brian crowley of the crowley political report has been covering every major statewide florida since the980's. later, we will talk to the florida republican party chairman, lenny curry. first, a news update from c-span radio. >> less than two weeks to the election, and president obama campaigns in iowa, colorado, and nevada. he is holding rallies from morning to night and appearing on "at the tonight show with jay leno." he will also be calling of orders from air force one. it is the first of a two-day trip. you can see him speaking at a rally in iowa. watch it on c-span or listen to it on c-span radio. republican presidential nominee mitt romney is, too, on the move. he will be in nevada before 83- stops when an ohio tomorrow. paul ryan travels to cleveland today, where he is expected to tell voters that romney-rai and administration would protect safety programs and overhauled benefits for wealthy americans. live coverage of paul ryan's remarks begins at 2:20 p.m. eastern on c-span, and you can listen to it on c-span radio. those are some of the latest headlines on c-span radio. >> i r

the ninth is florida, and that is where we begin today with brian crowley of the crowley political report joining us from florida this morning. why is florida a battleground state? guest: florida is always a battleground state, and it is very important in every election. 29 electoral votes, that is the biggest reason we are always a battleground state. host: break it down, the state, for us along the corridors. people often talk about the major highways that separate the state. then at barack obama won it hillsborough county in 2008. hillsborough county is always a very important swing the county. there are a lot of independent voters in the tampa bay area, and the type of voters that tend to vote at the last moment. for democrats, it is crucial, with the mother lode of the democratic votes are. every time they don't pull out large numbers in the fort lauderdale and miami and palm beach areas, they lose. it is very important for the president to pull up big numbers. as important as hillsborough county is, the democrats have to do well in south florida or they lose the election. host: the

brian crowley, is that an issue in florida? guest: i thought it was very telling during the foreign policy debate that there was no discussion about latin america, mexico, no discussion of cuba or haiti. in mexico, the drug war is very intense. we have and border issues there. it was very telling that these campaigns did not get into those issues in any depth, or at all in some cases. i guess it just circles me back to they clearly believe -- certainly the republicans clearly believe that the economy is the overriding issue for voters. 1.5 million voters in this state are hispanic. many of these hispanic voters have a fairly recent ties to their homeland and other parts of the world. i think that not addressing that community more directly was perhaps a mistake that night. host: jeb bush, the former florida governor, and the head of the free cuba center in dc write in today's "wall street journal" -- "president kennedy showed fortitude and resolve in forcing the soviet union to stand down. whoever wins the election ought to dea

brian crowley, is that an issue in florida? guest: i thought it was very telling during the foreign policy debate that there was no discussion about latin america, mexico, no discussion of cuba or haiti. in mexico, the drug war is very intense. we have and border issues there. it was very telling that these campaigns did not get into those issues in any depth, or at all in some cases. i guess it just circles me back to they clearly believe -- certainly the republicans clearly believe that the economy is the overriding issue for voters. 1.5 million voters in this state are hispanic. many of these hispanic voters have a fairly recent ties to their homeland and other parts of the world. i think that not addressing that community more directly was perhaps a mistake that night. host: jeb bush, the former florida governor, and the head of the free cuba center in dc write in today's "wall street journal" -- "president kennedy showed fortitude and resolve in forcing the soviet union to stand down. whoever wins the election ought to dea

brian crowley has kept a close eye on florida politics for two decades. he's a former political editor of the palm beach post and now writes the crowley political report. >> the democrats have successfully grabbed the paul ryan plan, dubbed it a voucher and it just rings. it's very similar to efforts made in the past where you take one key phrase and turn it into a political bombshell, and there's no explaining away the word vouchers very easily. if you look at a 30 second ad with it, it takes a lot more than 30 seconds to explain and if you can't explain, you have a problem. >> reporter: north of palm beach in florida's 18th district, incumbent republican and tea party favorite congressman allen west is battling out the issue of medicare on the stump, and on the airwaves. west says democrats are relying on traditional scare tactics. >> and to continue to talk about ending medicare as we know it, medicare as we know it ends in 12 years. that's not allen west, that is the actuaries and trustees of medicare and social security saying those things. >> report

our guests include brian crowley, when the curry, and steven van gorp. washington journal is live on c- span every day at 7:00 a.m. eastern. several live events to tell you about tomorrow. the news briefing with leon panetta. kennecott 30 a.m. eastern. a couple of political events in the afternoon, including paul ryan. he will be at cleveland state university to talk about the economy and job creation. just before 5:00 p.m., we will bring you president obama's rally in denver. one of three campaign events for the president tomorrow. also in iowa and nevada. >> i regularly watch the the washington journal." -- watched "washington journal." i also watch c-span online. c-span provides information to us that is rare. into a's spin-oriented society, we cannot regularly get the kind of the reformation we need to make decisions for ourselves. we often have to. from either the left or the right. the great thing about c-span is you get the information directly from the policy makers so you can make up your own mind about who is right and what is good for the coun

our guests include brian crowley, when the curry, and democratic consultant steven van court.-span every day at 7:00 a.m. eastern. >> this weekend, c-span 2's book tv. hear. douglas brinkley and mark updegrove. infiltrate imasco's drug cartel with c.a. hector. ook tv. both t y is running for another term. the debate at a high school is a little more than an hour. hosted by the salem news. ♪ ♪ >> hello. i am dave olson. welcome to the sixth congressional debate sponsored by salem news and the jewish journal. welcome to this new auditorium. before we begin, we should mention in the work at the school is not done. the danvers educational commitment partnership is spearheading a drive to create $500,000 to support the technology needs of the new school. let's not forget to turn off our phones. they have created a number of sponsorship opportunities for that fund raiser. you can sponsor the seat you are sitting in now will go towards funding 10 new high tech classrooms. the salem news is a sponsor of. now on to our debate. the candidates tonight in alphabetical order are libertaria

. >> brian: isn't candy crowley doing the one with the town hall. >> steve: both of them.resident's team, they certainly are staying classy, aren't they? they're blaming everybody but the capped date. you look at mitt romney and they're just cruising along, yep, we're doing our job. stay classy, team obama. >> gretchen: let's do headlines. they spent more time getting there than on the ground actually. the f.b.i. agents finally arriving in benghazi, libya to investigate the terrorist attack on our consulate. the agents gathered what evidence was left and then they left just 12 hours later. the f.b.i. revealing little information except to say agents are working with the state, justice departments and libya's government. the f.b.i.'s visit was held up for weeks because of security concerns. >>> we're less than 90 minutes away now, brand-new report on the economy that's going to be coming out. it could have a major effect on the presidential election. 8:30 a.m. eastern time, the labor department will release september's jobs report. the unemployment rate expected to inch up

crowley. >> steve: candy corrected rom romm. but her facts were not right. we continue the conversation with bick morris and here comes the black helicopterers. >> brian: not ahat did you think of candy crowley siding with the president and supposed to be a moderator and not a ref. >> that was ridiculous. before we get to it. i will finish what i wanted say with brian. carter learned this and obama is about to learn this. when an incumbent president has a bad economic record and base it on raising the bogeyman of how horrible the opponent is and the bogeyman be it reagan or romney can show he is a good nice person, then the president has nothing left to campaign on. and that's what happened in the two debates d that's why there is a tidal wave of support to romney and i believe it will continue to sweep the rest of the country. >> steve: let's get back to libya? >> on libya. i think that everybody knows clearly that barack obama tried to blame this on a movie. he said in the speech to the general assembly ando a two week period. he and hillary filmed a commercial that the state in pakistan apologizing for the movie. we all know that. and whether he used the

do you think a question like what brian just proposed, a velma heart will make it through? no way. >> no, not past candy crowleyt she's questioned some obama administration officials and i'm not going to jump on candy crowley. she's not going to be good, i don't think that's fair. but i do think the moderators in a selected questions end up getting in the way. the best moments of the last debate was when the president and romney were just talking to each other. that's what we'd like to see. it shows the strength of both men as well. >> steve: it's going to be hard for one to go after the other if someone is directing their attention at those guys when the voters are say something, what about me? >> i don't like the town hall thing. >> steve: whether or not one of the people who filled out the little card for candy crowley is going to talk about libya, because the headline really today is that hillary clinton is falling on her sword for the administration, saying the buck stops with me regarding security in benghazi. >> well, she jumps on the grenade the day before the debate. i think this is frankly lewd chris.

brian williams. excuse me, mr. president, shouldn't you be a little more concerned about keeping americans safe and maybe telling the truth about benghazi? here with the reaction, what the bleep just happened author, monica crowley, and juan williams. but there is no time for b.b. netanyahu, because when he meets with him, he has to meet with 10 other heads of state. >> no wonder there was no time to attend almost half of his intelligence briefings. look, we know what the president's priority is here. it is not governing and national security. it's energizing the base. that's why you see him on the urban radio shows and you see him doing jon tour the and pimp with a limp, mobilizing the kids and mobilizing the minorities. by the way, if he is worried about mobilizing the base, he has a big problem. >> gee, why does romney come on fox so often-- >>> not often enough, juan. we want him more. >> we want him more. but why does mitt romney go on kelley and michael? you know what, that's -- a lot of people -- [overlapping dialogue] >> sean: he's the president! he has a job. he didn't have time to meet with the prime minister of israel and the middle-east is burning up, as well as north africa. you think there is a sla

crowley will moderate a town hall style debate on october 16th. who comes out on top could come down to facial expressions and body language. brian was looking at well, how they looked. >> governor romney was much more expressive than president obama was. >> reporter: cole is an expert in the communication of emotions, an assistant professor at perdurdue university. he uses software called face reader, he applies it to political candidates. the software creates superimposed mesh maps on their faces which cole says measures the movement of hundreds of muscle points on the face. what did he measure on mitt romney's face? >> in this feature here, you can see his eyebrows are slightly up, and this would suggest an emotion of surprise, but at the same time, when you look at how s lips and nose are, that might represent something about a negative type of emotion of disgust or something like that. >> reporter: the clinched lips and the rised eyebrows he saw consistently from romney. he said that helped romney with onom and that typeer the of scorn, romney is building a bridge that connects to those voters. >> reporter: by corast, cole s

crowley who played the character in the third debate and that throughout, going forward they will leave the surrogates to talk about libya. clearly what was happen bob scheiffer did a good job. >> brianood. >> steve: and for the most part mr. obama was trying to punch and trying to get mr. romney and he didn't take the bait. did he pass the commander-in-chief test, yes. >> brian: yes, i have a few things to say. if you are pushing for the president you got to be happy. he made eye contact and clear and contest. he only blinked four times. i thought he was going to make a hole in mitt romney's skull. on your point to mitt romney on libya. i think he was prepared to say troops should have been in iraq and hard deline is wrong. but this time i am not getting into this fight. it was not like with candidates. he was not thinking quick enough. i thought it was all intentional. >> gretchen: playing it safe. >> brian: straat the time jick. america doesn't care enough even though it would be our benefit to have 10,000. but just leave that go and pick the spots that affect the economy and dig in on the autobail out and israel and jewish florida in florida and autobail out. >> gretchen: but he