tonight we have the etch-a-sketch to the inspiring gaffing of by mitt romney and his campaign staff. >> i tell you what $10,000 bet? >> i like being able to fire people. >> have a mustang and a chevy pickup truck. ann drives a couple of cadillacs, actually. >> we can add the segment with seamus on the roof. an adviser to romney decided to compare the campaign to a children's toy. >> i think he hit a reset problem for the fall campaign. it's almost like an etch-a-sketch. you can shake it up and we start all over again. >> with an etch-a-sketch like that, romney's opponents pounced pounced. >> imagine, at a time we're addressing our constitution. just shake it and rewrite it. >> now this is a spare etch-a-sketch, so i'm going to give it to you guys to play with, all right? do you want it? she's ready. [applause] she could now be president. >> nolet bring in michael musto. thank you for coming michael. >> hi, keith. >> is the etch-a-sketch the best toy to compare the romney campaign? >> no, a yo-yo, but least aio quoayo-yo comes back up, but it comes back up. >> romney is a conservative

. >> president obama trying to play down his mike gaf. president's rival says it's a big mistake and a revealing one. dieter doocy is live with the washington bureau. >> president obama tried to make a joke out of his open mic moment. he walked out in front of a huge group of international media and asked if the microphones were turned on. in case you missed it this is what he is trying to avoid. >> that heard around the world given the high stakes involved with nuclear security he felt like he needed to explain himself without a punch line. it wasn't good enough for the top republicans trying to take his job. here are both sides. >> arms control is a complex very technical. the only way it gets done is if you gcan consult and build a strong basis of understanding both between countries as well as within countries. >> to say i can't talk about this right now but i have more flexibility after i am elected suggests he has a different agenda he is going to pursue once the american people aren't watching. i thought it was the wrong course i t

there are a habit of gafs on the trail, and the candidates have been running neck and neck in all these primary contests, and neck and neck in moments that just make you go huh? >> happy birthday. should we sing that? ♪ happy birthday to you >> what's your name? it's cathy. ♪ happy birthday to you loirnz happy birthday to you happy birthday dear cathy ♪ >> i don't care what the unemployment rate is going to be. it doesn't matter to me. my campaign doesn't hinge on unemployment rates and growth rates. >> it's time now for our political power panel with doug thornell, a former spokesman for the democratic congressional campaign committee, trey, former press secretary to congressman tom davis, and msnbc political analyst richard wolf. gentlemen, it's great to have you here. doug, i want to start with you because you wrote a blog on the gaffs of the trail titled "dumb and dumber." who do you think has been the biggest gaffer in chief as we've been watching this go down? >> i think this has been the best thing for late night tv since sarah palin. it's been one gaff after another, between mit

when we talk about this, karen, is this a gaf fe or did he really think talk about it this way but he handed it over to him. >> it is a big you know what. it is a huge mistake. it plays into the narrative they have been trying to counter the whole time, perhaps if there were conversations, you know, around the campaign headquarters. we used to say use your inside voice, not your outside voice. you almost wonder did he realize he was saying that out loud on camera because it was such a major screw up. >> and so it is so easy use the word etch-a-sketch and we have teen two so far today and probably a run on them at toys "r" us but in reality will we see the issue of mitt romney changing stances once we hit general on important issues. for instance, women. 70 million women out there that will be voting, we guess, that have been watching some key issues like planned parent hood out there and why do we see him make a change here? >> i would say we have already seen it. if mitt romney has a middle name, it is ex paiden sigh. if you watch what he did as governor of massachusetts, if you watc

. >>> well, without a doubt mitt romney has goofed, gaffed, and desperately tried to recover.e in point. >> it also means that if you don't like what they do, you can fire them. i like being able to fire people that provide services to me. i drive a mustang and chevy pickup truck. ann drives a couple cadillacs. i'm in this case because i'm concerned about americans. i'm not concerned about the very poor because we have a safety net there. scott is a veteran reporter for "the boston globe." he's covered romney for years and we're going to talk about your new book, but before we get to that, let me ask you, are you surprised by so many gaffes, gaffes that are considered totally out of touch with americans? >> yes and no. i mean, as it's been an extraordinary run, you played three of them. you can probably play a dozenore so more. they're not just gaffes, they're telling gaffes in the sense they connect to one of the central narratives against him, which is that he's this very wealthy businessman who doesn't understand the 99%. so it's not just that they're mistakes, but they're