right now, in studio with molly ball from the atlantic. about paul ryan and president obama. mitt romney and president obama both speaking about the paul ryan budget plan. the point i was making about paul ryan molly, just before the break here, here is from -- by the way i quote these in the obama "the obama hate manny" my latest book, plug. time magazine described ryan he has jet-black hair and a touch of eagle scout to him. the "new york times" wrote that he described him as a congressman from wisconsin with the piercing blue eyes. love for heavy metal on his ipod and a reputation among democrats including president obama as a republican who has put forward budget ideas that are thoughtful and serious. give me a break. yeah. >> i take it you don't like the guy. the piercing blue eyes have no affect on you. the jet-black hair. >> his strapping body physique. >> bogus, liz calling from fort washington. >> i used to listen to you on the way to work, on sirius and i am so happy that i don't have to suffer through morning joe any more, that i

i'm joined by molly ball. how did you know, your article came out before the polling data.hat was it that you saw that made it so clear to you that the women were the swing dispositive voters. >> we've seen this in poll after poll, but there is a clear strength where women voters have been moving away from romney. that's what accounts for this tremendous lead obama has opened up over mitt romney among overall voters. it really is women voters who are powering that. we have a statistical tie, a tiny lead for romney with male voters. but when you put the women vote necessary there, obama blows him away. people think it's this decisive rhetoric around women's issues in the republican party lately. >> i was in the political arena for some time. if the republican party is pulled so far to the right on issues of choice and health can care, which is are the issues that women seem to be carrying caring about. why should anybody be surprised that women as swing voters are drifting away from the republican party? wasn't this predictable. >> rick santorum has been the source of a lot

we will see if he sticks to it. >> mavleous. >> molly ball, good to see i. at the atlantic.com. i will be back with the last word, parting shot. >> this is the bill press show. ♪ it's completely inappropriate for television. ♪ >> the parting shot with bill press. this is the bill press show. >> well, you know, i don't do a regular worst person in the world segment, but if i did, that person would have to be today, jacqueline brushea, ceo of long island motor group she was waiting for a new kidney when deborah stephens one of our employees volunteered to donate hers. stephens donated her kidney. while it turned out not to be a good match for her boss brushea was able to use it to bounce to the top of the list by trading her donated kidney for another one. what was her way of saying thank you to debbie stephens? she fired her. yeah. when stephens was having troubles recovering from her surgery, went home from work brushea called her and chewed her out and fired her on the spot. sounds to me what jack quack /* jacqueline really needed was a heart trans plant. br

we have mark murray and molly ball, national reporter for the "atlantic."ou. >> good morning. >> mark, run us through the maps, what are the key states now? >> there are seven battleground states we have are toss-ups that we saw from 2008. some of them have been around since 2000 and 2004. it is colorado, nevada, north carolina, florida, ohio, virginia and nevada. those seven will end up deciding the presidential election. >> okay. so this has changed a bit from 2008. so, molly, what does this tell you about the changing voter demographics? >> well, one thing we certainly see are the southwestern swing states that has a lot to do with the hispanic vote. so that's a major battleground. we have the southern swing states, depending on whether you count florida, but certainly virginia and north carolina, those are new swing states, newer for the democrats to put into play and that has to do with a lot of the changing demographics in the south. then the old traditional rust belt swing states, ohio and pennsylvania, sort of hearty perennials of the swing state ci

let's bring in slate political reporter david weigel and national reporter for "the atlantic" molly ballon, why is he still hanging around? what's at play in this equation? >> well he gave an interview to the "washington post" today where he talked about wanting to affect the platform. wanting to be a player in the convention in a way that he feels he can sort of have a substantive impact on some of the issues he cares about. it's i guess in keeping with his reputation that he has for being the candidate of ideas and the man with the a zillion ideas about everything. he wants to get some of that into the debate. he wants to he says force romney to be more conservative. but i don't think it really makes much sense to have an active candidacy if that's the only ostensible point of it i think the reason we're seeing him get so few votes in a lot of these primaries is the voters are recognizing it's sort of a candidacy in name only at this point. >> there are reports that the santorum camp is so desperate to work out the delegate math that they went to the texas gop and they asked to make th

. >> joining me is national political reporter for the "atlantic" molly ball and msnbc contributor andr. >> molly, i want to start with you, the economy an issue for so many americans in the election. a to the issue for both sides, they're slamming each other today. if the economy continues to improve under president obama, what might be the terms of romney's campaign going forward, since his foundation is being on business leader? >> obviously the improving economy is a challenge for the romney campaign. because as you just heard, their whole argument is that the economy is terrible. and it's president obama's fault. and so, we've seen already that as some sort of green shoots start coming in the economy, some good numbers start coming up. they've had to recalibrate their argument. he's had to start arguing not only that things are bad. but that even if things are getting better, it's not good enough. or that things could be even better if we hadn't pursued these kinds of policies. as we keep looking at the trend line on the economy and keep looking at the strength of the recovery rel

. >> let's bring in our monday panel, molly ball covers politics, far refresh shack clear from politics.orgz, washington bureau chief correspondent. let me start with you, dan. in hearing republicans are talking about the tax argument, i get the sense that they are concern that the democrats have figured out a way to sell tax increases the first time maybe since we have been covering political campaigns. >> i think it is a closer debate than we have been used to in the past. the tax cutting has been an article of faith for the republicans, in part because it has been successful politics. right r >> you can argue whether it has been successful economics that is a good debate to have and what this campaign will be about. but i think president obama and the democrats have found a way to talk about this that has put the republicans more on -- >> don't forget, in 2008, dan will remember, that we had a version of this debate with john mccain and president obama, with obama taking basically the same stance he has now regarding the bush tax cuts, he once, the exit polling after the campaign showed

and molly ball, political report he for the atlantic. thank you both for joining me. we talk about this war on women. war over women. but ladies, we know this has hit a sensitive nerve. this issue of mommy wars. who has the harder job? the mom? the stay at home mom? the woman who doesn't have children and works? this has hit an emotional nerve today. >> it is. as you point out, we've gone from the war on religion to now the war on women and now we've got the war on moms and the war on reality which is something that a congresswoman kathy mcmorris rogers said on a romney conference call earlier today. but the problem here is that the rhetoric has spiraled out of control. a lot of people are commenting on that today. because the united states is involved in several real wars. and u.s. lives have been lost. so today, it has really gotten out of control. >> hillary rosen had an opportunity to go back on and here's what she said today when asked about her comments made last night. let me play it, please. >> look, mitt romney has brought his wife into this conversation. thi

. >> molly ball, thank you very much for sticking around for this speech which went about 20 minuteshat. we'll take a short break and we'll be right back here on "jansing & co." in. way to go, coach. ♪ the chevy cruze eco also offers 42 mpg on the highway. actually, it's cruze e-co, not ec-o. just like e-ither. or ei-ther. or e-conomical. [ chuckling ] or ec-onomical. pa-tato, po-tato, huh? actually, it's to-mato, ta-mato. oh, that's right. [ laughs ] [ car door shuts ] [ male announcer ] visit your local chevy dealer today. now very well qualified lessees can get a 2012 chevy cruze ls for around $159 per month. e.p.a. estimated 36 miles per gallon highway. ♪ ♪ you do ♪ something to me ♪ that nobody else could do ♪ the sleep number bed. the magic of this bed is that you're sleeping on something that conforms to your individual shape. wow! that feels really good. you can adjust it to whatever your needs are. so whatever you feel like, the sleep number bed's going to provide it for you. now, sleep number redefines memory foam, combining coolfit gel foam with sleep number adjustability!

molly ball, great to have you here in new york. ezra kline, thank you so much. >>> this hour, the miami marlins' new manager, ozzie guillen, is expected to apologize again for those controversial comments he made praising fidel castro. he told "time" magazine, quote, i love fidel castro. later adding, "i respect fidel castro. you know why? a lot of people have wanted to kill fidel castro for the last 60 years, but that [ expletive ] is still here." a lot of people in the cuban community are asking to fire him. he has tried to clarify his comments ever since. after yesterday's win over the phillies, he said he's embarrassed about what he said. and we are going to hear more from him later today. specialists, lots of doctors, lots of advice... and my hands were full. i couldn't sort through it all. with unitedhealthcare, it's different. we have access to great specialists, and our pediatrician gets all the information. everyone works as a team. and i only need to talk to one person about her care. we're more than 78,000 people looking

jim: already breaking down as he was bending down to take the ball out of the cup. saw mollyonto the green when bubba won in a playoff at new orleans. i know how much she and -- i know how much his wife angie and baby caleb are in his thoughts too. a special easter to remember for bubba watson. acknowledgments to everyone. yes, indeed. there's a guy that plays the game differently than anyone we've ever seen and he's on top of the world. bubba watson has a glean jacket waiting for -- waiting for him in butler cabin in a moment. hit a curveball. nick faldo rarely found the back of the net. and arnold palmer... just wasn't fast enough for track. isn't it funny... how sometimes success begins... just by putting the right tools... in the right hands. let's build a smarter planet. if you made a list of countries from around the world... let's build a smarter planet. ...with the best math scores. ...the united states would be on that list. in 25th place. let's raise academic standards across the nation. let's get back to the head of the class. let's solve this. a living breathing i

molly, a republican from california. you're up next. caller: yes, this is all ball laws, right, the immigration thing. my girlfriend called me and i went to court with her. she wanted to see what was going on there. there were 37 cases on the docket. 36 were about domestic violence. none of them spoke english. they had an interpreter in the court. 36 were illegals, and their wives were watching. they had black eyes, injured faces, and every single one of those men were told about all the programs they had to join, all these programs there were in place for them. everyone is released after being told about these programs available to them in california. they were released on their own recognizance. of course, none of them show up and this is what we have on our courts in california. i speak italian so i understood a lot of what is being said, and it's all garbage. we have over 11% unemployment in california. we are falling apart and we have a court system that cannot -- just the domestic abuse going on in the spanish community. host: rick in asheville, dennis a. -- rick in nashville, tennessee. caller: