what does romney believe? we thought for two days this week he believed in what ryan stands for. he likes the sound of the ticket, but not if it means saying something. meaning something. believing something. beyond the one sacred goal on which mitt romney has set his a heart. to get himself elected president. and that's "hardball." "politicsnation" with al sharpton starts now. welcome to "politicsnation." i'm al sharpton. tonight's lead, the choice. in 85 days, more than 130 million americans will head to the polls. they'll decide not just the direction of this country but what kind of country we want america to be. we will remain a society that takes care of its own. or will we turn and have everyone pay their fair share? we will be a place where

fairness, not privileges is the order of the day. starting now that will be the big debate we're going to have. and the contrast between the two parties couldn't be greater. >> this weekend my opponent mr. romney chose as his running mate the ideological leader in the congress. he is a spokesman for romney's vision. but the problem is that vision is one that i fundamentally disagree with. >> this is the vision president obama fundamentally disagrees with. he disagrees with gutting social programs while increasing military funding. he disagrees with a plan that gives huge tax breaks to the wealthy. bigger than the bush tax cuts. but offers no way to pay for them. he disagrees with fundamentally

about wrecking medicare. that last point, that could change the face of this election. major swing states like florida, pennsylvania, iowa, ohio, arizona, and wisconsin all have high senior citizen populations. the republican ticket hit two of them today. congressman ryan was out in iowa where nearly 15% of the state's residents are seniors. governor romney hit florida, the state with the highest number of people over 65. needless to say, neither got a rousing welcome. in florida, romney was greeted with blistering headlines saying -- one that said florida seniors weren't fans of bold policy that intruded on health care. and in iowa, ryan's first solo campaign stop, well congressman,

welcome to the world outside of the ivory tower in washington. >> tough crowd, huh? no wonder mr. romney's already distancing himself from the ryan budget. >> some people are saying you are making it a referendum on paul ryan's budget plan. >> well, i have my budget plan as you know that i've put out, and that's the budget plan that we're going to run on. >> except you're on the record as supporting it.

right, mr. chairman? >> first of all, i mean, he did embrace what -- the ryan budget. he embraced it. >> of course he embraced it. it guts medicare, it guts social program. all to help people like him. under the ryan budget, mr. romney would pay less than 1% in taxes. 1%. that's unfair and that fundamental difference. envision is at the heart of this campaign. >> what hasn't changed is our determination to do what we came together in 2008 to do. and that is to make sure that in america, hard work pays off. so that no matter who you are or where you come from or what you look like, you can make it here in america if you try. that's what this campaign's about, iowa, and that's why i'm

running for a second term as president of the united states of america. >> that's why president obama's running. he's trying to restore an america built on fairness. the other side, they don't seem to have the same vision. joining me now is chaka fattah from pennsylvania and bob shrum who ran kennedy's campaign against romney in '94. thank you first of all for both of you being here. >> glad to be here. >> good to be with you. >> congressman, fattah, let me start with you. what does the choice of ryan say to you? >> it says somehow the right wing of the republican party were able to take over the mccain campaign for sarah palin

and now force ryan on to a candidate that needs to be moving towards the middle but has him now moving further to the right. and the other thing is that when we get to the numbers, you know everyone says ryan's a numbers guy. well, his budget doesn't balance anytime in the next 30 years. >> right. >> i'll be 85 before there was a balanced budget under ryan. he's just using a debt problem to cut programs that republicans have always opposed. medicare, education, higher education, pell grants, food stamps. to use that money to provide tax cuts to people like romney. now we know on the ryan budget, governor romney would only pay 1% in taxes. because he excludes all income from investments in capital gains and the like.

here is a guy who voted for the iraq war. voted for a $7 trillion entitlement on prescription drugs with no pay for. present it to the country as a deficit halt even though his budget doesn't get the budget in balance. we'll be at the half century mark before it would be in balance. >> no doubt about it. let me ask you, bob, to step in for a minute here. when you hear the congressman lay out how far to the right ryan's positions are, his politics and even his budget. and then you look at one of the standouts of the ryan budget is what he would do with medicare. and something that seniors and others are disturbed by. but when you look at the politics of it, americans want medicare kept the way it is. even the majority of republicans agree on that point. 83% of democrats want to keep it as it is. so do 70% of independents.

as do 53% of republicans. so you're the political strategist, bob. why would mitt romney choose someone who symbolizes something that the majority of all of those parties are fundamentally opposed to? >> i think he let the process go on too long. and i think rupert murdoch and the right wing were demanding this guy. so romney picked him. i think you'll end up with a new rule. never pick a man with that kind of a plan. because he's going to become central to the next chapter in the obama narrative about 2012. bain's going to be around. offshore accounts are going to be around. all those issues are going to be around. we're now going to move to this plan that would destroy medicare, decimate education, all to give this gigantic tax

cut to the rich. you walk president obama earlier in that clin and see how comfortable he was. romney wanted this to be a referendum. stop anything from happening and other people will get mad and outvote obama. this has now become a choice. the president has defined the choice. and the choice by mitt romney to put this guy on the ticket has sharpened that question. the question is who fights for 234e middle class, who fights for the many, and who stand up for the privileged and the few. >> one of the things i took note of today was that the romney campaign is trying to really rewrite positions and policies of the president. romney himself was out today slamming the president for making cuts to medicare. he's claimed he made cuts to medicare. which is not true. according to politifact, quote,

the health care law does not reduce benefits. in fact, it enhances them. you're a member of congress. you supported the health care law. does the health care law reduce medicare? >> no, it does not. in fact, when we look at the long-term benefit of the affordable care act, it lengthened the financial liability of the program by many years. as we have baby boomers retiring, the cost of for our senior citizens as baby boomers continue to retire. but the reality is so that we have to make adjustments. the president made an adjustment that lengthened the period of time for this to function. and by changing out some going to private insurance companies for benefits that medicare could provide. romney also said today look, we've always been a country making choices. you can't have a better choice

than medicare. you go to whatever doctor you want to go to. and the treatments you need are paid for. now, what they want to do is give you a voucher that says look we're going to cap this at a certain amount. if your health care costs go over that amount, you're on the hook for it. and the average for seniors would be about $6,000 more that this would cost. i think b that we knew that pawlenty would be a problem. rubio would have been a major problem in terms of his appeal to certain constituencies like the latino vote. but the pick for ryan was not by romney. you look at what the wall street journal, look at what bill kristol and them said. now they're saying romney can't move away from ryan's budget. they were out talking yesterday. bill kristol said he can't just be for ryan for v.p., he's got to be for the ryan program. they want to take over the whole

romney campaign. >> bob, let me ask you this quickly. it's not only medicare. president was out slamming congressman ryan for holding up the farm bill which is going to hurt him in a lot of those states. he says it endangered the livelihoods of millions. take a listen. >> right now too many members of congress are blocking the farm bill from becoming law. i am told that governor romney's new running mate might be around iowa the next few days. he's one of them standing in the way. we've got to put politics aside when it comes to doing the right thing for rural america and for iowa. >> looks like the president and his team is going to define mr. ryan on several issues that will not resonate well with certain voters in certain areas of the country. >> look, ryan's going to be a gift to the obama campaign

everywhere you turn. secondly they're going to go after him and this is going to look like the ryan/romney ticket. third, ryan is actually a trifecta of alienating voting blocks. hispanics, women, older people. older people last time were the backbone. it's got much narrower if you look at the aarp poll in florida. the whole ryan plan is going to drive those seniors more toward the president. i mean, it doesn't matter whether you're talking about outlawing contraception, medicare, taking away student loans and pell grants, this guy alienates all critical blocks. >> i'm going to have you told it there. congressman chaka fattah and bob shrum, thank you. >> that's what he said about

ryan's medical plan. coming up, paul ryan may want you to think he's a deficit hawk, but once upon a time he was a chicken hawk. caving in to every republican budget bashing bill that showed up on the house floor. but ryan's radical ideas go way beyond the budget. >> planned parenthood, i'm not for federal funding of abortions. the dream act, it's two wrongs making a right. >> he's gone to extremes on women's issues, immigration, and civil rights. we're exposing the entire ryan record. and summer break hits an ohio county fair. but watch out. this gator's going rogue. you're watching "politicsnation" on msnbc.

folks, have you checked us out on facebook? the "politicsnation" conversation is going all day long. today our fans had a lot to say about the new v.p. pick paul ryan. donald thinks this will make the campaign interesting. quote, let's see how ryan sells his medicare plan to seniors. shawn writes with the ryan pick, mitt just doubled down on romney-hood. and the favorite photo of this day was this one of the president showing off his baby whispering skills. ellie calls this one the baby push up. and says she loves it. we want to hear what you think too.

head over to facebook and search "politicsnation" and like us to join the conversation that keeps going long after the show ends. you'll be glad you did. ♪ why not take a day to explore your own backyard?

with two times the points on travel, you may find yourself asking why not, a lot. chase sapphire preferred. there's more to enjoy. we're back on "politicsnation" with a look at paul ryan's real record as the so-called ideological leader of the republican party. turns out ryan hasn't always been such a deficit hawk. he's more like a deficit chicken hawk. see, once upon a time, paul ryan wasn't so concerned about

slashing the budget and bringing down the deficit. under president bush, ryan didn't have a budgetary care in the world. he said aye to the medicare prescription drug benefit and voted in favor of the bush tax cuts and voted for the war in iraq and afghanistan. that's right. he votes in favor of the policies that are now the main causes of our national deficit. but when a democrat was voted into the white house, ryan suddenly became the pitch man for budget cuts. joining me now is father thomas reed, a senior fellow at woodstock theological center. he joined others in speaking out against drastic gop cuts against the poor. and ezra klein, a washington post columnist and msnbc policy analyst. thank you both for being here tonight. >> thank you. >> ezra, let me start with you.

there's so much talk about the ryan plan. tell us exactly what it is. i mean, specifically what it does to medicare. let's start there. >> begin with medicare. so it changes medicare to something called premium support. right now you get it and it pays your health care costs. that's what it does. what happens in ryan ice plan is you get a coupon. and the coupon will get you essentially the lowest or second lowest price medicare like options. private options and whatever is cheapest and it could be cheapest because it's able to select for healthier people, there are concerns about how you handle that kind of risk problem. but whatever is cheapest, you can get that. and if you want something different, say traditional medicare is not cheapest, you have to pay the difference. i think it's important to say quick here that he has shifted a lot of the big cuts away from medicare and towards programs to the poor. 2/3 of the cuts are for the

programs to the poor. >> so he has shifted a lot of these programs over to cutting -- i mean a lot of the cuts over to programs that benefit poor americans. >> yes, exactly. so the first ten years, the medicare change doesn't happen for another ten years. in the first ten years you get a $750 million cut to medicaid. another $650 million cut after repealing the medicaid expansion. all in all you can cut medicaid by 1/3 to throw 60 million people off of health insurance. i'm sorry 40 million people. i did my mental math wrong there. >> 40 million to 50 million? >> yeah. >> at the same time he's cutting these programs he's also cutting taxes to the rich. >> significantly. what's remarkable about the tax

plan is he would cut all taxes on investment income. under ryan's tax plan, mitt romney would not pay effect lively any taxes. he'd pay 0.82%. he said if you took away the capital gains tax, i would not pay taxes. paul ryan has proposed taking that away. it's a more significant tax cut. >> father reese, you and others condemned the gop proposals, the cuts to the poor, as well as giving the rich a tax cut. tell us why you took that position and how you feel that ryan fits into the positions you've been taking. >> well, as christians, we're very concerned about how these programs and the cuts in these programs have effects on poor people, on hungry people, on sick people. jesus told us that we would be

judged by how we treated these people. did we feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked. this is how we will be judged as christians. and the ryan budget as the u.s. bishops as the u.s. catholic bishops said, fails more moral criteria of the gospel of catholic social teaching. because it doesn't protect the poor. it doesn't protect working -- poor working people too. and this is why we were very critical of it and said that this is -- we have to have shared sacrifice if we're going to face the deficit. we can't just balance the budget on the backs of the poor. >> father reese, i understand what you're saying, but that's why i was interested in this statement from congressman ryan. listen to this and give me your response. >> one of the primary tenants of

catholic social teaching is don't keep people poor, don't make people dependent on government so they're stuck in nar station in life. i suppose there are some catholics who for a long time thought they had a monopoly of sorts. not exactly on heaven, but the social teaching of our church. of course there can be differences among faithful catholics on this. >> he basically is saying he's challenging as a catholic some of the actual tenants that you and the bishops claim are basic principles of christianity and catholicism. >> i think we can have a debate and discussion on how to make the programs better. but you don't make programs better by eliminating them unless you've got something better to replace them with. i mean, this is the criticism we have. government should help people get jobs. i mean, he's cutting pell grants

which help poor people go to college. you know, it's very difficult these days to get a job if you don't go to college. he's cutting programs, food stamp programs that help working class people who are below the poverty level. so that they can eat. you know, so they can keep these jobs and keep working. this is -- you know, i'm all for a discussion about how we make programs better, but to simply eliminate these programs, throw the people on the street and to the mercy of market forces, no. that's not the way to help poor people. >> now, ezra, he also at the same time is cutting all of these programs medicare, medicaiding with pell grants. he's for increasing the defense budget. he's increasing defense spending. it seems to me clear that in terms of the rich, in terms of the military, there's no

consideration in terms of deficit being brought down and everything is on the middle class and the poor. >> yeah. it's primarily more on the poor than the middle class. correct. one thing is is important to know about the budget, before you can put a dollar of deficit, you first got to pay for the defense spending which is hundreds of billions more than obama has it. and somehow pay for the tax cuts. now, ryan, when you hear the numbers about his plan. he just told just assume my tax cuts don't cost money. he's not said how he'll do that. and so all we have are the policies on the page. and that would cost about $4 trillion more than the bush tax cuts on top of that. first you got to pay for the bush tax cuts, then $4 trillion of ryan tax cuts. he told the scorekeepers ignore

it. we don't know how he pays for that. >> assume that it'll be all right. i don't make those assumptions. father thomas reese and ezra klein, thank you for your time tonight. >> thank you. still ahead on "politicsnation," paul ryan's bringing back the culture wars. it sure doesn't seem like he'll be wooing many female voters. plus what people really want to know about ryan. turns out there's a lot of talk beyond his budget plan. [ male announcer ] what's in your energy drink?

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folks, with paul ryan on mitt romney's ticket, the republicans are hoping to get a real policy elected. they say ryan makes tough decisions, he gets things done. >> i would suggest let's support the ryan budget. it's a pathway to prosperity, it makes the tough decisions. >> it's a sensible way to go to try to save medicare. >> it's an actual solution being proposed to try and deal with the fiscal challenges this country's faced.

>> ryan puts forth actual solutions? i'm not so sure. in more than a decade as congressman, only two of paul ryan's bills have become laws. he's only gotten two bills passed. so what has paul ryan been doing all the time he's been in congress? >> pullups, push-ups, sit-ups, lots of card owe, karate, jump training, yoga. >> that's right. that's right. paul ryan's real work was at the gym. he's a fan of the grueling p90x workouts. it calls for an hour of circuit training nearly every day. paul ryan's p90x devotion is so well known, he's even worked out we the founder of the program tony horton. and google says more people have

searched for paul ryan shirtless than paul ryan's budget. paul ryan's not a budget guy. he's a muscle guy. isn't that right, congressman? did paul ryan think we'd really believe he spent all his time working on a budget when he's really been working on his abs? nice try, but we got you. ♪

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no! no. ♪ ugh, no! [ sighs ] we can have hotdogs for dinner?! yes. [ male announcer ] in a world filled with "no," it's nice to finally say "yes." new oscar mayer selects hotdogs. made with 100% beef and no artificial preservatives. it's yes food. welcome back to "politicsnation." we know that congressman paul ryan is a far right conservative on budget matters. he's proud of it. but what's more surprising is that on social issues, paul ryan is every bit as conservative. in fact, he may be even more right wing than he is on economics. his record on women's health is down right extreme. he co-sponsored a personhood bill which would define human life as beginning at conception.

it would outlaw such measures as in vitro fertilization. he opposed abortion in all situations. these two alone would place him outside the republican mainstream of just a few years ago. but he also voted to defund planned parenthood. he supported the let women die act which would allow women an emergency abortion in cases where her life was threatened. he even is against insurance coverage for birth control. on these and other issues, don't take my word for his extremism. listen to ryan thims. >> planned parenthood. i'm not for paying for abortions. the dream act as noble as some ideas are, it's two wrongs trying to make a right. it's not about contraception. it's about violating our region

freedom and conscience. it's mandating everybody pay for everyone else's free birth control and ton tra acception. don't ask, don't tell. i just don't think in the middle of combat that that was going to work. and that was -- >> it's not just his wrong headed economic policies on social issues. this guy is true to fall. he's wrongway ryan. joining me now is katherine crier. what america must do to save the republic author. catherine, let me start with you. paul ryan's socially conservative positions are the bread and butter. but is he a risky pick? >> i think so.

i think a lot of the working class republicans when they really pay attention to the ryan budget plan are going to be very, very nervous because of the impact on that group. that's a lot of your conservatives. when you talk about the social issues, there are a lot of economic conservatives who don't pay a lot of attention. those people, swing voters who all of a sudden their antenna is going to go up and they will be very uncomfortable with some radical positions. >> now, margie, when you look at the fact that a new washington post poll shows president obama holds a 22-point lead over romney amongst women voters and then you have the positions of his running mate now, extreme on a lot of women's issues. the politics of this, i just don't get. >> well, i think this is clearly a base pick. i mean, romney picked ryan to solidify his base.

you could tell looking as the running mate. they have the disgraceful ad that makes up the story about obama's record on welfare and the work requirement. they have another ad waging a war on religion which is trying to appeal to catholics. they're trying to solidify their base. and because if they didn't have that, they would have difficulty doing anything. but ryan's positions are so extreme. i'm glad we're talking about the full range of his positions on women's health, on food for hungry kids, on college affordability. on domestic violence. it just runs the gamut. these are extreme, single digit kind of support positions. >> now, catherine, when she says let's talk about all of the issues, i mean it's almost like if you look at ryan's record it's a wish list for the extreme right of the gop. immigration, he voted against this dream act.

gay rights, voted to ban gay adoptions in washington. gun control, gets an "a" rating from the nra. isn't this the kind of stuff that will get his base fired up. she said -- eni agree with margie -- it's a base pick. but is it going to turn off moderates and independents? >> think about the personhood. remember when that amendment was put up in mississippi. it was defeated in mississippi. that life begins at conception and as a lawyer, the implications not only criminal law but contract law, inheritance law, tort law would be horrendous if you ever passed that. you take a state as conservative as mississippi and they defeated that amendment. >> personhood. >> yes. this is the kind of thing that is leading his agenda. given the push to cut back on

voting rights, get people off the rolls, they've sort of given up on many latinos, a lot of women. they've got to solidify their base. maybe they're thinking if s if we cut enough people off the rolls, get our base really excited, and swing voters even some democrats who are a bit disillusioned with obama, maybe they will turn out. that must be the guiding philosophy here. >> or as you say, those that turn out. not be able to vote because of some of these situations. when you look at the latino vote that is critical in this election, when you deal with the fact that right now the wall street journal telemundo poll, obama leads romney by 44 points. when you look at mr. ryan's

vision on the -- clearly he's not going to help turn that around in my opinion. do you think mr. romney just wrote that vote off? >> yeah. maybe he's making the political calculation that by alienating latinos it'll bring him support in the base. that's an issue where romney stake issed out a position before the primary pivoting far to the right than the rest of the field. it seemed like it was going to be difficult to come back from that. he's been running way behind where john mccain was and certainly where former president bush was among latinos. now you have more latinos voting. it really puts the romney camp in a real disadvantage. paul ryan makes it even worse. >> catherine crier and margie omero, thank you for your time.

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i'm fine. ♪ ♪ ♪ with a subaru you can always find a way. announcer: love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru. we're back with a pause from the political battles of the day. a time to relax, rest, and recharge. that's right. it's time for the "politicsnation" summer break. we start with the slowest athletes around. that's right. it's a snail's race. watch as this guy breaks away

from the pack sliding his way right past all of the rest. he leaves them in the dust, i mean slime. i think we can say these snails move as fast as congress does these days. next, we're off to the hen races. check it out as they strut their stuff. wasting no time getting to the finish line. some of the competitors look a bis distracted out there. good thing this race doesn't go until november. finally a quick stop to a county fair in ohio. this gator doesn't seem to be in the mood to perform. when -- ouch. what a bite. yeah. keep tapping his head. that'll change his mood. maybe the little girl in the front has a better idea for what to do. the gator finally decides he's had enough. and the trainer walks away for medical help. you know, that bite would hurt a lot more with those paul ryan

cuts to health insurance. and that's today's summer break. what's with you? trouble with a car insurance claim. [ voice of dennis ] switch to allstate. their claim service is so good, now it's guaranteed. [ normal voice ] so i can trust 'em. unlike randy. are you in good hands?

welcome back to "politicsnation." in picking paul ryan, republicans home they can energize their party and reshape the map. does the selection of the wisconsin congressman put that state in play? what about the rest of the midwest? and what opportunities does he give the democrats? joining me now is patrick gaspar, executive director of the democratic national committee. thanks for being here tonight, patrick. >> thanks for having me on, reverend. >> patrick, what worries you most about the ryan pick? >> you know, actually, reverend, the ryan pick doesn't worry me at all. i think it gives us an opportunity to bring this entire contest into some very sharp

definition. we've been saying for some time that mitt romney's been trying to run this race with no substance. he's somebody who seemed to be completely hollowed out. we know he embraced some ideology through the primary. but he tried to say absolutely nothing. now he's selected a running mate whose values fly in the face of heartland values. he wants to gut education for young people. he wants to turn medicare and social security into a coupon program. he absolutely is not betting on the american worker at a time when we have a jobs bill that's been sitting in his congress for a better part of a year now. this doesn't concern me. you'll recall in 2008 john mccain selected a running mate to appeal to his base. we know how that turned out. i think mitt romney has found himself in a similar circumstance.

>> you mentioned values. let's talk about voters. when you look at polling by pew, the question was raised what matters most to you when you decide your vote. jobs, 35%. budget deficit, 23%. health care, 19%. would these concerns, the major concerns of voters, how does a ryan pick play against you and the party of the democratic party? >> well, the ryan pick actually does not address any of those issues. if anything, it doubles down on the kinds of aggressive policies we had in the prior administration that wrecked our economy and got us to the deficit in the first place. romney and ryan are advancing a budget that basically slashes benefits for our seniors and for our young people. he would basically increase the budget deficit by $4.5 trillion by cutting the tax for the

highest earners of this country from 35% to 25%. and in mitt romney's instance, to 1%. how does that help the deficit busting budget? >> now, we're noticing and this we want to ask you. i have to ask you this. some republican congressional candidates are kind of like distancing themselves. i want to play you this ad by montana gop senator danny rayburg kind of disstancing himself from the policies of ryan. look at this. >> rehberg could harm the program so many rely on. >> that's got to bring a bit of a smile to see some republican candidates like rehberg moving away from the vice

presidential's budget plan. >> they can run but they can't hide. this is one instance where i'm going to have to agree with that philosopher newt gingrich. he called the romney/ryan plan right wing social engineering. he's 100% right which is why those republican candidates are going to try to run from it. but of course we're going to expose them to the truth. and i think that voters in the heartland and throughout the country are going to appreciate that this is not the kind of leadership that we need here in the white house. >> great philosopher newt gingrich. i don't know if you took philosophy in school. patrick gaspar, thank you for your time. we'll be back. [ lenner if take n. geic onte wi cor

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since the day president obama took office, republicans have been working around the clock to retake control of the government. now that governor romney has named paul ryan as his vice presidential candidate, the election is set. and that choice really makes

this an all-in election. unlike other races in recent years, voters will decide between two massively different paths for this country. >> we do not need more tax cuts for the wealthiest americans. we need tax relief for working families. >> we're going to put work back into welfare. >> a country with a health care system that's about to be taken over. >> what's gutsy about gutting medicare, medicaid, education. what's gutsy? >> so which path will win out? will it be the one that proves a handful of billionaires like the koch brothers and shel son adelson. will it be one where disenfranchises millions of eld lerly voters happen? will it be the one with medicaid

and medicare and other critical social programs get dismantled? after all, even before medicare made it to president johnson's desk, republicans tried to tear it down. just ask ronald reagan. >> behind it will come other federal programs that will invade every area of freedom as we have known it in this country. until one day as norman thomas said, we will awake to find that we have socialism. one of these days you and i are going to spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it once was like in america when men were free. >> these are the questions that will be answered this election. so what will it be? will we go down that path? or will we go down another? we just finished watching the olympics. we like sports. you are on one team or the other. this is an all in election. you have the cle