that doesn't necessarily mean they're out of hope or there's desperation. they can go back and say, this was part of our plan, this was a part of a couple of our plans. >> let's go regionally to the midwest, for a second. the past three years has been tough in terms of unemployment there. how much is that going to impact the president in his re-election campaign? >> well, i mean, the economy -- both nominees are going to have their own leg weights and their own albatrosses. the economy is going to be a big challenge for the president. that's no secret. frankly, in the polling we see, in almost every state, all around the country, whether it's the south or the midwest, the economy is a big issue. so he did perform pretty well in the midwest. particularly states in one of the plans like iowa and ohio. so i think there's a lot of hope that that plan could be one of their paths to victory. and so, you know, the republican nominees on the other hand, i mean, they're not so hot either. and there are a lot of questions that are going to be raised by who comes out of this nominating process.