the romney campaign. ms. myers is one of the inaugural fellows. in 2008, she served as a battleground state erector for the obama campaign. matt rhoades has been a lead strategist for the republican national committee. he was a research analyst in the 2000 elections. he was the director of research for the 2004 bush campaign. he was the campaign manager for romney. stuart stephens has gone on to elect more governors than any other current republican media consultant. he has also worked on campaigns overseas. he was involved in that media image for romney in 2008 and was a senior strategist for the presidential campaign in 2012. finally, our moderator for tonight is mr. chuck todd. he has experience as an editor and is an on-air political analyst. he is the current role of the chief white house correspondent for nbc. the panel will cover the 2012 election and campaign on a macro level and we will shed the light on what went right, what went wrong, and what went unexpectedly. we would like to thank strategi

and rubio looks different than mitt romney and his story is different than mitt romney, but he is deliveringe romney/reagan message into an audience that i don't think is buying it anymore. >> i feel like we hear so often that demography is destiny. i feel like policy is destiny here. and i felt like actually the single most embarrassing thing about the republican response was to say that this is the post romney republican party and we're going to have him vote against the violence against women act as the one other thing he does on the day that he gives that response. in terms of appealing to women voters specifically and the gender gap was as definitive in this election as it was in any other. do you see the republican party picking up any signs of all that it's about policy and it's not just about putting more female faces out there to represent? >> no. and the timing yesterday, the violence against women vote i think tells the story. the person that they have decided for the moment at least is the future of their party, marco rubio, voted against it. but also think about the politics. he

conservative radio host and romney critic steve dais put together a top ten list of why romney's choseneak at cpac. one of the reasons, steve says, that romney was confused and thought he was speaking to superpac. steve will join us with the unique list dedicated to governor romney. >>> and ashley judd met with donors and lawmakers on the hill and now getting another boost for possible senate run. just one of the things we thought you should know. >>> joann anne christie of dallas created cute, homemade decorations for daughters' school lockers. when others said they wanted them, too, they created locker looks. the products hang on retail racks across the country. [ female announcer ] today, jason is here to volunteer to help those in need. when a twinge of back pain surprises him. morning starts in high spirits, but there's a growing pain in his lower back. as lines grow longer, his pain continues to linger. but after a long day of helping others, he gets some helpful advice. just two aleve have the strength to keep back pain away all day. today, jason chose aleve. just two pills for a

what do we know about mitt romney? [laughter] i think that is a testament to his political skill, that he didn't begin this with a natural, geographical or ideological base. and yet he was able particularly in those debates through, i think, sheer political skill to -- taking positions that in many cases people disagreed with. like health care. but to convince the republican party that he had the qualities that they wanted to be their nominee. >> what would you gees seeing in your -- you gees seeing in your debates where every year it was the new whack-a-mole, conservative challenger. so we went from perry to herman cain next? herman cain was next, right? in that sort of moment, and then he blew up at the bloomberg debate, and i think that sort of ended -- who were these voters? matt, who were they? that, you know, that started with trump and with bachmann? i mean, it seemed like it was the same 20% of the electorate. >> you know, i just want to add to on to what stuart said about the field. governor perry was, obvious

and said romney was a terrible candidate. now, obviously, gone the other way, they would have said you were a genius. did it bother you to get from your own tribe? >> i think in a campaign, the proper way to deal with criticism is to try to listen to it. every day in campaigns you make a lot of mistakes. and if you look at mitt romney's approach, after every one of our debates, all he wanted to hear about was what he did wrong and how he could improve. that's a good model for us. when conservatives and people supporting republican party criticized us, we tried to listen and to see what we could learn from it and to go from there. >> yet, you often to me and other reporters and sometimes in your writing would dismiss what you call the green room culture. you felt a beltway press corps mentality that was out of touch with what was happening on the campaign trail. >> yeah. >> why is that? >> because it's true. one of the realities is that mitt romney very much was not a d.c.-based candidate. he, by virtue of the fact, he was not

romney campaign. larry grisolano has been involved in politics and campaigns for the past 30 years. he has been involved in some of the most important political battles both in 2008 and 2012 elections. he served in the obama campaign shared jim messin. jim messina quickly rose to prominence across the country. he became the obama deputy chief of staff for 2009 and went on to become the manager of the obama reelection campaign in 2012 d. she work with governor romney where she then served as his chief of staff and was a top adviser for the romney campaign. ms. myers is one of the inaugural fellows. in 2008, she served as a battleground state erector for the obama campaign. matt rhoades has been a lead strategist for the republican national committee. he was a research analyst in the 2000 elections. he was the director of research for the 2004 bush campaign. he was the campaign manager for romney. stuart stephens has gone on to elect more governors than any other current republican media consultant. he

my question is scared towards the romney campaign. during the first presidential debate during the first two candidates, there is a point that carried over were the momentum sort of changed and i know that jim following the election we talk about the accuracy of polling numbers. i want to know if the romney internal numbers were reflected in the same thing because there is a change in how bromley was carrying himself. >> eric. >> thank you for bringing up the denver campaign. [laughter] >> is going to get there. >> the election on october 2nd . >> yeah, change the structure of the race. we saw that in our polling. people who may have closed their mind to governor romney suddenly reopened at and it made for a much better to prevent september because in september we were dealing with the fallout from the 47%. so the denver debate was a real quick pivot for us and we did experience a lift in the polling in the states. we were receiving more donations. we've re-energize republicans whose interest in the rate was flagging a little bit. so

>> that worked well for romney. the deal money can't buy you, authenticity. >> they're authentic, i hate to tell you. they're the real thing. >> they're authentic to the point where -- if you're authentic in your irrationality, great. you'll appeal to the irrational people. but when this guy says the earth was formed -- hold on. when the earth was formed 9,000 years ago and we started farming 10,000 years ago, it's insane. >> we have to come back to the fact that they have a base, that people like this have been elected. >> exactly. they have been. >> you know, i look at mourdock, he won. i like at akin, he won. i look at o'donnell, she won. that guy mike lee beat bob bennett out in utah. you got -- knocked off a guy in indiana. they go around the country. they tend to win. >> but rove's candidates haven't been doing so well either. >> no. neither have nra candidates. neither have -- neither did adelson's candidates or koch candidates. >> i want two parties in this country where i can actually go into the election a

so how about romney for senate? no, not mitt romney, but his oldest son, tagg.ion not to run for the seat vacated by newly installed secretary of state john kerry has republicans in massachusetts in something of a quandary and with only a few months to decide on a suitable candidate. as for tagg, romney, you may remember his reaction to the president after the second debate. >> jump out of your seat and you want to rush down the debate stage and take a swing at him and you know you can't do that because there's a lot of secret service between i and him and that's the nature of the process. >> steve kornacki and professor bob shrum, a democrat ink strategist and a columnist for the daily beast. steve, on friday you wrote the republican panic stems from the fact they believed scott brown was their best hope. the boston herald reports tagg is considering a run, ann romney is a popular figure. has it really come down to this for the republicans in massachusetts? >> well, i mean, it really has. to put it in context, when scott brown won in the 2010 special election,

or the romney campaign. larry grisolano has been involved in politics for the last 30 years and has been a leading politician for some of the most important battles of the democratic party, both in the 2008 in 2012 elections, larry grisolano served as a director of media for president obama's campaign. jim messina started his career as a college senior and rose to prominence in campaigns across the country. he became the chief of staff of operations in 2009 and went on to become the manager of obama's reelection campaign in 2012. jimbeth myers started with the reagan campaign in 1989 and has been in politics ever since. she has worked with governor romney since the 2002 campaign for the governorship. she was most recently a top adviser for the romney campaign. she is one of the inaugural fellows to the institute of politics. jen o'malley-dillon rose to a career working on several democratic issues over the years. in 2008, she served as a director of speech for the obama campaign, and was the deputy campaign

obama going after romney, romney unable to respond because of election law. >> during this period wemoney, but it wasn't all money that we could immediately send out the door. >> the donors would call saying why aren't you on tv? i was saying let me explain what money we can use. very frustrating to us. >> one of the biggest decisions we made was to bet on the front end of the campaign. in the month of october, ads mean much less because there's so much coverage. debates are so dominant. and that we had an imperative which was to define the race and frankly to define mitt romney before the conventions. and that, you know, it was better to -- it was a hilarious proposition to bet on a -- take money out of september and october, put it into may, june, and july. so the other big thing that happened in june was we started running ads about mitt romney. >> so one thing, michael, it's one thing to say you spent a lot of money and time in the beginning defining he was a rich guy not caring about people. then to come along completing the alley-oop with the 47% comment. >> he said too much ha

republicans in massachusetts just itching to get a romney, some romney, any romney back on the ballot this year. 23 points. but almost as quickly as the ann or tagg romney excitement had built up, it started to crumble. and by this afternoon, tagg romney announced himself in complete sentences with full actual words that he is not going to run for that seat. and i don't think ann romney is going to run either. and that leaves massachusetts republicans in a tough spot. no scott brown, no unspecified member of the romney family. right now the surest thing that massachusetts republicans have is dr. keith ablow, a fox news expert on psychiatry. he recently cowrote a book with glenn beck. he announced that he will totally run for senate in that special election, as long as massachusetts republicans unify around him and nominate him with no primary. what could possibly go wrong? that seems like a foolproof idea. did i mention he cowrote a book with glenn beck? but it's not just in massachusetts that republicans are having trouble coming up with candidates for the u.s. senate. in the great s

he predicted a romney landslide. oops. now, dick morris is here, in his post fox interview to talk about where he and the gop went so badly wrong. >>> plus, stars target guns, celebrities storm capitol hill. no one knows the tragedy of gun violence than kerry kennedy. >> i was 4 years old when my uncle was gunned down. i was 8 years old when my father too was gunned down. >> it's time to turn down the rhetoric. >>> on the eve of the grammys, kanye west. >> kanye rapping his entire album to me just like we're sitting here. >> this is piers morgan tonight. >>> good evening. tony bennet is speaking out on gun control. we have a big conversation on gun control in our country. kerry kennedy talking about losing her father to gun violence. an emotional moment from joe biden talking about gun control in virginia today. >> the image of those beautiful young children, six and seven years old. literally riddled with bullet holes, lying in their classroom. all of us 54 days ago watching those families, only imagining we could be in t

i said mitt romney. i said it because i knew we were headed into an economic way, i have, and i spoke earlier with this group the opposite the riff presidential races that people tend to merg merge. you know, romney, a business background and so on, seemed like the kind of person who could emerge from that most likely. the thing is that that election, on election day of 2010, you know, that election sort of altered my thinking slightly. i thought he would be the nominee, but it with a are was clear to me that day, that there were forces that were in the republican neat were going to control the nominating process, and that it was going to be challenging for any nominee to navigate those, those forces, and that they were going to have to make some difficult choices, in order to be the nominee. it was an element about that was injected by the 2010 race, buy always felt romney was the likely guy. >> was there after time you ever thought he was not going do it? >> yeah. i mean, he had a really relaxing 2009,

it was over a long time ago for mitt romney. i think the debate, president obama's poor performance in the first debate gave glimmers of hope to the republican party. it made the race much more interesting for the pundit class. but ultimately it was just a very bad campaign for mitt romney. >> one of the problems i thought, van, was interesting talking to dick morris about social issues is that even when i discuss them with him now i still couldn't really work out what his position was. and this seemed to me to cut to the quick of the republican problem throughout the last year. particularly in the nominee race. was what do these guys actually stand for collectively? on abortion he seemed to be saying, look, we can't be pro life anymore, we've got to be sort of pro choice, but we're not going to admit we're pro choice. i didn't understand it. >> well, if only it were only him with that problem. right now what you see is a republican party in real disarray. they've backed themselves into this sort of demographic cul-de-sac and th

my conversation with the top strategists from the obama and romney campaigns.changed the game during the 2012 campaign. the one big thing that's likely to be different in 2016 and the worst moments on the trail. our deep dive is next. watching "the daily rundown" only on msnbc. well now i'm her dietitian and last year, she wasn't eating so well. so i recommended boost complete nutritional drink to help her get the nutrition she was missing. and now she drinks it every day. well, it tastes great! [ male announcer ] boost has 26 essential vitamins and minerals, including calcium and vitamin d to support strong bones, and 10 grams of protein to help maintain muscle. and our great taste is guaranteed or your money back. learn more at boost.com [ dietitian ] now, nothing keeps mom from doing what she loves... being my mom. i'd like to thank eating right, whole grain, multigrain cheerios! mom, are those my jeans? [ female announcer ] people who choose more whole grain tend to weigh less than those who don't. multigrain cheerios [ male announcer ] it's red lobster's 3

that's with romney having won 27% of the latino vote which means if romney managed 17% mas the inauguration would have looked like this. >> jon: wait, what? what is going on with ann romney's hair? >> those bangs were happening no matter who won. [ laughter ] >> jon: does this immigration bill make up for past slights? i mean, gain the republicans the extra 17% they need? they've been hard on the hispanic community. >> probably not, jon. the problem for veabz that while over 90% of -- republicans is while over 90% of hispanics support immigration reform a full 65% of latinos hold grudges. 83% if it's something you did to their sister. [ laughter ] >> jon: al, how long would a grudge like that typically last? what would it take for hispanics to get over the grudge? >> a latino grudge on average lasts just over four generations. so right there -- >> jon: i get it. all right. [ laughter ] >> italian, irish -- >> jon: makes sense. >> the good news is that a latino generation is only seven years. >> jon: i didn't know. that to get to 51% of the electric tour rate they'll have to -- electorate th

my own rule is that mitt romney is talking, and obama is standing here, i only look at mitt romney and i never look at the other candidate. i don't want to be a party to his reaction. the consequence is that when mitt romney was talking i did not know, even though i was closer to him than anybody, i was not watching the reactions of barack obama. the only time i looked at him as when he was talking. i cannot help but notice a couple of times he did not look at me, i did not have the impression. >> in the vice-presidential debate, did you see or hear anything that we, as television viewers of the debate may have missed? >> it is one thing from jim's book, you may miss the moment, on television. i don't think -- i think the one impression, for the same reason, i had no idea that all ryan was 753 glasses of water. this was like a saturday night live skit. i thought, i am so thirsty. these guys are talking and they have had no water. i do not think that i missed this. one thing that happens in the debates is the candidates come in, and they are ready for what ever debate that they are read

and most importantly, what will he add to the romney greatest hits reel?n language ] >> i'm mitt romney, and yes, wolf, that is also my first name. any old girlfriends here? no one has ever asked to see my birth certificate. i met a guy yesterday, 7 feet tall, handsome, great big guy, 7 feet tall, name is rick miller, portland, oregon, he started a business, of course it was in basketball, but it wasn't in basketball, i figured he had to be in sports, but it wasn't in sports. i love this country, america the beautiful, oh beautiful, for amber waves of grain, corn counts. >> i am convinced that what makes america such a great nation, not just our beautiful land and our mountains -- and other -- now does it -- oh beautiful, for spacious skies, amber waves of grain, and green waves of grain, with the beans and corn. >> take a risk, borrow money from your parents, start a business. i live for laughter, i mean -- >> i want to make sure that we all understand we have to clean up the water that our kids are swimming in. and by that, i mean the pornography, the dr

mitt romney is terrible for traffic. they mean web traffic. they did what essentially amounted to a control experiment in terms of people's interest online in the two candidates. look. 29 photos of baby barack obama versus 30 photos of mitt romney as a child. essentially, you're offering the same thing. reliably adorable childhood images of people you know now as full grown men. it's the same comparison, apples to apples. the photos of baby obama got just under 70,000 views. the photos of baby romney just over 6,000 views. that is worse than 10 to 1. okay, maybe it's a baby thing. how about if we age them a little. barack obama, i have to say, was not the world's most handsome teenager. those were kind of his awkward years, whereas mitt romney was quite possibly the world's best teenager. they both ended up as very handsome adult men, but they went through their awkward periods, their gawky periods at different ages. but even with that, again, the young man photos of barack obama get roughly 70,000 views. the comparable votes of young man mitt

steve, mitt romney is back.it down for his first televised interview alongside his wife, ann. i bet in a month of sundays you couldn't get which television network has scored that interview. >> it couldn't be fox, could it? >> there is a very strong possible that you are correct. what can we expect from the great mr. romney? >> i wouldn't xm much. i would expect this is the first interview, it will be one of his last high profeel intile interv. the bigger issue there is i think the problem of the republican party is we can make all the comments we want about what a lousy candidate he was, he had difficulty connecting with people but he was tied down by republican orthodoxy that made it impossible for him from a policy standpoint to market himself to the middle, to market himself to swing voters. he was just stuck to all these tea party positions that the base insisted he take or he couldn't have the nomination or -- >> you give him a beat of a break. >> i don't know what he's going to say next week. i doubt we'l

we can tell you live now the great willard mitt romney is back.e will address -- in fact what will he be able to teach cpac about winning elections? >> actually if you took a course of what not to say and do, here's the example of what failed utterly this past year. don't do that. what that guy is saying, don't do that. but part of the problem with mitt romney, and i was thinking about this before this segment. what would an appropriate role for him be now? and the problem is that there's no issue that you can identify him with that you would say, you know, he's really passionate, though, about education reform or he's really passionate about this issue or that issue. >> stashing your money offshore? hiding your money in the cayman islands? tax avoidance, tax evasion. >> that would world cup. but there's no natural role for him because there's nothing that he really stood for. >> that's true. >> and the other thing is as a result, conservatives didn't like him. conservatives -- not that they didn't like him -- well, they didn't like him. they didn