and from here, michael smerconish, of michael smerconish. and from here, great comments from both you've. that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. "the ed show" with ed schultz starts right now. >>> good evening, americans. welcome to "the ed show" tonight from new york. 45 days after the killing of

and from here, michael smerconish, of michael smerconish. from both you've. that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. "the ed show" with ed

i'm michael smerconish in new york sitting in for chris matthews. what do women want? not mitt romney, at least according to the gender gap seen in many polls, and things only seemed to get worse yesterday as the romney campaign stumbled on the subject of equal pay. then just as the democrats were ready to celebrate a successful day, one of their own stepped on their message with an ill-conceived shot at anne romney. anne romney fired back today and now president obama has weighed in. also an agreement between the obama campaign and the republican candidate. the right wants him to say he meant those quotes he said during the campaign and democrats won't let the swing voters forget it. >>> plus, the trayvon martin case. we got our first glimpse of george zimmerman when he appeared in court today. harvard law professor george dershowitz joins us to break down the case. >>> about 80 democrats in the house are communists. communists! spe the spent the 1950s in the fever swamps of mccarthyism. do they really want to go there tonight? and let me point out why we may be in ev

. >> joining me now, the nationally syndicated talk show host and contributor michael smerconish, the columnist for the hill, good to see you both. let me start with you, michael. i know people are supposed to at least pretend to be modest when their name floats about. you don't want to say, yes, i should would love for him to give me a call. the way these gentlemen wiggled out of the answer, what do you make of it? when they say i would tell him to call the other guy. >> it reminds me of prom season. i think they're all interested but they don't want to expose themselves in a way they're left hanging and therefore embarrassed. with the exception of jeb bush, i think each would be thrilled to take on that responsibility. >> do you believe it is like prom season? where you really want the cute guy to ask you out or whatever but you're pretending you don't? or the cute girl. whatever your thing is. >> i think that it kills your chances to get out there and try to soak up the spotlight. you need to be modest and say there are other more qualified people. we all should respect this proces

good evening, i'm michael smerconish in new york for chris matthews. leading off tonight, what dowomen want? not mitt romney according to the gender gap in many holes, and things got worst yesterday as they stumbled on the the subject of equal pay, as the democrats were ready to celebrate a successful day, one of their own temperatures on their comments. also, a rare point of agreement between conservative republicans and the obama campaign. neither intends to let mitt romney tack back to the center. the right wants him to prove that he meant all of those severely conservative things he said in the campaign, and swing voters won't let him forget it. and the trayvon martin case, we got our first glimpse of george zimmerman when he was in court today, and calling joe mccarthy, he says about 80 democrats in the house are communists. the republican party spent of the 1950's in the fever swamps of mccarthyism. and are the republican presidential prospects in worst shape four years from now. michael steele, chairman of the republican party, and joan walsh, f

i'll talk with michael smerconish.good sign regarding the investigation of this case. how we process this. >>> plus, serious questions over a report that the u.s. deployed a second aircraft carrier to the persian gulf region amid rising tensions with iran. jim miklaszewski has a report on why this report may not be what it seems. look, every day we're using more and more energy. the world needs more energy. where's it going to come from? ♪ that's why right here, in australia, chevron is building one of the biggest natural gas projects in the world. enough power for a city the size of singapore for 50 years. what's it going to do to the planet? natural gas is the cleanest conventional fuel there is. we've got to be smart about this. it's a smart way to go. ♪ 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

jonathan capehart, and michael smerconish who has a real good here for people out there, a syndicatedbc analyst. in order, michael and then jonathan, we've reached a turnitur turning point where the man is being prosecuted, he has a defense attorney. it looks like it's going to be an interesting case. will the media be able to stand back and preserve the presumption of innocence? we haven't had a national criminal case like this since the o.j. case. but in this case, it's in the environment of this media jukebox of a pinball machine, rather, where the ball bounces around with opinion after opinion after opinion, with some facts along the way. can we cover this case fairly, in the media? >> i would hope so. and i think, you know, quite frankly, i think we've done a pretty good job of just presenting the questions that led to a lot of the protests. how is it possible that a man could shoot an unarmed teenager who just had iced tea and a bag of skittles and not be in jail, to the at least be held accountable in a court of law? and i think you're right. tonight is a pivot point, because e

." >>> good evening, i'm michael smerconish in new york in for chris matthews who is in columbia who will moderate a panel with president obama tomorrow. and tomorrow, lawyers and guns and money, and the nra is winning the battle over guns in country. when is the last time you heard a debate over gun control? the arguments today are over how far and how fast to expand the gun owner rights, and mitt romney towed the line today at the nra calling gun control an assault on freedom. and now the state attorney decided to pursue charges against george zimmerman and now after weeks of publicity, is it fair for george zimmerman to get a fair trial? and habits of insulting stay-at-home moms in election years. and it distracted us from mitt romney's gender problem which will not go away by trying to make the case that it is president obama waging a war against women. the obama campaign is trying to paint romney as rich and out of touch. so today the president and the vice president released their tax returns, daring romney to do the same. and let me fin wish the battle of the 2008 campaign whi

and from here, michael smerconish, of michael smerconish. and from here, great comments from both you've. that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. "the ed show" with ed schultz starts right now. >>> good evening, americans. welcome to "the ed show" tonight from new york. 45 days after the killing of trayvon martin, george zimmerman has been arrested. special prosecutor angela corey announced zimmerman is in custody and is charged with second-degree murder. >> today we filed an information charging george zimmerman with murder in the second degree, a capias has been issued for his arrest. with the filing of that information and the issuance of a capias, he will have a right to appear in front of a magistrate in seminole county within 24 hours of his arrest and thus formal prosecution will begin. >> corey and her team decided they have enough evidence to prosecute zimmerman under a second-degree murder charge. in florida, the state must prove these three elements beyond a reasonable doubt to get a conviction on a second-degree murd

." >>> good evening, i'm michael smerconish in new york in for chris matthews who is in columbia where he'll moderate a panel with president obama tomorrow. and tomorrow, lawyers and guns and money, and the nra is winning the battle over guns in country. when is the last time you heard a debate over gun control? the arguments today are over how far and how fast to expand gun owner rights, and mitt romney towed the line today at the nra calling gun control an assault on freedom. of course, expanded gun rights may have emboldened george zimmerman to leave his car and pursue trayvon martin. ask yourself this, is it possible for george zimmerman to even get a fair trial? plus, the hilary rosen gaffe reminded us that democrats have a habit of unintentionally insulting stay-at-home moms in election years. but it also distracted us for a day from mitt romney's very real gender problem. >>> let me finish tonight with a battle from the 2008 campaign that's still not finished, barack obama versus bill clinton. we begin with guns. former pennsylvania governor ed rendell is a political analyst and

." >> good evening, i'm michael smerconish. in for chris matthews. the republican party has a problem with women, and mitt romney needs to close the gap president the gender gap exists only as a media fission and he worked caterpillars into his vote, it's not clear how caterpillars feel about the vote, but it didn't help with women. plus, mitt happens, the most conservative republican party, is about to nominate the most moderate candidate in the field. if mitt romney loses the election, will we see the blood letting that we haven't seen since 1964, could it send the republican party further to the right in 2016? and they say they'll go after romney because he is a mor man. and the 50th anniversary of "to kill a mockingbird" is being screened at the white house tonight. we'll talk about why the movie and it's themes are so relevant still today. and let me finish with a crime, the death penalty, and a question of justice, we begin with the chairman's comments. we have the editorial director of "the huffington post." pribus was asked about the party's

good evening, i'm michael smerconish in for chris matthews. he is moderating a panel with president obama tomorrow. leading off with lawyers guns and money, the nra is winning the battle with guns in this country. the arguments today are over how far and fast to expand gun owner rights, and mitt romney toed the line today calling gun control an assault on freedom. of course, expanded gun rights may have allowed george zimmerman to leave his car and pursue trayvon martin. ask yourself this, is it possible for george zimmerman to get a fair trial? and the hillary rosen gaffe remind us that republicans have a pattern of insulting moms. and it highlights the gender problem, and that will not go away by making the case that it is obama waging the war on women. they're taking every opportunity to paint romney as rich and out of touch. and let me finish tonight with a battle from the 2008 campaign that still is not finished. barack obama verses bill clinton. we begin with guns, former pennsylvania governor ed rendell is an analyst, and allen gottley.

. >> i'm actually talking to michael smerconish. >> finish your point. >> please. for god's sake. the real issue here is that mitt romney, what we're forgetting, is that mitt romney, in that lordly way he has, says, my wife reports to me that women say this and women care about the economy. it's mitt romney's foot and mouth disease that brought us to this position, and that is what hilary rosen was talking about, that he uses his wife as this everywoman who reports to him, like what, he's the ceo and he's deferred the women question to her? i have advice for mitt romney. i'm not a romney campaign adviser. don't talk about your wife as your campaign surrogate or your adviser on women. talk about the experiences of women. as michael steele says, men can have empathy, men can learn about what matters to women. that's the point she was trying to make. >> will you accept that, that governor romney put this into play by identifying his wife into the way he sort of gets insight into female voters? >> no, i don't. he's relaying personal conversations. she's not a paid staffer. every candi

." >>> good evening, i'm michael smerconish filling in for chris matthews. when is the last time you even heard a debate over gun control? the arguments today are over how far and how fast to expand gun owner rights. and mitt romney toed the line today at the nra, calling gun control an assault on freedom. of course, expanded gun rights may have emboldened george zimmerman to leave his car and pursue trayvon martin. now ask yourself this. is it possible for george zimmerman to even get a fair trial? plus the hilary rosen gaffe reminded us that we insult stay-at-home moms. and that's not something that will go away simply without making the case that it's president obama who is waging the war on women. romney is rich and out of touch, so today the president and vice president released their tax returns, daring romney to do the same. and let me finish tonight with a battle from the 2008 campaign that's still not finished. barack obama versus bill clinton. we begin with guns. former pennsylvania governor ed rendell is an nbc political analyst, and alan gottlieb

joining me, msnbc contributor michael smerconish, and steve deace. he has been very vocal. i think you said god or someone would have to tell you to vote for mitt romney before. so steve, i'll start with you with your strong words. we're watching to see if there is this anti-romney protest vote. what are you expecting? >> i suspect you will see it but it will be more subtle than looking at percentages. i think you have to look at the turnout model. in virginia, the one state where romney didn't have any competition because of ballot issues, except for ron paul, almost 10% of ron paul's total popular vote in this primary came from one state. virginia. when he got to go one-on-one with romney. in fact, romney finished with 40,000 fewer votes than mike huckabee got when he fnld second. i think what you want to look at is the turnout model and then also at the convention level. in iowa, in minnesota over the weekend. ron paul's people made a very strong show of force. he looks to me like he is poised to actually win those states which were nonbinding caucuses. how many of those

michael smerconish as well as senior political editor mark murray. i'll start with you and get your reaction to these heated words from joe biden today. very fiery. his comments about mitt romney having this profound misunderstanding remind immediate when the critics referred to president obama, or then candidate obama as naive. >> when i go back and look at elections in the last, say, three decades, it has usually been that national defense has been a strong suit of the republican party. i don't think that will be the case in this election because there are some achievements that i think any rational person would have to credit the obama administration with. i'm referring to not only the successful takedown of bin laden but getting out of iraq and we hope because it appears to be in progress, getting out of afghanistan. hopefully for the obama administration, iran doesn't blow up. so it seems to me this is the year where the ds are going to be the ones touting their record on foreign policy. >> we'll talk about these key states such aspen pen but yo

. >> joining me now, national syndicated talk show most michael smerconish. i believe we have this from peter king on the "today" show this morning. he presented the worst-case scenario. what could have happened if these allegations are true. >> this could have been disastrous. first as you said, agents have access to the president's schedule. even if they didn't, just haven't, if they were working for a narco terrorist group or al qaeda for that matter. >> so i have to tell you, a lot of people have been writing in saying this is an overinflated issue. others see it as congressman king. whether you're a republican or a democrat, you have to be concerned about the president's safety. what are you hearing from people? >> i just had john adler on my radio program. he is the president of the federal law enforcement officers association. it is a professional group like a union to which all the secret service members are, they all belong. he was cautioning against a rush to judgment. in fact, he went so far as to say that he thinks that the investigative reporter

joining me, michael smerconish and steve who is a conservative and not a fan of mitt romney. we know that. so steve i'm going to ask with you and ask you to look at this objectively. he is at this fund-raiser. he talks about perhaps combining the education department. even eliminating the housing urban development agency. an agency his father once headed. what did we make of all of these comments and the response that he was tossing around, chewing the fat if you will at this fund-raiser. >> well, tamron, i think this is the etch a sketch candidate on display. something tells me we'll have this conversation a lot over the next few months. between the romney who may accidentally spew out some principles and then the minute he faces some scrutiny, he walks them back. i read the "wall street journal's" account of this meeting this morning. i thought be still my beating heart. we might have something here. lo and behold, it is barely noon in some places in the united states of america and mitt romney has actually walked back these statements that might galvanize his base. might h

. >> i'm joined now by nationally syndicated talk show host contributor michael smerconish, and reporte for salon.com. let me start with you. we do not know if she was offered a membership. they cloud themselves in secrecy. we do know the past ceos for ibm have been offered memberships. she is planning to host events at the golf club but we do not know if she will wear that green jacket. >> for the past ten years, this has flared up several times. you have the ironic situation that corporate america where the leadership of women has stalled for the last 15 years is now more progressive and has more women represented than this golf club that has a very prominent place in our culture. >> it's interesting. the white house was asked about it. jay carney said he thinks women should be admitted. obviously we wouldn't expect a difference answer. thought comes with this interesting timing that the conversation of the war on women, they just said the rnc chairman, that was like a caterpillar comparing it to something obscure. that there is no war on women. certainly, at least from some per pers

." >>> good evening, i'm michael smerconish in new york and in for chris matthews. leading off tonight, it's the economy, stupid. it was true in the 1992 campaign and it's true today. take all the factors that will determine who wins in november, combine them all, and they still won't be as important as the economy and the unemployment rate. the economy created 120,000 jobs last month well below the last few months and below expectations while unemployment rate dropped by .1% to 8.2%. the republicans will point to the lower than expected jobs numbers, democrats will point to a falling unemployment rate. who will win this fight? we'll break it down at the top of the show. >>> also, mitt romney's people know he has an image problem, they love going negative, and romney blew his chance for a timely jeb endorsement. those are a few of the nuggets from the new ebook and we'll dish campaign gossip with the authors of "inside the circus." >>> plus, is there really a gop war on women? democrats are dining out on that idea. republicans say it's all nonsense. we'll have that

joining me now, the nationally syndicated talk show host michael smerconish.s well as criminal defense attorney john burris. thank you for joining me, you were based in florida, or i should say you are based in florida. let me get your response saying that this was the politically safe move in this case to not have this grand jury. >> well, i think the politically safer move would have been to have a grand jury say i presented the evidence. they decided charges. they decided no charges. that gives the prosecutor a little bit of cover. and said what she's decided she would do is make the decision herself. which means that there will be public reaction either way, strong public reaction. and i give her all the credit for it. at the end of the day, she is the special prosecutor appointed by the governor. she ought to make the decision. and it will be a controversial decision, whatever it is. at least she is not running for cover. >> could she have made this announcement before today? as we pointed out, a lot of people have been following this, expected a grand ju

. >> let me bring in michael smerconish. her answer, anybody but obama. but not once did she name anything she believed mitt romney brought to the table through ideas, policies, a plan. anybody but the obama. and then that breathe in moment cannot be ignored. that was her first reaction when he asked her about mitt romney. >> last night on hard ball, we played a whole series of gop on romney to show how tepid each of them seemed. yahoo has created a march madness like bracket where you vote on whose was more tepid. so she sort of parroting what you hear from a large segment of the gop populist. call me a cynic. i can't help but watch that and say isn't she a bit envy us of the fact that he is about to close the loop on the republican nomination. isn't. >> my heart of hearts, i think she wants to be in that position. when she talks about the convention, she is thinking about herself in that role. >> she said there are still delegates and she questioned whether someone else could come in and by math win this. >> who is she about? >> i don't know. i wondered

michael. >> ef wonder what it is like to text hillary clinton? well, you can follow me on twitter if you can figure out how to spell smerconish. you are watching "hardball." >>> back to "hardball" and now for the side show. first up, now that etch is cop vinced that mitt romney has clinched the nomination, some of the focus has turned to the veep stakes, the game-changer herself, sarah palin suggested that romney go rogue and pick the congress mman from florida. >> if someone made that call and you would have to believe it would be the right fit. >> do you like mitt romney, and do you support the views and would you feel comfortable on a ticket with him? >> well, i have never been out on a dinner date with him if that is what you are asking me, so i don't know if i would like him. but we would have to sit down and discuss things. >> maybe romney should check with john mccain about that whole going rogue thing. and here is one to get women reeling going to the dry cleaners. it is more expensive to bring in a woman's blouse than a man's oxford shirt. aren't they the same things? well, today, president obama acknowledged that wri