of obama's team. but, but, the ad is pretty effective because both of those people, rosen and mar are very identifiable democrats, leslie. so what say you? >> well, i say first of all, you know what? ann romney is not running for president. i know it's a shock to everybody. what kills me on the ad is really bad old soap opera type music. that aside, putting your wife forth and knocking an administration, bill maher doesn't work for the president. you know, i think that people know for the most part that hillary rosen doesn't speak for all of us on the left. all of us women myself on the left. i honestly don't think it was supposed to be such an attack on moms that don't work outside the home. we all know that is a lot of work. i think it's more the idea that somebody who is wealthy such as ann romney has that choice and then, of course, has the amount of money to buy $900 blouse. bottom line here, this, to me, does not really make the romney, the romney campaign look much better than they are trying t

of obama's team. the ad is pretty effective because both of those people, rosen and mar are very identifiable democrats, leslie. so what say you? >> well, i say first of all, you know what? ann romney is not running for president. i know it's a shock to everybody. what kills me on the ad is really bad old soap opera type music. that aside, putting your wife forth and knocking an administration, bill maher doesn't work for the president. you know, i think that people know for the most part that hillary rosen doesn't speak for all of us on the left. all of us women myself on the left. i honestly don't think it was supposed to be such an attack on moms that don't work outside the home. we all know that is a lot of work. i think it's more the idea that somebody who is wealthy such as ann romney has that choice and then, of course, has the amount of money to buy $900 blouse. bottom line here, this, to me, does not really make the romney, the romney campaign look much better than they are trying to make the

this is-- if the obama team captain succeed in painting mitt romney as an empty suit, then they will se this election because they want to use it to distract from the this whole record about obama as president. >> schieffer: wasn't it amazing-- i thought it fairly amazing this whole idea of this campaign at one of the consultants came up with to try to replow this business and tie president obama more to jeremiah wright, and they said right up front in the presentation they made to do it in a way that john mccain wouldn't let us do. i mean, this thing was really shaping us as even too nasty for today's politics. romney said no thank you. i want no part of it. >> right. the campaigns basically try and do character assassination and make it look like a natural death with their opponents. and this is a case where the character assassination came out right into the open. there was no relationship here between romney and this group that was noodling this idea. but what used to happen when you were a candidate, people who gave you money had a lot of money to put in the party, they'd give yo

played more on the offense and i think that we're seeing a kind of different push back from the obama teamink obama's big a bit more aggressive earlier in this process than democrats typically have been in the past for whatever reason. but i think that this is going to be one of those campaigns and everybody said this from the beginning, where it is coming right and left, up and down and you've got you know, those 800 pound super pacs out there that will be doing their own level of carpet bombing. so i think both sides are prepared to fully engij here. and i think that the po politico piece that you reffens are right. they want to get started early on their terms so we are talking about something about the way the president handles the economy and how people really feel about the economy. >> steve, politico reports the obama campaign has taken cues from bush/cheney 2004. i'm quoting them. in a move that make some shutter obama's command former president bush's 2004 take down of senator john kerry. a senior campaign adviser told politico, for clues on how a president with approval ratings c

obama's team released a web ad using gingrich's own words. >> are you calling mitt romney a liar? >> yes. >> reporter: president obama officially kicks off his re-election efforts with events in ohio and virginia this weekend. romney is also focusing on the state. he talks with business owners in chantilly. >> they say, what would you do to get the economy going? i say, well-being look what the president's done and do the opposite. >> reporter: romney will stay in virginia today with a campaign event in portsmouth. now, mitt romney and rick santorum will meet privately tomorrow in pittsburgh in and a media endorsement is not expected to follow. >> all watching that. tara mergener in washington, thank you. >>> the john edwards corruption trial resumes following dramatic testimony from a former edwards adviser. christina reynolds testified edwards' wife, elizabeth, reacted to a tabloid report about his affair by angrily confronting edwards and then baring her chest in front of staff members. prosecutors say edwards used campaign finance money to cover up his affair. elizabeth edwards

the obama team is targeting mitt romney's corporate record. he is firing right back. a corporate titan who got rich by cutting jobs. >> mitt romney is a job destroyer. >> the image by the obama administration in the latest ad. >> if he is going to run the country the way he runs his business, i would not want him there. >> part of a $25 million campaign aimed at countering republican claims that mitt romney has the business know- how to fix the economy. >> when others shied away, mitt romney's team stepped in. >> mitt romney says president obama is trying to distract voters from a dismal economic record, he shot back with this video. >> it is incredible. when i started, we had close to 1,400 employees, and now we have close to 6,000. >> ron paul said he will no longer actively campaign for the nomination. according to polls, obama and mitt romney are in a dead heat. it is clear the election will turn on the economy. >> if unemployment remains high -- >> it doesn't matter what they call mitt romney or what they say about his record. people will give him a good, strong l

team obama love the question.ow president obama with a big lead over mitt romney in the republican's home state of massachusetts. the obama campaign heaped big attention on the base state not because it is worried about winning but because it wants to convince you not to believe what governor romney promises now. >> a look at mitt romney's record here in massachusetts and pull back the curtain. he is not what he seems. >> in leading that rally under the massachusetts state house steps, the raid on governor romney's territory was the president. senior adviser, david axlerod, who joins us from boston. >> my word, not yours. your criticism of governor romney's record. you are saying essentially he is a fraud. >> i'm saying he is misrepresenting himself when he calls himself a job creator. that is not what he was in his business. that's certainly not what he was as governor. massachusetts had a laggered record when he was governor. he said i know how business works. i know how to create jobs. when he became governor,

obama and romney camp. what are we hearing today? >> reporter: it's a new week, there's a new ad. the ob reelection team -- obama reelection steam continues to go after mitt romney with his time at bain. the new ad highlight has specific company that the obama team said was bankrupted by mitt romney's bain capital and led to hundreds of lost jobs. >> you don't come in and take everything everybody's got and destroy a business. that's what they did. >> reporter: today president obama explained why he's not letting up. >> and the reason this is relevant to the campaign is because my opponent, governor romney, his main calling card for why he should be president is his business experience. >> reporter: it comes one day after a rising star in the democratic party blasted the current political climate. on meet the press, corey berk surprised many by referencing the lay tacks on romney. >> it's nauseating to the american public. enough is u.n. stop attacking private equity. stop attacking jeremiah wright. >> reporter: shortly after that he changed his noon a web video. >> it is reasonable. if fact, i encourag

ultimately, the obama team feels like that is what he said, that is what he did.the nomination, he won the presidency, and ultimately, he won the argument when asked this week about the idea of going into pakistan without alerting the pakistan authorities, he said he had put them on notice in that 2007 speech. there is a lot invested in a speech for the president and i think he feels good about it. >> you can watch abc this week live here on abc 7 at 10:00 a.m. >> the family of yardley love is suing the commonwealth of virginia and two coaches in a $29 million suit. >> crews are -- police are stepping up patrols over the weekend. the number of drop driving arrest spikes on weekends anyway, but is expected to be especially high overnight with the popular cinco de mayo holiday. >> last call is going to stay the same in d.c. earlier this week, a committee rejected the mayor's plan to allow bartz to stay open one hour later. supporters said it would mean more tax revenue, but critics said it could lead to more noise, crime, and congestion it was also suggested they co

is the news from actle rod team obama will get outspent from team romney. their base. >> i think it will. barack obama got more money from wall street than john mccain did. he was the candidate of wall street, the candidate of gold n mman and people of dodd/frank believed they did not do enough to rein in the banks and yet the banks hate them and they're shoveling money they gave to him, to mitt romney. that's interesting, team obama, david axelrod, will remain the base of that, too. and so i think these things that we're talking about today are all of a piece. there's a policy piece, a taxation piece that ben raises, there's the president needing to say i get it in terms of the control that great wealth wall street has over our economy and your lives, and i'm going to do something about that. and by the way, i need those small donations. and medium sized donations, too, we've got to make this a people's campaign. >> it's not just wall street, right? there are wealthy liberal progressive donors still sitting on sidelines that have not been recruited to give

that's the attack on him as the obama team wants mitt romney to seem outside of most middle classers.n the show today? >> newt gingrich, who is now a romney supporter. and martin o'malley, and they will debate the politics. and then we have words of advice from maria shriver and michael lewis as well. >>> governor o'malley certainly up and coming? >> we will ask newt gingrich what his advice is for martin o'malley who is looking to run for president it appeared. >> that will be interesting. >>> off to a quiet start this morning but temperatures hovering near 70 degrees. we will be close to 90 degrees before the day is done. we will talk about today's forecast, memorial day and the week ahead. don't go away. today is gonna be an important day for us. you ready? we wanna be our brother's keeper. what's number two we wanna do? bring it up to 90 decatherms. how bout ya, joe? let's go ahead and bring it online. attention on site, attention on site. now starting unit nine. some of the world's cleanest gas turbines are now powering some of america's biggest cities. siemens. answers. like con

it was the obama team that brought this into the campaign with a web ad featuring former president bill clinton applauding the decision, the very risky decision that president obama made. now mitt romney has said that it is not appropriate in fact a member of the romney team called it a cheap political employ to bring will into the campaign. president obama also reacting about whether that decision should have been made. romney at the time said it was ill considered, but yes of course he would have done the same thing. as he put it, even jimmy carter would have given that order. in reaction, in the news conference president obama said without naming romney said that if you say one thing a year ago and something different now, you need to explain. and so the question remains how long are will there are remain a campaign issue in the campaign between now and november. >> tracie potts for us in washington. thank you. >>> in a rare public admission, the u.s. tactic of using drone strikes to kill militants in other countries, president obama's counterterrorism advisor insisted on monday the

because i it's to the obama team's benefit not to talk about the economy when things are bad or not the way they would like it to be. this is a politically uncertain issue for him. the politics of it are so uncertain. and it's not something that they want to kind of wade into. the vice president's statements were not expected by the president's advisors. when they made them, they had to respond to them and the president did so the following tuesday by endorsing gay marriage by a move that i don't think surprised very many people. >> and long term impact especially with the black community. a large part of the black community was responsible for prop 8 in california. >> the black community and the hispanic community are big question marks. it's very, very unclear. it's sparked, though, a big debate. that's going to be an uncertain factor. i happen to think that black voters are going to vote for obama because he has astronomical support among that group. his voters are a little bit more uncertain bloc of the electorate. >> 90% of black voters supporting the president and 70% of latinos.

the first ad from the obama team. but right now obama team is explaining gaps away.ecially before the booker thing happened. they were hedging on the attack to make it much less strong and miscalculation. >> bret: booker thing, newark mayor corey booker on "meet the press" on sunday. he came out on msnbc last night saying what he said is being misconstrued. take a listen. >> i'm very upset i'm used by the g.o.p. this way. >> here they are plucking sound bites out of the interview to be, to manipulate them in a cynical manner and use them for their own purposes. if you look at the totality of the bain capital record they have done a lot to support businesses, to grow businesses. this to me i'm uncomfortable. it's nauseating to the american public. enough is enough. stop attacking private equity. stop attacking jeremiah wright. >> bret: so mara, it seems like it's tough to take it out of context. >> he did make equivalency between jeremiah wright and bain capital. later he said he didn't want to anymore. the white house is not deterred by any of this. they feel as long

i mean, i think that the obama team could not have a better script written for them or a better exampleut there. isn't there about greed? your thoughts. >> i think that's some of it. if you look another france he called not for the 30% rate on the rich, he called for a 75% tax rate on the really, really rich in france. i think he did that because he was responding to a sense that a lot of french voters had there was something unjust about the economy. the other thing that struck me today is a lot of people said, well the socialists are going to win in france and the markets are going to go. i'm starting to think that fair number of rich people that are in those markets realize that if you continue with austerity, you're going to hurt the economy. they are glad that some people are talking about putting money in average people's pockets because that's what gets the economy moving again. >> political question. do you think the obama campaign should point to what is unfolded in europe and use the word austerity? >> i think they should use the word austerity. lord knows what would happen if

the obama team has questioned that poll's methodology and they may be right with the gallup poll showing obama holding an eight-point lead with women. but we have no doubt mitt romney took a moment to kick up his polished loafers, and wait for it. there's more. form he president george w. bush has at long last endorsed mitt humney very nearly outside of n rights forum. quote, i'm for mitt romney. bush told abc news this morning as the doors of an elevator closed on him. that's resounding, isn't it? going down, sir? let's bring in our triple tuesday panel. here with me in new york is republican strategist ron christie. former special assistant to george w. bush. in washington, political analyst richard wolff and david corn, washington bureau chief for mother jones magazine and author of the best selling "showdown." do these suggest to you the president is regarded as weak or mitt romney as strong on the economy? which of those? >> i think the public probably has a very mixed opinion of both men at this point in time. they clearly like president barack obama but they don't like that the ec

. >> reporter: we are told the two will hold a joint event in a couple of weeks, but the obama team released a new campaign video featuring some of gingrich's sharpest attacks against romney. >> as the man who wants to run for the president of the united states who can't be honest -- >> reporter: we see this all the time in presidential primaries. one day a candidate is jabbing his rivals. the next day he is endorsing him. case in point this picture in 2008 when hillary clinton jumped on the bandwagon after a bruising journey. it's more appropriate to say secretary of state hillary clinton. back to you. >>> president obama just returned from an unannounced visit to afghanistan. there's still a lot of discussion regarding the politics of that trip. what are people saying about that? >> reporter: this trip was a surprise. the fact that it's being viewed through a political lens, that's no surprise at all. we have a republican who has called this trip a campaign trip but mitt romney has not commenting. he said he was pleased the president returned. at no point did he say the trip was political.

does this backfire or not. >> backfire on team obama? i think so because mitt romney is a good man. ood person. he has a solid family. they are going to attack him personally that will backfire. the problem for team obama, the obama brand in 2008 was built on the notion of hope and change, that this president would be a different kind of leader and bring everybody together, he would sit above the petty politicking. now his only option is to run a scorched earth campaign against romney, against the republicans, against the conservative movement. because he cannot run on his record. >> he has a broad definition of what a personal attack is. when we talk about his experiences at bain and his failure as governor of massachusetts. that's not a personal attack. that's an attack on his record that he says qualifies him to be president of the united states. i don't think anybody is going to attack his family. he's a fine gentleman and we have no problem with him as a person. but how he made his money and governed as governor. bill: a lot of those attacks have comeo come out. can we say they

that's not fair game. >> i think i want to know. >> i'm not sure that the enemies list that the obama teamen tens of millions of dollars. i know the one who had his divorce records being rummaged through by obama supporters gave $1 million. but we'll have to check into it a little more. i think had is fascinating. mika, you do understand what i'm saying here? >> i do. >> this is going to happen to democrats now. and i don't think that's a good thing. i think the politics is ugly enough. but if everybody believes that divorce records should be rummaged through and a lot of other personal data, next it's going to be children's educational records. it's just going to get more and more personal. if that's the world that we all want to enter politically, then, again, we're going to -- we have been asking for years why good people don't get involved in politics anymore. >> right. >> well, the answer is very clear, because of this sort of nonsense. those are people that aren't running. now we are extending that to try to make sure that people will be intimidated to not contribute to candidates. s

. >>> now to democracy 2012 news, obama's team is already taking shots at mitt romney. meanwhile, romney is marking the one-year anniversary of the death of osama bin laden. president obama made a surprise visit to afghan and will hold a news conference with hamid karzai. we'll have the details. >> reporter: this is a day when really the agenda took an unexpected term with president obama's surprise trip to afghanistan. it is his fourth trip to that country, his third as president. we are told that president and hamid karzai have signed a strategic partnership agreement after most troops withdraw in 2014. currently there are more than 130,000 coalition troops, 90,000 of which are american. polls have shown decreasing support for the war in afghanistan. the poll in march said 72% of americans oppose this war. kelly, then there's this thing about a reelection. president obama is launch his reelection this weekend. >> the president is already going after mitt romney. romney is sing -- speaking out about it. >> reporter: the romney campaign is speaking out after obama's camp

not sure it's going well for the obama team so far. we will hear more.k rebounded since the worst week in november. disease added 21. nasdaq up 68. investors monitored the g-8 summit where they failed to provide concrete plan to ease euro zone debt crisis. focus is on the major players like president and prime ministers there is a human cost often overlooked. senior foreign affairs correspondent amy kellogg has that story. >> across europe, people have taken to the street to protest austerity measures but beyond the shouting and the tear gas, there is quiet agony. britain just ends a double dip recession with over 8% unemployment is grappling with hunger. paul dillon is homeless. he had been riding the momentum of the real estate boom until the 2008 crisis hit and his construction jobs died up. >> in the three years it's gone from having plenty of money to having no money. it's very steep decline. >> he gets food from a food bank. he's not alone. one new food bank opens in britain each week to meet the demand. >> there are people going without food now u

does team obama have the same complacency team bush had and more importantly do you see the attitudeaign that you guys had in the clinton campaign of '92? >> i think honestly the romney campaign and i pointed it out, i think they're bad and i mean today this auto bailout thing, that was an onion headline when i first saw that and i don't know that the campaign comes up about this, i mean some of the things that romney's done are completely perplexing to everybody. having said that you got to figure at some point he will get better or they will get better, not demonstrated by anything that happened today. i think sometimes when you're an incumbent and you've been there, there's a tendency to defend everything that's happened, and i just think that, and it's not just, i don't want to single out the obama campaign. all across i think among democrats is just a little too much comfort here and what i'm trying to do, and you capitalized it just right, i'm trying to create some discomfort here to say look, we're a long way from having this thing in the bag. in fact, being tied in the polls

but what that 9% number does suggest is that if the obama team, i think it is a big if, but if the obamam can accomplish their goal, which is, this is a choice between what barack obama has done and will do, versus what mitt romney says he will can do, if they can make the 2012 election a choice, then mitt romney, to undecided disaffected voters isn't all this appealing a choice. if it is a referendum, essentially, look, you have two choices, barack obama is a, mitt romney is b. if you don't like a, your only other option is b, that's how romney ends up winning against the undecided voters. he won't go from 9% favorable to 55% favorable. his favorable numbers will never be great. he just has to convince them he ve, if they want it fire the guy currently in office. >> does it strike you, chuck, this the issue you of equality or same-sex marriage, or go with the numbers here, no impact on the voters it seems? >> not only that, but how about the second question we ask, which said if you would be in favor or would approve of same-sex marriage being legalized in your state, cha what is intere

i think what the obama team is looking at is not really the senateshot but the trend line. they're in good shape in florida because the democrats in florida are leading the democratic election, meaning the minorities and wherever you see that, that geesd news for the obama campaign. >> thomas, might say in the nbc news maris poll in florida last week it was as joy-ann correctly identified an we think we captured the slightly democratic flavor better than the republican numbers that the quinnipiac poll had. >> what's the margin of error? >> margin of error was three and we're seeing a slight advantage for president obama, be but, again, he's at 48%. there's a big difference. >> lee miringoff, joy-an reid, jon ralston, we appreciate your being here today. >>> dona provides federal benefits to same-seks married couples. pete williams is live in washington with the latest on this. what more is it saying? >> okay. well a couple of thingss. it's important to note this is not about whether states must recognize the same-sex couple's ability to marry. it's the question where states

at the same time, the obama team is defending the administration's stimulus grants to companies likeyndra, a company that also went bankrupt with taxpayer money. white house press secretary jar carney, trying to draw a distinction between the two. take a listen: >> how is that different from the romney argument about bain capital which is that many succeeded and a few failed? >> look, there is the difference in that your overall view of what your responsibilities are as president and what your view of the economic future is, and the president believes as he's made clear that a president's responsibility is not just to those who win, but those who if, if an for example -- if an example, in a company where there have been layoffs or gone bankrupt, that we have to make sure that those folkies have -- folks have the means to find other employment, that they have the ability to train for other kinds of work, and that's part of the overall responsibility the president has. jon: now we're learning that president obama's team will be mounting a new assault targeting governor romney's record

the obama team now is trying to magnify the political benefit of the raid with that campaign ad suggesting mitt romney may not have ordered it n the rough-and-tumble of a campaign such distortions may be commonplace, but for the president himself to do it in the presence of a foreign leader in the white house rings one word to mind. yuck. >> stewart: by the way if you enjoyed that you should check out brit hume's new show, brit hume one word reviews. good. really? >> smurftastic. >> rrrrr. >> i get it, you can't (bleep) on your opponent during an official function. like greet ago head of state. i am just curious did your cerebral cortex not record this bush election year gem with iraqi prime minister allawi. >> to the world is better off with saddam hussein sitting in a prison cell. >> that stands in stark contrast to the statement my opponent made yesterday. yuck. >> there is plenty more where that came from. look, republicans, yeah, the obama ad, kind of (bleep), a little of a cheap shot, but the only reason you are pissed is that you didn't get to run it. because let's face it, if bin h

team obama wants to beat this subject a little bit more. you know, last week was distracted by the gay marriage debate. now team obama squarely back on economic concerns with this blistering ad going after bain capital, accusing the former governor of massachusetts of being part of a company that shut down a steel mill and sucked money out at the expense of the workers. here is the ad. >> bain capital walked way with a lot of money that they made off of this plant. we view mitt romney as a job destroyer. >> to get up on national tv and brag about making jobs when he has destroyed thousands of people's careers, lifetimes, just destroying people. >> he is running for president. and if he is going to run the country the way he ran our business, i wouldn't want him there. >> now bain capital put out a statement this afternoon saying the ad had oversimplified a very cosm plex business transaction. romney was gone from bain capital when the company was shut down and gone into bankruptcy. the romney campaign came out with an ad showing the other si