the jobs, mr. president. >> it was a rowdy reception in iowa for mr. ryan, he was interrupted by a group of hecklers who tried to yell over him and took it a step further by actually attempting to rush the stage. >> are you going to cut medicare? are you going to cut medicare? answer the question, are you going to cut medicare? >> we like to be respectful of one another and peaceful with one another and listen to each other these ladies must not be from iowa or wisconsin. >> like i said, she must not be from iowa. so -- >> usa usa! >> everybody stay calm. president obama was also in iowa, kicking off a three-day campaign swing through the state. he was quick to take some shots of the vice presidential candidate. accusing him of blocking a bill to aid farmers in this drought. >> unfortunately right now, too many members of congress are blocking the farm bill from becoming law. i am told that governor romney's new running mate, paul ryan might be around iowa the next few days, he is one of the leaders of congress standing in the way. so if you happen to s

it was exactly one week before the iowa caucuses. rick perry who had been a staunch antiabortion politician exactly a week before the caucuses, he told a conservative iowa minister in front of his parishioners that he had had a change of heart on the issue of abortion. here's how we reported it at the time. >> another sign, i think, of rick perry banking hard for the evangelical social conservative vote, his announcement at a campaign event in iowa last night sort of striking announcement, that he's changed his mind on abortion. he said seeing mike huckabee's dvd about abortion has caused him to change his stance on the issue. even though rick perry is very, very antiabortion, he's for criminalizing it, he used to believe that the government shouldn't force rape victims or victims of incest to bear the child of their rapist or of their incestuous attacker. now, after seeing the movie, mr. perry has decided that the government should in fact force victims of rape and incest to bear the child of the rape or incest. he even teared up a l

congressman, it's the iowa state fair. that's like going to the super bowl and not talking about football. joining us now, democratic congressman joe donnelly of indiana, who's running for the state's open senate seat. welcome, congressman. >> thank you very much for having me. >> so, let's talk a little bit about the farm bill and what's happening. past their versions of a farm bill with bipartisan support, but it's sitting there. what's happening? >> it couldn't get through because they couldn't get a vote past. i should be in washington right now along the every other member of congress voting on this farm bill. at the farm of mr. newsom in columbus, indiana a few weeks ago, it was 106 degrees. you could see the tcorn wilting before your eyes. and this is one of the most painful disasters they have ever dealt with. and here we are in congress, we can't even get a vote on this. all we ask is for a vote. an up or down vote. >> you served on the agriculture committee the last time the farm bill was passed before there was a

but let me ask the question about iowa's role, the process began in iowa, the president spent an unprecedented three days with seven stops. michelle obama will be joining him. six electoral votes. iowa is relatively small compared to other states. why all the attention? guest: the president has said that he has sweet nostalgia for iowa, because it is the state that took the dare on him and others had doubts. he fills a connection and does not want to lose it. some people say the path to the white house means you need to get those electoral votes. it is one of the few swing states that could go either way. both candidates are really getting hard for iowa. guest: what kind of reaction did paul ryan get yesterday? guest: it was a huge crowd. republicans i spoke to at the state fair including senator grassley and others, the reaction they're getting is extremely favorable. democrats were very scornful. host: let me take you to last year's iowa state fair with the process was getting under way. mitt romney was beginning to dip his toe into iowa politics, not forcefully entering the caucuses but app

that was not a good answer for the people of iowa. >> e.j. dionne, how do you answer a question like that without definition? you would have to say we're going to get the farmers and ranchers relief but not put it in the budget. that's basically where he would be coming from. and just two hours after romney named paul ryan his running mate, the national republican campaign committee released a memo and a video warning members not to talk about entitlement reform, not to use that term, not to use the term privatization, or every option is on the table. don't ever say that. what does this say about ryan and the campaign? what are we seeing here early on? >> actually think you have an interesting split in the republican party between republicans on the ballot particularly in congressional races and a lot of professionals and the party base in the idelogs. let's give romney some credit. he has brought liberals and conservatives together. how often does a decision win cheers from both sides like the ryan pick did? but i think the professional repub

thanks for coming out to the fair today. >> thanks for coming to iowa. l things. all of this -- >> oh, really? no kidding. and in mitt's first campaign, i was in landsford also. >> welcome to iowa. thanks for coming. >> good to see you. >> not provoked -- >> because we could get away with it. you don't try to get someone -- >> so what nfl team do you have? >> iowa state and iowa. >> are you more -- >> this is a factor. >> you have a lot of basketball. >> we have a lot of cubs fans. >> i live an hour and a half -- >> i am behind you 100%. >> my grandfather went to -- great school. i keep going. we had an event for governor crawford. -- governor walker and the recall. that is the centerpiece -- this is -- >> you -- we got this and -- >> we ran again. >> he ran before and almost beat him. and now he's running again. >> this year -- >> good to see you. >> later in the day represents to bryan spoke at the state fair in the political soapbox area. -- later in the day, rep ryan spoke at the state fair in the political soapbox area. we will wait just a second to

ryan, about to speak at the iowa state fair. on the phone with us is jennifer jacobs, chief political reporter for "the des moines register." jennifer, will the seat on the ticket be enough to help mr. romney win iowa? >> well, the republicans here think it will be to win iowa. the reaction of republicans here is pretty universally jubilant. they just love this choice. >> what can we expect in terms of hard numbers out of iowa in terms of polling so that we can get kind of an idea of how he is resonating with republicans in that state? >> that's a good question. polling is pretty scarce here so far. the last poll showed romney up by a pinch but i think that, you know, some private polling shows maybe obama is up a bit and interesting to see in the next few days with the private polling to see if it's a bost here in iowa as the republicans suspect it will. >> what about the issue of entitlements reform? does mr. romney have to distance himself of mr. ryan's previous statements and previous proposals on entitlement reform to win th

the iowa state fair is known for the array of deep fried things available to eat there. i think the congressman and the new vp choice will find it difficult to find something to eat at the iowa state fair. >> if you haven't had the iowa twinkies at the iowa state fair you haven't lived. president obama will be in iowa tomorrow too. steve brown, always good to see you. >> i have seen steve at that fair. a little background on paul ryan. he was born and raised in wisconsin. he graduated from joseph craig high school in 1988. the town's population was at latest at 63,000 with the median household income from 2006 to 2010 about $48,000. the most recent unemployment rate topped 9% up from 8.4% the previous month and above the national average. governor romney and congressman ryan are visiting three key swing states this weekend. first it was virginia, the site of the announcement. today it is north carolina as we showed you in our prior hour. you can see some pictures there. they are wrapping up a rally north of charlottement tonight the pair heads to ryan's home turf of wisc

we saw that from the president when he was doing that bus tour in iowa. and the campaign plans to keep pushing that, saying that under the policy of what mitt romney has and paul ryan, they painting them with one brush, that medicare will be changed as we know it, will be changed. it will be turned into a voucher program. the romney campaign saying that the president has taken money from medicare in order to fund "obama care." so medicare a big issue that we'll keep hearing the white house and the president push in the coming days. >> dan, they also for weeks have been pushing mitt romney to release more of his tax returns. >> that's right. >> one year out, says a second will be coming. now the obama campaign having what i'll call a not-so-friendly exchange of notes. >> reporter: that's right. i guess we could call this let's make a deal. what you have is the obama campaign really trying to push the romney campaign into the corner. they've been asking for more taxes to be -- tax reports to be released because they believe that the american people deserve t

obama tried out the schamus the dog line this week, this past week in iowa. the campaign has been holding that in the bag for several months. you should have seen him when he first did it. beside themselves. >> a quiet romney transition is in the works where there are people coming from boston to capitol hill to talk to 202-585-3835 -- republican lawmakers about if there's a romney win, what would they do legislatively. >> republicans will use the president's, you didn't build that against him and at the republican convention and traveling heck hers in charlotte. >> when we return, the big question we put to these folks this week had to do with chelsea clinton. she teased she may try her hand at the family business. >> we are suckers for this. chelsea clinton raised a few eyebrows this past wek when asked? she would try a turn at the family business. "before my mom's campaign, i would have said no. now i don't know." which powerhouse political family will see one of its own in office next, the clinton or the bushes? chelsea clinton works for nbc news as a spec

the sun is coming out? [applause] i love being back in iowa. ere in council bluffs, but we will be heading east and i think i will and at the state fair. michelle has told me i cannot have a fried twinkie, but i will be checking out the butter cow and chocolate moose. -- mousse. that, if i can. the last time i went to the state fair, secret service let me do the bumper cars. i was not president yet, so i could do that. not this time. now, before i get started, i just want to say a few words about the drought because it has such an impact on this state and all across the country. right now, people in iowa and across the heartland are suffering from one of the worst droughts in 50 years. farmers, ranchers depend on a good crop season to pay the bills and keep a roof over their heads. i know things are tough right now. the best way to help these states is for the folks in congress to pass a farm bill that not only helps farmers and ranchers respond to natural disasters but also makes the necessary reforms to give farmers and ranchers some long- ter

trip but then paul ryan will be emerging at that point as the top surrogate of this campaign at the iowa state fair which is obviously full of lots of color and a few voters out there who know their way around a voting booth. the iowa voters are a shrewd bunch and they'll be putting paul ryan to the test. >> jim, is romney revealing any greater detail why he selected, you know, paul ryan? >> well, one thing i heard from a romney adviser today about why this pick, why now, they do want to have a conversation about a social safety net in this country, the entitlement debt load that the country faces right now. and paul ryan is the embodiment of that debate. after all, he is the house budget committee chairman who laid out that fiscal blueprint that called for a partial privatization of medicare for future seniors. now the obama campaign loves all of this. they think this is going to work to their advantage. senior voters down in florida. but the romney and ryan campaign, this is a calculated risk they're making, fredricka, taking the gamble here and making the gamble here that the voters o

ryan will hold a campaign event in des moines at the iowa state fair. the event comes a few hours after the president launch add three-day swing in i a. ron mott is in iowa following paul ryan. >> reporter: hey, there, jose. good day to you. congressman paul ryan should be walking down this sidewalk to where he's going to speak about 150 yards from here to an enthusiastic crowd here at the iowa state fairgrounds. when you run for president or vice president, you have to hit one or two state fairs. he's probably going to keep his remarks to pretty broad issues with the romney/ryan ticket, the direction they'd like to take the country. one thing that he was criticized by his primary opponents, jose, is he had a hard time connecting with blue collar middle americans. a lot of blue collar folks here, business owners here, so congressman ryan from wisconsin can identify with the midwesterner. we saw some huge crowds in virginia. big crowd here as well. a lot of folks down here waiting to hear what he had to say. i talked with one of the concession workers, sh

he was heckled at the iowa state fair. oint, demonstrators tried to climb on to the stage but they were dragged off by police. >> a startling find during a new jersey drug bust. police searching an alleged gang member's apartment say they found the man's 44-year-old girlfriend padlocked in a bedroom. they say she may have been held against her will for extended periods over the last two years, maybe longer. he was arrested. she was taken to the hospital for evaluation. detectives say they found 4,000 prescription pills with a street value of $100,000. >> wow. >>> a group of islamic foreign ministers voting to suspend syria from a regional organization ahead of an emergency two-day summit in saudi arabia. this move comes after syrian rebels claimed they shot down a military plane. their video shows a jet catching fire and falling out of the sky. the syrian government denies the jet was shot down, saying technical failure caused that crash. >>> president obama calls to congratulate nasa saes curiosity team saying their work e

the race to define paul ryan turns to five swing states today, the president is in iowa, mitt romney, ohio, biden will campaign through virginia while ryan stops in colorado before heading to las vegas, nevada, where he will give a private briefing, by the ways, to republican donors and raise some money at the venetian hotel. republican meg ga donor sheldon adelson will be there as well. the two national tickets seem to share one goal right now which is trying to define paul ryan first. democrats want to paint him as the ideological warrior determined to take away your medicare, republicans selling him as the serious candidate with a serious plan for the debt. >> my running mate, paul ryan, a great leader. >> what's gutsy about giving millionaires another tax break? what's gutsy -- what's gut bill is gutting medicare? >> he attacks problems. and he recognizes that 24r are hon rec differences between honest people and he looks to find twice find common ground. >> he is a very articulate spokesperson for governor romney's vision. the problem is it's the wrong vision for america. >> maki

the poor. they were hauled off by iowa state police. another gentleman in the first or second row stood up throughout ryan and spoke about 12 or 15 minutes, was screaming throughout the speech, restore the common good. defend the middle class. things like that. ryan soldiered on and kept going. only made a couple of comments to the hecklers. made his case that romney and ryan is the ticket to restore jobs to america. but wolf, it's the iowa state fair. you've been here before. it's a feisty event. i asked paul ryan as he left the stage, what did you think of the hecklers? he shrugged and said, john, i'm used to it. we've been through a lot of politics in wisconsin. so he was in a pretty good mood about it even though his staff wasn't happy. they found it to be disrespectful. as he made his way through the fairgrounds, paul ryan very casually shaking hands saying i'm paul. what's your name? that's what the romney campaign likes. they think he'll appeal to blue collar voters. white working class voter who is are critical here in iowa, in h

labor they currently exploiting asia right here to america these are just a few of the things that the iowa republican party stands for in addition to flipping their stars upside down now let's take a look at exhibit b. the texas democratic party with their star right side up and their platform which includes full support of public education raising teacher pay and force include class size limits because democrats know that teachers are just as important they're more important to our community than banks toure's and that our young people represent our nation's most important of infrastructure our intellectual infrastructure the democratic party of texas platform also includes the creation of a regulated and therefore sound banking system making housing health care and college affordable again for the middle class promoting public sector workers like teachers cops and firefighters strengthening medicare medicaid and social security putting an end to tax breaks for job outsourcers like mitt romney's bain capital investing in new infrastructure a living wage for all workers including health an

it was a year ago this week that mitt romney at the iowa state fair who broke down under the pressure of really persistent heckling and said something on tape that will probably haunt his campaign until the very end as if it were a poltergeist. >> we have to make sure that the promises we make in social security, medicaid, and medicare are promises we can keep. and there are various ways of doing that. one is we could raise taxes on people. that's -- >> corporations. >> corporations are people, my friend. we could raise taxes -- of course, they are. everything corporations earn matly goes to people. where do you think it goes? >> it goes in your pockets. >> whose pockets? people's pockets. human beings, my friend. >> human beings, my friend. for the one-year anniversary of the corporations are people moment, at last year's iowa state fair, this year, the romney campaign decided to send their brand new vice presidential pick, not just to the iowa state fair, but to that exact same stage, that exact same microphone to face, it turned out, pretty much the exact same kind of persistent he

we are watching the iowa state fair on the left. you can see through the crowd. s to iowa and what's happening today. >> well, megyn, how eye appropriate it was iowa obviously that delivered for barack obama in 2008 and led him on the road to victory all the way to the white house. the path he's trying to choose to keep his job basically is to define paul ryan as a radical. after he said what you just played, the president added that because of his historic drought in iowa, the worst in 50 years he charged paul ryan and republicans in congress are holding up the farm bill and as a result farmers are not getting relief. the problem is house republicans pointing out they passed a farm bill 11 days ago. the senate democrats have not act on one yet. the obama campaign doesn't want to lose its laser-like focus regardless of the details on going after paul ryan. before that, before this attack on the drought and the farm bill they were already trying to define him as a radical on immediate care saying he wants to turn it into a voucher pushing back on cbs "60 minutes" b

this is the road to victory, and it started with the iowa caucuses. recent polls show it is neck and neck with mitt romney. only six electoral votes. they could determine who could reach 270 and win this one. shep? >> on the road and on the bus near boone somewhere in iowa amid the corn fields. thank you and good to see you. >>> we are getting word from texas a&m that we can expect more from police shortly. it is actually college station. i say texas a&m because it is across the street. we know a constable is dead and a civilian is dead and a number of people injured including officers. the suspect in custody after being shot. we will go back for updates, but first breaking news just coming into fox newschannel from associated press. the hertz corporation reports the legend dairy editor of -- ledge end area -- legend area editor of "cosmo" has died. she came on to the scene with the book "sex and the single girl" and three years later she took the helm of" cosmo" and for 32 years she was the editor of that magazine. helen brown was quoted for her hones

>> reporter: at the iowa state fair today he found excited supports. >> congratulations. >> reporter: and a few loud and persistent hecklers. we were right in the middle of it all. >> -- from iowa -- >> reporter: the hecklers have come here from the romney supporters. but ryan didn't let that distract him, talking right over the shouting. >> i'm guessing the reason -- he only knows left turns. [ laughter ] >> reporter: as he worked his way through the fair, ryan avoided the funnel cakes and cotton candy and as the fitness buff who swears by the challenging p-90x program. >> we can play stump the running mate later. >> reporter: what do you like about ryan? >> i think he's conservative. he's right on the money. >> reporter: and almost as many who still don't quite know who he is. what do you think of paul ryan? >> i have no idea. i don't know anything about him. >> i don't know what i think about him yet. >> reporter: what do you think about paul ryan? >> i don't like him. >> reporter: why not? >> because i'm a democrat. >> reporter: ryan is just 42 years old, he said his

he's traveling with the president in iowa right now. atest. >> well, wolf, as you pointed out there have been sharp jabs on both sides. yes, the president has been delivering the usual stump speech talking about the economy, what his administration has done to turn things around. but the president did go after mitt romney alluding to a very sensitive story leaving the romney campaign saying that the obama campaign will do anything go away from the president's record. >> reporter: president obama stopped by a small coffee shop in knoxville, iowa, to grab a light breakfast. >> i'll have one of each muffin and a scinnamon roll. >> reporter: and highlight the role small business is doing to help rebound. >> this is what small business america is all about. >> reporter: on the second day of the president's iowa bus tour where he shifted his message from drought relief to renewable energy, mr. obama found a way to connect wind power to his gop rival's dog, sha mus. >> governor romney even explained his energy policy this way. i'm quoting here,

fire on his own record and a not so warm welcome to the big leagues during his appearance today at the iowa state fair. we have all of it covered tonight beginning with nbc's peter alexander traveling with the romney campaign in florida. peter, good evening. >> reporter: brian, good evening to you. after what the romney campaign says was a triumphant weekend vice presidential rollout today the realities of this tight race have settled in with president obama rejoining the campaign trail and both sides launching fierce new attacks. >>> a newly energized mitt romney returned to the campaign trail today in the key swing state of florida, touting his new running mate, paul ryan. >> paul ryan and i are going to get america to cut our spending and finally get us to a balanced budget. >> reporter: ryan campaigned on his first solo stop at the iowa state fair largely ignoring hecklers several of whom rushed the stage. >> mitt romney and i have a plan for a stronger middle class to get this country back ontrack. >> reporter: the president was also in iowa targeting ryan on an issue personal to voter

first up, paul ryan did his first solo campaign stop to rousing crowds at the iowa state fair. h heard 10,000 people. nbc's peter alexander joins us with the rundown. good evening. >> good evening from miami where mitt romney wrapped up his final event of the day in florida. the tea party favorite marco rubio joined him on the trail. romney homoreads tw to ohio. in the hawkeye state, iowa, today there was a critical show down between paul ryan and president obama. president obama going after ryan today. again referring to him as the ideological leader of republicans in congress. also touching on an issue that's personal to people of the state that have been suffering through a punishing drought pushing ryan to pass -- ryan going on the offensive attacking president obama for what he referred to as bloated federal spending. he said every turn the president takes is a left turn referring to what he calls his extreme liberal views. ryan will spend the night in colorado before heading to las vegas for an event tomorrow. larry? back to you. >> many thanks to peter alexander. paul rya