bain. >> i had to file my own personal bankruptcy, had to close my business. >> i expected great things from the president when he was elected. and now it's just a feeling of disappointment that he hasn't been able to fulfill all of the things, all of the changes that he talked about. >> let's say good morning and bring in our political power panel for this wednesday. jamal simmons, s.e. cup as well as anne kornblut. great to see all of you. the obama campaign not letting up on the bain issue. i want to play for you what vice president joe biden said yesterday in new hampshire. >> folks, making money for your investors, which romney did very well, is not the president's job. that doesn't mean that private equity guys are bad guys, they're not.

but that no more qualifies you to be president than being a plumber. it doesn't -- and by the way, there are a lot of awful smart plumbers. it was totally legitimate for the president to point this out. >> let me also add to that the new nbc/"wall street journal" poll finding 53% of people right now have no opinion of bain. why does the obama campaign think that starting out with bain is the winning issue for them? there's an obama playbook in all of this and massachusetts is second. but why is bain first? >> what you're seeing is that there's not a real understanding in this poll, a real understanding of what bain capital s. 28% of the people have an opinion about bain capital. that means there's a lot of people you could influence. going back to what vice president biden just said, the reality about being a financier at bain capital means you can't sell off the state of michigan if it's an underperforming asset

to raise money. you can't offshore jobs at fema because they're not productive. you have to do things as president that you don't do when you're the ceo of a company and that's a very legitimate thing to talk about and to educate things about. it ain't bean bag. you have to mix it up. if romney wants to change the subject, the president gets to talk about bain. >> there's a fine line where people aren't trying to ding capitalism and not look as if they're trying to vilify the free market. ed rendell raised a really good point this morning on "morning joe" that i wanted everybody to hear. take a listen. >> addpad, 350 men and women lost their jobs. $100 million in profit. and maybe that's inevitable. but they also lost a good portion of their pension and their health care. now, did it ever occur to anybody -- governor romney or anybody else -- that maybe we take $80 million in profit and leave $20 million so these folks

can have their pensions and health care? i think that's a value judgment. >> that is a value judgment. >> that's a value judgment. i think it's legitimate. >> is that where the conversation is really the most riveting, the most powerful talking about that? so they can take capitalism out of the conversation because everyone adores the free market. but is it about the value of the person that could be president? >> i don't think you can accurately attack mitt romney on his character or his values. and i think that's why you're seeing the left attacking on his business practices and try to paint him as an evil capitalist in his dealings with bain. but i think the american public is a lot smarter than this ad campaign. they understand how private equity works. they understand a very successful man in the private sector probably does have some unique business skills that he could bring to the table in dealing with the economy. i think that's why you're seeing in this poll that 53% say bain is a non-issue because they

don't treat it as some kind of character value for mitt romney. they're looking past it. >> didn't he come up with this in the primary with rick perry and newt gingrich calling him a vulture capitalist? >> yes. and gingrich was called a traitor. >> on to this poll and more information, the poll shows that president obama has this four-point lead over president obama. when it comes to the economy, only 43% approve of the president's job, the lowest since december. anne, what does this tell you about the president's chances for reelection as we look at it from this point, this stage in the game? >> that a lot has happened so far in this campaign and things are still deadlocked. it's amazing. he still faces the same uphill battle, the very close race that he did. and democrats and the white house could say, that's pretty

good news given how people feel about the economy, the long-term pessimism that they're reporting in this poll and in our poll, "the washington post" poll from earlier this week. perhaps they could blame the president even more after his stewardship over a couple of years. on the other hand, it does give romney a pretty big opening. it's why you've seen him talk, as you were saying earlier, about his economic experience, his business experience. what's interesting is this whole debate is really revolving around the crux of the issue. people tend to complain. voters often complain. we complain that everybody's being distracted. this is all at the core of what both sides actually want to be talking about. and i think what we're seeing is what voters want to be talking about, too. >> i wanted to get this to you as well. it just happened minutes ago. richard grinell who resigned. he penned an op ed in "the wall street journal" and it says, quote, the claim that gays should be barred from conservative activism is not only bigoted.

when the extreme oiss on both sides are the only ones speaking up, the majority suffers. moments ago, rick grinell was on fox giving an interview. take a listen. >> i think a lot of americans are just like me in that they have a lot of multiple views and they go into the voting booth and they vote according to multiple multidimensional views. >> he had that interview for about five minutes on there. he was asked about whether the romney camp tried to stop -- didn't respond to that question. but does he have a credibility issue here? wouldn't he be stronger serving in that role to say that there isn't a problem within the republican party for having someone who's openly gay, someone who supports marriage equality and can serve with mitt romney? >> symbolically, it would. but that's not why he was hired by the romney camp. he was tired to talk about foreign policy. so he wouldn't have been an open

advocate for those policies on the romney campaign. symbolically, it would have looked better. now having left the campaign, he's in a perfect position to talk about these issues. >> but he wants to talk about foreign policy. no one's really letting him? >> and that's a shame because that's his area of expertise. he didn't hide his sexuality. it was out on the table. >> do you think it's a mistake they accepted his resignation? >> i think their hands were tied. from everything i've seen and heard, mitt romney made pleas and pitches to stay. and it was clear that it was impossible for him to talk on message when this other distraction was going on. >> jamal? >> i think this is a bigger problem for mitt romney than just him resigning. this is a pattern of him not showing the leadership to stand up to people who are friends in his base and say, i understand you have feelings about this, this is my campaign, these are my people, hands off and we're going to move forward as a country. he won't do that. americans will tolerate a lot of

things from the president. they won't tolerate weakness, even with his friends. straight ahead, the beth of osama bin laden, did the white house give hollywood insider access to the power players behind this raid for movie purposes? and was it done to give the president a campaign advantage come this fall? j jim miklaszewski will join me. and also still ahead -- >> i created the video in order to raise awareness of bullying. i don't understand why i'm being punished for. >> a teen's school project, why was she given a five-day suspension instead of a grade? she and her parents join me live coming up on msnbc. you know who you are. you can part a crowd, without saying a word. you have yet to master the quiet sneeze. you stash tissues like a squirrel stashes nuts. well, muddlers, muddle no more.

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the pentagon is pushing back that a hollywood filmmaker was given inside access. a government watchdog group says administration officials gave bigelow access. but the identity of a planner, a planner, not a seale team member, was released. jim miklaszewski is live from the pentagon. bigelow did get this oscar for being the director of the 2009 iraq war drama "the hurt locker." reportedly she and her team were given this access to the intimate details of the operation. at the same time, the white house was publicly urging officials not to talk about the raid. how is the pentagon explaining these conflicting developments? >> reporter: if you read the e-mails going back and forth, e-mails obtained by judicial watch, the idea that these filmmakers would have unprecedented access, not only to highly classified facilities

but high-level officials with high-level security clearances -- and you can argue the difference between the actual commander and the planner. but anybody at that level connected to s.e.a.l. team 6 would have been a highly, tightly-held secret. and some of us reporters here at the pentagon were a little jealous they had that access. but nevertheless, the issue here is that it was felt by some republicans and conservatives that the film which was originally scheduled to be released on october 12th of this year, just three weeks before the election, would have given a huge boost to president obama's reelection campaign efforts. now sony pictures says they pushed that release out to december 19th, well after the elections. so they won't have that advantage. but i can tell you, representative peter king up in new york on the intel committee said, look, he wants to look into this to see if any classified material was indeed released and if any laws were

violated, thomas. >> jim miklaszewski, thank you. as we speak, right knew on capitol hill, the director of the secret service getting grilled about his agency's response to that prostitution scandal that garnered embarrassing headlines around the world. four agents are fighting their dismissals for inappropriate conduct during a presidential visit to colombia last month. but agent employees say there's an unwritten rule that what happens on the road stays there. michael isikoff joins me from d.c. on this one. what can we expect from the hearing of the director, mark sullivan, the details coming from this, especially since these four agents are trying to get reinstated? >> reporter: well, sullivan has given his opening statement in which he very forcefully says that the agency has responded to this scandal, looked into specific allegations of misconduct elsewhere, particularly on a trip to el

salvador in which it was alleged similar activity took place. he said they found none. but he's getting quite a bit of pushback or at least some pushback from the senators at this point. in his opening statement, senator lieberman said why they don't have enough evidence yet to conclude whether the prostitution -- the involvement with prostitutes in colombia was part of a pattern of behavior at the secret service, he said they had gotten material on past allegations of misconduct over the past -- in the last five years and there had been 64 incidents or at least allegations of sexual misconduct, including sending sexual material on government computers and at least three allegations of inappropriate relationships with foreign nationals. now, he did say, senator lieberman said, the chairman of the committee, that there had been disciplinary action in many of these instances. and there were 30 other cases of misconduct involving alcohol.

but i think that's clearly where the committee wants to focus this on -- was what happened in colombia part of a broader pattern of misconduct at the secret service? >> we'll see if anything comes out today to help those four agents fighting their dismissal guest get reinstated. a teen makes an anti-bullying video. does it for a class project. but she's handed a five-day suspension from school. that teen and her parents join me next to explain how it all went down. and disturbing video, a father captured on camera putting his toddler into a washing machine at the laundromat. what police are doing to track that dad down. [ woman ] for the london olympic games, our town had a "brilliant" idea. support team usa and show our olympic spirit right in our own backyard. so we combined our citi thankyou points to make it happen. tom chipped in 10,000 points. karen kicked in 20,000.

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constipated? phillips' caplets use magnesium, an ingredient that works more naturally with your colon than stimulant laxatives, for effective relief of constipation without cramps. thanks. good morning, students. today we're gonna continue... thanks. free-credit-score-dot-com'sur boargonna direct you ♪ts ♪ ♪ to check your credit score before it gets too late ♪ ♪ and you end up strapped for cash ♪ ♪ patching your board with duct tape ♪ ♪ so hit free-credit-score-dot-com ♪ ♪ find out what credit's about ♪ ♪ or else you could be headed for a credit wipeout ♪ offer applies with enrollment in freecreditscore.com™. welcome back, everybody. a high school freshman thought that she was getting called to the principal's office for getting praised for an

anti-bullying project she had been working on. but she was reprimanded with a five-day suspension. she made up a fictional video to show examples about bullying and even made a make facebook page to see reactions she would get from people. when a real-life mom saw the page and thought it was legit, she notified the police. the suspended teen from long island joins me now, along with her parents, jody and michael. the barba family. good to have you here. the biggest update is that you just got off the phone with the school, correct? >> yes, i did. we have a meeting tomorrow morning and hopefully it will be settled -- >> this is to resolve this five-day suspension, hopefully? >> yes. >> jessica, why were you inspired to do this project? how did you come up with the concept? >> i came up with the concept because i believe that bullying is a major issue nationwide. and i believe that kids should

never be felt in a way that they are only have one choice left to harm themselves in any way. >> the project revealed some insightful things by the reactions you got from facebook, insulting things that taught you a lot about what really exists in this country. how sxrooiz surprised were you when you got called from the assistant principal's office to get reprimanded and suspended for this? >> i was beyond surprised. i couldn't believe that i made this with all good intentions and i was getting punished for it. i couldn't believe that my simple project turned into something greater than i thought was possible. >> jody, i want to talk to you because the facebook page, the video itself all had disclaimers on it. the parent who originally reported this did not read far enough down or see the disclaimers. you brought this to the attention of school officials, yet they still said your daughter needed to be suspended. how did that make you feel? and were you outraged at how far this has gone now?

>> i was totally upset that her whole intention was to really bring light to the problems of bullying within school and within the community. and instead of her being praised for it, she was reprimanded and now she's out of school. >> michael, how did the school clarify what your daughter did wrong? how did they say she broke some type of school rule or did something inappropriate that would warrant this type of punishment? >> i think his term was created a ruckus or something like that. it took up school time. >> that's it? >> he didn't actually speak to me. i think that's what he said to jessica. >> you create add ruckus by one parent revealing this information to police, which then contacted the school? >> yes. a disruption in the school district is the words he used. >> how have students responded to you and people that have learned more about this story? what kind of dialogue has this created for you? it's gotten a lot bigger than just revealing this class

project. >> of course, the message only intends to try to create awareness for the bullying that it's a huge problem. and the feedback i've been getting is very supportive. everyone supports me. kids in school, when i was outside of school, even as students, they knew it was wrong for me to get suspended for a video like that. >> right before your daughter got suspended, you guys took the video down and the facebook postings and the page went away. after the suspension, you told your daughter to put it back up so people can still see it, is that right? >> yes, that is right. >> how do you plan to address school officials tomorrow, if this is back on the web and they ask you to take it down? >> well, it was explained if she took it down, they would go easy on her. and i said, it's not even a school issue.

they didn't let us turn it in. >> they promised to be more lenient if you took it down and still you got slapped with a five-day suspension? >> exactly. >> you broke your wrist -- >> yes. >> i have broken my wrist. >> on her bike. but it will be off in a couple of weeks just in time for summer. we wish you all the best. i think you've opened up a lot of dialogue that's probably given you some new insight into this and maybe a new mission as you continue to high school to continue talk about bullying and what's going on in this family. the barba family, thank you so much. we'll check back in with you tomorrow to find out how that school meeting goes. straight ahead, coming up, we'll talk a little bit more about more trouble for facebook, its floundering ipo. new details today. and have you heard about this? a vial of ronald reagan's blood, up for auction. coming up, the top bid so far, and the reagan family's reaction to the sale. just be too expens. yeah, so to save money we just made our own.

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developing right now, a lawsuit filed today in a manhattan court against facebook and morgan stanley. behind this suit, investors seeking answers about the social media giant's floundering ipo. this after reports that regulators are looking into whether morgan stanley tipped off some clients ahead of time about a negative report on the ipo's potential value. facebook's stock was down 18% at today's opening. right there, at plus 3.1%. we'll speak now with cnbc's caylee tausche. this biggest thing is about this whispering going on behind the scenes that certain people were tipped off about how analysts thought the stock was overinflated? >> reporter: morgan stanley said what they were doing is legal, it's legal to adjust those estimates and it's legal to tell your clients about that.

investors putting morgan stanley and facebook executives on the line for misleading on the deal's value. the company was upping the size of the deal. that's important here because while these types of investor lawsuits are exxon in contested situations like this, the law firm representing these investors in this morning's suits has a pretty good pedigree winning more than $8 billion in claims for investors in enron. today's suit followed another that came yesterday. that was against nasdaq, problems with trading caused early trading in facebook to be extremely volatile. investors had trouble carrying out orders. now the s.e.c. and finra have opened reviews into this situation. it ended up losing a lot of money for investors. >> kayla tausche, thank you, appreciate it. other stories topping the news, for the first time in generations, voters in egypt right now are freely picking a president.

this 15 months after hosni mubarak was forced out of office. egyptians are lining up for hours to cast ballots to choose a successor. they'll choose from a field of 13 candidates. but a likely winner won't be announced until june. no answer from jurors in the john edwards trial. the jury is meeting again today trying to determine the former presidential candidate's fate. edwards faces 30 years in prison for allegedly using secret payments from donors to hide his pregnant mistress during the campaign. nancy reagan is making a slow recovery after breaking ribs in a fall at her l.a. home. the former first lady had been expected to attend a speech at the ronald reagan presidential library. but a spokesperson for her says a doctor advised against the former first lady attending a large event. meanwhile, the reagan presidential foundation is trying to legally block an online auction where a vial of blood alleged to be that of the former late president's is being sold. the seller says a family member

worked in a lab at the time of the reagan assassination attempt and took that vial as memorabilia. now 30 years later, the vial is up for auction. the top bid so far, $14,000. minutes ago, president obama touching down in colorado, a key battleground state that he needs to win in november. he's going to deliver the commencement address at the air force academy in colorado springs. coming up in the next hour. but it's what happened in two other states, last night, that's raising a lot of eyebrows. this morning states the president isn't bothering to woo at all, kentucky and arkansas, where anti-obama democrats reared their heads in the primaries. kentucky, 42% of registered democrats selected uncommitted. and then going to arkansas, an attorney named john wolfe drew 42% of the vote. and a federal prison inmate drew 41% of the vote in west virginia's democratic primary. do these anti-obama democrats

really matter? kristen welker traveling with the president joins us now from colorado springs. let's put last night's results into context for everybody. why is there this notable anti-obama sentiment among democrats in these selected states? >> reporter: hi, there, thomas. these are the types of headlines that republicans are going to cheer, they're going to talk about. the reality is these states are just not friendly to president obama, these southern appalachian states. so the obama campaign, not necessarily expecting to get more than 60% of the vote. and the folks at first read point out, thomas, that a lot of the folks who vote in the democratic primaries in those states actually go on to vote republican in the general election. so that gives you a little bit of context. but these states just don't like president obama. some analysts say race still plays a factor. others say it's his policies, they don't like his tough regulations, for example, with the epa.

so those are the sorts of things that may play a role. but one thengs thing that's interesting, the map has really changed since 2008. virginia, north carolina, states typically red are now back in play. and they're certainly going to get a lot of play during this election cycle. another state that's going to get a lot of play, this one, colorado, as you mentioned in your open, thomas. one analyst said that it doesn't get more purple than colorado. so president obama, mitt romney will certainly be visiting this state quite a bit. this is president obama's second trip here in the past month. he's here, of course, to talk to the air force academy, to deliver the commencement address. this is not a political speech. but it will certainly give him the opportunity to talk about some of the things that he perceives to be his foreign policy achievements. >> looks like a beautiful day there for the families and the friends coming out for that ceremony. kristen welker, thank you. just a short time from now, mitt romney will address the latino commission's annual economic summit. he's going to be followed this

afternoon by cuban senator from florida marco rubio. this is all part of an effort to drum up republican support among hispanic voters. another reason why rubio is so important, florida, a new quinnipiac poll shows romney pulling ahead of president barack obama. 47% to 41%. with rubio on the ticket, he could win florida, 49% to 41%. peter alexander joins me now from washington, d.c. peter, we know the president enjoys this huge lead within the hispanic community. does the romney campaign really think that he can make a significant dent in this voting bloc, given he's had such a hardline stance on his immigration issues and how that has not played well with the hispanic voting bloc? >> reporter: yeah, governor romney saying among other things that he would veto the dream act. but the poll you just showed from quinnipiac, a senior adviser from the romney campaign is quick to point out also shows in the state of florida a near neck-and-neck race among

hispanics between romney and obama, 42% to 40%, with obama leading there. this will be a political speech here at an economic summit for the latino coalition. but a senior adviser tells us just a short time ago, the focus today is not going to be about latino issues specifically but about education, saying that a strong education is key to a strong economy, notably education is one of the top issues that hispanic and latino voters say they're concerned about right now. the governor, governor romney obviously, as you've noted, has a lot of work still to do in this community. one of the individuals often noted as a potential vice presidential pick, the governor of new mexico, recently said the gop and romney have alienated those latino voters. we'll hear later from marco rubio. he only recently during a speech

in south carolina said that president obama is the most divisive figure in modern american history. you can expect him to go on the attack again today. >> peter alexander in d.c. for us. thank you. it's taken center stage in the presidential stage in recent days. while our new nbc news/"wall street journal" poll shows voters like romney's business background, only 9% view the company where he got that experience positively. 19% have this negative view. however, the vast majority are either neutral or unsure about whether bain is good or bad. joining me to discuss that issue is josh kozman. also joining us is university of maryland business school professor, peter mauricee. good to see you both. i want to start with you, peter.

this all goes back to the republican debates with rick perry, newt gingrich slamming mitt romney for, quote, the vulture capitalism. are private equity firms really vultures? >> i don't believe so. a lot of private firms are in need of a shaping up. and private equity can serve that purpose. i don't know that we want to characterize companies that essentially take companies that are in bad shape, reform their management and make them competitive again as vultures. have there been abuses? of course there have. but there have also been abuses at our major banks and in american business and the public sector. >> josh, do private equity firms like bain actually build up businesses and are they job creators or are they something else? is the main goal about profit and giving the uberrich investors you have money back? >> the problem is they buy

profitable businesses. these are businesses that borrow money to finance their takeovers. these are leveraged buyouts. and in the work i did on my book, i showed 52% of the 25 biggest buyouts in the 1980s, 52% of those companies ended up collapsing. i took a look at the '90s, took a look at the top ten deals. six of those ten cases, the lbo hurt the company. three case, it's mixed. in one case, it helped the business. in this decade, four of the ten biggest companies acquired in lbos are distressed. so i think the record is clear. it's a destructive activity. >> here's what south carolina democratic congressman james clyburn had to say yesterday about firms like bain. >> there's something about that enterprise that i have a problem with. and there's something about raping companies and leaving them in debt and setting up swiss bank accounts and corporate businesses in the

grand caymans. >> explain to us while the congressman there is talking about something that mitt romney does having a swiss bank account and obviously that's money that he may have made from bain or not. don't private equity-owned firms, they often collapse, they don't always make it, correct? >> if they make enough bad bets, they will collapse. even if you're betting a lot of the bank's money, you're still betting some of your own and if you don't do it right. but whether or not mr. romney has a swiss bank account is separate from whether private equity serves a useful purpose. i don't know that we want to outlaw it. i'm not surprised that most of the deals don't work out, if the other guest is correct, essentially most of the time, they're buying companies that are high risk in some way, not very well-managed and they need a lot of shaping up. there are success stories, lots of them. hurts, stapl hertz, staples, dominos and other smaller companies that do

work out. and this is a useful purpose in capitalism. >> let's talk about the group private equity growth capital council. it's pushing back. peter, you say there are positives to talk about what an equity firm can do. but they're talking specifically about how it transformed axle tech with the investment that it made from a regional manufacturer into a world's leading supplier of specialty axles to the u.s. military. josh, don't private equity firms fit right into the model that is cat lichl capitalism in this co? as peter points out, there are these examples where the bets work. >> i respectfully disagree with peter. what mitt romney and maybe he's hiding behind is he brings up venture capital investments. private equity is leveraged buyouts. leveraged buyouts are profitable companies. all the five company that is mitt romney's bain bankrupted

and made $550 million profit on that are now being profiled in the obama ads like ampad and g.s. steel, these were profitable companies. they were put in debt and then cut costs and over the long run, that activity has an impact because you're starving a company of capital. >> gentlemen, thanks for your time this morning. prosecutors in south jersey are looking for a couple that are caught on this disturbing surveillance tape. it shows a dad putting his son into a machine. but the door locks and when the machine starts spinning, both mom and dad go into a panic. a full minute later, a laundromat employee finally gets the machine turned off. the boy appears to be okay and the incident believed to be a miscalculated joke. but the state still wants to speak with the parents about that. broadway star tv icon michael mckean was hit by a car while walking in new york city yesterday.

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harris perry, the host of "the melissa harris perry show" right here on msnbc. i want to start out as we talk about surrogates going rogue. when we look at the democrats at there and we talk about the cory bookers, ed rendell, why have they gone off script? they've been cast in certain roles. why are they finding themselves off message so frequently? >> i think in this case, it's a very specific case of the relationship of these individuals to private equity, big money and maybe potentially even to bain. i think part of what's interesting here is seeing how much sort of the democratic party has done two things, one, democrats like republicans are as beholden to big money interest for their personal reelection and sort of personal income interest as both harold ford and cory booker and ed rendell all are, so in this case, it was actually their political interests against their financial interests. but the other thing is, remember, the moderate wing, the

dlc aspect of the party really emerges quite powerful in the 1990s. looks like there's going to be a bit of a battle here about what the party's message is going to be going forward. >> a lot of people have been trying to put the genie back in the bottle. but i want to play what harold ford said this morning trying to clarify his prior remarks. take a listen. >> the only reason i made my point the other day on your show is i stand with cory booker and say, get back to the big issues. president obama has an advantage there and the country will understand it. >> melissa, does this help damage control-wise, get anything, as i say, the genie back in bottle or has there been damage done to the president's message? >> i don't think so. but there's undoubtedly going to be damage done here to the relationships between these surrogates and the president and any potential future obama administration after 2013. you just can't sort of utter

things on national television and then hope to walk them back later, especially, for example, in a youtube video. so i think what we'll see here is that undoubtedly, the democratic party is going to get very clear with its surrogates and be very clear about folks being on message going into this election season. >> melissa harris perry, melissa, thanks so much. you can catch melissa's show each saturday and sunday at 10:00 a.m. melissa, thanks again. still ahead on the agenda today, the swing vote, both parties want the independent voters. but what are they really looking for? and the new numbers are out, who are they liking right now? the president or mitt romney? you are what you eat. that's particularly true as we get older. you can slow the aging process by adding certain foods to your diet. blueberries contain antioxidants. yogurt, particularly the greek variety, is high in calcium to

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a new quinnipiac poll release this had morning shows president obama is having some trouble among independent voters in florida. just 41% of independents polled there say the president deserves to be re-elected. 54% say he does not deserve to be re-elected. i'm joined by linda killian, author of the swing vote, the untapped power of independents. it's good to see you this morning. why is the president losing favor among independents in certain states, especially like florida? is it boiling down to being all about the economy for them? >> it is mostly about the economy for them. swing voters care much less about the social issues than either democrats or republicans. they really care about the economy. they really care about the deficit. and florida is going to be an incredibly important swing state, just as ohio, colorado, new hampshire, virginia, very important swing state, north carolina, these are all going to be extremely important. >> linda, you wrote this week

about some of the myths surrounding independent voters as you bring up information about the myth of them caring about social issues because certainly, the basis of both the left and the right have deep beliefs about where social issues are going in this country. what are some of the other biggest misconceptions about the independent voter? >> the one of the biggest is that they aren't really independent. that they really are closet leaners and really just vote with the democrats or republicans. there are about 20% of all registered voters in this country. i maintain, pew has has research that shows this. our true swing voters. another myth is they are disengaged. i think they do care about politics, but the two parties have done their best to turn them off with the dysfunction and the negativity. independent voters don't like that sort of thing. they just want people to get down to business and solve our

problems. they don't like all this fussing around. you know? they don't understand, they don't like money in politics. they think that the average person's voice isn't heard. they really are pushing for change, and they don't like what they're seeing from either party. and that is why they're so volatile because they just really aren't hearing what they want from either party. >> i don't think that they're not engaged. i think they are. but their ears aren't perking up to what either side is saying right now. thanks for your time this morning. >> thank you for having me. >> that's going to wrap things up for me. i'll see you back here tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. eastern. till then, i'll see you on twitter @ thomas a roberts and be sure to catch andrea mitchell reports later today at 1:00 p.m. she's going to speak with former secretary of state colin powell. you don't want to miss that. and you don't want to miss "now with alex wagner." she's in the studio to tell us what's coming your way.

>> happy hump day. playing the president is a role of a lifetime. james lipton will be here to discuss mitt romney and method acting. unlike teams obama and romney, most americans have no opinion of bain capital. we'll discuss that and bring you live coverage of the president's air force academy commencement speech when "now" starts in a mere 180 seconds. [ kate ] many women may not be properly absorbing the calcium they take because they don't take it with food. switch to citracal maximum plus d. it's the only calcium supplement that can be taken with or without food. that's why my doctor recommends citracal maximum. it's all about absorption. that's why my doctor recommends citracal maximum. are you still sleeping? just wanted to check and make sure that we were on schedule.

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joining me today, msnbc political analyst and national affairs editor for new york magazine, the time triumphant john heilemann, patricia murphy, a contributor to the daily beast, maggie haberman of politico, and mr. sunday morning, "the new york times" magazine's hugo lindgren. president obama is in colorado right at this very moment where he is about to give the commencement address at the u.s. air force academy. meanwhile, there are some concerning numbers for the president in a crucial swing state. a new florida poll shows since march, there's been a 13-point swing leaving him trailing in the state by 6%. right now, we are waiting for mitt romney to take the stage at the latino coalition's annual economic summit. john heilemann, talk about florida first. are you surprised by the flip in numbers in terms of s