mitt romney still cannot clear up the issues with his bain capital record. romney's people are asking president obama to apologize for raising the issue? president obama gave the romney campaign an answer on the trail. >> no, we won't be apologizing. and i don't -- you know, sometimes these games are played during political campaigns. understand what the issue is here. mr. romney claims that he's mr. fix-it for the economy because of his business experience. and so i think voters entirely legitimately want to know, well, what exactly was that business experience? >> for the american people, it comes down to what? responsibility. mitt romney cannot adequately explain his involvement with bain capital between the years 1999 and 2002. the latest line is romney retired retroactively. >> he actually retired retroactively at that point, because he ended up not going back to the firm after his time in salt lake city. so he was actually retired from bain. >> just in case you thought ed

gillespie made a mistake, he repeated it on cnn. >> he took a leave of absence, and in fact, he ended up not going back at all, and retired retroactively to february of 1999, as a result. >> did romney give back the salary he made between 1999 and 2002 when he retired retroactively? look here, folks. here's the bottom line. the s.e.c. filings show that romney made at least $100,000 a year while he was allegedly doing nothing as the ceo bain. maybe romney should have followed the lead of his father, george romney, stepped down as president of the american motors corporation, when he ran for office. it was real simple. a report in "the nation" says "the board elected george romney as vice chairman, but granted him an indefinite leave of absence without pay." mitt romney chose to retroactively retire. in other words, he was double-dipping. but more importantly, the romney campaign still cannot say who was running bain capital during the time in question.

>> does the governor think that those were good deals for bain? >> those deals were made by -- those decisions were made by, um, by folks that were running the company differently. so i don't have the -- the details of what the decision making went into it. >> they don't have the details. that's a key word right there, key phrase. "they don't have the details." have you noticed how the romney camp is kind of short on detail? romney adviser eric fernstrom was asked, who was running bain between 1999 and 2002? his response, "you should check with bain, but it wasn't romney." "the huffington post" checked with the security and exchange commission in six different filings between april of 2000 and may of 2001, mitt romney was listed as a member of the management committee at bain. the committee was responsible -- key word there -- for day-to-day operations of bain. in one filing, romney was listed as president and managing director. no one can have titles like this in the business world and not have any responsibilities to accompany.

romney's answers are clouding the issue, no doubt. it's getting so bad for mitt romney, even conservative pundits are urging him to release his tax returns to get everything out in the open. >> mitt romney's losing at this point, in a big way. if something's going to come out, get it out in a hurry. >> we should release the tax returns tomorrow. it's crazy. you've got to release six, eight, ten years of back tax returns. take the hit for a day or two. >> there's obviously something there, because if there was nothing there, he would say, have it. so there's obviously something there that compromises what he said in the past about something. so that's -- but i think the bigger thing is, it's arrogance. >> well, romney and his campaign insist that they will only release this year's and last year's returns. they are even resorting to fake examples, fake examples to make their case. >> senator mccain, the republican nominee in the last election, said was the relevant standard. it's the standard that senator john kerry as the democratic nominee said was the standard. >> hang on a second here. john kerry, you know what he did? he released way more than two

years' of tax returns, because he was running in the senate numerous years. in fact, by the time he was running for president in 2004, john kerry had released 20 years' of tax returns. mitt romney tried to correct the campaign's mistake when he was on "fox & friends" this morning. >> john kerry ran for president, you know, his wife, who has hundreds of millions of dollars, she never released her tax returns. somehow this wasn't an issue. >> maybe it wasn't an issue because teresa heinz kerry, she wasn't run for president of the united states. romney and his campaign, you know what they are? they are really boxed in on this issue and they don't have an answer. conservative columnist george will identified romney's main issue. >> the cost of not releasing the returns are clear. therefore, he must have calculated that there are higher costs in releasing -- >> and he's going to tough it out. >> the consequences for releasing the tax returns must be pretty bad for mitt romney if he would rather just get raked over the coals by conservative talkers for not releasing them.

obama campaign chair rahm emanuel had an even better explanation. >> the mccain campaign released 23 years. and he's telling the american people, i'm not going to give you what i've given john mccain's people in 2008. and when he gave him 23 years, john mccain's people looked at it and said, let's go with sarah palin. >> the tax returns are essential to everything mitt romney is running on. they explain his real achievements in business, they show how he would try to run the country. they give us a look at what his tax policy would really be and what he believes in. mitt romney, i don't think, is making the case to the american people that he would be a president that americans can trust. it's all about the tax return. number one, i would like to know, how is he listed? general partner? president, owner? ceo? and then he signed it. i assume he signed his own tax return, even if he had somebody put it together, even if it's 500 pages. and the other thing is the

business deductions. did mitt romney have any business deductions that dealt with bain capital? because if he did, he was flat-out lying to the american people when he said he had no n involvement. and maybe mitt romney has made the political calculation that it's just a heck of a lot safer and a hell of a lot easier to lie to the american people than it is to the internal revenue service. get your cell phones out, i want to know what you think. tonight's question -- this is a good one -- what will do more damage to mitt romney's campaign -- releasing his tax returns or not releasing his tax returns? text "a" for releasing his returns, text "b" for not releasing his returns to 622639. our blog is right there for you at ed.msnbc.com. we'll bring you the results later on in the show. i'm joined tonight by msnbc political analyst, richard wolffe, and rick tyler, republican strategist and former communications director for newt gingrich. gentleman, great to have you with us tonight.

richard, you first. >> yep. >> what is his afternoon out of this mess? out of this maze? you do five interviews to try to clear things, it only made things worse, and they're having a hard time explaining any of this. what's the easy avenue? >> the easy answer is to release the tax returns, but actually there's a step or five before that. which is first of all, decide which avenue you're going to take. one of the problems mitt romney has right now is indecision. it's that his story keeps on change. first of all they said, well, you know, everyone else has done this the, that's not true. then you end up talking about john kerry's wife, which is ridiculous. you say, the obama people will never be satisfied. they've said all of these things over the last couple of days and it's a bit like his response on the bain question. the story keeps on changing. if you think back what happened to john kerry, the swift boat attacks were terrible, but the indecision you're broadcasting about your own character as a leader is, i would argue, just as damaging.

>> so he didn't solve anything on friday. and as we move forward in this campaign, they don't seem to have any clear-cut answers. at least it's been 36, 72 hours, it goes on and on. how do they fix it, though? what would they come out and say to fix it? >> well, he does have to take the hit. i would argue that friday's comments made it worse. instead of trying to project strength and saying, i'm punching back, he overstepped the mark. he said i had no responsibility, that was hit word. and you get into that whole buck passing thing that rahm emanuel described so well. >> rick tyler, your campaign, the gingrich campaign, raised these issues in the primary. did the gop miss it? i mean, wasn't anybody in the gop beyond newt gingrich taking this more seriously? why weren't they? >> well, look, if you remember, we did release all these s.e.c. documents we had in january of this year, that was six months ago. the media wasn't very interested in it, in our side.

frankly the romney campaign actually did a good job. they won the debate with us, which is they had reframed this to an attack on free enterprise, and all the conservative commentators bought that. it wasn't an attack on free enterprise, but that's what happened. mitt romney might do well to go back and try to claim the mantle of free enterprise versus obama's statism, that may be the way to go. but i think at this point, he had opportunities in 2008 during the primary to clear this up. he decided to delineate a very bright line in 1999 about going to the olympics, and the documentation and salaries, as you pointed out, are inconsistent with that and he's going to have to explain it. i think at this point, the best thing for him to do is full transparency and get it out there. it's not just the obama campaign, who, by the way, i think that that would be the thing they don't want to happen, so to have them release everything, and have everybody pore through it. because i suspect this is a lot to do about nothing. i don't think there's anything illegal that was done here. >> it's not a question of whether it's illegal. it's not a question of whether it's illegal, it's a question of

what he was doing and the company was doing that he was the head of in 1999 to 2002, if he was outsourcing jobs. >> i disagree with the assertion that we'll find out what his tox policy is by looking at his tax returns. we'll find out how much he made and who he made it from and how it was filed and what kind of interest he had. and i think the american public has some interest in that if he's going to run for president of the united states. >> but i think we would find out what his tax policy would be, because there's an awful lot of write-ups in there that i suppose he would continue to support or he wouldn't have taken them. and obviously he is not releasing it for everybody to see. the point i made earlier is, if he took business write-ups with bain, would you consider that a connection to the company? >> if he could legally take write-offs, he should take write-offs. >> but he's saying he's not connected -- >> entitled to -- >> he might be entitled to it, but on friday he said he had no connection with the company. >> and that's a political problem. you know, he says he didn't have decision making capacity with bain. they negotiated, you know, he said he took a leave of absence and then decided to not go back

to the company. you know, this retroactive thing. while it's true, the way they did that, i don't think that's untrue, but it just doesn't play politically well. i think romney, you know, back in 1999, when he left for the olympics, he should have been thinking about this. >> yeah. >> the only way this is a problem is if you run for president. otherwise, none of this is a problem. >> well, he's running for president and the american people want some answers on this. >> he will it be before the republican party steps out? not the people on tv on sunday. i mean, i'm talking about when does newt gingrich step up, rick santorum, how can they be silent on this? >> maybe that's a question for rick. >> i'm going to get it from you first. >> i think he's the presumptive nominee at this point, and there's a window for things to go spectacularly wrong for him. as long as the polls are closed and he can string this along, he's okay. there could be a moment of peril, a few more weeks of this

if the polls really start to move where you get people who have suspended, quote, unquote, suspended their campaign -- >> herman cain, how can he be quiet? how long is newt going to be quiet on this, three, four weeks? what is the date he's going to say we have to challenge candidate here? >> well, that could happen. if the campaign cannot figure out a way to dispense with these types of issues. now we know how the obama campaign intends to operate. that is they're going to obfuscate his record for as long as they can. there was some memo out by newman released i think earlier today that talked about how great it was they were a parity because he spent $51 million and only a parity. i would argue he spend $51 to be a parody, that's a good thing because this is the worst economy, the worst debt, the worst deficit spending. >> he sure inherited. you're right about that. >> romney should be far ahead and he has to fix the political

party so he can be. and then we'll return to the economy. >> thanks for joining us. remember to answer tonight's question at the bottom of the screen. share your thoughts on twitter, @edshow. and on facebook. president obama is going directly after romney's business experience and what it would mean for america. [ male announcer ] wouldn't it be cool if we took the nissan altima and reimagined nearly everything in it? gave it greater horsepower and best in class 38 mpg highway... ...advanced headlights... ...and zero gravity seats? yeah, that would be cool. ♪ introducing the completely reimagined nissan altima. it's our most innovative altima ever. nissan. innovation that excites. ♪ begins with back pain and a choice. take advil, and maybe have to take up to four in a day.

or take aleve, which can relieve pain all day with just two pills. good eye. let's compare. germ party! eww! now the colgate total mouth. nice! [ female announcer ] colgate total fights 90% more plaque germs. i'm in. [ female announcer ] colgate total. less germs. healthier mouth.

coming up, the president went to the jugular on mitt romney's outsourcing. we'll show you exactly why romney's missing years at bain are so critical to the middle class voters and workers in this country. the right wing smear machine. does a hatchet job on obama's remarks on government and small business. van jones knows what that's all about and he's here to weigh in later tonight. while senate leader harry reid warns about the influence of big money in the election cycle, sheldon adelson, makes a

multimillion-dollar donation to a republican super pac. we'll tell you who it's probably going to be going to with all of the details. share your thoughts with us on twitter and on facebook using the hashtag, ed show. you know what i love about this country? trick question. i love everything about this country! including prilosec otc. you know one pill each morning treats your frequent heartburn so you can enjoy all this great land of ours has to offer like demolition derbies. and drive thru weddings. so if you're one of those people who gets heartburn and then treats day after day, block the acid with prilosec otc and don't get heartburn in the first place. [ male announcer ] one pill each morning. 24 hours. zero heartburn. somebody didn't book with travelocity, with 24/7 customer support to help move them to the pool daddy promised!

look at me, i'm swimming! somebody, get her a pony! [ female announcer ] the travelocity guarantee. from the price to the room to the trip you'll never roam alone. welcome back to "the ed show." president obama's campaign is hitting its stride. and explaining why mitt romney's business experience is bad for this country. this new ad is a big part of the obama offensive. ♪ o beautiful for spacious skies for amber waves of grain ♪ ♪ for purple mountains' majesty

above the fruited plain ♪ ♪ america america god shed his grace on thee ♪ ♪ and crown thy good ♪ with brotherhood ♪ >> mitt romney's not the solution. he's the problem. it's the ultimate statement about mitt romney not being for the middle class in this country. the ad will run in nine swing states. today, president obama shows more than ever he is prepared to personally take this fight to the american people and let them decide. here he is cincinnati, ohio, today. >> today, we found out there's a new study out by nonpartisan economists that says governor romney's economic plan would in fact create 800,000 jobs. there's only one problem. the jobs wouldn't be in america. they would be in other countries. by eliminating taxes on corporations' foreign income,

governor romney's plan would actually encourage companies to shift more of their operations to foreign tax havens, creating 800,000 jobs in those other countries. >> president obama linked this directly to romney's experience at bain capital. >> 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 that are shipping jobs overseas. >> and a new poll commissioned by the nonpartisan alliance for american manufacturing finds that 83% have an unfavorable opinion of companies that outsource. 97% hold a favorable view of goods made right here in the u.s. of a. let's turn to chuck rocha, a democratic strategist. good to have you with us tonight. >> thanks for having me. >> is it effective for president obama to make this direct link between mitt romney's business

experience and what he would do if he wereresident of the united states? is there a connection? >> i couldn't agree with you more. that may be one of the best ads i have ever seen in my entire political career. here's why. as you know, i grew up in east texas and was fortunate to go to work in a factory when i was 19 years old. there were 1,000 men and women in that factory including my father, my uncles and a lot of kids i grew up with my whole life. in 1962, they opened the factory there. five years ago, they shut the factory down, destroying 1,000 people's lives. when they walked through the factory handing out pink slips, they didn't ask if you were a democrat or republican, they said this tire production isn't going to be here anymore and that tire production now sits in china. think about the middle-class voter sitting at home watching the commercial. no matter if they're democrat or republican thinking that's not right. that could be my job overseas. that's why it's so devastating. >> this is president obama running on the compassionate sensibilities of the american people that a lot of americans will put themselves in the place

of that displaced worker. then mitt romney of course has a record of showing a very callous attitude towards shipping jobs overseas. is this going to be the winning formula to win the middle class? >> there are a lot of middle class voters just like you said, ed, that are hurting. the whole fact of this entire election is who can you best relate with? mitt romney is a good looking guy. his hair is always a perfect shape, but he looks like your boss. he looks like the boss you always said he lives in a different part of town, his kids going to a different school, he shops at a different place. he can't relate to someone in the factory whose job was overseas. when mom and pop are at the kitchen table and have the paycheck and bills, their hoping they have enough money to have dinner on saturday night. >> i think the president's been pretty remarkable on the campaign trial. he's been able to take a news story about romney and twist a positive. today, the president, he just didn't go after romney. he turned this whole thing into a positive message about himself and america. here it is. >> 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. >> i mean, chuck, if you take that comment right there and match it up with what the republicans have done in the senate and all of the obstruction, how can the president lose any of the rust belt states? >> he needs to be repeating this message over and over and over again. and every campaign i'm working in, the made in america is over 98% positive no matter if it's coming from a democrat or a republican. but the difference here is this, is that barack obama has a record to stand on, and so does mitt romney. barack obama made it very clear today or a couple days ago that there's a true difference between this campaign. mitt romney can wear all of the

flannel shirts he wants to and go into all the work sites and try to relate to the workers. but at the end of the day, the american people will realize he's all flannel and no calluses. >> great to have you on the show. the right wing freaks out over comments made by president obama. van jones will join me to discuss the conservative hysteria. and the obama campaign is out with a devastating new commercial slamming mitt romney on his bogus record. some are calling it the best political ad of 2012. ♪ hello...rings ♪ what the... what the... what the... ♪ are you seein' this? ♪ ♪ uh-huh... uh-huh... uh-huh... ♪ ♪ it kinda makes me miss the days when we ♪

♪ used to rock the microphone ♪ back when our credit score couldn't get us a micro-loan ♪ ♪ so light it up! ♪ even better than we did before ♪ ♪ yeah prep yourself america we're back for more ♪ ♪ our look is slacker chic and our sound is hardcore ♪ ♪ and we're here to drop a rhyme about free-credit-score ♪ ♪ i'm singing free-credit-score-dot-com ♪ ♪ dot-com narrator: offer applies with enrollment in freecreditscore.com.

and thanks for watching "the ed show."

the right wing, they are trying to find anything, i mean anything they can, to help them distract folks from mitt romney's bain debacle. here is the latest in selective editing from fox news. >> hey, small business owners, your hard work, your 100 hours a week didn't get you where you are, take a listen. >> if you have a business, you didn't build that. somebody else made that happen. the point is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative but also because we do things together. >> now, if you only watch fox news, you might think the president was minimizing the hard work it takes to run a small business in america, but in fact, president obama was giving small business owners a lot of credit. he also pointed out that business folks need infrastructure and opportunity to succeed. here's what the president said in context. >> somebody helped to create

this unbelievable american system that we have that allowed you to thrive. somebody invested in roads and bridges. if you have a business, you didn't build that. somebody else made that happen. the internet didn't get invented on its own. government research created the internet so that all of the companies could make money off the internet. the point is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative but also because we do things together. >> a little different, isn't it? never ones to let facts get in the way of a good story, the right wing talkers, they jumped on the president's comments. >> i have to tell you that of all of the sunday talk shows and everything else that happened over the last three days, that particular piece of sound from the president is most startling to me. >> i thought of this as the john kerry moment of the '04 campaign. >> that man is a statist. he believes the only reason america is where we are is

because of government, and he's flat-out wrong. >> i think it can now be said without equivocation, without equivocation, this man hates this country. >> sounds like he's running for president of venezuela. >> you agree with me? i mean, they're desperate. joining me now is van jones, president and co-founder of rebuild the dream, and the author of the book "rebuild the dream." has desperation set in yet? i mean, they're grabbing at anything they possibly can. and after everything you went through, van, this has to be somewhat comical. >> well, listen, you know, whenever they start ringing the fire alarm in the middle of the conversation, stop the tape, rewind, what was being said right before? this is the deepest form of patriotism. here you have the president of the united states saying something that is absolutely obvious to the whole world and everybody in this country. america's government has been a partner to america's business community.

that's a part of the beauty of america. it's deep patriotism to point that out. it's a lot harder to make a lot of money in other countries. in our country, you have roads, bridges. we have the rule of law. all that fine print in your contracts, you don't have to bribe a judge somewhere to enforce them. you can make your company work here. that's the beauty of america. for him to stick up for that and for them to say he hates america, that is their tactic. when he starts showing the most love and enthusiasm for the country, that's when they go after him. >> the heritage foundation called the president's remarks a slap in the face to hard working americans. the romney campaign called them insulting. they're doing everything they can to get rid of the bain story, no question about that. >> but let's be clear here. you know, our parents and our grandparents had something that was called the social contract. if you do well in america, then you do well by america. of course you have to have that individual initiative and climb that ladder, but once you climb that ladder, you did well in

america, you do well by america. what does that mean? you pay your tacks and you don't complain about it like our parent ts and our grandparents did. you create good jobs here. the reason they go crazy when people point out the basic facts is that they have created a mythology that said the only way we got to be great is we were the wild, wild west. people did whatever they wanted to do. when somebody starts pointing out the basic facts, no, no, we made massive investments together in infrastructure, in education. we educated a whole generation of americans to outcompete the world. we did that together through america's government. it knocks down the whole house of cards. so they have to attack. even when the president says something purely patriotic like he did, says america's government is a partner to america's business community, they have to go crazy because he's talking about facts. they're talking about mythology. >> the best way to combat this is come right back at them. and don't let them edit the tape, and come at them with clarity.

and from your experience, what was the biggest hurdle you faced when the right wing was attacking you and can you relate it to what they're trying to gin up now? >> well, you have to remember that was almost three years ago when people were shocked. there was a time where people had a shred of hope that a fox news or the breitbarts and these folks would have a shred of truth on their side. after what happened to me and shirley sherrod and a.c.o.r.n., they said they're a pure propaganda machine. let's be clear what they're up to. they want to stop the conversation prom being any way positive about anything. right now, the president has a proposal he's pushing forward that would eliminate some of the overcharging by banks for home mortgages. now, that's something that red

states and blue states could come together, talk about. republican, democrats know that the interest rate is too high on the houses. real issues we're working on at rebuild the dream and other places, but they don't want to have any substantive discussion about what might relieve some of the pain for the american people because they can only win. they need american pain to get political gain. >> and that is the bottom line. >> that's the whole strategy. >> great to have you us. thanks a lot. lots more coming up in the next half hour of "the ed show." stay with us. ♪ america america god shed his grace on thee ♪ >> it's one of the most effective campaign ads in recent history. and righties can't get over it. >> they're mocking him for singing a patriotic song. >> the big panel weighs in next. tea partiers sent to washington to control government spending. get busted driving expensive taxpayer funded cars. we'll expose the hypocrisy ahead. and why is billionaire sheldon adelson dumping $5 million into eric cantor's pac? i'll ask former virginia congressman tom perriello.

>> they are the young guns. if you are one of the millions of men who have used androgel 1%, there's big news. presenting androgel 1.62%. both are used to treat men with low testosterone. androgel 1.62% is from the makers of the number one prescribed testosterone replacement therapy. it raises your testosterone levels, and... is concentrated, so you could use less gel. and with androgel 1.62%, you can save on your monthly prescription. [ male announcer ] dosing and application sites between these products differ. women and children should avoid contact with application sites. discontinue androgel and call your doctor if you see unexpected signs of early puberty in a child, or, signs in a woman which may include changes in body hair or a large increase in acne, possibly due to accidental exposure. men with breast cancer or who have or might have prostate cancer, and women who are, or may become pregnant or are breast feeding should not use androgel. serious side effects include worsening of an enlarged prostate, possible increased risk of prostate cancer,

lower sperm count, swelling of ankles, feet, or body, enlarged or painful breasts, problems breathing during sleep, and blood clots in the legs. tell your doctor about your medical conditions and medications, especially insulin, corticosteroids, or medicines to decrease blood clotting. talk to your doctor today about androgel 1.62% so you can use less gel. log on now to androgeloffer.com and you could pay as little as ten dollars a month for androgel 1.62%. what are you waiting for? this is big news.

car insurance companies say they'll save you by switching, you'd have like, a ton of dollars. but how are they saving you those dollars? a lot of companies might answer "um" or, "no comment." then there's esurance. born online, raised by technology, and majors in efficiency. so whatever they save, you save. hassle, time, paperwork, hair-tearing-out, and yes, especially dollars. esurance. insurance for the modern world. click or call.

welcome back to "the ed show." the obama campaign is hitting mitt romney i think where it hurts. they're out with a new commercial that some are calling the most effective political ad of 2012. it hits romney on everything from his outsourcing of jobs to his offshore bank accounts. take a look. ♪ o beautiful for spacious skies for amber waves of grain ♪ ♪ for purple mountains' majesty above the fruited plain ♪ ♪ america america god shed his grace on thee ♪ ♪ and crown thy good with brotherhood ♪ >> let's bring in new jersey republican assembly leader john

bramnick and catherine crier and keith boykin with us tonight, who just published an article called "the swissboating of mitt romney." pretty good. and leader bramnick, i have to ask you first, have you ever seen a better ad? how in the world would you counter that? >> stipulating he won't be on the "idol" and he's not got a great singing voice, but at the end of the day, this is a guy who created jobs at staples, at domino's, at the sports authority. at the end of the day when people go in and vote, they don't care if he can sing like the "idol." they care if he can create jobs. >> create jobs, that terminology in and of itself, the bain people themselves when all of this started said we're not in this to create jobs. we're in it to make money for our investors. as sort of an aside effect, you get a few jobs. that's great. he didn't create jobs. and four of the ten biggest success stories for bain in his tenure all resulted in

bankruptcy when they went down the pike. >> you have people on the republican side who are saying the exact same thing the democrats are saying now. you have people like rick perry who said durgt primary that mitt romney is a vulture capitalist who is killing jobs. you have at the same time newt gingrich who was going around saying he has never heard of a president who had a swiss bank account before. and called mitt romney a liar. when the republicans get upset about a democrat making an attack, they're not used to democrats fighting back. >> when you have 8% unemployment, who do you want in charge of the economy? do you want barack obama or mitt romney? >> it's a distraction to say a document that he's outsourced jobs? >> you can find all kinds of details when someone is a businessman. you can find all details to focus on. but the voter wants to focus in on the big picture. that's what people do when they go into the voting booth. >> the big picture is this guy gets investors together, buys a

troubled company and either borrows money, pays them back in enormous dividends and watches it go into bankruptcy, or as luck would have it, maybe the company turns around. the point is he's saying he has the prescription for an economy, and what he has the prescription for is an investor class, a bit of venture capitalism which doesn't at all apply to a nation's accounting. >> katherine didn't go to the heart of it. what the obama campaign is doing they're focusing primarily on mitt romney's business experience because that's what he says we should focus on. nobody is talking about his experience as governor because he doesn't want to talk about that because massachusetts ranked 47th of 50 states in job creation. and when he came in, the unemployment rate was below the national average and when he left, it was above the national average. >> how effective is this ad? >> this goes along with the daisy ad or the willy horton ad. this is one of the most

effective ads we've ever seen from the democratic side. >> it's been around for a second, a day, two days, three days. this is the way american politics are. this is the good ad today. how long will that ad be shown? another 24 hours? >> it cuts right to his record about where his money is, where the jobs went, and what they're all about. and creating wealth. >> democrats' perspective of his money. the average -- >> john, you show me a republican who had his job shipped overseas and i'll show you a real unhappy worker. come on. >> i was telling these gentlemen back, what i want to do from a sort of math and political standpoint, if you took away all of the tax breaks, all of the federal loans they were able to use, all of the bankruptcy laws that have been skewed to benefit the investor class, the carried interest that allowed him to treat his income as investment dollars, knoll wage income, take all of that away and see how well he would have done. it would be a very different picture. and all of that is federal

government tax laws. >> you're getting at the heart of it. what the problem is that the ad illustrates and demonstrates exactly the problem that mitt romney is engaging in business practices that encourage the current crisis we have right now. so it creates the narrative, it fits into the narrative. it's exactly hot the republicans don't want to do. i'm really proud of the democrats. they finally got some b-a-l-l-s to be able to go out and fight for a change. >> romney camp attempted to roll out a new commercial criticizing obama for rewarding democratic campaign donors. the ad has president obama singing al green's "let's stay together" in the background. the commercial was taken down late this afternoon for a copyright infringement. romney refuses to name his top fund-raisers. how can he go after president obama while protecting the campaign from similar criticism? >> president obama has a better voice than mitt romney. i'll stipulate to that.

>> we can agree on that. >> i can agree. he's got a really good voice. but he has absolutely no experience, none whatsoever, in managing an economy before he became president. don't you think inherent -- don't you think it's inherent for a person to be president and to be successful at managing an economy to have some experience in business? >> the lasse two businessmen we had as president were george w. bush and herbert hoover. one led us into the great recession, the other led us into the great depression. >> catherine crier, keith boykin, john bramnick, great to have you with us. great discussion tonight. thank you. coming up, the tea partiers say they hate government spending, but they're spending lots of your tax money to ride in style. hypocrisy on wheels when we come back. ask me what it's like when my tempur-pedic moves. why not talk to someone who owns an adjustable version of the most highly recommended bed in america? ask me about my tempur advanced ergo.

goes up. goes up. ask me what it's like to get a massage anytime you want. goes down. goes down. [ male announcer ] tempur-pedic brand owners are more satisfied than owners of any traditional mattress brand. ergonomics. [ male announcer ] tempur-pedic. the most highly recommended bed in america. to learn more or to find an authorized retailer near you, visit tempurpedic.com. up next, the tea party, they rode into office by promising to cut spending.

now, find out how much taxpayer cash they're spending to ride in brand new vehicles. we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] before you take it on your road trip... we take it on ours. this summer put your family in an exceptionally engineered mercedes-benz now for an exceptional price during the summer event. but hurry, this offer ends july 31st. but hurry, this is new york state. we built the first railway, the first trade route to the west, the greatest empires. then, some said, we lost our edge. well today, there's a new new york state. one that's working to attract businesses and create jobs. a place where innovation meets determination... and businesses lead the world. the new new york works for business. find out how it can work for yours at thenewny.com. and so too is the summer event. now get an incredible offer on the powerful c250 sport sedan. but hurry before this opportunity...disappears.

the mercedes-benz summer event ends july 31st.

welcome back to "the ed show." let's remember how the tea party, the tea party republicans, they just love to preach about cutting back on spending. they don't want to spend a dime for anything, but tonight, we're learning how hip hypocritical they really are. seven tea party freshman are spending big bucks on car leases. minnesota representative chip cravic is the biggest spender of them all. >> we're basically broke. we are broke, and i need to understand why people keep on spending money. >> think progress charges taxpayers more than $1,000 a month to lease a chevy equinox. the congressman's office told us the lease costs more because the district is so big. but the democrat in the neighboring district is driving

three ford focuses for less money. democrat colin peterson is spending few taxpayer dollars for three cars and he's getting better gas mileage, i should point out. party's big spenders. he makes a big deal about driving a used minivan. >> i have a used minivan. if you think i'm high on the hog, i'm not. >> duffy's office says he drive that is used minivan, but this is duffy's mobile office. his staffers sent us the picture today. your tax dollars pay for the lease on this van. think progress found duffy spent more than $24,000 on auto leases over the last year and a half. that's a lot of money, isn't it? pretty good travel. finally colorado's fourth district congressman won votes with speeches like this. >> the bottom line is the

american people, whether they're republicans or democrats, want this government to cut spending. >> yeah, they all travel the same, but cory gardner has spent almost $21,000 leasing a brand-new ford escape. tea party freshmen have spent more than $106,000 of your money on auto leases. it will be interesting to see if the tea party hip pock see matters to voters. who will do more damage to mitt romney's campaign? 65% of you say releasing his tax returns. 35% say not releasing his tax returns. thank for the response. up next, will sugar daddies strike again? they voted tonight to protect a handful of billionaires. i have the story next.

those little things still get you. for you, life's about her. but your erectile dysfunction - that could be a question of blood flow. cialis tadalafil for daily use helps you be ready anytime the moment's right. you can be more confident in your ability to be ready. and the same cialis is the only daily ed tablet approved to treat ed and symptoms of bph, like needing to go frequently or urgently. tell your doctor about all your medical conditions and medications, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sexual activity. do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain, as this may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. do not drink alcohol in excess with cialis. side effects may include headache, upset stomach, delayed backache or muscle ache. to avoid long-term injury, seek immediate medical help for an erection lasting more than four hours.

if you have any sudden decrease or loss in hearing or vision, or if you have any allergic reactions such as rash, hives, swelling of the lips, tongue or throat, or difficulty breathing or swallowing, stop taking cialis and get medical help right away. ask your doctor about cialis for daily use and a 30-tablet free trial.

♪ hello...rings ♪ what the... what the... what the... ♪ are you seein' this? ♪ ♪ uh-huh... uh-huh... uh-huh... ♪ ♪ it kinda makes me miss the days when we ♪ ♪ used to rock the microphone ♪ back when our credit score couldn't get us a micro-loan ♪ ♪ so light it up! ♪ even better than we did before ♪ ♪ yeah prep yourself america we're back for more ♪ ♪ our look is slacker chic and our sound is hardcore ♪ ♪ and we're here to drop a rhyme about free-credit-score ♪ ♪ i'm singing free-credit-score-dot-com ♪ ♪ dot-com narrator: offer applies with enrollment in freecreditscore.com. use the points we earn with our citi thankyou card for a relaxing vacation. ♪ sometimes, we go for a ride in the park. maybe do a little sightseeing.

or, get some fresh air. but this summer, we used our thank youpoints to just hang out with a few friends in london. [ male announcer ] the citi thankyou visa card. redeem the points you've earned to travel with no restrictions. rewarding you, every step of the way. the republicans killed the act with a filibuster. the democrats were seven votes short. it would have required groups to release the names to anyone who contributes more than $10,000. it would have aapplied to both parties. harry reid says the vast majority of donations are coming from about a dozen huge donors. >> if this flood of outside money continues, the day after the election 17 angry old white men will wake up and realize

they just bought the country. >> sheldon addison is one of the those 17 so-called angry white men who were trying to buy the country. he's a gop sugar daddy who runs casinos overseas. he funneled millions of dollars into republican races. now they've reportedly dropped $5 million into the yg action fund, young guns. it started this year with with about $55,000. it was created to help young guns like paul ryan and kevin mccarthy. but his $5 million will go to this young gun, eric cantor could use the help in the first place. the latest poll shows he could have a fight on his hands this november. 43% of the likely voters in cantor's district say he should be replaced, 41% want too send him back to washington. that's well within the margin of error. $5 million could swing the vote

in cantor's favor, but his buddies in the senate killed the disclose act. so we won't know if he bought the leadership in congress or not. i'm joined tonight by a former congressman from virginia, now the president and ceo of the center of american progress action fund. great to have you with us tonight. $5 million in a congressional race is a heck of a lot money, isn't it? >> it's a lot of money any way you slice it. to not even know who is trying to buy elections, who is trying to sway elections is an insult to the american people, particularly those in the working and middle class struggling to get by. >> doesn't this place to the sensibilities that the common sense of american people? why are the republicans trying to kill this disclose act and anything to move forward? >> well, it's a little bit like mitt romney and his taxes. the question is is the pain they get for not scldisclosing to th

american people what would be disclosed. mitt romney has a tax proposal that rewards companies for sending american jobs overseas. not what he did in the past. his current proposals reward companies, and you see adelson making this money overseas. we're talking about billions in tax returns. just a good investment in these politicians and what they expect to get in return, and the middle class will get stuck with the bill. >> do you think today that the republicans probably lived up to a promise? i can imagine these people going to these billionaires saying, look, give us a bunch of money. you never have your name put on it. there's no disclosure of any of this at all. was this a payback vote? >> these republicans ten years ago said all we need is disclosure, and that's enough to let people decide from that we don't need caps. they won that decision in a bad supreme court decision, and now they say forget disclosure.

we don't want to give voters the right to know who it is buying up republican politicians. to have not a single republican, not a scott brown, not a snow or a collins cross the aisle to say that citizens have a right to know who is trying to buy their elections is just an outrageous thing. >> could this help democrats? you mentioned scott brown. elizabeth warren and scott brown are neck and neck. is this a key moment in the campaign? >> there are a lot of working middle class folks out there leaning republican. when they see what happens with folks writing $100 million pledges, they don't care a wit about the working and middle class. in a place like massachusetts, this could be a big factor. someone who ran saying they wanted to clean up washington, then they come and get a sweetheart deal for wall street speculators and say they don't want citizens to have the right to know who is writing five-figure checks to politicians. they should have to pay a price

for it at the polls, but, of course, they're going to get a lot of money from these folks to muddy that water. i think the american people are smarter and able to see through that. >> another day at the office. another filibuster by the republicans. tom, great to have you with us. thank you for joining us on the ed show. the rachel maddow show starts right now. good evening. >> good evening. thank you, my friends, and thanks for stag with us for the next hour. tonight president obama is watching the u.s. olympic basketball teams, both the men's and women's team play exhibition games against the basketball teams from brazil. sort of a warm-up for the olympic games. the president, obviously, a big basketball fan. he has a big night out with with the vice president there. it's kind of nice. the campaign is firing on all cylinders at this point. the president was campaigning in ohio. mitt romney is raising money at a country club in jackson, mississippi tonight. they're campaigning full speed. the campaign is actually sort of

happening at a pace it's never happened at before now. it's the toughest pace it's been, but they're taking time to relax. mr. romney took the weekend off with his family at their big lakehouse in new hampshire again. he drove around very fast on his very large speed boat, and president obama tonight watching hoops. this is not a qualifying match for the olympics or anything. those have already happened. this is just an exhibition game. they play these games before the olympics. you know, it's interesting. before the last summer olympics in beijing in 2008, the u.s. men's basketball team before those games, they prepositioned themselves before beijing. they pre-positioned themselves close to beijing but not in beijing. in order to acclimate themselves to what it was like to play in the olympics, the u.s. men's team before the games moved themselves to macau about three hours fr