Im lee dunn. Behind all the brilliant youtube ads launched this cycle behind most of the creative debate and the best staged town hall theres a Brilliant Campaign manager. Today we get to hear from the Campaign Managers. At google and youtube are proud to partner with National Review to bring a program to inform all americans about the elections process and this promises to be an unpredictable and exciting 2016 cycle. Americans are hungry to know more about the candidates, elections the Campaign Managers. We have seen a 60 increase in elections searches since the 2008 cycle. Over 400 hours of video or uploaded to youtube every minute every day. We are proud to do our part by livestreaming this event with National Review on their channel so i hope you will go back and watch it again but we are most proud that all americans that want to participate even if you are not living here in town. Now i want to turn it over to our host a National Editor for National Review, rich lowry. Thank you. Thanks guys, thanks for being here. [applause] thank you to google and youtube for cosponsoring this. I like to say that my logistical suggestion is that we would do all these interviews in keeping with googles decorum and eating bag chairs separated by foosball tables. I just want to thank all of the Campaign Managers for taking the time to come out here. They are actually in the arena. There is nothing easier than being on the outside and criticizing people for all the things they are supposedly doing wrong which is what i and john do for a career but i have never run a campaign. I have never run for office. I have never had to deal with the press corps every day the way you guys do although i may have gotten a hint of what its like because they weeks ago my wife and i had our first baby, a beautiful little girl. [applause] and thats a little bit like dealing with the press corps. Shes insatiable and requires Constant Care and feeding. And a few displeased her she will whine and cry shamelessly so this might feel familiar. John brabender is achieved or Rick Santorum. Let me start out with what seems to be one of the Big Questions confronting your campaign as well as some others. It seems from the early indications that people arent interested in traditional political experience. They arent interested in anyone who has been around the block a few times and your candidate was in the senate for a while but left in 2006 and is run for president once before and has been around for a while now. How do you make him fresh and new or is that even necessary . Let me start by doing two things just so we are clear. Im not a Campaign Manager. Her campaign doesnt have a Campaign Manager by design. Rick and juno ran for president 2012. We basically did not have a Campaign Manager. We have position campaigns differently because we feel like this isnt the 1960s anymore and number two im the lead strategist of the campaign and im a Media Consultant and what i find enjoyable because i do a lot of press for the senator going on the air is they asked the same questions that i was asked four years ago where they say you have a candidate who lost his last race by 18 points. I hadnt brought that up yet. While im there. Hes running last and i will tell you last time a two weeks to go before iowa he was in last place and won the pole in iowa. The only reason that was notable was because he was behind John Huntsman too pulled out of iowa and even said im pulling out because in iowa all they do is think two weeks later Rick Santorum and supporting iowa and to refresh everyones memory he won 11 out of 30 states and tied to others as far as delegates. Probably the belief was if he would have won michigan out right a lot of people believe romney would have gotten out of the race to us understanding the understanding the fluidity of these types of races understanding, you look at the cnn poll yesterday scott walkers under 1 . I remember having questions three months ago when people asked me how are you going to stop scott walker . If you go back four years ago in the league was herman cain, Michele Bachmann. Romney was there, gingrich was there. A lot of people and perry and most of them didnt get past iowa. You really have to take a look and understand the way these races are. The first thing you have to understand as there is not one primary right now are not one caucus. There are many. Different people are running against different people. Shannon form is probably running against huckabee to some degree and maybe cruz is running against Chris Christie. Nobodys going to win this race by getting 50 and states. They will win by getting a lot of 15 and 18 so you start running a race that way and it looks different. Ive been involved in last four president ial races. I was with Rudy Giuliani and i can tell you is the strangest experience of my life because we would sit in our war room and see all these places were rudy was up by 15 points and nationally up by 15 points yet we knew he was going to have a lot of trouble because he wouldnt be conservative enough for republican primary voters. Everybody has to take a deep breath and understand this is unlike any other election. Its like those races on steroids. John mccain probably came this close to getting out of the race when he ends up winning the nomination. I feel like im answering a lot of the same questions. We run our race. We dont do it on money. Theres an interesting statistic last time in iowa Rick Santorum spent 22 per caucus vote. Parise spent 768 dollars per caucus votes so the other benchmark but i keep noticing everybodys trying to use his money raised in money raised doesnt mean that much anymore because trust me when people walk out and vote on primary days pay a rarely basing it on ads. At least they arent winner 20 candidates are 16 candidates. When you get down to one or two they matter a lot more. Let me press you on my initial question. Do you reject the analysis that pretty much everyone has bought into that carly carson and trump collectively being above 50 says people want outsiders. Are you reading that more as an artifact of temporary polling that you have seen before and saw last time . First of all i do think there are some exceptions this time. Every place i go people say are you kidding me donald trump, are you serious in the truth of the matter is that i will be the first to say i went on cnn three weeks ago and said after the first debate Donald Trumps 15 minutes of fame will be gone. I was dead wrong in the reason is i didnt misunderstand donald trump. I misunderstood the people were supporting trump. I think a lot of those people probably supported ron paul last time. We see where the more outrageous the behavior of trump he seems to solidify his base even more and all that to them as evidence that he is not going to be like everyone also rules go out the window when that starts happening. Number one i do think there is this deep desire to be antiwashington absolutely without a doubt. Second of all you have to factor into that in the early stages thats all they know about some of these candidates is their antiwashington. Herman cain was an outside washington candidate who went to the top is it that. People can tell you very little about herman cain and over time it was proven that he shouldnt be president. Im telling you that thats necessarily going to be proven about carly or trump. If you look at the difference between last time and this time he mentioned some candidates are running in specific other candidates rather than the rest of the field. He mentioned Mike Huckabee. Correct me if im wrong. It was put then person a category and put ted cruz in that category and maybe there are couple im missing but doesnt that make for a much more crowded and competitive playing ground in iowa . Absolutely and a much more credible field than we had last time. We felt we could be the conservative alternative because we felt the other candidates would not be all that conservative. This time i like to say there are about 16 people running and none of them are probably the frontrunner. And thats my argument with the rnc about limiting these debates i think this might be the greatest field of any party putting something together running for president in history. Its a remarkable field and i think you are seeing that somebody like scott walkers struggling who in my opinion is a very credible candidate. I think they are all well behind in some sense. Is the vast majority of the candidates now. I think in some sense they are all long shots. There was a suggestion from the that there wont be a an undercard debate instead there will be interviews and you can read beneath the surface. It sounds like an attempt to rush people off the stage and out of the debate. Do you think that interpretation is correct and if so what would you do to push back against the . I saw the comments and i think thats how a lot of people interpreted it. Its a huge stake at this point to say okay we have had two debates and everything has been settled. My client Rick Santorum was in 23 debates. 23 is probably too many. We would have to push the person that 2 is not. Case in point is carly fiorina. What if they would have decided that at first that there would not be an undercard. Carly fiorina would have never made it into the second debates i think at this stage theres nothing advantageous for anybody to do that. Obviously the 11 on the stage this time around are too many. I agree. I think they should done a tour seven and it should have been random because frankly i think you want a combination of people. The first debate was well covered. Ill take Lindsey Graham. They would have done just as well in that second debate. Theres no doubt in my mind. Santorum sat for 23 debates and did great last time. Right now to use some of those as a factor to say somebody at 3 is in and somebody at 2 isnt they are statistically tied in the second of all no sense as a party. This president ial primary is not about a winner. Its like threedimensional chess. Who is then and who is out will greatly change the field. Donald trump even if hes not the nominee is greatly change the selection and will change this election. You could take somebody out who you say shouldnt be there but you youre giving someone an advantage by doing that and it doesnt make since when you are talking about people who are twoterm governors people who have won the iowa. It just seems absurd to me. Is rick basically back to what he did last time just pounding the ground in iowa visiting pizza ranch after pizza ranch . He was the first one to visit every county. First of all right now im doing the governors race in virginia and im in louisiana doing a number of government and senate races. Everyone of those races is different. Every campaign has to be run different so santorum you have to remember hasnt been an elected official so is not an elected official that can raise money. He doesnt have a tv show like trump or Mike Huckabee did. His last name is not push so he has to deal with that, that he is not going to ever have money like that. On the other hand in a republican primary the most conservative cms addressing conservative and if you go into the evangelical community Homeschool Community groups like that give a lot of trust a lot of trust and thats how ended up winning iowa last time. He ended up winning in iowa. On caucus night that eventually. Let me hit you with two lightning round style questions at the end that i hope to ask everyone. What is the one moment, the one move from another campaigner candidates so far that has made you think wow thats good and i wish i would have thought of that. And two what is the most endearing quality of Rick Santorum that all of us on the outside may not be privy to but you are . First of all trump signing the pledge as a thirdparty. I believe two weeks ago there was a shift in the Trump Campaign if you watch it carefully. For the first time they started to believe they could win and they have tried to become more credible. I thought in the debate he tried to be more careful in how he chose his words and i think he understands he has popularity but he has to prove he can be the standardbearer and represent the party. Do you think he can win . Before i would have said no but i will tell you the oddity of what im seeing out there is incredible. I am seeing trumps popularity so i think lets put it this way i never thought herman cain was ultimately possible to be the nominee because i thought it problems and i never thought gingrich would be the nominee. I think there are there are scenarios with this many candidates in the race that trump has ownership of something. Think about Chris Christie was supposed to be the plain talking one. Trump stole that from him. Trump has stolen something from almost every candidate that is hurt them and help themselves. I dont know how you can rule them out at this time. We have 20 seconds the most endearing quality of Rick Santorum that the rest of us arent aware of . My opinion is he doesnt change my act as a Media Consultant. We did add against Romney Wright had a romney lookalike chasing santorum with what looked like an automatic weapon shooting mud at him. I thought when santorum site he would think i was crazy. He said i want to change the type. John, thank you so much. Thank you, appreciate it. [applause] chip, welcome. Chip englander of the rand paul campaign. I will start with the version of the same question i asked john which is there seems to be this emphasis on candidates who are new and different that dont represent politics as usual and i think a year ago or so a lot of people were saying who does that describe who is very likely to be candidate. That doesnt seem to have applied to him yet. Theres no question that there is a tremendous hunger out there. They are sick of the system and they want to shake things up and i think thats something that ultimately does play to the senators senators credit. As you mentioned a year ago that was something that was strongly associated with him. John talked about quite a bit its a fluid race. Things go up and things go down. You might have seen the news breaking about Governor Walker getting out of the race tonight. And this was a guy who a couple of months ago was in first place. Its an incredibly fluid race. Four years ago in august in first place Michele Bachmann was in first and rick perry was in first and october herman came as as an version and Newt Gingrich and none of those folks finished in the top two in iowa and New Hampshire and nevada. Four years before that you had to write how huckabee and mccain were in Single Digits and four years before that you had howard dean up by double digits and in iowa loses by 20. This is how the things go and thats what makes it fun. Another fact year people will raise with you guys and thats shaping the environment and away thats perhaps been difficult to deal with. The heading of james foley the beheading of james foley the Public Opinion changes in a more hawkish direction certainly among republicans and a lot of people think that has made it harder going for rand than they would have thought. If there is a shift in public sentiment and has made it tougher for the campaign . Rand follows the Ronald Reagan policy said he believes america should have the greatest military in the world and shouldnt be afraid to protect american interests but that doesnt mean we should i4 intervention for the sake of intervention. He did oppose unnecessary interventions in libya and he opposed the arming of isis allies in syria. The reality is isis fights us with western arms and we have to be very careful of our foreignpolicy approach to keep america safe. Did you feel that shift in Public Opinion and you think thats a real thing . I certainly would want to talk the the politicization of beheadings. Everybody is concerned about National Security as rand is. Its not that the beheading itself is politicized but after people worse apply a saw that are more appalled by that if you look at the numbers for Ground Troops and theory to fight isis. Some polls you have seen a majority support for that i believe what seems to be an issue environment that is different immediately after the end of the bush years when there was a reaction on the right. We were involved too much in the interventions didnt work out. Rand thinks we need to have boots on the ground. Thats the area that it most impacts and we dont want to send our young men and women to go and die and the reality is that is where a lot of the americans are an republican foreignpolicy has been historically. I hate to do this but lets talk a little bit more about trump. A few weeks ago rand began to go after him hammer and tongs and the result is that seemed not to be evident. Certainly didnt seem to help rand. What was the thinking behind that tactic . Are you guys going to keep it up Going Forward . What is your thought on that . 538 did the noses of the coverage out there and they found that trump was getting more coverage than all the other candidates combined so thats an extraordinary share of voice in the race. If you are not engaging trump then you risk completely falling out of the conversation and if hes going to be the frontrunner than when he could have a conversation about what that means is a party and where we stand. I t