bringing in a voice outside of the cnbc circle, erin gibbs, not sure if you had a chance to listen tohe president but bottom line, as somebody that helps allocate capital and make recommendations on investments, do you believe we will get a fix to the fiscal cliff before the end of the year? >> well, we certainly hope so. the economy is still in a shaky period and we need this fiscal cliff. we need policymakers to come to an agreement. from president obama's speech, we really weren't given a lot of guidance. there is still a lot of uncertainty out there and there's nothing that's been said that looks like they've really come to any meaningful agreement. >> erin, when bob pisani did his report immediately after the president's news conference, he pointed out that the markets went to the lows of the session at certain points where he was talking about really being emphatic on raising tacks on the wealthy. is that just conspiracy theory or do you think that makes sense that the markets would go to the lows of the session on that? >> i think that may be more of a coincidence. i think righ

robert gibbs, a former white house press secretary, just said this on erin burnett's show. me play this to you. >> obviously people have a lot of respect for somebody like john mccain but for somebody to go out there and say people in the military don't trust the commander in chief, that's one of the more shameful comments i've heard in more than 20 years of being in politics. >> one of the most shameful comments he's heard in 20 years of politics, senator. what do you say to that? >> the truth hurts. the truth hurts. and it is the truth. i know veterans. i know our veterans. i have been traveling all over the country. of course they don't trust him. of course they know that on august 15th there was a meeting in the consulate in benghazi and they sent back a cable saying in the cavse of attack we don't think we can defend the consulate. of course they know they sent susan rice out to say that this was a spontaneous demonstration triggered by a hateful video. the president's repeated it several times. when we knew it was not true. i was on "face the nation" that sunday and t

gibbs, ken rogoff, a cast of thousands. there will be a powerhouse cnn team, christine romans, ali velshi, erin burnett, candy crowley.n. less than 2 1/2 hours away. christine will bring us the jobs report as soon as they come out. >> at 9:00 eastern, christine and chief business correspondent ali velshi will host that one-hour special that we were telling you about, analyzing the final jobs report before the big vote and what it means for the presidential election. >> and with just four days left before that election, president obama and mitt romney are back on message, stressing their economic credentials. the candidates are making a final, frantic push in the battleground states and this morning they're laying out their closing arguments in op-ed just published on krb.com. we have it. our website. romney on unemployment, we've watched as one party has pushed through its agenda without compromising with the other party. we watched gridlock and petty conflict dominate while chronic unemployment go unaddressed. the bickering has to end. i will end it. president obama, defending his record. the war in iraq is over, osa

gibbs, thank you very much. good to see you, sir, and i know you won't be sleeping for a long time. so get some coffee. >> thanks, erin. >> the question is, how long a time. we could get answers tomorrow night and we could get answers in several weeks if it does come down to ohio and the provisional bat lols, which we're going to talk about more in a moment, but john avlon, you've spent a lot of time here. your grandmother's from ohio. what are you feeling? >> i think you know, mitt romney had been surging after that first debate, but the momentum has stalled and i think robert gibbs gave a really interesting outline. for all their path to 270, they need the path to go through ohio. second, they're betting big that the auto bailout will create an enormous amount of good will for them. voters i've spoken to particularly in toledo, home to that jeep plant, did not take kindly to the romney ad. that backfired to many voters. the other thing is the intersection of politics and the economy. you know this. unemployment great in ohio is lower than the national average for the first time in decades. that's good news for ohioa

gibbs is being outrageous in attacking john mccain. john mccain just expressing what hundreds of veterans told me in the last four or five days, and here's totally indefensible part of it, erinonsulate was attacked twice before september 11th, 2012. the second time in june, 14-foot hole drilled in the wall of that consulate. the british consulate had to leave. the red cross had to leave. the people in the state department that worked there were begging for help. and the president just ignored them completely. never provided the security that i believe a president mccain or president reagan or president romney would supply. a competent president would have supplied security in advance. forget about all the confusion after, once the attack began. which i also think is outrageous and the white house is lying about, but put that all aside. there is no answer to why didn't the president supply security to that consulate when it was getting systemically bombarded for months. >> and what -- i know you're frustrated about benghazi, you make your case there. what about with hurricane sandy? the public approval's rating of the president of that is high. we're at the gbeginning of a lo

erin? >> well, wolf, this is defini definitely is center of everything. the president just held a rally here and i just spoke with robert gibbsve it's going to come down to ohio. i spoke to marco rubio, a key surrogate for mitt romney who said yeah, i have to say the math is very difficult. i don't want to look at what the path is to electoral college victory without ohio, so ohio seems to be the center of what the campaigns think is going to determine this race. that's why we're here tonight. we're going to bring you our full conversations with robert gibbs and marco rubio and this, the most important person in this election is not barack obama, it's not mitt romney. it happens to be the secretary of state for the state of ohio. a very crucial ballot issue here. everyone had an absentee ballot, be u if you show up in person, you're going to have to pass a provisional. we're going to talk about that and see if the hanging chad scenario from florida will be what we see. may not get a victor, but if it comes down to ohio, as you know, it could be weeks until we know who actually wins. >> because they're going to have to spend,