Looking towards the conventions

>> romney/ryan ticket set, governor of new jersey tapped for the keynote address , republicans are full steam ahead forth big event at month's end. the man in charge of putting it all together is reince priebus, chairman of the republican national committee . mr. chairman, good morning. bright and early from colorado, right?

>> hey, chuck. you bet. we are bright and early labor day excited for a big day here at the local high school and paul's gonna have a great speech this morning and we are looking forward to t you are right, we got a big race back in wisconsin for the senate today, too.

>> let me ask you about the message of now the convention. do you feel like the convention has a theme now? ryan are you have chris christie what is the theme that you want this convention to be about other than the way you are running about -- against president obama ? what is the theme? what is the message of the republican party in 2012 ?

>> yeah, and marco rubio introducing mitt romney on thursday night is going to be great. here's what i generally think about this. i think most people would agree that when you're dealing with an incumbent president like obama , there are generally in my opinion, two boxes that people in america have to check. the first box is first, which is did this president fulfill the mission? did he meet the promises and are we better off today than we were three or four years ago? that's the first question. and that's the first box. the second box that you can only get to after the first one is did the republicans put an articulate, reasonable, intelligent alternative leaders on the ballot to lead this country? that is box that i personally perceive the convention really to hone in on, which is the mitt romney story, who is mitt romney ? a good, decent man that built something from nothing, that gave away his father's inheritan inheritance, saved the olympics, good governor. that store very a story of success that we, in the republican party , are gonna celebrate. we are gonna celebrate the american dream and success. we are not going gonna be on defense on success and i think that that is something that you are going to see at the convention. the mitt romney story and the american dream .

>> okay. i want to ask but a comment you made on "meet the press" on sunday when we were talking about this issue of medicare and this fight over whose cutting medicare around you said the person that has blood on his hands on medicare is president obama . i ask you about that because in paul ryan 's budget, those cuts would stay. is that fair? what part of build a on the president's hands do you mean here?

>> well what i'm talking about is the fact that the president, the president in his budget, which by the way, not in his budget, in obama care, the president took, basically stole, and stole is the right word actually, stole $700 billion in the ten-year window from medicare and put it into obama care to help pay for it. it is very clear. the fact of the matter is it's accurate. it's what he did. and by the way, it's what --

>> what would you do with this $700 billion in savings? what is paul ryan gonna do with it?

>> this is the same -- this is the same definition that barack obama used when describing what john mccain wanted to do in 2008 . so, if he doesn't like the term "stole" or raid from medicare to pay something else exshouldn't have used it in 2008 . so, what paul ryan -- i mean what mitt romney has done, in his plan, he has decided that he is going to put that money back into medicare . this is about the future, chuck, what we are going to do about something both republicans and democrat agree with, if we do nothing, which is what the president is doing now, medicare will be broke. everyone can agree with that the bigger question is what is this president going to do about it and what has he done about it and what are we going to do about it? are we going to shy away from even having a debate? no. i think we need to charge up the hill, have this debate and bring it to the american people . and i've -- i got to tell you, as one of paul's good friends from wisconsin, i have seen him take this debate and go to town halls and talk to people in a tough district and make the case that we need to save medicare around that's what we are going to do.

>> i want to ask you about a report in politico this morning and it admit it is a lot of anonymous republican strategists.

>> always anonymous strategists.

>> people working on house and senate race and one says the most popular phrase in washington right now is "i love paul ryan " but this person adds, "this could be the defining moment of the campaign if they win their battle to define medicare , romney wins the presidency if they lose it they lose big in the fall." do you agree with that analysis, full, from a republican strategist?

>> well, i think that mitt romney has shown incredible leadership by picking paul ryan . i think we need a defining moment in this country. i think americans are starving for a defining moment in this country where we can have an honest debate about something that we know if we do nothing is going to end poorly. you know what this president has a record. people worse off today than three or four years ago, he didn't fulfill his promise. we are not only going to highlight the fact he failed but we have plans to save this country. we have to do that.

>> do you think --

>> chuck --

>> mr. chairman, do you think republicans down the ballot are making a mistake if they try to distance themselves from paul ryan 's budget?

>> well, i think it's a mistake to shy away from something very clear if we don't do anything something about medicare , do what the president wants to do we will allow medicare to go bankrupt, we want to save it they want to go bankrupt and they have made everything worse. so i think that's what we need to talk about, something we are going to talk about on the campaign trail and we have got a guy in paul ryan that can explain that and make the case to the american people .

>> reince priebus, chairman of the republican party . chris christie your keynote exmarco rubio introducing mitt romney . thanks for coming on. we will be watching.

>> thanks, chuck.