Look easy though it s very, very hard. bartiromo told me yesterday she s been in debate prep sessions but she s not changing the strategy on how well it didn t go with cnbc. the goal is always to make this about the viewers and the voters. that sounds easy. it s actually very hard. she also said she agrees with president obama. remember two weeks ago at a democratic fund-raiser obama said if these republicans candidates can t handle the cnbc moderators, how are they going toen hand to handle china and russia? if the candidates do cry foul and accuse the moderators of media bias, even on a fox stage, i have a feeling the moderators will come back with a good response. what do you think will happen? are they going to avoid or head on address some of the controversies, whether it s rubio s credit cards or ben carson s violent pass? do you think they ll skirt
Republicans as she does her opponents on stage. that s one of the strengths of donald trump, brianna because when he s attacked, he counts punches right away and hits hard and it s very very effective on the republican side. we ll see if hillary clinton follows his lead and i assume she ll be attacked tomorrow night. how is she preparinpreparing? working with lawyers who have been big in other debate prep sessions with other candidates like president obama. i think what she s really trying to get out of this, this is what a top clinton campaign aid told me is to cut through the politics. they don t want a big fight. some of her instincts are to counter punch but they don t want a big fight, so i think what she s going to try to do is reframe some of what she may feel are characterizations that don t serve her purposes. wolf, i think it was mike tyson who said everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.
Anymore. [ laughter ] [ applause ] you want to know something? that s genius. i knew it was. okay, dan pfeiffer, so you see that segment with jimmy fallon. it s kind of funny, but it really also speaks to the truth here that donald trump is not playing by the rules. why would, you know, we think why would people think that he is going to play by the rules on wednesday night? well, i don t think they should. i think donald trump plays by his own rules, he writes his own rules. this is what makes it so hard for all the republican candidates to prepare for him because you have literally no idea what he could say at any given moment. and i can only imagine just what the debate prep sessions are like for jeb bush and marco rubio because there s no playbook there s no donald trump playbook to follow. and, ana, if you had a candidate who is prepping, let s say your friend jeb bush, how do you prep for this debate
It was an a intense study session. we saw as many romney advisers as we ve seen at any of the past debate prep sessions many flying in from boston for today s session. i spoke with rob portman of ohio who is playing the role of barack obama throughout the course of the session. he was in full dress as if this would be a true dress rehearsal for monday s debate. some of the top advisers have insisted they re confident over the course of the three debate there s would be a cumulative effect where they could make their candidate seem like a viable alternative. they think they accomplished that in the first debates. they hope to take advantage of the third debate to draw contrasts on issues, not exclusive to foreign policy, but wider issues like leadership, competence and visions for the future. richard? a lot of people looking forward to monday s debate there. also, the governor has some plans tonight. see not necessarily going to
And losers, you pick the losers. good exchange there. real quickly because we re out of time. if you had to give advice to the president? how would you change the thing? it s a town hall format? who is probably going to do better in a town hall. the conventional wisdom is that the president connects better with voters than governor romney does except that governor romney on wednesday night shows that he connects very well with voters. he did a much better job than the president. the president has got to get into the debate prep sessions and work hard. there is no substitute for preparation. yeah. can you prep too much though? absolutely not. it s just the way you do prep. you have got to be you have got to know the issues. have you got to have a strategy. which the president didn t have. then you have got to be mentally prepared which it didn t appear the president was. what was the most surprising thick for you as far as the president s performance there? i was really watc