here. the people have begun to make up their mind about next year. this is not early in the campaign. this is a pretty mature part of the 2012 electoral decision making going on right now. people are getting committed one side or the other and probably against the president in many cases. and that decision, the only thing that delayed that, joe, was the iranian hostage crisis and mika knows that too, in the sense there was a national unity that took over for several months there that killed the kennedy campaign and gave carter an opportunity to reengage as our national leader. he didn't really take advantage of it. he went to the rose garden and didn't engage in the campaign effectively or combatively. but really it began then. and i think we're in that period now of decision making. and i think the country has three things they're going to look at. conditions, which work against the president. values which can go both ways. and tone, which i think also works against the president. if you're really angry right now, if you're cranky even,