i think caring for people in situation. i think so it is a mind who loves to take a problem and analyze it and fix it that goes from small things around the house to big problems of the world and the country. and i think it's that combination of both of inner person plus the intellectual desire to just see problems and make situations better. >> rose: when he comes to the stage and when he leaves the stage on thursday night, what do you hope will have been accomplished here? >> well, i think a number of things. first of all, is what you spoke about before which is to give the country a better feeling and a better picture for him as an individual. and secondly to articulate his.

>> i think the burden is on governor romney. >> rose: he's been on different places in different issues in his political career, sometimes being called a flip-flopper, that there would be that perception. >> charges get hurle hurled in government all the time. we're more than willing to examine the massachusetts record, which counter-acts that in a large-- to a large degree. and certainly the way he's comported his life is the essence of the values that i

suspect the person you talk to holds. and we'll be able to talk about the way to fix the problems that face the country, which i also think will be pleasing to your-- to your source. >> rose: help us understand how he's going to fix the country. >> well, there are intractable problems. part of it is being-- and this is the way he conducted himself in business and conducted himself in the olympics and conducted himself as governor. it's a matter of really taking an analytical look at what the problem is, and he is a consumer of data and a studier of different points of view. one of the things that he's done in the campaign repeatedly is bring lots of competing views together to talk to him about policy and ideas and the free interchange of those ideas i think has made him much stronger as a candidate and as somebody who can fix those problems. so after he analyzes the problems with lots of facts and

data, it's a matter of sitting down and analyzing how you fix those problems. that's a multistep process that's different in sort of every situation. so it's not easy to give a blanket answer. but it is a step-by-step analytical process, and, you know, he's somebody who i think knows how to make tough decisions. part of the problem that we've had in the country is that there's a consensus that there may be problems in areas but the tough love, if you will, of how to solve those problems has been a little bit absent in the last four years -- >> meaning the president what? >> meaning that the president was unwilling to actually go out and go after some of the-- some of these entrenched institutions that have caused the problem. we've never had a budget out of this president, for example. i'm not sure how you lead on questions of fiscal cliffs and economic policy without ever presenting a budget for the country. i do think that if you're going

to break the stalemate that's occurring now, it has to stop-- start with leadership at the top, somebody who is willing to make unpopular decisions to fix those problems. i believe mitt romney is that person which is why i support him. >> rose: what-- >> i think on issues of taxing and spending, there are going to have to be unpopular decision made. i think on virtually every one of the-- the whole panoply of problems, whether the structural debt or health care or any of them. they're going to have to be a hard look at the problems and a willingness in the next president to actually tackle those issues. i think mitt romney is a better candidate and would make a better president to do that than barack obama which is why i'm so excited about his campaign. >> rose: you have been considered by some as a traditional republican-- whatever that means. >> i was going to ask for a definition.

>> rose: i think it does not mean a member of the tea party. i think it does not mean-- my understanding it might mean sort of a central, moderate republican. you might say, no, i'm right center, center-right, whatever that might be. but where is the republican party because people look at-- hear paul ryan tonight. there's no question where he is. ask people will look at him tonight and they'll look at marco rubio on thursday night as he introduces the nominee, and they'll say here are two young leaders who represent the future of the country, and it is in fact becoming more and more conservative. on social issues and economic issues. >>un, charlie, one of the great things about being a lawyer who gets to work for the republican party is that i've got candidates all across, what you would call the spectrum of the republican party. what i find in common in those candidates and once they become elected officials, is a conservative approach that if

you want to strip away all the other things that are different from republicans and democrats, the concept of what the government should be and how it tackles problems and what the role of the government should be in the country, and i think that's very different from the democrats'. i think there is an honest debate in this country to be had between whether the role of the government is a large one, as i think envisioned by the democratic party. or a much smaller one, as envisioned by republicans, the more conservative party. and i think essentially that's what the division in voters' minds, the choice voters have, is coming down to in this campaign. >> rose: who is he going to surround himself with? what kind of people will he go to for advice? that's essential to the heart of an administration. >> it is. and i think you can look to the way he staffed his massachusetts government with a wide variety

of voices. and really the best and the brightest. what his private sector experience, i think, has taught him, and the people who i've gotten to know from being with his two campaigns are such a broad real estatbroad array of y intecialght incredibly accomplished individuals from a whole variety of attitudes and viewpoints. and so the answer to your question is probably not the traditional washington folks, quite as much as i think some have been writing and would expect. but really the best and the brightest who are willing to come in and solve problems based on the conservative principles that mitt romney has. >> rose: good to have you here. thank you for joining us for the republican national convention in tampa. we'll be back tomorrow night. see you then.

captioning sponsored by rose communications captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org bad dreams again, barbara?

fingerprints, blood on your clothes? milton: now, sometthing?

tavis: good evening. from los angeles, i am tavis smiley. as republicans try to make their case in tampa, pitting the tea party and social conservatives against the moderates.

first up, we will look for the fight over the soul of the gop. also tonight, actress melanie lynskey is here. she stars in a new film called "hello i must be going." david brody and melanie lynskey. >> there is a saying that dr. king had that said there is always the right time to do the right thing. i try to live my life every day by doing the right thing. we know that we are only halfway to completely eliminating hunger and we have work to do. walmart committed $2 billion to fighting hunger in the u.s. as we work together, we can stamp hunger out. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

tavis: david brody is the chief political correspondent for the christian broadcasting network. his most recent text is called "teavangelicals." he joins us tonight from tampa, florida. let me start by asking the obvious. these weather concerns that have caused the rnc to change the format, whether those would make it more difficult for them to get the message out that they want to get out. when you lose a day, there are certain things they wanted to say to the nation that will not

be sad. is this going to impact? >> i do not know about significant, but it will impact the message. you have 100% pie. if you have 20% of that pie going to hurricane coverage and media coverage going away from this convention, absolutely it will impact mitt romney. he has been snake bit all summer. tavis: mr. romney has made a couple of comments about the media. he has not been pleased with the media coverage. no politician is ever thoroughly pleased with the way we cover them. what is your sense of how the media has covered the campaign thus far? >> i think the media is frustrated. the access they are not getting to the campaign as much as they got to obama. even for john mccain in 2008.

as for how mitt romney received the media, he is a very guarded guy. there is not much there for the media to cover. i do not mean they will not coverage, but he will not give them as much as they want. tavis: is he going to regret that? >> that may be a distinct possibility. as the relates to his mormon faith, he has been very guarded when it comes to his faith. there are some other issues as the relates to -- he does not want to let his hair down. i think he is concerned that the media is going to blow things out of proportion. he is playing it so conservatively. i think he could end up backfiring. what do people want to see from a candidate? they care about policy, but they

want to have an emotional connection. the actual psychology behind it. there are some books written about this, the voters have to emotionally connected with the candidate. tavis: you mentioned his mormon faith. i understand why he might not have been so open about his faith early in this contest. because of all kinds of concerns about how that might not be embraced by the conservative wing. once it became clear that he was going to be their nominee, they're going to rally around him because they disliked obama, why not start to talk about your faith journey? not talking about mormonism, the

least talk about your faith and how it motivated you to travel around the world. it seems to me if i am a person of faith and my faith has driven me to love and serve people, and he has a part of that story that he could tell. we're talking about his journey. why would you not tell that story to a gop audience? >> you are making that analytical argument that i had been making for months on the air at cbn. let's call it straight out. he is concerned about if he goes there with this faith in any way, shape, or form, people will start to go there with the systematic theology argument. he does not want to go there. that is the reason he does not do it. it is a no-brainer. there is a huge compassionate side of mitt romney when it comes to him being a bishop and his church.

there has been a lot of humanitarian efforts in that realm. it is what he is all about. to connect to voters on that way would be huge for him. but he will not go there. he thinks the selection is just about -- this election is just about the economy. at some point, it is about the economy, but we need a little bit more from you. tavis: the real question is, who do you trust? every poll indicates the american voter feels mr. obama more than they feel mr. romney. he has been told by everybody that this week, he has to show us the other side. to write a different sort of narrative about his life and legacy. how willing is going to be to do that?

>> i do not think we will see it so much from them. we will see it from his wife, from paul ryan, from others. they are bringing in surrogates from around the country and no mitt romney. that is somewhat of a traditional route. he is a pretty humble guy. that is what most folks say about him. we will not be hearing much in that way at all. tavis: the "teavangelicals" -- what role has the tea party played in this race up to this moment? >> they are huge. a lot of people say, wait a minute. mitt romney was not their candidate. let's check the record. you had michele bachmann and newt gingrich and herman cain

and rick santorum all splitting that "teavangelicals" vote. evangelicals the breaking bread with the tea party. it is a combination. all these candidates split that vote. here is mitt romney. they're saying, mitt romney is pretty much our guide. we have to go with him. they are about 80% of their. paul ryan got them to about 90%. it is up to mitt romney to seal the deal. he has to talk about how our rights come from god, not government. he needs to talk about the judeo-christian heritage of our nation. if he can do that on the stump, he is going to continue to have the space. it is not so much about the base turnout, it is about the vote total. the base that normally shows up

is going to vote for romney. can they get more of the raw vote total number? they very well may do that. the fate than freedom coalition, they have the cell phone numbers and e-mails of 13 million "teavangelicals." tavis: the challenge is how mr. romney tells that message, how does he run that narrative while at the same time having any mandate to try to play to a larger audience. talking to a more moderate country is another thing. those two messages and the same. >> what he has decided, they're pretty much going for more of that independent moderate group. they know -- they think the base

is going to be there. i know a lot of people say, this is a base election. i think they want to show mitt romney as the moderate guy, the pragmatists. that really is more of who he is. he is more of a levelheaded, even kill the guy that is not a flame thrower -- even keeled guide that is not a flame thrower. tavis: paul ryan is a catholic. the first time since the 1800's there has not been a protestant on the ticket. >> i know a lot of people want to make a big deal added. why did rick santorum get so far in the race? paul ryan, same thing. paul ryan has street cried in that evangelical community. mohrmann, a catholic, the bottom

line, they will vote their principles over their actual theology. i think that is going to be the majority opinion within not "teavangelicals" base. tavis: everybody, it seems like so many of the party elders, those persons who have been in positions of power for years are starting to say almost uniformly that this party does not find a way to broaden its base, it is dead. at some point, the party has to figure out a way to change the message, how they deliver it, and to broaden the base. i do not see how anybody in the gop thinks not doing that can help them win long term. >> i think you are onto something extremely important.

there are so many challenges for the tea party. one of them is to make the message mainstream. you cannot have the reputation that you are the tea party, you are up on capitol hill and all you want to do is rail against increasing the debt ceiling. if that is going to be your playbook, forget it. that is going to be a nonstarter. they have to figure out a way to break bread, find common ground. if you look, over 70% of independent voters believed the balanced budget amendment is a good idea. so do the "teavangelicals." if they can get some victories with independent voters, i believe they can start to march all little bit more than a positive direction. tavis: how do think the economy

is going to play in this sprint from labor day to election day? >> it is huge. we look at the number. not that this is a numbers game, but if it dips below 8%, there will be a lot of the media cycle stories. the president will get a bump from that. if it continues to increase, those stories will stay out there. we will look at the trend line between now and november. it is about the economy. mitt romney's challenge between now and november is to convince americans to say that, his policies are better, he will create 12 million jobs in four years. we will see about that. he also needs to make sure that this medicare situation, when he picked paul ryan, that is a heavy left. i think they're putting themselves in a very tough spot.

tavis: we will see how that heavy lifting gets off the ground. david brody, the chief political correspondent for cbn news. his new text is called "teavangelicals." the to talk to you. up next, melanie lynskey. stay with us. melanie lynskey is a talented actress. you can catch her in a new film "hello i must be going." the film was selected and the opening night screening at sundance. here are some scenes. >> hello? are you up?

>> you have not left the house in three months. >> are you married? >> i got divorced a few months ago. we are still friends. >> that is awesome. if only it were true. >> we know this guy. >> he is an actor. >> 19 years salt. >> sweet ride. >> thanks. >> she said he had a really good time. >> amy -- what is so funny?