are you moving towards obama? >> obama? be more on his game about showing the nonspecific nature of romney, he's not giving anything. >> you want obama to attack? >> absolutely. >> you want obama to attack? >> i want him to give the truth there. is a lot of truth being misrepresented by both sides not showing how anything can be done. >> you're the youngest person here, you moved towards rom fee tonight what. advice do you have for barack obama? >> he needs to change his demeanor, romney looking at obama and people. and looked like obama was sitting there being scolded and had his head down, wasn't looking and looking around trying to look aimlessly. he wasn't looking at the opponent or hardly ever looked at the people. he was looking down. >> and he was meek. and instead of looking out and appearing strong, confident he backed away. >> when you have a chance to talk about this as the election goes ahaechld you dwiz are great. i want to charge the university one of the best folk use groups i've had. who won the debate? >> r

connecticut goes from obama to lean obama. significantly, north carolina goes from tossup to lean romney. so at the end of this, we're left with romney with 159 solid electoral votes to 194 for obama. each one was between 47 lean votes and romney's case 43. obama. 237 to 206 with 95 electoral votes up for grabs. >> bob: well, that is good math. who says debates don't matter? i said debates don't matter. i'm beginning to re-calibrate. i said they mattered in 1960 and 1980. this first debate may well have structurally changed the race. so i tend to agree with that. there are three states we ought to pay attention to today. try to go through the lean states, the tossup states. one of them is florida. the other is virginia. the third one is ohio. romney needs to win all three of those states. but he can get away with winning two of three states. we don't a map, do we? >> brian: we do! >> bob: thank you. in florida, romney has seen a surge. it happened in a couple of places. in tampa area, that is important. middle part of the stat

obama. what did she tell you about what it's like for her out there on the campaign trail? >> reporter: you know, i asked her about ann romney's claim when ann romney pressed back about her own husband's critics and ann romney said campaigning is hard. i said does she share that sentiment. here was mrs. obama's response. >> ann romney recently said about the critics of her husband -- to her husband's critics that running for president is hard. do you sympathize with that? >> you know, the campaign experience is unique for everyone. everyone comes to this and experiences it differently. for me i really enjoy campaigning. i think barack and i we both get energy from it because when you live in washington, sometimes you get isolated from the rest of the country. and this is a time when we get out and we can remember just how decent people are. i come across people i don't care what political party they come from, they are hopeful. they're happy to see you. they're willing to listen. and it's go

-- ahead of barack obama. tightening? yes, but hardly -- >> romney was dead in the water before that first debate. he had a surge. i tended to think that the searches over -- surge is over. but that is what made him a contender. >> what is it about that debate that changed the tide? is this's arrogance single biggest problem. it showed him a sleepy, sort of why am i here? even in the last debate, which he won, but he was a bit too much of a put down artist, and that especially with women voters is a problem. >> it wasn't just that obama did poorly. it is that romney did well and became, as mark said, moderate mitt. that is where people in the republican party traditionally .ove after the primary da he had been savaged by obama in an avalanche of ads, and he redeemed himself in that debate. >> we have this fiscal problems of living on january 2 report by the national association of manufacturers saying that the fiscal cliff is already hurting the economy. more than 80 ceo's are coming to put heat on congress. where is this

obama has much to say in his defense. he inherited the economic carnage of a recent republican president, a catastrophic loss of jobs, a collapse in the u.s. stock market, the death rattle of the auto industry. he, barack obama, then brought a financial and economic collapse back from the brink, changed the course of the economy from job destruction to job creation, doubled the american stock market, saved the auto industry. he did it all with a dramatic change of policy, a stimulus program that varied 180 degrees from the austerity measures that have humbled europe. an intervention into the auto industry that reinvigorated an industry that means pride to americans. obama needs to make this defense, he needs to underline the fact that his opponent and his party fought him every inch of the way. on the stimulus, on the auto industry, on health care, on equal pay for women, and that it disagrees on fundamental ways on the future course of american economic policy. on health care, on medicare, on social security, on equal pa

cricket from obama side. but i thought obama was trying to be mitt romney. he was saying my tax cuts are better. he wasn't the hope and change kind of guy. he really was trying to imitate mitt mz. the piece on the chinese investment that was my second favorite. besides the hypocrisy aspect, when obama doesn't even look at it. he doesn't even look at his pension. if he isn't worried about his own money he isn't going to be worried about ours. >> i thought the exchange on the pension i don't look at my companies my mutual fund is investing in either. >> you and puppy mills. >> yes, in china. >> but dana, you would never say yours is bigger than mine. >> do you read about that thing, lack of interruption. romney has to do with more with less. democrats have spoken significantly longer than republican candidates. so he -- when you allow him to speak it is pretty good. >> when romney said all have those things, a republican candidate for mayor says those things. >> if they were running against obama, yes. >> it seemed to me that romney has a photographic memory.

it was do-over obama today. it was kind of like the guy who has all his come-backs five minutes too late, and he had all his come-backs on the campaign trail today, calling mitt romney a whole new person, different kind of candidate, and you saw a very much more aggressive president obama, and i think that's what you will see two weeks from now when he shows up at the next debate with romney in new york. >> jim, on the campaign trail, governor romney today more energized? >> absolutely, anderson. we were with him on his campaign plane during the day and as he got on the plane, he was smiling, he was laughing with his campaign staff. there was a spring in his step. there was an air of confidence in this campaign that i haven't seen in several weeks and in talking to senior romney advisor eric fehrnstrom, he said to me if this was a prize fight, they would have stopped the fight. that's how well they think mitt romney did. they're not going to be taking their foot off the gas pedal, i can tell you that the romney

obama grinned. you know, kids have good stikts offered obama. they look at the other guy and say, well that's a bull bleeper, i can tell. what do we make of this candid and colorful language from the president? we can assume he's referring to governor romney. what do you think? who was he talking about? >> well, i think it's pretty on obvious he's talking about governor romney. i find the language funny, and i will not criticize anyone for saying such things because i'm known to speak colorfully at times. >> do you think it's funny, but would you think it was funny if governor romney used the same language fairly speaking? >> listen, i'm not sure many people will be shocked by this kind of language. >> the president did call kanye a jack-a so he's capable through association with rahm emanuel to mix it up in colorful language. i'm guilty of it myself. >> he's equal opportunity in his colorful remarks. >> thank you very much. i love that we have to say bull bleeper. we need a late night show so we can say the word. it's a pleasure to see you. tha

chris: with obama? >> no, no, no, with obama or democrats. >> widely circulated report that hillary clinton had told a magazine that one of her former aides that women not having it all. that she was the catcher in the rye read by the interviewers teenage daughter. so it was completely out of context. >> oh, my goodness, why. you know, justice scalia took off hunting, guess with who? >> elena kagan. >> you knew. >> in republican circles is where they should throw a hail mary pass in michigan or pennsylvania. romney doesn't really want to but a lot of the super pac groups do. they want to make pennsylvania competitive. >> i've been thinking about that a long time. the big question this week, they have a debate victory bind them. who chris: welcome back. they each won a debate. but the third one and that's this week's big question, who has the most at stake? >> the president. he has to be commanding and in charge of american foreign policy once in for all. >> i agree with that. and the fact that mitt romn

and republican challenger mitt romney left the incumbent looking like road kill what is behind obama's failure and does it really matter. if he. started. to cross thought the first u.s. presidential debate i'm joined by rachel mars today in paris she's a political communications strategist and sidney cade a columnist in washington we have niall standage he is a staff writer for the hill and in london we crossed to david nicholson he is a london based freelance journalist right folks cross talk rules and if i mean you can jump in anytime one rachel what in the world happened last night why why did obama really bomb. well you just had to relieve the office it's interesting however when saying the bar really low for each of their candidates both campaigns were the word got out that apparently mitt romney was had a really bad night sleep in the hotel because a train whistle kept going off they stayed in some kind of hotel that was nearer to the train tracks and the whistle kept going off so they were lowering the bar barack obama's campaign was saying look he might not come out too well in

fute fighting on the obama map. he is glad to be are in the territory. they are playing mostly defense and trying to win back the states that bush won in 2004. but something has changed. but what has changed is going back to where we were, essentially atied it race, a slight obama advantage. i think that probably still applies. there will be a lot of ballgame still to be played the next month to hash this out. romney got himself back in the conversation. he needed a big moment last week. he did change the story and got himself something more positive, to going into the v.p. debate. >> they are tied but psychological, but romney is a tick up. they are essentially tied. >> the psychology of not looking like a loser is huge. there is a secondary effect, where you get into a spiral. you are behind the polls and you think you are a loser and everything seems like -- the thing only a loser would do. i think he has broken the depth spiral. there is a secondary bounce that will come out of just -- one tick up in the polls,

obama: i enjoyed it. >> chris: don't be a stranger. >> president barack obama: i won't. >> chris: but that was april 27, 2008. it has now been 1,617 days since the president's last appearance and, although senator biden appeared on fox news sunday 35 times, it has been 1,841 days since the vice president last talked with us. in the meantime, we and you have had a lot of questions that have gone unanswered. we'll invite them, again, for next sunday. up next, with the first presidential debate now three days away, we'll ask our sunday group what to look for, wednesday night. ♪ it's a game changer. ♪ it means cleaner, cheaper american-made energy. but we've got to be careful how we get it. design the wells to be safe. thousands of jobs. use the most advanced technology to protect our water. billions in the economy. at chevron, if we can't do it right, we won't do it at all. we've got to think long term. we've got to think long term. ♪ we've got to think long term. we've got to think long term. thank you, mr. speaker, uh, members of congress. in celebration of over 75 years of our g

so i think he blew it. >> by the way i think obama blew one thing on the bush answer, obama didn't tie himself to clinton which usually helps and i am surprised he passed up that opportunity. that was one of the few opportunities he passed up, what this debate was, was the exact opposite of denver, the agenda was set by barack obama. it was fought on his turf. i agree he didn't talk a great deal about what he was going to do but romney was on the offensive that's the exact opposite in denver and some of the particulars mentioned earlier, women and immigration and the auto bailout, setting this agenda do i think it transforms the election, of course not but we are playing to a very small group of per jailedables and if there is any movement which i think there clearly was to romney in that group my guess is it has stopped, it hasn't moved back to obama but stopped. >> rose: so it keyed keys it up -- go ahead. >> one of the interesting things is, al talks about this small group of remaining undecided voters, these are what people call low information voters, they are not reading massive

barack obama won. martha raddatz escape unscathed mostly. i learned a lot from the first debate. i learned what mitt romney believed, that he was willing to tailor positions for the general electric, that barack obama did not show up and was not engaged. the reason i did was because similar give them the time to do it. -- jim lehrer gave them the time to do it. i think candy crowley did a good job, i think martha rdatz did a good job. i don't know the formula for a good debate. >> it seems that there are two choices here. you can have a moderator who holds their feet to the fire a bit and ask serious questions and is not let them michael around, and martha raddatz was the best example of that. if you are not going to do that, just let them talk to each other and have a bus to go up for time. >> what about the town hall format? >> no, i think i.t. is completely phony. have an impossible standard -- leave them alone, except every once in awhile where they sasay something egregiously false. >> you cannot

where was obama tonight? he should watch -- well not just "hardball", rachel, he should watch you, the reverend al, lawrence, there's a hot debate going on in this country, here on this network is where we're having the debate. we have our knives out we go after the people and the facts. what was he doing tonight? he went in there disarmed. he was wait an hour and a half, i think i can get through this thing. where as romney. i loved the split screen, staring at obama, addressing him. he did it just right. i'm coming at an incumbent. i've got to beat him. and i don't care what this guy moderator whatever he think he ises because i'm going to ignore him. what was romney doing? he was winning. >> he was winning tonight. that's my thought. >> you give him five more of these nights, forget it. >> it puts the pressure on the president. >> obama should wash msnbc. he will learn something every night. this stuff we're watching, this is like first grade to most of us. we know all of this stuff. >> i was in front of a

>> why didn't obama say that? >> why didn't obama say that? yeah, we have established he could have had a better debate, if he had been more, what, up on the sound bites, if you will. and also if he didn't stirt like i do, but the fact is that romney was giving the impression all this money was going to solyndra. it is not. even solyndra isn't that bad but that's a question for another time. >> this country is on the way to energy independence because of fracking, because of the new technologies that enable us to get both natural gas and oil out of shale that we never were able to do before. that is going to change the whole economy of this country and dramatically reduce our dependency on the middle east. it's long overdue. >> wind and solar is like 1% of that 90 billion that romney cited. there was also money there, 3 billion to clean up a nuclear plant. so again, he played with the figures. but the romney that showed up the other night was not the romney we saw on the campaign trail earlier. he suddenly is now

but, if that was what the cia's intelligence was, why does obama -- president obama claim that he called it terror the day after? >> well, of course it involves an act of terror whether the result of a spontaneous demonstration or something planned. you know, this is unacceptable that you would attack another embassy and kill the ambassador. it is terrorism in any form, whatever... >> and, the first week they were asked repeatedly -- >> no, of course not. let me try to channel candy crowley for a moment. the president said acts of terror and play the top on fox any way you wish but he said it and it was an act of terror and we were waiting to find out what the real motivation and driving force was behind it and we did a thorough investigation to get to the bottom of it and as the president said hold those accountable who did it. >> chris: senator graham, you get the last word. >> chris... chris... this was not a spontaneous riot. there was never a mob. there is a video of the conflict. nobody was there. and, ambassador stevens met the turkish ambassador, and, there were 125 people, using

obama's on the left. we'll go live to our correspondents at both rallies shortly and jump in at any point in either candidate is making some news. >>> new polling as well. late numbers just coming in tonight and new endorsements including colin powell weighing in today. >>> also tonight, a very different look inside the campaign from presidential historian doug brinkley who got an opportunity to watch his tore being made as well as what president obama called mitt romney. it rhymes with, well, show-bidder. it's causing outrage tonight. this, on the other hand, there may be reason for the romney campaign to cheer. the breaking news. the abc news/"washington post" tracking poll now has mitt romney ahead by three points and more crucially, hitting the 50% mark for the first time. in our own cnn poll of polls, governor romney currently enjoys a one-point lead, 48-47. as you no doubt know, the race will boil down to a few key states and tonight, we also have new numbers from the nbc/"wall street journal" poll

is obama himself. he claimed in the debate -- he took credit for calling it a terror attack on day one. here he is a week later on letterman asked about it, and he says that we don't know if it is a terror attack, we are investigating. everybody knew at the time that the video had nothing to do with the benghazi attack, zero. he misled dramatically, repeatedly, he and his team. that is hanging out there, and romney has a chance to hit it out of the park on monday. i think it could be a really pyrrhic victory that he had on that question in debate number 2 and will hit him in debate number 3. >> pyrrhic victory, mark. >> charles, sadly, is wrong, for the following reason. you have to subscribe to a great master conspiracy theory from an administration that has not demonstrated a capacity for running a two car funeral that often, that this is so well organized and orchestrated and so stupid as to put the u.n. ambassador on five shows where she will be corrected. this was wrong, no question about it, but

i have to go with obama. a lot of this man's programs he tried to a put forth because they wanted to make him a one- term president. host: the senior adviser and former chair of the republican national committee and george w. bush on the trail for mitt romney. he spoke to reporters earlier tonight. >> i think they would see some clear differences, especially when it comes to israel, national security, the reckless and arbitrary budget cuts that president obama is proposing -- the governor romney is proposed -- is calling for when it comes to israel and ratcheting up sanctions on iran. they saw very clear differences. they saw from governor romney an agenda to not have this be subject to events around the world. i think they saw from president obama a failure to defend his own policies and inability to lay out policies for the future. that is what the american people are looking for, where are you going to take this? governor romney laid that out tonight. >> two weeks left. where are you going to go starting i

obama is a 70% favorite. but my site had obama as an 85% favorite before the debate. means romney has gone double. people maybe read a little too much into the national polls. but even in the cases where obama was ahead by 7 points in the state before, that lead has been cut to 3 or 4. maybe you have a tie now. or romney ahead. there's a sign that obama's problems were worse just after the debate on thursday and friday and it's perking back up. we'll see in the next round show the swing states tied. then democrats really will be appropriate for them to panic a little bit. right now trepidation is the most appropriate emotion for democrats. if you see e obama's lead in the swing states evaporating as well, then it really is, i think, a toss up heading into the last debates. >> nate silver, author of the new book "the signal and the noise." more broadly it's about the whole statistical universe and how to understand it. nate, congratulations. thanks for your time tonight. >> thank you. >>> pop quiz. paul ryan has either, a, just helped president obama with the nra, or b

obama called out and president obama pushed back on. watch. >> the president began what i call an apology tour, going to the various nations in the middle east and criticizing america. >> nothing governor romney said is true. starting with this notion of me apologizing. this has been probably the biggest whopper that has been told during the course of this campaign. >> mr. president, the reason i call it an "apology tour" is because you went to the middle east and you flew to egypt, and to saudi arabia, and to turkey and iraq. you skipped israel, by the way, our closest friend in the region. you went to the other nations. they noticed you skipped israel. >> eric: they noticed. israel noticed and so did all of our enemies. >> bob: he was in israel doing a fundraiser, the fact he did stop and talked to one u.s. troop in afghanistan -- >> dana: there is only one candidate who has taken foreign money in this campaign. >> bob: excuse me. >> dana: not romney. >> bob: romney had a fundraiser in jerusalem. >> eric: stay on president obama. >> b

he does not have the same red line on president obama that president obama does. mr. romney would draw his own red line far before president obama's red line. then a few days after that, on september 17th, same deal again. here's mitt romney at a latino issues presidential candidates forum, saying that the guy who wrote the arizona's papers, please, law, he's never met the guy. no idea. he doesn't know why he keeps say that guy is his immigrations adviser. seriously, mitt romney has never met kris kobach? no, not really. his campaign later coming out and telling cnn, never mind what mitt romney just said, he has met the guy who wrote the papers, please, law, kris kobach does advise the campaign. then a few days after that on september 25th, they went and did it again. here's mitt romney conceding one of his most frequent attacks on president obama. this was mitt romney at a rally that day admitting that president obama has not raised taxes while he has been in office. seriously? mitt romney is dropping that argument? he doesn't think president obama has raised taxes?

what can -- in president obama -- governor romney's favor. what can president obama do? >> i think he would be wise not to panic because these polls, if you look at the gallup poll is sampled two way, registered voters and president obamma was a ahead. had they asked the questions that they asked to determine who is likely voter and broke out that set of voters, that indicated they were likely voters, you have mitt romney ahead by two percentage points, that's well inside the margin of error. so it could be the other way. so basically, what this is sell tells us is that the race remains exceedingly close, while the debate performance, that even many democrats acknowledge was a win for governor romney and has given him momentum here, it's very close. >> greta: it may be close and well within the margin of error. but it's profoundly different by the poll numbers than it was a few weeks ago. it shows the wave is moving in the romney direction. i don't know if something's going to stop t. but i assume that president obama doesn't like the direction this is going. >>im sure h

we're dismissing the obama negatives. once you take away those negatives, there's nothing holding obama up, because he has neglected to spell out a narrative of what he's done over four years, if he could, and certainly neglected to give a vision for a second term. the most telling fact in the postdebate polling with cnn, asking people, who do you think spelled out a clear vision for america's future regardless of who you're voting for? obama 34, romney 50. huge, huge difference there. >> greta: it's interesting. that's even sort one of the objections to president obama by the "orlando sentinel," is that he talks about how the fact that even programs like medicare and medicaid, social security, three of the biggest drivers of deficit spending, that president obama would be more credible in critiquing the proposal if he had a serious alternative for bringing entitlement spending under control. he doesn't. they're critical of the fact that he's not offering anything. >> which has doubled entitlement spend will. by that i do

obama's the deep thinker, the weary warrior. you have the sense in the first debate he didn't want to be there and shouldn't have to go through this. joe biden, on the other hand, i think he loves and embraces the political combat. i think he enjoys it and makes a big difference when you feel like the person on the stage is having fun. >> yeah. >> that makes a huge difference. and i do think he has a natural instinct to go for the attacks to be able to do it in a jovial way that doesn't come across as cutting and a challenge because they're seated at a table like this. >> one quick correction. obama said was that biden was a very good middle school debater. i just want to make sure -- >> entirely different people, you'd have that between biden and ryan, there's an age difference, a regional difference, a cultural difference between them and the men they are. maybe the experience gap is gigantic. and i'm just going to be watching to see what ryan does. how do you explain your budget and how you will pay for that? romney budget. h

did obama choose to go first? that was a mistake. >> bill: they flipped a coin as lehrer explained. >> i was drifting off there while you were talking. >> bill: they did actually flip a coin. that wasn't a joke. >> romney brought the mma. >> the mma being. >> the mixed martial arts. the steel caged death match and obama brought the lpga and unfortunately we could have had to throw it it admah nil la. >> ladies professional golf association. >> could have had a great fight. >> bill: steel match when obama could have crushed the larynx he didn't and he pulled back. >> to his credit. >> to his credit? >> there are two more debates. >> bill: yeah, so? >> so. >> bill: mitt has got to be consistent. >> if i have that advantage with stewart i may go in. >> it was his an investor sear, bill. >> i need advice from you guys. how pathetic is this asking gutfeld for advice on the big rumble on saturday night. we'll have that in a moment and the factor will be back right after these announcements. >> bill: back of the book seg

there are people afterwards saying they voted for obama and planning to vote for obama. the only undecided voter there is obama. he is not sure if he is voting for himself. i love the fact that cnn is so defensive. they are miffed by the criticism because they don't see their own bias, because they're soaking in it. so the feelings are hurt. >> bob: we led the show about the gallup organization and their role. i want to point out it was gallup that chose the people in the audience. >> eric: gallup but also point out the way the moderators have chosen. a bunch of people put to commission, republican and democratic representing the commission. will it down to set of moderators. are there any -- are there any of these you want to cross off. kind of like jury selection. they come down to these. i agree with you, let's see people who aren't on media. >> bob: we tried that. it represented my presidential campaign with mondale. the two of us sitting in the room with the commission. we had to check off people. it asked is it possible to put other people on the list? for example,

obama from last month, mika. we should note this polling was conducted after the third and final debate. >> and if there was any doubt about romney's momentum, look at what happened in virginia. a new fox news poll shows romney now leading by two points. last month the same poll had obama up seven. and in the abc/"washington post" daily tracking poll of likely voters, romney has taken a three-point lead, 50%-47%. on monday, the president was leading 49%-48%. and on the economy when asked who voters trust more on that issue, romney now has a sizeable nine-point lead. >> so you look at these national polls, mika, abc news/"washington post" poll showing a four-point lead in the national poll. this week. a four-point swing in the national poll. gallup, of course, has had mitt romney ahead i think way too much over the past week or two. sometimes five, six points. and in the national poll, it really does seem -- if you take all the polls, it really does seem like mitt romney is moving away from barack obama. and yet y

and his name was barack obama. and i go by barry so that i don't have to explain my name all the time, and go into a long explanation of myself." and so i said, "well, if your name is barack obama, i'm going to call you barack obama because i like that name. >> narrator: in the school's literary magazine, barry now identified himself as barack obama. >> i think the word "barack" is absolutely essential to that identity of being, "i am a man. i am a man with a future. i need to be prepared for whatever that is going to be. i don't know the answers yet. but i sure as heck know i won't get there if i hang out and take things for granted and just be kind of a smart guy." >> narrator: but barack was restless at occidental. he decided it was time to leave. he would transfer to columbia university in new york city. >> one day he told me he was transferring to columbia. he had, i think, a need for a more expansive environment, more stimulating urban environment to grow intellectually. so that was his choice. >> he needed t

polls say obama won. mainstream media says obama won, but did he? we're talking about throughout the hour with a lineup of guests including our media watch dog. and also new at ten. foreign policy and focus last night. and today new numbers showing just how much we owe overseas interests. 47,500 per household. that's our household foreign debt. 10,000 of that to china alone. more on that coming up. to the big board, yes, it is a selloff. the dow industrial is opening with a big loss. down 178 as of now. and here is the company. sandra smith is back, and kbw brian gardner is here and nicole petallides on the floor of the stock exchange. a big selloff. primarily there are two big names, two big dow companies that are responsible for a lot of this loss, go. >> a couple of names that we touched on at the top of the show. dupont and 3m are warning about the outlook and 3m is coming out with a quarter, but a stopped global economy and they're cutting numbers and dupont morning on demand for them and you're seeing both of them, dupont 28 negative dow point

obama at 47.6%. your sense of the situation on the ground in colorado. >> this could go either way at this point. the polls that have this very close for the last few weeks now. it's really all about turn-out. we have seen it from the candidates in the last month. romney and obama have each been here three times during october. paul ryan has been here five times. romney and ryan did a sold-out show at red rock amphitheater the other night and president obama was just here to 16,000 people yesterday. here in denver. >> bret: we are looking at video of the red rock thing. i dop mean to interrupt. romney event with kid rock playing. it was a big event for the romney crowd. >> another thing we're seeing is widespread use of field offices by both campaigns, but particularly by the obama campaign. they have something like 60 field offices gathered throughout the state. i think the romney come pain only has a dozen of them. we're not totally sure what the effect of the field office will be on election day.

barack obama knows how to do this. i feel like barack obama is like a swiss army knife. he's got several different settings. funny barack is a very easy setting for him. >> okay. >> whereas romney has awkward romney and mean romney which is why funny romney is not a setting for him which is why he looked awkward when he was funny. >> he was funny. opening joke where he was talking about wardrobe changes on the campaign, sports coat, suit and tie for an evening event, ann and i can relax with what we wear around the house. looked very stern while delivering that very funny joke. >> looks like a guy in a movie who's been stabbed and trying not to show it. the stern romney face, why are you in so much pain? you're killing. enjoy the moment. >> here's the thing. because you said that about romney right before we saw obama let go, i was watching obama's facial expressions. when he says the joke he does not smile his way through the joke, enjoying himself through the joke. he seems serious like romney, beat, then big smile or laugh or self-deprecating laugh or some other show

we thought obama had a teleprompter. obama just wasn't himself. i think he was himself. he didn't have a teleprompter and mitt romney was himself. this is the exact mitt romney that the media have not wanted us to see. >> where has he been up until now? >> buried in internet. the realization that the headline is the staying power of 47%. why is 47% staying because the media are putting it on every day. >> when president obama didn't mention that. he didn'ting on the five trillion dollar attack. he did nothing to come back at him. i have watched all these debates since clinton's first debate, i was in shock. >> loan why he didn't bring it up, it wasn't on the teleprompt. >> i agree what ellen was saying people said look after four years of press coverage he is not ready for tough questions or tough opportunity. >> it was just an attitude by obama of aloof disdain. it was supposed to be a strategy of not overly aggression but it felt terrible. >> jon: ellen had her theory about why the president came off why he did. on msnbc, michael dison claimed in his opinion that the p

>>juan: but the results are obama is beating romney on votes cast. karl: not in obama. >>chris: time out. time out. time out two questions, and i want to talk about the disparity between the national polls and the state polls, is it possible we are headed for another 2000 where you could have romney win the popular vote in this case and obama win the electoral vote >> we could. when you have the margin as big nationally as it appears in the national polls you will have state polls follow. but something else could be at play, we are giving all the polls a precision they don't have. take ohio, there have been 21 polls sin the first debate. in 15 or 16, romney led among the independents by an average of 13 points. obama has led among independents by two, and two polls they didn't break out by democrat or republican or independent. it is hard to believe if romney is leading among republicans by the margins he is and leading among democrats or among independents by an average of 13 that he will not win. >>chris: a last question, you have this map like it is set in stone but

obama in shades of blue. the number of doesup states in gray are growing, more and more tossup states. ten states, it takes 270 electoral votes to be elected president. what do you make of that map and the number of states that are too close to call are growing. >> the most striking thing about the map when i first saw it was holy cow, romney has a -- romney-ryan have a slight lead in electoral votes. that's the first time that's occurred in this cycle. that confirms i think the trend that's been evident since the first debate and you know, these -- and the question really is whether this lead, small or large, depending on whose poll you look at that romney and ryan seem to be enjoying in many of the polls, will soon translate into places like ohio, where they don't appear to be ahead. i don't think he got a mere bounce, romney, out of the first debate. i think he got a surge and it may have faded some but it persists and we see it in the polling. if it continues, he may be on a course to upset the president

obama has to plan on the obama campaign and improving. the problem solving, the fixer, the guy who is excited with ideas is a very attractive candidate. if they can make the spotlight of the campaign on that with this new interest they're going to generate, they're going to do pretty well. the obama guys will try to use paid advertising and other things to move the campaign into other stuff. but i think we now have a different more competitive race and we'll see what happens. >> rose: katty. >> before i freeze out here today, i'm blaming the cold. the obama campaign has spent millions of dollars successfully making mitt romney unacceptable as a choice to the american public. tonight mitt romney made himself acceptable in the course of a 9 0-minute debate. >> rose: thank you, you're cold. >> it gets better and better. i think we saw people in each party say well obviously our candidate barely has a tongue, we don't know if they'll be able to. but it was skewed and what the obama team had an opportunity to do with a good debate was sort of

so senator obama was right. we did tree nor less differently , but unlike hurricane andrew and how we provided aid for less than half of the damages, and katrina we supplied money to account for 100 percent of the damages as they were estimated. you have to ask yourself why a man seeking the support of that group of ministers would make statements that did not provide full, the full scope of american generosity to all of our citizens. the fbi gets to benghazi three weeks after the september 11th terrorist attack. too bad the leaders, journalists , terrorists, and passers-by beat them to the scene. is the obama administration getting? author, former federal prosecutor andrew mccarthy joins us. it philadelphia, a high-school teacher makes a student go home because of a t-shirt. was the teacher acting in a medley? was she really acting? governor mitt romney -- >> people having a hard time right now. middle income americans and the president's policies middle income americans have been very -- did just been crushed.

. >> from the very beginning the obama campaigned four years and met with all of the first actors in the first year he would sit down with chavez and kim jung il, with castro, and with president ahmadinejad of iran. >> nothing governor romney just said is true. starting with this notion of me apologizing. >> this has been probably the biggest whopper that has been told during the c campaign. >> joining me in new york is tina brown, editor in chief of the daily beast. peep. very disappointing. >> talking about europe and stuff -- >> rose: you can say it affects the u.s. economy and the economic recovery or threatens the u.s. economy if they can't get it right. >> there is also the one moment in which the president, romney kept saying, look, you can attack me but that is not a proposal for the future, did that score? what was the best line that romney had during the evening? anybody? >> you can't attack me was clearly his go to line. >> rose: right. >> if the president attacked, other than that, i can't think of any real standout lines that governor romney had. i don't think he wanted

with all the energy i can muster. >> we'll repeal obama care. >> we'll repeal obama care. >> we're going to repeal obama care. >> we do provide care for people who don't have insurance. if someone has a heart attack, they don't sit in their apartment and die. we pick them up in an ambulance and take them to the hospital and give them care. >> and in the big finish tonight, as you can see, the stakes are so high in this election people's lives literally depend on the outcome. mitt romney has said many times if he's elected, he will repeal obama care on day one. if romney gets his way, it's back to business as usual for health insurance companies in this country. they'll be back to imposing lifetime limits on coverage. if you're under 26, you can say good-bye to your parent's health care plan. you can say good-bye to free checkups. and most importantly, if you have a preexisting condition, you can be denied health coverage in america under the old system. our guest is the lead guitarist for pearl jam. mike mccready knows all about being denied coverage for having a preexisting condition. h

he bowed. >> free obama phones. free obama money. >> wealth redistribution. >> $200 million a day on the india trip. >> why doesn't he show his birth certificate? >> we've got acorn, we've got community organization. >> the rapper common. >> global apology tour. >> death panel. >> the obama indoctrination. >> obama brand reparations. >> obama is destroying this country. >> the mosquing of america. >> we're establishing literally a command center for terrorism right at the 9/11 site. >> jon: literally. it is a literal command center for terrorism that we established at the site of 9/11. why would we do that? [laughter] but we did. literally. who would do such a thing, kill our grandmas, brainwash our children, institute shira law, bankrupt the children with $200 million a day travel habits? setting aside that the president didn't actually do any of those things, why would the president do these things? >> the president's a communist. >> this guy is i believe a racist. >> i think he's marxist. >> he's a natural secula

on the nonverbals, barack obama sent all the wrong messages. he looked petulant, he looked frustrated, he looked angry, he looked disinterested at times, and while he may have said some good things, it did not come across that way as a confident president who was proud of his record and had a vision for the country. just the opposite of romney, who seemed to be articulating both those things. >> i have never had acting classes, senator. i've had journalism classes. >> excuse me. i'm sorry. well, you're sort of a celebrity so i thought maybe there might be -- >> i do think you hit the nail on the head about the importance, i think, in the modern era in particular for any politician, performance is key. i don't care who you are. and what was odd about barack obama was that four years ago, he looked like this rock star whenever he appeared in public, onstage, on the stump, whatever. last night he looked like the guy, just wanted to quit the band. just sort of artistic differences had set in. there was a sort of odd body language, deflation which i

and obama made two decisions. one was to prop the thing up and keep it going in alliance with other countries around the world and literally saved the fortunes of a lot of these people. but he made a second decision. there were progressives who thought we should have asked more questions about how did we get into this mess in the first place and president obama didn't go there because his advisers were worried if you push the system too hard, it might collapse. and so here are folks whose fortunes were saved in significant part by the president's policies and they are complaining because he doesn't say thank you to them. it's very strange. >> these guys got exactly what they wanted and just won't admit it. let's play more sound from sam zell. >> we need leadership, not criticism. until that scenario changes, i think the united states is, quote, unquote, and i hate to use this word, in a malaise. >> what the hell is he talking about? he's being criticized and president obama hasn't provided leadership. your thought

romney did d do well comred to obama. there was disappointment with prident obama in n thee democratic ranks aer the first debate. i think he has start to regain some of that with the last two performances, but that has said --he first debate has had a tremendous impact. >> but wherever obama goes, you hear him say, out and vote, you have to vote. >>>> on the votes that have low turnout rates. blacksand hispanics are people that he needs, and that catapulted h to the top in 2008. remember, there was a big turnout in 2 2008. those people lack the passion today and he needs to find them and get ththat out. >> the pew research center and a recent harvard university poll indicates, if they are accurate, that fewer young people are going to turn out f for obama this time. >> i don't thihink you really need a survey to te you that. your own eyes and exexperiences can tell you that. i don't know anybody who says young people are going to vote more this year. >> the o one t thing obama has is this data mining thing, this state of

real has it 2% to obama. but there is a reason why both campaigns are moving back to wisconsin spending a lot of money. it's closer. >> dana: do you think it what to do with paul ryan as choice of the v.p.? >> greg: probably. i'm more upset that obama supported the detroit tigers in the world series. could it be that detroit is in a swing state? perhaps. >> kimberly: giants! >> greg: i told tina the giants won and she was terrified. it explained they're not real giants, dana. it brought up something -- it's a team. not big giant people over 5'6". "new york times" reporter tweeted about the race saying it was like watching the 2008 race in reverse. that would be for thepedia. because they're watching their guy who was ascending decrepitting. however it's not in -- ascending, descending. but however it's not in reverse. except for mitt is hope and change. the momentum you saw four years ago. >> kimberly: romentum. >> bob: romney picked up some, say, three to four points since the first debate. obama hasn't desc