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was a severely conservative republican governor. >> sounds dangerous. anyway, welcome back. that was mitt romney famously touting his conservative credentials calling him severely conservative. the right wing romney from the primary fight is no more. this week the etch-a-sketch came alove the former governor championed centrist principles and got away with it. he keeps this act up. michael steele is a former rare of the rnc as well as an msnbc political analyst and cynthia tucker is a syndicated columnist. thank you. michael, there's on old tradition in politics, you go to your fringe or hard left or hard right to win the primaries and caucuses and then you start to move slowly so boy labor day you're ready to confront the enemy at the center. he didn't do it like that. he stayed right all the way through the summer and maybe masterfully wednesday decided to
in private. >> yeah. >> when he thought the cameras weren't rolling in private before wealthy donors. he said that the 47% were victims who were dependent on government, and that is why they voted for obama. and he didn't just stand by that remark then. when he was initially asked about it, he didn't say, oh, no, that was all wrong. he said, well, i may have stated it inelegantly, but i stand by the message. you know, michael said he was a successful governor of massachusetts for four years. most people agree that that's true, but he has spent the past two years repudiating every single thing he stood for when he was governor of massachusetts. so what values does mitt romney really have? what does mitt romney really believe except that he very much wants to be president of the united states? >> you're thoughts on the 47 going to 100 overnight on sean
going to do, he's going to be more aggressive. what does romney do next time to meet a more aggressive obama? mark? >> one thing, chris, i think that the obama campaign has kind of telegraphed their strategy by calling him the serial evader. i think they've already said that's going to be a strategy. >> is that healthy to say you're going to prosecute or come in as a prosecutor? >> i think the romney campaign has a pretty good radar screen and they have picked that up. i think they will have romney well-prepared for that. i also think it's going to be interesting with the town hall format because this is a very different kind of environment, and, you know, i think this is where romney is going to have to connect and feel people's pain and so that's naturally something that obama does well. we'll see how well romney adapts to that environment. >> i'm hoping candy crowley gets more in there. she's much more political than jim lehrer. she'll say follow up on that, answer it. >> i think she will.
a mitt romney campaign event in be aington, virginia, today? yep, big bird himself. the obama campaign was happy to point out that a guy in a big bird suit was in attendance today carrying a sign that said, crack down on wall street, not sesame street. pretty good stuff. we'll be right back. online outfit piccolo headphones buy now broadway show megapixels place to sleep little roadster war and peace deep sea diving ninja app hipster glasses 5% cash back sign up to get 5% everywhere online through december. only from discover. flavor, meet food. it's time for swanson flavor boost. concentrated broth in easy to use packets. mix it into skillet dishes, for an instant dose of... hell-o!
tradition in politics, you go to your fringe or hard left or hard right to win the primaries and caucuses, and then you start to move slowly so by labor day you're ready to confront the enemy at the center. he didn't do it like that. he stayed right all the way through the summer and maybe masterfully wednesday decided to go with i'm for the 100%. i'm for pre-existing condition coverage, for all this education, all this good stuff. >> i think part of that -- you're right in your analysis, that's exactly what happens politically. i think for the romney campaign they took that strategy, elongated it because they had some shoring up to do with their base. >> can he pull it off? can you make that kind of switcheroo in september? >> i think you can, number one. >> october. >> september/october. i think you can, number one. number two, we saw obama do the same thing, albeit earlier in the process. he was to hillary's left. he brought it around, started quoting reagan in the fall sounding very reaganesque.
all those folks can vote for romney and he still needs those conservative democrats -- >> i have a theory that the people hate obama so much on the right, cynthia, and perhaps center right, they hate him so much they want to have this guy go to the center as long as he wins. your thoughts? >> that's absolutely true, chris, because people like karl rove and billy crystal know that mitt romney is an empty suit, and they can push him around if he wins the presidency. you know that old saying if you stand for nothing you won't stand for anything? well, romney doesn't stand for anything. he doesn't really have any values or principles that he really believes in except he really wants to be president. that's why we saw that new slick version of the romney bot on on wednesday night. this romney bot, they worked on
generally, but ronald relen was re-elected with a 7.2% because he said it was the morning in america. optimism was what he sold. he was able to say 7.2% is great news, great news. he got re-elected with 49 states. he lost minnesota and the district of columbia with 7.2%. what should obama get with 7.8%? it seems like it's within the range there and everybody is pooh-poohing it and oh, geez. i know why jack welch is scared, that number is too damn scared to reagan's number. >> i think how this works with the president's narrative is that we're moving in the right direction, don't change -- you know, don't change horses, don't go back to a playbook that demonstrably didn't work, the george bush supply side stuff that he can legitimately tie to mitt romney. he had a narrative that said the economy is moving in the right direction, and i think this job report actually strengthens that narrative. and much more than levels of
she will be aware of all the critique of jim lehrer that's gone on. i think mark raises a very, very good point as he so often does. the format for the next debate is a format that favors somebody who is more comfortable with people and who is a little more easy. >> can you fake it? >> well, you know, i think this is a form that -- >> can you fake it? >> i think you can fake it a little bit but not very much. i'm not sure mitt romney is going to be able to fake it. i think the president that we saw in denver the day after the debate is the president that we're likely to see in the town hall meeting coming up next time and you're going to see joe biden unleashed, i think, in the next debate. >> that's going to be fun. >> maybe the most interesting of all of them. >> tout that one this week. biden is twice his aim. he's a lot more friendly. he's almost like a big, you know, a big st. bernard. he slopers all over you but he's very personable and he's very hard to dislike. the other guy is a little colder version of humanity. >> this could be one of the best debates of the see son and main one of the best debates across the board.
hahn hannity. nice place to bring it up, by the way. >> i was critical of the comment on the 47% because i think it was not presidential, quite honestly, and i think his team certainly mitt romney himself realized how that was being interpreted regardless of his ultimate meaning. i'm for the 100%. these guys and the president and mitt romney both have admitted they've been in that box where they say things in private that when get exposed puts them in an awkward position whether it's gods and guns in 2008 or the 47% today. i think right now what he's trying to do and i think rather effectively is to contextualize that comment -- h >> how is that different than etch-a-sketch. it's like my words don't mean anything 24 hours later. >> how long have you been doing campaigns and politics? when you get to general elections there's -- >> everything you say shouldn't
people sitting in the emergency room. >> i think he tried to do that, but i don't think he did it as well as he would have liked, and certainly they're going to take a new approach next time. mitt romney just came to play. mark is right. >> an interesting thing, mark, back to that again, romney seemed to know it was free form. it was like a city basketball game. you know, winners get the ball. every time you make a good shot. it's not like in the nba where you have to turn the ball over. he knew if he kept shooting, he could keep hitting and control the ball, and the ref in this case, lehrer, tried to get the ball back and he would say, no, you can't have it, i want it. lehrer would say okay. how did he know it was going to be that free an opportunity to just hog the ball? >> he was like a guy in the fourth quarter that wants the ball.