Lives for florida, tonight round three. Big question who will win . And ive been saying up until a couple of weeks ago probably obama by a few points. Now i have absolutely no idea. 40 is not a great number for a president a couple weeks before election day. In the last few months theres a lacking narrative, absence after clear vision where we go. Lets get straight to it. Joining me is sean spicer. Sean, good to have you here. Tonights debate will be broken into six separate sections, moderated by Bob Schieffer. Each focusing on a Foreign Policy hot spot. We want to drill down on some of these. The contrast between the governor and president. First we want to start with libya because theres a new report out today from the wall street journal that supports what the white house said about the intelligence briefing. Heres what Stephanie Cutter from the Obama Campaign said about libya today on morning joe. Mitt romney on the day of that tragedy when he came out and shot from this and before he had any facts blamed the United States. So, blamed the president. So sean, a president romney would presumably have been given this same information. How can he credibly claim his response would be any different than that of president obamas . Well what governor romney was responding to at the time as you recall that the embassy in cairo had put out a statement talking about appeasement and that a video and trying to the folks that were attacking the embassy in cairo, it wasnt something that we condoned and apologizing for the video. Thats what the governor was talking about then. I think theres a big difference between how the white house reacted to the terrorist act that occurred at the consulate in benghazi and thats a whole separate issue. The problem, thomas, is the timeline that the white house is trying to discuss changes so often in terms of what they said and when they said it and, you know, the president went to the u. N. Two weeks after the attack in benghazi and made it very clear six times that the incident there stemmed from a video. The u. N. Ambassador susan rice was on all five of the sunday talk shows on stunned after the incident abutting to it a video and jay carney did it. Now they are coming back and rewriting history saying we called it an act of terror and knew all along. Then why did you comment the way did you for two weeks if you had that information. So i think thats where the timeline just doesnt add up. When we talk about whats going to take place tonight both the white house and iran are disputing this report that appeared in the New York Times over the weekend that theres these bilateral talks planned for a postelection time period, both president and governor romney said military action is on the table as a last resort here. Diplomacy first. The governor favors sanctions and the president has put the most crippling sanctions in history on iran. Is there a clear contrast between what the president has done and what mitt romney said he would do if elected . I think in this area, were going to assume that the white house denials of these attempts to have one on one talks are false because they denied them. We do need to move forward with the p5 plus one, work with our allies, make it a group effort to continue to put pressure on iran. But we need to start seeing iran walk backwards not continue to fight for more time so they eventually, you know, get this mission, get this weapon up. So weve got to continue to work with our allies under the p 4 plus one process. As we talk about tissue of afghanistan which is likely to come up this evening as well and we talk about what the Obama Campaign has a new ad calling it a clear choice between candidates on this topic the president is moving american troops out in 2014. Keeping that timeline, if in 2014 generals were to talk to mitt romney about the, what hes called the president s and chastised the president on a timed retreat mitt romney supports moving out in 2014. If mitt romney talked to generals in afghanistan in that time period he would recalibrate his position on that or move those troops out . The first part that the governor has sort of criticized is the notion of publicly announcing your time table. I think that tells the enemy and the folks in afghanistan and a lot of these groups know how to play the long game. They go okay if we have to wait for a year well wait four to get out. Talking and exposing what your plan is, when youre going to withdraw is not probably a policy that mitt romney would have pursued. That being said to your question i think he will continue to listen to the generals on the ground and part of it is in just listening to them but figure out what threats is foeposed to our National Interest. If the generals are telling you theres a resurgence in one particular area, we need to address it thats something as any commanderinchief would sit down and say lets figure it out, how do we protect america to the best of our ability. Is it in our National Interest to be an occupier . Thats correct. Its also in our National Interest to protect our nation, our people and our allies. When we talk about staying in afghanistan and talking about a timeline, do you think that in announcing a timeline that weve been able to reach the goals that were out lined, why we went to afghanistan in the first place for . I think theres still a lot of work that has to to be done in training the Afghan Forces to get to the place where they can assume responsibility for their own safety. Progress is being made in that front. And were going to have to dont see. Sean spicer with the rnc down in boca for talks, the debate. Sean, thanks so much. I want to bring in monday morning political power panel. Its great to have you all thee here. Joanna i want to start with you because the race very interesting. All tied up among the likely voters. 4747. This is not good news if youre the incumbent. Its good news if youre mitt romney. Think what youve seen over the last few sweweeks is a consolidation of his base. Youve seen particularly in our poll in the nbc wall street journal poll Barack Obamas numbers have been stable. Philippines look at registered voters. What that does mean a lot of the media momentum is with mitt romney. Hes getting more of the positive headlines and more momentum describing headlines. Going into tonight his challenge is to go in and not over learn once again the lessons of that first debate and be so aggressive. The elephant in the room he has so many george bushs advisers on his team. They are talking about whether we should take military acshow in the middle east. He has to calibrate how hell attack that issue. Thats the last thing people want on the right is to align romney with bush and remind people that mitt romney is being advised by a lot of the people that advised george w. Bush. John bolton, he has the bush team. Mitt romney, a novice on Foreign Policy. He has aligned himself with people that were advisers to bush 43. He made headlines for what David Axelrod called dukes of hazard in a National Tour when he went to europe and brought up his olympics experience in Salt Lake City to take the knees out of the gang in london because of the planning that had gone into theirs. Is this more of a situation where do no harm benefits mitt romney tonight like not coming out and taking the bait of the president to show any aggravation because when youre the president theres a different view of Foreign Policy from the oval office. Mitt romney does not have that. Youre right. I think do no harm wont be enough for mitt romney. I think its wrong to view this as a debate in any sense we would understand what a norm wral debate is. Its a televised opportunity for mitt romney to exaggerate differences on key issues that cynically and pragmatically they will try to figure out how to move voters in ohio what happens in those 90 minutes tonight. I expect for that reason ill try to tie the Foreign Policy discussion to economics and jobs. I think that pushes him towards china where hes been more aggressive than the president in what his kind of aggression is about the chinese currency manipulation, the trade subsidy, theft of intellectual property. The question is because the obama folks have him boxed in, as soon as he hits the China Capital they hit bain capital, outsourcing the values issues that they are running in ohio saying hes not one of us so they may trump what otherwise would be a vulnerability i think the president would have on the china trade relationship. In the syllabus, china comes in last. Well see how quickly they can push that button. Hell try to do it. Ambassador ross two Big International stories in the headlines over the weekend. Still the libya story and the facts coming out of that persist and also the report about these talks with iran after the election. What Foreign Policy question do you want answered above all others tonight . What your hoping to hear . Well i do think the biggest question is given transformation in the middle east whatsing the right position for the United States, whats the posture and what are the responses we ought to be taking . I mean one thing to keep in mind not every country is the same and you have to do Something Different in light of it. Syria is where we have an all out conflict going on right now. The we is given the potential for conflict in syria to radiate out to the region should we be doing smothering and if so what should it took like . Tissue of iran has been there for the last four years and last three administration. Are we on the right track . Can we change irans behavior . I dont take those stories seriously on agreement about talks but by the same token both sides emphasize our objective is prevention of iran with nuclear extra abilities meaning they cant have it. If thats the case, what more do we need to do from a diplomatic to achieve that. If diplomacy fails, whats left on the table . When we talk about the arab spring is democracy but the path there is very muddled. Joanna as you brought up, new poll shows mitt romney narrowing the gap when it comes to women. Why do you think hes been able to lock up what has been a very vulnerable spot for him . Theres still a gender gap but its very demarcated when it comes to race and age and marital status. Married white women over 50 lean republican anyway. Once again youre seeing mitt romney conso lie dating what our constituencies that leaning republican which is married, particularly suburban white women. When you look at women among ethnic lines, latino women and africanamerican women thats a wider gender gap. A lot has to do with the age of the respondent. I want to show quinnipiac the poll they have out. Showing the president with a double digit lead among women. Leading overall there by five points. Do you think it will boil down to ohio . It looks like it may boil down thoi. Im still worried. Maybe im a worry wart were hearded to a scenario where theres a electoral vote and popular vote which will be a disaster for the country. If we have to go through Something Like that again with all until applications of a Banana Republic it would imply and be awful. I hope it wont be that way but i have a little bit of fear. Ambassador ross when we talk about the president coming in tonight with a different purview from the oval office on Foreign Policy what it means for noerk be a world leader and calling other countries to rise up do you think he walks a fine line of being able to lay out that agenda and do so in a way that americans want to resonate with that because in our polling its showing that on certain factors americans want to see a second term going in a different direction. On the one hand when youre president you have a responsibility because the world is listen towing and everyone who you are dealing with is listening to you. Youre trying to strike out a posture that in a sense addresses those needs and be responsible. On the other hand you want to say things that resonate with the American People. The president has adopted a position that says were going to were is going shape our Foreign Policy that takes account of our resource, well be active in the world, we cant solve every problem every where. I think governor romney faces a challenge of on the one hand trying to demonstrate that hes responsible but hes is going reassert greater American Leadership because theres always a desire in the American Public for us to be seen as a leader. Do we want to pay the price of leadership . Thanks to our panel. So laying out a second term agenda for fortunate. Is that his biggest weakness . Ill talk with congressman Charlie Rangel about that. He joins me in the studio. Even the newspapers are split. Some of the biggest papers in the country in the key battleground states make their choice throwing their support behind candidates. I want to know what you think. What Foreign Policy question is most important . We want to hear your thoughts in light of the debate coming up. Tweet me thomasroberts. [ male announcer ] this is joe woods first day of work. And his new boss told him two things cook what you love, and save your money. Joe doesnt know it yet, but hell work his way up from busser to waiter to chef before opening a restaurant specializing in fish and game from the great northwest. Hell start investing early, hell find some good people to help guide him, and hell set money aside from his first day of work to his last, which isnt rocket science. Its just common sense. From td ameritrade. Its just common sense. Anncr every president inherits few have faced so many. Four years later. Our enemies have been brought to justice. Our heroes are coming home. Assembly lines are humming again. There are still challenges to meet. Children to educate. A middle class to rebuild. But the last thing we should do is turn back now. President obama im barack obama and. I approve this message. Welcome back. Here is something for the candidates to keep in mind as they head to florida for their final face to face before election day. This headline in the mime herald, Foreign Policy is a local issue in south florida. Meanwhile president obama and governor romney have both picked up big endorsements from floridas largest newspapers. President obama the Tampa Bay Times and governor romney the orlando sentinel. Romney also picked up the tampa trib. Ohio papers handed out sbe endorsements. Cleveland plain dealer backing Prsident Obama and Columbus Dispatch backing romney. Ballots are being cast before election day in seven of nine battleground states. Virginia and New Hampshire dont have early in person voting. So just moments ago president obama left camp david and they are hitting back on accusations hes failed to lay out an agenda for a second term. He has laid out a second term agenda. It was a big part of the convention speech. It was a reason we got such a bump out of the convention because the American People saw what a second term would mean. Here is part of the president s second term agenda. Investment in manufacturing jobs by doubling exports and closing loopholes that send jobs overseas. 100,000 new math and science teachers expanding Community College around the country, cutting dependence on foreign oil in half and a plan to cut the deficit. Why isnt that message coming through . Well bring in congressman Charlie Rangel to talk more about that. I want to play for you first off what senator mark rubio said over the weekend on meet the press. Take a listen. The American People have got into see up close as he offers a vision for the future. But even more startling is the president s complete failure to put forth an agenda for the next four years. Senator rubio there saying americans have had more time to get to know who the real mitt romney is but the fact that the president hasnt laid out this clear agenda. Is that a problem . Has the problem failed to lay out a clear second term agenda . No. Its going close election, but its abundantly clear to everyone thats followed congress that the president s laid out an agenda that almost all of americans can opt into. But when they start out on the day that hes sworn in saying not one piece of legislation are they prepared to support in the house of representatives, the republican majority, how the heck to we get a jobs bill, how do we get tax reform, how do we get education, how can we create manufacturing jobs. But dont say we didnt lay it out. We laid it out. Were proud of it. One thing thats abundantly clear, if romney is depending on what hes tone in the past, whether were talking domestic or Foreign Policy, the president has been in charge. I really hope that he shows that hes in charge. Sir, one thing i want to get to is very important is the president says he wants to complete the work he started within his first term in the next four years. However a brand new nbc wall street journal poll shows if reelected 62 wants the president to make some major changes. Do you think those are major changes they want to see in policy or in governing styles . They want to go back network. They want decent salaries. They want to buy a home. They want to send their kids to college again. They want to feel comfortable that their life will be at least as good as their parents. Thats a feeling thats based on the economy. And the question has to be who do you have the most confidence in . Someone who has a record years ago or someone that has been trying hard to get the congress to support him . If you want to talk about a danger we have as a nation, its that the republicans, if they dont lose the majority in the house, do they say that theyve held us back for four year and thats enough, let the president complete the job . I think thats abundantly year. Thats the question. One thing that will be talked about tonight obviously is the president keeping america safe over the last four years. And the killing of Osama Bin Laden is a huge feather in his cap. Do you think the president need to walk a fine line in talking about not what has been done but how we need to protect this country over the next four years and that includes bringing up the situation in libya. I mean that is, you know, a terrorist attack, against our consulate. If i tiany time we lose one n it seems we should pause and not make a political issue, find out how it happened, who was responsible and to avoid it. But when you have tens of thousands of people dying all over the world and you dont find even the Spiritual Community talking about the number of americans die in the middle east and they concentrate you go to be president or not be president based on the lives of four heroes i dont think that makes a lot of sense when they can advocate bombing iran, they can advocate sending troops into libya, and they can talk about all other types of things and yet because its a Political Year and because its an election, they are now going to say you made a mistake by not knowing. I think Hillary Clinton is one of the best secretary of states the nation ever had. If you expect the president to be at every embassy throughout countries that we have an in thats not fair. Sir great to have you in today. I appreciate it. So stripped, were talking about Lance Armstrong and his Tour De France title. Those victories wiped from the record books. Well have the details coming up in the news now. Stay put. When you take a closer look. At the best schools in the world. You see they all have something very interesting in common. They have teachers. With a deeper knowledge of their subjects. As a result, their students achieve at a higher level. Lets develop more stars in education. Lets invest in our teachers. So they can inspire our students. Lets solve this. Very sore looking kinda blistery. It was like a red rash. Like somebody had set a bag of hot charcoal on my neck. I was a firefighter for 24 years. But, i have never encountered such a Burning Sensation until i had the shingles. I remember it well. I was in the back yard doing yard work. I had this irritation going on in my lower neck. I changed shirts because i thought there was something in the collar of the shirt irritating my neck. And i couldnt figure out what was going on. I had no idea it came from chickenpox. I always thought shingles was associated with people. A lot older than myself. I can tell you from experience, it is bad. Its something you never want to encounter. For more of the inside story, visit shinglesinfo. Com third time is the charm about 9 1 2 hours until the president and mitt romney meet face to face. What can we expect to see in this Foreign Policy show uninformer debate moderator Carol Simpson joins me next plus Linda Mcmahon is usually macing down the dems but not in her latest campaign ad. How far seen it . Wait until you find out who else has a starring role. Ylenol or t, the 1 recommended pain reliever by orthopedic doctors. Just two aleve can keep pain away all day. Back to the news. But, dad, youve got. [ voice of dennis ] allstate. With accident forgiveness, they guarantee your rates wont go up just because of an accident. Smart kid. [ voice of dennis ] indeed. Are you in good hands . [ metal rattling ] hello . Boo i am the ghost of meals past. When you dont use new pam, this is what you get. Residue . I prefer foodbased phantasm, foodtasm. Poultrygeist works too if you used chicken. [ laughs ] residoodledoo. [ female announcer ] bargain brand cooking spray can leave annoying residue. But new pam leaves up to 99 less residue. New pam helps you keep it off. So we are just hours away from the final florida face off between president obama and former Massachusetts Governor mitt romney. The stage for that showdown set at Lynn University in boca raton. Each side doing intense prep work as you can imagine knowing its the last chance to hit hard and also score with undecided voters across the country. Nbc news correspondent Peter Alexander joins me live from outside that debate hall. Set the stage for us. Give us an idea about what we know where the candidates are today. Reporter good day to you. Romney advisers acknowledge they thought the first defwibt most important. They know this one may be the most challenging because its an issue that caters better to the president than governor romney. This is different than the past ones. It is a 90minute debate that will be broken up into six 15 seg meth, four moderated by cbs anchor Bob Schieffer will focus on the middle east and terrorism and in one other significant difference is that both of the candidate will be seated which romney advisers acknowledge makes it a little more challenging for either side to have any sharp barbs. Tougher to point at your opponent when they are sitting right next to you. Romney spending much of his morning been behind closed doors with his closest advisers, among them ohio senator rob portman playing barack obama. One of the challenges for romney tonight i think will be for him to try to say what in fact hell do differently than the president. Obviously there are a lot of similarities between their world views absent the fact that governor romney has said he would support allies in arming the rebels in syria. Because theres so many similarities how does he overcome that. One thing we heard is they may try to take away the Osama Bin Laden death as and i temple they would credit the president for and then say while the president did that we give him credit for that but there are other significant differences. Ultimate reality tv tonight the debate in boca. Peter alexander live for us at olin university. The president has been in hard core prep mode at camp david huddled with him at the maryland hideaway a base of advisers. John kerry is standing in as mitt romney. The davids, axelrod and plouffe and tom donilon and karen dunn. Joining me is Carol Simpson the first female minority nod rate one of these headtoheads and professor alan schroeder. Hes a president ial historian and the author of le debates 50 years of high risk tv. Its great to have you both here. Carol line i want to start with you. What do you think we can expect this time around what the candidate will bring to the table for this third and final debate, where they will reach millions of americans. Thomas ive been wrestling with this all morning trying to speculate what may happen tonight. Were not going to have the first debate where obama was asleep. Were not going to have the second debate where they were gladiators on the arena floor. Tonight i dont have any idea. People are saying oh, they will be more somber and calmer and so on. Bath i dont think we know. One thing i do suspect, however, is that it is going to veer away from Foreign Policy and get into domestic policy again. I talked to a man in my building as i was leaving this morning and i said your watching the debate tonight and he said i dont think so. I said youre not . He said no i dont care about i dont care about Foreign Policy. I dont care about israel and iran. And im wondering if that may be the reaction of a lot of americans who want to hear more about the economy than foreign affairs. New make a great point. However this morning there were surrogates on both sides talking about what we can expect to we hear it comes to libya tonight. Take a listen. Its important we dont politicize this process. In other tragedies america came together. Its unfortunate those across the aisle is trying to divide us. Hes asking the president of the United States to get to the bottom why theres this fog around his Administration Since september 11th. Carol brings up talking to someone that she passes regularly at her building, how much do Foreign Policy debates really matter to the every day american citizen and this is indeed a no win situation for the Romney Campaign as certain experts have expressed. The president has more expertise hes constrained by what he says. Anything the sitting president of the United States says about a foreign ally or enemy has vast repercussion and romney is in a way better off hes free to say anything he wants to. Doesnt have to worry about the global consequences. One thing thats interesting and carol i want to ask this of you the fact that cbss Bob Schieffer is in the middle seat. Hes done this before in 04 and 08 but never it seems the tensions have been so high or contentious and i was reading articles today where the headlines read the thankless job offing the moderator. How well does his experience serve him in the arena as opposed to jim lehrer and Candy Crowley . Jim lehrer has tone more debates than anybody else. That was his 12th debate. It didnt serve him very well because he lost complete control of the first debate. Now, Bob Schieffer does face the nation every week so hes used to dealing with people and calming them down and getting information out of them. But i just laugh when i hear there are going to be six 15 segments devoted to these topics. I dont think they will keep to that at all. It seems too hopeful. Alan, i want to ask you because the latest polling is showing the president is above 50 on a lot of the issues but hasnt gotten the bounce he expected on the headtohead. Where hes at right now 47 not a place that any incumbent wants to be. Can the president overcome that number with just two weeks to go before election day . Well its very tough. If hes going to do it tonights debate is his last best shot. Well never see these two guys on the stage together again during the course of this campaign and i think the campaign now shifts out of the debate mode into the heavy advertising mode. So this is really an excellent shot for either of these two men to close that deal and maybe the final shot really. It will be found get some popcorn, make some drinks with you guys and watch with the 2005 you. You have very i. Ing perspectives as we watch. Carol simpsonson and dr. Lane schroeder from northeastern university. Give a shout out to my grandfather, thats his alma mater. Take care, guys. Heres some of the other stories topping the news now. Authorities say all seven of the victims in yesterdays spa shooting in wisconsin were women. Three were killed four others shot including the suspected shooters estranged wife. That suspect Radcliff Haughton died of a selfinflibted gunshot wouldnt. Larnls has been stripped much his seven Tour De France titles and has been banned from professional cycling. Cubas fidel castro is condemning rumors of his death that resurfaced over the weekend. The public will get to say good guy to form senator George Mcgovern at a public viewing his funeral held on friday. Mcgovern died yesterday. He 90 years old. And theres a lot of speck laying out there that apple will unveil the ipad mini tomorrow. Could it arrive on your door step by november 2nd. Thats if we do see it shoipg up tomorrow. Mitt romney narrows that gender gap with president obama. What the president needs to do to get more women back in his corner. Next up diana and melissa. We want to know what you think. What Foreign Policy question is burning right now . What do you want answered in tonights debate. Tweet me thomasroberts or find me on facebook. Im freaking out man. Hes, hes on my back about providing for his little girl. Hey dont worry. Etrades got a killer investing dashboard. Everything is on one page. Im watching you. Oh yeah . Well im watching you, watching him. [ male announcer ] try the etrade 360 investing dashboard. Welcome back. The gender gap has been cemented in throughout the election with president obama maintaining whats been a double digit lead with women voters across the country. However the latest polls shows mitt romney able to narrow that gender gap. The president now with his smallest lead with that crucial voting block. Joining me is democratic congresswoman, and chief deputy whip. Lets look at this poll. The president now just eight points ahead of governor romney with women voters. Romney leads by 10 points, though, with men. In your estimation what does the president need to do to hold off mitt romney and maintain what hes been able to achieve in women voters . Well, thomas the first thing i think that the president needs to do is to continue to emphasize all of the legislation that he signed on behalf of women. The Lily Ledbetter pay act which gives Women Equal Pay for doing the exact same job and the Affordable Care act where its no longer a preexisting condition to be a woman and where women can get free cervical and breast screening and family planning. I was on a bus tour around colorado with a bus full of women including the president of planned parenthood. Of course mitt romney said planned parenthood were getting rid of that. Thats the first thing the president need to do. The second thing is what we are doing is boots on the ground. Were working very hard in the targeted states of colorado and other places to make sure that women are not confused and that they go the polls and vote. Lets talk specifically about your state because i was listening to chuck todd this morning and he was talking about the breakdown of demographics, how important women are as well as the hispanic voting block. 20 of your state, colorados population is hispanic. The president leads overwhelmingly with hispanic voters. 70 to 25 of likely voters leaning towards the president. Weve seen this bump in hispanic voters that describe themselves as having high interest in this election. Can the president turn that enthusiasm into true and real hispanic turnout on election day something that can carry him through such an important state like yours, colorado. Thomas, i in a couple of areas with very high hispanic populations just yesterday, talking to some of the organizers, some of the people who are going doortodoor and they said they are finding extremely high interest among hispanic voters. Just on a personal level i was canvassing on saturday, came across a couple of young hispanic men. They werent even on my list and they were just desperate to get down and volunteer and get their friends to the polls. So i think theres a higher level of interest. Mitt romney hasnt helped himself with some of the statements he made last week in the debate and that hes made throughout the election about immigration, about the dream act and the kids who want to go to college and i think thats reverberating with hispanic voters. Thank you for joining me this morning. I appreciate it. So joining me now for a special edition of soundoff, Melissa Harris perry. Shes also a Political Science professor at Tulane University in new orleans. What do you make of mitt romney narrowing that gap along women voters. Hi, thomas. I missed you. Look, i think we want to be really clear that that lead with women voters has always been the relevant question is always which women. When we looked, for example across race we could see that a lot of president s lead with women voters came from women of color particularly africanamerican women and latinas. It came from younger women, from unmarried women. And right. And married older white women were always sort of at about a 5050 split or were in favor of mr. Romney. So i think the real issue, and the Obama Campaign knows this is the issue of turn out, that the groups of women arent just named working class women, younger women, black and latino women can also be the hardest groups to turn out but if you look at 2008 africanamerican women voted at the highest percentage of any single Demographic Group in the entire country. They had is highest percentage. If you can get that sort of turnout then key preserve a lead that will take him to a win. What Demographic Group becomes more important in this election, white men or latinos. We talked about the president , the lead that is governor romney has among, over romney in hispanic, 70 to 25 . But when we look at where governor romney is leading among white males 60 to 34 . Could this be the key to the election . It was one of the stunning things about president obamas 2008 win was that he won a higher percentage of the white vote and other white democrats that precede him. So now it will be a tough thing for the president to make up if in fact he drops back to historic levels of white male democratic support so we want to be year this is not necessarily a race issue in that the lack of support for president obama among white men may not be driven by race so much as its driven bipartisanship and 08 was a surprising year. In 08 the keys were early swroegt the president led dramatically among those who cast their vote before election day, thats important again this year particularly in places like ohio and North Carolina and the other second important thing is whether or not those labor unions, many of which are limping along after a tough yeam where we saw so many labor unions under attack, but if those labor unions could turn out white male union members, thats where the president s stronghold among white men is. So those unions turning out in states again like ohio, pennsylvania, less so in North Carolina but certainly in ohio and pennsylvania for the president. It is a horse race. Melissa harrisperry, thanks for joining me. Appreciate it. Catch melissas show right here weekends on msnbc 10 00 a. M. Thanks. So saturday night live takes on the second president ial debate. Well give you the highlights of that next. One. Two. Three. My Credit Card Rewards are easy to remember. With the bankamericard cash rewards credit card, i earn 1 cash back everywhere, every time. [ both ] 2 back on groceries. [ all ] 3 on gas no hoops to jump through. I earn more cash back on the things i buy most. [ woman in pet store ] its as easy as. [ all ] one two. [ all ] three [ male announcer ] the bankamericard cash rewards credit card. Apply online or at a bank of america near you. Bring you back with live pictures of the Vice President in canton, ohio, expected to speak there shortly, just being introduced by his daughter, ashley. This is the Vice President s 23rd trip to ohio, including just nine times alone this year. Early voting began there on october 2nd. According to two new polls today, the president leads romney there by five points, 5045. Hey you all just thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You all just met so the Vice President is going to speak in canton, then move on to another event in ohio today. It is a dog eat dog world. Legitimate rape, congressman todd aiken is catching heat for another controversial comment. This time he compared senator Claire Mccaskill to a dog, saying she goes to washington, d. C. And its a little bit like one of those dogs, fetch. She goes to washington, d. C. And gets all of these taxes and red tape and bureaucracy and executive orders and agencies, and brings all of this stuff and dumps it on us in missouri. He got raised eyebrows when he said mccaskill was more ladylike during her 06 senate campaign. Republicans must be scratching their head over Linda Mcmahons new campaign ad, despite criticizing president obama and the democrats, shes highlighting voters who support not only her, but the president. Im supporting president obama and Linda Mcmahon. Ill be voting for barack obama and Linda Mcmahon this year. Im voting for president barack obama and Linda Mcmahon for senator on the independent line. Nonstop laughs on saturday night live. This weekend, their take on the second president ial debate. Take a look. Now, the president claims that unemployment is dropping. It is. Hey, hey, hey, hey. Youll get your turn, pal, okay . I go first because i won the coin toss. This was luck. Luck . No, no, no, winning a coin toss has nothing to do with luck, my friend. Lets get something straight right now. Im not your friend. Im not yours either, sparky. Okay . What will they do next weekend . That wraps things up for me. Thanks for your time. See you back here tomorrow at 11 00 a. M. We have a great postdebate show lined up. Among our guests, sandra fluke, kasim reid, ron reagan and glen kesler to factcheck the debate. Now with alex wagner is coming up. Hi, alex. Hello, thomas. I see a brazil style glow on your face. Its just my tan. Welcome back, my friend. It is a day of the final great debate and we are focusing on the 47 . Not governor romneys fundraising gaffe but the dead heat in the latest poll. We will unpack the numbers with john heilemann, Richard Wolffe and karen finney. Plus, with 15 days to go, the candidates are taking a test in foreign languages. P. J. Crowley joins us for a discussion on iran, libya and who has the upper hand on tonights topic. And we will look at the life and career of senator George Mcgovern and what he meant to the democratic party. All of that when now starts in a mere 180 seconds. Yeah. Then howd i get this. [ voice of dennis ]. Safe driving bonus check . Every six months without an accident, allstate sends a check. Ok. [ voice of dennis ] silence. Are you in good hands . That make kids happy