hi, everybody. good morning. i'm thomas roberts. topping the agenda today, make or break? mitt romney is just hours away from the biggest political speech of his life and crews spent the overnight hours transforming the stage inside the tampa bay times it forum where romney will stand to address millions tonight. for mitt romney who watched the speeches from his hotel room last night, a speech he's been prepping for since announcing his first run for the white house, a bid that began five years ago. ramping up the big night last night, the number two man on the ticket. paul ryan left that crowd standing with a sneetch was part condemnation for the current president and part making the case for the republican who wants that job. >> these past four years we have suffered no shortage of words in the white house. what is missing is leadership in the white house.

>> if you're feeling left out or passed by, you have not failed. your leaders have failed you. >> after four years of getting the runaround, america needs a turnaround and the man for the job is governor mitt romney. now, ryan was preceded by condoleezza rice and senator john mccain who both slammed president obama's foreign policy and endorsed mitt romney as a future commander in chief. >> my fellow americans, we do not have a choice. we cannot be reluctant to lead, and you cannot lead from behind. >> i trust mitt romney to know that good can triumph over evil, that justice can vanquish tyranny, that love can conquer hate. that the desire for freedom is eternal and universal, and that america is still the best hope of mankind.

>> it's a big morning. dive in and say hello to our thursday political power panel. msnbc contributor, and managing editor and democratic strategist and republican strategist. great see all of you. john, start with you. three major speakers set the stage for romney the speech this evening. ann romney providing the heart. chris christie the courage, paul ryan providing the vision. nbc gives for main objectives. introduce him, convince the public, close the empathy gap and lay out his plans. in your estimation what does romney need to doll more than anything else tonight? the to make the case for himself he's not a plutocrat as defined by president obama? >> i think what he has to do present himself as a credible governor, a credible alternative to president obama and get good things done for the american people. if he kl show he has experience get things through the congress, provide a good vision for the american people i think he'll

put himself in a strong position to win this election. >> david, msnbc's boro maboro -- joe scar bor bor scarboroug brings this game tonight, this is going to be the end of a very successful week for the republicans. >> i agree 100%. >> all right. david, ard coulding to his spokespeople, the president has not been watching the speecheses at the rnc. does he watch tonight and is this campaign a bit nervous that mitt romney and the gop are making a mark before the days of the democrats in charlotte? >> i'm sorry. i have to differ with joe on this one, because paul ryan succeeded in firing up the base, the far right wing of the republican party, that's for sure. he had them on their feet, but what did he do to really build bridges to the ever-important swing voters, independents in

swing states? if anything he alienated people by lying about a gm plant near where he and i grew up near wisconsin, lying about medicare. here's a question for mitt romney. can mitt romney do what apparently he was able to do back in massachusetts? which is appeal to the -- >> you may not know, why you say he was lying. he talk about the plant that closed down. >> i grew up in madison, paul ryan grew up in janesville, there is 100-year-old, there was a 100-year-old gm plant just outside of janesville and it closed. the problem is, it closed during the bush presidency and it closed largely because of really student management decisions that helped contribute to the bankruptcy of gm. barack obama bailed out the american auto industry and the people who worked for the contractors and suppliers and the plarnts know it. for paul ryan to stand up in front of the nation in the biggest speech of his life and say, hey, barack obama closed that plant whereby, by where i live is just a lie. it's just a lie, and so now he's being call and it in the "boston globe," "weekend update" and other publications and looks

foolish. so, yes, he got the base of his party on their feet and cheering. what else? not much. mitt romney has an opportunity to reach up to the middle, got to seize it or he'll make the same mistake tonight. >> certainly the pressure is on. juliana, a campaign source confirmed to nbc news that romney and ryan will leave florida on their official romney/ryan planes after a final rally at the airport in the airport hangar tomorrow. in ryan's speech last night, talking with david, it did get people on their feet a crowd pleaser. one thing we saw with the cutaways, you can see the tears on the face of governor walker as ryan was onstage and wept on the attack, though, when it came to medicare and the obama team quickly responding with paul rye's as being misleading. let's look at ryan and that ad. >> whatever your political party, let's come together for the sake of our country. join mitt romney and me. let's give this effort everything we have. let's see this thing all the way through. let's get this done.

>> even with all the hidden taxes to pay for the healthcare takeover, even with the new law and new taxes on nearly 1 million small businesses, the planners in washington still didn't have enough money. they needed more. they needed hundreds of billions more. so they just took it all away from medicare. >> $716 billion funnel out of medicare by president obama. >> i hate to put a fine point at it, bogus. >> actually increase benefited for seniors under obamacare. >> is it the ryan/romney strategy, is attacking this at least if they hold firmly with what they had toll say? >> if you didn't know anything about paul ryan, right? didn't know he'd been in congress 14 year, didn't know he voted against the debt

commission, if you didn't know he and mitt romney have a plan to turn medicare into a voucher program a nice guy who wants to save medicare, you'd say, and obama is the one that cut medicare and presented it seamlessly in many ways the exact opposite of everything that they're sort of running on. i think strategically for them, trying to reach independents presenting a narrative clearly more politically palatable. the problem is, you do have the day two when now you're going to have the fact checkers, media go back and say, wait. the medicare claims don't stand up to the test of reality, and that, in fact, paul ryan's medicare plan comes right back to the center again, and you've got to know that next week that's going to be what's going to be on the stage in charlotte. that democrats will prosecute the medicare question. so i think getting their opening argument out early and being aggressive and trying to push back, yeah, politically that's a smart strategy for the romney/ryan ticket. the problem is, people generally know what ryan and romney's plans are for medicare. it's difficult to make that case

when people with a voucher question is always hanging over their heads. >> john, since there's been so much talk looking at speeches and monday morning quarterbacks from the night before, people will watch closely tonight about mitt romney and what he punts out there, the political rhetoric, and based on what we saw with paul ryan's speech, and some of the big whoppers he put out there, do you think romney's going to walk a tighter line tonight? >> well i would disagree he put out big whoppers. i would say that the money from obama -- from the obama took away from medicare did go bay for obamacare, very unpopular with senior citizens. >> paul ryan's budget takes the same amount of money out of medicare? >> that's not the point. paul ryan didn't lie about -- >> the point's about the number. about the money and about stripping the same, exact number of money away. so how can they have it both ways? >> paul ryan -- did not take the $716 billion and pay for

obamacare, which is exactly what paul ryan said. your point about mitt romney. mitt romney's going to talk about his vision for the future and how he's going to govern. obamacare is extremely unpopular with senior citizens, extremely unpopular in the country. to take money from medicare to pay for it is extremely unpopular and a very effective attack. the democrats is politigate that. >> we'll wait saand see how it goes. we'll monday morning quarterback tomorrow. thank you all three of you. new information now on tropical storm isaac we need to get to. the national hurricane center is saying that the storm is weakening over central louisiana, and look at that radar image. still producing some very heavy rains. severe weather and high water levels all along the northern gulf coast. there's also this threat of tornados, and that happens to be for the second straight day now. people on pins and needles. the coast guard released new

video from louisiana. rescuers pluck add wife and husband and two dogs from their flooded homes and more rescues continue on today. residents admit they didn't think the waters would raise so fast and so high. >> we thought it would be okay. a two-story house, and it picked up up, and two hours later, the water started gushing in and filled up about ten feet. we sat upstairs near a window looking for rescue. for about -- four, five hours. >> what's amazing about this, the radar images we see and the storm surge we have seen so far all around the gulf coast area are the rain totals. now, in slidell, louisiana, the rain totals there have reached over nine inches in this short period of time. in gulfport, mississippi, the rain totals are over ten inches, and in mccomb, mississippi, they're almost up to 11 inches. you can imagine in this short period of time the fact that this came in and caught people so off guard.

these major rescues continue today with the national guard out in force trying to save people as well as neighbors helping neighbors. look there. if we can pull that image back it, it shows everybody where the storm is going to pivot, as it looks like -- there we go -- we look at the track from friday in through the weekend and how it's pivoting east as it goes up into the central part of the country. so obviously it's going to be a itch maer ra emajor rain produc it moves throughout the united states and still aesz be damage from isaac where nearly 1 million people are without power throughout the gulf states there. we'll take you back and get you a full update on that. looking ahead to four years later and senator john mccain and what he had to say addressing the republican convention in a differ and very aggressive role. up next, two of his biggest supporters, cindy and meghan mccain join me to talk about the ompgss from last night, and another speaker you might have missed. new mexico governor susannah

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commanders did not recommend these decisions, and why they have said it puts our mission at much greater risk. >> arizona senator john mccain blasting president obama on foreign policy last night in his address to the republican national convention. mccain hit the president on afghanistan, syria, russia and china. four years after taking to the stage as the party's nominee, mccain endorsed mitt romney as the next commander in chief, and joining me today is meghan mccain, msnbc contributor and daily beast columnist and her mother, cindy mccain, wife of former republican presidential nominee senator john mccain. ladies, great to you have with me this morning. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> absolutely. meghan, start with you. we were just talking yesterday. you predicted your dad would throw out a dish of red meat to everybody. twitter blew up calling his speech scary. chris matthews on the air saying it was very frightening speech. others saying warmongering. how do you respond to that criticism? >> i think i expect people like chris matthews to think it was

warmongering. if you looked at more conservative commentators, they had a different opinionened a i loved it. i knew -- you know, in all sincerity i knew what he was going to be talking about and thought it was important and i know people continue to ignore what's going on in syria and i agree with them. >> tonight is a big night for mitt romney. four years ago you watched your husband prepare for this similar address to the nation. drawing from your experience what do you think is going on right now with the romney family and with mitt romney as he prepared in these last few hours? >> well, i'm guessing he probably has a pretty easy day. he's practicing his speech, and ann is with him, i'm sure, and, you know, he's come to this point. he's ready for tonight. and he's ready to tell america just what a great president he can and will be. >> meghan, congressman paul ryan last night said in his speech a challenger must stand on his merits. look at them taking a look at

the romney/ryan ticket. voted against acts, backed some of the strictest anti-abortion bills in the country. when women learn about that, how do they evaluate those merits when they go into the voting booth? >> i think first and foremost we need to understand that paul rye sn a strict catholic, and there are many americans that agree with him and a lot of strict catholics that also believe what he believes concerning abortion. the thing that i find offensive about the quote/unquote, republican, there are insinuation the only thing women care about is contraception and abortion. for me as an american woman i concerned about the economy, about national defense. a whole broad spectrum of things i'm concerned with with the future of america that go way beyond birth control and abortion. when women get to the voting booth it's not going to be the number one issue. and a lot of pro-choice, myself included. >> what equal pay in the workplace be important to you as a woman? >> listen, that's not something

i can defend, but regarding abortion, his stance on that, i understand it. >> mrs. mccain, optically, this has been the most diversed rnc for political speakers for women as well as minorities. we had condi rice, susana martinez, however no public representation of a lesbian or gay conservative. you've been vocal of your support for marriage quality. saturday for the no on hate campaign. why does gop leadership continue to ignore and underrepresent lgbt conservatives? >> i don't think they're ignoring and underrepresenting that committee. i was on the floor last night and the night before. plenty of young men and women came up to me and thanked both my daughter and i for participation in no hate and continued to encourage us to further that cause. i just don't think -- look, i don't think that that is something that -- that is necessarily what this convention

is all about. certainly equal rights is -- is every american's dream, and most importantly, it's -- it's mitt romney's dream. so i just don't think that that -- i think the media is turning that a bit. >> ladies, thank you so much for your time. cindy and meghan mccain, great to the have you both on. maybe we can get you back on during the dnc and see what you have to say then. >> thank you. >> absolutely. thanks, ladies. congressman todd akin is going full speed ahead with his campaign, despite calls to drop out. apparently he's done asking for forgiveness, done with that and going after his opponent senator claire mccaskill. >> my six-second mistake is well known, but claire mccaskill's six-year record is something you should know. >> the mccaskill campaign says that ad is all spin, and that he's too far oust mainstream. but that doesn't mean we should be penalized for it. that's why liberty mutual insurance policies come standard

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new live pictures coming to us out of slidell, louisiana. floodwaters are growing to three feet in certain places. crews are rushing to rescue up to 25 people currently stranded right now. police say they've already rescued roughly 100 people. something survivors say they had little time to react. >> we got up what we could, grabbed up all the dogs and cats, my wife and threw them in a boat and rode on out. >> very overwhelmed. thank natural we only took three to four feet of water in the house, and that we were able to save our pictures and all of the baby stuff. >> let's go on the ground there to slidell, louisiana. we have the weather channel's jim cantore standing by live for us. jim, was the storm surge, the rush of water, how fast it rose, how fast it came in, is that the biggest surprise for everybody? >> well, you know, it's a combination of things. this whole area is low and there's bayous, levees to protect it but water will find its way in. such a broad wind field with

this, thomas, just pushing water around, holding it in one area, when the wind shifted it would let it go in the other area. that other area happened to include slidell and one of the bayous you see behind me has come into this area. usually there are pumping stations that take this water and put it back out into lake pontchartrain, but those were overwhelmed. we had power outage it's as well. some of those may have failed temporarily with those power outages. we just don't know all that. you can see behind me here, some folks tried to put their cars at the highest point they could to keep them out of the water. that looks like it's actually helped a little bit, certainly. we don't see any cars completely submerged, but we've been seeing people coming with their families, with belongings in boats up to this staging area right in through here where they're being taken obviously to shelters. that's been part of those rescues you've been talking about. we stopped by the police setup -- where they've set up ground zero with the police, all

this huge whiteboard writing names on it of people that still 23450ed e needed to be rescues. we're not out of the woods yet. the rain has stopped. the pumps running, i can hear them, get all the water out of here so people can get back inside their homes and assess the damage. >> watching police talk to a family looking at the aware pouring into their backyard, concerned about this house that seems to be a little higher up. good news for them, certainly not good news for so many people, almost 1 million people throughout the gulf state area that are without power right now. the weather channel's jim cantore. jim, thank you, sir. appreciate it. melissa harris joins me, host of melissa harris perry right here on msnbc and the tragedy out of all this, talking about it earlier in the week, to get out, get your family out. then the new home you just bought. it was destroyed by this storm. >> it was. you know, the loss that we suffered as a family is nothing compared to what our neighbors in slidell, plaquemines parish, the house we just bought across

the street from where we currently live, all in blight condition from katrina. we bought it, planned to renovate and isaac came in with the winds and took it. so it's now gone. i will say, you know, my husband is still in the city. he was riding it out with his family, some elderly relatives who wouldn't leave. he sent me a text promisaled we would still find a way. it's a lot of dreams that passed there, but we are in a very good circumstance. people at lax mins parish and slidell are in much tougher circumstances. >> our hearts of with you. >> thank you. >> certainly for all the people dealing with this. it's not easy. it's certainly not easy. now if not for this storm, you would have been at the gop convention. >> i would be. >> in tampa. >> yep. >> we want to get your take, though, on what so many people have been analyzing when it comes to the women's debate. >> yep. >> about paul ryan last night saying people need to be -- i want to get this right pap

challenger must stand on his merits. we look back and i asked this of mrs. mccain and meghan mccain, if people are looking at the merits of these challengers, what are they to think? >> what i would agree with the mccains about, women are not solely interested in reproductive rights. be clear, they are economic questions. in fact, we heard mrs. romney, ann romney in her own speech the night before say, think about a family that's considering and desiring a second child but can't have one because of the economic conditions. when a person doesn't have sufficient economic circumstances, they need reproductive choices. in fact, they always need reproductive choicessoap these things are deeply intertwinedfor the vast majority of women in this country what we're seeing right now is a big gap towards the president. >> one thing they're trying to do, get the attention of women voters with ann romney speaking out, last night kon, condi rice

telling her compelling story. how does mitt romney send it home? >> mitt romney will ultimately have to be his own best surrogate. he can't just be produintroduce everyone else. romney will have to be personally compelling and that has been very difficult for him thus far on the campaign trail. >> there he is, last night watching from this hotel room with grandkids. we'll see how he does tonight. melissa harris perry, thank you. watch her show, saturday and sunday on msnbc. gaming the speech, newt and callista gingrich share the poed podium tonight. senator marco rubio, one of the republican rising stars introduces mitt romney, but who is this mystery speaker for tonight? melissa, guesses? >> no. >> okay. >> leave that alone. >> plus, are new democratic voters in florida a dying breed? how the new voter i.d. laws are impacting registration. we're back after this.

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a little girl grows up in jim crow birmingham. the segregated city of the south where her parents can't take her to a movie theater or to a restaurant, but they have her absolutely convinced that even if she can't have a hamburger at the woolworth's counter she could be president of the united states if she wanted to be, and she becomes the secretary of state. >> former secretary of state condoleezza rice in what many describe as the best speech of the night. tonight it is mitt romney's make or break moment when he takes center stage following some heavy political hitters. former house speaker and presidential candidate newt gingrich and his wife calista will speak. florida center marco rubio and former florida governor jeb bush and mitt romney's son craig. also a music's performance by taylor hicks and this mystery guest, speculative tongues wagging all over tampa.

nbc news senior political ud ter mark murray joins me to talk more about this. to the mystery guest in a second. first, mitt romney's speech, newt gingrich knows how to throw red meat out at the base. mccain did that last night, but what is newt gingrich expected to focus on? his wife calista is a weapon. >> that focus will probably be on red meat. he's been conducting new university symposiums here in tampa, talking about a variety of issues. one of the issues he's been hammering home has been on energy. talking about energy dependens. the obama administration's energy policies. i wouldn't be surprised if he talks about that. >> is it odd, people wagging tongues about calista appearing with him? >> if e watch the president's campaign and the republican primary season, it is not a surprise that they share that podium together. i'm not surprised at all. >> all right. jeb bush expected to focus in his speech on education, but ard coulding to plit politico,

expected to defend his brother's legacy. what are we hearing? >> a wait and see approach how much he defends his brother and his brother's legacy. he was on "meet the press" this past sunday telling david gregory that president obama was a bit unfair to blame his brother for everything that's gone on, because president obama has now been in office more than three years. so coming to his brother's defense there. i think we'll all gob to watch top see how aggressively he comes to his brother's defense beyond his discussion on education. >> and then we have the rising star of senator marco rubio. he was highly touted to be a potential vp pick. he's going to be comparing and contrasting the business and the economic policies of president obama but he is expected, mark to touch on immigration and that issue. correct? >> thomas, what we've seen is a big talk of diversity on all of 9 speeches, particularly in primetime. so last night it was susana martinez, governor of mu mexico. condoleezza rice, the night before the that, a litany of stars in the republican party.

it's no surprise that marco rubio will introduce mitt romney and particularly in his home state of florida. >> real fast. the mystery guest. who is it? >> talk, clint eastwood, nancy reagan, maybe dick cheney. no confirmation. trying to get to the that. a fun thing to watch. >> deciding evening. is going to be a big night. make sure to stick with misnosm. primetime coverage starts at 7:00 p.m. eastern time. the greatest threat to medicare is obamacare, and we're going to stop it. >> vice presidential nominee paul ryan once again taking on the role of an attack dog in tampa with biting remarks against president obama claiming america's medicare program is under siege. democratic congresswoman fredricka wilson of florida joins me now. great to the have you with me now p now. a crucial issue pop florida voters. paul ryan saying democrats

haven't acted on medicare. how do you fight back against that claim? >> well, we have to remember that we do have obama cares. i call it obama cares. but do the republicans care? do they really care? and the audacity for them to convene at the republican convention in florida, the haven for senior citizens who come to florida to retire and for them to release a report that they're going to cut medicare. that's shameful. i am amazed that they would select florida for this sort of announcement. >> and paul ryan mentioned his mother was in the audience last night, is a florida resident. a recent abc news "weekend update" poll said 45% of voters trust mohamed shihadeh achin mit obama on medicare. are you concerned republicans are winning that message? >> i am not concerned. we're going to fight, spread the message that obama cares.

that republicans do not care. that even at 55, there are people preparing for retirement. that there are so many people in need, they have cut their jobs. they're firing people. you don't have jobs. you're losing your homes in florida. so if any place for them to come to talk about obama cares, obamacare, we have to make sure that people of florida know that the republicans will gut medicare. they will take $6,000 a month from you, for you to stay in medicare. $6,000 a year. that's what it's going to cost you. we've got to make sure that people know. >> congresswoman, i want to ask you to stick around with us awe by want to discuss another issue that will impact the sfloet florida. the battle ober florida voter i. dthts and early voting within your state and now bring in, on

the front lines of this fight. we're learning today part of the florida tough voter registration law has been struck down by a federal judge in tallahassee. the provision we're talking about here would force third party groups registers new voters to turn in all voter forms within 48 hours or face fines up to $1,000. what's your reaction to that victory and then where does that leave the fight to overturn the i.d. rules? >> yes, thomas. we are very happy that the court has struck down that 48-hour rule, which was a restrictive process designed to prevent voter registration and, in fact, what we know is that the number of new voters being registered in florida in 2012 is way, way below the number in 2008 at this time. and so now that this law has been invalidated, the groups can go out on the street and help voters get access to democracy, because, really, the point is that if you're a citizen, and if you are eligible, voting should

be easy. and what we've seen this cycle is laws all over the country designed to make it more difficult to vote. and we see voters registration in florida. we see early voting restrictions in ohio. and as you noted, we see photo i.d., a very restrictive photo i.d. requirement in pennsylvania. so advancement project is fighting all of these restrictions, because we believe that politicians should not be able to manipulate the system like this. >> last night in paul ryan's speech he said our rights come from nature and god and not from government. went on to say we have the right to choose our own leaders. he wasn't thinking about what's taking place with different voter i.d. laws around the country. 234is week the jacksonville times released remarkable analysis in florida while this issue is so important as we look at the numbers. the leadup to the '04 election. 159,000 new democrats registered to vote in '08 pretty much the same story. voter registration surging.

in that same time period last year. then last year republicans made it harder to register to vote, and then here's what happened. new democratic voters registration, falling off a cliff over that same cliff. and republican numbers basically static. when you look at that what do you make of these figures and what this has done? >> this has hurt voter turnout and the voter apathy and voter participation in florida. so we're so happy with what the courts have done to make sure that people can register to vote, all of our sororities, fraternity, civic groups have been witting for this ruling to go on college campuses and spread out across florida and register the thousands of people who need to be registered to vote so we're happy. however, we have other voter suppression, elements, in place, that we are still fighting. so what i'm saying to the people

across florida, if you do not have the right i. dmplgd., vote absentee. no i.d., vote absentee, because we're going to be -- these florida laws are going to affect a lot of students, a lot of seniors and a lot of people who do not drive cars. so we've got to make sure that people understand before they get to the polls they must have the appropriate i.d. and we've got to make sure that all of our civic organizations across the state of florida now you can go out, you can go to the grocery stores. you can go to the shopping centers, and you can register the people to vote hoot they tried to block you from voting. this is not the time. we must be ready, because we have to re-elect president barack obama for the good of this nation. not just for florida, but for every living human being in the united states of america. >> congresswoman fredricka

wilson of florida. the advancement project also with us. thank you. what's going on according to rescue efforts, reporting from slidell, according to the chief of police, 45 people and their pets rescued in is this area. also in the old towne area of slidell. an area that has seen flooding pouring in because of fast-moving surges of water that came in on people unprepared. again, about, you know, anywhere between 40 to 100 people rescued by police so far. you can see all the standing water. it's not receding anytime soon. we're back after this.

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my name is adam frucci and i'm the i love new technology,om. so when i heard that american express and twitter were teaming up, i was pretty interested. turns out you just sync your american express card securely to your twitter account, tweet specific hashtags, and you'll get offers on things you love. this totally changes the way i think about membership. saving money on the things you want. to me, that's the membership effect. nice boots! so the obama campaign crying foul against stinging accusations made against the president in paul ryan's speech. the campaign manager calling it a 40-minute speech filled with

nearly a half dozen previously debunk attacks. the president's campaign hitting hard against ryan's comments on medicare. >> so our opponents can consider themselves on notice. in this election, on this issue, the usual posturing of the left isn't going to work. mitt romney and i know the difference between protecting a program and raiding it. >> with me now, editor of politifact.com and good to have you here. start with ryan's assertions on medicare, specifically the obama campaign funneled $716 billion out of it to pay for obamacare. your group gives this a mostly false rating. tell me. >> yeah. and this is a claim we've heard a lot from republicans and in really the last two years, and we gave it a mostly false, because the idea that they funneled it at the expense of the elderly just isn't supported by the evidence. yes, there are savings that to

pay for obamacare that come from medicare, but that $716 billion comes from insurance companies and from hospitals. the targets are the hospitals and health care company, not the beneficiaries. so mostly false on that one. >> another thing. ryan also accused the president of going back on a promise to keep a car plant in wisconsin open. take a look at this. >> right there at that plant, candidate obama said, i believe that if our government is there to support you, this plant will be here for another 100 years. that's what he said in 2008. well, as it turned out, that plant didn't last another year. >> all right. so your group is giving that a false flat out rating? >> yeah. let me explain what we did. we looked at a statement that, where ryan made this a little more clearly two weeks ago, where he said that president obama broke his promise to keep that plant open. and the reason is, because the

plant, at least the gm portion of it, stopped operating before obama even became president. and that the plant shut down in december 2008, one month before obama took office. so you can't really accuse him of breaking a promise to keep the plant open, if it wasn't even open when he took office. so -- we gave that a false on our truthometer. >> and last night, john thune said this about children who live on a farm. take a look. >> the big government bu bureaucrats of the obama administration have set their sights on our way of life. his administration even proposed banning farm kids from doing basic chores. >> all right. what did you guys call this one? >> we called this weren't pants on fire wrong. we pictured children in family farms all over america cheering at that thought, but the fact is, that's not what the obama administration proposed. what they proposed was that children who work at employees

on farms would have these protections, but from the beginning, this rule was proposed there were exemptions for children whose parents were the farmers. so from the start, it's not like the kids could get out of the chores. that rule was ultimately withdrawn because of some opposition, but it but it didn' what thune said. pants on fire. lowest rating for that. >> politifact's bill adair. thanks so much. i appreciate it. >> thanks, thomas. >> absolutely. stick around. did the rnc go gay in tampa? ig with no fillers, by-products, artificial flavors or colors. hebrew national. the better-than-a-hot dog- hot dog.

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welcome back, everybody. breaking news concerning the aftermath of isaac. the border near louisiana and mississippi is being mandatorily evacuated because there's a dam there threatening to break near park lake, again, on the border of louisiana and mississippi. mccomb, mississippi, received almost 11 inches of rain from isaac. is the call for equal attention from conservative lgbt

groups falling on deaf ear s at the republican convention? certainly isn't for the lack of trying. have you heard about homocon? i didn't think so. the party hosted tuesday night in tampa bay by conservative group go proud was billed as a must-have ticket. with grover norquist on the guest list you might think there would be a loin ine to attend running out the door. buzz feed's chris went. how was this received in tampa, what big names were there? >> yeah, thomas, it was a big event, and people from msnbc's own s.e. cupp to grover norquist as you said, to the short-lived spokesman for foreign policy for the romney campaign, who is gay, himself, were all in attentadan at the event held at a gay bar in tampa. >> the ryan/romney ticket is not considered to be, one, particularly lgbt friendly.

how do log cabin republicans respond to critics what say they're asking to be recognized by a party that would rather disown them? >> i think that they have moved a step beyond even answering those sorts of questions, thomas, and are sort of working on within the party how do we make it so that this is a party in which the existence of and presence of gay conservatives are just a fundamental and inherent part of what it means to be a part of the republican party? >> is the biggest problem the prominent gop party leaders, the ones that are lesbian and gay, remain in the closet? >> i definitely think that it is always beneficial when you have more people who are out and more people who are willing to discuss those issues. and there is always an advantage to having people who can speak authentically about it. >> chris in tampa for us today reporting on that. thanks so much. that's going to wrap things up

for me. thanks for your time. i'm going to see you back here later this afternoon. i'm going to host "news nation." i'll see if tamron hall joins me. i don't know if she'll be on a flight back from new york. i'll see you at 11:00 a.m. at eastern, too. can you see the wheels turning in my head, alex? >> you're tired. eastern, western, pacific, central. as long as you're on the television, that's all that matters. coming up, we are going to be talking about ryan's hope. while the morning headlines laude paul ryan's speech last night, there are serious questions about its truththiness. we will fact check ryan's speech with ezra klein, john heilman and michael steele. plus mitt's main event. e.j. dionne helps us preview governor romney's big speech and whether it might provide answers to the mormon question. and while the gop's party's president obama stays the course. we'll talk to michael scherer about the president's game plan from 2012 and beyond, when "now"

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