on this tax return is sheer distraction on the part of the obama campaign. they are simply trying to distract people from the obama administration's dismal record on failing to make things better for the american people. we have 23 americans out of w k work. we have unemployment above 8% for 23 months. the economy is in the toilet. the obama administration doesn't want to recognize the fact this election is a referendum on his term in office and it's not a good one. >> alice, newt gingrich is a republican, right? >> yes. >> so rick tyler is a republican, correct? >> that's correct. >> so this criticism is coming from a republican who says the tax returns clearly have a problem. those were his words. i get what you're saying regarding some of the other issues, certainly that we will discuss. but to say somehow the obama campaign is sabotaging and only bringing that up. we just did our checklist, rick tyler a republican, worked for a republican. these words are coming from a republican.

so answer the question if you can. do you agree with rick tyler, could there be a problem here? >> happy to answer the question. every person has a different strategy on how to go about running the campaign. if you look at the poll numbers right now with obama and romney neck and neck. clearly the ropz campaign understands what they are doing, which is what they need to be doing, focus on the issue. not chase down this rabbit, distraction on the part of the obama administration. no matter who says, what the romney campaign at the end of the day is the one that calls the shots on what they release to the people. what he's doing is working by talking about jobs in the economy. the latest poll numbers, all these negative attacks from the obama administration and planting this dirt out there with the media, it's not working. poll numbers are tightening. his negative multi-million dollars of negative ad campaigns, it's not working. the american people at the end of the day want someone with answers for the economy and not just mud to throw at their

oppone opponent. >> let me bring in a.b. this retort i've heard all day from republicans, some of alice's colleagues this isn't working, this is a distraction, i don't know that gibes well when you have a series of conservatives from bill crystal and the list goes on and on to say governor romney needs to send out more information on his tax returns. can you say this is the obama team when i can lay out a laundry list and play sound bites from that republicans and conservatives who say now is the time. >> the reason why you see conservatives coming out on the record. as you know the governors gathered in the last couple of days. many republican governors were speaking on background to reporters expressing their concern that the longer you refuse to release something, the more you look like you're hiding something. this is really not any longer about when he left bain, what he was doing there, even the outsourcing that happened at bain capital. this is not a scandal.

he didn't lie. he's not a felon. the real problem one is political as pointed out. the problem is he's had years to prepare a response to the american people about why he did what he did at bain, why exactly it is he left, why he signed a form about being sole stockholder, and, yes, what did he pay in taxes. the rhetorical issue will continue. maybe alice is right. maybe poll numbers will show these are negative attacks that will boomerang against the public and in a few weeks mitt romney will benefit from this attack. i don't see it that way. i think they are going at an issue of trust, going at an issue trying to discredit him on the economy and how he would handle it and try to make him

seem secretive. until he releases them it will stick. >> this is to distract from the job numbers and issues that could be detrimental to the president. what do you say? >> i laugh every time i hear a republican say this is a distraction because the president doesn't want to talk about his record. elections are choices. mitt romney is the person who put his business record at the forefront of his campaign as primary evidence he was prepared to become president. he doesn't want to talk about that. he doesn't want to talk about his time at bain and he doesn't want to talk about how he gained him income and his tax returns. so it's not a distraction -- apparently the romney people think any time talking about mitt romney is a distraction. that's just not how voters see it. at the end of the day, i agree with a.b., this is becoming more of an issue about secrecy, what

does he have to hide. one of the first rules in political communication, if there's a distraction out there, get rid of the distraction. take the distractionocity table. the easiest way to do that is follow the advice of his fellow conservatives and release the tax returns. >> thank you so much for your time. i want to send our audience to cincinnati, ohio, where the president is preparing for his first town hall of the election season. let's listen in. >> people working harder but getting less. incomes, wages were flat lining while the cost of everything from college to health care to groceries to gas were all going up. so our goal was to turn this around, and we knew it wouldn't be easy. we knew it would take more than one term, maybe more than one person. we knew we had to get started to reclaim this dream. then what we discovered was because of irresponsibility, because of economic policies

that failed, and lack of oversight when it came to regulations, we inherited worst financial crisis and economic crisis since the great depression. millions of people were hurt, lost their jobs, lost their homes, lost their savings. and a lot of folks are still struggling. but here is the thing. americans are always tougher than tough times. this crisis has not changed our character. it hasn't changed what we believe in. it hasn't changed that basic notion that everybody should get a fair shot, everybody should do their fair share and everybody should play by the same set of rules. [ applause ] so even though over the last three and a half years our central focus has been how do we

recover from this crisis and get people back to work and make sure that small businesses are doing well again, getting financing, despite all those things, our goal has not just to be to get back where we were before the crisis struck but rather to build an economy that lasts. to build an economy that says no matter what you look like, where you come from, no matter what your last name is, you can make it if you try here in america. [ applause ] everything i've done since i've been president has been focused on this central issue. that's the reason i'm running for a second term of the united states. [ applause ]

part of the reason i'm here today -- >> four more years! four more years! >> part of the reason i'm here today is i want to remind everybody that the challenges we face of solvable. the problem is not a lack of big ideas. it's not a lack of technical solutions to our policy issues, the problem is we've got a stalemate in washington between two fundamental ideas about how we move forward. this election is about more than just two candidates and two political parties. it's about two different visions about how do we build a strong economy. you know, the good news is,

you're the tiebreaker. the choice is up to you. the choice is up to you. governor romney and his allies in congress, they believe in an economic theory that says if folks at the very top are doing really well, that spreads to everybody else. it's what we call top down economics. so right now their main prescription for growing the economy faster is an additional $5 trillion in tax cuts, most of which would go to the wealthiest americans, even if to pay for it you'd have to gut education programs or turn medicare into a voucher program, or eliminate our investments in basic research and science. that's their vision about how you grow an economy.

they have actually got a two-part vision, one is tax cuts for the wealthy. and then the second is eliminate regulations that we've put in place to make sure, for example, that wall street doesn't engage in the same reckless behavior that got us into this mess in the first place. [ applause ] now, i've got to tell you, it would be one thing if they had this theory and we hadn't tried it before, but the truth is we tried it for almost a decade. and it didn't work. the track record of their vision resulted in turning surpluses into deficits. we ran two wars on a credit card. job growth was the most sluggish it had been in decades. the average wages and income of working families actually went

down during this period and it culminated in this massive crisis. so i don't know about you, but in my life i found -- sometimes i do bone headed things, i make mistakes. what i find it when i try something that doesn't work, then i don't try it again. okay? [ applause ] >> you don't go back to doing something that didn't work. now, i've got a different idea. so for example, governor romney said he would extend the tax cuts for the wealthiest americans indefinitely. he says that until he puts a tax plan in place. but his tax plan is not just to keep all the bush tax cuts. as i said, he wants to put

another $5 trillion, this estimated that it's almost impossible for you to bring down the deficit and dealing with the debt with that kind of tax plan. nearly 40% of these new taxes would go to the top 1% of all households. we have not found any serious economic study that says governor romney's economic plan would actually create jobs until today. i've got to be honest, today we found out there's a new study out by nonpartisan economists that says governor romney's economic plan would, infection, create 800,000 jobs. there's only one problem. the jobs wouldn't be in america. they would not be in america. [ applause ] they would be in other

countries. by eliminating taxes on foreign income, governor romney's plan would actually encourage companies to shift more of their operations to foreign tax havens creating 100,000 jobs in those other countries. now, this shouldn't be a surprise because governor romney's experience has been investing in what were called pioneers of the business of outsourcing. now he wants to give more tax breaks to companies shipping jobs overseas. i want everybody to understand, ohio, i've got a different theory. we don't need a president who plans to ship more jobs overseas or wants to give more tax breaks to companies shipping jobs overseas. i want to give tax breaks to companies that are investing right here in ohio. that are investing in cincinnati. that are investing in hamilton county. i want to give incentives to companies that are investing in you, the american people, to

create american jobs, making american goods that we're selling around the world stamped with three proud words, "made in america!" that's why i'm running for president of the united states. [ applause ] now, the difference extends not just the difference in corporate taxes, it's also individual taxes. we don't need a president who is going to give himself a big tax break. we need a president who is going to cut your taxes. now, four years ago i promised to cut taxes for the middle class, and i kept that promise. the typical family's tax burden is $3600 lower than it was when i came in office. i want all the press to notice that. because sometimes --

[ applause ] because sometimes you'll hear all these crazy accusations, obama is raising taxes, burdening -- no, here are the facts. typical middle class family, your taxes have gone down $3600 since i've been in office. couple weeks ago i called on congress to immediately extend these tax cuts to 98% of the american people. folks making $250,000 or less would not see their tacks go up one single dime. their income taxes go up one single dime. now, i should point out, by the way, that 97% of small businesses also would not see their taxes go up, because typically they don't earn more than $250,000.

now, if -- if you -- if you're fortunate enough to be the other 2% -- and i am. michelle and i didn't used to be, now we are. we've been blessed. that's great. what we're saying is for those folks, we can afford to pay a little bit more in taxes, by going back to the rates that were paid under bill clinton. that will help us reduce our deficit by about a trillion dollars. and everybody says the deficit and the debt are important, and i agree. i just want to point out the last time we did that when bill clinton was president, we had surpluses not deficits, created 23 million new jobs. and by the way, we created a lot of millionaires and billionaires to boot.

because when an economy is growing from the middle out and from the bottom up, everybody does well including people at the very top. that's how you grow an economy. [ applause ] when teachers and firefighters and police officers and construction workers, when folks who are putting in a hard day's work, when they do well, everybody does well. that's how america has always succeeded. we believe in individual initiative and self-reliance but there's some things we do together. and growing an economy is one of them. my grandfather, he went to college on the gi bill. that generation helped to expand the middle class and everybody did better. when we invested in the hoofer

dam, bridge, internet, sending somebody to the moon, we did better than ever. everybody. that's the vision i want to carry forward. that's why wen the auto industry was on the brink of collapse and governor romney said let's let detroit go bankrupt, i said, no, one out of eight jobs in ohio depend on the auto industry. a million jobs across the midwest are at stake. i'm going to bet on american workers and american ingenuity. and now gm is back on top and chrysler and ford are on the move and the american auto industry has come roaring back. [ applause ] so let me just close by saying

this, and then we can get to some questions. my vision says we're going to invest in education and we're going to hire new teachers, especially in math and science, open up 2 million more slots for folks to go to community colleges to get trained in the jobs that businesses are hiring for right now. we already helped to make sure that student loan rates didn't double, but now we've got to work more to lower tuition costs so young people aren't burdened with debt. so we're going to invest in education. we're going to invest in american energy. yes, we want to continue to expand our production of oil and natural gas, but i also want to make sure that we're the leaders in solar and wind and biodiesel, the energy of the future that

can help reduce our dependence on foreign oil. american manufacturing, change our tax code, provide incentives for companies to invest here, invest in basic research and science so we are at the cutting edge, because whoever has got the best technology will ultimately have the best economy. we've got to make those investments. rebuilding our infrastructure. i know you've got some bridges around here that need repair. you've got some roads that need a repair. let's put construction workers back to work. i ended the war in iraq as i promised. we're winding down the war in afghanistan. we've decimated al qaeda. let's now take half the money we were spending on war and do some nation building right here at home. [ applause ]

>> four more years! four more years! four more years! four more years! four more years! for more years! >> and finally -- finally, let's reduce our deficit, reduce our debt, let's do it in a responsible way that allows us to continue to make these investments we theyneed to grow make sure everybody is doing a little bit to help not just themselves but help the country. so that's my vision. and it contrasts with the other side. and you are going to be the tiebreaker. this is going to be your choice. that's how our democracy works. some of you notice there's going

to be a lot of paid advertising and a lot of money. we're seeing folks right $10 million checks to try to get me out of office. it's not you, i know. but even though my hair is a little grayer, even though i'm a little older, let me tell you, i still have as much confidence as i ever have in the american people. because one of the great privileges of being president is you get a chance to travel all across the country. you meet people from every walk of life. wherever i go, what i'm also struck by is the core decency and goodness and hard work and responsibility and faith that the american people have. so i'll always bet on the american people. and i'm confident that if we

work hard, we get our message out, we have an honest debate about what needs to happen in this country and what future is best for our children and our grandchildren, then we're going to finish what we started in 2008. we'll remind the world why the united states is the greatest nation on earth. thank you very much, everybody. thank you. [ applause ] [ cheers and applause ] [ cheers and applause ] >> all right. so everybody take a seat so i can see who wants to ask a question. and there are no -- there are only a couple of rules here. rule number one is you've got to raise your hand if you have a question. i'm going to call girl boy girl

boy, just to make sure that it's fair. if you have a chance, stand up and introduce yourself. there are folks in the audience with microphones, so wait until we've got a microphone so everybody can hear your question. my only other request, because i want to try to get in as many questions as i can, at least six or seven, so if people can keep their questions short, i'll try to keep my answers short. if you ask me how do you bring about world peace, that's a big question. so try to keep the question one that we can be succinct about. i'm going to start with this young lady right here in sort of the pink, white blouse right there. wait until the microphone comes up and introduce yourself. >> is that the birthday boy? he's getting a lot of attention

today. go ahead. >> my name is anna and my son is openly gay. he is grassroots and he speaks for a lot of lgbt community. we'd like to know since you're for the lgbt, what are your next steps and what are you going to do for us? >> let me say this, first of all, i think the american people have seen and made such progress on is recognizing the idea of equal rights, equal dignity, equal respect for everybody. that applies to everybody. that is a bedrock principle of america. when i came into office, everything from making sure that same-sex couples could have visitation at hospitals, just like everybody else.

making sure we ended don't ask, don't tell, because fighting for the country you love should not depend on who you love. being clear that doma is something we should repeal. across the board i tried to constantly align myself with what is best in our tradition. that is you treat everybody fairly. americans are about fairness. that doesn't mean everybody has to agree with everybody about everything, we don't. but we want to treat everybody fairly. now, i think it's important to recognize that our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters are still subject to discrimination. that's why we passed hate crime legislation and we've still got to fight for that. i think it is important for us

to respect decisions that states make with respect to expanding treatment of same-sex couples and marriage. but also what i want to say is, you know, gay and lesbian families are like everybody else. what they are also worried about right now is making sure they can pay the bills. so my strong belief is it is important for us to focus on individual issues of fairness but also recognize that we all have common interests as well. your son is 18. i'm assuming he's going to get more education. i'm assuming you guys are worrying right now about making sure he doesn't come out with a whole bunch of debt. >> miami. >> miami of ohio. outstanding, some folks in my alma mater here. so we want to treat everybody

fairly, and we want to make sure the economy treats everybody fairly. i'm going to be fighting for that as long as i'm president of the united states. all right. this gentleman right here. does anybody have a mike over there? right behind you. very good. i'm impressed. >> mr. president, i'm jim o'reil o'reilly, ten years as an elected city official has shown me a real change in what the republican party has been doing to us. they have taken away our power to protect our natural resources, water and air. from the strength of the oil and gas drillers doing fracking here in ohio. i support what lisa jackson and epa are doing, is there more the administration can do to protect us from the adverse effects of drilling for natural gas. >> good. that's a great question and an important question. couple of things i want everybody to know. first of all, if you hear anybody say that somehow we are

impeding the development of our energy resources in this nation, i want you to know these facts. oil production, higher than it's been in eight years. natural gas production, higher than it's been probably in our lifetimes. oil imports actually lower than they have been in 16 years. in fact, our oil imports are less than 50% now for the first time in a very long time. so we're moving in the right direction in terms of energy independence. now, part of this is the boom in natural gas. this is something we should welcome, because not only are we blessed with incredible natural gas resources that are now accessible because of new technologies, but natural gas

actually burns cleaner than some other fossil fuels and is an ideal fuel energy source that we've potentially can use for the next 100 years. so i want to encourage natural gas production. the key is to make sure we do it safely and in a way that is environmentally sound. now, you always hear these arguments that somehow there's this huge contradiction between the environment and economic development and environment and energy production. the fact of the matter is that there are a lot of folks right now that are engaging in hydraulic fracking and can do it safely. the problem is we haven't established clear guidelines on how to do it safely and informed the public so neighbors know what's going on. your family, you can make sure any industry operating in your

area, they are being responsible. so what we've said is, look, we are going to work with industry to establish best practices. we are going to invest in the basic research and science required to make sure this is done safely and in a way that protects the public health. and for responsible companies, they should be able to operate, make a profit. we can all benefit and put people back to work. if you're an irresponsible company that's not doing the right thing, we're going to hold you into account. that's how we should develop this incredible resource, which, by the way, if we do it properly could end up changing the economics and politics globally of energy in a way that's actually very good for us, because we'll be less dependent on what happens in the middle east. our economy will be less subject

to the kinds of spikes that we saw earlier in the spring in terms of gas prices. all right? thank you for the question. all right. it's a woman's turn. the young lady in the white t-shirt right there. hold on. hold on. wait for the mike. >> my name is delisha white. my husband has a question he'd like answered. >> no, you can't do that. i called on the young lady. that is what's called a bait and switch. no, the rule is i'm going to make sure women get equal time with men. see there. [ applause ] >> well, we -- >> no, no, no, no.

>> his question was he's a small business owner. he wanted to know what can you do for the self-employed businesses with less than 10 employees working with him? >> okay. here is what i'm going to do. i'm going to let him go ahead and ask his question, and then i'm going to call on two women in a row, because this is -- we got cheated here. go ahead. next time you stand up. don't send your wife out first. >> okay. i'm tony white. hello, mr. president. >> good to see you, tony. what kind of business do you have? >> barbershop and beauty salon. >> there you go. >> i've been in business for over 10 years now. >> that's great. >> what i'm trying to find out is what will you be door or if there's anything you will be

doing for the self-employed and businesses with employees with less than 10 employees. >> absolutely. >> and also, when can i cut your hair? >> well, first of all, let me answer the second question first. you know that you would not want a president who was disloyal to his barber, right? a man and his barber, that's a strong connection. >> i know. i know. >> so i am not going to let you cut my hair, because my barber would be hurt. >> just one time. just one time. >> maybe i'll let you give me a line. >> we can do that.

>> all right. in terms of small businesses. small businesses are the life blood of our economy. they account for most of the new job growth. we've got obviously great big businesses. in this area procter & gamble is an example of an outstanding large business. but a lot of the job growth happens with small businesses that become medium-sized businesses and then sometimes large businesses. every since i came into office, one of my biggest priorities is how do we support small businesses, which is why we've actually provided 18 different tax breaks just targeted at small business since i've been in office. it's the reason why we have pushed the small business administration, especially when the recession had just hit, to extend additional financing and the way fees for small businesses.

one of the biggest challenges for small businesses is getting credit lines. >> yes, it is. >> we've actually been pushing the banks to say, look, taxpayers pulled your back side out of the fire. it's now important for you to step up and make sure small businesses aren't finding their credit restricted, especially if they have been in business for a while. the other thing we've done is to say what are the critical needs of small business. a lot of times one of the biggest challenges is to make sure that you, as sole proprietor, you can get health insurance for your family. >> correct. >> when you hear about the affordable care act, obama care -- [ applause ] and i don't mind the name,

because i really do care. that's why we passed it. you should know that once we have fully implemented, you're going to be able to buy insurance through a pool so you can get the same good rates as a group that if you're an employee at a big company you can get now, which means your premiums will go down. we will also give you additional tax credits for if you are providing health insurance for your employees. we'll give you tax credits for that. right now one of the things we're pushing congress to do is to give you a tax credit if you hire additional workers or you give folks who are working for you a raise, we want to give you incentive to do that. so but this is an example of

where there's a contrast between myself and my opponent. as i said before, his basic tax plan is to give folks at the top a tax break. now, we can have that debate. but what i've said is in the meantime, let's give 98% of individuals and 97% of small businesses some certainty right now by going ahead and passing a law that says your taxes won't go up. because if congress doesn't act, by the way, by january 1st, everybody's taxes here are going to go up by an average of about $1600. if congress doesn't do anything. and so what i've said is if you really want to help small business right now, give 97% of them the certainty that their costs will not go up.

and then we can have a debate about the other two or three percent. one last comment on the tax argument. you hear republicans say if you tax somebody with a million dollars income, you're going to be crushing the small business jobs creators. now, first of all, i just explained 97% of small businesses make less than 250 a year. but setting aside that, the way they describe small businesses, half of the fortune 400 richest americans in the country would qualify as a quote, unquote, small business. hedge fund managers would qualify as small businesses, even if they were pulling in a billion dollars a year. and this is an example of what i mean when i say we just want everybody to be treated fairly. michelle and i were talking the other day.

michelle's dad worked as a blue-collar worker. he was at the water filtration plant in chicago. he worked there all his life, all his adult life. he had ms. so by the time i met him, he could barely walk. he never missed a day's work. he used two cains, had to work up an hour earlier than everybody else to get dressed. he took pride in being at the job even if he didn't feel well. he used to tease folks who are lazy. he'd say, these folks are so lazy, they won't even go to work to pick up their paycheck. they want it mailed to them. and michelle's mom, she stayed at home when the kids were young and then she went to work as a secretary. she worked as a secretary most of their adult life. the point is they didn't have a lot. but michelle and i were talking

about how they didn't envy people who had a lot more. there was no sense that somehow, well, our lives are less because we're not millionaires. we're not making huge amounts of money. god bless folks successful. my mom, my grandparents, the only thing they didn't like is when they felt like folks at the top were taking advantage of their position and not following the same rules as everybody else and keeping other folks down. and we don't want an economy in which some are being treated differently than others. that's all. and that's especially true when it comes for our small business folks. i want them to have some of the same advantages. you probably can't afford the same number of lawyers,

accountants, all that stuff working all these loopholes, you know. i want to make sure you're getting the same good deal as everybody else. all right? okay. >> we are listening in to the first town hall of president obama. he's in cincinnati, ohio. you heard the president taking in a few questions. we want to bring you another developing story, a story that ties into the general election and the vote. florida has been given access to key data in its effort to purge ineligible voters from roles. following several weeks of legal battles, federal officials have agreed to give florida access to a department of homeland security database. a republican governor spearheading this purge calls this a significant victory for florida. joining me political reporter, mark, do we know why this concession, we're waiting to hear from civil rights

activists, others concerned that african-americans, hispanics wrongly targeted here. why this move here? >> that's a good question. it looks like what prompted this was the ruling in a separate lawsuit with a federal judge in florida, he denied the department of justice's motion to stop the state from conducting the purge. what's strange about that motion or that order was the state had essentially stopped doing the purge because the supervisor of elections stopped doing it. the judge suggested if the state had access to better data, the state would be permitted to go ahead and purge noncitizens from the voters roles even if 90 days before a federal election. >> obviously other states are seeking this database. this is more about florida, colorado, nevada, michigan and north carolina all watching how this plays out. it's interesting to me and many others the fact that the governor scott, he's not very popular, at least, when you look

at the polls, this issue of purging voters is popular in the state of florida and we know how important florida is in this general election. >> sure. most people when you ask them in a vacuum, should noncitizens be allowed to vote, they would say no. in fact, it is a crime for a noncitizen to register to vote and to actually vote. the problem is the process. the state had sparred with the federal government for quite sometime, the department of homeland security which denied florida the right to access the federal database. the state went out on its own and wildcatted around and came up with a list that really had a lot of false positives. a lot of people on the list turned out to actually be citizens. the number of noncitizens is quite small. we're not quite sure what the number is but we can certainly say it's a handful. >> marc, thank you very much. federal officials have agreed to give florida access to the department of homeland security database in what has been an ongoing battle over so-called ineligible voters. we'll have more on this story.

in the meantime coming up, is the gop shut out sarah palin at this year's national convention what palin is saying about it. will she be strong armed out of the big show? an accident doesn't have to slow you down. with better car replacement, if your car is totaled, we give you the money for a car one model year newer. liberty mutual auto insurance.

welcome back. the family of former penn state football coach joe paterno says it will launch its own investigation into the jerry sandusky scandal. that's top stories around the "news nation." the family says it disagrees with the conclusion in the so-called freeh report claims paterno and other administrators covered up abuse of young boys because of publicity. accused paterno of not intervening to stop what happened on campus there. another story with an update president of a&m university resigned. james ammons planned to step down in october. he has come under fire for lack

of oversight since the hazing death of a band member last november. provost named as interim president. days of online tax-free purchases may came to an end. grants authority like amazon and ebay to collect sales tax. many governors who opposed such a measure are now in favor of it and see it as a way to produce state revenues. mitt romney could, and we emphasize could, announce his running mate. romney and with one potential vp pick a couple hours ago at a fund-raiser in baton rouge, louisiana, being the home state of bobby jindal. meantime another potential pick ohio ron portman stumped in ohio couple hours ahead of president obama's visit in that state. senior political editor mark murray joins us. i'm going to get a little kenny rogers action, know when to hold them, know when to fold 'em.

>> if i were to place a bit, i would say after the olympics. there is a window to do it this week. if he wants the traditional vice presidential rollout where he and the vice presidential running mate goes to five or six swing states over a three-or four-day period he's going to have to do it soon. as you know he's going on his overseas trip to the olympic games and elsewhere at the end of the month. of course if he decides to do it after that point when he gets back to the united states, he pretty much has the whole month of august to be able to do it right before the republican convention. >> all right. let's move onto the former vp pick, governor sarah palin. is she in or is she out when it comes to the convention or would she just be a huge distraction. >> no one knows what the speaking lineup is now. that's not only for a lot of the principles and people you think would be the keynote speaker and sarah palin. we do know this about sarah palin, the political action

committee rented space where she will potentially be having another type of counter-programming event in tampa, florida right around the republican convention. all the body language that you get from the romney campaign, i don't think they are locked in arms with sarah palin. if this were 2010, you might see the republican nominee, presidential nominee have to do something for sarah palin. for the most part she dropped off the lit cal radar screen. she popped up on tv from time to time but isn't the force she was for the republican party with the conservative base she was in 2009 and 2010. >> who would have predicted that, falling off the face of the earth? come on. people really thought she was the one this time around, mark. >> things have certainly changed. of course probably one of the biggest dynamics, tamron, about that was when she decided she was no longer going to be alaska governor. her being able to be on the political stage has lessened and lessened without having an actual office to hold. >> in addition to the fact when

she did show up or has shown up people question whether she lacks the substance, that she's able to talk about policy and the list goes on and on. that should help or hurt one if that is true. thank you so much. greatly appreciate it. a lot going on today. some things we thought you should know. arizona cardinals donated $5,000 to arizona republican governor brewer's super pac, the cards are the first nfl club to donate to a federal super pac. sports teams executives and players make donations. meantime singer beyonce stars in an obama ad. she reads a letter she wrote to the first lady. >> i wrote the letter to the first lady because i want her to know i'm very grateful for everything she's going for our country and also for women around the world. michelle is the ultimate example of a truly strong african-american woman. michelle, thank you so much for every single thing that you do for us. i am proud to have my daughter

grow up in a world where she has people like you to look up to. love, beyonce. >> with the campaign already in high gear, president obama suggested in a cbs interview that he and his family probably won't get much of a vacation together this summer. the first lady said when they get some free time she has places she'd like to visit. at the top of the list, new orleans. >> i've been there several times but i've never been for the french quarter. when we're there, we're usually working. we go in some back way freight elevator. >> jazzfest of some sort is out there. >> hopefully that's on there. those are things we thought you should know. that does it for "news nation." the cycle is up next. is is new . we built the first railway, the first trade route to the west, the greatest empires.

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southward. ladies night. hillary clinton, cycling through. >> will it be enough to bring america back. editor in chief of washington monthly kicks off a week long series of washington success. >> may not be the end all but a start, bain and outsourcing through the spin cycle. >> the new american super family. what's so bad to going home to mom and dad. >> the failed war on drugs. you are immersed in "the cycle." start with diplomat secretary of state hillary clinton. she's about to wrap up a two-week foreign tour that took her to egypt, israel and china

among other places. sounds fun. since the last visit 22 months ago, asia spring changed in egypt which had a peace deal in place in israeli for three decades. egypt was one of the topics in jerusalem. >> it is a chance to advance our shared goals of security, stability, peace and democracy along with prosperity for the millions of people in this region who have yet to see a better future. >> we start with nbc news foreign correspondent in cairo. ammon, two weeks abroad, what has the secretary of state accomplished? >> well, you've really got to look at 12 days, eight countries, breaking it down region by region. not so much as what she's accomplished to what she has said, delivered messages in egypt and israel.

this was a trip about engagement. also it is a milestone in some sense. some people were asking senior state department officials from jerusalem to egypt. saying this is probably going to be secretary clinton's last trip to israel. she's going to be leaving the state department without a peace treaty. how do they feel about that failure. it's really masked in a lot of disemployment with conflict and uncertainty when it comes to the arab spring. >> talk about disappointment and uncertainty, when she was in egypt this weekend crowds booed clinton. they chanted monica. her motorcade was pelted with shoes and water bottles. why has the view of hillary clinton turned so icy. >> not just about secretary of state but u.s. policy here in general. this goes back for decades. keep in mind egyptian people endured hosni mubarak for years. that was