Sunday Study Guide: Plouffe, Cantor, Roundtable

David Plouffe

• David Plouffe is a senior adviser to President Obama. He was the architect of the president’s 2008 campaign, which he detailed in “The Audacity to Win.” He has worked on both state and federal campaigns, and served deputy chief of staff for Democratic leader Dick Gephardt in the U.S. House of Representatives and as executive director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
• Plouffe criticized Mitt Romney for being untrustworthy. He said Romney was “trying to be dishonest about what he intends to do as president” and that he was not only “switching positions; he’s trying to hide them” from voters.  
• He has expressed confidence in the campaign’s standing in key swing states where they have challenged the Romney camp and in “every single one of them, we have a credible pathway to 50 percent." Plouffe said, “We win the election if it were held today.”
• Watch his most recent appearance on the show.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA)

• Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) is the majority leader of the U.S. House of Representatives, while also representing the 7th Congressional District of Virginia since 2001. He has served in several leadership positions for the Republican Party while in Congress, first serving as the House minority whip, and most recently, as the House majority leader after the Republicans gained the majority in the 2010 elections.
• Cantor is currently running for re-election in his district, facing a first-time candidate, Democrat Wayne Powell. Although Cantor is up in the polls, both sides are engaged incontentious ad campaigns.  
• The House majority leader, who has appeared with Romney at campaign events in battleground Virginia, released a report last week that describes the Obama administration as “the imperial presidency.” Cantor writes that while both parties have “been known to test the bounds of their power, the breadth of the breakdown in the rule of law in recent years has reached new levels.” Citing examples of executive overreach, the report says, “There is no excuse for this continuous disregard of legislative authority and the Constitutionally-required separation of powers.”
• Cantor is also the co-author of “Young Guns: A New Generation of Conservative Leaders”, along with Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and GOP vice presidential nominee Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI).Hereis his most recent appearance on Meet the Press.

Roundtable: Booker, Scarborough, Murphy, Guthrie, Brokaw

• Mayor Cory Booker (D) is serving his second term as mayor of Newark, N.J. Booker has made news recently for how he responded to constituents affected by the storm. Booker reached out via Twitter to Newark residents who were left without power, inviting them over to his home to charge devices and relax. Booker is considered a contender in New Jersey’s 2013 gubernatorial race. Here is his most recent show appearance.
• Joe Scarborough, co-host of MSNBC’s Morning Joe, said Hurricane Sandy stalled Romney’s momentum. He said, “This was Mitt Romney’s best weekend and it stops; the momentum stops. You don’t know how it freezes the race, but you certainly know it’s a new dynamic in the race and it changes everything with a week to go.” He is also the author of “The Last Best Hope.” Here is Scarborough’s last Meet the Press appearance.
• Republican strategist Mike Murphy, in his most recent Meet the Press appearance, said the Romney campaign was closing the gender gap in this election. The prominence of issues such as Romney’s “binders full of women” comment, he said is “a shiny object attack. It’s the whole problem with the Obama campaign. Push it into small divisive things to make up for the lack of any big vision.”
• Savannah Guthrie is the co-host of the Today show. This week Guthrie was on Rock Center with Brian Williams reporting on the devastation of Hurricane Sandy. Guthrie has previously served as NBC News chief legal correspondent and White House correspondent. Watch her most recent Meet the Press appearance.
• NBC’s Tom Brokaw said it is unclear what impact Hurricane Sandy had on the election overall. Regardless, he said, “the country is ready to have this election over” and most people “have pretty much made up their minds.” Watch Brokaw’s most recent appearance on Meet the Press.

Follow these guests on Twitter:

• Eric Cantor:@EricCantor
• Cory Booker:@CoryBooker
• Joe Scarborough:@JoeNBC
• Mike Murphy: @murphymike
• Savannah Guthrie:@SavannahGuthrie
• Tom Brokaw:@tombrokaw 

Also follow @meetthepress for live updates during the show.