you're looking live at democracy plaza, our election heem here at our world headquarters at 30 rock in new york city. hi, everybody. great to have you with me and topping our agenda this hour, t closing time. months of ceaseless campaigning and billions spent and we're down to the final 24 hours in the candidates' closing arguments. we are watching live pictures coming to us from madison, wisconsin, where the president will kick off his last day on the trail. it is the state he won last time, but one that could be in play this year with paul ryan on the gop ticket. the way the president and mitt romney will spend their final days speaks volumes about where the two need to produce wins. president obama, three stops, three states. the president will travel to ohio and end with a rally in iowa. the very state where his bid for the oval office began all those

years o years ago. mitt romney, five stop, five states. he began in florida, follow stops in virginia, the president following the president in ohio. then his final day in his home away from home, new hampshire. this morning though in florida, governor romney -- capable of bringing about change. >> it comes down to this. do the people want four more years like the last four years? or do you want real change finally? >> president obama all weekend on the campaign trail telling supporters that they know him. and he's the one, the only one, that they can trust. >> you may not agree with every decision i've made, michelle doesn't agree with me on everything. you may sometimes be frustrated at the pace of change. i get frustrated at the pace of

change sometime, but you know, i say what i mean and i mean what i say. >> both candidates appearing before enormous crowds with enormous stakes. three new polls show the race even steven in the final stretch. >> let's just pause for a moment and appreciate you close this race is. >> the president is stubbornly holding on. he's clinging to -- a two-point lead in every swing state. >> governor romney in terms of where he needs to be. >> joining me now is ed schultz. great to have you with me this morning. let's dig in because i think a lot of people will look at these new national polls and be confused by the numbers. the president has a slight edge because by means not decisive enl. after the this first debate

though, and we look at the numbers and the polls that came out then, what does it tell you we are right now? >> the president had a deficit in the polls after the first debate, but he's mopped that up and he's been on a role ever since. the polls are close right now. no question about it. you can find any poll to fit your fancy, but i believe it's going to come down to this. to the social media, people being motivated, connected. people in communities knowing they want the leadership. >> we have talked about that. you were making an emotional decision. what does this election really mean to me and in the state of ohio, that's what it's going to come down to. it could be a real fi areas ko,

but it's going to be the ten nasty. once you get people there, they're going to want to be there and want to stay there. >> romney has momentum and enthusiasm. last night, even having a fireworks display there in virginia. first read says it's going to be about the turnout and racial co composition. the ground game in this, the democrats have always talked about the strong ground game they have. almost microsurgical ground game. is it all about ohio? >> well, ohio obviously plays a huge part in this whole election. and there's absolutely no question that turnout is going to be big in all of these swing states. but i don't buy into this romney has got all this enthusiasm and the ground game to get it done. it's all about demographics and policy for mitt romney. he has gone after workers. he's gone after women. his outsourcing is well documented. i think workers understand what they're going to get if they end

up with this guy as president and i think all of that plays into the narrative that the president has been very consistent. you can trust me. he's got a record of sticking behind workers with the automobile loan and the way the automobile industry turned around. that has been a big factor in ohio, so it all comes down to getting wrour people there and making it happen. i think these are two very well defineded candidates. you've got romney, who's undefineded and president obama who has been consistent, who hasn't had to take anything back from the campaign trial. >> then why is it such an uphill battle in his numbers aren't more definitively, if you look at these new battleground poll in the last 24 hours, important states. we've got the des moines register putting the president five points up in iowa, just outside the margin of error, then back to ohio, this huge battleground state where the columbus dispatch puts the president just two points ahead.

so, as you talk about the fact that the obama campaign has done a good job of trying to disqualify mitt romney as a candidate, the american people see him as a viable choice. >> this is a very close election. you can compare it to 2004, no doubt about it, but there is a real force that has been out there for four years against the president. there's been a narrative in the tea party real m, that the economy isn't good. there's a lot of information voters out there, a lot of head shakers that aren't convinced. the dislike of the president is the best thing he's got going for him. the president did win 66 of the vote four years ago. wisconsin has become -- the gop than they expected.

>> ryan has failed to deliver positive polling in wisconsin since he's been on the ticket. mitt romney, his campaign has not had any momentum in wisconsin to the point where they had ab ahead in any of the polls. said they were going to vote r for president obama, i don't see the romney campaign winning wisconsin. i really don't. the president's going to be in madison, going to be 40, 50,000 people there. it's a state that's been politically wash eed pretty har. i think it plays well for the president. the middle class narrative and the whole theme of the middle class plays well in wisconsin. >> do you think real quickly, if the romney ticket had featured rob portman they would have a better chance of taking ho how?

>> the fact we're even having a conversation who would have been a better pick does not bode well for the romney camp. i want to go back to ohio for one thing quickly. in cuyahoga county, they are 12,000 votes short of this mark in 2008. the get out to vote effort has got to be overwhelming today. overwhelming tomorrow for the democrats to win in ohio because the early voting is not what it was in 2008. and they missed four weekends. this voter suppression thing is a real deal. that's only one county. it's also going to be interesting to watch if there's any votering problems in hamilton county versus cuyahoga. >> great to have you. and you can catch ed weeknights on his show, 8:00. we're rounding third. heading into home. bases are loaded. ed's going to be part of our election night lineup r tomorrow with coverage beginning at 6:00

p.m. keystone state is also key to the president's re-election, but mitt romney is not giving up on pennsylvania just yet. the power panel joins me to weigh in on his 11th hour pitch. plus, turnout is the big word for this election, but what we're learning based on early voting out there, that it's happening, but do you think the polls are really this tight or could one of these candidates produce a landslide victory? let me know what you think. so anyway, i've been to a lot of places. you know, i've helped a lot of people save a lot of money. but today...( sfx: loud noise of large metal object hitting the ground) things have been a little strange.

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a judge extended early voting hours on sunday after democrats sued to allow for more time. at least 4 million people had already cast ballots ahead of the last day yesterday in florida. now, the number of days for early voting was cut in half in that state this year. 29 million people have voted in 34 states and washington, d.c. we're right here on democracy plaza and the location home for nbc and msnbc here at our world headquarters at 30 rock here in new york city. it's a fantastic spot and we have a mega power panel. joy ann reed and bob shrum, larry sabato, karen finney and

republican strategist, john bray. gang, it is great to have you assembled. avengers unite. we're seeing the judge extendingextending early voting. >> the strategy of the republican state legislature in florida was to not allow 2008 to happen again. so they cut early voting from 14 days county to including cutting away the whole sunday. so, what democrats did and what churches did is they rally ied people to really take advantage of early voting, which is producing these incredibly long lines. i've heard up to six and eight-hour eight times and a lot of them are in predominantly african-american communities. what that's meant is there there is overcapacity. that literally, these polling

places are being overrun with people and they can't handle it. democrats went to federal court and ask that another voting day be added and in between them getting a ruling, the miami-dade supervisor of elections said we will open for sunday, but only for absentee balloting, but you can request an absentee ballot on the spot and vote right there. which is the same thing. four counties followed suit in key places like hillsboro county. so now, you have five counties out of 67 in florida where people essentially got more early voting time. >> but does this set up a legal situation for after the election? >> it does. when miami-dade reopened early voting on sunday, they only opened it in one office. their main office. in dor rall. a community close to about five republican strongholds and up to 0 30 miles away for a lot of african-american voters who cannot get there if they do not

have a car. so one of the democratic campaigns running against david river rivera, people are talking about calling attorneys. it was chaotic because so many showed up, they actually closed early. it set up a real nightmare and i think you could wind up with a court challenge if people feel they were denied the right to vote. >> the president is one point ahead according to our last nbc wall street poll. it looks a lot, a reminder for everybody of '04 where president bush, the incumbent, was ahead. we've got john kerry from massachusetts, kind of the reverse now. you still feel pretty confident. >> i don't think we've seen a tightening. i think we've seen the national polls moving toward alignment with the swing state polls which

show the president doing very well. if you go down most of the swing states, there's almost, there are very new north carolinas, few of those swing states where there are representable polls showing romney ahead. if you look at the poll greenberg did and i can tell you from my experience with stan, he gives you bad news when there's bad news and that poll shows the president with a four-point lead. i think if you look at ohio, it's almost impossible to find anything but a republican sponsored poll that's ever said the president's been ahead. 17,000 interviews over the last ten days in ohio. the president's lead is outside the margin of error, we're going to find out tomorrow and we can stop arguing about it. hopefully, we won't spend weeks in court. i remember 2000 well and 2004. >> as we talk about the racial make-up, victoria, of what the

election is going to roll out to be, white voter turnout, 72% estimated in the 2012, or excuse me, white voter turnout, as opposed to the 74% in '08. is the latino make-up in this and the obama campaign going after them, is that going to extend the bleeding? >> and we've been hearing a lot of talk about the latino fire wall and if the poll numbers we've been seeing, we're going to see that latinos are going to hold florida, virginia, nevada and colorado. what we are seeing is very high support for the president. so what we are seeing is about 74% of latinos saying they are either certain to or very likely to vote for the president and the worst case scenario, 64% of latinos are saying they are certain to vote for the president. is so with that, you are going to secure those states and don't

forget, there is still a smattering of latinos in north carolina, wisconsin and iowa. 3%, 4%, but when it is so close, that 3% of mobilized latino turnout is going to make the difference. >> on, let's talk about pennsylvania because when we bring up close, pennsylvania right now, 47 to 47 in a state that normally, the president would have a comfortable lead in. stephanie cutter said on "morning joe" today that it's not realistic that governor romney should make a play for pennsylvania or even think about winning pennsylvania. what's your reaction to that? >> i'm glad they're giving governor romney advice because if he follows the advice, it will be the wrong advice. pennsylvania is in play. we've seen enthusiasm that we haven't. i'm laughing at all these polls. only three of those was he leading going to election days. you've got to lock at the

sample. i think this is looking a lot better for romney. >> karen, i want to talk about this national poll showing the response to the president's reaction. his approval rating, chris christie came out, we saw the two of them start developing their bromance. >> absolutely not. barack obama and the ground game and the people who have been standing in line deserve the credit. this is a red herring the gop is using to try to blame the fact they had a bad candidate all along who did not run a good campaign. if the president is victorious tomorrow. chris christie did the right thing. his state was in trauma. he accepted the help of the federal government. that's what the federal government is withere for. the president did his job and did it well. at this point in the election, if that were really the reason

the president was going to win, that would be a much larger problem i think for both republicans and democrats. i want to say one thing about these national polls and disparity. remember a lot of these polls are not including those early vote totals. those early voters are sporadic voters. they're not necessarily people who are the likely voters on election day, so they're not -- if you combine the two, that's why the president's lead is so strong. >> i want to talk to you about your home state of virginia. it shows that the president has split the script. this morning on "morning joe", joe scarborough said he would be more encouraged to see virginia much stronger for mitt romney and that this could be a precursor to something. you project the president is going to win a second term with 290. where is virginia going to go and do you still stand by that 290 number? zpl well, i have to stand by it. it was published. so i'll stand by it until it's proven wrong. look, i would say, thomas, that

virginia last night when we made the final calls, we added together all the poll, all the private polls, virginia was the closest of the 50 states. it was a dead tie, so we employed the scientific method. we flipped a coin and tit was a republican red coin and went to romney. if he did win virginia, he would get 302 electoral vote, which is a lucky number for democrats. truman got 303 in 1948 and kennedy got 303 in 1960. >> does this remind you of '04? >> the difference, you had a huge intervening event, which was the osama bin laden tape, where he was telling people to throw out george bush. i think the race was moving toward us up until that moment. then it became a race toward

terrorism. anybody can find a way to prove anything they want. the pennsylvania poll is 47-47. that's take p by a republican polling firm for a right wing newspaper. the average in pennsylvania is is about four or five points. >> thanks to my megapanel. victoria, bob, joy-ann, larry, karen and john. much of the east coast still cleaning up. there's still more than a million without power. and what states are doing to help folks get out and vote successfully. ♪

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and more homes become uninhabitable. 1.3 million customers remain without power and new york officials say 73,000 students cannot attend school today because their schools are structurally unsound. a nor'easter coming this week threatens to hamper recovery efforts. it's expected to bring 50 mile an hour wind gusts and flooding. the death toll has risen now to 111 people. in new jersey, governor chris christie has opened up online voting for displaced as there are concerns many won't be able to get to polling stations tomorrow. ron, good morning. >> good morning, thomas. yeah, we're at the county elections office here in hudson county. there's a line of people here. the county offices have been open all weekend for people to vote and ooen if -- they're trying to do everything possible to make it possible and easy for people to vote.

as we said, you can vote online, by fax. it's a very complicated process. the bottom line, go to your polling place where you usually go. or there will be instructions about where to go next. they're also trying to set up temporary sites where they will consolidate places. schools that have been damaged, there will be makeshift centers set up with emergency generator, tents in parking lots, but they're trying to make every effort possible to give people a place to vote. so it's going to cause some confusion. some people will be voting with paper ballot, but there should be some way to exercise your right. thomas? >> thank you, ron. >> back in 2008, i spent a lot of time here in new hampshire. >> the great state of ohio, thank you so much.

>> florida, we know what change is. >> i need you, ohio. >> virginia is the best! >> turn out for me, colorado! we will win this state! >> are you dizzy yet? the campaigns are crisscrossing with stops in nine states. we're going to look at the races in ohio, iowa, wisconsin and florida. plus, tomorrow could be an historic day for marriage equality. four states vote on this issue, one of them being maryland. i'm going to talk with the state's cover coming up in a moment.

so less than 24 hours before voters head to the polls and we're going to get to our reporters in a moment, but first, a look at the battleground headlines. colorado's denver post. clerks are counting on a long

night. the paper says a close presidential race with high scrutiny raises the stakes for counties tallying the votes. can mitt win pa? it's blue state, but the governor is making an 11th hour push. his campaign counted 25,000 supporters last night, but the philly paper asks is it fools gold? and in new hampshire, dems make a final push. 14,000 supporters rallied in concord to hear the president's last pitch to new hampshire voters yesterday. governor romney will close out his campaign with a final rally in manchester tonight. now, to our reporters camped out across the four battleground states. ohio, iowa, wisconsin. we'll begin with john yang. john, good morning. >> good morning, thomas. the line for early voting here in cincinnati stretches all the way to the end of this block and beyond. it's a three-hour wait for the people at the end of that line and where they're trying to get,

it's going to take three hours to get to the front of the line, which you can barely see at the other end of this block. this is a tight, tight race. almost a million six early ballots have been cast in ohio so far. about a million three mail-in absente absentees. about a half million voted in person like these folks here in cincinnati. it's a tight race according to the nbc news "wall street journal" marrist poll. just about an hour ago, we got the final ohio poll from the university of cincinnati that shows that the president has only a 1.5 point lead. this state has been saturated with tv ads in the final days, here in cincinnati alone, 9800 tv ads since the beginning of october alone. that's an average of 338 ads a day. looked at in another way, if someone were to sit down and watch those back-to-back, it would take them three and a half

days. and now, for a look at what's going on in iowa, we go to luke russert, who's there in iowa. luke? >> thanks, john. here in iowa, the state that launched president obama's presidential ambitions four years ago is where he'll have his final campaign rally as president tonight with bruce springsteen. george bush won it by about 10,000 in 2004. al gore by about 4100 in 2000. president obama did better last time beating john mccain quite handily. recent poll shows him with a five-point lead here. 47-42. republicans are confident they can still win iowa. they say that mitt romney's message of the economy is winning here. polls do reflect that. obama though however is winning on the trust issue. the big question in iowa is that of early voting. as of today, democrats have a $65,000, 65,000 voter advantage in terms of early voting. that is very important because

in 2008, john mccain beat president obama in terms of voters who voted on election day. bush did the same thing to kerry. kerry in '04 was leading the early ballot and bush was able to win on election day with the republican voters. it's going to be a very interesting might. let's talk more about the big ten fire wall with ron mott in wisconsin. >> good morning to you. well, president obama and governor romney have gone head to head and toe to toe here in wisconsin. the president was here on friday. governor romney was here on saturday and on friday in ohio, the president said voting is the best revenge and a lot of democrats might be headed out to the polls tomorrow with revenge on their minds because what happened here five months ago. they came out on the shorthand of a bitter recall election trying to oust scott walker from office. he prevailed and so a lot of republicans are enthused about that. now of course, it's almost cliche now, it's all about turnout because of that recall

contest, both republicans and democrats built well fortified, well organized ground games here, but let's take a look at the numbers. the latest nbc news "wall street journal" poll put president obama ahead by three points. it is a much closer race than we saw four years ago when candidate obama clobbered john mccain by 14 points in this state. governor romney though has one wild card he might be counting on. that is paul ryan from wisconsin. he's got a big rally here tonight. let's head south to mark potter in tampa. >> hi, ron. florida is a huge political prize with its rich diversity and 29 electoral votes and both sides are fighting hard now to get out the vote here in this very tight race in florida. president obama was in hollywood, florida yesterday. governor romney started his day in sanford, florida. they're trying to attract the independent voters here. they are the ones who can turn

the election. they're very important here in central florida along the i-4 corridor, connecting tampa with orlando and daytona beach. so far, 4.5 million floridans have already voted. more than a third of the electorate amid very long lines and complaints from democrats that there were not enough places. a lawsuit to that was filed. democrats said they have the best ground game, but the republicans say they have the best message of economic change in a state hard hit by the downturned economy. currently are higher unemployment than the rest of the nation and record foreclosures. thomas, back to you. >> mark, thanks so much and a big thanks to all of our nbc corresponden corresponden correspondents. never before have we seen the fight for marriage equality become so prominent than the election this year. tomorrow, same-sex marriage meshes in maine, maryland, washington and minnesota and

could yield pivotal results. maryland could be the first to vote it in. joining me now live from my hometown of baltimore, martin o'malley. it's good to have you here. i want to get straight to these numbers. as we know, the support for marriage equality nationally is at 54%. americans say they approve, however, a recent poll shows the issue is is now in a dead heat for your state and as i've been doing my research, i've hearned some leaders may rally against it. is this an influence of politics? >> i don't think so. i think that sun poll is an outliou outlier. most of the polls show that we can come to the conclusion that we can protect religious freedom and rights. we can do both. that's what question six is all about. so with the exception of that baltimore sun poll, most of the others are showing marriage

equality running several points ahead. and we're hoping that tomorrow, marylanders of every faith will vote for marriage equality. >> sir, as we've seen and known for years, maryland is solidly blue for the president, but in states like north carolina where we saw a measure like this, they instituted an anti same-sex measure in north carolina. does this chip away at support that the president might have? is it costing him voters in certain places like minnesota or north carolina. >> i'm not sure about that, thomas. i can tell you here that marylanders who are supportive of president obama understand why the president would be supportive of our initiative of question six. and it is because in order to make a more economically competitive country, a more economically competitive economy, we have to build and create a more inclusive country,

society. those two things are not separate. they go together. so people here any way, who supported president obama also support and understand why his vision of a more inclusive and ever growing america is consistent with his support of civil marriage equality under the law. >> governor, you've been very out front on this issue in maryland. do you think that you are risking a lot of your own political capital and future investing yourself in marriage equality for maryland? >> no, i don't think so. i mean, look, when these issues come across your plate, you've got to step up and you've got to do what is right not just for the sake of poll numbers. you have to put yourselves in the eyes of your children and ask what sort of society you want to leave to your kids and i want to leave my kids a society that's more inclusive where every child's home is protected equally under the law and that's

what we're doing. i think that's what the people of our state are doing about it. we all have different religious perspectives, but we can all agree that every child's home should be protected. that's why we have so many clergy of many different faiths that are supportive. >> sir, thanks for your time this morning. one day to go. we're going to have much more, but first, the boss, bruce springsteen is out on the trail. when you take a closer look... ...at the best schools in the world... ...you see they all have something very interesting in common. they have teachers... ...with a deeper knowledge of their subjects. as a result, their students achieve at a higher level.

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to supporters any minute now there. bruce springsteen is performing for the crowd, but before that, jen s krk i. >> hi there. >> the three national polls that show this race within the margin of error, isn't this just a little too close for comfort for an incumbent's campaign? >> it will be close. that's why it's so important that people get out to the polls. ohio and iowa and tomorrow, all day. but we feel great because we're up or tied in every single swing state poll. we have a better ground game, candidate and deal for the middle class and we think that's going to lead us to victory tomorrow. >> one thing that's noticeable, the president there in wisconsin, a state that the president won with over 50% four years ago. is it a bad sign that you have

to spend part of the last 24 hours in a state that should easily be blue? >> oh, absolutely not. we always knew that wisconsin would be more challenging for us this year. we won by 14 points four years ago, but we have a great ground game here. we have bruce springsteen here in the background playing and we're confidence that tomorrow when the polls close, wisconsin is going to be in the column for the president. >> more than 29 million people have voted early. democrats have had a very strong ground game. do you think that that has been the advantage, the ground game and then the early voting? for battleground states? >> absolutely. ground game is the heart and soul of this operation. it always has been. president started his career as a community organizer and that's been the focus. kind of that door to door, neighbor to neighbor get your friends, your cousins out and when we win tomorrow, that's going to be the reason why.

we are ahead in early vote and almost every swing state and that gives us a great advantage going into tomorrow, but we still need everybody to get out there, to go to the polls. wait in line because this matters and the stakes are really high in this election. >> thanks for your time. >> thank you. all right, so here we are, just this day away from the moment of truth and what a long, strange tip it's been to get here. tomorrow, america votes, but still, we can't resist taking a look back at the good, the bad, the ugly sides. so break out the popcorn as we review some jaw dropping and show stopping moments of this campaign. >> corporations are people, my friend. >> my 9-9-9 plan is a bold solution. >> commerce, education and what's the third one there? let's see. >> rick, i tell you what. 10,000 bucks? >> i like being able to fire people who provide vfs v

services to me. >> i am appalled that you would begin a presidential debate with a topic like that. >> back in my days, they used bayer aspirin for contraceptives. >> excuse me, i'm just trying to catch my breath from that. >> president obama once said he wants everybody in america to go to college. what a snob. >> men marrying men and women marrying women are entitled the same rights. >> i think same-sex couples should be able to get married. >> put y'all back in chains. >> what do you want me to tell romn romney? i can't tell him to do that. can't do that to himself. >> people ask me all the time how we got four surplus budgets in a row. i always give a one-word answer. arithmetic. >> middle class has been buried the last four years. >> i'm going to stop the subsidy to pbs and i like pbs, i like

big bird. >> did you mean to call barack obama lazy? >> yes. >> back toeconomy. >> let's get back to medicare the president said the government -- >> now listen -- >> okay. >> all right. >> yeah. >> if if if. >> but but but but but. >> there are 47% of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. >> jack kennedy lowered tax growth -- >> now you're jack kennedy. >> i know you're under a lot of duress to make up for lost ground. >> brought us whole binders full of woman. have you looked at your pension? >> i don't look at my pension. it's not as big as yours. doesn't take as long. >> took the president 14 days to call the act a terrorism. >> can you say that a little louder, candy. >> you mention the navy, for

example, and we have fewer ships than in 1916. we also have fewer horses and bayonets. >> governor christie throughout this process has been responsive, had he's been aggressive. >> i cannot thank the president enough for his personal concern, and compassion for our state into i'll be a good soldier and vote for romney but i'm going to hate it. >> this is the end of daylight saving time tonight. it's mitt romney's favorite time of the year because he gets to turn the clock back. >> america is about to come roaring back. >> we've come too far to let our voices go faint. >> all right. when you ask how did we get here? that's how we got here. so as we wait for the president to speak in madison, wisconsin, we'll be right back after this. keep it locked in to msnbc's special election coverage. live from democracy plaza. president obama: there's just no quit in america...

and you're seeing that right now. over five million new jobs. exports up forty one percent. home values... rising. our auto industry... back. and our heroes are coming home. we're not there yet, but we've made real progress and the... last thing we should do is turn back now. here's my plan for the next four years: making education and training a national priority; building on our manufacturing boom; boosting american-made energy; reducing the deficits responsibly by cutting where... we can, and asking the wealthy to pay a little more. and ending the war in afghanistan, so we can... do some nation-building here at home. that's the right path. so read my plan, compare it to governor romney's... and decide which is better for you. it's an honor to be your president... and i'm asking for your vote... so together, we can keep moving america forward. i'm barack obama and i approve this message.

>> get fired up. >> badback to madison, wisconsin, where president barack obama is there at his first campaign rally of the day. let's listen in. >> i cannot imagine not being fired up after listening to bruce springsteen. i can't thank him enough for everything he's done for this campaign. he's an american treasure. he gets embarrassed when you talk about him that way. but he tells a story of what our country is and what it should be. and what it can be. i get to fly around with him on the last day that i will ever campaign so that's not a bad way to end things. this is an incredible crowd and it's good to be back. [ applause ] the weather is cooperating.

sort of feels like chicago. nice and brisk. there are a couple of people i want to thank before we get started. your next senator from the great state of wisconsin, tammy baldwin is here. [ applause ] she'll follow in the foot steps of two other senators, herb cole and russ feingold who are here. your next congressman, mark pocan is here. and let's gives it up for the mayor of madison, wisconsin, paul soglin. now, for the past week even in the miftsd of all this campaigning and electioneering and way too many tv commercials, all of us, including bruce, have

been focused on one of the worst storms. of our lifetimes. >> local officials and families and we mourn those lives that have been lost. and whenever i talk to folks in the region, i tell them the same thing that i say whenever a tragedy besets the american family and that is, the american people come together and make a commitment that we will walk with these folks whose lives have been upended every step on the hard road ahead and the hard road to recovery. we'll carry on. no matter how bad the storm is, we will be there. together.

[ applause ] no matter how bad the storm is, we recover together. we're all in this together. we rise or fall as one nation and as one people. and you know, madison, that spirit has guided this country along its improbable journey for more than two centuries. it's carried us through the trials and tribulations of the last four years. in 2008, we were in the middle of two wars and the worst economic crisis since the great depression. today, our businesses have created nearly 5.5 million new jobs. [ applause ] the american auto industry is back on top. home values are on the rise. we're less dependent on foreign oil than any time in 20 years and we've doubled the production of clean energy across america. [ applause ] because of the service and

sacrifice of our brave men and women in uniform, the war in iraq is over, the war in afghanistan is coming to a close, al qaeda is on the path to defeat, osama bin laden is dead, we've made progress these last four years. [ applause ] we've made progress these last four years, but the reason we're all gathered here, in addition to listening to bruce, is because we know we've got more work to do. we've got more work to do, as long as there's a single american that wants a job that can't find one, our work is not yet done. as long as there are families working harder and harder but still falling behind, we've got more work to do. as long as there is a child anywhere in madison, in wisconsin, in america, whose