mr. romney pointed to the hiring process when he first became governor of massachusetts. let's listen. >> gosh, can't we find some women that are also qualified? we took a concerted effort to find women who had backgrounds to find women. they brought us whole binders full of women. >> that is a somewhat silly phrase. here is the totally serious context and why it's important to break it down. women may decide this election. look at this. president obama's formerly big advantage with female voters answers to be gone. whatever the size of it actually is, mitt romney can successfully narrow that gap, that would make the president's road to re-election very, very difficult. mr. romney said the president has failed american women and he claimed that "he went to a number of women groups and said can you help us find folks?" there's a problem with the timeline. we want to look at that tonight. the group in albuquerque a nonpartisan outfit, actually approached him, they put out a statement, and i quote "prior to the 2002 gubernatorial election, massgap approached the campaigns of

romney won the debate. when asked who was more likeable, debate watchers gave the two candidates essentially equal marks. that's one piece of spin that doesn't quite pass the sniff test. decide for yourself if this one does from the campaign's ben lebold who suggested mitt romney last night was acting. >> it was performance art. he locked himself into some bad positions that he took during the republican primary, tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas, refusing to ask the wealthiest for a dime to reduce the deficit and those give us big openings to talk about on the campaign trail in key states in the weeks ahead. >> vice president biden, meantime, said his boss did a good job during a bright line between his policies and mitt romney's. >> i think the president did a wonderful job in making it clear

mr. romney is making the same point. he is serious about tax reform, going to go work with congress when he gets a chance. to put out those details now would be to harm the overall effort. >> that may be true but ethan is fair to point out that the studies we reference are put out by conservative groups. >> that's absolutely true. they're using different specifications from what mitt romney has said. one study says if he raises taxes on people $100,000 than -- $1,000 than $2,000, it makes the math work. the problem is that romney has said i don't want to do any of that. so all of the studies that doug says actually affirms romney, they're all making assumptions that contradict what romney is saying. the reason they have to make she is assumptions is that romney is not showing anyone his tax plan. >> if he can win this with the middle class -- i'm speaking from one small focus group. they cared a lot about it. if this could be something that helps him move this election in swing states and he has to get more specific on l

we're not seeing that from mr. romney. a few generalities, but i want to see some specifics and i want him to connect each one up with how many jobs it is going to give us. >> you're looking for specifics tonight. what about, though, as you mentioned the economy, what about the battle for the middle class? you have joe biden as -- let me just play this clip in case our viewers haven't seen it, he really stepped in it yesterday when he said this was in charlotte. >> this is deadly earnest. how they can justify -- how they can justify raising taxes in the middle class who has been buried the last four years, how -- >> buried the last four years. of course, most of the last four years under the obama administration. so, before we chat, mr. stein, i do need to play this follow-up clip, the vice president, you know, coming back and explaining his comment. this was later in asheville. >> the middle class was buried by the policies of romney and that ryan supported. as bill clinton, all they're suggesting now when asked about thi

for mr. romney, that was then. now on that, a number of issues, he seems to be trying to downplay what he once described as his severely conservative record and recast himself as more centrist on some issues. the shift began a moment after this handshake in denver. he was insistent on government regulation, education and health care. >> how would repeal it? >> it's a lengthy discussion, but number one, preexisting conditions are covered under my plan. >> that assurance is misleading, and later on an adviser had to clarify what mr. romney actually meant. under mr. romney's plan, he said, preexisting conditions would only be covered for people who already have insurance to begin with, but are changing jobs and, therefore, health insurance plans. that's not what most people think of when it comes to preexisting conditions. ironically, the health care law that mitt romney signed in massachusetts and remains in place, it does allow for preexisting conditions whether they have health insurance or not. we will be watching

romney pounced, latching on to mr. obama's rose garden statement. we're playing it at length so you can see the context. >> i think it's interesting the president just said something which is the day after the attack he went in the rose garden and said that this was an act of terror. >> that's what i said. >> you said in the rose garden, the day after the attack, it was an act of terror. it was not a spontaneous demonstration, is that what you're saying? >> please proceed. please proceed, governor. >> i want to make sure we get that for the record because it took the president 14 days before he called the attack in benghazi an act of terror. >> get the transcript. >> he did in fact say it was an act of terror. >> can you say that a little louder, candy. >> he did say it as an act of terror. it did as well take two weeks or so for the whole idea of there being a riot out there about this tape to come out. you're correct about that. >> the administration -- the administration indicated that this was a reaction to a video and was a spontaneous reaction

mr. romney didn't. and, you know, that debate is over, so, you know, i mean, i guess i would only suggest we don't need to debate about the debate. there will be two more, and i fully expect that president obama will get his points across as well as smack back the lies that mitt romney keeps telling. >> let me move you on to something else. we talked a little bit about the new unemployment figures. i want to show you, and i'm sure i don't have to tell you. i want to show our audience. when it comes to unemployment among african-americans, it stands at about 13.4%, which is obviously a lot higher than 7.8%. that is down from september of the year before, but there's a lot of talk that this will depress african-american turnout come november and obviously that's part of his base that the president wants to reinvigorate. how can he do that? >> well, i think all americans know that president obama has been working very, very hard to put americans back to work. he has had virtually no cooperation from the re

for mr. romney, that was then. now on that and a number of issues, he seems to be trying to downplay what he once described as his severely conservative record and recast himself as more centrist on some issues. the shift, you might have noticed, began moments after this handshake at the debate in denver. mr. romney struck centrist sounding positions on government regulation, education and most notably, health care. >> if obama care is repealed, how would you replace it? >> actually, it's a lengthy description but number one, pre-existing conditions are covered under my plan. >> pre-existing conditions are covered under my plan. keeping them honest, that assurance is misleading and a short time later, a top campaign adviser had to clarify what his boss actually meant. under mr. romney's plan, he said, pre-existing conditions would only be covered for people who already have insurance to begin with, but are changing jobs and therefore, health insurance plans. that's not who most people think of when it comes to pre-

mr. romney surrounded by people and handshakes. we'll keep you posted when he lands in henderson, nevada. >>> w your chance to talk back on one of the stories of the day. the question for you this morning, do zingers win debates? what's trending this morning? you guessed it, bayonets and horses. those words are today's lightning rod. >> you mentioned the navy, for example. we have fewer ships than we did in 1916. well, governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets because the nature of our military hats changed. >> the presidential smackdown thrilled democrats. republicans, not so much. but they were definitely aware that bayonets and horses thing could skewer them. from erick erickson who tweeted i'm proud of obama for treating the navy so dismissively. that only helps romney in virmg virmgin a, florida, et cetera. and from eric cantor, mr. president, for the thousands of virginias in the navy family, cutting our naval forces isn't a game of battleship. it's become a weird sort of internet sport. a compilation of catch phrases.

your sources telling you that when wolf says that mitt romney is distancing himself from mr. mourdock, not entirely. >> not entirely. i was just told he is not going to pull his support from mourdock. he supports him as a candidate. he cut a television ad airing in indiana right now. one of the things that democrats have been doing to stoke this, they have been calling on romney to ask mourdock campaign to pull that from television, and the romney campaign is saying no, they're not going to do that. >> so we showed that ad at the beginning of this newscast. mr. mourdock campaigning alongside mitt romney, and him suggesting this is the man i want in washington. >> and it's straight to camera. romney is speaking straight to camera saying that he supports him. they're not pulling the ad. they are trying to make clear, though, as we have discussed earlier in the hour, that romney does not support his position, mourdock's position, on abortion. in fact, he hasn't, you know, at all in the past, and doesn't right now. >> everywhere else -- >> supports him as a candidate, but disagre

right now, mitt romney needs swing voters, especially women. which is why mr. romney seems to be sounding more moderate on a range of issues. just yesterday, comments he made about abortion were picked up by democrats as governor romney taking a more centrist position. now listen to this q & a with a reporter from "the des moines register." >> do you intend to pursue legislations specifically regarding abortion? >> there is no legislation with regard to abortion that would become part of my agenda. >> right after he said that, however, his spokeswoman said this to the national review. "governor romney would support legislation aimed at providing greater protections for life." and later today mr. romney said what he would do as president. >> i think i said that time and again, i'm a pro-life candidate, i'll be a pro-life president. the actions i will take immediately would be to remove funning for planned parenthood it would not be part of my budget. >> that's consistent with his position throughout the primaries. in the past, he said he supports the 14th amendm

and later today mr. romney said what he would do as president. >> i think i said that time and again i'm a pro life candidate, i'll be a pro life president. the actions i will take immediately would be for a pro life budget. >> he supports 14th amendment protections for prebirth children. and was his statement to the des moines paper an attempt to tailor the message there? or was it simply a misstatement? his views have changed over time often it seems to coi coincide e and when he's running for office. in 1994 he was running against senator kennedy in the senate. >> i believe that since row v wade has been the law for 20 years that we should sustain and support it. >> he lost that election eight years later running for governor in massachusetts he said this. >> so when asked will i preserve a woman's right to choose, yes, i will. >> he promised during a debate not to make any changes which would make it more difficult for a woman to make that choice herself. once elected, though, mr. romney changed his

it mentions all the instances in which mr. romney does support the right to an abortion. it fails to mention that he outspokenly confirms overturning the right if in the first place. mitt believes that life begins at conception and believes that the right next step is for the supreme court to overturn roe v. wade. governor romney has taken different positions on roe v wade and different aportion rights. he is running against ted kennedy in 1974. >> i believe abortion should be safe and legal in this country. i have since my mom took that position in 1970 as a senate candidate. i believe that since roe v. wade has been the law for 20 years, we should sustain and support it. i sustain and support the right of a woman to make that choice. >> in 1994 in his losing race against ted kennedy. in 2002, he also ran strongly as pro choice. years later, he talked about his prolive report. >> i have consistently been pro life. >> even though you were effective effectively pro choice. >> on all the bills that came to my desk, i came down on the side of life. >> this time, mr. romney b

mr. romney pointed to his hiring process when he first became governor of massachusetts. listen. >> i said, gosh, can't we find some women that are also qualified? and so we took a concerted effort to go out and find women who had backgrounds that could be qualified to become members of our cabinet. i went to a number of women's group and said can you help us find folks? they brought us binders full of women. >> that's somewhat silly phrase. here's the totally serious context and why it's important to break it down. women may decide this election as you probably know. president obama's formerly big advantage appears to be gone. the polling shows a bigger gender gap in president obama's favor. whatever size of it actually is, mitt romney can successful narrow that gap, that would make the president's road to re-election very, very difficult, nearly impossible. campaigning in virginia, romney said the president has failed america's women. he was touting his own record claiming he went to a number of women's groups and said can you help us find folks? keeping them honest, th

it's important to keep in mind that the president narrowly beat out mr. romney. this is well within the margin of error when you extrapolate the math. the poll numbers are a bit of a mixed bag for both of these candidates. if you need a little more context as to why that is the issue, mr. romney came out the viktor on the key issue, economy, health care, taxes, deficit. he had the lead there. more than half of the debate watchers felt that mr. romney would better handle the economy and the deficit. this is important because check out this number. get who the debate watchers picked as the stronger leader. there you go. he beat out mr. obama by 3 points but president obama came out the victor in the poll numbers. these are the top google searches, "who's winning the debate," "fact check," look at number three, you heard dana bash refer to it, "binders full of women." weird. i know. there was a point to it. you'll hear about that in a moment. part of romney's response, how he hired qualified women when he was governor of massachusetts was bring me the binders full o

many democrats felt mr. romney bent the truth in the debate but was never called out. and i asked if he thought the moderator had bungled the responsibility. >> i think the moderators job is to make sure that the things that have been said on the stage is congruent to the things said in the past. not to call them a liar. >> if he has facts about what someone said. but it is up to the president to defend himself. >> absolutely. absolutely. i'm not trying to say the president should not take responsibility for his awful performance. he should have. but some criticism to the moderator is also justified. >> don, what the liberals is doing is postdebate spinning. it's whining. there's no whining in politics. there's one person who should have challenged what mitt romney was saying. his name is president barack obama. and he didn't do it. everyone else doing it afterwards doesn't carry the same punch. and i agree with l.z. it ways bit of both. it was a lot of both. president obama was way off. and mitt romney was very much on his game. i don't remember where debate where's i

romney uses in his own plan. in another study cited by mr. romney, princeton economist harvey rosen assumes the tax cuts would generate enough economic growth to offset the cost. but for many, that's a rather large assumption. one that's also by the way questioned by many conservative economists as well. bottom line, though, that word assume. every one of these authors in each of these studies or so-called studies is making assumptions. some may be solid assumptions, others dubious, but they are all just assumptions because neither mitt romney nor paul ryan nor any of their surrogates have yet come forward with specifics. instead, we asked the romney campaign if they would like the opportunity to respond to the program. they declined for us tonight. of course, the invitation stands. joining us is republican campaign consultant, alex castellanos and bill burton, senior strategist for the leading pro-obama super pac. alex, with all the criticism, wouldn't you expect the romney campaign to produce their own evidence to prove the numbers add up?

romney's neighborhood in this edition of late night laughs. >> mr. romney. >> hello, mr. obama. you remember mr. obama, right? last week at the debate mr. obama taught us a new word. choke. what brings you to the neighborhood today? >> well, since my sleepy performance at the debate, mr. romney, my wife michelle has insisted that i pick up some new job skills. so i'm now a mailman part-time. and, oh, look here, special delivery, october jobs report, and the unemployment numbers are down. so in your face. >> that's just wonderful. did you know mr. obama is the president of the united states? it's a very important job. you have to make big decisions and you're in charge of a lot of people for four years. >> mr. romney, i think you made a mistake, i think you mean eight years. >> you see, kids, mr. obama just did something called using your imagination. >> actually, if you take a look at the polls, you will see a number of the key states -- >> all he's missing is the sweater. "early start" continues right now. >>> it came without warning. riveting new details of the attack in libya

mitt romney talked right to president obama, addressed him by name as mr. president. this was a very deliberative thing and deliberate thing that mitt romney did. no question that's something that he practiced. you know, we know he spent countless hours of practicing and preparing and it just sort of shows you that it's not just what people say or die say in these debates, it's how they say it. it's their body language. it's -- it's the way they look and absolutely kril to the overall feel. you know, i've been talking a lot and looking at this debate a lot, especially the morning after, and it's pretty clear there wasn't necessarily a win or loss because of a zinger, it was the overall feel that mitt romney was really present and president obama really wasn't. >> dana bash, i have your assignment from here going forwards and that is that 47% of folks asked said the debate did not influence their vote one way or another. so you have something to work with coming out of this. dana, thanks. >>> before the dust even settled from this first presidential debate, there were

mr. romney is close but still in negative territory at 49%. he enjoys an edge on handling the deficit and joblessness, but trails on virtually every other big issue, including medicare, taxes and foreign policy. keeping them honest, when it comes to some of those issues, both candidates have come up short either on specifics or credibility. issues like cutting taxes without ballooning the deficit or burdening the middle class. the romney campaign has been asked again and again for specifics. here's running mate paul ryan just yesterday on fox news. >> there's been a traditional democrat and republican consensus lowering tax rates by broadening the tax base works. and you can -- >> i have to -- you haven't given me the math. >> well, i don't have -- it would take me too long to go through all of the math. >> chris wallace kept trying but came away empty-handed. he's not the only one. take a look. >> which of the deductions are you going to be willing to eliminate? which of the tax credits are you going to -- when are you going to be able to tel

governor romney's event on the right, mr. obama's on the left. we'll go live to our correspondents at both rallies shortly and jump in at any point in either candidate is making some news. >>> new polling as well. late numbers just coming in tonight and new endorsements including colin powell weighing in today. >>> also tonight, a very different look inside the campaign from presidential historian doug brinkley who got an opportunity to watch his tore being made as well as what president obama called mitt romney. it rhymes with, well, show-bidder. it's causing outrage tonight. this, on the other hand, there may be reason for the romney campaign to cheer. the breaking news. the abc news/"washington post" tracking poll now has mitt romney ahead by three points and more crucially, hitting the 50% mark for the first time. in our own cnn poll of polls, governor romney currently enjoys a one-point lead, 48-47. as you no doubt know, the race will boil down to a few key states and tonight, we also have new numbers from the nbc/"wall street journal" poll

>> well, right off the bat we saw both of them, mr. romney and mr. obama come at each other and use this palm down gesture. see it really in each other's face with this. this is kind of pushing you away. i hear what you're saying but, wait i have the better opinion here. versus an open hand gesture which might be willing to say let's work together on this. >> when you do that pound down gesture, what is that saying to the opponent? >> it's saying i have the right idea. you sit down. you go over there. i have the right way to go here. let's follow what i'm saying. let me speak. i know what i'm talking about. >> how did the body language of both of these candidates -- and you watched all 90 plus minutes evolve in the course of the debate? >> coming out we saw barack obama come out very strong. different than the last debate where he was much more shrunken. >> shrunken you said? >> yeah. he was kind of sad in this down posture. but he was much stronger from the get-go. but when we saw the first interaction of a confrontation where mr. romney is kind of

. >> mr. president -- >> governor romney -- >> mr. president, have you looked at your pension? >> i don't look at my pension. it's not as big as yours, it doesn't take as long. >> you also have investments in chinese companies, through a cayman's trust. >> we're sort of way off topic here. mr. romney, completely off immigration. >> we were talking about immigration -- >> i want to make sure -- >> if i could have you sit down, governor romney, thank you. >> did you have trouble understanding what they were say ing? there were moments like that last night. romney did seem to spend more time interrupting than the president did and the moderator was also interrupted by him. did this come off as disrespectful or rude to you? i was with a focus group and they got that feeling. it was too much of that. >> i think he came across as very amped up. i think he was expecting a more aggressive president obama and i think he raised the energy level and it's quite possible they raised the energy level a bit too high. >> like the energizer bunny, turned him up to ten and couldn't tile it back

whether you're making the comparison to 1917 as mr. romney now does in that ad, or 1916, which is by the way what he did previously, there were 342 ships in the fleet in 1917. right now there are 285 which is in fact lower than 342, obviously. however, it's been below 342 a lot of times before this, including seven years in the 1930s, every year since 2000, in fact. keeping them honest, we wanted to know why the romney campaign despite being called out on this time and time again decided to repeat the falsehood in this new ad. it's just not true. we invited them on the program to give their side. of course they declined. earlier this week we did manage to ask virginia governor bob mcdonnell about these dodgy numbers. take a look. you're well aware that under president bush, the navy was actually smaller and that surface warships under president obama have gone up 10%. >> the broader point is i don't know how many times we have dipped below 1916 but there is a broader point, anderson, and that is if the defense department says in the qu

romney was getting hammered in the polls. keeping them honest though, disputing or downplaying the obvious, that's what campaigns do on both sides. >> it's not going to be about the polls. >> i wouldn't put a lot of weight in any of these national polls for the next couple days. >> in terms of mitt romney surging, just remember how much of a deficit he had to make up. he was in some cases double digits behind the president in all those attributes. >> pull back the reins. >> the media is focusing on one poll. >> that's reaction to the recent batch of polling, including that devastating pew poll that showed a four point romney lead. now consider that pew took an earlier poll in september a couple weeks before the debate, it was the republicans going ballistic when it showed romney eight points down. watch. >> these polls are basically just part and parcel of the campaign for barack obama to help him stay in this game as long as possible. >> if you believe what the polls are saying right now, you've got to believe that there's s

there was president obama, and then mitt romney constantly saying, i agree, mr. president. i agree with that policy, mr. president. i agree with that policy, mr. president. maybe it should have been bob schieffer and president obama for one-on-one last night. romney was sitting there sweating, clearly got outclassed. he couldn't lay a hand on the president when it came to libya. so no doubt, you saw who clearly was comfortable and strong being commander in chief. and romney, again, a lot of things that he's said on the campaign trail, last night was, oh, no, it's all good. i'm sort of different now. >> ana, i would think that you would probably agree with roland on libya, wouldn't you? >> yeah, i do. it was the first question, right off the bat. i think mitt romney was a little off when he came out of the gate. in those first -- in the first and second question he was nervous. i think he was -- he might have been overprepared. he was trying to put everything out on the table at once and in the meantime he missed the point on benghazi on really slamming the solid blow. i thi

. >> i think that, yes, mr. romney may -- >> alexi chairs the russian parliament international affairs committee. the senior member of the governing united russia party. he is well connected with the kremlin. >> mr. romney is not someone who strikes me as a person of the 21st century in foreign policy. >> reporter: he believes romney is wrong in saying obama is soft on russia because this has been a very difficult, sometimes confrontational year for the two countries. it started last december. russians took to the streets after disputed parliamentary elections. u.s. secretary of state hillary clinton also criticized the vote, and vladimir putin, then russian prime minister, accused her of encouraging the protests. >> mr. putin interpreted certain remarks made by secretary of state clinton as something which shows that the americans are incleaned to change in russia too. >> reporter: syria has proved the most emotional issue. u.s. officials have said russia has blood on its hands for vetoing tough resolutions in

you get to close it out >> i think mr. romney really does have a plan. i think he looks a lot like reagan and much less like bush than mr. obama claims. his program for trade and energy development, i think he was spot on in the debates in that regard, and that could create somewhere between 5 million to 10 million jobs pretty easily, and so i think that if we got the romney plan on energy and trade and got the obama plan on social insurance, americans would be very, very happy. unfortunately, they are only going to get one of these guys, and so they are only going to get half a loaf. >> nice to see you all. have a great weekend, everybody. >> thanks. >> up next, a career reboot. >> i was happy that i received the offer, happy i got to interview and happy i waited and took out all the risk. >> that's right. the going back to school gamble and how it's paying off for some job seekers. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] you've been years in the making. and there are many years ahead. join the millions of members who've chon an aarp medicare supplement insurance pl

so mr. president, mr. romney, what role if any should the u.s. be playing in fixing europe's debt crisis? i ask. but all i hear is this. [ crickets ] then there's housing. yes, the recovery looks fragile, but it's real. more than 500,000 homeowners still got a notice last quarter. negative equity is falling, but 10.8 million americans are still under water. yet both candidates have been virtually silent on housing. but the one thing that really gets me, the one i've been talking about for months, the fiscal cliff, massive tax hikes, massive spending cuts scheduled to take effect january 1st. actually, it came up in the last debate when the president flatly dismissed it. >> it will not happen. >> it will not happen. he's talking about the sequester, the part of the fiscal cliff that mandates huge, sharp automatic spending cuts. he says it's not going to happen. how can the president be so sure? >> well, he can be sure because when the people vote on november 6th and the president is re-elected, a strong message will be sent that the american peopl