. >> eliot: to dig deep near the poll numbers let's bring in anna greenberg and steven seigman, senior vice president of global strategy group as well as a professor at columbia university. thank you for joining us. anna since you're farther away, we'll start with you. as you heard me say to nancy the first stage of grief is denial. there is a tendency among many partisans and democrats to say ah, those numbers don't mean -- what's the current state of the gender gap? >> well, of course the numbers are true. if you look at the share of the vote that obama got in 2008 among women he's not getting that right now. he hasn't been getting it for most of the year. over the course of august and september, and early october he started rebuilding his strength among women primarily because of republican missteps starting with todd akin's comments going into the republican convention and then finally the 47% video. and i think you know, in some ways, the lead that was built primarily on qualifying romney, it wasn't a surprise when he presented himself as somebody who was not serving -- he talked

with republican polster, bill mack in tir, and pollster anna greenberg, and time magazine's michael duffy. i'm candy crowley. and this is "state of the union." >>> hurricane sandy has sidelined the presidential campaigns in some spots. both candidates have canceled events in critical swing states, and in more conventional political news, a surprise nonetheless, the des moines register endorsed mitt romney for president. the first time in 40 years the newspaper picked the republican nominee. while the editors praise president obama's early efforts to revitalize the economy through his stimulus plan, it concluded his record on the economy the past four years does not suggest he would lead in the direction the nation must go in the next four years. joining me now for the politics of weather and everything else is obama campaign senior advisor david axelrod. good morning, david. let me start here with the storm. when you look at virginia where this is likely to be the swing state most affected, does anything worry you about that state being more or less paralyzed by weather for a couple three