i'm talking about like a vicious ad, like willie horton. what would make something like that backfire and has that happened in recent history? >> there certainly were examples of attack ads that have backfired. although i'm not sure i would put the willie horton ad in that category because george herbert walker bush actually won that particular race. but when you look at those types of ads that do backfire, they're often off in the sense of either they're not addressed at the issues that voters particularly care about. so they don't have kind of the sense of resonance that voters need in order to be influenced by the ad. or it could be using the wrong messenger for a particular message that you want to convey. so there are lots of ways that these ads can backfire. sometimes if there is a lot of media attention, kind of on one side of an ad, and basically people are condemning it as unfair, misleading, or outright deceptive, then sometimes candidates can experience a backlash from that particular ad. >> you spent some time overseas. so you h

you don't -- you don't get those willy hortons very often. so, we had that. and to just continue this story, we weren't going to use it because we had so much already and our candidate didn't -- was afraid of the blow-back of using this because we were talking about a murder. and we did have a lot of information already on this guy that we could use. two factors changed that. just so you guys know how these things go on and how they get on tv and it's not just some kind of willy nilly process. two factors changed that. number one, our candidate was and still is the only -- is the only state-wise democrat left in mississippi, okay? and this election year we were going through a lot of change. republicans were mounting an incredible campaign to take -- to take both houses. we were worried about that, because we didn't understand what the impact on our race was going to be, even though our guy, the incumbent, was very popular. most times with a popular incumbent, you don't have to do this negative advertising. you can just run on your record. we were worried abo

happened in her own husband's campaign back when they accused michael dukakis and we had the whole willy horton thing. i think what she's talking about in a primary, this is one party just, you know, the candidates going out there and tearing down one another day after day after day. >> probably to the benefit of barack obama. >> and in that sense i think she's probably right about that. >> endorsements. she is doing robo calls for mitt romney talking about what a great first lady ms. romney would make. eric cantor endorsed romney last night. the first of the leading conservatives. what difference does that make at this stage in this race? >> you know, i have never thought that endorsements make all that much difference. i think it's a nice thing to do for a candidate. it's nice to put out a press release and all of that. i'm not sure that those kind of things make that much difference, but it is interesting. you are seeing some of these sort of names in the party now endorsing mitt romney. i think they're reading polls that say right now romney is probably the strongest candidate, but what's p

you don't get those willie hortons very often. to continue the story, we were not going to use it. we had so much already, and our candidate was afraid of the blowback of using this. we were talking about a murder, and we had information on this guy two factors changed that. just so you guys know how these things go on and know that it is not a willy-nilly process. our candidate was and still is the only statewide democrat left in mississippi, ok? this election year, we were going through a lot of change. republicans were mounting and a credible campaign to take both houses. we were worried, because we did not understand what impact on our race was going to be, even though our guide was a very popular. you can just run on your record. we were worried about that. that was one thing, and we had considered that. two weeks out from the election, we got a call from a newspaper reporter asking us to respond to this incredibly outlandish charge against our candidate about misappropriating, spending money that no basis in fact to it. i remember sitting in that campaign meeting and talking