Team Romney ramps up ground game

>>> mitt romney faces some tough demographic challenges as he tried to expand the map, namely that the growing number of young and nonwhite voters. mark mckinnon is a contributor to the daily beast and former strategist for george w. bush and fellow at the harvard institute of politics . let's talk about that demography because the number of hispanics that are expanding population and the numbers who are supporting barack obama over mitt romney is pretty astounding. are they going to vote and how does the republican party overcome some of the rhetoric for the primary?

>> i think it's a problem, andrea. whether mitt romney wins or loses if he wins because there was a strategy of trying to get an increasing proportion of a shrinking demographic which is white men. for the future of the republican party it has to go beyond that. we've got to fight find a way to communicate messages attractive to minority and women voters because all those demographics are growing. we are chicago our way to the -- clawing our way to the bottom as a party unless we realize that the party gets right on messages and policies that have attraction to those voting constituencies that are key.

>> given the population growth , even if mitt romney was to get john mccain 's percentage ofs hispanic voters he would not be able to win this election if everything else remains equal.

>> that's right. when i worked for george w. bush he recognized how important that constituency was and worked hard on it and in 2000 , we went into that election with a target goal of having 40% of the hispanic vote. we got 41. because that was growing demographic we recognized and we had to increase that share so our goal was 43 and we got 44. i think john mccain got 37% maybe.

>> right.

>> and i think romney is at 30 or below and it's impossible to win without a stronger hispanic coalition.

>> what does it say about the republican party because mitt romney , many say, was a different person when he was governor of massachusetts , has pivoted during the debates and closing speeches in these past weeks into a pragmatic sounding bipartisan republican. but what does it say about the process during the primaries and it would be the same on the left for the democrats if they did not have an incumbent president, the primary process just forces people into taking positions that then make it impossible to run and be a candidate broadly appealing to the rest of the country.

>> no question about it. we can talk for the whole program about how we got here, but the primary -- but how we got to the hyper partisan environment we're in, but no question that the primary on both sides has gone further to the extremes which makes it much more difficult for the nominee of the party to move to the middle and communicate a broad message that appeals to the broader electorate and happened this time the republican party is the party that had the primary and the consequence i think mitt romney in order to win that primary moved much further right than or moved so far right it made it much more difficult for him to appeal to that broad constituency that the republicans need to win a general election .

>> mark mckinnon , thanks very much.