bob woodward, katty kay, kelly o'donnell, and the great joe klein. that's the show. thanks for watching. that's the show. thanks for watching. see you back here next week.

with us today, john heilemann, katty kay, helene cooper and joe klein. first up, mitt romney may not have been the love of their life, now he is out in the arena has the republican's champion, a political gladiator who has now thrown down his gauntlet. >> this president can ask us to be patient. this president can tell us it was someone else's fault. this president can tell us that the next four years he'll get it right. but this president cannot tell us that you're better off today than when he took office. chris: john, that is it, that's the gauntlet, can the president and what will he do to answer that charge that he has not made things better? >> is a perennial questions in elections and the case of romney against obama. explicitly and implicitly, the president has to answer that charge. they have tried in chicago for the last year to say this isn't just a referendum on us. it's a choice. you're going to hear that framing throughout this convention in charlotte.

joe klein, thank you for joining us. sometimes we can simply disagree by looking at the same picture. we can say, that's not true, that is true. when you look at something so demonstrably true, we didn't find weapons of mass destruction when we got to iraq, which con founded people, who supported the war. fair enough, they goit wrong people in the middle say, these guys don't know what they' talking about. people on the left said, we asor w in the first place. but to not know it. what do you make of these numbers? democrats in this new poll, 63% say there was no weapons of mass destruction. 15% say there were. okay out 6 docra thihere mihaee republicans however, 63% of republicans say, yes, there were weapons of mass destruction, almost two-thirds. how do we account for this misstatement of fact? >> well, i think this is a trute to the persuasive powers of rush limbaugh and fox news and the drudge report and e rest of that echo chamber. you don't hear rush talking about weapons of mass destructn anymore, and i saw this p

joe klein, thank you for joining us. sometimes we can simply disagree by looking at the same picture. when you look at something so dem mon straly true, we dn't stction, fair enough, they got it wrong. people in the middle say these guys don't know what they're talking about, people on the left say we never thought that was the reason for the war if the first place, but to not know it, what do you make of these numbers? democrats in this new poll, 63% stiothere was no wnsma 15% say there were. okay. 1 out of 6 democrats think there might have been. republicans however, 63% of republicans say, yes, there were weapons of mass destruction, almost two-thirds. how do weccount for this misstatement of fact? >> well, i think this is a tribe he psuasive powers of rush limbaugh and fox news and the drudge report and the rest of that echo chamber. you don't hear rushalking about weapons of mass destruction anymore, and i saw this pie chart on anew sullivan's blogaymeg % of the mentions of global warming on fox news knock it down a

joe klein, thank you for joining us. sometimes we can simply disagree by looking at the same picture. we can say, that's not true, that is true. when you look at something so demonstrably true, we didn't find weapons of mass destruction when we got to iraq, which con founded people, who supported the war. fair enough, they got it wrong. people in the middle say, these guys don't know what they're talking about. people on the left said, we never thought that was the reason for the war in the first place. but to not know it. what do you make of these numbers? democrats in this new poll, 63% say there was no weapons of mass destruction. 15% say there were. okay. 1 out of 6 democrats think there might have been. republicans however, 63% of republicans say, yes, there were weapons of mass destruction, almost two-thirds. how do we account for this misstatement of fact? >> well, i think this is a tribute to the persuasive powers of rush limbaugh and fox news and the drudge report and the rest of that echo chamber. you don't hea

joe klein, thank you for joining us. sometimes we can simply disagree by looking at the same picture. when you look at something so dem mon straly true, we didn't find weapons of mass destruction, fair enough, they got it wrong. people in the middle say these guys don't know what they're talking about, people on the left say we never thought that was the reason for the war if the first place, but to not know it, what do you make of these numbers? democrats in this new poll, 63% say there was no weapons of mass destruction. 15% say there were. okay. 1 out of 6 democrats think there might have been. republicans however, 63% of republicans say, yes, there were weapons of mass destruction, almost two-thirds. how do we account for this misstatement of fact? >> well, i think this is a tribute to the persuasive powers of rush limbaugh and fox news and the drudge report and the rest of that echo chamber. you don't hear rush talking about weapons of mass destruction anymore, and i saw this pie chart on andrew sullivan's blog toda

with us today, john heilemann, katty kay, helene cooper and joe klein. first up, mitt romney may not have been the love of their life, now he is out in the arena has the republican's champion, a political gladiator who has now thrown down his gauntlet. >> this president can ask us to be patient. this president can tell us it was someone else's fault. this president can tell us that the next four years he'll get it right. but this president cannot tell us that you're better off today than when he took office. chris: john, that is it, that's the gauntlet, can the president and what will he do to answer that charge that he has not made things better? >> is a perennial questions in elections and the case of romney against obama. explicitly and implicitly, the president has to answer that charge. they have tried in chicago for the last year to say this isn't just a referendum on us. it's a choice. you're going to hear that framing throughout this convention in charlotte. i will say, i think they're going to do more to try to go back and litigate his record th

with us today, john heilemann, katty kay, helene cooper and joe klein. first up, mitt romney may not have been the love of their life, now he is out in the arena has the republican's champion, a political gladiator who has now thrown down his gauntlet. >> this president can ask us to be patient. this president can tell us it was someone else's fault. this president can tell us that the next four years he'll get it right. but this president cannot tell us that you're better off today than when he took office. chris: john, that is it, that's the gauntlet, can the president and what will he do to answer that charge that he has not made things better? >> is a perennial questions in elections and the case of romney against obama. explicitly and implicitly, the president has to answer that char. they have tried in chicago for the last year to say this isn't just a referendum on us. it's a choice. you're going to hear that framing throughout this convention in charlotte. i will say, i think they're going to do more to try to go back and litigate his record that

again, joe klein, i said it last hour, i'll say it again. and i disagree with you on daniel henninger and "the wall street journal." they may not have loved the specifics, but they would say it's federalism. back in the 1990s, john ingler and tommy thompson and a lot of other republicans, they experimented with health care reform in their own states. and, in fact, we bragged about how all 50 states would be legislative laboratories. you would get the best from every state. and mitt romney could have made that argument if he understood conservatism, if he understood federalism. but he just doesn't seem to get it at his core. he can't speak in the same language than, say, paul ryan can speak in. >> but know, i think that he tried to make that argument, but it's a false argument. you know, one of the things that republicans say all the time is that we need a national market in health insurance so that people in new york can buy, you know, from any state. and i think that if this had been done correctly, if we had a national health care supersto

again, joe klein, i said it last hour, i'll say it again. and i disagree with you on daniel henninger and "the wall street journal." ecs, twod say e loved the it's federalism. back in the 1990s, john ingler and tommy thompson and a lot of other republicans, they experimented with health care reform in their own states. and, in fact, we bragged about how all 50 stes would be u d the stm laboratories y e. and mitt romney could have made that argument if he understood conservatism, if he understood federalism. but he just doesn't seem toet it at his core. he can't speak in t same n speak in.,au r >> but know, i think that he tried to make that argument, but it's aalse argument. u know, one of the things that republicans say all the time is that we need a national market in health insurance so that ople in n york can buy, you ,mnye. and i think that if this had been done correctly, if we had a national health care superstore, a national exchange, then obamacare, you know, would work. it's really hardo run 50 different health care systems in aour

anyway, howard fineman and joe klein, thank you. coming up, could barack obama be the democrat's ronald rag? yes, says andrew sullivan. he has a chance to transform american politics. the first thing he has to do is win. >> world leaders seek his guidance. they don't dare reject his invitations. bill clinton h bome pren t w t mitt romney and president obama oke at the clinton globa initiative. more importantly, he knows who he wants to win. obama this time. hillary next time. >>> what could makco rn scott walker become pro-u.n.? >> the packers play it at the goal line as wilson scrambles to keep it alive. the game's final play, a wilson loft to the end zone. which is fumbled by tate with inimne whs it? who do they give it to? touchdown! >> well, one result of that, the anti-union pro-packers governor of wisconsin scott walker wants the union refs back on the field after the substitute refs gave the catch in that game last night to seattle. puann.meiniswithhis to keep bcks from voting. and this is "hardball," the place for politics.

. >> dana: yesterday you talked about joe klein who said on one of the other show, some show that maybe obama should play the race card. it defended him. i said well maybe what he meant is that president obama should come out and try to heal people. so today he tries to explain it and he made it worse by saying if the current republican dog whistling continues, blah, blah, blah. i hereby withdraw my support and defense of him, joe klein. >> greg: the funny thing about that he said i'd never play the race card because it's cliche term. then he uses the word dog whistle now replaced the race card as clicheed term. a walking cliche hack. >> bob: it's worth the discussion that 93% of blacks vote for democrats. >> greg: it's worth talking about but i'm cutting you off. >> bob: thank you. >> greg: we could do a show on that. 24 hours on that. but we won't. coming up, ready for convention trivia? we took your questions on twitter and facebook an questions and the answers are next. in case you are wondering the dana's idea. trivia. convention. ♪ ♪ [ lisa ] my name's lisa, and chantix helped

. >> joe klein, thank you. because you have a big picture look of this. what is mitt romney talking about that is relevant to aur our ability to deal with the group of militants in a place like benghazi that go against the embassy or going against the embassy and ambassadors of the embassy itself in care iro, be egypt. >> once again, the guy doesn't know what he's talking about or he's 25 years out of date. it was a product of the cold war when we had to have the ability to fight the russians on the plains of europe at the same time. that cost an awful lot of money. but we're facing a very different sort of threat now, a meta more fis threat. al qaeda, terrorism, and so on. and so the military has abandoned the two war strategy and, you know, obviously romney wants to go -- see, he still thinks that the soviet union exists and is the greatest threat we have out there. i mean, it's really remarkable that a guy who is as smart as he is is so misinformed. >> nia-malika henderson, could it be a strong intellectual footing in the cold war scenarios, they reall

joe klein will join the conversation. but first, here is dillon dryer with a check of the forecast. >> things are looking good all across the east coast but we are seeing some rain, especially down across the gulf coast states and we are going to see some of that rain start to move in the east as we go into your tuesday. temperature-wise august little cool up through montana about 16, almost 20 degrees cooler than this time yesterday. what's the reason into? a cold front moving through it is also bringing showers and storms back through minneapolis, but the big story is the heavy rain that's falling across new orleans. lots of lightning with this activity down in that area and that is all going to move in here for tomorrow, especially tomorrow evening and tomorrow night. we could end up with the chance of some severe weather through had the new york city area and through the rest of the east coast. but today, most of those showers and storms down across the southeast and then we are going to see those spread eastward as w

. >> andrea: one member of the media joe klein at "time" magazine has an interesting media strategy for the president and he questioned why the president doesn't play the race card. listen. >> four years of covering barack obama he does not play the race card. he does not do that. >> he hates it. he probably should. he probably should address it because the bitterness out there is becoming marked. >> andrea: playing the race card will help with the bitte bitterness? >> bob: the worst idea i heard. there were comments made last week about the democrats using code word at the convention. i'm sensitive to the race code word and i didn't hear any. the idea of bringing up race is a terrible idea. there is no question that in 2008, the press was, the campaign was favor to believe obama. press since then has been abysmal. that is probably the wrong word. abysmal. this is not a guy enjoyed good press. i don't know where you get that from. you can say the "wall street journal" but they are against obama no matter what he does. some of the rest of the newspapers, the "washington post" has been br

joe klein is with us. and we have john berman the anchor of "early start" doing triple duty this morning. the big question that was teed up about the i republicans and now the democrats have so deal with it this week, are you better off now than you were four years ago? $64,000 question and it's been a struggle for some dems to answer that? >> it has been. the two davids that head up the obama campaign, david plouffe and david axelrod couldn't answer it. one did give an answer but not an answer a lot of people in obama campaign were thrilled about. >> can you honestly say that people are better off today than they were four years ago in. >> no, but that's not the question of this election. the question without a doubt, we are not as well off as we were before george bush brought us the bush job losses and bush recession and bush deficits and series of dessert wars charged for first time to the national credit card. >> that's a problem. >> it is a problem. and brad woodhouse, the dnc spokesman came on -- >>

. >> joe klein, thank you. because you have a big picture look of this. what is mitt romney talking about that is relevant to aour ability to deal with the group of militants in a place like benghazi that go against the embassy or going against the embassy and ambassadors of the embassy itself in cairo, be egypt. >> once again, the guy doesn't know what he's talking about or he's 25 years out of date. it was a product of the cold war when we had to have the ability to fight the russians on the plains of europe at the same time. that cost an awful lot of money. but we're facing a very different sort of threat now, a meta more fis threat. al qaeda, terrorism, and so on. and so the military has abandoned the two war strategy and, you know, obviously romney wants to go -- see, he still thinks that the soviet union exists and is the greatest threat we have out there. i mean, it's really remarkable that a guy who is as smart as he is is so misinformed. >> nia-malika henderson, could it be a strong intellectual footing in the cold war scenarios, they really do h

up next, joe klein joins us. woman 1: this isn't just another election. we're voting for... the future of our medicare and social security. man 1: i want facts. straight talk. tell me your plan... and what it means for me. woman 2: i'm tired of the negative ads and political spin. that won't help me decide. man 2: i earned my medicare and social security. and i deserve some answers. anncr: where do the candidates stand on issues that... affect seniors today and in the future? find out with the aarp voters' guide at earnedasay.org you've got a busy day today. that before this date, we have to exceed expectations. we have to find new ways to help make life easier, more convenient and more rewarding. it's the reason why we don't have costumers. we have members. american express. welcome in. >>> 8:24 on the east coast. joining us now onset, political columnist for "time" magazine, joe klein. good to see you on this busy morning. >> bad morning. >> a terrible morning. four americans are dead in benghazi and also we have an escalate with bibi netanyahu chiding

up next, joe klein joins us. woman 1: this isn't just another election. we're voting for... the future of our medicare and social security. man 1: i want facts. straight talk. tell me your plan... and what it means for me. woman 2: i'm tired of the negative ads and political spin. that won't help me decide. man 2: i earned my medicare and social security. and i deserve some answers. anncr: where do the candidates stand on issues that... affect seniors today and in the future? find out with the aarp voters' guide at earnedasay.org you've got a busy day today. that before this date, we have to exceed expectations. we have to find new ways to help make life easier, more convenient and more rewarding. it's the reason why we don't have costumers. we have members. american express. welcome in. >>> 8:24 on the east coast. joining us now onset, political columnist for "time" magazine, joe klein. good to see you on this busy morning. >> bad morning. >> a terrible dead in benghazi and also we have an escalate with bibi netanyahu chiding the white house for not bein

. >> joe kleine, thank you because you've got a big picture and look at this, who is romney talking about our ability to confront these local situations where a group of militants in a place like benghazi decide to go after the american embassy. >> what is being able to fight two big land wars have to do with that? >> once again the guy doesn't know what he's talking about or he's 25 years out of date. the two-war strategy was a product of the cold war when we had to have the ability to fight the russians on the planes of the earth and. >> he still thinks that the soviet union exists and is the greatest threat we have out there. it's really remarkable that a guy who is as smart as he is is so ill informed on these essential issues of military doctrine. >> could it be that he's surrounded mitt romney by neocons who really do have a strong intellectual footing in the cold war scenarios. i hate to say this but they have an intellectual conference. they never really adapted to the situation. no matter how many troops we have in benghazi, you can't fire across the crowd. you can't do that. and

tomorrow, the chief economist wells fargo, john silvia, of the former federal -- federal prosecutor, joe klein will be talking about the issues that are straightforwardly central to our future in this country. we're coming right back. lou: this is the one-year anniversary of the group formerly known as occupy wall street. moving on to other news the wisconsin state attorney general seeking estate and a surprise ruling friday when a wisconsin state judge threw out the law in the collective bargaining powers for most public workers. that ruling has from the state into some confusion. one major union representing nearly 5,000 teachers says it will demand in contract negotiations in light of the court decision. has not decided whether he will take the case directly to the state supreme court or to an appellate court first. obamacare propaganda coming to a television near you in california at least. the new york times is reporting that california is paying a public relations firm nearly a million dollars to try to convince hollywood producers to promote obamacare. even worse, california is us

. >> we had the same battle in new york city until bloomberg and joe klein finally got through. for you to say you want better classrooms, the money doesn't go to the classrooms. >> exactly. it doesn't go to the classroom. >> it goes to the teachers' union who protect the teachers themselves. that's the traffic veststy. >> do you want to give me a chance to speak? >> i'm sorry, you're saying a lot of things i disagree with. you're not being accurate. >> i'm being 100% accurate. there are $250 million rahm emanuel has in tax increment financing supposed to go to the schools but instead going to his business cronies like the hyatt hotel chain. >> i don't know what that has to do -- >> the academy of science, which is our most elite and respected bunch of researchers in the country have not come out not once but twice against the teacher evaluation system they're trying to impose in chicago. >> we're not here to talk about the pritzer family, we're here to talk about the chicago union disaster. >> exactly. >> i want to go to my friend. what's your take on this? >> the school system

tomorrow, the chief economist wells fargo, john silvia, of the former federal -- federal prosecutor, joe klein will be talking about the issues that are straightforwardly central to our future in this country. lou: this is the one-year anniversary of the group formerly known as occupy wall street. moving on to other news the wisconsin state attorney general seeking estate and a surprise ruling friday when a wisconsin state judge threw out the law in the collective bargaining powers for most public workers. that ruling has from the state into some confusion. one major union representing nearly 5,000 teachers says it will demand in contract negotiations in light of the court decision. has not decided whether he will take the case directly to the state supreme court or to an appellate court first. obamacare propaganda coming to a television near you in california at least. the new york times is reporting that california is paying a public relations firm nearly a million dollars to try to convince hollywood producers to promote obamacare. even worse, california is using our money to push the

. >> when you look at the polling, we had a conversation with joe klein. >> i like politics. i do politics. i'm going to say this, i love politics, i don't mind looking at polling but that's not all i look at. >> i realize that i like framing questions on what i think the direction a poll was going. joe klein said the electorate is 70% white and a problem maybe the big tent that is diverse. if you look in the convention hall, very diverse -- >> the one in tampa -- >> not so diverse, everybody would agree on that. white voters who are leaning obama, 39%, white voters leaning romney, 57%. how do you get them back? >> first of all, as somebody who again spent time with polling and also the goal doesn't say how to get the white voters back. i think the president has very clear responsibility, to layout a vision for the future and make clear the choices. there are choices in this election. elections have consequences. you have have in my view after this election an agreement between the parties about the shape and role of government. mitt romney in my view has made a choice and pa

a conversation with joe klein this morning, said i'm having september 2004 flashbacks, the parade of clinton people came in to rescue the kerry campaign, bob shrum said everybody is losing this race. are they trying to push stuart out or get a message to stuart? >> governor romney likes his counsel. they are an odd couple. two distinctly different personals i. >> felix and oscar. >> worked harmoniously throughout the campaign. he's a lightning rod. he is a character. but a lot else in that campaign, so, there's infighting in a campaign. surprise. there's always infighting in a campaign. it comes out at times of stress and as versity and the romney campaign's about going through one. >> jackie, there are a couple of stuart sympathizers who will say to me, um, let's remember this guy guided the candidate through a republican primary process with a moderate mormon from massachusetts. and if somebody had told you that a moderate mormon from massachusetts could get the republican nomination in 2012, they would tell you you were smoking something. >> absolutely. that's why the talk, i can'

klein and the star of the film "won't back down" which focuses on parents and teachers with a premier this sunday at 6:00 p.m. eastern on msnbc. "andrea mitchell reports" is live next from new york city. [ "the odd couple" theme playing ] humans. even when we cross our "t"s and dot our "i"s, we still run into problems -- mainly other humans. at liberty mutual insurance, we understand. that's why our auto policies come with accident forgiveness if you qualify, where your rates won't go up due to your first accident, and new car replacement, where if you total your new car, we give you the money for a new one. call... to talk to an insurance expert about everything else that comes standard with our base auto policy. [ tires squeal ] and if you get into an accident and use one of our certified repair shops, your repairs are guaranteed for life. call... to switch, and you could save hundreds. liberty mutual insurance -- responsibility. what's your policy? so i test... a lot. do you test with this? freestyle lite test strips? i don't see... beep! wow! that didn't take much blood. yeah, and

joe klein. just to break this out and to show that of the people who don't pay federal income tax, two-thirds do pay payroll tax and two-thirds of the other one-third are basically retirees who are benefiting from having worked their whole lives, paid taxes their whole lives and are in retirement. what's wrong with that? isn't that the american compact itself? >> not only is there nothing particularly wrong with, it but the romney's policy shows he doesn't think there's anything wrong with it either. he says he won't raise taxes on anybody making less than $200,000. there are actually some tax increases hidden in there for some people making very little because the stimulus tax breaks retire. he says he won't touch any medicare or social security benefits for the current generation of retirees. so he's saying essentially he wants to keep this status quo exactly as it is. one other thing on this, this trick that has been played in the tax conversation where we keep saying federal income taxes, fe

joe klein. just to break this out and to show that of the people who don't pay federal income tax, two-thirds do pay payroll tax and two-thirds of the other one-third are basically retirees who are benefiting from having worked their whole lives, paid taxes their whole lives and are in retirement. what's wrong with that? isn't that the american compact itself? >> not only is there nothing wrong with it but mitt romney's policy shows he doesn't think there's anything wrong with it. he says he won't raise taxes on anybody making less than $20,000. there are some tax increases hidden there for some people making very little. he says he won't touch any medicare or social security benefits for the current generation of retirees. so he's saying essentially he wants to keep this status quo exactly as it is. one other thing on this, this trick that has been played in the tax conversation where we keep saying federal income taxes, federal income taxes are the part of the tax code that is progressive. the

. -- joel klein. >>> on the campaign trail vice president joe biden loves to talk. that is sometimes a problem for the vice president. we'll have his latest. >>> the libyan government, eyewitnesses and an intelligence source saying directly that the benghazi attack was an organized, coordinated assassination and the white house that has blamed for a week an amateurish home movie is now rethinking their spontaneous combustion theory for the death of the u.s. ambassador and three other americans. "the a-team" is next. with all the opinions about stocks out there, how do you know which ones to follow? the equity summary score consolidates the ratings of up to 10 independent research providers into a single score that's weighted based on how accurate they've been in the past. i'm howard spielberg of fidelity investments. the equity summary score is one more innovative reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. get 200 free trades today and explore your next investing idea. lou: chicago's 7-day teacher strike is over. we got a week, union delegates today voting to e

. -- joel klein. >>> on the campaign trail vice president joe biden loves to talk. that is sometimes a problem for the vice president. we'll have his latest. >>> the libyan government, eyewitnesses and an intelligence source saying directly that the benghazi attack was an organized, coordinated assassination and the white house that has blamed for a week an amateurish home movie is now rethinking their spontaneous combustion theory for the death of the u.s. ambassador and three other americans. "the a-team" is next. seems they haven't been moving much lately. but things are starting to turn around because of business people like you. and regions is here to help. with the experience and service to keep things rolling. from business loans to cash management, we want to be your partner moving forward. so switch to regions. and let's get going. together. [ male nouncer ] you start your day... love you, too. ...thinking about what's important to you -- your family... ...e mortgage... the kids' college tuition. [ cellphone ringing ] but life insurance? [ horn honking ] li

abc news rick klein and byron york and michael crawlly. byron? >> i thought the fourth best speech of the convention behind bill clinton, michelle obama, joe biden, the president, last. i thought joe biden was a much better speech and seemed to have the audience going with it. >> and speaking of vice president biden, joe trippi is going to be here, he tweeted vice president biden was the best of both convention autos i don't think this is a among his best. i think he's given many better speeches and i think this speech is being weighed down by the income bensy itself by the fact he's been doing it four years, it's something he tried to use as his advantage. particularly on national security. and there is the fact he's made a similar call to arms four years ago. people know promises haven't been kept. >> and did he give any indication or explanation as to why that doesn't happen? >> no. i think that there is a little bit of that. and there is a little bit about congress but i don't there is a full accounting of why things fell flat for a lot of th