the original question to mr. romney, how are you different than george w. bush. but when mr. obama had a turn, this is what he said. >> there are some things where governor romney is different from george bush. george bush didn't propose turning medicare into a voucher. >> i don't know about george w. bush and medicare and vouchers was he right there? >> i do know. earlier this year i read "renewing america's promise", and what surprised me when i read it is right there in the medicare section, there was a big thing on turning medicare into a voucher. it says the commission introduced a reform plan then on the next page. as president the governor will seek to reform medicare by building on these recent bipartisan efforts. he doesn't use words premium support or voucher. but if you know what that plan is he's talking about from the bipartisan reform commission is, that's premium support. this is something the republicans wanted to do for a very long time. it's something mitt romney wants to do now. so the contrast he drew is not quite right. there is continuity. >> you think a

mr. obama said mr. romney wanted troops on the ground a few weeks ago. what does the record tell us? >> they were both still wrong. romney made this criticism of obama. i think we have the tape of it here. >> america's abilities to influence events for the better in iraq have been undermined by the abrupt withdrawal. >> it's difficult to listen to that. romney has criticized obama for not having up to 20 or 25,000 troops left in iraq. with that said it's case of president obama did want to leave around 3500 troops in iraq. he was a bit evasive on that tonight. that agreement was not agreed to by the iraqis and it died in the water. it's an interesting moment where both men who worked for or argued we should have some level of troop presence, romney more so than obama were denying having held that position this evening. >> which is worse than disagreeing on it. on the subject of american influence in the world, mr. romney made a very checkable assertion here. >> unfortunately, nowhere in the world is america's influence greater today than it was four year

romney? >> yes, mr. romney. >> mr. romney, what do you plan on doing with immigrants without their green cards living here as productive members of societies? >> thank you. lorraine, thank you for your question. let me step back and tell me what i'd like to do with our immigration policy broadly and include an answer to you're question. first of all, this is a nation of immigrants. we welcome people coming to this country as immigrants. my dad was born in mexico of american parents, ann's dad was born in wales, a first generation american. where he welcome legal immigrants into this country. i want our legal system to work better. i want it to be streamlined. i want to be clearer. i don't think you have to -- shouldn't have to hire a lawyer to figure out how to get in this country legally. i also think we should have give visas to people, green cards rather to people who graduate with skills that we need. people around the world with accredited degrees in science and math, get a green card stapled to their diploma, com

. >> mr. romney, what can you do? we look at a situation where 40% of the unemployed are unemployed for four years or more. what about the long-term unemployed who need a job now. >> you have 23 million people needing a job, who have been out of work a long time. the president's policies have been exercised and haven't put american's to work. the unemployment rate was 7.8% when he took office, and it is 7.8% now. it would be 10.7 % with those who dropped out. i have a 5-point plan that gets americans 4 million new jobs -- and it will help those unemployed right now. one thing the president said, he said, i said to make detroit go bankrupt. i wanted them to go through bankruptcy like 7-11 and macy's and come out stronger. the president took detroit hrysler, and gm,ystler and you actually did. that was a process that was necessary to get the companies back on their feet. that is precisely what i recommended. >> candie, what governor romney said just isn't true. he wanted to take them into bankruptcy without giving them

mrs. romney joined the governor afterwards. this is where the families traditionally have come together and greeted each other. in terms of energy, in terms of body language, in terms of flashes of genuine anger, the kind of deniro "raging bull" factor on the floor tonight, it was a vastly different event we've seen this election cycle. in terms of the phrasing that may live forever, mr. romney said binders full of women talking about cabinet level in massachusetts and it's just not true was the president's rejoinder over and over. watching this with us, members of our team beginning with david gregory, what do you make of what you saw? >> liberals can breathe a sigh of relief. a little light on his vision for the future, but he made a point of studying his opposition research on romney. as you mentioned over and over again he said what governor romney said just isn't true. romney was strong, too. wrapping the economic troubles of the last four years around the president's neck. he stumbled on this issue of libya saying that th

governor romney. i didn't just compromise, i crossed over to your side and y'all still wouldn't support me. >> eliot: you have persuaded just whether he can persuade whoever is in the middle, the undecided category who knows. the line between benghazi and syria worries me in the sense that i think it has become the image of the president's foreign policy. how does the president say syria and benghazi do not capture what we have accomplished. >> jennifer: but what would mitt romney do different? >> eliot: you are absolutely right. but where we navigated the arab spring -- >> jennifer: remind people of that. the incident in benghazi is a tragedy, but syria is totally different from benghazi. you are saying the whole thing wraps together making him look weak -- >> eliot: exactly. >> jennifer: he goes right at mitt romney and saying are you saying you would send american men and women into war in syria when we don't know who the next leader is going to be? and the same answer in afghanistan. do you agree

economy, governor romney said that doesn't grow our economy. >> the question, mr. president, was guns here, so i need to move us along. >> i understand. >> the question was guns. >> but this will make a difference in terms of whether or not we can move this economy forward for these young people. >> i understand. >> and reduce our violence. >> thank you so much. i want to ask carol goldberg to stand up because she gets to a question that both these men have been passionate about. it's for governor romney. >> the outsourcing of american jobs overseas has taken a toll on our economy. what plans do you have to put back and keep jobs here in the united states? >> boy, great question, an important question because you're absolutely right -- and the place where we've seen manufacturing go has been china. china's now the largest manufacturer in the world. it used to be the united states of america. a lot of good people have lost jobs. half a million manufactureses jobs have been lost in the last four years. that's total over the last four years. one of the reasons for tha

the -- romney: prime minister, i'm still speaking. -- romney: mr. president, i'm still finished. >> moderator: go ahead and finish, governor romney. governor romney, make it short. see all these people? they've been waitinggfor you. romney: any investments i have over the last eight years have been managed by a blind trust, and i understand they do include investments outside the united states including in chinese companies. mr. president, have you looked at your pension? have you looked at your pension? obama: i've got to say -- romney: mr. president, have you looked at your pension? obama: you know, it's not as big as yours, so it doesn't take as long. [laughter] i don't check it that often. romney: let me give you some advice, you also have investments in chinese companies, you also have investments outside the united states. obama: yeah. all right. >> moderator: we're getting way off topic, governor romney. obama: we're a little off topic. i thought we were talking about immigration. romney: i came back to it -- obama: i do want to make sure --

two minutes mr. president. >> well, jim, i want to thank you and i want to thank governor romney because i think this was a terrific debate and i very much appreciate it. and i want to thank the university of denver. you know, four years ago we were going through a major crisis. and yet my faith and confidence in the american future is undiminished. and the reason is because of its people. because of the woman i met in north carolina who decided at 55 to go back to school because she wanted to inspire her daughter and now has a job from that new training she's gotten. because a company in minnesota who was willing to give up salaries and perks for their executives to make sure they didn't lay off workers during a recession. the auto workers that you meet in toledo or detroit take such pride in building the best cars in the world not just because of a paycheck but because it gives them that sense of pride that they're helping to build america. and so the question now is how do we build on those streng

this is for governor romney. we'll be right with you, mr. president. thanks. >> what do you plan on doing with immigrants without their green card that are currently living here as productive members of society? >> thank you for your question. and let me step back and tell you what i would like to do with our immigration policy broadly and include an answer to your question. first of all, this is a nation of immigrants. we welcome people coming to this country as immigrants. my dad was born in mexico of american parents. ann's dad was born in wales and is a first generation he american. i want it to be stream lined, i want it to be clearer. you shouldn't have to hire a lawyer to figure out how to get in this country legally. i also think we should give green cards to people who graduate with skills that we need. people around the world with accredited degrees in science and math. get a green card stapled to their diploma. come to the u.s.a. number two, we're going to have to stop illegal immigration. there are 4 million people who are waiting in line t

mr. romney said the president was weak and that our enemies had noticed that. it really seemed that both only came alive when they talked about the economy which they got to every chance they got. joining us tonight are norah o'donnell, the cohost of cbs "this morning," john dickerson, our cbs news political director and juan zuarte, former staff member at the national security council. norah, what did you see in the debate tonight? a very different tone. >> that's right, this is the third and final debate. at the first debate, we saw a very aggressive mitt romney prosecuting the case against president obama and his economic record. in this final debate which was on foreign policy you saw mitt romney really avoided the jugular in many respects. he seemed intent on moderating his rhetoric. he repeatedly said that the president was right on issues, that he concurred with him on a number of issues. in fact, it was president obama who said that romney was having a hard time differentiating himself. it was president obama who accused romney of being "all over the ma

lorain osario has a question for mr. romney, and we'll be right with you, mr. president. thanks. >> what do you plan on doing immigrants without their green cards that are currently living here as productive members of society? >> thank you. lorain? did i get that right? good. thank you for your question. let me step back and tell me what i would like to do with immigration policy broadly and include an answer to your question. first of all this is a nation of immigrants. we welcome people coming to this country as immigrants. my dad was born in mention cough american parents and ann's dad was born in wales. i want our legal system to work better, i want it to be streamlined and clearer. i don't think you should have to hire a lawyer to figure out how to get into this country legally. i think we should give visas to people -- green cards to people rather to people with skills that we need. people with accredited degrees in science and math, get a green card stapled to their diploma, come to the us of a. make sure our legal system works, number two, we have to strap i will

mr. romney came in with three things to accomplish. first, the polls showing him behind were in danger of becoming self-fulfilling prophesie prophesies. i think he probably stopped that in its tracks tonight. second, he wanted to use this forum to correct what he thinks are serious misrepresentations of him, regarding medicare and taxes and the scope of the tax cuts and the revenue neutrality and all of that. third, he wanted to make the philosophic statement. he knows this is a country in which self-identify conservatives outnumber independents to liberals two to one. he used this as an opportunity to say, do you believe government is the aloe kay or the of resources and opportunity or do you believe in the market? and i think most republicans are content to go to the country and say, let's vote on that. >> all right, george, great to have you joining us from washington tonight. let us go inside that room, because we've been saying, we didn't see a big moment, a moment that's going to play and play and play over the next few days but

but go ahead, sir. >> romney: you bet. mr. president you are absolutely right with regards to 97% of the businesses are not taxed at the 35% tax rate. they are taxed at a lower rate. but those businesses happen to employee half -- half of all of the people who work in small business. those are the businesses that employ one quarter of all of the businesses in america. i talked to a guy who has a very small business. he is in the electronics business in st. louis. he said he and his son calculated how much they pay in taxes. federal tax, state tax, state income tax gasoline tax, it added up to well over 50% of what they earned. and your plan is to take the tax rate successful small businesses from 35% to 40%. that will cost jobs. my priority is jobs so what i do is bring down the tax rates, lower deductions and exemptions. create more jobs because there's nothing better for getting us to an balanced budget than having more people working, earning more money, paying more taxes, that's by far the more efficient way to get this ba

but tonight, mrs. romney, the first lady, the president even put his arm around mitt romney's son there during the discussion. as we look at the greetings to the front row of supporters. savannah guthrie. >> this was absolutely the romney strategy going into this debate, to majorly tone down the rhetoric. and at times as david observed, it seemed the president was spoiling for a fight. he wanted to draw the contrast. romney from the very first answer wasn't going to be the romney we've seen on the campaign trail, known for those stinging criticisms of the president on a whole host of areas on foreign policy. he was asked about benghazi, libya, something we've heard romney go hard after the president for on the campaign trail. but he didn't take the bait from the very first answer. instead, romney advisers said they wanted him to come across as measured, as moderate, as somebody who had an understanding of the foreign policy issues with some depth. and there were times during this debate where it seems

. >> romney: mr. president, have you looked at your pension? >> romney: i don't look at my pension. it is not as big as yours. [ laughter ] >> romney: let me give you some advice. >> obama: i don't check it that often. >> romney: you also have investments outside the united states. you also have investments through a cayman trust. >> we're way off topic here, governor romney. we're completely off. >> obama: i thought we were talking about immigration. i want to make sure -- >> if i could have you sit down, governor romney. >> obama: i want to make sure we understand something. governor romney says he wasn't referring to arizona. his top advisor on immigration is the guy who designed the arizona law, the entirety of it. not everify, the whole thing! that's his policy. and it is a bad policy. and it won't help us grow. look, when we think about immigration, we have to understand there are folks all around the world who still see america as the land of promise. and they provide us energy and they provide us innovation. and they start companies like intel and google and we want to encou

a coin toss determined, mr. 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'

i will do it again. >> mr. president? >> i think governor romney will have a busy first day. he will also repeal obamacare. that will not be popular withh democrats as you are sitting down with them. but my philosophy has been i will take ideas from anybody, democrat or republican, as long as they are advancing the cause of making middle-class families stronger and giving ladders of opportunity to the middle class. that is how we cut taxes for middleeclass and small businesses. that is why weecut what was in advancing that cost. that is how we signed free-trade deals that are helping us double our exports and sell more american products of from the world. that is how we repealed don't ask don't tell. that is how we ended the ar in iraq as a promise and that is how we will end the war in afghanistan. that is how we went after al qaeda ann bin laden. we have seen progress even under current -- even under republicanontrol of the house of representatives. part of being principled and being a leader is being able to describe exactly what it is you intend to do, not just saying, i