With fewer than 7 weeks until the election, pols and pundits made a show of force on the Sunday talk shows:
- On "Face the Nation," conservative op-ed writer and Romney critic Peggy Noonan said Republicans thanked her for her critical column in private:"I will tell you, Bob, it was very interesting. There was a lot of formal official and public blowback from the Romney campaign, from Romney surrogates, et cetera. What was interesting to me, however, was that privately, the constant communication I got was, thank you for saying that they need help at the Romney campaign, they need to be woken up, they need to raise their game."
- Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick and Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte talked about Romney's leaked 47 percent video on NBC's "Meet the Press." Ayotte dismissed Romney's comments by saying, "that certainly was a political analysis at a fundraiser, but it's not a governing philosophy," while Patrick called Romney's comments "shocking." Watch the clip here:
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- On "Meet the Press," New York Times columnist David Brooks referred to Romney as "the least popular candidate in history," and said:
"Mitt Romney does not have the passion for the stuff he’s talking about," Brooks said. "He’s a problem solver. I think he’s a non-ideological person running in an extremely ideological age, and he’s faking it. So if I were him, I’d go to what he’s been for the last several decades of his life: be a PowerPoint guy. Say ‘I’m making a sales pitch to the country here are the four things I’m going to reform. You don’t have to love me but I’m going to do these four things for you.’ And so I’d do a much more wonky and detailed thing than he’s done so far."
- When asked about the possibility of Hillary Clinton running for president in 2016, Bill Clinton told "Face the Nation," "I have no earthly idea what she'll decide to do." He said he'd support her if she did.
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