bob shrum, thank you as well. >> thank care, reverend. >> as you said, mr. romney will be toast.orking class people are the ones in the toaster. and i'm trying to help make sure they don't push us down into the fire. still ahead, debunking rick scott's claim that drug testing for welfare would save florida money. nice try, mr. scott. but then, dick cheney's new defense of torture. and why he wanted to bomb yet another country in the middle east. we'll be right back. ♪ [ country ] [ man ] ♪ gone, like my last paycheck ♪ gone, gone away ♪ gone, like my landlord's smile ♪ ♪ gone, gone away ♪ my baby's gone away with dedicated claims specialists... and around-the-clock service, travelers can help make things better quicker. will your auto and home insurer... be there when you need them most? for an agent or quote, call 800-my-coverage... or visit travelers.com. you're gonna have the hottest car on the block. [ airplane engine rumbles ] show me the carfax. yeah, show me the carfax. we...we ran out. what? just show me the carfax. before you buy a used car, get a carfax vehicle history

shrum is right, make them say no. make them say, this bridge is fine as it is, as dangerous as it is, we don't have to fix it. you're watching "hardball." ease of cooking is very important to me. perdue perfect portions is great on busy nights. five chicken breasts individually wrapped, so you can use what you want and put the rest in the refrigerator. and the best part is it only takes 10 minutes. it's my go-to meal. energy is being produced to power our lives. while energy developement comes with some risk, north america's natural gas producers are committed to safely and responsibly providing decades of cleaner burning energy for our country, drilling thousands of feet below fresh water sources within self contained well systems and using state of the art monitoring technologies, rigorous practices help ensure our operations are safe and clean for our communities and the environment we are america's natural gas. the doctor leaned over and said to me, "you just beat the widow-maker." i was put on an aspirin, and it'

bob shrum, i think that the real problem is not that romney and others don't get it. i think we don't get it. they are not operating off the same wave length that most people -- they don't understand when we are talking about what people need this this skun try. they have a different definition whf people are. >> reverend, i think that's completely right. we now know why they kept mitt romney off the campaign trail. ben smith, of politico, say they have the mittness protection program. they hide him away because every time he goes out there, he says or does something goofy and shows how out of touch he is. jim demint, that's an ugly thing we heard. socialist, collectivist, anti-america, painted him as other than is. is alien to us. the two examples demint cited are health preform. that's why the president is so anti-american. health reform is as anti-american as theodore roosevelt who proposed it almost a century ago and reform is become as american as eisenhower who had strict regulations in the 50s. >> let me say this, bob, the irony to me is that the president was

shrum is right. make them say no. let them say this bridge is fine the way te is, as dangerous as it is subpoena we don't have to fix it. let them say that. >>> wuch watching "hardball" pervisor. supervisor is genius...i transfer. transfer! transfer! transfer! transfer! transfer! hello...my name is... peggy? come on!!! hello? want better customer service? switch to discover. ranked #1 in customer loyalty. it pays to discover. >>> president obama is losing ground in the all-important state of florida. an important one. deadlocked in a hypothetical matchup with mitt romney. i said so 44-44. a lot of promises out there, romney. the president is losing support of ind accident voters. they disapprove of the job he's doing by nearly 2-1. trouble for obama. 61 disapprove. dark clouds for the president in the sunshine state. he's got to get out of that. we'll be right back. ooh, watch out, bad guys. kraft singles. the american cheese. he needs some gellin'. yeahhhhhhh. gellin' is like having a teeny tiny foot masseuse in your

shrum is right. make them say no. let them say this bridge is fine the way it is, as dangerous as it is. we don't have to fix it. let them say that. >>> you're watching "hardball" only on msnbc. a full serving of vegetables plus a full serving of fruit. but it just tastes like fruit. [ male announcer ] get five dollars in money-saving coupons at v8juice.com. >>> president obama is losing ground in the all-important state of florida. an important one. deadlocked in a hypothetical matchup with mitt romney. i said so 44-44. a lot of promises out there, romney. the president is losing support of independent voters. they disapprove of the job he's doing by nearly 2-1. trouble for obama. 61 disapprove. dark clouds for the president in the sunshine state. he's got to get out of that. he's got to get out of that. we good idea. let's go. did i just say that out loud? [ female announcer ] feel fresh up to 5 times longer with scope outlast. still feeling fresh? oh, yeah. [ female announcer ] what will you outlast? excuse me? my

joining me now is democratic strategist bob shrum, senior adviser to john kerry in the 2004 campaignand msnbc analyst michael steele, former rnc chairman. thank you both for being here tonight. >> good to be with you, al. >> glad to be here. >> let me start with you, michael. isn't perry crossing the line with all of this, talking about treasonous, talking about black cloud over the country? i mean, isn't this way over the line? >> no, i don't think so, al. i think it's part of the dog days of summer and the hot rhetoric of campaigning, and it's everything that you cited in yourç opening was said aboua republican candidate or president in the last ten years. so, you know, it is what it is. bloth sides engage any hyper boli, even the reference of black cloud, really? you want to stretch it that far. >> i just quoted what he said. i didn't give a conclusion. >> it's your inference, al, and you know your inference. >> let me ask you a question. >> yes, sir. >> since you said that it has been said about every republican candidate in the last ten years and i ran the last ten years, tell

let's bring in bob shrum tonight. is this a fight that president obama must see to the finish?this something that he can really put out there day after day to fight for this payroll tax holiday, and is it a winning issue for him? >> it's absolutely a winning issue. the republicans have a wonderfully republican idea. a tax increase of 1,000 to $2,000 a year, but only on people and incomes of $100,000 a year or less. they hate obama more than they hate taxes. the fact that he's proposing this is the reason they're going to oppose it. these people represent the march of the economic morons. they've been telling us the way to create jobs is to have less money in the economy. they only care about tax cut when is it affects the rich. remember how they talked about that waitress george w. bush did in 2000 who was going to get a tax cut? she got the equivalent of a diet coke a day. wealthy people got hundreds of billions of dollars in tax cuts and the country got a huge deficit followed by a huge crash. >> these republican legislators, these representatives and senators are home doing

. >> there is probably no better place for two young guys to grow shrums except this warehouse.twant all that way for the owners of back to the roots. >> we started this in his kitchen. >> they were two u.c. berkeley students that wanted to be investment bankers but when professor raised the idea of raising mushrooms from coffee grounds. only one grew and they were too scared to eat it. >> no, we took it to a restaurant here in berkeley and we had them try it first. we had no idea had a they were. we didn't know any different. >> these are no white buttons, they are gourmet mushroom buttons, part of a mushroom kit that sells around the country. >> they stuck a deal with pete's coffee and collects 20,000 pounds a week. as the idea sprouted, there was one problem, what to do with all their own waste. >> so they tried to sell it on craigslist. it turns out a huge market out there for mushroom soil. >> now they sell that, too. their business and their product don't grow. the next venture, hops that will soon become shitake. >> to show people you can operate a successful company but

. >> bob shrum and david winston.paign advisor to this campaign, is that what you would come up with? we never told you it was going to come quickly. >> look, i as you know have defended the president all along. i think he's done a very good job under very difficult circumstances but no, that's not the theme i would go to. look, if you look at what the markets are doing today, ron insana's exactly right, one of the ironies of this debt deal, we had to have it because a default would have really crashed the markets, is that the market is worried that we are cutting spending too soon and too fast. i think economically in terms of policy, that means the fed is the only thing we got left, because we don't have fiscal policy -- >> they don't have a whole lot of weapons left, if any. >> well, they can go to a q-3. but politically, that's the question you're asking, i think the president needs a message with an edge. he needs to go out there and cast this election in terms of who's standing up for the middle class, who's sta

. >>> for more on the politics of the economy, turn to a longtime democratic consultant, bob shrum. seems like the two have met on the road to somewhere. the latest "new york times"/cbs poll shows 62% of americans say the country should give higher part to the job creation versus 29% it should be cutting spending. you just heard from cramer. i don't know his politics. i like him but don't know his politics. he says it's time to spend money. my question again, everybody knew growing up, a contract for boeing or anybody, or bud company, i group up in philly, every time they spent money there were jobs and jobs around job. why don't they do it? why doesn't obama do it? >> i don't get it. he ought to put a real jobs agenda in fronts of the congress, real job creation. even if they're not going to pass it and then fight for it. jfk didn't stop proposing medicare because the congress wouldn't pass it. you've got to go out there and fight for those things you believe in. >> what would teddy kennedy do right now? i'm serious. right now. >> an infrastructure investment bank, which john kerry

join me now is democratic strategist bob shrum, now professor at new york university. also with me is national political reporter for the washington post, dana milbank. bob, are people fining finally coming together to deal with the economy? >> i think that is very difficult. i think there is tremendous resistance with the republicans, as you just said, even tax reform from raising rates that would raise a lot of additional revenue. the president doesn't have a lot he can do on list own at this point. the federal reserve may be able to do something. but i think the president has to lead. if i were him, i would consider calling offer my vacation in august. calling congress back in. saying it's time to put country first. and going out there with a program, a, to sustain the recovery and b to cut the debt over the medium and long-term. >> if we could, bob, we are assuming that some of these people in their discussion want to put country first pf some of them have said in no uncertain term is that priority is the defeat of president obama. it seems that they don't care if

rom joining me is democratic strategist bob shrum and wayne slater, senior flit political writer for dallas morning news. set coauthor of "bush's brain." bob, how important is rick perry to the evangelical republicans? >> oh, i think he is very important. and i think he is in a unique position. there is some small chance that in the end, he helps romney, if he doesn't take off and splits that evangelical vote between himself and michele bachmann. but i think much more likely, he becomes a bridge between two parts of the republican party. the evangelical elements of the party to which he has very strong appeal, although i think some of what he does there would hurt him in a general election. and the economic base of the party or the people who care about economic issues because he has it stand in a debate and look at rom romney and say, i'm the job creator. you're the job destroyer with your record in job industry. wayne knows more about this than i do, but i've watched it. seeing what he did to kay bailey hutchison in 2010, what he then did to the democratic nominee bill white, this

. >> and bob shrum, democratic strategist and professor at new york university.h for being here. michael -- >> glad to be here. hi, guys. >> how you doing, bob? >> i was going right into michael, bob. i'm sorry to even let you respond. i don't usually get michael this close to me so i got to swing while i got him. >> i got to duck. >> is huntsman giving inconvenient truths about the gop in public? >> i think so. it is a pretty gutsy move to make. now, the question is, when he's in california, at the reagan library in a couple of weeks, meeting with romney on one side and bachmann on the other and so forth, will he still bring that gain to the table? if he zp, if he sustains this level of conversation, in which he is calling them out and he is trying to be very clear and definitive, what is your plan, what are you going to do? that gives him some juice. gets people to pay more attention. the question is, what is your plan? what are you putting on the table? it is a very interesting dance. you saw pawlenty. you blink on monday or tuesday and it doesn't go anywhere,

bob shrum always a pleasure to have you with us. >>> one of rick perry's cronies shooting for a job in new campaign video compares welfare recipients to donkeys. mitt romney went on fox and flip-flopped again. this time it was about terrorism. for a while now, you've been taking an antidepressant. but your cloud of depression is still with you. maybe it's time to ask your doctor about adding seroquel xr to your antidepressant to treat your depression. seroquel xr is a once-daily, extended-release tablet, which means medication is released around the clock. for many, seroquel xr, when added to an antidepressant, was proven more effective than an antidepressant alone at helping people feel less depressed. call your doctor if you have unusual changes in mood, behavior, or thoughts of suicide. antidepressants can increase these in children, teens, and young adults. elderly dementia patients taking seroquel xr have an increased risk of death. call your doctor if you have fever, stiff muscles, and confusion, as these may be signs of a life-threatening reaction or if you have uncontrollable m

decision whether or not to provide bilingual ballots is a financing -- is a function of change in census shrum. it is simple demography. >> shannon: congressman, can you put a price on somebody's ability to vote in a republican democracy? >> a couple of things. i think all of us support the ability for every united states citizen with a legal right to cast a ballot to do so in this country. there is no specific right in law, for someone who does not speak english to be afforded the right to vote in their native language. what the law says in the long form, in a given jurisdiction over 5% of the voting age respondents say that they are not -- their ability to comprehend english is not in the very well category it goes very well, well, fair and not at all. if they respond in anything other than very well, they're considered language deficient. if that jurisdiction meets that 5% threshold, every ballot has to go out dual language. i think that's a really gross exaggeration in terms of defining that need. i said at the university of vera rutz you -- i studied at the university of veracruz in mexic