it is equally true that politicians find getting people agitated and fearful is a more effective thing and gas prices one, you know, may be an issue for obama although, look, no idea what gas prices will be in two months. we nl know what they will be now. if they have a, gee, we hope gas prices hit $5 and then we can win, it is a thin read to weigh the electoral chances upon where the social security and medicaid and medicare and it is a long burn issue we know we will have to deal with and the one little liability for obama in this is democrats do have to address these issues. simply claiming that republicans want to throw grandma in a ditch without health care is not going to solve our actuarial issues long-term. let me play this new romney ad attacking the president for, quote, slinging oil to distract from failed energy policy. let s listen. obama machine has started spending millions to sling mud for oil at mitt romney. why? because in a five states where
on the ryan budget and if the democrats will run against romney-ryan, why not make it official and put him on the ticket? there is a reason for that which is that paul ryan is the most articulate defender of those policies. if you re going to have to run on that and you re going to be attacked on that, why don t you have the guy that knows it inside and out and is able to articulate it the most effect e effectively and that is paul ryan. jimmy, do you buy that? it is a decent argument. you put your neck on the line with the guy and give him something and bring it to the table? absolutely. i respect paul ryan. he is a very smart guy. at the end of the day i am not sure that paul ryan and the ryan budget, and we have two years of ryan budgets and it is the same thing over and over again is a very smart thing. what will come out of the obama machine and the defensiveness that will come out of the romney camp about old people and poor people, et cetera, it is going to get to an elevate
turn out. a few glitches with ballots that were too large or miss printed. they had to have an emergency printing of a half million ballots to use the machines. they think they have a handle on it now. as far as personal checks. the romney campaign and rnc could hold joint fundraisers, as high as $75,000 per person. those could be happening as early as this week. a move to try and gear up for the general election campaign. all of the remaining republican presidential campaigns were asked to join in on these kinds of efforts with the rnc. only the romney campaign has hammered out an agreement so far. they say the donors are ready to mobilize for november and understand that for the republican nominee to be able to compete with the $1 billion obama machine they need to get started now. the reference to the $1 billion obama machine is a number tossed around quite frequently by
an nbc poll out last week showed in a head-to-head matchup, romney and president obama, among women voters, president obama up by 25 points. what can the romney campaign do about that number? right. it s very daunting as they start to look at going up against the obama machine. and they are starting to recognize what a weak competition they have been blessed with because through the primaries, as you guys know, you ve been out, mitt romney has been the women s candidate. he s been doing so much better with women than any of the other republicans out there. now all of a sudden he is looking at this cliff. so she is an important part of it. also, they are looking for a big idea to focus the campaign around. and this big idea is going to be part of how they try and reach women, close this gap. all right. they have some work to do. mike allen with a look at the politico playbook. thanks. coming up, a brawl in the lig leagues.
panthers have offered a $10,000 bounty for his capture. politically, economically, the next three days will affect the course of life in america for decades. six hours of arguments on four distinct issues arising from the 2-year-old health care reform law are well under way at the highest court in the land. today s issue could make the rest moot. the gateway question asks whether the individual mandate for everyone to buy insurance or pay a penalty amounts to a tax. if it does, it can t be challenged, because a law from 1867 bars challenges to taxes until they re paid. the health insurance mandate doesn t take effect until 2014. so justices could settle this issue and punt on the others. today s session wraps in 30 minutes, and cnn s kate bolduan and jeff toobin will join me live as soon as it does. rick santorum plans to be out in front of the supreme court building at noon weighing in on the health care debate. the republican presidential candidate has said the health c