but even eric erickson said the governor's speech was terrific at the convention. he acknowledged that as well as he should. i know that bill crystal acknowledged the strong position the governor took last week on foreign policy, areas they are happy with us. we can't worry about the individuals unhappy. i guarantee conservatives rehn news yasically supporting this president. i have a bunch of meetings to go to -- this governor to be president. there's no question in my mind you the energy momentum is with us. we have the base and now we are moving forward to pingt independents. >> all right, debut cannon, senior in strategist, adviser to the romney campaign. >> delighted to be with you. >>> u.s. and libyan officials at odds over whether the deadly attack that killed u.s. ambassador chris stevens was premedicated. the latest on the investigation in benghazi. >>>z at anti-american rage spreads what foreign policy changes will this make at the white house? so your money can do more. [ rodger ] at scottrade, seven dollar trades are just the start. our teams have the i

conservative blogger eric erickson from redstate.com wrote this.there is time for mitt romney to close the deal, but he can't close the deal with a schizophrenic campaign message. if he's afraid of being more unliked than he already is, he might as well let paul ryan be the lead because the status quo for team romney is not working. that is just a fact and we might as well accept it instead of screaming at everything else trying not to make eye contact with the fact." and now new details are emerging about what was supposed to be the critical speech of mitt romney's campaign, the one at the republican national convention. he talked about the politico report, citing unnamed sources, says that the romney campaign went through two different sets of speechwriters. using practically nothing from either draft from those speechwriters. according to the article -- >> by the way, one of those, mika, our good friend pete waner. >> yeah, he's good. >> who is as good as it gets. they gave the speech to pete, and he wrote what i'm sure was an extraordinary spee

one person responded to eric erickson tweeting, "not quite.s the stay out of my vagina monologues." what's your reaction to what you heard? >> i'm more on the side of the stay out of my vagina monologues, if we can use it. i think republicans are uncomfortable about it. the shock of eric erickson's tweet is not that they said it, not the anger on it, but they would choose to engage in this at all. this is a losing issue for them with swing voters. this is an issue where most of the american people, indeed, most republicans believe that abortion should be legal in some choices and that, if you put it in this way, should the state have a say in it, they don't think it should. people are pro life, but in a larger sense, they're also pro choice. people believe that abortion is a very personal decision. >> david, on a scale of chris christie to michelle obama, chris christie being least effective and michelle obama being most effective, how effective would you rate the democrats at hammering republicans on women's rights? >> well, i don't know if i

here is what eric erickson, a conservative blogger for red state wrote this morning.uote, team romney seems so scared of being more unliked than he is already that they refuse to actually pound a consistent, hard hitting message. negatives be damned, his message is too muddled for voters to be anything other than confused. jennifer reuben, a conservative blogger who appears in "the washington post" wrote this, the problem, and there is one, in the mitt romney camp is not the lack of policies or the wrong policies. if a campaign is too cautious, too afraid of a misstep, too anxious to retreat when the mainstream media howl, too slow to you'll lies the stories of the day and too intent on trimming its sails, the campaign will not succeed. joy, my contention, it may not be yours, is that the reason he's incoherent, the reason he's so scared of offending the right is that he's in bed with the right. he needs those supporters. he's not a real gut right winger, sort of a political opportunist, but his attorney is saying anything that offends grover norquist. he's so scared

eric erickson tweeted, dammit, i'm just now seeing these secret romney videos. we need that guy on the campaign trail. it comes at a time when romney was trying to quiet angst about his faultering campaign. yesterday in an interview with telemundo's jose diaz balance larity. >> my senior campaign people work extremely well together, i would well them h my campaign is doing well and frankly, these process stories take away from what is concern to the american people. >> so, no changes in your campaign? >> no, i've got a good team. >> the fact of the matter is timingselfing in politics. remember the president made those remarks as a candidate in march and age the timing right now on this is very bad for the romney campaign, because had owe? what made those bitter comments in september, do you think we have won pennsylvania by double digits? this morning, "the new york times'" david brooks has a brutal a, brutal critique of romney in the "new york times." "personally, i think he is -- he is a kind, decent man who says stupid things because he is pretending to be so

party has a message for governor romney, embrace your disgrace of a 47% according to red states eric ericksonmpaign should double down on what he said. they should owner. elder mouth piece rush limbaugh thinks romney was presented with a gift. >> never one to admit a mistake romney supporter and great american flame thrower donald trump says romney shouldn't back down tweeting, quote, with 49 days until the election mitt romney stay on the offensive. he should not be apologizing, deflect on to obama's record. meanwhile, laura engram can't quite figure out why it's even a story in the first place. >> i'm very pumped up about this. i think it's ridiculous people are seizing on it and we're giving all that much air time to it. >> the comments have certainly not revealed -- certainly revealed a lot about mitt romney so has his reaction. the nominees doubling down is how beholden romney is to his base and illuminates a larger truth about the modern republican party. joining are the authorities of the book "it's even worse than it looks how the american constitutional system collided with the new p

. >> but eric erickson, who you know say conservative commentator, a cnn contributor as well -- >> yeser videos actually make me wish romney would talk more about this issue on the trail. i think what he's talking about is that 47% tax number. we're breaking down and taking a closer look. and i guess also the sort of sense of big government. who is contributing to government and how much is government helping this large percentage of people. that seemed to be his perspective. he thought that was a good thing. is there any way in which you could see this having a positive impact for some people who are romney's supporters? >> sure. well, you know, let's talk about mitt romney's taxes. he made, what, $20 million? he paid about 14% in taxes. for many years we had no idea if he paid any taxes at all. he tells us he did. but he's unwilling to show us he actually did. and for him to meet in boca r aaton with these really, really wealthy people and talk with such disdain about nearly half the american people says something about this man's character. >> okay. >> i'm sorry. i just think this i

eric erickson, a tea party supporter and cnn contributor tweeted out this morning that romney should tread carefully when it comes to this matter. some conservatives are saying, hey, maybe we should take a few steps back. >> reporter: that's right. you're hearing a lot of that. let's remind you of the bigger picture here. a couple of weeks ago when republicans had their convention in tampa, one of the big speakers, you remember, is former secretary of state condoleezza rice, really sort of frame i framing a lot of criticism around president obama and his foreign policy, saying that he was leading from behind, saying that he was more interested in being a friend than being really a strong -- having the u.s. be a strong presence. this is the case that the romney campaign and republicans have been trying to build. we're going to see exactly how mitt romney's remarks about this sort of fit into that and whether, perhaps, in his criticism of president obama. >> this bit of information just in from cnn. we've been telling you about that anti-muslim film posted on youtube. we're finding out

eric erickson talked about how certain youth at the certain time when they have their identified formedh a movement or with an institution it becomes very basic central to his whole life. and so his dedication to national focus really began already at age 15. his experience after world world war i a lot of chinese students wanted to go abroad. they didn't have the opportunity they did have today to study in united states and europe, and canada and get scholarships, but the idea was that chinese business people was work part time and then they would earn money and study at universities and come back and bring what they learned to chinese and help build up a new strong chinese. he was 16 one of the youngest in the group to pass the exams and go to france, and of all the countries that the chinese students wanted to go to, france was the main one. during world war i about a half of million chinese workers went to the soviet union to work, and about 150,000 went to france. so there were a lot of work opportunities in france, and the chinese thought that was a great [inaudible] and from that

let's talk about it with cnn contributor, erick erickson, editor and chief of redstate.org. eric want you to listen to his reaction to governor romney's comments. >> i don't know what he was referring to, but i can tell you this. when i won in 2008, 47% of the american people voted for john mccain. they didn't vote for me. and what i said on election night was, even though you didn't vote for me, i hear your voices and i'm going to work as hard as i can to be your president. and one of the things i've learned at president is you represent the entire country. and when i meet republicans, as i'm traveling around the country, they are hard-working, family people, who care deeply about this country, and my expectation is that if you want to be president, you've got to work for everybody. not just for some. >> so i think the implication here, if i get it right, is that romney is alienating republican voters. do you think that's so? >> no, i don't think so. look, i get there's some angst in washington today from conservatives, and i'm not exactly someone the romney camp adores, but i a

erickson. he's the editor in chief of the conservative political blog, redstate.com. ericney. he was speaking at the clinton global initiative, and he smiled at the beginning of his remarks. listen to this. >> if there's one thing we've learned in this election season, by the way, it is that a few words from bill clinton can do a man a lot of good. all i've got to do now is wait a couple of days for that bounce to happen. >> a cute moment, indeed. former president bill clinton said some really nice things about mitt romney in introducing him. even though that was sort of lighthearted, there's an important substantiative, serious point that could be made as well, erick. >> yeah, i think so. they did a very good job there. mitt romney stayed away from really going after the president today. it reallyoh you how bill clinton has shined after being outside of the office. and it also does raise a point that the crowd there recognized that a lot of the bounce that barack obama got out of his convention was really bill clinton's bounce. but i don't think he'll dispute it, but i th