right that he cannot disentangle himself now. that, ladies and gentlemen, is a fact. that's "hardball" for now, thanks for being with us, "the ed show" starts right now. >> good evening and welcome to "the ed show" live from los angeles. 75 days until the 2012 election, and isaac moves towards tampa, and todd is ripping up the party. >> todd aiken is going to hurt the republican party. >> his enmys are getting louder and so are his aallies. >> our position on him has not changed. mitt romney commanding that the media stop asking him about abortion. >> romney's medicare lies are

not working. the new numbers. the obama campaign says they have the answer to stop republicans from stealing ohio. state senator nina turner is here. how did mitt romney get shout out among american supporters in the latest pool. >> i'm going to eliminate every nonessential program i can find. i'm going to work to reform and save -- >> the daily show's senior black correspondent, larry wilmore is here to explain. liberals, you have to be loving this, congress and todd aiken is not going anywhere, and the republican establishment can't do anything about it. he bragged about a fundraiser. over 100,000 people picked up.

people should pick candidates and not party bosses. aiken met with social conservatives last night. the meeting was in the heart of the storm for republicans. family research council president confirmed the meeting on nsnbc today. >> there is was a private meeting that took place with todd aiken just to talk with him and encourage him in the stand that he's taking. >> you got to love it. we have them holding secret meetings. social conservatives are no longer shying away from throwing their support behind their kind of guy, todd aiken. sharon engle is now in the act and engaged her right wing sporters saying missouri conservatives, support todd aiken.

the party accomplishment is having what's known as a complete political meltdown over all of this. they just want him to go away. >> i want him to drop out, you did, rush limbaugh suggested he drop out. >> this selfish man is going to hurt the republican party. he was chosen by the democrats, they spent millions of dollars to get him elected because he's the candidate they wanted. >> aiken is doing to fox news what democrats should have been doing all along, just ignore those folks over there, but he is getting pressure from pollsters as well. is getting pressure from pollsters as well. the organization that has a reputation for favoring republican causes, the latest poll has claire up over 10%. the senator also linked to an article for the milwaukee

journal sental showing his close tied with carl rove, another republican that wants todd aiken gone. it looks like michael steele was right on the money right here on the ed show. >> the timing in my estimation could not be worse for the romney campaign and for the rnc going into this convention. >> so the last thing republicans want is a repeat of the 1992 gop convention. remember the culture war speech. it helped pave the way from bill clinton's first term. the romney campaign says it's too late. a senior official told talking points memo i think hurricane todd has already borne down on

tampa and the damage has been done. that coming from the obama campaign. the romney campaign is trying to limit the damage and radio silence is the name of the game right now. >> you were one of only four local reporters to get to talk to him. >> i had about five minutes and we got through a fair amount of material, the one stipulation was that i not ask him about abortion or todd aiken. he is the missouri republican saying women's bodies shut down to prevent pregnancy. >> this is not how we operate, the matter is being address pd someone better get that memo to paul ryan. ryan informs a question and answer session in north carolina. he adopted the silent treatment as well. >> we're going to take a few more questions as well.

congressman ryan will answer media questions in a little bit. >> referee: is that a no? i'm sorry, i thought that was part of it. i don't see any other hands going up -- >> that's the press. >> we're audience -- okay. >> exciting stuff, isn't it? mitt romney and paul ryan cannot talk about todd aiken. if they support him they're in trouble with the mainstream, if they vilify him they're in trouble with the base. he has friends in high places making sure that he doesn't go quietly into the night. today, mike huckabee sent out this letter to his supporters. if todd akin loses the senate seat. ly not blame him. he made his mistake but admitted it and apologized.

i'm waiting for the apology from the genius on those in or party that was wise to not only shoot him, but run over him and feed him to the wolves. mike huckabee is a key figure in the christian movement. he was granted a speaking roll in the convention. he is sharing with microphone with rand paul and rick santorum, ted cruz. they're the outspoken proponents of banning abortions in all cases. todd akin thoughs he does not have to step aside. if he does, a large part of the republican base will go right with him. there is a perfect storm brewing

in tampa, republicans need more than umbrellas on this one. tonight's question, which tomorrow will have a bigger impact on the republican national convention? text a for hurricane todd, text b for urge isaac. you can also go to our blog. we'll bring results later in the show. on a series side, we have to think about what their platform is. joining me is cecile richards. great to have both of you with us tonight. cecile, you first, here. the platform, if you look at it closely by the republican party is really an attack on women. and now we have mitt romney and paul ryan, they have gone silent on this issue. what does that tell you? what does that tell women? what's the message here?

>> i think, obviously -- i don't think they have a todd akin problem, it's a mitt romney and paul ryan problem. haul ryan's record is almost the same at akins. the leadership has been willing to throw women overboard completely. mr. romney has been very clear not only that he wants to overturn row verses wade, and end family plans, and women are concerns. >> karen, has akin boxed republicans in? how do they manage themselves out of this. >> here is the deeper thing he is revealing. this is the kind of extremism we have been dealing with since 2010. just a year ago we we having this conversation about redefining rain and letting women die and turning people into abortion cops nullly. we have not been able to get

infrastructure funding down, the budget worked out, and we're on the fiscal cliff. and part of the problem is, and will likely be adopted monday, extreme views they know are not popular. mitt romney knows he has a huge deficit with women, but also moderate and independent voters are not comfortable with this kind of language and extremism when we talk about taking away health services for women. or that men should decide what kind of medicine women should take or medical services they have access to. >> people that pay attention to the news won't pay attention to the gop platform, but this is the most radical flat form they

have ever had. cecile, you're starting a bus tour in swing states promoting women's health issues, what's the message going to be? >> i think it's that women are watching in this election. and i was just talking to our folks on the fwhus columbia missouri tonight where hundreds of folks turned out. i think women and men are paying attention and women's health care is on the ballot in this election. i'll be in ohio the next cup the days, and i think that karen's point is correct. this is not a democratic or republican issue. this is an issue about women's health care. what we have been hearing from republican women and independent women who understand that not only this republican platform, but frankly the positions of mitt romney are too extreme and they're not ready to turn the clock back on women's access to

health care in america. >> karen, show this going to end with todd akin. will we see the republican party embrace this guy and realize that this is really how we want our members in the senate to vote, so we might as well go along with this guy. when do they cry uncle? >> i don't think they can fully embrace him. this kind of thinking and extremism is so dramatically unpopular in this country. for women, these issues are economic issues, also speak to do you perceive of women as equal human beings in our culture. they can't afford, if they have any chance at winning, they will not be able to afford to embrace him. if his money dries up, that's how he will get out of the race and i believe they have a procedure they can remove him up to the next month or so. >> great to have you both with us tonight on "the ed show."

remember to answer tonight's question at the bottom of the screen. share your thoughts on ed show and on facebook. coming up, romney and ryan tried their lies about hb's approach to medicare, but the lies are not working. president obama is par head on

medicare, the romney campaign's lies are not working. we'll break down the latest polls and what is their next move if they just lie? the block the vote effort continues to ohio and there are new developments. we'll have all of the details, it's a big one. later, zero, that's how much support romney has from the american community. how do you get a zero? the senior black correspondent for "the daily show" will be with us.

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at lunesta.com. there's a land of restful sleep. we can help you go there on the wings of lunesta. welcome back to "the ed show." the republican lies about medicare are not working. the plan for medicare is a real threat. a new poll in three big battleground states shows president obama holding a wide margin and advantage on medicare. on the question of if medicare should continue as it is or

switch to a voucher program, the numbers are overwhelming. and in ohio, 64% agreed, and in wisconsin 59% agrees. in florida, by an eight point margin, voters think president obama will do a better job on medicare than mitt romney. president obama hols a ten point margin in ohio and nine point margin in wisconsin. think about what this means. paul ryan created a plan to end medicare as we know it, and the guy on the top will embrace it. it's what republicans really want to do after all. when romney anouned ryan as his running mate, the obama campaign connected the dock. these are the guys that want to fundamentally change medicare. the course of the gop ticket

countered. they told falsehoods about president obama was making the same cuts to medicare for the affordable care act. they failed to mention how obama care strengthens medicare and sads to it's life expectancy under the program. today we see who is winning the argument and it's not close. on the question of if medicare is worth it, they say yes. let's turn to howard fineman. great to have you with us tonight on this issue. i just view this thing in kind of a comical sense because you have to think the romney campaign behind closed doors is saying, you know, it just wasn't supposed to be like this. what are they going through?

>> they're trying to make a virtue of it if they can. it's very difficult. they ran four different ads in the last ten days on medicare. they have a new one up now saying the president wants to change medicare forever and they're trying to you apocalyptic language and they're going over the cut which is the same one as contemplated by paul ryan. i don't think this is the fight that the romney campaign wanted. they didn't pick him because they wanted to have this fight. it's when they picked paul ryan, they had to have this fight. and they're trying to neutralize the damage which you see clearly in those polls. it is clear that obama care is not uniformly popular. a lot of seniors are scared about it. it's not the same thing to have doubts about obama care as it is

about to have doubts about medicare. as those polls showed, and as these recent polls showed, he -- medicare is popular, the president is preferred as a protector of medicare. the republicans don't want to spend the entire campaign on this, and the way you know that, ed, is today, mitt romney did not mention medicaid. if this was a pivoted energy, a winning issue form, he would still be on it today. >> we'll talk about that later about now how he's into the coal industry. it seems like they're counter offensive is going to be one commercial after another as you pointed out, but can they keep lying on the issue. there are many organizations saying they're fundamentally not telling the truth to the people on exactly what they're plan is verses what we have and what president wants to do for the future.

can they keep going down this road. >> they, or any campaign, would be shamed by criticism into taking down ads that weren't fully truthful. that's not what's going to stop the spending on the ads. i don't think they're buying as much placement on the ads as they claim. i think part of it is a smoke screen. i think it's if the ads don't work. if the president remains highly guarded and trusted on medicare. they'll stop spending money on it because it's not working. that's where they will change the flow an you can see with machinery pivoting away from this issue, i bet you that except in a couple places those ads are gone within days. >> the issue wills be gone, that's for sure, and this is something the obama campaign

will ride pretty hard. >> but they -- >> but ed, the democrats have to explain it carefully and consistently and concisely. because the republican attack on the notion that the president wants to take $700 billion away from medicare is a powerful argument that was shown to have worked in 2010. the democrats, even though they have good numbers here, they can't assume that everybody is going to understand the argument or take the argument for granted. if i were the obama camp, i would keep makes the case. they should not expect the public to go with him automatically. >> howard, great to have you with us, always enjoy your take. up next, republicans are stealing. i want to use this word, hear me correctly, they're stealing the vote in ohio. find out why they're doing it and why the stakes are higher than ever.

and mitt romney is trying to make up ground with hispanic voters but it won't be easy to shake the etch-a-sketch on this one.

welcome back to "the ed show." an update now on what i believe is the biggest story in this race. the republicans are setting the table to steal the election in

ohio. let's make sure we don't stand still and watch this. two new polls show how tight this race has become. the president and mitt romney are only three points apart. that's within the margin of error. the quinnipiac poll gives obama a slightly larger lead over romney, there's been no change in those numbers since july. if the republicans manage to block a small percentage of obama voters, romney could win ohio. so far, the republican vote stealing plan is right on track. they shortened voten hours in all 88 countries. it's a direct attack on obama supporters. 47% of people who voted in 2008 in that election cast their ballots during the extended hours made available to citizens. those early voters were mostly african-americans.

so republicans are stealing almost half of the vote by changing the hours. when reporters asked the secretary of state about it, he insists hey, it's fair. >> you may not like the hours, but they're fair for everybody. everyone you talk to believes that's fair, easy, and accessible. >> everyone you talk to? more on ohio in a moment, and a new development in pennsylvania where they're fitting the controversial voter id law. the supreme court says they will hear the appeal on september 13th. republicans wanted them to hold off until october. that would leave voters weeks before the election. right now, 758,000 voters might not have valid ids that they will need. in pennsylvania and ohio,

organizers are going to have to step up the effort to fight these laws and help people get to the polls. it is all about education, communication, and mobilization. no doubt. every go to nina turner, and also with us, jennifer braune rerks, the former ohio secretary of state and author of the upcoming book about her time in office. good to have you both with us tonight. jennifer, why did you expand voting laws when you were the secretary of state? what was the motivation behind that to expand them? >> interestingly enough, the laws were expanded by the current secretary of state when he served in the house of representatives. we just implemented them. we followed federal and state law and made sure voting was as accessible to people as possible. they enjoyed it and now that it's being pulled back we're experiences quite a bit of pull back. >> why are we seeing the reversal.

my opening congressmenation is it's the republicans trying to suppress the vote. would you come to that conclusion? >> there's a fundamental misunderstanding of the voting rights act. look at states like the ones changing. ohio doesn't have to do that, equal doesn't mean pro forma across table. those suppressed or oppressed have the same access as everyone else. if we have to do more for the folks in the urban area, then we have to do more, but we should not set the standards based on a county with 10,000 voters. >> the secretary of state says the new rules are fair, i know you don't agree with that, he said the rules were fair. >> he did not ask me or the residents of the county.

this is nothing more than uniform voter suppression. ohio and four other states cut early voting hours. they cut sundays. we know exactly who their targets are. african-american make 26% of the registered voters, but in 2008, early in person voters, they were 56% of the vote. how dare we forget how african-americans had to dodge the barks and bites of dogs and leap over grandfather clauses and literacy tests, and poll taxes, and here we are in the 21st century with a elections office that is supposed to -- if you're poor, working class, middle class, elderly, hispanic,

or a woman, you're sol when it comes to republicans. they don't care how they steal the vote. >> jennifer, do you agree with that? >> i think we've got some real problems with anything being partisan connected to voting. voting itself is not a partisan issue. what everyone needs to do is come into the room where we talk about changing the voting laws, drop the cloak, stand up, be adults, do what they know is fair, because our future depends on it. >> where is your governor on this? he likes to present himself as a fair-minded guy. how can he go along with something like this. >> he is mia when it comes to this voting issue and it's ashame. >> i think you have a problem where it's the perview of the secretary of state.

very rarely the governor will step in and interfere, but this is a situation where neither party should try to step in and grandstand and turn this into something other than making sure that the person in the lowest position on the street, who is going to have the most difficult time vote willing be accommodated and voted for and will be, on election day, the one day when every person is truly supposed to be equal. >> we have not even gotten to the voter machines and the number of voting machines made available to all of these 88 countys in ohio. who knows what plan they will come up with there, are you concerned about that. >> very concerned. if you extrapolate out the data with the numbers, about 2,000 ohio wans will be impacted by that. if we remember, governor casey beat governor strikeland by a 2% margin.

every vote counts. as far as i'm concerned, i don't care if people carry the title secretary of state or not. if you're a policy maker in the state of ohio, and you care about fairness and justice, it's all about responsibility to stand up and tell the truth, and the truth is that it is republicans suppressing the voting with and by the way, over 180 bills were introduced in states across this country by gop led legislatures, and i wonder why? could be t be because president obama is a african-american. i wonder. >> nina turner and jennifer brunner, we're going to stay on this story. i think fundamentally it's the biggest story in this election cycle. i would like to know if the tea partiers think that's what the

forefathers had in mind. i don't think so. >> the answer is self deportation. >> mr. self deportation sets his own goal for support among latinos and it's coming up short. los angeles mayor joins me next. according to a new poll, mitt romney is laying a goose weg african-american voters. >> later, i will ask the daily show senior black correspondent about his support from african-american voters.

welcome back to "the ed show." mitt romney is living in fantasy land. he is hoping hispanics for

forget everything he has been saying. they're hoping to hit 38% with the hispanic vote. president obama has had a two to one lead for months end. it won't be easy for mitt to shake the etch-a-sketch on this one. he's taking a hardline stance, let's count them on immigration, wasn't afraid to speak out during the primary season. remember he said this about arizona's infamous law. >> there's a model here in arizona. they passed a law that said that people that come here and try to fin work, the employer is required to look them up to e-verify. >> if i were elected and congress would pass the dream act, would i veto it, and the answer is yes. >> and there is the time he hammered rick perry for being too soft on immigration.

>> when you were governor, you said i don't want to build a fence, you put in place a magnet to draw illegals to the state giving $100,000 of tuition credit to illegals that come into this country. >> and of course there is romney's famous self deportation policy. >> the answer is self deportation is people decide they can do better by going home because they can't find work here. >> republicans love self deportation policy so much they adopted it into their party platform for the gop convention, and the icing on the cake, sheriff joe arapio will be speaking, what else do you need

to know. joining me tonight is the mayor of los angeles, antonio villaraigosa, i appreciate your time tonight. >> great to be with you, ed. >> after that lit any of issues we just played where mn has been in just the last 12 months, how do latino voters warm up to a candidate like that if at all. >> with great difficulty. you mentioned he was somewhere, i was thinking mars, when they think they'll get anything close to 38%, they're not. every poll i see it's at least two to one. sometimes as high as 70% for the president. never higher than 21% or so for governor romney. i just don't see it happening. and you mentioned why.

he called chris coback a great american. touted his endorsement. called them a model for the nation, the dream act, going into the military, and college. the self deportation of 11 million people. those 11 million that are undocumented have citizen children. he is saying they should leave their kids here in the united states. the kids, or citizen, who are maybe dreamer who is know no other country but this one. if you remember during the debates, and i'm glad you referenced them, didn't they talk about electrifying the fans. he had an opportunity to chime in and say we're not going there. maybe we want to secure the border, we're not electrifying

fences. when you see the rhetoric and the castigating of immigrants, the ryan budget that would devastate medicare and social security. the fact that they're cuts would disproportionately impact our kids starting to go in school in greater numbers, scholarships for them, for all of those runs, cutting the affordable care act, 9 million latinos will benefit from that. so for all of those reasons, i expect they're not getting anything above 25%. >> in the midst of what you said, the gop now put the self deportation policy into the party flat form, isn't this generational damage the republicans are doing to themselves? >> absolutely, and having that sheriff arpaio speak at the convention speaks volumes about

that party and that they're captured by the extreme right of the party. there's a lot of decent republicans that believe in the dream act and support immigration reform, and i think even they are turned off by thi self deportation call. machinery's plan to fix the emergency problems? it won't fund wind power, but it is full of hot air. find out what he wants to do.

um next, more drilling, less regulation. it's not a beer commercial, it's what probably could go wrong with mitt romney's energy plan.

and larry wilmore talks with us. you can listen to the radio show on sirius radio. follow me on twitter .

welcome back, we told you how machinery lies about everything, but we have a new one today. mitt romney could be lying to himself. here is his plan. >> north american energy independence by 2020. it is achievable. this is not some pie in the sky kind of thing. >> okay, so romney's goal is to

make the entire continent of north america completely energy independent in eight years. now to do that, we need to drill a lot. romney decided to unveil his grand plan at a trucking supply company in new mexico. he had a chart there, but romney admitted that it was too small to read. mitt romney wants to increase all forms of drilling. he claims he'll magically expand off-shore drilling by 2 million barrels a day. he wants another 2 million a day doing "tight oil" drilling or fracking. he says they can drill for an extra 28 million barrels of oil a day. that's his plan. more drilling. he doesn't mention emission standards at all to reduce oil use. cutting fuel use should be a key to reducing our dependence on foreign oil, he doesn't expand will, solar, or nuclear alternatives, and he wants to cut initiatives because he

thinks they're unfair to drilling companies. and one more key to the romney energy plan. he would give states all of the regulatory pattern and ease back on safety laws. >> using the law to stop production of energy is not to the best interest of the united states or our people. so we have more drilling, fewer safety regulations, and decentralized regulation. what could possibly go wrong with that? ask the people in the gulf coast still struggling to clean up the deep water horizon disaster two years after it happened. if romney thinks more of this is good for america, playing russian roulette, she lying to himself and the voters. i asked you which storm will have a bigger impact on the republican national convention. 93% of you said hurricane todd,

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as you know, more years ago, barack obama got 90% of the

black vote. do you expect to chip away on that? >> i do, actually. >> the numbers are in and it's not pretty. the poll shows a huge 0% are supporting mitt romney. romney's pandering led him all the way to the naacp's annual convention where he reportedly brought in supporters and delivered this speech. if you want a president that will make things better in the african-american community, you're looking at him. you take a look. >> i'm joined tonight by comedian larry wilmore whose show time special, "race, religion, and sex" premiers this saturday. how do you get 0% after going to the naacp and guaranteeing it's going to be a better world. >> that is unbelievable.

i'm not sure how that even registers. you would think even the brothers that don't like to vote might show up. it's unbelievable. >> even john mccain got some black votes. that's like -- is romney going to get any black people to step up, is he going to get into double digits at all with voters? >> it's tough, there may be brothers that vote for them, and then ask for them back, so you might get negative black votes. >> you recently compared

machinery's mormonism to obama's blackness, explain that. >> they're both unique. we never had a mormon president, it's unique, and people don't know much about mormonism. and we don't have a wasp in this presidential election. the closest is obama because he's half white. >> you wasn't to salt lake city, your special is called "race, religion, and sex." >> hello salt lake city, i'm hosting a town hall meeting about race, religion, and sex. your favorite things. you know what's interesting, i've been pedaling for three hours and i haven't seen a single black person. >> was there anything that surprised you about that

community at all? >> i tell you, ed, it's surprising, it's a very progressive city. it was named the gayest city in north america. it's the gayest unknown gay city in america. it's very progressive. >> what is your show, the sex end of it, republicans are always good for a sex scandal every now and then, will we get one this year? >> didn't the strippers double down in tampa this week or something? they're putting on an unbelievable show i hear there because apparently the republicans pay more for strippers i think than democrats, they outspend them by like $100 per stripper. it's amazing to me, ed, that people go out and find these