It remains to be seen what actual damage will come from this act by Mayor Booker. I do not know/read much about the Mayor.

However(!) that he knew "Meet The Press" is a flagship program on NBC and accepts to be an official surrogate on behalf of the President who swerves to express a scatterbrain (unconnecting) stance is exasperating! Is it ever appropriate for a surrogate to act for himself?

I will have to pay closer attention to Mayor Booker when he is on the national airwaves now, because I do not understand his actions--moreover, his recant shortly afterwards.

Surprised that no one is nauseated about the lack of honesty and sincerity of Cory Booker. Obviously he is using the democrat party and ideals only to further his own political career. His whole persona exudes that his ambition is to be part of the 1%, or 2 or 3 - what ever he can gain. There will always be dishonest people - the greater question may well be what has Mr. Booker done to himself - obviously a man who has been for his whole career, at the least, dishonest. His coming out on Meet the Press, at this time and of places, is, well, dope-a-rama.

Obama will carry on as he has always done, painstakingly, intelligently and honestly, in spite of many, many attempts to impede his progress, and in spite of hangers-on like Cory, to face the multitude of problems confronting this country and working class Americans.

Chris you called the Booker incident the best of anyone in the media. I do not agree with you on many things but I respect your position on Booker.

Somebody got a nice payoff. Time for Booker to join Republican party. Democrat party is for people who support workers first, and middleclass first, and are not big corporation prostitutes, which is the kind of "surrogate" that Booker appears to have become.

Booker doesn't matter, Bain doesn't matter. Not even Romney's flip-flopping matter. Mark my words: When the Republi-cons regain the White House they will do everything Obama would do, and then take credit for it. They all know damn well that all this campaign stuff is thrown around to please their own supporters and funders, and that compromise will happen again once the Republicans have the Presidency. Why? Because they know the Democrats would not sacrifice the country for party, as they would. They want the big prize, and when they get it they are not about to throw it away. It just sticks in their craw to think that a black "liberal"president can drag the country back from the Cheney-Bush brink. They want that glory, and will do and say anything to deny it to Obama and the Democrats.

Come On, this is manufactured news. Yes, Cory is sort of a blow hard, but he made a good point: Obama has to stay on point. Obama has to start to talk about his record and make sure voters know what he has done. Deep six the trashy summer strategy and just list the facts. They are compelling enough if someone would just articulate them.

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Booker is yesterdays news...Continue Mr. President

Obama/Biden 2012

Romney complains of character assassination by those that would discuss Bain Capital’s performance. Mitt Romney’s moral and ethical behavior, that is the definition of character, is of his own making. This is true for each of us. One’s campaigning for an elected office invites the delving into that character, but campaigning for President of the United States guarantees an unmatched level of scrutiny. Much of Romney’s private life, because of his father’s wealth, has been spent removed from public viewing. The same is true of his business life. He now wants the support of the voting public. They want to know what they are going to be getting.

What is known of Romney’s public life doesn’t exactly instill a person with confidence about his character. His flip-flopping on important issues is unparalleled and legendary. It is significant to note that his stated positions, without fail, pandered to the leanings of those being addressed gaining him political favor. This character flaw was self-inflicted demanding closer scrutiny. Romney’s own attempt to take credit for the US Auto industry bailout was a current event world-class lie. Once again it was of Romney’s own doing. Romney did the bullying, and his guilt-ridden classmates recall it in painful detail. It is Romney that can’t recall it. Romney put the dog on top of his car. It got sick and defecated. Romney took the dog down, washed his car off and did it to the dog again. Romney ran the most negative primary campaign in Republican election history. These things are all true and undisputed. They were all done by Romney himself. They are a part of his character and his own doing, but the only one who assassinated it was Mitt Romney. He would just have soon none of this had come into the light.

Romney the CEO of Bain Capital doesn’t want his business life scrutinized. Romney does not want his tax returns scrutinized. Romney doesn’t want his off-shore bank accounts scrutinized. He would rather we take his word that they reflect a good moral character. The problem for Mitt Romney; some of what is known of his Bain business dealings suggest that he would also list them as character assassinations. Just maybe Romney killed his character a long time ago.

I think Corey Booker spoke the truth about negative advertising. I watched the full Meet The Press, and in the context of discussing negative Rev. Wright ads from the Republicans and the advertising from the Progressives, he was basically saying, "a pox on both our houses" for demagoguery. I think it's very reasonable to question Bain, and they did they and other firms did load up a lot of companies with excessive debt and walk away with profits, while the companies disappeared. I don't agree with this form of capitalism, and I certainly won't vote for Romney because of bad business ethics, and many other reasons. But.... I think it's very dangerous when we can't criticize ourselves for extreme partisanship and excessive political hyberbole. I hear us saying we want to return to civility and compromise in politics, and when the Newark mayor was overly candid about this need, he became severely criticized by his own party...in my opinion, the critics are not behaving honestly or honorably.

I agree with people like Jerry-69 and I wish Gov. Rendell or Mark Heileman were still on today after their Booker discussion when Chris asked "where are the real surrogates" and "where are the real loyalists" to say to Chris, "we are looking at one." I used to thoroughly love MSNBC and still watch it for my news coverage and opinion, but why can't it be critical-thinking through-and-through. As in all even somewhat valid critiques, at least Booker helped Obama make his point much more clearly the next day that will help him in the debates to avoid being seen as against the rich - there is a difference between wealth-creation and job-creation. I agree with a lot of criticism against Booker, but on the other hand I wish the MSNBC crew would have more substantial critics of Obama like Tavis Smiley and Bill Bradley on and try calling them disloyal. Featuring people like them really would be fair and balanced which is what our country needs, not rallying around Obama no matter what. The philosopher Bernard Lonergan called this group bias, the next level above mere selfishness and more destructive when it cuts off insights from opposition. And to say the other side is worse only obfuscates the problem.

Chris...I watch your show, and like it. I appreciate your service as a congressional staffer, as I was a congressional staffer. But your tone since Monday with regards to Cory Booker is, to use Mayor Booker's words...."nauseating". I am looking at things objectively. I am not going to act like some hyperbolic "outraged" liberal who wants to stone Mayor Booker, and I am not going to act like some self-righteous Republican who wants to use Mayor Booker's words as a way to divide and conquer. Mayor Booker's comments had less to do with Bain, as it was more a commentary on nasty campaigns. The one thing you have refused to say, and I have been watching closely, you have refused to say that he said he was nauseated with "BOTH SIDES". I watched "Meet The Press" when he said what he said, and on several occasions you have distorted what Mayor Booker has said. You said he that Mayor Booker was "nauseated" by the President, which the man never said or even implied. You have also spoke about how Mayor Booker was doing this to advance his own brand and political agenda. Mayor Booker, before he was Mayor and since then, has been the anti-politician, which is why he is beloved in Newark, and is considered one of the most respected mayors in this country. It has never been about fame or money, and although all politicians have ego, Mayor Booker's actions and career speaks to someone who isn't about that. YES...politically what he did was stupid, and if I was a senior person in the Obama Campaign, I would have flipped out. But you know what...it's campaign season...who doesn't say anything stupid from time to time. You know that from being in politics yourself. I am sure Speaker O'Neil busted your behind a few times for things you did or didn't do. But I don't think he would have ever questioned your loyalty or whether you were Pro-O'Neil. In fact, the way you keep bashing Mayor Booker, one could say you are doing the same thing you are accusing Mayor Booker is doing...thrashing and "dissing" a fellow Democrat at a time where unity is needed. Stop trashing the man...it's old, tired, and you're not doing a good job at it.

Regardless of all the Protest and spitting Corey Booker did on Rachel's show last night, this guy is just not that Dumb. If he is he has no business being the Mayor of NJ. Booker knwe full well what he said. We did what he asked us to do on Rachel's show listened to the entire tape and he made us Nausiated.

This was intentional, well planned, no politician in the world is this dumb.

One would think Corey made a deal, planned this entire event with the Republicans and the Private Equity people, and said "Corey when this is Over we have your back.

Mr. President and team don't be fooled you have a Spy in Booker among you..

However, I must say if he knowingly did this he did a great job of embrassing himself. It's safe to say his political ambitions for NJ are over, if the voters have a say and they do.

DEMOCRACY IS NOT FOR SALE! For those of you who don't get, listen up. PRVATE EQUITY IS SELF-INTERESTED ONLY!!!!!! To elect Mitt Romney for President is the same as buying an overpriced product from a late night infomercial. BAIN is the best example of what the US needs like a bullet in the brain. The US dollar is nothing without the values that it represents, because FREEDOM IS PRICELESS!! And private equity will never invest or protect anything or anyone EXCEPT ITSELF!

Booker did more damage to himself more that Pres. Obama, while the republicans are praising Mitt Romney, I remember the 1980's and 1990's with leverage buy outs, it was not pretty for some of the companies.

RjR Nabisco was probably one of the biggest with leverage buyout and then there was Drexel Burnham Lambert that floated the junk bonds that these people used, I had a friend that worked for them and she lost her entire pension when they went under.

What Romney did was not regular business, his companies did not make anything to sell. Today look at what is going on with Sears Roebuck & Co, a total disaster.

Negative tone is not any reason to withhold the truth from the American people. In fact, people do not listen unless there is an emotional hook in the message or delivery. Going negative is only touching the existing feelings of the listener and provocatively challenging a differing perspective. Positive messages do the same thing but are rarely persuasive in effect. Both Booker and Rendell provide examples of failed positivism and the President properly honed the argument. The great tragedy in all of this discussion is the enormously distasteful fundamental proposition that America has become more about the wealthy than about our General Welfare. And that makes me puke!

This is too funny. No one has to take Cory Booker's comments out of context. He strung 2 or 3 consecutive sentences in an unequivocally coherent and passionate manner. It's certainly understandable that he is backing up from the statements in support of his favored candidate because he didn’t thing through just how damaging his own beliefs were to Obama’s campaign against Romney; but the idea that Obama and his campaign are letting key supporters have free reign and speak their mind is a joke. It is absolutely clear that Booker has been spoken to and given orders to do everything he can to retract something that was clearly heartfelt and un-retractable. Blaming his comments on some kind of trick question simply does not fly. He was tricked by no one into saying what he obviously felt, and the GOP does not need to take a single syllable of his original and sincere statements out of context to prove it's, and Booker's original point. If the Obama campaign or pundits are going to be anything remotely honest and credible with the public in their addressing of any jobs created by the action Bain Capital, then the must give figures for both jobs created as well as lost. Anything less would display a shear cynicism towards a voter’s intelligence who would clearly understand that the Obama and his media pundits are deliberately hiding half of the facts that they uncovered. Omissions of such information is glaring even to a dunce like me.

On the contrary, to what Early bird just said, I think there are too many weasels in the Democrat party that would sell their mother just like most of the Republicans do, if the right amount of money is waved in their face.

Weasels so far: Booker, Rendell, and Ford. Who will be next? Might as well have all the rats exposed now, rather than find out later who really supports Obama and who is being paid off by big "equity loving" bloodsuckers to undermine Obama.

I have no simpathy for weasels, whether Dems of Reps. I despise them all.

And if Chris Matthews starts suddenly saying Obama is unfairly criticising Romney and equity dealers are the heart of the Democrat party, then I know the fix is in, and its corporate world pulling his strings just like the attempt with Keith Olbermann. Only Olbermann had guts enough to say hell no, even if it meant losing his job on MSNBC.

We need Olbermann back, to counter this full press rightwing machine which is starting to infect some Democrats who have decided they like corporate cash even if it means losing their soul.

Or else, Democrat party is no better that Republican party, and working people like myself will have to form a Labor party to represent the other 80% of the American population.

Maybe we can have a few more arrogant loser Democrats telling the President how to do it. Oh, say Chris Matthews, or Harold Ford Jr., -- The steady drum beat of Democrats who think for some reason they know just how he should do it, will, maybe help get Romney elected. Then they will really whine and wheeze. JAY-SUS! leave the man alone and stop helping the opposition. Maybe when Romney gets to put his finishing touches on the already corrupt Supreme Court, Chris and Company will finally be satisfied. They don't want O'Bama to talk about what he inherited - so maybe when they help get the same policies back, they can spend their time huffing blowing about how he didn't do it right and call it analysis. I'm with you Volkscamper - I despise them all. First all we could hear was that O'Bama was weak - a law professor - really? I think al-Qaeda might disagree if they can stop running long enough to talk about it. But now all we hear from these "weasels" is "he should keep the kill list out of the Oval Office." No matter what he does, his own Dems do their utmost to take him down. The Dems doing this are no better than the likes of Joe (I ran in 1994) Scarborough and the simpering Mika. A pox on all them. I donate and vote but I really wish they would stop doing sound bites for Romney.

STOP IT CHRIS! Stop nitpicking the President. Every damned night you are out there running your mouth about what you think he has NOT done. You are just like Rendell, Ford, Clinton and QueBall! All of you Monday morning quarterbacks need to sit down and shut up or quit acting like you are Democrats. I wish my shoe would hit your head instead of the television screen!