john mccormick and byron york.efore we get to wisconsin, there is going to be a problem in ohio, isn't there? >> the fun part as journalists we will not going to know going into election day who s going to win and not going to know on election night who won. in ohio provisional ballots. hundreds of thousands who asked for absentee ballots. they have to cast a provisional ballot and that won't even be looked at for a full ten days after the election. we are talking about a big window. if the universe of people that cast provisional ballots is larger than the difference you won't have a concession and nobody will win the ohio electoral votes until maybe thanksgiving. >> wisconsin could do a better job, do you think? >> they have had some votes very recently. the fact that the president is going to wisconsin. joe biden is going to wisconsin. the fact that they are going there and campaigning at this stage in the campaign when there is such other critical states shows you this is a danger area now for them. if you look

conservative journalist byron york, an absolutely one-sided debate. big, big win for romney. liberal comedian, bill maher. i can't believe i'm saying this, but obama looks like he does need a telepromter. analyst stu rothenberg. what happened to obama? the president didn't seem prepared. it continued on the airwaves. >> i don't know what he was doing out there. he had his head down, he was enduring the debate. rather than fighting it. >> romney supporters celebrated. >> this was awesome, from start to finish. particularly measured against fears and expectation. >> reporter: after enduring weeks of headlines about gaffes, romney woke up to read he had been declared a debate winner. the obama campaign struggled to explain. >> so, you're perfectly happy with his demeanor and energy level tonight? >> what i'm happy with is the path he wants to lead this country on. >> hello, colorado! >> reporter: even while cheering the president at a denver rally today, his supporters seemed puzzled by his debate performance. >> i didn't know quite what was going on as far as maybe he's dealing

joining us is byron york and sam youngman happens to be from kentucky and works for routers and amy stodd from the hill. byron, thoughts about the debate tonight? >> well, i think there is a two ways to judge this debate tonight. there is a debate on the substance you that might get if you read the transcript and who did the best on one subject i thought close to a tie. i thought paul ryan won on libya and taxes and i thought joe biden won on medicare and afghanistan. i think that is overshadowed by joe biden's demeanor. and democrats later said no. no. he was passionate and a happy warrior. and republicans said no. he was terribly rude. i think people goring to watch, view this debate through their own impregs of the vice president's demeanor. >> greta: amy, in looking at vice president biden, i wonder do you have a thought what the independent undecided thing? do you think they think this is a guy who is passionate and a warrior. and he's fighting for me. fighting for my ideals i really like him. or do you think he's a bully? sneering and not likeable? >> i think if you're an uncommitt

byron york, cief political coespondent for the "washington examiner". doug holtz-eakin, american

byron york, chief political correspondent for the "washington examiner". doug holtz-eakin,merican action forum and steven sigman, senior vice president for global strategy group. steven what i will start with you, what happenedo your candidate's big mo? >> look at a poll every two minutes you see sething different. melissa: there i momentum here. there is a trend here. >> i actually don't think that's right. i think the trend at the end this week, ifanything is ind back to the presidt. but much more important --. melissa: what poll would that be? >> the poll of the "rasmussen poll" today, the ipsos poll today, the marist, "wall street journal" polls in wa and wiscons show the president up by six and five points and 18 among women. the polls are going all ov the place. what they really --. melissa: there are a lot of polls. >> what they show is close race. melissa: byron, to yo, do you think there is trend for mitt romney? a lot of people do? >> in florida, i think something is gog on in florida and workiig in mitt romney's favor now. no doubt about it. he

. >> greta: joining us, our panel panel, byron york and weekly standard's steve hay hays and deputy washingtoneau chief michael crowley no relationship to kand eye kroly. this is about this libya question? >> this is the thing a lot of conservatives wanted mitt romney to take the lead on. he didn't do well tonight. he just, there was a time line that case he could have made. he didn't do it well and the president did refer to an act of terrorism on the day after attacks also administration then went on for days and days talking about this movie including aum the way up to the president's appearance at un. so romney did not make the case as well as he could have and i think that the viewer who's haven't followed it came away with a muddled impression. >> steve? >> yes. i agree with byron. i think the fact that romney flubbed the initial answer or that he was corrected by the president then again by candy crowley this is a highly debatable point seems to get him off stride. the problem i think, bigger problem for the administration is that this is an issue that is now likely to dominate the deba

. >> greta: joining us, our panel panel, byron york and weekly standard's steve hay hays and deputy washington bureau chief michael crowley no relationship to kand eye kroly. this is about this libya question? >> this is the thing a lot of conservatives wanted mitt romney to take the lead on. he didn't do well tonight. he just, there was a time line that case he could have made. he didn't do it well and the president did refer to an act of terrorism on the day after attacks also administration then went on for days and days talking about this movie including aum the way up to the president's appearance at un. so romney did not make the case as well as he could have and i think that the viewer who's haven't followed it came away with a muddled impression. >> steve? >> yes. i agree with byron. i think the fact that romney flubbed the initial answer or that he was corrected by the president then again by candy crowley this is a highly debatable point seems to get him off stride. the problem i think, bigger problem for the administration is that this is an issue that is now likely to dominate the

let's ask bill kristol, editor of "the weekly stdard" and byron york, chief political correspondt for the "washingnexaminer". welcome to you both. byron, i'll start with you. what does romney have to do to show up roads in here. even voters say they don't expect him to win? >> we the thing, he has to do the same thing he had to do all along which present himself as a good alternative to the president who will take the country in a different direction than the president and can point out the numerous flaws in the president's record. i mean, i wonder whether romney has actually been preparing too much. he has been doing enormous amount of this stuff. he did a unabout much of debates in the republican primaries. it got to where heas quite sharp. whether he is lost his edge by now i don't know. gerri: bill, you've been very critical of romney saying that in some cases he has been arrogant, he has been stupid in some of his comments. what does he need to do at this debate on wednesday? >> i think he can win this debate. he crushed newtingrich in florida. you remember after he lost the sout

joining us is our political panel in denver, byron york and sam young is here and steve hays from weekly standard. first to you, donald trump got a shout out z actually my hometown of appleton, wisconsin got one. your thoughts on any undecided voters possibly swayed? is there a way to know tonight? >> this is clear mitt romney is very, very prepared and managed to get that aross without throwing out a bunch of canned lines when you're rez, you can cutoff arguments and say that is it. we're going to do this. and you can say next question. you don't have to grapple with someone asking tough questions and tonight he did. as far as undecided voters are concerned there is talk about people, voter who's haven't paid a huge amount of attention up until now and they don't know about him. they saw someone very, very prepared and presidential looking. >> steve? >> yeah. i agree with byron this, is a about as strong of a performance as the governor could have expected to have. and this is every time there is an opening he seemed to take it. and i was watching this with a room full of conservatives

byron york, chief political correspondent for the ashiton eaminer". doug holtz-ean,merican on

byron york, chief political correspondent for the "washington examiner". doug holtz-eakin, american

joining me is byron york. and steve hayez. steve, you are first?ing video. but i don't think it tells us much that many people didn't already think about president obama. he has become much more sophisticated in these arguments. but i think at the end of the day, he is making a similar argument today, high is, effect in effect, pretty open about the class warfare argument. it is not as explicit, but the philosophy is the same. this doesn't surprise me to see this. >> the national attitudes are set on president obottom a. people have seen him come into their living room, ever day for four years. they have a sense of who he is as a person. so as these videos come out, it is going to be hard for them to really shake things up with the independent and swing voters, which are who matters in november. >> it is not only rich and poor, it is black and white as well. he makes specific racial arguems. in ept -- 2002, the time of enron, everybody's talking about enron. he talks about enron, using tax accountants and tax loopholes to make money and -- and... a

joining us our political panel, abc news senior washington editor rick klein, casey huntington, and byron yorkrst you. i thought it was executive order to close gitmo, just needed congress to place the people. am i right? >> they realized it was going to be harder than they wanted. the distinction he's making is in terms of campaign pledges versus actions that you can possibly have congress do later. it's a stretch obviously. one man's lie and dishonesty. >> greta: it's name-calling. >> you've seen a shift from the obama campaign in terms of how they're trying to discuss and describe mitt romney. for a long time they were more interested in trying to describe him as a conservative extremist. they didn't want to go after him as a flip-flopper, even as a dishonest politician. they've started to paint him as someone you can't trust rather than someone whose views are out of step with the mainstream. >> greta: casey? >> you saw beforehand, when both campaigns were managin you want to undermine your opponent, who has just come off an unqualified success. >> a lot of this is intent. i mean, i think

joining us our political panel, abc news senior washington editor rick klein, casey huntington, and byron yorkfirst you. i thought it was executive order to close gitmo, just needed congress to place the people. am i right? >> they realized it was going to be harder than they wanted. the distinction he's making is in terms of campaign pledgrs oche it's a stretch, obviously -- >> a stretch! it's name calling. >> there is a lots of that going on. one thing i am struck by, you have seen a shift from the obama campaign, in terps of how they are trying to discuss mitt romney. for a long time, they tried to describe him as a conservative extremist, not a flip-flopper not as a liar. we have seen that change. there has been a major strategic shift to try to paint him as someone you can't trust, rather than someone whose views are out of the mainstream. >> you saw beforehand, before this debate, when both campaigns were carefully managing expectations. you heard romney say, one thing i am expecting is for obama to get up there and be dishonest. that's one way to go out, when you feel you haven't done a

byron york, leslie clark and, first, byron, what do you think about -- the teleprompter being unfair?> well, i think these professional terms, i think these are called low-information voters. they obviously didn't know how -- how a debate is supposed to work. but i think it pointed to a serious issue with the debate, which is that president obama just didn't seem as well prepared paz -- as mitt romney did. and of course, there have been a million teleprompter jokes about him during his presidency. we have seen him at evens where you thought he would be speaking off the cuff and he had teleprompter screens. and he has not taken the tough, challenging questions that he -- from the press or anybody else that he faced from romney. so even though, it's a joke-y video, it points to a serious issue. >> greta: leslie, i felt that some of his supporters, they almost threw him under the bus with the silly excuses. it's like, there would have been moreesquive ways to say, look, he has had a lousy night. >> a lot of people they talked to in the video acknowledged that he had not had the best of n

joining me, rick cline, and michael crowley and byron york. michael... your thoughts?> well, look, it's clearly sort of a diversionary gimmick. it is kind of a light-hearted way for obama to rebound off a disastrous appearance. you are trying to see them take something fun and steer the conversation back to the terrain that was working so well for them, wall street, romney being a heartless captitallist. there is an interesting point. romney's budget would impose enormous spending cuts. and when he is asked for specifics, he tends to signal out tiny items like pbs and npr, had ch don't do much. so there is a substabtive point to be made. >> i think it's the height of silliness. it has no relevance to most people's lives when you come down to t. i think the obama folks realize they may have had an opportunity to score some political points at the debate and they spent the next 6 days trying to refight that battle and do it in a more effective way. i don't think this ad is even intended to get out there so much, as michael said, to you about distract us from the fact tha

byron york, chief political correspondent for the "washington examiner". doug holtz-eakin,merican ac

. >> greta: joining us, our political panel, rick klein, and kim strosesle and byron york.on, first to you? >> there is a big debate about whether it's really even news. one thing that is interesting about this campaign, the bar for news has been kind of low. there was a period in this campaign, where a lot of people were consumed on whether the "n" word hab painted on a rock outside ever a farm that rick peri's family had rented many years ago. there was a question about whether romney's cut another kid's hair in high school. if someone wants to threatt as news, they can. i do think in this case, since being president of 100% of america is emerges as an issue after mitt romney's 47% question and if you have a president who seems to be making kind of a racial appeal in front of a black group, referring to our people and our neighborhoods -- that's certainly fair game for conversation. >> greta: kim? >> this is the big problem for mr. obama, is that he has gone, one of the things that has been his huge benefit in this entire four years is his likeability. people like him. th

joining us, our political panel, rick klein, john mccormick, and byron york. trending in the right way for governor romney. >> yeah. the trend has been consistent in the last couple weeks, in battleground states as well as national polls, mitt romney making serious inroads, really for the first time in thes general election, pulling ahead consistently in national polls, tightening things in battleground states. it's been unadulterated good news for him in the polls over the last 10 days or so. will that be maintained after the debate last night where everybody thought obama did better than last time. the question who won the debate is up in the air. does it's continue then? it's still a stubborn electoral map when you come down to it for mitt romney. even if you can grants him, he'll be strong in the popular vote, the national poll numbers. those states all went for obama last time around. he's still fighting on enemy terror iterritory in all these . >> greta: john, you're from wisconsin. in 2008, president obama won it by 14 points. in september, president ob

stoddard and byron york.teve, your thoughts about hurricane sandy and whether she'll have any impact whatsoever on the election. >> you know, greta, i actually think that she could have an impact on the election in part because she allows president obama to do two things that he has been unable to do throughout the rest of october. since the first debate. one is restore this likability advantage that he had over mitt romney. remember, going back over the summer, he had advantages on this likability question of sometimes 30 points in polling that we've seen. by being president in this case, by going out and by talking to the victims of ts tragedy, he's able to, i think, convey once again the barack obama that people found attractive back in the summer before the debates and before he was sort of tougher and more aggressive, and the second thing, and the more obvious thing is he's able to be presidential. i think the obama campaign has been trying to position him in such a way that he can show sort of a stature

byron york writes in the washington examiner that the campaign is running on empty. a.b.toddard writes on the hill that obama is now spinning to a loss, just look at the polls. what is your response to that? >> well, i mean, i think president obama's agenda is certainly not as ambitious as it was four years ago because i think he's learned a lesson that the republicans are going to obstruct anything that moves the country forward. we've seen it with them obstructing the jobs act a year and a half ago that would have added more jobs to the economy. we've seen it time and time again. i can understand why he's being a little bit less ambitious. i don't buy the notion that the polls have the president down. i think we have, you know, one or two outliers. but look at the swing states. we all know that this election is going to come down to a couple of different swing states, and the president's -- >> that's everything that's wrong with this campaign, i think. that's everything about -- you know what? let's downsize their ambition. let's not go for big ideas because the republi