prior to his 1972 run for the white house, he chaired the commission on party structure and delegate selection. in 1982, the democratic national committee approved a new series of reforms, including the establishment of superdelegates to give the party more direct control or the selection of presidential candidates. speaking on "democracy now!" in 2008, senator mcgovern described the impact of the reforms. >> the 1972 convention, the first one to come under the new reforms, was pretty evenly balanced between men and women. you looked out over the convention floor it also said there should be some consideration given to age groups. some of the biggest delegations to the 1968 convention did not have a single person 30 years of age or under. even though the transition was the war in vietnam where everybody was under 30. so we corrected some serious imbalances in the way the delegations were put together. >> in 2000, president bill clinton awarded senator mcgovern the presidential medal of freedom, america's highest civilian honor. senator mcgovern is the author of a number of books including an autobiography and the stor

away towards the democratic party. they were very good at taking some of the chaos of the 1960's, using it against the democrats, and convincing these middle- class people that government had been identified with the interests of minorities and the poor and was not working for them anymore and luring them over to become the republican base. that title gets a lot of attention, because we have seen such a rationalized -- such a campaign, particularly as mitt romney and paul ryan use welface that is -- use a version of welfare that is blackface. it may not be working for them. tavis: the subtitle is no less provocative. "why we long for a golden age that never was." a majority of americans that believe our best days are behind us. there are many who believe that maybe the 21st century belongs to china or somebody else. it ain't ours. what do you say to that? >> the tragic thing about this is that there is a loss of confidence in the future. there was a golden age for a lot of white people. not all. but when i tell the sto

he's had a profound impact on the democratic party. many critics said that he ruined the party. i think he saved the party. >> woodruff: it's interesting that you say that because i've been reading today about, you know, so much of the commentary. for example, the "new york times" said he really never lived down the image of the liberal loser. how do you see that? >> well, i've written on what constitutes winning and losing and those in the political journalism profession tend to treat politics as a sport, sometimes a blood sport. if you're not a winner, you're a loser. and particularly if you lose 49 states. but if you add up what this man did with his life as compared to the man that was the winner in '72, there's no comparison as to who the real winner is. >> woodruff: is the democratic party that he believed in still the democratic party of today, do you think? >> not in this sense. all we hear about today from candidates of both parties is the middle class. when was the last time anyone talked about poverty in america? we still have one in five children in poverty. we still

a real loss for the democratic party. inder of where our roots once -- the roots of the party once lie. thank you to jonathan, karen, richard and hugo. that is all for now. see you back here tomorrow at noon eastern, 9:00 a.m. pacific, when i am joined by governor ed rendell, deputy new york city mayor howard wolfson, the "new york times" frank bruni, joy reed and don't miss our final debate performance review with james lipton. tonight, we will be live with a healthy dose of sass and insight starting at 9:00 p.m. eastern. "andrea mitchell reports" is next live from boca raton, florida. good afternoon, andrea. >>> good afternoon. i loved your tribute to george mcgovern. i was there on the floor of that convention listening to that acceptance speech. great to see you and hear all that. >>> tonight, the foreign policy debate. will it sway undecided voters? joining us here, chuck todd, chris cillizza, mark halperin, congressman greg meeks, peter king and mike rogers, and our foreign policy debate panel, richard engel and bruc

and so i think a lot of us hoped they would become the left wing matteo party and poll the democrats to the left the way that he party has told them to the right and that most pleasant happened. i went to occupy oakland a couple times and saw people exclude anyone that worked with the democratic party were the unions. it became a scarlet letter to have worked with the unions than to be an anarchist that wanted to break windows, and at that point i lost some hope but obviously in other cities in tampa, i went to tampa, occupy tampa is working with planned parenthood on reproductive rights issues and that is happening in other cities as well people did get politicized and despite the kind of formal animosity towards the democratic party and organized politics, some people did get swept into the causes and i hope more of that happens. >> as we are the 99% chance, we are the 47%. is this going to be out there over the next couple of weeks? romney is going to be dogged with protesters? >> it's already happening actually. he's been heckled today there is a terrible, the water in the cnn com

the democratic party used to say they want it to be safe, legal and rare. now, they support it without restriction and with taxpayer funding. taxpayer funding in obama care, with foreign aid. the vice president himself went to china and said that he sympathized or wouldn't second guess their one-child policy of forced abortions and

paul kirk is the former chair of the democratic party. when they created the commission, for 15 months, the simultaneously served as conditions of their parties, so by definition, it was low to those two parties. frank is still co-chair of the commission on presidential debates. he has one other job. he is the director of the american gaming association. in other words, he is the nation's leading gambling lobbyist. i asked him, do you feel comfortable having a beer and tabasco -- tobacco companies supporting the elections? he said, i am in charge of gaming. you have two people in charge of these presidential debates that are loyal to their parties, and number two, have demonstrated time and again a willingness to sacrifice the interest of the american people for private, political, and financial interests. these are people that do not hesitate to subjugate the democratic process to the private interests that benefit from these debates. >> can you talk about what happened this past week, george farah? an advertising agency, phillip'' north

virgil good one party when i was an dependant democrat republican and i am in the constitution party conservative ok but your response for two minutes to the initial question thank you first i want to cite thanks to you for being here for lending your name and your press stage to this event and to die free and equal for they are hard work and bring a much broader vision to the american people so they will know they got more choices than just dial bamma and romney i do not favor the top two. system and i agree with geo. when she said money is not speech and that that power to system and hansis those that have the most money however i am not a public financing i was not in favor of a hundred million dollars for the democratic national convention of taxpayer money one hundred million dollars to the republican national convention taxpayer money. thank you on. that top two system is primarily a state issue i would not be in favor of federal legislation repealing what louisiana has done are telling for genya are telling my are telling. arizona or new mexico any state what they should do bu

i think that it is not right for the democratic party to go out calling him a liar. 's one thick for a talk show host to say things like that. but when a campaign or an official party apparatus starts using the word liar, i think a lot of people are going to feel that they're being kind of nasty. >> bill: also, sore losers,rian. it just comes across at petulant, fifth grade stuff. i lost, i got my butt kicked so now i'm going to call the other side names. that's absolutely what this comes off as. >> the better thing would have been to correct the statements wednesday night during the debate. that would have been the better course. but now, october, with 32 days left to go in the election is when you call your opponent's truthfulness into question. the problem is there are 32 days left to go. once you use l word, liar, there aren't a lot of places left to go between now and november 6th. >> bill: again, you are really competing for very very few votes. most people have made up their minds. although the swing, kirsten in ohio, in florida and virginia pretty dramatic. if

but are the democrats the right party for america? i ask -- you were on the democratic national committee's platform committee. >> i cochaired the committee. >> stephen: you cochaired the committee. why was the word god not included in the platform? and is that what is happening to the campaign right now. god is striking him down? >> i know i'm praying i would survive the interview. the reality is religion was in there. faith was in there. we had a section in. there we're a nation of many faiths. the democratic party platform which actually made a very big section about us being inclusive, about us being a faith driven society and favoring faith based programs. if you read the document, don't get carried away in the sound bites. we live in a political environment where sound bites and half truths take the day in the substance of the matter. i wanted to serve on the committee because i'm about ideas. this democratic party platform has sound ideas. i read the republican party platform. they talked about exploring and going back to the go

. >> walsh says in those days the white working class was far more aligned with the democratic party, but that's changed. today nine out of ten republicans are white in a country that is 62% white. i've been circling around the topic, i think, for a long time looking at how the white working class moved from being the base of the democratic party and party of the new deal fdr coalition, to become the base of the republican party. i saw people going from being staunch john f. kennedy liberals to voting for richard nixon. >> walsh says white middle class men blamed problems in the country on feminism and the civil rights movement. they jumped to the republican party and soon after many of their wives followed. >> we on the left, liberals like to say that the white working class left because of racism and certainly richard nixon and pat buchanan were brilliant in convincing the white working class that government only cared about black people and women to some extent and didn't care about them. >> but walsh says it's more complex than that. >> my mother was a civil rights liberal. but as

and some in the green and in the democrat party. but i think where the tea party is still very relevant, or ticket early in colorado and in many other states, -- particularly in colorado and in many other states, it is providing the gasoline for the parties that are on the ground, walking the ground, making the phone calls, on the street corners. that is where the tea party has been funneled into the republican party predominately, and then also to the democrat party. host: marvin in chicago, a democratic caller. caller: how you feel mitt romney can be qualified as president -- you say he could create 12 lovain jobs when he was a -- 12 million jobs when he was governor of massachusetts. he was 47 perata 50 in job creation there. and he left office with low job approval. and then he made those comments about the 47%. as president, you are president of 100% of the people. how do you feel he is qualified? guest: if we are going to be rewinding the tape, with shorter won back a little over three and a half to four years ago when our pres

you would assume they should be with the democratic party. you've had success here. democrats on the state level, very competitive. democrats on the national level, not at all. what's your explanation? >> well, we are competitive at times and not competitive at other times. on the national level, kentucky's kind of schizophrenic. we voted for carter. we voted for clinton. we voted for reagan. we voted for bush. it goes back and forth. one of the issues we have here as democrats in kentucky is it's not here. >> do you think they'd do better? >> i don't think we could carry it, but they would do better. we'd see them in person. >> who's better for the coal industry? president obama or mitt romney? >> in the short term, i think we're too heavily regulated and we need to have a little more time for developing clean coal technology. in the long term, i think the president wants to do that. and will work to make that happen. >> i think obama in the long run would be better. >> democratic governor, steve bee shear. a litt little chilly. >> but the day's warming up. >> senior

democratic party with the national democratic party. -- do not confuse the texas democratic party with the national democratic party. the national party made its decision on funding races a year ago. when this race was sewed up. i've would not read into much -- i would not read too much into that. i have a bipartisan record of accomplishment. accomplishing the largest profit tax cut in the history of the state at the time. that is a record done with a republican governor, is but the republicans and democrats in the house and senate. it was a bipartisan effort. we got things done for texas. >> can use them much money of race? >> i really do not know. i have been on the road. >> 1 million, maybe. >> oh, no. i really do not know. texted democrat has not won a statewide office since 1994. do you consider this an uphill battle? >> it is always a battle. it should be in need to be. i understand that we have not elected a democrat in a long time. >> let's go on now to ted cruz. you said i'm going to run scared but you may few appearances and th

you know that's really easy the two corporate parties the democrats the republicans they're the party of wall street they're the party of the war machine they're the party of economic. oppression and environmental devastation and so if you actually give your precious vote some one of those parties you're supporting things that are anti human they don't own our votes they don't earn our votes and until we realize that. nothing's going to change if we keep putting one of the candidates of the one percent back in office and you know we realize it's a system where we realize that the vote is essentially broke and then corrupt in this country so we realize that outside organizing outside the box ballot box organizing outside every four years of the presidential election is far more important than going in and voting for any candidate so i really can't wait to the elections are over and i hope we can get back down the business of organizing this grassroots peaceful revolution that we need to happen to overturn this system because i'm afraid we're not going to break that habit of constantly

host: sue dvorsky is chair of the iowa democratic party. if you would like to join the conversation, we have a special phone line set up for iowa residents. republicans can call -- democrats can call -- and independents -- sue dvorsky, talk to us about the state of iowa, a key. the democrats have to win an election night in order to be victorious. break down for us. guest: we have gone from 5 to four congressional districts and we are split up into quadrants. as we go around the horn, but the congressional district that is first, we have nearly all of our incumbent state senators. i know that the focus here is the national focus on the president's campaign, but it's incredibly important to know that the president is not on that ballot alone. here in iowa, we have a one-seat democratic senate majority that we believe is standing between a very aggressively decisive social agenda promulgated by the house republicans for the last two years very much mirroring the federal conversation. those incumbent senators are nearly all italy that congressi

means your local democratic party and say hi i'd like to become a precinct committee person because those are the people who pick the candidates who are going to run in the primaries and if you pick all progresses for the primaries guess what you're going have a progressive candidate take back the democratic party marty in chicago in marty what's on your mind today. marty you are on the air a little bit or are you that's a great thank you for being there and taking my call my notes about voting into a corrupt dysfunctional system. actually. validates their corruption and multiplies it. that's all i have to say thank you ok marty thanks a lot for the call yes to a certain extent participating in a broken system perpetuates the system or you could call it a corrupt system or whatever you want on the other hand not participating in it when that system is our government is even worse that really validates and for a corrupt and broken system that takes it to a whole nother level it basically turns control of the government over to us through the tiny number of people who do show up and v

party, and, you know, it's just the parties-- you now have a situation where the most liberal republican is still more conservative than the most conservative democrat, and so people-- if that's the party that you're sorting to, then that's where people end up having off. any politician who might be attractive who leans and goes over towards the other party and might get some people who find them attractive, they don't exist anymore. >> schieffer: we used to have conservative democrats and liberal republicans. and then we had conservative republicans-- >> there are far more liberal democrats in congress i think there are far more conservative democrats. you have the whole blue dog coalition than liberal republican. >> not so much anymore. >> the trend line is right. but think-- you know, i would argue-- and norman-- thomas mann wrote a whole book about it, they would argue they think the republican party has gotten more to the right than the democratic party has been throat, and it'sthode, you know, the inability to have bipartisan compromises. >> in context, there's no politician for a person in the middle to go latch on to. there's no-- the people

that is going to help the democratic party? >> well, i would say yes and no. ou look at the republican party primaries in 2012, larry, fully 50.53% of the voters who voted in the primary said they were evangelicals and in 2008 they were 23% of the entire elect toorate and i'm noi do think they will be of a higher percentage this time. >> you think it is going to be a major force and ralph, are they going to come out for mitt romney? >> again, looking at an earlier poll in july, they found that 71% said they were going to vote for mitt romney. that is a higher percentage of the vote than george w. bush got in 2000. if you look at this increasing trend, among self identified liberals, they tend not to be church or religiously observe ant. they tend to be disconnect ed from the practices that the vast majority of americans testify to. the base of the democratic party is move ago way fring away from. that is troubling to me. >> this group that does not have an organized faith is a quarter of the democratic base. and the group is growing. if it goes to 30% it will b

political activity began in 1964 with the secretary of the local county democratic party. in 1965, a gathering of local democrats were at the door. federal office holders were allowed to participate in partisan politics. the group included judge francis done, judge fred, both of whom had been appointed by president kennedy. none of another member was mike sherman who served as the first campaign chairman in 1956. he was later elected the mayor of ssu fallsioux falls. much of the heavy lifting was done by his chief of staff. his son christopher is here with us tonight. judy harrington arrived in 1973. she said of constituent field offices in six cities. one person per office. in those days, we shared an office with the staff. i went to work and the senate staff in 1975. i was privileged to be a member of the state staff and it was special and the senator was back in state. he enjoyed driving my buick regal, speeding down the road, smoking a cigar with the window down. a typical day was spent going to scotland to visit the consol plant. we then drove north on highway 37 10 mi

has a legal and moral right to attack iran is something both republican and democratic parties agree and do not even debate by excluding third party candidates, ensuring that is not even in question. the same is true for the sanctions regime. both candidates [indiscernible] causing extreme suffering [indiscernible] that is debate. you just do not have third-party candidates been excluded, but what you have is the vast bulk of political opinion being excluded because these moderators are chosen very specifically to ensure they will embrace only the orthodoxy shared by both parties while posing as a neutral. >> we will reconnect with the. we will drop our "democracy now!" video connection with you and go for a moment to the clip of third-party candidates. "democracy now!" broke the sound barrier with the first presidential debate when we expanded the debate live, in real time, to include responses from third-party presidential contenders who were shut out of the offical event. the first debate was at university of denver. we were in littleton at a comcast studio with similar podiums, w

i've never actually heard the democratic party and the republican party referred to as a multibillion dollar corporations but in fact i mean i think the case really could be made that that is indeed what they are and certainly now in two thousand and twelve we've got a super pacs and we've got these outside interests money interests taking part are we at a place now tom where it where it will be even harder it would be even harder to change the system i mean do you think that we will see a time when a third party candidate could actually win it's going to be structural chris christie and it's the as i was mentioning because of the first past the post winner take all nature of our elections it's always going to drive a two party outcome if we were to have voting like they have in australia new zealand those are two of the countries that have systems very similar to ours it was first passed those winner take all but if we if if we were to do like they did with instant voting which the green party's been promoting in the united states in san francisco's the largest. minutes ballot in the

democrats? >> last month's ldp leadership election had had a big impact. the party led japan almost continuously in l the democrats took place in 2009. the democrats have been unpopular for the last few years. their leadership race touched on the territorial disputes japan is having with its neighbors. for example, china and south korea. as you know, the subject has been getting a lot of attention these past few months. the winner of the ldp election abe took a tough stance on the issue. he says japanese have to take it into their own hands stressing the company should strengthen its military power. >> some people are surprised to see how they can given he was prime minister five years ago that resigned. how do they feel he stacks up against noda? >> many voters feel they can no longer expect strong leadership to deal we the more difficult issues of governing such as those territorial disputes. our survey suggests abe's captured their attention. he's almost twice as popular as noda, and that's helped for new interest in the ldp. >> and what about the political party

there is a guilty party system in the united states and democrats are supposed to be the party for thetle man or the common man. drive to level the playing field. where are the democrats -- trying to level the playing field. in 2008 and 2010 they dominated the federal government. host: he caller brought up stereotypes of musicians. what do you make of the current generation of musicians and their political activism? guest: there is research where young people volunteer. they are a civic generation and they are involved. young people are coming of age. a lot of young people get their ideology and their politics from their family. that is generational. if we had more competitive elections, we would draw people in. it is like an economic theory. competition drives and innovation, so people would be like, how do we look to these people in? then you have gerrymandering. is life , who cares? the thresholds -- then you have gerrymandering. it is like care, as? people do not want to -- it is like, who cares? there are american versions of proportional voting. is that the parliamentarian system

that's a one prominent democrat, that's one state party. talk about republicans at a presidential debate. three republican candidates raise their hand saying we don't believe in evolution. where is the democratic equivalent of that? >> barack obama in 2008 said that vaccines might cause autism, and in 2008 it was well-known by then that vaccines didn't cause autism. hillary clinton said the same thing and so did john mccain. all three made the connection between thimerosol with a trace of mercury in it. that's been debunked. >> again, you're talking about dabbling in some theories, and completely grant you that it's troubling when you talk about people on the left that pushed this idea of a vaccine/autism link. that's troubling and needs to be called out. when you talk about as a party, mitt romney's in his acceptance speech at republican convention mocked the idea of combating climate change. he talked about obama promising to slow the rise of the oceans and heal the planet. he mocked it, and it was a huge applause line. you have a republic

he says he feared his candidacy would divide the democratic party.ben represents nevadaz at democratic national committeeman. >> i ran for national committeeman, got elected. this is part of my responsibility to be here but also because i'm one of the main surrogates for the president's campaign back home. my grandmother didn't begin to her our lives in public service but probably thought it extraordinary. >> reporter: the first time a latino is doing the keynote at the dnc, which surprised in toe some degree. an poernt role sent to late team knows. >> i think his message is the american dream is still alive, we work hard, we sacrifice, still out there similar to my message when i was campaigning for congress. for know witness this is historic. >> journey that brought me here tonight -- >> reporter: with the election a virtual dead heat, they are desperate to connect with the nation's 24 million eligible latino voters. [ speaking spanish ] >> reporter: their pitch. >> there was no limit how far i could go because i was an american. >> reporter: repub

the democratic party is making sure that that is not just a richard mourdock problem, the democratic party is doing their best to make it a mitt romney problem and a broadly a republican party problem. >> this fall, i'm supporting richard mourdock for senate. >> even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that god intended to happen. >> this is a man who i want to see in washington, to make sure that we cannot just talk about changing things, but actually have the votes to get things changed. >> even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that god intended to happen. >> we've got to get this guy elected in the u.s. senate. >> it is something that god intended to happen. >> there's so much at stake. i hope you'll join me in supporting richard mourdock for u.s. senate. >> that's from the democratic party, president obama's campaign spokeswoman, jen psaki added fuel to the fire. she said, "the president felt those comments were outrageous and demeaning to women. this is an issue where mitt romney is starring in an ad f

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excited about the candidate without alienating some of the religious communities that support the democratic party? it's a really interesting problem. >> reporter: harkins asserts that the democratic tent is wide enough to accommodate all. >> in having respect for that broad spectrum of faith traditions, we also certainly have respect for people who may not practice. the president often says himself that we need to honor and respect those who certainly practice faith and indeed those who may not. >> we are a nation of christians and muslims, jews and hindus, and nonbelievers. >> reporter: the rising number of religiously unaffiliated may be posing new challenges for the republicans as well. although they still make up only about 11% of the gop, a disproportionate number of them are young. about a third of all adults under the age of 30 are nones. at the university of akron, these members of the college republicans say they aren't affiliated with any particular faith. they worry that their party's close relationship with the religious right could weaken its viability in the future. >> with the repu