ohio is five ohios.in ohio in this election cycle -- can we talk about the issues? guest: this is like to been a shock to your viewers, but the auto issue has been huge here. i have never seen where one issue in the campaign can play so well here. obviously, it is the battle of the bailout. who wanted to take it into bankruptcy. who got hurt, who did not. you are seeing the new ones being played on. and you are seeing the big swing, which is on the president's side, i save the auto industry. and the mitt romney has been trying to play the policies of the president and how they have hurt auto and how they will send the jobs to china and elsewhere. you can see how they are targeting some of their campaign stops. this place in the northwest, a very heavily auto-related. and in dayton. -- in dayton you have delphi. it gets into, do those autoparts makers lose their pension as a result of the auto bailout because other people got protection? this is the kind of thing being battled an ohio. host: the "washingt

ohio is five ohios.t: we talked about the issues, the top issues in ohio in this election cycle -- can we talk about the issues? guest: this is like to been a shock to your viewers, but the auto issue has been huge here. i have never seen where one issue in the campaign can play so well here. obviously, it is the battle of the bailout. who wanted to take it into bankruptcy. who got hurt, who did not. you are seeing the new ones being played on. and you are seeing the big swing, which is on the president's side, i save the auto industry. and the mitt romney has been trying to play the policies of the president and how they have hurt auto and how they will send the jobs to china and elsewhere. you can see how they are targeting some of their campaign stops. this place in the northwest, a very heavily auto-related. and in dayton. -- you have delphi. it gets into, do those autoparts makers lose their pension as a result of the auto bailout because other people got protection? this is the kind of thing being

>>shepard: ohio is after that, the southern part of ohio, rural southern ohio where the tea party started southern he looking? >>guest: we feel good about ohio, too in the last couple of days. you have seen the polls close were it is very close. ohio we think will break for mitt romney and governor romney is there in ohio campaigning and we expected him to go into massachusetts and cast his vote and he said, no, he will not it is still while the polls are open and he headed to ohio and another stop in pennsylvania because we are not taking anything for granted. we do not want to have any regrets tomorrow morning. governor romney is there today. >>shepard: i watched pennsylvania with great interest when the obama camp sent out the number one surrogate, bill clinton, to not one but four different stops in person including two in the philadelphia area, and we get the new poll that shows it is basically tied up, and, then, a spokesperson for obama said it is tight. is pennsylvania actually in play? if it is, you are in great shape. >>guest: amazing. amazing. really, pennsylvania was not on th

so they don't have a route to 270 through ohio. they're behind in ohio. we have a significant early vote program. we're beating them by two to one in the early vote. we're ahead in the polls. so they don't have a route to 270 so they are now sending out lifelines to pennsylvania, minnesota, we'll see if they can get there. >> let me ask you about that early vote. because republicans are saying look, back in 2008, democrats had huge early voting leads. republicans made up a lot of the difference on election day. this time, the early vote advantage for democrats is much smaller. republicans are saying it's small enough that if they just do as well tomorrow as they did on election day in 2008, they win. do they have a point? >> no. because they're not looking at accurate numbers. we do have a significant margin in particularly the ohio early vote. and you know, we're not running a 2008 campaign. we're running a 2012 campaign. we're running -- >> do you wish you were running a 2008 campaign because you did pretty well. >> well, yes. but that's four years ago.

i am an ohio native.nutes from where president obama was on saturday and where both sides have been fighting for votes. so here's a personal look at one county at the center of a a political storm where i grew up. welcome to my hometown. it was a great place to grow up as a kid. very much a working class community. it has gone through a number of ups and downs since then. like a lot of towns in the industrial midwest, factories were the life blood. hundred of thousands of people workeded here, including my dad, who was here for 37 years. $12,000 a year and a -- the community of immigrants, my grandfather in fact worked -- now abandoned. this is the downtown, which obviously is still not in great shape. much better than most of the country with an unemployment rate of 5.7%. so here's the house i grew up in. two of my brothers still live here. my grandmother lived next door. these neighborhoods are full of the kind of voters mitt romney and barack obama are courting many these closing hours of the campaign.

ohio voter advocates.t i will say is that they should not be experimenting in a presidential election. you know, the secretary of state had years -- previous years to try to experiment. so there is some concern there, the fact that this experiment is taking place in 44 counties, ed. but we cannot take our eyes off the prize. other folks are working on this, we have our eye on this. but we're continuing to work. the man throws up so so much. it's hard to keep up with. you know, sos used to stand for secretary of state but here it stands for secretary of suppression. >> here's another comment he made about counting the absentee ballots. here it is. >> right now we're at 85% of them were sent have been returned. so that's a pretty good rate right now. we expect a lot of voters put them in the mail yesterday and today and we think that the number could actually be smaller than it was the last time. so we're not concerned about that. >> senator, your thoughts. >> ed, of course, he's not concerned. this secretar

in ohio today

ohio. he had a very v f the legal bush's re-e bagging on air force one, the believed that had ce was w stuck w wait this is where i think this is. you're absolutely right about karl rove being the single biggest money player in this el which is a very strange thing but that same person is analyzing this. but he has an experience here that in -- if we're to take at his word, it is not unreasonable for him to be doing this kind of final accounting on %zb >>s as we look forward towards what's about to happen, we're still waiting for resu of stall.e results yet in virgtes on how those states are on this steve schmidt, are you going to be looking for r7in terms of the romney campaign? specifically, who is going to issue of -- >> i think it's to the point that lawrence said it is not unreasonable to give the romney campaign time. the numbers in we're, john kerry conceding the next morning. with al gore having to take the concessi process this is not going to kill anyone. the public will endure a

another swing state, ohio. the one many believe could ultimately determine the winner of this whole thing. polls in the buckeye state have been open for about half an hour right now. as we mentioned one of mitt romney's final campaign rallies today is in ohio. carol costello is live in blue ash, ohio, which is right near cincinnati. good morning, carol. i see voters behind you. >> you think there's no enthusiasm to vote this year? you would be wrong, john berman. this is blue ash, ohio, and hamilton county, ohio. a traditionally republican county. and take a look at all the people filling this polling station already. they started lining up by car, at about 5:30 this morning. in fact, i just talked to one voter. her name was linda. it was after she voted, of course. and she told me she was so excited to vote she actually woke up at 11:00 last night thinking that she missed the voting. she tried to vote this weekend in early voting. the lines were too long, so she was very nervous about getting here and actually

ohio voter advocates. and what i will say is that they should not be experimenting in a presidential election. the secretary of state had previous years to try and experiment. so there is some concern there, the fact that this experiment is taking place in 44 counties, ed. but we cannot take our eyes off the prize. other folks are working on this, we have our eye on this. but we're continuing to work. the man throws up so so much. s.o.s. used to stand for secretary of state but here it stands for secretary of suppression. >> here's another comment he made. >> right now we're at 85% of them were sent have been returned. we expect a lot of voters put them in the mail yesterday and today and we think that the number could actually be smaller than it was the last time. so we're not concerned about that. >> senator your thoughts. >> of course he's not concerned? this secretary of state has taken a cavalier attitude when it comes to other folks' right and ability to vote. don't forget shs this is the man who app

both campaigns have some much riding in ohio. what is the strategy if ohio? we have talked about one particular county in ohio and now we have the chairman for the republicans and the chairman for the democrats from one particular county live with us together.?x charlie rose: will you endorse president obama? colin powell: yes. when he took over we were in one of the... worst recessions we had seen in recent times... close to a depression. and i saw, over the next several years, stabilization... come back in the financial community. housing is starting to pick up. the president saved the auto industry. and the actions he's taken with respect to... protecting us from terrorism have been very, very solid. and so, i think we ought to keep on the track that we are on. president obama: i'm barack obama and... i approve this message. >>shepard: a week since hurricane sandy devastated the northeast united states and forecasters say a winter storm is headed to the region, a nor'easter that could slam the area with rain, wind, flooding and snow. this comes as temper

in ohio, as well. just four days left until the election. and both campaigns are claiming to have the momentum. this election will come down to turnout and the all important ground game. >> hi there. great to be here. >> it's good to see you. we were just joking about whether or not this could be a version of the hanging chat in 2000. how close is ohio? >> it's going to be close, but this race has been very stable and very consistent. ohio is obama country. people have been voting here for a month. >> but his margins have gotten smaller. >> a little bit. it's been a four to five-point race for several weeks, and people have been voting for about a month. a good chunk of people in the states will have already voted by election day. >> big story on the front page of the "new york times." 2400 lawyers have fanned out across the state. you're doing that for a reason. >> we're always prepared for every scenario. we want to make sure that everybody who is eligible to vote has the opportunity to vote. >> a lo

we go back to florida, virginia, ohio. florida, virginia ohio. it's a same old record and we still don't have results, final results from them. that's what is holding us up to find who will be the president. >> university students are watching the race and other votes closely. deborah is live in berkeley where she has been talking to students tonight about what's important to them. >> reporter: we are looking at a big viewing party. here in the plaza in the heart of campus. hundreds of students watching election results. >> how you doing tonight? >> [inaudible] . >> reporter: organizers have also been urging anyone in the crowd who hasn't voted to make sure and do so and to text friends and remind them to vote. we are now closing in on eight but it's very easy to vote on campus there. are ballot boxes in several of the dorms and what is exciting for many in the crowd is the opportunity to vote for the very first time. >> it was a great way to start off college with the election my freshman year. makes me more interested in politics to start off w

we have strong unions in ohio.he is basically on record for the whole country wants the national right to work. he wants to get rid of the minimum wage. he wants to get rid of any type of idea of working wages is to protect people. >> and no candidate has gone down that road to my knowledge. no, he's on the website. they're all gone now because of the tea party. now they're talking about the national right to work. that gets people up in arms. and mitt romney doesn't see the difference. he goes on and he talks very boldly about this, not realizing that it's really the third rail when it comes to campaigning and it comes to the labor. >> mr. hoffa, good to have yo with us on the ed show. thanks so much. president obama got bipartisan praise to his reaction of the hurricane. karen finney and e.j.dion join me next. the campaigns have one nor day to convince voters. find out where they're foccusin their attention in the final hours. stay with us. you're watching the ed show from democracy plaza. [ fishing rod casting l

first ohio.ed ground is in every poll, after outside groups spent over $20 million unanswered trial to defeat him shows that the candidates matter and how good a senator and politician you are and he's done a great job and he's going to win in a state that's going to be razor thin on a presidential level and the wisconsin race is going to be a big surprise to people. i think everyone thought tommy thompson was going to waltz back in and tammy baldwin has put herself in a position where she could win. >> it matters who's on the top of the ticket, does it not? >> it does. it's interesting. i'm surprised that not only that the presidential races are close but the races that are close senatorial that are not even vaguely close at the presidential. i think about north dakota. i think about connecticut or massachusetts, or on the other side, montana. i don't remember that happening a lot unless you have some really, really strong incumbent. most of these are not incumbent. >> think about nebraska. >> n

ohio. just hours away from election day. it is cold here, but people are hot, they're ready to go. "outfront" tonight, robert gibbs from the obama campaign and florida senator and romney supporter, marco rubio. why it all comes down to this state. plus, the man who's being called the most important person in this election. he joins me live and an "outfront" investigation into the never ending gas lines in the northeast following sandy. the gas lines didn't have to happen. something could have been done to prevent them, so why wasn't it? let's go "outfront." tonight, dead heat. election day is just five hours away and the candidates are using every last minute they've got. our latest cnn poll of polls today shows president obama ahead by one point. 49 to 48 for mitt romney and it could all come down to this state where i am tonight. ohio. both campaigns made stops here today. mitt romney's campaign just announced he will make a stop here tomorrow as well. now, each man spent the day crisscro

i'm coming you to live from columb columbus, ohio. in three days, this is the state that will likely decide the presidential election. governor romney knows that only too well that no republican has won the white house without winning ohio and the race right now in ohio is close to a dead heat. let's look at the two latest polls. first, our own cnn/orc poll of likely voters shows president obama with a three point lead. now that is inside the statistical margin of error. so that's about as close as it can get. and nbc "wall street journal" poll gives the president a six point lead in ohio. a little better for obama. still very close. now obama may be the top prize for the candidates right now l are other important battleground states. we'll take through over the course of the next hour in a way that only cnn can. john avalon and i traveled more than 1800 miles on cnn's battleground bus tour as the race for the white house reaches its conclusion. no mat wrer i ter where i go, t economy is the most important issue in this election. i've

i wonder how you see ohio. >> we feel pretty good about ohio, scott. the fact is where you look where the turnout is highest, we have great turnout in republican leading areas. we were able to shave 263,000 votes in the early vote in the absentee ballots from the advantage that president obama enjoyed over senator mccain in 2008. in the diminishment of the democrats early vote advantage, our republican intensity and what we've been seeing in the polls relative to independent voters in ohio, we feel like it's very much in our side tonight when i look at where these votes are coming in from we also female good about thal -- feel good about the numbers in the county and precincts and need to carry with big numbers and we're doing that tonight. >> pelley: one of the swing states we do not have enough information to make a call on, terribly close at this hour is the state of virginia. the turnout there has been very heavy today, and i wonder if you think that that cuts for the president or if it's cuts for mitt romney. >> i think it's going to cut for us. t

needless to say, brooke, ohio, ohio, ohio. that's the name of the game today. >> a picture can mean a thousand words and that perhaps is precisely what that is. if they're not feeling crowded on the tarmac, tell me how team romney's feeling now. are they exhausted, pumped, hopeful? >> reporter: all three of those things, brooke. they are predicting a clear and decisive victory and that includes in state of ohio. but lie tell you, though, this event that is happening today is a reflection of the fact they're not taking anything for granted. mitt romney's here in ohio, paul ryan of course landed here as well. both going to be doing a variety of things here in the state. i can't tell you what those things are because the campaign has not disclosed them to us at this point. mitt romney goes to pennsylvania. of all battleground states in this election day getting a visit from both mitt romney and paul ryan it's ohio. now, at the same time i will tell you, as you pointed out, this is a very close race in this state. and even though

but zero in on today, and you can see what matters most, ohio, ohio, ohio as the late tim russert wouldee stops for the president and two for mitt romney who began his morning in wisconsin, another key rust belt battleground. congressman sherrod brown knows a little about buckeye state politics, and joan walsh is managing editor of salon.com and a political analyst. senator brown, sir, you know that state. i think you look like ohio. i think you are ohio. you're the labor guy. you're a blue collar kind of guy. you look like a senator from out there. you remind me of the late pete williams of new jersey, but you never had his problems. this is the question, why are you having a tough race? i don't get this guy running against you, this kid. is it all this money being pumped in there? what's made this even interests, not for you, but interesting to watch? >> well, it's $31 million, they spent more money against me than any senate race in the country. we figure it's oil company money and wall street money. >> is this americans for prosperity, the koch brothers? >> it's all different groups

he is at a fever pitch pace for making the final pitch to the folks of ohio. ground in ohio.is your sense of the outcome? >> well, i was there all last week. tomorrow morning. i'll be in toledo by 9:00 tomorrow morning. i think it's upbeat right now. there is a lot of enthusiasm. i was with the president near columbus, ohio, on thursday. he has tremendous bounce in his step, tremendous confidence of people, all kinds of people were walking up. saw. there were old people, young people, black people, latinos. every time of person that's an american who is coming to that rally. people were bringing their children, taking them out of school because it was such an event. it was very, very moving to see the type of event that attended that event and i think that's the kind of deep-seeded enthusiasm that is going to carry the day in ohio. are the voters, are the residents when you visit them -- do they bring up the automobile fiasco that romney has gotten himself into? frin, this is ohio senator rob portman who was asked about the lies today and here's his response. >> the fact is,

that's the choice that ohio will make and that case has been made clearly to the people of ohio. >> you see governor romney there in pittsburgh. wasn't to bri i want to bring in john king. >> you mentioned this several times, i'm holding ohio on our map. if the president wins ohio by 10,000, 15,000 votes tonight, you are in the room at the time, do you have any doubt if he wins a close election, it will be because the auto bailout? >> one out of eight in ohio are related to the auto industry. in other state outside of michigan is that affected by one decision. when you look at the -- if he wins by 15,000, without going county by county with you, john, it means he has done well beyond his base coalition. he's expanded his coalition. that means autoworkers who know directly the decision he made and the decision mitt romney made. if mitt romney was in the oval office, he would have thrown the towel in on 1.2 million manufacturing jobs in the industrial base of america. the president, even when his advisers said this is maybe at best a one in five choice, went all in and it turned out to be

i want to look at ohio. what the romney camp says is happening in early voting and absentee balloting. let's put the numbers up on the screen. it is a little complicated. but i hope you can see the graphic. they say -- the romney camp, says that 557,000 ohio democrats voted early and got an absentee ballot so far, 155,000 from four years ago. and 481,000 republicans have voted early, or got the absentee ballot and that is up 108,000 from four years ago and that is a swing of 263,000 votes in early balloting. which wipes out obama's final victory margin of 262,000 in ohio, four years ago. what they are saying is if substantially more republicans turn out to vote in ohio, on election day, which is what they traditionally do, they are going to win ohio and you will lose. >> well, i'll tell you what, chris, we'll know in two days who is bluffing and who is not bluffing. the fact is, that if you look at every poll in ohio, we have been ahead, even or ahead in virtually every one and the latest came out this morni

throughout the night that favored president obama were not indicative of who would win ohio when all the votes were ultimately tabulated by that state's computers with a quarter of the votes still out there rove was anticipating a shift to the right just after eleven pm which coincidentally is exactly what happened in two thousand and four. that here john kerry and the entire nation especially karl rove are watching ohio just after the eleven pm hour florida had just been called for george w. bush and according to the electoral college math whoever won ohio would win the election and considering the exit polls from the state showed john kerry with a substantial lead no i'll there were a lot of tense moments for karl rove and the republicans that then the clock struck eleven fourteen pm and the servers counting the votes in ohio crashed now election officials in ohio had planned for this sort of thing to happen they had already contracted with a company in chattanooga tennessee called smart to act to be their backup their failsafe should the ohio servers crashing go down as journalist

hello, ohio! when i say wisconsin that i know what real change looks like, you've got cause to believe me because you've seen me fight for it. >> i tell you, cleveland really does rock, you know that? that's quite a des moines, iowa, welcome. thank you so much. what a philadelphia welcome. thank you, lynchburg, so much for that virginia welcome. that's why i'm running for president. i know how to change the nation, how to get it back on course, how to create jobs, how to get a balanced budget. >> let's get straight to our chief political analyst gloria borger who has an excellent panel for us. >> i think we do. hearing those candidates, it's like if it's monday, it must be des moines. where am i today? and this is of course the closing arguments. but if you look at our cnn poll which we released last night, you'll see that these candidates seem to be tied, enthusiasm is the same nationally. favorability is the same nationally. so after $6 billion, are we -- >> money well spent. >> are we back wher

probably not. >> ohio, ohio, ohio as we're saying. don't go too far away. anderson cooper is with us every step of the way. >> check in with our analysts and dana bash is here and gloria borger and here with the republican consultant alex costianos and dan jones. two days to go. where are your heads at? what are you looking at? >> spending. i think this is impossible to call this race. john king just laid it out. mitt romney has a steeper hill to climb. if you look at the 12 battleground states, barack obama is ahead in 9 of the 12 and romney only ahead in three. when you go on the ground, you actually talk to people in the state, i was in ohio this week and it was striking how many republicans on the ground thought they were going to win. they thought they had the enthusiasm. they thought they had the evangelical vote. i think we rely too much on the polls. i think we should wait and see what the voters say. >> there is no doubt that republicans are more enthusiastic this time than they were four years ago. our poll, though, on overall on sort of a nationa

probably not. >> ohio, ohio, ohio, as we are saying, john. don't go too far away.nderson cooper, of course is with us every step of the way. anderson? >> check in with our analysts, senior correspondental correspondent dana bash is here, david gergen, gloria borger and contributory cnn, alex castellanos and adviser to the obama white house, van jones. two days to go before this thing. where are your heads at? what are you looking at very closely in terms of the numbers? >> spinning. our heads are spinning. i think is it impossible to call this race. john king just laid it out that president romney -- mares got a steeper hill to climb in the electoral college. if you look at the 12 battleground states people normally list, barack obama's ahead in nine of the 12 battleground states and romney only ahead in three. but when you go on the ground, you actually talk to people in the state, i was in ohio this week, quite striking how many republicans on the ground thought they were going to win it. they thought they had the enthusiasm. they thought they had the evangelical

ohio, i'm betting on you. i'm betting on you. >> you have that responsibility, you have that opportunity and on november the 6th, florida can make mitt romney the next president of the united states. >> ladies and gentlemen, with you we can win. we win florida, we win this election! >> well, in 2000 the election turned on the state of florida. in 2004 it was ohio that was the key. in 2008, virginia found itself in the center spotlight. collectively i've been calling them flohva. until florida our new poll has president obama up. ohio we still have the president holding his lead. 51% to 45%. and in a recent poll of likely voters in virginia, the president was up 2 points, a statistical tie and nbc news has it's own coming out tomorrow morning. look at the ad spending in these three states. more than half a billion collectively in the mega states of flohva. they're not just spending money there, they're spending time. the president will have visited the sunshine state 14 times, for mitt romney it's 16. president

ohio, virginia and florida. which counties are critical for president obama in the state of ohio? >> in the state of ohio, probably we'll be looking at hamilton county, which is a cincinnati suburb. barack obama was the first democrat to carry hamilton county since 1964. he doesn't need to win hamilton county by the margin he won in 2008. barack obama was the first democrat since '64 to carry hamilton county. if the president gets close to his margin in 2008, even if he carries hamilton narrowly, that will be a good sign for the president's prospects in ohio. >> what about virginia? what's the county to watch? >> i think the hot counties are probably -- everyone knows the inner d.c. suburbs, arlington. but it's the next ring of counties beyond those d.c. metro areas. loudoun and prince william. counties that barack obama won pretty much close to a statewide margin in 2008. if the president gets close to his 2008 margins in those counties, that's a good sign for the president winning virginia. >> and hillsborough county in the tampa area of florida, how pivotal is this and a good i

mitt romney's in ohio. president obama's in ohio.ith cnn election team. and we have people spread out all over

changed in ohio.motorcades over here to mccormick place after governor romney has spoken. a very simple event. he's going to come take the stage with his family and declare victory. >> pelley: thank you very much. headline of the moment is the reporting of jan crawford, our jan crawford in boston is given to understand that mitt romney has made the call to president obama conceding this very hard fought election and we are expecting to see mitt romney come out to make his concession speech to his supporters in boston very shortly. we will have more cbs news coverage of this unfolding election night in america in just a moment. people really love sna >> pelleyg states that we were watching tonight very closely was the state of colorado. which was once a very reliably republican state. but has become a swing state in recent years, here is the tabulated vote in colorado. cbs news projected some time ago that colorado would go the president's way. and as you see the tabulated vote there 76% of the vote in