even in massachusetts. he's not just pulling up the ladder behind him, it's pulling it up in massachusetts as well, potentially. >> it puts it at risk potentially. it's a question of whether the taxpayers in massachusetts are ultimately willing to bear the cost of this plan. they may or may not be but it puts it at risk. >> we talk a lot in this election about what romney's plan will do to medicare beneficiaries, but what happens to medicaid beneficiaries? you cut medicaid by 600 or 700 billion, what happens to the people who rely on medicaid, the poor or children or elderly disabled across the country. >> i just put together some numbers on this in a report and i find that in the year 2022 while the affordable care act will lead to 33 million more americans having health care coverage, romney's plan would leave to roughly 18 to 20 million not having coverage. so this is a huge hit to the possibilities for insurance coverage in america. >> 50 million americans. jonathan gruber, thank you very much as always

these days if you went by massachusetts politics, if you only had massachusetts media fed into your home, you'd have no idea that the same guy was running for president. today was the second debate between scott brown and elizabeth warren. two things you'll remember in the first debate. the first the vee mans he attacked elizabeth warren on the basis of race in the first debate saying he could tell by looking at the law professor that she wasn't really native american. that was followed up by two scott brown tv ads attacking elizabeth warren on the basis of race. it was also followed by a bunch of scott brown staffers mocking native americans with fake war whoops and tomahawk chops. tonight he addressed the same controversy and kept arguing that race is relevant and a decision the voters have to make. he still did not apologize for staffers making fun of native americans even though the cherokee tribe chief asked him to. you know, other than just by looking at her. the other surprising thing from the first debate was that the name mitt romney was never mentioned in that first debate. mit

met his democratic challenger, elizabeth warren, at the university of massachusetts in lowell. it was the second of four scheduled debates as a new poll from "the boston globe" shows 18% of massachusetts voters still undecided and with warren holding a lead. right out of the gate, moderator david gregory asked about the controversy around elizabeth warren's claim to native american heritage. >> i never used the information about our native american heritage to get any advantage, not to apply to college, not to apply to law school, and not to get hired for any job. i was listed in a directory as -- i listed myself as native american. i was listed there. it's part of who i am. >> do you consider yourself a minority? >> i consider myself as having a native american background. that's what i said. that's what i am. >> no one is questioning what her parents told her when she was younger or all the way through that time frame. but when she was asked by "the boston herald" why is harvard touting her as a woman of color, a minority, a woman of color, she said she didn't know. and then

in massachusetts, he made it more expensive to be a baby. he increased the cost of berth certificates. so people need to understand, you can say anything when you're running, and he does, and he will. but how did he govern? in massachusetts he has less than a 30% favorability rating. and president obama is winning by over 20 people. the people in massachusetts have seen how he will govern, are not happy with their former govern. >> interesting. you went after romney in a debate over when exactly he left his position at bain capital, which has been an enormous part of this election. take a listen. >> the fact is you were still signing documents as ceo of the company while you were away. and as a matter of fact, in the summer of 2001, when you were leaving the olympics, you actually made a statement in the paper that in the summer of 2001, you were finally relinquishing 100% control of your position within bain. >> i was out in utah, full-time. i had no responsibility for management at bain capital. i was not running bain capital, and therefor

the massachusetts that i know from growing up, i knew five sullys in lowell, massachusetts who would use the word professor to insult someone. this is the mentality outside of a very small, privileged community in massachusetts that scott brown is trying to appeal to. i think you saw a minute of that at his opening -- closing statement. let's play that. >> listen, i'm from here. i grew up here. i married a girl and went to school here. aside from my marriage to gail in 26 years and the birth of my two kids, being your united states senator has been the greatest honor i've had in my life. >> i'm from here. that's the message of the scott brown campaign. he's trying to make the nativist argument, which which is i know massachusetts in a wau don't. >> i grew up a few miles from lowell. i know those people, too. >> where is your accent? maybe when you run for senate -- >> the dirty secret is my parents are from connecticut, but i grew up there. i know those people and i know what scott brown is going after with that. he's spent a lot of advertising money on sports radio in massachusetts

the swing voters in massachusetts were ready to vote for him. they didn't want to have all democratic control in massachusetts. they had reservations about him on abortion, because he had already -- he thought he was running for office in utah a year before. he had said to a utah paper, don't call me pro-choice. he came back to massachusetts and said, now call he pro-choice, or said, i will now support the pro-choice laws. so he had to win over the benefit of the doubt from those swing voters in massachusetts. he was able to do that then, and it seems like the same decision he's making now. i want to give these voters reassurance so they can vote for me on another issue. >> what strikes me, though, we've seen this pattern -- i get the romney campaign's motivation on this issue, for all those issues you just described. but what strikes me is they have tried to do this type of walkback on so many other issues they have succeeded at. the obama campaign seems determined to not them not walk back this one. is there anything you can see in terms of ro

coming up independence day or night in massachusetts. elizabeth warren and scott brown tried to dodge partisanship at every turn yet somehow the candidates got chippy. we will dissect and discuss round two ahead on "now." [ woman ] ring. ring. progresso. i just finished a bowl of your new light chicken pot pie soup and it's so rich and creamy... is it really 100 calories? let me put you on webcan... ...lean roasted chicken... and a creamy broth mmm i can still see you. [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup. thor's couture gets the most rewards of any small business credit card. your boa! [ garth ] thor's small business earns double miles on every purchase, every day! ahh, the new fabrics, put it on my spark card. [ garth ] why settle for less? the spiked heels are working. wait! [ garth ] great businesses deserve the most rewards! [ male announcer ] the spark business card from capital one. choose unlimited rewards with double miles or 2% cash back on every purchase, every day! what's in your wallet? [ cheers and applau

you think she solidified her position tonight with massachusetts voters? >> i think she had another strong debate performance and i think scott brown has been replaying the same tired play book. bring up false native american issues, check. run away from mitt romney, check. run away from my record, check. i'm not sure that's a winner in massachusetts, but at least he let everybody know who his favorite justice was. >> i want to play more tape. there was a portion where brown, the senator lost his cool on warren. let's take a look at it. >> if you're going to comment on my record, i would at least have you refer to it -- excuse me. i'm not a student in your classroom. please let me respond. thank you. >> some observers said that brown seemed angry at the last debate. is this a big image problem for him? and i also notice that the native american issue is not polling very well in massachusetts. not that many people really care about this. and he just seems to be taking out ads, billboards, and all of this stuff subpoena does he have an image problem in his c

i think that massachusetts is sinking in. governor romney tried to be a tiny bit more specific on the deductions by saying that he would give everyone in the country up to $25,000 in deductions and no more but that in and of itself, he didn't talk about any corporate loopholes to close or any other loopholes. that doesn't come close to $5 trillion, the cost of the rate cuts that he talked about buzz, policemen, folks, governor romney advocated $2 trillion of increased military spending and has to meet a $7 trillion gap, a $7 trillion gap. and that's just to break even. then he has to tell us how to cut the deficit after that. so it doesn't add up. it doesn't come close. >> how remarkable is this? we have 20 days left here and we're still asking the campaign for specifics including an interview just this morning, congressman paul ryan made the rounds and vice president biden. let's play a little bit of the interview with congressman ryan pushing him on specifics of this budget. let's play it. >> sure. >> you don't go to congre

he talked about his record as governor in massachusetts. of course, that is a neighboring state to new hampshire. this crowd quite familiar with mitt romney's record. one of the things president obama focusing on today and really throughout his campaign speeches recently is the fact that mitt romney says he is not going to increase taxes for middle class families and that he did that while he was governor of massachusetts. the romney campaign pushing back saying president obama is in attack mode because he doesn't have his own record to run on. both candidates really going after independent voters here in new hampshire. this race is essentially tied up. president obama has a narrow lead here, but certainly not a significant one. four electoral votes here. in a race this tight, every single electoral vote is key. president obama carried this state in 2008. unemployment rate far below the national average, but mitt romney has a strong presence here. not only was he governor of neighboring massachusetts, but he owns a house here in new hampshi

went back to massachusetts because the governorship opened, got to run as pro choice there, that's the clip, then decides he's going to run for president in the republican primaries, got to be pro life for that, all the clips from that and now a month before the election and, you know, we say it's a shift to the middle, to me it's just a rhetorical shift. i have no idea what mitt romney personally thinks about abortion. i don't think any of us will know what mitt romney thinks about abortion. if you want to know what kind of president mitt romney will be on abortion look at where the republican party is, republicans are congress are, platform is they call for a human life amendment, litmus test for judges. this what is he would be as -- >> constitutional ban on abortion we would be delighted to sign. it's one thing when talking about tax policy where americans maybe get confused and the wall of obfuscation is particularly thick, but on something like this. >> yeah. >> and talking about women voters who romney needs and has made up ground with in recent days this i think is much more de

we saw the massachusetts senate debate. new hampshire, folks in new england expect this kind of stuff. romney coming from massachusetts, do you expect this to be some heavy verbal combat between the two of them? >> i expect the tone to be a little bit less aggressive than people might be expecting, but i expect the content to be pointed and sharp and specific. and i think you can go into combat without having to raise the decibels too much. but i do think that the two candidates will be right on target with substance. >> want to talk to you about some of the polling we're seeing. national polls, it seems as if the dip that romney experienced last week is gone. that's the good news for you guys. the bad news is, president obama's number hasn't moved. so the bounce that he got into the 49, 50% range has held where it's governor romney's number that is fluid. are you one of those that believe that 49, 50% is the winning range? so that your next job, you're in the race, then the next job is you have to figure out how to peel vo

senate in massachusetts. and joining us now from lowell is nbc news capitol hill correspondent kelly o'donnell who was there last night, watched the whole thing unfold. kelly, what are your take aways from the debate? >> reporter: well, good morning, mika, if you are a debate lover like i am, this was really something to watch. in part because you heard that ground swell from the audience. there were about 4,500 people inside the arena here. there were thousands more outside who had been supporting their candidate and protesting the other. so there was a bit of that feel of the room that you don't often get with debates even though our friend david gregory said, please don't get the audience involved and take away time from the candidates. but moments like that gave a real feel for what was happening. it was tense. scott brown, of course, is the republican who was elected two years ago to fill out the term of ted kennedy. now he is a republican in massachusetts trying to run on a year when president obama's o

do you see him as an advocate for women in massachusetts? >> again, our major project was all about casting a wide net and bringing women into the pipeline for these senior-level positions in government. we were very happy to work with the romney administration in a collaborative process to make sure that we were putting forward very good women candidates for these positions. you know, frankly, we're very happy that we were able to be part of that process and actually get that number up to 42% of his first appointments. >> is that a yes? >> you know, also, we know the numbers did decrease as the years went on in the romney administration. that's actually a trend that we have seen, you know, throughout that administration and others. it's something we're working on strategically to respond to that. >> all right. executive director of the massachusetts women's political caucus, also on the executive board that put together that binder that governor romney was alluding to. thank you so much. >> thank you very much. >>> president obama may be pl

according to women's groups in the state of massachusetts. now an update to paul ryan's visit to a soup kitchen. we told you yesterday he was accused of going in and washing clean dishes. the charity's president now says he was mischaracterized in a "washington post" piece that started and you would this reporting that the republican vice presidential nominee did nothing during his appearance there. but the charity's president tells nbc news congressman ryan did in fact clean dirty dishes that had been set aside by soup kitchen volunteers. and now america you can rest easy. still ahead on "way too early," why are you awake? your tweets and texts are next. jack, you're a little boring. boring. boring. [ jack ] after lauren broke up with me, i went to the citi private pass page and decided to be...not boring. that's how i met marilyn... giada... really good. yes! [ jack ] ...and alicia. ♪ this girl is on fire [ male announcer ] use any citi® card to get the benefits of private pass. more concerts. more events. more experiences. [ jack ] hey,

b, he's not winning massachusetts. how come nobody brings that up? he is nowhere near going to win massachusetts or any other state he owns homes in. he is losing every one of those states. to make this analogy that he was really great and brought people together, he -- hunt and pecked 844 pieces of legislation and was overridden 750 times. why is that good? >> his campaign is running a red state campaign. with the -- he knows he has to win ohio, there are tossup states but mitt romney has appeals to the conservative base of his party and now is making a last-minute pivot but at the end of the day as the vice president poingz points out can you imagine mitt romney standing up to the tea party in congress and saying stand down. >> remember on the day -- if he were to win this election, on november 7th he starts running for re-election in the republican party where they don't mind challenging you from the right if you start swerving in any way toward the center just ask george w. bush's father how that works. and so he would absolutely be enslaved to w

you have to be pro-choice or you can't win in massachusetts. so he effectively became pro-choice. as he gets ready to run for president when he's been governor of massachusetts, now he needs to be anti-choice, and so that's what he becomes. while he's governor of massachusetts though and preparing to run for governor, he actually vetoed an emergency contraception bill. in other words, a woman comes in and says i've been raped or maybe my contraceptive device didn't work and i'm afraid i might become pregnant, i need something to prevent a pregnancy, no, mitt romney doesn't think women should have that available to them, and paul ryan, of course, doesn't think they should be able to have an abortion in the case of rape or incest either. >> i want to show some tape. back to you, alex, because you are so good at this. let me ask you this. we have had people flip-flop, but he flips within hours. this week he said i'm not going to go do anything. i'm going back to mitt romney here. on this sort of strange bedfellows ticket. he's out there saying, i'

. >> i used to think, i still think, massachusetts is a poor training ground for presidential candidates because it's a weird culture up there. maybe the republicans run was not a good preparation for general election this year. anyway, in swing states the obama campaign has bombarded voters, as you said, with this powerful ad going after romney for his 47% putdown. let's take a look. >> 47% of the americans who vote for the president who are dependent, who believe they're victims, who believe the government has to care for them, who believes they're entitled to health care, food, housing, you name it, and they will vote for this president no matter what. so my job is not to worry about those -- i'll never take care of them. they should take care responsibility and take care of themselves. >> you look at this analytical, only three or four breaks, romney would be ahead right now, breaks going to obama's side. the romney performance overseas when he blew that thing with cameron. the masterful performance by bill clinton where he reset the clock on the economy. of course, this 47%. these b

mitt romney pointed to his massachusetts health care plan as evidence of his empathy. a big word for him right now. let's watch. >> throughout this campaign as well, we've talked about my record in massachusetts. don't forget, i got everybody in my state insured. 100% of the kids in our state have health insurance. i don't think there's anything that shows more empathy and care about the people of this country than that kind of record. >> there is he, dr. feel good. but three days earlier, catch this. >> we do provide care for people who don't have insurance, people -- if someone has a heart attack, they don't sit in their apartment and die. we pick them up in an ambulance and take them to the hospital and give them care. and different states have different ways of providing for that care. >> reporter: that's the most expensive way to do it, emergency rooms. >> different states have different ways of doing that. >> ron, i don't know where to start with this guy. first, he wants empathy for creating a wonderful health care plan that covers about everybody out there, 97%

and how we deal with it in utah is going to be very different in massachusetts or florida. absolutely, it's going to be a little bit different. >> so it's very possible -- >> of course we're going to do this. >> well, wait a minute. >> i'm sorry? >> it's the year 2012. it's the year 2012. so when obama did it, nobody ever did it in history. and you're saying, of course we would do it. is there any evidence in history that the republican party would have ever created a health care plan? have you ever tried to do it? ever? tell me when you guys -- >> we have passed -- >> when did you guys create a health care plan? >> we have passed more bills that are now sitting in the united states senate than you can possibly imagine. there's more than 30 jobs bills, there's a number of bills that deal with health care. and yes, a president -- >> when is the republican party ever created a national health care plan -- >> president obama will grant each state a waiver. president romney will give each state a waiver, so they can craft and work with their own plan. there are certain things t

massachusetts schools were number one by the time he left. he was able to get a $3 billion deficit, convert it into a $2 billion surplus. all of that with working with democrats. so i think you look at scrutinize his successful record as governor and compare it to president obama's failed policies. where his, the economy is still stagnant. where we're not seeing enough jobs being created. and really, i would go with governor romney. >> let's move on here to the message on the stump. we don't have a lot of time today. governor romney made no mention of his much-touted 20% tax cut at his campaign rally in yoi head. t let's talk about it on the other side. >> you paid 14% in federal taxes. that's the capital gains rate. is that fair to the guy who makes $50,000 and paid a higher rate than you did? you think it is fair? >> yeah i think it's the right way to encourage economic growth. >> it's a simple ad, is the ad encouraging the campaign to take the issue off the table. >> a simple ad that they seem to have cut out certain parts of the interview

first of all, i like the way we did it in massachusetts. i liked the fact that in my state we had republicans and democrats come together and work together. what you did instead was to push through a plan without a single republican vote. as a matter of fact when massachusetts did something quite extraordinary, elected a republican senator to stop obama care, you pushed it through anyway. the so entirely on a partisan basis, instead of bringing america together and having a discussion on this important topic, you pushed through something that you thought was the best answer and drove it through. what we did in the legislature, 87% democrat, we worked together. 200 legislators, only two voted against the plan by the time we were finished. we didn't raise taxes. you raised them by a trillion under obama care. we didn't cut medicare by $716 billion. we didn't put in place a board that can tell people ultimately what treatments they're going to receive. we didn't also do something that i think a number of people across this country recognize, w

>> i think governor romney used massachusetts as an example. so he was able to get democrats to help him pass a comprehensive health care bill, which during most of this campaign he's rejected his own accomplishment. listen, mitt romney has a plan to cut taxes, $5 trillion. it's going to be revenue-neutral and the only way it can be revenue-neutral is to add tax burdens to working middle class people. now, he wouldn't mention a single deduction that he was willing to get rid of, save big bird. i mean, that's significant to the american people. >> governor strickland, i have to let that be the last word. i have to let that be the last word. we are out of time. governor strickland, thank you. governor pataki, great to have you in. >>> also making news, health officials are trying to track down hundreds of people across the country who could be infected with a rare and deadly form of men jitsz. the cdc says four people have died and 22 more sickened. investigators blame the outbreak on a bad batch of steroids from a pharmacy in massachusetts that

you look at massachusetts, and another key senate race. this is a blue state that really likes the republican person, scott brown, whose re-election is critical to taking back the senate. if he wins it's because of likability. we have an interesting new poll that highlights the two basic forces driving these races. one slis likability. brown is ahead by three points. this is a shift from three weeks. now brown has the lead. look what's happened and look at the second number on the screen there. right now it stands at a 16-point obama lead in massachusetts. a week ago when warren was ahead in the same poll, the margin was 28 points. what happened between last week and this week, this poll was conducted in the three days after the denver debate. just as we saw after the democratic convention, enthusiasm among democrats soared and warren took the fleed massachusetts over brown in the wake of the democratic debate perhaps in massachusetts and elsewhere. enthusiasm may be down a little bit and enthusiasm may be up a little bit. you have a basic

kerry little a campaign adviser but served as lieutenant governor for romney in massachusetts. you were there then and know what happened when he was shaping the government. according to the organization the political women's political caucus massachusetts government appointments project, massgap, you're familiar with, they say they did present lists of women to both candidates then, and that, in fact, for the first couple of years that the romney administration and romney haley administration had a pretty good record, improved new appointments of women to 42%. but then in the last couple of years of the administration, it fell back to only 25%. at least that's their numerical take. numbers don't tell everything. but when you heard him say binders full of women, did you -- was that sort of a male or a romney -- how did you react to it? >> i spent hours going -- pouring over the resumes in those binders. i knew what he was talking about. i know everyone is having perhaps a good laugh about this. but the real point there is that governor romney not only just took that promise, th

joining me now, phil johnston, the chairman of the massachusetts democratic party. while romney served as governor, he's now head of his own public relations firm. thanks for being with us. >> good to be here. >> you followed that article. then governor romney took lengthy vacations and weekend get aways it says, many of them at his vacation home in neighboring new hampshire. you told the times in this article you thought governor romney gave up his job. >> he was really an absentee landlord during the four years that he was here. by the way, he had a sumptuous and it remains a very sumptuous, over the top vacation home in new hampshire where he used to bring a whole hoard of security guards with him every time he went up there, which was, you know, michael dukakis was governor here and he used to go to work on the mbta with no security. romney was always accompanied by very expensive entourage. but he was not here, particularly during the last two years, richard, of his tenure. during the first two years he worked on the health reform legislation, which is really d

you do not want to see massachusetts mitt show up at that debate. that will not bring conservative enthusiasm up a blip. >> had he taken -- he hasn't been a conservative the last five years running. why he didn't win the nomination four years ago, took him so long to win the nomination this time around. i don't think this is about ideology or anything as much as it pains me to say that, this is a question of capability. mitt romney if i were advising him and his campaign shutters at the thought of that, but if i were advising him i would say you are not on the stage with barack obama, with you don't need more zingers, lloyd bentsen had a zinger and he lost. james stockdale had a zinger and lost. what we need is a vision. communicate to the american people, use this as a platform, it's you and them, one on one and i would act as if barack obama is not there. >> let me bring in chris on that point. let me play, chris, what president obama said just yet in nevada. >> i know folks in the media are speculating already on who's going to have the best zing

the rains increase in connecticut and massachusetts. we have numerous showers down here from philadelphia into maryland. eventually some of the rain will return to d.c., too. on and off periods of rain. the afternoon hours will be worse up in northern portions of new england. it will all clear out by this evening. as far as the rest of the country goes, a cold and raw day in.great lakes from chicago to detroit through ohio and indianapolis and illinois and all of michigan and wisconsin. we're nice from colorado to texas. the nice weather will spread across the country this weekend. that's the good thing. only the pacific northwest will be cloudy and damp with on and off showers. look at kansas city, beautiful by the time we get to saturday. nice and mild air for the saturday afternoon and the east coast. even into sunday, it looks like a nice fall weekend for whatever your plans may be. >> all right, bill, thanks. >>> just ahead, actress and obama supporter eva longoria is apologizing to mitt romney. we'll tell you why. >>> plus, parano

coming up independence day or night in massachusetts. elizabeth warren and scott brown tried to dodge partisanship at every turn yet somehow the candidates got chippy. we will dissect and discuss round two ahead on "now." [ woman ] ring. ring. progresso.

businessmen can take care of -- he took care of massachusetts. i think he can take care of us. >> it's over the past four years, he has attempted to advance the economy and now that he's starting to tdo it, he nees more time. >> and there were more positive comments about president obama than governor romney on twitter's political index after the debate. it shows the president ahead by six points, 35 to 29. >>> actual speaking time showed president obama edging out governor romney by three minutes during the 90 minute debate and after the debate, jimmy kimmel joking about that format. >> tonight's debate was in what they call a town hall format which is where real voters get to ask questions and then the candidates ignore them and just talk about whatever they wanted to in the first place. >> and that's your morning dish of scrambled politics. >>> wall street will kick off the day with the dow starting at 13551 after climbing 127 points yesterday. the s&p jumped 14 and the nasdaq rose 36. taking a look at overseas trading on this wednesday, in to

in massachusetts, scott brown has jumped back in front of elizabeth warren in a new poll. wbr/mass inc. poll. it's now brown by three. 48%, 45%. that keeps juggling. in north dakota a seat that looked to be a sure republican pickup is now a dead heat. believe it or not, former ag out there heidi heitkamp is tied with rick berg. republican congressman. 47-all. in pennsylvania democratic senator bob casey is up nine over his republican challenger in the new siena, 44 to 35. to help those affected and to cover cleanup costs. today, the beaches and gulf are open, and many areas are reporting their best tourism seasons in years. and bp's also committed to america. we support nearly 250,000 jobs and invest more here than anywhere else. we're working to fuel america for generations to come. our commitment has never been stronger. ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] introducing a reason...to look twice. introducing a stunning work of technology -- the entirely new lexus es. and the first-ever es hybrid. this is the pursuit of perfection. >>> welcome back to "hardball." politico has a s

so he was wrong in massachusetts? >> romney tried something that worked for massachusetts. he feels like letting the states solve the issue, and i agree with that, let the states take this up. just like with our medicaid. >> okay. so government-run doesn't mean government-run? >> on a bipartisan basis that say send it back to the states. >> okay. back to my question, you didn't answer it. if a fertilized egg of a human being is a person, then someone who has an abortion is a murderer because that's a person who was killed? under the law you want written. is that true? >> life begins at conception. >> is it a person? >> i think life begins at conception. i said life begins at conception. >> is that life a person? let me ask you, congressman ryan, you endorsed, co-sponsored a bill, you, congressman ryan, endorsed, co-sponsored a bill to make the fertilized human egg a person. you stand by that tonight or not? >> i don't know what congressman ryan would say on that issue. i can tell you that i do believe life begins at conception. >> in other words, it's a little tricky admitt

massachusetts senator scott brown, emphasized he is pro choice and disagrees with mourdock. new hampshire senator kelly ayott canceled a trip to campaign with mourdock and the governor urged mourdock to apologize. congresswoman moore, these guys are dancing away from this guy because he's embarrassed them. seems as you point out their platform, they are running away from the platform, from what paul ryan has said about personhood. how many times can they make deals with the hard right to get the support of the base of the republican side and then dance away from it when the lights go on? >> i just hope women of america are seeing that this is the dirty little secret inside of the republican party. they have no respect for women, no regard for women. they want to give rights to an embryo at the expense of women's health and women's lives, and they just want to get elected. you know, believe us for these 13 days, but i believe mitt romney and these senators i believe them for what they have said the first time. they have said that they would repeal -- >> congresswoman, you're

got an interesting one from scott in massachusetts. your weekend begins right now. it's "the cycle" for friday, october 5th. >>> many people thought this week president obama wouldvy strong debate performance that would be erased by a weak jobs number, but it's the opposite. the jobs report is in easing concern about obama's weak debate. nate silver said first day in while obama is is happy for everyone to talk about the economy because the numbers are better than expected with the unemployment rate dropping to 7.8%, a four-year low. exactly where it was when president obama took office. there was only a net gain of 114,000 jobs created last month. too low for sustained unemployment reduction. so something for both sides to like. the president has to be thrilled about this jobs numbers, though. it's a game changer unless it's not. the president is the out on the trail pushing it. >> as a nation we are moving forward again. we're moving forward. more people are getting jobs. now, every month reminds us that we've still got too many of our friends and neighbors lookin

with me are two guests who know his record out there in massachusetts. shannon o'brien ran against romney in the 2002 massachusetts governor's race and scott helman co-authored the biography called "the real romney." see that in bookstores everywhere. let me start with shannon. thank you for joining us, dear. here is the question. i hear there's a story, a wonderful anecdote, about the elevator in the state house and mitt's attitude towards it, which is one of those stories i always like because it explains human behavior in a way that voting records don't. explain the elevator and mitt as governor. >> well, the man of the people, the guy who was so bipartisan, actually for the first time in, you know, history that anyone could remember took an elevator that was previously open to the public and kept it just for himself. his own little private bubble going up and down into the governor's office so the public couldn't be on it and no legislators who wanted to buttonhole him to talk to him about legislative priorities could not get on for the four years he

was elected governor in massachusetts, this is really telling, he expanded all of that state's policies on affirmative action. those rules that allowed women, minorities, people living with disabilities, protections, equal protections as being state employees. he did it proverbially in the dead of the night. there was no press conference. no press release. he snuck this in. when civil rights groups found out about it and took him to task, he appoints a weak-kneed commission that comes back with lackluster recommendations that still don't offer -- put in place those protections again. it took governor duval patrick to reinstate those practices when he was elected governor. mitt romney has a lot to explain about affirmative action, a lot to explain about his sxhimecomm to women. >> thinking about the issue of single parents, and how romney explained that. he linked his explanation or response to a question about firearms to the issue of single parenting. take a listen to this. >> we need moms and dads helping raise kids. wherever possible, the benefit of having two parents in the home --

i called on another one of mitt's massachusetts myths. and he's made himself the shining knight. the fact is, there was a group, mass gap, which is the government appointments project, put together by a number of bipartisan women's groups. at the time there were approximately, i don't know, 30% of women in high-ranking positions in that administration. and this group got together and demanded, frankly, of me and of mitt romney that we make a pledge. that we pledge to bring more women into, whether it was my or his administration. so we actually signed, i think he did too, signed the pledge. so when he goes and says that he was out finding all these women, the fact is, the women beat on our doors and said, take these binders. so at least the binders, i think, was truthful. >> but the binders -- so you're saying, just so i get this right, it's not that mitt romney realized that all of his cabinet, potential appointees, as he mentioned last night, were too male in terms of the pool, and he needed -- he sent people back to go find binders full of women in order to change the gender m

scott brown is described as the most popular in massachusetts. elizabeth warren, one issue for her, massachusetts never elected a woman to the senate or to become governor. each has beluilt-in challenges. >> thank you both. i appreciate it. >>> we have new national numbers out today on the presidential race. quinnipiac university has president obama leading mitt romney 49% to 45%. that lead is all about the gender gap. in the poll, the president leads romney by 18 points among women. while romney holds a 10-point advantage among men. peter brown is assistant director of the quinnipiac university polling center and joins us from washington, d.c. can you tell from the polling what specifically feeds into the gender gap? are women happier with president obama or is this just an anti-romney vote? >> historically, women are more likely to be democrat, men republican. women see a greater role for government overall. not a single here or there, but overall. they are less tax averse than men tend to be. men tend to be more tax averse. they favor small ro

you do not have to show a massachusetts driver's license in order to vote in massachusetts. but this billboard sure makes it look like it, doesn't it? a few months later, there was another special election. voters inside the polling place in newbedford showed up to these guys in suits and ties. the sign says show i.d. to vote. and then underneath it it has some rules listed. rules. have valid government-issued i.d. then it says some more stuff. the last rule is voluntary compliance. this isn't actually a rule at all. it's just a couple guys trying to make you think it's a rule while you're trying to vote. after that election the massachusetts secretary of state ruled that it was illegal for those guys to be inside that polling place with their big sign that says show i.d. to vote. but by that time, the election was over so maybe the damage was done. we don't know how many people roll past that billboard and decided they wouldn't turn out to vote because they didn't have a driver's license. we don't know how many people strolled in thinking they were going to vote, saw the si

senate race up in massachusetts. republican senator scott brown, democratic challenger elizabeth warren facing off in springfield, mass, as two new polls are split on which candidates as the advantage there. unlike the first two debates, last night there was no mention for elizabeth warren made of american heritage but plenty of jousting on policy issues like job creation, taxes, and which candidate sticks up for the middle class. >> the one thing you can't be doing now in the middle of this 3 1/2 year recession is taking more money out of people's hard-working pocketbooks and wallets and giving it to the federal government. they're like pigs in a trough up there. they take and take and take. >> this has been pretty much my life's work is talking about what is happening to america's middle class. let's face it, america's middle class is just getting hammered. republicans have a vision, cut taxes for those at the top and let the chips fall where they may for everybody else. >> when you talk about getting hammered, i s

in massachusetts, scott brown has jumped back in front of elizabeth warren in a new poll. it's now brown by three. 48%, 45%. that keeps juggling. in north dakota a seat that looked to be a sure republican pickup is now a dead heat. former ag out there heidi heitkamp is tied with rick berg. in pennsylvania democratic senator bob casey is up nine over his republican challenger in the you? siena poll, 35% to 44%. a lot of extra possibilities there. we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] feeling like a shadow of your former self? c'mon, michael! get in the game! [ male announcer ] don't have the hops for hoops with your buddies? lost your appetite for romance? and your mood is on its way down. you might not just be getting older. you might have a treatable condition called low testosterone or low t. millions of men, forty-five or older, may have low t. so talk to your doctor about low t. hey, michael! [ male announcer ] and step out of the shadows. hi! how are you? [ male announcer ] learn more at isitlowt.com. [ laughs ] hey! nah. [ dennis' voice ] i bet he's got an allstate