Wall Street dumps Obama for new love Romney

>> we begin with mitt romney , candidate of the common day trader as he shores up his key constituency big business fat cats and wall street financiers. in just a couple of hours, he will be courting a finance reception in cincinnati. this after his midday business roundtable in washington. look at that, romney 's base, a bunch of well fed men in suits feeding at the trough. romney began his remarks with a rare statement involving some elements of truth.

>> this is a critical time for the country and i think a choice is before us as to what kind of america we're going to live in. i think this election is a watershed election which will determine the relationship between citizen and enterprise. and government.

>> citizen and enterprise and government. yes, very well said. unfortunately though, though he was in town, jpmorgan chief jamie dimon could not attend the roundtable. no, he was too busy testifying before the senate banking committee part of an investigation into his company's recent $2 billion loss. and i guess that hearing that hearing on the catastrophic trading screwup is not the best of op i think its for mitt romney who states his financial strategy on less wall street regulation as he made clear today.

>> i will halt all the obama era regulations and put in place a policy that no agency of government can add regulations without removing equal and opposite regulations.

>> say good-bye to clean water i guess. he then took questions but only after the national media was kicked out of the room.

>> the governor is going to remain here while we say good-bye to our friends from the press. good-bye.

>> do you remember when romney said he only wanted to discuss wealth disparity in quiet rooms? that's what he means. yes, he doesn't quite warm up to the media like the president who is spoke out on wall street and mr. dimon quite succinctly last month with the ladies of the view."

>> jpmorgan is one of the best managed banks there is, jamie dimon the head is one of the smartest backers we've got. they still lost $2 billion and counting. this is why we passed wall street reform. the whole point was even if you're smart, you can make mistakes.

>> yes. anyone can make mistakes. even absurd ones which mitt romney continues to prove as with his remarks on public payrolls on tuesday.

>> well, that's a very strange accusation. of course, teachers and firemen and policemen are hired at the local level and also by states. the federal government doesn't pay for teachers, firefighters or policemen. so obviously, that's completely absurd.

>> now, listen, he was only off by billions of dollars. 11% of the country's public school costs thousands of police jobs and millions in federal emergency grants all paid for by the federal government . but anyone can make a mistake. you know what, wall street can relate, mitt you are their man and they've shown it to the tune of 37 million wall street dollars to the president's $4.8 million. that doesn't even count the $10 million check just shelled out by ca sin notes magnate sheldon adelson to the leading pro- romney super pac . i'm sure that doesn't come with any strings attached. let's bring in our political panel now. ken vogel, reporter for politico. and " washington post " columnist dana milbank and msnbc contributor joy reed, the managing editor of the grio.com. ken, the excellence of your reporting is before us once again with you pointing out wall street has dumped its love affair with the president and fallen for mitt romney . so the seven-year itch is reduced to just three. i guess they've forgotten that many freewheeling lack of regulation brought the country to its knees.

>> well, it's not just the regulation which of course has increased under the obama administration in the form of dodd -frank overhaul but it's also the president's plan to raise taxes on the wealthy and fear among wall street types particularly hedge funders he'll do away with this so-called carried interest provision that allowed mitt romney to continue to profit from his holdings in boyne capital and pay a relatively low tax rate on it. additionally, the president has engaged in a lot of aggressive rhetoric towards wall street targeting it. wall street fat cats . we've heard that a lot from the president and his campaign. wall streeters are not happy about that and they do, like you said, see one of their own in mitt romney , someone who will do away with some of the regulations in dodd -frank as he said who will oppose increased taxes on the wealthy and so it makes sense for them to back him.

>> indeed. dana, sheldon adelson is placing his $10,000 bet with mitt romney now, the biggest ever made to romney 's super pac . he won't be demanding any kind of influence over the arab/israeli conflict just like karl rove won't influence any policies despite his heading a $100 million super pac , is that right?

>> of course not, martin. what's an extras $10 million here or there.

>> right.

>> he gave a larger sum to newt gingrich in opposition to mitt romney . he's still got a deficit of $10 million or so to make up. i doubt that this is the last we'll hear from him. that's the reality of this obscene campaign fund-raising cycle that you know you can go out and raise 2500 bucks for your candidacy or some guy who's with a wink and nod can give $10 million.

>> it's great. joy ann, the other thing that happened was that romney decided that he was going to take some questions at the business roundtable . but he kicked the press out. now, he's delayed filing his tax returns . he doesn't like to disclose his own financial details. this man has a problem with transparency, doesn't he? he's running for president. why doesn't he take a few questions.

>> quiet rooms is, martin. it's very important. mitt romney partly he doesn't want to make any mistakes. this is a very careful campaign. because it tends to happen when he tries to ad lib . it doesn't go well. i think part of the reason is he wants to be able to talk openly with business leaders and wealthy individuals who he wants to give him money about what he would do, none of which will be good for his campaign for people he wants to win over in the election.

>> to joy's point, wasn't that what he did at that palm beach fund-raiser where i was caught by garrett haake talking about what he would do like close the department of education and department of commerce . he never says that publicly. he knows if he starts doing that, that isn't going to be very impressive to the voter.

>> you've got to be really careful these days on the campaign trail.

>> careful about telling the truth, ken? careful about telling the truth.

>> how you target your message.

>> telling truth, is that a problem, ken?

>> it's framing.

>> framing?

>> what he said there is not entirely different from what he said on the campaign trail. he's a little more blunt and more candid. you expect that with your supporters. however, this expectation that what you say in private will not make its way into public i think is pretty much out the window at this point. and you express your sort of private candid thoughts to your donors or your supporters at your peril as president obama saw in 2008 when he talked about these voters clinging to their guns and religion. that hurt him.

>> that went a policy. however, let me go to dana for a moment. we know only romney likes to talk about wealth disparity in quiet rooms. today he was talking about the wealthy moving their money offshore.

>> i want to see lower tax rates . it makes no sense we have the highest corporate tax rate in the world. i know what that will do. i've been in business. slowly but surely enterprises will move to places that have lower taxes or you'll recognize your income in places that have lower taxes.

>> like he has, swiss bank accounts , isn't that he's done?

>> the government is forcing him to move his money to grand cayman and to switzerland. don't make them force me to put my money in a swiss bank account . but look, i mean he's got that the certain record build up here. this is how he's going to overcome it. i was at the jamie dimon hearing this morning. a lot of that was the same. they're all basically saying aren't these dodd -frank regulations going to drive business overseas. even jamie dimon was saying not really in our case.

>> you joy reid, ken vogel,