plus, what are the republicans not saying? it is all in "the cycle" on this tuesday, august 28. the rnc is getting down to business. the man of the more, mitt romney, is in town for big speeches from his wife ann romney and new jersey governor chris christie coming up. the delegates are balancing the festival convention celebrations with concern as isaac spins toward new orleans with hurricane force. the giant storm is expected to make landfall overnight. the outer rain bands are already hitting the coastline. and because the storm is so large and so slow moving officials fear massive flooding from the expected 12-foot storm surge and four inches of rain per hour. isaac will hit exactly seven years after george w. bush's handling of hurricane katrina marred the last republican administration.

president obama issued this warning to gulf coast residents. >> now is not the time to tempt fate, now is not the time to dismiss official warnings. you need to take this seriously. the hardest work, of course, is still ahead. as president i'll continue to make sure that the federal government is doing everything possible to help the american people prepare for and recover from this dangerous storm. >> obama didn't go as far as chris christie telling residents to, quote, get the hell off the beach, but the message the same. we start with msnbc's tamron hall back in new orleans for us. tamron, what's the latest? >> reporter: well, the latest right now is that the next 36 hours are key here. from all indications the storm will roll in at its maximum punch at midnight local time tonight. right now we have been feeling as you described as the outer bands of the storm. right now there's no water, no rain, but within the next minute or two rewill be pushed by a huge gust of wind, which will be followed by rain. that's been the pattern all

morning long that we have been sitting out here. a lot of people boarded up their businesses. i'm in the french quarter right now with emergency vehicles and emergency personnel really dispersed throughout the area not knowing when a tornado, for example, that often comes with hurricanes will strike. we also know that national guard members, for example, have been put on active duty. others have been put on standby. there's a lot of activity going on. people thought the storm would be here by now, but it's moving slowly. it's a monster storm. right now it's about 7 miles per hour that the storm is moving. the bottom line is here, and i'm not a meteorologist, i know you're not, but the bottom line is the fear that this storm can hang over this area, the low-lying communities, dump three to four inches of rain. the pump system can only handle an inch of rain an hour. i don't have to do the math for you, you know that equals flooding. and lives certainly can be lost in a flooding event. that's the big concern right now, but the army corps of engineers tells me the breaks we

are experiencing is a good thing to give the pump system time to work and get the water out of the way. but the next 36 hours is key. i've talked to a lot of people getting their family out. one guy on canal street with his wife and children said, maybe i waited too long to leave, but i'm getting out of here now. that's the word from new orleans to mississippi, alabama, new orleans, people are getting out and waiting on this hurricane, category 1, to move through here and hopefully do the least amount of damage as possible, s.e. >> thank you for keeping us updated. we'll check in with you throughout the day, i'm sure. stay safe. here in tampa the ceo of the convention, william harris, just spoke. former rnc chairman michael steele is also here in tampa. michael, good to see you. >> it's good to see you, s.e. >> so ann romney speaks tonight. i was talking to congressman joseph chaffitz earlier said the mitt romney he knows is warm and

down to earth. he shared a story about mitt romney consoling him a few months ago after his dad died. is that the mitt you expect to be talked about tonight? >> yes, i think it is. there's a side to this man that we just don't know. his time doing his mission and the near death experience that he had there. the reality of raising five boys and, you know, separate and apart from being governor and part of this big family is dad and his aspirations. part of that story. this is the mitt romney no one really gets to know and see that often. and i think tonight is a real good moment for ann romney to sort of bring us inside a little bit, to sit us at the coffee table, have a cup of coffee and talk about her husband in a very end intimate way. >> you and i were both in minnesota, and to me this convention feels different in that there's a heightened sense of urgency here. for all the media talk about romney's inability to excite the base, people forget

conservatives weren't thrilled with john mccain either. sarah palin really ignited that rnc. so what's your take on the enthusiasm here? >> well, the enthusiasm here comes from a number of different sources that all kind of are gavelizing at this moment. one of them is the idea to defeat barack obama. that's the central core thrust. but then you have the extra enthusiasm that comes from having paul ryan now on the ticket. bringing in that brand of fiscal conservativism and making that part of the mainstream conversation on debt and deficit and taxes. then, finally, there's the general energy that comes from a country that's under the wait of four years of debt and deficit of inability to move small businesses back into the mainstay. so all of these things are converging and you're feeling it there on the floor. it's a palpable energy, actually. it is not focused on one man as we may have seen in past convention experiences, it is this whole source of energy

coming from different places gavelizing on the floor and thrusting together after romney's's speech on thursday onto the streets of america to gal veize the fall campaign. >> s.e. said something i want to elaborate on, i just did the inner political door, you talked to jason, the congressman from utah about the challenges romney is going to face, if there's any member of congress that knows something about the challenge to a candidate's face, it has to be jason chaffitz. his father used to be married to micha michael dukakis' wife. he was active in the campaign, so sorry, inner political nerd/obsessive person. >> i'm steve kornacki, i'm just weird. >> we all have the nerdy moment, there it is right there. >> michael, i want you to level

with me for a minute on this. i think something we all can agree on is that the romney campaign wants to win. and to do so the national journalist is saying he needs to get 61% of the white vote. right now in the latest nbc/wall street journal poll he's at zero percent with african-americans. the president has 94% and romney is getting zero. >> right. >> i'm not asking about morality here just asking about pure politics. doesn't it make sense, isn't it effective for the romney campaign to inject race into this campaign and use that as a divider to get that 61% of the white vote that they need? >> i'm going to be honest with you, no, it is not from a practical or political standpoint because something like that is always dangerous. it always blows back up on you ten-fold. being exposed, doing something like that just does not make good political sense in this day and age where you can get news

and information and dissection of your actions from all angles. so either position where, it can be perceived that your actions are race-baiting or trying to generation a discussion on race unnecessarily is not good, smart politics. >> but michael, aren't they already in that place? they made these welfare ads, which they have released numerous ads about welfare. they have, you know, mitt romney's line about birthers, saying the president needs to learn to be an american. another ad that he ran basically saying that the president is taking money away from medicare recipients and giving it to other people. aren't they already engaging in these racial politics because they think it's effective? >> no, i don't -- i'm just not prepared to go that far. look, john came out and made clear that they made a mistake there and got that, okay? the reality is, i'm not trying to explain away anything here,

but what i'm telling you is that looking at the welfare piece, who is the most significant use of the welfare system, who is the greatest participant in our welfare program in this country, it's whites, not african-americans. one of the things -- >> we know that, but that's not the perception people have. we know that. >> that's a great comfort, that's a great comfort to say that, we know that, but the rest of the country doesn't. well, the fact of the matter is, let's educate the country as opposed to just throwing that out there and having to jump to black when we talk about welfare. let's contentionalize it. >> is mitt romney working on that right now? >> neither of the parties are. that's why it is easy for the democrats to put that card out there. and for republicans either deliberately perceived to be doing the same thing. let's be honest about who the recipients in the country are, it's affecting millions of americans and it is a legitimate

discussion point. let's get it out of the class of race and into the class of economy debate so we know exactly what we're talking about. >> michael, it is not just a welfare issue, it is multiple issues. this has been a republican playbook for as long as you and i have been alive, perhaps longer. >> yep. >> this is clearly smart politics for the republican party. it's been working on a national level for 40, 50 years. >> just as it was smart politics in my race for the 2006 senate seat in maryland for democrats to put aside saying republicans will turn back the clock on civil rights with me as a candidate. the republicans basically don't like black people. i mean, come on. both sides play this stupid racial game when we get into presidential and big-time politics. and the point is it needs to stop because as you just noted, we have seen it for a long time. and it does have, you know, i guess a downward pressure on turnout and the ability for people to want to participate in the process.

that's not what we should be talking about right now because the stakes are too high. >> michael steele, lg, thank you for joining us on your inaugural cycle visit. >> thank you, michael. >> all right, it was a real pleasure. okay. up next, better late than never. the day's rain delay giving us two big speeches in one night tonight. i can barely contain my excitement. excited face. as "the cycle" rolls on for tuesday, august 28. ♪ hello...rings ♪ what the... what the... what the... ♪ are you seein' this? ♪ ♪ uh-huh... uh-huh... uh-huh... ♪ ♪ it kinda makes me miss the days when we ♪ ♪ used to rock the microphone ♪ back when our credit score couldn't get us a micro-loan ♪ ♪ so light it up! ♪ even better than we did before ♪ ♪ yeah prep yourself america we're back for more ♪ ♪ our look is slacker chic and our sound is hardcore ♪ ♪ and we're here to drop a rhyme about free-credit-score ♪ ♪ i'm singing free-credit-score-dot-com ♪ ♪ dot-com narrator: offer applies with enrollment in freecreditscore.com.

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they are very nice shirts. >> i'm like, that shirt looks pretty good, i got them at costco. >> costco, interesting. tonight we'll get a primetime speech from ann romney, mitt's wife of 43 years. mitt is unable to talk much about himself, but ann is comfortable providing us with mitt's soul. can she humanize the man some think is wooden? let's put it through the cycle, steve, i have to say you have to have a personal story to create a personal story to create a great speech. what i think about obama, when i think about george bush and bill clinton, they had great personal stories, overcoming personal demons and he was living the story as running for office. romney doesn't have that. he's grown up in the lap of luxury, the son of a powerful man, i don't think there's the personal story. i remember growing up loving jfk who, saving another man, romney

doesn't have anything like that. >> you're not going to get the by the bootstraps narrative. these are two commonly things we hear in presidential nominees. but with romney, the bar is low, it is tough to botch the acceptance speech. i think that's true with what ann romney is going to do. the guy with no sense of humor, how can you personalize him? i bet the wife can and bet it will not be nearly as hard as you can say it will be. she'll say he's a family man, what he did from a social welfare standpoint as a leader in his church and dealing with poor people in eastern massachusetts. how he helped her struggle with multiple sclerosis. i'm thinking of 1996 when bob dole, you want to talk about a dour personality who turned voters off. his wife elizabeth stole the show at the 1986 republican convention telling the bob dole story. >> and then he lost. >> sure, i'm not saying it's going to help in the fall, but

i'm not surprised we'll hear great reviews after tonight. >> that's not what bush and clinton can talk about, but go ahead. >> what ann romney can do is remind megaof a moment mitt and ann had before. take a look. >> most of our events were involving humor of one another, most of which cannot be repeated on the air. >> they were involving humor. just be funny. then we know that you're humorous. it reminds me the same thing. it's not enough to have a family member saying he's likable, i swear, he'll warm. be warm and likable then we'll know you're warm and likable. it is not enough to have the wife do it. i think ann will give a fantastic speech and will be warm. she has a much better delivery style in that way, more personal than mitt. s.e., what do you think? >> i hear what you're saying. a couple points i want to make. mitt romney has a personal

story. something interesting came up with a very famous father who did great things running as michigan governor being one of them, and can really talk about the great american story. and just because he grew up wealthy does not mean he doesn't have a part in the great american story. and then as steve mentioned, his missionary work, his great efforts, certainly i would expect tonight to hear about his dealing with ann romney's m.s. diagnosis. also she was diagnosed with breast cancer at the same time. i mean, this is a family that really has been through a lot. and they have had a lot of success. and they have had some real moments of heartbreak and difficulty and trial and tribulation. so i expect her to talk about some of that and really present mitt the father, mitt the husband, mitt the guy and not

mitt the man who is running for president or mitt the ceo. >> yeah. it would be helpful for him if he could do that effectively himself. >> yeah, say he's got a great special story and talk about his dad in missionary work, which thousands of people do. sure, if he can talk about his wife with m.s., that would be interesting and important, but there's certainly not the powerful story other people have had. but tonight's headliner, chris christie, the man who can embody anger at obama, make people laugh and make us wonder if there's one unscripted moment in this tightly constructed media event. christie says he's going to spell out romney's policies, but this is one of the most important speeches of the week, not just for romney but for christie with an eye on the white house in 2016 or 2020. tonight the rest of his political life. steve has strong feelings about chris christie, can he be

president of the united states one day? >> i think if he was running this year he has a better chance than mitt romney. i have not seen the text of his speech, but i'm predicting it is going to drive me crazy because i know exactly how he's going to play this. one of the messages he's been trying to sell is in new jersey i've done something that americans want. i've factored in a bipartisan fashion with democratic legislation and big things on pension and unions. then he'll pivot to, meanwhile in washington, the president of the united states has chosen the other route of polarization and partisanship. the delegates will get to cheer obama. the realities of if you know what happened in new jersey, christie has two big political bosses he has an alliance with. this cannot happen in washington. if he does that tonight, it will drive me nuts. >> if america complains about politicians who don't say what

they really think, they have to love chris christie, right? >> that's right. his only job is to say all the things that mitt romney knows better not to say. you know, he's there to be, maybe politically incorrect? maybe a little more forcible than mitt romney wants to be. maybe more attack-ish against obama. then mitt romney can present the positive member of the future. he's here to do all the things mitt romney won't. and, as for the substance, i think steve is probably right about what he'll touch on, but he is here to look like a bully, frankly. we'll see if that's what he does tonight. >> one quick thing of note, contrast between christie's speech tonight and obama's in 2004, obama did not mention george w. bush a single part in that speech. part of why it is powerful is it was above the fray, both-partisan and very hard for chris christie to strike that tone tonight. >> i think you're exactly right.

another reason this comparison really isn't a good one, you know, president obama then senator obama really came out of nowhere and had a star turn on with that stage in 2004. chris christie already had a star turn. we are excited to see what he has to say. there are high expectations but there's really no element of suspense or surprise with this speech tonight. >> that's right. nobody is going to be shoed if he knocks it out of the park. up next, what matters more, the money or the message? you might be surprised what our next guest who is an author has to say about that. she joins u.s. just ahead. whoa, look at all those toys. insuring that stuff must be a pain. nah. he's probably got... [ voice of dennis ] allstate. they can bundle all your policies together. lot of paperwork. [ doug ] actually... [ voice of dennis ] an allstate agent can help do the switching and paperwork for you. well, it probably costs a lot.

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well, it may seem that the convention in tampa is just one long advertisement for the republican ticket, millions are still being spent on advertising

the old fashioned way. in fact, hundreds of millions is the total spending of both parties eclipsing half a billion dollars. no wonder. new research out of ucla found a two to one advertising could potentially lead to a three to four-bump at the polls. in an election like this, it could mean all the difference. once the party figures out they are being beaten, they will ramp it up to diminish the edge. in the guest spot today is lynn vavrick, co-author of the book "the gamble." lynn, thank you for joining us. i wanted to have you on because i think you have an interesting way of looking at and understanding presidential elections. basically one of the ideas you have put out there is that you can look at a presidential election, the summer before the vote, and you can look at gdp change in the months leading up to that and figure out which candidate is going to be

advantaged by the economy and which one is swimming upstream against the economy. i think what's interesting is you actually say that it's obama who should be getting the advantage from the economy right now. >> that's exactly right. people tend to forget that the economy may be growing slowly but it's definitely growing. and incumbent presidents in growing economies, even slowly growing ones, are hard to beat. >> now there are, according to your sort of framing of the election then, you have the candidate who gets the advantage of the economy and the candidate who then in this case, romney, is going upstream. what are the different challenges then, what are the challenges that a guy like romney would be facing upstream against the economy? >> yeah, two really specific challenges if you're mitt romney. the first is you have to find an issue on which you are closer to most voters than barack obama. and also on which obama is committed to his unpopular position. so you want to refocus the election off of the economy,

which all presidential elections are focused on the economy. so you're job is to focus it off the economy and onto this other issue where you're advantaged. >> that's an interesting point because we have seen in the last few days with a story in "the new york times" over the weekend that made the argument that the romney campaign has concluded that just running on the bad economy is not going to be enough and that there's sort of a switch of a focus to sort of cultural agitation of white working class voters, trying to turn them against obama. specifically one of the areas they are focusing on, the romney campaign, is welfare. i want to play a clip on the welfare ad made by mitt romney. >> president obama plans to gut welfare reform by dropping requirements. under obama's plan he wouldn't have to work or train for a job. they would just send you the welfare check. and welfare to work goes back to being plain old welfare. >> lynn, this ad and ads like it are in heavy rotation right now.

this is a real point of emphasis for the romney campaign. does this fit what they need to be doing right now? >> well, it would be one approach to a message that is not an economic message. in the previous segment you talked about the cultural issues, trying to appeal to white working class americans, is this the way to do it? i would say that whatever the romney campaign decides their alternative message is going to be, they need to settle on that very quickly. maybe in the next couple of days. and they need to start telling us that story. one of the ways that they manifested this shift in their message that those guys wrote about in "the new york times" yesterday was by going out on the campaign trail and mitt romney said, hey, no one has ever asked me for my birth certify call. and that's not it. that is still a negative message focusing on the president. they need a positive message for why the romney/ryan ticket needs to be elected. and i have not heard that from them yet. >> well, nobody has heard that

as steve has been saying on this show. that they have been trying to create a cipher of a candidate, a non-entity. just vote against him and trying to identifien votes that way. lynn, to your point, you have been talking about in your work the impact of political ads diminish within two weeks. i think we have a graph about how fast it just fades from memory. but i feel like the best ads tend to define people and you may not remember the ad itself, but the colonel of it sticks in the memory that way that we meet people and within seven seconds we have made a decision about them, which goes counter to we may not remember that, but the definition sticks. isn't there that colonel that sticks in the memory long-term? >> yes. that's a great way to think about it. so the work that i've been doing at ucla with some of my colleagues, we are trying to pull apart the two different kinds of effects that advertisements have. that immediate impact. and there is that. but it decays really quickly. and presidential elections, we

think more than half the effect of the ad is gone within two or three days, but what remains is what you're talking about. this more long-term kind of, i don't know why i think that but i just know that about you. and that will stick around for a matter of a month to six weeks. >> so, lynn, it looks like mitt romney is going to outspend president obama by a pretty significant margin, but is some of that impact mitigated by the fact that the president is the president? isn't there a power of the presidency and having the stump to so to speak, impact the negative ad spending of mitt romney? >> being the president comes with advantages. and it is worth a lot at the polls. when i say a lot, we are talking about very small margins. so it is worth a point, maybe a point and a half. so, yeah, and also, just spending more money, that's not always the way to win. but having an advertising advantage tends to lead to an

advantage at the polls. >> lynn vavreck, co-author of the book "the gamble." thank you for joining us. straight ahead, why larry david is telling young people not to curb their enthusiasm. ♪

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♪ la la la la la la la [ male announcer ] dow solutions help millions of people by helping to make gluten free bread that doesn't taste gluten free. together, the elements of science and the human element can solve anything. solutionism. the new optimism. it is very important to vote. that not to vote, why are you even living here? you could be living anywhere. you could be living in iran or north korea. how would you like that? then, yeah, then you can sit on your couch, but here you're allowed to vote so you might as well do it. what do you think of that? young person. >> larry david, urging young people to get out and vote. inspiring stuff. seems even comedians know the importance of the youth vote in this election. people under 30 make up 40% of

the u.s. population, making it the largest age demographic available to politicians. so it is no shock while the republican national convention hits the ground in tampa, the president is hitting the road storming through college towns in iowa, colorado and virginia today and tomorrow. joining us now is matt seagull, co-founder and president of our time, an organization trying to help young voters force politicians and businesses to represent their needs. matt, it's hardly controversial to say that young folks vote reliably liberal, but it also bears pointing out that young people reliably don't vote. so with so much economic uncertainty, you think employment among young people 12% nationally, isn't this the election young folks need to pay attention to more than ever? >> yes. undoubtedly, the issues would warrant young people's participation, but the fact of the matter is we have a cultural

right now at odds with our legislative process. young people want to see something get done in washington, d.c., and we have a culture where you can look on the internet with information instantly at the tip of your fingertips. we can get fast food, we have fast connectivity through social media and cell phones. yet meanwhile in washington it takes months and months and months to get a piece of legislation through a committee, let alone a chamber, let alone revolt chambers and to the president's desk. and with all the bickering between the parties, it has turned off a lot of young people to the process who would rather put their focus elsewhere. that's exactly what's happened. >> that's understandable. the romney campaign has a full page ad in the "iowa state daily" today blast on obama's record on youth and unemployment and obama is embarking on a college tour. do you expect the warm reception he would have gotten in 2008 or do you think young voters will press him on his policies and

promises? >> well, with regards to the economy, there's been numerous proposals from the obama administration put forward to create jobs. i mean, there was an american jobs act. there's certainly been proposals around investigating science, technology, engineering and training at community colleges. there's been a variety of things at the table but no agreement to it. in a congress that's in paralysis or gridlock, it's very hard to hold one man or person accountable. i also know that although the romney campaign is very much playing up the meager employment situation, i haven't been exactly clear what their vision is on youth employment either. you know, besides tax cuts and trickle-down economics, which don't necessarily make as much clear create job correlation sense to a young person. paul ryan's budget threatens to call medicare entirely, that's wildly unpopular with young people with applications outpacing the amount of spots.

and there's cuts in education. there's an appeal from paul ryan to speak to young people on the basis that he argues we'll be footing the bill for many years to come, which is by all means true, less than 3%, in fact, 2% of our budget today is education investment focus. 20% is national security. 20% our expenditures are on health care. >> matt, i hear you, but do you really expect young people, we are talking 18-year-old who is are on their way to college or out of college, you expect them to care about education, really? when they don't care about making it to the voting booths? >> of course they will care about education because education was the first reason that they enrolled in college to get a job in the first place. education is the means for a ticket to a job and upper mobility in society. as a result of education, they are left with debt and no job. so it is about reforming costs and making sure or colleges and universities adequately prepare

young people for employment. the other thing about romney and ryan that's important to focus on is their vent statement that young people should not expect free stuff from the federal government and that they shouldn't, they should borrow money from their parents to start businesses. it's a survival of the fittest mentality. it is not about making sure we make education an affordable thing for people. and they back for-profit colleges that are highly controversial in the fact they hawk young people to enroll in the schools but then can't deliver graduates with prepared skills who can actually get jobs and meanwhile they are stopped with a degree, massive debt and nothing to show for themselves. >> mad, you are a young person well-versed in all the issues. how much do you think the actual reality of the policy positions as you're laying them out right now are penetrating to young people? how much information are they actually getting and understanding? >> well, one of the reasons my organization, ourtime.org put out the larry david video on and

are leveraging a lot of entertainers, athletes and musicians is because culture needs politics in our opinion. unless you leverage the voices of people that you look up to and respect and listen to every day, you are not going to have an easy time first reaching them. past that it's about actually not talking about politics like it's a foreign language. we use words on this very network that are very sophisticated and it's about breaking down what they mean and how they affect people in a very simple way. oftentimes the language used in washington is purposely confusing so that special interests can come in and drive outcomes in legislation in a way that's not transparent to the american people. >> matt, i know as well as anyone at this table culture is going to drive people in a lot of ways, but your ads of larry david, dicaprio, does it really inspire young people to vote to have celebrities telling them they should? in the last election puffy made a big thing, sarah silverman

made a big thing, does this really work? >> a simple yes. look at the metrics that speak for themselves. these videos that we are doing are driving thousands of voter registrations and we know if you register to vote, 80% of the people who register to vote are likely to vote. voter registration is the biggest indicator in the voter turnout. so we know if we can get people registered they will have a much greater chance to show up in november. >> matt, i just want to ask you quickly down in tampa, ron paul is in tampa with a lot of young people with ron paul. this is really fascinating to me because you have this 77-year-old gold-obsessed guy with wacky economic views. i've always wondered what brings so many young people to him. i have to tell you, one thing i wondered about is he supports the legalization of marijuana in this country. young people more than any other group support this overwhelmingly and it is a novelty to have a major political figure out there saying anything about legalization in this country. do you think that's a significant part of ron paul's

appeal to young people? >> two things and great point. first is anti-establishment. he represents four out of ten young people who may lean slightly to the left but don't prefer to abide by party labels and put themselves as democrats and republicans. four out of ten are in that demographic. in regard to marijuana legalization, that's becoming a no-brainer to my generation. you look at the economics of it and the way it cracks down among black and brown men by incarcerating them, it's an expenditure we don't need when we could be legalizing it, taxing it and making money to reduce our deficit off of it and most importantly not locking so many people up who don't need and deserve to go to prison in the first place. >> matt segal -- >> you are spearheading something like that rather than putting bold-faced names in front of them to vote for anything? >> i'm sorry, one more time? >> why not put an issue like

that in front of their face rather then a telling them to vote for anything? >> well, an issue like that will stimulate voter turnout, but contrary to what people think, jobs is number one. it's not just that young people want to get high and sit on the couch all day. they do care about jobs and care about affordable education and certainly they care about student loan relief when we have a trillion dollars of cumulative debt in this country. and by the way, yet again, the paul ryan budget will double interest rates on student loans, which are something that is certainly not appealing to many people of my generation. >> okay, matt segal, we'll see if the young people come out. it is good to have you with us. it is not all work at the convention. a sneak peek of what's happening after hours. as we take a break, here's a little big head todd. they played here last night. ♪

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luckily that's not been a problem in tampa between the pre-planned parties and the extra day off delegates got yesterday. convention goers and lawmakers have been spotted jamming out to blues traveler band, chowing

down on cuban food and sipping on kentucky bourbon and checking out sharks at the florida aquarium. our own political shark lover s.e.cupp has been hard working at the convention, but finding a little time for fun, too. s.e., what's going on there? >> actually, i did all the things you just said. i had cuban city and had suburban. on sunday night i went to a party that the texas delegation was having and they had a great band, the josh abbott band, who played and i got to chat with them. he's a really great guy from texas. roy blunt, kit bond, john cornyn we are all there. i know, sounds like a raging good time. it was fun. then last night, last night i went to a party where blues traveler as you mentioned and big head todd were playing. the other good thing, it is not just the parties, but the other good thing is in the media

center there are all these outlets for you to pick up some awesome swag. so because people knew i was coming, i got hooked up with some great stuff. >> what does that say? nra news? >> nra news. yeah. great stuff from the nra and great stuff from the twitter booth, some great stuff from t twitter booth, actually. they're doing a social networking situation. and stopped by and they had me fill out a shirt with my name on it. been trying to have a little fun in between all of the work. >> well, we miss you here. >> thanks. >> i got to tell you, you're making me sentimental for my first convention that i covered. and i remember, there were all these opportunities to go to parties at night. it was one of my first jobs in journalism, 2004, the democrats in boston. unfortunate memory, one of the mirs nights at the convention, stayed out late, had a little

too much to drink -- >> 9:00 p.m.? >> a little later than 9:00. i thought, there's one thing i don't have to worry about, a breakfast,ing in nothing happens, i want to sleep in. i slept in, i woke up, 10:30 i made my way, i said, i didn't miss anything, did i? he told me this guy who had spoken at the convention made a surprise appearance, walked into the room, talked to everybody, talked to the press. that guy was barack obama. >> oh, no! >> so failure in journalism, somehow i'm still employed. >> tales from the vault. >> steve kornacki. >> so don't drink too much. >> too late. >> there is that sense here. there's radio row where everyone walks through. yesterday i interviewed congresswoman bachmann. today i interviewed congressman jason chaifetz. there is a sense at any moment you want to talk to them, you want to get the story, you want to tweet about it or blog about it as i've been doing. so there is the sense that

anything could happen. you walk around on the floor behind me, you run into media people, but also delegates and, you know, members of the house and the senate. so you want to see everyone, stephen baldwin's over here to my left talking to lawrence o'donnell. gang's all here. last night at dinner, at the table next to me, matt lauer and andrea mitchell so we're keeping it in the family. >> critical question. which delegation throwth the business party? >> i only went to the texas one this year. i can't imagine it gets much better. nothing beats a good texan, right? >> there you go. don't do anything we wouldn't do. >> okay. >> that's a long week. >> yeah. good times for sure. but i think maybe having too much fun at the rnc. [ dad ] i'm usually checking up on my kids.

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♪ brought to you courtesy of the red white and blue ♪ >> the convention themes have been unveiled. yesterday was supposed to be "we can do better." tonight, "we built it." tomorrow, "we can change it." thursday, "we believe in america." i don't mean to be a party pooper and i know it's probably a little gauche to criticize your host in their home. even though i'm in tampa and thrilled to be here i'm a little concerned. i conforgive the committee for competitive conceits.

we can do better and we can change are essentially the same thing, right? and i think we built it and we believe in america kind of overlap as well. but that's okay, maybe it had been a long day and the committee had mined all it could from toby keith songs. i can forgive the generalities. themed by definition are supposed to be broad and unspecific. but i'm hoping over the course of the next few days this convention will get a whole lot more serious. platitudes and abstractions are great for bumper stickers and democrats. but democrats including especially mitt romney and paul ryan need to use this convention to tell voters in compelling and convincing ways how they plan to turn the country around. we'll lower taxes, repeal obama care, cut spending, ease regulations. but i need more. i need to see through mitt romney's eyes his vision of america's pearl. what do his education reforms look like? what's his energy plan? how do we fix a broken immigration system?

how do we reverse the course president obama's put us on toward becoming a 50/50 nation where half the country doesn't pay taxes and the other half subsidizes them? i'm confident the romney campaign's answers to these questions will be good. he's addressed all of this in shorthand on the campaign trail. now he and paul ryan are on the national stage with a captive audience. they have to get specific while people are actually watching. i know this is a party but it's also a very big microphone. the republicans need to use it wisely. >> all right. i'm going to leave the neil ferguson 50/50 nation thing alone and ask you s.e., are you hopeful? do you think mitt romney has it in him? do you think it's his plan to be specific this week? >> i sure hope so. i get that themes work. and they sort of rile up the base. but i'm a conservative. i'm a voter. and i want to know the specifics at this convention beyond just the party platform. so i'm hoping, if mitt romney

doesn't, that paul ryan or some other surrogate will lay out some specifics. they don't need to get technical but i want to know some specific ideas and i want everybody else to hear them too. >> if he can't tell us specifically what he wants to do action as you've been saying, he doesn't want to do that in the mba plan, why vote for him? >> here's what we won't hear this week, what are the loopholes and deductions paul ryan would do away with? they're politically toxic if you spell them out but a lot of important detail if you do it in the budget? >> thanks for joining us, martin, it's all yours. thank you, s.e., thank you, all of you. it's tuesday, august the 28th. and here's what's happening.