we begin tonight with mitt romney's sneak attack at solyndra. cnbc's chief washington correspondent john harwood with the details. good evening, john. >> reporter: good evening, larry. lots of action in the presidential race today. and it started early this morning with the release of new nbc marist polls showing several battleground states in a dead heat. let's start with iowa where you see the president and mitt romney tied. then you go to the state of colorado another target that president obama carried last time. he's up by just one point. then you go to nevada, another state which is highly contested, also with a large hispanic population, hard hit by foreclosures, president obama's only up 2 points there. mitt romney tried to move the needle by traveling to california to visit the bankrupt solyndra that got federal aid from the stimulus and attacked the president for crony capitalism. >> you realize if the business had done spectacularly well, the shareholders, his friends, wow done very, very well. but the taxpayers would've just gotten t

mitt romney has been running for president a lot longer. so the obama campaign -- and traditionally these campaigns don't start until later in the summer, so i wouldn't be overly concerned at this moment. >> yeah, you know, look there's no need to panic or anything like that. i like the ad they are doing about massachusetts, but i disagree with you, i think the campaign is in full bloom. they are running the ads, et cetera, the fact that it is tied at this point is not comforting, given the fact that i think mitt romney is an awful candidate. let's show you a talk. >> he sincerely believes that if the [ inaudible ] while the investors like him make money, the rest of us will pos per as well, why else would he propose cutting his own taxes while raising them on 18 million working families? >> i want to bring in someone here who might have the opinion that perhaps president obama is not as progressive as that speech indicated. max great to have you here. you saw the president talking about, oh, my god, wall street i'm going to go get them and

mitt romney says the economic crisis never happened. we were losing 750,000 jobs a month when the president came into office. the manufacturing sector was in decline. the auto industry was on the brink. businesses have now created more than 4.2 million jobs. manufacturing is resurgent. gm is the number one automaker in the world again. if you want to compare records, look no further than this stat. under mitt romney in the first 40 months of his administration, under 5,000 jobs were created. under president obama in the past 40 months, in the state of massachusetts, we've created nearly 22,000 jobs. >> obviously it was a much deeper economic crisis this time than last, but certainly some important numbers to keep in mind. thanks so much to ben. there are new polls showing a tightening race between the president and mitt romney in three battleground states. colorado, iowa and nevada. all states the president won in 2008. now, one thing that could swing the vote, though, is women, and we know they are important. issues they care about cen

. >> mitt romney's visit is perfect for the message that the spending was a failure. and the solar panel maker received a lone from the federal government before last year. >> of course just the business failed as it did and this is taxpayers getting stuck with losing a half billion dollars. so it is heads krob cronies win, tails, the tax payers lose. >> two years ago the president came to solyndra to pro claim it as stimulus success. >> you can see it's a symbol of something different today, it's a sill bomb, not of success, but failure. >> last october he defended it this way. >> this is a loan guarantee program that predates me. that historically had support from democrats and republicans as well. >> and there are those in the obama administration who raised concerns about the $500 million investment. the committee released this new ad. >> there are warnings. >> the campaign are using those stories to neutralize the campaign's attacks on mitt romney. obama senior strategist was in massachusetts today to bash then-governor mitt romney's record. >> the message massac

how mitt romney says he would fix the economy? and a study of rats may hold new clues to fixing spinal cord injuries in humans. when the cbs evening news continues. i love how clean and healthy my mouth is right now. i wish i could keep it this way. [ male announcer ] after a dental cleaning, plaque quickly starts to grow back. but new crest pro-health clinical plaque control reduces plaque and is clinically proven to help keep it from coming back. new crest pro-health clinical plaque control toothpaste. now, there's gentle, dependable constipation reland mer me... and me. new dulcolax laxative tablets for women are comfort-coated... so they're gentle on sensitive stomachs. new dulcolax laxative for women the overnight relief you're looking for. tell me you have good insurance. yup, i've got... [ voice of dennis ] ...allstate. really? i was afraid you'd have some cut-rate policy. [ normal voice ] nope, i've got... [ voice of dennis ] the allstate value plan. it's their most affordable car insurance -- and you still get an allstate

>> obama here has 5,000 times the social pull of mitt romney and ron paul. meaning that it's an audience-based metric and it's talking about the transparency and the quality of your followers. it's not all about quantity, it's not about having the $15 million, it's about the people who follow you and are they actively engaged with you and do they retreat you? >> i think 5,000 times the average person or 466 times in romney's case the average person. part of it means how many followers did they have rand they considered influential movers and shakers in a lot of people follow action and they don't write anything. >> warner: or retweet it. >> right. >> so they're not the people who are helpful to the candidates. >> it helps to have followers but at the same time if you have mark zuckerberg following you, that probably counts... he probably stays on facebook. >> warner: but tú85i idea is tht it's supposed to have a multiplier effect, ideally. >> that's correct. >> warner: so what is the explanation for the difference there? >> i tk/lf in part that president ob

romney has just picked up a key endorsement from the former first lady nancy reagan. the reagan presidential library released this picture of nancy reagan with governor and mrs. romney just a short time ago. and in a statement nancy reagan writings: that the romneys joined her in her home this afternoon for lemonade and cookies and i offered my firm endorsement of his campaign. she then added ronni would have liked governor romney's business background and his strong principle and i have to say i do too, end quote. nancy reagan still recovering after she broke several of her ribs after falling at her home in california back in march. she is 90 years old. she is america's oldest living first lady. painful injections could soon be a thing of the past. scientists say they have created a new way to push medicine through the skin. and they claim it feels like a mosquito bite. details in a moment. plus, the first privately owned space craft to reach the international space station has just come home to earth. and it made quite a splash. that's next. you guys can stay in tou

romney were engaging in not so civil dueling political stunts. >> under governor rom nay, the state was 47th in job creation. >> the obama campaign traveled to massachusetts for a press conference on the state house steps to slam romney's record as a one-term governor. >> romney economics didn't work then and it won't work now. >> broken record. >> but given the close proximity to romney's headquarters in boston, david axelrod was knocked off message by a vocal group of romney volunteers. a few hours later, the romney campaign had a political stunt of their own to unveil in california. at solyndra, the now bankrupt president obama had visited two years ago after his administration awarded the company a half billion dollars in loans guarantees as part of the green initiative. to prevent their being upstaged they kept the visit top secret until the last minute, not allowing traveling press to report on it publicly until the candidate arrived outside the company's headquarters. >> you can see it's a symbol of something very different today. it's a symbol not of success but of failure.

out village over book of secrets well senator marco rubio get the republican endorsement to become mitt romney's running mate and what will happen with the brass in the middle east rumor has it it's all been decided in a secret conference in virginia i'll bring you the details. next line of american power continues. things that are. might actually be time revolution. and it turns out that a killer drink a starbucks says a surprising him greta you. are is the state run english speaking russian channel it's kind of like. russia today has an extremely confrontational stance when it comes to us. we just put a picture of me when i was like nine years old and just you know the truth. i confess and i am a total get a friend that i love brad because he is like the and. he was kind of a guest today. i'm very proud of the all that she has played. what drives the world the fear mongering used by politicians who makes decisions to break through it's already been made who can you trust no one who is in view with a global missionary see where we had a state controlled capitalism is called sessions wh

romney actually want to reverse this move will david sirota gave us his thoughts on the subject when he spoke with us last week. student debt is a huge financial goal right now in a lot of people are making a lot of money off of student debt we are a country that makes it financially very difficult and certainly comparatively difficult to other industrialized nations for choose to get an education mitt romney and his friends in the financial sector make a lot of money off of that so we're talking about education but what we're really talking about is deeper ideology and i think president obama this is one area of education as opposed to twelve education where the president obama obama administration is far better. but how different with student loans under romney really be according to her poor released yesterday by us per the two thousand and ten changes seem to be more of a nuisance than a barrier when it comes to scamming students in taxpayers see banks and financial firms they have been skirting the rules anyway by getting colleges to outsource certain services and exclusive deal

. >> on opposite ends of the country, his chief political strategist and mitt romney were undergoing dueling stunts. >> they were 47th in job creation. >> the obama campaign traveled to mass nasz for a press conference to slam romney's record as a one-term governor. >> romney economics didn't work then and it won't work now. >> broken record. >> but given the close proximity to romney's headquarters in boston, david axelrod was knocked off message by a vocal group of romney volunteers. a few hours later, the romney campaign had a stunt of their own to unveil. the solar power plant obama visited two years ago after his company rewarded a half million dollars. to prevent their being upstaged they kept the visit top secret until the last minute, not allowing traveling press to report on it publicly until the candidate arrived outside the company's headquarters. >> it's a symbol of something very different today. it's a symbol not of success but of failure. >> you know, matt, there's a reason that all of this is so personal and even petty right now in the campaign trail. the race is extr

we asked mitt romney about that. he wouldn't go that that are. he would only say, people out there who don't want this story to get out. i have to tell you, a lot of us were already placing our bets, making some educated guesses and when we got here, there were some satellite trucks here, even ours. we did guess right. we were coming to solyndra. they could have taken us to alcatraz. >> how much is a reaction to them knowing the obama campaign is going piece by piece through the romney resume? how many of that is a reaction saying, fine, you are going to go piece by piece through the presidency? >> that's what's happening right now. this is going back and forth. they were being very secretive about what happened today. take a look at the message discipline that the romney campaign had with this event. there were no protesters or off-script moments out here. contrast that with what happened in boston which was really sort of a circus for the obama campaign. not a clear victory from a publics relation standpoint. romney had a clean event here but t

home turf, boston. >> romney economics didn't work then and it won't work now. >> reporter: mitt romney meanwhile made his own partisan play in california showing up at solyndra, the solar energy firm that went bankrupt after investors contributed to the obama campaign and got a half billion in obama stimulus funds. >> the free enterprise to the president means taking money from taxpayers and giving it freely to his friends. >> reporter: romney said when he left office in massachusetts unemployment was 4.7%. >> i think 4.7% is a pretty good number. >> reporter: back to the battle so much for warm, bipartisan nostalgia. today's nbc news/marist poll finds president obama ahead now with 48% in florida, virginia, and ohio. mitt romney just four to six points back in the key battleground states. i'm steve handelsman, news 4. >>> after one of the worst days of the year on wall street stocks did not fare much better today. discouraging numbers on jobs and economic growth dragged on the markets. the dow lost 26 points and closed at 12,393. the nasdaq dropped ten and the s&p lost three points. t

that's not good news for mitt romney. plus, the star of tv's "ugly betty" comes to washington for a good cause. she is here to talk about fighting for the right to vote. and republicans renew their attack on women's right with a bogus vote in congress. aren't they supposed to be creating jobs? [ male announcer ] this is genco services -- mcallen, texas. in here, heavy rental equipment in the middle of nowhere, is always headed somewhere. to give it a sense of direction, at&t created a mobile asset solution to protect and track everything. so every piece of equipment knows where it is, how it's doing or where it goes next. ♪ this is the bell on the cat. [ male announcer ] it's a network of possibilities -- helping you do what you do... even better. ♪ >> folks, please check us out on our "politicsnation" page on facebook. our community is buzzing, we want you to join the conversation. please go to facebook/politicsnation and like us to get all of our updates and join the conversation. and then treats day after day... we

and governor mitt romney out in front of solyndra talking about his record and also effort to put in federal dollars in that company that has gone under. meanwhile today, former president george w. bush and george h.w. bush at the white house for unveiling today of the portrait of the first lady and former president bush. it was an interesting event. interesting things said. and that's why, one reason why we have an expanded panel tonight. steve hayes, senior writer for the "weekly standard." juan williams, columnist with the hill. we welcome darre dana perino, co-host of "the five" in town for this and charles krauthammer. welcome. after all the back and forth you're on the panel. >> have i been begging to be on the panel for years. >> bret: is this the new "the five"? >> it could be. if charles will allow me to stay. >> bret: let's ask about the event. there was interesting things said by both president obama and the former president. ended up being a nice event. >> almost a book end of healing at the end of coming back to white house that, with a lot of memories there. a lot of st

i don't know if mitt romney would behave differently in syria than obama has so far. i actually doubt it. i think the idea that we would rush to military intervention in syria is overplayed. your question was broader than that. i think there are sort of fundamental tensions here in the arab spring for the united states and fundamental stakes and the ability to navigate what's coming is going to be a critical test of either president. i don't have a crystal ball. i don't know if strobe has more insight. it's hard to have a sense of this. one of the things we haven't talked about it, it will matter who romney or obama picks as their secretaries of states and there's a pretty wide cast of characters on the list for romney and that will shape things quite a lot. whatever it is i think these two challenges we have been talking about, sort of the economic rise of asia, military rise of china, but then the turbulence in the arab spring will be the defining moments of the policy. >> you would put iran on the hiss. >> i would put iran on the list. >> homi, anything? >> yeah, i

. >> do you see a difference on what mitt romney would do on the issues? >> i do worry because i was emphasized the point you can't judge entirely from the campaign rhetoric, but it does worry me that the phrase asia doesn't really seem to come up in his voc voc vocabulary. he doesn't appear that japan or asia are allies. so there's a kind of cast back to the kind of trans-atlantic, u.s. and europe picture of the world that i think is just outdated. clearly that's the case of obama's life story is much better suited to kind of the century or a period in which asia is very important and that kind of cast of characters is changing. but obama himself has found it very hard to navigate that space. it's not as if it's an easy issue. >> i have a few more questions but i want to open it up to the audience. what's going to happen is there's a microphone somewhere. there it is in the back. so if you could identify yourself and speak clearly into the microphone. we have lots of recording going on, so please be aware of that. i think we have a question up here in the

when mitt romney says "planned parenthood we're gonna get rid of that." romney is saying he'll deny women the birth control and cancer screenings they depend on. when romney says "do i believe the supreme court should overturn roe v. wade? yes." he's saying he'll deny women the right to make their own medical decisions and when his campaign can't say whether he'd support equal pay protections. "and we'll get back to you on that." romney's putting your paycheck at risk. planned parenthood action fund is responsible for the content of this advertising because mitt romney is out of touch and wrong for women. . >>> we don't think the end of may as being baseball season. for the redskins, this is an important time, especially for the rookies -- rookies. dave ross has more now as to how they looked after another round of organized team activities. >> reporter: robert griffin 3 rome, we'll get to him in a moment. the other rookie quarterbacks managed to steal a spotlight by signing a piece of paper and we're talking about the round pick from michigan state offic

i was talking to one of mitt romney's big donors about iran. and the ex it tent to which -- this is the issue where romney is trying to portray obama as too soft, too willing to pursue sanctions and dim homacy versus force, et cetera. and i asked this chap, i won't name him, what would be romney's first step on iran if he was elected. he said, well, he'll go to israel and he'll say that guy was your worst enemy, i'm your best friend and as your best friend, i'm going to ask you for a couple more years for the diplomatic and the sanctions track before we look at the military option. so i think that we have to -- i do think there is going to be a lot more continuity on some of those things than the rhetoric of the campaign suggests. >> one difference, i think, for sure would be the comprehensive treaty. my guess which is probably influenced by wishful thinking, is that a second term obama would go hell bent for leather to get the ratification of the comprehensive test band treaty. the refusal in 1999 was a dark day for the senate, the country, th

. >>> and president obama's team launches an all-out attack on mitt romney's record and has tough words for anyone who disagrees. >> you can't handle the truth, my friends! that's the problem. >> they are bringing their case to romney's home turf. and to say it got lively is really an understatement. stand by. >>> plus, a gotcha moment, staged by anti-abortion activists and caught on tape. how can it play into the race for the white house? >>> and it kind of felt like a flashback to 2008 in the east room today. former president george w. bush returned to the white house and he had everybody laughing. stay with us. ♪ ( whirring and crackling sounds ) man: assembly lines that fix themselves. the most innovative companies are doing things they never could before, by building on the cisco intelligent network. >>> and jack cafferty's here with the cafferty file. what do you have, jack? >> good afternoon, gloria. europe's financial crisis, a warning siren for the united states, but many americans aren't paying attention. a new gallup poll shows only 16% of those surveyed say they're followi

. >>> and the obama campaign targets mitt romney's term as governor of massachusetts and launches an attack on his own turf. but the democrats run into some very rowdy republicans who shout down obama's team. >>> plus, laughs, tears, and not a lot of politics at the white house unveiling of george w. bush's official portrait. you'll see how the former president stole the show. wolf blitzer's off today. i'm gloria borger and you're in "the situation room." >>> and we've got a lot of breaking news today. the jury in the john edwards' federal corruption trial reaches a verdict on just one of the six counts against the one-time presidential hopeful. the defense asks for a mistrial, but the judge tells the jury they've got to keep at it. let's go straight to cnn's senior correspondent, joe johns. he's in greensboro, north carolina. joe, what is going on down there? >> reporter: well, you know, it gets stranger and stranger every minute. quite frankly, just a few minutes ago, gloria, we got the word to stay tuned. it may not be over yet, even for today. the jury just sent yet another note

home turf boston. >> romney economics didn't work then and it won't work now. >> reporter: mitt romney meanwhile made his own partisan play in california, showing up at solyndra, the solar energy firm that went bankrupt after investors contributed to the obama campaign and got a half billion in obama stimulus funds. >> free enterprise to the president means taking money from the taxpayers and giving it freely to his friends. >> reporter: romney said when he left office in massachusetts unemployment was 4.7%. >> i think 4.7% is a pretty good number. >> back to the battle. so much for warm bipartisan nostalgia. >> today's nbc news/marist poll finds president obama ahead now with 48% in florida, virginia, and ohio. mitt romney just four to six points back in the key batt battleground states. i'm steve handelsman, news 4. >>> there were scary moments onboard this american eagle flight at chicago's o'hare airport today on a very rainy and overcast morning. the flight to tulsa had just taken off when an indicator light went on, indicating that there was a mechanical problem. the pilot turned

a mitt romney administration. we had to pretend that we didn't know for a long time. the subject for today, and for each of these subjects, we asked two or sometimes two groups of other brookings scholars to write a response paper. sometimes these were simply arguments, people who disagreed with the thesis of the main paper. sometimes more often they were efforts to sort of add texture and richness, look at the issue from a slightly different point of view. and then for each of these groups, there are 12 groups of three papers. we are having an event like this at which the authors of the main paper and the author of the response paper get together with a moderator from politico, and discuss the three. so our subject today is me america's role in the world, which has been a particularly, over the course of the republican prime areas, has been sort of a recur rent, thematic matter of criticism of the obama administratio administration, one subject the obama administration has talked a lot about. it's also a subject that has been criticized a lot about. and it's actually

and mitt romney as governor. bill plante has more from washington. >> reporter: president obama welcomed mitt romney to the race wednesday with a phone call, congratulating him on clinching the republican nomination. >> the president discussed how he -- or mentioned how he looks forward to what he views as a very important debate. >> reporter: with the nomination now locked down, romney pivoted to a new phase of the campaign, introducing himself to the american public at large. in an interview with fox news. >> people will get to know me better. my guess is they'll get to know more about me than they'd like to by the time we're finished. >> reporter: the obama campaign, after weeks of attacks on romney's record as head of a successful private equity firm, shifted his time as governor of massachusetts. >> by the time romney left office, we were 47th in the nation in terms of job growth. >> reporter: and senior executive who sent a five-page memo is headed to boston to attack the forger bay state governor. -- forme

mitt romney is now headed down to southern california. live in fremont, cbs 5. >> thank you very much. two men accused of beating brian stowe go back to court in los angeles today. one of the suspects was recorded in meeting to his mother that he was involved in the attack more than one year ago. after he was arrested for that meeting, he borrowed a detective cellphone, the call to his mother was recorded. >> i got arrested for that dodger stadium thing. yes. i was involved. >> today the court is expected to hear from witnesses who say that they saw the attack on brian stowe. the suspect in the sierra lamar kidnapping an alleged murderer is scheduled to enter a plea in san jose this afternoon. the 21 year-old man was arrested last week after dna evidence linked him to the missing morgan hill girl. volunteers are still searching for her. he faces a murder charge even though a body has not been recovered. a nightmare to me for a lot of bay area drivers today. in the south bay traffic was a mess in cupertino after a double trailer truck flip

a surprise stop at solyndra for mitt romney, he says it serves as a symbol of gross waste and failure for the obama administration, it was unscheduled at least from the romney media. he said he did it so he won't be shut down. >> i think they don't want to have questions asked and don't want to have people delve into the idea the president took money and devoted it into a enterprise owned in large measure by his campaign contributors. that is serious conflict of interest. >> he arrived mere from menlo park. after a night of fund-raising he met with technology leaders this morning. >> we talked about immigration concerns, the needs for visas, we spoke about the failure of education in this country and repatriotation tax and how that is making it hards so we talked about a whole series of issues that are important. >> reporter: also out this is a video highlighting news reports about solyndra, the message says it failed and thousands lost their jobs. as for romney he is headed out of the bay area and headed to los angeles for another fundraiser. >> romney held a fundraiser last night at

. >>> and the obama campaign targets mitt romney's term as governor of massachusetts and launches an attack on his own turf. but the democrats run into some very rowdy republicans who shout down obama's team. >>> plus, laughs, tears, and not a lot of politics at the white house unveiling of george w. bush's official portrait. you'll see how the former president stole the show. wolf blitzer's off today. i'm gloria borger and you're in "the situation room."

. >>> happening right now mitt romney just watched up an event at the solyndra plant hammering president obama over the massive government loan that went to the now bankrupt solar panel maker. >>> also, for the first time we are seeing the video of a tearful and bruised eliana lopez, shot after a fight with her husband suspended san francisco sheriff ross mirkarimi. good morning i'm kristen sze. >>> and i'm cheryl jennings. let's begin with katie marzullo with the dramatic lopez video. >> reporter: the city attorney's office has just released the video at the center of the domestic violence case involving sheriff ross mirkarimi and his wife. lopez made the video with her neighbor ivory madison following a new year's eve argument. here it is. >>> this happened yesterday. this is the second time this is happening. and i told ross i want to work on the marriage, we need help. i've been telling him we need help. and i'm going to use this just in case he wants to take neoaway from me. because -- just in case he wants to take theo away from me. he said that, that he's very powerful and he can

let's talk about something else that mitt romney actually proposed that was just ridiculous so he wants a constitutional amendment and i'll let him explain it. i'm not sure i can do it he said but i would like to have a provision in the constitution then addition to the age of the president and the citizenship of the president and the birthplace of the president being set by by the constitution and i'd like it also to say that the president has to spend at least three years working in business before you become president. as most absurd thing i have ever heard let's just be clear though he wasn't necessarily saying that this is something he wanted to happen he was simply relaying the words of a voter a voter told him this and he found it interesting and he found a support well you know what i found interesting is that some people pointed out how some of the you know what are considered to be the great presidents of this country in that case would be completely disqualified or people like i said how are their type of teddy roosevelt other people that have run for office that maybe have s

>> a surprise visit to solyndra in fremont by republican candidate mitt romney. i'm bob redell. we'll tell you what he had to say. >> marking the start of a new era in space ends with a splashdown. new details about the mission. >> how about this. no contract and $55 a month for the iphone. scott mcgrew has details on a new carrier offering an apple plan. >> here is a live look at the san francisco bay from san francisco. looks to be a gorgeous day shaping up. we'll check that forecast with christina loren. the news starts now. >> good morning. i'm marla tellez. >> i'm jon kelley. breaking news on the campaign trail. mitt romney still in the bay area taking another swing at the obama administration. that's right. the influence gop nominee having a news conference at not so ironically solyndra. bob is live where he says the photo opp was timed to coincide with a new attack ad. good morning. >> reporter: solyndra, this building couldn't have been a better place for candidate, republican candidate mitt romney. he has been in town for a fund-raiser. he made an unannounced visit in t

. >>> happening right now mitt romney just watched up an event at the solyndra plant hammering president obama over the massive government loan that went to the now bankrupt solar panel maker. >>> also, for the first time we are seeing the video of a tearful and bruised eliana lopez, shot after a fight with her husband suspended san francisco sheriff ross mirkarimi. good morning i'm kristen sze. >>> and i'm cheryl jennings. let's begin with katie marzullo with the dramatic lopez video. >> reporter: the city attorney's office has just released the video at the center of the domestic violence case involving sheriff ross mirkarimi and his wife. lopez made the video with her neighbor ivory madison following a new year's eve argument. here it is. >>> this happened yesterday. this is the second time this is happening. and i told ross i want to work on the marriage, we need help. i've been telling him we need help. and i'm going to use this just in case he wants to take neoaway from me. because -- just in case he wants to take theo away from me. he said that, that he's very powerful and he can

mitt romney holding an event in front of solyndra. talk about red meat. let me play a little bit of what mr. romney had to say and we'll talk about this stunt. >> this building, this half a billion dollar taxpayer investment represents a serious conflict of interest on the part of the president and his team. it is also a symbol of how the president thinks about free enterprise. free enterprise to the president means taking money from the taxpayers and giving it freely to his friends. >> there you have it. romney at solyndra. david axelrod and supporters of the president in massachusetts trying to focus on his record. what do we make of this? >> let me talk about solyndra first. this is the lowest, cheapest blow. solyndra and the failed loan that it represents is 1% of the energy department's loan portfolio. a lot of people would argue we need more support for alternative energy. one of the reasons it went under is because the chinese own the manufacturing sector because they give it a lot of support. >> republicans seem to believe, and oxley because romne

and turned it into a political circus over the president's birth certificate mitt romney is once again letting it ride on donald trump the real estate tycoon is still voicing his doubts about whether president obama was actually born in the u.s. a lot of people are questioning his birth certificate they're questioning the authenticity of the birth certificate there are many people that don't agree with that president because they don't think it's authentic. this is a political circus now we spoke about this story a little bit last night we made fun of donald trump on happy hour last night but that's it to be honest there were some things that actually did surprise me with the inability of this story to die off for everyone else now i've gotten used to the completely mindless hour for hour coverage in the mornings during the day at least the evening shows on some of the cable networks will sometimes rise above but last night i was incredibly disappointed especially because yesterday we finally saw the president's kill list become a big story with the new york times piece that came out i

actually when mitt romney took office things were pretty good here in massachusetts. so he has explaining to do. and you know, at this point in his term as governor he created 4,000 jobs. at this point in the president's term, as we created five times that many just here in massachusetts so we'd love to have a discussion about job creation. the facts here are pretty clear. we heard from lots of massachusetts residents today talking about how mitt romney's experience in the private sector that he took here in massachusetts it didn't work then, he's making the same promises now to the american people and it's not going to work now. >> stephanie cutter from boston, thank you very much. and as we watch the white house right now, the president and mrs. obama have just had lunch with former presidents bush, both former presidents bush at the white house. as you can see right now, we have live pictures from the east room, barbara bush now joining the others there. here with me watching all of this is michael steele, former republican chairman. thanks for being with us. it's

. >> do you think mitt romney has a good record? do you think he is an adequate regard as the governor of massachusetts and also a businessman to lead forward. >> no, no, he was a terrible governor of massachusetts. i represented among other areas southeastern massachusetts, a working class area where there had been national economic trends and we had a number of things we were trying to do to help the fishing industry and to get commuter rail built from the cities from new bedford to boston and to support other institutions and it was as if that area didn't exist. he became governor for one reason, to run for president, and he was seriously neglectful of the area of the state that i represented that most needed his help. we also of course got a little whiplash because mitt romney, the liberal, was running against ted kennedy in 1994 and then mitt romney the moderate ran for governor but by the time his term was ending he was mitt romney the conservative running for president and got a little dizzy watching the road runner go throug

candidate mitt romney makes a surprise appearance at the solyndra solar plant. today's event comes on the same day as the president's chief political adviser talks about mitt romney's time at bain capital. they are already taking on a major role in this presidential race as both -p candidates try to hammer the other on their financial management history. mitt romney and republicans have been pointing to solyndra as an example of president obama's mismanagement to direct dollars to save companies that wind up failing as some see as a counter argument to the president's attack on mitt romney's time at bain capital. a new twist today to a controversy that senate candidate elizabeth warn may wish to go away. the democratic candidate for ted kennedy's seat in massachusetts, which is held by republican scott brown, finds herself in a firestorm. they say the harvard professor warn once listed herself as having minority status claiming she is part cherokee indian. harvard went out and touted her as a native-american hire and that's not the only university that did that.

now romney can become the president of the america or imertia. he's just doubled the odds. plus, the next time china comes around to collect our debt, we can suft say, sore, america moved out months ago. this is immeshia. no forwarding address. ( applause ). and you know it's going to please trump and his birther pals because we can debate whether obama was born in america, but there is no proof he was born in emerickia. i heard he was born in kanye. now, folks we pluft not let the syntax and spend liberals stand in the way of a better, brighter, emercia, so let's join mitt and all our fellow emercians, please remain seated, remove your shoe, and place your hand over your appendix. ♪ beautiful for spaka skies for amber weaves of gerns ♪ for priewple moodens magistries ♪ emercia, emercia, mat crown thy hood with father good ♪ romney twen 02. s.a.u.! is. u.a.! we'll be right back of we'll be right back. [ coach ] that's one of the best three-point turners i've ever seen. hey son! come on over here! coach t, it's an honor. well, have you thought about the future? maybe

hoffa saying mitt romney represents everything that's wrong with our financial system. he made his money as ceo of bain capital while destroying u.s. businesses, sending good paying american jobs overseas and filling his pockets with millions while putting workers out on the street. so what does the teamsters organization do with its money? in part it invests a lot of its money in private equity. in fact, up to or more than $1 billion worth of teamsters private equity investments made by individual teamsters regional funds around the country, they're operated separately from the teamsters national, but nonetheless i spoke to one of the people in charge of making those investments. take a look at what rome said the head of the western conference teamsters pension trust. and he said, i'll be honest with you, i cringe sometimes when i hear them beating up on private equity for the sake of beating up on private equity. you can do so-called social investing and make just as much money as these others. now, he told me in fact the teamsters don't have a single penny invested w

of mitt romney specifically because he doesn't agree with mitt romney on his china position. >> let me say this about the administration. they were successful in a very difficult and delicate negotiation to manage to arrange for his release and his escape if you want to call it, to the united states. this is no small issue. when in fact, what he was doing was still challenging the authority of the regime. they generally tend to be pretty tough about those things, so this is a follow on to that. and frankly, the most important piece of it was getting him out and getting some of his family members out. so i think in that sense not only did the administration accomplish a great deal but in fact, the chinese government was fairly flexible in terms of making that possible when it was clear it was an important issue to the united states. we can't expect to have china change their whole attitude on any issue like this in a short period of time. but this really reflects considerable progress. both in terms of the administration's ability to deal with them and china's ability to be flex able