. . that's it for this hour. our coverage from tampa continues. good evening and welcome to the hottest spot in tampa, the cnn grill, which is absolutely bobs. no big animals in these two. john king and gloria borger. mitt romney's amazing moment under the tears, the balloons, the speech in his life. how did he do? we are going to find out. a candidate talking about his faith, his family and laying out his case against president

obama. i wish president obama had succeeded, because i want america to succeed. but his promises gave way to disappointment and division. this isn't something we have to accept. now is the moment when we can do something and with your help, we will do something. now is the moment where we can stand up and say, i'm an american. i make my dissteny. we deserve better. my children deserve better. my family deserves better. my country deserves better. >> mitt romney's big speech the moment everyone is talking about is the legend clint eastwood

talking to of all things, an empty chair. >> what do you want me to tell romney? i can't tell him to do that. can't do that to himself. you are absolutely crazy. you are getting as bad as biden. >> if you are wondering where clint eastwood got that crazy idea, it all looked a bit familiar to me. from piers morgan tonight. so if you want someone to blame, blame me. here now to talk about it, my colleagues, john king and glor gentleman borger. in honor of clint eastwood, we have an empty chair of our own. what a night. my goodness. >> i am not going to talk to that empty chair. i'm going to talk to you. >> we'll come to mitt romney in

a moment. to me, what most people in there are talking about was clint eastwood. didn't self-implode, wasn't hilarious comedy. >> i think the fact that we are talking about it on mitt romney's big night tells you it was a distraction. inside the hall, a lot of people thought it was quite funny. if you are liking at home, if you don't like barack obama, you probably thought it was funny and scathing. if you loved the president, you probably found it very disrespectful including at the end, if somebody doesn't do the job, you let him go and he used the hand gesture like that. you probably found that offensive and disrespect tiff. this is supposed to be a night about the sliver of people that are undecided. can mitt romney win them over? it is a questionable call on your biggest hour on your biggest night of something that was strange. >> he was supposed to speak for five minutes. he went on for at least 12 minutes. he was ad libbing. it was obvious. >> have you ever had a crazy uncle or that kind of thing? >> wolf said earlier, he found

it embarrassing. did you find it embarrassing? >> i did. i think it was rambling and i think it was a real mistake by the romney campaign. i don't understand how they could really let that happen. you can't exactly give him the hook when he is on the stage. you have to set parameters. it put them behind schedule. i don't think it will appeal to women. they spent this whole convention talking about women. i don't think this would work with women. i think it struck a really bad note. i guarantee you that the candidate, himself, probably wasn't pleased. >> the romney family were a little bit stony-faced. there will be headlines about it. one about the victory for him. let's turn to mitt romney's speech quickly. success, how do you rate it? >> it is a very close race. success is in the eye of the beholder. what is mitt romney's biggest challenge? to convince people president obama has had his chance and

failed. i think that governor romney made a very sustained case against that. if you are a supporter of the president, you won't buy that case. if you are an undecided voter, maybe an obama voter who is not quite so sure, mitt romney probably made a convincing case. at least listen to me starting tonight and through the presidential debates. he didn't say anything new, anything any republican wouldn't say about cutting taxes and cutting regulations. did he convince people that he has the new plan to create jobs? i'm not so sure about that. did he make a pretty good case that barack obama came to office with lofty rhetoric and huge promises? yes. >> i enjoyed his speech. i thought it was about as good as mitt romney to make a speech. >> that's a backhanded compliment. he was trying to tell his story, which as before we talked about before, he hasn't really done. he was really trying to walk this fine line. he wanted to convince republicans, get out there and vote for me but also these

persuadable voters who voted for barack obama in 2008, they are very focused on those people. so he had to say to them more in sorrow than in anger, i'm sorry the president didn't succeed but he didn't succeed. so you will have to give me a shot. >> john, certainly a great talking point. the start of the campaign. i can't get enough of this conversation with that empty chair. here is a little bit more of it while i go over to someone from the romney camp. enjoy this. >> we were against the war in iraq. that's okay but you thought the war in afghanistan was okay. you thought that was something that was worth doing. we didn't check with the russians to see how they did theirs for the ten years. but we did it. and it was -- it is something to

be thought about. how are you? dale just got here from the romney campground. we are in a bar. nobody cares. you are one of mr. romney's key people. be honest, when you were watching clint eastwood doing his thing, were you gulping for air, were you thinking what the hell is dirty harry? >> clint eastwood is clint eastwood. he did do some improving to make a serious point that 23 million americans are out of work and it is a very big deal and time for a change. >> you must have been a bit queasy. he was supposed to speak for five minutes. he ad libbed for another seven. at one point, you have dirty harry talking to an empty chair. >> he ad libbed but he was making a very serious point. the crowd loved it. you can't look at clint eastwood, an american icon. you can't look at him through the same political lens you would other politicians.

he is clint eastwood. >> if you wake up tomorrow and the headlines are, clint eastwood goes bonkers. >> they won't be, because mitt romney had a killer speech. he did three things that were very important for him to do. he talked about his positive vision for the future and where he wants to take this country. he suck sisfully and very effectively prosecuted the case against barack obama and finally, he talk td about what's important to him. that's what americans want to hear. we have td obligations to talk about the big differences between our campaign and what president obama has done. when you look at what mitt romney wants to do, he wants to have a sfrotronger middle class with more jobs and take-home pay compared to what this president has done with 23 americans trying to find work. >> i rather enjoyed the speech. i have seen twitter a bit split. i thought he did a solid job. it is more the beginning than the end now. we are now into the real.

>> we are. there are about 70 days left. where we will go from tampa is to the targeted states. we will take the same message, continue to contrast governor romney's positive vision with the track that president obama has. americans are not happy with the way this president has run the country. they think he is lacking leadership. we are going to continue to show that mitt romney and paul ryan are going to bring more jobs, higher take-home pay and we are going to get federal spending finally under control. >> finally, one word answer. who made the better speech, mitt or ann romney? >> mitt. >> i don't think you mean that. >> she was wonderful. >> a good night for you and the romney campaign. nice to see you. we will be back right after this break. >> a lot of conservative people, modern, republican people, republicans and democrats in

hollywood. in fact, there are some around town. i saw jon voight, a lot of people around here in town, jon is here, academy award winner, terrific guy. ♪ (train horn) vo: wherever our trains go, the economy comes to life. norfolk southern. one line, infinite possibilities. energy is being produced to power our lives. while energy development comes with some risk, north america's natural gas producers are committed to safely and responsibly providing generations of cleaner-burning energy for our country, drilling thousands of feet below fresh water sources within self-contained well systems. and, using state-of-the-art monitoring technologies, rigorous practices help ensure our operations

are safe and clean for our communities and the environment. we're america's natural gas. that's a good thing, but it doesn't cover everything. only about 80% of your part b medical expenses. the rest is up to you. so consider an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. like all standardized medicare supplement plans, they help save you up to thousands in out-of-pocket costs. call today to request a free decision guide. with these types of plans, you'll be able to visit any doctor or hospital that accepts medicare patients... plus, there are no networks, and you'll never need a referral to see a specialist.

join the millions who have already enrolled in the only medicare supplement insurance plans endorsed by aarp... and provided by unitedhealthcare insurance company, which has over 30 years of experience behind it. with all the good years ahead, look for the experience and commitment to go the distance with you. call now to request your free decision guide.

welcome to cnn. i've been joined by mary. did mitt romney do it for you with women? has he resonated with america's women? >> the whole convention has been resonating with the women of america. what i loved the most was when he talked about his mother and his mother running for office and how much that meant to him. i thought that was great. >> also, very moving. i have interviewed ann a few times. she is an incredibly impressive

woman. >> i loved the way they talked about women. women should be whatever they want to be. if a woman wants to be the mother of five kids, great. if she wants to be a lawyer, great. if she wants to do everything, a member of congress and raise her kids, that's great too. >> if a woman wants to have an abortion, mitt romney doesn't want her to have one. >> mitt is not as strict as the platform. mitt's goal is a noble goal. we can agree, whether you are pro choice, like i am or prolife, like mitt. we should find a way to reduce the number of abortions. >> overall, happy with the speech? >> yes, very, very happy with the speech. >> mary, happy to see you. >> probably the best man who is here in tampa to discuss clint eastwood's crazy speech, no other word for it, jon voight, oscar winner. you know clint eastwood well. >> not well enough. >> what did you make of what happened tonight? >> i think it depends on which side you are on in all of this.

people are going to try to find negatives if you are on the left. you are going to try to find negatives. if you are on the conservative side, you are going to enjoy all the things as they were intended. for me, it was a tremendous thing for him to show up. he is a guy that doesn't do a lot of public speaking. he is kind of a shy fellow. he showed up. it was a tremendous thing. for the people that love clint like i got some texts, clint is the man from some young guys i know. >> i got a few texts and a few tweets of people saying, what on earth is clint eastwood up to? he has gone completely crackers. >> well, it was very entertaining for the people that were there and there were some very good jokes and jokes that are the clint eastwood, that kind of edge he had in dirty harry. a lot of people wouldn't find it funny when he said make my day either. it became a signature performance and a signature moment in all of film. that was what it was like up

there. only clint could do what he did. >> apparently, five minutes of that was scripted. the other seven minutes were ad lib. pretty dangerous to do that, isn't it? >> i say, bravo, man. that's the greatest. >> something dirty harry would do. >> it is a lot of fun. he is really going for it. >> how did you think mitt romney did tonight? >> i think it was wonderful tonight. as i say, it is always this way. the people on the left are going to try to find some holes in it i think he was very clear. i think it was an elegant speech. i think it covered what needed to be covered. it crescendoed at the end in a very beautiful way. from my standpoint and all the history that people have seen tonight through this evening, you see this man is tremendously compassionate. he is a leader. he is a person who has the

values in place. it was very moving, this love story with he and ann is very touching. he takes charge and gets people to be at their best. i think that showed tonight. the speech was very clear, very nicely delivered. it was -- he was very presidential. >> he now has about 70 days left until the big election. what is he going to do now? >> well, he is going to go back and do the work that he needs to do in the next big moment. of course, they are all big moments, piers, because all eyes are upon this, every step. the next big moments will be in the debates. >> jon voight, great to see you. standing up with clint eastwood. i would expect nothing less from a great hollywood legend. i will be right back with more debate about what has been a sensational night here at the gop convention.

it's time to live wider awake. only the beautyrest recharge sleep system combines the comfort of aircool memory foam layered on top of beautyrest pocketed coils to promote proper sleeping posture all night long. the revolutionary recharge sleep system... from beautyrest. it's you, fully charged.

hope and change had a powerful appeal but tonight i'd ask a simple question. if you felt that excitement when you voted for barack obama, shouldn't you feel that way now that he's president obama? you know there's something wrong with the kind of job he's done as president when the best feeling you had was the day you voted for him. >> mitt romney taking a shot at president obama. i want to bring in someone from the other side, debbie wasserman schultz. she is a democratic national committee chair. debbie, welcome to the cnn grill. >> thank you. >> the most testing and incentive, to put it mildly. let's talk about mitt romney's speech. i thought, to be fair, it's a pretty good, solid speech. what did you think? >> well, i think the fact that the most commentary following mitt romney's speech is about an

empty chair says more about mitt romney than it does about barack obama. >> when you saw clint eastwood going off like you did, were you punching the air with delight? >> no, i actually thought it was a little sad. it was bewildering and unfortunate. >> he is an american hero, one of the great movie stars in the world. i'm a huge fan of his but i found it increasingly really uncomfortable. >> i thought it was a bizarre, uncomfortable, unfortunate moment and, again, you know, all of the buzz after the mitt romney speech is about the empty chair and i think that's a real commentary on mitt romney, even though they have spent the entire week making this entire convention not about mitt romney but barack obama. >> let's talk about the real battle. clint eastwood, to the relief of most republicans will not be contesting the election in november. mitt romney moves on from here.

overall it's been a pretty successful week, despite all of the trials and tribulations of a storm that was distracting attention and the empty chair. mitt romney will go away thinking his wife made a good speech for him, he made a pretty good speech and it's game on now until november. what are the perils to the democratic party? what are the warning signals that you have to be alert to? >> well, i think we're going to have a great convention next week. one of the things that i think i would just differ with you on on how they ended up in their convention this week because mitt romney said a whole lot, threw a lot at barack obama, even saying that everyone, including him was rooting for president obama to be successful when the night mitt romney won the florida primary, he said, you have to remember what this election is really about, defeating barack obama. no one thinks that mitt romney or republicans have been rooting for barack obama to be successful. they've only cared about one job, his. and we're going to talk next week about president obama and

how he's fought for american jobs and taken us from where we were hemorrhaging 750,000 of those jobs and now we've had 29 straight months of job growth thanks to his policies and our convention, unlike this one, will be the most participatory oriented one that we have seen in history. >> are you grouping around hollywood, finding your own stars to speak or is that on the backburner now? >> our stars are the middle class and working families and the people that are empowering the campaign and will carry barack obama back to the white house for a second term on their shoulders. >> it's going to be hard neck week, i think, for barack obama. last time he ran on this huge campaign of open change and optimism. clearly the expectations have fallen quite substantially from those levels and people will say, you know what, he's done okay but actually there's a lot to criticize. i mean, unemployment is at a very unacceptable high now.

it's still over 8%. he's got to try to persuade the american public to give him another chance, doesn't he? >> and i think he will. president obama has said, we've come a long way but we still have a ways to go. i think the american public recognizes president obama inherited the largest amount of problems since any president since fdr. we've made progress despite the republicans every step of the way have done everything they can to throw a wrench into the works, an obstacle in his path and all the while proposing that what we should do is go back to the failed policies of the past that nearly crashed our economy and got us into this mess in the first place. that's the contrast. you'll see next week a dramatically different vision and view that we'll present and president obama will talk about, one that says we will build the economy from the middle class out and if you work hard and play by the rules that you should have an opportunity to be successful. and we shouldn't just focus on people who are already successful. >> i'm already seeing unpleasant attack ads, the same super pac ads that barack obama agreed to not get involved in.

>> barack obama is involved with superpacs. the superpacs, they operate on their own. >> some of them are run by former white house staff. accusing mitt romney of killing women, for example. >> you have a handful of billionaires on their side that are essentially trying to buy the white house. >> both sides, to be fair, are buying superpacs. >> there is not any remote comparison between the third party -- >> mitt romney has -- >> there are a handful of billionaires supporting mitt romney who would like to buy the white house and we're running a people-powered grassroots campaign. the average contribution to president obama's campaign is $50.23. 98% of our contributions are under 250 and we don't accept pac contributions or federal lobbyists. there's not anything remotely come parable between the way we run our campaigns and the fund our campaigns and the way the

republicans do it. >> debbie, we can debate this further next week. >> i'm sure we will. >> in charlotte, north carolina. see you there. >> thank you. karl rove and why he's more powerful than ever. "american idol" winner, taylor hicks, is here to perform. ♪ >> cheers. i wake up in the morning with no back pain. i can adjust it if i need to...if my back's a little more sore. and by the time i get up in the morning, i feel great! if you have back pain, toss and turn at nht or wake up tired with no energy, the sleep number bed could be your solution. the sleep number bed's secret is it's air chambers which provide ideal support and put you in control of the firmness. and the bed is perfect for couples because each side adjusts independently to their unique sleep number. here's what clinical research has found: ® 93% of participants experienced back-pain relief. ® 90% reported reduced aches and pains.

® 87% fell asleep faster and enjoyed more deep sleep. for study summaries, call this number now. we'll include a free dvd and brochure about the sleep number bed including prices, and models plus a free $50 savings card. and how about this? steel springs can cause uncomfortable pressure points. but the sleep number bed contours to your body. imagine how good you'll feel when your muscles relax and you fall into a deep sleep! i'm not just a back surgeon, i'm also a back patient. i sleep on the sleep number bed myself and i highly recommend it to all of my patients. need another reason to call? the sleep number bed costs about the same as an innerspring but lasts twice as long. so if you want to sleep better or find relief for your bad back, call now. call the number on your screen for your free information kit with dvd, brochure and price list.

call right now and you'll also receive a $50 savings card just for inquiring about the sleep number bed. ask about our risk-free 30-night in-home trial. call now for your free information kit and a free $50 savings card. call now! try capzasin-hp. it penetrates deep to block pain signals for hours of relief. capzasin-hp. take the pain out of arthritis.

there's one person who influence cannot be ignored, karl rove. the man they called bush's brain. with me is craig unger, the author of the new book "boss rove." also, one of my favorite guests, comedian, and best-selling author, and extremely air taited from time to time, penn gillette, welcome. we'll come to you in a moment. let's start with you, craig,

because big night for the republicans. a big week for the republicans. do you believe karl rove is still weaving his magic behind the scenes? >> absolutely. i think one of the biggest stories here is really going on off camera. and we've had this narrative, this spectacle repeated again and again to thousands of reporters. if you go to tampa bay, there are hundreds of people there, dozens and dozens of millionaires were being entertained by the romney campaign. they hid their badges so reporters would not know who they were. you have the casino magnet here who plans to give $100 million to the campaign. >> the truth. the democrats, even though president obama vowed never to get involved with superpacs, he has done a complete u-turn. he has his own superpacs running. they are all trying to do this trick. the thing is that romney has got people that have more money. isn't it as simple as that?

>> it isn't as simple as that but the democrats. why should the democrats fight with one hand behind their back? >> what about principle? what about saying we're not going to try to win this by -- >> that's a retpy recipe for depete. you have david coke in the new york delegation saying he will give as much as $400 million. even wall street journal's own colleagues are saying isn't this a complete perversion of the electoral process? >> let's go to penn gillette. this whole issue of money and the elections and the ability to buy an election effectively through superpacs, it makes me vomit that the american system has now gotten to this stage that the guy with the most billionaire secret backers in secret rooms can effectively buy an election. what do you think about that? >> well, can they effectively buy an election? we have people running for lower office that throw a ton of money in that still lose. we don't spend that much. we spend lesson the election

than we do on frozen yogurt. you should have more say because you're on tv than someone else at home is also not fair. i think freedom of speech has to be freedom of speech even more rich people. >> so when the supreme court gave a green license to all of this, you were quite happy, were you, even though the effects surely, surely is that there will be an ever bigger corruption with the american process? >> i don't know -- if you don't have, that if you don't allow people to spend money, then incumbents always win. the only way you get press is to be an incumbent or to have money and i think the real test of someone who is a freedom of speech nut, like me, is if you mean freedom of speech for everyone. i have freedom of speech for the anti-abortion people, for all of the religious people and i believe in freedom of speech for everyone. i just think you can't just say

that we have to -- i mean, money is speech and you've got to allow that, too, i think. >> let me bring craig back in. you hear what penn is saying. there is an argument, if you believe in freedom of speech, then all of this should come under that banner. i don't agree with that. >> i think it's silly to think that karl rove doesn't get more voice than the average joe on the street. by contrast, john mccain spent 375 million. this is already well over a billion dollars and i think it's completely corrupted the electoral process. >> mr. unger, you're on tv and you're giving your point of view on tv and that is also not fair. you're on there because you wrote a book. i'm on tv because i happen to learn to juggle when i was 12 years old and piers is on tv for -- well, i'm sure good reasons. but we get to give our point of

view and i think you can't say our point of view is more valid simply because we don't have a lot of money. >> if you look at the supreme court decision, he said it's to help a deprived and disadvantaged class. well, the coke brothers have $40 billion. >> they are at least disadvantaged at any human beings on god's earth could possibly be. for now, craig unger, thank you very much. >> i can see you are fired up. why don't you stick around with the panel, if you don't mind. >> yes, thank you. >> stick around. we need more of your explosive views. what happens when you mix strong political views with beer? we're going to come back with my all-star panel that have already been guzzling away in the cnn grill. ♪ thanks for babysitting the kids, brittany. so how much do we owe you? that'll be $973.42. ya know, your rates and fees aren't exactly competitive.

who do you think i am, quicken loans? [ spokesman ] when you refinance your mortgage with quicken loans, you'll find that our rates and fees are extremely competitive. because the last thing you want is to spend too much on your mortgage. one more way quicken loans is engineered to amaze. ♪ one more way quicken loans is engineered to amaze. one is for a clean, wedomestic energy future that puts us in control. our abundant natural gas is already saving us money, producing cleaner electricity, putting us to work here in america and supporting wind and solar. though all energy development comes with some risk, we're committed to safely and responsibly producing natural gas. it's not a dream. america's natural gas... putting us in control of our energy future, now. yep...doh.

[ boy ] slurpably fun and a good source of calcium. dadsho get it, get go-gurt.

ooo no. the hotel lost our reservation. nonsense! you book at travelocity, your reservation's guaranteed. well, i did not book with travelocity, okay?!? [ female announcer ] get the travelocity guarantee any way you book, including our new app. you'll never roam alone.

unlike president obama, i will not raise taxes on the middle class of america. [ applause ] as president, i'll protect the sanctity of life, i'll honor the institution of marriage. and i will guarantee america's first liberty, the freedom of religion. >> mitt romney. a few minutes ago. here with me now at the cnn grill, i like to think of as my new political all-stars, penn jillette, a cnn contributor and joel stein, "time" magazine columnist and author.

i can't get through any more of this. there are too many titles and i'm getting 50,000 tweets and they are saying, are you going to drink any of this beer? what kind of brit are you? so just for the record, yes, i am. you are a columnist. does it get any better for a columnist in the history of journalism than clint eastwood going bonkers on the stage? >> it was awesome. he did it without a teleprompter or complete control of his bladder. >> ben smith, five minutes was agreed with the romney camp. he went over 13 minutes and it was complete chaos. >> it was unbelievable. i think people are going to be talking about clint eastwood rather than mitt romney tomorrow. the whole convention was supposed to be about women of

color representing this new young republican party and it it really -- it was dominated by this 82-year-old guy going a little bit off the rails. >> right. from the political point of it, be serious for a moment, no doubt that tomorrow's headlines on television around the world will not be mitt romney nails it. it will be, what the hell was clint eastwood smoking? >> it was completely da-da. i mean, i don't know who from the romney campaign authorized a man in his 80s to get up there for 15 minutes and talk to an empty chair. i mean, you did this the other night. >> clint eastwood, dirty hairy, watching my show and taking my ideas. >> more americans may have seen that than anything else in the convention. >> why are you fringing? >> i think also the reason why it was so tense-worthy for the romney campaign is they are the most button-downed control campaign that i have ever seen. they do not allow a word off script and all of a sudden you have a guy, as soon as he went into guantanamo.

>> so very respected news reporters are saying, you have romney advisers staring open-mouthed like statues wondering, what in the hell is he going to say next? >> they must have cleared the empty chair thing. >> he did give a speech when he first endorsed mitt romney in sun valley. that was -- it seemed to be much more terse than to the point. and so maybe they were not expecting that tonight. i don't think any of us were. >> penn, you were watching this. do you share the general feeling of an utter sense of horror or -- >> no. no. no. no. no. there's a certain point where you've got to say, it's clint eastwood, let him do whatever he wants. if you came to me and said -- how much does someone have to do, piers, before you just give them a pass? who the hell are you to bad-mouth clint eastwood? i think the smartest thing, maybe the only good thing the republicans did, the only good thing they did, was to let him loose.

if you said to me, clint eastwood wants to come and be on stage, i would say, let him do whatever he wants. it doesn't reflect on romney. it's just goofy, wild, beautiful, crazy. >> calm down. >> it's what the united states should be. >> the whole idea of him being defended by you is pretty ironic. however -- >> exactly. that's my point. >> i love clint eastwood. i just got a little bit embarrassed. people like tom brokaw, wolf blitzer, were all feeling embarrassed. talk about the politics here. what would it do to the party's reputation that they unleashed clint eastwood tonight and he did what he did? >> i think the issue is these things are supposed to be very carefully scripted infomercials with these careful messages to frame mitt romney as this young,

maybe not hip but fresh face for the republican party. >> am i just an out of touch brit coming over here, trying to stick my nose and desecrating a great american icon? >> yes, yes. >> you stay out of it, jillette. >> you don't say, you are a famous movie actor, do whatever you want. i don't trust the guy. and then he goes crazy and makes look mitt look even more boring than he is. there is no positive to that at all. >> tell me a positive about it. >> you watch this thing, can't take your eyes away from it. i think the real question is, how many people then stayed for mitt romney's speech? if 1 million people are tweeting about this, maybe it brought in more viewers. >> i'll give you a positive. >> everyone tomorrow morning will be talking about the republican convention. and if mitt romney had gotten up there and had just given that -- let's be honest. it was not an amazing speech.

i have been to seven of these. this was the most tepid response i've seen of a no, ma'ammy's speech. >> the mere fact that the first segment we do as a panel is clint eastwood, not mitt romney, i think it's a disaster. it's not what they needed. it was comic value. no question about it. when we come back after the break, i want to get into mitt romney's speech, hit or miss? ♪ (train horn) vo: wherever our trains go, the economy comes to life. norfolk southern. one line, infinite possibilities.

>> announcer: meet jill. she thought she'd feel better after seeing her doctor. and she might have, if not for kari, the identity thief who stole jill's social security number to open credit cards, destroying jill's credit and her dream of retirement. now meet amanda. with a swipe of her debit card, she bought some gas... and an all-expense-paid trip to hawaii for ben. ben is the identity thief who used a device called a skimmer to steal her information from her card to open a fraudulent account. every year millions of americans just like you learn that a

little personal information in the wrong hands could wreak havoc on your life. this is identity theft, and no one helps stop it better than lifelock. lifelock offers the most comprehensive identity theft protection available. ordinary credit monitoring services tell you after your identity has been stolen; they may take 30 days to alert you! too late for amanda. with lifelock's 24/7 proactive protection, jill would have been alerted as soon as they noticed an attack in their network, before it was too late. and lifelock's bank account takeover alerts would have notified amanda in time to help protect her money. lifelock guards your social security number, your money, your credit, even the equity in your home. while identity theft can't be completely stopped, no one protects you better than lifelock. and lifelock stands behind that, with the power of their $1 million service guarantee. you have so much to protect, and nothing to lose when you call lifelock right now and try 60 days of identity theft

protection risk-free. 60 days risk-free! use promo code: onguard. order now, and get this document shredder, a $29 value, free! call or go online now. [♪...]

welcome back to the cnn grill. it's nearly 1:00 a.m. on the east coast but we are still buzzing with energy and >> excitement.

>> i'm back with meg and liz, and joel. let's talk about mitt romney because that's why we are here. ryan, did mitt romney do enough tonight, do you think, to satisfy not just the party but the outer world? >> i don't know. i don't think we'll know for a few days. this entire week, mitt romney has had to be lifted up by the other sort of all-stars of this party. whether it was marco rubio tonight who gave a great speech, best of the night, or whether it was jeb bush, who gave a great speech or condi, which the crowd really loved. it reminded me of 2004 with the democratic side. the crowd and the partisans weren't that excited about john kerry. >> i'm getting a sense of party unity. after all the squabbling of the race, they do seem to have come together and that in itself could a threat to the democrats. >> i think that's true and i

think that the romney campaign from all of their actions on welfare and suggesting that this is going to be a base election but romney needs to be beyond that. he needs to be speaking to the audience beyond the are room. tonight he tried to do that. i think the speech was a little flat. >> but he is a bit flat. i mean, joel stein -- >> there are people -- ron paul and people chanting -- >> ron paul is ron paul. >> there were people chanting in that room with that usa chant. >> come on, that was like one or two people. >> that's not unity. there is not unity in the party. this is a party divided. >> i don't agree with that. >> romney finally gave in to that. >> romney resisted that his whole life, resisted, he said, the other day, he didn't want to be personalized like a piece of meat, whatever that means.

you can feel the crowd relief almost. he joked about his religion. >> the convention today where the stories that were told about them -- >> i was going to say the same thing. people from his life and his personal life paying very powerful testament of him speaking eulogies of young boys who died of leukemia. he's not afraid of his faith now. let's go to penn jillette. penn, you are probably frothing at the mouth. you normally are. mitt romney, hit or mitt? >> i don't know. what bothers me is the whole humanity and nice guy thing. if there is one thing that obama and romney certainly are, it's good people. they are also both smart. they are both good. i would like it to be more dry. all of the touchy-feely stuff creeps out my new england heart. i know they care about people and i know they are smart and i know they are good. i wish they didn't spend so much

time sucking up like they were on a reality show. >> he doesn't at all, though. >> romney doesn't want to do it but he is doing it. >> we saw mitt romney going into areas he feels uncomfortable doing but he knows he has to. having said that i found stuff about his mother, his upbringing, about his wife, his children, i think the guy is a very solid father, son, husband and those are not bad for a presidential candidate. >> he's given much bigger part of his life and wealth as well to service. and he talked about that and he also used the word hell tonight and on the campaign trail he notoriously said h-e double hockey sticks. >> we have about a minute left, maybe less. democratic convention next week. i want each of you to give me a ten second resume of what you want next week. ben? >> i think penn is auditioning

for the role of clint eastwood. >> okay, penn jillette. >> i'll bring the empty chair. >> i don't care much about their biography. i want to know what their plan is for the next four years. >> i think obama needs to lay out his agenda for a second term and we're still waiting on that. >> i think clint eastwood can come to both conventions. i'm sure he doesn't know where he is. drag him back to do that routine again. >> i have an idea. i suspect george clooney has been watching thinking, clint, you just blew it, i'm going to win the political oscar next week in charlotte. penn, tragically, we've run out of time. thank you all for a great panel, as always. i'll be back at our regular time tonight night on a special "piers morgan tonight." all the highlights from tampa, candid conversations with chris