lou: we're back with chris stirewalt, and juan williams, to issue of battle ground states. we talk about a new poll with romney up 50-48, a tie in ohio. with most recent, university of cincinnati poll with obama up 50-48. budeclaring too close to call. so, are we to dismiss those polls? >> no, what i'm saying it you look over. the length of time in the campaign, you say that at this point, that is an exception, generally, in ohio, president obama had a lead. i think that what is critical here is who turns out to vote. who get their people to the polls tomrow in that regard theres a big difference in potential turn out, but everyone, clearly has been and you have reputable pollsters say, we have been at this for some time, we see a obama win. >> republicans do better oh, lurk day, they turn out -- on every election day. in 1998, in a congressional midterm they under performed from every other election, they did better on election day than in polls before, you see in the swing state polls, lou this is the point, if it is close, you talk about hala point, average under over pe

chris stirewalt there is no point in redigging ohio, it is done, cooked? >> it is done, here is the thing, what karl rove said, was right, but. if -- it could have been right, if romney of the outperforming here and there but. neil: but made a big dial about early votes, a lot fewer democrats. >> and all that. what we're learning about early voting, is every year that early voting is out there. the patterson spread -- partisan spread shrinks, they are right. lou: the polls were right in part because of a future in early voting that does not get attention, the sooner one votes that people follow their partisan beliefs, and mapes almost reorigi religiously thers little react to changes, they become predictive. neil: what about early voting phenomenon, do you look at this say, we look at barack obama, headquarters. carl cameron suspects they will chat. but, all thises if you about es if you fuss about early voting, don't remember so many voting so early so often. is that going to be a continued trend? >> i think that parties will want to get out vote, i do ag

[cheers and applause] megyn: chris stirewalt is our fox news digital politics editor and host of "power play" on foxnews.com live. so we actually have results, it's been a long time, and now we know what happened. the president, obviously, has won re-election and is promising to forge compromise, going to sit down with mitt romney, he says. he used that word, compromise, and yet, you know, the headlines today on drudge, it's divided states of america. even the mainstream media, abc news, had a headline that read obama vows to forge change where he failed. and, you know, there's not much of a question about the fact that there wasn't a lot of bipartisanship in washington over the president's first term. you can blame whoever you want, but the president would be at least half of the equation. so where do we go from here? >> well, think of this. it's rather remarkable, isn't it? the people who hate washington and constantly complain about the way politics operates in this country voted to extend the status quo politically -- megyn: almost exactly! >> and more of the same. the senate is mor

with more on this, chris stirewalt. it is great to have you here.to start by talking about what the president had to say today. he seemed pretty firm on what he said so far about what we need to do with taxes in this country. here is the president. >> i am open to compromise. i am open to new ideas. i am committed to solving our fiscal challenges. but i refuse to accept any approach that is not balanced. i am not going to ask students and seniors and middle-class families to pay down the entire deficit while people like me, making over $250,000 are not asked to pay a dime more in taxes. [applause] gerri: chris, jay carney comes out a few minutes later and he says, well, the president says he will raise taxes on wealthy. so where is the compromise? >> the hope is that the compromise lies in a broader reform. but as you know, this comes down to chime in. you have the fiscal cliff. what democrats want to do really -- what they want to do is use this moment with maximal pressure to force through a deal on taxes that allows the 250,000 and above grateful

shannon: chris stirewalt, thank you, sir.es and we are not hearing about spending cuts. lou dobbs is going to join us to crunch the numbers on what the president wants and wait will truly mean on paper for our economy. this is a fox news alert. we are about 20 minutes away from what could be a critical briefing at the pentagon where defense official we are told will give a background briefing on the d.o.d.'s response to the september 11 terrorist attack in libya that left four americans dead, including our ambassador. this as we are learning defense secretary leon panetta said the military did not have armed aircraft near libya that could have helped. jennifer griferin joins us live from the pentagon. >> reporter: in just a few minutes the pentagon is finally going to brief reporters with its time line of what happened the night of the benghazi attack from the military's perspective. we have been asking for this time line for eight weeks. we'll be briefed off camera by a senior u.s. defense official. here is what we have been

we will get a result and chris stirewalt will know it before any of us knows it. he will be on the fox news decision desk tuesday night and i'll be saying, what do you know, and he'll be saying, i can't talk now. >> there is always time for you, meg. >> shall we tell them what happened back in 2010. brett and i were about to go on the air and we weren't able to call like the biggest -- anyway it wound up going into the prompter, that's how we learned as we read it it came out. >> we like to keep you guessing, megyn, we like to keep you on your toes. >> thanks, chris. let's hope that doesn't happen on tuesday. >> promise. megyn: back now to the growing frustration and just heartbreak, heartbreak in some of the places hardest hit by the monster storm this week in the northeast. look at what the helicopters found in a fly over of new york's staten island this morning, look at these. this is the foundation of a family's home, blown away by wind and water. what was the basement now looks like a pool, with even experienced reporters stunned by what they are seeing. >> t

and chris stirewalt, who knows why the hell this happened the way it did, chris, i want to ask you a couple dumb questions, one is ohio, provisional ballots, they seem to be within margin of error or recount or count -- what happens? >> no, i have been spatting, -- strong a term. neil: president just won nevada. >> karl rove and decision desk were at odds this evening about what is going to happen in ohio, but barack obama i suggestions would win ohio by twice as many votes at george w. bush did, winning 300,000 vote victory in ohio. and. neil: no automatic anything? >> no, he will be outside. they will never open the provisionals. neil: it looks leaser than that right now. >> but here is what is going on, in ohio, it is two states, a northern democratic state, and a southern republican state. we got the vote in the south by and large, in the north. mitt romney will lose big there. neil: what happened? >> well, i think simplest way to explain ohio, is that starting in april, barack obama ran millions of dollars a month in very negative attack ads to mitt romney's character, his bank

eastern, digital editor chris stirewalt. great to be back. >> shannon: who moved? >> they all move. that congress likes to do is get itself off the hook. members of congress love to do something. that's how we got here with the triggers and the automatic. here is what we see taking shape. you heard it this morning as etch was floating it out on the sunday morning shows. they create triggers. you say the overall taxes will go up. you can do it as a capital gains tax or what the republicans want which is more money comes in because you close loopholes and don't raise the rate. something on the re-knew side happened. then you have automatic triggers that congress, the democrats opposed to the cuts can say we didn't really do it. we turned down the automatic cutting machine. later it took some money away. >> shannon: hence their 9% approval rating? >> they got re-elected. most got re-elected. >> shannon: so i think about senator burning burn called dr. no, because -- senator coburn. called dr. no. he puts out the waste books. th

joining me now is chris stirewalt. and michael brown. let me start with you. what does it tell us? >> it sounds like mitt romney is very eager to keep the path to the presidency to him open. that is to win ohio. if he can close what seems to be a persistent that small gap in ohio, his chances of winning the overall presidency are much higher. that's what he wants to do. megyn: michael, what does it say about mitt romney campaign on election day. something obama is not going to do. >> we are seeing a close election in multiple states. in the polling and in the public polling, we are saying the same things. they are going to give up for a minute. they will try to make some news and push a few things over that line. it shows also that there is still nervousness about ohio. after friday night, a 30,000 crowd, indicate that they really want to carry ohio. they are going to make every effort to do so. megyn: today we got another prediction, a prognostication from larry sabado and he is predicting an obama win. this differs, before it back to you, mitt romney will win it easily tonight. >

chris stirewalt joins me, host of power play on foxnews.com. >> i was a little frightened, i thought something i, really bad was happening instead of the standard badness. megyn: that is terrifying. [laughter] back down to business, the progressive groups, the union groups meet with white house officials and are very happy, which, you know, strikes fear down the spines of republicans out there i suppose. but can it really be that president obama does not plan to compromise at all? >> well what the president is trying to do and you heard it today, you mentioned it in his speech. what the president is trying to do is set aside the issues of taxes and the looming spending cuts and redo the negotiation that they had in the summer and say, don't bring in your healthcare reform stuff, don't bring in your medicare, don't bring in social security, focus exclusively on the question of whether or not you will raise taxes in order to offset these automatic cuts. the white house is trying to portray this as a one-for-one deal that they are going to renegotiate what they already negotiated in aug

chris stirewalt is our fox news digital politics editor p.o.w. or play on foxnews.com. they cut the deal that put the automatic spending cuts in place and these automatic tax hikes in place thinking this will never happen. they went back, said all right, now that we have it in place let's try to fix it. well they failed. there wasn't the political will to deal with it at the time they passed. there wasn't the political will at the time they tried to deal with it and it was a complete political debach kill. now you have some people saying let it happen. the let's see what happens. we may be in a better negotiating pitch if we let it happen and american people are the ones who are going to pay. >> well, megyn, these are not just rank-and-file democrats talking about this. patty murray, who is the head of the senate democrats campaign arm. these are democrats who say, hey look, if the republican won't yield, if though won't give us what we want is increase in tax rates, for a lot of democrats that includes increase in tax rates with no give back on spending cuts as it rela

chris stirewalt. >> we have a good guest host this week. i'm going to be off. it. don't do too good of a job. >> shannon: let's talk about the storm response. two weeks out. it's not just inconvenience. they are cold. they're suffering. they are waiting for someone to tell them what to do next. people are fired up this time around as well. >> and it's new york, new jersey. epicenter of the media world. they know how to get attention. the storm had interesting effect on the presidential election, giving the president a chance to block mitt romney's momentum, as the discussion moved away from campaign and in the storm. for the lingering effects. think about this. chris christie got in trouble with a lot of republicans for his embrace, his bromance with president obama at the time. power play predicts by the time new jerseyites are in next summer and boardwalks are still a mess and things aren't working, coastal new jersey took a beating. that is a lot of money that the state relies on for revenue. the bromance will be over when chris christie heads to his re-elec

megyn: chris stirewalt is host of "power play" on foxnews.com life. it doesn't sound promising, and it doesn't sound like tim geithner made a lot of progress so far on the hill today, chris. >> well, one assumes that secretary geithner's job was to tell republicans, look, you don't like what we're asking you to do now, but later we're going to do a deal that you're going to like. give us a deal we like now, and later on we'll give you something back, we promise. for republicans who were skeptical to begin with about the idea of increasing taxes, now they are absolutely up in arms because by their way of thinking, this was supposed to be a negotiation about what to do on spending and taxes. now the administration's making it clear this is just about taxes. megyn: the republicans wanted spending cuts, the democrats wanted tax hikes. the democrats are now talking about tax hikes and thinking that the republicans are going to agree to just that. why would they think that when the republicans all along have said what we want is spending cuts? why would they

chris stirewalt joins me. >> reporter: they put too much significance in things early in the day. people make too much out of things that aren't real. what stef cutter is saying to their folks is more important because they are predict ago good win. they have been supreme lee confident. the romney people say we can do this. the obama people say, we got this. never going to happen for this joker. and what is going to be difficult for them is when it stops looking that way because this is going to be so impossibly close the democrats might freak out. megyn: what makes you so certain this is going to be so close? >> it's never been this close. this is what we're in this for, right? we are down to the wire. even in 2000 the and remember you can get your news 24 hours a day at our website abc7.com, or by downloading any of our abc7 appsist election in recent history you saw the soon to be present george w. bush carry a 2 point lead. he was coming in with a clear lead. this is a deadlock, within a point and it's fantastic to see but it does make people very anxious. megyn: here is my ta

chris stirewalt is our fox news digital politics editor and host of "power play" on foxnews.com live. that sounds like you. interesting and tough. >> interesting and tough maybe, but as interesting and tough as things may be, you don't talk like that unless you're probably leaving. megyn: he's gone. >> i'm staying. megyn: what cabinet member ever says anything than i'm devoted to the cause, but then they start talking about how they want to have chats with the family and it's been a tough four years, good-bye, right? isn't that express washington code for the rest of us of i'm outta here? >> that is the warm-up before the departure, and in the case of attorney general holder, it is a good time for him to go because there are still lingering questions about the fast and furious gun-running sting that resulted in several deaths, there are these other questions out here about different investigations that house republicans have had. he has been a controversial figure throughout, and this would probably be, having served four full years, be a good time to let the president have a reset at

chris stirewalt is our fox news digital politics editor and host of power play on fox news.com. is that correct, chris? the early voting tends to favor the democrats. it seems like republicans don't like early voting, they complain about it because it favors the other side but not so according to this poll in this election. >> that is exactly right, megyn. the truth is democrats have long pushed to extend voting as long as possible. no election day, they want election month. they want more times to get their voters to the polls. there are more democrats than republicans. republicans vote with higher intensity usually than democrats. when we see a pupl lik number like pew's that the republican candidate has gone ahead when you're talking about a challenger that is remarkable indeed especially in a race that is shaping up as a dead heat. megyn: how does that relate to what is happening in the swing states. that's a national number on the pew poll. the national numbers are the ones we care about. >> we care about all the states. megyn: no we don't. i live in new york, new york is no

and chris stirewalt. you have all the unions unleashing and ad blitz to target the home states of key lawmakers trying to build pressure on them to not agree to any entitlement spending cuts and they are going directly to the american people to sell that message. what do you make of it? >> i make of it that the president has set a clear message in his re-election, which is the campaign never ended, and so it makes sense that his allies in labor and elsewhere on the left side of things are going to keep up that approach. right now republicans are desperate to do a deal, they are trying to put something together to get out of this jam, they know that they lost in the presidency, they still hold the house but they are trying to get out of this. the president is trying to press his advantage and labor unions and others on the left are trying to press the president to go either farther, to go even farther out there when it comes to demanding the tax increases and limiting any changes to entitlements or any cut

reporter: one member said to chris stirewalt yesterday on transport, with the promise that we will getnto looking at all revenues, and that could include tax rates. we will look at all the tax codes. and we will also look at spending cuts. as you mentioned, there is come to this entire episode a ticking clock pressure between now and january 1. jon: untangling that tax code would be a good thing. i would hope for that. james rosen, thank you very much. jenna: one of our other top stories today, former cia director david petraeus, is testifying today on the deadly terror attack in libya. chairman peter king says the white house is immediately explanation did not match with the cia originally believed. >> they didn't have al qaeda terrorist activity in front of them. so they went through the process, whatever that processes. it was unclear. jenna: remember, these are closed hearings. we really need to rely on lawmakers for what they heard on the inside and their impressions as well. just that caviar fair, we can watch this developing story. rick folbaum is here with my. rick: you just he

chris stirewalt is with me now. i want to ask you, what are the stakes are this president as he goes into this first press conference after eight months? reporter: let's put it into perspective. he just got reelected. he will be president for four more years. compared to some of the things, like the debate, the stakes are not that high. he will have a lot to ask about and a lot to answer for. first of all, and we shouldn't diminish it, the fiscal cliff -- this affects the whole economy of this country going forward. one of the big questions is going to be that republicans are saying we don't want to see any rate increase, we just want to see revenues through closing loopholes, top administration officials, including secretary tim geithner, he says we want to see rates increase for upper income people. we will see where the president comes down with that. that will be a big issue. on friday, he will meet with congressional leaders. also, if he's willing to put on the table what he did in august of 2011. that is major