romney. mr. romney kept introducing himself to doherty over and over again and he thought that pathetic. >> the ultimate count by the end of the night was four times. romney actually approached him using this private gathering as a political venture to further his image and glen just believed it to be very insincere and stale. you know, he said it was pathetic and comical to have the same person come up to you within only, you know, a half hour reintroduce himself to you, having absolutely no idea whatsoever that he just did this 20 minutes ago and did not even recognize glen's face, whether it be republican, democrat, it doesn't make a difference. this guy is using our great friend, our humble and honorable great friend that we know is just a regular guy who is truly larger than life. he has become an actual part of the soap box routine for politics in a presidential race. i think glen would feel almost embarrassed for romney. i think he would feel pity for him. >> glen doherty's mother barbara

romney. people haven't seen new ideas, smart energy. can they lock the campaign to it and can they now take advantage to really capitalize on the second look he's going to get. >> rose: was the romney you saw tonight the romney u knew, mike. >> yes. a little secret of the romney, i ran his campaign for governor back in 2002, and he won that state by performing really well in the debates. the go you saw tonight, smart, policy-focused, crisp. you look at him and think boy a guy who knows how to run something well. so i think the country in many ways got the first real look at that and then filtered away and now if the romney guys can keep that going for the month they're really back in the race. the next thing the media narrative will need a couple better polls for romney and my guss is they'll get them. they have a real opportunity to move forward. >> rose: john dickerson. >> on the poll of undecided voters right after the debate who watched, romney not only won two to one but on the question

romney was good. heard from the trail. when he gets to the town hall he's going to have to do more about just talk with people he met and he has to engage. that's a different level. >> 1992, obama used to go back and look at the per perrot and clinton and he has that strength. he's a connector so we need to see him press the flesh and sell the smile. >> can you majts what that was like? >> it's the missed opportunity. would any political consultant will tell you is that you have to align your paid media with your free media. a debate is free media. his paid media is all about bane, the dream act, the auto industry rescue. right on down the looirn. in the paid media, none of them were mentioned except in passing. >> here's a good bipartisan question. why don't you take the messages of your paid media and use them in the debate? >> jonathan is so right. gm bailout helped obama win ohio in the polls. where was the message? >> in passing. that's the key. in passing. >> there was the lovefest of states rig

romney had the edge. who seemed like the stronger leader romney had the edge.u ask who won the debate, and asking them where it leads them in terms of their vote are two different things. >> eliot: it's not clear which of those questions are causally linked to the vote. the president tried to do cross-examination on the governor last night, on the issue of the 8 trillion-dollar he calculated 8 trillion-dollar in costs in additional spending by romney. and governor romney has not given us any answers about how he's closing that huge gap, that chasm. can he do that throughout the rest of the campaign. >> i think president obama and democrats are hammering governor romney and paul ryan about that because it is a kind of remarkable thing. they're saying we're going to give everybody marginal tax break cut. be marginal, and we won't tell what you the loops holes are. some of the only loopholes that get through, those are hugely popular deductions. if you did away with them, they would have very negative affects in other ways. i can't see how this math works. >> elio

johnston on romney's huge tax lie. james hoffa of the teamsters on romney's 108 on his feelings for the american middle class. and ohio state senator nina turner on what last night's debate means for the buckeye state. good to have you with us tonight, folks. thanks for watching. if it were just only a game, right? the presidential debate last night was ugly. it was an ugly night because the truth left the building. it took a beating. give mitt romney credit, though. he was an all-american liar last night. and the president seemed to leave his best material, his best game at home. for millions of americans, it was extremely hard to watch mitt romney lie the way he did and get away with it. >> first of all, i don't have a $5 trillion tax cut. i don't have a tax cut of the scale that you're talking about. my view is we ought to provide tax relief to people in the middle class. >> the lie is so outrageous, it's breathtaking. mitt romney has campaigned across this country promoting a 20% reduction in the tax rate. his plan

what mitt romney's tv ads say about women, or what mitt romney, himself, says? >> do i believe supreme court should overturn roe v. wade? yes. and it would be my preference that they reverse roe v. wade. hopefully reverse roe v. wade. overturn roe v. wade. planned parenthood, we're going to get rid of that. i'll cut off funding to planned parenthood. >> no matter what mitt romney's ads say, we know what he'll do. >> in an interview with "rolling stone" magazine president obama was asked if he believes mitt romney will try and undo roe v. wade. "i don't think there's any doubt," the president said. "we know the current supreme court has four members who would overturn roe v. wade. all it takes is one more for that to happen." the longer mitt romney stays silent on this issue the worse he looks. this is an issue of leadership and character which i think he lacks. at least richard mourdock, as much as i disagree with him, has the guts to stand up and say what he believes and then stand by it. the same can never be said for mitt romney. get your cell phones out. i w

just left romney come at him. and let him get exhausted. >> we just heard that sound byte from david axelrod. stating the record is not going on the attack. stating the record about where we were and where we are and where we are going is not an attack. last night we saw an american businessman tell the american people he really wants the job. we felt it. and whether you like it or not, i know substance is a big issue, but presentation in debates is also very important. and it leaves an impression on people who don't have a job. this guy wants the job. president obama last night, he seemed timid at times and off his game as if i really got to go into this rope-a-done strategy. you know what? i'm a strategy supporter, and i think president obama had a bad night. he's had a great four years considering and that's where my focus goes from here, but i'm not going to be in denial that the president needs to pivot on this and needs to get aggressive on the record, not so much to be negative against things that romney ha

romney after big events. i mean, traditionally, candidates see, and campaigns see big marquis events like debates or conventions as springboards for the next day's public attention and momentum. but the romney campaign is not like that. after his convention, mr. romney did not do a traditional bus tour or barn storming campaign trip. after his convention, you will recall that mr. romney went on vacation. mr. romney, even after he had such a big win at the first presidential debate, he did not have any big, morning after the debate rallies or anything. he went and did an event that was off his public schedule, but nobody knew for sure he would be anywhere, and there wasn't a big crowd of people around him while he was rallying the troops to his big win. it was a very quiet morning. and then again today, after the second presidential debate, mr. romney did no public events in the morning. i mean, i don't know if it means anything important, but it is an unusual choice for this candidate that no other modern can

romney doesn't have that.obviously herman cain depend get the memo about down playing expectations. he just raised mitt romney's expectations quite a bit there in that segment there. >> rick lazio, here's something. there's a lot of tax hikes in obama care and i reckon obama care is going to come up a lot tonight unless mitt romney has completely lost his mind. by some count there's nearly $900 billion in tax hikes for obama care. wouldn't that be the middle class tax hike argument that mitt military needs in order to thrust and really come at obama? so far he has not really done that in that campaign. is it coming? >> i do think it's coming. i think he's going to focus on how obama care punishes middle-class families, investors, that it is coercive and that giving families the power to make those health care choices themselves is a superior way to go. i also think by the way, larry, he needs to make the case on taxes in a way people understand. he needs to say do you really think taking $1 away from apple and

between president obama and mitt romney. i'll be live from boca raton for m msnbc's live debate coverage. the debate begins at 9:00 p.m. eastern. "the ed show" with ed schultz starts right now. >>> good evening, americans, and welcome to "the ed show" live from freeport, illinois. across the street there's a company that made $500 million net profit last year, but that wasn't enough. they want more. so they shipped the jobs to china. i don't like mitt romney's economic model, and neither should you. this is "the ed show." let's get to work. >>> the question is, what kind of vision do you have for this country? >> is it mitt romney's vision or greed and wealth? or president obama's vision for a level playing field? >> mitt romney's some towns don't count tour, because freeport didn't count. >> that question plays out tonight in freeport, illinois. >> everybody should play by the same rules. >> sensata workers have played by the rules for years. helped the company become hugely profitable. and now they will pay the price. 170

head, romney was a different guy after the libya stumble and again, the romney folks believe th the fact checkers will tank their side but mitt romney couldn't make the argument. it is sort of the same issue president obama had in that first debate. but i thought that one of the big misses for mitt romney we are not talking about now and that we would have been talking about if not for the libya moment was what i thought was a miss on the bush question, right? he gets the question that i think is this sort of lingering question out there with some swing voters, particularly say in the upper midwest, the ohio, iowa, portion of this -- of these battleground states and yet it was, hey, i am going to be tougher on china, i am going to be more free trade, he didn't seem to have a solid answer of what makes me different than bush and then the president in there clearly was ready with his talking points. i will tell yo tell you how he s different from bush, hits him on medicare and on immigration. so it was almost a reverse of here you have the president with a plan and he executed it toni

romney: and it is? obama: a bunch of oil companies who had these on public lands that they weren't using. so what we said was we can't just sit on this for 10, 20, 30 years, decide when you want to drill, when you want to produce, when it is most profitable for you. these are public land so if you want to drill on public land, you use it or you lose it. so took away those leases so it can actually make a profit. romney: production on government land is down 14%. obama: what usa is not true. romney: it is absolutely true. neil: all right, that was a heated exchange over whether the president has been mr. possessing himself saying he is allowed more drilling and the surge of energy supplies on federal land, which in this case governor romney said it is not the case. as you can see they each got into each other space. wilbur ross big on all things energy, what did you make of that exchange? >> i think first of all the facts show mr. romney was correct and the president was not correct. neil: so when we see

this is the romney pre-game show. will mitt romney be held accountable for lies and distortions about president obama's record? we got a sneak preview of what happens when mitt romney is forced to tell the truth. a fox affiliate here in denver asked romney to explain what paul ryan could not, how he plans to pay for $5 trillion tax cut by only eliminating deductions. >> there's an option. you could say everybody is going to get up to a deduction and you could use your home mortgage deduction or others, health care deduction and fill that bucket, if you will, the $17,000 bucket that way and higher income people might have a lower number. >> at least the plan has a name. it's the bucket plan. mitt romney will cap deductions at $17,000 for all americans. is that good for the middle class? do the math. for rich americans, the cap, it just might be lower than that. he was very vague on that point as well. the big problem with romney's bucket plan besides being hilarious is it would only cover $1 to $2 trillion of the $5 tr

he was helped by romney. he was helped by romney for two reasons. one, romney made a classic mistake. he came to the second debate, thoroughly prepared for the first debate. he said the same lines, often using the same words that he had said two weeks ago. so he had telegraphed every line, he had telegraphed his arguments. the president knew what he was going to say and was prepared to box him, to call him, to hold him accountable. secondly, on style, romney was like the hall monitor. and then he was lake a frustrated guy who, because he couldn't have everything his way. you know, if ownership on the wrong side of the gender gap, i wouldn't fight with a female moderator of a debate. i wouldn't try to bully her. and it's even worse if you end up failing. >> michael, is there any issue that mitt romney gained ground on last night? >> i think he did, on the libya piece. >> michael! you're not serious! come on, you can't be serious. i mean, you can't be serious about that! it was a disaster. it was a train wreck. >> bob, can i make my point? >> bob, you

, i'm mitt romney, i'm mitt romney ♪ >> i'm mitt romney. >> i believe that abargs should be safe andocal in this country. >> i will repeal obama care. >> don't forget, i got everybody in my state insured. >> he's trying to walk and chew gum at the sament time. >> this is a campaign about the 100%. i'm not concerned about the very poor. >> it's the narrative that's culling this campaign. >> the paradox of the mittens. >> i'm not familiar with precisely what i said, but i stand by what i said, whatever it was. >> and i hope to be your president. thank you. >>> just 35 days until the presidential election, and just 23 hours until the first presidential debate. mitt romney is in colorado where his handlers are desperately trying to teach him to be likable. romney advisers' chief concerns are the intangibles such as body language and demeanor. they want their candidate to balance his finely tuned arguments with personal warmth. his advisers knowledge that it will be difficult for him to endear himself to the country. his advisers have been nervous about how romney's intermittent anger wou

liberals excoriated jim lehrer in the first debate because mitt romney 1. -- mitt romney won. service is not candy crowley because barack obama 1. -- conservatives knocked candy crowley because of 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 impossib

they're the romneys. the apple doesn't fall very far from the tree. >> you'll get your chance in a moment. i'm still speaking. that wasn't a question. >> okay. >> that was a statement. >> the next question -- >> he actually gout the first question, so i get the last question. last answer on that one. >> actually, let's speak, too, if you could, governor, the idea of self-deportation. >> let me go back and speak to the points that the president made. >> mitt romney openly disrespectful to the president of the united states and the moderator, candy crowley, during the debate. he made his own rules, answered questions when he wanted to. not the ones that he was asked. and mitt romney has shown this type of elitist behavior his entire life. just go ask the people in freeport, illinois. those people didn't get a chance to rush the stage and take a swing at somebody who took their job. they just got fired. they got outsourced. if mitt romney becomes president, we shouldn't expect anything different. he's going

meanwhile, the romney campaign, or a romney family member has tried to take romney supporters out thereward to tonight's debate inside the romney campaign debate preparations between mitt romney and rob portman, the ohio senator playing the roll of president obama. he tweeted out a picture earlier today of the two men in debate preparations earlier today. >> you think we'll get more details from mitt romney tonight on his tax program, direction? a little bit as you just mentioned, but do you think it's going to more specifics? i assume the president will challenge him on that. >> that's right. the romney campaign did not say whether or not he was going to go into specifics, but that is the first time we heard mitt romney put a number on all of this. for months, he has been telling reporters he would like to wait until he got into the oval office and work with congress on a frame work for limiting deductions, but you heard a lot of republicans, and people challenge mitt romney and say wait, how can we elect this man if we will not talk about how he will pay for those tax cuts. so it's po

romney. after round one shocked the race. >> what are the major differences between the two of you? >> romney got no lift from picking his running mate. romney got the opposite of a lift from his convention. romney got buried after the other side's convention. nothing was working, until that clear win in the first debate. >> i don't have a $5 trillion tax cut. >> now, after the president's muddled first night, saving his best shots until the morning after. >> the fellow on the stage last night, who looked like mitt romney, said he did not know anything about that. >> after his vice president pulled no punches -- >> that's a bunch of malarkey. >> tonight in a way that the common wisdom says it never should be, tonight the race hangs in the balance. msnbc's coverage of the second presidential debate starts right now. >>> rematch! round two, everybody. the second presidential debate tonight from hempstead, new york, on long island, at the campus of hofstra university. thank you for watching it h

health care, where did romney score on that issue? >> well, i think he did two things very effectively. one was, remember when he first started running for president against, in the primary when john mccain was the candidate? he tended to like to talk about data, and we even joked how he was so focused on data. >> paul: right. >> this time around, mitt romney came out and talked about people he had met, a woman with a baby in her arms who told him how difficult it was, a couple that was not able to afford their health care. and you know, he, i think, made the points that he needed to make about the data, but he humanized them and i think that was a great achievement of his on debate. >> paul: health care distraction from job creation, you inherit a recession, a financial crisis, and instead of focusing on that, romney is saying, you spent two years trying to pass one of your big priorities in social legislation and that's hurt job creation, a powerful point. >> yeah, it's a good point, but i think the health care issue is not going to

romney? we have some new poll numbers from that crucial battleground state. ♪ (train horn) vo: wherever our trains go, the economy comes to life. norfolk southern. one line, infinite possibilities. [ "the odd couple" theme playing ] humans. even when we cross our "t"s and dot our "i"s, we still run into problems -- mainly other humans. at liberty mutual insurance, we understand. that's why our auto policies come with accident forgiveness if you qualify, where your rates won't go up due to your first accident, and new car replacement, where if you total your new car, we give you the money for a new one. call... to talk to an insurance expert about everything else that comes standard with our base auto policy. [ tires squeal ] and if you get into an accident and use one of our certified repair shops, your repairs are guaranteed for life. call... to switch, and you could save hundreds. liberty mutual insurance -- responsibility. what's your policy? >>> vice president joe biden started a three-da

what romney's plan is. and other thing is that he's claiming governor romney had not been specific. he went through what -- where he stood on health care, what is wrong with obama care, choices he'd make differently on medicare. all of these things and the economy. and job creation. very specific. >> but he did something else proved why he's ready for the job. he said look. as an executive he's not running to be speech maker but chief executive of the united states of america. and this is what we're going to do. have you to work with legislative branch ask have to get democrats and republicans to vote for it. if you don't impose that on people, barack obama just wants to impose campaign speeches and shove it down the throat of the american people. it exposed why he'll be effective. >> is and very likeable, too. >> tonight i was glad so many millions of americans got to see the mitt romney we know. the person a great father, great husband and going to be an incredible president. >> sean: he's not the guy the

romney's strength. how many of you rated hum a stronger leader. and that was one of the areas where mitt romney really stood out. let's ask karen ren sick a question. an unemployed voter, trying to make up your mind. when we heard that high moment from mitt romney, it stood out to you, why did it? >> i was surprised president obama did not stand out more and stronger in this. when mitt romney said the things he said, especially leaning back and showing the constitution and the bill of rights and it just really struck in me, yeah, this man could really help me in the job market and our economy. he stood out as a stronger candidate to me. >> did he stand out as someone that connects with you personally in a way he hasn't so far? >> yes, from the 's, i thought he was much more aloof than he appeared tonight. >> let's get to some of the lows, wolf. there were a couple of moments that our focus group reacted negatively to. >> the low points in the debate for president obama and governor romney, let's begin w

last night he didn't let mitt romney get away with the romney extreme makeover effort, which romney broughtall the statements that romney made during the republican primary. in the first debate, romney tried to again reinvent himself and i think the president was just, he was caught by surprise by the willingness of romney just to do his total makeover, but he didn't get away with it last night romney didn't. >> bill: romney would say anything. i mean, he treat it again. >> we were talking about that earlier, congressman, you know, he's getting called on these things now. romneying having trouble. he got called on energy, on detroit and bankruptcy. oh, you adopted my plan. excuse me? how did you think the president did there fighting back on that auto question? >> that's right romney, really, another outrageous effort to mislead people, because he claimed that essentially the president followed mitt romney's advice which is absurd, because what the president's plan provided for was some public moneys some taxpayer dollars to help save the auto industry. that was the big problem. there were

red states, romney. blue, obama. then the pinkish, those are lean romney states.ht blue, lean obama. yellow states are tossup states within the margin of error. this is based on polls within the last 30 days. okay, karl. what has changed since last time we talked last week? >> well, we had 44 polls last week. 22 states. there were three changes in status. two benefiting president obama. new hampshire went from tossup to lean obama. new 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 a

romney has a 29% chance. and as of tonight, 7.7 million people have already voted and that includes the president who cast his own ballot today in chicago. we'll have much more on the early voting later on in the show. but we start with tonight's lead. mitt romney's mourdock mess. senate candidate richard mourdock's god intended rape comments are now threatening to undermine mitt romney's careful effort to appeal to voters as moderate mitt. desperate to hide the extreme republican positions on women's health, romney is just wishing and hoping this will all go away. but someone forgot to tell the press corps this morning in ohio. >> governor, do you wish senator mourdock would pull that ad? >> thank you. have a good day. >> you, too. >> that's me? >> have a great day. >> thank you. have a good day. but please don't ask be about god intending rape anymore. this is awkward for mitt romney after all at this hour romney's ad endorsing mourdock is still running in indiana and the campaign has no plans to pull suppo

the romney men are in tonight's rewrite with a very special word for taggert romney and his desire toch the president of the united states. my insurance rates are probably gonna double. but, dad, you've got... [ voice of dennis ] allstate. with accident forgiveness, they guarantee your rates won't go up just because of an accident. smart kid. [ voice of dennis ] indeed. are you in good hands? >>> i'm here today because i'm concerned about women's rights i don't have to tell you the dangers to row versus wade. >> yes, men take women's issues seriously too. in the spotlight tonight the war over women's votes. sharp tongued. this weekend romney cancelled his appearance on "the view" and left it to his wife ann. >> mitt romney has always been a pro-life person. when a decision came across. >> explain that to me. >> when a decision came across this desk to use embryos for experimentation, he could not have that on his conscience. >> both campaigns are airing new ads now on abortion right. >> you know, those adds saying mitt romney would ban all abortions and contraceptions seemed extreme.

he goes around saying that as if it was romney's intent. that's not romney's intent.omney god -- got to say the president is the one who's not telling the truth because he's implying that i would do that. >> a romney advisor last week said we have two goals. one is deficit reduction, one is tax cuts. if tax cuts get in the way, we'll do deficit reduction. gwen: there's another number. $716 million to deal with medicare but it's coming from different places and going to different places and therefore they find -- kind of ended up in a draw. >> for the president's health care plan, in order to fund it they assumed savings over 10 years of $716 billion for medicare. mitt romney called that a cut in medicare as if it was a cut in beneficiaries. it's meant to come from providers. however, what romney was saying is that if you take that much from providers, some of them are going to stop taking medicare parents. the trick for him is that paul ryan, his running mate, also assumed the same $716 billion. gwen: and i believe romney's answer to that was i'm the candidate. >> i'm

romney is saying he won't do.s saying he has all these specifics in terms of cutting deductions, finding ways of closing loopholes so that people would pay more and there wouldn't be this giant tax cut but he wouldn't say what that would be. this lack of detail sincere really a huge problem. that makes romney's claim incomplete. the president's claim false. you just can't assume the worst. the real problem, fundamentally, we just don't have the details of how this would work. we don't really know how to measure the statements of either man other than the way we have at this point. >> don't you wish someone would have pressed mitt romney on that issue last night? >> honestly, people have been pressing him on t the president tried to him press him on it last night. the romney people have consistently -- they've given a little bit more information on what they're going to talk about. for example, people are worried about the mortgage interest deduction on their taxes, whether or not that's one of the loopholes that r