richard wolffe joins me for the discussion.hare your thoughts with us on facebook and on twitter using the hash tag ed show. we're coming right back. >>> i notice the house of representatives. the republicans and the house of representatives voted to repeal it again. 33 votes to repeal the health care bill. all it would take is one vote to make sure that all of you don't see your taxes go up next year. you tell me what would be a better use of time. >> president obama on the campaign trail in virginia earlier today taking a few shots at congress. it's one of several stops today he made in the key battleground states and the polling is in his favor in virginia. he's 8 points ahead of his opponent, mitt romney, and railing against a do-nothing congress appears to be a good strategy. congress has a 10% approval rating. congress is now less popular than richard nixon during watergate. congress is also less popular than the bp during the oil spill crisis. and how in the world do you get a 10% approval rating? well, this is how. this

i'll ask bob shrum and richard wolffe if it has any chance of working. >> to say that steve jobs didn't build apple computer or that bill gates didn't build microsoft or henry ford didn't build ford motor company -- >> mitt romney adopts the fox news lie about the president's small business comment. >> a lot of people were waiting for that to come out. >> and then agrees with the full context of the president's comment on small business. >> by the way, there are a lot of people in government who help us. >> we'll go inside the anatomy of a fox news lie. >> and the big panel weighs in on george w. bush's jaw-dropping new interview. >> eight years was awesome. and you know, i was famous and i was powerful. >> good to have you with us. thanks for watching. another day, another new plan of attack for the romney campaign. yesterday, it was the dart board mentality. today, it's the kitchen sink approach. >> his priority is not creating jobs for you. his priority is trying to keep his own job, and that's why he's going to lose it. he's out of touch, out of ideas, out of excuses. that's why in

a couple of years later, barbara married again, michael wolff, an ex-military man like her dad. probably saw eye to eye a lot. >> they sure did. they had a lot in common, they would talk a lot. >> wolf took barbara and john to live with him in arizona. but david wanted to be a part of his son's life. so he traveled out west to see the boy. >> he went out there with a friend of his and they saw johnny for three days. i've got pictures of johnny in like the old western town and everything. >> maybe it was something about the distance, said barbara. >> we became very good friends and we used to talk a lot. >> in fact, what she felt deep in her heart never did go away. >> i'll always love david. >> and then it was june 25th, 1988, david's brother mark was flying into town to visit the family. david was to pick him up at the airport but when mark arrived, he waited and waited, no david. mark jackson had terrible feeling. >> no matter what, he would have been there for me. i knew something was wrong, i knew something bad happened. >> oh, yes, very bad. and as the rookie detective donn

bloomberg news and our favorite american with a british accent, msnbc political analyst, richard wolffe. president obama may want to send a thank you card to the romney campaign today. on the daily rundown this morning, romney's senior advisor appeared to veer off the gop script, agreeing with the president that the individual mandate portion of the affordable care act is not a tax. >> the governor believes that what we put in place in massachusetts was a penalty, and he disagrees with the court's ruling that the mandate was a tax. but again -- >> he agrees with the president, he agrees with the president that it is not, he believes that you shouldn't call the tax penalty a tax, you should call it a penalty or a fee or a fine? >> that's correct. but the president also needs to be held accountable for his hypocritical, contradictory statements. >> richard wolffe, we talk a lot about moments in this cycle, perhaps being overblown, but this would seem to be an issue. here you have mitt romney's senior strategist saying it's not a tax, it's a penalty. i can't tell you, my in-box has been fl

and richard wolffe msnbc political analyst.of "revival: the struggle for survival in the obama white house." thank you both for being here tonight. >> thanks. >> sure thing. >> republicans are showing sign of serious concern. how do you think the romney camp will respond? >> well, they're right to be concerned. because this is much more than didly. romney is not releasing basic information voters and analysts need to understand whether or not he did anything improper, shady, or perhaps even illegal. there's been stories in "vanity fair" and other media outlets that raised serious questions about his holdings. and of course there's an issue about his involvement and bain's involvement in outsourcing. i'll give you a tease. i think i'm going to be able to break strict news on this tomorrow. can't do it yet. so there's a loot lot of questions out there. they're going to keep growing and gaining in importance until he addresses these issues. this is the big problem. i don't think he can. i don't think he can release his tax returns

bloomberg news and our favorite american with a british accent, msnbc political analyst, richard wolffeident obama may want to send a thank you card to the romney campaign today. on the daily rundown this morning, romney's senior advisor appeared to veer off the gop script, agreeing with the president that the individual mandate portion of the affordable care act is not tax. >> the governor believes that what we put in place in massachusetts was a penalty, and he disagrees with the court's ruling that the mandate was a tax. but again -- >> he agrees with the president, he agrees with the president that it is not, he believes that you shouldn't call the tax penalty a tax, you should call it a penalty or a fee or a fine? >> that's correct. but the president also needs to be held accountable for his hypocritical, contradictory statements. >> richard wolffe, we talk a lot about moments in this cycle, perhaps being overblown, but this would seem to be an issue. here you have mitt romney's senior strategist saying it's not a tax, it's a penalty. i can't tell you, my in-box has been flooded by

richard wolff gets tonight's last word. >>> enough's enough.thews in san francisco. leading off tonight, dirt ball. i suppose if you want to get down in the mud, if you want to show how much dirt you'll get your hands into, you start calling people spies if you're desperate and sleazy enough to go after a quiet deputy of hillary clinton. someone who can't defend herself. better yet you sing out a chorus of sleaze. like john sununu with the republican candidate saying himself how foreign the president is. then to put the cherry on the top of this sundae from hell, you have michele bachmann with some help from glenn beck charge that the whole u.s. government including according to beck john mccain himself are all part of some crowd taking orders from the muslim brotherhood. tonight, we hear the first whistles being blown. guys who have served this country in uniform are standing up to this crazy, un-american talk. god save mccain and say i say and all those left right and center who say enough's enough. i'm joined by msnbc political analyst and e

richard wolff gets tonight's >>> good evening, americans. welcome to the ed show.c dyson in for ed schultz. the president is opening a new line of attack. you people are going to love it. this is "the ed show," and as ed would say, let's get to work. >> we've given all people need to know and understand. >> the romney campaign says you people have seen enough taxes as the obama camp opens a new line of attack. >> it's wrong to ask seniors to pay more for medicare just so millionaires and billionaires can pay less in taxes. >> tonight, david cay johnston on the new questions about mitt romney's tax returns. karen finney and hogan on the frontal attack on mitt romney's vision for america. mitt romney picks up where john left off. >> i don't think the president, by his comments, suggests an understanding what it is that makes america such a unique nation. >> weighing in on romney's attempt to paint barack obama as un-american. >>> parallel track of influence from the muslim brotherhood and the highest levels of the federal government. >> and michele bachmann's witch h

joining me now, co-host of msnbc's "the cycle," krystal ball and richard wolffe, an msnbc contributor. krystal, the clinton thing for me is fascinating with romney. he's -- it seems to me that he thinks he's taken the republican thing as far as he can go. in order to get these swing voters, in order to appeal to people in colorado, independents, he wants to now run as bill clinton. >> it's an awkward fit, especially -- >> it's an awkward fit. >> the best comparison to him with recent democratic candidates is probably john kerry, just in terms of being the sort of out of touch wealthy guy, who's running against an incumbent president, rather than actually portraying himself, and putting himself -- >> john kerry, let's get one fact straight. john kerry did not grow up in a family that had some wealth in the past, but no big -- he wasn't a rich guy by inheritance. >> but in terms of the public caricaturing. but i think for romney, he has this problem where he's gone so far to the right, in the republican primary, and he's still having his feet held to the fire by his base, he can't actua

richard wolffe and rick tyler on romney's ongoing disaster. >> and we'll look at the real life impact of mitt romney's outsourcing. oh beautiful for spacious skies for amber waves of grain >> the big panel weighs in on one of the toughest ads a democrat has ever produced. >> and the young guns are calling him the backup. >> young guns, a new generation of conservative leaders. >> we'll tell you why billionaire sheldon adelson is dumping piles of cash into eric cantor's super pac. >> good to have you with us tonight. thanks for watching. it was another weekend of confusion and contradiction for the romney camp after five interviews on friday and a flurry of surrogate appearances, mitt romney still cannot clear up the issues with his bain capital record. romney's people are asking president obama to apologize for raising the issue? president obama gave the romney campaign an answer on the trail. >> no, we won't be apologizing. sometimes these games are played in political campaigns. understand what the issue is here. mr. romney claims that he's mr. fix it for the economy because of his

i'm joined tonight by msnbc political analyst richard wolffe and democratic strategist bob shrum. great to have you with us. richard, you first, in the olympic season, we could say going for the gold, but now we're going for the dirt in the romney campaign. is this a good strategy? >> it's a terrible strategy. bob shrum is on the other way, so he can maybe speak to it, but it's the equivelanlt of 2004, of democrats saying we're going to bring up george w. bush's alcoholism and the fact until the age of 40, he really didn't have any purpose in his life. well, that might have been relevant for some democrats, you might have wanted to dwell on that. but actually, by that point, he had invaded two countries. he had a record as president. if you want to go out and dislike this president, if you feel negative about him, there are plenty of things to grab on to. what does it do for people who are the gettable voters, the swing voters, the independent voters. they think this is completely off topic. go down this rabbit hole for the republicans. it won't take them any closer to landing a b

richard wolffe, great to have you with us tonight.mpaign running a negative campaign? >> well, they are running negative ads but that's not all they're talking about. you know, as in any campaign, certainly as it happened in 2008, they're running positive ads. they've got a positive agenda and they're talking about their opponent in yes, critical way. that's the nature of politics. you know, i'm just surprised that these republicans many of whom gained power and elected office through the bush years have norection at all of this guy called karl rove and the politics that he's brought through that period and into the current one with his current organizations like crossroads. this is their kind of politics. they should recognize it, but they should also recognize that's how these elections get played out throughout america by the way, that's what the founders intended a vigorous contest and ask the historian who's look at abraham lincoln's time. there's nothing particularly dirty about this time. >> well, ramping up the rhetoric, clear

co-host of "the cycle" is steve core knackie, nbc political analyst richard wolffe, patricia murphy oftics and contributor to "the daily beast" and radio host, kurt anderson. great to have you all with us today. richard wolffe, first, what did we hear from the president in those remarks and were you surprised that he seems to have moved well beyond his victory in health care? >> well, look, first of all, what we heard is a guy who is good at campaigning, who enjoys campaigning, who thrives in it. he's outside washington, he's got rid of the suit and he's feeding off the crowds and the crowd's energy there. you know, what we expected was that he would set up this contrast between his position on the auto industry and outsourcing. he did that. he's got one position. he's in the heart of the auto industry country there. romney's on a very different place when it comes to manufacturing policy, at least. but more surprisingly, by far, was his full-throated campaigning on health care. he said he continued to improve the health care system, work with anyone to make it better, but that's what

there's so much racism and hatred in that facebook post, richard wolffe.le said the post was to be satirical and said, i realize now that there were those that were deeply offended. >> i find it hard, i'm going to take a different tone i'm afraid. i find it hard to be heartened by these minimal efforts at this late stage to try and put a lid on racist anti-muslim, anti-arab american sentiment that has been whipped up since 9/11. there's a whole industry of it. republicans are by no means the only people, but they are the leading force in this in terms of our politics. when people on the left say president obama failed to close guantanamo bay, let's face it, though, democrats and republicans who fell down and this industry of fear and said, these people are terrifying, we can't have them in the mainland even if they're in a high security, maximum security facility that nobody's ever escaped from. that's part in parcel of the weakness of the politics we've had and frankly the exploitation of fear. it didn't end with even the killing of bin laden. this kind o

professor heinz wolff has been trying to explain science for decades.even devised a machine to blast meat pies at each other to demonstrate what an atom smasher does. (laughter) so what does the discovery mean for us? >> if you're the lay any the supermarket, it isn't going to make any difference to you. >> reporter: but the supermarket wouldn't be there. >> well, the weight of the supermarket, or mass of the supermarket. >> reporter: the supermarket exists and the universe exists and now these people believe they've found the tiny particle that provides the cosmic glue that holds it all together. mark phillips, cbs news, london. >> glor: records are broken all the time at the olympics, but history like this has never been made. south africa's oscar pistorius will become the first amputee to run at the games. his storeus, who lost both legs when he was 11 months old runs on carbon fiber blades and was selected today for both the 400 meter individual and relay races. this month marks the 150th anniversary of "taps." up next, a man who's played it thousan

conclude this evening with a brief against, a brief against capitalism from david harvey and richard wolff. >> what is coming to an end to start with the good news is a 50 year taboo in the united states about questioning our economic system, i mean, we take pride as americans that we question and debate our education only system, our transportation system for the last couple of years we have been debating our medical insurance and medical care system, but for 50 years at least when it comes to the capitalist system, whether you are republican or a democrat, cheerleading is the substitute for serious questions, for serious debate. >> rose: preet bharara and the debate against capitalism when we continue. >> funding for charlie rose was provided by the following. >> rose: additional funding provided by these funders. >> and by bloomberg. a provider of multimedia news and information services worldwide. >> from our studios in new york captioning sponsored by rose communications from our studios in new york city, this is charlie rose. >> rose: preet bharara is here, he is the u.s. attorney fo

just told me that congressman wolff has a bill to do something like that. i'm going to see if we can't move something like that along. it's got great potential. do you have any more questions? >> actually, mr. chair, you asked them. so thank you. >> then i want to keep going. you're all mine. mr. blank, tell me what your thoughts are. let me tell you one of my concerns about this as i was processing this concept. unlike the fbi, which the president appoints, this administrator has to work under the secretary of homeland security. how would you deal with that -- do you foresee any conflicts that occur if the secretary can't fire the administrator because of term limits? >> i think certainly that could come up. but i would start by saying that may be a good thing if we have that kind of independence and that kind of security in somebody that's going to take on a responsibility to our national security on this particular level. i think that's one of the -- one of the valuable things relative to an fbi director who can't be shoved aside with a sharp elbow by an

karen finney, who's now a columnist for the hill as well as msnbc political analyst, richard wolffe and with me here in new york, we're delighted to have msnbc analyst, michael eric dyson. richard, the president made the point there have been 4.4 million new jobs created in 28 mont months. but in the interest of complete transparency, isn't the hidden story here that he has not been able to action job creation because republicans in congress have opposed every single jobs plan every single jobs act that he's put before them? >> well, remember, they also opposed the stimulus act in the first place. they've been against every measure to deal with what was the worst financial and economic crisis in living memory and that's had an impact on the margins. there are bigger forces at play even than the squabbling washington, but where the public sector has been hurt jobs is public sector jobs. this idea that austerity is the most important thing, that you've got to shrink is size of government has let directly to the kind of job losses that have kept this unemployment rate higher than it should

. >> we're bring richard wolffe in. fair enough.k, these governors, richard, they tell us they're going to reject this money. in the form of rick perry and this gentleman, mr. romney says that he'll repeal and replace obama care. i haven't heard one person tell me what they're going to replace this with. explain. >> to be fair, they have come up with ideas. just ideas that won't work. things like selling insurance across state lines. >> we know that works well. >> torte reform. >> none of those are addressing the core issues, which is cost of health care or the uninsured. >> first million people. >> right, so they have talking points, but they don't try to address those problems. i just want to come back to how the health care law is changing politics now. have we've seen the polls move, how we'll move after implementation. we haven't seen a lot implemented already. now, the debate is do you want stuff taken away from you. many don't understand what's in this law, but they certainly don't want things taken away from them. this whole

richard wolffe joins me for the discussion. she yo thohts th u on cebo andn twier ung e has t ed ow. 're mingightack. > i nice t hse of prestatis. thepubcansnd the hou of reprentaves ted epea it agai 33 votes to repeal the health care bill. all it would takes one vote to make sure that all of youon't see ur tax gp nt ar. yotell mhat wld ba beer u of me. >> predentbaman th mpai tran virnia earlr toy ting a few shots at congress. it's one of several stops today he made in the key battleground states and the polling is iis favoin rgin. 's 8 pntseadf his opnentmitt romn, a ilinagait ado-nhing congss aearso be aood sttegy congss h a 10 appval rating. congress is now less popular than richard nixon during watergate. congress is also less popular thhe durghe oil sll isis and w inhe wld doou g a % arovarang? we, th i ho thiss the fe of the worst congress ever. majority leader eric cantor has led the charge and oosition andpposg t present' lici. he up r re-ecti thi yen depding cservive dirictvirgia's seveh. ye it lks le eve hwn constitu

joing me is rhard wolffe.morning. >> good morning, alex. >> uniquely mitt romney all over the air waisyestday, fiv levioninteiews did he tak conolf th stor >> herfoance w asstive ancoiden stylticay itas fine b th subancef what he said doesn't just leave unanswered questions, it raises new questions really. when he said as you just hrd thacliphe h no sponbili for this comny at tsti, it' ver har t squa tha whhefficl pape hegned wh mos peoeign oicia papers in this case for the sec, there are statements of responsibility, when you say you're the ceo, maning direor a tt'sour prinpal occution tha impls antates reonsility so eher ose pers wer aninessr whahe sd wa't rllyhe ful story. >> with his business career as the centerpiece of the campaign, is the bain controversy methg th mitroey's mp a i vetrs shod ha foseen >> well ok, thiwasaise thugho therimaes a en rsed eve sine contest that mitt romney has had as a political figure. and many of these claim were really litigated in his first run forassauset vern. you kn,he

richard wolff gets tonight's last word. >>> enough's enough. let's play "hardball." >>> good evening. i'm chris matthews in san francisco. leading off tonight, dirt ball. i suppose if you want to get down in the mud, if you want to show how much dirt you'll get your hands into, you start calling people spies if you're desperate and sleazy enough to go after a quiet deputy of hillary clinton. someone who can't defend herself. better yet you sing out a chorus of sleaze. like john sununu with the republican candidate saying himself how foreign the president is. then to put the cherry on the top of this sundae from hell, you have michele bachmann with some help from glenn beck charge that the whole u.s. government including according to beck john mccain himself are all part of some crowd taking orders from the muslim brotherhood. tonight, we hear the first whistles being blown. guys who have served this country in uniform are standing up to this crazy, un-american talk. god save mccain and say i say and all those left right and center who say enoug

eric dyson, a professor at georgetown university, david corn, and msnbc political analyst richard wolffef i might start with you, richard, do you think mitt romney is finding his hair a little ruffled by this scandal? maybe a little hotter on the shores this time of year? >> if you've been following the barclays story and this man does say he knows a lot about private sector and financing. he ought to be ruffled and bothered by it because it is a huge scandal for people who haven't been following it, this is a confidence crisis right at the heart of this huge financial sensor in london and it affects consumers. it's not one of those abstract things. the rates barclays were fixing affecting consumer borrowing and lending across the world. it's not isolated. the 400 million pound fine. it is frankly a slap on the wrist and deeply embarrassing. not just a relationship with the romney campaign. he was a co-host for this fund-raiser and the question marks over how you fix banking, how much banking has a strangle hold on the rest of the economy and how cozy it is, those are still there to be a

let's bring in richard wolffe. is the obama campaign running a negative campaign? >> well, they are running negative ads, but that's not all they're talking about. as in any campaign, certainly as happened in 2008, they're running positive ads. they have a positive agenda, and yes they're talking about their opponent in critical ways. that's the nature of politics. i'm surprised the republicans, many of whom gains power in the bush years have no recollection of karl rove and the politics he's brought through that period and into the current one with his organizations like crossroads. this is their kind of politics. they should recognize that's how these elections get played out throughout america. that's what the founders intended, a vigorous contest and ask the historians who look at abraham lincoln's time. there's nothing particularly dirty about this time. >> ramping up the rhetoric, i mean, clearly, that's what they're doing. how does romney benefit in any way from this? why doesn't he tell them the back off and get to the fact because it's all a lot of generic

richard wolffe and rick tyler on romney's ongoing disaster. >> and we'll look at the real life impact of mitt romney's outsourcing. oh beautiful for spacious skies for amber waves of grain >> the big panel weighs in on one of the toughest ads a democrat has ever produced. >> and the young guns are calling him the backup. >> young guns, a new generation of conservative leaders. >> we'll tell you why billionaire sheldon adelson is dumping piles of cash into eric cantor's super pac. >> good to have you with us tonight. thanks for watching. it was another weekend of confusion and cont

and richard wolffe, msnbc political analyst. and author of "revival."r being here tonight. governor rendell, they are looking for leadership from dick cheney? i mean, what's the strategy here? >> it is like the song says, looking for love in all the wrong places. you know -- dick cheney was the guy that told us deficits didn't matter and now he's coming in and telling us we can't cut the defense budget. i think you are aware we spent $700 billion a year on defense, second biggest spending country in the world is china at $70 billion. the next 14 countries combined with china spend less on defense than the u.s. does. and republican hawk like robert gates, former defense secretary, said we could cut $80 billion a year from the defense budget. so dick cheney doesn't have a clue about what he is talking about. >> now, i mean, richard, do you feel that when you call in a man like dick cheney, what would be the possible motivation given how he left the white house, his standing in the public and polls, what could possibly be the motive here? >> you set this u