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thing. you're president of the united states almost four years. you get into discussions and debate about policy. your staff may disagree, but there's an element of deference. you're a commander in chief. suddenly the job of the debate is to break that all down and take it apart and get them to become again someone who does it. the real trick in debates is to get under your opponent's skin. you get them to crack, that demonstrates the lack of confidence people like to see in the president. one of the ways to get under the president's skin is to treat him less than you might treat a president normally, a little less effort. the stats have to break them down and get them used to that. >> the debate game begins before the game begins, and we're in the pregame right now where everyone is lowering expectations and stay they're guy is not as good as you thought he was and the other guy is really good. explain how that's part of the whole game, and ultimately if you do better than people think you would have done, that's a victory if you don't defeat them. >> the public opinion has kind of
and speaking on behalf of the president of the united states. we'll hear from john kerry around 9:00. a lot of people saying he could be the next secretary of state of the united states. then, of course, vice president joe biden. always interesting, krystal, introducing the president. >> certainly. and luke, speaking of joe biden, he is no bill clinton, but they do have a similar style in a way. they both sort of prefer ad libbing to the teleprompter. john heilman said, in a business full of blow dried atom tons, he, biden, is a vivid, authentic human being. i was wondering, what do you think we can expect from joe biden tonight? >> interestingly enough, the fact joe biden is speaking in the 9:00 p.m. hour is fascinating. usually vice presidents get their own primetime address. the obama campaign saw fit to put him in the 9:00 p.m. what's his best strength for president obama? it's connecting to white, working class voters. you often hear the story from joe biden. just a kid from scranton, p.a., trying to make it in the tough, tough world. that's the message he'll resonate on the president'
the president of the united states needs mr. clinton to help him with that narrow sliver of undecided voters, especially women ages 30 to 50 who grew up with bill clinton as sort of their teenage or childhood president. that's important. the second thing is is that bill clinton and hillary clinton need barack obama. they need him to perform strongly and to do well, because if barack obama loses and loses on the scale of a carter, that is very bad for the democratic brand for years to come and that is not helpful to a, perhaps, nominee or presidential candidate hillary clinton. so on many levels, this is -- they are living vicariously off each other and through each other, and as i said to a buddy of mine back stage a minute ago, clearly they are carrying each other's bags now and that's probably not a bad thing for today's politics. >> one of the interesting tidbits in this new yorker story looks at the -- pardon me. one of the interesting tidbits, sorry, i was hearing something in my ear there. one of the interesting tidbits looks at clinton's strategic advice to barack obama. look, you att
it on tape for the first time a political party in the united states, major political party comes out with guy marriage. this is an unequivocal call, a call for comprehensive immigration reform. again, driving up support among those groups. that's the news out of here today. the other thing i would just mention, i was going to hold up some buns for you guys, that i picked up down here. msnbc is putting pictures of all of the much buttons and people around here, the crowd here, can pick out their favorite one. i was going to bring krystal and toure and s.e. i stopped by the counter and they said, those are all sold out. we have a about a dozen of the kornacki ones left. >> right. >> that not true. >> i know that's not true. >> i shutter to think what they are doing with my buttons down there. let's bring in former -- >> he are pushing your buttons. >> let's bring in ed rendell, when al gore was running and he was named america's governor. governor, how is the dnc this year? we remember the pageant try of 2008. how does the dnc this year celebrate the president, celebrate the party, cel

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