"hardball" is up right now. guns rights and wrongs. let's play some "hardball." good evening, i'm michael smerconish filling in for chris matthews. when is the last time you even heard a debate over gun control? the arguments today are over how far and how fast to expand gun owner rights. and mitt romney toed the line today at the nra, calling gun control an assault on freedom. of course, expanded gun rights may have emboldened george zimmerman to leave his car and pursue trayvon martin. now ask yourself this. is it possible for george

zimmerman to even get a fair trial? plus the hilary rosen gaffe reminded us that we insult stay-at-home moms. and that's not something that will go away simply without making the case that it's president obama who is waging the war on women. romney is rich and out of touch, so today the president and vice president released their tax returns, daring romney to do the same. and let me finish tonight with a battle from the 2008 campaign that's still not finished. barack obama versus bill clinton. we begin with guns. former pennsylvania governor ed rendell is an nbc political analyst, and alan gottlieb is from the foundation and is joining us from the nra convention in st. louis. gentlemen, speaking at that nra convention, late this afternoon mitt romney decried what he called the president's assault on basic freedoms but largely

avoided diving into the issues of gun control in the 2nd amendment. it wasn't until 15 minutes into the speech that he mentioned the right to bear arms. here it is. >> this administration's attack on freedom extends even to rights explicitly guaranteed by the constitution. the right to bear arms is so plainly stated, so unambiguous, that liberals have a hard time challenging it directly. instead they've been employing every imaginable ruse and ploy to restrict it. >> now, mitt romney has supported some gun control measures in the past. as governor he signed a law that made permanent a ban on assault-type rifles, although it was coupled with measures that some gun rights groups supported, and while running for the u.s. senate against edward kennedy, romney supported an assault weapons ban and the brady gun control law. in 2007, he asked romney about

his position on guns and here is what he said. >> my position on guns is the same position i've had for a long, long time. and my position is i don't line up with the nra. i don't see eye to eye with the nra on every issue. >> and, of course, it was in 2007 that there was this same situation with governor romney and his hunting experience. let's watch. >> i'm not a big game hunter. i've always been a rodent and rabbit hunter, small varmints, if you will. i started when i was 18 and hunted those, and i've also hunted quail. it's not big game, not deer or anything, but i've hunted a little bit, small rodents. >> mr. gottlieb, with that primer, please answer the

questions on whether governor romney can overcome issues of the past with your group. >> i think when we listen to comments at the nra convention, i think he can overcome it two ways. one, he's not hostile to gun rights, and the second thing is the average gun owner is a little upset with barack obama, particularly his appointment with the supreme court on down. as you're aware, there is a sufficient number of second amendment court kcases that are going to the court system and the gun owners are very concerned about who will be making the ruling on the federal ben benches. >> isn't the question what he is going to do compared to what he has done? has he done something thus far that you believe messed with second amendment rights? >> if you look at his record both as united states senator, and the state senator in illinois, he was extremely hostile to gun rights. he hasn't exactly been a friend of gun rights, banning certain

imports of antique firearms into the united states. and his administration has been putting out test balloons, the clinton regulations ban on certain firearms. as a result, we know where his heart is, we know where his head is. he's met with anti-gun groups. he's not met with any pro gun leaders at all. he said when the time is right, he'll push for the agenda. but right now it makes him very difficult to get a legislation passed. >> i remember there was a run on ammunition in 2008. as a matter of fact, i think talk show hosts are the ones who propelled that. it's always, he's going to come for your bullets, he's going to come for your guns, but the reality is the obama administration hasn't moved on the gun issue. do you disagree? >> no,i don't, but let me say one quick thing, michael. those of us who believe in the second amendment and also believe in gun control know the second amendment has its limits.

the first amendment very clearly talks about free speech but you can't go into a crowded movie theatre and cry fire. because there are limits. and there are limits on what is reasonable gun ownership, and that's all we're trying to do. take the gabby giffords case. the company dropped the ball not to support legislation which would have reinstituted part of the legislative ban that would have banned these multiple bullet magazines, the magazines used in gab gi gifford' case had 30 bullets in it. the weapons ban was dropped by the congress, it wasn't reinstituted. we had a ban that said you could only have a magazine with 11 bullets. had that ban been in effect that day, people in arizona would be alive today that died that day. >> that's my question. why has the gun debate dropped off the radar? in today's daily beast, new york city mayor michael bloomberg writes, to hear most pundits and

political strategists tell it, americans are hopelessly divided by guns, but we're not. polls show that nra members support common sense steps to ensure that guns are kept out of the hands of criminals. and the long angeles times says, few presidents have shown as little interest in gun control as barack obama. it's as if avoid gun control at all costs has become a plank in the democratic party platform. >> they're ain't loser. guys like mr. gottlieb and the nra are very effective at standing and lobbying. but take a law that i tried to get instituted in pennsylvania, barring people from buying more than one handgun a month. that would stop straw purchasers. 40% of our handguns in pennsylvania come from straw purchasers, but it would have allowed you to buy 12 handguns a year. 24 if you're married.

that's no limitation at all in a practical sense. so 70% of pennsylvanians favored that law. i couldn't even get it out of committee. because the nra has done such a good job of spooking our legislators. i think the mindset you've had, the slippery slope, you can't give an inch because if we give anything on any issues, then it will be the ammunition. >> purely bull. that's purely bull. >> unfortunately, we've seen that happen not only in the united states but in other countries as well. what the former governor is talking about here, though, is prior restraint, limiting how many guns you can buy, limiting what kind of ammunition you can use, limiting the size of your magazine. you can't yell far in a crowded theatre, you also can't go far to murder someone. >> let me ask you a simple question. why would any law-abiding citizen need a magazine that has

33 bullets in it? >> why? go to a gun range and shoot. because i happen to like to go to a gun range and shoot, and target practices are much more easy to use by using a higher capacity magazine. >> it's too much trouble at a gun range to ask him to insert three 11-shot magazines. it's too much of an inconvenience? that's baloney. >> law-abiding citizens that use magazines firing ten or more rounds is not the problem. the problem is keeping them out of the streets. mayor rendell, i want to ask you this question, if i might. mr. gottlieb, hold your thought for a moment. as governor of pennsylvania, you vetoed stand your ground, am i correct, and it was your successor, tom corbett, who came in and signed it into law. i guess you're looking like a

sootheis soot soothesayr, unfortunately, in trayvon martin. do you think the trayvon martin case is going to cause a severe reexamination of stand your ground in those states across the country that now have it in their books. >> i hope so, and mayor bloomberg has called for that. it's interesting on your administration. the district attorney's association made up of 50. >> so why don't we listen to law enforcement, mr. got lean. tear. >>. we're not like a lot of other countries by death spots and dictators. mr. gottlieb, very quick final question if i might for you. we're just turned.

if he were wouldn't he do them now while he's in. >> good question. the real part of the appointments is one person who supports gun rights. that's the problem. >> coming up, the romney campaign caught a break with hilary rosen's slight against stay-at-home moms. even so, mitt romney has a very serious gender problem, and we're going to get to that next. this is "hardball." all by cob. and you...rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle... and go. you can even take a full-size or above, and still pay the mid-size price. i'm going b-i-g. [ male announcer ] good choice business pro. good choice. go national. go like a pro.

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welcome back to "hardball." a cnn contribute toor with no r in president obama's campaign made a statement this week. hilary rosen kicked up her comments about anne rosen, and by thursday everybody from the vice president to the president to the first lady had responded. they mostly distance themselves from rosen's comments. of course, steve colbert had fun with the full outrage from the right. >> full disclosure. i have a personal stake in this issue because i have a mom -- my mom. which makes me half mom on my mom's side. and these remarks infuriate me, folks. this is good, this is good, this story is delicious. jimmy, put rosen's court up on the crawl right now.

let's put it up there all the time. that's nice. now play the quote on a loop. >> his wife has actually never worked a day in her life. his wife has actually never worked a day in her life. his wife has actually never worked a day in her life. his wife has actually never worked a day in her life. >> loss of the firestorm were the deeper issues many female voters care about. mitt romney has a long way to go to make up after the bruised primary who only hurt women. michelle goldberg is a contributing writer for newsweek and the daily beast. ladies, thank you for being here. this issue is so hot, but the romney team tried to keep the controversy surrounding hilary rosen's comments going yet for another day when this afternoon mitt romney introduced his wife -- where? at the convention, and then both

romneys talked about, not surprisingly, the issue of motherhood. listen to what he said. >> i believe all moms are working moms, and if you have five sons, your work is never over. >> let me give a shoutout to all moms that are working, and, by the way, to all dads that are working, we love all of you. you know, i often think that you're only, as a parent, as happy as your saddest child. and you never, ever stop being a parent. >> michelle bernard, what's the legitimate issue in all of this? clearly hilary rosen should ner have said that anne romney never worked a day in her life. what is the legitimate issue. >> should mitt romney be elected president of the united states? what public policies are he going to put forth that will help america's women, whether they're women that stay at home and work at home raising

children, or whether they're women who are out in the work force. those are the most important issues. social security, health care, the supplemental nutritious program otherwise known as food stamps. quite frankly, my personal mantra has been all women's issues are women's issues, but there are certain issues that are very important to women, and they involve health care, which is another discussion where we seem to be going backwards in time rather than forward, and all the issues i just set forth are going to be very important to women voters, period. >> i think you raised interesting matters of subject. in fact, on the heels of that, let me point out some of the economic positions mitt romney embraced might hurt him with women. bloomberg news raised some major red flags for women. the program would make cuts to the food stamp program. recipients? female. they would also cut pell grants. about two-thirds of students

that get those? female. it would cut medicaid and most medicaid beneficiaries are women. instead people are getting hung up on, has they sshe worked a d her life? of course, she has. >> if women are going to be offended by that, anything hilary rosen said is not near as serious as the other things he plans to do. he was creamed by ted kennedy in 1994, and it's because when women get a look at his economic policies, because social issues weren't really an issue in those earlier races because he was still pro-choice, they recoil. >> but in this case, michelle bernard, i think the social issues are a factor. my view is that this is a part and parcel of the brand of the

gop at present. >> absolutely. >> a couple things i wrote notes about. the whole vaginal probe in virginia issue, questions about ext contraception largely based on things said from ron paul. those are all matters of substance that will affect women. >> the reason they're important, and probably even more important today than they were during the 2008 election, is that they deal with issues of personal liberty, that nine out of ten women absolutely had every reason to believe were behind us, that were decided many, many years ago, and the republican brand, not just mitt romney, but the republican brand in general seems to have this nostalgia for a bygone era that many women never, ever want to go back to. for example, if you look, there was a state senator in wisconsin that early this week it's been reported that one could argue that money is more important to

men than women, and therefore, there is no war on women. we've had harry reid, i believe, that said if you asked women whether or not this was an issue, most women would say no, and then we had three republican members of congress come out and say, if you don't, for example, lisa mccowski from alaska said if you don't think there is a war on women, then you need to go home and talk to your daughters. this is a public branding, period. >>s facing a 19-point deficit in terms of a one-on-one matchup with obama. i think back to what went on with the limbaugh controversy and the horrific things that he said about a co-ed from georgetown. now, there was a perfect opportunity where governor romney could have taken on rush, but, of course, he cowered in the face of the right wing of the party, and instead of

engendering some support with females for calling that for what it was, despicable, he hid under the desk. >> let's chair the way obama handled this recent non-scandal with hilary rosen where basically he and his team chose to disassociate themselves from her comments, although they were ill chosen. and look how mitt romney handles this vile comment on women. >> may i interrupt you and play it just to remind you and then you can analyze it. roll the tape. >> it's not the language i would have used. i would love to talk about the issues i think are significant in this country today, and that's why i'm here talking about jobs in ohio. >> there it is, michelle goldberg. >> that's the kind of best he can do, saying, he wouldn't have called her a slut.

with romney it's not that he doesn't get it, it's that he shows absolutely no interest in getting the issues that are fundamental to women's lives. the thing that set off this whole uproar that hilary was responding to was, for example, the war on women. >> thank you, michelle goldberg. have a nice weekend. >> you, too. what is rick santorum already talking about? 2016. stick around for the side show. you're watching "hardball." members of the american postal worker's union

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after rick santorum's loss in the wisconsin primary, people started asking if he might be starting to set his sights on the 2016 race instead. this was his reaction earlier this month. >> next time? you haven't talked to my wife, obviously. >> the purpose is next time around, though -- >> you didn't hear what i said. you haven't talked to my wife about next time. >> santorum struck a different tune when asked about 2016 during an interview on fox last night. >> i feel like a young man, and hopefully i feel like a young man four years from now. there are a lot of issues out there that i care very deeply about that i think we introduced into the debate. for us to do as well as we did in spite of the overwhelming odds that we faced on a variety of different fronts, i think shows that there is still a lot of people in this country who still believe in the things that made this country great. >> look, as i said in my commentary right here last night, if -- and that's an if -- romney loses to president obama

this november, it could very well be rick santorum stepping up in four years and saying, i told you so to the republicans who shut him out this time. and also a nugget on the vipstakes. remember this critical moment in the bush-gore faceoff in 2000? >> it's not about your philosophy and position on issues, but can you get things done? and i believe i can. >> not a winning move for gore, but get this, bush was ready for it. thanks in part to a guy who is probably on mitt romney's vp short list, ohio senator rob portman. according to a time piece, portman portrayed gore during a mocking piece with bush. quote, ohio representative rob portman noticed that in a previous debate gore had left his stool and approached bill bradley during an answer, seem to go try a little physical

intimidation to rattle him, portman says. portman did the same with bush during a prep session, so it was little surprise when gore pulled the same move on governor bush during their final debate. outside groups can now buy access to the campaign's donor list at what cost? up to $26,000. one former staffer says the campaign, quote, overspent to keep up appearances of being a top tier candidate. not quite a winning strategy. up to 26 grand for access to newt's list of donors. that's tonight's big number. up next, the trayvon martin case, after weeks of publicity and protest across the country, can george zimmerman get a fair trial? we'll ask criminal defense attorney mark garagos when we return. you're watching "hardball." ♪ you are my sunshine, my only sunshine ♪

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i'm brian sullivan with your cnbc market wrap. not enough to boost stocks on this friday. the dow lost 137 points, the nasdaq up 44. jp morgan chase said it lent more money in the first quarter, helping to boost profits up 50 cents a share. and a new estimate from the treasury shows that taxpayers will likely make a profit of 10 to $100 billion for the 2008 bailout. a little good news on this friday the 13th. that is it from cnbc. now back to "hardball." welcome back to "hardball."

george zimmerman will try tomorrow to get zimmerman out of jail while he awaits the trial for the shooting death of trayvon martin. and she announced that her husband's colleague, a cnn legal analyst, had denied zimmerman's request to represent him last month. joann reed is the managing editor for go.com as well as a legal analyst. she's got the latest. what's going on? >> the judge in this case, jessica rexseidler, her husband is in a civil trial by the name of mark neejim. he represented tiger woods after that infamous car crash in his home where there was apparently a golf club involved, and he also, in the past, represented the parents of casey anthony in that huge trial here. so this was a very prominent attorney that was apparently contacted very early on by

george zimmerman, before he got his first set of attorneys, to represent him. he declined to do that, but that contact with george zimmerman and also with his parents is what concerns mark o'mara. he is now an analyst on cnn. that combination worries him because potentially that contact could happen again. >> i find it unusual that a defense lawyer would turn down such a high-profile case. do we know anything about his rationale? >> we don't know why he turned it down. i believe he had other cases at the time, but he did give george zimmerman a reason why he wouldn't take it. and then we had another set of lawyers. but what we do still know now is that the judge discloses herself. she went ahead and disclosed the potential for the appearance of conflict and now she's leaving it up to the attorney what he wants to do. he could actually file a motion to have her removed and have her replaced with another j. >> a week from today seems like

it will be a significant date in the chronology of this case because that's when o' mara will try to have zimmerman released from jail. >> exactly, michael, and here's the issue. the previous attorneys for george zimmerman had made a big issue of the idea that he's unsafe in this community, particularly people in the african-american community are out to get george, that he wasn't safe. it's a question now why he would want to be released back into this community. >> where would he go? >> yeah, and i did ask leaders in the african-american community as well as the mayor of sanford, what did they think about this? and from the police department which said they would be prepared if necessary, to the mayor who said the city would be prepared, to black leaders who said, frankly, look, there is a process in place. african-americans here are satisfied that a process has begun and would do nothing. it's been pretty much across the board that he wouldn't be in any danger but it is an interesting contrast to what was said before. >> joann reed, thank you so much for your report. >> thank you. with me now, famed criminal

defense attorney mark garragos. thank you so much for being here, and i also respect the legal opinion of howard dershowitz who last night made his opinion of probable cause. would you please watch his reaction to this. >> this is so thin that it won't make it past a judge on a second-degree murder charge. it's not only thin, it's irresponsible. what you have here is an elected public official who made a campaign speech last night for reelection when she gave her presentation, and overcharged, way overcharged. this case will not, if the evidence is no stronger than what appears in the probable cause affidavit, this case will result in an acquittal. >> mark garragos, your thoughts? >> i don't disagree at all. i stated publicly when i saw the affidavit that this was about as

bare bones an affidavit as i've ever seen, and i would agree with the professor. in fact, i suspect that there has to be more, otherwise i don't know, in the parts i might disagree with, i don't know that it gets to a jury. remember, they have this kind of unusual two-step process in that besides having a probable cause proceeding, they also have what's called an immunity proceeding. and the stand your ground proceeding where it's a determination by the judge as to whether or not to grant immunity. if the judge finds that he was acting, and it's just by a preponderance, a little bit more than the other side in terms of the evidence, they could grant immunity this would never see a jury. >> i guess many of us were looking at the affidavit of probable cause for a sign the prosecution believes took place or caused the attack or the altercation, whatever it was to begin. here's the critical paragraph and i'll put it up on the

screen. zimmerman confronted martin and a struggle ensued. witnesses heard people arguing and what sounded like a struggle. during this time period, witnesses heard numerous calls for help and some of these were recorded in 911 calls pho police. trayvon martin's mother has reviewed the 911 calls crying for help as trayvon martin's voice. as you point out, mark, they arguably have much more than this, but they're not telling us anything as to why they disbelieve zimmerman. presumably he's offering an account that says, i was not the niinitiate initia initiater. >> right, and if you believe the police report when he got there, he was wet, he had grass on him, he was bleeding. the way that narrative you just read comes off, that's still self-defense, that still falls within stand your ground. so that alone, i don't believe, ever gets you to a jury. that having been said, that's if you're taking a dispassionate view. i mean, there is a lot of us who

believe the standard for probable cause nowadays is, is my client breathing and that most judges will let you go to trial on anything. that having been said, again -- well. >> let me ask you something else, mark geragos, with your experience. i found it unusual, but my expertise is on the civil side of this, that angela corey, the prosecutor attorney, was in that court and agreed with the defense counsel to seal all the records. read the tea leaves. what do you think of this? >> i think one of the problems the prosecution may have is for whatever reason they don't want what they have, all of the evidence that they have, released. one of the problems you have in a case like this is that virtually everything ends up getting released, it gets parsed out by the media and in the public sphere, and when that happens, a lot of times that affects witnesses and everything else. i wouldn't read any nefarious connotations into that.

>> i wasn't reading anything nefarious into it, but maybe i was reading too much into it in that perhaps there is a plea deal already being discussed. >> you know, that is something i wouldn't be surprised. a lot of people have talked about, look, it's a second degree. during the conrad murray case, i was always kind of perplexed as to why the lda didn't file a second degree, because when you're facing life and you've got a second degree, somebody offers you a manslaughter with a fixed number of years, you've got quite an incentive to take that plea deal. >> you pointed out previously that the real critical juncture is going to be the stand your ground evidentiary hearing. would you expect that zimmerman would take the stand at that hearing, and if he's unsuccessful, what does that do to his testimony and his fifth amendment rights for the final trial? >> well, i'm not going to pretend to be an expert on what florida law allows. i would expect that he does take the stand, or at the very least, that if they're allowed to do

it, they put the officer on who took his statement that evening and get it in through hearsay if they can do it procedurally. either way, they need to get his statement in, because you're not going to be able to prove stand your ground unless his statement that he gave to the police the night of the incident is in evidence or he gets on the stand and tells what his statement is or what his state of mind was and then allows the prosecution to impeach him with whatever his statement was. but either way, i expect that you're going to hear the words of george zimmerman at that stand your ground hearing. >> mark geragos, thanks so much for your analysis. have a good weekend. >> thank you. glad to see you. up next, in the never-ending quest to paint mitt romney as the rich guy, vice president biden and president obama released their tax returns, and we have word on when mitt romney will do the same. you know the rules. you can follow me on twitter so long as you can spell

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we're back. the white house today released president obama and vice president biden's 2011 tax returns, hoping for another opportunity to paint multi-millionaire mitt romney as out of touch with average americans. president obama earned just under $789,000 last year and paid just over $162,000 in taxes which puts his effective tax rate at 25%. we learned mitt romney filed for an extension but it showed him taking in $20 million and paying an effective tax rate of 24%. let's talk to don stein of the huffington post. dan, last week i was here for chris and i interviewed mark allen. he's writing this book "inside the circus" a lot of details

about the presidential race thus far. in his book he points out it was all mitt romney who was reluctant to release his tax returns in the first go-around, and the question i guess i have is, for a campaign that is so controlled, how do they screw up their approach? for example, today we learned he's going to file an extension. we know we're going to see the returns. the returns are going to show him to be a very wealthy guy. why do they create all this intrigue and drama and prolong it? >> i don't know. i don't know whether this guy is wanting to be president or if he's auditioning for a villain in a james bond movie. he's got a secret bank account, a corporation in bermuda that nobody knows about, and everything he does rather than just get it out there and get it done, he does everything he can to draw more attention to his -- i don't know what he has to hide, but his dad, in 1968, released, i think, ten years' worth of tax stuff with no problem. i don't know what this guy's problem is. >> stan, today is friday, it's

friday the 13th. you know the rules, you release bad rules on a friday and it gets drowned out. >> they released five minutes ago that they would be doing an extension, and they said somewhere between now and six months from now they'll put up the data. but i think this is sort of a mistake, and i'd like to echo what dan says, that he actually draws more attention to the issue than it would have otherwise. obviously we're going to see before the election, whether it's by people screaming about it and demanding it or whether he'll just release it. now he's drawing attention to his record on transparency. he has a very bad record on transparency, and i think the more this goes on, the more people, especially in the press, will be uncomfortable about it. >> yesterday vice president biden took the opportunity as labeling mitt romney as out of touch. watch this and react to it. >> government romney calls the president out of touch. how many of you you all have a swiss bank account? you know what i mean?

you don't? and how many have somewhere between $20 and $100 million in your ira -- >> van jones, what are the politics of this? you can't beat up on the american dream, i think the vice president has to walk a fine line in his criticism. >> i think that's right, but the problem is when you want waivers to get an elevator in your house for your car, you have a swiss bank account, everybody lo loves an economic winner, people don't like economic cheaters. if there's a sense that you've done well in america but you're not doing well by america. you hide it overseas and you're acting like you think you should be treated differently and special. now you're looking like an economic cheater than a winner, and he makes it easy for the vice president to do it because please, don't throw stone fst you live in a crystal house like

he does. >> sam, a recent criticism before the announcement of the filing, it's not surprise that the worst job creation record his history. the governor released his 2010 return, a estimate of his 2011 return, and he will release it when it's filing. how is it playing with independents? the back and forth. >> i think it's lost on independents except when it can be applied to a policy issue that that get. so what white house is trying to do is not just talk about his wealth, but in the context of the buffet rule that says millionaires should not pay a tax rate that is lower than their secretaries. if mitt romney is a

personification of it, if they just stick to he is rich and out of touch, that is difficult. >> both sides trying to gain an advantage from this. van i took a look at drudge and i saw the home page "obama doesn't qualify for buffet rule." the implication he earned $700 some grand. there are all these terrible things about obama and his return and et cetera, what is is the net-net politically speaking? >> i agree with sam. he has to be able to tie this to something real. for instance, next week there will be an opportunity, a vote, on this buffet rule. one of the things that younger people are saying is that the student debt is awful right now. that's a real bread and butter issue. the interest rate could go up from 3.4% to 6.8%.

you could use some of that money to help young people go to college. if you can connect the arrogance on the part of romney and disrespect of the country by hiding his money over seas to problems that people have like going to college, he might be able to draw the right comparison. >> all legal, the guy is a straight arrow, so why doesn't he just get it over with. thank you, we're out of time, but we appreciate you being here. >> when we return allow me to finish with an unfinished battle from the 2008 campaign. barack obama verses bill clinton. is this what we're doing now?

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let me finish tonight with a great example of "hardball." bikt might be retired, fit, and tan, but he seems to relish mixing it up in the areen in a and settling a few old scores. here is today's front page of my hometown paper. it tells the story of clinton campaigning thursday in a high school before a crowd of 750 that were assembled for a state attorney general candidate. clinton told the group that cain was the only person you could vote for because she would help people in need.

what he didn't mention was kathleen cain's point. patrick murphy for whom he campaigned six years ago. he said you don't have to say a bad thing about anybody else running, you just ask who can do more with the job. the answer is cane. three days before, david axelrod made an appearance, and said i don't think barack obama has had a better friend in politics than patrick murphy. why is clinton getting involved in a state ag race and on the other side of the president's top advisor. patrick murphy gave a endorsement for bill's wife,

hillary. in 2010, it was murphy, an iraq veteran, that introduced the repeal of don't ask don't tell, implemented by bill clinton back in 1993. kathleen says it was easy to get clinton to campaign for her. a reporter pointed out there is no phone number listed on the clinton foundation website. it makes you wonder if the big dog had to be asked. and the event was held a short distance from murphy's house. pollster terri mcdonald says all politics are personal. "politicsnation" with al sharpton starts right now. welcome to "politicsnation," i'm