the social democratic party or the democratic party here. social democratic party is, all of them have taken a hit since the economic collapse. there has not been this reaction that you are describing that they may be perfectly rational. who should you be mad at because you are out of work? not obamacare. it does not go into effect until 2014. tavis: it does not equate for me. >> it is not clicking. tavis: since you are covering the presidential race and writing this blog, where do you think this conversation about austerity and scarcity is going to go in the presidential race? if he pulls this off, given his background, given who obama is and who romney is, where does the conversation about austerity and scarcity go? >> mitt romney has staked out a position where he wants to prevent the emergence of an entitlement society. i am not sure he realizes fully what he is saying. there has been a study that came out this last week showing that 90% of entitlement spending does not go to poor people. it goes to all people, it goes to people who are d

that all americans ought to be concerned about. >> and one of our tweeters, it is the democratic party. not the democrat party. >> it is. you know, that's such a silly thing to hang on to. but republicans think they're being so cute, following rush limbaugh's lead by saying democrat party. i mean, it's childish. >> did you see the cpac conference over the weekend? >> i didn't go down there, but i saw certainly a lot of clips of it. you know what surprised me about that? is that mitt romney won the straw poll. the last two years, ron paul won the straw poll at cpac. these are the true believers. they really are. this is the 38th year they've come to washington. and they always have -- and the fact that santorum went in, i thought maybe he would get it from ron paul. the fact that mitt romney won that straw poll i find pretty impressive. >> and yet ron paul didn't even speak this year. >> he didn't even speak. he spent his time in maine. and he came in second in maine. again, romney winning the caucuses in maine. so it was a good day yesterday for romney. he's not done yet. >> some highlights from our wee

if it has holes in it i will repair them ok the challenge right now we will hear for the democrat democrat party the plight of the poor and there's no question it's not good being poor and we have a safety net to help those that are very poor but my campaign is focused on middle income americans. are i like that so that at least trying to follow up there but the fact of the matter is that mitt romney is full of it need is there has to be called out you see romney says if the social safety net is broken don't worry he's the man to fix it odd considering that in the past he's the one that having said that having a safety net is with leading this country on a path to socialism if you follow the president we're going to be more like europe more like a social european social welfare state if instead we take my course we're going to be more like america if you will creating more opportunity for more people and helping lift people with better jobs and rising incomes. all right so i want to take a minute here to look at some of the figures that tell us exactly what following romney's path might look lik

great but i think they missed a major opportunity to put those people into the democratic party and transform the democratic party. because so many new people turned out for the president in 2008. and if they had been better integrated within the democratic party the democratic party would have been in better shape in 2010 and would be in better shape right now. so, i still think that is a really important priority that do not get talked about enough, which is to try to rebuild the democratic party by having those obama people feel some sense of ownership within the party. obviously, not everyone who supported the president is a democrat and obama wanted to some extent to have his own brand. he was thought of as a party of one, the first independent president all those things. but at the end of the day he is a democrat and most of his supporters are democrats and the democratic party is going to rise and fall based on what he does. so, the fact that the democrats did lose so many seats at the local level in twe2010 means th they really need an injection of energy and manpower in 2012. host: twitter comment

the democratic candidates and democratic and democratic party outspend republicans, but the republican groups evened that out so when you looked at it overall, it was pretty even in terms of television advertisement those . television advertising is other sorts of spending that goes on in the campaign and there were certainly some district where there was a little bit of an unbalanced. but republicans outspend republicans in 2010. >> watching the original ads from eisenhower, of course the rhetoric is the same, in so many cases, watching the more recent ones, have you seen anything that represents a distinctive leap forward in overall nas nastine nastiness, that's a very technical term. are we really in the same glide path? >> i don't think so, i think that certainly we haven't seen anything revolutionary and sort of creative negative attacks that this colleague's created, you may have said it earlier, i think the problem with political advertising is how unimaginativ these guys, they were l they were often working -- the same pot over and over again. it was sort of revenue for another

host: and it is the democratic party, not the democratic party. est: that's such a silly thing to hang on to but republicans think they're being so cute, following rush limbaugh's lead by saying, democratic party. it's childish. host: did you see the cpac conference over the weekend? guest: i didn't go down there. i saw a lot of clips of it. what surprised me is that mitt romney won the straw poll. the last two years, ron paul won the straw poll at cpac. this is the 38th year they've come to washington and the fact that santorum went in, i thought he would get it. the fact that mitt romney won the straw poll, i find that impressive. host: ron paul didn't speak this year at cpac. guest: he spent time in maine and came in second in maine. it was a good day for romney. host: highlights from our weekend coverage of the cpac coverage which started thursday, wrapping up yesterday. ann coulter speaking at the gathering. >> even with all this, obama will be very difficult to beat this year. number one, he's an incumbent. number two, americans keep telling

the democratic party is a multiracial coalition. if you can eliminate the white democrats from that equation, that isolates the democratic party on the state level and on the national level in that region. that is the court of the new southern strategy. host: it is available on-line. it is the february 20 cover story. caller: good morning. i voted for obama in the last election. he has been a little bit of a disappointment. the republicans do not have anybody. as far as mitt romney, i feel like he is out of touch. i think this connection to the -- his opposition to the bailouts in michigan. newt gingrich -- i feel obama is going to win by default. i really like ron paul. if you vote for him, that is a vote for obama. as far as i am concerned, i feel like obama is going to get reelected. host: the economy is one of the leading domestic issues in this campaign. how is it for you live? caller: is starting to pick up. the housing market is still getting hit pretty hard. we still have a lot of problems in that area, but as far as jobs, i am seeing manufacturing jobs. i have nev

democrats to vote. the democratic party itself, the state democratic party chair said that yeah, democrats should go out and vote for rick santorum, the united auto workers, their workers told union members, let's cause chaos on the san at her rum side. you had romney trying to say rick son is trying to steal the election. rick santorum said wait a second, mitt romney tried to appeal to democrats and independents who played you a huge role in new hampshire that mitt romney won so when is he complaining about. you've had this back and forth all day long. mitt romney started to say we may not win michigan, because of rick santorum's dirty tricks is how mitt romney tried to put it. just looking at the body language of mitt romney today at his press conference, the romney campaign is nervous. >> i love robo corps complains about dirty tricks. that's hilarious. david shuster, thank you so much for joining us appreciate it. >> thanks, appreciate it. >> david just mentioned the u.a.w. the president was actually speaking there. i thought he had a very pointed attack against the republicans. let's watch that. >>

labor becomes in many ways the backbone of the democratic party and a lot of the story of the decline of the democratic party in the late 20th and 21st century has to do with the decline of the labor movement. in fact, what's some of the first things some of the new republican state governments did after they came into power after the 2010 election? >> collective bargaining. >> today what is the strongest element of the labor movement? what types of unions? >> public sector unions. >> that's exactly what they went after. that was that huge controversy in wisconsin. so labor is a second very important component along with african-americans. yeah. >> farmers? >> not so much. i mean, farmers, kind of, are a swing vote. but you couldn't say, he did better among farmers certainly than democrats had done before, but they never became a core element the way blacks and union members were. the south. you have the paradox of the new deal coalition or the roosevelt coalition or the new democratic coalition putting together african-americans and the white south that at this time was still segregated, that had the

democratic party. it will make the democratic party come to its senses on civil rights and states' rights and all of these things, and they will do this by putting the election into the electoral college. and brokering a deal. and one of the people involved in that is a young man, a young governor of south carolina named j. strom thurmond, a decorated war veteran, former judge and considered at the time to be kind of a progressive/liberal/new deal kind of democrat, the new face of the south. except when he gets caught up in this, when the south carolina legislators and such start talking against the truman civil rights program, he joins with the dixiecrats largely centered in and alabama in many going to these regional meetings to say what can we do about harry truman. now, the irony of this and the irony of this when he, when thurmond starts being carried away by this talking about how federal government's bayonets will not force black people into our swimming pools, into our homes, into our schools is the irony that j. strom thurmond has a black, illegitimate daughter. that's one wing of the democratic

advocate of marriage equality is urging the democratic party to include marriage rights for gays and lesbians in its official twenty twelve party platform that the democrats would then become the first political party to adopt such a policy palosi supported the effort comes after the marriage equality group freedom to marry called on the democratic party to officially adopt such a policy during the two thousand and eight election cycle the party officially opposed the defense of marriage act but did not address the issue of marriage equality democratic party added marriage equality to its official platform if they did it may happen sooner rather than later there are at least ninety one democrats in the house twenty three in the senate and twelve democratic governors who openly support for marriage equality rights kudo's to representative pelosi and the democratic party for standing up for the rights of thousands millions of americans the bad g.o.p. t.v.'s the five the infamous new fox so-called news panel show took the war on birth control to new extremes yesterday arguing that the fight for contraception coverage is actually as seen by democrats and the

democratic party. only 14% approve of the idea which is aimed at funding the new pension system with 35% disapproving. the support rates for the democratic party and the opposition liberal democratic party slipped slightly to around 17%. almost 50% said they don't support any party in particular. the figure is the highest since the current survey method was adopted in july 2004. the results suggest that interest may be shifting from long established parties to upstart political blocks that are now taking shape. lessons from the march 11th disaster was the theme of a recent forum held in tokyo. our business anchor attended the forum to meet a renowned intellectual. >> reporter: the world civilization forum was chaired by harvard university professor. the professor was born in india. he's a nobel laureate in economic science for his research into the mechanisms of poverty and his work in connecting economics and philosophy. >> what the fukushima daiichi disaster brings out with great force is the radical uncertainty that may be present that looked like safe enterprises of great importance to the world. >> reporter: in our interview profess

and let me kick it first to mark brewer and mark did the democratic party encourage democrats to voteis primary? >> absolutely not. that's our policy. this has been a real disaster for the mitt romney campaign and the republican party. this was supposed to be mitt romney's anointment. this was put together by the republican establishment, so romney could get anointed here tonight. if he wins at all, he will limp out of here very badly damaged having spent 6, $7 million on a state he should have considered a walk. so he needs to look in the mirror that the opposition to the auto rescue and the other things he has said and done was really his downfall tonight. >> i would like you all to listen to two sound bites from governor romney. one from 2007 and one from very recently about this issue of cross-over voting and whether he supports it or not? >> i think republicans have to recognize there's a real effort to kidnap our -- our primary process, and if he want republicans to nominate the republican who takes on barack obama, i need republicans to get out and vote and say no to the dirty

they will punish the democratic party and make the democratic party come to its senses on civil rights, states rights and all of these things and they will do this by putting the election into the electoral college and brokering a deal. one of the people involved in that is a young man, young governor from south carolina named j. strom thurmond, decorated war veteran, former judge and considered at the time to be kind of a progressive liberal nuke deal kind atomic rat, the new base of the south except that once he gets caught up in this one south carolina legislators start talking it against the truman civil rights program he joins with the dixiecrat's largely centered in mississippi and alabama going to these regional readings to say what can we do about harry truman? now the irony of this, the irony of this when thurmond starts being carried away by this talking about how federal government bayonets will not force black people into our swimming pools and into our homes and our schools, the irony is that j. strom thurmond had a black illegitimate daughter. that is one wing of the demo

democratic party. it will make the democratic party come to its senses on civil rights and states rights and all of these things. they will do this by putting the election into the electoral college and brokering a deal. in one of the people involved in that is a young man, young governor of south carolina named j. strom thurmond. decorated war veteran, former judge, and consider that the time to be the progressive liberal new deal kind of democrat, the new face of the south. except that once he gets caught up in this, when the south carolina legislators and such start talking against the german civil rights program he joins with the dixiecrats largely centered in mississippi and alabama in going to these regional meetings to see what can we do? now the irony of this and the irony of this when thurman starts being carried away by this, talking about federal government's bayonet's will not force black people into our swimming pools commend our homes, our schools is the irony of the j. strom thurmond has a black illegitimate daughter. that is one wing of the democratic party in 1948. the other wing, which

republican party, we have a lot of people complaining that republicans are doing things actively designed to suppress the vote. i don't see how democrats can complain about voter suppression when the democratic party isn't even have aing a primary for the democratic candidate. primaries don't weaken candidates, they make them stronger. >> members of the board of supervisors, member of san francisco open government. i was very tempted not to come here, take a day off and relax. but something came of that really precluded that. one of my favorite authors wrote the following. politics is the art of appearing candid and completely open while concealing as much as possible. not too long ago, the sunshine ordnance taskforce found several members of this board has in violation of the sunshine ordinance. i had hoped that they would take that in the spirit that was meant, have open discussions, and looked at it in an objective and fair light. i would like this to remain on the screen for the next 30 seconds. this is what we get. a survey that is badly written. i was on the staff of the pacific fleet that is in charge of all of the military forces in the pacific and i used to give surveys. this survey

host: and it is the democratic party, not the democratic party. est: that's such a silly thing to hang on to but republicans think they're being so cute, following rush limbaugh's lead by saying, democratic party. it's childish. host: did you see the c-pac conference over the weekend? guest: i didn't go down there. i saw a lot of clips of it. what surprised me is that mitt romney won the straw poll. the last two years, ron paul won the straw poll at c-pac. this is the 38th year they've come to washington and the fact that santorum went in, i thought he would get it. the fact that mitt romney won the straw poll, i find that impressive. host: ron paul didn't speak this year at c-pac. guest: he spent time in maine and came in second in maine. it was a good day for romney. host: highlights from our weekend coverage of the c-pac coverage which started thursday, wrapping up yesterday. ann coulter speaking at the gathering. >> even with all this, obama will be very difficult to beat this year. number one, he's an incumbent. number two, americans keep tell

democrats -- democratic elected officials, could have harnessed some of the anger the tea party people have shown. for example, let's assume that bailouts were necessary. which obviously can be argued. let's assume they were necessary. would it have made a difference if the democrats said, listen, this is terrible. these guys are a bunch of thieves. i ahead to do this. i hate to do this but they have is over a barrel. had we taken that attitude do you think it would have made a difference? >> oh, my god, yes. but the bailouts are -- i'm sorry. keep going. >> just the second part of the question, to what do you attribute the failure of democratic elected officials to take that tact, too. >> those are two really good questions, and i'll -- let me just say first about their failure. they're a cult of bipartisanship and a cult of civility. they think this is all about. when barack obama was running for president he said we come from red states and blue states and we're kind of purple and -- he said all those great things about bipartisanship and civility. but i always assumed that was ornament. i didn't know that was the essence, the main thing he believed in. i was kind of surprised by that. i mean, every presidential candidate says things like that and that's approp

republican party, we have a lot of people complaining that republicans are doing things actively designed to suppress the vote. i don't see how democrats can complain about voter suppression when the democraticty isn't even have aing a primary for the democratic candidate. primaries don't weaken candidates, they make them stronger.

not you but the democratic party. >> the democratic party had 59 3/4. >> i'm not sure we can trace -- >> in massachusetts scott brown won. it was quite an election. >> and i think an awful lot of the story of that election is undoubtedly about the local factors in that election as much as they are about anything that was going on nationally. but let me just suggest, though, again on the question of the republican party's central health, the very fact that the tea party, which did not initially understand itself as presumably republican but understood itself as a kind of liberty aryan populist movement, now it found a home within the republican party, in part because we're a two-party system and there's no other place to be. but a tea party revolution is not necessarily we're looking at a strong and identity-based republican party. i think one might claim just the opposite, that part of what the tea party has done is draw the republican party farther to the right. you now have rick santorum as a leading candidate, someone whoa does not look like a very likely candidate for a general el

democratic party. the conservatives have a party. democrats have a party only when the lobbyists lend it back to them for a certain amount of time. >> smith: well, many people have wondered why there isn't, you know, just as they say where are the liberal equivalents of limbaugh and o'reilly and hannity, and i guess msnbc has in the absence of anything else, risen to be, to be that. why is there no progressive equivalent to the tea party? some have fantasized about a coffee party; in fact there are loosely formed groups of coffee party groups. >> moyers: that is a pale imitation group. >> smith: is there some? what has kept the progressive side of politics from developing its own version of the tea party? >> moyers: i think primarily because the democratic party and the progressive party has been, and the progressives in that party have been the party of government for so long that it was hard to be so critical of the incumbents who had represented you for so long. >> smith: yeah. >> moyers: as the democratic party began to move away from its

party affiliation. >> are you registered? >> reporter: we asked that question to a dozen people. >> democrat. >> republican. >> i am a democrat. >> democrat and republican. >> fight on us. >> reporter: even our poll found what they found. >> independent. [ laughter ] >> reporter: 21% of all california voters are registered with no party affiliation. >> i am ready to do that. >> reporter: why? >> i feel like both of them are not -- not in my interest. >> reporter: while both parties lost some support, democrats hold a advantage with 44% of registered voters to 30%. democrats and republicans insist they can win over those millions of independents. >> on the social issues, i believe the republicans are nuts. they try to outright each other. 2012 represents a opportunity for republicans to show their alternatives to somewhat the democrats are doing. >> reporter: california's presidential primary is june 5. the republican party has chosen not to allow voters with no affiliation to participation. >> www.ktvu.com has the latest, click on election 2012 on the home pain. >>> pacific gas and electric admits it failed to perform safety

democrat congress. he had majorities. >> democratic democratic democratic. are you a child? why do they keep saying democrat party? ldish thing to do. >> did he tackle the housing crisis? did he get america back to work? no instead he put us on a path. >> michigan's unemployment went down by 5%. >> it's time to get off of that path and back on the path of american prosperity. >> kids with grow up to rape companies and make hundreds of millions of dollars off of you. >> when he is not spending our money or infringing on our rights, he's busy running for re-election. he believes that -- did you hear this? he believes he ranks among the top 4 presidents in america history. can you believe that? i find a different spot for him. he thinks he deserves a second term. he says, we can't wait to which, i say, oh, yes, we can. today, we are $15 trillion in tent and real unemployment stands at 15%. you've heard that old saying about, i need a vacation from my vacation? well, we need to have a recovery from this so-called recovery. as a nation we have survived the great depression weathered two world wars made it through tough

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democrat and former spokes person for the party. democrats need to step up to the plate. steve is right. we have been cowards on this, we need to change the conversation to talk about, you know, it gets put to an either/or politics, we have the second amendment, we can be in line with the second amendment and protect our children. so that you are not worried that your children are on lock down. there has to be a way. >> it's interesting how powerful the nra is in washington. not just with republicans but with democrats take a look. how hard is it for a moderate democrat from arkansas or georgia to vote for gun legislation, it's difficult for that person from a culture standpoint. it's difficult, republicans and democrats are coward on this. it's because they have not stood up to the nra. >> you are one of the few standing up for this, we thank you for joining the program. i'm sorry we have to cut it off there. we will pay close attention to your work in the brady campaign and thank you for joining us. it will be time for postscript, next on "now." >>> hi, coming up next on "andrea mitchell reports" mitt romney accuses rick santorum of trying hijack the michigan primary with democratic votes, wait until you hear about what we have uncovered about one of romney's past primary votes. new questions about the u.s. combat mission in afghanistan in the wake of the anti-american violence there. we will see you in less than 15 minutes. here's to more saturdays in the sun. and budgets better spent. here's to

goes through this process and winds up in second place, it's different than the democratic party, the signal in the democratic party you're washed up. >> steve schmitt, richard wolf fche, great to have you with us tonight. >>> remember, answer the question there at the bottom of the screen, and share your thoughts on twitter at #edshow. >>> super pack slug fest when the gop nominee faces barack obama. ari melber and robert reich. republicans are waging war on workers, one of the men standing in their way, bernie sanders, he's coming up, joins me to talk about his plan to save the post office, lots more coming up, stay with us we're right back. >>> coming up the obama campaign's decision to promote donating to super pacs has the left divided in this country. i'll talk to ari melber who support the decision and robert reich the former labor secretary who has serious reservations. >>> ellen degeneres responds to the conservative group that threatened to boycott jc penny for hiring her as a spokesperson. and thanks the company for standing with her. >>> scott walker raises money in the sunshine state. while the k

democrat. and the democratic party could reach out and appealed to them, it could really do well. in the 2008 election she was working hard to make single women to make mass card ads or soccer moms and in 2012i think that we will see even more of that. it's difficult to organize singles because they don't always identified that we but maybe things are starting to change. >> host: where do you plan on taking this next or is this moving away from this and into some -- >> host: >> guest: it's hard to say. when i finished the heat wave but i thought i will never touch that topic again. who wants to think about being alone and living alone packs that again, when i step back and look at the social change and i thought this is something that is too big to ignore people ask me why are you interested in the topic? you are a married guy, you have two kids, seems like a really strange thing. shouldn't you study something that you know more of but my response to that is i simply can't think of many things that are as new and significant and massive as the rise of living alone in the contempor