we had in 2008. he would need to come out and support mitt romney's agenda in order to do something beneficial. >> thank you for being with us. greta is next. see you tomorrow night. >> tonight a seismic shift in the race for the white house. this news is going to shake you up and spin you around as you try to figure out who is going to win this race. governor romney hitting the 50 percent mark. governor romney also gaining an edge with independents. also on the economy. former speaker of the house newt gingrich is here to breakdown the polls but first the campaign trail. >> they are talking about smaller and smaller things. despite the fact that they have huge challenges. >> oo the aura of the obama

campaign. >> you know something is wrong about the direction we are headed right now. >> president obama hasn't given a vision for the second term agenda. to say i do have an agenda. >> i ask you to compare my plan with governor romney's plan. >> nobody thinks we have a plan for the second term. frankly they have not offered a plan for the second term. they took his convention speech bumped it up to a 20 page pamphlet handed it out as a plan for the future. >> you know we don't want to keep going in the same path than we have been on for the past four years. >> he can't run on this agenda. he can't run on this record. what we need is a leader to sees this moment for what it is, who had the courage of his convictions, who believes in the principles that built this country who knows how to reapply them. >> you know we can't afford four

more years like the last four years. >> we lived in obama nation for the last four years and the ills of our society keep running deeper and deeper. >> a man with a moral compass a man with a bedrock of principles a vision for the country and proven ability to execute and implement that vision. that is mitt romney. >> do you want real big change in this country? well you are going to get it on november 6th. you are going to make it happen. we are going to get america on track again.>> first night former secretary of defense donald rumsfeld talks libya. he is critical of the white house and the state department. he says they failed to do their jobs. that is not the only thing secretary rumsfeld says the administration botched. >> mr. secretary nice to see you, sir. >> thank you. >> your over all thoughts about what unfolded in benghazi? >> first it's a tragedy it's unfortunate we lost four americans including the ambassador.

it is a serious problem that they requested additional security from everything i have read in the press and have heard and they weren't provided the kind of security that could have protected their lives. the second part of the problem is after that happened. with the state department. >> it attributed to a video to youtube video that really few if anybody had seen. they have information it was an attack by an al qaeda affiliate. it was a terrorist attack. and the fact that they apparently did not want it to be a terrorist attack but some sort

of spontaneous demonstration led them to condemn it was the case. through their confused and complicated in an unfortunate way. >> how can you tell or how do we know or how do we discern whether or not it was incompetence that led them to the videotape route or whether it was a deliberate reason or down-play this was terrorism on 9-11? >> up can't. you will have to see -- let the investigation play out over a period of time and know with certainty what took place. but it clearly the killing of those four individuals and the fact that proper security wasn't provided, and the narrative that came out of their mouth did not -- it hit exactly what their political narrative was. it didn't fit what the facts were. why in the world would they send the u.s. ambassador out those decisions are made in the white house as to who goes out on the sunday shows why would they send the ambassador to the united

nations out to go on three or four of the talk shows saying what she said which was flat not correct. it was inaccurate and misled the american people in an unfortunate way. >> what i have been critical of the president for is to the extent any of us are suspicious or suggest that things are done for political reasons or incompetence or whatever you think is because there is this remaining mystery and has not spoken to the nation. he is the only one who could sort of clean this up. do you agree with me or not that he should at least sit down and explain what happened? >> i expect that eventually he will have to. i think the record is increasingly clear, because of the investigations that are taking place in the executive and legislative branchs and at some point some somebody is going to have to stand up and say here are what the time lines are and here is what the facts are. it would be clear it did not fit his behavior. it doesn't fit what he said at the united nations, it doesn't

fit him going on talk shows, comedian shows in new york. it doesn't fit him going to las vegas immediately after learning these people were killed. it was unpresidential i think. it is interesting governor romney in the debate didn't go after him on these things. i must say, i suppose it's the undecided voters would feel president romney was presidential and didn't go on the attack on this, but eventually it will all come out and it should, because you know you have an administration that does not want to seem to even admit there are such thing as radical islamists who are determined to kill innocent men, women and children. they don't want to use those words. and in the debate that point came out that this effort against terrorists is really not going to be one with bullets. it's an ideological task that's

going to take more time more like the cold war than hot war. and it requires people being willing to describe precisely what the enemy is and what the threat against the country is, and this administration has no strategy to deal with that partly because they are unwilling to even identify the threat. >> with 2020 hindsight seemed actually apauling we didn't have more security there. >> it does. >> i am curious what your thinking or whey you think -- when those requests were made or when the messages were communicated to washington, to the state department, why they weren't acted on. this is not dublin, this is benghazi. >> well, we all know it's a dangerous place. we knew in fact that september 11th was a date that conceivably would be used by terrorists. we also knew that there were a lot of weapons floating around that country from the civil war

that took place. and you know, it undoubtedly -- first of all it's very hard to be right every time. everyone knows that. you give the people in government kind of a little slack. you are not going to be right every time. it isn't money that prevented them from having proper security. that i am sure. i suppose that for whatever reason the requests that came in from the embassy and the analysis that took place simply didn't have the degree of urgency that obviously in retrospect we can see was needed. and the -- i don't attribute it to bad motives, i don't attribute it to conspiracy or some political thing. i think it generally when the government misses something it is a lack of competence and the responsibility we know the ambassador feels his

responsibility because he made the request. the state department obviously didn't and the white house obviously didn't. >> but when the ied went off and blew a big hole in the gate in june, and if you have britain pulling out, you know, how -- there are some really good signs there that there is something wrong. that would alarm me if i was seeing this that this place needs a little extra security and if the ambassador that was later asked for it it really in 2020 hindsight realize that is advantageous. i don't see why they didn't do it at the time. >> they were clearly threats, there were clearly other embassies that saw the threats and moved out. they were on notice and didn't respond the kind of security which is terribly unfortunate. even worse from the standpoint of the american people, not worse but of a kind. it's the way it has been discussed after the fact. it has been all of this bobbing

and weaving and explanations that are arguments of convenience but not real explanations and that prove themselves wrong within a relatively short period of time. we have seen a whole series of them from the state department, from the white house spokesman, from the u.n. ambassador, from the president. now when you look at them, just didn't fair up over time as being accurate. >> press secretary jay carney said i think it was yesterday that when fox news jumped on the e-mails that came out a couple nights ago that said during the time that this was going down that the state department had information that the terrorist group had taken credit for it on social media. his response yesterday as well, you all in the room you could have gotten access to this. you could have gone to social media and gotten it. they are so deflecting away from them. any responsibility to inform?

>> i think the secretary of state said something on facebook is not evidence. well, it is a fact. it may not be conclusive evidence but it's a fact. i find the whole thing most unfortunate and the worse part of it is we lost some lives of people who deserved better of us as a country and as a government. >> the secretary of defense, the president, vice president were in the oval office at some point as this was going down, this whole crisis in benghazi. i am curious what do you image sort of is the discussion that goes on at that time when you know in real time that a consulate is under attack? what would you expect? >> well several things. the first response has to be the lye -- lives of the people involved. what do you do about that? if you forget the fact that you didn't have the proper security and you begin with the fact that

it was under attack and you have americans there serving the country, what can you do about it? in that process then is the responsibility of the people in the department of state and the national security council and ultimately the central intelligence agency who may or may not have operatives in the area and the department of defense who has asked that in some hundreds of miles away what can they do? they begin that process of figuring out what might be done. apparently there was a vehicle over head that was in fact observing what was taking place. >> was there any sort of military action? some are critical that during the 7 or 8 hour period however long it was that there was -- that our military -- i don't know behind the scenes what was done or what was at least put in action. but do you have any criticism or even thought about the military sponsor lack there of?

>> we know destroyers were moved toward the livibyan coast. we know that the base in the island off italy has capabilities there. u.s. capabilities. until i know more about what the facts are and what requests were made, i wouldn't really be in a position to be critical or complimentary. i just don't know. >> former secretary of state colin powell today has endorsed president obama again. he did four years ago. he thought on him endorsing president obama for another four years. >> no surprise. i would expect him to be helpful particularly helpful since the momentum is moving in the other direction away from president obama. he is trying to be helpful to the president. no surprise. he supported him last time.

>> do you support -- have you made known what you support? >> i show my support for romney and hopeful he prevails in the election. i think the direction we are going in the country is unfortunate. i think an awful lot of people are disappointed in the last four years. people are looking at this and looking for some separation between them. in my opinion the last debate provided that. i don't know who won or lost the debate i am probably not the best judge anyway but as i watched it governor romney was presidential. he didn't attack and interrupt and the president was left presidential in my view and did attack and interrupt frequently.

i think the american people look at that and come away with a sense that one of them is the kind of a person. >> what would you say is the difference between the two administrations in another four years. he recognizes it's the united states of america's capabilities i say that meaning both our economic strike and what that suggests to other countries that we will be a factor going forward and military strength that will be a factor going forward which if you look at the last four years clearly president obama has a different view. the department is going to be reduced in size and cut. president romney -- i mean governor romney as president

said he would be concerned about the size of our navy. the president was dismissive and rude almost by saying well we have fewer ships but we also have fewer horses. this is a man who never served in the military. i think people listen to that and would recognize that we need ships. we need a strong navy, a healthy navy. why? because we have economic course across the globe we see piracy of drug trafficking of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and all of which depends on freedom of the seas and to be dismissive about the size of the navy and say we have aircraft carriers we call them aircraft carriers and airplanes land on them was kind of almost kindergartenish. i was stunned it. my father was on a carrier. i was a navy pilot. i sat there and thought my goodness what a response that was. it was so small and not large.

>> mr. secretary thank you, sir. nice to see you. >> thank you. >> up next former speaker of the house newt gingrich which just got more swing states polled. the news about the gender gap, well it's stunning. the attorney general what he wants them to stay out of texas. see what happens that's coming up. i'm so glad you called. thank you.

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>> 12 days until election day. governor romney gaining ground big time in virginia. sgoof governor romney leading by two points. a pourt somehows goj northbound rolt knew algled of course that's not all tonight. governor romney also wiping out the president's lead among women. according to the latest associated press poll governor room knee tied the president at 47 percent each. now just a month ago president obama had a 16 point advantage among women. former speaker of the house newt gingrich joins us.

good evening from the lbj school. >> i had a wonderful time at the lbj school and grad to be here with you. >> governor romney up two mounts a month ago as president obama was up $0.07 now a nine-point differential in a month. what happened? >> let me first of all end the anxiety, greta for our many viewers. i believe the minimum result will be 5347 romney over 300 electoral votes and the republicans will pick up the senate. i base that just on years and years of experience. take a look at the momentum. james carville taught me if you are the incumbent you get the last number in the poll. you don't gain anybody. go back to the numbers you gave

us. read the numbers 45, 47, 46. if that's the way he ends up and that's the cardinal rule, it's a good rule he is going to lose an amazing number of states. stat states that are tied. it means the incumbent is 47. that is called losing. when you get that kind of surge i think george allen is going to win. >> she was doing a book signing for the ellis the el vant book. we were with tommy thompson doing a fundraiser for him he was up three points down 11 six weeks ago he is now 3. he believes that the romney ryan ticket is going to do well in

wisconsin. you start carrying wisconsin, virginia will get sealed off florida will get sealed off north carolina is already sealed off. i think pennsylvania is starting to be in play. suddenly it's a much bigger arena. if you watch the president this morning i am not going to repeat what he said but if you watched the president this morning this is a guy who is really rattled. he lost in the primary this could be like bobby rush and he could go down and i don't think he's comfortable being the next president. >> going to some of the states as you know i am from wisconsin and i would have thought he would go for governor romney. paul ryan is from a very democratic district. it is curious how he could get elected as republican so many times. he is so well liked.

obama won by 14 points but two years later they elected a republican governor. they had a huge fight and he won by a larger margin when he was elected. the trend has been moving in that direction. i am not surprised wisconsin. >> you go down that road. i asked scott walker what was going to happen he said the team they built the way they won the recall he was confident on the tickets they would win. i saw john kasich. it is on the road they are going to get there. senator from ohio thinks it's coming together in a huge way. they announced recently 5 trillion barrels of oil in canton area around youngstown many new jobs suddenly image the new north talk could be ohio. these kind of things are all coming together in a positive

way for romney. you have obama who failed to show up for the first debate was far too aggressive in the second and third debates has a vice president who looked irrational as he drunk five red bulls. the pressure in chicago muss be extraordinary. >> so many political strategists say that you almost have to win ohio. no republican ever became president who hasn't won ohio. the unemployment level is down below the national average. if you say there's a new version on the horizon why obama doesn't get credit to this why it would go towards president obama over governor romney. >> the first thing is every person who goes and fills up their tank with gas they pay $2 a gallon extra for every single

gallon because of obama's policies. think of that as the obama attacks and working americans $2 a gallon every time you fill your tank. they are aware the environmental protection agency will close down and stop the very processes that are going to create those jobs in ohio. so if you want those jobs in ohio you have to defeat barack obama to stop his bureaucrats from strangling the state of ohio. it's that simple. as that message sinks in my impression is ohio has always been a competitive state has a strong republican party. it is basically conservative. you go down along the ohio river valley the war on coal has alienated county by county. you look at places like cincinnati you see there is a really good opportunity here.

>> don't go away. we have more to talk about after this break. >> rush limbaugh has been watching on the record and he has something to say about it. is he giving us two thumbs up? you will hear rush haes reviews stay tuned. [ female announcer ] research suggests cell health plays a key role throughout our lives. one a day women's 50+ is a complete multivitamin designed for women's health concerns as we age. it has more of 7 antioxidants to support cell health. one a day 50+.

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>> we are back with speaker nut gingrich. current speaker of the house john boehner has written a letter to the president of the united states about libya. he has said among other things no one in the administration can substitute for his voice. he wishes he would tell us and congress and the american people what happened in libya. do you agree with the current speaker? >> i think speaker boehner has done something important thing. binge west is a remarkable marine recently wrote an article pointing out they had 7 hours to get forces to benghazi. they had a marine de patchment they had an f 18 unit in sicily. the marines could have gotten there in hours. do we keep the documents

uncovered open to anybody? you say why didn't somebody in the national command system fic out let's get the marines in there the fighter aircraft in there and drive away the insurgents and protect the consulate i think colonel west raised a very important point. there's a missing 7 hours when lives could have been saved american secrets could have been preserved and something should have been done. not only was the president not available neither was anybody else in the national command authority. >> it is curious why the president hasn't spoken out. he said in part what i always try to do is make sure we just get the facts. that is not true. he went out with the video.

he said every piece of information we get. some terrorist group claimed responsibility. it is not true. i left a big mystery for the american people. >> it is not a big mystery. for some reason i don't know whether it is the president's sympathy for islam or he is fixated on this stupid movie. most americans have never seen. practical kepeople with common sense will not see it and i guess the president hasn't seen it. >> tsz even more than that he is fixated on it. it is not like it was mentioned

in any e-mails. it was mentioned as something that might have been a protest way over in cairo egypt. there was novembever any sugges there was a video here. that's what was so bizarre about it. >> i think in their minds this is a psychological problem not a policy problem. i think in their minds obama and his top people have this image that they could explain all of the problems in the mideast as america's fault. once again we had done something bad once again he had to apologize. look at the speech to the u.n. it was an embarrassment. you see a guy it's as though he is personally offended by the attack on islam. it personally emotionally engaged him. it lumped libya into this larger picture they were very resistant. even after his press secretary says to the white house press corps, okay, this was a terrorist action, the very same afternoon the president is in

florida. he cannot let go of this but there's a deeper question here. forget obama for a second. chairman joint chiefs members of the joint chiefs general petraeus out at the cia, secretary clinton, the national security advisor. none of these people thought of the fact we have marines sitting in sicily. none of them act abosk about th sitting in in sicily. we might have saved these lives if we had had a commander-in-chief or a team that was prepared to do something disease sigecisive. >> quick question tom governor romney is giving a speech in iowa on economics. is it going to be a stump speech or do you think you are going to hear something new? >> we may hear some new things. i can't tell you i frankly have been in lacrosse wisconsin and then down in austin. i am not going to pretend. i do think he understands the

more vividly he can portray in job creating free enterprise model the bigger the gaps will get between he and obama. >> mr. speaker always nice to see you. thank you. sir. >> good to be with you. >> coming up, texas. texas is warning the international election observers they say butt out. the lone star state even threatening to arrest them. our panel here to talk about that. that's next. it's not your usual campaign ad. this ad compares voting to sex. you will see it for yourself two minutes away. so now i can be in the scene. advair is clinically proven to help significantly improve lung function. unlike most copd medications, advair contains both an anti-inflammatory and a long-acting bronchodilator working together to help improve your lung function all day. advair won't replace fast-acting inhalers

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they are saying the storm is so massive it could be from florida to main inland to ohio. hurricane sandy is already being blamed for 21 deaths. leon pineda doesn't have enough military to send troops into benghazi during the consulate attack. it was the 11th anniversary of 9-11. secretary pineda didn't want to put troops into harm's way without knowing more. chris stevens and tleers died in that attack. i am mary ann raf pert. now ba -- marianne rafferty. now back to "on the record"." >> don't mess with texas. they are threatening to arrest observers if they get too close to the polls. they are threatening the security and cooperation in europe. it opposes voter id laws and insists the monitors should keep an eye on the texas polls. texas says the group should butt out. joining us is abc news senior

washington editor rick klein washington bureau chief michael krau lee and weekly standard steve haze. >> of all of the things i am thinking about as we head into the last 12 days of this election this is not something that keeps me up at night. it is sort of funny in an absurd way silly way when you have 12 of the 44 countries to make up the osce to judge who is not free or partly unfree. you have countries like kazakhstan hasn't had free elections to come and pass judge on our elections. there is somebody humorous about it. >> i really don't like it. >> radio oo it is not a texas side problem. a lot of people are waiting on this they would like to see the observers here. it's something we do abroad all of the time. >> so. >> we have to let them come.

we could have the aclu comply. >> i would rather from foreigners than the aclu. >> they have to comply with state laws. if they find something out of the ordinary what are they going to do write a report? >> part of it texas is going to be the complete part of the nation. it could not be funnier. there should be an hbo special about it. if you want to zoom out to more substantive issues here we will have several states where the margin will be quite close in the end and where there will be charges and counter charges of voter fraud voter suppression. i am not convinced that voter fraud is a big problem in this country but a lot of people are. in a close election in some of these swing states we could see a lot of litigation, accusations that drag on well after election day>> i agree with you. i want it monitored i don't care

who monitors it. i want it done well. i don't care who does it. it's the idea of having borders come in because we can't do our elections. we are letting them judge our elections. >> i did read i don't know if it was accurate. i don't know if i was able to check with a second source the bush administration was the first to invite european observers in. >> doesn't make it a good idea or bad idea. >> i think the texas selections are being to be fine. they can buy them barbecue maybe. >> that doesn't bother anything. >> if i thought it was going to have any effect what are they going to do they are totally powerless. they write a stupid report because nobody care what is they say. >> for some reason i think the election is none of their business. we ought to beable to police our own election and count our own votes we have to make sure there is no fraud. >> we are doing that anyway. this doesn't keep us from doing any of that.

>> it could be modernized more efficient we could be doing it on-line we could have days other than this one select day. at wal-mart there are a lot of things we can change. we can have a better system. >> we are taking a break. stand by. straight ahead ohio republican senator rob portman has advice for both candidates to win ohio. you will hear from senator portman negotiation. i told him, sure. can't hurt, right? then i heard this news about a multivitamin study looking at long-term health benefits for men over 50. the one they used in that study... centrum silver. that's what i take. my doctor! he knows his stuff. [ male announcer ] centrum silver. the most recommended. most preferred. most studied. centrum, always your most complete. to start her own interior design business.

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>> it could all come down to ohio. chris jenkins spoke with ohio senator rob portman. >> what exactly would be you think the secret to your turnout. that's what we were talking about. >> two things one i think in ohio jobs and the economy people are concerned about it. they don't see the president having a plan to turn things around. romney has a plan pro jobs pro growth. he is out there talking about it that's why the debates frwere s great. the tv ads have been largely negative ads by the obama campaign and the debates they saw what mitt romney was like and his plans for the future. >> we are in the final stretch what does governor romney and paul ryan need to do in these final days to win it?

>> if you map out your strategy, what does the campaign have to do in these final days? >> be here a lot. i think they will be. president obama should apply, too. at this point it's a matter of being sure people are clear about what the options are. the new pro growth pro jobs account it's going to get the economy back and bring back jobs. that's the key. voter turnout is important but it will be driven by what people think. bring back our panel. i sort of say owe oy any of you? >> it is almost trite to say it but it's the whole ball game. mitt romney needs the win to have a fair shot at winning the rest of the map. it's the one space president obama knows he can deny the map

that he needs. almost impossible. you go through the map a million different ways it's almost impossible to find a path. he can do it potentially. something different is going on in ohio. president obama is staying above water among all of the negative things happening. >> number 7 percent that's the unemployment right there. 7.8 right now. the auto industry is coming back. that than great for the president. the polls vary of course but if you look at the aggregates and the averages the president does seem to be maintaining a slight edge. for now it is a fire wall for the president. we have a great story in thyme. obama plus five some people think it was an -- >> the average shows obama with a slight edge. would it be enough to be putting mitt romney ahead right now?

running mate instead of paul ryan. republicans are talking about it if he just lose it is by a hair. >> if you look at the polling across the polling it is true that ohio has been more stubborn than other states. you have seen some movement from romney over the past five weeks. that is a question. i don't agree with rick. clearly it's the case if mitt romney wins ohio it makes it more likely he is going to win president. if you think there is movement toward romney from virginia north carolina florida you start taking those things and wisconsin has been competitive people forget bags in 2000 it was a virtual tie. 2004 virtual tie. ran away with it in 2008. wisconsin has been competitive for the past 12 years. it is trending with root pub cans over the past two years.

that's another place he could pick up the votes. >> the question of whether you hit one or hit the other. it's obama's map because he won four years ago. he goes in the favorite on the electoral map. he could lose to florida and virginia and still win ohio and he's still in a good shot to win. mitt romney can't say the same. >> one other advantage i forgot to mention the ground game. he has been building his ground operation in ohio since the dafz elect el he was elected. romney campaign has been on the ball they have a little more juice at the end of the day. that could be decisive if true. >> rush limbaugh never holds back. what did he say on the record? you will hear next. really catching on! people can do it all! get a quote, buy and manage your policy! -[ music stops ] -it's great! well, what's with the... -[ music resumes ] -music?

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>> rush limbaugh give ago shout out to all of us here at"on the record." >> i was watchingre