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Larry. >> reporter: but larry elders says the democrat's focus on national issues is newsom avoiding state problems. >> as you know, they are scared to death, which is why all these politicians from outside california are now weighing in. >> reporter: they certainly have sent in the calvary, larry elder, seems like he sort of helps and hurts newsom. he is a fire brand. where does he stand with voters? >> reporter: certain voters, they love him. the gop base draws out a lot of passion. that's what makes him so potent a contender, but he also draws out some hatred and we really saw that play out...

One. >> why now? >> just in light of what's happening in texas and in light of what's happening to our state. >> reporter: but larry elder says the democrats' focus on national issues is newsom avoiding state problems. >> as you know, they are scared to death, which is why all these politicians from outside california are now weighing in, including joe biden, kamala harris, nancy pelosi, senator elizabeth warren. >> reporter: we should point out that the vice president did echo a lot of the national themes that the newsom campaign has focused on. and the governor, in fact, joked about the vice...

Great difference between a state like massachusetts making a choice, and the federal government. as you look back on the health care plan, one question i wanted to ask is would you do it differently? >> sure. >> you would? >> yes. you learn from experience, as a matter of fact there are a series of things in the bill that i vetoed that got overridden. and i said to them, i said look you're going to have to change this over time z the truth is that some of the things i thought were problematic, i think still and are need to be changed but idea of states solving state problems is something i thi...

Democrats. he had to deal with that before he got the nomination. >> let's look at the various ways you've identified that contenders can handle things in their past they'd like to gloss over. the first is apologize. what's an example of somebody who did that? >> tim pawlenty was a supporter of cap and trade. he talked about climate change when he was governor of minnesota. cap and trade now in the gop, he says it was a mistake. i'm sorry. it won't happen again. >> and sometimesç voters appreciate that level of candor, i suppose. >> it's possible because in the end, somebody's going to get n...

Tim pawlenty. those are three we know will run and seem to have very strong machines or organizations behind them. each of them has key challenges, obstacles to overcome if they hope for the republican nomination. mitt romney has a fierce fund-raising machine, broad name recognition and he's getting praise from the man in the oval office. >> i agree with mitt romney who recently said he's proud of what he accomplished on health care in massachusetts. >> reporter: what's that about? health care reform could be romney's achilles heel. as massachusetts governor he signed a health care reform law ...