i don't want to picture mary matalin like that. oh, oh-- oh, she worked out. folks, speaking of mind control, bill clinton gave a speech last night scheduled for half an hour which just wrapped up a few minutes ago. (laughter) and i would add hit clinton started strong. >> we are here to nominate a president. (cheers and applause) and i've got one in mind. >> stephen: unfortunately, barack obama defeated her four years ago. (laughter) luckily, luckily bill had another option. >> i want to nominate a man who is cool on the outside. >> (cheers and applause) but who burns for america on the inside. (cheers and applause) >> cool on the outside, burns on the inside. now at first i was excited because i thought the democrats had nominated a half microwave burrito. sadly, hispanic outreach. sadly, sadly he meant barack obama. now of course he then did his whole clinton thing. and the mainstream bubba lovers swooned in ecstasy. >> the reason why so many of us call him the greatest politician tonight, the master, bill clinton delivered a mast ear-- masterpiece of a spe

we'll talk to mary matalin and paul begala. plus, clint eastwood is finally speaking out about his i don't know convention speech/performance. does he regret the whole empty chair/invisible obama routine? ahead. how did i get here? dumb luck? or good decisions? ones i've made. ones we've all made. about marriage. children. money. about tomorrow. here's to good decisions. who matters most to you says the most about you. massmutual is owned by our policyholders so they matter most to us. massmutual. we'll help you get there. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] how could a luminous protein in jellyfish impact life expectancy in the u.s. real estate in hong kong, and the optics industry in germany? at t. rowe price we understand the connections of a complex, global economy. it's just one reason over 70% of our mutual funds beat their 10-year lipper average. t. rowe price. invest with confidence. request a prospectus or summary prospectus with investment information, risks, fees and expenses to read and consider carefully before investing. the p

we'll talk to mary matalin and paul begala. plus, clint eastwood is finally speaking out about his, i don't know, convention speech/performance. does he regret the whole empty chair/invisible obama routine? ahead. there are a lot of warning lights and sounds vying for your attention. so we invented a warning you can feel. introducing the all-new cadillac xts. available with a patented safety alert seat. when there's danger you might not see, you're warned by a pulse in the seat. it's technology you won't find in a mercedes e-class. the all-new cadillac xts has arrived, and it's bringing the future forward. sfx: sounds of marching band and crowd cheering sfx: sounds of marching band and crowd cheering so, i'm walking down the street, sfx: sounds of marching band d crowd cheering just you know walking, sfx: sounds of marching bandnd and crowd cheering and i found myself in the middle of this paradeeet, sfx: sounds of marching band d crowd cheering honoring america's troops. sfx: sounds of marching bandnd and crowd cheering which

we'll talk to mary matalin and paul begala. plus, clint eastwood is finally speaking out about his, i don't know, convention speech/performance. whatever you call it. does he regret the whole empty chair/invisible obama routine? ahead. how did i get here? dumb luck? or good decisions? ones i've made. ones we've all made. about marriage. children. money. about tomorrow. here's to good decisions. who matters most to you says the most about you. massmutual is owned by our policyholders so they matter most to us. massmutual. we'll help you get there. ♪ home of the brave. ♪ it's where fear goes unwelcomed... ♪ and certain men... find a way to rise above. this is the land of giants. ♪ guts. glory. ram. his morning starts with arthritis pain. and two pills. afternoon's overhaul starts with more pain. more pills. triple checking hydraulics. the evening brings more pain. so, back to more pills. almost done, when... hang on. stan's doctor recommended aleve. it can keep pain away all day with fewer pills than tylenol. this is rudy. who sw

we'll talk to mary matalin and paul begala. plus, clint eastwood is finally speaking out about his, i don't know, convention speech/performance. whatever you call it. does he regret the whole empty chair/invisible obama routine? ahead. i'm an expert on softball. and tea parties. i'll have more awkward conversations than i'm equipped for because i'm raising two girls on my own. i'll worry about the economy more than a few times before they're grown. but it's for them, so i've found a way. who matters most to you says the most about you. massmutual is owned by our policyholders so they matter most to us. massmutual. we'll help you get there. dad vo: ok, time for bed, kiddo. lights out. ♪ (sirens) (train horn) ♪ vo: wherever our trains go, the economy comes to life. norfolk southern. one line, infinite possibilities. >>> day one of the final stretch of the presidential race. 60 days of campaigning to go. new hampshire and iowa both battleground states were the first stops for both campaigns. here's what president obama told a crow

joining me now for today's strategy session democratic strategy hilary rosen and mary matalin, both cnncontributors. i want to start with you, mary, with this tape a little more from the fundraiser just released yesterday mitt romney talking about hispanic voters. >> we are having a much harder time with the hispanic vote. and if the hispanic voting block becomes as committed to the democrats as the african-american voting block has in the past, well, we are in trouble as a party and i think as a nation. >> so we've heard a lot of that. and as you listen to him talking to the people at that fundraiser, the question has always been, what are republicans and mitt romney specifically doing about it? >> well, what they're trying to do should he get elected and i believe he will, is grow the economy. create jobs. the government doesn't have money. when the government redistributes money from the producers and gives it to whatever programs, at best it's inefficient. let's take education. the state gets back, taxpayers get back 17 cents on the dollar. and this is the observation the philosophy

political contributors, paul begala here in washington and from new orleans, republican strategist mary matalinry, i want to start with you. we've heard all this talk about a strategy change right now. why on earth a strategy change at this point 50 days out? >> well, we've heard three different accounts. and they were all different and contradicted each other. and this campaign is not retooling. and contrary to what you said coming in, joe, romney is not sliding. it's a dead heat in all the swing states and in states that barack obama won by double digits in the last go-round. he's barely keeping up with mitt romney. or he's only one point ahead. what i heard in park city from the campaign way back when was that there would be a sequencing. the convention would be the opportunity to unify and enthuse the base and say, who is mitt romney? after labor day, they'd start laying out as he has today the specific, flesh out the specifics, which have always been there but will say them going to the final day, as opposed to the president who's been campaigning for three years and has a failed record fo

you know, i's right -- >> you're talking about mary matalin. >> right.dent's economic polies have not generated the growth we need. and republicans are offering an alternative. i hope it's a better alternative. and that's the case for the out party when the in party is presiding over slow growth like this. but in the middle of the worst recession, the economy since the 1930s to offer people out of work insults to try to chop up and say you are good and you are not and to talk -- to use the language of parasite, parasites are microbes not people. although scientist friend tell me they can be bigger than microbes. i think this is a destructive way to think. mitt romney should be running to be president of the whole country. if you don't run to be president of all the country, you won't be elected president of any of it. >> but you know there are a lot of republicans out there who are saying exactly what romney said, get -- designed to get out the base. get out those loyal republican voters, energize them. make sure they show up in ohio, virginia, florida,

joining me cnn political contributor republican strategist mary matalin. also democratic strategist paul begala who is also an adviser to a pro-obama super pac. paul, i don't know how many news organizations and fact checking organizations have pointed out this -- these incorrect statements, these factually incorrect statements from the republicans about what the obama campaign, what the obama white house is doing about welfare reform. and yet they continue to hit this message hard. is it working for them? >> i suspect it is or they wouldn't be doing it. i have to say it is a bit of a character test for three different parties. first off, the romney campaign who is running the ads and they have failed the character test. there is a lot of good issues they could run on, but this is simply untrue. i don't like to use the l-word, but it is simply not true. it is a character test for the press. i complain to the media a lot that the press has done its job. i don't know how many times the press can report that the ad is false, but you keep doing it and thank yo

joining me is cnn political contributors mary matalin and james carville. is that manipulation? >> look, this is the best day romney's had all month. of course it's manipulation and of course he can file after the election and get the refund which is totally legal and he's always said that he paid the minimal amount of taxes so all of a sudden, the milk of human kindness comes from mitt romney and he's going to give the federal government money that he doesn't owe. i don't know of any other explanation. maybe somebody can come up with one. >> so anderson -- >> mary might be able to. mary? >> i just want to get this straight. so now what the complaint from my liberal friends is that romney gave 30% of his income last year to charity and over the course of the many, many years that he's paid 100% of his taxes in direct contradiction of harry reid, the senate majority leader calling him a felon and a scofflaw and a tax cheat, he's paid 100% of his rate, he's been 20% of his income over those 20 years to charity, and there's something wrong with that. if they s

he is married to mary matalin who is a conservative. >> republican. >> and that is a great example ofr country, you know, we are married to each other. we are in on this, and how do we have a good marriage? how do we work on what we need to work on. >> that is something that everybody wants to know, how do we have a good marriage. i have to ask you about this, because you co-starred with thunder bolt and lightfoot with clint eastwood and what did you think of the chair performance? >> i did not see thunder bolt's performance, but i heard about it. i haven't seen it yet. i will look at it before i go to play today i want to go check out clint's performance. bill maher gave it a rave i here. >> and do you think it is appropriate to pretend, because it is a -- >> i didn't see it. i didn't see it. >> i had a vision of obama doing a ventriloquist thing of a puppet with clint and doing a rebuttal and i don't know if that will happen, but maybe that is where my mind went. >> i don't know if they will do that, but would you consider politics yourself as a contender. >> no, i'm an issues man.

mary matalin said romney was right, there are producers and parasites, she said, referring to the 47% parasites. david frum who wrote speeches for president bush, he called mary's remarks unfortunate and deplorable. i'm curious, ana, where do you stand? >> i absolutely do not think that 47% are parasites, wolf. i think it was misstated. i think it was inelegantly worded as mitt romney has stated. many are folks that are serving abroad, serving our country abroad in the military, many are senior citizens. these are not smoochers. there are some people who abuse the system. and that is something we must recognize. but certainly not all 47% are abusers of the system and also pay taxes in other ways. so i don't agree with the gist of that comment. and actually that comment came up yesterday in the univision forum, it was asked of romney and he immediately pivoted back to 100%. he's changing the conversation to 100%. it also got asked today of president obama his thoughts on that 47% ree mark. and i think a president needs to worry about 100% of americans regardless of race, of income leve