cnn's gloria borger. the grio and msnbc's joy reid. and the huffington post howard fineman. first up, here we are in the time capsule. the weekend before the election asking why is this so close? still so unpredictable. both men face big hurdles to getting elected and that's why it's so close. president obama's got the jobless he inherited but can't quite beat. friday's new jobs report was encouraging but gains are still behind what we need. in a reflection of that, 62% of voters say they would like or want major changes in an obama second term. and on the other side, mitt romney's a challenge that normally blocks any presidential candidate. not even 30% of voters think he understands the average american. john, these are amazing handicaps. the unemployment situation still high. sort of remoteness of mitt romney from the voter. they both carry these burdens. is this why it's so close? >> yes. in one word. and i'll give you a few more. what the president has been unbootable incumbent for really his entire term in office. you think about the condition of the macro economy, we'

also with us, the nonpartisan chief national correspondent john king and political analyst gloria borger and somewhere momentarily will be david gergen. so what are you looking for? let's talk to the partisans first. >> well, it will all come down to president obama getting his base out, black votes, voters between the ages of 18 and 29 and republicans get their base out, senior citizens and white voters. that's what it is going to come down to. we all know the key states. and now it is up to the campaigns. did they deliver. >> paul, we see an enthusiasm dropoff among young people for president obama. how much does that concern you? >> it is an enormous concern, the single biggest concern i have as an obama supporter. he won by 34 points and they were 18% of the total electorate in the last election. both of those numbers frankly if you look at the polling look like they may be going down. the question is, can the president motivate the young people, get them out to vote. as a democrat, i hope he can. they're doing bet we are ter wi latinos and with senior citizens, believe it or not. th

van jones, gloria borger, guys, thanks very much. let us know what you think, follow us on twitter @ac360. >>> millions celebrated the demise of a dictator, now they're on the streets accusing his democratically elected successor of trying to become one, too. things are moving fast in egypt. we'll take you there, live. >> announcer: you never know when, but thieves can steal your identity and turn your life upside down. >> hi. >> hi. you know, i can save you 15% today if you open up a charge card account with us. >> you just read my mind. >> announcer: just one little piece of information and they can open bogus accounts, stealing your credit, your money and ruining your reputation. that's why you need lifelock to relentlessly protect what matters most... [beeping...] helping stop crooks before your identity is attacked. and now you can have the most comprehensive identity theft protection available today... lifelock ultimate. so for protection you just can't get anywhere else, get lifelock ultimate. >> i didn't know how serious iden

gloria borger makes a great point.s came to light, the genesis of everything was jill kelly not being comfortable with some emails that she was getting from paula broadwell. she didn't know it was a pala broadwell. it was an anonymous handle she was getting. she mentioned it to a friend of hers who works at the fbi. the fbi all of a sudden is looking into personal emails. >> the law of unintended consequences. think about that for a minute. it starts out with someone saying what am i getting these harassing emails? where are they coming from? all of a sudden it leads to all this. >> let's be careful here. >> no way. >> how is this working? >> here's the reality. what happens is there is this protection. we all know about the fourth amendment, right? the right protection. there's some measure of protection, and there's also an electronic protection privacy act. the problem, ashleigh, is it was enacted in 1986. >> we didn't even carry cell phones with us at that time, so it's outdated. why is that relevant? it's relevant

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john king, gloria borger, ari fleischer, paul begala. do campaigns often go with magical thinking like this? >> absolutely. yes. >> romney has a magical budget so -- it's like the magic is all in there. >> days on end wearing black gloves, don't know why, can't remember. >> james carville is a man of mystery. >> i went the whole last couple weeks of a campaign one time and didn't change my underwear. i washed it at night. >> didn't bill clinton famously campaign up until the end? >> 24 hours, he went around the clock. >> probably he's going to do it again tonight, why not? >> until the last dog dies. >> i think one of the things that's happening here. there's some stuff you can't poll, we talked a lot about the polls and the numbers. there is a level of intensity on both sides that i think when it's this close, we're going to be surprised tomorrow. there are people who are in the tea party who have convinced themselves that this president is a threat to everything they believe in. they're going to strain every effort to make sure he does

rayhan salaam and gloria borger.irst we're going to tackle the smarts or not of election day behavior for both men and then we'll tackle when we're going to know and who tonight. that's the gig. and the winner gets a million dollars or mitt romney bet 10,000 in something. governor strickland, today, the decision of mitt romney to go out. he's the challenger. so it would make sense. the president, though, did some interviews, but decided to stay home and play basketball. is that good optics or bad optics? >> i think the president may have touched more people through his calls if the concern is how many voters can you reach during this last few hours of the campaign. but, you know, election days, i think, are very special events and i think every politician deals with them sort of differently. >> it is all about your psyche and your psychology. you heard him say, he has butterflies in his stomach, john avalon, the president, going for the younger voter with that interview. >> apparently. look, i think at the end of the

. >>> coming up next, john king and candy crowley, also david gergen and gloria borger. when you listen to senator graham, do you get a sense that we're looking at anything other than gridlock? you can say simpson-bowles all you want. >> you're going to hear a lot of simpson-bowles. you do have a mid -- speaker boehner planted a flag today, he said i want to be conciliatory, i want to listen. harry reid said i'm not going to draw any lines in the stands. the burden is on the president of the united states and even a bit more so than usual, speaker boehner feels burned by the last time they went down the path. he thought he had a deal with the president. and he thinks the president walked away from it. is this a game of chicken? who blinks first? the president gives up higher taxes on the rich. for long term tax reform? republicans give up something in the short term to get more in the long term. that's going to be the kabuki dance, if you will, and the stakes are enormous. >> candy, can you see where the president gives up higher taxes on the wealthy? he did get re-elect

want to bring our analyst, nonpartisans, david bergen, gloria borger, candy crowley is with us, paul begala and cornel belcher. ari, you were talking about early voting. >> yeah. the best way to know who's going to win is the enthusiasm. no question that's what we have to measure on tuesday night. it's down for the president. the question is how much. let's go to ohio. mitt romney has got 100,000 more early votes than john mccain did at this point. president obama has 150,000 fewer votes than he did at this point four years ago. that's a net 250,000 pickup for romney in a state that the president won by 260,000 votes. florida. 270,000 change in the direction of romney and the republicans because of the increase for romney over mccain, decrease for obama in early voting. 270,000 change in a state that obama won by 236,000. this is what it comes down to. this is why it is so real that there's a path to 270 for mitt romney. it's because of that decline in enthusiasm compared to four years ago and i also say the polls continue, you look at poll after poll, in ohio we talked about earlier

borger. borer. who are. gone. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom harpur welcome to the big picture. wealthy british style. right on. market why not. come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mike stronger run no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into cars a report on our. browsers. may miss it's in. my daddy. does a famous phrase benson claim is oh my save. my money ransom business. let . it. leak out because the. lives of. the. live.

we have wolf blitzer and chief political analyst claire borger in washington, and jessica yellin.ing her way into the east room where she is going to be covering that statement. wolf, i want to start off with you. this event in the east room, there will be middle class foilgs behind him. these are the folks that would be impacted by a tax increase. he is notts taking any questions. they already won. this is not a campaign event here. if this is really about governing, why do you think we are seeing this kind of setup here, which really looks more like a rally and not necessarily a press conference. >> it's going to be really intense over the next six, seven yankees because the deadline is december 31st. the economics of the situation will deteriorate. there will be this fiscal cliff situation that will unfold. you saw john boehner out this morning. he was in a news conference. he was laying out his opening position in general terms. the president presumably will do the same thing with his statement today. they are respective aids -- the white house chief of staff, the treasury sec

gloria borger is our chief political analyst.'m out of breath running through the different states he'll be visiting. what do the maps tell you and things could change. what do you make of the fact romney won't be heading to florida? >> well, on the florida point, i was on the conference call with a few of his top advisers yesterday and they say they feel good about florida and a thing to look at and say, well, if he doesn't go back there and don't forget he was there just yesterday, he was there over the weekend and if he doesn't go back there, that may show a sense of optimism on the side of the romney camp. don't forget, they need florida just like they need ohio if they win this election. but if you look another those two maps generally, brooke, they're almost the same. they're going to the same battleground states because it's a same handful of states so close right now. you know, that they both need to keep visiting and visiting and visiting again. of course, i don't need to mention the fact that the president's going to be

. >>> gloria borger, wasn't to bri -- i want to bring you in here now.ooking at this possibility that after election day, possibly, absolutely nothing changes, president obama wins re-election, the democrats keep control of the u.s. senate, republicans keep control of the house. status quo? what are the chances of that? >> i think there is a very good chance of that. if president obama were to be re-elected and you talk to all the people on the campaign committees, and they will tell you that there is a very good chance of that. you know, james madison's revenge. we elect different branches of government, and, you know, so here we are, in the middle of a very nasty, very angry campaign, with a very, very divided country and we could end up in the same spot. i've been talking to a lot of people asking about that and where would that get us in the next step? and some people are saying, look, we spent about, what, $6 billion total in all of these -- >> can you believe that number? >> yeah. i mean, it is hard to believe, but, yes, and so we have spent $6 bil

cnn chief white house correspondent jessica yellin and chief political correspondent gloria borger join us right now. gloria, guess i'll start with you. does the president have any leverage? >> he has a lot of leverage right now. i mean, if you look back to the debt ceiling in the summer of 2011, you recall the president was accused of negotiating with himself because it was sort of a time of weakness for him. right now, look, joe, he's just won re-election. 67% of the american public according to our polls believes that there should be a deal that contains a combination of spending cuts and tax increases. more than half of the american public says, you know what, we'd like the taxes on the wealthy to go up. so he does have public opinion on his side. just been re-elected. so he feels like, you know, he's got the wind at his back so to speak. >> jessica yellin, when you look at the situation a lot of democrats on capitol hill are suggesting they're ready to go over the fiscal cliff. what's the president saying about that? >> reporter: well, the white house says that that's not something

let's dig deeper now with gloria borger and ron bron steen. anything from what the president said on friday surprise you? >> no. i think -- look. this is the opening hand. they've all sort of put their cards on the table. the president says you know, you've got to repeal these tax cuts for the wealthy, john boehner says no, we're going to stunt growth in the economy if we do that. i think they all agree you have to extend tax cuts at least for the middle class, that's kind of the intersection of the diagram, if you will, where they do agree. the question that i have is there is a way to increase tax rates for the wealthy without just raising the rate to 39.6 from 35, is there a way to do that, say, through tax reform, where you cap deductions for the wealthiest taxpayers, and in effect they will pay a higher rate, but you won't call it a higher rate. so, is that a matter of semantics? >> he says the wealthiest to pay a little more in taxes. i didn't hear him use the number 35% or 39.6%. >> exactly. >> so if they eliminate a lot of deductions a

gloria borger, help us out, break it down.verage continues from ohio with gloria on the other side of the break. loating? yeah. one phillips' colon health probiotic cap each day helps defend against these digestive issues with three strains of good bacteria. approved! [ female announcer ] live the regular life. phillips'. then you may be looking for help in choosing the right plan for your needs. so don't wait. call now. whatever your health coverage needs, unitedhealthcare can help you find the right plan. open enrollment to choose your medicare coverage begins october 15th and ends december 7th. so now is the best time to review your options and enroll in a plan. medicare has two main parts, parts a and b, to help cover a lot of your expenses, like hospital care... and doctor visits. but they still won't cover all of your costs. now's the time to learn about unitedhealthcare plans that may be right for you. are you looking for something nice and easy? like a single plan that combines medicare parts a & b with prescription dr

. >> check in with our analysts and dana bash is here and gloria borger and here with the republican consultant alex costianos and dan jones. two days to go. where are your heads at? what are you looking at? >> spending. i think this is impossible to call this race. john king just laid it out. mitt romney has a steeper hill to climb. if you look at the 12 battleground states, barack obama is ahead in 9 of the 12 and romney only ahead in three. when you go on the ground, you actually talk to people in the state, i was in ohio this week and it was striking how many republicans on the ground thought they were going to win. they thought they had the enthusiasm. they thought they had the evangelical vote. i think we rely too much on the polls. i think we should wait and see what the voters say. >> there is no doubt that republicans are more enthusiastic this time than they were four years ago. our poll, though, on overall on sort of a national average shows a tie between the parties on that. that wouldn't be good if that held up in the battleground states for mitt romney because what he h

let's bring in candy crowley and gloria borger.aped an interview for tomorrow's state of the union with the chicago mayor. i got a little clip. let me play it. >> the vice president's wife has been send up to pennsylvania doing a couple of early weekend stops. bill clinton is being used in pennsylvania on monday. it tells me that you all are a little worried about that or worried about the race in general. are you saying no? >> no. i think, look. i think, candy. ready? it's a close election. b, you nail everything down. i think pennsylvania is secure but you don't take anything for granted and that means there's going to be a lot of people going back to ohio in the next 96 hours. multiple times they'll go to pennsylvania. but pennsylvania is going to be on both the philadelphia, the surrounding counties and pittsburgh and harrisburg, that's where you have a democratic vote and you do go to secure it. but that doesn't mean it's flipping. it just means the natural tiding of a race. >> let's bring in candy. if they're spending a lot o

with me here tonight john king, also political analyst david gergen, gloria borger. ari is an occasional unpaid political advicer for the romney campaign. paul begala senior adviser for president obama's senior pac. i want you to listen to a clip and get your response. >> a year from now, i think people are going to see we're starting to make some progress, there's going to be some pain out there. if i don't have this done in three years, there's going to be a one-term proposition. >> now, we knew from the beginning that our work would take more than one year or even one term, because let's face it, the middle class was getting hit long before the financial crisis. >> wow, he looks older. >> the best economist and business people didn't know how deep the hole was when he came in. >> are you quoting george bush or -- >> good one. >> or was it cheney? >> it's a texas thing. >> he came in, the hole was far deeper than he or anyone knew. i don't think anyone knew how deep the hole would be. short answer, every time i looked at the economy, obama couldn't win, every time

. >> let's go to larry borger. let's talk about this, where do things go from here?s very hard to same i mean, mitch mcconnell is clearly not conciliatory. he is the leader of the republicans in the and in the house and even added a couple seats in the house. i don't think they feel like they've got to compromise with the president. they feel like the popular vote was a million difference and i think they're waiting for the president to propose and then they'll decide what they ought to do. personally i believe in terms of their own survival, why would they want to go off the fiscal cliff? it doesn't seem to make a lot of sense to me. i think they want to hear from the president first. >> isn't the one certainty that the president will attempt immigration reform sooner rather than later? >> i know. that's right. he owes latinos. >> he didn't deliver four years ago. he better do it this time. >> it puts the republicans in an enormously difficult political decision. as we saw during the primaries, they are defining themselves by bigger fences, more deportations. >> whe

. >> let's talk about it with our chief political analyst gloria borger and ron brownstein. is the second time they have really tried to achieve this goal. the president is in a different position now. >> he is. if you just looked at the picture, you would say it's status quo in washington. the president got re-elected. the republicans maintain the majority in the house, democrats in the senate. however, it's not really as much status quo as the picture would portray because this is a president who believes, and i think rightly so, that he's come back with some more leverage here, that he doesn't have to start negotiating with himself, that he can put something out on the table that he actually believes in and that it's the republicans who are going to have to give because they were the ones by and large who lost and they lost the presidency. so he, you know, i see a president that feels much stronger about going into this. >> we're getting some intriguing sound bites from republicans indicating they understand the president has some more leverage now. >> they're willing to

van jones, gloria borger, guys, thanks very much. let us know what you think, follow us on twitter @ac 360. >>> millions celebrated the demise of a dictator, now they're on the streets accusing his successor of trying to become one too. things are moving fast in egypt. we'll take threw live. ♪ why not make lunch more than just lunch? with two times the points on dining in restaurants, you may find yourself asking why not, a lot. chase sapphire preferred. there's more to enjoy. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 at schwab, we're committed to offering you tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 low-cost investment options-- tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 like our exchange traded funds, or etfs tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 which now have the lowest tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 operating expenses tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 in their respective tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 lipper categories. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 lower than spdr tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 and even lower than vanguard. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 that means with schwab, tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 your portfolio has tdd#: 1-

gloria borger is joining us and our cnn contributor ross doff fit and the former adviser, van jones, the co-founder of rebuild the dream. gloria, even a majority of republicans in the latest poll said tax increases should be part of the fiscal cliff solution. add that to the election results and the exit poll results. how much do all those numbers change the political equation for the gop right now? >> it's hard to say definitively, wolf. it changes the equation a little bit. what's more interesting and what you hear from senator corker and the rest is this sort of see mantic question, not arithmetic but semantics. it's the question of when is the tax increase not really a tax increase? if you don't raise the top rate as you talked to the senator about before, but you do cap deductions for the wealthy? does that count as a tax increase? in my book it does count as a tax increase, but would republicans then be able to say, well, we didn't raise the top rate? so i think what we see going on right now, wolf, is a lot of theatrics. you see some republicans in the senate, and i would argu

van jones, gloria borger, guys, thanks very much. let us know what you think, follow us on twitter @ac 360. >>> millions celebrated the demise of a dictator, now they're on the streets accusing his successor of trying to become one too. things are moving fast in egypt. we'll take threw live. ♪ why not make lunch more than just lunch? with two times the points on dining in restaurants, you may find yourself asking why not, a lot. chase sapphire preferred. there's more to enjoy. if you're a man with low testosterone, you should know that axiron is here. the only underarm treatment for low t. that's right, the one you apply to the underarm. axiron is not for use in women or anyone younger than 18. axiron can transfer to others through direct contact. women, especially those who are or who may become pregnant, and children should avoid contact where axiron is applied as unexpected signs of puberty in children or changes in body hair or increased acne in women may occur. report these signs and symptoms to your doctor if they occur. tell y

>> let's check in with our analysts and dana bash is here, our analysts david gergen, gloria borger. also, alex castellanos. two days to go. where are your heads at? what are you looking at closely in terms of the numbers? >> spending. >> i think this is -- it's impossible to call this race. john king just laid it out. mitt romney has a steeper hill to climb. if you look at the 12 battleground states that people normally list, barack obama is ahead in nine of the 12 battleground states. romney seis only ahead in three. i was in ohio this week, it was quite striking how many republicans on the ground thought they were going to win. they thought they had the enthusiasm, the evangelicals. >> is that just -- >> i think we rely too much on the poll. we should not get stuck on the polls. i think we should wait and see what the voters are saying. >> there's no doubt that republicans are more enthusiastic this time than they were four years ago. our poll shows a tie. that wouldn't be good if that held up in the battleground states for mitt romney. what he's got to depend on, he's got to depe

our gloria borger, our donna brazil and alex, our national security credibilitior fran townsend, also's exteshl terminal advisory board. also joining us our chief business correspondent ali velshi is new york. our senior congressional correspondent dana bash and our chief white house correspondent jessica yellin, who is now inside the east room where the president will be walking in momentarily. only minutes away from the president taking the podium there in the east room of the white house. lingering questions about the mission in benghazi, libya. another question is cabinet. let's go to dana bash first. dana, he is almost certainly likely to be asked about his picks for treasury secretary twuf state, secretary of defense. >> what weigh do expect to hear questions about whether he will answer it as a different issue. can i tell you there was a press conference through republicans, but two of whom are kind of his chief foes on particularly on this benghazi issue. john mccain and lindsey gram and on the issue of cabinet, they made very clear that they will do whatever it takes if the p