the republicans of rush renominated presidential candidate mitt romney promises a hardline stance against russia faces criticism for flip flopping on the previous policy. we go on board one of the walls of foster's sailing ships for breathtaking scenery so stay tuned for that. playing football in the scorching july sun of the iberian peninsula is senseless torture for some of these men others see it as a simple warm up before more difficult contest on dry land they see their rivals face to face but at sea as it says on nothing more than a blip on a radar screen. wind and waves are the only tangible evidence of their determination to win. the crew of the russian three must sailing ship mir has little time to prepare ahead of the second phase of the two thousand and twelve toll ships race nevertheless a fine five minutes for a brief leaving ceremony. i would like to congratulate you today as we begin our voyage out to sea i hope will have a good start this time too i urge you all to do your best like. the crew success is a matter of on earth for the captain and instructor of mir he will soo

of catholics. i mean, she's a student at georgetown. and also explicitly almost it makes rush limbaugh the face of the republican party on women's issues.. >>? i mean, when you think sandra fluke you immediately think of what rush limbaugh said. that's obviously a winning issue the democrats think for themselves. >> i don't want to diminish what sandra said, you knew in some respects there were going to be conservative or republican voices who couldn't handle her speaking on the stage and say something deeply offensive. i think they wanted to bait them in. one thing that's interesting about this convention, no one's mentioned the supreme court. at least it hasn't gotten much mention at all. this is where all this stuff sort of meets. i'm waiting for one speaker to get up there and say, listen, this presidential election is most important because it could decide the next two, possibly three justices on the court. >> i would say -- >> not a motivating issue? >> no, you hear that every four years. every election is about the supreme court. >> the magnitude of the decisions the supreme court has handed down in the last year or two. i think

republican party cannot win in this environment. it has to get out of politics and find another move. >> reporter: donald trump, tweeting what he heard from rush limbaugh. if obama wins, it is the end of the republican party. many conservative critics argue romney must deliver details. on romney's tax cuts for all, when will romney lift which tax deductions he'll get rid of to make up the difference? so many like the mortgage interest deduction. and as one conservative writer put it today, romney can no longer tell the voters he can handle the economy better. romney has to show it, not tell it. >>> and the candidates did take something of a political pause, pulling all their attack ad office the air, in recognition of the 9/11 anniversary. at the pentagon yesterday, a massive american flag was unfurled over the side of the building. the president and the first lady attended a ceremony there. laying a wreath in honor of the victims. >>> and the towers of light, reaching to the sky. survivors of victims and family members gathered yesterday. >>> chicago's striking teachers head back to the picket lines with no agreement in sight. both sides are

campaign came out yesterday with a statement about mitt romney saying in the wake of this violence, the rush by republicansuding mitt romney, sarah palin and scores of other conservative critics to condemn president obama for policies they claimed helped precipitate the attacks is as tortured in its reasoning as it is unseemly in its timing. republicans, right and left either condemning mitt romney or refusing to join him. john boehner, mitch mcconnell, eric kantor yesterday, refused to criticize president obama because they know it's not right and it's not the right time. larry calling from new briton, connecticut. >> caller: good morning, bill. >> bill: yes, sir. >> caller: first, remove the second m from mormon and you have mitt romney. >> bill: i got it. moron. >> caller: it sounds like mitt romney is defending american values, he made it sound like pastor terry jones represents american values. i found that outrageous. >> bill: the guy that wanted to burn the koran. >> caller: and he had a smirk on his face. >> bill: yeah. listen, larry, glad you mentioned that. peter has the smirk up on your computer

their big goal is to keep him from having a second term he is not any of these other crack pots in the republican party. he is not rushimbaugh or glenn beck who called him a racist. the fact of the matter is the people in that room are those people. that is the republican party, and as to the point that there's no difference in policy, real difference, that's not true. mitt romney advocated basically going to iran and russia last night. president obama is not going to take that path. there are differences when it comes to health care and women's rights, and gay's rights, and minority rights when it comes to immigration and education, there is notten issue in this election that there is not a stark contrast between moving the country forward and taking us back in time like when george bush was president. >> jennifer: good thing we have a choice. i like it when the choice is crystal clear. that is karl frisch and michelle bernard, president of the barnard center. thanks so much for joining me inside "the war room." coming up what does picking the proper pro noun have to do with winning the election? maybe everything. an

republican party cannot win in this environment, it has to get out of politics and find another business. >> reporter: and late today, even romney surrogate donald trump tweeting what he heard from rush limbaugh today -- "if obama wins, it is the end of the republican party." many conservative critics now argue romney must start delivering details. for example, on romney's promise of tax cuts for all without raising the deficit, many economists asking, when will romney list which tax deductions he will get rid of to make up the difference. so many deductions commonplace in america like the mortgage interest deduction. and what about romney's promised cuts to rein in the deficit? there was this exchange between diane and mitt romney's running mate paul ryan. >> he said a 5% cut in basic discretionary spending. >> on what? >> that's budgets. >> reporter: get more specific about the cuts. >> mitt romney's been more specific on what it takes to prevent a debt crisis on solutions to get people back to work than anybody else running for president including the president himself. >> reporter: as one conservative writer put it romney can no longer tell the american voters he's handled the ec

of republicans. >> what do you think of all the name-calling going on? >> really the american people are turned off by it. >> don't like rush limbaugh, fox news, anything. >> on the other side you have rachel mad cow on mslgbtv. >> the democrats are whiners. >> we they lost the house, we took their binky. >> they're behaving like toddlers. they want only the toys in their sand box for them. >> why is everybody... [babbling], in fact, it's like that. >> clearly the negativity has to stop, and it has to stop now. >> republicans, stop the finger-pointing. talk about the issues. let's stop the negative campaigning. >> stop that finger-pointing. >> stop it. >> stop it! >> seriously, stop the [bleeped] finger pointing. >> stop that damn finger-pointing. i mean it. >> what is the matter with you? stop it. >> what's the matter with you, romney and ryan? >> how are you not seeing this? >> how are you not seeing how bad it is for all of us in america. >> let's not copy us. do it right. >> are republicans and democrats equivalent? of course not, but until november, are they both likely to be incredibly frustrating, [cheering and appla

republican convention talking about the platform. because it was fascinating to see what happened, which was the platform came out, started to leak, and all of the republicans rushed had nothing to do with it. platform? what are you talking about? this is the manifesto document saying what the modern republican party stands for. the thing i've been hammering home on, with the house caucus the way it is, and the way the modern republican party functions as a disciplined body, there is no separation between what the candidate says and what the party wants. >> you think they'll veto what the party wants on any issue? no, not with paul ryan as his vice president. when the rubber meets the road, the republican party has a backward view of women. >> they endorse 14th amendment due process for fetuses and endorse cutting off federal funds to universities that allow students to enroll at in-state tuition, the entire university of texas system would be cut off from federal funds. that is in the republican party platform, everyone should know that. >> and no rights for rape and incest. >> should know in our president in an online conversation last week basically embraced a

if there's a republican secretary of state who believed peace is in reach if you have american engagement, it would be him. >> richard wolf, thanks for your time tonight. >>> coming up, rush limbaugh is jumping for joy over mitt romney's 47% remarks. other republicans, well they are not so happy. michelle goldburg will weigh in. stay with us. >>> up next, breaking news out of chicago. an update on the teachers strike. >>> and later candidates down ballot are running from mitt romney after his caught on camera comments. michelle goldberg joins me. you can listen to my radio show on channel 127 on sirius radio. and on progressive talk stations around the country. follow me on twitter and like "the ed show" on facebook. we're coming right back. >>> we are back. thanks for staying with us tonight. we have breaking news now. the chicago teachers strike is over. the first strike in some 25 years is over. delegates agreed to suspend the strike and allow chicago's 25,000 teachers to vote on the city's contract offer. mayor rahm emanuel said the union agreed to extend the school day. union leaders say it's not a perfect contract. they have been on strike since last week. students

in the wake of the violence, the rush by republicans, including mitt romney, sarah palin and scores ofto condemn him, meaning the president, for policies they claim help precipitate the attacks is as tortured in its reasoning as it is unseemly in its timing. that's from mark salter. >> we disagree from time to time. that statement was taken down by the embassy because it was clearly not strong enough concerning what was happening at the embassy. now the tick tock back and forth is something, frankly, i didn't pay attention to. i do know this. americans are outraged when our embassy is attacked and the egyptian government does not take the proper measures to protect it. how much that affects our relationship with egypt, i think, is something we have to carefully calibrate, recognizing how important a role egypt is in the entire middle east. >> how much of the tick tock, really, sir, should mitt romney play a part in? in moments like this, as you point out, losing an american hero, should he not have remained above the political fray? >> look, i believe that there are so many things that

of outrage. also, shira tchtupplet, also joining us. long time aide for senator john mccain, wrote something in real clear politics. saying in part, quote, the rush by republicans including mitt romney, sarah palin and scores of other conservatives to condemn president obama for policies they claim helped precipitate the attacks is as tortured in its reasoning as it is unseemly in its timing. we just heard from rick santorum there, as well. how has the romney campaign responded to the backlash over his comments? >> well, initially they didn't even blink. they held a press conference, they doubled down on the issue, they didn't see anything wrong with it. and in the following day, you saw some of his senior advisers speak out and further emphasize their point. they didn't back down at all. but towards the end of the week, we saw them change the subject slightly, we saw romney and paul ryan return to issues like the economy which is what they would much rather be talking about than what happened earlier this week in the middle east. >> jim, in your recent issue, the question is raised did the arab spring make that region more dangerous. and he also introduce as n

couldn't possibly accuse the fox news poll of being the rigged creation of pro-obama pollsters who want to suppress the republican vote like rushe tonight, when a news organization has a new poll, that news organization treats that poll as a big deal for a couple of reasons. the biggest reason is it is news. and it is treated as news by every news organization. we treat cnn polls as news. we report on abc news polls, cbs news polls, "new york times" polls. in a political campaign, polls are news. the second reason that news organizations treat their own polls as news is that they get to report on their own polls first. we get to break the news about our own nbc poll. and so when fox news released a highly newsworthy poll yesterday, how was it treated on the most important show on fox news, the show with the biggest audience on the network? it was mentioned exactly once in one question 27 minutes into that show. >> how do you account for the discrepancy between the rasmussen poll which has it at a dead heat and the fox news poll which has the president out by six points? >> i can't account for those two differences because there

of mr. akin's fake science theory about rape and pregnancy, republicans were tripping all over each other in a rush to condemn him or calling on him to drop out of the race. and why you can see why no one would want to be associated with what todd akin said, here is an important thing about everybody calling on him to get out of the race and condemning him on the republican side. absolutely zero of these national republican candidates calling on him to get out of the race were going to been the same ballot with todd akin this year. todd akin is running a state-wide race in missouri, be that means he's on the ballot in missouri and nowhere else. so while it makes sense for republicans, it makes sense for them to be saying, please don't think of me when you think of that todd akin guy, republicans in those other states are never going to share the ballot with todd akin this fall, right? republicans' todd akin problem is not that bad. he is only on the ballot in missouri. but now republicans have a mitt romney problem. and a mitt romney problem is national. his problem holds true for every republican

who has the potential upside in all of this. >> i think it's pretty obvious that rush limbaugh's incentives are different from those republicanswant to win elections. he has to speak to the base in the most inflamed section. he does as well financially either way whether republicans win or lose. probably better when they lose. if there's one party that loves to play the victim, i think we all know who it is. but romney clearly feels he has to listen to the rush limbaughs. that's the advice he seems to be taking. >> i think he's right on this. this is really a golden opportunity for romney to make a last-ditch run. he had a bad spring, bad summer, not a good convention and now a rough run out of the convention. if he's going to make a turn to the conservative base, this gives him an opportunity to do that. we all know that the right wing is after the new deal. they want to get rid of all entitlements as they call them. why wouldn't this be seen as an opportunity by the romney camp? >> partly because he put a number to it. it's one thing to talk about moochers and parasites and those other people. but when you identify that as h

rush limbaugh joins. >> if obama wins, it's the ends of conservatism. no, it's the end of the republican party. >> they're like how can we be losing to that guy again. how can we lose to a black guy twice? it's not just about race. the reality is they have no new ideas. the american people don't like their ideas but they can't get it through their thick skull. who's fault is it? it's mitt romney's fault. he hasn't been vicious enough. >> romney, the best thing you can do is to remember this election isn't about him. he may as well be elmer fudd. we're voting against obama. i don't care who they put up. we're vetting against obama. >> yeah, well, that's very clear. >> we're voting based on hatred and now all of a sudden comparing mitt romney to elmer fudd. why? because they're losing, it must not be the republican's fault it must not be that. >> as far as the middle east is concerned, this president's national security policy has been an abysmal failure. >> oh, really? his foreign policy. john mccain, i've said it a million times for what he did in vietnam and not leaving his fellow soldi

republicans however, 63% of republicans say, yes, there were weapons of mass destruction, almost two-thirds. how do we account for this misstatement of fact? >> well, i think this is a trute to the persuasive powers of rush limbaugh and fox news and the drudge report and e rest of that echo chamber. you don't hear rush talking about weapons of mass destructn anymore, and i saw this pie chart on andrew sullivan's blog today, something like 93% of the mentions of glob warming on fox news knock it down as a real phenomenon. so when you have people living in this hermetically sealed world that does not resemble reality, they wind up believing somey ird ings >> well, when the queen mary starts making regular trips across the polar ice cap because there's no more polar ice cap, do you think they might tice has anybody seen the pictures of greenland the other day? there's no snow. >> i agree with joe. i agree that, number one, the republicans are the nostalgia party. they're the simplicity party. they're the -- >> are they luddit, anti-science? >> i think if they're convinced, as many of them are, that science is being used as a conspiracy to take away their freedom and take away their dependence -- >> i saw th

of hours, a liberal monitoring group put his remarks out on youtube. >> the republican party let this strand of strange politics grow within its midst. >> romney, perhaps reluctant it to antagonize rushh's audience, had fumbled the sandra fluke fi i can't say co-. it this time he was quick to recognize the danger. >> i think it was outrageous and offensive. i asked him to get out of the race. i've distanced myself from the kind of thing he said as far as i possibly can. >> at the gop convention ann romney herself tried to undo what damage had been done. >> i love you women! >> but the democrats clearly feel they have an edge on this issue. discovered by the media research center, raised to national prominence by rush limbaugh, now poised and polished, sandra fluke. >> our president, when he hears that a young woman has been verbally attacked thinks of his daughters, not his delegates or his donors. >> ted koppel is here with us in the studio in our giant chairs. it reminds me of the beach boys song "heroes and villains." there's no angels here. this is a two-sided fistfight. >> what sandra fluke said there at end was sweet, but it didn't have the additional advantage of being entirel

of republicans are concerned that romney is letting the race slip away. just listen to laura ingram. >> if you can't beat barack obama with this record, then shut down the party. >> rush limbaugh echoed with more. >> if obama win, you say it's the end of the republican party. and there will be a third party that will be oriented towards conservative, rand paul thinks libertarian inch. and if obama wins, the republican party will try to maneuver things so conservatives get blamed. the only problem is right now romney's not running a conservative campaign. >> we haven't seen such a collective hand wringing by the conservative opinion elite since july. the advice is coming fast and furious. here's news corp ceo rupert murdoch tweeting to win romney must open to sympathetic families. stop fearing far right. the "wall street journal" criticized romney for vagueness, quote, mr. romney's pre-existing political calculation seems to be that he can win the election without having to explain the economic moment or even his policies. weekly standard also chimed in, the as sisters that you are more comprehend tent than president obama strikes many people as merely that, an asserti

of that. well look we know that the republicans have been on satisfied with the media for a long time and they have their own purposes for doing that their propaganda unit the rush limbaugh's of fox news channels don't want you to go to independent fact finders they want you to listen to propaganda instead that's why they'll attack anything that brings you information whether it's the media whether it's professors whether it's scientists they will attack all those people now that's existed for about thirty years but now the rest of america especially independents are waking up going hey you know what this corporate controlled media isn't really giving me the actual news they're giving me a watered down version that's not critical of either party in a significant way that's why independents are mad and of course django is you know we are in the middle in the thick of things in an election year and another thing americans that this survey found americans are less likely to be paying attention to the news about national politics this election compared to back in two thousand and eight why do you think that is. well i think there's two factors there number one they'

chance of the republican party returning to the mainstream of american politics. >> jonathan, you know, the thing that puzzles me about all of this, when romney's put in this position, is the rushra engrams and, you know, whether the hannitys and so forth, seem to have a disproportionate influence on this candidate and i just don't understand the courting of the base, the feeling that they constantly have to tip their hat to the base. there was the expectation there would be the etch a sketch back to the center and it hasn't happened. we are 50 days out, less than 50 days from the election and still incredibly concerned about them. >> he psychologically captured. they seemed to think during the primary once he got the nomination that was it. no more leverage on romney. they had to get everything they were going to get from him before the nomination. that hasn't proven true. they've had almost as much leverage on the general election campaign. one of the things that says to me if he's elected it's going to continue through his presidency. he's never going to say i can do what i want, go, you know, do romney care on a national level or anything like that. that's the guy he is now