moment last night has been generally good. he got a little more personal than we're used to. he fired up the base and gave his jobs pitch to america. >> i wish president obama had succeeded because i want america to succeed. but his promises gave way to disappointment and division. this isn't something we have to accept. now is the moment when we can do something, and with your help, we will do something. >> but a lot of attention is being paid to an earlier so-called mystery guest. clint eastwood, the talk of tampa and most of the political world. he talked to an empty chair pretending president obama was there. let me bring in msnbc political analyst richard wolffe and michael sheerer. before we get to clint eastwood, richard, how did mitt romney do?

>> i did think he was good for him. it may be a low bar to say he's a wooden speaker, but he showed emotion. he introduced his family story, his personal story very well. the clip you just played, the most powerful, most sustained theme of his message, the idea that we wanted obama to succeed, he just didn't. there's just one small problem with that -- is that paul ryan, his vp pick and the entire senior leadership of the republicans on inaugural day were plotting how to make this president a failure. so if his pitch is i can cure this country and heal it and bring an end to the division, you've got to wonder why he picked someone like paul ryan. >> yet, michael, if his pitch really was aimed mostly at that 10% of voters that are going to decide this election, the message is don't feel guilty about giving up on barack obama, you've given him a fair chance, did he succeed at getting that message out there?

>> i think this was one of his messages. he did get it out there. but the more core message for the campaign was to introduce himself to the american people who hadn't seen him in prime time before as a human being, as a real person. that's where he was more effective. the messaging on obama and policy was really secondary to the center of that speech, the middle 20 minutes in which he was really presenting himself as a person with parents, with family, with kids, with a church who had lived an honorable life. and he was trying to pass a bar of convincing these voters that haven't really been paying attention up to this point that they want to have him in their living room for the next four years. something he's going to have to convince voters of going forward. >> he did moments there where he felt much different than i think he has before on the campaign trail. he talked about being mormon. he joked about the church. he also told a very personal story about his dad. let me play that. >> my mom and dad were married for 64 years, and if you wondered what their secret was,

you could have asked the local florist. because every day dad gave mom a rose, which he put on her bedside table. that's how she found out what happened on the day my father died. she went looking for him because that morning there was no rose. >> and then there was this cutaway shot of a woman in the audience who just put her hands to her mouth. it was a very emotional moment. emotional, too, when he talked about his sons and how they used to come into his bedroom -- and what parent can't relate to that and how he would give anything for that. did he accomplish that, did he make himself seem more relatable? >> he did. but again, this should have happened before, right? so one of the things that's so surprising is we haven't heard those stories before, we haven't seen that side of him. it's getting late in the day for a complain to be introducing the human side of a candidate who has been running for president for six years.

so there's a tactical decision that they've made which i think put too much of a burden on this speech to get into the humanizing piece of it. john kerry did that in 2004. it was also late for him because by then you're beaten up going into the home stretch. it wasn't just his dad. his dad ran for president. his dad was a big state governor, he was a big state governor himself. these aren't just people. they do have records. we heard not a bit about his dad's service, his political record because he was too moderate for this party just as we didn't hear about mitt romney's time as governor at all. not a word about it because also, again, too moderate for this party. >> i think some people would make the argument that, well, yes, he's been running for president for six years and he was a big state governor, a lot of people haven't been paying close attention as we have, so maybe this was their first introduction to them. for the people watching it on broadcast television, which is the biggest number of people, they only had that hour.

10:00 eastern time to 11:00 eastern time and a big chunk of it went to clint eastwood. what was that? >> not just a big chunk but a bigger chunk than they wanted. we were in the arena there and you could see the red light come on for clint a good ten minutes before he actually finished speaking. no one is going to say today that wasn't a disaster. they should have started with the video that they played right before the 10:00 hour. there's a tradition of playing a video to introduce the network coverage. the networks would have carried that video. they thought clint could do it. i thought it was sort of a tragic moment for clint eastwood, a little tragic for the campaign arch. >> a guy who is iconic and made great movies. let me play a clip of clint last night. >> how do you handle promises that you've made when you were running for election and how do you handle it? i mean, what do you say to

people? do you just -- i know people are wond wondering -- you don't -- okay. >> he also made off-color jokes which seemed to make the romney and paul ryan family seem to be a little squirmy. barack obama tweeted, this seat's taken. obviously a play on the empty chair. david axelrod, what the heck is this? was this a campaign mistake of the nth degree? >> of epic proportions. they trusted this precious time and moment in the campaign on national tv to someone who obviously just had an idea. now, he may be a great living legend in terms of popular culture and movies, but you cannot just surrender your platform. this was a judgment question for people who allowed that to happen up to and including the

very top of that campaign. what were they thinking never mind what clint eastwood was thinking? >> go ahead, michael. >> the other thing there is the substance of what eastwood says was off message. he said that lawyers shouldn't be president. mitt romney has a jd from harvard. he sort of hinted that he wanted immediate withdrawal from afghanistan which is not the republican message or the mitt romney message. it wasn't just the style of delivery and the tone of what eastwood was saying was wrong, actually when he talked about substance he was saying the wrong thing. >> when he did talk about mitt romney and paul ryan, it wasn't exactly the most effusive endorsement i've heard, for somebody who in the lead-up to introducing the candidate. >> no, that's right. it's a big risk to have an actor come out and improv. he wasn't working on a teleprompter. the best core relair to that was in 2004 when arnold schwarzenegger spoke at the republican convention in new york, and that was a very tightly wound, very macho, tough

speech. it was the block that eastwood could have filled. it wasn't the performance. >> we want to go back to lakeland, florida, because any minute we'll see paul ryan and mitt romney back together. let's get right to peter alexander in lakeland where it looks a little warm there, peter. >> yeah, we may not see mitt romney last night because the event started late and there were several protesters in the hall. and rightfully despite the fact that he's a stickler for being on time but only because the temperature here is in the 80s but he has to do new orleans later today. of course the temperatures will be in the mid-90s. as we await the arrival of romney and paul ryan, you can see the new plane that romney will be flying on. this is his new ride. it says "believe in america." the romney campaign tells us that they were invited to travel to louisiana, to new orleans by the governor of that state,

bobby jindal. they'll go on the storm damage tour with him today, thanking all the first responders and the people who were affected by hurricane isaac. >> any official reaction to last night? i'm guessing that they thought that mitt romney did a great job and are probably staying fairly mum on the clint eastwood debacle? >> yeah, they weren't saying much about the clint eastwood debacle, as you might imagine. but as to to dilute any conversation the media would have today on that topic i was flooded by romney saying a plus plus, hit it out of the park. are you watching this? the campaign wanted to refocus on mitt romney's words and he'll try to do that again today, connect with the people of louisiana. they don't want to politicize this trip. the effort is to make sure there are any avails with the media down there. the question we would want to ask, what did you think,

governor romney, of clint eastwood? this is a heavily disciplined campaign. i can't state that any more clearly. they are particular about all sort of e-mails including removing a red carpet at the end of the stairs getting off the plane even on a rainy day. it was there to make sure he didn't slip, but they removed it because of the object of it. >> we'll wait for mitt romney to show up there in lakeland and make his way to new orleans. another opportunity as peter just pointed out for him to be, richard, a little more human. >> right. >> and that's an odd word to use, but he's been considered so stiff and not nearly as likable as barack obama. it's one thing to give a speech where people see a little emotion. but another thing that doesn't

come naturally to mitt romney. >> as nice as the clips were and the speech we all agree was a great speech and he delivered it nicely, the problem is that's going to be replaced by lots of him speaking off the cuff in crowds where he hasn't performed smoothly. where he says the wrong things or gets into trouble which has been his default. so you know, that memory of him will fade. we'll get into the debates and that's a whole other piece of it. but these campaign moments have not been his strong point, to put it mildly. >> and he's got to pass the batten to himself, doesn't he, in a way, michael? because as i was watching louisiana night and this didn't make it into the 10:00 hour. but if you were watching some cable stations you saw a couple of friends of mitt romney. a couple who had lost a child and a woman who had lost her child as well. and they talked about what kind of person that romney was. i think you'd have to be pretty hard hearted not to be moved by

their story, by their sincerity, by the mitt romney they say they know who is this amazing person to them and who they genuinely admire and want to see as president, but now he has to show that person, doesn't he? >> yeah, no, i think you're absolutely right. it was very moving for much of last night's 3 1/2-hour or 4-hour program. there's two issues here. one is what mitt romney chooses to talk about. historically he hasn't liked to talk about the personal stuff. he can change that pretty easily, he just starts talking about different things. you saw that happen last night. i think he'll continue talking about the personal stuff. there's no down side for him at this point. even talking about his church. we're out of the republican primaries, i don't think it's a big issue for a lot of voters right now. what they really want to see is this side of him. the other issue, though, is the delivery and his ability to sort of, you know, curating of mitt romney and how he can come

across with the camera. and that's something that's still a work in progress, but he made some progress last night. he's going to have to continue to really work on this on the stump going forward. >> michael, thank you very much. appreciate it. richard, i know you'll be able to stick with us as we wait for mitt romney to arrive in lakeland, florida. we should also say very busy morning here. the president will be leaving shortly for el paso, texas. he'll meet with the troops and their families for an event at fort bliss. stin catar ntlr gh rg [ nn ]errequ [ nn ]errsfu owd gril

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fresh off the campaign, fresh off the convention where they just accepted the nominations of their party, there you see with the microphone the vice presidential nominee paul ryan, ann romney,

mitt romney, who, of course, spoke last night in what many people said was the most important speech of his life. behind them where you see "believe" "mitt romney" underneath, that's his brand new plane. that's his campaign plane where they'll spend time trying to convince the american people that he's the one to go to the white house. let's listen in as paul ryan speaks to the group gathered there in lakeland, florida. >> a path of debt, a path of doubt, a path of decline. or we can get people back to work. we can restore growth in this economy and opportunity in our society. the way we do this is we elect this man, mitt romney, the next president of the united states. president obama made a whole bunch of promises when he ran for president, and now we see a laundry list of broken promises, 23 million people are struggling

to find work today. the unemployment rate in florida is 8.8%. foreclosures, houses under water, the highest poverty rates in a generation. half of all college graduates are either unemployed or not working in the field that they studied for. college graduates should not spend their 20s in their childhood bedrooms looking up at fading obama posters wondering when they can get out and get on with their lives. the president was recently asked, do you have any regrets? would you have done anything differently? he said, i need to talk more and tell the american people a story. so he needs to do more talking? we need to do better listening? is that the idea here? friends, we have suffered from

no shortage of words in the white house. what is missing is real leadership in the white house. the question is this -- if we stick with this same leadership that we had the last four years, how do we expect anything to be different over the next four years? it won't be. and that's why we're giving the country a clear choice. real leadership. that's what the romney/ryan plan for a stronger middle class is all about. it's about getting people back to work, higher take-home pay, giving the kind of leadership this country deserves. i have so rarely seen in our history a moment where the man and the moment meets so well. this country needs leadership. and you know what we saw last night? we saw a man introduce himself

to us. he brought us into his family. we saw a man of faith, of integrity, of achievement. look at everything mitt romney's done with his life. it's success, it's hard work, it's achievement. it's leadership. this is a man when his country asked him to help turn around the failing olympics dropped what he was doing, turned it around and made us all proud and saved the olympics from disaster. >> and there he is, paul ryan, the vice presidential nominee hitting many of the same points that we heard from him in the convention as they get ready to head down to see the devastation caused by hurricane isaac in the new orleans area. let me bring richard wolffe back in. so this is the start of the most critical part, obviously, of this campaign. what do you see is the priority for mitt romney? what does he have to accomplish in these next couple of months? what kind of things does he have to do to change those minds?

>> well, for a start, we're entering this series now. you are coming from the high of the convention, you've done all the work on the speech, then all the attention goes to the other side. what you heard from paul ryan, he's reworking lines they worked on for the convention speak. >> that's the first of 150 times he'll say that. >> they'll have crowds, they'll have photos. there's a lot of photos in this phase, people traveling around, people waving. they'll go their separate ways, which you would expect so they'll cover more territory. but the thing they have to focus on now is the debates. because they still have not crossed that bar. the bar comes of not just looking and sounding presidential on your own but compared to a sitting president. it's a firing decision and a hiring decision for voters. so that prep for the debates now is the single-most important thing, more important than anything we'll see in terms of images and the crowds and how they look or even gaffes that they make. >> october, three presidential

debates. >> how do you get out of those debates? you're there, it's done. >> richard wolffe, thank you very much. we'll take a quick break. when we come back, we're going to talk about what was said last night, what did mitt romney say? we'll fact check it with "the washington post's" glen kessler. entrepreneur of the week. melanie shea founder of asa products led to company to more than $3 million in revenue in three year, but some bad decisions caused sales to plum tote a tenth of that. instead of giving up, melody got her mba and took what he learned to rebuild her company. on imy0.

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. the romneys and the ryans on the first day of the rest of this campaign with their convention over of course the democrats begin theirs on tuesday. in the meandime, the obama campaign is swinging back this morning saying, quote, mitt romney's speech last night offered many personal attacks and gauzy platitudes, but no tangible ideas to move the country forward. one big headline from last night's speech was romney's promise to boost the job market. >> unlike the president, i have a plan to create 12 million new j jobs. >> here to help us separate fact from fiction is "the washington

post's" fact checker gren kessler. hey, glen, we have so much to get to. i know your policy not to issue those infamous or famous pinocchios the day after a speech, but you've done some fact checking. what about the job promise? >> 12 million jobs sounds like a lot, sounds like a definitive pledge. the actual policy pape they're the romney campaign put out doesn't really explain how he gets there. it just offers ideas like free trade and that sort of thing. and actually, many economists predict that 12 million jobs will be created over the next four years. so what they did was they took a number that is generally considered consensus number assuming you don't have another recession because of the fiscal cliff, so it was a pretty safe bet to make that promise because that's what economists expect will happen no matter who's president. >> let's talk taxes and i'll play another clip from last night.

>> and let me make this very clear. unlike president obama, i will not raise taxes on the middle class of america. >> let me ask you, did president obama raise taxes on the middle class? >> well not really. i think what governor romney is referring to is the mandates that are part of the health care reform bill, and there are people in the middle class that, if they didn't buy health insurance, could possibly be hit with a fine, which the fine as a tax, but obama has a record of cutting taxes for the middle class. he extended the bush tax cuts. there was a tax credit in the stimulus bill, the payroll tax has been reduced by two percentage points over the last two years. so for most middle class americans, they got a tax cut. >> we heard another familiar line, we've heard it from a lot of republicans, but last night was from governor romney. let me play that. >> his $716 billion cut to

medicare to finance obama care will both hurt today's seniors and depress innovation and jobs in medicine. >> is that exactly what it is? and is that what it will do? >> well, yeah, this is taking advantage of some of the complexities of the federal budget. you know, we hear this a lot. i generally give two to three pinocchios for this kind of statement. governor romney put it in a more gentle fashion, but essentially those so-called cuts are reductions in anticipated spending that would be given to providers. it does not affect beneficiaries, seniors. in fact, under the health care law, seniors get all sorts of benefits in terms of preventive care as well as fixing the doughnut hole. so -- and i should note that his running mate paul ryan took the exact same so-called cuts and

put them in his budget. >> let me ask you about a bigger picture economic statement he made. let me play it. >> this obama economy has crushed the middle class. family income has fallen by $4,000, but health insurance premiums are higher, food prices are higher, utility bills are higher and gasoline prices, they've doubled. >> is he right? >> well, those are all correct statistics, particularly the income one, which is a damning statistic. the problem with the gas price one is that it's misleading because gas prices are actually now virtually the same as they were exactly four years ago, but when the president took office they had plunged because of the economic recession, so that was an anomaly that they're taking advantage of there. >> "washington post's" fact checker glenn kessler. come back next friday and we'll talk about president obama's speech. thanks so much. always great to see you. >> thank you very much. >> and if you read only one thing this morning, today is maybe the strangest must-read

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we will. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. get labor day savings with up to 24 months special financing with your home depot credit card. conventions have the pow are to launch political stars and florida senator marco rubio's speech last night is drawing some big praise in the republican party for conveying the conservative vision of the future. >> but in the end this election doesn't matter how you feel about president obama because this election is about your future, not about his. this election is not simply a choice between a democrat and a republican. it's a choice about what kind of country we want america to be. >> joining me now is democratic strategist and senior adviser to hillary clinton's 2008 presidential campaign kiki mclean and joe watkins who worked with george h.w. bush's administrati

administration. joe, give me your list, winner and losers of this convention and where does marco rubio fit in that? >> well, i think that marco rubio hit a home run last night. he had a great speech. it was from the heart. he connected not only with the people inside that arena but with americans all around the country. and it wasn't just so partisan as much as it was sharing a vision for what could be for america by sharing his own story. i think it's very, very moving. he's a star, a rising star in the party. >> winners and losers quickly? >> oh, my other winners? >> yeah. >> yes, my -- i'm sorry, chris. enjoying the warm tampa sun. my other winners marco rubio, of course, chris christie, condoleezza rice. >> chris christie? >> chris christie i thought gave a really good speech and certainly set himself up as somebody to be considered on the national stage. i thought his speech was very, very good. condoleezza rice gave a great speech. >> kiki, home run for marco rubio and apparently chris

christie? are they on your list? >> marco rubio, maybe, but chris christie, no, i don't think anybody would be surprised that joe and i can't even agree on this. chris christie showed himself to be the most self-serving politician by the way he spoke. he had a few good moments. rubio, in fairness to him, did more work for mitt romney at the end of his speech, which i think all of these folks should have done. i assume all of their speeches were vetted ahead of time. i'm surprised that they weren't asked to do more for the nominee. so at the end of the day, chris christie not a great night, not only because his speech was so self-serving but also because, frankly, he got topd by people like ann romney and marco rubio. >> obviously the big loser last night is clint eastwood. and you know, the one speech we are told, joe, that was not vetted. i'm not sure that there was any speech really there, but beyond that, were there people who surprised you who didn't do as well as you thought, joe?

>> yeah, there were some people who didn't do as well as i thought. tim pawlenty who was nearly a vice presidential candidate didn't do as well as i thought he could have done. he didn't connect with the audience. his speech was kind of flat. he's a good guy, but he didn't help himself. i thought the same of rob portman from ohio. i worked with him in the bush white house. he was a strong consideration for vice president as well, buzz his speech was a little bit flat, was not inspiring. both of them hurt themselves as future presidential candidates. >> we talk about people like susan martinez, condi rice familiar to a lot of people but is out there once again. who are we still going to be talking about in 2016 or 2020, do you think? is there something that's going to emerge from this big time? >> yeah, i think you'll probably hear about nikki haley even more. first of all, governor are wildly popular, right? governors really have a history

of being ceos. she can be an antagonist inside her own party. and condi rice in a different way. condi rice has been gone away. she's been the quiet professor we all know and assume her to be, but she stepped out on the stage in a more political arena than we've ever seen her. that coupled with the announcement of her joining augusta as a golf member has really kind of changed the frame around her just slightly, a more consumer oriented frame as opposed to an elitist frame. i do have to tell you one of the losers out of this deal was the undecided voter. i think that republicans had a great convention for their base, and i don't think the undecided voters got to see what they need to really make their decision for romney in this moment. they got a lot of previews for 2016. >> i hope they did, kiki. >> one of the most effective moments -- and i just want to make sure we have time to play this, at least as a viewer was the two testimonials that we saw last night from members of mitt romney's church. we talked about how much he

needs to be more humanized, more likable, because he's so lagging in the polls against barack obama, but this was a family, a friend who lost her daughter a year and a half ago. let me play this. >> in the midst of making the final decision to run for president, which had to be the most difficult of their lives, when they heard of kate's passing, both mitt and ann paused to personally reach out to us and extend us sympathy and express their love. >> and before she was on, joe, there was an elderly couple who had a similar experience with mitt romney and what went through my mind is what strategist decided to put clint eastwood on and not these folks or a very slickly well produced video? >> i would say a formerly employed strategist. >> maybe. >> what it was was having a surprise guest was meant to really pique everybody's

interest, of course, and clint eastwood is such an international star. of course the up side of his speech is that it certainly didn't raise the bar any for mitt romney. so mitt romney gave a great speech and people really focuseded on what he had to say been because he's the guy running for president. >> but joe, everyone's talking and if you go to the twitter sphere everywhere you look they're talking about clint eastwood. >> i know. he made somebody's day, chris. he made somebody's day. maybe not the folks we want. >> it's fun for us and it's going to be big fun for the late night talk show hosts, right? but what it really does is it demonstrates this consistent series of missed opportunities on the part of governor romney and his advisers and team. we cannot afford a president who misses opportunities. >> kiki, i don't mean to -- >> judgment is crucial. >> i think that he spoke to the 23 million americans who were

hurting most who aren't working right now. he went right to the heart of what they need, which is a job and told them that he's going to do that for them. he's going to go work for families. i think his speech last night was excellent because it was personal and it went right to the heart of the american need, which is jobs. >> but how much time is getting spent talking about the substance of his speech today versus their political judgment about clint eastwood? and that's a missed opportunity. it's just that clean. >> great to see both of you. thank you so much. have a great weekend. >> thank you so much. >> thanks. also making news this morning the remnants of tropical storm isaac now crawling into the nation's midsection, but in louisiana, it left behind massive flooding, stranding residents and knocking out power. at least four deaths have been reported. three people are dead after a supermarket shooting in new jersey this morning it. happened at a pathmark in the town of old bridge. two of the victims were employees, the other was the shooter who also worked at the store. several workers were stocking shelves at the time. former imf chief dominique

strauss-kahn and his wife had report lid split. ann sinclair told the press that the two have separated and she's doing well on her own. sinclair supported her husband while he was charged of raping a maid in new york. he's now accused of taking part in a prostitution ring in france. the state of texas says it will take its voter i.d. fight to the pk spk. supreme court. it struck down the law that requires voters to show photo i.d. they said it would impose a heavy burden on minorities the and the poor. and secretary of state hillary clinton is in the cook islands right now where she received a rousing welcome earlier today. residents in strawgrass skirts and headdresses greeted the secretary, dancing, chanting, playing loves and obviously she got a lei there.

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as we fweer up for the democratic convention, chris matthews takes a closer look at president obama's journey to the white house in a new documentary. don't miss the premiere of barack obama making history hosted by chris. that's monday 10:00 p.m. on msnbc. tonight at 10:00 an encore

showing of mitt romney, the making of a candidate, hosted by chuck todd. rnc chairman reince priebus predicted that mitt romney would get a real bounce from the convention. right now the weekly trend from gallup shows romney remains neck and neck with the president, but we're still waiting to see if his speech last night made a difference. here to take a closer look at that is the gallup editor in chief frank newport. great to see you. how long before we figure out if there's a real bounce from this convention. >> clearly through the weekend. with the back-to-back conventions we'll have a counterbalance, so we have a little opportunity to see if romney gained before he start to see if there's a counter balance coming back from the democrats. we want to look over the weekend and through monday morning. >> let's look at where we are right now so we have sort of a baseline. barack obama 47%, mitt romney 46%. this is with what, registered voters? >> that's right. >> and it's been remarkable consistent. >> we have large samples

involved here at gallup since april, so we don't see quite the fluctuation that we might see other way. but that's a good thing. that's why we're doing it. very close in and around this 47/46 split since april. it went up the first nights of the convention. >> historically do candidates get a bounce and how much? >> five points. how is that? republicans get five points if you add up all the bounces since barry goldwater. >> but didn't president clinton have a huge bounce, 16 points? >> in 1992, that's why democrats historically get a bigger bounce. that was an interesting year. perot was in, then he dropped out right during the democratic convention. you can see this big bounce had to do with unusual third party circumstances. notice in '04 neither kerry nor bush got a bounce of four points. >> the other thing is the bounce doesn't necessarily mean you're going to win. >> that's right. carter and reagan, carter was

ahead going into the conventions. carter got a bigger bounce, then it was close. but at the very end reagan pulled ahead and won. getting the balance helped set the stage but doesn't necessarily mean that person's going to win. >> let's look forward and see what else could be critical. the key dates are september 7th through 13th. >> very key date because the democratic convention is over next thursday which is the 6th of september. that next week after that will really let us see has the race been fundamentally reset in can romney come out of it ahead, did obama come out of it ahead? >> we can't emphasize enough that really hasn't happened yet. we haven't seen someone who is well ahead and who has sustained it. >> that's absolutely right. that's the story of this election so far is how close it's been and that's why it's so important to see if these conventions if voters tune in, will it make a difference when we check bases in september. >> then in october will people really be paying attention.

three presidential debates, one vice presidential debate. can they be game changers? >> they can and they can't, how is ta that for an equivocal answer. >> feel like a meteorologist, it might rain or might not. >> the probability is 0.5. they can. if a lot of people watch. three debates and one vice presidential debate which had be interesting with paul ryan and joe biden. 1980's a great example ren reagan established himself as a viable alternative to jimmy carter, but other years they don't make much difference. after these convenges, that's the next big game changing time period. >> historically what do we know about late deciders, when do they decide? >> that's another equivocal answer. i keep talking about 1980 because it looked like reagan picked up the late surnl. right there very near the end. things can change right near the end. the races stay solid right up

till election day. >> what a job you have. thank you so much for coming in. let's check in again as the race goes on. thank you so much. >> my pleasure. >> here is an interesting question after last night. who got the big social media bounce? not the poll bounce but the social media bounce? mitt romney or clint eastwood? i don't spend money on gasoline. i don't have to use gas. i am probably going to the gas station about once a month. drive around town all the time doing errands and never ever have to fill up gas in the city. i very rarely put gas in my chevy volt. last time i was at a gas station was about...i would say... two months ago. the last time i went to the gas station must have been about three months ago. i go to the gas station such a small amount that i forget how to put gas in my car. ♪ has oats that can help lower cholesterol? and it tastes good? sure does! wow. it's the honey, it makes it taste so... well, would you look at the time... what's the rush? be happy. be healthy.

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he loves asking actors their favorite words. at noon inside the actors studio host james lipton will give us his favorite words on clint eastwood. the headlines today are all about mitt romney and his speech, but what everyone's talking about is something totally different and somewhat bizarre. >> i've got mr. obama sitting here, and he's -- i just was going to ask him a couple questions. what do you mean shut up? >> msnbc's richard lui has been

all over social media. is it fair to say all the buzz is about the chair. >> maybe his hair as well. but we'll talk about the chair. it could be one of the defining moments, that chair. you would think that governor romn romney's speech would be the buzz today. 14,000 tweets a minute he got the most interest during a speech all convention long. but it was clint eastwood who is causing waves even though he had the third highest number of tweets her minute. because he talked to that empty chair or an invisible president. that episode spawned this this, @invisible obama. in 45 minutes attracted 20,000 followers. ten hours later it had double that. then the term eastwooding starting the trend along the lines of planking and skywalking, posting pictures of chairs in various places. your finger sometimes too. ed schultz got into it and down to brass tacks with this leather

chair. then after midnight the president's campaign tweeted this one saying this seat's taken. the picture attached, mr. obama sitting in a seat labeled "the president." next morning the "new york post" arrives, of the cover a picture of the dirty harry star saying "feeling lucky punk?" . the google search for the term clint eastwood over the last 24 hours yielded 20 thises this as of 7:00 a.m. eastern. two hours later it grew by 50% to 32,000. of last night's speaker, second only to mitt romney. for the latest on the election, stories like that, go to # msnbc 2012. >> fascinating. >> interesting, isn't it? >> really interesting. thank you so much. next week it is the dnc's turn from charlotte, north carolina. among my special guests will be bill richardson, north carolina beth purdue, house minority whip

steny hoyer, van jones, and congressman chris van hollen who ted heads up the dccc. i hope you have a great weekend. thomas roberts subpoena next. you know whose tweet i like the best? bob newhart tweeted that he's contacting his lawyers because clint eastwood stole his persona. i love that one. you have a great weekend. i'll see you monday. >> bye-bye. >> on the agenda next hour, game on mitt romney and paul ryan bask in the after glow after last night's convention as the official ticket gets back on the campaign trail. stop number one is to look presidential in the hurricane battered gulf. they're going to louisiana. governor bobby jindal inviting them there. who is the real mitt romney? does america have a better idea after the rnc? i'm going to have a chance to speak with the co-author of the book the real romney, ask him how the perceptions of this

coninvestigation weico conventi convention. we're talking about that episode of clint eastwood and the empty chair. should the rnc producers have beamed in a hologram of ronald reagan. some speculated that might happen. i'll speak to ron reagan about that, ask him his thoughts as we monday morning quarterback the republican national convention. [ male announcer ] if you stash tissues like a squirrel stashes nuts, you may be muddling through allergies. try zyrtec® liquid gels. nothing starts working faster than zyrtec® at relieving your allergy symptoms for 24 hours. zyrtec®. love the air.

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