to find you a great deal, even if it's not with us. [ ding ] oh, that's helpful! well, our company does that, too. actually, we invented that. it's like a sauna in here. helping you save, even if it's not with us -- now, that's progressive! call or click today. no mas pantalones! i'm steve kornacki.right now vice president biden is cycle through the motor city. next week crashing the republican's big party in tampa. it's been argued he's a political -- but can this not so average joe keep this president parked at 1600 pennsylvania ave for four more years? >> i'm kristin ball. . is all the pressure finally getting to the president who

coins the phrase legitimate rain. >> i'm tourre. we've got a segment that's good as gold. here's a hint. you're going to feel like a kid in a cliche storm. >> i'm s.e. cupp. nfl football is becoming harder to watch even for the devoted fans. can the league save it self from itself. >> we're on top of all that and more still ahead for wednesday, august 22nd. . >> well, it's august. that means it's the height of hurricane season. so we're on the radar tracking two storms. there's tropical storm i cac and then there's hurricane biden. the vice president is crashing the republican convention if isaac doesn't do it first. the storm is headed straight for florida. it could become a hurricane before monday's kickoff.

even if it isn't a direct hit, it's heavy rains and winds could cause trouble. they have emergency plans in place and running a mock hurricane drill. bob buck horn, the mayor is prepared to call the hole thing off if necessary. would you believe he's a democrat in the i sincerely doubt. >> we cannot catch a break here. >> as for hurricane biden, his forecasted path is set. he has campaign events in tampa on monday and tuesday, day one and two of the convention. the rnc plans to respond with its own storm at the dnc in the chart the next week. right now the vice president is blowing through michigan. biden there in detroit, stumping for the president on a campaign stop. we want to know if his straight talk helps or hurts the president's re-election campaign. some call them gaffes, others believe it's political gold. david drucker is the associate politics editor at roll call and a former office mate of mine. i covered the house, he covered politics. it's great to see you. >> good to see you, steve.

>> let's talk about you this question of biden helping or hurting. i'll give you what i think. i've always thought the guy was an underrated asset for obama. i don't think he hurt at all in 2008. he might have helped a little bit. probably won the debate with sarah palin. has been a consciousal player in the administration. do you see any downside to having this guy around? >> no, not really. in 2008, it was clear to me that barack obama chose biden because he brought a wealth of experience particularly on foreign policy and was able to accepted a signal he was going to surround himself with experienced players and that if anybody was wary, we were still coming out of the september 11th mind-set that he was going to be strong on national security, at least in terms of the none ran advisers that that he surrounded himself with. the thing about vice presidents is this. people aren't going to the polls to vote for vice president. one of the reasons you want somebody on the ticket with you is so they can do all of the

attacking and say all the rude things you want to say to push a message. so the top of the ticket, the president candidate doesn't have to do it. so to the extent biden is saying things that some people might find untoward for a vice president, in a sense that's his job. the only way he will hurts obama is if people have decided they're already so angry at obama, they're already going to vote against him and they can say that biden, that's another reason why. it's not going to be a reason for the president to lose support. >> they're sending him, the obama campaign is sending him down to tampa next week. a mischievous move on their part. what kinds of things do you think he's going to talk about? is it going to have a disruptive effect? >> i don't think it will disrupt the republicans at all. is there anything that vice president biden won't say? i'm not going to predict that there's anything the guy wouldn't do if he feels that it was part of a message he wanted to push or something that happened to be on his mind at the spur of the moment.

will it disrupt the republicans? no. >> look, guys, from the hurricane that's coming through to biden wedding crashing, it just looks like we can't catch a break. i hate that the rnc is sending surrogates to the dnc crash that, biden is coming here. it looks so desperate. is this state of both campaigns that they have to send people over to crash our parties? it reeks of desperation and insecurity. >> i have the same thought. but when the romney campaign was sending their bus honking around the obama rallies, it just feels like middle school. it feels like. >> it's so childish. >> some of my tactics in my high school elections. >> that's what campaigns have become. it used to be that each party would let the other side have its convention, the top of the ticket would go fishing somewhere, go on vacation. you wouldn't hear from them for a few days.

but nobody anymore is willing to seed any sort of advantage. the one thing i'd say not so much in defense of the campaigns but as a matter of fact that the partisans and supporters of each of the campaigns don't want their ticket to lie low. they want them to constantly be fighting and as you know the sort of making mischief. so it's going to make their supporters happy and that's part of why this happens. >> i find it very unbecoming. >> david, it seems an interesting political theater to me and totally what it if is in the modern political era. but it's kind of general, do vps electorally? could we put the nominee at the top of the ticket and put almost anybody beneath them and still come out with the same amount at the end? >> well, i think that vice presidents historically, we've seen that they can hurt the top of the ticket. they're not necessarily nor have i ever really seen them win the

race for the nominee. >> right. >> himself. i would say though that vice presidential candidates have been helpful in presenting a story line and in creating a sort of energy around a candidate. such that they can be particularly helpful and the one thing i don't know if we're going to know yet for another couple of presidents is we've seen the federal government get so big and sometimes unwieldy that at least since bill clinton, we've seen the vice presidential pick sort of been viewed and treated like a partner in executive government. and to the extent that vice presidents are now you know, a lot more valuable than a warm bucket of spit, it could be that we're in the middle of a shift as to how those candidates are seen. but i still believe that at the end of the day, if people don't like the top of the ticket, they're not going to go and support him or her anyway just because they like the vice president. >> one thing that strikes me as usual about the paul ryan vp pick is that he has in a lot of

wa ways, his policy agenda has really overshadowed what we know of the romney policy agenda. that seems to me to be a bit unusual. do you think that's going to change the dynamic of the number two choice for the romney/ryan ticket? >> no, i don't think so. i think once everybody gets over the fact that it's paul ryan and his budget and all the things he's voted for, we're going to get back to the nuts and bolts which is what does romney want to do. we have three presidential debates where he'll get grilled about his plans. from the convention forward, in whatever way they want, they're going to tell us more, tell voters more about mitt romney's plans. paul ryan has said now 5 times, i joined the romney ticket. i support his ideas. i think what paul ryan did for mitt romney was he lent mitt romney credibility with the party so that people didn't just feel good about ryan, they felt good about romney and the choices they think he'll make as a president if he's elected. i think that's why ryan was

valuable for romney in this particular campaign. but it's still going to get down to romney, i think most of the attention is going to be about romney. i think paul ryan is likely to an equip himself aby enough he will not be the story in much of the way sarah palin was four years ago. >> i want to can you one more question and pivot to singh else you're an expert on, the study of steve kornacki. you used to sit next to him as we've said. is there any little story that you can tell us briefly that would shine a light on who he really is? >> by the way, it's his birthday. >> steve kornacki does not like taking orders from everybody. he never wore a suit till he got on tv which is why i'm surprised he took this gig because the guy hates to wear a tie. >> we know that this week drucker, no tie into and that's the story i've been waiting to tell and now it's all gone nothing. >> david drucker, i'm going to stop you before you can embarrass me at all. we're going to have you back

definitely. next up, hearts are akin in the republican party. but are gop leaders less concerned about what todd akin said than they are about who heard it for this wednesday august, 22nd. [ kimi ] atti and i had always called oregon home.

until i got a job in the big apple. becoming a fulltime indoor cat wasn't easy for atti. but he had purina cat chow indoor.

he absolutely loved it. and i knew he was getting everything he needed to stay healthy indoors. and after a couple of weeks, i knew we were finally home! [ female announcer ] purina cat chow indoor. and for a delicious way to help maintain a healthy weight, try new purina cat chow healthy weight.

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. i was misinformed and i recognize that. this is not about me.

this is not about my ego. but it is about the voters of the state of missouri. they've chosen me because of principles that i stand on. >> it's day three of the kidnapping situation in missouri where congressman todd akin is holding the gop hostage. republicans are desperate to get the conversation off of akin. he refuses to drop his senate campaign but conceded to not attend the party convention next week. i guess biden is going in his place. he wants them to keep out of his campaign into 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? >> yes, sean hannity, the liberal elite. i'm sure that mitt romney would love nothing more than for the romney/ryan ticket to run their campaign and for mr. akin to run his, but that is no longer possible. for instance, paul ryan was forced today to respond to questions about his role in the

inclusion of forcible rape into house legislation, and mr. ryan had this to say. rape is rape and there's no splitting hairs over rape. i think it's safe to say that clarifying their position on rape is not exactly where the romney/ryan ticket wanted to be right now. let's put this through the spin cycle. how long is todd akin going to continue to be a problem for the gop? my own personal perspective is as long as he stays in the race, he's going to continue to be somewhat of a distraction. i don't think this is the last crazy pants thing he is likely to say. now the media has this idea that this guy might say crazy stuff so let's keep an eye on him for when he does say crazy stuff. ize gotten a taste for being on tv and being in the media. . for me, i think this will continue to be an issue for the gop. >> i agree 100%. now it's not what he said but his defiance and his delusion in the aftermath that is becoming a

problem. and if this guy is so self-absorbed that he can't recognize the damage he's doing, we're a couple days from our convention. i mean, he's literally gone off the reservation. when you look at some of the things he said that the gop is exploiting this, right, he said romney's making a bigger deal of this than he needed to, romney needed this like he needs a hole in the head. he doesn't need this at all. >> right. >> so it's going to be less about what he said and more about his attitude about it for the next however many days or weeks or months, god for bid, that he stays in this race. >> this is the third level of this part of the news cycle. first he said this insane thing, then he's going to get out. no, he's not going to get out. now it's how long does he stay. i think monday the story will run into a wall in that the rnc will start and we'll have to start talking about something else. this couldn't be better for the

democrats. we're supposed to be talking about the economy and we're talking about abortion and defining what it is in relation to rape. akin's junk science which he did not invent that is what's dominates this story and making this national story, but he is right in line beside that, he's right in line with the gop plan of no abortion even in case of rape or incest. so besides his fairy tale of a woman's body, there's no problem with the rest of the gop. >> in that the gop is largely pro-life. you're right. >> pro-life to the extent of even rape and incest. >> that's not clarified in the platform and the platform has been the same for all of the conventions and mitt romney's position is to allow exceptions. so how do you say he's in line with the whole of the gop? mitt romney disagrees. >> todd akin will be in the news at least for a couple more days. also making waves in washington this week is news week's cover story hit the road barack bihar

vard professor. critics charge it's filled inaccuracies including the health care act's effect on the economy. on "morning joe" today, tina brown defended the controversial article. let's take a look. >> kneel is a swash buckling very, very aggressive thinker. >> did neil step in it here? >> no, i think what kneel was saying was his skepticism about his conclusions not that they were the cbo's conclusions. that could have been a little more clear. >> he's just swash buckling. that's all. this article is the latest example of what's been a nasty presidential campaign cycle one often lacking in accountability. i would throw on mitt rommy that has been claiming that the president wants to end or it's his plan to end the welfare work requirements which has been raided by politifact as a pants on fire claim yet reiterated in ads, on the stump.

there seems to be no desire to back down from this totally debunked claim. my question is a bigger one which is, is there any accountability? are there any consequences to just straightup lying or at best, misrepresenting your opponent's record? >> i think there are. we're getting to the point where there. it's one of the interesting developments of this campaign. look, obviously, political campaigns generally operate in a gray area. it's not uncommon for campaigns in either party to take some liberties with the truth. that is common. but what you have in the welfare example is a perfect example. there really is joe scarborough said on his show the other day, there really is nothing, there is no there there. when you look at wat romney campaign is saying. it's put news organizations in a position where they say do we do the traditional story where mitt romney said this, barack obama said that and some expert down in the 14th paragraph says if you think about, what romney's saying doesn't make much sense. this is -- there is a story that

the associated press ran today on the subject that jumped out at me the headline, romney pushes on with discredited welfare attack. this is the headline. the first paragraph. mitt romney claims he's got a winner with his criticism of president barack obama as giving welfare recipients a free ride. never mind that his arguments are factually inaccurate. to see the associated press, the preeminent neutral middle of the road organization treating it this way, i don't think we've seen that before. >> which is great. does that penetrate when millions are being spent to push a deceptive position. >> messages that fit with what they already believe. that's why we're in colbert world. >> truthiness. now, i'm sure some of the word police, the word anistas over at webster's are going to say, hey, that's not a word. we are a divided nation, not between democrats and republicans or conservatives and liberals or tops and bottoms.

no, we are divided between those who think with their head and those who know with their heart. >> right, of course, truthiness is what you want the truth to be as opposed to what it actually is. that's the world we're in. >> colbert nailed there i think. up next here in our guest spot, we've got the numbers game. a political junkie who argues the president's popularity simply doesn't add up. stay with us. people with a machine.

what ? customers didn't like it. so why do banks do it ? hello ? hello ?! if your bank doesn't let you talk to a real person 24/7, you need an ally. hello ? ally bank. no nonsense. just people sense.

his morning starts with arthritis pain. and two pills. afternoon's overhaul starts with more pain. more pills. triple checking hydraulics. the evening brings more pain. so, back to more pills. almost done, when... hang on. stan's doctor recommended aleve. it can keep pain away all day with fewer pills than tylenol. this is rudy. who switched to aleve. and two pills for a day free of pain. ♪ and get the all day pain relief of aleve in liquid gels.

>> and we're back with the latest nbc news/"wall street journal" poll that shows president obama leads romney by four full points heading into the conventions suggesting that romney maybe didn't get much of a bounce from his vp selection

of ryan. other polls show slightly different results. you're looking at an obama lead of one or two points. that's what it's been for a few months now. does any of this come as a surprise when you consider the state of the economy and unemployment well above 8%? you think obama might be doing worse than this. why is he outperforming himself? in the guest spot, the number cruncher who set out to answer that question. john sides from george washington university and the co-author of the ebook spb the gam double." he's the author of a great blauth monkey cage. check it out if you want to learn anything about the presidential race. thanks for joining us. i want to start by having you explain your research because i read the first chapter of your book and you really get into this. i'd love for you to explain it to people. you looked at presidents going back six decades, measures approval rating against the economy. tell us what you found out about obama by doing that. >> sure. we looked at the relationship between the state of the economy and presidential approval fo

every president between truman and george w. bush. we decided what would we predict obama's approval should be and what is his approval actually. we found over the course of his first term, he's been outperforming what she would expect by about six points towards the ends of 2011, beg beginning of 2012. >> that translates into -- do you see an effect where if you look at this economy and you don't know anything else, you would say the incumbent president should be losing but he's actually ahead because of this? >> the economy i think is sending a pretty mixed signal right now, probably slightly in his favor. he probably is still outperforming where the economy is especially in the state polls and battleground states. >> there's one theory i wanted to focus on. that's sort of the george w. bush factor. obama coming in, really at the height of an economic meltdown that began in his predecessors are watch. su seem there might be an effect

of the effect for him here. we looked at independent voters and how much they blamed bush and how much they blamed obama. 58% of voters blamed bush somewhat or a great deal of the state of the economy. only 41% it the blamed obama. it seems to suggest that obama may be getting a bit of a free pass from some voters because the economy tanked under his predecessor's watch. >> john, two other theories about why obama's outperforming. obama's personal rating and the nbc/"wall street journal" poll yesterday is 48% favorable, 43 unfavorable. romney is underwater at 38 favor unfavorable, 44 favorable. so people general like obama, don't like romney. when you talk about party brands, this is what chuck todd says is the most underreported story of this election. the gop positive rating is 36% to 45% unfavorable. they're underwater. the democrats are above water at

42 favorable, 40 unfavorable. so is it that people like obama and generally don't like republicans at this point? >> i think obama's had a likable persona ever since he took office. he's oftentimes stereo typed as being cool aloof but the majority of the public doesn't think that. in some polling over half of republicans are willing to describe him as warm and friendly. so it may be the case that his likability is insulating his an probable numbers from the economy but also perhaps giving him an edge over romney. >> so john you say these three plankz of likability and polarization of the country and then bush, these are the explanation for why he's doing so well. are they enough though to get him re-elected? in which case he will have done what no other incumbent president has been able to do which is get re-elected with this kind of economy and this kind of unemployment. >> the unemployment rate is unusual for an incumbent

president. other aspects of the economy are just positive enough to give him the edge. i don't think it's going to be a complete surprise if he wins as far as the economy goes. what will be interesting is if the economic slowdown continues through the fall, whether other factors are sufficient to insulate him from that. >> i want to switch gears a little bit. you've been somewhat of a skeptic on the impact of political advertisements and negative ads in particular. you called it pure speculation as to the impact that these ads actually had. are we wasting billions of dollars that aren't even going to change anyone's mind here? >> one of the things that's interesting is political science research into the effect of tidesings over time including by my co-author on this book has found the effects of these ads tend to wear off after about a week. it raises the question about what these many, many millions of dollars of spending in june, july and august are accomplishing. you know, it might be we should look to october to really identify the actual effects of

all this spending. >> they should hold all their fire and release literally a billion dollars worth of ads in the week before the election? >> that's an experiment i'd love to see, but the problem is no one wants to hold their fire for fear that the other side won't. and so what you have here is sort of an arms race where i think each side feels compelled to blanket the airwaves right now. >> there's only 24 hours in a day. so even if you unleash a billion worth of ads in can the 0, you can't run 25 hours. the obama campaign has succeeded or taped to succeed in defining romney early when he was undefined for many voters. that perhaps would be a value of june, julitising, right? >> the primary helped define him as well. he was running against people who were very willing to try and define romney for him. obama had the benefit of those few months of character attacks and defining.

>> anyway, john, fascinating discussion. thanks for joining us. good luck with the ebook "the gamble." up ahead, from a number cruncher to a worthsmith. our next guest is speaking your language. this is the plan that revolves around you.

introducing share everything. unlimited talk. unlimited text. tap into a single pool of shareable data and add up to 10 different devices, including smartphones and tablets. the first plan of its kind. share everything. only from verizon. get $100 off select motorola 4g lte smartphones like the droid razr. [ "the odd couple" theme playing ] humans. even when we cross our "t"s and dot our "i"s, we still run into problems -- mainly other humans.

at liberty mutual insurance, we understand. that's why our auto policies come with accident forgiveness if you qualify, where your rates won't go up due to your first accident, and new car replacement, where if you total your new car, we give you the money for a new one. call... to talk to an insurance expert about everything else that comes standard with our base auto policy. [ tires squeal ] and if you get into an accident and use one of our certified repair shops, your repairs are guaranteed for life. call... to switch, and you could save hundreds. liberty mutual insurance -- responsibility. what's your policy? is now in our new starbucks refreshers™ -- a breakthrough in natural energy. made with real fruit, starbucks refreshers™ are delicious low calorie drinks you can feel good about. ♪

rethink how you re-energize. ♪ get a boost of natural energy with a new starbucks refreshers™, in three ways. natural energy from green coffee extract, only from starbucks. when i was in graduate school for creative writing, one of the most inspiring things i read was the 1946 essay, politics and the english language where the genius rages against unclear jargonistic cliche ridden language or well said political propose existed to quote make lies sound truthful and murder respectable and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind. i would tell you cliches are to apply ears like fingernails on the chalk board of diminish but that would engage a cliche itself so il not. if you avoid overused phrases

people will think you are more clever than you actually are. as our next guest writes if his new back "the banned list." with us is the author who heads the committee that maintains the official banned list. i salute you for joining the war against cliche. >> thank you very much. and may i be the first to salute you, nbc, for running an item there on the effect of the economy on politics without once any of you using the phrase "it's the economy, stupid." >> i think a lot of people miss the point that you make in this book andny that jargon and academicees and latin words make them seem smart. why does avoiding that stuff and talking in plain language make you seem smarter? >> because it's far easiest for people to pay attention and understand. as soon as someone says it's the economy stupid, you heard it so many times you switch off and don't pay attention to what

people are saying. so there is a premium to the clairity of language and clairity of expression because people can understand what you're saying. it's much more interesting if you don't use hack nied and cliche phases. the reasons politicians are prone to using these phrases is they have to get through from the beginning of a sentence to the end of it without losing their job. it's much easier just to take prepacked phrases, boiler plate phrases they've used before and just bolt them together and then they get through to the end of the sentence safely. >> i just want to go through a list of some of the things on urbaned list, the list i love. i disagree with very little to none of this. above my pay grade. we cane in poetry and govern in propose. the elephant in the room. game change, the sufficegate. zero sum gaem 2.0.

this is a great list. if we avoid these things, we would understand each other even better because we wouldn't be speaking in junky cliches. we on television i must admit are partly do blame as well as because we have a short amount of time trying to get a lot of ideas out. some people on tv are trying to make sure they are perceived as part of the chattering class. are we partly to blame in all this? of course. the other reason why people resort to hacknied cliches is because they run out of time. they're live on air and they end up just reaping for the nearest available nearest available phrase and you know, i've done it myself. i've heard myself on air talk about the need for a sense of closure. which i don't think is actually on the list but it ought to be. but what i find interesting and flattering actually is that on both sides of the atlantic, we're so united in hating all

these hacknied words and phrases. >> it's truly inspirational. to that point, if we're part of the problem in the cable news cycle and all of that, has our tendency to grab for cliches gotten worse over time? have we gotten worse at just speaking in plain language? >> i'm sorry to disan button you. i'm not going to hell in a hand cart merchant. i think that the english language is in better shape than it's ever been before. i think the internet is a huge, huge boone to our common intelligence, our common love of the english language. and our desire to use it correctly. i mean, let me tell you how the banned list started was because i was watching television and i heard someone say it's the economy stupid. i just went to my blog and i said i never want to hear this again. because of the immediacy of the internet, you know, i discovered there are actually lots of people out there who care about the english language and felt

the same way that i did. i think the internet opens up possibilities for people who love good writing and good english, good spoken english and want to get away from you know, badly written jargonees mangled management speak. i think the internet helps that along and trying to be part of that process. >> when it comes to political journalism, i have an number one most loathed cliche. it's double down. president obama doubled down. it drives me crazy. >> teal me about it. i'm going to write that one down. >> thank you. my contribution. what is your like au ow-time least favorite? which one bothers you the most? >> well, i think it's got to be going forward because that you get if politics and in management jargon. whenever people run out of a bit of momentum at the end of the sentence and want to talk about what's going to happen next, they just say going forward. that really, really winds me up

something rotten. >> you know, john, coming up as a writer, i got very used to the phrase vigorous writing is concise. you make it a point that it's not just the words we use but how many we use. and in fact, if we could all be more concise, our writing and speaking would be a little bit smarter sounding. >> well, that's actually one of the topless sons you get from reading that essay by george orwell. if you can cross a word out, then you know, it doesn't do any harm to do so. obviously you don't want to cross everything out because you'll end up with "it the full stop or boy meets girl and everyone dies. that would be how you would summarize one of those shakespeare plays. don't cross everything out but quite often you can cross a lot out or you can leave things out or you could, he says talking extremely fast 0 on television, you could talk more slowly and think more carefully about the words you're using.

>> strunk and white tells us to do. i would push back a little bit against going forward which i find missing wanting to correct somebody. i don't want to make it about the past. going forward, into the future, don't do that again. it's a nicer way to talk about it i think. but john rentoule, i love the banned list. if everybody would abide by the list, it would be a better world. >> problem solved. >> going forward. >> thank you very much, john. >> my pleasure. >> all right. up next, we'll talk about trouble in the nfl. but first, some cycle birthdays for you. today of's favorite bridesmaid kristin wig turns 39. luke russert turns an age far younger than the age he seems on tv. nothing says party better than akin watch and finally, the life of every party, the walking political encyclopedia, warm famous caring tographer, our

beloved tv brother, happy birthday to steve kornacki. >> happy birthday, steve. >> thank you. >> we'll be right back. [ kate ] many women may not be properly absorbing the calcium they take because they don't take it with food. switch to citracal maximum plus d. it's the only calcium supplement that can be taken with or without food. that's why my doctor recommends citracal maximum. it's all about absorption. it's the only way to get fresh coffee. not in my house! this new flavor lock pack from maxwell house helps seal in freshness. wow! that is fresh! am i still yelling? [ male announcer ] maxwell house flavor lock. always good to the last drop.

atd g,c ] elib f [ male announcer ] maxwell house flavor lock. buoehi aurrtalen tu. le pind dhhc llme f le p ca't [ male announcer ] maxwell house flavor lock. d oudsf-. wowi ts, u'levi wowi ts, diat.. plthrk nre tlis e toto thra

en, anizlpre-fve itsuco haxpnd erem geti d yohodome p fheco

like a squirrel stashes nuts, you may be muddling through allergies. try zyrtec® liquid gels. nothing starts working faster than zyrtec® at relieving your allergy symptoms for 24 hours. zyrtec®. love the air. ♪ don't you listen to what the man says ♪ >> we're exactly two weeks away from the start of the nfl season on nbc. as we approach kickoff, we're talk ling the issue of how

violent the game is. last year even with the nfl cracking down on dangerous hits, and altering the rules, there were still 223 reported concussi concussions. so the injuries, the studies that seem to be coming out every month, the recent suicide is, is very of this is changing the way we watch the sport. i'm a nascar fan. so i want top sort of compare it to what happened in that sport. in 2001, at daytona, dale earnhardt senior was killed in a devastating wreck and the cause was basilar skull frau. he was not the first to die on a track. adam petty, clifford allison, kenny irwin junior. but iwas the catalyst, dale's death, for a huge investigation it led to the resignation of a seat belt manufacturer whose seat belts were in all of the cars including dales and led to

mandatory installation of the hans is device which dale senior previously refused to wear. insulation of safer barriers. all these things. what nascar did was identify a problem, targeted it, and fixed it. and my question to all of you is, has the nfl followed those three steps and if so, with are are they in the process? they've identified a problem. i think we've all agreed that concussions are the main area that we need to investigate, and to that stanford just did a study last year where it's using these really hi-tech mouth guards to measure the impact, the force, what happens. ung s you can see a picture of it there. so i've identified the problem. i don't know that they've begun the process of targeting the problem because it seems tourre all of the responses have been very slow in coming and b, either sweeping or they try to target the culture or they're

incredibly small. what do you think about the way that they've handled this burgeoning problem? >> goodell is trying very hard to deal with the issue of concussions and finally we have a game where you have to sit out if you are con cussed opposed to the past where you get dinged up and you keep going. then at the same time, he wants an 18-game season. we'll have even more head trauma. i mean, for me, junior seau who killed himself hangs over the season as well as andre waters and dave duerson and other men who killed themselves. owen thomas, a u of penn player a defensive end killed himself. and even at 21, they saw the initial signs of et. chronic traumatic encephalopathy. brain trauma. these people are like seeming like they have alzheimers at a far earlier age. jim mack man was on hbo. he's losing his mind. he can't remember the day before

even what he did earlier that day. if football is developing into a culture where players are losing their minds and or dying at at early age, it's not going to be able to go with without change if that's what's happening. >> it's true. i think there is an issue with the nfl. we saw some of the steps the nfl took last year during the season with players leaving the game, sitting out multiple games who in the past would have gone back. this is a broader question about the game of football and sort of the culture of football and the culture of sports. it starts at a very young age and starts with the mentality where there is shame where you are dinged up. you're supposed to get back up. you don't sit out a play or series or game. and there's some sort of shame in that. it can be totally unspoken. it's the message you take from your peers and from your coaches and i think it's getting that in at a very young age that mentality that you are not a whiner, you're not a complainer. you're not weak if you say gee, i think there's something wrong

mere. >> krystal, do we need to kind of accept the hard reality? this is a violent sport. >> i think that's part of it. your nascar example is an excellent one. i think in football, the violence is so engrained in the game that while you definitely want to take all those percussi percussions, the study concussi study, all of those things are fantastic. you are still going to have a fundamentally violent sport. and i truly agree with what you are saying, too, steve. but i think that the key here is that the older generation and even more recent generation of players had in idea that this was the risk they are signing up for. when their parents were putting them into football, young age, then didn't know the risks when they were entering the nfl, they had no idea of the risks. getting that information out there and making it totally clear that this is the results of the -- >> they know and that's why you see players shooting themselves in the chest so that their brains can go and be studied by scientists so that further --

other generations of players can study that. we are seeing players who are larger and faster and stronger than you have ever seen before. so those hits are going to be a -- more and more violent as time goes on. i will tell you, this is not only a football problem that baseball's day of reckon sing coming, these guys that have been doing steroids and estimates were 50% to 80% in baseball doing steroids. the ones that are retired, you will see rage, depression, guys killing themselves. that will make baseball fans go oh, my god what did we support? >> do you think also that the problem of concussions is difficult because, you know, i think maybe we have all seen that horrific photo of, i think, joe theismann getting hit with the broken leg. that you can see. the injury you can see. the concussion is a little bit harder. >> now we are seeing it years later. we are seeing what happened to junior seau in the mid '90s in the year 2012, multiply that out five, ten, dozens of people.

i wish i knew where it was. i saw an early that sketched out a scenario that said the end of football. took it out years where high school starts saying you know what, we don't want to be exposing our kids to this. becomes just this regional small-time thing in the south. that was sort of what the arm ended. i wish i could remember where it was. >> i don't imagine that could happen, football is king in america. the american sport. >> how many more junior seaus? >> if nascar takes its place as the number one sport in the country. still ahead artbreaker, the aching hearts within the gop. i am going to become facebook friends with our babysitter. no. these work, right? no. all right. mom! look what i found in the shed! no! no! no! ♪ ew! were you guys just making out in here? what? no!

is it okay if i quit my job and start a blog? no. really? cold cuts from a package? yes. [ male announcer ] in a world filled with "no," it's nice to finally say "yes." new oscar mayer selects deli meat. the tastes you love and no artificial preservatives. it's yes food.

the tastes you love and no artificial preservatives. mom: ready t♪ go to work? ♪ ♪ ♪ every mom needs a little helper. that's why i got a subaru. announcer: love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru.

>> when did we become such an unforgiving people? >> 2 torch. the old new jersey senator, political career began with invalidated student election at rutgers and ended with that self-pitying moment you saw. it is on my mind this week for two reasons. five weeks before the 2002 mid terms. the first stories i covered as a political journalist but also directly relevant to this week's biggest political story. will he stay or go drama surrounding todd akin? in a way the two situations are identical. back in 2002, democrats were clinging to a new year owe majority of the cincinnati. hopes of retaining pend order

hanging on to his seat. new jersey was ask is a democratic seat. but there was a problem p the torch had been the subject of a lengthy criminal investigation. he avoided an indictment for the cincinnati ethics committee severely admonished him for accepting tens of thousands of dollars in gifts from a donor he had done favors for. the political damage was bad. in late september, a damning memo from prosecutors came out. the charges were incredible. his poll numbers collapsed and democrats realized they were about to lose the cincinnati because of him. so they swung into action. torricelli was a creature of the system. he had been in the game for decades and knew he lost the cincinnati race would meet friends and connections in the political world to get a living. democrats knew it, too. their message was clear. play ball with us now and we will remember you down the road. within days torricelli was out of the race and he was replaced bay new candidate, lautenberg. he had no trouble holding on to the seat for his party. this is where the situation with

akin is different. republicans know that this can't win back the cincinnati if they don't win missouri. they are doing everything they can they can think of to push him out. he will not budge. it is coming clear how little leverage the gop has here. deadline for no questions asked for is an dates came and went yesterday. akin is still in the running. he wouldn't close the door on an interview this morning. he's also pretty much immune to the pressure democrats applied to bob torricelli. 65 years old. he is a true ideological believer and won a primary no one thought he had a chance to win. primary that none of the republicans were now calling for him to quit supported him in and apparently thinks his primary win was, quote. >> i tell you, nobody makes old new jersey politics sound romantic like you. good stuff. >> bob torricelli, i have to tell you, ten years ago today i started in new jersey and my first assignment he had just been admonished by the cincinnati ethics committee and

covering politics for a website and my boss arranged for me to have the first interview with torricelli following that by the ethics committee and i was fresh out of college and never done really anything in journalism before. i sat down and with a 45-minute ride. it was terrifying and intimidating. hopefully i have gotten better. >> what you say is your ability to bring him back up on your birthday is like major -- made your day for you snr. >> ten years ago i was in the car with him and i'm still here. >> do you think that akin will stay in or get out? >> the one thing that i can see getting akin out is this. this is what i think he was himming at today. republicans were abandoning him. he also might have thought that he could get grassroots money off of this. me against the world. me and true believers against the world and put appeal up last night and not raised much money off of and it maybe that's what does it. anyway, that's the only leverage i can think of. that does it for us on "the cycle." >> steve