kevin madden, let's get back to campaign trail.r old boss, mitt romney-- you were his press secretary in the last campaign, advising him during this campaign. he continues to be up toward the top of the polls, but he does not seem to generate any excitement. every time a new flavor comes along-- first it was michele bachmann and then it was rick perry. they shoot up and then they go down. he stays in there about 25%. is someone who does not excite the republican electorate going to be able to win in the general election? >> we have to look at public opinion. it's not an event, it's a process. because we have a lot of choices here before the voters, the polls are going to go up and down. we've seen the same polls that are now bringing folks like herman cain up, they were the same polls that brought rick perry up. we saw what happened to rick perry over the period the last month since he's been in the race. what's most important is that governor romney has had a certain degree of resiliency. he has focused very acutely on the issue o

kevin madden, this is for you. judgment demint is listening to steven stills on his ipad.ten to what he said. >> i'm not concerned if someone changed their opinion. i'm a recovering earmarker and led the effort to kill earmarks. we have to convince a lot of people in washington to change their positions because we have to change the direction of the country. >> kevin, you said you have been -- seen some other people who suddenly -- it is as if they are trying to make their peace with potentially supporting a nominee romney. your too many feeling good? >> look, any politics, particularly campaigns, art of persuasion, right? you are not going to have public opinions not an event. it is an evolution. what part of the process of winning more voters and consolidating many of the coalitions that are going to be important to win an election? you know, that's what this campaign has been about. so -- i think you will -- you will remember that jim demint was supporter of governor romney in 2008. i'm sure he is very comfortable with governor -- >> he was upset about health care for a

. >>> with us here shghere, dee ds and kevin madden, a supporter of mitt romney. you, kevin, reaction to the president's announcement. >> i think it's hard to judge definitively the politics of this and how it will play out. that's something that is probably -- we'll probably learn more about that as the weeks and months go on. oftentimes i think in campaigns, particularly, national security politics is driven by events. this is an event that the american people will use as they enter into equations on how they judge the president on leadeleader leadeleader leadership. i don't know if it's enough to alter the perceptions of the president. it may help with his leadership attributes. we'll have to watch and see how that plays out over the next few weeks. we're likely to see a campaign and the politics over the next year still driven in large part by economic considerations. but, you know, again, national security, if some of the events that are altered because of the decisions made today, you know, it could be different in a couple of months. >> things change so rapi

kevin madden is with us. he worked on the 2008 campaign.nger. >>> would not bring the president's plan as the president wrote up for an immediate vote. he wanted to change how it's paid for. they came up with a millionaire surtax. he will not have the votes to go forward. isn't that an embarrassment for the democratic party. you can't get your own -- one voted against it. as we move on, are you ready to say, let's sit down with the house of republicans, break it into pieces if necessary, but get something done? >> he will with, i think this is embarrassing and sad for the republican party because they continue to focus on helping only the wealthiest most fortunate americans and corporate america. they've got a leader in the senate, mitch mcconnell who is singularly focused on one job. barack obama. he said proudly at the outset of this congress. now, won't even embrace an american jobs act proposed by president obama that puts construction workers back to work building bridges and roads, keeps teachers and firefighters and police officers o

joining us from our washington bureau is kevin madden, jamal simmons. and here in the studio, great to finally meet him in person, correspondent for the national journal. great to have all of you with us. major, let me start with you. only 14% are very satisfied. why? >> republicans look at the field and saying yes, there is romney. he's been the constant. can't there be somebody else? isn't there a better alternative to mitt romney? so far there have been flashpoint alternatives who last for a month or two, michele bachmann and rick perry, and plenty have looked and not run at all. mitt romney stays and the field is set, but in a way that dissatisfies voters until the voting starts. when the voting starts and if romney starts winning, winning has a tendency -- kevin will tell you, winning tends to build momentum. for now they are dissatisfied, but if he breaks out, that satisfaction will come. >> jamaal, let me ask you a question, hillary clinton being on that list got me wondering, is it a commentary on how the republicans and democrats are seen as so

joining us from our washington bureau is kevin madden, jamal simmons. and here in the studio, great to finally meet him in person, correspondent for the national journal. great to have all of you with us. major, let me start with you. only 14% are very satisfied. why? >> republicans look at the field and saying yes, there is romney. he's been the constant. can't there be somebody else? isn't there a better alternative to mitt romney? so far there have been flashpoint alternatives who last for a month or two, michele bachmann and rick perry, and plenty have looked and not run at all. mitt romney stays and the field is set, but in a way that dissatisfies voters until the voting starts. when the voting starts and if romney starts winning, winning has a tendency -- kevin will tell you, winning tends to build momentum. for now they are dissatisfied, but if he breaks out, that satisfaction will come. >> jamaal, let me ask you a question, hillary clinton being on that list got me wondering, is it a commentary on how the republicans and democrats are seen as so

kevin madden joins us, gloria borger joins us, michael duhain. you've had a busy few days. we've got a lot going on here. kevin, palin out, christie out. what is -- what is going to happen here? where will her supporters, those loyal supporters, go? >> well, look, i think it's -- i'm not sure how the -- how great of an impact this will have on the field yet. one thing i would say now is that there's no more folks looking to see if anybody else is going to get in. we've got the field, now it's settled. as loyal and united as sarah palin's supporters were, n. their devotion to her, they are not a monolithic bloc and they're divided on who to support. folks would say she fits the profile but a number of candidates try to fit the tea party profile. some of the support which has been dwindling over the last few months, if you look at the polls, it's somewhat minimal now. and if broken up among that field of tea party candidates whether it's herman cain, rick perry, or newt gingrich or rick santorum, whether or not it all goes in one bloc, that's unlikely. so i think it's -- proba

let's walk through the dos and don'ts of a debate, cnn contributor ari fleischer is here and kevin maddenspokesperson for mitt romney in the 2008 campaign and senior political analyst david gergen. okay. i have to take a deep breath. i had to go for a long time there. david gergen, let's start with you. who has the most gain tonight? >> i think herman cain, if he can take the punches tonight, and if he can convince people that he's a serious candidate and not just sort of the flavor of the month, he could -- he could become the anti-romney candidate and that's been the name of the game. who can be the alternative to romney? nobody's been able to hold that second position yet. >> what do you think rick perry needs to do tonight? >> rick perry needs to be aggressive. rick perry needs to be articulate and he needs to go after mitt romney. now he has to retake that ground and he's got the ability to do it. he's gout the vulnerabilities of mitt romney that he can expose and he's articulate and on point and i can't understand why he has not done that yet in the debates. >> all right. what about

let's bring in eric erickson, republican strategist kevin madden with us, an adviser to mitt romney last, and cornell belcher, democratic poster for the obama campaign. mr. madden, as the romney guy in the room, the zit geist is this helps the other northeast republican, the nor establishment republican, he picked up ken langone a christie guy, fund-raising. is it a turning point? >> anecdotally now, and probably in the next few days empirically we le see a number of fund-raisers move towards governor romney. you're getting word out of that, boston, behind ken langone a couple of others that may help in the money game. but i still think that this was going to be a competitive election, competitive primary contest with governor christie and it's still going to be a competitive primary contest with governor christie, were he to get in. you know, this still is -- it's still october, we still have a number -- the first contest in iowa and new hampshire haven't even taken place yet. >> closer than we thought a few days ago. >> governor romney maintained a got level of support, while everybody

the inside story on debate prep and strategies from two experienced campaign pros, ron klain and kevin maddena fascinating discussion. you can watch it online at presspass.msnbc.com. that is all for

kevin madden who was the romney camp advisor. he was campaign adviser for romney in 2008. so i really appreciate both of you being with us. let me start with you, bill. from our reporting, it's possible that there could have been pacs created to raise money for chris christie, that we're sort of in a quiet period right now, and we may not know for a few days. do you think that he could raise the money purely technically if he got in this week? >> i think if folks are really seriously committed to raising money for a super pac he certainly could have millions of dollars in his super pac from the moment that he decides to go. but it's interesting to me that there still is so much clamoring out there for somebody else to get into this race who isn't mitt romney. i think that's what chris christie says more than anything else about the boomlet of energy and attention around it. >> and let me ask you about that question, kevin, because it's true. mitt romney's numbers for the third quarter in terms of fund-raising have come down. they were down. a lot of people, republicans, ha

. >>> now i want to bring in jeff toobin, kevin madden, the campaign spokesperson for mitt romney in 2008. and john avlon. we've got a lot to talk about. i want to talk about what governor barbour just said about the election. but i want to start with herman cain. jeff, it's interesting. first he denied, then he remembered more. as the day goes on, he remembers even more. how much more is there to this herman cain sexual harassment situation? >> well, he better hope there is something more to it, because it's currently a disaster. what we are two facts. one, that there was an accusation of sexual harassment by two women. we know, fact two, that money was paid to these two women. now he denies it. you know what, that's not good enough. this is a guy running for president of the united states. this is a very serious accusation. he has got to get in front of the story somehow and explain why it's not a real story, because it will pursue him. it will destroy his candidacy if he doesn't -- >> if he doesn't come out. >> and notice what governor barbour said. he was very careful to say ther

the inside story on debate prep and strategies from two experienced campaign pros, ron klain and kevin madden. you can watch it online at presspass.msnbc.com. we'll be back next week. if it's sunday, it's "meet the press." ♪ ♪ [ female announcer ] the road is not exactly a place of intelligence. ♪ this is why we engineered a car that analyzes real-time information, reads your handwriting and makes 2,000 decisions every second. the new audi a6 is here. the road is now an intelligent place. join us in making the road more intelligent by taking the pledge at driverspledge.com. ♪ we are now printing on the back sides of used paper and we switched to fedex cause a lot of their packaging contains recycled materials. tell them what else fedex does. well we're now using more electric trucks and lower emission planes. we even offer a reusable envelope. now, can't we at least print on the back sides of used paper? what's the executive compensation list...? [ male announcer ] ain stsuleon ssttius. ti fedex. solutions that matter. e powerful. [ male announcer ] ain stsuleon ssttius. when not used in the

the inside story on debate prep and strategies from two experienced campaign pros, ron klain and kevin maddennline at presspass.msnbc.com. that is all for today. we'll be back next week. if it's sunday, it's "meet the press."

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