compare that to superpac's. literally, we have 50 people who have financed 63% of all the money that is flowing into superpac's. there are 31 billionaires' that are financing mitt romney's superpac. these are people who have no limits on the amount of money that they throw into the political process. no limits whatsoever. there is a second big difference as well, and that is with labor unions, any individual member of the union can opt out and say, "you cannot use my money for your political purposes." when it comes to corporations, for instance, spending now under the citizens united decision -- shareholders and members of the corporation do not have that option. we have some very significant differences. caller: i do not know where to start with this guy. [inaudible] said that romney's is out raising money with obama by four to one theory they say obama is going to raise $1 billion. now romney is going to raise $4 billion? i don't think so. guest: well, we are about to see what is going to happen. at this poin

the nation's largest union it has already given more than $4 million to democratic superpacs. she said labor groups don't need to outspend republicans. >> it's never going to be a monies game. it will always be how many of our members we can get out there and educate the public. >> reporter: tuesday's recall election of with us coincidence's republican governor scott walker will be a good test for democrats, not only of their ability to raise money but the effectiveness of their ground game. lee. >> whit johnson reporting tonight from washington. along with the report the unemployment rate raised $8.2% the number of new jobs created continuing their month-to-month decline. for those out looking for work that news didn't come as a surprise. no amount of seems to break through to employers. >> reporter: there seems little fair about job fairs these days. just ask rachel sparks. >> now that i've been seriously looking for several months, it's really discouraging. >> reporter: she has plenty of discouraged company. >> i have really-- don't have any hope at this moment. >> reporter

oh, no, this is for my dirty, dirty superpac. i wouldn't want to sully your moral high ground. the view must be lovely from up there. ( laughter ). and, folks, i gotta tell you the democrats could do worse than this change jar, and they have. >> in lieu of a gift, would you ask your wedding guests to donate to president obama? his reelection campaign has now launched an on-line event registry. >> people tying the knot can ask friends and family to donate instead of giving presents. >> stephen: now we know why obama is for gay marriage-- double the fund-raising. now, folks while barack obama here is getting crushed in money ball, he has gotten some good news in the presidential horse race, or as romney calls it the presidential horse valet. obama is way out front in a recent survey conducted by leading pollster and tribal boob archivist, "national geographic." >> a "national geographic" poll asks which candidate would be better able to handle an alien invasion? the answer-- 65% said president obama. ( applause ). >> stephen: of course, of course people said obama ( cheers and ap

he is the head of a superpac called american crossroads and the superpacs raise unlimited money. there's no limit to individual contributions and they're supposed to not be coordinated with the official romney campaign or for that matter, any political campaign and there's karl rove's picture being escorted in the front page of the new york ifles and also on the washington post and he -- times and also on the washington post and he was scheduled to speak. so this seems to be a direct contravention of the spirit and letter of the law is there shouldn't be coordination between these supposed independent superpacs and these campaign committees and i think you're going to have to make a very creative point to say that how if you're a speaker and if you're there where there's strategy sessions taking place that you're independent of the campaign committee. i'm surprised the democrats haven't yelled and screamed or republicans would yell and scream if it happened in a democratic gathering. >> back in december romney decried the rise of superpacs like rove saying they had been a disaste

leo linbeck is creator of the anti-incumbent superpac and joins me now. leo, good to have you here.ides about what they know about the superpac money out there. you've given $1 million of your own money and until recently hadn't voted in a primary election. why was this appealing to you? why did you want to get involved and do this? >> thomas, the root of the problem in congress is the cycle of incumbency. there's nothing wrong with incumbents or incumbency per se. congressmen should have to compete for their seat every time. the only place you can have that competition in 85% of the districts is in the primary. so we focus on creating competition in the primary and it's both parties. right? both parties have been responsible for this massive centralization of power in washington. so we're taking on both. >> so let's give an example of this. the campaign for primary accountability is against, as you talk about, this political entrenchment. it's not against experience. >> right. >> one example we have is sylvester rayes, democratic congressman in your state, lost his primary hurt in

but chicago is warning that combined with superpacs romney will have more than $1 billion behind hims election. joining us from washington, democratic strategist tad devine. thanks for joining us. >> good to be with you. >> karl rove writing the pages of the "wall street journal" making a big point about the importance of cash in this campaign cycle. he brought up the example in 2008 president obama outspent john mccain by 7-1 in some red swing states and basically makes the case if nothing else cash may win this race. what do you make of that? >> well, you know, i can't dispute the facts. the obama campaign had a significant spending advantage in 2008 and really helped them to go into places like indiana and virginia and north carolina that, you know, democratic campaigns in the past couldn't go to. but i don't think -- i read karl's piece this morning. i don't agree with his conclusions. his conclusions are the president's in a precarious position and spending too much money. i don't think they're spending too much money at all. they're feeding a very large campaign organization, a

the romney campaign cannot coordinate with the super pak that is -- superpac that is working in its behalf. the present's campaign is helping to raise money for priority usa . the other element of this is that a lot of super pak are taking money under conditions that they have to repeal who the donors are. there are others who are taking it to do issue advertising. they do not have to repeal -- reveal. there is almost no way you can take money out of politics. smart lawyers find a way to get money into campaigns in significant amounts. maybe until there is a radical transformation, that is a given. if that is the case, candidates should be for as much transparency as possible. we are in an era where transparency is easy to do. it can be almost instantaneous. if that weren't the case, at least there would be some check on it and the public would be able to say, we know where that money is coming from. they could say, we have suspicions, but we do not know exactly who is giving it. it has an impact on people's perceptions of whether or not this is an open process or not. >> i am studying pol

the billion naras behind the conservative superpac americans for prosperity.ady pledged to give to the superpac supporting mitt romney. >>> congressman ron paul says he plans to rally supporters on the eve of the republican national convention in tampa. paul is sortedly secured the university of pla, 11,000 seat sun dome. the texas republican urged backers to use the convention as a chance to get their voices heard and those are the things we just thought you should know. >>> all right. we're watching wall street for you. the markets are surging this friday. about an hour and 15 minutes before the closing bell. we see the dow is up almost 240 points. the s&p and the nasdaq are up at well. green arrows across the board. the reason for the rally, new measures to deal with europe's debt crisis. strong way to close out the week. >>> new information on the deadly shooting at fort bragg. that tops our look at stories around the "news nation" today. military official sas the army soldier who shot and killed his battalion commander was facing court-martial and possibl

superpacs have an impact on the race.der scrutiny, kelly, comments he made in 2010 on gabby giffords. how much tougher is your job with the outside groups can coordinate using a national strategy that then could backfire? >> it's the one thing that keeps me up at night. we out-raised the republicans, out-recruited them, out-messaged them, out-organized them. there's no question the superpacs are a major factor. just this morning there was news, one guy, sheldon adelson, in las vegas, nevada, is dutmpig eight figures into the american political discourse. maybe he's trying to bid on the branding rights for the us of a, instead of the united states of america, make it united states of adelson. you have a small group of people trying to buy elections. we have to be able to compete. we're not going to win the majority by letting a small group of people fund superpacs so without having a response. and we will respond. >> when you talk about that, though, and we use a figure like adelson here to talk about the fact that he is m

as we talk about the new superpac, american unity pac launched by the hedge fund guy paul e. your party. does it mean conservatives are evolving, distancing themselves from pro-discrimination-type thinking when it comes to the lgbt community rethinking the stance on marriage equality? >> thanks for having me. i don't think conservatives are any different than anyone else in america. in 2012 every person has a gay person in their life, friends and family. mr. singer has gay people in his family, we all have come to think about these issues in a very personal way, and so everyone in america is having this discussion and thinking about these things in a personal way, and many people, including many conservatives, are coming to the conclusion that supporting same-sex civil marriage is the right thing to do. >> jimmy, when you talk about conservatives not being different from other people in america, the gop contender is not for marriage equality, there are many who came out as well and the president demonstrated he's pro-marriage equality so how do those two equate that you're sa

and so i was shocked when i learned that the very superpac that was responsible for supporting the work of getting these legislatures online to require more identification, et cetera, was the same ones we vote for every day in the congress. these are the ones that are considered, you know, at&t. and all of your big organizations who are supporting and giving millions of dollars to a superpac that's undermining your rights. so we have a responsibility to know this stuff. and to be able to leverage and to talk with them about it when they come and ask us for something. the other thing is this. we all belong -- not everybody. we all belong to the democratic party. and the democratic party raises millions of dollars and it decides how it's going to spend them. we are the base bone of the democratic party. we are the ones that can be counted on. we are the ones that if we vote, they don't have to ask us how we vote. we're voting democratic. but when you develop your strategy or your plan for how you want to get to your community, i don't know if the democratic party is there with the resourc

journal," own bide our parent company, reports one sheldon aidleson is donating $10 million to a superpac supporting mitt romney. >> jon: sheldon aidle son. holy ( bleep )! obama is working his ass off, six fund raisers a day trying to squeeze a me $3.5 million. meanwhile, romney has aidleson going, "hey, jean, why don't you pop off i check to romney for $10 million. you can sign it." "all right, mr. aidleson, i'll get right on it." sheldon aidled son gave $10 million for mitt romney inspect in the republican party i seem to remember his him backing another one. >> he gave $2001 million to a pro-gingrich pac during the primaries. >> jon: that guy! sheldon aidleson was the guy willing to spend an unlimited amount of money to crush mitt romney by bank rolling ads in the republican primary like this-- >> for tens of thousands of americans, the suffering began when nome came to town. >> i feel that is the man that destroyed us. ( laughter ). >> jon: but in retrospect, now i see we probably deserved it. romney 2012. ( laughter ) aidleson put out that ad and still donated $10 million to romney.

he has given $35 million to republican superpacs and is likely to give a lot more.s called restore our future. people close to adelson say he may give whatever it takes mike shaur that barack obama gets elected. maybe 100 million bucks. unlike you and me, he might have that capability. he's worth $25 billion. adelson has a lot to give away and romney knows it. last month, he met with adelson for nearly an hourment the question is, what does adelson expect to get? that's the small question compared to the power, they really make effective changes. john raulston is a columnist and rick tower, a former newt gingrich spoke man who acknowledged the superpac winning our future. that group was a major beneficiary of adelson's money. it is amazing if you think about putting these together, republican candidate for president, mitt romney at the alta alter of donald trump, theb you see him taking money from sheldon adelson. casino jack. it's unbelievable what's going on here. what does that say out in vegas that these guys who make money at the craps table are now running the

you are going to see republicans making that argument, the outside groups of the superpacs are goingo make it. you will hear governor romney perhaps make it, although he is dreading lightly as compared to some others. it helps republicans to be able to say the president's health care plan raised taxes and it is not based on a clip you showed. it is going to be hard for the white house to combat that. the only reason the law survived is because they got a fifth vote from the chief justice casting it this way, not as something allowed under the commerce clause but something that if it is a tax is allowed because the federal government is allowed to raise taxes. >> one of the most interesting elements of all of this when it came out yesterday was it was chief justice john roberts who made the difference to put the law over the top, not anthony kennedy. there has been backlash from roberts, from conservatives. rand paul said, just because a couple people declared something to be constitutional, does not make it so. the whole thing remains unconstitutional. congressman, jack kingston sp]w

houston home builder bob perry and las vegas casino mogul, sheldon adelson, who have given millions to superpacs, each gave walker $250,000. billionaire diane hendricks gave him $500,000. money from outside groups helped both candidates. democratic groups spent $15 million on ads and the get out of vote efforts, $8 million of that came from unions, four of it from the government workers' union. of the 18 million republican groups spent, nine of it kim from the republican governor's association, three million from americans for prosperity, a group backed by the billionaire brothers charles and david koch. >> you have to have a ground game that matches the left door to door, neighborhood to neighborhood. >> reporter: tim phillips runs americans for prosperity. beyond paying for ads, his group sent 75 staffers into wisconsin to knock on doors. >> they're now going back to states like florida and ohio and michigan and colorado, and they're going to keep doing the same grass-roots work, educating folks candidly on president obama's disastrous economic record and what folks can do about it. >> reporte

laws, we formed protecting our vote superpac. form and support your own institutions. and we have a history of doing this. black churches formed hbcus. out of hbcus. i'm an omega man. i see purple and gold sitting out on the table. i'm standing next to my delta sister, but i -- you must be an alpha. but we have a history of doing this. this is not new to us. but somehow we forgotten. we've forgotten how to take our political power and turn it into economic power that turns it into more political power that turns it into more economic power. we forgot how to support our institutions. but you know who hasn't? you know who we haven't learned from and they do this all the time? the pro-israel community. they are much smaller than us, but they have a much greater footprint. form and support your institutions. that's how you hold people accountable. power concedes nothing without demand. we demand nothing, we get nothing. >> we cannot control the conversation unless we understand the issues. we cannot become politically sophisticated unless we know and understand the issues.

the pacs and superpacs are undermining democracy. it's a concept that we have to be very vigilant about. [ applause ] >> actually bringing up democracy at the end is a perfect segue for me, because president banda, how -- what does democracy look like to you right now in the world? is democracy still appealing as a form of government? because there are criticisms of democracies and the way democracies work. they're not all perfect, as we know. what does democracy look like to you right now? is it as appealing as it once was? how do you know that it's the right path for your country? >> i have always said that yes, democracy for the whole world. but i think each part of the world will have one day to develop their own and call it democracy. because, for example, in other parts of the world, they didn't have democracy. they had what looked like auto-cratic governments. and what we see now is total chaos. is that what we want? i don't know. but for us in africa, i think we are coming up with ours, a mix of democracy and a mix of us resp

so far 196 americans have given 8 0% of the superpac money. is a system rigged for the funders and not responsive to the people. the only way to get people to believe in the system again to free the campaign so that -- >> do conservativings agree with that? i agree with you and i'm a liberal and i know liberals believe that and i have done a lot of reporting and talking to tea party folks, it's a frasz the president's used, i've heard it on occupy wall street, i have heard it from activists. but on the specific thing about, there's 196 people that have given 80% of the superpac money. the liberal in is us like that is crazy and terrible. >> if it was really visceral, they would have nominated mitt romney. conservatively speaking, imgrants are told and believed that you are as rich as you want to be, if you have a billion dollars to hand around it's because you've worked hard for it. barack obama has done a lot to count her money. the president's out of touch because he's doing so many of these funds raisers. if you go to a american's with pros

others say president must target the ubeer rich to compete with the republican don't pocket superpacseek, obama campaign filed a complaint with the federal election commission demanding super pac crossroads gps disclose the donors. the campaign says crossroads is a political group. therefore, should report its donor list. crossroads fired back calling on the president to demand the same openness from liberal groups. conservatives also jumped on the timing of a call for more transparency, the same week the president invokeed executive privilege for the first time over the fast and furious documents. national review channeled its inner charles dickens joking it was the most transparent of times, it was the least transparent of times. >>> finally a new political action committee aiming to boost republicans in the bay state got a lesson in spell check. the group massachusetts forward was forced to refile with the s.e.c. because it originally spelled "massachusetts" with only one "t" and five "s"s. rule number one, make sure your own name is right on the paperwork. >>> our top story, jay c

he has given $35 million to republican superpacs and is likely to give a lot more. his latest donation is $10 million supporting romney rp. people close to adelson says it will take -- he's worth about $25 billion. adelson has a lot of money to give away. he knows it. last month, he met with adelson for nearly an hour the question is, what does adelson expect to get? rick tower is the spokesman winning our future super pac. that was the main beneficiary of adelson's money in that go around. and the host of face to face on the nbc affiliate. it has amazing if you think about these together. this candidate for president effectively now, mitt romney genuflecting at the alter of donald trump. then you see him taking money in scads from this other fellow. what does it say in vegas that these guys who make money at the craps table are now running the presidential election of the leading republican in the country? >> well, i do have to say i think it's unfair to compare him to donald trump. he's worth more than donald trump. he's a person of substance. now, what is that su

when you throw in the superpac money, republican superpacs raising a lot more than democrats.rent ball game than four years ago, kate. >> different ball game. it's mind-boggling how much money goes into the race for the white house. every four years. it's pretty astonishing. so talking about the race, the polls are showing it's a very tight race. that president obama isn't taking anything for granted. i'm sure mitt romney is not either specifically in looking at president obama, he is working on galvanizing support among african-americans. what is he doing to reach out to african-american voters? >> yeah, this is brand new. he's out with a radio spot. running nationally, the campaign says. this targeting african-american voters. take a listen. >> four years ago, we made history. now it's time to move forward and finish what we started together. we have to show the president we have his back. >> here was this deal four years ago, kate. listen, president obama making history, the first african-american elected to the white house. look at the exit polls from four years ago. see t

part of this is also the outside money from the superpacs.s are raising and spending more money. we'll have a much more even campaign cash battle. >> it is so much money it makes your head spin. >> special election in arizona today for congresswoman gabby giffords. do the republicans have a shot at picking up the seat? >> they very much do so. this is arizona in the southeastern part of the state. it includes tucson. it's a district that leans slightly towards republicans. remember, giffords stepped down in january one year after surviving that assassination attempt. so who's running for her seat? that's the man on the right doing it, ron barber. he was a former aide of hers. he was also injured in sha shooting. he is facing off against a former marine, jesse kelly who narrowly lost to gabrielle giffords. democrats want to keep it in party hands. democrats need 25 seats zoraida in november, to pick up 25 seats from the republicans if they want to win back control of the house of representatives. >> there's one more thing i want to talk about.

the "wall street journal" reports edelson donated $10 million more to a superpac that supports governor it is fox top stories, the bottom of the hour. carl cameron is on it. governor romney went after the president in a speech saying -- for a speech that the president won't even give until tomorrow. >> he made a pitch to the influencial business roundtable here are in d.c. he made that preemptive attack on mr. obama's speech tomorrow because in part obama aides say there will be no new economic policies. really an attempt to ask for more time and frame the campaign's economic debate. here is romney. >> he will speak eloquently but the words of cheap and the record of an individual is the basis upon which you determine on whether they should ten to hold on to their job. we have 23 million americans out of work or stopped looking for work or underemplowed. that is a compelling and sad statistic. >> team obama meanwhile slammed romney's jobs plan as little more than cutting them. specifically for teachers, firefighters and cops. and the democratic international committee chimed in with a v

years in the white house, a senior adviser to george bush and a man running one of the wealthiest superpacscertain position ts from mitt romney? are we supposed to believe that harold simons, a banking billionaire, who is literally throwing millions at mitt romney, is not going to demand a return for his investment? of course they will. and so, in seeking to describe mitt romney and his gang of money moneyed manipulate laters. i'll borrow the words of phillip larkin, who said this about a political rally he once observed. it was a parade of staggering dullness stupefying hypocrisy. thank you for watching. what's up? >> my goodness me. just enjoying the -- it's like music when you speak. even if i don't hear the words sometimes, just the cycle of indictment and passion. >> dylan, you've been talking for years about mey

actually it also won't be, now that i think about it, karl rove and superpacs and their billion dollarscommon wisdom deciding factor will be this woman, angela merkel, german chancellor, of europe's largest economy, she's tasked with managing its recovery. se does not effectively manage the situation, the european economy could crash causing the global economy to crash and the american economy to crash. if the american economy crashes so, too, will president obama's re-election chances. read this in "news week" where neil ferguson wrote about it or in the "washington post" where dana milbank wrote about it or over the weekend in "politico" where ben white wrote about it or read it on my blog today where i brought together some of the people writing about it. if fact, if you tuned into the "rachel maddow show" eight months ago you could have heard me say it here, too. if europe doesn't get its act together we're likely to have a global recession next year and going to make it very hard for barack obama to get re-elected. good point, past ezra. that's one very important caveat that handso

not only did you have the superpacs in but the republican governors. you had the nra in and lots of special interests and they coordinated. they contacted 4 million voters. only 2.5 million people voted in this election. that gives you some idea. so as far as money is concerned, the lesson here is that more is better. you are never going to convince anybody, even though people say they didn't pay the attention to the ads and their minds were made up. >> what's the policy lesson. governor walker says, i made tough choices and even voters who didn't like those choices applauded me for making them. >> i think there is a lesson in that. i think what they liked about walker is that he had a plan. this is a cautionary note for mitt romney and president obama. they liked a candidate who had a plan. his plan is to reduce the size of government. that also still has a lot of rest son nance. governor walker said, you need to come up with a fiscal plan to save the economy. if you are president obama, maybe you need to start telling people just what you would do in

the existence of this-superpacs made it possible for newt gingrich and wreck santorum to stay in the camp and longer than they would have. it dragged out the nomination battle. it also made it possible for governor romney to put down the rise of newt gingrich and later rick santorum. his super-pac was instrumental in crushing the hopes of new gingrich in iowa and when rex santorum rose up as a formidable employment -- upon a, the super- pac took him back down. they're not the only ones who brought the nomination to mitt romney but there is no question that had a significant effect on a long bidding process and changing it. when you have one family giving as much money as they did to the gingrich superpa eshooc, it changes the nature of the gang -- nature g of theame. the other element is that there is essentially no separation of people now take for granted that there is no separation. technically, the romney campaign cannot coordinate with suoer-pac working in its behalf of the people running it are all ex-ann romney people and the candidates are allowed to raise money for them. is