we asked total strangers to watch it for us. thank you so much, i appreciate it, i'll be right back. they didn't take a dime. homuch in feess your bank take to watch your money ? if your bank takes more money than a stranger, you need an ally. ally bank. no nonsense. just people sense. good morning. i'm chris jansing. isaac is barreling toward the gulf coast and right now, mississippi, louisiana, alabama, and florida are all under a state of emergency. thousands are being asked to leave their homes. this is already brought driving rain to florida. take a look at this. key west, getting pounded by both rain and wind. the storm has also crashed the republican national convention in tampa. today's schedule canceled. tomorrow's is in jeopardy.

this call had to be made two days ago. some heavy rain and wind are still on the way. >> you've got to make the call and we'd always err on the side of safety. >> bill karins is tracking the storm for us. where is it going to hit and when? >> chris, we have an important update coming during this hour towards the end of the hour, but i think we have changes that are already happening. want to show you a fascinating image, these are one-minute, every minute they took a picture of the satellite of the storm. you can bubbling tops as the storm is trying to develop. that's the center of the storm of isaac off the florida coast. the past path, the one updated 5:00 and there's a reason i'm showing you this, this was right over the top of new orleans. we've gotten new computer data since this was issued and the new hurricane forecast out shortly will take all those lines into consideration. considering we are now about 30 hours away from landfall, i can't believe how much of a spread there is. we have some computers still going mississippi gulfport to biloxi now over to port author,

beaumont, texas. people in houston are going what happened? this continues to shift west and if we get a track along the louisiana coast like this, we could be talking about a storm raking the coastline for a day and a half, it's going to be moving slowly. it's not guaranteed at this time that new orleans will take the brunt of the storm. prepare as if it is. it's going to be an interesting forecast coming up soon for the national hurricane center, chris. >> we know you'll keep your eye on it for us, thank you, bill karins. want to bring in roll call editor david trucker and "time" magazine white house correspondent michael sheer. good morning. >> good morning. >> michael, start with you, obviously today was canceled for the reasons that we just heard from reince priebus, but let's say it's gone, tampa doesn't have to worry about this, but just in terms of optics what are the considerations about whether they go ahead tomorrow? >> yeah. conventions are typically celebrations and you don't want to be celebrating when a good part of the country is under duress, especially given the association and the past between the republican party and george

w. bush with the hurricane in new orleans. the party had something similar happen four years ago if you remember, the beginning of the republican convention in minneapolis, was disrupted by a hurricane headed towards new orleans. i think a lot has to do with whether it's time to hit during prime time which is really when people are tuning in and that could disrupt things. if there's real hardship tomorrow night, i could see them postponing something further. whether they can postpone the convention beyond that it's tough. it's really tough to change the logistics so you wouldn't have mitt romney accepting the nomination on thursday night when the storm should be passed. >> david, they've talked about the possibility of extending it to friday. we're looking at a holiday weekend here. realistically have they lost anything significant at this point? >> i think at this point no. the broadcast networks were not going to cover monday night in prime time so this was going to get under way for the nation and for the voters at large on tuesday. and i really think that unless the storm turns into something that even right now it's not necessarily forecast to become, they're going to go ahead with tuesday night. it's important that romney

accept the nomination this week because he gets to start using general election money, never mind the messaging and, you know, we're heading into the democratic convention next week and the sprint to november 6th. this thing has to get done. i think it will. >> talk about the messaging and there's been so much said about what a horrible week mitt romney had starting with the todd akin remarks, but what can he do, what's going to happen here, that might be able to change the conversation that might make people look at mitt romney a little bit differently, given the fact that all the polls show us that people just don't like him as well as they like barack obama, the economy aside? >> well, i think what this week is about is showing the different sides of mitt romney, his faith, his family, what he did in business, just the other day we saw a "wall street journal" op-ed, what i learned at bain. something mitt romney should have published six weeks ago, but it's not too late. i don't really think it's been as bad of a week for mitt romney as some suggest. the new "washington post" poll

shows most voters are focused on the economy, not all of the things you and i have been talking about. i think if he can pull off a successful speech, if paul ryan has a successful speech, they keep everything focused on who romney is and the issues and the economy, he comes out of this in good shape. it's a jump ball and anything can happen and i don't think that's the worst place for him to be at this point. >> michael, one of the things we saw in the reporting over the last 24 hours is -- or so is that one of the strategies that the romney campaign is that they're going to get tougher, just the economic message doesn't seem to be working and i wonder how fine a line they're walking there. if you want to go up against barack obama who is so personally popular, is it difficult to make that tougher attack if you're going after somebody that people basically really like? >> you're right. during the primaries and even the beginning of the summer you talked to romney strategists and they would say we have to point out the fail yours of barack

obama. the ryan selection as vp changed that calculation and there are two messages now they need to get out during this convention. one is for the base. convince them that mitt romney is a guy they can actually get excited about. there's, you know, some inkling that's beginning with the ryan choice to erase the doubts that have historically trailed romney and the republican party and the second is to do what you just said, to look at either undecided voters or voters on the fence and say, look, we know you're unhappy with barack obama, but we're actually going to provide you an option you will be happy with. it's not just a negative choice you're making. here's a guy you can believe in, trust in. he believes in something, he represents something, this conservative movement, this reagan ideal, and this is something you can actually choose. so those are the two dueling messages, two different audiences they're going to be targeting this week. >> michael scherer, david trucker at the postponed republican national convention, thank you so much. now let me bring in chris mathews host of hardball on

msnbc. let me ask you for a big picture question now. what are you looking for at this convention? what do you got your eyes on? >> well, i think it's going to come down to romney's acceptance speech. all this talk about the weather is just preview. i think the question is, can he connect to the american people in a way that -- in a way that says this guy can help me deal with my challenges. i know he's smart, i know he's rich, be i know he has a nice family, i know he's god fairing and religious and all that, can he connect with the problems i have and help me out in life? >> does he have it in him, i don't mean that to be harsh or anything, but if he hasn't connected with so many people up until this point can one speech turn the tide? >> that's true, what you said is true. he has never connected. he's not the nominee of the party because he's ever connected to the american people. he's the nominee of the party because he's very well funned, run an effective campaign, but personally no one has picked

this guy to be a nominee for either party if his name hadn't been mitt romney and had the background that he had of course as a moderate governor of massachusetts. personally, i think it's a great question. will he come through as a human being, as a good guy, a square even. nothing wrong with being a square if you're helpful. he doesn't have to be hip or something he's not, but there has to be some sense of a person behind that face. and nobody knows there's a person there yet. he's into -- somebody said he was interested in faith, family and business. is this guy interested in anything else? faith, family -- and now he's currently in the business of running for president. if he weren't running for president would he care about these things he's talking about? does he have any natural curiosity about people's problems? natural interest in what they face as individuals or simply facing the fact that to become president he has to seem to do that, seem to be interested. >> you know he's gotten out this -- >> the performance. >> this question a lot, and you

and i both remember it's a question that was asked of john kerry, a question asked of al gore, but let me play for you one of the things he said when he was asked about this over the weekend. >> you know, all i can do is be who i am. remember the poppy line, i am what i am. i'm trying to get this country back on track to help the people who need to be sure they can find a good job. >> to be who he is and capitalize on that, what is this speech about then? is it about his business experience? is it about his success? does he say the word bain? what do you think, chris? >> i think it has to be the olympics. i think that's the one sterling quality or quantity in his whole biography where he went out to utah and turned that thing around, to the advantage of the country. i think it's exciting. we're coming off the olympics coverage. i think people would like to hear that. they don't want to hear about how much money he's made.

they're not interested in his personal successp. but if he can show he had an example where he did something for the country it's the olympics. it may not be great but it's true, worth while and people will like it. that would be the flag i would fly. personally i have a real problem with the republican party the last couple of days. i think they've been playing the race card. i think the plan was tonight to bring donald trump in to talk about that birther stuff of his. romney told that terrible joke recently about birtherism. they're running this ad saying obama administration is getting rid of the work requirement for welfare which is another old racial canard. i see this pattern here about calling him a foreign and constantly doing that. i think that's beneath the party of lincoln, way beneath it, and i hope to hell for the good of this country we don't fight an election on whether or not obama is an american but whether either can be the best president. it's about time they got their best out there and not their worst. we've been seeing a lot of their

worst. i had a fight with reince priebus on "morning joe" because he's doing that this morning, saying that the entire obama health care plan was something brought in from europe when in fact teddy roosevelt of the republican party was advocating national health a century ago and franklin roosevelt and harry truman. is it american to have people waiting in the emergency room? is that the american way to do health care? i think that's ridiculous the health care plan brought in from the heritage foundation and republican party is now being branded by the republican party as european. i think this is zen phobia, bad news and probably racial. >> we're going to watch it all very closely. >> okay. >> chris mathews, there live from the republican national convention in our prime time coverage and of course at 5:00 and 7:00 eastern time. thank you. ron paul says he turned down an offer to speak at the convention because he didn't want to have his speech approved by the romney camp. he was in florida last night criticizing everything from the war on drugs to american intervention in iraq and afghanistan.

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giving you an update tropical storm isaac the path right now, louisiana, alabama, florida, mississippi, all under a state of emergency. thousands in those states are under a mandatory evacuation. people are stocking own supplies, check out this video from gulf shores, alabama. i mean, literally walmart shelves are empty. almost empty. few loaves of bread left in that part of the food section. if the republican convention was happening according to the

original schedule, both ann romney and nikki haley would be featured speakers as mitt romney battles accusations that he and the republicans are waging a war on women with their positions on abortion, contraception and health care. >> with regards to women's health care, look, i'm the guy that was able to get health care for all of the women and men in my state. they're just talking about it at the federal level. we did something, did it without cutting medicare and raising taxes. number one. number two -- >> you're saying look at romney care. >> i'm proud of what we did and the fact that we helped women and men and children in our state. >> but a new cnn/opinion research poll finds 60% of likely female voters say president obama is more in touch with women's problems compared to 33% from mitt romney. let me bring in texas republican senators kay bailey hutchison. always good to see you. you've said mitt romney gets a bad rap in the polls but one after the other after another, our own nbc news/wall street

journal poll, one from gallup, one from "washington post"/abc, show mitt romney trailing the president. why this gender gap? >> i think that it's very difficult, that's for sure, but i believe in the end, chris, that when people focus they're going to be looking at where we are now, with our economy and with this obama health care looming on the horizon and we want them to say, we can do better, we can do something that will give jobs to this country, that will put our health care system back in place. you know, obama health care takes $500 billion out of medicare to pay for it. that's not a solution. we need a change and mitt romney is that change. we need to get the message out. >> in an ep ed in "the washington post" your colleague from maine, olympia snowe acknowledged and i'm quoting her --

her argument, senator, is that mitt romney should in his speech vigorously reassert that no abortion exceptions for rape or incest in the platform are not his views. is she right? >> well, i think that he has said what his position is, and i think people need to accept that. >> does he need to assert it at this critical time in front of a huge national audience in a way that he hasn't had the opportunity before? >> chris, i think he needs to assert that we're going to turn this country around. people are worried about their jobs. you know, middle-class income has gone down an average of $4,000 a year. our home values are down 12%. our unemployment rate hasn't gone under 8% since obama took office, and we've got obama care

looming out there with taxes and fines and breaking down our health care system. that's what i hope he's talking about. because we need a change in this country. people feel it in their bones. we've just got to make sure that they understand that the only change is going to come from electing mitt romney. >> what you've just said, senator, what is i've heard from many republicans and heard frankly from mitt romney and paul ryan themselves, but there is this sense and even his aders have said -- advisors have said this is a chance to reintroduce himself to americans at this convention. what is it that has not connected with them so far and maybe women in particular? >> well, i do think that his human side and the fact that he has lived such a good and moral life, that he is a good family man, that his wife has had multiple sclerosis and together they have raised five sons, getting through that kind of an obstacle and they've done it

with grace and humility, i think the fact that he's a good person, and -- >> i think -- and i don't mean to interrupt you, but i think most people would say that barack obama has been a good family man, raised two beautiful daughters he is a faithful christian, so there's something about mitt romney it seems to me that -- and again, that his advisors say has not yet connected with the american people. how does he turn that corner on thursday? >> well, i will say, i agree with you on mitt romney -- on obama. president obama is a good man and a good family man. but i think what you're saying is, that mitt romney hasn't connected that yet, and i think that he, too, is a good man, but he also has a record of accomplishment. he has a record of doing things that are very difficult and making changes that are good. that's what he needs to get across because it's not whether you like someone to elect them

president, it's whether that person will do the best for this country. and president obama has not taken our country in the right direction and mitt romney will make a change that will start job producing, that will help middle income people start doing better in creating jobs, as well as doing better in their own personal finances. i mean that's what this choice must be. it shouldn't be about who we like the best. it should be about who will do the best job for this country and the experience of mitt romney is what shows that he is original, creative, he knows how to turn things around, and that's what this country needs right now. >> senator kay bailey hutchison, is your voice going to last through the week? got a little something there. thank you so much for coming on with us. always good to see you. we appreciate it. >> thank you, chris. >> can mitt romney still win the election, though, if more people like president obama? more on that coming up.

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to politics where mitt and ann romney open their lake house in new hampshire. mitt flipping buttermilk pancakes and how they don't have cooks or help. they like doing things on their own and both love shopping at costco. >> we both love costco. i love costco. >> why? >> it's great. are you kidding? it's great. >> also got me one of these three packs of shirts from costco and they're very nice shirts. >> he's wearing them all the time now. that shirt looks pretty good. i got it at costco. >> the anti-president obama documentary took in more than $6 million this weekend finishing eighth. 2016, obama's america, is now playing nationwide. check out who's sitting in the chief seats at the convention. all the states with big ron paul delegations, nevada, louisiana, maine, minnesota, and oklahoma,

all up in the nose bleed section. probably didn't help that ron paul would not give mitt romney a full endorsement and he held his own rally last night. >> believe me, because we will become the tent eventually. >> speaking of endorsements former republican governor charlie cryst gave his endorsement to obama. in a piece in the "tampa bay times" he writes an element of their party has pitched so far to the extreme right on issues important to women, immigrants, seniors and students that they've proven incapable of governing for the people. look no more than the inclusion of the akin amendment in the republican party platform which bans abortion even for rape victims. read only one thing, my must read about the behind-the-scenes drama at the republican convention. who you won't see there. and why. it's up on our facebook page at facebook/jansingco. gh rg [ nn ]errequ

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the headline in the new orleans times pick cube says it all, tropical storm isaac torments the louisiana coast and you n ad florida, alabama and mississippi to that. isaac is expected to make landfall somewhere between the florida pan handle and new orleans. nbc's lester holt is in new orleans for us today. good morning, lester. >> chris, the hurricane as a category 1 is what they expect to hit the new orleans area presently late tuesday. that would be a day in advance of a 7th anniversary of hurricane katrina. katrina, mind you, was a category 3 hurricane. right now, new orleans under a state of emergency. they do not anticipate a mandatory evacuation here based on the current data. however, the parishes along the water to the south of here, the areas not protected by levees, those are under a mandatory evacuation order that could involve tens of thousands of people. sandbagging operations are already under way there. now the concern with katrina and the back of everyone's minds here, the levees. how will they do?

they've spent billions of dollars over the last seven years strengthening, raising the height of many of the levees, adding a flood gate system, bigger, bigger pumps. official believe they will not be caught flatfooted, this is not the same town hit by katrina seven years ago. as far as airports are concerned the anticipation is once winds get to 40 miles per hour or more the airport here will close, but keep in mind of all the areas where this storm is expected to come ashore, you'll likely start to see flight cancellations in advance as airlines begin to reposition their airplanes. folks are tense right now here in new orleans, but confident that they will not have a repeat of katrina. the biggest worry right now is the storm surge along the coast and localized flooding because forecasters keep telling us this will be a slow-moving storm, a lot of water is going to fall here in new orleans and across the gulf coast. right now we'll send it back to you. >> all right. lester holt in new orleans, thank you so much. isaac is stealing some of the convention spotlight from

the republicans, something the democrats will be trying to it as well. from rapid response ads to the president's two-day swing through three battleground states democrats are refusing to sit back and watch. i' joined by political analyst and former rnc chairman michael steele and political analyst and former dnc communications director karen phinney, good morning to both of you. >> good morning. >> what happened to the days when the opposing party let the other guys have their moment in the sun? is this largely because of technology, news cycles, the ability to get information out instantaneously and i guess all of us are used to being able to get any information we want at any time, or is there, you know, a little smack of rudeness in it? >> well, i think it's incredibly rude, but i think it also is a reflection of how times have changed. when i first started in politics a long time ago, that was the custom, that you kind of let the other party have their, you know, their time and then you kind of did your thing and the same was respected.

but little by little, we've had this sort of creep in terms of what's acceptable and i think certainly technology has enabled that, but the other thing is, increasingly, you know, we're seeing the need to correct some of the things that get said. i mean, obviously from my perspective, i think most of what romney is saying about president obama is either false or not the whole snfrinformatio. if you're the other side you're not going to let that stand for 24, 48 hours without wanting to respond. >> right. >> it is interesting, michael, how this has really changed the game and even now, after it's been going on for a while, i still am astonished sometimes how quickly i get the response e-mails from the other side. i'm wondering if this is sort of just already preaching to the converted, the people that are following all of this closely are -- their minds aren't going to be changed anyway. does this work? does this counter programming work? >> it does to the extent that you -- the point you made, yeah. it is preaching to your base.

the proverbial choir where you're sort of the game. as you've seen with the romney campaign from time to time and even with the obama campaign, your reaction time was slow, you didn't respond immediately to a particular issue or question. that's, you know, that's part of the new dynamics in politics where you've got to have that rapid fire turnaround. what i appreciate about, particularly the romney campaign, they're more measured in their responses. they are responding back, hitting back, but not doing that whip saw rapid fire they want to get it right when they put it out there because it has two purposes to your point. one, touch the base, but the other to go beyond that. >> karen, you sound skeptical. >> one other point i will make. i don't agree it's just about converting to -- preaching to the converted because there is a fact check function and you'll see this again during the debates where if things get said that are factually incorrect, it

is also because you want to make sure as something is reported that it is -- if there is a mistake made, that it is reported out with the correct facts. >> we should differentiate, karen, between two things. one is a mistake when somebody says something patently untrue and the other is a gaffe. this is an opportunity to capitalize if there's a gaffe and many more opportunities, are there not, because of social media, for something to happen during the campaign? >> absolutely. >> sure. >> yeah. you know, i think, you know, as we've seen as this xan has unfolded -- campaign has unfolded in the primary or general election when you those moments, you know, each campaign is waiting to see who's going to start to frame this and how they do it so they can try to get in fopts front of it and knock it down. that's the new reality with social media with twitter and blogging driving this 24 hour news cycle where the campaigns have to be on point. there is a caution here. you've got to -- you can't just jump out of the box and respond

immediately to the point you made, you have to have your fact the right, be clearer in the messaging you want to convey. if you're not that becomes another story you have to battle back on. >> outside of the campaigns, karen, ask you about the super pacs, americans for prosperity, the pro business group, plans to run anti-obama ads in what they're calling in heavy rotation in florida and north carolina which is, of course, the site of the democrat's convention in that area in early september. now my question about that is, is when you're looking really to target these undecided voters, this small group of people, many of them women, who are going to decide this election, do you risk at a time when they're really trying to see who do i like better, be barack obama or mitt romney, going with this negative tone? do you risk turning people off even more who say, frankly, i'm fed up with the process? >> absolutely. because that's the last thing people want to see. i think as people are tuning in to watch, so if they're bombarded with, you know, negative ads that seem over the

line, that again reinforces what you said. but the other piece of this is, that people are also watching both conventions, not just for the speech from the nominee, but to get a sense of how do i feel about the party that i'm seeing on stage here. how do i feel about the people who are presenting their message. i mean, it all kind of works together. if you see something coming out of a convention that doesn't resonate with you and then you see negative attack ads that's not necessarily going to influence your choice in a positive direction. you might say you know what, i see president obama is over here doing this event let me check that out and see what he's saying. it can work either way. >> leave it there. karen, good to see you, michael steele, thank you so much. >> all right. >> appreciate it. we want to get an in-depth look at social media at these conventions and all this week richard liu will do just that. hello. >> hello, also without mustache. >> as always. >> called the first social media presidential election and now early data may show it's turning

out to be just that. tracking many different social media platforms and keep in mind the data is unscientific but representative of the users of those specific platforms. i want to show you this tweet from twitter. it says, before even starting there were more tweets about the convention today alone than the entire week in 2008. that was from sunday. and on sunday mitt romney was leading on twitter's new political index, 31 to 27. romney's lead stretched, though, even further to seven so far today. that's welcome news here from friday to saturday, the buzz dropped 34% for romney according to research firm crimson hexagon in partnership with nbc politics.com which looked at facebook and twitter users. 51% of the social media positives were positive and the top driver was that romney was bipartisan moderate. as for negative sentiment, 49%, the top driver, there that romney is rich and out of touch. to try to lower the negative and increase the positive here, the republican convention is doing

things they've never done before. first off a social media war room has been set up according to the tampa bay times has 16 staff in it and that 16 staff will sift through all the social platforms and then push out content on those very same platforms. for speakers, another first. right off the stage, a social media green room. what traditional media can't give the speakers more air time they can do it right there, tweet before they get on stage and then after do some google hangouts for as long as they would like to again, take advantage of that buzz. now if you don't have the time to follow all that, we'll be doing that for you. find content under #msnbc 2012 or facebook.com/msnbc where we'll have behind-the-scenes photos and coverage and at our blog at leanforward.msnbc.com. reports on prime time speeches and from msnbc analysts. so chris, we'll have more tomorrow for you. i'm going to introduce a brand new app that we'll have for you to use. >> thank you so much, richard. making news this morning, as

well, rebels reportedly shot down a syrian army helicopter today while bombarding a damascus neighborhood. this is amateur video of the incident. the chopper burst into flames before crashing. it comes as activists claim 300 people were killed in damascus suburbs. an earthquake hit off the coast of el salvador. the officials say the 7.3 struck south of san miguel. a tiny tsunami reported measuring four inches. no reports of injuries or damage. and up to 70 small quakes shook southern california and arizona most centered in imperial county. the largest 5.5 magnitude. owe tishls say residents could see more quakes ahead in the next couple days. bracing for isaac and as well higher gas prices. cnbc's mandy drury here with what's moving your money. gas prices have been going up

and up but isaac could make that worse. >> absolutely. this is only the first hurricane of the 2012 season and this stage it looks to disrupt offshore oil and gas supplies and wreak havoc on refineries and key energy infrastructure along the gulf coast. as a result, the current national average is $3.75 a gallon. a month ago $3.49. a year ago $3.60. who knows where it could go if isaac does hit hard in the u.s. offshore oil. that produces, chris, about 23% of u.s. oil output and 7% of natural gas production, so we're going to have to wait and see on this one. >> just in time for the labor day holiday. how nice. general motors steering clear of the presidential race. they don't want either of these presidential candidates near their plants. >> absolutely. gm was saved by federal loans just a few years ago and desperately wants to avoid becoming like a centerpiece of campaign rhetoric. it's banned candidates from its plants until after the election day, november 6th, dets might

the fact that the u.s. treasury does remain its largest shareholder, it has 32%. it wants to be viewed as a success story, does not want to remind people of the government motors sometimes used by obama critics. that is why it's implementing that policy. >> mandy drury thank you. a lot of interesting factoids surrounding the gop convention. the convention by the numbers. last time there was one in florida, 1972. this year, 2,286 delegates will be there, 7500 volunteers, 15,000 members of the media. and 11 olympic athletes past and present. organizers are saying that between 175 and $200 million will be spent in the tampa area. [ female announcer ] the power of green coffee extract 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.

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begins with back pain and a choice. take advil, and maybe have to take up to four in a day. or take aleve, which can relieve pain all day with just two pills. good eye. jeb bush will take the stage at the convention on thursday, the same night that mitt romney

formally accepts his party's nomination. the former florida governor is expressing no regrets he didn't run and long term believes republicans need to work on their messaging. >> our demographics are changing, and we have to change not necessarily our core beliefs but how we -- the tone of our message and the message and intensity for sure. but long term conservative principles, if they're to be successful and implemented, there has to be a concerted effort to reach out to a broader audience than we do today. >> i'm joined by wyoming republican senator john veras so, good morning. >> thanks for having me. >> is there a problem with the tone of the republican mess annual and the intensity from the far right, do you think? >> what you're seeing really is a coalition of people from across the country who all believe that we couldendo bette we're united and why mitt romney will get elected in november we'll continue to talk about the things that unite us which are jobs, the economy, the debt, and the spending.

under president obama and the obama economy, he inherited a bad situation, but he made it worse. >> let me give you a couple examples of some of the concerns other republicans have. former governor george pataki agrees with the tea party on the principle of reducing taxes and size of government, long-held republican principles but he's concerned there's too much anti-government sentiment. do you fear those kinds of things talking about anti-government sentiment, things like that, could push the party further out of the political mainstream? >> i believe as most americans do, that we want a government that is smaller, not larger, taxes that are lower, not higher, and that's why i believe we can do better than what we've seen with this president and with the spending and the debt and the takeovers of health care and so-called stimulus package that has failed. that's what we're united behind and why i believe that we're committed to winning in november. >> let's talk also a little bit

about todd akin and as you know, there's been some concern within the romney camp and among republicans that this is diverted attention from other issues. but does it say something about mitt romney's standing in the party? does the say something about the power of the republican party establishment that todd akin has defiantly refused to pull out of the missouri senate race? >> well, you know, the people of missouri get to decide those things but i think what he said was irresponsible and it was wrong. and i've called for him to pull out of the -- that race as well as has mitt romney, the leaders of the republican party. we're going to continue to focus on the things, though, that y unite us which is we can make things better and american people deserve better. >> let me ask you about exclusions at your convention. the former presidents, bush 41 and 43 will not be there. some have said that's a good thing, allows the focus to be on mitt romney, but there is a long tradition of former presidents a

appearing and speaking at conventions. was it a mistake not to have them there or do you regret they're not there? >> i always enjoy seeing former republican presidents, hearing what they have to say and being from wyoming former republican vice presidents. but, you know, i think that the nominee gets to decide what he wants for the convention. we're going to have a unified group of people here who believe the american people deserve better, we can do better, we will do better and mitt romney is the person to lead us to a better economy and get away from some of the things that the president has taken us to such as a takeover of health care, unemployment rates of over 8% for the last 40 months. the president has continued to make many promises in the american people realize that those promises have not been fulfilled, are not going to be fulfilled and continue to be broken by a president and that's why so many people believe that the country is heading in the wrong direction although one out of three americans think the country is heading in the right direction. we can do better and it's time to make that change.

>> wyoming republican senator john barrasso, thank you, sir. >> thank you. >> today's tweet of the day take shots at isaac and the gop. frank writes republicans are investigating charges that tropical storm isaac is a case of massive weather fraud. [ female announcer ] research suggests cell health plays a key role throughout our lives. one a day women's 50+ is a complete multivitamin designed for women's health concerns as we age. it has more of 7 antioxidants to support cell health. one a day 50+.

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and some rain falling, another band of rain going through tampa as the republican national convention delayed at least until tomorrow. of course the bigger concerns about tropical storm isaac is that it's going to turn into a hurricane with its eye in the new orleans area. we'll keep you updated throughout date on that. there is always at these conventions a little mixing of business and measure. the delegates are always woul d woo -- wooed at lavish bashes. investigative correspondent michael isikoff is in tampa. we heard you went to the rock and soul party the other night.

>> exactly. two step soul and rock and roll. a party honoring the republican leadership featured guests senator john cornyn of texas and then you look at the fine print on the v.i.p. access ticket and you see it's sponsored by big insurance companies, blue cross blue shield, aflac, oil companies, chevron, conoco phillips, coke industries. this is the kind of thing that we're going to be seeing all week here, every major big washington lobbying firm, every big trade association, special interest group, the chamber of commerce, the american petroleum institute, they all have big bashes in store for the delegates and lawmakers this week. this is the traditional way that lobbying interests have been able to woo, wine and dine lawmakers they don't often get in washington in congress. they get it here at the

conventions. >> big name donors too. you mentions the cokes, david coke, sheldon adelson, those kind of guys? >> exactly. a coming out party for the mega donors, the billionaires who have been pouring money into the super pacs. sheldon adelson who has put in over $30 million so far to this election may go up to $100 million, is going to be the featured guest at a group called the republican jewish coalition, salute to pro israel lawmakers. this is a group that he primarily finances. he'll be making an appearance here. probably the big, most eagerly awaited one, david coke, coke industries. a salute to david coke, sponsored by the americans for prosperity. his conservative advocacy group on thursday, a lot of people will be there. >> a phrase i never thought i would say, michael isikoff, our party guy on the scene, thank you. >> that's going to wrap up this hour of "jansing and co." thomas roberts is up next. good morning, thomas. >> good morning to you. good morning, everybody. the agenda next hour, moments

now from the latest tracking information on tropical storm isaac. tampa gets a pass but new orleans prepping for the possibility of a major hit. look at that. the gop convention in florida, rolls with the punches and shortens its schedule because of tropical storm isaac. new polling is showing just how tight this race really is. mitt romney's speech will be the most important of his life. my guest next hour megan mccain, congressman connie mack of florida and florida congresswoman kathie caster breaking down the week for the gop. if you stash tissues 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. humans -- sometimes life trips us up. and sometimes, we trip ourselves up, but that's okay. at liberty mutual insurance we can "untrip" you

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♪ i can do anything ♪ i can do anything today ♪ i can go anywhere ♪ i can go anywhere today ♪ la la la la la la la [ male announcer ] dow solutions help millions of people by helping to make gluten free bread that doesn't taste gluten free. together, the elements of science and the human element can solve anything. solutionism. the new optimism. hi, everybody. i'm thomas roberts. good to have you with me. breaking news on tropical storm isaac. the storm gaining strength and poised to strike the gulf coast as a category 2 hurricane. at this point, isaac remains a well-organized tropical storm the size of texas churning through the gulf of mexico, the warm waters there, states of emergency have already been declared in four sta