mr. romney right now by his own party. the republican party this week has been making a big show of publicly deromneyifying themselves, cleansing themselves of all traces of the romney nomination. remember the empty chair that clint eastwood famously ranted at during prime time at the republican convention this year? it's being used as a physical symbol for the republicans of what went wrong with this presidential nomination. the chairman of the party told the press this week that he cheeps that chair in his office. he points it out to reporters as a sign that he is committed to never forget the mistakes of 2012. a republican strategist telling the "washington post" this week, there is no romney faction or romney wing of the republican party keeping the flame alive. no one tailors their policies because it was what romney supported in the 2012 campaign. no one feels like they need to be loyal to the romney position on any issue. and in the conservative media this week, quote, some republicans believe the rnc ceded too much

president romney appeared briefly and then said, your aunt? [laughter] your mother? mrs. ngela merkel, chance or the federal republic of germany. chancellor merkel looks somewhat taken aback at being mistaken. when she had regained her composure, she said to president romney, i know you'll have much to add on this debt crisis of the year his son, mr. president. rummy looked at the german chancellor, lecture at the time. i'd say you go about 140 give or take five pounds he say. [laughter] am i in the ballpark? [laughter] chancellor merkel, hoping she might have misunderstood the president said -- excuse me, and that the future of the year will dominate our discussions in the coming days. the city that has more bridges than any other city in the world is to her, pennsylvania, romney replied. congratulations. [laughter] congratulations to pick her come in chancellor asked? president romney thought for a moment. no, just congratulations. stephen harper, prime minister of canada joined the group and introduce himself to president romney. are you a french-canadian origin preside

mr. romney likes to congratulate people for what exactly is not clear. this piece is president romney meets other world leaders at his first g8 summit. [laughter] the moment president romney entered a room at the opening reception was held, he was approached by a man who shook hands and said, are you a french-canadian origin? [laughter] president romney romney said smiling broadly, i am french. i am facts the president of france. congratulations president romney said. [laughter] lipstick contains a substance made from fish scales. [laughter] before Åland could reply, and before you could think of anything to say in the subject of lipstick manufacturing, they were approached by angela merkel of germany who looked eager to greet in newest member the g8. president romney appeared at her briefly and then said, your aunt? [laughter] your mother or quarks? >> this is angela merkel, chancellor of the federal republic of germany. chancellor merkel looked taken aback. when she regained her composure, she said to romney, i know you'll have much to add a debt crisi

mr. romney was not in attendance. there were stars aplenty. who better to spot them george stephanapolous. >> look at that crowd gathering now. morgan freeman, i think. right there on the capital steps. bill russell. i'm sorry. thank you, david remnick. >> jon: now. when george stephanapolous, in his defense, all tall people look alike to him. i see gray chin. i don't know. still for the rest of the morning, stephanapolous did a very good job. right here of course you have venus and serena williams coming in. over there is danny glover. , owe the dazzling miss hally brie looking fine and general colin powell and his girlfriend motown great diana ross and here's a treat nba hall of famer bill russell. the crowd loves 'em. and then, it was time for the main event. the president's second inaugural address. just as feared the president came out as a liberal. >> we will respond to the threat of climate change. our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law. medicare and medicaid and social

mr. romney received 11 votes for president and paul ryan received 11 votes for vice president. >> mr. president, the certificate of the state of arkansas seems to be regular and authentic. it appears that make romney received six votes for president and paul ryan received six votes for vice president. >> mr. president, their certificate of the state of california seems to be regular and authentic. it appears that barack obama received 55 votes for president and joe biden received 55 votes for vice president. >> mr. president, the certificate of the state of colorado seems to be regular and authentic. it appears that barack obama received nine votes for president and joe biden received nine votes for vice president. >> mr. president, the certificate of the state of connecticut seems to be regular and authentic. it appears that barack obama of the state of illinois received seven votes for president and joseph biden received seven votes for vice president. >> mr. president, the certificate of the state of delaware seems to be regular and authentic. it appears that barack obama received t

mr. romney and embracing the do anything it takes of an increasingly contentious campaign. even by the standards of political world, mr. obama's obsession with virtuosity, and proving himself the best, are remarkable. those close to him say, in parentheses, critics call it arrogance. when mr. obama was derided as an insufferable overachiever in an early political race, his friends were infuriated. but even those loyal to mr. obama say that his quest for excellence can lead him to cockiness, and they tends to overestimate his capability, end of quote. so what should one predict about a second term for barack obama, particularly with these qualities of character? he most recently exhibited a combination of moving to the center while preaching was somehow detected as class welfare, targeting the wealthy for more taxes. speaker of the house boehner states that the president backed away from an agreed compromise on raising the debt limit. in an article in "the new york times" magazine tends to support that charge. and a recent book by bob woodward paints a picture of obama standi

mr. president, the certificate of arizona appears to be authentic. mitt romney received 11 votes for president and paul ryan received 11 votes for vice president. >> mr. president, the certificate of the state of arkansas seems to be regular and authentic. it appears that make romney received six votes for president and paul ryan received six votes for vice president. >> mr. president, their certificate of the state of california seems to be regular and authentic. it appears that barack obama received 55 votes for president and joe biden received 55 votes for vice president. >> mr. president, the certificate of the state of colorado seems to be regular and authentic. it appears that barack obama received nine votes for president and joe biden received nine votes for vice president. >> mr. president, the certificate of the state of connecticut seems to be regular and authentic. it appears that barack obama of the state of illinois received seven votes for president and joseph biden received seven votes for vice president. >> mr. president, the certificate of the

mr. romney's candidacy. they did a big fundraiser in israel. you were very critical of that. do you think that prime minister netanyahu was unfairly or inappropriately intervening in the u.s. election? is that why you were so critical? >> i think it was a terrible mistake. i don'i don't think that it is r duty or it is our interest to intervene in the political process in the united states. the appearance of support by netanyahu to romney, i must say i know romney very well. he's really a genuine good friend of israel and i respect him very much, but it was not for us to interfere in this process. >> you called governor romney, mr. prime minister, a good friend of israel. is barack obama a good friend of israel? >> no doubt in my mind. i was very close to president bush when he was president. we are still friends. what happens he was the best -- perhaps he was the best president from the point of view of israel ever in the history of the relations between the two countries. i don't know that what he supported in the context of a peace treaty between israel and the palestinian

mr. morris was only involved with the super pac at all, to the extent the group asked him to help out with a specific fundraising drive the help elect mitt romney, which mr. morris agreed to do. yeah, but dude, there he is, back in the 2010 election campaign, when mitt romney was not even running for campaign. there he is, asking for donations, there he is using it to elect republicans to congress. this is weird, for whatever reason, dick morris is trying to distance himself from the super pac, and he demands from this letter that i help him distance himself from the super pac that he called his organization. okay, for the record i am happy to clarify that the national chairman of the organization is a man named michael reagan, and that dick morris's title is "chief strategist." he called it his organization, and if he wants to deny he called it his organization. he can take that up with the person who signs the letter, dick morris. and take it up with the donors who believed when they saw the message from dick morris, asking for money from what he described as organization, you can tell the donors that that was not really his organization. you

mr. morris was only involved with the super pac at all, to the extent the group asked him to help out with a specific fundraising drive the help elect mitt romney as president, which mr. morris agreed to do. yeah, but dude, there he is, back in the 2010 election campaign, when mitt romney was not even running for campaign. there he is, asking for donations, there he is using it to elect republicans to congress. this is weird, for whatever reason, dick morris is trying to distance himself from the super pac, and he demands from this letter that i help him distance himself from the super pac that he called his organization. okay, for the record i am happy to clarify that the national chairman of the organization is a man named michael reagan, and that dick morris's title is "chief strategist." he called it his organization, and if he wants to deny he called it his organization. he can take that up with the person who signs the letter, dick morris. and take it up with the donors who believed when they saw the message from dick morris, asking for money from what he described as organization, you can tell the donors that that was not really his orga

mr. morris was only involved with the super pac at all, to the extent the group asked him to help out with a specific fundraising drive to help elect mitt romney which mr. morris agreed to do. yeah, but dude, there he is, back in the 2010 election campaign, when mitt romney was not even running for campaign. there he is, asking for donations, there he is using it to elect republicans to congress. this is weird, for whatever reason, dick morris is trying to distance himself from the super pac, and he demands from this letter that i help him distance himself from the super pac that he called his organization. okay, for the record i am happy to clarify that the national chairman of the organization is a man named michael reagan, and that dick morris's title is "chief strategist." he called it his organization, and if he wants to deny he called it his organization. he can take that up with the person who signs the letter, dick morris. and take it up with the donors who believed when they saw the message from dick morris, asking for money from what he described as organization, you can tell the donors that that was not really his organization. you

the group asked him to help out with a specific fund-raising drive to help elect mitt romney as president, which mris agreed to do. yeah, but, dude there, he is. back in the 2010 election campaign when mitt romney wasn't even running. there is dick morris, saying he is using this to elect republicans to congress this is weird. for whatever reason, dick morris is trying to distance himself and he's demanding i help him distance himself from the superpac that he called his organization. okay. for the record, i am happy to clarify that the national chairman of the organization is a man named michael reagan and dick morris' title is chief strategist, but he is the one called his organization. if he wants to deny he ever called it his organization, he can take that up with whoever signs the name dick morris to letters that get posted at dickhor rhys.com. he can take it up from the donors. you can tell those donors that that was not really his organization. you can tell that to those donors. and that is one of the most interesting things about the whole story and whole saga. one of the reasons we reporte

mr. romney, mitt romney to understand some of the visions that rick articulated, which really caught fire i don't care about the unemployment rate. it's like a kid with a fief. you don't care about the fever, but you care about what is causing it. so this ties back to the cultural underpinnings of what do we really want to be as americans and the whole vision of, we're different than other countries. we want to have a country where we function on values values vae rather than regulations. so rick santorum painted that picture, and as the campaign progressed -- i heard mitt paraphrase rick0s vision as to america is special because we have god-given rights and gods are rights cannot be given away, rights given by the government can be taken away instantly. i remember in a conversation in the reagan administration when they needed to cut expenses, and i think the conversation was, let's him nate paying for abortions. so the government gives the right, they can take it away, and i think rick articulated that, and so i think that the length of the primary, while frustratingly long issue think

mr. romney was not in attendance. not to fear.ere stars aplenty. >> morgan freeman, i think. >> he was, as he said, savoring the moment. >> thanks for the chance to continue to serve. >> let's get right to it. we're joined by msnbc political analyst karen finney, former communications director for the dnc, and by "washington post" political reporter nia-malika henderson. nia-malika, when i think of how impressive that speech was yesterday, it seems a travesty to mention the way republicans have reacted, but i'm afraid we have no choice. first up, we have the serial adull terer newt gingrich who called the speech goofy left wingism. then the bitter john mccain complained that there wasn't enough bipartisanship, which is particularly rich. and "the wall street journal" described it as contemptuous talk. what do these people want, the president to announce he was going to invade iran? >> it's funny, newt gingrich in an interview said he felt like 80% of the speech that reagan could have delivered this speech. what he thought was the

mr. romney, and mr. ryan, i guess posted contrast, although they were fuzzy at the end when mr. ey was reinventing himself, but what he said for most of the campaign was diametrically opposed to what the president has proposed. the american public saw it. the public decided, and it was not just the presidential election. it was overwhelming in the senate, and in the house. there is somewhat of a mandate in anyone's opinion which is one of the reasons why it might have been useful if we had seized on this moment for other areas of reform and getting rid of the continuing cloud of the debt ceiling pegged host: the headline in "new york times ." he got some of what he wanted. did the president lose ground with liberals because of this deal? guest: what will happen going forward will determine the degree of enthusiasm. there are a number of people that listen. the vice president came to our caucus yesterday and made an aggressive presentation about this just been the first step and about things going forward being balanced and that the president would be looking for more reform and e

mr. president, the certificate of the electoral vote of the state of indiana seems to be regular if n form and mitt romney of massachusetts received 11 votes for president and paul ryan of wisconsin received 11 votes for vice president. >> mr. president, the certificate of the electoral vote of the state of iowa appears to be in form and authentic. barack obama has received six votes for president and joseph biden 6 votes for vice president. >> mr. president, the certificate of the electoral vote of the state of kansas appears to be regular in form and authentic. mitt romney of massachusetts has received six votes for president. paul ryan of the state of wisconsin has received six votes for vice president. >> mr. president, the certificate of the electoral vote of the commonwealth of kentucky appears to be regular in form and authentic, and it appears there from that mitt romney of the state of massachusetts received eight votes for president and paul ryan of the state of wisconsin received eight votes for vice president. >> mr. president, the certificate of the electoral votes of the state of louisiana a

mr. romney and mr. ryan posed, i guess, sort of a contrast, although they got fuzzy toward the end when it's kind of hard as mr. romney was reinventing himself but what he said for most of the campaign was diametrically opposed to what the president has proposed here. the american public saw it, the american public decided and as i say, it wasn't just the presidential election, but it was overwhelmingly in terms of senate and the house, more than a million americans cast their votes for democrats. there was somewhat of a mandate, i think, in anybody's opinion, which is one of the reasons why it might have been useful if we had seized on this moment for other areas of reform and getting rid of the continuing deloifed debt ceiling. host: headline in the "new york times," on the left, seeing obama give away too much again. the president found himself under withering criticism by some in his base by not taxing the rich more. does the president lose ground? guest: what will happen going forward will determin

mr. romney have gotten us into so that i did minute shs wages in the u.s.a. and people trying to get by can't pay any taxes. so the government has a roll to collect enough taxes like they used to. when we were forced into wars by the republicans wanting to take it all over the world in the depression and it wasn't possible because the japanese didn't like it that way. when they didn't like it that way, they started war. and the same situation with the germans, they were at war because people got to be treated well. one, then the other, those are high sounding words but the government has got to create a balance. and you hear a lot of the term balance from mr. obama. i think he's been trying to do that for a long time but on account of racism mainly and on account of people are not used to other people other than the norm chrks has been like hundreds of years prior to that, it seems like some people feel that they need to exploit other people so that they can gain themselves. host: i'll stop you on that point. thanks for giving us a call. liz smith -- a couple

mr. romney pointed out, corporations are people, too. they're the most responsible for slavery of people today. these corporations know this. and yet nothing has happened. there is an issue there in terms of, how do we expand lot to addressing some of the great captains of industry who are creating wealth in our own countries by enslaving people in other countries. >> did anyone see that political button that said, i will believe corporations are people when texas executes one? [laughter] >> when you were talking about the whole process, you referred to the experience of the individual. from the point of view of lawyers or law enforcement, is it the experience of the individual or some other way of defining sliver we're talking about if people who lived through it cannot define themselves and that sense? to whom is it most useful? >> that is a good question. there is an institutional set of criteria that are established and delineated how you can tell people, and people aren't called the their trafficking victims, and they do not drink o

mr. romney nor mr. obama is a man given to self- deprecating lines, and perhaps the funniest guy turned out to be rick perry of taxes, who was there briefly, but rick perry stood up one night and told a group of us it was a strange feeling to stand next to mitt romney in each of those debates. he kept expecting mitt romney to lean over him and say, and you have any gray poupon. i like mitt romney as much as one good-looking guy can like another good looking guy and not be in violation of a texas state law. it was a marathon, and like most states marathons, the guy from kenya won. we have all heard the theories on what has happened in congress. it is not as productive as it was when the people on this stage served, but there are a couple of promises as to why. one is the polarization of politics. politics is more polarized. if you want liberal you can turn on msnbc. if you are conservative you can go to fox. olympia snowe was more conservative than the most conservative democrat. we have seen all of this

mr. romney custom? >> i did not like the choices. i am a little disenfranchised.arty or so. anyway, i am watching. >> thank you for being with us this evening. a look outside. if your rear of the washington d.c. convention center. 4000 slated for the commander- in-chief ball. members of the military and their families. others invited to be larger inaugural ball, also in this same building. in 2009, there were 10 official inaugural balls. he attended all 10 of those. they have consolidated quite a bit into a couple of large gathering spaces and ballrooms at the washington d.c. convention center. st. paul, minnesota, angelica on our others line. >> i was impressed with how many -- how much diversity they showed. i tune in every election and i watched the whole thing today, and i was impressed to see such a broad representation of latinos, african american leaders, it was really interesting. maybe it is an indicator of the historical nature of having a president of this type of background. the other thing, i thought michelle looked incredible. i heard one of the prev

from that group, the president received about 7 million more votes than romney did. mr. obama won the popular vote by 3 1/2 million. so, is a stone-cold fact that lower income americans reelected president obama. mitt romney's failure is very clear. he could not convince the majority of voters that he would look out for them period. he did not show enough outrage every his 16 trillion dollar debt or explain what that could lead to. a total economic collapse. romney was timid, wasn't paul revere spreading the word about danger. ask yourself this question: what do you think those makes less than $30,000 a year were voting for? what were they voting for? do you think they were voting for massive debt? why they voting for continued chaos in the middle east? were they voting for more government regulations that inhibit businesses from hiring working people? were they voting for 8% unemployment to keep salaries down because there are more workers than jobs? were they voting for any of that? no. millions of lower income americans voted for the candidate who they thought was goin

from that group, the president received about 7 million more votes than romney did. mr. ama won the popular vote by 3 1/2 million. so, is a stone-cold fact that lower income americans largely reelected president obama. mitt romney's failure is very clear. he could not convince the majority of voters that he would look out for them period. he did not show enough outrage every his 16 trillion dollar debt or explain what that could lead to. a total economic collapse. romney was timid, wasn't paul revere spreading the word about danger. ask yourself this question: what do you think those makes less than $30,000 a year were voting for? what were they voting for? do you think they were voting for massive debt? why they voting for continued chaos in the middle east? were they voting for more government regulations that inhibit businesses from hiring working people? were they voting for 8% unemployment to keep salaries down because there are more workers than jobs? were they voting for any of that? no. millions of lower income americans voted for the candidate who they thought wa

mr. president, the certificate of electoral vote of the state of texas seems to be regular in form and authentic and it appears that mitt romney of the commonwealth of massachusetts received 38 votes for president and paul ryan of the state of wisconsin received 38 votes for vice president. >> mr. president, the certificate of the electoral vote of the state of utah seems to be regular in form and authentic and it appears therefrom that mitt romney of the commob wealth of massachusetts received six votes for president and paul ryan of the state of wisconsin received six votes for vice president. >> mr. president, the certificate of the electoral vote of the state of vermont seems to be regular in form and authentic and it appears therefrom that barack obama of the state of illinois received three votes for president and joseph biden of the state of delaware received three votes for vice president. >> mr. president, the certificate of the electoral vote of the commonwealth of virginia seems to be regular in form and authentic and it appears therefrom that barack obama of the state of illinois received 13 votes for president and

mr. romney, mitt romney to understand some of the visions that rick articulated which really caught fire. of when he'd go to these pizza huts through iowa, the whole idea that it's not necessarily about the economy, in fact, he got into a little trouble, he said i don't care about the unemployment rate. what he meant was if you have a kid with a fever, you don't care about the fever -- you do really, but you really care about what ease causing it. so it ties back to the cultural underpinnings of what do we really want to be as americans, and the whole vision of we're different than other countries. we want to have a country where we function on values and virtues rather than be governed by rules and regulations. so what rick santorum did is he painted that vision, and i think as a campaign progressed i was sitting next to romney at another fundraiser, and i heard him kind of paraphrase some of rick's same vision as to america's special because of the fact that we have god given rights. and god given rights cannot be taken away where rights governed by, giver by the government can be taken

mr. colonial marxist, mitt romney flirted with it but stayed away from it.n the house republicans came into power two years ago, the tea partiers, one of the first things they did was to introduce a bill trying to redefine rape. so it's not just a bunch of yahoos out in new mexico or virginia with transvaginal probes. it is the heart of the party. >> and paul ryan -- >> you remind me of too much. let's go to jindal. here is a guy who is trying to be a leader. last night at a meeting of the republican party, governor bobby jindal called out his own gop. >> no, the republican party does not need to change our principles. but we might need to change just about everything else we are doing. we've got to stop being the stupid party. and i'm serious. it's time for a new republican party that talks like adults. it's no secret we had a number of republicans that damaged the brand this year with offensive and bizarre comments. i'm here to say we've had enough of that. >> got a smattering of applause there, joy. you heard that, but not very enthusiastic. former missis

mr. 47% himself. that's governor romney carrying his own bags through the airport after arriving in washington today.sident obama's inauguration four days ago, but he has no problem making it in for a lunch in his honor. he and anne were the big guest of honor at a party just blocks from the white house thrown by hotel chairman and good friend bill marriott. and everyone in attendance left with a party favor. some pearls of wisdom from the party itself. he began by telling everyone in the crowd, "we lost." huh? we lost? what is this we? i'm pretty sure he lost. but, anyway, romney went onto say i'm not going away. i will continue to help. wow. he's going to continue to help. it's christmas come early for the democrats. i wonder how the republicans reacted? huh? oh, i'm hearing we have a video of the reaction from the actual lunch. >> it's important. >> to be honest, i was the one doing the weeping. >> i've spent my whole life chasing the american dream. >> i'm sorry, governor, that was the big take-away from the luncheon. then, if that's what it was, people left with heartburn, not doggie bags. >>> i