democratic strategist karen finney will tell us if that phrase helps or hurts with voters.s next. >>> and later, how president richard nixon's attempt to deflect attention away from the unwinnable war in vietnam gave us the unwinnable war on drugs. and how this president might rewrite it. that's coming up. [ banker ] mike and brenda found a house that they really wanted. it was in my sister's neighborhood. i told you it was perfect for you guys. literally across the street from her sister. [ banker ] but someone else bought it before they could get their offer together. we really missed a great opportunity -- dodged a bullet there. [ banker ] so we talked to them about the wells fargo priority buyer preapproval. it lets people know that you are a serious buyer because you've been credit-approved. we got everything in order so that we can move on the next place we found. which was clear on the other side of town. [ male announcer ] wells fargo. with you when you're ready to move. [ male announcer ] wells fargo. today is gonna be an important day for us. you ready? we wanna b

democratic strategist karen finney gives us the answer.i worked at the colorado springs mail processing plant for 22 years. we processed on a given day about a million pieces of mail. checks, newspapers, bills. a lot of people get their medications only through the mail. small businesses depend on this processing plant. they want to shut down 3000 post offices, cut 100,000 jobs. they're gonna be putting people out of work everywhere. the american people depend on the postal service. whose non-stop day starts with back pain... and a choice. take advil now and maybe up to four in a day. or choose aleve and two pills for a day free of pain. way to go, coach. ♪ delicious gourmet gravy. and she agrees. with fancy feast gravy lovers, your cat can enjoy the delicious, satisfying taste of gourmet gravy every day. fancy feast. the best ingredient is love. with listerine® whitening plus restoring rinse. it's the only listerine® that gets teeth two shades whiter and makes tooth enamel two times stronger. get dual-action listerine® whitening rinse. bu

karen finney, michael eric dyson, thank you both. >> thank you. >> next, i will take the mormon. why are evangelical christians rallying around mitt romney? we'll ask a baptist pastor that says mormonism is a consult. >> i am talking a thee logical consult. it is a fact it came 1800 jeers after jesus christ and the founding of the church. mormonism has it own human leader, joseph smith. it has its own set of doctrines and own religious book, the book of mormon in addition to the bible and so by that definition it is a they logical consult. [ male announcer ] drinking a smoothie with no vegetable nutrition? ♪ [ gong ] strawberry banana! [ male announcer ] for a smoothie with real fruit plus veggie nutrition new v8 v-fusion smoothie. could've had a v8. >>> in a somewhat surprising move, one senior baptist minister said that given the options, he would now prefer a commander in chief who is a mormon as opposed to a christian. pastor robert jefrs told the associated press today that christians should support mitt romney in spite of his mormon faith. this from the same individual who

joining us is the columnist for the hill, karen finney, and former communications director for the dnc joanne reed, managing editor of the grio.com and contributor and here in new york, jamie floyd and managing editor of the global game world report. the developments over the last 24 hours is george zimmerman is m.i.a. i am sure you had problem clients yourself. how much damage is zimmerman doing to his case by calling someone like sean honnitie and the special prosecutor and setting up his own website as well. >> i think we don't know and won't know until he is in custody and they have a chance to question him and get a sense of his mental state. one of the tlingz that struck me, martin, is this case continued to unfold and clearly we have a situation here where martin doesn't trust the lawyers. et cetera not trusting their advice. >> zimmerman. >> zimmerman, sorry. a apologize. zimmerman, he clearly doesn't trust the lawyers, not even contacting them and obviously that brings into question what is his mental state and out there and missing in action and whatever the police thought th

karen finney and ezra klein, thank you very much both for joining me tonight. >> thank you. >>> comingite," why the pope used his holy thursday homily to criticize a catholic priest who has been criticizing him? we'll see how priest versus priest and priest versus pope arguments have always occurred in the catholic church. they've occurred publicly and why the church is stronger for it. >>> but first, we learn today that that there will be no grand jury convened to investigate the killing of trayvon martin. that means the future of the case is up to the special prosecutor. charles emblow and an attorney for the family will join me. they remind a nation of the benefits of shopping small. on just one day, 100 million of us joined a movement... and main street found its might again. and main street found its fight again. and we, the locals, found delight again. that's the power of all of us. that's the power of all of us. that's the membership effect of american express. [ laughs ] whoo. ♪ oh. nice! great! [ laughs ] a shot like that calls for a postgame celebration. [ male announcer ] sh

it was an overall speech and very well done. >> karen finney, it looks like the romney speech writers simply looked at that cnn poll of all the characteristics where the president has huge leads over romney and decided to write that speech directly to that poll. >> absolutely. i don't remember if you remember this game from a little kid. i know you are but what am i? i mean, they keep taking obamas strengths and trying to say that he didn't just go kick ass and get osama bin laden. more interestingly, in the language that romney has been using for some time now, the other two types of poll numbers, other than likability that are very -- honest and trustworthy and shares my values. in the narrative today that the president talked about, people can see themselves in that story. this is a guy who came from modest means, worked his way up. even as a community organizer, worked to help people who needed jobs and needed to get back on their feet in different ways. again, he's got that connection, shares my values. people think he's honest and trustworthy. there's an abc cbs news poll coming

back with us now is karen finney, and professor michael eric dyson. and i want to bring in the senior political writer for the salon.com. steve, does it really make sense to transpose such a serious matter as bullying, and we know children have actually killed themselves as a result, and transposed that on to an accusation that they throw at the president? >> i would say it isn't surprising at all. you have the clip there of obama this week. as you can see, that was a very benign, subdued, almost lethargic statement hoist part. if you want to see a president who bullied the supreme court, who bullied the federal judiciary, go back and look at fdr in the 1930s when he had his court scheme. the fire side chats. that's a president trying to bully the court. this is par for the course for what the right has done during the obama presidency. they are running against, and they are sort of campaigning against what they want the president to be. they want the president to be a caricature of unhinged left i. and they refuse to grapple with when wla the preside

karen finney and ezra klein, thank you very much both for joining me tonight. >> thank you. >>> comingwrite," why the pope used his holy thursday homily to criticize a catholic priest who has been criticizing him? we'll see how priest versus priest and priest versus pope arguments have always occurred in the catholic church. they've occurred publicly and why the church is stronger for it. >>> but first, we learn today that that there will be no grand jury convened to investigate the killing of trayvon martin. that means the future of the case is up to the special prosecutor. charles emblow and an attorney for the family will join me. [ male announcer ] imagine facing the day with less chronic osteoarthritis pain. imagine living your life with less chronic low back pain. imagine you, with less pain. cymbalta can help. cymbalta is fda-approved to manage chronic musculoskeletal pain. one non-narcotic pill a day, every day, can help reduce this pain. tell your doctor right away if your mood worsens, you have unusual changes in mood or behavior or thoughts of suicide. antidepressants can in

that was another interesting little tidbit he threw in there. >> karen finney and john, thank you bothmuch for joining me tonight. >> thanks. >> coming up, paul ryan and mitt romney may have just committed an election crime in wisconsin, seriously. you have to stay with us. we'll tell you all about it. they may have violated the law there. in the rewrite, mitt romney has a new theory about president obama's religion. he's not pushing the secret muslim idea. now mitt romney is insists that the president may be a secret a atheist. we'll have the latest on trayvon martin's killing. george zimmermann's lawyer is on tv explaining how he can defend a client he still has not met. that's coming up. >>> now, mitt romney is trying to invent a religion problem for president obama by accusing the president of trying to start a new religion. no more of this secret muslim stuff. now the republican strategy is to call the president a secret atheist. that's later in the rewrite. we'll have the latest developments in the killing of trayvon martin. george zimmerman has a new lawyer tonight. he joins us.

joining us at the able karen finney, columnist for the hill. i should -- as full disclosure, i'm on the john vesh board. we were part of the choosing you as the first scholarship recipient. your story is a compelling one. you are a young woman who survived hurricane katrina, but you survived working in fast-food kitchens, talking about your experience in fast-food kitchens versus your specious now? >> my experience in fast-food kitchens pretty much the name. it was fast. we dropped the food and it was there's. really not too much care, like the restaurant. restaurant we break it down, chickens from farmers, we getton all of the parts, and it's not just something coming from in tyson, vacuum sealed in a pack that we dropped in a fryer. it's totally different aspect as to being in the school and really knowing where my produce is coming from, and knowing the parts of the food and what's healthy for me instead of just some numbers that they give me and tell me that's what i'm consuming. >> does it change how you feel about the food? knowing these

. >>> joining us now is karen finney, a columnist for "the hill" and msnbc contributor. it's good to see you. thank you for being here. >> good to see you, too, rachel. >> as somebody who has been a professional in this field, how would you respond to reince priebus' argument about the war on women. he says it's fake, as rid dike cue louse as the republicans waging war on caterpillars. >> they don't believe in science either. we're going into science biological areas? on the one hand, they are not stupid. they know behind the scenes even though they won't admit it publicly, this conversation is hurting them. when you talk to moderate republicans who won't say so publicly, unfortunately, privately they see the same polling numbers that the rest of us do. it's not only like the usa gallup poll that shows president obama with a 19-point lead. it was looking specifically at virginia and how they have increased their popularity in virginia. there is polling that suggests that they are starting to lose men over this issue. the problem is, reince priebus is trying to do, they w

. >> karen finney and richard wolffe on ann romney surprise. >> they are paying a lower tax rate. >> senator sheldon is fighting for fairness before monday's vote. >>> newark mayor plays super hero saving his neighbor from a fire. >>> 100 years after it sank, we're getting the most detailed look at the titanic. tonight, we're taking you to the bottom of the ocean. >>> good to have you with us. thanks for watching. the republicans have found their new rock star and i want ain't mitt romney. >> there's one more person i would like to introduce. this is a hero of mine. i happen to believe that all moms are working moms and if you have five sons, why your work is never over. ann romney. >> she's been pushed to the forefront of the campaign. she's the best thing the campaign has going for them now. she's warm, likable and can speak clearly on the issues. she joined her husband at the nra meeting. earlier, the romney campaign did not miss an opportunity to appeal to women voters. >> this is what i love the most. women are talk about the economy and jobs, and about the legacy of debt that w

. >> joining me now, karen finney, former dnc communications director and msnbc political analyst. rself one lucky president there today. >> it's luck of the irish, lawrence! >> trying to get attention to taxes, which is not america's favorite subject to hear politicians talk about, and there's president bush, reminding everybody where we got in this fiscal trouble, because i started it, with these gigantic tax cuts, especially the tax cuts at the top end, for the very richest taxpayers. helps really underline the point president obama's trying to make today. >> absolutely. anytime president bush is out there, it helps underscore that point. but today he really did tee it up on a silver platter, by even admitting, like, i wish it weren't even named after me. the other thing, when you talk about trickle-down economics, who does that make you think of? the other bush. it sort of makes this point that president obama has made, that time and again, when we've tried it their way, it didn't work. now we've got to try something different. when we tried it bill clinton's way, things worked

karen finney, nail-biter. >> yeah. >> we talk about -- i mean this is something we talked about when we were having meetings to discuss this very show. >> how about that. >> one of the things we talked about a general feeling perhaps on left that mitt romney's weakness as a candidate has given way to malaise and a general sense that the president has this, i don't need to participate, he's going to be fine. >> it's a matter we didn't have a contested primary, right people were think, i'll focus on what's happening in the house or senate races and then i'll focus on the presidential farther down the road. i would say, though, as a practitioner of politics, i'll be most interested to see where the polls are at about the start of the summer, because i do think it's only recently that romney is the presumptive nominee, and i say that with respect to mr. gingrich, but when we really have several weeks and some time of head-to-head and people really have the chance to see the two men on the campaign trail kind of going at it, at each other, on specific issues, specific ideas, then i think

karen finney, there was a "rolling stone" piece out this week."i'm obsessed with latino voters. the white house has clearly been doing some outreach. a fox news poll shows the president 70% of hispanic voters go for him, 14% for romney. >> if you look at the dem graphic changes in a lot of states we're hoping to flip, the latino? >> population is critical to that effort. the shift from the latino population from voting for republicans and democrats actually started around 2005. remember in 2004, there was a huge dem graphicing that bush went after. but it was the nature and the tone and the tenor of the immigration debate. beat had hispanic evangelicals deregistering as republicans, registering as democrats because the nature of the debate got so disgusting. even republicans were speaking out against it. so one of the issues that romney has to balance when he's been very hard line on his rhetoric and you've already heard from the latino community, it echoes a lot of what they were so disgusted about the last time. the challenge obama has though i

let me bring in karen finney, msnbc political analyst and deputy press secretary for the former first kelly wallace, the chief correspondent for ivillage. hello to both of you. i've been clicking on it every morning and i laugh at the same jokes over and over again. and karen, i was devastated this morning. it shows you how small my life is. to hear that the creator of texts from hillary have actually decided to go out on top. they're going to stop it. not to post anything else. but what do you think of this whole mania that's developed over these last couple of days over this? >> you know, i've got to tell you, i love it. as somebody who has known hillary for i hate to admit it, about 20 years or so, because of course i was in kindergarten back then. >> that's right. >> she's always been a really cool, neat woman. i was telling one of your producers before the show started i can remember her getting out there, doing the electric slide during the south african state dinner with bobby brown and whitney houston. so this is -- >> do you have video of that? that would go viral. that would

chris, what did you think of karen finney's comments to start with. >> first i think the right and theceee being on the left, we can't really take at this point any of these comments very seriously, because what i think they honestly are are distractions to the issues, and the real issues that voters are concerned about, particularly women, and i certainly don't speak for all african-americans and i don't speak for all women. i certainly speak for working women who are mothers, who care about the real issues, being the economy, education, healthcare, and language like that, as well as language that is coming from both sides, quite honestly is devisive and it does not serve this process of all of us americans really wanting to learn what mitt romney has to say, and what obama has to say. martha: it definitely distracts from the entire issue, and i agree with you there. when i listen to that, that she thinks that mitt romney wants to take us back to a time when blacks and women couldn't vote, i just think it's so blatant in what it's trying to appeal to, the sort of most basins teupbgts

let's bring in karen finney. eugene robinson with us tonight. howard fineman. great to have all of you with us. karen, you first. the big question as paul ryan got a lot of attention tonight and he's had a lot of attention all week long because he's been connected at the hip with mitt romney all over the state of wisconsin, which romney won tonight. does mitt romney have the guts to pick paul ryan because of this budget plan? it's going to be be what people think will be a rope around their neck. does she the guts to pick this guy? >> i don't think. we're looking at a rob portman. someone with a profile within the republican party. remember with paul ryan, part of the reason to be sort of appeasing him and joined at the hip with him is because with him comes tea party support and he's trying to chip away some of that from rick santorum. maybe paul ryan somewhere in the cabinet. that may be the conversation but i don't think he's going to be the guy down the hall. >> howard, you saw president obama's speech today. is the president already assuming the general ele

jonathan alter, karen finney, and richard wolffe. all three are political analysts. karen, sarah palin on thursday talked about the secret service agent who guarded her. then she work in a dog reference and eventually says the buck stops the w the president. jeff sessions has made a similar comment. i've just heard the local liquor store has run out of myç favore bourbon and they're expecting rain in seattle. should we blame it on the president? >> the president is not responsible for the behavior but he will be held accountable for how the situation is handled going forward. particularly with regard to the secret service matter. obviously, these are not political pointes. these are career people. but at the same time, this is a national embarrassment. it certainly embarrasses, you've heard from people in cartagena that they're embarrassed that this is what they're getting attention for. and real attention from the president. >> the president in colombia said that if it emerged, if the truth eventually proved this had happened, he wo

with us from washington, political analyst former dnc communications director, karen finney. a columnist for the hill. and the white house, you saw him before, karen, jonathan capehart who is not an opinion writer for the "washington post." can i give with the revelation that far from being personally outraged by hillary rosen's poorly chosen comments last week, ann romney actually saw it as a gift. a political opportunity. >> now, martin, you can't blame her for that. i have to say, if i were in the romney campaign, i would have seen it as a gift, too. they were desperate for something. anything. that's how quickly they pounced on this. here they were trying to defend, you know, romney talking 92% and not sure how they feel about women's access to -- i'm just blowing it today. they were desperate. a 19-point spread will do that to you. i can't say that i blame her for seeing that as a gift. sorry. >> karen, you never blow it and you know that. i want to go back to you karen, very quickly. here was this woman who stands up in self-righteous mode and condemns what she hears as