what's that angle that we're getting? because bachmann's the ultimate case of this. >> let me first disassociate, mix these up. take them apart. michele bachmann's thing, absolutely outrageous. i know mccain was absolutely right. you have quibble, have some serious disagreements with obama's foreign policy, but you know, throwing her under the bus i think it's ridiculous and dangerous as john boehner said. i think is ridiculous and the worst thing is it's a distraction from what the campaign should be all about, which should be about the economy. now, you know, if you're talking about some of the rhetoric coming from mitt romney and others, listen. all is fair in love and war when it comes to politics. they're saying the same thing about mitt romney. they're calling him un-american. stephanie cutter was calling him a felon. >> wait a minute. >> some of these things -- >> has anybody questioned his citizenship? >> well, they've questioned where he's putting his money. >> okay. to me --

>> everybody about him, yeah. >> so, there's no difference between questioning a guy's tax returns and whether he's an american or not. there's a difference. >> no. there's a difference between michele bachmann which is horrible and john sununu said he apologized for those comments and he should apologize. it was wrong to say. >> what did john sununu say? saying it's so much different. he said he ought to learn how to be an american. where does that talk come from? >> which he apologized for. he said he shouldn't have said that. i agree with it. >> why did he say it? >> i don't know. >> why does the president, the candidate of the republican party say the president's foreign? >> well, i think he's talking about the fact that the president's trying to import european style democracy or socialism into america. and that's a policy disagreement. >> oh it's a policy disagreement. all right, okay. i think it fits together.

here's ed rollins in an op-ed yesterday. he toured the congresswoman calling her charges against huma abedin outrageous. here's what he wrote. having worked for congresswoman bachmann's campaign for president, i'm fully aware that she sometimes has difficulty with her facts but this is down right vicious and reaches the joe mccarthy level. as a seat on the house intelligence committee, you know better. this is rollins speaking. shame on you, michele. that's what he's saying. you should stand on the floor of the house and apologize to huma abedin for your wild charge. the other republicans also called for bachmann's charges to be withdrawn. they called them outrageous. today, the speaker of the house john boehner was asked about it. here's what the speaker said. >> i don't know huma, but from everything i do know of her, she has a sterling character.

and i think accusations like this being thrown around are pretty dangerous. >> you might get the idea that this is okay. because you hear the other guys throwing this around. so you go a little further but in kind. i disagree with john. i think it's in kind. >> let me start by saying michele bachmann is joe mccarthy in lipstick and she's a dangerous american. and i want to start by welcoming john to a zone of decency where senator john mccain took us and ed rollins is taking us. chris, the rhetoric in this country right now is so dangerous that it's important to acknowledge they have now staked out a lunatic fringe. they've now said certain kinds of comments are beyond the pail. that's a good thing. and we should applaud that today. you know a however is coming. however -- >> here's i like fehry a lot. he has to defend the

indefensible. in this case he's saying the right thing. michele bachmann is off the rails. here's someone who agreed with her. she was on today with glenn beck. >> oh, yes. >> beck defended the congresswoman and attacked john mccain who he said is marching to the orders of the muse limb brotherhood. that's john mccain being accused this time. you've got to keep up with your crowd. they're frisky out there. let's listen to glenn and michele. >> john mccain and all of the elephant media are falling in line with the muslim brotherhood. >> well, michele bachmann continued her allegations against hillary clinton's aide. listen to her. >> she is the chief aide to the secretary of state. and we quoted from a document -- and this has been well reported all across arab media -- that her late father who's now

deceased was a part of me muslim brotherhood. her brother was part of the muslim brotherhood and her mother was part of what's called the muslim sisterhood. >> i think that document is something from -- let's just say the frank gaffney. there's no evidence that her relatives were ever members of the muslim brotherhood. she also makes this ridiculous claim about the infiltration of the muse limb brotherhood into the u.s. government. let's listen to that one. >> the influence today of the muslim brotherhood at the highest levels from the white house to the pentagon to the fbi even to our united states military truly is breathily and people have to know about it. >> i could call this is parallel universe but it's the far right out there. how do you separate this kind of stuff from the mainstream republican conservatism. >> i was talking to several members of congress about this today. members of congress look at michele bachmann --

>> there's other guys in this besides her. >> we're just talking about michele bachmann in the story. there's some other good guys in part of that letter. but they're wrong. i think you have to be really, really careful on these types of attacks. that language she's using is so paralleled to what mccarthy said. you have to know your history. and you cannot make these accusations without some real hard proof. to demonize someone like huma is a huge mistake. >> joe and i were talking at dinner the other night. i think i brought this up. you can't turn on an american television show with at least one of the young characters being from background of south asia and the middle east. it's part of our culture now. and to single them out as dangerous the way this character has done, this congresswoman. and i think ed rollins has a point. this is something that has to be addressed on the floor of the house. she has to say i take this back.

you have any thoughts on this, joan? >> well, yes. i do think they need to denounce it on the floor of the house. i don't know who he's referring to, by trent franks he's a birther. louis goemer is crazy. there are crazy people joining her. so it's easy because she is a little bit of a crack pot, i said it, to demonize her. but she's got company. but i also think this works because the president has muslim family members, step family members and that this is part of a code about this president about huma abedin who's a wonderful, loyal, civil american servant that needs to be denounced. but it only is possible -- i agree with you, chris. it really only is possible because the mainstream of the party thinks it's fine to demonize our president as un-american. >> we had michele on this show,

congresswoman bachman. it's probably where she made her bones politically. she came on and said we have to have an investigation by the u.s. government into the members of congress who are un-american. and it's an incredible -- she runs in a strange part of the world. anyway, the romney campaign commented to make the president sound anti-business. listen to this ad. i think it's misleading. let's watch it then watch the real thing taken from him. >> if you've been successful, you didn't get that on your own. you didn't get there on your own. i'm always struck by people who think, well, it must be because i was just so smart. there's been a lot of smart people out there. it must be because i worked harder than everybody else. let me tell you something, if you got a business, you didn't build that. somebody else made that happen. >> well, let's look at this. let's look at the actual president's statement here. let's take a look at this, the president's statement.

>> if you are successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. there was a great teacher somewhere in your life. somebody helped to create this unbelievable american system we had that allowed you to thrive. somebody invested in roads and bridges. if you got a business, you didn't build that. somebody else made that happen. >> john, the way i heard that he's talking about the bridges and roads, you didn't build that. he didn't say you didn't build your own business. it's that. not your business. the reference is clear and that commercial makes it look like he's saying you didn't build your business, somebody else did. he's talking about the roads and the infrastructure without which you can't make a business work. that's all he's saying. your thoughts? >> my thoughts are that the president made a lot of those comments -- all those comments that were quoted in the ad. but the big thing is it's not about the ads, chris.

>> was it inaccurate? >> accurate enough. >> accurate enough? >> far more accurate than most of the obama ads. >> come on. your standard -- this is pathetic. this is flackery. you couldn't take a lie detector on what you said. >> can i make this one point? >> not if you're going to make that point again. this is ad distortion. >> let me make this point. the ads don't matter. the economy matters. and the president has done nothing for the economy. >> go ahead, your thoughts. >> it's about the economy which is the stimulus did bring back from the brink. you cannot say that this president has done nothing for the economy, john. that's just not true. and there is a fundamental point in the ad and in the president's speech that we need to debate going up to november. and that is the democratic vision that we had help getting into the middle class. my family did, chris' family did, your family did john.

we built roads, we commitment to public universities, we had the g.i. bill. government created the middle class now republicans are acting like if you got there you did it by yourself. that's not true. >> i'm from chicago. listen, the government did just as much to take away from hard working families than they did to help build roads. and there's a lot of corruption in a lot of government people are rebelling about. >> all i can tell you is i wouldn't have gone to college i went to if i didn't get loans from the education act. if these acts didn't goe go through, i wouldn't be educated and i wouldn't be here. but i did work too. i agree with that part too. i think we all worked. thank you. john, i know when you know you're wrong. your voice gets real high. have a nice weekend. coming up, throw momma from the train. that's what obama says romney will do with medicare. also running against romney. we're going to talk to the woman

who ran against romney in massachusetts. what's it like and what did she learn? we want to know that. plus jeff daniels, star of hbo's "the newsroom" joins us live tonight in our newsroom. the real thing this time. and newt and snooki. they're face to face the other day. you've got to watch that one in action. here it is. >> i tell you this. newt, snooki. snooki, newt. >> what up. >> more of that in sideshow. this is "hardball." we know a place where tossing and turning have given way to sleeping. where sleepless nights yield to restful sleep. and lunesta can help you get there, like it has for so many people before. when taking lunesta, don't drive or operate machinery until you feel fully awake. walking, eating, driving, or engaging in other activities while asleep, without remembering it the next day,

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and woody harrelson who played steve schmidt. congratulations to everyone. and we'll be right back.

what are you doing to my momma? >> making a wish. what the hell do you think i'm doing? >> throwing momma from the train. welcome to "hardball." that famous scene movie may well be the movie equivalent what life as a senior would be like in a romney presidency. the ryan budget plan which romney supports would decimate medicare. a point driven home with some exaggeration by this famous ad. let's listen to this ad. ♪

>> strong images there, wouldn't you say? today in florida president obama opened a new front in his fight against romney making sure voters know romney would end medicare as we know it. basically he'd throw momma from the train. this is not just comedy here. romney's plan in the ryan plan. the ryan plan gets rid of medicare and replaces it with some kind of a voucher program. let's listen. >> he plans to roll back health care reform forcing floridians to pay more for prescription drugs.

he plans to turn medicare into a voucher program. if that voucher isn't worth enough to buy the health insurance that's on the market, you're out of luck. you're on your own. one independent nonpartisan study found that seniors would have to pay nearly $6400 more for medicare than they do today. >> dee dee meyers is contribute editor to vanity fair. eugene is an msnbc political analyst. if i got a pulitzer prize, i'd never stop saying it. gene, let's get to the analysis here. it seems like it's fair, it's tough the advertising over the top you might argue but it's fair in this sense. romney has bought into the ryan plan. ryan getting lots of kudos for guts. but his plan does do what the president says it would do, right?

>> well, yeah, it does. it would turn medicare into a voucher program. it is fair to say in my view that it would end medicare as we know it. it would create something else that would be called medicare. it wouldn't be the program we know. this is pretty much a fundamental question. whether you make medicare into a voucher program or you keep it as an entitlement. and i believe the polls show that most people want to keep it the way it is. they don't want it to be -- it's perfectly fair game. >> we know people on medicare. they love it. for the first time in their life they get something for all the work they did. dee dee, let me ask you about this. everybody says cut the budget. cut spending. and it's a good idea. we have a big deficit. how about just cutting the deficit through different taxation policies. once you get to the reality of these cuts. and here we are. you like the ryan cuts? here's what he's cutting. medicare.

explain it. defend it. i think that's the problem romney's going to have between now and november. >> the broader question you just raised is we have a deficit, we have a debt. these have become problematic and everyone agrees with that. then you get into the details whose are you going to protect in order to do something about that? are you going to go after the most vulnerable as the ryan budget does? not only cutting medicare but things like education and other important spending that helps the most vulnerable. or are you going to provide tax cuts for the rich or are you going to preserve some of those to move toward a society where everybody has an equal shot. they're going to say that the president's trying to scare people, but this isn't just an important issue. it's central to the philosophical divide that separates barack obama and mitt romney. you're going to hear a lo t about it. on top of that, of course, the research shows it's effective with seniors. >> let me ask you about the reality here.

gene, it's good to talk the fact you're going to be a different kind of president than obama. then you have to explain what that means. you're not just a relief pitcher coming in a difficult part of the game. it seems if he's going to cut taxes further for corporations, he's going to keep the cuts for the wealthy and make them permanent. he has to come up with cut ops then other side or he's going to increase the deficits. these look like the cuts. this is what's going to pay for the bush tax cuts and corporate tax cuts. >> absolutely. mitt romney has not spelled out precisely what he would cut when he talks about reforming the tax code he hasn't spelled out what loopholes would close. you want to start taxing health benefits. do you want to end the -- those are things you could do with the tax code that would bring in more money. you've got to be specific.

i don't think you can run all the way to the white house by saying i'm going to do it right without spelling out how you're going to do it. >> go ahead, dee dee. >> it's important to add that the ryan budget doesn't help the deficit in the near future. it builds the debt. >> it's why i keep saying to myself you can't predict this election. the cbs news poll, national public radio poll even. showing romney with a margin of error rate here 47% to 46 for romney. 47-45, obama. what do you make of these? i see nothing but within the margin of error here on all of them. >> that's certainly what these polls show. look, if you take the run of the last few months of polls, it's either a margin or error race or obama is slightly ahead. that's what the polls tend to say.

i think that's probably right. and it could be that way all the way to election day. or events might -- right now you'd have to say it's a close race. >> what happens if we don't have a war with iran, europe doesn't come apart, and the unemployment rate stays where it is and growth rate stays about where it is. are we looking at election night like this? which is basically within the margin of error. another hell to pay 2000 where we wait all night and still have a disputed election. pick it up, dee dee. that's what i'm looking at. where a guy wins so narrowly we're going to request screech about the voter i.d. laws. suppose it borders on one state like in 2004 and it's because of some new voter i.d. law that made it impossible for people to

get to the polls. where are we at then? >> that's entirely possible. it's also possible for intervening the war with iran or something that will begin to define these things. sometimes there's a cumulative drip drip drip. and one thing people said with the polls the obama attacks on bain weren't changing the dynamic of the race. the truth is it's too soon to say what the cumulative effect of the arguments not just the specifics of the bain but the arguments more broadly about what does it say about romney's priorities and character. in 2004, the bush people or their agents started the attacks in may. and john kerry led during the entire run of those ads which was may through the end of august. you didn't start to see his favorables shrink until after that. but the damage was clear. you don't know what the

cumulative effect of the tax on romney or, you know, vice versa the attacks -- if the economy remains bad and people decide they've had it, i don't think that's going to happen, but -- >> we've got to go. dee dee do you believe they're accusing the democrats of swift boating? they're using the word. >> how dare you use our tactics against us. >> thank you. have a nice weekend. up next in this corner, the former speaker of the house newt gingrich. and in this corner snooki. the sideshow is about to come. this is "hardball," the place for politics. hmm, it says here that cheerios helps lower cholesterol

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bush made some news yesterday in his interview when he praised mitt romney. and i was shocked by how quickly they made his romney endorsement into a campaign ad. this was fast. take a look.

>> you know, i'm interested in politics. you know, i'm a supporter of mitt romney. i hope he does well. >> i'm barack obama and i approved this message. >> former president bush's first romney endorsement came back in may as a set of elevator doors were closing on him, the former president. he said to a reporter i'm for mitt romney. that's how grand that was. moving on with the sideshow, newt, meet snooki. no joke. that's what happened in last night's "tonight show." he wound up on the couch next to the star of "jersey shore." what could they have bantered about? between books, parties, strippers, and alcohol, a lot of ground was covered. >> newt, snooki. snooki, newt. >> what up? >> congratulations on two new york times best sellers. >> thank you. i'm trying to be like you. >> how about jionni will he have a big bachelor party?

will you allow spripers? >> yes. i feel the guys should have strippers. you're going to be married to the same girl your whole life, so enjoy it. did you have strippers? >> no. >> do you drink, newt, by the way? >> sometimes. >> good for you. >> when was the last time you just got wasted? >> thinking about coming on this show. >> newt tweeted before the interview he hoped snooki liked zoos and animals. we know that story. didn't quite get to that one though. they got to it here. he loves that stuff. we've heard this question more than a few times about some of mitt romney's potential running mates. are they just too dull? well, tim pawlenty went to a new level to show some flash in a fox interview just yesterday. >> you're considered at least by the romneys we are told -- this could be wrong -- safe, reliable, steady as she goes, nothing too flashy.

dare i say dull. >> if you goad me into it, i'll show you my tats. i'm not as flashy as some, but compared to some others i think i'm right in there. >> he's going to show us his tats. is it this bad you have to talk like this? anyway, i think it's going to be pawlenty, anyway. he's my pick. finally will farrell and zach galifinakis is promoting their movie "the campaign." last night they announced the cubs lineup at wrigley field. >> batting third and playing first base, ironically he's not italian. number 44, anthony rizzo. >> batting sixth and playing catcher in his spare time he's an accountant at a styrofoam cooler company, number 18, gee von knee soto.

>> and pitching today's game with a record of 6-8, he leads the league with strikeouts. jeff -- >> that's playing hardball. coming up soon they were in the second city. up next, you've seen him on "the newsroom" as a cable news anchor. in a moment he'll be here. a real cable news show to talk about his news show. jeff daniels joins us in a minute. you're watching "hardball," the place for politics.

now back to "hardball." welcome back to "hardball." jeff daniels is star of aaron sorkin's new show "the newsroom." he goes from a disengaged news reader to someone who pushes himself into the political debate. take a look. >> the health care law hasn't taken effect yet. name me the freedoms you had before president obama was sworn in you don't have today. what state, what city, what county in this country is in

danger of falling under law. tea party candidate michele bachmann, tim griffin, jeff duncan. no teen pregnancy rose over that period. abolishing the minimum wage. the public school system has failed you. it's going to come down as it always does to who shows up. >> thank you for joining us. i have to ask why do i like this guy so much? this guy -- why do i love him? >> i don't know. he's just -- you know what? he's sick and tired of the same old, same old. he's sick and tired of being marketed and spun to. and he's just gone, you know what? we're going to cut through it all and bore in on the truth. regardless of what he finds, that's what he's going for. >> you start off almost like a jerry springer. i like him personally but he's a guy that puts off the left and right web engage the dog fight. he's not interested in the news

or anything or truth except making a buck. >> exactly. he loves the money. he loves the ratings. he loves being loved. his friends are people on the other side of that lens and he's comfortable there. he's got a great living and great salary. but he's not being the journalist that he could be. and at a time when he could be doing something to serve the country to serve his own newscast and his own career, he gets pushed by mckenzie mchale his executive producer into doing just that. >> what's real about it and we've been talking to our producers. it's like that. you get the sense that what gets on the air is only the tip of the iceberg. that what's going on all day between you and your ep, you have to work together, it's conflict. it's a little ego putting it together. then with the other producers doing their thing, the conflicts, the arguments, the great synergism or lack of it is going all day.

i think that would be a great show and you're putting it on. >> and it's interesting for me having done the whole first season now to -- you guys know whether it's you guys or over on fox or cnn, doesn't matter. >> it does matter. >> it does matter, but if you guys know that if you cover a subject in a certain way, you're ratings will spike up. if you don't cover that subject, the ratings will go down. that discussion is had. when we did a screening in new york that you attended, there were a lot of journalists, guys in the field for decades and they said i hope to god you guys are dealing with those of us who fight the fight every day to try to hang on to the ideals of journalism. and you see it. i mean, it's not like we're trying to whitewash all cable news. we're trying to shine a light on the people that are really trying to tell the truth and get at the truth every day. >> well, that's our fight every day to get the facts straight. you don't have a corrections pages on these programs. you've got a get it right live.

here's an example of aaron sorkin's brilliant dialogue. it's a scene from next week's episode. >> onions make you cry they don't experience emotion. >> the way you experience rudy. >> everybody cries at the jersey scene. >> i never saw it. >> you haven't seen rudy? what were you doing when everyone else was living their lives? >> my homework. >> 34i homework. i didn't think i'd be the only one to say that. i thought i'd have the safety of a mob. >> i shouldn't have started this. >> you did. >> only allow a certain number of people to be in uniforms. >> rudy's name is left off it. >> four years of futility. first you've got to make the grades to get in. >> then make the practice squad. >> getting creamed by guys twice his size but he doesn't care. all he wants is just once to be on the list to dress for a game. >> who's that young guy in that scene playing martin?

>> some kid we hired off the street. >> anyway, that's my son. i love that picture. he's doing great. let me ask you about -- you must -- besides having a good acting job and i love the rest of your crew, what do you think you can get done if you run four, five years like "west wing" what do you think will change in our business here at msnbc? what will change? >> maybe a more engaged -- i don't know about your business, but i do know that maybe the people watching you and others will get more engaged. i mean, you use the word disengage for mcavoy. i think the country's disengaged. if a lot of reasons. we have the attention span of a gnat and we're instantly gratified and can't seem to focus. this country's too important. this is an election year. there are too many things going on that matter. and programs like this and others are dealing with that. yet you talk to people and feel like sometimes they're not paying attention. if "the newsroom" drives people

from 20-somethings on up to getting more informed and pay attention, then we've done a good thing. >> people that argue about this show, those who do like it and that's more of the people say i can't wait until next week. >> we love the haters. we love the lovers as long as they have a box on top of their tv. we don't care. >> the buzz is big. "the newsroom" on sunday nights on hbo. up next, running against romney, shannon o'brien ran and lost against romney ten years ago. she learned a lot. she's going to share with us in a minute the stuff that might help president obama right now. this is "hardball," the place for politics. 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.

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hassle, time, paperwork, hair-tearing-out, and yes, especially dollars. esurance. insurance for the modern world. click or call. we've got yet another indication just how close this presidential election night might be. let's check the "hardball" score board. a quinnipiac poll shows romney has caught obama in virginia. tied at 44 in that state. now it's even. we'll be right back.

we're back, running for election against mitt romney's no easy feat, and the techniques he's employing is ones he's honed in past elections. one former massachusetts candidate knows what it's like to face off against romney, shannon o'brien. once romney's democratic opponent if 2002 race for governor. she lost by five points after winning a four-way democratic primary. she joins us right now. shannon, thank you so much for joining us. i just want to put this to you, take a couple minutes. you're sitting at dinner with president obama, he says i need some time with you. tell me what i need to know when i face this guy in a debate. what do you say?

>> well, i think that the most important thing is to really focus on his values, because i think that for, you know, it's almost 20-some-odd years now mitt romney has been running for higher office, and i think that it's really the values that are lacking there and i think that's what they are trying to do, that's what this whole thing about bain is, his record at bain, is about values, a difference between someone who cares about middle-class people, who cares about investing in the infrastructure and educational system so that all people have a chance to do well. that's what i'd tell him. >> what would you say to make it relevant to people. how does the president make it relevant to people he was a ruthless business guy who made a huge amount of money quickly because he was willing to push the edges, push the envelope. how does that affect the average person right now? i'm asking you to tell the president what to do. how is it relevant? >> well, i guess that's your

characterization, but the point that i tried to make ten years ago was i did think that it's relevant when you have someone who is more focussed on personal profits rather than looking at the real stories of people. you have to have empathy, and i think that's one of the things we have seen in the beginning of the campaign, a lack of empathy on mitt romney's part. the whole story about the racecars and these other things, he's trying to seem like a regular guy. i think that he does lack empathy, and that lack of empathy, it bleeds into not only his business practices, but more importantly for the people of this country, the lack of empathy will bleed into how he invests in the future for the majority of people in this country. >> okay, let's nail one of the bigger issues in the campaign, what role he played in outsourcing those jobs overseas, basically costing americans their jobs by sending the jobs overseas. the discussion we're having now is about bain and what he did at bain capital and whether he oversaw the company's migration towards outsourcing, and this is critical in this campaign right now.

you hit him with that line in attack in 2002, ten years ago, in the massachusetts governors debate. let's watch you in action against mitt on the very issue of bain capital and outsourcing. >> the fact is you were still signing documents as ceo of the company while you were away, and as a matter of fact, in the summer of 2001, when you were leaving the olympics, you actually made a statement in the paper that in the summer of 2001 you were finally relinquishing 100% control of your position within bain. >> did you -- did that help you in the campaign, did it mean much to voters, did you nail them for having been responsible, at least technically, for costing all those jobs? >> i didn't nail him, because he basically said i was not telling the truth and ultimately at that point in time, we were getting outspent in the final weeks and months of the campaign, so trying to make that point wasn't as yaeds, and i think it was more difficult for us because

people heard this before. ted kennedy had raised some of the same issues in the 1994 election. it worked for ted kennedy, but i think people were either giving him a pass or, you know, or what, i don't really know. but i don't think it was as effective, but i think now it's more effective for an audience, a national audience of people who really haven't seen that sort of set of values or hypocrisy, if you will. >> he seems to enjoy the formality of a debate, mitt. what do you think of telling the president you got to loosen this thing up a little bit. you got to be fast and loose in your debate style. if you get formal like him, very stiff like he does, he wins on that platform. >> the thing i've noticed, and i think, again, during my campaign and other places, i think he has a very tough time when he's unscripted. the times he's made most of his mistakes is when he goes off message and i think the more that president obama can actually have a conversation and

get him to go off script and to engage him on a very personal level, i think that will, perhaps, benefit the president. >> i'm with you, completely agree. if this is just a battle of rehearsed lines, romney could win this thing. he's good. he can memorize as well as anybody can. >> i think obama's going to have to show his heart versus romney's heart and that core and set of values and empathy. that's what this ultimately comes down to, and bain is setting up for that. >> call up david axelrod and get an appointment. thank you very much. when we return, let me finish with what we just talked about the segment before about this new show "newsroom" and how it really connected with me who's here every night. idide? you're not my dad ahh!! hey honey, back feels better, little dancing tonight, you and me? dr. scholl's pro inserts relieve different types of lower body pain by treating at the source so you're a whole new you. go pro with dr. scholl's.

let me finish tonight with this. the newsroom, the hot new hbo show that's gotten all the buzz these days started with a talk show host like me denying this is the greatest country in the world. he quotes all kinds of statistics about math scores and health facts, and i get the point. well, here's what i think. i think if you watch the kind of movies and tv shows created from "a few good men," "american president," "west wing," you find a common string, people trying to improve what they inherited, never trying to match up what came before, they are trying to break through to something better, smarter, truer, something that

truer, something that powerfully deserved to be. every day on this show, "hardball," i try to come up with not just what happened today, but what it says. not just the news and analysis, but a new way of presenting it. we are determined never to do this week what we could have done last week and not be like any other show. this is why people are watching on hbo, they don't know where it's going. what they are captivated with is this determination to take us somewhere new and better. it's what happens here every day, the give and take between executive producer and host, effort of everyone to do really good. yes, clash of views to get something on that informs, exposes, ignites. in the words of the guy who started this kind of show, sharpens the issue. lets people walk away and tell others exactly as possibly what the arguments are about, what the country has on their minds, so i salute aaron for humbly suggesting this country can work

harder at being what it claims to be, exactly the sort of person that makes us so wonderfully close to being as good as we say we are. that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. "the ed show" with ed schultz starts right now. good evening, americans. welcome to the ed show. i'm michael eric dyson in for ed schultz. the president is opening a new line of attack. you people are going to love it. this is "the ed show," and as ed would say, let's get to work. >> we've given all people need to know and understand. >> the romney campaign says you people have seen enough taxes as the obama camp opens a new line of attack. >> it's wrong to ask seniors to pay more for medicare just so millionaires and billionaires can pay less in taxes. >> tonight, david k. johnston on the new questions about mitt romney's tax returns. karen finney and hogan on the frontal attack on mitt romney's

vision for america. mitt romney picks up where john left off. >> i don't think the president, by his comments, suggests an understanding what it is that makes america such a unique nation. >> weighing in on romney's attempt to paint barack obama as un-american. parallel track of influence from the muslim brotherhood and the highest levels of the federal government. >> and michele bachmann's witch hunt continued this morning, despite another firm condemnation of leadership. >> accusations like this being thrown around are pretty dangerous. you guys are absolutely right, and it is -- it is a matter of national survival. let me -- >> that's right. no matter how hard he might try, mitt romney has not rid himself of his tax return problem, and one of his campaign's favorite surrogates, his wife, this time actually made matters worse.