guest spot today. what a lineup, paul ryan, and condoleeza rice, i say bases loaded. >> and of course batting cleanup in today's baseball, there are very few black faces on the field, and even fewer on the rnc stage. are they just for show? >> all that, and paul ryan's speech, republicans are hitting for cycle this thursday, august 30th. that is right, thursday here on the cycle, that means using every baseball cliche we can to describe the presidential race. now we're in the top of the sixth, so as they wind up their convention, next week, the democrats get their shot. right now it is in a virtual tie. we take you back to the

highlights of last night's game, involving two big hitters, condoleeza rice and paul ryan. here is the former secretary of state. >> on a personal note, a little girl grows up in birmingham, the segregated city of the south, where her parents can't take her to a movie theater or to a restaurant. but they have her absolutely convinced that even if she can't have a hamburger at the woolworth's counter, she can be the president of the united states if she wanted to be, and she becomes the secretary of state. >> now to paul ryan, and it was love at first word on the floor. forget the fact checkers, the pundits, and oh, yes, even the democratings. to bring it back to baseball, we get to john sterling and his classic home run call. >> it is done, he has done it! >> with all of their attack ads,

the president is just throwing away money. and he is pretty experienced at that. what did taxpayers get out of the obama stimulus? more debt. that money was not just spent and wasted. it was borrowed, spent and wasted. >> i'll have much more on that speech later, no matter, that was yesterday. this is today, and mitt romney will take his turn at the plate. there are two outs, and the bases loaded. we start with sj cup on the convention floor, just how dreamy was paul ryan? >> he was pretty dreamy. no. it was like ravel's bolero, adding moments with a crescendo, it was pretty good. >> i'll say the nice things first, if there were questions about paul ryan on the big stage, he certainly answered the questions. to me, this was a guy really

driven by principle, i think he is really driven more by ambiti ambition. >> i have to say, we'll talk about it later, i had a problem from a standpoint -- i think a lot of people did, i think the reaction it generated from republicans, i think more importantly in terms of the republican opinion from the media, does show that when paul ryan went on the ticket, there were farout positions he took, policy positions, republicans will be on the hook for those now. i think the speech and the reaction suggested last night they may be able to get away with this one. >> yeah, ryan was very good if facts are not something you're looking for in your political candidates. look, i almost threw up in my mouth, when he talked about his future. you can do that born into wealth. >> and congressman, thank you for joining us. >> thanks large likeability ga

with the president. do you want to see him try to close the gap and address i guess, the convention in a more personal way? or would you rather have him focus more on policy? >> well, it is a little bit of both. i think america wants to like the first family. it is a very personal thing for them. this is the very first time mitt romney will have an unfettered hour to introduce himself to the country. the first time on deck was ann romney. she hit it out of the park. the country will see her strength and what a wonderful first lady she will be. but mitt romney is about results. and this country, and the turn around that we need, we need it in the white house. we won't have as big a celebrity as president obama in the white house, but we'll have somebody who is competent and can produce results. that is what mitt romney and paul ryan are about. >> i appreciate you furthering the baseball analogy, did you have a question?

>> i will bunt as much as i can to get on first. >> congressman, i think three times, i have gotten to know you pretty well. you told me a story about sitting down with mitt romney, recently, just after your dad died. and talk to me about what that meant and what you learned about him. >> yeah, i was not planning on saying that before you started to interview me. but the mitt romney that i got to know is a very personalable, humble person, my father happened to pass away. i was on the bus with mitt romney, there were just two of us, he took a good 20's 30 minutes. we shared stories on what it was like when my mother died, and my father, when your parents both pass on, he was so kind, tender, it is hard and emotional for me to talk about. for him to take that time. that is the mitt romney that i know that i hope the country gets to know. he is a very caring,

compassionate, caring person, and i hope some of that shines through tonight. >> well, that is exactly the point, all of those things are true. but mitt romney is not showing us or telling us any of those things. and he has got to do that tonight. do you think he is able to do that? or is there a personality problem that allows him not to be able to tell us that? >> no, there is not a personality problem. i actually like and appreciate that he doesn't lead with that. it is not all me, me, my, i, you just don't hear that from mitt romney. he is talking about accomplishments, what he wants to do. he wants to talk about policy. that is what i want to see in a person. so yes, i want to know he is a strong family man, has integrity, intact through this race. he is one of the most well vetted people out there, and what you get with ann romney, mitt romney, paul ryan, they

will make us proud. >> congressman, one of the themes of this convention really has involved the idea of hard truths, the idea, and i heard this from chris christie, and from paul ryan last night, this country faces big problems. we need leaders who will tell us things we need to hear, though not necessarily want to hear. what i have not heard with that are the specific hard truths. so i wonder if you can tell me what is one of the specific hard truths that the republican party believes that voters of the country need to hear? and that the democratic party and president obama are not telling us. >> well, you can't keep borrowing and spending at the rates we have, 25 cents out of every dollar is spent by the federal government. historically, we have been at the 28%, what paul ryan and governor romney have said, we have to drive it down. if you have an adjusted income of 208,000 or less, we want to drop it down. these are things the american people need to know that are

fundamentally different -- >> i don't think there is anything hard about that, saying we're spending too much money, the answer is to cut taxes, seems to me that is a popular thing to say. what are the hard truths that you need to tell people -- >> the popular thing that democrats keep saying, he is going to put a root beer in every drinking fountain. that is just not going to keep happening, you can't continue to spend like we have. that is the problem with that administration. >> so what do you cut, congressman? >> i'm sorry? >> what cuts do you make? >> well, you have to look at discretionary spending and make transformations on the entitlement spending. you have to make these types of adjustments. so it is a pro-growth package that mitt romney is looking for, continue with the keystone pipeline, that is a priority,

repeal obama care, give every state a waiver on day one. and engage in tax reforms, make the taxes more fair, get rid of the tax loopholes that are out there, get the country moving, that will allow capital to get going. >> i don't want to belabor this, but i want to press you further on this. you talk about medicare and adjustments for people 55 and under. you may refer to paul ryan's plan, okay, well paul ryan had planned originally on medicare that made the same cuts on medicare spending that president obama did. in the interest of cuts, he took the same cuts that president obama did on affordable care act, now paul ryan put them on his plan. now paul ryan is running on the ticket -- now forget those hard cuts that are maybe unpopular politically. we'll undo those cuts. doesn't seem like you're telling a hard truth there, but seems like you're scoring a very cheap

and easy point. >> no, to the contrary, paul ryan introduced with senator widen, a plan to help fix and solve medicare. those are the hard facts, we have to do this in a bipartisan way, but it takes guts to put it on paper, the reality for the american people. the president doesn't have a plan. think about this. the president introduced a budget, never has a house member or senate member ever voted in his favor -- >> but the president's plan on medicare includes the cuts that are part of the affordable care act, the cuts that the romney-ryan ticket say they want to undo. you're saying we need to get the costs under control. you are right. congressman ryan had a plan that included those cuts. he is now running away from it, and in the next breath saying we need to hear hard truths about it. >> the reality is they put forth a budget, nobody has ever voted in favor of your budget.

how bad is your budget if nancy pelosi won't even vote for your budget? so the president doesn't even have a plan. the reality is -- mitt romney has an aggressive plan, the president had four years to do that. they have not produced any results. we're in the same quandary, the debt going to 16 trillion. we're paying more than 6 trillion a day on the national debt, you can't keep doing that. >> all right, well, paul ryan may have a plan. i would like to hear him defend it more. >> perfect, bring it on, thank you. a busy night for sure, coming up, the many sides of mitt, from a man who knows him for 25 years, and worked with him. but first, we only scratched the surface of the speech, all this and the latest on "the spin cycle" is next. look! she wears the scarlet markings!

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. well, we here in tampa escaped the worst of isaac, but gulf residents in texas and florida are dealing with serious after effects of the hurricane, a dam is in danger of failing in mississippi. rescue efforts in full effect in louisiana, for those who didn't get out fast enough. as for the storm itself, isaac has moved inland and should weaken to a tropical depression today. but in the inlands, there is

simply no place for the storm surge to go. flood waters are in plaquemines parish, the crews are trying to ease pressure on the levees. but heavy rains pushed water into slidell, louisiana. nbc's gabe gutierrez has more on the latest. >> reporter: good evening, slidell police say they have rescued 145 people today. and from what we understand most of the people who need to be rescued have been rescued. although we have just been told they brought in an ambulance, because they're bringing in another person they found in the home, they're bringing them in here. let me step out of the way. you can see how deep some of the portions are. this was not the worst part. this was up to six feet of water in some areas, here at the palm lake subdivision last night. about 40 people were rescued here from this area. about -- another -- 75 people or so were rescued today in the oldtown area, we're told that this was not the case of a levee

being breached. this was just heavy rains over loaded at a pump station, a large section of this town has been sub merged. again -- more than 100 people were rescued today. and we're told most of the people that needed that rescue have been already rescued. so back to you. >> okay, gabe gutierrez. thank you. back here at the convention center he might be the new kid on the block, but i have to tell you vice presidential nominee paul ryan sure fired up to floor last night. >> college graduates shouldn't have to live out their 20s in their childhood bedrooms, staring up at faded obama posters and wondering when they can get going in life. >> ryan gave the tampa crowd what they have been looking for, from day one. a chance to really stand up and cheer for something.

so guys, you know, i was here. and i got to tell you, i graded ryan a little less generously than the rest of the crowd. i mean, the crowd ate it up. it was a huge speech. like i said before, it crescendoed, it went to a booming finale where he is literally having to scream over the crowd, like i am right now over this band rehearsal. it was good, i thought it started out slow. he backed up mitt romney the way he needed to and delivered a rousing address to rile up to base. of course there is all this talk of the fact checkers. i just want to leave you guys with a quick thought. anybody trying to find out if that gm plant in janesville closed under the obama administration, should also find out if there is a restaurant called kateys, i dare you. >> i don't know how it has to do

with anything. >> look it up. >> and he gets up, talks on the stage regarding a plant, where people in his district know that the plant closed in the obama administration. i want to talk about two main points. he loves this line of our rights come from god and nature, which is so offensive to so much of america. because for black people, hispanic people, and women, our rights don't come from god our nature. they were not recognized from the natural order. they come from government and legislation, in recent history in america. so that bothers me to my core. but also this demagogueing of the people who need help, are lazy, and need personal responsibility and a kick in the butt, at a time when class ascension in america, you will be in the class your father was born to. it plays to this idea that poor people are lazy and sucking on the government teat. and it is just a total

falsehood. >> you know i want to just pick up on something you just said there. because i think that the response, the defense that is offered for a speech like ryan's last night, when we talked about the facts-checking aspect of it. the response, rooted in equivalent -- everybody does it in politics. there will always be a degree of fabrication, that will happen for years to come, that is inherent when we try to bridge that speech. i think that paul ryan crossed the line last night. i think the gm plants was clearly a -- plant was clearly a false and misleading situation. he criticized obama, the commission, paul ryan was a part of that commission. the commission didn't actually get to put a report on president obama's desk, because paul ryan killed that report.

he goes after barack obama for medicare cuts, cuts that are part of paul ryan's budget. he goes after -- talks about exploding deficits and national debt. 7 trillion worth of votes cast by paul ryan as a member of the house to add to that debt over the years. so i think this was just -- the falsehoods were so thorough, unending, and so at the heart of this speech, it occurred to me while watching it. there is a challenge for journalists, the idea is to look at a speech, leave it for the fact checkers, and say was it good, did it fire up the crowd? that was typical, that doesn't ring true to judge a speech like this. there is a calculation being made by the romney campaign and the republicans that they can get away with it, they will lead it to add watch columns, this is the front page of the new york times, i know that the new york times front page media doesn't matter as much.

nice picture of paul ryan, neutral headline, says he is going to defend medicare. you have to get to the 18th paragraph to hear that maybe something was false and misleading about the speech. there has to be a decision, i think by the media, that the story was filled with falsehoods, i think there is a challenge for the media because they're being used. >> yes, and if i could just add to that, even if the new york times did lead with paul ryan's speech, deceptive, misleading, even if they leaned to the right, they spent so much time cutting the credibility, the neutral media, anything that is not hard right. that even if you did have a headline like that, they would just discard it. it is so hard when you have millions being spent on the welfare work requirement ads, which have been raided by politifact, the washington post checker, pants on fire, totally

false. but there are millions backing it up. so what is the broad message that the american public is going to get? >> you know, i just want to respond just briefly. i also don't love the tit for tat response's well, the democrats do it, too. i think accuracy in these speeches, even though they're designed to be anthems, i think the facts are important. there is an article that talks about that. i want to say, steve, if you want to talk crossing the line and talking over the line, calling mitt romney a candidate, killing somebody who had cancer, it happened a long time ago. it will get ugly on both sides, i'm sure, because a lot is at stake. all right, up next, steve kornacki is bursting with excitement. we'll talk to a man who has known mitt romney for years, bill well is in the guest spot. straight ahead, wonder what he

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oh, the many sides of mitt romney, in tampa, we have seen him highlighted as mitt, the leader, the friend, the family man, and of course, mitt, the humorous, well, our next guest has known mitt romney for many years and was responsible for ushering mitt romney to the forefront. william weld, the governor of massachusetts for years, i want to get my buy iases, on the tab. you were not new to my world, our middle school did a mock gubernatorial disclosure. i want you to know, i portrayed

your opponent, john silber, and had a flier i put together. i want you to know, i won the school election, you won the bigger one that year. we meet at last, and there is no hard feelings on my part. just want to put that out there, and thank you for joining us. >> it is fun to be with you guys. i have enjoyed watching your ratings climb. and the day will come when i will say i knew you back when. >> well, thank you. >> so governor, you and mitt romney, you go back a long time both and friends and sort of political allies. and i know in 2008, you supported mitt romney initially in the primary, but ultimately you endorsed the president, saying it was a no-brainer. so i wonder why you're supporting mitt romney this time around. is it more about a political favor or more than that? >> i was always for mitt romney in 2007 and 2008, i have been his new york coach there in both cycles, in 2008 and 2012. after he bowed out on the

republican side, candidate obama persuaded me he was the more serious candidate about the economy. and i'm all about economic growth. i think that is the number one issue, and the main issue i endorsed the president. i was also frankly stirred by his graceful rhetoric. and i thought it would not be a bad thing for the country if you were elected. >> well, governor, you talk about the economy there. but certainly in your political career you were also closely identified with sort of more liberal positions on cultural issues, i am thinking in particular, 20 years ago at the convention, a sort of family values idea. you tried to force a floor debate over the party's anti-abortion debate. you got some to go along with you, the bush white house shut you down. i want to know what you said at the convention, we'll put it on right here. >> there are also issues where we do not agree. i happen to think that

individual freedom should extend to a woman's right to choose. i want the government out of your pocketbook and your bedroom. >> amen. >> you know what strikes me looking at the clip, obviously you were in the minority in your party back then. but you did have help, and other governors in your state, willing to go along with you. seems to me from your view, the republican party has regressed from the last 20 years. we wouldn't even see today what you were able to do 20 years ago. do you share that view? >> i think that is probably right. i don't take the platform very seriously. i don't pay attention to matters like gay marriage and abortion. my sense is that as former vp

quayle said, the important thing is to welcome the so-called party big tent. when i welcomed president reagan, half the justice department were libertarians, and others conservatives. we would laugh at each other and say we work for reagan and work for the the boss. >> i think you could see something like that under the romney presidency. he has the sunny disposition of reagan, and we keep our eye fixed on the balance, which is getting the country moving again economically, and do the bosses work. >> governor, i know that republicans are dying to talk -- one of the things about reagan was that he was able to share his soul and heart and who he really was. and romney has struggled with that throughout this campaign. if you look at the new york times piece about him, he seems to have struggled with that for a long time. he was writing his book, he rejects it being a tell-all memoir, and then his ghost

writer, his book agent are constantly pushing him to apply his personal experience and tell more about himself. and he ultimately cannot. is he unable to tell us who he is? isn't that a critical part of getting the electorate to vote for you? >> well, he is certainly earn comfortable about boasting and saying positive things about himself. it is just not his personality. but in private, the man i have known for 20 years is very funny, quite the prankster, totally at ease. and i think the person who had the hard speech to give was ann romney. that was a very difficult speech, packed with a lot of emotion. she had the command silence, she had to use the silence, absolutely pinpoint timing. she really set the stage for him. i think all he has to do tonight and the next two months is be himself. >> governor, we're really short on time. but i wanted to follow up on one thing you said, the republican

party needs to be the big tent party. is it the big tent party when you look at gay rights and abortion? is this the big tent party? >> nobody gives me any trouble. they know i'm a social liberal, to the left of the party most of it on immigration. maybe i'm just a piece of kryptonite but -- >> could you win an election as a republican today? >> it would be tough for president of the united states, but at the state level, sure, there are plenty of republicans like me. >> all right, former governor bill weld. >> thank you for joining us, i'm glad we finally got to meet. straight ahead, diversity at the rnc. but was it just for show? whoa! don't want you spilling that hot latte

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the gop is 90% white, but no doubt they're trying to put on a show, at the rnc, giving speeches. new mexico governor susana martinez, former secretary of state condoleeza rice, nikki haley, and artur davis, and former senator marco rubio. but what are they trying to accomplish? extraordinary members of the race have always been used to say look, racism is over, right? >> yes, that is the goal. but it is also to show that the republican party is not as small tent as their policies, or maybe the leadership may seem. and what we have seen on display here are really truly the next generation of the republican

party. all the people you just showed, condoleeza rice, tomorrow, marco rubio. and bobby jindal, who you didn't get a chance to see because of hurricane isaac. these are all people rising in the republican party whereas you say, it is 90% white. we'll see how it deals with a leadership that doesn't look like it. >> i am confused, they talk about welfare, which we know is code for black people, and voter id, we know that is code from keeping black people from voting. they talk about the birther code. and they put all of these people out there, saying this is who we are a -- are, who are they really? >> yes, what they're trying to do is saying don't pay attention to that. these people wouldn't be part of this party if we were really that way.

but again, what we're seeing here and we'll see again in charlotte, i guarantee you, is a place to the base. it used to be coming to the conventions, having locked up their nominations, then speak to the country about the things to the middle. the pivot to the middle, what we've seen here is a lot of speeches revving up the base, trying to make sure they are excited enough that when november 6 comes, they will actually go out and click the lever for romney or ryan. >> the list of it is growing, chicago is apparently code for racism. i can't keep it straight. but i also want to ask you if you think republicans are somewhat hamstrung here. because i remember not long ago when mitt romney put up an ad, and it was all white people. fol

folks in the liberal media cried racism. can republicans ever win on this issue? >> i am sorry, the carnival cruise line tried to -- overwhelm the question for me. what was the last part of your question? can the republican party win -- >> yeah, can they win on this, because they're either accused of being completely racist or accused of panderring. >> well, this is a question for the party, if we didn't have the question of the so-called republican strategy. if we didn't have policies that disproportionately impact people of color, didn't have policies that the liberals and the people in the party pushed back. so there are plenty of policies and not enough time to go through them to show that the republican party has not been exactly hospitalable to --

broadly speaking, has not been hospitable -- >> but they just keep electing people of color, you say that people keep getting elected. >> well, they keep getting elected on the local level, again. susana martinez, and again what we're going to see if the republican party wants to go back to being a national party, and not just a reactionary regional party is going to have to put the mia love, susana martinez, bobby jindal, condoleeza rice, if they decide to run for office, back in the leadership role. they have to make that leap in the republican party, as constituted now, they have to do that. >> we could say there is more opportunity for ambitious

colleagues in the republican party than the democratic party. one, republicans want to highlight black politicians, the minority politicians like we see at the convention. but i have seen this in states across the country. there are an awful lot of black elected officials in the country, most of whom are democrats. in many cases, this is a result of the voting rights act, which produces sort of a majority-minority districts in states. the lines are drawn to encourage the election of black members of congress, for instance. when it comes then, for the democratic party to pick candidates for statewide office, they tend to look at black members of congress from majority districts saying they would not sell statewide. it would be too easy for republicans to say suburbs, versus urban area. so there is a great difficulty within the democratic party for promoting a black democrat to get in office. i don't think that same barrier

exists in the republican party. they are happy when they come across an ambitious black politician to promote them for state office. >> yeah, i think that is right. johnathan, one other thing to you, they had a poll asking why do black voters most consistently support black democrats? and the answer was i don't know, and the answer was from the republicans was that black voters were seeking a government handout. and that is why they supported the democratic party. i mean, how can minorities ever feel really at home in a party that views them that way? >> exactly, that gets to what i was trying to say in response to -- in response to -- i have actually heard from this in the hall from a republican from texas, who doesn't agree with me on anything but listens to what i had to say. and the party, he says we're

about opportunity. and why do african-americans want to stay in a party that guarantees them handouts? that is bad for them. i mean, this is a partywide view. this is what republicans think. and i think it is incumbent upon democrats and incumbent upon the administration to make it clear that while government is there to help individuals, to help citizens when they are at -- you know, most in need, that the president and the administration is really about pushing people to really go after -- out there and grab the opportunities that are there, as part of the american dream, you listen to the president, he is not about hey, the government will do everything for you. if you listen carefully, not even carefully, the president says outright, the government is not there to be there for your every need. the government is there to give you the push you may need. but then, do what all americans do and grab opportunity and keep

going. >> no, you're absolutely right, it is disengenuos, that is not even right, thanks for cycling with us. we'll see you next. up next, watching the rnc, you struggle to recall who is the last president -- he shall not be named the uncle you hide in the basement when the company comes. but tonight, jeb bush rocks the house. and currently polling zero percent with black voters. >> now, here is why in that particular poll they may have had zero blacks, minorities going to vote blacks, specifically, we're going to vote for governor romney. they were working so they didn't answer the phone when they took the poll. believe it or not, some black people have jobs. this country was built by working people.

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he would be the one accepting the gop's 2012 nod. this is what jeb has now got in mind. >> from tampa, florida, this is the republican national convention. the road to jeb bush, 2016. >> so maybe it's 2016, not 2012 and perhaps for a good reason. polls do show that the specter of jeb's brother's presidency still does haunt the party. it also might be why a special pretaped address by george w. and his dad last night. there's been little talk of the last republican president. i think jeb may have been right to stay this one out. i initially thought maybe too much was being made of the name. jeb is very different. he talks different, looks different. he's not from texas. but looking at the the polling on how toxic the bush economy and foreign policy still are, jeb i think could have easily won the nomination, but would

have been very difficult for him to win this time around. >> i agree. my theory on this race has been that if obama win this is year, it will be the bush factor that saves him. it will be a sense that's very difficult to quantify, but a sense among voters that yeah, the economy's bad, our anxiety's high, but we understand and we're going to give him a certain benefit of the doubt. if you had a republican nominee this year whose name was bush, it would only exacerbate that. i look at jeb bush, there's almost an accident of history here. when you look way back. the year 2000, there was a certain inevitability there was going to be a bush restoration in 2000. and the decisive moment was 1994. george w. bush against richards in texas. two weeks before that election, everybody thought jeb bush was going to beat lawton.

the order would have been reversed and jeb would have been the one going in 2000. >> there's not a person alive who knows more about the '90s than steve kornacki. unbelievable. you are granular on the '90s. i love it. the thing i'm struck with this week is how, that bush is clearly an embarrassment to the party. they are running away from the legacy, the name and i don't think there's ever been a nominee, a president four years out, that the convention runs so far away from that person. i mean, so yes, clearly, jeb would have a very difficult road with that last name, but just where's w.? are you really that embarrassed? >> we were talking about it in the office today. i think the last time you could think of a president george bush was in with the republicans, lyndon johnson, 1972, when the democrats did not want him near that miami beach convention. >> up next, just because it

sounds good, that doesn't make it true. i'll make my thoughts on paul ryan's speech last night crystal clear. [ male announcer ] 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. [ "the odd couple" theme playing ]

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we had help from medicare and it was there. just like it's there for my mom today. medicare is a promise. and we will honor it. mitt romney and i know the difference between protecting a program and raiding it. ladies and gentlemen, our nation need this is debate. we want this debate. we will win this debate. >> paul ryan's speech last

night. it was fiery, well delivered, politically effective. it was also utterly misleading and completely dishonest. i'm not just talking about ryan blaming obama for a gm plant that closed under bush or that his math on the president's contribution to our debt is just plain wrong, this speech was dishonest to its core. reflecting not paul ryan's world view at all, but rather a world view he thinks is more palatable to voters. conservatives have never been deal with the new deal and great society programs. they believe that if we are strong and self-rely ant, we will save for our own health care. that is reflected in ryan's budget plan where costs are capped by cutting the amount the federal government will pay. if health care is more expensive, sorry grandma, you should have planned for that. instead of making that argument though, ryan and romney have

decided to convince voters that they are the true protectors of medicare, that the president is raiding medicare. ryan'sification for this is the very same 716 billion in medicare safe savings that ryan himself included. savings part of a package that provides seniors with more preventative screenings. it's a dishonest claim that doesn't just fail the fact check, @ dishonest to the core. likewise, republicans are not and never have been committed to deficit reduction. its rhetoric has always been a guise for cutting programs. that's why when paul ryan plas blasts the president, it's not only dishonest because ryan himself was on that commission, walked away from it and then voted against it. it's dishonest to the core. ryan closed his speech with this.

>> we have responsibilities. one to another. we do not each face the world alone. and the greatest of all reasonableties is that of the strong to protect the weak. the truest measure of any society is how it treats those who cannot defend or care for themselves. >> i believe deeply in those words. they are in fact core to my world view. unfortunately, they are the antithesis of ryan's. so, we'll see s.e. back here in new york tomorrow and that does it for us. martin, it is all yours. >> krystal, thank you so much and good afternoon to all of you. it's thursday, august the 30th. and here's what's happening. it's mitt's big night. but how can he possibly top