VIDEO: Republican Strategist Mike Murphy Speaks with CBS THIS MORNING

Republican strategist Mike Murphy discussed with co-host Norah O'Donnell and CBS News Correspondent Anthony Mason the importance of swing states in the upcoming election as well as Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney's stance on an array of key positions live today, Oct. 10, 2012, on CBS THIS MORNING on the CBS Television Network (7:00 AM – 9:00 AM). Check out the video below!

Below are excerpts from the interview:

MASON: At this point how critical is Ohio for Romney, given the Republicans have had to win Ohio to take the White House?

MURPHY: The good news for Romney is all the other states he was in trouble with – Florida, Virginia – have gotten closer and better for him, but Ohio is still a problem, and if he can't win Ohio – which I think he can, it's tightening. But if he can't, then he's got to win a couple of states that are harder than Ohio. Maybe Colorado isn't, but Nevada probably is, Iowa and of course Wisconsin.

MASON: You've got an unemployment rate in Ohio that's well below the national average, and that's going to work against him to some degree, yes?

MURPHY: He can't run the simple bad economy message here. It has to be a bit more, but that's what we saw at the debate, he had a path forward. He had enthusiasm, and the thing about these margins to remember, one, the polls are going to bounce like crazy, but if you're four points behind in a state, you've only got to exchange 2% of the people's point of view to be tied.

O'DONNELL: Let's talk about the Big Bird effect. I mean it's that sort of shiny object that they lurched onto. Is it a distraction from Obama's message which was, after the debate, which is that Mitt Romney was dishonest in the debate, that he did not tell the truth about his tax plan, that he tried to get away from some of the positions he's taken in the past.

MURPHY: Yeah, I'm expecting Kermit to come out and attack Obama today to balance things out. Here's what I think is happening, which is the Obama team, which has run a competent technical campaign, got a little rattled by this debate and so they are trying to find their groove to take the race back. So, on one hand they want to talk flip-flops, on the other hand extremism. For some reason they seem obsessed with Big Bird. They've got to straighten out and come up with one theme here. We have to wait to see what it is.

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