announcement tomorrow in iowa. there are no indications in the big announcement that he's quitting, but it's never a good sign that when you say you're having a big announcement, first thing everybody asks is, "are you quitting?" rick santorum was not quitting. far from it. he was preparing to unload this bombshell on the presidential race. >> i am announcing today and have announced that i am going to be voting and supporting senator rick santorum on january 3rd in the iowa caucuses. you know, the first time -- [ applause ] >> who's that guy? anybody? rick santorum's major cam feign campaign announcement is that he got the endorsement of the secretary of state from iowa. when somebody in republican politics says they have bag announcement, i am starting to hear a little boy out in the

yard yelling, "wolf! wolf!" and we're not talking the man with the beard at cnn. when they say there is a big announcement coming, that is a suddenly to ignore them. the chairman of the republican party this week announces exclamation point and all that he is going on the greta van susteran show to make an exciting announcement. are you ready? i hope you are sitting down. >> big news about the republican national kuhn vengs convention, and you are first to hear it here and we have that announcement. rice priebus is here. >> i'm proud tonight to announce as well a very prominent role for governor scott walker. my governor from wisconsin. your governor too for that matter, greta. >> the big exciting announcement from reince priebus is that not six republican governors, but

seven republican governors will be speaking at the republican national convention. did you know him from wisconsin? breaking news and flashing red lights. everybody freak out. just for the record there is such a thing as a major announcement. they do exist in the world. >> the god particle, a discovery at the world's biggest atom smasher that says big as they get in the world of science, what does it tell us about our world? the announcement today in geneva, hailed as one of the greatest scientific discoveries of our time. >> this is big, this is really big. >> the long sought holy grail of the subatomic world. >> just for context's sake, discovering the god particle is a major announcement. we have killed osama bin laden. that's a major announcement. we have landed on the surface of mars. that's a major announcement. this is not a major announcement. >> people like jon huntsman, i believe, are the best person for the job. >> jeb bush jr., i'm sorry.

you are, i'm sure, a very nice guy. you are not a major announcement. in the crucial swing state of ohio, as we talked about last night on the show, the republican secretary of state announced yesterday this morning there was going to be a major announcement. a major announcement about voting in ohio. now, even though i am a big nerd to big announcements, this from the ohio secretary of state is worth paying attention to. not only is ohio critically important as essentially the ultimate swing state in presidential politics, but voting rights in ohio are really due for a major announcement. the whole country ought to be paying attention to ohio and the voting processes. we all remember the ohio voting disaster that was the presidential election of 2004. an estimated 170,000 ohioans leaving their polling place without voting. because the lines there were just too long.

by the way, that is a significantly larger number of voters than the number of victory by which george w. bush won that year. in the next election, 2008, ohio fixed that problem and instead of having everybody overwhelming the polling places, ohio expa expanded early voting and made it so you could cast your ballot for 35 days leading up to election day. that really did help cut down on the lines. there were many fewer complaints. election day went smoothly in ohio. the problem for republicans is that the other thing that happened in ohio and the election of 2008 is that a democrat won. when republicans took control of state government in ohio there after, they decided to use their control to fix that 2008 problem of all the voting going smoothly and people not going home in frustration from their polling places without actually casting their vote. after ohio republicans initially tried to eliminate 24 of the early voting days, under political pressure, they were

ultimately only able to get away with cutting off three days of early voting in ohio, the last three days. and conveniently the last three days includes the last sunday before election day is when in particular african-american churches like to make sure the congregation churches go out to early voting. souls to the polls. that day will not be available for early voting. there was something going on ohio that i can't believe is not more of a front page story around the country. eliminating those three days of arily voting in ohio is not actually the biggest scandal. that is a scandal, but this is worse. the biggest scandal in ohio is what's happening on a county-by-county basis there where the state's plan right now is to allow more hours and more days to vote if you live in a republican leaning county than if you live in a democratic leaning county. seriously. republicans on ohio county

elections boards boards have been voting in favor of adding early voting on nights and weekends in republican-leaning counties. the republicans on the election bores in democratic counties are voting against extra voting on nights and weekends. county election boards are evenly split between democrats and republicans. the republicans are voting for expanded voting hours in the counties, and they're voting against that in democratic counties. in the democratic counties where republicans are objecting to expanded early voting, the secretary of state has personally intervened to break the tie to side with the objecting republicans and make sure that, in fact, democratic-leaning counties will not have early voting on nights and weekends, and the republican-leaning counties will. here's what it means in real terms. democratic leaning county s like franklin and summit county is the homes of cleveland and columbus and akron where barack

obama won 2-1 357bd-2 and 3-2, those will not have early voting on nights and weekends leading up to election day. republican-leaning counties, places where john mccain won like warren and butler counties, they will have extended early voting. nights and weekends. come on down. the republican secretary of state in ohio is personally intervening to ensure fewer voting hours in democratic than republican-leaning counties. yesterday that guy, the republican secretary of state said that he had a major announcement to make about the process of voting in ohio. oh, my god, i don't care about the little boy crying wolf, i want to hear that announcement. this is an issue of national significance. anybody who cares has to care about what's happening in the presidential election in november has to care how badly ohio is screwing this up. to have this insanely partisan

outcome where you have more opportunities to vote if you are a republican and fewer opportunities if you are a democrat. a big announcement from the guy who is making that possible? let's hear that big announcement. the big announcement about voting in ohio today from the secretary of state, his big announcement is that you can change your address online at a website. that's the announcement? that's the announcement. they put out even a follow-up later in the day to breathlessly announce that several hundred ohio residents had, in fact, already changed their addresses online. that's it. in terms of the glaring flashing red light siren democracy emergency that is under way in ohio, where republicans are being given more opportunities to vote than democrats in a presidential election year when ohio is maybe the most important swing state in the country? that's not big news. nothing to say about this. nothing to see here. joining us is e.j. dionne,

"washington post" columnist and contributor brookings institution and the author of our divided political heart. it's good to see you and thank you for being here. >> good to be with you and have the early slot, given the story we are doing. >> i have to say i don't know if i'm predisposed to be more interested in issues like this than other people in the media. i don't understand why this is not a bigger story. do you see this as having national significance? >> it's huge. i think the explanation for why this is not a bigger story is a kind of paradox, that this story is almost treated in partisan terms as a republicans say this/democrats say that. and it is entirely true that there is a big partisan element to this story where republicans, where they have control, are trying to make it harder for democratic groups to vote, and occasionally they'll admit that when the legislator did in pennsylvania where he said mitt romney would carry the state. this is much bigger than a partisan story. we passed a great law in 1965

called the voting rights act. it was designed to tear down the barriers to voting, particularly for african-americans, and this, what's happening in this election year, ohio is an excellent example, the most fundamental act since the voting rights act was passed. and it's happening all over the country, and this thing that's happening in ohio is so blatant. i mean we're supposed to believe in equal protection under the law. it can't make sense that if you link in one place, it's easier to vote than if you live in another place. there's got to be legal action taken here because i can't believe this would withstand the scrutiny of any fair-minded judge. >> in terms of scrutiny in the political world and from the media, so much of the other reporting, the other attention that has been paid to voting rights has been specifically on the issue of voter i.d.

we have seen the voting id laws changed in so many republican-controlled states. i think that part of the reason that that hasn't become more of a story than it has been is that the republicans have put forward a red herring that there is voter fraud and that voter i.d. will somehow combat a problem that they say exists in voter fraud. it's a challenged red herring, but that's what red herrings are for. on the early voting issue, there's no fraud issue, there's no red herring, and nothing that is a problem about early voting other than the idea that it might cost money. early voting is too expensive and be used to block interest and attention. >> why is it okay to pay for early voting in warren county and not early voting in cuyahoga county? i mean, yes, it costs some extra money. democracy is worth spending a little money on. and the noegts if thetion, if t financial problem in some of those counties, that should be

taken care of. you cannot allow an election to be tilted by money. we are already allowing them in the campaign finance system. this is the kind of indirect poll tax. if you live in the wrong county and they have more budget problems, then, sorry, you're not going to have the same voting rights as people in other counties. i think that's at least -- well, no. the voter fraud thing is a huge red herring. this is another red heading. red herrings may make it easier for people to vote in ohio, real people. >> provided they live in democratic-leaning counties. e.j. dijon, "washington post" columnist and msnbc contributor and the author of "our divided political heart." thank you for your clarity on this and thank you for taking the time. we asked the secretary of state of the great state of ohio to join us to discuss what it is he thinks he is doing with the county-by-county voting rules in the state of ohio. we've not been able to secure

his agreement for an interview, but we, you know, live in hope. do you remember when r.i.m.r.i.m mitt romney's pitch to be president was all about the economy? what are your thoughts about anything but the economy? there is nothing but the economy. that's all i want to talk about. that was the way it was for a long time, but that changed now and the quantitative empirical data that shows how it changed is kind of nuts. and we've got that next. we're laying that out. plus, later on, the best new thing in the world comes with extra screaming with joy at your television. please stay with us.

if there's one group of americans with which everyone agrees, we cannot mess with, it is our veterans. a nonpartisan agreement across the country except apparently for one small highly visited well funded part of our country. that story is coming up. sometimes, i feel like it's me against my hair.

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why not give it a shot? carry on. now you can test-drive snapshot before you switch. visit progressive.com today. looking at the official mitt romney campaign page on youtube is kind of like looking at the big cross section of a giant tree. you can read the rings of the tree to get interesting chronological data about what the campaign has done in terms of what the campaign has done in terms of its public message. the chronology of the campaign ads is fascinating, and while i've always had a bit of a grudge about how bad the serge engine is, you can arrange videos from the mitt romney campaign account and arrange the videos in chronological order as a pretty empirically sound way of what mr. romney has been running on and when.

that is a story with a surprise ending. check this out. mitt romney basically wrapped up the primary, as you know, in may. by may they no longer had to bother engaging with his one-time primary rivals and consider charges by rick santorum or even ron paul who sort of pretended to stay in the race until the middle of may, but honestly the primary was over by then and the general campaign was under way. and here's what the mitt romney message looked like then. according to their own archives back in may, just as the general election was getting under way. >> have you had enough of president obama's attacks on free enterprise? >> we've seen layoffs, cutbacks. >> you've heard of solyndra. >> when others shied away, mitt romney's privacy leadership team stepped in. >> what would a romney

presidency be like? day one, president obama immediately approves the keystone pipeline. we're going to keep america strong. >> that was in may. about ten tv ads. solyndra, economy scandal. jobs, jobs, the economy. drill, drill, drill, more jobs. then june. >> from day one, president romney focuses on the economy and the deficit. from day one as president, mitt romney's leadership will make all the difference on jobs. >> of course, the economy isn't where it needs to be. >> the private sector's doing fine. >> well, mr. president, you've had your moment. >> day one, president romney moved to appeal the obama care and attacks the deficit. then romney moves to cut taxes. president romney stands up to china. president romney reverses

obama's offshore drilling ban. day one, repeal obama care. mitt romney has a plan it get america working. >> that was the mitt romney campaign in a capsule from june via about a dozen different ads. the economy, the economy, and the economy, and down with on care and tax cuts and the economy. the specific reference to china, drill, baby, drill, the economy. then july -- >> where did the obama stimulus money go? >> they will run more than it had been run in the history of the world. >> obama's dishonest campaign, another reason america has lost confidence in barack obama. >> it's time we had somebody who believes in us. >> freedom and free enterprise are what create jobs. >> everything i do is going to be focused on getting this economy going. >> so you look at the ten or so ads that came out of the romney campaign in the month of july,

it's the economy. it's the economy, the economy, president obama is a liar, the economy, jobs, jobs, jobs, the economy. all but three ads were about the economy and jobs, and the ones that were not were about how terrible and horrible president obama is as a person. say what you will, he has been very focused. his campaign has been focused looking at the thing that is the campaign did on their own terms, it's a great way to focus on what they were trying to do. what they started on their own terms because these are the things that the campaign was paying to say. in some cases, paying to get on tv. that message for the election in may, june, july, hugely dominated, about 95% dominated, if you add it all up, to the economy. and now all last week we had this -- >> who shares your values?

as president obama never visited israel. he wouldn't have to work and wouldn't have to train for a job. they send you a welfare check. who shares your values? president obama used his health care plan to declare war. on religion. when religious freedom is threatened, who do you want to stand with? >> august is young, but there has been a very dramatic turn on mitt romney's messaging. after focusing like a laser on exactly what he said he would focus on for may and june and july for the first three months of the general election campaign, after doing dozens of ads exclusively focused, 95% focused on the economy, this week now we have seen three new ads and the subject is birth control, welfare, and israel. what's going on? look, here's what's going on. if you look closely at the daily tracking poll, you can see not just that president obama is ahead of mitt romney by a couple of points, but you can see a fascinating piece of data emerging from that other 8% of people who are not included in

the romney v. obama totals. the undecided. the number of undecided voters in gallup's daily poll has been between between 6% and 8% for about the last month or so. that is to say that only 6% or 8% of registered voters who haven't decided who they're going to vote for. we didn't get to that lower percentage of voters in the presidential race the last time around until october. it's only early august and we are at the point in the campaign which is usually a late point in the campaign where each candidate stops trying to persuade anybody who is undecided and in the middle and recognize there no people left to persuade and turn to try to turn out their bases of support. campaigns usually do not make that turn until october because the number of undecided people isn't low enough to justify it until october. but right now the number of undecided people is sol low, apparently it's justified.

at least the mitt romney campaign feels that way. that turn is happening now. apparently for them, the economy is over. now it's time to rile the base. you get what i believe is the obviously and purposefully obviously racist welfare ad. you get the "obama didn't visit israel" ad, and you get the contraception ad. there have long been only two pages in the mitt romney for president playbook. tlp's the economy and then there's anything else he needs to resort to to excite the republican base. he only has one page to turn and has now turned it in the second week of august. mitt romney had a very focused jobs, jobs, jobs message. that is what his campaign was trying to focus on for months, and that appears to be over. according to them, it is time to talk to the conservative base. instead of jobs, jobs, jobs, it is jobs, jobs, abortion.

"the rachel maddow show" as an entity has been a really big fan of u.s. women's soccer. group outings to local establishments to drink beer when they are not supposed to, but they can play live and are cheering in the newsroom when we're supposed to be working, waggling of artificial team usa. today was a great day. we would ordinarily make that a front runner, but after today's equipment on the women's soccer pitch, there is something toxic

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the cochair of the fund-raising team for mitt romney in the state of florida is the chief executive of this.

full sail university. the reason i said the mitt romney campaign florida fund-raising co-chair is the chair executive and not saying the president of the school is because full sail university is a business. it is a for profit institution. when mitt romney gets asked policy questions about higher education, he brings up for profit colleges and as the proposed solutions he brings up a specific school that happens to be run by his fund raising co-chair. . >> i was at a place in florida called full sale university. they provide a four-year degree for people in the entertainment world. production, media, broadcast and so forth. they hold down the cost by recognizing they are competing. >> full sail university cited by mr. romney as an example of how

to hold down the cost of education. it costs $81,000 to do a 21-month program in video game art at full sail university. that's what mitt romney says is going to save him from higher education costs. it us run by mr. romney's florida fund-raising co-chair. that part of the finances is definitely looking good for america. beyond just the ceo being a major fund-raiser, it is noted that they are technically owned by a private equity fund. the chairman is also a major mitt romney donor. they reported in the front page story on the financial ties to the for-profit college they also noted that for that video game art degree program, the one that costs $81,000, the on-time graduation rate is 14%. the total grags rate is only 38%, but whether or not you actually graduate, the median

debt taken on by students to pay for that program is $59,000. this is a lot of things, but a solution to the higher cost of education? it is not one of those things. here's another detail. in june of this year, just a couple of months ago, the website gibill.com had to be handed over. gibill.com was bought by a marketing company in california. it looked like an official government portal and maybe even a military website where you figure out how to apply for and use the benefits if you are a veteran. really this marketing firm that owned gibill.com was captured the data that unsuspecting veterans entered into that website looking for official help, and then they were selling that data to for-profit colleges. the marketing company settled in an agreement with multiple states and paid a multi-million-dollar fine, and agreed to hand over the website

and how it tiakes you over to te real website about your real benefits that should not result in a million-dollar tactic. phone calls from for-profit universities trying to get you to use your benefits paying for something like an $81,000 video game art program with a 14% graduate rate. mitt romney is a presidential candidate is not just tied to full sale university. he has been a big proponent of the industry. he will be speaking at another for profit college this weekend in north carolina. mr. romney plating his trough with this industry and doing so very aggressively has had a hopeful effect of putting a spotlight on this incredibly profitable industry and how much we are all paying them to become so profitable. this past month tom harkin and the senate released a report on the industry, the product of a two-year investigation. the report was not good. >> for-profit colleges charge

tuition and often provide an inferior education by experiencing sky high dropout rates, how are they able to recruit a steady stream of new students? the answer is that for-profit colleges are what i would call a marketing machine. >> whether or not you graduate, whether or not your degree is worth anything in terms of getting you a new job, perhaps in the field of video games, whether or not you are able to repay the loans that you took out to be able to pay for these expensive programs, the business model of the for-profit school industry is to market to you aggressively and get you to sign up, to then get you to take out loans to pay your tuition to the school and cash the loan checks. they get paid and you owe the money to whoever gave you the loan. more often than not, the entity ask the federal government. the 2009 school year, for profit schools got paid $32 billion in federal money. one out of every $4 the

department put out went to a for-profit school. this is students taking out federally supported student loans to pay these schools. the reason is because there is supposed to be a federal interest in helping americans get a valuable college education. but the more loans a student can take out, the more money these students can potentially soak out of them. the more eligible you are as a student for loans, the more beautiful you are as a marketing target for these schools. and so if you very a post-9/11 veteran, eligible for the gi bill and for these schools, you are a very, very beautiful target indeed. since the post-9/11 bill took effect, eight of the ten have been for-profit schools. as taxpayers, we are paying for veterans' higher education. that's what the g.i. bill needs.

we have a national bill in doing that. they are marketing to veterans and that our taxpayer money is going to them. it's $4,600 to send a veteran to a public school. more than $10,000 for the same veteran go to a for-profit school. what we get for the extra money is a lower graduation rate and a higher student loan default rate. a lot of profit to make sure these marketing machines are very, very, very well politically connected. joining us now is the chief policy officer for iraq and afghanistan for america, which full disclosure is a full organization they personally support. he is an iraq war vet and served ten years. thank you very much for being here. appreciate your time. >> thank for having me. >> is it your experience and work the vets that post 9/11 veterans are specifically being targeted by for-profit schools? >> they absolutely are being targeted by for-profit schools

largely because of loopholes created before it shifted that classified the bill as private funding. we have controls on schools so they have an element of free market control that said we can have 90% of your revenue come from the federal government. but 10% actually has to come from customers who want to buy your product. in terms of business, it's kind of the best deal going, but because of the loophole, that 10%, the g.i. bill falls within that 10% of private dollars and so do dod tuition benefits and benefits for military spouses. for every veteran or military member that they can recruit, that's nine more people on financial aid equalling $125,000 in new revenue per veteran. that is a huge incentive to line their pockets with benefits instead of providing the service that they're supposed to be providing. >> in terms of the service that they're supposed to be providing

though, the rejoineder that schools say that veterans are signing up and in disproportion at numbers for for-profit schools because it's a good way to get an education, and it meets the needs of military families and the constraints by being in the military, what about that argument? >> there is a little bit to that, but 40% of all of your revenue is spent on marketing and recruiting and it's laser targeted at the military and at veteran's benefits. you know, when i was a young officer and i was getting my benefits, it wasn't telling me how i can use where i could go to college but i can get this master's degree from this for-profit college. they have unprecedented access. it's very hard for veterans to make a determination as to what schools they can go to. i can find out how much every piece of sushi costs me within ten miles using my phone, but i have no way to compare schools.

there's no yelp for that. that lack of transparency is causing problems with veterans looking around and trying to figure out what schools best fit their needs. sometimes it is an online college. there actually are good for-profit colleges but they're being drowned out by bee homists. , those looking to line their pockets with benefits. >> president obama signed an order in april aimed at part of this problem. protecting vets and vet families from deceptive recruiting and overly aggressive recruiting. did that help? >> i think it is going to help. it did three things. they need to report basic consumer information metrics. there's a lot of information coming out of the department of education but it's very hard to sift through and it doesn't help consumers much. it also trademarks the phrase and these markets websites and for-profit schools who want to create the deceptive websites

can't use the traz. phrase. that is actually copy-right protected and allows veterans who were, excuse me, scammed some way to not just complain, but to actually get a redress. >> tom tarantino, chief policy officer for iraq and afghanistan veteran with america, thanks for helping us to understand this tonight.

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>> i love the associated press. you love the associated press. whether or not you are aware of somehow much you love them, the fact is if you're at all a news junky, if you're reading over the course of your particular day, you are basically marinating in "associated press" content all day long. the a.p. is everywhere and jointly owned by the american news organizations who use their stuff. that means thousands of newspapers and radio stations, they have hundreds of news bureaus all over the world, news staff all over the world. they're the only organization, for example, with a bureau in north korea. by sheer size, the "associated press" is just indispensable.

they are everywhere. because they are everywhere, because their consent is ubiquitous, when the associated press does something bad, it's really bad. it's not like one nooup printing one lousy story. if it's the a.p.ing it's one bad story that ends up in a billion newspapers and radio stations and websites and tv stations. so, for skpaeexample, when the "associated press" published a shockingly bad article about kansas, it did not end up in a tragic newspaper. it ended up in thes can city star and the fresno bee and the minneapolis star tribune and "miami herald" and the state in south carolina and the times pick in louisiana and "the seattle times" and the st. louis post dispatch and the connecticut post and the san francisco chronicle and the

journal of constitution and, and, and, and. running an eye-popping center that never should have run anywhere. dr. george tiller was murdered in kansas three years ago when the anti-abortion activist who killed him was pulled over by police after the killing. the murderer had in his car the name and phone number of the policy director of operation rescue written on a piece of paper on his dashboard. operation rescue, the radical anti-abortion group. the associated press published a piece about the kansas primaries this week, focusing on the disstrigtd attorney's race in wichita where dr. tiller was killed. they note that the incumbent is stepping down. no democrat is running to replace her. it was just two anti-abortion republicans who campaigned for her old seat in the primary in kansas. the reporter roxanna writes it is a liability for one of the to republican candidates that he has been a deputy in the d.a.'s office he's now running to be put in charge of.

why would that be a liability to be a deputy district attorney? why is that bad? it's because, the "associated press" explains, people blame the current district attorney for the murder of george tiller. what? this is just astonishing. this is quoting directly from the story. it's important to note that scott roeder, the abortion opponent serving a life sentence for killing dr. tiller once told the "associated press" that he believed dr. tiller would never be brought to justice as long as know la foulston was in office. brought to justice? that is not in quotes, but the way it was described. he was never brought to justice. the district attorney had refused to allow then attorney to prosecute dr. tiller in her jurisdiction, resulting in a judge dismissing charges that the doctor hat performed illegal late-term abortions. while foulston insisted she was

upholding the law, many blame her for the prosecution and ultimately dr. tiller's death. if she had been her job, he would still be alive today said the president of wit ta-based operation rescue. operation rescue as a credible observer in this case. oh, yes. the blame for the doctor being shot to death by the and tie-abortion activist lies with the district attorney who didn't prosecute that doctor for something or other. he didn't get prosecuted, so he had to be shot. so said operation rescue and so writes down the "associated press." thus resulting in newspapers printing this absolutely whack a do uncontested more than insinuation that an abortion doctor was murdered in kansas because what? he needed killing?

because he hadn't been brought to justice? incidentally, the assistant da won on tuesday in kansas, but that is not what this is about. generally speaking i love the "associated press," and you probably do, too, but the a.p. besmir. ed the kansas primary with this trash they published this past friday. i haven't said anything because i expect them to retract it. so far nothing. before this week is up, they ought to retract it and they ought to apologize. up with your kids. to get your feet moving to a different beat. to step up to a new challenge. it's time to start gellin' with dr. scholl's and feel the energy from your feet up. thanks to the energizing support and cushioning of dr. scholl's massaging gel insoles, your feet will feel so good you'll want to get up and go.

>> best new thing in the world. if you are a fan of the show, the whole staff got a little bit obsessed with the u.s. women's national soccer team in the world cup. they went to finals of the world cup, but they lost an absolute heartbreaker to japan for the world cup championship match, and right after that, we were honored to host four team usa members here on this show. i was very nervous, it was very cool. well, "the rachel maddow show" staff obsession has not stopped.

as you heard, the u.s. women's soccer team got vindication and beat the team who beat them in the world cup. they beat japan to win the gold today's gold medal match in soccer. yay! whoo! . naturally we took totally unjustifiable pride in our role in this victory, in team sausa' golden moment and they came on our show one time last year. surely that propelled them to victory. or not. not at all? you feel this way inappropriately when you feel pride in something that happens in your country. folks at home right now are taking tremendous pride tonight in the american winning a gold medal in the olympics and the people who are taking pride unlike us, totally deserve it big time. last night we reported this story of collarry sa shields, the american boxer from flint, michigan. her hometown has gone all in for her. she is 17 years old and has been

boxes since she was 11. she credited her hometown for their emotional and financial support in getting her to these games. today she fought for the gold medal in the middle weal boxing division. according to the flint journal, more than 300 of her fellow flinters watched the fight, and more than 100 others watched and cheered at the auditorium at northwest high school where she goes to school. she's not even a senior yet. four rounds later, the fighting pride emerged the winner. collarry sa shields became the greatest female middle weight amateur amateur fighter in the world. this is the first year that women's boxing has been in the olympics so she is the first gold medalist in this class ever. we e-mailed her principal who wrote this to us. what you saw was a young lady who had a goal and she worked towards the goal achieving her dream for sheer work and determination. unlike the other lates boxing, up until she left the olympics,

clarissa still had school, papers to write, and scheduling and early finals. with that smile, you saw the true young lady. you think you had known her all your life. she much wiser than most 17-year-olds. she will set new goals and obtain them. she will only be 21 for the rio olympics. a 17-year-old giving everything to her hometown, that is an olympic story they have seen. this particular hometown, giving everything for its pride and joy and an olympic gold medal. flint has taken some hard knocks, but "first look" is up next. widening gap. a new national poll has president obama leading mitt romney as a barrage of negative ads take their toll. crash and burn. a test flight of nasa's next general moon lander goes horribly awry. and a fine line.

a daredevil from the famous flying wallendas astounds beachgoers in atlantic city. good morning, everyone. i'm lynn berry. those stories and more are straight ahead. this is "first look" on msnbc. and we are going to begin this morning with only a dozen weeks left. that is how much time remains before election day in the race for the white house. now, president obama is doing better in one new national poll and the unfavorable rating for mitt romney has edged higher with most americans seeing the challenger favoring the rich. a cnn/orc international poll indicates that if the election were held today, president obama would win with a seven-point margin over mitt romney. that's 52-45%. now, all of this as the president enjoyed some timely progress with the economy.

and conservative republicans ramped up their lobbying for a vp choice for romney. steve handelsman from nbc has more from washington. >> reporter: campaigning in colorado, president obama got good news on jobs. fewer americans applying for unemployment last week. and more u.s. exports. he claimed he's been righting the ship. >> saving an auto industry, creating 4.5 million new jobs, 500,000 new manufacturing jobs. >> reporter: conservatives fear mitt romney, trailing in most battleground states, needs a boost. the influential "wall street journal" urged him to pick paul ryan as his running mate. ryan is the controversial house budget committee chairman who would reduce the deficit by scaling back medicare. >> the problem with picking paul ryan is the very thing conservative intellectuals love about him that he's serious about cutting medicare is not popular. in fact, it's a big risk that