Romney plays catch up with women, latinos

>>> the new nbc news/" wall street journal " poll confirms what we've known all along that mitt romney has a huge ground to make up when it comes to women and latinos . a live look at denver where senator marco rubio is trying to do that speaking at a campaign rally for governor romney . president obama currently leads his challenger among women by a 16-point margin, 56 to 40%, and his advantage among latinos grown to a stunning 50-point gap, 71% to 21%. aware that it needs to address the yawning deficit with the voters the romney campaign has been appealing to both groups on the campaign trail and tv ads and interview with the denver post romney tried to soft somebody of his previously hardline immigration rhetoric saying he would honor president obama 's order providing amnesty to the children of illegal immigrants. ann romney stressed the softer side of mitt.

>> in colorado you know you need someone that has compassion, and that has the capacity to understand what people are going through, to have the solutions and get the job done.

>> at times the attempts to court these voters has been even more ob see kwee yes.

>> i love you women !

>> but has the damage already been done? in a new article in the national journal ron brownstein writes with one key voting block noncollege educated white women . or as brown stein refers to them as waitress moms. through a targeted and sustained appeal to working women on display in obama ads like this one the incumbent has been particularly effective and brown stein's piece he writes democrats say blue collar women have been the principle and most receptive target for their extended ad barrage portraying romney as plutocrat. on airing these on dr. phil and judge judy the strategy seems to be paying off lifting obama's numbers among a group that tilts republicans in swing states that will be a key to victory in november. ask you about this, this late stage i call it a late -- i don't know what i called it a last stage gaps when going into the commercial break , but we've -- this has been something we've seen in the numbers for a while now, romney has a problem among latinos and women and in particular, you know, the latino demographics, 70/20 are terrible numbers. bill clinton got the highest percentage of the hispanic vote in '96, 72%. looks like the president is on track to do that. you see these piecemeal efforts from the romney campaign. cantor media reports romney ran 2100 -- 2,169 spanish language ads from mid april to the end of august. he ran 2,855 in the first 23 days in september.

>> yeah. well look, i think when -- if romney loses and we go back and do the autopsy you're going to start to see the depth of his campaign, you can trace it back to the primaries when rick perry joined the primaries and came at him and the way we took perry down, he made a fool of himself but what did at least as much damage romney attacking perry on immigration and saying he was soft and weak and he was going to be tough on immigration, talked ability self-deportation and this language. that is damage he has never repaired. that seemed to form and solidify way back in the winter and spring, and i just think there's only a limit, there's only so much you can do with advertising unless you want to completely flip flop and change your policy --

>> the etch a sketch.

>> romney just hasn't done that actually. one thing you've seen in the campaign he stuck by things more or less rather than perpetuate the idea --

>> i agree with you on 80% of that. the statement that he might continue the president's amnesty policy would sort of be like a $17,000 bucket. why are you saying that now? that's a reversal of everything -- you've been talking about illegals and magnets and hardline immigration and now all of a sudden talking about amnesty.

>> it's weird as we've seen in our contexts that beginning once he hat the lock on the no nomination make the pivot until four weeks before saying that fake dream program is okay. they look back at the last several elections and george w. bush arguably won his two elections with that extra 10% of latinos that he got because that's 1%, 2% of the vote. and those were very close races. similarly with women , i mean if romney does as badly among women in this election as these polls say, it will break a record. i mean we've seen gender gaps of 8, 10, 11% in the last several elections between democrats and republicans, but --

>> 16.

>> if it's in the teens that will be a new record.

>> and i think karen, we were talking about this during the break, ann romney going out there and saying i love you women . it's not all ann romney 's job but such a simplistic strategy with women and then look at as ron brown stein reports a micro targeted strategy to speak to women on issues not just the 47% stuff but the reproductive stuff, speaks to women 's paychecks, speaks to their pocketbooks.

>> the thing we talk about, months and months ago that the republicans did not understand in terms of this language ability the war on women for women it's not just about equality and rights and reproductive health it is an economic issue. these women in that poll on the pill, they know how much they pay. they know how much they pay for that is money not going to something for their kids and most working moms, my single working mom this way, would give up something for herself before she would give up something for me to make sure i had what i needed. for those women this is a very, you know, very serious issue and again, the fact that there's been such a lack of respect for women and i think also, in this 47% comment, i mean, you know, for people of color a lot of the language is very disrespectful for working people , a lot of the language is so dismissive and disrespectful, it's not just a matter of ticking off issues, it's people kind of hear your disdain.

>> it's not just -- you can't -- which is to say maybe you couldn't have even etch a sketched it if you tried.

>> the nondogs are hearing the dog whistle .

>> i don't think that's true. i think they -- remember, there is -- there's certain moneys that only became available to mitt romney when he took the nomination but he had all of that super backed money being spent on his behalf. now there's a critical question here about the kinds of people who donate to those super pacs, would they have wanted him to tack back to the center, would they have wanted that money to go to that. he could have done it.

>> he didn't really try, did he? coming up, the three-ring circus that has been this election season begins the final leg of its tour in denver tonight. can voters afford the steep ticket price? i will explain why america isn't get its money worth and my post-script coming up next.

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