news jeff greenfield. >> great to have you here.ent was making fun, mocking the romney campaign for not being specific last night. how specific was the president? >> vaguely, specifically vague. >> specifically vague into it's a new term i coined after watching the acceptance speeches. in looking at this the one thing that kept occurring to me, we talked about this year, instant theater criticism speeches, the people who worked on the speech, the campaign, they know what's in the speech. they're not going to accept in spin doctrine, claim this is a blueprint. the question is why this speech with this tone? why the nonsoaring rhetoric. the answer is two things, tactically i think they're ahead and don't want to mess things up. the other reason, who is this guy now, he's the president. the biggest applause line was i'm the president which should not have come as a revelation to anybody. but the point is i've been here, scarred, stumbled a few times, and i know the world. that's why i thought it was interesting his biggest jab at romne

some things don't -- >> jeff greenfield, you have too much fun. still love your book about "the people's choice." make it an ebook. publishers out there, find this man, make it an ebook. >> a movie! >> we'll see. 269-269 we'll get it. >>> up next, the war of words over what really happened at the consulate in libya. wait until you see how partisan the exchanges got yesterday on capitol hill. >>> plus our nbc battleground map turned a little bluer today. our friday political panel will be here to talk about that as well. >>> this weekend nbc news is kicking off the third annual now -- there is great, we've done this three years in a row -- education nation summit in new york. all of the networks at nbc will have coverage on air and online all next week. we'll vihave interviews with bo president obama and mitt romney. "the daily rundown" will be live at the summit on tuesday. >>> but now, the friday soup of the day. they usually try to skip meat. so today it is roasted vegetable. with the spark cash card from capital one, olaf's pizza palace gets th

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when we come back, eugene robinson, also jeff greenfield at the table.s a mother, a writer and a performer. i'm also a survivor of ovarian and uterine cancers. i even wrote a play about that. my symptoms were a pain in my abdomen and periods that were heavier and longer than usual for me. if you have symptoms that last two weeks or longer, be brave, go to the doctor. ovarian and uterine cancers are gynecologic cancers. symptoms are not the same for everyone. i got sick...and then i got better. but with advair, i'm breathing better. so now i can be in the scene. advair is clinically proven to help significantly improve lung function. unlike most copd medications, advair contains both an anti-inflammatory and a long-acting bronchodilator working together to help improve your lung function all day. advair won't replace fast-acting inhalers for sudden symptoms and should not be used more than twice a day. people with copd taking advair may have a higher chance of pneumonia. advair may increase your risk of osteoporosis and some eye problems. tell your doctor

as we said before hand, as jeff greenfield said before on the set, they weren't swinging for the fences. michelle obama, bill clinton set this president up well. they believe they were going to believe mitt romney this fall, so they decided they didn't have to take a lot of chances. the president didn't take a lot of chances but he did what he needed to do. if this is going to be an election, much like 2004, where you had a president below 50%, george w. bush and they inspired their base. i think if you just look at it through that lens, the president did exactly what he needed to do last night. >> you obviously were in charlotte all week, tampa the week before. pound for pound, speech for speech, make a call, who had the better convention and who the most riding on it? >> good lord, pound for pound, round for round, this wasn't aly versus frasier it was muhammed ali versus wepner. you could tell from the first night when michelle obama came up there and gave a remarkable speech, one of the best speeches i've heard from a first lady that this was going to be a convention that was focuse

. >> feeds into what jeff greenfield called the thurston howell iii candidate, david brooks is talking about it this morning. 47% of these, quote, victims that mitt romney talked about, were not going to vote for mitt romney anyway, but jeb bush and george w. bush, when they campaigned, they would always start their campaigns in inner cities. they would always go talk to the truly disadvantaged, not because they believed they would get those votes but because they believed they would get swing voters, white suburban moms in philadelphia, i-4 corridor, swing districts that may look at republicans as being too harsh and too uncaring. maybe republicans are the candidates that are going to take care of their tax dollars better, going to run government more wisely, but the hard edge scared them. george w. bush, karl rove, jeb bush, they figured that out. this is dangerous, not because he's going to lose that 47% of the vote but because you're going to start seeing suburban voters, swing voters, storm away from the campaign as quickly as possible unless he fixes it. >> you mentioned some of

. >> feeds into what jeff greenfield called the thurston howell iii candidate, david brooks is talking about it this morning. 47% of these, quote, victims that mitt romney talked about, were not going to vote for mitt romney anyway, but jeb bush and george w. bush, when they campaigned, they would always start their campaigns in inner cities. they would always go talk to the truly disadvantaged, not because they believed they would get those votes but because they believed they would get swing voters, white suburban moms in philadelphia, i-4 corridor, swing districts that may look at republicans as being too harsh and too uncaring. maybe republicans are the candidates that are going to take care of their tax dollars better, going to run government more wisely, but the hard edge scared them. george w. bush, karl rove, jeb bush, they figured that out. this is dangerous, not because he's going to lose that 47% of the vote but because you're going to start seeing suburban voters, swing voters, storm away from the campaign as quickly as possible unless he fixes it. >> you mentioned some of

jeff greenfield has a fascinating new book asking just that question. he will join me.political news as it happens. 2:00 to 5:00 eastern right here on msnbc. thomas? >> craig, we'll see you then. thanks so much. >>> and we can all agree it's been quite a rough week for mitt romney. but can he rebound in upcoming debates? he's been prepping like nobody's business. the big three is going to talk about that next. and believe it or not, homer simpson. if you care he's already voted. but he almost didn't get to. >> if you're going to vote we'll need some voter i.d. >> but i've lived here all my life. >> stopping all americans from voting is for the protection of all americans. >> but i'm a 40-year-old white guy who didn't go to college and gets all his news from monitors at gas stations. >> in you go. >> all right. so who did homer vote for? that's coming up next on "weekends with alex witt." my name is adam frucci and i'm the editor of splitsider.com. i love new technology, so when i heard that american express and twitter were teaming up, i was pretty interested. turns out

and we'll talk to jeff greenfield when he comes on. he'll say the same thing. upside down on handling of the economy, if only 32% of americans say you're going in the right direction, americans do not have confidence in these economic policies. >> he's riegd the crest of his popularity comparatively against mitt romney's the wall street journal pointed out mitt romney and ryan did not lay out what the specifics were. i would ask you and chuck schumer what does he have to say to americans about what he's going to do in the future. what are the specific economic policies? michelle obama is going to be a super home run, whatever it is, a grand slam. but they do have to give a speech that goes beyond rhetoric and the president has to tell people where are we going forward. that's the gap. >> you be and the president will focus on the middle class like a laser. he will talk about investments. not just cut everything. there are some things that have to be cut. we have to reform medicare. we can argue about how to do it. but he's going to talk about education and how

right back with jeff greenfield on "the stephanie miller show." >> highbrow, lowbrow unibrow., not vice versa. 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. ♪ ♪ health matters to all of us. that's why lysol has started a mission for health. with new mom programs, lysol healthy habits initiatives in schools and disaster relief efforts. when you use lysol at home, you'll know you're a part of something bigger. for healthy tips and more, visit lysol.com/missionforhealth. it starts at $59 for the entire year for back up. put in code stephanie for your subscription. 18 minutes after the hour. what the current audience can expect from my show is the unexpected. >>stephanie miller challenges the system, now it's your turn. >>it's a li