america as the man who will occupy the number two spot on the gop ticket or as mitt romney said in his introduction, possibly a slightly higher position. >> join me in welcoming the next president of the united states, paul ryan! >> okay. we laughed. we laughed about that one. that is until we listened to what ryan had to say. >> america is more than just a place though. america is an idea. >> yes! >> it's the only country founded on an idea. our rights come from nature and god, not from government. this idea was founded on the principles of liberty, freedom, free enterprise, self-determination, and government by consent of the

governed. >> so if ryan sounded vaguely presidential there, it's because he was channeling one of our greatest presidents, the man who wrote these words. we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights and that among these are life, liberty, and thepursuit of happiness -- that to secure that's rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the gofrmged. yes, ryan was cribbing from our third president, thomas jefferson and our greatest achievements, the deck calculation of independence. thomas jefferson is one of my favorite presidents, but paul ryan, you are not one of my favorite presidents. it was an enlightenment idea, bigger than himself. at the time that he first drafted the deck calculation of

independence, we had not yet become as john adams famously said a government of laws and not men. whatever rights our young nation could lay claim to were delineated by one man, king george iii. but the brilliance of the words of thomas jefferson lies in the words of adverse alt. no one man is in source of those rights. they are endowed by one creator. no man has the power to separate us from those rights. they are unalienable. and because we're all created equal, we all have the right to life, liberty, freedom and pursuit of happiness. they allowed now room under that umbrella for someone who looked like me, but that perfect idea, that perfect document was greater than those imperfect men, so great, in fact, that decades later women who weren't part of the original vision could use jefferson's words as an inspiration for their own

inspiration when elizabeth katy stanton came up with her own deck calculation. when it was found spoken from the mouth of the descendent of slaves as he laid out the dream of america on the steps of the jefferson memorial in 1963. but yesterday when that stretched a little farther by the introduction of the man who might be our next vice president. that virtual idea felt like it got smaller because although ryan got jefferson's words rights, the policies that he and mitt romney want for our country get the ideas all wrong. the deck calculation of independence is our nation's social contract and the policies endorsed by the republican ticket are in violation of that contract. it guarantees the right to liberty and pursuit of happiness to all americans.

practices include labor organizing, enhance the right to liberty, the ability of loving adults to marry one another, no matter their sexual orientation is central to pursuing happiness. our founding ideas are bigger than ryan's narrow vision. joining me at the table today, julian fellows, a professor of history at princeton university and author of "governing america," and also joy and reed, contributing editor and nerdland friend. thank you both for being here. were you at all surprised to hear ryan invoke jefferson in his introduction to the american people? >> i wasn't that surprised. ronald reagan also tapped in and linked them not to the idea of more government but to the idea of free enterprise and freeing the government. so it's a familiar conservative theme and i think ryan who's been around in conservative

circles for a long time is trying to govern that idea. my take hear on the declaration is it's bigger than that. it's elastic and it's a growing document just like the constitution is. it's a living document, not a dead one. although it seems silly, j joy-ann. it's like i'm totally ready to have a theory conversation with them. >> what they believe you just said is the problem. they don't like the idea of an expansive definition of liberty. they want to go back to a frontier america. nink you talk to conservatives and read a lot of what they write, what they're upset about, the popular media, everything has appeared to sort of hide their ideas or make them embarrassed about them. their idea is before the 20th

century america was the better place. where you didn't tax wealth, where you didn't tax corporations and where it was up to your own enterprise and pluck to make it and if you didn't make it, well, i guess you were not smart enough or plucky enough and it was your own problem and there was no one to rescue you. they really want to go back to thatnd they feel like if they could find the right messenger, sunny and on it is mystic lie ronald reagan they would secure themselves. they would get rid of social security and medicare and they'd want do it because they'd want to go back to being liberty and self-suvish end minded. they do want to believe that. >> i believe the part that allows them to believe that is part of the misreading of historical facts. the former government is protecting property. this is why institutions are governed among men. if i'm in the obama administration, the obama

campaign and camp right now, how do i go back and take this language of the declaration or founding documents and say, you know what? you guys have this interpretation wrong, mr. romney or mr. ryan, here's the way of imagining it. >> if they're democrats, there's two ways they're going do that. they're going to say, hey, government was always important, they built our roads, sent our mail, protected our lands. the second is to talk about debates. ryan and romney will talk about it philosophically in the abstract. obama and biden and others will talk about the other. the polls show people don't like government but they like government programs, so that's going to be what the fall's about. >> i think at this point the reason it's so important, if you say government, it's this thing out there, right, and it's often represented by bureaucrats whose names i don't know. then you say we're laying off

bur carats or government workers, but then you say we're laying off teachers, then you hear, oh, i'm sorry, i didn't realize we were talking about teachers. what about the road you drive on? oh, i like that. so is there something here in the american notion of government that we've had, delinked over history where we say i don't like government but, hey, government hands off my medicare, for example, which is what we saw in the tea party movement. >> that's exactly the point. this idea that conservatives have that we just get rid of government and go back to our own price would be great. the experience of the pre-20th century america was pretty bad. if you were not already wealthy or a landed white man, lif was really rough for you in 20th century. so when people actually experienced the loss of government, if there were no firemen to come and put out your house when your house was on fire, if there was no police to

protect you, military to protect you and there was no medicare and you had to retire on the little pit tans, even most conservatives say they wouldn't want to live in that america. when you actually experience the loss of quote/unquote government, they also object to it. think that's what democrats have to remind people. also, by the way, most of the wealth that's created by these big corporations is with government subsidies and contracts. even bain, they kept getting this government assistance. >> we built that. we built that. >> right. >> coming up is mitt romney, who's generally pretty risk-averse. is this ryan pick too big a gamble? will the lad outshine the dad? this is new york state. we built the first railway, the first trade route to the west, the greatest empires. then, some said, we lost our edge.

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so politically speaking an ideal vice-presidential pick fills in the gaps where the presidential contend erd is lapsing. lyndon johnson was his gateway to the south. sarah palin revved the way for john mccain and tried to court women voters. what does paul ryan have that mitt romney is missing? family man with conservative moral values? romney has plenty of that. romney doesn't have warmth and personality. ryan has got charisma and charm enough for both of them. is he the bold boost that the campaign needed? still with me julian zelizer and joy-ann reid and joining the group is paul reyes and ari melber, nbc correspondent and

correspondent for the nation. you're on twitter with opinions. what do you think? >> it's where i live. >> that's right. is it a brilliant pick or an awful pick. >> i think it is a strong pick that reflects the undeniable fact that auto pilot was not going to win this race and the attempt to make it a referendum on obama which igts wasn't necessarily happening, even if that worked perfectly, wasn't going to win this race. and so what they did was say we need something bigger, stronger, something more specific. mitt romney is a guy you go to school with for four years and people ask you and you don't know many details about him. paul ryan is a picture you see in facebook and you say, yeah, i know exactly who that guy is. >> julian, i want to ask you. you sort of looked across the history of presidential picks, v.p. picks, whether they make a difference. cover, august 6, 2012, of the

news week, basically is romney too much of a wifrp to win the presidency. he picks this guy is many things but not witmpy. is it not going to matter much? >> sometimes it matters on the campaign trachl walter mondale in 1976. many democrats didn't trust jimmy carter. they didn't know who he was. mondale brought traditional democrats right into the fold and helped him win the election. george h.w. bush in 1980 gave ronald reagan some foreign policy expertise and helped him look less like barry goldwater. there's limits to what they can do but they can be effective. >> it's fascinating to think of walter mondale and george h.w. bush helpful. only a historian could remind us

of such a thing. so i'm also looking at just the stage craft of this. they're in virginia, not in wisconsin, right? they're coming out on this decommissioned, you know, military ship. what are they trying to signal both with this pick and with the stage kracraft of this pick? >> that was a little confusing to me. it pointed out to me that neither have military service which is unusual for both people on the ticket. isn't it true generally speaking when you choose a vice president, you don't usually want someone who's going to upstage and outshine you. even if you glangs at the tv for paul ryan, whether you think about him or know him, he is dynamic, he has something to say. he's jumping off the tv screen. he's someone -- he's ready for his moment. he's ready to jump into the fight. thing for mitt romney, there's a real danger that this campaign going forward is going to be about paul ryan and not about mitt romney. >> last night they came back out and did another joint appearance

and romney comes out and is speaking off prom ter, off script, and i was waiting for like the dean scream at the end because this is not his normal way to come out and be quite that enthusiastic. can that last or is romney just sort of still the character that is, you know, he's an awe tom on the? >> no. i think it's the problem. i think it was the strongest pick he could have made. however, what ryan brings to the campaign that romney lacked was ideas and that's the problem and that we're now going to focus on the ideas that romney had. romney was pretty much running on paul ryan's ideas. ryan is supplying the intellectual basis for the republican party and romney was running on that anyway, so he may as well add him to the tick, but now he's stuck with ryan's ideas. you see the first thing he said, he put out a statement, i'm going to have my own plachbn. no, you're not. you're going to run on ryan's

plan. >> i think joy has put a finger on it. those are real things he did with husband time and his enemy and there's romney's 2.0 which is engaging the most right-wing fringes of the republican party. one of the things he tried to do that failed and i think it has failed, i can be all of that. i can telegraph certain things to the right but i can make moderates think i can come back to my roots, that i'm not as scary as some of the republican candidates. >> they decided not to etch a sketch. they're going to stay right over here. >> that is over. that is over. what he's done is put all of his chips down on the heart of the republican government, which is that government health care, medicare, that social security, none of these things are worth paying for and we need to do, in the case of the ryan budget, a 20-plus-percent cut for millionaires. that comes first, and that comes at the cost of 14 million people being pushed off medicare.

that is the blue print. and now he says it's not going to be 1.0. this is who i am. >> that is dangerous. he's alike himself and giving romney a type of core and saying this is the candidacy for the true 1%, the true economic elite. that's who we're going to look after and take care of. >> we're not in wisconsin anymore. so if a criticism of mitt romney has been really about how vague his proposals are in a lot of ways, congress paul ryan is man with specifics, and when we come back, the ranking democrat on the house republican committee, congressman chris van hollen comes back to talk with me about those specifics. hey, check it out. she's using the mr. clean magic eraser bath scrubber. i've heard of it, but i haven't seen one up close. what's the word around the sink. that it removes 3x more soap scum per swipe and it came from outer space. it is not from outer space! no, man, it's from outer space! they're aliens, on an intergalactic cleanliness mission. they're here to clean up the universe.

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campaign has been up to this point, but ryan is not just an ideas guy. he has an actually plan. it's a big plan. and it is filled with specifics, and those specifics are now up for discussion. saturday i joined "up with chris hayes" where our own rachel maddow took out the nearly 100-page ropeman to the future with one fell swoop. >> find your nearest old person and ask them, do you like men care? would you like it to be replaced by a coupon or a prayer. >> on the other hand -- >> ask a 54-year-old what's about to happen. >> right. so with ryan as v.p., every voter born after 1958 in every state in the nation has a very specific proposal to vote for or against in november. to help assess the political impact of this roadmap, i'm joined by congressman chris van hollen of maryland, the ranking member of the house budget committee chaired currently by

paul ryan. good to have you with us. >> great to be here, melissa. >> does this choice for ryan now make it a national one in the sense of each and every state down tikd, now congressional races, in part will been the ryan plan? >> absolutely. earlier romney had said that the ryan plan was, quote, marvelous. now he's fully embraced and endorsed it, and he's going to have to live with it and live with the specifics, and as the debate goes on, people are going to learn more an more how the ryan plan is great for people like mitt romney but it's really bad for the rest of the country. it provides big tax breaks for the rest of the country. mitt romney would do well but seniors of medicare, kids trying to pay for your education, or whether you're a middle income taxpayer, the benefits of the very wealthy come at the expense of everybody else i was struck, congressman. i was listening to congressman

ryan talking about the first two years of the obama administration and he said at that time democrats have full control. can we take a moment and take a listen to what he had to say. >> no one disputes that president obama inherited a difficult situation. and in his first two years with his party in complete control of washington, he passed nearly every item on his agenda. but that didn't make things better. >> so you were there. is that how you remember 2008 to 2010? >> well, there are a couple of points here. obviously while paul works in the house of representatives, he should know the rules in the senate gave the republicans an incredible amount of power and mitch mcconnell famously said his top priority was not the economy and not jobs but to defeat the president. of course, republicans in the senate even for those two years did everything they could to obstruct progress. however, it should be said that the president was able to stop the free-fall in the economy.

after all, we were losing over 800,000 job as month when the president was sworn in, able to turn the corner, and now we're in poz tish territory. and we'd be in even more positive territory if the house republicans would simply allow a vote on the president's jobs bill. we voted 37 times to overturn obama care, to overturn the affordable care act but not once on the president's jobs plan. look. now we're going to have an opportunity, melissa, for a real fight. i wanted to make a point that was in the lead-in. republicans are claiming that the ryan plan will not impact any seniors for ten years. that's just not true. if you're a senior with high prescription drug costs, you will immediately have to pay more because they reopen what we call the prescription drug doughnut hole. if you're a senior, you're immediately going to have to pay more for preventable health care. we encouraged them to get preventive care before they

developed chronic conditions. you're going to have to pay more. it's going to impact seniors immediately. and in the longer term, what i would say about the ryan plan is it gives members of congress a much better health care plan than the medicare plan they're proposed for seniors. >> right. and let me ask you this, congressman. in his introduction of ryan, romney indicated that even his opponents respect him. you've sat with ryan, you worked with him. it seems like in a personal way on the ground lots of respect. as the obama campaign is moving forward, does the president's campaign make the most sense to vet the man or vet the ideas? >> oh, i think we should vet the ideas. look, i work with paul ryan. we get along very well personally. we have very tough and spirited debates, but they've always been civil debates in the budget committee. look, there's plenty to go on in

terms of a target-rich environmental because when you dig down deep in the ryan budget, it really is bad for the vast majority of the country. again, gate for those already on top. they say they want to make the hard decisions but they ask nothing of folks at the very top while they ask others to take a g hit, whether you're a senior or a worker. so, again, it's not hard if you're not going to ask the folks at the top to pitch in a little more. of course, it complies with the grover norquist pledge that 98% of the republicans have signed. >> let me ask you this. the impeerics of the votes that ryan has passed including voting for the bush tax cuts, the iraq war expenditures and medicare

part d, although a good policy was not offset in terms of its deficit impact, how does he square that ultimately with his sort of narrative of himself as a deficit hoc? >> that's a very good question that he's going to have to answer in the campaign. as you point out, during the bush administration, paul ryan along with others of his colleagues say they voted for the bush agenda. now they say they didn't mean it or did something else but that agent la resulted in a loss of millions of jobs. the only thing that went up was the deficit and now the issue is how do you deal with the long-term deficit. what we said is you take a balanced approach and make some cuts. the president has recommended more. you have to ask the folks on top for more, too, because if you ask nothing of them, you hit

everyone else really hard. again, great if you're mitt romney, you're going to get another tax break. but it're more of the same. trickle-down economics. you can dress it however you want but it's bush trickle-down econom economics. nice to see you. thank you for joining me. up next, the choices left behind. mitt romney had many options and his decisions tell us a lot about what he doesn't want to do. sorry, bobby. ♪ these are the days

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utter the words veepstakes again. bear with me. who could he have picked but didn't. this guy or this guy, florida's marco rubio and up and coming freshman senator, son of immigrant parents, a southern state, one of the few up for grabs this november or perhaps a new one, kelly i yoet or even new mexico governor suzette i tee nez another one of the rumored picks. anything in common with these people? yep, up in of them is a white guy. rob portman and tim pawlenty to name two, but why might romney, presumptive nominee of a demographically pale party that has taken serious criticisms for its women's health policy this year pass up the chance to diversify the ticket a little bit? ari, are they just done?

they're not going to go for women's votes? i mean they've got -- ryan is somebody who introduce add purse goode bill, transvaginal governor governor. are they done? >> they said, look, let's be clear. it ooh goengs be a white guy running mate. that says two things. one, they felt it necessary to draw u the line and two, that it was potential to go in the diction direction. it's a big contrast. people beat up the elements of the tea party. there's that element but there's the element in the grassroots element that they missed out on. if you look, there's a white guy who got beaten in the primary by ted cruz. no matter what you say he has one of those stories, the son of an immigrant who came to this

country and who's an immigrant. it's really advancing women in minorities sometimes at political risk but it's also a contrast i think most interesting to texas grassroots republicans when they find someone they agree with, they look at that as a plus factor. they won't call it this, but that's called affirmative action. the supreme court's going to look at affirmative action in this term, the upcoming term. romney says he's against it. the parties are going to say they're against it. >> speaking of things that they're against, i've got this great thing i heard about that i want to ask you about. last night romney was talking about the american dream again. this is his off the cuff moment. he's not on teleprompter. let's listen to what he said for a moment when he was talking about the american dream. >> the is the nation of america.

the president is changing it into that's government centric. what works here, what works around the world is free people pursuing their dreams. we want those dreamers here. we can accomplish our dreams. >> raul, he wants the dreamers here. man, he is off script. you do not say we want the dreamers here when they don't want the dreamers here. >> absolutely not. they want the dreamers to self-deport along with their grand parents. >> they want the dreamers there. >> it's very strange. even talking about the selection, one thing assay. you have martinez, marco rubio. so i'm a little sir prieszed. he is from florida. it's a swing state. he brings color literally to this ticket. i'm a little surprised he didn't

say in the running he didn't choose someone like him cho come given that diversity. it does help. when speaking about the affirmative action case, when you have the party and them saying we don't like affirmative action, that looks bad. when you can have add very tert it makes it interesting. >> the think is that, again, i think the romney campaign is all about telling movement conservatives, we're going to let you have your moment. we're going to give you an airing without embarrassment and we're not going to coat it with things like we're going to find you a minority. we're not going to do compassionate conservatism. >> if president obama wins

re-election, you've got nicky coming out of south carolina and marco -- >> romney won't win. they're not going to bring even rubio a huge number over. thank ier trying for a cross-class coalition and get working class people through someone like his story through focusing on a density. to shifting it to issues of government pend spending. this is my racialized -- >> it's not diversity. they're going for a different kind. >> i think they don't like the idea that they're supposed to like that.

they pick people like marco rubio. they fid. they're're not the typical story of someone who's mexican-american. they're somebody who conforms to the right. >> we've got more on ryan coming up. it certainly is. coming up next i'm joining by paul ryan's opponent in the next 2012 election. you're going see it.

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we built the first railway, the first trade route to the west, the greatest empires. then, some said, we lost our edge. well today, there's a new new york state. one that's working to attract businesses and create jobs. a place where innovation meets determination... and businesses lead the world. the new new york works for business. find out how it can work for yours at thenewny.com. paul ryan has officially gone national. i can't wait for the debate between vice president biden and paul ryan. it will be truly a nerd's dream. his opponent in that race is democratic candidate and former small business owner rob zer bon

who joins me now from milwaukee. thanks, rob snienks for having me. >> you're trained chef, former small business owner but also the person most focused making a case against paul ryan. you don't think he's right for the first congressional district of wisconsin. what do you think about the quality of his candidacy for the position of vice presidenty? >> i think he highlights the romney/ryan road to ruin as i look to call it. >> rrrr. >> yeah, your rrrr. i'll give you a new moniker for it. i think once people start finding more and more of the details about what's in the budget. they're going to reject it wholeheartedly. it's going to be fun to watch him lose twice. >> let me ask you one question. one of my guests here, ari melber was telling me in the

break that ever since romney has been chosen as the vice-presidential pick there's more heard on your campaign. there's been 3 $1/2 million contributions to your campaign? >> yes, a spotlight's been drawn on to the campaign in the first congressional district. we did see an upswing in our campaign contributions and how this is going to affect it long term, i'm not going to really speculate on, but think this is definitely going to help by bringing more attention to the ryan budget. >> let he back out a little bit to the panel. i just want to ask. you know, as we're thinking of paul ryan as a wisconsin guy, as somebody from janesville who's got a long hif and can tell a story, apparently really good at retail politics, he's been in there irseven times. how is it going to change now that he's on the national stage? >> i think for him one of the big risks, you know, he's going

to be on this national stage. you know, with we have this document here, all these pages at this table of all the nerds -- not you, you're very cool. but most of them are going to say this is someone who wants to dismantle medicare. most are not going get into the intricac he wants to give tax breaks and transform or mitigate medicare. >> i agree. i think it's going to be one of these debates where language is so key where they're go going to say we want to reform it. it's like saying to your husband, i walet's go out for italian. your husband says i like the idea of eating italian but why don't we go out for sushi instead. >> rob, let me pull you in here.

did you want to say something about that? >> yes. melissa, you have to understand not only is this unprecedented. not only is he running against president obama and joe biden at that level but there's an unprecedented level. >> do you have one piece of advice for preparation in leading up to meeting paul rieb in the prez den dal debate. >> he's much more experienced. >> it will be fun though. >> you might have to be a little >> i don't understand, because at the end of the day, all politics is local. one of the aspects of paul ryan's sort of philosophy is that he stops taking earmarks. >> yeah. >> and he stops bringing money home for the district. on the local sort of district congressional level, what you're bringing to the district directly matters. i'm wondering if his big-picture philosophy will be used by his

opponent in the -- >> if your district is starving. a little pork is a good thing. rob, thanks for joining me from wisconsin. we're undoubtedly all going to be watching your campaign very closely now. up next, we're going to keep our focus on wisconsin. just a little bit differently. ♪ ♪ [ sneezes ] [ male announcer ] if you have yet to master the quiet sneeze... ♪ [ sneezes ] [ male announcer ] you may be an allergy muddler. try zyrtec®. it gives you powerful allergy relief. and zyrtec® is different than claritin® because zyrtec® starts working at hour 1 on the first day you take it. claritin® doesn't start working until hour 3. [ sneezes ] [ male announcer ] zyrtec®. love the air. join zyrtec® rewards. save up to $7 on zyrtec® products.

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all eyes are on wisconsin's favorite son, congressman paul ryan, now the republican vice presidential pick. we should not let the relentless news cycle make us forget the other story from wisconsin. just one week ago in oak creek, wisconsin, it was rocked by violence in a sikhspds house of worship. wade michael page entered the temple carrying a handgun. he killed six people and critically injured three others after being wounded by police, the gunman took his own life. now, many were quick to call this incident a case of mistaken identity, suggesting these sikh

americans were targeted because they were confused with muslims. valerie core, a sikh filmmaker and advocate who has chronicled violence against her community for a decade responded. she wrote, the notion of mistaken identity is not just wrong. it's dangerous. it implies there is a correct target and further implies that hate violence should rightfully be directed at muslims. this is unacceptable. we must end violence against all muslim people and build a world without terror. a memorial service attended by scott walker and eric holder the shooting was called an act of terrorism and a hate crime. the fbi is veging the shooting as domestic terrorism. but it's indicated that no law enforcement agency was aware of the shooter's intentions. but we do know because the law center has tracked a spike in extremist hate groups in this country in the past few years

and in times of economic struggle and political polarization, too many find meaning and outrage and hate. and with guns at the ready, this hate can easily turn into violence. as valluerie core wrote the deas of trayvon martin and the sikh americans in wisconsin all rise from the same crisis in our social fabric. individuals driven by fear and hatred of people different from them believe that senseless acts of violence are warranted and justified. we are all sikh now. because the struggle for human dignity is universal, knowing the other is a responsibility we all share, building safe communities is a collective effort. let's learn from the response of oak creek's sikh community who adhere to the principles of resilience. just after the killings, these men and women went back to their sacred space. they began to rebuild, repaint and repair.

leaving a sole hole as a reminder of what was lost. hot new political news or not, we must remember or we're doomed to repeat. that is our show for today. thank you to our guests. and thank you to you at home for watching. see you again next time at 10:00 a.m. eastern. coming back to our regular programming schedule right now. "weekends with alex witt." [ female announcer ] letting her home be turned into a training facility? ♪ this olympian's mom has been doing it for years. she's got bounty. in this lab demo, one sheet of new bounty leaves this surface cleaner than two sheets of the leading ordinary brand. bounty has trap and lock technology to soak up big spills and lock them in. let the spills begin. p&g. proud sponsor of the olympic games.

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advair may increase your risk of osteoporosis and some eye problems. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking advair. if you're still having difficulty breathing, ask your doctor if including advair could help improve your lung function. get your first full prescription free and save on refills at advaircopd.com. hitting the campaign trail, the romney/ryan ticket on day two. today we're learning the inside story on how the choice was made. meanwhile, president obama's campaign weighing in on mitt romney's running mate with a fresh attack today. and the historic drought. why is this happening? when will it stop? and how much damage is being done here? answers to those questions ahead. and the last lap, the 30th olympic games coming to close today but not without a final

flourish of gold for u.s. athletes. the latest in a live report. hello, everyone. welcome to "weekends with alex witt." i'm richard lui in for alex today. topping this hour, mitt romney and paul ryan heading to another campaign stop in north carolina before they head to wisconsin later today. while flying to north carolina yesterday, mitt romney talked about the direction of the campaign and the benefits of a running mate. take a listen. >> for us, this is a campaign of ideas and a direction for america. what's america going to be, what kind of nation we're going to be, how are we going to help people across this country have a better future, and having two people talk about that i think is a far more compelling dynamic than being out there on my own. i'm excited. >> meanwhile, president obama's campaign is giving paul ryan no time to settle into his new role. cnn adviser david axelrod came out swinging on nbc's "meet the press" this morning attacking the republicans' economic plan. >> we have more to do not just

to deal with unemployment but to rebuild the middle class in this country. and the way to do it is not to give trillions of dollars of new tax cuts to the wealthiest americans, raise taxes on the middle class, and cut things like college loans and research and technology infrastructure, energy. this is a prescription for economic catastrophe. and what is surprising to me is that having been part of the first catastrophe that congressman ryan thinks we should double down on that policy and do it all over again. >> we're learning new details today about how team romney got ryan to join them on the road without raising media suspicion. it sounds like a cloak and dagger operation. nbc's peter alexander has the details from the romney bus tour in north carolina. peter? >> richard, good day from near charlotte, one of three events that mitt romney and paul ryan will attend today, the last one in paul ryan's home state of wisconsin, a homecoming rally there. that is the last time we will likely see the two of