romney was good. personal stories we 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 lo

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 you 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 guess 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 questi

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

romney. mr.cing 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 has released a state

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

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

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

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

>> welcome to romney world. this is the business plan that he has to put these people out of work and he says let's get tough on china? he's taking their jobs. they are training those chinese workers that are going to replace them. they've made -- romney, bain has made them, sensata has made them train those workers that are going to go over to china. you're right, ed. this is the central issue of this campaign. are we going to have romney world all across america? and by the way, they make auto parts. the reason they have made so much profit over at sensata is because barack obama saved the auto industry. mitt romney wanted it to go bankrupt. >> cheri, how do you build a campaign when things like this are happening in your district? >> this issue is central to our campaign. i'm running against, as you said, tea partier bobby schilling. let me give you an example of what he's done. there's a guy who's going to be on your show later today, tonight, tom gaulrapp. all he did was go to a town hall meeting, ask congr

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

i did not know romney was.will make a great comedianan-in-chief, which is one of the things we require in our presidentt obama has been extremely entertaining and al the dinners he has done, the white house correspondents ent, the way he to donald trump apart. it should have been illegal, it was so hilarious. >> see you next week. >> "inside washington" is brought you inin part by the american federation of government employees, prououd to make america work. for more information about afge and membership, visit afge.org.

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

romney. mr. romney being a different mr. romney than we've seen him for the last 18 months or the last section years. do you think even with the new hit romney that showed up last night when he starts talking about states' rights, when he starts talking about regulation or deregulation, when he starts saying he doesn't advocate $5 trillion tax cut when in fact the numbers prove that he does and has been advocating that, will that resonate with independent voters and/or undecided voters in your state of ohio? >> i don't think so. i think people realize that governor romney is still wrong on medicare and still wrong on trade and still wrong on jobs and still wrong on the middle class. i think that's increasingly clear. again it goes back to which path do you go. do you want to go back to the trickle down economics you give tax cuts to the rich and hope it helps the middle class or do you focus on the middle class and that's trait enforcement, it's i don't think training at community colleges like columbus state and sinclair. i

, 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

romney was wrong. governor romney has been wrong. no matter what he tries to do tonight, he's been wrong. when you're commander in chief you have to be steady. you don't get multiple choices to get it right. the president was strong. that was a commander in chief there. we thought governor romney was unsteady and fairly reckless in his language. >> how surprised were you at the new agreements that you got with governor romney tonight? afghanistan specifically. >> it's his fourth position. you can't trust him. he'll have a new position next week. this president has one position. he's going to end this war in 2014 in part because we've ses mated al qaeda. you look at governor romney you saw a politician not a commander in chief. i think that's going to worry people all across america. >> on what is the new afghanistan agreement between president obama and mitt romney, i want you to think about it as you're in a unique situation as having been a campaign techtition and work in the white house. with just looking at it tactically is it th

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

he was helped by romney. he was helped by romney for two reasons., 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 do

romney won the debate. last night romney was more skilled.doesn't change the policies. >> ezra, will the strategy work in the next two debates that heavy here? will this vague strategy work with foreign policy and the next debate beyond that? >> i think that the obama team is going to be more ready for what romney's able to bring to the debate than they were in this one. they'll be prepared for romney to walk in and tell his credentials. romney will change up his strategy. in general first debates are lopsided. the incumbent tends to recover a little bit in the second debate. whether we'll follow that trend line is anybody's guess. >> thank you, ezra. appreciate it. now to the third person on stage at the debates last night, you. yes, you didn't have a vocal response, but let me tell you, every moment people like you were chiming in. twitter reports today that it was the most tweeted event in u.s. politics generating over 10 million tweets in 90 minutes. perspective, that means just six years, but now some critics say that the twitter explosi

hello, romney's world. in romney's world you don't work for the television's workshop.ildren's television sweatshop. ha, ha ha. >> that's so sad to hear. what are you going to do for money, elmo? >> it will be very difficult for elmo. instead of tickle me elmo, elmo is going to have to tickle you. i will do that for $40. >> $20. >> i think you're done talking now. we're officially done talking now. >> jennifer: well, thank you all for joining us here

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

romney did? >> one of the things i think is clear if the president had performed like this in the first debate, mitt romney would never have been able to get back in the game the way that he did. but i'm not sure that the president's performance is enough to arrest mitt romney's momentum in the race. i think when mitt romney says we don't have to settle, the president said he would, but he didn't. implicit in all of the romney attacks is that things are going to be better when i, mitt romney, am president. and i think the president lacking a clear second term agenda that he's articulating is forced into a position where he is defending a status quo. i would say on the issue of energy, i give that to mitt romney, because in fact energy prices have again up and i think that's the bottom line. >> he was defining that as the bottom line. >> i think that -- i agree with chris that the argument gets complicated. i think on the issue of coal, you hear a message that is being aimed squarely into pennsylv

meanwhile, the romney campaign, or a romney family member has tried to take romney supporters out there forward 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'

here comes romney. he throws the softball up. >> romney: our navy is smaller now than any time since 1917. the navy said they needed 313 ships to carry out their mission. we're now at 285. we're headed down to the low 200s if we go through a sequestration. that's unacceptable to me. >> cenk: oh, really? yeah 1917. our navy is smaller. our navy is not as good. president obama take it away. >> obama: governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets because the nature of our military's changed. we have these things called aircraft carriers where planes land on them. we have the ships that go underwater nuclear submarines. >> cenk: oh! mitt, welcome to the middle of the ring. oh no! look what's happening! god, i love that line. that was my favorite line. actually, i think it was one of the best lines i've seen in a debate in a long time. romney makes the mistake of challenging president obama on israel. saying he hasn't gone there enough. here's his response. >> obama: when i went to israel as a candidate.

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

mitt romney was knee-deep in it.tar at a boston consulting group, bain & company, which had a great pitch. help businesses make money by cutting costs. >> by all accounts, mitt romney was very successful in advising companies how to improve their business operations. >> but soon romney's boss had a better idea. instead of just advising companies, why not buy them with investor money to generate huge profits. and bain capital was born. early partner jeffrey rennart. >> well, it was a lot of long hours, a lot of late nights and a lot of learning but a lot of success. >> so what kind of a leader was mitt romney during those early years? >> i would say in the early years mitt was a lead-by-example kind of leader. he -- you know, he dug in, you know, did analysis side by side with us. >> and it paid off. bain capital invested in more than 100 companies, nearly doubling its returns for clients annually. >> how you doing? >> romney made a lot of money, and he would later claim created a lot of jobs. but a former bank collea

mitt romney has the momentum. you got the sense that american people are so focused on the economy this cycle. foreign policy debates like this are not going to click. >> and the early part of the debate last night i thought mitt romney did fairly well. president obama dominated the better of the debate. i think he did emerge winning on debate points. >> david gurg insaid he thinks he passed an important test in this debate called the commander in chief test. >> cnn political reporter peter hammy says from 9:00 to 10:45 eastern last night, the top five rising searches on google were horses and bayonets, syria, molly, drones, and tumult. if you missed last night's debate including all the tumult, tune in to cnn noon eastern for an encore presentation. >> and president obama talking about the strength of our economy on his watch as commander in chief. >> and as a consequence, al qaeda's core leadership has been decimated. >> so is this true? we're going to go live to washington to get the real story. hmm, it says he

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