let's turn to dr. james peterson, professor at lehigh university. those polls show some pretty interesting numbers. great to have you with us tonight. i appreciate your time. >> thanks for having me. >> those polls show race as still a problem and the president gets mixed reviews. what do you make of it? >> i think the polls are accurate, and i don't think we need the polls to understand the ways in which race has been rolled out over the course of this last year. let's take a look at some of the big public cases. let's look at the republican presidential case, you get the n n-word, the food stamp presidency, the disrespect of juan williams, you get let's tell bla people or black people to earn their money instead of getting assistance from the government. race is already being injected here. i take issue with the fact that race in and of itself has to be a negative conversation. we need toe have progressive and positive conversations around the issue of race. yes, we have a long way to go so saying it's a factor, you know, it's so obvious to me i d

let's turn to dr. james peterson. those polls show some pretty interesting numbers. great to have you with us tonight. i appreciate your time. those polls show race is still a problem and the president gets mixed reviews. what do you make of it? >> i think the polls are accurate. i don't think we need the polls to understand the ways in which wras has been rolled out over the course of this last year. let's take a look at some of the big public cases. let's look at the republican race. you get the food stamp president. you get the disrespect of juan williams. you get the i don't care or let's tell black people to earn their money instead of getting assistance from the government. race is willing been injected here. i take issue with the fact that race in and of itself has to be a negative conversation. we need to have progressive and positive conversations around the issue of race. we have a long way to go. saying it's factor is so obvious to me. i can't imagine why anyone would try to make a big issue about it. obviously, it's factor. >> we're hearing about jeremiah

let's turn to dr. james peterson. those polls show some pretty interesting numbers. great to have you with us tonight. i appreciate your time. those polls show race is still a problem and the president gets mixed reviews. what do you make of it? >> i think the polls are accurate. i don't think we need the polls to understand the ways in which wras has been rolled out over the course of this last year. let's take a look at some of the big public cases. let's look at the republican race. you get the food stamp president. you get the disrespect of juan williams. you get the i don't care or let's tell black people to earn their money instead of getting assistance from the government. race is willing been injected here. i take issue with the fact that race in and of itself has to be a negative conversation. we need toe have progressive and positive conversations around the issue of race. we have a long way to go. saying it's factor is so obvious to me. i can't imagine why anyone would try to make a big issue about it. obviously, it's factor. >> we're hearing about jeremia

susie parker and dr. james peterson, great to have you with us tonight. thank you. remember to answer tonight's question there at the bottom of the screen. share your thoughts on twitter @edshow. >>> coming up, middle class mitt is touring middle america, the people he wants to connect with. he sits down with a bunch of folks from pennsylvania, middle classers, and he really doesn't have much to say. we'll play you the awkward exchange tape coming up. sam stein of "the huffington post" will be here for the conversation and new revelations about the john doe investigation surrounding wisconsin governor scott walker, john nichols of "the nation" will join me here in new york for the inside scoop. stay with us. we're right back. >>> coming up, middle class mitt, he sits down with regular folks in pennsylvania. this guy, he just can not connect with people. we'll play you the tape and you can decide. >>> president obama was in ohio talking about the economy today. he sounded a heck of a lot better than the mittster, i'll tell you that. bob shrum will weigh in on that. >

susie parker and dr. james peterson, great to have you with us tonight. thank you. remember to answer tonight's question there at the bottom of the screen. share your thoughts on twitt twitttwitte twitter @edshow. >>> coming up, middle class mitt is touring middle america, the people he wants to connect with. he sits down with a bunch of folks from pennsylvania, middle classers, and he really doesn't have much to say. we'll play you the awkward exchange tape coming up. sam stein of "the huffington post" will be here for the conversation and new revelations about the john doe investigation surrounding wisconsin governor scott walker, john nichols of "the nation" will join me here in new york for the inside scoop. stay with us. we're right back. [ mom ] thanks for picking us up, sweetie. i'll give you money for gas. [ laughing ] not necessary. take the money. i'm not taking your money. besides i get great gas mileage. what's that? it's eassist. helps the engine run really efficiently. it captures energy that assists the engine... so i'm never guzzling gas. oh -- that'

james, dr. peterson, i want to turn to fox news. he has had to correct a false statement that he made about the president's silver spoon comment in a speech last week. here's what he originally said. >> he said unlike some people, i was that born with a silver spoon in my mouth. >> well -- >> now, the president did not say that. and fox, although has become something like mitt romney's media super pac. they can make the nasty hits on the president. they make any apologies if they're necessary. but mitt romney's hands are completely clean, are not they? >> they are. and this is where you have to watch them. there will be quite a bit of spin in the run to the national election. this is pretty disingenuous. once you start putting words in the president's mouth or into any of your political opponents' mouth, some folks on fox news are more likely to do this than other news reporters but this is a pretty important piece here. we know these two men are facing off and we don't need to exacerbate that face-off and obscure the sort of politi