denouncing the president's immigration plan and laying out the reality is of this issue. >> we have 21st century immigration needs in this country and our immigration system is not modern. related to that issue but separate is the plight of young people brought to this nation at very young age, 5, 6, 7 years of age. grown up here undocumented. many don't know they're undocumented until we graduate high school. some are the valedictorians and we're going deport them. that's wrong as well. >> what's wrong with what the president's doing? >> it ignore, the congress and the constitution. >> dive right in. a lot to talk about. bring in democratic strategist doug cornell, magazine editor j.p. and jonathan. great to see you all this morning. jonathan, start with you, because the polls we see nationally show this is being such a close, tight race, but when the we start to think the

demographics of this, even electoral math, everything points to disadvantaged romney. is he discounting minority voters in not having something to real to offer them or kl restore our future really play a role here? >> i think mitt romney, as you said at the top of the show, is in a bit of a bind here. i think he knows what needs to be done. the only problem is, within the republican party and certainly among far right conservatives, this issue is an issue that they care deeply about, and the solutions are not solutions that they want to hear. remember during the, i believe it was rick perry's first debate when he made that now famous comment about not having a heart, given what some of the folks on that stage wanted to do to undocumented workers, in this country, and he got booed. mitt romney is still trying to convince conservatives that he is -- that he is one of them. that he is someone hoob should be the republican nominee. the fact he couldn't answer the

gre bob schieffer three times. the fact you showed the clip, he's still not giving a direct answer what he would do shows you really the peril he's in. >> doug, show everybody this. a graphic from the "new york times" and the pew hispanic center. 10 million eligible hispanic-american voters are not currently registered. however the obama policy shift may truly endear hispanic-americans to the president. how does that translate to more names on the voters rolls? >> there's a treasure-trove of votes there for the obama campaign, and i think this decision by the president will definitely help with that community. i mean, mitt romney has taken a very, very right wing position on immigration. he opposes the dream act, which congress did bring up and vote on two years ago. he has this -- this policy which is essentially make life so unbearable for undocumented workers in the united states, that they deport themselves.

which is something that most experts believe is ridiculous and john mccain said is inhumane. i think he is now, like jonathan said, is caught in a corner, because the poemses are not tenable with the hispanic community. he'll try to find and etch and sketch and bring himself to the center, but i don't think there is one there and it's going to hurt him in colorado i think and in florida and hurt him in nevada. >> j.p., as mitt romney and everybody waits tots hear exactly how he wants to address this with his own specifics, you know, because it's not going to be good enough for people just to be against, while president obama has come out with a real possible game changer among hispanic voters, if he were to include senator marco rubio as his vice president. now, the senate was on cnbc today, kind of dodging the subject. take a look. >> are you someone who will be the vice president candidate? >> i said repeatedly, i won't discuss the vice presidential process. >> there are only 41 and haven't

been in the senate that long. does that -- how does it all figure out in the political thinking? >> two things. one, i'm not discussing the -- >> oh, did you already say that? >> i did. in the united states senate, the job i have. >> you doubt you're qualified to serve as president? >> no doubt to serve in the united states senate and proud that i have. >> did a really good job there. it's always bad luck going on the record if you're not really in contention or haven't been given this job, j.p. sought ab so the abc news report came out, not in the contention. abc news has not confirmed that at this moment. you have it. senator rubio discounting whether or not she in the running, yet still out there almost auditioning for this role. do you think it's a mistake he's not being vetted right now especially when we know what a short vet meant for sarah palin and john mccain in '08? >> i love this journalism

technique of trying to report something based on rumors and suggesting that it's actually a fact or trying to suss out what the real truth is based on requiring some kind of correction. this kind of thing happens all the time. do i think it's a mistake to not consider rubio? we don't know if he's not being considered, nobody's confirmed that. should he be? absolutely. a brilliant senator, done great work in the senator but is needed in the senate. i can understand by republicans would be reluctant to give up that seat. a hard state to win. got to hold it down for florida, for the upcoming elections. so it makes perfect sense for him not to want to answer that question. if i can back to a little about this bloomberg poll everyone is talking about saying everyone loves what the president has done. there's no party affiliation among those who have been polled. if you look at gallup, look at rasmussen or any other polls, no shift. it doesn't seem there's a ground swell of support for president

obama's support and all it's done, shown how little he's done on immigration the last couple years up until the last possible minute when he's running for re-election. >> it's cull coming down t this election to the independents. if that poll, you're referring to with bloomberg, doesn't have party affiliation attached to it, doesen that bode better for the president, the fact that independents, therapy getting picked up? >> no. could have picked up all 2ke democrats. >> you're making assumptions. told us journalistically we can't make assumptions. >> no. i'm not trying to accuse this. i'm saying that because we -- >> let's not make -- we're not making assumptions whether or not marco rubio should or shouldn't be vetted, in contention, no the in contention. so let's not make assumptions on this. moving on to talk about sarah palin, jonathan, and reminding everybody that the republican national convention isn't until the end of august. a lot of times, the announcement of who the vp candidate will be

doesn't happen until about 72 hours before. tleec at least where they've had the best luck of winning the election. sarah palin nopt t at the mccai list of vp possibilities where we were in '08. is it too early to really get a defined list right now? is the audition process what we're seeing, rubio, all of these people, even standing on stage with scott walker the other day. a lot of people think, well, maybe he'd be a good choice? >> this is all part of the theory, thomas. therapy the people who we're all talking about. those names you just mentioned and probably quite a number of people who we're not talking about who the campaign is actually probably quite thrilled we're not talking about them, as potential vice presidential nominees. yes, june. june is a bit early to be -- to be talking about this, but you better believe, particularly for

the romney campaign, that they are going to take this vetting process very, very seriously. the woman who's in charge of the vp selection that been on the job for a while now, and, you know, people are being asked for their documents. there are questionnaires that have to be filled out, and they don't want to make the same mistake john mccain made back in 2008, where in the final -- in the final hours before a pick had to be made, the find days, they just pullaled this name, sarah palin, out of a hat. you know, mitt romney wants someone next to him who can not only be a -- a good surrogate and go after the president and be a good vice presidential nominee, also someone who could become, could be president of the united states if something, you know, god forbid were to happen to him if he were to be president. >> j.p., i want to ask you about the potential of mayor bloomberg here in new york. the "new york times" brought up this report that mayor bloomberg was overheard saying mitt romney

would be better at running the country, but couldn't really support him because of his social issues. do you think the romney campaign would look at somebody like a bloomberg? that's really out of the box for a lot of people. top think maybe they could run on the same ticket together, and that would draw a lot of independent voters? >> it might draw a lot of independent voters, but frankly, i think you might lose new york with that. i mean, a lot of people are not really enjoying his tenure. bloomberg likes to insert himself into every news cycle. if he has an opportunity to talk about romney, he will talk about it. even what kind of food they for breakfast. doesn't matter. >> what about you? doug, outside of the box. bloomberg business credentials are stellar. someone has could reinforce a ticket for mitt romney on that level of business credential, getting america's economy back into shape. do you think they should even consider people that aren't in the political spectrum? >> yeah, absolutely. i think they should consider a

wide spectrum of folks. i mean, one name that you don't hear much about but i'm surprised you haven't is someone like condoleezza rice. right? who is very accomplished, national security aide to the former president. everyone knows who she is. an african-american woman. you never really hear her name. you really just kind of hear the rob portmans, tim paul lengthwl the world. they're not going to overshadow mitt, which is probably what the romney campaign sk whoing for, but they're not going to really give him any excitement. i think they should look at a wide variety of folks, and it's interesting that they -- as j.p. said, dwoent know if they're looking at someone like rubio. if i was them i would get that out there strictly for political reasons. >> remain as speculation game, at least tluf the summer. thank you all for your time. appreciate it. still ahead right here on msnbc, day two for the defense in the sex abuse trial of jerry sandusky.

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developing news right now. jerry sandusky, will he or won't he take the stand in his own defense during the sexual abuse trial against him? well, on the way to court, and

into court today, sandusky's defense attorney was asked if he would call his client to the stand and all he would say is, stay tuned. inside that courtroom, the defense calmed two of the state's witnesses. state troopers and grilled them about one of the accusers. nbc's john yang joins me now from bellefonte, pennsylvania. explain what we're seeing from inside that courtroom today. >> reporter: well, right now, thomas, as you said, they did, the defense called, the two lead investigators in the investigation of jerry sandusky that led to the charges late last year. and what they wanted to do is, this is the first time in the defense presentation we see them sort of chip away at one of the prosecution witnesses. they wanted to ask these two investigators if they ever in their interviews with victim four, the man known at victim four in court documents, the first witness of this trial, whether they ever told him details of what other victims with other accusers had told the investigators. at first they said, no.

they didn't share any details with the people they interviewed, but then the defense produced a transcript of a tape recording of that interview in which one of the investigators did tell victim four that others told similar stories, that others had told a similar story, a similar progression, was the word that was used that culminated in a certain sexual act. this was before victim four had told them that anything had happened. the defense has tried to argue that this tainted the investigation. this planted the seed of this story in this witness' mind. they're trying to argue that investigators pushed them to embellish their stories and that, also, that the victims in this, the alleged victims are in this for money. that they're trying to cash in on a civil suit. now, the other thing that's happening right now, thomas, is not so much what's happening in the courtroom, but about 15

minutes ago, dorothy sanders -- dorothy sandusky, rather, jerry's wife, arrived at the courthouse. she has not been in the court since the first day when the judge said he wanted anyone who may testify to leave. so there is speculation she will be on the stand later today. thomas? >> when we talk about where the defense is in terms of the demonstration of its case, do we know how many more witnesses they potentially had scheduled? the big question is if sandusky is going to take the stand or not. i imagine they would wait to call him until the very end? >> reporter: convention. wisdom is that, thomas. save the big witness until the end. it's not clear how much more they have. they have talked about this histrionic personality disorder that they wanted to present expert testimony about, to offer an alternative explanation for the letters to he wrote to the some of these alleged victims.

as i said, mrs. sandusky is. >> now in the courthouse. she may testify. it's not clear how many they have, but i think we would hear from sandusky limbhimself, if w hear from him, tomorrow morning. >> thank you so much. in the studio with me, a defense attorney and at the center for legal justice. you were listening to that. >> yes. >> sounds like the defense is really grasping at straws when trying to discount and chip away at what has been strong witness testimony from these alleged sexual abuse victims. >> right. well, thomas, you've got to say something at this point. the facts are what they are. as a defense attorney you've got to do your best, defend. you can only chip away at what you were chip away at, move forward and go for the touchdown instead of the field goal. >> one, the attack at the investigation as opposed to even alleged victims because they used the investigators' words of

similar progression. no details of what happened. doesn't seem like any of these victims need to embellish because what happened is horrible enough. >> right. not like the morton sexual abuse case. these are men. do the jurors believe their stories? and you also have to prove they all did conspire. that's why year hearing testimony about the investigation. now they're trying to say that they're conspiring together. they want the money and their stories are similar. is that a bad defense? well, it's a dense defense, thomas. you've got to say something. >> and defense attorneys, constantly taking the temperature how this is going. probably deciding whether or not to put jerry sandusky on the stand or not. and now we're hearing from john yang, dotti z-- dottie sandusky may take the stand. >> i think the wife may testify. i don't think that that will help him, because it's been my experience that a wife or

somebody close will lie or be in very serious denial because they don't want the world to know they're associated to a pedophile. it's a very serious charge. and she's in the community. she has a wide social circle. that's not someone anyone will admit to without years of therapy. >> meanwhile, there are alleged victims who testify to the fact dottie sandusky was in the home at the time of some of the alleged sexual abuse taking place. doesn't that open her up to a vicious line of questioning of turning a blind eye potentially for decades? >> yes. did you know your husband was in the shower with boys? what was he doing for hours downstairs in the basement alone? obviously, break her down and strip her down slowly, and obviously say that a normal person, a reasonable person in that situation would have known or had doubts. >> great to see you again. thanks so much. sure we'll talk about. moving on today, spain's debt costs are reaching alarming levels. will the fed take action here at home to protect the u.s. kmecony

from the crisis across the pond. a casting call at the white house. who's going to play mitt romney and help the president prep for a round of debates come fall. all right. going for the gold today. we talk about the london olympics daily and talking about gold in soccer, more potentiallipotentially the player. second in goal scoring history for women's soccer and keeps adding to her score tally. 136th goal in the u.s. soccer match against sweden. do you see it ? there it is ! there it is ! where ? where ? it's getting away ! where is it ? it's gone. we'll find it.

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syou know, i've helped a lot off people save a lot of money. but today...( sfx: loud noise of large metal object hitting the ground) things have been a little strange. (sfx: sound of piano smashing) roadrunner: meep meep. meep meep? (sfx: loud thud sound) what a strange place. geico®. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. new worries about the european economy. spain at the center. the cost borrowing for the fourth largest economy hitting

record highs prompting fears the country will need a major bailout. this only ten days after spain's banks got a $100 billion euro rescue. that action did little to ally investor confidence. joining us from madrid in the stock exchange there. explain what is the likelihood that spain is going to need this large greek-style bailout? >> the question is on the table, because this morning the election was successful in a way that the spanish treasury was able to sell more than a billion you' euros in debt. that was huge. however, spain paid a high premium for it. yields at the highest level since 1997 for the 12-month yield. average yield, 5.07% up from 3%. that's a significant increase, and for the 18 months, at 5.07%

up from 3.4%. it's not a sustainable level and clearly raises the question about the need of the bailout for the spanish economy, which for the time being is absolutely not the case in europe. >> remind us all about the unemployment rate and where it stands in spain now. it's at historic levels. >> absolutely. the fundamentals of the spanish economy are frightening. unemployment now close to 25%. the rate is close to 50% for youth. without any structural reforms in spain, there's absolutely no way the spanish economy could create growth and could improve its financial situation in the short term. for the time being the government is focused on restructuring the banking sector with, you mentioned it, this resale bailout from the european authorities. they will inject up to 100 billion euros. $125 billion into the spanish

banking still. for the time being we don't know exactly how much will be needed. saying 40 billion euros should be enough. the view here, 60 billion toll 65 billion euros are needed to help the economy with high exposure to the economy which is in severe trouble in spain. >> stephane padrassi, thank you. and a crucial vote. will that keep america's attorney generalen from being held in contempt by congress. also ahead, mitt romney's candidacy for president. how mormon leaders are reacting to this new focus on their faith. but they can also hold you back. unless you ask, "what's next?" introducing the all-new rx f sport. this is the pursuit of perfection.

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a half hour dago. later the president will hold a meeting with other world leaders. vladimir putin's meeting with the president yesterday is making headlines. describes the meeting at candid and thorough. the body language, look at it, following that meeting, described as tense and even cold. joining me now from los cabos, nbc news white house correspondent and political director chuck todd host of "daily rundown." during that photo op and following that meeting, the two leaders did not make eye contact. for someone that is watching body language of how these two political leaders need to get along in light of what's taking place in syria and the larger world view, it is kind of telling. >> reporter: such a stark change

between the relationship president obama had with the last russian president. dmitry medvedev. on a first-name basis. chummy. a personal relationship pt the expectation, putin is sort of a different cat who was going to be very cool, but it did come across cold and the fact they didn't make eye contact, i think startled some. >> now the white house folks really took umbrage with all the questions at a briefing afterwards, not to belabor the point, seemed odd. we had not seen the president had a photo op like this with any world leader in his time in office that was this odd and this lacking of sort of back and forth, and the russia experts, he came back and said, look, i've watched po eed putin a lon. 234is is the way he is. if he had an -- he would have said. a serious debate over syria.

the whole issue, how do you push assad aside? and apparently the debate between the president, president putin was, let's take the premise that putin agrees with the u.s.' in insistence assad get pushed from power, how does the vacuum get billed including the russians have not gotten a satisfy answer on that. this is so telling, therefore. >> nbc's chuck todd in los cabos, mexico, thank you. a botched government gun running operation in new mexico is taken behind closed doors today in the hopes both sides will meet in the middle. attorney general eric holder and congressman darrell issa agreed to an afternoon meeting to decide what role was played in the botched monitor iing plan. the contempt charges against

holder are troubling but progress is being made towards a resolution. >> pretty good last friday. he made a decision to take off the table certain documents which would have been illegal for the attorney general to produce. applications, the information about confidential informants, and those kind of documents. he's taken that off the table. >> republican congressman walsh, part of the oversight reform committee and joins me now. nice to see you today. talk about the potential for a compromise, if the justice department can turn over partial documents as opposed to all of the documents, is that enough for you? and if not, what is? >> boy, i hope so. look, i think chairman issa has displayed great patience throughout this. we've had a subpoena out there since last october, requesting

from 80,000 to 90,000 documents. to date, the attorney general has given us about 5,000 to 6,000, most of which are redacted. i think chairman issa has bent over to try to accommodate the attorney general, because, look, holding him in contempt of congress is a real serious move. nobody wants to go there, but this is a serious issue, and for some reason, they haven't been cooperating. and i hope -- i hope -- that he understands the, attorney general understands and will make every effort to cooperate. >> demonstrated patience, since october you have been blatantly calling for the resignation of eric holder. what bothers you the most about "fast and fuse" and the government's role in it? >> what bothers me so much, and you're right. this is an investigation that

demands to be had. we do need to know who knew what, when, because we have a family out there, ryan terry's family. this was such a botched and flawed program, we now pretty much conclusively know that doj was well wavy of the progr-- aw that they were aware of this and concern on eric holder's part, i found that so troubling. >> i ask you this today on "morning joe," we just heard from congressman elijah cummings, he also said the program went unchecked before holder ever stepped into his post. take a listen. >> this whole operation, these types of operations, actually started under the bush administration, and the bush administration did not about it. although they knew about it. when eric holder found out about these tack tactics he

immediately stopped it, said, no, we're not going to have this and immediately demand and investigation by his i.g. >> how do you respond to what congressman cummings is saying. >> to my colleague, it's just not accurate. we wouldn't be at this point if attorney general holder was cooperating, and, look, this is a democrat line they've thrown out there that this was somehow started during the bush administration. "operation fast and furious" is dramatically different than the operation that went on in the bush administration. the bush administration commented with the mexican government. they let the mexican government know what they were doing. they traced the guns. "fast and furious," our government under this administration, purposely turned the other way and stopped tracing thousands of firearms. so this is a much bigger, a much more serious breach of justice. >> we'll wait to see what happens with that face-to-face with eric holder and republican

congressman joe walsh. thank you. and other stories topping the news now. authorities are investigating the latest in the string of violent attacks in southern afghanistan. early this morning, storming a nato base and hours later insurgements targeted a police checkpoint in the region leaving three officers dead. nine others injured. firefighters in colorado slowly gaining ground on a wildfire that's been burning there for over a week. authorities say this blaze near fort collins is now about 50% contained. hot, dry weather has made it difficult for firefighters who face another day with temperatures in the 90s. so far, the fire has blackened nearly 92 square miled and xr destroyed almost 200 homes. and adidas scrapping a design that is offensive. featuring a shackle-like ankle cuff some say resembling a symbol of slavery. part of a collaboration with designer jeremy scott. adidas says the design has

nothing to do with slavery but announced the shoe will not be sold. soshgs gentlemen you remember the little boy who captured everybody's heart by playing a pint-sized darth vader? well, he's resting at home after open heart surgery. there he is, 7-year-old max page, all smiles released from the hospital yesterday. four days after doctors replaced his pulmonary valve. the young actor portrayed it a miniature version of the popular character volkswagen commercial. and democraten straighted his skills, darth vader, right there. we're back after this. f kayakin? no. whoooa i'm in a river. what are some good kayaking words? like...rapids? look, i'm going through the rapids. ok. i'll take it. new offers in new places so you can try new things. sync your american express card with facebook, foursquare, and twitter to find savings.

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one in ten have better immune systems as well. mitt romney's faith has been a small part of the larger political discussion in this election year, but for the actual leaders within the mormon church, romney's candidacy is turning national curiosity in their direction. meaning inquiring minds of the journalism world want to know more about the inner workings of faith held by the man who could be the next commander in chief. a washington reporter for "newsweek" and the "daily beast" joins me now. michelle, good to have you here. an interesting read. a spokesman with the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints says it's been easier this time around as oppose the to romney's first run in 2008. what hawais it been like? the guesswork is all out of it. this is the presidential contender for the running. >> exactly. church lead verse had to scramble the jets up a little

bip. as much as mitt romney is uncomfortable talking too much about the mormon faith, the mormon church is a little uncomfortable talking about mitt romney. one of its key messages is that it's not political. and it's not partisan. so it's doing a lot of outreach to the public, and to journalists in particular, trying to get across the message of what they're not going to be doing as well. you know, specifically, they're not going to be ground troops for romney. >> and from your reporting and also from our own -- i was looking on websites and you flare officials even with romney in the position from which he's in, the lbs leaders want to stress the term political neutrality, correct? >> exactly. they've been fielding questions from reporters and local papers. are you going to get your members in certain states to go out to the polls and knock on doors? so they want to shoot down the idea that that is what they're going to be involved in. so a lot of the outreach has been kind of stressing -- the

spokesman told me just one tactic he has. he never using romney's name in interviews. even when people are talking about the candidate, he tries really hard to leave romney out of the equation and make it more generic. >> where people will get confused about where they stand on this. and as i said, i was looking into what their website claims, and this is their official website, and they section us off to mormon newsroom dot org. the church does not promote or endorse political parties affect direct member votes or dictate to a government leader. however, michelle, on there it does reserve the right to affect issues that affect the interests of the church. so when people remember back to '08, the mormon church and it's people funneled millions of dollars into california to vote yes on proposition 8. so that was huge back in '08. >> and i actually -- >> confused about them not

taking a position, because if mitt romney was pro-gay marriage they would do everything they could to back door him out of this role. >> i asked them about specifically, about whether or not the situation in california had caused them problems in this messaging situation. like you find with a lot of politics and interest groups in churches, and nonprofits, they draw a big distinction between issues. they are happy to back issues and to be very clear where they stand on issues but do not translate into that into pushing specific candidates or specific party platforms. >> michelle, great to see you. great writeup. get the latest issue of "newsweek" on stands for you now. casting call at the white house. it is time. >> now for the polyside bar. president obama tapped senator john ker toy plry to portray hi

opponent in mock debates. three debates are scheduled for this fall. and michelle obama does a mean double dutch? showed off her jumping skills monday on "live with kelly ripa." >> what's up? you can be deported! >> oh! whoa! [ applause ] >> pretty good. okay. mitt romney's sons will make a television appearance of their own. the five will sit down for their first joint interview wednesday night with conan o'brien. the sons all active in their father's presidential campaign. and bristol palin's new reality show, "life's a trip" debuts tonight. the show is chronicling bristol's move from alaska to

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as things heat up over the summer months heading into the general election, we're getting a better sense of president obama's re-election strategy. in this case, it's the polar opposite of the romney camp, a series of precise, calculated moves to woo voters targeting specific groups and demographics. joining us now with more insight from the newsroom in arlington, virginia, jim vandehei, executive editor of politico. good to see you. let's get right into this. as you talk about and also with michael allen writing about what's going on and how it is very precise and although the aides wouldn't say this exactly, president obama's campaign wants to turn mitt romney into the candidate of old straight white

man. tell us what you mean by that and is it really that hard to do? >> well, i think you hit it at the top. two very different strategies. for mitt romney it's all about one issue, the economy, and it's a global issue for him. every single day, he talks about that. for the obama campaign, they're looking at about 10 to 12 states and then looking at the demographic in those swing states, and they're going after hispanics, going after young voters, going after women, going after every different segment that they can find to slice and dice to maximize the turnout among those groups that they think support obama, can support him in higher numbers, and that's why they have been almost every day talking about an issue that pertains specifically to women. it's why for the next week, all you're going to hear about is this issue that pertains to hispanics and you can get used to it. a lot of democrats complain that i don't know what president obama's talking about, it's the one issue this day, it's a different issue the next, but that's the strategy. >> when we talk about, though, the outreach programs that the team obama is employing, they're

going to do house parties with the first lady to urban deejaying events, voter registration drives on college campuses, certainly lgbt pride month is june. we are seeing rallies pop up for them. is this the type of grassroots organization that people remember from the first campaign? >> it is. i think it's significantly more elaborate. as jim messina, who is running the campaign, his obsession is basically slicing and dicing the electorate in these states. what obama advisors will say, they think the punditry class always has it wrong, that we get too obsessed about national themes and about national polls. they say tell me what's happening in suburban virginia, in rural ohio, in colorado with hispanics between the ages of 30 and 50, and i'll tell you how we're doing. that's how they're going to approach this election. they see it very much as a bloc by bloc knife fight. they don't think they have a

chance of winning this election in a landslide. they thinks whoever wins this election will win by a percentage point or two and it will be on the margins in those swing states. that's where technology and they have i think the obama campaign has a pretty big technological advantage early on, comes into play. it allows them to microtarget, figure out who is a potential obama voter and communicate with that voter in an efficient and effective way and at the end of the day if a state goes by 500, 1,000 votes, that stuff on the margins can matter. >> it will be a tight race, all down to the messages. jim vandehei, nice to see you. thank you. that will wrap things up for me. thanks for your time. see you back here tomorrow 11:00 a.m. eastern time. you can always follow me on twitter. don't go anywhere. "now" with alex wagner is coming up next. another edition from d.c. every day without you is a day without sunshine, thomas. >> absence makes the heart grow fonder. >> it is, my friend. the heart is growing fonder. the romney road trip winds

down today in his original home state of michigan. how did governor romney and his road dogs make out? we will discuss. plus, putin on the charm. did the russian president and the u.s. president make any headway at the g-20? and from the department of undersold achievements, the affordable care act is actually working but is anybody actually paying attention? we will talk about all of that and more when "now" starts in a mere 180 seconds. [ male announcer ] wouldn't it be cool if we took the nissan altima and reimagined nearly everything in it? gave it greater horsepower and best in class 38 mpg highway... ...advanced headlights... ...and zero gravity seats? yeah, that would be cool. ♪ introducing the completely reimagined nissan altima. it's our most innovative altima ever. nissan. innovation that excites. ♪

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the magical mitt-stry tour is wrapping up, day five, while mitt romney is the commemorative teeshirts are not yet on sale, the trees are the right height, the sons are in place and the jokes are actually getting laughs. but what does it mean for mitt romney in the long term? has the mitt finally gotten broken in?

it's thursday -- tuesday, june 19th, and this is "now." >> joining me today, politico senior white house reporter, glenn thrush, who categorically refuses to wear a hat on this show. michael scherer is white house correspondent for "time." sam stein of the huffington post is here and margaret carlson is a columnist for bloomberg news. welcome, everybody. mitt romney finishes up his six-state bus tour today with three events in his original home state, good old michigan. >> we're about to go to michigan. look around, you'll see the trees are the right height. >> today in new york, marco rubio and kelly ayotte are helping the pro-romney super pac restore our future, pull in money at a fund-raiser. sam, these stakes we're g