battle lines with increasingly sharp focus on their all but certain contest this fall. and just moments ago, the president wrapped up a rose garden event taking a compromise event signing a job creation bill into law with eric cantor, among others, at his side. meanwhile, as the president does some governing, mitt romney has been out on the campaign trail doing his best to pivot from the primary to the general. accusing the president of waging a hide and seek campaign and being, get this, out of touch. >> i think he is so out of touch with the american people. years of flying around on air force one surrounded by an adoring staff of true believers, telling that you you're great and you're doing a great job. it is enough to think you might become a little out of touch. we have a president who i think is a nice guy but he spent too much time at harvard, perhaps. >> i don't think he's been out seeing the people of america, talking to the people of america.

>> yes, well, romney did spend some time at a pennsylvania phone bank today trying to get out that message. and having some trouble dialing knn as a cell phone.ation device i guessomeone normally does that for him. forget the fact that mr. obama spent three years at harvard while romney was there for four. forget that three of romney's sons also hold their mbas from harvard. those elite snobs. i cannot get past the fact that willard, mitt romney, is calling the president out of touch. >> i know what it is like to worry whether you'll get fired. there were a couple of times whether i wondered whether i would get a pink slim. >> how much money do you have? >> between $150 and $200 some middle. >> i get speakers fees but not very much. >> i'm also unemployed. >> i mean, really? multimillionaire mitt. does he not hear the echo of irony from inside his car elevator? i have to tell you, it appears that voters aren't buying it either. to look at the poll numbers,

this president is starting his reelection bid with a bang. opening up the first significant lead in this campaign in the nation's top 12 swing states. president obama leading mitt romney 51-42% among registered voters in those states. the president opening up his widest lead yet with independent states, 48-39%. and a new campaign video suggests why, telling a story about a little lady who started a chant that started a fire. >> ready to go. >> it shows what you one voice can do. one voice can change a room. and if the voice can change a room, it can change a city. and if it can change a city, it can change a state. and if it can change a state, it can change a nation. and if it can change a nation, it can change the world. >> that doesn't look like someone out of touch to me. let's bring in our ace political

panel. now in washington, msnbc political analyst david corn, washington bureau chief, the author of the new book, "showdown." and with me here, jonathan capehart, an opinion writer for the "washington post," and the esteemed alex wagner. everyone is he is steamed. more so her. >> thanks for the compliment. >> sorry. david, if you were going to write a strategy for mr. romney to attack the president, would you in your wildest dreams ever suggest that this gilded multimillionaire should accuse the president of being out of touch? >> let's look at it this way. the president does live in an awfully big house. he has butlers, he never drives his own car. he might just be as out of touch, as say, mitt romney. >> but he doesn't have a car elevator. inconfirm there is no elevator for cars in the white house. >> there is a big construction project on the front lawn of the white house. who knows what they're putting

there? at some point, mitt romney has to come to terms with the fact that he is a 1 percenter. a .001 percenter. he get out there in the intro and he bashes barack obama for spending time at harvard when he spent more time at harvard. there should be a certain set of rules of polite political discourse in which mitt romney is literally laughed out of the room for saying things that are so absurd and silly. yet, i'm sure they focus grouped and test polled all this. so he is mouthing whatever words his consultants are telling this out of touch candidate to say. >> david corn, those regulations were thrown out for the republican primaries this year. we're watching images of mitt romney as he speaks there in pennsylvania. i want to take up david's point. is not this straight out of the karl rove book of strategy? find your own five worst witnesses and then locate them in your opponent.

impose them on your opponent. >> i think it is the i am rubber, you are glue strategy. the issue is that nobody really believes what mitt romney is saying. you look at the pivot that he is between the primary season and presumably the general election, if he is the nominee. it is as if they've forgotten about something they forgot about, the internet. the american public has in fact been paying some small amount of attention to the outrageous things he's been saying about women, about immigrants, about the economy, about the president's record on the economy. unsurprisingly, the obama re-election campaign has been monitoring this. they have a pile of research, a pile of youtube footage, they launched something today called the truth team that is taking these half truth that's mitt romney has been spewing on the campaign trail and they are correcting it for the american public online. >> poor old mitt. john, we just saw the president signing this bipartisan jobs bill. we heard we have the lowest applications in four years. we hear that retail sales are going up.

went up in march for the month of march. this is a problem for mitt romney. i guess he does have to fabric it a a straw man that he wants to fight. the very straw man that he complained the president was doing yesterday. >> absolutely. remember, this is the guy who was, i'm a businessman. i know what it takes to make this country better. to improve the economy. to create jobs. that was what what, six months ago. or maybe eight months ago. now that all the indicators are going in the right direction, he has to come one some sort of rationale, some sort of argument for why people should vote out barack obama and why vote in mitt romney. but the problem is no one believes him. he looks entirely uncomfortable in his jeans and shirts and things. but also, he has shown a high degree of ideological promiscuity over the last five years. it is one thing to change your position on one core value you might have. say on choice.

on gay right or immigration, but if you do all of them over five years, people look ought and say i'm not so sure about you. >> on your promiscuity point, it has been suggested that he has more positions than an actor from the san fernando valley. >> if those swing state polls tell the story, the rising economy is certainly mirrored in the president's re-election standing. is mitt romney watching his campaign platform as john says, dismantled by the weak, every week? every month that we get better unemployment figures? if we do, this is a problem for him. is not it? . >> well, it's a problem rht now. but remember, most americans who will be voting in november are not paying as much attention as, say, you and i and jonathan and alex are paying. and what will happen with the economy in the summer and fall will be far more telling. we've watched the last two, three years. the economy seemed to sputter in

a positive direction. only to flag yet again. so i think mitt romney is banking on an october decline. which may be his only hope. but it does at the moment take wind out of his sails, hey, i'm mr. fix-it. i'm mr. turn-around. he doesn't seem to have a lot to say, the speech he gave yesterday attacking barack obama was so full. not just of half truths, as alex pointed out, but of fibs and lies. say the president promised to bring it un8%. it is a wonder he wasn't laughed out of room. he will be taking the kitchen sink approach. if this out of touch thing doesn't work in the next day or two, they'll say that he is obsessing too much about americans or something. they'll come one something else by friday. >> david and john both point to the kind of facts of the economy and also the campaign. but there is also the

personality of mitt romney who we saw earlier today, having problems punching in the numbers on a cell phone. i mean, stop laughing. i'm addressing alex. i accept the fact that a man who has $250 million in assets probably doesn't to have make his own phone calls. but that's the kind of example that i guess resonates with ordinary people who think, this guy is so utterly out of touch. he cannot even make a phone call. >> absolutely, martin. especially when you look at the numbers on like long term unemployment. these are structural problems with the american economy. and i think that there has been, we've looked at the jobless numbers which are improving. the unemployment numbers are improving. when you talk about structural unemployment versus cyclical unemployment. the attention that needs to be paid to what is happening to american workers in this country. you want someone in the oval office who fundamentally understands the working man. and mitt romney seems so wildly out of touch on even the basics. whether that's using a cell phone or even knowing how many millions of dollars he has in the bank. or the rate that he pays on

those millions of dollars. he has proven time and time again he doesn't know. he in fact is out of touch. >> and very quickly, john. >> and also, the other thing is, he is not putting forth really a concrete plan of his own of where he would want to take this country. and i think that's, one thing to denigrate the president. here's where i want to take us that goes beyond the cliches and generalities that we've been hearing. >> he has described paul ryan's budget as marvelous though. you can catch more of alex every day at noon eastern here on msnbc. next, it is called the social safety net. and mitt and paul ryan have a big pair of scissors. >> good morning, lois. this is mitt romney calling. how are you this morning? well, good. have you ever heard of me? you have, huh?

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more now on the primary that has moved to nascent general election fight. and apparently, that means when mitt romney is not projecting his own flaws on to the president, he'll be up some falsehoods to attach to this administration. case in point -- >> the administration pledged that their stimulus would keep the unemployment rate below 8%. it has been above 8% every month

since. the president's attention, it was elsewhere. like a government takeover of health care and apologizing for america abroad. >> that statement given four pinocchios by the "washington post." all while mr. romney calls the president the hide and seek candidate. for more now, we're joined by democratic congressman elijah cummings of maryland, with us from baltimore. good afternoon. >> it's good to be with you. >> mr. romney accuses the president of being involved in hide and seek politics. but allow me to give you some real hide and seek. paul ryan's budget proposes two new tax thresholds. 10% and 25%. he won't tell us what level of earnings would put you in which bracket. paul ryan's budget promises lower taxes and says he'll close tax loopholes to make up the $4 trillion lost in revenue. but he can't tell us which loopholes he is prepared to close. who is playing hide and seek here, sir? >> clearly, mr. ryan is playing hide and go seek.

and romney has adopted this budget. he said he likes it very much. so he's even said that if that budget were put on his desk, he would definitely sign it. this is clearly a situation, martin, where the republicans are trying to take us back. and they're trying to do what they're doing on the backs of our seniors. i just left some seniors at a senior citizens home. and their number one fear is that they're going to be placed in a situation where they're going to have vouchers, have to pay for medicare. then have to pay $6,400 above what they're now paying and get less. and they're doing, they're giving for us through this budget, all kinds of tax breaks to the wealthy, to wall street, to big oil. but at the same time, chopping into things like pel grants, doing away with medicare as we

know it. taking medicaid, slashing it and giving a little money to the states and saying do what you will. this is not the america that i know. this is not the america that we have all been used to. and we have to deal with this. the president has been very clear. he wants to make sure that we stay on the path of progress. we're moving forward. >> but congressman, we're being told by mr. ryan and mr. romney, this is trickle down economics. the most effective mechanism for the overall prosperity of a nation. given that they gave us eight years of george bush, can you explain why the disparity of wealth in this country is at its widest in living memory? how is it possible that the top 20% owns 85% of america's wealth and the top 1% possesses almost 43% of the nation's wealth. and yet these two individuals are promoting a budget. no wonder your senior citizen friends are frightened. all of us are frightened when

you look at the facts. >> no doubt about it. this trickle down stuff has never worked. this is an attack on the middle class. trying to suppress the middle class. push them out of middle class into a lower situation and at the same time, doing more and more for the rich. there's something awfully wrong with that kind of picture. and you know, martin, i wonder whether a lot of our tea party friends actually really realize what's going. on i can tell you, a lot of them will be harmed by a ryan budget. most of them. because most of them are not one percenters. >> one of the things that comes across for mr. romney and mr. ryan is they keep telling us that regulations are stifling the economy. how would they propose to stop things like predatory lending? stopping brokers from duping people into buying properties that they can't afford? i mean, are they supposed to just buy them, lose them, end up hopeless, because and homeless, because that's the way the market works? >> what they say is you're on your own. and let the markets do what they

will and let folks do what they will. they're in a situation where they want to deal with the regulations we have to deem our water clean. our air clean. do away with those regulations that keep our workers safe. and also that the one percenters can benefit even more and become rixer and richer. this is going to be the most important election of my lifetime. and i have to tell you, i'm going to go out there and fight with everything i've got to make sure that the president is able to serve this second term so we can get, continue to keep our country on the right track. >> congressman elijah cummings. thank you so much for joining us. >> stay with us. much more ahead. >> i shot my first deer in somerset county about 30 years ago.

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all are created equal. i am no idealist to believe firmly in the integrity of our courts and our jury system. that's no ideal to me. that is a living, working reality. >> a wonderful scene from the movie version of that remarkable book, to kill a bird. and one that certainly has renewed relevance in light of the current dust-up over the politics of the supreme court. 50 years after its release, that movie gets a special screening tonight at the white house where it has been a busy day, including the president signing the jobs act just a short time ago in the rose garden. >> exactly the kind of bipartisan action we should be taking in washington to hem our economy. i've always said the true engine

of job creation in this country is the private sector. not the government. >> msnbc's mike viqueira joins us live from the white house. hi. >> reporter: hello. >> mitt romney likes to say the president can't create jobs. there was eric cantor, one of the leaders of romney's party right behind the president. this is about helping small business. but is it also designed to help the president as well? >> reporter: i think it is designed to help everybody involved that you saw there in that picture. that beaming class picture there and a brilliant day in washington out in the rose garden just moments ago. we did see some bipart saabship. eric cantor is there. one of the leaders of the house, steve case of aol fame. here comes a regular for the second day in a row. scott brown. now in a fight to retain his seat in massachusetts. >> i don't think i've ever seen eric cantor smiling. but in that image he is smiling. >> reporter: he was just out here in the driveway talking to reportes giving us more of that

eric canner charm as well. i had a chance to ask him. those job numbers are coming out tomorrow. all indications they'll go below the 8.3 and continue the downward trend. i asked him, does that take the economy off the table as a political issue? and he said, of course, they are not concern about the political issue. any economic news is good news. but gas prices aries roog and americans aren't out of the woods yet. and out of the rose garden the president said something similar. he said the economy is beginning to turn a corner but we still have a long way to go. that has almost become the per funk triline. we talked about the second day in a row bipartisans showing that thing with the pens that presidents always do. each letter is a separate pen so he can pass them all out at the end. this would make it easier for americans. >> the masters golf tournament started today at augusta national where they still don't allow women to be members. i understand the white house weighed in on this also.

is that right in. >> that's right. you might say that this issue was sort of teed up for the president and he drove it 300 yards down the middle of the fair way. at least through his spokesman jay carney today. they were ready for it clearly. at the regular briefing. he said, it's up to the club to decide. did he add that caveat. he said, but the president's personal opinion is that women should be admitted to the club. this is good news for the president. they're sponsoring a women and jobs, women and the economy event tomorrow that they're touting as well. and the news that has been all over. 18 points in swing states. the president is leading the republican opponent among women in swing states. >> thanks as ever. and we should note moments ago, mitt romney was asked about augusta and he too said it is time for women to be allowed to join. good for him. stay with us. the day's top lines are coming up. >> we have a president who i think is a nice guy but he spent too much time at harvard, perhaps. or maybe not enough time working

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from the hallowed halls of harvard to pennsylvania coal country. how do you like them apples? >> president obama's hide and seek campaign. >> coming out, coming out. >> everybody knows the primary is over. >> we have reached the point where it is halftime. >> almost everybody. >> mitt romney, whew! >> next time? you haven't talked to my wife. >> go to the auto show. it's your chance to see what car mitt romney will be strapping his dog to tomorrow. >> i shot my first deer over in

somerset county about 30 years ago. ♪ i love you baby and if it's quite all right ". >> barack obama referred to this area of pennsylvania as the place that clings to their guns and their bibles. >> i'm not a big game hunter. i've always been the rodent and rabbit hunter. >> it's laughable in the state of pennsylvania. >> good morning, lois. this is mitt romney calling. have you ever heard of me? you have, huh? hello. is this carol? hello. this is mitt romney. >> i love the lakes. >> he's so out of touch with the american people. >> i thought it would be -- >> we have a president who i think is a nice guy. but he spent too much time at harvard, perhaps. >> i know that our party has traditionally faced a gender gap. >> did you ever wonder what it is about obama -- >> the democrats said we had a

war on caterpillars and we would have problems with caterpillars. it is a fiction. >> my wife reports tow me regularly that the issue women care about most is the economy. they're concerned about gasoline prices. the cost of getting to and from work. taking their kids to school or to practice. >> let's get right to our panel. making her debut, the author and political strategist and the wife of frequent guest professor erick dyson. and ken vogel from politico. thank you. krystal, as you just heard, the talk that the whole war on women is fabricated. we can forget about senator blount's amendments. he called it a war on caterpillars. how would you like to respond? >> well, first of all, the analogy to caterpillars, women

and caterpillars, bugs to be squashed. i think he could have chosen a better word. the thing that really make me angry about this is i'm sure they did like it better when we weren't paying attention to what they were doing. but the reality is, last year, there were 1100 anti-women provided introduced in state legislature. this year we've already had 900. we have eight states trying to defund planned parenthood. 13 states trying to push the same mandatory ultrasound bill that bob mcdonald did in virginia. we have 11 states trying to ban abortion from, insurance from providing abortion. we have 23 states that are trying to do that with the health insurance. we have tom corbett telling women to just shut their eyes. we have rick perry telling low income women that they can't have preventive health care. >> we do have to get to other guests. >> that's the reality. >> he said it is just a war on

caterpillars. >> whether republicans believe this war is a fantasy is immaterial. it is landing real blows on their reputation. the president we know is beating romney by 18 points among women. why cannot they at least act like they believe this is true. for their own political sake. >> well, you hear kind of divergent messages. on the one hand you hear very dismissively comparing this to a war on cater pillars. republicans don't have a cater pillar problem, at least until now. with you there is a problem between mitt romney and his campaign that this is an area where they have work to do. you hear mitt romney in some of the clips that you played in the top lines as well as on the campaign trail. addressing this head on and they do see the potential to close this gender gap. but there is no doubt that there is this gender gap, whatever he wants to say about caterpillars.

>> most men spend their lives trying not to say stupid things in front of. we why is this such a problem like reince priebus? >> i think they are not into the needs of women. they would say if we said something like that, that women were hysterical and we suffer from pms. the problem is they don't understand, we do suffer from pms. patriarchy, mysogyny and sexism. when you look at women that you consider caterpillars, well, you won't cocoon us. we will break free as beautiful butterflies with our own messages. and they don't want to their message of american women and how we feel. if you don't listen, then you say stupid things. >> indeed. wonderful abbreviation. mitt romney keeps telling crowds that he hears from his wife what women are concerned about. why doesn't he actually speak to women? >> you might try asking him himself. i guess he's tried and sort of failed. so now he's falling back on ann romney who is a more skilled

politician, much better at connecting with women voters. >> to your point earlier, let's face it. this man will be the nominee. he wants to defund planned parenthood. >> and you can see it coming. he is wanting to shake that etch a sketch and moo on to the general election and forget about the positions he's taken. he is a man who wants to defund planned parenthood. he said he would support the bloupt amendment. he said he supported person hood which was a provision, an amendment too extreme for the voters in mississippi. so he has gone as far as rick santorum and as far as the republican party has on the war on women. >> indeed. it seems republicans are desperate for a wedge issue. when they find one, and it doesn't work, they just double down like the world's worst black jack player. for instance, mississippi as you know, as we were just hearing, is poised to enact a law that would effectively close the state's only abortion clinic. is this because republicans don't have anything else to run on? what are they thinking?

>> i think because they've been in that back room trying to negotiate women's lives. they haven't been in the real back rooms where women had to go to get abortions before it was legalized through various administrations that understood women's needs and their prediction am and how it relates to their health care and choice and for the families in the future. again interesting unwillingness of the republican party to be honest and stop resting on their faith or pious women that christian women or nonchristian women don't have a dilemma when it comes to pro-life. thats the big problem. they're pro-life but not pro living. you don't want to educate the child or give it proper health care themselves need to stop judging somebody else and look are you for pro-life and not pro living? if so, let us know, what your s your hidden general. the women are not getting it and really not even the republican women. because if you would monitor and poll those republican women, they would be like the gcb women on abc. they have some little nuances to

their informed christianity about their rights and how they use so-called that to liberate themselves. >> i'll referring to you other broadcasts. just on this occasion. thank you all so much for joining us. stay with us. much more ahead. >> how important is pennsylvania? is it a must-win state? >> yeah. we have to win here and we plan on winning here. >> is it absolutely a must-win? >> i don't know how many times i need to say the same things over. we are going to win pennsylvania. and we need to win pennsylvania. [ male announcer ] there's a crushing national debt

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hannity who likes to drop leading question after leading question in order to make his point. >> but i would argue there has been a rush to judgment. and by that, well, the president has weighed into this. up about the president, you did not see so much hate. you didn't expect or foresaw so much hate coming from the president or members of congress, what did you mean by that, sir? >> on wednesday, he let stand a number of baseless or at least whole 81 unproven assertions even after his guest george zimmerman's father and two lawyers would complain of the media's bias and distortion of the facts. here is a sample. >> the morning of february 26th, we had a peaceful town where people went to church and sat together in multiracial congregations. they stood in line at the grocery store and we did not have a seething town of civil unrest because of race relations. jesse jackson, al sharpton brought that to town. they turned this into a racial event when it never, ever was one. >> it is funny you should mention my colleague, host of

msk's politics nation. the revv remembered al sharpton. this is what was written about him and your client last month. al sharpton is right. george zimmerman should be charged. for more, we go to joy-ann reid who is in sanford, florida. i understand you've literally just run from a plane so thank you for joining us. i wanted to talk about this supposed eyewitness that zimmerman's lawyer hal kept about last night. he claim this witness saw trayvon on top of george, beating him. supposedly blowing a hole in what we all know is true. could you please separate the fact from the fix for us? >> reporter: sure, martin. this is a witness. this isn't anything new. the side, the zimmerman camp has been saying there is a witness that would corroborate his story. pretty much from the beginning. i know nbc news would love to

talk to this guy. we have be interviewed him as, we have not interviewed him as of yet. he said he saw trayvon martin on the top of this scrum that took place before the shooting. of course, there are other witnesses. one who appeared on another network who said that they saw the bigger man, the hispanic man on top and get up quickly. soes 33 contradictory witnesses that can really only be sorted out by the state attorney. >> right. so not quite as clear cut as they would have us believe. they all talk about how awful the court of public opinion is. and then they allow george zimmerman's father to take the stand and testify with what is essentially hearsay. i mean, you can call it testimony, i guess. but about trayvon's poundings zim zimmerman's head into the sidewalk which contrasts a woman who said this happened on the grass. >> well, what you've really seen from george zimmerman's side is an attempt to get his story out there. it shifted slightly.

the story that was told by the police detective to trayvon's father was that trayvon confronted him at his car. then he lost him and caught up with him and they had this confrontation. then you have these escalating versions of the story that even include sound bites. things supposedly trayvon martin said. and i guess while it is, as you said, hearsay that muddled the message here, what it has done. it has put zimmerman's narrative out without him having to come forward. if you're his defense, isn't that what you want to do? get his story out and try to modify his image. >> the one thing conservative dozen enjoy about this story is that it lets them talk about how it is the president who has taken political advantage. even as they beat the war drum over their favorite target, the new black panthers, all five or six of them, i guess. >> there are about six new black panthers. they are completely irrelevant. they're not even from florida. i think they came from georgia

and their huge protest was all of a half dozen people. but what was interesting was there was a pugh research study that shows this case has begun to break down along partisan lines. since the president came out and got attack for speaking by newt gingrich first, then you have the right saying there has been too much coverage of the trayvon martin case and democrats say the opposite. that it has become a partisan issue. >> thank you very much. and i should remind our viewers, the only thing the president actually said was offering his could not dole engeledole, the . now the market wrap. >> we've got stock trading in negative territory for a second straight day on what will be a shortened trading week because of tomorrow's good friday holiday. right now, at the major averages. the dow down about 12.5 points. the standard and poor's down, the nasdaq actually up a little over 12 points.

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on wednesday's broadcast, we issued an apb for a recently bankrupt newt gingrich. we found his corporation in a bankruptcy filing. he was chairman for the group until he kicked off his fledgling presidential campaign. in disclosures, he accounted the vast majority of his personal wealth to that very corporation. let's bring in a newt gingrich supporter, justin phillips, founder and head of the tea party nation. justin, i want to get to the tea party and your least favorite candidate mitt romney in a moment, but first, this is bad news for your man. >> i've got to say, i'm out on spring break so i haven't been

following this perhaps as much as i should. you know -- >> well, his company is bankrupt, basically. it's a bankruptcy. >> it is a bankruptcy. a business winds down, these things happen. gingrich was clearly the driving force for gingrich, llc, and when he moved on to a presidential campaign, i just assumed that was pretty much the end of that company. >> that sounded very reasonable. justin, your own disdane for romney has been clear, but will those in the tea party fall in line with romney, and will that include yourself? >> will i vote for romney if he's the nominee? yeah, i will, because he's better than barack obama. that's not saying a lot, but -- >> johnson, you've been attacking romney for the last six months saying he's a flip-flopper, saying he's got no conviction, saying he's not committed to anything. if you were true to what you've been saying, you wouldn't vote

for mitt romney. >> hey, i've got two choices. i've got barack obama, i've got mitt romney. of the two, mitt is the better of the two alternatives. >> justin, why not abstain from the election? if your commitments are so real and true, abstain from the election. don't vote for anyone. >> i'm sorry, there are too many people who gave their lives to give me the right to vote. i'm not going to sit an election out. i'm not happy with my choices. you know, you guys on the left ought to be really happy with this election because you've got barack obama on the far, far left -- >> hang on a second, hang on a second, judson, be careful about you guys on the left. i can't vote. i'm not a citizen of this country yet, so it's slightly unfair of you. but wednesday on this program, a former spokesman for -- >> hey, martin? hey, martin? those guys on the left. >> a former spokesman for newt

gingrich offered this prediction. take a listen. are you actually saying that you do not believe mitt romney will beat the president in november? >> unfortunately, i've never believed that and i still don't believe it. the establishment believes it like they thought gerald ford would beat jimmy carter, like bob dole would beat and like john mccain would beat obama. >> do you agree with that assessment? >> mitt romney can win but he's got a hard row to hoe. we've done tea parties on tea party nation and a quarter of the tea party says they're not voting for mitt romney in this election. with a quarter of his base checking out already, he's got a huge problem, and he better do some things to address it or he will ensure that barack obama gets four more years. >> judson phillips, as always, thank you so much for joining us, sir. we'll be right back to clear the air. is this what we're doing now?

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time now to clear the air. a man whose personalities are in constant flux, mr. romney has decided to become mr. mind reader. yes. just a few hours ago, campaigning in pennsylvania, this is what he said about the president. >> we have a president who thinks he's doing a good job. he actually was saying the other day that he thinks he's doing a great job, an historically great job. and then he describes the other people who he thinks were great presidents, and he says he's like them. >> for a man who doesn't know what he thinks until he's told what will further his own ambitions, this is a little bit rich. but mitt the mind reader is now on a role and i think so he's qualified to tell us exactly what's going on inside the mind of the president.

in psychology, a serious mind is a skill. it is an ability to understand and attribute ideas, values, intentions to oneself and to others. mr. mind reader is now offering up his version as it applies to the president. but what does mitt romney really know about anything other than investment banking and offshore tax shelters? does he know anything about growing up in less than traditional circumstances where his father played no role in his upbringing? what does mitt romney know about the struggle of african-americans fighting to achieve status in a system that is opposed to their advancement? what does mitt romney know about making his own way without the benefit of influential and wealthy parents? the truth is, mitt the mind reader, is about as accurate in understanding the mind of the president as herman cain is on the subject of middle eastern politics. if i were you, i wouldn't trust

either of them. thank you so much for watching. dylan ratigan is here to take us forward. dylan, what have you got? >> we've got all sorts of things. it's funny with these cable new shows, there is always a lot to talk about, you know? >> thankfully there is, otherwise you and i would be seeking employment in a vat somewhere nearby. >> i couldn't hear who was on the other end of the line a few minutes ago, but you were giving somebody the business a few seconds ago. who was that? >> i was just asking questions, dylan, like i always do, you know that. we do it as politely and assertively as we can. as you do. >> i believe i'm not much better at polite assertion. i've always been