we asked you what you were doing up this hour. producer john tower in new york has answers. what do you got. >> chris, he writes it's a follow-up to friday as promised i'm next door at hooters tampa. are you still bringing capehart as our wing man. >> you weren't lying. i like jonathan capehart a lot but he is disgracing "the washington post" at the hooters. it's totally uncalled for what he's been doing over there. "morning joe" starts right now. i look at this as a responsibility and a privilege. it's an honor to be the nominee of my party. but this is about an opportunity to get america on track again,

and that's what i'm thinking about. can i win this thing? can i be successful in replacing president obama? if i can, i want to make sure that we get the country back on track. so for me, i'm focused on not letting down the millions of people, literally millions now, who have endorsed my effort, sent checks in to help me campaign. i feel an enormous responsibility. i don't feel ebollent with aren't i great for having got this. i feel like, wow, a lot of people are counting on me, hoping i'll be able to win and i'll be able to get america on track again. >> wow. >> good morning, everyone. it is monday, august 27th. welcome to a wet, rainy, windy tampa, florida. >> that is chamber of commerce, my friends. >> that's fantastic. >> welcome to my home state, the sunshine state. >> for bringing me here. where are we, joe? >> live this morning in the channelside part of the city of

med is week. he moon bar, >> has a new name. >> this beautiful sunny week, and the sunshine state -- >> don't see any sun. >> the elephant bar. >> across from the tampa bay times forum where the republican national convention is set to convene and suspend all activities until tomorrow because of tropical storm isaac. we're going to get into exactly how the storm is affecting the rnc in just a moment. but first, with us on set, msnbc and "time" magazine senior political analyst mark halperin, he is the king of the human pyramid. >> he is. going to have to show you that. >> the national affairs editor for "new york" magazine and msnbc political analyst john heilemann. >> willie wants to know what that means. >> we have pictures. >> we're going to show you what that means later. >> okay. also, also with us, msnbc political analyst and former chairman of the republican national committee, and the man who can explain why we are in florida in august during hurricane season. >> seriously. >> michael steele.

>> welcome to florida, baby. good to be in your backyard. >> good to be here. >> you saw this coming, didn't you? >> yeah. >> michael steele. >> oh, yeah. two years ago. i'm that way, you know. >> you know, it's one of those things that willie and i were talking about earlier we played the odds and the odds were this is a great spot to have a convention, i think the delegates and everyone will have a great time. so you get a little wet. >> look at the hearty souls that are here. >> a bar and three people. thank you. so -- >> and we have a lot of florida people as well. >> it will be fun. listen, there's a bar, i'm happy. >> exactly. and really quickly, willie, a lot of news over the weekend, but the biggest one, that blockbuster trade you were talking about between the red sox. >> huge. >> and the dodgers, the red sox cleaned their team out. they cleaned up their payroll. >> season is over, getting ready for next year, got rid of gonzalez, josh beckett, carl crawford after that experiment,

and unloaded over $200 million worth of contracts freeing up their payroll and they found a sucker to take them. the l.a. dodgers. >> go dodgers. >> we'll talk sports later. we'll get to politics since we are here in tampa and business at today's convention will be brief and symbolic. reince priebus will gavel the convention to order this afternoon and immediately call it into recess until tomorrow. didn't this happen four years ago? he's expected to unveil and activate a national debt clock that is mounting inside the convention hall to serve as a visual symbol of the party's economic message. >> i love that. >> looking ahead to tomorrow one of the first orders of business will be the delegate roll call, the process by which the republican party will formally nominate mitt romney. we'll hear remarks from speaker of the house john boehner, former presidential candidate rick santorum, senator kelly ayotte of new hampshire, senate candidate ted cruz and governor nikki haley of south carolina

and the night will end with a prime time speech by the candidate's wife ann romney. that should be good. >> yeah. >> first let's go to bill karins, meteorologist bill karins with an update on the hurricane. bill? >> tampa has caught a little bit of a break as you've seen down there, a little windy, a little rainy. this storm is heading towards new orleans and that's the concern that's developed over the weekend and continue to gotten worse. the storm is located off the west coast of florida. still have bands of rain through central florida. still a tornado threat in southern portions of florida during the morning hours today. that's really the only weather concern today. now we turn our attention to what this storm is going to do, trying to redevelop as i speak, trying to strengthen. it has 36 hours to do that. the question is, how strong can isaac get before it moves over the top of new orleans, 36 hours from right now. tuesday about dinner time. right now it's about 500 miles from new orleans. the official forecast from the hurricane center has narrowed all of our computer models pinpointing southern louisiana,

possibly the mississippi coastal area. this is an area very sensitive to storm surge flooding as we found out from katrina and then we're going to have a lot of rain with this too. those pumps will be working full speed? new orleans. only a category 1, because they were saying category 2, but the speed of this storm is going to be very slow as it approaches new orleans. it could sit over the region for 36 to 48 hours, anywhere to the right of the storm including mobile, including pensacola, including the coastal areas of mississippi and all the areas near southeast louisiana have a big chance of storm surge flooding from this storm because much its slow movement. the winds won't do much damage doesn't look like but the storm surge and heavy rain that could be produced will be the biggest fears for areas there. today the last day to prepare from mobile bay to coastal louisiana. tomorrow morning the weather will be getting worse. hopefully we'll get through it and levts yis will hold. it's a nervous 36 hours waiting

to see how strong the storms can get. >> yeah. >> bill, we'll be back with you throughout the program this morning. thank you. a new abc/"washington post" poll out this morning shows the campaigns are neck and neck heading into the conventions. both candidates attached each other for being extreme and dividing the country. >> i can't speak to governor romney's motivations. what i can say is that he has signed up for positions, extreme positions, that are very consistent where the positions that a number of house republicans have taken and whether he actually believes in those or not, i have no doubt that he would carry forward some of the things that he's talked about. >> i think his whole campaign has been about dividing the american people. it's between the haves and have nots, the people of one location versus another. this is one street versus another street.

that's the divisiveness that americans recognize and one of the reasons his campaign, despite spending massively more than our campaign, that his campaign hasn't gained the traction that he would have expected. i think people have seen this kind of a character assassination and divisiveness of being very different with the campaign of hope and change which he ran on originally. >> so let's talk first, john heilemann, about the poll. this deadlock, 47/46, it's a tie going into this convention. >> and has been that for months, you know. it's now become a cliche this has been the most static presidential race in a long time. tens of millions of dollars spent on both sides by the outside groups and campaigns themselves and the polls have not budged since mitt romney effectively got the nomination. >> and mitt romney has been, i guess he's a few points down last month in most polls, but he's drawn even and the swing states are getting tighter as well, and this despite a lot of

bad news for republicans over the past couple of weeks. >> registered voters, an interesting choice to make, a lot of organizations have moved likely in general governor romney has done better with likely and registered voters. being tied because margin of error, statistically up one, being tied on registered is good for him, after a period not just with congressman akin but where a lot of things where republicans were having a bad period. the key number president 46. if the president is at 46 going into the fall it's going to be difficult to get to 50 and i'm no math genius but he's got to get to 50 to win or close to it. >> the polls have been static over the past couple weeks. is this the opportunity for the candidates and for their superior surrogates to move the meter? or is it all just sort of -- >> we always use -- michael

steele we always use the basketball analogy. if your team is shooting 20%, and you're going to halftime three points down, you go to the refrigerator going, we're good. >> we're good. >> because we know they're going to get better. >> it's all good. our party has stumbled and bumbled. this has been a miserable year for the republican brand going through the primaries and yet before the first gavel goes down on the republican convention, mitt romney's one point ahead among registered voters. as a republican, i'm looking at those numbers and -- >> feeling good. >> romney is getting better on the stump. >> tough summer. >> i say that, now he's going to say something -- >> you know, make us all go oh! >> not this week. this is the most scripted of weeks. >> since he picked paul ryan. >> yeah. >> he seems to be more comfortable. >> more comfortable, he's kind of found his political soulmate in terms of doing this campaign. i think he is, like you said,

hit some strong points and i come in this week at thursday, don't care what happens between now and thursday, he's going to look america in the eye and deliver his heart, soul and vision for the country and how we fit into that vision and if he does that and he hits it out of the park that 20% looks real good, doesn't it? >> really does. you said specifically a few weeks ago that mitt romney talked about three things, the ms, money, mormonism and massachusetts. over the last couple weeks, mark and i were talking, he wrote an op-ed about his time at bain capital, put bain capital in the title, talked about his mormon faith and now embracing the massachusetts health law. he's going to say this is who am, he said quote, i am who i am. he's opening himself up and laying it on the table and see where it happens. >> he's talking about his health care plan in massachusetts. >> right. >> small government conservative, i mean i believe and people that i served with

really tough conservative also you're talking about tom bow coburn or steve largent but small government guys and women believe, as governor of the state, you have a lot more latitude than you do when you're in the washington, d.c. we've always said, newt always said in '94, all the conservatives said states were a legislative laboratory and let's let the states experiment. mitt romney can come out and say look what i did in massachusetts and actually embrace it. and say, yeah, that worked for us in massachusetts. the same deal wouldn't work in mississippi or in nevada. that's why we -- >> except hide from it. >> he basically said it's not my fault that obama got it wrong. >> right. >> what we did in massachusetts was ever designed for all other 49 states. >> jeb bush has been at times a little critical of the party of late as well. republicans are attacking the president, though, now and

coming together of the country's continued slow economic growth. president obama said the sluggish turnaround in large part due to the economic situation that he inherited from president george w. bush. but sunday on "meet the press," former florida governor jeb bush said that message is only effective for so long. >> how much do you get your back up when you hear this president blame a lot of the economic condition on your brother, your predecessor? >> i think it's time for him to move on. the guy was dealt a difficult hand, no question about it. he's had three years. his policies have failed. rather than blame others, which i know we were taught that was kind of unbecoming, over time you can't keep doing that. offer fresh new solutions to the problems we face. but that's not going to happen between now and election day. >> we were talking about this last week, mark halperin, and mike barnicle said it doesn't wash after four years. i've been very critical of george w. bush and republicans in congress for their big

spending ways, while george bush was president. but barack obama can't go back four years later after running trillion dollar debts and keep pointing the finger at george w. bush. he can. i just don't think they're going to be many independent voters that say okay, you have four years and it's the guy who's been down in the dallas suburbs' fault, four years later. >> you talk to people who do focus groups this cycle and independent voters don't like that. they've moved on from that and their little trick play, the bank shot, to say what mitt romney will do is bring you back to what george bush did. that's what bill clinton has been talking about and suspect he'll talk about next week. what governor romney has to do is to kind of make people think new about him. the stuff willie talked about. a lot of people in the press and some democrats will say, now he's talking about bain, now massachusetts. i think most voters won't care. that will be new information to them. >> guess what? preseason is over. >> right. >> this week, regular season starts.

you run your real plays, the best stuff you have and be part of what they do this week to tell this story and part of the story he tells. >> john heilemann, i say this with all due respect to the president of the united states, bright guy, he's a good guy, he's a great -- great dad, great, great husband, you just know a but is coming here. >> really. so is mitt romney. >> the one thing he doesn't get and his people don't get, is that americans hunger for compromise. i never thought i would say that, but americans hunger for washington to make something work. to agree. >> that's why they hate the congressional republicans so much. >> and you say hate. this is a president -- >> dislike. >> this is a president who came in one day after, you know, he started talking to republicans in 2009 and he concluded an argument with, i won.

we're going to have it our way. >> we could have the debate in two different directions. mark's colleague, michael grunwald a piece on time.com talking from his book where he has more details where the republicans decided they weren't going to do business with president obama from day one two. president obama felt like he had a mandate. a lot of congressional senators that said they weren't going to give him anything. there was intransigents on both sides. >> hold on. there's one president. george w. bush was elected during the evisive of times, enraged us conservatives working with teddy kennedy on education and other bills. >> he needed partners willing to work with him there. >> this president doesn't need to have partners? >> he does. he didn't have any at the beginning of the administration. congressional republicans said we're not going to do business with you under any circumstances. >> judd greg. he had are judd grug. >> no, he didn't. >> he walked away from it.

>> some republicans, limited number, who gave president obama votes. i'm trying to say there was an atmosphere at the beginning of the administration where both sides dug in their heels quick on a lot of things. >> same atmosphere was there when bill clinton was elected. >> not true. >> yes, it was. i was up there. when people say things are worse now for barack obama than they ever have been for anybody else, they don't remember. >> that's not -- >> you had jerry falwell going around saying that the clinton chronicles, this guy being accused by major players of murder. things were uglier for bill clinton than barack obama and he got things done. >> barack obama got things done also. >> with democrats. >> well as did president clinton in certain circumstances. >> hold on. president clinton balanced the budget with congressional republicans, passed welfare reform with republicans, tax cuts with republicans. >> passed the deficit passed the

biggest budget in 1993, the republicans. one of the things that's true, this is indisputably the case, there is a lot of -- obviously a lot of distaste towards certain things president obama has done in the electorate and a popular congressional party that the polling shows it. president obama is at 46, 47%. congressional republicans no where near that level and the reason is because a lot of americans do perceive congressional republicans to have been intransigent, the party of no. that's a winning argument. >> well, i think, though, you can look at the polls all you want to. the republicans are probably going to maintain the house. so it's going to work for them. the question is, and you know what, this is a terrible debate to have, because everybody always goes to their own sides, my only point is, that this white house doesn't believe republicans are wrong, they believe they're evil. this white house doesn't realize they are hurting themselves.

they are. they are hurting themselves. >> joe, every single thing you're saying is something you can say about congressional republicans with respect to the president. they think the president is evil. they don't think he's a citizen of the united states. >> you are completely missing my point. i'm not talking about what's even good for the country. my point has been this entire time, what's good for the president politically. and all i've been saying is what this president doesn't understand and what this administration doesn't understand is, they can sit around in circles and talk about how bad republicans are which they do all the time. they're only hurting themselves. >> you know, he's just one man. >> he is just one man. >> he's just one man and we're just getting started, as you can see. oh, great. live here from tampa, florida, stay with us, among our guests this morning the chairman of the republican national committee reince priebus will be here, former mississippi governor and rnc chair hally barbour and republican senator from texas kay bailey hutchinson and joined

by tom brokaw, chris mathews, david gregory, chuck todd and andrea mitchell. jim vandehei has been saddled to the bar all night. >> he is drunk. >> out of his mind. >> that's where he's been. he's going to make up something and we'll have it for you straight ahead on "morning joe," brewed by starbucks. [ "human" by the human league playing ] humans. we mean well, but we're imperfect creatures living in a beautifully imperfect world. it's amazing we've made it this far. maybe it's because when one of us messes up, someone else comes along to help out. that's the thing about humans. when things are at their worst, we're at our best. see how at libertymutual.com. liberty mutual insurance -- responsibility.

what's your policy?

at 23 past the hour, live from tampa, time to take a look at morning papers. we'll start with the "tampa bay times." nearly 10,000 ron paul supporters gathered in tampa to hear their pick for president to declare, quote, liberty movement was live and well. paul spoke more than an hour ten

miles from where the convention was held. >> and the "st. louis post dispatch" from our parade of papers, a new poll out of missouri shows how congressman todd akin's comments on rape and abortion have altered the u.s. senate race. in july the republican challenger held a five-point lead over democratic incumbent claire mccaskill. the st. louis dispatch poll shows mccaskill leading 50 to 41 thanks in part to a huge shift by independent voters. >> to "the chicago tribune" a rogue afghan soldier shot and killed two u.s. soldiers serving in eastern afghanistan this morning. the killings were just the latest attack against coalition forces in afghanistan. this year there have been a total of 33 insider attacks in the country this year and resulting in 42 soldier deaths. >> all right. willie geist, let's go to politico. >> we've dragged vandehei away

from the bar and joins us now with a look at the political playbook. he's politico's executive editor. >> you're teetering over there. >> i'm good. i'm overdressed compared to you. >> is this how you dress when you go to bars at night? >> there's a hurricane. >> this is what you wear -- >> this is amazing. >> florida. >> there's a hurricane. you're at a bar. it's 6:00 a.m. you know. i mean you're wearing your coat and tie. >> very, very corporate. >> he is. >> in the spirit of my romney interview i've decided to go very corporate. >> mr. fix-it. your partnership with the local newspaper here, "tampa bay times" incredible. >> thank you, sir. we love it. >> people say newspapers are dead, not this week. front page you and mike allen had an interview with mitt romney himself. he says, quote, i am who i am. >> i thought there were two fascinating things about the interview. one, he is clearly agitated with this internal fight about whether or not he can be made likable. it's a little odd to quote poppy

three times in an interview and also did it with fox news, he's tired of the debate. they're going to do things at the convention to make him more likable but he said i'm not going to pay attention to that, i'm not going to do that myself. that was interesting. i thought the more interesting part was when he talks about how he would govern. you know he's going to bring corporate-like mentality to the job. it's amazing how much he talks and thinks about it when he talks about running the government. he talks about his cabinet as a board of directors. he talks about how he only may have people from the political world in his cabinet. he said most of them will come from the private sector. good luck finding enough people from the private sector to be able to do those jobs at that level. meg whitman from hewlett-packard is the type of female ceo he would love to see and surround himself with. the ceo from b.e.t., black entertainment television, somebody he's hearing good things about that he would like to take a look at and then bringing metrics, wants to have

a checklist he wants to give to the american people where they can follow along for his first 100 days, did he do it, not do it. he did something similar when in massachusetts. it just is a frame into his mind. in interviewing people who have run for office and run for president, not seen anyone who thinks that way. he does not connect politically. even in an interview. there's something different about him, not saying it's good or bad, he's very different. the inability to connect with voters goes to the inability to connect with reporters, inability to connect with staff, anybody outside of his family. it's different. >> this approach, willie, where he wants to bring in other corporate leaders reminds me of dwight eisenhower who always said, if you can afford to be in my cabinet -- by the way, yeah. if you can't afford to be in my cabinet that's the only way i want you in my cabinet. >> right. >> i want you to have to give up a big, high-paying job and ike was derissive of presidents that

just went to the academy -- went to all the academies and went to, you know, law professors. ike had that same model. >> interesting to see if he can pull it off, as you say. he has no love for the beltway culture but you need some of those people. >> he talks about, i don't want people to ever bring me decisions. i want to be brought ideas and hear both sides and make a decision. president obama would love to do that, but what he learned quickly in office you can't do that as president. you're taking a dizzying array of questions before you each and every day and you might be lucky on some of them to have a couple of minutes to think about it. so the question is, can you be that hands on as a president. he clearly talks like he wants to be hands on. president obama learned early on, very tough to do. >> jim, quickly, pbefore we go, talks about bain capital, to you get the sense he's wanted to talk about this and unshackled or waiting until convention time for him to talk about his experience again. >> i don't think he wants to talk about anything. he wants to govern.

unlike most politicians i don't think he has any interest in politics. when he talks about bain he talks about -- you keep saying i'm not likable, well how did i turn around bain, the olympics, when you had everybody feuding, become head of my fraternity or -- >> why doesn't he tell us? >> the equivalence of a fraternity at brigham young. >> it's fascinating. >> because it was no one else -- >> it sounds like -- what was that? >> sorry. >> there was no one else what? >> did you cover the primaries? i did. >> there were good people in the primaries? >> okay. >> look at this. >> sorry. >> she can't help herself. it's turrets. >> i get it from my mom. >> thank you. >> but what we have is two guys, though, in mitt romney and barack obama, who are in politics at the highest level and they don't like politics. they let everybody around them know they don't like politics. it's bizarre. >> the only difference i would say is i don't think president

obama likes politics but he's good at pretending he likes politics. interactions with people. >> oh, my god. >> he can do the things he knows a politician should do. mitt romney still doesn't do those. his mind just doesn't work that way, and i think that's the case he's going to have to make in the next 80 days, do people want a totally different type of approach to governing? and can he make the case that like his will get results? watch for them to spend a lot of time talking about the 2008 convention speech by president obama. i have a hunch you're going to hear both paul ryan and mitt romney use that to take apart the obama administration. they're going to say, great, you had a motion, you had love, you had inspiration, you had worship. how did that work for you? >> a couple guys who are very, very analytical here, they just are. >> yeah. >> very analytical. >> and vague. >> okay. >> that doesn't always work in politics, reagans, fdrs guys with big hearts, emotional,

usually do better. we'll see what happens. >> jim vandehei, the guy that comes to the bar at 6:00 a.m. in a corporate suit. >> in the middle of a hurricane. >> thanks. >> tampa, we'll talk to tom brokaw and chris mathews and chuck todd. two starting quarterbacks, zero touchdowns for the new york jets. low lights ahead in sports.

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welcome back to the elephant bar here in tampa. it's raining outside but we have a big crowd flooding in. >> it's huge. >> so nice. everyone's drunk. >> haley barbour is here, david gregory is over there. >> oh, my lord. he's very fit, by the way. you should see him. >> keep them separated. >> we're going to talk briefly sports because we're concerned now about the new york jets. >> really doesn't get any worse. >> everyone was worried about the two quarterbacks, sanchez, tebow, but they may have to go looking for a third quarterback. >> they both stink. >> we've seen in the preseason, they had the panthers last night in the sunday night game, al michaels with the call, the great al michaels.

>> first liberal guy. >> looking for steven hill on third down. i don't know if that was his fault. >> come on. not his fault. >> next up there, greasy hands by the receiver. sanchez 11 for 18, 123, no touchdowns. tebow, doing it with his legs, what you have him there for. >> exactly. >> he louds the rush, gets out of the way, uses legs to pick up the first down on third and 16. >> look at that. >> beautiful play by tim tebow. the chance to get his team into the end zone. haven't scored this whole preseason. >> he's going to do it this time. >> oh, no! >> that was quadruple coverage. >> you guys are mean. that's not very nice. >> questionable decisions and great panic this morning in the tabloids of new york. >> think about tebow, remember last year even in the middle of his run, he would be like two for 40 in the first three and a half quarters of the game, and then figure out how to win. >> in fairness, sanchez wasn't that bad last night. they just can't punt the ball

into the end zone. >> sanchez is never going to take them to the super bowl. >> i like mark sanchez, he might do it. >> i like mark san clez too, but i like my mother. she's never taken the jets to the super bowl either. >> joe willie nay must did. the red sox shocked the baseball world, dismantling their team sending four players to the l.a. dodgers, standing by in new york, mr. mike barnicle, showed up a little bit for work. couldn't make it down here to talk about the trade. how happy are you this morning as a red sox fan? >> willie and joe and everyone, there's really only one way to look at this deal, it occurred on the same date in history 68 years later that paris was liberated. 68 years from that day the red sox were liberated from a huge number of hefty contracts involving adrian gonzalez, josh beckett, carl crawford and nick punto who carried the luggage out to los angeles.

obsessive in the media market that is the red sox. carl crawford made a mistake a couple years ago when he did something just for the money and signed with boston instead of the los angeles angels. he was never comfortable in boston. so he's gone. josh beckett unfairly blamed for everything that has happened in that clubhouse over the last year, had to leave the market because it was just -- it was terrible. every time he appeared the boos rolled out of the stadium and rocked the entire city. the dodgers picking up all that money, first time in history, it's the biggest trade in baseball history. the dodgers under new ownership and looking forward to next year when they are going to receive beg mega billions for a new tv deal. they'll be set financially. this was a win/win for red sox fans. >> you said it before, i mean it, when i saw this trade come across the wires i was shocked that dodgers were stupid enough to spend this much money on some people that have under performed

here, maybe carl crawford finds his way, he was great in tampa, he looked lost every time he was at the plate. there's something -- we were talking about new york, you know, it's a tough town to play in. for a lot of these baseball players, nothing is more oppressive than boston. it's a small small city. and everywhere they go, they're known. mike said it's a white hot market but a lot of players can't perform there because it is so -- the fans are oppressive. >> and the pressure barnicle, in l.a., despite the fact that there's a media market, there isn't the intensity about the teams. >> the thing about both new york and los angeles, as markets, as filled with baseball fans or sports fans actually, is the anonymity in both markets that allows players to lead a semblance of a normal life. how would you like to be playing with the red sox and be in aisle 3 at the supermarket and have

people staring at you going what happened, you went 0 for 3. >> is that all you're going to do this morning, chime in on the red sox or come down to tampa and contribute a little bit. >> i'm trying to get my credit card situation. american express did reject it. i'll try later today, once the banks open. >> the security code, look on the back. >> the three numbers. >> thanks so much. mika's must-read opinion pages. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks and live this morning from tampa. hey! did you know that honey nut cheerios

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welcome back. it is 43 past the hour. we're live in tampa and it's time now for the must-read opinion pages. we'll start with "the washington post," looking at michigan and upset in michigan he asks and writes in part this. a number of factors suggest that romney has a shot in michigan. for one thing since obama's 2008 victory, michigan voters put the house in gop hands and have elected a republican governor, rick snider, who campaigned like romney on his experience in the private sector. since taking office, snyder has erased a $1.5 billion budget deficit. >> this isn't going to happen. do we have to read the rest of it? >> no. >> okay. good. >> i've always said, michael steele, that pennsylvania is republican fool's gold. >> yep. >> we always spend a lot of money. >> lot of money. >> send people there. >> disappointed -- >> waiting for that story the third week of october to say they've pulled the money out. same thing with michigan. not waste money on pennsylvania and michigan. >> play where you can get some traction and ground game. these two states michigan and

pennsylvania make it difficult for the gop. you saw what happened in 2008 with mccain campaign, wait up until the last minute and pulled it out of michigan. this time around i don't know what the calculation is but -- >> mark halperin, is mitt romney going to waste a lot of money in pennsylvania and michigan again, only to pull out the third week of october? >> i've been surprised in my conversation since i got here with romney folks. they say their electoral college calculations don't include those two states. he's going to have to find 270 electoral votes without them. they're tough states. the auto bailout makes michigan tough. it is governor romney's, a state he grew up in, all along he thought they would like to win. if they're going to build 270 electoral votes without those two states in play their margin of error is so small. they've got a lot of money. surprising how little they're considering those two states. >> to focus on florida, ohio,

virginia. >> you have to win florida, you got to win ohio, virginia, you got to win north carolina, you got to win indiana and then you got to take another state away from barack obama, also win either iowa or new hampshire or nevada. you got to do -- only way to do it. if you take michigan and pennsylvania off the table you think about karl rove, three, two, one. three big ones we mentioned, indiana, north carolina and then take one away from obama from one of the other states. that's a run on the table, though. >> there's a surprising -- >> hard to do. >> mitt romney, i think he's fairing a little bit better in states like colorado, nevada, than a lot of analysts would have expected a year ago, mark. >> you know, he's doing all right. those are states where the economy is bad. there's a little bit of this paradox for him where you have states like michigan where they have republican governors where the economy is coming back a little bit. that's the issue in the race. governor snyder, governor kasich

is say our state is coming back, they try to say only because of us. >> the romney people will tell you they care about facts on the ground. they don't care about cable tv chatter. some states real people's lives are getting somewhat better and that trend line may help the president with the republican governor. >> the chechallenge then, the republican's party's challenge in part says this the challenge for republicans they have not been willing to match their anti-government rhetoric with a realistic that is to say politically palatable vision of what a smaller government would entertain. presumptive nominee mitt romney, his running mate, representative paul ryan rail about waste and vow to impose tight spending targets but do not specify beyond a few small tokens which programs would be jettisoned or pruned. nor have republicans have explained for the shrunken government they envisioned.

their tax policy blends magical thinking of tax cuts with fill in the blank gaps where difficult and politically perry lus policy choices would be. >> parts of it are fair. willie, there are a lot of conservatives that would be disappointed to know even paul ryan's plan talks about balances the budget, in 2040. >> that's 28 years from now, by my math. and his plan is viewed as the most extreme by anyone in the -- on the left and in the middle. that's as extreme as it gets and only does it in 28 years. michael, i guess the prospect of a realistic and politically palatable as the post puts it plan by anyone is not in the near future. >> not happening. not happening. that's the unfortunate part of this. you're hoping that when we get to the debates, that you get some glimmer or sense of what these two gentlemen really want to do with the economy, how they plan to balance budgets and cut spending at the same time do you

raise taxes. that's the nut of this whole campaign. and for the republicans, i think there have been some great messaging mised opportunities to frame this debate earlier on, particularly with -- i mean even with paul ryan not on the ticket was a great opportunity using what he framed out and speaking specifically about how these cuts are going to come into play and how you're going to balance this budget and why it takes to 2040 to do it. >> right. >> joe, how then to send this message, or package it. it seems in some ways some republicans might be afraid to tell people the truth, afraid to give bad news. how do they do it? >> it's about math. again, i think you focus more on the long-term debt over the next 20 years. americans, when you start telling americans that medicare and medicaid by themselves are going to take up every cent of tax revenue to washington, d.c., over the next 20 years, they get that. when medicare and med cade are going to -- they're going to

keep growing until we get to a point where you can't spend a dime on education, you can't spend a dime on national defense, can't spend a dime on roads, can't spend a dime on bridges, on food safety, you can't spend a dime on research and development, can't spend a dime on infrastructure, at that point, americans will get it. but we've seen this medicare debate has become so mind boggling, both sides i think have been guilty of dem going to gri over the past several years. >> the dirty little secret on this stuff related to deficit reduction if we have robust economic growth this becomes easier, less spending, more revenue coming in. that to me is where the debate is and what i think one of the challengers for governor romney is to convince people his policies would allow the economy to grow father than the president's have. you can change the projections after one year and everything becomes a lot easier. >> rnc chairman reince priebus

will join us, former mississippi governor haley barbour and senator kay bailey hutchinson will be here. >> did you notice behind the bar they named drinks after us? >> really? >> including the mika-loeb ultra. >> we're going to talk to the bartender and see what is in all these special "morning joe" drinks. we'll be right back. ♪ why not use all your vacation days this year? get points you can easily redeem for your vacations, with chase sapphire preferred.

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♪ welcome back inside what we're calling the elephant bar, usually the howl at the moon, here with one of the bar tenders brook. going to walk us through some of the special drinks you made today. we got here about 4:30 to start "way too early" this morning. what time do you usually leave? >> after a busy night on the weekend, we can leave around 4:30, 5:00. >> you turned around this bar quickly, didn't smell, did good work. >> we had to do to get it ready for you guys. >> talk about the special drinks. the joe scarborough alabama slammer. i assume that's some combination -- >> one of the shots we're featuring. >> mika-lob ultra. >> after the michelob ultra. >> i know about a long island

iced tea. i'm from jersey. you created a long island geist it's. it's a drink where you take every bottle behind the bar and dump it into one cup. >> it's a couple different liquors. >> will you show me. i can't promise i'm going to drink it because it's 6:00 in the morning. >> it's a little early for that. >> tell me what you're dumping in here. >> first filled the glass with ice. we use the vodka and gin. >> already i'm horrified. okay. and then we move over to run and triple sec. still on the clears. >> brown is not to come until later. then we add sour and a splash of coke. >> all right. >> and then give it a good shake. >> so four total liquors? this beverage. >> four total liquors, yeah. some people like to go a step further and add tequila in there too. >> i'm being hazed in my ear to drink this. cheers. >> cheers.

>> nothing takes the edge at 7:00 a.m. like a long island iced tea. thank you, i think. >> no problem. >> we'll be right back here at the top of hour to talk about reducing the party conventions to one day and one prime time night. what impact that has. also tom brokaw makes that argument and says we ought to do it. former mississippi governor hally barbour with us. we'll be right back. [ female announcer ] the power of green coffee extract

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. i can't speak to governor romney's motivations. what i can say is that he has signed up for positions, extreme positions, that are very consistent with the positions that a number of house republicans have taken, and whether he actually believes in those or not, i have no doubt that he would carry forward some of the things that he's talked about. >> i think his whole campaign has been about dividing the american people. it's between the haves and have nots, the people in one location versus another. this is one street versus another street. that's the kind of divisiveness i think americans recognize and one of the reasons his campaign, despite spending massively more than our campaign, that his campaign hasn't gained the traction he would have expected. i think people have seen this kind of a character

assassination and divisiveness as being very different to the campaign of hope and change when he ran on originally. >> all right. welcome back to "morning joe," live in tampa. mark halperin still with us and joining us on the set we have the moderator of "meet the press," david gregory, former republican governor of mississippi and former rnc chair haley barbour joining us and nbc chief foreign affairs correspondent and host of "andrea mitchell reports," welcome to florida. >> it's beautiful. >> hurricane. >> chamber of commerce weather. >> can we talk about women? >> we can in a little bit. >> oh. >> do you want -- really just have to jump right in? >> i think so. >> i wanted to ask haley about s.e.c. football first. is that okay. >> fine. >> i would rather talk about women. >> you alabama guys want to talk about football all the time. >> he's the smart one. >> the republican party quickly,

how is the party doing? >> doing well. chairman that has a great job, lot of enthusiasm in the party for romney and ryan. 2010 a great election for us. biggest repudiation of any administration's policies that i can remember in any election that was the launch pad for this. it's a dead heat. >> how fast, after a very conservative election in 2010, largest legislative landslide in u.s. history if you take the local, state, national races together, that republicans nominate a moderate that the base isn't necessarily thrilled about. >> you say that, joe -- >> i do say that, because it's true. >> and the first poll, after romney became the presumptive nominee back in the spring. >> right. >> gallup poll he's up two points. why? because republicans were 90% voting for romney. why? you're right. he's the least conservative for the serious candidates for the

nomination of the conservative party of the united states. barack obama is the great uniter of republicans and conservativers, that's why. >> fascinating on "meet the press" you had jeb. >> yeah. >> one of florida's favorite sons, defending his brother. >> yeah. >> saying barack obama can't keep pointing back to my brother. >> it's interesting. because i think jeb bush is in a position where he's becoming an elder statesman of the party, say some things, challenge orthodoxy in the party, in a way he couldn't if he were he has the cache of being highly pursued as a candidate. whether it's tone, message or substance reaching out to women or on the issue of immigration gets to something important about for romney to what extent romney actually leads this party. is he really the leader of this party today or more led by it and how much are we going to see that play out and even play out in how romney tries to approach

his speech to the convention. >> right. i think it's becoming his party at this point. this past week you saw how he's actually changed the road map to the white house four years from now, right? changing the rules to make it harder for insurgent candidates. >> on some of the big issues, i had governor brewer from arizona as well. there's a fight to be had within the republican party over immigration and how you balance, for instance, you know, more border security as well as kind of getting the tone right and immigration. you look at the hispanic vote, two-thirds going tore the president right now. president obama sort of understood this balance as a governor and then as a president, 9/11 got in the way, social security fight got in the way, but i don't know that romney seems willing to have that fight. >> there is, obviously, a problem with women. and ann romney's speech tomorrow could be among the most important of the convention as she attempts to connect women voters with romney/ryan ticket. her speech follows a complicated

couple of weeks for the republican party taken off miss age by missouri senate candidate todd akin and his comments on rape and abortion. two polls that show more evidence of a depender gap. according to opinion research polling 60% of voters say president obama is more in touch with women's problems than romney. and gallup shows the president with an 8-point advantage among registered female voters. romney has an equal advantage among men. any way to move the meeter? can ann romney do that. >> ann romney can do a lot and a lineup of prominent republican women. they've had to squeeze the schedule somewhat because of the bad weather. >> right. >> so some of the prime time women will not be speaking bought you're going to have ann romney, condoleezza rice, and other republican women trying to address this question. their whole message is that women respond to the bad economy, that women are hurt more, that young women are hurt

more by the bad economy. and that they are more concerned about that as the republican women hear the speakers, trying to de-emphasize what happened with todd akin. they don't want to talk about rape and abortion. that is not -- those social issues. the problem they have is that in the wider audience and around the country this has become the profound problem. the first poll taken since todd akin's controversial comments about rape, the first real poll, mason dixon, yesterday showed a 30-point swing among independents toward claire mccaskill away from todd akin and among his supporters, 16%, by 16 points said he should get out. >> mark halperin, look at these numbers. claire mccaskill down by five points. she spent $2 million according to the "new york times" to help elect todd akin, get him the republican primary. now there's a nine-point gap. that's a massive swing. do republicans hold any hope of getting todd akin out of the

place. >> they would like to see a couple more public and private polls showing him doing poorly and the seat can't be won by him. >> is he in a bunker in central ohio? >> can they get to him. >> he was down here meeting with conservatives, mike huckabee came to his defense. >> the romney campaign is happy with mike huckabee in general but on this point they're not happy. >> mike huckabee knows todd akin not only hurts mitt romney but hurts republicans across the country. >> they have a personal relationship and mike huckabee is an anti-establishment figure. he doesn't like when the committees in washington say you have to do this. >> what are the pro life groups doing? lining up behind him? >> they're mixed. some have lined behind him and some would like him to get out. they have time. the first deadline wasn't a solid deadline. i think they've been a little uptick in optimism that they can get him off. more to the point they're happy they've kind of caughterized it, isolated it to some extent. they still have a gender problem but i'll tell you the press

talks about the gender problem for the republicans on women, the democrats have a gender problem with men as well. >> they certainly do. >> that's as big a factor in some of these races as women. >> the thing that is just under reported is something you said, the democrats put $2 million into todd akin winning the republican primary. >> right. >> and that kind of underhanded, slimy stuff, leads to this -- >> you guys -- >> i know you're shocked and stunned. >> so pleased, mr. barbour. >> i've never been involved in a campaign where we put -- >> i know it hurts. >> $2 million into the democratic primary. >> bless your heart. bless your heart. >> because he's harry reid's candidate. >> there you go. >> claire mccaskill's candidate and why he ought to get out. >> todd akin -- >> you realize that point that you just mentioned certainly underlines the cynicism of politics and people could react to that. the obama team is looking at college educated white women, and there's similar in the

republican party as well, the reaction to the fact that social issues all of a sudden emerge yet again, i realize rape is not the issue, much more about his comments about rape than it is abortion, but it has to have a wider effect, even among women in the republican party to see why are we talking about this? >> i'll guarantee you, barack obama is the happiest guy in the united states we're talking about this. when we're talking about this, we're not talking about unemployment, a terrible economy, we're not talking about -- i don't go to the kroger here in tampa and people say haley, what we need to do is the government needs to spend more money and need to raise my taxes. now that's barack obama's plan. he doesn't like people talking about that plan. let's talk about todd akin, let's talk about anything else. >> women's health. >> you know, mark. >> kind of important. >> i thought a great word, that described what the republican party is finally done. that is they caughterized a -- kaudserrized a political

situation that could have cost them a lot of political blood. for the past two or three years i've been fwrus straighted but this happens when you have a legislative majority, but you don't have the white house, and haley knows this better than anything else, they weren't as organized as they were. akin made a stupid remarks. >> repugnant remarks. i thought on sunday night they're not going to get their arms around this until wednesday. i was surprised by the discipline. >> romney was fast. >> the romney campaign came out immediately, no question, i mean within hours, they came out. now they were criticized by some for not saying get out of the race, but they were trying to balance it because they knew enough about todd akin, they've had to deal with this guy before on other issues. he has been a difficult customer. he had all of them against him in the primary. >> yeah. >> and they thought that if mitt romney came out too quickly that the whole thing would blow up even worse. they couldn't get him out yet. i think there is wavering. he's looking at the numbers. they've got a candidate ann

wagner ready to step in. she is running for his old district, a former cochairman of the party, she ran against michael steele for party leadership. former ambassador to luxembourg. she's got money. a fund-raiser. and she is primed and ready to go if they can figure out a way. there is no legal way that they can figure this out unless he steps back by september 25th. >> they kaudserrized it and you're right they came together and acted collectively quickly. haley barbour, it still lingered. we went a week talking about this because of the issues of rape, abortion, contraception, are controversial ones, hot button and tough for the republican party. uchld rather, as was mentioned here, de-emphasize it. how then does ann romney, mitt romney, and paul ryan at this point, change the conversation and literally turn the page and get away from this? is it going to be that easy. >> as long as the liberal media won't talk about nothing else, it's very hard. >> hold on a second. >> liberal media like the

republican party leaders? >> we need to make this election about the issues the american people are concerned about at the dinner table. if we do that, most people watching this show never heard of todd akin. i never heard of todd akin until he won the nomination. what the american people want this election to be about, policies and the conditions of this country and if we all talk about that, that's the best thing that can be for mitt romney and the worst thing for barack obama. >> has your candidate, mitt romney, been too vague about what he plans to do and who he is as a person? >> well, i thought when he did a 59-page economic plan, that was not too vague. i thought it was too much. and now he's getting that slimmed down and i think it will be very effective. he does have a plan. he's got a record, an economic record, of turning around companies, turning around the olympics. we need somebody to turn around the american economy. >> mark halperin, with this past

weekend, we had clips from the ap interviewing the president and the president talked about how mitt romney was an extremist. then, of course, mitt romney is on fox, talking about how barack obama is angry and divisive. can we expect this throughout the fall campaign? i mean -- i don't know how you sustain that level of animosity between two presidential candidates for 60 days. >> i think at this point looks like we will. you were talking before, neither really likes politics. they delegate this to the folks working for them. in both of these campaigns the senior levels are staffed by people who have won a lot of races running a pretty negative campaign. can i ask governor barbour a question. >> ask david the same question. do you think we can sustain this ans no my between -- i just think americans want more from the presidential candidates. >> i agree they want more. they're going to respond as they are. one of the reasons mitt romney

has some image problems coming into this race, the upside is that it's a tight race because of the economy. but his business record, his standing among hispanics and women, the sense that people don't know him very well, this is a product of how hard the obama team has been hitting him. i think they learned frankly from the bush team in 2004 and what they did to senator kerry. >> right. >> and will sustain that because they think they can get some traction with it and keep him on the defensive. romney knew in 94 he allowed others to define him and image problem. the same issues all these years later. harder guy to get to know. >> how fascinating that jim vandehei was saying he had a sit done interview with him, said he never really interviewed a politician like that, he's so analytical, and i've heard this from, you know, a lot of my friends in politics, you know, have one on one meetings. it's fascinating. people stuck in a car with mitt

romney the politician, say it's awkward, it's quiet. i talk to business people, that drive in the car, go i can drive with him for three hours. he's like the greatest guy in the world to talk to. i don't think he likes politics. >> some of the republicans he ran against made fun of him when he said i'm not really a politician. governor massachusetts four years but he didn't inhale. i don't think he thinks of himself as a politician. thinks as a business person and that fits the mood of the country being a wall street executive and investment type doesn't fit the mood. being an outside fits the mood. >> governor -- >> one of the things besides -- i'm sorry. >> i was just going to say one other thing that the governor well knows which is the hurricane which could develop out of this tropical storm, i mean you had to deal with it four years ago. and, of course, with katrina seven years ago. what is going to -- what can the party do, the speeches, with the balloons and the celebration of

a nominee if new orleans is being hit and if people are focused on the suffering of people in the world? >> andrea, where we come from, we're going to pray for the best, prepare for the worst. people on the mississippi delta coast, alabama, louisiana are doing right now, they're preparing. it doesn't look like this is going to be a big, bad storm. any hurricane is going to do some damage. but if this goes in as a category 2 or low category 2 storm, it is not likely to do anything like that. but we have to be here at the convention, have to be conscious, we have to be understanding and people have to understand that a bunch of governors are not here because they're home helping their people get ready. as i say we're praying for the best. >> governor, one of the things you're doing is helping raise money for a super pac, one of the few things that worries the white house, you all are raising a lot of money. how is that going, encouraged,

enthused are your donors now? >> people are concerned about the future of the country and, therefore, they are energized to try to make a change. but look, let's don't ever forget what we're hoping to do is partially offset what the unions do for obama. you know, if we raise a couple hundred million dollars, according to the "wall street journal" the union's own filings for 2008, they spent $800 million on political activity in 2008 alone and more than $400 million of that they put on television. so that's what we're trying to offset and right now people are being very responsive and they're getting more and more hopeful. they see this race is a tie. i'm old enough to have been in the reagan campaign. reagan was down nine in august, down 14 in april. and romney's even both times. so that's encouraging. >> david, "the washington post"/abc poll that came out shows mitt romney up by one point. it's a dead heat.

but haley is right, reagan was down at this point back in 1980 and '88, we remember george h.w. bush, i remember watching him, while dukakis was at his convention, at some italian fest in some weird outfit saying no no no, we're dead. he was 19 points down. getting ready for four years of president dukakis. again, you look at this poll, it's deadlocked and the convention hasn't started. the president of the united states is at 46%. the republicans after a pretty rough year actually have something to be hopeful about. >> even after a rough summer where mitt romney's image has been battered and he has negatives to deal with he is still even. talking to his folks in his campaign they say it's good that they're in a position where it's even. the enthusiasm about defeating president obama, how much money the republicans can raise and this feeling that this may be tough, the electoral map may be tough, but that, in fact, romney

can do it. he's got the opportunity of this convention speech, he's got those debates where by all accounts should perform well against another good debater in president obama. this is a winnable race for governor romney. running the campaign he wants to run in the conditions in which he would like to run. all of that underscores the fact they're in decent shape. >> we're going to take a break. former governor haley barbour, i'm so sorry politics has gotten so mean and corrupt. >> underhanded. >> you can't believe that you're -- you can't believe your eyes, can you? >> i'm glad i got out. >> all right. david and andrea, stay with us. >> coming up next, live from tampa, tom brokaw joins us on the set. senator kay bailey hutchison, still ahead, the latest on tropical storm isaac with meteorologist bill karins. you're watching "morning joe," brewed by starbucks. welcome aboard!

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how much do you get your back up when you hear this president blame a lot of our economic condition on your brother, on his predecessor? >> i think it's time for him to move on. i mean the guy was dealt aedy cult hand -- difficult hand no question about it, but he's had three years and his policies have failed. rather than blame others, which we were taught that was kind of unbecoming over time you can't keep doing that, maybe offer fresh new solutions to the problems we face. but that's not going to happen between now and election day. >> all right.

a live look inside the forum here in tampa where the republican national convention is set to convene and then suspend because of hurricane isaac. we're here live in tampa here with us now -- we've taken over howl at the moon, we've got nbc news's tom brokaw along with david gregory, andrea mitchell and john heilemann back at the table which us. tom, good to have you on board. david your interview with jeb bush, defending his brother in a big way. >> one area where he does get his back up and can get, you know, a little bit more upset with president obama saying as you saw there in the clip, that it's time for him to move on. and it's interesting because i think he's positioned himself as somebody who's got some big ideas about where the conservetive mome conservetive movement is going and how to get there and talk about that. i think he, whether he has political ambitions or not, it's

not totally clear, he relishes this moment where he can be really listened to and talked about creating a nation of converts but recognizes the party has difficulties in achieving that. >> tom, growing up, i was used to parties taking over a town and dominating coverage for a week when we were a nation of three channels and pbs. and, you know, you go, whether you're talking about 68 and what happened in chicago, or '76, even '72 is remarkable in miami beach. >> '64 in san francisco, goldwater and rockefeller fighting for the soul of the party. >> right. >> 1960 john f. kennedy taking lyndon johnson and stunning everybody. >> and even as -- i guess the last cliffhanger was 76 when we went into a republican convention not knowing whether it was going to be a sitting president or an insurgent reagan campaign those days seem to be

gone and some are suggesting we turn this into a one night affair. what do you think? >> i wrote about it in the times on the on-line discussion. i think it's time to reorganize. haley barbour and i were talking, it costs $11 million to put on the republican convention? 1996 in san diego as we were exchanging experiences he said it's probably costing 7 tlm for security alone in tampa. this is the most security i have ever seen anywhere. it's not this type and the white house and washington, d.c., you have to make three stops to get a half a block to get anywhere. the argument is no city will take a convention unless they can have it for three days because they need all that income over a period of time. >> right. >> my suggestion was you have a couple days of meetings and then take a full day and put it on cable television and a lot of it broadcast that night with all the principle speeches, organize the country state by state or

region by region with big get out the vote rallies. take to broncos stadium in denver, for example, and have large screens and get people to come there and create a sense of excitement about it. because the fact is, i don't think much of what will happen this week will genuinely excite the american people. i think that governor romney will be able to make a strong case for his candidacy and explain to the american people who he is. but that will come on thursday. after three days of stuff that a lot of people will not tune in to. >> these days it usually does come down to the big moment whether talking about barack obama in 2004 at john kerry's convention, that awful kiss between al gore and tipper in 2000 that still makes me flinch, but it's always -- it is the one night, it is the big night usually at the end, that americans stop and focus on and what happens before doesn't really matter. >> if you recall, madison square garden, the surprise

quote/unquote march by bill clinton. >> right. >> through the streets to madison square garden the day before his acceptance speech back in '92, that was the last chance that we had to see a candidate who had been really troubled and was going into the convention behind seriously behind and as you recall ross perot was ahead in june. >> in third place. >> the day bill clinton won the california primary and nailed the nomination he was coming in third place behind ross perot first and george herbert walker bush. that was the last time in '92 when you had the real excitement of someone remaking their image completely. and you could do it in one day. you think tom's proposal of having big stadium events around the country is terrific. basically the party would be better off as well, because so much focus gets put on this and they could spend the money on advertising on buying time,

including a bio pick up on tv and road block it across the networks an a bigger impact than they're going to get even with one big great speech. >> i would love to read from your piece if i could, tom, and "the new york times," how about one day and one prime time night you ask. you say let's face it, modern political conventions have become extravagant infomercials, staged in a setting deliberately designed to seal them off from any intrusion, not scrubbed and sanitized. i half expect to hear an offscreen announcer in breathless tones say vote for the romney/ryan or obama/biden ticket and receive a free juicer with blades and built in slots for contributions. delegations will arrive in tampa and charlotte with their nominees in place. the platforms will arrive prepackaged. delegations briefed on how to sit, stand and cheer, and what to say to reporters and how to criticize the opposition. reporters, editors, bloggers,

special interest operatives will roam the halls and party sirc kets in search of an authentic moment or voice. if they find one it will probably be played out of proportion to its enduring importance. >> it seems like we're in a -- it's like a cycle now, there will never be another four-day convention after this year with two three-day conventions. the networks that say pretty much you said, we don't want to screen an elaborately staged infomercial when the networks are less interested, the parties then react. it's a spiral that's just a question of how many cycles they'll take to get down to one day. it almost feels inevitable to me now. >> i don't -- i honestly don't know. i just -- i was just trying to be provocative here and there were three other commentators including mark mckinnon and donna brazile and they agreed to one form or another. haley and i were talking earlier and the problem is you get the commercial sponsors they don't want a half a day. they want exposure over a period of time.

so it's not where the rubber hits the road, where the money hits the reality is what it comes down to. that's going to be the issue for organizing these conventions in the future. but with the technology that we now have and the producers that are available, the young people, you could come up with something in kind of an mtv fashion where you could roll it across the country and create a genuine sense of excitement. i left montana yesterday and i was in chicago, no one wanted to talk about the convention. they said are you going to cover the storm? >> the news. >> and that a way is good for the republican because they have a storm to bring people to the el television and watch what's going on at the podium. >> these members of congress not coming to the conventions anymore which is going to affect the corporate money because lobbyists want face time with these people. the one thing i will say that i do think is important for all of the infomercial quality that these conventions have, this is still an opportunity for a nominee and for a party to offer

an american public watching, the people who are watching, are maybe taking the candidate's measure for the first time, what's their vision for the country and what's their road map for getting there. i mean one hope for this convention is romney dedicates some time to where he can become a practical politician. we've had two presidents who talk about changing washington and we've seen this horror movie now twice. what is the road map for how you get it done. that's what people -- there's this feeling out there that nothing is going to change and i still think this is a great opportunity both with biography and meaning to communicate that. >> you can do it in one night. >> i don't disagree with that. >> less might be more. >> i think people would be more excited. i bet if you had one night that the viewership would be higher on that night than it will be for any of the three nights that we'll see here or in charlotte. >> this is about donor maintenance, getting to tom's point. about -- and your point about the lobbyists wanting face time. this has a lot to do with the big contributors who are here,

they want to be wined and dined and courted and putting out the money. >> you can't get anywhere because of the security. the user experience has changed. >> can't carry an umbrella. they'll take it away from you literally. >> you could make the counter argument that the democrats had their convention first and they had more people watching their convention four years ago than any other convention. until the republican convention came and i think the night sarah palin spoke, more americans watched that night than any other time in american history. and that convention is an example of how john mccain came from behind on the strength of sarah palin's speech and the excitement that brought about. >> if she had -- >> and stayed ahead through september 15th until the market crashed and there was not a good response. >> if john mccain had handled that lehman crash on the 15th better, and remember the -- the campaign, will i not g to the roosevelt room, in a republican white house saying our nominee had nothing to say.

we asked -- the president leaned over and said what about you john, john had nothing to say. should i go to mississippi, should i not go to mississippi. he showed no leadership in that moment. he had so much to offer. >> this doesn't take away from what you're offering, because a lot do agree if it was one night americans would be hyper focused on one night instead of watching thep are dmitry medvedevs or republicans -- the democrats or republicans for a week and it's just going to be staged. conventions still matter. >> i'm not saying that. >> i know you're not. >> realien them -- realign them and distribute them across the country in which people can feel engaged. once you get outside the boundaries of tampa and people are wearing the credentials that we wear, people don't feel that connected to what's going on here. >> given what a big media event it is, i'm so fascinated to see how they utilize chris christie. i believe the keynote he will

deliver is tomorrow night. it's at 10:00 p.m. prime time. it will be fascinating. i think he could be -- could move the meter for the party or held back because they don't want him to overshadow mitt romney. >> the other thing about governor christie having spent a fair amount of time with him at this point, he's going to have great laugh lines. >> i bet. >> he's going to be -- >> he's going to be the jersey boy. he's going to come to play. that will be entertaining. but it doesn't mean you couldn't have that as a part of prime time coverage on one night. >> i know. >> you could have a shorter keynote, the acceptance of the introduction by the vice presidential candidate of the presidential candidate, you know. work this out. turn it over to lorne michaels from "saturday night live". >> there you go. >> tom brokaw, stay with us. senator kay bailey hutchson joins us on the set in tampa. also reince priebus, you're watching a special edition of "morning joe" live from tampa. we'll be right back. this country was built by working people.

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welcome back to tampa on

what was to be day one of the republican national convention. a brief ten-minute session and the thing will get going for real tomorrow. we had expected something of a hurricane a couple days ago. i can tell you now, bill karins, back in new york, not so much as a drop of rain and winds of at least four miles an hour. >> nice. >> as we speak here. >> you're not going to have your highlight reel being held on the beach to a pole? >> i could try but it wouldn't be terribly convincing. >> willie, tampa's gain is someone else's loss because the storm is out there, just over the weekend, headed on a more westward course. now we are watching all eyes on new orleans for the eventual landfall. we're actually still if you look at the radar, willie there in tampa, they're in between bands and not getting the rain and squalls. talk to people in central florida from orlando where the thunderstorms have been raking, west palm to port st. lucie a serious band outside even tampa. as far as the storm goes its

impacts on florida are pretty much over with. it's a strong tropical storm. the good news this morning is that it's not a hurricane yet, but the pressure is beginning to drop and looks like an eye is beginning to form. the strengthening process has begun. and what's amazing about this storm is that it's not that strong, but it's very big and it's -- that area of orange is everywhere we could see tropical storm form gusts and that has to move up into the northern gulf. our computer models have pinpointed southern louisiana possibly the mississippi gulf line, gulfport, biloxi, around bay st. louis down to new orleans and the timing on that category 1 into new orleans as we go throughout tuesday night. a category 1 in new orleans, the wind is not going to do a lot of damage, that's not the big concern. storm surge and a slow moving heavy rain are the concerns for new orleans and the gulf coast. >> yeah. i joked a little bit about perhaps the overstatement of the storm here but obviously it's very serious for a lot of people

especially along the gulf coast. bill karins in new york, thanks so much. when we return to tampa, senator kay bailey hutchison of the great state of texas, keep it on "morning joe" live from tampa. humans -- even when we cross our t's and dot our i's, we still run into problems. namely, other humans. which is why, at liberty mutual insurance, auto policies come with new car replacement and accident forgiveness if you qualify.

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welcome back. we're live in tampa. looking back and now looking forward to the republican national convention which begins today and then suspends itself. here with us the republican -- >> you love saying that. >> it makes no sense. >> you love saying that. >> makes no sense, tom brokaw. >> why governor romney saying you deport yourself. >> with us senator kay bailey hutchison retiring from the senate this year. it is great to have you back on the show this morning. >> so glad to be here and so glad you all are here and just having a hurricane party with all of you. >> it's going to be fun. we have a bar, we're good. >> i know. >> a place telling me before we went on the air she's become a regular viewer of "morning joe." >> i am. i am. >> thank you. >> we love it.

you also were saying before we came on the air all the conventions you've been to, you were in kansas city in '76 for a convention that mattered, but you and tom were telling the most fascinating story about the 1980 convention where, a lot of people were huddled in a room to make a historic possibly historic decision. >> yes. talking about who would be reagan's vice presidential nominee and ford was the big that he was talking to ford about being the vice president when ford was actually coming off the presidency. >> heavy negotiations going on in a penthouse between the reagan team and the ford team. are we losing light? >> we are losing light. >> i'm sorry. it's a hurricane. what can i say? >> we're setting the mood. 1980. >> tom brokaw takes us back to 1980. >> it's ken burns lighting.

where we sort of shade -- >> i thought when they come know, given my aging face, softening the land. >> you're beautiful. >> 1980, they had not picked a vice presidential candidate yet. they get to the convention, and they start these heavy negotiations, someone that andrea knows well, alan greenspan had been an economic adviser to president ford, henry kissinger played a large role in these negotiations and president ford eager to be the vice presidential candidate with a new portfolio of responsibilities including a lot of national security and foreign policy. the delegate were left in suspense on the floor of the cu vengs. we are -- convention. we were waiting for the announcement. >> cbs got in front of it, sounded like it was going to be reagan/ford and you had somebody coming up to you saying don't believe it. >> jim thompson, governor of illinois had buttons made up, reagan/ford wearing them inside his jacket, i went to do an interview with him at 11:00 at

night and bob dole came down and said to me, what did he just tell you? i said he just all but said it's going to be reagan/ford. senator dole said that's not going to happen. we have to shut this down. he left the floor with howard baker, went over to the hotel and whatever transpired, transpired. somebody came running on to the convention floor and as chris wallace happy to tell you -- >> they shut it down. >> dole went over with baker, they shut it down. >> said we got to get this concluded in some fashion. how much they had an impact in shutting it down i don't know. i know the reagan kitchen cabinet so-called [ inaudible ] and williams smith didn't like the idea of handing it off to the vice president. as chris wallace will tell you, it's been going on for a long time. he was the guy who was told, it's bush.

he went on and said it's bush. electrified the convention floor. i was sitting with bob michael in the front row. he was at that time the minority leader of the house of representatives. some people thought on the floor it was a good idea to do that. >> let's get to the issue of women, senator hutchison. we have polls we can show you here. we talked about them at the top of the show. showing a little bit of a problem with the women, the women's vote for the republican party. >> you say a little bit of a problem. 29, 30 points, come on. >> it's a huge problem, senator. >> it's a huge problem. >> what's 30 points between friends. >> how will they close the gap and do you agree there's a problem? any way you can devalue this? >> the numbers are there. frankly republicans have had a gender gap routinely. however, i think the way we're going to close it is we're going to talk about the middle class and moms and the concern about jobs and the economy. i mean mothers are having their

kids move back home. i've got friends whose kids are getting internships when they graduate from college because they cannot get real jobs. >> by the way, unpaid. unpaid internships. >> right. >> and just to have the experience. and they're happy to get it. we hope moms will start looking at and saying, you know what, we can do better. four more years of huge debt, obama care which is scaring the small business people in this country to death, and the overregulation and the big government coming back, i think we're going to talk economy. we're not going to talk touchy-feely who likes who the most. we're not electing the captain of the football team. >> andrea. >> as governor romney said to chris wallace on fox news yesterday, he said, the reason that we tried so vehemently his word vehemently to get todd akin out of the race, is because we know that this is hurting women, damaging women, and hurting the

party. so he's acknowledging there is a problem here on the issues of reproduction because of the comments about rape that todd akin issued. also the platform is controversial. the platform has no exceptions in it. doesn't specify -- >> doesn't specify. >> it's broad enough. >> since 1980. >> reinforcing because of akin. >> the party platform is not anybody can look at either the democratic or the republican platform and say, verbatim, that is mainstream america. in the mainstream of a platform you have the ideals, but i just don't think that is at all what we ought to be talking about. we ought to be talking about the issues of this country in a financial crisis. >> haley barbour glad to be out of the big bad business of

politics. you need to cycle in and have the experience and cycle back out and go in the real in the real world and control your schedule. >> thank you very much for being here. senator kay bailey hutchison, thank you so much. great to see you. still ahead, chris matthews joins the conversation here in tampa. we're back in a moment. my name is adam frucci and i'm the editor of splitsider.com.

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i love being home in this place where ann and i were raised, where both of us were born. ann was born in henry ford hospital, i was born at harper hospital. no one's ever asked to see my birth certificate. they know that this is the place that we were born and raised. >> this was a swipe at president and i wonder why you took it. >> no, no. not a swipe. i said throughout the campaign, and before, there's no question about where he was born. he was born in the u.s. this was fun about us and coming home and humor -- you know, we

got to have a little humor in a campaign as well. >> oh, look at that. a hurricane's here. welcome back to "morning joe." tom brokaw is still with us here in tampa. joining us on the set, host of msnbc's hardball, chris matthews, and chairman of the republican national committee, reince priebus. good to have you here this morning. >> this call had to be made two days ago. some heavy rain and wind are still on the way but the fact is when emergency services tell you that they're not sure that the buses can get between clearwater and st. pete to the tampa bay forum safely, and when the secret service takes down the tents in front of the forum, that means that you have fewer entrances, you can't bring umbrellas in, you've got all your guests outside in a driving rain. then what do you do if you have a full forum on monday?

things deteriorate and you can't bring people back. you've got to make the call and we'd always err on the side of safety. >> so the convention is starting out this week with a race that's a toss-up. where you're talking earlier about how in 980 reagan was nine points behind at this point and obviously george h.w. bush, down more than that before his convention. but right now it is a toss-up. what does mitt romney have to do to get the remaining 3%, 4% that he needs to win? >> one, we need to prosecute the president as far as what he promised to deliver and where we're at. the nice thing for this race about us is that the facts are on our side. you want to go into a casey your closing argument, it is always great to have the facts on your side. the other thing i would say is that if we're in a tie on election day, we're going to win. because i think it's pretty well settled that most people in the middle are going to break to the challenger.

we're looking good in places like florida, ohio, wisconsin. we're a little bit behind in michigan but we're in the margin in michigan. so i think we've got a good case to tell. this week is about telling the mitt romney story. the story about a good, decent man that everything he's touched he's been successful. i think that's a pretty good formula right now in this country. >> chris, we've got some new polls out. there is a "washington post"/abc poll that shows this race split. it's 47% romney, 46% president obama. it is a toss-up. we're still at a toss-up. i've been using the basketball analogy for sometimes. it seems the republicans have done a lot of things wrong over the past year, even the todd akin problem, pretty tumultuous primary. and they're tied. i'm looking at president obama, 46%, i'm wondering to whether you're thinking back to a campaign you know a lot about --

1980. >> yeah, i was a speech writer for president carter so i do o feel that sense of foreboding sometimes. but certainly president obama's not as weak a politician as jimmy carter was. president obama's a very skillful, deft politician and very good on the stage. jimmy carter was not good at those things. certainly whatever you say about romney, he's no reagan in terms of charisma or historic appeal. but i think that there are similarities. i think economy. there's no dreadful hostage crisis emblemizing the whole thing either. i think the challenge of your cop vention this time -- you didn't quite get to it -- is that somebody said the other night at a session i was at that people think that romney has the skill set to fix the problem. they're not sure he's interested in the people he wants to help. on the other hand, obama is very interested in the people he wants to help but may not have the skill set to help them. you got to put it together. you got to show some humanity on this guy's part. is he going to be the guy looking out for you.

that's something you have the opportunity do this week. if he comes off as a human being -- he doesn't have to be comic or something he's not or a real showman, which he's not. if he comes off as a good square, he'll be all right. he is a square. he's a good square. >> republicans have usually had problems in this area, chris, which candidate cares more about people like you. and we have a bigger gap i think this year when you look at the republicans versus the democrats. >> we've seen -- i think president obama has a little bit of a problem is that i think people are starting to believe that he might not be real anymore and that the brand of barack obama -- >> you're focusing on what -- >> the comments that you've made numerous times, the brand of barack obama of 2008 isn't the barack obama of 2012. >> steve, let's talk about your candidate at this convention. why don't we talk about -- >> so part of a convention when you're in a challenging spot is to tell the american people who

you are, what makes you tick, and this is our opportunity this week to launch that campaign. >> willie -- >> if he can do it. your guy's like the orkin man in the commercial. he's this good looking guy, says call me up, i'm more than willing to fix your problems. i think your guy's the orkin man. the question is, is he going to come over when you call. >> oh, my god. what does the orkin man do? >> he's an exterminator. >> i think that was tom delay. willie, something fascinating that's been going on the past couple of weeks. you've heard mitt romney talking about how barack obama is running an angry campaign and he's -- >> dividing the country. >> -- dividing the country. a lot of people in the media are getting this wrong, say is this is about race, this is about race. america's already elected an african-american as president. this is about saying that brand, that hope and change brand in '08 -- and we heard the chairman

say this morning -- it's not the same four years later. this is not the hope and change guy. this is a divisive, angry guy. >> well it can't be, tom, marketing campaign anymore. it can't be about these sort of themes of hope and change. he's got a record to run on. he's got 3 1/2 years that he has to defend and he has to make the case that i know it's not gotten better as quickly as maybe you would have liked it to get better, but it is getting better by a little bit and i need four more years to finish the job. >> everybody's reaching for a metaphor constantly. but in this country at the turn of the century, 2000, it bought itself a very expensive automobile. and two really get us to wherever we needed to go, however we wanted to get there. now, 12 years later, the question is do we take it in just for a little tune-up or do we completely overhaul. and what the republicans are suggesting is that it is time for an overhaul, it is time to change the equation and the compact between the people and

the federal government and what it can do and how it does it. as opposed to president obama who says, look -- we can fine-tune this car and keep it going down the road that will carry all americans to their destination which as always been an essential part of american politics, the american dream. that's kind after tortured metaphor but i think that's kind of exactly where it is. i want to make one other observation. a lot of this campaign will be have the haves and have nots. half the people sitting here today have socks on, half do not. that's the half -- >> socks in florida! >> you never wear socks. >> tom, i think you hit on something as far as the american dream. just think about how far we've come on messaging from the barack obama of '08 to 2012. will's right, that barack obama's plan now -- he can't talk about the economy without tearing down mitt romney. but this is what i think the problem he's got. i think he's got a problem with the american dream. i will just tell you my parents,

my dad was a union electrician -- >> what do you mean by that? >> here's what i mean. my dad was a union electrician. when we drove around kenosha, wisconsin, he didn't point to the beautiful house on the corner and say, look at these lousy people over here. what he said and what every republican and democratic parent says to their kids is they point to that house and they say, listen up, pal, if you go to school, and you work hard, you're going to be in that house and mom and dad, we hope it's even bigger. >> but a lot of americans don't believe in that. >> your party is the party that really killed that dream. >> the problem is, is that the president is taking exactly what you're saying, that glass half-full view of america, he's taking that view and he is selling that view to america and he's tearing down mitt romney in order to win an election. that's exactly what's going on. >> chris, we always talk, chris, about how optimism wins. >> yeah, i think so. >> from fdr to reagan. one of the things that's so -- i

don't want to say disturbing or troubling. it's just sad. i don't see either one of these candidates talking about this is what i'm going to do in the next four years. tom talked about big government versus small government. you look at, unfortunately, hopefully the plans will get more specific. i think what we have is big government versus even bigger government. i don't see either side saying, this is -- reagan said it, fdr said it, kennedy said it. this is where we're going four years from now. >> look, in the end, we'll have three national presidential debates. an hour and a half each. i think we'll have a big audience for them. >> i can't wait. >> and i think that the candidate who can get beyond the past and even the present to the future will win. >> who's talking about the future? >> i don't hear it yet from either guy. i think the problem with the republicans is they have a challenge which is they want to cut the size of government and that's a very positive general message. it's when you get specific it is always a problem. that's why nobody wants to lay

down -- >> what's the president's problem moving forward to say this is where we're going? >> i think he has to talk about how he's going to continue what he he's doing. that's a harder challenge. i think it is because these numbers don't look good. but the fact is, this election's probably going to be decided by three things. the jobless numbers as it progresses right through the last october number. we're going to get it on a friday, right before an election. that's going to have a real power. your people, in and out officially and in the super pacs will probably use whatever advertising time is slated to play those numbers up if they're bad. if they're good, obama will try do it. if romney has a moment in the debates where he cuts through, he's not opaque, he's not distant, cuts through and becomes a good guy, i think the super pac money will explode and -- we've never had this combination of super pac money, unlimited money really at the end and a lot of economic news at the end and a brand-new personality presenting himself at the end. there's so much going to go on the last couple weeks of this

election with romney sort of really out there for the first time. a little bit this week but for the first time people are going to get a good look at him like they did at reagan in '80 in the debates. then the economic news is going to be really important at the end. put those two together with the big super pac spending, you'll have a lot of explosive activity the last couple days of this election. you can't really predict it now. >> mika, we've talked about it before on this show, if you're running a lot of ads just generally about barack obama did this, mitt romney did that, americans don't connect but if you have that moment in a debate, like chris is saying, new stuff, people will stop to watch those 30-second ads. >> so let's put the question to reince. you certainly come here locked and loaded looking for ways to criticize this president. i agree it is a tough sell after three years to resell, to repackage -- >> you mean -- >> i'd like to know when we're going to know what it is mitt romney is actually selling to us because he hasn't been specific and i don't want to hear about president obama.

i want to hear about in this answer. >> i'll tell you, first of all i think he's been extraordinarily specific. number one, he said that he would cut -- he would start cutting immediately gdp to spending from 25 cents on the dollar to run the federal government down to 20 cents on the dollar to run the federal government. that's a cut in the size of the federal government, number one. two, across the board on all incomes, 20% tax cut on all incomes across the board. small businesses from 35% down to 25%. and what more specific can he get than picking paul ryan as his vice president and saying we're on the same page here, we want to fundamentally change -- >> so is paul ryan a blueprint for how he thinks in terms of his economic plans and messages? >> i think if you look at the budgets that have come out from the republican house within think you are seeing a window into the types of thinks that we need to do to balance the

budget, to ensure that medicare is safe for people that are 54 and younger. it's the republicans that are talking about these specific issues. >> is he going to get more specific though as the campaign goes on? because the medicare plan is still murky. how you pay for the tax cuts is still murky. we talked about getting rid of deductions. are we going to see -- and they talk about balancing the budget, maybe like 2040. a lot of us won't be around in 2040. >> that's a long time. >> you will be around. >> god, i hope so. but is he going to get more specific over the next couple months? >> i would say that campaigns always get more specific as you get closer to november. but this sort of false narrative that he hasn't been specific is just not true. >> it's not false narrative. come on now. >> so what's he doing with medicare? >> medicare, if you're 55 or over -- first of all, there's one thing that we can all agree on. everybody. we know if we do nothing with

medicare it is going to go broke. so what are we going to do about it? we have decided that if you're 55 years or over, everything that we're talking about guaranteed affordability, the plan that all members of congress has, you don't need to listen to another word of it. but if you're 54 or younger, what are we going to do to save it? what we want to try to put together is a plan that every member of congress has that guarantees affordability, that allows members to choose a medicare plan if they want to, or choose a plan that insurance companies compete for. >> mr. chairman, his 30-second ad on medicare is attacking barack obama for cutting medicare. it reminds me a lot of what bill clinton did in 1995. >> sure. what we've talked about mainly comes out of the clinton commission of the late 1990s. i mean what we're talking about right now comes out of that plan. it's the president that stole

$700 billion out of medicare. $415 billion. it's true. $415 billion in payments to hospitals and nursing homes. $120 billion to medicare advantage out of that advantage. >> let me help him. can i help him? >> it's true! >> i got to help. i got a lifeline for you. >> what's that? >> i don't need a lifeline. >> how you going to get rid of todd akin? >> keep tell him to get out of the race and -- i believe that sometimes you have to put the things you believe in like liberty and freedom ahead of yourself. he has had an opportunity still to get out. >> so get out, right? just get out. >> chairman, i want to get tom's take on this, too. a question about the electoral map. "washington post" poll this morning, that's all well and good. it shows a tied race. but you have to claw back so many swing states that president obama won four years ago. so if you concede michigan and

pennsylvania, where do you see the other weaknesses for the president -- where are you going to make up that ground? >> well, we have this 3-2-1 strategy, which is indiana, virginia, north carolina, the 2 is florida and ohio, then we need one of about eight states that bush won in '04 that barack obama won in '08. the eight states are -- excuse me, there are six states plus michigan and wisconsin. i think we're getting close to the police where wisconsin's going to be very good for us. if we can take those ten electoral votes and put it in our back pocket, then we've got a lot of options, either colorado or iowa. but we have to solidify florida, ohio and virginia first. and then if we can move wisconsin in to our back pocket i think that we're going to be very competitive. think we've got a great opportunity here. >> right now -- >> i was going to say, the tough, tough state this year is

ohio. for republicans. i say tough, tougher than usual, tom. >> yeah. i think this year it's very much in play. john kasich, the governor, is not wildly enthusiastic about the top of your ticket. i don't think that that's reasonably well known in the state of ohio. there's a fair amount of separation -- >> i don't know if that's true, but okay, tom. >> i said wildly enthusiastic. and he ran into a tough patch out there when he tried to cut the budget. things are coming back a little bit in ohio. democrats think that they've got a shot at it. so it's hard to know how ohio is going to play out. but my question to you is thursday night, does governor romney speak to the american people about who he is personally? or does he give a policy speech? >> yeah. well i haven't seen his speech but i have certainly seen enough about generally where this speech is going and i think it is a speech that's going to be able to accurately portray the mitt romney story to the american people and i think that's important and i think

once this week passes, people are going to see the mitt romney launch that will help save this country and really put someone who can fix the problems facing this country in to the white house. >> chris, you're a speech writer. were you a speech writer for jimmy carter. obviously mitt romney has some challenges in introducing himself to america. he's seen as, at times, stiff, a lot like john kerry was seen in 2004 before his convention. what do you -- >> well, these are accurate assumptions by the way, voters have of these candidates. they've watched them all for years and these are realities. but i do think the great opportunity of a convention speech -- i was in new orleans in '88 where george bush sr. with the help of peggy noonan wrote an amazingly empathetic speech where in the first time in your life you said i like this guy, george bush, a lot, because he recognized his own weaknesses, he said i'm not very articulate, i'm not a great as s

a real patriot. the stuff about himself personally really broke through for the first time. of course he went into that convention something like 17 points behind. i know there is a lot of negativity in that campaign, the willie horton stuff. but i think if he comes off as a person -- and he hasn't done that yet. that's what i would do if i were writing the speech. >> the real issue for him is not to look into the camera and say "i'm the orkin man." call me and i'll be here. >> i have to call you on this, mr. chairman. you've been suggesting that somehow obama's been running a negative campaign, obama and your guy's been running a positive campaign. that's not accurate. in fact if they both stopped all the negative, i'm not sure who would win. but they're both negative. that cheap shot about i don't have a problem with my birth certificate is awful. it is an embarrassment to your party to play that card. this getting rid of the work requirement for health and welfare. it is dishonest and you are playing that little ethnic card there. can you play your games and giggle about it but the fact is

your side is playing that card. you start talking about work requirements, you know what game you're playing and everybody knows what game you're playing. it a race card. if your name's romney one you went to prep school, yeah, brag about it. this guy has an african name and he has to live with it. who was born on third base? this absurdity! making fun of the guy's birth certificate issue when it was never a real issue except from the right wing. >> you think that romney's playing the race card. >> when he said -- yeah. there's no doubt he did with his birth certificate. >> no doubt. >> no doubt. why would he bring it up? why would he say i have no problem with my birth certificate. >> because he's an awkward joker. >> because he misfired badly on the joke. >> why would he do it? >> i'm just asking you. do you think that mitt romney is playing the race card? >> yeah. >> do you really. >> yeah. and i think his work requirement plays right into it. >> that's the race card, too. >> of course it is! welfare. food stamps. absolutely. and you can chuckle. >> now let him respond, chris.

>> the fact is you know what's going on. >> let him answer. >> you got your monologue in -- >> no, no. >> congratulations. you got your -- you're loaded up, you got it out. the fact of the matter is, he's from michigan. he was born in michigan. he's making the point that i was born in michigan. and you know what? we've gotten to a place in politics that any moment of levity is totally frowned upon by guys like you just so that you can push your brand. you know what? good for you. it is a moment of levity. >> what was the joke? >> barack obama came out of the correspondence dinner with his own joke, as you remember -- >> what's the joke in the fact he has a birth certificate? i don't get it. >> i'm a real american. every person, myself, starting in february of last year, as soon as i became chairman of the rnc, mitt romney continuously has said this president was born

in this country. it's a non-starter. it's a dumb issue. it's a distraction. forget about it. >> it just seems funny the first joke he's ever told in his life is about obama's birth certificate. >> listen, i disagree with chris on this. >> and the work requirement -- >> are you speaking for everyone here? >> i think it was a demonstration of his awkward sense of humor. but i do think in fairness that all during the republican debates and the primaries that there was a lot of stuff aimed at the president that was not refuted by leaders of the party. >> i refuted it every single time -- i betcha 20 times on tv. >> i'm not talking about the birthing thing, but as far as he's a muslim, he's a socialist, he's not american. jo john sununu had to apologize for being american. i think that's what's made the country fed up with american politics and it is a challenge

for both parties. >> but i think obama's policies have created a sense that for whatever reason, he's looking to guidance as far as health care is concerned, as far as our spending is concerned, as far as the stimulus packages are concerned. he's looking to europe for guidance. >> what? >> i mean that's the problem. >> where do you get this from? this is insane! you mean the keynesian fiscal policy -- you mean the fact that every president we've had has tried to offset the economic cycle with stimulus going the other direction is somehow european? >> he said he'd get the debt under control. >> what's this got to do with europe and this foreignization of the government? you're doing it now. saying he's influenced by foreign influences? you're playing that card again. what's this european thing of yours? >> what do you think -- >> let's just work on tone. >> what are you up to with this constant -- saying he's not really domestic. he brought it up. >> you don't think that the

takeover of our health care system called obama care is a problem for most americans? >> let me tell you some history, sir. teddy roosevelt pushed for that. were they all into a battle with europe? >> i'm not going to get into this argument with chris. >> because you're losing. that's why. being a foreigner, obama, this is the thing your party's been pushing. >> garbage. garbage. >> it's your garbage. >> um, yeah. >> you know, you know the hurricane? it might bypass us completely and go on to new orleans. >> we went from a tropical storm to a hurricane 3. >> it's good that maybe we suspend things momentarily. reince priebus, thank you so much. chris matthews, thanks, i think. tom brokaw, thank you.

on tomorrow's show, we'll speak with governor chris christie. coming up next, live from tampa, nbc news political director chuck todd, "morning joe" back in a moment. [ male announcer ] wouldn't it be cool if we took the nissan altima and reimagined nearly everything in it? gave it greater horsepower and best in class 38 mpg highway... ...advanced headlights... ...and zero gravity seats? yeah, that would be cool. ♪ introducing the completely reimagined nissan altima. it's our most innovative altima ever. nissan. innovation that excites.

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♪ ♪ welcome back to "morning joe." live in tampa, florida. you know, i just -- >> can we pass out the value yum? >> david gregory and michael steele are with us. joining the conversation, nbc news chief white house correspondent and political director and host of "the daily rundown," chuck todd is here. >> chuck -- >> these chairs are too comfortable. >> they are way too comfortable. >> that's the problem you worry about when have you these comfortable chairs, people won't speak their mind. >> i think chris was just sitting back there, very comfortable. first of all, we want to thank you. barnicle, thank both of you guys for the dodgers unloading $250 million in payroll. >> money is nothing in l.a.

>> where did this come from? we've been -- we're sort of shell-shocked. the dodgers don't do this usually. pete o'malley. even the idiots at fox when they owned the dodgers which was the worst ownership they had, they didn't do stuff like this. >> you had a history in the dodgers organization -- i know you wanted to spend this granular detail on this, really developing a farm system and developing young talent. this really strikes me as -- you got ramirez, then to get gonzalez? >> you got josh beckett, mr. fried chicken. you guys can have all the fried chicken and beer that you need in l.a. now. >> look, the new ownership has done a great job. vince scully's on for another season. >> basically, we're sucking up. >> we're all for them. >> in the playoffs, we need lots of good seats. >> gonzalez is going to actually

do a great job, i'm sure. beckett might find -- crawford was so great here in tampa. just never saw the ball -- >> a lot of people say crawford when he was in high school he was a great high school football player and a lot of people were shocked when he didn't go football. he went baseball to avoid injury so he could have a longer career in the pros. he literally pick baseball so he could not get hurt. >> to tell the strength of the washington capitals, steve capus' phillies swept the capitals. >> abc poll/"washington post" was out there. earlier in the conversation i threw out the subject to chris before things went somewhere. not exactly sure where they went. 46% sitting presidents sitting at 46%. we know he's going to do a great job at the convention. he is one of the most dynamic speakers we've had in the white

house obviously since -- i'd say even ronald reagan at these type of events. that said, you're a sitting president, you're at 46%. we're talking about mitt romney. what does barack obama have to do to get four more percentage points? >> i think he has to -- it's why you're seeing the campaign you are. this is a segmented targeted campaign. they're speaking to women's voters about specific issues, they're speaking to latinos about another. when you look at it, this is a puzzle in every battleground state. right? so it's got to hit a certain percentage of hispanics here, certain percentage of young voters here, percentage of suburban women voters here. obviously they believe they've raised questions on romney. i thought it was interesting to hear romney in these interviews this weekend admit that it was working. usually do you ever let your opponent know -- >> he's a data guy! he's so fascinated by data. >> well, it's working.

>> michael, i'd love to hear from everybody else on the panel, too. we always hear about the gender gap. what does mitt romney do to get more women to like him? there's a gender gap. as somebody said earlier today, going the other way. what does barack obama do to get more men on his side? because obviously if there's a huge gender gap for romney, there must be a huge gender gap for the president as well because this race is tied. >> there is. but in most households, something we looked at very closely in the 2009-2010 campaigns, women are the drivers in their household when it comes to voting. so while there may and gender gap with respect to men, the women in that household are going to be -- have a big influence. and so romney really does i think this week have to make the case to women. despite all the other noise that he's had to deal with, why his governance of massachusetts mattered to women and what he did there to get that unemployment rate down to 4.7 and how that impacted women's

households that are families in a positive way. and nationally going forward, what does his policies look like and do for them specifically to help them. because you're talking about -- i just had this conversation couple weeks ago with a woman, two children, living in a car. and so how do you do that? she lost her home. divorced. as a result of the economic stress. living in the car. so what is the conversation for that woman? how does mitt romney talk to her? he's got to find that. >> willie, you were saying earlier that he's embarrassing massachusetts, the health care plan and he's talking about how that helps women. right? >> he's talking about all the things he's been running from for a couple of months -- massachusetts health care law, his time at bain capital, even talking about his mormon faith. david, do we ask too much of this convention to change the entire dynamic of the race? i heard chuck talk on "meet the press" yesterday about how there is really going to. no bump, per se, but can things

change out of this? >> i think number one, to go to joe's question, which is where does the president get that extra percentage point, he continues to disqualify mitt romney as an alternative. i think that's job one. that's what they really want to do because the facts on the ground, the way the country is, are just too negative for the president. he wants to talk about kind of a balanced approach. i do think this fight between chris and chairman priebus is still about role of government. that's a huge issue. but i think here, it is about biography, who is this guy. he's hard to get to know. can he give something of his heart here to get people really interested in him because, remember, a lot of people watching here may be undecided, may be softly committed. they don't have a great sense of him yet. >> david gregory, thank you so much. chuck todd, stick around, if you can. coming up, how does this year's republican national convention stack up with conventions past in the host of pbs' "need to know," jeff

greenfield joins us next on "morning joe." [ chirps ] ♪ [ chirping ] [ chirping ] ♪ [ chirping ] ♪ [ male announcer ] audi a4 drivers have spoken. [ engine revs ] and they ranked the a4 highest in total quality index in its class. [ chirps ] experience the summer of audi event before september 4th and get exceptional values on the audi you've always wanted.

welcome back to "morning joe." we are live from tampa, and that is where it's all going to start today, and then stop. >> will you quit saying that? you love saying that! >> joining us now, the host of "need to know" on pbs and yahoo! news columnist, jeff greenfield. good to have you here. >> thank you. >> jeff, we were talking about '76, an extraordinary republican convention. '80 with the vice presidential pick. another extraordinary convention. and i would actually say four years ago, despite the media narrative, the sarah palin convention was an extraordinary convention. she -- >> indeed. >> she gave john mccain -- she gave a heck of a speech, then she gave mccain a tailwind for a while. >> yes. until she had to start answering questions, she did. >> what does need to have at this convention to get a tailwind? >> you know, the conversation that you guys have been having -- that everybody's been

having -- strikes me as remarkably confined to the kind of most narrow tactical issues. everybody says he has to show us something of himself. to me, this is the column i've done today, it's depressing that convention speeches, acceptance speeches, since richard nixon in 1968 have become so personal. franklin roosevelt never said when i had polio, i had to learn to stand up again, so does america. >> that's a good line. >> eisenhower said on d-day as i paced my office and thought about my childhood in kansas and my deeply religious parents, because of this median, acceptance speeches have now become oprah-like. we're always told about -- george bush, first one in '88, moved to texas, lived in a shotgun shack. al gore talked about the depression and his parents. bill clinton, one of his opening lines was, i never knew my

father. i'm sure that we're going to get that this convention. we always hear about let's find out the inner romney. you know what i would like? i would like him to say i grew up in comfortable circumstances. i wanted for nothing. and now i'm quite wealthy. but i think i know how to fix the economy. and you know what? franklin roosevelt was a lousy father but a great president. the connection between the personal and political, to me, has grown so intense that it deprivz us d deprives us of a bigger argument. everybody says mitt romney has to go bigger. i think his campaign, i think obama's campaign, think modern politics has now become so contrived that getting big is difficult, not to mention the fact that our medium, the minute he finishes, that was an effort to win left-handed suburban dentists in ohio. it is so tactical that it is really hard to stretch. >> it is tactical, isn't? >> the suburban dentist vote is huge! particularly in shaker heights. right outside of the cleveland media markets. >> you try, you try --

>> nobody really has a clear picture as to what they really -- they either think he needs to go deeply personal, michael steele, or chuck todd. >> but, no, but romney seems to know this. seems like every once in a while -- what does he say in the political interview -- i am who i am? it seems like he would like to say, fine, i'm a data guy. i'm not charismatic. so what. somebody stops him. but somebody stops him. every time he says, fine, i'm going to be this sort of boring boardroom data guy that loves a good power point presentation and wants to be this guy, that some handler says, no, no, no, no. >> i'm sorry, i was going to agree with both of you. i think the opportunity -- goes back to what i just said -- you spend a minute and a half on that stuff, that big family stuff. but then i really think this is one of those rare moments, to your point, where he can actually connect with people without having to do bio heavy. where he talks about what he's going to do and how -- maybe interweaving in there somewhere

how his life experiences have helped shape that. but he doesn't have to do this i'm like you thing. he just needs to -- this is what i'm going to do for. you. >> my point very quickly is the voters are on to this. they know the game. politicians and operatives don't understand that voters know what people are trying to pull over them. >> and there is a way forward connecting with americans without being deeply personal. >> i think there is. >> ronald reagan did not talk about his time back in illinois or in iowa that much in these speeches. he would talk about american stories. >> it is the most substantive acceptance speech you can find. reagan's '80 acceptance speech, if you read it your dra jaw wja drop. all substantive. not a word of "i grew up in illinois." >> that's a very moving story. >> thank you. your column's on yahoo!.

>> i got nothing out of you. >> this is a lively crowd, isn't it? >> it is. it is. >> we're only on day one. day one. are we only on day one? >> chris christie coming up tomorrow. >> only day one! right! >> the 12 days of christmas. >> we'll be right back.

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welcome back to "morning joe." time to talk about what we learned today. willie, what did you learn? >> i learned for anyone who

thought it was going to be down, low energy because there was nothing at the convention? chris matthews changed all that. >> what did you learn? from it is going to be a long week. >> well drink up. >> willie? >> you know what? how long is this thing? >> it's about five days. >> good morning. what have you learned today? >> it is really hard for me to be at a bar for three hours and not have a cocktail. >> well you've done it. congratulations. chris? >> i learned that good health is a european idea. >> very good. and michael, what did you learn? >> i learn rain or shine, tampa is the place to be this week. >> there you go! look at that. what a politician! that's very good. >> if it's way too early, willie, what time is it? >> it's "morning joe." stick around after the break for our good buddy chuck todd. >> cheers! [ female announcer ] they can be enlightening.

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