We've had him as a remote guest before... but we've never had him on set! J. Hogan Gidley, Rick Santorum's National Communications Director, joined us today for one last look back at the sweater vest.

Gidley acknowledged that while it's too soon to look back at regrets, the snappy dresser did say that Santourm's sweater vest may have taken "the country backwards!"

Here's a last look at Santourm's 10-month campaign and the ascot behind the sweater vest himself - in the flesh. And it was our IMOD! (Intern Moment of the Day!)

President Obama yesterday spoke out against the House Republican budget proposed by Paul Ryan.

This afternoon, Mitt Romney responded saying Obama “railed against arguments no one is making and criticized policies no one is proposing…. setting up ‘strawmen’ to distract us from his record… I understand he doesn’t want to run on his record, but he can’t run from his record either.”

Obama campaign press secretary Ben LaBolt responding to Alex today that the President was certainly commenting about a real proposal - a proposal very similar to the one Romney is pushing. It’s got the same trillion dollar tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, the same policies from 2001-2003 that helped drive up the deficit and didn’t create jobs.

Will the economy be the main issue the candidates run on in the general election?

Rachel Maddow joined us today to discuss her new book "Drift."

With the war in Afghanistan now in its 11th year, the costs have been enormous: More than 1,800 U.S. soldiers have died, and taxpayers have spent more than $400 billion dollars on that battle alone. And yet where is the national conversation about war and why are we still in it?

In her book, Rachel argues that when you use Reservists -- everyday citizens --  to fight our wars, as we did decades ago, our appetite to tolerate war is minimized. But once we got to the point where wars were easier to wage for indefinite periods, Reservists and Guardsmen stopped feeling like citizens. We think of them now the way we used to think of active duty troops: their lives are dominated by wars, and civilian lives aren't affected anymore... except for tax cuts, which never used to happen during wartime. 

Bottom line: we are not connected enough to the men and women serving in our wars. We need an open, robust dialogue about our military.

Here here.

These are the lotto tickets bought by the "magicians and snake charmers" who work on this show. We lined up just like everybody else for our chance at a $640 million jackpot (as of now). So depending on how tonight's drawing goes... Monday could be a very different show.

Putting aside our dreams of yachts, champagne baths and world travel, the lottery sparked a smart discussion today about our society.

• In New York, households with a median income of $30,000 spend twice as much on lottery tickets than $50,000 income households.
• Despite a downward economy, lottery sales have been steadily on the rise since 2004
• Also in New York, 15% of State aid to school districts came from lottery revenue

So are the millions of Americans (us included) who are holding Mega Millions tickets today feeling lucky? Or just desperate?

"While the president is overseas I think it's appropriate that people not be critical of him or our country."
-Rep. John Boehner, (R-OH) House Speaker

Speaker Boehner this morning keeping himself above the political rhetoric after President Obama's hot mic incident in South Korea. The President was speaking to Russia's Dmitri Medvedev about a missile program and unaware of the microphones, said he would have more “flexibility” after the election.

Former Governor Mitt Romney immediately jumped on this and called President Obama's conversation with Medvedev “an alarming and troubling development.”

NOWist Jonathan Capehart said Boehner's above the fray comment show that "He's a statesman in an institution that lacks Statesmen."

Well put Jonathan. And well put Speaker Boehner.

"Race is an issue we can't afford to ignore... (there are) complexities of race in this country that we've never really worked through - a part of our union that we have not yet made perfect."
- Senator Barack Obama, March 2008

Four years later, President Obama is talking about the Trayvon Martin case. It's been one of the few moments race has come up for him as President. We asked our panel - does speaking about the Martin case show that he is moving the ball forward on the issue of race? 

Michael Eric Dyson says he's still playing defense.

I-MOD? iMod? However you spell it, that's what our interns have dubbed the NOW Intern Moment of the Day!

And today's IMOD is Newt "Zookeeper" Gingrich. You know he loves his animals, as we've documented here and here. So in light of yet another campaign stop ahead for him at a zoo... we asked our panel if this connects with anyone?

Our intern liked it because it got a good reaction from the panel... and she said "with Newt’s crusade becoming more irrelevant, I try to savor the little gems he comes up with before they go away!

I love life. I love getting up in the morning. I love seeing what the weather is going to be. I love animals. I love the process of interacting with people. I like learning. So I really am basically cheerful everyday because in my mind everyday is cool, I am still here.

Mitt Romney is confident today that he can win the nomination, even as he loses two key primary races.

This whole winning by losing thing is hard for most people to understand. Former Senior Adviser to President George W. Bush Mark McKinnon said that Mitt Romney looked nothing like a winner after last night's primary losses. 

"Last night was one big hot mess... and Mitt Romney was the Biggest Loser!... the chaos in his Republican party will lead to a stronger, 3rd party candidate in November."

Here's the full segment: What do you think? Is there still time or room for another contender here?

Americans are more likely to be struck by lightening than commit voter fraud. 

So why is there such a big push to pass tough voter identification laws? There are numerous bills out there on this issue. Critics say the laws would deter millions of Americans - particularly minorities - from voting.

Michael Waldman from the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU explains what these laws are - and why they are proving unnecessary, and unconstitutional.

When we invite Richard Engel and Martin Bashir on the show, we know we're going to have a fun show!

You know Alex enjoys the occasional clever introduction to our guests (The Sage of Capitol Hill's Luke Russert, The "Indubitable" Patricia Murphy). But today she got it back from Martin:

"Lady Alex Wagner"

And we don't even think he knows what a huge "Downton Abbey" fan she is!

Our interns take on the exchange: "It was fun and clever, and going off of what is always being said in our meetings ("Downton Abbey"), it was a nice connection. Who doesn’t love Martin and who doesn’t love Downton?”

Forget the math. Forget that Rick Santorum needs 60+% of the remaining delegates to get to 1,144. Rick Santorum and his campaign are still out talking about his chances in November.

J. Hogan Gidley, Santorum National Communications Director, told "NOW" today that his candidate is Mitt Romney's worst nightmare:

JOHN HARWOOD: I thought he wants to talk about his pro-growth economic tax cut plan and his job creation record at Bain Capital?

GIDLEY: You know and I know he’s a moderate and that’s what he wants to talk about – he wants to tack back to the middle and show his true colors and take off that sheep’s clothing and show the moderate wolf he is underneath and just keep moving forward from there.

ALEX & PANEL: Moderate wolf??!!  Moderate wolf??!! Moderate wolf??!!

GIDLEY:  The problem is he can’t win conservatives. And he knows that. And he knows Rick Santorum is the stumbling block for him there because at the end of the day his worst nightmare is going against Rick Santorum one-on-one.

The "Moderate Wolf" line is also, incidentally, our "NOW" Intern Moment of the Day. Our intern liked it because "it caused a stir on the panel and in the control room... trying to make Romney sound menacing but moderate."

We think this Moderate Wolf's worst nightmare is actually Santorum and Newt Gingrich together prolonging this long, slow crawl to the Republican National Convention in August.

We're back with the "NOW" Intern Moment of the Day -- and today's winner is Politico's Maggie Haberman. Or rather her Tweet is.

We talked to our panel about the role of the candidates' wives. And as the primary stretches on, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum seem to be stumbling more and more, which -- according to our interns -- makes the role of the GOP wives that much more important. If these women can’t humanize their husbands and their comments, who else can?

Here's the full segment: