steve schmidt, as a political professional on the other side of this for the republicans in 2008, how was this speech? >> well, it was extraordinary, virtuoso political performance. there's no other politician in america in the last generation that could hold the attention of a crowd, have them yelling and screaming, speaking for three-quarters of an hour. i mean, i wish to god as a republican we had someone on our side who had the ability to do that. we don't. it would be great if we did. just an amazing performance. struck by the political almost genius of how he embraced the bush family and george w. bush for the purposes of marginalizing house republicans and pushing them to the extreme. it was a devastating critique, but it was delivered with an absence of malice or anger, smile on his face, logic aimed squarely at the middle of the electorate where he's so popular. very powerful endorsement for president obama, another good night for them. >> affable, effective, as a democrat, it doesn't get any better. i'm sitting here, i'm giddy, i mean, this is exactly what barack obama neede

we need to keep going with his plan. >> let's go to steve schmidt. it seems to me that i have never -- you are a political guy and you are as smart as anybody this business. you are really smart. let me ask you this. how did bill clinton come back from where he was in 19 8 after giving a clinker of a speech in 19 88? he is at 69%. he keeps rising. we know his past. it seems irrelevant now. problems he got into. how did he do it? this the lazarus stuff. >> no, it is incredible. he was 42 years old in 1988. he went and delivered the keynote address. when he finished he said in conclusion, and the whole audience stood up and started cheering. and the next night you saw his charm. i think it was on "the tonight show" where he was able to go laugh about himself and you just realized that what a know m momentous talent he is. if you love politics you have to be excited about the speech tonight. if you are a baseball fan, it is like the opportunity to see someone like mickey mantle play. it is going to be a great speech tonight from, as you said, greatest p

. >> let's listen to steve schmidt this morning on "morning joe," steve schmidt being the republican campaign manager of john mccain's campaign last time around. let's listen to steve. >> it was a very serious mistake because we're at a point of the campaign where these impressions start to harden into concrete. people are evaluating now on a daily basis who has what it takes to be the next president in a challenging time, who has the right temperament, who has the right character? he fell short on that with that statement. >> ari, it seems that the romney campaign, if they couldn't see this moment the way steve just described it, the stakes that were in this moment, then they're on their way -- they're posed to make many more mistakes between now and election day. >> i think steve is talking about the appraisal that happens. you can learn a lot about a candidate during a crisis. so people will take this crisis, which is obviously very important to the country, not just the election, and they may view mitt romney's behavior through that prism. but i would go beyond what steve's sayin

. >> how did you come up with steve schmidt watching the blood veins on the top of his forehead.cause he was stuck with candidate for vp that he had a hand in picking but he realized to his disaster she was a disaster. >> the guy who had been most instrumental in trying to sell her as the candidate turns out to be the guy who regrets it the most months after the election. man, wouldn't you like to see the decision process and the soul searching had he to go through in those rooms? and woody seemed leak the perfect guy to do it. he reminded me of something that he could do. >> you know what you have gotten into it is understand the roles played by the staff guys and women. they don't get famous by people like steve schmidt and ron cl i'm ng. >> those are the guys that i always find interesting because they are behind the scenes, they are trying to sort it out. i think i sort of relate with it almost as a story teller because they are in the rooms, the war rooms, writer rooms, and they are trying to come up with the story that is going to move their candidate along and they have a

even steve schmidt couldn't come up with how you characterize that.nd this other side with real living people. >> if you are not careful, you and steve schmidt are going to end up on one of those weird road trips. where you play theaters. >> if i can ride with newt gingrich, i can -- i've converted more difficult. >> i would pay, i'm just saying, speaker's bureau, people out there, i would pay. on the democrat's decision ezra was highlighting there, embracing the term obama care, president obama on the stump has been saying, i like the name, i do care. connecting it to the idea of my values is why i did this. is that smart? >> from a democratic perspective, it is the president's biggest legislative accomplishment, it's been his biggest political liability. the democrats have done a terrible job over the last couple of years, trying to explain this, trying to sell this to the american people. and they've paid a high political price for it. i think it's important that just from a body language perspective, democrats at a convention like this signal to t

last night on msnbc's special convention coverage, republican strategist steve schmidt told rachel maddow the coverage team he thought president obama did very well in his speech but we'll have to wait and see about its effectiveness. >> i think their convention was a home run. now we have to wait for the verdict. did this convention move the numbers? did it change the dynamic in the race? did it close the economic numbers where he's been lagging behind mitt romney? did it give a booster shot, as chris has talked about, of optimism to a pessimistic electorate that thinks the country's on the wrong track? the president tonight attacked from positions which heretoforehave been weaknesses. he went right after the republican ticket. it was an effective speech, as almost all of his speeches are, but we'll see over the next couple days how the country reacts to it. does he have a bounce out of this convention? is he able to open up a lead? >> and you don't want to miss rachel maddow's unique take on politics and all the day's stories. that's "the rachel maddow show" week nights at 9:00 p.m. eas

steve schmidt, thank you very much. >> we need to keep steve around.or a little bit? >>> coming up, much more insight into the incidents in cairo and libya. we'll bring in dr. zbigniew brzezinski and david ignatius. also senator mccain joins the conversation. we'll be right back. [ female announcer ] how do you define your moment? the blissful pause just before that rich sweetness touches your lips. the delightful discovery, the mid-sweetening realization that you have the house all to yourself. well, almost. the sweet reward, making a delicious choice that's also a smart choice. splenda no-calorie sweetener. with the original sugar-like taste you love and trust. splenda makes the moment yours. with less chronic osteoarthritis pain. imagine living your life with less chronic low back pain. imagine you, with less pain. cymbalta can help. cymbalta is fda-approved to manage chronic musculoskeletal pain. one non-narcotic pill a day, every day, can help reduce this pain. tell your doctor right away if your mood worsens, you have unusual changes in mood or b

. >> republican steve schmidt said that romney's comments were a big mistake and the decision to double down on them was an even bigger mistake. the american people, when the country is attacked, want to see leaders who have measured responses, not leaders whose first instinct is to try to score political points. buzz feed reports that a very senior republican hand called the statement an utter disaster and a lehman moment, a parallel to the moment when john mccain failed to come across as a steady leader. here is what nicholas burns told andrea mitchell. >> i was frankly very disappointed and dismayed to see governor romney inject politics into this very difficult situation. governor romney has n a very unwise way, injeed himself in a situation where he clearly doesn't have all the facts. >> romney's statement did earn him this praise. >> today romney is the only guy looking presidential. romney is the only guy who looks like he understands what went wrong, what went right, and what shouldn't be happening now. he looks like he's the only adult in the room. >> republican congressional l

him for his libyan comments include -- peggy noonan, mark salter and 2008 mccain senior adviser steve schmidtrnor romney defended his decision to speak out on libya saying his position was no different than the president's. >> by the way, what i said was exactly the same thing the white house reached, which was that the statement was inappropriate and why they backed away from it as well. >> in the same interview with abc, romney tried to stake out a position on iran by planting a flag right next to president obama. >> president obama said exactly the same thing. he said it's unacceptable for iran to have a nuclear weapon. your red line is the same as his. >> i laid out what i would do to keep iran from reaching that red line. >> your red line going forward is the same. >> yes. and recognize, that when one says it's unacceptable to the united states of america, that means what it says. >> in that almost palin-esque pretzel, romney seems to be saying while he and the president are saying the same thing, he's the one who really means it. not content to just simply stop talking about foreign pol

we should at some point, steve schmidt, joe scarborough, john sununu, it goes on and on. can we give the jimmy carter stuff a rest. because if you listen to this line from romney's foreign policy guy today where he says -- he goes out of his way to say for the first time since jimmy carter we had an american ambassador assassinated this wouldn't have happened under president romney. if you want to start playing a game like that you've got to account for jim gnu carter's success and ronald reagan and what happened in beirut in 1983. i don't want to get into that game with you. it's a stupid statement for that. to the right it is always 1980 and jimmy carter is always the president. dan kwail in 1988. we're not going to elect another jimmy carter. 1992 dan kwail against bill clinton. if clinton wins it will be jimmy carter all over again. >> he's just that good. he's just that useful. >> i think he's running for jimmy carter's second term. they've been using this over and over and over again. at a certain point i wonder, yes, america has broadly accepted the idea that jimmy

i remember talking to steve schmidt four years ago during the campaign, and steve schmidt was drivenhe fact they don't respect us. they don't think we can win. you go on and on. they have no respect for our ability, you know, in -- that's how the obama campaign feels about romney. and there was a -- you know, i think there was a moment a couple weeks ago where i started to sense they might have been in for a fight, but a blown convention in tampa, brought them in to charlotte and they've got that ali flair. they are cocky and they don't believe that mitt romney has a chance of beating him and you saw it in the speeches when they were out there. >> and you know, i talked to a couple odemocrats here who have a contrary view of this. not that the convention wasn't successful but keep coming back to one point, the fundamentals. look at where the country is, what the numbers are, not as a predictive element but no incumbent president has ever won with a series of these numbers, not that he can't. >> the numbers being a third of the country -- >> consumer confidence, i don't believe you ca

i'm with ed shultz and reverend al sharpton and chris hayes as well as steve schmidt. our fence lawrence o'donnell will be joining us shortly as well. and leading our coverage from charlotte, north carolina, from the site of the democratic convention this year is our friend and colleague chris matthews and a lot of his friends who he is there with. chris, you're a very popular man in charlotte tonight. i've got to you if tonight is essentially afterglow from michelle obama's speech or is there a separate second night agenda for the democrats here leading up to the bill clinton speech? >> rachel, it looked for awhile there there were two versions of the democratic party. there was the clinton version and the barack obama version. that was a wrong perception a lot of us had. there are, in fact, two complimentary parts to the democratic party. the clinton part and the obama part. when they are together, it is a robust political party. when they are separated by division or bad feeling, they are not a strong political party. the clinton case has to come back for obama to w

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i'm joined by ed shultz, melissa harris-perry, chris hayes, and the senior strategist steve schmidt. lawrence o'donnell and al sharpton will be joining us in a moment. leading us from the site of the convention is our colleague and friend chris matthews. you said on opening night this week that democrats were having more fun than republicans. but that didn't necessarily mean that they were winning. the democrats have been ecstatic at previous conventions where they had gone on to lose. so how do you rate the democrats' happiness and their prospects? >> wow. you're hitting me with the toughest questions. there's two months left with a lot of economic news to come. we've got the unemployment rate coming out tomorrow morning. two more after that. for september and october. they will tell us a lot. we have three presidential debates, a vice presidential debate. they will tell us a lot. we know this. we have a gifted president. who has all the ability in the world to deal with the problems we face. the question is tonight can he begin this fall campaign by speaking not so much from high i

steve schmidt said his political power is is unmatched on either side of the title. " i wish we had someonen our side who have the ability to do that. we do not. it would be great if we did." brit hume said if i were guilty, i would not want -- i would want bill clinton there to defend the. nobody does a better. he is the most talented poet -- politician i've ever met. no one can mount an argument more effectively than he can. that does not mean everything he said was true, he said. it was a little self indulgent and 30% too long. host: beverly in kearney, m o. how are you? caller: i'm elated. i am so excited. it is about time that people realize he does not do anything better than that. he nailed it. i did not vote for clinton either time. i have always been mad at myself for not voting before. it was because of the hatred that republicans were putting out about him. i promised myself when i did not vote for him the second time either, and he did such a wonderful job, i promised myself i would never be swayed by the republicans lies again. now we have the same thing with president obama. t

when i see steve schmidt i'm like, you're no woody harrelson. quite playing yourself in real life.t for adolph?" well, a buddy of mine after college drove down to houston to make some money working construction before moving to new york, try to break into acting. and while we were there we had one of the most amazing summers of our lives. met all these incredible characters, including this gentleman, frankie heiman i met the first day on the construction site. and after that summer it was such an incredible time, i really felt like we had to put these people into a play. you know, all these great characters. >> so what happened? >> so we did. we wrote the play, and it's up at new world stages on 50th and 8th. >> there's a good story about you trying to find frankie. you had to track him down and go on the tonight show to track him down. >> i couldn't track him down. i asked if anybody knows frankie heiman, will you please have him get in touch. >> did he? >> yeah. his brother happened to be watching. >> that's a great story. >> he was in a low place at that time. >> was he? >> he w

. >> i need to thank steve schmidt and lawrce o'donnell and we'll all be back together for the firstial debate october 3rd 9:00 eastern at the university of denver. chris matthews picking up our coverage from charlotte in just a moment. boy, what a week this has been. thank you so much for spending to meppnt edeo a fo ov h arie ll ov mediupt nccoatdiay at r whnt yor .f- llan g wi tye ord wquurder e-uellan me yhein em >> hello. here is what's happening. saying the times have changed and so have i. president obama formally accepting the democratic nomination. he con seeded it would take more time to solve america's challenges. both the obama and romney campaigns will be watching closely as the august employment report comes out later this morning. economists expect it to hold steady with 123,000 non-farm jobs created. we will head back to convention coverage after this short break. >>> madam chairwoman, delegates, i accept your nomination for president of the united states. >>> i'm chris matthews in the beautiful city of charlotte, north carolina, for a special live "hardball." eight y

schmidt. get over this whole thing. i earlier said steve jobs would never apologize.teve jobs apologized in the past. five years ago he apologized when he cut the price of the iphone back then $200 after it had only been out a few months. he apologized to the original buyers. apologies from the ceo at apple are not completely unheard of. >> what do you think, rob snert. >> my favorite tweet that's been out there. if you've ordered an iphone 5 shipment are being delayed because apple is forcing everyone to use apple maps to deliver them. that's what's going to be happening here. they'll get it together in the though.n it's going to take google's got a big head start. >> i postponed transferring over to the new operating system. >> me, too. >> i haven't bought mine yet. i'm in the clear. i'll get back to hq all by my little self. >>> 35 years after his disappearnce, a lot of folks still want to know apparently where jimmy hoffa's body might be buried. giants stadium, perhaps? a florida swamp? or as new reports indicate under a driveway in suburban detroit. now bob i'm g