>> lena taylor great to have you with us. thanks so much. that is "the ed show" i'm ed schultz, follow me on the radio, monday through friday, 12:00 to 3:00. "the rachel maddow show" starts right now. great job again last night. thank you. >> it was great to have you at the rotunda, ed. see you when you're back. thanks to you at home for staying with us for the next hour. here is something you don't see ever. this was -- look, this was posted by cbs news by their polling unit. cbs was polling approval or disapproval of the proposals made by president obama in his state of the union speech last night. poll results like this aren't usually found in nature. but this was apparently the response if you can't see it disapproval rate was 9%, and the approval rate was 91%. today the white house did what

white houses do now after a state of the union speeches, what presidents do after they give the state of the union, they go out on a barn storming tour to reinforce the messages from the speech. so this morning at 10:00 a.m. he boarded air force one and headed to cedar rapids, iowa, he gave a speech at a manufacturing plant. then got back on the plane, president flew from iowa to phoenix, arizona. he touched down in phoenix at 5:45 p.m., gave a speech at an in intel processing plant. he's due to land in las vegas where he will speaking at a ups facility tomorrow morning. he will also be traveling to colorado and michigan to close out the week. as the president is out on the road, consider this. there was something that surfaced in the news just before christmastime that i think pretty much got buried in the news thereafter. something that doesn't ever get talked about in the political

coverage now. but seeing the president's state of the union speech last night and seeing how he's trying to sell the messages from the speech thereafter, i think it's something that the white house understands, and i think it's much more central to what is going on in presidential politics than anybody is giving it credit for. it's this. just before christmas, pew research came out with a stunning poll. 77% of americans think there is too much power in the hands of a few rich and large corporations in the united states. 77% of americans believe that. majority of democrats, majority of independents and republicans think there is too much power in the hands of a few rich people and corporations in america. so if you have it in the forefront of your mind that the country feels that way, it should not be a advise when the president talking about that issue as a problem, talking about that not just as status quo but a problem that should be fixed and talking about things that could be done to fix that, it should not be a surprise that that sort of thing is very

satisfying to people. that cbs news poll we showed earlier, that surveyed voters before and after the president's speech, before the speech, 53% of people said they approved of the president's plans on the economy. after the speech, that number shot up to 82%. from 53 to 82. just before the speech, 45% said they approved the president's plan to tackle the deficit. after, the number jumped to 80. from 45 to 80. the reason i think this concept is key, this populist idea, the system is rigged in favor of the wealthy, the stuff the president chose to highlight in the state of the union, stuff that on its face probably didn't make a whole lot of sense to the beltway media. the policy issues, bread and butter economic let's give everybody a shot middle class

policies, that are not the kind of thing that get high profile fights on capitol hill. these are not things that evolve until republican versus democrat easily, things that don't translate in beltway ease, but if you're trying to communicate to the country that you want the system to work more for regular people, you want the system to stop being tilted toward the rich, then yeah, you talk about things like people's mortgages. nobody has gone to jail for the implosion of wall street, for the thing that necessitated all the bailouts and caused the recession and everything. nobody has gone to jail for that. did banks and mortgage lenders act criminally? when they destroyed the american economy and turned people's houses in casino chips? the way they create and trade and bet on and got rich on other people p's homes leaving behind millions of foreclosures, destroyed economy and the industry saved only by the grass of the u.s. taxpayer, was any of that illegal? a number of state attorneys general have said yeah, they have been frankly chomping at

the bit to go after the banks and mortgage holders for what they did. think about it, nobody has gone to jail for the financial catastrophe in 2008. the state attorneys general have been eager to prosecute. after all sort of in recent months there would be get out of jail free settlement for the banks to make the lingering controversy go away, last night president obama unveiled something new. >> tonight i'm asking my attorney general to create a special unit, federal prosecutors and leading state attorney general to expand our investigations in the abuse of lending and packaging and risky mortgages that led to the housing crisis. this new unit will hold accountable those who broke the law. speed assistance to homeowners and help turn the page on an era of recklessness that hurt so many americans. >> a special unit of federal prosecutors and state attorneys general. the most crusading of all the

crusading state attorneys general on this, is the one who has been put in charge of hunting the banks down and the mortgage holders for what they did to the economy. that is something that has essentially no capitol hill rest restonance. harry reid is playing chess when everyone else is playing checkers, has no -- if you were trying to speak to america there is too much power in the hands of rich people and corporations, the system is rigged against regular people, if instead of playing beltway media games, you are trying to talk to that mindset of the american people, if you put something like this mortgage thing in your state of the union address, it is the sort of thing that has resonance.

42% of swing voters said they thought president obama was for the middle class. after the speech, the number who thought president obama was for the middle class shot up to 66%, from 42 to 66. before the speech, also 42% of those swing voters said the president understood issues important to them. after the speech it jumped to 62%. so for a president heading in a reelection year, those were exactly the kind of numbers you want to see. now, of course everybody knows it's hard for a president to get reelected when the economy is bad. look at the numbers from the new nbc wall street journal poll released tonight. in terms of when the polling was done, these don't take in account the state of the union address.

over the course of the last month not including the state of the union, percent age of people who think the country is on the right track has gone up by eight points. percent age of people who approve of president obama's handling of the economy has gone up by six points. percentage of people who think the nation's economy will get better over the next year, that is up seven points over the last month. the white house in planning a reelection strategy for president obama obvious hi hoped the economy would be getting better by now, which it is. they probably could not have anticipated at this point people would be feeling more optimistic and feeling like things in the economy overall were getting better. but the thing they truly could never have dreamed of the country where the economy was getting better, the president was seen at a side of the middle class, people are angry about the system being rigged against them, what the white house and reelection campaign could not have begged for or dreamed of was a likely republican opponent who was essentially a walking billboard for central message of the president's reelection campaign.

when the president started talking about one really specific economic proposal, millionaires should no longer pay a lower tax rate than their secretaries, if you make over a million bucks a year ought to pay something approaching what middle class pays instead of the mini taxes. when president obama proposed that in the speech last night, the focus group dials went nuts. according to the democracy focus group of swing voters, the dials spiked when the president made that stopping populist pitch with the democrats exceeding 80, in these and republicans moving above 70. that policy about millionaires paying what middle class people pay in terms of taxes is of course called the buffet rule. but it could just as easily be called the romney rule. so it is a blessing to the obama reelection campaign on the day of the president's state of the union, mitt romney was forced to release personal tax returns,

which showed he makes $57,000 a day for not working. and that by virtue of the fact that he makes all his money from not working, his tax rate is way, way lower than yours likely is. he pays a mini tax rate that is reserved specifically for the richest people in the country, who do not have to work. who have no wage income, right? it is a blessing that the white house could never have arranged to have the man they see as their likely opponent in the presidential race put that tax return on the table the day of the president's state of the union. but i don't think it's a blessing, i think it's rather a calculation by the white house that they should build the central message of the president's reelection campaign and the focus of the administration for this part of his term in office around the fact that 77% of americans think there is too much power in the hands of a few rich people and large corporations in the united states. that is the american mindset right now. republicans keep calling that assertion divisive, but it represents the majority view of

democrats and of independents and of republicans. and good economy or bad, whoever the candidate is who comes up with the way to speak to that problem and calls it a problem and talks about to fix it will win. joining us celinda lakes, thank you for being here, nice to see you. >> nice to be here, thank you. >> you saw the cbs dial test we were talking about, 91% approval for state of the union. i feel like that is a number not really seen in nature, does that strike you as strange? >> i thought it was unbelievable. take poll probably has an error rate of plus or minus 5%. three percent of the people said i disapprove of the policies, 90%, of democrats, independents, and ron paul supporters like those plans. >> in terms of the match up here, obviously the white house

considers mitt romney to be their likely opponent. we'll talk about the fact they have been totally ignoring newt gingrich later on in the show. but when you look at the way that that breaks the electorate down, obviously republicans made big gains with blue collar white voters in the 2010 elections, that crowd was a big source of support for president obama in 2008. the new washington post abc poll shows mitt romney's favorability rating among white voters who make less than $50,000 a year has dropped 20 points in the last month. unfavorables are high with them. how do you think economic issues are shaping the likely 2012 match-up? >> it's fundamentally shaping it. you mentioned that you couldn't hope for a better juxtaposition than have to release your taxes at lower rates than secretaries pay but also you have revealed the whole bain corporation problems.

this is a man who made those millions, that he now doesn't have to pay taxes on and has by the way an offshore accounts benedict arnold accounts, he made it by firing people. and by costing people their pensions, by laying off people. so you could not have a bet metaphor, a better example, why he couldn't even consolidate the republican primary. >> when you call the offshore accounts, benedict arnold acts, democrats will attack that as a traitorous position? >> it's deliberately designed to avoid taxes. >> one of your battle ground polls released in november showed more than half the people polled were unsure if president obama will be reelected. biggest concerns were the economy and jobs, government spending and the deficit. in terms of what you see as the main worries for the president's reelection ross respects, what

did you here in his speech and messaging since the state of the union to get at the core concerns? >> i heard a power president. i think the president has often used the power of the executive internationally but not necessarily nationally. he's left too much to congress, he said no. i'm ordering my administration to do this, do this, do that, enough waiting. but you should join me. i heard a president with a clear economic plan and an understanding how that economy works for middle class americans. kitchen tables and work places across the country. i heard a president who said i will change washington, enough in sier trading, enough of the kind of things that are corrupting decisions. and i heard one of the most powerful endings of any speech, instead of saying lets unite with the tea party who said we wouldn't unite with you about the time of day, all we want to do is beat you, he said let's unite team america, watch each

other's backs, move forward as our military has done, i thought an extra orderly powerful metaphor. i would say that was more than 91% positive. >> that's right. >> celinda lake, democratic strategist, thank you for being with us tonight, appreciate it. >> thank you for having me. do you ever imagine making $20 million a year without working? yeah, i know, right? but it is important to remember 20 million work-free dollars in a year do not protect a person from having terrible horrible very bad days. like the one mitt romney has had today. that is coming up. lactaid milk is easy to digest. it's real milk full of calcium and vitamin d. and tastes simply delicious. for those of us with lactose intolerance... lactaid® milk. the original 100% lactose-free milk.

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the law and order sound effect, we're talking about fred thompson, if mitt romney keeps this banks are people too thing we will have to use the monopoly guy top hat. like our fred thompson signifier. mitt romney said banks aren't bad people. i think this is going to stay. mitt romney had a very, very bad day. that is coming up. ♪ he was a 21st century global nomad ♪ ♪ home was an airport lounge and an ipad ♪ ♪ made sure his credit score did not go bad ♪ ♪ with a free-credit-score-dot-com ♪ ♪ app that he had ♪ downloaded it in the himalayas ♪ ♪ while meditating like a true playa ♪

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mitt romney campaigning in florida where the primary vote is less than a week away. florida has one of the worst foreclosure problems in the country. bad every where but horrendous in florida. worse than anywhere else. mitt romney was standing in front of a foreclosed home in florida when he made his banks aren't bad people comment yesterday. that is not going to help him on this housing issue. an issue which he really already needs political help. >> don't try to stop the foreclosure process, let it run its course and hit the bottom. >> president obama in last night's state of the union never said the name mitt romney exactly. but when he said this, everybody knew who he was talking about. >> responsible homeowners shouldn't have to sit and wait for the housing market to hit bottom to get some relief. >> that was not the only moment in the speech where the president used as a punching bag the man he presumes will be his opponent this fall. >> if you make more than a million dollars a year? you should not pay less than 30% in taxes.

when americans talk about me paying my fair taxes it's not because they envy the rich. whether i took office, our auto industry was on the verge of collapse. >> mitt romney writing the op-ed. >> let detroit go bankrupt. gm now the number one automaker in the world because nobody took his advice. after taking that beating yesterday in the state of the union, mr. romney's campaign tried to get away from another of their campaigns headaches right now, a spokesperson for mr. romney saying of his tax returns which we released yesterday "as far as we concerned, we put it to bed" i understand why the romney campaign may want to be done with the amazing issue of his tax returns but saying it is over does not make it over. just ask mr. romney's rival, newt gingrich. >> i think you have to live in a world of swiss bank accounts and cayman island accounts and $20 million and no work to have a

fantasy this far from reality. >> if that weren't bad enough, mr. romney got the news, mr. gingrich's super pac has bought up time for six million dollars worth of anti-mitt romney tv ads in florida. one of the reasons mitt romney was seen as the inevitable candidate on the republican side because of the so-called money primary. that is the way the beltway talks about it, the primary and the more important money primary. a candidate showing the ability to build a base of donors and raise money for the campaign. mitt romney won the money primary this year, early and hugely. but now it turns out thanks to citizens united there is no money primary anymore, it was cancelled. newt gingrich doesn't have a donor base, he hasn't proven any ability to raise money in state after state, event after event. newt gingrich it turns out only has to raise money with one family in nevada.

the adelson family, casino money have given $10 million to newt gingrich's super pac. after citizens united the money is on tap. anybody can level the playing field in terms of money. all you need is one funder. you don't have to prove yourself to anybody else. money buys results. it's not sufficient to buy results, ask rick perry, but necessary and does work. new polls showing mr. gingrich broadening the lead nationally over mr. romney to seven points. mr. gingrich also eliminating what used to be mr. romney's lead in florida. the two men just separated by two points in florida. maybe the worst pickle mitt romney is in right now is that he's getting piled on from the right by newt gingrich, but the democrats won't take mr. gingrich seriously enough to direct any of their fire at him, so even as gingrich surpasses romney in the polls, he takes no heat. there was nothing in the state of the union address about newt gingrich it was all about mitt romney. all the attacks were mitt romney. gingrich on the right attacking mitt romney and beating him. democrats on the left attacking mitt romney, too. and they can't be bothered to

take any other shots at newt gingrich. that's mitt romney's political reality. he's getting it from all sides. because of that, whether or not the banks are bad people, today was another bad day in politics to be mitt romney. joining us now is steve kornacki the political news editor at salon.com. what do you make of the democrats decision on the national level and the state level in florida to never mention newt gingrich ever to go pure romney? >> i think it's true romney is still more likely to to win than gingrich. i think clearly they would much rather run against newt gingrich in the fall, there is no public figure in america who has a better feel for the self destruct button than newt gingrich. if he ends up winning the nomination you don't need to have spent six months going after the guy and laying the foundation for general election attack all the information is there, if you forget that he

will make six mistakes in the first six hours he's the nominee. with mitt romney you have to work harder to get the stuff out you're seeing that in the past month. perfect example is the tax returns. mitt romney ran for office in 1994, 2002, 2008, all three campaigns he didn't release the tax returns. the democrats in the white house sort of helped make that issue they are not the only reason this became an issue but helped push it along, helped draw attention to the issue by talking about the buffet rule romney had to talk about it. you alluded to the poll that shows a 20 point jump in the past month in terms of romney's unfavorable numbers among white blue collar voters, this is an important swing constituency. you look at the past month, romney's standing with the voters, this is important progress the white house has made and you're not going to do that by letting mitt romney be mitt romney. you have to press him, force the issue, they've done that. >> in south carolina looking at the same group of under $50,000 a year white voters, newt gingrich beat mitt romney i

think 20 points in terms of the way he performed there. so not only is romney's unfavorable going up and that is something that can stick no matter who he runs against, in competition people are picking anybody but him. >> the extra ordinary thing about the republican numbers is not just what happened in south carolina, you could say gingrich drew attention to bain capital and the tax thing was an issue. we could say that is why romney had trouble with blue collar voters in north carolina. we saw the exact same thing in new hampshire and iowa. there is a direct relationship between enthusiasm for romney and their income levels. over $200,000 he's cleaning up. that tells me republicans have been watching this guy closely for years and i think there is just this disconnect, basic disconnect between blue collar voters and romney, i don't see why that won't extend to the

general elections. >> we have a specific "the rachel maddow show" branded effect when we talk about mitt romney's popularity. if i put it on it makes me look like a horrible trans-version of abraham lincoln. >> is that left over from the billionaires for bush? i had this laying around for when i do a trans-abe lincoln act. >> one thing i want to ask about the tax return things, one of the things we learn about the disclosure, he didn't want to release the tax returns in previous campaigns, but we do know that released two john mccain when john mccain was looking for vice presidential running mate, 23 years of mitt romney tax returns. here i have them ready to go, here you are, sir. john mccain looked at those and said i'll take sarah palin. does that undermine romney's case about disclosure, hasn't his case for disclosure it's

hard for him to get it altogether and it's nobody's business. >> it's that, the democrats will use it against me in the fall. his father released 12 years, he said i'm not going to do that, that is something i disagreed with my father on. that is the heart of the message used against romney within the republican party and if he's the nominee in the general election, this is not a guy who is ever really telling you what he's think tg, this is a guy who is calculated. who will give you whatever he thinks he needs to say and he'll work backwards and come up with a justification. when you get the reputation that is damaging no matter who the audience is. >> i want to know from the john mccain campaign is did you guys keep copies when mitt romney gave you all that stuff? how come you didn't pick him? just asking. steve kornacki, thanks for being here. rare but important diagram

overlap coming up between lemony sniket and the republican party. that's next.

last night the washington bureau chief for yahoo news sent out this tweet. per democratic source, biden in state of the union preview called to democrat official ts summed up where things stand. bin laden is dead and general motors is alive.

which is true. and which is politically potent. gm at this point not only not left for dead like it was going to be, but it's now the number one car company in the world. osama bin laden, definitely dead. dead as a door nail. the president hit the killing of osama bin laden twice in the state of the union. once at the very beginning. >> for the first time in two decades, osama bin laden is not a threat to this country. [ applause ] >> the president came back to killing bin laden at the end of the state of the union with a long anecdote about the navy seal team that conducted the operation and the unifying force of purpose, that is how a military team like that get things done. the point was that it should be an inspiration for all of us, particularly for the lawmakers in d.c. to find a sense of purpose to improve the country together. in case that point of emphasis from the president was not clear enough, there was the head of

special ops, the part of the military that coordinates groups like seal team 6, the admiral sitting with the first lady. two mentions of the bin laden raid using example of u.s. troops accomplishing that goal as the inspiring rhetorical hook for the speech. the pride of place for the head of special ops command and still if the point wasn't clear enough, then there was also this. >> good job tonight. good job tonight. >> the president saying leo inch, good job tonight, good job to his secretary of defense leon panetta. we know what mr. obama meant by that when microphones caught him saying that. turns out as the president was heading in the state of the union, navy seals had wrapped up a rescue of two hostages in somalia. american and danish relief worker kidnapped in october. approximately 20 members of seal

team six, once again, parachuted in somalia 1:00 a.m. local times a couple miles from jessica buchanan and paul thisted were being held. brief firefight, they killed all nine of the people. the seals and hostages sustain nod injuries. u.s. military blackhawk and cobra helicopters flew the hostages to a u.s. military base in jabuti. mission successful, mission just completed, defense secretary panetta made it over to capitol hill in time for the speech and for the good job tonight, that from the look on his face, he seems not have totally expected to hear from the president. as we prepared for the coverage we tried to figure how long it generally takes the president to leave the chamber after he finishes talking. i thought i saw mr. obama at one point ask the sergeant at arms for directions, like he might be in a hurry to get out. the white house posted this

photo. this photo, president obama and the first lady, obviously still dressed up for the state of the union, they are still at the capitol building, they had been rushed to a private room to call jessica buchanan's family to tell them she was safe and free. [ jennifer garner ] there's a lot of beautiful makeup out there. but one is so clever that your skin looks better even after you take it off. neutrogena® healthy skin liquid makeup. 98% saw improved skin. does your makeup do that? neutrogena® cosmetics.

did you know the lemony snicket books? we had him on the show once, that was very cool. the whole idea of the books is that they are books for kids and about kids that are also about tragedy and terribly horrible. the series of unfortunate events, to give you a sense of what it's like. the dedication of the first book, to beatrice, darling, dearest, dead. chapter one, if you're interested in stories with happy endings, you would be better off reading some other book. in this book, not only is there no happy ending, there is no happy beginning and very few happy things in the middle. this is because not very many

happy things happened in the lives of three kids the book is about. it goes on to describe them, they were extremely unlucky and most everything that happened to them was rife with misfortune, misery and despair, i'm sorry to tell you that, this is how the story goes. awesome, right? does it remind you of anything? >> we drift quarrelling and paralyzed over a niagara of debt we will all suffer. >> that was indiana governor mitch daniels giving the republican response to the state of the union last night. if you were watching our coverage you might have seen chris matthews and i have a different reaction to the speech. chris loved the speech and identified correctly governor daniels did show softening whether rich people should get special favors. i love chris mathews he was right to identify that.

the reason i glossed over it was hard for me to hear those kind of specifics in the midst of the terrible, horrible series of unfortunately vents that lemony daniels found himself mired in. >> when president obama claims the state of our union is anything but grave he must know in his heart this is not true, facing economic catastrophe. the deadened of debt, choking off growth. unprecedented explosion of spending. radically worse. no nation, no mindless piling on. mortal enemies, no feature has been sadder. it's not fair, no one more tragically harmed than the young people of this country. >> yes, those are lines taken out of context in this address and no, he was not speaking in black and white in front of a stormy sky but it does give you

a good idea of the overall tone of the republican address last night. the tone is be afraid! thunderbolt. different people have different reactions to different speeches. personally after seeing that speech, i stopped understanding why republicans long for a mitch daniels presidential candidacy. i say that as a person who loves lemony snicket. whether or not they do persuade their candidate to pick government daniels for vice president or the clamor continues for him to join the race himself, all that may depend as much on what happened in governor daniels home state today as it does on the terrifying horror movie of a speech he gave last night as the response to the state of the union. joining us from indianapolis where the republicans in the legislature passed governor

daniels bill radically stripping union rights in indiana is democrat assistant leader in the house. thank you for being here. ri hi rachel. >> is governor daniels always such a bummer? as republicans think about governor daniels being on the ticket in november is he always like that? >> oh, goodness, yes, he is. what a toxic brew we have in the state for workers right now. and for regular everyday folks. you've got people got swept in office in between with this radical ideology, the governor is one of them believes a solution to every economic problem is make people work for less. you have intoxicant of big corporate campaign cash donations. and then you mix in mitch daniels who is trying to show off for the far right, it's about as much as we can put up with. >> in terms of him showing off, back in 2006, governor daniels not only did not support stripping union rights like this, going right to work in indiana, he said he thought it would be a bad idea to pursue it. he said that multiple times over the time of his governorship in indiana.

why did he change his mind and is supporting this now? >> one more thing he said it would cause a civil war in the state. if he went forth with the idea. i don't know why he changed his mind, why he did flip-flop of that degree but it seems pretty clear it has something to do with his ambitions on the national level. to make himself attractive as a number two pick for vice president. you have to please those guys. he needs to be a hero to them. >> democrats had been denials the republicans in the state legislature a quorum so they could not vote on this issue, i know that is how you held it off last year as well. why did it finally pass today, what changed? >> well, look, we can't kill the bill through delay. but we can make it miserable for them by extending it, deciding when we're going to have votes on these things and giving the public a chance to weigh in. that is exactly what we did. the good news is this still hasn't become law, it will go over the indiana senate, where

they had a preliminary vote last week but they are only four votes shy from throwing right to work in the dust bin of history putting it in the trash can where it belongs. these senators over this are not used to putting up with heat, they have another week they will hear outcries from the public, and they will hear more about why is it so important to drive down wages, not just for union workers but for everybody in the state. >> in terms of the civil war that governor daniels said might ensue if this were pursued, sounds like on a small scale in political indiana that is happening. what do you think the prospects are for senators changing their mind on this, for being stopped in the senate, how hopeful are you? >> as long as you're fighting you're alive in this business. i tell you what, the senate has shown more signs of being enlightened on this. those guys like to sit over there and not be bothered, and

when the protesters start turning their direction, it will be interesting to see how some of them react because we've seen an outpouring of the most intense opposition that really we've seen in a generation here in the state. >> do you think it will be evident when the eyes of the nation turn to indianapolis to watch the super bowl in a couple sundays, is it likely -- i know the nfl players association has been vocal on your side of the argument saying they do not want this right to work legislation passed in indiana. do you think it will surface around the super bowl? >> i think it is. this is a gigantic embarrassment of the state. the eyes of the nation will be on us. not only the nfl players, but the regular rank and file from around indiana, not just the union leaders themselves but the people that benefit from unions, i have no doubt they are going to be exercising their first amendment rights and they will have a national stage to do that. >> scott pelath, indiana state representative, thank you for joining us tonight. love to stay in touch with you

over the next couple weeks as this keeps unfolding, would you mind coming back? >> i would love to do it rachel, any time. >> thank you, sir, appreciate it. best new thing in the world is still on deck. i need to have a little talk with politifact. it won't be a happy conversation but it's necessary. all coming up.

the you are holding in your hands is an unhappy taels. i want to make lemony daniels a thing now. best new thing in the world straight ahead, with 100% less politics.

america, behold! an empirical statement of fact from the president of the united states. >> in the six months before i took office, we lost nearly 4 million jobs. and we lost another 4 million before our policies were in full effect. those are the facts. but so are these. in the last 22 months, businesses have created more than 3 million jobs. last year, they created the most jobs since 2005. >> in the last 22 months, businesses have created more than 3 million jobs. last year they created the most jobs since 2005. that's what he said. so the self-proclaimed

fact-checking news site, politifact, decided to fact check this claim by the president. politifact describes itself as a nonpartisan journalism enterprise. they fact check what politicians and public figures say and then they rate the statements with this thingy. they call it the truth-o-meter. so politifact looked into this part of the president's speech. "in the last 22 months, businesses have created more than 3 million jobs. last year they created the most jobs since 2005." they went to the bureau of labor statistics to figure this out, i don't know if they looked at this particular report from the bureau of labor statistics, but within about 15 seconds of google, we found this and you'd find it too. from a couple weeks back, january 6th, 2012, in this report, the bureau says, since january 2010, quote, the private sector has added 2.2 million jobs. so that's 22 months. politifact came to the same conclusion. so put a check mark next to that part.

it checks out. what the president said is true. politifact then went on to say, okay, the second part of obama's statements, the fact that businesses made more jobs last year than any year since 2005. turns out, that's true too. "as for whether 2011 was the best job-producing jobs since 2005, he's right if you're counting private sector jobs." the increase in 2011 represented the highest one-year total since 2005. so to sum up, president says thing "a" and thing "b." politico looks into it and decides that thing "a" and thing "b" as said by the president as true. so they rate the things half true. quoting politifact, "obama is correct on both counts, when using private sector jobs numbers." probably why he said businesses, right. "but he went too far when he implicitly credited his administration's policies. so we rate the statement half

true." when he implicitly credited his administration's policies. >> businesses have created more than 3 million jobs. politifact, what is wrong with you? you think the president calls himself businesses, like it's a nickname for himself. you think he look himself in the mirror and says, hey, businesses, looking good. >> businesses have created more than 3 million jobs. >> what are you talking about? after the economist jared bernstein and half of the english-speaking internet lol'd for politifact for screwing this up today, politifact went back and revised their initial finding. they said this, "our initial half true rating was based upon an interpretation that obama was crediting his policies for the jobs increases. but we've concluded that he was not making that linkage as strongly as we initially believed." okay, so now we're back to something that calls itself politifact, fact checking the

president saying thing "a" and thing "b," both of which politifact says are true. what is their revised new rating for their fact check of the president saying two things that they admit are true? what's their new rating? mostly true! mostly true. fact, you are fired. you are a mess. you are fired. you are undermining the definition of the word "fact" in the english language by pretending to it in your name. the english language wants its word back. you are an embarrassment. you sully the reputation of anyone who sites you as an authority on factishness, let alone fact. you are fired.

may i introduce you to rob catco. rob is the director of this show. he is calm and sharp and funny. he does not let anyone push him around, and he likes rum. hi, rob!

hello. this is rob's 17-year-old son, avery, who is a robotics genius, which all of us here at this show have known since proud papa rob keeps up on his son in the robotics world. we got the word not from rob, but from nasa. nasa and m.i.t. sponsored a competition for high school students to control two of these volleyball-sized spherical satellites in microgravity on board the international space station. the teenagers wrote the software for these flying robots and then astronauts on board the space station let 'em rip. 150 schools in the running, but a group called alliance rocket, avery's group, won. so for avery and for his dad and for those of us who work with his dad, this is obviously very, very cool. but for all of us in this country, the fact that our space agency is getting high school kids to program robots that operate on microgravity in the space station, that they're inspiring the next generation of computational thinkers and