comments about the 47%, mitt romney softens that stance at a univision forum in florida. >> my campaign is about the 100% of america and i'm concerned about them. >> and he didn't stop there. the republican candidate also moderated his positions on health care, immigration, and gay rights. today, president obama addresses that same forum in florida, as a new batch of polls show the incumbent leading in key swing states. and fast and furious. >> operation fast and furious is a poster child for what you don't do with deadly weapons. >> chairman daryl issa weighs in after the inspector general places blame on more than a dozen federal agents but clears attorney general holder of wrongdoing in the botched gun trafficking ring. i'm chris cillizza. in today for andrea. mitt romney's trying to carve out some political middle ground for his campaign during a univision facebook event in

florida. but will that reboot help romney recover from what can only be described as several weeks of missteps? joining me to answer that question, nbc deputy political editor, he joins me now. dom, after several days of doubling down, as the most cliched world in the world, doubling down on his comments about the 47% that came out, we found kind of a different mitt romney at this univision forum. we played the clip, for the 100% of people, more moderate on gay rights and immigration. i thought this was the mitt romney we might see when it was clear he was going to be the nominee in april, may june. is this a one-off or a strategy? >> it's difficult to know whether or not it's going to be a one-off or a strategy. you're right, this is the mitt romney we thought we'd see in june or so when they finally make that pivot. everyone talked about the etch a sketch comment or whatever. when you move from a primary to

general election there's a difference in tone you often see. a lot of us thought we'd see mitt romney sounding more like 2004 mitt romney back in june. >> i don't want to get into too much psycho analysis, part of the job is what drives these guys. mitt romney was re comfortable in the pragmatic businessman, let's find a solution. he's not, by nature a hard right ideologue but played one at times certainly in the primary. th is this more him? i always thought you have to be the closest who you are in real life, that's the great gift of george bush and barack obama. is this who mitt romney is? >> the fact we're asking this question is a problem for mitt romney. but the fact is, when you change positions, in just since 2006 or so on a handful of positions, that's a major issue for him to have to have -- inauthenticity is always the biggest bar,

hurdle that he's had to overcome. he's been running for six years or so essential lil, for president of the united states. you would have thought this is something they had done immediately after they won the nomination and it became obvious he was going to be the nominee. >> agree 100%. if this is the retooling -- i say it's not a retooling, it's a re-retooling, on monday we were talking about retooling and then the video came out and they're retooling again, it's a time he needs to do. three fox polls in battle ground states, came out last night, ohio, florida, virginia, if you had to pick three states where the election's going to be decided it's these three. obama up seven in ohio, five in florida, three in virginia. >> well, it's not good. i men when you see the polls.

and they mirror the polling we had done with nbc/"wall street journal"/marist a week ago, showed the same numbers. we'll have new polls tonight at 6:30 on some other key states in iowa, wisconsin, and colorado. and those are going to be states that we're going to be interested to see just where is this race moving, or is it moving at all? and the fact is, i mean, they really are looking at these numbers. they know what's happening here. and they -- that's why you're seeing a bus tour that they're trying to roll out and some of the other things. this -- these three states, with florida, virginia, and ohio, more than half of all money spend in campaign advertising has come from just those three states. >> remarkable. >> more than $300 million spent between the outside groups and the campaigns, you know, so of the 620 million or so. so these are the key states, if you're going to look at any three, they are the ones to watch. >> follow the money, the famous political adage.

they don't spent $20 million in noncompetitive states. the romney recasting begins today in earnest in florida. nbc's peter alexander is traveling with the candidate down there and he joins me by phone. peter, we have been talking about it, what is romney going to be doing in florida, and through the rest of the week before what we know is the big ballyhooed ohio bus tour they announce the last night? >> reporter: we're having the same conversation you can and dom were having. i reached out to the campaign by the moderate comments where he spoke about the fact he would embrace the idea that obama, president obama was calling him the grandfather of obama care. that was unlike anything we heard him say in the campaign that derived obama care and will repeal it gday one. the campaign insists we were joking and have it all wrong.

>> you know, peter, i tend to think anything that happens less than seven weeks before people vote in a presidential election is not by accident and that candidates don't tend to joke about things like that. i want to ask one more thing about the psyche of the romney campaign, since you're down there with them. how do they balance what has clearly been a bad week, by any objective measure, and a bad couple weeks by any objective measure. acknowledging that with not dwelling in it, with not feeding more fuel to that fire with trying to move on, are they just ignoring the last week and just saying it starts today? >> reporter: it's a good question. remember before the 47% video came out on monday, the conversation that ed gillespie held was, we begin to reset now. we're on -- i'm not sure what number reset ultimately as they begin events here today in sarasota. i spoke to, i guess i would describe it as adviser, close to the campaign's thinking who

communicated acknowledging they were, in his words, thrown off by the video that was secretly recorded back in may, he said, that it was what they describe as a self-inflicted wound. but he also said the campaign has been impressing people by showing its rezsilience. in the first week of october if they keep the race in the key battleground states within the margin of error, wednesday the first presidential debate and friday critical jobs nulls. they're confident, heading into the week, they'll be in very good shape heading into november. >> peter alexander literally on the bus covering the campaign. thank you. paul ryan is back on capitol hill today, taking a break from the campaign trail. nbc's ron mott covers the ryan campaign wherever he is. and he joinses now. thanks for taking a minute now that you're back in washington. paul ryan's back here, he went to the house republican meeting.

you've got new reporting on the bus tour. they announced it last night, a bus tour, romney and ryan through ohio and other battleground states. tell us what your reporting shows you about what the format of the bus tour's going to look like. >> chris, we were talking last week with staffers about the fact that campaign probably needed to get on the buses and go around and meet these voters before the election in seven weeks. so they just announced it now that monday paul ryan will kick it off in lima and at some point we understand three days, governor romney and paul ryan will have a joint appearance somewhere along the trip. they'll hit all of the major markets in ohio. we saw the poll they're down seven points in that state. they need to win there. the winner in ohio is probably going to be president come january. i think the campaign understands that they've got to play it hard in ohio and go there and work hard and try to win that state because without it it's going to be tough to win. >> to your point, no republican

president elected without carrying ohio. so it is -- it is that stark. let me ask you one other thing, when paul ryan got announced as vp the week or two after that we heard and saw a lot about him. now i feel like we don't. how much of this bus trip is designed to get paul ryan more front and center? is he being underutilized? any sense he's doing event but was not much attention being done to him? >> a lot of talk about his physique. the campaign because of the troubles over the past two weeks or so, they've got a weapon here that they probably need to unleash to try to make up the difference in places like ohio, virginia and florida. paul ryan's a very dynamic politician, and we see it on the trail. he comes out, people are fired up to see him. and you know, unfortunately for the campaign and probably for the voters we hear the same speech every day. i think there some things he probably wants to get out there that will really fire up the base and we'll have to see

whether the campaign will unleash him. you don't want your vice presidential candidate upstaging the presidential candidate. some point paul ryan they have to utilize his skills more. he's a dynamic politician and he's been sort of harnesses at this point. if they unleash him, we might see different result in the poll numbers. >> ron mott, who may be an official ohio resident by the time november 6th rolls around, thanks for joining me. will mitt romney get more specific, next in the political briefing. still ahead, inside bill clinton's world. this is "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. does your phone give you all day battery life ? droid does. and does it launch apps by voice while learning your voice ? launch cab4me. droid does. keep left at the fork. does it do turn-by-turn navigation ? droid does. with verizon, america's largest 4g lte network, and motorola,

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after his two toughest weeks at the presidential romney, mitt

romney is insisting the race remains a toss-up. ed gillespie with matt lauer on the "today" show. >> by just about every estimate this was a bad week for his campaign, would you agree? >> i argue the other side of that matt. it was a bad week for president obama. if you look at polling data, president obama dropped six points in the gallup poll over several days. >> joining me alex burns. nothing like spin to start off your 1:00 hour. start with this, does ed g gillespie have a point? the daily tracking poll gallop moved downward but we've seen other data suggesting obama's opening up his league. does ed have a point? >> he does when it comes to national polling there may have an a moment a week or two ago maybe obama had broken open the race and that doesn't seem to have happened nationally.

swing state by swing state, math is intimidating for romney. >> you reported on what the reboot of the romney -- running out of re words, regot, reset, what the re is going to look like. it includes this bus tour in ohio, less fund-raising, more sort of on the ground events, more paul ryan and mitt romney joint appearances. is there a sense of this is what is needed? the optics of earlier in the week, when mitt romney's struggling to get by the 47% video, and he's in salt lake city and then dallas raising money were not great. is this a recognition, no matter what ed gillespie said the last two weeks have not been great for the romney campaign and something needs to change. >> there is nothing wrong with mitt romney can't be fixes by what's right with mitt romney. for the umpteenth time, if romney could get out and be more articulate, more assertive,

passionate what he's proposing for the country, his jobs plan, that kind of thing, that maybe you could start to see a breakthrough for him out of the 45, 46% ceiling he seeps to have. we've heard this before. a lot this romney rebooting, a lot of the romney self-criticism, it does come back to fundamentals who he is as a candidate what his personal limitations seem to be. >> go back to monday when we were on a conference call with ed gillespigillespie. this is pre the 47% video coming out. let's play that from ed. >> polls show that voters now recognize that governor romney has a plan to ton our economy around, and they're open to hear more from him on this front. they are eager to hear some of the specifics. >> so, one thing that's left out of the second romney reboot this week, i would say, ises the specifics. that was the focus of ed

gillespie's talk in the conference call. do you have any sense they're going to get more specific on the economy, five-point plan what the positive vision, or has that been lost in the 47% controversy? >> going back to plonds before the video there was uncertainty what exactly this specific new strategy was going to entail. on that conference call, ed said they're going to be reinforcing specifics not coming out with new policy details in areas like taxes and job creation. i think you probably will hear mitt romney talk more about the sort of underlying issues in his five-point plan. i don't know that you're going to hear him taking any big risks when it comes to topics like health care, taxes, jobs that kind of thing. >> they haven't done it yet, i don't see why they will now. great young reporter at politico, alex burns. up next, is bill clinton out to save the world? the story behind "time's" new

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that's one a day men's 50+ healthy advantage. we won't know until election day who will be sworn in but bipartisan leaders of congress led by john bain somewhere senator harry reid gathered today for the symbolic hammering of the inaugural platform. who says we can't agree on anything in washington? it will hold 1600 people for the president-elect's swearing in in january. let's see how happy everybody looks. 12 years after leaving the white house, bill clinton has rekindled his popularity following his speech at the democratic national convention. in a new cover story for "time" magazine, the former president makes the case for, yes, optimism. joining me now, jim frederick, "time's" international editor who worked with president clinton on the piece. thanks for taking time.

i want to start with bill clinton's amazing political staying power and the latest nbc/"wall street journal" poll, 59% of people had a favorable opinion of bill clinton, the highest ever measured in the poll. what -- what is it about bill clinton that he retains a hold on the american public in a way that few politicians, barack obama included, struggle to meet? >> yeah, i think they he has an extraordinary charisma. people talk about his personal magnetism that comes through in the way that he speaks and enthusiasm that he has for life and for democracy and for global philanthropy and that's one of the things that people love in politicians, even when things seem at their darkest, clinton has a very fundamental optimism at his very core, which is very american trait. he really believes that tomorrow is going to be better than today and the day after's going to be better than tomorrow. i think people really respond to that. it's an infectious enthusiasm

that he has about many aspects of life. >> and you know, i would say, i agree, number one, and number two, it's remarkable, living in virginia i see lots of tv ads that run and there is as much bill clinton in the barack obama ads as there is barack obama. clearly, they believe that clinton is the surrogate that can reach voters that maybe barack obama can't reach or reach voter more effectively. how did -- i don't know how much of this came in the piece, i don't know how much he talked about it, but what role does he see for himself in this election and on? this is not someone who is 85. he continues and will continue to be active. what role does bill clinton see for himself both domestically and internationally maybe post-election. >> interesting question. we're catching clinton at a time in his life where he has two major interests and two major tracks in his life. we've seen barack obama and bill clinton have clearly made peace, they are clearly getting along

better than ever before. and so clinton really now is obama's most popular surrogate. he seems comfortable in that role. you know that speech was runaway hit at the national convention. but at the same time, clinton has a day job, and his day job is the founder and ceo of the clinton global initiative, which in just five to seven years he has turned into a towering force of philanthropy which is the reason that we did the cover store yo now, or that clinton wrote the story now, has really nothing to do with domestic politics and everything to do with clinton global initiative international meeting that's convening here in new york on sunday, which is his, you know, philanthropic love meaning of life. looking forward, after the election, he would say that you know he's really the fi philanthropist in chief and not obama's explainer in chief and not necessarily the point man for democrats, you know, in pur

tuty. >> you know, jim, one thing i wanted to mention, you brought up clinton global initiative, barack obama and mitt romney set to speak at the clinton global initiative next tuesday. it's the political junkie in me, i cannot resist when talk turns to bill clinton, talk inevitably turns to his wife, the current secretary of state, and what she might do next. i want to play something of brian williams interviewing bill clinton, what he had to say about hillary. >> there's a column says you can help two democrats tone if you do well, president obama and hillary rodham clinton in 2016. >> you know she -- we're not kids anymore, i don't have any idea if she'll ever run again. she says she won't. >> i mean, as i was watching his speech at the democratic national convention i thought he's obviously doing a solid for barack obama but if hillary clinton wants to run, he's doing great things for her as well.

any sense from bill clinton about what the next future plan is for his very politically involved family? >> to me, no, none. he did not share with me what the family's political future would be. so as a personal contact with bill clinton, i don't know any more about that than the next person. but i do think that, over the past four years, both clintons have done themselves and each other a tremendous favor. look at hillary clenbuterol is one of the most respected politicians and states people on the planet these days and that was not case when she was running for president. >> no question, jim. i totally agree. public image has just shot through the roof, in terms of positivity. jim frederick, who worked with bill clinton on the five ideas that are changing the world, it's on the cover of "time" magazine, thanks for taking the time today. >> great to be here. >> up next, the fast and furious fallout takes center taj on capitol hill. and tim kaine and george alan face-off in the first virginia

senate debate moderated by david gregory. this is "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. [ male announcer ] your mouth is cleanest after a dentist visit. ♪ but between check-ups, it goes through a lot. ♪ tartar builds and that feeling fades. with new listerine® ultraclean™, you can keep it dentist clean. it's the only mouthwash with proven tartar control and new everfresh™ technology for a powerful dentist clean feeling up to 3x longer. ahhhhhhhh. [ male announcer ] keep your mouth dentist clean with new listerine® ultraclean™. power to your mouth™.

topping headlines on "andrea mitchell reports" -- new census data released today offers a glimmer of hope for the economic recovery. experts point to a modest number of new jobs, and to signs that young adults are finally moving out of their parents' homes. however, the data also reports more americans now use food stamps and home ownership dropped for a fifth straight year. american airlines canceled 300 flights to cope with the high number of maintenance request and pilot sick days. this comes after the airline imposed new paying work rules of pilo pilots. american is giving crews more leeway to hand out light snacks to delayed passengers. what a relief. mark zuckerberg fell 22 spots of forbes' newest 400

list. he lost 8.1 billion with a "b" dollar is this year. gates and buffett the richest men in america. oprah came in at number 51. sto sto forbes shows the rich got richer. "endeavour" is one step closer to its final resting place in a california museum. flew out of houston en route to california. it will pass over tucson arizona to honor gabby giffords and her husband mark kelley. the state department issued another travel warning for american citizens in pakistan. it's the latest warning which cover everywhere from tunisia to lebanon since the wave of anti-american protests over american-made anti-muslim film. in france, authorities sent riot police to guard the paris offices of weekly magazine that published cartoons mocking the

prophet muhammad. michelle kosinski is in paris. what is the latest? >> reporter: chris, there was a protest today outside the french embassy in tehran. we saw a very visible increase in police presence in paris. there were no incidents though yesterday someone threw a grenade into a kosher grocery causing minor injuries but we don't know if that's connected to this. france acted immediately. they've closed some schools. they plan to close embassies and cultural centers tomorrow in 20 countries. you know the publisher of the cartoons, some showing the prophet muhammad naked and one saying one must not mock, chose the timing of this for a reason. just after the retests and murders last week over the anti-islamic film and the legal backlash over the photos of the duchess of cambridge, this is up to free speech, standing up to threats and groups that would govern through fear. they say there seems to be unwritten rule that you can make fun of any fundamentalist group

but not muslims and they won't go along with that. if anybody doesn't like these cartoonsing take us to court over it. making areference to what prince william and kate did success think through lawyers this week. two muslim groups have filed suit against the publication, saying the cartoons incite hate. what's interesting now that is two groups plan to protest here in paris on saturday but their permits were denied. now the magazine is saying that's not right. they should be allowed to protest like we're allowed to publish our cartoons. chris? >> complicated situation. thanks for clearing it up. a day after the justice department released the findings of an investigation into the fast and furious gun tracking operation the department's inspector general testified on capitol hill about his findings. >> our review revealed a series of misguided strategies,

tactics, errors in judgments and management failures that permeated atf headquarters and the phoenix field dwrigs ivisio well as u.s. attorney's office and hechts of the department of justice. pete williams joins me on set. thank you for being here. you're the man who explains things to me. what do we make of this? this is a partisan football. republicans have been ginned up about this for months and months. >> the report lays the blame in arizona and says atf and the u.s. attorney were desperate to make a big case that would bring down the supply chain for the mexican drug cartels getting guns from the us and lost sight of the problems they were creating. it also says there were several key moments where people at atf headquarters should have recognized it was offtrack, missed the chance to rein it in and never warned the attorney general about it. the report says, eric holder

never approved of the risky elements of the operation and didn't know about it until january of last year, when congress started to ask questions about it. >> i hesitate i look at review that you have before you, i love props, i hesitated to ever say, is this the last word. i assume it's not. where do we go from here in. >> it's not entirely the last word. it moves it to a different stage. perhaps anticlimax. the report does more or less say the attorney general wasn't responsible, there was no willful attempt to mislead congress, they weren't trying to cover anything up, in other words, it says. nonetheless there is something for everybody. while some of the contensions of the republicans in the house are refutured by this report, nonetheless, let's not forget it was congress that first blew the whistle on this, that first called attention, even when the justice department was saying, no this wasn't that screwed up. member of the congress asked questions about and there is certainly things in here where they can say, there were serious

mistakes made just like we claimed. >> but not by eric holder. >> not by eric holder. >> pete williams my friend and the nbc news justice correspondent. in the senate today, republicans were out in full force, attacking the president's handling of the country's fiscal situation. >> never before, never before has a president and a senate done so little to confront challenges so great. >> the president has put our entire economy in jeopardy to serve his own political interests. >> senate democrats and the obama administration too afraid to tackle, let alone vote on, the tough issues in an election year. >> after hearing all of that from republicans, senate majority leader harry reid gave a 15-minute response. >> what they have done is the very definition of hut spa, what

neb, mr. president. complaining about about what they have created. they have created the fact we haven't gotten anything done. >> joining me reid wilson and "the washington post" columnist ruth marcus. thank you both for joining me. ruth, i want to talk to you, harry reid the definition of chutzpah. >> i'm flglad you raised that. >> worth the price of admission. >> chutzpa. >> i wanted to clear that up myself. >> i'm a reliable source on that. >> i feel like we're so focused, i'm so focused on november 6th. in some ways what comes after, no matter who wins, and that's the presidential, senate and house, no mat who wins, we're facing a dire situation in which we have a narrow period of time to solve a problem that both sides, judging from the rhetoric today are not willing to give on. how scary is the possibility

that we go off the fiscal cliff? regardless of whether it's president romney or president obama and it's a democrat controlled senate. >> pretty scary. not as completely alarming as the debt ceiling debate which was very alarming because you hear among democrats and republicans both debates how bad the bad impact would be but nobody disagrees it would be bad to go off the fiscal cliff. right now i feel like we're in a road return cartoon. >> do tell. >> we're running and running and running and soon we'll look down and notice, it's a long way. >> let me follow up clearly. you mentions the debt ceiling. i operated under the assumption that politicians will do whatever they can do avoid a bad outcome. we got close to a very bad outcome, that damaged them, we avoided them -- >> damaged them, the country, the economy, the credit rating.

>> does that predict that this will be better or is that an indicator that what happened with the debt ceiling could have the same partisan game of chicken? >> i think you can see a scenario, and there's a lot of work going on behind the scenes. >> right. >> work in the senate going on behind the scenes. there's work even in the house, the administration is working really hard to come up with a package. so the likely -- there is -- it is not impossible that it could get worked out but it really depends in part on the combination of electoral outcomes to be determined, which is why we're not hearing about it very much right now. there's not a lot to talk about publicly except for the finger pointing. >> november 6th and the end of the year is not very long. reid, i want to turn to you. obviously i do a lot of yoeg gad breathing to prepare to host the show. there was a virginia senate debate on tim kaine, george alan, moderated by david gregory

host of "meet the press." we're getting into senate debate time. >> debate season. >> i love it. you love it. among likely voters, i want to slow this, this is a "the washington post," i'm doing my employer some good work, "the washington post" poll. tim kaine among likely voters 51, george alan 43. this a race we assumed, i assumed, would be a toss-up down to the end. do you buy it? if you do, why is tim cain to open up a lead. >> this is more optimistic for t kaine folks. this is not the only poll we've seen. there have been others that have shown kaine opening up a lead. the reason, democrats are starting starting tart tune into the race. in previous 6,000 surveys that showed the race -- >> funny, it's 46. >> the one thing we were seeing president obama was running ten points better than tim kaine among nonwhite voter.

that gap is going to shrink. as it does shrink that's growth for tim kaine. >> quickly, do you see any way that barack obama wins virginia and tim kaine loses the senate race? >> no. you tell me who wins the presidential race, and i've got a good shot telling you who is going to win the senate contest. if mitt romney wins i think tim kaine can win. >> there are romney-kaine voters. >> there are no obama-alan voters. >> i'd like to talk to the guy from you probably could. >> let me tell you the kaine-romney voters in the northern virginia suburb whose might remember his time as governor, hess time as mayor. more fondly than they do president obama at the white house. >> i want to play one clip how the 47% controversy with mitt romney is bleeding into the senate races. this is tim kaine and george alan with david gregory today.

>> you can say something off the cuff you regret but i deeply disagree with the sentiment expressed by governor romney. i don't meet virginian who think they're victims. >> would you disagree with governor romney? >> i have my own point of view. my point of view is that people of america believe in the american dream. >> so, not totally distancing from george allen from mitt romney but close. we had linda mcmahon saying i disagree, scott brown if a high profile massachusetts race, i don't view the world that way. how much of a problem is this for down ballot senate conditions this 47% comment? they need to do what they need to do. it's easier to align yourself with the american dream than to align yourself with a dismissive attitude with voter some of whom you need to win. >> we're seeing in nevada, hawaii, back in 1996, i remember when the house republicans distanced themselves from bob

dole's campaign. i wonder if we're starting to see distance put between some of the down ballot candidates and the top of the tick. mitt romney the candidate, if he wouldn't have said it would be distancing himself. >> he already is. >> thank for joining us. next, broken trust in smalltown america. marry smith with a story how one town put their trust in the wrong person. >> time for the "your business" entrepreneur of the week. joshua davis knows the frustration of looking for funding. after being turned down by multiple lenders the onlier of the gelafo fiasco in maine contacted a community group making loans to small business owners. he got the money he needed and he's back to focusing on flavors. "your business," sundays 7:30 on msnbc. [ male announcer ] you like who you are...

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on tonight's "rock center" harry smith takes us dixon, illinois where a handshake meant more than a contract until the town put their trust in rita cronwell. >> is dixon a throwback one of the old-fashioned midwest towns where people trust each other, a handshake is better than a contract? >> yes, yes. >> your word is your bond, that is this place? >> that's exactly this place. >> and that trust has been part of the glue that's held dixon

together especially in the last few years. because despite all that dixon seemed have going for it the city budget had been cut to the bone. how could things be so bad in a seemingly prosperous town? who is rita. >> rita very likable person, everybody around city hall liked her. she was very friendly, always had a big hi and big hello. >> rita grew up in dixon and started working in city hall part time ace 17-year-old student. ultimately became the city's treasurer comptroller. >> when you have an expenditure of any significance you check through rita. >> in her spare time you developed a glaem russ advocation, built up a famous quarter horse farm on the edge of town. >> congratulations to nurly crowned champion. >> a glimpse inside a room at her ranch reveals wall-to-wall trophies and awards.

it appeared money was no object. >> but one day when rita was away at a horse show another city employee discovered something suspicious. >> our city clerk brought a bank statement to me and she said i cannot connect this with anything and i took a look at it. and i thought, this can't be. >> bred by rita. >> it was as if rita was leading two lives. >> nbc's harry smith joins me now. it's a pleasure. i'm already intrigued. i want to ask a question a lot of people wonder when you see stories like this. how did you come upon this story? how did you hear about rita and dixon? >> the story crossed the wires this summer but there were so many other news stories going on it seemed to have a very, very short life and we followed it up. as it turns out she's facing federal charges of stealing more than $53 million over a 20-year

span. >> $53 million. that is absolutely a remarkable -- i will be tuning in. i know you spend a lot of your time traveling the country, small towns, medium sized towns, we're less than seven weeks from an election. what do you hear from people out there? i feel like you bring a unique perspective here. what is on people's mind? is it the economy? are they worried, optimistic? i don't want you to oversimplify it. >> a couple of different things. frustration, frustration with washington, the why can't these guys get together and get something done. a lot of polarization, people are not afraid to say what they really, really think. there's a -- people are at odds out there in a big and profound way. and weariness, we're out here busting our butts how is it they

feel disconnected from what happens going on in your town? >> great stuff. thank you, harry. don't miss harry's full report on "rock center." what political story will make head leans in the next 24 hours? that's next on "andrea mitchell reports." ucerna hunger smart sh. they have carb steady, with carbs that digest slowly to help minimize blood sugar spikes. [ male announcer ] glucerna hunger smart. a smart way to help manage hunger and diabetes. keys, keys, keys, keys, keys. ♪ well, he's not very handsome ♪ to look at [ sighs ] ♪ oh, he's shaggy ♪ and he eats like a hog [ male announcer ] the volkswagen jetta. available with advanced keyless technology. control everything from your pocket, purse, or wherever. that's the power of german engineering. ♪ that dirty, old egg-suckin' dog ♪

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which political story will make headlines in the next 24 hours? "washington post" editorial writer and msnbc contributor jonathan kapart joins me now. a lot of news on libya in the last hour. on air force one gaggling with white house, white house press secretary for jay carney for the first time called the benghazi attack a terrorist attack. secretary of state hillary clinton, i want to play sound from her today, what she had to say about the after-action report on benghazi and libya. let's play that and talk about it. >> i am launching an

accountability review board that will be chaired by ambassador thomas pickering. >> just by way of context, thomas pickering, a former u.n. ambassador, former russia ambassador as well. jonathan, this in some ways is what's next here in libya, turned into a political football last week. there's clearly foreign policy implications in how we manage ourselves in this tumultuous time going on here. >> in these tumultuous times in these countries where in the arab spring they rose up and revolted. clearly it's been determined by the obama administration, very important to get to the bottom of what really happened in benghazi. as we know, three americans were killed including ambassador christopher stevens at the

consulate in benghazi. so there are a lot of questions that have to be answered both for the internal community but also for the american people. >> i believe there were four americans too, jonathan. your point holding. >> four. >> i don't want to put it in too much of a political context, but this is clearly something where republicans believe mitt romney released a statement too son. >> republicans who don't like the president and don't like the president's policies in the region, it gives them something to hoang onto. i don't think it will get beyond that. >> jonathan, thank you. i want to do one piece of business. i said that oprah fwrin was 51st on the fortune 400 list. she's 151st. i would still gladly trade places with oprah on this list. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports."

andrea is back tomorrow. elia cummings and prudence bush nell and todd period ham. tamron hall has a look at what's next. in a few minutes president obama will hold a q & a at the university of miami. there's a change in tone on health care reform, same-sex marriage. plus, how the governor has gone from being concerned about -- not concerned about 47% to being concerned about 100% of the voters. the latest on what governor romney is saying. is it an etch-a-sketch moment or one-off moment? governor ed rendell will join me and republican chip saltzman. how ed gillespie tried to explain how this is a bad week for president obama and not for governor romney. i'll play his explanation. tonight's big debate in

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