$25,000 a head. they get a say. the rest of us, no dice. no wonder he says corporations are people. no wonder he thinks we don't need more firefighters. no wonder he makes $10,000 bets. and according to newspaper reports, this event seemed right out of the pages of "the great gatsby." the lawn started at the beach and ran toward the front door for a quarter of a mile. running over brick yards and burning gardens finally reached a house drifting up the side in bright vines as those from the momentum of its run. in fact, the romney event was so unbelievable that i brought in some of our friends from the political subverseties to do a reenactment. you're going to hear things that

they said at the fund raiser. these are real quotes. >> i don't think the common person is getting it. we've got the message. but my college kid, the babysitter, the nails ladies, all these people who have the right to vote, they don't get what's going on. i just feel that if you're lower income, one, you're not as educated. two, they don't get how it works. >> right. >> common people don't get it. don't understand how it works. are you series? >> he is a socialist. his idea is find a problem that doesn't exist and get government to intervene. >> a socialist. really? so much for the people who got the message. >> it's not helping the economy to put the people who are the engine of the economy against the people who rely on that

engine. he's been biting the hand that fed him since '08. >> since when is trying to make the system more fair biting the hand that fete you? these guys can't be serious. >> did you see the wait out there? i kept asking is there a vip entrance because we're a vip. >> you're a vip. that means you don't wait in line anywhere. these are actual quotes from people at the romney event. they are funding mr. romney's campaign. they're the same people who think common folk don't get it. but it's really them who don't get it. do we really want them calling the shots for this country? joining me now is bob shrum, a democratic strategist who ran ted kennedy's campaign against mitt romney in 1994. and alicia menendez. thanks to you both for being here tonight. and before we start, i want to

give a big shoutout to the actors and actresses from our friends at political subverseties. they perform every saturday here in new york. bob, let me start with you. this was so brazen. billionaires, the koch brothers. now, bob, you've run a lot of campaigns. how will this play? >> oh, it's not going to play well at all. look, it was a spectacle that goes to a point that i'm going to make in my column in "the daily beast" tomorrow. he's a candidate by the rich for the rich who's indifferent and insensitive to the middle class. you know the guy you quoted there who said -- or that the improv guys quoted that said obama's a socialist? he's a bozo who runs a restaurant in the hamptons called the american hotel. i've eaten there. it's way overpriced. food's gone down hill. he ought to pay a price for this.

maybe the democrats who live out there should eat somewhere else and get a better meal. what this was was greed on parade. a group of people who care only about their own bottom line. they don't care about what happens to the country in the sense of creating fairness, economic opportunity. unbelievable that some woman would say people in the middle class and lower middle class, they're not educated enough. they don't have the brilliance of my judgment. i hope everybody in america gets a chance to see and understand what went on in the hamptons this week. >> alicia, that is why we wanted to dramatize this. fine if you have wealthy people supporting you. i think it's a bit brazen that not one but two billionaires host you over a weekend, but fine. but the language of people like people that could vote my babysitter, nail people. they just don't understand how the country ought to work. that kind of arrogance is what i think is very offensive to the

american public. >> they talk about the politics of envy. perhaps they should talk about the politics of con desengs. many view him as being out of touch. it's not about the car for your elevators. it's not your wife saying she never considered herself wealthy. it's all of this in the aggregate. and it lacks logic. if the lady at the nail salon, if the college kid went and looks at the policies mitt romney is for, they don't benefit them. it doesn't help her plan for retirement. it doesn't help her in any measurable way. >> does this damage romney politically? as people see these billionaires two in one weekend. koch who's putting up $400

million to defeat the president. these attitudes we dramatize tonight. give me the politics to that for the average voters as they see this. >> it's not he's rich as you suggested earlier. that's not the problem. we've had rich candidates. franklin roosevelt, the kennedys, theodore roosevelt. people thought they were not in there fighting for their own class. roosevelt was called a traitor to his class. romney over and over and over again and not just in this event gives the sense that he doesn't care about those hard working americans. he doesn't understand them. he doesn't have any concern for their lives. there's an empathy gap. that's got to correlate with voting in the fall. >> he's correct. i remember growing up in new york, i was brought as an elementary school student to franklin roosevelt's hyde park home. wealthy estate. we looked up to it because they said this was the guy who came from common people. you saw it in the context of

this guy came out and fought for us. and he didn't distort the truth. romney claimed the president doesn't have a job plan. listen. >> i've got a five-step plan -- >> we've always encouraged young people take a shot. go for it. take a risk. get the education. barrow money if you have to from your parents. start a business. >> so he's talking about his plan. which no one knows what the plan is. he attacks the president on friday when the job numbers come. we still don't know a substantive plan. and before we can get out of his attack of the president on the job numbers friday, he's galavanting around doing "the great gatsby" reenactment. >> this should be a great time for mitt romney. the jobs numbers were disappointing. but rather than taking that opportunity to step up and offer

real leadership and say here's how a jobs report would be different under president romney, he takes the opportunity to challenge the president to attack the president and really when you look at what americans want, they want real answers and leadership. they're not getting it from this cabinet. >> and i sense, bob, there's some kind of nervousness even among his own party. even john boehner says this weekend, well, america's not going to fall in love with romney. you've run big campaigns, presidential campaigns. are you sensing that even his party established leadership and campaign people are a bit nervous about how he's conducting himself? >> yeah. in private a lot of them will say he's an awkward candidate. he doesn't have a deliver of ronald reagan's gift. reagan was a conservative. but he could speak to the common man. he could somehow reach in and appeal to those reagan democrats. romney over and over and over

again, that's $10,000, all the other things you cited at the start of this. says $340,000 isn't much money. he makes himself completely out of touch with the concerns of ordinary people. that's what all the polling is showing. the democrats have a 19-point advantage on cares about and understands the needs of the middle class in the latest wall street journal poll. romney can't win if those numbers stay that way. >> do you think as he continues to identify with the 1% as we continue to see weekends like this and jet skiing, will this drive out a base vote for the democrats? will people get so offended that they will come out in bigger numbers saying we can't allow these 1% elitist types to turn back the clock on the things that we value? >> i don't know that that is actually what's going to drive out a base vote. i think good organization, i think there are a lot of structural challenges,

registering, reregistering, getting them to re-buy into the obama narrative. i think the anti-romney will account for a part of the democratic base that is already fired up that has watched this primary process. but i think when we talk about the democratic base, that's walking tackling. >> and we'll have to get around voter suppression schemes but we'll talk about that later in the program. alicia menendez and bob shrum, thank you for your time. >> thanks. coming up, he's calling on them to roll back the bush tax cuts for the rich. and make the middle class the real priority in america. plus decoding the gop talking points about mitt romney. the scientist here at "politicsnation" has created a fantastic new machine that translates republican speak into english. and a republican fund raiser for romney is now in charge of

helping educate voters in pennsylvania. what could possibly go wrong? you're watching "politicsnation" on msnbc. [ male announcer ] you sprayed them.

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the president wants to get rid of bush tax cuts for the wealthy. mitt romney doesn't. what a surprise. that's next. [ male announcer ] let's say you need to take care of legal matters.

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we're back on "politicsnation." with republican spending deflecting and doing verbal somersaults away from questions on romney's offshore accounts, his swiss bank account, his secret tax returns. here's bobby jindal. >> is it fair for voters to consider, governor, what mitt romney does with his money outside the united states? >> definitely want to answer that question. couple things i want to again correct. i will get to that question. but that election was eight years ago. this election, this is a choice between president obama, his failed policies and governor romney. this past week david axelrod -- >> whoa whoa whoa, wait a minute. hold it. hold on. stop playing that clip. honestly. i don't understand a word he's saying. but we're in luck. i present to you all the alfred

c. sharpton make sense-o-nator. this takes republican and translates what they're trying to say into plain english. let's put it into use for the first time with the jindal interview. >> okay. getting a readout from the marvelous make-sense-o-nator. looks like he's saying wait. okay. i hate this question. anything but willard's tax shelters. think, bobby think. i don't know. stop asking me these questions. let me think. where are my talking points? ronald reagan is great. so is mitt romney -- forget that. how long is this segment? i've got to eat up more time. i can't let him talk. if i keep talking, he won't ask the questions again.

>> thank you, fantastic marvelous gop make-sense-o-nator. that makes way more sense. there's a reason his supporters have trouble defending the overseas money. this buried treasure might just be cursed. joining me now is ryan grim wsh washington bureau chief for "the "huffington post" i don't think i'll need that translater for you guys, but ryan, we're having a little fun. but this really -- will this offshoring play an impact in the next months? >> unless he addresses it, it's going to be hard to go away. later in the -- barack obama wants to spend money we don't

have. wait a minute. why don't we have that money? one reason we don't have that money is that so many rich people can afford sophisticated accountants who can hide the money in offshore tax havens. then they can hire lobbyists who then write loopholes into the tax code. now he wants to run for president complaining about the deficit and saying that the tax code is too complicated. at some point, you've just got to say wait a minute. what are you talking about here? >> yeah. i think at this point it would be a good time to have that. perry, let me throw to you what the romney campaign did say. a spokesperson for the romney campaign says mitt romney has a successful career in the private sector. pays every dime of taxes he owes, has given generously to charitable organizations and served numerous causes greater

than himself. he never addresses the offshore accounts. will he have to give us more on this account, the spokes lady for the romney campaign? >> we call this is a non-answer inpolitics. no one is questioning whether he paid taxes legally. no one questions if he gave money to charity. we know he does. it goes to the broader point. the president laid out a plan he would not cut taxes for the rich. and romney has favored this cutting the tax for the rich plan. this is about a broader issue of which candidate is for the rich and which isn't. romney has to address these things in the broader context before voters get a sense he's not a candidate, he's not open. and he is the candidate of the 1%. this is not helping when he comes out in a weekend he's also jet skiing that he won't talk about his accounts either. >> now, ryan, he also deals with the problem of transparency. no one's accusing him of doing

anything wrong, but he's not transparent. look at presidential tax returns. there's a pattern here. there's a history of barack obama released 12 years. george w. bush released eight years of tax returns. bill clinton eight years. ronald reagan at least six years. romney -- willard romney, just two years. even his father when he was running for president, george romney, released 12 years. so it's the appearance that you're not being transparent. >> right. what's really remarkable about this is that mitt romney very well could become president and he could do it while going through less of a vetting than his own nominees will go through. you know, you can't be a deputy assistant secretary at the department of transportation giving up the amount of information that he's giving up. so -- and i don't think he's going to be able to get away with only releasing this one year. but we don't know what's in those returns. maybe he made the calculation

what's in those returns is so damaging politically to him he'd rather take this heat. maybe he took some tax amnesty a couple years ago and that's why he doesn't want to do it. >> but, ryan, when you look at that and i'm stepping on your answer, but i need to ask you this. when you look at that and you look at what "vanity fair" just came out with in its story. $3 million swiss bank act, at least 12 bain funds in the cayman islands, bermuda corporation wholly owned by willard mitt romney. when you look at him not releasing tax returns. and you said something that really struck me. that he may go to the white house if he were to win with not having been vetted as much as anybody that would serve in government. will the media really get him get away with that? or are they going to come after him this fall and make him answer the questions? >> i mean, he's been getting

beaten up on it badly. that's why he finally put one return out in april. and the "vanity fair" story has sparked it again. so it looks like -- you know, the media whatever you want to say about them they do want information. if you're trying to keep information from them, they're going to go out and try to get that. he's going to face a punishing few months if he's going to try to get all the way to the white house without releasing this. >> but perry, ryan makes another point that i think is interesting. and that is that he may say well this is the least damaging. because when you look at the fact that a new gallup poll shows president obama's ads on the bain capital affiliation, for example, they're working. amongst swing state voters who say the ads have changed their minds about a candidate 76% of them now favor the president.

so maybe in balance he sees these things are hurting him. and maybe he knows that if everything comes out, it would hurt him even more. >> i think we know that's true in some ways. because during the primaries, you could see when he was asked about this. one cnn debate he was very slippery about it. he was frustrated about the precedent with his father giving more returns out. the strange thing about this is he's been running for president about eight years. he's been thinking about running and ran in '08 and ran this time. he's had a lot of time to fix his taxes. it's a mystery to what he was thinking. this was an obvious problem that was going to come up. but he seems not to care enough about it to fix it before now. talking about it five months before the election. >> ryan, the other part of this is media is concerned about a lot of the details in the scrutiny. but the general perception given the voters is here's a rich guy advocating for rich people to

have tax cuts. who's hanging out in the hamptons jet skiing. i think overall the average voters is not going to audit their taxes if they come out. it's the overall broad perception of this 1% of for the 1% by the 1% are going into the white house. that's a big political problem. >> i think that the unpatriotic part of it is what's going to be most damaging to him. i think the romney campaign is starting to realize that. that people think that there's something wrong with having your money in the cayman islands or a swiss bank account. i agree with perry. a swiss bank account, really? he's wanted to run back since, i'd say high school. and that he could make a blunder of that level is just astounding. and so if voters only think one or two things about a candidate, one of the things they think is

he has taken his money and taken it out of the country. that's damaging and going to be heart to get over. >> thank you for coming on the show tonight. >> thanks. still ahead, republicans are circling the wagons to protect the bush tax cuts for the rich. but we'll look at the real legacy of the so-called trickle down economics. plus how some of the attacks on president obama are literally, literally out of this world. stay with us. [ morgan ] right now when you use your visa card,

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folks, have you checked us out on facebook? the conversation is going all day long. today people in "politicsnation" are writing about mitt romney's hampton donors and their disdain for common people. bethy writes quote, we understand the political system and its effect on the majority of americans much better than the romney's donors can imagine. we also understand what the folks at the hamptons are trying to do to keep us in our place. kevin has a different take. romney doesn't know common people. he says. we want to hear what you think. please head over to facebook and search "politicsnation" and like

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♪ over a decade ago republicans promised that if the rich got a massive tax break, it would boost the economy and that wealth would trickle down to the rest of us. while we've seen what a decade of bush tax cutting did to the whole country, today president obama took another step toward repairing the damage. he called on congress to let the bush tax cuts expire for the wealthiest americans making more than a quarter million dollars a year. >> we've tried it their way. it didn't work. at the beginning of the last decade, congress passed trillions of dollars of tax cuts that benefitted the wealthiest americans more than anyone else. the wealthy got wealthier, but most americans struggled.

instead of creating more jobs, we had the slowest job growth in half a century. instead of widespread prosperity, the typical family saw its income fall. so we don't need more top-down economics. >> he's right. under president clinton the top tax rate for the richest americans was nearly 40%. that didn't hurt growth. in fact, it did the opposite. during the clinton era, the private sector produced 20.8 million jobs. then president bush took office and lowered the tax rates to 35%. that's when trickle down fizzled out. during the bush era, the private sector lost more than $600,0600 jobs. so much for taxes for the wealthy create jobs. have they really forgotten the real legacy of the bush presidency? the national debt went up by

$4.9 trillion. the median income dropped 4.2%. and 8.2 million more americans slid into poverty. joining me now is joe connorson of national memo.com. and malia henderson for the washington post. thank you both for joining me tonight. >> good to see you, rev. >> good to be here. >> john, let me start with you. aren't the bush tax cuts for the rich the best argument against trickle down economics? >> they are a good argument and i'll tell you why. as you pointed out just now, we lost jobs when bush -- what was then considered a huge deficit. the first thing he did as president in 1993 was to increase the top rate. back up to 39%. the republicans screamed as you will recall. not one republican vote, vice

president gore had to break the tie in the senate. and they all said -- gingrich, all the people still around now -- this will start a depression, recession, worse. we know what happened. >> again, that's interesting. because a lot of people forget that. when bill clinton came in inaugurated january of '93, we were in a huge deficit. >> that's correct. first president bush left us in a deficit. it wasn't enough to overcome the initial reagan tax cuts. even though reagan also raised taxes. they hadn't raised taxes enough. clinton came in, realized he had to raise taxes. he i think quite courageously did so against tremendous opposition. a lot of democrats lost their offices in the next election, term. he lost control of the congress including the lady who is to become his -- the mother of his

future son-in-law was kicked out of her congressional seat in philadelphia. so this was a big blood bath for the democrats but they were proved right. >> let me bring the politics of this in. the battle for the middle class. president obama today asking the congress to compromise by extend tax cuts for the middle class, not the wealthy. let me play you something he said and get your response of what the politics should be. >> so we should agree to extend the tax cuts for the middle class. let's agree to do what we agree on. right? let's not hold the vast majority of the economy hostage while we debate the merits of another tax cut for the wealthy. -- for the 98% of americans who

make less than $250,000 for another year. >> with republicans and another position of being between a rock and a hard place. what he's saying is don't hold the middle class hostage. we can keep fighting and arguing about the rich, but let's extend the middle class tax cuts for a year. politically how do they deal with that? >> well, i mean, you've seen them already push back. you've seen mitt romney release a statement and say raising taxes at this time of economic crisis on anyone just isn't a good idea. you saw the president flanked by average americans. where he'll talk about this this week. and i think to his credit or to his benefit, i think he is on the side of most americans. 2/3 of which think that this is the right thing to do. keeping these tax cuts in place and raising them on people -- families who make over $250,000.

you have seen some grumbling from some in their own parties. saying they wanted to extend tax cuts to people who are making over a million dollars. but it looks like there's going to be some agreement with this president and you're going to hear him say this over and over again and frame himself as somebody who's on the side of the middle class and mitt romney and the republicans as a party that favors millionaires, favors the rich. in some ways it coalesces with this argument they're making on the sunday shows. yesterday this whole idea of romney being in favor of sort of a bush strategy on steroids. you saw them invoke bill clinton. and their underlying argument is that democrats do it better in terms of taking care of the middle class. and so far polls do show that president obama is on solid ground there with the middle class. >> well, joe, if you look at the polls and people -- americans

questioned about who they blame the u.s. economy on, 68% of all americans say president obama. -- president bush. 49% of republicans are saying president bush. so as nia was talking and we see romney connected to bush, that cannot be helpful in an election year. >> i don't think it will be helpful. they haven't exactly been pulling george w. bush out of hiding to come and campaign for him. >> you noticed. >> yes, i've noticed. the thing we haven't talked about is deficits. all along the republicans have been campaigning as if they're the ones who want to close the deficits. the truth of the matter is the bush tax cuts as you pointed out before, exploded the deficits. the clinton tax increase led to surpluses. we had the first surplus in generations. the president now is trying to have balanced program. he's trying to make investments. he's trying to make sure middle class and working people can

spend money to boost the economy. and he's saying the people who had the big party under bush, they need to pay so we can start to deal with deficits in the future. >> and it is a proven fact any number of economists has raised that if the middle class has more money, they spend money. they spend more money. it helps the economy. >> that's right. >> and it's going to be hard to argue against that. >> that's right. i mean, you're right. when folks have money in their pocket, they buy big screen tvs or iphones or ipods. that's what generates more jobs and economic activity. that's essentially what i think you're going to see democrats argue. that the more money in folks' pockets i think this would put $3,000 in people's pockets. they'll go out and spend it. that'll generate economic activity and get this economy going of but let's face it. this right now, it's political theater. this isn't going to happen. it's unlikely that they're going to get any sort of a bipartisan agreement on this. these tax cuts are going to

expire in january. it's doubtful anything's going to happen before this november election. >> joe, isn't the romney proposals and his whole campaign brazen though? when you look at the fact that tax cuts for millions were $141,000 under. and under romney it would be $282,000. it's like bush on steroids. >> it sounds that way. for romney to go around saying he's going to close the deficit, he's the candidate of fiscal responsibility at the same time he's proposing something like that which we know led to huge deficits and debt in the last administration is truly brazen. i agree with that. it's -- he needs to be called on that. there'll come a time some time between now and november where he'll have to face if nobody else but president obama in

debate. we'll see if he has an answer. >> we'll see. thank you for your time tonight. >> thank you. coming up, first a top republican senator said a new voter i.d. law could help them win the state of pennsylvania. what's their new trick? putting a romney fund raiser in charge of educating the public about the law? fox meet hen house. that's coming up. plus how some new right wing attacks on the president are light years away from reality. stay with us. [ morgan ] right now when you use your visa card, you're entered for a chance to win a trip to the olympic games for life. to cheer the summer athletes to new heights, starting in 2016... as you experience every moment, every emotion, every four years... for the rest of your life.

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after all, when you're going the distance, it's nice to have the experience and commitment to go along with you. keep dreaming. keep doing. go long. first republicans of pennsylvania and their governor rush the new voter idea. then a republican leader let slip what the law will help romney do. win the state. now comes part three. a romney fund raiser hired to educate people about the law. it's amazing. and it's next. sprayed them. thought they were dead. huh? [ male announcer ] should've used roundup. it kills weeds to the root, so they don't come back. roundup. no root. no weed. no problem.

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responsibility. what's your policy? pennsylvania republicans are kicking their block the vote plan into high gear. over the weekend the state's republican governor rejected an urgent request from six civil groups to delay his restrictive

new voter i.d. law. a law that requires everyone who wants to vote to show a government-issued photo i.d. and now a philadelphia paper reports that the governor has hired a mitt romney fund raiser to educate people about the law. his company's website included some jaw-dropping sample videos. including this one that paints a bright future of america's dark voting history. including the time when women couldn't vote. >> your right to vote. it's one thing you never want to miss out on. this year the law requires that every pennsylvania voter show a photo i.d. at the polls. >> the video has since been pulled offline. what these ads don't say is the law could disenfranchise 758,000 voters in pennsylvania.

there's a much higher number than the state first reported. and it's higher than president obama's 2008 margin of victory over john mccain. the 2012 race between mitt romney and president obama is even tighter. which means this voter i.d. law could make a big difference. and that's the point. a point a pennsylvania republican already admitted. >> voter i.d. which is going to allow governor romney to win the state of pennsylvania, done. >> joining me now is jim burn, chairman of the pennsylvania's democratic party. thanks for your time tonight, mr. chairman. >> good evening, reverend. thank you for the opportunity. >> last week the governor pledged to make sure all voters are aware of the new law. do you trust a romney fund raiser to get the word out? >> no, i do not. we've known all along here in

the democratic party that this was a sham. we've caught the republicans, governor corbett and mr. turzai in three lies so far. number one, there's a voter fraud problem in pennsylvania. when governor corbett was attorney general, he prosecuted zero cases of voter fraud. >> how many? >> zero. zero. >> he -- the present governor was the attorney general and when he was the attorney general and could have dealt with so-called voting fraud, he did not prosecute any voter fraud cases. >> that is absolutely correct, reverend. that was lie number one. lie number two, that this was not about politics. well, mr. turzai whose clip you just played clearly established the real legislative intent behind this piece of legislation. and lie number three which you touched on, reverend, was initially the sick tear of the commonwealth had said 1% maybe would be effected. no, sir. it's more like 758,000 pennsylvanians could be affected

by this illegal -- which we believe illegal -- voter i.d. law. >> now, let's ask the political question. could this make the difference in terms of willard mitt romney winning pennsylvania, beating the president if these amounts of people are disenfranchised because of these photo i.d. laws? >> we're not going to allow that to happen here in pennsylvania. we're not going to go down that road. the pennsylvania democratic party has always had a better field plan than our opponents on the other side. this year is no different. especially with the stakes being so high, maybe never higher in our nation's history. we're out there right now. we're outreaching. we're identifying and we're recruiting. those who may be effected by this legislation. when we go to the doors like we do and we canvas every presidential cycle, we make sure that our supporters and voters have what they need by way of issues for our candidates. this year we're adding another

box. that is do you have the proper identification in order to vote? and if you do not, we will make sure you have it. >> now, it's very important that you said proper identification. because as you know, i've been involved in trying to bring this issue out around the country. and people need to understand you, me, no one is talking about people not having i.d. we're saying these new i.d. requirements. have the same i.d. we always had. when we voted for bush or reagan or clinton. we want the same i.d. why do we need new i.d. if there's been no fraud, jim? >> that's the million dollar question. that's why there's a lawsuit filed. the court will hear it on july 25th. as practicing attorney general in pennsylvania, i've looked at the merits. i think there are merits to this. having said that, i like the arguments that are being made. but having said that, we need to move forward as if this bill will be on the ground in november. >> thank you so much, jim burn. thank you for being here. and i am on a national tour to

get out the word no matter who you vote for that we've got to have the right i.d. i'll be in atlanta, georgia, tomorrow. go the the website and get all the information. we'll be right back. mid grade dark roast forest fresh full tank brain freeze cake donettes rolling hot dogs bag of ice anti-freeze wash and dry diesel self-serve fix a flat jumper cables 5% cashback signup for 5% cashback at gas stations through september. it pays to discover.

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space. the final frontier. these are the attacks from the gop boldly taking earthly politics out of this world. first we saw republicans wondering if the president was really on america's side. >> i'm focusing on barack obama and the people that he's been associated with. >> but do you suspect -- >> they're anti-american nature. >> we've got to stop apologizing for america abroad. >> obama is the greatest threat tho the continuation of american civilization in our lifetime. >> then some republicans decided the president had a european

flare. remember willard? >> we have a president who wants to turn america into another european welfare state. he takes his interest in the socialists in europe. >> now republicans are taking the attacks out of this world. the rnc chairman says the president's from another planet. >> do we want another four years of this stagnant job growth with a president that acts like he's not living on earth. >> that guy's just lost in space. since when is 1600 pennsylvania not on earth? i don't think he'll moonwalk this one back. he's not the only right wing space invader. >> he doesn't seem to operate in the same planet you and i do. he has -- this sort of planet obama out there. >> the president must be on another planet. >> you guys are the ones out of this world.

folks, let's agree on one thing. both presidential candidates are from planet earth. we have enough problems to deal with on this planet. so let's keep these campaigns grounded. we heard the arguments the president wasn't born in americ now we're hearing these he's from outer space. the real problem is not where they think he comes from. it's where he's at now. 1600 pennsylvania avenue. that's the problem. thanks for watching. i'm al sharpton. "hardball" starts right now. tax bracketology. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm michael smerconish in for chris matthews. leading off tonight, give me shelter. if you're barack obama and you've just seen another weak jobs report, what do you do? you change the subject.

the president and his allies are hitting mitt romney on two fronts. today, mr. obama called for extending the bush tax cuts for people making less than $250,000 and his campaign has been blasting romney's offshore accounts suggesting they are tax shelters for the wealthy republican. the fight for the middle class is on. one reason team obama is feeling good despite the sluggish economy is playing itself out on tv. today, we got more evidence the president is winning the ad war in the swing states. plus, the pray away the gay movement is reeling today. one of its leaders says he was wrong that there is no so-called cure for homosexuality. allen chaim bers joins us tonight. and think political debates can get heated here? well, check this tv face off from iman, jordan out. >> nobody got hurt and let me finish with a solution in search