. >> joe, you mentioned something and joe watkins, i want to bring this to you now.romney not the first presidential candidate to open mouth insert foot while on the trail. we dug up a few others. take a look and listen. >> i took the initiative in creating the internet. >> the fundamentals of our economy are strong. >> those are just two. there are lots more out there. you worked with bush 41 who infamously said, message, i care. all these men lived these gaffes down to some extent, some elected, some were not. how does mitt romney recover from his series of gaffes? >> i think the way you do it is by being steady and not too upset about mistakes made. he has to play offense not defense. as long as you're playing defense, you probably can't win. you have to score points and the way to do that is play offense by sharing your message. no matter what anybody says about words misspoken you have to consider the fact 12 million americans aren't working. you have to speak to them, undecided voters not hard "d" or hard "r"s. >> is mitt romney's campaign designed for those pe

we have reverend joe watkins, carol finney and jackie kucinich joining me.tt romney make a difference in key battleground states like florida? obama campaign co-chair eva longoria joins me to talk about that. marking the one-year anniversary of the military's reversal of the don't ask don't tell policy, we'll explore that in the next hour. and what it means for me. woman 2: i'm tired of the negative ads and political spin. that won't help me decide. man 2: i earned my medicare and social security. and i deserve some answers. anncr: where do the candidates stand on issues that... affect seniors today and in the future? find out with the aarp voters' guide at earnedasay.org and also to build my career. so i'm not about to always let my frequent bladder urges, or the worry my pipes might leak get in the way of my busy lifestyle. that's why i take care, with vesicare. once-daily vesicare can help control your bladder muscle and is proven to treat overactive bladder with symptoms of frequent urges and leaks day and night. if you have certain stomach or glaucoma p

we'll bring in today's political power panel, joe watkins, a romney surrogate and former bush white house aid, karen finney, former dnc director and jackie kucinich, politics reporter for "usa today." paul, i'll start with you. paul ryan said to a gop conference that this will be an up-and-down race. they're going to try to distract us. romney kept pushing this 100% at the event last night that we saw in miami, also trying to make it very personal. i want to remind everybody. take a look. >> my dad was born in mexico of american parents living there. at age 5 or 6 there was revolution and they came back to the united states and my dad had to get help, the financial help. the government helped his family to be able to get back on their feet again. by the warks that's the way america works, we care for people and help lift them up and get them back. we don't have that become a permanent lifestyle. we help people, we get them on their feet. >> joe, a lot of people are analyzing mitt romney as taking a much more moderate tone. how will those on the right who may have liked this hard line that

joining me is jonathan alter, msnbc political analyst and joe watkins, republican strategist and former to president jrn george h.w. bush. jonathan, i'll reach out first because the title of your most recent column, what you call dog whistles in the romney campaign. the secret messages to drum up racial anxiety? >> they're not quite secret. in the moerntd era it goes back to richard nixon when he would talk about law and order, for instance, it would mean he was trying to appeal to the fears of white middle class voters about crime in the united states or about the maybe some of the parts much the civil rights movement they didn't like. and then when with ronald reagan would talk about welfare queen, same thing, a coded racial message. so what are the messages this time? well, the most important one is in the ads that the romney campaign is doing on welfare. these ads are inaccurate but making it sound as if president obama wants to, quote, send them a check, just send them a check. welfare recipients. more than half of all of their ad budget is dwoeevoted to thes ads. now, they toned t

. >> joe watkins, is that possible? can you rock the president?pable of -- >> no. >> no. >> chris, why did you say it was possible? >> i know chris kofinis is actually being honest. president obama is an awesome debater. he's an excellent campaigner. i think that chances of rockinging him of course, that's a steep mountain to climb. think where the opportunity lies is for mitt romney to really get the attention of americans and really kind of bring him back to point. the way ronald reagan did in his debate against jimmy carter. people don't remember all the facts and figures, the recitation of the facts and figures, they remember a significant line or a significant phrase that brings them back to reality. >> senator john mccain is the only man who has debated both of these individuals. he weighed in on the expectations this morning. take a listen. >> serve and provide us -- >> it's not just that they go bankrupt, he doesn't understand -- >> comments that grabbed everybody's attention. because frankly, the candidates are too well prepared. they're

i'm joined right now by former pennsylvania governor ed rendell, an msnbc analyst and joe watkins republicanu hear the vice president in zanesville, ohio. we should explain it's east of columbus, in a rather rural coal mining area there of ohio and remind people as well that the president won the state of ohio back in '08. but he's really ticking off boom, boom, boom, talking about the rising cost of education, talking about medicare, talking about the debt, talking about taxes. i mean, ed, he's just going down the line. >> well, sure. i mean, i think if you talk about facts and lay the truth out, the argument is good for our side. there's no question. the republicans talk about rugs the debt, yet the ryan/romney budget would increase tax cuts, give us $5 trillion of new tax cut cuts which they say they're going to pay for, but they don't exactly say how they're going to pay for. they won't tell the american people how they're going to pay for it. so the arguments when we get to the facts like president clinton did so brilliantly, the arguments are on our side. >> joe, it does seem to come d