I went to the holocaust hume there. You mentioned the navy and we have fewer ships than we did in 1916. Well, governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets. One of the challenges weve had with iran is they have looked at this administration and the administration was not as strong as it needed to be. You said we have to ask pakistan for permission. If we had, wield not have gotten it. We had to go in pakistan. The president was right. Im still speaking. I love teachers. I love teachers. I think we all love teachers. How you like me now how you like me now how you like me now weve heard the analysis, weve listened to the pundits, but we saw that debate with our own eyes. And last night the commander in chief delivered a performance of authority and strength that rendered his challenger almost mute. And now fresh off the stage, its onto a 14day push through the allimportant swing states with dueling events happening this very hour. The president and Vice President are in the crucial state of ohio, part of a 48hour 6state blitz. There is Vice President biden speaking right now, and this morning there was no way the president would miss a chance to rally in battleground florida with a huge crowd, alerting them to the chronic condition that is afflicting the republican nominee. Its called romnesia. We had a severe outbreak last night. It was at least, at least stage three romnesia. Yes, indeed, but far from being quarantined, they headed west to nevada. You can see congressman paul ryan on stage right now. Unfortunately, that vision of victory may prove to be a little less than a desert mirage. Alas, just this morning nbc moved nevada out of the battleground column to lean obama. Add ohio and wisconsin for the president , and mitt romney can put down his pakistan cliff notes, his atlas of subsaharan frsk africa, his vac with us campaign and spend the rest of his days at his beach House Reading binders of remorse. We have julian epstein, jonathan capehart, and here with me in new york, msnbc political analyst jonathan alter, a columnist for the bloomberg view. John capehart, if i can start with you, in the first debate mr. Romney was antagonistic. In the second debate much more friendly to the president. In the third debate he became the president , agreeing with virtually everything that the commander in chief said. That debate, that wasnt a debate. That was political osmosis. It was incredible. As i wrote today, what a waste of time. At a certain point i began to feel like i either was listening to them in stereo or sitting in an echo chamber. Mitt romney, who has campaigned on a whole lot of issues, Foreign Policy issues, suddenly john, im sorry to interrupt you john, im sorry to interrupt you, you said it was a waste of time. How can it possibly be a waste of time when a candidate for president of this country is exposed as utterly ignorant in Foreign Policy, who looks at an atlas and throws out the country mali it give the impression he knows something about Subsaharan Africa . That was the point of last night and that was not worthless, john. Well, okay, fine. Also we learned that iran had an alliance with syria because they needed a route to the sea. That being said, a debate is supposed to be at least when you have a democrat and a republican vying for the white house, youre supposed to have two different visions, two different policy ideas being battled across a table. We saw that at the domestic policy debate, the second debate, that the visions couldnt be more clear. When it came to Foreign Policy, they were one and the same. As you said, it was as if mitt romney became president obama by osmosis. Julian, well play some clips in a moment of the debate, but is the standard now that so long as you dont say anything or do anything aside from sweating like a pig on heat, you qualify as president . Well, yeah, i think if romney had gotten any closer to obama last night, he would have had to endorse him. I thought an endorsement was coming at the end of the debate. I think on body language as well, as you point out, obama was cool as a cucumber, and i think he kind of won the stare down contest. Romney was sweaty and fidgety and stammered quite a bit. But the strategy was a very cynical and vacuous one as you point out. Its this idea he wants to get across hes not a crazy warmonger and thats all he needed to do. Thats the only bar he needed to cross. I think the polls will show in a couple days that the American People want more substance than that, they want more character, they want more steadiness, more poise, a guy who is more in command of whats going on. I think the polls will show that its just a matter of days, notwithstanding this false narrative that republicans are trying to give right now that they still have the momentum. John the momentum stopped. John, to julians point, i mean, everybody that i have heard on this subject from the right has said that mitt romney did marvelously because he looked president ial. I mean, really . Pierce brosnan looks president ial. Daniel craig looks president ial. Is that it now . Hes looked president ial since 2008 when he first started running for president. That wasnt a bar for him to cross. Hes always looked like central castings idea of a president. That seemed to me to be kind of a false notion, that somehow he needed to get over that. His problem last night was he didnt look strong, and most americans who have busy lives and are not paying close attention, they just want to know one thing from a debate. They judge the winner of a debate, not necessarily the person theyre going to vote for, but the winner of a debate on the basis of who was stronger. They want a strong president. In the first debate romney was stronger. He just he carried himself in a stronger way. Those of us at msnbc were willing to admit that romney won the debate. When the shoe was on the other foot last night, the fox people, and this tells you a Little Something about the difference between fox and msnbc, they were living in an alternate reality where because theyre all essentially just spinning 24 7 for their candidate, they said that romney won the debate. It was insane. Clearly obama won the debate. That doesnt mean hes going to necessarily win the election nobody is suggesting that. Theres an important point people need to focus on. When obama lost the first debate, all of us on the left conceded he lost. Then when obama won the debate clearly last night, the game that the republicans are playing is to pretend that romney did well, pass the bar, had a good night so they prevent that narrative from being written. And this is a game that republicans played in 2000 when karl rove suggested that george bush would win over 300 electoral votes. Its a game john mccain played in 2008 when he suggested he could come close in pennsylvania when he lost by ten points. This is a game that is intended to create the illusion of momentum that romney has, but as all the polling data is showing right now, obama is in the drivers seat. You move nevada into his column, theres six states left. Obama only has to win onethird of those states and hes ahead in most of the states. Obama is in the drivers seat right now. Right. John, if i can come to you, if Election Year Foreign Policy translates to israel, im really not sure romney won this round for his friend bibi, particularly when he tried to go on the old apology tour route. Take a listen, john. You said that america had been dismissive and derisive. You said that on occasion america had dictated to other nations. Mr. President , america has not dictated to other nations. We have freed other nations. When i went to israel as a candidate, i didnt take donors. I didnt attend fundraisers. I went to the Holocaust Museum there to remind myself the nature of evil and why our bond with israel will be unbreakable. John capehart, do you think Shirley Adelson is somewhere throwing dots at his romney photo tacked over the one of Newt Gingrich he had originally . Probably not. But i do think that that segment for me was the most powerful moment in that debate. The president has taken a lot of criticism from republicans, from apec and other organizations who feel that the president has ignored israel, hasnt paid enough attention to israel, quite frankly, isnt even backing israel, and he just popped that balloon by reminding them that when he went there as a candidate, he didnt go there for show. He went there to learn and to understand and to also show that if he had become president of the United States, which indeed he did, that he would stand strong with israel as every american president has before him. So for me i thought that was a very powerful moment, and you notice as with every zinger that the president delivered to mitt romney, mitt romney remained mute. I didnt think it was as powerful because i think the president made a mistake in not going to israel as president sometime in the last four years, and American Jews know this, and hes not going to get 78 like he did the last time. Whether that ends up being decisive in this campaign we dont know, but he did limit some of that, limit some of that damage, and mostly he seemed very tough on terrorism, very convincing on the killing of Osama Bin Laden, and convincing on the fact that romney had thought he should not move heaven and earth to get bin laden. To me the best line in the debate, the mostab memorable on about bay yoi nets but the most important was when he referenced bush and cheney. This election is about whether americans want to take a another ride with the bush cheney roud because all the people around him 70 . Are the same as an interesting segue. I think obama has made clear hes as close a friend to israel as israel has ever had. Where are the neocons . Romney conceded the point on the benghazi, on egypt, on syria. He conceded the point on iran. And on pakistan where he even said he wouldnt withhold any aid. Whoa, whoa, whoa, im not finished yet. He conceded the point on iraq and the troop strength, on Osama Bin Laden, on every major flash point in the middle east he conceded the point in a way that the neocons have consistently criticized this president , so why are the neocons giving him a pass right now . And my theory is because they believe romney is a marionette who will do anything they want him to do once he gets into the white house, and that again i think is something that is just not going to wash with the American People over the next two weeks. Extraordinary. I totally agree with that. Julian epstein, jonathan capehart, and jonathan alter, thank you all very much. As we go to break, live pictures from ohio and nevada, both candidates pressing their respective cases with just two weeks to go until election day. Do stay with us. Id like to thank eating right, whole grain, multigrain cheerios mom, are those my jeans . [ female announcer ] people who choose more whole grain tend to weigh less than those who dont. 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Both candidates have begun major swinging through states that will prove critical to the eventual winner. This includes florida, ohio, iowa, colorado, virginia, and nevada. If you thought you detected a domestic policy debate in Foreign Policy clothing last night, well, you might just be right. Weve got to make sure that we reduce our deficit. Unfortunately, governor romneys plan doesnt do it. When it comes to our economy here at home, i know what it takes to create 12 million new jobs. What weve done is reformed education working with governors, 46 states. Let me get back to Foreign Policy, can i just get back joining us now is my colleague steve kornacki, one of the hosts of the cycle and in washington the great clarence page, a columnist for the chicago tribune. We were hearing the president just now and well continue to show live pictures referring to romneys disease of romnesia, but paul ryan has problems with mathematics and his electoral math is a problem, isnt it, because he has a problem if the president wins ohio and wisconsin. Hes got a big problem then, doesnt he . Theres a couple problems here with this map for romney. The ohio, wisconsin, and iowa, hes got to make some inroads there. Before that theres these four obama 08 states that are necessary for romney to flip over. Starts with north carolina. Hes well positioned to do that. Florida, more likely than not to do that, but he also has to flip virginia and colorado before we can Start Talking about the ohio wisconsin scenario. I think those are right now both of those at best 50 50 states for romney. I think the real theres a telling statistic out there. If you compare the exit polls from 2008 with the gallup polls from right now. If you look at the regional breakdown you mean the gallup tracking poll. If you look at the regional breakdown, in 2008 in the south, in the exit poll, it was even, obama versus mccain. Today in that gallup tracking poll, its a 22point lead for mitt romney. So i think what youve seen is almost it looks like theres been an explosion of antiobama sentiment in very, very red states which might be inflating romneys standing in that National Horse race but then you start looking at those battleground states and its a different story. Clarence, romney may have lost this election when gm filed for chapter 11 on june the 1st, 2009, and the government, as you know, provided up to 30 billion in financing. I have to say when i watched romney last night, i thought he delivered the most sophisticated lie of this election when he suggested absolutely shamelessly that he would have guaranteed or offered a guarantee to the Auto Industry, and perhaps hes assuming that we voters dont understand that you dont have a guarantee unless you have a loan. Someone has to give you the money. A guarantee is pointless without the equity. Thats quite right, and i think when i heard governor romney said that, i thought where were you when ohio needed you, when michigan needed you . Thats what the voters out there are saying now. Its very wellknown that the banks just werent there to finance a bailout or loans for the Auto Industry, and obama took the u. S. Government into it and got them on their feet. It was a very successful venture. And the people out in michigan and ohio in particular remember it. Indeed. Steve, why do you think romney talked about building up the navy, aside from the fact he was concerned about virginia and New Hampshire . I think he was desperate for distinction, for what would sound like politically palatable distinctions. Didnt someone say to him 1916 ships and so on are not comparable to, you know, submarines that carry cruise missiles . This is a symptom of a candidate in a party that have really when it comes to Foreign Policy have taken the last four years off. The very crude calculation in the Republican Party when barack obama was elected was that the economy was collapsing and that they were going to oppose everything and that when the economy wasnt healed four years later, they would be able to say, looking hes failed. Theres really no role for Foreign Policy in that other than to say obama has failed at that, too. But they have not built, they have not gone back and developed and articulated a distinct vision of americas role in the world. I think it really showed in the debate last night where romney was not going to be attacking obama from the left and raising questions on drones or Something Like that. He was not going to be beating the war drums like bush did like the bushies did a decade ago, and that left him really i think scrambling to find distinctions and i think thats one of them. That was ludicrous, wasnt it . Of course, pnd thats the point. I dont think he has much to say on the subject. Early voting tends to favor democrats and ohios secretary of state says today more than threequarters of a million votes have been cast. That and the bailout may be the two pillars, i suspect, that swing ohio for the president. Is that fair . Well, ohio has been very heavily in the president s column in most of the polling so far. Certainly romney got a bump after that first debate, but he didnt close the gap. Nevertheless, ohio is so important for romney, like other republican candidates, that theyre still fighting it out, and it looks doubtful at this point that ohio sf going to swing over toward romney. If it did, i think wed see a cascade across the country that hasnt materialized. Indeed. Clarence page and steve kornacki, thank you, both. Stay with us, much more ahead. I want to give those tax breaks to small businesses, manufacturers, that create jobs in dayton, right here in the United States of america. Where others fail, droid powers through. Introducing the new droid razr maxx hd by motorola. Now more than ever droid does. [ male announcer ] it started long ago. The joy of giving something everything youve got. It takes passion. And its not letting up anytime soon. At unitedhealthcare insurance company, we understand that commitment. And always have. So does aarp, an Organization Serving the needs of americans 50 and over for generations. 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Like a typically aggressive football or a rug bifixture, last nights president ial debate featured some heavy rhetorical punches, some big hits, followed by the traditional postmatch handshakes. In the midst of the bonhomie and banter, our eyes were drawn to tagg, who is also a campaign adviser. You will remember it was tagg romney who told a radio interviewer he wanted to take a swing at the president for calling his father a liar and was only dissuaded from doing so by the presence of the secret service. So last night tagg had his big opportunity. The president was on stage without any protection. He could give him his best shot. But, like a lot of pampered children, the young romney did no such thing. Instead, he took the opportunity of speaking with the president. Now, were neither experts in lip reading nor body language, but to watch the moment, you wonder if tagg maybe said Something Like, mr. President , im sorry for my childish threat, i had no idea the size of you. Or i recognize you have been fighting since you were born and i wouldnt stand a chance in the ring against you. Or mr. President , the only things i ever took a swing at is my fathers rolodex. Whatever he said, here is the ning about this president , you can make up a bogus narrative about a socalled apology tour but if you apologize to him, hell shake your hand and thank you for you. Stay with us. Todays top lines are coming up. So im asking for your vote. Im asking to you help me finish the job. I believe in you and i need you to keep believing in me. And if you stand with me and knock on some doors with me, make some phone calls with me, well win Montgomery County again. Well win ohio again. Well win this election again. Well finish what we started. Well remind the world why the United States of america is the greatest nation on earth. God bless you, ohio. God bless the United States of america. [ female announcer ] over the years, your mouth has giggled, snuggled, bubbled. 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Its kind of like drinking a food thats a drink, or a drink thats a food, zip zip zip zip zip im literally getting zinged by the flavor. Smooth, but crisp. Velvety. Kind of makes me feel like a dah zing yah woooooh [ male announcer ] taste it and describe the indescribable. Couldve had a v8. Woooo from the ghosts of bush and cheney, to horses and bayonets. Here are to thes top lines, make love, not war. We had our third and last debate. Foreign policy tonight. The edge will probably going to the candidate wearing the i killed Osama Bin Laden tshirt. Your strategy has been all over the map. We dont want another iraq, another afghanistan. Foreign policy from the 1980s, the social policies of the 1950s. Attacking me is not an agenda. You have to be clear. Our purpose is to make sure the world is peaceful. We spend more on our military than the next ten countries combined. Come on our website, you will look at how we get to a balanced website. We have fewer horses and bayonets. We have ships that go underwater, nuclear submarines. This has been the biggest whopper told during the course of the campaign. We have freed other nations from dictators. I didnt take donors. I didnt attend fundraisers. I went there to remind myself the nature of evil. I would do nothing to hurt the u. S. Auto industry. You saw that mitt romney is ready to be a great president. Governor romney seemed to be rushing to agree with everything the president had done. We didnt want to go into all the litigation of it. Then who are you . Whose strategies worked better in your mind . We report and you decide. Frenetic at times desperate. Childish, pet lent, thank you mr. Community organizers. Hold on now sparky. Horses were ridden by our troops. Marines still use bayonets. My mouth fell from my head to the floor. Here is why i think romney didnt engage on libya. Because women dont like confrontation. Romney didnt do anything, nothing. 6 registered voters undecided. Make up your mind for the love of god lets get right to our panel now. Were joined by msnbc contributor maria teresa kumar, who is president and ceo of voter latino and krystal brall from the cycle. You heard mr. Oreilly there. He said mitt romney did nothing, absolutely nothing. Is that what now qualifies you for the presidency . Dont do anything . Its insane. Was the bar really so low for mitt romney that all he had to do was show up and say it was Becky Becky Becky stand, stand and they were impressed. When the republican lose they whine. They know they lost but the best they can do is sort of to whine about it and complain about the president , he was too mean. Well, when romney was aggressive in the first debate, they were perfectly happy about it, and when the president didnt do well in the first debate, democrats were the first ones to admit that he didnt have a Strong Performance and needed to improve. Republicans just dant live in the world of reality. Its tough. Maria teresa, lets check in with the true arbiter of american politics, donald trump. He sent out a tweet last night called the debate, im quoting him, pretty even. So i guess if you translate that into english, it means romney was destroyed. Pretty much. I think the polls demonstrate the president won hands down. Now, the fact that romney didnt do any big mistakes, i think when its the president who is looking tough and strong, oh, were afraid that he might be scaring the women folk. And the other thing with romney, thats the other thing about how they set the bar so low for him. Apparently as long as he didnt come out and scare everybody and declare war that day, that was a win for him. This is an achievement. Right. Incredible. And hes declared war every other time, right . I think thats what people are very nervous. They dont know where hes coming from or where he stands. What are you talking about . Hes never said that. I dont know what youre talking about. You have clearly received a vaccine that prevents you from contributing romnesia. If you get romnesia listen, if you get romnesia, you can propose invading iran, you can tool up the Syrian Rebels and thats fine, but today you disagree with both those positions, thats not a problem. I think its because the knew conservative neocons, they realize what romney needed to do yesterday was basically not tell the truth. He didnt have to be explicit because behind closed doors he tells them what it is. I think, again, thats where i think a lot of women, they smell something funny and they say we dont truss you. Yeah. Krystal, you were talking about the National Security moms. We hear about the war moms and a focus group of war moms gave the debate last night to the president. One of the women called mr. Romneys attacks hypocritical. Which of the specific comments of romney was hypocriticahypocr . There were a lot. I think the entire performance was hypocritical. And, you know, if you just look at if you take away the substance, people are always saying dont listen to what they say, watch what theyre doing, watch the split screen, watch how they are responding, and i think romney looked very uncomfortable throughout the entire debate and it felt like he was just reciting notes that he had read on wikipedia rather than having his own intuitive grasp of the world. He was sweating like a school boy school girl, sorry, who hadnt prepared for the exam. He was literally perspiring in front i wanted to throw a tissue at him. What has he spent the past month just going on and on about . Attacking the president over his response in libya. First question out of the gate is on libya and romney stumbles over his answer, can barely answer libya and discards all the talking points hes been using. If hes sitting there on the stage with someone who is actually going to call him out, it cant stand the light of day. Romnesia, we all need it. Thank you both. Next, you sunk mitts battleship. Why mr. Romney feels America Needs to be prepared to face the kaisers fleet. Stay with us. Theres a theme here. He keeps on loving stuff and then wants to end it or cut it or not help it. Do you really love the lamp or are you just saying it because you saw it . I love lamp. I love lamp. Keys, keys, keys. Well, hes not very handsome to look at [ sighs ] oh, hes shaggy and he eats like a hog [ male announcer ] the volkswagen jetta. Available with advanced keyless technology. Control everything from your pocket, purse, or wherever. Thats the power of german engineering. That dirty, old eggsuckin dog with a vial and syringe. Me, explaining what i was doing at breakfast. And me discovering novolog mix 70 30 flexpen. Flexpen is prefilled with your premix insulin. Dial the exact dose. Inject by pushing a button. No vials, syringes or coolers to carry. Flexpen is insulin delivery my way. 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Chances are, youre not made of money, so dont overpay for motorcycle insurance. Geico, see how much you could save. And so the question is not a game of battleship where were counting ship, its what are our capabilities. The debating is over now and weve only got one final fortnight standing between us and election day. Will the race change again in the labs 14 days . Only time will tell, but one thing is for sure, this will be a mad dash to the finish. Mitt romneys game of battleship sorry. Souning me is msnbc contributor and former u. S. Marine, Goldie Taylor and karen finney, also the former communications detector for the dnc. My apologies. Goldie, paul ryan was back on mop up duty. Here is what he had to say about bayonets and horses. To compare modern american battleships and navy with bayonets i just dont understand that comparison. The president all these defense cuts if all these defense cuts go through, our navy will be smaller than it was in world war i. Thats simply not true. The size of the u. S. Naval fleet reached its lowest point in 2007 under george bush. Naval ships today as you know do more than they could do in the days of world war 19. Can you just spell that out, goldie. The interesting part about this is that paul ryan doesnt understand because, frankly, hes never served. Hes never put his name on an enlistment contract. Hes never gone through boot camp. Doesnt know what the navy does or how it does it. Comparing, you know, our naval fleet today is like comparing the smartphone i have in my hand to rotary phones that my grandmother had. Frankly, these ships, these vessels can do more. They can be more. And, you know, to compare them to the fleets that we had in 1917 is just, frankly, a misnomer. You know, bigger budgets dont always equate to a better fight. What we have to understand is that our landscape has changed in the way that we fight the enemy. The battle field isnt always you cant roll up to Osama Bin Laden on the uss nimitz. At the end of the day you have to you have to be we have to be equipped with the tools that you we need at the time we need them and the budget has to be right size. Whether its smaller or larger is irrelevant. You have to make sure the right resources get to the front line at the right time. Indeed. Absolutely. Karen, would you please give us your opinion on this piece of republican reaction . Its a tweet from dr. Transvaginal probe himself, Virginia Governor bob mcdonnell, who says the president s comments about horses and bayonets is an insult to every say lor w40 has put ous hr her life on the line for our country. What is he talking about . He was trying to pander for votes. I have to say, i have a lot of family members in the navy. I dont think they were offended by any comments about bayonets and horses. I think what folks in our Service Armed services as well as voters like me, what im more offended by is the idea that latching onto this number, and i think this was part of what the president was trying to get at, the number of ships in the naval fleet, is any kind of substitute for a real policy on our defenses. Yeah, but its a lot easier than having a policy, karen. You just look at cliff notes. You stick the statistics together and you spout them at a debate and people say you look president ial. Thats what that was about. And then you dont have to talk about what your counterterrorism strategy is and you dont have to talk about how you would allocate resources. Absolutely not. What are you talking about . Thats rubbish. Just mention a few boats. Im just a silly girl so what do i know anyway. Part of whats so offensive is really, seriously, lets think about this. For the last several weeks the sum total of what mitt romney has had to say on defense policy is the 2 trillion that he wants to spend and his concern there arent enough naval ships in the fleet. Thats it. That cannot be the commander in chief test at this point because were in big trouble if it is. Well done, mr. Romney. Goldie, the kaisers dread naughts dont rule the waves in the 21st century so isnt the real insult that mitt romneys assumption is voters dont know the difference between the navy we had in world war i and the navy we had today, and i should also disclose that my father was in the British Royal navy. Well, i should also disclose my older half brother terrence is a retired naval officer and i think their real flighter slight to all this stuff is not once during the debate, not one single time, did mitt romney reference the men and women who serve in our Nations Armed forces, not one time did he talk about how hes going to take care of veterans when they return home with Meaningful Health care and meaningful jobs. That was the real insult. You dont hear him talking about veterans. He didnt mention them once in his speech before the rnc convention. Not one time did he pay homage to the service, the blood, sweat, and tears they put out on the line every day. Maybe thats because no romney has ever served, not him, not his sons, not his father, not his grandfather. Maybe thats the reason why. Theyre willing to take us to war. Theyre willing to draw red lines all over the planet, but theyre not willing to serve for themselves, and thats a real issue here. If youre going to put someone elses life on the line, be darn sure that youre willing to step out there for yourself. Absolutely. Karen, to goldies point, there was no mention last night by mr. Romney of our veterans but he was very keen to show off his knowledge of one country in particular. Take a listen, please, karen. Mali has been taken over, the northern part of mali, by al qaedatype individuals. With mali now having north mali taken over by al qaeda. Karen, mr. Romney mentioned the west african nation of mali at least four times last night. Now, we dont wish to minimize its importance. No, no. But mr. Romney appeared to have selected mali as one might select the numbers on the lottery. Pull out mali to sound impressive. Well, thats clearly the one piece of information that he could remember from the power point when he was studying. Like mali, they have terrorists, say mali, it will sound exotic and people will think i know what im talking about. Here is whats interesting. You just showed it on the map. I wonder if he knows where it is on a map considering the other mistake he made regarding certain countries that are not actually landlocked and actually do have access to the seas. I mean, does he even know where these countries are is a big question, and does he even understand the complexities of whats going on in mali is another question. Thats a very good question and i think we know what the answer to that is, no and no. Karen finney and Goldie Taylor, thank you so much. Next, mitts big trip comes back to trip him up. Stay with us. Bob. Oh, hey alex. Just picking up some, brochures, posters copies of my acceptance speech. Great its always good to have a backup plan, in case i get hit by a meteor. Wow, your hair looks great. Didnt realize they did photoshop here. Hey, good call on those mugs. Cant let em see what youre drinking. You know, im glad were both running a nice, clean race. No need to get nasty. Heres your honk if you had an affair with taylor yard sign. Looks good. [ male announcer ] fedex office. Now save 50 on banners. Karen finney and Goldie Taylor, karen finney and Goldie Taylor, at this hour the president and Vice President have just wrapped up a major rally in dayton, ohio. No less than 1 in 8 jobs in the Buckeye State relies upon the Auto Industry. And despite mr. Romneys latest attempt to rewrite his own editorial, the president was having none of it. Provide government assistance to the u. S. Auto Companies Even if they went through bankruptcy. You said that they could get it in the private marketplace. That wasnt true. They would have gone through youre wrong, mr. President. No, i am not wrong. Youre wrong. People can look it up. People will look it up. Michael crowley is Deputy Washington Bureau chief for time magazine. Good afternoon, mike. I understand that mr. Romney now claims to be the champion of the motor industry. Hes also now claiming credit for st. Pauls cathedral in london and the pyramids in egypt, but if youre a worker in ohio, its hard, is it not, not to credit the president for saving the Auto Industry. I think thats absolutely right, and i think obama had the better if you go back and look at the oped, i think obama was in the right on that exchange. You know, romney talked about government loan guarantees for postbankruptcy financing for detroit. He did want to let the automakers go into bankruptcy. I guess he was saying the government could guarantee some loans on the other side of bankruptcy. He talked about some other go. Investment in things like Energy Research that would help the Auto Industry in that broad, indirect way, but i think hes trying to spin it in at least last night was trying to spin it in an inaccurate way. I talked to a Romney Campaign person in ohio today. They really dont have a compelling response to this point, and what theyre trying to do i think is chip away. Romney is focusing on a lot of microissues. A Nuclear Power plant obama said he would do more for. A tank manufacturing plant in lima, i agree. Theres some pensionholders who got what they say was a bad deal from the bailout and didnt get a good deal on their pension. Theyre trying to chip away at it on these micro local angles but on the larger argument i dont think they have a good retort, and i think obama is winning i think more people are believing him on the question of bankruptcy for detroit. I think, mike, that may be because the president was telling the truth because when mitt romney used the word guarantee last night, that was a felicitous and sophisticated untruth because you and i know there was no private equity to save the motor industry. Steve rattner, who was in that team of people begging private investors, wrote an oped in the New York Times and explained there was nobody. Yeah. I think thats right. I think thats what it comes down to is, you know, this was true of a lot of things in the economy at the time. It was a big rationale for the stimulus, that the private sector there was a huge vacuum where an influx of money was needed to save the Auto Industry, to prevent the economy from collapsing totally, and only the government really had the resources and the luxury and the economic ability to step in and fill that gap. So on the specific example it was true of the Auto Industry and the larger example it was true of the stimulus where you just had to create you had to pump a lot of money into the system. You had to create more demand. So it was not something the private sector could do either for cars or for the economy as a whole and i think obama does have the better of that argument. If i might just briefly, mike, move you onto the subject of israel, when romney pulled out his bogus fantasy about the president s socalled apology tour, im not sure that he was quite expecting this response. Take a listen. That actually was a clip from the president speaking. Here is the actual clip we were going to play. When i went to israel as a candidate, i didnt take donors. I didnt attend fundraisers. I went to the Holocaust Museum there. Very briefly, mike, is it safe to assume romney will drop that line of attack as fast as he appeared to drop the benghazi rubbish . Florida still being an important state i think he will pound away on israel. The Jewish Voters in florida are very important. I thought the most interesting fact that obama did not mex is Ronald Reagan in two terms as president did not pay a state visit to israel and george bush did not do it until his second term. So i think its actually a great comeback for obama, one he chose not to use. It takes people like you, mike, to know those facts. Michael, thank you so much. Thank you, martin. Stay with us. Much more ahead. I am probably going to the gas station about once a month. Last time i was at a gas station was about. I would say. Two months ago. I very rarely put gas in my chevy volt. I go to the gas station such a small amount that i forget how to put gas in my car. [ male announcer ] and its not just these owners giving the volt high praise. Volt received the j. D. Power and associates appeal award two years in a row. [ male announcer ] why do more emergency workers everywhere trust duracell. . . Duralock power preserve. Locks in power for up to 10 years in storage. Now. Guaranteed. Duracell with duralock. Trusted everywhere. We create easy to use, powerful Trading Tools for all. Look at these streaming charts theyre totally customizable and they let you visualize what might happen next. Thats genius strategies, chains, positions. 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