in 2004 as a senior adviser to george bush, mr. senorking up conditions inside iraq in order to help his boss win re-election. unfortunately for him, a violent insurgency had taken hold. iraq's infrastructure was in ruins, billions of dollars in aid were vanishing, power plants were being bombed, and death squads were running the streets. but just months before the presidential election, here is what mr. senor said. i can tell you that the majority of this country, the majority of the population, is returning to normalcy and wants a stable, democratic iraq to take hold. since then more than 90,000 iraqi civilians have been killed and almost 5,000 americans have now given their lives in that conflict, and mr. senor advises

conflict, and mr. senor advises mr. romney and mr. ryan to attack the president for failing to communicate accurately on events in benghazi. you know, the one thing you can say about them is that it doesn't matter whether it's the death of a u.s. ambassador or 90,000 iraqi civilians, they stay on message even when the truth is dying to be told. thanks for watching. chris matthews and "hardball" is next. >>> d day minus one. let's play "hardball." ♪day minus one. let's play "hardball." ♪-day minus one. let's play "hardball." ♪ >>> good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. let me start with this. this campaign today for president floats on a knife edge. the balance between americans who say yes to the achievements of president obama and those backing romney is that fine, that delicate. recent polling shows the difference in popular backing for what obama has done, the saving of the auto industry, the rescue of the u.s. economy itself, the killing of bin laden, health care for working americans, against what romney is offering is r

mr. senor, great to see you. you've done a lot of mock debates. you know the vice president is going to talk a lot about the ryan budget, but we know the ryan budget is not all the romney budget. how much does he defend his own budget versus the romney ticket? >> first of all, he has to make the case about the choice in this election. things have been rough over the last four years, and it's incumbent on president obama and vice president biden to explain what exactly has happened over the last four years. 23 million americans out of work. 47 million americans on food stamps. 1 in 6 americans in poverty. and have them explain the rationratio rationale for why they deserve a second term. there's a choice in this election. they are running on the romney-ryan agenda. governor romney has laid out a plan, laid out the five-point plan for the middle class. >> when there are differences, what does congressman ryan say? this is my budget. this is what governor romney is going to do. >> governor romney has laid out an agenda for four more years. president

mr. sunday morning himself, hugo lindgren. p.j., please give us some clarity and some answers here because i am so confused. as far as iran, the fact that dan senor is saying governor romney might not rule out one-on-one negotiations with the iranians over the nuclear program seems to have muddied the waters which are muddy already over what a mitt romney foreign policy strategy would look like. it seems to basically be it would be a lot like president obama's strategy, only he would mean it more. how do you assess that? >> in fact, that is the conundrum for mitt romney. for example, the last 24 hours, you heard a republican talking point like lindsay graham saying hope obama doesn't take the bait and negotiate. if he doesn't negotiate, that leaves two unpopular and difficult policy options. one is iranian capitulation which is not likely to happen and the other is military conflict which would be very unpredictable and costly. so on this, this is actually a responsible foreign policy option to say he will have a comprehensive strategy which is exactly what obama has pursued over the past four years, a mixture of a willingness to negotiate but pu