it was winner take all as the governor and mitt romney squared off in the find round of debates. the punches were fast and furious. >> president barack obama and mitt romney have just wrapped up the third and final debate. tonight they sparred over foreign policy. well, tonight we've got team coverage of the race which is -- neck and neck, and that is according to the polls. alongside the fact checking

team at usa today, virginia is an important state and andrea mccarren is on the road with details on a potential spoiler for this election out of virginia. first the hits, runs and errors. >> it was the last time the two men will have shared a stage before the election. the last chance for a side by side comparison. polls show to be of low importance this year and with a baseball playoff game, the question is how many undecided voters were paying attention. >> reporter: the goal. >> we want a debate that is worthy of the presidency. >> reporter: the president on his record. >> my first duty is to keep the american people safe and we've done that ovthe last four years -- over the last four years. >> we can't kill our way out of

this mess. unfortunately. in no where in the world is america's influence greater than it was four years ago. >> every time you've made an opinion you've gone. >> attacking me is not talking how we're going to deal in the challenges in the middle east. >> there's a time, this is should have a time for american leadsership. >> he doesn't have different ideas and that's because we're doing exactly what we should be doing. >> reporter: i know it's a foreign policy debate but. >> we have weakened our economy. when it comes to the economy here at home i know what it takes to create 12 million jobs. >> what we also have been able to do is position ourselves so we can start rebuilding america. and that's what ply plan does -- my plan does.

>> you methened navy and we have -- mentioned the navy. >> reporter: more hand shakes and smiles that seemed more genuine. no hard news here. just a hard choice now for undecided voters. >> it was a more spirited debate than debate number one. far less than number two, both men dialing it back after the aggressive in your face debate last tuesday. both men appearing more presidential tonight than last week. no major mistakes on either side on this debate in a year where voters say it is the domestic econthat is is issue number one. >> we are fact checking what the candidates had to say tonight. two very different views of foreign policy and military spending and our defense. in particular let's see what

both had to say about defense spending. >> he then wants to spend another two trillion on military spending our military isn't asking for. now keep in mind that our military spending has gone every single year that i've been in office. >> the president saying that romney wants to spend so much more on the military. two things there, what the president says he's spent, and what romney says. >> of course, it's president obama's pentagon, exactly what he wants. it is not entirely true that obama's budget has gone up every year. the pentagon controller says in 2012 the budget went down by about $5 billion, an install decrease. >> is it not the reshaping of this military and what the

president sees as it's future pass versus mitt romney. >> romney is looking for a much broader increase in defense spending. obama sees it as time to start ramping down the size of our military. and as he says, we don't have bayonets and horses anymore. that's where he sees the opportunity for spending cuts. >> coming up, we're going to talk about differences in how they approach the world stage as well and the potential or the possibility that obama has been on an apology tore -- tour. we're going to fact check that coming up. >> virginia that is one of the critical battleground is states and that's why andrea mccarren is chris crosse the state. and she is in roanoke tonight. what are they saying? >> mow matter where -- no matter where you live, this is

a historic election. it is so close is that the state of virginia could become what florida has. a small place here with a potentially big impact. >> reporter: just off main street in rocky point virginia up this set of stairs is the national campaign headquarters of former six term republican congressman virgil good. >> i know -- how sweet was it voting for him. >> until fouhe was best known as -- he was -- it was best known as the nation's moon shine capital. but the constitution party candidate could be a spoiler sifing off critical votes from the leading presidential

candidates and impacting the state's 13 electoral votes. >> i've heardmany times that a -- many times a vote for virgil would be a protest vote. against what? the answer normally is i don't like either candidate. >> we like the fact he is rupping here. >> reporter: anet mack is working the phones at obama headquarters scrambling to capitalize on the good factor. >> the votes that were going to go for him are probably intended for romney. >> reporter: he's on the ballot in 26 states. even if he pulls a fraction of a% in virginia, it could affect the outcome. >> candidates have been largely ignored in the debates is so far, but tomorrow they will all participate in a live internet

only debate moderated by larry king. >> some voters are already casting ballots. today was the first day of early voting in washington, d.c. and those polls will reopen at 8 a.m. sharp. in virginia they have already gotten going with their absentee vote programs. his lawyers apparently are concerned about his mental state so today they asked the judge to order an evaluation and a follow-up hearing is for tomorrow. the defendant, police say he is the man who-tossed that cocktail that didn't explode. hours later police arrested him right near the courthouse metro. and unfortunately though, this guy is still out there somewhere. i'm talking about the man who sex aule assaulted a woman on a popular jogging trail.

that attack took place near mass avenue in bethesda. a man knocked her on the head and she is in the hospal trying to recover. police are on the lookout for her attacker and they are telling other joggers be extra careful. he has killed once and he threatens to kill again. police say a killer slashed the throat of a pregnant woman over the weekend and the note says he will kill one pregnant woman a month into malvoe is let out of prison. police say that note could be a false lead intended to throw them off the track of the real killer. a wisconsin man who shot seven people at a spa bought the gun two days after he had been ordered to turn in all his firearms. she said her husband had

terrorized her for years. on sunday authorities say radcliffe hotten showed up at the spa and opened fire where she was working before taking his own life. and there is new information about the massachusetts pharmacy linked to the meningitis outbreak. an inspection was done in 2011 as the company moved into a new space. the inspector reviewed security with management, stair and nonsterile processing areas. the outbreak has already claimed 24 lives and made nearly 300 sick. monster energy drinks pack a punch, but too much? the fda is looking into five deaths and an a linked to the -- a heart attack linked to

the energy drink. anna topsy showed -- an businessa -- monster says it does not believe it's product have caused any deaths. we head back to usa to check in with the fact checker. find out if president obama and mitt romney were telling the truth and nothing but the truth during the debate. plus we look at what everybody was buzzing about tonight on twitter. >> high temperature 73 today. i don't think the kids are going to need a jacket, mid 40s to 50s at 7 and then boom, mid 50s to 60s. we'll get back with just how warm it's going to get. >> and here's tonight's facts from face the facts usa.

. welcome back to 9news. we are fact checking what the candidates am to say tonight.

as they traded over what to do about china, our relationship with israel. the arab spring in the middle east. mitt romney criticized the president's administration as being too concilulatory and even apologetic to other countries. >> the reason i call it an apology tour is you went to the middle east and flew to turkey and iraq. and by the way, you skipped israel. our closest friend in the region. but you went to the other nations. and by the way, they noticed that you skipped israel. and in those nations and in arabic tv, you said that america had dictated other nations. >> joining me once again is paul singer usa today politics

editor. there was in fact an apology tour? >> the term i believe came from fox news originally. but it was an april 2009 world tour that obama took with he talked about america's relationship with other countries. he never apologized. we have to take some responsibility for the economic crisis, for instance, stuff like that. but there was no public apologizing. romney is using a much more muscular rhetoric to describe his foreign policy and obama is trying to suggest that it requires more coalition building amism i think it does indicate that -- i think it does indicate that obama is trying to be more world view centers and romney is trying to

lead with american exceptionalism. >> he was accused of going back to our policy in decades past. we'll see if that resonates with voters. >> that's part of his argument. yeah, that's what we did in the 80s. >> thanks for joining us. back to you. of course the internet once again buzzing during the presidential debate. not quite so loudly i think it was during the slugfest we saw last week. first of all what were folks looking to hear tonight before the debate even got started. >> sure, google politics and cnn have joined to create some great graphics. we're looking at a survey that google politics conducted before tonight's debate. they asked the public which of these seven foreign policy issues they wanted to dress

tonight in the debate. the u.s. debt to china was the number one topic that the survey's participants wanted address. that wasn't talked too much about. instead of the u.s. israeli relations were number two. we have made all these available to you on our web site at wusa9.com. >> what were all the topics that came up? anything that really caught fire like women issues or anything like that. >> there were some things like said a lot about tonight's debate. molly was the top trending term followed by libya, arab spring and syria. there was also a huge 400% jump in gallal searches for --

google searches for syria. it came with the president's comments about today's military and his reference to horses and bayonets. a 7,000% spike in google searches for bayonets. we encourage you to keep the conversation going on our facebook page and on twit. >> we would note that twitter was not over flowing the way it was last time around. >> there was a bit of decreased activity. of course one of the hottest things m.d.'s -- maryland's 6th district. tomorrow night both mr. bartlet and his challenger john delainey will be here talking about the issues important to marylanders, especially those

who live in district 6. that's tomorrow night at 6:00 p.m. 73 today our average high is 67. that's a pretty good deal. 58 right now. dew point is in the 50s. the temps won't go below 50 downtown. our average high is 67 and we're protecting 78 tomorrow and 80 on wednesday, 77 thursday. even mid 70s friday. even low to mid 70s on saturday. so a nice treat. here's the deal. mild started tomorrow -- mild start tomorrow with temperatures in the 50s and 60s. temps are going to approach 80 tomorrow. it's going to stay warm friday and even you can make the case into saturday. 45 to 55 with winds out of the southwest at ten.

i don't think the kids will need a jacket. and by afternoon great partly sunny and warm, a slight chance of a sprinkle. high temperatures near 80. tropical storm sandy is going to make a move off to the north and east. we have a tropical storm watch and hurricane walk for jamaica, cuba and haiti. it gets to a point off the florida coast by saturday and then turns more to the northeast. most moderals keeping this away -- models are keeping this away from shore. some rough surf, but that's it. but some make it a v-line into the carolina coast and that would make for a messy weekend

for us. we'll keep you posted. it's only monday now. 73 in cumberland. mid-to-upper 70s winchester hagerstown. 78 downtown, 78 for annapolis. 78 in rock field and gaithersburg. great on wednesday, probably the best day of the week 80 degrees. and thursday partly cloudy, temperatures in the upper 70s. maybe a shower on friday, 74. the nor'easter, even if it doesn't come, we're still looking at showers saturday into sunday with a cold front. monday, we're back to 64, but that is about average. sports, guess who's coming home. more after this.

captain chaos has returned the redskins brought back chris coolly after losing fred davis

for the season. just eight weeks ago they sent coolly packing cetting him before the start of the season, but he said he knew the extent of the injury and figured he would get a call. now coolly says he doesn't know how soon he'll see playing time, but he's excited to come home. >> i'm just excited to be back and be part of the locker room and be a part of the group of guys. i feel like i can play. i'm only 30 years old. i know i can weep playing. -- i know i can keep playing. i'm not sure how i'll transition. i'm just there to do what they ask me to do. >> and redskins fans, we're giving this away this jersey. you just have to go to our facebook page, click like and a winner will be randomly chosen and announced saturday night at 7:00 during game own.

so facebook like, easy as pie. plans for the redskins new training camp in richmond was unveiled today. they are going to use several acres of state property. it includes a plan for a medicine center for the team to use. quarterback parry hill is out for the rest of the season. he was injured in the first half of sunday's home coming loss at nc state. he has a torn acl. he replaced another player at the start of the year when he went down with a torn acl. you may not see them back from rocking the red, but they are back together with dynamo moscow, first game of the dwostars back together. obi had a goal and an assist

backer. 7 blank lines in the seven tour de france titles for doping, lance armstrong denies any wrongdoing. the star of the show, former georgeten rob hibert. he's now a pacer. some of his teammates joined the show. just kind of a random, hey, let's get knighted for the season -- excited for the season. i look weird doing gangdom style. >> is it okay if i have a question of chris coolly because he waited. because he loved the redskins just that much. >> his heart was here. he knew there was own opportunity to come -- there was an opportunity to come back.

we're all headed home to watch debate replays. have a nice night. we'll see you tomorrow.