it's thursday, august 16th and here's what's happening. >> this whole big change has become smear, slander. >> if you're a real domestic terrorist, shoot, president obama would be wanting to pal around with us. >> these guys are losers. >> it's the most partisan, devicive climate we've had. >> these guys are losers. >> moving this campaign into the gutter. >> loser. >> into the gutter. >> loser. >> smear. it has become slander. >> bozo the vp. >> who's radical here? >> he's admitted to buying or selling. >> it has become smear. it has become slander. >> mr. president, take your campaign of division and anger and hate back to chicago. >> smear. >> loser. >> precisely exactly what i said, but i stand by whatever i said, whatever it was.

♪ we begin with a look at the republican machine in outrageous effect, one mitt romney has efficiently given up his talking point of the president as a nice guy, the new gop spin is all about the tone of the presidential campaign. this afternoon, romney took questions from the press at a stop in south carolina. a very rare occurrence. during a press availability, he declined the president sewing the seeds of discord. >> personal attacks and the kind of deviciveness that i think is unbecoming of the presidency. >> now, instead, he wants to talk climate. oh, no. he doesn't mean climate change. >> remember when president obama would stand in front of all of these pillars and those things and say we're not blue states or red states. we're the united states of

america. i'm going to be a uniter and not a divider. it's the most partisan, devicive climate we've ever had. >> that is their talking point and they're sticking to it. >> 2012, it's fear of the alternative. >> going to put y'all back in change. >> fear the alternative. >> it is a trojan horse. >> this would be a death trap for some seniors. like a tornado through america's nursing homes. >> yep. democrats did say those things. mostly because they're true. and you know what? let's play some more. here's debbie wasserman schultz. >> you have the republicans who want to literally drag us back to jim crow laws. >> she's talking about the passage of restrictive voter i.d. laws and no, by the way, they did not use president clinton saying just about the same thing about this latest

republican ruse. it's an effort to disenfranchise americans fighting the nonexistence issue of voter fraud. in pennsylvania, a state judge refused to block a new i.d. law that could prevent tens of thousands of senior voters from casting ballots. despite voter i.d. fraud in the state. in florida, rick scott's preparing another effort to purge ineligible voters from the rolls despite questions about the timing and methodology. does that sound reasonable to you? well, not when you note that the process was more likely to inaccurately remove democrats and independent voters according to reports. in the miami herald also found that a sampling of those so-called ineligible voters has been to be 58% hispanic and 14% black and you can bet the republican machine has similar efforts underway. in virginia, new hampshire, ohio, wisconsin, north carolina. pretty much anywhere you hear the word battleground. i'm honored now to be joined by

congressman john lewis from atlanta to help make sense of this madness. he is the author of the new book "across that bridge." congressman, thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you very much for having me on, karen. >> congressman, you know, you are someone who has this incredible view of history and when i hear these conversations about deviciveness and the tone of the campaign, i think about your book and what you've talked about in terms of the tone, frankly, that you endured and the hate that you endured during the civil rights movement and i wonder, does it seem worse to you today than it was then? >> i don't see a great d difference today than i saw years ago. but i must tell you, karen, i know what hate is. i've been a victim of political hate. i saw it in alabama. i saw it in mississippi.

i saw it in other parts of the south. but now, you see it all across america. there is a deliberate, syst systematic attempt to take us back to another period. i cannot understand for -- how the other side can come and said that president barack obama is conducting a campaign of division and hate. this man, i got to know several years ago, is one of the most compassion, one of the most peaceful, one of the most hopeful and optimistic politicians i have ever met. >> one of the things you talk about in your new book and i've heard you talk about is how diverse the movement was. people came from all over to be a part of this change and so then to hear this devicive language and i think of you telling the story of looking out at a sea of blue as you looked

over the edmund pettis bridge knowing that you were walking into being beaten and bloodied just to register to vote. so in this fight for voting rights, some have called it a return to jim crow or poll taxes. it feels like we are moving back and frankly, these laws are really designed to divide modern america. >> it is a shame and a disgrace what is happening today in america. i believe there's a deliberate, systematic attempt to steal this election before it even takes place. what is happening in so many states and it's not just in the heart of american south, but all across our country. it is to make it hard. make it difficult. almost impossible. for many americans to cast an open and free vote.

that is an ongoing effort to take us back to another period. and i think what many of us are saying that we've come too far, made too much progress and that we're not going back. we're not going back to the days of literacy tax, poll tax. you call it what you may. whole question of voter i.d. is a effort to make it hard, impossible, for student, young people, for seniors. for minorities. >> congressman -- >> to vote. to participate. that's not right fair. it's not in keeping with the american process. >> you were such an important part of moving the process forward and i think that is what is so inspirational about your story, so i want people to know and so, let's talk a little bit about what people need to be doing and thinking about to make sure because we don't have the literacy tests, the kinds of things you worked on. what do people need to do now to make sure they are able to cast

their ballot in the fall? i want to give people some hope on this. >> what people must not give up, they must not become bitter. they must not become hostile. they must be persistent and if they have to stand in long lines on election day, stand in line. but they should participate in early voting. participate in absentee voting. but stay there. vote, cash your vote. every vote must count. people must understand that in another period in early history, people died for the right to vote. i gave a little blood on the bridge in selma in march 1965, but some of my colleagues and friends were beaten. they were shot. they were killed. and we cannot go back. we cannot stay at home. we all got to get out and vote like we never, ever voted before. >> you know, actually, 2008 was

one of the most diverse electorates ever, so i hope we see that again in 2012. i want to switch gears, pretty dramatically here, but before i let you go, governor romney had sort of this surprise press conference today and he took a question about his taxes. again, i guess i think about this in the context of the tone on the campaign. i'd like you the take a listen to what he said an then get your reaction. >> the fascination with taxes i paid i find to be very small minded compared to the broad issues that we face. but i did go back and look at my taxes and over the past ten years, i never paid less than 13%. >> you know, the problem that i have with that is that is it small minded for the american people to want to know if he's paid his fair share? aren't you accountable to the people? >> i cannot believe someone

running for president of the united states of america would consider a call paying your taxes and we all paying our fair share, that it's small. it is important. if you're running for president of the united states, if you're running to be governor, a member of the house of representatives, of the united states senate, you should pay your fair share. we all live in the same country. we all live in the same house. we must share and participate as a family. >> is it a small idea if people want the ask that question or is that a fair question? >> it is not a small idea. it is a big idea. it is a big question. and people have a right to ask the question and they have a right to know. >> congressman john lewis, thank you very much for being with us this afternoon. >> thank you very much. >> coming up next, the etch e sketch candidate breaks out his

white board. stay with us. >> excuse me. well, let's see. there we go. by $716 billion. my cut hurt! mine hurt more! mine stopped hurting faster... [ female announcer ] neosporin® plus pain relief starts relieving pain faster and kills more types of infectious bacteria. neosporin® plus pain relief. for a two dollar coupon, visit neosporin.com. neosporin® plus pain relief. an intense burning sensation i woke up with this horrible rash on my right side. like somebody had set it on fire. and the doctor said, cindie, you have shingles. he said, you had chickenpox when you were a little girl... i said, yes, i did. i don't think anybody ever thinks they're going to get shingles. but it happened to me. for more of the inside story, visit shinglesinfo.com

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but i want to bring you much clarity, very small chart here which will dwib the differences for the respective plans for medicare. very complicated program.

the problem, this ceo's presentation didn't have a number or detail from the plan despite the set-up you're watching. still, we can all rest easy k w knowing his idea for saving medicare is the best. why? because he said so. jared bernstein is an msnbc contributor and former chief economist and policy adviser to vice president biden and bill burton is cofounder of priorities usa action. okay, jared, we are going to have fun with numbers and i've actually got props today. >> oh, good. >> so, just in case you missed it, this is the kind of outline that governor romney did or i should say the detail that he wanted to give if american people so they would rest assured about what the differences in the plan are. now, jared, i mean, can you really explain something as complicated as medicare with on

a white board? >> not like that. there's pretty big gap between simple, clarity and on skags and i think we're in the latter category here. actually, this isn't all that complicated. i think that governor romney, he's trying to distance himself not only from the savings that president obama generates in medicare through the affordable care act, but also through paul ryan, who has precisely the same cuts in his budget. here's the the thing. that's $716 billion of cuts in medicare don't affect beneficiaries at all. in fact, the benefits of medicare improve under the affordable care act. benefits that would be taken away by repealing that act. what those cuts get rid of is inefficiency and waste. the medicare ak wares tell us by

getting rid of that waste and inefficiency, basically excessive payments to providers, insurance companies, stuff like that, you extend the life of the program by eight years. what i didn't see on that graph, by putting the waste back into the program, actually takes the life of the health insurance trust fund by eight years. actually reduces the life of the the trust fund by eight years, if that's what he's talking about doing. >> so, solvent is kind of a fuzzy term. all right, so you are rest assured that governor romney left little doubt that he had this problem licked. we're going to take a listen to him giving an explanation. >> as you can see, there's no change in medicare for seniors. none. under my plan. so for these down here, all right, you asked me, which of these two do you think is better? going bankrupt or being solvent? obviously, being solvent.

>> that's it, right? game over. let's go home. he said it's solvent. you saw him point to it on the white board. >> i think he could have done this in a very simple way. much in the same way he's got the boxes. on the top, current seniors, he could have said taxes go up under romney. under feature senior, he could have said medicare devastated. now, the reason that the numbers never add up for mitt romney is because he is so focused on getting tax, more tax cuts to the wealthiest americans that the deficit and debt will never be taken care of and so, all these numbers are all fuzzy at best. fake more likely. because he's so wedded to these tax cuts for the wealthy. >> you do note that you can erase stuff on that board pretty easily. so, jared, romney basically says he's going to get federal spending below 20% of gdp in just about four years with at least 4% of that for defense. not considering they haven't run

the numbers and should be a question mark somewhere on that white board, right? >> right, now, if i had my own and i show you that 20% minus four for defense leaves you 16% of gdp, now, we've crunched the numbers at the center for budget and policy priorities. i encourage you to go to the site and find them. these numbers imply that if romney wants to cut spending that deeply and at the same time as bill correctly mentioned, lavish trillions of dollars on tax cuts beyond the bush tax cuts, which he makes permanent, he's going to have to cut the heck out of medicare and our estimate is over ten years, we're looking at a $2 trillion cut in medicare. well beyond this 716 he's getting all over the president for. and so, it is "true blood"ly

very hip very hypocritical stuff. >> as mitt romney was criticizing president obama, he thought that the way to be presidential was on a white board to explain one of the most important programs in our country? think about it. what are the optics of that? >> i would have loved to have seen that conversation. you know what we really need is a white board. >> a powerpoint presentation. >> too fan say. >> that's not presidential. >> well, i think you have to question is optics of it. i understand it was very artsy on tv, but back to one thing jared said. also an issue here is if you try to run the the the numbers where everything adds up under the romney plan, you look at what happens to education. you look at what happens to taxes for middle class families. what happens to things like the nih and medical verge and you've got a vastly different federal government that is really part of the middle class instead of things it should be doing. >> nonpartisan budget crunchers

have shown that bill is right. middle class and lower income folks go up under romney's plan. by the way, i heard yesterday was your birthday, so happy birthday. >> bill and jared, thanks so much and stay tuned. we'll be right back. allen, erin and erin are the driving force behind stripes, the new york based business. they say the key to their success is not changing how their product is made. they bake and pack the same way it has been done for nearly a century. xñ brave knights!

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white house. that was some, seemed like jay was having a little fun with that. do i detect a little swagger from the white house? >> reporter: i think that's absolutely right. good afternoon to you, karen. a little bit of swagger coming from jay carney, pointing to the fact that at least on the campaign trail, president obama accord tog carney, has been focused on some of those bigger policy issues. in iowa this week, he emphasized the importance of passinged abo i think what some are questioning the obama team about are some of the ads coming from the campaign trying to paint romney as an out of touch business person and also, that priorities usa add which seemed to link romney to the death of one of romney's -- the wife of one of romney's former employees. that's what some people have taken issue with and the concern for president obama is that his likability ratings are quite high right now. if the negative tone of this campaign continues, some say

that's what could be at risk here. >> the other thing that has been buzzing around, john mccain and sarah palin agree on something. whether or not biden is going to be taken off the ticket. >> reporter: talk about swagger, i think carney tried to put that issue to bed. he basically said that vice president biden will be on the ticket, case closed. he also took a bit of a swipe at john mccain saying that he wouldn't take advice from john mccain about picking a vice presidential nominee. this is of course, yes, this is questions that have been swirling around this campaign for the past year, really. will joe biden be on the ticket. today, carney pretty definitively said yes. >> thanks very much and stay with us. the day's top lines are coming up. [ female announcer ] did you know the average person smiles more than 50 times a day? so brighten your smile a healthy way with listerine® whitening plus restoring rinse. it's the only rinse that makes your teeth

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outrage, here are today's top lines. >> i want to walk in on you, but we haven't run the numbers on that specific plan. >> i prepared a small chart here. >> aoebb. >> which do you think the better? going bankrupt or solid? >> i like that. i don't know. >> did my professor say good things about me? we need beer no doers. >> it's just like your opinion. >> the fascination with taxes i paid i find to be very small minded. >> there's no whining in politics. >> mr. president, take your campaign of division and anger and hate back to chicago. >> i find it helps not to frame a plea for national unity by insulting a major city. >> personal attacks athat i thik

is unbecoming of the presidency. >> and lets you focus on the positive, for instance, that barack obama is a communist. that he hates freedom and favors satan. >> really any moral high ground -- >> every time this president goes into class warfare mode, he moves into this drawl. where did he pick up the drawl? southern hawaii, southern chicago, southern bronx or southern indonesia. >> i can't think of one prominent republican who talks the way they talk. >> does the lake behind you have reflective properties? >> cocaine snorting and what he ain't, fido. >> him, her. >> that's so classy. let's get right to our panels. all winners. i promise. steve kornacki, host of "the cycle," hogan, and maria teresa

kumar. hogan, i want to start with you. >> of course. >> won't start out easy on you. it seems to me like this is an attempt, we've seen the polls. president obama's likability numbers are pretty high. we've seen governor romney taking a hit in the polls. a bit over the last few weeks in terms of his likability, so you know, it seems what we're really seeing here is an attempt to try to go after president obama's numbers. decrease, go after his character. get these likability numbers down. at a time when we're heading into the rnc convention, so what is it that governor romney is going to do to try to refute this image of him as somebody who's out of touch and try to get people as sally field would say, like him? >> right. well, you know, i think right now, i think one of mitt

romney's predominant problems is just personal. where as i think obama's problem of likability at this point is is political. it's what he's been able to do in his office. those are the two differences between the two. as we move into the convention time, i think it's going to be very important for governor romney to put up some of those governors in republican states and he will. you've seen the list and thai going to get out there and talk about how great republicans are at the local level and how we govern better than democrats and it's going to lend itself to what romney's saying that this is a choice election. but after all that policy information, they're going to slide in all those great videos of mitt romney with his family and talk about what a great family man he is and what a wonderful husband he is, a wonderful father and i don't think anyone on this panel would disagree that both barack obama and mitt romney are great parents. they're great husbands to their wives. that's pretty much known. what i think we want to do, what the republicans want to do with

the romney campaign is get them on equal footing where they say both these guys are good. good men. that's what we want to start from, all things being equal, then focus on policy. i don't know that we can accomplish it. >> the he's a good man language has kind of dropped from mitt romney's lexicon in the last few days and not taken on the birthers or calling him a loser. that's not exactly, that's a top surrogate. that's not exactly that kind of talk that you are saying and the the other thing that strikes me, how many times can you resubstance abur bit of information in terms of your bio? we know governor romney's story. people have plenty of time to be introduced to the candidates. >> i think there is a better chance that mitt romney can bring his own favorable numbers up than bring barack obama's

down. i think the risk is that in trying to bring obama's numbers down, he's going to make his own problem with his own numbers even worse. i think the basic problem, when you're going after obama, what they seem to have decided to do, look, this stuff has been used against obama by conservatives and commentators for four and a half years now. just a moment he basically beat clinton in 2008, jeremiah wright, all sorts of conspiracy theorys. it hasn't registered throughout the presidency. i don't think it's going to start clicking in with swing voters now that we don't like this guy after all. that's not where the republicans are going to win this election. the better thing they can do here is try to have one, really kind of rediscovered clinton at the convention. try to anchor that with romney and bring his numbers up. >> maria, governor romney was asked about these polls today and his response that he was disturbeded about this devicive tone of the campaign, but then

just a minute earlier, he said basically anyone asking about his tax returns was small minded. can you hear the irony? >> we haven't had the most -- since the tea party and his running mate, paul ryan, part of the head of the tea party. he brought someone who's actually promoting as a tea party member and did it on a national stage. and i think when we start talking about these polls of likability, what we're really seeing is are they trustworthy. it's often a proxy for do i trust them and our voters going into booth, do i trust for mitt romney to make sure they're not only safeguarding my values, but the country. >> hogan, today as part of his surprise press conference, governor romney used a dry erase board. you know, with the sleeves rolled up. there he is, kind of in a

backyard. is that an attempt to try to look a little more folksy? i thought it was odd, but is that what they were going for? trying to make him kind of man of the people. i'm just going to write it out for you? >> i'm not sure. from a television standpoint, the optics were a little bit odd because it was tough to see what he was actually writing and talking about medicare, it's such a complex issue. it requires a whole lot more time, energy and space, quite frankly than a white board, however, what he did do that i think was important was that he tried to let people know, simply put, in this complicated issue, obama takes 716 billion out. i kept it the way it was. now, we can argue whether that's right or wrong all day. my point is that he tried to make the issue simple and show people this is where i am and this is where obama is. i don't know it translated that well with the sleeves rolled up

at the white board as the backdrop, but that's what he was trying to do and i think he did a good job. >> this was a surprise press conference or availability is the term. the airport, kind of thrown together. i mean, that suggests to me a concern that things were kind of getting out of control and needed to try to reign it back in. >> i honestly had the impression that the romney campaign has to make it up as they go along. they pick paul ryan, okay, the the play here is they think this is a bold move that will translate as courage. the truth teller. leadership, that kind of thing. he's going to take his plan, run on it. obviously, democrats were excited, but it looked like that was the play for romney. what they've realized almost immediately is okay, no, we're going to have ryan on ticket, but can't be associated with ryan. with medicare. with the budget. >> should have thought of that before they -- >> i'm baffle d because he is

nothing without his budget. there's romney trying to say no, it's this. >> so sorry we're going to have to leave it there. hogan, maria and steve, thanks so much. stay with us. there is much more ahead. ahh, now that's a clean mouth. i wish i could keep it this way. [ dr. rahmany ] you see, even after a dental cleaning... plaque quickly starts to grow back. but new crest pro-health clinical plaque control toothpaste can help. it not only reduces plaque... it's also clinically proven... to help keep plaque from coming back. plus, it works in these other areas dentists check most. ♪ new crest pro-health clinical plaque control toothpaste. life opens up when you do. for extra plaque protection try new crest pro-health clinical rinse.

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wanted to provide better employee benefits while balancing the company's bottom line, their very first word was... [ to the tune of "lullaby and good night" ] ♪ af-lac ♪ aflac [ male announcer ] find out more at... [ duck ] aflac! [ male announcer ] ...forbusiness.com. [ yawning sound ] you'd think mitt and ann romney by now would be used to getting asked about those pesky tax returns. they just cannot understand the obsession. even today, governor romney was having none of it. i'm joined by joan walsh, author of a new book, "what's the matter with white people" and ari melbourne, msnbc contributor. it strikes me, like they cannot seem to get ahead of this and

yet, if you're not going to release the tax returns, just be prepared for the fact you're going to keep getting asked the question and yet, they keep focusing on -- an interview with ann romney, it's legal. that's not what we're talking about. >> that's never been the issue. people wabt to know what's in it. the rates they paid. where the money is. people want to know how they're giving money to their kids. she just strikes me, comes off, i'm sure she's a wonderful woman. every time she talks about this issue, she just seems like lady romney. she's so entitled that she thinks she doesn't have to share these details with the little people. >> i think that's part of the problem, that their attitudes, they're not accountable. why should they have to give you that information? in a corporate world, that's fine, but when you're actually running for public office.

when governor romney said these questions are small minded, despite the fact, ari that polls are showing that a majority of americans, including republicans, think this is an important question of wanting him to release the tax returns. >> right. i think it is past the tipping point where you don't have to convince people anymore that this is relevant. i think people know he is hiding. there's a reason why george will and republican members of congress have said release them. it's because they've actually calculated something that the campaign has not. that this level of secrecy makes you look worse than what's in the returns. we don't know. t hard to do the job of journalism when you don't get the results. >> i'll put this to both of you having worked with smart people with their own. s there was a conversation with the candidate and his wife, staff people said we've got to

do this. they said no, we're not going to do it. having been in that position, you know you then just have to suffer and deal with it. seems like that's almost the situation they're in. >> i have so assume so. you would think their staffers would have told them literally years ago. it's amazing that it didn't come up in 2008. but our country is in a different place around the issues. but at this point, it have going to come up. they need to have a strategy. the strategy is you people don't deserve the know the details. >> ari, one of the things ann romney talked about is the blind trust. we've heard governor romney talk about his thoughts on the blind trust, but interestingly enough, her blind trust invested $10 million in tag romney's company. did we really think nobody knew anything about anything?

>> i think this trust may have been legally blind, but still, the neighborhood -- the "vanity fair" article was very clear. when you have a blind trust, the whole point -- that they exercise all financial decisions without your input. that means there's no nodding and winking. they maintain this was completely blind, but somehow, it randomly chose to invest something on the order of $10 million in one of their sons -- >> happened to happen. >> hedge funds. this is not believable and that is a problem for them that again, goes back to well, if you had all the documents, you could say look, this is how this decision was made. we've provided to you, but they haven't. there is a burden of proof problem here where it shifts away from the press and away from their political opponents and back on them because it doesn't look that blind. >> let's listen to ann romney. this is from the interview that

will be on tonight. >> there's nothing we're hiding. you know, we've had a blind trust for how many years. we don't even know what's in there. it's been manage d by blind trusts since before mitt was governor. 2002. forward. and so, you know, i'll be curious to see what's in there, too. >> i think curiosity kill eed t cat at some point. to some degree, again and again in this campaign, the answer is just trust us. when mitt romney was trying to ek plain today a explain about his plan for medicare, it was just solvent. we haven't run the numbers, but just trust us. at some point, that's just not going to work. >> it's very spectacular when you think about it. another thing ann romney said, if you put this out there, you guys are just going to tear us

to bits. attack us. it's the same thing that mitt romney has said about why he won't really detail his plan. oh, i'm not going to talk about the cabinet departments i might be eliminating because you guys would really jump all over me. you might not like what i'm going to do. you might exercise your right as voters to eject me, so i won't tell you my plans until i'm elected. >> joan walsh, ari melbourne, thanks so much for joining us today. you can catch the full ann romney interview tonight at nbc's "rock center" and we'll be right back. so you brushed with colgate total and you didn't. let's compare. germ party! eww! now the colgate total mouth. nice! [ female announcer ] colgate total fights 90% more plaque germs. i'm in. [ female announcer ] colgate total. less germs. healthier mouth.

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it's another day and another big line from the vast right wing conspiracy. now, this time, it's called a so-called social welfare group. it has a new video out today futuring former intelligence officers who accuse the president of leaking actual security secret and taking too

much credit for the killing of osama bin laden. but voters should not be fooled because we have seen this before. back in 2004, when republicans lied about john kerry's service in vietnam and the goal then is the same as now. attack your opponent's strongest asset cht in this case, the killing of osama bin laden and then repeat that lie over and over and over again. shows me that republicans are panic stricken because they know they are losing the election and are desperate to try to change the subject. joining me now, dana milbank of "the washington post" live from the nation's capitol and from philadelphia, we're joined by msnbc political analyst and former pennsylvania governor, ed rendell. thanks, gentlemen, for joining us. >> hi, karen. >> i want to start with the idea that this group is a, they would say nonpartisan and that they're a social welfare group. that just does not stand up to

any kind of scrutiny, right? >> right, like they're handing out clothing and food to the poor. something like that. no, of course not. i don't think anybody's fooled by this. there's been this proliferation of groups on both sides and i think they want both sides are trying to deny association with this while benefitting from their accusations. let's think about this one in particular. every time these guys air this video or put money into ads, they're reminding everybody, oh, yeah, it was president obama that killed osama bin laden. let's have that said over and over and over again and whether he took too much credit for it, i think that's a charge that the obama campaign is willing to live with. >> and actually, governor, i want to play to that point, i want to play something from admiral william mccraven. he oversaw the bin laden raid and this is what he had to say about the president. >> but at the end of the day, make no mistake abt, it wabout

it was the president of the united states that shouldered the burden for this operation, that made the hard decisions, that was instrumental in the planning process because i pitched every plan to him. >> so, governor, people got a choice, right? they can believe admiral mccraven or this republican operative propaganda group. who do you believe? >> well, this campaign just getting stupider and stupider. they should title this campaign dumber and dumber. but this is particularly, number one, as dana says, bring up the killing of osama bin laden as many times as you want. i don't care what you say about it, but remind the american people that that achievement, that was done on president obama's watch. number one, number two, all you have to do to refute all of this is just look in the camera and say folks, if the raid to kill osama bin laden had failed and five or six navy s.e.a.l.s got

killed, who would have gotten bramed f blamed? >> he said this was something he would do, so again, you talked about doing this and got it done. and it seemed very clear that the real goal of this ad is very specifically to attack his character because in the ad, they don't just say that he took too much credit. the the assumption, this assertion there is how dare you take any credit. that's where i feel like this ad just goes way across the line. >> of course it does, but it's stupid. brings up one of the great moments of the term. president obama, number one. number two, is where he showed undoubted courage. we know what happened to jimmy carter. in many way, he lost his re-election bid when those helicopters went down. it took a lot of courage to do. he's willing to take risks. not just for his own benefit,

but for the benefit of the american people and he's willing to risk his own political cabinet to do so. i think that's been a common theme. auto bailout, everyone hated him at the time. very risky for him to support. financial bailout. health care. his own people said go slow, but he understood if he was going to get health care for 31 million people, he had to move, so he's been courageous and you want to play that game in the battlefield, we'll win every single time. >> dana, that mitt romney sort of in losing a battleship as a backdrop, but he's never served on one nor has his running mate and outside of outspending the prime minister of the u.k., he has not made much of a mark on

foreign policy. this ait can isn't just going after his strengths, it's also about compensating for his weaknesses. i'm sorry, but we have to leave it there. coming up on "hardball," chris matthews explores the ryan effect. that's just minutes away cht whoooa i'm in a river. what are some good kayaking words? like...rapids? look, i'm going through the rapids. ok. i'll take it. new offers in new places so you can try new things. sync your american express card with facebook, foursquare, and twitter to find savings. that's the membership effect of american express. mine hurt more! mine stopped hurting faster... [ female announcer ] neosporin® plus pain relief starts relieving pain faster and kills more types of infectious bacteria. neosporin® plus pain relief. for a two dollar coupon, visit neosporin.com.

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