and here is halpern's headline, mark mckinnon. romney's illinois victory signals an end to the gop primary. i don't know that i would go quite so far. what do you think? >> a couple of observations. one, romney really improved his standing among college voters, voters making over $100,000, and those who would identify as liberal and moderates. he improved by 13 points, 12 points, and 14 points in each of those categories. so that was significant. but what i find most significant about last night in the overall dynamics about what will happen long run is not the numbers, but apparently what gingrich said about romney last night. what's really important ultimately here is what gingrich does. >> yeah. >> because if he stays in or somehow lends his support to santorum, that's where things get problematic. but if it's truly just a two-man race, then romney is on his way. >> what did gingrich say last night? >> i just read that he said some favorable things about romney and critical things about santorum. >> yeah. so harold ford, what d

please welcome mark mckinnon. [cheers and applause] good to see you.s tell the people your bonea fides here. you are a veteran political strategist who worked for george w. bush, you worked for senator mccain, several democratic politicians and famously quit the mccain campaign because you didn't want to go up against the obama cand dais six now you have something called no labels. what is that? >> as you know 10% of the country supports congress. that's down to paid staffers and relatives. it's no wonder because all they are doing is fighting. they are not getting any work done. >> stephen: that's part of their job. we send them to fight with each other. we have the republican army and democratic army and they meet on the field of battle to serveç e republic. that's what people want change. a senator olympia snowe decided not to run for reelection not because she thought she was going to lose but because she was sure she would win and she didn't want to go past the diss mings. it's been 1,000 days since they passed a budget. >> stephen: if congress g

heilemann, we have republican strategist and contributor to "newsweek" and "the daily beast," mark mckinnonand in washington, msnbc and time magazine senior political analyst mark haleprin. kind of a late night. >> it was a late night and a late finish for mitt romney last night at around 11:00, you looked at the map and you could say at 11:00 when a lot of america was going to sleep that the only state that mitt romney won outside of his home state that was contested was massachusetts. of course he won virginia, which really wasn't contested. and vermont. but look what happened by the end of the night. ohio falls into his column. >> yeah. >> and let's go back and remember what rick santorum said. a win's a win, and a win is a win. so mitt romney now can say i won michigan, i won ohio. you put virginia in that column, won alaska, won idaho. so by the end of the night, in about three hour's time, mark mckinnon, this night went from a very, very disappointing night for mitt romney to a night where he could say i win the most states, i got the most votes, and most importantly, i brought in the

mark mckinnon is vice chair for advertising strategies and helped in george bush's campaig. ss. manage p. >> so, let's start with a critic perhaps, let's start with mark, the history of this, let's take a look for this 1964 ad, the ddbt makes the case for lyndon johnson for all of the republicans that criticized g d goldwater's nomination. >> romney said it would lead to the suicidal direction of the party. so even if you have serious doubts, you're in good company. vote for lyndon johnson on september the third. >> that was so direct. they didn't have to say too much about it because everybody sort of new there was something wrong with goldwater. >> yeah, they had about 2,000 psychiatrist polled and 1500 or 1300 said that goldwater was not fit. when you look at campaigns now, i tell people to go back and look at that ad. >> so they had a bunch of liberal psychiatrist to trash the guy. dan, your memories perhaps of this rather dramatic campaign, gothic i'm calling it, about that guy being no good for the job. >> first of all, chris, it was president kennedy and his staff look

when i'm joined by mark mckinnon and hugo lindgren. day, andrea. >> hi to youly alex and we will talk about david cameron about to land at u.s. air force base, we will talk about afghanistan, iran and syria and growing concerns about what will happen to afghan women after the u.s. leaves. and a women's rights leaders take on rush. robin morgan, cofounder of the women women's center, pulling the plug to mouth that roars. all that coming up. [ female announcer ] if whole grain isn't the first ingredient in your breakfast cereal, what is? now, in every box of general mills big g cereal, there's more whole grain than any other ingredient. that's why it's listed first. get more whole grain than any other ingredient... just look for the white check. i'm a wife, i'm a mom... and chantix worked for me. it's a medication i could take and still smoke, while it built up in my system. [ male announcer ] along with support, chantix is proven to help people quit smoking. it reduces the urge to smoke. some people had changes in behavior, thinking or

mark mckinnon is joining me, a former adviser to president george w.e tight race in ohio and you look at the results and exit polls, the campaign is saying that they are not going change anything or the message and that it would take an act on of god for rick santorum or newt gingrich to over take them, do you think they should change the message in. >> i think there's a lot of acts of god so far in the campaign. the smart thing that team romney did was build a campaign that would meet all challenges. >> they are bleeding money. >> they are, but they knew they would have unanticipated challenges. but what i'm concerned about is that ultimately, depending on how it turns out, we may learn the wrong lessons from this, the issue is that he has not been bold enough and that is what it will take to win. >> i was asking the campaign, why he did not take on rush limbaugh and he said we are on message, that that is not our message. >> but you know what? people want strong leadership, they want people that lead and do not follow. when we were doing campaigns du

bush mark mckinnon. when you look at these math exercises we are dogging right now, not quite college-board level math problem s but if you took gingrich out, look at that. santorum would be in the 50s. he would be getting di vice i have majority victories in these things. >> he would but you have to say what is the incentive for gingrich to get out? the math is if he stays in romney probably doesn't get the number of delegates he needs to win on the first ballot of the convention. why wouldn't gingrich stay in the convention and go to the second ballot and he is the king maker either way. because i don't think that ron paul's delegate -- >> there's been a big presumption that if gingrich gets out all of those voters go to snowstorm. they don't all go, but we're seeing that probably, let's call it 60% of them would go. a lot of them would go to mitt romney. it seems to me you are saying to voters i want you to make a different decision. right now there are four decisions including ron pauchl you have thr

i talked to mark mckinnon, who i know was on your show yesterday, andrea, and i asked him what romney should do going forward. and he said, number one, obama. number two, obama. number three, obama. that seems to be the consensus wisdom. act like the race is over, even though it's not yet over. >> not yet over, and at least try to focus on the general election. chris cillizza, thanks. see you later today. >>> the romney campaign is trying to find its message, find a message more inspiring than just the delegate math, while signaling to the rivals, get out of the way. this after super tuesday victories still made mitt romney the rodney dangerfield of politics. willie geist described it this way on the morning after. >> i was amazed the unwillingness of many republicans and even some members of the press to grant mitt romney a victory. they put an asterisk next to everything he did. massachusetts, of course he won. vermont, of course he won. virginia, there was nobody else running there. idaho, well, there were a lot of mormons running out there. everything he did until ohio. ohio was t