Could Romney face a difficult general election?

>> schmidt will be back tonight. he is so smart.

>>> we're going to talk to democratic national chair, debbie was ser man schultz.

>>> when you look at the returns of what is happening tonight in nevada , debbie wasserman schultz of florida , in nevada there's a large lds vote but what i was struck by is that the christians are voting for romney heavily tonight which tells me that he has broken through what we thought was going to be a religious barrier there with the conservative christians .

>> well, that is certainly possible but with every passing contest, mitt romney just reveals a little bit more evidence of how dramatically out of touch he is with moderate and independent voters, voters that are focused on trying to make sure that the middle class and working families have an opportunity to be successful. you know, whether it's that he is saying that he would veto the dream act in iowa yet pull us back a little bit on states like florida and nevada where he said in florida that banks have feelings and feel similar pain to homeowners who are upside down in their mortgages and facing foreclosure. so for the entire contest, mitt romney has demonstrated how out of touch is he with regular folks.

>> congressman, let's talk about the biggest news of the week, not most important but the endorsement by donald trump . if you were told by donald trump 's people that he was planning to endorse president obama , that he just wanted to meet with them and shake his hand like he did in vegas, what would have been your reaction? donald trump comes to you and says i want to endorse him, what would you think?

>> it really makes more sense.

>> you do not want to answer this question, do you?

>> no. i'm happy to. my answer is that it would make more sense for him tone dors mitt romney because they both enjoy firing people and both have made millions doing it. so it was a con grew went endorsement.

>> so you would say, endorse the guy that you agree with?

>> as someone who has run for office myself for 19 years, you never turn down an endorsement, you know.

>> let's talk about nevada and all those states with budding population. we just got a marvelous display of the power, the growing power in my recent lifetime of the hispanic vote. it really is decisive. it's so decisive, this hispanic vote. and your state is on the list.

>> it's continuing to grow exponentially and that is a key decider when it comes to the outcome of the election. the overwhelming majority of the hispanic voters support democrats. they will support this president because when it comes to the issues that matter to the hispanic community, the his pan hispanic community really believes that in terms of family, educational opportunity is important. president obama has given more opportunity for higher education and making college loans more affordable. mitt romney believes we should just slash the budget and focus on balancing budget reduction on the backs of people who.

>> caller: least afford it. when it comes to medicare, mitt romney wants to end medicare as we know it and making sure that hispanic seniors have that safety net when they did it economically, incredibly important. the immigration reform , if you watch the debate, the republican primary ee especially mitt romney .

>> we're going to hear two phrases. there's the middle east peace process and the immigration issue. both parties say okay. we can find common ground here. people who have been in this country, nobody is that nutty. let's talk about the current waves of people who come into the country illegally and how we're going to register to come in and put them in some kind of formal conversation where they pay taxes and get benefits, legal treatment. just go to something rational. when are we going to go to a rational progressive?

>> when we get to republicans in congress that actually believe that we should work together instead of focusing on reclaiming the white house because the only -- the main reason that they will not work with us is that they don't want to see the president be successful and they wouldn't be able to achieve mitch mcconnell 's goal to defeat the president. when we get people who are really responsible on the republican side , willing to step down and work towards that compromise, then we'll be able to make some progress.

>> has cracked down on employers far more than during his presidency than president bush did. there's actually been more enforcement against employers hiring undocumented workers than both president bushes records on that. we need to make sure that we're not kicking people out of the country or suggesting a ludicrous suggestion like mitt romney made that has 11 million people self-deport.

>> that's not going to happen. i agree with that. let me ask -- and properly so. let me ask you about florida . it looks to me like very tough for the president this november, now i look at the last matchup numbers. the latest matchup numbers suggest leading romney, the front-runner right now, what's florida look like on his home state? what does it look like?

>> what it looks like is that our economy is slowly starting to improve. the consumer confidence is beginning to pick up. tourism has increased again. we've got struggling housing market but president obama has consistently demonstrated that he wants people to remain in their homes and when it comes to jobs and the economy and middle class tax breaks , all of the issues that are the number one priorities of floridians falls in president obama 's corner. president obama has been extreme on all of those issues and really focusing in terms of tax policy on people already doing well and making sure that they can do better. so it's going to be very competitive.

>> congresswoman, this is chuck todd .

>> hi, chuck.

>> it's two to five points lower than the national average in florida , depending on the poll that you look at. one thing consistent is it's always a couple points lower than the national average. the rick scott , republican dominance in 2010 , can you explain that away and somehow say okay you feel like the president is going to have the upper hand in florida or it's going to be competitive?

>> you know, i absolutely think it's going to be competitive. the rick scott election from what was basically a 2010 blowout, that was an anomaly and he was the least popular governor in the united states of america .

>> was it an anomaly because the democratic party was unpopular or an anomaly because --

>> a variety of things. many of those especially -- rick scott spent $70 million of his own money. the state party at the time, quite frankly, was not well organized. the candidates on our side struggled to put together the campaign. but still one of the closest elections.