Howard Fineman Discusses GOP Governors On 'Hardball With Chris Matthews' (VIDEO)

HuffPost's Howard Fineman appeared Thursday night on MSNBC's 'Hardball with Chris Matthews' to discuss the falling popularity of Republican governors in places like Florida and Ohio.

In reference to Florida, Fineman explained:

"Well I think what's going on there, Chris, and what's going on in a lot of other places is that Republican governors who were elected as reformers are running up against the fact that their states have run out of money. The stimulus money from the federal government has disappeared, state budgets are hemorrhaging, Republican governors are having to make tough, unpopular choices, whether it's cutting education or money for schools or for health care or for roads and bridges, for all the things that state government does. People wanted reform, but they wanted somebody else's welfare program to be cut."

Fineman also pointed to a larger potential cause for these falling poll numbers:

"The other thing that's happening here is that the national economy isn't recovering that vigorously ... so in states like Ohio and Pennsylvania and Florida and all these states, the economy just isn't good and that makes whoever is in power, including the governors, unpopular."

WATCH (via MSNBC):

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