we asked you at the top of the show what you're doing up at this hour. john tower you are my brian williams. keep up the good work. >> that is lifeless. want no part of brine williams. he's never been up at this hour. no chance he's going to watch this show. >> kim on twitter, welcome back willie, i missed you, we've been subjected to brian's striptease routine for way too long. >> heard about this. haven't seen it. my man brian sullivan doing great work. fill-in work the last couple days. apparently just in from the hamptons. he's got the button open. and just enough chest hair to make you throw up your cornflakes. "morning joe" starts right now.

>> junket to the holy land congressman on a junket over there and they go down and taking a look at the sea of galilee and this guy, congressman yoder, decides he's going to take off all of his clothes, all of his clothes, he put the junk in junket. so what we did, this trip to switch and we said hey, let's put together a segment about politicians who have misbehaved in the past. >> congressman kevin yoder, congressman anthony weiner, congressman lee, congressman eric massa. >> they're saying i groped a male staffer. yeah, i did, i tickled him until he couldn't breathe and four guys jumped on top of me. >> misbehaving politicians, a look back brought to you by

fluffo. >> yes, i groped him. >> that is a good way to start the morning. good morning, everyone. it's wednesday, august 22nd. welcome to "morning joe." with us on set we have msnbc contributor mike barnicle. no groping. okay? >> all right. >> gosh. >> all right. >> getting this. >> please. >> msnbc political analyst and msnbc contributor richard wolffe and columnist for "the washington post" ezra klein and with us from philadelphia former governor of pennsylvania and nbc news political analyst ed rendell. good to have you with us. >> good morning, mika. >> good morning. hi, willie. >> mika, how are you? >> thank you for coming back. >> pleasure. >> what was the deal with that? >> with brian with the chest hair. he did great job. i would have gone one more button up. >> did you tell him to do that? >> i did not. >> i know who did. lewis. >> oh, of course. >> you know this is what we do here because that's what he thinks.

>> he's new. never listen to lewis. >> brian needs to learn that. gosh, if you're mitt romney, and you're getting ready for your republican convention, this is probably a little bit of a frustrating time because you'd want to talk about the different visions for the country and sort of choice of paul ryan as a way to set the table for a real conversation, and everybody is talking about an issue they don't want to talk about. >> uh-huh. >> abortion and this guy who will not leave. a deadline has come and gone that would allowed republicans to replace todd akin's name on the ballot for the u.s. in missouri. many in the republican establishment are pushing for him to bow out. missouri's senator roy blunt joined by four of the state's former republican senators in calling for congressman akin to step aside. yesterday mitt romney released a statement urging the congressman to, quote, accept their counsel and exit the senate race.

mr. akin was defiant. accusing the republican presidential candidate of making a bigger deal than is necessary over the comments. >> if you were in romney's position, don't you think that he may have bid this thing up and made a bigger deal about it than he needed to? why couldn't he run his race and i run mine? >> can you name one person, one member of the united states senate, you know, lot of conservatives ran, paul, jim demint, marco rubio, mike lee, any current member of the senate that has called you and asked you to stay in? >> no. our polling data says we're still up a point. >> akin also released a new campaign ad apologizing to missouri voters for what he said. >> i'm todd akin and i approve this message. rape is an evil act. i used the wrong words in the wrong way and for that i apologize. as the father of two daughters i want tough justice for predators. i have a compassionate heart for

the victims of sexual assault and i pray for them. the fact is, rape can lead to pregnancy. the truth is, rape has many victims. the mistake i made was in the words i said, not in the heart i hold. i ask for your forgiveness. >> ed rendell, that will make it all go away, right? >> no, not exactly. you know, i don't think akin is necessarily dead in the fall election. a friend of mine who is a consult whonts has done work in missouri says he can hang in there and make a battle of it. look, it's so much bigger than missouri. it's a jawing reminder this whole incident of all the things that happened earlier this year, the blunt amendment, roy blunt, was run of the most anti-women pieces of legislation i've ever seen. plus, mika, one thing i think has been overlooked we're heading for a collision course. you heard governor romney and congressman ryan say they are for an exception for rape and

incest. >> right. >> on the ban on abortion. the republican party platform just accepted a plank that said there are no exceptions, there are no exceptions for rape and incest. so the question is, governor romney, congressman ryan, what about your own party's platform? it's a mess. >> we'll get to the platform which the governor of virginia is heading up, but richard wolffe, it's very hard not to separate paul ryan from this guy who is a disaster, a complete disaster, and as joe was saying yesterday, the republican party certainly put on a great collective show of strength against him and should be commended for that. having said that, there's this link that he may not agree with, but i'll tell you, leading democrats certainly will seize upon it. >> look, this is not contrived by democrats. we can talk about one guy's incredibly offensive and stupid comments, but this republican

party, which mitt romney now leads, has chosen to put abortion and the debate about abortion right up at the top of the agenda. they have gone after this time and time again at a time of economic crisis and hardship when the country should be coming together with the best ideas and they've said, we're prepared to shut down the government but if you give us something on abortion that will be okay. and here, this whole tying together of the akin/ryan bill, to take another step. >> right. >> against something which is already banned which is federal money going towards abortions, that is itself not just troubling, because of what it says about this concept of forcible rape, when they went after that, they weren't just going after abortion and federal funds, they were actually trying to separate teenage pregnancies, statutory rape, when you hear akin talk about predators, what do we think of as predators? people who prey on teenagers. this bill they put together

which thankfully did not pass, would have meant that more teenage victims of rape, more teenage mothers would come into play in this country because they would have been singled out. you know why they would be singled out because they thought teenage sex is somehow some kind of squishy thing that people get abortions with. that's the bigger debate. the bigger debate is this party wanting to have social policy changed for their own agenda at a time of economic hardship. >> look how easy it was to press the button and say go and just -- you could go on and on. >> on and on. here, ezra, first of all, paul ryan gets chosen and there are these exciting concepts about the conversation. and the national sort of debate over this country, and yet the romney campaign wants nothing to do with paul ryan's budget. now they want nothing to do with paul ryan's connection to this legislation. where are they -- at some point they have to move forward.

i don't know how they get out from under this. >> this has been a surprise to me. i thought i understood the direction they were taking when they chose paul ryan. >> i do too. >> you want to be the tough choices campaign. we will be the folks who maybe will cut medicare, who will cut the budget in a very serious way. i don't understand why you choose paul ryan for a campaign that would never under any circumstances say how could we say we would cut medicare by a dollar for current retirees. because of this immediate collapse into a kind of incoherence the campaign has been less focused on the economy than before the choice. akin is not something that mitt romney wanted to happen. but there have been a series of not just events but also tactical decisions like trying to focus on medicare and other elements of the budget, actually trying to focus on why mitt romney unlike paul ryan would not cut medicare, that have created this void that, sort of this messaging incoherence that

event and commercials and other things are rushing in to fill. it can't be good for them though. >> willie? >> i thought governor rendell, something you said was remarkable, which was that the plank, as part of the platform that would -- constitutional amendment that would outlaw abortion including of cases of rape and incest the timing was incredible. establishment republicans trying to paint akin as this crackpot and then two days later they come out with an official party plank that makes it their policy, their belief, that basically what he believes is their belief. i think the timing was striking on this. >> they're doing everything they can to shoot themselves in the head. i mean it's really stunning. >> you know, what's kind of overwhelming, maybe to a lot of people, is that when you look at the republican party, and you think of the phrase to describe many elements within the republican party as being conservative, that's fine. conservatism is fairly popular in this country. a lot of people want smaller

government. smaller government. less government. this flies in the face of all of that. this is having the government right in your bedroom, right in your lives, on this one issue. and i get the sense and i'm probably wrong because i'm wrong most of the time, they have spent the last two or three days, talking about congressman akin and talking about this issue, and talking about the platform and it's in the news today, talking themselves right out of winning the election. because they have -- i would think, activated one demographic group, women, put them on alert, be careful. >> yeah. >> watch out. >> and you would think, you talk about the comments, willie, being one crackpot's comments here's the problem with the news coming out today, which you know democrats will seize upon again. turns out the doctor that gave congressman akin his ideas about how rape does or does not get a woman pregnant, his name is john wilkie and he served as

president of the national right to life committee and he was a surrogate for mitt romney during his 2008 presidential bid. and while dr. wilkie's views have been widely dismissed by modern science, and logic, romney's '08 campaign embraced dr. wilkie and released a statement touting his endorsement saying dr. wilkie is a leading voice within the pro life community and will be an important surrogate for governor romney's pro life and pro family agenda. back in 2008. >> that's a release mitt romney will rexwrets. >> yeah, go ahead. >> i'll say this, i always feel bad for candidates like romney on this thing. they didn't know this guy that well. they certainly were not trying to endorse these views. there's something there which is just you get somebody that thought this. this is the problem when you get into bed with everybody from every part of the party no matter how extreme you come into the fray years later when

something else they say becomes a huge deal. i feel somewhat bad for the romney campaign on this because this isn't the conversation they want to have and this guy, i'm sure they had no idea what he believed, but this has been to some degree the cost of capitulating to every segment of the far right in order to get this nomination. >> this is not a winning agenda. >> this is not good. it's not the campaign that the former moderate governor of massachusetts could have run. it's a campaign he did run to win the primaries, and now these are the long-term costs of it. >> that's the problem, right? he was trying to pretend, trying to prove he was no longer the moderate former governor of massachusetts. he was trying too hard. if you have a candidate who doesn't really know what he stands for and is just trying to get some advantage then you end up getting endorsements from people who serve a purpose who aren't really aligned with you and you trumpeted it because that proves something you are, in fact, probably to the really. >> ed rendell, how do you -- what more could the romney

campaign have done in a situation like this if you can try to do some reverse psychology? did he -- when mitt romney went on camera for the new hampshire station, did he come out strong enough against akin? >> well, i think he did in this limited instance, but the problem is, as richard said, he's been catering to the far right all along. he missed an opportunity on the blunt amendment. remember he was asked about the blount amendment and initially said he wouldn't support or have signed it and then backtracked. that was his first opportunity to show a little distance in a coherent sensible policy towards women. she should have come out against the blount amendment. when rush limbaugh trashed that girl, he should have come out and infinitely stronger way and said that young woman was doing just what she had to do and rush limbaugh's comments were reprehensible, et cetera. it's an accumulation of things. also, vetting paul ryan. did they vet paul ryan well?

did they understand he was cosponsor of this type of bill? did they understand he actually wrote and asked for stimulus money after denouncing stimulus? did they understand that in 2002, he avidly supported president bush's stimulus. doesn't seem to me they paid much attention to any of that. >> i would think on the issue of abortion especially they would look at what his record is, given this has been a tough one for mitt romney. i mean it's been an issue that -- >> impossible one. >> impossible one. issue you know at some point you're going to be asked about. how hidden is this legislation? >> but they probably did, right? what does mitt romney fear when -- in a campaign like this? he doesn't fear particularly that he won't be seen as -- that he'll be seen as moderate on abortion. he fears that the republican right, i'm sorry, will see him as moderate on abortion, that the base, the folks he needs to activate, to turn outs in this election to win a state like ohio, get ads showing him on both sides of the abortion

issue, governor of massachusetts he's a moderate, would vote to uphold roe v. wade and it will shake their confidence. bring paul ryan, brings these fiscal credentials but has this 100% rating from prot life groups and that strengthens you. these groups can say even if you don't trust mitt romney, paul ryan is there and he'll keep him from being a squish. this is seen for them as a benefit at the time. >> ed rendell. >> a fatal flaw, if mitt romney loses this election he's going to lose it because his campaign never understood the republican base was coming out to vote against barack obama, period. they didn't need to activate it. it was ac vi tated on its own. and they should have from the time he clenched the primaries, they should have been moving decisively to appeal to those independent, moderate republicans, in the suburbs of every big city, the key swing voters, in so many different swing states. to design their policy, towards getting out their base, a base

that was coming out, maybe they would have held their nose in the voting booth but they were coming out to vote against barack obama, i think that's a fatal flaw. >> barnicle? >> what's your reaction to all of this as a woman, as a mother of two daughters? what's your reaction? >> i actually think that -- i kind of feel sorry for the republican party at this point because this guy has made a joke of them and if this is how they really feel, the ultraright about, you know, the issues of rape, this doctor, i have to say, it gives me pause. they look stupid. they look incredibly stupid. and i'm not sure what they can do about this disaster of a candidate and maybe they've done everything they can do. i think mitt romney should have done more and i said it yesterday on the set. he should have spoken for the women in his life. and he should have spoken from the heart. and he should have been deeply insulted for them. that somebody like this can have such an important role in our country's future because obviously the senate, the makeup

of the senate, is going to be one of the key stories that shape our political future, so i -- i think it's pathetic. they look like they're losing. and then the -- i do think that this has a direct link to paul ryan and right now, the question i'm asking myself, maybe ed you can chime in on this, is paul ryan who i thought was a good choice for the national conversation, is paul ryan a bad choice or just a choice that's being handled badly? >> i think a little of both, mika. i think given where they had to go and again, i go back to my point, they didn't have to activate the base, the base was coming out to vote against barack obama, i think they made a bad choice. i think paul ryan will do very well at the convention because he's smart, he gives a good speech, looks like everybody's next door neighbor, he comes across as not a threatening guy. he'll give a good speech and there will be a little chance for them to redeem themselves.

but over the long run, i think they've done incalculable damage. i remember when christine o'donnell in delaware started making those crazy statements it almost helped joe sestak the democrat beat pat toomey. joe sestak wound up losing by a point because we kept hearing christine o'donnell on philadelphia television saying those bizarre things. a friend of mine came up to me after the recent incident after akin, i wasn't going to vote for obama, don't think he's been a good president, i can't vote for the other side, these guys are just nuts. >> yeah. >> scott brown. >> we got to get to the scott brown story. that's a great point. he really -- he's taken the opportunity to show himself to be -- >> and just -- >> level-headed guy. >> this is the week before the republican national convention. >> oh, my lord. >> a nightmare. >> we're talking about the definition of forcible rape. >> and whether or not -- >> legitimate rape. we're not talking about anything, not talking about the economy and frankly haven't talked about the economy since paul ryan was chosen.

it's been medicare, it's been the budget and it's been now this week rape. so this is certainly not where the romney campaign wanted to be. let's look at new polls, nbc/"wall street journal" polls the wap the country is viewing the parties. 45% of registered voters have a negative view of the republican party. 45%. 36% have a positive view. 42% of democrats view the party positively. and 40% negatively. poll also reveals mitt romney received virtually no bump after naming paul ryan as his running mate. right now the obama/biden ticket leads romney/ryan, a national poll, 48 to 44. before ryan was added to the ticket, president obama was leading romney by six points, 49/43. taking a look at 12 battleground states, president obama has seen his lead shrink to 3 points, within the margin of error. the president's lead among swing state voters was about 8 points in july. one big thing romney does have going for him, only 31% say the country is better off since

president obama took office. 42% say the country is worse off. ezra, anything jump out as you look at those numbers? >> you always have to be careful with battleground polling dealing with smaller sample sizes and brings higher levels of error. you want to see a number of them. in this election so far, the pattern has been that obama is stronger in battleground states than he is nationally. usually you're seeing the battleground polls return better than the national polls. the margin is a little flip here, four to three in this poll and a much more substantial deterioration inside the internals of the battleground polling than the national polling. i would like to see, you know, that ends up being backed up by other polls or not. >> you mentioned scott brown, before we go to a break. he spoke out saying that the gop abortion platform is a mistake. and he told reince priebus this, while i am pro choice i respect

those who have a very different opinion on this difficult and sensitive issue. he said this in a letter to chairman reince priebus. our party platform should make the same concession to those of us who believe in a woman's right to choose. obviously he's running against elizabeth warren in massachusetts. but again, this party has got to get up to 2012 here or it's going to go down the drain. they're going to lose people like scott brown. people like scott brown are going to lose. go ahead. >> don't make scott brown too much of a hero. he had a chance to vote against the blount amendment and carve out a little difference and he folded like an accordion. >> i believe he voted against equal pay as well. i'm not going to give him a break. >> don't make him a hero. >> i'm not going to. at this time, republicans who have this point of view should come forward and say it. they really should. and it's -- it's an embarrassing time for the party. it really is. i mean at this point, some point they are going to have to

understand that women, even in the republican party, are horrified at the concept of the control that legislation like the one paul ryan cosponsored and i don't mean to keep hammering that home, but that's not going to work in this decade in this day and age. >> where are the family values. you say you're fam lay values, speak up for children and victims of these awful crimes. don't play it the other way because you have an agenda. that's what it is. >> yeah. i can't imagine anybody who would come on this show and argue for that legislation. >> small government, unless we're talking about getting in your bedroom. >> yeah. >> yeah. >> before we go, a reminder all next week our special coverage of the republican national convention, we will be live from our own "morning joe" elephant bar on channel side avenue in tampa. the the coverage begins on monday at 5:30 a.m. if you're in the air stop by. food and entertainment. coming up, we're going to talk to president obama's deputy

campaign manager stephanie cutter, campbell brown will be here, chuck todd, much more on the new nbc news/"wall street journal" polls released and in a few minutes espn college football analyst jesse palmer on set. first the latest on tropical storm isaac. oh, yeah, which organizers of the republican convention are keeping a close eye on. bill karins with an update. >> mika, i couldn't think of a better spot for you to cover this hurricane, channel side at the bar in tampa. that will be -- that will be great. yeah. monday and tuesday that will be kind of interesting to see the "morning joe" crew down there live during the storm. and that looks like where the storm is headed. give you the update from the hurricane center just waking up this morning. the storm as expected is beginning to intensify. it has three days to intensify before it hits hispaniola, the island of the dominican republic in haiti. huge storm size wise, not in intensity, but big. the storm in the bottom right-hand corner of your screen, just a large storm. even if the center doesn't go

over florida all florida should feel the impacts. the key forecast is sunday. that is when the storm should be coming off of the island of cuba and heading up towards florida. the angle of approach very important. the longer it spends over water the stronger it could be. the weaker it will be if it spends more time over cuba. could be dealing with anything from a tropical storm to maybe a strong category 2 hurricane by monday morning over florida. you see pretty excellent agreement with our computer models, a closer view of the timing, that would be 2:00 a.m. monday morning, approaching miami and the northern key. of course that's five days away. it could be off the east coast of florida or to the west of that off the west coast of florida. no matter what, all of our computer models are pinpointing florida as the target about five days from now. after that everyone in georgia and the carolinas get ready. because this storm will be heading northward, possibly up the entire east coast as we go throughout next week. not exactly what the people from the rnc want to hear regarding tampa and their coverage monday

through thursday. tuesday, north florida, wednesday through the carolinas and possibly the mid-atlantic on thursday. forecast for the east and the rest of the country today, really no issues out there. it's quiet weather until isaac arrives. more updates on msnbc and "morning joe" throughout the week. you are watching "morning joe" of course we're brewed by starbucks. [ female announcer ] the power of green coffee extract

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to experience the ultimate expression of power... control. [ engine revs ] during the golden opportunity sales event, get great values on some of our newest models. this is the pursuit of perfection. 29 past the hour. time now to take a look at the morning papers. "usa today," looks like 2012 will go down as the worst year for wildfires in american history. 7 million acres, an area larger than the state of maryland, have burned. the ponderosa fire in northern california is the latest to force people from their homes.

it's already destroyed 50 structures and is still less than 50% contained. >> "the washington post" facebook stock decline indicates wall street is wary of companies that give away their product for free. facebook manages to bring in $3.7 billion a year but its stock is down about half since it went public. linkedin stock by comparison up 65%, that site relies on advertising and premium services fees. >> "the new york times" children's advocacy groups plan to fire a complaint to the ftc alleging websites are collecting personal information about children. u.s. law requires sites to get consent from parents before getting information from kids under 13. but these groups say several websites including mcdonald's and nickelodeon are in violation by encouraging kids to submit friends' e-mail addresses without seeking prior consent from their parents. >> all right. turn to politico with mike allen with a look at the playbook. >> good morning.

>> we've been talking about the republican convention this morning. let's talk about the democrats. their list of speakers out this morning and looks like some very prominent women will be the charlotte. >> well, sure does. they're not missing this chance. this morning the democratic convention released a list of ten speakers. how many women on this list of speakers? all ten. and many familiar names, caroline kennedy, eva longoria of "desperate housewives" a big obama organizer, tammy duckworth, tammy baldwin, lily ledbetter, the equal pay law is named. a clear message here coming from the democratic national committee at the same time i have a chilling headline if you're a republican. behind the scenes, there have been this coordinated effort by boston and washington to push todd akin out of the race. people in boston and washington think that is failed. paul ryan personally called to try to push him out.

so they now think that akin's going to be in for a while, in to at least the republican convention, meaning this story lasts. they're still hopeful that by election day, there will be a change, but now they're going to shift the pressure to the local level. they're going to try to get missouri officials to pressure him to do the right thing. the idea of getting enough pressure from washington to boston, maybe getting some christian group to give him a job that hasn't worked to spare among national republicans. >> if every establishment conservative and every conservative publication can't get this guy out of the race, why would he get out now between now and election day? >> there's going to have to be some incentive for him and that's why there was an effort to find him some sort of a job, maybe some missouri republican will convince him that it's worth while, but the idea of do this forr ethe good of the part has completely flopped.

>> a look inside the politico playbook. >> thanks for your coverage. >> jesse palmer joins us with a preview of the college football season but mostly of the vanderbilt/south carolina game a week from tomorrow. we're back in a moment. hmm, it says here that cheerios helps lower cholesterol as part of a heart healthy diet. that's true. ...but you still have to go to the gym. ♪ the one and only, cheerios atct wi cor [ male announcer ] it started long ago. the joy of giving something everything you've got. it takes passion.

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welcome back to "morning joe."

with us now espn college football analyst former quarterback of the new york giants and the gators, jesse palmer. >> hello. >> good morning. >> i like your hair. >> mika is obsessed with your hair. >> i wake up and it goes like that. >> sticking straight up. >> willie and i were at the club last night, we roll in from the club. >> are you sure? >> is that how they wear it in the clubs some. >> i don't know about that. we wear suits, though. that's why he gets in the v.i.p. >> we suit it up. >> me, jesse and drake and chris brown. >> and ryan seacrest. >> oh, yeah. >> we had fun. >> it was a good night. >> talk football, jesse. hard to believe the season starts a week from tomorrow in nashville. >> that's right. >> at your alma mater. >> the game cooks and you're calling the game. >> i am calling the game. i'm really excited about this game because i think we can have a major upset early this season. since steve spur er got to south carolina they've struggled with

vanderbilt. in 2007/2008 they lost both years. i actually called the game on thursday in nashville. the following year, south carolina only won that game 14-10. i think this could be a major upset. you look at your alma mater. this could be a good year. they won six games a year ago, head coach james franklin's first year. outstanding job with you that program. george roger is the quarterback, younger brother of aaron rodgers of the green bay packers. another good running back coming back named warren norman who missed last season because of injury. the s.e.c. freshman of the year. >> my man. >> two seasons ago -- >> wait a minute. wait a minute. we've had enough vandy talk here. let me gshs. >> you think vandy will be the old ball coach? >> i think they have a chance of doing it. look at their schedule this season they don't have to play alabama, they don't have to play lsu, don't have to play

arkansas. i'm not saying they're going to win the national championship but they can give south carolina headaches early and a real chance to win this game. >> james franklin is great, all we can ask for. that's enough vanderbilt. he called an upset. usc, you look at every poll, looks like they're the best team in the country and back they kind of made it through all the sanctions and everything else. how good are they? >> they're very good. to me they're the best team in the country heading into this season. i look back to last year, i think they were maybe the second best team in the country at the end of last season. they beat oregon on the road, huge win. they beat their cross town rival ucla 50-0. matt barkley threw 39 touchdowns last year, a pac 12 record. so much talent surrounding him. wide receiver with marcus and sigh lus red a penn state transfer will make a major impact on this offense.

usc the best starting 22 in the country but they have very little depth and that will be a story we watch as the season progresses. >> we've got s.e.c. country joe not here today, is an alabama guy. alabama/lsu going to be in the mix again this year. >> one of the biggest story lines into this year, guys, is can the s.e.c. win a seventh straight national championship? i think you certainly have all the usual suspects there in that conference. you mentioned alabama and lsu. arkansas will be a good team. tyler wilson has a chance to win a heisman trophy. great running back in niles davis. one of the best receivers in kobe hamilton. georgia, the magical schedule, no alabama, no lsu, no arkansas. play south carolina in their fifth game. aaron murray could be a heisman candidate dark horse. marcus, maybe the best running back in the country. >> tell me about lane kifner as a recruiter, tennessee, usc, he has to be something. >> he's unbelieve ble.

amazing he's been able to ri crute top level talent amidst the ncaa sanctions and this season bowl ban. only 74 players on scholarship this season. depth is a real problem. the players they have starting and they're still a very young team. these are very good players. we talk about the ohio states and the floridas and the texass, these big programs, a lot of nfl talent, usc has guys that will play on sundays we don't know their names yet. >> what do you think about from a football point of view penn state, what happens? we know about the off thefield stuff, we covered it here for months. what happens to that program for the next decade? >> i think everybody here is four year postseason bowl ban and they will lose 40 scholarships and people hear four year postseason ban, this really takes seven, eight, nine years before they recover. you want to spin it forward to this year, the last time i checked they had nine players

that transferred and a lot of big names. sigh lus we talked about, goes to usc. justin brown the best wide receiver leaves to oklahoma, kicker, same guy that punts as well, goes to texas. six wins this year for bill o'brien is a great season. they got brand new system on offense, pro style system, ted roof the defensive coordinator, a new system on that side of the ball and a tough schedule. they will play a very big, very physical virginia team early. play navy on the road at iowa and nebraska. good news they don't have to play michigan or michigan state. six wins this year is a great year for pen state. >> williams college in the top ten. >> how are they doing? >> fantastic. >> really? >> get excited. >> aren't they adorable. >> big year. >> big year coming up. >> adorable is not the adjective they were looking for. >> totally open to using these new adjectives. >> thank you. very nice to meet you very interesting hair. >> how well is jesse prepared.

throw any team. >> he goes s.e.c. to -- >> just got to get up earlier. sharper in the morning. what you do is remarkable. >> studying the v.i.p. area at 12:00 last night. >> wasn't bottle fighting with drake. i was hanging out. >> thanks for waking up early. >> appreciate it. >> have fun in nashville next week. >> i will. thanks so much. >> back with mika's must-read opinion pages. [ gnome ] enjoying your holiday?

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convention planners consider platforms and pledges, they might also contemplate a seminar for republican men about how the fairer sex works. recognizing that attendance could be [ inaudible ] they could have put a brown wrapper around it, note to akin supporters this is a metaphor and call it inknack was such as golf and skinny dipping from the sea of galilee to the gulf of mexico. condoleezza rice, darla moore, recently named the first women members of the augusta national golf club could conduct a power presentation of the female reproductive system. they kind of need a lesson here. this has been distracting, completely distracting, mike barnicle, the bigger issues we we'd love to see addressed in this campaign. >> mika, "the new york times" in a front page piece, will be

giving the front page a long take out tracking the casualty count and war in afghanistan, including four pages in the times. >> there you go. >> pictures of the dead. >> when are they going to talk about this? >> casualty count reached 2,000 earlier this week. so, this is not a suggestion box, this program is not a suggestion box, but this morning instead of complaining about the long lines at starbucks or parking spaces that you can't find, perhaps take a moment to read the piece and look at the pictures because they are your neighbors' sons, husbands, brothers and there is a war going on in this country, long war. >> weight it going to take? ed rendell, are we going to wait for the debates when they're forced to address it with carefully prepared statements? i would love to hear the candidates talk about our economy and about the wars that we're engaged in, truly on an honest level. it's not possible in this climate, is it?

>> it's very difficult. politics has dsolved into name calling and there's one debate, mika, six questions, 15 minutes each, on each topic, six topics. i've written along with mayor bloomberg, written infrastructure be discussed. what's the plan for infrastructure from both candidates. one of several issues facing the country. i love the fact that the debates devote 15 minutes to a specific subject. hopefully they'll pick the six right subjects. >> can you imagine the sons, wives, sisters, brothers, mothers, fathers of these people, no yep. >> listening to this conversation they're having. >> as shocking as all of that is, the sheer number of brave american men and women who have sacrificed in afghanistan -- >> died. >> willie pointed out in "way too early," this is the longest war in american history.

shouldn't we all sit up and pay attention to that alone. shouldn't there be a robust debate, the president has a withdraw plan, but we have to wait and see when that will happen, mitt romney doesn't like any date certain and yet also thinks there should be some pullout, but we don't know really what that plan consists of because there are no details, this is real. this is life and death and this is an open and un-ending commitment that needs to come to a close. >> one way, perhaps, to have more people pay attention to the fact we are still engaged in warfare in afghanistan, is the piece in the times leads with the death last week of lance corporal gregory buckley of oceanside, long island, killed in afghanistan, 20, just 21. he had just turned 21. school is beginning across the country, this week, next week, so when gregory buckley dead now in afghanistan was 10 years old, we went to war.

10 years old. 11 years later he's dead. >> you know, this is all systematic of what script american politics, nobody has the courage to tell the american people the truth. the truth is, and we've said it two weeks ago when i was on the show in new york, mika, we said this is all cya by both candidates. the truth is when the afghans soldiers and police start killing our troops that are supposedly fighting for them, it's time to get out. we should be out by halloween. every american soldier ought to be out by halloween because if they're killing us, there's no reason for us to stick around. it's unconshenble. we're never going to hear that because everyone is too afraid of doing something that will seem weak on defense. weak on defense? look at those pictures. that's weak on defense. >> there's a lot of air time, a lot of political shows, a lot of news shows, i challenge reporters, anchors, hosts to cover the story and to ask the

question, to ask the question when we have the candidates on, when we have their surrogates on, ask the question. don't just talk about everything else that's getting into the echo chamber, that's delicious, and that's easy to seize upon. why not take the responsibility to continue to ask this question. "the new york times," i thank them for what they did this morning, for making us look at the faces, see the faces, see the humanity, see the souls that are being lost as we sit here and bicker about ridiculous people, jokes, candidates who have somehow made it through the system because i don't know what, are we looking in the wrong place? how did this akin guy even make it to the front pages. he's an embarrassment. there are important issues he's raised and the connection there we can talk about, but why can't we come back to this? why can't we come back to this every day until the candidates address it. i think it's up to us too.

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ed rendell, thank you very much. ezra klein, good to see you as well. come back and see us soon. >> thank you, ezra. >> all next week "morning joe" live from our elephant bar in tampa, florida. >> that's going to be fun. >> for our coverage of the republican national convention. they tell me we're going to have

button making, mika. >> yeah. >> photo booth. >> button making. >> and mike barnicle dunk tank. >> oh, is he going to be in his unitard. all right. >> come down see us 5:30 a.m. all next week, 615 channel side avenue in tampa. on the show tomorrow, "the new york times" jim abramson, boone pickens, and richard belzer, old front back. straight ahead harold ford jr. and "newsweek" and daily beast editor tina brown and sam stein. keep it on "morning joe." it's time to live wider awake. only the beautyrest recharge sleep system combines the

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>> welcome back to "morning joe." look at the beautiful shot of new york city. time to wake up, everyone. time to go to work. joining us on the set editor and chief of "newsweek" magazine and daily beast tina brown, making waves with your cover story. >> that's what covers are supposed to do. >> we'll talk about that coming up and msnbc political analyst and visiting professor at nyu, former democratic congressman harold ford jr. >> good morning. >> how is it going? >> it's good. >> yeah. >> it is an interesting cover miss brown has. >> uh-huh. >> and white house correspondent for "the huffington post," sam stein. >> hello. >> richard wolffe with us, mike barnicle with us. you okay, mike? you seem like you're in a bad

mood. >> i am. >> is it the groping restriction i put on the show? yeah. i'm struggling with the stories we have lined up here. especially after our discussion about afghanistan. >> yeah. >> in all seriousness. but there is news to cover. let's go through it. we've got a new panel, your take on it. we'll move on to other things as well. first the polls though, this is interesting, just released nbc news/"wall street journal" poll shows that 45% of registered voters have a negative view of the gop. only 36% positive. 42% view the democratic party positively, 40% negatively. the poll also reveals that mitt romney received virtually no bump after naming paul ryan as his running mate. right now the obama/biden ticket leaves romney and ryan 48 to 44% nationwide. before adding paul ryan to the republican ticket, he was leading obama. stop there, harold ford jr.,

does that surprise you, no bump from paul ryan? >> i think it's hard to determine whether or not there's been a big bump from it. obviously he hasn't hurt him. they have a convention coming up which both will be introduced in a bigger and broader more specific way. but then at the end of the day this panel and others have talked about and joe and you have talked about, at great length, this race will boil down to what people believe mitt romney is capable, is ready, is distinguishable from other unfortunate and unseemly elements of his party to lead the country for the next four years. i think the next big day, obviously, is into the it that he accepts the nomination, mitt romney. and then the next big day is the day after president obama delivers his acceptance speech, and september 7th when the new payroll numbers come out. >> sam stein, i'm going to put you in an uncomfortable position. >> thank you. >> is whether or not paul ryan was a bad choice or a good choice badly handled? i think he could have been a

really good choice but was badly hanch handled. how could paul ryan be seen as a very good choice, sam stein? >> well, in many ways. first of all i think the jury is still out on whether he's a good or bad choice. one poll is not going to tell us anything quite yet. he's young, rare care ris mattic, this blueprint that's conservative, solidifies romney's ties with the base. anyone concerned romney was this moderate in conservative clothing had those concerns dismissed when he appointed paul ryan. keep in mind there's been just a series of very bad events for the romney campaign with respect to the paul ryan nomination. todd akin, no one could have anticipated todd akin would say these ridiculous things about legitimate rape but it's put a spotlight on paul ryan's position on rape. this would not have happened if a tim pawlenty were on the ticket because he wouldn't have cosponsored no es bills with todd akin. some of these things are outside

of mitt romney's control. i think, you know, the only thing i would say is this is from the beginning which is that paul ryan's budget was always going to be a little -- was always going to be toxic and i think the romney campaign knew it. why they got so aggressive with the medicare ads early on. the nbc news/"wall street journal" poll shows a hill they have to climb, 50 to 34 in favor of the president's position on medicare or what people think of the president's position on medicare versus paul ryan. that's where the negatives are baked in. >> you couldn't help but to go to todd akin, tina brown. >> i'm sorry. >> just, you know, it's a very liberal set today, i'm going to say. a lot of us can't help ourselves here i think. what? >> it's not a liberal conservative issue. >> it's common sense. >> okay. i'm not sure that's fair, but tina brown, i'll take it to you, because i think that actually when paul ryan was chosen, it did seem exciting, even with his budget, i think it could have been the touch stone for an

incredible conversation and they shied away and hid from it. >> the amazing and comical thing about the akin fiasco it immediately kind of undressed paul ryan. here he was, out there, the clean-cut, cooler, more, you know, of today running partner of mitt romney and romney i think really went to ryan because frankly, he had been seen as such a wimp after the whole disastrous european tour that i think that he really felt the right wing of his party said you need an attack dog, someone with edge, that's not going to stand there and you have to have someone more aggressive. he gets paul ryan. everything seems like it's going well and then the akin thing and it's totally undressed paul ryan. >> can't get rid of him. undresses him. >> i think sam before you go to richard, sam is about right. it's hard to say with just one poll here that somehow or another paul has been damaging to the ticket or todd akin -- the todd akin thing is a disaster for republicans and romney and ryan handled it about

as well as they could. remember, paul ryan has not hurt this ticket. paul ryan is of today, republicans look at him, i think a lot of young families across the country, democrat or republican, can see something he and his family and something they have in common. he's not a scary republican. he may have views you may disagree with. i don't think people are frightened by him. i don't think the polling shows anyone is frightened by him. they may disagree with him. he doesn't bring palin -- i've heard these comparison to sarah palin. it's an insult to paul. paul iss a smart, aggressive, u to date republican, i'm not voting for him, but i can understand people looking at him. with medicare they've done a decent job of defending that position. one would not have thought a week and a half ago when he was selected that we'd be not debating medicare as the number one issue but the boneheaded silly outrageous comments of a senate candidate in missouri instead. >> but that -- but that has

helped to tar ryan. he was coming out as this modern, quite attractive, you know, someone you could relate to republican, when you start hearing -- >> until you hear about the legislation -- >> and then all the women are going wait a minute. >> who is he? >> i just want to come back to the poll, which in the business they would say is a bit of a problem for republicans. those numbers were not great. harold is right the judgment for voters are you comfortable with mitt romney seen as being commander in chief. there's a bigger thing as well. we get into the weeds around this table, right thing to do, a lot of detail, a lot of the latest. but for what they call low information voters, real people who maybe are doing other things other than watching "morning joe," they are going to look at this and say there's a real prospect with this vote up and down the ballot that republicans have the house, the senate, and the white house. is the republican party ready and is the country ready for the republican party to have sole

control over all levels of government and i think that's what the akin debate and the votes on abortion and medicare really put into perspective. is that party ready to take control of everything and i think that's where you're going to see voters say i'm not happy with the other side but i'm not sure the republicans are really there yet. >> two things. one, i've never met anyone who has rushed to the polls in a presidential election because of the vice presidential candidate. i've never met anyone who went to vote for the vice president. put paul ryan aside. the second thing, the todd akin fiasco, what that's done, i would think, is mitt romney has one huge opportunity to introduce himself to the country, that's his acceptance speech when all eyes will be on him, to the exclusion of the democratic party and the president of the united states. if he doesn't address the akin situation, and the eruptions

that have arisen around what akin has said and done to the republican brand, he could be toast. >> i agree. >> you think that's his moment to do that? >> yes. >> what about a moment to cast -- to flick it aside as part of the, you know, garbage that's being chewed upon repetitively and then to talk about the bigger issues that plague this country and rise above it. are we saying the same thing. >> i think you're saying the same thing. >> you know, i think that what we're seeing, this is the house is prepared to shut down the government rather than fund planned parenthood. it's the democrats job to remind people of these things again and again. it's now possible to make the ryan/romney ticket much more offensive to people than it has been up to now. i mean the akin thing as you said has been a disaster and is going to be extraordinarily useful for democrats. >> it's a huge opportunity for them, especially among women, where i think the president has a very good track record and,

you know, this only kind of puts the nail in the coffin for the romney campaign. >> romney's transition team, "the new york times" said the men and women in romney's transition team there really are no women in romney's transition team, there's one, his adviser beth myers. it's all men. this could i think be really seen now as a party that's very much not for women and that's a big amount of voters. >> the latest with todd akin, the congressman who's running against claire mccaskill, they were hoping in a big way that he would step down by 5:00 yesterday. that deadline has come an gone. that would have allowed republicans to replace him on the ballot in the race for u.s. senate in missouri. it's now going to require a court order. many in the republican establishment are pushing for him to bow out, missouri senator roy blunt was joined by four of the state's former republican senators in calling for congressman aikche aakin to ste aside. what does that take, harold?

i haven't seen that in the republican party. >> it takes organizing principle and dynamic force named todd akin. >> and fear. >> for that to happen. >> and fear as mike said. look, in some ways, in a weird way, this has helped republicans distinguish themselves from some of the uglier and frankly dangerous elements of their party. the larger question is, i think tina raised earlier, talking about paul ryan and his record. if you look at the record of republicans in the house and the senate, things that they have voted on around issues of choice and reproductive rights are there votes or the legislation that they've supported, is it closer to where todd akin or not? i would argue in fairness to republicans when it comes to the definition of rape they do not subscribe to the definition of todd akin mistakenly subscribed according to him, but publicly in an interview in his home state the other day. >> really? >> this makes it very difficult and by that statement -- don't get me wrong -- they are a pro life party but when it comes to

the issue of rape as a human, as a christian, it's hard for me to ascribe that view to a group of people whom i don't think all have come out to say they're against todd akin. >> but there was a platform -- an effort to try to distinguish between forcible rape and nonforcible rape and one of the people who tried to do that distinction -- >> forgive me i'm not aware of that in their platform or statements in the congress. >> it's not in the platform but a bill pushed by among other people paul ryan and that's sort of what the problem is here, is that it's not just necessarily an isolated incident. the rhetoric is. no one has talked about the idea that a body can shut down a pregnancy that is less legitimate. >> oh, lord. >> that is what he said. >> i know. >> but no one has said that. but what happened is, it's exposed in some respects in many respects actually, part of the party push, previous push by republicans to actually draw distingions between certain kinds of rapes and that's why

this issue is so damaging to the party. one other thing with respect to all those people who pushed todd akin to get out, what i thought was hilariously stupid on his behalf he put out a tweet saying the liberal media is trying to push me out of the way. you have sean hannity, mitt romney, trying to get out of the race, and he blames the liberal media. >> the term misspoke at this point. ban the term. >> repeating what he said. this guy should be out of the race. he's a disaster. >> wisconsin instead of wyoming. it's not when you have this insane statement about contraception. >> tina, that's on us, though. when congressman akin or anyone else in public life says that's not what i meant to say. >> yeah. >> we in the media should say, well, what is it exactly that you did mean to say. we never do that. but the thing that still mistifies me, the party that -- part of the brand is conservatism and it's as we said earlier, conservatism is very

popular in this country. a lot of people want less government. what is it about this party or this particular wing of the party, conservative wing of the party, of one small slice of that party, that they don't get -- they're going for smaller government, what is it that they don't understand about the phrase, mind your own business? >> right. i would agree. >> what is up with that. >> more disturbing, when you look at -- we covered this in the past few months. gallup did a poll, showing i think it's been 50% of the country is pro life or -- and the numbers are growing. so, it's not like they don't have an audience out there. i respect that position personally, a great deal. you may have that position. somehow this guy has taken it to a completely filthy level. and it's got to be frustrating for the republican party which wants to clarify their position on life, that wants to be able to survive it, and that actually has an audience out there in

this country, whether this table agrees with that or not, that's america speaking. >> absolutely. but a difference between audience for that and promulgating -- >> stupidity. >> positions. >> and it offends -- it just offends everyone who's ever been to school. >> this is an issue both campaigns would rather not talk about and at this point, it is -- >> i don't know about that. >> i don't -- >> i think one campaign is enjoying talking about it. >> mccaskill campaign would enjoy talking about this. >> having said that, there is a large group of americans out there, you could even say we're going into the majority that are pro life. >> mika is is right. the trends show that. there's a difference. i want to be clear. i wasn't suggesting at all that republicans shouldn't have to defend their positions but i don't think republicans in the party -- sam, i don't know where you have this evidence from -- but i don't believe there are republicans who subscribe to todd akin's -- there's only one definition of rape, heinous,

criminal and the person should get the death penalty for it. having said that i don't believe that romney and ryan subscribe to todd akin's views. to answer your question -- >> the problem is, it's -- >> to answer your question, it was extraordinary for republicans driven by fear to come out as they did and -- because they were afraid what it means for mitt romney's election and ability to take control of the senate. >> the reason we're talking -- the reason they ended up talking about rape, let's be clear, is because they think in their mind -- >> who is they, republicans? >> republicans and the pro life lobby, believe that some people, specifically teenagers, are using the claim of rape to get free or taxpayer funded abortions. so they put rape on the table the definition of rape because they have a bigger ideological struggle that they want to have with the other side about abortion. and that's why we're talking about this. so how twisted is this debate

that it -- because they have this narrow argument about abortion, which is important to them, i understand that, i respect that, but they are now trying to argue about different kinds of rape and whether some people use it -- >> i'm not. only one kind of rape. >> right. >> let me be very clear. >> the bigger idea was -- >> so obsessed with abortion, and abortion rights above all the other priorities we know are out there, the economy, wars and everything else, that got driven to the top of the republican agenda, even when talking about shutting down the government. >> of course it is a disaster because instead of talking about jobs and the economy, they are talking about this. it definitely has had an unfrocking effect on paul ryan. >> before we go to break, the the cover of "newsweek." >> sure. >> yeah. mr. ferguson. >> some people don't agree with him. >> many people -- >> facts are a little skewed. >> neil is a swashbuckling, you know, very, very aggressive thinker. >> did neil step in it here with

the cbo? >> what neil was saying his skepticism about the conclusions not that they were the cbo's conclusions. that could have been more clear. the fact is he's clarified that in his rebuttals. he really has tried to do in a sense what republican party wishes was happening right now, did a discussion about about the economy. he was trying to say this president has been a failure on this economy. has been a failure on jobs and has been a failure with regard to the deficit. that is his view. i don't agree with most of what he says in the piece but i think the cover is the place to have a war of ideas, battles on ideas and that is what's happened and neil is able to defend himself. >> we'll talk to obama deputy campaign manager stephanie cutter joining us live this hour and next chuck todd inside the nbc news/"wall street journal" poll released on the presidential election. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks.

let me say that legitimate does not -- should not be in the context of rape at all. that's completely wrong. and i understood i have been offensive to people and misspoken, i have apologized and i think that's appropriate because that word does not belong. there is no rape that's legitimate. it's a heinous crime. one of the most serious. i understand that the victims are harmed for a long time and i take that very seriously. while i apologize for the misuse of that word, at the same time i don't apologize for the fact that i am strong in my belief of pro life.

>> that was congressman todd akin a few minutes ago on nbc's "today" discussing the words that kicked off the firestorm. here with us chief white house correspondent and political director and host of "the daily rundown" chuck todd. >> good morning. >> okay. his apology commercial, that kind of erases everything, right? we just move on, right? that's what we do here? 24 hour news cycle. >> came over from our friends at the "today" show and matt's last question to akin, why are you putting your ego ahead of the republican party, you've heard from mitt romney, from all these people, and the first words out of his mouth were, well it's not about me. actually, yes, it is. this entire firestorm is about you. your -- i mean -- >> who does he think it's about? >> if it's not about him, he said, the voters of missouri, of course. mika. it's the voters of missouri. >> claire mccaskill wanted him to be her opponent.

do you think she knew just how much she wanted him? >> well yes. i can tell you, look, there were a lot of republicans -- and the bigger story is this goes back to 2009, you had mitch mcconnell and john cornyn running the republican senate campaign committee and they were trying to play party boss. as they should. and they said you know what, we want charlie kris to be our candidate in florida, trey grayson to be our candidate in kentucky. and you know, they were trying to pick winners and losers. this what is they're supposed to do. they're head of the party. we know what happened. marco rubio in florida, ray and paul in kentucky and the lesson that mcconnell and cornyn took away, they don't like this but said fine, we won't get involved in primaries anymore. they didn't get involved in primaries and look what it's gotten them. it's gotten them an inability to win senate seats in colorado, nevada, delaware, the last time when they tried to pick winners and losers and this time they

stayed out of it. they didn't want akin. three. -way race scared them because they thought the two more legitimate candidates that gave them a better shot. but they said as long as he's sort of under ground and doesn't speak, but they were very fearful of this. don't think they weren't. >> they knew what was coming. >> they knew what was coming, but they also made this decision because the tea party spoke because mitch mcconnell doesn't want to get primaried. john cornyn saw what happened in his home state of texas when a friend of his couldn't survive a primary. >> two-part question here. you talk to a broad array of people. is mitt romney wearing the akin comments as a candidate, republican candidate, and if so how does he shed it? >> i don't think he is yet, but he should fear that he could. if you look at our poll, a couple questions popped out and said this is why they're fearful

of the akin story. we did 15 traits that we measured obama versus romney. one of them was who's more likely to show concern for women's issues. it wasn't close. wit it was a 30-point advantage for the president. mind you before the akin comment. done only one night of the poll was done in akin. the second thing you look at is the republican brand in general. one of the things we don't talk about enough, people say oh, mitt romney is not wearing well, mitt romney has an anchor around his -- and his campaign called the republican party brand. it has been under water, upside down for a long time. more people view it negatively than positively. the democrats aren't in great shape but they've been in better shape as far as perception wise of the party than the republicans. is it congressional republicans? we can come up with our theories. the brand has been upside down, almost two straight years since the republican party was viewed more positively than negatively in our poll. that brand issue akin doesn't

help it at all especially going into the convention. i think you look at our poll this convention is very important for mitt romney to both become bigger than the republican party and to define what the republican party is over and above what others have done. >> what's your sense off the numbers that you're looking at and the poll right now, about women as a voting block? i mean, my sense of it would be that many, many women, back to school shopping, you know, they're taking a look at the prices, they're captives of the economy, which is not great, and they might be wavering in between. >> they should be. if you on paper, right. >> what does this do? >> it's one of these -- i call it the gut check. i think presidential elections if you look at the race right now and this is were a senate or gubernatorial race, 48 to 44, challenger, 50/50 race, it's a coin flip. in a presidential race there's always that little something extra. i think it's a gut check, that -- where values matters to

you as much as the hard and fast issues. obama is leading romney in all the gut check questions and i think with women, what akin does, throws that seed of doubt, yes, i'm not happy with the president, but if i -- if they make the connection if i put romney in charge it puts all those republicans in charge, do i want to go there, have that conversation about my body, about abortion, i think that -- that's the fear of the romney camp. >> would he have done better to have condi rice at his side? she may not have bought a state but she's dignified, accomplished. >> i still think the ryan pick in what it needed to do for him, he needed to stand for people. people didn't think he stood for something. he was going to go in and say i'm not afraid of dealing with this budget issue. the extra piece of baggage -- >> he were afraid to deal with budget issues. >> well they -- >> but they've gop gone head first in medicare now. at first they didn't want to.

they were trying to dance around but now they're head first. >> okay. >> the one extra piece of baggage they didn't contemplate as much, his first name is congressman. >> rapid fire, go through these numbers. rapid fire, one line each, unless there's nothing to be learned from it. if the election were held today, obama 48, mitt romney 44. >> battleground state number is what i would point people to. much smaller. 49/46. one place we saw evidence of a ryan boost. >> obama job approval, 48 approve, 49% disapprove. >> that 48 and 48, keep an eye, job approval number and your final ballot test is usually the same. president obama on the economy, approve 44, disapprove 54. >> that hasn't changed in six months. >> is that an important number? >> it's -- the longer it doesn't have an impact it is an important number, his anchor, but at what point is it baked? in? >> direction of the country,

right, 32rs, wrong direction 61%. y >> you realize the president is winning one fourth of people who think the country is headed in the wrong direction. >> it's amazing. >> right. >> you mentioned paul ryan's congressman. congress job approval, approve 12%, disapprove 82%. >> the country is united baby. we have united the country. congratulations. u.s. congress. >> bipartisan. >> is there any way, chuck, 12% approve, any way we can -- >> i want to know who these people are. >> and live near them. >> in all honesty, every time we do this question, i do get a smart alec like you who says who are these people and john mccain's joke, friends and family. i think we ought to -- we do in the phone number when we interview the poller are you okay if we call you back and interview you. we ought to get these people together. who are the 12%. we are the 12%. >> make you more or less likely to vote for romney. more likely, 22, less likely 23.

does not effect the vote, 54. >> you're right. mike is right. doesn't matter who is on that vice presidential ticket. >> no. >> i think look, it still gave romney a sense of something. since obama came president the country is better off, worse off, 42. >> 31%. back to that number. 69 % feel they've been running in place or worse off. that's what i keep asking myself. why is the president ahead. he's ahead because he wins the other values questions. >> view of the democratic party, positive 42, negative 40%. >> what we started off. >> view of the republican party, positive 36%, negative 45%. >> one poll not on there i talked to your guys about it that i think says a lot, cares about average people, the president's advantage 22 points. >> that's good. >> we got medicare, proposed voucher program, good idea 15%, bad idea 30%, no opinion 51%. >> that just shows you the work

that the ryan -- romney/ryan ticket has work to do to break even on medicare. that's why take on that burden, 80 days before the election. >> work to do with the african-american vote as well. and perhaps women. support among black voters president obama 94%. mitt romney -- >> you know d. >> what matters here is turnout among african-americans. >> yeah. >> in virginia does it perform one point above census like last time. that's our assumption, that's our poll. >> that's the question. >> that's what matters more is enthusiasm. >> all right. >> a lot of enthusiasm to make up here in the republican party. >> there is on the democratic -- >> there is -- >> hispanics, we have the telemundo poll coming out the big story out of there, the gap is big, it's voter enthusiasm. >> it's not there for the president. >> you know what, i think that could be a big problem on both sides at this point. i don't know -- >> even to mike's point about

the vice president not mattering. there is something about just the visuals that are important. >> yeah. >> i think that sort of the imagery of a ticket is still very important. even though the vice president doesn't matter. the imagery of this ticket is the privileged white guy ticket. and that is a visual you cannot get out of. >> i've been troubled by a viewer, random viewer sent me an e-mail and she said, why should i -- i don't live in one of the battle ground states. my vote doesn't count. why should i vote. i've been thinking about that and i had no good answer for her. i said, well, all the other elections in your state i hope -- you tell them, do your civic duty. it was an interesting -- >> yeah. >> i wonder because we put so much emphasis and so much advertising taking place, does it actually turn off people in the non -- in the nonstates. >> bush/clinton re-elections were they at this point, two or three points ahead. >> he is right on the bush trajectory. >> president obama is. >> behind clinton but at this point clinton started to pull

ahead now six months ago clinton was in a rougher place in '96 than at this point. but right now, boy, obama and bush -- every time i look at the numbers from '04, they're mirror images of each other. >> do you have any good answers for the giants beating the dodgers twice? >> we scent them at their place two weeks ago. obviously they didn't clean out all the steroids in san francisco. >> oh! >> hello. >> harsh. >> melky cabrera -- >> the milk of magnesia. >> i believe it was the 27 thing. melky finally turned 27. >> chuck todd, we'll see you at 9:00. >> you're horrible. >> "the daily rundown." you want to stay for a block or two? >> i think i agreed to. >> is this in your contract. >> it's in my contract. >> tina brown, thank you so much. still ahead, we were're going tk to the deputy campaign manager stephanie cutter. keep it here on "morning joe." ♪

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39 past the hour. all next week our special coverage of the republican national convention will be live from our own "morning joe" elephant bar on channel side avenue in tampa. coverage begins on monday at 5:30 a.m. with "way too early." if you're in the area stop by.

we'll have food and lots of entertainment. don't miss it. up next, from the obama re-election team deputy campaign manager stefphanie cutter joins the conversation. [ male announcer ] this is the land of giants. ♪ home of the brave. ♪ it's where fear goes unwelcomed... ♪ and certain men...

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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. 43 past the hour. welcome back to "morning joe." here with us now obama deputy campaign manager stephanie cutter. welcome back to the show. >> good morning. >> all right. let's start with this nbc news/"wall street journal" poll. one that jumps out at me that i would like to put to you. the direction of the country, right direction, 32%, wrong direction 61% believe the country is headed in the wrong direction. is that on this president and how does the campaign work around that? >> well, i think it's exactly

what the president has been saying, that, you know, over the course of the last three and a half years we've made progress from recovering from the worst economic crisis in a generation, but there's more that we need to do. and i think there are other elements in that nbc poll that show that the american people know that the president is trying to move this country forward. we face obstacles, there's more we need to do, but they see the president pushing to move this country forward in the right direction. if we -- what he's out there talking about is his jobs plan. you know, there's a piece of legislation sitting in front of congress, sitting there for a year, that could create a million jobs today putting teachers back to work, as schools are coming back in session, lots of teachers are being laid off. we can prevent that. giving small businesses tax cuts. so in terms of the right versus wrong direction, i think the american people see the president trying to move the country in the right direction. >> i got one more question and you can jump in. front page, most of the papers, look at "the new york times," ignoring the deadline to quit,

gop senate candidate defies his party leaders, todd akin won't step down. that's one of the big stories. the other, is the fact that we've hit the 2,000 mark in terms of deaths in the war in afghanistan, 11 years later. "the new york times" puts together this, four pages of faces of lives lost. does this administration believe that these lives were not lost in vain and when should we be talking about what's happening here, really talking about it, as part of the campaign? >> well, mika, i think that the -- this administration and this president takes those lives lost very seriously. which is why the president has a plan on the table to draw down our troops in afghanistan and turn that security over to the afghan people. there's obviously been an upstick in violence in afghanistan and the president has his top military personnel over there working on it. and where, you know, we're sticking with our plan, we're

moving forward to draw down our troops. i do think that there should be a discussion in this campaign about foreign policy and both candidates' plans for how we're going to get our troops out of afghanistan. just two days ago, mitt romney was asked about his plan for afghanistan and in his words, he said he's not going to lay out details for how he's going to draw down the war in afghanistan until after the election. sounds very familiar to a secret plan that another candidate promised many, many years ago. so we'd love to have a discussion. there's not a willingness on the other side to put out details. the president has details out there. we have a thorough plan. he went to afghanistan to talk about it. so, you know, we welcome it. but we need a little substance on the other side. >> stephanie, willie geist, i want to ask you a question i asked david axelrod last week, to kind of cut through all the noise and the 24-hour news cycle and speak to an undecided voter

looking for a job. why would a second term for president obama be better than a first term for mitt romney if i want a job in the short term? in the clearest of terms, why is it better to vote for you guy than mitt romney? >> because there is only one candidate in this race and i think the nbc poll shows that today, who cares about that unemployed worker and has plans on the table to help him get back to work. whether it's job training programs that the president is investing in or wanting to give small business tax cuts to hire somebody like that unemployed worker or education plans to ensure that young people have every opportunity they can in the future for the jobs of the future. and how we're going to grow this economy. whether we want to grow it from the middle out to take care of that unemployed worker or if we want to go back to the same policies that crashed the economy in the first place and put that man out of work or that woman out of work. those top down policies that mitt romney and paul ryan have on the table. so that's as simple -- in the

simplest terms, whether continue moving forward to rebuild this economy from the middle out to take care of that unemployed worker provide him a job or build it from the top down. >> what would you say to that same person who said that hasn't worked for four years, i haven't had the job over time, it's time for a change. >> well, i think that worker probably has a good understanding of what's happened over the past four years in terms of the president coming in and seeing 800,000 jobs lost on the day that the president was being sworn in, and seeing the president moving pretty quickly to stem the losses, to turn the economy around, and over the past, you know, 27 months we've created 4.5 million private sector jobs. that's more jobs than in the bush recovery, in the reagan recovery, there's obviously more we need to do, and as i said to mika the at beginning of the program, i think that unemployed worker probably sees one person in this race trying to move the country forward and that's the president. he's not out there promising

empty rhetoric. he's got real plans on the table. and i think that -- you know is a big distingion in this race and, you know, i think there are lots of people out there frustrated at the pace of change that we're not moving faster to recover this economy, but they also understand that the president is out there fighting for them. >> stephanie, good morning. it's chuck. >> good morning. >> two parts. >> hi chuck. >> you keep picking out some of the things that were good news for your side in our poll. but there were two issue traits we tested that jumped out at me that says that -- these were issues the president was leading on by double digits against john mccain four years ago, that is the idea of who's more likely to change business as usual in washington, advantage romney in our poll. and who had better ideas for the economy, advantage romney in our poll. why do you think this perception is out there, particularly on the first question, that the president is not the best candidate to change business as usual in washington?

>> well, i think that people -- and can we talk about the good news in that poll eventually? >> you have. you already have. >> i want to ask you about -- >> yeah. but there's more. >> those are big issues to be losing. >> they are. i'll address them. >> small things to lose in our poll. >> i don't disagree with you. >> ient d enent don't disagree . the president has changed washington. has he changed it enough? absolutely not. we faced pretty big obstacles. lots of obstacles from the republican party on plans that we wanted to get through. a year ago we were debating a grand bargain to reduce the deficit. that would have changed washington. president put tough choices on the table and we came this close to a pretty big deal to put the country on track to reduce our deficits and strengthen our economy. the other side walked away because they weren't willing to ask the very wealthy in this

country to pay one more dime in taxes. a central player in the republican party walking away was paul ryan. last week it was reported that paul ryan told john boehner not to cut a deal because it would guarantee the president re-election. mitch mcconnell. i could go over the facts over the last four years. i think in that number you see that there has been opposite tackles to the president's plans to change washington. it's not that he hasn't tried it's that there hasn't been a willingness from the other side particularly when the other side is meeting on the day of the president's inauguration to figure out how they're going to defeat him. >> sam? >> there's a data poll that we're denying. 20% of the public don't think either campaign has gone negative yet. you still have public to hit there that you can attack romney and get away with it. it's a pattern that the obama campaign is outraised by the romney company on a month to

month basis. a major cash on hand advantage is now a 60 million cash on hand disadvantage. were you expected to get outraised by this much? and two, how has it changed your approach or the campaign's approach going into the last three months? are there states you have to revisit in terms of making expenditures or do you have enough money to do what you always wanted to do? >> well, sam, you know, we always expected to get outraised both from the romney campaign and the super pacs. this is a different kind of race than any presidential campaign in history because of the super pacs. we've had a strategy. we've been sticking to our strategy. we're going to have enough money to implement our strategy. we've made heavy investments already on the ground game which is not something that you can put in place in the last 78 days of an election. we're communicating the choice on air in the way that we need to. it hasn't changed our outlook or

our strategy. we're sticking to it. i hate to bring up the good news in the nbc poll but if you look at the nbc poll, our strategy is working. >> there is good news. >> what's that? >> there is good news? >> good morning. very quickly around voter enthusia enthusiasm. chuck raised the point we saw african-american numbers, hispanic numbers, do you guys believe you will have the same turnout in virginia and north carolina, colorado, some of the key states amongst hispanic and african-americans and if not what are you doing to drive that number up over the next 70 to 80 days? >> well, i do think that we'll have the same turnout but we can't take that for granted. absolutely not. and what we're seeing on the ground is real enthusiasm. people are now paying attention to this race. we're having more volunteers coming out. more people getting registered to vote. when i was talking about our money strategy before, where we're investing, we're investing

in that ground game to ensure we can turn out the vote. as this race goes on whether it's for african-americans or hispanic americans or women, the real distinction in this election, the real stark choice between these two candidates is getti inting pretty defined and american people are paying attention to that whether or not you're african-american or hispanic. we can't take turnout for granted and we're not. we've invested heavily in it. we have in some states we've registered more people this time at this point in the race than in total of 2008. so we've got a strategy and we're sticking to it. >> thank you very much. good to see you. >> do you think we should tell stephanie i was banned from asking her a question because you know i would say, stephanie, how's it going? >> i banned you. i will continue to especially until -- anyhow. stephanie handled everyone quite well here. she was good.

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♪ >> good morning. it's 8:00 on the east coast. 5:00 a.m. on the west coast. time to wake up, sleepy head. as you take a live look at new york city. welcome back to "morning joe." back with us on set, mike barnicle, and with us from philadelphia, former governor ed rendell. so if you are mitt romney, and you're getting ready for your

republican convention, this is probably a little bit of a frustrating time. you want to talk about different visions for the country and sort of choice of paul ryan as a way to set the table for real conversation and everybody is talking about an issue they don't want to talk about. abortion. and this guy who will not leave. a deadline has come and gone that would have allowed republicans to replace congressman todd akin's name on the battle for the race in missouri. it will now require a court order. many in the republican establishment are pushing for him to bow out. blunt was join which four others calling for akin to step aside. yesterday mitt romney issued a statement to exit the senate race. instead mr. akin was defiant accusing the republican presidential candidate of making a bigger deal than is necessary

over the comments. >> if you were in romney's position, don't you think that he may have bid this thing up and made a bigger deal about it than he needed to in why couldn't he run his race and i run mine? >> can you name one person, one member of the united states senate, you know, a lot of conservatives, paul, jim demint, any current member of the senate that called you and asked you to stay in. >> our polling data says we're still up a point. >> akin also released a new campaign ad apologizing to missouri voters for what he said. >> i'm todd akin and i approve this message. rape is an evil act. i used the wrong words in the wrong way and for that i apologize. as a father of two daughters, i want tough consequences for predators. rape can lead to pregnancy. the truth is rain has many

victims. the mistake i made was in the words i said, not in the heart i hold. i ask for your forgiveness. >> ed rendell, that will make it all go away, right? >> no, not exactly. i don't think akin is necessarily dead in the fall election. a friend of mine who is a consultant who has done work in missouri says he can hang in there and make a battle of it. it's so much bigger than missouri. it's jarring reminder this whole incident of all of the things that happened earlier this year. the blunt amendment. a good guy to talk. one of the most anti-women pieces of legislation i have ever seen and one thing that's been overlooked, we're heading for a collision course. you heard governor romney and congressman ryan say they are for an exception for rape and incest on the ban on abortion. the republican party platform just accepted a plank that said

there are no exceptions. there are no exceptions for rape and incest. so the question is, governor romney, congressman ryan, what about your own party's platform? it's a mess. >> we'll get to the platform which the governor of virginia is heading up. richard wolf, it's hard not to separate paul ryan from this guy who is a complete disaster. as joe was saying yesterday, the republican party certainly put on a great collective show of strength against him and should be commended for that. having said that, there is this link that he may not agree with but i tell you, leading democrats certainly will seize upon it. >> this is not con drived contr republicans. this republican party has chosen to put abortion and debate about abortion right up to the top of

the agenda. they have gone after this time and time again at a time of economic crisis and hardship when the country should be coming together with the best ideas and they've said, we're prepared to shut down the government but if you give us something on abortion, that will be okay. here this whole tying together of the akin/ryan bill to take another step against something which is already banned, which is federal money going towards abortions, that itself is not just troubling because of what it says about this concept of forceable rape, when they went after that, they weren't just going after abortion and federal funds. they were actually trying to separate teenage pregnancies, statutory rain, when you hear akin talk about predators, what do we think of as predators? people who prey on teenagers. this bill that they put together which thankfully did not pass, would have meant that more teenage victims of rape, more teenage mothers would have come

into play in this country because they would have been singled out. you know why they would have been singled out? they thought teenage sex is somehow some kind of squishy thing that people get abortions with. that's the bigger debate. the bigger debate is this party wanting to have social policy changed for their own agenda tight of economic hardship. >> look how easy it was to press the button and say go. you could go on and on. first of all, paul ryan gets chosen and there are these exciting concepts about the conversation and the national sort of debate over the direction of this country and yet the romney campaign wants nothing to do with paul ryan's budget. now they want nothing to do with paul ryan's connection to this legislation. at some point they have to move forward. i don't know how they get out from under this. >> this has been a surprise to me. i thought i understood the direction they were taking when

they chose paul ryan. you choose paul ryan because you want tough choices campaign. you want to be the folks that will cut medicare and will cut the budget in a very serious way. i don't understand why you should paul ryan in order to run a campaign that would never under any circumstances how could you even say we would cut medicare by a dollar for current retirees so after they chose paul ryan because of this immediate collapse into an incoherence, the campaign is less focused on the economy than before the choice. not everything here is our fault. akin is not something mitt romney wanted to happen. there have been a series of not just events but tactical decisions like trying to focus on medicare and other elements of the budget or actually trying to focus on why mitt romney unlike paul ryan wouldn't cut medicare that created this void and messaging incoherence that commercials are rushing in to fill. >> i thought governor rendell

something you said was remarkable. and that is the plank as part of the platform, constitutional amendment that would outlaw abortions in cases of rape and incest. you had republicans trying to paint akin has an outlier in their party and then they come out with plank that makes it their policy that what they believe is his believe. >> they are doing everything they can to shoot themselves in the head. it's really stunning. >> you know, what is kind of overwhelming, i think maybe to a lot of people, is that when you look at the republican party, and you think of the phrase to describe many elements of the republican party, being conservative, that's fine. conservatism is fairly popular in this country. a lot of people want smaller government. smaller government. less government. this flies in the face of all of that. this is having the government

right in your bedroom. right in your lives on this one issue. and i get the sense and i'm probably wrong because i'm wrong most of the time, they spent the last two or three days talking about congressman akin and talking about this issue and talking about the platform and it's into the news today, talking themselves right out of winning the election because they have -- i would think activated one demographic group, women, put them on alert, be careful. watch out. >> you would think -- you talked about the comments being one crack pot's comments. here's the problem with the news coming out today which you know democrats will seize upon again. turns out the doctor that gave congressman akin his ideas about how rape does or does not get a woman pregnant, his name is john wi wilky. he was a surrogate for mitt

romney during his 2008 presidential bid. while the views have been dismissed by modern science and logic, romney's '08 campaign said dr. willke will be an important surrogate for romney's pro-life and pro-family agenda. >> i'll say this. i always feel bad for candidates like romney on this kind of thing. they didn't know this guy that well. they certainly were not trying to endorse these views. there's something there that you get somebody tied to something that didn't know they thought this but this what happens when you get into bed with everyone from every part of the party. you end up coming into the fray years later when something else they said becomes a huge deal. i feel somewhat bad for the romney campaign for this. this isn't the conversation they

want. i'm sure they had no idea what he believed. this has been to some degree the cost of capitulating to every segment of the far right. this is not good and not the campaign the former moderate governor of massachusetts could have run. it's a campaign he did run to win the primaries and now these are long-term costs of it. >> that's the problem, right? he was trying to pretend, trying to prove he was no longer the moderate former governor of massachusetts. he was trying too hard. if you have a candidate who doesn't know what he stands for and is just trying to get advantage you end up getting endorsements from people that aren't aligned with you. you probably are probably not in fact really. >> what more could the romney campaign have done in a situation like this if you can do reverse psychology. when mitt romney went on camera

for the new hampshire station, did he come out strong enough against akin? >> i think he did in this limited instance. the problem is as richard said, he's been catering to the far right all along. he missed an opportunity on the blunt amendment. he was asked about the blunt amendment and initially he said he wouldn't support it or he wouldn't have signed it and he backtracked. that was his first opportunity to show a little distance in coherent sensible policy toward women. he should have come out against the blunt amendment. when rush limbaugh trashed that girl, he should have come out in a strong way and said that young woman was doing just what she had to do and that rush limbaugh's comments were reprehensible. it's a cumulation of things and vetting paul ryan. did they vet paul ryan well? did they understand he was co-sponsor of this type of bill? did they understand that he actually wrote and asked for

stimulus money after denouncing stimulus. did they understand that in 2002 he supported president bush's stimulus. they didn't pay attention to that. >> i would think on the issue of abortion especially, they would look at his record given this has been a tough one for mitt romney. it's been an impossible issue. an issue you know at some point you're going to be asked about. how hidden is this legislation? >> they probably did, right? what does mitt romney fear in a campaign like this? he doesn't fear he'll be seen as moderate on abortion. he fears that the republican right will see him as moderate on abortion. the base, the folks he needs to activate to turn out in this election, he's going to need to win a state like ohio, will go back and get ads on both side of the abortion issue saying as governor of massachusetts he's a moderate and would vote to uphold roe v. wade and wouldn't

let the government into a woman's bedroom. you look at paul ryan who brings fiscal credentials but has this 100% rating from the big pro-life groups and that strengthens you because these groups can say even if you don't trust mitt romney, paul ryan is there and he'll keep him from being a squish. this is probably seen from them as a benefit at the time. >> ed rendell? >> it's a fatal flaw. if mitt romney loses this election he's going to lose it because his campaign never understood the base, the republican base, was coming out to vote against barack obama. period. they didn't need to activate it. it was activated on its own. they should have from the time he clinched the primaries, they should have moved to appeal to moderate republicans in the suburbs of every big city that are key swing voters in so much different swing states to design their policy towards getting out their base. a base that was coming out. maybe they would have held their nose in the voting booth but they came to vote against barack

obama. that's a fatal flaw. >> barnicle? >> what's your reaction to all of this as a woman, as a mother of two daughters? what's your reaction? >> i actually think that -- i kind of feel sorry for the republican party at this point because this guy has made a joke of them. if this is how they really feel about issues of rape, this doctor, i have to say, it gives me pause. they look stupid. they look incredibly stupid. and i'm not sure what they can do about this disaster of a candidate and maybe they've done everything they can do. i think mitt romney should have done more. i said it yesterday on the set. he should have spoken for the women in his life. he should have spoken from the heart. and he should have been deeply insulted for them that somebody like this can have such an important role in our country's future because obviously the senate, the makeup of the senate, is going to be one of the key stories of our political future.

i think it's pathetic. they look like they're losing. and then the -- i do think that this has a direct link to paul ryan. right now the question i'm asking myself -- maybe ed you can chime in, paul ryan who i thought was a good choice for the national conversation, is paul ryan a bad choice or a choice that's being handled badly? >> a little of both, mika. i think given where they had to go and i go back to my point, they didn't have to activate the base. the base was coming out to vote against barack obama. >> when we come back, former news anchor campbell brown, the wife of romney adviser joins us on set. that's a way to talk about her. the wife of. like i'm daughter of. what the had he can? >> she's her own woman. she's campbell brown. >> it happens to relate to something she wrote for slate. i take offense. she's going to fill us in on importance of full disclosure when talking politics. something she's writing about

this week. also ahead, comedian and bestselling author and creator of "satire column" andy borowitz will be here and thoughts on how todd akin should apologize to missouri voters but first, bill karins, who should apologize every day. >> always something. i have a funny feeling i'm going to be apologizing to a lot of people in florida come this time next week. let's show you what we're dealing with. isaac. the first real big threat to the united states of our hurricane season. it has a long ways to go to get to florida including big islands in the caribbean that could knock strength down. we'll watch it. it's in the very bottom right of your screen. a very large storm. much larger than the average storm. the forecast path from the hurricane center takes it over the islands near puerto rico, haiti on saturday. cuba on sunday. and then it should come off the coast, strengthen over the warm waters there north of cuba in between there and florida and head somewhere near florida as we go throughout monday morning.

that will be the critical time period. right now the hurricane center has that being a 90-mile-per-hour strong category 1 storm. if it's further right over warmer waters, it could be stronger than that. we have to watch this. florida, georgia, mississippi and even there in louisiana, haven't ruled you out either. forecast for today, no problems whatsoever. around much of the country looks like a great travel day. southeast will have typical storms. a little bit of wet weather there. areas that don't typically get it like vegas and arizona. the big story is isaac. it will arrive in florida on monday along with all of the people for the republican national convention there in tampa. they haven't ruled tampa out yet from getting significant impacts. wait and see. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. ♪

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>> look who is here. former news anchor campbell brown who writes about the importance of full disclosure when it comes to politics and the media. campbell is married to dan senor. we love dan. she herself is not involved in the campaign. is that possible? in "slate" campbell writes this. to assume that someone's views are influenced or shaped by his or her partner is lazy. it is an intellectual crutch we grope for when we do not have an effective counter to someone's argument. smart people have challenged me

with a reasoned response pointing out the weaknesses of my argument, the less intellectual partisan say all full of ire. she's married to a romney guy. but there is another truth. there is a way to create a diversion so your arguments go unheard is an ineffective strategy. how do you -- when you introduce yourself to people or you come on the air, do you have to disclose every time? >> that's what i was struggling with. i think this environment makes it particularly tricky because we are all essentially becoming partisan. we're two months away from a presidential election. and even people who are in the middle of the road consider themselves independent are in the process of choosing sides. because of that, everyone's

sensitivities are heightened in a way that if i were writing the same things a year ago it would be far less of an issue but right now it's just -- it strikes me that people i don't normally think of as partisan are feeling very intense about their candidate who are it might be at the moment. so that comes into play a lot. i think it's just the timing. it's very hard to do this against a backdrop of a campaign to establish yourself with your own identity when your husband is as deeply involved as mine is. >> do you think the fact that you are -- well, i have family members. i understand this completely. the fact that you're a news person. affiliated with the news industry. that they think, we know the real secret about her. is that what you get from people? >> thoughtful people, no. but i think what kind of surprised me and this all just for background came out of writing some op-eds and i think

you're always from the extreme partisan is going to get that. no matter what. they are going to dismiss it and not bother to read it. a piece i wrote for "the new york times" that was critical of the president and how he was speaking to women, i disclosed my relationship to dan not at the top of the piece but into the piece somewhat and so i got all of this twitter and comments on the "times" section saying you didn't disclose. you didn't even read the piece. and then you go, okay, that's not worth worrying about. another piece i wrote about planned parenthood that was critical of planned parenthood and their legislative policy, that was their response and that surprised me. another piece was critical of the teachers union and that was their response and that surprised me. come on, can't we have a debate on the merits. if you disagree with what i said -- i know weaknesses in my argument. i could have ripped my planned

parenthood piece to shreds. why didn't you. there are weaknesses there. we can have a debate. i think honestly it's a microcosm of the campaign. the same thing is happening on a much larger level. you can't talk about issues on the merits right now because something else comes along that's a distraction. it's more interesting. it's an attempt to undermine the credibility of the person rather than actually debate the issue. >> assuming they have their own individual thoughts which i want to get to in the world of journalism later. sam has a question. >> not a question but an observation. reporters, we tend to be secretive in nature despite that we try to get secrets out of our sources. you are right in some respects. you should always put yourself out there because it's a relief in some respects. my wife, for instance, works for this administration. the obama administration. it's been something that i've

been up front about and i put in my pieces. it's just funny that reporters whose job it is to expose people for their connections and list all of the facts that are out there with sources that they are talking about when the microphone or spotlight is on them, they get clammed up and nervous about it. >> i agree with you. where i came down sort of having had this internal debate and then debating it with a lot of journalist friends, whether it has any relation to the issue or not, put it out there. i could be writing about what i'm planting in my garden and i have no doubt in this environment at this particular moment, someone would raise their hand and say she's married to a romney guy. it's almost irrelevant, the topic or subject matter. i agree with sam ultimately that you can't win unless you approximate you the it out there every time. how do you do it? >> how would i do that? i'm mika brzezinski. my father worked for democratic president. my brother works for obama.

my brother works for romney. is that full disclosure? does that help you? i'm mika brzezinski and there's my view. i don't get it. >> first of all, you should make friends of normal people rather than people in the media. >> true. that's true. i like campbell. >> you know what? i remember when i first started dating dan and somebody -- you'll appreciate this. when i first started dating him someone internally said to tim russert who was my boss at the time, what are you going to do about this? and tim was like who else is she going to meet? honestly? she works 17 hours a day at the white house. who do you expect her to meet? she's going to find a nice accountant somewhere? it's not going happen. >> can i tell the story about your wedding. full disclosure, we're friends. it's true. i admit it. i'm guilty. everyone should read campbell's piece. it's funny and great and it's everything the campaign is not.

gets to the heart of a difficult subject. >> we're old friends. take everything he says with a grain of salt. >> at her wedding. i don't know who handed out signs. half of the people said fox news and half held signs saying msnbc. put that to a side for one second. it was kind of funny for those of us who don't dance so well. we kind of -- we like to think we grew up together on the bush campaign even though none of us really grew up including the candidate at that point. there was something we learned from that which is how difficult these campaigns are and how difficult these questions are. i kind of think you honestly, both of you, are facing these questions because of the unstated thing here that we have an assumption that women are influenced more by men in their lives than the other way around. how many men have to give up this disclosure. >> i didn't get into the piece because i thought it would be knee jerk but i'm glad you

raised that. is that a fair -- if the situation were reversed and i worked on the campaign and dan were writing things, would there be the same sort of reaction? >> isn't paul ryan's wife a democrat? >> yes. >> i don't know. i haven't heard a lot about that. >> there is an underlying -- geor this isn't a situation with a spouse. i didn't even want to go down that path because i think there are so many other issues that you have to deal with. >> one of them might be and it's something to explore, i think journalists should -- >> stop taking themselves seriously. >> what does objective mean? >> that's a really good point. you don't have to be married to somebody working on a campaign to recognize that all of us have biases based on our life experience that we bring to the

table. based on how we were raised. based on our families. and we do have opinions and even when we bite our tongue in the name of journalism. >> wouldn't it be more honest to the viewer if we were transparent about our world view, our background, our political affiliation, wouldn't that help them understand the news that's being filtered to them? if we can feel comfortable about sharing that, then perhaps people can feel comfortable trusting us. and i don't understand what this hiding behind the veil of objectivity is at this point. >> the only thing i would raise about this, there's a difference between what chuck todd does here at msnbc and what rachel maddow does. >> chuck todd has opinions. >> he's covering the campaign and trying to do a more straight objective journalism where he's based on fairness, balance and facts whereas rachel would be judged on bolstering her arguments with facts but on her ability to be persuasive.

i think they are two different things. you have to treat the people who are doing those jobs differently. fair? >> i think there's room for both. in the end journalism has to be rooted in fact whatever side you're on, you have to get to the heart of a story with reporting, questions, answers and facts but objectivity wasn't always part of journalism in its early days. it's not part of journalism in much of the rest of the world. and people still are able to judge whether or not the journalism is trustworthy and accurate. accuracy is at the heart of it all. you know, the audience is sophisticated. they know where some journalists are more in the line of opinion and some are just the facts. >> haven't we moved in a -- i think back to when you and i were covering the campaign in 2000. we were doing very straight objective journalism at the time. and i would file my piece for "nightly news" you would write your story and we would go into

the bar and have a saltier conversation of what happened that day than we put in our pieces and people are now in this environment feeling much more comfortable -- you're blaming it on twitter. people feel more comfortable about saying what they really think the conversation we had in the bar versus what you filed for "nightly news." >> this is a fascinating conversation. when we come back, andy borowitz joins us. more "morning joe" in just a moment.

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>> paul ryan did give me a call. he felt that i had to make a decision but he advised me that it would be good for me to step down. i told him i would look at this very seriously trying to weigh the different points on this and that i would make the decision because it's not about me. it's about trying to do the right thing and standing on principle. >> that was congressman todd akin earlier this morning on "today" show. joining us now, andy borowitz. in his latest blog, a farce apology e-mail from todd akin. it reads in part over the weekend i made remarks suggesting that rape could be legitimate and that a uterus could think. today i would like to offer every woman in missouri my deepest apology. if your uterus could talk, i bet

it would have choice words for old todd right now. i've been getting an earful from a lot of you. you said i'm an ignorant and dangerous man. i should be put away where i could do as little harm as possible. for that i say i could not agree more and that place is the united states senate. andy borowitz joins us now. >> that was such a beautiful reading. that's interesting. he should do a town hall meeting with a uterus and give it equal time. am i allowed to say that? i'm sure you have been saying words like that all week. >> it's cable. you can say whatever you want. are guys like todd akin a boom to your industry. >> august is kind of a slow time. for you guys as well. just to get this bam in the middle of august is awesome. i like to give back as a

comedian. a guy like akin gives me so much. that's why i wrote that apology for him. i hope he uses it. it really shows why he should be elected to the senate. you know, in the house, you think about it, he was a member of the science committee. and you really don't want him anywhere near science. getting him to the senate gets him as far away from science as possible. that's a compelling argument. >> i love the idea of todd akin talking to the new yorker audience by the way. we should talk about your deal. this is a huge deal. the borowitz report which is very popular online goes to the new yorker. how did that come about? >> it really came from the editor of the new yorker who i think they are seeing the future of all magazines and all newspapers being more digital. they have this great iphone app and ipad and that stuff. they want to take somebody who already had an online audience that was maybe compatible with the new yorker's audience.

i've been writing other things for the new yorker since 1998. i'm a name that's not totally unfamiliar to new yorker readers. they just said we would like to take your website and move the entire thing to the new yorker. the irony of this of course is that the new yorker is legendary magazine that is known for great journalism and scrupulous fact checking and i'm known just for lying. that's all i do. interesting thing to see. i guess the feeling is among new yorker readers that the fact, fact, fact thing gets wearying after a while. if they want a break and want to see falsehoods, they go to the borowi borowitz blog. >> on the todd akin thing, this is the third or fourth or fifth "batman" movie out this summer. there will be sequels to the todd akin story. this can't be a one week thing. that has to go through your mind. >> this new thing about the

doctor that you were talking about. i didn't know that until i tuned into "morning joe" this morning. you have this doctor who is actually a romney surrogate. that was news to me. >> he was for romney's last -- >> he's not anymore. >> you indicated during the commercial break, what about other body parts that todd might -- >> that's true. mika is having a problem with this. we have only spoken about the uterus. i'm interested on what he would say about the other. it's a unique perspective. i'm taking cheap shots at him. this is actually highlighting a serious issue for me. everyone has their own pet issue. for michelle obama it's childhood obesity. for me we need more sex education for members of congress. this is serious. this is a guy who is -- how old is he? 50 something. somewhere around there. he still doesn't really know what the uterus does. i think that's concerning for me. i just -- he's actually voting to cut sex education, which is the irony of it.

i think we need to ramp that up for these guys. that's my issue. >> he could just educate us. >> he's done that this week actually. >> he has. >> talks about these things the uterus can do that we didn't know. >> beyond todd akin, this presidential campaign, good for your business in terms of parity? whether it's mitt romney or president obama, is it a tough sledding or what's it been like. >> it's always good. you never know. there are things like surprises. if you can remember in 2008 we thought we were heading for a very boring convention john mccain and then right before the convention, levi johnston, was a gift that was. he fell down and levi and bristol were there and they were part of our lives. now it's todd akin. i didn't know any of this was going to happen. here it is. >> i don't think he's worried about having material. >> never a problem. will rogers, one of my idols,

was the jon stewart of his day at the turn of the century. he said there's no trouble being a political humorist when you have the whole government working for you. that is still totally true. >> they're working for you. andy borowitborowitz, thank you much. great to have you on the show this morning. check out the borowitz report online at new yorker.com. coming up, late-night fight is brewing. leno and letterman get more competition in the evening. we'll tell you who is invading their turf straight ahead on "morning joe." all energy development comes with some risk,

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starting in january, jimmy kimball live will run to 11:35 time slot in direct competition with jay leno and david letterman. it's a big move. jimmy kimball is popular in his time slot. on his show last night, he did what he did best. using a clip from cable news, watch the mother of the aspiring young cook here. >> one of the kids who participated is from great falls, virginia. cnn interviewed madeleine about her experience. keep a close eye on her mother here. watch her mom's lips. >> what was your recipe that won you the trip? what inspired you? >> i know i love soup so i wanted to do a soup and then when i went into a cookbook called celebrate virginia i

looked what the state beverage of virginia was and it was milk and the first soup that came to my head that had milk in it was chowder. >> what did you tell the first lady when you saw her? >> i told her i was really good to see here. i was really excited for that day. >> okay. i know that you you are taking japanese lessons. can you say anything in japanese to us like good-bye? cute. >> i like her mom. >> it's like me sitting next to you when you ad-lib. >> exactly. >> so cute. >> on the show tomorrow, boone pickens, jill abramson, and richard belzer.

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richard wolf. >> all next week our special coverage of the republican national convention. we'll be live from our "morning joe" elephant bar in tampa. the show kicks off monday

morning starting off at 5:30 a.m. eastern time with way too early. what, if anything, did we learn today? [ male announcer ] when this hotel added aflac to provide a better benefits package... oahhh! [ male announcer ] it made a big splash with the employees. [ duck yelling ] [ male announcer ] find out more at... [ duck ] aflac! [ male announcer ] ...forbusiness.com. ♪ ha ha!

itic on time to talk about what we learned today. sam stein what did you learn, young man? >> andy borowitz might have a point in that mandatory sex

education for incoming members of congress could be a good idea. >> might be. willie geist? >> it ought to be mandatory reading about the cost of the war in afghanistan. go online and check it out. >> i love it. harold? >> romney's acceptance speech may be the most important speech he's made to this point and his political life. >> richard wolffe? >> two things. from chuck todd i learned to keep an eye on battleground state numbers and from jimmy kimball i learned never do tv your mom. >> that's the cutest thing i have ever seen. mike barnicle. >> i love jimmy kimball. he's funny. it's kind of a negative statement for abc news if they bump "nightline" back to 3:00 a.m. in the morning. >> which is doing great. >> it's a good show. >> i don't know what that says. none of our business. jimmy kimball is great. >> all right. thanks for joining us, everyone. willie, if it's