regrew hair. save up to 42% now at rogaine.com. hi, everyone. i'm tamron hall. the "news nation" is following the feint debate of the election and a new poll showing where likely voters stand right now. first to the debate, tonight as mitt romney's team seemed to it tip its hand when it comes to the strategy. as with the first debate, when mitt romney attempt it to win over the undecided voters by, quote, hugging some of the president's policies? romney adviser dan senor was asked this morning about the difference between the candidates on iran on "morning joe." >> i think it's a shift from -- >> hold on. this is important. he has always said the military

option should be looked at over and over. the military option should be the option of last resort. i think this is like splitting hair. the reality is governor romney has been laying out this it strategy for years. >> and that was on the topic of just iran, but as you saw there, the president just landing or that's mitt romney i should say landing. both men are in boca raton. john hileman had a little fun of governor romney's expense regarding what we might see tonight. >> i'm mitt romney, and i'm running in the middle. i'm running in the middle. >> running in the middle has hileman tried to mime him. the president arrived in florida only moments ago had a 15-point lead and some of the polls on foreign policy. that gap has now closed to four points. the president's biggest challenge tonight could be the ongoing questions regarding libya. >> he spoke to this last week in the debate. i'm sure it's going to be a topic tonight. i think he'll say, look, this

investigation is ongoing. we are working at home. we want to get to the bottom of what happened so we can make sure it never happens again but bringing those who killed four american people to justice. >> let me bring in the political panel. michael smirkonish and chris covines and chip saltzman. let's start off with the obvious. everyone wants to see what happens with libya, chris. it seems as governor romney after that awkward moment trying to press the president turned out to be wrong, was off his game the rest of the debate. will romney go in this time around trying to pick up traction on libya? >> i think it's the one area where they think they misplayed it in the last debate. i think he'll come hard at the president or as hard as you can

when you sit a foot away from the president of the united states. i think the president and his team are prepared for that. it's a relatively easy response in terms of saying this was a fluid situation, an unstable situation. this is what happens when you have a crisis, and i think the president going to be able to kind of push it back. i think the danger for governor romney is does he overreach? he did last time, and it blew up in his face. he can't afford to do it again. >> chip, let's bring you in on this issue of libya. if you watch the sunday morning programs, a lot of the surrogates for governor romney bringing up libya and what they categorize as mishandling of the situation and ongoing questions. nevertheless, lindsey graham was on earlier today going after the cia now as well as the obama administration. he painted a picture of libya in chaos, this dire situation. my colleague chuck todd played a sound clip from john mccain in july. this is how senator mccain described libya at the time.

let me play it. >> i was there for their election, and you know how many people i met who had their sons or husbands, their fathers, their family members slaughtered by omgadhafi? to say libya is a failure, actually it's a great success. >> a great success in july. today some say ilgts a talking foint for republicans who want to attack the president and politicize what happens there as a result of the four deaths, tragic deaths of the americans on the front line of diplomacy. chip. >> a lot changes in foreign policy in a week, not to mention a couple of months. today i think libya is in chaos, and what we've seen is the president and administration changed on what it was. at first it was a video and then an act of terror. we know there's investigations, and that's what the question is. what exactly happened. what do we know, when did we know it? that's going fob a big point of tonight's debate. i think mitt romney will push it as far as he can. he can't overplay his hand, but

it's a big part of the discussion. >> what is overplaying his hand, chip? what's overplaying the hand on libya? >> what we saw in the last debate is we thought he had the president in a box. he went after it, and candy crowley jumped in and pulled the save out. he has it to find the issues to talk about, talk about what the president knew. the administration did talk about this video for a week, and talk a little bit about the video. which was the video the central piece of what happened here. talk about the security, why there wasn't more security on the eve of 9/11. those are issues mitt romney can talk about without overplaying it. >> can i get in on this? >> yes. i want to ask a follow-up question, though. you talked about what governor romney would ask, but does he provide what he would do differently regarding libya? it's one thing to hurl the grenades and criticize in the armchair quarterback position. i'm the greatest quarterback in the world monday morning, and i've never played football. but in reality you have to present a plan for the country. you got to present a plan for

the country, and i don't know if you can say governor romney has said what a plan for libya would look like under his administration from the very beginning of this crisis when gadhafi was still there until now. >> i think that's what presents a great funt for mitt romney. he has 90 minutes tonight to talk about his outlay of a foreign policy under a romney administration versus an obama administration. >> michael. >> i think the dynamics on benghazi have completely changed as of today, and i'm referring to not only "the new york times" but the "wall street journal." the journal is no fan of this president. the front page sfotory reveals w the cia for a period of 10 days was telling the administration including ambassador rice that this evolved out of the protests. here's ambassador rice, thrown under the bus in certain quarters for a long time now about allegations that perhaps she was carrying political water, and she was lying because they didn't want to say the word

"ter r "ter ror." he was told from the cia that this was all evolving from the protest hinged to that movie. what do you want the president to say? do you expect the president to go on tv and say, the cia is telling me x, but i want you all to know why. that's untenable. how does he say that tonight? how does the president make that point tonight based on published accounts? >> anne, it will be about more than libya. i want to point out the policies and positions of both of the candidates. on iran, president obama prefers diplomatic solutions despite the report of there being an agreement on talks, face-to-face talks with iran. it seems clear it's moving in that direction. governor romney's adviser, dan senor, today saying the similar thing that all options are on the table, despite the aggressive tone from governor romney when he was in israel

discussing iran. we can go through afghanistan. both men aagree 2014 is the withdrawal date. romnmitt romney nudging why anne the date. but he supports that withdrawal date. both candidates support israel. the bottom line, anne, bill keller in the "new york times" in his op-ed wrote on foreign policy mitt romney has displaced the worst aspects of neocon and n neofeet. on the stump we get the swagger of a freedom agenda cowboy combined with a gift for gaffe. who will show up, the swagger cowboy as described by some or the candidate who will essentially hug president obama's policy knowing that this country does not want to go into another war. we don't want boots on the ground in syria and quite honestly anywhere else at this point unless necessary. >> well, that's a sharply worded way of putting it in the op-ed,

but the question is the right one. do you see the differences the two men? differences jurs around the edges or rhetorical differences. i wouldn't down-play the rhetorical differences too much. obviously, what we care about is the substantive policy differences. would one take us to war where the other would not. the rhetorical differences between republicans and democrats are meaningful in recent administrations and what's described as swagger and what republicans call as strentd wanting to exhibit greater american strength could be a bigger difference tonight. in the areas you just described, certainly afghanistan, even syria, iran, maybe to a lesser extent israel, whether there's real differences, there's similarities. we'll see how bob schieffer does to tease it out. that's why we'd end up returning to libya. even if mitt romney won't say what he'd do differently, that's the biggest point of contention between them. >> do you agree with anne

cornblut on this? they're similar to what governor romney says he would have in place if he were elected. the only real difference tonight where you would see the heat, if i should say, people are craving slib ya. >> i think it's yes and no. >> based on the romney today. not based on governor romney in the primary. >> it's tuesday, so it's a different romney. putting that aside, i mean, i think the reality here it's not just tonal but emphasis. i think the question whether it's afghanistan or iran, what are you emphasizing in the course of foreign policy? you're rattling sabers and that's your first course versus emphasizing diplomacy, you may say we want to do diplomacy, but that is a distinction with a major difference. i think what's going to happen here, i think that romney will go into this debate and try to hug the president where he can, and kind of pivot back to the economy. i think the president in this debate has got to be not just focusing on foreign policy, because that's the obvious thing to do.

when governor romney tries to make this about the economy and domestic issues, to undercut that argument every chance he has. >> michael, is there any chance governor romney would come out swinging and perhaps try to paint the president as a person or a leader who does not, for example, support israel, blame the president for iran being able to get to where it is at this point in hopes of enriching uranium, so on and so forth for its nuclear program? does he say what dan senor basically uttered this morning. that his line of thinking in dealing with iran is very similar to the president in that he supported the sanctions and basically the difference is as someone put it earlier, na mitt romney basically talks a tougher game. but on paper and policy it is the same? >> i think it will be the latter of those two approaches. it won't be the governor romney that showed up in primary season and thumped his chest with all that tough talk. i hope that bob schieffer on a subject like iran will press him and will say, what specific aal,

governor, distinguishes kwur position from that of the president? i've long been of the opinion there's no difference except the tough talk. >> chip, is that the case? is it a matter of who can use the best, strong language? is there a difference today between governor romney and what they have outlined as the plan with iran. >> they say economic sanctions is the way to go. war is the last choice to go. i think what mitt romney does is take these foreign policy issues and roll them on how it affects the economy. what does a nuclear iran do to the oil prices in the middle east? those are effectsive in tonight's debate. >> will he paint the president as a leader who does not support israel who dropped the ball somehow and allowed iran to move forward? >> i think you can see less of that tonight and more of an agreement and talk about how it relates to the united states economy. as you know, that's the number one issue on the voters' minds.

>> as a republican, are you comfortable with that particular romney if that's what he says tonight? >> absolutely. at the end of the day this is about barack obama's leadership for the last four years. yes on foreign policy but mostly on the economy. >> thank you very much. i greatly appreciate you all joining me. thank you. to the big nbc news/wall street poll 47% is the race. the top three reasons why obama will win, and they also have the top three reasons why romney will win. joining me now to dig into the new polling numbers, mark murray. thanks for your time. >> thanks for having me, tamron. >> 47%. what does that mean at this point, other than obviously what we see on the screen? get into the hearts and minds of voters. >> what you and i have talked about, this is a close contest. this shows among likely voters

you couldn't be even closer. one of the things in president obama's favor is he has room to grow. while the race is tied, president obama is up five points, 49% to 44% among registered voters. if he gets more to the poll, he has room to grow and get close to 350%. mitt romney, one thing helping him in this survey, and this poll comes after the two presidential debates we've had thus far, people are getting more and more comfortable with the president mitt romney and that's what these debates have done for him. you see these two forces at play. also benefitting president obama, some economic optimism continues over the past few months. that's where we are right now. you can have a case where president obama wins and a case that mitt romney wins. >> you have room to grow on the president's lists of why he will win. you say more economic optimism, but that's a good and bad thing it sounds like. >> well. the good thing for president

obama right now is people think the country is on the right track, more so than they have since june of 2009. also, people are much more optimistic about the economy, 45% say the economy will improve in the next year. that's up some 18 points from when we asked that back in july. however, despite that economic optimism, mitt romney has a narrow lead over president obama on which candidate would better deal with the economy and your panel was mentioning that's probably why you hear mitt romney talk about the economy and bring that back up, even on questions pointed to foreign policy. >> on the list of reasons romney will win, you point out that doubts about a second obama term, 62% say the president should make major changes in his second term if re-elected. >> that's probably the biggest red flashing light for president obama in the entire poll that shows you that mitt romney, people are getting more comfortable with him but unclear about the direction of the second obama term. i would note however that george

w. bush's number on that exact same poll question was at 55%. so not too far off the 62%. of course, we saw george w. bush was able it to eek out a victory in 2004. >> mark murray. you'll come back and talk about two key voting blocs in this race that certainly have our eyes and ears on them. thank you very much, mark. >> thanks. >> china syndrome. the final topic in tonight's debate, the rise of china and tomorrow's world. on his first day in office, governor romney says he will go after china on currency manipulation. zac tells us what chinsz will do in response on the second day and could it affect american jobs? it may sound harsh but it's real. why white men versus latinos matters in this it election. first read asking the question which group is more important in the election. look at the latest numbers out of ohio and pennsylvania, two key states. i don't have to tell you that.

a check on the latest battleground polls in pennsylvania. president obama leads governor romney 50/45, in ohio a quinnipiac poll shows the same number, president obama up by 5 leading into the big night of the debate. humans -- even when we cross our t's and dot our i's, we still run into problems. namely, other humans. which is why, at liberty mutual insurance, auto policies come with new car replacement and accident forgiveness if you qualify. see what else comes standard at libertymutual.com. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy?

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tonight's debate will have six sections. the rise of china in tomorrow's world. according to moderator bob

schieffer, a lot of time will be spent on the arab uprising and the aftermath, particularly the deadly attack on the u.s. consulate in libya is a hot topic. it's an area the romney campaign thinks president obama is the most vulnerable. but governor romney stumbled on that very issue in last week's debate. >> you said in the rose garden the day after the attack it was an act of terror? it was not a spontaneous demonstration. is that what you're saying? >> please proceed. >> we want to get that for the record because it took him 14 days. >> get the transcript. >> he did, in fact, sir. so let me call it an act of terror. >> can you say that a little louder, candy. >> he did call it an act of terror. it did as well take two weeks or so for the whole idea of there being a riot out there about this tape to come out. you're correct about that. >> joining me now, former state

department joel ruben and daily beast contributor zachary carib e caribel. libya is on the agenda, and the president most recently on the daily show with jon stewart admitted mistakes were made. we know about the intelligence and when it came into the white house. no doubt there is still an issue here over what mistakes were made and why the administration seemed to have stuck for so long on the story this was a protest against the film and factoring in, of course, the new details regarding the cia. >> thank you, tamron. you're right. this story is certainly going to come tonight, and tonight's debate is the commander in chief test. does mitt romney and the president have an understanding of the issue and the demeanor to lead. on the libya issue, i think it's going to be a stark contrast. the data that the administration has been putting out has been reflective of what the

intelligence community itself has provided to them. i find it odd that right now republicans are criticizing general david petraeus and the cia for its assessments of what happened on the ground in libya. he's a real american hero. the administration has tried to do its best to reflect that. it has investigations under way. it's not hiding anything. if anything, this demonstrates how complicated foreign aaffairs is. tonight an understanding needs to be demonstrated by the two candidates for americans to have confidence in the next commander in chief. >> you say the administration is not hiding anything. obviously at least aaccording to one report, romney advisers through their research found that a lot of voters in ohio and pennsylvania in particular believe that there is not the transparency that is needed, and they have questions of whether or not the administration is hiding anything. what do you feel is a legitimate question to be posed to the president tonight regarding what happened in libya? >> i think it's a very legitimate question to ask what

the arrangements are for securing our facilities and advancing our interests in the middle east. it's a changing dynamic region, and we need to have a clear plan forward for that. the documents that were provided, for example, to the house oversight committee by the state department that were dumped online essentially last week on friday were a treasure trove of information provided in many ways to clarify what it is that the united states knows. that kind of information has been shared publicly. the administration has been out publicly talking about this. questions about consistency are legitimate ones to ask, but this is the fog of war that we're talking about. in the early days we need to remember that many republican commentators, richard armitage, former deputy secretary of state said the fog of war makes it messy and that's where there was confusion in the initial response. >> zachary, you've written extensively on china and we talked about this in the break. governor romney said on his

first day he would declare china currency manipulators. clinton and bush did it as well. what is the impact of something like that? is that, again, another example of tough talk? something that sounds good but what are the results? >> it's linked to romney and the republican line about libya, which is i'll be stronger as the chief executive and the commander in chief. so when you say i'll label this country a currency manipulator on day one sounds very tough, right? big, big action. what's odd about this whole charade is you label a country a currency manipulator, and absolutely nothing happens. it's not like tariffs go up or imports are more expensive. >> there's no bite behind the bark. >> there's no bite whatsoever. the only thing that happens is you enter into negotiations with the country that you label the currency manipulator about their currency valuation. a, we're doing it with china, and b, it sounds like that's something romney won't want to

do. he has zero legal effect and sounds strong but it's a hollow thing, it can be symbolically very, very damaging as opposed to destructive. we revalued our currency in the last few years, and this is a very public, shaming statement that is highly bad to ongoing constructive relations between two countries admittedly competitive. in many ways this is a good campaign statement, but it's the opposite of real strength. >> both governor romney and the president have -- critics have said they tried to score points with bringing up china and appearing tough on china. in fact, according to the chinese state-run news agency, this was one of the headlines. the presidential campaign reflects a scenario where china bashing, china versus ohio because so many associate the problems with the american work force particularly manufacturing

linked to china. can you agree that the president has also been equal in tough talk, if you will, regarding china and maybe not in realistic terms on how to deal with na? >> anyone who would argue that the president haven't been tough on china isn't watching what the pentagon is doing to deploy naval as setses to the asian-pacific, talking about a pivot towards asia. the kind of rhetoric about labeling countries, however, as enemies, this trends into other areas like russia, where mitt romney called russia our greater geostrategic foe much to the chagrin of people like colin policy. it builds the alliances we need for strong sanctions against iran to reduce the number of nuclear weapons around the world to have an effective fight against al qaeda. we need to be careful. just with china and the economic impact of this language, this kind of language can have an

impact at home. >> i wish we had more time. thank you very much. i greatly appreciate you coming by to talk about two topics on the agenda. coming up, democratic congressman adam smith returned from afghanistan. he's in florida right now prepared to back the president in this last debate. what he says about this attack from romney's team, the president's handling of libya. >> it was clear that the militias were the biggest threat to a successful libya. we've done nothing in a year, from october of 2011 to september 15th, we did almost nothing to deal with the militia problem and help the libyans. >> we'll get the congressman's reaction to that. plus, donald trump now claims to have a bombshell announcement about president obama. he made this announcement hours ago. is this another hype job? well, it's just something we thought you should know. i think you already just screamed out yes to that question i just asked. join our conversation on

twitter. what you are your thoughts leading into the last debate tonight. let us known at @tamron hall and at @newsnation. begin. tomato, obviously. 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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oh, hey alex. just picking up some, brochures, posters copies of my acceptance speech. great! it's always good to have a backup plan, in case i get hit by a meteor. wow, your hair looks great. didn't realize they did photoshop here. hey, good call on those mugs.

can't let 'em see what you're drinking. you know, i'm glad we're both running a nice, clean race. no need to get nasty. here's your "honk if you had an affair with taylor" yard sign. looks good. [ male announcer ] fedex office. now save 50% on banners. welcome back. look at the screen. this is the average of the national polls from real clear politics right now. the presidential candidates locked at 47%. the average shows governor romney with a thin lead up 0.3 of a point. they say the election could hinge on which candidate has the better messaging. peter hart tells our political team, quote, romney is dominating the macromessaging of the economy and obama is dominating the micromessages on issues like women's issues. for more on what it means, let

me bring back the senior political editor mark murray. we don't know who wins this one until we hear that will little music and the winner of the race is declared on that big night, mark. >> tamron, two different campaign philosophies. mitt romney has gone big talking about the economy. when you look at our polling results, it shows that mitt romney has a slight advantage when it comes to who better handling the economy. president obama dominates on women's issues and abortions and who is better in supporting gay rights. they're playing more small ball and actually thinking all these different coalitions, women, mirnt minorities, young voters add up to a slim victory. >> the hot topic we talked about, when we brought up the issue of demographics, white men versus latinos, it sounds very harsh whenever you say something like that. we're, of course, talking about voter turnout in those two key

groups for each of these candidates. >> it shows where each person has a very big lead. mitt romney is leading barack obama 60% to 34% among white men. that's very big when you consider that white men make up 35% of the electorate or more in the balttleground states. barack obama is leading mitt romney 70% to 25% in latinos and that population continues to grow. republicans said we need to win 40% of the latino vote. mitt romney can be very lucky if he gets to 30% according to this poll. so that is -- those are the two challenges, and whoever ends up winning you can say that latinos end up helping out barack obama or white men helped out mitt romney. >> all right. we'll see which groups as the question was posed will be most important in in election cycle. thank you very much, mark. joining me live now, democratic congressman adam smith of washington state. he's the highest ranking

democrat on the house armed services committee and just returned from afghanistan from a visit there. he joins us from the site of tonight's debate, boca raton, florida. thank you for your time today. >> thanks for having me on. >> anytime. what are your expectations tonight? >> i think the president has got a very strong record, and he's going to point to that record. he has done exactly what he said he was going to do during the campaign in 2008. he took the fight to al qaeda, most notably, of course, taking out osama bin laden, but not just there, and really containing them in pakistan and afghanistan and yemen. being very aggressive about it. he said he'd get us out of iraq and turns things around in afghanistan. he's made a concerted effort to do that. now he's doing the responsible thing and transitioning over to afghan control of that and beginning to bring our troops home there. he has a strong record. i expect him to make that point repeatedly. on the other hand governor romney doesn't have much of a record and has offered almost no

specific plans about what he would do on afghanistan, on syria, on iran. he's been critical but had no plan specifically. so i think the president has a stronger record and will point that out. >> it's interesting you bring up governor romney, obviously his stance in afghanistan is at this point in line with the president. he criticized the president earlier for announcing a withdrawal date but says in the end that's his exact plan. the difference? he would not announce it which puts you at the same point at the finish line in 2014. >> actually, it doesn't put you at the same point at finish line. i'm sorry. i was just in afghanistan. you're not going to pull our military out there bu sneaking up and saying we have to go. you actually need a plan, which governor romney still doesn't have except to say that he thinks that president obama is maybe pulling us out too soon, which worries me a great deal that he plans on having more troops in afghanistan longer. that's not in our best interests in my opinion.

>> let me play what senator lindsey graham said on "daily rundown" with chuck todd. i want to play something and get your reaction. let's play it. >> iraq is falling apart today. al qaeda has doubled in size and iran has more fluff. learn from bush's mistakes. don't oversell to the american people. obama is describing there's a disconnect between the narrative that president obama is giving about the world in large and the reality. very similar to what happened in iraq. learn from bush's mistakes and learn from obama's mistakes. be smart and listen to commanders and don't oversell. >> that's his advice to governor romney. he's there linking former president bush to president obama, a curious comparison to say the least. but nevertheless lindsey graham pointing to what he says are the president's failures including as of late in syria. >> what senator graham said there is ridiculous. president obama has not

oversold. he has not said we're going to go in and clean everything up in syria, that we can snap our fingers and stop iran from getting a nuclear weapon. that al qaeda is completely vanquished from this earth. president obama has a realistic plan to contain the threat, so what senator graham said there bears no resemblance to what president obama has actually done. again, i'll emphasize that governor romney has no record on any of this, and the few times he's spoken out, it hasn't gone well. he had a knee-jerk partisan political reaction to what was going on in cairo that was completely wrong and inappropriate. he offended so many of our allies during his foreign policy trip it was hard to keep track. again, he's offered no specifics on what he's going to do except to give this strvague notion th we ought to be tougher. tougher how? where does he want to commit military troops to prove that point? that's the same rhetoric from president bush.

it's not just wrong but dangerous. >> thank you for joining us. we hope to talk to you tomorrow with the post-debate reaction. joining me now is martin bashir in boca. let's get your reaction to the fact that particularly in libya republicans admit this is perilous territory for governor romney because it can appear he tries to politicize on the incident. what, if anything, can governor romney do to not appear to be the guy who is trying to capitalize and get some traction on this one area? >> tamron, i think it's all a bit late for mr. romney. he's already done that, hasn't he? he showed scant disregard for the families killed by jumping the gun if it were and apologies for the pun making all kinds of comments about what happened and seeking to politicize that tragedy. it involved deaths of four

americans and an american ambassador. then he had the performance in the dpee bait where he tried to put words in the president's mouth or implied the president never said certain things about this attack when, in fact, he had. i don't think mr. romney has a great track record, but that's a consistent example how he performed in foreign policy. when he went to israel, he insulted the palestinians by referring to jerusalem as only and solely the capital of israel without any regard for palestinian claims for east jerusalem. when he went to london, he insulted the british and their management over the olympic games. i can tell you from sources and friends sxleand colleagues from britain, they were appalled by his conduct. this was an individual supposedly a statesman going overseas and insulting foreign nationals in their own countries. imt not particularly surprised with his performance in regard to libya. remember, tamron, he's a desperate man in a desperate

position. he wants this job more than anything else. he will say anything in relation to libya, even if it insults the families of those killed. doesn't make any difference to the man. >> quickly, martin, i want to get your reaction to the strategy that may exist tonight, one of hugging onto the president's policies, his foreign policy regarding iran, sanctions and how to put every option on the table and not just saber rattle. in afghanistan the withdrawal plans set by the obama administration supporting that with a few caveats here and there. but other than libya drawing no real line between the current administration. this could benefit governor romney because it puts him on a presidential level as some have observed. >> yeah, but tamron, mitt romney should be granted a part share in usain bolt's 100 meter gold medal because it's sprinting so fast to the middle i'm suffering whiplash. there's a political strategy to

him tonight to affect a moderation. is that really a politician to lead the superpower in relation to foreign policy. is that really what america wants? does america want a man who swings in a swik convey depends on what the plit tal needs and has no convictions about afghanistan, about china, about pakistan, about all of these other pressing issues. that's what you get tonight. don't be conned by the performance of moderation. >> thank you very much, martin bashir. greatly appreciate you joining us with your thoughts and insight. have a great show. i'll be watching. republicans are growing more confident that mitt romney could pull out a win in the key battleground state of florida. not because of help from the state's governor. why romney is keeping his distance when it comes to rick scott. first, there's a lot going on today. here's some things we thought you should know. if our counting, whip out your clock. it's been a little over seven

hours since donald trump made the claim that he had a gigantic bombshell about president obama. trump announced this morning that he was going to go public with whatever this is, though. not today or tomorrow but wednesday. >> it's going to be very big. i know one thing, you will cover it in a very big fashion. >> will it change the election? >> possibly. >> is it personal or does it have to do with how he governs? >> it's all in one, everything. it's very big. by bright eyes

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just begin with america's favorite soups. bring out chicken broccoli alfredo. or best-ever meatloaf. go to campbellskitchen.com for recipes, plus a valuable coupon. campbell's. it's amazing what soup can do. welcome back. florida will be a big win, of course, for either candidate. but his campaign across the state politico reports governor romney is keeping florida's republican governor at a distance. it shows governor rick scott has a 46% approval rating, but at

one point this summer he was considered the least popular gop governor anywhere. politico writes, quote, embracing him is no help to him in a must-win state. the most of any competitive state out there. let's bring in james who kovcov the campaign for politico. he assesses who is a good friend or enemy. he picked governor scott to push off in a bit and brush his shoulders off and keep him at bay. >> that's absolutely right, tamron. he's the elephant not in the room. the governor is glaringly absent from romney stump speech. he talks as if jeb bush is still governor. he hasn't appeared with him in public since the beginning of august, but he's willing to do his behind closed door. rick scott with romney at a closed door fund-raiser this weekend in palm beach. in public he doesn't want anything to do with him.

>> it's not as if it's a secret they met privately. so why do one thing in the quiet rooms and behave differently out front before the public? >> tamron, in a close election florida could come down to a couple hundred votes and there's no sense putting an anchor on you. romney is outperforming rick scott. he's not popular here. there's a big difference in how they talk about the economy. rick scott is praising economic growth. mitt romney is talking about the problems under obama. when they're together, it looks awkward. >> it's very different from the approach from john mccain with charlie crist we saw four years ago. we'll see if this strategy works. thank you so much for your time, james. we're sorry we're so brief, and we're grateful for it. we'll be right back. so you say men are superior drivers?

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welcome back. go to facebook.com/newsnation. check out the vote for the gut check. white men versus latinos, which

group is most important voting day. that does it for this edition of "news nation." "the cycle" is up next. hi, i'm amy for downy unstopables in-wash scent boosters, here with my favorite new intern, jimmy. mmm! fresh! and it's been in the closet for 12 weeks! unbelievable! unstopables! i'll show you how! ♪ just shake them into the washer i can't believe this lasts 12 weeks! neither can they. so you're going on tour to prove it. downy unstopables. follow jimmy's unstopables tour on youtube.

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and a smartphone... with an e-trade app. ♪ nobody knows... [ male announcer ] e-trade. investing unleashed. just six hours until the third and final presidential debate. i'm toure beaming in from boca, and being around here gives he romnesia. i can't remember who i am. >> i'm s.e. cupp. who has excellent memory. steve kornacki. has there been a debate in boca? >> yes, there has been. >> i'm krystal ball, and i can see the future. get it? krystal ball. i predict president obama is going to make mitt romney want to forget he took the stage tonight. >> well, if memory serves me right, "the cycle" starts right now from lynn university on