win. can you fix the problems we are facing? you all know what the problems are. the economy, 22 million americans out of work. jobs are fleeing overseas. the education system, we are failing. one of the greatest crises is the poor quality of education we are giving some many of our youth today. you go through the list of problems we are facing and they are not easy things to fix. my mom said if you get there, i can you fix it? he said i think that i can. she said, if you can, you do not have a choice. you have to run. it is your duty. [applause] she said think what will happen to your grandchildren. they will not have as bread of a future. it is not fair to them. you have to do it. for that, he had no argument.

it was no longer you might be able to, it was you have a duty. he decided to get in. here we are. the reason i tell that story, journalists never believe me. he is never -- someone asked me, the woman asked me, it is your dad, is it important for his legacy? my grandfather was governor of michigan. the president of american motors. he ran for president in 1968 and came up short to richard nixon. this reporter asked how is it important for your grandfather's legacy that your dad win the nomination and the presidency? i had never been asked that before. you have those experience where you have a rush of memories of

my grandfather, who is my hero and was a great man. it occurred to me, i have never thought this before. some of the stories he told me many times. but he told stories about growing up. he had been born in mexico and had been chased out of mexico. he told stories about his horse getting stolen and had the horse kept running home and getting stolen again. he would tell stories about moving to idaho and starting a potato farm with his parents. the potato blight of the 1920's and the depression. then having not enough food and having to find ways to eat. he talked about chasing my grandmother around the country, trying to convince her to marry

him. he talked about his children being born and doing things and getting married. it occurred to me, as this interviewer asked me, my grandfather never once told me a story about his political career or about running american motors. it was not that important to him. the legacy he wanted to pass on to me and my dad and to all of his grandchildren was family. integrity. and faith in god. love of country. those are the things he wanted to pass on. i asked him, should i run for office some day. he said if you have to ask, the answer is no. the only reason to run for office is not because you want to be a senator or whatever it is, the reason you should run is because you could do something to serve your fellow man.

that is the reason to do it. [applause] thank you. that is the legacy my grandfather wanted to leave my dad. my dad is running not to fulfill something that his dad did not finish. he is running because he feels like he can make this a great nation for all of us. let me tell a story about him. i love to tell stories about this. a lot of people ask me, how come he doesn't say more about the things he does? he learned, the values talk about not bragging the things when you do. you do not do it so whether people can notice you and give you praise. he likes to do those things in secret. i spoil that for him by telling people what he does.

let me tell a couple of stories. when he got to the olympics, the olympics were in trouble. $400 million in debt. people did not want to the sponsor a scandal-plagued games. when he got there, he called a board meeting with all of the people involved. the person who was organizing the meeting put it on his schedule at a restaurant in downtown salt lake. my dad said, why are we spending all of this money for people who are supposed to be helping us? they were ordering the catering and my dad said i want you to call my favorite caterer, domino's pizza. we will save money that way. when everyone got there, they were surprised. they were it used to the white

napkin service and here they had their choice of cheese or pepperoni. he said i want you to know it is $1 a slice. all the sudden they recognize there is a new sheriff in town. things are going to be done differently. [applause] wouldn't it be nice to have that attitude in washington? starts charging the congressman a dollar a slice. that would be fun. although i have to say, we appreciate the republicans from ohio who are out there helping. the governor and senator and john boehner. you guys have a lot to be proud of. they are doing a fantastic job for us and for your state. we love and appreciate their support. another funny story about my dad, i was 16 years old and one

of my favorite activities was to go fishing. we had a small house on cape cod. we had a rowboat and i would take it out and i dropped anchor in my fishing line over the back and i sat back and had a nice afternoon, i anticipated it would be nice. i caught a few fish. after 45 minutes, i realize i had drifted off from where i started. i turned around and check the anchor and they came back to me, you did not tie it to the front of the boats. i threw it in. i turned around. as you can imagine, i was not where i had started and i did

not think much of it. i went back to shore and brought the fish into my dad and thought we could have some of them that night. i muttered under my breath, by the way i lost the anchor. he looked at me and said, go back out and find it. [laughter] that was my reaction. i laughed. i am not finding an anchor in the ocean. to be honest, i think i might have said that is the stupidest idea you -- i have ever heard. you go find it. being a father, if one of my kids said that to me, they would be in trouble. instead of getting me in trouble, i was in trouble plenty as a kid. but this time he was very patient and said, let's go down

together. we got in the boat and he asked me, where did you lose it? being as helpful as i could, i set out there some way. we went out and i was excited. this was going to be the first time i won an argument with my dad. i had many arguments and i lost every one of them. as we got out there, he had the pick to been points of land -- two points of land. 35 minutes into this, much to my disappointment, we found the anchor. the rope was floating on the surface and we pulled it in. at that point, i expected a lecture from him about the way we do things. it did not come.

i realize now why it did not. i have learned that my lectures usually are not listened to and that my actions and the things we do speak louder than the words. he let me think about that on the road back to the shore. i learned to bring important lessons. i learned a third less and later as i started telling the story to people. it really is true that my dad is the cheapest human being alive. this was not an expensive anchor we were talking about. i tried teaching him the time value of money. he was not buying it. even in today's dollars, at this anchor was less than $10. the rope was worth more than the anchor. here we were out looking for it.

rather than back at home enjoying a barbecue. he lives his life this way. it drives him crazy to waste money. wasting time, wasting food, wasting money drives him crazy. we need somebody in washington like that. [applause] that is why i am excited he and paul ryan are going to get there together. i was excited to hear him speak tonight. those two are going to get to work. they're going to make a lot of special interest groups very unhappy. that is what we need. we are borrowing too much money from the chinese to pay for things. it is time that someone gets in there and does not worry about the political consequences or what the press is going to say.

he is going to get the job done. the second lesson, i know it sounds corny, but it is true. my dad believes that with the ingenuity and a lot of work, you can accomplish big things. i have seen that in his life over and over again. how does the republican win as governor in massachusetts? there are twice as many people in this room as republicans. 13% of our state is republican. how the selling get elected? we faced a budget deficit. what to do you think the democratic solution was? raise taxes. the boston globe said anyone who did not think that was the only way out did not have a second grade education. my dad said we can do it by

cutting taxes. they said you cannot do math. you will have less money. if you bring the spending down, it was amazing. more revenue came into the state. it is funny how that works. he believes that you can do great things with a lot of hard work. the third lesson i learned to cook becoming a father. i realize he did not care about the anchor. he cared about me. he wanted me to learn those lessons. he wanted me to learn the value of and not wasting money just because you can and the value of not giving up. many times when i have wanted to give up i remember that time on the beach and i will say, my dad would get out there in the boat to find the anchor. i am going to do this thing.

he is going to be a great president. in addition, he will be a great man. he will make us proud. he will be an example to all of us. they will never do anything to embarrass us, intentionally. i do not think we have faced in my lifetime and election as important as this one. we cannot afford four more years of president obama. [applause] the visions that the parties are painting right now could not be more stark. we can continue down this path that is not working or we can return to the principles that made us great of free enterprise, freedom works. this country was founded and free them. rather than making fun of people who are successful, we should

embrace it and hope that our sons and daughters can achieve those same things. i am proud to be my father's son. i am proud to be an american. i am proud to be a republican. i can tell deal, as ohio goes, so goes the election. you are at the front lines of this battle. we need you to go home and get your neighbors to vote, get your relatives to vote. if i were a democrat i would tell you to get your pets to vote. did everyone you know to get out and vote. let them know how important this election is. we cannot afford four more years of this. god bless america and let's make this thing happen. thank you some much. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> this is mitt romney checking out the teleprompter ahead of

his speech tonight. our coverage on c-span gets under way at 6:00 p.m. eastern and the coverage starts tonight at 7:30 eastern. among the speakers, connie mack and newt gingrich. mitt'sne of matt's -- son. 9:00, staples founder tom. and kerry healhy and we may hear from the mystery guest, reporting that is clint eastwood likely to speak in the 9:00 hour. 10:00, senator marco rubio will introduce mitt romney and we'll have all of that for you getting under way at 7:30 here on c-span. up until 6:00, today's the national journal, strategists

talked about the importance of his speech tonight and what he needs to accomplish. this is hosted by cbs news. >> good morning. i am the publisher of the plant media. on behalf of the atlantic and cbs news, we are delighted to have you here. this is the fourth in the series and the last in tampa. we get the best political minds to show up and chat. today we have a great panel of governor romney's top aides. it should be a good day. we encourage a lot of questions, once we get down the road a little bit. for those of you on c-span, we welcome you here. we are in tampa.

hope you enjoy it as well. i want to thank our underwriters for making this possible. they have been terrific to work with. ending spending, the property- casualty insurance association, and united technologies. thank you to them all. for those of you that are into twitter, daily briefings. be sure to send in questions and what have you. let me introduce very quickly, i will start on the right, ron brownstein at the national journal. james bennett, editor of the atlantic. i am looking at mr. schieffer, the senior citizen in the crowd.

you are one of the murrow boys. he would rather be in blue jeans and his cowboy pants singing country and western music. anyway, here he is. >> good morning, everyone. we do many events at the convention but every four years this is my favorite. we will bring the four of the sharpest minds in the republican party. they all held senior positions and will talk about what the convention has accomplished so far and what the general election looks like going forward from tampa and charlotte. but first since we have a wealth of expertise on this stage, we are going to take a few things around before bringing our guests on. you have been coming to these conventions for quite awhile.

i am interested in your thoughts. what is the health of this institution? the convention as we know it, i can it continue to go on? >> i do not think so. but i think they will continue. you are right, i have been to one or two. my first one was in 1968. this is my 22nd convention. >> do you miss the smell of tear gas? >> exactly. it was downhill after chicago. can i tell you a story, this was my first one, 1968. my wife and i went in the last thing we did, we had been married a couple of years. we did not have any kids. the last thing my wife did, she went to the local adoption

agency and started filling out the form. we were going to adopt a child. nine months to the day after that, our first daughter was born the best part was, she was in high school when she finally put the numbers together and she turned to her mom and said, i guess it was not all fighting. anyway, i love to come to these conventions to get back to your question. i think we have seen the last of the four day conventions. there is not enough to do anymore. i think they are important. i think they serve a purpose. i was stunned to find that one- third told our pollsters they did not have enough information about mitt romney to make a

judgment on whether they were for him or against him. the talk -- the parties talk about introducing the candidates to the american people. in a sense, they are introducing the candidate. i think they serve a purpose. i hope they continue because they are so much fun. >> i agree with bob. i would not presume not to. i agree they are going to become more compressed. i think they make a lot of sense as a focusing moments for the nation but also for the parti's structure. it is disintegrating on the margins. but this is a huge party for the republican party and that matters. the bigger question is for the press, why there are so many of us here.

one of the most interesting developments, yesterday, the tradition of the other campaign going dart is over. the notion the other candidate will retreat and not make mischief, but yesterday, president obama doing this, ask me anything on the social was a sly way, to reach a huge number of people, a comparable number of people that the crowd reached by paul ryan. and telegraph on the day the republicans are saying here is the young face of our party, there is a different way to reach young people. about theoing to talk impact on the electorate on the convention and whether anything before the acceptance speech resonates. i wonder, it feels like it is

hard to imagine it continuing. it is hard to imagine its continuing in the current form. the contradiction or the catch- 22 is that once you go to the expense of building the infrastructure to do this and bring all these people here, i am not sure cutting it down improves it. it is more -- more it is really changing the experience. the level of security that is required. it will be fascinating to see. i think there will be a three day convention but i wonder if we might see it aggregated in some way, whether it has to be concentrated in the same respect. listen, with that as a preface, let's slide down and bring on our guests here. we're going to introduce them as

they come up. sara fagan was the white house political director for george w. bush and is now the chief strategist and is a whiz at data marketing. john brabender is a senior adviser for rick santorum. perry nelson, political director for the bush 2004 reelection. worked on many other campaigns and was an adviser to the senatorial committee in 2010. we're going to have an informal conversation. let the plunge in and ask terry and sara because you have been in this room, what is the impact

of the modern convention and how much does the activities of the first night before the acceptance speech really affect the dynamics of the race? what did you see? >> the two things that impact the outcome of the convention will be the speech we had last night and tomorrow night. the speeches on monday night typically not that impact will. it is even greater at the keynote speech -- rare that the keynote speech as an impact. with barack obama, it was a good night for the democratic party when he did his keynote but most do not have an impact. what matters and what people to and into a are the presidential nominee and the vice presidential nominee. those are the speeches that really define whether the

convention was a success or not. >> i agree with that and a point she made earlier, the expense of putting on a convention and the fact that you, as a candid, are unlikely to get the kind of bounce from going through all of this effort, so when you stop and look at the last couple of years and the declining bounce, at some point, someone is going to say, gosh, we just spent $50 million and we got to been points. how do we figure out how to spend $10 million and still get a day or two coverage? >> we noted that in a story this week. at least one of the candidates got a balance of seven points or more. since 1996, there has been that big of a balanced -- of a bounce

only once. what has changed? why is it tougher to get a return of investment? >> it is the proliferation of news coverage. it is through the social media channels. if you look at the news coverage in 2008, the three months before barack obama accepted his nomination, to even today, it is almost double. it is a combination of twitter and facebook and the fact that you could find such information as a person. what bob said is an important point, which is, and there is so much information out there people are drawing conclusions and part of that is the times we live in yet there is still an opportunity because people, while they have knowledge of names and impressions of candidates, they do not have any

definition around them. i think it is really hard to break through and there's going to be a moment or two where one of these candidates has a break out moment and you are likely to see the race to one direction or the other. >> i think the other thing is polarization, which impacts people broadly. that is part of the reason we do not see the balance -- bounce we used to see. the nomination's speech for the non incumbent candidate is an important moment. and i do not think campaigns will easily give that up. a lot of money is spent, $50 million and more. but none of that money comes from the candidates. it is not a candidate to oppose

the money. -- candidate's money. i think candidates will want to have that kind of moment they have on thursday night. it is really important because it is the only time where people will be looking at mitt romney and judging how he would do and be as the president, as it is his first presidential speech. that is a very important moment. >> one reason you do not get a bounce is you now have these convention toward -- so far toward the end of the summer, because the fund raising will give you more time to raise money. when you run one right after the other, the guy that goes first will not get a bump because the

second convention will start right up, which is the reason why romney had to name paul ryan the week before. would it be better if parties agree to put some space there? would that help? >> yes, but we have to realize that what has happened is we think of this is a national event that has no longer amny ifs. the question is, it is that undecided voter saying i will tune in tonight? coverage of the convention where everybody used to talk to the -- where everybody used to say they would watch the speech, need to change how it is being done. >> one thing you might think about, if you move it forward,

and you might get it out of hurricane season. the last two, we have been fighting hurricanes. >> that has been damaging. i think we would be smart to think about ensuring we are not compete. you look at the front pages of "usa today," and the front page is not the republican convention. that is a real problem, which also occurred in two dozen a. >> into a dozen for, it was the decision of the bush campaign to put it in that time period, and it was partly about jamming democrats on finances, may be other banks, but now in an environment where nobody is taking public funding, it does not matter.

>> explain that, so people will understand. in the past, candidates would not experts bend -- would not accept campaign financing. >> this year, one of the concerns of the romney campaign has been the exact opposite. they cannot spend any general election money until he becomes the official nominee, and one of the reason obama has had a spending advantage over the last few months, goes to the fact that this nominating convention is being held so late. >> this is an infomercial. that is part of its appeal, it is a form that the campaign can control, and the networks get to create tv program that the

networks have to cover. the speech is written, the campaign feels really good about it, so i would like you to put yourselves in george stephenson 's shoes. what are you worried about that somehow could go wrong tonight? >> i do not think you worry about his delivery. mitt romney's delivery it is mick romney's delivery. the biggest problem is they are sitting there, here is what we're saying, but how will they spend this? i think the challenges they have are this -- how do you not worry as much about the biography of mitt romney, but make sure he comes across as genuine? robert two is they will always have this ballots of hearing it over and over again, you have the conservative vote, but there's a big difference between

getting the vote and having them being activists. they have work to be done in that. ultimately, the traffic falling is making this about biography and not making this about mitt romney being real. the reason that is important, in some sense, i am and media consultant, i believe the obama campaign will try to make mitt romney into mr. potter. i think that is the balance they have to have poor people say, this guy is not somebody who just made money because he took advantage of others, but is a genuine human being who i like and want to get excited in voting for parry >> i think what i worry about is outside events, which it always is, and if it is hurricane coverage. is there some loss of life? after all this effort, do i with

up tomorrow and my guy is split screen with hurricane coverage? you lose the impact of what the convention has been, and you can do nothing about it. >> what things do you think they have successfully developed so far this week? it may have to be brought to a head in the nomination speech, but what lines of argument, positive about romney and negative about obama, dec the convention teasing out? >> for the campaign and for republicans, the convention needs to hopefully reestablish some of the key issues the american public cares about, the economy, jobs, spending, and spending issues are part of the debate.

i think you saw those things being developed last night in paul ryan's speech. you will see it elsewhere. if we can get the race to that territory and successfully be on the territory for the next 70, however many days remain, then we will be on the right territory for us. i think that is the primary strategic objective the campaign has to have a message whys, and you will see that executed throughout the major speeches. >> following up, i was struck last night and it continues to see what we have seen for several weeks, how aggressively paul ryan is trying to go on the offense on medicare. you were in pennsylvania where there are a lot of seniors. democrats believe -- white seniors have been moving toward the republicans each of the past five elections.

democrats have felt the ryan budget gives them a big opening to try to reverse that lost ground. they went out last night and aggressively said problem, the threat to medicare, is not us, it is "obamacare," they have an ad running that talks about the money that is diverted to help obama to a program that is not for you. can they blunt the medicare attack put out the u. ss that argument? how important is it for them to fight to a draw on that train? >> they are saying they cut $700 billion out of medicare, said they have no credibility. where paul ryan was a gutsy call is a branding think, where he says, we will be the adults in the room.

we will not be afraid to say here is what the problem is, and we will show leadership, and that is what last night was about. paul ryan said it was a ticking time bomb. i think the american people are ready for that conversation because they get it. at the same time, they do not want to be on their heels defending they are not interested in protecting medicare, and they point to the democrats' attack, why are you listening to them? >> how much is it complicated that they are including gay sex and cuts they are now criticizing? >> is the moral authority on the issue, because he was the first guy to say at this is a big problem, you have to deal with this, i am willing to take some significant political risk to put this on the front page of the newspapers, and people and seniors, deep down, understand that this is a fundamentally

broken system. so i think it is important though that they continue to aggressively articulate and fight on this issue, because while they may have won a few battles today, they have not yet won the war on the medicare fight, and they will have to continue to be focused on that issue, because over history, democrats have typically been stronger on those issues. there is a sort of an electorate -- the electorate as an instinct about democrats' been better, and while brian has done a good job on it, they cannot let up. >> white the you think people do not like mitt romney -- why do you think people do not like mitt romney proved there is a guy, very successful, fine family man, has a great family.

everything about the guy is good, but somehow or another every poll suggests there is something in there that he does not seem to be connecting. is it because the obama people to fight him before he could define himself? is it this nasty primary that you just came through? the occasional gaffs he has made? as consultants, what should they have done that they did not do about this? >> i do worry there is a cat out there that says we will only make this about obama. into the for you made the decision, you felt one way about george bush, and you were born to make this about kerry. the obama people said the same thing about mitt romney. the romney people say they need to stay focused. this is not about mitt romney. there is some cost to that in

that if you know mitt romney, extremely personable, extremely nice guy, and i think that matters and i do think it would be to a great benefit to them tonight and billing for work they let people inside mitt romney and little bit and let them judge him on what he is really like, not just the barriers that are up sometimes. >> i think the ann romney speech was terrific. if you are for mitt romney, she is the best advocate they have got. i suggested they might invite her to come out tonight when he makes his speech to talk little more. >> largely, i see the candidates a lot, when the television cameras go on, there is a wall that goes up, and we live in a hyper sensitive society.

we had a good journalist lose his job over a hot-mike comment. these candidates are constantly aware of the fact that there are video cameras, cell phones, something around them, and it really -- some of them have a harder time getting past that and others, and he is one of those people. tonight will help, but the campaign has to pay to eat about how they put him in some areas where he can connect and relate with people, because if they do that, he is going to win the election. >> one of the most popular lines in hall last night was paul ryan's little joke at mitt romney's expense of his taste in music. maybe that is part of the george bailey thing. i wonder how you describe it -- there has been a fair amount written about how energized mr.

ryan is with paul ryan, but how do you see the packaging of the generational packaging, that combination of personalities and politics we will see over the next what the ec -- how would you describe that relationship? >> obvious thing i was watching the speech last night and i remember when i first met paul ryan when he was working in the u.s. house, getting ready to run for congress, he was 27 years old, i think. and he has not changed a lot. he still looks kind of young. but i think it is interesting from my perspective that you do have a guy who is 43 years old 24 vice-president. he is a young guy. and regardless of how this turns out for him and for republicans,

he has a long career, and this will do nothing but increase his influence and importance in the republican party, which was to your question. i think they have done a nice job so far with the rollout, and we saw similar comments about the palin impact on mccain. also, palin was different in a lot of respects, but one particular comment was made in 2008. part of it i think is we are coming to a point in the campaign where if you are not energetic about things, why are you running for office? it is the critical moment in the campaign, and i think they had a tough summer, they dealt with a lot of issues that i am sure they did not want to deal with, got very off track from the messaging they wanted to deliver.

ha ryan announcement -- the paul ryan announcement was the first opportunity to get the campaign on the right track, and they made a conscious decision to be aggressive about it and made sure that they made their case. >> in terms of that off-track summer, my own slight variation of the question, and looking at the polling, it seems romney's problem is not so much solely whether he is likable, it is whether he is apathetic, and what the obama committee -- you have these two numbers that in different directions, who is better to revive the economy? romney is general ahead. obama has a bigger lead in the economy overall, and in essence what they have done is a sense among a certain size of voters,

romney may be understating the economy in the macro sense, but will he deliver prosperity that reaches me in my life? does he relate to my life? you work in a region with a lot of blue-collar voters. does that ultimately solve the problem that has been created for him in those committees? >> no, and one of the successes rick santorum had he was getting these blue-collar republicans. the pollster for romney said they started the track what time of peak -- a day people voted for romney, and in 5:00 santorum was getting a lot of votes. he has to do more. on the speech that i thought was most interesting last night, who they were talking to. they did address for obama of voters, and to me but it was

saying it was cool, you wanted to vote for obama, but now you are in a different stage in life, and has it benefited you? no, but i understand that and we are not your father's republican party. >> help is on the way. we're being joined by others and now. maybe you can jump in, because you work for a candidate that has had enormous success in by the emotionally with middle- class voters. when you look at what romney has to do, you could argue that as the greatest for ability -- the greatest vulnerability, the

deficit he has in the questions being raised. what can he do in his own speech and how can they narrow that or erase the perception in the time they have left? >> in showing who eat his -- who he is. the introduction of paul ryan as vice president and during the convention, especially tonight, and going to the base, people will get to see governor romney who he is. they had made the decision about whether they like or do not like president obama. what i hope we will see is a hoot governor romney really is. i think we will get to see him who he is as a person. everybody knows he is a person who can handle a job as president, and you will see some of that tonight and see that connection going forward. >> i thought ann did an

effective job, but i picked up information in that speech, and as somebody as follows politics as closely, i have always thought they were bluffing, they both come from wealthy families, and she did a good job of explaining to people, yes, we have a lot of money, but there was a time when we off of and ironing board and when we lived in an english basement. it is important for them to continue to remind voters of that, because there is a big difference between being always rich and achieving the american dream. what they have done is achieved the american dream. >> i would love to hear you talk about the governor's speech. there have been tough reviews of its. what i am interested in is the

contrast between him and his wife, what the theory was there, because she talked about love and he talked about love is -- love has paralyzed us and what matters is respect. work those speeches coordinated, and what was that theory. >> governor christie's speech was his speech. at least from his perspective, that was his speech. they are talking about the same thing. what christie was talking about was tough love, and that two different kinds of love. what christie was talking about was the respect and love you get from voters, and being paralyzed by politicians wanting that constant reaffirmation that they want to be loved. ute and up pandering. it has gotten us to a huge problem. the ability to talk about these

tough problems and just say things that are pretty tough. he is talking about tough love. also, she was supposed to talk on monday and he was going to talk on tuesday. . >> i think the press has been too hard on christie. th talker,ing the tru saying we are the adults in the room. he said it many times. these two -- mitt romney and tough decisions to lead the country where it needs to go, and i do not think he has gotten enough credit. the other thing is we need more of that brand in our party. the job of the keynote speaker

is not to stand up and repeat everything that the other 20 speakers on the states are already saying. it is to lay out a vision and a brand for the party for the next 20 years, and i think he did that pretty effectively. >> you mentioned some criticisms. looking at most of the papers that get outside the beltway, outside of the insider-ish newspapers that are all talking to each other, if you go outside and read regular headlines and columns and editorials that average voters are reading, he was received very well. 90% of the reviews were very strong. you have to separate the insiders from the actual voters. >> let me ask you all -- >> it is rare when we get an opportunity to beat up on the press a little bit, so i do not want to miss it. i read an article about the speech yesterday which i just found outlandish. a prospective reporter wrote

that the speech governor christie gave yesterday would do lasting damage to his national ambition. i mean, this is silly. it is overanalysis. it is not true. bill clinton gave a terrible speech and eight years later was president of the united states. >> four years later. >> governor christie did not give a terrible speech. he gave a good speech. people might critique it for this or that, but it did no lasting damage whatsoever. people can say that he did not get enough out of it, and that is a different thing. but to say that somehow his ambitions are going to be stymied because his 30 minutes on the stage was not the press thought it should be is silly. >> i would say 20 million people saw the speech and i do not know how many hundreds read the insider articles that the rest of us read. >> chris christie was not talking to the entire planet. he is talking to somebody in the midwest.

if you are a democrat, and he is trying to explain what he did as a republican in new jersey and they are embracing it, and democrats in ohio can feel awfully good about voting for a republican -- there are two narratives. one is pro-mitt romney, and another is saying "our ideas work, and you can feel good about voting republican." i think he did that extremely well. >> we are talking here about getting to the message through all the distractions. what is the message? going into this, i thought it was to be a referendum on barack obama and the bad economy. is that still the message, or is the message now "we've got to do something about medicare?" >> to be president of the united states, you have to have a compelling, constant vision for the future of the country. i believe this.

the american people have to understand that you have that. if they do not think you have that, you will not be president. you can be elected to any other office in this country without a compelling vision of the future, but you cannot be elected president without that. this has been the big struggle of the campaign. they have not yet gotten to the point where they have said to the american people what mitt romney's vision is for the future of the country. i think most people know what he is against and what he will on do, but they do not yet know what he is going to do and how he is going to do it. that is the challenge for tonight's speech. it is my personal hope that that is what takes place tonight. it is great -- he does not have to be like to get somebody's vote. it is great if he is liked. but they just have to think they will be better off if he is

president. if they can do that, that i think his campaign will be successful because the environment really favors him, but to do that, they have got to focus in on how they will improve the economic circumstances of americans. >> in many ways, we are seeing the impact of the long primary process. typically, through a primary process and early enough in the summer, you have an opportunity to put effort -- definition around yourself as a candidate. it is absolutely true it needs to be a referendum on barack obama, but the challenge is there is not enough definition of mitt romney for him to make it a referendum. part of the reason the romney campaign is not in a sustainable way like i think it should be right now is because the primary process -- because of the fact that barack obama has been effective in defining mitt romney in swing states, and he has to make up that deficit.

>> you could theoretically make an argument that a vigorous primary that gets a lot of attention is a great way to introduce candidates to the country. in aggregate, what you guys are saying, it is a little bit astonishing that we are at this point in the campaign and you are saying he needs to tell people who he is and tell him -- tell them what his vision for the country is. are those things not already understood? >> it is important to remember that the press and people watching this intently are concentrating on today. elections plan from day backwards, and there is a lot of time left in this campaign. we do not feel that way because we live it and breathe it every day. we have been watching it since the early days of the primary, the early years of the primary, watching it and covering it. campaigns are working from election day backwards. from a budgeting perspective,

thinking through the debates and the convention process, that will happen, and we all wonder why it has not happened yet. it is all coming out. this is the important part of the campaign. this is when those voters who voted for president obama and do not think he is a good president are right now making that decision whether they want to go back to him, but there is time in this campaign. >> i think both sides agree, the group you just described is the tipping point of the election. obama's approval rating has not been able to get back over 50%, but he is leading in most polls. you have an electorate that is disappointed in his performance but is not convinced they are ready to make the leap to romney. you are not in a toddler -- totally dissimilar position. you are going into the fall with an approval rating slightly

under 50%, and you were able to win nonetheless in effect by convincing a certain number of voters that one of 100% satisfied that there would be better off with him than the alternative. ken obama, in your mind -- i mean, how different is obama's situation from president bush's situation, which ultimately enabled him to win, albeit with the smallest popular vote margin for any president ever? >> i think the elections are very different. >> i think the elections are very different. in 2004, the fundamental reason george bush was elected was because suburban women who were open to voting democrats and voted democratic often thought that in the war on terror, george bush would do a better job protecting the country. that is, i think, what pushed him over the edge. we are dealing with a very different set of issues, which are fundamentally on the economy. so people perceive that much more impactful to their daily

lives, so they are looking at it not from the view of what is best from the country but what is best for me personally. >> i disagree with that. i think that is only half the equation. one of the reasons obama got elected is there is a real longing in this country for people to feel like they are proud to be here. there was a sense that obama would pull that off and i think most people think he did not. in 2004, you guys were looking for something to rally where people could feel proud of being an american again, and i do think romney has an opening he has not taken advantage of, to get this country to rally behind something that we feel we will feel the same way we felt about ourselves as a country years ago. >> it was at the convention in 2004 that the president unveiled the opportunity society, which was sort of the domestic component of a campaign that was largely defined as a contrast on the war on terror.

the fundamental difference is when you have looked at the war on terror in 2004 and the issues and debates around that, president bush was operating from a position of strength. he always was viewed as the candidate who was best equipped to deal with that issue, and john kerry was not. this is not the case in 2012. barack obama is not viewed as the candidate who is best able to deal with the economy. there is a little bit of a reversal of position in this, and because of that, it makes barack obama -- even though we are in the same position, because of that, it makes president obama's job harder because that is where the debate will largely be decided. >> if you were -- if you put

yourself in barack obama's strategist's shoes, how would you be advising him to run the rest of the campaign? >> i hope we do not have to talk about anything the american people care about. [laughter] sometimes, i am and the -- i am sort of like, "this is it? this is what the campaign is about? higher taxes?" the sure thing is i talk too much and i was going to let these other people did it, but their job is really what they are trying to do, which is to disqualify mitt romney. they have got to find a way to disqualify him so that people decide they cannot vote for him. >> i cannot remember who said it now, but you all were talking about the vote for president really is different.

you vote for a city councilman because of the issues. he is going to let the liquor stores be open on sunday or not. people vote for a president because they are comfortable with him in a time of crisis. it goes back again to this likability thing. i am thinking back -- can you all recall -- i think it goes back to 1972, the last time americans voted for the least likable person -- 1968. they voted for nixon. he was going against a very divided democratic party. like ability really is an important factor. it might not be the right reason to vote for somebody, but it seems to be the reason most people vote for the person they do. -- like ability -- likability is an important factor. >> it goes to the people who are undecided. it is because they do not pay attention to issues very

closely. they go in and make a gut-level check. "i like this person. i think he is looking out for my interests." it is a really important threshold that mitt romney will have to tonight and through the rest of the campaign in the debate, which we have not talked about, have to come across and convince enough of them that he is more than just a guy running a private equity company. >> we are going to bring in the audience in a few minutes, but if i could, i want to talk a little bit about the coalition that mitt romney would need to get to a majority. all of you have worked on races that provide perspectives on this. let me start with the first question. we have seen a large number of minority speakers. republicans have elected a lot of hispanics and african- americans who are speaking at

the conventions, but in 2008, barack obama won a combined 80% of the vote of all minority voters, who represent about a quarter of the electorate. i am pulling right now, he is holding about at that number. he is pretty close to his 80% combined among african- americans, hispanics, asians, and others. how do you rate the focus of the romney campaign on trying to improve on that performance, and what are the assets they have, what are the arguments that they have that could allow them to reduce the advantage obama enjoyed in 2008 among the combined -- all of that 26% of the electorate that was non- white? >> we do have rising stars in the republican party who are latino, and we as a party need to do a better job of communicating on that. not changing what we stand for, but communicating in a better way, and they are making the

attempt to do that. you have to look state-by-state in terms of what those coalitions are and what they mean. the high water mark was in 2004 with president bush receiving over 40% of the hispanic vote. part of it is the effort. all too often we live from one election cycle to the next, and that is a very long-term issue with our party, and it is very important for us, but i think the strides we've made in 2010 and beyond in terms of who we have elected show our party in a different way, and we need to capitalize on that. >> a very open and impassioned supporter of a comprehensive immigration approach that included a pathway to citizenship, the platform approved here this week -- it calls for cutting funding to the states, providing in-the tuition for the children of illegal immigrants -- is the party position to emulate the bush success from 2004? >> as you point out, we have

some policy issues. [laughter] that could cause some problems. [laughter] on the other side, the administration has, you know -- the other side of it, which causes some issues for the administration in the latino community, is the deportation issue. i know that is an issue that can be perhaps exploited, but the reason we are not doing better is because of policy. i supported president bush's position. i still think it is the right thing to do. the reality is that, as you know so well, if we do not do a better job as republicans in gaining more latino votes especially, we will be a permanent minority. we cannot just because of demographic change in the country -- you know, if you look back at the 2000 election, if the president had gotten the

same percentage of the vote in each of the ethnic groups as he did in 2004, he would have lost the electoral vote. every year, inexorably, latinos become a bigger percentage of the vote in more and more states. i do not think we will be able to fundamentally address the issue until we address how our party deals with policies. >> one more question on policy before bringing james back in. another aspect of this -- it is possible that ronnie could run as well among white voters as any republican challenger ever in the history of polling -- that romney could run as well among white voters as any republican challenger ever and still lose. the biggest challenge in getting up to those numbers, and not so much the working-class

white voters, who are moving in big numbers toward republicans, but it is those upper-middle- class white collar suburbanites. when you look at where this election is right now, how big a challenge does romney face among those white-collar, white voters, particularly women, on the various social issues that have emerged? contraception, abortion, now a race -- now race. do you see him on track to improve the republican performance? >> i see pulling in pennsylvania all the time. mccain lost by double digits. i have seen polls where mitt romney is dead even in pennsylvania, and there are two coalitions causing that -- one is some of those suburbs in philadelphia where they switch their vote a lot. they are relatively moderate. they feel they can identify with him, and he is doing particularly well. also, very blue-collar

democratic areas, the reagan democrats, also feel uncomfortable with the performance of obama and a willing to give mitt romney a look. that will be the challenge. like i said, they want to brand him as someone unacceptable to them. if romney shows that they can relate to one another, there is a scenario where in the final two weeks of the campaign that things collapse of the president. >> there has been a lot of criticism of the welfare act that the mitt romney campaign is running, at least in the media, arguing that it is trying to sow racial resentment, by accusing him of undermining the work requirements for welfare recipients. what do you think about that ad, and what do you think about the charge that in essence, by having to get that high among whites, there is no way to do that without getting your hands a little 30 -- dirty?

>> one of the areas where mitt romney will do very well among whites is because he was governor of massachusetts. there's a connection geographically. as you talk about some of the issues are often driven from republicans in other parts of the country, i think governor romney is someone who is focused on the economy as is bread-and-butter, and he will keep it focused on the economy. i do not disagree that president obama for the campaign will try to move it on to other issues. obviously, he has been successful in a state that is only 13% republican, and i think he will continue to do that. >> does anyone want to take the opportunity to respond to the question? >> i will. this is what the democrats and the obama campaign xl at. you throw an issue out there and they create some type of division that honestly does not exist. look at the welfare act of 1996. cut welfare rolls in half.

you have bill clinton call it one of the greatest pieces of legislation in our country's history. all of a sudden, obama is doing some things, putting out a memo which to people says you cannot agree with the thing that has been a huge success, and based on its history, here's what we think he will do. suddenly out of nowhere, it becomes a racial issue. i think there is an absurdity to that, and i still think people will buy that. >> they would not be screaming about it if it was not an effective ad. i do not think people are buying that. >> going all the way through and beyond the motivation -- because no matter what happens in this election, we are going to see a profound racial polarization. barack obama is going to finish somewhere around 80% of the vote among minorities, close to it, and somewhere around 40% of whites, and that is just an

enormous gulf that probably will be a challenge for both parties going forward in different ways. >> i think perhaps it would be, but you sort of assume in that that there is a big racial component to it. the guy one last time. it does not have to be. he got 50% -- 53% of the votes with a large number of white voters. i think it is largely driven by performance. >> let's bring in the audience for some questions. do we have a microphone? we do have a microphone. do we have any hands? there is one in the back. >> i have a question about superpac's. i am sure the money is welcome, but what challenge does it pose to manage a campaign in an

uncoordinated environment? >> if you look back to the 2004 campaigns, there were three or four pretty decent sized -- they were not superpac's then, but the beginning form, and i think it was a real challenge for kerry because the message was quite diffuse. you had different entities trying to take cues from the press and come up with an abstract strategy, and they were not able to communicate effectively with each other. this time, i think mitt romney has been a little bit hampered by it because much of the republican money to date has been on the superpac side with some of the same challenges, whereas 80% of the obama messaging has been driven by a obama. it does present some challenges,

but the flip side is you have got to have something out there. mitt romney is in this race today and tied today in large part because there has been so much money spend -- spent by others. >> i can one say -- i can say i was once a victim of superpac's. the problem is they have dramatically changed races. how much can you weigh in and how much can you affect a race and the campaign's share of voice is a fraction of what it used to beat? we cannot drive the agenda as much as paid media. >> he is right. the campaign sure voice has been on the decline for many election cycles. superpac's have accelerated it,

made it greater, but this has been true for at least a dozen years. when i look at it, looking at it from the perspective of a politician, they do not like the fact that they cannot drive the message that they think should be part of their campaign, and i think what the supreme court has said is if you do not like it, you can change it, right? pass new laws that allow people to give them more money or give the parties more money, so the longer term question is -- do politicians ever get to the point where they decide, "i am tired of this and tired of all these people coming in pushing their agenda is?: -- agendas?" there are tendencies by third- party groups to overreach. >> you have all overseen general elections. how important is the advertising overall at the presidential level?

what is your sense of how much it matters? you are tracking visits and advertising. how much does it matter? >> it matters in a sense that it drives our media, but it does not matter in a sense that it drives polling numbers. it is an interesting question. it is like pulling. there is so much public polling that campaigns do not need to spend as much money on internal polling. they just do it because it is how you did it. there's a little bit of truth, i think, to that in advertising. how these candidates act on the stump and at the convention -- that will win or lose an election. >> in 2008, what was the experience? >> i think it matters less on the executive level, especially president, but also governor and mayor of a big city. you are focused more on the issues at a different level.

in a presidential, there are so many other forces at play. >> we are passed $1 billion in television advertising already. -- we are past $1 billion. in a close election, everything matters, but at the presidential in -- presidential level, how important money will that be? >> i think we should just make the ads and send them to reporters. [laughter] >> all the buyers are very angry at me right now. >> wanting a was on the 2008 general election was how much president obama outspent senator mccain in the target states. three, four, five to one in some markets, and ultimately, that does matter. >> we have some great electoral college minds of here, and we

have not asked them about that. if anybody wants to do that, feel free. >> thank you. i have a question on tonight's speech. i think everyone agrees it is a very big one. in the advice you would give to the candidates, what kind of balance would you suggest between elements of biography, general principles, and very specific, targeted announcements in a speech like tonight's? thanks. >> i think the biography part needs to be something that illustrates a bigger point. let me tell you, i was born, here is everything that happened, close quote, does not work. he has to let people into his heart and mind a little bit and let people make the judgment about him. the second thing is i really

think he has to rally people to say, "this guy is going to take us some place as a country. this guy is going to impact me personally." all these things that obama has not done. if it simply becomes an hour- long biography where he tries to defend himself on bain capital and everything else, i think that is not the way to go. >> i think what we most importantly need in addition to the human side to this is something new. there has not really been -- i am sure the romney campaign would disagree with this because they are constantly out giving speeches and announcing things, but there has not been anything new from a policy perspective that has really broken through in the last many months. mitt romney sometimes gets criticized for having this 59- point plan. he has to boil it down to two or three things that resonate and feel like they are new. some of it might be about

medicare, but it has to feel like it is new. domestic policy is most likely where you would see that, yes. >> question over here? >> thank you. in 2008, we saw the young electorate come out. will mitt romney hit that target? will that age show up to vote this time? >> i think that -- i do not think we will have the youth turned out we had in 2008. when you look at polling, it is clear that they returned to a less enthusiastic place when it comes to voting. they suffer from some of the economic policies in the administration as well. i do not expect we will see the turn out we saw last time. that will be somewhat of a problem for the obama coalition

that they will have to address by either getting it elsewhere or through other methods. >> why do you think that is? >> i think there's economic policy issues. that community, that demographic was very impacted by the war in iraq and afghanistan. if i recall correctly, i think in 2004, we won the youth vote marginally, and since then, it has become a tougher and tougher demographic for republicans as well, but in the environment we had in 2008, one, they are a pretty dim -- democratic demographic in the first place. two, there were high levels of intensity. this time, we just do not see that. that intensity is not as strong. >> in 2008, obama was a movement. now he is a candidate. there is less enthusiasm for a candidate.

>> the simple fact is when we are talking about that demographic or any other, he has not been a very good president. people expected a lot more from him. he has not been very good at the job. i think you talk about the connection that the president had in 2008 in terms of people feeling they knew him. i think when he speaks, it could damage him. his greatest strength had -- could turn out to be his greatest weakness. i really think it could potentially backfire. >> we have a question over here, and i have a question i want to ask the panel before we head out. >> how many voters do you think will decide this election in how many states? and do the campaigns already have their e-mail addresses? [laughter] >> they should have their e-mail addresses. i think it will be a very narrow electorate, and it will come

down to probably, at most, nine states. probably five. in the states, probably 6% to 8% is up for grabs right now. >> i think you will see states decided by tens of thousands of votes, maybe less than 10,000 in some of the states. this is very close to coming down to the wire. >> are you recommending door-to- door? >> mitt romney was ahead by two, but only two votes, not to% -- no 2% -- not 2% in the congressional poll. >> we have three great fields, organizers, thinkers. if the race stays close, as we all expect it will, what are the handful of states, the very

small group of states that you think ultimately will decide it? can you pick the one state you think is the single state most likely to vote for the winner? in other words, the person who wins that state is most likely to win? >> i think there are certain states that the president one last time that normally republicans carry that i think will win back. i think we are sitting in a hugely important state. florida, i think, was the biggest which in 2008, and i think it is very important to win florida. it is obviously -- ohio is another one, but i think we are sitting in a hugely important state right now. >> i think it is ohio. it is been surprising to me given the economy, that obama seems to be performing a little bit better their consistently than i would expect him to. ohio is always a key state, but i do think it might be -- it

always plays an important role, but it might be the decisive state. >> why is that? >> i do not know. it is interesting when you look at the polling in the senate race as well, there you have a candidate -- a democratic incumbent who has consistently voted on the obama agenda, which is not an agenda that is, i would say, all that popular in ohio, but he also seems to be performing well, and i have not put my finger yet on what the answer is to why ohio seems to be having a slight tick up for democrats in an environment where they should have a slight tick down. >> i would also keep an eye on states like wisconsin, michigan, pennsylvania to see if they stay competitive. if they trend and stay competitive, i think that at least it shows that there is

something dramatic happening reverses the 2008 election. >> if the last day of the campaign is a close election, where are the last two places the romney and obama planes stopped? >> that is a great question. as a campaign operas have, i would be pushing for three stops. [laughter] at least one more place. i would say columbus and des moines. i would say that ohio is important, but as a nod to terry and my home state, it represents a place for obama where if he cannot win, he will not win ohio. there was such a hope and a belief in him, and if he cannot

turn that state back in his favor, he will miss some of the others. >> that is the same for both of them? columbus and des moines? >> i think you have to put virginia in there as well for obama and the hampton roads. >> listen, you guys are very great. thank you for joining us. any thoughts about what you have heard? >> i have learned a lot today. i will watch new mexico. i found out something i never know in santa fe -- new mexico has gone with the winner every year since its existence except in 1976 when it went for gerald ford against jimmy carter. maybe everybody knew that, but i never knew that, so i am keeping my eye on new mexico. >> thank you guys very much.