7:15 am ET

My “Morning Joe” Take on what it takes for a presidential candidate to succeed politically on national security.

“If you look at Clinton ’92, Bush 2000, Obama 2008, I think, successful presidential candidates on foreign policy against incumbents or quasi-incumbents do two things. One is you send signals to elites. People on the Council on Foreign Relations, Andrea Mitchell — I mean that lovingly, as calling her an elite. You send signals that you’ve got an actual foreign policy philosophy that’s different than the incumbent party and that you’re going to make some bold changes. And the other is broad strokes the general public about some big issues they care about. I don’t think Governor Romney has pulled off either of those yet. He’s tried on China. He’s tried on Iran. But I don’t think he’s pulled either of those off and that’s why the foreign policy stuff has set him back more than given him an advantage.”

Watch the video above.