what's the obama narrative on civil rights? >> the argument is never over and the work is never done. with each succeeding generation comes new arguments about who is fully human and who is fully a citizen, and who has the privilege of being a full member of this great extended family. when the founders drafted the constitution, believe me, they never had any idea of a leader marrying her partner in the world war i memorial in d.c. and never had an idea of roger and charlene sitting up here and never had any xwrd me either, frankly. >> we haven't decided on you yet. >> exactly. jury is totally still out and i get that. but -- but -- we always take on more bus america is constantly widening the idea of what civil and human rights means and never narrowing it. which is a great genius for people to have. if you are going to have a sort of habit that you keep coming back to, century after century, there are worse habits to have. like biting your nails. but -- so we always -- widen the argument when people were trying to get on publ

the press is very sympathetic to the obama narrative on bain, and not sympathetic to romney. he needs to find an audience in the press and in the public. what will governor romney say? in the debates in the fall campaign, and profiling moments, he had a test run that he will have to address. >> do you think the press is on obama's side, beside bipartisan, but that the equity people make 20 or 30 times more than what newspaper people make. >> not necessarily from what tv people make. >> mark you're too tough on me. thank you mark and david. coming up, the obama camp stays on offense. the goal? make sure that gender gap stays as large as the grand canyon. time out. sweet. [ female announcer ] with charmin ultra soft, you can get that cushiony feeling you love while still using less. charmin ultra soft is designed with extra cushions that are soft and more absorbent and you can use four times less versus the leading value brand. ♪ ah. [ female announcer ] we all go. why not enjoy the go with charmin ultra soft. >>> great new polling numbers for a couple states, let's check the s

the press is very sympathetic to the obama narrative on bain, and not sympathetic to romney. he needs to find an audience in the press and in the public. what will governor romney say? in the debates in the fall campaign, and profiling moments, he had a test run that he will have to address. >> do you think the press is on obama's side, beside bipartisan, but that the equity people make 20 or 30 times more than what newspaper people make. >> not necessarily from what tv people make. >> mark you're too tough on me. thank you mark and david. coming up, the obama camp stays on offense. the goal? make sure that gender gap stays as large as the grand canyon. our science teacher helped us build it. ♪ now i'm a geologist at chevron, and i get to help science teachers. it has four servo motors and a wireless microcontroller. over the last three years we've put nearly 100 million dollars into american education. that's thousands of kids learning to love science. ♪ isn't that cool? and that's pretty cool. ♪ do you really think brushing is enough to keep it clean? while brushing misses

that is the barack obama narrative.successfully done that in 2008 was spin that with a new part of the electorate, and folks who had not been participating and young people, and people of color, and to say, yeah, that is right, i associate myself with the narrative and got into the game. >> and because, is the white house worried about this book when it comes up, and this is a "vanity fair" excerpt can getting me all riled up, but is the white house worried about this or part of the factorial scurry of a election cycle? >> i think they worry about everything, but to go back to the earlier point, one of the characteristics that comes from this cosmopolitan attitude is the ability to see from the perspective of others, and good leaders do that, but good presidents in culture in which we simplify don't do it in public. he has made the mistake of doing nit public and mistake not because it is the wrong thing the do in the broader context, but because it yields sound bites used to indict. so when he says he does not believe

obama. that's a useful narrative to run against those who say he is a wimp. what made it political was an advertisement that obama put out that mitt romney wouldn't have done this, wasn't about getting bin laden and didn't take the decision. that seemed to have went over the top. >> the white house seems to think it has the upper happened when it comes to national security issues which is rare of course for democrats. this is not an election, is it not, there is a run on those issues? >> we'll see it coming out now on the anniversary. obama launches his campaign this weekend. i think this is almost a backdrop. you have a backdrop of foreign affairs where they can counter some of the character issues. foreign affairs plays a big pardon unless extraordinary happens, it is the economy. character always matters in a presidential election. they're saying about obama, he takes very tough decisions, hard decisions that other people don't have the guts to do. that is quite important. >> thank you for coming in. the blind chinese act vist of the center of a diplomatic

obama. almost immediately, a narrative began that this is not just what happened, it was a tough decision taken by the president to pursue bin laden. in this particular raid, it was a hard and difficult decision taken by obama. that is a useful in their active -- that is a useful there to to use against those who say that he is a wimp. there are advertisements that mitt romney, his likely republican challenger, would not have taken that chance. to many, that seemed to go over the top. >> the white house thinks it has the upper hand when it comes to national security issues. let's face it, this is not an election that will be one on those issues. >> that is why we are seeing this come out now. it is the anniversary. obama launches this campaign this weekend. this is the backdrop, you have that backdrop as foreign affairs. foreign affairs when not play a big part unless something extraordinary happens. character always matters in a presidential election. obama takes very hard decisions when other people don't have the guts. >> thank you for coming in. the blind chinese activist at the center of a

narrative everything he touches is political. while he is raising questions about his president obama's character and integrity and raising hypothetical questions that there is no possible way of answering apart from impugning romney's character and decision-making on a hypothetical, i think it plays into the narrative that obama is a small and petty man, not unlike jimmy carter. >> small and petty man? >> bill: okay. colmes, final question. you didn't like the afghan war. you are basically a pacifist? >> whatever evil. >> except when i am fighting crowley. >> bill: how can you supported a president obama who is going to say we're going to keep them there for two years. >> i support him on a whole range of issues. i don't like everything. i think the speech was fine. we're glad he went there. i would have like them getting out there years ago. i don't support that. i wish they were out yesterday. i don't want to continue spending dollars that a country that can descend into chaos. i just said i was happy for him to be over there and honoring the troops. >> bill: i'm just trying to understand. >> you are trying to get me in trouble. th

obama is for gay marriage, i am against him"? >> not on that one iss, but it fits the narrative, the general perception of obama as dictating,g, particularly with angry whites who are swing votersn a lot of these states. >> i thinthat i is a little over-simplistic -- forgive me, evan. it is young people driving his opinion overwhehelmingly, but yoyoung people don't vote as much. a lot of these laws that have banned gay marriage have passed during primary times. it is very complicated. >> it affects a lot oolder voters. >> older voters, perhaps a lot of african-american voters. would hurt barack obama in the eltion? no, it won't. wewell let her enthusiasm for him? i don't think so over the long haul. it is probably better that he ok this position now than later in the year. the ise is beyond back obama. the question is where the countrtry is on this issue. do you do it through the ballot box or throu the courts?s? i think you do it through the courts. >> this raises the profile of that issue, same-sex marriage, in 2012. no doubt abo that. the second is that it highlights, spotlights the differences between barack obama and mney. [ male anno

obama taking mitt romney head on. are you concerned that independent voters are seeing a narrative about president obama that may not pay off by november? guest: on the contrary. what i am confident about is that mitt romney, who has made the central premise of his candidacy his experience at bain capital. that is the case he is putting forth for the american people and why he is saying we should elect him president. a close examination of his record is really important. we need to make sure that there it is, that we open up the ho od and take a good look. the other thing we need to take a good look at, which is why mitt romney focuses on his private sector and spirits, is his abysmal record as governor of massachusetts. the only opportunity he has had to show us how he would be a job creator as governor puts massachusetts 47-50 in job creation and put that state and a very difficult fiscal situation. students had a 56% increase in the amount that acosta got a college there. it is just that there are some examples. the one example that you could say is good that he dared which she runs from which is his health care refo

narrative everything he touches is political. while he is raising questions about his president obama's character and integrity and raising hypothetical questions that there is no possible way of answering apart from impugning romney's character and decision-making on a hypothetical, i think it plays into the narrative that obama is a small and petty man, not unlike jimmy carter. >> small and petty man? >> bill: okay. colmes, final question. you didn't like the afghan war. you are basically a pacifist? >> whatever evil. >> except when i am fighting crowley. >> bill: how can you supported a president obama who is going to say we're going to keep them there for two years. >> i support him on a whole range of issues. i don't like everything. i think the speech was fine. we're glad he went there. i would have like them getting out there years ago. i don't support that. i wish they were out yesterday. i don't want to continue spending dollars that a country that can descend into chaos. i just said i was happy for him to be over there and honoring the troops. >> bill: i'm just trying to understand. >> you are trying to get me in trouble. th

i think the obama's bush/romney narrative probably works a little for voters in some respect. i think certainly we in the media like to imagine the weirdness of bush and obama being in the same room. >> i think it is weird. >> when you're in the pc, when you're in the president's club -- >> you clearly have more -- the pc. >> you're part of the pc, i think that goes away. these guys aren't adversaries. bush knows that what obama is doing is campaigning. and obama i think recognizes he's in the white house because of president bush. he's in the white house because he could run against a president bush two-term economic policy and foreign policy. so i think these guys are both statesmen, above this kind of stuff and they are going to kick back and have a nice time. >> patty, you are a campaign strategist extraordinare. i want to talk about the president in addition to the talking about the failed policies of president bush, a new peg shall we say in this presidential re-election bid, mitt romney's record as governor of massachusetts. david axelrod or the team obama put up a five-

obama. >> that is the conservative narrative about what went wrong the last election that barack obama was never properly vetted. the media never fully checked him out. if the american people only known the truth back in '08. they would have never made the terrible decision to elect him as president, which is perhaps why so much of this news felt very familiar. >> i don't know whether barack obama was born in the united states or not. i don't know. but i do know this, that in his heart he's not an american. he's just not an american. >> i believe that the president was born in hawaii. or at least i hope he was. my responsibility as secretary of state is to make sure that the ballots in arizona are correct and that those people whose names are on the ballot have met the qualifications for the office they are seeking. >> it's on barack obama, the first african-american president of harvard law was born in kenya and raise ed indonesia and hawa. it's from a book promotion put out by his literary agent that barack obama approved of. >> in spite of a confession from the book agent that the error

identification with feem who were in working or middle class, having tough times and since part of the obama narrativey and republicans are favoring the rich, that you can be absolutely sure that biden will play that card over and over again. he may need to get on the decaf because he did seem to go over the top in the middle of the week. >> dave: do you think it's going to work. >> clayton: at issue here we know the base is going to many could around. but it's the independents. is the argument going to work with the independents, are they going to buy that. >> when people talk about the deficit and presented with a list of options and one is to cut programs that the middle class depends on and cares about, very little support and when it's raising taxes on the rich, a lot of support. so, you know, understandably, and it's as, as old as human nature, people are going to want solutions that are going to affect and hurt other people, not them. >> alisyn: chris, i want to play jeopardy with you since you're so good at it. cue the music. i'm going to give you the answer and you tell us the question. >> re

president obama wasn't more interested in consensus and consensus building in getting what he wanted for his base and the democratic party. >> what value do the republicans get where creating a narrative where obama looks like he's the divisive figure and they are coming in as the party to save the day? >> they're trying to throw anything up against the wall and see what will stick. the poll numbers are not looking good. mitt romney hasn't done a good job to get the party to rally around him. they are trying different things to see what the voting populous and what the media will cling to here. >> let's take another example, the war on republican. the republicans are claiming it's really the obama administration that's waging a war on women. let's look at who is being divisive here. the president wants to divide necessary help and health care for women and they are the party, the republicans that talk about transvaginal ultrasounds. what gives there? >> the attempt to roll back reproductive rights is what we're talking about. we can talk about the politics that are being played. the republicans have trying to make political moves to challenge women's rights to satisfy their base. the

get this story out because they thought it was such a beneficial story for president obama and helped change the narrative from sort of democrats being weak on national security and can't be trusted on issues like one ton of two triumphant president. you know killed bin laden something that his predecessor had not been able to do so there's no question this is a very politically story so whenever you hear about secret deals being made to give certain people information in a way that might benefit the public narrative you do have to wonder if there's some political motivation here do you think that it will be historically accurate or do you think kind of you know i mean just putting obama on this amazing. hero. right you can i can argue about historically accurate and i guess it depends on what your thoughts on as much of a hero he is of meeting carry out the raid himself you made a decision that others may or may not have made there's already been a debate with mitt romney about who would or wouldn't have made this quote gutsy call you do see that in the papers that were released in the last few days that

i wonder as you are shaping as the obama re-election campaign's narrative about mitt romney, do you think there are important differences between what romney would offer and the george w. bush-dick cheney years offered or is it the same ideas? >> i think clearly it is. i don't think we want to relive it. that's what romney is suggesting. his big economic idea is to go back to the same theory. if we cut taxes for the to and cut wall street to write its own rules then the entire economy will roar and everyone will prosper. we know that's not the case. mitt romney has the foreign policy of the 1980s and the social policy of the 1950s and the economic policy of the 1920s, which we re-visited a decade ago. we want to build a economy that's durable and people who work hard can have a chance. that's not the policy that mitt romney's offering. >> in terms of your ability to compete with the counter narrative that's being presented not just been the romney campaign but by karl rove super pac and the other super pacs that's pushing similar messages, is the arms race ramping up father than you thoug

over the weekend was trying to push the narrative that obama would be crusading on gay rights issues. that image on the news week cover. that is the visual depiction. when people are saying that's the contribution, this helps the com me in campaign, that's what they mean. it's not an insult to be called gay. it shouldn't be. that's how it favors the romney campaign. >> we know what news week means. we are new york elites here. when you necessary new york, you are a new york elite. but steve, i have a journalist question. we live in a wicked stupid country. they believe in proportion that barack obama is a muslim and huge number, millions of people, some crazy percent like 30% think he wasn't born american and think he's kenyan. crazy beliefs. news week it seems to me has to consider the responsibility of sending out into such a collectively stupid country and stupid electorate, this thing which is the only sentence in news week that most people are going to read this week. the sentence on the cover. >> right. i look at it this way, i would not deny the fact that this is going to fire

obama's birth and citizenship really fires up people. certainly not main stream republicans. people who aren't tacticians, who aren't strategists. it does fire some folks up. i think there is this narrativeama isn't one of us. that he is somebody who seems to be a little foreign to us and you take that narrative and you go a little too far and you end up with some of the things we see on the fringes of the blogosphere. >> how does that factor into the dynamic between the republicans who you point out say like speaker boehner, that he wants to talk about the economy with this other group of conservatives who say this is the fight we want. this is the fight senator mccain would not bring to barack obama and they believe that's why he lost. so is there, i don't want to use the word civil war but there seems to be a great divide there. >> tamron, it is a conflict. we even saw this with john boehner trying to get his tea party caucus to sign on to deals with they would actually try to cut with the obama white house. of course, it had nothing to do with jeremiah wright or some of these other social issues. but i do think that when you look back at today's republican party, there are folks who

narrative. only time is going to tell but this poll over all is not a good sign for president obama. and that comes from abc news amy walter. >> every time you are on the show you keep saying he has got to paint the narrative and tell the narrative. when is he going to do it? this game only goes unfortunately for some of us 167 more days. >> that's absolutely right. this is why he is going after bain, because if mitt romney cannot defend his record on bain, the totality of it being having saved more than lost, then president obama is going to win this argument can mitt romney actually defend his record and say because of what i have done as a governor and successful businessman, i am better on this economy. we're going to find out. this bain bain bain argument will be the entire campaign fight. >> i agree. all right. penny is bain a decoy? at some point the president has got to do something positive. he has been in charge. i have heard enough about bain. >> one thing you are seeing in that poll is you are seeing people are more hopeful than anxious. they are saying the economy he inhe

. >> it's this narrative that president obama is the other in all of this.rying to justify it any way they can. the secretary of state of arizona just a few days ago was talking about all these e-mail he's been getting and he's got to do his job and follow up on this. now we got a little 180 going on here. what do you make of that? what's the proper response to that? to keep calling these people out for what they are and their methods? >> unfortunately that's what we have to do. you have to match it with responses that are logical, that speak to the issue. that push away all of the mess and madness of the emotional and get to the central issue here. you just don't like this man. you're disrespect toward him. if he fills out the form like everybody else does. he's already done so. he's the president of the united states of america. respect the office. also, respect the man. there's a kind of besmirching of this man's character that is quite extraordinary here and i don't think it's anything else but a racist assault upon mr. obama's, president obama's person.