Lawrence Wilkerson, the former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, skewered Mitt Romney’s foreign policy team on Monday, saying their policies make his stomach turn.   

Wilkerson took particular aim at John Bolton, former President George W. Bush’s ambassador to the United Nations—and now an adviser to Romney. 

“The man scares me to death,” Wilkerson, a retired U.S. Army colonel told MSNBC’s Ed Schultz. “He would defeat all the enemies in America and the world—and believe me they’re plentiful—and he’d do it with everyone else’s blood. John is like Dick Cheney, never served a day in his life and wouldn't serve a day in his life … These people make me sick.” 

Wilkerson’s harsh rhetoric comes on the heels of Romney’s foreign policy speech earlier in the day, in which the former Massachusetts governor laid out a hawkish approach.

Without offering much in the way of specifics, Romney vowed to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, go after terrorists who attacked the U.S. consulate in Libya, and work to ensure Syrian rebels obtain arms to defeat Bashar al-Assad’s regime. 

"Utterly unbelievable, Wilkerson said, blasting Romney as “operating on a Cold War music sheet.” 

Asked about former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s endorsement of Romney’s speech, Wilkerson declared that Rumsfeld, one of the key architects of the Iraq War “has zero credibility with me and he’ll never regain it again.” 

In a low-key and often wonkish presidential debate on Wednesday, Mitt Romney distanced himself from his own plans, but received only intermittent push-back from a subdued President Obama.

Obama started out strong at the Denver debate, nipping at Mitt Romney for the Republican's tax plan, which would reportedly cut $5 trillion in tax revenue and add $2 trillion in military spending. Obama insisted the move would pulverize middle-class families or balloon the deficit.

"How we pay for that, reduce the deficit and make the investments that we need to make without dumping those costs on to middle-class Americans, I think is one of the central questions of the campaign," the president said.

Romney, however, insisted that he doesn't have a $5 trillion tax cut in his plan, and that he won't reduce the taxes paid by the wealthiest Americans. On the stump, Romney has pushed to lower everyone's tax rates by 20%, an amount independent groups say will reduce federal revenue by $5 trillion over the next decade.

Obama charged that for the past year-and-half, his opponent has been running on such a tax plan and now his "big, bold idea is 'never mind.'" 

On Medicare, Obama noted that although Romney's plan to turn Medicare into a voucher system might not affect current seniors, it would affect those who'll soon be eligible for the program. "If you're 54 or 55, you might want to listen because this might affect you," he said.

Obama argued that Romney has yet to lay out concrete plans on taxes, healthcare and Wall Street reform. "And at some point I think the American people have to ask themselves is the reason that Governor Romney is keeping all these plans to replace secret because they're too good?"

While there was no knockout moment, the tables seemed to turn in the GOPer's favor when Romney insisted the president's policies have stunted job growth and a second term in the White House for Obama would kill more jobs. He ripped Obama's plan to repeal tax cuts for small businesses and  referenced Vice President Joe Biden's gaffe this week, saying "Under the president's policies, middle-income Americans have been buried."

Romney, appearing poised and confident, argued that health insurance costs have gone up, gas prices have doubled, costs of food have skyrocketed and the middle class has been crushed under Obama.

"You raised taxes and you killed jobs," Romney declared.

Throughout most of the evening, Romney was the clear aggressor, seizing control of the debate at several moments and interrupting moderator Jim Lehrer, while the president often seemed somewhat listless as he looked down at his podium.

Richard Wolffe, executive editor of MSNBC.com, said the cards fell in Romney's favor, but that in the end, Romney may not have achieved everything he needed to.

"I think the GOP is going to be delighted with Romney because it's all small bore. They want him to rough up the President and he did. Sadly for the GOP, he missed the real target: telling voters what he really stands for. Especially about jobs," Wolffe wrote on MSNBC.com.
 
Romney's big push comes as polls show him behind in several battleground states.

Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown just can’t seem to let Elizabeth Warren’s disputed Native American ancestry go.

During the second, testy debate in their hotly contested Senate race on Monday night, the GOP senator went on defense after being questioned by NBC’s David Gregory.

Gregory pressed Brown to say whether there was any evidence to suggest Warren had benefited or was hired because she had previously claimed that she was Native American.

“The real issue, David, is what she’s telling the people," Brown replied, later adding that “the best way for her to do that is for her to release her personnel records.”

Warren, a progressive hero, once claimed on a Harvard job application that she was part Cherokee. She later clarified that she was 1/32 Native American, saying she had been told as much by her mother, and had taken that fact at face value. 

Warren reiterated that claim during the debate, saying, “I’ve answered the questions about how I was born, what I learned growing up.”

Brown, who is trying to retain his seat in the left-leaning state, also tried to distance himself from Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney—not long after Brown appeared reluctant to say he backed Romney, before his campaign clarified that he does.

When Gregory asked Brown if he supported Romney, he said “yes” on economic issues, quickly adding that they are “two different people.” He also insisted he would have to read each bill, if re-elected, to determine if he agreed with Romney on it.

At one point Brown lost his cool on Warren, a Harvard Law School professor, when he felt like he was being interrupted.

“Excuse me, I’m not a student in your classroom. Please let me respond,” he said to both boos and cheers.

Brown also seemed to run into a bit of trouble when Gregory asked him who his model Supreme Court justice is.The GOPer immediately named right-leaning Antonin Scalia, to both applause and boos.

He then added liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor, swing Justice Anthony Kennedy and conservative Justice John Roberts. 

When Gregory noted Sotomayor and Scalia were on opposite sides of the spectrum and asked him to "pick one," a testy Brown responded, "Listen, I don't need to pick one, we have plenty of justices up there and I'm proud of the ones we have."

Gregory later asked Brown if he'd vote for Mitch McConnell to be the Senate's top Republican again. Brown insisted McConnell "has a lot of work to do to earn my vote." 

Outgoing Democratic Congressman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) told MSNBC host Rachel Maddow that Brown's claim that he hasn't made up his mind about McConnell is "non-credible."

He also ripped Brown for claiming several times during the debate that he'd have an "open mind" on controversial issues. 

"I think he is kind of crossing the line from independence to incoherence because he understands if he were to say what he plans to really vote it would be unattractive to voters," said Frank. 

A new Boston Globe poll shows Warren leading Brown by five points. But 18% of voters are still undecided. 

Mark Newt Gingrich's words: Todd Akin will triumph in Missouri. And he'll get the national GOP behind him too.

The former House Speaker stumped on behalf of the struggling Republican Senate candidate in St. Louis on Monday, where he predicted the Republican establishment, including White House hopeful Mitt Romney, would throw their weight behind Akin ahead of November's election.

Romney, of course, has called for Akin—under fire for his comments last month about "legitimate rape"—to pull the plug on his campaign. Gingrich said GOPers have a "moral obligation" to back Akin, especially if they want to win a majority in the Senate.

 “My expectation will be that in the crunch, in October, Governor Romney is going to be for the entire ticket,” Gingrich said. “And he’s going to be for Todd Akin. And clearly Gov. Romney has to carry Missouri in order to win the presidency." 

And he downplayed Akin's controversial comments, saying: "If saying something dumb disqualifies you, Joe Biden couldn't be vice president." 

The Huffington Post's Howard Fineman told MNSBC host Ed Schultz on Monday night that Romney would only flip-flop and back Akin if polls showed the loose-lipped lawmaker was gaining ground. Right now, he's six or seven points behind once-vulnerable Democrat Claire McCaskill. 

"I think that Mitt Romney will blow whichever way the wind does," said Fineman. "Right now he can stay away from it because Akin is still down considerably."

So why is Gingrich backing Akin in the first place?

"I think Newt will go wherever he’s really and truly wanted," said Fineman. "And at this point, Todd Akin doesn’t have many friends in the national Republican party. And for that matter, neither does Newt Gingrich. So Newt wants to go somewhere to try and be a hero and a savior to anyone who will view him as such. And Todd Akin is desperate enough." 

Mitt Romney is trying hard to woo Latino voters this week, downplaying the positions he took on immigration during the Republican primaries. Many Democrats are not convinced.

"I don't think it's going to work," Annette Taddeo of the Miami-Dade Democratic Party told MNSBC's Ed Schultz on Thursday's The Ed Show. "I think it's too little, too late."

Schultz agreed, pointing to what he said was a poor performance by Romney at the Univision forum in Florida on Wednesday. The White House hopeful was defensive about his prior support for self-deportation, wouldn't give a straight answer on whether the nation should follow Arizona's lead on immigration, and offered no specifics on how to deal with the millions of young people brought to the country illegally by their parents, Schultz noted. 

Romney's bid to win over Latino voters comes the same week that Mother Jones dropped an explosive video in which the Republican told a room of wealthy donors that his father was born in Mexico. He then half-jokingly bemoans the fact that he himself was not Mexican, because minority status would give him "a better shot of winning this."

Taddeo called Romney's remarks "very offensive," adding that "it takes more than being a Mexican for us to vote for somebody, or being a Hispanic for us to vote for somebody." 

During the Univision forum, Romney promised to "staple a green card" to diplomas of foreign nationals who earn advanced degrees in the U.S. He also made a similar comment in the secret video—though, in that case, but he didn't stop there.

"Gosh, I'd love to bring in more legal immigrants that have skills ... I'd like to staple a green card to every Ph.D. in the world and say, 'Come to America, we want you here,'" he said in the video. "Instead, we make it hard for people who get educated here or elsewhere to make this their home. ... Unless, of course, you have no skill or experience, in which case you're welcome to cross the border and stay here for the rest of your life," he said, to laughter from the crowd. "It's very strange."

"He's trying to become this person we all know he isn't," said Taddeo. 

There was good news for President Obama in the new U.S. Census data released Wednesday: For the first time in three years, the number of Americans without health insurance dropped. 

About 1.4 million more Americans have health insurance than one year ago. After three years of rising uninsured rates, the percentage of Americans without health insurance coverage dipped from 16.3% in 2010 to 15.7% in 2011.

Ezra Klein, guest-hosting on The Ed Show, explained a major reason for the decline was an uptick of newly insured young adults, many of whom benefitted from a provision in Obama's Affordable Care Act, which requires insurers to let parents keep their children on their plans up to age 26, and which has kept 3 million young adults insured. 

Another driving factor was that the number of Americans covered by government programs like Medicaid has expanded.

"There's a lot of things government doesn't do well," said Klein. "But one thing it does know how to do, which you can see here, and you can see frankly in every other developed nation on earth, is give people health insurance."

The Census data wasn't all roses, however. The median household income dropped to $50,054 in 2011, about 1.5% from the previous year. Meanwhile, income inequality grew.

"The rich are getting richer," said Klein. 

In a stirring but sober speech at the Democratic National Convention on Thursday night, an emphatic President Obama cast himself as a determined leader who kept his promises to Americans, but who needs four more years to finish the job and to stop Mitt Romney from taking the country backwards.

“I won’t pretend the path I’m offering is quick or easy. I never have," Obama told a packed audience in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he officially accepted the nod for a second presidential term. "You didn’t elect me to tell you what you wanted to hear. You elected me to tell you the truth. And the truth is, it will take more than a few years for us to solve challenges that have built up over decades. It will require common effort, shared responsibility, and the kind of bold, persistent experimentation that Franklin Roosevelt pursued during the only crisis worse than this one."

Obama, introduced by his wife Michelle Obama, stressed that Americans are faced with a choice—"two different paths for America"—rather than the election being a referendum on his presidency so far. 

Obama painted a picture of what a second term  would look like.

He promised to reduce the deficit by more than $4 trillion over the next decade and laid out specific goals on manufacturing, energy, education, national security. His plan includes creating one million new manufacturing jobs by the end of 2012, cutting the growth of college tuition in half over the next decade, recruiting 100,000 new teachers and investing in the economy with the money the government is no longer spending on war.

He touted what he's done in the last four years, including cutting taxes for the middle class and small businesses, reviving the auto industry, creating half a million manufacturing jobs, ending the war in Iraq and winding down the war in Afghanistan. And of course, killing Osama bin Laden. 

The president, who is in a tight race with Romney in national polls, joined Vice President Joe Biden in blasting his opponent as weak on foreign policy, an ally of Wall Street, and a man who wants to gut education, turn Medicare into a voucher system and eliminate health insurance for millions of Americans who are poor, disabled or elderly.  

He dinged Romney for not releasing concrete plans on how he'd fix America. At the RNC in Tampa, he said, GOPers were "more than happy to talk about everything they think is wrong with America, but they didn't have much to say about how they'd make it right. They want your vote but they don't want you to know their plan." 

The president argued that his plan, on the other hand, "may be harder, but it leads to a better place." He continued: "And I’m asking you to choose that future. I’m asking you to rally around a set of goals for your country—goals in manufacturing, energy, education, national security, and the deficit; a real, achievable plan that will lead to new jobs, more opportunity, and rebuild this economy on a stronger foundation. That’s what we can do in the next four years, and that is why I’m running for a second term as President of the United States.”

He ended his speech by reemphasizing that Americans have a choice.

"If you turn away now—if you buy into the cynicism that the change we fought for isn’t possible … well, change will not happen. If you give up on the idea that your voice can make a difference, then other voices will fill the void: lobbyists and special interests; the people with the $10 million checks who are trying to buy this election and those who are making it harder for you to vote; Washington politicians who want to decide who you can marry, or control health care choices that women should make for themselves."

"Only you can make sure that doesn’t happen. Only you have the power to move us forward."

Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts delivered a passionate and aggressive speech at the Democratic National Convention, railing against Mitt Romney's foreign policy.

The Republican presidential nominee "doesn't know much about foreign policy but has all these neo-con advisers who know all the wrong things about foreign policy," Kerry, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations committee, told the fired up crowd on Thursday night. "He would rely on them. After all, he's the great outsourcer. But I say to you, this is not the time to outsource the commander-in-chief."

Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, defended President Obama's record—noting that he banned torture, stopped the war in Iraq, is winding down the war in Afghanistan, and has killed Osama bin Laden. 

"Ask Osama bin Laden if he is better off now than he was four years ago," Kerry declared.

He also hip-checked Romney on global warming, referencing Romney's swipe last week at Obama's 2008 promise that he would slow the rise of the oceans. An exceptional country like America, Kerry said, "does care about the rise of the oceans and the future of the planet."  

Kerry ended his speech with some advice for Romney. "Before you debate Barack on foreign policy, you better finish the debate yourself," he said.

MSNBC host Ed Schultz declared the address "the best speech John Kerry has ever given." 

WATCH KERRY'S SPEECH ABOVE

The final night of the Democratic National Convention kicked off with former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords spiritedly reciting the Pledge of Allegiance to a captivated crowd in Charlotte, North Carolina.

She was accompanied by her friend, Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz of Florida.

The inspired crowd gave Giffords a sustained, standing ovation and chanted "Gabby! Gabby!" As she left the stage, Giffords blew kisses to the audience. 

The former Arizona lawmaker has made such an astonishing recovery since being shot in the head in January 2011 by disturbed gunman Jared Loughner that she can now speak clearly. The shooting spree left six dead and 13 injured.

WATCH THE EMOTIONAL VIDEO ABOVE

In a fiery and passionate speech at the Democratic National Convention on Thursday, Rep. John Lewis, an American civil rights hero who was beaten while fighting segregation, ripped the Republican voter suppression efforts that disproportionately affect minorities.

"Today, it is unbelievable that there are Republican officials trying to stop some people from voting," he said referring to GOP officials across the country who are pushing laws that would require all voters to produce a specific current government-issue photo ID before casting a ballot.

"I've seen this before, I've lived this before. Too many people struggling, suffering and dying to make it possible for every American to exercise their right to vote," the Georgia Republican said to a cheering audience.

"We have come too far together to ever turn back. So Democrats, we must not be silent. We must stand up, speak up and speak out. We must march to the polls like never, ever, before," he declared. 

After his speech, Lewis told MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell that Republicans were "trying to take us back to another period."  He added it would be an "affront" to all those who suffered and even died during the Civil Rights era if such voter suppression laws are enforced. 

When Mitchell asked if there was a connection that the disenfranchisement efforts are coinciding as the first African-American president seeks another term, Lewis responded, "It is a systematic, deliberate effort on the part of some forces in our country to win this election, or steal this election, before it takes place. I'm convinced of that. There's no such thing as widespread voter fraud in any part of our country." 

WATCH LEWIS'S PASSIONATE SPEECH ABOVE

Mitt Romney's numbers just don't add up.

The Republican presidential nominee is insisting he'll cut $7 trillion from the country's budget without adding to the deficit or hiking taxes on the middle class.  The Washington Post's Ezra Klein broke down the proposals within Romney's budget plan on MSNBC, declaring it simply looks "like a fantasy."

Romney has said he'll bring federal spending under 20% of the overall economy and cap it there by 2016. That amounts to a jaw-dropping $7 trillion in 10 years, Klein explained.

Meanwhile, the former Massachusetts governor has said he'll make the cuts without funneling cash from Medicare and Social Security. He also plans to increase defense spending by $1 trillion."It's like the Ryan budget on steroids," said Klein, referring to Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan's sweeping budget proposal, which calls for $5 trillion in cuts. 

But here's the thing: For Romney to make his proposed cuts, it means he'd have to cut every single federal program that's not Social Security, Medicare or defense by an average of 40% in 2016, said Klein.

That includes programs like Medicaid, education, NASA, veterans' benefits and transportation."There's no way he's going to cut all of that by 40%," said Klein.

So Romney, of course, could raise taxes to make the difference. The problem, however, is Romney wants to extend all the Bush tax cuts and slash marginal rates on top of that by another 20%. 

That would mean the top 1% of earners would get $150,000 off their taxes in 2016. The government would also lose almost $5 trillion in revenue over the next 10 years. On top of that, there would be a tax increase on the poorest Americans because the stimulus tax rates would expire, Klein explained. 

The non-partisan Tax Policy Center, Klein noted, also says Romney's plan is "not mathematically possible."

Klein explained Romney has three choices if he wants his plan to work. "He has to make the tax cuts smaller, raise taxes on the middle class to cover tax cuts for the rich, or he can add to the deficit."

Now you know.

Matt Rourke / AP

Reince Priebus worries that Republicans' years-long quest to retake the Senate could be upended by the "biologically stupid" Todd Akin.

The Republican National Committee chairman forcefully reiterated the GOP establishment's call for the Missouri Senate nominee—under fire for his recent comments on "legitimate rape"—to drop out of the race. 

"I think he should get out the race," Priebus told CNN's Candy Crowley on Sunday morning. "He's got to put the mission of liberty and freedom ahead of  himself."

When Crowley initially described Akin's recent remarks about rape and pregnancy, Priebus declared, "I  call it biologically stupid."

And when asked if Akin could cost Republicans the Senate, Priebus said: "Sure, absolutely."

Democrats hold a 53-47 advantage in the Senate, and since they have to defend far more seats this year than do Republicans, many analysts have predicted that Republicans have a strong chance of picking up the four seats they'd need to seize the upper chamber's majority. But without the pickup of a seat in increasingly red Missouri, where Democrat Claire McCaskill is quite vulnerable, Republicans would have a much tougher road to winning the Senate majority. And some analysts have suggested that Akin's comments could even "infect" other races across the country, to Democrats' advantage.

Recent polls show McCaskill crushing Akin. A Rasmussen Reports survey revealed that McCaskill leads Akin by 10 points. And one by the Mason-Dixon Polling & Research Inc., shows Akin behind McCaskill 17 points among independents. Back in July, independents favored the Republican congressman by 11 points over McCaskill.