This Week Roundtable: State of the Race

This Week Roundtable: Debate Showdown

Mitt Romney Contradicts Own Campaign, Acknowledges Individual Mandate "Is a Tax"

Romney: Individual mandate "is a tax"

Related: The Daily Rundown: Interview with Romney Senior Adviser Eric Fehrnstrom

Politico's Maggie Haberman ( @maggiepolitico ) tweets:

Romney cleanup on Fehrnstrom reiterates Boston concern about the base, will raise q's about why Obamacare diff than Masscare, and...

...is unusual departure from where his longtime senior adviser was on something publicly

BuzzFeed's Andrew Kaczynski ( ‏@BuzzFeedAndrew ) notes:

In admitting the individual mandate is a tax, Romney admits he raised taxes in Massachusetts.

Caroline Horn of CBS News tweets:

Obama spox on Romney saying "it's a tax": "He threw his top aide Eric Fehrnstrom under the bus by changing his campaign's position."

UPDATE: Wall Street Journal reporter Sara Murray tweets:

"Of course, if that's what they say it is." Romney's ropeline response when @DanaBashCNN asks if health care penalty is a tax per SCOTUS.

Politico's Alex Burns ( @aburnspolitico ) observes:

Romney's position would be tougher to sustain if the WH weren't engaged in its own set of acrobatics on whether the mandate's a tax

Or if, say, the president were delivering a detailed, consistent message on health care that would engage Romney in a fact-based debate

AP: 'Obamacare's a tax,' Romney says, while maintaining the health care mandate he established in Mass. is not: http://apne.ws/NA7gsm

Neil King of the Wall Street Journal tweets:

So if it's a tax, can Romney still say he didn't raise taxes as Mass governor? Romneycare garnered $20 million in taxes last year.

Wall Street Journal: Romney's Tax Confusion: The candidate's response on the ObamaCare mandate reveals larger campaign problems.

The Boston Globe's Matt Viser: WSJ hits Romneys “insular staff” & “lame jujitsu spin.” Adds it “looks confused in addition to being politically dumb”

WSJ: “For the sake of not abandoning his faulty healthcare legacy in MA, Romney is jeopardizing chance @ becoming Pres”

Politico's Ben White: Wow. WSJ edit page rips Romney over shifting stance on Obamacare tax/non-tax

WSJ: "tragedy is that for .. sake of not abandoning his faulty health-care legacy in Mass ... Romney is jeopardizing .. chance at [winning]

More from WSJ bazooka editorial: "[T]he [Romney] campaign looks confused in addition to being politically dumb."

beating the horse here, but that WSJ edit is a ballistic missile aimed right at boston and it captures lot of c-suite anger

Roger Simon: Romney shakes the Etch A Sketch and decides health care mandate is a tax.

First Murdoch attacks Mitt & then the WSJ attacks him. Next: Somebody will bug his jet ski.

Jim Manley: As a general rule, The wsj editorial writers are unusually skilled prevaricators, but damn, the piece on the romney campaign is BRUTAL

Zeke Miller: WSJ ed: " the rich man obliged by vacationing this week at his lake-side home with a jet-ski cameo."

WSJ: Romney promised Republicans he was the best man to make the case against President Obama...So far Mr. Romney is letting them down.

OUCH: WSJ on Romney: " the campaign looks confused in addition to being politically dumb."

WSJ ed board says @ericfehrn's MSNBC interview may be a turning point in this campaign. I think this editorial might be a bigger one...

Meet the Press Roundtable

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Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Giuliani on Gay Marriage Law: 'Very Glad to See Burden of Discrimination Lifted'; Credits Cuomo for Showing 'A Lot of Leadership'

(NBC VIDEO) Giuliani: Gay Marriage Law Relieves Burden of Discrimination

Celeste Katz of the New York Daily News reports:

Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani hasn't changed his stance on same-sex marriage, but says he's glad for those who no longer feel like the targets of discrimination.

"My thoughts are that I'm glad that people who felt discriminated against have sort of had that burden of discrimination lifted. I signed the first civil-union, domestic partnership bill I think in the country. Maybe it was the second. And I still take a lot of criticism for that," said 2008 GOP presidential hopeful Giuliani at Joe Torre's Safe at Home Foundation golf outing at Trump National Golf Club in Briarcliff Manor. 

"I still state that marriage is being defined between a man and a woman, but I can truly understand what people are striving for. And as someone who signed civil unions and domestic partnerships, that's probably my preference," Giuliani said, according to our Peter Botte.

"But I was very glad to see people relieved of this burden of discrimination, which is a terrible thing to feel... 

"And I think Gov. Cuomo deserves a lot of credit. Even if you don't agree with the result, it showed a lot of leadership to execute the result. For the first time in a long time, we're seeing leadership at the gubernatorial level in New York, including expenses and a lot of systematic control of government and I think that's a good sign for a lot of other things the governor can do."

In other Rudy-related news...

POLITICO's Maggie Haberman reports:

Rudy Giuliani is set to return to New Hampshire on July 14 for a two-day visit, sources confirmed. 

The trip, first reported by New Hampshire scoop machine James Pindell, will include a speech to a luncheon hosted by the Seacoast Republican Women, as well as a string of other private meetings. 

It will be Giuliani's sixth Granite State trip since his 2008 run, and falls as he's debating his future in the 2012 cycle, with a loose, self-set deadline of end of summer for making a decision.

BREAKING: Mitch Daniels Not Running for President

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels sent out the following midnight e-mail to supporters:

POLITICO's Maggie Haberman reports:

"The following is from Governor Mitch Daniels…." the email began. 

“I hope this reaches you before the public news does," Daniels wrote. "If so, please respect my confidence for the short time until I can make it known to all. 

"The counsel and encouragement I received from important citizens like you caused me to think very deeply about becoming a national candidate. In the end, I was able to resolve every competing consideration but one, but that, the interests and wishes of my family, is the most important consideration of all. If I have disappointed you, I will always be sorry," he added. "If you feel that this was a non-courageous or unpatriotic decision, I understand and will not attempt to persuade you otherwise. I only hope that you will accept my sincerity in the judgment I reached." 

"Many thanks for your help and input during this period of reflection. Please stay in touch if you see ways in which an obscure Midwestern governor might make a constructive contribution to the rebuilding of our economy and our Republic.”

Mary Beth Schneider of the Indianapolis Star:

Gov. Mitch Daniels and many Republicans think he could have been the next president of the United States — but he will not run, saying his wife and daughters vetoed that choice.

Schneider also sends out the following tweets:

Daniels tells The Star: "I love my country. I love my family more." 

Daniels tells Indy Star exclusively that his "family constitution gives a veto to the women's caucus and there is no override provision."

Rudy Giuliani Praises President Obama's 'Courage' for Going After Bin Laden in Pakistan

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ESPN RADIO: Rudy Giuliani shares his thoughts on Osama bin Laden's death with Michael Kay

Rudy Giuliani praises Barack Obama on mission that killed Osama bin Laden
By Maggie Haberman, POLITICO

Rudy Giuliani praised President Obama's "courage" for the risky method he chose to take down Osama bin Laden, adding his death is a "significant step" in the war on terror - but saying the tones of jubilation feel strange to him. 

"I feel a great deal of satisfaction that justice has been done, and I admire the courage of the president to make a decision like this because if something had gone wrong everyone would be blaming him," Giuliani told POLITICO Monday morning in his first comments since the capture.  

"And I admire the courage and professionalism of our military intelligence officials who carried this out and this is a great victory against terror. Nobody can minimize it. He was a symbol more than anything else right now but ... symbols are really important." 

Calling it a "significant step," he added: "I feel satisfaction and some emotional relief, but I don't feel great elation. I watch a lot of the celebrating and it makes me feel a little strange, I don't know. Nothing erases the loss of all those lives. ... so I feel satisfaction and I feel the right thing has been done. and I guess it will good thing ultimately but I don't feel like celebrating [as if it's] the end of World War II, because the war is still going on." 

"My immediate reaction [was] ... I hope they caught him. Once I found out he was dead I probably thought that's probably better we don't have to go through three or four years of a trial ... and I felt that it shows the determiniation of our military. I'm sure there are people who havent rested a day since that happened." 

He also said former President George W. Bush "deserves tremendous credit. This was only accomplished because we have developed a tremendous apparatus in Afghanistan and Pakistan. This is the accumulation of years and years of effort. 

"I do think it's a sense of relief that he's gone both from the normal human desire for justice, [and] in the long run this will be very helpful to us in defeating Islamic terrorism. ...In the long run this is a much bigger step than people realize."

FLASHBACK: The Charlie Rose Show
August 1, 2007

CHARLIE ROSE: Barack Obama said a very interesting thing today in pursuit of Osama Bin Laden. He said the following, if, in fact -- he's in favor of withdrawing all the troops from Iraq, as you know. If in fact, there was in Pakistan a realistic evidence of Osama Bin Laden, a hot target and Musharraf was not prepared go after him, he, as President, would be prepared to go into Pakistan to get him, regardless of what Musharraf did. Would you do that? That's a tough stand against terrorism.  Which you have defined as the number one issue as President. 

RUDY GIULIANI: As I have said many, many times, we should redouble and triple our efforts to crush the Taliban and al-Qaeda.

ROSE: Even if meant going into Pakistan, which is an ally despite the objections of Musharraf. 

GIULIANI: I certainly would not take that option off the table. You would have to judge that given the circumstances that were presented to you, hey, these things are all to be called on. Is the intelligence correct? Can you actually get him? Are you going to be successful? Will America look foolish because it will make a mistake? There are so many questions that have to be resolved. But if what you're asking me is, would that be an option that's on the table, which is we have a chance to catch bin Laden and we got to do it ourselves because we're not sure if somebody is going to do it correctly, yeah, I think I would take that option.