i think stuart stevens is still important. i think his star has somewhat eclipsed and i think other people, former republican national chairman, longtime operative nick gillespie, and told his star is rising. and he has taken a more conventional it's us versus the other guy choice election. >> to finish on the debate questions. one, what will the president did differently and how will romney prepare for a different obama and tonight we have the vice presidential debate so let's talk about the presidential debate first in what would you expect to see obama do differently next time and how would romney beat repair to do with that essentially? >> i think obama will need to show up. the debate is the week from today. it's a different format which makes his job frankly tougher because he is not going to be the moderator, the candidate. this is a town hall meeting. it's going to be moderated by candy crowley of cnn. there are going to be undecided voters had who have been chosen by gallup who are going to be there. it sent hosej hos

nine eleven within the republican party the there are divided and there was a bitter dispute and stuart stevens with a romney adviser was sort of on the losing end of it he wanted to stick with the economy as the main attack line but others seem to believe this has a chance. if their plans fail and president obama is reelected do you think that they will use this libya gate as the canard for impeachment as an excuse for impeachment well it depends obviously who controls congress i mean it looks like the republicans will probably still control the house i right now i don't see any evidence that they've turned up there what is the evidence there's no solid piece of intelligence that has come up so it's impossible to really discuss it intelligently ok craig unger thank you so much for being with us thanks for having me. coming up you know staples your friendly neighborhood office supply store that wants to make your life easier well its business model is actually making your life harder because it represents the cancer stage of capitalism i'll explain why and i still take. some. if you see a story

i think stuart stevens is still important. i think his star is somewhat eclipsed and i think other people feel the republican national chairman long-time operative in this town named ed gillespie and i'm told his star is rising and he has taken a more conventional us versus the other guy choice election. >> to the final debate questions. one what will the president do differently and how will romney prepare for a different apartment tonight we have the vice presidential debate so let's talk about the presidential debate first. what would you expect to see obama do differently next time and how would romney be prepared to deal with that? >> i think that the precedence going to show up at the next debate and the 16th is a week from today. it's a different format which makes his job frankly tougher because it's not going to be the moderator and a candidate. this is a town hall meeting. it will be moderated by candy crowley of cnn. they are going to be undecided voters have been chosen i think by gallup who are going to be there a

i think stuart stevens is exactly right. americans don't care as much in the polls about foreign policy. but several weeks later after this, i think it's very legitimate now that the press is going in and a couple of weeks have passed since the ambassador's death, now, yes. i mean, he's got a responsibility to talk about how badly the white house bungled this. >> i think he does. and indeed, you know, i think right now, the focus is a little misplaced. the notion that -- i think the white house is pretty credible in saying that they're learning more, that their initial instiblgt -- they didn't know the situation was initially, that they've explained it better as they've done intelligence assessments, but it raises the more fundamental question which is why was the consulate not secure? how was it that security issues, as opposed to their stories afterward, these are american lives at stake in an unstable region, what are the intelligence failures? what were the security failures? those are fundamental questions. >> there wer

watched mitt romney over the years, and he has steadily improved, and, you know, people like stuart stevenstook a lot of heat over the last couple months about the campaign, but those -- i have worked with stuart before in many campaigns, and he's a debate preparation fanatic, and they understood that this would be an opportunity to shift the gears, to reframe the race, and one guy showed up and one guy prepared, and it showed. it really did. you know, a lot of people were saying it's the best since reagan. reagan had some natural gifts and was an affable guy. i think in terms of preparation, this may be one of the best presidential debate performances ever. >> i agree. in a totally amoral, apolitical sense, i agree with you. steve, what do you think happened to obama? >> i think he prepared and showed up for a news conference, not a debate. he answered the questions -- >> but there weren't any questions. lehrer didn't see it as his role -- >> we can talk about lehrer separately. i think what they were trying to accomplish is their view was the mitt romney campaign wasn't going very well, m

have a conversation with stuart stevens and then a conversation with mike leavitt. it is just two different worlds. i honestly believe it would not be that the similar period a very different conversation that the one you would have with jack lew it or whoever is thinking through what obama would do in november/december of this year and for six months of next year. i do not think it is impossible. i think maybe it is just the way we will conduct ourselves, which is pick extremely quickly after election day. i do not buy the argument the partisanship is so bad. that will be an unusual situation, what we have not had in a long time. in any case, i think -- it is not going to be a lot of clues about this over the next five weeks, i do not think. >> which is unfortunate. >> congressman gordon. >> the partnership -- partisanship is very bad and will take leadership to get through that. going back to the ambassador's comments about how their romney would govern. i completely agree with the deal making aspect of working with congress. we saw that as governor of massachuset

a lot of you do not know who stuart stevens is. he is a republican strategist from mississippi. he was a hollywood writer. he used to write "northern exposure." he has written a couple of books on eating in restaurants in europe. he took steroids at one point tuesday the affect it would have on his ability to do extreme sports. he has done in turn cycling. he is an interesting guy. he was first among equals in the romney campaign for a long time. espouse his theory that this is anna election on the economy. all we have to do is be the other guy. there was frustration in the campaign post-nomination as a seemed not to work as well. romney fell further behind. with all due respect for mike, the family into riches story -- intervention story is oversold. there has been a change. stevens is still important. his star is being eclipsed. ed gillespie's star is rising. he is taking a more conventional route of a choice election. >> what will the president do differently? how will romney prepare for a different obama? tonight, we have the vice presidential debate. what would you expect t

stuart v. o riley and steven colbert. "way too early" coming right back. [ woman ] ring. ring. progresso.r new light chicken pot pie soup and it's so rich and creamy... is it really 100 calories? let me put you on webcan... ...lean roasted chicken... and a creamy broth mmm i can still see you. >>> 20 years ago, i became the luckiest man on earth because michelle obama agreed to marry me. i just want to wish, sweetie, you happy anniversary. a year from now, we will not be celebrating it in front of all these people. >> congratulations to you on your anniversary. i'm sure this is the most romantic place you can imagine being, here with me. >> taking the stage torgt for the first time in the campaign. early projections say 60 million americans tuned in to watch the first of three presidential debates. tell your friends the most watched presidential debate of all time came when 97 million people tuned in to watch the debate between george h.w. bush and bill clinton. the second debate between clinton and bob dole in 1996 with 36.3 million viewers. as president obama and mitt romney went head-t

if you have a conversation with stuart stevens, then how they conversation with mike leavitt, to do for. obama's more complicated and i don't have that many private conversations at the top people, but that would not be that the slum under. it's a very different conversation than one you would have a chocolate or whoever is really thinking through what obama would actually do in november, december of this year and in the first six months of next year. so i don't think it's impossible. i think that maybe we have to conduct ourselves, to get about the business of governing. i don't buy the argument that partisanship is so bad you couldn't get democratic votes for republican budget or vice versa. i think there will be a certain momentum to do with programs at the reelected president or newly elected president, given the absence of third-party candidates that will be an unusual situation where we haven't had a longtime, the certain kind of mandate. but in any case, it's not going to be -- were not going to get a lot of clues about this over the next five weeks i don't think. >> which is unf

you have a conversation with stuart stevens and running around campaign and then have a conversation with mike was running the romney transition team is two different world. obama is omar khadr get and that of many private conversations with his people but i also believe he's not that dissimilar. it's a very different conversation than the one you have with jack lew or whoever is fully thinking through what obama would actually do in november, december of this year, and then the first six months of next year. so i don't think it's impossible. i think maybe it's just the way we're going to have to conduct ourselves, pivot extremely quickly after election day and get about the business of governing. i don't buy the argument that the partisanship is so bad that you can get democratic votes for republican budget or vice versa. i think there'll be a certain momentum to do with these programs where the reelected the president for elect a new president. so that will be an unusual situation, when we haven't had a long time, that degree of certainty and mandate i think. but in any case, i thi

. >> mark, we have been talking about how stuart stevens and mitt romney got together and decided theybe really specific about the next four years, but the press hasn't been focusing as much on the white house's decision to really say next to nothing about what they're going to do over the next four years. who made that decision? when did they make that decision? when you write "game change," what's the key moment where they said, listen, we're not going to get really specific about the next four years? >> i think after the bungts deal fell apart, the grand bargain with john boehner and they decided to spend the last year drawing contrast with the other party. my criticism of the president in the debate and the reason i didn't give him a higher grade is because he wasn't specific and dealing with people in the president's campaign who criticized the relatively low grade for a guy who won, i said name what he said that was specific. in the debate, he said, i need another term to keep doing what i did in the first term. and a lot of americans think the first term was not perfect, to say