i want to ask mark mckinnon a quick question here. mark, what is the explanation?americans would say, okay, he left. why did it take three years for him to change the letterhead? i believe romney was not the de facto ceo when he left to work on the olympics but why did it take so long for them to change titles and other things? >> i think that's a legitimate question to ask the romney campaign and to ask mitt romney. but i think he was off to the olympics, somebody else was running the company. mitt romney started the company. >> he still got paid. >> they were having an issue of succession. romney had been the ceo and the question then was amongst all these other partners, who was in charge. >> they've not done a very good job explaining the simple question who was running bain? well, there was a management committee. it shouldn't be that hard to explain, if mitt romney wasn't running the company, who was running the company? >> well, call bain. >> it sounds like -- i agree it's not a good answer. give me a name, give me a face. the romney people haven't and handl

>> we have msnbc and "time" magazine senior political analyst mark halperin, steve schmidt and mark mckinnon>> usa, willie. >> thank you. >> four years ago we were making fun of the beijing olympics, going to be terrible, smog, the other stuff, by the end of the crying -- >> sam is here too. >> happens all the time. sam stein here too. >> launch into things. what else? >> sam, what did you think -- >> we have ed rendell. >> no, we don't. >> yes, we do. >> it's a vernable cornucopia. it helps to do the intros because you know who's here. >> what did you think of that ad? >> i thought it was very funny. >> i don't think that's the point. >> a good funny or bad funny. >> an irrelevant funny. i don't think anybody pays any attention what's on priority usa's website. >> too many people on the ad team with way too much time. >> way too much money. mika, we, of course, last week reported on a cbs news/"new york times" poll that shows the race knotted up. >> yeah. >> the nbc news/"wall street journal" poll came out and actually gives the president some breathing room. >> yeah. i guess it raises the

official and morning joe economic analyst steve ratner is here and contributor to "the daily beast," mark mckinnon big boy pants. >> mark's got his big boy pants on this morning. >> we'll find out if he has his big boy pants on or not. >> speaking of big boy pants, is willie -- oh, my gosh! there you are. i haven't seen you in so long. >> it's been like a month. >> i've missed you. >> so much better greeting than i got. >> two ships passing in the night. >> how long has it been? >> weeks.

. >> i want to ask you something that -- about something that a bush adviser, mark mckinnon, who workedlection campaign eight years ago, had to say about this race. he said, "team obama is doing just what we did in 2004 which is to define the opposition early." "in this cycle, that may be enough, but it's a very risky approach." he's not the only one making a comparison. are there parallels in your opinion between what the bush campaign did to john kerry and what your team is doing to mitt romney right now? basically trying to define him based on what is it considered by his campaign as a strength? >> no. because what was done back then was to take a guy who was a certified war hero and to suggest that somehow he wasn't. and that was grossly unfair. the fact of the matter is that governor romney has a background and an approach and a set of policies that are far different than the ones the president supports. we are very much for policies that are going to boost the middle class. we believe in building this economy from the middle class out. he believes in a top-down approach. and it fl

mark mckinnon being -- a quote in the piece that was written for politico this morning saying i can't think of a political parallel, said former george w. bush advisor, we know as much about romney as we did clint eastwood in "the man with no name." you know, how much -- we know this is obviously a line of attack from democrats, but republicans have got to sort of be scratching their heads, too, thinking well, what is in there. >> i'm going to be contrarian about this. >> i can't imagine. >> i think it's possible, i'm not advocating it or saying it will definitely work but it's possible governor romney can hold off on all this stuff until the fall. i'm not talking about the tax returns. i'm talking about talking more about his record and background. i think their theory of beating the president is run against him, make it a referendum on the economy, and he'll need to reassure people at the convention, at the debates. think about what people said about bush 41 at this stage, where he was well behind in the polls and people thought he's ill defined, what people know about him, they don

d't he deep sen o rneyther th he's n obam anin ts cycl tt maye enouing t iseryisky apoach that's mark mckinnon 94. lotf usotfire iot- i dn't he a coulti conact th t dn people -- he mad changes. that's what happens. that's what presint reagan did in 1980 when he didt stt ou whil he fedes. he tsed t lioln. chlkumsfd lo hisjo epubcans fir newt gingrich. when things are not going well, the coach, the manager, we're orts fans yove g tory t d someing,hangdireion re. i'mot gng t to tak it a a psona oense tt u wo auit a torhat -- yow, is saturday morning. >> i d't see himn sui and e. i n't e he i dom shim. thearge covagef liti is ke mday mning quterbking andackst dring dike somneho has been in both roles, had to run an actual campaign where you had access to a certain amount of dataand ing o t outse coenti, ishatike all s.? thaeap,al adve y t, t htriocs opeop yingo th, dat,oes it matter at all? >> first of all, the people running the campaign can't stand people like me, and i couldt stanthem >> i want layhis vy ick. just toesblis this you 19 talng aut th. >>ight >> tyon't kwbout sttegy >>hat - >>ou'r

. -- host: there's not a lot of supervision, oversight or accountability, says mark mckinnon. -- let's take a look at some recent super p.a.c. advertisements on the presidential level. >> mitt romney, the businessman. take a look at his record. romney bought companies, drowned them in debt, many went bankrupt. thousands of workers lost jobs, benefits and pensions. but for every company he drove into the ground, romney averaged a $92 million profit. now he says his business experience would make him a good president? if romney wins, the middle class loses. priorities u.s.a. reaction is responsibility for the -- responsible of the content of this advertising. >> america's jobless rate just went up again but after a record 42 straight months of unemployment, president obama insists. >> the private sector is doing fine. 20 million americans can't find jobs. thousands of them have been out of work for a year. and under obama, nearly 800,000 more women are unemployed. >> the private sector is doing fine. host: we're talking to you about money and politics specifically in an interview with sc

that's mark mckinnon, former.lost all the seats in 1994. a lot of us got fired. i got -- i didn't have a consulting contract with the dnc. people -- he made changes. that's what happens. that's what president reagan did in 1980 when he didn't start out while. he fired ores. he tossed out lincoln. eechlk rumsfeld lost his job. the republicans fired newt gingrich. when things are not going well, the coach, the manager, we're sports fans. you've got to try to do something, change direction here. >> i'm not going to try to take it as a personal offense that you wore a suit and tie for that -- you know, it's saturday morning. >> i don't see him in a suit and tie. i don't see her, i dome see him. >> the large coverage of politics is like monday morning quarterbacking and backseat driving and like someone who has been in both roles, had to run an actual campaign where you had access to a certain amount of data, and being on the outside commenting, is that like all b.s.? is that cheap, tall advice you get, the histrionics