8:57 am ET

My “Morning Joe” colloquy with the Chicago mastermind about what he thought worked at the convention (and what didn’t):

HALPERIN: “David, as the former ace political journalist that you are, can you name one or two things that happened in the program in this convention this week that you think will actually help Mitt Romney’s chances of being elected?”

AXELROD: “Well, look, I agree with you. I thought that film they did was very nice. I’m sure they regret that more people didn’t see it. You know, beyond that, I think that a lot of what was happening there was aimed at the base of the party and a lot of that had nothing to do with Mitt Romney. It felt like open mic night for 2016 candidates and not a convention that’s aimed at promoting Mitt Romney in 2012. But, you know, we’ll see. Obviously, what happens in the next few weeks will reflect part of what people saw here and maybe they received it differently than I perceived they did, but I think they did a lot of work whipping each other up, hitting the Tea Party base, hitting the social conservative base, presenting their future talent. I don’t think they did much to advance the cause of Mitt Romney.”