steve kornacki? >> well, when you frame it that way, it damning.e curious to ask jonathan about this is what i hear from paul ryan defenders, it comes down to we have, you know, 14, 15 trillion debt problem in the country at least paul ryan has put a plan forward and you know, there is a budget -- >> the courage argument. >> there is a budget from obama but nobody's rallied around it. there's no democratic long-term deficit reduction plan out there to compete with the ryan plan. how do you feel about it? did they make a mistake in not putting one out, the democrats. >> the democrats have a plan, obama has a budget. it doesn't reduce the budget as much as ryan's does. it relies on trillions and trillions of dollars in unspecified savings and tax expenditures, they won't say which, relies on trillions of dollars in savings in the domestic discretionary budget, which is like everything, it's not entitlements or defense, but he won't say what perhaps he's cutting there. it's hitting the limits of the definition of what is a budget and what is something

. >> how many times does he need to say that, steve kornacki? >> we've been having this argument for decades. you cannot underestimate the challenge that obama faces here. he can not be caught making a robin hood argument where the morally right thing to do is to take kir of the middle claes, maybe ask the rich to pay more. you need to make an argument this is fundamentally linked to the concept of the american dream, fundamentally linked to idea of american recovery. if you give them jobs, disposable income, there's all of this money, more people become millionaires. but that argument is tougher to get brought acceptance for than you might think. >> if you look at history, right? democrats are the ones who presided over programs in 20th century that created the middle class, right? stronger unions, stronger middle class. it's what the republicans are trying to remove and meanwhile you have paul ryan who is fighting to tax the poor more in order to pay for tax cuts for the rich. how does that make more people rich? >> isn't that -- >> i have to

it does what steve kornacki was just talking about. it ties up everything. it ties up bain. it ties up massachusetts. it also ties up every faux pas that romney committed that made him seem like thurston hall iii and gordon gekko, out of touch wealthy guy, the tax returns, all of that. they want to make that all one big bundle of disqualification for swing voters, for those voter who is are the 8% or 10% in the eight or nine states who are going to matter, who are uncertain about the president. in an economy like this, especially if it gets rattled again by a european fiasco. if the job numbers are poor over the next few months, they must disqualify romney. they must speak directly to the voter who is would take a flier on somebody else. they want to make romney so unappealing and so not on their side they have to stick with obama, even despite their doubts. >> steve, the polls indicate there is room to create character doubt about mitt romney, that his favorability numbers have not been good. although the latest "washington post" poll shows they are improving. the president

menendez, steve kornacki of salon.com, buzzfeed editor-in-chief, the always eternal little buzzy ben smith. mitt romney is doing his best to sell his resume to the american public but there's a glaring hole in his pitch. the four years he spent as governor of massachusetts. duly noted says the president. >> he doesn't really talk about what he did in massachusetts. but he does talk about being a business guy. >> that might be because for the past year, mitt romney has equated the running of the state of massachusetts to a clinton eras controversy. >> i spent 25 years in business, only four years as a governor, and i joke that i didn't inhale. >> i spent four years as a governor. i joke that i didn't inhale. >> four years in government. i didn't inhale. i promise. >> only four years as governor. i didn't inhale. >> mitt romney's campaign is down today. he'll be heading from his home in massachusetts to his other home in california. joining me to help us step into the way back machine is "time" magazine and msnbc senior political analyst mark halperin. he joins us from cambridge, massa

and msnbc contributor steve kornacki of salon.com, and the "boston globe's" scott helman co-author of

so with me at the table is steve kornacki a msnbc contributor and writer for the salon and joy-ann reidhat report rex nutti nutting. >> first, respond to your criticism that the president's spending simply reaches the wrong conclusion? >> well, people have quibbled with my numbers, but i still don't believe i got it wrong in a major way, because it does not change the story at all that spending accelerated before obama took office with the t.a.r.p. bailout and with the expansion of unemployment benefits and medicaid and all of the other things that happened when masses unemployment hits, but really since then, spending has been on a really flat trajectory. even though we have had the stimulus, and the auto bailouts and we've had lots of unemployment benefits paid out, spending is really not growing at all since he took office. >> and rex, it seems like the big issue in the numbers piece for you is about fiscal year 2009 and whether or not we should give those spending numbers to president bush or give them to president obama, because i would like to give them to president obama in the s

and msnbc contributor steve kornacki of salon.com, and the "boston globe's" scott helman co-author of "the real romney." mitt romney will officially become the rominee tonight as long as ron paul doesn't mount a surprise landslide victory in texas. romney needs 58 of texas's 155 dell greats. the romney campaign and super pacs are launching a new line of attack against the president, pushing back against the bayne criticism with a web video that highlights the troubled green technology companies that received energy department funds u under obama. this new web video from the super pac. s. >> obama invested tax dollars in solyndra, lost half a billion, 1100 workers laid off without fair warning. >> risky investment strategy did not stop there. >> 11 green energy companies besides solyndra, billions of tax dollars, declared bankruptcy. >> glenn thrush, is this scary? is team obama scared about what si si solyndra might do on the campaign trail? >> 1100 lost jobs, how many are we mustering with bayne nose are 100s. >> the bayne math over jobs is porous math insofar as you gain some, you l

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joining me now is steve korna i kornacki. he is writing about booker he apology. and dana milbank. thanks to both of you for your time tonight. >> sure. thanks, reverend. >> steve, republicans are using booker to go after the president but what will they say about all of the republicans attacking romney for all of the last few months? >> the same idea of george w. bush. you pretend it never happen pepd by you look at the clips from this year. you can look at clips from every election that mitt romney has ever run, for 1994 on, against republicans and against democrats, whichever party they are from, they notice this chief of. john mccain invoked. it was his primary for the u.s. senate in 1949 when he was running against a venture capital guy. other than that, everybody brings it up. >> so, dana, when we hear romney defending himself, and he had to defend himself against a big attack on this with newt gingrich, let me show you this, back in january. he was defending himself in a debate against an attack by newt gingrich. >> the specific cases where bain capital's model, to take over