ime. anybody? anybody? what time is it? oh, right. go time! [ ♪ music ♪ ] >> jennifer: welcome back to current tv's coverage of the third presidential debate focused on foreign policy. we're fortunate to have somebody who has been through this

experience before, mr. vice president. i wonder if you can share a little bit about what you remember. you had a foreign debate in in 2000, and obviously it's a different scenario today, but i'm wondering are some of the subjects a little familiar from that debate? do you remember even? >> al: i remember a good bit about it. it was fascinating. you go into a foreign policy debate knowing that the american people care a lot more generally speaking about domestic issues and particularly issues effecting the economy when jobs are in an issue. but the president of the united states, whoever is elected is the commander in chief has to be able to handle these issues well, and the voters know that. and i--the foreign policy debate in that campaign that i participated in was interesting.

>> jennifer: well, you went in with an automatic advantage obviously, having been in the place, having that experience whereas your opponent was a former governor and he didn't have that level of experience, either. there is a parallel. >> al gore: that's symmetrical with the debate we're about to see unfold here. but with all of the sophisticated detailed analyses may not be all that helpful in communicating with the voters because you have got to boil them down to very you know, succinct expressions. >> jennifer: you're very gracious, but, eliot,-- >> eliot: i don't know about being gracious in a debate. >> jennifer: you know this is a debate where george w. bush said we should not be engaged in

mission building. >> eliot: we were shotting about this before we came back. it's fascinating how even let's give him full credit, he may have believed it at the moment. circumstances change, and in the world of foreign policy in particular, suddenly the word was turned upside down and what was viewed as a fundamental principle of non-engagement, non-eninvolvement was turned upside down for george w. bush's administration for better or for worse. to the vice president's point subtle nuance, something that the president may be talking about when it comes to bengahzi and the unilateralism of mitt romney with an effective rhetorical point that doesn't translate well. >> al gore: on the other hand

where experience in foreign policy can make a difference, avoiding mistakes that could be embarrassing and coming back in the post debate analyses as a big problem. the most famous example was ironically made by an incumbent president, gerald ford, when he declared that poland was completely free at a time before it was. and then governor carter called him on that, and then after the debate i think it really did hurt president ford quite a bit. >> cenk: i want to ask you guys a question about whether these foreign policy debates are binary. i remember the one with george bush and the vice president i decided after that debate i was not going to vote for george bush under any circumstance. to me it was an elimination.

he didn't seem to know what he was talking about. is that the test? you have to just pass the command center chief test, and has president obama already passed it, and hence this debate is really about whether romney can pass it or not, is it as simple as that, or is it more detailed? >> al gore: i think it is a factor, but i think it's more detailed in an era where the united states has been through two long wars. i think that governor romney, in addition to being required to pass that test, i agree with you on that, he also has some opportunities to try to take particular incidents like the bengahzi matter, and use it as a symbol to lay the basis for a broader indictment. i don't think it's justified and i don't think you'll be able to do it, but he certainly is going to try.

now his lack of experience in these issues has already shown up. you know he declared that russia was our number one foreign policy opponent causing former secretary of state and chairman of the joint chief colin powell to say come on, mitt think. i thought that was very hurtful to governor romney. >> jennifer: i put bets on the table that colin powell endorses some time tonight or in the next few days. >> eliot: it sounds like you have inside information. >> jennifer: no, i'm just guessing. >> eliot: i want to come back to a point that cenk made earlier about what the president can do, jennifer, you mentioned this as well. the president can effectively ask mitt romney what would you do differently. it's a powerful question to prove that he does not have an arrest kickarticulatetive foreign policy, and then he could create a wedge

saying, i would do a b c, and d. when we come back, michael shure with the electoral college map in "the war room"." it will show how you get to that magical 270. we are he coming right back. president gore, watch the only truly experienced presidential debate coverage. i look at her, and i just want to give her everything. yeah you -- you know, everything can cost upwards of...[ whistles ] i did not want to think about that. relax, relax, relax. look at me, look at me. three words, dad -- e-trade financial consultants. so i can just go talk to 'em? just walk right in and talk to 'em. dude those guys are pros. they'll hook you up with a solid plan. they'll -- wa-- wa-- wait a minute. bobby? bobby! what are you doing, man? i'm speed dating! [ male announcer ] get investing advice for your family at e-trade.

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gore, governor granholm governor eliot spitzer and cenk uygur. there is increaseing speakalation that the president could win the electoral college vote, i call this, if you forgive me, mr. vice president a karma sandwich. is that a possibility if your world of giants maps and figures. >> however he gets there it will be to the consternation of republicans. as we look at this map these are the swing states that we're looking at now. this is a likelihood that the president could win the electoral college and still lose a state like florida. we're going to give that to romney. we're going to be very genius generous to romney. he could win new hampshire and

i don't think that will happen. let's give him colorado, nevada, we'll give that to romney. he's at 2 67. you look at this right here, the prothetheproduceer of "the war room"," it's triumph, if he wins those three states. it's the presidency. you can see it right here. he goes up right to 271. that's the way that he can do this. so i don't think you're going to see the president with any presence at all in north carolina. i think it will start to defend until florida even though--it will start to dwindle in florida even though that's where it is today. the white male voter is not favoring the president but it does favor him in ohio, wisconsin and iowa. when you look at it that way you see the population basis around the country florida

texas states like that, they could get him over the popular vote, but that's something that is very speculative. this is hard math. >> jennifer: you could flip out iowa and nevada. they're each six electoral votes. >> yes, you could do that. you could take that and give it to romney, and give nevada that, and it's still 271. those two two could switch. and a lot of people are thinking that the romney-ryan campaign is not playing in nevada right now. it could be that that happens. it sort of makes it a bigger triangle and ruins our graph. >> jennifer: i'm sorry, ruin the metaphor. i do think michael, that you're not going to see the ground games pull out of the states. i think the obama campaign is very confident in their ground game. i just came from campaigning in florida this weekend and it is

incredible the operation that they have there. and in north carolina. and in virginia. i don't think they're going to cede any territory at this point. especially when the margins are so razor thin. if it's one or two points, if they have a good ground game, they could overcome. >> al gore: the analysts that i've been listening say that the president has a big advantage where the ground game is concerned. >> jennifer: from georgia to florida, sorry about that cenk. >> it would play out in iowa. >> cenk: if president obama has won north carolina, he's beat him so handily. in the scenarios where he barely wins, the scenarios we care most about, he's not going to be anywhere near in north carolina. why not take those and move them up to ohio, iowa and even nevada where you need him a lot more? >> eliot: are these triage decisions necessary?

or do they both have enough money in terms of the game, the tv buys, i think they're at saturation point. in terms of the troops on the ground, i don't know how they deploy people, but in terms of tv buy don't they have enough money to beat these markets. >> jennifer: you just can't assume that you have the narrowest of margins. you have to buy some insurance to save some of these states that you're close to. >> cenk: can i ask the vice president about that? as the election day gets closer, how much of those decisions do you make? how much do you move the board around and move volunteers and move money to different states? >> al gore: well, it's very much like what great football coaches do or baseball coaches, when they're in a tight situation they're coming in to the final innings, you know, you may use a pinch runner that you might not use otherwise. it really comes down to a small number of battlegrounds and the

margin can be effected by who has the superior ground game. if you got your top organizers, you know, there is a talent pool that narrows as you get towards the top. now the flip side--so they are under pressure to move them to the battleground states, no question. now the flip side of it, cenk is that the president is so sophisticateed that when the first name player moves from north carolina to ohio, right away you've got coverage about one the campaigns giving up on north carolina. so there is the counter pressure to leave them in place because that's going to be a deluge of bad publicity and then they're able to pull their people out

and they'll match the resources that we're shifting to ohio. it's a complicateed chess match. >> cenk: now before we go back to michael i want to explain the north carolina point that i'm making. there is no scenario under which i don't think that oh, you lose a lot of close ones like ohio, nevada and iowa, but you win north carolina, and there by putting you over the top. i just don't see that as possible. it seems that's why i think they're wasting some of their resources in north carolina that could be redirected. but the vice president makes a great point about image and how it looks now two weeks before the election. michael, what was the point you wanted to make as well? >> michael: there is one situation, and of course we talked about it the other week, which is the tie. we have ohio wisconsin and new hampshire to the president right? and we give the tie here. the rest of it to romney. there was an e-mail that leaked today from romney's pac that

says they're trying to spend money in maine right now. they're going into the second congressional district in maine. maine is a state that awards their electoral votes proportionally. you can win the district and you can win one electoral vote. in that zoo scenario, you hear karl rove's people say they're going to spend money specifically in that district. that's the kind of thing that can break a tie. they're looking at every pressure mutation of this map{^l"^^}. >> cenk: to me that makes a lot more sense because that could make an electoral difference. by the way nate silver now has the president at a 69.3% chance of winning. it doesn't mine he'll mean that he'll win but it's reassuring. we'll have the debate coming up in a little while when we come back on current. thinking. unless, of course you've stood at the podium yourself. with governors

granholm, spitzer, and vice president gore, watch the only truly experienced presidential debate coverage.

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which isn't rocket science. it's just common sense from td ameritrade. >> eliot: we're back with the coverage of the current tv for the third and final presidential debate from boca raton florida. foreign policy, and what happened in bengahzi what we knew, when we knew it, and the right trying to weave a vast conspiracy behind this frivolous view, and this continues to be questions of what we knew and when we knew it. this is the mean of the republican party using it as manifestation of incompetence in foreign policy. how do they see it and talk to it tonight. >> john: to be appalling. in 2001 the g.o.p. used the terror attack to cheer on a

president. in 2012 they use the terror attack to smear on a president. i don't know if the can bring up that hypocrisy without seeming unpresidential, but our embassy in cairo was attacked because of this movie. and if we're going to use bad. >> al gore: ntell for invading a country that never attacked us, i think the president will come into this strongly armed to answer any question about bengahzi, and i'm looking forward to see if he can put mitt romney in a corner. >> jennifer: the question is it acceptable for there to be a delay as an investigation is ongoing. is it acceptable that there might be conflicting accounts as they sort it out. >> john: keep in mind, the moderates are trying to keep this from blowing up. >> al gore: one of the reasons why there used to be a tradition of rallying around an incumbent

president in the mid-of a foreign policy crisis is you don't want to force a trade-off between rushing to present a statement before you know exactly what the facts are. what they're being accused of is actually nothing more than presenting what the intelligence agencies were willing to say in describing the event at the time. was there a time lag in the ongoing analyses by the c.i.a. and what they funneled to the administration officials? i don't know. perhaps. but that is exactly the kind of situation where the country even in the midst of a political campaign should say hey look, we're all in this together. i think governor romney has scored point in bengahzi. maybe the news media coverage has hurt the president some, i don't know, but when he first spoke out the day after the

attack, it hurt him. in the debate when he tried to use it as an offensive line. he misstated it, and it hurt him. >> jennifer: don't you think cenk, that he is using this, that romney is using what happened in terms of this lag in intelligence as a way to cover up for the way he came out of the barn with both guns blazing before he had the information? >> cenk: well, yes and no. is mitt romney being political opportunist? of course he is! on the other hand i'm a little bit of the minority here in the over all issue. i saw susan rice going on those sunday talk shows saying it was related to the video was really curious. at that point i felt that we already had a decent sense there was an organized attack, and heavy weaponry. i remember being really surprised that she had gone in that direction and i felt that perhaps it was to ward off this criticism that they should have been prepared.

now having said that, my god, it goes to show you how republicans have created this uneven playing field in politics. because when a republican is in charge and there is some sort of attack, oh, no, we have to all rally around the president. ifbut it made me think if god for bid during 9/11, god forbid that 9/11 had happened under vice president gore, had he won, they would not have rallied at all. i honestly think the republicans would not have done that. they would have donned reverse can you believe it happened under gore. >> john: and on 9/11/12 governor romney put out an e-mail saying

they could not run it until after midnight. that's when reince priebus said the president sympathized with the president. my question, do you feel that the mainstream media has followed the g.o.p.'s narrative and has not pushed back or questioned their intentions? >> eliot: well now look, i don't want to paint them with such a broad brush. i think the media has bushed back very hard against mitt romney i think mitt romney took it on the chin and rightly so. mitt romney took it on the chin when he flubbed his lines in the second debate. he had the grand opening and misstated the record and candy crowley corrected him. he has ended up on the losing end of this. but the larger reason why the republicans have come back to this it fits the image they're trying to portray the president. it's not that we caught you in this incident, but it's the

entire notion of weakness in policy leading from behind. that's why it fits that intuitive sense they're trying to create that 5% to 10% in the middle that they're speak to go right now. >> jennifer: we're in a situation again where it appears as though the republicans are cheering for incidents to happen in the middle east, that they can use to attack the president with. if there is an another car bomb, ah, it's evidence that the president's foreign policy is falling apart and they don't respect the united states. the same thing on the economy. if there is a hiccup in the economy, obviously the economic policies are not working. i think it's another example of the republicans rooting against the country. >> al gore: one of the other issues that we're bound to hear governor romney raise this evening is china. i think that the general feeling on the part of so many americans

that we are losing jobs in part because

. >> cenk: so will that matter more or will people focus on the zingers and who got the better end of the debating style. we'll talk about that when we come back on current. you've stood at the podium yourself. with governors granholm, spitzer, and vice president gore, watch the only truly experienced presidential debate coverage. what we need are people prepared for the careers of our new economy. by 2025 we could have 20 million jobs without enough college graduates to fill them. that's why at devry university we're teaming up with companies like cisco to help make sure everyone is ready with the know-how we need for a new tomorrow. [ male announcer ] make sure america's ready. make sure you're ready. at devry.edu/knowhow. ♪ ♪

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>> cenk: welcome back to current tv's politically direct coverage of the presidential debates. we have the last debate on foreign policy coming up in ten minutes. we have vice president al gore governor granholm, governor spitzer and john fugelsang. when you look at the substantive record of president obama there are some things that i disagree

with, as i've told you before, drone strikes, etc. when when you talk about killing bin laden coming out of iraq, and what he doesn't get enough credit for getting rid of gadhafi without losing a single life, and the republicans saying he's leading from the behind and i that i it was a success. will they change the term of the debates to who wins on styles and zinger, mr. vice president what do you think. >> al gore: how could you think something as inconsequential as style could play a role in a televised presidential debate. i don't understand the question. [ laughing ] >> eliot: i won't follow that answer. >> cenk: isn't there something off about that? >> al gore: yes, now can i quote you, cenk, of course! >> jennifer: of course!

>> john: i think they agree with you, cenk. >> cenk: is there a way to influence the rest of the media enough to say just maybe you should focus on the substance of what these guys are saying after a debate? >> eliot: i hope they get that memo. >> jennifer: i think of this debate more than any other debate is it's going to be much more focused on style than substance because people don't care so much about foreign policy. of all of the debates i think this one is really-- >> al gore: except for the fact that we've been in these long continuing wars. normally i would agree with you, but there are a lot of people who are war-weary. >> jennifer: that bodes as well well for the president who has gotten us out of those wars. >> eliot: this is where the president turns the iraq-afghanistan situation to his favor. hehe says war is not something that you do glibly.

war has no place for bellicose language. that's when he stood up tall and said i'm the commander in chief and that's where he can move in and score points in substance and style. >> john: for many americans if feels like the la half hour of the lord of the rings.movie. they could go in for the knock out punch and not look like they're going for the knock out punch. mitt romney's fact checker only made it home to his wife yesterday. it's more about tone and demeanor than points. it's about fact checkers the next day who makes the story after the initial tone has been set. >> jennifer: what are you looking for in terms of profit pivots. i think as you suggested mr. vice president, they're going to be looking for

opportunities to pivot back to domestic policy. i think china is clearly an opportunity to pivot back to domestic policy when they talk about jobs etc. what are pivot points that they'll use to pivot back. i don't think there is a pivot point for example, on women's issues. >> john: sure there is, overseas-- >> al gore: i may be in the minority, but i think bob schefer if he has any time left in the final segment called "tomorrow's world," i think he'll ask about climate, and i think you'll see the classic pivot from romney of drill baby drill on more oil, and you'll see president obama reaffirm his determination to see more drilling. then he'll include the clean energy statement that he always does. >> eliot: the defense spending

can come in as a way of the president manifesting mitt romney's lack of discipline. you know what, you said 2 trillion-dollar in additional monies that the defense spending that the defense does not even want. to say someone is taking care of your concerns in a tangible way. >> john: that's how he ties it to president bush. we can't afford to rebuild america because we had to pay to rebuild iraq. >> cenk: i know for different reasons the vice president and myself we missed the last debate. >> al gore: congratulations on the baby. >> jennifer: yes cenk's wife had a baby. congratulations. >> cenk: thank you. but i have to ask the vice president about--i know the part that drove me craze crazy in the last debate who was competing to be mr. cold. how much was that bothering you?

>> al gore: well, no comment. >> jennifer: it bothered him. >> al gore: i'll just say the coal fire plant was not the only things producing steam.. [ laughing ] >> cenk: what are we expecting from bob schefer is he going to be aggressive in moderating this? is that too much to hope for? >> al gore: i think bob is a class act. he has had a lot of experience. i think he'll do an excellent job. i looked back at the transcript of his moderateing performance in one of the debates between between--didn't he moderate one of the debates between obama and mccain, and he asked a question about climate in that debate. i think he'll do a good job. >> jennifer: i also think he's such a--he's a classic gentleman. he's going to be--i'm sure he'll

have heard the criticism that jim lehrer had and he's sort of the mold of jim lehrer, and he niece he has to be more guiding in this debate. >> john: and for candy crowly point out inaccuracy is bias. >> eliot: the president is viewed to having the advantage here so the president needs to win by a little bit to be more presidential. if mitt romney is viewed to be equally presidential, then i think in an odd way the president loses stature. he'll need to come across as i am the president i'm in charge. >> cenk: the debate is coming up in two minutes here. i want everybody to stick with us. we'll have the full debate for you. we'll be tweeting and you'll see everybody else's tweet on the screen as well. we're the only ones doing that coverage. we'll have instant analysis right afterwards which i can't wait for. we're all very excited to see how this one is going to turn