pride restored. thank you so much. good afternoon. it's thursday, october the 18th, and golly gosh, these candidates are everywhere, but, gee, where is mitt? nowhere to be seen. ♪ i've been everywhere man ♪ i've been everywhere man >> we'll win this election. >> i am qualified because i was born in the usa, and unlike one of the candidates for president, i keep all my money here. >> i am not too proud to beg. i want you to vote. >> i really feel good on this couch. >> we don't have to order up some binders to find qualified, talented, driven, young women. >> i'm not running for office and i don't have to say what i feel, but i am pro-life. >> how about the president? isn't it time we get back to the gosh president? >> is that so? >> gosh, gosh, gosh. my good opinionnessgoodness.

>> governor romney took another stab at trying to sell us that $5 trillion tax cut. he took another swing and he whiff. >> i'm not familiar with precisely what i said but i stand by what i said whatever it was. ♪ i've been everywhere, man >> just 19 days until the election, and it is a full-court press on the campaign trail today. the president landed just 90 minutes ago at new york's john k. kennedy airport d f. kennedy. it's part of a hectic day for the president who will face off against mitt romney once again tonight, this time on not with factual corrections, but with comedic zingers at the alfred e. smith dinner. earlier today it was up to battleground new hampshire with a massive crowd on a gorgeous fall day to get in some early jabs at his republican rival.

>> on tuesday governor romney took another stab at trying to sell us this $5 trillion tax cut that favors the wealthy. he took another swing at it and he whiffed. he said i'll let you know after the election. i'm going to let you in on a little tip. when a politician tells you he's going to wait until after the election, it's not because their plan is so good that they don't want to spoil the secret. >> but as the president often says, he can't do this alone. so out in ohio it was the boss, bruce springsteen, rocking the vote along with former president bill clinton, who delivered a resounding repetition of the president's theme. >> you will never have to pay hide and seek with the president's budget. you don't have to play hide and speak with the president's tax returns. you don't have to play hide and seek with the president's college loan program. you don't have to play hide and seek with the president's health

care bill. you do haven't to play hide and seek. we are coming back. >> it was no hide and seek for the president and company with battleground bruce jetting over to iowa to fire up supporters there and vice president joe biden taking no chances campaigning in the silver swing state nevada. emphasizing romney's debate missteps, particularly as they relate to women. >> a direct question in the debate about equal pay for women. he started out by talking about binders. the idea he'd have to go ask somebody to put together a binder is unusual. and by the way, he never did answer the question on equal pay. >> now, as for governor romney, he's off the trail today preparing instead to unleash his superlative sense of humor at tonight's alfred e. smith dinner. so it was left to mrs. romney to

defend her man's trouble with women with those sharp tongued ladies of "the view." >> do you think that access to contraception and abortion is an economic issue as i was saying in the hot topics? >> you know, again, i would love it if you'd get my husband on the couch and -- >> i would love it. >> you can go down with that all you want. >> no, unfortunately, she can't go down with that, ann. that's because mr. romney canceled on the ladies of "the view." they're high risk, you know, only one of them is a conservative. let's get to our panel now in washington. michael crawly, deputy washington chief for "time" and professor michael eric dyson, and with me in new york is joy reid, managing editor of t thegrio.c thegrio.com. the president is roaring around the country today. the vice president is out campaigning, former president bill clinton is out, the boss is out, and mr. romney, he sent his wife onto "the view." >> you know, it's pretty rough.

he's trying to tag team there, i suppose, but the president seems to be in full control of the facts, and as a result of that, the wind is behind his wings with that extraordinary performance the other night, and he's been reinvigorated. he's galvanized the base and the base has spoken back, yes, this is what we want. as a result, his people are out there telling the truth about what his policies are because they're defensible, number one. secondly, because they are rooted in real, thirdly, because the facts favor president obama's interpretation of the virtues of his particular policies for women and other minorities and people whose backs are against the wall. mitt romney is trying to find a way to gloss over the glaring contradictions when it comes to his binders and binders of women and other minorities and other people, 47% of whom he put in those binders and filed them away in the cabinet. >> professor dyson, thank you. joy is with me here and she's our woman in a binder. we thought it might be useful to

correct one of mr. romney's lies. i don't know if you know this, joy, but mr. romney scolded the president saying 580,000 women had lost their jobs during his tenure of president. according to the bureau of labor statistics, that figure is 82,000. but, hey, what's half a million jobs between friends and i guess a guy who supports the blunt amendment. >> in addition to that, even when you look at those numbers, that only works in romney's favor if history itself began on january 20th, 2008. >> which, of course, in his world it did snp. >> exactly. they forget what we were digging out of, those numbers as of february 2009 the president had officially taken office before the stimulus had even kicked in. we were in an economy where you were losing 700,000 jobs a month. we've gotten to a point when we have as a whole created a net plus in jobs. when you break down that figure on female unemployment, that figure is, unfortunately, dragged down because of minority

women's unemployment. unemployment in white women in this country is between 6% and 7%. it has been for months. that's one of the secrets, the little secrets of the economy you will never hear from the republicans. this was essentially a mance mancession. what the stimulus did was it concentrated a lot of the recovery in jobs held by women. health care, teachers. so you saw a big rebound in female employment right at the beginning of the stimulus and now you're seeing toward the end a rebound among men. >> right. michael, both the president and bill clinton slammed romney's game of hide and seek today, but today's gallup tracking poll has romney opening his widest lead over the president, seven points among likely voters. does that prove, mike, this game of hide and seek is working? basically don't tell the electorate your plans, don't give them details about the tax and the deductions you're planning to somehow balance the budget with and actually people will vote for you? >> well, it may.

i mean, i think this is part of a larger successful move toward the center that romney has made in the closing weeks of the campaign. i think part of it is, yes, his presentation in these debates, he's basically -- i think he's done an effective job of making the case, i'm not here to help the wealthy, i'm here to help 100% of americans. this is a line you're hearing a lot in response to the attacks on his 47% line. i'm here for the 100%. he claims he is not cutting taxes on the wealthy. that's a somewhat complicated debate for the president to respond to because it has to do with the expiration of the bush tax cuts or lack thereof. there's going to be lower tacks under president romney for the wealthy than under president obama, but he's making a case his tax reform plan would be revenue neutral. the president has studies saying it's not. i find the studies saying that it's not revenue neutral more persuasive. i think he's successfully made the case he's more moderate and

his economic policies are not favoring the wealthy in a way they were before. >> studies michael was citing on the romney side are two blog posts, and xhips who works for mitt romney and paul ryan's mom. >> none of them are ind. they all work for him. >> professor dyson, we know romney relishes his ability to fire people and it appears he also likes being able to tell employees how they should vote. take a listen to this. >> i hope you make it very clear to your employees what you believe is in the best interest of your enterprise and, therefore, their job and their future in the upcoming elections. >> professor dyson, is this the political version of a shotgun wedding. if you don't do as the boss said, you get fired. >> it may not be a shotgun wedding but the revolver is in the room somewhere. this is a ridiculous renounce yation of the fundamental premise of democracy which is the ability of the voters and

the electorate and citizenry to make decisions independent of coercion externally or from within. if you have a good deal, why not allow that deal to go on the open market, so to speak, and be sold. it's interesting the people who believe in the free market believe in the free market ghikically but not when it comes to ideas. they want to have a kind of raer to cal fascism that imposes its will on people who are beneath it to subordinate them to the claims these people are making because they fear once the facts are out and once the truth is revealed that people won't of their own accord concede to their wishes. so i think this is another rejection of the fundamental principle of democracy and i think, again, when you add in those billionaires doing the same thing, some of mitt's biggest donors are doing the same thing. when you add that together, there's a kind of collusion there that i think is destructive for the very process of democracy. >> professor michael eric dyson, joy reid, and michael crawly.

th next, another rip roaring joke from team romney. >> biden never shuts up, it's just occasionally you have to hood him like a falcon so you can get some sleep at night. don't you have friends who talk about their vote for obama now in much the same tone they use when they told you they took an ambien and woke up naked outside? >> what a great guy, and appreciate him coming out here and speaking the truth.

mitt romney's oldest son has some fighting words for the president after tuesday's debate, and i mean that literally. actual fighting words for the president of the united states

of america. take a listen. >> what is it like for you to hear the president of the united states call your dad a liar? how do you react to that? >> well, jump out of your seat and you want to rush down the debate stage and take a swing at him, but you know you you can't do that because, well, first, because there's a lot of secret service between you and him but also because this is the nature of the process. >> joining us is dr. james peterson from lehigh university and in washington professor david corn, the man who introduced us to the term 47%. he's also an msnbc political analyst. david, if i can start with you, i'm sorry to be so upfront about this, but tagg romney is a mommy's boy. he's such a hard man that he took $10 million from his mommy to help him start his investment fund, and now he wants to fight the president. he's a boy who should learn some manners, isn't he? >> well, first, thank you for the promotion to professor. i'm happy to have that title.

>> it's a pleasure. >> this is what happens in campaigns. when you start listening to relatives and family members, they often, you know, go beyond the talking points. i thought ann romney was very snippy on "the view" when they asked her questions about abortion and access to contraception. she said you have to get my husband on the couch. they tried. he said no, and he sent you and you're not answering the question. all in all, probably not the best day for the romney clan. i got to tell you, after the debate on tuesday night, i don't think ann romney looked as upset as she had been since she was watching clint eastwood at the convention. >> yes. but dr. peterson, this wouldn't mean very much if it was a 12-year-old romney child. tagg romney is over 40 years old, one of his father's closest advisers. what do you say say to a campaign official who jokes about attacking the president of the united states. >> family members are not always

the best surrogates because they wear their compassion for the candidate on their sleeve. the campaign is in damage control mode, so obviously these comments are not there, but honestly his comments later on in that interview about mitt romney being terrified before he goes out for a debate, i think are even more damaging than him saying he wants to take a swipe at the president. they need to do some damage control and tag gk romney needs to get in line with the romney and ryan campaign. >> one of the striking -- one of the findings from harvard speaking about the younger generation, a new poll from harvard points out a 19-point gap among young voters favoring the president. so would you agree they have a better chance of beating mr. romney than tagg does of taking down the president? >> the president looks pretty strong. i think that would be a pretty good fight. pay per view would probably do pretty well. it's no surprise that there's a big youth gap between president

obama and mitt romney. >> why do you say that, david? why is it no surprise? >> i think on at lot of issues whether it's gay rights, abortion -- >> hong ang on, mr. romney has flipped on all of those. young people could decide to go with his more amenable positions. skr they could if they were paying attention the last four nano seconds. he will switch back at some point as well. it's understandable. the concern that the obama camp has, and i talked to somebody close to it this afternoon is while they have these big leads with black voters and latino voters and youth voters that really made up a big part of his winning coalition four years ago, the question they have and that others have raised is, you know, will these groups be voting at the same levels as they did four years ago. >> and i think in that harvard poll there's a suggestion that 65% of romney supporters say they will go out. only 55% express strong enthusiasm for the president. >> and that can make a big difference if we have close races in some of these key

states. >> dr. peterson, this is mitt romney in april telling students in ohio, young people, how they, themselves, can afford the american dream. take a listen. that was not mitt romney. that was, of course, someone else. >> i'm familiar with the quote though. >> we'll play it again. here it is. >> we've always encouraged young people take a shot, go for it. take a risk. get the education, borrow money if you have to from your parents, start a business. >> it's simple, you take out a loan from your parents and we're all millionaires. >> again, romney has become an expert at showing -- exposing for us how entrenched he's been in his own elite 1% upbringing. what's really important about this gap, and david is right, the obama campaign is focused on the enthusiasm gap and they want to try to close that. the reason why young people support obama by that 20-point

margin is because young people want authenticity in their politics. ryan and romney have shown themselves to be not very authentic, especially when it comes to telling the truth. i don't think that gap is going to qulos close amongst young people with these two candidates. >> thank you both. stay with us. much more ahead. >> but everybody knew that mitt had one ace in the hole, libya-gate. romney and his running mate have been hammering the president over this cover-up for weeks. americans are asking, what did the president know? when did the president know it? which one is libya? [ female announcer ] ready for a taste of what's hot? check out the latest collection of snacks from lean cuisine. creamy spinach artichoke dip, crispy garlic chicken spring rolls. they're this season's must-have accessory.

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that's especially true when it comes to mitt romney's epic and catastrophic mistake on tuesday night as he tried yet again to exploit that fatal attack on the consulate in benghazi. mr. romney repeating a favorite fox news fabrication tried to pin the president down on not using the phrase "agent ct of terror," but when the facts were revealed, mr. romney ended up with two eggs over easy dripping down his face. joining us now is congressman peter welch, democrat from vermont. >> good afternoon. >> you would not make a mistake because you have traveled widely in the middle east and have probably forgotten more about foreign policy than mitt romney has ever learned, yet republicans are blaming everyone but the candidate for his serious mistake. it's the moderator, it's the audience, it's the president. but it's never mr. romney. why is that? >> well, keep in mind romney started this whole thing. right after the event happened,

he came on the air and before really giving any condolences for the loss of lives, he was accusing the president of making a bad statement which was made by the egyptian embassy as though you couldn't promote the first amendment and defend religious freedom. they set up what was essentially a show hearing where they didn't consult with democrats. there was no effort to get information and do an investigation but they had the show hearing that was added to with a little drama because they sent a single member of congress, jason chaffetz, to libya to do basically a touchdown and suggest that was an investigation. so this was cooked up. then the next thing, they made the mistake that you can't make if you're heavy into propaganda. they believed their own propaganda, and that's what you heard when mitt romney made his big gaffe. >> on these allegations, sir, of

a cover-up, most offensive to the relatives of at least two who died in that attack, who have pleaded with the republican nominee in public to stop using their sons' deaths as a political football. he can't even get the facts right on the subject. >> that's what is so unseemly about this. our diplomats are brave and they're in harm's way. they choose to take that risk because they believe in america and they believe the importance of them, especially somebody like chris stevens, to be out among the people. it's risky. when something bad happens, instead of stepping back and giving some honor and dignity to the sacrifice and the loss of that ambassador and his family, you plunge in and use it for n venal political reasons is beneath a presidential candidate. >> congressman piter welch, thank you, sir, for joining us. >> thank you. >> stay with us. the day's "top lines" are coming

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♪ [ female announcer ] and try aleve for relief from tough headaches. from the president fired up and my colleagues, to more cheese and whining from fox. here are today's "top lines." trappers keepers, losers weepers. >> it's alive! >> i'm still trying to get the hang of this thing. >> staying awake through this one paid off. >> nice of you to show up at the second one wearing pants. >> i love these debates. >> we don't have to order up some binders to find qualified talented, driven young women. >> this president has failed america's women. what they speak about is help me find a good job. or a good job for my spouse. >> where a qualified woman was, he should come to my house. >> all he meant was he went out of his way to try to recruit qualified women. >> folks, talk about out of touch. >> binder of women, book of

broads. >> vote with your lady smarts, not your lady parts. >> you look incredible. >> it's all smoke and mirrors. >> no, it's not. >> jump out of your seat and you want to rush down and take a swing at him. that brother has slugged me. i assure you president obama has nothing on. >> i i cry every game he does. >> i'm not too proud to vote. >> you were really fun to watch. >> undefeated. a shot at the championship. maybe a bcs bid. >> oh, yeah, over there. >> i was born in the usa. unlike one of the candidates for president, i keep all my money here. >> for god's stake, romney's was assemble in beijing. >> with all due respect, 100% blew it. >> candy crowley herself was the plant and tag team partner of barack obama. >> she's going to be praised and celebrated. >> no, no, no.

just let them cry themselves to sleep. it's the only way they'll learn. >> let's get right to our panel now. we're joined by krystal ball, co-host of the "the cycle" and jonathan capehart, a "washington post" columnist. if i can start with you, having watched those clips, candy crowley is a communist, the president is a misogynist, and fox news may need a psychiatrist. >> yes, all of the above. you can tell who won the debates by the fact that the day after rather than actually talking about the debates -- >> or the content. >> or the content or what the candidates said, after paul ryan lost, they had to complain about martha raddatz and about joe biden laughing and being too -- having the wrong demeanor. and now they have to complain about candy crowley and even they have complained about the voters in the audience. were they really undecided? martin, have you thought about that? i think they may have been plants by george soros. >> i'm quite sure they are. john, when compared with republicans, i have seen less

whining from the octomom's babies fighting over her nipples. >> oh. >> i mean i have. i have heard less whining from those babies than i have from republicans. >> well -- >> can they not acknowledge that their candidate took a beating? why are you laughing? >> i'm glad you got this question, and not me. >> they can't acknowledge the candidate has taken a beating obviously. that's why they're whining in such a manner as you describe. look, if the shoe were on the other foot, remember when democrats were rending their garments and hurling themselves over the cliff because the president was there in body but not in spirit or even in words in some cases. democrats, there is deself re-election, what's happening, what's going on, he must do better. here republicans are deflecting. it has nothing to do with the candidate, nothing to do with what he says. everything to do with candy crowley is a plant or the

president did something. it doesn't make sense, and, you know, they're grasping at straws. >> can i make a broader point here which is that the delusions surrounding the debates is not the only incident of republican delusion. in fact, i mean, their whole world is not based in reality, and there was a brief moment after mitt romney actually did win the first debate when they could live in reality. when they could talk about the debate and say he was getter, he was better than the president. he came out and was more aggressive, he was with it, but now that their guys aren't doing as well, they have to go back to the nonreality-based universe where they have been living for the past four years. >> we like to have jokes and we like to joke about the republican war against reality and logic, but sometimes i'm not so sure it's very funny. take a listen to this. >> declaring something an act of terror does not necessarily mean you are declaring it a terror attack. i mean, any act that's going to kill our ambassador in this

fashion could be described as an act of terror. >> that actually was said today. is she speaking swahili because i'm trying to understand, that wasn't english, was it? an act of terror cannot be described as an act of terror. >> it is amazing the gymnastics they will go through mentally to try to find a way in which their guy was wronged and they were the victims of the liberal media. so it comes down to this parsing of active terror versus terrorism and he didn't say benghazi in that sentence so he could have been talking about something different when, in fact, he called it an act of terror two days in a row. it wasn't like he just said it. >> imagine if this were 2004 and that the person standing in the rose garden weren't president obama but was president george w. bush. what would fox be saying then in we wouldn't be having this conversation. they wouldn't be belittling either what the president said or the gravity of the moment.

an american ambassador has been killed. i long for the days when a situation like that, an international crisis like that, made republicans and democrats, particularly in leadership positions, circle the wagons around america rather than circle the wagons around their particular nominee. >> well-said. there was also comments about how fact checking within a debate is not appropriate. what we should wait until people aren't watching to say, by the way, that was false? i think what was so incredible and satisfy being that moment is that the romney/ryan campaign has been based around a web of lies. everything from the most -- the largest bulk of their ad dollars being put behind this misleading welfare work ad. it's not misleading. it's just flat out wrong. >> to that point, mr. romney finds himself very much on the defensive about women's issues following that debate. earlier today his wife appeared on "the view" and she was asked if she, like her husband, had changed her position, her stance on the issue of abortion.

take a listen to this. >> you know, the good news is i'm not running for office and i don't have to say what i feel, but i am pro-life. i'm happy to say that. >> do you think that access to contraception and abortion is an economic issue as i was saying in the hot topics? >> you know, again, i would love it if you'd get my husband on the couch -- >> i would love that. >> again, she's happy to say she's pro-life but she's not particularly thrilled to talk about anything in any detail and yet she's supposed to be the campaign's top spokesperson on women's issues, and yet she won't talk about women's issues. she says i love winl, but she doesn't say what she thinks women's issues are, how she would position herself in relation to these issues. >> and as you alluded to before, i mean, they supported planned parenthood financially in the '90s. it seems like even if she won't admit exactly where her position is, it seems she's at least undergone a rhetorical shift in

where she stands. i get from her there isn't a real depth of thinking about policy, a real, you know, thoughtfulness around this. i think she's there to support mitt and do what she can to help him. to your point it doesn't make sense to have your top advocate be out there and not be able to speak to policy positions because that's what this is really supposed to be all about. >> not speak to policy positions that might get the candidate in trouble. i mean, this is a thing i find so fascinating about the romney/ryan ticket, particularly -- well, both of them actually, because mitt romney has been all over the place on every issue, and then paul ryan hasn't been all over the place on all the issues. he's been very specific and very definitive, but he's had to wall himself off. he's not been able to talk in the way that he's used to talking, in specifics. so you've got paul ryan out there who is getting hammered by chris wallace asking him where are the numbers. he goes i can't talk -- i don't have time to get into all that. there you have ann romney on the

couch who is being asked, well, what do you think? oh, no, no, i'm not the candidate. >> particularly since her husband supports the blunt amendment which would have allowed employers for any moral objection whatsoever to cease to provide health care for women. jonathan capehart and krystal ball. coming up can women save president obama. next, the boss and bubba take their act on the road. stay with us. >> this is the first time in my life i ever got to be the warm-up act for bruce springsteen. so i was -- i am qualified because i was born in the usa and unlike one of the candidates for president, i keep all my money here. hi, i'm phil mickelson.

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so i know how important that is. ♪ that was none other than the boss, bruce springsteen at a campaign rally in ohio which has arguably become the most critical of all the battleground states. springsteen was introduced by former president bill clinton who waste nod time d no time ing why mitt romney won't give us his numbers. >> he thinks we're dumb. where are your numbers? this guy ran bain capital sand s a business guy and he's hiding his budget. that ought to tell you something.

>> perry bacon is an msnbc contributor and the political editor of thegrio.com. perry, when you see bruce springsteen show up with bth for a rally in ohio while the president is stumping in new hampshire, you know they are pulling out all the stops, aren't they, with just 19 days left. >> and springsteen and clinton in one event tells you how important ohio, ohio, ohio. neither one of these candidates can probably win without winning ohio. that's become central for the election just like in '04, just like in '08. you get two big stars, springsteen is a big star, of course, and bill clinton has been on the trail a lot. the fact he's in ohio today tells you how important that state is. >> domenico, it appears all we hear about is ohio. take us across the battleground states mitt romney would need to carry if the president wins the buckeye state. >> so essentially if president

obama winds up winning ohio, romney is going to have to win three of four of the following states. he needs three of four of wisconsin, iowa, nevada, or colorado. so that's a pretty tough g-- that's why it's such a narrow path for romney, why ohio is important, why florida and virginia is important. that's giving florida and virginia to mitt romney. if he doesn't win florida, there's almost -- there is no path that you can really see. >> right. perry, the president drew another big crowd in new hampshire today and a huge one at ohio university last night. do you chalk up this high energy to his debate performance on tuesday or has the campaign really plotted this out so that the final 20 days will be when the foot is to the floor? >> you know, whenever i go with him, there are big crowds. the president tends to draw big crowds. he went to a college campus. he really needs the college educated vote, the college student vote to come out in big numbers. you will see him at more

campuses in the next few weeks because that's the vote that people are worried about. many people will stay home among that group because they haven't found jobs. he needs to turn out that vote of under 30-year-olds. i think you will see him at a lot of campuses. >> that harvard university poll mentioning the fact that the president leads by 19 points with young people under the age of 30. >> yes. the question is not are young people going to vote for mitt romney. they're not going to. the question is are they going to show up in big numbers in states like virginia and ohio. it's a turnout question among young voters and latinos and african americans. these voters don't like mitt romney, but they've got to turn out in the numbers that obama saw in '08 for him to have a good chance. >> domenico, after his infamous reports about binders full of women, mitt romney is off on a bus full of women, those who have worked with the man. but his claim during the debate that women have lost 580,000 jobs in the last four years is,

i believe, not strictly accurate, is that right? >> no, it's not. it's a number that's really outdated. it's a number that had he said it back in march, which he had been saying, it would have been true. but now if you calculate the number, it's only 283,000 if you calculate from january. now, there's some debate whether or not you should calculate from january or from february. february is the month -- the first full month that any president serves. if you calculate from february, well, that number drops to just 82,000 jobs that have been lost. so either way you look at it, romney wasn't accurate at the debate. >> so that figure that romney suggested places full responsibility for job losses on the president even before he was inaugurated, correct? >> well, that's always the question that economists always have an analyst to say -- >> domenico, what's the answer to that question? >> that is the answer. it is nuanced. he is blaming president obama for jobs that have been lost and

saying strictly here is what it was when he started, here is what it is now. but there is a lot of blame or a lot of, you know, questions that people raise from economists and analysts on where do you blame a president? is it five months in, seven months in? that depends on the depth of the free fall. i think that's also a very difficult argument for the president to make when unemployment was above 8%, was near 10%, but then he has this stronger argument to say, look, things are getting better. it may not be great but now we're below 8%. we'll see if it stays there. >> domenico, perry, gentlemen, thank you so much. >> thank you. next, the real face-off between the president and mr. romney. they have to trade jokes tonight. that's just ahead. but first, ahman dra drua drury. >> let's take a look at how stocks ended the trading day. all of them were down. lots of focus on google's drop, down by 8% at the end of the day and it dragged down the nasdaq

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*- whis actual night's debate revealed some deep policy differents between the president and his challenger, it's clear there was little love lost between these two men. things are bound to be interesting tonight at the alfred e. smith dinner where they will be expected to display the lighter side of their personalities. from the first event in 1960 which featured john f. kennedy and richard nexton to al gore and george w. bush in 2000. this is usually a high level comedy with a few political punches thrown in for good measure. kristin welker joins us live.

we have witnessed the president bringing the house counsel at the correspondents dinner memorably mocking donald's trump but can he use his wit and wisdom with mitt romney literally sitting a few feet away? >> reporter: i think you will see both candidates have a little fun with tonight's dinner. of course, they are going to throw some barbs at each other, but i think they will be barbs of the playful sort. if you go back to 2008, you might remember john mccain made the joke about the fact that the only supporter he had in new york was hillary clinton, who happened to be in the audience. he got a big laugh line there. then senator obama made the joke that his name was swahili for that one, and if you remember, that one was what john mccain called him during one of the debates. what was interesting though, martin, at the end of the dinner, they both sort of pra e praiseed each other. it will be interesting to see

how they wrap up their remarks. there are reports they don't even like each other very much. they don't have much respect for each other. it's not just that they're competitors. so it will be interesting to see what note they decide to leave their speeches on, but i'm sure tonight is going to be a lot of fun, sort of a combination of standup comedy and a roast. >> the president has been busily campaigning today, as you know. do you get the impression that he won't be giving as much time to debate prep for monday because foreign policy, after all, is the subject, something that he's had some considerable experience of during his presidency and his opponent doesn't appear to have much expertise in. >> reporter: i don't get that impression. i think the president and team obama know there is a lot riding on monday night, and based on what happened during that sort of disastrous first debate when president obama delivered a lackluster performance and then his poll numbers started to drop, i don't think they are going to take this debate for fronted. president obama is going to camp david this weekend where he is going to prepare. i don't think you will see him

playing many games of golf this weekend. i think he's going to really study and make sure that he can deliver his answers in sort of short and concise ways, but i think the obama team knows they have to take this debate seriously because they just can't afford to have another repeat performance of the first debate. >> indeed. nbc's kristin welker, as ever, fighting the sirens behind you. thank you so much. >> reporter: thanks, martin. >> we'll be back to "clear the air." hungry for the best? it's eb. want to give your family the very best in taste, freshness, and nutrition? it's eb. eggland's best. better taste. better nutrition. better eggs.

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