things. what i was trying to get at earlier at the brief conversation on site, when the derivative markets started clat s a colat rising money. they had no faith in the vehicle holding the debt, meaning housing. >> they were trying to get in and get out. tampa bay, bob buckner, i'll give you the last word on where you see tampa 20 years from now? >> i see tampa the city that will lead florida out of the recession. we're not competing with chicago, new york and l.a.

we're competing with other technology-driven communities. south of atlanta, tampa is the economic engine that drives the southeast. >> i'll be looking forward to the 2012 version of that video we just played. bob buckhorn, thank you for your time, i appreciate it. what we should know for the news week ahead, when we come back. ncer ] after years of celebrations, marie callender's gives you a way to make any day a special occasion. new mini cream pies for one. real whip cream and a cookie-crumb crust. marie callender's. it's time to savor.

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so what should you know for the week coming up? as republicans flock to the republican national convention in florida, they decided one of the themes is we built this. a swipe about president obama about the way good governance curbed personal business success. the stadium which they host their we built this theme was built in 1996 with, you guessed

it, government money. $86 million, 62% of the total was government funds. we built it is actually the taxpayers of florida. massive money for profitable sports franchises are a national scandal, and the party of we built this at national, state and local levels all too happy to appropriate government funds to aid private business. former governor mike huckabee, scheduled to address the convention this week, and we don't know whether that's still the case. convention is delayed until tuesday. huckabee is the most high-profile republicans to embattle behind todd akin after his comments about weem being incapable of conceiving if they were victims of "legitimate rape." the an if i abortion luhuckabee accused the anti republican as

goons. as governor of arkansas, huckabee headed up the state's health department named faye boosma boosman. you should know huckabee is leading social conservatives into an open revolt over the handling of the akin issue. this week could be interesting. i will be part of the live coverage of the national convention. tuesday through thursday from 7:00 p.m. until midnight. lawrence o'donnell and a whole bunch of others will be part of coverage as well. tune in. there will be a whole lot to talk about. want to find out what my guests think? we will begin with you, mr. roy? >> what you will find out this week at the convention, governors like bobby jindal,

marco rubio, these are the rising stars and names you will hear a lot of like paul ryan 2016, 2024. this is the first time we see these people at the height of their political prominence. >> and marco rubio giving the speech just before mitt romney on thursday night if that doesn't change. joan walsh. >> you should thank the republican party is about 90% white, but our panelists showed us there may be a different kind of future. we ended with mitt romney descending as a joke. and it will be interesting to see if we hope we will see and michael steele tells us we need to see will be on display. we'll have to find out. >> it will be interesting to see how that works out. we talked a little bit about the birther comment yesterday what is the reaction to that? >> i think it was a joke. i don't know if i would have made it, but i think there is a

double standard, where if republicans -- obama made a lot of jokes about this too. >> but let's say that. if barack obama got up and made a joke about magic underwear, absolutely and rightly pilaried. wendell cox. >> let me take the perspective a little bit longer there is a week after next week and we need to recognize over the next couple of decades the importance of allowing cities to continue to expand and allow housing to be built that people want. the basic problem is this. if we continue to draw lines around cities like in portland, london, vancouver, other places, will we force the price of housing so high, as we have already that future generations won't have the discretionary incomes they need to live better than we are. and when you think about the terrible difficulties we have with respect to the budget deficit and with respect to paying public employee pensions, it is going to be tough. and we do not need to be

increasing the cost of anything. >> let me say this, though. the experience of the housing bubble is the opposite. i did a lot of reporting on this in chicago, and there was no developing line. simultaneously lots of housing was being account and housing prices going up. in fact, the housing was being built precisely because people were making a bet that housing prices would go up. they work to reinforce each other. >> the largest housing price increase is where the regulation was the worst in coastal california, in oregon, washington, and in florida which is now, thank god, repealed its smart growth law. the suburbs of chicago have very strong, comprehensive regional planning. the problem is -- >> not westbound i-80. >> when you say you can only build here, you force prices up. >> michael bell. >> i think the big issue for me, and i think reading the laws more carefully, understanding

them, not just listening to the convention. read the 1998 quality work and housing responsibility act, download and read it rather than listening to the republic or democratic agenda, the language is unbelievably accessible and incredibly interesting. >> we'll put it on the website. let's thank avik roy, joan walsh, wendall cox and michael bell, thank you, all and thank you for joining us. we'll be back next weekend, saturday and sunday at 8:00 eastern with our coverage of the republican national convention and preview the national convention. our guests, david sorotos, about one-newspaper towns and melissa harris-perry up next. how do you redefine a man running a president for six years? and republican while black. may not happen o, but it does

happen. and the shadow party? melissa harris-perry, up next. i'll see you tuesday night start age ing at 7:00 eastern for republican national convention coverage. see you next week, here on "up." 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 should not 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.

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