host: let me turn to felicia sonmez of "the washington post". guest: curious on the issue of democrats trying to turn this into a choice election. this was a pretty rocky roll out this week, the argument that democrats have made, when it comes to mitt romney and his tenure at bain capital. some democrats and top members of party have come out and said this is not the direction the campaign should be going in. have you reconsider those attacks at all? guest: not at all. if you look at the feedback through polling that we have now that i can tell you in travelling around the country, plus the added benefit of polling that shows that the president is ahead in key battleground states, there is a reason for that. our methods of making sure that everybody in america has a fair shot at being successful, that everybody should play by the same rules and that we should make sure that we do not focus on people are already doing well, to make sure they can do even better is resonating. that is what president obama is ahead. he did rescue the american automo

. >> felicia sonmez, thank you. >>> we move on to london now, and former prime minister tony blair onnterrupted by a hacker who callcall ed blair a war criminal after being removed from the court. he quickly resumed being grilled about rupert murdoch. stephanie gosk joins us from london to fill us in on this. it's been a heated morning so far, or afternoon, forgive me. >> reporter: it has. nothing compared to that pie-flowing incident with rupert murdoch in parliament last summer, but still a little bit of an interpretation. these hearings were triggered by allegations of phone hacking at the now-defunct "news of the world" newspaper, but their scope is much broader. in their final stages, it hopes to pull back the curtain on the media's influence over the government. tony blair had a close relationship with rupert murdoch while he was prime minister, but was it too close? >> it would be strange, frankly, if senior people in the media didn't have that close interaction. >> reporter: but he acknowledged the the relationship can grow into something he called unhealthy. >> those papers t

host: alexis simendinger, felicia sonmez, thanks for your perspective. enjoy the rest of the holiday weekend. >> join us tonight for david cameron and fielding questions on the help of the purchase economy and unemployment last week in the british house of commons. prime minister's questions, tonight at 9:00 eastern on c- span. rolling thunder held its annual memorial day rally on the national mall. the group has a mission to bring awareness to pow and mia issues and to advocate government policy for service members of all wars. this year, the group celebrates his 25th anniversary. if here is a look of some of its members as it rode across the arlington memorial bridge connecting downtown washington d.c. and moral avenue and arlington, with virginia, which leads to arlington national cemetery. [horns honking] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> what i want people to get from the book is a better understanding of who she was. there have been a lot of books written, most of it

. >>> i'm joined now by perry bacon, jr., as well as felicia sonmez.he country. it shows that 34 states have unemployment rates below the national average of 8.1%. 15 states and washington have rates above the national average. and one state, washington, which matches the national rate. what kind of an impact might these numbers have on the jean election especially with so much focus on the economy and jobs? >> this could be really big. look at a state like ohio where the unemployment rate is lower than the national average. that's a state mitt romney has to win basically to win the election. and mitt romney says the economy is really bad, look at what president obama's done. but then john kasich, the republican governor of that state, is talking about how the economy is improving there. it's going to hurt romney's message when governors say, the economy is recovering here, like president obama is saying. >> how about this, felicia? take a look at the key battleground states. we have new mexico, colorado, ohio, virginia, they all have the unemployment

. >> perry bacon and always a pleasure to have felicia sonmez, thank you both. >> for the latest politicalead, updated daily, sometimes hourly. be sure to check back often. >>> strange jury behavior in the john edwards case, even apparent courtroom flirtation? that tops the news from the trial. deliberations resume on tuesday but there's a new report out that says an alternate juror has been flirting with the defendant. john edwards himself, and that edwards has been responding in some fashion. joining me now live, criminal and civil attorney raul reyes, defense attorney, former prosecutor, karen de soto. thank you both for coming in on this saturday. we thought this was something that was terribly uncommon. and apparently it's not? >> no. when you're trying a case, understand the amount of stress. this is a criminal case. you're in close quarters for a very long time. i've had witnesses flirt with me. i've had juries smile at me. it is not that uncommon. so i know -- it sounds like a big to do about nothing. and it's also an alternate jury. i can tell you for sure that i have never had a

. >> felicia sonmez, thank you. >>> we move on to london now, and former prime minister tony blair onair a war criminal after being removed from the court. he quickly resumed being grilled about rupert murdoch. stephanie gosk joins us from london to fill us in on this. it's been a heated morning so far, or afternoon, forgive me. >> reporter: it has. nothing compared to that pie-flowing incident with rupert murdoch in parliament last summer, but still a little bit of an interpretation. these hearings were triggered by allegations of phone hacking at the now-defunct "news of the world" newspaper, but their scope is much broader. in their final stages, it hopes to pull back the curtain on the media's influence over the government. tony blair had a close relationship with rupert murdoch while he was prime minister, but was it too close? >> it would be strange, frankly, if senior people in the media didn't have that close interaction. >> reporter: but he acknowledged the the relationship can grow into something he called unhealthy. >> those papers that take a particular view on a policy, a