jessica yellin. >> i get so nervous at these debates and you know, i'm like one of those parents watching their kid on the balance beam. just standing there just trying not to, you know, have any expression at all. >> ann romney revealed to our gloria borger that she helped reassure her husband during past debates. >> and almost after every answer that he gives, he'll find me in the audience to see, was that good? was that okay? >> we're going to have much more on those interviews with michelle and ann as we count down to the debate. we're mobilizing the full resources of cnn for our coverage tonight. let's bring in and erson cooper. >> it's going to be an exciting night and during the debate, we are going to clock the candidates to see how much time they get to talk overall about each issue and we'll get immediate reaction to what president obama and governor romney are are saying from a focus group of undecided colorado voters. their responses will look like that on screen. you see them at the bott

jessica yellin, thank you so much. >>> let's turn to last night's presidential debate. today marks two weeks till the election. both mitt romney and president obama are hitting the campaign trail with new urgency. romney has been riding a wave after the first debate bichlt all accounts, president obama got the edge in the second debate. last chance for two men to go nose to nose in a race that's now too close to call. dana bash joins us, also from boca raton, florida, the site of last night's face-off. how was this debate different from the previous two? >> reporter: i think it was a flip of what you just described about the first debate. president obama was incredibly aggressive, snarky at times. mitt romney almost it looked like he was biting his tongue, trying not to be like that. both men understood it was clear that foreign policy is not high on the minds of voters and really wanted to make it about leadership. mitt romney came trying to show leadership of commander in chief. president obama came to make sure that didn't happen. time and time again, comments drippe

chief white house correspondent jessica yellin sat down for an exclusive interview with the first ladythe united states and her brother, craig. and just before that first high stakes presidential debate. >> how do you do? nice to see you. >> so nice to see you. >> reporter: we sat down with michelle obama and her brother, craig, before that first high stakes presidential debate. as the president told the world, it fell on a big day for the first couple. >> there are a lot of points i want to make tonight, but the most important one is that 20 years ago i became the luckiest man on earth because michelle obama agreed to marry me. and so i just want to wish, sweetie, you, happy anniversary and let you know a year from now we will not be celebrating it in front of 40 million people. >> i wonder if in your wildest dreams you would ever imagine you would be spending your 20th wedding anniversary on a double date with the romneys. >> yeah, no, i can't say that this would have been the plan 20 years ago. and in fact, you know, i told barack, you know, attending a presidential debate on my 20t

jessica yellin joining me live now from washington, d.c. , jessica, you and i both know that the administration gets a look-see, an early peek at the bureau of labor statistics numbers before the rest of us get to see them. how much of a jump do they get and how much are they able to craft what they need to craft going forward to turn that message into a speech like we just saw? >> well, the head of the council of economic advisers typically is notified the night before they come out. it would have been last night and can inform the president thursday night about the jobs numbers. so, you know, that's the window there. i would point out that, you know this is one of those situations where it is important for the white house and the obama campaign and i think you heard it too while show enthusiasm about the improvement, to be cautious, because it is an improvement, but this nation is still in economic pain. many people are hurting. i think what they're trying to do and have to do is calibrate a careful tone where it is both excitement about t

holtz-akin, and white house correspondent jackie kol linz, and cnn's chief white house correspondent jessica yellin. i'm candy crowley. and this is "state of the union." >>> it was not unanimous, but there was overwhelming consensus among viewers and pundits that mitt romney shined in denver's debate season opener and the president did not. the new yorker magazine summed it up with a cover cartoon of romney debating an empty chair. the captain "mitt stands alone." campaigns are only as good as their last news cycle, so on to danville, kentucky, and thursday night's battle of the number twos. joining me now are philadelphia mayor michael nutter, a long-time friend of joe biden, and republican party chairman reince priebus. and mayor nutter, stand by with me, and i want to get to the party chairman, and we'll be back with you. mr. chairman, thank you for joining us. i want to talk about the great burden of great expectations. there was a cnn poll, and who is going to win the vice presidential debate? the answer was biden, 39%, ryan, 55%. in many ways this mirrors what happened to the presidential deb

chief white house correspondent jessica yellin joins us by phone from davenport, iowa. the white house has responded. whr they saying? >> reporter: they are telling me this is not, as you describe it an intelligence assessment at all. what it is is reporting from the ground by people there at the state department center, explaining what they're getting information on as it comes in. ansar al sharia took credit on its facebook page that was publicly available. so they passed that on in an e-mail saying that ansar al sharia is taking credit on its facebook page. then they subsequently deny ied responsibility in a statement that they also were forwarded. only that e-mail and that information came across obviously. and so there is all sorts of conflicting information that comes in, in the moments and hours after this kind of attack. and the president isn't going out with the kind of open information that comes in from this kind of source, which is not an intelligence report, but bases what he said on the actual intelligence reports, which are analyzed and decided by intelli

. >>> joining us for more on how the two campaigns are handling there, jim akoss to and jessica yellin. is the campaign concerned about the binder controversy? >> well, anderson, i think it's worth noting what mitt romney did and did not talk about at his first post-debate speech earlier today in chesapeake, virginia. he did not talk about that dustup about himself and the president over what happened in benghazi. he did make reference to women voters in his speech in chesapeake. he says the president has failed america's women. that appeared to be a pretty blatant appeal to female voters in the audience there and all across the country. and anderson, late in the day, he sent out a tweet of a web video featuring members of his cabinet back in massachusetts when he was governor there that were women. one of the women on that cabinet said, in that web video, that mitt romney understands working women. and keep in mind that he made this response. he made these remarks about binders full of women in response to a question about the lilly ledbetter act, which is supposed to be an act for ma

jessica yellin. to you, have you senator rob portman, the individual who helped mitt romney, played the president of the united states in the debate preparation sessions. >> that's right. senator rob portman from ohio is with me. have you been prepping mitt romney for the past several weeks. what is your assessment of the night? did the preparation pay off? >> jim, a terrific night for mitt romney. for the undecided voter in ohio, they were looking for two things, one, a discussion about the record of the last four years, and why we can't afford it for the next four. and most importantly, talked about his own policies and set the record straight on some of the misleading ads that the obama campaign has put out about his tax plan, budget plan, health care plan, so on. he did exactly what he had to do for undecided voters, really pleased with his performance. >> what about the line from the president that mitt romney has not offered enough specifics? and if the specifics were so great, he would be reve

i want to pick up on what senator kerry was saying a few moments ago to our jessica yellin. he says tonight's the night mitt romney's campaign started unraveli unraveling, is your take? >> no, it is not unraveling at all. what's unraveling is the president's policies. it's not even just middle east, syria, egypt, iran four years closer to getting a bomb. what's happening in the middle east is not necessarily successful. i can't do a better job than mitt romney on domestic policy. why will it be better for me in the next four years? mitt romney had a perfect response. this is what happened. a devastating critique, and he said what is the president offering? more of the same. instead, mitt romney offered a pro growth economic agenda. >> the president was much more aggressive tonight, much more than the first debate. did you prepare him enough, governor romney, for that coming? >> we all knew the president was going to be more aggressive tonight. i think his base appreciated it. the president on the attack, came out swinging, said he was going to do that. you can change your st

jessica yellin with so much of this in her head from last night as well and moving on now to where we go from here. clearly some of those numbers that i just put up on the board are good news for the president, some of those numbers are not such good news for the president. so where do these candidates take what happened last night, how it's been chewed up and spat out today and move on to next week? >> reporter: they're looking ahead to the next polling to see how it is digested by voters. here is a sneak peek what's to come. out of this debate here's what can you expect from the romney campaign. they will continue to go after president obama on changing statements on libya and what sparked those attacks. they believe that wild president obama won the skirmish, may have won the skirmish last night on the exact phrasing he used in the rose garden, there's still many more questions to be answered about the white house's reaction, so expect that to continue as a battle and then expect the romney campaign to also press on the president's pension. on the other side of the aisle, expect pr

chief white house correspondent jessica yellin and senior political analyst, david gergen. jessica, let's starts in the midwest, iowa, wisconsin. the president has a small but consistent lead from the romney campaign's perspective in ohio. how much of the midwest at the heart of the obama path to 270? >> they -- well, they are relying on it pretty confidently, john. they feel good about those states. they think because the unemployment picture is improving there, in many of those states it's actually lower than when the president came into office, because the auto bailout worked for so many of the voters in ohio, also you can look at michigan but even especially in ohio, and because he has an advantage if you look at the latest polling in iowa and wisconsin among women voters in particular, they feel strong that the president has a good shot there and it's part of his firewall against some of these other potential losses in the states you were looking at earlier, for example, florida and north carolina. >> so jim, she uses the term firewall. what's the feeling inside the rom

so is jessica yellin. chief political analyst gloria borger joins us as well. president obama's campaign could not like these numbers. the campaign manager told reporters today we should ignore national polls, but these are state polls we're looking at. romney has either closed the gap or is ahead. what do they make of that? >> anderson, i can feel you smile when i tell you this but they say they don't look at public polls at all either now. one advisor told me that they are -- there are so many polls out there that they have a broken clock effect now. they are right twice a day. another told me there are so many public polls out there, soon there will be an outback steakhouse poll. look, the bottom line is what they are paying attention to, they say, i'm just reporting here, is they pay attention to their internal polling. those are the polls that the campaign conducts because, and they tend to be much more accurate to be truthful, than the public polls because they spend so much money and time on them. they get into the granular details. but we don't know wha

let's get right to cnn's chief white house correspondent, jessica yellin. she's in tampa, florida, this morning, she's traveling with the president. hey, jessica, good morning. >> reporter: hi, soledad, good morning. the president has just arrived here in tampa, florida. i think he's headed to do some off the record stops, maybe he'll stop and get a cuban sandwich before he heads here to the rally. >> let's talk a little bit about what's going to happen for him today. we talked about some good news, the nice lead, at least if you're lacking at this specific "ti "time" poll. but challenging news if you're looking at north carolina. looks like the romney team is packing up and moving out because they're so confident of a win and cnn has moved that into the leaning romney campaign. talk about what the analysis of those states is at this point. >> so that's obviously very good news for the romney campaign. they need lock up as many states and put them away, so they can focus on other battlegrounds. the president is taking his tour through six battleground states

chief white house correspondent jessica yellin with the president and vice president in dayton, ohio and john king, in the key battleground state of virginia tonight. jessica, by most accounts, most of the polls, the president came away from last night's debate the winner but it's not clear what kind of boost it will give him out on the campaign trail. how is the campaign feeling about the performance last night and about things today? >> well, if you want the campaign talking points, what they're saying is last night was about strength and the president showed it. but the bottom line was the president did not disqualify mitt romney in last night's debate. he didn't knock him out of the commander in chief ranks and so there was no game changing moment. i hate that phrase but that's really what that was about. so the race continues today, sort of where it was before the debate, and they're grinding it out. the president beginning on a major battleground state tour, where he's really pummelling his message, which is a two-fold message. one, to turn out his base and get as many votes as