joining me now is nia-malika henderson reporting for "the washington post." it's tricky for first ladies to get into talking policies too much. michelle obama seems to have the perfect touch when she does talk policy, she has a tone that makes them seem nonpartisan. >> that's exactly right. she is, as you said, a perfect surrogate. who needs bill clinton who has been widely off message, when you have michelle obama? she in some ways is a better surrogate for his husband's policy than her husband because she is able to marry the personal, his background story, with the political. and you know, this wasn't always easy for the first lady. when she came in, there were some -- you know, some stumbling. in 2010, they very much want heard to be out there on the stump. she wasn't as comfortable being out there. she wanted to in some ways save up her political for her husband. and we see her using it quite effectively, with women voters. that's something she did in 2008, she'd have roundtables with women voter. she got the nickname the closer because she was so effecti

dan rather, nia-malika henderson, john harris and kathleen parker. see you back here next week.

someone told me to reintroduce you, joan walsh and nia-malika henderson. president tried to champion the good news in the economy this morning, but he's faced heat from the republicans for saying, quote, the private sector is doing fine. here's where the president, i think, stumbled. let's watch him. >> we created 4.3 million jobs over the last 27 months. over 800,000 just this year alone. the private sector is doing fine. where we're seeing weaknesses in our economy have to do with state and local government. >> private sector is doing fine, miscue. a tad askew, as seinfeld would say. anyway, here's mitt romney quickly jumping on the remarks on the campaign trail today. even mitt can kwach thcatch thi. let's watch. >> he said the private sector is doing fine. he said the private sector is doing fine. is he really that out of touch? for the president of the united states to stand up and say the private sector is doing fine? he's going to go down in history as an extraordinary miscalculation and misunderstanding by a president who's out of touch. >> well, b

. >> joining me now, political reporter for "the washington post" nia-malika henderson and editor inief reid wilson. reid, let me start with you, we just heard from senator ba raus sew, when we think about it, what about the states? there are a handful of governors, chris christie, rick perry, just to name a couple, who said they will not support the law. when we think about this, really, at the end of the day could the governors block the obama health care plan? >> well, not exactly, richard. this is all bt exchanges that every state gets to set up that then delivers the care from the state instead of from the federal government. if the states don't set up those exchanges in a -- follow the time line the federal government lays out, then the government comes in and essentially does it for them. there's kind of an irony that the party so concerned with the tenth amendment and states' rights are giving up theability to control their own exchanges and instead giving that power to the federal government. you know, scott walker is a governor who's done this in wisconsin. he said he'll wa

. >>> joining me for front-page politics, nia malika henderson and msnbc slate contributor.hat president obama has failed to come up with a jobs plan. it's a talking point that the romney surrogates have repeated on the morning shows. are we seeing a new message, t president's plan didn't fail, raefro rather, that he didn't have one? >> i think that's right. you saw it start on friday when governor romney came out to essentially say, that president obama had been more focused on his historical legacy on legislation around obama care, around health care. than he had been on jobs. he also unveiled a new campaign slogan of putting jobs first, a little play on bill clinton's campaign slogan, putting people first. what you see here from all the republicans at this point is that they see a real opening for the first time since july, the unemployment rate has ticked up. it had been sliding down from about 9.1% i think in july of last year and of course, 8.1% and of course it ticked up 8.2%. they sense a real opening here. it's something that they hadn't had all year for the most pa