republicans wanted president obama to succeed. really? did anyone get that word to center republican leader mitch mcconnell or paul ryan who we're told now attended the meeting to undercut the obama administration the very night of obama's inauguration. how many times these past four years have we looked at the house of representatives and seen a caucus ready to reject all of the objectives. all of them. because his success, obama's, would have been good for the country. i like the sound of that but how did that square with romney's own personal decision to run against and plan to defeat long before the president, this president, even took the oath of office. that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. "politicsnation" with al sharpton starts right now. thanks, chris. and thanks to you for tuning in. okay. we'll get to you, mr. eastwood. later in the show.

yes, i know you have a lot of explaining to do. can i do my show? we're on the air now. did you have a good flight? we'll get to you. but let's start with tonight's lead. party's over. republicans had their week. now democrats are punching back. it began today with vice president biden speaking to workers in ohio where he took aim at the gop ticket including the false statements made by paul ryan. >> you heard congressman ryan on wednesday night in a stirring speech blame the closing of a gm plant in his hometown of janesville on the president of the united states. what he didn't tell you is the plant in janesville actually closed when president bush was still in office. what they didn't say. but for the sacrifices you all made and the courage of the president of the united states, all those gm plants would be closed. here, all across the country.

>> the vice president also went after ryan for voting for all the bush policies that exploded the deficit. >> he supported not paying for two wars. he supported not paying for the drug benefit. he supported a ridiculous tax cut for the very wealthy. how do they think we went from a surplus and the middle class doing well to by the time we came in office, this disaster. as my little 6-year-old, 7-year-old granddaughter would say, pop, did casper the ghost do that? i mean, who did it? how did we get here? >> this is all part of a broader democratic counterattack already underway. today the obama campaign is out with a new ad hitting romney for all the facts he omitted from his speech and all the facts he twisted. and they're promising to make it

part of their critique at next week's convention in charlotte where preps are already underway. between now and then, president obama and vice president biden will be in full campaign mode traveling to seven swing states. and they're also getting some help from mitt romney. he's already famous for saying that corporations are people. well, listen to what he said today. >> we understand how washington works. we will reach across the aisle and find good people who like us, want to make sure this company deals with its challenges. we'll get america on track again. >> you hear that? romney slipped up and said america was a company. not a country. now, it was quick, so here it is again. >> we'll make sure this company deals with its challenges. we'll get america on track again. >> corporations are people and now america is a company?

romney's latest blunder gets to the heart of the difference between him and the president. >> the president as opposed to the head of a private equity firm, your job is not simply to maximize profits. your job is to figure out how everybody in the country has a fair shot. >> so democrats are fighting back. one thing i can guarantee you, though, nobody's going to be talking to an empty chair down in charlotte. joining me now is melissa harris-perry host of the "melissa harris-perry" show on msnbc. and crystal ball cohost of "the cycle" also on msnbc. thanks for joining me tonight. >> thanks for having us. >> now, romney says america's a company. how does that set democrats up for the counterattack? >> i think we have to be careful about going after slips.

but i think the corporation and company piece but also the way that romney talks about what america is or what his role as president would be tells us that that was a slip, but it was a freudian one. it was one that revealed his understanding about what the role of a president is. he's not really running for president. he's running for ceo and as we heard president obama say there, the fundamental difference is you're not trying to maximize profits as a president. you are doing the work of ensuring the american people earn circumstances of equality and opportunity. >> and crystal, it is a slip. and we all slip. but i think it also crystallizes the difference between the two campaigns. that's why i wanted to play it back. because it's really showed the difference as well as the fact that at least we show his sleeps. they take things that were never said and twist it. he at least said this. but let's deal with some of the substance of what happened.

>> sure. >> vice president biden also took aim at ryan and romney's budget plan. take a listen to this. >> i love this. they call their plan new, bold, and gutsy. well, guys, in the neighborhood i grew up in, the place i come from there's nothing gutsy about giving another trillion dollars in tax breaks to millionaires. there's nothing bold -- there's nothing bold about turning medicare into a voucher system. there's nothing bold about kicking 19 million kids and elderly off of medicaid with no place else to go. >> i mean, that's exactly right. and i think one of they have notable absences from the convention this week as we heard from chris christie and paul ryan in particular they were going to be the teller of hard truths. they were going to bring the bad news to the american people and tell them the hard truths that nobody else was.

but you don't hear them talking about what is actually in their plan. because the fact of the matter is, if they actually lay out their positions as the vice president did there, that was not spin. that is actually what's in their plan, the american people want nothing to do with it. it's incredibly unpopular, so they can't do that. one note on the romney company thing. i think in the abstract people feel like having a businessman in political office, that makes sense. but it rank ls when he calls america a company. and it crystallizes this idea having a ceo as president, that actually doesn't make sense. the bottom line in america is not profit. we're about so much more than that. >> yeah. and when you look at the fact, melissa, that mitt romney's speech last night, i listened intently. not a single word about social security. not one time. welfare, medicaid, finance reform, romney care. he didn't even mention afghanistan or iraq. >> well, you know what i was

remembering was i was transported back to 2008 and the denver convention speech. i could remember there had been so much criticism of senator obama and they kept saying he just wants hope and change but what does that mean. i can remember that in that denver convention speech. he lays out when i say hope and change, this is what i mean. >> absolutely. >> a, b, c, d. and he walks you through the policy. you can decide as someone listening if you agree with that policy, whether or not you support it. but there is no way he walks away from it. this candidate, on the other hand, rather than bringing any of that not only brought things that i think are just false saying we're less safe now as a country than we were when president obama took office. that is not only i think a false statement. it strikes me as so deeply unpatriotic to suggest that our country is currently vulnerable in world affairs. it's the sort of thing i think we wouldn't allow from a

democrat speaking in that manner. >> -- with our enemies -- >> right. it was appalling in a way that i just thought wait a minute. that is simply not okay. >> what about next week? the dnc conference, they have two official themes. building a stronger middle class and the election is a choice for the country's direction. what do you think we should expect next week? >> i think where the romney campaign was intentionally vague, i think we will see more specifics from the president. and i think that's really impoant. because the american people need to know what would a second term in office look like. and i think he needs to reassure the american people yes there was a congressional log jam this time around and it's frustrating. here's how we'll get past that and move the country forward. i think that's tremendously important. one word of caution. the whole clint eastwood thing last night that maybe we'll talk more about later, but i would caution on being too snarky and

making too many jokes in the convention about that moment. there's a danger of appearing condescending. >> no. they can leave the snarkyness to me. >> exactly. >> let me say this, melissa. when you look at one of the things and you said that it disturbed you when they talked about we're not as safe and i totally agree with you. another thing that i really don't agree with is when the statement was made that we felt good about voting for him and haven't felt good since. a lot of people have felt good since. i i felt good. we signed a health care bill. i felt good when he stood up and made his opinion. there was a lot of good feelings. >> i felt good about don't ask, don't tell. >> i tell you, that line if i'm obama for america 2012. i'm like thank you for that campaign commercial. all you got to do is take that line from romney's speech where he says if you felt good then,

shouldn't you feel just as good now. and the commercial is just one after the other after the other of all the things that you -- but that's exactly -- the whole point of the president is not an empty chair. he is an actual human being and he is the president of the united states. it doesn't matter whether or not he ever ran a lemonade stand. he's run the united states of america for the past four years and has a record of accomplishments. and this convention is going to be about talking about all the things that people can and do feel good about. >> well, that bothered me. i'll talk later in the show about the other narrow definition of success. >> oh, yes. >> they got in this super narrow definition of what success is all about. crystal, we'll be seeing you a little later in the show. melissa harris-perry, thank you for your time. have a great labor day weekend. and be sure to watch "melissa harris-perry" saturdays and sundays at 10:00 a.m. here on

msnbc. coming up, a major victory today for president obama and the equality fight for your voting rights that we've been fighting here. plus, he laughed, he cried, he fibbed. but his one major goal last night was to make people like him. did it work? and then there's this. >> what do you want me to tell romney? i can't tell him to do that. can't do that to himself. you're absolutely crazy. >> yes, it really did happen. and you won't believe how romney's aides are throwing clint eastwood under the bus today. he joins us to tell us what in the world he was thinking. it's "politicsnation" exclusive. you're watching "politicsnation" on msnbc.

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starts with arthritis pain and a choice. take tylenol or take aleve, the #1 recommended pain reliever by orthopedic doctors. just two aleve can keep pain away all day. back to the news. welcome back to "politicsnation." last night governor romney faced the most important test of his political career. he had to connect with voters. humanize himself and narrow the enormous likability gap between himself and the president. his speech was part of an effort

that included hiring madmen to sell his story to the nation. even the convention itself has attempted to do something that a year of campaigning has failed to do. paint a revealing portrait of who mitt romney is. last night was all part of that effort, but we did see more emotion from him than we have in the past. >> every day dad gave mom a rose which he put on her bedside table. that's how she found out on the day my father died. she went looking for him because that morning there was no rose. my mom and dad were true partners. a life lesson that shaped me by everyday example. >> but did last night and did this week do enough? joining me now from charlotte is jonathan capehart, an opinion writer for "the washington post"

and an msnbc contributor. and margie omero, democratic strategist. thank you both for being here. >> thank you. >> you were there last night. did romney succeed in selling himself to the american people? >> i'm not sure. i mean, you can't sell yourself to the american people on your likability when you know that you are t-- the latest poll shos he's the least liked nominee in the past 30 years. this is something he should have been working on over the last six years he's been running for president. you can't change those likability numbers with one speech. although we did see some glimpses of humanity, some glimpses showing us that family really feels -- is the fuel behind this guy. but i'm not sure if it's going to be enough to turn at least his likability issue for him around in time for november 6. >> well, let me go to you for a minute. i want to ask you something,

jonathan. but marge i want to put this in context. "the new york times" has something saying the emotional connection with the president may be central to his election. let me read in part what it says. romney still needs to tackle the harder job of convincing those americans who are so emotionally invested their hearts in president obama four years ago that it is time to accept that his presidency didn't work. let go of him and move on. a large portion of wavering voters maintain a personal attachment to mr. obama and a tentative willingness to give him more time to get it right. that emotional attachment is the thing i think mr. romney was trying to go after. do you think he was at all effective? >> i think there was some nice moments in the speech. i loved the story about his parents and the rose. ultimately, though, romney has

been unfavorable since january. really a pretty sizable gap. he's been net unfavorable for a month. it's not like he can do one speech and now it's going to be okay. it's a very big pattern to overcome. it's something he'd have to maintain until november. the other thing about that clip you just read, it's not just about an emotional connection only either. it's also about who -- which candidate has the policies that can really speak to the middle class and romney didn't adjust that at all in the speech. and it's something that whether you address it in the speech clearly that's not where his positions are. >> jonathan, there was a bigraphical video on presidential candidate romney that was shown last night that did not make primetime. i thought it was very effective. i thought that had it made primetime, it would have done a lot for him. let me show a clip of that.

because most americans didn't see this last night. >> hi. oh, craig, don't squirt me. >> i hate to say it, but often i had more than five sons. i had six sons. >> how you doing knuckle snorts? >> he was really playful. >> you know. >> you know. >> it's like, you know. >> you know. >> mitt would walk in the door after work, leave the briefcase at the door, that was it. never thought about work again until he left for work in the morning. >> that video showed a real human side of him with the kids and grand kids. really, really kind of made him a real human being. and why they opted to put clint eastwood on rather than the video on when they went primetime in terms of the networks, i mean, i heard someone say this morning was campaign malpractice. it was crazy. >> it was a bad move.

i wrote a piece earlier this afternoon that said what would have been so much better was to have -- was to get rid of clint eastwood altogether. have marco rubio give his fine speech and have the end set up the video. then have the video played which i agree with you was incredibly effective. i thought it was powerful and really did show you aspects of mitt romney that you've never seen before. could you imagine mitt romney coming on to the stage at the end of that video? the roof would have been blown off the tampa bay times forum if that had happened. and they didn't do that. they squandered a major opportunity. and by the time he gave his speech and the balloons fell, really, the enthusiasm in the convention hall was just not there. it felt like the kind of, you know, a party you would go to for a coworker that you kind of liked and you thought was nice, but you didn't really admire the

person or love the person. you know, there was no feeling there. >> that's probably how you behave. i don't go to parties with people who feel like that. let me ask you this. jonathan mentioned rubio. one of the things that i noticed is that most of the main speakers spoke more about themselves than they did romney. which also feeds into likability. i've never seen a convention where everyone was, like, casting their own biographical sketch in front of the public. other than maybe ann romney. do you think we'll see that mistake at the democratic convention? or there'll be more strict and a lot more on message in terms of president obama, his record, and what the policies represent? >> well, i'd like to think that the democratic convention you'll see more speakers on message. certainly when you have a lot of different speakers, there's some

unpredictability. i think you'll see at the democratic convention people talking about the clear difference between the two candidates and some specifics about what it means for the middle class. and the middle class, unlike what you heard at the republican convention, the middle class blames corporations, congress very specifically, big banks, and president bush more than they blame obama. there was a pew poll last week that showed that. i think you're going to see those things mentioned in the convention this week. >> jonathan capehart and margie omero, thank you for your time this weekend and have a great weekend. >> thank you. you too. still ahead, governor romney picked up where ryan left off. the lies and deceit went primetime again. but democrats are keeping him honest today. look at those toys. insurance must be expensive.

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foeblgs, have you checked us out on facebook? the "politicsnation" conversation is going strong all day long. today our fans were talking about what else? clint eastwood's chair speech. elle says, bizarre doesn't begin to describe that speech. jenny thinks the empty chair won the debate with eastwood. and harry says if a romney presidency is anything like the way they produce primetime tv, we all should be afraid. what did you think of the chair tactics?

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governor romney's speech last night was long on rhetoric, but short on truth. he just couldn't help himself from telling some of the gop's favorite fictions about the president. >> and let me make this very clear. unlike president obama, i will not raise taxes on the middle class of america. >> he's wrong. since president obama took office, he's actually cut taxes for 160 million middle class americans. then romney trotted out another fake talking point. the president's so-called apology tour. >> i will begin my presidency with a jobs tour.

president obama began his presidency with an apology tour. >> "the washington post" gave him four pinocchios for that one. quote, the claim that obama repeatedly has apologized for the united states is not worn out by the facts the apology tour never happened. end of quote. and timely it's not a gop event unless someone brings up medicare. >> his $716 billion cut to medicare to finance obama care will both hurt today's seniors and depress innovation and jobs in medicine. >> never mind that those cuts are coming from insurance companies or that paul ryan keeps those exact cuts in his own budget. the gop doesn't care how many times their facts get debunked, they're a broken record that keeps playing the same old song. joining me now is e.j.dionne.

he writes about all this in his column today. and joe madison host of "mornings with madison." let me thank both of you for being here tonight. >> thank you. >> good to be with you. >> e.j., can romney really run a campaign based on things that just aren't true? >> well, i certainly hope not. and, you know, first of all all of us ought to have a rule left right and center. people ought to believe in their case enough that they don't have to make stuff up to advance it. on a lot of these issues, they don't actually want to say where they're coming from. they're perfectly respectable arguments. i disagree them. but they're arguments for voucherizing medicare. they don't want to acknowledge that's what they're doing. instead they talk about this phony stuff about obama cuts. in the ryan speech he talked

about a plant shut in janesville under obama. gm announced that they were closing that plant in june of 2008. well, they don't want to talk about the auto rescue, because that has been very successful. and mitt romney opposed it. but i think there's a real challenge here to journalism. because the romney campaign is going to keep trying to push these things. mainstream journalists are going to have to push back and say no, this isn't true. they're going to try to say this is just liberals attacking us. well, facts aren't liberal. facts are facts. and i think the people are going to have to keep pushing back. >> well, joe, ryan did say that this plant closed in janesville. let me show you what he said. >> okay. >> right there at that plant candidate obama said i believe that if our government is there to support you, this plant will be here for another hundred years. that's what he said in 2008. well, as it turned out that plant didn't last another year.

>> no, the plant was closed later that year. they announced it was closed later that year under george bush. mr. obama was not inaugurated until january of '09. it was announced closed in december of '08. let me show you a photo of the closing plant workers who had their closing party kissing and hugging each other good-bye on december 23rd, 2008. they only did some idling for a few months. but the plant was closed, gm had closed it. this is a blatant lie. >> not only is it a blatant lie, you can also as you've done on your radio show i've done on mine, have the people from janesville call in. look at the headlines of the janesville local newspaper. what did they say? what date did they say? it is all right there and at least those journalists in janesville know the truth. but here's the other thing they don't want you to know.

it's not so much what they say in their lie as much as what they don't say. what they don't say is that bain capital didn't want to bail out general motors. not a single private equity firm wanted to touch general motors. the president took a gamble, he loaned that money. not only did we get the loan back, but the american people made money off of that bet. that's really what they don't want you to know so you end up focusing on whether or not the plant was closed and give the impression that president obama was responsible for closing the plant. >> but, you know, joe and i go way back. if you bail out a business and you make money and the business goes under, that's applaudable. if you bail out a business and keep people's jobs and make the

taxpayer money, that's supposed to be something that's reckless. and the president did that with gm. then they tried to spin and change what actually was the record at bain. let me show you some facts that they forgot in their profile of bain last night. dade international, 1700 jobs lost. bain made a profit of $242 million while 1700 people lost their jobs. in gs industries, bain went in and bailed out, 750 jobs lost. bain made $12 million. am pad, 385 jobs lost. bane profit, $102 million. so they invested in companies. some made it, some didn't. but they always made a profit. the president bails out the auto industry, saves jobs, and the taxpayer makes a profit, that was bad policy.

>> it's amazing to me that more people don't just say who opposed the auto bailout, we were wrong. this thing worked. i thought -- at the time i was for it because i thought it would be an irreversible decision if we let our auto industry go under. and ford would have been effected, too, if gm had gone under. but the other thing they don't want to talk about is these other companies they praise needed government money to keep going. or had government contracts. i mean, this notion that the government is out there as some separate thing. all it does is hinder capitalism is just wrong. there wouldn't have been so many lobbyists down there at the republican convention in fairness they'll be at the democratic convention too. if there weren't a lot of businesses that got supported by our government. >> i was going to add one other thing in that outline you just gave, a lot of that was money

gambled with what? people's pensions. >> right. >> people's pensions. some people lost everything. >> could i just say something, reverend? i think the bain attack has really penetrated, because i don't think mitt romney wanted to spend as much time as he had to spend last night talking about bain. and i think that's in response to all these stories and all the advertising. he realized he needed to launch a defense. because he was getting hurt by what he thought was going to help him. >> ej dionne and joe madison, thank you for your time. have a good weekend. >> see you in charlotte. coming up, a huge win for president obama's fight for your voter rights today. plus, hillary clinton's at it again. she dances her way back into your summer break. and a "politicsnation" exclusive interview with clint eastwood. see him sitting there waiting. i'll be right with him.

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coverage. check out that approach to the net. he's an ace out there even stopping to greet some fans. game, set, match for this troublemaker. that's the fastest getaway since paul ryan's departure from facts. next, to the islands. a spirited greeting for the secretary of state hillary clinton's arrival. >> those locals have been rocking and she loves it. clapping right along. this isn't the first time we've seen hillary get down. remember her dancing the night away in south africa earlier this month? wow. she's really having a great summer. look at her moves. get low. here at "politicsnation," we can't get enough of the secretary of swing. way to go. and that's today's summer. -- summer break. [ male announcer ] this is rudy.

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okay. here we go. let's get to the story that everyone's talking about. a rambling clint eastwood and his chair. tonight we've got an exclusive interview with the man himself. we'll get to him in a minute. honestly, i woke up this morning and i wasn't sure it really happened, but right before the biggest speech of governor romney's life, this happened. >> i've got mr. obama sitting here, and he's -- i just was going to ask him a couple questions. how do you handle promises that you made when you were running for election and how do you handle, how do you handle it? what do you say to people? do you just -- what do you mean shut up? i'm not going to shut up. it's my turn. i think if you just kind of

stepped ide and mr. romney can kind of take over, you can still use the plane. though maybe a smaller one. speaking out for everybody out there, it doesn't hurt, we don't have to be -- i don't say that word anymore. well, maybe one last time. i'll start it, you finish it. go ahead -- >> make my day! >> thank you. >> yes, america, it was not a dream. from washington to hollywood, it's all anyone is talking about. the president weighed in with a tweet, this seat's taken. a picture with him sitting in a chair marked "the president." and today we're learning more with romney's aides throwing eastwood under the bus. i said it last night and i'll say it again. i suspect this isn't the first

time clint eastwood has talked to empty chairs. joining me now is dana milbank, columnist for "the washington post" and back with us again is crystal ball co-host of "the cycle" on msnbc. and of course clint eastwood joins us. thank you all for being here. clint, i got to start with you. what were you thinking? all right. i gave you a chance. let's move on. dana, we're in the hall last night, you were there. what was the feeling as this was going on? >> first of all, i think clint eastwood just told you to shut up, reverend. it does look like he combed his hair for your interview. so that's a good sign. he did not give them that last night. >> we're talking about respect. all the jokes aside. i thought it was the most

despicable disrespect for the presidency. when you have the president where this kind of -- where he implies the president speaks in a vulgar way, i mean, if a democratic convention had done that, they would be killing us. i think for him to be allowed to get away with that kind of disrespect and no one challenged him. mr. romney or rubio came behind him and said absolutely nothing about how he disparaged the president of the united states. let me show people exactly what he said that had me and others so outraged at the disrespect for the man that holds the office. >> what? what do you want me to tell romney? i can't tell him to do that. can't do that to himself. you're absolutely crazy.

you're getting as bad as biden. anyway, all right. i'm sorry. i can't do that to myself either. >> i mean, that kind of barroom in the middle of the night improve humor and you are standing up in the primetime hour of a man being introduced to be the president of the united states as the nominee. i mean, this is outrageous. >> and there were children, of course, in the hall and many more children watching that their parents think they're giving them an introduction to civics. that's an introduction. you didn't show the bit where he's pretending to slit the throat of president obama. look, maybe we should give the rnc the benefit of the doubt and say they didn't know this lunacy was going to occur. then you hear romney was backstage laughing while this is going on. and they're trying to defend it

this morning saying well, no. this is a perfectly acceptable message. he's highlighting the 23 million people who are unemployed. add that on to a lot of the other incidents i'm sure you've been through over the past week, and it becomes more sinister than that. he was received with a revelry and a rakus reception in the hall. >> they were distancing themselves from the speech. aides variously call the speech strange and weird. one described it as the theater of the absurd. times reports that initially there were no plans for mr. eastwood to take a chair on stage as a prop, but at the last minute, the actor asked staff backstage if he could use one but did not explain why. . the prop person probably thought he was going to sit in it, a senior aide said. give me a break.

they don't know what he's going to say. fine, if all that was true, why didn't somebody come out after. rubio spoke, romney spoke. and say that is inappropriate. we need to respect the president of the united states even if we disagree with his policies. >> or even after the fact. in part of as you're pointing out which is surprising here is the romney campaign has this reputation of being very scripted, very tightly controlled. almost to a fault. then they let this man go out on stage and do whatever he wants and put together this extremely offensive as you're pointing out, ad lib bit. even if we take their word for it that it was, where is the courage to come out and say that was inappropriate and demeaning to the office of the presidency. it reminds me of when rush limbaugh attacked sandra fluke. indefensible. and the best romney can muster is those aren't the words i would have chosen. where is the courage? if we're going to elect this man president, where is the courage

and the character to say that was wrong. it was a mistake, and i'm sorry. >> dana, it is almost 24 hours since it has happened, we give or take four or five hours. you're a man on top of everything. has there been a repudiation of the profane way he projected the president or the way he acted like he was slitting the president's throat? has there been a repudiation by mr. romney or his campaign as you know? >> no. and quite to the contrary, they were defending him saying that was a perfectly acceptable message. now, i mean, it is outrageous on the one hand. i think on the other hand you can say what clint eastwood did last night is embarrass himself. he had took what had been a sterling career and made himself into a national laughing stock. so in a way the vulgarity of it all can be seen in the context of this man doing himself no good, doing the nominee no good.

and i think democrats aren't particularly pushing this because they want to let the republicans stew in their own juice on this one. >> well, i think that there's no doubt that he did himself a great disservice at the end of a stellar acting career. i've never agreed with his politics. but he did it on their platform. so it's not a question of he did it -- he did it on their platform in their primetime time. >> and it does get to a matter of judgment. i mean, clint eastwood is not running for elected office. so i don't particularly -- i'm not interested in what he has to say really. i'm interested in the way a president romney which is not going to happen but a president romney would theoretically behave if he were in office. i think it speaks to judgment. i just can't imagine how they didn't vet this properly, how no one asked what are you going to do with the chair? and after the fact there wasn't any sort of apology or repudiation. >> dana milbank, crystal ball of

course thank you both for your time. and of course clint eastwood, thanks for your time and your help. we'll be right back. [ angry ] i just discovered untopped triscuit taste great. oh, it's so good! if this image robbed you of the great taste of untopped triscuit, claim your free box online. goat cheese? come on! this is america! [ male announcer ] 100% whole grain woven for an untoppable taste. [ crunch ] humans -- sometimes life trips us up.

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today we saw a big victory in the fight against voter suppression. in ohio a judge restored early voting for the three days before election day revising a republican law that closed that period for everyone except military voters. the obama campaign sued to give all voters the same rights. and then the romney camp accused them of undermining the military. but the judge today sided with the president saying his ruling quote, does not deprive military voters from early voting. instead and more importantly, it places all ohio voters on equal standing. but today's victory is a big

one. and it's one of many we've seen this week. yesterday a federal judge blocked the texas voter i.d. law citing concerns about its racial impact. and in florida, another judge permanently blocked a law that had limited voter registration. but that law made a huge impact while i was on the books. here's how many registered in florida leading up to the 2004 and 2008 elections. now look how many were registered this year. it's a shocking dropoff. democratic registrations dropped 95% while republican registrations were up by 1/3. democrats now have just a few weeks to make up ground before voter registration ends in october. well, there are many states that still have not been decided and these may be appealed. but we've got to keep fighting. we said it earlier this year, in fact, we started late last year. it is about protecting