does that work as a bigger pitch to older voters in a way that might be more successful in a typical democrat year? >> it does to some degree. but remember the republicans are playing very careful politics with this. they are saying, none of these cuts are going to affect you. because the older generation, in particular, are one of the best constituencies. remember all the old new dealers, most of them have gone to their eternal reward. this particular cohert is a more con serve tiff cohort of older voters than the one that came before. so the republicans know that they've got to pitch to them, but i do think that health care issues and medicare give him some potential. and the ryan budget, i think, is a wide opening because women tend to be more for the safety net than men. >> e.j.dionne, msnbc contributor, thank you for springing to my defense.