and e.j. dionne with the washington post. thanks both for coming on tonight. >> good to be here. >> let me ask you, e.j. you were in the hall when congressman john lewis was speaking. we could see from the shots some people in the audience appeared moved. some had teared up. what was the reaction as you got it on the floor? >> well, it was an overwhelming reaction. no one is more qualified to make a moral case for equal voting rights than john lewis. this is a very brave and very good man. i think people regardless of their politics know that that's true. and the room was electrified. because this is a very fundamental thing. we talk about in political terms how some of these laws might make it harder for president obama to win. but the idea that on one day every two or four years, every person in the country is absolutely equal whether you're a homeless man or woman or the richest person in the country, democracy means that every single citizen ought to have equal access to the ballot box. what's wrong with these laws is they

columnist for "the washington post," e.j. dionne. columnist for "the wall street journal," peggy noonan. and nbc's chief white house correspondent, our political director, chuck todd. chuck tod. >> good sunday morning. this weekend i spent time with governor romney on the campaign trail for an exclusive two-part interview on the state of the race, and what, specifically, a romney presidency would mean for the country. we met up with the romneys friday in manchester, new hampshire, where they began a short trip downstate for an evening campaign rally in nash wa. >> let me tell you, this economy is going to come back in a big way and you're going to see more jobs again and you're going to see rising home values again and you're going to see more take-home pay again. but you're right, it is going to require me being elected president and new hampshire is going to do it. >> it was a day that also saw the president in battleground new hampshire, to kick off his post-convention push to election day. >> now that both sides have made their a

thank you, e.j. dionne. both of you have a great weekend.or your time. >> you, too. >> we'll be right back. [ female announcer ] research suggests cell health plays a key role throughout our lives. one a day women's 50+ is a complete multivitamin designed for women's health concerns as we age. it has more of 7 antioxidants to support cell health. one a day 50+. less expensive option than a traditional lawyer? at legalzoom you get personalized services for your family and your business that's 100% guaranteed. so go to legalzoom.com today for personalized, affordable legal protection. >>> we're 39 days to the ee electric. more des rate the right wing gets, the more uglier they get. in florida called president obama a muslim and a socialist. in a phone bank call for the romney campaign. >> i don't know if you have done any research on obama or not, but is he a muslim. um, he is, um, got a socialistic view on the, you know, economy, the government, the whole nine yards. if he had his way, we would be a socialistic country. >> and earlier this we

thank you, e.j. dionne. both of you have a great weekend.or your time. >> you, too. >> we'll be right back. [ female announcer ] research suggests cell health plays a key role throughout our lives. one a day women's 50+ is a complete multivitamin designed for women's health concerns as we age. it has more of 7 antioxidants to support cell health. one a day 50+. less expensive option than a traditional lawyer? at legalzoom you get personalized services for your family and your business that's 100% guaranteed. so go to legalzoom.com today for personalized, affordable legal protection. so go to legalzoom.com today sleep train's inveis ending soon. sale save 10%, 20%, even 35% on a huge selection of simmons and sealy clearance mattresses. get 2 years interest-free financing on tempur-pedic. even get free delivery! sleep train stacks the savings high to keep the prices low. but hurry, the inventory clearance sale is ending soon. superior service, best selection, lowest price, guaranteed. ♪ sleep train ♪ your ticket to a better night's sleep ♪ >>>

i think that's what they decided to do. >> e.j. dionne, thank you very being here tonight. >> great to be with you. >>> a quick note. a few moments ago we identified live pictures of cairo being tahrir square. the live pictures we're monitoring are shots of the protest in the area outside the u.s. embassy in cairo. we apologize for that. >>> coming up next, mitt romney's comments that started all this, they're not the most important comments governor romney made in the last 48 hours. we're going to tell you what those are. >>> coming up, mitt romney rips a page from the bush playbook on foreign policy. >>> and we're going to update you on the growing anti-american protests in the middle east. >>> and later, jared bernstein and dave weigel on today's major news from the fed. if you care about jobs and job creation, today was an absolutely huge day and we're going to explain it all. stay tuned. you're watching "the ed show." wç >>> welcome back. you're looking at live pictures from cairo, egypt, right now, just outside the u.s. embassy. pro

joining me tonight, e.j. dionne of "the washington post," also an msnbc contributor, and author of "our divided political heart," and chris redford joins us tonight gentlemen, great to have you with us. e.j., you first. this is quite a mountain to climb for any campaign, whether it's mitt romney or anybody else. how is he going to be able to do it? >> well, i think he knows he's in a hole, because that ad you showed where he sa, both of us re a mdle s families, that was almost an entirely defensive ad. and that quinnipiac/"new york times" poll showed why. there was a question in there at asked, does obama, does romney care about the middle cls, the rich, the poor, o everyone equally? most polls that give four choices usually get scattered answers. 58% of the people in ohio said that mitt romney's policies favored the rich. ampoesoritt, 59% said that everybody equally or the middle class. that's a 17-point gap. and i think the auto rescue is part of it. those bain ads are part of it. ken blackwell, the former republi

i think that's what they decided to do. >> e.j. dionne, thank you very being here tonight. >> great to be with you. >>> a quick note. a few moments ago we identified live pictures of cairo being tahrir square. the live pictures we're monitoring are shots of the protest in the area outside the u.s. embassy in cairo. we apologize for that. >>> coming up next, mitt romney's comments that started all this, they're not the most important comments governor romney made in the last 48 hours. we're going to tell you what those are. [ male announcer ] this is rudy. his morning starts with arthritis pain. and two pills. afternoon's overhaul starts with more pain. more pills. triple checking hydraulics. the evening brings more pain. so, back to more pills. almost done, when... hang on. stan's doctor recommended aleve. it can keep pain away all day with fewer pills than tylenol. this is rudy. who switched to aleve. and two pills for a day free of pain. ♪ [ female announcer ] and try aleve for relief from tough headaches. [ female announcer ] and try a

i think that's what they decided to do. >> e.j. dionne, thank you very being here tonight. >> great to be with you. >>> a quick note. a few moments ago we identified live pictures of cairo being tahrir square. the live pictures we're monitoring are shots of the protest in the area outside the u.s. embassy in cairo. we apologize for that. >>> coming up next, mitt romney's comments that started all this, they're not the most important comments governor romney made in the last 48 hours. we're going to tell you what those are. ng out of a vital resource we need to compete on the global stage. what we need are people prepared for the careers of our new economy. by 2025 we could have 20 million jobs without enough college graduates to fill them. that's why at devry university, we're teaming up with companies like cisco to help make sure everyone's ready with the know how we need for a new tomorrow. [ male announcer ] make sure america's ready. make sure you're ready. at devry.edu/knowhow. ♪ >>> coming up, mitt romney rips a page from the bush p

tonight, e.j. dionne on today's disastrous new poll numbers for republans. an ohio democratic party chair, chris redford, on mitt romney's failure to dot the "i" in e bucke ste. >> it's not consistent with our polling, steve. >> the romney campaign has officially joined the poll truthers. tonight, we will debunk the republican alternate reality. >> there is a fundamental error going in the polling this ar by the mediorganization >> and there's more fallout from senator scott brown's race-baiting campaign. we'll have the latest from boston. >>> and the star of tv's "dirty jobs" gets his direst job yet. ikweas you know, well, he's a guy who has made a name for himself by doing things other pele don't want to do. really ugly, dirty jobs. like standing with a politician. >> i'll explain why mike rowe was standing on the wronstage th the wrong candida today >> good to have you with us tonight, folks. thanks for watching. no republican candidate has ever lost ohio and won the presidency. mitt romney is on the verge of becoming yet anoth victim of this statistic. o

joining me now is melissa harris-perry, host of the melissa harris-perry show here on msnbc and e.j. dionnean msnbc contributor. thank you both for being on the show tonight. >> good to be with you. >> melissa, hasn't romney's fact-free campaign. >> certainly there's two pieces of it. one is sort of just the inability of having a governing mind set that says when there is a world crisis you pause first. you engage in finding out what the facts even are. you remember that as reagan said, the politics only go to the water's edge and then once we get to the edge of our country, we are all americans. so that's part of it. but the other part of it has been within the domestic politics of the campaign, the willingness of both the romney and ryan candidacies to simply distort their own records of something that is inaccurate and isn't true and consistently to distort president obama's record. >> now, e.j., it's not only limited to this week as melissa said, they distort the record. let me play for you some information about the president's campaign that there romney has said in the past. >> i'm go

let's turn now to msnbc contributor and "washington post" columnist, e.j. dionne. i want to play this tape one more time. let's take a look and talk about it afterwards. here it is. >> e.j., the comment, they believe they are victims. what do you think about that? >> i thought the whole thing was astonishing because the implication is that anyone who ever gets help from the government is dependent and a victim. by the way, i did the math. romney has set a daunting standard for himself. if he's right, that 47% is ruled out for him, that means he needs 94.5% of that 53% to win the election. so it's a very odd standard. but let's analyze, who is he talking about here? seniors on medicare and social security, well, they depend upon the government. are they part of that class? what about people on veterans benefits? what about students who want to work hard in their lives and get student loans to go to college? what about hard-working, low income people who get help for their children under the health plan so they can get coverage? are all these people lazy and dependent

. >> charlie:when we continue this evening the two political parties with e.j. dionne and dan balz of the washington post. >> i think this election is more fundamental choice than we've seen in a very long time. maybe it's not unlike the gold water campaign. out there with a very hard position but the republicans have a advantage this time that goldwater didn't have. obama has a bad ee economy. we. >> charlie:we can included with frank how paid media is shape thg campaign. >> the truth is this election is going to be can decided by the main stream, people dead center who believe in a right of center economic approach and leave us alone on social issues. they're closer to barack obama on social and closer to mitt romney on economic issues. so they're torn. >> there's a difference betweend actually said, i don't care. i will follow this on election day that's it. the problem is neither candidate is speaking to them in the way they want to be spoken to or talking to them, the words that they want to hear. >> charlie:march inas balances and tee i don't know and he wnwentor

e.j. dionneas an interesting point in the "washington post" today, saying that what's maddening for democrats is whenever they point out the racially charged nature of romney's assault, republicans piously cast themselves as victims, accusing democrats of playing the race card. defanging the welfare issue is obama's highest immediate priority. this task is complicated because voters tend to view obama as more liberal than he actually is which means many of them are prepared to believe there may be some truth in romney's false claims. what do you make of that? >> first of all, jonathan just went soft there. jonathan, there is nothing tenable about saying that president obama or secretary sebelius weakened the work requirement. in fact, they strengthened it by demanding a 20% increase. let's be absolutely crystal clear about that. there should be no misunderstanding. that's a bald-faced lie, number one. number two, the best person to debunk all this is bill clinton, the father of welfare reform. bi

e.j. dionne has a really good assessment, saying it was a speech that was thoroughly apolitical on the surface but carried multiple political messages, linking a very traditional message about parenting with a call for social justice. i mean, this was the obama sort of narrative for the country writ large, and as margaret says, it was packaged in a much more sort of humble box, if you will, which is the story of a man and a woman and their lives together. >> i think also, what she did was she took success and kind of defined it more thoroughly than republicans did. democrats are for success. we want people to succeed, do well, make money, whatever, but we also define success in craving a kind of society where everybody has a chance to move up to that level of success and how government plays a role in that. republican convention government was the enemy. this convention, is the reality of life. i think she was speaking to families all across this country that have been hard hit, very few earners

to their senses if he's re-elected and assuming that democrats hold on to the senate, you know, e.j. dionneobama's ability to govern in a second term thus depends not only on his own treeiumf but on the defeat of those obstructing him. if he wins but they win is there much chance that obstruction will stop? >> i feel like obama has to say the fever will break. if not that what's the point? we're going to do this all over again, this song and dance. he does have a few chips to play here, primarily that he has to sign any law into law and the bush tax cuts are set to expire under his watch whether he wins or loses. the sequestration will hit whether he wins or loses. he doesn't have to do anything. he can sit on his pen, not sign it and suddenly you're not talking about extending the bush taxes, you're talking about what type of tax cut package you want to pass in its place. he has a few chips to play with respect to whether republicans go for it, i don't know. it's a great unknown. i can't imagine that grover norquist won't go viciously after the first republican that says let's drop this, y

joining me, "washington post" columnist, e.j. dionne. "wall street journal" columnist peggy noonan.cal director and chief white house correspondent, chuck todd. washington fellow of the clairemont institute, bill bennett. and fresh from the charlotte convention where he gave the democratic keynote address, welcome to the roundtable for the first time, san antonio mayor julian castro. lots to get to. not quite as much time because we had the opportunity to sit with governor romney. here was i think a key piece of news made in that interview and it had to do with an open disagreement that romney has with the republican leaders who struck a deal to extend the debt ceiling, you remember last summer, that required automatic spending cuts for defense and social programs that would take effect january 1st. this is what he said. >> this sequestration idea of the white house, which is cutting our defense, i think, is an extraordinary miscalculation. >> republican leaders agreed to that deal to extend -- >> i think it's a big mistake. i thought it was a mistake on the part of the white house