party favorite and the other one is paul ryan. watching ryan introduce romney tonight and seeing how base republicans reacted to president obama targeting paul ryan today in that speech, i think there's going to be a lot of pressure on mitt romney to pick paul ryan. while that might leave some democrats giddy about it, that makes the base just as giddy for the republican party. could be a fascinating ticket preview that we got tonight. >> the romney/ryan ticket taking shape. joining us now is rachel maddow and steve schmidt, nbc political analy analyst. rachel, these republicans just talk right through your show and rick santorum seizes part of your show and romney seizes part of your show. do you have any unexpressed thoughts on tonight's proceedings? >> i have very many. >> that your audience would have heard if mitt romney didn't grab your microphone. >> thank you. you are very kind. the romney/ryan prospect is interesting. the democratic and particularly the liberal perspective on that is oh, please, go there. we had yourself even more to the kill medicare guy. that's the democra

, that new u.s. senator. the other is paul ryan. watching ryan introduce romney tonight and seeing how base republicans reacted to president obama targeting paul ryan today in that speech, i think there's going to be a lot of pressure on mitt romney to pick paul ryan and while that might leave some democrats giddy about it, i thch think that makes the base as giddy for the party. could be a fascinating ticket preview we got tonight. >> the romney/ryan ticket taking shape. hang in there with us. joining us is rachel maddow, host of rachel maddow and steve schmidt, msnbc political analyst and adviser to the 2008 mccain campaign. rachel, these republicans talk through your show. rick santorum seizes par of the your show then romney seizes part of your show. do you have expresed thoughts on tonight's proceedings your audience would have heard if mitt romney didn't grab your microphone? >> thank you, you are very kind. the romney/ryan prospect that chuck was just raising there is interesting. i mean, the democratic and particularly the liberal perspective on that is, oh, please, go there. l

president obama gave one of the strongest speeches of his presidency slamming paul ryan and the republican party how is that speech a sign of progressive activism on the ground starting to trickle up to our elected representatives also paul ryan may have introduced a budget that destroys the middle class but his ideas aren't new so where did he get all his crazy ideas about giving tax cuts to millionaires a limited a medicare and driving school kids an education and a nice daily tape a new report out says denmark is the happiest place on earth and america isn't even close or the dean's doing right when we start following in the footsteps. you know this president obama strikes back speaking at the associated press luncheon today president obama took aim at the republican budget introduced by multimillionaire congressman paul ryan and you're a sledgehammer to the whole idea of trickle down economics in general first the president laid out what the stakes are in this debate calling it a make or break moment for the middle class. this is not just another run of the mill political de

further damaged? we already heard paul ryan say at this point he is worried that this could be damaging for romney. >> well, i find myself agreeing with james carville who says that the chicken who has his head cut off is the last person to know that he is dead, and there is only about politicians at this point in the election cycle where maybe you have to be bad at math. i think he is playing it out. i think there is a certain amount of pride that's going on here. i agree that it is over, you know, to use an appear practice analogy as opposed to a football analogy. here in wisconsin the fat lady sang last night. >> my question was are you worried that your candidate, the person you endorsed could suffer further damage if rick santorum is to stay in the race, he can't just stay in the race based on i am a good guy, he has to fight it out? >> i think that's why you're seeing the coalescing. i think that's why you're seeing across the country that republicans have decided this has gotten old and we have spent too many time about fighting about purt at this, running negative adds

evening. this is "the kudlow report." the president unleashes a vicious attack on paul ryan, mitt romney, and the republican budget. he calls it a trojan horse, a radical vision and thinly veiled social darwinism. is he trying to make himself the centrist in the race? the man's budget he was referring to wisconsin congressman paul ryan will join us live with response to the president, later on. >>> and the dow dives minutes after the fed cited a stronger economy downgraded more bond buying. dow down 65 points, and nasdaq and s & p down 6 points each. i'll tell you why i think it's bullish. and markets may not have liked obama's speech. i'll tell you why. >>> primary night. maryland, washington, d.c., and wisconsin. 92 delegates up for grabs. is tonight the night mitt romney consolidates this all about the nomination? he could have more than half of the delegates locked up. we begin with some breaking news. multiple severe tornadoes touch down in the dallas-ft. worth area, sending trucks flying through the air, obliterating homes. hundreds of flights canceled. live video of the tor

people and kill medicare republican budget. mitt romney and paul ryan have been attached at the hip in wisconsin this week, to the point where at mitt romney's victory party in milwaukee tonight, governor romney was introduced by paul ryan. it wasn't a great introduction, but it did lead to this great moment once mr. romney finally took the stage. >> congressman ryan, he's a great leader, wonderful speaker, but he's not going to take ann's place, i've got to tell you that. >> why would you think i know? i have no idea what that's about. but it was amazing, right? but all of those images of mitt romney and paul ryan together this week, including in the matching outfits, and including tonight with you're not going to replace ann quip, those might ultimately be the biggest and most consequential thing that happened this week on the republican side of 2012 politics. as mitt romney was campaigning in wisconsin today, the man whose presidency he would like to end, president obama, spent the day today wrapping a metaphorical bow around mr. romney and mr. ryan together. mr. obama spoke to news

winner in the state of maryland in their republican primary. paul ryan played the role of ann romney tonight. ryan introduced the candidate to supporters in milwaukee in what might have been an audition to be romney's running mate. >> we need solutions not excuses. we need a president who takes the lead not one who spreads the blame. we need someone who appeals to our dreams and our aspirations, not to our fears and anxieties. >> romney continued where ryan left off portraying president obama as someone who wants to transform america. >> i don't want to transform america. i want to restore to america the economic values of freedom and opportunity and limited government that has made us the power house of the world. >> time, money and math are against rick santorum's chances to have any further success in the presidential race, but tonight the candidate vowed to carry on. >> we have now reached the point where it's halftime. half the delegates in this process have been selected and who is ready to charge out of the locker room in pennsylvania for the second half. >> santorum continued

november. the president hit mitt romney where it hurts. right in his support for paul ryan's budget plan. the president called the plan a pro january horse that would deepen inequality in the u.s. the republicans have doubled down and proposed a budget so far to the right, it makes the contract for america look like the new deal. thchblts w. >> this was the latest in a series of addresses mr. obama has made portraying republicans as social darwinists. while listening to president obama, we wondered what would the republicans respond? there is no need to guess, we have a republican and a democrat on tonight to face off in a debate. >>> also, the trayvon martin case, nbc news has obtained the audiotapes of george zimmerman's prior phone calls to police. do they show that he was racially motivated or profiling? we get a report. >>> and we're not the only ones who noticed that mitt romney's endorsements seem to lack something. enthusiasm. "the daily show" noticed and we've got their take in the sideshow. finally, we'll get a first look at the exit polls that will make or break the wisco

of the president's big speech at the newspaper editors, was about the paul ryan budget. the republican budget that passed the house. how much of that speaks to all -- crosses all of these lines, does it? >> it ought to. i mean, frankly, there is a choice. paul ryan's budget is a much smaller government than barack obama's budget. barack obama's budget has higher taxes than paul ryan's. and the president, i think, has done a good job at draping mitt romney in the paul ryan budget. i think that romney might have been trying -- might have been in romney's interest to put a little distance between him and paul ryan. but the president made it very difficult for him to do that. to the extent that there's a choice here, it's not about who said what about the supreme court. that matters to a lot of people. but there's a very different vision of how we shrink the deficit when both parties agree that's going to be high on the agenda after the election. gwen: do you agree that the president successfully tangled mitt romney up in the paul ryan budget? >> we'll see. yes. as a candidate,

home state primary and the budget ballot battle as he ties to paul ryan's plan. could it hurt the republicans in november? >> ultimately i'm confident that the supreme court will not take what would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected congress. >> paul: welcome to the journal editorial report. i'm paul gigot. those words set off a firestorm. many seeing his comments as a warning to the justices that they will pay a political price if they strike down all or part of the signature healthcare law. liberals claim the legitimacy of the supreme court. let's ask wall street columnist, dan herng ing ton, james free man and editorial board member, dorothy rabinowitz. president obama is known as choosing his words carefully. was he trying to lobby the supreme court? >> i agree he doesn't say what he doesn't mean. i think what happened here is what we sometimes call a floydian slip. they say something they actually believe. yes, he understand iss marbury versus madison. but barack obama is a belief poli

. also in wisconsin, basically the entire media said it's over and romney got the big paul ryan endorsement. it's still a close primary. if santorum if i can get through this month, he is going to pick up delegates in may. he has texas, west virginia and indiana. i think the road map is improving for him and people are hack weigh him. >> paul: if you look at the exit polls that mitt romney has carved in for support with tea party people. the claim that santorum wants to make it's conservative versus moderate isn't holding up as the primaries move on? >> that is right. what is thought holding up of doing anything about the gender gap which santorum is the candidate, he dreams we can sustain that hope, it's all done for. so i think damage has been done. on the other hand, mitt romney has come out looking a lot better than most of the time because of these recent wins. i think that santorum doesn't leave it will be his trouble. >> there is a lot of wisdom in the country in western music and famous song, you got to know when no hold them and you got to know when to fold them. i think he made mi

appearing the next. both talking about the paul ryan budget. you have written in "the atlantic" that neither one talk about people in the room in terms of what's happening to the news business and what do you mean by that? >> i thought it was kind of odd that they both sort of just used this as a venue and didn't address the news industry which is what this whole conference was about. you had panels breakout sessions, people mulling the future of the media which, as we all know is in a complicated state these days as it has been for at least the last decade in this sort of turmoil and transition. i think similar to, say, the auto industry or maybe even the health care industry where there is a lot of changes happening that have a lot to do with what's going on the larger economy. it has to do with the transition, you know, sort of manufacturing and to a new digital, entrepreneurial arena. i think there is a story to be told about capitalism and invasion. but they whine about how they get treated by the press and talk about what they want to talk about. >> in fact, in the news, i mean

sub shop with paul ryan called cousins subs. they are not taking money. they are handing out free submarine sandwiches to wisconsin voters dug an event that was billed by the romney campaign as an election-day lunch. what you are looking at there is against the law. see mr. romney? watch. against the law. that's illegal. right there. when you hand the submarine sandwich to the person and don't take the money, that's illegal. and he kept doing it. this is the cousins sub event. it was purely around the whole idea of illegal sub handing. in the state of wisconsin, it is against the law to, quote, offer, give, lend or promise to give or lend anything of value in order to induce an elector to vote or to refrain from voting. anything of value includes any amount of money or any object, the value of which exceeds $1. those ham and cheese subs that mitt romney was handing out to voters today in wisconsin to encourage them to go vote, they go for a minimum of $3.49 a pop. which is more than $1, which makes it illegal for him to be handing them out. wisconsin's accountability board indicat

goliath. in this case, goliath is congressman paul ryan's budget proposal. if enacted it would cut taxes for the wealthy and slash payments to social security and medicare and the poor and would increase military spending. now, paul ryan says that it helped influence his budget blueprint. here he is talking about it on the christian broadcast network. >> those principles are very, very important and the preferential apologies for the poor, one of the tenants of catholic social teaching means don't keep people poor and make them dependent on government so they stay stuck in their station on life. help them get out of poverty on to a life of independence. >> as you can imagine paul ryan's comments did not sit well with many progressive catholic leaders who wrote a letter the to paul ryan saying: >> pretty strong language. sister simone campbell is were you ever those holding the sling shot, the david in this case. she is the executive director of network which is the national catholic social justice lobby. she joins us tonight from rochester new york. welcome to the war room. >> than

even read paul ryan's budget before they went out. a year ago this month, the same thing that president obama gave on tuesday, he gave a year ago, as soon as paul ryan's budget came out. at least this time he didn't invite him to be in the front row and is still sitting in front of the world while he was there. the problem they have with the ryan budget. paul ryan is not a good villain. he never takes a bad picture. he is like the guy who you want as your neighbor. he is your favorite son-in-law. he's got good ideas. he is not at all cowed by the president who distorts his record. he says oh, i'll take that and answer it this way. if you have to look at it, no one talks about destroying education or medicare. >> greg: i was. >> dana: what his budget does is preserve programs going forward before we hit a fiscal clip. >> greg: the amazing thing about paul ryan his hairline is no so slow it qualifies as mustache. >> andrea: this is a weird message. if voters run to the polls, because democrats convince them that there is a trojan horse filled with social darwinnists, they are in

flurry of political advertisements touting paul ryan's republican trickle down austerity budget and the members of congress who support it these ads will be brought to you by a group called ending spending which recently purchased three hundred seventy five thousand dollars worth of advertising and dean's spending is just the latest super pac creature born out of the supreme court's citizens united decision and like all the other super pacs there's a disturbing link between big business high powered lobbying firms and our politicians joining me now to expose these links and for most of all what else we need to know about the corporate buyout of our government is leaf on estimated were reported with united republican republic report we welcome you as great glad to have you back with us lee so what's the deal with this ending spending organization . well as you mentioned there are a lot of groups coming out. and support the poll ryan plan which you know how it cuts taxes on quote operations slashes in title months of privatizing medicare we saw this actually the beginning of this but a ye

the screen. >>> coming up, mitt romney and paul ryan. they are going around the state like they're relatives. is ryan auditions for larger role in the romney campaign? >>> later, i'll talk to milwaukee mayor. he's the latest democrat to jump into the race for the chance to take on scott walker. i stepped on the machine, and it showed me the pressure points on my feet and exactly where i needed more support. then, i got my number. my tired, achy feet affected my whole life. until i found my number. i tried the free dr. scholl's foot mapping center. in two minutes, i got my foot map and custom number. i'm a 440. that matched up to the dr. scholl's custom fit orthotic inserts with the right support and cushioning i need. i am a believer. i'm a believer! i'm a believer. find your closest foot mapping center at drscholls.com. [ traffic passing ] ] ♪ [ music box: lullaby ] [ man on tv, indistinct ] ♪ [ lullaby continues ] [ baby coos ] [ man announcing ] millions are still exposed to the dangers... of secondhand smoke... and some of them can't do anything about it. ♪ [ continues ]

leadership. >> that is congressman paul ryan, chairman of the house budget committee. "the wall street journ" says that thehite house tm must feel president has not hit it with his comments. social darwinism, charles? >> accusing ryan of trickle- down social darwinism. who writes this rubbish? he and the democrats have not presented a budget in three years. here are the republicans, presenting a budget ich is serious. it h its flaws, but it a tax entitlements, the problem of tax reform. this president has spoken about it but has not done anything about it. he has decided he cannot run on his record and cannot run on a mission -- a vision. he will run against the republicans as the republicans were the ones in office. he has been president for one term. what has he offeredn the budget? >> it is hard to know whose budget is a bigger joke, obama's or the republicans'. they are irresponsible in the extreme. >> how? tell me how the ryan budget -- >> cuts in discretionary spending -- would shut down the fda went date a week -- faa one day a week. >> increes in defse sndin whil obliterate a s

. >>> coming up, mitt romney and paul ryan. they are going around the state like they're relatives. is ryan auditions for larger role in the romney campaign? >>> later, i'll talk to milwaukee may yoor. he's the latest democrat to jump into the race for the chance to take on scott walker. the chevy cruze eco also offers 42 mpg on the highway. actually, it's cruze e-co, not ec-o. just like e-ither. or ei-ther. or e-conomical. [ chuckling ] or ec-onomical. pa-tato, po-tato, huh? actually, it's to-mato, ta-mato. oh, that's right. [ laughs ] [ car door shuts ] [ male announcer ] visit your local chevy dealer today. now very well qualified lessees can get a 2012 chevy cruze ls for around $159 per month. e.p.a. estimated 36 miles per gallon highway. two of the most important are energy security and economic growth. north america actually has one of the largest oil reserves in the world. a large part of that is oil sands. this resource has the ability to create hundreds of thousands of jobs. at our kearl project in canada, we'll be able to produce these oil sands with the same emissions as

vision to definded by paul ryan's budget or choose the path provided by president obama and the democrats. >> i believe this is a make or break moment for the middle class. i can't remember a time when the choice between competing visions of our future has been so unbasic biggousu unambiguously clear. the republicans running congress right now have doubled down and proposed a budget so far to the right, it makes the contract with america look like the new deal. >> the republican budget would require vast, and i mean vast spending cuts and no tax increases on the wealthy. republicans will not compromise on the radical plan. the president is calling the budget out for what it really is. >> if you want to keep these tax breaks and deductions in place or give even more tax breaks to the wealthy as the republicans in congress propose, then one of two things happen. either it means higher deficits or it means more sacrifice from the middle class. seniors will have to pay more for medicare. college student will lose financial aid. working families scraping by will have to do more because the ric

want to talk about the buffett rule and all of that and what paul ryan said. i just got an e-mail from somebody close to the campaign who said, just make sure you have a camera there in gettysburg. what are you hearing? because we know some people inside the campaign suggested that santorum get out before pennsylvania's primary to avoid the embarrassment of losing his home state. >> reporter: absolutely. good day to you, andrea. we reporters are prone to ask questions, and when we got the word late last night, it was almost midnight for me, he was cancel two events in western pers pennsylvania two hours from here, scheduling an event in gettysburg, that got people think, is he going to drop out of the race? my producer asked an aide what he's going to talk about and met with a shrug. we don't know officially. we do know, over the weekend, the family was concerned in dealing with the health of the 3-year-old daughter bela, she was released from a hospital last night. folks, including conservatives, around pen and around the country were saying he should drop out of the race before

as the guy that fully embraced paul ryan's budget. he made an ad that made it look speech. i agree that that vision, that economic vision would be the kind of contrast, big credible positive contrast of visions. i think that is your vision for what you'd like to hear the republicans say. it's not what mitt romney said at all tonight. i think him coming out and sayi i know. lots more to come including latest primary election results. richard clark is here. stick around. >>> i don't want this to be a country where a shrinking number of americans are doing real well but a growing number of people but a growing number of people are struggling to get by. that's not my idea of america. i want this to be a country where everybody get a fair shot and everybody is doing their fair share and everybody is playing by the same set of rules. this country has always made a commitment to put a good education within the reach of all who are willing to work for it. pit. that's what makes us special. that's what made us an economic super power. that's what kept us at the hugely important for democrat

you can get. do you think you and paul ryan can sit down together with a group of colleagues to hammer out the policy you can live with? >> i don't know. representativerion was part of the bowl-simpson commission. he didn't support the conclusion. >> the president didn't support that. >> he put it in place. >> he toltsly ignored it. >> we don't think that that is fair. i told him, if you embrace totality of bowles-simpson republicans in the house will not automatically be against it. you need to make the case for why it's necessary, but those in congress to work it out. senator johnson is a serious member and we should wish him happy birthday. >> happy birthday, senator. >> i will say he is a serious member of the budget committee and i believe people of good faith working together. i think it will be after the election will have an opportunity. all of the tax cuts will be expiring. >> you think it is a lame duck session. >> either them or in the first part of next year. >> i appreciate the kind comments. i ran for the united states senator not only to represent wisconsin but small and

opportunity. >> candidate obama is on the campaign trail taking aim at paul ryan us a budget proposal warning against judicial activism and offering advice to the media on how to cover his reelection. >> join me in the next step toward that destination of november 6th. >> sweeping three primaries this week, mitt romney continues his pir suit of the nomination leaving rick santorum in the dust. are the media playing along. >> all they say is mistake was made. they use passive voice. that is not enough. >> nbc news caved under pressure and apologizes for appalling editing of george zimmerman's 911 call in the trayvon martin case. >> and sarah palin is co-host of the today show. how did she do? >> on the panel this week, writer and fox news contributor, judy miller, monica crowley. jim pinkerton and political commentator, sally combes. i'm jon scott. fox news watch is on right now. ♪ >> this congressional republican budget is something different altogether. it is a trojan horse. disguised as deficit reduction plan is really an attempt to impose a radical vision on our country. it is th

obama had such a hostile bullying negative attack dog rant against paul ryan who is just the budget chairman. in other words, presidents don't really use budget chairman. they tend to their higher level. ryan's down here, obama's up there, why did obama go there? and didn't that just make the public scratch its head and say what's up with this guy? >> all right. he's punching down. you're not supposed to punch down. most of this country has no idea who paul ryan is. they don't know the path to prosperi prosperity. and spending an hour -- talking about social darwinism and trojan horses? what's all this about the budget? >> many days later, i still don't know. i asked ryan what social darwinism is. do you know what it is? >> it was long ago. >> survival of the fittest translated into the economics sphere where basically it doesn't matter if the people who were in the bottom don't get anything. they don't get any jobs -- >> how many americans know what social darwinism is? >> i disagree with what james said about that speech because i don't think most americans know about the paul rya