just. let me hear what we played from "the daily rundown" alan krueger had this analysis of the numbers. >> i think you need to step back and kind of put these numbers in context. they move around, it makes a lot of sense i think to look at a moving average if you will of the data coming in. and i think we also have to recognize that given the severity of the recession, given the nature of the financial crisis, this recovery has faced a lot of headwinds. >> how's that for an answer? >> well, i mean, i think it's true from a macroeconomic perspective. we know from sort of comprehensive analysis of the wake of financial crises that growth in the wake of financial crises whether you are talking about japan, periods in europe, in the wake of financial crises growth is low and slow and unemployment is low to recover for a long time. that's the basic foundation. the problem is there seems to be very little political will particularly in the republican party but even i think from the white house or even the federal reserve, no one seems to really

want to do anything that will make growth a factor. one of the things that i think is striking about these numbers, since the beginning of the obama administration, there has been a net add of 35,000 private sector jobs and a net loss over 600,000 public sector jobs. 600,000 public sector jobs across the country are lost. that's a huge chunk of employment that is avoidable, we could hire the people if we were closing state budget fgap and n one seems want to do that. >> why not, ron christie? >> what is the role of federal government, is it in the job to bail out government or is it to get out of the way and allow private sector job creation. the administration is in significant trouble. the administration said in january of 2009 if we pass our stimulus bill we'll keep unemployment beneath 8%. this is the 39th straight month where you've had unemployment above 8%. president obama and his team with the democratic congress for

the first two years were able to pass the legislation they wanted to pass and say we're going to create jobs and it hasn't worked and i think the american people are going to have to decide did the president and his team put the right policies in place or, in fact, is it time for a change. >> it's important to remember that in the eight years you had a republican george w. bush and george w. bush gets erase from everybody's memories in the eight years of his presidency much of with a republican congress there was net zero job creation. net zero job creation in eight years, it's the worst job creation for a president in the modern era and that was not in the wake of a financial crisis. the financial cry sis by all accounts i think by consensus the worst you've had in 70 years, so you are digging out of a huge hole. that's the argument that the administration will keep making -- >> but the republicans aren't having it. let me play -- >> of course, they're not. they have no interest in having it. >> the minute the job numbers came out the rnc put out something and this is what mitt romney had to say -- >> it's a terrible and very disappointing report this morning.

clearly the american people are wondering why this recovery isn't happening faster, why it's taken years and years for the recovery to occur. and we seem to be slowing down not speeding up. >> who has the better talking point, is it that, or do people look at the unemployment number and say, hey, it's down and don't sort of dig into it any further than that? >> there's two things, one, ultimately the actual real growth in income for your median household is going to be the determining factor, i mean, do people feel like they're doing better off. there's no amount of spinning or understanding that is going to -- >> so gas costs more and groceries cost more and -- >> the economy is in terrible shape. the president will have a very, very, very difficult time being re-elected, i think that's the basic rule of politics. >> i think you and i agree on that. it's not about the eight years of the george w. bush these are the four years of barack obama and himself administration and his policies and, chris, your point was right, if gas is more expensive, it's more expensive to go to the grocery store, unemployment remains high, and people don't have a good sense

they're going to get a job. that's going to be the referendum on this administration, it's no longer george w. bush, chris. >> let's talk a little bit about the money in this process. and the messaging on all of this. outside groups have been spending a ton of money, obviously. the obama campaign is trying to raise more to make up for the gop super pac advantage. let me bring in nicholas, a political reporter, for "the new york times" and has an unbelievable article in this weekend's magazine. fascinating piece. it comes out i guess probably get it online now but it's in this weekend's magazine. great title. "obama's not so hot date with wall street." let's talk about the president's relationship with bankers and how tough it has been for him this time around to raise money, big difference from four years ago, right? >> it's a classic tale of a boy meets wall street. they fall in love and then fall terribly out of love extremely quickly and hard. in 2008, he raised so much money from wall street he actually raised more than the gop

candidate john mccain, he raised $15 million on wall street. it's a huge amount of money. he's now raised -- >> $7 million just in january of 2008. $7 million in that one month. >> it was a fascinating union, you don't usually see wall street embrace a democratic president in that way and they did, including guys at hedge funds and private equity who are usually very strongly republican. what's happened since is they've had so many battles over policy and so many battles over substance and tone that it's really swung hard the other way and they have a guy named mitt romney who is, like, a dream candidate for wall street. he's one of them. he speaks their language. he speaks their policy language. >> well, you know, let me play an example of why so many wall street guys, believe me, i hear it, living in new york, really have turned against barack obama. this is from his state of the union speech -- >> could make huge bets and bonuses with other people's money. regulators that looked the other

way or didn't have the authority to stop the bad behavior. it was wrong. it was irresponsible. >> here's what you write, quote, some bankers believe that the administration's strategy was to talk tough in public and play damage control in private, and they were sick of playing along. so, what's the administration doing about it? are they winning over wall street now? have they figured out a way to do it or are they trying to make it up elsewhere? >> nope, they've not won over wall street especially guys in the hedge fund and private equity crowd which we have to distinguish from the kind of investment banking crowd, so what he's decided is if i can't get the same amount of money from wall street and certain other industries, i have to get more from other people. gay donors are a huge constituency for this president this year, tech donors, you know, i hear a joke that floats around in donor circles, the facebook ipo is the best thing to happen to the obama campaign in months, you know, there will be a lot of money floating around the obama campaign, the obama super pac are looking to harvest it and get that into

their campaign coffers. >> and they've got this fund-raisers with george clooney. what's the number now? i think it's going to make, like, $12 million, double what we first heard. >> it's a huge amount of money for a single event or cluster of events. >> hold on, if you will, for a minute. i guess the question really is, chris, when you have a fund-raiser with george clooney, there's only one george clooney and people are writing the check for $35,000 but will he have the guys that will write a single check for $15 million? will the super pacs get that kind of money on the democratic side? >> i mean, nick has done the best reporting on this. my sense is for a variety of reasons, the super pac operation on mitt romney's side is going to be stronger and bigger and more effective than the super pac operation on the president's side which will be both have more of its fund-raising come through the actual campaign which means subject to limits as prescribed by law and also a much larger small dollar donor apparatus. i would also say we should take a step back and marvel at the fact that we are sitting here

contemplating the degree to which the president has hurt the feelings of oligarchs in the country and the degree to which he should reach out to them to make them feel better about themselves when everything he said in the clip from the state of the union is absolutely 1,000% true, they did take huge bets with other people's money, they didn't pay out, they weren't the ones that experienced the worst part of it. 93% of income gain in this recovery has gone to the top 1%, right? >> and that is part of his argument, the economic argument, that's resonating. look at the polls, ron, if you look at the buffett rule, they love that, they won't get angry if he says it on the state of the union or the stump. >> it's right it's a political statement, but the fact of the matter is the president said with the buffett rule we're going to close the deficit and the loopholes, it's only $4 billion a year, from a rhetorical stand point it's great politics but it's if the substance of closing the deficit, it's not that. what chris said a few moments ago, he's absolutely right, the

super pacs will spend it and the president will sustain a lot of his support from his individual donors. >> sheldon adelson who is a billionaire casino mogul, he wrote millions of checks to the newt gingrich campaign that everyone in the universe wasn't going anywhere. for someone with $21 million in the back, it's $15 for someone else. it want to be a huge amount of his personal net wealth. >> nicholas, how much of that differentiation between super pacs of great advantage to the republicans are likely to have can be made up by the obama campaign? >> well, you know, it's not clear how much they're going to outraise romney in traditional fund raising. i'm kind of an outlier here, i've always been bullish on romney's fund-raising chances. i think once the nomination fight is settled as it is now, he's going to rake in money so fast it will make your head

spin. he'll raise a lot of money, probably less than obama, but there will be super pacs on the republican side that will spend half a billion dollars against the president and democratic candidates for congress, so i think we'll see an asymmetry, on both sides -- i'm sorry, an asymmetry on the super pac side that will far outweigh whatever loss there is on traditional fund raising for romney. >> i said it before it was such a great article, but some of us were talking this morning and wondering if people will walk away from reading it saying i'm irrelevant. here's what i mean about that, i was talking to rahm emanuel a couple of weeks ago about this very thing, about the influence of super pacs, here's what he said -- >> anytime you have a political system and everybody is supposed to be equal in their voices and when somebody has voices that are more valuable than others, more dangerous. >> is that the takeaway from the unprecedented money race, send the message that my vote has really been diminished, is that it? >> yes.

there's two takeaways. one is when you talk about things that are politically popular, we've set up a political system in which the founders wanted elected representatives to be accountable to the people, capital "p," right? they did not want them to be accountable to a funder class or a donor class. we have developed a very deeply skewed representations. if there's a policy rule like the buffett rule that is very popular, the structure of the constitution urges the elected representatives to follow that path and yet what they do run up against? they run up against the revolt amongst the donor class which this is power like never before in wake of citizens united to cut it off. at what point do you feel you have a genuine democratic crisis in representation when the public will is stymied by a very powerful and moneyed group of people. >> are we at that point, ron? >> no, we're not. if you have a certain minority of people with the money, it's overwhelmingly going to the democrats, president obama as we talked at the beginning of the piece overwhelmingly raised from wall street, president obama is

going out -- >> you were shake your head when nicholas was saying that people may underestimate how much money romney will raise. >> that's exactly right. i don't decry the amount of money, because i believe in the first amendment with free speech, and uf may not like the citizens united case because that's a expression of freedom of speech. >> it's wrong. you would agree the supreme court can decide things incorrectly. i imagine you don't believe every case is right. >> dred scott said blacks weren't citizens, but you have a significant -- >> it's not an argument -- >> it was taken by the supreme court it was a 5-4 decision. >> that doesn't mean it's right. you can't just point to the fact that the supreme court decided citizens united ipso facto evidence oiit's the right decision. you sometimes believe they get things wrong. >> i'm a lawyer and i -- >> nicholas has really been looking in to this, when the huge fund-raising began with the super pacs a lot of smart people said to me i bet at the end of

the day, come december, january, when we look at the influence of super pacs a lot of people will say who raised the money or the candidates themselves because they lost some control of their message that it wasn't even a good thing for the campaigns. where do you see the super pac argument going? >> i think we're entering a phase where the super pacs are professionalized and institutionalized. they're almost, you know, attached and tethered to the party. when karl rove is running crossroads and is coordinating with the outside groups and is running a half a billion dollars in ads, it's not too different than when he's the head of the rnc and running those ads. they are not flakey, independent operators, you know, they are members of the party in good standing. they've worked in the party apparatus on both sides of the aisle, you know, in these super pacs democratic and gop side, it's not like it's kind of a fly-by-night operation. i think we'll see this become a permanent part of the landscape. i think that consultants will move into these operations and

professionalize them and they're here to stay. >> nicholas, again, can't say enough what a great article it was, ron christie, thanks for coming up. and don't forget to watch "up with chris hayes" 8:00 a.m. eastern time on saturday and sundays. now there could be a deal that would get chen guangcheng out of china, he's been offered a fellow to an american university to study and bring his wife and children. secretary of state, hillary clinton, addressed the situation at a press conference just a couple of hours ago. >> all of our efforts with mr. chen have been guided by his choices and our values. and i'm pleased that today our ambassador has spoken with him again. our embassy staff and our doctor had a chance to meet with him. and he confirms that he and his

family now want to go to the united states so he can pursue his studies. >> but the administration's handling of mr. chen's situation has become political fodder for candidate mitt romney. listen to what he had to say -- >> our embassy failed to put in place the verifiable measures that would ensure the safety of mr. chen and his family. if these reports are true, this is a dark day for freedom and it's a day of shame for the obama administration. we are a place of freedom. here and around the world and we should stand up and defend freedom wherever it is under attack. >> in fact, the chinese government now says they will accept mr. chen's plection for travel documents but there is no telling how long that process could take.

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there has been a dramatic spike in negative campaign ads, a new study finds that only 9% of the ads were negative at this point in 2008, but look at this, four years later, 70% have been negative. the same study finds the spending by outside groups has skyrocketed by more than 1,000% since 2008. let's bring in our ad expert howard bragman, chairman of 15 minutes public relations. good to see you. >> good morning. >> anybody surprised by those numbers? >> not at all. >> if you live in a battleground state, you feel it, right? >> i happened to be in florida during the primary. you see so many ads they kind of glaze over after a while and they cease to have any meaning. it's good for media. >> obviously, this is the full employment act for all the folks that work at local tv stations. let me show you some ads and let's see if they can break through the cacophony of sound. this is a new one from the romney campaign, it hammers the president on the promise of

green jobs. let's look. >> an investment that will lead to new industries and 5 million new jobs that pay well and can't be outsourced. >> what do you think? >> you know, these macro ads really have a problem because the election isn't a national election, it's an election happening in virginia, ohio, and michigan, all states that have really benefitted and gotten more jobs. people will vote about how they feel for themselves and their family. >> can i ask you about production value, because whenever i see an ad like that if i leave the commercial on with a dvr, i'm doing something with the commercials so when it

goes quiet it's lost on me. i don't know. there seems to be a lot of ads where they go quiet and they want you to see something or read something. >> each side will have close to a billion dollars, you'll see good ads, you'll see bad ads, they're going to throw everything and hope something sticks and they don't know right now what's going to work and what's going to resonate. >> let's see if it's women's issues, the dnc, the democratic national committee, has just released this ad against mitt romney -- >> planned parenthood, going to get rid of that. >> the steam that's behind the issue of defunding planned parenthood. >> do i believe supreme court should overturn roe v. wade, yes, i do. >> turning back the clock on women's issues, does it work? >> it absolutely works. you just look at the latest swing states. i think the latest virginia numbers romney was 18 points behind with women. that's a lot to overcome. you know, coming to a point where women are even questioning

if they can support the republican party anymore. >> you know, let me ask you about the whole idea of celebrity endorsements. because we obviously see them out and about with celebrities, but a few of them are starting to get involved in the commercials. >> right. >> this one features betty white, let's watch. >> re-elect congressman howard berman, the valley leader who fights for the humane treatment of all animals. >> that is a great reason to like howard but he's also unbelievably effective. thanks to howard we have hundreds more police officers paroling valley streets. >> and he has very nice blue eyes. >> betty! >> i'm howard berman and my friend and i approve this message. >> here's the thing. every bit of research i've seen and the people i talked to say, you know, celebrities don't push somebody to vote for someone. just because you like george clooney doesn't mean you'll vote for barack obama but will it make you watch that ad? >> well, number one you'll watch the ad. number two, you have to understand that was the

redistricting situation where you have two very strong contenders that happens to be my district where i live, howard berman against brad sherman, both very popular, a lot of money, very competitive. you have to understand, ads work two ways. one is seeing them on tv and one is the third of the population that doesn't watch traditional tv, they get them on the internet, they get them virally, so that's very powerful. you sure would want that. >> all right, howard, it's always great to have you in. thanks so much. >> thanks. want to know what will happen on election day? comedian stephen colbert's november prediction up next. time for the "your business" entrepreneurs of the week. whiting food has run food concessions on the santa cruz boardwalk since 1953. they employ hundreds of high school and college age employees and they've learned managing this generation means you have to speak their language. for more watch "your business" sunday mornings at 7:30 on

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to politics now where comedian stephen colbert is predicting where the youth volt will go this november. >> he was the fresh-faced kid that could relate to the youth. >> but now he's old grandpa gray hair that didn't close gitmo, so i don't know if they're as excited as they once were. when it comes to kids, mitt

romney has the electricity, you know, it's a static electricity but it's, like, still an electricity technically. >> but as you look at these two candidates, their personalities, their qualities, what does this come down to? >> it comes down to who has been crueller to a dog. >> meantime, the first lady is being repaired at the hutchinson auto mall. when i say first lady, i mean the limo nicknamed after the woman it primarily carries. it turns out the vehicle was damaged during the president's trip to ft. stewart, so the hutchinson auto mall is fixing her up. and levi johnston, remember him? maybe oversharing, his new girlfriend is five months pregnant and they plan to name the baby brie's beretta, yes, after the handgun. and if you only read one thing this morning, my must read on this foodie friday on the eve of cinco de mayo is from the huffington post, it's about the essential ingredient to the

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devry university, proud to support the education easy label, right? but that label can lead to prejudice and discrimination, and we don't want to go there. so let's try to see people for who they really are. you can help create a more united states. the more you know.

making news this morning, a highly anticipated event for the families of 9/11 victims. khalid shaikh mohammed and four other men accused of helping to orchestrate the attacks on the world trade center, pentagon and in pennsylvania will be arraigned tomorrow. they face a military tribunal in guantanamo bay, cuba. it sounds like a scene out of of a movie, two brothers charged in connection with the biggest pharmaceutical theft in history. federal officials say they cut the hole in a connecticut eli lilly wearehouse and used a forklift to load the drugs into a getaway car. they were arrested during an fbi probe into a drug theft ring. we expect to hear about funeral arrangements for

football great junior seau who committed suicide on wednesday. his family has agreed to have his brain studied for football related injuries. prosecutors have been following the money trail in the john edwards trial this time with a charming colorful decorator for a major edwards' donor. brian huffman back on the stand today, he was used to funnel money to cover up an affair with staffer rielle hunter, nbc investigative correspondent lisa myers has the latest from gre s greensboro, north carolina. >> reporter: prosecutors showed how far john edwards went to cover up ace hihis affair. >> it's a great speech. >> can you read it? >> yes, i can read it. >> you can? >> yes. >> reporter: later that day, davis said hunter knocked on his

door. she told me that she and senator edwards were very much in love. then the next day davis, said, edwards denied he was having an affair with hunter. he told me she was crazy and that we should make sure she didn't talk to him. davis testified. but edwards press aide caught the government by surprise, revealing that for all of edwards lies, he had refused to lie under oath. he testified that a tabloid has suggested it would drop a story if edwards signed a sworn affidavit denying the affair and paternity of hunter's child. edwards refused. >> as a lawyer he knew that signing this affidavit would be a crime. he was unwilling to do that. >> reporter: but there was potentially damaging testimony, too. davis recalled a conversation with edwards and donor fred barron in late 2007 when the media was looking for hunter. davis testified that barron said, the press wasn't going to find miss hunter because of the

way he was moving her around. davis said i asked him to stop talking. i didn't want to be aware of this. edwards, he testified, said nothing. >> it's damaging to john edwards because it shows he knew what was going on. >> reporter: back on the stand today, the decorator for heiress bunny mellon, brian huffman who served as middleman for $725,000 of the cover-up money provided by mellon. huffman regaled the court with stories of mellon's estate and private jets and how she falsely labeled the checks as payments for outrageously expensive furniture. >> he said that bunny mellon called it the furniture business. and his testimony seemed to indicate that they were having some fun with it. >> that was nbc's lisa myers reporting. let be bring in hampton dellinger who just stepped out of the courtroom. what's going on there this morning? >> well, bunny mellon's former

interior decorator brian huffman is back on the stand continuing his streak as the trial's most entertaining witness. he looks great. and for the first time i've seen a witness go to the stand without socks, but he looked plenty comfortable in his penny lovers. he brought i think good news for both sides, for the prosecution brian huffman made it clear that bunny mellon wanted to support john edwards with her money broadly. he didn't define it as political support but he also didn't say it was personal support. for the defense, brian huffman said on cross-examination that bunny mellon had a genuine fondness and friendship with john edwards and that could help the defense's theory of this case. >> let's talk about the refusal to sign the affidavit, denying the affair and paternity. how significant is that? >> well, it is certainly significant in that it was a surprise to the prosecution. you rarely see the government attorneys caught flat-footed. they've been able to stalk to these witnesses ahead of time, bring them under oath before a

grand jury, so just the fact that they didn't know that john edwards refused to sign an affidavit saying he wasn't the child of the love child with his mistress rielle hunter, it shows that john edwards was not willing to lie, not willing to break the law in order to cover up this affair. >> on the other hand, he was lying to just about everybody about the affair, calling rielle hunter as we heard in lisa's package, crazy. is there a fine line, hampton, between a jury not liking a defendant and he can be obviously very unlikable given the testimony we've heard and attributing criminal behavior to him? >> well, absolutely. and that's one of the great challenges for the defense, the great risk that john edwards is taking, that the jury won't be able to separate how much they despise him as a person for what he did to his family, for his lying not under oath but lying to the american public, separate that from john edwards the defendant, being tried for very specific federal election law

crimes. of course, if the judge took great efforts to find a jury that could be fair and impartial, you know, starting out with over 200 potential jurors just to get 12. >> let me ask you about who is coming up next, who will be the blockbuster witness. because obviously, you know, we've had a whole series of aides here, and now you have bunny mellon's decorator and they may add a little bit to the narrative but they're not going to change likely the complexion of the trial, who is the big name coming up? >> well, the government needs a witness to come forward or document to establish that john edwards knew or should have known that the payments to his mistress constituted an election law crime. they don't have that witness yet. in fact, to the contrary. every witness that the government's brought forward so far has said that john edwards assured them that all of this was proper, or at least not illegal. so, that star witness, it wasn't andrew young. it wasn't his wife sherrie as good as she was. we don't know if the government has that witness. if they don't, their case is in trouble. >> all right, hampton dellinger,

i'll let you get back to the courtroom, thank you. and there's now a price tag on facebook's wildly anticipated public offering in two weeks. $28 to $35 a share and unlike most times the company goes public the little guy may get a piece of the action. "the new york times" says up to 25% of the ipo could go to online brokerage firms that cater to small investors. let's take a look at where the dow is now, down 135 points obviously we got the big news the jobs number today that was bad news. 8.1% unemployment, but mostly because people were dropping out of the jobs market. so, we're going to continue to watch the market for you today. in the business world the prince of pop is back in a big way. a billion cans of pepsi about to hit store shelves featuring a classic pose of the late michael jackson. and grab your fancy hat and your minute juleps, derby day is tomorrow. cnbc's daryn rovell is live at

churchill downs for the 138th annual kentucky derby. let's start with the stars of the show tomorrow. what do you got for me? >> reporter: okay, if you win, if the hofrse that wins, it wil make probably at least $8 million in future breeding rights, but i want to show you how much the owners paid for those horses because, of course, it's the net profit overall that kind of makes sense and makes it a story. union rags, $390,000, that's what they paid for union rags. unfortunately she sold it for $145,000 but decided to buy it again after she had a dream the horse would do well. gemologist, $310,000, and bdemeister, and 2 $60,000, and daddy long legs and daddy knows best out of the same sire scat daddy, one for $100,000, the other for only $35,000, the guy's name is bob zollers and

he's the bargain hunter and he did well for getting a horse for $35,000. >> this is the one time of year that you can go and see people in hat shots. seen anything interesting around this time? good for the millnary, right? oh, come on! >> reporter: what do you think about this? is this all right? >> you have to remind me -- you remind me of the -- the fascinator. you remind be basically on the same level as fergie's two daughters at the royal wedding. i wish we had a split screen. >> reporter: that was a bad one, you know? and this is what's great because this turned into last year the economical play. less material, costs fewer dollars and, therefore, you know, you have a smaller hat, and you could be fashionable. this year i'm told it's toned down a little bit. which means that you're not going to have the same time of fascinators, but toned down meaning go big or go home. >> oh. and i understand -- no, don't do

it. i understand your camera man's having a rough time these days? oh, what's going on? is that you? >> reporter: i would like to thank our cameraman clint crowley for accepting this assignment despite the fact that he is allergic to horses. >> he is not! >> reporter: i swear he is. showed up in the mask. we asked him if there was something infectious we should know about. he said he's allergic to horses. still accepted the assignment. so far no large welts on the face but he has taken a claritin. we'll let you know more about his condition throughout the day. >> i have recently developed a new allergies, it's to darren rovell and fascinators. i'll see you later. thank you. >> reporter: i guess i can't wear that again! okay. >> and don't forget live coverage of the kentucky derby starting 4:00 eastern time only on nbc. now, one of the best thing about the derby other than the hats and the juleps are the horses' names and i've ranked my

fav favorites, number five, daddy knows best. number four, that's what she said. at three, lewinsky from 1996. number two, what am i chip oppe liver. and then a shootout to the soup nazi, no soup for you. vote for your favorite on my facebook page. ok! who gets occasional constipation, diarrhea, gas or bloating? get ahead of it! one phillips' colon health probiotic cap a day helps defend against digestive issues with three strains of good bacteria. hit me! [ female announcer ] live the regular life.

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president will speak to high school students in virginia about student loans. then he'll head back there tomorrow to officially kick off his campaign. and we're starting to see that both mitt romney and the presidents campaign and their messaging are taking shape. gop strategist julianna glove and chris le hain kormer press secretary to vice president al gore join me. good morning. >> good morning. >> good morning. >> let me start with mitt romney and the gop strategy so far, bringing all republicans into the fold. rudy giuliani was in new york this week. michele bachmann yesterday with the endorsement and he's meeting with rick santorum today. but listen to this. >> i don't think we have a plan for an endorsement today, but i think all the republicans will come together in the final analysis and support the candidacy. >> if that is true, why are so many republicans taking so long to get on board? it's clear he's the nominee. it took michele bachmann four months after she dropped out of the race to decide to get behind mitt romney. >> as you know, our process is

just winding down. it will take a little bit of time for social conservatives to build relationships with the campaign and the candidates to come to know him and understand what his commitment is to the issues that they care about. however, there was a development yesterday that i think will be vitally tonight important in the days going forward, romney stepped out and was very aggressive in his criticism of president obama and how he handled the chinese dissident case. this chinese dissident the reason he was persecuted he was trying to stop china's forced abortion policies, that as we know really sinks in the hearts of social conservatives and romney has taken a bat in his hand and going after the administration on this, and that's a real opportunity for bridge building on his part. >> but, you know, i wonder, chris, you know, if it doesn't look like he's getting in the middle of something. here from the time he made those negative comments about the president yesterday, there seems to be movement forward, you know, again there's doing this in a slow, steady diplomatic way

and now it looks as though he's going to -- mr. chen is going to be able to come to the united states potentially on a student visa and bring his family. do you think it's smart for mitt romney to wade into these foreign policy areas which if you look at the polls are the president's strengths? >> that's exactly right, right? which is anytime you're a candidate particularly if you're not in offense and you're running for the presidency, you have to be extremely sensitive on national security, foreign policy issues. you certainly do not want to look opportunistic and romney inserting himself into the middle of the process really does open himself up to being opportunistic, and obviously earlier in the campaign he had certain comments with bin laden which are really coming back to haunt him. at the end of the day the president has something that very few democratic candidates traditionally have in a campaign which he has a significant lead on national security issues, specifically the issue of trust and so i think anytime romney inserts himself into this time of a discussion, he highlights a

huge vulnerability and it's a huge opportunity for the president to hammer it home that he's someone the american people can trust particularly to keep him safe. >> and here's what they had to say about this topic -- >> romney has tended to be critical of what this administration has done whether it's in afghanistan or dealing with iran or here in china without ever laying out what he would do differently. in the case of afghanistan it appears he wants to keep a huge number of troops in afghanistan for a very long period of time. >> julianna, does he make a fair point, is it enough for mitt romney, you brought up the whole chinese dissident thing, to criticize the president but not say here's what i would be doing differently? >> romney will indeed over the next couple weeks and months be laying out his own foreign policy plan, but i think one of the central tenets that you'll see coming from romney and across the board of whether this president is capable of, for example, not creating debacles

in china and sort of simple questions as to how you extract individuals trying to seek asylum or even just trying to protect themselves from chinese persecution. this has taken many, many days to play out. the fact that, you know, it's believed by many folks that the u.s. embassy in china allowed messages that threatened the family of chen to be transmitted to chen while he was in their possession so that he felt obliged to leave the embassy in order to protect his family, i mean, that is sort of inexplicable and not really clearly understood by foreign policy experts how that happened and that's why romney will be focusing on capability and confidence, the ability to make decisions right the first time and not have to go back and mop things up. >> this is an ongoing story that we'll follow and thanks to both of you. have a good weekend. today's tweet of the day comes from josh marshall editor and publish are of talking points memo with north carolina and virginia now swing states obama and romney battle hard for the military vet vote.

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good morning, everybody, i'm thomas roberts, the agenda next hour, april unemployment the rate at 8.1%, reaction from both sides team obama and team romney, two very different stories. big developments in sanford florida as a new interim police chief is named and george zimmerman comes out with yet another story on the night that trayvon martin died. and junior seau's brain to be examined after his suicide, and we'll hear from dorsey levens who is suing the nfl over player injuries. chris, we'll have that and a whole lot more coming to you the next hour. a stand against skinny and the tallest man. demi moore's divorce from ashton kutcher is final at least on twitter. moore dropped her mrs. kutcher twitter handle in favor of just demi. she tweeted, so hard finding a name that was fun, playful and

available, so for now it will be just demi. it could grow on me. "vogue" magazine arguably the top arbiter of style is taking a stand against super skinny models. the 19 global editors of "vogue models that have an eating disorders. and hundreds turned out for rockette additions at radio city music hall, they have to be between 5'6" and 5'10". and speaking of tall, the tallest man in the u.s. wants a new pair of shoes that fit right, so he traveled to reebok's factory in massachusetts and got a custom fitting. he's 7'8", you want to guess his shoe size? somewhere between 22 and 26. ha! that wraps up this hour of "jansing & co." i'm chris jansing.

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the unemployment rate drops to 8.1% good news for the president but unfortunately it might be for all the wrong reasons. as the president heads to yet another college campus this hour we'll crunch the numbers with ron insana and msnbc contributor jared bernstein. can mitt romney and rick santorum go from bitter rivals to frenemies, the latest on the big powwow in pennsylvania from a key member of the rick santorum caaign. secretary clinton to the rescue. it looks like a blind chinese dissident is a few steps closer to the possibility of coming to america. and death by suicide, the questions, why? the family of nfl star junior seau will allow his brain now to be studied. i'll have a chance to talk with former nfl running back dorsey levens who is suing the nfl over player head injuries. that and more coming up this hour. hi, everybody, i'm thomas roberts, happy friday to you,