called a victory. >> and health care. >> they will not have a federal guarantee. that's correct, isn't it? >> sure. i won't get into the details -- >> details? we don't need those stinking details. >> you got to do the math because when my opponents were asked about it today, they couldn't. >> let's see. we begin with mitt romney at a crucial moment in this campaign, tering the furious fall sprint mired in serious questions about just how his conservative policies would impact the middle class. romney has just wrapped up an event at mansfield, ohio, pr

machine works and it seems his own pr machine could use some help. after a convention that offered all the bounce of a lead balloon, romney and ryan made the perilous choice over the weekend to face the dreaded news media, and their pesky questions about mitt's curious math. starting with david gregory on "meet the press." >> governor, where are the specifics on how you get to this math? isn't that an issue? >> well, the specifics are these, which is those principles i described are the heart of my policy. >> give me an example of a loophole you will close. >> well, i can tell you people at the high end, high income taxpayers, are going to have fewer deductions and exemptions. >> okay. that's a no. the man who knows loopholes like a swiss banker knows the alps, like a cayman islander knows the sea, he just can't think of one. you just have to trust him that he will somehow slash hundreds of billions in revenue by way of tax cuts and pay for it somehow. okay. what about paul ryan?

now, we know he would never duck the tough issues. >> why not say right now -- >> because we want to do -- we want to have -- george, because we want to have this debate in the public. we want to have this debate with congress. and we want to do this with the consent of the elected representatives of the people. we should do it out in the public view where the public can participate. >> that's exactly what i'm suggesting, having it in public before the election so voters can have that information before they make up their minds. >> can't blame george there for looking a bit befuddled. in battleground florida, the president was equally confused by his opponents' fuzzy arithmetic. >> you got do the math because when my opponents were asked about it today, they couldn't. it was like, two plus one equals five. that's not bold leadership. that's bad math. >> not only bad math, mr. president, it's also bad politics. i'm joined now and i'm delighted to say we're joined by

congressman elijah cummings. >> good to be with you. >> congressman, we've been repeatedly told that this election is about the economy. but when mr. romney is politely asked how he'll balance the budget, he won't tell us. so then all the major nonpartisan experts examine their promises and quickly come to the conclusion that their figures don't add up. are they trying, if i may ask you, to perpetrate the biggest fraud on the american people since bernie madoff? >> absolutely. they know that these figures don't add up. i think what they're trying to do, martin, is they're trying to do the old rope-a-dope. you have romney and ryan putting out all of these ads that are very -- attacks on the president, and what they're trying to do is wait out the next two months and hope that people don't realize what they are doing. but, again, they talk all this stuff about the exemptions for the high end. we don't know what high end means, and we don't know what the exemptions and deductions

that they're talking about is all about. >> but congressman, they promised to cut the marginal tax rate by 20%. they say their entire plan will be revenue neutral. they will not raise taxes on the middle class. this is mathematically impossible. how do the republican party's golden boy on economics and bain capital's finest proponent of private he can quit produce an approach that so defies eryth a arithmet arithmetic? >> because they know -- they're depending, martin, on people not paying attention, not getting the details, and they're putting this stuff out and it's ridiculous. it simply doesn't add up. ryan, i know ryan quite well, and he's a guy that believes in figures, exact figures. he knows exactly how much that voucher for medicare clients will be. he knows exactly what they'll be paying out of pocket, but yet and still when it comes to these kind of issues, suddenly he says, oh, let's wait until after the election and then we'll have

this wonderful discussion with the public we. well, the public needs to know right now. they're saying trust me to do the right thing. they don't have a very good record for us to trust on. >> indeed. as you know, congress is back to work today after a five-week recess. majority leader harry reid thought he'd just weigh in on ryan's math himself. take a list be, sir. >> his math doesn't work for running a marathon or anything else. the ryan math doesn't work with his budgets. it doesn't work with medicare. it doesn't work with his tax plan. i guess he thought no one would check it out. >> congressman, do you think that that's the mistake they've made here, that they could literally toss out a time for a marathon, toss out a resolution to the budget deaf significance and nobody would check? nobody would examine it? >> it must be. it just defies logic. and if this is the kind of so-called bold leadership that we're supposed to be getting

with romney and ryan, we've got -- they've got major problems. and that's why i think clearly that the president is leading in the polls. you got -- what people want is authenticity. they want what is real. people are tired of the games. they want to see some action, and, again, we see some consistency here with regard to the republicans. we see untrue statements and then we constantly see things like mr. romney withholding his tax returns and investing money not in america, but in the cayman islands. and so i think we have a situation here where americans have a clear choice. you know, when i listen to them, i say to myself, you know, this election should be absolutely a no-brainer. clearly the president has a plan. he's moving forward with that plan. the plan is working. and the public i'm sure will give him the opportunity to finish out what he started to do.

>> one of the problems i'm beginning to see emerging here is that ryan and romney won't talk about the loopholes that benefit the very wealthy, but mr. ryan was extremely vocal when it came to cutting monies from programs that assist the poor. for example, hr-5262 which they voted on, the republican budget reconciliation bill in may this year, what does it do? it slashes food stamp assistance by $35 billion, social services block grant slashed, 23 million americans. americans receiving meals on wheels. they slash transport facilities for the disabled. they're brilliant when it comes to details about the poor, but when it comes to the loopholes for the rich, silence, no specifics, no answers. >> and that just goes to show, martin, that this is -- these folks are playing a game with the american people, and i hope that people see through the

game. i don't see that they are doing anything to protect the middle class and expand the middle class. certainly they are doing everything in their power, they have announced it already, to do away with many of the things that the obama administration has very -- been very successful in getting passed. and so the question becomes is what -- who are they serving? are they serving the privileged? are they serving the people of this country? and i get the impression, and it is becoming clearer and clearer every day, that they're looking at the top 1% or 2% and basically saying to the rest of us, you're on your own. >> congressman elijah cummings, thank you, sir, for joining us this afternoon. >> thank you. >> next, god and country. stay with us. >> do you believe employer provided health insurance should be required to cover birth control? >> again, you're asking me questions that are this electio be about. you know, it's true, don't you?

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mitt romney is having a hard time staying on message these days. at first his campaign was all about jobs and the economy, but on saturday he appeared on stage with pat robertson, a man who says that the terrorist attacks on 9/11 were actually provoked by lesbians and the aclu. mr. romney's new message is all about, well, we're not really sure. take a listen. >> i will not take god out of the name of our platform. i will not take god off our coins, and i will not take god out of my heart. >> right. coins and currency. there's an economic issue. we're joined now by msnbc

political analyst karen finney and anna marie cox of "the guardian" and msnbc contributor jonathan capehart who has had his hair beautifully cut for this occasion. karen, if i might begin with you, somewhere i formed the impression that mr. romney's campaign was all about jobs anded economy. now he's talking about the almighty's name on coins and he's hanging out with pat robertson. what exactly is going on now? >> oh, martin, come on now. he was in virginia, and i mean a couple things. number one, this is a clear attempt to go after the evangelical voters in the republican base who already don't trust him, but also -- >> karen, he's already won the primary. >> oh, but in order to win the general election, let's take a look at virginia folk. president obama actually lost the white vote in virginia but won the african-american vote and that's a big part of how he won the state. so my read of that language was a very clear pandering and outreach to what evangelical voters in the state trying to

use god, frankly, as a wedge issue, which i find very offensive. president obama has never said anything about taking god off of coins or out of his heart, for heaven's sake, not to mind the pun. obviously my folks made a stupid mistake in the platform. the word god got taken out. the president said put it back in. this is ridiculous. >> anna marie, pat robertson was at it again. take a listen to this, anna marie. >> i have lost my self-confidence. her words hurt so much and she refuses to talk through our problems. please tell me what i can do. >> well, you could become a muslim and you could beat her. >> but in lieu of that? >> you don't want to go to saudi arabia? >> no. >> anna marie, this is a man that the republican presidential nominee was on a stage with 24 hours ago or 48 hours ago.

>> yeah. right now because mitt romney refuses to tell us much about his own beliefs or his own policies or what he wants to do, we really can only judge him by the company that he keeps, and this is a pretty striking example of him keeping fairly bad company. it's not the only one, by any means, and i actually just want to add that there's lots of weird conspiracy theories out there that the right wing has about obama. maybe there's something about coins? like i know they think they wants to take their golf courses away. that's legit conspiracy theory i read. maybe there's a coin thing. i don't know. >> jonathan, is there a coin thing? >> not that i have heard. i'll run back and see if anyone has any plans they want to slip me about taking god off coins. >> jonathan, what is your reaction to a presidential nominee sharing the stage with a man who says in response to someone who is concerned about marital difficulties that they're having, that the individual should consider changing religions so that they

can beat their partner? >> right. it's offensive on so many levels and on its face, and could you imagine if the roles were reversed and president obama had a high level supporter such as poth robertson saying something similar if not the exact same thing. all hell would break loose and there would be calls on the president to condemn this person and for that person to resign from the campaign and all sorts of other histrionics. what you see happening here, martin, is not only mitt romney going after the evangelical vote, but remember there are very few real undecideds in this race on both sides. mitt romney from the moment he declared his candidacy right through to right now is still trying to energize his base because whoever wins this election is going to be because they got their base out to the polls to vote. the only problem, as karen pointed out, mitt romney's base doesn't trust him. as we saw in sharcharlotte,

president obama's base not only trusts him, they're with him 100%. >> does this mean he swings to the extreme right now? because you have been telling me that he had to go to the extremities in order to win the primaries, but now that he's in the general election he's going to swing to the middle. but it's not happening. >> here is what they're trying to do. they're trying to have it both ways. remember as they went into their convention trying to separate themselves from mr. akins' comments despite the fact that paul ryan, you know, the vp nominee, essentially has sponsored all this legislation with mr. akin. trying to have it both ways. i think what you have seen is a pattern of saying one thing in front of the television cameras, like just on sunday with our own david gregory talking about health care reform and saying, well, there's some things in obama care i would keep, and then what happens? the cameras go away and quietly a spokesperson comes back and corrects the statement to say, well, no that's not what he meant. here is what he really meant. we've seen that pattern repeat itself a couple times where

they're trying to have it both ways in the general election and it's a tricky thing to try to appease the right wing base and sound like a credible, reasonable, thoughtful human being. >> it's extremely difficult. anna marie, i'm a little worried mr. romney isn't the only one losing the thread, if you will. let's take a listen to how mrs. romney responded. >> mitt and i do recognize that we have not had a financial struggle in our lives. we got married and moved into a basement apartment. we walked to class together, shared the housekeeping, ate a lot of pasta and tuna fish. our dining room table was a fold oun ironing board in the kitchen. >> anna marie, we should acknowledge buckingham palace does have basement apartments, but the romney's struggle financially. hang on a second. last week we're being told they ate off an ironing board. now she says, and i'm quoting her, mitt and i do recognize we have not had a financial

struggle in our lives. >> well, she's being honest. which is a nice change. >> last week she was lying when she spoke from the convention floor, from the dais. >> we don't know they ate tuna fish and pasta. we don't know what kind. maybe it was imported from italy. maybe it was mahogany. i do appreciate the honesty about this. i do think that this is something that doesn't surprise anyone. again, i don't think there's anyone that was already going to vote for mitt romney that didn't know he hasn't struggled in his life. it's always been a disingenuous narrative for him. in fact, to the extent there are people that think about this, i think there are people who admire how much he's done with his life and he was a successful businessman. it's those of us who are kind of in the middle who doubt him

about what kind of resonance he has with people who have not had the kind of life he's been able to live. and that's where you get the speeches like ann romney made which just rang false. i don't think there's a person in the middle of the country, an undecided person, who heard that speech and thought, wow, he really did come from nothing. >> karen, do you agree? >> i do, although i'm thinking to myself, you know, you're sitting across the table from putin and doing nuclear negotiations, and then you have to go explain it to the american people. you cannot have this kind of dissonance in your communication that we've seen where it's tuna and noodles and the ironing board, we've never struggled. back and forth and back and forth. the fact we're sitting here in september and they still cannot get their story straight about who they are, what they stand for, what their experience was, i think it's a big problem for this campaign and, frankly, ha is not presidential. you have to stick to a message and continue to, you know, push that message. not kind of keep chaunging your

tune every time you get a new poll. >> indeed, karen, anna marie, jonathan, thank you all. coming up, that pesky problem mitt romney just can't escape from. stay with us. >> but there was also a trillion dollars in a media spending cut which included the defense cuts, almost $400 billion that were proposed by the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, mr. dempsey, as well as secretary panetta and you also voted for those, and now you're saying that you didn't vote for them? >> we can get -- [ male announcer ] let's say you need to take care of legal matters. wouldn't it be nice if there was an easier, less-expensive option than using a traditional lawyer? well, legalzoom came up with a better way. we took the best of the old and combined it with modern technology. together you get quality services on your terms, with total customer support. legalzoom documents have been accepted in all 50 states,

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and women who are serving there. indeed, his weekend began with this testy he can change with bret bear of fox news. >> do you regret opening up this line of attack, now a recurring attack, by leaving out that issue in the speech? >> i will regret you repeating it day to day. >> yes, what a hassle. the man who wants to be commander in chief facing questions about the soldiers that he wishes to command. to defend himself from incoming fire, mr. romney sought cover behind a speech he delivered to the american leekgion the day before. a defense my clegg david gregory dared to challenge on sunday's "meet the press." >> i find it interesting people are curious about interesting words in a speech as opposed to policy. the went to the american legion -- >> you weren't speaking to tens of millions of people at the -- >> wherever i go, i am speaking to tens of millions of people. everything i say is picked up by you and others and that's the way it ought to be. so i went to the american legion

and spoke with our veterans there and described my policy as it relates to afghanistan and other foreign policy and our military. >> now, the candidate's irritation aside, that american legion speech he continues to hide behind that his running mate and his surrogates continue to hide behind, it ran for a total of 16 minutes, and here are the 16 seconds that mr. romney devoted to afghanistan word for word. >> of course, we're still at war in afghanistan. we still have uniform men and women in conflict risking their lives just as you once did. how deeply we appreciate their sacrifice. we salute them, we honor them, we respect and love them. >> mr. romney, those 16 seconds did not include a single word about policy. and while you're increasingly unsettled by questions about your glaring omission, imagine just for a moment how unsettled those troops must feel who are serving in afghanistan.

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available with advanced haldex all-wheel drive. [ engine revving ] it's bringing the future forward. a busy weekend on the campaign trail and a bear hug for the commander in chief. here are today's top lines. you're so vague. >> you have a big choice to make. >> two months to be able to convince people. >> our opponent goes around saying that the nation's in decline. >> those people that try and minimize the feeling and the connection we have with the american people. >> if hard work were a guarantee of success, this nation would be run by a bunch of mexican guys with leaf blowers. >> i will not take god off our coins and i will not take god out of my heart! >> do you have a birth certificate? >> have you tried the new double down, trickle down sandwich at

kfc. >> you should appoint him secretary of explaining stuff. >> details of his tax plan, details about medicare. >> how did you like policy details after clinton's speech? >> a lot of the arguments fall away because people simply can't remember them. jeweled be amazed at what people can remember. >> it was a little bizarre. >> he was so clint eastwood. >> that's what i love about him. >> spoken like a woman who spends most of her mornings sitting next to two empty chairs. >> you're asking me questions that are not about what this election is going to be about. >> don't vote verse a right to know which loopholes you're going to go after? isn't that a secret plan? why not say right now? >> because we want -- george, because we want to have this debate in the public. >> where are the specifics? give me an example of a loophole you will close. >> pie opponents were asked about it, it was like two plus one equals five. that's not bold leadership, that's bad math. >> and this see quetion tration -- >> leaders greed to that deal. >> i think it's a mistake to go

along for it. >> he's talking about you because you voted for those cuts and called it a victory. >> norah, you're mistaken. >> let get to our panel from washington, dana mill bank from "the washington post." julian epstein a democratic strategist and robert trainer, an msnbc contributor. thank you for joining us. robert, if i might begin with you, we just heard paul ryan there defending mitt romney's contention that ryan and the gop made a big mistake on mandatory defense cuts as part of last year's debt ceiling deal, but in the same cbs interview, ryan says the law was, and i'm quoting him, a step in the right direction. so how can boat of those be true or correct? >> well, they certainly can be correct. i mean, there's obviously two people that have different opinions here. remember, paul ryan is a sitting member of congress. he's a deficit hawk. he said what he said and obviously governor romney is a former gov. i remind you, martin, back in 2008 then senator obama and then senator biden disagreed on

policy issues. for example, they disagreed -- >> robert, robert, robert -- can i just interrut for one moment. i'm delighted, first of all, at your knowledge of political history and the fact that you can provide me with a mirror example of democrats. what i was actually you, if i might, is why does paul ryan in one sentence say he supports mitt romney's view that the gop republicans were wrong to insist upon the sequesters or agree to them, and now a few seconds after he says it adds discipline. previously he said enforcement spending caps are important. does that not seem contradictory. jim not the spokesperson for the romney/ryan ticket. number two, what i heard him say was that it was a step in the right direction. again, two people can fundamentally disagree on this, but thus in the process agree on the overall principles. i think that's what governor romney was trying to say with

david gregory yesterday but you correct me if i'm wrong. >> that's helpful, robert, and i appreciate it. dana, did mitt romney throw paul ryan under the bus in the "meet the press" interview. >> no, mitt romney threw mitt romney under the bus. >> i knew you'd get it right. >> the internet is not mitt romney's friend because he can go out and say this was a big mistake now, but i can go out and find national review online, a conservative publication from a year ago that says romney applauds boehner plan. he's hailing john boehner for holding on and not increasing taxes and now at a convenient time a year later he's saying he thought that was a big mistake at the time. you can't have it both ways. he was for it before he was against it. >> julian, mitt romney can have it both ways, can't he? >> well, to parlay the metaphor, i think paul ryan probably feels like he was stropped to the roof of the campaign bus by mitt romney. let's get some facts straight. sequestration was the republican fail-safe for european-style job

killing austerity that they wanted to impose in the context of the debt ceiling limitations. democrats never, ever wanted this hammer. republicans were in total for this fail-safe hammer. democrats weren't. now, it's one thing for mitt romney to take two different positions on this as he takes two different positions on virtually everything, and yet he still doesn't have a plan when you ask him about what he's going to do to reduce the deficit. as david gregory pointed out, mitt romney's economic policy right now would create $4 trillion of additional debt. if you add up all the tax kuts. when you ask him how he will pay for that, he is unable to identify a single deduction with which he will use to pay for that. and it just shows you again, as i have made the point on this program before, they do not have a coherent tax plan. they do not have a coherent plan they can identify to create jobs. the response you get from republicans is where is obama's plan? obama has a jobs act that john

mccain's economic adviser, mark zandi, said would create 2 million jobs in the year 2012. obama has a very clear economic plan. so what we get from republicans is incoherence, contradictory positions. what you get from democrats is a clear plan that even leading republicans say will create jobs. >> dana, in that same interview romney repeats the anti-climate change line from his convention speech. take a listen to this. >> the reason i'm in this race is to help people. i'm not in this race to slow the rise of the oceans or to heal the planet. >> ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. day nashtion the president rightly points out the floods and wild fires created by climate change are not a joke, so why does mitt romney repeatedly say this kind of thing? is he so desperate to hang onto the gop base that he has to? >> well, it does seem at times that the sea of

self-contradiction is rising up to romney's chin here and he has been at various places on global warming leading among many other issues here. it's the old dance that he's still not exactly confident in his base. he's doing better. the paul ryan pick made it better, but he still needs to bring his base out in large numbers, so he's risking ali alienating the vast majority of people in the middle who say it sounds like there's a scientific con consensus on here. >> here is how he defined his position. he says, my best assessment of the data is that the world is getting warmer, that human activity contributes to that warming. yet, one sentence later he writes, however, there remains a lack of scientific consensus on the issue. i mean, i'm sorry to put this to you, robert, but that sounds to me like a flip-flop in the space of one sentence. >> and you want me to respond how?

let me just go back to this. i think the number one issue here is jobs and the economy. i believe what governor romney is speaking to is the environment is extremely important, on the top ten list of things it's probably in the top ten. but the number one issue right now is the economy. i think what governor romney is trying to pift to is tavot to i about the number one issue. i agree with dana and julian in terms of specificity. the independents as well as the registered voters out there want some concrete plans not only from governor romney but also from president obama. the polls are indicative of that. instead of having this conversation about mocking someone's environmental program, i think that's a different day for a different topic. let's talk about jobs and the economy. >> can i respond to that quickly? >> robert, if i might say so, there was no mockery, these are comments made by mitt romney -- >> what i was referring to -- >> when we do -- >> referring to the laughter about 25 seconds ago -- >> can i respond quickly? >> okay, please. >> i think jobs are important

but i think character is important. when it comes to mitt romney, his position on an issue is dictated by what audience he's speaking to. he has more positions than a game of twister. when he speaks to a scientific audience, he says he concedes the scientific consensus. then he mocks the idea of global warming. there is no argument left in the scientific community on climate change. there is no argument. to suggest otherwise is fundamentally dishonest. even the skeptics have come over to agree this is a major problem facing us. republicans clearly have associated them with the anti-scientific position when it comes to the climate. they've associated themselves with the anti-scientific commission on the economy. you ask economists and they will tell you that the stimulus, just to parlay it to our earlier conversation, the stimulus has worked. the only reason it hasn't been more effective was because it wasn't ambitious enough. there isn't much dispute about that. >> julian, dana, and robert, gentlemen, thank you very much

all of you. >> thank you. coming up on "hardball," chris matthews on gop jitters. what has republicans on edge? plus, the real reason bill clinton wants president obama re-elected. that's just ahead at 5:00. next, mitt romney's latest flip-flop, it's like watching tennis. stay with us. >> you keep that part of a federal plan? >> i'm not getting rid of all of health care reform. there are a number of things i like in health care reform that i'm going to put in place. ♪ [ acoustic guitar: slow ] [ barks ] ♪ [ upbeat ] [ barks ] beneful playful life is made with energy-packed wholesome grains... and real beef and egg. to help you put more play in your day.

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>> so we found it curious to hear governor romney attempt to explain that promise a little further on "meet the press." >> there are a number of things that i like in health care reform that i'm going to put in place. one is to make sure that those with pre-existing conditions can get coverage. two is to assure that the marketplace allows for individuals to have policies that cover their family up to whatever age they might like. >> is it possible that mr. romney's legendary metronome is quickly quinging back to the health care plan that he implemented and the president copied? fred woodhouse is communications director for thed nc. good afternoon. mitt romney says he likes part of the health care reform law that he's pledged to repeal on day one. but here is the question, brad. how can you possibly keep the coverage without the individual mandate? >> well, you can't. you can't, martin. and, of course, that's the big problem. this is another example of where mitt romney's arithmetic doesn't

add up. but, look, no one should be surprised. i mean, julian epstein said in your previous segment, this is someone who will say anything that might contradict with anything else he said depending on the audience he's speaking to. just within hours after leaving the impression on "meet the press" that he, in fact, would kelace that was adopted under obama care, we found out from his campaign that that wasn't true at all. that, in fact, he would just go back to the law as it existed before obama care. he's not really serious about covering people with pre-existing conditions. >> brad, would you mind referring to it as the affordable care act as opposed to the terp that's used by many republicans. romney was asked about medicare as well. take a list be to his answer. >> let them either buy current medicare or to have a private plan a lot like medicare advantage today. i like medicare advantage. >> how do you drive down prices, governor? >> it sure did. >> a few hours later the

president had this to say about medicare in florida. take a listen. >> there was one report that just said that by the end of the next decade under their plan, you would see as much as $16 billion to $20 billion in new profits for insurance companies. paid for my taxpayers. >> brad, is it now fair to say that neither mitt romney nor paul ryan have a clue about what they're talking about in relation to medicare? >> well, they don't have a clue about what the they're talking about or they have a clue and they're just trying to mislead the american people for the next 56 days. i mean, let's look at what they want to do. they want to repeal obama care, which would take away the savings that is linked in the life of medicare by eight years and would take away all of these benefits that seniors are getting like closing the doughnut hole. here is the other thing about medicare is under their plan, private insurance companies would cherry pick the healthiest

seniors and then medicare would go broke. i mean, their plan would be a disaster for seniors. >> a brand new cnn/orc poll asked likely vote worries they trusted more on the issue of medicare, the president now enjoys a 11-point lead when it was just a 1-point lead just three weeks ago. i guess the american public is beginning to understand the issue and is making a judgment. >> they are. i think they're beginning to pay attention, and, look, i think it's no surprise. more americans than ever in this election cycle tuned in to the two conventions, and they got explanations, at least on our side, of what we would do. they didn't get a clear explanation of what romney and ryan would do. they didn't talk about voucherizing medicare but i think when they heard from the president and bill clinton and joe biden, they understood the choice that the american people face especially as it relates to the future of medicare and health care. >> when paul ryan says we welcome the opportunity to have a debate.

we will not walk away from the tough issues. we're ready to debate those issues right now. your response to that? >> bluster. it's just bluster. and you know what? paul ryan has a lot of bluster. i mean, here is someone who was eviscerated yesterday on the sunday shows for being evasive about their tax plan and what deductions they would take away to pay for it. he got caught all but lying or maybe lying by norah o'donnell about his vote on the sequester. you know, paul ryan is turning out to be the best vice presidential pick we could have hoped for for mitt romney. >> i thought that was sarah palin. brad woodhouse, thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you, martin. next, team romney moves the goalposts again. no convention bounce. oh, well. it's on to the debate. stay with us. i'm freaking out man. why? i thought jill was your soul mate. no, no it's her dad. the general's your soul mate? dude what? no, no, no. he's, he's on my back about providing

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the president is back at the

white house after quite an interesting weekend. coming out of last week's convention, you might say the president was swept off his feet and enjoying a positive poll bump that puts him a solid six points ahead of his challenger. we're joined by kristin welker. we have heard the romney camp issue a statement today saying, don't pay too much attention to the polls. as we know, some of the polls, two of them, are indicating that the president has increased the lead between himself and mitt romney. what is the white house saying about the polls? >> well, good afternoon, martin. it's interesting. the white house makes a similar comment. they say we don't pay too much attention to these polls. what they're telling me is they have their own internal polling which shows them with some marginal leads in key battleground states. do they like this latest poll that has come out? of course they do. it gives them just a little bit more confidence, but, again, polls change so much that what they're really looking at are those internal polls that

they're doing in these key battleground states. however, having said that, they say that they are not ready to claim success in any of these battleground states. they think it's going to be an incredibly close race in the battleground states and naxwide, quite frankly, right up until election day. president obama was stumping in florida over the weekend. i was there with him. if you look at the polling there, it again shows him with a slight lead, but if you talk to the white house, if you talk to campaign officials, they say it really doesn't mean anything because florida will likely go down to the wire and, of course, that's the biggest battleground state. >> looking ahead, the president suspends campaigning tomorrow for the 11th anniversary of 9/11. and i'm assuming that he will be paying his respects for those who lost their lives on that terrible day. >> absolutely. he will spend tomorrow marking the september 11th anniversary. he will mark it with a number of different ceremonies right here in washington, d.c., and then wednesday and thursday he'll be back on the campaign trail, back

in some of the big battleground states, colorado, nevada. the unemployment rate by the way in both of those battleground states a little higher in the national average. in nevada it's the highest in the nation. he will be there talking about the theme we've heard all along, which is that this is a choice, he will map out what that choice is as he tries to court voters there. but then he will be back at the white house again on friday, martin. he's going to be hosting olympians, the u.s. olympic team on friday. >> sooim sure that's going to be a special occasion. krist kristen, thank you for following the president. >> thank you. >> and we'll be right back. [ kimi ] atti and i had always called oregon home. until i got a job in the big apple. becoming a fulltime indoor cat wasn't easy for atti. but he had purina cat chow indoor. he absolutely loved it. and i knew he was getting everything he needed to stay healthy indoors.

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time now to clear the air. and although mitt romney keeps being asked about how exactly he plans to improve our economic situation and balance the budget, he still refuses to

provide any details. >> give me an example of a loophole that you will close. >> well, i can tell you that people at the high end, high income taxpayers are going to have fewer deductions and exemptions. >> but which ones? will he cut the home mortgage deduction? does he plan to cut the deduction on charitable giving? who knows. it seems peculiar that a man who plans to run the country will not tell the country what he plans to do. maybe that's the point. because it does seem as though mitt romney's campaign to win the white house is actually based upon two pillars that have got nothing whatsoever to do with policy. first, he plans to carpet bomb the president with negative advertising. just last month mitt romney and the rnc raised almost $112 million. that means he has $168.5 million of cash on hand. ready to pour into an advertising blitz. but the target will be the president, while mr. romney will continue to stay silent on matters of policy.

the second pillar to the romney campaign is to rely upon certain measures that will have the affect of suppressing the vote of democratic support certifies. thus far, ten states, all republican, have passed strict photo i.d. laws. this, despite the fact that two out of every three americans do not own a passport. one-fifth of 18 to 21-year-olds do not have a driver's license. and 25% of african-american voters do not possess the type of identification that's required under these laws. mitt romney doesn't give detailed answers because that's not how he plans to win this election. his campaign is built on two pillars, money and manipulation. in fact, let's be honest. you're more likely to see the lockness monster than you are to see the loopholes that mr. romney plans to close. thanks so much for watching