at it and i think that's where worthy -- you know, of a panel like yours to spend time on. >> mike barnicle of eminent. >> do you think the welfare ad injects race into the campaign unnecessarily? >> you know, i'll let others make that judgment, mike. what i know is that it's an absolute, complete falsehood and the romney campaign knows it and they continue to run it. i think the two republicans governor who asked for waivers would tell you that. and, you know, you would have to ask them what their motivations are. you know, similarly the notion that -- of their current ad that we're stealing money from medicare to pay for obama care, when what we did was lengthen the life of medicare, you know, increase prescription drug coverage, make it possible for seniors to get preventative care coverage, is false. the fact of the matter is what romney is proposing now is to roll all that back, which would mean that medicare would reach insolvency eight years earlier and seniors would lose benefits, lose prescription drug coverage, lose preventative care coverage, that's the romney plan right now. so,

house correspondent for "the huffington post," sam stein. >> hello. >> richard wolffe with us, mike barnicle? you seem like you're in a bad mood. >> i am. >> is it the groping restriction i put on the show? yeah. i'm struggling with the stories we have lined up here. especially after our discussion about afghanistan. >> yeah. >> in all seriousness. but there is news to cover. let's go through it. we've got a new panel, your take on it. we'll move on to other things as well. first the polls though, this is interesting, just released nbc news/"wall street journal" poll shows that 45% of registered voters have a negative view of the gop. only 36% positive. 42% view the democratic party positively, 40% negatively. the poll also reveals that mitt romney received virtually no bump after naming paul ryan as his running mate. right now the obama/biden ticket leaves romney and ryan 48 to 44% nationwide. before adding paul ryan to the republican ticket, he was leading obama. stop there, harold ford jr., does that surprise you, no bump from paul ryan? >> i think it's hard to determine whether or not th

mike barnicle, we're talking about culture here.ference between the canadian culture of saving and the american culture of saving. when's so fascinating, though, is this is a learned trait of our culture. we used to save like germans. we used to have a 10% savings rate, personal savings rate. on september 15th, when we had the crash back in 2008, savings rate was 0. inched up to 3%, 4%. but mike, were you as blown away by miles' statistic as me that half of canadians do not even have a mortgage? >> well, yeah. >> unbelievable. >> that's my question back to him, joe, is that -- that absolutely to my mind is the biggest difference in our two cultures. 50% of the people in canada have no mortgage. we can't live without mortgages here because of the tax deductions on mortgages. so explain it to me. spell it out a little. i am from ontario. i go to mcgil university. i graduate, get married. i work, my wife works. how do i buy a house? >> well, but exactly right. so to these. joe's point. he said that we are a -- we are not -- we are spen

this one more mike barnicle. umbo of the angels taking a fastball from aaron cook over the volvo sign in center field. wow! barnicle says it hit his house. a 440 foot home run. angels beat the struggling sox 5-3. >> coming up at the top of the hour on "morning joe," congressman todd akin digs in, despite mitt romney telling him to get the heck out of the race in missouri. and when we come back here, we'll huddle around the water cooler but we've got a replacement for regis philbin. telly and who? we'll show you when we come back. ♪ going to get through your head what the man said ♪ this is the plan that revolves around you. introducing share everything. unlimited talk. unlimited text. and a single pool of sharable data that powers up to 10 devices. the first plan of it's kind. share everything. only from verizon. add a smartphone for just $40 monthly access. trouble with a car insurance claim. [ voice of dennis ] switch to allstate. their claim service is so good, now it's guaranteed. [ normal voice ] so i can tru

with us on set in new york, we've got msnbc contributor mike barnicle, the chairman of deutsch inc.,editorial writer for "the washington post" and msnbc contributor jonathan kapart and also, author of "as texas goes." and in washington, msnbc and "time" magazine senior political analyst mark halperin and political editor and white house correspondent for the huffington post, sam stein. "the new york times" is leading the story about the new republican nominee, ted cruz and how he's shaking things up. "the washington post" has a story about how the senate race in wisconsin has become a tight affair because the tea party's influence. looks like they'll have an impact and may even bump tommy thompson who has been a political heavyweight for years up in wisconsin out of the way. it looks like the tea party is re-asserting itself. >> joe, it does.

with us on set, we have msnbc contributor mike barnicle. mike. >> yes. >> yeah. >> i'm here. >> msnbc political analyst and visiting professor at nyu and former democratic congressman harold ford jr. >> good morning. >> how are you? >> i'm good. >> hi, willie. >> hi, mika. >> he's being tested this morning, willie is. >> really? >> yeah. enhancement drugs. >> i'm sorry. >> against early morning code, right? >> extenz. >> hear this story? >> what's the wife trying do? to her husband? they don't know. >> and harold ford. >> good morning, sir. >> yeah. >> you were the only conservative on the set yet yesterday. and when that is the state of play. >> yeah. >> holy cow. i just -- >> i am a conservatism. i was a blue dog. >> who wants to be a republican right now. >> i was watching the show yesterday and i just kept going holy cow. and then harold decides to defend paul ryan and says listen, i've got no direct evidence. >> he is a good hostage video out today. >> he is ever like ripped the heart out of a living woman and eaten it on the spot. i ha

very well, which is not easy to do, as mike barnicle proves each and every time he does the perform.at's because i'm still perming and my bags are not to their ripe puffiness yet. >> it's painful, isn't it, my friend? enjoy the rest of the week. the headline, this man, "the times of london" calls him the rocket man. usain bolt delivering on the hype, running the 100-meter dash in an olympic record 9.63 seconds. a little off his world record of 9.58, but 9.63 is a world record. man, all the talk was about him. this was a heavyweight fight of an event. tickets were going for thousands of dollars. the place was packed, cameras flashing all over the place. he delivered. he actually got slow out of the block and had to catch up and still, despite a bad start, ran a 9.63, again, an olympic record. he edged out yohan blake, his countryman, said to be the best to challenge him. he took silver and american justin gatlin took bronze with a time of 9.79, which ain't too shabby, but not good enough against that guy, usain bolt, winning gold. sanya richards-ross wins the first american gold in tr

only reason he's at work today, he offers no other contribution to this or any other program, mike barnicle is with us. what's the deal with the trade? >> oh, willie. in addition to being the biggest trade in baseball history it is a great trade, incredible trade for the boston red sox. how the los angeles dodgers ever agreed to pick up more than $240 million in contracts with carl crawford, josh beckett, adrian gonzalez thrown in, and their contracts, is almost beyond belief. the dodgers have a huge, huge fiscal opportunity starting next year when their new tv contract will be up for bid. so that's probably how they're going to pay for it. but it's a huge relief for the red sox and they're going to start all over. >> yeah, the dodgers ate a lot of contract. mike, thanks for coming in today. it was a great pleasure to have you at the office. what time's your flight? >> willie, they rejected my credit card at u.s. air, that's why i'm still here. >> oh, boy, that's too bad. we'll see you down here tomorrow, we look forward to it. you'll be here, right? >> sure, meet me at the airport. >> okay

with us on set, we have msnbc contributor mike barnicle. >> this is big. >> hello, mike. >> this is big. >> uh-huh. msnbc and "time" magazine senior political analyst mark halperin and in washington, we have pulitzer prize writer for "the washington post," jonathan capehart. >> and great willie geist of course. >> speaking of hate, anger and division, how about the red sox? >> what's going on there? >> we'll talk about that later. whoa. >> is everything okay, mike. >> the players are like, what, it's a mutiny there. >> they had a team at fenway park playing hard that enjoyed playing together. unfortunately it was bruce springsteen. >> there you go. >> a problem. >> bruce and stevie. >> thank you very much. >> personal friend of mine. >> can we go right into this? >> i was going to say, just mark, on that speech last night you said you got a lot of calls from people, the regular traveling press corps. >> going over, but last night was a historical moment in the campaign. the vice president saying something he said inartfully and now both campaigns are expressing not full outrage, which i

how is that for early morning prompter reading, mike barnicle. >> very good, lawrence. now from washington, democratic representative from maryland, congressman chris van hollen. congressman, mitt romney says i'm not proposing a tax increase on anyone. how is the president doing the math here? >> the math is straightforward. as you said, it was crunched by the tax policy center, an independent, nonpartisan, well respected grupp. here's the math. when you drop the top rate from the current 35% -- it would go to 39%. when you drop that all the way down to 25% and you do it in a deficit neutral way, which is what mitt romney says he wants to do, that costs $4 trillion. in other words, when you do that cut, that's $4 trillion you have to make up. how do you make it up? mitt romney says you have to make it up by taking away from deducks, taking away exemptions. some of those are things like the deduction for health care, mortgage interest, things that help middle income americans. and so when you do all that math, the result is you're going to be reducing the tax burden on t

mike barnicle, showed up a little bit for work. couldn't make it down here to talk about the trade. how happy are you this morning as a red sox fan? >> willie and joe and everyone, there's really only one way to look at this deal, it occurred on the same date in history 68 years later that paris was liberated. 68 years from that day the red sox were liberated from a huge number of hefty contracts involving adrian gonzalez, josh beckett, carl crawford and nick punto who carried the luggage out to los angeles. obsessive in the media market that is the red sox. carl crawford made a mistake a couple years ago when he did something just for the money and signed with boston instead of the los angeles angels. he was never comfortable in boston. so he's gone. josh beckett unfairly blamed for everything that has happened in that clubhouse over the last year, had to leave the market because it was just -- it was terrible. every time he appeared the boos rolled out of the stadium and rocked the entire city. the dodgers picking up all that money, first time in history, it's the biggest trade in

of years in world war ii to fight in the navy and one of the boston red sox family if you ask mike barnicleorite, favorite guys. >> no doubt about it. the outpouring yesterday was really something for johnny pesky. >> up next, we'll look at mika's must-read opinion pages. ♪ talking about sweet seasons on my mind ♪ ♪ sure does appeal to me, you know we can get there easily ♪ [ male announcer ] if you stash tissues like a squirrel stashes nuts, you may be muddling through allergies. try zyrtec® liquid gels. nothing starts working faster than zyrtec® at relieving your allergy symptoms for 24 hours. zyrtec®. love the air. 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 problems, or trouble emptying your bladder, do not take vesicare. vesicare may cause alle

we go to "morning joe," i have to thank, for the last three weeks, a lot of help around here, mike barnicle, luke russert, jonathan capehart and all of last week, thomas roberts who did a hallways so he never has to do this again. it's early. "morning joe" starts right now. >> from what i've heard lately, that's what troubles me the most. there's something different in their voice, in their words. what i hear from them are diminished dreams, lowered expectations, uncertain futures. i hear some people say that this is just the new normal. higher unemployment, declining incomes and crushing debt is not a new normal. america is more than just a place, though. america is an idea. it's the only country founded on an idea. our rights come from nature and god, not from government. we promise equal opportunity, not equal outcomes. and this idea was founded on the principles of liberty, freedom, free enterprise, self-determination, and government by consent of the governed. >> okay. here we go. good morning, everybody. >> you hear that song? >> welcome to "morning joe." ♪ reunited >> august 13th. bi

state of massachusetts, and had to deal with those people and the legislature up there that even mike barnicle is troubled by as a democrat, you know what, i would let the world know what i was able to accomplish. you want somebody that can fix gridlock in washington, d.c., where nothing's happening? because the president doesn't like the republicans and the republicans don't like the president. get a guy that's been there before. >> and the second point that you made about his faith, michael gerson wrote a column about this the other day in "the washington post," he should talk about who he is and not let the obama camp and its allies paint him in the way that they are, of course, negatively going to paint him. both sides throwing all this mud at each other. and he has not -- he's done one biography ad i can recall. i think it's even too late to be waiting until the convention to try to define him. >> this what is obama did, embraced the narrative of who he is, african-american, even had a speech on it when his back was up against the wall on some issues that really would have brought him dow