ron brownstein back with us. the editorial director at national january. richard socarides for newyorker.com. john berman sticking around with us. our get real this morning. parent teacher students at lyndon b johnson middle school in new mexico fired up over the flaming hot cheetos. the health teacher at the school sent a letter home to parents calling on a ban of that snack. she says flaming hot cheetos are a health hazard. they offer poor nutritional value. that is true. and the janitors are annoyed because they have to clean the messy red dust off the walls and every place else. one bag of cheetos contains 44 grams of fat, and 700 calories. i think that's with four servings. but of course i scarf the whole bag. exceeds the calorie minimums, blah, blah, blah. they've already been banned near chicago. they used to sell 150,000 bags a year now. now they're only selling baked cheetos. >> they sound delicious. >> they are delicious. i've had them. >> we should have had -- we should have had some cheetos -- >> no, because they're so bad for you i would not.

. >>> at the top of the hour, we'll have more debate preview with ron brownstein, cnn senior political> and special coverage of tonight's town hall presidential debate moderated by candy crowley begins at 7:00 eastern time right here on cnn. >>> the man who allegedly tormented canadian teen amanda todd before she took her life has reportedly been identified. canadian media reporting that the hacking and activist group posted a vancouver area name and address. todd took her own life after posing this chilling youtube video where she described being sexually exploited by a cyber bully. >>> the second of two female volunteers has washed out maf reen infantry officer training. the marine corps times reports a second lieutenant was dropped from the program for medical reasons. the other female officer dropped out last month after failing to complete an introductory endurance test. they were the first women to try to join the elite combat ranks. >> there will be others. >> yes, there will. >> targeted by the taliban just because she wanted an education. there is new hope this morning for a p

on "early start" we'll be joined by ron brownstein and be sure to keep it right on cnn. the third and this is the final debate, folk, it begins tonight at 7:00 eastern. >>> great discussion. 36 minutes after the hour right now. more political news, todd akin taking a lot of heat again this morning for comparing democratic incumbent claire mccaskill to a dog. akin was abandoned by his own party after those comments about legitimate rape. listen to what he said about mccaskill at a fund-raiser saturday in springfield, missouri. >> so she goes to washington, d.c. and it's a little bit like one of those dogs, you know, fetch, and she goes to washington, d.c. and gets all of these taxes and red cape and bureaucracy and executive orders and agencies and she brings all of this stuff and dumps it on us in missouri. >> now, since akin made the remark, no comment from mccaskill or the missouri republican. >>> political and religious leaders hold pretesters at bay in lebanon. he was killed on friday. protest tried to storm the prime minister office after denouncing it at the funera

ron brownstein.esterday there were reports that the administration is considering a moving toward direct negotiations with iran over its pursuit of nuclear weapons. do you think that would be -- >> the white house has denied that -- >> no, no, they denied that they've reached an agreement in principle but there's no question they seem to be discussing the possibility of -- of direct negotiations with iran. do you think that would be a good idea or a bad idea? and do you think mitt romney would pursue direct negotiations with iran if he is elected? >> the president's been saying this, he said this when he ran four years ago that he would open up negotiations with iran. four years later, under the president and the promises that he's made, iran is much closer to a nuclear weapon. they have four times as much enriched material as they had when he took office. the sanctions that we have basically forced upon the white house and the president has finally gone with, then they gave a lot of waivers. -- mone

ron brownstein. we'll talk to you again. thanks.anks. >>> u.s. golf fans are still numb this morning trying to figure out how the coveted ryder cup slipped away. this is one of the worst chokes i have ever seen, ever. call it the miracle at medinah, the american squad had an insurmount about 10-4 lead late saturday afternoon and end up on the wrong end of an epic, epic loss. honestly, began late saturday afternoon. starting sunday morning a long slide into niro bolivian. one of the worst choeshg wes have ever, ever seen. cnn had the misfortune of watching the whole thing. >> reporter: well, everyone pointed towards an american victory here in the 39th edition of the ryder cup. team usa, of course, had home advantage. they had players in fantastic form over the opening two days, and they had a seemingly insurmountable lead. 10-6 they led going into the final day's action but came up against a european team clearly inspired as they bull boze edozr way to win 8 1/2 points from a possible 12 to win. >> phil played great, tiger played gr

ron brownstein . and kellyanne conway.nk for the first time. >> yes. >> nice to have you with us. you all had a good weekend? >> kelly and i, we've been on tv together before. we've had quite the time. couple of fun times together. >> i'm glad i put you together this morning, then. >> "starting point" this morning, two days, can you believe it? two days till the first presidential debate. both sides have been working very hard to lower the expectations for exactly how they're going to do. seems like somebody forfwot got tell new jersey governor chris christie, he's been setting the bar pretty high. >> he's had a tough couple of weeks. i'm not going to come on here and sugar coat the last couple weeks. they've been tough. here's the great news for republicans p. we have a candidate who's going to do extraordinarily well on wednesday night. he's going to contrast his view with the president's record, the president's view for the future. this whole race is going to be turned upsidedown come thursday morning. wednesday night's

. >> ron brownstein is with me now. >> good morning. >> good morning.r this is a do-or-die debate. is it really? >> i don't think this single moment is, but certainly the has to reverse the narrative since that first debate. he seemed to be comfortably ahead moving into that debate. morning importantly, he had disqualified romney in the eyes of many voters, who somewhat dissatisfied with their own performance. i think it's a structural change in the race that isn't going away. the president has to reverse the themes working against romney and showing passion about what he would like to accomplish in a second term. >> so this debate is formatted sort of like oprah style for lack of a better term. that seems to favor obama over romney. am i right? >> yes and no. i think the president came out of that first debate with two distinct challenge, one of which i think is easier to achieve in a town debate and the other is orderer. one is that he has to frame romney as an out of touch rich guy. it's hard to be negative in a town hall debate because voters don't

. >> joining me now, cnn political analyst and editorial director of the washington journal, ron brownsteinod morning, ron. >> good morning from cleveland. >> ready to talk women? >> sure. women, cleveland, ohio, all of the above. >> women care more about things like birth control and abortion, so why do the democrats keep pounding away at those issues? are they right? >> like most things, lena dunham has done, it's extremely well done, charming and edgy in that unique combination but not something i'm sure you would do as a campaign if you were entirely comfortable with where you are. you know, to talk about women is very difficult. because women are not monolithic in how they vote. minority women are very strongly democratic. look at white women, women without a college education, blue collar white women and married women are more republican. single women and college educated women are more democratic. this is a sign of some concern about the level of engagement of younger, single women who tend to be very democratic when they vote. but getting them to vote is the key. >> i think that old

. >> we want to bring in ron brownstein the senior political analyst, editorial director for the nationalll week. you set the bar pretty high for the president. you said he had a lot to do last night to make up for the first debate. did he do it? >> i think as much as he could have done in one night. i'm pretty much with the poll. i did not think it was as one-sided as the first debate in denver was for governor romney but i thought president obama accomplished more of what he needed to accomplish at the debate last night. it was really interesting to watch, especially in the first third of the debate. each of them trying to move the race into the frame they want voters to see it through. you saw governor romney really returning almost every question to the same argument, do the past four years, the result of the past four years justify another four years? and you saw the president from that very first answer where he got in the auto bailout and the bain capital experience, the very last answer where he talked about the 47%, trying to move the race back into the frame that it was largely

i think that's his formula for getting to 270. >> ron brownstein, cnn political analyst.ining us. >> thank you. >> we appreciate it. >> always good to see ron. as the two candidates threw out a lot of numbers, figures and claims we're trying to keep them honest this morning as much as we can. on russia, president obama charged mitt romney said russia is our biggest foe. and romney defended himself. >> a few months ago when you were asked what's the biggest geopolitical threat facing america, you said russia. not al qaeda. you said russia. and the 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back. >> russia, i indicated, is a geopolitical foe. not -- excuse me. it's a geopolitical foe and i said in the same paragraph, i said, and iran is the greatest national security threat we face. >> so the facts, which all played out in a cnn interview with wolf blitzer are this. romney said that russia was one of our biggest threats. but he added, north korea and iran also when pressed by wolf blitzer. let's listen. >> this is to russia. this is without question our number on

ron brownstein the editorial director of national journal. republican congressman jason chaffetz from the great state of utah is back with us this morning. nice to have everybody with us. john berman sticking around. don't want to miss you there. >> thank you. >> this morning we're talking a little bit about the write-ups on the debate. and, and kind of like sports stories. i thought it was a much more aggressive debate than i had predicted. considering it was the town hall format. it was a tense night as the president and mitt romney duked it out in front of those uncommitted voters from nassau county in new york. here's a little chunk of it. >> the president's policies have been exercised over the last four years and they haven't put americans back to work. >> governor romney says he's got a five-point plan. governor romney doesn't have a five-point plan. he has a one-point plan. and that plan is to make sure that folks at the top play by a different set of rules. >> how much did you cut licenses and permits on federal land and federal wate

president obama really does -- ron brownstein a contributor has written brilliant analysis pointing the president needs to keep around 40% of the white vote and if he gets that plus 80% of the african-american and hispanic vote or more, then he's in good shape. the real larger problem i think is right now, in the two parties are so racially po particullari that doesn't bode well for the country in the future, that's something the president promised to do, something he didn't do in 2008, but with the electorate so polarized some of these are re-emerging with two weeks to go. >> john avalon live in florida, fresh off the cnn election express battleground bus tour, thank you, sir. look forward to you making it home safely. want to let you know statistics here. according to the national association latino elected and appointed officials, more than 12.2 million latino voters are expected to cast their ballot this election day. look down four years, that number was only 9.7 million who voted back in 2008. what if there was a new way to deal with money that focused less on fees and more... on

. >> according to the waitress moms as coined by ron brownstein. >> so the problem he's had since denver he's lost some of the advantage. so now you have a debate that is focused on women and it's focused on women who have particular kinds of economic concerns. the president before, the president's campaign thought, they could win and maintain their gender gap by focusing on the social component of contraceptive plan, they made a shift, you're right. they're not wrong on the substance of it but it's a political shift to try to take what our senate issues that have a social cast to them and also an economic component and refocus on the economic component. mitt romney's saying that's not what the women actually care. what they care about is jobs and gas prices because a lot of white working class women in the swing states got to get their kids to school and they don't like $4 gasoline. they're competing theories -- this is what this is about, though -- about competing theories how to win the narrow slice of voter whose are a disproportionate part of the swing. there are people for obama a

the strategy as ron brownstein would have it is -- right now, obama among white voters is 36 to 39%. that's a lot. that's a lot of money -- >> with undecideds sitting out there. >> mitt romney, we're looking at maybe 60% of the white vote for mitt romney and then 80% of all minorities for the president. >> yeah. >> talk to us in terms of the strategy and the long-term strategy for the republican party does not seem to be one of reaching out to all colors and all faces of these united states, but -- >> right. >> let's talk about this. >> the percentage of the white vote that the republicans need to win is just rising and rising every election cycle. right now it's at about reagan levels. romney needs to win the white vote by the same level that reagan won in his landslide election to win. we're close to that level. and that number will keep going higher and higher. that's why i think you're seeing the roster of swing states change. right. new mexico was won by bush in '04, contested in '08 and this time around the republicans are not contesting it. arizona is just out of reach for the

in a new article in the national journal ron brownstein writes with one key voting block noncollege educatedor as brown stein refers to them as waitress moms. through a targeted and sustained appeal to working women on display in obama ads like this one the incumbent has been particularly effective and brown stein's piece he writes democrats say blue collar women have been the principle and most receptive target for their extended ad barrage portraying romney as plutocrat. on airing these on dr. phil and judge judy the strategy seems to be paying off lifting obama's numbers among a group that tilts republicans in swing states that will be a key to victory in november. ask you about this, this late stage i call it a late -- i don't know what i called it a last stage gaps when going into the commercial break, but we've -- this has been something we've seen in the numbers for a while now, romney has a problem among latinos and women and in particular, you know, the latino demographics, 70/20 are terrible numbers. bill clinton got the highest percentage of the hispanic vote in '96, 72%. looks li

i mean, one of the things that steve gets at in terms of what ron brownstein has raised and that is one the things the pollsters are struggling with is the sort of racial composition of the electorate, what will it look like in terms of this election in contrast to 2008 and 2004 and so when people are looking at the polls that's one of the dynamics that pollsters are struggling with. >> david winston, steve mcmahon, thanks so much, guys, good to see you. have a good weekend. >>> also making news this weekend what we've been talking about the dangerous combination brewing out in the atlantic right now. hurricane sandy is moving north and soon she could combine with a nor'easter and that would create an even more powerful and damaging storm. weather channel meteorologist mike seidel joins me live from singer island, florida, what's the latest there? >> reporter: hey, good morning, chris. out here the beach is getting hit pretty hard. this was expected more of a coastal impact. a lot of wind erosion. let me show you the beach erosion before we get to where it's going and what kind of impac

. >> you know, the other thing that ron brownstein had a really interesting piece in "the national journalle weeks ago talking about waitress moms, white working-class women who the obama campaign has targeted specifically. and for them, issues that we tag as maybe social issues like women's reproductive concerns, paying for contraception coverage, these are economic issues for them. and in that way, it's been this sort of long-term planning on behalf of the obama team to find these voters and the issues that matter to them. but then you hear, you know, the story of donna who doesn't have health insurance, right? so the affordable care act, what does that mean to her, even? >> right. i think to hugo's point, this is why this is such a complicated election in terms of the messaging on both sides. when the president's campaign talks about the unemployment rate going down, it is hard to do that without sounding like you're, you know, cheering when the reality for a lot of people is not great. and so i think that has been a very difficult line for them to work. the reverse is true for mitt rom

. >> so let's bring in cnn senior political analyst ron brownstein to expound on these points. rector of the national journal. i didn't want to leech anything out. >> thanks, carol. >> is that guy right? >> look, we're talking about a race that is in the national polls dead even at 47%/47 shrs which is not a great number for an incumbent president. how does each side fit it into their larger strategy? for mitt romney, i think jon is right. job number one is reassuring people he's up to the job, that he's ready to be president. that's what he was able to do substantially on the economy in the first debate. that's the job on foreign policy here in the third debate, especially after that rocky trip this summer. i think for the president the question is can he fit the debate tonight again into his strategy in the end game, which seems to be very much foe kused on regaining strength among women that have moved away from him since that first debate. in the second debate he raised a lot of issues relating to women. i think tonight you will hear questioning about whether mitt romney is

. >> ron brownstein, thank you so much. >>> the debate is not just stressful for the candidates but also for their wives. both michelle obama and ann romney are talking about their role in the debates. first lady says she mostly offers positive reinforcement but does get nervous. >> i get so nervous at these debates and, you know, i'm like one of those parents watching their kid on the balance beam. you're just standing there, just trying not to, you know, have any expression at all. >> ann romney says she comforts her husband during the debates and he looks for her in the audience. she talked up one of mitt's traditions, too. >> the first thing he does when he gets on stage -- there are a few first things he does. he takes off his watch and put it is on the podium. but then he writes dad on a piece of paper. >> says her husband respects had his father and wants to make him proud. tonight's debate begins at 7:00 pm eastern. >>> our affiliate knov says flight 1862 left for dallas yesterday but had to return because of landing gear problems. passengers say people were crying when the fligh

. >> ron brownstein, thank you very much for your wise words of analysis. cnn will reair the presidential debate in case you didn't see it. it will reair the debate at 1:00 pm eastern. >>> a look at other stories we're watching this morning. developing situation in turkey, where the government has authorized troop deployment in foreign countries. that approval comes as turkey continues firing on syria in retaliation for shelling one of the border towns. syria apologizing now for that attack. five people were killed. >>> from baytown, texas, extinguished a blaze that wiped out an exxonmobil plant. the fire is still under investigation here, no one was injured. >>> 79% of teachers in chicago have approve d a new contract, the highest approval rating in teachers union history. the deal was reached after a seven-day strike last month, which impacted the nation's thrp third largest school system. >>> turning now to sports and baseball and something that has not been seen in 45 years. detroit tigers miguel cabrera has won the american league triple crown. cabrera

ron brownstein is the editorial director for the national journal. let's start with substance. there's been a lot of talk about style. i want you to listen to how each of the men handled the issue of libya, something that's in the news right now, and that deadly attack on the u.s. consulate. listen. >> this is becoming more troubling by the day. they first blamed the youtube video. now they're trying to blame the romney/ryan ticket for making this an issue. >> we weren't told they wanted more security. we did not know they wanted more security again. and, by the way, at the time, we were told exactly -- we said exactly what the intelligence community told us, that they knew. >> jessica, this is an issue that the white house and the campaign are going to have to deal with now through november and beyond. and a lot of people were paying attention to what joe biden had to say and many people said, you know what? he didn't really score so well there. >> reporter: well, on that case, yeah, he seemed to put the blame on the intelligence community quite squarely. he did not seem uncer

let's get right to ron brownstein, senior political analyst, editorial director of national journal.ou have all said this will hinge, for the president at least, would you know key group of voters. who are those voters? >> i think he's focused on women voters at the end. if you look the his numbers among white men, they are some of the lowest we've seen on a presidential candidate since walter mondale since 1984. mitt romney's goal right from that very first answer, when he said we can't kill our way out of this problem, was to reassure women voters. this was a debate, much more for him, about reassurance than contrast. he kind of renounced a lot of positions he took during the primary. the president, clearly, from that second dough bait on is focus ond blue collar women in the midwest, in particular. and to a greater extent, white collar, more social, liberal wom women. >> an attempt to shift from foreign policy, which was the topic of the debate, to talk about domestic policy. >> sure. >> obviously, jobs, but trying to move whatever the topic was to sort of more what's happening at

. >> we asked cnn political analyst ron brownstein the best advice he's ever received.er. and one was, you can sleep when you're dead. the best thing ever was, don't cry over anything that can't cry over you. best words to live by. >> don't cry over anything that can't cry over you. >> oh, brilliant! >> i'll be thinking about that one for six hours, trying to figure it out. that is all for "early start." i'm john berman. >> i'm zoraida sambolin. "starting point" with soledad o'brien starts right now. >>> welcome, everybody. our starting point this morning, terror plot foiled. he wanted to, quote, destroy america, blow up the federal reservnk

. >> we asked cnn political analyst ron brownstein the best advice he's ever received.er. and one was, you can sleep when you're dead. the best thing ever was, don't cry over anything that can't cry over you. best words to live by. >> don't cry over anything that can't cry over you. >> oh, brilliant! >> i'll be thinking about that one for six hours, trying to figure it out. that is all for "early start." i'm john berman. >> i'm zoraida sambolin. "starting point" with soledad o'brien starts right now. >>> welcome, everybody. our starting point this morning, terror plot foiled. he wanted to, quote, destroy america, blow up the federal reserve bank with a 1,000-pound bomb. some new details this morning about the busted wannabe terrorist and brazen plan. >>> also, mitt romney's binders full of women comment. it's kind of taken on a life of its own. how accurate was the statement about hiring women? will that hurt him or help him with the female vote? >>> also, a new face. the incredible reconstructive surgery that's given this man a second chance at life. you won't believe

there are polls in ohio and in wisconsin and iowa that ron brownstein has written about that suggests that as i feared, six months ago, that blue collar white vote that needs to be turned out by romney overwhelmingly to win is actually not doing that. that in all three of these midwestern states, they are not responding to the romney message that would be consistent with the idea that a choice between a populist incumbant who has had a so-so record, and a business executive who seems to use the obama description, out of touch with middle class and working class aspirations. that enough of them will either stay home or will support the president to fuel a narrow victory. one glimmer of opportunity for the romney campaign, and that is that by very small margin, ohio continues to have a higher percentage of undecided voters in other swing states. it's about average six and a half percent compared to about four, 4.5% of swing states. there are still people who have not made up their mind, and that suggests that if romney can cut the gap within the next week or so to about a point, and may

. >> my "national journal" collie, ron brownstein who is one of the brightest people around, he went through a lot of data in recent weeks and points to non-college-educated white women as a group that has moved some in the last couple of weeks. i know non-college-educated white men are kind of a no-fly zone for the president but the women were more up grabs and they have moved more. have you noticed anything like that or is that a metric you are looking at? >> it is. i think that everyone talks about the women voters. there are a number of facts. number one is look, john mccain won white women by seven points. that is not enough to win, given what republicans have to win white voters by overall. but, when you look at white women voters, there are groups that are more likely to vote republican and those include white women without college degrees, women who are married and then particularly women who have children. the difference is between white women who are married and white women who are single, whether it be you know, they are not married and they are widowed or they are divorce

. >> i'm sure, jim, thank you very much pch john now by ron brownstein.bounce. >> they have not had a bigot impact on the race. -- so, but you know, i think this debate was kind of interesting and potentially important for both sides. certainly democrats needed something to give them a sense of renewed momentum and energy, and paul ryan i thought held his own, bideen did well, and ryan held his own as well. he was much more confident to me. he looked shaky there at the beginning. they also have the impact, i think, of tabling issues we may hear more about. >> they both energized their bases and turn out. the polls have shown a tightening since the first debate and they're still tight. >> i think the first debate changed the race in a fundamental way. >> enough to call it a game changer. >> it doesn't mean that romney is going to win the race. >> i think a very specific reason. president obama had a kind of margin of comfort in this race. based on voter who is are somewhat dissatisfied with him over the first term, but simply did not view machinery has a v