number one cuyahoga county was weighted at 13%.bout cuyahoga county from 2004 to 2008 the total votes cast in ohio went up 100,000 if you add up all the candidates but in cuyahoga county, between 2004 and 2008 which was a big year for barack obama, cuyahoga county casted less ballots in the election in 2008 than 2004. the relative strength of cuyahoga has dropped to 11% north 13%. >> bill: that's very favorable to barack obama. that's the cleveland area. so, if they are weighting that in a heavy way. >> at 13% instead of 11%. >> bill: it's reality that the vote is dropping there. it's going to be better for romney. >> true. >> bill: do you trust rasmussen, larry? you are pretty outspoken about these polls. remember, scott was on it the last time and the time before that scott hit it right between the eyes. >> no, i know scott quite well. and our heart goes out to him because of the situation in new jersey. he has a tough situation. >> bill: he couldn't come on because he can't come out of house. >> he is in the ballpark but i go by

between hamilton, franklin, cuyahoga counties you have cincinnati, columbus and cleveland.ery early into the night on november 6th watch the returns especially from cuyahoga and franklin county. compare them to returns of four years ago. you will get an idea whether or not president obama will hold the state or lose it. >> i think that's exactly right. go back and look at the 2004 turnout and 2004 models to see if president obama is maintaining his advantage, particularly in cuyahoga county but elsewhere as well. if he is keeping that advantage in cuyahoga county or, increasing it which i think very few people expect, would suggest a very good night for him in ohio and perhaps elsewhere. bill: you got it. steve, have a good weekend. enjoy that. coming up at 10:00 hour we'll talk about your state wisconsin examine that. >> thanks, bill. bill: martha. martha: another green energy company going bust after taking hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer loans. now this company is also under criminal investigation we're learning and congress wants some answers. we'll be right

buff it may boil down to two counties, hamilton county and cuyahoga county.? >> cuyahoga county is where cleveland is, the most populous county in the state. we've got over a million people there and about 900,000 voters there. now, president obama won cuyahoga county over john mccain in 2008 by a larger number of voters than he won the entire state of ohio in 2008. they really want to drive up their numbers there and hold their own in hamilton county where i am now in cincinnati, president obama won hamilton county in 2008. but in the 2010 governors erase, ted strickland, a democrat narrowly lost the county to john kasic, the governor there now. you're seeing the most voters in these two counties. that's really important to them. the obama campaign in ohio is telling me they're just basically worried about snow in cleveland on election day because that would drive down their turnout a little bit. they really want to get those numbers out. >> i want to switch gears here for a second meghan mccain. let's talk about the day after the winner is decided. let's go

romney supporters chanted four more weeks for president obama during a rally in cuyahoga falls yesterday evening. no republican has ever won the presidency without winning ohio. the latest cnn poll shows the president's lead in the buckeye state has shrunk. now at 51 to 47%. >> i want you to go out there and find someone who voted for barack obama and get him to come join our team. >> we reinvented a dying auto industry that supports one in eight ohio jobs and has come roaring back to the top of the world. [ applause and cheers ] >> the president spoke at ohio state university yesterday. today, he is back at work at the white house. >>> time now 5:12. a warning for drivers. the potential risk for millions of toyotas out there. also ahead... >> i did everything they asked me to do so i didn't think it was going to be an issue. >> plus did they cross the line? what happened when tsa stopped a cancer patient? >> and an entangled sea lion at pier 39. why the rescue mission didn't quite go as planned, coming up. ♪ your ticket to a better night's sleep ♪ video.. rescuers went out to pier 39, a

and we heard chris christie say last night at that event in cuyahoga falls -- and going back to a linema used at an event recently when he said he couldn't change washington from the inside, that it has to be changed from the outside. and chris christie said last night at that event that, well, president obama should go ahead and take that trip bk to chicago if he can't change washington from the inside. so we may hear that line again from chris christie. but it's going to be interesting to watch this event here in the next few moments, ashleigh. this will be a town hall event. so mitt romney and chris christie presumably will be taking questions from the audience here. one of the questions that's been raise in the last 24 hours is about the issue of abortion. mitt romney in an editorial board meeting with "the des moines register" yesterday talked about how he would not pursue legislation that would restrict abortion rights in this country. so it will be interesting to see if that question comes up. these kinds of questions don't typically come up, but it could. >> i want to just jump

>> romney supporters chanting "four more weeks" for president obama during a rally at cuyahoga falls yesterday evening. no republican has ever won the presidency without winning ohio. the latest cnn poll shows the president's lead in the buckeye state has shrunk to 51-47%. >> i want you to go out there and find someone who voted for barack obama and get him to co join our team. >> we have reinvented the auto industry. >> the president spoke at ohio state university yesterday. today he is back at work at the white house. >>> today the u.s. supreme court is set to take on the issue of affirmative action at universities. the justices will hear arguments over university of texas programs that use race as a factor in a quarter of its incoming classes. opponents say the university is practicing illegal discrimination. the case could produce new limits on affirmative action at universities. >>> the as and the giants still alive in the play-offs, exciting. >> yeah. both with big wins last night. >> coco crisp leaps and catches it! >> how about that catch. certainly got the as fired up. they

of the state the northern part of the state heavy democratic areas, our producer called out too cuyahoga today early voting down a bit today than it was four years ago so you see some obvious immediate impact. the question is again, with the few more days to go, five more days can they get this fixed come election day. one more quick example in the northern virginia suburbs and again to the naked eye it tells the story. still a lot of people out right on the northern washington d.c. area, right there, fairfax county, arlington, go back four years, you see all that blue, this is the area most critical to president obama. he has to win the state of virginia, has to be a high turnout. when you call into the communities they think they'll get it fixed in time for tuesday but something to keep an eye on. >> john when you talked to the two campaigns, i know they don't want to talk about it this way but do either of them see this benefiting them, the end of the day, when push comes to shove? >> it's fascinating they give you the same answer and how rare is it the romney obama campaigns give you

along with nbc's peter alexander, traveling with the romney campaign, and starts off our coverage in cuyahoga falls, ohio. peter, good evening. >> reporter: brian, good evening to you. we're seeing real evidence that this race is tightening, not just nationally, but in crucial battlegrounds like here in ohio. with both candidates descending on the buckeye state, the o in ohio could easily stand for offense. a poll released late this afternoon shows president obama's lead has shrunk to just four points. touching down on akron on the last day ohioans will vote. mitt romney will campaign here four of the last five days. the president just wrapped up his 17th rally here, more than any other state. >> do not delay, go vote today. what do you think? all right, buckeyes, we need you. >> reporter: why all the attention on ohio? no republican has won the white house without it. romney advisers insist the race has fundamentally changed here since last week. just weeks ago, the campaign briefly considered its path forward without ohio. >> we feel it's going to be close again until the end, but we feel w

i have a native of cuyahoga county working for may. me. rita davis. i want to say thank you to her because i want you to now i am keeping my ohio ties alive and well. i've done a lot of things in my life. i wrote a book called back to work, and i counted all the things i had done to make a living. i had 20-something jobs before i was elected president, but this is the first time in my life that i got to be a warm-up act for bruce springsteen. [applause] i am qualified, because i was "born in the usa," and unlike one of the candidates for president, i keep all of my money here. [applause] now, -- [applause] >> we love you, bill! [applause] >> look, ohio is always a dogfight. i noticed a couple of things. the republicans were real clever in ohio. first they passed the voter suppression stuff, the voter i.d. and everything, and then you proved that it is not that hard for the citizens of ohio to put on the ballot a referendum to reverse with the legislature does if you do not like it, which you did do. [applause] as soon as they saw that coming, you have

in ohio, the most important thing is cuyahoga county.ns out big and the counties around cincinnati, if obama can do as well as he did, the republican, but if he can keep the margin down, good chance to win ohio. >> eric: you may want to weigh in on this. bob mentioned something in the break. pennsylvania. starting to move toward romney. a big state. you move pennsylvania needle, you might move other states. >> andrea: this is a sign. pennsylvania four points for romney. now they are sending resources there. we talked about this. this will force obama to spend money he needs other states to get out vote. that tells me the pennsylvania, ohio voter moving in the camp. >> dana: talking about debates don't matter. in the g.o.p. primary, some people that said we need the best candidate who can debate obama well and win in the debatism didn't necessarily believe. maybe they were right. >> brian: santorum said they got the wrong guy. michigan is the same as pennsylvania. it's interesting that north carolina is firmly in the romney camp. >> bob:

significant number in the northeastern part of the state centered on cuyahoga county, cleveland, that were taken off the voter roles. so, you know, ohio is tight in the poles but, again, my sense is that we're likely to see a romney victory in the state because the momentum is with him. his people are more energized. and the president has got a lousy message here at the end and romney has got one that's optimistic, upbeat and forward looking. >> sean: that's a state everybody has been talking about ohio it is 47-47 right now in the latest polls. early voting trends information and history. all of the models they have been using pollsters a lot of them are going back 2008. i don't see a model emerging again in 2012. do you? >> i don't want to say it's done and quick it's not. it's going in the right direction. it's going in the right direction warning sign would be in early voting if it got anything close to 2008. if you take a look in an early vote extrapolate obama moving down 2 or 3 points republicans moving it up two or three points this is a state obama won by 4 percent. if you ha

cuyahoga county lost 150,000 people in the last ten years.on o the roles they won't necessarily. michigan, pennsylvania and wisconsin they didn't run the barrage of antiromney ads preconvention there and those were 16-14 and 10 point obama states. how to they he look close to being even or not polls you cited even states and that is places where romney could win even if he doesn't win, ohio. >> sean: who is winning this race? >> mitt romney. >> sean: michael barone. thanks for being with us. appreciate it. >> chris matthews is playing the race card and this time attacking governor palin. desperation in full force at nbc news. we'll play you the insane comments, next. [ male announcer ] it's simple physics... a body at rest tends to stay at rest... while a body in motion tends to stay in motion. staying active can actually ease arthritis sympto. but if you have arthritis, staying active can be difficult. prescription celebrex can help relieve arthritis pain so your body can stay in motion. because just one 200mg celebrex a day can provide 24 h

and they were expecting hundreds more throughout the morning in cuyahoga, which is the most populousn ohio. >> i know in 2008, lots of people chose to vote early in the state of ohio. will the early voting numbers match 2008? >> right now they're thinking that the early voting numbers might exceed 2008. you know, there are two ways you can do it. you can do it by mail, which is still the most popular way to vote absentee and early, or you can do it in person monday through friday at your local board of elections between set hours. so, yes, they are expecting it to exceed 2008 since more people are familiar with the options available to them. >> so, aaron, i know there have been some challenges to florida early voting. when it comes right down to it, how long will people be able to vote early this time around? >> yeah, in florida it's the same way as ohio. there's two ways to early vote. there's one through absentee mail ballot, and over the next week, voters will be receiving them. folks wanting the early vote. in 2008, they have 14 days, and charlie crist actually extending early vo

in fact, i think that cuyahoga county, which is what cleveland was back in '08 went 70% for obama.onghold. we actually had a recent poll that had obama up 16% in northeast ohio while he was up at that point, 5% statewide. >> the romney campaign has released a new tv spot critical of the president's handling of the economy. take a look. i want to talk about it on the other side. here it is. >> the question ohio families are asking is who can bring back the jobs. under president obama, we've lost over a half a million manufacturing jobs. and china has passed us in manufacturing. >> so here is the thing. ohio's economic picture based on my understanding is that it's better than it is in many other states in this country. the unemployment rate in the buckeye state 7.2%. that's lower than the national rate. it's down more than 3% since its recession high of 10.6 in january of 2010. paul, is ohio the right place to hit the president on jobs? >> well, that's been the challenge. craig, that because it runs counter to what the republican governor john kasich has been telling ohioans. and of

specifically in ohio, keep an eye on cuyahoga county over the next three days. you find, cleveland, ohio. that's where you find a lot of votes, frankly, back in 2008, barack obama easily won 70-30 over john mccain. look at vote totals, 1.3 million votes cast across a state of 11 million people. why is that significant, bob? it is significant because paul ryan goes to cuyahoga county with condoleezza rice and thursday bruce springsteen goes there with bill clinton. they are going to there to try to find those votes. >> that is key for democrats. if obama wins ohio, he will get out the vote in this county where democrats out number republicans three to one. the goal for the obama campaign, is keep it close. most populous county in ohio. that is the key. barack obama has to get the vote out if he is going to win ohio. tradition is if you win ohio you win the presidency. there are other ways for romney to win it. bill: makes it much more difficult. in regard to all that, the romney team has been going to counties often times in the last two weeks where barack obama

rallies, but be clear we have seen some of the biggest rallies we've seen. 12,000 at a rally in cuyahoga falls. on tuesday, 9,000 in sydney hollywood ohiond a wednesday close to 9,000. make no mistake. that's why they're spending some form in each of the last five days in this state with others elsewhere. there will be two more stops also. we're listening to the senator ron portman of ohio who also happens to be mitt romney's sparring partner. perhaps the two of them going head to head in a hotel not far from where we were staying as they prepare for tuesday's critical debate as well. >> hey, peter, according to that latest poll, romney down just a few points there behind president obama in ohio, inching closer by the day. what's different about the romney campaign strategy in the buckeye state right now versus that strategy maybe say two weeks ago? >> reporter: i think it's pretty clear that romney feels much more confident. he feels much more loose as he interacts with voters and delivers his stump speech. it's because of that debate performance about ten days or sore now. when we were

i live in cuyahoga county and he is my senator. large sums of money are being spent to defeat him.lling in that race has it a little tighter than it was for a while. a lot of polls have tightened. sherrod brown 47.8%. josh plan dell, mandel. watch this ad in ohio. >> named watchdog for strong fiscal performance. josh mandel, imagine these results in washington. sherrod brown, more debt, less jobs. time for a change. >> the guy looks older. i think i looked older at my bar mitzvah than that guy looked. when you look at josh mandel you see a young up start republican. but sherrod brown, they had a big fight and they're making an issue of their age. they had a fight in their debate in ohio last night. >> falsely attacking me, and i won't stand for it. you might want to try to push people around in washington, but you're not going to push me around. >> being called a liar by the pants on crown fire is a pretty remarkable thing for a young man to say or a man of any age to say in a political debate. >> he called him a young man. i love it. thank you for writing in about these congressio

cuyahoga county lost 150,000 people in the last ten years. the roles they won't necessarily. michigan, pennsylvania and wisconsin they didn't run the barrage of antiromney ads preconvention there and those were 16-14 and 10 point obama states. how to they he look close to being even or not polls you cited even states and that is places where romney could win even if he doesn't win, ohio. >> sean: who is winning this race? >> mitt romney. >> sean: michael barone. thanks for being with us. appreciate it. >> chris matthews is playing the race card and this time attacking governor palin. desperation in full force at nbc news. we'll play you the insane comments, next. smoothest riding. it's got the most torque, the smoothest suspension, the best storage, class-leading comfort, and a revolutionary collection of versatile accessories. introducing the all-new, 60 horsepower ranger xp 900, a whole new class of hardest working, smoothest riding. get huge rebates on 2012's and low financing on all models during the polaris factory and loauthorized clear

the campus of ohio state university and mitt romney will be joined by chris christie at a rally in cuyahoga county. it is the last day of voter registration in ohio. >>> a new curfew for former d.c. council chairman kwame brown in court today. a judge ordered him to obey even stricter new rules because he violated the terms of his release. brown failed to make three weekly calls to check in with the court. the judge warned him, not to tempt fate by breaking those rules or any others. brown is scheduled to be sentenced for felony bank fraud next month. >>> the nationals' first game of the playoffs tomorrow at 1:00. preparations are underway to deal with the rush hour mess it is likely to cause when 40,000 fans let out. metro plans to run extra trains on the green line before and after the game. and traffic control officers will be on hand to help drivers. extra bike share spaces will be available at nationals park. >>> lots of people all over the area are busy dogitating. pat collins is out finding out how they will make it happen. ♪ take me out to the ball game ♪ take me out through the cro

for the president, run up the store in cleveland, cuyahoga county and overperform with working class guys in the auto belt, if you will. if you are looking at one county that may tell us more than anything, sit over here and we are going to hamilton county. look at this. it's as easy of a swing county as it was. bush in '04. obama by 30,000. it's why romney spent a lot of time in cincinnati this week. now let's turn to the republican governor of ohio, governor casic. good to have you on the program. >> good to listen to that big debate going on. >> we are going to get you in on it, too. >> wow. >> it's nice to start with a little bit of a chuckle before we get into the serious issues. this was the cleveland dealer on thursday. here is his cartoon that i thought was so telling. it's the martian landing thing, take me to your leader. the guy says they are somewhere in ohio. as you well know, everybody is in ohio. i want to ask you the direct question, governor. you have 7% unemployment. it's better than the national average. who deserves credit for that? the president, you as the repub

tuesday, romney stumps virginia, then ohio with chris christie in cuyahoga falls. in three straight rallies in florida, he recounted his memories of a 14-year-old boy, david, that he befriended with leukemia. >> i sat down next to him and he said what happens next? and i spoke with him about what i believe happens next. clear eyes, full heart, can't lose. david can't lose. i love the greatness of the soul of the american people. >> david's parents, members of romney's congregation, spoke at the convention. it's one of those things that you a lot of people have been saying romney needs to do. his sons have been doing it. ann's been doing it, but now, mitt romney himself starting to incorporate some of the personal stories in some of the things he did as head of his church in boston. >>> last night in boston at a fund-raiser, president did a little soul searching of his own when it comes to his campaign. >> everybody here incredible professionals, such great friends and just perform flawlessly. night after night. i can't always say the same. >> and if you didn't get

the cuyahoga river here in cleveland right now is 2 feet above flood stage and only going up as the rain to come down. shep? >> shepard: all right. thanks very much. mike tobin on the banks of the big lake. at last check, more than 6 million homes and businesses still had no power thanks to this super storm. that's down from a outages affecting people in more than a dozen states. south and west of the capital. how bad is this there, steve? shep the d.c. area dodged a bullet. from here on up to boston as you said 6 million people are out of trouble. here is one of the trouble spots in alexandria virginia a giant tree came down. broke some of the power polls. and they are busy working here at 7:40 tonight eastern time. can you see the guy in the bucket truck up there tieing in some wire and they are working furiously to try to get everything back to normal. now, this is a huge inconvenience for customers. they sometimes complain to the power companies because they are out of power for so long. days at a time. power companies understand. here is one official who talked to us earlier. let's

cuyahoga county lost 150,000 people in the last ten years.rats try to keep the departed on o the roles they won't necessarily. michigan, pennsylvania and wisconsin they didn't run the barrage of antiromney ads preconvention there and those were 16-14 and 10 point obama states. how to they he look close to being even or not polls you cited even states and that is places where romney could win even if he doesn't win, ohio. >> sean: who is winning this race? >> mitt romney. >> sean: michael barone. thanks for being with us. appreciate it. >> chris matthews is playing the race card and this time attacking governor palin. desperation in full force at nbc news. we'll play you the insane comments, next. mike rowe here at a ford dealer with a little q&a for fiona. tell me fiona, who's having a big tire event? your ford dealer. who has 11 major brands to choose from? your ford dealer. who's offering a rebate? your ford dealer. who has the low price tire guarantee... affording peace of mind to anyone who might be in the market for a new set of res? you

across the way in cuyahoga falls. >> reporter: mr. romney stormed in the buckeye state. the first time since the democratic convention in early september, he is either tied, in some cases now leading in the polls. surging in both national and battle ground state polls the latest american research group poll shows romney ahead in colorado 50 to 46. ohio, romney at 48. to president's 47. virtual tie. furthermore, the rasmussen swing state tracking poll of 11 battleground states shows romney at 49%. the president at 47. romney appealed to iowa farm country voters penalling to end what he called the obama administration overregulation of agriculture and promised to open more world markets and reduce energy costs. >> there are big differences between the president and me. he has no plan for rural america. no plan for agriculture. no plan for getting people back to work. i do. >> romney released a policy paper on rural issues and ripped the president for squeezing the economy critically important agriculture industry. >> president has idea he wants to raise the tax rate from 3

in the case of cuyahoga county, it's right downtown. >> thank you both for joining me tonight. >> thankou. >> good to be here. >> coming up, lena dunham made an ad for the obama campaign and it is so controversial to people who do not understand jokes. >>> and it's made rush limbaugh think outloud, about what it would be like if he was a woman. >>> and, i will vote. it's early voting night here on "the last word," and i'm going to need the help of a former california governor to fill out my ballot because that's how crazy and complicated it is. that's coming up. ♪ i wish my patients could see what i see. ♪ that over time, having high cholesterol and any of these risk factors can put them at increased risk for plaque buildup in their arteries. so it's even more important to lower their cholesterol, and that's why, when diet and exercise alone aren't enough, i prescribe crestor. in a clinical trial versus lipitor, crestor got more high-risk patients' bad cholesterol to a goal of under 100. [ female announcer ] crestor is not right for everyone. like people with liver disease or women who

was, several years ago where for one week registration is still open so you can register at the cuyahogain county or richland county board of elections. you can register to vote and vote in your same trip to the board of elections. >> i like that. >> it really makes sense. we're urging people to come in this week. people particularly who are least likely to be registered, and that's people on college campuses coming back to school, more low income people, and people that might have moved for business reasons, whatever, and need to update their registrations. >> okay. here is the battle going on in the air. you were talking the ground game. the obama campaign is running this ad in ohio to attract voters in coal country. let's take a look at this one. >> seen these new ads where mitt romney says he's a friend of coal country? this is the guy who wants to keep tax breaks for companies that ship american jobs overseas. the same guy who had a swiss bank account and millions in tax havens like bermuda and the caymans. and on coal, well, here is what he said as governor outside a coal-fired pow

romney will be joined by new jersey governor chris christie for an evening rally in cuyahoga falls, ohio. ap apologies for my pronunciation. romney will be battling for the buckeye state. he's got a new straight to camera ohio ad making his case on the airwaves. >> under president obama we've lost over a half a million manufacturing jobs and china has passed us in manufacturing. i'll stand up to china. i have a detailed plan to create 12 million new jobs, including producing our own energy in the ground, in ohio. >> i'm so glad you brought that up, mr. romney. let's talk about that now. your jobs plan. let's do it. let's get right to our panel. here in new york msnbc political analyst david corn, author of the new book "47%", richard walls, one of my many bosses and in washington, karen finney. richard, i have to put this to you. romney says he will create 12 million jobs by cutting taxes across the board by 20% -- >> he's not going to cut taxes. >> hang on, which economists said cal cates to about $5 trillion but romney now says he won't cut taxes at 20% across the board and it won't ac

in cuyahoga county, there are going to be a great deal of students and other activists who will be there. in youngstown a lot of workers and union workers will be there. so it's a different mix in each city. but we're anticipating that this enthusiasm that everybody is showing will infect other people, other voters. they'll get out and vote and know as you mentioned that 30% of the people vote early. that's very important that people have the opportunity to vote early. particularly in ohio where there is a lot of confusion about when to vote early and things like that. >> but there are absentee ballots people can get at home, correct? >> yes. you can vote absentee. you can come down to the board of elections. monday through friday in ohio up until november the 6th. which is the date of the election. >> just to point out right now, the new columbus dispatch poll showing obama at 45%, mitt romney 42%. thanks for coming and taking time to talk with us. we appreciate it. >> thanks and congratulations and best wishes to you. >> thank you. i appreciate that. >>> still ahead this hour, the supr