joe klein is "time" magazine's columnist and joins me now. it's such an important demographic, and it seems inexplicable that the republican party is ignoring this in this primary. >> well, yeah. i mean, you saw with george w. bush, and especially with karl rove, his master strategist, that they were embarked on a long-term strategy to move latinos into the republican party. because, you know, a lot of latinos are strong family people, business people, small business people, and so on. and this year, you have the exact opposite going on. and i think that it's going to really hurt the republicans in the fall. >> how is the obama team, the chicago team, trying to take advantage of this? >> well, one thing you'll notice, and it's kind of interesting, is that obama has been very successful at limiting the number of illegals coming across the border. in part because he really has amped up, you know, security at the border. and the other part is that our economy is pretty terrible right now, and you don't have as great a lure to immigrants coming a

joining me now are joe klein, a columnist for time magazine, and e.j.deon, a senior fellow at the brookingsjoe, the cover of your magazine this week, it's the first headline you've ever had in spanish, yo decido, i decide. it says why latinos will pick the next president. there was a time when they thought candidates should be going after the latino vote. what happened to that idea? >> the thing is, you play to what you've got, and what the republicans have are an awful lot of scared white people in their party, and one of the things they're most scared about is people of different colors and ethnicities and, you know, backgrounds polluting their white picket fence sense of america. carl ro-- these were religious conservative catholics and a lot of strong businessmen and strong family people. it would make sense except they're doing the best they can to offend latinos and women, and pick your category. >> e.j., texas politicians, republican texans, seem to get this. george w. bush understood it, tried to go for immigration reform. rick perry got booed by trying to tell republicans to maybe

. >> joe klein, you've been covering politics since i've been interested in it. look at this.ere's a guy who has been running for president since he was born and he talks like this. in the state he claims to be born in. he was born, we think he was born here. i was born and raised here. i love this state. even though he left it rather early. it seems right here. the trees are the right height. i am waiting from the start to talk about precious bodily fluids here. what is he talking about. the trees are the right height? >> it's not -- >> help me. >> it's hard to be convincing about a state, about your home state when you have five of them. i mean, you know, he was talking -- he's not good at geography, romney. >> what about the trees? >> he called corn the amber wave of grain. it's part of his -- the big problem he has right now is that he just seems wall to wall phony. every time he opens his mouth. and there's no way of getting around it. and you know the interesting thing, i was thinking about this, chris, is that the one way he could go after santorum now would be to run t

we begin our coverage tonight right now with "time" magazine's joe klein and howard fineman, also an msnbc political analyst. i want to start with you, joe. tonight, this thing about mitt romney. i want your general stance. i don't think he's a good politician. i don't think he has the human touch or bedside manner. he's not what we think of as a good politician. that's his problem. >> that's true. and today was an incredibly significant day in the history of mitt romney. he finally admitted that there was something that he wouldn't do to get this nomination. >> what's that? >> he would not set his hair on fire. you know, as much as i'd like to see romney set his hair set on fire, the fact is that throughout this process, he has sold his soul to the devil time and time and time again. and finally today, he said that he wouldn't criticize the president in the outlandish way that santorum and newt and others have been doing. >> let's show thatright now. here's mitt romney saying what he won't do. we're finally hearing what he won't do. what he's not even willing to do. let's watch it. >

thank you, howard fineman and joe klein. >>> up next, more evidence to the awkward coming up.ck around for the sideshow. you're watching "hardball" on msnbc. [ male announcer ] if you believe the mayan calendar, on december 21st, polar shifts will reverse the earth's gravitational pull and hurtle us all into space, which would render retirement planning unnecessary. but say the sun rises on december 22nd and you still need to retire, td ameritrade's investment consultants can help you build a plan that fits your life. we'll even throw in up to $600 when you open a new account or roll over an old 401(k). so who's in control now, mayans? when you open a new account or roll over an old 401(k). in the works package, we change the oil we change the filter... tire rotation, suspension, we make suspension checks... what we have here is the multi-point inspection. every time a vehicle comes into a ford dealership you'll be presented with one of these. we check the belts, hoses... brakes. tires and the pressures... battery, all your fluids... exhaust system, transmission... we inspect

but actually joe klein has a column this week showing that americans are not as resolved about this aspeople in america. >> on abortion. but not on contraception. >> no. on contraception, i mean, you know, whatever the -- justice brandox's line about the great civilized right of mankind is their right to be left alone. women want to be left alone on this subject and make their own choices and the fact that it's coming back into the public debate is not something that's -- >> quite frankly women have to carry the load on it. we'd rather be left alone carrying the load. >> exactly. >> seriously don't get in our way since you don't do anything about it anyway all men in hearing. >> mika, if we had 51% of women in congress do you think we'd be debating access to contraception? >> no. >> no we wouldn't. we'd be debating the economy, talking about jobs and how do we get manufacturing in this country again. >> yes. >> how do we make sure we unleash our entrepreneurial potential. that's what we'd be talking about. >> rick, you're talking about latino voters. >> yes. >> which again, like many a

joe." that was the winner in nevada over the weekend. mark haleprin and reverend al sharpton are still with us, and joining us now from washington, columnist for the "washington post" and msnbc contributor ezra kleind me. good to have you on board. >> we have a lot to talk about. >> we are. right into politics. >> we've been pretty rough on romney for the last couple of weeks. >> yes. >> and so the first hour, he wins nevada with 3% reporting -- >> yeah. >> and we show clips of newt for 15 minutes. >> it's my fought. they were delicious. they were so -- >> romney's doing a pretty good job. >> he is. >> he's winning. >> his campaign is. >> he's winning despite sticking his foot in his mouth over and over and over and over again. >> that's true. i'm not sure that's what a sign of. >> mark haleprin, what's that a sign of? he's running against a weak field? >> yeah. >> what's the field? >> you've been following presidential campaigns for a very long time. it's hard to tell how good they are because joe frazier is fighting allen from the princeton boxing club. rate how good -- you like that, willie? like that analogy? so you can't tell how good frazier is because the princeton boxing club, allen comes