Romney tries to crack Obama’s Midwest firewall

>>> we're here on democracy plaza. the super panel, steve schmidt, melanie barnes, major garrett and joining us from washington former governor of mississippi haley barbour . governor barbour , good morning. are we having coffee with haley? isn't that what you've within doing? did you tape your coffee with haley this morning?

>> i did last night. we've done 90 of them and it has been a very good response but, no, this morning i've been doing things like " morning joe ."

>> you've been pretty blunt. you think hurricane sandy had a big impact on this race. you think it is the explanation -- if mitt romney comes up short, do you think it's the explanation if romney los loses?

>> it's a national election, chuck. if you'd gone back to the last friday in july, i would have said, you know, obama 's really got it going. doesn't look good for romney . last friday, in august, romney had caught up, was about to go ahead. the last friday in september obama had a great month and a four or five point lead in october. it was romney who had the momentum for weeks and nothing obama did broke that momentum. what broke that momentum was a blackout on political news caused by hurricane sandy. now we come out of there with nobody really having a lot of momentum and we have a dead heat race and, you know, i feel very good about romney 's chances but i'm the first to admit this is a very, very close election in a lot of places.

>> major garrett , you have a question of the governor?

>> governor barbour , you've been in republican headquarters on a night like this and the obama campaign is driven by data and they say what matters is data, not atmospherics, not momentum or intensity. in your professional career, where would you rather be, the campaign that has the data or the campaign that has the energy or enthusiasm and on the intangibles how much do you think it matters today?

>> you know, i'm a country lawyer and lawyers used to have an expression we'd say you're entitled to your own opinion but you're not entitled to your own facts. and a lot of times data that is derived by pollsters that you were paying is like claiming your own facts. i saw today the battleground poll all of you are familiar with taken by respected pollsters showed in early voting romney beat obama by four points. i guarantee you that wasn't in the data plan of the obama administration. now i can't tell you whether that's accurate or not but that's what their survey does, very, very respected survey that's been around for years and years.

>> all right. tom brokaw ?

>> governor, what will you say to watch for when the polls begin to close? what are the states that will be the tipoff for you? give us the haley barbour evening.

>> the first two things i'm telling my friends is pay no attention to exit polling . so many people voted early. that's wildly distorted. secondly, the polls close in florida in the eastern time , an hour before they close in the panhandle. if obama wins in the east, you're still going to lose florida because hundreds of thousands of people who talk like me will vote and will have another hour to vote. what i'm really looking for, these will be a bunch of close races. david plouffe was talking about loudoun county , virginia. that is a real bellwether. the question is, it may be 50/50 in loudon county .

>> and then good luck.

>> there are so many close things in this election pointing out one or two is almost doing people a disservice.

>> melanie barnes, you have a question for the governor.

>> i want to go back to the governor's comment about the storm and i think we shouldn't look at the storm as a false reshaping of the election. i mean, politics are about actually people's lives, and i know from having been in the white house that the president, and you talked about it in the last campaign, the president was focused on the fact that we have to do better for people than we did during katrina, and i think people got the opportunity to see leadership, got an opportunity to see planning, got an opportunity to see the importance of government when it's effective. so my comment to the governor is about the fact that, yes, there was a political blackout of sorts but it reverted to a question that really meant a lot to people's lives and what he would have to say about that.

>> here is what i would say about it. go up to the jersey shore and staten island and long island and you ask the people who are there how great the government response has been. i heard governor cuomo on tv talking about how terrible it was. i saw the congressman that represents breezy point saying, you know, the guy at the top has to do more than talk. now that's a democrat congressman. that's not some republican buddy of mine. the president got great press out of it. but the proof is in the performance, and, so far, the people up there say there hasn't been any performance.

>> jeff greenfield , question for the governor.

>> hi, governor. a lot of talk and maybe it happens in most campaigns about the negative quality of the campaign. it was depressing. we didn't raise big issues, the money overwhelmed it. you've been around a while. rate this campaign compared to some others. where do you put it?

>> it was very predictable. obama can't run on his record. and so to get elected he had to make romney unacceptable. some of you all have been talk ing about the effectiveness of the negative stereotype of mitt romney in ohio where they made him look like a vulture capitalist who doesn't know about people like you much less care about people like you who is a quintessential mayrried to an equestrian. that's what i see in this campaign. but it was very predictable. as far as spending $2 billion running for president, jim, my view is that's what we spend every year on potato chips .

>> very quickly, governor barbour , you're involved with crossroads, will we say the super pacs made a big difference in the presidential campaign ? in the presidential?

>> i think they helped romney by not letting him be carpet bombed with nobody trying to put -- and i'm talking about in the spring and summer particularly, that he was getting carpet bombed and the super pacs tried tottention back on th e issues, the economy, jobs, taxes, spending, deficit, debt, energy, and obama care.

>> all right.

>> i think that was useful whether or not it makes a difference or not remains to be seen.

>> governor haley barbour , i have to leave it there. thanks for coming on this morning. enjoy election day . paul ryan is casting his ballot. he gets to vote -- he is one of these people that gets to vote twice. a lot of you would like to vote twice. he does get to do it for himself twice because he is also running for re-election.