Matalin, his conservative spouse, agreed that the conservative candidates need to acknowledge the troubled times most Americans find themselves in, and offer some hope.

"People have had to have reorient their entire lives, put off their retirement plans and still they say, 'I know I will not be able to regroup,'" she noted. "It's left a lot of people are feeling anxious and sad."

Both also agreed that any political momentum left in the Obama administration as a sure thing for re-election is being seriously undercut by both the ominous specter of health care reform and the extremely slow pace of job recovery.

"They're gonna learn the hard way how to talk about this economy and what they've done," Carville said. "Don't take credit for the small increases, but don't indicate any level of satisfaction or pride in that. Figure out that if you sound pleased about what you've done, that's deadly."

Matalin also admitted that the recent spree of negative press regarding funding for birth control and other women's issues—including the fallout from radio host Rush Limbaugh's comments—are also doing a great disservice to the Republican cause.

"Republican men are terrified of women, it seems … they're so afraid of stepping on toes that they simply don't want to touch any of the issues. They need to talk in one voice," she said.

The climate of so-called class warfare on the tax policy front has also served to create a smoke screen to real deficit solutions, Matalin said.

"Paying taxes is all about having a stake in things, but this has all turned into such an insultingly false debate. The deficit is a fixable problem, so apocalyptic is our structural debt," she said. "But there's just no political will to raise taxes or do the necessary regulatory reform."

Somewhat closer to the conference theme, both agreed that the key to anyone in the country eventually having a satisfying retirement will lie in some form of entitlement reform, though they differed on the best path.

"Control health care costs and you can fix things," Carville said. "We need to have a conversation about those health care costs. You can reform entitlements all you want, but it's not going to do anything for cost control."

"Social Security is actually fixable and manageable, but you just cannot escape the demographic issue," Matalin added. "I think the answer is means testing and some version of privatization of Social Security."

The 401(k) Summit continues through Tuesday in New Orleans; look here for more coverage, exclusive interviews and blogs in the days to follow.