republican women have a problem with. it s on the republican platform. virginia and colorado, both of those states, michael bennett is the united states senate in colorado, he survived because of the abortion issue, because of the gender gap. he created one of the widest gender gaps in any senate race in the country in 2010. i want to get to a larger point, the issue, the irony to akin and mourdock. and hearing somebody with the nrsc. what you just said about mourdock is a reminder. that isn t who the nrsc wanted, they wanted more moderate republicans, more establishment republicans, but they ve not been able to police their own party, they can t. because the base of the party will lash out at them this is an anchor around mitt romney. one of the things our polling has shown is that mitt romney y. has better favorable ratings than the republican party overall. o the democratic party has better favorable ratings than the republican party overall.. i think there s a case to be made, if
now the storm has wreaked havoc on the schedule. for instance the president is going to florida today. he has canceled virginia events tomorrow. canceled colorado tuesday. and frankly, wisconsin on tuesday, i think depending on the impact of the storm, also canceled. but you see the emphasis of where he wants to be over the next 72 hours. florida, ohio and wisconsin. he wanted to be in virginia, he wanted to be in colorado. now take a look at governor romney s schedule, david. when you look it s ohio today. it was supposed to be virginia today. but he moved all of those events to ohio because of the storm. and then look where he is spending his monday it s the midwest. and david, that s where they feel like they have to pick offer a couple of states, no the just ohio, ohio plus something else. it s interesting, as i talked to the romney campaign at the etched of the week, they were emphasizing the momentum argument. they feel the debates gave him a second look in such a way that he
i ve seen romney make gestures at it, but not lay it out in a way that s forceful. that i think would make a change, want to do actual change. let me continue that theme. i want to pick up there as we turn to the democratic governor of battleground, colorado, john hickenlooper and the republican governor, paul ryan s home state of wisconsin, scott walker. governors, welcome back to meet the press, both of you. glad to be back. both states are pretty tight here, pretty remarkable is tight as well, good news for romney. a rrn hasn t won your state since 1984. and in colorado, governor hickenlooper, look at our latest polling from nbc news and marist. 48-48. i know talking to the obama campaign. i know they think it s not that close, but they know it s tight. governor hickenlooper, you start, what s decisive? what tips the scales in your state and in this election? well i think if you look at the mess that president obama inherited and i mean losing
before the final debate. take a moment here to take us through how each side thinks they win the state. the joke is there are five, it s five states within one state. the five ohios. let me take you through basically the romney pattern here. which is run up the score in coal country, that s what bush did in 04, and win the swing areas of columbus media market, an 04 bush territory. was 08 obama. and win hamilton county. for the president, run up the score in cleveland, cuyahoga county and overperform with working-class white guys in the auto belt, if you will, the toledo area. if you re looking at one countyn that may tell us more than anything, david, you sit over here and we re going to take you to hamilton county. look at this. it s as easy of a swing county as it is, bush carry dd in 04 by 22,000 votes. obama carried it by 30,000 votes there. it s why mitt romney spent a lot of time in cincinnati this week. as hamilton county goes,
that s why he said in the op-ed the government should provide guarantees. what government? what government? rachel, quick comment, i want to get back to chuck in ohio. what governor romney said is you can kiss the automotive industry good-bye if the president obama goes ahead with the auto industry rescue that he went ahead with that saved the auto industry. it was a success and mr. romney is trying to deny the fact that he was against it and trying to take some of the credit for it. the company that is doing best, ford motor company was not rescued. they were for the auto rescue, because they were afraid the whole supply chain would go out if the others went down. we re going to have more on the economy as we move along. the roundtable stays with us for the hour. i m about to talk to john kasich in ohio where these themes are perfectly in his wheelhouse, because it s really what s going to decide ohio. before we do that, think it would be so interesting to really underst