clearly rick santorum does not have the solution here. >> richard wolffe whose book is out in paperbookr joining us tonight, richard. >> thank you, lawrence. >> a quick programming note. we'll have a special post-debate show tomorrow night on "the last word." michael moore will be among our guests reacting to the latest republican debate. >>> after the break, michele bachmann takes a swipe at mitt romney calling him a frugal socialist which he is compared to michele bachmann who has benefited more from socialism than any other republican candidate. >>> and there is breaking news. we're following mississippi voters have rejected an amendment that would have effectively banned abortions in the state by declaring that life begins at the moment of conception. debbie wasserman-schultz joins me coming up. ♪ ♪ ♪ when the things that you need ♪ ♪ come at just the right speed, that's logistics. ♪ ♪ medicine that can't wait legal briefs there by eight, ♪ ♪ that's logistics. ♪ ♪ freight for you, box for me box that keeps you healthy, ♪ ♪ that's logistics. ♪ ♪ saving time, cutting stress, when you

i read that somewhere, and it wasn't richard wolffe that wrote it.ichard, let me put this up to you. let's look at the jobs bill that the house of representatives, the republicans, have put forward, and let's see how moral they were in terms of caring for those that need help in this country. eight aimed at deregulation, and deregulation helps big business. five aimed at oil drilling so their so-called 15 forgot jobs bills that they want the senate to pass doesn't seem to me to be caring for those that we were told that we should care for if they want to use religion asç e basis and the bible as their -- as their book of what they want to go by. >> yeah. and, look, you're a much better theologian and i thought caring for god's plan was part of it and regulating the oil industry to make sure they don't spoil the planet seems caring about the world around us, but in any case, look, we're talking about a presidential debate among republican candidates that currently is being led by a guy whose research amounts to a friend who may have heard something a

msnbc political analyst richard wolffe. and our friend mara is here to fact check the debate. the debate was held outside michigan. how would romney explain -- here as what he said. >> my view is whether it was by president bush or president obama, it was the wrong way to go. they gave general motors to the uaw and gave chrysler to fiat. >> governor romney said that the bailout gave gm for the uaw and chrysler to fiat. let's see what the associated press had to say about there. they are reporting that the uaw trust got a 17.5% stake in general motors, a much smaller stake than the american people got, which was about 30%. fiat got just about a 20% stake in chrysler, so neither really fits. now, to rule on the accuracy of these statements, we wanted to dust off the rev-o-meter, and that judges them on a scale, so on this particular point, we are going to give governor romney a three-quarter bloggo, mostly misleading. to the statement that the bailout was wrong, that of course is his opinion, but it did save an estimated 1.4 million jobs, rev, back to you. >> lincoln is a republ

. >> joining me now is msnbc political analyst richard wolffe and matt advisor a political reporter forhanks for both of you for being with me tonight. >> thanks, reverend. thanks for having me. >> richard, why does mitt romney keep lying? does he think we won't notice, or is there some strategy to this? >> well, you've got to look at what this ad was and where it was played. 140,000 buy in new hampshire which is his strongest state by far kind of leads to some question. he's playing the cable media, for sure, but he's also kind of desperate here. this is not a -- an ad you make as a sign of strength, and the problem for romney is that his numbers just aren't strong enough. as long as this is a referendum, this primary season is a referendum about mitt romney, he's never going to break 25 point. he has to shift this to attacking the president and move to a general election strategy, so he's overreaching here because that's his only path to convincing those very skeptical conservatives that he's really one of them. >> now, matt, is that the strategy that you feel that the romney camp has

also joining me, msnbc political analyst richard wolffe. congressman, let me start with you. how can we expect a fair ruling from justices who have such a blatant conflict of interest? >> well, on such an important case as this, clearly justice thomas should not be hearing the case with his wife being ambassador himself, described m ambassador with the agenda they have got. i think it's a very strong case in the court. to keep other american families out of court facing a bankruptcy judge because they have no health insurance. so i'm pleased they'll decide this, but it's unfortunate that justice thomas would involve himself in the case. >> now richard. this is serious. this is clear. just played the sound bite where mrs. thomas spoke for herself about maybe president obama happened to wake this country up. we're not talking about some kind of interpretation, some marginal attack. this is a direct, frontal partisan attack. we might add that mr. thomas did not disclose his wife's connection and financial connection until challenged. how can he sit there and then, let me bring t

states so how do we get to this point and now that we're here how do we get out of this mess richard wolffe joins me now from new york he's a professor of economics the unit at the new school university in new york city at the university of massachusetts amherst in the author of numerous books including the brilliant capitalism it's the fan the global economic meltdown and what to do about it richard welcome back to the program thank you and thank you for the kind words there they're absolutely true if germany doesn't budge on this thing and the euro collapses or the e.u. begins to unravel how does that impact us here in the united states. well if it actually happens and if the europeans begin to dissolve the effect on the united states will be immediate and profound american banks are for example deeply intertwined with their counterparts in europe and they will suffer and american banks are already in very bad shape they have a little room for any kind of serious downturn so right away you'll see a seizing up of credit you'll have something that will look a lot like what the breakdown of

>> joining me now is richard wolffe, msnbc political analyst and knee a made lee came henderson political report forethe "washington post." thank you both for being here.l henderson political report forethe "washington post." thank you both for being here. >> thank you. >> richard, to me it looks like willard is joining the tea party cut, cut, cut crowd. what do you make of it? >> clearly what he was talking about is trying to fool them when he's one of them when they really don't believe that's the case. but more kind of worrying that his pitch to the tea party for me is this notion that he's serious about deficits, serious about the economy. and the list of cuts he came up with would not pass the laugh test among the nation's rating agencies who themselves are a bit of a joke. but really you want to have a hearing where these kinds of ideas, cutting the arts funding, cutting public broadcasting, and you want experts to tell you just how serious an impact that will be on the deficit this country faces because it's minimal. it really doesn't go anywhere. it is jul pust pure politics. the

richard wolffe is an msnbc political analyst and joe williams is the white house correspondent for politico. is a better description, richard, that he's doing steadily, or is he static, because there's a difference between the two? >> well, if you talk to some pollsters actually his numbers are slightly declining, and the problem for romney, apart from not having numbers that really blow it out here, is that expectations are way higher than his numbers are, and that sets up this really difficult dynamic where you have the conventional wisdom for all the political insiders saying this guy is the inevitable nominee, and yet you look at those early states, look at his national numbers, and they are just not as strong as expectations are. that leaves you to some real problems in those early weeks and months of the primary. >> joe, he's not winning primary season, but he's surviving primary season. in the end, isn't that enough to capture the nomination? >> well, in most cases surviving advances the strategy that you want to go for. make it to the end, don't screw up. and i think he's kind of in

melissa harris-perry and richard wolffe thank you for your time. >> thank you, reverend. >>> ahead, newt wants poor 9-year-olds to work as janitors, and the gop loves it. folks meet your gop. >>> and meet mitt romney, speaking out about buying computers and obliterating e-mails. you won't believe what he's saying. >>> plus the smear plan uncovered. we've got the secret plan showing you how the right wing is distorting the occupy movement. >>> and it's the video shocking the nation. peaceful students getting pepper spray sprayed. >> close your eyes! >> we're live with one of the students and i've got a commentary. you're watching "politics nation" on msnbc. this new at&t 4g lte is fast. did you hear sam... ...got promoted to director? so 12 seconds ago. we should get him a present. thanks for the gift basket. you're welcome. you're welcome. did you see hr just sent out new... ...office rules? cause you're currently in violation of 6 of them. oh yeah, baby? ...and 7. did you guys hear that fred is leaving? so 30 seconds ago. [ noisemakers blow ] [ both ] we'll miss you! oh, facecake! there

. >>> nbc political analyst richard wolffe joins us now. >> good morning, lester. >> very often, it's a death spiral as the dribble, dribble of information comes out and eventually they crash and burn. you heard the poll numbers there. that doesn't seem to be the case with cain. is that so much a judgment on him as it is the media and how we're covering this? >> it's a little bit of both but this is a different candidate, different environment. you have to understand who he appeals to, why his numbers are so high in the republican party. he has this ultra conservative base who hate the media more than the general population. with this particular block, the more he's attacked or perceived to be attacked by the media, the more he faces these persistent questions about his behavior, the more popular he gets, the more fund-raising he can do. toughing this out with this particular crowd, that's important in the early states like iowa or south carolina, that's great for him. with the general population, though, with other voters, the more moderate, centrist republicans, that's where he'll s