bain as a whole, that is fair. if you want to talk about bain on a cherry picking basis, that's a distortion. >> all right. we want to take the former governor up on his offer. we want to talk about bain as a whole. the problem is romney keeps fudging the truth about his time at bain. >> in the business i had we invested in over 100 different businesses and net taking out the ones that we lost jobs and we added, those businesses have added over 100,000 jobs. >> romney's campaign has not been able to offer any proof of the jobs created by the candidate. in fact, an analysis by the washington post said this tally does not include job losses from other companies from which bain capital was involved and based on current employment figures, not when romney worked at bain. back when romney was running for senate in massachusetts he was bragging about smaller number. a campaign add posted 10,000 jobs created. which is it? is it 100,000 or 10,000. we want to be able to talk about the bain experience as a whole especially b

democrats who work at bain and democrats who support president obama who work at bain also told me thetacks are in their view painting an unfair picture of bain and of governor romney's work there and don't expect team obama to change strategy. truth is the goal is simple and from a politics perspective it is smart. persuade voters they can't trust romney to look out for them and the president needs to make this case because if it isn't just a referen dumb -- if it is just a referendum on his economic record he could well lose the election. nearly 6 in 10 americans say the country is heading in the wrong direction. a majority of americans disapprove of how the president is handling the economy. now, those numbers aren't good for any incumbent. we should be here, they aren't as bad as they were a few months ago, but team obama isn't taking any chances or taking any advice from friends who find those bain attacks over the top. here to talk truth, editor in chief of red state.com and contributor eric erickson and maria cardona and michael crowley. eric, i want to go to you first and bring

bain took it over.ine years. >> listen, buddy we say it every day, but we are sitting in a company that bain piled a bunch of debt on. i feel like chris christie sat on us every day. as buddy said that's what you do to maximize profits. it's not about helping people and create jobs. sue in rockwell maryland, you are on the "stephanie miller show." >> good morning, everyone. no one in the tea bagger party will have to worry about brain tapeworms because they don't have any brains. >> awe! >> stephy you do not understand republican math. romney created jobs after he left bain because that's a plus. he claims no responsibility for jobs lost after he left bain. and obama only gets a minus. it's only a plus if you are a republican, and only a minus if you are a republican and double if you are obama because he is a bla. >> yeah. so the one business that didn't work that president obama bet on, he's a complete -- whatever. >> whatever! >> bla. >> that's the point. >> yeah. >> okay. the president yesterday. >>

it's not bain's job. >> when the argument started, this wasn't nitpicking about how many jobs bain corrected and that has changed. now you have democrats saying private equity is a positive influence on the economy and now they're going back -- >> but -- i just think that the but in there is vampire capitalism is about jobs, right? the vampire part. >> it was private equity. it was about using private equity not negative on the economy. >> by saying vampire capitalism is where you go in and you suck everything out of a company and you kill jobs, right? the vampire thing was about jobs. i'll agree with ryan on this. we were disagree about this, will. >> i disagree with you and this bain issue that will not dog romney. if he ties himself to it, it will sink obama. i'll tell you this, this issue about bain -- >> why not answer the question then? >> what question? >> everyone is talking about it. what does he have to say about it? >> they don't answer the question. >> it's like asking someone have you seen your opponent opening that time bomb, punch him, i don't need to. the time bomb will explo

this is why bain matters. the bain questions will only get hotter, and he doesn't seem to have an answer for it. joining me now is representative emanuel cleaver, chairman of the congressional black caucus, and jared bernestein. thank you for being here tonight. >> good to be with you. >> thank you. >> congressman, let me start with you, how can romney run on a business record he doesn't like answering questions about? >> he can't do it successfully. i was the mayor of kansas city, missouri when bain capital cannibalized a company there. we offered everything we could for a government. we offered them everything except the chiefs and the royals. they still pulled out and took all of the money. i'm not trying to say he's not a good guy, he probably is, but bain capital did not create jobs, it created wealth. for a real clear reason, it created wealth for him, himself. he never should have brought up bain capital as an example of what he could do as president in now that he has, he'll have to deal with that. he

bain is appropriate, talking about ba about bain is essential.tions do what they want, and by some business osmosis jobs are

of money, pay bain a great deal of money and leave. now i will let you decide if that is really good capitalism. >> get this now. newt offered advice to the obama campaign beginning rich said his experience should be a lesson to obama. that dog won't hunt. it will not resonate in voters minds. you want me to be mad buzz at one company somewhere someone may have lost their job. while you as president have been involved in millions of people losing their jobs. reminder to newt, your bain attacks helped you win the south carolina primary, and remember why you backed off, mr. gingrich? your fellow republicans blasted you for knocking free enterprise and not because it was not working. and yesterday gop congressman mike kauffman offered a half hearted apology for spouting birther talk. we had him on last night, and now ken bennett, the secretary of state for arizona, and the person responsible for running the state's elections says he is awaiting proof that the president's birth certificate is authentic and something that the state of hawai

capital. >> bain. >> bain. >> bain capital. >> bain. >> bain. >> bain capital. ♪ how you like me now> yeah? well, you're not from chicago. >> we begin with the bain in the you know what and the obama campaign's latest assault on mitt romney's capital achievements in private equity. today's video goes straight to america's heartland. the town of marian, indiana. for the company acquired by bain in 1992 that went bankrupt eight years later.

it's not about whether bain is good or bad. i have friends at bain.ple who support it, who supported the other candidate in my own campaign, so i respect what bain does, and its role in the free market system, but we need somebody who understands that there are multiple bottom lines and that's what we have in president obama. >> you are a friend of the president of the united states. >> and enthusiastic support. >> and serve in the office once held by governor romney. odd place to be? >> sometimes. there are a number of people who have been encouraging me to get out there and you know, hammer away at my predecessor. he's always been a gentleman to me and i don't like that kind of politics, but i do think that his record in his one episode in public life is fair game, and it's a record that does not support what he's holding himself out to be. what i think we need instead and what we have tried to do here in massachusetts and i know what the president's trying to do at the national level is to encourage people to turn to each other instead of on each o

and he is the managing director of bain. he has raised somewhere between at least $100,000 and $200,000. again, all of this is coming at a time when the president has that big assault on bain. now speaking of that bain hit, according to nbc's ad trackers, the obama campaign attack ad, two-minute ad against mitt romney's record is more of what you'd call a press release ad. it's only airing in one tv station per market for one day. it's a two-minute ad on wednesday with a total price tag of less than $100,000. that said, today, team obama is doubling down. the pro-obama superpack, priorities usa is going up in the same five states the president is targeting. but they've put real money behind this ad. $780,000. they are promising to spend upwards of $4 million this entire month. here's a taste of the ad. >> he promised us the same things he's promising the united states. he'll give you the same thing he gave us. nothing. he'll take it all. >> when the obama campaign's bain ad hit yesterday, the romney campaign responded almost

capital. >> bain. >> bain. >> bain capital. >> bain. >> bain. >> bain capital.

and their specific attacks on bain. when you attack free enterprise, you're attacking the american way of life. >> and there's one big problem with this new message from romney. it's not true. not true at all. at best, it's a distortion. or just false. knowingly false. let's look at what president obama has actually said about free markets. >> the free market is the greatest force for economic progress in human history. it's led to prosperity and standard of living unmatched by the rest of the world. >> does that sound like an attack on free enterprise? what about this? >> i believe the free market is the greatest force for economic progress in human history. >> the greatest force. how is that an attack on free enterprise? what about this? >> from our first days as a nation, we have put our faith in free markets and free enterprise. >> in point of fact, president obama has been making one specific point about romney's record at bain. that it was great for his investors, but not appropriate preparation for someone who wa

takes a commission and when they pay back the investors bain takes a commission. the steel plant now has a massive debt but the the interesting thing is under our tax code see pirate equity is all about profiting off of loopholes tax loopholes under our tax code when a company makes payments on interest on debt that's tax deductible so the company actually looks more profitable on paper never mind the fact that it's now wiped out saddled with debt next bain sucks borrowed money out of money out of the borrowed money to pay back the original investors i pointed that out to you and and then here's the steel plant now cut bare to the bone a shelf of its former self bain then sells the steel plant or bankruptcy it and pockets twenty percent of the profits so they get basically all the money and here's the kicker people a bank they pay a maximum fifteen percent income tax the the good this is why it's organized as a partnership rather than a corporation so that all the partners they take the money and they pay a maximum fifteen percent income tax is a great deal so the

by defending bain he was going at war with the obama campaign.saying what they were saying was wrong, dead wrong, and they should stop saying it. he was saying the main message should be buried, placed in a deep hole with dirt thrown on it. how could booker think he was doing anything else. you don't win elections when the main thing your campaign is being dumped on by someone people think is on your side. wait a minute, corey book sere on obama's side, he's an official surrogate. someone chosen to get out there and speak for the reelection. so why is he attacking the campaign. why is he called a surrogate when he walked away with the bit of sabotage of the season. if he wasn't paying attention, he did rommy the biggest favor of the campaign. before certifying another surrogate, check out where they stand on the main issue of the summer campaign. bane remains no matter what romney says, his pain. join us at 7:00 eastern for a live edition of "hardball." "politicsnation" with al sharpton starts right now. >>> welcome to "politicsnation." i'm al sh

people at bain say it is a cheap shot or distortion. however, one of the problems you went through this in the last campaign as well is because bain is a private equity firm, you can't say here it is, here is the record, right? >> you can. you can make the record about the governor's experience in the private sector, the governor's experience in working with a successful venture like bain capital and a couple that with experience as a successful governor and you can paint a portrait of a candidate and a vision that governor romney has for the future and that is a better economy, better -- >> but governor romney is on the record and one time he said 100,000 and now they say thousands and you heard steve ratner saying it was a mistake. >> forgetting the numbers, i think you can have an argument whether or not it had a positive impact on job creation and whether or not that experience is the type of experience we need to help turn around this economy and then contrast that with president obama's lack of leadership on the economy and the fa

of bain. during his time there. because, you're talking about companies that were closed, people who lost their jobs, people who lost benefits and other things that would ring to the heart of the anxiety that people feel right now. >> indeed. jonathan, thank you for mentioning my own broadcast. i don't have to do that. does private equity manager mitt romney not understand, it comes down to something that governor romney said a number of months ago. he said, i understand the economy. i understand the economy. president obama does not. i thought about that. i looked back at the kind of record that he e massed in terms of job creation as governor. primarily during the 15 years at bain. he has a unique, private equity, financial market kind of understanding of the economy. the kind of understanding you would expect from someone in that position. and if you look at the goals of private equity, and i agree with the president and the vice president, there are laudable aspects of those goals. nowhere

if we are talking about on message, offmessage, the debate from bain to whether bain is fair, whichdifferent discussion and opens up the door to more criticism for team obama and the strategy they're using. >> i don't think it's right to say book somewhere the president are moving in exactly the same direction. he did have a fundamental questioning of the approach that the campaign is taking, not necessarily that the president's taking, but just saying these texts are nauseating to him. that is a word that didn't pop into his head when sitting in the chair at "meet the press" he was taking the campaign to task and making the argument that republicans have been making and making it for them and making it in a package. he's frequently compared to president obama. he could be the next president obama. he's a rising star in the party. to come from somebody like him who is very much within the obama circle and making the republican arguments for them, that yes this is so damaging. i'm sure they moving in the same direction now, no question about. his moment on sunday seemed very real and

and also what to know about mitt romney's bain capital issue. as long as he doesn't have a respon response, the obama people will hit him hard. and most of them seem to be from the swing states. and why the vets may be voting democratic. and also tonight, on how to connect with his son that he barely knew. and finally we continue with the closet "w." joining me is david corn from the washington bureau chief and au ththor of "showdown,". >> i like how you say that, chris. >> well, some people say this is beyond television media right now, and the reason they get the big 54-page deal on this and hannity is on it, is because they want us to keep ringing the jeremiah wright bell one more time s. that smart thinking? >> well, it could be. i frankly don't know how far this gets them this time. it is not as if everybody doesn't know about jeremiah wright. this is kind of red meat for the -- >> well, i hear about the guy rick ket -- ricketts is the guy who owns the cubs is still about it. >> and these are people who have not heard of jeremiah wright. >>

his campaign guilty of unneccessary roughness on bain capital? team obama launches another video today, a hit on mitt romney as a leading democratic ally slams the obama campaign tactic on "meet the press." >> this kind of stuff is nauseating to me on both sides. it's nauseating to the american public. enough is enough. >> and the "saturday night live" emotional sendoff. mick jagger helps the snl team bid an emotional farewell to chr kristin wii g. ♪ >> and good day. i'm andrea mitchell live in chicago where the president is now hosting his first nato summit, the first ever held outside of washington and only the third held in the united states since the alliance was founded more than a half century ago. president obama today announced that nato is going to hand over lead security responsibilitieses to afghan forces by next summer, a full year before nato is scheduled to withdraw most troops. but the meeting has been marred by tension between the u.s. and pakistan. and violent protests here in the president's hometown. nbc news chief white house

to, to look at bain capital. what i'm reporting to you is, having lived through it it doesn't work very effectively. >> carol lee, you're new to the rodeo, i'm going to you first on this. newt gingrich actually offering word of advice perhaps for president obama, bain didn't work for him, it's not going to work for the white house, what do you make of that? >> i don't think the president will take advice from newt gingrich in terms of how he's going to run his re-election campaign. if you look at what the president said yesterday, it's obvious he's not going to back down on this, double down on it, clearly wants to get into the debate. when asked at the end of the nato press conference yesterday, he went in forcefully, said romney played it fair game, he's running on his business experience and also said that tried to free him in the way it's not bad what he did, but this isn't necessarily the best experience for running for the office of president, say. >> is that too confusing, joan, the idea that it's not bad

neil king from the "wall street journal" made a point in bain capital, in bain capital ownership, revenuescompanies they invested. i imagine that is a good track record. 80% versus the energy program, green energy program we invest in. >> greg: who would you rather have in the white house, someone creating profit or someone taxing the profit? that is what we talk about. there is a golden rule. if you take private and replace it with public the left will like it. public is better so it's your money they spend. >> bob: is it 80% >> dana: it says it grew 80%. i don't know. want to split that hair? i don't repped them. >> kimberly: the message is clear. record to be celebrated, not -- >> dana: you can't succeed in private equity if the companies are failing. >> greg: they are not interested. they don't have markers or metrics to prove success. >> bob: private equity makes money taking loan and taking money out of it. >> eric: private equity makes money taking a company faltering, restructuring the business. hires or firing and making it more profitable. they own company. democrat is the point.

there are a couple of things why this bain conversation really, it's not the bain conversation.t is the head of this firm that is so potent. number one, if you go to the website that the dnc, i'm sorry, the campaign launch, they have stories from about nine states. they just launched another one today representing about 115 electoral votes. that's a part of why this is not going away any time soon. you have personal stories from people in company that were impacted in each of these nine states. so trust me. we are going to be hearing a lot more about that. and the thing is, when these people talk, you know, they sound, you can hear their pain. you can hear that sort of feeling of helplessness that i think a lot of americans fell during the stock market crash, during the crash in 2008. and a lot of these same people saying some businesses work and some businesses fail which sounds very disconnected to understanding that, okay, when they fail, there are human consequences to that. that they're not about. >> indeed. you were going to say? >> a understand wouldful story in history t

living in the house of bain.ng down on the corporate buyout specialists help at the polls come november? and is there such thing as a safety latch? for surrogates. we'll talk corey book somewhere his long walk back. >>> plus, the great birth control lawsuit. is the catholic church making waves for the gop or creating headaches for the democrats? "now" starts in a mere 180 seconds. four walls and a roof is a structure. what's inside is a home. home protector plus, from liberty mutual insurance, where the costs to both repair your house and replace what's inside are covered. and we don't just cut a check for the depreciated value -- we can actually replace your stuff with an exact or near match. and with the liberty mutual home gallery app, you can use a mobile device to easily catalog your belongings in advance, so you're always well prepared. home protector plus, from liberty mutual insurance, so your life can settle right back into place. to get a free quote, call... visit a local office, or go to libertymutual.

why is he talking about bain?because he understands that in this climate, when you talk about wall street, when you talk about executives in term of hedge funds and private equity companies, how it resonates with the american people. but here's something that i think that you mention, ali. you said, should we measure governor romney based upon bain? here's the real deal. we are not electing somebody to be the head of a private equity company. we are looking to him to potentially be the president of the united states. so if you actually want to measure apples to apples, oranges to oranges, you measure, how did he perform as governor of massachusetts? that's the real key? because on one hand, republicans are critical of president obama for the government investment in solyndra. you could call that private equity if you want to, investing in a company, but the real deal is when you're the president, you're not running it like a private equity company. so i would say his role there plays a role, the experience, but al

he ran that state very much in the way that he ran bain capital. he loaded it one a lot of debt and he ended up taking the prestige that he got from that position and moving on and killed a bunch of blue collar jobs in the meantime tame. >> ari, i want you to listen to more of the president's speech. listen to this. >> the challenge we face right now, the challenge we faced for over a decade is that harder work hasn't led to higher incomes. bigger profits haven't led to better jobs. and you can't solve that problem if you can't even see that it's a problem. >> ari, he's right, isn't he? if you can't acknowledge that problem, how can you resolve it? >> that's right and mitt romney has had his own take on this which is sort of challenging the president's credentials on the very nature of what productivity means. of course it is true that people in the united states are working more hours for less pay, the 99%/1% distribution models that we have been discussing so much over the past three months play into that. and if you are into fame values and you

we continue to hear the president hammer away at bain. do you think that candidate romney has effectively defended his years at bain capital? >> well, right now, of course the democrats have done a pretty good job for him. mayor cory booker and even today steve rattner writing in "the new york times" called "the bane attacks" narrowly accurate. that's a nice way of saying you're barely lying. they're cherry-picking a lot of facts about this company and what it's done. and the -- >> steven, you can't -- >> a lot of democrats are saying the same thing. >> you can't dismiss the fact that those ads have had an impact on mitt romney. in south carolina, for instance, when newt gingrich rolled that out, a lot of folks say, that's the reason he won south carolina. back to the mid '90s when ted kennedy made the claims, they were very effective then. at what point do you think mitt romney steps up and said, this is what i did at bain, this is what it represents? >> i'm not here to give advice to the romney campaign. but 54% of voters said they thou

the way with regard to bain capital, they just put a report out about their record, the bain capital guys did. they made about 350 investments since the beginning of the firm and of those investments, 80% of them grew their revenues. >> notice revenue, not jobs. >> he'll never convince people bain was in the business of creating jobs, they weren't. he wants people to focus on his record as a business person getting things done, not on the examples the campaign is picking out. he acknowledged results were less than great for laid off employees. the romney campaign is convinced, they may not be right but they are convinced the more people learn about the complete facts what he did at bain, that is something they will look at in a way that won't hurt him but will help him. they are eager to explain more, more about his biography, try to explain what he did at bain and the pre miss of the campaign is i'm a business guy, i know how to get things done. democrats say that is not true they may be overstating the case. perhaps focusing too much on this, if it's not in the long run a winning h

a lot of people depend on organizations like bain capital so they can retire. >> neither bain or theve us a company by company breakdown of everyone that bain was involved with when he was there, jobs lost, jobs gained. >> there are some legitimate privacy questions there. gentlemen, stand by. we will continue the conversation in aoutfront comin at the top of the hour. you're watching this troubling news out of greece, nervous investors around the would recall -- world. what's going on? >> a few months ago i was saying maybe it's all right to let greece go. it's seeming more and more likely greece will leave the euro. this would have worldwide implications. but the human side of it, you had lines at banks around greece today. in just one day greeks took out nearly a billion dollars of euros out of the bank. they're worried that the greek drachma wouldn't be worth as much. that's a lot of money. since the financial crisis began in greece, they have been pulling out about four billion euros a month so this is a very significant story. if you start to have a run on the banks, this story

how can president obama attack mitt romney on his time at bain highlighting only times when bain cost jobs and at the same time hold high priced fund raisers with the head of another private equity firm that's done work with blackstone group in his own administration? >> well, you know, mitt romney hasn't been -- he hasn't been forthright with the american people about what he did during his tenure and what his goals were. he's been campaigning across the country telling people he was a job creator. that's because he -- his partners have admitted that the goal was wealth creation for themselves. >> right. but that's -- >> it wasn't a focus on the middle class families across the country. it was wealth creation. >> private equity is about wealth creation for investors. that's not what he's saying, but that's what it's about. why is it okay for the president's private equity supporters to bankrupt companies and put people out of work but it's not okay for romney's equity firm to do that? >> who agree with his vision of building an economy that's built to last. where hard work and respon

critics say the attacks on bain are hypocritical.he previous bain ad, when it came out, president obama was fund-raiing at this man's home. a private equity firm like bain that cut payroll and companies. this weekend's events with mayor booker show why many within the president's own party think the obama campaign's bain strategy is a double edged sword. this weekend's events think the obama campaign's bain strategy is a double edged sword. joining me tonight, ben labold. ben, how can president obama attack mitt romney on his time in private equity highlighting times when bain cost company jobs and at the same time, hold high priced fund-raisers with another private equity firm? >> mitt romney hasn't been forthright with the american people about what he did during his tenure as a corporate buyout specialist and what his goals were. he's been campaigning across the country telling people that he was a job creator, he's never been able to substantiate a number of jobs that were created. his partners admitted the goal was wealth creati

why does president obama talk about bain capital? because mitt romney talks about bain capital.romney's whole pitch for president is the economy is suffering. you know it is. but the economy is suffering he says because president obama doesn't know what he is doing. and i do. i, mitt romney do because i am a businessman so i can fix it. i can fix the economy. i am a businessman look what i did at bain capital. i am going to do the same thing as president of the united states. he is the one that raises the issue. of course it's fair to talk about bain capital. it's important to talk about bain capital because it's important to point out, as the president does, that bain capital was not about creating job. it was about creating wealth profits for his investors and he did a good job at that. while doing that, he was destroying jobs, shutting down plants. the record is clear. he was exporting jobs. he was killing jobs. he was killing pensions. he is a job-killer not a job creator. and corey booker says it's not fair to talk about that? he is dead wrong. you know, corey booker a risi

there are difficult things to try to answer about his time at bain.ama campaign and their backers have put out in the last couple of weeks, people who are laid off after companies had been taken over by bain, so i think he will try to talk about the successes and then ask people are you better off now than you were four years ago? >> jimmy, part of our nbc news poll, the new one out asked the view on bain capital. 9% positive. 19% negative, 53% have no opinion. that certainly could be they don't have enough information, just getting engaged in the story line, and if you choose to look at it that way, 53% of the people out there at least in this poll could certainly go one way or the other. they could see the president and his team's argument that this matters and bain's background matters or at least as it relates to mitt romney or it doesn't, but that's 53% that one side or the other could pull from. >> when you have 53% that don't understand it or know it, that is a huge variable and you're right, it can swing. here is the problem. i don't think if