>>> we begin as the republican party plays hurry-up-and-wait, getting its convention officially underway, and immediately putting it on hold until tuesday. here was the scene down in tampa, just a short time ago.
>> but it's my privilege to proclaim the 2012 republican national convention in session and called to order.
>> about one minute later, the convention stood in recess, with chairman reince priebus staying only long enough to set up not one, but two large deck clocks, proving that no tropical storm should ever get in the way of pumping up the optics. and not only does isaac threaten to blow out coverage of romney 's latest reintroduction to voters, the romney also has to clean up the damage and debris from last week's blizzard caused by the "legitimate rape" remarks by congressman todd akin and then worsened by romney 's own ill-advised birther joke on friday, if you could call it a joke. that remark earning rnc reince priebus a political spanking from my colleague, chris matthews . funny too that romney seems to think that he's the one being subjected to dishonest, vicious attacks. telling " usa today ," "i do think that the president's campaign of personal vilification and demonization probably draws some people away from me." i see, it must be the president's fault. it couldn't possibly be that romney 's own campaign of lies, such as the one where he says the president removed the work requirement for welfare, are insulting the electorate. absolutely not. indeed, according to " usa today ," " romney defends the welfare ads as accurate, accusing obama of offering state waivers as a political calculation designed to shore up his base for the election." right, well, i guess romney 's calculating that since he's got zero percent among african- americans , a big fat goose egg with black voters, a 35-point gap with latinos, a 10-point deficit with women, he can't even convince a third of voters that he cares about average people. he's gambling that he can rally the base, comprised largely of white guys like him and win this thing. how's that going to work out? jeb bush ?
>> our demographics are changing, and we have to change, not necessarily our core beliefs, but how we -- the tone of our message and the message and the intensity of it, for sure. but long-term, conservative principles, if they're to be successful and implemented, there has to be a concerted effort to reach out to a much broader audience than we do today.
>> in other words, that's a big gamble. let's get right to our panel. in the belly of the beast , msnbc contributor, jonathan capehart, with us from tampa. and in washington, msnbc political analyst , karen finney. karen , if i might begin with you. we've had mitt romney talking about the president giving free stuff to his supporters, code for black welfare recipients. we've had ryan and romney talking about a president who loves nothing more than to make americans totally dependent upon welfare. code for black recipients. last friday, he stoops into the gutter by making a comment about nobody needing to check his birth certificate. now we hear romney saying the president's welfare policy is designed to shore up his base. karen , why doesn't mitt romney come out and say it, that he believes this president exists solely to create black dependence on welfare.
>> you know, martin, because this candidate has not shown much courage in anything that he said. so i think he's going to continue to dance around it and they're going to continue to try to take this half step away, so that as you saw reince priebus do this morning, when i thought chris matthews did such an excellent job, really confronting this head-on, you know, they want to be able to continue to dance around it. but the fact remains that it was in the '70s when the neocons really took this concept of the culture of poverty, and really this idea of associating government programs and assistance with -- and it became, you know, associated with african- americans and in our minds, i guess the way the sort of evolution, the anthropology of it is, this association with people as being undeserving. and studies, as very recently, have shown that frankly republicans are more likely than democrats, frankly, to believe that people who are on these programs are less deserving. and in our minds, it conjures up african- americans . so what they're trying to do is say it without saying it. they're saying all of the code phrases that play into this the language, without being able to really say it, because they don't want to be accused of actually saying it.
>> yeah, but john, karen says they're not saying it, but it sounds to me like a chorus. i mean, i'm relatively new to this country, but it's deafening. it's perfectly obvious to me what the guy's saying.
>> yes, and as "the new york times" reported on saturday, you know, the romney campaign is taking a sharp tone and a sharp turn to not so much gain the favor of voting blocs that might want to vote for him and vote for a republican, if their policies weren't so uninviting, but it's all about going after working class , middle class white voters. and, you know, to piggyback on what karen was saying, the message here is, these programs, for those people, who are taking your tax dollars and using them on those people who don't want to work, who don't want to be productive members of society, and as karen says, when you heard " food stamp president," when you hear talk about doing away with welfare work requirements, subconsciously, the image goes back to something ronald reagan introduced to the political lexicon, the welfare queen .
>> right. but, john, doesn't romney 's approach reveal his own fundamental problem here. that he's essentially torn between two ambitions. he needs to convince his base that he's severely conservative, but at the same time, he needs to convince swing voters that he's not an extremist, with views like those, for example, held by todd akin . the result is a man who's literally torn two ways in his personality.
>> well, "legitimate rape" does turn away -- the phrasing, "legitimate rape," is extreme and it turns away a lot of people who might think that he might be moderate. but when you have, as karen was saying, these code words , talking about welfare, talking about food stamps , talking about other things where the coding is softer, it allows people to not view what they're saying as extreme. i don't see mitt romney as being torn into two pieces. i actually see him as being someone who is held captive to the far right wing of his party. just to win the presidency.
>> but here's the broader problem, as i see it. if you give mitt romney -- this is the problem i think the party is having, frankly, writ large. if you give mitt romney the benefit of the doubt , that he really didn't get that that joke was not funny and that was dog whistle politics and that his ad on welfare reform is racist, then you have to say, well, this guy does not understand that we are a majority/minority country. i mean, he accuses obama of not understanding our country and how the economy works. guess what, mister, you've got to understand the diversity of this country and that there is a segment of the population, that's how we hear those kinds of phrases. it may not be what you intended, but that's how people hear it, and you're asking those people to trust you or to vote for you --
>> but karen , john sununu says the president doesn't understand what it means to be american.
>> my point is, so either, on the one hand, if you give the benefit of the doubt to mitt romney nah he doesn't realize what's going on here when he says these things, that's one side. on the other side, which i think is more likely, they know exactly what they're doing and they know exactly what they're saying, just as jonathan was pointing out. and i think the question is, and i think the issue that our country is facing is, we are changing. the country is not the country that john sununu and others want it to be back in the 1950s . it is a very different country. we look different, we act different, our culture is different, our economy is different. and we've all got to come together and deal with that rather than trying to continue to divide each other, which is what this strategy is all about.
>> and yet, karen and john, and if i can go to john now, i keep hearing republican politicians saying they want to take america back. they want to take it back from this president. they must mean what karen 's just said.
>> well, right, they want to take this country back to a mythical time when everything was just fine, when, you know, moms stayed at home and dad worked and there were 2.5 children in a yard that was guarded by a white picket fence . and those days, i mean, those are the days of hollywood. those days never really existed. and i think if the republican party wants to no longer be a regional reactionary -- a regional reactionary monolithic party, it's going to have to start focusing on the vast middle of this country, that is tired of the dog whistle politics , and really wants solutions to problems that know no racial boundary, know no partisan boundary. the economy, jobs, health care , the future direction of this country deserves, and the american people want, a leader who is going to come up with proposals and policies and ideas that will get us to that point.
>> but recognize -- i think part of this, though, is what i'm saying, you have to recognize that the middle of this country is no longer white. it's not just white men, it's not just white women . it's african- americans , it's latinos, it's asians. i mean, we are a multi-cultural country. we are not -- you cannot just put people in these cookie cutter assumptions about who's going to vote for what. you've got to have a broader understanding about the demographics of this country and how people are experiencing the economy in this country as well as the social/cultural issues in this country.
>> and the fact also that people of color contribute and are not simp simply dependent. thank you both for joining us.
>> but it's my privilege to proclaim the 2012 republican national convention in session and called to order.
>> about one minute later, the convention stood in recess, with chairman reince priebus staying only long enough to set up not one, but two large deck clocks, proving that no tropical storm should ever get in the way of pumping up the optics. and not only does isaac threaten to blow out coverage of romney 's latest reintroduction to voters, the romney also has to clean up the damage and debris from last week's blizzard caused by the "legitimate rape" remarks by congressman todd akin and then worsened by romney 's own ill-advised birther joke on friday, if you could call it a joke. that remark earning rnc reince priebus a political spanking from my colleague, chris matthews . funny too that romney seems to think that he's the one being subjected to dishonest, vicious attacks. telling " usa today ," "i do think that the president's campaign of personal vilification and demonization probably draws some people away from me." i see, it must be the president's fault. it couldn't possibly be that romney 's own campaign of lies, such as the one where he says the president removed the work requirement for welfare, are insulting the electorate. absolutely not. indeed, according to " usa today ," " romney defends the welfare ads as accurate, accusing obama of offering state waivers as a political calculation designed to shore up his base for the election." right, well, i guess romney 's calculating that since he's got zero percent among african- americans , a big fat goose egg with black voters, a 35-point gap with latinos, a 10-point deficit with women, he can't even convince a third of voters that he cares about average people. he's gambling that he can rally the base, comprised largely of white guys like him and win this thing. how's that going to work out? jeb bush ?
>> our demographics are changing, and we have to change, not necessarily our core beliefs, but how we -- the tone of our message and the message and the intensity of it, for sure. but long-term, conservative principles, if they're to be successful and implemented, there has to be a concerted effort to reach out to a much broader audience than we do today.
>> in other words, that's a big gamble. let's get right to our panel. in the belly of the beast , msnbc contributor, jonathan capehart, with us from tampa. and in washington, msnbc political analyst , karen finney. karen , if i might begin with you. we've had mitt romney talking about the president giving free stuff to his supporters, code for black welfare recipients. we've had ryan and romney talking about a president who loves nothing more than to make americans totally dependent upon welfare. code for black recipients. last friday, he stoops into the gutter by making a comment about nobody needing to check his birth certificate. now we hear romney saying the president's welfare policy is designed to shore up his base. karen , why doesn't mitt romney come out and say it, that he believes this president exists solely to create black dependence on welfare.
>> you know, martin, because this candidate has not shown much courage in anything that he said. so i think he's going to continue to dance around it and they're going to continue to try to take this half step away, so that as you saw reince priebus do this morning, when i thought chris matthews did such an excellent job, really confronting this head-on, you know, they want to be able to continue to dance around it. but the fact remains that it was in the '70s when the neocons really took this concept of the culture of poverty, and really this idea of associating government programs and assistance with -- and it became, you know, associated with african- americans and in our minds, i guess the way the sort of evolution, the anthropology of it is, this association with people as being undeserving. and studies, as very recently, have shown that frankly republicans are more likely than democrats, frankly, to believe that people who are on these programs are less deserving. and in our minds, it conjures up african- americans . so what they're trying to do is say it without saying it. they're saying all of the code phrases that play into this the language, without being able to really say it, because they don't want to be accused of actually saying it.
>> yeah, but john, karen says they're not saying it, but it sounds to me like a chorus. i mean, i'm relatively new to this country, but it's deafening. it's perfectly obvious to me what the guy's saying.
>> yes, and as "the new york times" reported on saturday, you know, the romney campaign is taking a sharp tone and a sharp turn to not so much gain the favor of voting blocs that might want to vote for him and vote for a republican, if their policies weren't so uninviting, but it's all about going after working class , middle class white voters. and, you know, to piggyback on what karen was saying, the message here is, these programs, for those people, who are taking your tax dollars and using them on those people who don't want to work, who don't want to be productive members of society, and as karen says, when you heard " food stamp president," when you hear talk about doing away with welfare work requirements, subconsciously, the image goes back to something ronald reagan introduced to the political lexicon, the welfare queen .
>> right. but, john, doesn't romney 's approach reveal his own fundamental problem here. that he's essentially torn between two ambitions. he needs to convince his base that he's severely conservative, but at the same time, he needs to convince swing voters that he's not an extremist, with views like those, for example, held by todd akin . the result is a man who's literally torn two ways in his personality.
>> well, "legitimate rape" does turn away -- the phrasing, "legitimate rape," is extreme and it turns away a lot of people who might think that he might be moderate. but when you have, as karen was saying, these code words , talking about welfare, talking about food stamps , talking about other things where the coding is softer, it allows people to not view what they're saying as extreme. i don't see mitt romney as being torn into two pieces. i actually see him as being someone who is held captive to the far right wing of his party. just to win the presidency.
>> but here's the broader problem, as i see it. if you give mitt romney -- this is the problem i think the party is having, frankly, writ large. if you give mitt romney the benefit of the doubt , that he really didn't get that that joke was not funny and that was dog whistle politics and that his ad on welfare reform is racist, then you have to say, well, this guy does not understand that we are a majority/minority country. i mean, he accuses obama of not understanding our country and how the economy works. guess what, mister, you've got to understand the diversity of this country and that there is a segment of the population, that's how we hear those kinds of phrases. it may not be what you intended, but that's how people hear it, and you're asking those people to trust you or to vote for you --
>> but karen , john sununu says the president doesn't understand what it means to be american.
>> my point is, so either, on the one hand, if you give the benefit of the doubt to mitt romney nah he doesn't realize what's going on here when he says these things, that's one side. on the other side, which i think is more likely, they know exactly what they're doing and they know exactly what they're saying, just as jonathan was pointing out. and i think the question is, and i think the issue that our country is facing is, we are changing. the country is not the country that john sununu and others want it to be back in the 1950s . it is a very different country. we look different, we act different, our culture is different, our economy is different. and we've all got to come together and deal with that rather than trying to continue to divide each other, which is what this strategy is all about.
>> and yet, karen and john, and if i can go to john now, i keep hearing republican politicians saying they want to take america back. they want to take it back from this president. they must mean what karen 's just said.
>> well, right, they want to take this country back to a mythical time when everything was just fine, when, you know, moms stayed at home and dad worked and there were 2.5 children in a yard that was guarded by a white picket fence . and those days, i mean, those are the days of hollywood. those days never really existed. and i think if the republican party wants to no longer be a regional reactionary -- a regional reactionary monolithic party, it's going to have to start focusing on the vast middle of this country, that is tired of the dog whistle politics , and really wants solutions to problems that know no racial boundary, know no partisan boundary. the economy, jobs, health care , the future direction of this country deserves, and the american people want, a leader who is going to come up with proposals and policies and ideas that will get us to that point.
>> but recognize -- i think part of this, though, is what i'm saying, you have to recognize that the middle of this country is no longer white. it's not just white men, it's not just white women . it's african- americans , it's latinos, it's asians. i mean, we are a multi-cultural country. we are not -- you cannot just put people in these cookie cutter assumptions about who's going to vote for what. you've got to have a broader understanding about the demographics of this country and how people are experiencing the economy in this country as well as the social/cultural issues in this country.
>> and the fact also that people of color contribute and are not simp simply dependent. thank you both for joining us.