Video: Romney, Obama lay out strategies in speeches

>>> we have a president who thinks he's doing a great job, an historically great job. he describes the other people who he thinks were great presidents and he says he's like them. and he did not say this on saturday night live.

>> mitt romney campaigning yesterday, picking off where he left yesterday. it seems to be part of this new strategy romney has laid out over the past several days. president obama , both over his record and some would say, mitt personally. meantime, president obama has been downering with what seems to be a strategy forming of his own. romney by name and tying him to the republican brand. nbc news senior editor mark murray joins me live. let's go deeper than this. obviously, mitt romney is going to go after president obama . that's the person he would be running against. so there is the superficial headline. take me deeper inside, please.

>> what is interesting, we saw a tale of two different strategies that were unveiled at those dual speeches in washington, d.c. when you saw president obama 's speech, he really talked about the republican party and the ryan budget plan in particular. and linked mitt romney to that. and when we saw mitt romney speak, he actually spoke all about president obama . in a way, you see the strategy for president obama . he wants this election to be a referendum on the republican party . in fact, he mentioned romney only once in his speech. however, mitt romney wants this to be a referendum on obama, mentioning obama or obamacare 22 different times, according to our political unit.

>> how is it possible that either of those are novel or new ideas? if you're going to place someone in office or incouple benl, you'll go after their record. with president obama , we've seen other presidents do this same thing. go after the leader of the house . it was once obviously newt gingrich , and tie candidate closely tied to them with all of it and wrap it up in a big bow , if you will.

>> you're right. this is not novel at all. when you're the challenger, mitt romney would probably be, as the gop nominee, you want to make this all about the president. you want to disqualify him and say this person was disqualified. please elect me. that's what bill clinton did to president george h.w. bush in 1992 . what ronald reagan did to jimmy carter in 1980 . what i think is interesting about the democratic strategy that is coming from the obama campaign is that they want mitt romney to own everything the republican party has done in the last two years including all the statements on the campaign trail. statements by some of the controversial governors in the states. the actions they've taken, that they think that mitt romney into this generic republican is the way to win in november.

>> could a strategy like that really work? here you have again, the ryan budget tie-in. because mitt romney has come out and supported it. unlike newt gingrich who originally did not and was forced to change his position on that budget. but everything that has been done within the gop brand, could that be an effective strategy to sell, especially to independents?

>> i think it could be, assuming that mitt romney doesn't make any type of break with the republican party . it is going to be interesting to see if mitt romney tries to distance himself, come later this summer. maybe early fall. that he would end up disagreeing with something that house speaker john boehner might say. or house majority leader eric cantor . so that will be interesting. as we put it in our first read column this morning, that romney has two choices. one actually, some type of a break with the republican party or a big effort to repair the republican brand, which according to any poll you look at, has been reduced to tatters.

>> which brings me to rick santorum because of that station you just made. whether or not mitt romney is true to the brand. especially the conservative portion of that brand. or if he's going to change, due to what we now know is the etch a sketch move in the general election . santorum has had some meetings. they were not about getting out of the race. it is still about shoring up that support from the more conservative members of the party, mark.

>> that's right. so every indication we see from the santorum campaign, whether it is this reported meeting, whether it was his speech that he gave after tuesday night's contest seems that he is fully in this race. he wants to be able to win pennsylvania, use that as a spring board to the future contest in may that might look better for him demographically. but of course, there is a big situation where rick santorum has done very, very well for himself. and there is going to be a lot of pressure for him to get out of the race, or if he doesn't get out of the race, to make sure that he goes very easy on the person everyone assumes becomes the republican nominee. mitt romney .

>> thank you so much for joining us. greatly appreciate it.

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