>> for some reason my opponent got really excited. he rewrote his speech real quick, stood up at a rally and proudly declared i'll get the job done from the inside. what kind of inside job is he talking about? >> senior moment. paul ryan gets a mixed reaction addressing the aarp in new orleans today. >> the first step to a stronger medicare is to repeal obama care. because it represents the worst of both worlds. [ booi ] >> what really happened during the attacks on the u.s. consulate in benghazi. john mccain lash out after the first time it was a terrorist

attack. >> thought it was some kind of spontaneous demonstration, shows the level of their -- the abysmal level of their knowledge about fundamental aspects of terrorist attacks. >> and amy polar goes to washington. the "parks an recreation" star kicks off with real politics. >> are you okay? >> i would like you to leave and give me privacy here please. >> good day. i'm andrea mitchell live in new york. our new nbc news battleground map has a key shift in a crucial state. iowa has moved from toss up to lean obama president. the current electoral math means president obama would have to carry only florida from the remaining battleground states and hold on to where he is ahead to win. joining me for our daily fix, "usa today" washington bureau chief susan page and nbc senior political editor mark murray. first to you on the new battleground states, let's take a look at the map and the significance of what the president has accomplished in iowa and where he has to focus

his attention. >> andrea, this actually of about three or four months ago iowa seen by the obama campaign as one of their problematic states. you've seen president obama campaign furiously, visiting the state seven times, holding 15 events there and our new nbc news/washington journal /maris poll an advantage over mitt romney, 50% to 42%. that in addition to other polling that we have actually been privy to, some of the internal polling, allowed us to move the state to lean democrat and when you put iowa and lean democrat as you mention, all president obama has to do is either win florida or win both virginia and ohio to get to 270 or past that number. >> and when -- susan, when we look at these new polls and look at virginia, ohio, and what mitt romney has to do in terms of holding on plus moving ahead, this is a very narrow, small

needle to thread. >> that's right. as you see options fall away, if iowa is out of reach, it means he's got the path that we've seen some democratic candidates in the past have to do which is draw to an inside straight. you have to have everything in every other place fall in your direction and that's one reason i think we're going to see such a focus on florida where both president obama and mitt romney were campaigning yesterday. >> now, mitt romney tried to capitalize on what many believe was a misstep by the president at the univision moment. we talked, we showed that just now. romney attacked. susan, how important are these kinds of missteps by both candidates at this stage in the campaign some. >> well, we know that they can -- if they go to kind of a preexisting weakness they can have some power. that's what was so damaging i think for governor romney about his comment about the 47%, those aren't people i need to worry about, because it went to a perception that he didn't really care about the problems of people that he didn't understand

the lives of the americans who have had less privileged backgrounds than he has. so the -- we saw the romney people seize on this comment yesterday, because it went to president obama disappointing some of his 2008 supporters and not delivering on changes in the way our politics work as some americans had hoped he would do. so it's -- is it a battle of the gaffes at this point? because we've seen more focus on the occasional statement or misstatement than we are in a big debate over the direction of the country and what policies either candidate would pursue if they were to win in november. >> and mark murray, ann romney, seemed to be reacting to all of the building pressures they've had such a tough two weeks, this was ann romney in a radio interview. >> this was a radio iowa interview and she's reacting to

things like what happened again today, peggy noonan's blog in the "wall street journal" which we'll see tomorrow, the romney campaign has to get turned around. this week i called it incompetent peggy wrote, only because i was being polite. i really meant rolling calamity. the candidate can't run the show. she continues he can't be the ceo of the campaign and be the candidate. he shouldn't be debating what statistic to put on slide four of the power point presentation. he has to learn to trust others, many others. the republican sort of commentary has been ganging up on him, george will, peggy noonan continually. they are not happy with the candidate. >> that's right, andrea. it shows you how challenging the last three weeks have been for the romney campaign and you hear some of the frustration from ann romney's comments in that radio interview she had in iowa. but when you look at everything right now, the republican party's always usually been the one they usually march in step, there is a lot more discipline from their candidates up and down the ballot but when things

don't go well you see people start heading for the exit doors and that is the danger right now for mitt romney and his campaign. they have time to be able to get back in this race, but with every poll that comes out showing that president obama is at 50% or higher or leading mitt romney, you're going to see more and more republicans distance themselves and potentially put the republican party in a vicious cycle. >> thanks very much, mark murray, and susan page. the the heat was on president obama in miami at that univision facebook event yesterday. the anchors repeatedly pressed the president on his failure to deliver on his campaign promise to reform immigration. >> a promise is a promise and with all due respect, you didn't keep that promise. >> i am happy to take responsibility for the fact that we didn't get it done but i did not make a promise that i would get everything done 100% when i was elected as president. >> joining me now is obama deputy campaign manager stephanie cutter. stephanie, thanks very much. the president, what did the

president mean when he said that you can't change washington from inside? well -- >> he's the president of the united states. who else is going to change washington. people look to him for leadership. that's the criticism. >> the american people are going to change washington. that's what he has always said throughout this campaign and the previous campaign. you know what we've proved it. it's the only reason we cut taxes for the middle class, the only reason we were able to reform the health care system or put wall street protections in place. you know, if we hadn't mobilized the american people we wouldn't be able to cut payroll taxes. that is the only way you can change and affect change in washington. >> does he sound -- >> particularly -- >> does he sound like he's giving up on moving past the gridlock, getting his legislation through congress? doesn't he have to lead the way if we're going to have immigration reform, have tax reform, if big things are going to happen, the way as you would argue he did with health reform? >> andrea you know washington well and understand there are pretty tough entrenched interests in the house

republican caucus right now. and in terms of immigration reform, i mean he said it best yesterday, in 2009, he pulled all of the congressional leaders together who had been in favor of comprehensive immigration reform to say how are we going to get this done. it became pretty clear quickly that the republican party was turning it bask on immigration reform. in 2010, on the dream act, which is probably the most unifying issue in immigration reform in terms of kids who weren't born here but grew up as americans allowing them to stay here if they go to college or join the military, even republicans who voted for it previously turned their backs on it and votesed no because of their politics. look at what mitt romney had to do just to win the republican primary. he is the most extreme nominee, ever, in the history of presidential elections, on the issue of immigration reform. we've got some issues to deal with in terms of getting immigration reform done. but the the has always thought

change comes from the outside, not the inside. >> at the same time, one of the reasons why he faced such a tough questioning on this issue is that many in the hispanic community where the president does have a very big advantage, are concerned about the deportation record, record-breaking deportations for 2011, fiscal year 2011, almost 400,000 people, 391,953 deported. that is a tough enforcement record. many people feel the hispanic community is being unfairly targeted. >> that's why the president put the first ever rule in place to ensure that we were focusing on criminals instead of noncriminals so that we were getting the most dangerous people and deporting them. it's also why he put new rules in place to reduce the backlog so we were treating our approach in a fair, judicious way. he has done what he's been able to do without the help of congress to change the immigration system, to make it more fair and more just.

increasing border security. making administrative changes to the dream act so that these kids who have no other home but america, can stay here while they pursue their education, join the military, and why we work on a comprehensive solution in washington to our immigration problems. all of this we've made progress in reforming the immigration system but we need willing partners to join us and one way to do that, which is what the president was talking about yesterday, was to -- is to mobilize the american people. and we've started to do that. i remember being at the white house a little over a year ago, where we brought hundreds of opinion leaders together from all over the country, governors, business leaders, activists, members of congress to say how are we going to get this done, start a conversation, outside of politics, about the need to reform our immigration system and then the republican primary started and it all fell away. and you know, as i said earlier, you saw what mitt romney had to do to himself and his previous positions on immigration just to win the republican primary.

after this election, as the president often says this election can break the fever in washington on a number of issue and have willing partners to join us at the table to find a bipartisan solution. we know they exist. we have a seen them before. i worked for ted kennedy for a long time and came within inches of getting a bipartisan solution through congress. maybe some of the partners that turned their backs on immigration reform will come back and help us get it sdmun stephanie cutter, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> from obama headquarters. and coming up next, new details on what really happened the night that four americans were killed in benghazi, libya. join us next week live in new york education nation. our guests include arne duncan, former secretary of state condoleezza rice, new york city schools chancellor dennis walcott and chelsea clinton. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. ♪

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anti-american protests continue to ricochet across the middle east and south asia turning deadly in pakistan where three were killed today. protests throughout the region have claimed at least 33 lives since they began two weeks ago. foreign correspondent ayman mohyeldin joins me from beirut. tell us what's happening in there? hezbollah, a large part of the government in lebanon, had called for large demonstrations. what's happening today? >> in fact, they did. it was the largest protest they've called to date and it happened in a place here known as ballbeck. thousands of people showed up, relatively peaceful. here in the heart of beirut, there was a counter rally, a rally organized rather by sunni muslims and that, too, was relatively peaceful. about 2,000 people showed up. what you're seeing across the

arab world, particularly in countries like egypt and here in lebanon, as well as in libya, are protests denouncing that u.s.-made film but at the same time really shying away from violence. you've seen in the past 72 hours or so, a very strong push by religious leaders, political figures, to denounce the type of violence that we saw against the u.s. embassy and other u.s. facilities around the arab world. you get a sense that the situation at least now is being contained. people are still upset about the caricatures that appeared in the french newspaper and film but are trying to move these protests away from facilities and diplomatic missions because they harm the national interests of these countries. >> i know you know cairo so well. you're based there frequently. president morsi is coming next week for the u.n. meetings and i've been told that the state department at least and other top officials, including members of the senate, are very pleased with his subsequent response after the very tough phone call from president obama, that they,

in fact, insisted on keeping the cairo embassy open last week rather than taking washington's recommendation they close it after the initial protests, that they feel he really is trying to deliver and is very, of course, in his interests because he is desperate for american and international financial help so he's looking to make a big splash in new york, meeting with top bankers, finance officials, and really trying very hard to stabilize egypt? >> absolutely. you know one of the ways that it's being described is that president morsi now finds himself between marrying the anger that sometimes erupts on the streets of cairo with the national interests of the country. he is now responsible for 80 million people. he understands a great deal of helping egypt get back on its feet economically has to deal with its diplomatic efforts. a week before these protests erupted you had 100 or so businessmen from the united states representing some of the best and most powerful american corporations coming to egypt to

invest billions in egypt. there's no doubt that the egyptian government is aware it is in its interests right now to maintain a close relationship with the united states. they recognize the people protesting do not represent the vast majority of egyptians, of arabs and they are trying to now at least give the people the right to protest, give the people the right to be upset but at the same time, prohibiting any kind of violence that can jeopardize egypt's diplomatic and economic interests which pour in and serve the interests of the egyptian people at large. >> thank you very much for that. to your point, i was told that many of those ceos from general motors, co ka cola, other major corporations left only within 24 hours of the protests that turned so violent in egypt as well as elsewhere. thanks. new details are emerging surrounding the fatal attack on the u.s. consulate in libya, shedding new light on the crucial hours that led up to the death of ambassador chris

stevens and three other americans. joining me, michael lighter, be nbc terrorism expert and former director of the national counterterrorism center. the first word that it was, quote, terrorism likely terrorism, came from matthew olson, your successor at the counterterrorism center in his testimony the other day, followed up by extensive briefings and a lot of anger and criticism from capitol hill. we heard in john mccain and others. what we know indicates that this protest may have just been masquerading or pretext for what really was a fairly well-organized, pre-planned not spontaneous attack and perhaps the video was not really the spark plug? >> andrea, first on the point that it is terrorism, i think that's pretty clear and from my perspective was pretty clear over the past week, right after the event. we have to remember that's a fairly precise definition that matt olson my successor was using, which involves a substate

actor with politically motivated violence. there's really no doubt that that's what occurred. the harder question that they're still trying to figure out is, what was the motivation, who is behind it, were they affiliated or aligned or motivated by al qaeda, and how long before the event was it actually planned? i think those are the issues we can accept it's terrorism but all those other important questions still have to be answeredp in. >> i want to show you a graphic that -- of the compound we've seen this in the "wall street journal" and "the new york times" and what we're learning now is that the annext where two of the americans, former navy s.e.a.l.s and other americans, was a half mile away and that for a variety of reasons, the libyan government had not been told of that location, could not participate in the rescue, didn't have gps on it, that the libyans did not know how many people were in country, so didn't know how to possibly -- properly evacuate them. it seems as though they were -- there were a lot of steps that

caused other problems. they didn't have at the main building, didn't fire extinguishers, didn't have masks. were they properly prepared for this kind of attack given the fact that there had been he will earlier incidents that were clear warnings? >> i think normally consulates, not in the capital, as opposed to embassies that are in the capitals, are often as not well protected as their larger cousins. the case in benghazi was just that, a smaller compound, far fewer armed guards and made that defense process much more difficult. in terms of the response and where americans were and how many there were, as not at all surprising to me people were unclear about what was going on. here we are more than a week later and we are still trying to piece together the details of what happened. trying to figure out in the fog of one of these attacks in an area where the libyan government certainly controls the ground, but doesn't have a heavy security presence yet, is very,

very difficult. so as people move from the consulate to the safe house, as the libyan forces attempted to move in, the fact that they would not be sure where people were and what the attack was going on, i actually think that's expected. now again, whether or not they had the precautions in place before the attack, again, i think that's something that the state department and the intelligence community will have to dig into. >> and what do you say to john mccain and others on the hill, susan collins, who are sharply critical and i mean mccain yesterday came out, he was blistering, he said he learned nothing from the intelligence briefing that he had, he said that he read more in the public media that was accurate about what happened, he said that the administration was completely naive to be blaming this on the video. >> well, you may not be surprised, although i served in a republican and democratic administration, i am sympathetic to the executive branches challenges here. if they say too much, something may well prove to prove wrong in

a couple days and can be secured for that. hence they generally say little and what they know and there are lots of rumors from libya, from the press, so it seems like they're trying to hide things. i think they are being cautious. i think that's wise because every day more facts come out. again, i think what we see is in benghazi, the security situation is still very, very uncertain. did that consulate have enough security? were we prepared for what was at least a somewhat organized attack and follow on attack. those are the questions we're going to have to ask and with the death of four americans, it's pretty clear that something did go terribly wrong. >> michael leiter, thank you very much. the fog of war and these kinds of attacks, obviously very, very difficult to sort out what went wrong. hillary clinton has, is mandated, established a review board and they will presumably find out more. thank you, michael. >> thank you. >> more can be done, should be done to protect our diplomats.

the former u.s. ambassador to kenya who sur vivd the 1998 al qaeda attack, next on "andrea mitchell reports." ♪ [ male announcer ] the first look...is only the beginning. ♪ ♪ introducing a stunning work of technology. ♪

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in august 14 years ago al qaeda attacked u.s. embassies in kenya and tanzania killing more than 200 people including 12 americans. president clinton and first lady hillary clinton led the nation in a solemn ceremony at andrews air force base receiving the remains. the u.s. ambassador to kenya has become a strong advocate for increased embassy security and joins me from washington. thank you very much. >> you're welcome. >> a lot was supposed to change after 1998. the mandate for a review board was one of the results of the after action reporting after the horrible tragedy. let's see, president obama who was referring to the benghazi attacks just today in his speech in virginia.

>> as we saw last week, we still face serious threats in the world. we have to make sure that not only our military but also our diplomats overseas are protected. we've got to go after anybody who harms americans overseas. >> from your standpoint, are our diplomats adequately protected in these embassies? >> i think benghazi clearly shows that they're not. while a considerable amount of construction has been done providing embassies, people who are assigned to embassies, small, medium, large, boxes and fortresses to do work, that is not being done in all of the consulates. it takes time and it takes money and one of the issues with diplomacy has always been the consistency of funding.

you cannot run an international operation like the united states department of state and aid, if you get inconsistent funding. >> ambassador, a lot of rules were changed, new setbacks, they built a new embassy and they had to in kenya, tragically, but then there's also criticism even from some in the foreign service, i talked to people all the time who say we need to get out, chris stevens was such a strong advocate of getting out, mixing in with the people and putting himself at risk because he felt with diplomacy you need to be with the population. how do you balance those priorities? i know you have those concerns too. >> i certainly do. what i would love to see is for the american government and whom ever becomes our president to look in the long term as to what kind of diplomacy do we want, and how do we help our diplomats enact that diplomacy.

did you ever watch "star trek" when you were younger. >> sure. >> captain kirk had the enterprise, right? he had this wonderful spaceship the enterprise that was fully functional and certainly safe, but kirk and his staff didn't stay there. they would get out to different planets and go where no man would ever go before, do explorations and when they got into trouble, scotty could beam them up. well, alas, we don't have beam me up technology for our diplomats who have to get out of their embassies, they have to interact face to face because that's how you influence, and yet, we need to find technologies that will accomplish both. i don't know what they are yet. i don't know that anybody does. the fact of the matter is, we aren't looking at that issue and that i think what needs to be done. >> a lot of people on the hill, susan collins and others, were

complaining there weren't marines at the perimeter of what was a mission no the even a full consulate in benghazi and the answer is well, don't have marines in these places. should they have been there? should they be on the perimeter. the perimeter, we are told, is the responsibility of the host country. >> that's correct. and when we do have marines, marines are inside of the embassy. a lot of embassies have a small contingent and the responsibility of these young men and women is to protect the classified information and the people inside the embassy. we don't put our military forces on foreign soil when it is the responsibility of the host country to provide the protection. >> what more do you think should have been done in benghazi from your experience? >> you know, i don't want to second guess. but i do wonder what the accountability review board is going to show as to how much attention was placed to the security needs of the consulate. i say that having been

ambassador in nairobi for two years before we were blown up by al qaeda and i was -- for two years trying to get the attention of the department to our security needs and the answer was there's no money. if that's the answer again this time, then i think we need to do some serious soul searching about the leadership that we are showing our diplomats and development and civilian employees overseas. >> ambassador prudence bushnel, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> thank you for joining us today. >> up next, getting out the vote. the challenge to new voter i.d. laws. plus the wait is over for iphone 5. sales began this morning around the world with eager buyers camped out at apple stores for days. despite the hype some users have criticized apple for the phone's new mapping system for misplacing land marks and leaving others off altogether. [ female announcer ] lactaid milk is easy to digest.

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democratic lay makers are introducing legislation to fight the voter i.d. trend. republican leaders are expected to block the proposal. in a test in pennsylvania this week the state supreme court ordered a lower court to determine if voters had sufficient access to photo i.d.s before permitting a new law to take effect. beyond pennsylvania legal battles spreading from wisconsin to texas and on and on. joining me is congressman elijah cummings, sponsor of the new proposal to stop these i.d. requirements and page carter, a nonpartisan non-profit. thanks both of you very much. >> what are your chances of getting a federal law through, i mean i think hasn't congress kind of wrapped it up, nobody is getting anything done. >> we're not going to get it done. we just left and we won't go back into session, andrea, until after election day. it's very sad what the

republican -- these republican legislatures have done all over the country. they basically calling something anti-voter fraud laws, what they've done is suppress -- it's an effort, a direct effort, to suppress the vote. you cannot call it anything but that. and so what we did and our legislation, we put forth legislation as a effort to push back on these laws that are just playing havoc in these various states. >> and paige, talk about voter fraud. so much talk from a lot of these separate efforts in different states. i was watching rachel maddow last night and 30,000 people were potentially purged from the rolls in north carolina where president obama won by 14,000 votes. 30,000 people were basically told they were dead. and when the voter registration people, the state officials, went and looked so far they've

found not one single case of a dead person being registered. there are groups going far and wide searching for all these voter fraud. how much is this a real issue? >> you know, election should be free, fair and accessible and we should be doing everything we can to make sure that voters and voting rights are protected and it's easier to vote and there should not be these barriers erected to making it harder for citizens to vote in this country, nor should there be voter purges that hurt citizens eligible to vote and should vote from participating on election day. >> and the so-called voter integrity project as they call it in north carolina is basically tying up the election officials who will have the responsibility of setting up the voting machines, making sure they have a fair election process. and tying them up with this whole search for these allegedly dead voters.

congressman, there's nothing that now can be done as you pointed out, congress has just adjourned, while i've been up in new york today, you guys are taking a hike and nobody is going to try to do anything but between now and election day. >> so therefore, what we have to do is continue all of these court efforts that are going on and some of them may well be successful, some may not. at the same time what we're doing and the congressional black caucus and many other churches and organizations throughout the country is trying to make sure that people are made aware of the type of i.d. that is now required, and trying to make sure they get registered as soon as possible. it is a shame because when we look at these efforts to suppress the vote it seems like the republicans are doing it by any means necessary. they're telling organizations like the league of women voters if they don't turn in voter registration forms within 48 hours they could be subject to criminal penalty, they have

atacked the early voting provisions in many states that allow people who are working two and three jobs to get to the voting -- polling place early, and, of course, these very restrictive types of i.d.s they're requiring that many many people who don't have cars and don't live near i.d. issuing institutions, they don't have opportunity to even get this type of i.d. as far as i'm concerned it's unpatriotic. these efforts. and not only that, but as far as i'm concerned it's criminal because you're basically denying people the right to vote which is very fundamental in our democracy. >> paige gardener, what can your organization do, what are you doing, to try to protect people's access and right to vote and make sure that people don't feel that there are too many barriers being put up? >> the first thing we're doing at the voter pargs participation center is making sure more and more people are registered to vote. since our beginning in 2004 we have helped about 2 million people register to vote.

so that's where it starts. getting people on the rolls so they can participate in our democracy. this year alone, we will have registered close to 800,000, actually more than 800,000 people, so that's where it starts. and then after registering voters, we are making sure they know the rules, they know their polling locations, and they participate in the process and they have as much information as they can to make sure their voices are heard on election day. >> page gardener, thank you very much. thank you, congressman. thanks so much for joining us. >> always a pleasure. >> and coming up, what have we learned from this week in politics. first this has got to be the most novel political ad of the season. >> come on. we're walking and talking. >> it's the cast of "the west wing" walking and talking again to help the sister of one of their stars now running for judge in a nonpartisan race in michigan. >> if people fail to realize a

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though all energy development comes with some risk, we're committed to safely and responsibly producing natural gas. it's not a dream. america's natural gas... putting us in control of our energy future, now. ask. breaking news. the romney campaign says it will release his full tax returns for 2011 at 3:00 eastern today. joining me now national editor for "vanity fair" and susan page rejoining us. it is to carry the west wing theme from our previous segment take out the trash day, friday, and when we bury news we don't want widely distributed. todd, the taxes are going to hit. >> well if he waited any longer it would be election day itself. one of the problems with this whole controversy has been why he didn't do it earlier when it might have mattered less and, you know, all eyes were not on him. now you can be sure that people are going to go through this with an absolutely fine tooth

comb. >> they say they've put out bullet points that the effective tax rate was 14.1%. that they donated to charity $4 million plus to charity, they claimed a deduction of $2.25 million for those charitable contributions. just now looking at this blog that has just been put out. so, susan, they really could have dealt with this whole tax issue we all agree before even the primaries, they could have dealt with it long before and inoculated against it. now they're facing it in the last couple of weeks of the campaign when they're heading into debates and have to turn around some momentum pretty fast. >> and, you know, so these tax returns will tell us that he's a rich guy, we knew that, that he's paid a lower effective tax rate than many americans, many middle-income americans, somewhat damaging, but you're right, one of the -- when history is written of this campaign one of the perplexing

things will be why mitt romney, who has been running for president for at least six years, and probably more, didn't kind of put his personal finances in an order so it wouldn't be an issue and not something that he would have to be talking about in the last seven weeks of a close campaign. >> and apparently what the tax liability was was $1.9 million in taxes in 2011 on $13.6 million of presumably adjusted income. now, moving back to the other part of the ticket, we referenced this earlier, susan, paul ryan was in front of the aarp and was significantly booed at times. this was a tough audience, had his mom with him who made a big appearance at the convention. so he's trying to defend his medicare position. he's really going into the -- into the sort of lion's den there by taking on the aarp. you have to give him some credit for even trying, todd. >> you know. >> susan. >> we saw mitt romney also talking about the medicare issue

briefly in florida and they -- you know, they're supporting a plan that's controversial that would change in some ways the fundamental concept of medicare from a guaranteed benefit to pleemium support -- premium support. in a campaign where we have not heard very much discussion of actual ideas or what we would do in office, i think that they -- i think the republican ticket deserves some credit for talking about an issue that's hard to talk about and is likely to get you booed in some audiences. >> and todd, we have had -- we really have had a lack of substance in this campaign. we've been covering horse race. they've been talking about horse race. gaffe patrol. you've been around a long time. your take on the level of discourse in this campaign? >> well, i wouldn't think you could call it elevated. one of the things that certainly many conservatives hope the selection of paul ryan would mean there would be a campaign of real engagement on the issues and maybe even the details of the issue.

then congressman ryan got dinged so badly for stretching the truth to put it immediately in -- mildly in his speech at the convention and everything to generate -- deagain rate into the gaffe of the day, so there hasn't been a sustained discussion about the two camp's dueling views. president clinton came the closest with his fact-studded, outline of how president obama would differ on the economy. >> and susan, we saw president clinton was back on "the daily show" with jon stewart last night and he said, you know, people don't necessarily have to have elegance. they just want information. that really was the key to the success of that speech which gave what some are calling the clinton bounce to the obama team. >> i love the phrase secretary of explaining stuff, which really is something that bill clinton -- bill clinton's got his flaws, let us not forget he was impeached and had controversy of his own, but he is gifted at explaining a complicated problem in a way that americans every place can

understand and figure out the way to proceed. i love the introduction he got last night where it was -- hey, have you given any speeches lately because that speech has had a big affect. >> it has. we have to leave it there, todd, from "vanity fair" and susan page, thank you thank you very much. the last time this happened, fdr was president, gehrig and ruth were the the big names in baseball. now 79 years later d.c. is in the postseason. even the nationest biggest white sox fan took note today. >> i want to congratulate the washington nationals for bringing playoff baseball to d.c. you're looking good. i'm looking forward to a white sox/nationals world series. >> so are we. the nationals became the second national league team to punch their ticket to the postseason beating the dodgers 4 identi-1. it's the first playoff

appearance since taking the field in 2005. if the winning continues, there could be a beltway world series in just over a month. remember those orioles. we'll be right back. [ female announcer ] born from the naturally sweet monk fruit, something this delicious could only come from nature. now from the maker of splenda sweeteners, discover nectresse. the only 100% natural, no-calorie sweetener made from the goodness of fruit. the rich, sweet taste of sugar. nothing artificial. ♪ it's all that sweet ever needs to be.

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these political stories will make headlines in 24 hours. jonathan joins me now. jonathan, as we've been sitting here, hillary clinton justice met with pakistan's foreign minister and said the attack in benghazi was a terrorist attack and they will not rest until they have tracked down and brought to justice the terrorists. as we head into the final weekend with people gathering in new york for the united nations meetings, world leaders from all over the globe, we also have a lot of politics. we have the candidates out in every battleground state, and this afternoon we're going to have the tax returns. >> right. mitt romney -- lots of people have been calling -- particularly democrats are calling on governor romney to release tax returns so everyone can see the sources of his income, how many -- what

percentage of taxes he's paid, and just within the last 15, 20 minutes a note from -- a note from trustee brad mult, who is the blind trustee of romney's blind trust put out a blog post that announced that the 2011 tax returns will be made available at 3:00, but also giving a summary of the tax returns for a 20-year period. 1999 to 2000 -- no. 1989 to 2000, i have the numbers, it's a 20-year period, and he gives the average tax liability paid, charitable donations. so this coming out on a friday is only going to, you know -- you try to hide things on fridays hoping that folks won't notice. folks have been looking for this for a very long time. >> more information to dig through. thank you very much. that does it for us for this

edition of andr"andrea mitchell report reports". monday don't my my interview of the head of the imf as well as an interview with condoleezza rice. hi, tamron. we're following breaking news. mitt romney's tax returns. we'll dig deep into what that's about and why it's released on friday at 3:00 p.m. ann romney goes in very hard on conservative critics in her husband and her's parties. stop it. this is hard. you want to try it? get in the ring. >> the come any's campaign frustration this it week and ann romney's comment, it is today's "news nation" gut check. within the last hour, president obama responding to governor romney's accusations that he has thrown up the white flag when it comes to changing washington from the inside-out. we'll play the president's comments he made on the campaign trail about an hour ago. we'll look the at governor romney's strategy from today until election day, which perhaps includes the release of those tax returns in an hour. president obama: i'm barack obama and i approve...

this message. anncr: he keeps saying it... mitt romney: this president cannot tell us that you're... better off today than when he took office. anncr: well... here's where we were in 2008... tv anncr: the worst financial collapse... since the great depression... tv anncr: american workers were laid off in numbers not seen... in over three decades. anncr: and here's where we are today... thirty months of private sector job growth. creating 4.6 million new jobs. we're not there yet. but the real question is: whose plan is better for you? the president's plan asks millionaires... to pay a little more... to help invest in a strong middle class. clean energy. and cut the deficit. mitt romney's plan? a new 250,000 dollar tax break for... multi-millionaires. roll back regulations on the banks that cratered the economy. and raise taxes on the middle class. president clinton: they want to go back to the same old... policies that got us in trouble in the first place. president obama: we're not going back, we are moving forward. anncr: forward.

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wthe future of our medicare andr electiosocial security. for... and it's good! man 1: i want facts. straight talk. tell me your plan... and what it means for me. woman 2: i'm tired of the negative ads and political spin. that won't help me decide. man 2: i earned my medicare and social security. and i deserve some answers. anncr: where do the candidates stand on issues that... affect seniors today and in the future? find out with the aarp voters' guide at earnedasay.org