are you moving towards obama? >> obama?more on his game about showing the nonspecific nature of romney, he's not giving anything. >> you want obama to attack? >> absolutely. >> you want obama to attack? >> i want him to give the truth there. is a lot of truth being misrepresented by both sides not showing how anything can be done. >> you're the youngest person here, you moved towards rom fee tonight what. advice do you have for barack obama? >> he needs to change his demeanor, romney looking at obama and people. and looked like obama was sitting there being scolded and had his head down, wasn't looking and looking around trying to look aimlessly. he wasn't looking at the opponent or hardly ever looked at the people. he was looking down. >> and he was meek. and instead of looking out and appearing strong, confident he backed away. >> when you have a chance to talk about this as the election goes ahaechld you dwiz are great. i want to charge the university one of the best folk use groups i've had. who won the debate? >> romne

connecticut goes from obama to lean obama.ntly, north carolina goes from tossup to lean romney. so at the end of this, we're left with romney with 159 solid electoral votes to 194 for obama. each one was between 47 lean votes and romney's case 43. obama. 237 to 206 with 95 electoral votes up for grabs. >> bob: well, that is good math. who says debates don't matter? i said debates don't matter. i'm beginning to re-calibrate. i said they mattered in 1960 and 1980. this first debate may well have structurally changed the race. so i tend to agree with that. there are three states we ought to pay attention to today. try to go through the lean states, the tossup states. one of them is florida. the other is virginia. the third one is ohio. romney needs to win all three of those states. but he can get away with winning two of three states. we don't a map, do we? >> brian: we do! >> bob: thank you. in florida, romney has seen a surge. it happened in a couple of places. in tampa area, that is important. middle part of the state. which r

they think obama didn't study. they think obama didn't care enough. they think obama whatever.s long as romney shows up as he shows up last night, they don't have a chance. >> what do you think, juan? >> you know what? obama definitely has to be more energetic. he's got to take -- present fire and fight and bring the argument to mr. romney. >> he needs to be the old obama from that 2007 speech. >> yeah. >> put some lies out there. >> bill maher and chris rock said they want the old obama back. >> you said that earlier, i believe. the georgetown university professor, michael eric bison said that was the whole problem, that barak obama didn't want to come off as angry. and those videos and he blamed it on fox news and sean hannity for airing it, ruined the mojo for the president. >> we might have found out why president obama was having such a hard time last night. can you roll the video of the last one we have lined up? >> keeping me indoors all the time. it's a drag. [ laughter ] they're making me do my home homework. >> waaa. making me do my homework. i don't know. look, if yo

obama. what did she tell you about what it's like for her out there on the campaign trail? >> reporter: you know, i asked her about ann romney's claim when ann romney pressed back about her own husband's critics and ann romney said campaigning is hard. i said does she share that sentiment. here was mrs. obama's response. >> ann romney recently said about the critics of her husband -- to her husband's critics that running for president is hard. do you sympathize with that? >> you know, the campaign experience is unique for everyone. everyone comes to this and experiences it differently. for me i really enjoy campaigning. i think barack and i we both get energy from it because when you live in washington, sometimes you get isolated from the rest of the country. and this is a time when we get out and we can remember just how decent people are. i come across people i don't care what political party they come from, they are hopeful. they're happy to see you. they're willing to listen. and it's go

obama has much to say in his defense.e inherited the economic carnage of a recent republican president, a catastrophic loss of jobs, a collapse in the u.s. stock market, the death rattle of the auto industry. he, barack obama, then brought a financial and economic collapse back from the brink, changed the course of the economy from job destruction to job creation, doubled the american stock market, saved the auto industry. he did it all with a dramatic change of policy, a stimulus program that varied 180 degrees from the austerity measures that have humbled europe. an intervention into the auto industry that reinvigorated an industry that means pride to americans. obama needs to make this defense, he needs to underline the fact that his opponent and his party fought him every inch of the way. on the stimulus, on the auto industry, on health care, on equal pay for women, and that it disagrees on fundamental ways on the future course of american economic policy. on health care, on medicare, on social security, on equal pay

-- ahead of barack obama. tightening? yes, but hardly -- >> romney was dead in the water before that first debate. he had a surge. i tended to think that the searches over -- surge is over. but that is what made him a contender. >> what is it about that debate that changed the tide? is this's arrogance single biggest problem. it showed him a sleepy, sort of why am i here? even in the last debate, which he won, but he was a bit too much of a put down artist, and that especially with women voters is a problem. >> it wasn't just that obama did poorly. it is that romney did well and became, as mark said, moderate mitt. that is where people in the republican party traditionally .ove after the primary da he had been savaged by obama in an avalanche of ads, and he redeemed himself in that debate. >> we have this fiscal problems of living on january 2 report by the national association of manufacturers saying that the fiscal cliff is already hurting the economy. more than 80 ceo's are coming to put heat on congress. where is this

it was do-over obama today. it was kind of like the guy who has all his come-backs five minutes too late, and he had all his come-backs on the campaign trail today, calling mitt romney a whole new person, different kind of candidate, and you saw a very much more aggressive president obama, and i think that's what you will see two weeks from now when he shows up at the next debate with romney in new york. >> jim, on the campaign trail, governor romney today more energized? >> absolutely, anderson. we were with him on his campaign plane during the day and as he got on the plane, he was smiling, he was laughing with his campaign staff. there was a spring in his step. there was an air of confidence in this campaign that i haven't seen in several weeks and in talking to senior romney advisor eric fehrnstrom, he said to me if this was a prize fight, they would have stopped the fight. that's how well they think mitt romney did. they're not going to be taking their foot off the gas pedal, i can tell you that the romney

cricket from obama side. but i thought obama was trying to be mitt romney. my tax cuts are better. he wasn't the hope and change kind of guy. he really was trying to imitate mitt mz. the piece on the chinese investment that was my second favorite. besides the hypocrisy aspect, when obama doesn't even look at it. he doesn't even look at his pension. if he isn't worried about his own money he isn't going to be worried about ours. >> i thought the exchange on the pension i don't look at my companies my mutual fund is investing in either. >> you and puppy mills. >> yes, in china. >> but dana, you would never say yours is bigger than mine. >> do you read about that thing, lack of interruption. romney has to do with more with less. democrats have spoken significantly longer than republican candidates. so he -- when you allow him to speak it is pretty good. >> when romney said all have those things, a republican candidate for mayor says those things. >> if they were running against obama, yes. >> it seemed to me that romney has a photographic memory. >> from the th

barack obama. consistent with all of the various reactions from the left and right so far, a very good night for mitt romney, not very good for the president of the united states. >> those poll numbers are telling. >> in polarized america, for any candidate to get above 50% are huge. 45%, 43%, solid republican. >> are those undecided voters? >> registered voters who watched the debate. a lot of president's supporters say he got spanked tonight. >> it tightens -- what this means, it's likely as we saw in 2004, when john kerry won the first debate, that the polls will tighten a bit, and -- but it also means to me that the obama campaign can't press the delete button fast enough on this debate and they will go out there and they will erase it. and they will go on the attack and they are very good at doing that, and the president can be good at doing that. it may get him back on his game. >> may not change the numbers very quickly. but it does prompt a lot of people to do, i need to take a second look.

obama grinned. you know, kids have good stikts offered obama. they look at the other guy and say, well that's a bull bleeper, i can tell. what do we make of this candid and colorful language from the president? we can assume he's referring to governor romney. what do you think? who was he talking about? >> well, i think it's pretty on obvious he's talking about governor romney. i find the language funny, and i will not criticize anyone for saying such things because i'm known to speak colorfully at times. >> do you think it's funny, but would you think it was funny if governor romney used the same language fairly speaking? >> listen, i'm not sure many people will be shocked by this kind of language. >> the president did call kanye a jack-a so he's capable through association with rahm emanuel to mix it up in colorful language. i'm guilty of it myself. >> he's equal opportunity in his colorful remarks. >> thank you very much. i love that we have to say bull bleeper. we need a late night show so we can say the word. it's a pleasure to see you. tha

barack obama would win based upon the superior effort of the obama campaign at this point and in turning out early voters. >> evan ? >> obama, but we still have a way to go. >> nina? >> i hate doing this, but obama because of the crown them. >> colby? >> national tracking polls has of them close, but the key battleground states, obama still holds a lead. >> what is the ground game, mark? >> the organized effort over months to identify and not only support -- identified not only supporters, but leaners, and persuade them on how one by one retail basis. weeks before election day, you know who your voters are. you want to be sure you get the vote. >> in many of the battle ground states, obama has more field offices. >> it is down to micromanaging, micro-issuing these of votes. interestingly, the republicans had a better ground game in 2004, and a lot of people think that is why and they won that close election. it sort of fell into disrepair today are building it back up now, but i don't think they are anywhere near where obama is yet. >> there is another question. which candidate has the m

chris: with obama? >> no, no, no, with obama or democrats. >> widely circulated report that hillary clinton had told a magazine that one of her former aides that women not having it all. that she was the catcher in the rye read by the interviewers teenage daughter. so it was completely out of context. >> oh, my goodness, why. you know, justice scalia took off hunting, guess with who? >> elena kagan. >> you knew. >> in republican circles is where they should throw a hail mary pass in michigan or pennsylvania. romney doesn't really want to but a lot of the super pac groups do. they want to make pennsylvania competitive. >> i've been thinking about that a long time. the big question this week, they have a debate victory bind them. who chris: welcome back. they each won a debate. but the third one and that's this week's big question, who has the most at stake? >> the president. he has to be commanding and in charge of american foreign policy once in for all. >> i agree with that. and the fact that mitt romn

obama: i enjoyed it. >> chris: don't be a stranger. >> president barack obama: i won't. >> chris: butt was april 27, 2008. it has now been 1,617 days since the president's last appearance and, although senator biden appeared on fox news sunday 35 times, it has been 1,841 days since the vice president last talked with us. in the meantime, we and you have had a lot of questions that have gone unanswered. we'll invite them, again, for next sunday. up next, with the first presidential debate now three days away, we'll ask our sunday group what to look for, wednesday night. ♪ it's a game changer. ♪ it means cleaner, cheaper american-made energy. but we've got to be careful how we get it. design the wells to be safe. thousands of jobs. use the most advanced technology to protect our water. billions in the economy. at chevron, if we can't do it right, we won't do it at all. we've got to think long term. we've got to think long term. ♪ we've got to think long term. we've got to think long term. thank you, mr. speaker, uh, members of congress. in celebration of over 75 years of our government

fute fighting on the obama map.e is glad to be are in the territory. they are playing mostly defense and trying to win back the states that bush won in 2004. but something has changed. but what has changed is going back to where we were, essentially atied it race, a slight obama advantage. i think that probably still applies. there will be a lot of ballgame still to be played the next month to hash this out. romney got himself back in the conversation. he needed a big moment last week. he did change the story and got himself something more positive, to going into the v.p. debate. >> they are tied but psychological, but romney is a tick up. they are essentially tied. >> the psychology of not looking like a loser is huge. there is a secondary effect, where you get into a spiral. you are behind the polls and you think you are a loser and everything seems like -- the thing only a loser would do. i think he has broken the depth spiral. there is a secondary bounce that will come out of just -- one tick up in the polls, ev

across town peter lavelle debating the debate the first direct encounter between president barack obama and republican challenger mitt romney left the incumbent looking like road kill what is behind obama's failure and does it really matter. if he. started. to cross thought the first u.s. presidential debate i'm joined by rachel mars today in paris she's a political communications strategist and sidney cade a columnist in washington we have niall standage he is a staff writer for the hill and in london we crossed to david nicholson he is a london based freelance journalist right folks cross talk rules and if i mean you can jump in anytime one rachel what in the world happened last night why why did obama really bomb. well you just had to relieve the office it's interesting however when saying the bar really low for each of their candidates both campaigns were the word got out that apparently mitt romney was had a really bad night sleep in the hotel because a train whistle kept going off they stayed in some kind of hotel that was nearer to the train tracks and the whistle kept going off

obama has to plan on the obama campaign and improving. the problem solving, the fixer, the guy who is excited with ideas is a very attractive candidate. if they can make the spotlight of the campaign on that with this new interest they're going to generate, they're going to do pretty well. the obama guys will try to use paid advertising and other things to move the campaign into other stuff. but i think we now have a different more competitive race and we'll see what happens. >> rose: katty. >> before i freeze out here today, i'm blaming the cold. the obama campaign has spent millions of dollars successfully making mitt romney unacceptable as a choice to the american public. tonight mitt romney made himself acceptable in the course of a 9 0-minute debate. >> rose: thank you, you're cold. >> it gets better and better. i think we saw people in each party say well obviously our candidate barely has a tongue, we don't know if they'll be able to. but it was skewed and what the obama team had an opportunity to do with a good debate was sort of

where was obama tonight? he should watch -- well not just "hardball", rachel, he should watch you, the reverend al, lawrence, there's a hot debate going on in this country, here on this network is where we're having the debate. we have our knives out we go after the people and the facts. what was he doing tonight? he went in there disarmed. he was wait an hour and a half, i think i can get through this thing. where as romney. i loved the split screen, staring at obama, addressing him. he did it just right. i'm coming at an incumbent. i've got to beat him. and i don't care what this guy moderator whatever he think he ises because i'm going to ignore him. what was romney doing? he was winning. >> he was winning tonight. that's my thought. >> you give him five more of these nights, forget it. >> it puts the pressure on the president. >> obama should wash msnbc. he will learn something every night. this stuff we're watching, this is like first grade to most of us. we know all of this stuff. >> i was in front of a

so i think he blew it. >> by the way i think obama blew one thing on the bush answer, obama didn't tie himself to clinton which usually helps and i am surprised he passed up that opportunity. that was one of the few opportunities he passed up, what this debate was, was the exact opposite of denver, the agenda was set by barack obama. it was fought on his turf. i agree he didn't talk a great deal about what he was going to do but romney was on the offensive that's the exact opposite in denver and some of the particulars mentioned earlier, women and immigration and the auto bailout, setting this agenda do i think it transforms the election, of course not but we are playing to a very small group of per jailedables and if there is any movement which i think there clearly was to romney in that group my guess is it has stopped, it hasn't moved back to obama but stopped. >> rose: so it keyed keys it up -- go ahead. >> one of the interesting things is, al talks about this small group of remaining undecided voters, these are what people call low information voters, they are not reading massive

barack obama won. martha raddatz escape unscathed mostly. i learned a lot from the first debate. i learned what mitt romney believed, that he was willing to tailor positions for the general electric, that barack obama did not show up and was not engaged. the reason i did was because similar give them the time to do it. -- jim lehrer gave them the time to do it. i think candy crowley did a good job, i think martha rdatz did a good job. i don't know the formula for a good debate. >> it seems that there are two choices here. you can have a moderator who holds their feet to the fire a bit and ask serious questions and is not let them michael around, and martha raddatz was the best example of that. if you are not going to do that, just let them talk to each other and have a bus to go up for time. >> what about the town hall format? >> no, i think i.t. is completely phony. have an impossible standard -- leave them alone, except every once in awhile where they sasay something egregiously false. >> you cannot

. >> an amore assertive president obama. >> obama clearly had a good night. >> it was an act of terror he did call it an act of terror. >> on the question of libya both the president and romney were wrong. >> i'm still trying to get the hang of this thing debating. >> time for him to put together a vision of what he did in the final four years. >> i'll keep improving as time goes on. i have one left. >> we have this show. >> cenk: i hear you on that. although you didn't love what you heard last night. the script began as it did in the first debate as it did between mitt romney and abraham. mitt romney came out strong. here's what happened in the first question. >> romney: i know what it takes to create good jobs again. i know what it takes to make sure that you have the kind of opportunity that you deserve and kids across this country are going to recognize we're bringing back an economy. it's not going to be like the last four years. the middle class has been crushed over the last four years, and jobs have been too square. when do you graduate? 2014 when you come out in 2014 i presume

>> why didn't obama say that? >> why didn't obama say that? yeah, we have established he could have had a better debate, if he had been more, what, up on the sound bites, if you will. and also if he didn't stirt like i do, but the fact is that romney was giving the impression all this money was going to solyndra. it is not. even solyndra isn't that bad but that's a question for another time. >> this country is on the way to energy independence because of fracking, because of the new technologies that enable us to get both natural gas and oil out of shale that we never were able to do before. that is going to change the whole economy of this country and dramatically reduce our dependency on the middle east. it's long overdue. >> wind and solar is like 1% of that 90 billion that romney cited. there was also money there, 3 billion to clean up a nuclear plant. so again, he played with the figures. but the romney that showed up the other night was not the romney we saw on the campaign trail earlier. he suddenly is now

at one me to do obama? -- want me to do obama? he gets the most widely respected and almost neutral economic orbiter, the highest approval rating, 69% who is taken and associated with this period of peace. he can talk owls down from the trees. the best spokesman in the history of the world. and to make his case for working-class and middle-class voters. they found it hard reach as a candidate in 2008 and as president. he gets a huge boost toward his reelection. he gets a big boost in what will be a very tight race. tavis: what does it say about our politics that the first african american president, even after one term, still leave the white guy to get him elected to a second term? >> i think bill clinton will set the default is barack obama's. you hear all these things about president clinton, about how he doesn't take care of his daughters and dozen jews enough on capitol hill. he thinks that president obama has failed to go out and sell the policies of the country. to make a clear and convincing educational argument for the obv

much more fun than obama. but he is still a surrogate and there's only so much that the surrogates can do. the candidate himself still has to -- chris: i agree. >> let's just look at this miracle. chris, you've gone back in politics a long way. this was a bitter rivalry and they put it past them, all of them. they had the emotional maturity, this duo -- this trio, to decide country first. i have to say, i've been a longtime clinton skeptic and not particularly liker. i think the maturity of those three people the last four years has been remarkable. chris: the key is the solididity of the party. >> welcome back. john, tell me something i don't know. >> clinton is doing a lot of stuff for president obama, raising a lot of money. he's in a lot of the ads. look, you've still not done a joint campaign event so far. there's time reserved in the homestretch. you're going to see bill clinton and barack obama together a lot. chris: like the old motorcades with ike and dixon, the canons of new york. i love it. tell me

but, if that was what the cia's intelligence was, why does obama -- president obama claim that he calledterror the day after? >> well, of course it involves an act of terror whether the result of a spontaneous demonstration or something planned. you know, this is unacceptable that you would attack another embassy and kill the ambassador. it is terrorism in any form, whatever... >> and, the first week they were asked repeatedly -- >> no, of course not. let me try to channel candy crowley for a moment. the president said acts of terror and play the top on fox any way you wish but he said it and it was an act of terror and we were waiting to find out what the real motivation and driving force was behind it and we did a thorough investigation to get to the bottom of it and as the president said hold those accountable who did it. >> chris: senator graham, you get the last word. >> chris... chris... this was not a spontaneous riot. there was never a mob. there is a video of the conflict. nobody was there. and, ambassador stevens met the turkish ambassador, and, there were 125 people, using hea

obama's on the left. we'll go live to our correspondents at both rallies shortly and jump in at any point in either candidate is making some news. >>> new polling as well. late numbers just coming in tonight and new endorsements including colin powell weighing in today. >>> also tonight, a very different look inside the campaign from presidential historian doug brinkley who got an opportunity to watch his tore being made as well as what president obama called mitt romney. it rhymes with, well, show-bidder. it's causing outrage tonight. this, on the other hand, there may be reason for the romney campaign to cheer. the breaking news. the abc news/"washington post" tracking poll now has mitt romney ahead by three points and more crucially, hitting the 50% mark for the first time. in our own cnn poll of polls, governor romney currently enjoys a one-point lead, 48-47. as you no doubt know, the race will boil down to a few key states and tonight, we also have new numbers from the nbc/"wall street journal" poll

face so the chairman of the joint chiefs was obama, the secretary of state was obama. it sort of captured -- obama has this fantasy, he didn't kill bin laden. the u.s. navy s.e.a.l.s did. he didn't find bin laden. an enormous intelligence effort over a long period did. if you read the remarkable recent book "the finish" by mark bowden who earlier had done "blackhawk down" you get a sense of the effort that went into tracking down and killing bin laden. i don't take anything away from the president for making the decision to do it but i think it would be pretty hard for a president not to have decided to go after bin laden once they found him. >> yes, but let's be honest. if it was the other way round and mitt romney was the incumbent president and he had taken out bin laden, he would be talking about nothing else. it's all politics, isn't it, at the end of the day. let's get down to nitty-gritty here. let's move on to ohio. because it's getting increasingly clear it's going to be a very, very tight race. may all come down to ohio. how important is this whole issue of t

two benefiting president obama. new hampshire went from tossup to lean obama. mexico went from lean obama to obama. one change in status benefiting romney. went from lean obama to tossup. romney gained in colorado, ohio, virginia, and wisconsin, all battleground states. but no change in the status in those. missouri and nevada became stronger for obama. no change in status for those. >> bret: of that, joe. what do you see as important? >> all the states move to romney even though they haven't changed status matter. but ohio is the real interesting thing, because when you look at it, both karl and i threw out a marist poll that happened some time ago with eight-point lead for obama. we threw that out. moving as a tossup today. that would be very significant. when you look at a trend line of ohio, though, throughout the whole campaign, romney has never actually crossed in the lead there in the average of real clear politics average of the trend line. is that moving? because right now the line if you look at them are starting to go closer together again like after

real has it 2% to obama. there is a reason why both campaigns are moving back to wisconsin spending a lot of money. it's closer. >> dana: do you think it what to do with paul ryan as choice of the v.p.? >> greg: probably. i'm more upset that obama supported the detroit tigers in the world series. could it be that detroit is in a swing state? perhaps. >> kimberly: giants! >> greg: i told tina the giants won and she was terrified. it explained they're not real giants, dana. it brought up something -- it's a team. not big giant people over 5'6". "new york times" reporter tweeted about the race saying it was like watching the 2008 race in reverse. that would be for thepedia. because they're watching their guy who was ascending decrepitting. however it's not in -- ascending, descending. but however it's not in reverse. except for mitt is hope and change. the momentum you saw four years ago. >> kimberly: romentum. >> bob: romney picked up some, say, three to four points since the first debate. obama hasn't descende

obama did not do his best. we will see what happens in the next couple of debate, but he did not do his best by any standard of a definition. i was falling would ever be as saying on twitter. chris rock doing so bad that he was waiting before the debate was over for obama to bend down and pull up osama bin laden's skull. that was his trump card, if you will. i raise that because you mentioned osama bin laden. there was a time in this country's past when, if the sitting president had held up osama bin laden's skull, he probably could have gone away with anything. does president obama at this point get any credit for killing enemy number one? >> i would say that he gets responsibility and accountability. the joke was funny, but the reality is that what amounted what was a cold-blooded assassination when there was no resistance from the principal target, when there was no effort to fight back, according to the soldiers carrying out the mission, to assassinate him on the spot, dispose of the body at sea is not some

president obama in iowa today. mr. romney was in nevada and colorado yesterday and will be and i what today. there are nine states considered battlegrounds. we kick off our coverage of them all. we will begin a florida later on on "washington journal." talking to people on both sides of the aisle. we will begin with those late the ciders. how did you make up your mind? or if you think you are going to make up your mind and the last 13 days, we want to assure you as well. if you are supporting governor 1.mney called calle202-585-388 if you are supporting obama call 202-585-3880 0. if you are supporting another candidate call 202-585-3882. go to twitter.com campaign 2012. how did you make up your mind and when? since the first presidential debate how and when did you make up your mind? late decider is only. or if you think you were going to make up your mind during the next 13 days. here is the wall street journal. candidates a bottle to lock up key states. mitt romney will spend much of the final two weeks of the campai

i have to go with obama. a lot of this man's programs he tried to a put forth because they wanted to make him a one- term president. host: the senior adviser and former chair of the republican national committee and george w. bush on the trail for mitt romney. he spoke to reporters earlier tonight. >> i think they would see some clear differences, especially when it comes to israel, national security, the reckless and arbitrary budget cuts that president obama is proposing -- the governor romney is proposed -- is calling for when it comes to israel and ratcheting up sanctions on iran. they saw very clear differences. they saw from governor romney an agenda to not have this be subject to events around the world. i think they saw from president obama a failure to defend his own policies and inability to lay out policies for the future. that is what the american people are looking for, where are you going to take this? governor romney laid that out tonight. >> two weeks left. where are you going to go starting i

obama is a 70% favorite. but my site had obama as an 85% favorite before the debate. means romney has gone double. people maybe read a little too much into the national polls. but even in the cases where obama was ahead by 7 points in the state before, that lead has been cut to 3 or 4. maybe you have a tie now. or romney ahead. there's a sign that obama's problems were worse just after the debate on thursday and friday and it's perking back up. we'll see in the next round show the swing states tied. then democrats really will be appropriate for them to panic a little bit. right now trepidation is the most appropriate emotion for democrats. if you see e obama's lead in the swing states evaporating as well, then it really is, i think, a toss up heading into the last debates. >> nate silver, author of the new book "the signal and the noise." more broadly it's about the whole statistical universe and how to understand it. nate, congratulations. thanks for your time tonight. >> thank you. >>> pop quiz. paul ryan has either, a, just helped president obama with the nra, or b

is obama himself. he claimed in the debate -- he took credit for calling it a terror attack on day one. here he is a week later on letterman asked about it, and he says that we don't know if it is a terror attack, we are investigating. everybody knew at the time that the video had nothing to do with the benghazi attack, zero. he misled dramatically, repeatedly, he and his team. that is hanging out there, and romney has a chance to hit it out of the park on monday. i think it could be a really pyrrhic victory that he had on that question in debate number 2 and will hit him in debate number 3. >> pyrrhic victory, mark. >> charles, sadly, is wrong, for the following reason. you have to subscribe to a great master conspiracy theory from an administration that has not demonstrated a capacity for running a two car funeral that often, that this is so well organized and orchestrated and so stupid as to put the u.n. ambassador on five shows where she will be corrected. this was wrong, no question about it, but