i'm andrea mitchell live in washington. president obama and mitt romney are heading back to ohio today in a very different situation than the last time they campaigned in the battleground state. the new pew poll know shows governor romney ahead among likely voters. it's the latest dose of reality for the obama camp in a race that is evolving with only weeks left until election day. joining me for our daily fix, chris cizilla, msnbc contributor and managing editor o of postpolitics.com and mark halperin for "time" and msnbc. joining us from chicago. chris cizilla, first of all to you, the new polls certainly have given a great burst of energy to mitt romney's campaign. >> no question. i would say and we said this when there was polling that had president obama up eight, nine, ten points nationally, let's see where it sorts out at the end of the week or beginning of next week. if you are mitt romney, this is -- the pew poll yesterday was huge news because a lot of what happens here at the end and we are 28 days away, is momen

. >>> right now on "andrea mitchell reports" countdown to denver. president obama and mitt romney prepare for their first debate. both sides trying to lower expectations. >> governor romney, he's a good debater. i'm just okay. >> president obama is a very -- he's a very gifted speaker. the man's been on the national stage for many years. he's an experienced debater. he's done these kinds of debates before. this is mitt's first time on this kind of a stage. >> flashpoint libya, the white house on the defensive after reports of both security and intelligence nurse in benghazi before that terror attack. >> standing up, sitting down. >> which ever one you like. >> there you go. >> do whatever they tell us. >> the white house line is you heard the president say, osama bin laden is dead, al qaeda is done, everything is fine in the middle east. this, obviously, contradicts -- ther series of events contradicts that campaign slogan. so, the fact is, that this was clearly an act of terror committed by people who were pretty well trained jihadists. >> more car

i'm andrea mitchell live at center college in danville, kentucky. ahead of an -- here we've got a great crowd here already. already for tonight's crucial debate, the vice presidential debate in a presidential campaign that has a razor-thin edge. joining me now is chris cillizza, msnbc contributor and managing editor of post politics.com and chuck todd, nbc's chief white house correspondent, political director and host of "the daily rundown." >> abe lincoln behind you. >> let me go to chris cillizza first. >> sure. >> back in washington, talk about the stake as head. what are the two burdens, if you will for the two candidates tonight? >> well, look, i mean i think it is relatively obvious that mitt romney had some momentum coming off of his debate performance last week. i think that what joe biden needs to do is blunt that momentum with a sort of a draw or a perceived victory. i think if he loses the debate in the same way that barack obama lost the debate to mitt romney, we'll see the momentum on the republican side pick up. i would say more broadl

i'm andrea mitchell live in washington. >> romney will come across as empathetic. but here's what mitt's been promising for the last two years. tax cuts for the wealthiest americans. how do you make that seem warm and fuzzy? well you just need to shake it up as hard as mitt did last night. so, let's give it a shot. okay. here we go. >> a little magic there. good day. i'm andrea mitchell live in washington today. the white house got some welcome news. a september jobs report with the unemployment number now down to 7.8%, the lowest rate since the president took office, first time below 8%. joining me for the daily fix, chris cizilla, msnbc contributor and managing editor of post-politics.com. the president out on the stump trying to make the best of it, these numbers can bounce around. we'll drill down on the economic facts and figures in a moment, but basically this is a good news. >> yeah. look, good news from the country in that the unemployment rate went down and i would say good news politically for president obama because now the talking point that republicans

predebate edition of "andrea mitchell reports."e debate with former senator tom dashle among other guests. hi, tom ran. >> i know you'll stick around to be in the hour as well with the perils of the town hall style debate. she was the obama supporters whose words resonated across the country two years ago. >> quite frankly i'm exhausted. i'm exhausted at defending you, defending your administration. >> but today like so many others, velma is waiting to see if the president will fight back and defend his rock. velma hart will join us live. does she still stand by the president? chris matthews will join us with his he pre-debate analysis and what chris wants to see tonight. in case i get hit by a meteor. wow, your hair looks great. didn't realize they did photoshop here. hey, good call on those mugs. can't let 'em see what you're drinking. you know, i'm glad we're both running a nice, clean race. no need to get nasty. here's your "honk if you had an affair with taylor" yard sign. looks good. [ male announcer ] fedex office. now save

andrea mitchell maintains composure in difficult circumstances. when something happens that causes you, the viewer, to be able to see andrea mitchell slightly recoil, be slightly shocked, that's really something. that something happened earlier today. i want you to look closely. this is andrea mitchell on her fantastic 1:00 p.m. msnbc show today. did you see that reaction? that reaction from the unflappable andrea mitchell who never does that? what made that happen? what made -- watch. that never happens. here's what made that happen. mitt romney's national campaign co-chairman today dispatched by the campaign to talk about last night's debate, here's how he did it. >> what people saw last night i think was a president that revealed his incompetence, how lazy and detached he is. >> governor, i want to give you a chance to maybe take it back. did you really mean to call barack obama the president of the united states lazy? >> yes. i think it -- i think you saw him admit it the night before when he delivered the pizzas. he said, you know, they're ma

i'm andrea mitchell live in washington. and we are in a special edition today, hurricane sandy growing stronger, reaching what could be historic strength as it heads directly for the northeast. we've got all of our reporters standing by throughout the danger zones with full reports but first, our meteorologist bill karins, live in lower manhattan, bracing for the storm surge tonight. bill, you're down there near battery city and obviously you're looking at tide coming in i guess around 8:30 tonight, is the really first test of just how bad this is going to be? >> yeah. this is slightly scary since this is what it looks like at the low tide, you know. we hit that this morning the high tide, about six hours go to the low tied, get up there. it's already gone down about four or five feet since at peak high tide and from here it's going to go up. the tidal predictions are to the exact science. it's almost like river forecasts. the high drolgss make them with the best knowledge they have. it's not as good as your forecast we giv

andrea mitchell, this format, questions coming from the moderator, in this case, martha radditz of abc news, but as you know the candidates have a skill on the topics, what is the short list for each guy? >> reporter: well, i think just watching what president obama and mitt romney have been arguing about, gives you a road map on what we expect to hear tonight. you will hear arguments over the budget, over medicare and taxes. and these two men, remember, paul ryan and joe biden were on opposite sides of the negotiating table, during the super committee on the failed budget, where they failed to reach agreement. so they have a lot of past history and will air their arguments in public. you will also hear joe biden bring up abortion, because mitt romney said just this week he didn't know of any legislation that he would go after abortion if he was elected. well, he and his team walked that back, but joe biden is going to try to interest women voters. and then, there is benghazi, you know they will go after that, a lot of criticism on the hill, spreading out after the campaign. both of th

i'm andrea mitchell live in washington. today both campaigns are stepping up their attempt to win over undecided voters, the women voters. the obama campaign sees openings after tuesday's debate. romney campaign on defense but fighting back hard complete with a bus tour via women who used to work for mitt romney. joining me chris cillizza of postpolitics.com. the senz both campaigns have the obama campaign thinks they gained some ground out of the debate that mitt romney gave them some openings. mitt romney in their campaign as of yesterday firing off press releases sending out surrogates. they felt they were playing defense. this is president obama today in new hampshire. >> by the way, we want our sons to thrive in math and science and engineering. but we also want our daughters to thrive in those fields, too. we don't have to order up some binders to find qualified, talented, driven, young women who can learn and excel in these fields right now. and when these young women graduate, i want them to receive equal pay for eq

and that's it for our edition of "andrea mitchell reports," debate night tonight. us tomorrow, live in denver, complete wrap-up of tonight's debate. my colleague, tamron hall, has a look at what's next on news nation. hi, tamron. >> hi, andrea. in our next hour the heat is on and the first question has not even been asked in tonight's debate. conservatives thought they had an a-ha moment with a release of a tape from 2007 only to be counted by a tape releetsd of the "huffington post" of paul ryan. are these tapes fair comparison and how relevant are they tonight? [ woman ] ring. ring. progresso. in what world do potatoes, bacon and cheese add up to 100 calories? your world. ♪ [ whispers ] real bacon... creamy cheese... 100 calories... [ chef ] ma'am [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup. [ male announcer ] you've reached the age where you don't back down from a challenge. this is the age of knowing how to make things happen. so, why let erectile dysfunction get in your way? talk to your doctor about viagra. 20 million men already have. ask your do

that's next on "andrea mitchell reports." akes. carb steady, with carbs that digest slowly to help minimize blood sugar spikes. [ male announcer ] glucerna hunger smart. a smart way to help manage hunger and diabetes. [ male announcer ] it's time for medicare open enrollment. are you ready? time to compare plans and see what's new. you don't have to make changes, but it's good to look. maybe you can find better coverage, save money, or both. and check out the preventive benefits you get after the health care law. ♪ medicare open enrollment. now's the time. visit medicare.gov or call 1-800-medicare. ♪ [ male announcer ] why do more emergency workers everywhere trust duracell...?? duralock power preserve. locks in power for up to 10 years in storage. now...guaranteed. duracell with duralock. trusted everywhere. >>> which political story will make headlines in the next 24 hours. we're heading to the debate tomorrow morning. >> big, big moment especially for president obama. 17% of likely voters thought president obama won that debate,

i'm andrea mitchell live in washington. the presidential debates are over. the campaigns now in a frantic nonstop push for seven battleground states. and who will get a bump out of both? joining me david axelrod, senior adviser to the obama campaign. thank you very much, david, for being with us. >> good to be with you. >> got a plan, got a pamphlet. deja vu all over again as yogi berra would say, reminded me of putting people first, bill clinton after the new hampshire primary he had that pamphlet in florida when he went down battling off the late paul son gas. what is the strategy in coming up with a pamphlet now with only 14 days to go? >> of course, the pamphlet reflects the ideas that the president has advanced throughout this campaign about where we need to go as a country, building on the progress that we've made, andrea. it's the plan that he talked about at the conventions. it's the plan that he talks about every day. we wanted to codify it and put it in one place as voters making their final decisions, contemplate those decisions they have a chance

that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports."or all the debate wrap-ups. we have a look at what's next on "news nation." >> next hour, president obama arrived in bock ka rat ton florida moments ago, ahead of tonight's third and final presidential debate. we're perhaps getting a glimpse into governor romney's strategy for the evening. >> i don't think there's real daylight between governor romney and president obama on that particular issue. >> on that particular issue. we'll explain where there's no daylight. does that mean no fireworks tonight? could part of the governor's strategy be to embrace the president's foreign policy? mitt romney promised to label china a currency manipulator if he's elected. that's what's on the agenda the first day, but what would china do on day two? zachary care bell joins me to discuss china and american jobs. [ 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

nbc's chief foreign affairs correspondent andrea mitchell of "andrea mitchell reports." thank you. >> thank you. >>> ahead of monday's foreign policy debate we have a truly incredible guest at the exact perfect moment. here tonight is the former u.n. secretary general kofi annan. seriously. stay tuned. ♪ [ woman ] too weak. wears off. been there. tried that. ladybug body milk? no thanks. [ female announcer ] stop searching and start repairing. eucerin professional repair moisturizes while actually repairing very dry skin. it's so powerful you can skip a day... but light enough you won't want to. dermatologist recommended eucerin. the end of trial and error has arrived. try a free sample at eucerinus.com. "are you a cool mom?" i'm gonna find out. [ female announcer ] swiffer wetjet's pads are better than ever. now they have the scrubbing power of mr. clean magic eraser so you don't have to get down on your hands and knees to scrub away tough, dried-on stains. hey, do you guys think i'm "momtacular" or "momtrocious"? ♪ [ female announcer ] swiffer. now with the scrubbing p

i'm andrea mitchell live in washington. the table is now reset for next week's matchup between the president and governor romney's after last night's combative contest in danville between the running mates. the vice presidential candidates sparred for 90 minutes in a contentious debate that delighted their bases but what is the impact on independent and undecided voters. joining me david gregory moderator of "meet the press" and chris cizilla msnbc contributor and managing editor of post-politics.com. the big night in danville first to you, chris overnight quick reaction polls which we don't rely on because they're on-line polls. >> right. >> but your sense from your blog as to whether this was a win, place or draw? >> you know, i think everything your analysis in this debate fends on what you think of joe biden and joe biden's performance. paul ryan was there. he made some points. you know, i mean he did the things that i think republicans wanted him to do, not back down, look like he was credible, could be the vice presid

let's bring in andrea mitchell now and she joins us from washington. andrea, governor romney had been held considered lukewarm in terms of the republican base early on in this. has that changed now? >> it has, indeed, lester. the romney campaign is trying to use the momentum from his debate performance to fire up that base and it seems to be working as well as motivating his grassroots organization. that effort was slightly blunted by the jobs numbers, one of his talking point, but the campaign is clearly feeling a lot of energy. the biggest change is they have a coherent message, one message. why would the next four years be any different than the current four years? the problem for team obama, the president didn't make that case for himself when he had 70 million people at the debate and now they'll take down mitt romney with fact-checking and challenging what he said in the debate in advertisements and speeches, but they will not have that same, large audience. >> peter noted that later in the week, the vice presidential debate will take place. coul

>>> right now on "andrea mitchell reports," tracking sandy. the east braces for a hit as the hybrid hurricane winter storm threatens to wreak havoc on the nation's most densely populated region days before election day. mitt romney makes his case. the republican nominee in battleground iowa where minutes from now he will deliver what his campaign calls a major speech on the economy. and in ohio, thursday romney borrowed a page from president obama's 2008 playbook calling himself the candidate of change. >> this is a time when america faces big challenges. we have a big election and we want a president who will actually bring big changes and i will and he won't. >> hello, everybody. hello. so exciting. >> getting out the vote, president obama in chicago to cast his early ballot and encourage voters to do the same. >> all across the country we're seeing a lot of early voting. it means you don't have to, you know, figure out whether you need to take time off work, figure out how to pick up the kids, and still cast your ballot. if something happen

nbc's chief foreign affairs correspondent andrea mitchell of "andrea mitchell reports." andrea, it is always great to have you here. thank you so much. i really appreciate it. >> thank you. >>> ahead of monday's foreign policy debate we have a truly incredible guest at the exact perfect moment. here tonight is the former u.n. secretary-general kofi annan. seriously. stay tuned. [ female announcer ] caroline penry began using olay total effects in 2001. since then, there's been one wedding, 2 kids, and 43 bottles of olay total effects. so in spite of 185 tantrums 378 pre-dawn starts and a lot of birthdays, caroline still looks amazing. you can challenge what's possible thanks to the trusted performance of olay. 60 years, millions of women, real results. wears off. [ female announcer ] stop searching and start repairing. eucerin professional repair moisturizes while actually repairing very dry skin. the end of trial and error has arrived. try a free sample at eucerinus.com. [ laughs ] up high! up high! [ sighs ] [ chuckles ] yo, give it up, dude! up high... ok. up high...

we get a check of some of the facts tonight from our chief foreign affairs correspondent andrea mitchell. andrea, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. mitt romney's switch to a more moderate foreign policy last night was clearly aimed at independent women voters. the so-called security moms. in the past, romney has taken a hardline on the possibility of military action against iran, to stop its nuclear program. last night he emphasized diplomacy. >> and, of course, a military action is the last resort. it is something one would only consider if all of the other avenues had been tried to their full extent. >> reporter: on syria, romney used to talk about the u.s. arming the rebels. then two weeks ago, he said the u.s. should help allied partners arm the rebels. last night his emphasis was on avoiding a u.s. military role. >> i don't want to have our military involved in syria. i don't think there's a necessity to put our military in syria at this stage. >> reporter: finally on benghazi, after spending more than a month, including at last week's debate. relentlessly attacking th

andrea mitchell led the truth squad with a fact check. she started with the deadly september 11th attack in benghazi. paul ryan accusing them of protecting u.s. personnel. >> what we should not be doing is rejecting claims for calls for more security in barracks and marines. we need marines in benghazi when the ambassador says we need them. the requests were not honored. >> biden called the deaths a tragedy. the obama administration did not know they had been asking for more security help. >> we weren't told they wanted more security. we did not know they wanted more security. by the way, at the time, we were told exactly, we said exactly what the intelligence community told us that they knew. that was the assessment. >> there was an assessment, but the state department did know from videos that requests had been made and were turned down. a state department official acknowledged testifying on capitol hill yesterday. there was a sharp disagreement over medicare. biden charged ryan's plan would raise out of pocket costs for seniors. >> use

andrea mitchell has been leading our truth squad. they began with the disagreement you heard over domestic energy and oil production. take a listen. >> reporter: oil production did fall by 14% on federal lands on shore and offshore, brian, b that was only in one year. from 2010 to 2011 and it was largely the result of fallout from the deep water horizon oil spill in the gulf of mexico in 2010. mr. obama is right that since he took office oil production on federal lands is up in both 2009 and 2010 oil production increased even with the 14% drop last year. overall production on federal lansds is still up 10.6% since 2008. one or thing, in terms of natural gas production. natural gas production is down and declining since 2003 according to the energy information administration mainly because of off shore natural gas drilling, brian. >> andrea, another topic early on and this has come up sporadically during the campaign. what did mitt romney say and when did he say it about, quote, letting detroit go bankrupt, more specifically general m

nbc's andrea mitchell has been leading our truth squad. she zeroed in on one of mitt romney's most frequent attack lines on the president. take a listen. >> then the president began what i've called an apology tour going to various nations in the middle east and criticizing america. i think they looked at that and saw weakness. >> bob, let me just respond. nothing governor romney just said is true starting with this notion of me apologizing. this has been probably the biggest whopper that's been told during the course of this campaign. >> reporter: the president pushes back very hard on this. in fact, he never used the word apologize when he went overseas to cairo in 2009 explaining that he thought the u.s. had made a few mistakes in dealing with the world. many consider it a matter of diplomacy and nuance. romney points to several examples including when president obama said in 2009 that, quote, america has shown some arrogance and been dismissive, even deris sieve. romney claims that shows weakness which is harmful to the u.s. place in t

andrea mitchell looked into the truth behind the rhetoric of both candidates. >> let me repeat what i said. i'm not in favor of a $5 trillion tax cut. that's not my plan. my plan is not to put in place any tax cut that will add to the deficit. >> reporter: romney has proposed making the bush tax cuts permanent for all tax levels and then cutting all rates an additional 20%. he would repeal the alternative minimum tax and repeal the estate tax. they said mitt romney's tax plan would cost $4.8 trillion over ten years. he said his plan would be paid for but to pay for those he would have to close loopholes and get rid of some tax deductions, he said, and tax credits, but he's repeatedly refused to say which deductions he would get rid of saying he would work with congress to make those decisions. also president obama said his plan would cut the deficit by $4 trillion. >> we all know that we've got to do more so i put forward a specific $4 trillion deficit reduction plan. it's on a website. you can look at all the numbers, what cuts we make and what revenue we raise. >> reporter: that est