great night. >>> today, rick santorum quick the race and george zimmerman's lawyers quit the case. the killer of trayvon martin seems to think that the only friend he has to turn to now is sean hannity. >>> breaking news tonight. george zimmerman's defense team quits. >> step back, use your cool head, and lesson to the facts. >> you're entitled to use force including deadly force to protect yourself. >> this was confirmed. his nose was broken. >> the media has absolutely destroyed him, unfairly. >> i have only spoken to him by phone. >> we are confident that we will prevail in court. >> we're going to try this case in court. >> as of now, we're withdrawing his counsel for mr. zimmerman. >> late this afternoon, the attorneys for george zimmerman quit the case. >> we've lost contact with him. i'm not sure what he's doing or who he's talking to. >> the lawyers have lost contact with their client. >> the killer of trayvon martin is unaccounted for. >> this is a huge development, folks. >> quit the case? >> quits. >> while this presidential race for us is over, we will suspend our campaign

market every day. i have to tell you, this sounds like sarcasm, but if george w. had this situation, he'd kb doing those hot dog jumping up and down in the end zone and he wouldn't quit. >> i agree with both you and steve. i think this is the best statistic that barack obama has. the stock market actually has done pretty well under barack obama, so you're both right about that. the problem that i think -- >> how does wealth affect retirement? is wealth more important to retirement or the unemployment number? if you retire, those people -- >> clearly, it's the wealth. in fact, if you look at the income statistics that came out last week, that were pretty lousy, the only age group that saw an increase in their income was senior citizens buzz they are not in the workforce but they get their income from the benefits of government and such. but here's the problem with your guys' analysis though. it is true that there's a wealth effect in terms of higher stock market values. the housing market hasn't done much at all, but the bigger problem is when you look at the wage issue, steve. and t

the "new york times." >>> and now we're getting george zimmerman's account of what happened that night. and finally, let me finish with the high stakes action in the supreme court this week. we begin with the supreme court with nbc's pete williams. what got done today? what could you see get suicided? >> a very important piece of underbrush was cleared away. if any of the justices were reluctant in an election year, they had an off ramp today. the question is do the challengers have to come back. congress passed a law that says you cannot challenge a federal tax before it goes into effect. you have to pay a penalty that's reported on your income tax form, collected by the irs, based on your income, and some lower courts said this is a tax, come back in two years. it seems none of the justices think this is a show stopper. i didn't hear a single justice that thinks it's a federal tax so they're going to go on tomorrow on the constitutionality of the core of the law, the so called individual mandate and requirement that everyone buy health insurance. >> let me ask you about that, i

good of individuals. george washington required people to have a gun at home to defend the country. in the heart of atlanta case, the justices said you can be a racist and own a motel, but you still have to rent the room to a black person. if you own a restaurant, you still have to serve a black person in the restaurant. that violates people's freedom but it's still constitutionally -- it's constitutional to do that. and this requirement is part of that same pattern. >> let me go back to jenny beth warren. do you think it was constitutional for governor romney to pass a law in massachusetts to require people to have health insurance? >> it was at the state level rather than the federal government. if that's what the people want in his state, i understand their right to choose to do that. i think the reason we're seeing that he's not the clear nominee at this point is because he passed that law in massachusetts. >> but what about if the united states congress wants something done. you said if the people of massachusetts want it. suppose the united states congress with 60 senators and th

ronald reagan and george bush the elder, and walter mondale and geraldine ferraro got crushed. they lost that election by an enormous margin. they lost 49 states. this is what the electoral map looked like in 1984. just a sea of red. and now, what is mostly forgotten to history about that election in which geraldine ferraro did not become the first woman vice president. what is largely forgotten about that election is a tax return scandal which among other things showed that geraldine ferraro and her husband owed more than $50,000 in back taxes. turned up on their tax returns. they blamed it on an error blamed by an accountant. they paid off the back taxes, although the geraldine ferraro financial mess was a fascinating little election jeer scandal, it does not tend to be cited as a key factor in the spectacular loss in 1984. the reason we care at all about the geraldine ferraro tax scandal that has mostly been forgotten, the only reason it matters is because it represents as big a scandal as there is in american politics stemming from a candidate's tax returns. it's pretty much jus

initial vote among the jurors in the george zimmerman trial according to juror b-37 was three not guilty votes, two votes for manslaughter, and one vote for second degree murder. >> a verdict has been reached in the murder trial of george zimmerman. >> we the jury find george zimmerman not guilty. >> justice for trayvon! not one more! >> there are going to be 100 demonstrations -- >> demonstrations are planned in more than 100 cities nationwide. >> mr. zimmerman was found not guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. he was not found innocent. >> the verdict is not guilty. >> we proved george zimmerman was not guilty. >> george zimmerman was never guilty of anything. >> but that doesn't necessarily mean innocent. >> it was a self-defense case. >> you've got a 17-year-old kid who is minding his own business. >> trayvon martin did nothing. >> there was a young man walking in his neighborhood unarmed. >> trayvon martin was profiled. >> someone decided that he looked suspicious. >> there is no doubt that he was profiled to be a criminal. >> the defense's narrative was essentially racial profiling is

along side a highway in minnesota. it's george w. bush waving miss me yet? was that a rhetorical yes? for time, the machine settled on the idea the billboard was fake. that's why you can find pictures of it at snopes.com. it was not a photoshop hoax. it was real. if the desire was to get, of course we miss george w. bush, i think it missed its mark. the question of what to do with george w. bush has been basic wa awkward for the mitt romney campaign from the start. it was to skip over him and get the blessing of the republican president before him, george bush senior. mr. romney, it came with some awkward political baggage. >> i was an independent during the time of reagan-bush. i'm not trying to return to reagan-bush. >> that might explain some of the awkwardness when he met with mr. bush to receive his endorsement. there was nowhere near as awkward as what the former president asked in front of that meeting right in front of the reporters. >> have you met with george w. bush and sought his endorsement? >> i haven't met with president george w. bush. we speak from time to time. >> n

system. we saw how well george w. bush did on that in 2005. i think that is from the liberal sdpemtic perspective a very exciting prospect. seeing him speak tonight, there is no worry that paul ryan would overshadow mitt romney as a speaker and as a campaigner. i sort of -- because paul ryan is so beloved on the right i thought when he was introducing him tonight this might be a real chance for paul ryan to show off. he gave a very bad introduction. it was bad enough i cut him off and i would have let it run if he said anything useful. he said i think this guy wanted to be the uniter and not the divider, didn't he say that? that was george w. bush that said that. it was an incredibly bad introduction and speech. maybe he will pick him. >> steve schmidt, you've been through this vice presidential selecting on the republican side. you gave us sarah palin. did you see -- what did you think of paul ryan's audition for the vp slot tonight? >> well, lawrence, i'm not sure that qualifies as an audition for it, but i think that he could certainly wind up as one of the people who goes through

. it's friday, 4/20/2012. moments from now george zimmerman's attorney will ask a judge to grant his client bail. zimmerman who is charged with second-degree murder of trayvon martin is expected in court in minutes. trayvon's parents are in the courthouse. we saw them walking in moments ago. we'll be bringing you this hearing to you live as soon as it gets underway. in the meantime i want to get to my first reads of the morning. election day is exactly 200 days from today. it's clear from our new results from the "the wall street journal" poll that mitt romney is in a strong position to make this a close race. the president starts the general election campaign with a 49-43 lead over romney among registered voters. it's a six-point margin. but thanks to large leads among core groups key to a winning campaign. the president has a whopping 47-point advantage among latino voters. leads among women by 12 points. and obama wins true pure independents by ten points. and good news for the president when we look at how his standing compares with other incumbent presidents seeking re-election.

now defending george zimmerman in the killing of trayvon martin went shopping for easy tv interviews last night. and they found one on one of the other news networks. okay. here's a hint. the show was hosted by a white man -- well, okay, that's pretty much every cable news show. all right. another hint, the show was at 9:00 p.m. in fact, both of the shows they did were at 9:00 p.m. [ fabric flapping in wind ] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [ flapping continues ] ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] at nissan, our ideal is innovation. 5 all-new models over the next 15 months, including a completely reimagined altima. welcome to our most innovative year ever. nissan. innovation for all. ♪ >>> so republicans and the noise machine at fox news think it's perfectly okay to say this. >> it's the only branch that's unelected and whose officers serve for life. unfortunately, some judges give into temptation and make law instead of interpreting it. such judicial lawlessness is a threat to our democracy and it needs to stop. >> and republicans and fox news world think it is a high crime to say this. >> i just

65. he is the same age that george w. bush is now, which means that mitt romney is of the vietnam generation. we think of mr. romney, i think, as younger than that, in part, i think, because he's very handsome and he's very fit. but he was 19 years old at the height of the vietnam war. mr. romney was healthy, he was of the right age, and he was therefore, theoretically, quite draftable for vietnam. but he did not serve, either in the active duty military or in the guard or reserves, like george w. bush did. mr. romney, instead, lived in france during the vietnam war. he was a missionary for his church in france for nearly three years during the height of the vietnam war. now, of course, president obama did not serve in the military either, but president obama is a good deal younger. mr. obama was 5 years old while mr. romney was not serving in vietnam. but mr. romney has, i think, quite obviously been cognizant of the fact that his service question in his biography, him not serving in vietnam, could be used against him in politics, if anybody ever decided to use it against him. th

candidate. the attendees gave him some credit for showing up. unlike the previous president, george w. bush, who openly shunned any invitations to the naacp convention. but there was one moment where mitt romney delivered an actual policy position. the reception, that was not very warm. >> if our goal is jobs, we have to stop spending over a trillion dollars more than we take in every year. and so to do that, i'm going to eliminate every non-essential expensive program i can find. that includes obamacare, and i'm going to work to reform and save -- [ boos ] >> 14 seconds. that's how long mitt romney was booed for saying he will repeal obamacare. reporters on the scene said the reaction was stunning. >> i have not heard that kind of sustained booing for mitt romney during the course of this campaign up until what happen today at the naacp. i don't think it really is sort of overstating it. this was perhaps one of the most negative reactions mitt romney has had in the course of his 2012 presidential campaign. >> after the speech, romney said he expected to be booed by the crowd. he to

, rev. >>>headheee hg tne campaign but when they told george w. bush to go away, they probably didn't mean go toll the cayman islands for an investment confence. >>> and hundreds and thousands voting today in iowa. it's a big day for this election. stay with us. >> this ithe memur era. protecting that fundamental right, not just for this election but for the next generation and generations to come. ♪ why not take a day to explore your own backyard? with two times the points on travel, chase sapphire preferred. there's more to enjoy. a great clean doesn't have to taklong. i'm done. yhinking hat i'mi ♪ give me just a little more time ♪ okay. all right. oh! [ female announcer ] the 2-in-1 swiffer sweeper uses electrostatic dry cloths to clean better than a broom. and its wet mopping cloths can clean better than a mop in half theime so you don't miss a thing. mom, have you seen my - ey! hey! he did it. [ female announcer ] swiffer. better clean in half the time. or your money back. till you finish your vegetables. clock ticking ] [ me announcer ] there's a better way... v-sio

. one is a report by a think tank. one is a paper by a former george bush advisor. and the others are a blog post and a "wall street journal" op-ed by a mitt romney adviser. calling those things studies is like calling me the homecoming queen. it's very flattering, but come on. the romney campaign has been trying to wish away the math with this six studies magical incantation. they have been trying to use this six studies thing for so long that even the sunday morning show on fox is calling bullpucky on it. >> six studies have said -- >> those are very questionable. some of them are blogs. some are from an independent group. >> these are very credible sources. >> one is from a blog from a guy who was a top adviser to george w. bush. >> see why ed gillespie doesn't look worried there? he's waiting for the interviewer to stop talking. he's just kind of waiting. i'm just going to go back to my talking points. there's a happy-go-luckiness. they don't get too stressed out because they know that politically, it doesn't matter what they say. they trust no matter what they are proposing and h

more confused i am. here he is running against george bush in the midterm elections on the economy. every chance he has he brings up the fact that george bush screwed up the economic policy of the country and put us in the ditch that we are in. he is praising george bush here for the mission that sort of said be accomplished. what makes this interesting to me is why is he doing this? he is doing this out of respect for the troops. you have to do that. the sacrifices that were made in the war that is being ground found must be supported retroactively. that is the body language of it. he is also making the same nation-building case in afghanistan. he sort of claim because that is what we are about in afghanistan. as far as the peaceful end, it is already been spent. it has been spent, and he has asked for more money and will ask for more more money in afghanistan. >> is he leading right on foreign policy? >> he is open toward the right. he only used the word search, as i recall, when he discussed afghanistan. he never referenced it in my memory, and george bush's surge of activity. h

rights may have allowed george zimmerman to leave his car and pursue trayvon martin. ask yourself this, is it possible for george zimmerman to get a fair trial? and the hillary rosen gaffe remind us that republicans have a pattern of insulting moms. and it highlights the gender problem, and that will not go away by making the case that it is obama waging the war on women. they're taking every opportunity to paint romney as rich and out of touch. and let me finish tonight with a battle from the 2008 campaign that still is not finished. barack obama verses bill clinton. we begin with guns, former pennsylvania governor ed rendell is an analyst, and allen gottley. speaking at the convention today was mitt romney saying that it was an assault on rights. 15 minutes into the speech he mentioned the right to bare arms, here it is. >> it extends to rights explicitly guaranteed by the constitution. the right to bare arms is to plainly stated, so unambiguous, that liberals have a hard time challenging it directly. instead they have been employing every imaginable ruse and ploy to restrict it

regulations into place than george w. bush did. there were more new government regulations in the first three years of the george bush administration than there were in the first three years of the obama administration. barack obama has slowed down the pace of new regulations when you compare him with the last guy, a republican. it's not true when mitt romney says that president obama is creating some unprecedented number of new regulations. a shorter way of saying it's not true, is to say it's a lie. it is a lie. ev even if it's a lie and you say it frequently enough, you can make people believe it's true. people can start to believe this lie you say every day. that raises an interesting question about this really specific policy about the gas pump. this gas pump thing that's about to change. almost everybody who uses a gas pum pump in america is about to experience the elimination of a government regulation on something that you physically have to deal with to put gas in your car. does that have a political affect? does that translate at a retail politics level? does that counter this

, what really happened. we're hearing two versions of the night that trayvon martin was killed. george zimmerman's brother said he was nearly unconscious and in danger of brain damage. we're also told he had not spoken to george in years so we don't know the source of his information. then a new eyewitness came out and said there was a fight between two men, and a hispanic man walking away from the scene. we'll try to untangle this story tonight. also the stand your ground laws like the one in florida that george zimmerman's attorney said may be applicable in this case are in force in two dozen states now. we have compelling audio of someone that left his house to shoot to death two unarmed men that broke into a neighbor's house. he used the stand your ground law in defense. >>> and don't get too excited about how well someone plays in spring training. it's only march now in politics, but president obama is pulling away in double digits from mitt romney. we also know the far more important month in politics is october. the eve of the election itself. >>> the dnc is having great fun las

glimpse of george zimmerman when he appeared in court today. harvard law professor george dershowitz joins us to break down the case. >>> about 80 democrats in the house are communists. communists! spe the spent the 1950s in the fever swamps of mccarthyism. do they really want to go there tonight? and let me point out why we may be in even worse shape four years from now. joe walsh is editor of salon and both are msnbc analysts. let's take a look at the comments made by debra rosen on cnn last night that kicked off this controversy. >> what you have is mitt romney running around the country saying, well, my wife tells me that what women really care about are economic issues. when i listen to my wife, that's what i'm hearing. guess what? his wife has actually never worked a day in her life. she's never really dealt with the kind of economic issues that a majority of women in this country are facing in terms of how do we feed our kids? how do we send them to school and why do we worry about their future? >> today rosen apologized for what she called her poorly chosen words, but on twit

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of the folks surrounding mitt romney are from george h.w. bush's foreign policy team. sometimes you feel like they can't run on the rhetoric of george w. bush. i think obviously the democrats making this argument that this is a throwback. you also see romney trying to make the argument that in some ways obama embodies the old, soft democrats who are soft when it comes to defense policy and national security. >> well, chris, it also seems more dangerous than come cal to me. it seems like neoconservatives which this group is largely made up of, they always have a war they want to fight. they wanted to get into iraq and afghanistan. they always wanted to fight a war. now they want to be more aggressive in arming the rebels in syria. they always want to push it to another war over there. it's not like a comedy team. these people are pushing and are always war hawks. they always have one in their pez dispenser, the next war is waiting its turn. they never say hold back and see what happens. it's always, let's get in there and fight. >> i would agree, this is serious stuff. i think, chris

50 years except for the last 4 years. >> did he hate george bush too? >> he didn't hate george bush. he completely disagreed with jimmy carter's policies. jimmy carter was a horrible president. we need to forget. jeff, do you think jimmy carter was a good president? one of the worst presidents in history. >> jimmy carter was a good president in comparison to george w. bush, to ronald reagan to destroyed the economic basis of the country. >> jimmy carter was terrible. >> a. b., i want to ask you, did the former president put the white house in an untenable position? everybody is talking about this right now on the heels of yesterday's house action. you know, where's the good news here? >> there's not a lot of good news on health care today, as you know, ed. it's really -- today was a momentum killer as we'd like to say. >> wait a minute, a.b. four out of the five bills out of the house -- or out of the congress are for the public option. so i will say that we've got great momentum. finish your answer. >> not over yet. >> okay. in terms of getting votes for a bill that actually become

how well george w. bush did on that in 2005 with the privatize social security plan he came up with. so i think that is from the liberal and the democratic perspective a very exciting prospect. seeing him speak tonight, there is no worry that paul ryan would overshadow mitt romney as a speaker and as a campaigner. i sort of, because paul ryan is so beloved on the right, i thought when i heard he was going to introduce him tonight this might be a real chance for paul ryan to show off. it was, again, he gave a very bad introduction. it was bad enough i cut it puff an i would have let it run if he was saying anything useful. he's calling saying i thinkt ths guy, you wanted to be the uniter, not the divider. didn't he say that? no, he didn't say that. george w. bush didn't say that. it was not a barack obama thing. maybe he will pick him. he won't be overshadowed by him. >> steve schmidt, you've been through the vice presidential selecting on the republican side. you gave us sarah palin. what did you think of paul ryan's audition for the vp slot tonight? >> well, lawrence, i'm not sure

. >>> we're withdrawing his counsel with mr. zimmerman. >> so, where is george zimmerman. we know where he is not. what his former lawyers are saying this morning. >>> plus, two massive earthquakes rock indonesia. wake up! that's good morning, veggie style. hmmm. for half the calories plus veggie nutrition. could've had a v8. trouble with a car insurance claim. [ dennis ] switch to allstate. their claim service is so good, now it's guaranteed. [ foreman ] so i can trust 'em. unlike randy. dollar for dollar, nobody protects you like allstate. >>> i can assure you in this investigation and in all cases we'll examine the facts and the law. if we find evidence of a potential federal criminal civil rights crime, we'll take appropriate action. and at every step the facts and the law will guide us forward. >> that was attorney general eric holder making remarks a about the justice department's trayvon martin investigation before the national call for action network about an hour ago. the special prosecutor investigating the death of the florida teen trayvon martin will announce new developments b

sanders has send out a note saying that the judge has ordered george zimmerman to turn himself in. his bond has been revoked. again, kerry sanders, our reporter on the ground in florida who has been covering the death investigation of trayvon martin in the case against george zimmerman. the prosecution today filed a motion to revoke bond for george zimmerman. we should have more information here. actually, i'm being told we have kendall coffey, a state attorney in florida. are you there? >> yes, i'm here. >> all i have right now is that george zimmerman has to turn himself in. his bond has been revoked per kerry sanders. what usually is happening behind the scenes when something like this goes down? >> well, it appears the prosecution had a couple different grounds to request that his bond be revoked. one was that zimmerman had misrepresented his finances. you remember he portrayed himself as essentially indig enwhen the $150,000 bond was set. a bond that provoked some controversy in some quarters as being too low. perhaps even more serious from the standpoint of whether there is

throwers lobs one, it seems pretty far. but george f. will the columnist says the stuff spewed by the likes of huckabee and gingrich will wind up tainting the republican nominee. here is george will this sunday. let us know mince words. there are at most five plausible republican presidents on the horizon -- mitch daniels, haley barbour, jon huntsman, tim pawlenty, mitt romney. hi he thereby wrote huckabee and gingrich off the list of acceptable candidates. so did george will just knock them out of the race? it's our top story tonight. >>> and speaking of republicans who threaten to contaminate other gop presidential candidates, michele bachmann refused to back away from her charge that president obama presides over a gangster government. plus remember how republicans pledged to put people back to work again when they swept back into power? since then, what have they focused on? defunding planned parenthood, defending doma, investigating american muslims. this is the jobs agenda? is also some in both parties are pushing president obama to do more to help hose rebels fighting in gadhaf

stun ago nouns meant from the men representing george zimmerman, so far have we heard of anyone stepping forward saying they're his attorneys now or is there silence on that end? >> it was such a strange occurrence that took place there for a lot of reasons. one, just that the attorneys chose to make that announcement the way they did at a news conference and second of all, as one lawyer just point out to me a short time ago, they had lost contact with their client for about 24 hours, and this attorney was saying that is not a reason to panic, just 24 hours, but as you heard, the attorneys said that they had lost contact, they had never met him face-to-face, always been a matter of cell phone calls, text messages, e-mails, and when they just sort of stopped happening and there was the radio silence out there, they said in combination with the fact that the special prosecutor indicated to them that george zimmerman had reached directly out to the special prosecutor and florida f x as well as for several technical reason that is would happen in court, she did not talk directly to

>>> good morning. i'm chris jansing. right now we're watching the bond hearing for george zimmerman. it's under way in florida. he arrived a short while ago in a suit and tie with his arms shackled. so far his wife and fiancee have testified but via telephone. here's what his dad said just moments ago. >> do you believe that your son is a violent person? >> absolutely not. >> and can you expound on that? >> well, i've never known him to be violent at all unless he was provoked, and then he would turn the other cheek. >> nbc's jay gray is live for us in sanford. jay, it's been an hour now. bring us up to speed. >> reporter: yeah, chris, that telephone testimony continuing now with his mom, gladys. they have received a lot of threats and that's why the judge ruled yesterday they could do the testimony by telephone. we know that trayvon martin's parents are in the courtroom. the first time they've been face to face with george zimmerman since this. they have responded a few times specifically when george zimmerman's father was talking about him not being a violent person and turning th

has the right dna. >> i'm standing here now with governor george romney who is telling me -- >> his father george was a three-term republican governor in michigan and even ran for the 1968 republican presidential nomination. it caused team kennedy to rethink its campaign strategy. >> we had a meeting, someone said the first thing we have to do is talk about the budgetary implications of this, and he said no, the first thing i want to know is, bob, what are we going to do on television in the next couple of weeks. and i don't care about the budgetary implications. i'm not losing my senate seat. >> he scared the daylights out of the kennedys. he really did. he cleared the republican field without any problem. >> good to see you. how are you doing? >> i'm sure glad you're not a kennedy. >> go, mitt, go. >> by early september, polls have the two candidates virtually tied. so the kennedy campaign does something unprecedented. they produce their first attack ads ever. >> mitt romney's ads claim he created jobs. but what's the record? their target? one of romney's perceived strong points,

prize so early in life because he was not george w. bush. in two months, the escalation of the conflicts in afghanistan. they almost handed down a peace prize that almost -- almost -- had to wear her uniform, but president obama addressed whether he was sdefdeserving of prize. >> yet, i would be remiss if i did not acknowledge the considerable controversy that your generous decision has generated. in part this is because i am at the beginning and not the end of my labors on the world stage. compared to some of the giants of history who have received this prize, schweitzer and king, marshall and mandela, my accomplishments are slight. and then there are the men and women around the world who have been jailed, then beaten, in the pursuit of justice. those who toil the humanitarian organizations to relieve suffering, the unrecognized millions whose quiet acts of courage and compassion harden even the most inspired cynics. i cannot argue with those who find these men and women, some known, some obscure to all but those they help, to be far more deserving of this honor than i. >> the wartime

predecessor as president. during the 2000 presidential campaign, george w. bush said he supported the assault weapons ban. it was a view he continued to hold while he was president. >> the president thought and said so in 2000 that the assault weapon ban was a reasonable step. he supports the reauthorization of the current ban. >> george w. bush ultimately failed on that campaign process. the weapons ban was allowed to expire on his watch. president george w. bush did support a number of gun control measures. things like banning the importation of large ammunition clips. banning guns within 300 yards of a school. raising the gun ownership age from 18 to 21. requiring instant background checks at gun shows. requiring trigger locks with handgun sales. george w. bush supported all of these gun control policies, which is why angry, enraged nra members picketed his public appearances while he was president for all eight years. oh, wait, that didn't happen. that didn't happen because his position on gun control was considered to be relatively mainstream and noncontroversial. mr. bush suppor

bell. how about now? that's right, folks, willard mittç romney and george w. bus are one in the same. the whole campaign is built on returning us to the same broken down policies of the bush presidency. he just is betting on american people to have short-term memory. but vice president biden was out reminding us today -- >> governor romney, i think, is counting on collective amnesia of the american people. americans know, americans know, that we can't go back to the future. back to a foreign policy that would have america go it alone. shout to the world you're with us or against us. lash out first and ask questions later. >> lash out first, ask the hard questions later? that was the basis of the bush foreign policy. wage and entire war based on weapons of mass destruction, ask questions later. today, niep years later, willard is trying to take america back to those days. 17 of romney's foreign policy advisors are from the bush administration. 17. and today, he proudly touted the endorsement of another. security advisor steven hadley. that's what we have to watch. it's not just f

, good morning. >> reporter: well, good morning, thomas. george zimmerman this afternoon will be taken out of his jail cell, and at 1:30 he'll be taken into a courtroom for his first appearance. it's likely the judge won't be in that courtroom but rather there will be an electronic link where he will see the judge through the technology of cameras and videos and they will have the first appearance. he will be the first one. but there will be of course other inmates who have their first appearance on other charges. but they've arranged to have him to be the first one who will be able to have this basically establishing the legal process in florida going forward. then he'll be taken back to his jail cell, which is contiguous right here with the courthouse over my shoulder. meantime, the parents, especially tracy martin, that's trayvon martin's father, spoke to nbc news and answered the question about whether he felt that all of this could have been avoided if the sanford police department, which was the initial investigating agency, had concluded and reached the same sort of invest

lot of former george w. bush administration officials advising the romney campaign. but even they, you would think, would be sort of cognizant of how people view that administration, right? you think they would recognize that there is a little political peril in trying to underscore to a country that is really paying attention right now that everybody should expect a lot of continuity between the george w. bush years and a romney presidency. if you like the george w. bush years and you miss all those folks, like condoleezza rice, don't worry, if you elect romney, you'll see more of them again. this came up last night in what i thought was a brilliant question from one of the audience members at that debate at hofstra, and it got right at the central problem that the republicans have been dealing, since the support for romney creatored during the george w. bush second term. the greatest show on earth has been the republican party figuring out who it is after bush and cheney. the republican party figuring out if they are like bush and cheney or if there's something they learned from

just out by police. and attorneys for george zimmerman that trayvon martin attacked the neighborhood watch volunteer. new accounts that they are alleging today. also, the first audio release from the supreme court as justices hear arguments about the constitutioniality of president obama's landmark health care law. i'm tamron hall. the "news nation" is following this breaking news in the trayvon martin case. trayvon martin's parents are about to address new allegations about their son as today marks one month since the unarmed 17-year-old was shot by a neighborhood watch captain in sanford, florida. a spokesperson for the family has confirmed to msnbc a report that appeared in the orlando sentinel that trayvon martin had been suspended from his miami school after being found with an empty bag, a marijuana bag, as it is being described. the paper also reported today, police said zimmerman claimed martin hit him and then climbed on top of him, slamming his head repeatedly on the sidewalk. meantime, we're just two hours away from another massive rally and march, starting at a sanford pa

% in the fall of 20 09. in fact, a majority of americans still blame george w. bush for the current economic problems, not the current president. according to a washington post/abc poll taken a few weeks ago. 54% say that bush, that's "w," is responsible for today's problems. just 32% say president obama. i'm going to start with doug brinkley, the historian, to look at this broad notion. it seems to me ronald reagan benefited later in his term and his second term from his economic decision making. you might argue bill clinton benefited from george herbert walker bush's decision making. there's always a time lag. so can anybody honestly blame a president for the economic conditions in his first year? when do you begin to honestly assess the effectiveness of the new policies as opposed to the policies he inherited? >> well, i think that moment usually comes when those presidents try to get re-elected. there's no way anybody can say we're worse off now than we were four years ago, as you have just delineated, chris. i mean, the country was going down the drain, people were talking abou

president. outsourcing is still there. what ever happened to the fierce urgency of now? >>> george will almost knocked me over this morning. he said we ought to get out of afghanistan. george, where the heck were you five years ago, buddy? all that, a great panel and she just can't stay out of "the ed show," psycho talker michele bachma bachmann. back at it. first tonight's "on-ed." >>> okay, so democrats, we took one for the team. we've lost the month of august. at least that's the narrative out there. today's a new month. i want to put some confidence back in the democratic tackle box if i may. now, i've been doing town hall meetings all over the country in the last six months. over the weekend i was in indiana and colorado. this weekend the message clear from the democratic folks, leadsers, you got to stand your ground. that's right. hold your ground. stand up for what this election was all about, change we can believe in. the democrats, i have to say, have been shaken by town hall mobsters. keep in mind these are the fringys. they are a very small element that makes the great c

vice president of the united states shooting a guy in the face. there's a reason george w. bush left office in january 2009 with the lowest approval rating for an outgoing president since galt started asking that question back in the 1930s. and frankly, the vice president, dick cheney, would have killed to get numbers that high. his approval rating was 13% when he left office. part of the headwind that john mccain had running in 2008, trying to run as a republican after george w. bush and dick janney was george w. bush and dick cheney. the country was happy to see them go for understandable reasons. four years after the bush/cheney administration, the new republican party nominee, mitt romney, has made precisely zero public appearanced with george w. bush or dick cheney. this is still the most interesting thing in american politics. the reconstruction of the republican party post-george w. bush and post-dick cheney is as yet incomplete and still the most interesting thing to watch. hot is the new republican party going to be after that? what is the new republican party leadership goi

civil rights were violated when george zimmerman shot him february 26th. meantime, trayvon martin's parents are expected to file a formal request for an investigation into state attorney norm wolfinger. according to the web sources, he this indicate that wolfinger overrode the effort by the lead detective to charge zimmerman with manslaughter the night of the shooting. >> i'm doing this for god. i'm doing this for trayvon. so it just makes me press forward to know we have to get justice for my son so his death is not in vain. >> this all comes as the orlando sentinel newspaper reports, it had two experts in forensic voice analysis, analyzing the screaming heard on the 911 the night of the shooting. both say the voice does not belong to george zimmerman. the grand jury is not expected to meet for eight more days. joining me now, marcia clark. she has a new book, guilt by degrees. we did ask our viewers to submit questions to you to get some answers as we wait to see what happens next. i want to get to one of the first ones. a lot of people are asking, what are the alternatives if the