climate change world hunger civil unrest collapse that appears to be the road that oil barons are taking the planet down in just a moment chris hedges joins me to explain why political solutions are no longer the answer also our nation is about to add another political prisoner to our criminal justice system former alabama governor don siegelman joins me to tell his story and why would happen to him cannot be ignored by the rest of us and finally one democratic member of congress has introduced legislation to force big oil to pay for its billions of pounds of pollution and debate later in the show on why we can't trust oil executives to do what's right and cut down pollution on their own. and we begin tonight with this spot as the world is no longer on the brink of a major food crisis it is in a major food crisis for the first time in recent history humanitarian organizations are responding to three major food crises on the planet one in west africa one in east africa and one in yemen accelerating climate change when doing resources and predation by wall street speculators are responsibl

growth of the middle class in the united states when we had a lot of it was the growth of the robber baron well this was the demick. president grover grover cleveland who was one of the best presidents in american history that we had one of the last good democrat in the in eight hundred eighty seven in his speeches his annual address to the nation is his state of the union address said that we are seeing corporations rise up and put their irony on the necks of the

congressman mccarthy of course is a loyal lieutenant to house speaker john baron wh baron boew on the floor speaker of the house of representatives. >> delegates, alternates, ladies and gentlemen, the convention will be in order. it begins tonight with a fundamental question. can we do better. the answer in my view is obvious. you bet we can. the american people are still asking the questions, where are the job. president obama only offers excuses instead of answers. his record is a shadow of his rhetoric. yet, he has the nerve to say that he's moving us forward and the audacity to hope that we're going to believe him. allow me to illustrate. i'm what you call a regular guy with a big job. i've got 11 brothers and sisters, indemnify da my dad and a bar in cincinnati. i grew up there mopping floors, waiting tables and tending bar. ably me when i say i know how to deal with every character who walked into the door. let me say right now some guy walked into our bar full of guys looking for work having a tough go of it and the guy said well the private sector's doing fine. do you know wha

congressman mccarthy of course is a loyal lieutenant to house speaker john baron wh baron boew on the floor speaker of the house of representatives. >> delegates, alternates, ladies and gentlemen, the convention will be in order. it begins tonight with a fundamental question. can we do better. the answer in my view is obvious. you bet we can. the american people are still asking the questions, where are the job. president obama only offers excuses instead of answers. his record is a shadow of his rhetoric. yet, he has the nerve to say that he's moving us forward and the audacity to hope that we're going to believe him. allow me to illustrate. i'm what you call a regular guy with a big job. i've got 11 brothers and sisters, indemnify da my dad and a bar in cincinnati. i grew up there mopping floors, waiting tables and tending bar. ably me when i say i know how to deal with every character who walked into the door. let me say right now some guy walked into our bar full of guys looking for work having a tough go of it and the guy said well the private sector's doing fine. do you know wha

ron baron is the chairman and ceo of baron capital.om the hamptons, i believe. right, ron? >> from easthampton. >> a smart guy in the summer. >> chairs in easthampton. mario and i have been friends for over 40 years, since i started in business. >> that speaks well of you, ron. that speaks very well of you to stay friends with mario for 40 years. >> that means we can't be working anywhere else. we have to keep a job somewhere. but we have the passion of investing. >> that's absolutely right. >> mario is one of the most brilliant investors there is who i know. >> i followed you, ron. >> without him there would be no ebidta. he invented the term. also, he started off in busy guess two or three years ahead of me. when he did, he was trying to get a 10% return over inflation after taxes. i was trying to build on my money every couple years because i had to catch up to him. i was two or three years behind. he's a spectacular investor. so nice to see him. >> keep it up, ron. >> both of you are very optimistic when you look around at the stoc

the evil we were warned by president grover cleveland the only democrat elected during the robber baronra who in his eighteen eighty eight state of the union address said as reviews of the achievements of aggregated capital we discover the existence of trusts combinations and monopolies of the citizens struggling far in the rear or as trampled to death beneath an iron evil corporations which should be the carefully restrained creatures of the law and the servants of the people are fast becoming the people's masters and we were warned by franklin roosevelt in the aftermath of the great depression when in one nine hundred thirty six he called out the economic royalists who today would be billionaires saying. a small group had concentrated into their own hands and almost complete control over other people's property other people's money other people's labor other people's lives for too many of us life was no longer free liberty no longer real men could no longer follow the pursuit of happiness these economic royalists complain that we seek to overthrow the institutions of america what they

in eight hundred eighty eight grover cleveland he was the only democrat elected during the robber baron a president great president ok so then you'll agree with this when he said corporations should quote be the carefully restrained creatures of law in the servants of the people well it depends i mean is in place a carbon tax on corporations like oil operations are not a democracy you know and you cannot you cannot legislate corporations necessary. without having some sort of unintended consequences the point is that what is it you really want to do like cut and dry want to stop climate change right if you believe that climate change is the issue then you have to ask yourself what is it that is going to stop climate change and some law by an american congressman is not going to stop climate change almost called global warming and i see it i don't want to sam is that it's not just about climate change it's also about the millions of new asthma cases everybody gets is about the billions of dollars if not trillions of dollars in our war machine to protect our oil interests abroad climate c

congressman mccarthy of course is a loyal lieutenant to house speaker john baron wh baron boew on the floor speaker of the house of representives. >> delegates, alternates, ladies and gentlemen, the convention will be in order. it begins tonight with a fundamental question. can we do better. the answer in my view is obvious. you bet we can. the american people are still asking the questions, where are the job. president obama only offers excuses instead of answers. his record is a shadow of his rhetoric. yet, he has the nerve to say that he's moving us forward and the audacity to hope that we're going to believe him. allow me to illustrate. i'm what you call a regular guy with a big job. i've got 11 brothers and sisters, indemnify da my dad and a bar in cincinnati. i grew up there mopping floors, waiting tables and tending bar. ably me when i say i know how to deal with every character who walked into the door. let me say right now some guy walked into our bar full of guys looking for work having a tough go of it and the guy said well the private sector's doing fine. do you know what

el doctor daniel barÓn especialista en enfermedades degenerativa de la tercera edad chl. >>> si hay un ya dan de por si la enfermedad y esto acelere la enfermedad. >>> para rubÍ lo mejor la prevenciÓn. por lo menos cepillarse dos veces al dÍa, vanessa hauc telemundo. >>> la universidad internacional de la no rid ha desarrollado un simulador de huracanes que pone aprueba los febrero tos y poder de destrucciÓn de los vientos de uno ciclÓn esto se presenta dos dÍas del vigÉsimo aniversario de andrew, veamos la historia. >>> hace 020 aÑos el huracÁn andrew azotÓ el sur de la florida convirtiÉndose en uno de los desastres natal ra les mÁs costoso en la historia de estados unidos. >>> lo peor del mundo nadie se imagina que aquÍ pasÓ el ojo del huracÁn. >>> dos dÉcadas despues los mismos vientos... soplan en la universidad internacional de la florida, para estudiar y probar materiales que puedan resistir ciclones. esta mÁquina es Única en el mundo que podemos llegar a categorÍa 5, nos permitieron probarlo sÓlo parcialmente en este momento has turbinas soplan agua y viento a 20 mph, el tejado

we are adrift on a baron sea. the fleet diminishes me. who shouts for us now, dear empire? this next one is a postcard for a reason that i kept of harold's club in reno, nevada. i don't know if it exists it's a really old postcard. harold's club made we think of harold and the purple crayon. harold's club. who would figure let loose the boy with the purple crayon. let him conkokt the loses slots in women. let loose his imagination. ended as high as sea gulls or the reverse w's topped with bold topped centers the rudeaments of the buzzum and life itself. >> pen and ink. in the way we demonstrate speech by quotation marks the ill administrator kapt urs speed by 2 lines of the pen much the trotting horse quoted at the knees all 4 and the lady side saddled atop him frozen in place by crossed hatched marks. courseut to indicate the petticoat aroused into activity by the muscular steed. unintended garden. whether o(inaudible) the propery line, i promise not to water the spring flower and plants that remain as brown stubbel on the chins of my train. take care of dry foilage. i let

one political analyst believes that statement speaks volumes.sot - barone says: "... the fact that he'sely to get significant financial support and that his chances of winning don't look very good, i think that he'll probably bow out." but for now, a defiant akin is staying in... rejecting the chorus of calls from within the highest levels of his own party.(q): "... how was your conversation with congressman akin yesterday?"sot - ryan says: "... it's as you would imagine. i'll keep it between us but i agree with roy and jack danforth and the rest of the people from the missouri delegation, current and former, that, you know, he should have dropped out of thee race." akin's obstinance already having an impact on the looming political conventions... the controversy exposing vulnerabilities within the just crafted republican platform. it's anti- abortion plank making no exceptiin for rape and incest, while governor mitt romney aaproves of those exceptions. democrats have been shuffling their convention line-up to showcase the so- called "war on women"" with former georgetown law student sa

he doesn'tike ray barone." maybe he's confusing ray with someby else. that's what i thought.ame back-- "no. no way. jerry hates ray bane." hates? it says, "hates." where do you go to get stuff frame andy,tell me the truth. does jerry musso hate ? i don't know. i wasn't the one who talked to him. oh, no. lo, well, ask him. i just got this job. why would i wanna asciate myself with the man my boss hates? hates me. hates you. really? hates-- hates...you. tes you, i'm sorry. i don't even know e guy. i never even met him. did you write something bad about hi no, i've never wrien about him at all. maybe that's why he hates you. come on,hy would he care if he was in ray's column? what no. it's justhat, it's not like it's, you know, the front pa. i mean, people read yourolumn for, you know...fun. it's just a funny little... it's funny. you hate my writin no! no. i'm supporting you. your writing is...wow. ah, okay, thank you. that's enough support. why the hell would this guy hate me? i don't know, did you sleep th his wife or something? ha ha ha ha! ( chuckling eptically )ou sleep th

but in 2004 she bought over 3630 square kilometers of land in southern chile from local cattle barons. the project's goal is to leave nature and wildlife in the region of valle chacabuco to their own devices -- and ultimately, to hand the restored land back to the chilean government as a national park. this is the nerve center of the project. home to about 40 local families, it's a little village where the organizers hope the staff and their families can feel at home, even though they're a long way from the nearest town. there's even a school for the kids. kris lives with her husband douglas in a pretty majestic house slightly off the beaten track. but the couple rarely get to enjoy any time off. douglas is often away. over the last 20 years, the tompkins have created a total of eleven national parks in south america and douglas manages them. he's no stranger to trouble. >> take a look at national parks all over the world. there is always trouble. because they often get in the way of economic development and political objectives. the same thing is happening here. >> we set out to see

>> that is right as you can see the wind is blowing baron my face. but behind me is a better picture, everything setup for this big event and as michelle minton, all practice run will actually take off in less than an hour and we're told that we have the best seats in the bay. eight teams will man these catamarans, kick started the world series regatta. >> welcome to the 34th america's cup in san fransisco by the bay. and it is exciting to be on the eve of this race. >> the stage set up on the marina green and on water for the free practice runs. >> we talked quite a bit about having the world's best sailors and a look around me i'm surrounded by them. all that really want to do is say on behalf of the america's cup, we're ready to go racing. >> starting tomorrow match qualifying rounds will begin, the teams are manning multiple million dollars high-tech boats, conditions can be rough but the sailors are prepared. >> we know the winds and currents and we know the performance of these boats. added to that, these high- performance sailors, we are in fo

. >> ricky barons is sparchlti ieg with the new technology. marking six points where the body bends on the swimmer -- the wrist, shoulder, hip, knee, ankle, and toe. the software connects the dots. >> we have the kick frequency. we have the kick depth. we have the kick rate. this is really going to help usa swimming to help determine what makes a great dolphin kick. >> what swimmers wear affects their aerodynamics. and this year, it's evolved even more. >> the more fabric you can put on the human body, the faster it's going to be. the whole idea from a fluid dynamic perspective is to keep the body as uniform as possible. kind of like a torpedo. >> incidentally, the same goes for track and field athletes. >> we added texture to the suit to make it faster. so if you look really close, there's dimensions to it, texture to it. so it turns out smooth, does not equal fast. shaves off 0.023 seconds. this is not just a difference between first and second place. this is the difference of being on a podium or not. >> we've got more olympics ahead. we're

he became a very rich and decided to return to china in addition to a coal baron iowa actually see him next week but a vivid memory of him on a commercial fishing boat and long island sound and on the backcast a giant hook got into somebody else's eye. panic and despair but mr. xu said the captain said do not panic. coast guard will come so he watched his timepiece seven minutes 45 seconds when they arrive and learned his iowa's saved but in good health and he thought in my country this man would die. history was someday i will brain rescue helicopters away to be saved and across the territory people are half lunatic but the dreams they apply so mr. xu along with the western return scholars association he has a helicopter company. i met a man that is famous for the aerospace industry. their 1/4 million employees is obviously with strategic chairman mao put it there because he said this is the point* that is farthest from the closest foreign border hardest to bomb by the russians and americans are japanese so this quarter vermilion and can't meant but the man in charge took me into his

over the worker with the health insurer over the sick with the oil baron over the environment in fact one has to wonder why anyone given the history of conservatism in america would proudly call themselves a conservative or republican for that matter todd akin may be the latest crazy to go on to become a republican u.s. senator but he's certainly not the first and the way things are going he won't be the last here it is tonight's daily take but i don't want to talk about conservatism the political ideology that is touted by today's republican party by corporate america and even by some democrats according to a recent poll by the pew research center conservative was the second most positively viewed political term in america right behind progressive check republicans have liked the label so much their biggest political conference of the year is c pac the conservative political action conference but i'm trying to figure out why exactly that is i'm trying to figure out why anyone given our nation's history or any knowledge of it would want to call themselves a conservative in today's ame

oil spills record cases of autism and cancer soaring gas prices republicans can't say no to the oil barons who want to keep collecting billions in taxpayer subsidies and have virtually no federal oversight over how they run the drilling operations despite a health care crisis in the united states republicans can't say no to private health insurance c.e.o.'s who make a living denying sick americans the health care they need to survive despite more than a decade of war thousands of u.s. soldiers dead and a military budget that's bloated and fraught with waste republicans can't say no to defense contractors which is why republicans are doing all they can to reverse the automatic defense cuts coming down the pike at the end of the year. the point is chris christie and the rest of the republican party say there's something courageous or respectful about saying no and they might have a point of certain circumstances but when the only people they're willing to say no to are the most vulnerable among us and that's not courage that's not respect that's cowardly that's how bullies behave it's far mo

citizens playing courtesy of the burgers the complete rejection of global warming courtesy of the oil barons who want to keep polluting our skies the total a limitation of the departments of agriculture education homeland security housing health and human services energy interior labor and gummer's the t.s.a. the e.p.a. the f.d.a. the a.t.f. the n.e.a. courtesy of the iran libertarian whack a doodle who support by corporate fat cats instead of our country being run by the will of we the people another platform is an end to the federal income tax courtesy of rich guys like the koch brothers mitt romney who want you and me to pay the entire cost of running our government and opposition to hate crimes laws courtesy the far right who want to demonize gays african-americans and latinos they have more stand your ground shoot first laws courtesy of gun sellers like wal-mart who want legal cover when one of their guns is used to murder a member of your family. they want to reject a rejection of multicultural teaching in our schools courtesy of those like pat buchanan who believe that only white euro

head of the pirate equity firm bain capital and other corporatists fascists from banks to his to oil barons to corporate fronts like the u.s. chamber of commerce pledging to spend over a billion dollars to make sure that their front man is elected in november wallace in his new york times op ed defines the american fascists this way. they claim to be super patriots but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the constitution they demand free enterprise but of the spokesman for monopoly and vested interests their final objective toward which all their deceit is directed is to capture political power so that using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously they may keep the common man in eternal subjection and the corporate cartel now has the help of those who was called the quote deliberate poisoners of public information and quote the corporate media outlets on cable news led by fox so-called news along with the corporatist agents in the right wing blogosphere right wing talk radio as wallace wrote the american fascists are most easily recognized by their delib

people we as americans need to demand more from the banks or is on wall street to these murderous oil barons we need to start demanding that corporations and their executives be punished for their crimes let's end the lawlessness in corporate america and bring back business in the public interest to go to move to amend to work to see how we can take america back from the billionaires and the corporations . that's the big picture for tonight tuesday aug fourteenth two thousand and twelve if you missed any of tonight's show you can now watch it in h.d. on hulu at hulu dot com slash the big picture for more information on any of the stories we covered visit our website to tom hartman dot com free speech and our t.v. dot com also check out our two you tube channel is there a link said tom hartman dot com and also at tell marvin dot com check out all the different ways you can send us your feedback and as tom always says democracy begins with you get out there get active occupy something tag you're it will say tomorrow. wealthy british style it's not. time to. market why not. come to. find out wh

will argue for more tax cuts for the rich and fewer regulations of wall street banks or texas oil barons and private health insurance vampires and it's a vision that's already being played out with disastrous consequences in the city hosting this year's republican national convention that's right if you want to know what mitt romney and paul ryan's vision of america looks like and check out tampa florida joining me now to explain why that is is will do a staff writer at salon dot com will welcome. thanks for having me it's great to have you with us who is a brilliant piece you wrote why is tampa bay and i are ron ike perhaps even iconic choice of cities to host the r. and c. . it's pretty fair to say that what mitt romney and paul ryan are suggesting for their vision of america could be called the tampa fixation of america basically means no real no real invest in infrastructure any more anything that would perhaps benefit future generations as far as roads as far as trans the far as a sustainable but sustainable development all that stuff has really been hamstrung in tampa by regional p

economy everything else of universal health care to the rights of working people to regulations on oil barons and banks there's follows from those questions it's time to go back to earlier definitions of freedom that is the koch brothers have redefined it as the right to pollute and corrupt politicians for really but as f.d.r. defined it as the right for americans to be free to chase their dreams because their basic needs like health care and education and a job are secure it's time to provoke prosperity and stability again by saying the economy is here to serve the needs of society and not to serve the needs of mitt romney and his buddies but start asking the right questions. and that is the big picture for tonight monday august thirteenth two thousand and twelve join us tomorrow night when we speak with. about trap wire the massive u.s. surveillance system recently discovered by the group's wiki leaks and anonymous and if you missed any of tonight's show catch us out. on hulu at hulu dot com slash the big picture more information on any of the stories we covered visit or websites harvin dot

people in the first place it's actually a really interesting story of a scam perpetrated by railroad barons more than one hundred years ago and it's the subject of tonight's daily ted you may think what's happening across this country like scott walker's efforts in wisconsin to strip rights from working people and give multibillion dollar tax breaks to corporations is something new it's not it actually was started more than one hundred years ago by the stroke of one man's pen his name was john chandler bancroft davis i tell a story in the first chapter of my book on equal protection. it eight hundred eighty six bancroft was the court reporter for the united states supreme court and he was on the he was on the job while that court was hearing arguments in a case called santa clara county versus the southern pacific railroad although at the time the chief justice moore's interim equate thought it was just about a simple boring tax issue that case would ultimately redefine america forever if it wasn't for that case scott walker wouldn't even be governor now because corporate money couldn't hav

growth of the middle class in the united states when we had a lot of it was the growth of the robber baron well this was the demick. president grover grover cleveland who was one of the best presidents in american history that we had one of the last good democrat in the in eight hundred eighty seven in his speeches his annual address to the nation is his state of the union address said that we are seeing corporations rise up and put their irony on the necks of the citizens you know tom i have to say it's always so disingenuous of the left when they try and paint libertarians as being so pro corporatist when it is really libertarians i go out and fight the fights against these corporations and the lobbying that they do and the and the corporate subsidies that they get all the time we are so against what is the opposite that if you're going to say we want to hear from on government that's right and then then what is the alternative somebody has to be providing things somebody has to be doing things if it's not government right it's going to be one percent of the people in this country are do

water safe in blocking action to address global climate change after all you have to give the oil barons returns on their investments excuse me campaign contributions. it explains why republicans ever lightly blocked or defunded even the most watered down minor regulations on wall street after all you have to give bankers returns on their investments excuse me campaign contributions explains why republicans have voted a dozen times including attempts to defund planned parenthood to weaken women's access to contraceptives because after all you have to give the eccentric billionaires who get fired up over social issues or return on their investments excuse me campaign contributions in other words this congress in particular the house of representatives has been focused on helping only one class of americans the class that paid them in two thousand and ten the one percent while leaving the ninety nine percent behind so is anyone still really surprised about the ten percent approval rating i am it should be one percent and i want to turn it over to david cobb national spokesperson for move t

whatever they wanted they could rely on charity they could rely on the same want to go into the robber baron area you want to go back to you know of a baronet a great question era when people had no people of the streets and every ok well first off. ok it is an exaggeration to imagine you know that there was people just living in the streets for hundreds of thousands of years before social social security there was never is strong the middle class as we seen post social security being true but that had to do with booms in the economy not the creation of social security what we're talking about now is people are paying those and when seniors have money in their pocket when they're not you know living in destitution and in their spending money doesn't that help an economy isn't that part of a boom ok but you're not talking about one hundred percent seniors poor people forward. nineteen thirty five i mean what we're talking about is a very exaggerated look at social security what enjoy really nice retirement for them today were they able to retire at sixty five and live the next twenty years ol

the republicans keep the romney rule capital gains tax loophole wide open we all know if it's an oil baron who wants republicans to keep the taxpayer oil subsidies to his industry flowing we won't know if it's a war profiteer who wants republicans to keep the never ending war on terror going and keep up the high demand for christmas and we won't know if as some people are saying the donations are from dictators who are making secret deals with the republican party like they did back in one thousand eight we just won't ever know and that's a critical flaw in our democracy created by five unelected hard right wing kings in black robes appointed by republicans to the supreme court it's time to put an end to this chaos in our elections and not lead for and or corporate millionaires and billionaires speak louder in our democracy than actual american citizens with a vote it's time to overturn citizens united and corporate personhood and say explicitly that corporations are not people and that money is property not speech go to move to amend to work to get involved. and after the break with repub

michael barone. [applause] >> well, john, thank you very much, and thank you for the kind introduction. i -- you noted that both you and david have written books at mature ages, your first book. my "almanac of american politics" of which i'm co-author was written as long ago -- first edition appeared more than 40 years ago. i like to point out that it's highly unusual for the first edition of a book of this nature to have been written by someone at the age of 4. [laughter] but there we are. in addition, i am -- i come to you as a recovering liberal. [laughter] and with my transformation having come at a later stage in life than david's. so, um, i guess i'm being asked here in part because of one of my washington examiner columns on the same-sex marriage issue, i made the point that i was in favor of same-sex marriage, many of the same reasons in a book published years ago. i got some feedback from some of my examiner readers who seemed to be surprised. i felt that i should disclose that. i'm also a r

while the oil barons and speculators get rich off of our public land but romney's plan should do is costots of votes in colorado, iowa, ohio and pennsylvania and every state where they've invested in a clean energy future. they've got thousands of jobs at stake in those states and they have a choice to make. you better believe that mitt romney just made that choice a whole lot (vo) cenk uygur is many things. >>oh really? >>tax cuts don't create jobs. the golden years as the conservatives call them, we had the highest tax rates, and the highest amount of growth, and the highest amount of jobs. those are facts. >>"if you ever raise taxes on the rich, you're going to destroy our economy." not true! you want to save money on car insurance? no problem. you want to save money on rv insurance? no problem. you want to save money on motorcycle insurance? no problem. you want to find a place to park all these things? fuggedaboud it. this is new york. hey little guy, wake up! aw, come off it mate! geico. saving people money on more than just car insurance. the real world and politics collide. >> wi

we can look back to that, there were the robber barons, the cap tons of industry. they enormous political power and somehow between the muck breakers and people getting out and teddy roosevelt, we did have change in terms of the political outcomes and in terms what it meant for ordinary people. so i think there's precedent. i think we can do that. i think we can be optimistic as tough as things look now. let me close by quoting my i always end saying this. rabbi abraham joshua who was a great friend of dr. king and a great man himself. said a lot of things. one he said is very simple that is this, we're not all guilty, but we're all responsible. thanks for the chance to speak with you. [applause] [applause] dwreet. we'll have time for q and a. for the reminder after that there will be a book signing. it you don't have your book yet, you can get it in the front. we support unions and independent bookstores. anybody have a question? [inaudible] the shorter you keep the question, her the more people we get to hear from. quickly introduce yourself and ask your question

michael barone. [applause] >> well, john, thank you for that kind introduction.he noted that both you and david have written books of mature ages. your first book, my almanac of american politics, which i co-author was witnessed long-ago as a first edition that appeared more than 40 years ago. i like to point out that it's entirely unusual for the first edition book of this nature to attend written by the age of someone of four. but there we are. in addition, i come to you as a recovering liberal with my transformation having come at a later stage in life, and i guess i'm being nastier in part because and wanted by "washtington examiner" column said the same-sex marriage issue, i made the point that i was in favor of same-sex marriage for many of the same reasons published about a decade ago, gay marriage. so i got a little feedback from some of my examiner readers on that. i felt that delays disclosed that. i'm also a recovering pollster. this is from 1974 to 81. and i found myself issues says gay writes coming into politics. i found myself wrong about where pub

campaign has been running advertisements here trying to define mitt romney as some sort of robber baron who doesn't care about voters. so if you look at the campaign advertising, and what the candidates have been talking about on the stump here in iowa, it has appeared until today, this afternoon, that the candidates are trying to energize their base of voters, because it appears that iowa is among the purplest of states, perhaps still in this election cycle. but then this afternoon, mitt romney made a plea with his supporters to go out and essentially convert 2008 obama voters to vote for him. so that's the first time we've really heard mitt romney in a campaign appearance here in iowa talk about trying to convert and bring in independent and even democratic voters to the romney campaign. >> woodruff: that's very interesting. jon ralston, what about in nevada? are you picking up anything like that on the republican side? >> well, listen, i think that the issue here is the same as it is everywhere else, it's this mythical indecided voter, judy. this is all about now the base election, a