. >> beth myers tells campaign surrogates there are several reasons she believes the president will beikely to win the first debate. >> he has done these kind of debates before, this is mitt's first time on this kind of a stage. >> oh! >> maybe he is more on home at the vegas stage. >> r rated hypnotists or two gay germans trying to make a white tiger disappear. >> monkey on a bicycle. well, if it is mitt romney's first time at the rodeo, governor obama believes he has an enormous advantage. >> the president is going to lose the first debate. >> he is just not a great debator. >> look whose feelings about barack obama came back, and i guess what happened in charlotte stayed in charlotte. >> when american markets broke down, who jump-started our engine! barack obama! and when america needed him most, who got us rolling again on the road to recovery? >> barack obama! >> let me ask you this, people, who couldn't get laid in a whore house with a fist full of hundreds? barack obama! >> that's my favorite am way presentation ever. >> all right, i get it time honored tradition to attach down

beth myers remembers getting a call from romney in january. >> i'm thinking about running for governorve any interest in helping me run my campaign? >> massachusetts had a republican governor, jane swift, but party leaders saw her as weak so they came to romney in a panic. >> jane swift gets wind of this, and two days later she bows out. so she's out and mitt romney is in. he flies back to belmont with his wife, ann, they're both wearing olympic jackets and give a press conference, and the campaign's begun. >> romney's campaign spokesman. >> it was like being launched out of a rocket. >> how you doing? >> as you know, this is a very democratic state. the legislature is 85% democrat. very few republicans make it into statewide office. so we had a fight on our hands. >> he ran as a moderate on social issues, vowing to clean up state government. >> would you raise your right hand, please? >> it worked. >> congratulations, governor. >> thank you. >> from the beginning, romney relied on a small set of advisors. beth myers, who has never spoken on camera before, was chief of staff. >> people

beth myers to lead his search for a vice presidential running mate. he was massachusetts's governor. and his lieutenant governor was also a woman. in his first two years in office, 42% of romney's senior positions went to women. >> he actually took it a step further and said i want my cabinet to be filled with some of the top women in the country. i want to make sure that there's equity there. he mentors women, he promotes their careers. >> now, this is really interesting before romney became massachusetts governor 30% of senior level positions in the state were held by women. in his first term he did appoint even more women. but it was in the second half of his term, the number of women in state senior positions that actually fell to about 27.5%. this information according to a report by the center for women in politics and public policy and nonpartisan group mass gap. a lot of people are looking at all of this information to say what's the real story. did he hire more women? did he bring on more women or did he not? it's really a snapshot. depends o

keep in mind beth myers went on here in 2012 to lead his vice presidential search. this is a candidate who has had a woman who has had barbara comstock on the stage behind me. the wife of george allen is on the stage here perhaps who is appearing on the campaign trail on his behalf. has there been concern that governor romney was making progress on that front? >> well, they wouldn't openly talk about that. you have to look at the topics the president was bringing out at that debate to know that this is the voter group that the president is focused on. and that he knew that this was the greatest area where he was hemorrhaging support and his only growth opportunity. if the president is going to be president for another four years, it is going to be because he is president. he is going to hit on the pay equity issue and he will continue to talk about the binders issue. and that he isn't a natural advocate in his bones for women in the workplace. >> all right. thank you. less us know what you think. we are following breaking news tonight. late word of a suspect with ti

keep in mind that the chief of staff for mitt romney when he was governor in massachusetts was beth myers, who went on to run his 2008 campaign and then went on here in 2012 to lead his vice presidential search. so, this is a candidate who has had women in high-level positions. it's worth noting in just the last few minutes here, anderson, he's had a top surrogate, barbara come stostock and now s allen on the stage. not just recalibrating in terms of speeches but perhaps who's appearing on the campaign trail on his behalf. >> jessica, the president had a big advantage with women all year. has there been concern within the campaign that governor romney was making progress on that front? >> they wouldn't talk about that and they even contested the polls that showed governor romney close the gap. president obama was bringing up to know this is the voter group the president is focused on. he knew this was the greatest area where he was hemorrhaging support and his only growth opportunity. it is the women's vote the president could win or lose on. so, if the president is going to be president

. >> reporter: ryan's words echoed a memo from romney adviser beth myers who said the president was widelyegarded as one of the most talented political communicators in modern history. myers even pointed to a cnn/orc poll showing a 25-point advantage for obama on who voters think will win the debates. the obama camp likes to remind voters the president hasn't had as much time to prepare for the debates because he's busy being commander in chief. when it comes to just how much debates matter, it depends. >> most often debates don't make that big a difference. very few candidates ever win an election with a debate. but quite a few have lost an election with a debate. so it can matter. >> reporter: these match-ups can produce some memorable lines. like in 1980, between then-governor ronald reagan and president jimmy carter. >> there you go again. >> reporter: and lloyd bentsen's swipe at fellow senator dan quayle in 1988. >> i served with jack kennedy. i knew jack kennedy. jack kennedy was a friend of mine. senator, you're no jack kennedy. >> reporter: and then there are the moments that seem

romney over the years, and he has steadily improved, and, you know, people like stewart stevens and beth myersk a lot of heat over the last couple months about the campaign, but those -- i have worked with stuart before in many campaigns and he's a debate preparation fanatic and they understood that this would be an opportunity to shift the gears, to reframe the race, and one guy showed up and one guy prepared, and it showed. it really did. you know, a lot of people were saying it's the best since reagan. reagan had some natural gifts and was an affable guy. i think in terms of preparation, this may be one of the best presidential debate performances ever. >> i agree. totally amoral, apolitical sense, i agree with you. steve, what do you think happened to obama? >> i think he prepared and showed up for a news conference, not a debate. he answered the questions -- >> but there weren't any questions. lehrer didn't see it as his role -- >> we can talk about lehrer separately. i think what they were trying to accomplish is their view was the mitt romney campaign wasn't going very well, mitt romney

. >> romney was referring to beth myers the woman now, you know, ran his vice presidential search andho, you know, has really taken a huge role as one of the most possibly one of the most powerful women behind the scenes in politics today. and i've worked a lot with her. she's traveled on the trail with romney for a long time and i think like any women who are struggling to balance having a family with professional life, you know, flexibility is often appreciated. as for romney, himself, he's to a certain extent struggled with how to explain, you know, why it is that he really can sympathize and understand or be concerned about the issues that women care about. in the past, in the previous parts of the campaign, he referred to his own wife and said well, you know, ann romney is constantly telling me how women are concerned about these types of various issues and drew some criticism for that as well. >> can i point out that this is -- it's funny romney left this on the table but there's a whole host of literature about how tough a place the obama white house has been for women. you kno

reporter: point to the fact that the lieutenant governor was, his chief of staff as governor, and beth myers was a woman and realizing it's a problem. >> we'll talk more about this and helping to get the women in the higher offices. quickly, why are you in new york and mitt romney in new york? isn't this, you know, a -- >> reporter: great time of year, that's why. you know, it's fall in new york, brooke. why go to a battleground state when we can hang out in the big apple. the al smith dinner is tonight and this is a tradition in politics where you get both candidates in front of an audience and instead of exchanging verbal jabs at each other, they're exchanging punch lines and so we're going to be hearing from mitt romney and president obama, and what they consider to be funny. and it is interesting to note, brooke, dennis miller, remember him from "saturday night live"? >> why. >> he was in mitt romney yesterday and -- >> giving him pointers. >> reporter: he has a few one liners out there and i asked the romney campaign if dennis miller is helping him write the jokes for tonight and they s

he tapped a woman, beth myers, to lead his search for vice presidential running mate.aly. if his first two years in office, 42% of romney's senior positions went to women. before romney became massachusetts governor 30% of senior level positions in the state were held by women. if the first half of his term he did appoint even more women, but it was in the second of half of his term when positions fell to 27.5%, this information according to a report by the center for women in politics and public policy and that nonpartisan group massgap. lisa sylvester, cnn, washington. >>> our own candy crowley was the moderator of tuesday's presidential debate. she heard firsthand mitt romney's binders full of women comment, which went viral. >> let me tell you something. while we're all sitting there on that debate stage there's entire, you know, world of conversations going around that we are unaware of. on facebook, on twitter. it was not one of those things that registered at all to me as it was going. clearly it became quite the facebook and twitter point of conversation. >> an

his senior adviser beth myers put out something saying the debates weren't going to impact the election and chris christie goes out and does what chris christie does and that's his own thing. i can tell you the obama campaign was happy to have chris christie raise expectations and raise the bar for mitt romney heading into wednesday's debate, john. >> a rare moment of honesty, refreshing in a political campaign. what then are the strategies of both campaigns heading into this debate? >> well, president obama has been in nevada a few days during the campaign. mitt romney in massachusetts sparring with rob portman who's playing the role of president obama in these debate prep sessions. for president obama his foe mitt romney, massachusetts senator john kerry. they've been working on this debate for months and months. an interesting story over the weekend, a passage about what mitt romney's been doing. this from the "new york times." it says, "mr. romney's team has concluded that debates are about creating moments and has equipped him with a series of zingers he has memorizened and has bee

after each session, his inner circle, beth myers, stewart stevens and ed gles pe, spend hours going overrs with him so see how how can improve. >> you have to figure out how they're likely to expres themselves with the body language is going to be like. >> portman learned that in 2000. >> he got kind of physical. sort of stood up, al gore got right in his face and so in the debate preps with governor george w. bush in 2000, i did that. and governor bush's reaction was of course, he's not going to do that. that's ridiculous. >> but can he get things done? >> that's exactly what gore did. >> and i believe i can. >> did he practice a nod or did you just -- warn him he was going to physically approach him. >> i think the point is that governor bush was ready for it and that was not a high point for vice president gore. >> that's fascinating, that they knew gore was going to try to sort of physically approach him. >> that's right. as senator portman said, it's because he spent so much time studying al gore at the time, studying his debates with bill bradley's from the primaries that year. rea