mark stein is author of the new best selling book "after armageddon."nderful to see you back here, i appreciate it. there's so many things that annoy me. it's better to be feared than loved. if you ask me, president obama at least in the muslim world wants to be loved not feared. and that has something to do with all the attacks on the american flag. >> and there's a narcissistic parochialism, what he said on new hampshire public radio where he said people will see my face, they'll see my middle name is hussein, they'll see that i went to grade school in jakarta and . they look him and he looks no different from dick cheney or don rumsfeld. dea what part of death to america don't you understand. >> let's go back to cairo and other places. these radical jihadists, so they take our flag down and burn our flag. now, you ask me, somebody should pay for, i don't mean pay in terms of $10 to buy a new flag. i mean pay in terms of military action. why is america doing nothing? hell, obama's not even saying anything. >> no, he's not and this is the most basic co

mark stein is here action author of "after america," it sole so well.e don't have a space program. this is a depressing shot. >> i got a whole section in there in my book on the space program. hard to imagine this country even going to the moon, putting a man on the moon anymore. we don't have -- we have nasa. what were they talking about? nasa television covering this. what's the point of having a nasa television? the head of nasa said in 2010 that the purpose of his agency now was to -- he'd be in charge with reaching out to muslim countries to make them feel good about their scientific achievements. so we can't put a man on the moon, but we can put a diverse outreach at riyadh. that's america. steve said he thought it was really cool that the thing is going to a museum or whatever. it's not cool. >> brian: it's depressing. >> it's tragic. >> brian: let's talk about mitt romney. he made these remarks that we all heard and we're still talking about it. let's listen. >> brian: right now, according to the "wall street journal" poll, he's trailing by five

joining us to explain is the author of "after america get ready for the armageddon" mark stein. re has this apology related to a film and the $70,000 ad campaign gotten us as a country in the last week or so? >> no where. the minister for whatever it is railways in the pakistani government has put $100,000 bounty on the head of a u.s. citizen. this is what happens when you put core principles like freedom of speech up for grabs. by the way, every self-respecting american should be outraged that $70,000 which i know is nothing in the $16 trillion sinkhole of american federal spending but they should be outraged this has been spent on a commercial in which government officials give their opinion of a movie that has nothing to do with the issue at hand. i would like to see people knock a buck of a their taxes next april, i know that is not much with the tax mageddon coming as a form of conscientious objection on public officials doing movie reviews on the public dime. they should do it as a pbs fundraiser. >> do you think it is ridiculous and evident that we lost our superpower are

john heilman, sam stein and mark lebovich join the panel. council speaker christy quinn joins us for a look at the party platform and front and center emphasis on social issues. all that when "now" starts in a mere 180 seconds. ♪ ♪ i can do anything ♪ i can do anything today ♪ i can go anywhere ♪ i can go anywhere today ♪ la la la la la la la [ male announcer ] dow solutions help millions of people by helping to make gluten free bread that doesn't taste gluten free. together, the elements of science and the human element can solve anything. solutionism. the new optimism. idide? and the human element can solve anything. you're not my dad ahh!! hey honey, back feels better, little dancing tonight, you and me? dr. scholl's pro inserts relieve different types of lower body pain by treating at the source so you're a whole new you. go pro with dr. scholl's. stop! stop! stop! come back here! humans -- we are beautifully imperfect creatures living in an imperfect world. that's why liberty mutual insurance has your back with great ideas like our opti

msnbc contributor, sam stein of the "huffington post" and mark leibovich making his debut from "the new york times" magazine. >> warming up. >> how do you give a 48 minute deeply wonky highly technical policy address that also happens to be must-see tv right down to the last second? the answer, america, is bill clinton. the romney campaign believes it will win if they make this campaign about the economy and the former president took that as a challenge. he made a passionate pitch for what president obama has done to save the economy. >> here it is. he inherited a deeply damaged economy. he put a floor under the crash. he began the long, hard road to recovery and laid the foundation for a modern more well-balanced economy that will produce millions of good new jobs, vibrant new businesses and lots of new wealth for innovators. but are we better off than we were when he took office? >> the speech lasted nearly 20 minutes longer than was planned and included so much off script ad libbing that even the teleprompter could not keep up. the former president settled any questions about his sup

mark halperin. national affairs editor for "new york" magazine and local analyst john heilemann and political editor and white house correspondent for "the huffington post," sam stein>> let's get to it, on a scale of 1 to 73, how did the president do, mark? >> i thought it was surprising. he was -- couldn't say he was the best speaker even last night, let alone during the convention. it was a fine speech. i don't think it's going to cost him anything. it was surprising to me that there was nothing new in it in terms of policy and it did very little to position himself to, if he wins, i still think he has a better than 50% chance of winning -- >> especially after this week. >> to help govern the country. i think he will get a better bounce out of this than mitt romney did, but not because of his speech, but because of the other people who spoke. >> john, the guy that history will remember as the great or ra tore of the democratic party won't be bill clinton, because like you said before and others have said, he's not a great orator, he's a great explainer, distills it down, how ironic the great orator of our time, you have to go back to reagan to find anybody better

money to do all that plus he had a message mark perot was actually right on nafta in my opinion anyway i'm not sure yours yeah i think we need more people dr jill stein should be on the debate stage gary johnson i certainly think should be on the debate stage if you aren't enough ballots i think dr jill stein is on thirty eight gary johnson currently on forty eight if you mathematically can get to seventy if you mathematically can win the election if you're in enough states where if you want all those states that you could win the election i think that's the litmus test i think fifteen percent is too high and i think you need to use suggestion i agree with it and i don't want. stan really i understand there's logistical and pragmatic concerns with having this you know debate with hundreds of people in it but there are certainly common sense you know that we can do for that with a strong litmus test like i've set forth but where others have set forth is not my litmus test but the bottom line is i don't think we can have too many voices i don't really understand economics i guess i do many voices in an election that's not a big problem to me at a ballo

back with us, sam stein, kelly o'donnell, joshua green. in new york, markes krauthammer and "the washington post," charles, the patron saint of conservatives, the headline, go large, mitt. listen do this line. makes you think how far ahead romney would be if he were actually running a campaign, but his unwillingness to go big, to go for the larger argument is simply astonishing. and mark, charles goes on to say what many conservatives have said in the past several weeks, he's behind and continues to play small. >> he does and he continues to have days that don't really amount to much. yesterday they had sort of a veterans message and economy message doing events in virginia, but they can't wait for just the tee baits. conservatives want to see not just big events in terms of ideas but big events that grap the nation's attention. romney campaign is frustrated because all he asks about is the process, conservatives are waiting for mitt romney to be big in events and message, big in personality, and it seems like right now the campaign is waiting for him to do

stein. and drum roll, please, willie, in los angeles, msnbc and "time" magazine senior political analyst, now emmy award winner markrin. halperin, are you still -- are you a little sleepy this morning? are you kind of on a high? >> no, i'm all good. no, i'm all good. we've had a good evening. >> it was great. >> look at him. >> he's glowing. >> he's taking the job kind of seriously, isn't he, coming to work in a tux? >> our "game change" boys, john heilemann, mark halperin celebrating a huge win for "game change," the hbo political drama based on their book about the 2008 election. it won four awards, four awards. look what's going on here. best overall mini-series or movie, best writing and directing, lead actress julianne moore who's so awesome, also won for her outstanding performance playing sarah palin. it was a huge night. i, of course, watched none of it. willie, i'm sure you were in bed at 7:30, "way too early." >> i saw some of it. i saw some of their wins. congratulations to mark and john. we're very excited for them. we do, as i pointed out to mark, we're a little worried about john heilemann. where is h