In reality, campaigns become 10 times more complicated when we zoom out and analyze all the factors that are required on a national scale. It is an understatement said that running a president ial campaign is one of the most difficult feats in the american political system. The speakers are expert industry. In alphabetical order these are our speakers. David axelrod start his career in political journalism but shifted to Political Consulting in the mid 80s and went on to become a key strategist for the 2008 Obama Campaign. His role in 2011 when he became senior strategist the 2012 Reelection Campaign. Guestco is the founder and Institute Director for the university of Chicago Institute of policy. Eric fehrnstrom began as a reporter for the boston herald. After working for marketing and advertising firm, he became the then Current Governor mitt romneys Communications Director and was most recently a topic and strategist for the romney president ial campaign. Larry grisolano has been both campaigning for the past 30 years and has been a leading tactician for some of the most important political battles the Democratic Party both in the 2008 and 2012 elections, he served as director of paid media for president obamas campaign. Jim messina start his career as a College Senior and quickly rose to prominence in campaigns across the country. He became president obamas deputy chief of staff or operations in 2009 and went on to become the manager of obamas Reelection Campaign in 2012. Beth myers started with the reagan camp in 1980 and has been in politics ever since. She worked with governor romney census 2010 campaigned for the governorship when she served as his chief of staff and was most recently a top adviser for the Romney Campaign, for the presidency. Shes this weeks one of the inaugural fellows for the institute of politics. Jen omalleydillon was quickly from being an advocate in college to career working on several democratic campaigns over the years. In 2008 she served as the battleground states director for the Obama Campaign, and was a Deputy Campaign manager for his successful bid. Matthew rhoades has been a lead strategist for the Republican National committee and was a Research Analyst for the rnc in the 2000 election. He was director of Opposition Research for the 2004 Bush Campaign and was governor romneys Campaign Manager for the 2012 election. Stuart stevens has gone on to help elect more governors and senators than any other current republican media consultant. And has also worked on campaigns overseas. He was involved in immediate imagamateur romney to the eightd served as senior strategy, senior strategist for romneys president ial campaign in 2012. Finally, our moderator but tonight, chuck todd, an innocent extensive expense in journalism as an editor, political director for nbc news and as an on air political analyst. His current role as chief White House Correspondent has given him a fewer than base. Tonights panel will cover the 2012 election and campaigns on a macro level and will shed light on what went right, what went wrong and what went unexpectedly. We would like to especially thank strategist from governor romneys campaign for giving our institutions the privilege to hosting them. The caliber and expertise of tonights guest is extraordinary and its a true honor to be able to introduce them all for what is sure to be a truthful and enlightening discussion. Ladies and gentlemen, i would like to thank you for coming and would ask that you join me in welcoming our distinguished guests. [applause] am i supposed to begin . So, im a little concerned, eight people, 90 minutes, and then as i think matt said to me, its like another Republican Debate last night eight people in 90 minutes. So, you know, we will do our best. Doing my admonished you guys in the beginning. Dont take up too much time on answers. We want to hear from everybody. I want to begin with the thing a most curious about is sort of when does somebody decide to run for president , how does that conversation take place. I want to start with stuart, and when did you have the conversation with governor romney and said okay, im in . A lot of us assume he had been running for president the whole time, but when did he decide to run . And when did he tell you and when was it clear . I think its a great misconception that he planned to run immediately afterwards. I think its his assumption was that the economy continued to improve our would improve and i think running and losing in 08 was very liberating for him. And he found that he could be very happy. We kept talking around it, you know, we had a very busy, he wanted to talk about it. We had a very busy 2010 client schedule, in a very mitt romney way he said finally, well, on election day 2010, you can do anything for your clients, why dont we meet on election day 2010 . I said, okay, i can do that. So my partner and i met him in boston at his condo on election day 2010. And that was a thing when i got a sense that he was really intending to run. It was serious before but i got the sense he definitely was going to run. David, covering the white house, i got the sense that you guys thought you were running against mitt romney. You always sort of viewed mitt romney as the face of the Republican Party. Is that an unfair no. In fact, the president and i after the 2008 election, we were musing about the future, and he asked me who i thought the nominee in 2012 would become and i submit romney. And i said it because i knew we were headed into an economic maelstrom, and i have, i spoke earlier to a group about opposite theory of president ial races, that people tend to soar the antithesis of who is there. So romney, his background and so on, seemed like the kind of person who could emerge from that, most likely. The thing is that election on election day of 2010, you know, that election sort of altered my thinking slightly. I still thought you would be the nominee. It was clear to me that day that there were forces destroyed the Republican Party that were going to really control the nominating process, and it was going to be challenging for any nominee to navigate those forces, and that they were going to have to make some difficult choices. In order to be the nominee. So there was an element of doubt, but i always thought romney was the likely guide. Beth and eric, was there every time you thought he wasnt going to do it . Yeah, i mean, he had a really relaxing 2009, and im not sure i ever what it gone and said hes not going to do it, but she had a health scare, and whatever i think 2009 was, you know, who knows . He enjoyed riding the boat. A time that i came to think that he was most likely to run was, it was right after, when he sat down with eric and said we need to get another person of your, lets talk to matt wrote. When he said he went to meet matt rhodes at the boston, i thought that was a pretty good indication that he was very specific about running. That was 2010. I was with governor romney in 2008 when he withdrew from the president ial campaign. And on the plane back to boston, he was very busy trying to arrange peoples lives. He did not sound like a person who was plotting another run. In fact, he seemed exhausted by politics. But then there were developments that happen, not only in the race but Chris Christie victory in new jersey, Bob Mcdonnell victory in virginia, seemed like republicans were on the march. Quickly on defense particularly on issues related to the economy which were deteriorating and i think mitt felt and said so in his announcement speech in 2011 that he was compelled to get involved because he felt he had something to offer with respect to his skills on jobs and the economy. Thats what he got in a. Was very precise moment when lights which went on . I dont think so. Its a process. That happens over time. There are a number of married factors that get taken into account, but certainly by the time, as beth said, matt came up to take over, we knew he was moving in that direction. Jim, you are in the white house and have always that with a lot of congressional politics, what was your, did you find yourself obsessively following romney, following the president ial date inside the white house when you guys had this discussion . I think david had it right. We assume for a very long time is going to be romney. Every friday we would rank a republican from one to 10 and romney never went below number one. We always viewed him. And 2010 you could see him make the steps, pack money, and i thought the book was really good and smartly done. You could tell we thought he had made a decision he was going and he would be a formidable candidate. David is right, we did look at each other on the gruesome night et cetera so, and mitt romney get to this primary is the primary tended to be longer than we thought woul it would be butt was a real quest for a while of could he get through it. Matt, whats an interview like with mitt romney . So youre being interviewed for a job for Romney Campaign, and did you interview him and what were some of his questions for you . Well, the first time that the governor called within, february 2010, right around the period when washington was going to those brutal snowstorms. Even more than chicago has today. And it really wasnt and india as much to run his campaign at that point in time. He was asking whether not covered, up into the pac. And he was talking about taking it up a notch. And sometimes its more important, president ial campaigns are a little different than other campaigns. I think everyone would agree on this stage. You go this period when youre thinking about running, and thats almost more important than a day that you finally come to conclusion and say im going to run. He really wanted to kick it up a notch, and see what the landscape was going to hold. And he had his book that he was just about to rollout. So i came up right about that time, and he asked me that day. I think i gave him, yeah, when someone offers you something if you like get sick let me think about overnight. I cant imagine any other answer would give them the next day when i told him that. The next day we were off and running. It kind of progress, it just happened. By the time i became Campaign Manager i dont know that mitt and i ever sat down at a formal interview. Suddenly you were hiring people . It just kind of happened. David and jim, when did you guys go into reelected mode . In some form or another . Well, you know, i would have to say that it was sort of a sensation of hitting bottom that got us going. 2010 election . No. The debt ceiling fight was we obviously, there were talks given to the reelect [talking over each other] binding, the thing kicked into high gear. Thats when everybody, jim was putting the mechanisms in place. Jen was putting the mechanisms in place. We were doing the early things that had to be done, but i think everyone got very, very focused at least on the metrics i. That was a line of demarcation, that debt ceiling fight. Our numbers were as bad as they were throughout the whole presidency. There was, you know, the predecessors in washington work pouring around, and our folks were nervous. You know, and it was clear that we were now in a situation where we had to fight and we had to pull out of the nosedive we were in. I was just going to say the mechanism. The mechanisms, there were some mechanical things that had to be done. One of the things we knew was they were going to the big primary and we would have time to put things in motion while they were busy that would ultimately we down to our benefit in terms of organization. When did you guys start operationally . Just partly future, when do you have to start those things . I was at the dnc for 09 and 10 so a lot of the work was building the foundation of what we knew would come for the reelect. So while it wasnt a permanent campaign, the a lot of cities that were under the radar, building on some of the internal polling that we did, really honing our 50 state strategy and having all the states in training our volunteers and giving us something to do to empower them in an offer that it president norman hasnt done. All of those things started pretty quickly after the president won his first election, and we build off about. When were you having to sort of build this . I showed up in april on a fulltime basis, and we really started, and this was at davids insistence, we started very early april, may doing some very intensive research to try to get a handle on what people were thinking out there. This was before the debt ceiling stuff, but we knew that people were we of the economy. And it was a weary electorate. We really wanted to sort of see how we fit in, see how they were following what was going on on the other side. So by the time the debt ceiling it, we had a pretty good sense of the landscape and what, sort of what our way was to kind of move. The dead sea was really a moment at which we were kind of galvanized the sort of cohesion to move forward on some of the things we have been learning over the summer. Stewart, what was your something about what the primary was going to be about before the announcement . You guys were preparing the announcement speech. The public and media dont understand how important they are. Everybody come you go back to obamas announcement speech in 07 and it lays out his messaging campaign. So what were your assumptions, youre working on that, as the governor is working on that . Thats a good question. We talk about this a lot, beth and eric and matt. And peter was very involved in that. We had a premise that we were going to have an announcement speech that you could give a day before the general election. That was our goal, and we studied of the ones. Beth went and dragged it up the reagan announced that speech, and we used it as sort of a model, one that was successful, model of the speech that president reagan, candidate reagan could have given the day before, this was in 80, the general election. So we always believed that we had to force the primary to be about the economy, and that mitt romney was going to be the candidate of the economy, and to be met from you have to beat him on the economy. And so every candidate was going to have to post up and have to trump him on that, and we were fairly confident that no candidate would be able to do that. And thats the process of the primary was going to be resting on who is best suited to defeat barack obama and to face barack obama. Not in an electability since been a dramatic sense. And in that sense, the primary, as much as possible, was not going to be one of these primaries where you go off and spend the primary talking about x. And have to go and shift and talk about y in the general election. And that was the theory. I think you go back to read the announcement speech, it was a speech sort of given before the general election. I want to jump ahead, but the interesting, larry mentioned the Formative Research that were doing. And if they were all would agree that we all believe the race is going to be about the economy in some form or fashion, and the question was what was the definition of what the economy was. And all that research that we did in the spring of 2011 was largely about the way people saw the economy from their own experience, and the general sense of entitlement that the middleclass felt calm and real anger, anger of a government and also anger about wall street, anger about the courses the forces they felt were conspiring against them. We knew that we had and objected to, which was defined defined the economy and our own terms and wake up with that sense of, and alter the race right to the last date i think that definitional fight over what the economic challenge was was central to this whole campaign. [inaudible] that you guys were preparing for . I know who you want me to say. [laughter] but you cant worry about [talking over each other] was there somebody, remember that whole, you know i said earlier sometimes its more important making the process of thinking about president , but when youre in a primary you cant worry about who is not in the game, and people came to the own decision on whether not theyre going to get in the race. To stewarts point, were going to run the primary race, no matter who got them. And i certainly think that winning the nomination is always tougher than anyone thinks it is even if theres a front runner way out in front. Us outgrow a primary fight it was. I had the opportunity to work for president bush in 2004 on his reelection. He had a lot of opportunity to look at that deal. We always thought john kerry, john kerry would always be on top. But there was when mr. Dean came out of nowhere. So theres always the inevitability of somebody shaking it. But i know he said around and worry about one individual getting in over another, it would have impacted the way we ran. You cant sit around and worry about other people. To governor romney ever expressed you, boy, i wonder if so and so is going to get in . You know, he was actually on people but i think he felt the field rick perry got in late, and stewart always said theres someone else was going to get in the race. Dont know who it will be but theyre still a choice out there. So when rick perry got in and no one else did, we felt that it was pretty much thats when we thought was a someone else you thought was going to run, jim . I know there was a moment, i certainly believe that the good been a third party candidate. Mac has it right. You look at whos in the race and you compare. But i think we all internally believed mitt would run it we kind of looked at it and he seemed like he was going to run. Spent like he was looking for a way to run. To see how he would be in the primary. [inaudible] you can kind of see him try to get there. So i think we spent some time thinking about him. Did governor daniels he was openly talking about other people getting in, stuart, in a way that im sure didnt make you guys very happy. Eric, do you member governor romney calling governor daniels, look, are you in or out . What matt said is true. We didnt sit around our headquarters and fret about who might be in the race him who might not be in the race. Theres a goo