jeff greenfield still with us along with jon meacham over at the pulitzer prize winner cam. ress," david gregory. >> jon, it's like he ran over and said, that's my seat, and he jumped in it. "washington post" eugene robinson. and thomas friedman. co-author of the book "that used to be us: how america fell behind the world it invented and how we can come back." >> so mika, you didn't like the romney answer on women? >> you know, i think it's interesting what's happening with women. and i'd really love to hear all of your takes on this because you see some polls showing a tightening between the candidates on women. well, this is a president who i think if you take social issues out of it, even, he's done more for women you could argue. >> last night, though, he didn't seem to connect. i thought, this is another one of those examples, the libya question is asked, and mitt romney doesn't slam dunk it. the immigration question is asked, and barack obama doesn't slam dunk it. >> on both sides. >> it's almost like there's a plan against romney, he's going to get killed, and the pres

and jon meacham, that's a great question. it was also a great 1914 reference, it's 6:07 in the morning, and we thank you for that. >> here to help. >> mike barnicle, i'm sorry he stole your reference from you, but tell us what you're thinking about tonight. and again, these shifting polls. >> well, you know, joe, yesterday was a day when people actually returned my phone calls. so i might bring a little more to the table today. >> one day of every year. >> it's about time. >> what was that like? >> it was unusual. it was a busy day for me. >> barnicle's like, oh, what's that sound? oh, it's a ringing phone. >> one point that john heilemann made, we are now at a point in this election where we all thought we'd be months ago. it's going to be very close, it is going to be a jump ball election. but an ecdotally and from talkig to people, you get the feeling when these guys sit down to write "game change 2," the focus on what happened in denver is going to be enormous, i think, and that's what you hear. what happened in denver, c

let's go to jon meacham in nashville. jon, of course, karl rove last night said listen, you're not going to see -- karl rove, steve schmidt said you're not going to see a huge swing in the polls, maybe one or two points. it's the first of four debates, but it is a great start for mitt romney. but we remember back in 2004, george w. bush got obliterated by john kerry in the first debate. it was one of the worst performances in a debate i've ever seen. remember he asked for the extra time? then he'd just look in the camera and go, it's hard. it's hard. and yet he still won. this is not -- this keeps the game going, right? >> it does. i think -- i kept thinking about mark twain. the rumors of romney's political death were greatly exaggerated, but twain still died. >> well, there is that. god. thank you this morning for that insight. >> can we go to breaking news or a developing banner on that one? mark twain, dead. >> still dead. >> still dead. >> but i thought it was as -- i think '04 -- >> you know, he's funnier in central

tonight the candidates engage in a stir irs of heated exchanges on stage, joining me in new york, jon meacham, the author of the forthcoming book thomas jefferson, and mark halperin of time magazine and john heilemann of time magazine. >> albert hunt, executive editor of bloomberg news and david leonhardt the bureau chief of "the new york times", joining us shortly from washington, katty kay of bbc world news of america, and slate magazine, we have a really fascinating group of people here to talk about what was a remarkable debate. i begin first with al hunt. >> charlie, if the barack obama who was on stage at hofstra had showed up in denver two weeks ago, he might have put this race away. i don't think mitt romney did poorly tonight, i thought he actually did, you know, fairly well but barack obama was the ago press sorry. he set the agenda. he did everything he failed to do in deb very, denver, both in defending his record and in challenging some of governor romney's inconsistencies. my guess is that he let romney back in two weeks ago and this won't change, this is a very, very tight race

first, jon meacham, you were responding to the ad? >> it's very effective, i think. >> yeah, it is. >> it has a virtue, as dr. kissinger likes to say, of being true. >> the added value of being true. >> there's always that. i voted yesterday. >> did you really? >> in tennessee. and it was -- it's not a wildly democratic precinct. >> right. >> it was full at 3:00 in the afternoon. i e-mailed john geer, vanderbilt political scientist. he wrote back -- >> morrison's, the buffet was going on about 3:00. was that why? >> it was captain d's had a special. he thought one thing that was happening is in nonbattleground states, romney enthusiasm was so strong that they were trying to run up the popular vote, which gives that ad more, on the national level, more impact. >> can i just say how weird it is, like how many people do you know in america who cast their vote and go home and e-mail a political scientist to ask what to make of their experience at the polls? it just tells you what a freak meacham is. but what's great about that ad, just fr

this was when jon meacham was the editor. they suddenly were feeding like nobody was listening to what they were saying, somehow guys with equal or lesser credentials were getting better assignments, getting faster promotions. but this was a young woman who are raised to believe that you could do it anything and be anything you want to be. and also felt that they were post-feminists. the sex wars were all over, we were all equal now. so it couldn't be discrimination. it must be that they were not good enough, that they just weren't talented enough. and then somebody at "newsweek" in the library who had been a longtime told him that in this case of "newsweek" 40 years ago by the women, which they had no idea about. there was no evidence at "newsweek" anymore about this case. so when my favorite stories is they went on google and googled it, and they couldn't find anything so they felt it's not in google, it must not have existed. [laughter] and then someone gave them susan brown miller's memoir and our time, susan had written

what does he think he is, jon meacham with his forthcoming book? he's had a forthcoming book since jefferson, like, purchased the louisiana purchase. >> i know. >> pulitzer prize. >> it's coming, though. so, guys, let's talk about -- what do we have? >> this is what david axelrod called romney's international trip. >> what's that? >> on "meet the press" yesterday. a dukes of hazzard tour of international destinations. that was good. thank you for that. perfect. >> let's talk about the latest poll that they were talking about yesterday on "meet the press." nbc news/"wall street journal" poll, dead even. >> 47-47. >> i think that fits the feel of everybody that i've talked to. you know, you guys hear it all the time. i hear it all the time. the question, who's going to win? who's going to win? and i've been saying for a couple weeks, probably obama by a few points now. i have absolutely no idea. and a strange thing has happened, mika. you actually have, instead of the romney people acting a little nervous and crazy, which they have, we have for a yea