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tv   The Rachel Maddow Show  MSNBC  September 18, 2012 1:00am-2:00am PDT

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does this parallel with what you heard from this weekend? >> it's almost a paraphrase of what gary bower said. there are two kinds of people. the people who just take and the people they take from. that's not the way america functions. that's not the way christians, by the way, really understand what ought to be happening. >> reverend barry lynn, thank you for joining us tonight. that's "the ed show." let's go to rachel maddow. good evening. >> good evening. good to have you back. >> i want to report to you tonight that i did do this show painless. >> wow. that's incredible. >> i had back surgery on friday. it's remarkable i'm here tonight and not in pain. i'm ready to keep going. >> that is amazing. we have all been pulling for you. welcome back. >> appreciate it very much. >> amazing. thanks to you at home for staying with us for the next hour.
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essentially, even before you knew about ed being back from back surgery this quickly and without pain, before you knew that, i could have told you the news today is essentially rolling out in double time right now. today was a day of major presidential campaign news. possibly the worst day the mitt romney for president campaign has had in politics since mr. romney got the nomination. but that was before the news broke late today of something that's likely to make things considerably worse for mr. romney and for his campaign. we have a very, very full hour of news ahead. including frank rich being here for the interview. we need to start with tonight's breaking news. secretly-recorded video from a private mitt romney for president fundraiser appears to show the republican nominee for president characterizing half of the elector at as inable to be dependent. that's the portion he will not bother with, le doesn't need to
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be concerned with because that's the portion who will vote for president obama. now in the interest of full disclosure and also of understanding the importance of this news and where this video came from, i first need to explain there's a rachel show mad show connection to this 37 late last month, somebody posted a clip of mr. romney talking that appears to come from the same speech in the same place from the same back behind the crowd vantage point as the footage published today. it looks the same. the clip last month did not have the visual filtering that was added today. it did not appear of the same resolution. in the clip posted last month, mr. romney talks about going to china to maybe buy an appliance factory there with his firm bain capital. he talks touring the factory where they worked for a
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pittance. they lived in dormitories with bunks three high. the factory had a barbed wire fence around it and guard towers to keep people out because so many people wanted to work there. then he says that 95% of life is settled if you're born in america. that clip was posted to youtube last month that had an act with rachel mad dough on it. they made it seem that it was me, the account was taken down. in terms of somebody impersonating me, that was easy. we knew it wasn't me. in terms of the content, we were not able to authenticate the origin of the video. that was late august. a few days after all of that happened, a different youtube
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account went up with a different name. posted ten different excerpts of governor romney's speech at this fundraiser. twice it's posted in august and back in may, at youtube account posted more excerpts from the same speech including the original clip about the chinese factory. even those all those were posted on the web, weeks, if not months ago, the story went nowhere. the quality of the video was poor. you couldn't see if it was mitt romney or not. and nobody could verify the source of legitimacy of the tape. nothing happened even though this was technically out there on youtube. nothing happened until now. some reporters started moving copy of the story over the weekend and today we're told the same person who posted the clips in may and in august under my name and later in august under a different name, that same person gave the entire hour-long video of the fundraiser to mother
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jones magazine. the story was written by david corn, who you know from msnbc. he's a highly respected d.c. journalist. three and a half minutes of high-quality video were embedded with the story. you can clearly see and not just hear the republican nominee and everyone else in the footage is blurred. mother jones credits james carter with giving them research assistance on the story. he tells us that he first found the video from the person who posted it on youtube under my name. he hooked that person up with mother jones. he also say es the speech by mr. romney lasted about an hour and there are more clips to be released. that all could be released at this point. what's already available could prove to be propmatic enough for the romney campaign. especially this portion.
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this portion was also obtained and verified by michael i-isokoff. 47% of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. 47% who are with him who are dependent upon government. who believe that they are victims. my job is not to worry about those people, i'll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives. the romney campaign is not disputing that that video is of romney.
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my job is not to worry about those people, i'll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives. the romney campaign is not disputing that that video is of romney. they issued a statement prompted by the recording, quote, mr. romney wants to help all americans struggling in the obama economy. as the governor has made clear, he's concerned about the growing
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number of people who are dependent upon the government. the 23 million americans struggling to find work. mitt romney's plan grow es the economy and moves americans off government dependency and into jobs. also republican party chairman is not only defending the remarks tonight, he's saying that mitt romney was on message when he made these remarks. the obama campaign issued their own statement. the campaign manager says, quote, it's hard to serve as president for all americans when you have disdainfully written off half the nation. in terms of how we got this information today, got this footage of mitt romney talking about 47% of the country who believes that they are victims and who are dependent upon the government and who he does not worry about. in terms of how we go this, different variations of this speech, different variations of
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this footage have been bouncing around the internet for months in a sort of unverified way. today the story was everywhere. it can no longer be ignored. joining us is david corn. his book comes out in paperback tomorrow. congratulations on the scoop. thank you for being here. >> i'm glad to be with you, rachel. i have to say the source apologizes for impersonating you early on. >> is that so? >> quite seriously. i was asked to convey that message. >> thank you. i will say because that's the way that i learned about the video, we tried to authenticate it. we tried to figure out if that's what it purported to be. it seemed to emerge from a place that was so strange and unknowable to me that i did not know that anybody would ever be able to verify it. are you sure what it purports to be? >> 100% sure and i watched the whole videotape, which is
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internal statements that mitt romney makes about where this happened and initially i was under the obligation not to reveal those details, but if you care to know, i can tell you whose house this was at and where it happened. it was at the home of mark later, he's a private equity manager and his fund has $8 billion in it it. "the new york times" did a story on him noting he was a big supporter of mitt romney. he got into the private equity game buzz he visited bain capital and it turned him on. many of his deals have gone south and been controversial. he still made a lot of money. he also has a side pursuit. he has very lavish parties, particularly at his estate in bridge hampton. one he e had in august 2011 was called an orgj by "the new york
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post" and there were people there performing sex acts at the party itself. this is who mitt romney is raising money with. >> was this at the home? >> this fundraiser happened in his bo ka ra tan home. >> in terms of the origin of it, i'm not pressuring you to release your source, but are you confident that the source is not motivated by anti-romney in a way that would mean this should be suspected of being taken out of context? >> i would say, you saw the romney statement today. they are not challenging a single word. so that there should sort of close the argument. but i have seen the whole tape. no none of this is taken out of context. i don't know what context there could be. so it's fully in context.
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i've confirmed the authenticity of what's been in the tape and have no doubts about it. the source has assured me. the way it sort of came about indicates this is true that this person is not connected to any political campaign, wasn't there as an infiltrator. but nevertheless, put that all aside, i'm happy to answer those questions, the fact that mitt romney has not challenged a word here shows you that this is what he said. this is what he said behind closed doors with a bunch of other millionaires who he felt comfortable with. >> that pivot from where this came from to what it means. we have seen some remarkable talking points, apparently, from the right on this today. essentially saying they like the sound of this. they think this is on message. this is the sort of thing that mitt romney is happy to run on and there's no revelation here that the campaign feels uncomfortable about. i wonder what your reaction is to that.
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i find it in raw terms hearing him dismiss half the country as victims dependent on the government. i find it to be raw and grading, but the campaign is trying to spin it in a different way. >> i can see, like paul ryan, he wants to help the poor but break them from the chains of entitlement. that's one thing. but what he's saying on the video, it doesn't take a close listen. everybody, not just some, but everybody that voted for barack obama comes from a parking lot of america y wr they think they are entitled. they don't believe in personal responsibility. they don't take care of themselves. they don't pay taxes. so he's equating half of america as moochers who believe they are victims of society. it's simply not true. i don't think everyone votes for obama doesn't pay income taxes. but it shows a certain mind set
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where he's casting this election as that twooen the forces of strivers like us this in room. people who believe in personal initiative and make our own success. people can judge for themselves what level of disdain that shows, but the spitters trying to protect mitt romney are not dealing with the words he actually said. >> should we expect further footage that you have seen to be made publically available? >> at the end of the story today, it does say coming soon, more. so there will be more very soon on mitt romney and what he told those people at that fundraiser. >> incredible reporting. please convey to your source that apology accepted. congratulations again on the scoop. thanks a lot. david corn, washington bureau chief for mother jones. his reporting and that footage
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you can see at motherjones.com. a lot still coming. stay with us. [ sneezes ] [ male announcer ] if you have yet to master the quiet sneeze... ♪ [ sneezes ] [ male announcer ] you may be an allergy muddler. try zyrtec®. it gives you powerful allergy relief. and zyrtec® is different than claritin® because zyrtec® starts working at hour 1 on the first day you take it. claritin® doesn't start working until hour 3. [ sneezes ] [ male announcer ] zyrtec®. love the air. join zyrtec® rewards. save up to $7 on zyrtec® products. side by side so you get the same coverage, often for less. that's one smart board. what else does it do, reverse gravity? [ laughs ] [ laughs ] [ whooshing ] tell me about it. why am i not going anywhere? you don't believe hard enough. a smarter way to shop around.
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do you remember elaine chow? incidentally, she's married to the top republican in the senate, senator mitch mcconnell. they are a power couple in washington as these things go. elaine ciao works at fox news if. a few weeks ago during an
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appearance, she talked about what a stunning abuse of power it was for president obama to strip the work requirement out of welfare. that's not true. president obama did not strip the work requirement out of welfare. quite the contrary. but elaine ciao went on tv and said it was true and also that it's a terrible, terrible thing. here she is a couple weeks ago telling lou dobbs about how mitt romney will save the day with his jobs plan if he's elected. he's not just a fox news contributor now. i should also mention that she is a national chair of the mitt romney for president campaign. so when she appears on fox news to offer economic analysis, she's impolicely doing it as a fox news contributor and a member of the mitt romney campaign, which is probably convenient for the mitt romney campaign. walid ferries serves as a terrorism expert on fox.
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this was him talking about attacks on americans were caused by the obama administration. he's not just a middle east and terrorism analyst for fox news. he's also an advisor on foreign policy and national security to the mitt romney campaign. so when he appears on fox news, he gets to do both jobs, which is probably convenient for the mitt romney campaign. here's jay seculo. he appears to talk about news. he's talking about what a great intellectual leader paul ryan is. but jay is not just a fox news regular. he's also an advisor to mitt romney. who according to the folks at politico serves as liaison between romney and movement conservatives.
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you remember john bolten as the ambassador to the u.n. remember him from the george bush years? he has a gig on fox news. you can see here he's explaining how the attack on the u.s. embassy how that was caused by the weakness and fecklessness of the obama administration. but john bolten is not just a fox news tv guy. he's also a romney campaign foreign policy advisor. so he gets to work for the romney campaign while he works on fox news. in fact, mr. bolten announced his endorsement of mitt romney during an appearance on fox news. the folks at media matters have been tracking the overlap of the analysts. a spokesperson said his joint role as a fox news contributor and advisor is totally okay and super ethical because mr. bolten is not paid by the campaign and
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he gives foreign policy advice to lots of people. the most amazing example making efficient use of air time is carl rove. he does not work for the romney campaign, but he's the founder of the massive, massive pro-romney anti-obama super pac. and he gets to go on fox news and analyze his own campaign ad. for fox. spoiler alert, he thought his own campaign ad was awesome and totally effective. >> your super pac, american cross roads, this is a super pac. put out a recent video. this aimed at voters that were sold a bill of goods. that's where you're going with than.
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>> i'm glad you got the message. >> everybody gets it. >> carl rove in his role as fox news political analyst and a financial player in the 2012 election. analyzing his own effect on the election. there are a few different ways to object to this phenomenon. you can object to a news organization is paying people to report on and analyze their own work. they are working for a campaign and also analyzing that campaign for an organization that at least still has the word news in its name and that can sometimes seem you don't have to be an independent person to be annoyed with that. if you come from the left, there's reasons you object things at fox news. they are a subsidiary of the romney campaign is one things
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that could bother you about fox news. if you come from the right, here's why you might object to this from the right. if you come from the right, your network is not just having conservative-leaning news analysis. they are having the romney campaign on tv and they are calling it conservative-leaning news analysis. frank rich spent the week at the convention absorbing a diet of conservative media and came back with some surprising news from the right. turns out that fox news right now is as frustrating to the right as it is to the left. and the brave we're all behind mitt romney facade of the republican establishment does not at all reflect the conservative grass roots. you ventured beyond the mainstream media, it bore little resemblance to the mood of much of the right. you also learned many in the grass roots were infur rated by the media air brushing. away from the convention stage, it was rife throughout the gop coalition.
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if fox did you want speak for the right anymore, who do they speak for? and where does the right go without fox? frank rich joins us next with more. stay with us.
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our guest is frank rich. he spent the week of the republican convention immersed
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in conservative media to find out what people are thinking and feeling and talking about on the right. if you're not a hard core skrept and think that fox news must represent the way skrepts are talking to each other and what politics are like right now, frank's assessment is that you would be wrong. what fox news represents is the romney campaign. sometimes literally the romney campaign. the campaign advisors are on the payroll at fox. but the tone of the conservative more grass roots media is not just not supportive of mitt romney. at times it's down right nasty. >> the issue that's troubling me is ann romney. i don't like the prominence that she is taking. she is enjoying herself a little too much. she thinks she's running for
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office. she is not doing him a service, as far as i am concerned, by playing such a prominent role. the country club woman. i've been around women like that all my life. i don't like them. ms. perfect. >> i really get ticked off whenever i talk about the battle between the establishment and grass roots and i'm constantly told it doesn't exist. i'm constantly told, no, you're just being a drama queen. i'm told, ohno, you're just making stuff up. you need to stop talking about crap like this. i'm told that every single week. >> that's a sample of what right wing talk radio sounds like right now. that's not at all what fox news sounds like right now. this is the stuff that frank rich is writing about today. after his week-long embed in conservative media, his piece is called "my embed in red."
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thank you for being here. do you feel like those were fair samples in talking about the difference in tone you're getting from the two parts of the right? >> completely fair. it was absolutely fascinating to me. the way i did it is listened to all the radio all day. watched fox at night. looked at the websites. and fox, you nailed it talking about having double employment. fox really is an arm of the romney campaign. what you find listening to the grass roots is a lot of suspicion about both romney and the gop establishment in general, a fury about the rules changes that were pushed through. >> we covered it. >> fox didn't cover it. it was not just about ron paul. it was across the board. you find that there are a tremendous amount of complaints.
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if you listen to fox, you'd think the only people who were criticizing clint eastwood were lefties and democrats. in fact, glen beck did an intentionally hilarious monologue making fun of the idiot si of their night being stepped on by that improv. there's a lot of skepticism about romney and ryan's foreign policy. since the republican convention, this was predicted by commentators while the convention was going on. you find a lot of enthusiasm for ryan, paul ryan as the pure avatar of minimal government. basically, fundamental conservative ideology. but fury about the fact that he dumbed down his message at the convention.
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that if the left was complaining about him fudging facts or lying in his big convention speech, the right's complaint was that ryan was fudging conservative principles, not talking at the big ideas they attribute to him and like. the religious right was furious about the establishment's abandonment of todd aiken. and then people were fighting with mike huckabee who took the same stand supporting aiken. and so what you just played is completely typical of what i was hearing. and by the way, i would say to your audience, it's worth listening to. some of these people you may completely disagree with them, but they are honest. they are not spinning for like a carl rove on fox. they have contempt for those people saying every day that every focus group liked the republican ad better than the democratic ad. they know it's nonsense.
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they were concerned about the bad ratings the convention was getting. i learned more about the republicans and harsher criticisms from the conservative media than i would from a lot of the liberal press. >> i feel like we saw this insurgency when the tea party movement became a generator of right wing primary challengers to republican candidates. the republican party just shifted to incorporate the right wing protest movement. so you have jesse benton who was rand paul's campaign manager against the successor for the senate seat in kentucky. now mitch mcconnell is bringing benton on board. they brought them all on board. that seems to not be happening in the common tear yat. so aren't people like the folks
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at fox news risking the situation in which they are seen as the establishment and they lose all of the energy on their own side in the same way that the national republican senate snee and all these guys had to bare the brunt of their own wing? >> i think you're right, but i think you're hitting the conundrum about fox. it's not a tea party association. it's owned by rupert murdoch, more or less. so therefore, when the chips are down, they are going to go with romney. murdoch himself has been skeptic of romney. that's where the interests are. the tea party people, the grass roots have nowhere to go. i think the grass roots people would say we have some place to go, possibly some day a third party. but i think if romney loses, which increasingly seems likely
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to me, even if he wins, they are going to be a real night of the long knives as people fight this out. it's really interesting. >> let me ask you before we go about the mitt romney tape. you saw it at the top of the hour. 47% of the country who are with him who are dependent on government and believe they are victims and the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe they are entitled to health care and food, that's an entitlement and they will vote for this president no matter what. my job is not to worry about those people. i will never convince them they should take personal responsibility. president romney? >> all i can think of is that polling question they ask, who cares more about people like you? can you wait for the next number in that matchup with obama? >> people are already voting. ballots have already been cast in north carolina. frank rich, the article is "my embed in red."
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thank you. super insightful. thank you. there's one big critical area of policy that's screaming for the mitt romney campaign to offer a better alternative to the obama administration. like the country needs a better alternative. how about something from the challenger? if only the romney campaign could present one. that story is next. [ female announcer ] born from the naturally sweet monk fruit, something this delicious could only come from nature. now from the maker of splenda sweeteners, discover nectresse. the only 100% natural, no-calorie sweetener made from the goodness of fruit.
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have you ever been inclined to vote for a democrat? is it because you're dependent on the government and refuse to take responsibility for your life? when politics gets tough, sometimes politics gets weird. that's what's going on right now. hold on. there's more.
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after a late night and an early morning of very bad press alleging that the wheels are coming off the romney campaign, the campaign told reporters they were changing strategy. if you seem to be in crisis, make it look like you're taking charge and moving in a whole new direction. it's important, though, to pick just one new direction to move in. even in cleanup mode today, the romney campaign was rutterless and chaotic telling some reporters that the new strategy was to go hard right, to talk to base voters about patriotism and god, and telling others to go very specific. they won't be talking about patriotism and god. they will be talking about policy. will they offer new specifics to show how the campaign would operate?
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no new specifics today, but we promise we're going to get specific. or whatever, we have no idea. ideally, elections are a way we solve problems in this country. the country has challenges, candidates put forward ideas how to address those challenges and we the people decide between those choices. it's a crude form of decision making, but it is what we've got. and when real national life or death challenges get ignored or skipped in an election, we lose out as a country on the chance to debate competing ideas for how to fix those problems. right now, we need to have a debate between real and robust and serious and well-informed competing ideas about how to solve a big problem that we have as a country because it's a big problem and what we're doing right now is not working. on friday in southern afghanistan three coordinated teams of insurgents wearing
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american army uniforms infiltrated a military base called camp bastion. it's received more press because britain's prince harry was on that base. regardless of the royalty, consider it was a big group of insurgents. they were wearing american uniforms. they killed two u.s. marines, wounded nine other personnel, eventually 14 of the attackers were killed, but not before they caused that huge damage and not before they destroyed what's said to be $200 million worth of equipment. six jets destroyed, two damaged, six aircraft hangars and fueling stations destroyed. they were reportedly armed with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers. that happened on friday. on a nato base.
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also on friday, separate incident, an afghan police officer shot and killed two british soldiers. then on sunday, another incident. a group of afghan police officers shot and killed four american soldiers. eight coalition troops in three days. at least six of them killed by the afghan security forces whose training is our justification of being in that war. most joint u.s. afghan military operations are suspended until further notice. it was reported they would be suspended for a couple day, but now the suspension is indefinite. one official telling nbc, it could be three days or three months. a senior military official explaining the chain by saying, we're to the point now where we can't trust these people. the reason that young american men and women, talented, ambitious, accomplished men and women in the prime of their lives are tonight right now
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risking being killed thousands of miles away is because of the value that american policymakers have put on the mission to train afghan forces and those joint combat patrols that have now been called off indefinitely. if there's a need for a debate about anything in american politics right now, it would seem for a debate about that. you're looking for something to get specific about, mr. romney? how about trying to get specific about this. i know. fat chance. [ 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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as of now people are casting their votes for president by mail. north carolina is first this year, in terms of allowing their residents to vote. the hill reporting today that several hundred ballots have already been returned. but voters in indiana and kentucky will start to get their ballots. which means people can vote in those states as well. while the headlines for the mitt romney president campaign looked like this. inside the campaign how mitt romney stumbled. amid discord romney seeks to sharpen message. republican law makers say romney campaign needs to change course.
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romney in panic mode. romney campaign in disarray, says romney campaign. more from poe lit co: abruftly shifts straty. "the washington post", the romney campaign is in trouble. it's not like they didn't look like they were in trouble before today, but what is driving this particularly overwhelmingly vigorously negative news cycle for them is the people who work on the campaign are talking to reporters. they're talking about each other and about mitt romney. explaining who it is that they blame for the fact that they are losing so badly right now. one campaign advisor saying this. i always have the impression stuart must save his stuff for meetings i'm not important enough to attend. then there's the criticism of the candidate himself. romney associates are bufld that
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such a successful cooperate leader has created a team with some few lines of authority or accountability. you would expect a little of this from political professionals when their campaign is running behind they work the press so they don't get blamed for the failure. but you don't explain the candidate to get attacked by his staffers and you do not expect so much of the fire to be trained by the top guy of the campaign. who is not being fired, he's being kept in place. you're supposed to pick a scapegoat who's leaving. is this something that happens in every campaign. is it a nonsubstantive freak-out being driven by the belt way press or is this something real? 50 days out from the election, the headlines make it seems like the wheels have come off romney and he's losing badly. looking at the data, looking at the fundamentals, there's usually a better way to grasp the longer view than looking at one tough news cycle.
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so look at this. here's the swing state and maybe swing state map and here's the latest polling that we have from the last few days. in new hampshire president obama leading by 5 points. in virginia also by 5 points. in north carolina it's mitt romney by 6 points. in florida it's obama with a 2-point lead, in pennsylvania obama with an 11-point lead, in ohio, in wisconsin it's 2 points obama, in colorado it's obama by 1, in nevada, the president leading by 3 points. are you noticing a trend? how about this, the issues on which the voters are deciding the race also look good for the president. a brand new poll shows that obama is erasing mitt romney's edge when it comes to who voters trust more on the economy. he went up to 30 percent after the convention now he is back down 26%.
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president obama has a 42-point lead in latino voters. so when you look at all those things together, you can understand why people who want president obama to be re-elected feel like things are going their way. but if you want to be realistic about what's going on here, there's one dynamic and two numbers that you need to sort of get your head around. the dynamic is that those polls do say one thing when you look at them as a snapshot, just a moment in time. but it makes more sense to look at them in motion. to look at how they're changing in time. to look at the trends they represent. that gallup poll has obama leading by three points, but over the last few days the number has shrunk. he has still got a lead but it is a lead that is contracting, not expanding.
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that is the dynamic that is at work right now nationally in the gallup poll. i said there was a dynamic and two numbers. the first number is about money. we reported a couple of weeks ago that mitt romney and the republicans had raised more money in the month of may than romney did and they did that again in june and july. the democrats outraised mitt romney in august which was an unexpected development and one that made obama supporters feel good. but nbc news today looked at the data of what money is being spent and by whom, and it turns out that actually most of the monday that is being spent trying to elect mitt romney president is not being spent by mitt romney's campaign or by the republicans. most of the money that's being spent to elect mitt romney is being spent by outside groups. most of what's being spent is outside money and most outside money overall is pro romney.
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here's the number. look. 75%. of all of the outside money being spent in the election so far, 75% is pro romney money. so compare the campaigns, but don't miss the big picture. if you believe money makes a difference as to who wins elections, that is bottomless mostly untraceable money from deep pocketed donors who can give again and again. and when those kinds of donors are given, 75% of that money is pro romney. one last number in terms of realistically assessing the state right now. 730,000. a tea party linked group called the ohio voter integrity project says it will challenge the eligibility of 730,000 registered voters in ohio. nearly one out of every ten voters in ohio is going to have their registration challenged by the tea party group.
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they're reporting how the group has been testing the waters by getting voters thrown off the roles. but the group says nationwide they're moving statewide against 700,000 people in ohio to keep them from voting. so, realistically. today was probably the worst day ever in terms of press and in terms of panic in the mitt romney campaign. and that was all before david corn and huffington post posted the video of mitt romney saying 47% of the people are looking for a handout. that was before all that happened. it was already their worst day yet. and now we are 50 days out. and people are already voting. and there's president obama today in ohio and there's mitt