guthrie, editor of "the national review," rich lowry, and columnist for "the washington post" eugene robinson. >>> good morning. you can imagine health care is all anyone's talking about in washington. well, that was the case until late friday night when this ferocious storm came through so suddenly in the mid-atlantic area, the ohio valley, west virginia and it has reeked so much half vehicle throughout the region, 2 million people without power, so much damage in neighborhoods up and down the coast. as i say in the ohio valley as well. we're monitoring that as so many people are still without per. meantime, health care is going to reverberate beyond this weekend as we get closer into the campaign, and that's why we want to dedicate the hour to it. on friday i sat down with the top democrat in the house, nancy elcome to "meet the press." >> welcome to the capitol. >> thank you for having us here. >> thank you. >> we are in full view of the supreme court, which has spoken on health care. is the fight over? >> as far as we're concerned, the victory is there for the american people. if you're a

let's turn to eugene robinson. pulitzer prize winning columnist for the washington post. great to have you with us. you have done some great work about this, wrote about it today. is this what climate change looks like? >> this is absolutely what climate change looks like. welcome to the rest of our lives. this is what it's going to be like. one of the predictions of the scientists and their predictions, by the way, across the board have been conservative today rather than outlandish. one of the predictions is not only does it get warmer but we see more extreme weather events. let me tellio, what happened here friday was an extreme weather event the likes of which washington has never seen. it has never seen this kind of storms with hurricane force winds. it was just amazing, and we're going to see more of it. we're absolutely going to see more of it. >> a new poll from the washington post shows most people don't think climate change is the top environmental problem. 29% say it's water and air pollution. have americans lost focus? that same poll shows 78% believe global w

. >> tonight, eugene robinson on the new evidence against mitt romney. and former rnc chair michael steele on how the republicans are reacting to this mess. >>> the face of the worst congress in history is in some big trouble. eric cantor is facing a serious challenge for his house seat. >> actress madeleine stowe supports his challenger and she's here tonight. >> and another one of the greatest lies ever told. >> increasing the cost of health insurance for the american people and making it harder for small businesses to hair new workers. >> tonight, two small business owners are here to tell us why obama care is already helping their bottom line. >> good to have you with us. thanks for watching. mitt romney's bain problem is officially too big for him to ignore. the candidate made the rounds on five television networks to explain why he was listed as ceo, president, chairman, and sole share holder of bain capital for three years after he said he left. romney stuck to his guns in an interview with nb krc's peter alexander. >> in february of 1999, i left

"the washington post's" eugene robinson, "the national review" rich lowry and nbc's chuck todd [ female goodnight gluttony, a farewell long awaited. goodnight, stuffy. goodnight, outdated. goodnight old luxury and all of your wares. goodnight bygones everywhere. [ engine turns over ] good morning, illumination. good morning, innovation. good morning unequaled inspiration. [ male announcer ] the audi a8, chosen by car & driver as the best luxury sedan in a recent comparison test. chosen by car & driver as the best luxury sedan recently, students from 31 countries took part in a science test. the top academic performers surprised some people. so did the country that came in 17th place. let's raise the bar and elevate our academic standards. let's do what's best for our students-by investing in our teachers. let's solve this. [ scott ] i grew up playing with little toy trains and now i build them. i'm a bigger is better kind of guy. i absolutely love building locomotives. i knew i wanted to design locomotives from when i was very young. [ jahmil ] from the outside it looks like such a simp

eugene robinson and julian epste epstein. eugene, you have to give credit to mr. romney for delivering a performance of row pa dope. he's taken an issue of hiding his offshore investment, but instead of addressing those questions. he speaks contemptuously of liberals. >> the romney folks figure that's the best card they have to play. that he's not, his name is not barack obama and he hasn't been president for the last several years and he's a business guy. but he doesn't want to talk too much about what he did as a business guy because that won't be terribly popular. he certainly doesn't want to talk about his personal finances, so point the finger at the liberals and try to turn this outsourcing thing back on president obama, which is really bizarre even for the romney campaign. >> it is bizarre. david, i want if i may, to play you a rare moment of honesty from mitt romney during a cnn debate in january. take a listen to this, david. >> why not should the people of south carolina before this election see last year's return? >> because i want to make sure that i b

eugene robinson and mother jones magazine's david corn is also an msnbc political analyst and author. it tells me it's not an ad that requires the president at the end saying i'm barack obama and i approve this message. very, very successful and yet the president maintains some distance from it. >> right. the president gets to have clean hands in this while allies go after mitt romney on what he portrays as his strength. his record in business, in success. he says that qualifies me to be president. and the president's side is arguing, wait a minute. let's look at what he did in business and look and see if this is the kind of experience we want in a president of the united states. >> it reminds me of governor romney's handling of his religion. it's a situation he's loathed to discuss. he'll talk about his record at creating jobs, maybe a reference to staples or some other business, but you just don't hear him address the nitty-gritty of bain. is it because he has no message that he can sell in that regard? i mean, what's holding him back? >> i think because the nitty-gritty is kind of

and eugene robinson an msnbc political analyst. kellen, let me start with you. the romney campaign put out a statement today about your reporting. they said quote, this is not accurate. governor romney left bain capital in february of 1999 to run the olympics and had no input on investments or management of companies after that point. what's your response to that statement? >> well, they're sticking to their party line that they've gone with all along now. so far they haven't disputed the factual information in the article. that's important to note. the documents say what they say and the romney campaign isn't disputing that. what they're disputing is the conclusions drawn by some folks in our article which suggests that, you know, it's hard to believe for many folks that romney held these titles. as you noted, continued to draw a paycheck as an executive. remained the sole owner of bain capital. and planned to return after running the olympics. yet he says he played no role in their investments during that period. that's what the folks seem to take issue with.

eugene robinson, where am i wrong in all of this? >> you're right, michael. look, why -- why do we have prisons? we have -- we have prisons and prison sentences to punish people for the crimes they committed. and so if you committed a felony, you should go to jail. and you should -- you should pay your debt to society. once you paid that debt, it's paid. and i do not believe and will never believe that you should give up your citizenship and your rights as a citizen because of a crime that you've already paid your debt to society for. i think that's wrong. >> eugene, i have said that -- i don't believe in coincidence. where have you almost three dozen states, quote, unquote, tightening their voter i.d. standards at a time the nation is looking at the potential re-election of the first african-american president, you know, you start to think that -- what's going on out there? is this all connected is what i want to ask you. >> i absolutely believe it's all connected i mean, you certainly heard what the -- >> >> mr. curry -- i'm sorry. mr. turzai. >> yeah. mr.

eugene robinson, great to have you on as always. keep it up. up next, the first couple on the kiss cam. we're going to lighten things up. why it took them two efforts to get this right here. romeo. there he is. thanks. this is "hardball." stay with us. the place for politics. ♪ hello...rings ♪ what the... what the... what the... ♪ are you seein' this? ♪ ♪ uh-huh... uh-huh... uh-huh... ♪ ♪ it kinda makes me miss the days when we ♪ ♪ used to rock the microphone ♪ back when our credit score couldn't get us a micro-loan ♪ ♪ so light it up! ♪ even better than we did before ♪ ♪ yeah prep yourself america we're back for more ♪ ♪ our look is slacker chic and our sound is hardcore ♪ ♪ and we're here to drop a rhyme about free-credit-score ♪ ♪ i'm singing free-credit-score-dot-com ♪ ♪ dot-com narrator: offer applies with enrollment in freecreditscore.com. >>> obama is now attacking romney's record. it's like he is hell bent on making the word bain synonymous with the a source of harm or ruin. >> i had no role whatsoever in the management of bain capital

>> mayor michael nutter, jonathan alter, eugene robinson, thank you for joining me. >>> coming up, theof "the dark knight rises" wayi weighing in on his thoughts on the senseless killing. back with much more. i brought your stuff. you don't have to do this. yes i do. in on his thoughts on the senseless killing. back with much more. i want you to keep this. it'd be weird. take care. you too. [ sighs ] so how did it go? he's upset. [ male announcer ] spend less time at gas stations. with best in class fuel economy. it's our most innovative altima ever. ♪ woman: what do you mean, homeowners insurance doesn't cover floods? [ heart rate increases ] man: a few inches of water caused all this? [ heart rate increases ] woman #2: but i don't even live near the water. what you don't know about flood insurance may shock you -- including the fact that a preferred risk policy starts as low as $129 a year. for an agent, call the number that appears on your screen. >>> up next, in light of what happened, are parents uncomfortable taking their kids to see this movie so soon after what happened? we're

and there's a column from eugene robinson in the "washington post" focusing on the horrendous stormskend. he's looking at the hot temperatures and thunderstorms and basically saying we're seeing maybe a pattern here and what he writes is this is a point in the column where i'm obliged to insert that no heat wave, no hurricane, no outbreak of tornadoes can be definitively be blamed on climate change. any cluster of data points can be mere noise. the problem for those who dismiss climate change is a figment of scientists' imagination or a plot to take away our god-given suvs are that the data are beginning to add up. and what he's talking about here is we're coming out of what i guess was the fourth warmest winter, the warmest spring, global temperatures, i think, nine of the ten hottest years on record have come since 2000. he's saying on top of all that when you start having freakish weather events, that's what's predicted when people say it's global climate change. >> and not just that, but the hyperprevalence of historic weather events all over the globe. the largest monsoon ever,

joining me now, former pennsylvania governor ed rendell, and eugene robinson, pulitzer prize winninge washington post." as we wait for the president, gene, you have to think of the many difficult things that the president has to do, being the consoler in chief has got to be among the most difficult. >> it has to be. president obama has done it before, you recall in the -- in the wake of the tucson shooting in which congresswoman giffords was so badly injured. the president went out, gave a speech. saw victims. it's something that -- that presidents have to do, and the sort of touchstone i think is -- for me at least, a speech that president reagan gave after the challenger disaster, the brief, televised speech that just sort of hit absolutely the right buttons, and didn't make people feel better, but helped us get through it. and i think that's what a president tries to do in this situation. >> and i'm sure you have been in difficult situations of your own, governor, when someone perhaps had been killed in war or in any tragedy that befell them. and what do you say that when maybe th

eugene robinson, great to have you on as always. keep it up.p next, the first couple on the kiss cam. we're going to lighten things up. why it took them two efforts to get this right here. romeo. there he is. thanks. this is "hardball." stay with us. the place for politics. [ male announcer ] every day, thousands of people are choosing advil®. here's one story. i'm keith baraka and i'm a fire fighter. it's an honor to be a fire fighter. my job involves life or death situations and it's very physically demanding. if i'm sore, i have a headache, i'm not at my best. advil® is my go to. it's my number one pain reliever. advil® just works for me. [ male announcer ] make the switch. take action. take advil®. and if pain keeps you up, sleep better with advil pm®. at liberty mutual, we know how much you count on your car, and how much the people in your life count on you. that's why we offer accident forgiveness, where your price won't increase due to your first accident. we also offer a hassle-free lifetime repair guarantee, where the repairs made on

eugene robinson is a columnist with the "washington post" and nbc's peter alexander joins us from london. peter, first to you. clearly they're trying to get past this and what could be a minor goof in any other context really, really did not rub the right way with the brits. >> i think you're exactly right. as the campaign advisors said to us in advance of this trip, this was an effort for romney to listen and learn and today, again, he's getting an earful from the british press and from officials in this country. another headline remarkably read today mitt, the twit. notices athose are not the headlines the camp was looking for when they arrived in london. romney hopes as he heads to israel tomorrow morning, and we will be on that flight, that that trip as well as tonight's opening ceremony, the festivities here, will really wash away any hard feelings that may exist. to be fair, it does demonstrate how just a small gaffe overseas can really be magnified. when we speak to people, when you hear from boris johnson or david cameron, it looks like a huge thing that's exploded but as you tal

wreer going to talk abo-- we'reo talk about it with chuck todd and "the washington post's" eugene robinsonatching "morning joe," brewed by starbucks. dark roast forest fresh full tank brain freeze cake donettes rolling hot dogs bag of ice anti-freeze wash and dry diesel self-serve fix a flat jumper cables 5% cashback signup for 5% cashback at gas stations through september. it pays to discover. >>> 25 past the hour. a beautiful shot of the white house on this -- is it tuesday morning? >> tuesday morning. >> it's only tuesday. really? okay. we're joined now by pulitzer prize columnist and associate editor of "the washington post" and msnbc political analyst eugene robinson. >> she's complaining it's only tuesday. weren't you away all last week? >> i was. but i've been with you two days. and mike barnicle. you wouldn't believe what he almost had me wearing on the show. >> are you interfering with wardrobe? >> looked good to me. >> he was. >> and host of "the daily rundown," chuck todd. >> they're all very mean, i will tell you. i think my mother tweets. president obama has accused mitt romne

also ahead, eugene robinson, chuck todd and cnbc's david faber. up next the morning papers and the politico playbook. but first bill karins with a check on the weekend forecast. bill? >> thankfully we're not going to deal with thunderstorms like we saw yesterday over the weekend. that complex gave us severe storms interest kentucky to ohio to new york, lot of people cleaning up today from the downed tree limbs. in all almost 300 reports of severe weather and wind damage with those storms. today, we're starting off pretty dry. a lot of clouds around, just some light showers around albany, southern vermont and new hampshire. the morning hours will be dry, but this afternoon once again in this region we will see hit and miss summertime storms. unlike yesterday's storms that were very strong and dangerous, these will be your typical garden variety storms that could produce gusty winds and heavy rain but not ruin say your trees or lawn. as far as the rest of your forecast for the weekend, the east coast, even on saturday, we're going to have a chance o

. >> coming up, we'll talk to the "washington post's" eugene robinson about what he calls mitt romney's palooza. keep it right here on "morning joe." ♪ [ chirping ] ♪ [ chirping ] ♪ [ male announcer ] audi a4 drivers have spoken. [ engine revs ] and they ranked the a4 highest in total quality index in its class. [ chirps ] experience the summer of audi event and get exceptional values on the audi you've always wanted. experience the summer of audi event syou know, i've helped a lot off people save a lot of money. but today...( sfx: loud noise of large metal object hitting the ground) things have been a little strange. (sfx: sound of piano smashing) roadrunner: meep meep. meep meep? (sfx: loud thud sound) what a strange place. geico®. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. ♪ i want to go ♪ i want to win [ breathes deeply ] ♪ this is where the dream begins ♪ ♪ i want to grow ♪ i want to try ♪ i can almost touch the sky [ male announcer ] even the planet has an olympic dream. dow is proud to support that dream by helping provide greener, more sustainable s

former white house press secretary to bill clinton and contributing editor to "vanity fair," eugene robinsonby the way, eugene, if i got a pulitzer, i'd never stop saying it. let's get through the analysis here. it seems fair. it's tough, the advertising, over the top. but it's fair in this sense. romney has bought into the ryan plan. ryan gets lots of kudos for guts, but his plan does do what the president says it would do, right? >> yeah, it does. it would turn medicare into a voucher program. it is fair to say in my view, that it would end medicare as we know it. it would create something else that would be called medicare, but it wouldn't be the program we know. this is pretty much a fundamental question, i think. whether you make medicare into a voucher program or you keep it as an entitlement and i believe the polls show that most people want to keep it the way it is. they don't want it to be -- >> they love it. you and i know people on medicine tear, our parents, aunts and uncles and older brothers, they love it. because for the first time in their life, they get something for the all