which increasingly seems likely to me, even if he wins, they are going to be a real night of the long knives as people fight this out. it s really interesting. let me ask you before we go about the mitt romney tape. you saw it at the top of the hour. 47% of the country who are with him who are dependent on government and believe they are victims and the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe they are entitled to health care and food, that s an entitlement and they will vote for this president no matter what. my job is not to worry about those people. i will never convince them they should take personal responsibility. president romney? all i can think of is that polling question they ask, who cares more about people like you? can you wait for the next number in that matchup with obama? people are already voting. ballots have already been cast in north carolina. frank rich, the article is my embed in red.
party. but i think if romney loses, which increasingly seems likely to me, even if he wins, they are going to be a real night of the long knives as people fight this out. it s really interesting. let me ask you before we go about the mitt romney tape. you saw it at the top of the hour. 47% of the country who are with him who are dependent on government and believe they are victims and the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe they are entitled to health care and food, that s an entitlement and they will vote for this president no matter what. my job is not to worry about those people. i will never convince them they should take personal responsibility. president romney? all i can think of is that polling question they ask, who cares more about people like you? can you wait for the next number in that matchup with obama? people are already voting. ballots have already been cast
meat. this is real. until he releases tax returns you re going to have conversations like this, humming across america, where it s almost it s almost part of the conventional wisdom that he has some offshore accounts, some things in there that look bad, until they re leased this is going to be what people think. who do you trust to make your life better, to make the economy better. there s a lot of goodwill for president obama, both sides in this campaign understand that. our polling indicates that. but there s a question about who s got the vision for the future. there s that polling question, does the candidate understand the concerns and the problems of people like me? and what president obama wants to make painfully clear in his argument about mitt romney, is that he doesn t. that he doesn t understand you. he doesn t get you, the middle class voter, who s struggling in this economy, yes, and the president has been, you know, responsible, as the head of the
government s role in the economy, mitt romney puts more emphasis on private sector roles and that s where the election will be decided. we know that at the moment, romney has the edge when it comes to economic issues. president obama is hoping the economy itself will improve before october and turn that around. jon: because right now, 49 percent of those people you surveyed approve of the job president obama is doing, 49 percent disapprove every way that we can measure this race, it is very close. 48 percent tell us they tend to agree with mitt romney and on most issues, 46 percent say the same thing about president obama. there is not a polling question or an issue or a demographic analysis today that says this race is going to be a blowout. now, it could change, and again, the focus, whether it s the president s job approval or anything es, will come back to that issue of the economy. jon: the thing that interests me, scott, voters have had 3 1/2 years to get to know president ob
joining me now is e.j. dionne, washington post columnist, also an msnbc political analyst. e.j., what other lands are promised to what other people? where are we going there? well, you know, i mean, it is i couldn t help but think that when president obama was asked about american exceptionalism, he thought other countries felt they were exceptional, too. so romney s going to issue a statement backtracking from that particular statement. but, you know, i do think religion has played a real role in these primaries already. you did a little essay the other night on that polling question about whether the religion of a candidate matters to a voter a great deal? some? not much? or not at all? if you look across the states, the voters who have said the religion of the candidate matters a great deal to them have given very few votes to mitt romney in these republican primaries, 10% to 20%. the difference between santorum winning tennessee and losing ohio is a lot more voters in