rejoining me is steve schmidt. steve, a lot of shocking things in the movie.arah palin, but i've got to ask you, the thing that jumped out to me, did you really have to convince john mccain to stop watching msnbc during the campaign? >> you know, one of the things, lawrence, when you work with, you know, these men or women who are in these situations is, you know, they're interested in seeing and hearing what people are saying about them. and it becomes debilitating. you know, overwhelming amount of information that came in. so i suggested throughout the campaign, not just with msnbc, that maybe the best thing to watch at night was espn. he's a huge sports fan. i thought relax a little bit. focus on people who are actually going to vote, watch, focus on, you know, outside of all the political talk. and absolutely, i suggested that to him. >> well, i'm impressed that he didn't lock himself in the tv bubble of fox news, but he was on fox news yesterday with chris wallace. he was asked about "game change." he was asked about you. let's listen to that. >> what do

. >> msnbc political analyst steve schmidt, senior strategist for mccain/palin '08. thanks for your time. great to have you here on nights like this. >> you bet you. >>> our coverage of the primaries continues right now with lawrence o'donnell on "the last word." good evening, lawrence. i'm handing off to you at an exciting moment. >> you are indeed, rachel. it's so exciting. i need you to run across the hall. i've got an empty bar stool here if you can make it. are you going home right now or can you sneak over? >> no, i'm taking off my microphone right now. >> okay. >>> we have breaking news tonight. rick santorum wins alabama. and republicans are having a three-way in mississippi. >> it is a deep pride primary day down in dixie. >> it's southern super tuesday. >> the battle for the deepest of the deep red southern states, mississippi and alabama. >> we thought super tuesday was going to give some finality to this race, and it didn't. >> this is a race that has been going on and on and on. >> this is going to go way, way, way into the spring. >> you can't win the n

rick davis and steve schmidt became convinces she was a star, game changing pick and she addressed a lot of political imperatives they had and mccain was convinced every a five day period. >> one of the things that the movie captures so well is the way that they backed them inteefs thiinteefsthemselvesin . there was no way you could win. he needed to change the dynamic because obama had so much money, was a celebrity, was a star. it was a democrat year because so many people in the country had turned against george w. bush he needed to establish a maverick make in-roads with the female vote. all of these other candidates woody haralson in the meef says it's all these boring white gaze, they're not game changing picks. he's got five days. so 24e they had kind of messed around for months going through the process of vetting people who would never help him win and ended up suddenly having to make the biggest decision of mccain's political life with just a few hours of vetting. and then he had just not met her. none of them had met her until two days before they picked her. they never me

>> this is steve schmidt, leave a message. >> steve, it's nicolle.l gladly resign if you want to blame me for couric, if you want me to say i'm back on plk cane's bus tomorrow because i never want to deal with that woman again. >> popularity and huge roll out of "game change" will cement forever the narrative that frankly was not the consensus view while the mccain-palin campaign was under way but was the truth learned the hard way by nicolle wallless and steve schmidt during the campaign. the truth john mccain's first presidency level decision, the choice of the vice presidential nominee was a disaster and a nightmare. in real life, after the campaign, sarah palin wrote a book with her tell-all version how awful the campaign had been. and in real life, after the campaign, advisor nicolle wallace wrote a novel about a republican woman who becomes president and makes a terrible, terrible choice for vice president. advisor you saw her calling in this scene, steve schmidt is now an analyst for msnbc. >> what would either of you say to sarah palin gettin

mccain campaign strategist steve schmidt says the movie got it right. >> it was very accurate i thinkor all of us in the campaign, it rang true. gave you a little bit of ptsd at times. >> schmidt and his team found themselves dealing with a vice presidential candidate disdratrt distracted, lacking knowledge and unprepared for the national stage. >> how do you plan on maintaining our alliance with great britain in the war on iraq? >> i think the united states has always maintained a great relationship with the queen and john mccain will continue to have an open dialogue with her. >> governor, the queen is not the head of government in england, she is the head of state. >> well then who's the head of government? >> the prime minister. >> even if you didn't catch the movie, you know how the story ends. schmidt says the end result of the 2008 campaign was the best outcome for the country. >> when a result happens that puts someone who is not prepared to be president on the ticket, that is a bad result. i think the notion of sarah palin being president of the united states is something tha

still with us, steve schmidt and "the new york times" and cnbc's john harwood. gentlemen, thank you for 76ing with me. john, in terms of the speech there from mr. romney, i've not been listening to his stump speech every day, but i've been listening closely enough to follow its evolution over time. is this what we should expect in terms of putting bane at the very, very center of what his appeal is for why he should be president? >> well, i think so. bane in the way that mitt romney wants to explain it is part of a step-by-step education process for him and what makes the american economy tick. i think it was significant, he had some new lines in here. some great republican applause line. he made of law professors and he had a whole rift about his vision for the country. plainly a general election speech. i think there's a reason for this because i think this win even though it was expected is a big deal. i think tonight we found out that rick santorum is simply is not capable of turning over the table in the way that he needs to in order to stop mitt romney of

i think many of the allegations were true, and in the case of what steve schmidt was talking about athe time was, you know, that the press immediately was jumping on her as the vice presidential nominee in a way that a candidate had never been jumped on before. what was actually happening was that the press was vetting her in those few days better than the mccain campaign vetted her. i feel like a majority of what was brought up not only was accurate, but it was information that the mccain -- that the campaign itself should have known but didn't. >> she needed to be vetted by the press, but at the same time there were all kinds of questions about what -- i thought were unfair. >> i think there are a number of things that were very sexist. >> for them to accuse her of somehow hiding the pregnancy of her daughter, et cetera, i mean, those things were -- those things were, you know, not cool, and i think we show a lot of that in the film. i think we -- >> i think we showed both sides of it. >> we help to show how difficult it was to do what she did and actually how amazing it is that she

steve schmidt and nicolle wallace because the scenes that most hung with me, steve schmidt calling john the middle of the night and saying, she is on the verge of a nervous breakdown. nicolle wallace having spent 60 close days with her at the end of the movie saying to steve schmidt, i couldn't bring myself to vote for the ticket. unless the two of them step forward and say that just didn't happen or it didn't happen like that or that's a distortion, then i'm going to believe that's exactly the way it transpired. >> they were certainly the two people who were sort of most inside her psyche during the campaign, and interestingly, i read the book and i watched the movie, and i found that she was portrayed a bit more sympathetically in the book. i thought the book focused a little bit more on the aspect of her missing her young baby and being vulnerable as a mother, and i came away actually from the book having a more sympathetic impress of her and a harsher view of john mccain for his irresponsibility in choosing someone who had not been vetted really at all, had never been asked a questi

. >> joining me is steve schmidt, and john harwood, gentlemen, thank you for being here, nice to have you here. >> rhey rachel. >> newt gingrich will stay in the race regardless of the outcome tonight. steve, if mr. gingrich does not win either of these states tonight, do you think he can remain a viable candidate? >> no, the race will be in the final stages for him, ehe'll hae tough decision. he talked about putting together a southern strategy to remain viable. that means he has to win these states, not come in second or third. >> if he won big say the hyalaba would that be enough or is it both places? >> he articulated it means winning the southern states. you can't run a race where you're trying to be the most conservative candidate and lose one of the two most conservative states in the race with the most conservative primaries electorates and continue to go on in my view. >> john, is it your perception the gingrich campaign would agree with steve schmidt there is pressure behind the scenes for mr. gingrich to guess out of the race that he might be susceptible to the pressure if

there is a key scene toward the end of the film when steve schmidt says i need your help. i need to figure this out. he said i am not -- i think it is a moment tough on him. i just got off the phone with another journalist saying we did not show him as a film with humor. everyone has their view. there is a debate about that. i think that is what a film should trigger. i am happy to see that people have different opinions. all we could do was ask everybody we could possibly find to what really happened. how did it feel. we could not get access to john mccain or sarah palin. i tried personally to get access. i wanted to find the layers that people did not see. tavis: she has found you. >> she did not want to get involved but for people very much want to have some say. tavis: what to make of the push back? >> it is hard to be objective because, our research is so thorough. we based this on a book, "game change." they worked very closely with us in preparation, making the film. we were very closely consulting with them. we trusted their research to get it right. our mantra was

>> well, steve schmidt managed the john mccain campaign, i'll manage that.of effort into georgia, because we felt like we had to win georgia. it was okay, we had a decisive win. i'm out here in mississippi and alabama, that's the next step. let me put the calculations, they change somewhat. the calculation is that -- put out by the romney campaign who has no ability to beat barack obama, david axelrod did it today laying out why he couldn't beat barack obama, mitt romney has used up his last half life and he's wiped out his support for the middle class. and independent voters. he's destroyed his ability to beat barack obama. more people showed up for barack obama than showed up for the republicans, that's because of the negative campaigning that's been going on. let me put this calculation on the table. the hurdle for newt gingrich or rick santorum to catch up with mitt romney is only equalled by the hurdle of mitt romney to arrive at the convention with the proper number of delegates. it is not in rick santorum's interest to drop out of this race. it's in h

. >> i think clearly the woody harrelson character steve schmidt was the source, the biggest source for could always tell that, because they have the best speeches, they get the last word, you know, but it doesn't always have to be that way but in television docudrama terms it was fairly balanced and fairly entertaining. >> what did you learn from this movie that you didn't know before? >> because i had read the book, there wasn't really that much, but i did get something just from the scenes of julianne moore acting, watching tina fey as sarah palin in weekend update and how much actual pain that must have caused to see yourself lampooned that well and that mercilessly. >> i was watching it perhaps from a slightly different angle because, you know, sarah palin i served with her as governor for the brief period of time that she was governor, and i didn't -- i was surprised both in the book, but especially it struck me in the movie at how uninformed she was and it just hadn't been made manifest, i'll say that, in the national governor's association meetings when she pardon. it just wasn'

also the must-read opinion pages and steve schmidt's take on woody harrelson as steve schmidt.ing? just wanted to check and make sure that we were on schedule. the first technology of its kind... mom and dad, i have great news. is now providing answers families need. siemens. answers. i care about my car because... i think it's a cool car. i think it's stylish and it makes a statement at the same time. and i've never had a car like that. people don't totally understand how the volt works. when the battery runs down the gas engine operates. i don't ever worry about running out of battery power... because it just switches over to my gas engine. i very rarely put gas in my chevy volt. i love my chevy volt and i've never loved a car. ♪ that is better than today. since 1894, ameriprise financial has been working hard for their clients' futures. never taking a bailout. helping generations achieve dreams. buy homes. put their kids through college. retire how they want to. ameriprise. the strength of america's largest financial planning company. the heart of 10,000 advisors working wit

. >> the real steve schmidt here. did that happen? >> we had a lot of discussions. i wasn't happy with the product. in the movie obviously you have a process that is ten weeks long that distilled down in 2 two hours. out of necessity, the time lines are rearranged but the true story of what happened. the question of the vetting, we got to the end of the process and senator mccain hadn't determined he wanted to pick. we have the realization we can't win with any of the candidates as displayed in the movie and extraordinarily difficult set of elections circumstances. we will be out stamped by $200 that president bush's approval rating was in the 30s. barack obama was speaking to crowds of hundreds of thousands there was a fur for for his candidacy on the part of the crowd and trying to figure out how to win. i am the person who said we should take a look at sarah palin from alaska. >> are you proud of that moment? >> that moment freezes and slows down in my brain. it has been a couple days at the jersey shore. i remember every aspect of the moment. the smell of long b

the guy who woody harrelson was playing was steve schmidt. the question is was this true to life?as on television this morning and they asked him about that. >> i think the notion of sarah palin being president of the united states is something that frightens, frankly and i played a part in that. we were fueled by ambition to win. >> they should never have picked her. and soon after they found our incredibly ignorant she was. now nicole walsh was part that have. is the movie right? let's ask her. >> how true to life? >> well, true enough to make me squirm, but you know, this is not a movie about campaign staff or mccain and palin. this is a movie about the vast gray area in which 99% of our politics actually take place. >> true to life, and it made her squirm. how true it was. and you know, reading the books on it, and we'll talk to one of the authors in a second, no question about it. and you know one of the things that they have emphasized in the movie she couldn't say senator biden. she kept saying senator owe biden. >> barack obama and senator owe biden, he said no to everythi

still with us, steve schmidt and new york times john harwood. john, in terms of the speech there from mr. romney, i've not been listening to his stump speech every day, but i've been listening closely enough to follow its evolution over time. is this what we should expect in terms of putting bane at the very, very center of what his appeal is for why he should be president? >> i think so. bane in the way that mitt romney wants to explain it is part of a step by step education process for him and what makes the american economy tick. i think it was significant, he had some new lines in here. some great republican plaz line. made fun of law professor and he had a whole rift about his vision for the country. plainly a general election speech. i think there's a reason for this because i think this win even though it was expected is a big deal. we found out that rick santorum simply is not capable of turning over the table in the way he needs to to stop mitt romney from getting this nomination. i think this primary race while mitt romney doesn't have

howard fineman, nbc news political analyst and editorial director of "the huffington post" and steve schmidt, served as a senior adviser to senator john mccain's presidential campaign. howard, what are you hearing from the campaigns tonight in the wake of this? >> well, i think the santorum campaign thinks that, at best, there's a semicolon, neither a period or exclamation point, there's another half of the sentence, and they think the next half of the sentence are some of the states chuck was talking about, louisiana and wisconsin, but also they had a long conference call today, earlier today, ed, that i was on in which the santorum people were lay bore yously going over the places rick santorum can end up winning more delegates than you might think because he's going to do well at the district, county, state conventions in states such as iowa, missouri, colorado, minnesota, states that had beauty pageant caucus and primary votes but where the real, hard, nitty gritty work of getting the delegates is only now happening. santorum were spending a lot of time on that earlier today because they

i kept thinking about steve schmidt's character. look at him there. can't think of a better performance by woody harrelson. it's just unbelievable what he's going through here. he's stuck with this candidate. >> yeah. >> it's a really profound moment for him. he advocated for her at the very beginning of the film. he's a person who believes that winning at all costs is necessary because the goal is to win. and he goes on this really profound journey where he comes to realize that, you know, in the game of presidential politics, winning isn't everything. and that you need to make responsible choices. and that, you know, the vice president needs to be able to govern as opposed to needs to be able to an individual who is going to help you win. and i think, you know, the arc of steve schmidt is really what drew jay roach and i to this story. it's a really poetic art. i don't know when i watched his "60 minutes" interview, seen somebody in politics so publicly regretful the way he was. there's a lot of poetry in that. >> so much to him. let me get back to

anyway, thank you, steve schmidt. remember buddy roemer, he's also in the race and he doesn't matter either. steve, great to have you on. i'm more impressed with you every time i watch that movie. i've seen it three times now, "game change." i'm going for the record. >>> coming up, newt gingrich failed to win either alabama or mississippi last night. so why's he still here? what does he plan to do? at least, what's his rationale for sticking around? we're going to hear him out one more time, what's his case? i don't think much of it, but we're going to hear it. you're watching "hardball," only on msnbc. looking good! you lost some weight. you noticed! these clothes are too big, so i'm donating them. how'd you do it? eating right, whole grain. [ female announcer ] people who choose more whole grain tend to weigh less than those who don't. multigrain cheerios... five whole grains, 110 calories. multigrain cheerios... but don't just listen to me. listen to these happy progressive customers. i plugged in snapshot, and 30 d

there is no question that nicole wallace and steve schmidt were enormously helpful to the authors ofme change," and it is reflected in the movie. >> i saw it twice. the first time i saw it, i felt sorry for her, beuse she was so clearly over her head and nobody seemed to want to know this before they picked her. in the last fifth of the movie, she turns into a bit of a monster. the second time i saw it, i was less symetic because she was so super wremely confident. >> charles? >> i have not seen it, but i know it is unfair. [laughter] it is a tautoly. >> i did not see it, but i appreciate the beat sweetener because it makes consultants lookok better than they were. >> greg smith, employee of goldman sachs, at an op-ed this week in "the new york times" about why he left goldman sachs. what did you think of it? >> i was glad to see somebodody younger quit for moral reasons as opposed to somebody on the way ou is a 33-year-old guy. i do not believe all the efforts to undermine him. i take him at hihis word that he thought that the pla was not what he had joined up to do. >> "i realized