much as we're going to put out. >> what is mitt romney hiding? >> as for the other side -- ♪ some day i'll be living in a big old city ♪ ♪ and all you're ever going to be is mean ♪ ♪ some day i'll be big enough so you can't hit me ♪ ♪ and all you're ever going to be is mean ♪ ♪ why you got to be so mean >> where did all the obama stimulus money go? friends, donors, campaign supporters? special interest groups. where did the obama stimulus money go? $500 million taxpayer dollars bankrupt. where did the obama stimulus money go? windmills from china, electric cars from finland. >> 79% of the $2.1 billion in stimulus grants, awarded

through, it went to overseas companies. >> i'm mitt romney. ai prove this message. >> the mean back and forth reminds me of the bench clearing brawl in the '80s classic "the naked gun." >> come on, let's get them. >> or maybe it's the brawl that led to this between the yankees and red sox in 2003 when don zimmer took on pedro martinez. in all seriousness, though, here's how all this is playing right now. "the new york times" has a new poll with cbs showing neither candidate is really hitting it out of the park so to speak. the president's batting average is down four points to 44%. his favorability rating is also

down hitting 36%. and as for romney, his numbers are rising, but they're still below the president's. and in the latest horse race polls, it's a virtual tie. we're pretty nice here at "the cycle." at least we like to think of ourselves that way. we're going to lob a softball to politico's star player jim vandehei. thanks so much for joining us. >> good to be here. >> i promise i'm going to stop with the baseballanalogies. i'm done. >> that's all right. throw it my way. >> one stat that's sort of blowing my mind right now, over 2008 we had a 750% increase in negative political ads. you know voters claim that they hate this stuff, but what's the truth? i mean, are these negative ads working? >> they wouldn't do them if they didn't work. negative ads are significantly more effective than positive ads. if you're barack obama, you don't really have a choice. they went with this strategy. they're going to stick with it which is to go negative early

and do it consistently between now and election day to try to define mitt romney in a very negative way and very unlikable way with hopes that people don't pay as much attention to the economy and what happened over last four years. you have to when you're a politician deal with the reality that you're playing in. and this reality is the economy stinks. it's unlikely to improve between now and the election day. health care, which is the biggest achievement, has a plurality of people who don't like the bill. so it's tough to deal with that hand. he's got to be able to win by making romney not an acceptable alternative. >> jim, romney hasn't exactly been nice in these ads either. >> not at all. i mean, certainly in the primary all he did was run negative ads and he's happy to do it. the superpac loves to do the same thing. once he starts spending his money and he has a lot of it and outside groups have gobs of it, most of it is going to be negative as well. again, because it penetrates. it makes a difference. it can move the needle. nothing's going to move the needle right now. people should stop looking at

that head to head matchup. it is meaningless. every single poll over the last month, and this will be true for the next two or three months, it's going to be within the margin of error. this is a very ditvided country. the guys have 95% of their base locked up. there's a small sliver of independents. a tiny fraction of them are watching any of the stupid ads, especially about what happened eight years ago, ten years ago. they're moving the needle with such a small number of people. the question is, what happens post-convention when people start to tune in and obama doesn't have the big financial advantage that he has right now and romney, and these groups come in with just tons of money, unlike anything we've ever seen before in politics. they can basically buy all commercials between the conventions and election day if they really raise as much money as they're talking about raising. >> wow. >> then can they define them in a positive way? we don't know. >> that's wild. >> hey, jim, politico discussed this today and karl rove has an editorial in the "wall street journal" in which he said, the romney campaign's response which

included whiney demands that the president apologize for his attacks has unsettled gop activists, causing them to wonder, how prepared mr. romney and his team are for the mud fest they've entered. is karl rove essentially nudging romney to be more negative or what is he saying here? >> i don't think there's anything essentially or nudging about it. he's like, blatantly pushing him to toughen up and to, one -- a lot of republicans are really, really ticked off he went and whined to the "washington post" about a story they wrote and whined about ads. they want him to get out there and defend himself, define himself and go at barack obama and make this thing about who's got a different economic -- who's got a better economic vision to turn around the country. they feel like that's a pretty easy argument to make so there's some frustration that romney has not done that. remember, mitt romney is such a hyperdisciplined guy. he has a strategy in this mind that i've got this money, don't have as much i can spend right now because so much of it can

only be spent for primary purposes. they're going to have so much money after the convention. they have a plan to define him there, define his agenda then. and they think, you know what, this stuff right now, it might be interesting to all of us. it's not that interesting to independent voters. i don't know if that's the case. none of us are going to know. "the new york times" polls, it's a snapshot and it's too close to where these attacks were actually made. you have to wait a month to see if any of the bain attack, if any of the tax records attacks, that they actually penetrate and start to move the needle. you can't gauge this stuff in realtime. >> right. >> just to that point, steve, as you know, every day our fearless leader, executive producer, steve friedman is telling us the bain attacks respect wo s aren' we're arguing back about that point. i saw a poll that said 60% of registered voters don't care about romney's bain experience and 73% don't care about his wealth. so is that saying to you, perhaps the bain attacks aren't working and also that romney's thesis that i come from bain,

ergo i know the economy, that's also not working. >> here's the thing. we could end the election in november and find 99% of the country didn't care, 9 % of the voters didn't care about bain and had nothing to do with how they voted and it still might work. the difference between the bain strategy working and not working is the difference between romney getting 49.1% of the vote and 50.1% of the vote. this really is, jim talks about this, is about a narrow universe, a six-month strategy on part of the obama campaign to plant this in people's minds, to use this has a bay sisisbasis, that might be inclined to vote for romney because of the state of economy and give them pause when they get to the voting booth. >> bet based on what the obama campaign has been running and continued insistence on the attacks they think it's going to work. politico's jim vandehei. thanks so much for joining us. >> take care. have a good show. next, fighting grips, the

syrian capital, but a u.s. ally vetoes u.n. action. we're putting it through the spin cycle as we roll on for thursday july 19th.

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shells and gunfire tearing through damascus once again today. as many as 200 people have been killed in the last 24 hours. all retaliation for bombing targeted president assad's top military leaders. meanwhile, a battle of international diplomacy. russia and china today vetoed a resolution that would have imposed sanctions against the regime. this marks the third time in nine months two countries have

blocked sanctions. we'll put it through the cycle right now. so this is, it's an interesting situation to me because you have just, you know, clear sort of appalling behavior on the part of the syria. the whole world can see it, the whole world knows about it. we know russia and china are using power. i guess the thing that interests me is why russia in particular would do this. the theory i can come up with is syria to me seems like it's russia's last hold in the middle east. a lot of influence there. if this government falls, russia has no more influence, it's the united states and the eu and that's pretty much it. >> the last russian naval base in the entire mediterranean is in syria. if they lose assad and don't have an ally come in after him, they're going to have a lot of trouble in the region. i have family in lebanon, neighboring syria, and they know really what's going on. the media, the way people are really talking. and the sense on the ground is yesterday's assassinations are a huge devastating blow to the

assad regime in that it's not a when, it's not an if question, it's a when question. that he cannot survive going forward from this. it seems like yet another arab spring casualty. >> it's been a when and not an if for a long time. president obama at least six months ago, i don't have that date, but at least six months ago said it's not a question of if, but when. i don't know why we, the united states, are still relying on the u.n. to sort of dog and pony show this charade. >> that's one of the theories here about why russia and china are doing this is they're sort of calling the bluff of the west and they note, the theory is they know the united states and the west are not prepared to act militarily or otherwise so they feel they have the freedom to do this. >> from my perspective, at least, nor should we be prepared immediately to go in yunilater l unilaterally as the u.s., people have been comparing veer syria to libya. the better comparison is to iraq, the size of the country

and the sectarian divisions. i mean, in syria you have a minority which is what bashar al assad is and what most of the military is and they're fiercely loyal to him and there's a sunni 74% majority so the fear is that if you have full-scale civil war, if assad is actually put out of power, what's going to follow? and that's a big question mark. so we shouldn't be just casually committing ourselves to military engagement. >> 17,000 people are dead and we're allowing kofi annan to charade and pretend his six-point peace plan is going to take care of this problem and at the same time we're saying we cannot stand for this, we will not stand for this. i think not only is it a moral obligation but it's making us look dumb in the process. >> it's definitely not making us look dumb. the difference why this is iraq and is not libya is because assad has russia standing behind him. this is not just us dealing with a small nation state that we

could knock over but we have a major nation that we don't want to have to tangle with. that would not be intelligence to create a military conflict with russia. >> another military engagement, i don't want that right now. i don't think the american people do. >> we should be honest we have no intention of going in and seyria is on its own. i wish the united states would just say that. clearly that's what they intend to do. >> the u.n. has a 90 day mandate that expires friday night. theoretically there's time to come back to the table not that anybody is optimistic about that. it hasn't expired yet. moving on. how is this for an awkward transition? international turmoil, we move on to something lighter, from news on tv to news about temperature. t "madmen" leads the way with 17 nominations. the mini series "american horror story" scored up 17 nominations for itself. comedy side "modern name" will be laughing down the red carpet

with handful of nominations. we have fortunately a pop culture expert on the show. i'm, of course, talking about myself. i'm talking about toure. this is a big day for you obviously. >> hold on. can i just say one thing? one comment on "the cycle" here? it's funny in the transition from syria to emmys, three out of four of us are more comfortable talking about the political situation in syria than we are about "mad men." just going to put that out there. go ahead. >> i love talking about syria -- >> not to denigrate your intelligence on syria. >> no, not at all. i think clearly "mad men" will win best drama at the emmys. this is the best show on television. "game of thrones fans" don't e-mail me. you're not in the conversation. "mad men in" is the best. as a discussion of america moving from the '50s to the '60s to what we have now, the primacy of white men in the workplace and in the world slipping away, i mean, it's an amazing television show.

but more interesting to me is the race for best comedy. talk about "modern family." it's really a three-way race between "modern family" with massive ratings, "30 rock," obviously where we are, a brilliant show. "girls" to me is by far the best situation comedy on television. it is dramatic. it is beautiful. it is like a little mini movie every week. i'm amazed at what lena dunham has been able to do as an actress, writer, director. judd apeto is helping her. it is a lena dunham thing. i'm blown away by every bit of it. i think this will win best comedy. >> all i know is the "big bang theory," the last one on the list there, i like that show. >> you, krystal? >> i should preface this by saying i watch almost nothing other than cable news and nickelodeon jr. because of my 4-year-old. the only -- >> she gets the cable news and you get the nick jr.? >> as a sort of detox thing.

sometimes that's appropriate. the only show that i watch outside of that is actually "dancing with the stars." it's sort of my guilty pleasure. so i would be all for "dancing with the stars" doing well. i think it's fun. i used to dance so i like it. >> s.e. was a dancer. what's your -- what are you here? >> i have never seen an episode of any one of those shows. hatch half of the words you said i don't understand. i watch "duck dynasty" and news. i don't know any of those. i really think i stopped watching sitcoms and dramas when "seinfeld" went off the air. i'm old. >> that makes you sound a little old. te television has moved forward. >> it has in 20 years? >> there's lots of brilliant shows on. >> we're running out of time. i want to get one in here. i said i like "the big bang

theory." i also like "parks and recreation." it didn't make the list. it's a show that's funny and can be touching sometimes. it's a great show. i wish it had been nominated along with "the big bang theory." >> it got four nominations. it's getting recognition. >> it should be the best comedy. >> i agree. i'm not sure why "veep" is there. that jumps out at me as the outlier. >> i'm going to agree even though i haven't seen an episode. divine intervention. sister campbell takes on church and state right after this.

♪

>> come on. go. go. >> lovely time. we'll be back. >> yes, we will. >> good-bye. >> have fun. that's a clip from the beloved movie "sister act" which gave catholic nuns a whole new look and feel. we have a modern day nun joining us from network, a women's social justice lobby group. they lobby on issues of peace building, immigration reform, health care and economic justice. at times they've come under heat from the vatican for many of their positions. earlier this month network embarked on a 9 state and 27 city nuns on the bus tour in hopes to stop big cuts to social programs that would directly affect low income families. in the guest spot today we have sister simone campbell who serves as executive director of

network. sister simone, thank you so much for joining us. >> great to be with you. >> i have to start on a personal note. my mother was actually a nun for seven years in the '60s, and i have always had a view of nuns as sort of reformers and activists. she tells me stories about pushing her habit back to show some of her hair and cutting their skirts. that's always been my image of nuns. i'm not sure that's generally the way the american public thinks of them. but i was wondering if you could talk about the sort of genesis of the nuns on the bus tour, what the goal was and how people responded to you all? >> well, we started this because the notoriety that the vatican gave us when they named us and censured the leadership conference of women religious. we're not used to having attention focused on us as nuns so we said, what could we do to further our mission? to really lift up the people at the margins of society who really need society's attention? we asked for help and came together and had a brainstorming session and created nuns on bus

as a way to educate people in the united states about what's happening here in washington and on capitol hill. in making huge cuts to social programs. people don't understand what's being done here, but what we learned in the process was that our nation is hungry for a positive message, for lifting up, faith values at the broader perspective. and we received such a warm welcome whenever we went, we ended up with the education, ourselves. >> that's amazing. i love nuns on the bus. i wanted to ask you a little bit more about the vatican reprimand. i was shocked when i read in "the new york times," it said they reprimanded you for focusing too much on poverty and economic injustice. that to me is sort of shocking. i want to know what your reaction was and i also wan to know kind of what the backstory is. is the vatican afraid of the nuns? >> well, i don't know if they're afraid or not, but we certainly were stunned that they should identify us as keeping to our

mission. we at network were founded 40 years ago by 47 catholic sisters. in response to a vatican document that said care for people who are at the margins, care for people in poverty and do it by direct service but also engage in the political conversation making law. so that's why we were founded. so we've only been faithful. but then to have us criticized i think really, though, when i looked at the dates of the various documents that went in to create it, what it really was was some of the bishops were upset with us for the position we took about the affordable care act that passed. and i wrote the letter that 59 catholic sisters were leaders of their congregations signed supporting the affordable care act. and some of the bishop's staff continued to oppose the act, itself, and while our position has won out in the courts, that's not -- it's a hollow victory. what we really want to do is come together as a church.

>> absolutely. >> sister, i wanted to follow-up on the issue of the reprimand. you know, one of the aspects of the reporting that really jumped out at me is obviously the movement within rome for the reprimand apparently came from americans who are in rome or have influence in rome. the name that jumped out at me who's been linked to this is cardinal law from boston. a lot of people might remember him from the sex abuse case a decade ago. he was moved to rome. some reporting said this was the investigation he was instrumental in launching that led to the reprimand. ic i wanted to ask you about the fallout. the vatican appointed a monitor for your group, a bishop from seattle. what has that done? what has that meant for what you can and can't do? >> okay. actually we need to make clear sh that network was named as a suspect organization for being in relationship with a leadership conference. leadership conference of women religious is the association of all the leaders of -- or most of the leaders of women's congregations in the united states.

that group was directly created by rome so they directly relate to rome. our group is network. we're a lobby so we're separate from it. but we're friends with the leadership conference. >> allies. >> allies. that's true. colleagues. we had just given them a great award for their collaboration with us in our 40 years. but just before the censure came out. fact is the leadership conference continues to do prayerful reflection. they're engaged in dialogue around the country. and their meeting is the first week of august in st. louis where they will actually try to come together and make a more formal response to move the process forward. so they're still very much in a discernment mode about how to react. >> got it. >> sister simone, some people have suggested that the catholic church is in a bit of an identity crisis. and that maybe they need to look less at social issues and talk more about economic issues. and that's all fine and good. economic issues certainly have moral implications. but when you look at, for

example, the episcopal church which tried very hard to take more progressive attitudes toward social issues in effort to sort of open the ranks and attract a younger demographic and more churchgoers, actually attendance is down over the past ten years. what do you think the catholic church needs to do, if anything, to attract more people? if loosening sort of the doctrinal codsies isn't doing what it's supposed to? >> i think the issue is not so much messaging or trying new structures. the issue is returning to gospel and being clear where jesus is and where is jesus in our society? >> right. >> from our perspective, jesus is with those at the margins. those of you that know the new testament know jesus was with the tax collectors even. with all of people that were outcasts in his time. and i really think that that's where we get sent.

and as women religious, that's what we commit our lives to. i must say with the reception that we receive from people across the entire political spectrum on our trip, people are hungry for that sense of authentic message, that spirituality is way deeper than the institutional structures. it is the way -- structure is the way that we continue the gospel message, but the message, itself, is much deeper and i think it's a hunger for the authentic spirituality of our time. not for bashing each other over the head or busy being judgmental. jesus always was consistent about his love for everyone, even the folks that had failed. lord knows i fail sometimes. we all fail sometimes. but the love of christ i think is the thing that our world is hungry for. >> sister simone campbell, thank you so much for that uplifting message and for swrojoining us. we appreciate it. >> thank you for the opportunity. it's easy to tell what sister simone is contributing to the world. how does each of us discover

what we were born to do? internationally known speaker and author phil cooke helps us hone in on our one big thing. [ buzz ] off to work! did you know honey nut cheerios is america's favorite cereal? oh, you're good! hey, did you know that honey nut cheerios is... oh you too! ooh, hey america's favorite cereal is... honey nut cheerios ok then off to iceland!

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last week i told you american dream is dead. without intergenerational mobility it's not the country we once had. where did we get lost? our next guest says we have a focus problem. our parents and grandparents tended to have one job but we bounce from job to job and that he argues is keeping us from realizing our true purpose in life. phil cooke, his new book "one big thing: discovering what you were menant to do."

>> i'm not against trying different things, exploring things. we all know the friend of ours who continues to try new jobs, bouncing from place to place, never seeming to find the lane where he can perform really brilliantly in. that's what's keeping so many people from achieving their dream in life. >> phil, this sort of recalled for me the idea of protestant work ethic and the idea that work is a calling. is that where you were going here? >> well, i think work is a calling. i think if you love what you do, that's the best way to describe it. the problem is, too many people just go through the motions, are miserable at their work, never find something they really enjoy doing. and i think, i mean, look at it this way. what if we could wake up tomorrow morning and know exactly what we were born to do with our life? it would change everything. >> and how do we figure that out? how do we -- what is my big thing, phil? >> well, that might take some type. buy my book, first of all. >> glad i gave you that softball plug. >> thank you for the plug opportunity. you know, there's a practical

very easy to understand guidebook. i mean, there's some steps we can take to really figure it out. it's not that hard. the problem is people just get -- they get flustered. in my career, i spent most of my career in the media. i discovered particularly lately in this disruptive economy, i'm discovering more and more people are failing not because they're not committed, not because they're good at what they do or love what they to, more and more people fail because they get distracted. distractions are at an incredibly all-time high. >> s.e. and i have been blessed enough to know what we wanted to do, to be in media, to be writers from early in our 20s and just go to that. you two guys have flitted around different careers, right? multiple employers for us, but we've always been writers. >> yeah, i've been a writer for ten years, but, you know, you have to sort of keep relevant and keep reinventing in our career so you move around a lot. i've had the same job in some capacity for about a decade. >> i moved to new york a long time ago. writer.

television to me is an extension of that. you were an accountant? >> yes. >> what? >> i'm 30 years old and i've had four very different sort of changes of direction. i started off doing accounting software design for the federal government. >> what? >> and i'm a cpa. and then i started having my own business and doing educational softwa software design. then i ran for congress. now i'm here with you. "the cycle." >> steve was a photographer. >> my journey, the quick version of my journey i graduated college, it was the reapportionment time so i drew congressional maps and sent them to various state legislatures. >> everybody did that, right? >> called noo eed myself a writ. went to l.a., tried to become a screenwriter, tried to become a professional game show contestant. put in an application for the l.a. clippers. applied to law school. ten years ago they were hiring

anybody. i thought that would be fun. >> phil, is steve a little lost in life? >> actually, actually i'm thinking maybe after the program today we'll have an intervention for you. >> that was ten years ago. >> there are many issues on which we could have an intervention with steve. >> let any say this, guys. it's not about a job. your one big thing could be expressed in a lot of different ways. if you have a vision to be a writer, if that's your goal, your tedream, express that in a the lot of different ways. for me, i can express my one big thing through different jobs. it's not necessarily being locked into a single job for the rest of your life. >> quickly, your advice for people listening who aren't quite sure what they want to do. what's your advice? >> other than buy the book? >> other than buy the book, well, first of all, take a minute, take a break and think. one of the first steps in the book is look back over your life and see the things that came easy for you. sometimes we forget that when we were young, we just had a knack for certain things other people

don't have. i talked to professional athletes. they say, you know what, i could always dunk a basketball better than somebody else, catch a pass, other people were good with numbers, other people were creative. look back and see the things you were known for when growing up. on the prom committee or homecoming committee and said, you know what, bob, you're the creative one, maybe you need to come up with a theme. we forget those things and go into areas we're not good at. >> there's also the 10,000 hours, if you do something for 10,000 hours you will master it so you need to engage yourself in a field. >> well, the 10,000 hour thing is somewhat controversial. i do believe in excellence. i think that you're never going to get known until you focus. and that's kind of the point of the book. that until you focus and really become the best in the world at a certain niche, you're never really going to get on the radar. that's what the most important thing is. >> that's an interesting point. interesting takeaway for people who don't have their career path mapped out yet. phil cooke, thank you very much. >> thank you. coming up, too important to fail. president consumer protection

bureau issues its first big fine. will they be able to put the big banks in check? that's next in our series, the future of success. [ male announcer ] turn 1, daytona. riverside exit, i-95. variante ascari, monza. mile 7, highway 1. wehrseifen, nurburgring. the horseshoe, twin peaks boulevard. every famous curve has an equally thrilling, lesser-known counterpart. conquer them, with the lexus is performance line, featuring the is 250. real performance demands real precision. this is the pursuit of perfection.

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action by the newly formed consumer financial protection bureau created by the dodd/frank wall street reform has already gone through a political war of attrition fighting over the director, a recess appointment, threats of filibuster and promises of dismantling. while it may not fully satisfy people on either side of the aisle, our next guest says it's our best chance at fixing our financial system. john, editor of "the washington monthly" calls the cfpb too important to fail. our latest installment of our series with "the washington monthly," the future of success. john, welcome. >> hi, thanks for having me. >> hi. the consumer protection bureau has been so politicized. it's hard to have a meaningful conversation about it without watching the mud fly. what i loved about your piece is it addresses all the criticisms from the right but also is brutally honest about some of the optimism of the left. the cfpb is important you assert but not necessarily a cure all.

so explain. >> well, the cfpb is, you know, it came out of the dodd/frank financial reforms and what a lot of people wanted out of those reforms was, you know, breaking up the big banks. a real fundamental restructuring of the financial system. that's not what we came out with. the cfpb is one of the most important parts of what we did get but it's a financial regulator that goes toe to toe with the heavily engineered financial system we have and tries to sort of go toe to toe with them in data, in understanding financial consumer behavior. it's a really consolidated regulator going against a really consolidated, sophisticated financial system. >> one of the problems you address in your brief history of predatory lending and how we got here is regulators became businesses unto themselves and as such wanted to be profitable. and i'll quote you here, you say in market after market, hiding

the true costs and risks of a product became a requirement for survival and as lenders began to compete with each other on lack of transparency, regulators competed on laxity of oversight and the rest as they say is history. so how do we prevent the bodies that regulate business from becoming businesses themselves? >> well, the cfpb is built really explicitly to avoid precisely the problems that arose with agencies like the office of the supervision. that was an agency that got all of its funding from fees that it took from the financial institutions that it regulated. so when the ots came out of the gate, they were really tough. they were shutting down a lot of the institutions they regulated. then they realized they shutting down thrifts that were behaving badly they were depriving themselves of a revenue source. they kind of changed their tune

and started, you know, selling themselves as a regulator that would give them an easy time. the cfpb doesn't get its funding from fees but a dedicated source of funding that comes from the fed. that's one of the things that the architects of the agency put in place to avoid, you know, to learn precisely that lesson of history. there are a few other structural things they've done to try to avoid having the agency be captured by the industry it regulates. you know, it's, you know, the best thinking of technocrat tec but it's the best we've got. >> john, we all know the obama administration obviously is committed to the cfpb. mitt romney's top economic adviser glenn hubbard gave an interview to "the wall street journal" and said if romney is elected they'll realign it in the government to make it more

answerable to congress. am i right in reading that as basically meaning this november election is going to decide the future of this bureau? >> i think that's right. i think, the, you know, it's no what he's going to do, but it's going to be seriously defanged or done away with altogether and he has promised also, to repeal dodd frank. >> i want to talk to you guys for a second, back to the top of the segment talking about capital one, you know, they've really done a lot to have these sweet ads with this image of jimmy fallon and alec baldwin. is this devastating for that image? >> people might think credit cards are unscrupulous. >> i don't think anyone's under the impression that banks and credit cards are warm and fuzz.! >> they've got jimmy fallon with

a baby. >> and vikings. >> i think what's clear is that no one is above reproach when it comes to this sort of thing. let's ask john, the cfpb had a big day yesterday in its debut pending capital one refund demand. how would you grade their first big move? >> it's a substantial find and you know, it's not chump change. this is a company with billions in profits so i don't know how, it's not a disabling blow. i wouldn't think. it was interesting that capital one kind of respond ed in a way that was almost apologetic and it is really interesting. one thing about that move is that the deputy director of the agency, really interesting guy who i spoke to a lot for my piece, spent a lot of his career working for capital one, so if

anybody feared that the cfbb was going to pull punches, this seems to put the light to that. >> it's interesting stuff. i want to thank you again for your article. the last day of our serious about the future of success in america, creating wealth for all of us. could the right policy put more money in your pocket? up next, our friendly progressive defending mitt on taxes and bain. why do i think there's a catch? still more ahead on "the cycle." . perfect golden color. rich in fiber. my dad taught me, and i taught my son out there. morning, pa. wait... who's driving the...? ♪ 99 bushels of wheat on the farm, 99 bushels of wheat ♪ [ male announcer ] yep, there's 8 filling layers of whole grain fiber in those fun little biscuits... so they stick with you, all morning long.

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no one thinks mitt romney is fundamentally is a crook or anything like that or even a tax dodge. there's no evidence of that at all. he needs to put it out. >> if something's going to come out, get it out in a hurry. >> if the election were held tomorrow, tomorrow, who would win? >> obama. >> so, it's been that kind of a week for mitt romney and frankly, last week wasn't much better. well, this week featured a rising crescendo for romney to release tax returns. last week, comments about the length of romney's tenure at bain. romney's really already disclosed everything we need to know about hill. for example, we know everything we need to know about hi approach to taxes. listen to him here. >> i pay all the taxes that are legally required and not a dollar more. i don't think you want someone as a candidate for president who

pays more taxes than he owes. >> i don't think you need to pay more than required, but i don't think you should be going above and beyond to shelter your income to keep every penny you can to yourself while advocating further tax codes. we don't know what rate romney paid in 2009, but does that really matter? every year, thousands of the uber rich pay nothing in taxes. and does anyone doubt that the glaring inequity of someone who has benefitted from our system doesn't -- their mitt in the list. we know everything we need to know about romney's approach at bain capital, too. does anyone think that romney was serving as bain's moral

compass? that it was romney alone, his commitment to a ruthless form of rigged capitalism is evident in everything from the culture and model that he created to his model to his lack of concern for the poor, who are apparently doing just fine. we also know everything we need to know about the two sets of rules. for the 99%, work is tough, hours are long and pay is low. for the 1% like mitt romney, executive salaries come with m n minimum effort and a cushy, retroactive retirement. for the 1%, there are swiss bank accounts, carried interests, dresage horses and expensive lawyers and accountants. the 1% and their financial engineers and bankers brought this country to the brink of financial collapse. mitt romney might be a genius at league tax avoidance, buyouts and financial engineering, but

he isn't the person to fix that rigged system. he's part of the problem. >> i like that. we were talking before, wasn't as soon as they left they were like, okay. >> finally, we can outsource the jobs. >> we've been waiting. he's been holding us back. i'm sure it was the same company after he weleft, when ever he left. >> i'm saying would you stop apologizing for mitt romney, but i'm curious what -- >> i don't have enough time to unpack those layers of talking points. that's fine. >> layers of talking points. i can't unravel that. in the 20 seconds we have left. >> all right. we'll have to continue this conversation then. we've got jonathan capehart in the chair for martin today. >> hey, nice work by you guys today. as they said, i'm jonathan capehart in for martin bashir. it's thursday, july 19th and here's what's happening.

>> so hot everybody, so if you've got a seat, take a seat. >> that was water dropping down from the creeling. it's so hot in here, the building is sweating. >> mr. romney's got a different idea. governor romney's economic plan would in fact create 800,000 jobs. the jobs wouldn't be in america. >> we're seeing our president hand out money to the businesses of campaign contributors. >> we've gone through decades where folks acting responsibly didn't always get ahead. >> president obama attacks success and under president obama, we have less success. >> anymore heat in here, we'd spontaneously come bust. we begin with the dead of summer and a dead heat in the presidential race. president obama has just kicked off a campaign swing through the sunshine state as a "new york times" poll shows the race is neck and neck.

if the election were held today, 45% would choose mitt romney. 43%, president obama. that's within the margin of error, but the first time romney has held a numeric edge in that poll since clinching the nomination in may. the trouble for the president, just 39% say they apruf of obama's handling of the economy. 55% disapprove. that number is up seven points from april and today, the president introduced a new line of attack in florida, arguing that mitt romney will end medicare as we know it. >> he plans to turn medicare into a voucher program, so that soucher isn't worth enough to buy the health insurance that's on the market, you're out of luck. you're on your own. it's wrong to ask seniors to pay more for medicare just so millionaires and billionaires can pay less in taxes. >> meanwhile, mitt romney kept up his attacks on the president with a new