mistake. they would have kept tens of thousands of our forces in iraq indefinitely, without a clear mission. well, when you're commander in chief, you owe the troops a plan. you owe the country a plan. >> regardless, a new poll suggests that americans do feel more confident in president obama's capabilities as commander in chief, giving the president a ten-point edge on the question of who would make the better commander in chief. let's get right to our panel michael dyson, msnbc analyst, david, an analyst and a former spokesman for newt gingrich. let me start with you. mitt said he would not send troops into afghanistan to get bin laden. he waffled on whether to support libyan rebels. when you look at this, does he have a shot at lending the

president weak. >> you have a democrat in office, you call him weak. the whole notion the president apologizes for america, politifact declared that a pants on fire lie and yet mitt romney keeps repeating it. the fact barack obama doesn't believe america is exceptional, you can find video after video of barack obama saying, this is an exceptional country. look at me. a lot of platitudes in the face of foreign policy differences. i'm still waiting to hear what mitt romney would do in terms of drone policy, would have been done in gadhafi, libya, anything different than what the president did. there's a lot of stomping of the feet and beating of the breast. it's all going back to trying to capitalize on this same republican play. if you've got a democrat you call him weak. you act tough, whether you served, didn't serve, no matter what. that's what he did did. >> michael, as we look at mitt romney, who is going to go on a six-day trip abroad, promising not to attack the president would not have good optics here

or abroad. is he therefore getting in his last punches before going? >> he's trying to ramp up and deliver a knockout punch. it's ineffective. first of all, as just pointed out, he hears the strategy to paint obama as weak. yet obama killed bin laden. obama's foreign policy has been much stronger than anticipated by conservatives taking away one of their bully pulpit and whipping boys. as a result of that, obama has really outdone conservatives by outan pagt and strategizing to what it might be to a weekend democratic figure. so yes, this is mitt romney grasping after straws, trying to look please doenges, global appeal when he can't shore up his domestic, so to speak. halfhearted, full throated, though raspy, to attack the president and assault foreign policy when in reality he's given nothing concrete that

might substitute for what obama did and might not lead us into a better future as americans through the the world. >> rick, strong words to from the president to vfw, does it open up to criticism of his record during war. we're alludeing to that time in france during vietnam. >> governor romney has to be careful overseas. has he to articulate i think for his conservative base in america first policy. he's clearly ahead on economics. clearly ahead even since the bain attacks and wants to take a chink out of the armor of obama, which is he's perceived as strong on foreign policy, probably because of the bin laden killing. i think the foreign policy with obama has been confused at best. we can't determine the difference between his action in libya and inaction in syria. we don't know his lack of leadership in syria caused russians to take a prominent stance. that has led to us being seen as

weak, not by americans as the middle east. i think romney can do a lot, particularly with our allies to say what he would do and how he would shore up security in the middle east. we'll wait and see, see what he says. >> we're mistaking american empire with power in deference to a global community. >> we've never tried to conquer territories. >> rules employed by conservatives denied by legitimate, the expansion of american dominance in the world, age of america has declined but america, as the president said, has not declined. what has declined is an old shop worn notion that in order to be a big figure in the world community, we have to be a bully. i think obama is away from those politics, much more conciliatory policy. >> to take it away from those grand concepts and i like grand concepts, mitt romney didn't

have anything to say about syria. his remarks about afghanistan over the past two years have been utterly confusing as he sort of -- they got a little more firm as he drifted more into the neo-conservative wing of your republican party, rick. but that wing was discredited with the iraq war under george w. bush and certainly from a pure political position is not popular. so if he wants to go overseas and talk like he's dick cheney, i don't think you would believe that would be good politics for him, do you? >> i don't know if he would go over and speak like dick cheney. we do need a strong foreign policy and not so much to be liked in the world, we need to be predictable. what is it americans stand for? what will we do. i don't buy this idea of american imperialism or dominance, we're dominant because we're the largest, a third of the world people and produce a fourth of the wealth.

that allows us to have a voluntary army of men and women, greatest technology in the world. that's bought and paid for with our system, one -- >> uncritical celebration in america does not equal pride in america. the recognition there's flaws and missteps is not a recognition it's not great, it acknowledges your denial. >> i'm not denying anything. >> i can't give awe history lesson here in a few seconds, you've got to read books and come prepared to understand. >> i'm not going to read the books you recommend, i'll tell you that. look, there is a lot to be celebrated in america. america made many mistakes. what's great about america, we changed those things. the reason america is exceptional, not because we were better than everybody else, we were the exception. that's why, because power came from god to the individual to the state, barack obama doesn't believe that, power resides -- >> he doesn't have to believe in

your version of exceptionalism. >> part of the american experience. >> every person of color in america that's been a victim of the conception of american empire and conceptionalism you ask somebody like barack obama, the virtue, the beauty, the power, the efficacy of america. >> guys, guys, guys, let me get a word in here. listen, the real issue for most voters is not really debating over grand concepts of american exceptionalism. i believe with the professor more than rick tyler but still when it comes to policy we expect mitt romney to be out there talking straight about policy, not coming up with these silly games the president doesn't believe in america. i don't know how you get away with that. nonetheless, what is our future on the ground in terms of coming up with good policies. mitt romney keeps trying to change the channel on that because he's playing into these prejudices and biases against barack obama not having an honest policy debate. >> i appreciate that. >> as always, thank you all

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with a bill like dodd/frank that makes it harder for small banks to grow and make loans you don't have jobs. >> these regulations are strangling our ability to grow our economy. >> america's economy runs on freedom. it is not driven by government. this dodd/frank piece of legislation is killing small banks. >> economic growth is not a government program. >> the dodd/frank law is another example of the president's attack on economic freedom.

>> regulatory reform. that's the theme this week in the republican controlled house of representatives. speaker boehner leading the charge with a pack of new laws to remove legislation that stifle growth in america. there might be a slight problem with the timing of boehner's legislative bliss. as republicans proposing to do away with protection for consumers, a new wave of scandals washing over the banking industry. in the last two weeks banks have been exposed on everything from laundering billions of dollars for drug cartels to stealing from their own customers. today we learned interest rate rigging is expanding targeting bankers who could face conclusion charges and possibly imprisonment. joined by a democrat ranking member of house oversight committee. congressman, good to see you. >> good to be with you. >> is this the time to lift regulation on banks who are guilty of massive fraud and

money laundering? >> this is absolutely the wrong time. if it were up to the republicans, there would be hardly any regulations whatsoever. you would think what we've gone through and what our constituents continue to suffer through with regard to their pocketbooks and this economy, everybody would be rallying to make sure we had the appropriate regulations. they have another agenda, which is very unfortunate. >> congressman, perhaps there's a right time, a line in the sand, if you will. a bill saying all new regulations until unemployment falls to 6% or lower, that would be that line. right now some estimating regulation accounts for less than 0.5 of 1% of job losses. is this a plan for putting americans back to work? what do you think? >> absolutely not. first of all, they estimate they will reach that job level

sometime in 2016. children and veterans and others can't wait. we have various rules to make sure our water is safe, our air is clean, that medicare doctors are paid appropriately. these kinds of things simply cannot wait. an arbitrary time to say that you cannot -- won't be able to have regulations is absolutely ridiculous. it makes no sense. basically what they are trying to do is give a lot of their friends a holiday for regulations so they could do whatever they want. we're better than that. we're a better country than that. >> congressman, one of the issues that has been brought up is the dodd/frank issue. the two-year mark of the dodd/frank act. in those two years, a bill 800 pages long has been said it will give birth to 800,000 pages of

regulations. even wall street times -- like goldman sachs ceo saying in the "washington post," there's no reason to repeal dodd/frank. so if he's in favor of keeping dodd/fra dodd/frank, some might say why would others, including republicans, be willing to get rid of it. >> keep in mind, chairman issa of the oversight government reform committee sent out 187 letters and asked people -- asked corporations to tell him which regulations they wanted repealed. he sent those 187 letters to chemical companies and various friends of the republicans, but he did not send them to those institutions that protect children and protect veterans and make sure that our air is clean and our water is clean. didn't do that. so i think basically they were targeted towards people that they knew would be sympathetic,

people that actually would want these regulations dispensed with so they don't have to worry about protecting the safety of our citizens. but i believe that with regard to job growth, if you can have job growth and protect safety and welfare and economic situation of our constituents at the same time, we need balance. that's something the republicans have not been about. as a matter of fact the things they are doing with regard to these regulations, i think they are trying to do are to the far, far, far right. it's very, very, very unfortunate. >> congressman elijah cummings, thank you. >> thank you. >> next bush tax cuss versus defense cuts, a heated fight on capitol hill. before we go to work linguistic controversy from mitt romney's address. the transcript read current but to many ears the adjective the candidate used to describe the president sounded corrupt. someone grabbed ahold of it in

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with free streaming quotes, news, analysis and even your trade ticket. everything exactly the way you want it, all on one page. transform your investing with the e-trade 360 investing dashboard. republicans in congress are pushing to extend certain tax cuts for the wealthy but may allow cuts for the working poor to expire. a democrat from michigan and ranking members on the ways and means committee. congressman, good to see you. according to the nonpartisan joint committee on taxation, the senate republican plan would extend tax cuts for 2.7 million wealthy families, certain tax cuts there while letting certain tax breaks for 13 million on the bottom end of the income scale expire. are we getting that right? >> yes, and it's very, very

misguided. you know, for the very wealthy, the average tax cut would be 50 times that of the typical family. so middle income tax cuts are being held hostage by the republicans to the very, very wealthy. you know, it's to misguided. in 2010, 93% of the income growth went to the top 1%. for middle income families it was basically stagnant or worse. so their proposal needs to be rejected. it puts this country in the wrong direction, helping the very wealthy, hurting those in the lower income and sacrificing the chance for middle income tax cut for the very middle class of our country. >> we're heading towards the fiscal cliff, revenue versus cost balance, committee i was citing, stopping the tax cuts

for the rich that one year, 2013 would save some $80 billion. that's equal to 8% of the expected 2013 deficit. so it sounds that might be a good idea again in terms of bringing that revenue and cost together. what's your thought? >> absolutely. there are various estimates of the cost are extending the tax cut for the very wealthy, at least for one year $50 billion. we'll get a final cost estimate very soon. $50 billion added to the deficit to help a small number of families relatively who have done very well in this country while sacrificing for those low income. for example, higher education credits, to help kids in college. 10, 11 million families would be affected by the republican bill. they also would be sacrificed at the feet of the very wealthy, many of whom i think say openly

don't give us a tax cut that adds to the deficit of this country, keep economic growth going and doesn't help by giving $50 billion to the very wealthy. >> that senate plan does not look like it will pass or require 60 votes as you know but it is signaling to the electorate what the thoughts are and thought process is. senator, thank you very much time. >> the senate bill draws the lines very quickly. >> stay with us.

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>> it's a very strange and foreign to the american experience type of philosophy. >> the 21st century is going to be another great american century. >> the attacks on me for private sector work, by the way, which i'm proud. >> he says, this is a quote, i have nothing to hide. isn't that what a guy would say who has something to hide. >> when you're commander in chief, you owe the troops a plan. that includes recognizing not just when to begin wars but also how to end them. >> would you send u.s. troops back into iraq? >> let me tell you, chris, i think the decision to send u.s. troops into a combat setting is a very high threshold decision. >> mitt, he has no foreign experience. what do you call that, no foreign experience. >> we have a relative that spends all their time forwarding e-mail chains. >> eddie, you shouldn't have. >> governor romney was at it again, knowingly twisting my words around.

>> if you have a business and you started it, you did build it. >> although, when folks omit entire sentences of what you said. >> you olympians, however, know you didn't get here solely on your own power. all olympians stand on the shoulders of those who lifted them. >> if you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. somebody helped to create this unbelievable american system that we have that allowed you to thrive. >> how do you feel about the president saying that you needed help to start this business? >> i would say that's rude but we did have help. our investors, our dad and stepmom along with others friends and family. >> let's get to our panel, julianna glover, republican strategist. good day. >> good afternoon, richard. >> let's start with you, the first 2012 controversy, whether the president believes only government builds things. the president is saying in his

july 13th remarks that they were taken out of context. romney telling cnbc monday night, quote, that the context is worse than the quote, end quote. so who is right here? >> well, this is a small ball controversy. i think is emblematic of the romney campaign. when obama came into office negative nine growth, totally switched numbers around, he's got a plan for taking us into the future. you ask romney what he will do, what are the three things he will do, and julie and i won't be able to cite them, what are the three things anise unable to cite them. the only thing he says is he wants to cut taxes. taxes are 15% of gdp, the lowest in years. if romney believes the solution to this country's crisis is cutting taxes, then he should vote for obama, because obama has lowered tacks to lower than

they have been in years. the rest of this stuff is small ball controversy, taking words out of context. nobody is listening to it. if that's the best thing the romney has, god help them. >> small potatoes, julianna? >> i think romney was talking about how he wanted to see regulations, a real energy put in place would certainly increase energy production from home grown energy sources in the united states, ensuring -- yes, indeed, tacks key to inspiring growth in the next 10 years particularly on corporate tax rates to ensure americans get jobs here and keep jobs here. >> but does president obama believe only government builds things. >> look, i think the problem with that speech was not just that phrase, the specific phrase by the romney campaign, it was the overall philosophy. for many people the belief it

takes a village to do anything, individual accomplishments shouldn't be lauded i think is a little bit like sort of the communist mantra of the 1950s. >> what president obama is saying is it cannot be done alone. it takes public systems, it takes roads, government loans, private loans as well. so do you disagree, then, with what the president is saying. are you saying only government can create jobs and create wealth? >> government is funded by taxpayers. taxpayers are able to pay their taxes by being entrepreneurial, growing capital, hiring people, paying people who will then pay taxes, all of which is a function that the obama administration has demonstrated they are not very good at inspiring. again, yes, we do need -- government does build roads but roads are funded by taxpayers as in a robust tax base there will be no roads. >> let me respond to each of these things.

again, says plans to cut taxes, gdp the lowist in 60 years, have you to vote for obama. production, more rigs in place, highest level of production since the late 1970s. if you believe we need more domestic production vote for obama. he's done more in terms of energy production than any president has in the last 50 years in terms of where we are in terms of production. in terms of this issue about the role of government, look, we all believe the private sector is the engine of economic prosperity, but there are things the private sector and us as individuals can't do by ourselves. we can't by ourselves build great state universities. we can't build roads and bridges and highways. we can't do all the the brill ant things that give us laser eye surgery, that make us the leader in research and innovation, those were done as government research programs, private sector can't do it in

and of themselves. everybody understands that distinction. there's no successful government on the planet. >> but every government is run by taxpayers -- >> let me finish the point. there's no successful government on the face of the earth that does not have a successful partnership between the public and the private sector. everybody understands it, it's a simple point. for romney and the republicans to try to exploit that and demagogue that tells you they are brain dead when it comes to offering this country an alternative way. >> romney's criticism was the tone of the speech. >> the tone. >> suggesting an absolute -- >> i want to turn to the issue of guns and romney's position on that. running for senate in 1994, he told reporters, quote, i don't line up with the nra. then during his 2002 gubernatorial run, here is what he said. take a listen. >> we do have tough gun laws in

massachusetts. i support them. i won't chip away at them. i believe they help protect us and provide safety. >> a resolute, firm position he allowed by signing an assault weapons ban as governor. now here he is on cnbc. this happened monday night. >> i still believe that the second amendment is the right course to preserve and defend and don't believe that new laws are going to make a difference in this type of tragedy. we're, of course, very stringent laws existed in aurora, colorado. >> when you see, this is this a flip-flop, evolution? >> yeah. romney has changed his position on gun laws numerous times, the way he changed his position on abortion, the way he changes position today setting a timetable for troop withdrawal in afghanistan. that's part of the idea he has no core and he's an empty suit. the fact of the matter is we have something in the order of 12,000 gun related homicides each year. compare that to any other

country, any other western industrialized country, sensible gun violence legislation, things that limit the number of bullets, tracers on bullets, assault weapons, all these kinds of sensible reforms that i wish, to be honest, more democrats were for. we know these things can save lives. we know that by simply comparing data between us and what happens in other european and industrialized countries that have centralized controls. mitt romney has been all over the map on this issue as he is on so many other issues which is why it's hard to take him seriously. >> flip-flop or evolution. >> i think the president is guilty of flip-flop on this. before he ran for senate he was advocate of gun bans. since he's president he's been awol on this issue and there have been horrible tragedies. >> we're talking about mitt romney here. >> we are talking about romney, which i will get to momentarily, but the point being if you're going to call romney a hypocrite on this, you've got to make very

clear the president before coming into the white house was someone pushing hard for gun control laws but for some reason now is completely silent on the issue. said no desire to push legislation and the climate was not rit. >> thank you for your time. great conversation, sorry we didn't have longer. appreciate it. >> thank you. >> coming up on "hardball," will romney release tax returns, newt gingrich stands up for michele bachmann. that and more at 5:00. mr. romney prepares to set sale for foreign lands with foreign policy vitriol at his back. stay with us. >> governor romney said not too long ago the russian federation is our number one geo strategic threat. well, come on, mitt, think. that isn't the case. [ ryan ] maybe just a short run today. [ man ] "the odyssey," by homer. book one. tell me, o muse... famous town of troy... book three. book 12. poseidon...

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we got a glimpse with his address before the veterans of foreign wars in reno. >> i'm an unapologetic believer in the greatness of america. i am not ashamed of american power. >> now, if there's one area of romney's resume that could use a little polish, some would say foreign poll sichlt starting tonight he'll get a chance to do that when he flies to london for a seven-day tour, israel, poland. we're joined live by the co-author of the book "bending history." michael, thanks for stopping by. >> my pleasure. >> we heard mitt romney talking a lot about iran in the speech. let's take a listen to some of that right now. >> the same a tore not going to

talked out. what's needed is firmness, moral courage, sanctions must be enforced without exception. >> governor rom is talking about sanctions. sanctions have been working many would say with iran. hence, they are thinking of increasing the severity of them. is this the critique he offered before a group of veterans a fair one? >> well, it's an ongoing issue, so there's going to be important decisions in the future about when and if to use american military force or support israel in its potential use of military force. i think overall as you suggest, governor romney is probably going to fall back primarily on the same tool president obama has used. if i was going to make a critique of the obama record, it would be president obama went in with too much optimism about being able to get along with iran. you'll recall, of course, his inaugural address when he talked

about reaching out a hand to those who unclenched their own fist of he was thinking of iran and north korea when he said that. president obama did a smart thing. he pivoted from that hopeful rhetoric and got tough on iran after the june 2009 presidential election in iran where the regime basically stole the election. you could accuse obama of some degree of hopefulness verging on nai naivete. there's not a lot to critique. >> from listening to the speech, what do you think, michael, did mitt romney give awe sense whaf he would do specifically on iran given he was criticizing what president obama has done so far? >> no, i think it's tough for any president, regardless of which 2011 these contenders would win, to decide when and if to use military force against iran, because iran has already gone beyond what we thought we would tolerate in enriching

uranium. we've held back because sanctions have worked well. they have put a lot of pressure on the regime. it's hard for the military strike to be fully effective even if you carry it out. you lose the sanctions and inspectors after the strike. a president romney would face that same dilemma. maybe he would strike iran a little sooner than a president obama would but i actually think there's more convergence than divergence. even president bush wanted sanctioning to have more time and discouraged from striking in 2008. we don't see that much partisan difference on this issue when people actually sit in the oval office. >> from listening to the speech with the vfw, another country focused on by mitt romney, israel, another big theme. he's been deriding the president on his approach and the way he's working with the country, that he's actually working against them. is that fair? >> i think president obama got off to a very rough start with israel. that's certainly something we point out in our book, "bending

history" that you kindly mentioned earlier. i think president obama has recovered in the last year and a half to the point the fundamental problem is much of the palestinians are led by hamas, a difficult group to work with and israelis are unwilling to give up settlements they need to or haven't been as forthcoming on that. president obama has found a balance in his approach that no longer has american policy being the main sort of unpredictable element in this whole equation. so if president obama was going to be critiqued for his overall three and a half years, yes, he got off to a rough start. right now on a fairly solid course and i don't know what governor romney could do that differently. >> michael han lon from the brookings institute, thank you so much. nbc's brian williams will sit down with mitt romney in london. look for this interview on "nbc

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a bit of good news on the economy. new homes being built at a faster rate than at any time in the last two years. foreclosures down. and goldman sachs released a report calling the housing recovery strong. president obama is taking some credit while slamming mitt romney in the process. take a listen to this. >> mr. romney's plan is to let foreclosures hit bottom. that's not a solution. that's part of the problem. so my administration has already helped more than a million responsible homeowners refinance their mortgages. i want to give every home owner a chance to save $3,000 a year, take advantage of historically low rates. that's an example of the difference in this election.

>> an msnbc contributor and former chief economic adviser to vice president biden. good to see you. in the first quarter of this year, you were telling us over 700,000 homes with mortgages under water are now above water due to price appreciation. the question has to be asked when you're sitting from the president's seat here, would that have been possible had foreclosures been allowed to bottom out as mitt romney has been recommending. >> and if you were to take that tack now you still have lots of underwater mortgages, you'd be very unlikely to see more of that. it's a very impressive statistic, 700,000 formerly under water mortgages broke the surface. that is their homes are now worth more than their mortgages just because of price appreciation in recent months. now, there are many millions of homes out there still under water. my assessment of the housing market is it's more kind of bumping along the bottom, maybe

a little bit of increases in prices and starts, but it does seem like it's really gotten to a place where you can, as you mentioned in some of these reports. >> why? why are we seeing a little pressuring here? >> i think for two reasons. one, you do have to give credit to pretty aggressive programs that helped people particularly in this very low mortgage rate environment. refinancing now is a great deal. that's part of it. also just look, time has helped to heal some of these corrections. but if you went the other route that governor romney is suggesting and allowed all these homes to sink under water, that would go in the wrong direction. >> is there confidence looking forward. these are big ticket items, the largest investment most families will ever see. >> i think it's going to help a lot. one of anvils around this economy's neck has always been the housing market. when you have very low interest rates, one of the ways to get

traction with mortgage refinancing through the housing market. if prices are falling, you can't get that. a little price appreciation goes a long way. >> overseas markets reacting, a little down. spain saying it expects to be in recession another year. moody's taking the step to -- at least a first step toward downgrading their credit rating for the country. >> germany. >> its outlook for germany. there are fears greece may leave the eurozone. add that to the calculation as well. when you look at this, a drag on the u.s. recovery, perhaps, and it's very key, of course, to an election that will largely be decided on the economy. what's your thinking? >> look, you're going from a little bit of a bright spot to a dark spot. when it comes to europe, the way we have to think about it is this. there's not much we can do, u.s. policymakers to influence european policymakers. they are going to do what they are going to do. they kind of make a step forward and a couple steps back. what we have to do, as you suggested, look at the impact on our economy.

it certainly isn't positive. there are head winds coming across the sea from europe. we can't sit on our hands. our policymakers can't sit there and say fiscal cliff, foreclosures, forget about jobs measures, let liquid ate, come their way, we have to take job measures, fiscal measures to offset those head winds. >> next time we'll end on a positive note. >> sure. >> we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] fight pepperoni heartburn and pepperoni breath fast

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after a respectful pause the 2012 am campaign in high gear with president obama on the west coast and mitt romney in nevada for a series of events. on the road with the president nbc's kristen welker. good day to you, kristen. >> hi, richard. >> yesterday the president accused mitt romney of taking his comments about valuing small business out of context, as we look forward can we expect him

to toin push -- to push back. >> i think you can expect president obama to push back against those comments. case in point, the obama campaign released an ad who slams romney taking the president's words out of context. the romney campaign says they will release a similar ad tomorrow that will air in six battleground states. in that ad the president himself will be featured. i think you're going to continue to see the obama campaign push back against this. romney is showing no signs of letting up. just yesterday he was speaking to business leaders in california. he again slammed the president for making that you didn't build that comment, essentially saying it proves the president is anti-business. of course that is something the obama campaign is pushing back against pretty hard. as long as romney continues, the president will continue. >> the question will be how will the tone be going forward.

an ad released by the president talking straight to camera, very calm. this after they called off the attack ads over the weekend. which way might this be going? >> i think you're going to see both campaigns start to ramp up their rhetoric. in fact, we're starting to see that already. we know the obama campaign is set to release a negative attack ad that will air in colorado. we don't have a date yet for the release of that ad. just this morning mitt romney was hammering the president during his speech at the vfw in reno, nevada, accusing the president of not being tough enough on iran, syria. basically his administration being behind leaks. that's something the obama campaign has pushed back against pretty strongly. you're starting to see rhetoric ramp up. if you look at the polls according to the latest reuters poll, one-third of respoents say they have a more negative view of romney in the wake of some of these negative attacks. >> kristen welker thank you so much with the president. thank you for watching.

chris matthews picks things up right now. >> bugle boy. let's play "hardball." good evening, i'm chris matthews in washington. let me start with general mitt romney. i use that term sarcastically because general in this case is an armchair general. the gentleman who spoke to the veterans of foreign wars could be no more foreign with foreign wars, no match in his resume, only his plans. how many countries does he want it fight in the next four years. does he want to outdo bush one with one war or bush two with two. there he was reading a speech by the same neo-kinds that took us into iraq and always seem to have the next war on his agenda.

does this guy have any idea the words of war have meaning and dead and wounded, no meaning stupidity and deceit through bush and cheney, backed up by chaens in this election speak of leagues, national security as we never heard by w. and cheney and libby did when they had their hands there. chairman of republican national committee and msnbc political analyst and editor in chief of national memo.com. let's take a look at romney's speech before the vfw members today. let's listen. >> i am an unapologetic believer in the greatness of america. i am not ashamed of american power. i'm guided