cabby refused to drive to queens. his license was revoked. and talk about the scramble . brian. our folks are seeing in the scramble. >> can i deal you ladies n >> you are from this part of long island. and no one will be hempstead, new york . the president is gone. great show and recap of last night'santics. see you soon. >> see it right now. "fox and friends" starts right now. >> gretchen: good morning, it is wednesday october 15th, 2012 and i am gretchen carlson. thanks for sharing your post debate morning with us. president obama gets help from the moderator? >> it took the president 14

days before he called the attack in benghazi. >> get the transscript. >> he did in fact. let me -- he did call an act of terror. >> >> gretchen: did he. it is not true and so we'll play you the transscript and the interviews after that. >> steve: more women turning to the side of the ticket and so who won the ladies vote last night. we have a panel of undecided voters weighing in on that. >> brian: debate time constrants which cand date got cut short. we'll actually answer. "fox and friends" starts right now. note ♪ ♪ "fox and friends". ♪

how much to cut licenses. governor mitt romney this is what we did. there was a bunch of oil companies . >> i had a question was how much. >> you want me to answer the question. >> i am happy to answer the question. >> worry it >> production on government oil is down 14 percent. and production on gas is nine percent. >> it is not true. >> candy hold on a. >> mr. president, i am still speaking. mr. president let me finish. i am going to continue. >> steve: you know, folks all predictions that that town hall would be dull they were gone. it was like an ice hockey game. >> gretchen: if only they could have checked each other. they probably thought about it. what did you think about the debate. the big thing that you are

talking about this morning is the libya situation. we waited sometime for the question to come about foreign policy and the only question about 48. it was a 48 hour oil question. that answered -- question was answered by hillary clinton about the security of benghazi. >> brian: why oust all of the questions . that was the best one to go in i am shot sure. i loved the fact that they interacted. i thought president obama did better . mitt romney did the best. it is a matter of timing. he wanted to answer the question about chinese. and mr. romney. he's out of time . different ways in which he wanted to counter act the president he couldn't do that. and i thought the president was determined to get hises in and talking points from the stump on both sides. rich have had it too good.

i want the rich to pay their fair share. we heard it five years and surprised to hear it again. libya situation got the greatest carry over. robert gibs is joining us in an hour and like when joe biden said we didn't know anything. leading to the foreign policy debate on monday. that will be the most talked about single portion of the debate. >> steve: last night the president took responsibility for what happened in libya. and there is an exchange where extraordinarily the moderator becomes a ref and that is not supposed to happen on the topic of libya the and president had just come out and said the day after the attack he went into the rose garden and called what happened in benghazi an act of terror and that led to this. you said in the rose garden,

the day of the attack it was an act of attack of terror it was not a pon tanous. >> please proceed. >> it took the president 14 days. >> get the trans script. >> he did in fact. >> can you say that louder candy. >> he called it an act of terror as well it did as well take two weeks or so for the whole idea of there being a riot to come out. you are correct about that. >> gretchen: he did not in the rose garden call the situation in benghazi an act of terror. >> no acts was terror will shape or resolve this great nation or eclipse the lights of the values we stand on . he did not specifically say what happened in libbia was an

act of territor - terror. he went on univision and went to the united nations . the entire administration other than jay carner said it was an act of terror. did that do immense - candy crowley was errorous. or put the discussion in the forefront of every american's mind where it hasn't been. will this error actually bring this discussion to the forefront for the next five-days before we have an entire debate on foreign policy. >> steve: candy crowley back track said mr. romney was right in the main on benghazi but picked the wrong word. >> brian: true, that is accurate and that is an opening governor romney wanted back.

he emphasized the fact that the president didn't meet with world leader and it is where the embassies were attacked and said you better watch our backs or there will be hell to pay and he got him off of the hook. the time line was easy to grab. you went on letterman and the rue and all of these places and then you sent ambassador rice did. the president said i am insulted when you talk about men and women in uniform. but that is a question we have today. are you playing politicings or was your ambassador that clueless to go out and tell six national shows that it was a spontanous act. >> steve: you mention the time line. we have a time line for you folks catching up. this is what the administration said publicly after benghazi. >> no acts of terror shake the

great nation or eclipse the lights of the values. today we mourn for more americans who represent the best of united states. >> best assessment we have today, in fact this was not a preplanned and premeditated attack. >> what we have seen over the last week and half. >> what we have seen in the past. there is an offensive video or cartoon directed in the prophet mohammed and this is obviously something that is used as an excuse by some to carry out inexcusable violent acts directed at westerners and americans. >> there are no words that excuse the killing of innocents and no video to justify an attack on the embassy. >> no doubt the kind of weapons that were use ongoing assault that it was not just a

mob action. >> gretchen: all of those days later still did not call it a day of terror. romney folks will be camping out making sure they perfect his performance for next monday night on how to handle the entire libya situation. i agree with you. that was a lay up with that question. even though it was a 48 hour old question. it was a lay up what bret o'donald will tell us. is that a cand date on a debate stage should never ask a question. it is like being in a courtroom. you never bring up something unless you know for sure what the question will be. >> steve: but the courtroom is the judge: s. candy crowley who was supposed to be the moderator. i saw joe trippi. she threw a flag.

time for fact checking is after the event and she made a gigantic mistake. >> he changed his analysis based on what she said. i don't have a problem with candy being a rep as long as you are right. >> steve: you can't be the rep. you have t be the rep. >> steve: she was wrong. >> gretchen: she was wrong. i don't have a problem with her being a ref if she was right. in this case she wasn't. >> brian: i tweeted this out. i am lonely and no one will watch the debate. did the president end another question and get the first question afterwards it is tough to adjust who is winning. i feel the questions sorry nassau. you were props. you were never.

nice to you and i will go at you. >> steve: you could tell that and candy crowley picked all of the questions. she was in charge of the clock and who won? well, it turns out with the time. president winds up getting about little more than three minutes longger than romney. >> gretchen: he complained more about time and joe biden had more time than paul rhine. so it is interesting the people who get more time are complaining they don't get enough time. >> brian: for example. which this. >> we want to make sure our time keepers are working. >> they are all working and i will move you alone . we have plenty of time . we are quite aware of the clock for you. mr. president i have to move you along. >> just one second. this is important.

this is part of the choice in the election. >> mr. president. we are on guns here . the question of guns >> and this will make a difference. >> steve: so who won? e-mail us and let us know what you think. it was pretty much a draw. but once again like the first debate. mitt romney presented himself effectively and solidly and he would be a plausible president and hoe has a plan. >> brian: he has the creeping up in pennsylvania and michigan and dead heat in new hampshire. we'll see if the president helped his cause. >> steve: honey booboo, endorsed him. >> brian: i don't get that. >> gretchen: who cares. >> steve: and mitt romney has rossperot. >> gretchen: might on that one.

homicide bomber blew up his car near the gate. 10 afghan soldiers were hurt. the taliban has claimed responsibility. last night people from maine het boy an earthquake. it was 20 miles west of portland. >> none of the water pipes are broke. we have cracks in my cranit. >> no one was injured. largest quake in maine was 1991. mastermind calid mohammed will be allowed to dress like the medical. he can wear a camouflage west. he will be forbidden from wears present day uniforms. it doesn't him from wearing

one no longer in use. >> brian: that is outragous and that better come up on monday . make sure american voters can't afford four more years. >> the president's policiless are exercised over the last four years and they haven't put americans back to work. [ female announcer ] you can make macaroni & cheese without freshly-made pasta. you could also cut corners by making it without 100% real cheddar cheese. but then...it wouldn't be stouffer's mac & cheese. just one of over 70 satisfying recipes for one from stouffer's.

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>> brian: mitt romney's strategy first and foremost is attacking president obama on the economy. 23 million people struggling to find a job and the president's policiless are exercised over the last four years and they haven't put americans back to work. 43 months with unemployment above 8 percent and 23 million americans strug loiningg to find ape good job and i look at what is happening over the last four years it is disappointment. >> brian: and the president wants the richo pay their fair share. dick morris former advisor tor

clinton and the author of the here come the helicopters. dick who won? >> romney. >> brian: why? >> he not only won the exchanges that the debate was a strategic win for him and seals the deal for his victory. you can see this on all kind says of levels. start with the fact that romney laid out the case about the economic policies. and failures of the obama administration. and he laid it out several times and kept repeating it and he hammered it home and it was clear that obama did not have a come back or answer. and so i think that is one. secondly obama was trying to tell people what are you going to believe my speech or evidence of my own eyes. does anybody in america believe that barack obama is trying to increase oil

production? and issue of gas prices and he had no answers with gas prices and economy failing he had no worries. and the third point rumny won the chinese issue and explaining the currency and unfair trade practice. he was very effective and obama had no answer. >> brian: dick, do you agree with me on the final statement when romney had a chance to announce all the ways in which he was attack exclude giving a woman cancer and loyar. he went into a stump speech and i thought that was a huge opportuni at the end lost. do you feel the same? >> that romney loss. i thought she showed himself to be a compassionate person and talked about counseling and being a minister that was

effective. on the closing statements obama was better and his 47 percent shot was good. obama won the last exchange of 47 percent and going to vegas. but eight areas romney won. and more than the point for the point. it establishes the economy as an irrebutable issue. he debunched all of those characters in which they are predicate i thought that biden was over bear bidenesque. >> we'll stick aroundd. and one problem. facts were not exactly correct and we'll see that that is corrected next and on monday . remember the gsa official who

used your tax dollars. and not stopping the agency. note ♪ ♪

>> gretchen: thanks for sharing your time today. fda agents raided a compounding pharmacy in massachusetts. remember that is linked to the deadly menigitus outbreaks. 60 people have died and people are sick after receiving the steroid shots. officials didn't say what was found in the raid. >> government agency under a hiring freeze. gsa put on a freeze after the excessive conference spending

scandals were found. since julyy the agency aprouved hiring and more than a dozen jobs are posted. i wonder for smoking clowns? >> and they have prenty of them. president obama got help from debate moderator candy crowley. >> steve: candy corrected rom romm. but her facts were not right. we continue the conversation with bick morris and here comes the black helicopterers. >> brian: not a children's story. >> steve: what did you think of candy crowley siding with the president and supposed to be a moderator and not a ref. >> that was ridiculous. before we get to it. i will finish what i wanted say with brian. carter learned this and obama is about to learn this. when an incumbent president has a bad economic record and

base it on raising the bogeyman of how horrible the opponent is and the bogeyman be it reagan or romney can show he is a good nice person, then the president has nothing left to campaign on. and that's what happened in the two debates d that's why there is a tidal wave of support to romney and i believe it will continue to sweep the rest of the country. >> steve: let's get back to libya? >> on libya. i think that everybody knows clearly that barack obama tried to blame this on a movie. he said in the speech to the general assembly ando a two week period. he and hillary filmed a commercial that the state department reason in pakistan apologizing for the movie. we all know that. and whether he used the terror word or t word in the rose garden the day after is

irrelevant. we all know that is what obama did and he doesn't like to drill for oil and he believes in more spending and borrowing and trying to blame it on a movie. don't predicate yourr whole campaign on something that a 10 year old knows it is not true. >> brian: i think 90 percent don't understand how the president seemed to have dropped the ball on this and differing accounts from his own people is fogging the entire situation. we are finding out the general population is beginning to understand what has happened here. >> i also think that romney's critique is of obama's foreign policy up in flames with the middle east and arab spring and the whole bit and irann. i think that effective and i think rommny is fortunate that the next debate will be about foreign policy just when libya is teeed up as an amazing

overwhelming issue and obama is caught lying in a cover up. this is a cover up just like when eisenhower said the u2 was a weather plane and johnson we are not in vietnam and nixon said we're not in cambodia. they try to blame the movie because otherwise he would have to admit he didn't kill al-qaida when he killed bin laden. what is he saying about forp policy. i killed obama? i killed obama. hard to say that for 90 minutes. >> the president will try to line them up. >> steve: can you say droned? mitt romney attacked for personal investments in china. but did you see what happened when mitt romney turned the president on the president? >> brian: how is his driver

who had rockets in his trunk, how is he going free? >> steve: meanwhile happy birthday to a guy who is singing for his supper. allen jackson is 54 today. ♪ ♪ ♪ i learned how to swim and little about love. so... [ gasps ] these are sandra's "homemade" yummy, scrumptious bars. hmm? i just wanted you to eat more fiber. chewy, oatie, gooeyness... and fraudulence. i'm in deep, babe. you certainly are. [ male announcer ] fiber one. i have a cold, and i took nyquil,

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and>> gretchen: it is time for your shot of the morning. mitt romney and his sons eating dinner before last night's debate. here is a photo of them. on the menu. rotisserie chick yen baked potatoes. >> steve: i wonder if it was from boston. the president had steak with the first lady. >> brian: i know the president worked out in the morning but it eludes me. >> gretchen: we said we he had steak. >> steve: are you watching this channel. >> brian: the debate turned in a fight on long island. i loved it but maybe women didn't. they trad lows for all . top issues. and the next one is on monday. >> steve: peter barnes live in hempstead in new yorkk with

one group and they both made direct apeoples to, right peter? >> right, gang. the championsns rematch here in long island and the president and mitt romney trading blows over taxes and energy and foreign policy and jobs and healthcare. especially health insurance coverage. for women, the cand dates battling for the women vote. >> he suggested that employers should be able to make the decision as to whether or nott a woman gets contraception through the insurance coverage. that's not the kind of advocacy. >> i don't believe burrcrats in washington should tell someone they can use contraceptives and every woman in america should have acess to contraceptives. >> why are they battling so hard. polls show that the majority

of undecipeded voters tend to be working class, working class lower income women, brian. >> steve: peter barnes in hempstead. thank you very much. i was reading during the twitter exchanges that people felt that mitt romney missed a time to jab the president. he was asked about equal pay for request work and the president signed about the led better act. well, mr. president in your white house you pay women less than men. >> gretchen: he did give a good answer and he talked about his massachusetts importance and he had more woman in his cabinet. that was effective for me to hear. >> brian: what did you just read on line. george will called it >> gretchen: best debate. >> brian: he was the one on sunday who came out i don't

knoww what is so good about the format. you are naming the best talk show host. it changed because thanks for the question and can i talk to the president. and now do you mind. >> gretchen: it means they altered the format. i don't love it. >> steve: it blew up the format. >> gretchen: this from an unhappy voters. >> mr. president i voted for in 2008 what have you done or accomplished to earn my vote in bey are be. >> we have gone through a four tough years. i said i would cut taxes for middle classs familis and i did. i told you, i would cut taxes for small businesses. >> i think you know the last four years have not been so good as the president is described and you are not confident that the next four years. you know what you will get.

a repeat of the last four years and we can't afford four more like the last four yearrs. he said we would have unemployment at 5.4 percent. the difference of what it is now. is nine million americans without work. i wasn't the one who said 5.4 percent. this was the president's plan. didn't get there. >> gretchen: did gov mitt romney hold the president accountable. joining me and bret o'donald. >> good to be with you. >> gretchen: who won on that point. >> that was one of governor mitt romney's strong point. if anything else. he held him accountable on the economy . that is where the president want to relitigate the past and mitt romney is talking about the future and making the president wear the

economic policiless. and in terms of the entire debate he did that on the economy. >> gretchen: it will be interesting to see what that undecided voters thought. let me move on to one a topic on that. which is, how did romm rom handled his weak point like bain and off shore accounts and being rich in general. listen to this. >> any investments i have over the last eight yearrs are managed by a blind trust and they include investments and in chinese. mr. president have you looked at your pension. mr.c president have you looked at your pension. >> i don't look at my pension it is not as bigs as yourrs. >> gretchen: what about yourr exchange. >> that is part of the debate where governor romney was not good as in the first debate.

he stayed on offense and kept it about president rather than the personal. this exchange he got defensive and i thought that the president's answer back was a cheap shot but that was more personal and really didn't advance the argument he needs to make on the economy for the offense. >> steve: i want to talk about the libya situation and it was one headline. did mitt romney blow the opportunity to libya last night and how would you have coached him differently first and then how you will coach him moving forward. >> i thought there was a big moment that was maybe, the decisive moment of the debate last night was the libya exchange . on that exchange, governor mitt romney is right and he has the facts on his side, the problem is he tried to litigate it on the one word or

words of the rose garden and we really didn't get a sinus of the time line and just how long it took for the administration to call the civic attack in libya an act of terrorism . on that point. i thought he should have stuck to the overall picture of what happened in benghazi rather than tryying to lit great out. i thought he went down the wrong path. >> gretchen: the final debate is all about foreign policy. it is my opinion this morning that this one question will now forward the story for the next couple of days and make it on the front page of the newspaper and the question was not asked or handled maybe it wouldn't have been. moving forward how would you coach mitt romney to present the libbia situation to the american people on monday night. >> he absolutelyy has to bring

this back up again and i think he has to talk about it from the standpoint of what the administration did or did not do in terms of protecting the four american lives and talk about it in terms of the time line and what happened and in terms of two weeks that went by and the administration never admitted it was an act of terror and they sent out folks on the air to say it was to blame on the video. he has to put it in context for folks so they get a understanding of total other than and how it relates to the president's foreign policy and he let the president have a moment to come back on him and you know, use the term offensive about implying it was handled politically. he has to be making it clear. >> gretchen: we'll see you probably tuesday. good to see you, bret. >> good to see you. >> steve: they have a day after the debate.

we have other headlines to tell you about. former driver of osama bin laden off of the hook? a u.s. federal court of appeals threww out hamdan's conviction for supporting terrorism. providing material support for terrorism was not a crime under international law where he worked for al-qaida. really? proose prossaid he helped bin laden escape after the 9/11 attacks right now he is in yemen. >> brian: watching his interrogation on line it is amazing. members of the james bond gang in the act. a gang of thieves cut the wires and take thousands of worth in cash and jewelry. the ring gets its name for burglars who use 007 cars. >> gretchen: friend and family

saying find farewell chris stevens. ♪ by the dawn's early light. ♪ what so proudly we held. >> gretchen: hundreds including his sister paying respects in a memorial in frann fran. stevens and three other americans kill would in the tragic terrorist attack in benghazi. >> i saw the magic of the middle east through chris' wide optmistic eyes. i remember walking in a restaurant in cairo and the waiter said something to stevens. he translated when you walk in the whole room lights up. was that chris or the beauty of the arab language. >> gretchen: ambassador stevens was only 52 years old. >> brian: while the president tries to sell mitt romney as the bankruptcy cand date another company went bust.

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>> he said that i said we should take detroit bank rup. that's right. my plan to have the company go through bankruptcy like 7-111 and macis and continental airlines and come out stronger. i know he said you want to take detroit bank ruptt. and the president took general motors bankrupt and chrysler bankrupt and so when you say i wanted to take the auto industry bankrupt, you actually did. that was a process that was necessary to get those companies back on their feet so they could hire more people. that is preciselyy what i recommended and happened. >> steve: another green energy company filed for bankruptcy this week and wound up wi 249 million dollars in taxpayer money . stewart varney joins us live.

>> a, 1, 2, 3 system. batteries for electric cars and they are bankrupt. >> steve: we heard this story before. >> would you leakk a list >> chris: only a three hour show. >> the president looks shacky on energy policy. no pipe line built and price of gasoline and permits and drilling declined on federal land and now on the very day of the debate where energy was front and center. this other green energy company subsidized by the tax pay yer helped by president obama goes belly up. >> steve: there was an oil and gas question. romney was ghtt and the president was wrong. oil production has declined 14 percent. over the last year. you are right, most important

number though is the cost of gas. when people fill up their car to go vote on november 6th. they are going to think about that. >> price of gas 1.84 when president obama walked in the white house. 1.8$ and the average price today 3.75. that is a doubling in the price of gasoline on president obama's watch. the president looks shaky on the area of energy. especially green energy. he pened his flag to the green energy band wagon. and that is off the trails. this is a huge listt. a, 1, 2, 3 is the latest. >> steve: i am sure tell come up again. >> we'll watch you 9:20 on the fox business network. coming up cand date did best

for the female vote. we are not talking about college grads. staggering number of adult children moving back in with moms and dads.

>> gretchen: so what did the most important group much votersses think abt the debate those who are undecided. >> brian: frank watched the debate with them and has reaction. >> no place in america has seen more presidential campaign ads. than las vegas, nevada. you watch the debate and give me a word for barack obama. >> better, fair. adequate. he was better. he had a chance. >> struglingg. >> much better than hast time.

>> compassion and convicted. >> he's better than before. was he good enough for you. >> no. >> it is still the same, the same, the same. it is hard to believe what he's saying because we heard it too many timings. >> you thought it was better. i thought romney was better. >> i thought he was arrogate and patrionizing to women. >> i thought he was passionate and caring and concerned about fairness. >> i don't like the continuing class warfare . i don't like dividing americans against americans. >> he was good but he didn't beat up on the economic x. he lied about libbia. >> honorable. >> you have arrogant and honorable. >> we waited 90 minutes to hear him give us solutions to

change the course over the last four years and waiting for some type of a change in policy and manage different he was going to do and i didn't get it. >> i will show you one can click . you had dials in the hand. hand me one of those. they are reacting on a second by second basis to every word and this is where obama performed the best on women's rights and women's issues. >> the first bill i signed was lily led better bill. named after an amazing woman who had been doing the same jobb as a man for years and found out she was getting paid lesss and the supreme court said she couldn't bring suit because she should have out about it earlier. we fixed that. that is advocacy that we need

because women are the bread winners in the family. this is not just a woman's issue it is a family issue and middle class and that's why we are to fight. >> that was a best debate segment. >> he undestands women. he has two daughters. and he isn't limited in his thinking by religiousity. >> and let's wrap it up. >> he has two daughters and that is proof in the pudding. >> is that enough to vote for him. >> not enough. >> is that enough. no. >> it is a big issue. but there is other topics to discuss and talk about. >> when we come back. we'll talk about mitt romney's performance. how many of you thought his was better than barack obamas. we have a lot to hear from the group from las vegas. >> it is fascinating to watch

frank with the independents. >> next hour. voters went in on mitt romney's performance and robert gibbs. >> brian: he nust be nervous. >> gretchen: first visit. ♪ ♪ fly by ght away from here ♪ ♪ change my life again ♪ ♪ fly by night, goodbye my dear ♪ ♪ my ship isn't coming ♪ and i just can't pretend oww! ♪ [ male announcer ] careful, you're no longer invisible in a midsize sedan. the volkswagen passat. winner of a motor trend midsize sedan comparison. that's the power of german engineering.

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thinking or mood, hostility, agitation, depressed mood and suicidal thoughts or actions while taking or after stopping chantix. if you notice any of these stop taking chantix and call your doctor right away. tell your doctor about any history of depression or other mental health problems, which could get worse while taking chantix. don't take chantix if you've had a serus allergic or skin reaction to it. if you develop these stop taking chantix and see your doctor right away as some can be life-threatening. if you have a history of heart or blood vessel problems, tell your doctor if you have new or worse symptoms. get medical help right away if you have symptoms of a heart attack. use caution when driving or operating machinery. common side effects include nausea, trouble sleeping and unusual dreams. it helps to have people around you... they say, you're much bigger than this. and you are. [ male announcer ] ask your doctor if chantix is right for you. >> gretchen: good morning, everyone. today is wednesday, october 17, 2012. i'm gretchen carlson. fiction for sharing part of your day with us today. important political day because it's the morning after and everyone is talking about this question from last night's

debate. >> who was it that denied enhanced security and why? >> gretchen: some say the president didn't give a straight answer on libya. the president's top advisor, robert gibbs, here to respond. >> brian: the economy also taking center stage last night. >> i can tell that you if you're to elect president obama, you know what you're going to get, you're going to get a repeat of the last four years. we can't afford four more years like the last four years. >> brian: we'll get reaction from the romney camp as well. >> steve: you just heard president obama scored better with female voters. frank luntz back this hour with more insight from independent voters. "fox & friends" hour two for wednesday starts right now.

>> think about the governor said, he said when i took office, price of gas was 1.86. why is that? because the economy was on the verge of collapse. because we were about to go through the worst recession since the great depression. as a consequence of some of the same policies that governor romney is now promoting. >> why am i lowering taxes on the middle class, because under last four years they've been buried and i want to help people in the middle class and i will not, i will not under any circumstances reduce the share that's being paid by the highest income tax payers and i will not, under any circumstances, increase taxes for the middle class. >> i also believe that when he said behind closed doors that 47% of the country considered themselves victims who refuse personal responsibility? think about who he was talking about. those on social security who worked all their lives, veterans who sacrificed for this country,

students who are out there trying to hopefully advance their own dreams. >> in the nature of a campaign, it seems that some campaigns are focused on attacking a person rather than prescribing their own future and the things they'd like to do. the course of that, i think the president's campaign has tried to characterize me as someone who is very different than who i am. i care about 100% of the american people. i want 100% of the american people to have a bright and prosperous future. >> steve: you saw 100% of the debate last night. now with some reaction, we've got senior campaign advisor, robert gibbs. >> how are you? >> steve: i know before the debates, both campaigns signed a deal agreement, like we'll do this and this and this. how many rules did both sides break? >> i think they're totaling up this morning. >> steve: it's a large number. >> you know, i will say it's -- look, whenever you put two people running for office in a room full of undecided voters, i

think you could see sometimes that clock in the background and you could see it counting down to zero and you knew that neither of them was going to stop their answer with undecided voters in the room. look, all in all, i think it was an interesting debate because again, you got these questions directly from undecided voters. look, i think the president had an extremely strong performance last night. we were all enormously proud of him and thought he did a great job. >> gretchen: he was obviously different person than the first debate. just on that alone, he would have been much improved. i want to ask you about the most talked about situation from last night, which was the one question on libya which, by the way, was 48 hours old because hillary clinton had said she was responsible and then the president said he was ultimately responsible as well last night. but did he actually answer the voters' question? let's listen to it and see what you think. >> we were sitting around talking about libya and we were

reading and became aware of reports that the state department refused extra security for our embassy in benghazi, libya, prior to the attacks that killed four americans. who was it that denied enhanced security and why? >> gretchen: the president didn't really answer that question, mr. gibbs. do you want to answer it for the american peel today? >> look, i do think the president answered because what the president said is the answer to that question is exactly what we need to get to the bottom of. we need to understand exactly what happened that day. we do need to understand the events that led up to it, as the secretary talked about in peru. those security requests come as they should, into professionals that make those decisions at the state department. we have to figure out how do we prevent a tragedy like this prosecute ever happening again because we are going to as a country, put people in harm's way, in dangerous places of the world that we need desperately to be diplomatically engaged in.

and look, nobody wants to find out the answers to these questions more than president obama, secretary of state clinton so that we can talk directly to the families of those that tragically lost their lives that day. >> brian: you understand the people's frustration in trying to find out, as you follow it, maybe not as close as all we do, one minute it's a spontaneous thing. i felt sorry for you, you don't even have the security clearance to know. i expected to see john brennan out there, james clapper out there. why weren't they out there saying i got the intelligence. here is what i can tell you? >> i know john has been to libya since this happened. i think that every day we learn more as we do in every terrorist event. we learn more about the intelligence leading up to it. we learn more without getting specific about the events that surround it. and look, whether it was ambassador rice or others, they

were giving the american people the best information they had at that time. that's what director clapper said. as we learn more, we're going to tell the american people exactly what we know and when we know it and i think, again, i think the bottom line is we've got to figure out exactly what happened. we've got to make sure it never happens again. i know that the president is committed to that. i know, again, that's exactly what the secretary of state -- >> brian: do you understand how it could be mixed signals when he went to las vegas and colorado instead of sitting in the white house saying i'm not going anywhere until i get answers? >> i will say this, the president is the president regardless of where he is at whatever time. the president has been, as you heard last night in his answer, engaged with the national security council as this was going on in libya, engaged with the national security council and people throughout government, including the secretary of state -- >> gretchen: i think it's the imagery. we all know politics is about imagery and going out to the campaign wasn't the best decision. did you high five each other

last night after candy crowley came out and said, basically supporting the president on -- that he did call it an act of terror on the second day after the attack when the transcript shows he didn't specifically call benghazi an act of terror? were you happy with what she said? >> to be clear, he did -- he was in the rose garden and he talked about acts of terror. he's talking about what's happening in benghazi. it's clear that that's what he's labeling it. >> gretchen: it wasn't clear for 12 days after that. he went on "the view" -- he went on the univision interview and continued to say did he not call it a terrorist attack 12 days later. >> on two different occasions, he said i want people around the world, to all those who would do us harm, no act of terror will go unpunished. no act of terror will dim the light of our values and goes on to talk about rightly so, what we need to do is find out what happened, who caused this and

hunt them down. that's what we're going to do as a country. i will say this, many people have said this, ambassador stevens' own father said this, we should figure out what happened and not make this a big political football. this would be something that we figure out how to prevent this ever from happening again. it shouldn't happen. >> steve: it did and four people died and were murdered actually and on this program yesterday, lindsey graham from south carolina was on this program and he asked a really good question. i want you to watch it and then weigh in. >> my question is, did anyone ever inform the president of the united states about these terrorist attacks on our consulate? what did he know? when did he know it and what did he do about it? >> steve: there were attacks in april and june, i think somebody blew great big hole in the wall in june. the president of the united states should know about something like that.

did he? >> i'm not in the white house anymore. >> steve: but you talked about this. >> gretchen: they're putting you out as a person to respond instead of the security people. >> i'm ready to admit that again, i don't sit in those meetings as brian said, i don't have the clearance to sit in each of those meetings. but i know this, that the president is concerned about what is happening in libya, what is happening throughout the middle east. i think one of the things that didn't go as highly covered as some events in the middle east is two days after this tragic incident, the people of libya marched. 30,000 people in the streets celebrating the life of our ambassador and demanding the disbanding of these militias because we have a unique opportunity in this part of the world, especially in places like libya. they've picked a moderate government. they want to be a democracy and we have to remain engaged in that part of the world in setting up not just the ballot box to help them become a dem

cutaneous anthrax but all of the things that go with it. >> brian: you're absolutely right. when 20 embassies are attacked in the same day, that gets overwhelmed. with four people dead -- >> steve: it was 9-11. >> brian: right. on 9-11. it seemed that the president did not even also elect to meet with the world leaders after where i would have told the leader of sudan, how dare you refuse to let my marines land? >> brian, the president that week talked to -- you remember, talked to the leader of libya and talked to the leader of egypt specifically to say, you've got specific -- i know specifically to egypt in reading the read outof that, you have specific obligations and requirements to protect our personnel, to forget our embassy. >> brian: and he took days to respond. >> what is important with that is we have to do what we need to do to forget those embassy. we have to demand those countries that have our embassies and have our consulates and missions, that

they're doing what's required. >> brian: the israeli leader had to push the leader of egypt to protect our embass or that would have been ram rodded. >> steve: we're all on three hours of sleep. we're thinking, coffee. on monday, it's going to be boca. what's the strategy? >> i think you'll see more of the same. it was interesting, this is a debate. the first debate almost exclusively on domestic policy. this one you saw get more into foreign policy and then the monday debate exclusively on foreign policy. i think we'll have a chance and an opportunity to talk about our promises in iraq to end that war, to redouble our efforts in afghanistan. what we've done around the world to fight al-qaeda and terrorism. look, what we're doing to prevent iran from obtaining a nuclear with weapon and all the things important in this campaign and i think it will be

tremendously important for the american people to watch. >> gretchen: what kind of president obama will with he see monday night then? >> i think you're going to see the hofstra barak obama. he was forceful, commanding, engaged. i thought many times during the evening, i thought mitt romney appeared to be debating candy crowley and not debating barak obama. i thought he looked a bit uneven and unbalanced, maybe not really comfortable. >> brian: you also thought he lied in the whole first one and after president obama -- >> he did [ laughter ] i'm still amazed that -- it was funny. chris wallace asked paul ryan, can you walk us through the math of your tax cut. and paul famously says, chris, we don't have time. mitt just short circuited the question. we don't have math. there is no math involved. >> steve: the spin machine, good to have him on the couch. >> gretchen: paul ryan answered that. her family served our question

proud, but this iraq war vet is being denied in-state tuition because her husband was sent to serve in another state. where is the common sense with all that? we'll tell you more. >> steve: you heard robert gibbs' reaction to last night's debate. now it's team romney's turn. louisiana governor bobby jindal here next. robert, you want to say hello? have you met that guy? >> certainly will [ mother ] you can't leave the table till you finish your vegetables. [ clock ticking ] [ male announcer ] there's a better way... v8 v-fusion. vegetable nutrition they need, fruit taste they love. could've had a v8. or...try kids boxes!

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things would just be really, really different. i lost my leg when i was a kid. there was a time when i felt like i wasn't going to be able to walk again... it was a pretty bad accident but shriners showed me who i could be again. they turned my whole life around. hunter's life is one of nearly a million changed by donations from people like you. send your love to the rescue. donate today. >> gretchen: a couple quick headlines. 9-11 master mind khalid sheikh mohammed will be allowed to dress like a member of the military for trial next year? a judge clearing the way for the mass murderer to wear a camouflage vest in court. although the ruling forbids him from wearing present day u.s.

uniforms, the decision doesn't stop him from wearing ones no longer in use. day three of hearings resumes this morning at gitmo. the cash strapped u.s. postal service making history, but not in a good way. for the first time it reached its $15 billion borrowing limit from the u.s. treasury. the agency must now fully rely on revenue to cover costs. in june, the agency was facing a $5.2 billion loss. over to brian. >> brian: thanks. you just heard the obama campaign give their reaction to the president's performance last night. so how did the mitt romney camp feel he did? let's ask republican governor bobby jindal who, i went to bed while you were being interviewed last night on cnn and with sean hannity. first off, you want to talk about what robert gibbs was just talking about. the president weighing in on his stance with libya. >> i think y'all were exactly right. the president never answered the question. the voter asked the president was it true they asked for additional security resources

and denied? the president got it wrong. listen to this administration three different stories. first, they said it was a protest against the video. for several days you had ambassador rice, jay carney and others say it was not a premeditated terrorist attack. then later they changed their story and said it was the video and spontaneous terrorist attack. then finally the third story that came out was it was a premeditated terrorist attack, no protest on the video. here is what's really galling. not only do we need the real information for the american people, we need to make sure this doesn't happen again and need to hunt down the perpetrators. >> brian: you feel like many republicans, that the governor had a chance to really knock it out of the park there and didn't, to be continued, i guess, on monday. did you see an month missed? >> i think governor romney did well. candy got it well when she intervened and said the president got it right. she cleaned it up later. but the bottom behind is the american people know the story keeps changing from this administration on libya. i think it is indicative of a broader failing on foreign

policy. i know they're going to talk about foreign policy in the next debate. i would like to hear governor remain knee ask president obama why we haven't stood by israel, our most important ally in the region, why we haven't set clear red lines for iran, why they're even close to having a nuclear weapon. why did we pull the interceptors out of poland? i think the best foreign policy is when we're strong. >> brian: people are saying no one cares about foreign policy. that's all changed. i want to you hear what many people say is governor romney's best moment when he went after the president on the economy. >> i was someone who ran businesses for 25 years and balanced the budget. i ran the olympics and balanced the budget. i ran the state of massachusetts as a governor to the extent any governor does, and balanced the budget all four years. when when we're talk being math that doesn't add up, how about $4 trillion of deficits over the last four years? 5 trillion. that's math that doesn't add up. >> brian: he did that because he was just accused of doing math

that was $6 trillion to the deficit. >> look, i think that one -- that was a great moment, another moment when the voter asked president obama, i voted for you last time, why should i vote for you now? it's not just speaking skills, i almost feel bad for the president, he has to defend his economy. he promise to do turn the economy around in three years. hasn't done it. promised he would cut the deficit in half, hasn't done it. promised he would cut health care premiums by $2,500. hasn't done it. they've gone up. broken promise after broken promise. >> brian: karl rove says it's draw. what do you say? >> i think the momentum is with governor romney. attack ads distorting his record, the only way president obama stayed up in the polls. every time governor romney talks directly to the people, he does much better. >> brian: all right. so you think he won? >> absolutely. >> brian: governor bobby jindal, i'll see you at the super bowl. >> absolutely. >> brian: next up, obamacare set to cost taxpayers a trillion dollars over the next ten years. so why didn't anyone in the audience ask about that?

the ceo of the cleveland clinic is here next. then we're talking about college grads. the staggering number of adult kids expected to move back home. they're going to have to mow the lawn and eventually hopefully get a job [ female announcer ] you can make macaroni & cheese

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>> steve: headline time. 24 minutes after the top of the hour. first, news bit numbers. more than 46 million, that's how many americans are currently on food stamps. the program hitting an all-time high. more than one in seven americans are enrolled sadly. next, one third. that's how many homeowners out of 1,000 surveyed say they expect their adult children to move back in with them. they blame the lousy economy. and finally, 72 years old. that's the new 30. new research found that a

72-year-old has the same likelihood of dying in one year as a 30-year-old did. 1.3 million years ago. gretch? >> gretchen: good news. last night president obama defending his signature health care law. while mitt romney making his case that he would repeal it: listen to this. >> when you go out and talk to small businesses and ask them what they think about it, they tell you it keeps them from hiring more people. >> governor romney feels comfortable having politicians in washington decide the health care choices that women are making because this is not just a health issue. it's an economic issue for women. governor romney not only opposed it, he suggested that in fact, employers should be able to make the decision. >> gretchen: while the two did mention obamacare in pass, it did not feature one specific question about the law. but there were questions about equal pay and gun control instead. so is this a mistake or just a mere oversight? let's ask the president and ceo of the cleveland clinic,

dr. toby cosgrove. his clinic was discussed by the candidates during the first debate. good to see you. >> good morning, how are you? >> gretchen: just fine. should there have been a question about obamacare? >> i was surprised there wasn't more questions about health care in the united states. this is the one issue that affects 100% of the people in the united states and it is the biggest portion of federal budget being 24% of the federal budget. to totally let that out of the debate was really quite surprising to me. >> gretchen: yeah, surprising. what wasn't surprising is that you were mentioned, cleveland clinic specifically, during the first debate by both candidates. i think they want ohio. but also because the cleveland clinic, well regarded for the work you do. what do you do that's different than other hospitals and the way you set up care in. >> i think the interesting thing about how we're organized is we're organized around two things. trying to deliver quality and also trying to bring down costs, which is really the two things

that we need to be discussing right now in health care. the quality issue is something we thought is very important and the thing that drives it is transparency around our outcomes which we have made transparent for the last decade, and then as we see quality go up across the country and we certainly have seen that with better care, better drugs, better devices, we've seen costs go up. we really need to concentrate on how we bring down the cost of health care. there is really only two ways that you can do it. one, we have to have a more efficient delivery system and part of the delivery system that we have at the cleveland clinic is alt doctors are employed. they're all salaried. so it makes no difference whether a doctor does something, procedure or gets a test, makes no financial difference to that individual. and that is important in keeping costs down. it's been recognized that hospitals that have that sort of a system have lower costs than hospitals that don't.

the second thing that we need to do to bring costs down is we need to emphasize keeping people well. we need to move from sick care to health care. we put a big push on particularly our employees and our community about dealing with smoking and dealing with epidemic of obesity, which is driving up health care. >> gretchen: before i let you go, what would four more years of obamacare -- i mean, it will be basically getting started in 2014. what will it mean for a privately funded health system like the cleveland clinic? >> we think that we're going to be seeing more patients and we're going to be paid less for doing it. therefore, we have to become more efficient. i think that's true of health care systems across the entire country. the law is already in place. i don't think that it's president-elect obama going to be repealed -- probably going to be repealed. i think we'll deal with the law in the future. >> gretchen: very interesting. dr. toby dozen grove, ceo and president of the cleveland clinic. thanks for your time.

here is what president obama said last night about his record on taxes. >> i said i would cut taxes for small businesses who are the drivers and engines of growth. we've cut them 18 times. >> gretchen: turns out he didn't tell you the whole story. the real numbers coming up next. then it really ain't easy being cheesy. schools now banning cheetos -- my kids' favorite snack -- because they're too salty? how about the orange fingers? shouldn't parents make that choice, though [ female announcer ] she did a full day at the office,

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[ relaxing music playing ] [ chuckles ] -whew, so many choices. -take your time. -the service center. -okay. giving you choices -- now, that's progressive. call or click today. >> my favorite rule for the debate tonight was each candidate may move about in a predesignated area and may not leave that area while the debate is underway. as if mitt romney was going to run out for his own white castle hamburgers. >> steve: they broke that rule four minutes in. >> brian: they were in each other's space all night. which is interesting because you find yourself looking in the background wondering, is the other candidate going to get up? it was feisty, direct. it was nothing like it was supposed to be. sadly, the people were used as props. my county was taken for a ride.

how many questions were there, 12? 11 questions. thanks for the question. now i'm going to go talk to this guy. >> steve: it was really disturbing in the very beginning, in some of the cut aways you could watch the count down clock. it's like okay. three, two, one. and i think the first one we saw that, i thought mitt romney finished pretty much right on the nose. by the end of the evening, they had both run over. i think the president of the united states pictured right there, did wind up speaking a little more than three minutes longer than mitt romney. >> gretchen: what did you think about the format? let us know because really was it a town hall format or altered format? to me, it was altered and went up to the deadline because candy crowley wanted more influence in this debate. she had insinuated that during the last couple of days before and the debate commission ended up changing the rules to say you know what, she is going to have more power to ask her own questions. so is it right for a person who

studies these issues on a daily basis to be asking the questions or do you want to hear from the american public or do you want a combination of both? what i would really like to know this morning is, i would love to know what were the other questions that were in the bucket that weren't asked? >> brian: how did gun control get in there? that's not on america's mind. whether you like it or not, it does not belong there. >> gretchen: the obamacare with the guy who runs the cleveland clinic. wouldn't you think when it's a huge percentage of the budget in america that there might have been a question about obamacare? >> brian: what about gas prices? that did come up and i thought the president was unable -- because they were out of time, i guess it was governor romney couldn't say anything, but he said, you know why gas prices were low? the economy was doing bad. in the history of this country, any time the economy is doing well, gas prices are high? that's impossible. >> steve: over the last couple of days we've been talking about what happened in libya and it's interesting, the president of the united states did fine will he take responsibility for what

happened there as commander in chief, but then extraordinarily, and this was new -- he said, and the day after it happened, i went out into the rose garden and i called it an act of terror. when, in fact, he didn't do that. he called it no acts of terror. so he got it wrong. but unfortunately, candy crowley essentially acting not as the moderator, but instead as the ump, threw a flag and said the president was right. i think that mystified mitt romney who was correct. >> brian: ed gillespie said you should not be fact check on the fly. that was out of bounds. robert gibbs put his side to the test, and he talked about what the president talked about. >> it's clear that's what he's labeling it. >> gretchen: it wasn't clear for 12 days after that. he went on "the view" and the univision interview and he continued to say he did not call it a terrorist attack 12 days

later. >> but on two different occasions on the 13th, the president says i want people around the world to hear me, to all those who would do us harm, no act of terror will go unpunished. later on the 13th, no act of terror will dim the light of our values and he goes on to talk about what we need to do is find out what happened, find out who caused this incident and hunt them down. that's what we're going to do as a country. >> gretchen: it's interesting, though, because he had his notes prepared for the comments of when the president used the word, terror. why isn't the president consistent on this message? i mean, if he did call it an act of terror, if you believe him from last night on the day after on september 12, why didn't he say that on every interview? why does robert gibbs have to take out his note card to remind himself of when he said it when you have all these other examples of when he didn't say it? >> steve: that's just the white house spin today. the white house spin today is the day after when he said no acts of terror, he was referring to benefiting. but in fact, people who read the stuff say that he was just speaking broadly there and when he was addressing benghazi

directly, he called it outrageous and shocking as an attack. >> brian: you know, i think it goes back to every rocky episode. when i watched the end of this, it reminded me of end of rocky 1 when apollo says, rocky, there ain't going to be no rematch. i don't want one. you know there is going to be a rematch and they wanted one. there is going to be a rematch on this very issue on monday and that's what makes it so exciting is that i think governor romney knows that out of all the things he could have said there, probably emphasizing the word at the rose garden was not the right one. he should have sudden why did you say this on letterman or "the view"? >> steve: the problem was candy crowley made the mistake of saying the -- when the moderator suddenly becomes the ump and says, okay, mr. romney, what you said is wrong -- >> brian: the president was right there. >> gretchen: then it got into

syntax. >> brian: the overarching medjugorje. >> gretchen: did anyone answer the question for you last night? do we know more this morning about the president's position about what he knew and what he hopes to know than we did before the debate? >> brian: another area that they talked about is the president talking about all his small business tax cuts. listen. >> four years ago i stood on the stage like this one. actually it was a town hall and i said i would cut taxes for middle class families and that's what i've done. by $3,600. i said i would cut taxes for small businesses who are the drivers and engines of growth. we cut them 18 times. i want to continue those tax cuts for middle class families and for small businesses. >> steve: so he was saying that to counter mitt romney who said i want to bring everybody's tax rates down and the president did cut taxes for small businesses 18 times, but 13 were temporary and most of them have expired.

for some reason, he did not mention that. i wonder why? >> gretchen: coming up next, the president tried to be tougher this time around, but did that plan backfire? peter johnson, jr. has his analysis next. >> brian: we'll see it in the polls. first, the aflac trivia question of the day. born on this day in 1948, this actress is best known for her role as lois lane in "superman." who is this a hybrid? most are just no fun to drive. now, here's one that will make you feel alive. meet the five-passenger ford c-max hybrid. c-max says ha. c-max says wheeee. which is what you get, don't you see?

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[ laughing ] [ laughing ] [ laughing ] [ laughing ] ♪ >> brian: couple quick headlines. cheetos caught in the cross fire. in the war against junk food, school districts in california and new mexico are trying to ban flaming hot cheetos. how dare they?

because they say they're a health hazard to students. officials also slamming the spicy snack for having too much fat and salt. the districts in illinois has already taken them off its lunch menu. again, a lot of sinuses are rejoicing, they'll never be cleared. she served our country and now an iraq veteran is being denied in-state tuition at a university, even though she lives in that state. she says the university of north carolina pembroke told her she didn't qualify because she didn't pay state income taxes because she was in iraq. when the army transferred her to texas for six months. but she's paying taxes and a mortgage on her home in north carolina. now she's starting an on-line petition to get the school to change its policies and how it treats student veterans. i want all of you to get on-line behind her. let's go to steve with three other people. >> steve: thank you very much. the biggest take away from last night may be the sparring between the two candidates. in some cases, the debate got heated and even personal between

the two of these. but which candidate handled their emotion the best? joining us right now, he's not two dimensional, peter johnson, jr. you were there last night? >> i went and i watched it when i got home at 1:30 in the morning, so i saw two aspects of it. in the hall and at home and i believe mitt romney won this debate. >> steve: why? >> he won this debate because he had a clearer vision of the future and at the same time, i think he had a more dignified persuasive approach. we talked yesterday about the back-off rule, about not getting in somebody's face. the president trying to be aggressive, trying to be energized, trying to get off the some next that i was on the first debate, stepped into this area, called wwwf, world wrestling federation and he came out swinging. he came out punching. i thought it was an unseemly display, but i predicted it based on joe biden's performance. i said joe biden is trying to bring it down.

the president brought it up to that level. and that's what we had. so i think there is a lot of satisfied hard core liberal democrat this is morning, but i think main stream americans, independent americans are saying, who was more presidential? and on that count and on that count alone, i think mitt romney won that huge. not even on points. knockout blow. >> steve: something i noticed, and joe biden had done it last week and that was a number of times when mitt romney was out in his place in the forum, he was talking. the president took his mike and was essentially adding some words. you might say it was heckling, but he was just inserting things just like joe biden did. >> you're absolutely right. the president didn't answer the hard questions on libya or gasoline prices. what he did do was resort to name calling. let's look at that. >> candy, what governor remain knee said just isn't true. and very little of what governor romney just said is true. not true, governor romney. >> how much did you cut it? >> not true. >> it's not true.

>> mr. gibbs and mr. axelrod said to the president, just keep saying what mitt romney is saying is not true. somehow that's going to seep into the consciousness of the american people. what we heard from mitt romney was a lot of statistics about how we're in severe, severe problems in america. couple uncomfortable moments for mitt romney when he was off his game 'cause i don't think he expected or anticipated this kind of assaultive, strong chicago community organizer meeting style out of the president who did come on strong. i think too strong. >> steve: he did. in fact, one of the things -- it's a tactic they use. up with of the things the president did was he came out and he listed like five different things about mitt romney when it was an uncomfortable question about his record, so mitt romney felt obligated to answer. okay. point one, this, this. he didn't have enough time to turn things around. >> i thought the president should have done better, big they basically -- the moderator

helped the president time after time and the questions. to ask mitt romney, how are you like george bush? what the heck is that about? was the question, hey, president obama, how are you not like jimmy carter? >> steve: where was that question? >> how was that germane and why didn't the president answer a lot of the critical questions. i think mitt romney did a better job of focusing on the people's actual questions. i'm not upset that a governor goes out of his way to attract and hire women to his cabinet. i think that's something that should be applauded. not made fun of. >> steve: as it turns out, at that man's white house, they actually pay women less. >> both great debaters. violated a lot of the rules, but exciting. >> steve: peter johnson, jr., thank you. coming up, you heard what undecided voters thought of the president's performance last night. what did they think of romney's? frank luntz back with his focus group next. first on this date in 1999,

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>> brian: the answer to the aflac trivia question, margo kidder. 8 minutes before the top of the hour what, did most -- what did the most important group of voters think of the debate? those who are still undecided. last hour they rated president obama's performance. now frank luntz, gretchen, is getting their take on mitt romney. >> gretchen: frank? >> you want to know who is going to make the decision, who is going to make up the difference in this election?

all you have to do is come to nevada, one of the most important swing states. we're at steve wynn's hotel. you saw the entire debate, every second. give me a word or phrase to describe mitt romney. >> believable. >> competent. >> pleasantly surprising. >> substantive. >> knew what he wanted. >> thought he was concise and professional. >> capable. >> thought he was just average. >> all but dan thought this was a good night for mitt romney. but explain to me why. >> i thought it was a good night because especially at the very end he was able to draw the contrast between the president's record and what his record has been in his entire life up until now. he hadn't had that opportunity, he worked with an 87% congress in massachusetts. obama has not met with republicans for a year and a half. 7.8 unemployment does not exist. >> he emphasized what he was going to do, didn't just tear down the other opponent. >> you didn't hear this. tell me why. >> i didn't hear that it was

such a great debate. i didn't hear anything new out of mr. romney that i haven't heard for the last six months. >> they asked a question almost at the end, what is it about your record or your life that you feel people don't really understand? and it was one of your highest debate moments for mitt romney. let's take a look how our group of nevada voters reacted to what the governor had to say. >> i sat across the table from people who were out of work and worked with them to try and find new work or to help them through tough times. i went to the olympics when they were in trouble to try and get them on track. and as governor of my state, i was able to get 100% of my people insured. all my kids, about 98% of the adults. was able also to get our schools ranked number one in the nation. so 100% of our kids would have a bright opportunity for a future. i understand that i can get this country on track again. we don't have to settle for what we're going through. we don't have to settle for gasoline at 4 bucks. we don't have to settle for

unemployment at a chronically high level. we don't have to settle for 47 milo people on food stamps or 50% of kids coming out of college not able to get work. we don't have to settle for 23 million people struggling to find a good job. if i become president, i'll get america working again. >> what was so positive about his description of what he had done? >> he speaks in such a way that he becomes inspiring. his record has been inspiring. so what he talks about, what he's going to do for the future and for growing the economy, you feel like he knows what he's talking about you and feel inspired and you believe it. >> he's a successful man. he's been successful in government and business and he's demonstrating it by the way he presents his ideas to the public >> he's accessible, smiling. one on one. >> very good businessman. >> yeah, he knows. >> he shared more openly about who he was as a person. >> and he was positive.

>> very authentic. >> i want to show the people at home how many people voted for barak obama in 2008. raise your hands. awful lot of you. how many of you are currently planning, based on this debate, to vote for barak obama in 2012, raise your hands? that's not many of you. this debate may have been crucial. as important as the first debate was, this one may even be more so. this is any indication, nevada people will be impacted by what they saw this evening. back to you. >> brian: when he said you, he meant you. >> gretchen: okay. i'll read the tease. coming up, for years children have enjoyed a halloween festival at this church. but not this year because it's occupied? >> brian: yep. then move over, madonna. the headline over the half time show at the super bowl just announced. >> gretchen: single lady? >> brian: should i say it? i think it's a tease. i keep giving away the teases. i'm trying not to [ female announcer ] you can make macaroni & cheese

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>> gretchen: good morning, everyone. today is wednesday, october 17. i'm gretchen carlson. thanks so much for sharing part of your time with us this morning. it's a big day because last night was the debate. the president did not answer one of the hardest questions on the stage. it was about libya. this morning we asked his senior advisor the same question again. the president didn't really answer that question, mr. gibbs. do you want to answer it for the american people today? you will hear the answer from the president's senior campaign advisor, robert gibbs, coming up. >> steve: meanwhile, math also taking center stage last night. >> when we're talking about math that doesn't add up, how about 4 trillion dollars of deficits over the last four years? five trillion? that's math that doesn't add up. >> steve: how many zeros is that? which candidate made the better case on the economy? your e-mail pouring in.

we'll share some of them with the whole world. >> brian: a lot of women not so happy after last night's debate. is the president able to woo them back? was governor romney able to keep them in his pocket? we'll report. you decide. "fox & friends" starts right now >> how much did you cut licenses and permits on federal lands and federal waters? >> governor romney, here is what we did. there were a whole bunch of oil companies -- >> i had a question and the question was how much did you cut them by? >> you want me to answer? >> i'm happy to answer the question. >> all right. and it is? >> here is what happened. >> production on government lands? >> production is down. production on government land of oil is down 14%. production on gas is down 9%. >> it's just not true. >> it's absolutely true.

candy, hold on a second. >> mr. president, i'm still speaking. >> i'm sorry. >> mr. president -- i'm going to continue. >> brian: you've seen why so many said this is the best debate they've ever seen. charles krauthammer loved it. george will said he watched every one since 1960, by far the best. i found it intrigue, but then i'm talking to other people who are saying they don't like the arguing, the back and forth like that. it's a turnoff for women. >> gretchen: i don't know if -- let's not lump all women into one category. i do know that i think women were turned off more by joe biden last week in the condescending nature that he was to paul ryan. maybe 'cause they felt like that a lot in their lifetime. but last night i'm not so sure. i don't want to put women into a box, whether or not they like -- 'cause women with can be aggressive. i think what women want to know is the same issues as men, about job, debt, gas prices, health care, all of those same things. i think most people can look past that bickering because they

want to hear about the issues. >> brian: those who don't like each other. that's clear. >> gretchen: they want to win! >> brian: but listen, there was a lot of tense. it's very personal. i don't think they shook hands at the end. >> steve: if they did, it was for one second. another thing people want to know is why did four americans get murdered in libya? and this was a question that was posed to the president of the united states and the president came -- first of all, he did take responsibility. said the buck stopped with him. i'm kind of paraphrasing. but then he also said look, the day after the attack, i went in the rose garden and i called it an act of terror. well, as it turns out, he didn't call it an act of terror. he called it no acts of terror and mitt romney jumped on that. >> you said in the rose garden the day after the attack it was an act of terror. it was not a spontaneous demonstration. is that what you're saying? n please proceed, governor.

>> i want to make sure we get that for the record because it took the president 14 days before he called the attack in benghazi an act of terror. >> get the transcript. >> he did in fact, sir. so let me call it an act of terror and -- he did call it an act of terror. it did as well take two weeks or so for the whole idea of there being a riot out there about this tape to come out. you're correct about that. >> steve: she was wrong. she later came out and said, you know, there she was, the moderator, acting as the umpire. you're not supposed to do that. but there she was toward -- after the show she she back tracked and said mr. romney was right, but picked the wrong word. remember, the president of the united states said, i calm out and i called it an act of terror. he did not. he said, no acts of terror. >> brian: he didn't do well there. governor romney had -- no, governor romney did what he was

supposed to. he has been awesome for three hours. this is one place he could have driven a truck through that opening. that is mr. president, you went on "the view," you we want on letterman, in front of the u.n. and indicated you didn't even know what happened and you indicated it was the movie. you didn't even get back to the american people. you went on the campaign trail. >> gretchen: it was a lay-up question. when i heard it, i was like, oh, they're finally going to talk about libya. i thought wow, i wonder how the president is going to respond to this because just the day before, hillary clinton had sort of fallen on the sword and said the buck stopped with her. the president came right out smartly i think, and said the buck actually stops with me. but mitt romney still had a huge opening there and i think he was thrown off by candy crowly agreeing with the president because they didn't want to carry it into a bickering match. it's all about context, folks. the president did say the word terrorist in the rose garden, but he didn't call the attack an act of terror. so it's all about context here. i don't think that either

candidate specifically mitt romney, wanted to get into the semantics of it last night. but he should have pounced on it. he should have pounced on the bigger messaging about what this means for our country in general. maybe monday night he'll have a different take. >> brian: that's a good think. i think he teed it up for monday night, but he had so much to memorize, he doesn't know where the questions are coming from. neither did the p. i thought that was an opportunity that he missed. we'll see if he does better because then they're going to talk about afghanistan, iraq, to doing nothing in syria. the relations with israel and everything from there on back. it was a short time ago when robert gibbs was sitting right there. >> steve: he was sitting right over here by where i'm sitting right now and we asked him about hey, what are you talk being? the president, you know, he was late to the party in labeling libya as a terrorist attack. here is how he responded. >> it's clear that that's what he's labeling it. >> gretchen: it wasn't clear for 12 days after that. he we want on "the view," he within to the u.n., univision interview competent continued to say he did not call it a terrorist attack 12 days later.

>> but on two different occasions on the 13th, the president says i want people around the world to hear me, to all those who would do us harm, no act of terror will go unpunished. later on the 13th, no act of terror will dim the light of our values and he goes on to talk about rightly so, we need to find out what happened, who caused this incident and hunt them down. that's what we're going to do as a country. >> steve: you could tell that he was prepared for us to ask him about the libya time line because he had in his pocket one little square with two sound bites on them and he read them to us. and you know, now it's reminiscent to some of what does -- the definition of is, is, where they're talk being an act of terror. the president was speaking to many, they believe, broadly, about terror in general the day after in the rose garden. but now the spin that he knew from the get go, or did he? we've got a time line. >> gretchen: the interesting thing is that robert gibbs still didn't answer the question even

the day after. we still don't know why the ambassador to the united nations, susan rice, went out five days later on all those talk shows and said that it was still the video! nobody has really responded to that question yet or to this time line where you have these two attacks in benghazi that happened in april and in june and yet, the security was still not ramped up. >> brian: all right. quick thing, i have a lunch that -- >> steve: here is a time line. >> this great nation, alter that character or eclipse the light of the values we stand for. today we mourn for four americans who represent the very best of the united states of america. >> best assessment we have today is that, in fact, this was not a preplanned, premeditated attack. >> what we've seen over the last week, squeak a half is something that we've seen in the past where there is an offensive video or cartoon directed at the

prophet mohammed and this is obviously something that then is used as an excuse by some to carry out inexcusable violent acts directed at westerners or americans. >> there are no words that excuse the killing of innocents. there is no video that justifies an attack on an embassy. >> there is no doubt that the kind of weapons that were used, the ongoing assault that it wasn't just a mob action. >> brian: today they have named a group that they think did it. al-shariah. he was on the compound. they found him on the video. looked for some type of strike. if he did it, i want him dead yesterday. look for some type of strike in a thyme fashion before monday. >> steve: let's see the debate is going to be 9:00 p.m. monday from boca. so probably before that? >> brian: i think so. >> gretchen: let's get to some of your headlines now because we have a fox news alert.

moments ago, lance armstrong announcing he's stepping down as chair of his live prompt charity. the organization dedicated to fighting cancer. just last week the u.s. anti-dope be agency released a scathing report accusing lance armstrong and his teammates of a history of doping. he lost his seven tour defrance titles and banned from cycling for life. live strong was founded in 1997. it has raised around $500 million for its cancer patients. overnight a fire break out at a restaurant in colorado, leaving five people dead. it happened at the bar and grill in denver. police believe it was intentionally set, but by an arsonist. the police chief speak moments ago. >> it appears to be some trauma to the bodies. also appears arson. so this is currently being classified as a homicide. >> gretchen: they're investigating whether it was open or in the process of closing when the fire happened. 9-11 master mind, khalid sheikh mohammed, will be allowed

to dress like a member of the military for his trial? a judge clearing the way for the mass murderer to wear a camouflage vest in court, although the ruling forbids him from wearing any present day u.s. uniforms. the decision doesn't stop the al-qaeda leader from wearing one no longer in use. day three of the pretrial hearings at gitmo resume this morning. >> brian: is that unbelievable? >> gretchen: 2013 super bowl half time performer revealed and all the single ladies, are they going to be watching? ♪ all the single ladies ♪ all the single ladies ♪ put your hand up ♪ up. >> gretchen: beyonce will take the stage february 3 at the super dome in new orleans. this will be her second super bowl appearance. in 2004 she sang the national anthem in her hometown of houston. no doubt that will be a fantastic show. >> brian: i think it will be. i thought it would be katy perry. 11 minutes after the hour. next, bin laden is dead, but the man who protected his life allowed to walk free? despite rocket propelled

grenades launchers in his trunk. how the heck did that happen? >> steve: no kidding. plus a lot of ladies, not so happy after the last debate. was the president able to keep them in his column or was mitt romney able to woo them to his? that political panel -- good morning, folks, you're next. >> brian: they seem nice. >> steve: they do seem nice. hey! did you know that honey nut cheerios has oats that can help lower cholesterol? and it tastes good? sure does! wow. it's the honey, it makes it taste so... well, would you look at the time... what's the rush?

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i need to be able to get home at 5:00 o'clock so i can be there for making dinner for my kids and being with them when they get home electric school. so we said fine. let's have a flexible schedule. >> steve: last night both candidates doing their best to woo the female vote by using personal stories of people they know. but did it work and will it have any impact on the big election that's coming up? let's talk to our mittcal pam. joe trippi, he was up really late. the former howard dean campaign manager. he's also a fox news contributor. that's why he was up late. aaron mcpike is a national political reporter for real clear politics and al is a former u.s. senator from new york. good morning to all of you. >> good morning. >> steve: erin, let's start with you. the big question is, the president really needs to keep the female vote and if you take a look at a swing state poll of likely female voters taken before the debate, it was a horse race. the president 49. 48. what did last night do for either candidate?

>> president obama said he was a better advocate for women throughout the debate. he talked about planned parenthood four or five times. and saying that mitt romney wanted to get rid of federal funding for that institution. he's really playing for women's issues whereas mitt romney was saying, look, under president obama, 3.5 million more women are now in poverty. so he was playing the economic card with them instead of just the larger women's issues. >> steve: what's bigger for women? the question of abortion and copt essential or having a job? >> focus groups are telling us having a job after that debate was more important to them. so president obama might not have scored any more points. >> steve: does the edge go to mitt romney? >> i don't know about that. i would say it was probably a tie on that issue. >> steve: all right. what do you think, joe? >> i think they're the demographic group that they'll be fighting over. before the first debate, barak obama had a 15-point lead among women. >> steve: where did it go? >> romney won them over in that first debate. that was the most significant

thing that happened. the problem for romney is that no republican has won that group since george herbert walker bush in 1988. so the question is, can obama and that's what he was trying do in the debate last night -- can he bring some of them home? he brings any of them home, he wins the election. they're is huge part. >> steve: don't you think the big reversal for mitt romney was the fact that even though the president spent hundreds of millions of dollars portraying mitt romney as an evil businessman who hates women and everything else, when people saw him on the stage two weeks ago, they went wait a minute, he's not only friendly, he could be president? >> that's true. then i think you get to the vice presidential debate and joe biden doesn't impact women because of the smiling and laughing and then last night the two of them get into it with each other. evading each other's space and sort of talking over each other. i'm with erin. i'm not sure who -- about the issues. >> steve: al, what do you think? >> i thought it was a great

brawl. it was a brawl. that's what it was. >> steve: you were there! >> i was there. and by the way, you know one of the reasons i got there, i had to tell one of romney's campaign people, i said, you know what? i'm going to be on fox the next morning. if i'm not there, they're going to say to me, why weren't you there? >> steve: wait a minute, you used us for a free ticket? way to go, al! >> absolutely. i said, it's going to be embarrassing. they said it wouldn't be embarrassing? i said no, you don't understand me. it won't be embarrassing to me. by the way, i believe governor romney is much better in his campaign. i think his campaign is almost amateurish at times. he's a tremendous candidate. when you see him up front and personal, like the american people did the first debate. and even now, he was there slugging it out with the president toe to toe. i think it was pretty even last night. i think it was even. i'll tell you this, candy crowley, she did everything she could to keep him from making

his points. she cut in, wouldn't let him finish. when he was saying to the president, what about your pensions? didn't they -- you should know, they invested in china. and she was interrupting. >> steve: yeah. joe had a good line about something they did last night. she wasn't just the -- >> she was the referee and called us down with the flag. >> steve: she did. the three of them will continue the conversation because it went so well. moments ago the vice president doubling down on the white house claim it knew nothing about extra security requests in libya. we're going to have the panel weigh in on that. then remember this guy who used to throw your money around for a hot tub party out in vegas? his bosses were supposed to stop spending like that. but guess what? that's not happening! details straight ahead. ♪ [ male announcer ] finally, mom's oven-baked tastes straight from the microwave. like oven-roasted chicken in a creamy alfredo sauce.

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>> gretchen: 24 minutes after the top of the hour. fox news alert. u.s. embassy in sweden evacuated because of a letter with, quote, unknown content. there are reports the letter may contain a white powder. a bomb squad was sent to the embassy as we await more information. and the gsa under a hiring freeze, yet it's still filling jobs? the agency was put on ice after we found out taxpayer money was being spent on hot tub parties in vegas. according to a new report, the agency approved hiring 40 people and more than a dozen jobs are posted right now. steve? >> i'm not going to speculate on that. look, but what i said was absolutely accurate. neither the president nor i were told of the additional security request as hillary's pointed out straightforwardly that request never got to the president or to me. >> should you have been told?

>> i'm not going to speculate on that. >> steve: yeah, but that's something people want to know. that's joe biden moments ago claiming ignorance as a defense on the benghazi blunder that killed four americans. is that enough? we're continuing the conversation with our esteemed political panel today. it's interesting, libya came up last night, erin, and the president of the united states was asked, you know, hey, who was it who denied extra security here? he didn't answer that guy's question and instead, what he said was, i mentioned terror the day before. now we're playing this semantics game about what did he or did not say and what did he or did not mean. but this is something that people really want to know. what did he know and when did they, he and joe biden, know it in. >> you're right. he did dodge the question. and the romney campaign is excited to be talking about that over the next week and they want to go back into it at the debate next monday. that's for sure. i will say, though, that the obama campaign declared victory

on that issue because the president was very intense. he was very emotional. he accused mitt romney of playing politics with national security in that moment. it was a very good exchange for obama and romney missed an opportunity on that one. >> steve: joe, wouldn't part of the missed opportunity be the fact that the moderator essentially sided with the president throwing a flag on the play when she shouldn't have? >> yeah. whether she should have or shouldn't, she did. >> steve: can't put the toothpaste back in the tube. >> i was sort of amazed that romney ended up, i think, losing that debate point. i mean, during the debate. now they'll fight it out for the next week. but yeah. it was a lost opportunity for romney to score points. >> steve: you know, and mr. d'amato, mitt romney came out the day after the attack started over there and critical of the administration. it was before we knew that the ambassador had been killed and essentially saying, look, the administration was wrong to put

out those tweets apologizing and mitt romney said he would never apologize. then, in fact, the administration said yeah, we probably shouldn't have put that out there right then. but effectively, the president was apologizing to muslims for that video. >> that's right. let's not kid ourselves. he never attributed this attack to terrorism and two weeks later his ambassador to the u.n. gets threw and reiterates that this took place as a result of this spontaneous act. never said it was terrorism. two weeks later. they knew at that point in time. they had the information. if they didn't, my gosh, you mean our intelligence communities don't talk to each other? of course they do. you mean the president's national security advisor wasn't advised by the state department's intelligence people about this? you mean no one knew about the letters, the requests that the ambassador made for more

security? what nonsense. >> steve: erin, you get the exit question. i know you've got to speculate. but it looks to many of the people out there watching right now that somebody is either lying or they're incompetent. >> and that is why president obama said that they want to get to the bottom of it and they want to have an investigation. >> steve: as soon as the election is over! >> if he can play that out, run out the clock on that for three weeks, that's what he's going to do. >> steve: it's great to have you here for the first time, erin mcpike from real clear politics. and joe and al, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> steve: 28 minutes after the top of the hour. the president kept complaining about not getting enough time on camera. so we wanted to know, did he get short changed? you're about to find out. we've got the numbers. then it's been a tradition for near lea a decade. but a halloween celebration being canceled because of the occupiers. trick or treat

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and stop joint damage. because enbrel, etanercept, suppresses your immune system, it may lower your ability to fight infections. serious, sometimes fatal events including infections, tuberculosis, lymphoma, other cancers, and nervous system and blood disorders have occurred. before starting enbrel, your doctor should test you for tuberculosis and discuss whether you've been to a region where certain fungal infections are common. don't start enbrel if you have an infection like the flu. tell your doctor if you're prone to infections, have cuts or sores, have had hepatitis b, have been treated for heart failure, or if, whilen enbrel, you experice persistent fever, bruising, bleeding, or paleness. [ phil ] get back to the things that matter most. ask your rheumatologist if enbrel is right for you. [ doctor ] enbrel, the number one biolog medicine prescribed by rheumatologists. >> steve: check out mitt romney and his family eating dinner before last night's gop -- rather the big debate. his personal aide tweeted this photo of them. on the menu?

rotissiere chicken and baked taters. meanwhile, the president had potatoes in mind with his predebate meal, instead of chicken, he had steak with the first lady. >> gretchen: why do we care what they eat? i understand athletes before games, like they're supposed to load up on carbs. that might be interesting. but i don't know. is there brain food out there? maybe they should be eating that. >> brian: that would be fish! when i was waiting for the debate, i had an avocado salad. >> steve: really? >> brian: yeah, i wish i took a picture of it and tweeted it out. >> steve: that's what twitter is all about. >> gretchen: i had a piece of candy. >> brian: look, i'm day dreaming. you had candy, that's it? >> gretchen: a piece of candy corn. it's my favorite snack. >> brian: that's where you get ethanol. >> steve: out of corn. if you missed the debate last night, here are the highlights pretty much the conventional wisdom is it was about a tie.

the president was not catatonic as he was last time. but up with thing the two guys did do, they sure were complaining a lot about the time. how much time left? watch this. >> make sure our time keepers are working. >> the time keepers are all work. i want to move you along. don't go away and we'll have plenty of time to respond. we are quite aware of the clock for both of you. i have to move you along here. you said -- >> just one second because this is important. this is part of the choice in this election. >> mr. president, we're done here. i need to move us along. let me -- >> this will make a difference in terms of whether or not we can move this economy forward. >> gretchen: the interesting thing is that they really weren't checking the time in real time because look at -- >> brian: we could see the time. >> gretchen: look what the end recall was. president obama got 44 minutes and mitt romney got 40 minutes

and 50 seconds. why is it that the one who got more time complained? joe biden had more time and he complained about that. >> brian: i saw karl rove said it was a draw. charles krauthammer essentially the same thing. cbs did a flash poll of 500 people and they say president obama won by a slight margin. let's see if it does anything in the polls. >> steve: i just mentioned squeaky wheel gets the oil, brian, as a transition to this. >> thanks, steve. >> brian: clash over oil and drilling as steve brought up. fuel ago battle over who is telling the truth at the presidential debate. we found peter barns live in hempstead with more. tell us who was telling the truth, peter. >> guys, some of the biggest fights last night were over oil and gasoline price, including this exchange in which governor romney accused president obama

of cutting oil and gas permits and licenses on federal lands and offshore in half. take a listen. >> i had a question and the question was how much did you cut them by? >> i'm happy to answer the question. >> all right. and it is? >> here is what happened. you had a whole bunch of oil companies who had leases on public lands that they weren't using. so what we said was, you can't just sit on this for ten, 20, 30 years, decide when you want to drill, when you want to produce. when it's most profitable for you. these are public lands. so if you want to drill on public lands, you use it or you lose it. >> governor romney gets the edge in this battle of the facts. the president acknowledging himself that he tightened up policy on onshore oil and gas permitting and according to the institute for energy research,

which has ties to the oil industry, offshore oil and gas permits are down about 60% from the last three years of the bush administration to the first three years of the obama administration from about 1,000 in the last three years of the bush administration to about 375 through january of this year for the obama administration. brian? >> brian: all right. thank you very much, peter. so the drilling was probably one of the most emphatic exchanges all night because it went back and forth. it's clear that if mitt romney got in, he's going to be drawing more than the president. >> gretchen: the fact check showed mitt romney was correct when he showed the facts the president denied. >> brian: another chapel said it was correct, but we had the bp disaster. that's why oil drilling -- >> gretchen: you can spin it -- >> brian: they took it a year off for the moratorium. >> steve: that's right. so let's take a look at the exchange where the president of

the united states it turns out was not truthful. >> governor romney was a very successful investor. if somebody came to you, governor, with a plan that said, here, i want to spend 7 or $8 trillion and we're going to pay for it, but we can't tell you until maybe after the election how we're going to do it, you wouldn't have taken such a sketchy deal. and neither should you, the american people, because the math doesn't add up. >> i was someone who ran businesses for 25 years and balanced the budget. i ran the olympics and balanced the budget. i ran the state of massachusetts as a governor to the extent any governor does, and balanced the budget all four years. when we're talking about math that doesn't add up, how about $4 trillion of deficits over the last four years? 5 trillion? that's math that doesn't add up. >> steve: earlier i was referring to mitt romney saying oil and gas production on government land down 14%.

the president said that was not true. as it turns out, it is true. >> gretchen: here is what you think about the whole situation. let's look at some e-mails. t.r. from ohio, governor romney missed too many good opportunities, especially regarding the terrorist attack on our embassy. >> brian: that's to be continued. >> steve: rita in pennsylvania said i'm a white female who was an undecided voter until last night. i have concluded by far that my vote will go to mitt romney. obama did not answer the questions posed to him. he skirted the issues and he was most of all, arrogant. >> brian: and ann says this, i knew mitt romney could hold his own in debate, but i had no idea he could debate a president and a moderator at the same time. wow. >> steve: i got an e-mail from somebody regarding that where it seemed like it was mitt versus candy and eye candy, as the president referred to himself on "the view." >> gretchen: now to other headlines for you this morning. the former driver of osama bin laden off the hook now?

u.s. federal appeals court threw out his conviction for supporting terrorism in a 3-0 ruling. the court says providing material was not a crime under international law when he worked for al-qaeda. prosecutors say he transported weapons and helped bin laden escape after the september 11 attacks. right now he is reportedly driving a cab in yemen. fantastic. >> brian: he has the driving experience for bin laden. he can put that down on his resume. >> steve: a group of thieves taking a page right out of the james bond manual. >> the rear windows. >> steve: that is so cool. now check out this brand-new surveillance video. it shows members of the so-called james bond gang in the act in new jersey. this is happening in my county. it takes the thieves just seconds to cut the alarm and take thousands of dollars worth of cash and jewelry. they've hit at least a dozen

homes. the gang getting its name from burglars in the 1980s who used 007 get away cars rigged with revolving license plates just as we saw in that vintage movie clip. >> brian: it's been a tradition for a decade, but a halloween party being called off because of these folks. the church in new york city canceling its celebration because the occupiers have been camping outside the church. can they get job, please? leaving trash and causing problems with employees. the church says it's not safe for kids to trick or treat this year. so those losers can destroy somebody else's day. >> steve: that's too bad. as we start this wednesday, let's go ahead and take a look at, as you start your day, where it's raining. we've had heavy stuff along the gulf coast and the biggest stuff showing up, all the way from south central portions of canada down through the central plains states. it looks like there might be a

little bit of snow out there somewhere on this first wednesday in october. second wednesday in october. >> gretchen: do some fact checking. candy, is it second or third? >> brian: it's whatever the president said. >> gretchen: coming up next, his state has correctly chosen the president reelection since 1964. so what does an undecided ohio voter think of last night's debate? we'll find out. >> brian: i'll find out. then u.s. postal service keeps getting bailed out. now they're out of option. the brand-new low next.

>> brian: more than any other state, ohio with its 18 elector ale votes could decide our next president. it has helped push the winner to victory since 1964. this year it will come down to the undecided voter. this is one undecided voter in ohio. he joins us with his take on the debate last night. we read about your story, what has it been like for the last four years? >> well, no change. that's kind of the biggest problem. there is things that need to change and i -- i have the ear of a lot of people that call me with their problems and so forth. they're all pretty much in the same boat. the economy is bad, housing bad. there needs to be some change and that change hasn't happened in the last four years. >> brian: right. so we had a very similar question that came up last night. did you vote for president obama the first time around?

>> yes, i did. >> brian: all right. so this guy stood up and said, i voted for you four years ago, mr. president. what is going to be different the next four years? why should we give you another four? here is what he said, the president. >> we've gone through a tough four years. there is no doubt about it. but four years ago i told the american people and i told you i would cut taxes for middle class families. and i did. i told you i'd cut taxes for small businesses and i have. >> i think you know better. i think you know that these last four years haven't been so good as the president just described. and that you don't feel like you're confident in the next four years will be much better either. i can tell you that if you were to elect president obama, you know what you're going to get. you're going to get a repeat of the last four years. we just can't afford four more years like the last four years. >> brian: unemployment in ohio now is below the national average, 7.2%. so as you started evaluating and november is coming up real quick, what did you learn last night that might sway your vote?

>> well, the only thing that may sway my vote is some statements were made, especially by romney, who said that some of his plans would take five years. well, you know, maybe we should give obama -- i've been really praying hard on this. if we gave him four more years, would some of his plans come together? maybe. is romney the answer? maybe. i mean, but nobody tells you what their plan is. this is what i think the american public is sick of. we don't want to hear you didn't do this. you didn't do that. we want to hear what are you going to do? make a commitment and follow through. >> brian: all right. >> we don't see that. >> brian: the romney camp says check his campaign, he'll tell you specifically 57 points. he has five main points. so in the last few weeks, real quick what, would change your mind? >> if somebody stood up and made a commitment and showed me how they were going to follow through on that commitment, that

would definitely change my mind. i know i'm not going to see that. so i'm going to have to look for the small things that sort of sneak out in the meantime. >> brian: you're still undecided at this point. am i correct? >> yes, you are correct. >> brian: all right. we'll check in with you again and bother one more time. is that all right, bob? >> sure. >> brian: all right. good. coming up straight ahead, we'll wrap up the show. cranberry juice is great for fighting infection. that's what doctors have also said. it turns out not really that true. coming up shortly on kilmeade and friends, martha mccallum. >> we have that minor detail to take care of. >> brian: what's coming up? >> good morning. thanks a lot. this morning after that big brawl last night in long island, there is so much to talk about. we're in the middle of the post-spin cycle this morning. talker carlson, allen colmes, john sununu and more here to talk to us about what happened last night. will it move the needle? we'll join you to talk about

that on "america's newsroom" at the top of the hour. we'll see you then follow the wings. [ woman ] ring. ring. progresso. in what world do potatoes, bacon and cheese add up to 100 calories? your world. ♪ [ whispers ] real bacon... creamy cheese... 100 calories... [ chef ] ma'am [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup.

>> steve: headlines before we leave you. a help mitt busted, turns out cranberry juice does not prevent bladder infections. review of 24 studies found cranberry juice only helps women who have frequent infections. most women would have to drink two glasses a day for months to see any benefits. now you know. and the crash strapped u.s. postal service making history, but not in a good way. for the first time ever, it is reached its $15 billion borrowing limit from the u.s. treasury. it must now solely rely upon revenue to cover the cost. in june, the agency was facing a

$5.2 billion loss. a lot of stamps. gretch? >> gretchen: thanks very much. out of all of the social issues that came up during last night's debate, there was one issue left out and that is gay marriage. while that topic was not addressed, our next guest says the issue that matters most to gay americans is, in fact, not gay marriage, but the economy. the co-founder and executive director of gop proud, inc., and he joins me this morning. good to see you. >> how are you? >> gretchen: were you surprised that the question didn't come up? because the president changed his stance on this a few months ago? >> yeah, i think the president would have loved to talk about it because he hasn't wanted to talk about his record on jobs and the economy. but gay people aren't any different than anyone else. they're all over the country. gay people are living paycheck to paycheck, worried about their future and wondering how much longer they can hold on. so i think that the last two debates we've talked about jobs and the economy for the majority of the debates and that's because that's what people want

to hear about. the questions last night were from voters. that's what voters care about. >> gretchen: in an august poll commissioned, it found the economy ranks among the top issue. but were you surprised that there wasn't still a question about health care? >> yeah. i was surprised that they didn't get into more of some specific policies, but again, the fact of the matter is that jobs and the economy are what is at the forefront of everybody's mind 'cause everybody in the country knows somebody, their friends or family, who is looking for work. >> gretchen: what about the idea that this is a stereotype you must face, besides others, that all gay people are liberal? >> right. right. interesting, in that same logo tv poll, 23% of gay voters said they were planning to vote for mitt romney. and in the last midterm election, 31% of gay voters

voted for the republican candidate for congress. so when you're talking about a quarter to a third of gay voters routinely voting republican, you know, it's not surprising that -- >> gretchen: that they would do that. but what about just people in general who -- do you think they're looking at social issues this election around? or simply the economy? so some people who normally might vote for a democrat might vote for a republican? >> i think that everybody wants to know that both candidates can see things from their perspective and look at issues from their perspective and understand how issues affect them. whether or not they agree on any specific issue. so i think that people have that in the back of their mind, but at the end of the day, they want to know what the plan going forward is. mitt romney has that plan. >> gretchen: jimmy, co-found examiner executive director of go proud. thanks. >> thanks. >> gretchen: more "fox & friends" two minutes away but then...it wouldn't be

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