this is msnbc's continuing coverage of the republican national convention in tampa, florida. that, of course, is the keynote address for the convention, new jersey's governor chris christie. i am desperate will tore chris matthews response to this. chris, i'll throw it out to you. i am a fan of chris christie as an orator. i want people to pay attention to politics, to i like that about him, but this speech not

only was a bad speech, i think this was one of the most remarkable acts of political selfishness. this was a 2,600-wort speech in which he used nearly 1800 of those words before he first said "mitt romney" and as soon as he did, he went back to talking about himself for hundreds more words. this was chris christie accepting the nomination of the republican party for 2016, because mitt romney wasn't even interesting to talk about in the keynote address. the guest speeches tonight, the best speech parts were not about the presidential nominee of the party as of tonight. kasich's speech, the best part were about ohio and what he

accomplished there. the best parts of santorum's speech was about his family, and a difficult birth and different childbirth for his daughter. i have to disagree with the quality of the speech. i think most pros will say that was a barnburner we just heard from chris christie. i thought it was a great speech with a touch of churchill in it, but it didn't have a touch of romney in it. i still go back to something that may sound painful, but i saw a candidate for president wheeled out as if he was a statue in the hall of presidents in nearby orlando. he did not even seem like a human being, and i thought john sununu was going, and romney was not moved by it. he's a hard candidate to sell. i agree with you about that, rachel. the best parts of the rhetoric, i disagree with you, i guess, on this fellow from jersey.

had nothing to do with the nomination of romney. they haven't warmed them up. by the way, i don't even think his wife warmed him up, because i think it's too hard to do. howard fineman is sitting with me. i would love to hear howard's take and steve smith's take, and we should hear from reverend al sharpton. i'm prepared to be talked out of my opinion this was not a good speech, but i think we are in great what the republican party did was make their case for the bench, if not the team on the field, the team that might be on the field in four years. but let's go to howard. >> i have to agree with chris, i was in the texas delegation, that's why i'm wearing my texas pin. even though romney is not much of a presence, the romney group

tried to centralize power, and even the romney people in texas were furious at him for that power grab. to me that is sort of emblematic of what's going on here. a grass-roots party sitting there in the hall that is somehow disconnected from the guy they're about to nominate. i think that was evidence on the floor tonight and evident in the speech tonight. i'll say one other thing about chris christie's speech. i thought it was touch and aggressive toward the party. it was a touch speech, but it was nasty and mean in tone, which might be nine for chris christie and make him feel good, and might score some points for the base, but does nothing for what chris was saying the main convention of this convention has to be, to tell us who mitt romney is and why he would be a better steward of the economy. open him up, talk about him, explain him.

this speech none of that tonight. i think even ann romney's speech never used the aneck dote or line or moment we didn't know about that somehow was refus revelation torrie -- that makes he think he might have the values and character to be something more than a spreadsheet mr. fix-it. that's what they need to do here. i don't think they did it tonight at all. >> steve, let me brings you into this. you want earlier the key issue was talking to people who are otherwise not persuaded. this should not be entertainment for the base, this should be talking to the few americans who don't know who they're going to vote for, or don't know if they will bother to vote. did you hear any more of that? >> i disagree with howard and chris on the ann romney speech. i thought she did a great speech. i thought the presentation was tremendous. i think she's done more in the 20 minutes when she spoke to

give human dimensions to mitt romney than knit other person has done over the course of the campaign. when you look at these conventions, you look at a theme to build over the four nights or in this case, like the convention, four years ago over three nights, and then it's wrapped up, of course, in the most important speech of the week, the nominating address that mitt romney will give. so far on the first night of the convention there's been no unifying theme that's identifiable. you heard nikki haley talk about south carolina, you heard references to ohio, as chris pointed out, you heard the best parts of rick santorum's speech being about rick santorum and his family life. >> almost his own campaign to it. >> there's been a total lack of focus on fleshing out who mitt romney is and what his plan to turn the country around is, which i think is the critical bar that republicans have to get over. i think the chris christie speech, i would disagree with

howard, i don't think it came across as mean. i think it was a barnburner speech. i think he's a tremendous political performer, but again it lacked the unifying theme, the argument that you're trying to make about mitt romney out to the persuadable universe of voters. >> i will say on my disliking the christie peach, i was prepared to like it, i enjoy his speaking style. i follow him along in a way that elicits humor. i thought maybe he'll be funny, the 23irs funny thing all night, and i didn't follow the plot. i didn't see any further humor in it, and i think it fell flat. i wanted that barn to be burned. i want to go to lawrence o'donnell, who is in the hall for the speech, and could tell us again a bit more about what it's like there. >> reporter: rachel, i agree with you, i have seen chris

christie give better speeches. i expected a better performance out of him. one key thing is after he stopped talking about his mother early in the speech, he never smiled again. they should have put a big smile up on his camera out there, out on the end of the teleprompter, because a lot of the rhetoric he was closing with was reagan-style soaring rhetoric about america. it was delivered with a very grim and angry face. in the two speeches we just saw there were only two government programs mentioned, one was the abigail adame scholarships in massachusetts that she's very proud that her husband helped create while as governor. those are scholarships of government money to exclusively government-run institutions of higher learning.

a pure government cycling of government money for the benefit of students. these are the kinds of people students benefiting from that that rick santorum was apparently condemning earlier tonight as being part of the client class of the american population, the so-called half of the population that just takes from this government. chris christie mentioned only one government program, it was the g.i. bill. he said his dad grew up in poverty. two sentences later, his dad was on the g.i. bill, put himself through rutgers to become the first in his family to earn a college degree. many of us have told that story about our fathers, many of us have gratitude to our government and to our politicians' foresight to enable us to tell those stories about our fathers. >> lawrence, thank you for that. i want to, on the issue of the

oratory, we should turn to reverend al sharpton, you remarked during the speech, that you felt like the applause lines and laugh lines weren't hitting at the right time. >> no, i was frankly i thought that chris christie flunked tonight. i don't agree with his politics, but i have seen him be very effective. i think what he did probably, as an orator is what i wouldant do in 2004 when i did the convention, he shouldn't have stayed on reading the teleprompter. if he extemporaneous, i think he would have been better, because usually that's how he speaks. he was way off. he was also very contradictory. when you see the fact that mitt romney is sitting there, ann romney came and talked about love, and chris christie said forget love, it's about respect. does anybody read these speeches

before they go? it was the exact opposite. he said, let's all come together and then beach up on the teachers' union for the next five minutes, then calls for unity again and beats up. he was like the ralph cram den if you're old enough to remember "the honeymooners." ping, zoom, to the moon, alice. the bully of the party. i think he had an opportunity tonight to really lay out a case for romney, which he did not do, lay out a case for the party, but to come being built up as the guy that could be the other side of what barack obama was, who came with hope, and be the guy saying it's us against them. let me tell you about them, let me tell you about us. let me tell you about them, let me tell you about us. let me tell you about romney and the hard truth, he won't tell you about the tax returns, he won't really tell you what he did at bain. every line was so inconceivable to the facts that i was really

very disappointed. >> he gave a typical republican speech, every man for yourself. we all know that chris christie loves the limelight, he has a huge ego. we can say he was angry. he will come back and say i'm very passionate and love the country and the issues, but we can't push about the facts that new jersey is 48th in unemployment, 47th in economic growth and unemployment rate of 9.8%, the highest since 1977. he sells pretty good, because those are pretty bad numbers. those are numbers that parallel what mitt romney did when he was governor of massachusetts. it's very typical. go after workers, go after the teachers' union, they're the problem. i don't think this came anywhere near barack obama 2004, red state/blue state speech. i don't think this launched chris christy onto the national scene as a major player. i think he felt short of expectations.

you could see him analyzing this. i thought romney was looking at him as a calculating manner, i don't think we did the right thing here. he didn't sell romney at all. >> he waited 1800 words into a 2600 word speech to even bring him in. chris, were you trying to get in on this? iismts i -- >> i think i'm with the jury on one point and at least against it on one point. no mention of the last republican presidential nomination, not a word about w. no reference to the rather discredited republican house of representatives, not a word defending the republican congress, and more recently not a word defending the republican platform, which was declared tonight. so the republicans will not defend any aspect of their record right up through tonight.

what i thought christie was great at was the barn-burning red meat speech about why people are republicans. i think he spoke to the heart and gut of republicans watching tonight. i think they felt what he feels about teachers' unions. i think they felt what he feels about the country. he is a lot like ralph cram den. people like jackie gleason, and there was a bit of jackie gleason in him tonight. i thought it was a barnburner. i thought it was a big success. i was looking at john sununu who was going crazy, he loved it so much. i looked at the faces of the delegates when they stood up, they loved it. and once again, the wooden candidate himself was so out of place. romney looked like prince charles visiting new guinea, like he was coming into some other culture where people were all excited about something, and vaguely bemused by what they were all excited about.

he's not a republican in his gut. republicans in their gut love that big guy tonight. romney was an observer, an observer like prince charles. all he didn't have was the kilt, coming in and watching the dancers as if theorem in some other culture. it was bizarre. his presence doesn't match the p.r. howard wants to jump in. >> the objective tonight was not to make john sununu happy. john sununu was made happy by paul ryan, the objective tonight is to begin the conversation with undecided voters, and try to woo them and explain to them why mitt romney is the answer. chris christie didn't do it. we can argue about ann romney, who's a lovely person and gave a nice speech, but none of them i don't think made what should be the central theme of this convention, which is who mitt romney is and what he will do. it hasn't been said so far. i agreed with lawrence

o'donnell, the fact that chris christie didn't smile at all, and looked so agrieved is not what's necessary for undecided voters. >> i do think there's been one theme tonight. it's the nostalgia of experience for upward social mobility. nikki haley talked about her parents building a business. rick santorum talked about the immigrant grandfather who came, and the father who worked his way up. chris christie, ann romney talked about her father. so what it is is this nostalgia, right, this was this experience of american social mobility that is now gone. when chris christie says this line, which i thought was the most interesting, we are the great-grandchildren of men and women who broke their backs in the name of ingenuity. who was in that "we"? we are the great grandchildren. it's not people who came in this generation or the generation before.

that's a very circumscribed set of people to whom he is talking, a set of people who feel america is not theirs anymore, who have the nostalgia of mobility in the past, that i will say objectively the case, no longer a part of american life right now. social mobility has actually decline. they're speaking to it in this very conservative way, but they are addressing something very real about the way people feel about where the country is. >> that is true, and also a personality thing. they are trying to solve mitt romney's thurston howell problem and avoiding his. >> right. >> george romney is not running. >> or his grandparents. >> one other thing that christie said that caught my attention. we all must share in the sacrifice. i haven't heard a republican say that. >> he wants to repeal the bush tax cuts for people making over $250,000 snimplts. >> i haven't heard that one.

>> during chris christie's keynote speech, david actsle rod tweeted this -- i know he's going to mention mitt somewhere, isn't he? i'm just saying. ahead this hour, we will hear from rick santorum with andrea mitchell, plus robert gibbs of the obama campaign. after this break, nbc's tom brokaw and david gregory will join us. stay with us [ male an wouldn't it be cool if we took the nissan altima and reimagined nearly everything in it? gave it greater horsepower and best in class 38 mpg highway... ...advanced headlights... ...and zero gravity seats? yeah, that would be cool. ♪ introducing the completely reimagined nissan altima. it's our most innovative altima ever. nissan. innovation that excites. ♪

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. we have a nominee who will tell us the truth and lead with conviction and now he has a running meat who will do the same. we have governor mitt romney and congressman paul ryan, and we need to make them the next president and vice president of the united states. we're back, covering msnbc's

coverage of the republican convention. i'm down in tampa. tom brokaw and david gregory join us. >> they're not going to go through them. he was very much who he is, the former prosecutor, out there making his case to the jury. david and i have been talking to this. he said something quite remarkable. when there are people in the room who care more about doing the job they were elected to do than worrying about reelection, it is possible to work together to achieve principled compromise and get results. that's an indictment of hits own party as well as the democrats. then he went on to say, when talking about the generational

thing -- make no mistake every generation will be judged, so will we. will they say we stood up and made tough choices to preserve our way of life? going to what chris hayes said, we talked my own guess is that will -- a lot of people don't know her in this kind of context, but in tonight she made a very strong performance. david and i were talking about that as well. four years ago democrats got off to a fast start, because women are playing an evermore important role, by putting out michelle obama and hillary clinton. tonight the republicans put out the wife of a candidate. she made a very compelling argument, in my judgment at least, about why he can be trusted personally with the lives of the people he now wants to represent as their president. david 1234 independents i think

what gives him appeal is less on what he can say in favor of advocating mitt romney, and more about what he's san diego to the swing voters, the people who really hate politics right now. i think he has a strong appeal there. the truth is, and you made this observation, this crowd in the hall may not have been as fired up, in part because he had some tough language for them, didn't say it explicitly, but he's talking about a republican-led house. and if they can be connected in the course of is the campaign, then he's laid the groundwork. >> tom, first, the whole question of a keynote speech, historically take a look at it and tell us what a keynote is generally expected to do. is it rae meat? is it to get the delegates

excited about the problems they have with the opponent? is it to turn them on generally in favor of the candidate? i always thought of it bakley going back to tom dewey in '60s a way to rip off the bark of the other guy and get the people in the hall convinced that they have the winning case. >> well, chris, you and i have been watching this for a very long time. these are moving targets these days, what is the expectations for the various excitement, key -- for example ruand of coue giuliani came to that podium, having been so prominent in the events of 9/11. the kind of a speech that barack obama gave was a statement about the country and what we can do,

and less about john kerry and much more in many ways about barack obama, frankly, and we all know that it launched him into this national figure very quickly. each of them has their own dna, chris. >> chris, can i add, i think what you heard tonight was a big philosophical contrast. they believe this, we believe that. i think that's something you'll hear more of. perhaps paul ryan will be more specific about the president's policies, and where he'll argue they have failed. this is about a huge contrast and philosophical approaches, the relationship between the people and government. i think that's what chris christie was getting at. that's partly what fires up the base of this party right now, and will be the same on the democratic side as well. >> well, the philosophy difference, i agree, i thought chris christie addressed the differences historically without having to defend, as you guys

mentioned the record recently and even the platform agreed to tonight, and certainly no reference to george w. bush's administration. do you think they're better off ignoring the past, running forward, talking philosophy, and the advantage over what we have in this administration? >> well, i think it's interesting you raise that's correct chris, because christie makes a point of saying there's a lot of blame to go around for how we got to here. another example of him -- we talked about principled compromise. that was another shot across the bow saying we have to find another way to work together. he doesn't want to go back and talk about where the debt started, because i think we're building toward something, we've got problems, or politicians is diagnosis functional, washington is dysfunctional.

the guy may not set the room on fire, but who has the capacity to fix it. that's what i think everything is building toward. >> i know he has said privately to a lot of people encouraging him to run for president, in many ways the best thing that happened as governor is he was dealing with a democratic legislature, because he couldn't assume, as john kasich did mistakenly in ohio, he could just run rough shod over the state, and kasich learned, as he always does, from that experience. what christie has said to a number of people encouraging him to run, i have to deal with a democratic legislature, they do have very high unemployment. they does these town hall meetings all over where he listens to people and they put them online. he said they have like a 58% return on their investment in the online stuff, 58% of the people say they like what they're hearing, they like the idea he's talking to them and

listening to them. >> i think he's trying to take that message frankly to the country. what's striking to me is obviously they didn't talk about george w. bush, eight years in office, there's been no mention of the two longest wars in america's history, afghanistan and iraq, and just again in the last few days we've had more americans killed in afghanistan by afghan policemen, and there has been almost no talk about that. these were wars started by the republican party, and promoted by them in the early stage, with the assent of the democratic congress and the democratic senate, but heavily promoted as the idea of delivering democracy to iraq and afghanistan. that is an unrealized goal at this point, and no reference to it here tonight so far. >> well, tom, so like you to remind us of the soldiers in the field right now. i think that's part of the patriotic spirit overnight that shouldn't have been overlooked. thank you both.

back to rachel in new york. thanks, chris. i should mention that senator kelly ayotte, and nikki haley, the governor of south carolina, both of them have husbands who have served in post-9/11 warts, a -- wars, and both of them mentioned it. senator eye outgoing into particular in some particulars about that. in terms of discussing the wars and sacrifices, and also in terms of discussing national security policy, that has been absolutely nowhere at all. i think tom is absolutely right to remark upon that. joining us is robert gibbs, senior adviser to the obama campaign. mr. gibbs, i understand that you maybe have brought yourself into the republican convention bodily at some point tonight and survived to tell the tale?

>> i was invite convention, a few did double takes, but they were quite cordial. >> congratulations on that very small form of bravery. let me ask you about the keynote address, chris christie, we've been remarking on the fact that it was very much about chris christie. around the time he turned to mitt romney, he said this -- he'll tell us the hard truths we need to hear to end the debacle of putting the greatest health care system in the hands of bureaucrats and putting them between an american citizen and her doctor. it is a criticism of health reform, and also references the idea of the government getting between women and their doctors. your response to that charge? >> well, i mean, i was really -- i'm kind of flabbergasted at the whole night. it seems, first and foremost, like this was a very angry convention tonight, full of

insuggests. this was not mitt romney's plan to build the middle class. i don't have any idea who chris christie was describing in his speech, because i don't think mitt romney throughout this campaign or for one moment on the campaign trail has told any person a hard truth. i cannot recall one moment in two years that he's taken on the belief structure of his own party. obviously the notion that somehow, you know, how chris christie and others have described health care or the decisions that women have to make, again this boar no real resemblance to what's going on in their party, boar no resemblance to what's going on in the country. i think it was a very, very strange night. >> the opening speech of the convention tonight was from house speaker john boehner. i think it was unfair to put it on television, in part because

nobody in the room was yet paying attention to what was going on, so it sort of seemed like people were ignoring him. that's an awkwardness of television at an early point in the program, but the recurring theme was that president obama should be thrown out as if an unwelcomed person in a bar. he should be thrown out as if the country is a bar bouncer and the president is there inside that bar as an unwelcomed patron. there was in remarking on this network that may have been inappropriate rhetoric toward the president, just in terms of its violent tone. i wonder if you had any thoughts on that? >> certainly i go back to i think the night was sort of highlighted by lots of anger and insults. it was not -- mitt romney, you have this -- a piece of history, in that he enters this general election as the single least popular nominee to run for president in probably ten elections. so the work they have cut out

for them in this race is to build up mitt romney. all they tried to do was be angry and tear down barack obama. i think in that respect, it was a huge mised opportunity and a huge failure for the republicans in the republican convention. i mean, look, my guess is the reason that john boehner spoke so early is, you know, the republicans in congress approval rating is -- you know, it's like 10%. i think the language that they use is off-putting to people, and i heard somebody earlier talking about, well, john sununu loved this speech, and john sununu loved -- if john sununu is the focus group that this party tonight was trying to reach, then it is going to miss a huge swath of undecided voters that are going to decide this election. john sununu is already probably far more wound up than he needs to be. this isn't about reaching john

sununu, it's about reaching somebody else. i think when speaker boehner using the time of language he does, and some of the other language you heard tonight, i think it's offputting for americans that want to here what mitt romney wants to do. >> robert gibbs, obama campaign senior divorce, former woes press secretary giving advice that they definitely will not take, even if it's good advice, because it's coming from you. >> i tried. >> thank you for joining us. nice to see you. >> thanks. the latest on the other big story of the night, the just as big story, and that's hurricane isaac. we'll talk live with rick santorum, yes. you are watching msnbc's live coverage of the republican convention. ♪

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i'm nbc news meteorologist bill karins. i want to give you an update on the hurricane. the storm is moving at a painfully slow pace. we now have over a quarter of a million people without power, approaching 300,000 of people without power in louisiana, most of those are in the new orleans area. let me show you a little tighter view of the storm. the heaviest rain bands and strongest winds are going through the new orleans area and all of southeast louisiana. new orleans just had a wind gust approaching hurricane force. these pictures are coming from the big easy this evening. we are hearing the storm has definitely caught a lot of people not by surprise, but a little more strong than they thought it would be. you see the flashing in the background there. those are usually the transmission lines. that usually means the power is going out. that's why we're reporting the widespread power outages. the wind gusts have been very

intense, hasn't been quite as bad. minute pal power outages there, but look at the wind gusts near new orleans, 66 and 64 miles an hour, easily strong enough to down tree limbs, too. those will begin to spread inland. so far around totals around 1 to 2 inches, but in the days ahead as the slow-moving -- we should see -- now back to rachel maddow and chris matthews from the republican national convention. andrea mitchell is on the convention floor with my dear friend rick santorum. >> thank you, rachel. i'm with rick santorum. you gave the speech today. you focused heavily on welfare, and really went at the president, a lot of the fact

checkers have said that campaign ad by the romney campaign is not accurate, that the waivers were requested by republican governors. what's up with that? >> i'm not suggesting that some republican governors don't want to waive it. some do, unfortunately, but congress is very clear that we understand that the way to move people from welfare to work is to do two things. require work and to put a time limit on welfare. as someone who helped write the bill, the principal author, we said that those are the things we were not going to allow to be waived. we created enormous flex able to do all sorts of things to try to help people do those two things, and guess what happened? welfare rolls went dramatically down, people went back to work. poverty went down. all of these things proved to work and work well. . .

opposed welfare reform, opposed work requirements. he waived work requirements earlier in his term on food stamps, and food stamps have exploited. >> because the economy is in such terrible shape and need help. >> and we have broadened eligibility. look, this is a president who continues to broaden eligibility for a variety of different programs, and pulling back on work requirements. the only reason you issue something that says we want to waive work requirements is to weaken them. >> how did it feel tonight? you fought so hard for this nomination, you won the early primaries, mitt romney clobbered you with money, and you're here tonight, loyal republican soldier watching the acclaim for mitt romney? what's the emotional tug there? >> oh, none, to be very honest with you. you know, look, i got into this race, because i believe this is the most important election in my lifetime. and president obama is doing severe damage to our country on

every front. and we have an obligation to try to right the ship here. i have no emotion other than trying to get people, as many people came up and said, thank you, you helped me rally behind governor romney. that's really what i'm here to do. >> the keynote speech from chris christie? >> vintage chris christie. i'm someone who grew up in an italian home, so i sort of love that smashmouth, you know right at 'em kind of stuff. >> does it make it harder for mitt romney in the acceptance speech when you have such a bare knuckles speech. do you think some republicans are thinking should would coulda? >> i think there's a place for bare knuckles, and a place for velvet touch. a president has to have that range that a singer has or an actor has to be able to communicate on a variety of

levels. >> chris seems to have one speed. i think governor romney has more than one speed and hopefully we'll see that on display thursday night. >> one more work about ann romney's speech, because the republican women here seemed to be responding to that clarion call from the candidate's wife. >> well, there's nothing better for a candidate than to hear from the person they have spent how many years with. sill always felt this convention, the most important thing it can do is give people a better picture. who mitt romney is, and i think she did a good job doing that tonight. >> rick santorum, thank you. rachel, back to you. >> thank you, andrea. senator santorum, in my opinion gave the best speech of the night bar none. he was not billed as the guy that did that, but that said,

with andrea trying to nail him on the issue of whether or not the president did try to remove the work requirement, the president did no such thing, santorum's only explanation was to blame governors who might have requested that flexibility. those governors of course would include mitt romney when he was governor, so the welfare attack still just absolutely disastrous for the republicans, but they don't seem to care. i do have one construction to make. i referred to senator santorum as my dear friend, i was lying. he's not my friend. he won't even talk to me. that was wishful thinking. coming up ezra klein. this is msnbc's live coverage of the republican convention. many of my patients still clean their dentures with toothpaste. but they have to use special care in keeping the denture clean. dentures are very different to real teeth. they're about 10 times softer and may have surface pores where bacteria can multiply. polident is designed to clean dentures daily.

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>> governor chris christie making the case for himself as the doer of the impossible, going after public workers, and eliminating those jobs, because those jobs do not count as jobs in republican economics. as ezra klein joins us from the isolated bubble of truth. >> thank you, rachel. very trusty in here. that speech i thought was kind of amazing in that particular way. one, none of these things are all that impossible, but one of the big arguments you have seen from christie in general and from the republicans more broadly over the whole election is that government and in particular government jobs are not how you recover from a recession. and christie sort of a particularly good messenger, as he said tonight over and over again, he's well known for picking and wins a number of fights with state employees in new jersey. but here's the weird thing about

this recession, one of the things that's actually happened that was really unusual is we have cut public sector jobs, and in particular state and local jobs -- what you are seeing here are government jobs in recent recession. here's '81, reagan's big recession, a bit of a dip there, but government jobs begin recovering really quickly. in 1990, george h.w. bush, government hired the way through recession, and a bit out of it. 2001, george w. bush's recession, no dip in public sector, we aded them at a rapid clip, a lot from day 1 in the recession, and here is the most recent recession, the one that ends president bush's term, and a bit of a rise, that's usually stimulus, and huge spirk around the temporary census jobs, but

then they start falling hard and fast. there is nothing like that in the reagan or bush years, nothing that even looks anything like it. so if you want to make it more concrete than lines, as of june, the public sector lost 600,000 jobs in this recession. if we hadn't those those jobs, just stayed at zero, no change, the unemployment rate would have been 7.8%, but you can take that even further. public sector jobs growing as fast -- we would have added 800,000 new public sector jobs. that would have driven unemployment to 7.3%. 7.3, and obama would be in much better shape and republicans would have a much harder road ahead of them this fall and in fact this convention. it's true that government isn't how we recovered from this recession, but government jobs have in fact been a drag, kept us from recovering, but it's one of the ways we've recovered from past recessions, in particular when president reagan and bush

were in charge. when we're hearing that one of the knocks on president obama is he's grown government out of control, you're saying they must be talking about some way he's done that that doesn't involve actual people working for the government? >> they're not talking about vast number of people to be hired -- to be fair, they've been blocking a lot of that money. president obama would have liked to have done more, but the government said no, you see the bureau of labor and statistics employment reports every month, saying this looks terms. >> thank you, puts those numbers to that rhetoric is very sobering. tomorrow night it will be paul ryan's turn, his vision of america, and what we can expect to hear from them. we'll talk about that when el return. msnbc's live coverage of the republican convention, stay with us. [ dad ] i'm usually checking up on my kids.

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storm night is paul ryan night, the vice presidential nominee that republicans are very excited about, but who has failed to move the needle for voters more broadly with this ticket. the speaker i'm most excited for is not paul ryan, but mike huckab huckabee. i'm expecting a goldwater 1961 moment from me. chris, looking ahead tomorrow? >> i say too many it was a great bench, not so great for the

captain of the football team, romney. he looked like he was visiting a convention, not part of it. >> your line about him looking like prince charles in new guinea was the line of the night. what else do they need to get done tomorrow? >> huge national introduction of paul ryan. condoleezza rice will be tomorrow night, going to -- someone who has broad appeal to the middle of the electoral, someone widely admired. tomorrow is a night where i think they have to get done what they didn't get done tonight, building the case for mitt romney and what is the plan to turn the country around. >> ed? >> tomorrow night not a night of detail. he'll speak in generic terms, very lofty, theological type of stuff, political type stuff, visionnary. he won't tell us about the $716 billion lie they've been running on the campaign trail. he ran his mother out of a

control in florida to help him lie. he's been the purporter of this lie throughout. i don't think we'll get that tomorrow night. we won't get any numbers that says -- he won't be detail, but lofty. >> it will be "i love medicare" night. >> that's right. >> i will say to chris, it is better to look lie prince charles in new guinea than prince harry in las vegas. >> fair enough. >> i think he has to show he's more than an ideologue, and that he can rise to the national stage and be trusted to stand there if he becomes vice president and for whatever reason have to take over. i don't know if he can rise to that occasion. i want to say to chris, though people love ralph cram den, they didn't want him to choose the next president. tomorrow night, honestly, i think it's todd akin's night. we have his biggest defender, mike huckabee. condoleezza rice beloved and

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states on what is the seventh anniversary of hurricane katrina. louisiana, mississippi, alabama taking the brunt of the damage right now in a storm that is going to stick around for a while. i'm meteorologist bill karins, and throughout this hour we'll be bringing you the latest from the gulf shores. the landfall of the storm, this is the second landfall as we go throughout this next hour. we had one at the mouth of the mississippi river about six hours ago. the storm has since stalled, but now finally making its landfall around grand isle, louisiana. it will slowly weaken from here on out. the damage is already being done. we are seeing hundreds of thousands of power outages, 80-mile-an-hour winds, still a hurricane at this hour. the pressure is down to 969 millibars. the one good news is that is slowly ticking up. that means the storm is -- imagine just walking across the coastline of louisiana at 7 miles an hour, this is taking

forever to go throughout the state. we'll be here in the same exact spot tomorrow night, and this storm will barely be crossing from louisiana into mississippi. that's how slow of a storm this is. these long duration events will try the patience of people. let me take you through some of the weather maps to show you what the danger is right now, and as we go throughout the night tonight. the orange colors shows the tropical storm-force winds where potential power outages could occur. the extreme southeastern portion of louisiana, we did just have a gust up to hurricane force in the new orleans area. new orleans has been whipped a couple times by these bands of rain that have drop tropical tomorrow gusts, and that's why we have so many power outages. pensacola to panama city, areas of florida, looks like you're in the clear, but still the coastlines of alabama and up through mississippi is where the worst bands will continue. how about these wind gusts into

new orleans. the wind is coming over the top of lake pontchartrain, a fully exposed wind blowing right into the city. 66-mile-per-hour gusts at the lakefront airport. down by the center of the storm, still gusting to near 6 on to 70 miles an hour, if we keep these winds under 40 miles per hour, they can really minimize the number of power outages. if the storm weakens from here we shouldn't seem them extending too much more. rainfall totals, nothing too great. mobile has had 4 inches of rain. we haven't seen too many problems, but the computers because of the slow motion are still expecting the potential for up to a foot of rain. that's the developing story through the day on wednesday, how much rain falls from this storm. we have the power outages, a slow-moving storm and still a hurricane at this hour. the storm will be a very annoys storm. one of the spots that's been

hit pretty hard has been the coastline of mobile. our own mike seidel has been on the beach and gives us this report. >> reporter: we have been blasted all day and this evening by the wind and the sand and the rain. this feeder band han unrelending about an inch of rain an hour. look at the sand roll over the dunes and the sea oats. our next high tide is about 10:30 on wednesday morning. we're looking at a surge of anywhere from 4 to 8 feet along the mississippi and alabama coast, so we'll have more surge issues here locally on orange beach we're in pretty good shape. we have a nice do you know line, wide beach and most of the property is up on stilts. we're not concern that much about a surge, but inland, this rainfall, 6 to 12 inches, tornado watch continues overnight, will likely continue through a good deal of wednesday, and just a lot of rainfall. beach erosion, wind erosion from

the sand. this will be a slow process to wind this storm down. it's not moving very fast. it's going to be a long duration event. meanwhile, the beaches get hit hard as well as inland areas. the flash flood watches run now at least through wednesday night. back to you. >> thanks, mike, coming from the coastline of alabama. at this point this weather event starts to become a news event, as we get the power outages, road closures and whatever else problems. for that reason we want to bring in lynn berry to help us. >> at this hower we're going to talk about power hundreds of thousands without power as isaac continues to lash the region. let's start first with alabama, where we're getting reports of several roads being completely flooded in sections of mobile

county. we're also hearing that the west end of dauphin island is under -- and people are heeding evacuation warnings and have gotten out. other city crews were busy placing sandbags while others made sure that storm drains were clear. right now, at least 3,800 people are without power, most of those power outages are being reported in mobile. all right. let's move to mississippi, where some counties there are expecting anywhere from 8 to 14 inches of rain, now officials have warned to beware of downed trees and power lines. several schools have already announced they'll be closed wednesday because of the storm. the latest numbers from mississippi power show at least 3,000 are without electricity in

the state at this hour. meanwhile, to louisiana, they're feeling the brunt of this storm right now. isaac made landfall at 6:45 p.m. tuesday, about 90 miles southeast of new orleans, but before the storm's center reached land, mayor mitch landrieu said the city was secure about 1,000 national guard troops are already positioned in new orleans. they're going to work with police and firefighters, all standing by for any possible rescue operations if need be. mayor landrieu also said more than 2,900 federal, state and local law enforcement officers are on duty in the city. the sewer system in the lakefront community of st. tammany parish had to be shut down, this as the evening progresses into tomorrow will grow as a problem. just how much rain they'll get is the big question.

lake pontchartrain is expected to begin rising before dawn and continue to rise through wednesday evening, causing flooding that could last anywhere from 24 to 36 hours. now, this is a hard point to ignore. isaac is testing the new orleans levee system, bolstered after the catastrophic failures during hurricane katrina, eerily seven years ago today. now, taking a look at the latest numbers, more than 280,000 people are without power in louisiana, and utility officials say the electricity could be out for several days in some areas. let's listen into governor bobby jindal during a news conference early on tuesday. take a listen. >> i think one of the biggest challenges will be assuming the levees and gate and everything work the way they're designed, one of the biggest challenges will be the rainfall, making sure the pumps are operating at full capacity, but even at full

capacity, the pumps -- the rainfall may exceed their capacity, so you could see localized flooding based on rainfall. >> so, bill, as you imagine, a lot of people watching and waiting as they ride out the storm. >> for everyone around the country, if you don't have family or personal members there, the memories of katrina are so in our minds, the curiosity factors, everyone wants to know, will the levees hold? will the pumps work? that's what we're waiting for. we'll wait until we go through the event and everyone will hopefully get the all-clear and we'll move on from there. let's keep it in new orleans, that is the focus this evening where some of the worth weather conditions. we want to bring in the newest family of our weather channel reporters, reynolds wolf, experienced hurricanes in central florida and national weather correspondents through the last couple years, recommenreynolds, your take? >> reporter: to tell you the truth, how things have gone down the last 24 hours, i mean, 24

hours, just a total transformation, where just a days ago conditions were actually quite tranquil, now to lack of a better terms, all hell is breaking loose, seral ly wins are very strong. we're at the corner of hyperville and bourbon street. as i'm looking right now, the rain is just coming down in absolute tore rents. we keep hearing sounds of like metal stretching, sounds like a couple buildings tiles about to give way, we've seen some hurricane shutters swinging back and forth. a lot of signs have been ripped down because of the relentless wind. 9 issue we're facing here in in accordance is not the wind, the wind will eventually die down, but the model we're seeing is the slow movement from the north to northwest, and the heavy

rain. the next 24 to 36 hours, you can see over a foot in this area. keep in mind much of new orleans is below sea level, certainly not a good equation, but they had over $10 billion of improvement to the levee system, so they're hoping that will be enough to combat all of the elements that isaac continues to ditch out. this will be a long duration, and it's not going to be something over in a day or two days. this may take weeks. hopefully the situation will improve to the point it won't be quite as bad. best case scenario is if somehow isaac were to pull out to sea and die out. another situation that would be nice if it came onshore and died out quickly. it doesn't look like that would be the scenario, either. worst-case scenario is the heavy rainmaker, and that certainly looks like it's in play. >> thanks, reynolds.

you're also a meteorologist. is this storm overachieving in new orleans? a little worse than even you thought it would be? >> it's really hard to say at this point. we're in the early stages of it. the things that's frightening, as you see this area being exposed to winds, obviously will caused widespread power outages. so i'm sure those are increasing every minute that passes, but the winds as i mentioned, will subside. then we have the issues with all of the flooding, and i'll tell you, in comparison with gustav, it's hard to say. when you look back over the history of some of the recent storms, you look at katrina, then gustav. obviously there were a lot of mistakes made. those lessons learned certainly helped with preparations. now the hope is that lessons learned with both katrina and gustav will make huch different with how they handled this particular system. that is something we have to watch, wait, see and hope for the best. >> it's a wait-and-see for what

the rainfall did, and the rainfall rates. as we mentioned probably maybe only a quarter of the way into the storm for new orleans, as hard as that is to believe. let's keep it in louisiana. definitely the hardest-hit areas. we want to bring in the president here of st. charles parish, louisiana, vijay st. pierre. as far as the damage, what kind of reports are you getting? >> well, bill, the main issues is power outages, as of 1:00 this morning, we had 11,600 people without power. rainfall hasn't been bad so as far as, 'we are receiving sustained winds around 58 miles an hour, you know, mostly downed trees, power lines, that kind of stuff. >> one of the issues is the storm will linger. the power crewses, it's not safe for them to be out there. when will they actually start

repairing power to these people? >> just like law enforcement, you can't put people out there, for like 45-mile-an-hour sustained winds, you just can't do it. this is debris all over, branches, and sticks, and garbage can covers. you can't put people out there in man lifts and expect them to repair those poles. it's not worst the risk. >> what's your biggest concern for the people in your parish at this hour? >> two things. we're one of the few parishes in the metropolitan area that doesn't have a hurricane protection. jefferson parish just to the west extended their into tied into what they call the davis diversion, when the corps of engineers built that, when the river gets high, it automatically dumps into the bayou, lake katawatchie.

to the east has a levee. in between those parishes, and st. charles parish. once it -- it has nowhere to go except right down the pipe into st. charles parish. we've petitioned congress to help build levees, and we've been unsuccessful so far, so the risk is a strong tidal search, where we're expecting anywhere from 6 to 8 foot of tidal search. >> so let me get this clear, water is going diverted through the levee system, that's the natural process how it's supposed to work, you don't like that, of course, but you're not hearing anything that that's in jeopardy for any reason, are you? >> well, we are in jeopardy, because we do not have a levee, and all it is is the lake -- in fact we have over $10 bill wrong worth of assets? industrial plants on the west bank alone, 27,000 people are

not -- is without protection. >> have there been any evacuations for any of those people? >> we called for mandatory evacuations early sunday at 6:00, and then when we did that, the information we had at that time was it's going to be a strong category 2, 105-mile-an-hour winds, which is 6 miles less than being a category 3, with the tidal surge of 8 to 12 inches. the east bank we can take that, because we have a levee on the east bank, but no levee on the west bank, so that's why we called for evacuation. >> sounds like you're taking the proper precautions. please get back to us, and let us know if you have any other concerns or breaking news. thank you solve, v.j. st. pierre. well, a lot more to come on our special coverage. we're going to look at some of our correspondents across the region. stay tuned.

here we go again. one day i'll lose my home again. >> i fear -- you never know what you're going to get.

welcome back to our hurricane isaac coverage here on msnbc. we're going to keep it in the family. earlier today i ran into melissa harris puff perry, you can watch her show 10:00 to noon on the weekend. she's a new orleans resident. she's here in new york city, but in new orleans her husband is there action and he is there riding out the storm with his parents and grandparents all in the same house. he is nice enough to join us right now. james perry, thank you, just take me through what has happened with you in the last couple hours, and how you

decided to ride out the storm. >> sure, you know, actually i think in or liens, it's not been that bad yet. our decision to stay was the fact it was so difficult to move my elderly grandparents, and we knew this wasn't going to be a category 3 or 4, oar a huge storm that had the effect of katrina, but a smaller storm, but still a very serious storm nonetheless. so i decided to stay and try to help out and make sure that they were secure and safe. >> now, you are in the eastern portions of the city melissa told me and the house is below sea level like many others in the eastern portions. what percentage of the neighbors left versus those sticking out and riding out the storm. >> actually one of the biggest

aspects of my parents' decision to stay was the fact that the majority of their neighbors, all the neighbors that they know by name in this neighborhood that, you know they've been in for more than 30 years, every single one of them decided to stay. these are all folks who evacuated when katrina was on its way. they all felt like this one was not going to be the big one and they would be safe here in the city. >> so what's the mind-set and mentality, you know, as you're riding out the storms, watching it. how would you clarify the anxiety level, waiting to see every update if it got more strong than it was supposed to. >> well, you know, actually pretty interestingly, the anxiety level i think is pretty low. here's just a quit story to make the point. on friday i made an appointment to have the dishwasher guy come to look at our dishwasher. i'm getting things together at

home depot buying wood. i get a call today, and the dishwasher guy says, hey, are you at the house? i'm here to look at your dishwasher. i said, well, you know there's a hurricanes coming, yeah? he said, yeah, but your dishwasher is broken. i met him at the house, and he worked on it until about noon. so i think what that signals is just that people knew it was serious, but a lot of people were still business as usual until pretty late before it was time for the storm to make landfall. i think that while people understand the difficulty and problem that can come with the storm, that it's helped people to know and be able to measure just how serious a disaster is on its way. >> knowing there is a hurricane, tons of water, storm surge, and you're below sea level, you know, you're very, very likely to go through this without having to deal with anything high water like catrino, but do

you in the back of your mind have a contingency plan just in case? >> no, absolute ly folks make fn of me, because i'm a boy scout and eagle scout, but our motto is be prepared. i have more than enough supplies for the worst-case scenario, and, you know, one of the biggest issues is that, you know, if it did get to the very worst situation, we would have to be able to get my grandparents into the attic where they could be safe. so we're prepared to be able to do that, so if the water did rise to, you know, to the levels that at the did in katrina, they would be able to be safe and able to make it. at this point, i've got to say i think we're in pretty decent shape. the winds are strong and consistent, but they're not so strong that you can't stand outside. the rain in or leans parish has

intermittent. if it doesn't get much worse than it is now, i think we're in decent shape and the worst situation is just not having power and a bit of discomfort that comes with that. but, of course, we have to stay vigilant. it's the day after katrina leaves the city that the levees break and that the. >> james, my last question, who will get more sleep? you or your wife here in northern. >> actually i think she's asleep. if she were awake, i would be getting text messages. >> after post-katrina. thank you so much, husband of our own melissa harris, perry.

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i'm meteorologist bill karins. welcome back to msnbc's coverage of hurricanes isaac. it is approaching 2:30 in the east on 11:30 on the west coast. the storm is making its final landfall. it made one earlier landfall over the mouth of the mississippi river, extreme southeastern portions, and now it's making its final landfall over grand isle, louisiana. this is pretty much due south of the new orleans area. let me take you through who is seeing the worst of the storm

and the trends we're looking at. the one good thing is the storm is no longer intensifying. it's beginning to slow down and weaken. we need it to drawn into we still have a lot of strong winds. the one good thing is dry air is working into the back side of the system, so we're not getting that heavy rain now, and that will be the trend. don't expect a lot of rain in texas because of that dry air, but the bands on the front cipher this front storm are still very impressive. this is where new orleans is finding itself. that's where the heaviest rain is, where the strongest winds are, as we go through the next couple hours. we don't want to leave our friends out here, anywhere from gulfshores to biloxi, numerous bands are on the outside skirts. not as frequent as the new orleans area, but you still have the potential for losing power and isolated tornadoes as we go

throughout the night. that's the major concerns. the winds continue to be impressive some have been around the lakeport area, the south shore of lake pontchartrain. 71-mile-per-hour gusts right in here, mostly because that wind is coming over the water, there's no friction whatsoever, blowing straight in. that's why new orleans, this is a worst-case scenario, as far as the storm surge for southeast louisiana, and for winds for new orleans, this is about a worst-case scenario for the path of the storm. notice no one else is close to those 60 on 70-mile-an-hour winds. everyone else is pretty much in the 30-mile-an-hour ranges. around new orleans is where we're seeing the majority of the power outages. we're concerned with the long-term range of the rain over the next 36 hours, but so far so good. not many reports. the computers are still saying the possibility is there up to a foot of rain, maybe isolated records higher than that by the

time we're all said and done. here is the forecast for the storm. it's a slow trek all the way through the state of louisiana. at 8:00 a.m. on thursday, over 24 hours from now, this storm is still in central louisiana, even at that point, we'll still have bands of rain coming in off the gulf into the new orleans area. that's why it's probably going to tain into the weekend to get power back to many people. one other aspect. we're going to talk about this being a devastating blow, very difficult conditions in louisiana to a beneficial happy rain, for areas of the drought-stricken arkansas, missouri, portions of illinois and up to indiana. we'll get to that as we go through the upcoming weekend. it will take a bit until we can say we're happy to get the rain, but it's any but now in louisiana. the coastline is heart hit. we have this report. >> hurricane isaac is making its way across the mississippi gulf

coast. we've had sporadic bursts, but for the most part conditions have been steady. but becausing this a coastal community. storage surge estimates are 10 to 12 feet. the state of mississippi has called up more than 1,5 4u7bz national guard troops. they'll be patrolling the streets and also responding to emergency sis, but because so many families have evacuated, they'll be serves as a deterrence for potential looters. communities were pulverized and devastated during hurricane katrina 7 years ago, the devastation was breathtaking. more than 200 people died here. this time around emergency officials are expecting a safer outcome, but will have a better idea during daylight hours. one of the areas very concerned with, bay st. louis, and the six-foot storm surge

form the nest high tide cycle hopefully will be lower. the mississippi coastline probably not as bad as you were expecting, but that's a good thing. as far as the news portion of this storm, what's going on on much of the states as far as the destruction and what's happening, let's go to my colleague lynn berry. >> hey, bill, in the past half hour, it has grown by the thousands, to how many people are affected. right now more than 300,000 customers are without electricity all across louisiana. thousands more in the dark and alabama and mississippi. we'll have more on that in just a moment, but first several pictures are in because of the storm's impact. these are photos in from alabama. you can see there strong windstorm surge and heavy rain, all combines to create quite a mess. this is just the beginning of the storm. a curfew is currently in effect in gulf shores alabama until

6:00 this morning local time. mississippi also feeling isaac's punch. a look at new pictures we're getting in from across that state. official warm some counties could be hit with gusts reaching 50 to 60 miles per hour. the coast guard has closed the mississippi river. we're also getting new pictures from louisiana about 3,000 people currently in shelters to ride out the storm in the state. 31 school districts there are expected to be closed wednesday. all movable bridges in new orleans have been closed, and bridges in the humbaa, louisiana area are being locked down. joining me on the phone is spokesperson with energy new orleans, philip allison. mr. allison, i can only imagine tonight this early morning you are quite busy, so we appreciate you giving us time to give us the latest situation.

how much worse do you expect this to be? >> you know, that's a great question, lynn, kind of a difficult question to answer, because we're waiting for portions of the storm to come through, so it's hard to predict, but we know that we're ready, once the storm clears, our crewing can do some assessment and get to work restoring power as soon as possible. >> as i mentioned just a few moments ago, in the last half hour, we saw this grow by the thousands as far as how many people are affected. is your biggest concern that these numbers are going to get much, much worse, or is your biggest concern just figuring out how to get your crews out there to restore power? >> thankfully we're experienced at storm restoration. we've got some experience with gustav and lee, and gustav in 2008, and obviously katrina and rita back in 2005. bev a plan in place. once the storm passes through,

we'll do an assessment and kind of figure out where the hardest-hit area was. we also have agreements with utilities from other parts of the country to have restoration workers come in and assist us, so we have the manpower. it's a matter of waiting for the storm to move through. so can you give us any idea of when power may be restored to the more than 300,000 people in the dark right now? are you just still waiting for the storm to pass? >> we're basically still just waiting for the to you remember to pass. if we get a break in the weather tomorrow, we can start that assessment process. one of the things we are focused on is the safety of our linemen, so we can't send employees out to do work when the winds are over 30 miles an hour. once the winds die down, we can get crews working. >> and this is not your first rodeo, you guys have had a lot of experience in this rather unfortunately. so what kind of preparations were put in place ahead of the

storm based on your past experiences? >> sure, we actually do a very aggress i have been tree-trimming program throughout the year. that's one of the biggest causes of the power outages, during a hurricane certainly, but eastern a this morning, tree limbs get into power lines, so we do a very aggressive tree-trimming program. we do drills every single year to prepare. anytime we have any sort of major event, whether it's a hurricane or tornado, even just a major thunderstorm, we do a lessons learned to try to find ways to get better. you know, we like to think we're the best in the business, and we're the only utility in the country to receive a rest race award each of the last 14 years. >> let's hope that comes in handy. philip allison, a spokesperson for entergy in new orleans. back over to you, bill, as we heard him say, they don't know

when they can put a stop to that. they have to wait to see this storm pass through. as you mentioned, all day and all night, this is a slow-moving storm. >> yeah, they won't be able to get a lot of people's power on tomorrow, it will still be too windy, probably starting on thursday. some people probably won't get power until sunday, i imagine. i imagine crews are lined up, getting ready to drive in, but they won't do so until it's safe. we'll continue our coverage on hurricane isaac the right now the worst weather is taking place in the biggest metropolitan area in the path of the storm, that being new orleans. we're going to go there next after the break.

into we're dealing with a big storm. there could be significant flooding and other damage across a large area. as president, i will continue to make sure the federal government is doing everything possible to help the american people prepare for and recover from this dangerous storm. >> that was the president earlier today. the big keep work was big storm. not that intention, but a very big storm in geography terms. one of the people that ends up in the worst possible location for the storm is jim cantore. he filed this report from new orleans earlier. >> reporter: what has been our saving grace in my opinion is

the fact that the inch per hour rains have not stuck around. if they had now we have a whole different animal on our hands. what's that allowing is the pumps are taking the water, pushing it into the mississippi river, by the way, which has come up five feet from this afternoon, and continues to flow east, so flowing downstream at this point in time. we had quite a tidal rise when this came ashore, and we saw sides go from 2 to 9 feet, so you really had a cat 2 surge, if you will, with this storm, even though it was a category 1 in terms of its strength and intensity from the hurricane center. so again size does matter. another example of what we see with a big hurricane, you tend to get a bigger surge. we certainly saw the wave action through mississippi into alabama and across the florida panhandle. those beaches took a beating, but they assure us they'll by

open for the day holiday. the concern is new orleans, we have a long night and long day ahead of us as we work our way into wednesday, the anniversary of the worst nightmare of this city's history. reporting from isaac pounding in accordance, back to you. the picture is going to look similar, it's the cumulative affect, right through the dame. let's go to, kim, thanks for joining us. first off, i know you are extremely busy. take us through what you are watching and what you are focusing on, trying to let the millions of viewers know what the problem is.

and even winds as strong as we saw with katrina, so it is definitely an issue for tonight and through tomorrow. the one thing we're seeing is on that west side, we may see a weakening, some drier air, but we'll continue to see on the right side especially, where we'll see the heavy rain, the strong winds and the surge. the pressure came up a millibar from the last advisory, indicating there may be some weakening, but at the center, around the center is where we have to focus. look at this green and yellow and red. the strong bands coming into new orleans. we've had reports, winds over 70 miles per hour in new orleans with this, so looking at the center getting a little larger, but still, guys, we're looking at a very formidable hurricane. back to you, bill. >> you pinpoint it with the bands going over the top, on a

person note, kim, as far as this storm goes, in your expectations going into it, how do you think it's performing? >> well, i think it's an overachiever, you know, something that we're looking at the pressure being more like a cat 2, and the surge being more like a cat 2. the fact this was so large is what i think we were most concerned about, that you can see that kind of result from a very large system. it's been fighting dry air from the beginning, big. that seems to at least keep it at bay a bit, but still this is an impressive minimal hurricane. back to you. >> just the size is what makes the difference. that's why one cat 1 is not the same as another one. kim cunningham, you'll by up through the night at the weather channel. coming up, we'll continue to give you locations, what's on the ground, what's happening with isaac. we'll try to recap the radar and the power outage problems we're

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well, welcome back. i mentioned that new orleans, one of the locations that's seeing the worst of the weather. look at the wind blowing some of that water. this is in new orleans itself. this isn't even on the lake pontchartrain area. so it looks like power is on at

least in some of those locations. the headlights, you can definitely tell the new orleans area is feeling the effects of isaac. this isn't one of those storms they'll be saying that was no big deal. i think it's probably worse than the residents were expecting at this hour. so we have to bring in mark jones, as we go through the storm reference illy some people will need some help. he's with the salvation army. mark, where are you at this hour? and what's next for you? >> the salvation army, we have pulled our assets about 70 miles north to hatties berg, mississippi. the winds are picking up, maybe gusting a bit higher. scattered power outages here, but we anticipate those to increase as the storm moves closer inland. >> so how long it looks like south -- peel with the most how

long will it take you to get the supplies into those areas to -- >> hatties berg is a strategic location, and it's within about an hour and a half to two hours, depends on road conditions. >> you just have people drives just lined up at the ready waiting for you to give them the signal? >> exactly. once the roads are passable, and that the storm has safely passed? south louisiana, within several hours of the storm safely passing. >> how do you decide what location to head to, first? >> obviously we work with the emergency management agencies, and listen to news records to

find out those areas that is hardest-hit. the neighborhoods without power, but those that are in immense need northern in the greater new orleans area, but also southwest of new orleans into holma, and terr terrebone parish. >> we wish you luck in the next few days. and we'll keep in touch with you. >> thank you. as far as the storm goes, right now it's in the weakening process, and we haven't been able to say that for the last 24 hours. it's not going to strengthen any more from here. as where he go throughout the -- will slowly bet good et more and more minute pal. we're talking about the whole left side of the storm sucking dry air in. that has been weakening the entire left side of the storm, most of the rain and the heavy rain, if there's going to be

flooding concerns it will be on the right side of the storm. and that includes the new orleans area, but eventually as the storm tracks to the north. so we're not completely done with the storm. we still can sew moor damage. a lot of the power outages have occurred. the center of the storm has finally made its last landfall near grand isle, louisiana. it looks like it will track somewhere over the top of houma. so they'll probably stay in the rain and heavy winds through the next 6 to 12 hours, expect to see new orleans blowing around pretty good with winds up to about 60 miles per hour. we want to bring back in lynn berry, who also, of course, will be on the "first look" in two

hours. what's your take, lynn, as far as tracking the storm and the wire and the twitter feeds? >> really what we've been talking about all evening is how slow this storm is morning, and really when we talked to the power company spokesperson, they don't know how bad this will get, already in the new orleans area, there are 300,000 people, more than 300,000 without power, and they don't know when they'll get the crews out there to get power back. so really it is a wait-and-see thing. we'll be following this as it happens. bill, back to you. >> that's what's tough about the night-falling storms. it's hard to bring the pictures and the devastation. and we'll have those for you here on msnbc as we go through our wednesday. we'll be back with you at 5:00. now we'll return to the republican national convention.

this is msnbc's continuing coverage of the republican national convention in tampa, florida. that, of course is the keynote address for the convention, new jersey's governor chris christie. i'm desperate to hear chris matthews diagnose

chris, i'll throw it out to you. i am a fan of chris christie as an orator. is i want people to pay attention to politics, to i like that about him, but this speech not only was a bad speech, i think this was one of the most remarkable acts of political selfishness. this was a 2,600-word speech in which he used nearly 1800 of those words before he first said "mitt romney" and as soon as he did, he went back to talking about himself for hundreds more words. this was chris christie accepting the nomination of the republican party for 2016, because mitt romney wasn't even interesting to talk about in the keynote address that is supposed to be for mitt romney's nomination. i found it totally shocking, completely opposite of what i expected. >> it seemed to fit more into tonight, the best speeches tonight, the best speech parts were not about the presidential nominee of the party as of tonight. kasich's speech, the best part were about ohio and what he

accomplished there. the best parts of santorum's speech were about his family, and a difficult birth and difficult childhood for his daughter. i have to disagree with the quality of the speech. i think most pros will say that was a barnburner we just heard from chris christie. i thought it was a great speech with a touch of churchill in it, but it didn't have a touch of romney in it. i still go back to something that may sound painful for republicans, but i saw a candidate for president wheeled out as if he was a statue in the hall of presidents in nearby orlando. he did not even seem like a human being even sitting there. i kept thinking there was john sununu going nuts over the speech, and romney wasn't even moved by it. he's a hard candidate to sell. nobody tried hard to do that tonight. i agree with you about that, rachel. the best parts of the rhetoric, i disagree with you, i guess, on this fellow from jersey.

had nothing to do with the nomination of mitt romney for president. that means they're not achieving their goal. they haven't warmed them up. by the way, i don't even think his wife warmed him up, because i think it's too hard to do. howard fineman is sitting with me. >> i would love to hear howard's take and steve schmidt 'take on it, and we should hear from reverend al sharpton as far as the quality of the speech. i'm prepared to be talked out of my opinion this was not a good speech, but i think we are in agreement what the republican party did was make their case for the bench, if not the team on the field, the team that might be on the field in four years. but let's go to howard. hear his take on this and what he's been able to report from the campaigns tonight. >> well, a couple things, rachel, i was down on the floor earlier tonight. i have to agree with chris -- i was in the texas delegation, that's why i'm wearing my texas pin. even though romney is not much of a presence, the romney group

tried to clamp down on the rules, tried to centralize power, and even the romney people in texas were furious at him for that power grab. to me that is sort of emblematic of what you've got going on here. you've got a party -- a grass-roots party sitting there in the hall that is somehow disconnected from the guy they're about to nominate. i think that was evidence on the floor tonight and evident in the speech tonight. i'll say one other thing about chris christie's speech. i thought it was touch and aggressive toward the democratic party. it was a tough, combative speech. it was was nasty and mean in tone, which might be nice for chris christie and make him feel good, and might score some points for the base, but does nothing for what chris was saying the main convention of this convention has to be, to tell us who mitt romney is and why he would be a better steward of the economy. open him up, talk about him, explain him.

this speech did none of that tonight. i think even ann romney's speech never used the kind of anecdote or line or moment we didn't know about that somehow was refusal revel atory. that makes me think he might have the values and character to be something more than a spreadsheet mr. fix-it. that's what they need to do here. i don't think they did it tonight at all. >> steve, let me bring you into this you want earlier the key issue was talking to people who are otherwise not persuaded. this should not be entertainment for the base, this should be talking to the few americans who don't know who they're going to vote for, or don't know if they will bother to vote. did you hear any more of that? >> i disagree with howard and chris on the ann romney speech. i thought she did a great speech. i thought the presentation was tremendous. i think she's done more in the 20 minutes when she spoke to

give human dimensions to mitt romney than any other person has done over the course of the campaign. when you look at these conventions, you look for a theme to build over the four nights or in this case, like the convention, four years ago over three nights, and then it's wrapped up, of course, in the most important speech of the week, the nominating address that mitt romney will give. so far on the first night of the convention there's been no unifying theme that's identifiable. you heard nikki haley talk about south carolina, you heard references to ohio, as chris pointed out, you heard the best parts of rick santorum's speech being about rick santorum and his family life. >> almost his own campaign to it. >> there's been a total lack of focus on fleshing out who mitt romney is and what his plan to turn the country around is, which i think is the critical bar that republicans have to get over. i think the chris christie speech, i would disagree with howard, i don't think it came across as mean.

i think it was a barnburner speech. i think he's a tremendous political performer, but again it lacked the unifying theme, the argument that you're trying to make about mitt romney out to the persuadable universe of voters. >> there's an argument about chris christie. i will say on my disliking the christie speech, i was prepared to like it, i enjoy his speaking style. i follow him along in a way that elicits humor. there's a tiny touch of humor at the top of his speech, and i thought, right, maybe he 50e8 be funny, the first on the stage all night, and i didn't follow the plot. i didn't see any further humor in it, and i think it fell flat. i wanted that barn to be burned. and it was not. i want to go to lawrence o'donnell, who is in the hall for the speech, and could tell us again a bit more about what it's like there. >> rachel, i agree with you, i have seen chris christie give better speeches.

i expected a better performance out of him. one key thing is after he stopped talking about his mother early in the speech, he never smiled again. they should have put a big smile up on his camera out there, out on the end of the teleprompter, because a lot of the rhetoric he was closing with was reagan-style soaring rhetoric about america. it was delivered with a very grim and angry face. that was not the way to deliver that message, especially to an audience tonight, many of whom in american have never seen this man before and don't know this man. in the two speeches we just saw there were only two government programs mentioned, one was in ann romney's speech, the abigail adams scholarships in massachusetts that she's very proud that her husband helped create while as governor. those are scholarships of government money to exclusively government-run institutions of higher learning.

a pure government cycling of government money for the benefit of students. these are the kinds of people students benefiting from that that rick santorum was apparently condemning earlier tonight as being part of the client class of the american population, the so-called half of the population that just takes from this government. chris christie mentioned only one government program, it was the g.i. bill. it was the beginning of his speech, rachel. he said his dad grew up in poverty. two sentences later, his dad was on the g.i. bill, put himself through rutgers to become the first in his family to earn a college degree. many of us have told that story about our fathers, many of us have gratitude to our government and to our politicians' foresight to enable us to tell those stories about our fathers. >> lawrence, thank you for that. i want to, on the issue of the oratory, we should turn to our professor of oratory,

reverend al sharpton, you remarked during the speech, that you felt like the applause lines and laugh lines weren't hitting at the right time. it didn't seem like he was connecting. >> no, i was frankly i thought that chris christie flunked tonight. i've heard him before. i don't agree with his politics, but i have seen him be very effective. i think what he did probably, as an orator, is what i wouldn't do in 2004 when i did the convention, he shouldn't have stayed on reading the teleprompter. if he had been extemporaneous, i think he would have been better, because usually that's how he speaks. he was way off. he was also very contradictory. when you see the fact that mitt romney is sitting there, ann romney came out and talked about love, and chris christie said forget love, it's about respect. i mean, does anybody read these speeches before they go?

it was the exact opposite. he said, let's all come together and then he beat up on the teachers' union for the next five minutes, then calls for unity again and beats up. i mean, he was like the ralph kramden if you're old enough to remember "the honeymooners." ping, zoom, to the moon, alice. the bully of the party. i think he had an opportunity tonight to really lay out a case for romney, which he did not do, lay out a case for the party, but to come being built up as the guy that could be the other side of what barack obama was, who came with hope, and be the guy saying it's us against them. let me tell you about them, let me tell you about us. let me tell you about them, let me tell you about us. let me tell you about romney and the hard truth, he won't tell you about the tax returns, he won't really tell you what he did at bain. every line was so inconceivable to the facts that i was really very disappointed.

>> he gave a typical republican speech, every man for yourself. we all know that chris christie loves the limelight, he has a huge ego. we can say he was angry. he will come back and say i'm very passionate and love the country and the issues, but we can't push aside the facts that new jersey is 48th in unemployment, 47th in economic growth and unemployment rate of 9.8%, the highest since 1977. he sells pretty good, because those are pretty bad numbers. those are numbers that parallel what mitt romney did when he was governor of massachusetts. it's very typical. go after workers, go after the teachers' union, they're the problem. i don't think this came anywhere near barack obama 2004, red state/blue state speech. i don't think this launched chris christie onto the national scene as a major player. i think he felt short of expectations.

i think that romney's reaction tonight, watching that, he was kind of studying it, like we picked christie to do this? i don't know if he's passionate or matt. i'm rethinking this thing. i thought romney was looking at him as a calculating manner, i don't think we did the right thing here. he didn't sell romney at all. >> he waited 1800 words into a 2600 word speech to even bring him in. chris, were you trying to get in on this? were you trying to jump in there? >> yeah, i think on a couple points i'm with the injure, and on at least one point i'm against it. no mention of the last republican presidential nomination, not a word about w. not a word in the near about him. no reference to the rather discredited republ housef representatives, not a word defending the republican congress, and more recently not a word defending the republican platform, which was declared tonight. so the republicans will not defend any aspect of their record right up through tonight.

what i thought christie was great at was the barn-burning red meat speech about why people are republicans. i think he spoke to the heart and gut of republicans watching tonight. i think they felt what he feels about teachers' unions. i think they felt what he feels about the country. he is like real much kramden. there was a lot of jackie gleason in this guy, there was a bit of jackie gleason in him tonight. he had a touch of churchill tonight, had nothing to do with romney or the republican report, but i thought it was a barnburner. i thought it was a big success. i was looking at john sununu who was going crazy, he loved it so much. i looked at the faces of the delegates when they stood up, they loved it. and once again, the wooden candidate himself was so out of place. romney looked like prince charles visiting new guinea, like he was coming into some other culture where people were all excited about something, and he was vaguely bemused by what they were all excited about.

he's not a republican in his gut. republicans in their gut love that big guy tonight. romney was an observer, an observer like prince charles. all he didn't have was the kilt, coming in and watching the dancers as if they were in some other culture, like the cargo cult or something. it was bizarre. once again, his presence doesn't match the p.r. howard wants to jump in. >> the objective tonight was not to make john sununu happy. john sununu was made happy by paul ryan, the objective tonight is to begin the conversation with undecided voters, and try to woo them and explain to them why mitt romney is the answer. chris christie didn't do it. we can argue about ann romney, who's a lovely person and gave a nice speech, but none of them i don't think made what should be the central theme of this convention, which is who mitt romney is and what he will do. it hasn't been said so far. i agreed with lawrence o'donnell, the fact that chris

christie didn't smile at all, and looked so aggrieved, is not what's necessary for undecided voters. it's just not. >> we were talking about themes, and i do think there's been one theme tonight. it's the nostalgia of experience for upward social mobility. of a previous generation of americans. nikki haley talked about her parents building a business. rick santorum talked about the immigrant grandfather who came, and the father who worked his way up. chris christie, ann romney talked about her father. so what it is is this nostalgia, right, this was this experience of american social mobility that is now gone. when chris christie says this line, which i thought was the most interesting, we are the great-grandchildren of men and women who broke their backs in the name of ingenuity. who was in that "we"? who is in the we of we are the great grandchildren. it's not people who came in this generation or the generation before.

that's a very circumscribed set of people to whom he is talking, a set of people who feel america is not theirs anymore, who have the nostalgia of mobility in the past, that i will say objectively the case, no longer a part of american life right now. social mobility has actually declined. they're speaking to it in this very conservative way, but they are addressing something very real about the way people feel about where the country is. >> they're addressing a real thing that's true about america, that's also a personality thing about the candidate. they are trying to solve mitt romney's thurston howell problem by using other people's biography and avoiding his. >> right. >> george romney is not running. >> or his grandparents. >> one other thing that christie said that caught my attention. we all must share in the sacrifice. i haven't heard a republican say that. >> he wants to repeal the bush tax cuts for people making over $250,000 a year maybe? >> i haven't heard that one. what sacrifice have the republicans been talking about as of late?

>> during chris christie's keynote speech, strategist david axelrod tweeted this -- i know he's going to mention mitt somewhere, isn't he is it i'm just saying. ahead this hour, we will hear from rick santorum with andrea mitchell, plus robert gibbs of the obama campaign. after this break, nbc's tom brokaw and david gregory will join us. this is msnbc's live coverage of the republican convention. stay with us.

eye we have a nominee who will tell us the truth and lead with conviction and now he has a running mate who will do the same. we have governor mitt romney and congressman paul ryan, and we need to make them the next president and vice president of the united states. we're back, covering msnbc's coverage of the republican

convention. i'm down in tampa. nbc's tom brokaw and david gregory join us. tom, why don't you start. i think i'm the lone person out here tonight. i thought governor christie gave a barnburner of a speech tonight for his party. your thoughts? >> i think they're always impressionistic speeches. they're not going to go through them like a debater trying to count up points. i think chris christie at a time when american is not looking for another slick politician is very much who he is. former prosecutor, out there making his case to the jury. david and i have been talking to this. he said something quite remarkable. when there are people in the room who care more about doing the job they were elected to do than worrying about reelection, it is possible to work together to achieve principled compromise and get results. that's an indictment of his party as well as the democrats. then he went on to say, when talking about the generational thing -- make no mistake every

generation will be judged, so will we. will they say we stood up and made tough choices to preserve our way of life? going to what chris hayes said, we talked about social mobility, and the legacy that one generation will leave to another, my own guess is that will resonate in some fashion out there. what i said earlier about mrs. romney, a lot of people don't know her in this kind of context, but in tonight she made a very strong performance. david and i were talking about that as well. four years ago democrats got off to a fast start, because women are playing an evermore important role in these elections, by putting out michelle obama and hillary clinton. tonight the republicans put out the wife of a candidate. she made a very compelling argument, in my judgment at least, about why he can be trusted personally with the lives of the people he now wants to represent as their president. david? >> yeah, i mean, i think -- i don't know how much we'll hear compromise from the podium here

on the course of this. i think the other thing that was strong that gives christie the appeal, is less what he can say in favor of advocating mitt romney, and more about what he's saying to the swing voters out there, the people who are fed up with washington, who really hate politics right now. i think he has a strong appeal there. the truth is, and you made this observation, this crowd in the hall may not have been as fired up, in part because he had some tough language for them, didn't say it explicitly, but he's talking about a republican-led house. that's got 12% approval. so i think that kind of thing resonates out there. if they can be connected in the course of the campaign, then he's laid the groundwork. chris? >> tom, first, the whole question of a keynote speech, historically take a look at it and tell us what a keynote is generally expected to do. is it raw meat? is it to get the delegates excited about the problems they

have with the opponent? is it to turn them on generally in favor of the candidate? i've always thought of it as basically going back to tom dewey in '60s as a way to rip off the bark of the other guy and get the people in the hall convinced that they have the winning case. >> well, chris, you and i have been watching this for a very long time. these are moving targets these days, what is the expectations for the various assignments people have, keynote speakers. for example, rudy giuliani gave the classic keynote speech. it was filled with red meat, talking about john mccain, and rudy giuliani came to that podium, having been so prominent in the events of 9/11. that was almost a classic keynote speech. the kind of a speech that barack obama gave was a statement about the country and what we can do,

and less about john kerry and much more in many ways about barack obama, frankly, and we all know that it launched him into this national figure very quickly. each of them has their own dna, chris. >> chris, can i add, i think what you heard tonight was a big philosophical contrast. they believe this, we believe that. i think that's something you'll hear more of. perhaps paul ryan will be more specific about the president's policies, and where he'll argue they have failed. this is about a huge contrast and philosophical approaches, the relationship between the people and government. i think that's what chris christie was getting at. that's partly what fires up the base of this party right now, and will be the same on the democratic side as well. >> well, the philosophy difference, i agree, i thought chris christie addressed the differences historically without having to defend, as you guys

mentioned the republican congress report recently, and even the platform agreed to tonight, and certainly no reference to george w. bush's administration. do you think they're better off ignoring the past, running forward, talking philosophy, and the advantage of a republican philosophy over what we have in this administration? >> well, i think it's interesting you raise that's that point, because christie makes a point of saying there's a lot of blame to go around for how we got to here. another example of him -- we talked about principled compromise. that was another shot across the bow saying we have to find a way to work together. that's as much about the republican party as it is the democratic party. i think you're right, he doesn't want to go back and talk about where the debt started under president bush. because i think we're building toward something with mitt romney. we've got problems, our

politicians is dysfunctional, washington is dysfunctional. the guy may not set the room on fire, but who has the capacity to fix it. that's what i think everything is building toward. how to sell mitt romney. >> i know he has said privately to a lot of people encouraging him to run for president, in many ways the best thing that happened to him as governor, is that he was dealing with a democratic legislature, because he couldn't assume, as john kasich did mistakenly in ohio, he could just run rough shod over the state, and kasich learned, as he always does, from that experience. what christie has said to a number of people encouraging him to run, i have to deal with a democratic legislature, they do have very high unemployment. he does these town hall meetings all over where he listens to people and they put them online. he told me the other day they have look a 58% return on their investment in the online stuff, 58% of the people say they like what they're hearing, they like the idea he's talking to them and listening to them.

i think he's trying to take that message frankly to the country. what's striking to me is obviously they didn't talk about george w. bush, eight years in office, there's been no mention of the two longest wars in america's history, afghanistan and iraq, and just again in the last two days we've had more americans killed in afghanistan by afghan policemen, and there has been almost no talk about that. these were wars started by the republican party, and promoted by them in the early stage, with the assent of the democratic congress and the democratic senate, but heavily promoted as the idea of delivering democracy to iraq and afghanistan. that is an unrealized goal at this point, and no reference to it here tonight so far. >> well, tom, so like you to remind us of the soldiers in the field right now. i think that's part of the patriotic spirit tonight that shouldn't have been overlooked. thank you both. back to rachel in new york.

thanks, chris. i should mention that senator kelly ayotte, and nikki haley, the governor of south carolina, both of them have husbands who have served in post-9/11 wars, and both of them at least mentioned that tonight in their remarks. senator ayotte in particular going into some detail about that. in terms of discussing the wars and sacrifices, and also in terms of discussing national security policy, that has been absolutely nowhere at all. i think tom is absolutely right to remark upon that. joining us is robert gibbs, senior adviser to the obama campaign. former white house press secretary. mr. gibbs, i understand that you maybe have brought yourself into the republican convention bodily at some point tonight and survived to tell the tale? >> you know, i was in the

convention, and i think folks were a little surprised. they did a few double testify takes, but they were quite cordial. >> congratulations on that very small form of bravery. let me ask you about the keynote address, chris christie, we've been remarking on the fact that it was very much about chris christie. around the time he turned to mitt romney, he said this -- i wanted to get your response mitt romney will tell us the hard truths we need to hear to end the debacle of putting the greatest health care system in the hands of bureaucrats and putting them between an american citizen and her doctor. it is a criticism of health reform, and also references the idea of the government getting between women and their doctors. your response to that charge? >> well, i mean, i was really -- i'm kind of flabbergasted at the whole night. it seemed, first and foremost, like this was a very angry convention tonight, full of

insults. this was not a plan for mitt romney's -- or mitt romney's plan to build the middle class. i don't have any idea who chris christie was describing in his speech, because i don't think mitt romney throughout this campaign or for one moment on the campaign trail has told any person a hard truth. i cannot recall one moment in two years that he's taken on the belief structure of his own party. obviously the notion that somehow, you know, how chris christie and others have described health care or the decisions that women have to make, again this bore just no real resemblance to what's going on in their party, bore no resemblance to what's going on in the country. i think it was a very, very strange night. >> the opening speech of the convention tonight was from house speaker john boehner. it was a little -- i think it was unfair to put it on television, in part because

nobody in the room was yet paying attention to what was going on, so it sort of seemed like people were ignoring him. that's an awkwardness of television at an early point in the program, but the recurring theme of his speech was that president obama should be thrown out as if an unwelcomed person in a bar. he should be thrown out as if the country is a bar bouncer and the president is there inside that bar as an unwelcomed patron. there was some remarking on this network that may have been inappropriate rhetoric toward the president, just in terms of its sort of violent tone. i wonder if you had any thoughts on that? >> certainly i go back to i think the night was sort of highlighted by lots of anger and insults. it was not -- mitt romney, you have this -- a piece of history, in that he enters this general election as the single least popular nominee to run for president in probably ten elections. so the work they have cut out

for them in this race is to build up mitt romney. all they tried to do was be angry and tear down barack obama. i think in that respect, it was a huge missed opportunity and a huge failure for the republicans in the republican convention. i mean, look, my guess is the reason that john boehner spoke so early is, you know, the republicans in congress approval rating is -- you know, it's like 10%. i think the language that they use is off-putting to people, and i heard somebody earlier talking about, well, john sununu loved this speech, and john sununu loved -- if john sununu is the focus group that this party tonight was trying to reach, then it is going to miss a huge swath of undecided voters that are going to decide this election. john sununu is already probably far more wound up than he needs to be. this isn't about reaching john

sununu, it's about reaching somebody else. i think when speaker boehner using the type of language he does, and some of the other language you heard tonight, i think it's offputting for americans that want to here what mitt romney wants to do. >> robert gibbs, obama campaign senior adviser, former white house press secretary giving advice that they definitely will not take, even if it's good advice, because it's coming from you. >> i tried. >> thank you for joining us. nice to see you. >> thanks. the latest on the other big story of the night, the just as big story, and that's hurricane isaac. we'll talk live with rick santorum, yes. you are watching msnbc's live coverage of the republican convention.

i'm meteorologist bill karins with an update on hurricane isaac. the storm now is stationary, just south of new orleans. new orleans is just sitting there in these heavy bands of rain. we now have flash flood warnings for the new orleans area and for southeastern louisiana. the pictures we just got in. so far reports are that the pumps are working just fine, there's no prove with the levees or anything else, but this is not what you want to hear. it just adds to the fear this storm has stalled out to your south and you're set up in the heavy bands of rain. the latest radar from the area, you can see the power flashes there, too, reporting about a quarter to half a million people without power in southeastern louisiana, and coastal areas. you can see where the storm is along the coast, and the bright yellows and oranges are heavy bands of rain pouring into the louisiana areas, especially around new orleans. more throughout the night in our "first look" on msnbc.

now back to the convention. republican convention, nbc's andrea mitchell is on the convention floor with my dear friend rick santorum. andrea? >> thank you, rachel. i'm with rick santorum. you gave the speech today. you focused heavily on welfare, and really went at the president, a lot of the fact checkers have said that campaign ad by the romney campaign is not accurate, that the waivers were requested by republican governors. what's up with that? >> i'm not suggesting that some some republican governors don't want to waive the work requirement. some do, unfortunately, but congress is very clear that we understand that the way to move people from welfare to work is to do two things. require work and to put a time

limit on welfare. as someone who helped write the bill, the principal author, we in the house in particular, we said that those are the things we were not going to allow to be waived. we created enormous flexibility for governors to do all sorts of things to try to help people do those two things, and guess what happened? welfare rolls went dramatically down, people went back to work. poverty went down. all of these things proved to work and work well. president obama opposed welfare reform, opposed work requirements, he waived work requirements earlier in his term on food stamps, and food stamps have exploded. >> they've exploded because the economy is in such terrible shape and need help. >> and because we have broadened eligibility. look, this is a president who continues to broaden eligibility for a variety of different programs, and pulling back on work requirements. the only reason you issue something that says we want to waive work requirements is to

weaken those requirements or in some cases i suspect they could be eliminated. >> how did it feel tonight? you fought so hard for this nomination, you won the early primaries, mitt romney clobbered you with money, and you're here tonight, loyal republican soldier watching the acclaim for mitt romney? what's the emotional tug there? >> oh, none, to be very honest with you. you know, look, i got into this race, because i believe this is the most important election in my lifetime. and president obama is doing severe damage to our country on every front. and we have an obligation to try to right the ship here. i have no emotion other than trying to get people, as many people came up and said, thank you, you helped me rally behind governor romney. that's really what i'm here to do. >> the keynote speech from chris christie? >> vintage chris christie. i'm someone who grew up in an italian home, so i sort of love

that smashmouth, you know right at 'em kind of stuff. >> does it make it harder for mitt romney in the acceptance speech when you have such a bare knuckles speech from chris christie? do you think some republicans are thinking would should coulda? >> i think there's a place for bare knuckles, and a place for velvet touch. a president has to have that range that a singer has or an actor has to be able to communicate on a variety of different levels. chris seems to have one speed. i think governor romney has more than one speed and hopefully we'll see that on display thursday night. >> one more work about ann romney's speech, because the republican women here seemed to be responding to that clarion call from the candidate's wife. >> well, there's nothing better for a candidate than to hear from the person they have spent what, you know,

how many years with. i think that insight -- i always felt that this convention, the most important thing it can do is give people a better picture of who mitt romney is, and i think she did a good job doing that tonight. >> rick santorum, thank you. rachel, back to you. >> thank you, andrea. and thank you to senator santorum. i say senator santorum, in my opinion gave the best speech of the night bar none. he was not billed as the guy that was going to do that, but i think he did a great job, but that said, with andrea trying to nail him on the issue of whether or not the president did try to remove the work requirement, the president did no such thing, mr. santorum's only explanation was to blame governors who might have requested that flexibility. those governors of course would include mitt romney when he was governor of massachusetts. so the welfare attack still just factually absolutely disastrous for the republicans, but they don't seem to care. i do have one correction to

make. i referred to senator santorum as my dear friend, i was lying. he's not my friend. he won't even talk to me. that was wishful thinking. coming up ezra klein. on chris christie's view of the public sector and what's actually been happening the last few years. this is msnbc's live coverage of the republican convention.

they want it was impossible to touch the third rail of politics, to take on the public sector unions. >> governor chris christie making the case for himself as the doer of the impossible, going after public workers, and eliminating those jobs, because those jobs do not count as jobs in republican economics. joining us now is ezra klein, joining us from the isolated bubble of truth. >> thank you, rachel. very truthy in here. that speech i thought was kind of amazing in that particular way. one, none of these things are

all that impossible, but one of the big arguments you have seen from christie in general and from the republicans more broadly over the whole election is that government and in particular government jobs are not how you recover from a recession. state public sector payrolls got bloated, that was part of the problem, and and christie sort of a particularly good messenger, as he said tonight over and over again, he's well known for picking an winning a number of fights with state employees in new jersey. but here's the weird thing about this recession, one of the things that we've actually done, that actually happened that was really unusual is we have cut public sector jobs, and in particular state and local jobs -- what you are seeing here are government jobs in recent recession. here's '81, reagan's big recession, a bit of a dip there, but government jobs begin recovering really quickly. in 1990, george h.w. bush, government hired his way through

recession, and a bit out of it. like far father, like son, george w. bush's recession, no dip in public sector, we added them at a rapid clip, a lot from day 1 in the recession, and here is the most recent recession, the one that ends president bush's term, and continues through president obama's, you see a bit of a rise, that's usually stimulus, and a huge spike around the temporary census jobs, but then they start falling hard and fast. there is nothing like that in the reagan or bush years, nothing that even looks anything like it. so if you want to make it more concrete than lines, as of june, the public sector lost 600,000 jobs in this recession. if we hadn't lost those jobs, just stayed at zero, no change, the unemployment rate would have been 7.8%, but you can take that even further. public sector jobs growing as fast under obama as they did

under george w. bush, we would have added 800,000 new public sector jobs. that would have driven unemployment to 7.3%. 7.3, and obama would be in much better shape and republicans would have a much harder road ahead of them this fall and in fact this convention. it's true that government isn't how we recovered from this recession, but government jobs have in fact been a drag, kept us from recovering, but it's one of the ways we've recovered from past recessions, in particular when president reagan and bush were in charge. >> when we're hearing that one of the knocks on president obama is he's grown government out of control, you're saying they must be talking about some way he's done that that doesn't involve actual people working for the government? >> they're not talking about vast number of people to be hired by the government. to be fair, they've been blocking a lot of that money. president obama would have liked to have done more, but the government said no, you see the bureau of labor and statistics employment reports every month,

the republicans press releases say this looks terrible in part because of the government jobs we lost. >> thank you. putting those numbers to that rhetoric is very sobering. tomorrow night it will be paul ryan's turn, his vision of america, and what we can expect to hear from them. we'll talk about that when we return. msnbc's live coverage of the republican convention, stay with us. we know a place where tossing and turning have given way to sleeping.

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tomorrow night is paul ryan's night, the vice presidential nominee that republicans are very excited about, but who has failed to move the needle for voters more broadly with this ticket. the speaker i'm most excited for is not paul ryan, but mike huckabee. i'm expecting a goldwater 1960 moment from me. chris, looking ahead tomorrow? >> i say tonight was a great bench, not so great for the captain of the football team, romney. he didn't look like the leader tonight. he looked like he was visiting a convention, not part of it. >> your line about him looking like prince charles in new guinea was the line of the night. steve schmidt, heading into tomorrow, paul ryan's night. what else do they need to get done tomorrow? >> huge national introduction of paul ryan. there will be a big audience. condoleezza rice will be tomorrow night, going to -- someone who has broad appeal to the middle of the electorate.

someone widely admired. tomorrow is a night where i think they have to get done what they didn't get done tonight, begin building the case for mitt romney and what is the plan to turn the country around. >> ed? >> tomorrow night not a night of detail for paul ryan. he'll speak in generic terms, very lofty, theological type of stuff, political type stuff, visionary. he won't tell us about the $716 billion lie they've been running on the campaign trail. this is a guy that ran his mother out in front of a crowd out in florida to help him lie. he's been the purporter of this lie throughout. i don't think we'll get that tomorrow night. we won't get any numbers that says -- he won't be detail, but lofty. >> it will be "i love medicare" night from paul ryan. >> that's right. >> i will say to chris, it is better to look like prince charles in new guinea than prince harry in las vegas. >> fair enough. >> i think that ryan has to show

he's more than an ideologue, and that he can rise to the national stage and be trusted to stand there if he becomes vice president and for whatever reason have to take over. i don't know if he can rise to that occasion. i want to say to chris, though people loved ralph kramden, they didn't want him to choose the next president. tomorrow night, honestly, i think it's todd akin's night. we have his biggest defender, in republican politics, mike huckabee. with the primetime speaking spot. condoleezza rice beloved and respected, but also speaks for the george w. bush years. that will push those back to the center. it will be fascinating. thank you steve, ed shultz, reverend sharpton. chris hays. we'll be back tomorrow evening starting at 7:00 p.m. eastern. it will continue with the one and only chris matthews. stay with us. e the pressure poin my feet and exactly where i needed more support. i had tired, achy feet. until i got my number. my dr. scholl's custom fit orthotics number. now i'm a believer. you'll be a believer, too.

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well, good evening. i'm chris matthews in tampa still. a night at the national convention. three big speeches tonight. all with very different tone, we had the attitude and the soul.

the attitude came from the keynoter christiety. his job was to give a little new jersey attitude and take the fight to obama. he delivered barn burner. >> there's only one thing missing now -- leadership. it takes leadership that you don't get from reading a poll. you see, mr. president, real leaders don't follow polls. real leaders change polls. >> well, earlier in the night, ann romney the wife of the candidate was tasked with the most difficult challenge of the night -- trying to do what her husband has so far failed to do. make himself huggable. >> i can't tell you what will happen over the next four years, but i can only stand here tonight as a wife and a mother and a grandmother, an american, and make you this solemn commitment. this man will not fail. >> and for the soul you had rick

santorum getting a huge ovation when he talked about the rights of unborn children and he gave a one-sentence reference to the claim of president obama's removing the work requirement for welfare. he didn't exactly plug it too hard. let's watch santorum. >> under president obama, the dream of freedom and opportunity has become a nightmare of dependency, with almost half of america receiving some sort of government assistance. >> well, he'll make the case, always make the case for mitt romney, especially with independent voters. did any of the speechers tonight help boost the candidate himself? well, a lot to talk about now, but i'm joined by alan fineman and michael steele. both are msnbc political analysts. well, you guys have been sitting there watching it all night. michael, this republican

convention, we all know what a keynote night is. it's to begin to rip the bark off the opponent and get the juices flowing for the candidate. let's try that second goal. did you see any juices flowing from mitt romney tonight, beside his wife's well rehearsed speech? >> i thought the one aspect of the christie speech was i thought a strong speech, a good speech, was how long it took into the speech to actually talk about mitt romney. >> did you hear axelrod was tweeting? when is he going to say the word romney? >> actually, that was a tweet from a lot of republicans that i was seeing as well. so it was sort of a dissonance in that respect. one big take away was, you know -- tell the people the truth and they'll act bigger that's what the campaign is about. i thought he captured that. but it was very interesting how he kind of took a little while to kind of connect romney to that. in my estimation. >> i thought that was the theme tonight. these governors who are very impressive i thought talking

about their own records. >> yes. >> only at the tail end mentioning almost like they're paying for their supper. you know? >> right. exactly, chris. >> the candidate. >> out on the floor where i was, i really got the sense that mitt romney while not incidental to the republican party or to the convention was not the organizing principle of it either. these other people are. their energy is. the agenda is. the new sort of tea party infused grass roots party is. mitt romney is the guy who somehow is going to enable it by the fact of becoming president. he's going to enable the forces not really be the force himself. i know that's what ann romney said. she said he will not fail. but if he succeeds, it's going to be with the energy and enthusiasm of all the other people. now, chris christie spoke for himself mostly. i did in new jersey, if i did it in new jersey, they can do it in

washington. chris christie gave the most anti-politics political speech i have heard at a convention in a long time. he captured the resentment of people about politicians and about leadership which is interesting. so he in a way made the mountain higher for mitt romney to climb because now we have to believe in this era he can do. >> i put on your real republican hat, michael. sell me on the fact that's a connection between that hall and mitt romney. it looked -- he looked like a takeover guy and bought it. he didn't look like one of the delegates, those delegates were turned on by chris christie and by kasich and by romney's wife. he came in there on wheels. >> let's revisit the discussion on thursday night. >> okay. >> but look, let me tell you why, chris. because this wasn't a nice for romney to center himself.

it was about others centering him. so thursday night will be his night. so we can do this conversation on thursday night and see whether or not he lived up to the expectation. >> let's take a look at more christie if we can. let's take a look at the christie bite from tonight. >> i know this simple truth and i am not afraid to say it. our ideas are right for america and their ideas have failed america. we believe in telling hard working families the truth. about our country's fiscal realities. telling them what they already know, the math of federal spending does not add up. with $5 trillion in debt, added over the last four years we have no other option but to make the hard choices. cut federal spending and fundamentally reduce the size of this government.

want to know what they believe? they believe that the american people don't want to hear the truth about the extent of our fiscal difficulties. they believe the american people need to be coddled by big government. their plan -- whistle a happy tune while driving us off the fiscal cliff. as long as they're behind the wheel of power when we fall. >> you know, i thought -- you're the republican here. i thought he got into the nervous system of the typical republican. i think the typical republican feels about the teachers union the way he felt. he seems to connect with the nervous system. >> no, he did. and again, i think it's a good set-up for what's to come on thursday night. but he did make that initial connection, sort of draw attention to what the broader scope of this election is going to be about. yeah, you make the assumption that you -- part of the teacher's union, therefore, you follow the mantra. heat making that -- he's saying

there's a disconnect between the union leadership and the rank and file and romney, that's an opening for him to come through with a different message, a better message. says, yeah, you can be part of the union, but let's build this country difficultly and better. let's not be beholden to the status quo. >> is it fair to say that the teachers are opposed to the teachers union. they keep re-electing their leaders. >> no, there are problems in the educational system no one can deny. there are abusers by the teachers and the unions to be sure, but the tone of this thing -- his speechespeeches, t combination of resentment and anger i thought was interesting. but i know that independent voters are upset. i know they're angry and feel disassociated from the system, but is the job as somebody like that, reaching those voters to reflect their resentment or to give them hope to get out of it?

i heard more resentment and anger this than i did real hope. nostalgia, resentment, anger. >> well, you know this campaign will be ejecting obama from the white house. they have to put somebody in there, but it's basically to get rid of obama. >> it's about firing obama. >> that was the message, throw him out of the bar. get rid of them. these lines, i never heard throw him out of the bar about the president of the united states. he probably doesn't drink very much anyway. this is christie warning that the country is going down a dark path. sounds scary. >> i don't know about you, but i don't want my children and grandchildren to have to read the history book about what it was like to live in an american century. i don't want an america that is overtaxed, overborrowed into second class american citizenship. i want them to live in a second

century. >> i'm not sure if i want to live in the century. >> let's go to ann romney, she's attractive tonight. did she accomplish the task of humanizing him. she's very human. how about him? i'm not sure it transferred. here is ann romney speaking for her husband. >> you may not agree with mitt's positions on issues or his politics. by the way, massachusetts is only 13% republican, so it's not like it's a shock to me. but let me say this to every american about who is thinking who should be our next president. no one will work harder. no one will care more and no one will move heaven and earth like mitt romney to make this country a better place to live. >> i don't know whether she

answered the key problem. as somebody said tonight in one of the seminars down here, obama cares about and understands the person's problems but can't s solve them yet. yet is my word. romney can fix them, but doesn't understand them. you start here, michael, did she portray a husband who understood the problems of the average person, not a person who has a quarter million in the bank like their family, quarter billion in the bank, but does she get it? >> i think she does. i think she connected it very nicely, to be honest with you. i thought she gave a nice, strong, yet soft speech. by soft i mean it sort of humanized him in a way. i thought, you know, she talked about this man won't fail you. he he's not going to let you down. he's going to lift you know. i thought that was a connecting moment. >> like a car commercial. >> oh, please. >> i can't sense the humanity of it. >> it was not a car commercial. i thought it was a very strong moment.

>> couple quick thing. because i'm a writer, i like to hear a narrative. i like to hear an anecdote. tell me a story about how mitt romney did something in your private life, in your family life, something we wouldn't know about. >> why didn't she talk about the society and all the good things that mormon people do every -- >> they don't want -- for the most part they don't talk about the mormon church. >> they have a real commitment to doing things, not just giving money. >> that i think was a failure. but i think she -- the smile, the -- her evident love for her husband comes through there. and i think that's a help to him. >> sometimes that's enough. >> sometimes that's enough. i think she could have done a better job of making the sale, but her very presence up there and her sort of beaming sense of how much she loved her husband did come through. i think that's important. that's very important. >> she's gleaming as a presence. certainly that's true. that smile and all. everything is sort of very giving and winning i have to say. let me take a look at somebody

who wasn't too winning tonight. this is speaker john boehner. he kept talking about his family's business running a bar, which is fine, a lot of people grew up that way. he had some strong words about the president of the united states. just remember the office we are talking about. he talked about what happened if president obama walked into bar owned by his family in cincinnati. now watch this. >> let's say right now some guy walked into our bar full of guys looking for work, having a tough go of it and that guy said, well, the private sector is doing fine. but you know what we'd do? that's right, we'd throw them out. think about this. a guy walked into our bar full of people paying more for health care, paying more for gas, paying more for everything and this guy would say, well, we're better off than what we would have been. well, you know what we'd do. we'd throw him out. now, the guy walked into a bar and heard that story and he said, well, if you've got a

business you didn't build that. well, you know what we'd do with him, don't you? we'd throw him out. >> well, there you have it. i mean, the image of the president of the united states being grabbed by the collar and the back of the -- and being chucked out of the bar like a bum, like a drunk. i'm sorry, that's his image. can't you show a little anger at these guys and say that's no way to talk about a president? >> sorry, chris. i just -- i appreciate what you're saying and what you're trying to do here, you're the writer, what do you call that? >> what he's doing there -- >> you wanted a picture? >> he's drawing a picture. >> having written about john boehner, i know about the bar and the youngest child, i know how he swept the floor and everything. >> was a bouncer too? >> yes. he threw people out. >> yes. >> he's using his own frame of reference which is the bar on the outskirts of cincinnati as

the youngest kid. >> i'm not getting it here. can you imagine bill clinton saying that about george herbert walker bush, i'm going to throw him out of the bar. >> if that were their experience, yeah. if that was part of their experience in their childhood. >> it's pretty coarse. but that's john boehner's life. >> is john boehner -- this is a convention, it's red meat for the base. >> sure. well, i think he got that. red meat for the base. thank you. long night. great having you here. the inside man, well, he was anyway. up next, rick santorum makes the case for his former rival. not a lot of love here, but falling more in line than falling in love. we'll talk about santorum in a second. >> under president obama, the dream of freedom and opportunity has become a nightmare of dependency. with almost half of america

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rock 'em, sock 'em, welcome back to the coverage of the convention down in tampa. tonight, rick santorum made a one-sentence reference to the romney claim that obama has eliminated the work requirement from welfare. let's listen to this very quick line right here. >> this summer, he showed us once again he believes in government handouts and dependency by waiving the work requirement for welfare. now, i helped write the welfare reform bill.

we made the law crystal clear. no president can waive the work requirement. but as with his refusal to enforce our immigration laws, president obama rules like he's above the law. >> a strategist for the santorum for president campaign joins us and also jack kingston from sort of nearby georgia. let's go to the speech construction. did you work on the speech with the congressman -- with the senator? >> with the senator. a little bit. it was pretty much of all of rick's writings. i thought he did a good job. he deserves the credit for what was seen by most people as a very emotional and great speech. >> well, who put out the word all day today, a couple of days now, a speech backing up the romney claim that the work requirement has been dropped

from welfare? i heard like a sentence and a half out of a long speech. was this a shell game, did you guys say you'd talk about it to get the speaking part and then decide to talk about life and anti-abortion politics? >> well, first of all, i think rick talked about a lot of things. what he did is he put a face on what this country is about. talking about his grandfather coming here, working in the coal mines and not coming here to be more dependent on programs all the way to his special needs daughter bella and how every life should be valued in this country. welfare was certainly part of it because it illustrated certain points about this president, but it was never going to be a welfare speech. >> well, how come everybody was told it would be? did he pull a double cross on the romney people by saying i'll do your dirty work for you, on the dishonest welfare claim? or did he say i'm going to talk about what i feel talking about? >> actually to the romney campaign's credit, they gave us no real requirements of what we had to speak about.

they let rick write what he wanted to talk about, speak from the heart and that's what he did. >> okay, i guess they were advertising it differently. what do you make of this, congressman? you know about the welfare, you were back there when they passed the welfare reform bill. we can't find a single governor, newspaper, fact checker, who says that's an honest ad. >> i think there's an honest discomfort with what kathleen -- sebelius -- well, she's not defined what the alternatives are. we have jumped board saying what else is there? and remember this portion of the law, section 402 is very specific that you have to work, but she is saying we're going to let other requirements go this there. well, maybe it's education, it's training. maybe -- >> what makes anybody think it's

eliminating though? that's the dishonesty. you can go to job training, if it gets you a job in the end that's the key. >> i think we'd all agree on that. as the left had pointed out that governor romney and a lot of other governors asked as governors for waivers from that, but they did not ask for a waiver from the work requirement. section 402. which is -- our only concern knowing this administration, chris, there may a tendency to say, okay, looking for education -- >> preemptive attack. i get your message. let's take a look at more of rick santorum tonight from his big speech. >> i thank god that america still has one party that reaches out their hands in love to lift up all of god's children, born and unborn.

and we say that each of us has dignity. and all of us have the right to live the american dream. >> john, republican platform planks on abortion ranks i have never seen anything so radical to give life, liberty and property to the unborn, going up to conception. what does it mean to give life except to absolutely outlaw and perhaps criminalize abortion because of it's a person, which is the language used in this resolution. in this platform language, then it would be murder. what's the point of going beyond just banning abortion to calling basically the fertilized egg a

person? what's the point of that? >> what the party has done and through the platform as as you saw in rick santorum's speech tonight we want to make it loud and clear this is a party that believes in life when it really begins and that we are going to fight for those who can't fight for themselves. it's a huge difference with the democratic party and we want to show people around this country, people like reagan democrats throughout the midwest who agree with that position, and understand that we're going to fight for the unborn like we would anybody else in this country. >> but if you declared the fertilized egg a person and someone has an abortion, that's murder. >> well, i think it depends on what the reason -- we are talking about if it's rape, incest, life of the mother, but yeah, there are many who consider it should be taking a life and we're willing to stand

behind that. >> so it's a person that would be killed if there was an abortion? >> well, what we're saying is that we believe that life begins at conception and that they're protected by every rights that anybody in this country should have. >> well, what is the right to property for a fertilized egg or the right to liberty? what does it mean? >> well, the life is -- >> it's in the language of your platform. >> but wait a minute. the right to liberty is the right to actually be born. it's the right to be able to have an opportunity to actually live your life. >> okay. i didn't know that was the right to life. what about the right to property for the fertilized egg, what does that mean? >> i don't know how that was exactly phrased in the platform, but more importantly -- >> it's there. >> it's the distinctions between this and a president, like obama, who even supported the most extreme of all abortion cases, partial birth abortions. >> i know. >> what do you make of this, congressman? can you defend that with the constituency? >> somewhat. you know as somebody who has been involved in this, platforms are somewhat puristic.

we have had this language since '04 and '08. we have had a very strong pro-life platform. >> but this goes further. >> but i want to point out, president bush and senator mccain and now governor romney are exemptions for rape, life of the mother and incest and that's not in the platform. but that's what the candidates believe. >> why are you writing plat foreigns you don't believe? >> remember, democrats said we'd cut poverty in half, and it was at 13% and now it's at 15%. >> i'm learning about the value of a platform. zero. thank you, congressman kingston and john, thank you for coming on tonight. i know you believe completely in rick santorum and what he believes in. the latest on hurricane isaac coming up.

we'll have al roker give us some reporting right from the scene. we're back after that to the republican national convention in tampa. president romney -- boy, i like the sound of that. president romney will keep his word and he'll keep his courage too. he'll keep faith with the idea that government exists to serve the people and that people who built this economy.

i'm meteorologist bill karins with an update on still hurricane isaac and it's sitting along the coastal areas of louisiana. you heard it's land fall, hard to believe this storm is sitting along the coast. the rain bands have been relentless in southeastern portions of louisiana, including the new orleans area, where we have a flash flood warning right now for orleans parish and we're

hearing sthe levees are over top -- some of the earthen levees in the more rural areas are being overtopped in the storm surge. in the storm, you can see it, it's moving a little bit inland over grand isle. if you're on the north side or the northeast quadrant that's where the heaviest rain bands will be found and it's heading up towards the slidell area, over lake pontchartrain. this is the time of the high tides approaching to. just the bottom line, it's not a pretty morning in southeastern louisiana. a lot of the people do not have power. we have already picked up seven inches of rain at the lake front airport there in the northern portions of new orleans. so it's isolated where the really heavy rain has been, but concentrated down where the hurricane is located. winds are gusting up to 60 or 70

miles an hour all night long. it's relentless and continuing over and over again. we'll have an in depth look at the storm and the latest on the power outages. it was electric. >> as the president reflects on the key sigss. >> there are moments you really do put politics aside. >> msnbc looks what inspires his vision. >> we're going to get this country moving. >> i'm chris matthews. join me for this exclusive documentary. do you define your? the blissful pause just before that rich sweetness touches your lips. the delightful discovery, the mid-sweetening realization that you have the house all to yourself. well, almost. the sweet reward, making a delicious choice that's also a smart choice. splenda no-calorie sweetener. with the original sugar-like taste you love and trust.

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we are too smart to know there aren't easy answer, but we are not dumb enough to accept there aren't better answers. that is where this boy i met at a high school dance comes in. his name is mitt romney and you should really get to know him. >> wow. welcome back. mitt romney's wife, ann, took the stage tonight with a daunting task many believe of trying to humanize her husband. and she played up the role quite well. offering herself as the wife of a mr. fix it. take a look here. >> it's true that mitt is successful at each new challenge he has taken on. you know what actually amazes me to see his history of success being attacked. are those really the values that made our country great? >> no! >> as a mom of five boys, do we want to raise our children to be afraid of success? >> no! >> do we send our children out in the world with the advice, try to do okay?

>> no! >> and let's be honest, if the last four years had been more successful, do we really think there would be this attack on mitt romney's success? >> no! >> of course not. mitt will be the first to tell you that he's the most fortunate man in the world. he had two loving parents who gave him strong values and taught him the value of work. he had the chance to get the education his father never had. but as his partner on this amazing journey, i can tell you mitt romney was not handed success. he built it. >> well, joining me right now is joy reed, managing editor, and david corns, my pal. both are msnbc political analysts. joy, your thoughts on this. be completely straight. i know there are all kinds of aspects we look at this from. what did she say to you as you're looking at her on this

stage? >> it's interesting to say looking at her because the first thing that struck me was the staging around her. it was literally ann romney and mitt romney when they were much younger. it wasn't them cuddling their grandchildren, it was them literally in the '50s. ann romney is a very aristocr aristocratic heritage, but the narrative she was selling was about this, you know, aw shucks, common suburban housewife, and it struck me as odd. she married well, she obviously loves him. it didn't feel -- it didn't feel warm. it felt like the lady of the house sort of explaining to those of us who may not be in her league class wise sort of how it is. >> you're not worth the quarter billions. >> indeed. >> david? >> you may not know this, chris, but i am not a white suburban

woman from a well-to-do background. >> exactly. >> so i'm not the target audience here. but nevertheless, i thought parts of the speech were rather condescending. you know, i'm not going to tell you what mitt is going to do for you as you women of america, as you face your difficult days. i'm just going to tell you he's kind of kind and he's okay, and you don't have to worry your pretty head over the details. just take at from me, trust me, he'll be good for you. i thought that was kind of like not the way you address women. the line that you played at the top of the show, which she says you know what, we're not dumb enough to believe there are simple, easy answers. wait a second. who says women are dumb? why are you challenging the premise that women are dumb unless you think that some people believe that. so i thought overall, it was just talking to her tribe and i don't know if it's going to hit home with people who really have to worry about it.

>> let's look at her direct appeal to women by the way. this is the most gender direct speech i have ever heard at a convention. it was about women being whimper say, not about politician, at least not overtly. let's listen. >> you are the ones who have to do a little bit more and you know what it is like to work harder during the day to earn the respect you deserve at work. then you come home at night and help with the book report, just because it has to be done. you know what those late night phone kales with an elderly parent are like and the long weekend drives to see how they're doing. you know it is like to be to the emergency room and which doctors answer the phone call when you call at night. by the way, i know all about that. you know what it's like to sit in that graduation ceremony and wonder how it was that so many long days turned to years that went by so quickly. you are the best of america. you --

you are the hope of america. there would not be an america without you. tonight, we salute you and sing your praises. >> you know, one of the conceits -- joy, american public discourse is the better half, you know, i married up. it's all charming. it's chivalrous. but i never had a woman make the case. it's usually the guy twhs who d this. >> in the olden days you were told, dear, go to barnard, go to the right schools, marry well. daughters of the american revolution, she gives you that old world aristocratic vibe, but, you know the contrast i thought of watching her speak? think about sarah palin. i know it's a different role, but when she got up and she was the hockey girl with lipstick and mean girl routine, i believe that's sarah palin. she's the gun-toting woman out there shooting bears and doing

what she said she did. with ann romney i didn't picture her to be the one to call the doctor and i picture her having the maid do it. >> she does have health challenges. ms -- >> i think that's the best part of her story. it's authentic. and the love for her husband. >> she didn't bring that up tonight. >> talk about it briefly. i don't think she has to. but there was this element of gender warfare. i mean, listen, in my house i do the book reports, i talk kids to the doctor's. >> oh, you're advertising yourself here. >> wait a second. are they now anti-dad? i mean, it was so condescending. you know, you women are -- you know, you put your -- you're hard pressed upon. it was sort of like the feminist critique coming from a very odd place. because i can speak to you, you can trust mitt. again, i am doing this for him. >> we're being funny here. it would be funny if chris christie this bear of a guy had

come out and said, you men in america, you're the best! you carry the gun. >> you change the oil. you make america run. >> you change the oil. that's exactly what husbands do. >> i know. >> and lock the door at night. okay. >> very traditional. that's very 1950s. >> i was watching her at the end. i thought she was very winning. very attractive. obviously she loves her husband. but when he came out, he did come out like he was on wheels. like he was coming from the -- from the hall of the president. he doesn't seem like a person coming out there. i have seen guys come out, jack kennedy came out early in the convention. he came out -- let's watch him for a minute, how he stands there. like how he looks. oh, you know, you never know. then he waves like that very mechanically. like i don't think that's a regular, real guy despite -- look how physically wooden he

is. >> but isn't that sort of the story of mitt romney and this campaign? he's a bystander. >> look how he walks, nothing moves, except his legs. >> he's been a bystander at the primary. hey, tea party, right, whatever it is i'll do it. plug it in for me, he's sort of a bystander. now to his own convention i thought you made that point earlier. he sort of was the also ran that came in at the end and by the way, here's mitt romney. >> now a special cameo appearance by mitt romney after chris christie and ann romney and the other stars are leaving. >> i thought he was like prince charles coming into new guinea, unconnected to the people. and who was the first to point to the audience and do this. why do that all i do that? >> and they all were born in poverty. >> no, no. he didn't -- >> ann romney said they struggled. >> i don't think they know the taste of spam. thank you, joy reed and of course david corn. i can count on you tonight.

up next, paul ryan's vision of america. what can we expect to hear from the running mate tomorrow? it's his big night to accept the nomination of the vp. >> mitt romney spent his life turning around failing enterprises. and america needs a turn-around. specifically, we need barack obama to turn around and go back to chicago! during mattress price wars at sleep train,

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we have this leader for america. we have a nominee who will tell us the truth and who will lead with conviction. and now he has a running mate who will do the same. we have governor mitt romney and congressman paul ryan and we need to make them the next president and vice president of the united states. >> wow. we're back. one of the highlights of the convention tonight was new jersey governor chris christie's keynote address. but can we expect from tomorrow night's keynote as he accepts the nomination, paul ryan. with me is a political reporter for the national review and great historian and bloomberg view columnist. i want to start with robert for the conservatives.

it seems that ryan is the heart and soul of this convention. if there is a heart. and a soul. it's him. and do you think he will give a speech which will wake up this place more than the big guy we just heard? >> i think he'll wake up the place. most of the clint doesn't know ryan yet. we'll hear some biography about his southeastern wisconsin roots in janjanesville. he has to go beyond the green eye shadow, i come from this big irish family, my father died when i was 16. really trace the step who he became in congress and paint that picture and then start getting into entitlements and say like christie tonight it's about a bigger argument, we're going to try to elevate the deba. that's the whole romney campaign goal. try to get beyond the bane capital, the tax returns and say something about medical, taxes, about growth. >> yeah. that's all the -- that's the whole problem with the republican party they don't want

to talk about the republican congress which they control in the house now. they don't want to talk about the platform agreed to tonight. they don't want to mention george w. bush or talk about anything they have ever done. it's all about promise, it seems to me. would that be the same with ryan? >> first of all, i think ryan has real chops. he's not just a congressman from wisconsin. this guy is probably a future nominee for -- >> why doesn't he support simps simpson-bowl simpson-bowles? >> there's one of many hypocrisies, he blew up simpson-bowles because he couldn't accept tax increases. his plan doesn't even balance the budget until 2038. so anybody who says they're voting for him because he's fiscally responsible is wrong. this is a guy with talents, he's got real political talent and i think tomorrow night he's going to be the boy scout with the knife. >> okay. let's talk about the boy scout. let's talk about the knife. this refrain of your party, about trying to -- well, to

foreignize the president of the united states. i'm not saying it's not racist, but i'm saying it's certainly weird. to keep saying he's a european, that he gets his ideas from europe when we know the one case they're talking about is health care which came from the heritage foundation. and the republican leadership. why do your -- i hear ryan said it again. we will turn out just like europe if we stick with european policies. what are these european policies? >> you keep saying you hear, you hear, 2,600 words in christie's speech, not once was obama mentioned. they're moving awe way from the president, trying to do something bigger. one thing about ryan tomorrow, he's never been on a big stage. he's been in congress, in the lower chamber, he's spoken before, but who's writing the speech? matt scully. he wrote sarah palin's speech four years ago. >> why do they keep talking about europeanizing barack obama? >> what gha're doing is they're

looking at greece, greece is in a dealt crisis. that's the future unless you reform entitlements that's the european example they're talking about. >> they never mentioned it when we had the debt under "w." >> by the way, ryan voted for all that. >> doesn't ryan criticize the bush years? a lot of conservatives still raise their eyebrows at ryan. >> didn't ryan vote for the bush tax cut, vote for both wars without paying for them? >> here's the thing, on the medicare, $716 billion. this is so hypocritical of paul ryan to say that they're raiding medicare to pay for obama care. because he has precisely the same $716 billion savings -- >> what do you say to that? we all hear he'll say it tomorrow night. he's going to put the knife in the $716 billion. >> ryan has to do it.

it's husbais own budget. you will see ryan saying if you're over 55 we're not touching it. it's only for 55 and under. we're trying to fix it. that's his argument. look, i have seen ryan on the trail four or five times, leads with medicare in the first few minutes. he's leading with it in his speeches. >> well, here's some paul ryan from the monday rally. many people believe this is a tease from tomorrow night. >> we live together in freedom. and what we do in our communities is we look out for one another. that's what's so special. that's what government can't replace or displace. >> what do you make -- is that it? >> that's it. that's the preview. look at his tone. temper at, about change. romney could have picked a million other guys for this second spot. there were safer picks.

romney is trying to say, elevate it. >> he comes across very well in terms of his presentation. the policies are cruel, chris. if you have 30, 40, even 50% cuts in discretionary nondefense spending, that hurts a lot of people. if you are cutting $800 billion from medicaid, where are those people going to go for health care? >> let's see if he can sell it tomorrow night. thank you. great to have both of you. that's all for now from all of us. catch me tomorrow at 5:00 p.m. eastern for "hardball" tomorrow night and our primetime coverage of the republican national convention beginning again at 7:00 p.m. eastern tomorrow. our coverage continues after this. [ male announcer ] if you stash tissues

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