m mr. romney preferred to attack the president for making that a priority. >> president obama promised to begin to slow the rise of the oceans. and to heal the planet. my promise is to help you and your family. >> mr. ryan and mr. romney say the president's slogan, which is forward is wrong, but what's becoming apparent is that theirs is backward. thanks so much for watching. chris matthew is next. good-bye, tampa, hello, charlotte. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews back in washington. does truth win out? really? if one side of a fight puts out something misleading or down

right dishonest, who you going to call? who's going to come in, umpire the thing and really set it right? right here in the fight here is the challenge in this election. separating disearnable fact from partisan fiction. a plant closing. who you going to call when -- fills the air and when one side doesn't care what someone says. let's get to it with willie brown and john nichols. if there's something discernible, the republicans haven't let facts get in the way so far this week, but perhaps the biggest distortion was the big picture when it came last night in romney's speech talking about the promise of president obama in 2009 as if he and the republicans tried their best to work with the republicans at the election.

>> four years ago, i know that many americans felt the fresh excitement of the new possibilities of a new president. americans always come together after elections. we're good and generous people and united by so much more than what divides us. i wish president obama had succeeded because i want america to succeed, but his promises gave way to disappointment and division. >> "the new york times" called the notion that republicans rallying behind president obama quote an extraordinary reinvention of history, quote, the truth rarely heard this week in tampa is that the republicans charted a course of denial and obstruction from the day mr. obama was inaugurated. no matter what the cost to the economy or to american security. that's something by the way that senate minority leader mitch mcconnell basically admitted. >> you said quote the single most important thing we want to achieve is for president obama to be a one term president.

so, how do you respond to those democratic lines of attack? >> well, that is true. that's my single most important political goal. >> all the issues we have about last night, a lot of journalists have it, especially by paul ryan and his speech, they were rooting for this guy from the sidelines, hoping to cooperate rate with him, yet we know romney was running for president again from the very day he lost last time. it's now on the record he wasn't rooting for him. he was looking for an opening and mitch mcconnell was saying i'm going to stop this guy this his tracks so he doesn't have one trophy to show the voter in four years. >> chris, you're asking me. i believe that's exactly what the republican goal was. i believe they met and conspired for that purpose and they executed it.

there wasn't one occasion when the interests of the country and this nation superseded partisan borrowing of mr. obama's re-election campaign and it's a tragedy because what mr. romney said is true. when an election is over, we do come together, supposedly. this is not what was done in reference to mr. obama's first term of president. >> i didn't even know about this. paul ryan was one of 15 republicans personally who met the night of the inauguration. robert draper writes this book. do not ask what good we do. that's the name of the book. republican lawmakers and strategists were plotting from the night of the inauguration to make the president fail. reports of a dinner that night, vice presidential nominee paul ryan as well as newt gingrich came up with a plan and here it is. the dinner lasted nearly four hours, the republicans had agreed on a way forward.

geithner, show united and unyielding opposition to the president's economic policy, begin attacking vulnerable democrats on the air waves. win the spear point and house in 2010. jab obama relentless any in 2011. win the white house and senate in 2012. john nichols of the nation. this was a meeting, a conspiracy meeting held in private to destroy the obama presidency. now, these people come out with crocodile tears about the failures where they are of this administration claiming oh, they were in there rooting for him. >> i had no idea that mitt romney was so enthusiastic about the obama campaign. he had paragraph after paragraph about all the hope and possibility there and -- >> hope has succeeded as president. >> he was suggesting, kind of painting himself as one of these folks who swrus arrived at the convention. i was with obama last time -- >> what are we to make of the claim offal truism here?

here was a guy running for president the minute he lost last time. by the way, publicly hoping. raising money, doing the whole thing. >> something else. when barack obama decided he was going to go for it, a very tough moment, to save the domestic auto industry, what did the son of the former head of american motors, obama's wrong. let detroit go bankrupt. this was a guy who was using his greatest name recognition strength to try to take president obama down. >> so, let's watch some of the fak facts from last night. on wednesday night, paul ryan was criticized for a massive number of distortions in his speech, leaving out the fact that the republican party spent the last three and a half years refusing to compromise with president obama. ryan put the blame for the credit downgrade on the shoulders of president obama.

>>. >> it began with a perfect triple-a credit rating for the united states. it ends with a downgraded america. >> the reason is that everyone who watches this program and read the newspapers know is it had a lot to do with republican congress playing a dangerous game of chicken. refusing to compromise. here is what he said about the simpson bowles debt commission. this is again paul ryan skating arpd the truth. >> he created a new bipart son debt commission. they came back with an urgent report. he thanked them, sent them on their way and then did exactly nothing. >> they. they. the commission. he was on the commission. the fact he leaves out he sat on the commission. that guy there had voted against his final urgent report and many believed help bring it all down. despite good people voting for

it. mayor, here's a guy that was able to go before the national audience debuting himself and presents himself as someone who isn't responsible for the failure, blasting the the president, even though he voted against it. >> first and foremost, he's speaking only to his devoted collection of people who cast votes and ballots on behalf of what he believes. that's why he thinks he can get away with all of the representations. in addition there, too, it's not unusual for the public to forgive those of us who are in politics and we lie. let's just vote. the public can see through everything mr. ryan says. it is clear he is not going to tell the truth in this campaign because if he tells the truth in this campaign, it will be inconsistent with the people in this country and he will be ejected. he's running to try to -- and he

should say whatever it takes to fool them. >> i accept that. that's a pretty cynical tough remark by the mayor who knows his politics. here's a guy who portrays himself as a boy scout, mr. clean, sterling reputation for having guts to do things and maybe not deserved, but here he is being lambasted across the spectrum. can he still be mr. clean? i'm not going to call him lying ryan. somebody's going to come up with a nasty phrase for the guy. so far, there's cop flikt between the reality and pretense. >> i covered paul ryan for 15 years. i was shock that he went there. i -- >> you thought he'd come on for what he was. >> my mom lives in his district. i was talking to her on thursday -- >> let's go to the real heart of this thing. the plant closing, gm plant,

that he said was the fault of obama when the plant was declared closed, stopped making cars before obama got to washington as president. >> i got a letter today written june 3rd, 2008. seven, eight months before obama came into office and it talked about the closing, the planned closing the gm plant. signed by paul ryan. paul ryan was well aware that that plant was in the process of closing while president bush was in charge. >> but he didn't have to bring that up. why did he single out a dishonest opportunity? >> it was madness because there was another plant in the district that did close. i think they were so desperate for that applause line, i think that was about trying to make him seem less like the rich kid, more like the working class kid from janesville and he was concerned about his buddies ta lost their jobs, but at what cost? because people around this country were introduced to paul

ryan as a guy who would deceive them about his own hometown. >> go ahead. >> and let me tell you about when you are identified as a liar. if you are identified as a person not capable of telling the truth, not trusted and you're running for public office, that stench stays with you. you can't spend your way out of that image. period. you're toxic and you'll stay toxic on that issue. >> wow. one of the most popular lines repeated over and over at the convention down in tampa was the fabrication of what president obama said making it seem like the president was implying to business owners didn't deserve credit for building their businesses. let's watch it. >> the president said if you've got a business, you didn't build that. >> he can't fix the economy because he doesn't know how it was built. >> it sure doesn't help to hear from your president that government gets the credit. what they deserve to hear is the truth. yes, you did build that.

>> we build planes. we build cars. >> do build it, right? >> no government there to hold your hand. >> mitt romney was not handed success. he built it. >> if a 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. >> i still don't get that one. i don't get it. any way, over the top, under the table, whatever. out at a bar, you're bums. this thing you didn't build. the president may not have been the most artful in that statement, but did say they're all jumping on praising the initiative. said it. >> it was in speech about small business. how we relate government to small business. but the weird thing, quou may not have walked the hallways at the convention. i went into the romney store. there was a romney ryan store. before the speeches were given, they had t-shirts an some of the lines you heard there were already on the backs of

t-shirts. >> you know the rumors get spread around the middle east, the pseudo religious stuff, i'm beginning to think we're getting there. we just make up stuff, fact checking doesn't mean anything. they mock fact check. oh, that's science. >> they're furious at politifact. thank you, mayor brown. coming up, now it's president obama's turn with his convention. how does he combat those distortio distortions? are you better off than you were four year ago? we're going to ask the strategists. also, it's the biggest thing on twitter just about everywhere. clint eastwood. as i long time fan, i'm asking myself what was the romney campaign thinking in booking this guy in the one hour they had to sell the country. plus, democrats -- voter suppression, finally, a federal judge stops ohio republicans from stopping in person voting

on the last weekend before election day. progress there in texas. let's hope pennsylvania makes the right decision. finally, let me finish with the biggest distortion this week. the republicans wanted president obama to succeed. this is h"hardball." the place for politics. [ male announcer ] 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. ♪ humans -- even when we cross our t's and dot our i's,

we still run into problems. namely, other humans. which is why, at liberty mutual insurance, auto policies come with new car replacement and accident forgiveness if you qualify. see what else comes standard at libertymutual.com. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? the obama campaign are in a big victory today when a federal judge in ohio restored early voting for everyone in the three days leading up to the election. the judge blocked the state law pushed through by republicans that would cut off early voting during those days except for overseas and military voters. democrats argued the law would unfairly disenfranchise minority voters and argued the early voting rights should be applied to everyone. we'll be right back.

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we're back with more on that fiction as truth strategy of the romney campaign. what happens when the media loses its credibility and the persistent retelling of fiction in an election becomes in the minds of many, fact. that just may be a page out of the romney playbook. according to neil newhouse, here's what he said. fact checkers come to this with their own set of thoughts. we're not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact checkers. with me now are the "hardball" strategists. steve mcmahan and john feehery. that was a hell of a statement because fact checkers sort of do this for a living. they're generally reliable. for the republicans to say we don't need no badges like in the movie, no new stinking badges. we're just going to make our points. what do you make of that statement? >> i think that you cannot be,

your campaign has, you have to run your campaign. you can't dictate. glenn kesler says in the "washington post" or bill odair, i like both those guys. you have to say the facts as you believe them to be. i remember when joe wilson called president obama a liar and i condemned him for it. you have to be very careful in calling paul ryan, who said the truth, his speech is accurate all the way down the line. calling him a liar really degrades the political -- >> i think it is going to get there because of the fact of the enumeration of these. i'm not going to be the one to call him that. why a guy with a clean record go out before a national convention introducing himself with our, let's put it this way, hard to argue statements. talk about deceptive language. he sends the debt plan in his district closed on obama's watch. that was a clear implication of that charge he made at the convention and now, it turns out that it closed on george w.

bush's watch. now, i don't know how you can say that's just how he sees it. >> by the way, not only did it close on george bush's watch, it was on a list to be closed in june of 2008, then closed before president obama took office. >> let's get the the facts. >> that's what we're doing. >> you said the facts were a matter of interpretation. you have to run your campaign based on the facts as you believe them, but when there's a date of a plant closure, a plant announcement and it's in your state, the expectation is that you would be aware of it. particularly after -- >> here are the facts. barack obama came to janesville. that's a fact. he said that his economic policies would reopen that plant. that's a fact. >> reopen? >> that's what he said. and then the third fact is the plant still closed. the economic policies and that's why -- >> i thought he said he would save it. >> he said those jobs would come back. there would be a reopen and the

fact of the matter is, that plant is still closed. the bigger fact -- >> when did the plant closed? >> that doesn't matter. it closed in november, october 2008. >> if barack obama had any able ability to stop the the closing of that plant -- >> you and your notion of relative truth. if i say to you i'll play democrat. tokyo's the capital of japan, right? is there another point of view in that one? no, is there a paul ryan view, no i i've got another capital of japan because i see it this way. osa osaka. can he say that's his point of view? >> of course not. >> not only he says it died on obama's watch. >> the fact of the matter is obama did go to that plant -- >> let's go over this. i very much talked about a member of my family worked for the debt commission. i look and say he should have

done it. i may have been wrong. somebody should have -- and beat you there. ryan said that basically about the president wednesday night. i thought it was a tough charge. he never pointed out useful information. he was on the -- >> it was the president's debt commission and one thing about paul ryan. he passed the budget, he stand up, stepped up to his responsibilities as budget chairman and got a budget passed twice. t the president walked way -- >> how about if a ship sank and one blamed the other and never mentioned oh, i also left the ship before it sank. >> the two budgets that paul ryan passed, they had the very same medicare cuts that paul ryan now criticizes the president for and while they talk about balancing the budget -- >> they've got a $4.3 billion tax cut that's not paid for.

>> let's take a look at some of ryan -- here he is talking about the failure of president obama to support simpson bowles an his deficit reduction effort. let's watch. >> he created a new bipartisan debt commission. they came back with an urgent report. he thanked them, sent them on their way and then did exactly nothing. and what did ryan do? >> he passed his own budget. he voted against him. but the fact of the matter is when it comes to medicare charge, yes, they had the the same numbers, but different types of cuts and what obama has done, 700 -- it's in his record. >> it's clear that ryan's got a problem here and it's going beyond this table and you, feehery, you're doing a good job here and i flaked and that's flaking. the dnc next week. i want you to try to play

democrat here. you first, then him. you're a pro at it. how does the president address the serious question last week are you better off than you were four years ago? that's a tough charge. a legitimate charge. >> i think he's got to do a few things. first, remind people of what he inherited. second, he's got to acknowledge it's been more difficult, taken longer and been a harder road than he thought it would be and he knows you are disappointed. because he's disappointed too. >> would it be all right to say i pulled the consider out of the ditch. it doesn't isn't running right. >> it's better than what he was going to do. what he can't do -- >> your convention to get the woman's vote. there's my mother, pli daughter and sister. >> very important -- >> every female member of his family. >> absolutely. but the fact of the matter is what he can't talk about is his record because it's unpopular.

and that's why -- >> you're a good pro. play well on a money track. thank you. the side show's coming up with jon stewart's take on the republican convention. and a on monday coming up, the premier of the msnbc documentary, barack obama, make ing history. you're going to like it. that's monday night, 10:00 eastern. this is "hardball," place for politics. copd makes it hard to breathe,

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own family rears later. he's "the daily show" with an alternative. >> this year, the american people face a choice. between a self-made business man. >> i know how extro ordinarily difficult it is to build something from nothing. >> and a collectivist who says things like -- >> if you got a business, he didn't build that. >> and this dch. >> the leader of al kid quid. >> this is the story of mitt romney, the human being who built that. >> too close to the reality. clearly, a nod to some of the less than factual statements we heard in paul ryan's speech the night before. now to the flubs you may have missed. you wouldn't expect anyone, especially a speaker at the republican convention to call for more government, right? okay, marco rubio, time for your close-up. >> in the early years of this new century, we lived in an uncertain time, but we did not allow fear to cause us to

abandon what made us special. we chose more government instead of more freedom. >> remember that, let it go by. a spokesman confirmed that rubio confirmed that rubio intended to say more freedom. now to jan brewer in a push for more rigid laws, she inadd ver tantly endorsed president obama. >> i know that if president obama is elected in november, which i hope that he is, he will be able to come together with all of us and come up with a solution and i believe he will secure our boardrders and then can resolve all those other issues. >> wow, that would be quite a shift of opinion after this well-known tarmac moment. a spokesman stepped up in that case as well. also, pointing the finger there. remember when president obama waited on how mitt romney's business experience would play into the responsibilities of

being president? >> if you're the head of a large hedge fund, your job is to make money. it's not to create jobs. that doesn't necessarily make you qualified to think about the economy as a whole because as president, my job is to think about the workers. my job is to think about communities where jobs have been outsourced. >> any way, fresh from his big night, romney accidentally held further the president's argument. >> paul ryan and i understand how the economy works, we understand how washington works. we will reach across the aisle and find good people who like us want to make sure this company deals with its challenges will get america on track again. >> see what i mean? help get this company back on track. i don't think business model, sir. up next, we might never know what clint eastwood was thinking last night, but the bigger

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the dow jones industrial jumping 90 points, s&p 500 up seven and nasdaq climbing 18 points. facebook hitting a new low today. shares have plunged more than 50% and consumer sentiment jumping to a three month high in august and u.s. factory orders say their biggest gain in a year. up 2.8% in july. that's it from cnbc. now back to "hardball."

welcome back. until last night, these may have been the lines clint eastwood was most well-known for. let's listen. >> get off my lawn. >> go ahead, make my day. >> well, last night's republican convention, eastwood broke new ground. unfortunately for him in a performance timed to air in prime time leading right up to mitt romney giving his speech. he added improve to his move. >> i've got mr. obama sitting here. what? what do you want me to tell romney? i can't tell him do that.

can't do that to himself. you're absolutely crazy. all right. i'll start it. you finish it. go ahead -- all right. thank you. thank you very much. >> time and place are everything. everything in this world. what was romney campaign itself who put him up there at that time after the rubio speech, right before the rousing introduction of the candidate. also political analyst an author. stewart stevens, he's very -- aware of communications and what works and what doesn't. did he know what the chair meant? >> no, they didn't.

apparently, clint eastwood just before going in, asked the convention organizers, hey, can i borrow a chair. people must have thought he was going to sit in it. oddly and weirdly enough -- >> did you at any point during it think this is working, then no, it's not. >> i thought it was weird. from beginning to end. i was uncomfortable and a little sad. here is clint eastwood. >> among the republican faithful, the older women, they were laughing at that somewhat off color stuff. >> i think the crowd in the forum where i was was sort of so jazzed by the presence of clint eastwood that just sort of ca y carried them through this performance. people watching at home who don't identify with republicans -- >> they felt like hey, we're

cool, we got him. we got clint eastwood we're hip. >> now, we have a twitter star minutes after eastwood finished his gig up there, a twitter star was born called invisible obama. a new twitter handle designated by an empty chair. at last check, invisible obama has more than 50,000 twitter followers and a new trend was born. an empty car passengers seat. but the obama campaign trumped them all. there's the president saying that was smart. >> well, i think in a light handed way, the bottom line here is that i think most americans who don't pay a tremendous amount of attention to politics might have been interested in the final night maybe seeing what the mitt romney guy is like -- >> got the opening, ann romney. she did a series of morning show interviews today and was apparently, i'm going to learn

this as you do, inevitably asked about the timing and nature. in order, place and time of eastwood's appearance. eastwood as we said, was in network prime time. while video was not. he made prime time. the the movie didn't. let's watch what ann romney thought of that. >> do you wish that video had aired in prime time instead clint eastwood's monologue? >> you know, i think it's important that people do see that side of mitt. we appreciated clint's support of course, but yes, i do wish more people had seen, had seen those touching moments. >> but you seem to be surprised by the romney, i mean, by clint eastwood's performance as the camera took a cut away of you. >> i didn't know it was coming. again, i can tell you, we're grateful for everyone's support and especially for what a great

night it was last night. >> executive producer saying go in for it. go in for it. >> she just threw clint eastwood not under the bus, but under the chair. >> it was charming the way she handled that. >> a couple of really brutal lines and i like eastwood as an actor, but there was some really tough lines. that's under the belt, that's below the belt. something about there's only one thing to do when somebody fails, let them go. i thought that was a most powerful line of the convention before he got into trouble with this pantomime. >> people roared. people cheered for that line. i think that's what people were expegting. those sorts of sound bites. that graveling voice. >> this is what to me is inconceivable. from mitt romney and everybody else, you have this icon coming out there. you don't really ask him, what

are you doing to do. >> let me ask you -- now we're into this let's talk about the hairdo. >> it's like bed head. >> and then i thought why did he do it. he's got a new film out. about women and baseball. >> maybe this is part of a comeback. >> this guy is pro gay marriage, pro-choice. >> never really anything great. >> he didn't seem to understand mitt romney's position on afghanistan, so i don't think from his side or from their side was this thought out. >> what about gitmo because we haven't heard that on this program, which has a lot of progressive viewers. i'm asking you, he brought the topic up. >> he said he didn't want it

closed and didn't seem to know it was democrats and republicans on the hill who blocked the administration. >> okay, ready? tom cruise on oprah's couch. >> what's worse? >> oh, this is a thousand times worse. >> you are such a liberal. >> i think the cruise thing was pretty embarrassing. >> the cruise thing only affects tom cruise and his family. >> this isn't going to affect mitt romney. >> environmental, political impact. >> nobody cares. it's just fun. people will watch it on youtube. >> mitt romney's message today, americans, they're talking about the convention. >> the third segment of the show tonight. thank you. up next, what was it with all this 18th century talk? it was all about founding fathers. yeah, they were great, they set

us up in the right direction, but we're not still back where they started us. back to there. that's the big question. get the answer to and i've got the perfect guy to ask it too. one of the founders of the tea party movement. this is "hardball." the place for felix. to meet the needs of my growing business. but how am i going to fund it? and i have to find a way to manage my cash flow better. [ female announcer ] our wells fargo bankers are here to listen, offer guidance and provide you with options tailored to your business. we've loaned more money to small businesses than any other bank for nine years running. so come talk to us to see how we can help. wells fargo. together we'll go far.

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politics often look to the past for inspiration, but set the the clock back 225 years, you'll get a picture just who the republicans seemed to favor this week. does the gop want to be known as the party of the past and future? di congressman, i want to start with this. i noticed this trend this week in tampa. it seems the founding fathers were getting a lot more mentions than that bench of yours in the party. let's look. >> wisdom of washington, jefferson and madison. let's renew our founding father's victory for freedom. it's the story of our founding fathers. >> founding fathers, thomas jefferson and patrick henry. >> our founding fathers had the wisdom. >> our revolutionary founding -- >> hamilton and madison. >> our founding fathers. >> we're into the 21st century. why the call back to our roots with such a resonance, such a

relentlessness? >> well, quite frankly, i think that's an appropriate call back to what many, many american people realize is the founding foundations that make the nation strong. it's a matter of appreciation and respect for what i believe was in fact truly the truly gre generation of americans. my father's generation gets a lot of credit for having done th that, but that generation of americans that risked their life and property for freedom and created the greatest government in the history of the world with exactly the correct structure and separations of powers and limitations of powers, that was a great genius generation in the history of america. and what our -- so many americans realize is they watch this government going adrift into $16 trillion worth of debt and 23 million americans out of work. and dysfunctional government

that seems to not be able to restrain itself from interfering and mandating in the lives of people. that constitution, those foundations of liberty and dedication to a government that seems to follow saying yes to the people. that got it right? returns of that structure and that respect. it has a lack of -- >> in the beginning days of our country women couldn't vote. they're the majority of the electorate. they weren't allowed until after world war i when we got that amendment to the constitution. black americans were slaves, but they weren't allowed to vote until the 1960s. there's been progress made in giving rights to people who never had them. your party seems to speak of a "we" that only includes -- i'm not knocking you. why don't you recognize the

progress that's been made in -- >> two very, very commendable points of progress in the history of this country that allowed an even larger number of people to feel like they had a working partnership relationship in the government and and both by what? an amendment to that constitution. that is the way we make progress. by building on the solid foundation that we know is reliable and will carry us forward. the fact of the matter is both of the constituencies you're talking about, women americans and black americans won their place in liberty by amending that constitution. >> that's not entirely true. first of all, we could argue this. i'm ready to do it. the 1964 civil rights act wasn't an amendment. it was an act of congress. >> and it was a legitimative -- >> to the north to go to a bathroom at the gas station.

>> and let me say once again, it was a legislative act of congress that would not have passed without the overwhelming support of republicans with the overwhelming number of no votes having been democrats. still, nevertheless, people of different points of view understand the wonderful opportunity we get within this constitutional base of constructs and constraints of government to advance the cause of participation, increased happiness of all peoples. and kwie frankly, i think it's appropriate. and there are an awful lot of voters like myself that took comfort and understanding. at least the republican party is a party that understands the miracle of america is first found in that wonderful document called the constitution and the wonderful genius of those innovators and entrepreneurs that were the greatest generations of americans that

gave us that constitution that protects our liberty principally from our own government. >> well, i understand that, but it just seems like we're relitigating, refighting what began -- if we would have been around in the 1840s we'd be fighting about slaves rights and all that nullification and things. it's like we're back to that on your side. and questioning the government. takes us back to where we were. so your heroes are madison and jefferson. they're not hamilton, they're not fdr, they're not lincoln. >> oh, yes. many of our heroes are lincoln. our party was born with lincoln's emancipation proclamation. the fact of the matter is if you hadn't had the judiciary supreme court established by that constitution to adjudicate and make the rulings to make sure that we were in compliance with the constitution, many of those fights would have been lost.

so that separation of powers, those checks and balances that are being eroded today as an irresponsible congress year in and year in and year out have been created in imperial presidency that's scaring the devil out of the american people, it's appropriate for us to call upon office holders at the federal level to get back in compliance with those separations of powers that are reflected in that great genius of the constitution which has so much comfort we were born free and will stay free. >> we agree too much presidential powers to start wars and getting involved overseas when we should stay here. thank you. we'll have you back many times. when we return, let me start with the biggest distortion of the week. the republicans claimed they want president obama to succeed. was there any evidence that was true? give me a break. you've watching "hardball," the place for politics. f the millions of men

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let me finish tonight with this. tampa is dampa and now it's about to hit the hampa. before it does, let's remember it well. let's remember the party convention held this week showed the people with a megabillion dollar megaphone how successfully that message is impeached by objective critics. no matter