ifill: we'll be joined by our floor reporter ray suarez and historians michael beschloss and richard norton smith. >> woodruff: and with us in the skybox again tonight for insight and analysis are mark shields and david brooks. >> ifill: that's all ahead on tonight's "newshour." major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> they can be enlightening or engaging. conversations help us learn and grow. at wells fargo, we believe you can never underestimate the power of a conversation. it's this exchange of ideas that helps you move ahead with confidence. because an open dialogue is what open doors. wells fargo. together we'll go far. and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: a

historians michele and richard norton smith are back in washington and richard, i rudely interrupted you when you were about to make a point. i was asking the two of you to comment on the little bit about what we heard from charlie christ how devitted the parties are and we heard your colleague michael say it has not been this divided since 1861 and you were starting to weigh-in. i've seen tweets from people who heard what michael said and do you agree with him? >> the point i was making was go back to 1960 an election that lots of people look back on fondly as a model exercise in modern american democracy. it was in many ways a consensus election because it was a consensus society, shaped by the cold war, by the common experiences of the great depression, ww2, and at the same time each part broadly liberal and broadly conservative each party was a coalition. it was an ideological, geographical, demographic coalition. and in such a mere held up to the country. in his own time fdr and barry goldwater from different ends of the political spectrum each argued that was illogical. we need

. >> ifill: back to washington richard norton smith, without it falling on how, how did it look. >> aonfetti free assessment. i would agree with david. i don't think we saw anything new or revealing about the president tonight but what we did see revealed tonight was the democratic strategy. up until now the assumption has been that this is an election, a referendum upon the performance of the incumbent president. what this convention and i think tonight in particular was all about was to suggest that it is, at least as much a referendum on the republican alternative. >> michael. >> i think that's right. and the other aspect of this was you know, obama covered so many different things that a president does tonight, it was almost there are times almost seemed like a state of the union. that was intentional because he was saying in fact he did say in his speech i'm the president. he's saying by implication split mitt i -- mitt romney is not ofn to this. this is like russia is our biggest enemy. that's effective. >> ifill: those of you in washington, david brooks my wingman here and char