mark murray joins us live to break it down for us.g certainly some other numbers we have seen in the past, specifically in 2004. >> right, tamron. peter hart, the democratic half of the polling team point out the similarities we saw in 2004 with george b. bush's numbers and where president obama's are now and virtually identical on economic handling, george b. bush was at 41% in may 2004 and president obama was at 43%, and george w. bush's approval rating was 47% in may 2004 and president obama's overall approval rating is 48%, and george w. bush at this stage was leading john kerry by 3 percentage points, 48 to 45, and in our poll as you just point out you have president obama with a 4-point lead over mitt romney and 47 to 43, and big similarities. i would point out one difference. the 2004 election was always seen as a national security election coming so closely after 9/11, and this has been built up more as an economic election. however, it is still is worth noting that there are those similarities. >> mark, chris was on with andr

senior political editor mark murray joins me.read you point out that mitt romney had pointed out the story line would be a closing gap in fundraising. but this is the hot topic. >> it is the hot topic. i think what mitt romney's campaign can take, find sole as in the fact that they're narrowing poll number in the state like wisconsin. they're strong fundraising number will be stories we'll be about for the next month. they do impact this race. it remains to be seen whether today's story has legs that go all the way to november. certainly it is a story we're following today. >> i mean, it would likely, wouldn't it? have legs just based on the fact that it is a super pac involve in it. and we know the ongoing debate, the heated debate over super pacs. their influence and also the influence of a few very wealthy individuals. it was the story line in the primary. brought up even by newt gingrich. here we are moving into the general election and it would seem if nothing else this would come up when you talk about super pacs and some v

nbc's senior political editor mark murray is here with me now. good morning, rock. did you like my boston accent? >> yes. you are like texas like me. >> we got that out of the way. i feel like there is a big debate over the bain attack. is it working or not working and is this the right time for it? did it complicate what barack obama is trying to do? you made an interesting point off line about the idea that the bain attack is not as far along as people think. >> i don't think we will know for several months whether this is working or not. what is occurring over the past two weeks is a discussion in washington, d.c. and worth noting that the first obama campaign on bain that was unveiled had a buy of less than $100,000. when we are talking about big national buys for the campaigns, we are talking about 8 million or 9 million or $100,000. >> we followed up with the video and yet we had this big discussion over the past two weeks, airing out the narratives. is it fair or not and what were the parameters of mitt romneys of business work at bain. we have been having th

. >> let me bring in nbc news senior editor mark murray and mark crowley. the washington bureau chief. thank you for joining me. let me start off with you, the "time" magazine interview that mr. romney made this claim that he could get opportunity employment rate to 6% or lower. as noted in the "boston globe," it is not a similar time he made a similar claim while in las vegas but this is obviously getting a lot of attention today. >> sure. in large measure this election is all about the unemployment rate. this one number, it is more than that but it is the one we're most focused on. i have to say 6% is kind of a modest ambition for romney. it's not that much lower than we are today. four years ahead. ultimately, it is a little silly to be having this conversation. romney said in his interview with mark halperson, how could i predict it next year. now he's talking about four years out. it's like trying to predict the weather a week in advance. if he is going to make a prediction like, that it is a modest one, it strikes me. >> it is interesting, the globe p

. >> let's bring in our man from washington, our senior political editor mark murray.r. let's start with bain capital's introduction to the general election. you point out in first read that mitt romney still has not seemed to learn how to respond to this issue. what do you mean? >> well, craig, you know, a lot of the attention this week with the first introduction of the bain capital ad by the obama campaign focused on whether it was fair or focused on the fact that president obama continues to raise money from wall street, but mitt romney was asked about this, and it was a little bit uncomfortable. we actually have some sound of him responding to it. and actually let's take a listen. >> there's this fiction that some have that somehow you can be highly successful by stripping assets from enterprise and walking away with lots of money and killing the enterprise. there may be some people who want to do that. i sure don't. >> so, craig, what was interesting there there are examples with what the obama campaign pointed out in their new ad as well as back in the 1994 race

. >> nbc news senior political editor mark murray joins us live from washington. an ad is an attempt to muddy the talk about the bain enterprises that went bellbelly that did the same thing. >> that's right. over the last two weeks we have been debating bain and seen examples of two of the companies, the democrats want to highlight and pad in the early 1990s as well as gts steel. what the romney's campaign doing is talk about the worst examples when private equity didn't work, let's have some examples of when public equity, the stimulus, didn't work, and they're using the solyndra case to say, look, here is an example, president obama overseeing something that didn't work out as well. now i would make the point there is one big difference between private equity and public equity, when companies didn't do well, democrats are pointing out bain and its partners still made a lot of money that it wasn't the case when you have something like the stimulus president obama, democrats weren't making money though those firms like solyndra went belly under. >> web ads for peop

let me bring in senior political editor mark murray. u know, so many people intrigued by the relationship between the former president and president obama and here in that bill clinton classic way just smoothly slipping in what he wants folks to talk about. >> right, tamron. you talked about the context. in the past week mitt romney invoking bill clinton's name saying bill clinton was a guy that supported a lot of things we republicans like and all in an effort to brandish bipartisan credentials and basically say, look, i like bill clinton and i don't like barack obama but i might like bill clinton. as you saw in the remarks there, that is an easy way to swat away the line that mitt romney has been having when bill clinton says i am not supporting mitt romney, i am supporting barack obama. >> the a.p. put out a report, a fact check on mitt romney's speech that he gave regarding the debt and fiscal issues and it says that romney falsely claims that president obama doubled the debt according to the ap he actually increased it by half, 10.6

joe williams, msnbc contributor maria teresa and nbc's senior political editor mark murray. en interesting. we heard him say north carolina, florida, ohio in there. the ad campaign is just those four states. as much as they know they have to put other states in play i think it's interesting how they've in many ways already narrowed it to what they believe are the four must wins. >> right. you end up looking at north carolina. a lot of people believe this might not be a true battleground state. they believe it is t's where they're putting their advertising. you hear mitt romney talk about it. virginia is going to be huge. one thing we didn't mention that we've been talking about, colorado wasn't mentioned as one of the top battleground states. this is the story i think of the spring is we'll find out as it wears on where does colorado fall off? >> the biggest development of the week was the wisconsin poll that showed mitt romney tying with barack obama. >> as soon as the recall is over. >> if that is a battleground state that's a big development. >> maria, not to box you in on

democrats are going to have to rely on a lot more planned parenthood to make up for the gap. >> mark murraythank you very much. we'll see you tomorrow with first read. thanks, mark. with mitt romney securing the republican nomination, the boston globe notes he will not first mormon nominee ever from a major party. the globe says romney has succeeded where other mormon lawmakers have not including orrin hatch and even romney's own father george. statement a new article in politico is getting attention as it highlights romney's mormon faith and resurrects the conversation about an old prophecy once attributed to joseph smith, the founder of mormonism, the so-called white horse prophecy, it is important to note the prophecy was discounted by the mormon church nearly 100 years ago, but according to politico the prophecy predicted a white horse, a metaphor for wealthy mormons would rise up and lead america back to greatness after banks fail and can the constitution is near collapse. politico says romney has mentioned devine influence regarding the constitution several times on the campaign trail

. >> senior political editor mark murray joins me live.logy being questioned. what is the methodology of this particular poll? >> it was important to know it was a callback survey. a normal poll you is get about 1,000 people. you doitd scientifically. you're able to call them on their phone or cell phones and get their results. with this new york times cbs poll was, they actually called back people they had interviewed back in april before president obama's gay marriage announcement. they were able to reach about two-thirds of the folks that they had interviewed back in april and they had a group of 568 registered voters. so they were not able to contact everybody. and that's where some of the people say is one of the shortcomings of a callback survey. you're not dealing with a big pool of registered voters or respondents. >> we know politicians like to say they don't pay attention to the polls. there is clear indication that this particular poll certainly got their attention. what stands out to you and why the methodology doesn't gel? >>

kansas city steel plant. >> mark murray, thank you, sir. can read more analysis on romney's record at bain capital from the first read team on firstread.msnbc.com. thanks again. we will be right back. [ male announcer ] considering all your mouth goes through, do you really think brushing is enough to keep it clean? while brushing misses germs in 75% of your mouth, listerine cleans virtually your entire mouth. so take your oral health to a whole new level. listerine... power to your mouth. of how a shipping giant can befriend a forest may seem like the stuff of fairy tales. but if you take away the faces on the trees... take away the pixie dust. take away the singing animals, and the storybook narrator... [ man ] you're left with more electric trucks. more recycled shipping materials... and a growing number of lower emissions planes... which still makes for a pretty enchanted tale. ♪ la la la [ man ] whoops, forgot one... [ male announcer ] sustainable solutions. fedex. solutions that matter. that's good morning, veggie style. hmmm. for hal

let's bring in nbc news senior political editor mark murray. i put my little quotes up like that because, mark, you know there were dire predictions, many people felt this would certainly hurt the president with independents. there was even speculation that it would hurt him with african-american voters who are a solid supporter of this president. so now we have some numbers to discuss. >> we do, tamron. it comes two weeks after president obama's announcement that he was supporting same-sex marriage. and it does, as our pollsters point out, look to be a political draw. according to the poll, 17% said that president obama's announcement would make them more likely to vote for him. 20% said that the announcement would make them more likely to vote for mitt romney who opposes gay marriage, and then this is probably the big headline here, 62% say that it doesn't make a difference at all, and while i can't give away any other numbers, tamron, it does show you that -- and you have probably seen in other surveys -- the economy matters a whole not more

joining me is the senior political analyst, mark murray. >> good morning, alex. >> both gallup and masony in the lead. what do the polls really tell us at this stage? >> well, alex, overall it tells us it will be a close election. there was another poll that was taken in the past few days by fox that had president obama ahead by a few points. there has been a lot of volatility in the past two weeks. let me just kind of run through all the things that have happened. you had president obama's gay marriage announcement to kickoff his presidential campaign. the osama bin laden anniversary. a lot of stuff that is actually happening. and we are kind of seeing volatility in the polls. i will say we have a brand new nbc wall street journal poll coming out early next week. we should probably get a pretty good indication of where things are with that poll. there are a lot of different polls out there, but our nbc/wall street journal poll is interesting to see where romney and obama are in the survey. >> that said, one part of the mason-dixon poll market is interesting because it is about independe

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mark murray, a lot going on including a little news we were not expecting.ader mitch mcconnell on the ropes? we always hear the talk about house speaker john boehner not being able to handle the staunch conservatives in his party. family the tea party. they are now roing candidates in at least four states are running as tea party outside here's say there is no guarantee they'll back mcconnell in the next leadership election. kelly o'donnell joins me live from washington. we talk a lot about boehner sometimes being in trouble with his caucus and now mitch mcconnell. what's going on there? >> reporter: for those candidates who are in competitive primaries trying to get the republican nomination in some states where there has been an open seat due to a retirement or a really contested race like in missouri, there isn't much upside with siding with mitch mcconnell while you're in campaign mode. what we're hearing is that specially more conservative and tea party back voices are saying they wouldn't necessarily support him as the leader of republicans in the sena

murray and influence. 60s for tomorrow afternoon. we will have a look at the extended forecast coming up. >> i played it cool. >>pam: played it cool? that is how guests described as mark zuckerburg in palo alto. the media tried to grab a glance of zuckerburg as he and his team slipped into and out of the event. during today's stock he made a pitch to local investors about why they should buy facebook stock. >>gabe: the 200 investors and managers were invited to the hotel to hear facebook stitch on why they should purchase facebook stock. chris was an invited investor. >> people try to understand the business model and where they're going in the future. that is a smart thing to be doing. >> leery shared what it was like inside. he said the zuckerburg give a 10 minute speech about the priorities of the company and the mission of the company. >> then it's a question to the next 45 minutes so. there were pretty broad ranging. everything from modernization and how they're thinking about the mobile and the future. mark fog -- mark answer many of those questions. >> he was cool, calm and collected. great body language. he seems a very humble. >> was the audience enthusiasm?

murray: thank you, mr. president. it's very hard to believe that today marks exactly two months since i first came to the floor to advocate passage on the senate's version of the violence against women act. i was very encouraged to see our body finally come together and eventually support this important legislation. the violence against women act has helped provide lifesaving assistance to hundreds of thousands of women and their families, and it certainly was a no-brainer to make sure all women had access to that assistance. however, i was very disappointed to learn that a day after we passed it, the house republicans pulled an immediate u-turn and introduced their version of the bill that would undo the commonsense progress we made. the house republican version of sra*u -- vawa is a giant step backward, dangerous and irresponsible and leaves women across the country more vulnerable to domestic abuse. not only do they remove important protections that would be created by the senate version of the bill, they actually strip existing protections already provided by this important law. in fact, it removed critical protection

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