four of the states the president has visited, red states, red states, red states and red states.hese were states that george w. bush won. take a peek again. nine red states in 2004, see them, were blue states for obama in 2008. that's what makes this map so fascinating. at the colorado stop, the president promoted his ideas for job creation and he tried on a new more populous line to counter republican criticism that his plan to raise taxes on affluent americans amounts to class warfare. >> you know what? if asking a millionaire to pay the same tax rate as a plumber makes me a class warrior, a warrior for the working class, i will accept that. i will wear that charge as a badge of honor. the only warfare i've seen is the battle that has been waged against middle class families in this country for a decade now. >> colorado's nine electoral college votes are a big help to the obama campaign in 2008, but can he count on them in 2012? colorado's democratic governor john hickenlooper is with us tonight. why the president carry colorado? >> it would be very close. i think it would be a

states. reliably red. ll me about these states and what they'll have in common. >> there are a lot of them. but there just aren't as many people in those reliably red states. they tend to run right down the middle of the country, a little bit in the mountain west and obviously into the south. those are all reliably red states and they be reliably red this year because states like utah are really red, they're not going to go anywhere this year. the playing field, what that map tells you, the combination of the red and the blue states, tells you that the 16 6 to 10 states where this election will probably be decided. it will be in states like colorado, which president obama won for the democrats last year, but that is not a reliably democratic state. can he do that again? can he pull it off in north carolina, for example, and in virginia, states again, not reliable democratic states but states he won. he probably will need a couple of those to offset breaks in that blue line. he's not going to get all those b

before that, california looked more like a red state. in recent elections the majority of californians have backed the democratic presidential candidate for example 2008, barack obama won 61.1% of the state vote. in 2004, john kerry won 54.4%. and in 2000, al gore won 53.5%. but from 1952 to 1988, republicans carried california in all but one race. that was 1964 when democrat lyndon johnson won by 59.1%. the field poll also found that the state is dividing into two entrenched camps, one on the coast, one inland. there are now more registered republicans than democrats in inland california. that's a big change from about 20 years ago. and the coastal counties have become increasingly democratic. outnumbering republicans by almost 20%. and in both inland and coastal california, the number of voters registering as nonpartisan, that has jumped by at least 10% since 1992. >>> san francisco mayor ed lee says he welcomes the expansion of a reknowned ceramic industry. heat ceramics just announced an expansion. they make dinner ware that's being u

you have all these red states and all these blue states. then what's up with nebraska? nebraska is red but with a spot. nebraska and maine are the only two states in the country where presidential candidates don't necessarily get all the electoral votes for the state. they don't win the whole state. those states, nebraska and maine, hand out their electoral votes district by district. even though john mccain won nebraska overall, in the congressional district where omaha is, barack obama won. and so obama/biden got one blue electoral vote there. that's the spot. of course the 2008 election was, as i've been saying, a blowout. the one electorate vote from nebraska did not matter. the one blue spot in nebraska was not a deciding thing. but in 2012, those economic headwinds president obama was talking about to that democratic audience last week, i mean, nobody knows for sure, but looks like because of those economic headwinds, it may very well be a much closer election in 2012. it may be a very hard fought election. and so that one democratic electoral vote from omaha, nebr

he was the red state to my blue state. all you have to understand to know about how complicated and difficult this relationship was my first memory of my brother was with when he sail me out a window when i was 2 years old and in the san antonio emergency room with a cut on my eye brow. he gave me the gift of a hard head. he went from there to being the youngest member of the john berk society and coming into my room to smash my joan biaz records because she was on the list. he was complicated, but saying all of that he was mysterious. he grew up to be a trial lawyer turned apple orchardist. part of the madening sibling thing was understanding the control freak nature that my brother had. for example, every year he would send me a box of fruit. the fruit he grew in his gorgeous orchards in washington state. the fruit came with the carl tax where you would get 25 telephone calls before the fruit came, such as, fruit is coming next week, are you going to be home? this is said in a texas accent. i would say i don't know. he s

pick them and turn as it was much like france steer clear of me for it's going to get rich in the red states and their support of the dictators until the last minute and when. the army turned against them and it was no longer possible to support them and then they said ok we want democracy is wonderful and then they moved to try to ensure that the regimes went stayed pretty much as they were and so it's a very old pattern but putting that aside it's true that the united states announced that it would cast of the to promote three so as you know there's the united states and israel have been rejecting a political settlement that is supported by virtually the entire world. lead we were going to some extent it's much influence around us or to almost no relevant part in this region except i think about it to miserable. fact if you take right now and turkey have really covered their relations it's going to that's an effect because arab spring what's happening there are changes in the world what's happening is israel is getting warmer isolated i mean the u.s. is going for isolated preside over a co

stories artsy russia city of yes lovell says an emotional goodbye to the victims of red states plane crash killed almost all of the local ice hockey teams. thousands of people streaming into the studio where the locomotive jaroslav all played on showtime as n.p.r.'s level as a city mourns any grieves the loss of their stars. the u.s. prepares to remember september eleventh the day that it reached the war on terror now feared by some to have been on the go threat to the world. and egypt declares a state of alert after a crowd strong the israeli embassy in cairo enraged by the killing of five egyptian border guards last march. it's just after three pm here in the russian capital and this is r t for the families and fans of russia's lokomotiv ice hockey team gather at the home stadium where the players who died of wednesday's plane crash claimed their lasting russian a prime minister vladimir putin also attended to pay his respects to the team our correspondent sean thomas is witnessing the city's grief. very somber day here in slidell as of thousands of people came to pay their final r

country's top national ice hockey team wiped out in the blink of an eye forty three people died on the red state and local to get a slob play that crashed on takeoff. moscow calls on the international community not to take sides in syria's internal violence as president medvedev says it may go see a shrink as the only way to peace while the arab league analysis its reach an agreement with damascus on long promised reforms. and now it's time for sports with the unit . thanks tessa great to have you with us this sunday afternoon here in central moscow plenty of sport ahead including. court date with rafael nadal and novak djokovic bounce into the u.s. open decider a repeat of last year's final twelve. serino williams will do battle for the ladies title later on some. tough test reaming rugby world cup champion south africa age wales in their opening clash of this year's campaign. give me five tough long world finals kick off in moscow with the home side earning a spot on the podium. let's start with tennis where the final lineups of the u.s. open are sets novak djokovic on the rafael nadal will tw

state. but the meeting with happened in reaction to senate bill five i mean you know kind of way what you saw happen in wisconsin where two republicans in deep red districts were recalled and the republicans almost lost the state senate we don't have that recall mechanism so you guys are the would be bill is going to be on the ballot here in november and a united scarf before you know they needed somewhere around two hundred thousand a little under signatures they got one point three million. so you seem to seem grassroots fire here that you saw in wisconsin where people are just sick of this and they've seen you know they seen their livelihoods attack in this state as here even worse than wisconsin it they also to quick like to bar you rights from firefighters and policeman so they even want to step further here and they're stopping the backlash so if they join cases now try to sit down and talk with people when you when you have before they just need a thirty percent approval rating or under study to talk yes yes so privatizing a prison who benefits from this. of course product liberations and unit great opening the head of the rehabilitation

that's the key is that if you were to say that texas also has to go district by district the big red states also have to go district by district and maybe that's a conversation we could have because then you're going to be taking some democratic votes and republican states and giving them to the democrats but when you hand pick one of the largest blue states and say here's a state that we're pretty sure the democrats are going to win and let's carve off some votes from that and just give them away the republican candidate that's not reform that's election breaking who picked pennsylvania the governor of pennsylvania did so he. do you really think that he's smart enough for america really enough to just come up with this on his own and was or is there is there any track back to earth has this been tried before i mean there are two states that do this already maine does this already and interestingly nebraska has done this for a long brassicas talking about undue and that's right and that there's the catchy. barack obama actually won one of the districts in nebraska so this is so the republic

creating jobs in the private sector but seventeen thousand government jobs almost all of them in red states republican governors and most of them teachers actually seventeen thousand government jobs vanished and we've seen this month after month after month in fact we've got a. chart here someplace here it is right here this shows the cumulative job growth since the stimulus act of private sector versus government sector the government sector is the red line which is falling off of the than private sectors the blueline private sector seems to be doing fine the government sector is falling apart so why are the republicans so busy laying off public sector people while the economy's trying to create jobs i don't think anyone would say the private sector is doing fine it's not a significant number of jobs well that's ok certainly there in the recovery the fact of the matter is when you buy a ministration path that stimulus bill that used. christina romer used there you know mathematics this will add one point one point so dollars in the economy doing this way and they said it unemployment would

answer did you guys know that red states decided to sell i'm silent i had read that i did not i hadn't heard that you know i don't know that you know i didn't. if i'm not mistaken i was of the impression that taiwan was. occupied by the british oh i think our relationship with taiwan is probably just as important as our relationship isn't there you have it it seems americans kind of know where it is but why it's such a big issue reporting from washington and i general said oh. i think when i want to get your thoughts on this i mean to what extent do you think that the american public is aware at all of all these different kind of divisions and complicated relationships between the countries where we are not very aware of them and all because if you watch the cable news networks you would know that taiwan certainly existed you know that the part of white house party crashers. you know broke up but that seems to be where the focus is with the media the mainstream media but taiwan is a very critical part of our policy towards asia but again it's not it's not the nineteenth it's the one ni

deputy online editor the weekly standard and brian darling columnist of human events contributor to red state big government and director of government studies at the heritage foundation bryan thanks over there because both of those let's get started the c.b.o.t. congressional budget office you should a warning to the gang of twelve super committee yesterday literally a warning to the gang saying that the nation is on the verge of another recession and that their actions could make it worse in fact these are their exact words put on the screen here paul. the makers wanted to achieve both a short term economic boost and medium and long term fiscal sustainability which are these are both things present then they would have to put in place quote changes in taxes and spending that would widen the deficit now but narrow it later in the decade as in the economy needs a jump start means a stimulus right now austerity down the road you can establish both and a lot no problem but that has to be the order earlier in the show we examine the outrageous poverty numbers but it seems to me that the republic

as always a facing a red. state as turkey prepares to challenge its blockade of gaza and the international court of justice it comes and it cannot expand and relations ankara expelled its. all military ties a place he's also apologized for last may. on friday the un investigation published a report in packets. they found that israeli commanding excessive force was boarding the ship but all thinking. oh it's actually said only the hague should rule on the other side now israel's prime minister has reiterated his refusal to apologize. the former head of the israeli diplomatic mission. says israel. have to make peace with the palestinians before turkey becomes our friend. israel is lost its closest friend in the region in the last two decades which is a strong diplomatic political blow also a strategic blow because the the army's used to praying together i think in addition on top of the damage to the bilateral relations we have to see if there will be a spillover to egypt in jordan i think this is the moment the criti

syndicated columnist for car first dot com and brian darling almost of human events contributed red state dot com and big government dot com and director of government studies of the herd foundation. let's get right into it the president gave a speech last night and he kicked it off by saying basically it wasn't all politics here's what is. this past week reporters have been asking what will this speech mean for the present. will mean for congress i will affect the polls and the next election. yes how will it affect their polls the next election what's at stake here was doesn't it seems to me this was the opening speech of the two thousand presidential election. i mean president obama is the one who has the very negative cruel rating you know he has a lot to prove a negative approval rating in washington oh yeah but you know he's he's the incumbent he's the incumbent and he's trying to demonstrate to people that they should continue to support him i mean he's got a long road ahead of him and you know last night was supposed to be about jobs and how to create jobs and we didn't see a plan

to sell crystal meth ok and so i'm not talking about thousands of rural districts all over say red states but they're not going to admit that but there are people see that and as soon as it starts to eat it personally then you're going to start to see people press for real change and real coverage from the media so we can get information on how to help themselves now is there any way you know of course you can buy a lot of this on globalization this is what's happening here with the world because jobs moving. overseas you just american workers talk and here you are and we do this to ourselves as well how do we not say this well i mean we did i mean really go to the media is to blame for their for not giving the basis of the american population giving them the basics of education but what we did but i mean this kind of concept has been around forever you just create you know you just basically carve out your sector you know when one second disappears you build the infrastructure up for the next we couldn't even get agreement on that so of course all these jobs go overseas low paying jobs t

weekly standard and broiling brian darling columnist at human events distributor and contributor to red state dot com and the governor dot com and director of government studies at the heritage foundation gentlemen welcome. just to start out the joint session of congress was supposed to be held and was a wednesday of which said wednesday of next week and the first day that congress is going to be back the president has been talking for some time he is going to lay out his jobs program apparently clear of those who could. john boehner john boehner says no he didn't say yes he simply was informed three different reporters now have said that he has confirmed that he further said this is bipartisan we basically bottom line boehner said we're not going to do this it's the night of the republican debate and besides that even if it wasn't we want you to do it thursday instead because that's the night of book football season and nobody will watch the president. the house he baiters letter to the to the to the president says the house will not be in session until wednesday september seventh with votes

weinstein senior editor at the daily caller and brian darling columnist the human events contributor to red state dot com to govern dot com and director of global studies at the earth which foundation really get three more titles for i don't know if you want to focus another hostage scenario brewing here the government looks like it may shutdown the continuing resolution failed today in the house of representatives. there was a group of how many were cantor at stuff a billion dollars for. hurricane relief and earthquake relief which women included his own district in there in the republicans apparently revolted from that and and then so there was some democrats were about what have you with this either. and in the meantime there's about seven b. . dollars in the senate they're saying seven billion dollars with disaster relief the house was saying three and a half but that's not even the short term so is the government going to shut down you know how unreasonable you know where is this thing going i am not one for small fish tragedies and this is what in my mind this is small fish strategy seven b

susan page, you've covered republican primaries, sort of red state, blue state, republican politics forxplain to some of our blue state viewers why that was. >> even in blue states, i think, a majority of voters in both parties support the death penalty for the most heinous crimes. so i thought that the audience reaction, i thought was a little discomforting. but governor perry's answer on it, i thought, demonstrated his strength. that's the kind of question that candidates. even a candidate like bill clinton would fumble or seem uncertain about. he gave an answer that 80% of americans probably agree with. you come in and kill a child or a police officer, people overwhelmingly support the death penalty in those cases. and he made that argument quite cogently. while he's going to have trouble with some of the things he said last night on that issue, i think that is going to be not something that creates problems for him. >> and very quickly, karen finney, what did you make of perry giving a tip of the hat to president obama on killing bin laden? >> i think that was part of the law and or

he was not for red states or blue states but the united states of america. and also making government work again. they love this. this is the government can work part. the third thing you should know is they are the least traditional generation in american history. they adhere to traditional family structure. more have been raised in single-parent households. they are the least religious generation. the least affiliated with organized religion. only a quarter of them identify with organized religion. 67% of them say they pray every day. they believe in god and have value than call themselves spiritual but don't identify with organized religion. as much as previous generations. they have the fewest steps about sexual orientation. this is a generation where a majority believe in same-sex ie marriage. given these guidelines how do we connect to them and sell our message especially in 2012 which is the next big opportunity to make our case to the millennials and the american people? i think what we need to do is look get the issues that are most important to the

so michele, even though she has a red state district, 24 or 25 state legislatures in her district arelican. so it's a deep red district. but she consistently underperforms other republicans on the ballot and my concern is that these provocative statements drive away independents and moderates who we need to have in republicans to defeat obama in 2012. >> can i come back on that? i agree with what you say. i want to say one thing. the people who warned parents that if they had their children vaccinated they could easily become autistic did terrible damage because it persuaded a number of parents not to have their children vaccinated. and to warn that getting vaccinated for hpv causes mental retardation is making exactly the same mistake and causes -- and particularly when it comes from a leading political figure in the country. >> we got to leave it there, gentlemen. ron carey, good to have you on, david gergen as well. let us know what you think. we're on facebook and follow me on twitter, @anderson cooper. i'm a little behind on the tweeting tonight. i'll try to get caught up in this

eight red states, those red states are the states in the past these repressive voter id laws. look at them. you know them. texas. taxes, they are so bad that they said not only are going to have his repressive voter registration law, but we're going to make one extension. want other form of idea we will accept. guess what it is. a handgun registration. okay? okay, folks. what do we think we are dealing with? and in alabama, georgia, south carolina, tennessee, indiana, wisconsin and kansas, all of these states have these horrible voter id requirements. and if you look at these blue states, the blue states are the states that quote, encourage voter id. now, what do you think encourage means? encourage means you have all these poll workers sitting at their come on, where's your voter id? you will not be able to vote and people will be forced to the provincial bouts that will not be counted. so those states are michigan, florida, louisiana, oklahoma, south dakota, idaho, rhode island and hawaii. and 23 other states, 23 other states are considering these blocks. and acting these ki

let's look at what "red state" founder erick erickson wrote today about romney's vulnerability. "romney remains without a natural constituency. outside of the beltway crowd and the republican base holds him in almost as much contempt as they do president obama." so that's a problem going into a general election, too. >> well, it is. i mean, look, the bottom line is that mitt romney committed a cardinal sin back in 2008 which was he tried to run away from his record. he tried to pander to conservatives and conservatives, no matter what you want to think about them, they're not dummies. they know when someone flip-flops to court their vote. it doesn't accomplish the thing you're trying to accomplish it. people see through it. now to see romney running more or less, what he kind of wanted -- he should have run as in 2008, it increased the problem of the phoniness thing for grassroots conservatives. they look at him and say, we don't believe a word that comes out of his mouth. >> i don't know about the not dummies thing. they voted more michele bachmann and herman cain. >> that's yo

you have a large number of democrats up for election in swing states or red states in 2012, and getting someone by ben nelson to vote on anybody will be impossible. >> if you look at the fact that republicans, their priority. they future up in the house nine abortion bills. showing you the priorities. nine bills on abortion, not one on jobs, shows you where they're all. when democrats are kind of fluctuating in the senate, maybe that's why the president said we need to be marching again. maybe that's what hi wall street saying. i don't know, but i'm going to do it anyway. thank you for your time tonight. >>> ahead, the tea part is trying to get school kids to read the u.s. constitution. great. but why do they include plugs for a glenn beck political group? is he a founding father? >>> and as health care laws heads to the supreme court, lawmakers are calling for an investigation into clarence thomas', quote, suspicious actions. does justice thomas have a serious conflict of interest on health care decision? it's a hot one, and it's next. you're watching "politics nation" on msnbc. [ boy

to believe he would not be the president of red states or blue states, but of the united states.this angry class warfare tone is much at odds with what he was doing in 2008. >> greta: all right. in light of where the voters stand, and the different policies, the different republican candidates, and the enormous amount of money, expected to have a lot of money chest? it can be so destructive to your opponent, so positive toward yourself, that the money becomes so much more important than message? >> money allows you to convey message. yet that does matter. carolina in 2008, president think it was better than 2-1. in indiana, i think it was 7-1. in virginia, better than 2-1. as a result, he was able to carry these traditionally republican states. the last time indiana or virginia voted for a democrat for president, 1964. 1976. and yetégñ?ñ? obama had this huh advantage in the fall of 2008 change the tone in washington. i'm upset with the deficits of the bush years. i'm going to cut taxes for $250,000 a year. and interestingly enough, the second most widely splayed ad of said, gover

we've got to stand by people whether they live in red states or blue state whether they are democrats, republicans, independents. we stand by one another, and that is critically important. let me say to the senator fm louisiana, i think the thing that i noticed over the weekend back in illinois as i traveled around was how fed up people are with what's going on here in washington on capitol hill. when they see us break down into another cussing match over shutting down the government, they say for goodness sakes, ow up. grow up and accept your responsibility. we're here today accepting a grown-up responsibility. the house of representatives is not here today. i hope they're going to send a message to us that they found a solution, or if not, i hope they are planning on returning this week because we have work to do. on saturday, the spending for the government ends, and once again, we face a shutdown, a shutdown which would cause unnecessary hardship to innocent people all across america. if you think you have heard this script before or watched this movie before, you have. this is th

they go back and fort and it looks like at some point red state legislature will be in democratic handst they did in pennsylvania. let's take that state offline. there's a way in which you can chip away at the credibility of the presidential election system. >> only nebraska and main have that system. no major electoral vote state has it. do you foresee if pennsylvania were to go this way that michigan, ohio, florida, the other big battleground states that now have republican legislatures could pull the same thing? >> it's only valuable in a left leaning battleground state that goes for the democrat usually. if one of those states gets a republican legislature, absolutely. that's the kind of state you imagine will flip back to democrats who will presumably flip it back at some point. you hear people talk about switching to a system where you win with a national popular vote which is pie in the sky but if this took off and you saw the system fall apart, that would become relevant. >> thank you so much. and up next, israel on israel. the democratic campaign chair on the u.n. vote and jobs

it was a democratic stay now it is a red state.sident had this big lead up to the speech when he gets back from his trip to martha's vineyard. he gives this speech, joint session of congress, is there anything new they heard from the president tonight? does this all sound the same from him? is there anything that inspired them tonight? >> in the back, go ahead guys. >> it sounds the same, same rhetoric. pass the bill, read it later. he could have replaced obamacare with this job bill. >> nothing new. >> all short term stuff. businesses want to be able to plan long term. >> that's a temporary job that's not a job that is going to last 10 years. >> overall question, reelection or results? was this a speech about reelection, results? >> reelection! >> people who voted for him, please defend him. >> why? [ laughing ] >> would you defend him? >> absolutely not. >> why not? >> he's not doing a good job. >> will you defend him? >> i wouldn't defend him. it is more about jobs than anything. >> will you defend him? >> yes, i would. he needs

i am joined by paul begala, and cnn contributor erick erickson and editor-in-chief of the red state blog wants infrastructure bank and tax cuts and $300 billion and smaller than what the white house would call the reinvestment act and not what the republicans like to favorably call the stimulus plan. from our reporting and your reporting, how big and bold is the president's plan? >> look, it's big. it is bold? i'm not so sure. think about it. you need at least $100 to $200 billion to offset the baking in the cake already when the current stimulus expires in december, so i assume that some of the $300 billion is continuing the payroll tax cut, and then there is incremental stimulus in the form of more infrastructure spending and cuts. the devil in the details. according to reporting, he will offset with $300 billion in spending cuts. you want the tax cuts now and the spending cuts later. you get the stimulus now when the economy needs it and the fiscal balancings act when the debt is more of a problem. >> so as a democrat, who's looking a, to help the unemployed, and b, to reframe the pol

erick erickson from conservative blog "red state," he writes today, rick perry stands on the precipicence like last night could push him off the edge of support of people who want an anti-romney alternative but really want to beat barack obama even more. gene, this is their nightmare. they thought they, you know, there was something wrong. they could see it. there was something wrong with romney because of romney care. there was something wrong with each one of these candidates. finally here comes perry. he's perfect. that didn't last long. >> no, it didn't last long. and, you know, the old saying used to be, democrats fall in love with their candidates and republicans call in line. and that's kind of flipped now. and the republicans want to fall in love. they want the perfect candidate, and i was going to say the perfect guy. it's probably going to be a guy. and that person i think is not around. the republican party right now is a kind of a confusion -- it's a ball of confusion in some ways. you have the establishment, you have the tea party. bridging that divide wouldn't be easy for

guess what, none of those are red states. >> do you think this is class warfare by the president? because the republicans are waging class warfare, they're just on the side of the superrich. >> it is partially class warfare and i think it is also partly heartfelt democratic ideology as a way to solve problems. that's what this proposal really does. that's where it gets most of its deficit reduction or savings from. here are the numbers worth pointing out. the top 1% of this country makes $353,000 a year. they pay 19.4% -- they made 19.4% of all the income in this country and pay 28.1% of all the income taxes. the tax burden is increasingly shifting to a smaller and smaller sliv he of people who pay it. but 47% of the country pays zero income taxes at all. both parties are culpable in getting people off the hook so nobody has an obligation to pay income taxes in this country. >> if you're sitting at home right now and you're a family of four, making $35,000 a year and you're sitting here watching wall street execs getting record bonuses after those very same people bailed them out,