hi, everyone i'm tamara hall. governor mitt romney's latest description of himself with 11 days left in this campaign, he's now the change agent. in the last hour governor romney gave what his campaign referred to as a major economic speech. the backdrop of the speech, a construction company in ames, iowa. romney for the second time in as many days attempted to paint himself as the change needed to face america's big challenges. >> what this requires is change. change from the course of the last four years. it requires that we put aside the small and the petty and demand the scale of change we deserve. we need real change. big change. >> in that excerpt alone one, two, three, four, five references to the word change and romney's new selling points as being the cane of change was the highlight of a speech he gave last night in ohio where he

trails president obama in recent polls. >> given the big challenges we have and the big election we have it's time for a big change. paul and i represent a big change for america. we recognize this is a year with a big choice and the americans want to see big changes and i'm going to bring it to this country. >> as for the president he's off the campaign trail today. instead he's sitting down for ten interviews including with "news nation" regular that aired only minutes ago. >> governor romney's economic policies are reverting back to the same policies that i inherited that led us to the slowest job growth in 50 years, record deficits, and the worst economic crisis since the great depression. >> also today brand new polling in two important states out in the wild west. our nbc news "wall street journal" m.arist poll has the president holding on to his lead

in nevada. that same poll putting governor romney and the president in a dead even race in colorado. national daily tracking polls from "the washington post" and abc news gives romney a three-point advantage. let's bring in our panel. zachary, you were here with me, we were watching governor romney's speech. what was the major part of this speech that he revealed today? >> i'm at a loss to figure out what the major part was. it was any different than the talking points at the debates. he rehashed those. he talked about slinging bureaucracy, energy independence, ending the war on coal, closing the skills gap and liking business. all of that is part of the campaign. these are the talking points. it's 11 days. be a lot to expect a specific or brand new policy to be unveiled.

but there's a big gap between how this was promoted as a major economic address, and the fact that really it was just another grab bag campaign and he spent far more time attacking the legacy of the past four years and attacking obama than he did offer any particular vision of what would to be done specifically. >> republicans criticized the president when he handed out his plan and said it was the same thing. the president said he outlined what he sees is the vision of the future for this country at the dnc. i'll bring it back to what we saw today. real change, real recovery the headline of the speech from governor romney. can you tell me what the real change or major part of the speech was today? >> well, i think the speech honed in on those things that are the failed policies of president obama. the american public is tired of a stagnant economy. we need someone in the white house who can work with the private sector, work with both parties in congress to craft a set of policies that will spur

the private-sector, will lead to 4% growth year after year that will lead to 12 million jobs. the reality is the results for president obama are not there. we have 1.3% growth which is not where we need. we have one in six americans living in poverty. we have a growth in the number of folks receiving food stamps. the policies have not worked and it's time for something different. >> did you see the gdp numbers that came out today? >> we did. and i know that there's quite a bit of government spending taking place at the federal level but the reality is there's still billions of dollars sitting on the sidelines. private sector has not inreceived in the future. >> let me explain to our audience the gdp expanded at 2% annual rate. that's above the 1.9 estimate. governor romney was not impressed with that number but zachary that is more than any other industrialized country. >> right. it may not be more than china

but anywhere in western europe and most of the countries of the western hemisphere. this has been a very challenging global economic environment. you're hard pressed to lay that at the president's door. if romney was president i would say the same thing. the president has a lot of power but controlling the wealth of the global system is beyond what the president is capable of doing and we're living in a little bit of a fantasy land when we act like everything that's gone on economically in the united states in the past four wears is a product of administration policies which will change if that administration gets change. >> part of what governor romney had to say regarding gdp, slow economic growth means slow job growth and declining take home pay. this is what four years of president obama's policy has produced. americans are ready for change. what do you make of that? mitt romney says he's the agent of change. the president says the policies that are being outlined by republicans not change it's just bush. >> yeah.

i think governor romney's political strategy is failing. it's failing in the key states that he has to win and here's why. for the first time really in years americans perception of is this year better than last year has gone up. and mitt romney wants to paint a picture of gloom and doom like you heard my republican colleague try to paint and the problem is you have governor kasich, republican governor in ohio saying ohio is back, ohio has recovered. at the same time ohio voters are hearing that message they are hearing mitt romney say gloom and doom. look, the auto bailout, all the policies that the president put in place to bring the economy back all those things have underscored this general perception especially in places like ohio, wisconsin, iowa where the unemployment rate is lower than the national average and economic recovery is tied directly to some of these policies the president put in place. the romney message isn't resonating. he's on the wrong message. he's hoping for gloom and doom. the rest of us are betting for a

strong u.s. economy. we're seeing that going in the right direction. governor romney's strategy is failing. >> how can you say that when the polls show governor romney is leading. >> i'm looking at ohio. where the president is expanding his lead. i'm looking at wisconsin where mitt romney, his running mate is from wisconsin the guy has never led in wisconsin not once. so if you look at the key states, national polls mean nothing to me. nothing. look at the key states you'll see why mitt romney's strategy of economic gloom and doom is failing. >> ann, oil bring you in -- >> there's republican policies in place in virginia and wisconsin and ohio. >> absolutely. they are all republican governors who are out there saying look at our state. we're doing pretty well. >> let me get in here, danny there has been a conflict on how the republicans will handle those key states that have an unemployment rate that's below the national average trying to

give the credit to the republican governor by skirt ago round the president and that's not been successful. you mentioned polls. we know this is about math. we know the lucky number. when you look at colorado and nevada, for example, right now they are neck an neck as we pointed out in our new poll. in nevada the president is holding on to the lead. governor romney needs ohio. he has boots on the ground and he's been on the ground. why do you believe he's not been able to break the fever of being the underdog, if you will, in ohio despite the fact that he's banking heavily on white middle class working class men where he leads in a number of places but not in ohio. why aren't they buying his mess saks danny? >> i still think we have several days left in this campaign. i still think it comes down to voter turnout come november 6th and i think at the end of the day when people have an opportunity to make a decision to actually go into the voting booth and decide on what future they want for their state and country it will come down to

someone who understands how to motivate and stimulate and move the private sector in the direction of creating jobs. that's what we'll hopefully see. i agree it will come down to ohio, ohio, ohio. >> i'm curious how much it will come down to ohio. will it come down to people going in to vote and think president obama says that he certainly subscribes to the plan of this country that was laid out by bill clinton. that gave us better years. governor romney even today did not make a distinction between what he would like to put in place and what we saw in the bush years when we saw what was referred to as the worst economic downturn since the great depression. will it boil down to who these two men's economic plans mirror? >> possibly. although i don't know that people will necessarily correlate them just with their parties. one of the reasons you hear governor romney talk about change is he's banking on people not necessarily associating him with bush. it's not as he and former

president bush have been campaigning arm in arm and are friends. of course they share many advisers. what he's saying the last four years haven't worked. forget the party i.d., it's not working. you can see it with your own eyes. as your guests have been discussing that may not work in places where the unemployment rate is not as low or excuse me as high as in the rest of the country. nonetheless why you hear him say the word change for people don't like the way they feel and want to try something else. >> in the latest polling people are more optimistic about their future. the president doesn't get credit for that in the polls meaning when you see the optimism number and who is leading the economy in the right direction he doesn't get credit for. this optimism has to be coming from somewhere to yes president bush is not campaigning alongside governor romney but who is campaigning alongside president obama is bill clinton in several states. >> sure. absolutely.

i think it's a valid question to ask whether people who live in states that have republican governors might give credit there instead of the president. the administration always says the president can control the economic single-handedly. there may be people who believe that's true. people make decisions on all kind of things. it may not gone as quickly as they wanted. >> why do you think in ohio the president is still leading? when you look at the demographics of that state what should be a favoring climate or favorable climate minus the auto bailout industry or auto bailout for the car industry why hasn't mitt romney been able to pass the president in the numbers so far in ohio. >> that's a bigamy news. >> i think so. but republicans have tried to diminish it. >> sure. but i think that is obviously a place where it's a state where some of the president's policies can be pointsed to. it's a mist reand something both

campaigns have been asking themselves the attempt to reconciliation it a the numbers with national numbers. it remains a mystery. that's why everybody is looking ahead to election day. it's the real head scratcher at this moment. >> we'll talk about that later. i want to bring in another number today zachary that folks are talking about the national association of manufacturers looked at the fiscal cliff that we're hovering over and according to them a million jobs in jeopardy this year. based on the fact that businesses are worried about what is coming here. >> clearly there's a lot of wait and see attitude on the part of the private-sector based ones what happens not just on november 6th but two month lame duck period because they are concerned the whole tax structure will change come january 1st. it looks to be a decent but not great recovery. i think the larger point that's

somewhat troubling but here in the haiku of this. government is in trouble. or there's a degree of misguidance and believing this government is the panacea. a lot of our problems are decades in the making. >> and manufacturing what our future is. >> that goes out the window. suddenly it's one person in the white house who will change 30 years of trajectory. >> we see that argument with gas price as if the president can change the price of gas. i have to transition to john sununu and colin powell. we can talk about numbers all day long but this is another buzz story. let me play what mr. sununu said on cnn. >> when you take a look at colin powell you have to wonder whether that's an endorsement based on issues or whether he's got a slightly different reason

for preferring president obama. >> what reason would that be? >> well, i think when you have somebody of your own race that you're proud of being president of the united states, i applaud colin for standing with him. >> may it be the mourdock comment at the beginning of the week regarding rape or john sununu with this line here. he said colin powell is a friend and believes he based his decision on policies. but that's not what he said initially. what do you make of members of your party? we're talking about mr. sununu and his comment that colin powell was backing president obama because he's black. >> the reality is individuals make comments on both sides that both candidates don't agree with both campaigns. >> he's a surrogate not an individual. >> colin powell is a great american. he's made his individual

decisions on his who criteria. i don't attribute that to anything other than his own personal views and feelings. at the end. day it's about the thrust and focus and message of the two campaigns and that's what the voters have to come down to. >> let me just say john sununu was channels his inner rush limbaugh. if you recall back in '08 rush limbaugh said the only reason general powell, secretary powell is endorsing barack obama is because they are both african-americans. the demographics of this country are trending against the republicans and the republicans are exacerbating that. so i just think -- i think actually john sununu did us a favor. he showed us exactly the mentality of divide and conquer that seems to be going on in the republican party. this is the same republican party that for the first time in

100 years is pushing back for the rolling back of voting reits like in states of pennsylvania and virginia. it's awful. john sununu did us a favor by putting a face to that and putting it in words. >> go ahead. >> democrats have no room to talk about the twid and conquer because they are the ones dividing this nation along socio-economic lines. this nation celebrated hard work. this is a time to laud folks pulling themselves up by the boot straps and creating successful lives. >> that would be nice, danny but i have to ask you. if that's the case and you believe democrats are divided why then is the president leading with latino voters by incredible number around 60%. >> well because frankly my party has done an awful job in the last six or seven years. >> in way of division or how do you describe that? >> in terms of talking about some of the issues that we as latinos care about. governor romney has made it very

clear he'll work with congress and both parties and he's demonstrated the ability to work across party lines to reach solutions. >> thank you so much. danny, ann, david, zachary. we have breaking news. maryland and virginia declare states of emergency ahead of hurricane sandy. bill karins says we're about to witness a storm evolution that has never been seen before. we have your intelligent new ur. and we have new information about voter intimidation in florida. i'll talk to the reverend al sharpton. he's on his way to florida for a massive get out the vote. join the conversation on twitter. since it's friday let's have a little house music. why not. ♪

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. we have some breaking news to report to you regarding hurricane sandy. the 2:00 advisory from the national hurricane center has just come out and the entire east coast remains in the storm's track. take a look at the latest on this storm track. the storm is near the bahamas. obviously that is where the forecasters believe it is heading in the direction. maryland, virginia have all declared states of emergency and we're just learning the first evacuation orders have been issued for new jersey. let me bring in weather channel meteorologist mike seidel who joins me now from palm beach, florida. mike this storm has turned deadly. we see what's happening behind

you, 20 plus deaths already reported in the caribbean. this storm we just mentioned evacuation order issued in parts of new jersey. >> that doesn't surprise me. here on the beaches in florida we just got brushed by. i'm walking up the beach to give you and idea visually how much beach we lost. this wind is still whipping. five to six feet of beach. worst here. no power outages here so far. maybe a few. some rain still left in the system but a sunny, dry winnie weekend in florida. let's go to the loop. the storm has weakened somewhat. minimal hurricane, category 1. sandy with winds 75 miles per hour moving north at about seven to eight miles per hour. here's the track. here's what you need to worry about. northeast, mid-atlantic about 50 million people we counted up at the weather channel in the zone where you could have power outages. this will be a giant windstorm inland. we just got the new european model in it takes the center into delaware on tuesday

morning. the american model takes to it cape cod and whips it back across long island and new york city on tuesday. tuesday night near the poconos and brings it back to new york, the center of the storm on wednesday morning. now this determines where the worst beach impacts are. north and center you'll have the onshore flow. serious beach erosion. potential for coastal damage. whole lit any of issues. we don't know exactly where the storm hurricane will come in. we've never been in this territory. never seen anything like this before from this direction and certainly this time the year. but inland, make sure you're ready for power loss for at least a few days if not lodger. back to you. >> we'll check with you over the next several days. the storm has forced the romney campaign to cancel a rally in virginia beach that was supposed to take place on sunday. here's where the campaigns plan to move along tomorrow. president obama will be in new hampshire. governor romney has three tops planned in the state of florida. congressman ryan is set to make

five stops in ohio while vice president biden plays defense in virginia, the state is leaning towards governor romney. let me bring you former pennsylvania governor ed rendell. the guru, i'll call you that. thank you for joining us. you're in virginia beach right now. what is happening on the ground there? why are we seeing the polls right now in favor of governor romney, do you think? >> i think governor romney has had momentum ever since the first debate and interestingly the second debate where i think president obama was the clear winner and the third debate where i think again he was the clear winner, they slowed down that momentum but didn't reverse it. this is a tight election. i don't think virginia is lost for the democrats. i think what will happen in the next ten days will factor into what the turnout is. when the election is this close in terms of preference it's

always who turns out the most who decides who wins. it's not over in virginia by any means. >> you were on a couple of weeks ago and you talked about the closing deal and that the president should put on an ad, look in the camera and outline what he has done and his vision for the future. i'm not kidding days later, i don't know if he was listening to you but we see this ad in heavy rotation. it's playing here in the new york television market where the president literally education u-see at the bottom of the screen, all of these points that you felt at the time he needed to bring home in his closing argument. >> i think it is a great ad because first of all what the president didn't show in that first debate was pride in what he's accomplished. i know things aren't perfect in the country or anywhere close to perfect but i think you can make a strong case important the fact that the president in some ways saved the country from economic peril. i think he should be proud of what he did. he should be proud of the fact that finally the united states will join every other deefld

nation in the world in offering to its citizens. those are some strong accomplishments. he made college more affordable for our young people. important accomplishments. he should be prideful about them and enthusiastic about them. the american people need to hear it. it's great to hear it from morgan freeman but more important for the president of the united states to look straight in the camera and say look i know everything is not perfect but here's what we've done and here's where we want to go and i think he's doing a great job in doing that and i think that can affect the 1% or 2% that's undecided but can affect turnout and that's what i'm keying in right now. >> governor romney started to refer to himself as the change candidates and gave a speech a short time ago in ames,way. part of his speech says there is nothing in the president's plan to grow jobs or ignite economy. his tax plan has been calculated

to destroy 700,000 jobs. and he goes on to talk about a new stimulus three years after the recession firm lui ended may spare government but won't stimulate the private sector. that's part of what governor romney says the president is offering up and now he says he can offer real change. your response to that. >> well two responses. what governor romney is offering is return to policies of president bush which was disastrous for the country. you can't just cut taxes on the rich, cut taxes on people and say that that's going to promote growth. it hasn't happened in the last 60 years. it hasn't happened in the last 60 years. let's be clear about that. trickle down does not work. secondly what president obama is offering are concrete proposals that will work. let's take infrastructure. we know tamron for $1 billion invested in infrastructure it produces 20,000 well paying jobs that can't be outsourced. the president wants to spend

another $100 billion above and beyond what we're spending now on infrastructure. that would produce over 2 million well paying jobs right now. those are concrete proposals and the president has laid out some concrete proposals that will work including getting rid of the debt and the president is very clear that's a mission he plans to undertake. it's the right thing for the country. it will take sacrifices. the president has outlined a good plan. i think his campaign is now functioning on all fours and it's up to us all of the people who believe in the president get out there and support him. >> thank you so much for your time. one scenario that could come into play on election night is a split between the winner over the national popular vote and the electoral college vote. it's happened by the way four times in our nation's history. i'll talk with political geeks who say it's time to reform the

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yeah. then how'd i get this... [ voice of dennis ] ...safe driving bonus check? every six months without an accident, allstate sends a check. ok. [ voice of dennis ] silence. are you in good hands? welcome back. take a look at your screen what we have up real clear politics average of national polls with 11 days to go. the race for president very close as you have heard and know by now governor romney in the average polls one-point advantage at this time in 2008 the president was ahead by more than seven points. next week is the last full week of campaigning for the candidates before the big day. we'll talk about what's ahead plus the week that was in our political post script. boy this week has gone by quickly. plus the rev, reverend al will join us live on his way to

florida where there's a big voter intimidation investigation going on right now. we'll have michael isikoff's investigative report. but first today, nate silver of the "new york times" 538 blog forecast on november 6th, president obama has a 73% chance of winning reelection and president obama will win 294 electoral votes and mitt romney 244.

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i am probably going to the gas station about once a month. last time i was at a gas station was about...i would say... two months ago. i very rarely put gas in my chevy volt. i go to the gas station such a small amount that i forget how to put gas in my car. [ male announcer ] and it's not just these owners giving the volt high praise. volt received the j.d. power and associates appeal award two years in a row. ♪ 11 days, but the fbi is investigating alleged vote are fraud and intimidation in key states. meantime watchdog groups are worried about what they call a surge of quote dirty tricks. nbc news national investigative correspondent michael isikoff has details. >> reporter: the official looking letters are showing up across florida, challenging voters citizenship and their right to vote. those getting them are outraged.

>> i went ballistic when i read it. >> they questioned my citizenship and were implying they were going to eliminate me from being able to vote. >> reporter: the fake letters which threaten nonregistered florida voters with arrests and imprisonment were post marked in seattle. the fbi is trying to track down the perpetrators. florida officials are alarmed. >> this is an attempt to intimidate voters in one of the most important states in the united states in a national election. >> reporter: members of both parties and independents have received the phoney letters although a majority have seem to have gone to republicans even 2001 the state gop chairman. watchdog groups say it's one of many dirty tricks popping up aimed at voter suppression. >> we've seen earlier in the election cycle than previous years these underhanded tactics by shadowy groups to restrict the ability of responsible

americans to vote. >> reporter: the dirty tricks include billboards in minority neighborhoods warning that vote fraud is a felony. put up by an unnamed private family foundation they are now coming down after a public outcry. in arizona some hispanic voters received official notice, listing the election as november 8th, two days after election day. just this week a conservative activist group caught the son of virginia democratic congressman jim moran in an undercover video sting seeming to go along with a plan to cast fraudulent ballots. >> utility bills, so you have that. >> his son said he was trying to humor the person that approached him but quit the campaign and local police are investigating. meanwhile virginia attorney general ken cuccinelli is investigating a republican operative arrested for throwing voter registration forms in a

dumpster. operative colin small who couldn't be reached for comment had previously work for strategic allied consulting, a consulting firm fired by the republican national committee last month after employees turned in hundreds of suspicious registration forms in florida, including some with fake addresses like a shell gas station. at the time the head of the firm told nbc news he was the victim of a few bad apples that work for him. >> that was michael isikoff. in florida early voting begins tomorrow and so will a massive initiative to encourage people to vote early. reverend al sharpton will take part in the big showdown in florida. thank you for joining us. >> thank you. >> first let me get your reaction to that isikoff investigative piece at least one official said we're seeing more so-called dirty tricks this election cycle than they've seen

before. >> i think that it is clearly a pattern of diry tricks, of intimidation, of suppression. those states that went with the voter i.d. laws, ending early voting, now tricks of sending mail and whether the victims, tamron, are democrat or republican they are wrong. i think that clearly when we see people's right to vote and exercising of their vote being tampered with, this is something that everyone should be outraged about. so, one of the thing that we're doing in florida, bishop curry who has a major church there in miami-dade and other organizations, 150 ministers have started what they call operation lemonade. we were given lemon sunday the day you can march your parishioners.

they gave us a lemon and turning it to lemonade. we want people to come out and vote early because bishop curry said even though it's a lemon, make it lemonade. no method of suppression should stop us from voting in big numbers. new make the wonderful point that everyone should be concerned about this issue. this is not about party it's about getting people out to vote. and that is their right. you know it's interesting, you're going to florida, west palm beach. they already have some problems. 20,000 absentee ballots were not read by the tabulation machines. the problem has been remedied. here we go again. that's part of why you have suspicions from folks on both sides but especially from people who are democrats after what we've seen in different states where it seemed more minorities, more blacks, latinos targeted by some of these voter i.d. laws. >> no doubt about it as well as

the signs that isikoff piece showed, the billboards. the best thing could happen is if republicans came out and joined bishop curry and all of us over the weekend and showed a nonpartisan effort. clearly those of us that come out of the civil rights generation and saw people black and white suffered, died to get us the right to vote we won't take this lightly and they will have to do more than change some dates to stop us from bringing out big numbers vote. we don't tell people tomorrow or sunday or through the week who to vote for. people know some of us have taken a position. whoever they must vote for they must vote. not vote to they co-sign the ticket of taking away our voting reits and that's the priority of operation lemonade that bishop curry and others are doing. >> everything kicks off at 7:00 a.m. tomorrow in miami. we'll watch your show tonight 6:00 eastern time. thank you reverend al.

see you soon. up next our "news nation" political post script with one more full week left to campaign, we'll take a look at the candidates' plan as we slide into that homestretch. you can prevent gas with beano meltaways, or treat gas with these after you get it. now that's like sunblock before or sun burn cream later. oh, somebody out there's saying, now i get it! take beano before and there'll be no gas.

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♪ change my life again ♪ ♪ fly by night, goodbye my dear ♪ ♪ my ship isn't coming ♪ and i just can't pretend oww! ♪ [ male announcer ] careful, you're no longer invisible in a midsize sedan. the volkswagen passat. winner of a motor trend midsize sedan comparison. that's the power of german engineering. we are back with "news nation" political post script for this friday. president obama had the busiest dave his re-election this week but not before coming face to face with governor romney for the last time before election day. >> i congratulate him on taking out osama bin laden, drones are being used in drone strikes and i support that entirely and feel the president was right. i want to underscore the same point the president made i felt the same as the president did, i support his action there. absolutely the right thing to do to have crippling sanctions.

>> i think romney is leaning obama. >> did you get a chance to watch the debates? they have super charged our campaign, i've got to tell you that. >> ohio, you know me. you know i mean what i say. you know that i do what i say i'm going to do. >> i voted for him in 2008 and i plan to stick with him in 2012 and i'll be voting for he had and vice president joe biden next month. >> i think even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape that it is something that god intended to happen. >> and let me bring in nbc news deputy political editor. yet again it seems the week went so fast but in other ways time is ticking slowly. we had a writer on yesterday that said we should stop seeing

the last 11 days as a sprint, it's still a marathon. do you buy that? >> it may be 11 days wide but it feels 24, 25 hours deep if it's possible. because just so many things happen. that debate it's hard to believe it was monday. it feels so long ago at this point. so it was quite the week once again and i mean with 11 days to go you know these guys and even next week they are going be all over the country. if you had one of those graphics of where the planes were flying and crossing over each other they are every where next week carpeting every place you can possibly go, florida, ohio, virginia, wisconsin, iowa, wherever they will thereabout. >> we know it's about the ground game but let me break it down with you in the last final full week what's the obama strategy other than to get on the ground? >> they need to fire up their voters. that is the key for them right now in a lot of places you're

seeing and it's in the weed but when you look at registered voter models and likely registered to models obama leads and likely voters still nidal hasan the enthusiasm for republicans they have the edge. the president trying to get people to the polls, using early voting to get them out there and get going and maybe even try to get back some of those suburban women they may have lost after that first debate. >> the romney strategy this speech called a major economic speech. no major different news in it. nonetheless beginning the homestretch here. >> he think he's gotten a fresh look from a lot of people after that first debate and now feels look he may have said a lot of these things before in his economic speech but if some of those women are listening to his economic message now thinking he's not as scary as the obama campaign made him out to be he'll repackage those same economic points. >> okay, we'll see what happens. a lot to watch over the weekend and then monday.

thanks. our "news nation" gut check is up next. i'll talk with political geex who says the electoral college should be reformed so that every vote counts. we talked about this before. check out our ne"news nation" tumbler page. we were at harlem hospital yesterday talking to a great group of men and women. thanks, kids. lemona

time now for the "news nation" gut check. the politics page on our msnbc page website. what can happen after election day including a 269 tie in the electoral college. but my next guest talks about reforming the electoral college system so every vote counts.

the managing editor of political geek.com and he's author of "the political bible." every four years you have people, now you got twitter and more folks are on facebook these days. really ranting about wanting to change the system and how these things can turn into a disaster. i can't tell you how many people are fearing the worst case scenario come election day and we'll be in a never ending story. >> absolutely. and just like 2000 it's happened three other times in our history and there's a plan, it's the brain child of professor john karsa computer scientist in california. the plan is basically it's an interstate compact and once enough states adopt it they would agree to award their electoral votes to the person who wins the national popular vote. eight states and district of columbia constitute 132 electoral votes.

under this plan a vote in marblehead, massachusetts would be equal to the one in marblehead, ohio. >> what is your best case that for every vote counting equally here. other than the obvious. >> yep. the practical application to this is that voters will -- presidential candidates will have no more reason to cater to a voter in ohio, to florida, virginia as opposed to people basically in any other state. currently, for example, george w. bush imposed steel tariffs to benefit in a sense people in ohio and pennsylvania. then you have other issues for example the fate of the fishing industry in terms of over regulation you never hear about that because it's disproportionately in states like massachusetts that don't matter. the other thing you too have is a state like california or texas, you have these huge states with candidates go and use them as atm machines,

fundraise and leave without meeting the rank-and-file voters. >> absolutely. i'm from the state of texas and we live in new york and there's been, you know, some evidence that people get discouraged and don't feel their vote counts and they don't turn out to vote in states like texas that's solid red. >> in last election if you voted for barack obama in texas your vote does not count. on the official tally all it says is the electoral votes went to john mccain just like in california, if you had voted for john mccain it does not count even though millions of voters did. >> we love having you on. i'm sure we'll see you in the next few days because after today it's down to ten. >> look forward to it. >> what does your gut tell you how should the presidency be decided, by electoral college or popular vote? go to facebook.com/newsnation. so let me in this party. thank you so much for joining us all week long on this edition of

"news nation." bye-b bye-bye. "the cycle" is up next. that doesn't mean you don't have to work tomorrow. good times. never taking a bailout. there when you need them. helping millions of americans over the centuries. the strength of a global financial leader. the heart of a one-to-one relationship. together for your future. ♪

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