behavior last night. >> romney has been accused of etch-a-sketch. last night was his greatest achievement. >> stephen: let me show you just how great an achievement it was. before the debate, mitt's campaign said romney will come across as empathetic. but here's what mitt has been promising for the last two years. >> tax cuts for the wealthiest americans. how do you make that seem warm and fuzzy? well, you just need to shake it up as hard as mitt did last night. >> so-- give it a shot. okay. (laughter) (cheers and applause) (cheers and applause) now let's see what mitt's tax plan looks like now. okay? just need to get my tool here. okay. here we go. (cheers and applause) presto changeo. (laughter) now you see romney's policies, now you don't. we'll be right back. >> welcome back, everybody. thank you so much. folks, if you watch the show you know that i have been fighting all year to stamp out voter fraud. because if even one fraud center shows up at the polls in november that would tarnish the integrity of an election that the koch brothers paid go

etch a sketch moment.aybe this is what we are seeing. we have a lot to get to. >>> i-want to tell you what's ahead this morning. big bird fans in a frenzy. that's fair to say over the comments from governor romney during that debate that he would cut funding from pbs. lavar burton says that it outraged him as well and will talk about that straight ahead. a high schooler ridiculed for wearing a mitt romney t-shirt to school. we will tell you what happened there. it is our get real. christine will take a look at what's coming up in bus. >> a little thing called the september jobs report. >> oh, that. >> it could be pretty important. will it sway the upcoming presidential election? plus, we have gotten used to $3 a gallon. $4. how about $6? it is not pain at the pump. it is agony. details next. jack, you're a little boring. boring. boring. [ jack ] after lauren broke up with me, i went to the citi private pass page and decided to be...not boring. that's how i met marilyn... giada... really good. yes! [ jack ]

. >> eliot: the etch-a-sketch.ore we get into the politics of this, at a larger level what is becoming clear to me is there is a strain of thinking in this nation. it's not just a few crazies on the fringe as much as we would like to think it is, who have this perspective. and some how the issue of choice has not continued to grow in terms of popular support for a woman's right to choose, but we're stuck in a rigid 50/50 and there is a significant block that takes what we view as crazy positions. why have we reached this point of equilibrium and why are we not more successful in pushing a point of consensus. >> many people have not thought through to the logical end of what a position like todd akin or richard mourdock would be if you have no exceptions for rape or incest, what is the penalty for a woman who is raped who seeks an abortion? what is the penalty for a woman who is not raped and seeks for an abortion. if you go to states like missouri which had that personhood on the ballot if you have a fetus with the

. >>> let who's had another etch-a-sketch moment.itt romney says he won't revoke the self-deportation for illegal immigrants. >>> let me fin wish a behind the scene looks in what happened in the great kennedy/nixon debates. i've got it for you. this is "hardball," the place for politics. >>> ron brown's in "the national journal" wrote, the main reason obama is doing better in battleground states has to do with his increase from white working women. working class women. keep in mind, back in 2008, nationally, obama only got 41% of that group's vote. well, today in michigan 46% say they support the president. in florida it's 48%. nevada, new hampshire, wisconsin, and pennsylvania, the number hovers in those cases around 50%. in ohio and iowa, it's up to 52%. looking good for the president with white working class women. what an interesting category to be moving ahead in. we'll be right back. >>> welcome back to "hardball." today we saw a blow to the nationwide republican effort to suppress democratic turnout. a pennsylvania judge block

saying we're going to etch a sketch the whole thing. but the control room every once in a while doesn't have it. we've got some stuff that makes no sense since we didn't run the other thing. we're just going to junk it all. we have krystal ball and steve we're going to show this thing that gawker put together. mitt romney depating mitt romney. >> i will not reduce the taxes patd by highncome americans. >> there were so many misrepresentations there it's going to take me a little while. i said today we're going to cut taxes across every one. >> and the key to great schools, great teachers. so i reject the idea that i don't believe in great teachers or more teachers. >> he says we need more fireman, more teachers, did he not get the message in wisconsin? the american people did. >> brilliant. >> and it goes on from there. this is what we're watching. the surprise here is that it's come so late. we all had the sense that the etch a sketch move would be sooner. this has been pretty quick. >> i was waiting for the obama campaign to put out a

he grabbed his etch-a-sketch we've been waiting for it. he literally became a totally different politician with different views. his $5 trillion tax plan, you know he said only embrace teachers. he talked about how regulation was essential. these are all views and positions that romney has never supported over the course of the 18 months. i think that was really surprising and i think that actually shook the president a bit and he didn't really know how to deal with it. is the president just going to sit over there and call romney a liar? that's not necessarily helpful. so i think what's encouraging is now the president you know, today, if you listened to his speeches, he was up there fighting back and fighting back hard. i think his team understands that this is not going to a cakewalk for the next 30 plus days. >> eliot: doug, two responses to that. first, i think the president lacked the affirmative passionate aggressive articulation of what he has done to bring us back from the precipice. his failure to do that left him playing defense

. >>> look who has another etch-a-sketch moment.itt romney now says he won't revoke obama's two-year visas for qualified young illegal immigrants. well, maybe he's seen the polling on latinos lately which are devastating. >>> let me finish with a behind the scenes look at what really happened at the great kennedy/nixon debates. you will love these stories i have dug up. this is "hardball," the place for politics. and cheese add up to 100 calories? your world. ♪ [ whispers ] real bacon... creamy cheese... 100 calories... [ chef ] ma'am [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup. [ male announcer ] how do you make 70,000 trades a second... ♪ reach one customer at a time? ♪ or help doctors turn billions of bytes of shared information... ♪ into a fifth anniversary of remission? ♪ whatever your business challenge, dell has the technology and services to help you solve it. >>> roun brown's in the national journal wrote the main reason oen is doing better in battleground zats has to do with his increase from white working wome

. >>> let who's had another etch-a-sketch moment.itt romney says he won't revoke the self-deportation for illegal immigrants. >>> let me fin wish a behind the scene looks in what happened in the great kennedy/nixon debates. i've got it for you. this is "hardball," the place for politics. and every day since, we've worked hard to keep it. bp has paid over twenty-three billion dollars to help people and businesses who were affected, and to cover cleanup costs. today, the beaches and gulf are open for everyone to enjoy -- and many areas are reporting their best tourism seasons in years. we've shared what we've learned with governments and across the industry so we can all produce energy more safely. i want you to know, there's another commitment bp takes just as seriously: our commitment to america. bp supports nearly two-hundred-fifty thousand jobs in communities across the country. we hired three thousand people just last year. bp invests more in america than in any other country. in fact, over the last five years, no other energy com

. >> eliot: coming up, was wednesday night the best etch-a-sketch yet?eople have been clamoring for t and now it's here. the musical mash up. when it doesn't fit anywhere else, we put it in the viewfinder. [ ♪ music ♪ ] [ ♪ music ♪ ] [ ♪ music ♪ ] [ ♪ music ♪ ] [ ♪ music ♪ ] [ ♪ music ♪ ] [ ♪ music ♪ ] >> i still like the play list on my ipod better yours. >> eliot: we might miss this campaign when it's over. we saw a new mitt romney on wednesday night. again, how many mitt romneys are ther >> eliot: is it mitt romney 8.0 or 9.0 the etch-a-sketch has been shaken so many times it's hard to keep track. mitt romney seemed to oppose every principle he had been campaigning on thus far. but apparently mitt's transformation has continued. last night romney continued to remove himself from a quotings sour fog this time disavowing his comment that 47% of the country is compromised of moochers. >> romney: well, clearly in a campaign of thousands of sessions you're going to say something that doesn't come out right. in this case i came out somethingsaid somethingth

well, let's bring back that etch-a-sketch campaign.americans believe suddenly this man that's been saying one thing for the last year or two is now believed something entirely different? he's simply walked away from the whole 47% remark as well. are americans going to accept that? are the last numbers of undecideds going to accept that? >> erin, big bird is showing up. he became one of the memorable lines. is that going to be a problem? i remember chicken george running around, the first george bush's rallies. big bird, was that something that the romney people wished he had not opened the door to? >> al, one thing we saw throughout the primaries is that all kinds of costume characters like to show up to these events. so certainly we'll be seeing big bird from now until the election. the problem is, when mitt romney specified that public television is something that he wanted to cut, it puts a face on something. he did get specific but what he was worried about all along is that if he got specific, then it gave the president something

. >> and mitt romney has shown a remarkable ability to etch-a-sketch. he can literally say on monday something the opposite of what he said on sunday and say it without irony. so far as, you know, steve said, it's worked for him. the etch-a-sketch only works so long as the media at large allows it to work. the romney campaign is counting on the fact that at the local level, the local news media that's covering -- that a lot of people are getting their day-to-day political news from, isn't going to call him on it and that the national immediate, yeah the sort of big overarching immediate, yeah shows like this and cable, his core supporters don't trust main stream media anyway so it doesn't matter what he says. he's literally trying to run a campaign unlike anything identify seen in my life, which is he can tailor his message to the market that confronted him at that moment. by doing that, he can win voters just in that moment and not worry about whether or not it contradicts his past positions. >> well, it's an amazing attempt. we'll see. steve kornacki

he shakes the etch a sketch yet again on women's rights. this is "the ed show." let's get to work. >> wow. here's old moderate mitt. where you been, boy? i missed you all these last two years. >> president clinton rises again as mitt romney implodes over a woman's right to choose. tonight, terry o'neill of the national organization for women on mitt romney's war on women etch a sketch. bob shrum on the candidate without a core. >> it's very important for folks to just make sure that they understand that as long as people stay focused, we will win this thing. >> the president is rallying the troops as joe biden gets ready to take on lying ryan. >> trust me, i come from detroit west. we know we need a healthy auto sector. >> howard fineman and john nichols have the debate preview. >>> and from the coal mine owner to the real estate mogul, ceos are holding their workers hostage to get votes for mitt romney. tonight, former labor secretary robert reich on the revolt of the plutocrats. >> i'll tell you, you've got a great boss, he runs a great operation. >>> good to h

it's like an etch a sketch. you can shake it up and we start all over again. >> the magical erasure has finally begun. a new mitt romney took the stage last night, confident, polished and apparently possessed of entirely different policies. exhibit a, the 20% across the board tax cut that is estimated to cost taxpayers $4.8 trillion. >> governor romney's central economic plan calls for a $5 trillion tax cut on top of the extension of the bush tax cuts. >> first, i don't have a $5 trillion tax cut. i don't have a tax cut of the scale that you're talking. no economist can say mitt romney's tax plan adds 5 trillion. about i say i will not add to the deficit with my tax plan. >> romney never actually said there would be a 20% tax cut? >> i'm going to lower rates across the board for all americans by 20%. i want a 20% across the board reduction in taxes. the individual marginal tax rate 20% across the board. the top rate, for instance, would go from 35 to 28, middle rates would come down by 20% as well, all rates com

you both think coming on again so this is going to adopt the romney strategy and just shake the etch a sketch here before he goes on stage well ryan will adopt the romney strategy i think i mean they they saw it was successful for them that they come out that they hit hard that any time that obama or in this case biden comes out with something that they perceive as wrong for the country they'll pounce they will have now are just one part of the other part of the strategy was completely walking back all the positions he had taken in the last there's no question that romney i mean even amongst republicans is not considered the perp. candidate but here we are is what we have and this is a guy who's running for the office on the republican ticket and he has he recognizes that in order to capture and this is sort of what that forty seven percent video ended up showing and i've talked about this before is that he recognizes that there's a middle of the country who doesn't want to hear that obama's evil they just want hear that look he's in over his head he's failed in his responsibility for this co

we're going to etch-a-sketch thing.ontrol rom room, it doesn't always happen. >> the woman fainted on the air and her co-host kept talking like nothing happened. >> are you okay? >> what this does is give us an opportunity. >> one person was unconscious while the other person kept talking like the last year's debate. >> everything is coming up romney. the latest polls have romney neck and neck with obama. >> which polls are the pundits' favorite? >> before the debate the majority were leaning toward pew and gallup, but look what happened last week, a massive swing. >> in7-eleven cull polls obama is up 20 points. >> the poll is polling well among pundits who no longer give a. [ bleep ] >> i call my was bias on 7-eleven. they have a margin plus and minus of mormons who cannot drink coffee. >> while "the new york times" cbs is now gaining traction relative to the daily host upp automated robo poll. [ ♪ music ♪ ] >> all this stuff i that is taught about evolution the big bang theory, all of that is straight from the pit of

that's why they thought romney was a dangerous candidate because he would etch-a sketch and go back to being a previous incarnation which is a base loving base enthusiastic trying candidate. he would be a pragmatic moderate massachusetts governor. that would be a dangerous candidate for them to have to run against. we haven't seen that in mitt romney. on a succession of issues all night tonight, that was the mitt romney that he was trying to portray. it's come very late in this campaign but, and i think the obama campaign thought well if we haven't seen it so far we're not going to get to see it. he's not going to try to revive that image tonight. that's what he tried to do and that's one of the reasons president obama was off his game. the other reason you'll here this a lot over the next 12 or 24 hours but goes back to the kerry-bush example. incumbent presidents, they come out for this first debate it's been a long time since barack obama had a debate, it's been four years. and the last four years since he last left the stage with john mccain in october of 2008, there's almost no on

etch-a-sketch said that was wrong.send someone in the spin room right after the debate to say, well he can't really do that. as for taxed obama appeared to be caught off guard by the statement that his plan wouldn't increase taxes. much of romney's performance was rooted in deception from his very first answer when he tried to disown his tax program, and then finally he is unable to deem regulation he would keep -- he has been saying for how long he would repeal dodd-frank. and suddenly just because he said it, oh no you have to have regulation -- [ cuckoo clock chimes ] >> stephanie: unbelievable. paul tonko, good morning, congressman. >> good morning, stephanie. how are you. it's great to join you and your listeners. >> stephanie: you too. it was great to see you at the dnc. it really is stunning to try to fact check romney, right? >> the one that got me was the revenue reducing tax cut, and talk about this resulting growing of the base and, you know, it's -- it's so interesting that -- that the revenue-neutral conce

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. >> so perhaps shaking an etch a sketch. >> perhaps shaking an etch a sketch is not as dastardly asp, i want to ask you about that. president obama went after governor romney over his changes positions this week. here's what he had to say about romney thursday during a campaign rally. take a listen. >> he's trying to go through an extreme makeover. after running for more than a year after calls himself severely conservative, mitt romney is tries to convince you he's severely -- >> would you believe that? >> i think what we saw of barack obama is a prae view of what we're going see in the next debate. i think he got knocked in the jaw in the first debate and i think this week and going into next week's debate you're going to see him attack, attack, attack. i think at the end of the day calling somebody a flip-flopper, it gives people a reason to pause and they say, what does he believe? >> and governor romney certainly seems to provide ammunition for those claims. just this week, the abortion stuff and all of a sudden, you know, he's saying one thing about abortion. if i'm elected. t

i'm beginning to think that the use of the etch-a-sketch metaphor was intentional.will be painful you'll make fun of us, but we'll succeed. he waited until after the convention, after the first debate to run over to the center. if he had done it three weeks earlier would he have a grip on a state like ohio. >> i think we have short-term memory. look, this whole politics is brought by money. it's deliberately confusing. the ads are deceptive. it's a mockery of democracy. and which sit here like it's a rational exercise. >> eliot: you're getting me depressed. >> the sad thing is there is suffering oh out there and neither of that's guys are addressing it, and i'm afraid it's going to be more of the same. >> eliot: you talked to the plutocrats of whom you write, do you think there is a sense of recovery really there? >> yes, there is. what i'm going to say about that, and i'll echo bob' point i think this is an economic recovery, it is real, and it will be sustained. but what worries me is not just getting out of the recession and going back to the status quo of 2007,