partisan witch hunt, in the words of luke just moments ago. at the same time, we know that aberdeen has not been on the campaign trail the last few days. that s highly unusual. she is almost a constant presence out here with secretary clinton. clinton herself won t actually be on the road early next week, jose, as she hunkers down and preps for this high-profile hearing next week. i ll tell you, out on the campaign trail, you don t hear a lot about this topic from clinton s most ardent supporters. these are the people coming out here, supporting her, rallying for her, so it s not unusual that they wouldn t be bringing this up. at the same time, as we ve been talking about for the last several months, clinton appears to have a likability problem. so, a lot of stakes i should say, high stakes, really, for her appearance in capitol hill next week. jose? hallie jackson in new hampshire and luke russert on capitol hill. thank you both for being with me. someone else likely watching toda
vision and what she intends to do. everyone would like to see bill clinton front and center in all of the states and being a surrogate he s a superspouse don t you think he would help her. bill clinton could help all of us. he ll be a tremendous asset to the campaign. he s a double-edged sword and he understand that. he overshadows her. he s got incredible political talent, natural political talent. she doesn t. she s got to work at it hard. she has the likability problem, trustworthiness problem. it s awkward, other spouses will be here. bill clinton is in town. he s watching it on tv like the rest of the american people. we experienced this in 07 and 08. when hillary clinton was in new hampshire, bill clinton was in iowa. i say, let the big dog bark. let him bark.
significantly to the left tomorrow. right, well i think that is the expectation. i see that with someone like bernie sanders on the stage, we ve seen this shift in her political viewpoints or this evolution on so many issues as of late and i do think that the likability problem is one of hillary clinton s biggest problems. in some respects her biggest problem is herself. this is her lack of authenticity and something that david axelrod criticized and recently her own speechwriter. it s interesting to see she has intense debates with barack obama but it seems so long ago and now this opponent is so different. with bernie sanders he is getting big crowds. what the reason for the big crowds and how does hillary make the most of this opportunity to stop this momentum? well i think it goes back to the lack of authenticity. with someone like bernie sanders, he says i m a self-aviewed socialist, so he owns the policies that he supports and you know, we haven t seen as many evolutions
something different to get ahold of this early on? i think it would be wise for her to do that. i think again the campaign for a long time, they are keep herg guarded and keep making the argument they just want her to be talking to voters. everything is very scripted with speeches. compare that to republicans who are being accessible. answering hundreds of questions. they want to be able too talk to the voter. and even with donald trump and his comments he s the one the media is so attracted to and getting all these answers from and he s willing to answer any question. hillary has decided to take a different strategy. i think it is hurting her because at the end the controversies of the private e-mail can the clinton donation with the foundation all the questions still remain to be answered. she hasn t answered it accurately and that is affecting her trust issue, honesty issue and the likability problem. i don t think there is a reporter in the media in washington or new york that
connecting with questionnaires, getting this idea that he can handle real people, can the president get people to give him another look? a case can be made. this debate is now the most crucial with next week s. plus, four races that tell a story of not just big money but also a clue about which party can claim victory in november even if control doesn t necessarily change hands. good morning from washington. it s 22 days until election day and it s monday, october 15th, 2012. i m chuck todd. for a few of you, it s another irs deadline. let s get to our reads of the morning. with three reads to go, tomorrow s town hall debate in new york could be a turning point for romney it s an opportunity to clear what has been his biggest hurdle, the likability problem. understand the problems of regular people. meanwhile, the president badly