car in the aisle... and go. you can even take a full-size or above, and still pay the mid-size price. this is awesome. [ male announcer ] yes, it is, business pro. yes, it is. go national. go like a pro. welcome back. i'm craig melvin. you're watching msnbc, the place for politics. 45 days how many days we have left until election day. paul ryan will kick off a rally in orlando, his second in florida of the day. ryan attacking president obama for saying change comes from outside washington, not from inside. >> we sent presidents to change and fix the mess in washington. this president has admitted he can't change washington you know

what, we need to change presidents! >> meanwhile, vice president joe biden pushing back on the question who's best to bring change to washington, arguing it's not mitt romney and paul ryan. >> the facts are they're doubling down on everything that caused the economic crisis in the first place. they want to shred regulations for wall street and the big banks again, want to double down on the tax cut. meanwhile, president obama travels to the battleground state of wisconsin, his first campaign trip there. he will be visiting milwaukee for two campaign events. the big story we track, the reaction to the release of mitt romney's tax returns and show he paid a 14.1% effective rate in 2011. more on these stories and a whole lot more in the next two hours on msnbc. right now, some live pictures from orlando, florida, where we do expect paul ryan to take the

stage, the vice-presidential nominee to take the stage in central, florida. we will bring it to you live. ron motte travels with paul ryan. good afternoon to you. >> reporter: good afternoon. almost everyone agrees the romfy campaign has hit a pretty rough patch the past two weeks and in the pastime, we sense a page-turner and expect him to deliver a pretty fiery speech against the president in orlando. this gym, i don't see a lot of empty seats. paul ryan is a rock star in the republican party, and a lot of folks are starting to question he's been under-utilized in this campaign and this morning launched attacks against president obama and went after the hispanic vote and mitt romney trails the president in

many policyls against the presit and the national debt clock behind me, $16 trillion and counting and president obama is responsible for almost a third of that number. a lot of spinning and out of control and the country needs a leader at this time to try to reverse the trend of those numbers and we expect paul ryan to try to reverse those numbers and paulpaul -- they were introducing a nasa astronaut and there have been changes and i think they need to reverse the course. >> we showed the clip of an event earlier in florida. my understanding that craig romney and jeb bush were on hand there and they even spoke a fair amount of spanish to that crowd. how is the outreach effort going there in florida for the romney ryan campaign, specifically with hispanic voters?

>> reporter: they have an uphill climb. the latest nbc wall "poll puts them down 40% and they're making an effort to try to win over favor with hispanics in this state, a lot of hispanics in florida and they think the base is on the i-4 corridor, tampa, st. pete to orlando to daytona beach and where that vote has to come out for them and the panhandle in florida to give them a shot at florida. they're also trailing in virginia and also trailing in huo and a lot of folks say to win 1600 pennsylvania avenue, you have to win two of those three states so they have their work cut out for them. >> i want to remind our viewers at home when paul ryan begins to speak there in overrulrlando, w bring it to you live. thank you. appreciate your time. president obama using his weekly radio and web address to blast congress for adjourning with a lot of work still on the table. the house gaveled out its last

vote thursday afternoon, its shortest question in 50 years. >> when they skipped town they left a bunch of proposals on the table, actions that will create middle class jobs and strengthen security. these ideas have been around for months. the american people want to see them passed. apparently some members of congress are more worried about their jobs and paychecks this season than they are about yours. >> let's bring ingest ca taylor. ana marie cox, correspondent for "the guardian" and jonathan, opinion writer for the "washington post." >> hi, craig. >> before the adjournment, six house democrats wrote a letter to house speaker jon boehner saying in part democrats do not believe the house should recess this week or at all until we have met our responsibilities to the american people. our nation can ill afford

economic uncertainty that will result from congress remaining idle for another six weeks. the letter didn't do much. congress convened for fewer days this election year than any of the past two presidential election years. what's the significance of this for the president, given what he said about change in washington earlier this week? >> what this will do is make people remind them why they don't like congress in the first place. this congress is the least popular in a very long time. the signators of that letter are former democratic leaders in the house. nancy pelosi at the top of the list. what you see is political gamesmanship. no one expected congress to get anything done before election day. >> not even the post office? they couldn't save the post office? not even a bipartisan agreement on the post office?

>> no. no. because then that would give a victory to president obama from the republicans' privilege. i don't think anybody should expect anything to have gotten done in an election year, in a presidential election year, and at a time when partisanship is so so high. >> ana marie, senator jeff sessions blamed democrats for the do-nothing label on congress. take a listen. >> they balanced their family weather only to find out that the united states senate under democrat control will not even bring a budget plan to the senate floor. people should know the republican led house on the other hand, met its obligations, most significantly, it passed a budget to rescue america from debt crisis. >> alabama senator jeff sessions there. we have each side blaming the other. who do you think really gets the blame here? sn>> he's right the republicans

accomplished their objectives because their objective is to rob obama of re-election, like that's what they said their objective is, the stated goal. maybe they haven't quite achieved that stated goal but in terms of what they're trying to do, they've gotten closer than the democrats for sure. the democrats have not been able to do anything because the republicans said that's their goal. it's hard to say staying in session any longer would improve things. this is a horrible meal. do you want seconds? there's one way to look at it, no way congress could get more unpopular. they'd have to spread diseases and kick babies to get more unpopular. i'm sure that's coming. there's nothing we can say that will change this. this is where the politics is heading. i don't know if the american people want to see congress in session anymore. >> that's an interesting privilege.

jessica, i want to give folks just an idea what they left on the table. we will put it up on the screen here, the bush era tax cuts, automatic budget cuts, payroll tax cut, the farm bill. mentioned the post office, that's one near and dear to my heart. my father has been there 37 years. do both sides see more power in pro-cast nation? >> you're going to hear republicans continue to talk about why these this are important on the trail and democrats as well. i think for instance the farm bill, democrats see that as having a particular impact in some of these house and senate races coming up. they're going to continue to try to use that. the bush era tax cuts, we always expect it's going to be punted until the lame duck session. i think this will continue to be an issue both in the presidential race on down and having an impact. >> jonathan, mitt romney issued

a statement saying, in part, i commend the house of representatives for voting to block an obama administration rule that would have permitted waivers of the work requirement at the heart of the bipartisan 1996 welfare reform act. they have debunked this a couple times. why does mitt romney keep going down that road? >> apparently it works well with the people he's hoping will come out and vote for him. think about it. we're talking about the statement he put out about the work requirement in welfare. remember what he was caught on tape saying at that boca raton fund-raiser back in may, disparaging, belittling 47% of the american people he says voted for president obama, and who would not be amenable to his message of tax cuts because they're dependent and have no personal responsibility.

it all follows along in one line. unfortunately he has no shame. no shame in, you know, furthering this debunked myth of his. but also remember during the tampa convention, during the republican convention, one of his strategists said at a public meeting with journalists, where he said, you know, fact checkers don't matter. >> you know what, i want to get all of you to stand by, if you can, jessica, ana, and jonathan. paul ryan, as promised. let's listen in and we'll talk about it on the other side. this is republican vice-presidential nominee paul ryan at the university of central florida in orlando. >> remember that promise? it's been above 8% for 43 months. 23 million americans are struggling to find work today. we have 15% of our fellow

citizens living in poverty today, the highest rate in a generation. that's not working. so that also is an area the president is not showing the leadership we need. another area where the president has fundamentally failed to lead, an area that i believe we have a moral obligation to lead is in getting this debt under control. [ applause [ applause ] >> thank you. let's have a conversation about this. you see, this just isn't giving our children our bills, this just isn't -- this is without a

shadow of a doubt, every fiscal expert would tell you, we are consigning the next generation to an inferior standard of living, to a diminished future. we know this without a doubt. we have a moral obligation to save the american dream for our children and grandchildren. more to the point, it's hurting our economies today. let's take a look at this. i'm kind of a power point guy. i hope you'll bear with me. while we have this conversation, you'll see our national debt will just be racking up. the president said he'd cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term. nowhere close. he hadadded $5 trillion to our debt. he said 6.$6.10 trillion debt w unpasttriotic when he was a senator. now we have $16 trillion debt. what do we call that? >> shovel ready.

>> shovel ready. i've heard that one before. governments can absorb some debt as long as it's not too big relative to your income. it's just like a mortgage. you buy enough house but no more than what your income can carry. a pretty common concept. well, we've done this in america. take a look at our debt in the past. this shows you that our tedebt back in world war ii, it got as high as the entire american economy, meaning our debt went about 100% of our gross domestic product. you can have really high debt that high if you know it's temporary, if you know it's for a finite time, forever you know after that you will get it paid off. that's what we did. we borrowed a lot of money to win world war ii. those heroes who fought for us -- >> there you have it, paul ryan in orlando at the university of central florida there speaking to a crowd. there was a power point presentation you probably could

not see very well but we will talk about that in just a moment. i want to for a quick second, ana marie, talk about the debt clock behind paul ryan. that is something we, of course, saw in tampa at the convention and have seen it at a number of other republican events. is that an effective messaging tool? my favorite thing looking at that clock when they had it at the convention with the we built that right above it. the bush administration was responsible for a heck of a lot of it and they seem to be just denying that part of it. that point about spending in world war ii. that's spending that got us out of the "great depression" as well. there's government spending that gets us started in the economy. paul ryan, i believe he does believe the debt is the moral obligation and obviously believes there's a larger moral obligation than what other people might consider more immediate concerns. i think it's disingenuous for the republicans to blame it all on obama. >> jessica, we also saw paul ryan there with clicker in hand, he was giving what sounded,

appeared to be a fairly detailed explanation about some of the numbers. one of the chief criticisms of the romney-ryan ticket heretofore has been they don't give us a lot of details. do you think what we just saw there was the beginning of a romney-ryan 2.0 campaign? >> i think just these past two weeks they've had to retool. you've seen romney dipping in polls in crucial swing states, o oh ohio, florida even. i think they've got to do this. i think early on maybe they could run just as we're not obama and running on the economy and obama's had four years, give us a chance. but right now, i think voters have certainly tuned in after the convention. obama had a very convincing convention speech and got him a bump that romney didn't get. right now, they have to have some sort of, well, vote for us instead of obama and here's why you should vote for us.

they have to get into specifics especially on the economy that remains the number one issue on voters mind even though other issues like foreign policy is creeping up. >> jonathan, is it too late to start giving folks details. >> no, it's not. i think because it's only 45 days, you don't have a lot of -- you're running out of runway to get that plane off the ground. we know what paul ryan was do to bring down the deficit. there was his road map for america. there was his path to prosperity. we know what kind of cuts he wants to make. we also know and congressman ryan knows that the decisions that he would make are extremely unpopular. that's why they're not talking specifics. >> jessica taylor, ana marie cox, jonathan, stick around, we'll have you back later and will say happy birthday to one

of them. there's a tease for you. what may be the next big idea when it comes to how you vote, calling it "the big idea," we are doing it every week and very excited about it. plus, one of these guys, what if they had won, there is al gore. a look at an alternate universe, the place for politics. , posters copies of my acceptance speech. great! it's always good to have a backup plan, in case i get hit by a meteor. wow, your hair looks great. didn't realize they did photoshop here. hey, good call on those mugs. can't let 'em see what you're drinking. you know, i'm glad we're both running a nice, clean race. no need to get nasty. here's your "honk if you had an affair with taylor" yard sign. looks good. [ male announcer ] fedex office. now save 50% on banners.

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president obama is in wisconsin now. we saw him land a few moments ago, set to speak in milwaukee. when that happens, we will bring it to you. a new web video calls on mitt

romney to release more tax returns. >> this is only the tip of the iceberg. romney has only released two years of tax returns, both from after he started running for president. why won't he come clean with the american people? what else is he hiding? >> senator john mccain among others on the right pushing back saying quote mitt romney has now released more than 1200 pages of tax returns, now that the most recent tax return has been released, it's time to get back to discussing the issues that voters care about. with me now former congressman patrick murphy, democrat from pennsylvania and veteran of the iraq war and supporter of president obama. congressman murphy, good afternoon to you. former congressman murphy. good afternoon. >> good to be with you. what do you say to voters who hear that and agree and say 1200 pages is a heck of a lot and time to move on? >> i think they say what's in

those 1200 pages. you see mitt romney hiding his assets in bermuda. and chinese oil companies, has a swiss bank account. mitt romney, this year he just released, only paid 14% in taxes, only 14%, not his fair share. that is a lot less than what the average american middle class family pays. now, that's how the system is structured. if you're a multimillionaire, you get tax break after tax break and they still complain about the taxes. we're a nation at war, a nation in debt. why isn't mitt romney being honest with the american people and why isn't he paying his fair share and what is he hiding? >> what do you think is in the numbers we haven't seen? >> we don't know. but we also know that mitt romney's father ran to be the president of the united states. his father said you should release 12 years of tax records, his father. his father's passed away, so he's probably rolling around in

the grave right now. his son is hiding his taxes. he owes the american people at least 10 year's worth and only gave us two. he released it on a friday, trying to dump it on a friday six weeks before the election. all of us have to pay our taxes april 15th. >> and journalists generally out of the building by 12:00, is that what you're seeing? >> the headline in quote from "politico," world's obama fever cools. the surging good feeling toward the u.s. he ushered in has dimmed in much of the world and evidence is scant his popularity has advanced u.s. interests with america's allies or his adversaries in any tangible way. what's your reaction to that? >> barack obama this is commander in chief of our country. he was very clear with americans and the world he would end the war in iraq and he did that.

barack obama has been an ass kicker when it comes to taking out al qaeda wherever they are. when we triple the troops in afghanistan and smoke out bin laden and finally brought him to justice in pakistan and bringing the troops home in iraq and taking out al qaeda number 2 in yemen, we will go to the ends of the world to bring those people responsible for 9/11 to justice. that's why barack obama should remain our commander in chief. >> what do you say to those who blame the president partly for what we're seeing in the middle east right now, his policy or lack thereof for some of the violence we've seen play out over the past two weeks. >> he has a very clear policy. if you do harm to american families like what happened on 9/11 where more than 3,000 innocent americans were murdered, he will bring those people to justice and find you and hunt you down. that's what he's done. he's been very clear, if there's any that hurts our diplomats and embassies, like what happened where we lost four great americans, we will also bring those people to justice and we

have made six arrests in libya. hopefully those, if they're responsible, will go to jail a very very long time, hopefully the rest of their lives because we have an ambassador murdered just last week. >> former pennsylvania congressman, patrick murphy on a saturday afternoon. thank you for your time. >> grade to be with knew i'm telling you, it's an apock colisp. >> is it an apocalypse now? >> what brought the west wing cast back together? straight ahead. you're watching msnbc. n't easy . but he had purina cat chow indoor. he absolutely loved it. and i knew he was getting everything he needed to stay healthy indoors. and after a couple of weeks, i knew we were finally home! [ female announcer ] purina cat chow indoor. and for a delicious way to help maintain a healthy weight, try new purina cat chow healthy weight.

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in our "what's the big idea" segment, we're highlighting a turbo charged approach to a very simple question. what's the easiest way to register to vote? this could be it. a nonprofit website called turbo vote and guides people step by staep throu

step process regardless where you live and making it's easier to get absentee ballots and has a breakdown of all the laws and deadlines of each state and could make a big difference for people confused about the new guidelines. just this week the pennsylvania supreme court and whether it is acceptable to understand the state's new law. turbo vote could help understand the assessment in pennsylvania. it's called turbo vote. check it out on the information super highway. new details just in from new york city police about why that 25-year-old man jumped into a tiger den at the bronx zoo. also, what if the cliffhanger election of 2000 had turned out differently? jeff greenfield joining me to talk about his new political fable. you're watching msnbc the place for politics. sure does!

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i'm craig melvin. here are some of the top stories making news right now. a 25-year-old man in new york could face criminal charges after he jumped into a tiger den at the bronx zoo. the man had to be rescued after a 400 pound cat attacked him. police say -- they just told us a short time ago, they told usthy man was not trying to commit suicide, rather, he wanted to be quote one with the tiger. . >> a fast moving 1500 acre wildfire in nevada is threateni threatening highways and threatening several homes there and firefighters hope to have it clos contained by monday. it didn't make headlines but when a real estate agent came to clean a house, she found gold coins stashed all over the house. it's being individual at 7

million bucks. oversea, a surprising twist in libya. a crowd actually drove an is islamist militia out of benghazi in apparent show of anger over the murder of four americans and ambassador stevens. our reporter is following these developments, what happened here? >> reporter: let me set the stage for you. you have to go back a few months. before the revolution was a sense of lawlessness across libya. these militias that fought in the revolution carved out their own areas especially in benghazi. people in that part of the country were extremely worried these militias were becoming more powerful and dangerous and operating on their own with the attack of the ambassador and u.s. consulate was from the militias that became more brazen and show their force. that scared and angered people

who wanted these militias part of a national party and police force. yesterday, a big rally was called for. a lot of these people came out to the streets, by some estimates as many as 10,000. they gathered on called on these militias to hand over their weapons and hand over the national army and police force. they went to the headquarters of this particular militia, this one believed to have close links to al qaeda and essentially stormed the compound, forcing the members of that militia to flee and now the members of that militia have been dispersed, unfortunately with their weapons. what made this so dangerous, as they went to other militias, some of them shot at the protesters, there are reports of casualty casualties. but the people there emboldened by this act of people power are determined to reign in the militia militias from their country. >> who organized this benghazi

rally? >> reporter: ordinary people. when we were there last week, they were telling us about it. it was the same stuff that inspired the revolution. people printing up posters and getting on facebook, social media announce this. a lot of the social society that came in after that dealt with social issues, a lot of students, those were the people behind the rally yesterday. >> msnbc with news of a different kind of protest in that part of the world. appreciate your work as always, sir. thank you. back to politics now. we all know how the 2000 election ended. the vote was very close. it took the supreme court to decide ginobo decide george w. bush beat al gore. what if it did not end that way and the vice president went on to win the white house, how would things be different today? that's the purpose of a new book, "43 with an asterisk

there," an all around good guy, jeff greenfield. what if, fuel for those who live politics like us. in your book, what tips the scale and gets gore into the white house? >> very simple. not the recount. eeli elian gonzalez's mother does not drown. had she survived, the uprising of the cubans won't have happened and if that happened, paul schneider, and others may have cost gore 50,000 votes in florida. in my history i let her survive, takes elian back to cuba quietly and no recount because gore could have never won a recount under any other circumstances given the politics and then al gore becomes president. it's absolutely the butterfly effect. >> if vice president al gore had

been elected, what would this country look like today? what would he focus on in terms of policy? >> you have to divide before 9/11 and ask would 9/11 have happened? i think he would have faced tremendous resistance from republicans who controlled the house of republicans. the senate was evenly divided, had pressure from the left of the democratic party to spend a lot of money. remember the issue in 2000 is what will we do with all that extra money to show you how far we have come. before 2001 it would have been tough politically. my hypothesis is he would have been much more aware of the al qaeda threat because he would have been there eight years on the national security policy. the bush people really did not understand al qaeda because they had been away eight years and breaks risk adverse and turf protected we know how much the fbi and cia were keeping information to themselves, i play out despite gore's efforts 9/11 happens and even happens worse for a particular

reason i'm not going to give away. >> would bo barack obama have happened without george w. bush? >> now, you're beyond. i end mine two years in. i don't have too much inability to forecast the future. the point raised, maybe somebody else would like to raise history. it's clear barack obama wouldn't the nomination and election because of a stir for a compl-- desire for complete change. there's no way i think a new senator could have won the nomination if you didn't have a popular incumbent and desire to change the mood in washington. one of obama's problems right now people are saying you didn't do what you said. i think without bush in the white house and the mood of d discontent it would have been almost impossible for obama to win. >> since you have watched these debates for many years, not to date you, but you have seen a lot of these presidential debates. what's going to be the headline

on october 4th, the day after that first presidential debate in denver where they attack domestic policy? sn>> i'm not great forecasting e futu future. i think a lot of people will resort to cliches. >> that's what we always do. >> quote, there were no knockdowns unless one of the guys punches out the other. who is on the defense is the big question. given the current terrain, the question will be, will mitt romney be able to refocus the country and say, you know what, we do want an alternative, he in this debate showed he was up to it. it's always an advantage to a challenger to be on stage with the incumbent president because there's an equality just by the two of them being there. it's also important to remember sometimes debates don't produce a radical change. john kerry got back into the ballgame in 2004 because he probably bested bush in the debate but bush went on to win. i suspect barring a shocking revelation if one goes oops and

can't remember his own policy the way rick perry did, you're likely to see a cautious analysis. >> the book it called "43." we should note it's doing pretty well. >> this morning, not that i check these things, the number four -- >> number four -- >> i'm up against stephen king and childs. you know why? it's a buck 99. a low risk investment. >> and morning joe as well. >> big-time. >> maybe after saturday afternoons on msnbc -- >> something. >> john greenfield, always a pleasure, thank you for your time. up next, guess what newt greenwich is up to next. you might be surprised who he's been spending time with lately. we'll tell you about newt's new buddy and president obama giving inside conversations he has with his kids at home. our trail mix coming up next.

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it's 43 asterisk. the guy who sent me the nasty tweet, i'm sorry. >> the female r&b singer, one of the best. a woman of class and poise, the president making those remarks at a recent fund raiders with the b and her husband, jay zp-zd the girls are pretty mad they could not make it. a pot called walk and talk the vote reunites actors martin sheen, bradley tomlin, and many others on behalf of the state supreme court candidate brigitte mccormick, the sister of another cast member, and shows the

famous walk and talk monologue and banter and even an inside joke or two. >> people fail to realize a straight ticket vote doesn't count in nonpartisan races. if they casually vote the party line their interest will continue unrepresented. >> it's more than a crisis. he upgraded it to a calamity. catastrophe. >> i'm telling you it's an apocalypse. is it an apocalypse now? >> former gop presidential candidate newt greenwich will be attending a fund-raiser wi with -- wait for it. missouri candidate todd akin. newt greenwich's aide has been advising him ever since his controversial mark about women's bodies and quote legitimate rape." and a pumpkin patch for vice

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just how tight are the fortunes for nominee for president and the candidates of the same party? president obama will deliver remarks in the 4:00 hour in wisconsin, a state in the middle of a contentious race for the u.s. senate. the republican candidate in that race, tommy thompson talking yesterday about the effect of his party's nominee on his own run for office. >> the presidential thing is bound to have an impact on every election, you know, whether you're a democrat or republican.

if you're a standard bearer for the presidency is not doing well, it's going to reflect on the down ballot. >> let's bring back the panel. jessica taylor of the rothenburg political report, ana marie cox, and opinion writer for the "washington post." jonathan, let me start with you. how concerned are republicans at this point about the effects of mitt romney down ballot? >> they're very concerned. remember, the senate was the one chamber that they were really hoping to turn around this go-round. they got the house in 2010. part of the plan was to take back the senate in 2012, in addition to the white house. but the white house doesn't look so good right now. and now we're seeing the ill effects of that trickling down into those senate races, whether it's wisconsin or missouri or massachusetts or virginia or any of the other races around the country. >> ana, missouri city race, when

todd aikin made the comments about rape and pregnancy, he was asked about it right at the start of the debate yesterday. let's take a listen to his answer. take a listen. >> i don't believe that this election overall is about talk, but it's really about two visions of what america is. >> claire mccaskill is not slaughtering him there in missouri. i mean that race is still relatively close, all things considered. do you think he is going to be able to distance himself from those comments? >> no. i don't think so because i think the mccaskill campaign is going to spend a lot of time to make sure those comments stay close to him. one way she is struggling and it's even close is significant is she was an incredibly huge obama supporter. she was one of the first to come out to support obama. so there is no way to separate her from obama. but she is also a conservative democrat. but she what had a hard time keeping that label in that state. the fact that it's a competitive fight, i think it's probably a good thing for her. remember, todd akin is the

person she wanted to run against. there was a very hot primary fight there i think among three different republicans. that's the person she wanted to run against. that's the person she has the best chance against. >> jessica rothenburg, let's look at a few of the races where democrats are ahead in the polls. let's start in virginia. tim kaine venturing into uncharted territory on wednesday or thursday in his debate when he was asked about the 37% comment. take a listen. >> i would be open to a proposal that would have some minimum tax for everyone. but i do insist many of the 47% that governor romney was going after pay a higher percentage of their income in taxes than he does. >> sometimes big ideas get tested on a smaller scale. tim kaine's words, will they fly for the voters in the long run in the commonwealth? >> i think virginia more than any other state than any other is more tied to what happens in the presidential race. i think it's much easier to a

kaine/romney voter than an allen obama report. right now a move virginia towards obama. i think he can sort of seize on those class statements on that 47%, but he is still going to have to -- both of them need to win independents in this state that has probably changed over the last few election cycles more than any other. i think this one stays very close until election day. but the trend certainly is in kaine's favor right now. >> ana, the massachusetts debate between elizabeth warren and scott brown, which was pretty testy at times there. take a look. >> this really may be a race for control of the senate. and the supreme court may very well hang in the balance. >> listen, i'm the second most bipartisan in the united states senate recent named by washingtonian magazine. >> senator brown is someone who voted in his only chance he had against a pro-choice woman.

>> we're both pro-choice. >> it's not just about senator brown's vote. this is about the votes of all of the republicans. >> elizabeth warren leading by five points in the latest poll. senator brown, warren leading, senator brown, michael, he's got this likable guy persona. how is it perceived, though, when he kind of went after elizabeth warren there? >> i think he is losing his likable guy persona. part of the reason is you can sort of tell his condescension towards her, his kind of genuine distaste that this race is going the way it is. he kept on calling her professor, as though that was a bad word. i don't think in massachusetts that's considered a bad thing. >> rick santorum did say last week. >> to call someone a professor in massachusetts, yeah, that is probably your neighbor, right. >> and i think in her attack is a really good one, which is banging into the ground that he

is a part of the republican minority, that he is going to vote on justices. if she can say that over and over again, it doesn't matter if he is pro-choice or not swirgs something that is important to voters in massachusetts if he is going to be voting who gets to be on the supreme court. >> jessica taylor, jonathan capehart, thanks to all of you. and i want to note here that ana is with us on a saturday afternoon, which is a big deal, but an even bigger deal that it is your birthday. >> it's actually tomorrow. but in some time zones it's already. my cousin lives in japan. >> jonathan capehart wishes you a happy birthday. and that's it. he is not going to say anything. he we thought he might sing. but we're not going to get a song out of him. >> no, no, you will not. >> thanks to all of you. i appreciate your time. >> thank you. president obama in milwaukee, wisconsin right now, a battleground state. mitt romney had hoped to tip his way with a choice of favorite son paul ryan as his running mate. we are going to take a look what

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