mr. bob bauer making that complaint, the attorney on the left there, who is now co-chairing the president's improved voting commission with the romney lawyer on the right, whose campaign was trying to stop early voting in ohio, and that gave its poll watchers wrong information about how to keep people from voting who should have been allowed to vote. awkward match, right? putting the guy whose party has tried and is still trying to make it hard to vote on the commission to fix voting, insisting that republicans must be as bothered by this as democrats. that's what the president left on the table last night after that incredibly moving story about this 102-year-old woman pulling out all the stops to vote, even though all the odds were against her. that's what the president put on the table. and the president is a smart political strategist. what kind of strategy is this? is it hope? is it the same kind -- and i don't say that dismissively. it is the same kind of hope and optimism and persistent never give uppism that is embodied by desiline victor, is it that kind of hope and persistence and

. >> i'm curious if mr. bauer wants to respond to the point that was made about the effects on the parties of these trends. i don't think you talked a lot about that. the other speakers mentioned that as a major trend and possible concern and whether you see it as a concern or something that should be dealt with? >> setting aside the question of what can be done about, that raises a very interesting academic for a theoretical question about the extent to which political party development is shaped or affected by legal regulation, whether the law can actually build a successful political party. on the other hand, a lot can affect the availability of resources. without any question, i don't think this is even something anybody spends -- need to spend time arguing about. it's one of the few points that could be removed from the typical contention from the campaign finance debate. parties were shut off from certain resources to the bipartisan campaign reform act, mccain-fine gold. those are available to other actors a