correspondent jonathan allen wrote it and joins me now. jonathan, we did miss the bicep shot, paul ryan has the px 90 thing going on. we've seen the example of joe biden on the trail, joe biden being very smooth, trying to relate and be charming, charm offensive with the female crowd, hang out with the biker ladies. we saw that picture. from a political perspective is he the obama camp's secret weapon or their biggest headache? >> probably a little both. definitely a headache in terms of saying things like the middle class has been buried over the last four years, but in terms of their charm offensive he's somebody who they believe can relate well to working class folks, white working class folks pap tour of delis and diners and places, lunch counters, where working folks are going to eat in the middle of the day. in particular, though, there's a certain set of women i like to call them the medicare eligible set, 65 and over and certainly a little younger than that who obama has had a lot of trouble with. he's got a huge lead among women ov

let's bring in jonathan allen.he focus last i was on foreign policy and was suspected that president obama had the edge? >> suer, anytime the commander in chief talks about foreign policy, he will have better knowledge on the subject. he handled the subject matter pretty well and he seemed to be pretty aggressive on it. some folks thought that came of making him look like he was behind and others thought it was the president obama they wanted to see. i don't think this is a game changing event in the course of the presidential election the with the first debate was four mitt romney. >> what would the debate be without a little sniping. >> i think governor romney hasn't spent enough time looking at our military works. you mentioned to the navy and we have fewer ships than in 1960. we also have fewer courses and bayonets. the nature of our military has changed spam. >> the expressions and body language are always interesting. >> mitt romney is more comfortable on the economy. this is an area where he looked more nerv

so, with seven days to go, we assess this particular october surprise with jonathan allen, senior washington correspondent for politico. jonathan, let me name some examples for you. disasters which happened to fall into the middle of political moments. katrina. the 2008 economic collapse. the aurora shootings earlier this year. the hurricane andrew in 1992. that fell in august. how easy is it for a candidate or a politician of any stripe to mishandle that kind of situation? >> i think we've seen in the past how easy it is to mishandle and as a result we're seeing a much better handling of it right now for president obama and for mitt romne and inenerrom se of the other politicians we've seen on tv and other places. i think this is one of the few situations, unfortunately, where basic human decency and good politics dove tail. the best thing you can do as a political candidate right now is to appear to care more about what's going on on the ground with people who are suffering than you do about your own election. ideally that's motivated by a real feeling there rather than simply showing it b

i would be shocked if we eventually discovered they had played some role in it. >> jonathan allen and anne, thank you for joining us today. stick around, we'll see you later on this hour p. >>> was mitt romney really a bipartisan governor in massachusetts? one of his old political foes joins us in the next hour. >>> and who does michelle obama think should play her husband on the silver screen? >>> but first, will the real mitt romney please stand up. we'll talk to his campaign next about what's behind it. this is msnbc, the place for politics. >>> this is new video just into us here at msnbc of ann romney stopped at a romney campaign office in orlando, florida, just a short time ago after working the room, taking some pictures and signing memorabilia. she joined former congressman artur davis, calling supporters on the phone right there. >>> and an eye-popping number from the obama campaign. today we're learning it raised $181 million in september, more than either side has raised in a month so far. no word yet on how much the romney campaign has raised. news of the fund-raising figu

we'll talk about that at 6:00 with jonathan allen. let's look at news around the nation. the mystery surrounding the of a pregnant the york is deepening. investigators say that vindalee smith's fiancee was still married to obama in new jersey. she was supposed to marry her fiance the next day and give birth in about two weeks. police questioned her fiance and then released him. police also discovered a typed smith's apartment which pregnantd to kill a month until d.c. malvo is setyd free. to seegators are trying if the notes is legitimate something mental the off-track. >> the first person to be the quarter in amazing depth to avoid jail time. brian jones toed of community supervision followed by two years of probation. to perform 200 hours of community service. the judge said his goal was a limited.y but the mother of victim robert champion lashed out at jones in court. you can call in different degrees of murder. the bottom line is it is murder. i want the world to know i'm son. for the death of your am.uly >> 11 other defendants will face the death of robert champion.

let me bring in our guest, jonathan allen, senior correspondent at politico. who do you think about the list? >> i think you guys hit for "the cycle" clearly. to mix the sports metaphors. >> i like that. >> i think you guys missed an important tale of the tape that mitt romney is 6'2" and 200 pounds. barack obama is 6'1" and 175. romney is a little more plotting as a fighter, a little bit more mechanical. obama perhaps a little lighter but maybe not punching quite as hard. if you're looking for a fight scorecard, look at those metrics to start. one other thing that i think is important to remember in this. you talk about the advantage of presidency, but there's a disadvantage, which is a rhetorical strength barack obama didn't have the last time he debated. anything he says about a foreign country can be judged in diplomatic terms when he talks about issues and congress. these are blow up. he knows too much in a way and has to figure out how to bring back the knowledge set to what he says publicly both from a legal and sort of intelligence standpoint and also

ifill: jonathan allen of politico, thanks so much. >> thanks a lot, gwen. >>oodruff: and to the second of our two-part look at the digital campaign. both coodidates are using technology to learn about voters and then target them with advertisements indiays never ayfore possible. i sreenivasan travels to ohio to see how the effort is plhting out there. his report is part of a multi- media partnership with "frontline," american public med's marketplace and prom publica. sreenivasan: here in columbus, ohio, both candidates are fighting hard. i'm going to visit president obama's campaign first. he has digital teams across the country but the one he has in ohio is one of his largest. >> this is a check. email i just sent. landing page. done. >> sreenivasan: this may look like a traditional campaign team doing traditional field work but they're part of a campaign that'sollected more voter data than any otheredin history. and their volunteers are using a slew of newtools for both data gathering and voter targeting. the g.p.s. in your smart phone is the blue dot i

. >> joining me senior washington correspondent jonathan allen. >> i believe that you tell the truth.retty tough to stand next to someone else and say that you're not telling the truth but call them a liar. at one point he also told senator brown to calm down when the senator exceeded his time answering a question. he is behind. what's going on in this debate? >> i think you put your finger on it right there. he's behind. if you look at the polls in ohio, josh mandel has crept up within striking distance but you are talking about most polls, five, six points away. he's looking for an opportunity to change the dynamics of the race and get under sherrod brown's skin a bit. >> last night a debate in missouri between cleric mccaskill and congressman todd akin. let me play a clip from that. >> she was the first to endorse president obama and his strong right hand passing legislation and voting with him 98% of the time. >> he supports the boss being able to decide whether or not you get paid less just because you're a woman. and if you look at congressman akin's office, in fact he's the bos

we me is david corn and poll lit coast's senior washington correspondent, jonathan allen.a look at the action from the always interesting state of ohio. here is republican josh mandel challenging sherrod brown in ohio. they kept up the attacks against each other. here they are in last night's debate going at it. >> senator, you are a liar. you're 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? a liar? by the winner of the pants on crown fire is just a pretty remarkable thing for a young man to say or for a man of any age to say in a political debate. josh mandel as we know has trouble telling the truth. if we can't trust josh mandel to do his job, to show up for work. >> i must be getting old, he looked 10 years old. is he a real threat? >> it's ohio, a key state, obviously a lot of money going in on the presidential side. the interesting thing what they were referencing is mandel ran an ad saying that sherrod brown was responsible for all the jobs lost

jonathan siri, fox news. >>> turning to politics now, tim kaine and george allen faced off no a second time in the race for the u.s. senate. the aarp and the virginia league of women voters hosted the debate. they touched on issues that included win's health, defense cuts, entitlement programs, illegal immigration and economy. the race could determine the balance of power in the u.s. senate too. >> it was good. it was the fastest hour in show biz. we covered a lot of ground and i think are n a civil but clear way, showed that we have some differences. i think that is good for virginians. >> if he wasn't in the most partisan job jetting around the country, giving speeches, raising money in san francisco to new york city while trying to raise taxes on virginians, maybe there wouldn't have been over 100,000 jobs lost in virginia. >> recent polls show tim kaine leading george allen by more than four points. >>> if it sounds like a bad idea, then it probably is especially when you think about getting into the ring during a bull fight. >> coming up next the frightening scene that left many people -- >> why, peop

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outside the courthouse, there's no mistaking which candidate allen supports, but he says -- >> we register -- >> reporter: 20-year-old jonathane their four years count is what i really want. >> reporter: with so much at stake in florida, there can be a dark side to voter registration. susan booker discovered discrepancies, signatures that look the same. addresses that didn't appear right on more than 100 voter registration forms. >> we just haven't ever experienced this kind of issue with the registration forms, so that's got us a little disconce disconcerted. >> reporter: strategic allied consu consulting, hired by the republican party to register voters, was fired. strategic insists the problem was one individual. back in ft. lauderdale, not a good day for jessina and karen. only a handful of new registers. that hurts, they say. you see, neither one is a u.s. citizen. both are part of the group called dreamers, whose parents brought them here illegally when they were children and here they are, trying to encourage people to exercise their right they only wish they had. >> have a nice day. >> meanwhile, an important ruling t