Mitt Romney's new welfare ad incorrectly claims that Obama is breaking with Clinton's welfare reform philosophy. According to MSNBC contributor Jonathan Alter, it's all part of an attempt to distance Obama from the former president.

"He's trying to drive a wedge between Clinton and Obama, to say to a certain kind of voter who liked Clinton that Clinton wasn't the type of liberal that Obama is," Alter said. The problem for Romney, he suggested, is that there's no difference between Clinton and Obama on this issue. "[The administration is] not doing anything to weaken the work requirement, much less gut welfare requirement."

It is not the first time Romney has set up Clinton as the kind of Democratic president he likes, one far less extreme than Obama. A Romney ad criticizes Obama for not having visited Israel, in contrast to Clinton. The problem was that George W. Bush didn't visit Israel in his first term, either.

Additionally, in May, Romney suggested that Obama has created more government programs than Clinton did, and is more fond of government generally. In fact, government spending has plummeted during the Obama administration.

Pennsylvania's new voter ID laws will face a challenge Wednesday in the state courts led by civil rights groups. The Justice Department on Monday launched an investigation into the laws, which make it more difficult for 758,000 mostly lower-income residents to get to the polls. The plaintiff in the state case is Viviette Applewhite, a 93-year-old woman whose ID was in her purse when it was recently stolen.

The attorneys defending Pennsylvania's laws admit that there have been no investigations or prosecutions of in-person voter fraud in the state. Furthermore, as guest host Michael Eric Dyson argued on Tuesday's The Ed Show, they do not know of any such investigation or prosecutions in other states.

"If you look at how poll taxes were used, they were used as obstacles to prevent poor voters from being able to participate," said Hilary Shelton, head of the Washington chapter of the NAACP. "Now you're paying a price—a dollar figure—to participate in the electoral process. It is indeed a poll tax."

The voter ID laws in 11 that have been enacted since 2010 are the biggest assault on voter rights since the 1965 Civil Right Act, said commentator E.J. Dionne. "You're talking about the full monty of voter suppression," he said. 

Sen. Bernie Sanders said Tuesday night that the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United ruling allows the wealthiest Americans to essentially buy democracy.

"With the Citizens United decision, the Supreme Court said to all these billionaires, 'Go for it!'" said Sanders, a Vermont Independent, during an appearance on The Ed Show. "You're tired of buying coal companies and gambling casinos; you know what you can buy now? You can buy the United States government."

Terms like 'plutocracy' and 'oligarchy' are inflammatory but they are "exactly what is happening right now," he said. "You can own the United States government, you can own various states, you can own county commissioners, you can own governors—pretty good deal."

Sanders said that to counter the Citizens United ruling, he plans to help pass the DISCLOSE Act, originally introduced by Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and later modified by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI). The act would require full political contribution disclosure, and mandate that the individuals sponsoring political ads state their support within the ads themselves.

Just days after President Obama inaugurated his new immigration policy, "there is a new normal when it comes to talking about immigration," said Jose Antonio Vargas. "There is a notable shift in the way our country and our politicians are talking about it," he said on Tuesday's episode of The Ed Show. "And I welcome that."

A whole generation "now thinks the Republican Party is synonymous with being the anti-immigrant party," said Vargas, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who outed himself as an illegal immigrant last year. "That's a lasting impression."

The GOP has struggled to forge a coherent response to Obama's move, with Mitt Romney dodging questions about whether he would repeal the executive order. A Bloomberg poll from Tuesday showed that nearly two-thirds of Americans, including two-thirds of independents, support Obama's new policy. Nearly half of Latinos now say they support the president more strongly because of the decision.

Mike Ertel, elections supervisor for Seminole County, Florida, said on Tuesday night that the Republican-spawned drive to purge 180,000 individuals from the state's list of eligible voters is flawed. "I'm willing to say the system that was put in place is not timed in the most efficient fashion to build voters' confidence," Erdle said, speaking on The Ed Show. "I think the list [of purged voters] should have been vetted quite a bit more before they were given to us."

Directed mostly at Latinos, African-Americans and young voters— precisely the individuals most likely to vote Democratic— the Republican Governor Rick Scott's decision to purge voters by demanding they prove their citizenship has become a national scandal. A 91-year-old World War II veteran was among those sent a letter informing him that he needed to appear at a hearing if he wanted to be able to vote.

Maureen Russo, a 40-year-old registered Florida voter joined The Last Word Tuesday to talk about receiving a letter from a Broward County election supervisor, asking her to prove her citizenship. She opted to send a copy of her passport instead of attending a hearing. Two weeks later, despite receiving a telephone call from the election supervisor, she still feels insecure about being able to cast her ballot in November.

"The problem with this kind of massive purge. When you do something like this, this close to the election, and you do it in secret, and you do it without double checking, there is no choice but to have errors, to have legitimate people kicked off the rolls," said Michael Waldman, Brennan Center for Justice President, speaking on The Rachel Maddow Show.

According to Waldman, the Justice Department needs to get involved by invoking the Voting Rights Act. "Already, the state of Florida just recently said, 'Hmm, maybe we ought to double-check this before we start purging people.' So, the more people yell, the more of an impact it will have."

"The governor should stop this process immediately... this is a purely political ploy," Rep. Ted Deutch said to MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell. Deutch, who represents Florida's 19th district, adds: "In Dade County, with the largest number of voters who have received this notice, there are people who, by failing to respond, are having their voting status wiped."

Tuesday night on The Ed Show, conservative syndicated talk show host Michael Medved claimed that no prominent Republicans have argued that President Barack Obama might not be a citizen. According to Medved, only "fringe Republicans" ever partook in birther-ism. In fact,  the list of Republican officials and bigwigs who questioned Obama's nation of birth include Reagan administration official Alan Keyes, 2008 vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, as well as several GOP state Senators and Representatives. And, of course, onetime GOP candidate Donald Trump has been around stirring up spurious claims about the president's origins.

It was not the only falsehood Medved peddled in his segment on The Ed Show. According to Medved, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney rejected Trump's claims that President Obama was not born in the United States. "He does," Medved said, in response to host Ed Schultz's query about why Romney hasn't criticized Trump's birther-ism. In fact, questioned by reporters about Trump's lies, Romney has said only, "You know, I don't agree with all the people who support me and my guess is they don't all agree with everything I believe in. But I need to get 50.1 percent or more and I'm appreciative to have the help of a lot of good people."

In September, Romney met with Trump to "kiss his proverbial ring," as the New York Times put it. While Romney has said he knows that Obama was born in the United States, he has not only failed to repudiate Trump, he appeared at a fundraiser with The Donald on Tuesday night, in Las Vegas.

Indeed, it was highly symbolic that Romney met with Trump the very night he clinched the Republican nomination, with a big primary victory in Texas.