0 it was an a intense study session. we saw as many romney advisers as we've seen at any of the past debate prep sessions many flying in from boston for today's session. i spoke with rob portman of ohio who is playing the role of barack obama throughout the course of the session. he was in full dress as if this would be a true dress rehearsal for monday's debate. some of the top advisers have insisted they're confident over the course of the three debate there's would be a cumulative effect where they could make their candidate seem like a viable alternative. they think they accomplished that in the first debates. they hope to take advantage of the third debate to draw contrasts on issues, not exclusive to foreign policy, but wider issues like leadership, competence and visions for the future. richard? >> a lot of people looking forward to monday's debate there. also, the governor has some plans tonight. see not necessarily going to call it a night? >> reporter: no, you're right. he is on his way to a fundraiser right now, as we understand. one of the hosts that has been reported is mark liter. he is the man who hosted that fundraiser back in may where the now infamous as they could be best described 47% comments were first made by mitt romney. this event is taking place at a different private home. the campaign has been keiji about different events throughout the course of the campaign. certainly no different today, giving no details about what exactly will be taking place there. it is closed press. florida is significant, richard. this state is third overall in terms of states where mitt romney has raised money after only california and texas. $19 million the governor has raised here compared to just $14 million for the president. and they're hoping to raise several million more tonight. >> nbc's peter alexander with the latest from daytona beach. "the new york times" reporting that a romney superpac is making a $12 million ad buy in nine states. the states include eight battleground states plus michigan where. is all this money coming from? joining me is nbc news's deputy political editor. the associated press just ranking the top fundraisers to the obama and romney campaigns. the top fundraiser for the president is jeffrey katzenberg, the film producer and ceo of dreamworks. he has raised $2.5 million. when we look at all that money, what does this say about who is supporting president obama? >> well, we know that the president himself is trying to raise a lot more money from small donors like he tried to do in 2008. but of course that's very difficult when you're running, when the environment is what it is. and the economy being what it is. i think he has leaned a little bit more, we've seen, on some of the hollywood types who have been able to try to bring out some big crowds to some of the events that we have seen. now the president has tried to get some of these guys to maybe donate to some of those superpacs and outside groups, like priorities usa. but really, priorities pales in comparison to what conservative groups have been able to raise. >> conservatives on the other side here. number one on mitt romney list is sheldon adelson, the owner of the las vegas sands casino empire which has been named so often a throughout this campaign. he has raised $34 million so far. how is the romney campaign using that money? >> well, not just raise $34 million. he has donated himself personally with his wife and daughter, something like $25 million of that money. so that is a ton of cash coming from one person. and a, you know, look. the fact is this has been one of the campaigns where we're on pace for a billion dollars in fundraising, or in ad spending. so we're at about $840 million now. and it's just a wash from both sides. >> you know, when you say $1 billion. we're saying it could be a billion dollars. and now that we're getting close to it, it's very much a reality here. a billion dollars. it's really hard to put one's arms around that. >> right. and that's just for tv and radio ads, local and national and on cable. that is just a ton of money. and most of it being spent in three places. ohio, florida, and virginia. and ohio, watch this week. we've been saying for a while now that florida is the top spender at about $168 million while ohio is right behind it now, closed the gap in the last week. ohio within the next few days is going to be the top spending state. if you think about per capita what that means. >> oh, boy. >> i mean toledo is not miami. >> right. >> as far as a media market goes. florida is traditionally a very expensive tv state. ohio not so much. >> yeah, yeah, really good point there's. and also involved is michigan part of the ad buys now? >> not really. michigan is much, much further down. only $13 million has been spent in michigan as compared to some of the other states. but mitt romney because he was born there has continuously felt like he should have a chance there. but they haven't spent -- his campaign hasn't spent any money there at all. they have relied on restore our future to try to see if the needle will move. so far not as much movement as they would like. >> all right. thank you so much. great stuff. >> thanks, richard. less than two days from the final showdown between governor romney and barack obama. both are forced to face off with a lot of questions behind it. the pugh show on september 11th, the president's lead on foreign policy has dropped 11 points. one foreign policy expert is now saying he is not expecting to have his own questions answered at monday's debate. he joins me right now, james trobe, contributing writer for foreign policy magazine and "the new york times" magazine. very good day to you. >> thank you, richard. good to be here. >> so give me your thoughts here. we just said you don't expect the questions that you have to be answered. why is that? we do have 90 minutes here. >> they've got to talk about something, obviously. >> right. >> if you look at the last debate where they thought there would be half foreign policy and half domestic. and the only foreign policy question was libya. i think people who actually have followed this libya thing find it incredibly display maiing. while there are some very important questions about libya, like should the united states have intervened? is it good thing? how do we feel about the consequences of democracy in the arab world? that's not what anyone is talking about. mitt romney is saying when did you say terrorist and what did you mean by the word terrorist? the underlying question is it's very confusing. it seems it was spontaneous act a, though carried out by an organization that has very ill will towards the u.s. >> one of the arguments the romney campaign might be making is the romney administration, this is indicative of a foreign apparatus, the way foreign affairs has been undertaken in the last four years. that is what they might be saying. >> right. their underlying arguments would be a couple. specifically on the arab world. that would say obama says we have won the war against terrorism. we haven't. now that's a real problem for obama, because i think he would have said a couple of months ago when obama had a one-sentence answer to everything, we killed osama bin laden, that would have kind of ended the conversation. now it doesn't. that's a problem for him. >> how should they structure these ideas, which are not necessarily an everyday conversation for most voters? and issues that need to be at the front in the next 90 minutes of this debate. >> well, look, there are a couple of things i think obama is going to say. in a way, because people are in such a sour mood about the world, they're angry, they're fearful, one of his strongest suits is i have removed america's vulnerability. i'm winding down the war in afghanistan. i've wound down the war in iraq. that's already, that's been a strong suit for him. it continues to be. >> that's one. >> but the hardest question is when people say have you made us safer, and his answer has long been yes, have i gone after terrorism and afghanistan and pakistan. i've deeply damaged al qaeda. but now when you see the chaos in the middle east, you say well, it's moved. it's moved to yemen. it's moved to malli. there is not an easy answer. >> economically, you got the eurozone, germany, france, spain, greece, those issues. >> right. >> those who are leading the eurozone. you've got asia there is concerns over there about terrorism. that's where a big portion of the military investment is being shifted to. you've got the economy out of china. how are these all going to be put together and communicated to viewers in a nice cogent, simple manner. >> i'll say this. romney in a way has an easier job to do. here is what he is going to say. things are bad out there. they're bad in the middle east. they're bad in iran. why? it's because america is weak. what does it mean? it's because obama is irresolute. because obama won't spend enough money on the pentagon. now, is that legitimate? no. i think because we have an incredibly difficult adverse world we face there are no easy answers to that but you don't want to be the incumbent president saying that. you want to say no, that's not true. so i think obama probably has to pull the camera back a little bit and say now wait a minute. we went in on the side. we helped force mubarak of egypt, hosni mubarak, to step down. we joined this intervention in libya. is that a good thing? yes, it is. does it require patience from us? is it going to be difficult? yes, it does. those are much harder things to say than we're week, we're irresolute, we've got to spend more money. so in a way, even though i think the merits on obama's side, it's very easy now. it wasn't a few months ago for romney to mount an effective rhetorical attack on obama's foreign policy. >> we have the issue of the road map to peace. we'll see how that is brought up in monday's debate too. >> no good answer on that, right? >> james, we should talk for 30 minutes on this. oh we obviously could. james traub, thank you so much for your time today. roberts makes his endorsement in the presidential case, plus the earth is warming. the climate clash that has been this campaign's big secret. 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