We are just a dirty dozen days from the president ial election, and with the polls tight in the seven tossup states, you might call this the lightning round where with the candidates racing across the ghunt a furious fight for those 270 electoral votes. The president is in the air after a massive rally in virginia in the midst of an eightstate battleground blitz. Hes due to land in chicago within the hour to become the first president to cast an early vote before heading off to ohio. The challenger, mitt romney, has just wrapped up at his second event today in that most crucial state, the one thats picked every president since 1960. The state that no republican has ever won the white house without. A new Time Magazine poll has the president up five points in ohio by the way, but never mind, earlier today in cincinnati, romney sounded resplendent and utterly triumphant. I mean, do you want real big change in this country . Well, youre going to get it on november 6th. Oh, yes, a romney white house would bring change already. And not just the addition of dressage on the north lawn. What would that change look like say on Foreign Policy, for example . I know, lets ask former secretary of state general colin powell. The governor who was speaking on monday night at the debate was saying things that were quite different from what he said earlier. So im not quite sure which governor romney we would be getting with respect to Foreign Policy. He went on to call romneys Foreign Policy is moving target, but, okay, we know hes not got much Foreign Policy experience. What about his big economic change . Its essentially lets cut taxes and compensate for that with other things, but that compensation does not cover all of the cuts intended or the new expenses associated with defense. Yeah, i guess its that arithmetic thats missing again. But listen, the Washington Post has been covering mr. Romney throughout his sevenyear campaign for the presidency. Surely theyve got it sorted out. Quote, the sad answer is there is no way to know what mr. Romney really believes. His swings have been dramatic on gay rights, gun rights, health care, Climate Change and immigration. Oh, dear, this isnt going very well, is it . Voters are left with the centerpiece of mr. Romneys campaign. Promise tax cuts that would blow a much bigger hole in the federal budget while worsening economic inequality. His claims he could avoid those negative effects which defy math and which he refuses to back up with actual proposals are more insulting than reassuring. Wlaets get right to our panel inform washington. Eugene robinson, an msnbc analyst and a Pulitzer Prize winning columnist for the aforementioned Washington Post and here in new york Richard Wolffe is the Vice President and executive editor of msnbc. Com. Romney has been saying the democrats have a shrinking campaign because all they want to talk about is abortion. Weve been talking for 12 months about mitt romneys economic plan. Weve been talking for two years about his central thesis for the presidency, what he wants to do, and what we have today is someone as esteem as general colin powell saying he, too, has looked at mr. Romney carefully and decided the man is vac cuous and has nothing to stand on. By the way, would he have been talking for 11 years about the conservative Foreign Policy where mitt romney wants to extend. Except he hid it in the debate. Right. Well, there is a real difference on what kind of person is he thats willing to change at the last minute just to sound good in a debate, but even if you take it at face value and say, no, he really is the guy who represents his policies as they at least are on the website so the extent we can get our arms around them, there has been a real engagement about how the budget should be balanced, what the balances between tax cuts in romneys case no tax revenues at a all, only tax cuts indeed. And right. You gene, general powell said hes not comfortable with the economic plan that romney is offering and then he said mr. Romneys Foreign Policy is a moving target. That is a general saying from a military perspective almost exactly what the president said, that this man is all over the map and as steady as a drunk on new years eve. The military men and women, as you know, do like a certain precision, and you get none from governor romney. But general powell is absolutely right. When you look at what romney was saying about iran, for example, before the debate versus what he said during the debate. During the debate he wants peace. He sounded buddhist almost in his desire for peace around the world. Yet his rhetoric leading up to that, in fact, his rhetoric for years has been so bellicose. Giving the green light to the israelis for a strike whenever they like against iran, just one example of this more belligerent attitu attitude. By the way, just to pick up on that, one thing he unveiled in the debate was this idea of prosecuting ahmadinejad, the iranian leader. For genocide. This from a party that doesnt believe in the International Criminal court. One of his many advisers thinks you can take on the top six floors of the u. N. Hes way out of the mainstream of his party. His advisers say we dont agree with any of this, but we dont agree with ahmadinejad. Theres no consistency to this party anymore, not just to the candidate. Whatever they used to be in terms of ideological coherence to republicans and conservatives in general, mitt romney just blew it up. Indeed. We saw the endorsements for the president over mr. Etchasketch, but doug brinkleys piece offers a quite different view. Can i quote, obama must be judged by the things he wont allow to happen on his watch. Wall street thieving, bushstyle nis c fiscal irresponsible, the reversal of roe v. Wade. If he loses romney and ryan will crush his initiatives without remorse. Thats right, isnt it . If youre a young person who is currently covered by health care, you can kiss that goodbye. If youre a young person who is relying on pel grants, you can kiss that goodbye. If you take mitt romney at his word, theres no way the industry will accept it unless you have a mandate which he also dislikes. His promises or at least the things he says he likes doesnt stack up with what he says he will deliver. To dougs point, if you think the reforms that this president and the last congress enacted are going to stop wall street thieving, youre smoking something that Rolling Stone probably understands very well. You know, this will not stop wall street thieving. The fact that wall street hates this president may be a feather in the cap for some progressives and maybe even this president , but there is nobody on wall street who really thinks for all the annoyance and for all the personal disruption to their social life that being called a fat cat entails, nothing has been solved. Im sure thats true. Eugene, republicans are rather peeved as a comment by the president in that Rolling Stone piece, asked about his affinity for young kids, the president joked, quote, kids have good instincts. They can look at the other guy and say, well whats that pull spitter, except he didnt say bull spitter. I guess hes been hanging out with joe biden again. I guess he has. Candor erupts in the most unexpected places. Hes been in the middle of an interview. From the babes in suckling. Exactly. But what can you say . Look, inconsistency, thy name is romney, absolutely. To the earlier point about what there is, whats at stake in this election, and the abortion issue, Supreme Court nominees are always vital and you can imagine what kind of people mitt romney is going to nominate versus what kind of people president obama would name to the court. In so far as we can tell what mitt romney believes, a lot of it people really need to take a look at it. Indeed. A final point to you, richard, its just 12 days but those 12 days could decide a womans control over her own body, could they not, because if romney is elected to eugenes point, hes more than likely to select to nominate the kind of person that would tip the Supreme Court so that that 1973 ruling could be in jeopardy. And with a republican congress, he said he would be delighted to sign a federal law banning abortion. He is the moderate in his party because he believes there should be an exception for rape. Thats a moderate position in this Republican Party and as Rachel Maddow points out, thats almost impossible to enforce. He sounds moderate, hes really not. These are really serious issues people should bear in mind. Thank you so much. Richard wolffe and eugene robinson. Next, mitt can run, but you know what . He can also hide from the media. The shrinking candidate when we come back. Whats this thing with trump and you . Its like me and letterman. What does he got against you . I dont get it. This all dates back to when we were growing up together in kenya. Yeah. We had constant runins on the soccer field. He wasnt very good and resented it. Yeah. No you dont, honey. Yes, you do dont ive washed a few cupcake tins in my day. Oh, so youre a tin expert now. Is that. Whoa nelly hi, kitchen counselor here. Hes actually right. With cascade complete. See cascade complete pacs work like thousands of microscrubbing brushes to help power away tough foods even in corners and edges. So, i was right, right . Ive gotta run. A cascade product has been chosen by consumers as best new dish detergent for multiple years. Within the last 24 hours of this election campaign, the president has conducted sitdown interview was jay leno and Brian Williams in between a nonstop schedule of swing state campaigning. Mitt romney is similarly racing back and forth across the country conducting interviews with nobody. Yes, mr. Romneys campaign is indicating to reporters that he and paul ryan are done with answering those questions, but if you want to be president of this great country, then it may not be possible to avoid questions on the most explosive story of the day, even in a diner. Governor which way are we going . Governor, do you disavow mourdocks comments. Joining us from washington is david corn, the man mitt romney can thank for breaking the 47 story, and michael scherer, correspondent for time whose story about why ohio will decide the election is in the latest issue. Isnt mr. Romney doing the right thing in wearing a burqa in front of the media because if he answers any questions about Richard Mourdock its a short way to his ryans position . I think the Romney Campaign would be wise to invest a lot of money in duct tape. You know how those protesters walk around with duct tape. They dont want them to say anything now. Just scripted talking points at rallies, not do any interviews. Its not just the Richard Mourdock stuff. Theres a million and one followup questions to the last three debates, including the one we watched together in boca. He said we dont want any more iraq wars, remember that line . I do. Id love to see someone come up and say you supported the iraq war. Do you think its not a good thing . It wasnt a good thing in is that why you dont want any more . Can you please explain yourself, governor romney . You know, reporters like you and i and michael, we crave the opportunity to grill these guys and mitt romney has nothing to gain. I was about to say nothing to bain. Nothing to gain from questions about bain or anything else. Indeed, thats true. This isnt the first time the Romney Campaign has stopped taking questions. He once went over a month starting in march without taking a single question from a reporter. He says that democrats want to talk about abortion because theres is a shrinking campaign, but romney doesnt want to talk about anything because hes literally on the run from journalists. Hes on the run. Well, he wants to talk about his message. There are a couple things to point out. No, he doesnt. He doesnt want to talk about misme his message. But his message has nothing to do with your question. Absolutely. His message is a story line his campaign has scripted. He comes in the debates, shows up next to president obama he tells lies, hes revisionistic, they bear no reference to the things he said 15 minutes ago and none of us can ask him a question. Yeah. Exactly. And he can ride momentum into election day. He has a ton of money on tv. It should also be pointed out, there have been periods in the campaign where its been flipped. The Romney Campaign has been criticizing the president. Theres a period in august a few weeks where the president didnt give interviews and he was criticizing him as being silent. Its just sort of the ebb and flow of the campaign but its clearly the case right now that president obama is trying to show he is working hard to win the american vote. Hes doing all these interviews, doing the allnighters, and mitt romney is trying to project this air of confidence that theres momentum behind him and hes riding his way to the white house. An air of confidence. Hilarious. David, one of those questions an intrepid reporter who works for, say, mother jones magazine, might ask, is why a convicted tax cheat was at that 45 fundraiser. Is that a fair question . Thats one of many questions. We have a story out today in mother jones at that fundraiser where he made those 47 remarks, there was actually a donor there named Jim Batmasian who literally went to jail for not paying a quarter Million Dollars in taxes he owed on his employees and his wife marta is on the state Fundraising Committee for romney in florida, 50,000 she paid for her and her husband to eat and listen and denigrate americans who dont pay taxes. Im sorry, david, explain that to me because i may be stupid, but here is a man who derides the population, 50 of them, for not paying taxes and sitting in one of the chairs in front of him is a tax cheat, fraud par excellence. Mitt romney pays 13 , 14 and we still dont know what he paid for years prior to 2010. This whole tax issue, his own personal tax issue, has really faded at the end of the game and in some ways you can look at it as like the great dodge. He got away with not releasing those tax returns. Everyone said theyd have to come out, he couldnt do this, theyd have to come out. It seems like hes in the running now without ever releasing all those tax returns or answering dozens of questions. Again, not talking to reporters, answering dozens of questions about his personal finances. Final question to you, mike, can he do this in 12 days . Can he literally not say anything, not give us any deductions, not give us any loopholes hes going to close that would make his economic plan for the nation work, wont say anything, wont release his tax returns, doesnt really know much about Foreign Policy, but can he get those through those 12 days saying nothing . He will keep saying what hes saying but he can get through the next 12 days. Theres a tradition the closing days of the campaign, you basically go from airport to airport and give your stump speech over and over again. You rely on tv and your ground game. I dont think they wont give any interview over the next 12 days fox news. Yeah, come on, mike. Im sure it will be very sparse pickings. You know, right now romney is not exactly where he wants to be, but theres still hope for him to take this. The polls are close enough. He has a real path to victory here. Its not clear how likely that path s but its there and its available to him. And its likelier, martin, if he doesnt say much. Yes, indeed. David corn and michael scherer, thank you for joining us. Stay with us. We have much more ahead. Tied to look, i dont blame that baby for crying. She just realize what had it means if romney gets elected. Its okay. Hes not going to get elected. Youre going to be okay. Youre going to be okay. 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