you can play it for her, you can play it for me. i'm keith olbermann, good night and good luck. >> karl rove gets nasty, but what else is new? let's play "hardball." good evening. good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. leading off tonight, shades of nixon. karl rove is reaching back into the nixon playbook and charging that president obama has an enemies' list. rove's claim came in response to the president's claim that rove and others orchestrated elections ads paid for by unnamed foreign donsors. plus, the republicans hopes of portraying the democrats as a freak show has gotten a boost. first karl paladino the gop candidate for the governor of new york, said he didn't want

children, quote, being brainwashed into thinking that homosexual is acceptable. then we learn a candidate likes to dress up like a nazi. in world war ii reenactments. well, try explaining that proclivity to the voters. also, honey, get me rewright. remember we told you those guyless in the west virginia ad were actors hired in philly? well tonight, one of those actors joining us to talk about his role. guess who he supports? and sarah palin, move over. "saturday night live" has a new favorite. christine o'donnell. >> if i were a witch, why wouldn't i just cast a spell making you all forget that i'm a witch? it's certainly not because the spell requires one nute per person and i lack a sufficient number of nuttes. >> more of that tonight on the "hardball" "side show." tonight it is all sideshow it seems. let me finish tonight with how we can keep people back to work and keep this country competitive with europe and asia at the same time.

let me finish tonight with how we can put people back to work and keep this country competitive with europe and asia at the same time. let's get to the latest poll numbers. we'll start with kentucky. rand paul has only a three-point lead over conway. the very attractive democratic candidate. and bill clinton campaigned for conway today. look for an upset there. in wisconsin, it's republican ron johnson with an eight-point lead over senator russ feingold. it doesn't look good in wisconsin. we'll continue to check the "hardball" scoreboard on all the big races each night leading up to election day. now to those new nasty attacks against president obama and accusations from karl rove that the president's keeping an enemies' list. david corn's the washington bureau chief for mother jones and also writes for politicsdaily.com. and chris cillizza is with "the washington post." gentlemen, thank you for you joining us, to start, on columbus day. here's karl rove on fox. let's listen. >> they have not one shred of evidence to back up that baseless lie.

this is a desperate and i think disturbing trend by the president of the united states to tar his political adversaries with some kind of enemies list with being unrestrained by any evidence whatsoever. >> human talking points. here's president obama thursday in chicago. let's listen to what the president said. >> two groups funded and advised by karl rove have outspent the democratic party two to one in an attempt to beat election. two to one. funded and advised by karl rove. just this week, we learned that one of the largest groups paying for these ads regularly takes in money from foreign sources. so the question for the people of illinois is are you going to let special interests from wall street and washington and maybe places beyond our shores come to this state and tell us who our senators should be? that's not just a threat to

democrats. that's a threat to our democracy. >> the democrats are doubling down on that argument that the republican campaigns this year are being sponsored and paid for by unknown people, by anonymous sources, secret sources, some of them from abroad from outside of the country. >> let's take a look at the new dnc ad that makes the same point. the democrats are doubling down. that may explain why rove has come out of the bushes on this thing. let's listen. >> karl rove. ed gillespie. they're bush cronies. the u.s. chamber of commerce, they're shields for big business. and they're stealing our democracy, spending millions from secret donors to elect republicans to do their bidding in congress. it appears they even take in secret foreign money. to influence our elections. it's incredible. republicans benefitting from secret, foreign money. tell the bush crowd and the chamber of commerce, stop stealing our democracy. >> well that ripped the scab off, didn't it? i understand why old rove came out. of the bushes. i guess somebody roused him on this.

david? >> i want to know what that woman was doing when her purse was stolen in that ad. karl rove is really mugging or spinning history when he equates what the obama white house and dnc is doing to an enemies' list. >> here, what he was doing is trying to make the president come down a bit. personal approval rating come down a bit. like nixon. >> like nixon. >> yeah. >> the enemies' list was a secret list of people who, including gregory peck, joe namath, paul newman, opponents of the white house who according to the white house memo said, how can we screw these guys? that was the white house language. not mine. all obama's doing is calling out his political opponents and rove --. >> we know what he said. chris cillizza, isn't that the strategy of rove who knows what he's doing? he's a nasty bugger. but what is he doing here? but it seems what he's doing is he knows the president's popular, let's call dick nixon.

>> i would say this is a political win-win. barack obama knows that by talking about karl rove, foreign money, these outside groups, it gets the democratic base which we've talked about and i know that you're excited, it gets them interested. >> cillizza, you are growing every day -- >> my question -- you've answered my question. before i answer it. let me try to question some people. some of the slower ones among us like me. get to the question before you get to the answer. >> yes, sir? >> the question is why would a president way up here, president of the united states, attacked this little guy down here named karl rove? >> punching down in politics is usual not a good idea. you always want to be the little guy who the big guy talks about because well then you're in the conversation with a big guy. the one thing i would say that is odd, i get why the

president's doing it, but for karl rove, gosh, i bet he's sitting ban and smiling broadly. >> i agree with you. >> american cross roads, this group he helped develop. is great for fund-raising. >> the bigger point, too, is that john boehner is not as big a target as karl rove. he's not as well-known. he's not as well-known. people in the base -- >> a guy on a golf course somewhere. look, here's the question -- karl rove is the architect of everything that was evil. he was the guy who took us into the war. built the iraq study group the whole thing. let me ask you about this. there's two option here. this is my primitive question that i was going to put to chris before he chopped me. the options, the president's making a big mistake here by going low. some political operative orhines if you're facing a ferocious political situation when you are losing the right, probably losing most of the middle, you've got to hold the left. you've got to hold your base.

>> well, you have to listen -- >> and he's doing it. >> right now the right has a target. it's president obama. the democrats are running three, four, five races and three senate races. they have no centralized target. the white house tried with boehner and now they're trying with karl rove. >> let's bring in david oxel rod because he talked about schriever yesterday. what's this fight about? how did the president get into a fight with this middle weight champion who lost a few championship belts over the years, karl rove. let's listen. >> this part about foreign money, that appears to be peanuts, mr. axelrod. i mean, do you have any evidence that it's anything other than peanuts? >> well, do you have any evidence that it's not? the fact is, the chamber has asserted that, but they won't release any information about where they're campaign money is coming from and that's the core of the problem here. >> if the only charge three weeks into the election that the democrats can make is that somehow this may or may not be foreign money coming into the

campaign, is that the best you can do? >> no, i think that we have a more, a fundamental concern, bob, which is that the republican party and these interest groups who are now the major force in some of these campaigns want to turn the clock back to the very same policies that got us into this mess in the first place. >> here's ed gillespie the former chair of the party reacting to axelrod on cbs. it's interesting how these fights develop into the last three weeks going into it. let's listen. >> the notion that david axelrod, a sworn official in the white house, would sit on this set and say, i'm going to allow these charges and let them prove it's wrong. what if i use the the cameraman here, hey, you've taken foreign money. that is an unbelievable mentality. >> gillespie's talking about the cameraman there. that's a little weird. but it sometimes me, here's the question. cillizza first. if the u.s. chamber of commerce raises millions and millions of dollars from its corporate

sources including overseas sources and funnels that money right into these republican campaigns, what is illegitimate about what axelrod and the president are saying? what's wrong with the basic charge? >> there's nothing wrong with the basic charge, chris, but it's hard to prove a negative. the chamber is, i think what the white house wants is for the chamber to disclose all the money that they're spending. which they're not going to do. is that kind of back and forth reminding you of a dip in boston history, there was a great "cheers" episode. three figures. he doesn't know what the three of them have in common. his question is who are three people who have never been in my kitchen? now, those people had never been in his kitchen, but that's not the point. see i think that's ed gillespie's point here. like, can we prove that? millions of dollars in foreign money, but sure -- >> let me make a narrower case.

a lot of working people in this country are suspicious that the big corporations spend all of their time cutting jobs. they do it for globalization purposes. they engage in outsourcing. they send jobs overseas. they outsource their supply lines overseas. they do everything they can to screw the working person and make more money. that's what they think. who funds them? rather, where do they get their money? the u.s. chamber of commerce uses those sources and to elect people who will support that enterprise of shifting jobs overseas, cost-kurting, eliminating american workforce basically. they have a judge which is pretty hard here. you are screwing me. i'd like to know who's paying for this. you just made the argument better than the white house has made. exactly right. the big issue is special interest money overall and they're being caught up in this little side.

>> object report. let me put the objective question. >> sure. >> what is the number one goal of every major corporation in these tough times? reduce costs. how do you reduce cost? reduce payroll. how do you reduce costs? get cheaper sources overseas from cheaper payrolls overseas from people who work for less in sweatshops. the whole goal is to benefit in your exchange with the working man and woman in this country. who's side are you on? that's the political question for 2010. >> to david aspoint you've just framed it more effectually. the white house is in a debate over how much foreign money should they disclose or not. i agree with you. polulism on the democrats' and the republicans' side has proven very effective. sharron angle ran as a populous. rand paul. populism still has a place in this country. particularly when you have three quarters of the country saying that the economy is going --

>> you make it sound emotional. you work in our business. >> i do. >> you reduce the number of camera people, the number of people who work in the business. >> that's not the debate the white house -- started. that's not the debate the white house started, which is big business is bad for america. i don't disagree that's not a bad place for them to fight on. they started on the u.s. chamber takes money from foreign corporations. they didn't start on the broader point. >> they do. >> but i'm not debating your back and forth. i'm debating what the white house started on. >> but you're running against the so-called patriot side of everything. the right wing claims to be the patriots and it turns out they're using foreign money to get the candidates. this is your argument, david. >> to me, the source of the money is not the key thing. it's what the chamber and karl rove are doing. they're supporting businesses, are doing exactly what you say. lowering costs and trying to get jobs overseas. whether they're doing that with money that comes from paris or money that comes from princeton,

i don't care. and i think that the white house has been allowed -- has allowed itself to -- >> let's not forget karl rove. >> chris, i just wanted to -- karl rove is smiling, karl rove is smiling right now. >> one of those guys, guys out there with the big, white uniforms on and bullhorns blowing -- not the bullhorns, whatever they're called. the megaphones. cheering on this right wing cause. you know what they're doing. david corn, thank you. >> this is great. i have to say, this whole eight, ten minutes was great for their fund-raising because republican donors don't like president obama and the more it's karl rove versus president obama the more ads that you'll see from the american crossroads like it or not. >> jobs, jobs, jobs. david corn, chris cillizza. coming up, if democrats want to paint republicans as extreme, they've got some new fodder. catch what's coming. one candidate dresses up like a nazi. he says he's reenacting world war ii. but why does he want to play that other side?

strange characters showing up in this casting kpaurm it's called the republican nominating process. you're watching "hardball" only on msnbc. playing throughout ] [ female announcer ] no matter how rough your period is, the super-fast absorbency of always ultra helps keep you in the saddle. in fact, no other ultra absorbs faster. and that's no bull. always.

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form president bill clinton is out on the campaign trail in west virginia. take a look at this unscripted

moment from today when a woman fainted. >> she'll be fine. believe me, at my age, it's -- rarely does a lady faint on me. the doctor says she's okay. and i'm going to save her reputation. it was the sun, not me, that made her faint. >> bill clinton. he's unbelievable. what a politician. right there, you saw him there. "hardball" back after this. back to "hardball." two republicans underscore, if you will, that the democrats' argument this year is dangerous territory. going fringe you might think. first, they came to light. a guy out of ohio, a nominated candidate iott, the longtime member of a nazi re-enactment group. over the weekend, that's his weekend warrior status. and carl paladino, the guy who was going to snuff is reporter the other day. saying i'm going to take you out. he said that people who are gay are not equal to those who are straight. well, fair enough, if you buy his arguments. wait'll you hear them. >> i didn't march in a gay parade this year. the gay pride parade this year. my opponent did. and that's not the example we should be showing our children. don't misquote me as wants to hurt homosexual people in any way. that would be a lie.

my approach is, live and let live. i just think my children and your children will be much better off and much more successful getting married and raising a family and i don't want them to be brainwashed into thinking homosexuality is an equally valid or a successful option. it isn't. >> there you have the old choice argument that lott used to say these kids are choosing between gay or straight. it's an interesting decision. you have to ask when paladino made his choice. josh greene's here. he broke the big iott nazi story to "the atlantic." i want to go to the nazi story. it's too much for me. you found out that this guy iott is running for the republican nominee for congress in ohio. explain. >> he's a nazi re-enactor. it's against the law in germany. you'd get arrested. but this group consists mainly

in the midwest. they're called the vikings and they're moleled after an actual german ii world war unit. mainly stationed on the other eastern front. they get together. >> is this some sort of homoerotic thing they do? what do they actually do? >> they have a website. you are can look at the videos and pictures and see. >> what do they do? >> they get together and re-enact these battles. they've got guns and equipment. >> that's just defense. who plays the red army? they have guys who like to re-enact the red army? >> like festival and stuff like that. >> but guys who like to do the red army number and i've never heard of that either. >> i hadn't either. >> do you believe it? do you believe there's red army guys claiming they're fighting somebody else? they just like these uniforms. you've never seen the uniforms on the other side have you? >> i haven't been but -- >> but you do see these pictures. >> you can find these, they're on the internet. >> for all you know, the other side is the cover argument. all you know is that these guys like to put nazi uniforms on. >> they say it's because they're

interested in world war ii history. when you talk to historians, they're appalled at this because this group do is romanticized and sanitized this version of history. >> yeah i know, total lack of sympathy for the horror of this century to put it lightly. but what about the guy saying he sympathizes with this little country that took on the world. just from a military point of view. so exciting. that's his defense. >> yeah. they're really interested in kind of german history and these military achievements and very much interested in glorifying world war ii, germany, while trying to separate all of the bad things. >> something you're not quite picking up. that i think that you have to settle a little bit. it's not just him. this is a group that gets together. there's a number of people that like to do this. >> yes, he says millions. >> what? >> i couldn't put a number on it. but i got a couple of hundred e-mails. they prefer the term world war ii german re-enactors.

>> hold on. let's go -- here's how i defended his group membership in the reenactment group. these wre-enactors who do anything. you wouldn't do civil war re-enactment if you didn't play the confederates. you know, my son did one of those re-enactmentes civil war. and sort of got assigned to it sometimes but he played the southerner but the fact is that both sides in the civil war are proud of their history. everybody from the south, whatever, they don't like slavery, but they like the guts in those guys who fought with the advantages of wealth in the north and the northerners are obviously proud of the fact that they fought for the republic and for the union. but boots pride and tradition. where's the pride and tradition in being a nazi? that's what i don't find available mentally. i don't get that. why that uniform?

these southern guys who put on these johnny -- uniforms, if you will, are damn proud to put them on. >> iott has a german heritage. he told me this is sort of the history his country and that you know, he thinks you can separate the atrocities of the nazi army from the -- what he would consider acts of valor. the nazi, s.s. soldier. >> and he place s.s. characters. >> yeah, yeah. >> he doesn't play regular army. >> i think this is why we run into trouble in ohio. >> here's paladino, the guy running for governor, governor of new york, trying to clarify his remarks this morning on the "today" show. these remarks are pretty homophobic about the gay pride parade when talking the other day. let's listen. >> that remark has to do with -- my feelings on homosexuality are unequivocal. i have absolutely no problem with it whatsoever.

my only reservation is marriage. it's the only reservation i have. i have a lot of homosexuals working in my organization. young children should not be exposed to that at a young age. they don't understand this. it's a very difficult thing and exposing them to homosexuality, especially at a gay pride parade, and i don't know if you've been to one, but they wear these little speedos and they grind against each other and it's just a terrible thing. >> maggie, thank you for joining us. i don't know you but i'm calling you maggie because we do first names here. what do you make of this? what story of his do you buy. >> well, i think that he was delivering lines that he didn't write and his aides didn't write last night. they were written for him by a pretty conservative rabbi who was showing him around. that being said, you are sort of responsible for your words. it was like a walk back. and then he went ahead and double downed again. i was with him throughout the columbus day parade today.

high said it several times. he talked about it the gay pride parade. he said that andrew cuomo had shown he wasn't a great father by taking his daughters to it. he did said say that his one issue with gay rights is gay marriage, and that's it. other than that he unequivocally supports them but it's pretty hard to go do that to the night before questioning a valid lifestyle. i don't think that there is much ambiguous about that. and it's amazing when a candidate actually ups their ante after they've accused $rival of extramarital affairs with this. we don't see this in new york very often. >> well, i guess, do you think that there's any rationale to it? is he going for the culturally conservative voter? i mean he is a cultural conservative man. is he thinking there's a 51% that would support his conservative views? >> no. i think he is being himself. i think there's been a big debate among his campaign which is a very small grouch advisers. i think that he keeps it around counsel a lot and i think that they're letting him be him. >> i guess that i have covered politics for a long time. but have you heard of a

politician agreeing to walk into a group and read the speech that he was handed by the group to read as if it were his words. here he is. you see the picture. he's stumbling over these words. trying to read these words, but they're not his words then afterwards, he sort of denies them. >> no, i've never heard of this before. i've never heard of a campaign picking up a script from a group that they were visiting and saying, yes, i will read this. he says that he read it over in the car and he had issues with it. his campaign said that it was given out to reporterts after. that's actually not true. i spoke to reporters who were there. it was given out beforehand.

regardless, it is hard for reporters to separate remarks that are attributed to a candidate as prepared for delivery. and then be told you know this wasn't something that we did. this is something that was given to us. this is the kind of thing that karl paladino, who does have a message that is actually resonating with a lot of people right now, especially because andrew kwoem e's campaign has been seen as map is timid but this is the problem that he keeps running into. is he keeps sort of messing up and spending another day backtracking or explaining or clarifying. it's never good when a candidate isn't explaining much. >> so interesting that he pointed out that he was given that sheet to read from when he visited the community there, his city community and he said -- i struck out one line. i didn't want to read that they had scripted for me. the line is, there is nothing to be proud of in being a dysfunctional homosexual. i guess that makes him a moderate. this is so outlandish. >> moderated the remarks any way. yes. >> strange and ludicrous the fact that these people are where they are, but they are where they. thank you for unmasking this guy in his uniform. it's amazing. i think that he's done a good job in giving that guy a fair shake and he still doesn't look too good. thank you for joining us. up next, christine o'donnell's bizarre, i'm not a witch ad. getting an "snl" tribute. you know it had to. you're watching "hardball." i think that the whole night tonight is "sideshow."

back to "hardball." time for the "sideshow." party on, california. republican candidates meg whitman and carly fiorina made a memorable appearance of friday night's hispanic awards dinner. you can see there a mairachi band cheered the two ladies together as they bound tequila shots. here's fiorina showing the spirit. >> you know, i must say this evening has spoiled me forever. and i don't know. i think every speech should begin with a shot of tequila. >> wow. meg whitman, remember, has a problem with latinos, having fired one after employing her illegally for nine years. next, i am not a witch. that was the opening line of

christine o'donnell's campaign ad, and the subject of course, of "saturday night live's" latest send-up. >> hi, i'm christine o'donnell. and i am not a witch. i'm nothing like you've heard. i'm you. and just like you, i have to constantly deny that i'm a witch. that's the kind of candidate delaware hasn't had since 1692. and that's why if elected to the human senate, i promise to fly straight down to washington on a plane and do exactly what you would do. not spells. so, this november 2nd, vote for christine o'donnell, a.k.a. the enchantress because i am not a witch. and if i am, do you really want to cross me? i didn't think so. >> paid for the by the coven of christine o'donnell. who is not a witch. >> i'm not a witch ad, by the way. the origin yammay be the most unforgettable political ad ever.

up next new hampshire senate candidate is starting to close the gap against kelly ayotte. but can he beat her? it will decide who controls the senate. is coming here to "hardball" in a minute. only on msnbc.

>> wow.

wild show tonight. welcome back to "hardball." one of the many states where karl rove and his associates are hitting democrat candidates with, tv ads is new hampshire. let's listen. >> in new hampshire congressman hodes claims -- >> you deserve a senator who gets rid of the pork. >> but hodes voted for the pork-filled stimulus bill. $1.9 million in africa. $39 million for office upgrades for politicians. unemployment still higher. no wonder the union leader says -- >> get rid of the poor. >> -- the guy just can't tell the truth. >> the latest our g poll of new hampshire shows hodes the democratic candidate trailing kelly ayotte by five now. ayotte's lead has been cut from 14 in two weeks. congressman hodes joins us from boston. congressman, thank you for joining us right now. it seems like you're in a heck of a race right now. what are you doing to selling with the voters?

why aren't they turning to you going 14 down to five down. it looks like the projection's good for you in three weeks out. >> chris, thanks. clearly, the momentum is with us in this campaign. really it's because, there's a simple choice in this election. are you going to choose somebody who stands up far people and against the special interests or stand with somebody who wants to hand our government over to big oil, big wall street, the big health insurance companies and who's been endorsed by folks like the chamber of commerce who just released an avalanche of misleading, negative advertising that the new hampshire voters have little appetite for. and you know, chris, today there was a stunning development in this campaign. e-mails were just released which show that back in 2006, kelly ayotte's chief campaign strategist way back then said to her, get ready to run. this was in late october of '06. she responded, have you seen a police officer was killed and i'm going after the death penalty. he responded, we know where new

hampshire stands on the death penalty. by the switch. it's stunning that as a public servant in the new hampshire attorney general the chief law enforcement officer would inject the death penalty into a political contect, try to use it as a springs board for her political ambitions. it's not the kind of -- >> are you saying she set out to execute somebody in order to get votes? >> what i'm saying is that, she wasn't above, using a murder case and a death penalty case as a springboard for her personal -- >> yeah, but give meet evidence of that, again. you have e-mails. what were the e-mail from her suggests what you just said? >> women, because her immediate response when her campaign strategist in 2006 says get ready to run, her immediate response is, i've just announced i'm seeking the death penalty and he says, absolutely right, i know where you stand. by the switch. >> like switch like electric chair? is that what you mean by "switch"? >> that can be the only i think

that he could have meant. he's accepting what she says. he understands she's talking about using the death penalty. as a political springboard. you know, it's wrong. it's not the way the ag's office that i was in under david souter worked. fierce independent. fierce integrity. she based her campaign saying she's not a politician. she's a prosecutor. this is cold. this is ruthless. this is a politician who is planning to run for years and wants the people of new hampshire to believe that she's something else. >> congressman, you're not the odd man out. you've been elected to new hampshire. what is it about new hampshire that will accept you this year? which is a very tough year for democrats because you've got to run with a president, who's popular personally, but his policies aren't and this economy is terrible. how do you attack against that wind storm against you? >> well, it's because where i've always stood. chris, i've been an independent voice for new hampshire when i was in congress. i first ran talking about deficits. so i've got a real brief to

stand on in terms of physical responsibility and fiscal conservatism. an i'm telling people that we've got to walk and chew gum. we've got the grow is economy on a firm foundation and can't go back to the policies that got us in trouble. and that's all that my opponent is sell. she wants to tell sell tax cuts to the rich. that are going to hurt the deficit by $700 billion. she's fine with tax breaks for companies that shift jobs overseas. the folks in new hampshire know that we need to make maiden america mean something again and they're responding to a message of fiscal responsibility and rebuilding the middle class and bringing jobs back to new hampshire. >> and it sounds like you want bill clinton up there, because clinton balanced the budget when he was president. is he going to campaign for you. >> i'd be happy to have president clinton, frankly i would happy to have president obama. he's still popular in new hampshire. people understand that he stands for rebuilding the middle class. >> take a look at bill clinton today, the former president of kentky.

let's listen. >> we dug this big hole for eight years and took 21 months to get us out. we're not out. throw them out. throw us back in. let us get our shovels and be mad again. be mad, they're playing you. >> they're playing you. thank you very much, congressman paul hodes for coming from new hampshire. good luck for your race up for the united states senate. up next, remember this ad against joe manchin? the one that was going to be, quote, hicky and blue-collar looking. well, manchin's hitting back and when we come back, we're going to talk to one of the actors in that ad. he's going to give us the insight on what it's like to put together one of these ads. [ whistle ]

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wow, new jersey governor chris christie says he's not ready to run for president in 2012 but he's starting to get the rock star treatment from activists in the party. his campaign for republican candidates in all of the important states -- ohio, iowa, for example. well, this weekend, he beat out sarah palin in a presidential straw poll. the virginia tea parent patrons gathered today -- yesterday in richmond. and christie edged out palin. that's down in virginia. christie killed what was to be the nation's largest public

works project citing rising costs and likely to burn him on cost-cutting conservatives. "hardball" will be right back.

welcome back to "hardball." this is going to be a treat. an actor who lives in south jersey now finds himself at the center of the west virginia senate race. actor has had extra roles on "saturday night live" including this bit from the sketch narc squad. >> joe's not bad as obama.

>> and washington joe does whatever obama wants. >> yeah, we better keep joe manchin right near west virginia. away from washington. >> yeah. that's the only way we're going to stop obama. >> the national republican senatorial committee is responsible for the content of this advertising. >> circit's a treat to have you call up and say th you were available. where did you shoot that commercial for the rs, for republicans? >> as you probably already know, chris, that was shot in south philadelphia. >> do you have any idea why they cast this? why they went to philly to get the west virginia feel? i'm wondering. you'd think they want to go out in the country. and bid at least. >> i don't know if that much thought went into it, but when

you hire an actor you're hiring someone who can or cannot do dialects. >> yeah it's the only way that we're going to stop obama. hang out with the boys. not just retirees, guys their age, your age. >> yeah. >> and i didn't find that commercial to be negative if n any way. along the pennsylvania turnpike, along the highway. the guys are wearing cat hats, caterpillar hats, fine. your accent, did you work on that to make yourself seem more mountain state or what? or did you just do your regular south jersey accent or what. >> no, i mean, there was a little bit of a removal of a south jersey accent. >> right. >> and again, you've looked at this documentation so you know that they really weren't looking for accents. just plain-speaking plain folk. >> and what about the costuming, was that ready when you got there? you are fit the uniform or how did that work. >> generally as an actor when you're called to the set a lot of times they'll ask you just to

bring wardrobe choice so you'll bring flannel shirts, hats, boots, things of that nature. a lot of times of what comes up on the screen is not the material itself but a lot of times of how it blends with the material. you have the lighting to worry about, the color saturation the framing. a lot of that goes into it so it doesn't help to look too much into it. >> does it bother you to be playing a political guy to be knocking the guy manchin of west virginia. you probably never met the guy. you're knock the guy saying he's an obamaitie, no good for the state. what did you think of that? is that your thinking. >> yeah, well it's no -- for me it's no fun to knock anybody especially somebody i don't know and we didn't even know -- >> ha, ha. >> we didn't know who joe manchin was until the day of the shoot. it was all pretty much you know kept quiet. >> did you google him -- googled the guy since to find out who manchin is? >> yeah, i pretty much know who he is now especially since he's run his own commercial starring me. >> okay. here it is, here it is. ♪

here's joe manchin he put out an ad to counter the one that you're in. >> his people hired actors from philadelphia to attack joe manchin. and told him to dress hicky. >> philadelphia, isn't that a great place? by the way i'm from philly, did you have to say water instead of water. did they teach you how to talk outside of philly or what. >> saying water or, check this out. you can't really say when you're trying to be middle of the road. >> an attitude from philly, could you? >> attitude. forgot about it. >> yeah, beautiful. that's where i grew up, look we're talking about that. this ad is really -- what i thought about it was the hype. do you think that it was wrong to ridicule this ad from the other side, downing that it knocked anybody, i did. your thoughts? >> yeah, if somebody's offended by the word, whether the word, hick, you're a hicky or something, obviously that's not right. i think where joe manchin went off of the tracks he's pretending actors that they're

west virginians. we should have hired west virginia actors to do this sketch -- commercial, sorry, it ended up being a sketch, to say, well they're still going to read john raese's script. still going to be ripping and humiliating you, joe manchin. so you'd rather people in your home state rip you than people outside of the state. i don't think that that would have made him happy. the big problem is really he's behind in the polls and it's desperation time but i honestly, i like that. and that actually makes me kind of lean towards supporting the guy. i don't live in west virginia, but i kind of hope he wins. >> you hope manchin wins? >> sure, you're a philly guy you like a rocky balboa story, right? >> i want to get you some cues from you, because my son's an actor and he's doing what you're doing trying to get these jobs and i have to tell you i'm rooting for you every day of the week, sir, because it's tough. >> don't follow my footsteps. >> have you seen city island yet about the cop trying to make it as an actor. >> no. >> a great actor, city island.

andy garcia. >> garcia. >> garcia is the kind of guy that i like. thanks for coming up on the show and being a good sport and endorsing joe manchin. when we return, let me finish with how america can put people back to work and stay competitive at same time. [ male announcer ] think you can only charge one thing at a time...? consider this: drop & go charging for up to 4 devices at once... the duracell mygrid™. simple and smart. it's mygrid™. from duracell. trusted everywhere.

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let me finish tonight with the only issue this really matters to voters this election, the one that drives all of the heat, the anger, the cussing, the news -- jobs.

that friday unemployment number stuck at 9.6% begins to look dangerously like the resaid. not hiert normal but the new normal. if this is where we're going to be stuck as a country, bumping up against 10% of us regularly out of work, it's really almost double that number, if you add up the unemployed part-time employed temporarily employed, the fact is there's a nastily high amount of underused people in these united states that aren't working, haven't been, and won't be for the foreseeable future. and the reality, which is hitting hard right now is that big corporations make their profits by coming up with state-of-the-art ways to reduce the number of people they have on their payrolls, people they have to pay salary, to health care and retirement benefits. they look constantly to engineer their operations to get machines to do the work. productivity and automation are great for the corporate bottom line, not so great for the guy or woman who used to work at the plant but doesn't anymore and their kids who grew up looking forward to work there. so if we're going to have full employment again, meaning a

jobless rate down to 4%, 5% again we're going to need a new demand for labor, something that doesn't depend on getting gendered you up by the consumer or corporation. ironically, the new frontier of job creation in this country may be in that huge area right where we live, the roads and bridges we travel every day, the subways and train lines we use, the airports that handle all of today's traffic. it's here that the jobs of the coming years could come and making steel, building bridges, manufacturing road equipment, that's what president obama pushed for today in a meeting with current and past transportation secretaries. but it's not enough. europe has fast trains, so does asia, why are we stuck in the past? why don't we fly from washington to new york instead of taking rapid rail? why aren't we riding across america at 300-plus miles an hour like they do in other continents? why is america a flyover country between new york and l.a., when it should be unites country by rail. great question. today the president began to answer it, but it's not enough not nearly enough to put america to work, putting this country where it belongs, on the rebound.