drip, drip of cindy hyde-smith s appearing on facebook wearing a confederate hat, cindy hyde-smith reading that apology at the debates i think is going to continue to shrink the margin between espy and cindy hyde-smith. look, both republicans and democrats didn t expect this to be an incredibly competitive race, but that s what we re looking at now. something like single-digits separating the two candidates. it is fascinating to watch from afar, you know. midterm cycle, the midterms hyde-smith, espy, i think they were separated by less than a half a point. what do we know about where those other voters will go now, daniel? it s really hard to tell. the voters who supported a third candidate were voters who preferred a candidate to the right of cindy hyde-smith, so it s very hard to tell, a, if they re going to just stay at home, or b, if they re going to
tax reform, find them a trillion dollars or whatever it is. the senators immediately dismiss it. there is no consensus on these very tough issues. it requires presidential leadership. i have spoken to them over and over, what groundwork cannulae. no, we have to hear it from him. it has to be white house leadership. and they think that his time wasting, consuming dramas, going to take them into august, the midterm cycle, won t have come the big things done. chris: is that possible, lisa? after seven or eight years of campaigning against obamacare, years of talking about tax reform, they conceivably might not get this done this year? that will be very problematic. not a lack of ideas but there is a lack of consensus. you are right. look at the way tax reform is playing out, pushing for this border adjustment tax.
tax reform, find them a trillion dollars or whatever it is. the senators immediately dismiss it. there is no consensus on these very tough issues. it requires presidential leadership. i have spoken to them over and over, what groundwork cannulae. no, we have to hear it from him. it has to be white house leadership. and they think that his time wasting, consuming dramas, going to take them into august, the midterm cycle, won t have come the big things done. chris: is that possible, lisa? after seven or eight years of campaigning against obamacare, years of talking about tax reform, they conceivably might not get this done this year? that will be very problematic. not a lack of ideas but there is a lack of consensus. you are right. look at the way tax reform is playing out, pushing for this
steele will participate in the january 3rd forum that will include all the rnc candidates, so it will be quite a show. let me ask you about fund raising. we re looking at the fund raising for 2010. if you look at the midterm cycle, the rnc raised $192 million during steele s tenure. that was down from $243 million in 2006 midterms, and they ended the cycle $15 million in debt. is money the real concern? money is the whole issue. if you heard about the december 1st debate, money was the soap topic. it was first, second and third. ian wagner had said money is the big thing. they talked about donors whose funds were dried up, said they weren t even asked to give to this rnc. and, you know, some of the other republican committees were fund raising off of michael steele. the republican governor s