that the steel factory closed down two years after i left bain capital. i was no longer there. so that's hardly something which is on my watch. >> but these documents show it was on romney's watch. he was getting paid over $100,000 as the president and ceo of bain capital while it was shutting down companies and ruining lives. that includes 258 jobs lost at ampad in 2000. the 750 jobs lost at gs industries in 2001. and the 1700 jobs lost at behring by the time it declared bankruptcy in 2002. these are the voices we've heard on this show. i've talked to people who worked at these companies. i heard their stories about being taken over and taken apart by mitt romney's bain capital. >> they brought us back at

reduced wages and no benefits to speak of. our retirement was gone. we had to pay more for health care. it was terrible conditions. >> it was just a horrific way to treat people. i would hope that our president would not be trying to create wealth for an elite group of individuals, but would in fact would be looking out for the best interest of all americans. >> joining me now is a boston globe political correspondent who helped to write this key article. and eugene robinson an msnbc political analyst. kellen, let me start with you. the romney campaign put out a statement today about your reporting. they said quote, this is not accurate. governor romney left bain capital in february of 1999 to run the olympics and had no input on investments or management of companies after that point.

what's your response to that statement? >> well, they're sticking to their party line that they've gone with all along now. so far they haven't disputed the factual information in the article. that's important to note. the documents say what they say and the romney campaign isn't disputing that. what they're disputing is the conclusions drawn by some folks in our article which suggests that, you know, it's hard to believe for many folks that romney held these titles. as you noted, continued to draw a paycheck as an executive. remained the sole owner of bain capital. and planned to return after running the olympics. yet he says he played no role in their investments during that period. that's what the folks seem to take issue with. >> gene, when you read the article and have a former s.e.c. commissioner saying and i'm reading the quote -- it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to say he was technically in charge on paper but had nothing to do with the operation. are you telling me he owns a company but had no say in the

investments? i mean, that's a little hard to believe if he owned a company, was getting paid, but had nothing to do with any of the investments and what was going on with the company. >> well, it seems to me if you step back, there are really only two possibilities here. either a lie is being told now, or a lie was told to the s.e.c. in all those filings. and it is not a technicality who runs a company. especially when you're talking to the s.e.c. this ask a key piece of information that you have a responsibility -- a legal responsibility to get right. so they can't both be true. he can't have been telling the truth both in those filings and now about his role with bain capital. it's just not possible. >> well, in fact, the obama campaign strategist stephanie cutter slamming romney on a conference call today. let me show you what cutter said

on that point. >> either mitt romney through his own words and his own signature was misrepresenting his position at bain to the s.e.c. which is a felony. or he was misrepresenting his position at bain to the american people. >> callum, was he lying then or is he lying now? >> good question. there's not a firm answer to that. one thing i can tell you, it's a footnote in history that goes forgotten. when are m romney ran for governor in massachusetts, there was a dispute whether he was eligible to run because he'd been living and working in utah for the past couple years. one of his defenses was that he took a leave of absence, not a retirement or resignation from bain capital. he said leave of absence. he added he intended to return after the olympics. that did not happen. but as you noted, it's a can't have it both ways type of situation. >> now, it's very interesting,

gene, because if you have the candidate, all these technical points in terms of business may be a little boring to a lot of people including me, but when you have a candidate now that either misled the s.e.c. or is misleading us now. and then when he went to establish why he could qualify to run for governor, he's either misleading them then or misleading us now. you're starting to see a pattern here that is disturbing if you're talking about somebody running for president of the united states. >> if you're talking about the pattern, what it looks like is being highly selective about which facts you choose to highlight at any given time. you know, if you look at the bigger picture, though, this is going to continue to be a problem i think for the romney campaign. the complexity and the exotic nature of his personal finances and his history at bain. so he says he left but he was

still ceo and chairman, and i believe obviously informed as to what the company was doing. how can you have that both ways? the offshore accounts and companies in bermuda and the cayman islands. all those things may have made sense at the time and looked a certain way at the time. they can look in a completely different light when running for president. and, you know, i think there's going to be more of this kind of revelation as the campaign goes on. >> now, callum, when you look at the fact that bain capital put this statement out. mitt romney left bain capital in february 1999 to run the olympics and has had absolutely no involvement with the management or investment activities of the firm. if that is true, that means he misled the s.e.c. in the forms

of 1999 and 2000 and 2001. and also when he was establishing why he was eligible to run for governor of massachusetts. >> that's the way a lot of people feel, al. the phrase they've used is legacy signatory issues. there were some entities created before february of '99. their contention is these existed after mitt romney left. he was in charge. and it was more convenient than restructuring the management on those business entities than to ask him to sign those documents. they say that's why his name appears on documents appearing as the man in charge though in a practical sense, he was not in charge. the problem with that, though, we found their reference to five different business entities that are under his control. and those weren't created until january of 2002. so the legacy signatory issues argument could not apply to those five. >> eugene, your response to

that? five companies that didn't even exist to 2002 and they would be -- they were under his management. how could that be if he was not there? >> well, i personally think the answer is that he never really left. you know, he may have left in a technical sense, but he never really left. i mean, here's my question. why would you sign your name to documents with the s.e.c. that you know are false? why would you take responsibility before the s.e.c. for things that a company might do if you were not in fact running that company? that's a foolish thing to do. >> let's look at the fact that the boston herald posted in february '99. this was the day after he took over the olympics and supposedly left bain. they said quote, romney said he will stay on as a part-timer with bain. providing input on investment and key personnel decisions. but he will leave running

day-to-day operations to the executive committee. he himself said he was staying on part-time. the reason all this is important is romney said that we should judge him by what he does at bain. he defended his record at bain and he says this is why voters should trust him to fix the economy. let me show it so people will feel i'm not misquoting mr. romney. >> 25 years in business including business with other nations, competing with companies across the world has given me an understanding of what it is that makes america a good place to grow and add jobs. someone who spent their career in the economy is more suited to help fix the economy than someone who spent his life in politics and as a community organizer. >> so gene, if he spent his life in business, he was not a community organizer, yet we find he says he either is telling falsehood to the s.e.c. and was just signing off on business that he had no knowledge of or

in fact he was in charge and was losing jobs and was bankrupting companies, this is what he told us to judge him on. don't judge me as governor. don't judge me in the olympics. judge me at bain. and when we go to bain, he gets a little pain. >> well, you know, i just think that all of us basically need to take responsibility for what we sign our names to. and he, in fact, signed his name ceo and chairman of bain during this period where he now wants to say i had nothing to do with the company. those two things can't both be true. >> well, i think he's going to have a lot to continue to explain. callum borchers and eugene robinson, thank you for coming on the show tonight. >> my pleasure, al. >> great to be here. ahead, remember when i said romney wanted to get booed at the naacp speech? he proved me right.

the free stuff controversy is coming up. plus george w. bush and dick cheney gave us a lot of firsts. tonight we have another one. but somebody was hoping we wouldn't notice. and an investigation into the penn state sex scandal accuses the legendary coach and top officials of a massive coverup. will we see justice? you're watching "politicsnation" on msnbc. whoa. right? get. out. exactly! really?! [ mom ] what? shut the front door. right? woop-woop! franklin delano! [ male announcer ] hey! there's oreo creme under that fudge! oreo fudge cremes. indescribably good.

folks, have you checked us out on facebook? today our fans had a lot to say about romney's free stuff comments. sue says he assumes that all most black folks care about is free stuff. insulting but not shocking coming from him. i know exactly how he feels about me and folks like me.

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we're back with more on the fallout over willard mitt romney's naacp speech. last night i mentioned he wanted to get booed in front of that crowd. and hours later he confirmed it. in montana he told donors quote, i hope people understand this. your friends who like obama care, you remind them of this.

if they want more stuff from the government, tell them to vote for the other guy. more free stuff. but don't forget nothing is really free. free stuff. you mean stuff for common people like food stamps, stuff like health care, stuff like student loans. this comment cuts to the core of who mitt romney really is. mr. 1%. mr. vip. >> you know what would make me happy? free birth control. >> if you're looking for free stuff, vote for the other guy. that's not what i'm about. >> we've encouraged young people take a shot. go for it. take a risk. get the education. borrow money if you have to from your parents. start a business. i'm not going to promise you all sorts of free stuff. it doesn't take a leader to promise giveaways. it takes a leader to ask for

sacrifice and really lead. >> but sometimes willard just loves free stuff. like millions for defense. like huge tax breaks for big oil. and that paul ryan budget plan that takes millions from the poor for a giveaway to the rich. joining me now is joe madison, nationally syndicating radio host. and nira tandum. thank you both for being here tonight. >> thank you. >> joe, what message is he sending with this free stuff comment hours after that speech? >> that poor people, the working poor are shiftless, lazy, beggars. not the people who work like in houston, texas, where maybe he should have stopped off and met with the janitors that clean 90

bathrooms in a five-hour period and only get paid $8 and some cents an hour. and jpmorgan only wants to give them 50 cents extra hour over a ten-year period. that's who he's talking about. then, of course, if we bring this up on our side, it's class warfare. but what they forget, reverend sharpton, is that many people's social security, medicaid, medicare, many of these programs, we've paid taxes. we've paid into these programs and gee, how about wall street and the free money they got at the end of the bush administration? >> well, let me go to you then. because i think progress crunched the numbers and found it would raise taxes for more

than 2 million working families. after giving a $250,000 tax cuts to millionaires. we're talking about giveaways, we're going to give to the rich and take from the poor then accuse the poor on top of that of wanting free stuff and giveaways. >> i mean, i just want to agree with joe madison about this. i think the question is who does this government work for? and each time that question has been posed to mitt romney it's clear whether it's his fund raiser at the hamptons or his policies that matter most, he believes the government should work for the wealthiest and well established and people who are connected in the political process. the fact is that his policies are actually worse than the bush administration. he's calling for a 20% across the board tax cut that would provide millions upon millions

of tax breaks to the people who have done the best in this economy. and not any support -- in fact, you noted think progress found out it was $2 million -- 2.2 million people who would be affected, african-american people who would be affected by a tax increase by mitt romney. >> while he's giving a tax cut to millionaires. >> and i think the issue is here who does he stand with? middle class folks? people who are struggling? people who are the backbone of this economy. people who are the reasons we have growth. or the wealthiest americans? and in this economy, the wealthiest americans don't need help or more tax breaks. they need to be part of a fair share. that's why it's so important that the president this week talked about fair taxes. taxes where everyone pays their fair share. and that is a huge difference

between mitt romney and president obama. >> now, joe, rush limbaugh says romney was booed because he was white. listen to this. >> obama's the preezy. he's confident they'll boo romney simply because romney's white. he's confident of that. so romney takes advantage of the occasion. he makes a speech that is, really, i think over these people's heads in the sense his audience was much larger than just inside the convention. >> now, i want your response to that, but three things i get from this. one he was booed because he was white. so i guess joe biden and other speakers are not white. second, he was talking over their heads, whatever that means. and talking to a wider audience which may mean that rush and i agree for once, that he wasn't really there to talk to those people. he was there to use them as a back board to talk to some other people, joe. >> well, let -- you're right on three. i'm with you on that one.

that speech was not written for that audience or the intended audience the naacp leadership represents. you know. i served on that board for 14 years. i watched ronald reagan come through there. i watched both bushes come through there. i watched dukakis come through there, clinton come through there. they've been applauded. ross perot was even taken down in nashville. here's what's crazy about what he said. when he was introduced, he was white when he walked across the stage and got applause. and he was white when he finished and got a standing ovation. what bothers me is how hypocritical the other side is. nobody yesterday or today accused rush limbaugh of playing the race card. if that had been the two of us on our radio show or your tv

show also, we would have gotten e-mails, facebook comments, tweets and everything else saying we were playing the race card. this man not only plays the race card, he sits there and shuffles the deck and then tries to somehow suggest that the speech was over everybody's head. not recognizing that these are intelligent leaders in the communities. these aren't just delegates who are coming there for a vacation. these people are leaders wsh ministers, educated. once again it's rush limbaugh at his worst playing the race card. you know what? i'm glad he said it, but here's the other final thing. not one republican leader has denounced once again anything that limbaugh said. >> neera let me ask you this. romney himself went on fox after the speech and he said he expected to get booed. let me let you hear what he said.

>> i think we expected that, of course. but i'm going to give the same message to the naacp that i give across the country which is that obama care is killing jobs and if jobs is the priority, then we're going to have to replace obama care. i spoke with a number of african-american leaders after the event and they said, you know, a lot of folks don't want to say they're not going to be voting for barack obama, but they're disappointed in his lack of policies to improve our schools, disappointed in urban policy, disappointed in the economy. >> neera, he said he expected to get booed. he went in and attacked the president's affordable care act calling it obama care. i mean, he really baited to get booed. and people like me think that was part of the strategy. >> to attack obama care and use that term is very lewd, but obviously the affordable care

act is going to ensure that millions of americans, millions of americans who happen to be white, black, latino, asian are going to have affordable care. and the irony of this entire system -- or this entire discussion is that mitt romney has turned himself into a pretzel on the issue of health care. he was supportive of health care when he was -- he was supportive of this plan as governor in a progressive state, massachusetts, and now he has turned himself as the largest opponent of the affordable care act even though it's the same thing he proposed. >> and it was based on the same premise. i'm going to have to leave it -- >> it's the same thing. i think this is a level of cynicism to just turn on everything you belief in order to win an election. >> okay. cynicism or opportunism. we'll see. joe, neera thank you both for your time. >> anytime. coming up, vice president

fired up the naacp crowd today talking about the fight for the heart and soul of america. and something is happening tonight at dick cheney's house in wyoming that's never happened before. and it involves mitt romney. [ groans ] [ marge ] psst.

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mitt romney has managed to win his party's nomination without appearing in public with two major figures in the party. george bush and dick cheney. that's about to change though. the former vice president is hosting a fund raiser for willard in wyoming tonight. it begins at a swanky country club with a golf course designed by arnold palmer. i bet it has a lot of quiet rooms. then supporters can pay $30,000 to hang out at cheney's house. it'll be romney's first appearance with dick cheney on the campaign trail. he still hasn't appeared with bush. remember the endorsement president bush gave romney? he said i'm for mitt romney as the elevator doors closed on him. no speeches. romney doesn't want any public connection with bush except he wants to extend the bush tax cuts indefinitely.

he's asked bush advisers to shape his economy policies. 17 of his national security advisers worked for bush. and let's not forget what a spokeswoman for the republican national committee said about romney's agenda. >> it's less government spending. it's lowering taxes so small businesses can grow. >> how different is that concept from what was -- what were the policies of the bush administration? >> i think it's that program, just updated. >> the bush program just updated. romney would give us more deficits, more inequality, and maybe even more wars. in other words, more of what we got from his buddy dick cheney. out there in wyoming. did romney think we'd buy his act that he barely knows these guys? nice try, but we got you. why let constipation slow you down?

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vice president joe biden was in texas today speaking to the naacp one day after mitt romney's speech to the same group. the vice president painted a picture of how our country would change if romney were to win in november. >> he proposes a $1.6 trillion tax cut. the people who can qualify are only people who make a million dollars or more. he eliminates college tuition tax credit. the earned income tax credit. and the child tax credit cut. the result? 2.2 million african-american working families will see a tax increase if he succeeds. the governor isn't sure what his position is on the violence against women act. he's not sure whether or not lilly ledbetter law that passed was good.

but he is certain on what his position is on roe v. wade. overturn it. planned parenthood, get rid of it. imagine what the romney justice department will look like. imagine the recommendations for who is likely to be picked as attorney general and head of the civil rights division. imagine what the supreme court will look like after four years of a romney presidency. this election, in my view, is a fight for the heart and soul of america. as president barack obama we are our brother's keeper. we are our sister's keeper. we have an obligation. >> joining me now is nia malika henderson. thanks for being here tonight.

that was very tough attack from vice president biden. what do you make of it? >> that's right. it was a tough attack. let's face it. this is what a vice president is supposed to do in campaign season. they're supposed to go after the candidate and obviously romney's got to figure out who his vice president is going to be. they'll likely take the same role. what he did was lay out what george bush used to call the vision thing. the vision that barack obama is laying out for this country which biden says is very different than the vision that mitt romney is laying out for this country. remember that barack obama's running on this idea of forward movement of progress. they are trying to link him to the past fop less progressive policies. he talked about a justice department that would exist under the mitt romney presidency. and he obviously knows this audience. he's someone who's a friend of the naacp and he was speaking to their concerns. following up in large measure on what attorney general eric

holder said talking about these voting rights laws, these voter i.d. laws that are cropping up in dozens of states across the country. that's why you saw he had one big corner in that audience there and they were booing at the end because they didn't want him to leave the stage. very different than what we saw from mitt romney. >> what do you make of it, bob? >> first of all, besides the voting rights part of it, what i was intrigued by was how this was a message delivered to the naacp, it could have been delivered to any group in the middle or less than middle classes who have been exploited by the current economic situation. it was remarkably unracial, although of course one has to point out particularly that african-americans have really suffered even worse than other segments of the society in this economy with an unemployment rate which is double pretty much what it is for the general population. but i was intrigued by the fact that that could have been a

speech that could have been delivered to just about any group that represents the middle class or some of the lower middle class. >> yeah. i think that's very important. but both of you mentioned about the voting rights aspect and both of you know we've been out there both on this show and in my organization fighting on this. let me show you what the vice president said about voting rights, because i think it's going to be a big issue. >> you have the right to vote, you have the right to change things. we see a future where those rights are expanded, not diminished. by the way, this ain't your father's republican party. remember working with republicans on voter, on expanding the franchise on early voting, on voting by mail. some of these were republican ideas. >> nia-malika, voting by mail, early voting. contrasting that now where you have a party that is purging

voters. you have a party with voter i.d. laws how clearly is answering fraud that isn't there. and willard mitt romney supporting these voter i.d. laws. is this going to be a very significant issue? >> of course you remember that mitt romney did not address it in his speech there yesterday. he likely would have gotten a course of boos if he had come out with his position which is he backs these laws. the democratic party obviously very aware that these laws are on the books. they've got people were attorneys in these states trying to fight these laws which they say will suppress a great deal of particularly the african-american community, minority communities, younger people, older people who might not have these certain i.d.s that would be necessary to cast a ballot. and you heard attorney general eric holder talk about the poll tax. it's going to be a rallying cry

for democrats in these states to not only push back against them, but try to get these laws repealed on the books. i think it's energizing and organizing. >> bob, you talked about how the vice president's speech could have been made any number of places because it was unracial. a pew poll shows obama beating romney two to one who would do the best quote, dealing with the problems of poor people. president obama 60%, mitt romney 30%. clearly this appeal to middle class and working class and working poor people according to to polls is resonating on behalf of the president. >> well, one would think. mitt romney can put lipstick on this pig all he wants, but really he is the person, the spokesman, for the 1/10 of one

percenters. he speaks to the small group and they're able to confuse people a lot. the fact of the matter is they are representing their very selfish interests and the rest of the country be damned. that is a message they haven't been able to gussy up as much as they'd like. >> the president did an interview with cbs and said something very interesting. he talked about what he thought his one big fact yur was. listen to this. >> the mistake of my first couple of years was thinking that this job was just about getting the policy right. and in my first two years i think the notion was well, you know, he's been juggling and managing a lot of stuff, but where's the story that tells us where he's going? and i think that was a legitimate criticism. >> he feels he should have inspired the country more and not deal just with policy. what is your reaction? >> that's right. and it's a bit of an irony

because here was a senator elected to president -- the presidency. and in many ways people thought he was the great communicator. that was one of the reasons he was so inspiring because he was such a great communicator. but you have had democrats criticize him saying he has failed in many ways to sell some of these policies, to tell a story about health care, to tell a story about the economy. and so interesting that he's admitting that failure on his part. and i think they're looking for this election and this campaign to really sort of fine tune what their message is. fine tune the vision thing. fine tune their story and vision for this country. you had mitt romney just a couple minutes ago release a statement to say it's not about story telling, it's about policy and what the direction of the koun b tri and the economy. so of course, they had their message on this as well. >> great to have you both on the show tonight. >> thank you. coming up, the blockbuster

report that rips open the coverup in the penn state scandal. that's coming up. ♪ ♪ i want to go ♪ i want to win [ breathes deeply ] ♪ this is where the dream begins ♪ ♪ i want to grow ♪ i want to try ♪ i can almost touch the sky [ male announcer ] even the planet has an olympic dream. dow is proud to support that dream by helping provide greener, more sustainable solutions from the olympic village to the stadium. solutionism. the new optimism.™ ♪ this dream

we want to wish a very happy anniversary to the senate candidates in massachusetts. both of them. turns out today's the wedding anniversary for both republican senator scott brown and his democratic challenger elizabeth warren. and buzz feed reports that

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it's our most innovative altima ever. nissan. innovation that excites. ♪ we're back on "politicsnation" with an explosive report on the penn state sex scandal. a seven-month investigation by a former fbi director found the university's top officials idly stood by taking no action while assistant coach jerry sandusky sexually assault young boys. the scathing report lays blame on the school's legendary head coach joe paterno, the former university president, the former vice president, the athletic director. to quote the lead investigator, all shows a shocking disregard for sandusky's child victims. >> the evidence shows that mr.

paterno was made aware of the 1998 investigation of sandusky, followed it closely, but failed to take any action even though sandusky had been a key member of his coaching staff for about 30 years and had an office just steps away from mr. paterno. in order to avoid the consequences of bad publicity, the most powerful leaders at penn state university mr. spanier, shultz, paterno, and curley disregarded facts. no such sentiments were expressed by them to sandusky's victims. >> what a disgrace. now we must be sure that justice is served. now i'm joined by legal expert wendy murray, a former child abuse and sex crimes prosecutors. wendy, first of all things for coming on the show tonight. >> glad to be here. >> this report threw a lot of

blame at penn state officials. but you say it wasn't nearly scathing enough. why are you saying that? >> yeah. i mean, i'm probably the only one so politic about this. i read most of it. it's very long. i didn't learn a damn thing that i didn't already know. of course they all knew. of course they covered it up. that's been the story since last fall. i wouldn't call it a whitewash, i'd call it a red wash. what i mean is it's a gigantic red herring that looks so damn good because it's long and it's got really harsh language and it's got a lot of citations to complicated laws. but, look. there's nothing in there that louis freeh didn't coverup that they didn't have to admit to

because they acknowledge being responsible for the '98 innocent and the '01. there are documents and e-mails about what they knew. you don't get points for admitting that which is in writing. >> but could they still face time in jail for coverup? >> i hope they do. you know, i don't know. i will tell you this. we have an embarrassing culture nationally on punishments around failure to report child abuse and coverups at an institutional level. especially when it comes to universities. universities up all sorts of bad stuff and never, ever get in trouble because they have too damn much power, wealth, and influence. >> now, how is the school liable for this? and how much could they be forced to pay? >> they're going to be forced to pay. lots of nonprofits including wealthy schools that shouldn't

be nonprofits with immunity laws. but they're going to pay probably several millions of dollars to all of the victims. thank goodness for the press on this. but we need child abuse reporting laws in this country to require more than the chain of command reporting that allowed all the people who knew to only report up the ladder to graham spanier who should be indicted. the child abuse reporting laws in pennsylvania and across the country mandate that lower level employees like the janitors who were afraid of losing their jobs, mandate they report themselves to outside law enforcement and child welfare officials and not just up the chain of command where things disappear. >> well, wendy, you said janitors and others have said they were afraid to talk. >> right. >> it was part of the culture. >> it's not just part of the culture. you can get fired if you are a janitor of a university and see a child getting raped and you

have the morality to call the cops, you can get fired legally in this country. that's a scandal that louis freeh didn't mention. didn't mention. >> that's a terrible scandal. thank you for your time this evening. >> you're welcome. we'll be right back. ♪ ♪ lord, you got no reason ♪ you got no right ♪ ♪ i find myself at the wrong place ♪ [ male announcer ] the ram 1500 express.

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today the house agriculture committee approved its final version of the 2012 farm bill. the proposal cuts $16.5 billion from federal food stamp program over the next decade. if passed, two to three million people will be thrown off food stamps and nearly 280,000 children will lose access to free school lunches. these cuts would be devastating for kids. as 47% of food stamp recipients are children. how about a real face to food stamps? meet vicki jones. she's a single mom depending on food stamps while she puts

herself through medical school. she says she applied for the aid to help her son. >> i need to feed my son. i need to feed myself. i truly believe that at some point i will be able to pay this back and to help people in my situation who can't afford good medical care. >> but don't expect vicki to get much sympathy from republicans. we told you earlier that mitt romney says to vote for the other guy if you want free stuff. and he's not alone. you judge the nature of a country, the nature of a government, the nature of a culture by how it helps those that need help. not freebies. not giveaways. but people that need during times that they may have invested in. a little help from those that govern them. when you have those at the top

that are pushed even further up and those at the bottom pushed further down, you are splitting the country and eroding the longevity of a country that should go down with the greatest in history. i would hope that as we vote, whoever you vote for, we vote for a country that does not beat down those at the bottom. and elevate those at the top while you castigate those that only seek a chance. thanks for watching. i'm al sharpton. "hardball" starts right now. will the real outsourcer please stand up? let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm michael smerconish in for chris matthews. leading off tonight, consider the outsource. for about a monte now, mitt

romney has been taking hits on bain capital and outsourcing. his team has released an ad saying president obama isn't telling the truth. romney says much of bain's outsourcing came after he left in 1999. today's boston globe may call this into question. this is complicated, but no matter who's right, this is a fight team obama is happy to have. also, when you think of veterans, you probably think older and conservative. but the obama team now thinks it's got a real shot at winning over veterans, especially younger vets from iraq and afghanistan. plus, what did joe paterno know and when did he know it? now we know. louis freeh's investigation of the penn state abuse scandal is out. paterno chose to protect jerry sandusky over the children he victimized and richard engel is just back from syria with a chilling account of what he saw in that country torn by civil war. >>