hi, everyone. i'm tamron hall. the "news nation" is following a possible this is it moment in the campaign. the latest round showing that this race is a dead heat with the president holding onto a razo razor-thin edge. there's an agreement that tomorrow night's presidential debate is a big moment for candidates. for president obama it's to wipe the first disastrous debate off the board. >> he's excited to get to new york tomorrow and he's focused on the good debate. he's his own worst harshest

critic. you look back at the tape from last week, and he knows he can do a better job communicating to the american people, the choice in this election. >> for governor romney it's an opportunity to try to keep his momentum going, and to decimate the president's small firewall in key battleground states that could decide this election. joining me from washington is mark murray. mark, you have a lot of democrats cheering the fact they see a slight edge in the swing states despite the debate and other issues as well, and it is a slight firewall as we refer to it. >> tamron, it is still nail-biting time, however. there are two new national polls that came out today. first a "washington post"/abc news poll that had president obama up 49% to 46% over mitt romney among likely voters. there was a george washington poll that had closer, 49% for president obama and 48% for mitt

romney among likely voters. that's the situation into the second presidential debate, the town hall format in hofstra in new york. >> the daily gallup tracking poll shows likely voter, obama 48% and romney 46%. i think it was friday, mark, you and i were talking about or thursday the numbers and polling. for analysts like yourself is where you expected the race to be at this time? >> right. in fact, we actually expected the race to be before we saw president obama with that very big surge he had after the democrat democrat democratic convention and after weeks of focus on the 47% remark. we came back to where we were at the very end of august right before the political conventions all kicked off. almost promising a very tight race, similar perhaps to 2004 between john kerry and george w. bush and even 2000 that close contest between george w. bush and al gore. >> we're going to talk later

regarding the demographics of this race and keying in on certain groups how they're the key to victory one way or the other to candidates here. let's bring in the news panel, david goodfriend and anne cornbluth and steve diese is with us as well. once again, we have steve on skype and you have sunglasses on. i'm not sure why. is that because you believe romney's star is so bright you have to wear shades or whatever the cliche is? what's going on for governor romney, steve? >> i'm not wearing sunglasses. the light inning that office is that bad. >> you look like mr. cool with your sunglasses on. what do you think of romney's momentum at this point? >> i think the number one thing he has going right now is his rating. over the last couple of weeks he had the lowest favorability rating of any modern presidential challenger in the history of modern polling.

you can go back, tamron, to the debate two weeks ago in denver, colorado where a lot of american people gave him a second look and thought maybe they didn't have this guy defined the way they thought and opened themselves up to supporting him. i agree with what mark murray said. i think the race is back to where it was before the conventions when romney didn't get a bounce and obama did. romney got the bounce after the debate, and it's a wash and we're back to where we started before the conventions. it goes down to the wire like it did in 2004. your audience will recall i said on the show in january this is a replay of 2004. the only question is can romney do what john kerry did, and that's win ohio and the presidency. >> let me play on the daily rundown. it's a surrogate for president obama. he likened this battle to ali and frazier. let me play it. >> i compare it to the ally/frazier fight in 1971 where frazier knocked the champ down.

no one expected ali won the second and third fights. he can't overcorrect, and he needs not protect his likability too much. >> he's comparing it to 1971. here we are in current year, current time. what adoes the president need to do, david, tomorrow with this platform of a town hall debate as well? >> i would focus on my strengths if i was president obama, and something that mitt romney cannot touch, no matter what, is president obama's ability to connect with people and say, i'm like you. i experienced what you experienced. if i were president obama, one of the things i would do is say, hey, look, if you're a student. i had student debt up until a couple years ago, so did michelle. if you're unemployed, my grandfather was unemployed. i grew up in a household led by someone unemployed.

he can draw the connection between his own personal experience and the experience of most americans way, way better than mitt romney can. he doesn't have to be stri dent about it. he makes that connection and wins. >> that's funny about style and making the kez. here's what ed gillespie said on fox news sunday. he's with the romney campaign. let's play what ed gillespie said. >> even if he changes his style, whatever political tactic the president settles on in his best interest for this debate, he can't change his record and policies. >> david, you were discussing the style. you see what ed said. what's your response to your comment? no matter what approach is taken, he believes the president has not run on his record because it is not a good record. >> ed gilliespie is grasping at straws. the unemployment rate has been better than anytime since the president took office. the right track/wrong track measurement is better than it has been in years. there's a reason republicans want to talk about libya. this election is about jobs and

the economy p-but they're not winning on that, so they're grasping at straws and talking about libya. if you plook at the underlying metrics how people feel about the economy, remember bill clinton's speech at the democratic convention, it takes a while before feel it. when they do, they really do. now they feel the improvement that president obama, because of the bailout of the auto industry and other things, can point to as his own. >> anne, part of what some people believe the problem was with the last debate is the president left an opening for romney to appear as an adequate or perhaps a better alternative. people like steve diese always refused to support mitt romney, but this time around you have some people within the party who are coming on to the team and maybe even some independents. let me play how mark halpern described this on "morning joe" today. >> romney is seeming like an acceptable alternative, the strong debate performance and

better press coverage. he may be strong enough in ohio and other battle grounds, voters look at him as acceptable. that's why we heard so much about bain capital and that's why we heard so much about a swiss bank account, his personal taxes, et cetera. it's going to be interesting to see if the obama campaign tries to drive some of that personable stuff. if they don't and governor romney is acceptable that may give him enough of a chance to win ohio and enough of the battlegrounds to get just over 270. >> there you have it. he's still under governor romney in ohio, but halpern put it this way. he could be acceptable enough to get him by in such a tight race, anne. >> i think that's been part of the game plan from the outset. he's an acceptable and viable alternative to president obama. we don't see if that's made a huge difference. our poll shows that republicans, sure, they're more enthusiastic and feel much better about voting for romney. and i think that's going to help the turnout chances for the

republican party, but does that mean that independents suddenly think he's different or even democrats might be peeled aaaway? that's not what we're seeing evidence of yet. that could change sure enough tomorrow night, next week. >> despite all of the conversation on the first presidential dethe bait, we are back to basically where we were before the conventions and before that debate. there are some people, very few people who still have not made up their minds why we really don't know. if this is about the economy, i think both campaigns have been vague in many different ways regarding the future and the direction they'd like to see this country go in or at least their specific plan for us, anne. >> that's right. tom night's format could be so interesting. in a regular debate format on the stump and ads they talk about what the other would do wrong in their view. tomorrow night i expect questions from voters very much

along those lines. what are you going to do for me and for the next four years? they're not able to get away with saying the other guy might be carr scarier. >> ilts interesting. a lot of republicans are excited. the enthusiasm is there. john hileman has this cautionary tale in underestimating the president and what he could bring tomorrow. >> when the president has been most on him is when he has tended to it rise to the challenge. i think he sees this correctly as the biggest challenge of ms. political career. >> as a conservative republican, steve, are you at all concerned that, again, here you have a president when his back is against the wall, he has come out and many times won that challenge? >> you bet, tamron. i think that romney wasted about four months in this campaign where he should have been at the point he's at right now coming out of his convention, and he's behind. i think the metric system here, because he had a phenomenal

debate performance to get it to even to him as an acceptable alternative. that's the phrase we're using today. now you wonder if the president comes out and hits a home run in a town hall format that you think might benefit him with his charisma, maybe it goes back to a couple of weeks ago. i'm interested to see how romney will perform here. he's really good when he has prepared text, but in a crowd he comes across at the guy who shows up at the party with a sweater vest and it is, you want to play yahtzee? >> this is the logical question anyway, our first read team says will this be his in touch or out of touch moment? they refer this to blowing up the stereotype, that he does not understand the plight of the average americans. does he understand, steve diese, the plight of the average

american? you fought against him winning in iowa, your home state, is he in touch or out of touch? >> if he has the argument about who is the most in touch, he will lose. he needs to have a record of economic success if private industry that creates jobs for people like you. i think he needs to make it very bottom line and result oriented. i think if it comes down to who feels our pain, that's probably not the argument mitt romney wants to have. >> that's the reason the president has this firewall of sorts as it was referred to by the first read team in the midwest. that is exactly why despite some of the bumps along the road you see mitt romney not able to pass the president in some of these swing or battleground states in the midwest, your part of the country. >> if you look at the republican primaries, unless there was a high mormon population, romney lost middle class voters in every contested realm primary, and i told your audience at the time if you struggle to win

middle class voters with the people most likely it to vote for you, that will be an issue to emerge in the general election campaign. he needs to turn his private business experience into an advantage and say, i may be awkward, but i can create jobs. >> if we can get a lightning round in, is this the this is it moment tomorrow? it the best last chance he is sbeshl foy the president given his last opportunity to shoot down assertions made by them that they say is false. is it the this is it moment we're walt waigt for? >> this is it. ryan and romney can't win their own home states and can't win. >> second to last but pretty close. >> you're holding out? >> people undecided watch the debates. >> is this the this is it moment? >> i think obama's back is against the wall like romney's was in denver. >> anne we'll invite you for the third and final debate, since

you're the only one it still matters to. david, thank you very much. coming up, cheap shot the son of republican senate candidate tommy thompson caught on camera making offensive remarks about the president. we'll play it for you next and play what tommy thompson said he's now apologizing for his son's remarks. senator lindsey graham is leading the charge that the obama administration was involved in a deliberate cover-up over the response to the deadly afak in libya. >> they never believed the media would investigate and congress was out of session and this caught up with them. >> will the president have an opportunity tomorrow during the foreign policy discussion of the debate to push back on this allegation from graham and others? patrick gaspar from the dnc will join me live. plus, three states consider laws to legalize pot for recreational use. if they pass that would be in direct conflict with federal law. why hasn't the government come

out against the law? i'll talk with ryan grimm who has written extensively on this particular topic and join our conversation on twitter. find us at @tamron hall and at @newsnation. follow the wings. victor! victor!

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or visit fidelitylife.com for your free quote. [ horn honks ] hey, honey. do we have life insurance? ♪ [ male announcer ] or visit fidelitylife.com to secure your family's future today. welcome back. the president and governor romney will take more than a dozen questions from undecided voters at tomorrow's town hall style debate. romney had practice with this format with recent stops on the trail. the president took part in one town hall in nine months. the president needs a knock jouts performance at the second showdown. >> 67 million people watched that debate. a historic number back in denver. the number i predict i think with great confidence that the

number is higher on tuesday because a lot of people in the country want to know, if barack obama going to rise to this challenge or not? >> let's bring in patrick gaspar, dnc executive director, former white house director for the obama administration. patrick, great pleasure having you on. we played a clip from john hileman earlier and we played one from him as well saying when this it president has faced adversity and challenges, he always in john hileman's assertion has come out victorious in this. ho how will the president meet the challenges of this debate? >> thanks for having me on, tamron. >> sure. >> john hileman is completely right about the president's past performances. he improves steadily over the course of a campaign. i disagree with your panelists in one instance. i think there's more pressure on mitt romney in this debate because no lie can stand forever, tamron. in the last debate mitt romney put on a spectacular performance, but he was

successful because he was deceptive and misleading, and now i think that with real american voters in that room asking questions of both candidates, he's going to have to have a good deal more candor about his tax plan, his nonexistent jobs plan, about what he intends to do with medicare and social security. they're going to deny benefits to seniors if you look at his plan. he'll be challenged by the voters in the room and certainly challenged by barack obama who is his own toughest critic. he'll be ready for this confrontation. >> he heard that comment a lot that he's his own toughest critic. you say a lie cannot stand. the only pay lies fall is people prove them to be untrue, and that really, i would think, is not the job of the people who are asking the questions tomorrow, particularly just voters there. it would be the responsibility of the president, and from everything i've heard from you and other surrogates, he is ready for this moment. i want to play or read what joe

kline with "time" wrote about the president. he said, president obama's campaign staff has been brilliant when it comes to painting romney as a happenless pludec ra at but has been a.w.o.l. when showing it. barack obama has to make his best case for keeping the job. what is the best case that the president can lay out, if you can briefly and i hate to say briefly because a case that may cut the country better shouldn't be three seconds long. in the end how does the president hit it out of the park? >> we're fast talkers here. the president has made the case. consumer confidence is at a five-year high and unemployment is below 8% and we have housing foreclosures at a five-year low as well. earlier today the kiz czar family foundation said if the romney/ryan health care plan was pasted, 60% of seniors would pay

more for medicare than under president obama. we're at a point where the president intends to grow manufacturing jobs by 1 million between now in 2016 he intends to double our manufacturing exports by 2014. he's going to do all he can to make certain that college costs are contained for young people and they have every opportunity to move up the economic ladder and continue to implement a health care measure that allows already 3 million young people to stay on their parents' health care. of course, the president is going to continue to promote the clean energy economy. mitt romney is going to have to stand on that stage tomorrow night and continue to ofiscate because he has no plan to move us forward and he has a tax plan to balloon our deficits. >> i have a couple things -- you did a great job. i have to ask you another issue, of course, facing the president tomorrow is the investigation into what happened in libya. we won't play the sound.

senator lindsey graham basically alleging a cover-up by the administration. he said in part the intelligence community on the ground in libya has told senator corker and myself within 24 hours they communicated up to washington this was a terrorist attack. again, he is alleging or implying a cover-up. the president has an opportunity to address this as well tomorrow. >> yeah. tamron, at one point lindsey graham was actually a serious legislator. he's clearly allowed himself to become part of the romney campaign at noint. look, there isn't anyone more determined to get at what the heart of took place in libya than president obama. he knew ambassador and stevens and respected and admired him. this is an instance where the president has been thoughtful. every statement he and secretary rice made were statements that came from information from the intelligence community. the investigation will go on. the president will gather the truth. tamron, if we look at this

president's record versus the rhetoric on the other side, we can see under president obama we're more secure than we've ever been. he's done all he can to bring terrorists to justice, and you can expect whoever did harm to ambassador stevens and these other fine patriots will be brought to justice by president obama. >> patrick, we've seen so many things over this election season, many inappropriate things to say, sxadly we have to report on another comment made on the campaign trail. this one, jason thompson, the son of tommy thompson. he was at an event in wisconsin, an rnc event in that state. let me play what he had to say regarding the president and where he was born. let me play this. >> we have the opportunity to send president obama back to chicago or kenya. >> send the president back to chicago, pause, pause, smirk, or kenya. tommy thompson has responded in a statement. he says in part, the governor

has addressed this with his son, just like any father would do. jason thompson said something he should not have, and he apologizes. your response? >> we've seen that ugly and irresponsible rhetoric from their side. fortunately americans are focused on real issues. they're concerned about job growth and want to make sure we continue to be a world leader, and that's the conversation the president is focused on. i think that gentleman said all this because they're concerned about the numbers they see out there. the nbc poll demonstrated in ohio 20% of all ohioans have already voted, and the president is leading amongst them by 67 to 37. i think they're concerned about the numbers out there. they know we have a deep infrastructure in wisconsin and ohio, and that we're going to bring a victory home for the president. >> thank you very much for the time. we greatly appreciate it. we invited a surrogate from the romney campaign and no one responded to us today. thank you. the u.s. supreme court

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she wrote hey @about rackobama. i just dropped my absentee ballot in the mail. i couldn't wait until election day. that's part of what she said. the pressure is on president obama like never before, and tomorrow night could mark his big chance, one of the last perhaps to fight for a second term. "the daily beast" michael tamaski wrote about it like so many others. plus, whas next or supersonic sky-diving felix baumgartner after his history-making jump over the weekend. did you see it? we have an update about what he's saying today about his life. a huge celebrity tomorrow. check out the "news nation" tumblr page. you'll find behind the scenes pictures. uit, something this delicious could only come from nature. new nectresse. the 100% natural no-calorie sweetener made from the goodness of fruit.

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the key advantage for the president in the way to the white house. demographics. they criticized the strategy of targeting key groups like students, women and latino voters. our political team writing one of the most powerful underkurnlt currents of this election is the democratic advantage for the democrats. every poll has found and the bottom line, demography is an advantage for president obama and a challenge for mitt romney. let me bring in the senior political editor, mark murray. mark prior to the poll last week we saw hugely with women. that's closed depending on the polls we've looked at. we continue to see a huge leak with the president with the latino voters. the issue is demographics in the latino community shows up to vote if they support the president. >> that's right. enthusiasm does matter, but in a way look at this election is demography, is destiny. the nbc/"wall street journal" pollsters did something interesting where they merged

the data from this summer as well as the two big sur vas in september and measured it with the exit polls from 2008. actually, it showed some erosion for president obama from 2008 with white independents. those folks obama narrowly lost in 2008 and he's losing against mitt romney among them big-time. where obama made gains with latinos and more importantly he's held even with women. if he actually does and hits all of those demographic markers, it pretty much gets close to where he was in 2008, that's a recipe for re-election. >> you also take a look at the president's support when it comes to white independent likely voters, and there's a, quote, erosion in the support there. >> that's right. tamron, this is probably the group that is actually frustrated with president obama the most. it shows you how when he won 53% to 46% in 2008, this is the group that actually he's had a lot of trouble with. these are people who aren't necessarily able to vote for him

this time around. he has made improvements with other voting groups including latinos where he's actually doing better with latinos according to the september nbc/"wall street journal" polls than he did against john mccain in 2008. that doesn't make up all the difference. it helps to try to get to 50% and particularly 50% in those important swing states. >> let's talk about from the demos to this midwest firewall. i mean, in a state like ohio, i don't know, for example, the ethnic backgrounds of most of the voters off the top of my head. it's not one of the states with a large latino population, so what is the key to at least the president being ahead in that state still in the polling? >> tamron, ohio when we went into this presidential election, there was a thinking that ohio was going to be the most problematic state for president obama. it was a state he won by a handful of points in 2008. it doesn't really have that demographic mix particularly with latinos that we were

talking about. however, you look at ohio right now, and i think it has more to do with mitt romney underperforming than actually president obama overperforming. actually, it's turned out that ohio is a problematic state for mitt romney even after a very good two weeks that we've seen after his debate performance. we'll continue to watch and see, but ohio has proved more problematic for mitt romney than president obama. >> thank you very much. great pleasure having you on today. tomorrow night maybe president obama's last best chance to stop mitt romney's momentum starting to build up to this big debate tomorrow. writing on this "the daily beast" website, michael said, quote, joe biden did his part, now it's barack obama's turn. if he flubs this like last time, this race is probably over. michael joins us. the mere mention that the race could be over as a result of this debate tomorrow has a lot of people on twitter pretty

upset. they seem to believe that is overhype, overspeaking. how do you sell your point? >> remember the first part of that sentence. if he flubs it like he flubbed it last time. that's pretty self-evident that's probably true, tamron. >> that's the reason the president is under great pressure. how does he avoid flubbing it? the town hall setting is complementary to his style of engaging with people. our first read team points out with this format it's tougher for mitt romney to break down an effective story line that democrats put in place that he's out of touch and doesn't help with the 47% comment that he made and has said he's wrong about it. nevertheless that exists and it's a real comment. with the president, though, how does it quote-unquote avoid flubbing? >> i think he has to go back to the 47% comment, which he didn't he mention. romney's apology for that wasn't that sincere or didn't seem to be. it was something he had to get out of the way. but here are the two main things that i really think obama needs to do.

first, show some passion and stand up there like you're there to represent a set of values and believes about the united states and a vision for the future of the united states. joe biden did that pretty well in his turn. he wasn't just up there trying to win debating points or trying to outpoint the other guy. he was up there representing a view of the country. that's what obama really needs to do. he did it very poorly the first time. the other thing that i think obama needs to do, a specific thing. he really needs to tell the democrats' economic story of the last 12 years, and basically say, look, george bush came into office. he said i'm going to cut taxes and reduce regulation, and you watched the economy is going to take off. george bush did those two things, and look what happened to the economy. i've been doing my best to dig us out. we're finally turning the concern. consumer confidence sat a five-year high? what does my opponent want to do? put in the exact same policies that created the crisis in the first place. >> that's the tone that the new

president has that is voiced by morgan freeman. it starts with a story line of where this country was when he took office. i believe it said something along the lines no one had faced these kinds of challenges going into the white house. if he doesn't flub and it's a draw, a wash, they both step up to the expectations and have a good debate, what does that mean, michael? >> a wash leaves us exactly where we are, which is that the larger race is a wash, i would think. i would think that obama needs to do a little bit better than a wash. romney was a very good debater in that first debate. it's true. a lot of stuff about his tax plan and so forth weren't really true, but it's obama's job to point that out. it's not really the media's job. it's obama's job first and foremost to point it out. that's the third thing he has to do tomorrow night. >> all right, michael. it's a pleasure as always. thanks.

see you soon. voters in three states, three will decide next month on whether to become the first states in the nation to legalize marijuana for recreational use. doing so would put colorado, washington state and oregon in direct conflict with federal law. in the meantime former federal officials in washington state are supporting the effort to legalize pot. joining me now is ryan grimm. he's the author of "this is your country on drugs." this would put in conflict with federal law. we know that the doj hasn't come out strongly yet and perhaps won't on this. we're in a credible point where you have three states to legalize pot for rec use. >> they're smarter about this time. in 2010 it was the closest a state came to legalizing marijuana when california went for it. they got hammered by opponents towards the end of the election.

look, if you pass this initiatives, the roads will be filled with zonked-out stoners. in washington they thought about that and put in an impairment standard so cops can try to figure out if someone is driving stoned or not. also in oregon, colorado and washington, they ear mamark the revenue, some to the general fund and education and substance abuse things and things everybody supports. these are smarter initiatives and it's smarter to run them in a presidential year when you have a lot of young people voting rather than at midterm in 2010 where the elderly folks that come out are strongly anti-pot. >> some of the latest polling shows 50% in colorado and washington support legalizing pot for rec use while 37% in oregon support legalization. ryan, you suddenied this and wrote about it. talk about our mindsets have changed perhaps even since the '80s. is it because, for example,

under federal law possession of one personal joint is a misdemeanor but punishable by up it to a year in prison and a $1,000 fine. do people think we have bigger things to worry about, or marijuana is not the scary demon some saw it as earlier on? >> all the hysteria works in reformer's favorite. you have problem finding revenue? here's revenue. tons of people are smoking pot. let's go ahead and tax it. i think more importantly in places like oregon, washington, and colorado, you had medical marijuana legal there for a long time. the drug czars and drug warriors said if you do this all of our children will smoke pot and the sky will fall. that didn't happen. in most states where they legalized medical marijuana, the teen pot shoeking rate went down. i'm not sure why that is. it becomes medical and it becomes uncool. whatever it is, all of the

warnings that the drug warriors gave the public didn't come true. so now they're out there saying the same things, and it doesn't stick to the wall like it used. a bunch of drug warriors had a conference call today in colorado. former drug czars are coming out against the constitutional amendment out tlchlt the media asked do you think obama is getting drug money laundered to his campaign? they wouldn't say no. >> what? >> the huffington post was on the call. wait a minute. are you really not willing to say that the president of the united states is not funding his campaign with drug money? they said, we're not going to comment on that. so, you know, they've kind of descended into this desperation. i think it would be washington and colorado, and i think oregon will probably fail. if it doesn't happen this time, i think 2016 you'll see it a few

places for sure. >> bizarre conference call and interesting topic. thank you very much, brian grimm. just within the past few hours the fak stanny teenager had you noted down and shot in the head by the taliban, now she's in the uk for the critical treatment she is in need of. we'll have a live report and get you an update on her condition up next. first, there's a lot going on today. here's a here are things we thought you should known. new information into the federal investigation involving jesse jackson, jr. he's under investigation for alleging using campaign money to decorate his home. the fbi and the justice department are said to be in the final sftages of the investigation which was launched before the congressman took a leave of absence due to a bipolar disorder. mitt romney canceled an upcoming appearance on the view. he was scheduled to appear with his wife and has a scheduling

conflict. ann romney will appear as planned. elizabeth warren has raised over $12 million for her campaign in the last three months. warren was consistently or has consistently outraised incumbent senator scott brown. he raised 7.5 million in the same quarter. president obama is weighing in on the "american idol" feud between maria and nicki. he's confident that the two can work it out. he said he knows maria, and she's a, quote, wonderful lady. he doesn't know nicki but has her on his ipod.

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top medical doctors in uk are treating malala. she arrived hours ago at queen elizabeth hospital in birmingham, it's the same hospital for british soldiers wounded in afghanistan. doctors will visit or first evaluate the severity of his conditions. we're awaiting word on the initial assessment. laes we heard she was getting limited medical treatment in her home country, but now obviously getting the best that is available. >> reporter: absolutely the best, tamron. she's in the hospital behind me now being assessed by those expert medics after an incredible journey from pakistan. 12 hours or so in the air, and then a slow transfer from the

airport to the hospital here. paramedics really concerned to be cautious given the seriousness of her injuries. tamron, we just heard from our hospital spokesperson who has come out and given us a first read, if you like, a really very initial assessment and saying that she really does have a good chance of a long-term recovery. i think at the same time, you know, just managing people's expectations a little bit saying, it's going to take weeks, if not months, before she can make that full recovery. some good stages she got through. she got through the first 48 hours and had the bullet removed in pakistan. her young age is also by the way experts will help her brain to recover if there is any damage there. but it will be a slow road. by the way, their expertise here comes partly because of the numbers of wounded soldiers from afghanistan that they treat here who get brought over. so some irony there, get the

expertise by soldiers wounded fighting the taliban now using that expertise to help this young girl smhot for her right for an education. >> thank you very much. we'll update our audience on this story people around the world are paying attention to. the "news nation" gut check is next, and it has to do with the debate. we look at the moderatomoderato and whether she should follow up with questions offered up by those in the town hall. at 33 years old, i was having a heart attack. now i'm on a bayer aspirin regimen. [ male announcer ] be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. i didn't know this could happen so young. take control, talk to your doctor. i've got a nice long life ahead. big plans. so when i found out medicare doesn't pay all my medical expenses, i got a medicare supplement insurance plan. [ male announcer ] if you're eligible for medicare, you may know it only covers about 80% of your part b medical expenses.

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welcome back. supersonic skydiver felix baumgartner is talking about future plans after making world history over the weekend. felix says he wants to retire now and become a rescue pilot. yes, because this is a hard act to follow. the austriian native is the

first to break the speed of sound from the highest balloon flight. that's not official? who has challenged it? both campaigns are voicing concern over the moderator or -- let me explain this in tomorrow night's debate. let me clebe clear here. they say the campaigns are concerned over recent comments, not that they're concerned over candy crowley but concerned about the role she will play in the debates. speaking last night crowley said, quote, once the table is kind of set by the town hall questioner, there's then time for me to say, hey wait a second, what about x, y, and z? basically a follow-up questions. the campaigns want crowley to have a limited role to direct audience questions to the candidate. the commission that does the debate told the campaigns it would talk to crowley to, quote, reconfirm her function. what does your gut tell you?

should candy crowley and follow-up questions in tomorrow's town hall debate? go to facebook.com/newsnation to cast that vote. that does it for this edition. tomorrow is the big day. and chris matthews will join us, a.b. stoddard and steve diese and a body language expert joining the team. "the cycle" is up next. overmany discounts to thine customers! [old english accent] safe driver, multi-car, paid in full -- a most fulsome bounty indeed, lord jamie. thou cometh and we thy saveth! what are you doing? we doth offer so many discounts, we have some to spare. oh, you have any of those homeowners discounts? here we go. thank you. he took my shield, my lady. these are troubling times in the kingdom. more discounts than we knoweth what to do with. now that's progressive. on gasoline.

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