Previewing Wednesday’s debate

>> start with debate expectations. do you agree with chris christie it's silly, the games the campaigns are playing?

>> i don't want to characterize it the way governor christie did. i'll characterize it this way. it's important for viewers to get a chance to do comparison shopping seeing the two candidates face to face and i do think it has significance. it gives them a choice. i'm a strong believer that debates are a very significant part of presidential campaigns.

>> it's been interesting over the years. new england has a history of sort of verbal combat. we saw the massachusetts senate debate. new hampshire , folks in new england expect this kind of stuff. romney coming from massachusetts, do you expect this to be some heavy verbal combat between the two of them?

>> i expect the tone to be a little bit less aggressive than people might be expecting, but i expect the content to be pointed and sharp and specific. and i think you can go into combat without having to raise the decibels too much. but i do think that the two candidates will be right on target with substance.

>> want to talk to you about some of the polling we're seeing. national polls, it seems as if the dip that romney experienced last week is gone. that's the good news for you guys. the bad news is, president obama 's number hasn't moved. so the bounce that he got into the 49, 50% range has held where it's governor romney 's number that is fluid. are you one of those that believe that 49, 50% is the winning range? so that your next job, you're in the race, then the next job is you have to figure out how to peel votes away.

>> you look at this in the context of where we are. there's five-plus weeks. there's a lot that can happen in five weeks. there's three presidential debates . and there's probably two or three hundred million ads to be dumped on the public. things change in presidential campaigns quite actively in september and early october. it's now that you start looking at serious numbers. the carter/reagan race didn't change until the last few weeks. there's a close parallel between this and carter/reagan.

>> let me ask you about new hampshire 's poll. i'm sure you didn't miss it. 15-point deficit for mitt romney . i'm guessing you'll argue with some parts.

>> i'm not going to argue with it at all. do you really believe it's right? let me test your political wisdom. do you think it's possible for that to be right? you know it's a piece of garbage garbage?

>> this is a good pollster, but you can argue that it's not 15%. do you believe mitt romney is behind in new hampshire ?

>> no, i believe it's head to head in new hampshire . and i've seen enough other polls to tell you that is a piece of garbage. this race in new hampshire will be won by mitt romney by two to three points. i'm willing to say that publically and stick by it and i know that it that poll of 15 points is absolutely invalid.

>> every sort of professional poll i have seen of campaigns, though, all seem to have barack obama ahead and the big issue in new hampshire has been the gender gap with moderate women who may be the republicans fiscally but uncomfortable on social issues. you have had to navigate that before. that's always an issue for new hampshire republicans. how does mitt romney navigate it?

>> the big issue in new hampshire is always the economy and taxes. so, yeah, the obama campaign has been pumping tons of noneconomic ads up here, so to speak. the romney campaign in this next five weeks brings the examination back to the economic issue, the job issue, the 8% un unemployment, 23 million unemployed or underemployed. that's what mitt romney has to start doing in the debate and in the next five weeks. and i think the election is still going to be decided on jobs.

>> all right. governor john sununu , former governor of new hampshire . nice to talk with you.

>> thank you.