Steady hand by the man she hopes to succeed. There has never been a man or a woman, not me, not bill, nobody, more qualified than Hillary Clinton to serve as president of the United States of america. Joining the panel this week, wall street journal Columnist Bill mckern, mary kissel, and james toronto. The democrats had three goals, they needed to unite the party, raise Hillary Clintons favorables, and they needed to reduce Donald Trumps favorables. Lets take them one at a time. How did they do at uniting the party, getting the sanders people on board . They did well on two points. They rallied the hall, lots offof enthusiasm. The media gushing over Hillary Clinton and the goosebump moment. But are sanders voters on board . We dont know. There was a lot of protests outside. I think a lot of them will vote for hillary in the end. They couldnt have asked for much more than Bernie Sanders. He really delivered, mary, for clinton. Yes, he certainly did. And there wasnt a ted cruz moment there like there was in the republican convention. I think, though, one of the harder tasks that they had was to humanize Hillary Clinton. Im not sure we can believe bill when he gets up and tells a wrenching personal story about how much he loves her given his personal history. Chelsea clinton clearly adores her mother but isnt that great of a political communicator. I think that was a tough task for the democrats. Somebody being in public life, james, for 25 years, a fairly fixed view of her in the American Public. I think that the negatives were high enough that the democrats looked at that and said we have to do something. They devoted all of bill clintons speech to that task, when usually bill clinton is the contrast man, right, its heres what we favor, and then a caricature of what they favor. Hes very good at that. He is. But the underlying problem, as you said, is people dont like her, they dont trust her. And in a sense i think the convention kind of underlined that problem, because it was sending out all kinds of different, often contradictory messages, where one moment they were honoring black lives matter, the next they were honoring Police Officers. Her speech obviously thats the tension within any political coalition, isnt it . You give them their moment, you give sanders, you give warren, all those people their moment, you do it on monday so get them out of the way so on wednesday and thursday you can appeal to the middle. I think what it lacked is what her speech lacked focus. Donald trump has been criticized but he sticks to what americans are telling pollsters they care about right now. Number one, terrorism. Number two, the economy. I just want to go back to the party unity question. I think there was a ted cruz moment when sanders spoke. I was in the hall and distinctly heard him get booed when he endorsed the partys nominee, which was the opposite of what happened to cruz, he got booed when he declined to endorse the partys nominee. Mrs. Clintons speech on thursday was interrupted by hecklers at least a dozen times. I understand that didnt come through at home. But you heard these spontaneous and unusually timed chants. There was a particularly nasty moment when leon panetta was making the case for a hawkish foreign policy, they booed him. That goes to the stuff about the military and the cops. You cant fool all the people all the time. They put Police Officers up there, they put military up there. This is equivalent to the clintons before supporting traditional marriage like break, its a wink, they dont believe it. They went with the hillary they got. I dont think they tried as much to humanize her. Shes a policy wonk, thats what she presented herself as. I think they realize the unlikables are kind of baked in. This week theres a poll showing donald trump slightly ahead of her, he has 58 unfavorables, thats a huge improvement. Ill just add on the b bio issue, one thing that came clear, even with Morgan Freemans beautiful narration, there are no tangible achievements. The signature achievement they were telling us about was the deal that orrin hatch and ted kennedy cut 20 years ago when her husband was pretty. A fascinating strategy, mary, the democrats didnt try to make this a classic leftright ideological battle. They basically tried to separate trump from the republicans and the conservatives, saying hes a threat to our democracy. Thats very rare for what the democrats did, they didnt do that in 2012 or in 2008, they havent run that kind of campaign in a long time. Smart strategy . Yeah, i think its a smart strategy for now, insofar as they want people to be afraid of a trump presidency, so afraid that they turn out to vote. But there is a risk as well. I notice jane sanders, Bernie Sanders wife, was quoted saying, we have to unite against donald trump because hes different kind of republican. That could be taken either way, the Republican Party isnt so popular. The brand isnt so great. Theyre trying to get republicans. Exactly. Independents and republicans, nevertrumpers. The republicans arent happy with the people who have been running the Republican Party, thats why they picked him. This idea that hes outside the establishment, i think that cuts in his favor. But on the other hand there are a lot of suburban republicans and collegeeducated republicans who are really nervous about trump, they dont like his foreign policy, for example, his temperament. One thing thats very different, and you see the democrats reacting, for the first time in 30 years, maybe even longer, the democratic president ial nominee is going to face a republican who is relentlessly on offense. That doesnt happen, that didnt happen with mitt romney, that didnt happen with mccain. Well talk more about this later. When we come back, donald trump enjoyed a postconvention bounce in the polls. Just how big was it and should Hillary Clinton expect the same in the days to come . [siren] come on come on. P g. Proud sponsor of moms. If you have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis, isnt it time to let the real you shine through . Introducing Otezla Apremilast . Otezla is not an injection or a cream. Its a pill that treats plaque psoriasis differently. With otezla, 75 clearer skin is achievable after just 4 months, with reduced redness, thickness, and scaliness of plaques. And the otezla prescribing information has no requirement for routine lab monitoring. Dont take otezla if you are allergic to any of its ingredients. Otezla may increase the risk of depression. Tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts, or if these feelings develop. Some people taking otezla reported weight loss. Your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. Side effects may include diarrhea, nausea, upper respiratory tract infection, and headache. Tell your doctor about all the medicines you take, and if youre pregnant or planning to be. Ask your dermatologist about otezla today. Otezla. Show more of you. After a postconvention bounce for donald trump, the president ial candidates are once again neck and neck in the latest real clear politics poll average. With democrats wrapping up their own convention in philly, should Hillary Clinton see her own bump in the coming days . Republican pollster ed goas joins us from washington. Where do you think this race stands after both conventions . First of all, i think the bounce from the first convention, the republican convention, was somewhat overstated. Hillary had been running about four or five points ahead of trump in the average of all the polls. But after the fbi directors statement, she had declined to she was only about a point and a half going into the republican convention. Quite frankly, the thing i think everyone is looking for is to keep looking for big movement in the polls. Both these candidates had a 55 unfavorable rating when they entered the race a year ago. Trump is at 57, she is at 56 rating. I dont think were going to see big jumps in the data. Well see inches as opposed to yards in the movement. Maybe with the exception of the first debate. So doug schoen, a democratic pollster, wrote for the wall street journal this weekend that Hillary Clinton is now the underdog because of trumps bounce in the polls, and the desire in the electorate for change. Do you agree with that . We have to make it interesting. The bottom line is that its all New Territory with having two nominees now that have an overwhelming majority being negative towards both of them. Its going to be very hard to tell where this is going or what direction its going to take. The polling numbers, you know, theres just too many polls out there that are using different sampling, and we compare apples to oranges. The wall street journal poll is very good, the fox news poll is very good, the cnn poll tends to be very good. For example, in that average of polls out there is the l. A. Times, which is going back to the same people and asking. I think theres plenty of room for stories out there, but expect this to move in inches, not yards. One of the fascinating things ive been looking at is the extent to which 20 of the electorate still seems to be undecided. That sounds to me like a lot at this stage in the race. Are they really undecided . Maybe theyre just saying because they dont like each one and theyll come around to their Party Favorite in the end. But does that tell you anything interesting . It does. You know, the closing that we saw, whatever closing we saw during the republican convention, was trump catching up with republicans voting for him to where hillary was with democrats. But we do have that 15 to 20 of undecided, when normally in this period of time its about 7 or 8 . And i think the big question is union those independent voters out there are really the ones that dont like either one of these candidates. And i think the question is, are they undecided or are they going to end up being nonvoters. I think that will be a key question well have until the end of the campaign. What about the midwest strategy that trump is talking about, he and his campaign are saying were going after states that romney didnt win, ohio, pennsylvania, even michigan, iowa, perhaps even wisconsin, because they have a lot of White Working Class voters, didnt go to college, have really felt economic pain these last eight years. Is that a plausible path to victory for donald trump . Ohio and iowa is always in the mix. Its always kind of plus or minus a couple of points as you go through. The new ones, the blue states, the real blue states, are the michigan, the pennsylvania, the wisconsin. Is that plausible for trump . It is, but in the same token, were also beginning to see, missouri was added as a tossup state today by real clear politics. You have georgia. The map is expanding on both ends. He is not doing as well in some of the red states, utah being another one. And hes doing better in some of the blue states. I think its going to be, again, anything can happen in this election. The one thing i will say, theres nothing in the data to say either hillary will win or trump will win or both of them will not lose. So right now, it really is a tossup between the two. You really think its a 50 50 tossup . I do. The one caveat i would give is, having done this for 40 years, i believe real campaigns matter. And i do get concerned sometimes what i hear from the Trump Campaign, that they are not going to put as much into the ground game in terms of the campaign, because at the end of the day, that could be the deciding factor if this is a deadeven race. Trump people are saying that out, we dont think advertising on the airwaves matters as much because we get all this free publicity, we have such a better use of social media. But if youre outspent to such a great extent and you cant is to understand to those attack ads, they really hurt. They can. Again, i think the negatives are so bakedin on both of these candidates, he may be right on not spending as much money on tv, because it may not in fact move things, just like i dont think youre seeing it move as much with the conventions. I think where he may be wrong is saying im not going to put as much into the ground game, voter i. D. And turnout. And at the end of the day, were still going to end up with 70 of registered voters voting. And whichever side does a better job of getting the voters out may be the whole difference in this campaign. Ed goeas, thanks for coming in to see us. Thank you. Still ahead, with the polls closed and the conventions behind them, the candidates will hit the battleground states. Our panels take on how the race is shape up. We have 100 days to make our case to america. For lower back pain sufferers, the search for relief often leads to places like. This. This. Or this. Today, theres a new option. Introducing drugfree aleve direct therapy. A tens device with high intensity power that uses technology once only available in doctors offices. Its wireless remote lets you control the intensity, and helps you get back to things like. This. This. Or this. And back to being yourself. Introducing new aleve direct therapy. Find yours in the pain relief aisle. President ial candidates are wasting no time barn storming the states that are likely to decide the outcome in november. Donald trump and Hillary Clinton are hitting the campaign trail. Donald trump will hold a town hall event in columbus on monday. Polls in battleground states show a tight race in the final three months of the campaign. Were back with our panel. James, you heard ed. What do you think is trumps best path to victory . I like that hes focused on the economy and terrorism. I think he needs to focus even more on the economy, not just talking about the problems created by washington politicians. He needs to talk about growth. We got this terrible report on gdp on friday, the economy barely moving now. If hes talking about tax, regulatory reform, how do we grow. Can i push back on that . I dont hear him talking about that. I hear him talking about immigration, you shrink the labor supply, illegal or legal. Second, trade, shrink the supply of goods to raise the cost of goods. Those are his two economic themes so far. How does that help the economy . I agree with you. You asked me, ive just given donald trump the key to victory. Do you disagree with me that hes not focusing like he should on the economy . The campaign issued one statement on the gdp figure, one, by a policy adviser. Did you hear donald trump come out and say, im the guy who can restore the economy . I dont think you did. He did tweet he tried to talk more about how we grow. He did talk about taxes today, theres a tweet saying hillarys going to wreck the economy and so forth. Thats how he communities. Ari fleischer said that he should stop talking about crooked hillary and Start Talking about 1. 2 hillary, representing the anemic growth rate. To some extent, you, paul, and you, james, are arguing about different things. Youre arguing about the politics and youre arguing about the policy. I think trump benefits passively from the 1. 2 economic growth. That certainly runs counter to the morning and america message we just got from the democrats at their convention. Thats a fair point. Hillary clinton has come out of her convention saying were going to make the biggest investment in jobs, mary, since world war ii, a huge investment, theyre talking about hundreds of billions of dollars. If trump doesnt have a comparable heres how i can fix it message, all right, then Hillary Clintons argument might carry the day. It might. Hillary clinton is clearly trying to keep the Obama Coalition together, trying to appeal to women, minorities, college age students. But she is too trying to appeal to the trump base, those disaffected economically depressed workers, principally along the rust belt, which is also where trump things he can motivate people to come out. Shes trying to put forth a unifying message by sloganeering. And a laundry list of ideas, james, which was a really pretty liberal agenda. The sanders voters arent going to dislike what they heard when she talked about expanding Social Security and mandates and new regulation on business. Thats where i think she went off track. It was kind of a harangue of the progressive wish list. Climate change, alleged institutional racism. I dont think she has a focused message on the economy. And i look at that friday reuters poll which was touted as good news for her. A five. A five. But look a little deeper, nearly 70 of the country says were on the wrong track and nearly 80 of independents are saying that. So i think the economic argument on both sides will be highly negative. I also think we all to take the polls with a grain of salt. Ed was talking about this when he talked about the electorate. All the polls are the same in how they crunch their numbers. But they start with an educated guess about whos going to turn out. Right. The person who has the right number, the right makeup of the electorate, is going to be right about this. With 20 undecided, no one really knows. I just find it humorous, the polls say within a margin of error of four points, and theres 20 that havent made up their minds. We read too much into them. And we know from the brexit vote in britain, they didnt have the majority yet they prevailed. Im not saying trump is going to win. He can win. Jesse helms used to say, never won a poll, never lost an election. It looks like theyre going to go after trump by mocking and taunting him and trying to get under his skin. His politics, trumps, are personal, i can deliver for you. But he has a thin skin. I think theyre taunting him to try to blow him up. I think thats right, and theyre trying to disqualify him. Its a big message people got from the democratic convention, if their big message was ronald reagan, morning in america, it was a failure. If their message was trump is an unstable lunatic who will start a war, i think thats a more powerful message for the democrats. Much more to come on this special onehour edition of the journal editorial report. Ahead, new evidence the Clinton Campaign was a target of cyber attacks. Is russia trying to meddle in the u. S.