hcare, i got help that fit my life. information on my phone. connection to doctors who get where i'm from. antools to estimate what my care e may cost. so i never missed a beat. we're re than 78,000 peop looking out for more than 70 million americans. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare. let not your heart be troubled. have good weekend. seeou back here monday. >> winning the presidency, what does that te? a rong debate. >> i'm paying for this microphone. >> this is all theatre. it's theatre and polits. it's trying to get people to come in to the theatre and take a look, see if they like your play. >> yes, we can. >> youave to lea to see campaigns through the lens of the camera. >> campaigns are made of moments that everyone remembers. the difference between a hock mom and a pit bull, lipstick. >> there you go again. >> where's the beef? >> senator, you're no kenne.

>> commerce, ecation, and the -- what's the third one there? oops. >> tonight we take you behind e scenes. >> see if they can do this flash. >> we'll show you wt they don't like to talk about. >> so lying is okay in politics? wt's behind winning the presency? ♪ >> when it to say winning the presidency, i'd like t think that the choices about whose ideas are betr, but when you talk to people behind the scenes they talk about moments. >> there a a series of moments. that what matters. >> remember the scream? howard dean led john kerry in earlyolls, but then after a loss he tried to rally the troops. >> we're going to california, and texas, and nework! >> the room was noisy. and people in the room said, this sounded like a normal rally. >> and then we're going to

washington, d.c.o take back the white house! y! >> but because dean's microphone cked up only dean's voice, the tv broadcast made him sound crazy. >> yay! >> that unfairly may have killed s campaign. even images can matter more than issues. this video is id to have hurt john kerry. this is said to have helped bill clinton. bil clinton. in the 1980 republican primary george bush had momt against ronald reagan, until in the debate in new hampshire, there was a moment where reagan looked strong. >> i a paying for this microphone. >> that moment helped change the campaign. >> some o some of them you can . >> read my lips. no new taxes. >> the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull, lipstick. >> other ones, youot to depend on your candidate seizing a moment you didn't expect t happen. >> there you go again.

>> most moments so far this election have been poorly phrased comments. >> if you've got a business, you didn't build that. somedy else made that happen. >> i like being able to fire people that provide services to me. >> they'll put y'all back in chains. >> the media call those gaffes, but often the media don't know. when ed musky lost the'072 primary because he looked like he teared up defending his wife, everyone said candidates can't career, because that's week, but then in 08 hillarylinton cried. >> you know, i have so many opportunities from this country. >> she began to tear up. >> don't want to fl backwards. >> she showed being human. >> you know, this is very personal for me. >> pundits pounced. >>eople perceive that as weakness. >> yeah, i think they will and they should. >> makes her look like her campaign is in trouble.

>> the day before showed clinton 10 points behind. the next day, she beat obama in the new hampshire primary. >> the kind of comeback that new hampshire has just given me. >> she tears upnd that moves 11 points in one day. >> she showed real authenticity, and i think voters were very much attracted to that. >> authenticity is rare in politics, and in presidential campaigns the consultants strive to control everything. >> this is all fear. >> democratic bob beckel s counseled hundreds of candidates. >> it's theatre ofolitics, trying to get the people to come in and take a look and see if they like your py. >> here in cleveland, the romney campaign's preparing a play, trying to get lots of people to watch. >> only way to attract them to the theatre is if it looks good. >> tighten that out a little bit. >> just one presidential campaign, in the fall, i the general electi, involves 400 people, advance people, setting

up a stage. >> mike check. 1-2. >> a presidentia campaign stop involves a lot ofard work. >> most are paid to do this. some are volunteers. >> does anybody have any questions? >> the planning starts days earlier. >> you send people driving around small towns in america, and asking people, hey, can we use your -- can we use your campus green? >>el ritter is the director of candidate operations for mitt romney. >> let's get to work. >> campaign staffs try to make sure the right number of people show up. hillary clinton's presidentl campaign was run by patty solis-doe. >> you make callso campaign suppters, make robocalls. >> they eventies advertise in the sky. >> ready for the message, then e mittromney.com/ticket. >> the football stadium seats about 80,000 peoe.

only pblem, romney had 8,000 in the crowd. >> it's ritter's job to make that doesn't happen. >> six really talented advance people on the ground for five days. >> we're paintin part of the backdrop that you see fm the riser. finish that late in the night. >> campaigns obsess about every sign, every camera angle. >> you have to seehe campaigns through the lens of a camera. if you can't dohat, it gets le on field. >> we'll take cameras in there, set them up on our risers that we set for the pss, look at it, make sure e angles are right. >> behind that group ofeople is romney/ryan. >> signs are always the perfect positn for the television cameras or still photographers to pick themp. >> because of how cameras work, we have something here like 40, 50-foot banrs cover buildings and getn a tight shot. >> it's the first thing h walks past that people say as he makes the pivot toward the stage. >> what difference does it make? >> visuals matter so much.

campaigns come down to photography. campaignneed light and sound. >> ladies and gentlemen, plee welcome the next president of the united states! >> keep it up, keep it up. >> now kill it, kill it. >> if we fl, the message stays here with 2,000 or 3,000 people in cleveland, ohio. the goal is to make sure it translates to as many folks as possible. >> ritteronitors the events as they happen. >> hey, will, you're live on all the cables. can i get more hand signs to that crowd behind the gov? >> setting up one event may take weeks and yet -- >> it may last ten minutes. >> then they do it again. 1:00, 2:00 in the morning, we'll do it again. it heads to the next truck and it heads to the next site. >> do you ever sleep or smell bad? >> we went three days with no sleep, no showers. >> always with the fear that one simple mistake, even a poorly

chosen image can dtroy a campaign. ask michael did you cactus. >diddukakis.>> he didn't want ta helmet. he understood that that w wasn't going to be a distinguish television st. >> consultant stev murphy worked with dukis. the answer came back, we've arranged for you to ride in a tank, theyon't let you ride in a tank without a helmet because it's unsafe. he relented. he should have stuck wh his instincts. >> that moment turned into this commercial. >> now he wants to be our commander in chief. america can't afford that risk. >> do ads likeha really wk? the consultants think they do. >> three, four, five -- >> they still rave about this ad. it ran only once, but was talked about so much on tv, they say it anged all campaigns. it was the first negative ad to use fear and raw emotion. >> 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2,

1. [explosion] >> these are the stakes. we must either love each other or we must die. >> vote or die. pretty relevt. >> but pretty unfair, a smear on goldwater. >> oh, jeez. >> medicare mckinnon worked on the bush campaign which ran this ad showing the candidates consoling 9/11 victims. >> our president took ashley in his ms and just embraced her, and it was at tha moment that we saw ashley's eyes fill up wi tears. >> come on, this is the presidency. you're playing ts music and we're supposed to vote for this guy because sheears up. >> that's exactly what they did. this ad aired in ohio inate 2004. it was absolutely pital. >> it's morning again in america. today more men and women will go to work than ever bore in our

country's history >> beckel worked for reagan's opponent at the time. >> i see this ad com on on the television. it's a farmer and sonn a beautiful pasture. they put their hands over their hearts. i stood up and put my hand over my heart. the tagline is, re-elect ronald reagan. i said, are you kidding me that? that is blatant, blatant and good. you may think it's corny, but let's face it, youhink everything's corny, okay, but if you can get an image like that it reay matte. >> ed rollins was reagan's campaign manager. >> two kinds of monitoring you make in a campaign. one is an intellectual argument d ones an emotional argument. when bece ran mondale's campaihe saw this ad. >> where's the beef? >> wendy's was trying to convince people their hamburgers had mo beef. >> where's the beef? >> you were hom watching tv with your girlfriend andaw this ad.d.

>> yeah. i saw the ad. my girlfriend said to me, that reminds me of gary hart. what's he all about? all of a sudden, it ccked. >> this is not polling, just a comment from a girlfriend. >> that's right. >> you probably liked heroo much. >> no, no. i didn't actually. that triggered in my mind something th made some sense, we could put on the next poll. we put it on a poll, it tested well. >> so mondale used it in a debate. >> where's the beef? >> wendy's spent a hundred millions dollars on an ad campaign to give me an opening for a line. i want to thank them very much. >> tha made a difference? >> it changed the race overnight. it confirmed in people's minds something that had been on their minds, which was is this guy really up to it? does heave the experience to do it? and hart,ho had been on such an offensive all of a sudden has to be on the defensive, and he doesn't handle it very well. >> there were several things that hart didn't handle well, but that's anothertory. >> he was reeling. we came right back in wh

another punch, which was the red phone. >> the most awesome, powerful responsibility in the world lies in the hand that picks up this phone. >> again, they used emotion to sell the idea that gary hart was style, not substance. >> ve as if the future of t world is at stake. >> decades later -- >>t's 3:00 a.m., and your children are safe and asleep, but there's a phone in the white house and it's ringing. >> hillary cnton's consultants used the same theme to attack barack obama. >> who do you want answering the phone? >> in this casit was barack obama, because he answered the red phone at 3:00 in the morning. said, gary heart answered th red phone at 2:00 in the morning. did they steal it from us? solutely. >> today's ads are more likely to be direct attacks. >> barack obama, what a disappointment. >> americans say we don't like these attacks, but they do work. in the swing states,hey now run all the time. >> if you're sick of hearing me approve is message believe m

so am i. >> i'm barack obama. >> i'm mt romney. >> a proved this message. >> however most of you won't see those messages. you've been excluded. i've been a superintendent for 30 some years at many different park service units across the united states. the only time i've ever had a break is when i was on maternity leave. i ha retired from doing this one thing that i loved. now, i'm going to be able to have the time to explore something different. it's like another chapter. ♪

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>> political parties spend millions trying to persuade you to vote for their candidate, but there's more to it than just convincing you. first they obsess about whether you are worth convincing. >> the whole art of politics in presidential blocks particularly is to target those people who are with you at the beginning and leave them alone until you need to get them to vote. target those who are going to be against you and don't stir them up, and focus everythinyou can on those who are persuadable. >> that may be 10% o the people, 20%? >> yeah. used to be 20%. this yr particularly it's down to 10%. the art of finding that 10% is key to all this. no one did that better than karl rove. he pioneered what he called microtargeting. that was credited with nning the 04 election. he compiled reams of information about people. >> if they own a gun, what magazines they read, what car they o. >> we ha a microtargeted voter file in which we had up 225 pieces of household level information about them.

we knew what kind of car they had. >> republicans tod most often drive ford mustangs, audition, mercedes. democrats are more likely to own a honda civic hybrid, volvo, or nissan leaf. they watch tv shows, conservative like "dancing with the stars" and modern family. >> you won't havave to pay taxes for the rest of your life. >>iberals ar mor likely to watch "law and order" or "30 rock." >> tonight tgf will n be the worst thing on television. it will be john stossel. who's with me? >> yeah, not surprised that liberals watch that. >> what difference does that make? >> it tes you things like if you want to reach an independent swing woman voter, buy theouse and rden channel. if you wan to reach a republican-leaning but less kely to vote independent swing man, go buy the golf channel. >> rove did resrch on blacks who might vote for bush and found many are christians who

watch these tv prehers. >> now in the name of jesus, i command this debt out of m life. >> so rove placed advertisements ther >> in ohio, in 2000, bushot 2% of the african american vote. in 2004, he got6%. we were ae to identify a group of africanmerican vots who, though, their history was overwhelming democrat, we had clues that gave us a sense they might be reachable. >> this year consultants want to reach not just swing voters, but swing voters in these0 states. >> you take a map of the united states, an you just cross out states. just cross them out. say we can't win he. >> the rest of us, most of us, don't really count. we live in the wrong state. i live in new york. my state's electoral votes wl go to obama, no doubt. doesn't matter what io. or if all new york swing voters shift their vote. if you live in texas, same deal. doesn't matter who you vote for. texas will go to romney.

>> why campaign in the other states? >> we don't. why waste our time? >> they do go there, but just to raise money from rich people. otherwise the consultas ignore 40 of 50 states. >> this is not about a national campaign. it's about persuadable voters in a few states. that's what matters. >> tod today campaign manags copied rove's strategy. first step, identify your key voters, and then get them to vote. >> your only priority today is getting ople to vote. >> they call it got tv. >> have you had a chance to vote yet? >> hundreds a huneds of volunteers to knock on their door, you have to call them and remind them today is caucus day, today is voting day, call them once, call them twice. >> i'm calling to remind you today is election day. >> you call them again? >> sure. you make sure they know where their polling place is. >> it boils down to this one

day. you have to make sure you voters get out. >> hi. my name is annie. >> today the phone system's aumated, a volunteer presses a button, a phone aomatically dials the likely supporter, and her name pops up along wit script. >> have you had a chance to vote yet? >> the campaign called these people months before. >> this is a close race. we appreciate you voting. >> the compute kept track of who said they'd vote for their candidate. then on election day you call them again to make sure they did. >> y did? well, wonderful. thank you, mrs. casey. >> if you suspect they might not vote -- >> show up with a bus, a personal car? >> sure. >> people don't just vote anymore, you pick them up and take them there. >> yeah. it's an art form. it's an art form. >> when we return, i'll ally bank. it's an art form. >> when we return, i'll why they have a raise your re cd. tonight our guest, thomas sargent. nobel laureate in economics, and one of the most cited economists in the world. professor sargent, can you tell me

what cd rates will be in two years? no. if he can't, no one can. that's why ally has a raise your rate cd. ally bank. your money needs an ally.

>> sometimes i feel sorry for presidential candidates. i feel their strain because they have to face us, the media.

>> governor romney! >> mr. president! >> look at the candidates smile. >> you also said that you a america's most tactless prince since carter. >> he smiled. they rarely show anger. they just keep smiling and laughing. >> tnk you, thank u. don't get the impression that you aroused my ang. >> often they don't like the reporters. >> one can only be angry with thoshe respects. >> i bet mitt romney doesn't respect the reporters who followed him when heent to a memorial site. despite the sombe nation of thee moment, reporters shouted at him? >> do you feel your gaffes have overshadow your campaign? >> the candidates smile and repeat the message of the day. reporters feel as conduits for

eessage. >> their useless is what they can doo carry a message t the voters. outside ofhat they're useless. >> do you have a message of the day so we simple minded reporterdon't g accused by too many messages? >> i would never call you simple-minded, but yes. >> to bui that bridge to the 21st century. >> in 1996, bill clinton said, "build a bridge" 22 times >> to build a bridge to help our parents raise their children. to build that bridge. bridge. bridge. bridge. bridge. >> all right already. i would think a candidate would say to you, you want me to repeat myself that much? i'd look like a more ron. >> they do say that. the really good ones get it and do it. >> yes, you can't. >> you don't want to do, stay home.

>> it's iccold and tasty. >> we follow them every. >> what you got? > >> groceries. >> mitt romney is followed by sometimes plane, more often a bus. the pack call it living in a bubble. nicole follows romney around the world. >> thank you, thank you. >> h many cities have you been to? >> i don't know how many cities i've been in. >> lost count? >> iave dolph lost count. it's not uncommon to lose track of time, day, time zone. i do know -- >> wake up, you don't know where you are? >> the room always looks like the same, but the bathroom door is in a different place. >> they video anything that might be interesting.. when i was her age, it took four beefy union workers to do what she's doing. >> what do you have wi you? >> a camera, all the cables that you need, the microphones, e

tripod, and your personal bag. kind of like a satellite truck in a box. >> it's a tough job for reporters and the campaign staff. >> the emotional andsical toll that running a presidential campaign takes o people is enormous. you're working 18 hours a day, seven days a week. you've got a candidate on the phone every hour, calling and complaining about something. you just want to tell them to shut up and get back to work. it also requires having an understanding wife or you're divorced, you know. in my case, i got divorced. >> if you like vegetables, it's probably not for you. if you lik sleep it mht not be for you but it's fainating. >> the 18-hour days don't seem like 18-hourays. they seem like it happens like that. >> nicole gets just four or five hours of sleep. she's usually up around 5:00 in the morning. by 6:00 a.m -- >> you have already received probably about three or four emails from the campaign, guessing you an idea of what the messaging will be for the day. >> the pac wts something new

or a mistake. >> i've now been in states. >> so candidates try to stick to the script. >> for an economy that's but to last. >> for an economy that'suilt to last. that's built to last. >> nicole says she doesn't mind hearing the same speech again and agai >> when you know the speech so well in and out, it makes it that much easier to pinpoint when there's something new. it's almost like your ears perk up. >> the whole pack perks up, what was that? >> you s all of us furiously typing or tweeting. >> sometimes campaigns play with reporters, use us for their purposes. get joy in fooling the media? >> yes, but more importantly in a campaign you want to have your own narrative at your own time. >> myunning mate, dick cheney. >> before bush made this announcent, rove wanted to misld the dia. >> we had a guy on the campaign who was a leaker. >> how do you know he was a leaker? >> well, because he was a leaker. -- said, what's going owith

the vi presidency? i said, look, bigecret, d't tell anybody, but bush has decided to go with jk danforth of missouri. >> the media ranith the false story. >> felt sort of bad, but i wasn't lying to the media, i was just giving misdirection to the guy who leaked. >> lying to the guy? >> well, yeah. it helps tell a story. when you want to he the story told b by an evening anchor o te story told by the cdidate who expresses in front of the cameras with as few filters as possible why he made this choice. >> four years later the "new york post" said john kerry had picked richa gephardt to be his running mate. this was of course a mistake. rry had picked john edwards. john edwards turned out to be another kind of mistake, but that'snother story. what the mediaeported en fooled gephardt's campaign manager. >> called up dick gephardt, and i said, dick, i know you can't talk about this. he said, it never happened. i said, dick, i understand you

have to deny it to me and everybody else. he said, steve, it didn't ppen. >> whyouldn't u believe him when he said so-so emptically, there was no meeting? >> you absolutely must keep the conversation going on with the nominee and -- >> lying is okay in politics, running for office? >> lying is not oy unless you're asked an inappropriate question. >> politicians have always lied. >> i'm not a crook. >> i did not have sexual relations with that woman. >> the media used to giv candidates privacy. even keep their secrets. they rarely pictured fdr in his wheelchair. they kept jfk's sexl activities secret. but now everything's game. that's a good thing. even though we reporters are obnoxious. >> the next titime i prefer you lete finish my statement before you ask that question. >> next, you ready for presidential debates? we'll show you secrets behind the debates.

>> for months mitt romney and president obama have attacked each other, taed past each other, but three times this fall they face each other. debates can make a big difference. >> youlever have as many people watching your two candidates together in a presidential election as you have on debe night. >> the camigns can control the debate the way they control everything else. >> no matter what you dos a manar to get them ready, 's still got to step in the arena. it's just two of them. you don't know. >> it's three agencies of government when i get there that are gone. commerce, education, and the -- what's the third one there? let's see. >> one brain freeze can end your campaign. >> the- umm. >> commerce? commerce. and let's see -- >> rick perry was a serio contender until this debate. >> oops. >> forgetting is bad, and

looking bad is bad. in the very first tv debate, richard xon refused to put on makeup. it hurt him. nixon latersaid -- >> more important than what you say is how you look on television. >> so campaigns obsess over details. when ronald reagan debated walter mondale, rollins and beckel were the opposing campaign magers. >> do you remember how high the podiums wod be? >> days. >> we had days negotiating. >> the color of the room. >> what difference would it make to the candidate what color the room was? >> because in cerin conditions, certain colors work for certain candidates. >> becauseondale was shorter than reagan -- >> we wanted more distance between the two podiums. we debated bween 7 1/2 feet and 9 feet for a day and a half. >> the first debate came, and reagan struggled. >> 2/3 of the defense budget pay and passengers.lary -- or

>> he looked tired and ragged. the general observation washey just spent too much time wit a 70-year-old guy trying to beat every factoid into his brain. >> people said ronald reagan is toolfor the ofce. >> you're already the oldest in history. >> in the next debate, reagan was ready for that. >> i will not make age an issue of this campaign. i'm not going to exploit for political purposes my opponent's youth and inexperience. >> he delivers the line, and there's an impish sense of humor that comes out. you see the curl in his lips, and he's making fun of himself, and he delivers a great line. mondale can't help himself. he's simultaneously laughg and at the same time knowing i've just been taken to the cleaners. >> i turned to the guy next to me, the deput and said my race is over.

>> just from that? >> yeah. i walkedway. >> most people only remember one thing about the 1998 vice presidential debate, what senator lloyd benson said when dan quayle comped his experience to jfk's. >> senenator, you're no jack kennedy. >> here's later in debate, al gore walked up to bush. >> al gore tries t come over and be the bully and get in his face. bush doesn't say anything. just looks at him, smiles, gives him the head wink, and goes on. >> that was it.can. it just -- you know, it just absolutely devastad gor >> you watch him go. >> yeah. we all revert to our junior high mentality, you know, when our team scored. yeah, you know! >> most people don't know is that bush had been prepared. >> judre, w had played t role oal gore in the debate prep, had seen him pull this trick. he said to bush, be prepared, he's going to come and get in your face.

all dismissed at the time, but sure enough it happened. >> which raises the question how do candidates prepared? these two debate coaches showed me. they preppedresident bush for debate. o'donnell later coached mitt romney and michele bachmann. they spent hours trying to replicate debate moments. >> you have the candidate stand in front of a podium like this as realistics possible? >> yeah. you want a strong bearing, erect. look at colin powell. he commands the podium. it's like this. >> it's about making sure that you fill the stage more than your opponent does. >> the candidas practice debating stand-ins. for obama, john kerry's plays romney. rob portman plays obama. >> you never see videotape of this, not even pictures. >> no. there's a reason why. you don't want to show those vulnerable moments. >> we don't want give away any cponent to our prep. >> in the 2000 cpaign, one of

mckinnon's secretaries gave prep video to the gore campaign. >> gore campaign went straight to the fbi. >> what happened to her? >> she went to prison for a year. >> what's so sret? i pretended to be a candidate. limited governme - >> just limited government. what kind of limits are you talking about? can yo be specific. >> yes, i can list cuts. >> would you cut defense? >> so you're sof on defense? >> i knew how i suld answer the questions, but under pressure it's hard. i'm saying take it back to the clinton days. "instinct is to awer the estions that are asked, but consultants day don't. >> you're still answering my questions,ut most of the time you want to beelivering your message. >> they say sarah palin was good at that. >> governor palin answere the questions in her debate on her terms. >> governor pin, is that so? >> that's not so, but because that's a quick ansr i want to talk about my record on energy. >> she was able to pivot most of

the questions on to ground that she was comfortable in handling the questions on. >> they kept grilling me. >> do you believe college is stupid? >> i -- >> don't you think that saying college is stupid is an irresponsiblremark to make? >> no. for some people college is stupid. >> you just gave him some tape. >> now they'll make a commercial you saying college is stupid. >> he says college is stupid. >> college is stupid. >> stossel, bad for our kids! bad for america! >> knowing that one bad debate moment can wreck your campaign makes candidates very careful. when gerald ford debated jimmy carter there was a thnical glitch. >> the broadcasts from philadelphia have temporarily lost the audio. >>nstead of leaving the stage to take a break,either candidate mod. >> we don't know what's happened. we're as much surprised by

what's going on as you are. >> since oneasn't going to budge, the other wouldn't budge. >> they stood there like for a half hour? >> they were frozen. >> the first president bush was criticized for looking at his watch too mh during a debate. he looked at his watch. so what? >> it's a nonverbal clue that says i'm -- i want to get away from this situation asast as possible. >> and that hurt him? >> he was widely viewed as losing that debate. it overran the message. >> al gore was criticized after is debate f sighing while george bush spoke. >> this is a major probl. soal security -- >> he looked like a do yo dufus >> he was kansas city gated. next debate, al gore went out of his way to be docile and agree with everything bush said. >> the governor and i agree. i agree wh governor bush. i basically agree with dick

cheney. >> embarrassing episodes like those are why candidates practice a lot. these discussis g on for hours? >> hours. for most candidates it's the most hated part of the candate. >> does a candidate ever get mad? >> all the time. it's painful it's not fun >> do candidates ever yellt you? >> yell, collapse, walk out. >> they all do it because practice builds confidence. the confident guyins, not the guy who has the better answer? >> quite often, yes.. confidence, not

>> people that complain that political campaigns are too shallow, why don't they talk more abouthe importantssues? well, thers a good reason. who's this? >> oh, my god. how could isot know this? >> who's this? >> i have no idea. i'm not dog vy good, am i? >> yet there are all these get out the vote campaigns. vote! >> vote! >> pase get out and vote. >> get out and vote! >> i don't want everyone to get out and vote because some people don't know much. i went to times sare and showed people posters of important politicns. most people didn't know speaker of the house john boehner. who's this? >> i have no idea.

>> many didn't know nancy pelosi. >> who's this? >> i d't know. >> oh, my god. >> well, this is awkward. >> that's the vice president of something. >> let's taste the actual vice president. >> who's this? >> i don't know who that one is. >> it's the vice president. just can't remember his name. >> biden. >> no, no. >> many wer better at celebrities. >> tom cruise. >> justin bieber. >> it's not that people are stupid, but most americans spend more time thinking about other things >> the arage amount of time that a person spends on presidential politics in the course of a campaign is probably about three hours. >> that may shock you pitical junkies who watch fox, but americans spend mh more time thinking aut food, money,ex. politics is y down the list. it's a reason they keep appeals simple, emotional. >> there's a bear inhe woods. >> republicans run ads like this one to suggest democratsre soft on defense.

>> isn't it sma to be as strong as the bear? >> we the republicans, we see the threat. we're going to take action to protect theation from this. democrats, you can't trust them. >> jonathan's research based on surveys of thousands of people concluded that most of us choos our political party less on fact and more onhich politician seems to be like members of our clan. >> he says conservatives join with people who worry more about foreign threats. liberals areore likely to obsessbout the purity of nare. >> may i mideast have more arsenic in my water, mommy? >> these sanctity purity ideas about the environment. >> more salmonella in my cheeseburger, please. >> lots of research shows the subconscious mattersorthan fact. >> the professor at princeton did a very illoom nateing study. he said pick who looks more

confident. >> here' how most people rank them. >> he predicted the outco of all those races bas on which candidate looked more confident. not beautiful, but more confident. 70% of the time the more confident-looking person won the election. >> candidates with more angular faces, aseen here, are seen as more competent. at the face becomes more baby-faced, people say that person looks ls competent. >> people make decisions based on looks? looks. >> mitt romney and oma appear about equal consultants even worry about the people who stand behind the candidate. at this oba rally, people were already seated behind t podm when a staffer, highlighted here, came on stage and got som white people to move out. >> if you look at a candidate for president, he's got a bunch

of people behind him, half wil be men, halfill be women. >> and a certain number will be of a different race. in thi case, the result is that the camera now will see some minorities behind obama. >> there will be a percentage of blacks, hispanics, a pcentage of asians. that the way you do it. >> i thought it just worked out that way. >> you did? that'shy you're sitting where you're sitting and i'm sitting where i'm sitting. you don't have a clue how this works. >> people have to be cynical about baby kissing. >> kids are a particular attraction. i like to use kids. i'm alwaysys worried they'll pik up a baby and drop it. >> how much superficialallity, >> how much superficialallity, but for all the [ male announcer ] how do you help doctors turn billion of bytes of shared information... ♪ into a fifth anniversary of remission? hatever your business challenge, dell has the techlogy and services to help you solve it.

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>> politics is a nasty business with constant fighting. 's like a boxing match. >> and down he goes. >> so it's telling that th is what two of our consultants used to do. >> you both were serious boxers as kids. whateit? >> i was a heavyweight. >> and this helps in a campaign? >> teaches you how to take a beating. >> sure does. >> here's what rollins looked like when he was getting ready for a physical beating. consultants y this prepares you for political beatings. >> if you don't have a tough skin in this busess, you might as well just forget about wanting to ever do it. you'll be in a psychiatric unit. >> you also need a passion for politics. >> you were a vocal sporter of richard nixon at age 9? >>ge 9.

>> what kind of political freak are you? this is not healthy. >> well, i've always been interested in politics. i was for nixon. i scored a bumper sticker, put it on the wire basket of my bike, rode it up and dthe street, hoping to generate support for nixon. this worked really well until the little catholic girl across the street, who was on fire for kennedy literally pulled m off my bycle, put me down on the pavement, sat astride me and wailed the heck out of me, gave me a bloody nose. i've never liked losing a political fightince. >> his opponts often hate him. >> fear of karl rove politics will finally be over nex year. >> angry stuff. beckle and rollins have fought each other for years, yet they came to the interview togher. >> you guys spent a career trying to kill eac other's careers, but you're friends >> great friends. >> friends for 25 years. >> why? >> you appreciate what your counterpart has to go through

every >> would you please wait? >> all of the shouting.