nick confessore has been writing about this. you have a piece in the "times" today looking into these details. some people may feel it sounds like word games but what are you finding and why should a voter care about this sort of disputed record? >> those are two very different questions. we're finding that overall there isn't any evidence that mitt romney actively managed investments or picked companies or told executives at bain-owned companies what to do. he seems like he was on the sidelines. the problem is technically he still controlled bain. he simply delegated his power to his partners when he left. so the question for voters is, who cares. at a certain point, kind of getting into the nitty-gritty of where was he, how much power did he have, but the fact is, this company he was on leave from and still basically had control of in a legal sense, was doing a lot of investments and he and his staff won't say that they think the investments were a bad idea and the answer is probably of course they didn't, because that was wha

there's a new article out by nick confessore in the "times" that examines this inner conflict.aign finance woman said her role in the campaign made perher a puncg bag for the labor union. her fortune was making her quote, radioactive and she was expressing private frustration that merged with the white house's quote harsh tone about wealth and corporate greed. nick, you went in on a deep dive here and penny is not your average cajillionaire. she basically created barack obama's political future before he was barack obama. what happened there as you report? >> i think it's really a story about what happens when you go from the excitement and energy and unity and in some ways, fun of a winning campaign into kind of the drudgery and frustrations and pressures and trade-offs and compromises of governing, of being in the white house. it's just not as fun and those relationships often get strained. >> you say relationships. wasn't it partly a social problem? she's an adult, she is a business woman, she's a serious person, she's able to play hardball. what seemed to come through in yo

nick confessore, you have a piece in the "new york times" today.l us about that. >> well, everyone's heard of super pacs. you know, you can raise and spend all the money you want out of a super pac as long as you're independent but they have one big problem. they have to disclose who their donors are. if you are a publicly traded corporation and have shareholders and customers and people who, you know, have their own preferences, it's kind of a bad bet, if you put $50 million into some super pac, everyone will know about it. instead you give to a tax exempt group which is allowed to do some political activity but not full-time political activity, and they run educational ads. they will educate you about barack obama. they will educate you about mitt romney. not campaign ads, educational ads. lots of money is going to flow through these groups in 2012. >> the crossroads i believe is one of those groups that exists as an educational group. >> they're both. >> david, the notion, is there hope for reform after this election cycle? >> this 501-c4 is par

nick confessore has been writing about this.it sounds like word games but what are you finding and why should a voter care about this sort of disputed record? >> those are two very different questions. we're finding that overall there isn't any evidence that mitt romney actively managed investments or picked companies or told executives at bain-owned companies what to do. he seems like he was on the sidelines. the problem is technically he still controlled bain. he s