oesn't mean our job is done. we're still committed to seeing this through. good morning. i'm chris jansing. republican congressmen in controversy from skinny-dipping to comments about rape. mitt romney and barack obama wanted to get back to talking about medicare, but they will almost surely get asked about these comments. the comments coming from todd akin. the missouri congressman was leading senator claire mchaskell in the polls, but yesterday he was asked if abortion should be legal in cases of rape. >> it seems to me, first of all, from what i understand from doctors, that's really rare. if it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down, but let's assume that maybe that didn't work or something. you know, i think there should be some punishment, but the

punishment ought to be on the rapist and not attacking the child. >> well, akin quickly tweeted that he misspoke, and then just hours later another controversy broke out. kansas congressman kevin yoder admits he took off his clothes and swam naked in the sea of galilee during a congressional fact-finding mission to israel. politico reports that five other freshmen republicans joined in the swim. the rest had at least some of their clothes on. the whole thing went down in front of family members as well as some of those members of congress, and they all apparently got a good dressing down from house majority leader eric cantor. yoder has apologized to the people of kansas. let me bring in ben labolt, the obama campaign national press secretary. good morning. >> good morning, chris. thanks for having me. >> i think you know republicans are saying already this is just distracting from the real issue, which is that the economy is bad, unemployment 8.2%, the cover story in "newsweek" i'm sure you saw it, ben, obama has to go. no matter what happens, all these other issues that are out there, do you think ultimately people are going to vote based

on how the president has handled the economy? >> we do think the top line economic xhois between who is building the economy from the middle class out and who believes we should build it from the top down will provide us with a decisive edge in november, but i don't think there's any doubt that congressman akin's comments were both appalling and offensive, and the broader debate in the republican party has been having over women's issues, it sounds like something we would have heard 50 years ago. there's a policy dimension to this issue. congressman ryan has sponsored legislation with congressman akin to narrow the definition of rape. both governor romney and congressman ryan have endorsed the personhood amendment and human life amendments which would ban abortion in all forms, including rape or incest, and some forms of birth control, so i do think that women across the country will care about these issues in november, and, obviously, the economic issues will be at the front of

everyone's minds as well. >> do you think the republicans in general, mitt romney in particular, should ask him to get off the ballot and have someone else run against claire mchaskell? >> i think ultimately, you know, senator mchaskell said that's a decision for the people of missouri. there's no doubt that when voters go to the polls in november they'll have this on the top of their minds, and they can make that decision. >> what are the things that romney-ryan will be talking about today in new hampshire? it's medicare. there's a new attack ad out today talking about the president and welfare reform. let me play a clip of that, ben, and i'll get your response on the other side. >> since 1996 welfare recipients were required to work. this bipartisan reform successfully reduced welfare roles. on july 12th president obama quietly ended the work requirement, gutting welfare reform. >> is that fair? >> absolutely not. listen, president clinton has said that these attacks are false. the republican co-author of

welfare reform has said they're false. governor romney knows they're false. the entire purpose of this initiative was to allow states to move more people from welfare to work. they've got to demonstrate that they can move 20% more people from welfare to work in order for the administration to allow them to move forward. these are as false as the medicare attack that is governor romney and congressman ryan have been talking about. congressman ryan kept the same $700 billion in savings in his budget plan as the one that the president proposed in the past. >> make sure people know what you are referencing there, which is that what the republicans have said is that he has taken -- the president has decided take money to pay for the health care reform, taken it out of medicare, $700 billion, and their question is that what you want? as you know, their point has been that the health care reform is something that the taxpayers cannot afford, so now just with that as a back drop, let me ask you is he right about that?

>> absolutely not. listen, the savings that was identified in the program were unnecessary subsidies to insurance companies, waste and fraud within the system. this doesn't cut benefits for seniors. it enhances benefits for seniors. puts those savings back in the program to extend the life of medicare. to get rid of the prescription drug donut hole so senior kz save on their drugs each year and provide them free access to preventive services. if governor romney and congressman ryan would have their way. medicare would go bankrupt by the end of their first term. the prescription drug donut hole would go back in the program charging seniors $600 more out of pocket, and once they fully implement their initiative, it would be the end of medicare as we know it and it would turn into a voucher program and cost seniors $6,400 more out of pocket each year. >> you know, it's interesting to me because medicare is something that usually neither side wants to talk about. you don't want to mess with this -- this is a popular program. it is also a very expensive

program that i think a lot of republicans would say, look, you've got to take a look at everything if you are going to really be serious about looking at the deficit. in the end in the big picture, ben, where do you think, if any states, that this might really make a difference? is this a debate that's going to resonate in a significant way? >> well, i think this is a long-time social contract that we've had with our seniors, and it's something that helps keep them out of poverty and to provide for them, and i think across demographics people are going to be concerned about this. particularly if you are a caretaker for a parent who is going to be on medicare. you could be responsible for that $6,400 in additional health care costs each year. in terms of the sole vensy of the program, the president hasn't just talked. he has taken action. the affordable care acts extends the lifetime of medicare by eight years. he has identified additional savings within medicare and medicaid to extend its lifetime by another two years. again, medicare would go bankrupt by the end of governor romney and congressman ryan's

first term under their plan. >> ben labolt, i understand you were asked what you wanted for your birthday. you said i couldn't think of a better way to start it than by going on chris jansing. happy birthday, and thank you for coming on. >> let me get barbara comstocker, virginia co-chair, a chance to talk about all of these issues. it's good to see you, barbara. good morning. >> good to be with you. >> let's start with medicare. there's a big crowd gathered in new hampshire to see the governor and his running mate, paul ryan, and there is this debate ongoing about medicare. you've heard what ben labolt just said that medicare would go bankrupt under the republican plan and, in fact, that the statements that they're making about the money from -- for medicare are patently false. your response? >> i obviously disagree. his statements are false, and we've had a very good discussion all of last week. you saw congressman paul ryan in florida with a large group of

seniors who were having a very intelligent discussion. paul ryan's mom was there, who is on medicare. you know, a lot of us actually have parents who are on medicare. we're very concerned about preserving it and protecting it, and then protecting it for the next generation because our parents also want to see this program be protected, but what the romney-ryan plan does is they're going to repeal obama-care and take -- and not going to allow that $719 billion to be taken out of medicare and then the way they get those so-called savings that ben just talked about is they have the 15-person unelected board that's going to decide what seniors sdsh current seniors who have medicare right now who paid into the system with their taxes for years, they're going to have limited ability to get certain procedures according to this 15-person board that has not been transparent. we don't know what this board is deciding. they're having these different meetings. you know, the president said he would have these things on

c-span, and they're not. that 15-person board is going to determine the savings and the lives of a lot of people. that is a cut out of current seniors' medicare, the $719 billion, to put it into obama-care. instead, what the romney-ryan plan does is it's going to repeal and replace obama-care, and we're going to look at reforming medicare for younger workers. if you're 55 and older, we are not going to touch medicare. we are going to protect it and make sure you get everything you paid into and all of the things that you have been promised and you depend on. for the younger workers, you still can get traditional medicare if that is what you choose, but if you like to choose a different plan the way federal employees do -- when i was a federal employee, i could choose among a number of plans. we want to introduce choice for younger workers, and if you don't like a plan one year, you switch it the next year. >> let me ask you about the other stories that are in the news, and i appreciate your -- >> these are the high-minded

discussions that we're happy to have. you have seen governor romney and paul ryan have said we welcome this debate. we want to have it because it's very central to the economy and jobs. we have got to have growth in jobs, and if we gut medicare, if we don't protect the safety net, it is going to be very difficult for us to focus on jobs the way we want to, and that's the number one issue for people is to get this economy moving again, to get turn-around of the unemployment. you see the jobs reports every week are horrible, and they don't want to talk about that. ben labolt didn't want to say one thing about jobs because the record is total failure, and they don't want to talk about the economy. they distract on everything else. >> well, i don't know that they are the distraction. it seems to me that a couple of members of congress have provided some distractions that you certainly would prefer to not to have had. a few hours after the akin story broke, the barack obama account set out a tweet with this picture saying retweet this if you stand for women.

they, meaning the romney campaign, want to take us back to policies that are more suited to the 1950s. the obama campaign has been playing to women voters. is this a serious problem for you, and do you believe the governor should or will ask for congressman akin to step down from his campaign against claire mchaskell? >> well, governor romney and the romney campaign have already said these statements were inappropriate, and they don't agree with them at all. they are inappropriate and already congressman akin himself has retracted them. i think when women look at this economy, women in poverty, 15%. >> he apologized, which a lot of people are noted. he sen out a statement and a tweet, and at no time did he say that he was sorry. he did not apologize for his comments. >> listen, congressman akin is going to have to deal with that, but on the romney campaign, what we're dealing with is getting women back to work, protecting women's jobs. women are -- >> but aren't his -- >> women are in poverty in 15%. i know that the obama campaign -- >> aren't his comments similar

to paul ryan, and they were co-sponsors of a bill that would have redefined rape? >> no, not at all. as governor romney and paul ryan have said, they support having an exception on rape and incest and that's been the position of george w. bush and, you know, presidents back. >> that has not always been the position of paul ryan. the position of paul ryan -- and i tried to research this extensively this morning. he very clearly has said in the past that he believed when the mother's life is in danger there should be an exception. i could not find any instance of him saying that in cases of rape there should be an exception. i saw that as a statement now from the campaign. >> well, and right now the federal law that republicans have kept in place for years allows for funding. not for abortion in the cases of rape and incest. i think the obama campaign is trying to change the subject are once again from the economy. you know, women are being hurt 401,000 women have lost their

jobs under barack obama. you have 15% in poverty women right now. women and children are the ones hurt most by a bad economy. >> barbara comstock, i have to let that be the last word. thank you for coming on. we do appreciate it. >> thank you. >> i want to bring in erin karmone who has written about women's issues for salon.com. how much is this going to resonate, do you think? there's certainly a lot of commentary out there on social media. >> absolutely. you saw yesterday twitter was blowing up over this, and i think one of the reasons it's really going to resonate is because as you pointed out, this is incredibly consistent with the presidential ticket that we have right now. there is no daylight between paul ryan's views and todd akin's views. the only thing that happened is that todd akin expressed this in a particularly sort of biologically ignorant false way, but these have actually policy implications and i think once people realize this is not just about point scoring or, you know, made up biology, this is

also about women's access to health care, then it's going to resonate because they want to, you know, ban the morning after pill. they want to ban abortion in all circumstances. once people understand that this is not just rhetoric and this is real policy, it will resonate. >> this points out why the democrats and also claire mchaskell herself puts some effort and some money behind akin's campaign. i mean, he was in a tough primary. it wasn't a particularly close race. maybe because they thought either he would say something like this or at least we would see these kinds of statements come out. we have a system, frankly, where -- don't we -- it seems like the most conservative republican in a primary race is most likely to win. >> again, i think todd akin doesn't -- although he expressed himself inelegantly and it seems like abstinence only education is not working very well for republicans, there is not a substantive difference between paul ryan's position and todd akin's position, and, in fact, todd akin as a member of congress, the house of representatives ever since it

was taken over by republicans job number one has been legislating women's reproductive rights. >> let me play for you some sound because senator claire mchaskell was on "morning joe" today. here's what she had to say about the controversy. >> he may be acting like he is back track, but he didn't say he was wrong. all he said was he now is acknowledging that someone can become pregnant when they are raped. he hasn't said that's a wrong statement. he hasn't apologized for that statement. >> how much doeshis reignite the war on women? how much of a gift to the democrats? >> i always think it's a gift when someone says exactly what they believe. for the longest time people have been cloaking their contempt for women and their contempt for science in things like we're protecting women, we love babies. this is ain a moment where you see what do they believe about women and they believe that women lie about rape, women don't have a right to their own bodies. all we have to do is listen to what they're actually telling and yous what policies they're trying to pass. >> erin, thank you for coming on. really appreciate it. a senior advisor now says

governor romney will release his 2011 taxes on or before the august 15th extension deadline. late friday you may recall congressman ryan released his returns for the past couple of years. he paid almost 16% in taxes in 2010. 20% in 2011. the sweet reward, making a delicious choice that's also a smart choice. splenda no-calorie sweetener. with the original sugar-like taste you love and trust. splenda makes the moment yours. for a golf getaway. double miles you can actually use... but mr. single miles can't join his friends because he's getting hit with blackouts. shame on you. now he's stuck in a miniature nightmare. oh, thank you. but, with the capital one venture card... you can fly any airline, any flight, any time. double miles you can actually use. what's in your wallet? alec jr? it was a gift.

mccaskill.

paul ryan being forced defend his own record on a key point of the president's economic record, the stimulus. ryan was a staunch opponent of the obama stimulus, but he supported president george w. bush's 2002 stimulus plan. take a look at this clip from 2002. >> what we are trying to accomplish today with the passage of this third stimulus package is to create jobs and help the unemployed. i urge members to drop the

demagogary to help us work together to get the american people back to work and help those people who have lost their jobs. >> and while ryan opposed the obama stimulus, as we said, turns out his office actually requested money from the stimulus for his district and secured more than $20 million for one wisconsin company. i'm joined now by washington post columnist and policy analyst for msnbc, ezra cline. good morning. >> good morning, chris. >> we asked paul ryan for an explanation of his support for the bush stimulus, and a spokesman says, "these two bills took completely different approaches to spur growth. the 2002 legislation was a package of targeted pro-growth tax measures, whereas the president's so-called stimulus bill was a massive ineffective spending binge that has left americans asking where are the jobs?" >> that's a funny -- that's actually a very funny explanation to give, and here's why. when he said that was our third stimulus measure, he is referring to a set of bush tax

cuts. that's the second round of bush tax cuts. the first one was in 2001. originally the bush tax cuts were built not for a recession, not as a stimulus measure. they were built for a surplus. they were built as a kind of long-term policy, and then when bush came into office, when he was inaugurated the economy began deteriorate and we began entering the 2001 recession, and all of a sudden everybody on the republican side, their justification for this exact same set of tax cuts flipped, and suddenly these tax cuts were a stimulus measure, not a long-term growth measure, or at least they were both at once, and this, i think, is where much more so than when ryan's office requesting funds, you see not just a kind of hypocrisy but a deep shift in position that is not been by evidence. >> let me talk about the evidence. >> what do we know about what the bush stimulus produced and what the obama stimulus produced. >> the bush stimulus was a very, very weak recovery, but it's very tough to compare them because, number one, that's a very ineffective kind of stimulus. all the evidence we have on

stimulus is that when you give tax cuts to higher income folks, it doesn't have a quick effect on the economy, and the reason, of course, because and they save month money money. people trying to make ends meet, they spend it immediately. that's what stimulus is. spending money quickly. what we know about it on the obama side is it appears to have worked. they made bad estimates in the beginning of how bad the recession would be, but insofar as how the stimulus went, there's been a fairly large effect. what ryan says here, at one point ryan believed that deficit financed tax-based stimulus works, and over the last two years obama has been trying to pass this as a way to compromise with republicans a series of wide targeted deficit financed tax-based stimulus policies, and ryan has derided those exact tax policies as sugar high economics. he said they don't work. it's not just the 2009 stimulus. ryan has since then opposed tax cut-based stimulus. it is much more targeted than

what was in the 2001 and 2003 bush packages. >> let me ask you quickly about this other issue because he denied seeking the obama stimulus money for his district, but then he talked to his staff and it turned out that he had signed off on the request. "my office sends tens of thousands of letters to several various agencies. this went through what we call my case work system where it was treated as a case work request for constituents. i take full responsibility for it. it wasn't my intention to send letters supporting stimulus, but this doesn't change the fact that the stimulus was a bomb. it didn't work. it was a boondoggle." did that explanation work? >> i think the first half of it is fine. i don't see it as completely plausible that it went through the constituent side of his office. evidence comes out saying the opposite, i'll take that as it comes. that part is fine. the second part that stimulus doesn't work is belied by the evidence we've done. we've had a full review of all 16 serious studies done of these stimulus, of the 2009 stimulus.

we found that all but two found a plausible effect for it, and when you build a bridge, when you give a tax cut, you have to be part of a marginal economic they're yes to think these things don't help jobs, and paul ryan back when there was a republican president, did not subscribe to that. >> thank you. good to see you, my friend. we'll be right back. [ mrs. hutchison ] friday night has always been all fun and games here at the hutchison household. but one dark stormy evening...

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>> i'm just saying i wonder if he has the kind of balance. probably what i should have said, you know, the balance to be president of the united states. he is a joke on late night television. i think they've also locked him in his room for the rest of the campaign. >> the obama administration granting an all access pass to the author of "moneyball" and the big short. michael lewis is working on a long form piece about leadership for ""vanity fair"." donald trump getting ready for his surprise role at the republican national convention. sources tell politico that donald is doing something on the first day. trump tweeted last week he is doing something, although now republicans are confirming it is true. what we don't know. democrats releasing their list of convention speakers. chicago mayor rom emmanuel, senator john kerry and duva will ll patrick will address the party faithful in charlotte. next hour it's the white house state dinner for kids. 54 8 to 12-year-old wills eat a healthy lunch and see a

performance by big-time rush. in just moments mitt romney and paul ryan will hold a town hall on the battleground state of new hampshire. a couple of reasons this could get very interesting. voters in that state with the first primary are known to be very knowledgeable to go get some tough questions. the republicans are going to have to explain their view on medicare. that left a lot of seniors skittish. peter alexander is traveling with the romney campaign and joins us live from manchester. what are we expecting out there, peter? >> reporter: well, chris, what you can see is a pretty energetic crowd right here in manchester, new hampshire. right now expecting so see paul ryan and mitt romney moments from now. their advisors tell us approaching 4,000 reps -- more than 4,000 people here, and with one week to go until the start of the republican national convention, this event saz much about building energy as anything else. they brought the two candidates together today in an effort to try to find that personal chemistry again. when they were together last weekend in virginia and north carolina, can you see how big

the crowds were. then they separated. romney's crowds weren't as energetic or as big. this is the scene that you'll likely play out on web ads or commercials leading up to the convention. there are two film crews here, and a lot of production value already behind us. chris. >> all right. thank you. nbc's peter alexander. as we wait for that to start, let's bring in republican strategyist gist chip staltsman, and chris cafinas. chip, let me start with you. talk about changing that popular program. ooshlly it's avoided by presidential candidates, but the selection of paul ryan, i think, pretty much made sure that this was going to be part of a conversation, but is that a conversation republicans want to have? >> i think they're absolutely excited to have it. we want to have this conversation. you know, when we talked about these programs intooilgts entitlement programs 20 years ago, they go bankrupt in 2050 or 2045. where he we never thought it would happen in our lifetime.

now they're going to go broke in eight years. now they're going to go broke in ten years. i think the fact that mitt romney was willing to put this front and center means that he is very serious about getting this economy back going again and to get the deficit under control. the president is gutting medicare in order to pay for what they call obama care. is this a conversation the democrats want to have? >> i think it's a great conversation for democrats. i mean, here's the problem i think with romney and ryan. their ticket suffers from pathological hypocrisy. whether you are talking about medicare or whether you are talking about stimulus, which you now learn that ryan once opposed and then he supported. you know, whether you are talking about the deficit and the debt, their numbers don't add up, and they say one other thing. on medicare the very cuts that are attacking the president on, are the cuts that were in the ryan budget. if that's not hypocrisy, i'm want sure what is, and i think the problem they have is trying

to explain such a fundamental restructuring of the program that is so vital to seniors. and that i think is difficult you should the best of circumstances, but no one is going to trust a ticket that goes out there and talks about how they're going to save medicare when they're basically going to gut it because once you go to a privateized system, even if it's for 55 years old and younger, what you basically are doing is saying you're on your own. once you hit 65, you're on your own. here's your voucher. go fit in the private market. that is not the purpose and the rule of medicare. it wasn't what it was designed for. it's not what the american people and seniors want. >> let's talk about what's going on right now in new hampshire, and we're going to hear some questions i have no doubt about this, chip, but we're days away. we thought that mitt romney was going to be on the campaign trail alone between last week and the convention. now his campaign is saying,

well, they like the way he is when he is with paul ryan. is this a candidate who at this stage really does need to redefine himself, who needs to be managed into a more likable form? >> well, i think mitt romney is a likable guy for those people that know him. the problem is we've gone through this process of him running for president twice. a lot of people haven't really met the real mitt romney, and i think what you see him with paul ryan, he is energize and pitd. you can see by these crowds it's obviously working. if having paul ryan with mitt romney on this campaign steps to warm the crowd up, then i'm all for it. i have been against mitt romney. i have been beaten by mitt romney. then i've met mitt romney, got to know him. he is very likable and very charismatic when you get to know him, and i think paul ryan humanizes him. >> most people don't get to meet him and shake his handshand and look him in the eye. can you sort of manage a personality, i guess, is the question? >> well, you know, certainly barack obama managed a spernlt in 2008. he was bigger than life itself. he was the superstar.

i think mitt romney does have a chance as we kind of go into the convention to kind of humanize and warm him up and tell the mitt romney story that a lot of us haven't heard yet, and once he gets a chance to do this, will he do well over the next 08 something days. >> on the converse side, there's a new e-book out, and it's really about the obama campaign now and it paints a picture that's the exact opposite of what it was in 2008, which was very disciplined, which was very focused. they're looking at a campaign where there's a lot of infighting, where there's some questions about strategy, suggesting the president is unhappy with those who are running his campaign. how much of a problem is there inside the obama campaign right now? >> i don't think there's much of a problem. listen, i think in terms of, you know, their strategy and how they have approached it, i think they've done a pretty good job. in terms of internal campaign drama, having done a few campaigns with their share of drama, a little bit of drama, it's par for the course. chip will say this. this is -- you're talking about high stakes. the incredible thing about

campaigns is you get one shot to be proven right, and that's on election day, and that's why people i think are so intense and very passionate about what should be done. >> it's one of the strengths of the obama campaign four years ago. it's disciplined, and the fact that it really did have a very focused mechanicsage, a very tightly controlled message, and are you concerned about that? if it's not working that way right now. >> the only thing i think that becomes a concern is i have never been a big fan of when staffers talk to reporters. i know this is not going to make me a friendly with reporters. basically, you know, you want to talk to reporters about the other side, what the other side is doing wrong. you never want to talk about what's going on in a family, and i think that is understandable, especially under intense environments. i don't imagine after this story you are going to see many more like this. >> chris, good to have you in new york. chip, come visit us sometime. >> we'll do it. >> look at the crowd there. tawn hall meeting to be hosted by mitt romney and paul ryan in new hampshire. they're back campaigning together after romney spent a

weekend raising a whopping $7 million in just 24 hours on the east coast. he blames the president for his time away from the campaign trail. >> that's a challenge for the president with the campaign -- you appreciate all the help you get. i appreciate the time on the campaign trail. >> joining me now john harwood, cnbc's chief washington correspondent, good to see you, john. so, you know, his point is that i have to spend so much time raising money because barack obama opted out, and so now we're all in this rat race that we have to just keep raising money, keep raising money, keep raising money. is this really significantly different than we've ever seen in the past, john? >> i do think there's more emphasis earlier on fundraising because now the limits are off and, you know, in the past you raise money for your primary campaigns, and after the convention, you've got a big check from the federal

government to cover what happened and both sides got equal amounts. you did have some outside stuff done by the parties or other groups, but i think it is much more pronounced and more of a focus and a constant focus on fundraising in presidential races as it is in house and senate races, i would say. >> do you think there's a good sense now of whether or not this is hurting them, not to be out on the campaign trail more? it's hard to see in the closing weeks of the campaign that they won't be out all the time, but i just wonder if we're going to have to wait until after for sort of a hindsight is 20-20 to figure this out, or is it hurting them already? >> i doubt it's hurting either one of them. they're advertising heavily in the states that they're contesting. that is the principal way that they are trying to move voters to rouz up their base, to persuade the undecided. they have enough media events that they're getting covered in the places where they're trying to make an impact, so, no, i don't think it's hurting either one. >> well, i guess it's a question we've asked before.

you're looking at the unprecedented amounts of money they're spending, and then let's look at the amount of money that super pacs are spending, and some time that i have spent recently in some of these big battleground states, people are sick early. they're done. they're done. they don't even want to turn on the television. i wonder if it does at some point become a question of diminishing returns if some of these, especially the key undecided voters, just say i've had muff, i don't want anything to do with it and don't go to the polls at all. >> there's no question that there's diminishing returns, and this is why matching -- having either candidate match the others' amount of money isn't necessarily the key. as long as you have enough money to get your message out to the people you're trying to reach, that's going to be sufficient. mitt romney is raising more than president obama, but he needs to raise more than president obama because he has to introduce himself, as you were just discussing with your two previous guests. there are clearly a lot of undecided voters who may decide not to show up because they're turned off, and that's part of the point.

you know, there is both a motivation of your own base aspect, and there's an attempt to suppress the other guy's vote with the messages that you are sending out. part of that is by design. >> john harwood, always good to see you. thank you. >> also making news this morning, thousands of people have evacuated their homes in northern california as a raging wildfire continues to burn out of control. almost 1,000 firefighters there are trying to protect homes and businesses. 19 square miles have been scorched just since saturday. the west has been a tinderbox. there have been evacuations in utah as well. joint chief chairman martin dempsey is in afghanistan right now talking about how to stop this recent wave of attacks against u.s. troops. ten american service members have been killed in the last two weeks by afghan police or soldiers. the united nations says all of its observers in syria are now gone. their four-month mission ended at midnight. they were supposed to be monitoring a cease-fire between the president's military forces and rebels, but they stopped in

june after coming under fire themselves. the family of hollywood direct tony scott is asking for privacy today after his apparent suicide yesterday in california. authorities say he jumped from a bridge in san pedro. a suicide note was reportedly found in his office. scott directed many blockbusters, include "top gun" and "beverly hills cop 2." he was 68 years old. as if by night, the rough storms and painful jellyfish stings, 62-year-old swimmer diana is on track to complete her record swim from cuba to florida without using a shark cage. she's expected to arrive in the keys tomorrow after leaving cuba on saturday. this is her third try to set the record just since last summer. planning to move? well, this morning "money magazine" has revealed the 100 best places in america to live. here are the top five. redman,mond, washington, followed by newton, massachusetts, eden prairie, minnesota.

number two, mckinney, texas, and, according to "money," the number one best place to live in america is carmel, indiana. they say it's got affordable homes, low taxes, a great school system, and a thriving business district. and let's take you out live now to new hampshire, and we see the arrival of mitt romney and paul ryan, and an absolutely packed crowd there. i think the estimate has been about 3,500 people. obviously this is a state that knows a lot about politics. it hosts the first in the nation primary, and these are voters who are used to having candidates around. it's an interesting place for a town hall meeting. by the way, this is town hall meeting number 100 for mitt romney. it's interesting because these are very informed voters and whether you are a republican or democrat and anybody who has run for president and spent in some time around new hampshire will tell you that as a very informed electorate, they're liable to ask some very tough questions about things that are in the

news from intemperate remarks, shall we say, by a senate candidate, about abortion and about rape to questions about medicare. we're going to take a quick break. we will be back with this live. romney and ryan at a new hampshire town hall coming up after this. people have doubts about taking aspirin for pain.

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a live picture from the quad of in manchester, new hampshire. mitt romney is there, and his running mate, paul ryan, speaking to a vowed of about 3,500. let's listen. >> that's not leadership. that's politics. we won't do that. we will lead. we want to earn your support. we want to deserve this victory so that when we do this, we have the authority and the mandate to fix this country's problems to reacquaint ourselves with the american idea and get people

back to work. let's be very clear and fair. the president inherited a difficult situation. no two ways about that. the problem is he made things worse. and that's why the president has run out of ideas, and so his campaign has now been relegated to waging a campaign based on frustration and anger. dividing people, distracting people and trying to win an election by default. of all times when we need leadership, it is now. it is such an amazing moment in history because i have rarely seen a moment where the man and the moment meet so well like mitt romney does at this moment in our history. when you think of the challenges we confront, you need a leader.

when you look at this man and his life, the example, it spells leadership. remember the olympics back in the late 1990s? all those stories at salt lake about the wasteful spending and the bloated spending and the corruption? sounds kind of familiar, doesn't it? who did they call? they called this man, mitt romney, and he went to salt lake, dropped what he was doing. he saved the olympics, and he made our country proud. look at what he has done in business. for me i think it's a good thing that we have a leader who actually knows how to create jobs. his success in business is the american dream. it's the american success story. it's the thing we want to see

happen to our own children. he took small businesses and grew them. he took struggling businesses and turned them around. an 80% success rate. that's astounding. i am proud to stand next to a man who created jobs tens of thousands of which made more prosperity, more opportunity for working americans, and i'm proud to stand with a man who from experience knows that if you have a small business, you did build that. that's what drives our economy. that's what gives us prosperity. we should be proud of that. it's who we are. when we see people work hard, take risks, achieve success, we take pride in that. we don't resent that.

it's as if the president is speaking to people like they're stick in their current station in life and only the government is here to help them cope with it. wrong. we believe in prosperity and opportunity and upward mobility. those are the things we want to see. take a look at the record, which is such a clear contrast between the record of mitt romney as a leader of the governor of massachusetts and president obama. remember when the president said when he came in office he would create jobs. unemployment would never get above 8%. it's been above 8% for 42 months running. 23 million americans -- back at you. 23 million americans are struggling to find work. nearly one out of six americans are in poverty today. that's unacceptable. now, look at the record of this

man, the credit rating was upgraded when he was governor of massachusetts. the credit rating was downgraded under president obama's failed leadership as president. unemployment went down in massachusetts. and household income over the past four years, family income has dropped by more than $4,000 under president obama's failed leadership. this man was governor of massachusetts, family income weblt up by $5,000. real results with real leadership. >> we know have you to work with the other party to get things dong. president obama came in and said we're not red states. we're not blue states. we're just the united states. we're going to put aside

childish things. this is the third president i have served with, and i have never seen such bitter partisan rhetoric like the kind we have today. when mitt romney was governor, he reached across the aisle and got things done and balanced the budget without raising taxes. >> we've heard about medicare lately from the president. we want this debate. we need this debate. we're going to win this debate about medicare. you know, like you, when i think about medicare, it's not just a program with numbers and words. it's personal security that has been there for my family when we need it. you know, i had my mom, betty, down with me in the villages in

florida on saturday. she's been on medicare for over ten years. when my grandma moved in my mom and me and we were her care gives when she was suffering alzheimer's, medicare was there when our family needed it then, and it's there for my mom when she needs it now, and what president obama will not tell you is that his signature achievement, boem-care, raids $716 billion from medicare to pay for obama-care. what's more, he puts this new board of 15 unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats that he is about to appoint who are required to cut medicare every year which will clearly lead to denied care for current seniors. his campaign calls this an achievement. do you think raiding medicare to pay for obama care and putting bureaucrats in charge of cutting it is an achievement?

i don't think so either. next time they get your paycheck, look at the line about payroll taxes. we pay our payroll taxes for two programs -- social security and medicare. that's the law. that's how it's supposed to work. but now because of president obama it's being siphoned off to partially fund obama-care as well. that's not an achievement. that's a raid on medicare and mitt romney and i are going to stop that raid on medicare and restore this program and we're getting these bureaucrats out of the way of standing between our senior citizens and their medicare. medicare should not be a piggy bank for obama care. it should be a gaern teed promise that our seniors can

count on. in order to save this program for those who are already retired and people who are about to retire, you have to reform it for my generation because, by the way, it won't be there for us when we retire. the good news is there are bipartisan solutions to this problem. it originated in the clinton commission in the late 1990s, the bipartisan position to save medicare. it has bipartisan support in congress today. for younger americans when they become medicare-eligible, let them have a choice of guaranteed coverage options, including traditional medicare. that they can select from. just like i do as a member of congress. just like kelly and charlie and all the rest of us. we choose. i think the future to saving medicare is to let 50 million seniors decide how they get their health care instead of relegating that decision to 15 unelected bureaucrats. that's the american way to save these programs so that we can guarantee the promise of medicare for today's seniors.

now, i won't go into all the things that we're proposing to do to get jobs back because i want to leave something for mitt to talk about. the point is we're offering you solutions. the president has a failed record. he clearly can't talk about that. he didn't change to and attacked far to the left. it's not just that that we're having to talk about, our solutions. how to get people back to work. how to have more jobs, higher take-home pay. the romney-ryan plan for a stronger middle class is aimed at doing just that. now, it really comes down to this. are we going to stick with the path we are on, or are we going to get this economy growing again? my dad said a lot of things that really stuck with me since i was a kid. he would always say, son, you are either part of the problem or you're part of the solution.

he usually was saying that to me when i was part of the problem. right, francie? today, sadly, president obama is part of the problem, and mitt romney is the solution. it's just that clear. that's what it is. ladies and gentlemen, we're going to get this back. we're going to turn this economy around. we're going to be truthful to our founding principles. we will not blame ordinaries. we will take responsibility. we will not duck the tough