president, you go first. >> thank you very much, jim, for this opportunity. i want to thank governor romney and the university of denver for your hospitality, a lot of points i want to make tonight, but the most important one is that 20 years ago, became the luckiest man on earth because michelle obama agreed to marry me. i want to wish you happy anniversary, and a year from now, we won't celebrate it in front of 40 million people. four years ago, we went through the worst financial crisis since the great depression. millions of jobs were lost, the auto industry was on the brink of collapse the financial system had frozen up, and because of theo resilience and determinatin of the american people, we've begun to fight our way back. over the last 30 months, we've seen 5 million jobs in the private sector created. the auto industry has come roaring back and housing has begun to rise. but we all know that we still have a lot of work to do. and so the question here tonight is not where we've been, but where we're going. governor romney has a perspective that says

candy. >> thanks, jim. before i toss it back to you, anderson, i'm reminded of a quick conversation i had with george bush when he first ran for president in the year 2000. had a reputation of being a really mean guy. and i asked him, and he said i got that reputation when i was defending my dad during his re-election campaign. so much easier to run than to watch someone love run. i think the pressure tonight certainly on these two men who want to be president, but there might be more pressure on first lady michelle obama and, of course, ann romney as they watch their husbands tonight. anderson. >> really interesting. we're hearing from both women tonight. cnn exclusive, brand new interviews with michelle obama and ann romney, opening up about debate preparations and the pressure on their husbands, first, interview with ann romney, her family calls her the mitt stabilizers, gloria borgeer asked her if that is the role she's playing leading up to tonight's debate. >> absolutely. i feel like that's my role fo

jim acosta standing by. jessica yellin. to you, have you senator rob portman, the individual who helped mitt romney, played the president of the united states in the debate preparation sessions. >> that's right. senator rob portman from ohio is with me. have you been prepping mitt romney for the past several weeks. what is your assessment of the night? did the preparation pay off? >> jim, a terrific night for mitt romney. for the undecided voter in ohio, they were looking for two things, one, a discussion about the record of the last four years, and why we can't afford it for the next four. and most importantly, talked about his own policies and set the record straight on some of the misleading ads that the obama campaign has put out about his tax plan, budget plan, health care plan, so on. he did exactly what he had to do for undecided voters, really pleased with his performance. >> what about the line from the president that mitt romney has not offered enough specifics? and if the specifics were so great, he would be reve

thank you, jim. >> thank you, mr. president. the next debate, the vice presidential event on thursday, october 11th at center college in danville, kentucky. for now, from the university of denver, i'm jim lehrer, thank you, and g

thank you, jim. >> thank you, governor, thank

voter fraud. >> jim greer, you know him. >> i do. >> all right. this is your former republican state chairman who says there was never any voter fraud. what's your response to that? >> i'm not real interested in a lot anything that jim greer has to say right now. >> he was your state chairman. >> and he was removed for his credibility issues. >> jim greer is under indictment on charges of stealing money from the state party, which he denies and he's suing the party for back pay. >> mr. greer is an angry offended man who's lashing out at anybody and everybody he can right now. >> is it revenge? >> no, it's not revenge. >> is it retaliation. >> it's not retaliation. it's trying to make the republican party a better party and the republican party is trying to tinker with and change the voting laws so that they can keep winning elections at all costs. >> the picture he paints is after 2008, there was real concern, almost an obsession with the number of people who turned out to vote for the democrats and a conclusion that something had to be done. >> i

jim crowe. >> i said to myself, something got to be done. >> we needed to integrate the public school system. >> i'm reading from the united states district court, the official papers brought about integration of the school system of florida. >> my dad probably knocked on 500 doors of parents, trying to persuade them to allow their kids to go to the all-white school. >> and any parents said, too dangerous. >> and something said to me, you got two children in the school system. use one of your own children. >> i decided to go to the all-white school. >> the fbi came to the house. they said it was the most dangerous thing that you can do. are you exactly sure that you want to do this? and i said, yes. >> when i first came in the class, i sat in that seat. everybody in the entire class got up and went to the other side of the room. and the teacher asked why are you standing? and on one of the students says, i would rather stand than sit by a nigger. it was not a day i did not get spit on or a day i didn't get cursed. this particular day, i went up to this young man to tell him a message

piling on jim lehrer. >>> jim lehrer moderated his 12th debate but never more was there a stinging criticism that followed him in denver when he struggled to keep control of the proceedings. >> governor romney do you have a question you want to ask the president. >> the president began the last segment so i think i get the last world. >> you eagle the first word in the next segment. >> let's. >> no, let's not. let's let him respond to this specific on dodd frank and what the governor just said. >> now, the last point i'd make. >> two minutes, two minutes is up. >> no, i think -- i had five seconds before you interrupted me, wu. >> terry smith. you work with jim lehrer, you know his style. what's your take on whether he lost control of that debate? >> well, you could say that. first of all jim is a friend and a colleague. i like that very much. he's a big boy. he can take the criticism. nighttime worried about him. i would say, more important than, that this was a new format, extmely complex format with six 15-minute segmented and two minutes at the top and it places a lot of time-keeping bur

this is a very, very tight race, jim. >> it is a tight race. but there has never been a case of voter fraud prosecuted. there's not this surge of folks marching to the polls with invalid identification or not this massive conspiracy that this governor and this administration would have you believe. it's simply not the case. when you look at the demographic of those in pennsylvania who would be affected by this legislation, 85%, 90% of that demographic are democratic voters or those who, through polling, strongly support this president. the republican leader admitted what the purpose of the legislation was all about. while we were pleased that the judge granted the injunction, pennsylvanians do not have to show voter i.d. we were disappointed that he left -- >> let me just jump in here because very, very quickly. we want to get ron's reaction who was caught on tape saying this in june. >> voter i.d., which is going to allow governor romney to win the state of pennsylvania, done. >> so, ron, how do you address those allegations? what do you say?

and special thanks also to karen and jim. jim who got this going, who figured out how to design a pump that the world now considers the world's standard. thank you, jim, for your great work. stand up so people know who you are. stand up. oh, everyone else is standing up. thank you. for those that are -- now, i'm hardly an expert on compressors, but for those who don't know what jim did, he designed -- he didn't just manufacture these pumps from someone else's drawings, he designed the technology, made the technology work that creates the pumps that are still that is are still being used today and that are that world standard and built this enterprise and, in fact, jim, you and your family and these people who are sitting around us, you did build it. this was not not by government. thank you, jim. now, karen is around here somewhere. where did she go? right there in the center. she's running the operation now. learn from her mom and dad and is running this business masterfully well. congratulations. i appreciate your comments

there were also some questions about the moderator jim lehrer. watch this. >> governor romney do you have a question you would like to ask the directly. >> the president began the segment so i think i get the last word. >> you get the first word in the next segment. >> is there a specific -- >> let me mention the other one -- >> no, let's not. >> before. >> two minutes is up, sir. >> i had five seconds before you interrupted me was -- >> i sometimes wondered if we even needed a moderator ba we had mitt romney. we should rethink that for the next debate. >> joining us now two journalists from the website daily download.com. he said this in defending himself. let me start with you. he said, part of my moderator mission was to stay out of the way of the flow and i had no problems with doing so. my only real personal frustration was discovering was not enough time in that more open format to cover every issue that deserved attention. what do you think of the criticism he's been getting. >> let's just talk about what was on twitter. that let's not com

jim acosta for us this morning, thank you, jim. >>> a recent poll shows president obama has a seven percentage point lead over mitt romney when it comes to who would handle foreign policy better. let's get to richard williamson, former ambassador to the united nations for special political affairs. mitt romney's senior foreign policy adviser. nice to see you, sir. thank you for talking with us. let's focus on some -- actually what jim acosta just said. let's talk about tha first. as you heard there was a phone call with some of the foreign policy advisers. and when they listed sort of the foreign policy that maybe mitt romney would be, i guess, fashioning his own after they listed as jim acosta just told me wen kennedy, truman, clinton. is that an indication of moving to the center for somebody like governor romney? >> first, thanks very much for letting me be here. today the governor's going to lay out a clear contrast between his views on foreign policy and national security and those of barack obama. and there's two elements that really deserve emphasis. one, president obama has tended to b

jim, i'm sorry, i had stop the subsidy to pbs. i love big bird, like you too. but i won't keep on spending money to borrow money from china to pay for. i'll take programs that are currently good programs but could be run more efficiently at the state level and send them to state. and make government more efficient, cut back the number of employees, combine agencies and departments, cutbacks done through attrition by the way. this is the approach we have to take to get america to the balancedbudget. >> i put forth a budget plan, it's on a website, you can look at the numbers. the way we do it $2.50 for every cut, we ask for $1 of additional revenue, paid for as i indicated earlier by asking those of us who have done very well in this country to contribute a little bit more to reduce the deficit. governor romney earlier mentioned how the bowles-simpson commission. that's a bipartisan commission that talked about how we should move forward suggested we have to do it. in a balanced way with some revenue and some spending cuts. and this is a major difference that go

at the waldorf astoria hotel is jim acosta. jim, i thought romney delivered his lines pretty well. he is obviously not a stand-up comedian. you don't even hear him cracking a lot of jokes. tonight, i thought he did well. >> reporter: from my vantage point, i think he did pretty well, too, wolf. this was about the best seat i could get this evening to watch the festivities. the car exhaust is making the jokes even funnier, if you don't mind me adding that. picking up on what you were talking about a few moments ago, the zingers were flying. governor romney did throw a few in the directions of the president and the vice president, perhaps a little more so than the president directed at mitt romney. i thought that was interesting. they were sort of in line with his stump speech. he talked about those jobs numbers and the president's reaction to the jobs numbers meaning that you are better off now than you were four weeks ago. he did a big bird rif and talked about how the sesame street letter for the president is "o" and the number is 16 trillion. sort of a dig at the president on the

set the stage for us, jim. what are we about to see? >> reporter: the alfred smith dinner, we are told that speech will begin at 9:05. he gets to go first. the president gets to go second. as you've noted and as we've been reported, this is typically a light-hearted affair. we have been reporting all day long that the gop nominee was in debate prep for most of the day. i should report that i did hear from a senior romney adviser that said that mitt romney also worked on this speech for this evening. it was serious business earlier today when he was working on his material for later on this ink. wolf, keep in mind, i have noticed out on the campaign trail following mitt romney, the candidate does have a sense of humor. sometimes the jokes may come across unintentionally. he does have the occasion where he does intentionally tell some jokes and shares his humor. it goes over very well. we were here on september 25th when he spoke in front of the clinton global initiative. after bill clinton introduced him, he said he was waiting for the c

we'll see that effort in action next week, anderson. >> jim, gloria, jessica, thanks. let us know what you think. follow me on twitter. let's tweet about what you just heard. do you believe the polls, particularly in ohio? >>> keeping them honest now, a pair of romney campaign ads bend the truth, frankly. both come from the romney campaign and both repeat distortions and outright everyone in the nicu, all the nurses wanted to watch him when he was there 118 days. everything that you thought was important to you changes in light of having a child that needs you every moment. i wouldn't trade him for the world. who matters most to you says the most about you. massmutual is owned by our policyholders so they matter most to us. if you're caring for a child with special needs, our innovative special care program offers strategies that can help. >>> keeping them honest now, a pair of romney campaign ads bend the truth, frankly. both come from the romney campaign and both repeat distortions and outright falsehoods that have been debunked time and time again. here's one titled

jim acosta has senator rob portman with him. he played the president in all of mitt romney's dress rehears l rehearsals as well. go ahead. >> that's right, wolf. i want to pick up on what senator kerry was saying a few moments ago to our jessica yellin. he says tonight's the night mitt romney's campaign started unraveli unraveling, is your take? >> no, it is not unraveling at all. what's unraveling is the president's policies. it's not even just middle east, syria, egypt, iran four years closer to getting a bomb. what's happening in the middle east is not necessarily successful. i can't do a better job than mitt romney on domestic policy. why will it be better for me in the next four years? mitt romney had a perfect response. this is what happened. a devastating critique, and he said what is the president offering? more of the same. instead, mitt romney offered a pro growth economic agenda. >> the president was much more aggressive tonight, much more than the first debate. did you prepare him enough, governor romney, for that co

thank you, jim. i just want to sort of reiterate what jim said. come behind me if you can show this. i want to show our viewers. this is how we do it, right? to the right here on this side, this is my rundown so i sort of know what's going on and i kind of go by that wherever it takes me. on this side, these are the advisory wires. this advisory wire is saying what jim is saying. president obama has -- let's move down here. president obama declared a state of emergency for the commonwealth of massachusetts. then it says the president on monday will return to the white house following an event in orlando, florida, to monitor hurricane sandy. that's according to a release from the white house. this is all just coming in. as we look here, the metro in washington, d.c., closed on monday due to hurricane sandy. unclear when the service will be restored. that's according to the transit authorities. they don't know in a city as big as washington, d.c., when they're going to get their mass transit back up. a lot of people don't even have cars. so there's

our national political correspondent jim acosta is on the ground in cincinnati. he's following mitt romney's campaign. so, give me a bit of the game plan. we've seen the geography for the game plan but the strategy game plan for ohio today? >> ashleigh, i think you laid it out well there in the run up to this report. i have to tell you, mitt romney is going to be going across this battleground state with a vengeance today. he has ground to make up with president obama with respect to the swing state. the latest "time" magazine poll that came out yesterday showed the president ahead of mitt romney by 5 percentage points. our cnn polling of polls has a smaller advantage for president obama by three points but as you said, he has to win this state to i guess join the long list of republican candidates who went on to the white house. they've won ohio. he has to do that if he wants to follow that trend. there are other ways to get here if he doesn't win the state. he's going to be talking about the economy, of course. we've been hearing that over the last couple days

and our next guest calls this part of the new jim crow, the new jim crow law, that have left millions of people, especially minorities, out of the electoral process. michelle alexander is a professor at the ohio state university and the author of "the new jim crow: mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness." this is my book, it's dog eared, i think this is a must-read, everyone should be required to read this book. thank you for coming on and thank you for writing this book. >> well, thank you. >> you talk about how many minorities find themselves in the same position as their grandparents, deprived of their civil rights. who do you blame for the situation or what do you blame? >> well, it has been a bipartisan adventure. the war on drugs and the get-tough movement is responsible for millions of people being swept into our nation's prisons and jails. people are swept in, typically at young ages, often before they're old enough to vote, swept in for relatively minor crimes, typically. nonviolent, drug-related offenses, swept in, then branded criminals and felons, and then release

>> hey, do i sound like jim lehrer? >> no. >> no. >> and do i look like jim lehrer? >> no. >> no, you don't. >> that's almost as good as the real thing. more tops at the top of the story when "cnn sunday morning" continues but first sanjay gupta m.d. begins right now. >>> hey, there, and thanks for joining us. i'm back home after spending most of this past week chasing down answers in that meningitis outbreak. over there, that's the necc, the compounding facility. back here, it's a repsycycling facility, eventually a dump. you'll see what else i uncovered. >>> next, sugar. we talk about it all the time. puts the polar bears of coke under the knife. it's a cartoon but pretty graphic stuff. >>> and hormone replacement therapy. this issue confuses women more than any other. i have an important answer based understood a new study. >>> but we begin with the meningitis outbreak under a microscope. the plot thickens on the deadly and growing meningitis outbreak that's affecting so much of the country. contaminated ichb jekzs of 14,000 people in 23 states they may have recei

jim acosta is on the campaign trail in ohio. so is jessica yellin. chief political analyst gloria borger joins us as well. president obama's campaign could not like these numbers. the campaign manager told reporters today we should ignore national polls, but these are state polls we're looking at. romney has either closed the gap or is ahead. what do they make of that? >> anderson, i can feel you smile when i tell you this but they say they don't look at public polls at all either now. one advisor told me that they are -- there are so many polls out there that they have a broken clock effect now. they are right twice a day. another told me there are so many public polls out there, soon there will be an outback steakhouse poll. look, the bottom line is what they are paying attention to, they say, i'm just reporting here, is they pay attention to their internal polling. those are the polls that the campaign conducts because, and they tend to be much more accurate to be truthful, than the public polls because they spend so much money and time on them. t

back to you, wolf. >> let's go to jim acosta. he has a guest, as well. jim? >> that's right. i'm with senator john thune from south dakota. senator served with joe biden in the senate and paul ryan in the house that. means you can handicap both of them tonight. >> it will be an interesting debate. joe biden is a very colorful guy. of course, paul ryan always does his homework. when he came to the house of representatives, he immersed himself into the details of policy. he will be very well prepared. what i hope to see tonight is just the clear contrast that exists in terms of the go visions for this country. that will come out clearly tonight, because they will be able to mix it up when it comes to the big policy issues. i know paul ryan and governor romney want this election to be about big things. i hope we have an opportunity to debate some of those, because the country has some large challenges ahead of us. >> senator, joe biden has made it sound as if he's going to get in there and it might be scrappy with joe biden and paul ryan. do you think paul ryan is ready for that

acosta in boston, jim, thank you. want to continue sort of part of the point jim was making, we promised we would take you it the scene of tomorrow night's debate. candy crowley will host the thing. paul steinhauser, to you, our political editor there in hempstead, new york, on the campus of hofstra university. and, paul, let's start at the beginning in terms of the rules, the format of the town hall. from what i understand, this is the very same kind of format as we have seen in town halls past. is that correct? >> reporter: it sure is. here is the deal. you have the two candidates in there, you're going to have candy crowley, the moderator, obviously. you're also going to have about 80 people in the audience, the town hall part of the audience. and these 80 people are all undecided voters, chosen by gallup and they'll ask questions. we'll see about 12 to 15 questions from the audience members. that's kind of how it is going to work. the key here, brooke, is less about scoring points against your opponent, romney ver

we'll see that effort in action next week, anderson. >> jim, gloria, jessica, thanks. let us know what you think. follow me on twitter. let's tweet about what you just heard. do you believe the polls, particularly in ohio? [ woman ] ring. ring. progresso. your soups are so awesomely delicious my husband and i can't stop eating 'em! what's...that... on your head? can curlers! tomato basil, potato with bacon... we've got a lot of empty cans. [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup. since ameriprise financial was founded back in 1894, they've been committed to putting clients first. helping generations through tough times. good times. never taking a bailout. there when you need them. helping millions of americans over the centuries. the strength of a global financial leader. the heart of a one-to-one relationship. together for your future. ♪ hand-carved on the side of a cliff is the guoliang tunnel. what?! you've got to be kidding me. [ derek ] i've never seen a road like this. there's jagged rock all the way around. this is really gonna test the ats on

we'll see that effort in action next week, anderson. >> jim, gloria, jessica, thanks. let us know what you think. follow me on twitter. let's tweet about what you just heard. do you believe the polls, particularly in ohio? >>> keeping them honest tonight, romney campaign claims they keep coming back along with the same questions about how they stand up to the facts. [ female announcer ] research suggests cell health plays a key role throughout our lives. one a day women's 50+ is a complete multivitamin designed for women's health concerns as we age. it has more of 7 antioxidants to support cell health. one a day 50+. to support cell health. dad vo: ok, time for bed, kiddo. lights out. ♪ (sirens) (train horn) ♪ vo: wherever our trains go, the economy comes to life. norfolk southern. one line, infinite possibilities. >>> keeping them honest now, a pair of romney campaign ads bend the truth, frankly. both come from the romney campaign and both repeat distortions and outright falsehoods that have been debunked time and time again. here's one titled apology tour. >> the

to understand exactly what happened. >> reporter: but back in the spin room, obama campaign manager jim messina said it was ryan who proved who was unprepared. >> he got past paul ryan's index talking card points and got to the details. >> reporter: romney will spend part of his weekend campaigning against ohio and the other in campaign prep. they agree the vice presidential debate didn't change the very much, it may have set a combative new tone for the next faceoff between romney and president obama on tuesday. >> jim, thanks. >>> let's get back to libya for a moment. it's become a focal point for the ryan/romney campaign. darrell issa was on "real time with bill maher" last night and he did not know about requests for more security. >> when vice president biden says, we didn't know about their need for more security in libya, he's only talking about the president and the vice president because, as it turns out, he doesn't hear what his own people say at the state department and all up and down sworn testimony. >> issa is the chairman of the house overnight committee that is investiga

jim accoosta following the romn campaign. so, jim, what's the strategy there? >> reporter: well, fredricka, you can say that mitt romney has a swing state campaign blitz of his own going on right now. not quite as intense as the president who is going to be basically pulling an all nighter this week, but mitt romney will be traveling from where we are in nevada today to iowa and then to ohio later on tonight and then back to iowa, then back to ohio and then on to florida and virginia. so basically what is going on, fredricka, this race is so tight, and because none of these states can be taken for granted, that you have both of these campaigns furiously just trying to line up the states that they need in order to get to that magic number of 270 electoral votes. and i can tell you that just talking to a republican campaign operative here in nevada, that, you know, it is unlikely that either one of these candidates will win both colorado and nevada. that that's not really what a lot of campaign experts think at this point, but obviously they're going to try their

jim acosta in the spin room, as well, a different location. where are you, jim? >> that's right, wolf. i'm also in the spin room, same room brianna is in, but different vantage point. wanted to show this wide view of what's going on in here right now. and wolf, i have to tell you, if this debate were a washing machine, it would have two spin cycles, one before the debate, one after the debate. and what's been notable so far, wolf, we've seen more democratic surrogates coming into this spin room than republican surrogates before the debate. we got caught up with john kerry, the massachusetts senator, who is involved in these debates eight years ago. about an hour ago, a huge gaggle of reporters gathered around him, and he was tearing into mitt romney's record in massachusetts, calling it a charade. when mitt romney talks about bipartisanship during his days as governor of massachusetts, wolf, he also got into the subject of libya, and hillary clinton's comments yesterday, that she takes responsibility for what happened in benghazi. i asked john kerry, i said, "doe

day go, jim? >> the news came just as the romney campaign felt the election was shifting in it's direction based on the debate performance. i talked to a romney advisor that said they are still focused on the economy, even if one of their favorite lines of attack is now "out of a job." >> campaigning in virginia coal country, mitt romney tried to dig through the latest jobs numbs to make the case president obama has not hit pay dirt just yet. >> there were fewer new jobs created this month than last month, and the unemployment rate as you noted has come down very, very slowly. the reason it's come down is primarily due to the fact that more and more people have just stopped looking for work. >> still, one of romney's key metices went up in smoke one the nation's unemployment rate dealershiped bel dipped below 8%. >> unemployment of 8% month after month after month. >> it's a political bar romney has repeatedly used for months. >> we had 43 straight months with unemployment above 8%. if i'm preside

hey, there, jim. >> hi, kate, yes. you can tell that the romney campaign is in the mood to celebrate. this rally that they're about to have in virginia is starting to sound like a party. trace adkins the country music star will be out on stage to warm up this crowd for the gop ticket. but today was really the debate after the debate. i don't remember why mitt romney did so well against president obama, but whether or not the gop nominee's words were accurate. mitt romney took his victory lap after the first presidential debate receiving a sustained standing ovation during a surprise visit to a conference of conservatives in denver. >> i saw the president's vision as trickle down government. and i don't think that's what america believes in. i see, instead, a prosperity that comes through freedom. >> reporter: it didn't take long after the debate was finished for the romney campaign to turn the spin room into the win room. are you declaring victory? >> jim, if this was a boxing match, the referee would have called it. >

jim acosta, jim, thanks for me there in denver. and we showed you mitt romney, that clip and that pretty contentious debate from late last year. for the president, though, you have to reach back to 2008 to get a hint of his debate demeanor. check this out with me. first, with hillary clinton at the time obama's rival for the democratic nomination for president. >> set of assertions made by senator clinton as well as her husband that are not factually accurate. and -- >> you like to pretend like the war started in 2007. you talk about the surge, the war started in 2003. and the -- and at the time, when the war started, you said it was going to be quick and easy you said you knew where the weapons of mass destruction were, you were wrong. >> so that was a little taste for you on how the president goes into attack mode. jessica yellin, chief white house correspondent, also out there in denver for us. there is all this talk about, you know, what romney's challenge is going into tonight's debate. but what about the president? what about

i mentioned this to jim. in case you didn't hear me, those personal attributes, likability, strength, mitt romney really surged. it's just two men in this case on that stage. what could the president have done to avoid the outcome that ended up happening? >> well, you know, in terms of mitt romney surging, just remember how much of a deficit he had to make up. i mean, he was in some cases double digits behind the president and all those attributes and the president is still leading on them. we expected an aggressive debater to show up last night on the debate stage with barack obama. we didn't expect an aggressively dishonest debater to show up. that's what we got in mitt romney. what could the president have done differently? of course, we'll recalibrate a recalculate based on the mitt romney that showed up last night. we've got two more debates left. now we know what we're dealing with. we know that mitt romney will, in a split second, walk away from the central policy of his entire economic plan because he

. >> i'm sorry, jim. i'm going to stop this subsidy to pbs. i'm going to stop other things, and i like pbs. i love big bird. i actually like you too. >> one of the most surprising parts of the president's performance was what he did not say. no mention of romney's infamous 47% remark, no talk about bain capital, nothing about romney's own taxes. he did play the romney is a hypocrite card when it comes to health care. >> the irony is that we've seen this model work really well in massachusetts because governor romney did a good thing working with democrats in the state to set up what is essentially the identical model and as a consequence people are covered there. it hasn't destroyed jobs. >> romney, who ran from his massachusetts health care plan during the gop primaries, now used it to tag to the middle for the general election. >> i like the way we did it in massachusetts. i like the fact that in 3450i my state we had republicans and democrats come together and work together. what you did instead was to push through a plan without a single r

and jim. thank you so much, governor norquist. >> good luck on tuesday. >> thank you. >>> up next, advice for the moderator of the next debate. [ man ] in hong kong, on my way to the board meeting... anne's tablet called my phone. anne's tablet was chatting with a tablet in sydney... a desktop in zurich... and a telepresence room in brazil. the secure cloud helped us get some numbers from my assistant's pc in new york. and before i reached the top, the board meeting became a congrats we sold the company party. wait til my wife's phone hears about this. [ cellphone vibrating ] [ female announcer ] with cisco at the center, working together has never worked so well. [ female announcer ] with cisco at the center, one is for a clean, wedomestic energy future that puts us in control. our abundant natural gas is already saving us money, producing cleaner electricity, putting us to work here in america and supporting wind and solar. though all energy development comes with some risk, we're committed

jim, you cover governor romney. a lot of us that have heard president obama's humor before, governor romney's not so much. got some good lines in there. do you think tonight would help him with likability numbers? do they look at this? >> i think so. i think the headlines tomorrow, might be governor romney, what about your laughs? he some good zingers. i talked to a senior romney adviser who said in addition to doing debate prep, he was working on his material for tonight and he clearly brought his "a" game. anderson this sis a window into mitt romney. he's a hyper competitive individual. he had to know that the president was so well received, because little president does pretty well at white house correspondent dinners, that he needed to bring some good material tonight and he did just that. >> president obama approached the night a little differently. jessica, out to you. >> well, he's -- you know, he uses self-deprecating humor as one of his not secret weapons. he's good at these dinners, the white house corresp

jim lehre is a professional. he was nice, considering the participatants did not follow the time limit rules. he was supposed to be a moderator and he wound up like a replacement referee. romney took command of the debate like a real president should. from jacob. lehrer was week. i was sick of seeing mitt forcing his last two cents or even interrupting the president. and this from lisa. not fair at a. keep the conversation going. the next hour of "cnn newsroom" starts now. which presidential candidate is enjoying a big bounce on the campaign trail today? >>> bizarre debate moments. the blinking. the bro hug and big bird. but will it change your vote? >>> plus, urban farming reaches a new "high." police in chicago find two football fields worth of marijuana plants the size of christmas trees. >>> a generic version of off the market. we are looking at generic drug risks. newsroom starts now. >>> good morning! i'm carol costello. thank you so much for joining us. >>> it's the morning after the presidential debate. a

. >> jim, if i can just respond very quickly. first of all, every study has shown that medicare has lower administrative costs than private insurance does, which is why seniors are generally pretty happy with it. and private insurers have to make a profit. nothing wrong with that. that's what they do. and so you've got higher administrative costs, plus profit, on top of that, and if you are going to save any money through what governor romney's proposing, what has to happen is that the money has to come from somewhere. and when you move to a voucher system, you are putting seniors at the mercy of those insurance companies, and over time, if traditional medicare has decayed or fallen apart, then they're stuck. and this is the reason why aarp has said that your plan would weaken medicare, substantially, and that's why they were supportive of the approach that we took. one last point i want to make. we do have to lower the cost of health care. not just in medicare -- >> in a minute. >> but overall. >> okay. >> that's a big topic. >>

jim acosta's in denver. president obama's expected to land in denver this hour. and his campaign's still trying to spin some predebate expectations. but a new memo shows how the president intends to go after mitt romney. our chief white house correspondent jessica yellin is watching the president. she's in denver as well. what's going on from your vantage point, jessica? >> reporter: hi, wolf. yoknow, this is a tricky balancing act for a sitting president, but the campaign has already signalled that the president will not be shy about getting aggressive when it comes to one thing, pressing for details. the obama campaign's latest expectations game questioning whether romney will share enough specifics about his policy proposals. >> his details have been lacking throughout the course of the romney campaign. >> reporter: and preparing voters for the president to use every opportunity to press for them. >> the romney camp has made clear they plan to fact check the president during the debate. that's what mitt romney plans to do. how does the president counter that?

what are we, jim? looking at the clock. less than seven hours away from the big sparring. >> reporter: yeah. >> and you know, we know the romney campaign got a tremendous lift from the first debate, the presidential debate last week. what are the expectations for paul ryan going in to tonight? >> reporter: brooke, it's good to be with you. i got stuck in joe biden's motorcade coming in here. on the ground here in kentucky. brooke, i did talk to a senior romney adviser about their expectations for paul ryan later on this evening. as you will recall, mitt romney told wolf blitzer on qu"the situation room" he thought that paul ryan didn't debate before, perhaps last time was in high school. we went back and talked to the ryan folks about the that and he's debated several times during the course of his congressional career and talked to a senior romney adviser and talked about expectations and guidance, a quote here, it's a new experience for hi anghiccor much more experience in the senate in the two campaigns and then the 2008

jim, you're on the trail with the romney campaign. what's the reaction to the latest polling, because republicans were complaining about these polls as soon as last week. now the poll is good news for them. are they complaining? >> well, anderson, i have to tell you i just saw mitt romney standing out in a drenching rain in newport news just a couple hours ago and he still had a smile on his face. they're pretty happy. they have not seen poll numbers like this in some time. i have to tell you, i talked to a senior romney advisor about this pew research center poll and they look at a couple things here. in relation to these polls. they are looking at the enthusiasm that is coming out at some of their campaign events. i can tell you, we have been at several of these campaign events over the last several days and they are getting some big turnouts, sometimes in excess of 10,000 people, and while yes, that may not be obama campaign numbers, those are good numbers for mitt romney. another thing that they're looking at, they are looking at

jim acosta with the romney campaign in daytona beach, florida. chief white house correspondent jessica yellin and senior political analyst, david gergen. jessica, let's starts in the midwest, iowa, wisconsin. the president has a small but consistent lead from the romney campaign's perspective in ohio. how much of the midwest at the heart of the obama path to 270? >> they -- well, they are relying on it pretty confidently, john. they feel good about those states. they think because the unemployment picture is improving there, in many of those states it's actually lower than when the president came into office, because the auto bailout worked for so many of the voters in ohio, also you can look at michigan but even especially in ohio, and because he has an advantage if you look at the latest polling in iowa and wisconsin among women voters in particular, they feel strong that the president has a good shot there and it's part of his firewall against some of these other potential losses in the states you were looking at earlier, for example, florida

and jim acosta's right. that's where the fight is really going to be. >> this battle, let's go back to ohio. john king is standing by. john, it's getting closer and closer in ohio and to my surprise, it's even getting closer north in michigan. you would think that after the president saved chrysler and gm, that he would have a bigger advantage right now, but it's shrinking. what's going on? >> well, governor romney's getting a bounce out of that first debate. we've seen it in the national polls. he's now a point or two ahead in some of them. essentially a tie in the national polls after being down three or four. now we're looking at these battleground states. the brand-new poll has him 51-47, so you call that a statistical tile. that michigan poll had them within the margin of error as well. i'm a bit dubious about michigan. he did get a post-debate bounce. we'll see if it sticks. the auto bailout, one of the reasons the president has been pretty strong there. that's why you heard a more confident governor r