bill: good morning, everybody. fox news alert. one more to go and this is a big one. president obama, governor romney, squaring off in the third and final faceoff tonight in the debate that could tilt the race in a whole new direction, because tomorrow when you wake up you're two weeks away from america's big vote. good morning, i'm bill hemmer. welcome to "america's newsroom.". martha: good morning, everybody, i'm martha maccallum. tonight will be the last time the president and governor will be on the same stage. focus tonight is foreign policy truly a topic that could not be any hotter. bill: both sides debating the administration's actions before and after the terror attack in libya. republican senator lindsey

graham on "fox news sunday" with chris wallace. saying the white house reaction to it is one for the ages. >> i'm totally convinced this will go down in history as one of the most major breakdowns of national security in a very long time. bill: to florida we go and senior national correspondent john roberts live at lynn university, boca raton, the site of tonight's debate. good morning. >> reporter: bill, good morning to you. libya and the situation at the consulate in benghazi is expected to figure prominently in tonight's debate. he is likely to say something along the lines when you called this a act of terror the day after the incident, why then did your united states ambassador go to the united nations and peg it as a video? why if al qaeda is getting stronger in north africa why did you make this a video as opposed to a terror attack? the suggestion here the white house did not want to

admit it had an al qaeda problem in the middle of an election campaign. david axelrod was asked that on one of the sunday morning shows. he flatly denied it. >> i think that is nonsense. this was obviously a tragic event. the president did call act of terror, not once but several times, but asked for an order an investigation what happened, why it happened and bring those who committed this act of terror to justice. >> reporter: the romney campaign argues that every time the white house and administration comes out with more information about this it contradicts something they said earlier, bill? bill: so, john, how does the romney team bridge the experience gap when it comes to foreign policy? you're up against sitting across the table from the acting commander-in-chief? >> reporter: what he can on say. you may have four years of foreign policy experience but it is all the wrong experience. that you have eroded america's standing in the world with a bad economy. if you have a good economy

it commands respect from the world over. we got a glimpse of potential line of attack from paul ryan on the campaign trail. you remember when happened earlier this year when the president had the open mic moment with russian president dmitry medvedev. >> when you think your president is whispering to the president of russia sha, that he will have more flexibility on missile defense, begs the question, how much more does he want to give away? he already gave away technology that would have been online next year. >> reporter: both candidates in the debate are trying to move the needle just a little bit. that is what may make the difference between a win on november sixth and a loss. according to romney advisor, states like ohio said the race is tighter than a knife fight in a phone booth. bill. bill: not getting out of that thing. only one person survives. john roberts at lynn university in boca raton. martha in.

martha: the race for the white house overall very tight right now. in a brand new poll taken after the second presidential debate, you've got president obama and governor romney in a dead-heat. check this out, this is the "nbc news-wall street journal poll". each candidate gets 47%, neck-and-neck year. ha is before the final debate tonight. before the debates began that same poll had the president up by three points. wow. bill: critical battleground state of ohio which will get a whole lot of attention coming up. we'll be there next monday in "america's newsroom.". governor romney gaining ground in the state according to this poll. quinnipiac university, c. about s news poll, president obama trails governor romney by five points. that is stark contrast when a month ago the president enjoyed much wider lead in the same poll. latest "real clear politics" average when you put polls together, shows men in practical dead heat, 47-45%.

martha: we have very packed debate. some of the people we'll talk to next two hours. karl rove, bret baier, former new hampshire governor and romney campaign advisor john sununu. human will be with us. megyn kelly will be with us. the debate coverage getting underway tonight at 8:55. bill: looking forward to talk to all of them. there are the numbers from ohio at the end of your screen. five minutes past the hour. want to move to this story. it will certainly come up later tonight. a new report might explain why senior administration officials did not call the murder of four americans in libya a terror attack at first. "wall street journal" reporting that president obama was field in his daily briefing for more than a week that the benghazi attack result grew out of a spontaneous protest despite conflicting reports from other witnesses and other sources casting doubt on that assessment from the start. we asked karl rove if the

white house should have explored those other reports earlier than it did. that is coming up here. martha: the latest intelligence disclosures not sitting well with the chairman of the house tell -- intelligence committee, mike rogers. he says it appears to be coordinated effort to protect the white house in his opinion. congressman rogers said this, quote. it appears from a spate of articles there is orchestrated defense of the administration underway which selective disclosures of the intelligence community products to support what policymakers have said publicly. he has been front and center on this whole issue. he will join us moments away to have a live discussion about the growing fallout of the administration's changing narrative on all of this and the on going investigation into the attack that is coming up, 9:30. one issue not getting a lot of play in the press pgs did campaign is temporary social security payroll tax deduction. you haven't thought about that a lot, right? it is set to expire in january.

some say it needs a lot more attention. that means 163 million workers can expect their taxes to go up between 1000 and $4500 a year. no small piece of change. stuart varney joins me now. anchor of "varney & company" on the fox business network. good morning, stuart. what is this all about? >> this is the sleeper tax issue, isn't it. you have not heard very much about this. the truth is this is about social security taxes will probably, almost certainly go up on january the 1st. neither side wants to keep the payroll tax cut, which is currently in place. so, as you pointed out, martha, that means that everybody who works, maybe 163 million people, they will see an increase in their social security tax each and every week. if you make the median income around $50,000 a year, your tax bill for social security will go up roughly $1,000. if you're in the high six figures, then it will go up maybe $4500 per year. why is this tax cut going to

go away? why does both sides think it should go away? because it was originally designed to stimulate the economy. that didn't work very well. and it takes over $100 billion a year out of social security, which has to be replaced with borrowed money. odds are, martha, this thing goes away, the cut goes away and we're all pay more january the 1st. and you've not heard much about it. martha: that would be part of a much larger picture of things that could change after the january the 1st. just one piece of it that we've outlined here, stuart, but one not too many people are aware of, right? >> it goes up regardless what happens in the election in all probability. martha: great, super. thank you very much, stuart varney. thank you for joining us. bill: how does that go down with coffee at this hour? martha: not very well. bill: bacon and eggs? not well either. we're just getting moving here now. fallout from the white house response, attack in benghazi will be center stage later tonight when the candidates face off in the final debate.

remember the question in debate number two? it was not answered. did the president call it terror as he claims? karl rove is up on that. martha: a brand new poll shows a dead-heat between the two candidates. this could not be anymore interesting. why does one reputable poll have governor romney up by seven? we'll go inside the polls because everyone is wondering what is going on with them. the vp picks keep up the pressure on the campaign trail. >> we will not duck the tough issues. we're not going to kick the can down the road. we're going to lead. we're not going to spend the next four years blaming others and we'll take responsibility and fix. [applause] ing a payout from a legal settlement or annuity over 10 or even 20 years? call imperial structured settlements. the experts at imperial can convert your long-term payout into a lump sum of cash today.

martha: horrifying attack caught on surveillance video. police say a man threw a molotov cocktail type firebomb at another man in long beach, california. look at this video. the firebomb landed at the 54-year-old victim's feet

and caused him to catch fire. he is in the hospital in serious but stable condition we're told. mostly burns on the lower part of his body. police say the man did not know his attacker and wassying outside a supermarket. police are searching for that suspect. bill: when did exactly the president call the murder of four americans a terror attack specifically? was it the day after as the president says or two weeks later as republican claim? the fellow democrats come to the president's defense ahead of debate on foreign policy. senate majority whip dick durbin from illinois, "fox news sunday". watch. >> what i find hard to accept, i have to disagree with my friend president gram about he notion about the president's foreign policy. the ps has been a foreign and steady leader. >> i have one question. you're quite right, there is report that the cia put out talking points that said this was spontaneous demonstration. if that is what the cia's best intelligence was, why

does president obama claim he called it terror the day after? >> well of course involves a act of terror whether the result of a spontaneous demonstration or something that was planned. this just is unacceptable that you would attack another embassy and kill the ambassador. it is terrorism in any form. bill: karl rove here to react. former zoo senior advisor president george w. bush, fox news contributor. part of american crossroads as well. karl, welcome to you and. this is where we left off last tuesday night, hempstead, a voter stood up who was it that denied enhanced security and why? as far as i can see that question is not answered yet. is that where we start tonight or somewhere else? >> i think we start with the broader question which is part, how mismanaged this has been. we have the question of months and months and months of requests for upgrades in security that were ignored at the state department. we have the president of the united states on the, after the murder of our ambassador

on the night of 11th canceling the meeting with the intelligence leadership. on the morning of the 12th and spending the next two days, the 12th and 13th on the campaign trail. we have this changing narrative. the president clearly refers to this as a murder and as an assault in his comments on the morning of the 12th. he does mention the word terror attack but does not call this a terror attack. he sends out the administration sends out the united nations ambassador to cover all the sunday talk shows five days later and blame it on a video which few people had seen. now the administration says we knew it was a terror attack all day long. i think this is bungled management of a very dangerous moment in our nation's foreign policy and you can either blame it on mismanagement or suggest something more deif just that the -- devious that the administration is sort of

downplaying the threat of al qaeda that clearly exists. the death of usama bin laden as important as it was, does not mean the death of al qaeda. it means al qaeda may enter a more dangerous phase which it will try to mutate that could have viability and duringability over the long haul to carry out more dangerous attacks to the united states. whether an attempt to hide the truth it is not a pretty picture. bill: this is what wallaces 's team ran on sunday, "fox news sunday", four minute statement in the rose garden on september 12th, what they did was they picked out certain parts of the address that specifically referred to benghazi and perhaps the description that the white house had at the time. roll this. listen. i will ask you a very specific question a after you hear now. >> yesterday, four of these extraordinary americans were killed in an attack on our diplomatic post in benghazi. we reject all efforts to denigrate the religious

beliefs of others. of course yesterday was already a painful day for our nation as we marked the solemn memory of the 9/11 attacks. no acts of terror will ever shake the resolve of this great nation. bill: that moment came about three minutes 50 seconds into the address. what you also did not hear in that was how he referred to it as senseless violence. this terrible act and outrage just and shocking attack. folks can make up their own mind. listen to the address and decide for yourself. >> you can also go online and find the address which i did yesterday after chris wallace's program. what is interesting when, he said acts of terror, it is in paragraph that follows the yesterday is a solemn remembrance of 9/11. the acts of terror relates to the 9/11, 2001 reference, not to the senseless murder,

senseless attack. you notice the administration quickly goes from talking about the death of the four americans to linking it to the video saying we don't, we don't, in our country, believe in this kind of stuff but we do have freedom of speech. you know, i think, i think in the debate, governor romney was on target. president obama was off target in asserting he called it an act of terror. certainly didn't call it act of terror when they sent out the administration's ambassador. bill: moment number two. thomas friedman called this story entirely contrived on "meet the press" on sunday morning. i listen to a lot of folks over the weekend. what they say governor romney has to look presidential. can't go for ticky-tacky stuff on round number two. do you agree with that? >> yes, i do. he needs, look he looked very presidential the first debate. he looked somewhat presidential in the second debate. president obama looked

somewhat presidential. when they got up there started circling each other like --. bill: sumo wrestlers. >> finalists in the state high school wrestling champship, it wasn't very presidential for either one of them. i think that was deliberate on president obama's strategy. i think president obama wanted to interrupt him. he knew governor romney has a tendency to ask questions. he was ready for that tactic. governor romney used that so well against newt gingrich and others in the republican primary and attempted to use it against president obama and president obama was ready for it. yeah, look, here's the deal. the second debate the governor romney same in second. president obama came in first but governor romney increased his lead on all the issue questions cnn asked, including the most important of all the economy where he went from 55-43 after the first debate to 58-40 after the second. you know, we look at these debates through two frames. one is olympic judges, what was the difficulty of the dive. then, then, what about the

substance? bill: yeah, karl, thank you. there will be substance tonight. and we look forward to talking to you later in the week. >> thank you. bill: karl rove in new york. >> thank you, bill. martha: rated on the dive difficulty, i like that. one poll has candidates in a dead-heat. the granddaddy with all polls show one candidate with a big lead. what can we expect when voters go to the polls? that is big question. here is gallup's editor. >> they're still spending millions on one side to try to move voters. the campaign hasn't stopped. it is in full steam ahead at this point. happy too. with wholesome noodles and bite sized chicken, nothing brings you together like chicken noodle soup from campbell's. it's amazing what soup can do.

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bill: police in wisconsin now say that a gunman who killed three people and killed himself at a salon where his wife worked had a history of abuse. they say earlier this month 45-year-old, ratcliff hauton

slashed his wife's tires. yesterday morning he apparently went to his wife's work place and opened fire there. >> we seen about 10 people leave the building with their articles up, running out screaming. we saw a woman crawl out of the front door and roll down the hill. the cops scooped her up and taken her to the ambulance and taken off with her. bill: three people were killed, four others were wounded. police have not said whether the suspect's wife was among the victims. >> i think other methodology is extremely solid. we're very open about how we do it. so i would say, what we're doing is not unusual of course that people would fight back at you when they don't like what you're finding. >> not usual, right? that is gallup's editor-in-chief defending his polling organization after the obama campaign questioned the accuracy of their numbers. the latest "gallup poll" shows governor romney with 7% lead, 52-45 in

head-to-head. according to the latest nbc "wall street journal" poll, both president obama and governor romney are tied in that poll at 47%. these are national, likely voter polls. larry sabato joins me now, director of the center for politics at the university of virginia. good morningings, larry. >> good morning. martha: what do you make of that discrepancy? >> i believe gallup is wrong, just as i believe that another national poll released yesterday that had obama up six points is wrong. they're equally wrong. this is a close, competitive election. the romney people know it. they know their candidate has the momentum. he's the one who has closed the gap. the "real clear politics" polling average this morning has romney up about .3 of a point. look, romney may well finish better than that on november 6th. remember, polls are not predictive. they're supposed to measure what is happening today and what is happening today we have a close, competitive contest. martha: we sure do.

and when you look at the registered voter polls, they seem to lean towards the president, but when you look at likely voter polls which, i would think, are going to be more meaningful at this point, larry, they seem to lean towards romney, right? >> you're exactly right. why is there this discrepancy? people e-mail me constantly about this. because democrats aren't as excited this year as republicans. it is enthusiasm gap. remember it was the opposite in 2008. democrats were more enthusiastic than republicans. it showed on election day. republicans have more enthusiasm, they are more determined in this election year, and really that is the president's problem, going forward. how does he energize the democratic vote to get it to come up in that enthusiasm gap to where republicans are? if he can't do it, he will probably lose. martha: if there is one state that is probably causing both of these campaigns the most angst and stress right now it is of course ohio. and let's take a look at

that enthusiasm issue in ohio, larry. this is "fox news poll" that came out on friday. 42% this, is extremely interested voters in ohio, people who care a lot about this election a 10% edge for mitt romney there. that goes to issue of turnout and enthusiasm. when they show up at the polls, right? >> absolutely. when people say they're extremely interested in an election, there's a 99% chance they're actually going to vote, either early or on election day. yes, you look at that but you also have to consider the fact there are a lot of voters who maybe are not extremely interested who say they're very interested or even somewhat interested, who actually in the end, end up voting. so you have to include them too. some of the problem with polls, whether it is gallup or other polls that have had one candidate or the other up too far is that i think their screens for likely voters may be too restrictive. martha: could be. >> look at the polling averages. that is what i always tell

people. yes there are bad polls being included in the polling averages but often the bad polls are on both sides. so the errors wash themselves out to a certain degree. martha: larry, thank you very much. we'll talk to you in the coming days. thanks, sir. >> wonderful. take care. bill: getting to the bottom of the assassination in libya. the chairman of the house intelligence committee saying the ever-changing story and new intelligence leaks sound like a quote, orchestrated defense from the white house. >> the security in benghazi was a struggle and remain ad struggle throughout my time there. the situation remained uncertain and reports from some libyans end indicated it was getting worse. diplomatic security remained weak. in april there was only one u.s. diplomatic security agent stationed there. @ frank, instead of scratching your way to retirement,

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martha: top republican lawmakers saying the intelligence community and the white house are once again trying to change the narrative regarding what happened that night on september the 11th in benghazi, libya. here is senator lindsey graham from the weekend. >> what happened in benghazi is a case study in failure at every phase, before, during and after. and what they did after the attack i think it just absolutely unacceptable. they tried to confuse, delay and deny, create a narrative, this was a spontaneous event when it was not because the truth of the matter is the benghazi, libya, consulate was a deathtrap long in the

making. martha: boy. so republican congressman mike rogers says he believes the new intelligence disclosures that have been coming out in some reports in the past couple days are part of a quote, orchestrated defense of the obama administration. we want to talk to him about that. he is the chairman of the house intelligence committee and he jones me now. good to have you with us today. >> good morning, martha. good to see you. martha: one of those reports came out of "the wall street journal." it suggested that there was not, the cia did not see this as an organized attack until september the 22nd. now that would provide some cover for president obama in, you know, sort of peddle dalling a -- pedaling a couple different ways on this, would it not. >> it sure would. hear is the problem. you had an ied attack at the con suit late a month before. all of our threat streams coming in before 9/11, al qaeda, al qaeda that the

maghreb were looking for western targets on the 9/11 anniversary. hear is the troubling thing. within 12 hours of that incident the intelligence committee received a report that said this was a military or malicious style event which would contradict what they were talking about. what is so frustrating to me over the weekend you see these u.s., anonymous u.s. officials or intelligence officials leaking time lines, even leaking certain pieces of information that was requested by the committee, and all of it seems to put the administration in a good light. very frustrating for those of us trying to truly get to the bottom of it, find the facts. i think americans deserve the truth on this. what is disturbing is our initial blush looking at these documents shows lots of contradictions and both analytical and intelligence product that would not support this rock solid it was spontaneous, it was the video, and nine days later causing them to use u.s. taxpayer money to buy television ads in pakistan, relating it to the video,

which i argue exacerbated the problem. it was really quite something. it is really frustrating to watch them go through this. martha: if there is one man who knew very much what was going on the ground at the consulate in the embassy it was ambassador chris stevens. we got some very shocking and upsetting reports in terms of what he was saying on the day that he died, about the situation on the ground. i want to show our viewers what some of those quotes were, from chris stevens. that just surfaced late friday friday afternoon. on september 11th. he said there are growing problems with security. this is a growing frustration, he says. and he says the forces on the ground were two weak to keep the country secure. look at this about a month prior to september 11th. look very closely at the phrases that chris stevens uses to describe other violent acts on ground near the embassy. he says the individual incidents have been organized. the security vacuum that a

diverse group of independent actors are exploiting for their own purposes. he talks about organization and he talks about vie ends are and very significant and specific intent in these writings. chairman rogers. >> absolutely and, you know, somebody said is this, clearly it is a failure to secure that consulate and that ambassador. by the way, this wasn't barack obama's ambassador. it was an american ambassador that was killed that is so frustrating about the whole narrative that they're trying to present to the american people. i think they would have been so much better off to say this was a terrorist attack as we've seen it, given all the information leading up to the 9/11. clearly the corroborating information we're getting now from the ambassador's own words, cables, other things, just doesn't support this rock solid position that this was, it was a spontaneous. martha: yeah. >> that is the political narrative that probably helps then the most but one thing we have learned is we should never allow our intelligence to be used in a political narrative that

contradicts the best interests of our national security and with those disturbing leaks this weekend, martha, that certainly is what it appears to me and we'll have to get to the bottom of that as well. martha: one of the big questions, i think a lot of folks hope will come up tonight, what did the white house do during that live feed when they watched what was happening on the ground, what was their response? who made the decisions about what was happening on the ground as they watched all that unfold? what has happened since in terms of holding these people accountable? do you want answers to those questions? i assume you do? >> absolutely and i said originally, right, the very next day on the 12th, if we have gone by a month and we have not held somebody accountable for these attacks, it has serious repercussions for our national security. remember what the 9/11 commission said, martha. they said because there was no action taken after the uss cole attack killed 13 sailors, it allowed al qaeda to feel they were empowered

to be more emboldened. that was in december of 2000. and we know what that next big event was, which was 9/11. that was the bipartisan 9/11 commission. so you know that they're feeding on this, in their terms, is a victory for them and a big coup. the fact we spent a lot of time saying no, it's spontaneous we're fixing blame. they pretty much blamed everybody including ryan and romney, the secretary of state. they blamed politics. they have blamed miscommunication. they have yet to come up with a serious plan to hold the people accountable that killed an american ambassador and three u.s. citizens who were working for the embassy there. and that is what is so troubling for me. this isn't just about who did it and fingerpointing. you don't get this right, we're going to lose another ambassador or another set of employees somewhere around the world and that can not ever be acceptable. martha: chairman mike rogers, thank you very much for being with us this morning.

>> thanks, martha. bill: that one question you asked too about what they knew at the time. in debate number two, the president said something i think really went under the radar, when he said as soon as we found out the benghazi consulate was being overrun i was on the phone with my national security team. that suggests this was real time information. they knew what was happening. so what happened since then and what sort of information did your national security team feed you? this really goes to the center of the issue we'll talk about in a moment here with john sununu. how will the romney team deal with the libya question at tonight's debate? we'll talk to john sununu, senior advisor to the romney team. he is up next. keep it here all the final coverage you need, debate between president obama and governor romney, 8:55 eastern time. followed by post-debate analysis a jam-packed day and night of politics here on the fox news channel, your america's election headquarters. i'm a conservative investor.

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lance armstrong. cycling's governing body today has stripped him of seven tour de france titles an banned him for life. this follow as report from the u.s. anti-doping agency accusing armstrong of leading a massive doping program for years and major sponsors like nike and anheuser-busch have dropped him. armstrong denies doping as he always has. he says he passed hundreds of drug tests. bill: 15 days away from the election and some critics are saying president obama has yet to lay out a plan, any vision for a second term, including this one. >> the most startling thing that happened over the last month of this campaign is the president has completely given up on outlining any sort of agenda for the future. what is his plan for the next four years? bill: john sununu can answer that, former governor of new hampshire, served as white house chief of staff under president bush and senior adivsor to the romney team. he is esconsed down there in boca raton. good morning to you welcome back.

>> good morning bill. bill: thank you for your time. i want to run through a number about things to give our viewers a preview of later tonigh the conventional wisdom says the president has the upper hand on foreign policy. after all he is the sitting commander-in-chief. do you agree with that? >> i would agree with that if he taken all his intelligence briefs and spent the last four years paying attention to it. i guess we'll ride conventional wisdom that governor romney is the underdog here. bill: are you setting the bar lower for your guy. >> i'm just going along with all the stuff that has been passed around by the obama campaign, how fantastic he is and how they still think he walks on water, in spite of the fact that the terrorism around the world is rampant again and the u.s. lost all its respect. bill: what many people are saying that governor romney's biggest challenge is not necessarily to dissect all the positions of the president, and his policies of the last four years but to be more presidential, to rise above it. what is your feeling on

that? >> well i think you will see both. i think you will see governor romney express a deep understanding of the issues. i think he will put a policy forward that corresponds to where america wants to be. we recognize we're a superpower. we need to be strong economically and we have to have a strong national security structure. and, i think you will see governor romney contrasting that with the economic failures over the last four years, the lack of an agenda for economic success in the future. and the fact that the president wants to gut the defense budget and mitt romney wants to make sure we have the fund to keep our defense strong. you can not have a peaceful world without a strong u.s. economically and on national security. bill: you know how big the audience will be tonight. i think debate number three in 2008 had about the 62 million. so, you know, if you go off that number you're at least 60 million in viewership later tonight. >> that's right. bill: there is baseball game going on, a game 7 which may take away from it, but that to the side, it was reported

that the obama team wanted to have the foreign policy debate last, and that was negotiated. is that the case? was that true? >> i'm not, i don't know that. i work awfully hard to stay ignorant, bill, so i can talk about what i care about and i have no idea what the negotiations were. bill: the logic would be this would be his strongest hand for re-election. >> yeah, he thinks, the president thinks this is his sweet spot. they neg tiated this when he was still trying to tell us that terrorism had been quelled because he had just killed bin laden, and the whole process, he thought he had the upper hand. now the public knows what a disaster his foreign policy has been. if you poll countries like egypt, jordan, you see the lack of respect for the u.s., the negative perception of the u.s. has gone up tremendously under this president and he thought he was going to sweet talk the muslim world into loving america. bill: well, last debate, debate number two, the question was asked, who was

it who denied enhanced security in libya and why? that was a question from a voter in nassau county, new york. does the campaign think that the governor blew that answer? >> well, i think candy crowley jumping in there kind of knocked him off his pace and when the president deliberately lied about what happened in the rose garden i think he was being showed that the president would lie in front of 70 million people. so it knocked him off a little bit. i think now he is prepared for the fact he might get more dissembling from the president. he always knows he has to work a little bit against the moderator. this administration has turned a foreign policy failure, the disaster in libya, into a character issue. all of a sudden the american public is seeing this administration make up new stories almost on a daily basis, trying to cover things. this administration is leaking snippets, selected snippets of intelligence to try to cover the president's

butt and both leaks and denies it is having talks with iran. they're finding this administration can't be trusted. bill: that is in reference to iran story that broke sunday morning in "the new york times." back to the libya issue. what is the strategy tonight? how will the governor perhaps make the case this president was misleading? from the beginning what the romney team said a week ago, whether he blew the line or night, it forced the issue onto the tv screen of every american across the country, so then how does that play out tonight? what's the strategy. >> i'm not sure what he'll do. what i would do keep reminding america this president went to the u.n., said six times it was video. this president sent his you know ambassador out. i think he should just keep reminding the public that this president has never had a straight story on this. the white house has never

had a straight story. and we probably won't find out for months, until the president's quote, investigation, unquote is complete. bill: that's why we watch later tonight. governor, appreciate your time. john sununu already at lynn university, boca raton, florida. the e-mail is hemmer@foxnews.com or on twitter, send me a tweet @billhemmer. if you have a question what will go down later tonight. we'll look at all of them throughout the day and pick up on it again tomorrow. a big, big moment for america tonight at 9:00. martha: looking forward to it. meantime there are outrageous allegations against a democratic lawmaker. did the candidate sell votes for vodka? the voter fraud unit will investigate. bill: democrats bashing the release of intelligence reports on the libya attack but congressman peter king saying he wants more, trying to get to the truth of what happened in benghazi.

bill: quite a day at the vatican. pope benedict xvi naming seven new saints. two of them americans and women. a fransiscan nun who cared for help prosy patients in hawaii. a first native-american saint. americans celebrating in st. peter's square could not be more proud. >> it makes me cry. i look forward to this day for so long and it is wonderful. i'm very happy. >> very inspirational to know there is native-american woman instead after man because native-american women are towards the low barrel so it is different. bill: here, here. 80,000 pilgrims filling st. peter's square for the celebrations. always an amazing sight. martha: here is the voter fraud case we talked about,

prosecutors say involved stuffing the voting box with absentee ballots, destroying votes for a rival candidate and buying votes with an unusual incentive. senior correspondent eric shawn live in the new york newsroom with shocking details of this. eric, tell us how the scheme worked? >> hi, martha. the plan was vodka for votes, offering little half-point plastic bottles for vodka like this one we bought in arkansas to steal an election. that is what prosecutors say did happen in eastern arkansas. a scheme included absentee ballot fraud and buying votes in exchange for money and food besides the booze. nine people have been charged. democratic state representative hudson holland pled guilty. he resigned from office. he allegedly told a codefendant a local city councilman, we need to use a black limo and buy a couple cases of cheap vodka and whiskey to get people to vote. >> i guess i always knew all along it was wrong but first i didn't think it was that

big of a deal. i always heard that is what everybody did. >> reporter: he faces five years of prison. resigned after the deadline to be on the ballot. authorities say if he wins he will not take office, martha. martha: eric, how did authorities discover it was going on? >> reporter: someone offered his opponent absentee ballots which is crime so she called authorities. turns out she lost the race by only eightvotes. prosecutors say hallum and his father destroyed absentee ballots voted for her so they wouldn't count. >> if you see something that is, is not right in our voting system, and it's messing with our democracy, you've got to step up and do something about it. because that is your most basic right, is your vote. >> reporter: she says when she votes she thinks of her father who served in world two war two and her uncle

who was a prisoner of war, calls the vodka for votes scheme, horrifying. if you suspect fraud at polls where you live here is our address, voterfrau voterfraud@foxnews.com. martha: people think this stuff doesn't happen. eric, thank you very much. bill: we're only 11 hours before the final head-to-head matchup. there is the stage in florida. what can we expect from both sides? brit hume is here to analyze. who better, right? martha: before the big presidential debate new polling from key battleground states. scott rasmussen tells us what he found from voters now. we'll be right back. >> why am i lowering taxes on the middle class? because under the last four years they have been buried. i want to help people in the middle class. >> i want to give middle class families and folks striving to get into the middle class some relief because they have been hit hard over the last decade, over the last 15, over the last 20 years.

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martha: boy, woke up this morning looking forward to tonight because this will be very interesting. we're now 12 hours away from the third and final presidential debate. this is their last shot at each other you could say. just 15 days from the election it could be a game-changer. denver certainly was. nobody knows what will happen there tonight. we start a brand new hour in "america's newsroom." i'm martha maccallum. bill: i'm bill hemmer. good morning at home. hope you had a great weekend because the battle for boca is here. foreign policy is the name of the game later tonight. the attack on our consulate in libya likely to be a major topic. martha: what can we expect tonight? fox news senior political analyst brit hume. good morning. what do you expect tonight? >> well, this election problem will not be mostly about foreign policy, which means this debate might not be terribly important but everything we've been forecasting before each one of these debates has been

off base. so one is hesitant to make any real forecasts but i would say this. mitt romney may not be able to win on foreign policy, nor do i think president obama can but if you're the challenger the public understands that foreign policy is central to the presidency. it is the one area which the federal government provides the needed service and no other branch of government or a private sector can do the job. so a president has to qualify and the kind of melee we saw at the first two debates over domestic issues i don't know would sit well with an audience listening for foreign policy. so mitt romney has the challenge of being presidential as they say, to conduct himself with a certain dignity and decorum and to show some command of the material, of some knowledge of the world, some breadth of awareness of issues in different regions and on different counts. so, you know, it's no wonder

he has been studying hard. martha: yeah. and i think you're right on the head. he needs to prove that he is presidential and credible and a lot of people say he made himself an acceptable alternative in denver and now he needs to be an acceptable alternative on the world stage as we. a couple things we know will come up of course is libya. i just spoke with the chairman of the house intel committee, mike rogers and he made a pretty serious claim. he said in the beginning if a month went by and we still hadn't had any form of retaliation or sent any kind of message to the people that killed our ambassador and three others he felt we should very well expect another similar attack. what do you think of that line of thinking and do do you expect mitt romney to bring up retaliation tonight? >> well, that line of thinking is of apiece what a lot of conservatives and republicans thought about foreign policy. weakness or the appearance of it is inherently destablizing. it e it is the bad guys in the world to test us again

and again. this will be an argument that governor romney will, has made in one form or another and will probably make again but he needs to be careful because the president is saying to him and his campaign has been saying mitt romney wants to start another war and that warmongerer accusation is one that is troubling to a war rearry electorate. this is somewhat the same challenge ronald reagan faced in 1980. he was portrayed as sort of a wild man by the carter administration and but its friends in the media. he was very reassuring in that debate. there was only one debate that year and that made a difference i think. governor romney needs to be firm and stick to his principles but he also needs to be reassuring he is not hot to trot to get this country into a bunch of other military conflicts around the world. martha: brit, very good point. we look forward to seeing you tonight. thank you very much.

>> you bet, mart that. >> fox news alert. latest daily tracking poll from rasmussen reports, governor romney has a slight lead over the president, ahead two points, 49-47 over likely voters n a few minutes scott rasmussen joins us live to talk about these numbers. we have brand new swing state polling numbers. there are substantial changes in there too for scott coming up. you see the debate only, well right here on the fox news channel. we wish it were only, right? megyn and bret start our coverage at 8:55 p.m. eastern time. for full analysis keep it here on the fox news channel. this is number four between the presidents and vice presidents. it will be a big moment. it will be must-see tv. you will have 60 million plus watching. can't make mistakes. got to be smart. martha: big night indeed. republican congressman darrell issa is firing back at the white house for criticizing the release of state department documents that were related to the

deadly attack in libya that showed u.s. officials on the ground were indeed very concerned about the deteriorating security situation. ice zoo saying, quote, president obama should be ashamed of yet another example where his administration has been caught trying to mislead the american people about what happened in libya. democrats say that releasing those papers which came out on friday, we mentioned them earlier with chairman rogers, that it endangers the lives of several libya ons who are working with with the united states. so that debate goes on. bill: this issue not likely to fade away anytime soon. a key congressman urging the obama administration to release even more intelligence information that led u.s. officials to describe a deadly raid the work of a spontaneous mob instead of a preplanned terrorist attack. republican peter king, chairman of house homeland security committee live in boca raton. welcome back here to "america's newsroom". >> thank you, bill. as always. bill: you're calling for these intelligence reports to come out so you can get

the explanation what happened in fauz gauze. there was a little bit that came out on saturday? what more are you looking for. >> the administration is being very selective and information is being leaked out. i have want a comprehensive timeline showing all the documents, all cable traffic, all e-mails, all conversations held leading up to september 11th and what happened on september 11th why they concluded this was caused by a pornographic video and arose out of a demonstration when there was no demonstration and video had no impact. what information they got after that caused them to change their mind. they're throwing out intelligence community. i want to know who that is. i want to find out why the president didn't ask questions. why for instance, he go to los angeles -- las vegas rather than sitting down with all his intelligence people and sitting down with them in the white house to find out what happened. bill: joe biden in his debate said this regarding the intelligence community, that is exactly what we were told by them, meaning the intelligence community but as they learn more facts,

quoting now, about exactly what happened they changed their assessment, end quote. why is that not acceptable and is that the president's defense tonight? >> well, it's, going to be his defense and it is unacceptable. not just an amorphous group called the intelligence community. for instance the state department itself had peel on the scene in benghazi that night. did susan rice speak to them? did the president find out what they saw that night? did they ask the state department if they had any videos what occurred at the consulate that night? why with all these threats leading up to september 11th and talking about terror attacks and how could they now be saying it was not a terror attack. i think they're hiding behind the term intelligence community. to me shows the president did not look into what happened, did not inquire what happened, was willing to look at something face value. why was the report at face value whether there was so much evidence in there showing it was terrorist attack. it cries out for explanation and investigation. bill: this is what the president said in the last

debate. this is active voice now, okay? as soon as we found out the gauze gauz consulate was being overrun i was on the phone with my national security team. had you heard that before and if so what sort of information would be given at the moment if indeed there was a drone flying above benghazi at time? >> exactly. who was the national security team? was it john brennan? was it david petraeus? was it john clapper? were people on the ground in benghazi. they're hiding behind these terms, national security team, intelligence community, who was we talking about here? who are the individuals or the ones the president claim gave him this information? and did the president steer them in that direction? was this is mind set by the administration that said libya was great victory and al qaeda was on the ropes and no longer a threat to us. there would undo the narrative. bill: this is clearly president obama's war without u.s. involvement, in all likelihood nato would not have done what it did. mike rogers told martha last

hour if the united states does not respond that the, the terrorists in eastern libya are going to act again. now when do you expect retaliation on behalf of the united states against those responsible? >> first of all, mike rogers has been right on this from day one. he is chairman of intelligence committee. on the committee with him. he is doing a fam noll that job. we should retaliate as soon as it can be done. we should track down and take lethal action. we can't be worried what the libyan government says to us, because of a practical matter there is no libyan government. there are good people trying to get the job done but they're incapable of protecting us never mind protecting themselves. we need to take firm, lethal act aggressive action, we should do it. if it involves drones or whatever it involves, that is up to the president's quote, unquote national security team. they should do it quickly and get it done and send a clear message we'll not tolerate the murderer of americans in any way. bill: peter king, appreciate your time today.

>> thank you. bill: regardless what is said about this issue tonight it will create headlines and it will likely send this story in a new direction. by this time tomorrow we could be looking at this matter in entirely different way. that's why we watch tonight. martha: it sure is. so the president has a new word when it comes to the romney campaign and that is romnesia. it caused a bit of a ruch discuss on the sunday shows -- ruckus. >> i don't think voters should play scrabble with your opponent's name when you have 23 million people finding it hard to work. martha: romney campaign said the obama campaign resorted to small-minded attacks. we have that coming up. bill: economy still looms so large in america. neil cavuto is live in america. we'll talk to him. martha: it's a bird, it's a plane. there he goes. our friend fearless felix. the daredevil skydiver will be here to tell us what that feels like. bill: that's awesome.

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bill: there has been more violence in lebanon today. you remember the car bombing from three days ago. lebanese troops launching a crack down after violence set off by the assassination of a top intelligence official who was a powerful opponent of syria. at least two people were killed in fighting overnight between supporters and opponents of the syrian president bashir assad as that starts to spill over. martha: well, governor romney's campaign is now claiming that president obama's re-election team is resorting to quote, small-minded attacks out there like big bird and the like. both campaigns went head-to-head on "face the nation." watch. >> they reduced themselves to small attacks.

take "romnesia" is quite frankly silly of the president of the united states, leader of free world to begin uttering and talk about binders. talk about big bird. all of that is really indicative of a candidate that doesn't have a vision for the future. governor romney has a plan for the future whereas over the next four years we don't know what president obama would do. >> big bird is important because that is only thing that mitt romney could point to as how he will reduce the deficit. deficits are a big issue in this campaign. i think you would agree with mow. >> they're a big issue of the president. >> that is not true, kevin. the governor's running mate actually voted for two wars, two tax cuts, that created these deficits. so turned record surplus into deficits. the president has detailed plan on the table to reduce those deficits. martha: hmmm. that was interesting, right? did you think phrase big bird is important in this campaign come out of this whole race? we're joined by tony sayegh, press aid to republican nominee jack kemp and

president of talk radio news service and mary ann marsh, former advisor to senator john kerry. welcome to you both. that is phrase i never thought i would hear? >> it is perfect right now, the romney campaign wouldn't be attacking big bird and "romnesia" if they weren't worried about it. it represents exactly what the men need to work for the white house, women voters and trust. women voting for you more people trusting you more likely you are to win. women got the idea that mitt romney is happy to cut subsidies to big bird but not big oil making record profits. "romnesia" is the way to talk about the fact that mitt romney changed his position and will change anything to win this office. hard to trust someone like that. i think at this time e it makes a lot of sense. martha: so one of the problems though, tony, the other side says, is that what it shows, is that the president is not talking about his own vision. he is reacting. he is reactive. he is talking about things that mitt romney changed his mind about. talking about big bird.

and that he isn't sort of presenting something that is so, you know, large and overtaking in terms of the dialogue here, that takes off on its own. bill: well, surprised mary ann started off citing women are the reason the obama campaign are using this message when it is clearly women that have made this now a race that is leaning strongly in favor of governor romney. president obama's once double-digit lead among women is narrowed down in some polls to four points, some polls six. significant enough where now you see mitt romney in much stronger polling position. i think women care about the economy and that is what governor romney was able to present a vision for in that first debate. and that is where now you see voters saying who is going to talk about the next four years? and that's governor romney. at least in enough detail and special fisty to give voters to vote for. president obama made a decision from the beginning of this campaign singularly trying to disqualify mitt romney rather than run on his own record. the fatal flaw, once

governor romney proved himself to be qualified person to run for president, a very acceptable alternative the that entire strategy went nowhere. now they have two weeks before the end of the campaign they have nothing left to talk about big bird and binders. that is what they're doing all along. martha: mary ann, tony says the president has not articulated his vision and it cost him and lost ground with groups of voters. why do you think that is? >> here is one thing tony and i agree upon, at the end of campaign you have to give voters a reason to vote for you. i think you will hear to that from president obama. he has to chance to return the country to peace and prosperity years like clinton i predict the last two weeks of president obama how he will indtwo wars and use the money to rebuild economy and rebuild america instead of giving it to other countries. to create those kinds of jobs, fair to the middle class. i think that is all you will

hear the last two weeks and that --. martha: they will say, that is the same idea we had for the last four years, tony? is that right. >> that is exactly right. this is where the president is in very tough position. he knows he can not run on his record. he knows he can not promise people four more years what he just had and get reelected. that is why he only focused on why governor romney should be unacceptable. that is very big problem for him. look at "washington post", hardly a conservative media outlet. october 13th opinion editorial from the editorial board of the post. they basically said to president obama, show me a policy. in it they suggested he stop whining about his opponent's lies. stop wallowing in trivia and give a second term agenda. this is the "washington post" agreeing with me. martha: mary ann, what is the headline. if you were consulting the president on this what would you tell him to say? here is your vision next four years, here is what you have to push the next two weeks? >> exactly what i said, peace and prosperity tonight. next two weeks showing how

you i can take the clinton approach to the next four years, that gave us record surplus, cut the deficit, eliminated it and record unemployment. everybody back to work in four years. >> who will belief he will cut the deficit, mary ann? martha: we've got to go. thanks, mary ann. thanks tony. see you soon. >> thanks, mart that. >> they're fiery. we like that. martha: we do. bill: hey, martha, guess who we just got? martha: what have you got? bill: we got scott rasmussen numbers from today. you know what he is looking at? not only national head to head but battleground states. the swing states on the map here? 11 marked in gray that are too close to call because the polling suggests that either president obama or governor romney could win the states. in a moment when we come back, scott as musen's numbers for the first time. you will see them after this. >> in the last four years you cut permits and licenses on federal lands and federal waters in half. >> not true, governor romney. >> how much did you cut them

by? >> not true. >> how much did you cut them by?. >> governor, we produced more oil. >> no, no. how much did you cut licenses on federal lands and federal water. >> here is what we did. >> i have a question. how much did you cut them by? how much did you cut them by?

bill: 12 hours from now this debate will be wrapping up. scott rasmussen has fresh numbers from rasmussen reports. scott, how are you? good morning to you. we'll have fun with the board in a moment. first i want to put on the screen, national matchups. what do you have between romney and obama, scott? >> 49% for romney, 47% for obama. very significantly this is exactly the same as what we showed going into the second debate. governor romney gained that after the first debate of the president obama had a better performance and stopped his slide but didn't

turn things around. bill: what is a leaner, scott? is likely voter or more than that? >> a leaner who is someone we first call them, saying i don't know. i'm not sure which way i'm going to vote. we say if you had to make up your mind today, which way would you vote? these people are not really committed but starting to lean. bill: on the map you give us numbers from one of the critical swing states out in the american west. i want to set this up for our viewers here in a moment. what we have done, we have taken 11 states right now considered too close to call, north carolina is included in that on our survey by the way right now but you just found out a short time ago the state of colorado, you were polling, in 2008, this was a state that went blue. you see how clearly it went blue at 54% for president obama, 45% for senator mccain. that was a flip. that was a switch. but you're finding what now on colorado in your polling, scott? >> well, all through the years, it has been very, very close. a few weeks ago, president obama was up by a single

point but as of this morning, mitt romney leading by four in colorado. that is the biggest lead we found for either candidate all year and it is driven by the fact that people in colorado are starting to think that mitt romney might be better handling the economy. bill: what ink changed? was it the debate? what did you find? can you put your finger on it? >> there are a couple of things. and look, the debate was the big change in the entire nation. even that, though, 98% of the people didn't change their mind t went from a two point obama lead to a two point romney lead. perceptions of the economy, are very important in all of this and what we see now is that most people don't think the economy will get better no matter who wins but they're a little more optimistic if mitt romney wins. bill: that is very interesting. i want to show our viewers historically,. we'll make the case here. you can agree or disagree with it. in 2004 this was republican territory. george bush one over senator mccain or senator kerry by

five points. it was also republican in the year 2000. come out to the what if scenario. 11 states now in play. you have a new survey out on these states alone and you show what, romney up three at 49-46? >> that's right. this is really been a change since that debate. for much of the year we kept talking how president obama was doing better in those 11 swing states than he was nationally. now that has changed. bill: how many swing states do you have, do you have 11 like we do or less? >> in this tracking poll we have 11. bill: i want to show you something, scott here. you're trying to figure out how to get to 270, right, on what your if scenario? if all the traditional republican states came home went for bush in 2000 and bush in 2004. here is what you get, 270 again to win it all. on the what if scenario here. if you were to give florida to governor romney. you're at 220. 15 in north carolina, 13 in virginia. right now you're at 248. we mentioned colorado, made an argument for that. you get nine electoral

votes. now you're at 257. of remaining states on the map here they have gone back and forth over the past 12 years, exempt for nevada. bush won nevada in 2000. he also won in 2004. if you make argument republican states come home. look where mitt romney is is at 263. president obama gets pennsylvania, 20, 18 in ohio. he is now at 239. you see where governor romney has to go if he does not win ohio. based on this scenario you have to either take new hampshire and iowa. or, you have to take wisconsin. what do you make of that? >> well, i think you're making a lot of assumptions in very close races. our projections are that governor romneyey is ahead in florida. he is up by three in virginia. president obama is lead is down in pennsylvania but we still suggest that is leaning in his direction. ultimately the key state at moment is ohio. been that way all year. whoever wins that has the clearest path to 270. bill: romney folks are

crunching numbers like we are too. if they do not win ohio, how do you win the white house, 201-191 on electoral map. thank you, scott rasmussen. martha, what is coming up next. martha: fascinating. the final showdown is quickly approaching. megyn kelly and neil cavuto will join us live what we may expect from the candidates when they hit the arena to flight. daredevil felix baumgartner, you saw him here first on our show. then we saw him do that. what does that feel like? i will ask him next. >> i'm standing there, probably said a little prayer and then getting off. within the first 30 seconds you will accelerate so fast you will break the speed of sound haha. there's more than that though, there's a kick to it. wahlalalalallala! smooth, but crisp. it's kind of like drinking a food that's a drink, or a drink that's a food, woooooh! [ male announcer ] taste it and describe the indescribable. could've had a v8.

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and learn more about the kinds of plans that will be here for you now -- and down the road. i have a lifetime of experience. so i know how important that is. bill: want to get back to our top story now, tonight's final presidential debate, ten and a half hours away, but who's counting, right? [laughter] want to bring in megyn kelly now, co-host of tonight's coverage. good morning to you. >> live here in beautiful, sunny boca raton, florida, bill. bill: well, you picked a good weekend, i heard it was stunning too. what's the format for tonight? both men are sitting? what? >> it's going to be the same as the first presidential debate that we saw moderated by jim lehrer, except they're going to be seated, and, actually, this is what the presidential debate commission wanted for all of the debates, the candidates seated.

so they're finally going to get their way, and jim lehrer -- i'm sorry, bob schieffer of cbs news will moderate. bill: okay. how are they prepping? what insight do into how they're doing? >> president obama apparently did his preparation at camp david, and mitt romney came to florida to do it, and that's going to leave it up to al gore the say the sea levels may affect -- [laughter] remember? last week al gore said it was because of the altitude in denver, so we'll see whether his late arrival to florida plays with the analysts in any way, shape or form. bill: i think you're right at sea level there in boca, right? >> and most people think president obama won that debate. although, listen n in all seriousness, people say, okay, the foreign policy debate, it could really change things. we're so close to the election. foreign policy, president obama is perceived by some to have an

advantage because he's been the commander in chief for the past four years unlike mitt romney, but when you look back over the history, bill, you can have gaffes in particular. this is an area in which you can really make a gaffe as either the president or the challenger, and that 1976 debate with ford where he talked about how there is no soviet domination of eastern europe, and he failed to win re-election. and many believe that it was in part due to that gaffe that led people to ask, does he know what he's talking about? so anything can happen in a debate like this. bill: you were remarking earlier about what a difference in the race now between these two men when you compare the position before debate number one as opposed to now between debate number three. explain that. >> yeah. i mean, going into that first presidential debate in denver, the pundits were talking about how this was president obama's chance to shut mitt romney out of this race, that if he didn't perform in a stellar capacity in denver that night, that he might as well pull out the stakes in ohio, give up in the certain

critical states and barack obama all but had this race shut down. well, what a game changer that first debate was. i mean, whether it was just a natural closing of the polls after denver, or it was the, you know, the tsunami of poll changes that we saw thanks to that debate, one way or the other things changed significantly after denver. and here we are going into tonight, and most of these pundits in reading up for the debate tonight are talking about how the pressure is on the president. the pressure's not on mitt romney, the pressure is on the president to not only stop the momentum that mitt romney captured in that first debate, but to now turn it around with two weeks to go until it's actually time to vote. bill: you've got a big day ahead of you. we're going to check you out at 1:00. >> we'll be inside for that, so i'll get the hair in order, i'll put the shades, i'll put 'em on -- i almost put 'em on, but then i thought it's not very professional. so i'm going to be inside, and i'll see you then. bill: you look good. >> thanks, bill. miss you, guys. bill: "america live" 1:00

eastern time, then later tonight at 8:355 with bret. martha: exactly. it'll be good. we're looking forward to it. while much of tonight's debate will focus on foreign policy, of course, the looming fiscal cliff could find its way into this conversation as well. we know that china's role in the world is one of the topics that will come up. neil cavuto is senior vice president, anchor and managing editor on both fox news and the fox business network. he joins us now. good morning, neil. >> just showing up for work, that's the idea. [laughter] martha: so, sir, how do you expect sort of the economics of the world to maybe work their way into the conversation tonight? >> well, you can't not work it in. i mean, if you think about it, just this morning we had caterpillar saying, you know, the way the world looks right now, things stink. it revised its profits and sales forecast. does this ring a bell? it should. mcdonald's has said the same, intel, microsoft has said the

same, they're all pointing to the same weak global economy, and a lot of them point back to our debt quagmire and the fact they're really not confident going forward. in an environment like that, it can't help but become an international security issue and one i'm sure mitt romney will want to pound tonight, that because of the troubles in washington and this ongoing weakness globally, it is draining on american competitiveness and this election. so he's going to wedge that in there. i don't know whether specifically he'll mention caterpillar's news this morning, but expect to hear a lot of that. that was a real shocker to me, to see how caterpillar spelled it out. martha: yeah. i think it was the former joint chiefs of staff who said he thought the biggest threat to our national security was, indeed, our national debt. so as you point out, neil, everything is clearly intertwine inside terms of our global position and strength, right? >> well, paul was saying night, you know, neil, you cannot be in a vacuum, and you cannot assume

what's going on in washington or more to the point what's not going on in washington and the accumulation of $4 billion a day in debt to not be a threat to our economic security and beyond. so expect these kind of issues to come up. it's all about when you talk national security, if you think about it, it's all about confidence as well. do people have confidence in america to lead and confidence that america can get out of its economic morass? obviously, expect mitt romney to pound that there's little confidence in that regard. expect president obama to say, well, it's a lot better than it was four years ago in that regard, but the devil will be in the details in how these guys argue them out tonight. but national security issues, economic security issues are going to be joined at the hip. martha: yeah. >> and expect to hear a lot of both tonight. martha: so true. and another issue, neil, that mitt romney has brought up a lot is china and trade. what do you expect there? >> well, i found it interesting that officially this morning china sees the united states

market as the number one export country. in other words, more goods from china make their way to the united states than any other country. in fact, if you take the next four on that list, martha, you could combine them all, and it doesn't equal what they're delivering to us. now, keep in mind we have growing fears of a trade war between our two countries. mitt romney has been talking tough, barack obama's been talking tough. expect that issue to come up tonight because china also plays a sort of beg or borrow role with us. they buy up all of our debt, or a good chunk of it. if china getted teed off or all of a sudden it's feeling that these guys are jumping ugly on it, it might be less inclined to do so in the future. the problem for china, as i just said there, is that, well, this is a big market for them. so they don't want this to get to be too much of a divisive issue. china argues that it needs the united states, the united states needs them. these guys are going to talk tough tonight, but the fact of the matter is whoever is elected in the fall is going to have the

deal with a powerful china that conceivably could be calling the economic shots, and that means you call the security shots as well. martha: yeah. it'll be interesting to see who appears sort of more with a good grasp on all of the issues you're talking about, to understand the world of economics and how it's globally intertwined, so both of them will need to be ready for it, and we'll look forward to seeing your coverage tonight, neil, thank you so much for being with us. >> thank you. martha: neil cavuto will be holding special debate coverage starting at 8 p.m. eastern. senator marco rubio, sarah palin, congressman john clyburn and senator john mccain. and then you've got megyn kelly and bret baier at 8:55 with pregame and postgame analysis, and then bill and i will watch the whole thing, come back, wake up and bring you the analysis in the morning here on "america's newsroom." bill: you know what's extraordinary, and we see ratings and numbers, and we can gauge the level of interest that people have in certain stories, and the audience tune-in the

morning after these debates has been phenomenal. which tells you there are a lot of people that are hungry for news and analysis the day after. martha: it's all anybody's talking about, no matter where you are. bill: so he is fearless felix, and he proved everyone wrong. record-breaking jump in space makes your stoppage drop. felix is in the house. his first cable interview since that jump. ♪ ♪

martha: skydiving into the history books. millions watched felix baumgartner's death-defying dive, leaping from the edge of space, 4 miles above -- 24 miles above the earth.

that's three times as high as most passenger jets fly. he's the first person to break the sound barrier with his body with the highest fleefall ever, is so what did that feel like? if any of this could ever wrap our brains around that. here's the only man who can help us understand it. he joins us for his first cable interview since that jump, felix baumgartner. first of all, it's good to see you. [laughter] and we're glad that you survived that and that it went so well. when we saw you sort of skip across the earth after you landed, it was an amazing thing. i've got to ask you what it felt like. you said you were going to say a little prayer and jump. take us back there. what went through your mind and what did it feel like? >> well, when you're standing there outside of the capsule on the top of the world, it's not about breaking records, it's about coming home alive. then you step off, and you realize everything is so hostile, and you have 40 seconds to figure out how you stop that

spin. then you have to use all my sky driving skills in those -- skydiving skills to figure out. martha: when you were spinning out of control, that was the most frightening thing to watch certainly for everybody on this ride. what did it feel like? >> it was a very violent spin. you can feel all your blood going to your brain, and i knew i'm not going to pass out, but i was close. i had to fight it all the way through and, luckily, it worked. martha: you know, you talked about, i saw your press conference afterwards, and you talked about sort of how it was a life-changing moment and that you wanted to retire. how did you reach that? >> well, i put everything out there, and we succeeded, and now i think it's time the move on because you cannot top this. this has been such an incredible journey, and i'm lucky everything went well, and now i think it's time to move on, and i'm going to work as a professional helicopter pilot in the future. martha: you know, when you take

a look at -- we're looking now at the parachute part of this jump. you canceled it, had to postpone the jump a couple of times, it was a little too windy. did you ever think to yourself, you know what? i really don't want to do this, this is too scary, and i could lose my life. >> no, no. if you start working on this for five years, you put everything out there, you're willing to go the extra mile, there's no way just turn around and skip it. it is hard to accomplish. we knew it's not going to be easy. there's a reason why that record was held for 52 years, and we made it. martha: in terms of your family and the people that love you and were worried about you, what were you thinking in terms of all that up there? >> i didn't get the first question. martha: in terms of your family and the people that you love and the risk you were taking, what went through your mind as you went through this? >> well, you kind of feel bad if you put them on the line because my mom, she cried when the capsule took off, and she could see her son is going up to space, and at that moment when

you're out there, you feel kind of bad because your mom is watching this, you know? but as soon as the parachute opened, it was a big relief for everyone. martha: and then she must have been beside herself when she saw you sort of skipping along the earth's surface when you finally landed. helicopter piloting is going to feel like a breeze. [laughter] >> it's not like a breeze because it's difficult can, you know? if you want to put out a fire or rescue people from a mountain, it's not that easy, so still a lot to learn for me, but i'm willing to do it. in the next five years, i'm 100% sure i'm becoming a good helicopter pilot. martha: you look like there's not a catch on you. we had our doubts when you came and visited us and we saw your suit, but you put those doubts aside, and we thank you so much, felix. great to see you again. many thanks. so the "national geographic" channel was behind the scenes taking a close look, and that airs on sunday, november 11th. watch "national geographic" channel because it's pretty

cool. bill: felix, come on up and say hello. he's like the chuck yeager of our generation. martha: absolutely, he is. bill and we're dubious. so we'll tell jenna -- jenna's not down there, she's up here. okay, send him up. bill: but she's here now. hey, jenna. jenna: tonight the last presidential debate, and the pressure's on with polls essentially showing a tie for the race. bill kristol, bret baier, juan williams among our guests, plus a special report for you, a new timeline on the attack in libya. we're going to talk to a journalist live from benghazi who just spoke to the guards inside the compound. we have new information for you today. and, bill, this one's for you. wait until you see the video from a down and dirty event this weekend that you avoided attending with me. [laughter] bill: how'd it go? jenna: oh, it went good. martha would have no problem with this course, by the way. you? [laughter] bill: you guys are tough

mothers. [laughter] >> that's right. bill: thanks, jenna. people paying some of the highest taxes in the cub could get -- country could get hit with yet another tax hike. you'd better hope you do not live there. we'll tell ya. [ man ] ring ring... progresso this reduced sodium soup says it mahelp lower cholesterol, how does it work? you just he to eat it as part of your heart healthy diet. step 1. eat the soup. all those veggies and beans, that's what may help lower your cholesterol and -- well that's easy [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup.

bill: so if you live in california, your taxes are already high, but if a ballot measure goes through, your taxes might go even higher. from l.a. today, william la jeunesse is on the story. what's going on out there, william? >> reporter: well, as governor jerry brown's proposition is approved along with the president's proposed tax plan, california's wealthy would pay 52 cents of every dollar earned in income taxes. >> he asked the highest income earners to pay a little more to keep our economy strong. >> reporter: governor jerry brown says californians need to pay more. >> it's either massive cuts to

the schools and colleges, or the most blessed and the most well off paying one or two or three percent more. >> reporter: if it sounds familiar -- >> i also want to ask the wealthiest households in america to pay slightly higher taxes. >> reporter: brown did take a page from the obama playbook. >> the plan asks the wealthiest to pay their fair share. >> reporter: their fair share means the top 1% will pay up to 13% of their salary in state income taxes or roughly one-half of the state's income tax revenue. it also slightly raises the sales tax. >> we already rank number one in all 50 states in state sales tax, and we have the second highest income tax rate. >> reporter: but brown's prop 30 isn't the only tax increase facing voters. >> prop 38 spends billions of new education dollars straight to our schools. >> reporter: it raises income taxes on all taxpayers, not just the wealthy. critics oppose both. >> it's kind of like being given

a choice between the gas chamber and the electric chair, both are going to be detrimental to our economy, they're going to drive more businesses and jobs out of state. >> reporter: polls show both measures in trouble. >> californians don't like paying higher taxes on themselves. it's been almost 20 years since californians went to the ballot and voted to increase their own taxes. >> reporter: now, without either tax increase brown says he'll cut the school year bill by three weeks. despite that threat and 70 billion in advertising mostly there the teachers' union, both measures are polling below 50%. bill: william, thank you. william la jeunesse live in l.a. on that story today. martha? martha: standing in the line of fire. five british security workers were guarding our consulate in libya during that deadly attack. a journalist who spoke to them giving us their blow-by-blow account, their dramatic story is straight ahead. testing...1...2. am i on the radio?

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