he's got the momentum on his side. >> we haven't heard an agenda from the president and that's why his campaign is taking on water and our campaign is full speed ahead. >> the romney campaign, though, is distancing itself today from republican senate candidate in indiana, richard mourdock who romney only this week endorsed in a tv ad, the indiana republican set off a firestorm in a debate last night with these comments about rape and abortion. >> i struggled with it myself for a long time but i came to realize life is that gift from god and i think even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that god intended to happen. >> and they can just get along. monday's boca debate, "daily show" style. >> i congratulate him on taking out osama bin laden. drones are being used in drone strikes and i support that entirely. and feel the president was right. i want to underscore the same

point the president made. i felt the same as the president did. i supported his action there. absolutely the right thing to do to have crippling sanctions. >> i think romney's leaning obama. >> good day. i'm andrea mitchell live in philadelphia today. the campaign carousel is spinning fast. the candidates whirling around and around the swing states and joining me now for our daily fix, chris cizilla, msnbc contributor and managing editor of postpolitics.com and mark halperin senior analyst for "time" and msnbc reporting from chicago today. chris cizilla, a new "washington post"/abc daily tracking poll, 48/49. what is that telling you? >> well, we started doing it monday, andrea, four days of interviews, and on monday among likely voters we had it obama

49, romney 48. on tuesday -- that was the friday through monday interviews. we had it romney 49/obama 48. what does that tell me? it tells me the race is very, very close and yes, "the washington post" does key for that astute analysis. i think we have to be careful not to make too much of slight movements. we're doing these tracking polls because i think it's fascinating to watch the last couple weeks how things play out, but 49/48, will 48/49 it's close nationally. keep your eye on the swing states. one swing state in particular we talk about it almost every day you and i, andrea, ohio. that's the state that mitt romney has to find a way to get back in front of barack obama in. >> mark your any chicago obviously talking to campaign officials there. want to take you behind the scenes and ask, if you have any better understanding of this "des moines register" flap. the most important news paper in iowa, one of the remaining swing

states and the president tries to keep an editorial board preendorsement interview off the record, finally today a lot of confusion and some embarrassment puts it on the record and it was basically nothing in the editorial board interview that would harm him in any way. can you explain something of what might have been happening behind the scenes? >> well, look, these two candidates are remarkably unavailable for the most part and cautious for the most part. they don't want to have slip ups. they don't come to the back and plane and talk very often. in the case of governor romney they don't mix with reporters asking questions. for the most part we should say the president is doing a series of interviews with brian williams over the next 48 hours that marks an exception. you know look at what happened with governor romney when he did his interview with the "des moines register" board. he made a mistake speaking about abortion and had to clean it up. i bet you that's a sophisticated ed board, i bet the obama people

keyed off that to some extent to say if we can get away with not being fully accessible let's try it. minimize the chance something could go wrong. >> and, of course, that key endorsement will come saturday from that paper. now indiana, richard mourdock, we made reference to this in the open, richard mourdock is the candidate who defeated dick lugar in the republican primary and here in this very important state, this very important senate race, did he say anything last night that will antagonize women voters? chris cizilla, is this more of an issue? we're told the romney campaign disagrees with what he said but not stepping away from him from the point of asking him to take down that ad, an ad that only went up on monday. >> and still says they suppo him broadly but don't obviously support his comments. look andrea, i always think that context matters in politics and the context of this race, is

that richard mourdock beat dick lugar, a long-time kind of center right certainly was cast in the primaries as center right politician, and dick lugar has been very unhappy since losing that race basically saying that mourdock is not a serious legislature, mourdock is someone who's kind of running with the tea party and won't get anything done in washington. this plays to -- these comments will raise concerns that are already there in indiana about is richard mourdock someone who can win over moderate voters anden particularly women. when you have a controversy, this has become a national issue, president obama using it against mitt romney, mitt romney pushing back, when you have a controversy like this that happens in a close race, talking about indiana here, 13 days before an election hard to argue it won't have any impact, particularly when it's already playing to type, it's already about that race, it's about is

richard mourdock too conservative for the state of indiana? >> mark, there in chicago, you're picking up a lot of optimism and we're hearing we've got the momentum from mitt romney in iowa. where do you think the truth lies? do both sides think they've got momentum? because clearly from your reporting, we've been exchanging e-mails, you think that chicago thinks that they can win this. nbc news analysis is, you're going to need the women and the hispanics and you need hispanics in colorado and in florida if you don't win ohio. where do you think it stands? >> i agree with what chris has been suggesting. it's a one state election. hard to see the winner losing ohio. it's mathematically possible but hard to do. i talked to senior officials in the campaign and they laid out for me their case. i'm not a stenographer, i'm not a potted plant, i'm telling you what they're saying about their perception of the race. there are nine battleground

states broadly defined, north carolina, may be less of a battleground, but trying to win all nine, but they feel particularly strongly about five of them in their position there. they're modeling assumes a large turnout among low propensity voters like single women, like hispanics, like african-americans. they base that on how they poll and in part on how many of the people -- new registrants and voting early come from the groups. they're banking the votes from the groups hard to get to vote on election day and that makes them very optimistic they're going to win. >> i would never accuse you of being a potted plant. thank you very much. thanks, mark. thanks, chris. >> thank you. >> joining me to talk about the end game for the democratic perspective, bo biden, the vice president's son and attorney general for the state of dlael ware as well as an iraq war vet. thank you for joining us. >> i agree with you, an dre,

mark is definitely not a potted plant. >> right. we all agree on that. your dad in ohio today. yesterday the president was there yesterday. no accident, of course. can you win ohio? what do you have to do to win ohio? >> do what we've been doing the last ten months, that is talking to ohioans all over the state. i've been there a bunch, my dad been there the last three days. look the american people and citizens of ohio know the real ma coy when they see it. they know authenticity. what they saw over the last several debates is a candidate in the form of governor romney who's slowly but surely disavowed everything he's talked about over the course of the last six years he's been running for president. one thing ohioans know know people when they're authentic and not. look, andrea, running for president of the united states is about earning the trust, earning the trust of the american people or the citizens of the state of ohio. governor romney has raised serious questions about whether

or not he can be trusted based on what he said over the course of the last three debates completely inconsistent with what he's been saying during the republican primaries over the last year quite frankly over the last six years he's been seeking the presidency. >> if you win ohio, do you win the presidency? >> i think it's -- puts us in a good path to do that, but as chris was pointing out and mark pointed out we're working hard in every battleground state. we feel good about each of the battleground states i was in north carolina last weekend, i'm going to north carolina this weekend. we've raised actually registered hundreds of thousands of voters in the state of north carolina. early voting has begun in all of these states. early voting has been strong. i think on -- from our perspective. we have the best ground game. knowing the presidential politics we've surpassed what the ground game we had in 2008 which blew everybody else out of the water both in the primaries and general election. look, in ohio alone, we have 120 field offices.

i go down to these -- through these small towns in ohio and see the folks in our field office, whether at 2:00 in the afternoon or 10:00 at night, and many as i pass by, the romney office even if they have an office i see dark lights most of the time. wear relying on the grass roots effort that elected the president in 2008. >> don't you feel, though, or perhaps you don't see it but when i travel around i feel less enthusiasm than we saw in 2008 for the obama/biden ticket. you don't have the excitement. partly because it's a re-election campaign, not something new and historic but don't see as many yard signs, you don't get the vibe that young people or hispanics or other people in your base are as excited about what the second term agenda would be. >> well, i was as you know i was on my way to -- for my deployment in 2008, so i didn't get to see it up close and personal. my personal observation being

out there is there's a massive amount of excitement out there. just look at early voting. early voting has been strong and the exit polls on early voting show it highly favors the president of the united states. i was pleased to hear what chris said and mark said. this myth of momentum romney has, look, they've lost the last two debates, early voting is breaking if favor of the president of the united states, and we have the clear advantage on electoral college. we're not taking anything for granted but how the romney campaign has spun that to the national press corps as somehow a now men tem that's not a recipe for a win, that's a recipe for a loss and victory for the president of the united states. >> there is a scenario that a lot of us talk about where you end up at 269/269 and this gets thrown to the house of representatives which is as you know controlled by the republicans. how much do you all worry about that? >> oh, look, i'm just going out there and campaigning, working

hard to earn the votes of folks on behalf of the president and vice president. i'll leave that to folks in chicago to answer. what i've been focused on, it's about earning the trust of the american people. and mitt romney has raised and continues to raise more questions about his trust worthiness and whether or not you can trust him than answered them. look very briefly, here's a person who debated ted kennedy 20 years ago and tried to be more progressive than ted kennedy. 20 years later he's on stage with newt gingrich and rick santorum, senator from the state i'm in pennsylvania, and he was actually more severely conservative than newt gingrich. the american people understand that when someone doesn't have a core and doesn't have a clear vision that raises real questions about whether or not they can trust him over the next four years do what they say they're going to do. >> and finally, immigration, one of the quotations that have been

released now that embargo or off the roar basis for this "des moines register" interview has been lifted, was the president saying to them, that he is confident that the second thing he's confident he'll do next year is immigration reform and since this is off the record i will just be very blunt, should i win a second term a big reason i will win a second term because the republican nominee and republican party have so alienated the fastest growing demographic group in america. that's what he said. when he's talking about the latino community. at that point was off the record. that's now been agreed it's on the record. why has it taken so long, four years, for the president to reach this point on immigration reform and why should people believe it will happen in 2013 if he's re-elected since it did happen in the first four -- didn't happen in the first four year. >> look at the latino and hispanic community and what they saw in the debate stage from governor romney and rick

santorum and rick perry. i mean look, these are folks that -- to say they alienated the hispanic latino communities in this country is an understatement. that's why you see support in states like nevada and new mexico, virginia and florida and ohio from the latino and hispanic communities. these are votes that the president has earned based on the actions he's taken on behalf of the community over the last 12 months, not just the last 12 months but three and a half years, and i take the president at his word that's something he'll pursue in a second term. so the record is very, very stark as it relates to the issue of immigration. the president has a positive and strong one. look what he did earlier this year. and look what the things that governor romney has said during the debates. again, look that was a perfect example. he tried to outdo the most anti-immigration person on the stage in the form of all -- his other republican opponents. he'll -- governor romney is a

person who will say anything at the moment that is politically expedient to get him elected. the american people see that. this is about trust and he's losing the trust of the american people not gaining it in the final 14 days. >> bo biden just add before i let you go, a thanks. your parents, all politics aside, tonight your parents are hosting the breast cancer awareness event at their home in washington and we appreciate that. >> thank you and thanks for coming today. >> thanks what you've done. >> next the mourdock controversy will it hurt women voters? labor pains for president obama in ohio. this is "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. [ male announcer ] there are only so many foods

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the romney campaign is distancing itself today from richard mourdock's statement the

indiana republican running for the senate about women who get pregnant after being raped. though the romney campaign is not asking that the endorsement advertisement from romney of mourdock which just went up on monday be taken down, the timing for the romney republicans couldn't be worse. here what is mourdock just had to say at a news conference in indiana. >> are you trying to suggest that somehow i think god ordained or preordained rape? i don't believe that. anyone who would suggest that -- that's a sick and twisted -- that's not close to what i said. >> joining me now is michael steele, former chairman of the republican national committee. michael, thank you very much for being with us. >> good to be with you. >> the romney campaign is not asking to take down that advertisement so that's still playing in indiana. >> right. >> just saying that they disagree with what he said about rape and abortion. is this similar to todd akin? is this, you know, a mountain out of a mole hill or will have an impact on some women voters?

>> it's similar, not the same and i think, you know, just to be -- to be fair having read mr. mourdock's statement, you know, in the context when had he originally stated it, he wasn't saying that god condonees rape, but he was speaking specifically about the life that may come from that horrible act is still precious in god's eyes. that's the context of it. again, this is another example of the poor articulation of a philosophy or a point of view by candidates in the heat of battle and if you're not prepared to really explain yourselves and be clear in your thinking and your expression, then you should, as the campaigns probably is wishing right now, stay away from these topics. this has not been a focus of the national debate. just as we saw in the akin situation, we want, as candidates weigh want those candidates to stay focus on what

the american people and constituents are talking about. the romney campaign is probably scratching their head going what do we have to do to keep this last two weeks focused on things that matter most to the american people and this certainly isn't it. >> michael, we're hearing from mitt romney that the momentum is on their side. we're hearing from the obama campaign they think they have an easier path of 270 through the battleground states. you're a former republican national chairman. what do you think is happening out there? >> there has been, obviously, andrea, you talked about this and been clear about the trend line since the first debate for romney where he really left a good impression on a lot of americans out there. i think it's been reflected in the polls. the president has battled back and there's a reason why, for example, you had this in your first segment, the firewall of iowa, wisconsin and ohio has been so important for the romney -- the obama campaign, is that, you know, that opens up,

if it's taken down and breached in any way by romney, opens up a real opportunity and gives him greater latitude to get to 270 than he otherwise would have. he needs ohio. there's no doubt about that. he gets ohio, florida, virginia, north carolina, then it's almost a clear opportunity for him to become the next president of the united states. so this next couple of weeks are going to be a concentration on that ground game, shoring up that firewall for the obama team, and going into it with the hammer, the chisel and anything they can find on the romney side to break that thing free so that they have a greater pathway to the white house. >> do you think that mitt romney's moderation of the number of his positions in the final debate works for him? he was clearly pivoting from where he had been during the primary season, was it too late a pivot or people are really paying attention now. 59 million people watched that debate. 67 million watched the denver

debate which was a clear romney victory. do you think that had he can present himself that way and not have to answer to criticism that he's moderating or changing his position or flip flopping? >> i think he can and he has very effectively created that arc between the first debate and the last debate. as you rightly noted, people tuned in in the first debate, 60 plus million, 59 million at the end. you have now romney having defined himself in the political psyche of the american people very powerful. i think it's been reflected in the polls. it has the obama team nervous. chicago is not happy about their standing right now, although they'll give you the bravado this is where we expect to be, we knew it would be tight. they're looking at their internal numbers, the movement towards romney and i thought chuck todd put it the best. look, the obama team has the map. they've got you, though, that clear -- you know that clear path to 270, romney has the momentum. a question does the momentum

overcome the map or the map stave off the momentum? you're going to see that play out i think by this weekend quite frankly. this is going to settle down and become clearer where the voters will be in about 13 days. >> and you know, michael one quick thing, chuck pointed something out to me last night, which is that the time, the gap between the first debate and the second debate, was the longest in this cycle since 1988. >> yeah. >> when memorably jim baker on behalf of george bush, you know, 41, was dragging his feet and trying to hold dukakis off and keep him off the stage as long as possible, only two debates, a long gap there, but all that time between denver and, you know, the second debate was a long time for mitt romney to try to ride that momentum. >> and he rode it very well and it also made it more difficult for the obama team to get off the subject, to get off the president's performance because,

you know, everything they did was a reminder of that. that gap played i think to romney's advantage so far. >> michael steele, thank you very much, my friend. >> thank you. >> thank you for being here. >> and wall street tries to bounce back today from tuesday's plunge. what else can we expect in the days before the election? cnbc's steve liesman joins us next here on "andrea mitchell reports." >> time for the your business entrepreneur of the week. seth works boston area renaissance fares, hauntsed houses and night clubs. he hawks from his bone shop cart selling bones, skull and other items. he hooks engages and sells through performance and mirroring potential customer temperame temperaments. watch your business sunday morning 7:30 on msnbc. [ female announcer ] need help keeping your digestive balance? try the #1 gastroenterologist recommended probiotic. align. align naturally helps maintain digestive balance. ♪ ooh, baby, can i do for you today? ♪

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>> it would be easy to dismiss it as not a smart move if it did, but what we understand the allegations are, is that they include actions taken by bank of america afterwards saying they knew about what was going on at countrywide and continue those allegations. i will tell you in the financial community there's a lot of concern about this lawsuit and one against jpmorgan because you remember jpmorgan came in and bailed out bear stearns and bank of america bailed out countrywide and what bankers are telling me it's going to be a long time before a bank steps up and buys another bank at the urging of regulators. this is going to have a chilling effect. you'll remember barney frank i believe yesterday released a statement asking the new york attorney general's office not to prosecute these cases. >> barney frank has a lot of credibility with consumer acty vigss and with the -- activists and regulators. the regulators were pushing the banks to take up these properties, to buy these properties, take them over, to

prevent further deterioration in the financial services area. >> right. >> why would they take on this responsibility and this kind of debt in the future. >> another aspect to this. not only did they do what you said to prevent a cascade in the financial community, but also, they were able to affect the bailouts with minimal and some cases no tab to the taxpayer. the next time around if the government has to do it on its own there might be a more substantial tab for u.s. taxpayers. >> and briefly, steve, looking ahead in the next 13 days, if you can put on your forecaster's hat. what might happen either overseas, in china and europe or elsewhere that might dramatically affect this election or is it really baked in the cake? [ inaudible ]. >> i think dramatically it's too high a bar for me to answer you, andr andrea. we do have that jobs report, comes out the friday before the tuesday report and i think a big number could maybe raise some

eyebrows if it confirmed the decline we had on the employment rate. if it was a strong job growth number. hard for me to imagine a piece of economic data. gdp report coming up shortly. still hard to imagine a piece of -- gdp report or economic report that would rise to the level of dramatically alter the election, given three debates, billions of advertising and barely budged the needle from that. i don't think the economic data can do it either. >> thank you very much. steve liesman, good to see you. up next, pull up a chair, clint eastwood back in action. don't miss the nbc news exclusive, brian williams spending two days on the campaign trail with president obama. and we will have part of their conversation from the trail tomorrow right here. treatment a. now with a fancy coating that gives you a burst of wildberry flavor. now why make a flavored heartburn pill? because this is america. and we don't just make things you want, we make things you didn't even know you wanted.

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on gasoline. i am probably going to the gas station about once a month. last time i was at a gas station was about...i would say... two months ago. i very rarely put gas in my chevy volt. i go to the gas station such a small amount that i forget how to put gas in my car. [ male announcer ] and it's not just these owners giving the volt high praise. volt received the j.d. power and associates appeal award two years in a row. ♪ topping the headlines on "andrea mitchell reports" state officials in massachusetts are shutting down that pharmacy linked to the fungal meningitis

outbreak that has left 23 people dead around the country and more than 300 sick. investigators say they found unsanitary condition including black fungus in sealed vials. governor patrick is toughening oversight of other pharmacies around the state. >> u.s. and israeli forces holding their largest joint military exercises today. the exercise called austere challenge 12 uses computer games and military hardware to prepare for a potential missile attack. the operation comes against the backdrop of heightened tensions with iran, syria and hezbollah. >> sandy is a category 1 hurricane and could impact the east coast with high winds and rain later this week. the storm is currently pounding jama kay expected to make landfall later today in florida. there is a tropical storm watch in effect for florida's east coast and for the keys. and while governor romney campaigns out west, his running mate is preparing to deliver what has been billed as a major

policy speech in ohio. nbc's ron mott is traveling with congressman paul ryan and joins me by phone. you're in cleveland i think, about to head to the speech. what are we expecting from paul ryan today? >> hey there, andrea. good day to you. i apologize for any noise. we're in the motorcade headed to cleveland state university where congressman ryan is expected to deliver this big speech that was -- that the campaign is calling an important speech to get out the voters, particularly i think they're trying to reach those voters perhaps in voting for president obama four years ago, particularly those in the midwest and ohio and wisconsin, iowa and the like, and i think it's no accident we're back here in ohio. they want to win this state. this is a firewall in a lot of ways for the president. but the message today is going to be specifically geared i think in a lot of ways, seen parts of the speech, to african-americans. he mentions their plight in specific. he talks about the hispanic americans and the plight they face and the message from the campaign is that a lot of folks bought into the president's hope

and change and inspirational campaign from four years ago, but over those four years, they've seen their standard of living decrease and this speech is going to be centered around trying to refocus and recapture that -- the promise of upward mobility, what paul ryan talks about a lot on the campaign trail. he talked about when he was in college paying his way from college working at mcdonald's and busses tables and things like that, that he never stuck in his station in life and going to be the theme of this speech today, for some people and a lot of americans who have seen their standard of living decrease, they feel stuck in some ways and wants to give them an opportunity to consider voting for a republican this cycle versus voting for the president where they believe the romney campaign, that they're going to get more of the same. so we'll have to see exactly how it this message is received in ohio where governor romney continues to trail the president in the polls. >> thanks so much. ron mott from the motorcade with paul ryan. and karl rove's republican

super pac had apparently decided that clint eastwood is a big draw with their target voters because despite eastwood's ridiculed convention appearance with the empty chair eastwood is staring in a new american crossroads ad for mitt romney being rolled out today. >> the last few years america has been knocked down. 23 million people can'tind full-time work. we borrow $4 billion every single day. much of it from china. someone doesn't get the job done, you're going to hold them accountable. obama's second term would be a rerun of the first that our country couldn't survive that. we need someone to turn it around fast that is mitt romney. >> former democratic congressman from virginia tom is an obama supporter and republican strategist john supports governor romney. thanks to both of you. well, tom, is that clint eastwood ad effective? >> you know, he's a great actor and certainly an american icon and this ad shows that romney's

losing a lot of ground with seniors since putting paul ryan on the ticket, it's put florida in play in a way it wasn't before. i've been out in a bunch of the battleground states. seniors are concerned about that plan. we'll see if this is enough to stop the concern about that in the same way i think paul ryan's speech today is really a response to the drubbing he's taken with the nuns on the bus and others who called out his budget failing to meet the standards of decency and more reality. these are defensive measures. it's a full sprint right now. both sides will make their case. tv stations willing the winners and we'll see how it ends up. >> and john, the daily tracking poll from gallup has president obama's approval rating at 53%. that is the highest it's been since late 2009. does that put some worry into you? we've been talking about mitt romney's momentum post denver. this would show something very different if these polls are to be believed.

>> i actually feel very confident about where mitt romney is. i think the clint eastwood ad is great. i think it attracts blue collar voters, especially those in ohio and michigan and pennsylvania. i do think that romney had a great event yesterday in colorado. i think there's just a lot of excitement. i think what republicans are getting really excited about this campaign finally, at the right moment. i think the momentum is on romney's side. i'm not that concerned about these daily polls going back and forth. i just get a sense that romney's got the momentum and going to win this election. >> let's talk about the battleground, though, both of you. we see these seven we believe the nbc news seven states, some argue nine states, talking about a very, very narrow path to 270 for both of these candidates. john, the conventional wisdom the president has a lead in more of these battleground states than does mitt romney.

>> well, they're all within the margin of error otherwise they wouldn't be battleground states. i think if you look at north carolina and virginia, i feel very confident about romney winning those two states. you could almost take those off. making great strides in pennsylvania. everyone talks about ohio being the end all be all but he has a good shot of winning colorado, good shot in iowa and very good shot in wisconsin. this is going to be about turnout and who's more excited to come out. i think that republicans are much more jazzed to vote than democrats and i think the enthusiasm gap that almost every poll shows shows that republicans are much more excited this time around. they want to replace president obama with someone who's going to fix this economy and i think that's why they're going to come out and vote. >> tom, what about the enthusiasm gap? >> i support the enthusiasm i just heard. it doesn't happen to match what we're seeing on the ground. i think everybody knows the president has a better ground game and running a people powered campaign. the romney campaign has a lot

more money and trying to rain that down from the top like his economic policies and we'll see which one wins. the fact is the midwest has become a real stronghold for the president because when the auto industry was down, two leaders took two different approaches. mitt romney stumbled again trying to explain that in the last debate. you saw not only the gender gap reopening even before the issues with mr. mourdock, in the national debate with national security women thinking that president obama won that debate on mitt romney's arguments about detroit. it's not just about people connected to the auto industry, it's about this basic belief of whether we're going to build, make and grow things in america anymore and that's why from the midwest areas, that one might have thought a year ago would be prime ground for romney, he's had to fight and fight and fight and still hasn't been able to close the deal. >> let me push back a bit. the president has as much money as mitt romney. they both have more money than they can spend in the next 13

days. >> [ inaudible ]. sorry, andrea. >> well, i mean, not just the campaign money, i mean all of the money. both sides are inundated with money trying to figure out where to spend it. at this stage, though, tom, do you think the president still has a shot in virginia and how do you match up the close george allen and tim kaine senate race? >> i think the president certainly has a shot in virginia and that says a lot about his momentum. tim kaine's been able to create some separation from george allen and i think is definitely the favorite in virginia in the senate race. ultimately john and why agree there's only one poll that matters and that's what happens on election day so virginia will come down to the wire, i think the president has a great shot at it, tim kaine's got a real good shot at that and i think virginians gave a look at mitt romney and george allen. they weren't sold necessarily on a second term. and they really i think the conservatives lost it on the merits, they lost huge ground with women in virginia, but also

folks who were asking this question about what's in this for the middle class versus those at the highest end. and i think, you know, virginians are going to be pragmatic about that. >> can i jump in on this? >> yeah. jump in real quick. >> tom knows how popular that obama is in his district because he was the big loser in 2010. i would also say that the debate, one clear thing about the debate is that obama does not really like the navy and that's going to kill him in that area in hampton roads and virginia beach and that area, that's so dependent on the navy. i think that if you look even mcclain, there's a lot more romney signs than obama signs. >> i think to argue that the commander in chief hates the navy is an absurd statement. >> horses and bayonets, guys. but we will have to leave it there. thank you both very much. thanks for coming on. and up next, teamster's

president james hoffa joining us. the drive to turn out the vote in ohio.

well, folks you probably heard the rumor that ohio is going to pick the next president of the united states of america. >> in the battle for ohio beau sides are targeting union households. our new poll shows that mitt romney is gaining, union support grown from 34 to 43%. joining me is james hoffa, president the of the international brotherhood of teamsters, of course trying to mobilize union workers in ohio and elsewhere for president obama. what about the appeal of mitt romney, he says that day one he will beat up on china as a currency manipulator that president obama has not been tough enough on china and other countries. is there a broad appeal to union workers who are feeling this economic pinch, perhaps more than anyone? >> absolutely not.

you have to remember that mitt romney is a guy that said let detroit go bankrupt, and he also meant let ohio go bankrupt. the auto industry's very important. we're out there working very hard in ohio. i've already made -- spent seven days there. i'm going to go back there next week. ohio is where it's at. i don't think that appeal is working at all. it really comes down to what's going on. what people really know. i don't think they can relate to, you know, what's going on in china. him to say that after he shipped so many jobs there with bain capital rings not true. i think that people in ohio are concerned about their jobs, ohio is doing better. there's an uptick in the economy there. they're below the national average. and there's a feeling there that we can win this thing and i think there's a momentum there. the early voting has been very strong for obama. they have early voting in ohio. many, many of the people there are people that support, you know, obama. so i think things are looking good there. looking forward to going back there and talking to our

members. we've had big rallies there and we're looking forward to doing that again. >> what about the get out the vote effort? turnout is really the now. how important is the union, the union movement, really, across the board to this obama get out the vote strategy? >> it's extremely important because, you know, we are the ones with the boots on the ground and appealing to the but people and this is about you and your future, social security, medicare, medicaid, the auto industry. i mean, and this is not about what, you know, mitt romney wants which is tax cuts for the rich. this is about what's going to happen to the middle class. the president has done his job. he's resuscitated the auto industry. we are on our way back and the message we're getting out and mobilizing the members telling them to vote and especially in ohio there's an appeal with a big period of time for early voting so we have had over half

the people have voted in ohio which is a tremendous amount. >> and the president, in fact, is heading to illinois an going to be in his hometown in chicago early voting himself. james hoffa, thank you very much. thanks for being with us today. >> thank you. what political story will make headlines in the next hof ho 24 hours? ♪ with a low national plan premium... ♪ ...and copays as low as one dollar... ♪ ...saving on your medicare prescriptions is easy. ♪ so you're free to focus on the things that really matter. call humana at 1-800-808-4003. or go to walmart.com for details.

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and this breaking news right now. tunisia says a 28-year-old man has been arrested, linked to the u.s. consulate attack in libya. he's in custody according to tunisian officials. the state department has no comment at this time. which political story will be making headlines in the next 24 hours? chris is back with us. chris, we've got paul ryan in ohio about to give a major policy speech. ron mott was reporting he is on the way and aimed at generating the youth vote. >> yeah. look. you know, andrea, this is in some ways why paul ryan was put on this ticket. he's seen as the ideas guy,

trying to frame this race in a way that says that mitt romney is the guy who's got solutions and reaching out to communities where democrat -- republicans, excuse me, haven't traditionally done all that well. it is not by accident that he's speaking at cleveland state, cleveland, ohio. they will not go to a place that is not a swing state. barack obama doing -- going to california briefly to film leno tonight but then will be in nevada. mitt romney in nevada. i mean, if you live in a swing state, don't be surprised if a presidential candidate shows up somewhere near you between now and november 6th. >> knocks on your door. goes to your diner. side ls up to you on some -- on some commute. okay. they're all out there. and that -- so are we. thanks so much, chris. that does it for us. today in philadelphia. tomorrow on the show, washington democratic senator patty murray. my colleague tamron hall has a

look at what's next. hi, tamron. >> it's 13 days to go. romney camp trying to put out a fire over a candidate and the comments over rape. this time it is richard mourdoch out of indiana. governor romney says he won't take back an endorsement. we'll look at this one. plus, congressman paul ryan as andrea mentioned will be giving a big speech within the hour in cleveland. his fist major policy speech addressing the american dream and poverty. our panel will weigh in on the timing of this speech and how his budget, paul ryan's budget factors in. plus, an off the record interview with the president is released and he's made some very candid comments on immigration and the importance of the latino vote. we'll have details on what the president said and what state paper this interview was conducted with.

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