the campaign we all cover all the time. everything we talk about, every utterance, every gaffe, every debate, every movement. and that s part of politics and in many ways the interesting and enjoyable part of politics, but it s not necessarily the decisive part of politics. there are important and powerful underlying forces that effect every campaign. in 2012, one was the economy. would it be just good enough to allow president obama to win re-election or bad enough to deny re-election. another was voter anger. which direction would it go? a third was the deep red/blue divide and how that shaped attitudes beyond what other people might say. and lastly, the shifting demographics in this country, which have moved against the republican party over a number of years and which they realized in a more significant way when mitt romney got only 27% of the hispanic vote last year.
get the transcript. he did in fact, sir. let me call it an act of terror. he did call it an act of terror. wow. we re back. that was president obama and mitt romney colliding in an exchange over benghazi in the october 16th second presidential debate. the washington post dean of political reporters is out with his new book about that campaign. called collision 2012, obama versus romney and the future of elections in america. the pendulum is swinging in the republican party now. as the party moves hard right, will they really try another establishment time like romney or dole or mccain or christie or jeb bush? or will the party go for one of its tea party heroes like rand paul? here with me now is the author of the great book collision 2016. dan, let s talk about what you call the subterranean campaign of 2012 and what it offers us in the future. we think of the campaign as
they have a problem on their hands on that front and they have to figure out how to deal with it. are they in a who s turn is it mood like they have been in the past? it was reagan s turn and then george, sr. s turn and then george jr. s turn and then mccain s turn and then romney s turn. are they in a who s turn is it mood? or are they into something more revolutionary this time? based upon selection. it doesn t seem like they re in a who s turn is it? because if you look at the people who ran in 2012 and who may run again, rick perry governor of texas, rick santorum, the former pennsylvania senator. the truth is very few people are talking about them as likely nominees or even front runners at the start of this. the party at this point is looking at a very wide open contest for the republican nomination in 2016. there are a lot of people thinking about running. there are a lot of potentially attractive candidates to republican voters. and i think we re going to see a pretty b
significant debate because conservatives don t believe they ve had the opportunity to fairly present their ideas to the country. how about the situation where the party knows they can t win. when they look at hillary as insurmountable, would they just go to their base and put someone in? i think the choice for the republican party in the near term, do they decide they re a congressionally based party, their power will reside by controlling the house of representatives or do they seek to become a national party capable of winning a presidential election? and i don t think we know the answer as to where the party as a whole decides they want to go on that. and the leading indicator will be the vote on immigration? that will be one indicator. very likely, many of the people
paul? here with me now is the author of the great book collision 2016. dan, let s talk about what you call the subterranean campaign of 2012 and what it offers us in the future. we think of the campaign as the campaign we all cover all the time. everything we talk about, every utterance, every gaffe, every debate, every movement. and that s part of politics and in many ways the interesting and enjoyable part of politics, but it s not necessarily the decisive part of politics. there are important and powerful underlying forces that effect every campaign. in 2012, one was the economy. would it be just good enough to allow president obama to win re-election or bad enough to deny re-election. another was voter anger. which direction would it go? a third was the deep red/blue divide and how that shaped attitudes beyond what other people might say. and lastly, the shifting demographics in this country, which have moved against the