general eric holder and fast and furious has moved from the right wing fringe to the front pages. the conservative base is thrilled, so why has the republican leadership been treating this story like it's kryptonite? and let me finish tonight with my home made solution to america's obesity crisis. we begin with outsourcing jobs at mitt romney's bain capital. salon's joan walsh is an msnbc and political analyst and michael shear is the white house correspondent for "time" magazine. mitt romney frequently says that he'll stand up to china and help bring jobs back home from overseas. but that wasn't always the case. a damning new report from "the washington post's" tom hamburger today lays out clearly just how invested romney's firm bain capital was in companies that outsourced jobs, including to china. quote, during the nearly 15 years romney was involved in running bain, it owned companies that were pioneers in the practice of shipping work from the united states to overseas

call centers and factories making computer components. according to the filings, with the s.e.c., the securities and exchange mission. michael, is this going to stick? i ask that question because bain has been an issue. the charges of vulture capitalism in the beltway, you hear people say they didn't play well, yet out in middle america, and in focus groups, i think you get a different reaction. what will be the reaction to this? >> i still think we're at the very beginning of this conversation. mitt romney so far is sticking to his line which is i have experience in the private sector. he doesn't want to go beyond that to discuss specifically what he did at bain. the obama campaign is determined to hit them over and over again all through the summer and they have had some success in these swing states doing this. i think this is just another piece of that. romney's going to have to be able to establish a difference between his experience in the private sector, which is not about creating jobs. i think everybody admits here, it was creating more efficient companies, about increasing profits, and lowering the cost of products. and what he plans to do when he comes into office, which is not

outsourcing jobs, despite what chicago is sort of saying right now. a vote for mitt romney is a vote for offshoring more jobs. mitt romney hasn't made that yet. he hasn't -- he doesn't want to have this discussion, but it's going to have to happen. >> the president was quick to react to "the post" story. he was in tampa this afternoon. let's take a look. >> today was reported in the "washington post" that the companies his firm owned were pioneers in the outsourcing of american jobs to places like china and india. pioneers. let me tell you, we do not need an outsourcing pioneer in the oval office. we need a president who will fight for american jobs and fight for american manufacturing. that's what my plan will do. >> and romney's camp responded quickly to "the post" story. according to politico romney's spokesperson said, quote, this

is fundamentally flawed story that does not differentiate between domestic outsourcing versus offshoring, nor versus work done overseas to support u.s. exports. as president, he will implement policies that make it easier and more attractive for companies to create jobs here at home. joan walsh, that's a lot to follow. that's a confusing issue. is that going to wash? >> no. it's an intentionally confusing issue and statement, michael, and i think you can see that. the problem for the romney campaign is that "the post" story is very, very explicit that this was -- they're talking about offshoring. it is true that outsourcing can be moving jobs out of a company to another firm that does it cheaper. in the united states and that does happen, but "the post" was very careful to delineate the firms that bain invested in whose business model essentially was offshoring, made a lot of technology jobs. so i think i agree with michael. the obama campaign has had some

success already with bain. top strategists seem a little bit uncomfortable with it. you've got the problem of wall street democrats quite honestly not sure how hard they want to hit private capital, private equity firms. i think it is resonating with voters, and i think on this particular issue, you've got a hypocrisy. >> to that end, romney frequently invokes his time at bain to suggest he would be a better leader on the economy. he says he knows how jobs are create an what causes them to leave. >> i spent my life in private enterprise, 25 years. i know how businesses work. i know what causes them to leave and what will bring them back. i want to use that experience to get america working again. for me, it's all about good jobs for the american people. and a brighter, prosperous future. >> and also, the president then focuses his attack on romney and bain recently on the issue of outsourcing. here was an ad that the campaign put out just yesterday.

>> running for governor mitt romney campaigned as a job creator. but as a corporate raider he shipped jobs to china and mexico. as governor, he did the same thing. outsourcing state jobs to india. now, he's making the exact same pitch. >> i know why jobs come and why they go. >> outsourcing jobs. romney economics. it didn't work then and it won't work now. >> michael shear, strange thing. i saw that was reviewed by the "post," which had the story today, and it was the recipient of several pinocchios, so it seems like within the washington they can't get it together as to the accuracy of those charges. >> i think you could say that the story was accurate and that ad sounds like they're exactly the same thing. but there is an argument here, you could have surrogates for democrats defending this. i can imagine steve ratter in, if you had him on, would come on and say, look, there are benefits to this sort of comparative advantage of allowing other countries to

produce things cheaper. if they can produce it cheaper. we're able to then buy the products cheaper. we have then more money to spend. there are arguments to defend what is not really a good word in this election, the creative destruction of capitalism. what romney is saying in the clips you just played was my job as president will be different from my job as the private sector businessman. my job will be to create jobs. i'm going to use the experience from my private sector days. but my job as president is not going to be what my job as bain was, which was to increase returns for my shareholders. >> joan walsh, quickly, it seems the obama campaign all too happy to make this a referendum on bain. >> yes. you've got david axelrod already calling mitt romney the outsourcer in chief. i think that they think that this is a really productive avenue for them and that "the post" story and the specific revelations about china give them -- give that whole line of reasoning a lot of new life. >> thank you. we appreciate your being here.

coming up, president obama gets a spirited welcome from the same latino group that spent a lot of time sitting on its hands for mitt romney yesterday. that's ahead. this is "hardball," the place for politics. also, get a free flight. you know that comes with a private island? really? no. it comes with a hat. see, airline credit cards promise flights for 25,000 miles, but... [ man ] there's never any seats for 25,000 miles. frustrating, isn't it? but that won't happen with the capital one venture card. you can book any airline, anytime. hey, i just said that. after all, isn't traveling hard enough? ow! [ male announcer ] to get the flights you want, sign up for a venture card at capitalone.com. what's in your wallet? uh, it's ok. i've played a pilot before. over a million people have discovered how easy it is to use legalzoom for important legal documents. so start your business, protect your family, launch your dreams. at legalzoom.com, we put the law on your side. hey. hey eddie.

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we should have passed the dream act a long time ago. it was written by members of both parties. when it came up for a vote a year and a half ago, republicans in congress blocked it. the bill hadn't changed. the need hadn't changed. the only thing that had changed was politics. >> welcome back to "hardball." president obama kept up the heat on congress today speaking before a national association of latino and elected officials. it's the same event where mitt romney addressed this key constituency yesterday. the president made reference to

romney's visit, including a pause for dramatic effect. >> your speaker from yesterday has a different view. in a speech, he said that when he makes a promise to you, he'll keep it. well, he has promised to veto the dream act and we should take him at his word. i'm just saying. >> president obama needs latino vote to be motivated in november. their turnout could be key to his re-election and that's really what today's speech was all about. david corn is an msnbc political analyst and author of the new book "showdown." erin mcpike is a reporter for real clear politics. erin, does it seem like the president did what he needed to do to energize that constituency today? >> for the most part, yes, at

least in comparison to mitt romney yesterday. president obama simply said he would sign a dream act if it made it to his desk, which deals with a smaller portion of the nation's illegal immigrants. not all 11 million of them. so we heard from a lot of republicans today who said that while president obama continues to support the dream act, he didn't go much further than that. it energizes the latino community to a certain degree, but not 100%. i mean, he's been saying that his door has been open for three and a half years if congress would like to work with him. bit a lot of republicans started chiding him today saying that's really not enough and doesn't show a ton of leadership. >> to state the obvious, 9% of those who came out to vote in '08, if that gets boosted to 10, 11, 12%, there in would lie the margin of victory in a close race overall. >> yes. and if you compare mitt romney's speech yesterday to barack obama's speech today, it's like comparing mayonnaise to salsa.

now, mayonnaise is fine. it has some binding properties to it, but barack obama spoke to this crowd as if he understood them and more importantly, shared their values. he talked about comprehensive immigration reform, those across the rio grande, as being part of the great american story. he talked about justice. he talked about those who came over as being part of the great american story. he talked about a lot of things that mitt romney couldn't do and i think he was very specific in saying that he did try to pass the dream act. and that it was republican obstructionism that prevented it, and also his door is open to comprehensive immigration reform that he has voted for in the past and it's republicans who can't see their way through the threshold anymore. >> the difference in reaction to the latino crowd today and yesterday was obvious. first let's take a look at president obama's wrap-up today. >> america was built by people

who said something different. who said yes, we can. who said -- and as long as i have the privilege of being your president, i will be alongside you fighting for the country that we together dream of! god bless you. thank you -- god bless the united states of america. >> and the reaction to governor romney's speech was much more muted. it's easy to selectively edit these things but actually these are some of romney's bigger applause lines. >> as president, i won't settle for stopgap measures. i'll work with republicans and democrats to build a long-term solution. and i'll prioritize measures -- i will stand for a path to legal status for anyone who is willing to stand up and defend this great nation through military service. thank you so much. and god bless this great land. thank you.

>> these reactions in a new poll of latino voters in battleground states that show president obama with a huge lead. there you can see it. 74% to 18% in arizona. colorado, 70% to 22%. florida, 53-37. never today, 69-20. virginia, 59-28. erin mcpike, what drives these numbers? the economy? the immigration issue? a combination of both? >> it's certainly a combination of both and of course, president obama used much of his speech to talk about his economic vision versus mitt romney, those polls that you show are in florida and virginia where president obama is generally doing better. i would point out, though, that the population of illegal immigrants, and hispanic voters in many of the states where mitt romney took his bus tour over the weekend and earlier this week were through the midwest

where the population is smaller, and mitt romney is doing better in some of those other states. so yes, i mean, this is where this election is going to be litigated. >> when mitt romney spoke to the latino group yesterday a lot of people expected him to give a specific response to president obama's executive order that i just revved. hoorz how he handled it. >> some people have asked if i will let stand the president's executive order. the answer is that i will put in place my own long-term solution that will replace and supersede the president's temporary measure. as president, i won't settle for stopgap measures. >> not very specific and so today, the obama campaign put out a web video complete with the sound of a ticking stopwatch in the background pointing out how many days have passed without a response from romney. to the obama executive order. >> you said this is just the short-term solution to a long-term problem. but would you repeal this order if you became president?

>> well, let's step back and look at the issue. >> what would you do about it? would you repeal this? i won't keep on about this but just to make sure i understand, would you leave this in place while you worked out a long-term solution or would you just repeal it? >> we'll look at that setting as we reach that. >> leave you scratching your head and wondering why a man who wants to be president can't tell us a little bit more about what he would actually do. >> erin, where do you see this issue going? he's got to come up with something with more specificity. no? >> one would think but he's not doing it because he knows if he's litigating immigration policy with the president, he's losing in a lot of places he needs to start winning. today, the romney campaign put out a response, several responses from hispanic elected officials who support mitt romney saying the problem with this speech is that the hispanic community has seen its unemployment rate increase under this president, and they don't want to talk about immigration policy. now, of course, when mitt romney

was running for president in 2007 and 2008, he tried to grind down his opponents by running to the right of them on immigration policy and he did the very same thing against rick perry in this past primary. so if he comes to and softens his position, as many people think that he should, he runs the risk of looking like a flip-flopper. so he's really in a tough spot as far as immigration policy is concerned. >> david, one explanation might be that the thunder that he expected to get with senator rubio by announcing their own proposal was stolen, and that, in fact, the two were going to be very, very similar. >> well, it was. what the thing is about rubio's proposal is that romney had not really endorsed it, and most of the republican leadership was very lukewarm on it. rubio was looking like an orphan with this idea. regardless of that, the president came in and very politically savvy way just totally undercut any possibility that romney had of getting covered on this issue through

marco rubio's plan. i doubt marco rubio will be on the ticket. as i said earlier, i think because of what erin just said, too, romney has really put himself into concrete when it comes to the immigration issue in a way that leaves him no opportunity to have an opening with this community. and i think obama hit it out of the park today. and if you had the latino voters the day before the elections watch romney's speech and the president's speech today, i'd be surprised if the split wasn't 80-20. >> david, thank you. thank you erin mcpike. we appreciate it. up next, republicans are celebrating the supreme court's overturning health care reform, but the trouble is, it hasn't happened yet. stick around for the side show. if you want to follow me on twitter, you need to figure out how to spell smerconish. this is "hardball," the place for politics. hey, it's me -- water.

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welcome back to "hardball." time for the "sideshow." first up a glimpse into the future. courtesy of republican senator candidate richard murdoch of indiana. in a video briefly uploaded to the candidate's youtube account he cheers the supreme court's decision to strike down the affordable care act. only thing is, the supreme court hasn't ruled yet. let's watch. >> they we've had our brief moment of celebration because the supreme court ruled that obama care is, in fact, unconstitutional, it's what many of us argued all along. but don't sit back and think the fight is over, because it isn't. barack obama and congressman joe donnelly are already putting obama care 2.0 together and they're going to try to pass it once again. we cannot let that happen. >> turns out the murdoch campaign is covering all its bases, and preproduced videos for any decision the supreme court delivers. the campaign spokesman no doubt a former boy scout, invoked the scout's famous mantra, be prepared. yesterday, we told you about a

bloomberg news report that the romney campaign asked florida governor rick scott to stop bragging about his state's strong economic rebound. very inconvenient for the argument that he has ruined everything. romney and scott aides both pushed back on the story, but not before team obama released a mock letter quote from the desk of mitt romney and it reads, rick, i see you've been touting florida's improving economy. please stop. your facts are undermining my contention that barack obama is stifling the recovery, which is my whole platform. mitt romney's challenge extends beyond florida to states like virginia and ohio where republican governors are presiding over improving economies. and finally, jon stewart compares voting in egypt to voting in florida. >> egypt's election committee said it will not announce the presidential runoff winner tomorrow after all. the group said it has to review hundreds of complaints about the voting. >> hundreds of complaints? you know what that's called in florida?

the best most efficient election in the history of florida. what are you doing? take the money and run! you get more complaints a night in boca raton at an olive garden. >> florida, florida, florida may never live down the 2000 election. and one "sideshow" friday night bonus. as president obama bounded on to the stage in tampa this afternoon, his feet got a little ahead of him. he wrote that bumble off to enthusiasm. >> i was so fired up i missed a stair. i couldn't wait to get out here! >> nice save. coming up next, "your business" with j.j. ramberg.

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webly you the "your business" rescue team to bring this massachusetts based company with a makeover. that's coming up next on "your business." small businesses are revitalizing the economy, and american express open is here to 4e. that's why we are proud to present "your business" on msnbc. hi there, everyone. i'm j.j. ramberg and welcome to "your business." where we give you tips and advice to help your business grow. a few months ago we received a youtube video from one of our viewers asking for help. this build