The 2012 Election: An Insider's View

what lessons can we learn from the two thousand twelve election ok mcentire and today and k pr presents the dog institute of politics post election conference every four years the university of kansas dole institute brings together top strategist and operatives from both presidential campaigns and political reporters pollsters and insiders to reflect on what went right and what went wrong with each campaign and what it means for the next four years just a reminder last week's kbr present featured at kansas perspective on the two thousand twelve election with political scientists from across the state gathered at washburn university if you missed that program it's now archived on our website k pr back at you bad edu but today we'll hear highlights from this month today election conference at the dole institute of politics from president obama's campaign will hear from national field director jeremy bird national communications director brian colbert and deputy national field director

marlon marshall for mitt romney's campaign will hear from national political director rich beeson and deputy national campaign manager katie gauge we'll also hear from erin the pike from real clear politics jerry side of the wall street journal just felony of the new york times and james holman of politico by the way jerry side and marlon marshall are both university of kansas graduates a word of caution about today's program the dole institute had numerous technical issues with their ideas system at the conference as a result the cell quality of today's program is a bit and even still the conference was full of interesting insights about both campaigns and i hope you enjoy hearing highlights the campaigns of president obama and governor romney had very different trajectories from the very beginning obama faced no primary challenge from within the democratic party which

allowed his campaign to get up and running while the republican field was still up for grabs jeremy bird was national field director for president obama's campaign about like if we have time to build up our organization that kind of test that we had time to analyze things that were working in things that were a test of voter registration a year out and make adjustments as we get closer to the action that i think the number one advantage for us on the organization's i certainly am really and everything he did was a time we can make decisions like a technology and house really have time to do that as opposed to seven or so and i think that for me is the biggest advantage and there was a disadvantage is that to wander on the timeframe because there was no it was was hard to their volunteers are people who are paying attention to have a sense of urgency they call somebody in the summer of two thousand live and we need your help to re elect the president or they say yeah actually when the campaign the next year got wrestling give money in europe the government and it's a great poem war

over the flipside of that of the time when coal burns served as national communications director for president obama's two thousand twelve campaign where the president you own everything that happens in the federal government on a daily basis so and that whole run out that that was something the justice department was dealing with like fast and furious if it was a tsa agent doing something stupid idea at a checkpoint if it was some international there's a unit that was something that you know we intercepted you at the messaging of presenting the president's vision for the country that were very un envoy of course the white house to make sure that that the campaign was reflecting what the white house was saying and doing in terms of messaging around the events of the day and also making sure that we were looking at that today through the context of a good president reelected so that he and times as a bit of a challenge but one that i think every incumbent faces and i was about the messages in one advantage side in terms of the candidate as a messenger and i'm sure the romney folks who agree with this is that there is a certain battle testament takes place during the primary process you look back in two

thousand seventy thousand eight hundred miles and every candidate would start an island that he was when he was like the president a sharper candidate and it's a change in years it's a different posture be the sitting president doing the job of president and be the sitting president as the campaigner and he obviously it doesn't agree with that and i think that you know in the end i go back to a really sharp fighting form that about something that you don't have a nap than actual mechanism of the of the primaries and caucuses the kind of force the candidate within the person katie gage was deputy national campaign manager for mitt romney will certainly impressed point there's an advantage in terms of you know without testing and i think we saw that evidence than the first general election primary that governor romney having gone through over twenty primaries are primary debates was a very very sharp debate or even though you know one would argue that the houses were really debate so much as candidate forums and certainly there was no question that he had not been asked on a stage you know with the national media covering it that's that you know obviously

the eighty seven billion dollars that our campaign had to spend in order to win the primary would have been very useful in the general election then you know that was something that we had to sort of start fresh with when the gen x and start it i am and certainly the obama campaign was sort of banking on the fact that mitt romney was going to be the nominee and without reading or a rig santorum to drop out in order to start sort of wanting to sell those against our candidates so on you know the hundred billion dollars or so that was something we were taking an incoming i went was something that was certainly not an advantage and you know so you know things being equal it probably would rather not have to go through that our having maybe a little bit more time between when the primary and the general election and actors would be probably more comparable situation but it is what it is and then the president had to go through that four years ago and that's what the process you know protestants saw that bikini fine the obama and romney campaigns got

off to a very different starts and not surprisingly the campaign staffers saw a very different paths to the november elections for the obama campaign the strategy was to focus on getting voters a choice between two very different visions for america again jeremy bird national field director for president obama's reelection campaign and if we can make with univision and we weren't able to get in that position that we're going to have to be a disadvantage the number one thing we thought about it as a real issue and we also believe that inordinate two hundred seventy electoral votes we had to leave as many pathways open as possible but this is not a national election national polls are interesting but they don't really mean much what what matters is where the polls in colorado are listening in florida and if you look at your own internal so we're going to a new electoral votes to give to hundreds and so we wanted to keep every

single state possible and play and make it look as much like two thousand and eight as possible and the athletes and the last thing i would say the beginning is our strategy was really about whether the building an organization number one that can do the last three games and that meant building a very very integrated organization that was a modern campaign knowing that we could have a field program a digital program we'd ever organizing program that had digital component of technology to support it to happen on the ground so we had to have an organization and that means we had done the money we had had the grass roots piece of that we had other donors we don't have the volunteers we either have the officer could work out of the edge of the technology that they're going to have a press team i think they're working on valentine's day so so the number one piece of them said this is what we have to do is build an organization capable of doing three things registering the voters we needed to register to expand the electorate with a live action set in persuading the voters we need to persuade who we knew were going to turn out but you voted for some two thousand eight and both words can vote for

democrats in two thousand and there are religious otherwise persuadable undecided and then the final thing was to increase turnout amongst our key demographic targets party supporters who we knew were at least likely to vote until we build our entire strategy around those four components only organization during the voter registration you to do persuading the voters are you persuade and then turn out that would basically made a decision that if you're doing one of those four things you know what you're doing on the campaign you just not dealing with some spending money on an outlet at every piece of the campaign right here in chicago wrote about testing or in a statement at the sago supporting we really value our strategy with within those were things in nebraska thought was a more about what message we're trying to get that choice and marla talk about our strategy for getting vigilance against a friend colbert was national communications director for president obama's reelection campaign i was a telephone messages of window a message was this that we needed to do the economy from the middle out not investing

in things about the middle class like education infrastructure and tax cuts and our message out in terms of the romney campaign was that they believe in i thought that contractors or triple that jobs in terms of the candidates themselves i think you saw that we talked on the president be someone that made tough choices and nato agreement and beyond our exams and then finally on the construction piece we built a very large a very complex other than a very effective communication's came and doesn't want and you might not see like a larger building programs and our state organization so for instance we had twelve he wants actors to interrogations in ohio by election and that was a team that i would put up again so has any national campaign in a presidential cycle going back to a new presidential campaign the part so that really was not driving tell about the states given them the tools of backup that they need and focusing on again the block into pieces of

communication itself making sure that we have consistency with hoover saying on the web what we're saying in terms of votes on television were center products and again you know messaging is just another tool and so it is a drive toward the goals that are so we really didn't look at you know it might be nice to do tv in this market but we really need to be in this market because that's the clicks is telling us as a place to spend more time so yeah time marlon marshall deputy national field director for president obama i know how very beneficial to us and we asked that on the ground for up to two years in these days those fees that neither states to repair their marriage from our loyal union working for us government and say well almost all over this across the country so we look at operation and won the state by state for birth when i leave this initiative payments they can pay the first pieces and the seniors that haven't improved and ultimately they landed in each of those

states and we have to understand what they need to do you know what we needed those issues and rehabilitation persuade register and not return our people and we get each individual states are really well i was very different in our leveraging it and they're going around when colorado and the time to plan c and innovative of pretensions the army the rest of his neighbors in a state like virginia or orchestrate is a state like ohio militarily and how long time to be able to execute that plan and so great your directors etcetera also suggest a workable while it builds a plan together so that have time to leave didn't play press is a musician and one of the early on in the state like florida we have to change your report in

order to be successful we spent a year on the scene after registering voters and for the report format notably be able to pull off again brent colburn national communications director for president obama and one of the advantages of the obama won't have the last five or six years there's really a consistency in leadership an inconsistency leadership at every level you know if you own a business just think that the advantage of one day one of opening a business seventy percent of people are walking or more to go and many in the leadership last time including jeremy whittle out and michigan were people in the state's last time to really understood what that state level operation should look like so i mean just from a purely an organizational standpoint that gave us a real competitive advantage in terms of you know and he brings that on the head of a very ready pool is that within the administration and around the country that we get that happen and bring and we needed to get the car into the program or even the language are new kind of the internal unspoken rules that an organization has available the romney campaign

struck out on a drastically different path starting with the republican primary again katie gates' deputy national campaign manager for governor romney we've all of our hat in the primary i wish we knew was going to be a very sort of southern evangelical very very conservative primary process and which was yes or political challenge for a mormon governor of massachusetts who happened to be a multi millionaire now was to clearly define the president as the president who had failed the american people and mitt romney you know never said i think the question pursell word about president obama that was always very clear that obama wasn't working that was a big part of our campaign being in the primary whether it was related to i you know the fact that he presided over forty straight months of unemployment over eight percent spending that exceeded all the previous presidents combined your pet project spending on things like

solyndra that were very clearly failed initiatives that cost the american taxpayer are billions and billions of dollars of things were things that we pointed to to send the message that obama wasn't working in there with a lot of talk in the general election and business is this a choice election or is this a referendum and to a degree to a degree we felt that it was about that we had to leave very early on that this was a referendum on president obama and then we had to create a viable alternative to mitt romney on his own terms of the message you know we felt like we had a guy who throughout his career virtually everything he touched he turned around and improved and live better and it seemed like a very clear choice here you've got a president who had failed on the american people and here you have a choice of a guy who had in business had had had done well had created many many jobs in the private sector it gone on

to the olympics and turned around something that was really on the road to die or failure in something that was about the huge humiliation i'm about to fall if it to the united states and as the head of the host committee for the olympic games and then had gone on to be governor of massachusetts and turn things around there are so we thought the payout was to create a referendum on president obama and then a very clear choice that that mitt romney was the guy that turned things around advantage that the obama campaign and the early on and maybe not making that far as we would've liked to be i was very clear i mean it was uniting difficult you know coming in the general election when we were starting at such a disadvantage financially took to sort of redefine mitt romney as not the guy with horns and a pitchfork that maybe he had been defined as i am and serve in a re introduce them to the american people i

was something that i don't think we've really got a chance to do until that first debate i think that was the first time that the american people were were able to see who mitt romney really was side by side with the president out of the filter of thirty second television ads and mail pieces and and phone calls and but that that was the cap on from a massive standpoint the combination of digital and political strategies that so defined the obama campaign also found its way into the romney campaign rich beeson was national political director for governor romney that the romney campaign for the republican presidential campaign trail a digital strategies like to a personal savior implementing the plan and the new collection included they weren't all very instrumental in everything whether it was one or a distraction absentee ballot pool about our digital things like jeremy said it was

one operation and try to make it as soon as possible we'd be you know we didn't have as much time out of a recurring theme comes back to the fore for the upstart we were a fairly decent job of getting out but when we talk about the state's gas in tents and communications data while we kept hearing about the size of the obama keynote and state and i couldn't figure out what they were you know what they don't know is that it has become very clear and i also know how the unemployment rate dropped from eight percent some point he became a very abusive so i can say that when we agreed that we start out with three goals one to win independence we wanted to turn around low propensity high supports for voters regardless of their registration and we need to make sure our base it would be a you know going in ohio again and that this was something that gerry her career

and for what will we said it we are winning independence in a while you would win ohio because that's just the way it always was well again that they were looking at a different dynamic in and their dynamic forgot we wanted to while turnout low propensity i support for him and held a simple island so those are the things we started out with individuals around an end and executed through throughout the campaign on our path was was always fairly they wanted a nice white hatted and are always three months at least at the start it included florida north carolina virginia and ohio that when those four images that when one of you need any of this whether hampshire iowa colorado wisconsin pennsylvania it any of those that but that there are about two seven though is predicated on those four states

we needed we honestly was reading the new ones that very tight out without that that's the core of what you missed the competitive republican field during the primary season meant another disadvantage for the romney campaign not only did romney have to run against the other republican candidates newt gingrich rick perry rick santorum just to name a few president obama himself was always a force present and shaping the primary campaign just felony is the national political correspondent for the new york times romney campaign was actually fighting on several different fronts and herds is newt gingrich for a while that it was rick santorum's the surviving and walkable at the gate but the other element that was always present was the obama campaign preston's and so i think a once it became that actually obama versus romney against probably the first week of april or the second or so it was very clearly a bombing campaign was intent on defining governor running out of the barts

immediately was almost entering among some democrats oh they're wasting their money and should they be doing this i think it's probably clear i'm guessing that the region can you agree that was a good use of money to define color underwear and it just reminded me exactly of the two dozen or camping and reverse when the bush campaign was intent on defining senator kerry from the beginning and where jerry side is the washington bureau chief of the wall street journal i think governor romney is proving not because of the disability of mentors alike and i'm i'd spent against him and a lot of important states by republicans and i was one of the moderators of the south carolina debate there's nothing that brought obama said a bain capital of course is what those republican candidates at bain capital that it inactivates everyone and i think that the with the people super tuesday

the michigan atlanta ga poignant scenes that actually almost impossible for even rick santorum to win even though people were still trying to devise ways that he can do that here and make is national political reporter for real clear politics press conference the president's now on super tuesday you may remember i'm sure you do the president accused republicans generally and beating the drums of war with iran but he did say mitt romney but it was clear that he was talking about mitt romney he was sort of the media's fault though because in the days following the press conference and he was especially around our quiz commentator eric fernstrom had me about existence and going from the primary to a general election kind of ashamed of the press corps were doing as opposed to asking mitt romney was discharged from president obama but in the president's mind and was pretty clear again rich be fan of the romney campaign these primaries every

week we thought every depression was on the sake of it in the most wednesdays we went in the next we visit another and then somehow whenever our primary thank so you know we will get what we call an island hopping strategy and crime are really very small or not until recently were there and have an enormous that we didn't have the resources for that and move them around hotspots that round and so i went back to cut back on monday now i think of the island where so lansky is co founder and executive vice president of pakistan media research on the people that were in the north carolina primary they stayed there in the vault that they're alive and all the same indiana knows this actually became competitive because it doesn't have the resources of a resource

issue is a huge huge contrast with what the obama camp experienced in two thousand eight we you know we were living very much in the mouth in the primaries and a lot of people forget that because in the general and it was it was a little bit more competitive but in the primary we weren't we were just living in the mouth and you know when we got passed you know i well we sort of pulled everything in and had one of the next states can and you know the other thing that kerry's point and also terence point that that i think we didn't really calculate during the primary season and coming out of the primary season is that on regardless of the fact that the primary electorate viewed our candidate very differently from all the other candidates at the time the primary was done we own all of it if the republicans that it in a debate or said it publicly we all know that and we you know found ourselves you know in the primary debates being asked about contraception and mitt romney making very clear in a specific statements that you know he's not going to take away

contraception that somehow you know in a verbatim as we were looking at you know and spring of this year you know there was a perception that romney was the takeaway contraception an answer that was aided by our friends on the table i am an allegation that they were making that there was and you know even all the way up till election day we were fighting this perception among women that mitt romney was elected president you want to have access to contraceptive switch on you know but all of us seems completely absurd and so we spent a good good heart of the year really just constantly trying to get back to focus on the economy and not talking about peripheral issues that were neither priorities of mitt romney's nor were you in any way you can actually train was frustrating as things were going on that this is now the wealthiest person who's ever run for president that you didn't have more money to do it but he was putting more money and you have a

bigger operation like that in a way and would that have been helpful to think in hindsight it was never frustrating to me that we didn't have a bigger organization i was part of the operation in a way and never tell a number one fine but our operation in la with superior to our operation went well i'm certainly although the primary season i felt like we were far more nimble i'm and then you're forced to me tough choices when you're when you're operating within the parameters of a button i can say i think you'd make smarter choices and you may correct choices i've never been granted mitt romney not putting in millions and millions of dollars and you know i think he felt very strongly that he did not want there to be a perception that he was buying the selection and he was going about it the old fashion way he was raising the money raising the funds that he needed and he works harder it now saying that any candidate i've ever seen going out and raising the money and it is not a small thing photo president united states and be able to compete

for your perceptions of time everybody when the president was running this us romney campaign ride ride is securing the nomination we animated big decision and we finally early on and he doesn't want that the money on wine wasn't coming in like in two thousand and eight so we have made a huge bet that come fall that money was going to come in probably hiring invaluable project and you know when i won as many staff as we possibly could have because we want to run up to the registration numbers and you know we had to say nixon voices there early and it was a big gamble then i get messina and axelrod a lot of credit for and what we have to look at the longing here and we need to make that it's not a really big fight and we had been out there for years now and a lot of people the other than some definition obviously the primary but still people the critical independents to our intention of most republican primary we need some of that definition it is a huge gamble wanted every decision because we we couldn't guarantee that money was to become enlightened ended up coming and towards the end

especially given all that we've been hearing from all the records of care that enthusiasm gap so with the decision or it could've not know that they were that the idea that me as an observer some using zombies campaign for doing this purge arrested that felt to me like everything upside down on both sides jerry side is washington bureau chief of the wall street journal that what you got to do is start was primary running ads that the fine candidate and instead investor with a here's what the first ten things i would do you guys supposed to start small positive built a negative that wave and he did exactly the opposite so for some exceptions where that hasn't been a journalist and like orwell was doing the opposite of what you're supposed to be you're going to forgive the paradigm for or what what was really needed to heal so that by outlining

what mitt romney would do as president that we were defining that can you know when we were you know testing you know as we found over and over that what people really wanted to know and then this is where the choice isn't you know you marty said that that brought obama has been a failure what is mitt romney going to be the difference and so that was you know sort of defining mitt romney but they're going back to iran one thing in this one invention an and i think that this was one of the you know part of the genius of the obama campaign was that day sort of slates that the electorate and it wasn't just coming out of the gate and running ads in a conventional way and you know we would sit in these meetings every morning and look at the volume other ads different acts that were all sort of reinforcing you know the message that that brent spoke about which was you know i'm like you i mean you know that has been a strengthening economy by strengthening the middle class and the date they were were running a lot of different ads target of a lot of different groups eunice very

specific messaging targeted at women targeting young people targeted at the hispanic voters i'm saying a lot of things than i think it is at that but none of that you know very specific targeted things that i don't think they ever would have said i think you know a broadcast unless television and i'm in and really you know driving up enthusiasm among you know both their core an independent voters state by state and media market by media market in a really brilliant way that we we would've loved to have been able to remember back in may and june of this year again aaron lee pike national political reporter for real clear politics when you are defining romney i was shocked by the lack of any kind of a messaging ads strategy about his record of massachusetts

and i'm sure that was done to somewhat but i just didn't think that it ever broke rail inspector noteworthy and obviously there was an ad saying it was a bipartisan governor and how the league bring people together at the president couldn't lead there are many times that i thought that that was a topic the new elements in war and just never really did and i think part of the reason is because i still think that it really so if you're just joining us we're hearing highlights from the two thousand twelfth post election conference at the university of kansas dole institute of politics the conference gather some of the top campaign strategists and political journalist to analyze the presidential election this year is panel featured brett colburn jeremy bird and marlon marshall on the obama campaign and katie gauge and rich beeson from the romney campaign as well as political reporters from the new york times the wall street journal

politico and real clear politics this event took place at the dole institute on december sixth and seventh two thousand twelve i'm kate mcintyre you are listening to a pr prisons on kansas public radio on august eleventh mitt romney announced his running mate representative paul ryan a conservative congressman from wisconsin katie gage was deputy campaign manager for governor romney i think that our process was something that was pretty well covered at the time it was a very very closed process i mean if you were inside the campaign it was it was no more broadly unesco eleven that was perceived this was very much on your process that mitt romney certainly now at the process that he wanted to pursue he was very very clear in his goals that he wanted to have somebody who was ready and they want to be president i'm and that that was the primary overwriting goal i don't know that i've ever heard a

conversation about the vice president candidate in the context of how it would help politically coverage has a different sense of that but it was all very much about somebody who could be a governing partner with mitt romney i'm you know i think probably the first point of contact we had a pervert opportunity to get a look at the two of them together was during the wisconsin primary in the theater than an and congressman ryan had endorsed i'm about a week out from that primary and i was on the road with them a great deal during that time and it was and for the press corps covering it was very obvious the chemistry between these two guys they just sort of wet and how humans are really really smart guy you know to be innocent and an interactive with with somebody like ryan who really just sort of ah i don't know the right word is that dessert you wanted him to own to thinking and i was somebody that was sort of a match for

him privately was it was really interesting and i remember in the context of the vp candidate i remember talking with richard matt and others that their headquarters and say wow you know they're just great together listed in town hall meetings and you know you know we'll talk about that a lot of there was a very clear a chemistry and so i think you know as he was you know working with the flyers and narrowing down the potential candidates are looking for like what he wanted and moving forward i think he thought that that ryan was the bolshoi's he was not somebody that that was undefined time and not you know come with subpoenas a very specific that's the belief that if it was just a very natural i think a natural choice for them at the end of the day just was sort of an easy choice rich beeson was national political director for mitt romney as talk about the current war that the folks here at this point to

listen to the continuing to call some friends of mine back home in colorado say they would hear a vp selections i don't know what you know about how much we're involved in it it was a but this is this is a governor romney about wires and a very small people involved in the latest decision for me i was very exciting and we had a guy who was generation x candidate and killed scores among catholics to blue collar district he represented in wisconsin was formally represented by democrat les aspin for a long time so this is again a review we can appeal to a lot of a sense of love for this a purely political point of you know i would resign get off of me as the announcement was made of the uss wisconsin iowa and virginia and i'm going to go i think the opportunities that are presented itself but they're literally was no correlation between job

dillard author the battleship served colburn was national communications director for president obama's reelection campaign in over for us living in a forceful address that laskin author of the talk about the vp pick is that people be like no i'm walking pulling levers i really want paul ryan the vice president so he got a look at what what is ending the vice present choices about all that there's a practical side to it you know bring a second person on the ticket it spreads the field gives you a surrogate and a level didn't have before and i think that in iraq evasion gop credibly good about how ryan help in that regard he's a great campaigner he got out there i work in a lot of ways it's similar to what biden had for us in two thousand at it in the league going to markets and the response of more movement called a deal capital markets places like that so but again that so you discover practical side of what they physically beautiful the campaign and the other side is and where we do the

vp pick regardless of view that is what is the first really big decision a candidate makes and it's what isn't say about the candidate and anti so we push i think art was one of those instances where you know talking points once then they were just what we thought you know we felt like that was you know really put your arm john ryan budget and does that was a good thing because the great thing about a budget anyone's ever worked in congress knows or until the budget process is it touches every year gave us a window into that how we talk about the economic philosophy that we were creating on to the romney campaign that touched every single person a reason for the country as a budget and that's invention matter what my family what impact on some level so that was our you know our rallying cry was he's a great spokesperson these are great spokesperson for a philosophy that we don't agree with the philosophy is has now concluded it's now written down the document valuables of other vitamins at him president his imagination in places like that so for us we saw as an opportunity was yeah we'll go around as hamlet for the

house for a new job what do you think its signal when rhymes at the time it turns breaking on friday night he was very closely held mean so that was very frustrating for her but nobody was very difficult to break once he was there on friday evening on sunday morning edition gregory report that and it seemed sort of on romney white was what people thought of people ferguson who would be senator portman i was suddenly be the a former governor of the minnesota governor appointee but anyway i think people thought it was a bold choice it was you know you could see the energy up there on the stage and regina de but opponents wisconsin the next day for the first the relative of wisconsin huge crowd out in the western suburbs of the milwaukee but even by that i was a little bit struck by the messaging was already becoming a bit of a problem

and the road were saying it's the romney ryan plan that the ryan romney ticket and i'm not sure that from a message point of view that only several steps in the dark ages were as prepared to sort of get ready and be in this is romney ryan that were supposed to arrive romney but at the very beginning was very very terrible and that i think like all us presidential candidates is sort of an income the number to muster certainly become the number two jesus over all though i think that was a song that you wrote i think that timing was surprising and you know my initial brianna timing was that romney's campaign that we needed to turn the page on the prairie that foreign trip had generated a lot of bad press coverage and they just wanted to move into the next phase of the campaign but i don't think it was surprising anyway told me is that paul ryan passed whatever tests that mitt romney had her hand and the first time it was clear

that paul ryan is going to be each of the states was some signing day when the campaign had advised that paul ryan is going to headline a discussion or some sort of roundtable in north carolina and then one by one you sought simple it go to north carolina and then and then rob portman to the st anne bobby jindal had a couple of his events but it was very clear who is on the west and again as you saw all of these candidates those are different kinds of tryouts and you know by the end of it it was pretty clear that as good or any other thing i point out is i think the gut feeling for me that it was potentially going to be power i was that there was a washington post profile on rob portman that may remember that was very detail and the order had talked to many of roberts' best friends is clear that rob portman wanted the job there was one line in the fourteen paragraph of the story where someone had said somewhere within the romney

campaign you know rob portman and mitt romney get along but he really likes paul ryan a chemistry is better and disney that that meant some again katie gates' deputy campaign manager for mitt romney i'm not i mean i'm not one smile when i think he really came at this from the perspective of governing and it really felt like a i mean you know i was you know turn into conversations with him never in a non specific units that served weapons thinking was and he always taught very much in terms of you know to the point that somebody made about what it says about what this choice that about him and what it means to the country he felt a very strong obligation not only that this was somebody he was going to have to partner with that anything happened to him the president of the united states in and the magnitude of that was it was never ever lost on him and there was very little political calculus and you

know and i think that there's a lot that can be said a vote or would it have made a difference in ohio but everything changes if you pick somebody that can educate or do you bend certain walk into the early years of george w bush marco rubio you know the unknowns that you walk into their you know i was somebody who just loved temple and personally mean this is a guy that came onboard our campaign at a really critical time and was so committed to our campaign and has personally very very well liked on but you know you don't know what the issues are they walk into their set any candidate that you know everything changes but i will say that if you were writing a book as a political operative the kind of candidate you'd like to have come in your campaign you know you're in the process paul ryan is he's the guy that you wanted this was a guy who was tireless he was a guy that never embarrassed on our party or arpa and he argued that it his team just became a part of our

team and you know i think it was one of the wisest choices than ever seen that may he and certainly teammate to do over again i think it would do exactly the same way business is brokerage fun inside of one thing you should feel really good about the money it's an income that is not having to go through the prep process but the other side is this is the worst thing in the world because basically what happens is everybody is on the shortlist every single thing we had ready for them right and we're ready or anybody else right so whenever the elements of our clothes are reactive will out is a website a video you know research hat on stop photos of characters like this whole world in campaigns of the campaign that never happened right when i actually never re enter the speech and over again on the circuit maybe they're just going away and what's funny is the other couple of campaigns is you're always fighting the last campaign away write you try to not make the station a four years ago and it's really guard against it the origin

of this was the number of people we're ready for a recount on election day mia you know we've overshot the runway and rollers course we've also apparently thousand idle the reason the sun was the surveillance reaction where you would do and that when elected official and we would put together a whole maybe it's i like to think of what makes total sense that it really is this you know so signals that the un actually gotten a video on her own so i think in the well is in and doesn't answer because a warning remember i've never had a conversation with aaron about you know that this sort of calculation of all these candidates and the amount of the time that they have with mitt romney wrote about the next morning and said wow if it all seems very calculated for realizing that you know we're just going well electability that they were supposed to here you have to file a report

i'll probably just the one as having lived through quail and lieberman hey when i think of deon surprise surprise to seventy six mites fawcett was the victim when citizens such a good surgeon third i remember thinking two things one was when he was named one was a while i guess there will be an etch a sketch moment and secondarily thinking but that year there were ominous been of the paul ryan budget around my neck anyways ok i will move along to the convention decides well dressed very broad questions on each convention the republican convention first chadian rich can you guess the water objectives more than walking it off the place that if you don't mind are likely to think that's a big fat yes some investments in one

thing and you know coming out of the primaries and you know mitt romney was the nominee of the party but i think it was clear that he was not yet the leader of the party i mean there was a lot of sort of coming together that had to be done and i think that there were two pivotal moments for us in a general election on that that letter that placed the first one wasn't all right i think that there was a lot of skepticism here is this guy or are a real moderate and when it comes to make its decisions he had to make a moderate voice i think picking paul ryan with a window into his thought that that disguise a conservative and to govern as a conservative and then that first debate and i think after those two things that's when it became about more than just beating barack obama or a party that's when it became about electing that runs i think that those are two really important moment and pulverize the survey of her time prospective the sort of you know areas like an iceberg

iceberg below it all everything was going on in the photo they don't want all that well you know we have the nomination sewn also eating steak and competing developed during five delegations they could have nominated him and also you know ron paul delegates on one key committees that the rules in india where the convictions and so there was a wall another part of a convention that we had to you know we we we work for the ron paul people early on made him feel inclusive in the process and i think you know they've mitigated the damage at the convention delegates ron paul

and then you know a state like iowa romney twenty twelve ron paul one person running twenty miles no not a mouthful of any nominee but it was like out of a specific were not in a let your votes you know and then another part of them and it seemed like a step like were announced that you guys were here and an occasional the ultimate that small number of moderate secular clothes gary gensler one one standing just announced there were two thousand lincoln both ron paul and you know he didn't want to write the bombing were so upset two thousand all the rest of it was that just a little through an agnostic we're told or how we brought them in part of the process that they are the rebel leadership whether it's just

been in any number of voters on all say they were treated for more respectfully or more recently when they were kidnapped by a reporter so you know can we go through five specific things but i think all in all they were made them feel welcome and respect the process so there was a section of the ron paul supporters that no matter what you did they were you know they were sort of a protest vote so i don't think that you know offering an estimated that i don't think that really was so it overall at the convention was meant to introduce governor romney his message and on to give a very strong speech of the convention paul ryan and they're not only can you talk about that that act well you know i think that is probably a surprise to a lot of people are

fired you know when we were watching it all that we were you know we were kind of watson for different things on the war i don't know that we were aware of it you know the kind of impact that was with having it at the time but you know ross report who was one of our colleagues and an executive produced the convention and was part of the conversations with mr eastwood you know it's he says you have a risk that this iconic philanthropy alone buying you know young and old you know regardless of party affiliation and operas to come and make an endorsement and that some things are different an entertaining and he says he has an idea what they you know you don't know this was not the first time he'd spoken to an iconic campaign event he had attended and a couple of fundraisers for our campaign and i've been very much an investment and i'm you know i think that you know it

was interesting to me to hear last week the obama campaign how you know the impact that having in terms of sort of job generating enthusiasm among their people and the fact that they felt that it was very disrespectful to the president and i'm no to the earlier that sometimes are surrogates and their super pacs don't always do things the way you would do one of the things we were all very cognizant of who's trying to be very respectful of the president not only because it's the right thing to do in the matter of this kind of discourse that but also because we felt like they didn't do us any favors some appointed employ it to be disrespectful of the president i think maybe we did not believe at that time yes or the level of antagonism that that would create it but it was certainly not plan it was nothing anybody you know it was something that even i think when you're standing backstage in the attendees still there again i said we had

this idea when he wanted to get that i do think that the level of which the media i want that and created a story out of it was you know we're like ridiculous i mean it wasn't certainly not the most critical things that are done over the course of what ended up being a three day convention but that certainly in the story are like twenty thousand well was little things that were said i'm done that and this massive news vacuum that has been created with you know nonstop news coverage of these campaigns you never know what little thing was going to dominate an entertainer is a point of not being able to you know talk about mitt romney of massachusetts governor there are all kinds of things we would prefer to be talking about during the campaign and we spent i think you know talking about this time as massachusetts governor instead attorneys what they're not ok let's go to the democratic

convention you guys had a different problem the summertime there was a piece that was published that president clinton in the white house completely denied it said that there'd been a secret meeting klan meeting and that president clinton had heard secretary clinton to run in the primary and there was going to be a magic on a rocky own all of relationship where the plane president obama yeah what how did that transpire and were you happy with the image and i think that some you worked for clinton in the primary the three of us are probably privy to any conversations that former president lincoln's early years living in his speech that you mentioned with a great moment seeing him as a serbian for us especially in the last few months was a pretty incredible thing i've given obviously the park relationship with the clintons you know he was literally there was working president when the foreigners he's a gracious campaigner and he was anonymous is on

schedule in the waning days did say analyst in five events in minnesota's us it's literally his advancing was a twenty three year old kid going to try to find a microphone into town in new hampshire that day before election day leonard in the back of a pickup truck and it was a lot of that and so it obviously a lead a functional more than it speaks to you the evolution of the relationship where god we can have a better a better runner advocate a former president and somebody who he was able to she was able to act as a of their fire and into somebody had this unique experience having gone through an economic downturn having worked with republicans in the past having a long view on our party that really was able to say look give some context what the president's been going through what he inherited what is done to try to fix it and look i went through similar things i was eventually successful so even those folks who might had doubts about how successful president so far until the story or trying to tell a context movement for an eventual successor know so again

jeremy bird national field director for president obama's reelection campaign there wasn't a sort of a risk free kind of laurie penny was very high powered and you know we we had grace because tess are going they won you witnessed michelle obama and then you have bill clinton and the vice president and the president i mean it was a said a great line of the first i think that the government job and what we needed to do was energizer folks heading into what would be the end for the last stretch of this marathon we have been we have been running in and did just that and it really motivated and energized are based at the same time it didn't if we were able for independent voters you know in any rate i think they did exactly what we want due diligence identities of course the search for these guys know the weather was a huge deal they could afford a convention had assured him three years ago the hurricane and that is not good you know what the have something planned it as nine months on it and they had to really change it

that the women's event on our side you know we went to and we're going to fill that stadium and there are more cop in any numbers and we're going to fill that stadium it was going to be huge you're georgia we want to have enthusiasm we had been working for months to plan ourselves in north carolina and to have a full stadium and twenty and i was worried that we might've gone to shout overshot the runway in terms of how many people we have gotten tickets to a car confirmed and out of the process for senator made a stronger anyway because we were partners with the volatility was a huge missed opportunity for us we put out a football stadium for folks launching the president and the last big campaign instead we were inside with corporate audits which isn't what we plan for un we have been planning something different for two years as an i really was hard for us particularly north carolina became a sort of all people the staff are volunteers that has begun to build up to that moment you know the union to get the watch party at the convention center somewhere near with a very different

ending in a football stadium announcer watching him and that would've been a great story about enthusiasm to have a big one for us where did notify normally talk about abusive or internally with his top you've been listening to highlights from last week's two thousand while post election conference at the dole institute of politics moderated by bill lacy the dole institute have some major technical issues with their ideas system at this event thanks for your patience i'm j mcintyre kbr prisons is a production of kansas public radio at the university of kansas