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erin mcpike, thank you. doug schoen. >> thank you.ext one viewer identifies the worst moment in last night's debate. we offered a few suggestions ourselves tonight. perhaps the worst moment of all presidential debates. ith the spark cash card from capital one, sven's home security gets the most rewards of any small business credit card! how does this thinwork? oh, i like it! [ garth ] sven's small business earns 2% casback on every purche, every day! woo-ho!! so that ten security gators, right? put them on my spark card! why settle for less? testing hot tar... great businesses deserve the most rewards! [ male announcer ] the ark business card from capital one. choose unlimited rewards with 2% cash back or double miles on every purchase, every day! what's in your wallet? here's your invoice. ♪ ...reach one customer at a time? whatever your business challenge, dell has the technology and services to help you solve it. >> what did candy do? nothing. >> michael e-mailed to say, candy crowley assisting president obama in his libya lie will

despite that monetary difference. >> erin mcpike is in ohio. erin, a new quinnipiac poll, of the voters, president obama got 50% of the vote and romney 39. >> the democrats are very energized by early voting. of course, they won a bunch of court ruling. i because they have won the early vote to continue and to continue the weekend before election day, that obama is on track to win here. so democrats do feel good. now, the republicans i talked to romney's campaign in the state yesterday and they are cautiously optimistic. they think the trajectory is headed their way. however, mitt romney hasn't led for a single day and any time this year, he's got a lot of work to do and we're hearing from the romney campaign that he's going to be spending a disproportionate amount of his time in ohio from now until election day. >> krystal, give me your view and erin saying that there is some kind of movement towards romney, where's the evidence of that? >> well, we haven't seen a lot of evidence. some of the polls have tightened but romney has never led in th

matt vizer of the boston globe, and erin mcpike of real clear politics, thank you so much. >> thank younow for a little trail dust where. you play -- that you may have missed from the campaign trail. yesterday president obama made a rain-soaked appearance in cleveland, ohio. he poked fun at governor romney's suggestion in wednesday's debate that he would defund pbs, the home of "sesame street." let's take a listen. >> even though he has been proposing this plan for months now, he has run into a little trouble explaining how it would work without blowing up the deficit or making it work for middle class families. the other night he ruled out asking millionaires and billionaires to ask to pay even a dime more in taxes. he said no way he is going to close loopholes that are giving big oil companies billions of dollars each year in corporate welfare. and in tax breaks for corporations that are shipping jobs overseas and profits overseas, he said he never heard of such a thing, never heard of it. who knew, he said. he acted shocked. said he needs a new accountant. his current accountant is d

>> go ahead, erin mcpike.here. >> i would say in addition to what meagan has said, the hispanic vote will be extremely important if president obama is re-elected. what i would see is that marco rubio, the junior senator from florida will probably lead a big charge to get the republican party to support some form of comprehensive immigration reform. i would assume that many republicans on capitol hill will probably go behind him with that so they can look like they're supporting big immigration reform. the other thing i would say is we'll see the fight for 2016 begin right away, whether or not chris christie decides to run for re-election or plot a potential president campaign. i think we'll also see marco rubio make movement in that direction, more republicaning coming off the bench and wanting to make more noise. >> i want to pick up with where you left off with immigration. something the president said to the "des moines register" of the and then on the record, it peeked my interest because he said if he's r

joining us is dana milbank and erin mcpike. here. >> thank you. >> dana, what are you expecting from joe biden tonight? how aggressive will he be? >> oh i think he's going to be quite aggressive. certainly to make up for president obama's performance last week. he's got to really tie paul ryan to the house republicans who are extremely unpopular, portray him for a leader as the house republicans and particularly in other areas and joe biden needs to engage people on a real guy level on a way that he can relate to people. he needs to be careful not to be deep in the weeds of policy. easy to get into that kind of debate with paul ryan. that's not going to win this debate for him. >> now, erin, mr. ryan has never been in a national debate but he's debated. let me show you a 2010 debate he had with congressman debbie wasserman schultz live on cnn. take a look at a debate style then. >> i put on a budget plan to get one person in congress, me. i didn't put out a budget plan for a majority of congress. i was trying to get this discus

ryan grim and erin mcpike, thank you for your time tonight. >> thank you. >>> coming up, today presidentbama did something that no president has ever done before and it could be big in this election and something weird is going on. mitt romney keeps throwing out good news. today he said something about ohio. it's really kecurious. we're going straight to that straight ahead. stay with us. [ female announcer ] the next generation of investing technology is now within your grasp with the e-trade 360 investing dashboard. e-trade 360 is the world's first investing homepage that shows you where all your investments are and what they're doing with free streaming quotes, news, analysis and even your trade ticket. everything exactly the way you want it, all on one page. transform your investing with the e-trade 360 investing dashboard. to volunteer to help those in need. when a twinge of back pain surprises him. morning starts in high spirits, but there's a growing pain in his lower back. as lines grow longer, his pain continues to linger. but after a long day of helping others, he gets some hel

joining me now is erin mcpike from real clear politics and dana milbank from "the washington post." erin, let me go to you first. does the president need a big moment tonight? >> not so much as a big moment. he really just needs to have a big night. you know, everyone's been talking about how his debate performance two weeks ago was just not very strong, so what the president has been doing is practicing, getting more aggressive but not too aggressive because he'll be answering voter's question as opposed to a moderator's questions, so he'll be talking to real people tonight. >> dana, when you look at the history of these kind of debates, you have certain moments that stick out. let me show you a few. mr. reagan, quayle, benson. >> i will not make age an issue of this campaign. i am not going to exploit for political purposes my opponent's youth and inexperience. >> i have as much experience in the congress as jack kennedy did when he sought the presidency. >> i served with jack kennedy. i knew jack kennedy. jack kennedy was a friend of mine. senator, you're no jack kennedy. >> dana,

let's go to erin mcpike, the real clear politics average, what's that look like right now? >> mitt romney is certainly ahead in a national average, but in some battleground states, president obama still has a lead in the electoral college. that's true. it's just colorado and florida and north carolina are the states where mitt romney is leading. president obama is leading all the rest of them, including in virginia just by a hair there. he leads by about .8%. he's leading by two points in ohio and other important states. >> to you, chip saltzman, i want to stay in the midwest and talk about illinois. tea party candidate joe walsh during a debate with tammy duckworth saying no exception when it comes to abortion for life of a mother because of advances in science and technology. that's what he said. let's listen to exactly what those words were. >> there's no such exception as life of the mother, and as far as health of the mother, same thing. health of the mother has been -- has become a tool for abortions anytime under any reason. >> now, look at this, chip. you throw in t

erin mcpike is with real clear politics and james peterson is a lehie professor and grio contributor.s ohio pretty much obama territory now? >> we think that it is. and all of the national -- or excuse me, the ohio public polls show that, yes, president obama is leading. he lost a little bit of ground, but he's made that back up again. one thing i would point out, chris, is that the obama campaign is seeing very different internal polling than the romney campaign is seeing is. republicans told me earlier this week that last week, their polls showed mitt romney up four to five points in ohio. by monday, mitt romney was leading president obama in these ohio republican internal polls by just one point. they've seen his numbers go down. the obama campaign tells me that he's consistently led two to four points in their internal polling. you might say it's spin, but these two campaigns are seeing very different data. >> do you trust these people that are giving you these numbers? are they just giving you numbers, or do you really believe them? which of these people are the most credible whe

jon: erin mcpike from "real clear politics" in cincinnati ohio. erin, thank you. jenna: new information now on the deadly terror attack on the u.s. consulate in libya that killed four americans as a series of e-mails come out showing how much the obama administration knew about this deadly attack in benghazi and how soon those in power knew it. fox news told the assault on the consulate may not be isolated incident. chief correspondent catherine herridge is live in washington with more. what do we mean by that, catherine? >> reporter: head of the house intelligence committee tells fox news he believes the second attack on the u.s. embassy in tunisia on september 14th was the work of ansar al-sharia, the same islamist group blamed for benghazi. three days after ambassador stevens and four other americans were murdered in libya the u.s. embassy in tunisia was ransacked by protesters, smashing windows and throwing rocks and lighting fires. the american school in tunis was also targeted. >> same organization. so might not have been the same people involved but same or

erin mcpike, national political reporter for "real clear politics.". erin, i know a lot of republicans are saying the momentum has swung governor romney's way. it is a sprint to the finish line. you seem to be a little more cautious about that. why? >> i am because i'm looking at "real clear politics" polling averages of all the battleground states and the president is still ahead in big states he needs to win like wisconsin and ohio. he also still winning in new hampshire and nevada. and when you add those states to the electoral college map, it shows still that it's a tough way for mitt romney to go. he has got to win more than just say virginia and florida if he can win those now. jon: how many of those polls that "real clear politics" averages, how many have been taken post-debate, do you know? are they reflective of the debate? >> maybe not quite wrote. polling in each state since the debate but, a couple of polls and a couple of days means that it could still swing back after the next debate. we have the vice-presidential debate coming up on thurs

join me now, cynthia tucker and erin mcpike who covers the campaign for real clear politics. thank you both for coming on the show. >> thank you. >> thanks for having me. >> erin, let me go to you first. mitt romney is behind. what does he need to cover up? what does he need to do tonight? >> he needs to show, especially middle class voters, that he has a plan. we've already heard from the obama campaign that the president is likely to push mitt romney on specifics and in the past couple of days he has telegraphed that we might see more specifics like immigration, especially tax policy. that's what we're going to be hearing more from him tonight, some specifics so that when a president bushes him, he's ready. >> now, one of the big gaffes or big mistakes, sin nilla, that we've seen from rom knee is this tape, the 47% and that's bound to come ut many say tonight, either from the president or from the moderator. bill clinton today, take a listen. >> i couldn't believe the other day when the president's opponent said 47% of american people who don't pay income tax just want to ha

joining me now, dana milbank and erin mcpike.s for coming on the show. >> reverend. >> thank you. >> dana, did mitt romney leave himself open to some attacks? >> well, just a little bit, ref renld. i think if he continues on this trajectory, by the last debate, he's going to be considerably to the left of you. and he'll have a difficult time but, you know, i suppose he may be all for increasing the minimum wage and getting more folks on welfare by then. but, you know, he had a very big night in a theatrical sense wednesday night and that really knocked obama back on his heels. now, you're seeing from obama the answers that one would have thought he would have come up with in realtime but romney did leave himself with a problem because he's contradicted himself in so many ways. he's come back and said, which one is it? the one that you presented last wednesday? so we're back to the original charge against romney, which is the flip-flop label. >> now, erin, you've covered romney for months and you have been through the primaries. w

doug authorize nell and erin mcpike, reporter for real clear politics. erin, i want to start with you. as we talk about what's going on on the campaign trails as well as sandy spinning in the atlantic, according to chuck todd virginia and new hampshire may not see the two candidates until election day because the president may have so much going on in washington right now to oversee this storm. mitt romney is focusing his campaign in ohio. with the president having to focus his time on this, erin sdshgs he have a messaging advantage that he gets to be the president in this situation? what do you stay? >> he absolutely might. he can't get out to swing states today, tomorrow, and maybe not for the rest of the week if the devastation is very bad. he's going to be having bill clinton pinch-hit for him in many of the swing states throughout the week, and that may help them double-down a little bit with bill clinton down on the trail and president obama in washington. remember, mitt romney gets to shuttle back and forth between ohio and wisconsin, which are the

one as real clear politics points out, erin mcpike story, the early and absentee voting numbers are lookingey. republicans are surpassing democrats in half of those key states. republicans request for early and absentee ballots are up in colorado and florida and north carolina so i think maybe you could see some tightening over the next couple of weeks that the polls haven't been able to account for. what i want to ask you about are two indications that independents have changed their minds a little bit. in virginia, according to that nbc journal marist poll, in virginia which has been deadlocked for independents has independents up for romney 50 to 42% and in ohio which romney has been down, romney leads among independents 49 to 41. what do you think that means like a group of independents in a swing state flip-flops, you know, a matter of eight points or something in a matter of two weeks? >> yeah, i think the rate is two possibility. the obvious one is the independent voters are changing their minds. this is what i talked about with the median narrative takes hold. romney's had a winner'

we'll compare their answers right now with jonathan otter and erin mcpike. let's look at -- let's take a look at mitt romney's close. he thought he had a home run here. he made one mistake. let's see if you can spot it. this is his close. >> thank you. and that's an opportunity for me, and i appreciate it. in the nature of a campaign, it seems that some campaigns are focused on attacking a person rather than prescribing their own future and the things they'd like to do. in the course of that, i think the president's campaign has tried to characterize me as someone who's very different than who i am. i care about 100% of the american people. i want 100% of the american people have a bright future. i care about our kids. i understand what it takes to make a bright future for america again. i spent my time in the private sector, not in government. >> president obama made viewers know he would fight for them. you might hear another percentage here compared to that 100%. let's watch. >> i believe governor romney's a good man. loves his family, cares about his fai

and erin mcpike. >> good to be here. >> you couldn't be less agresive or less energetic than the president last time. so he stepped up his game by order and magnitude. was that enough for a win? >> i gave him a narrow win on points. i think compared to the last debate, this is the barack obama that the american people thought they knew and expected to see originally. and he did very good job of bringing the attack to mitt romney. going after him on policy and the areas they have attacked him on in terms of his background. i do think that mitt romney held his own and showed that denver wasn't a fluke in that the mitt romney that talks about the economy that is strong on issues, what he showed in denver still existed. just this time he had real competition. so you had a much different ball game. the political impact of this i think is a draw. but this was important for the president because his supporters and people who are giving him a look and inclined to vote for him is still there. >> let's talk more about the style. because it was feisty to say the least. here's what frank bruni wrote.

. >> joining me now is democratic strategy chris kofinis and erin mcpike. you heard governor christie. i think other words that a lot of people feel right now. we know the importance of the election. after all, this is the presidency we're discussing here, but at this point when you see new video like what came out of new jersey in the last few minutes, we have one week to deal with the election, but right now people are hurting. >> that's right. there was a rumor yesterday that mitt romney might go to new jersey to survey some of the damage. chris christie was asked about that. he essentially brushed that off and wasn't interested. he was interested in working with the president in relief efforts and didn't want to see presidential politics in new jersey. i thought that comment was more important that mitt romney can't show up on the east coast right now. he has to stay away. >> chris, where does the situation of the campaign stand right now? not the physical portion of it. we know and i'll play sound a little later of bill clinton in minnesota, but the re

. >> gregg: erin mcpike, thanks very much for being with us. >> thank you. >> heather: meantime, showing neck-and-neck race in nevada. voters are not happy with the choice with president obama or not happy between the choice president obama and governor romney. they have another option. none of the above. >> reporter: when the voters go to the poll in the key battleground state, their their choices will include more than the familiar needs, last entry is none of these candidates that has survived a legal challenge by republicans and remains popular among voters. >> if there is nobody i'm interested in to do that particular job, i just as soon say none of the above. >> i don't think so. >> the public loves having the option to express that they want to say none of these candidates. send a message. >> nevada introduced the protest vote in 1975 in a way to combat apathy in the wake of watergate scandal. harry reid beat his challenger by 400 votes but none of these candidates got 8,000 votes. then the 1992 presidential race. >> when you have ross perot on the ballot, he did quite well. it wa

erin mcpike is national political reporter for them. 47.3 in your latest average of all of the polls. it can't get any tighter than that. >> that's exactly what we'll hear going into the debates tomorrow night. this race has never been closer than it is right now. which of course makes the debate tomorrow much more exciting. jon: the president said he will be much more aggressive. will that work in the town hall format? >> it may but i think what we're seeing from the polls the president's performance in the first debate didn't hurt him any. what it did was help mitt romney. mitt romney's favorability numbers have shot up after the last debate. that was the key thing the obama campaign was ewing against mitt romney, that mitt romney wasn't as likeable. >> the president's campaign spent tens of millions of dollars for traying mitt romney as out of touch rich vulture who was a really scary person and people didn't see that in the mitt romney on stage in denver. >> exactly. that is what the focus groups from many networks showed after the debate. this is a new mitt romney they didn't kno

thank you very much, erin mcpike, perry bacon jr. you both. >>> still ahead, is debate decor rum getting outside of hand. former debate moderator carol simpson joins us. [ male announcer ] when it comes to the financial obstacles military families face, we understand. at usaa, we know military life is different. we've been there. that's why every bit of financial advice we offer is geared specifically to current and former military members and their families. [ laughs ] dad! dad! [ applause ] ♪ [ male announcer ] life brings obstacles. usaa brings advice. call or visit us online. we're ready to help. try the #1 gastroenterologist recommended probiotic. align. align naturally helps maintain digestive balance. ♪ ooh, baby, can i do for you today? ♪ try align today. starts with arthritis pain and a choice. take tylenol or take aleve, the #1 recommended pain reliever by orthopedic doctors. just two aleve can keep pain away all day. back to the news. >>> there you see the vice-presidential republican candidate paul ryan. he is at the vall

weeks, that's what he's going to do. >> steve: it's great to have you here for the first time, erin mcpike president kept complaining about not getting enough time on camera. so we wanted to know, did he get short changed? you're about to find out. we've got the numbers. then it's been a tradition for near lea a decade. but a halloween celebration being canceled because of the occupiers. trick or treat you can't argue with nutrition you can see. great grains. great grains cereal starts whole and stays whole. see the seam? more pcessed flakes look nothing like natural grains. i'm eating what i kn is better nutrition. mmmm. great grains. search great grains and see for yourself. for a golf getaway. double miles you can actually use... but mr. single miles can't join his friends because he's getting hit with blackouts. shame on you. now he's stuck in a miniature nightmare. oh, thank you. but, with the capital one venture card... you can fly any airline, any flight, any time. double miles you can actually use. what's in your wallet? alec jr? it was a gift. ♪ playing a lone hand ♪ my life begin