forth, being sort of in the right, if you will. and i think there s no chance we re going to know exactly what happened by monday. so i think they re both going to have to try to couch it in terms of what we know now, and not get too far ahead of themselves. so, adam, you ve seen what i just read to anne. and you know, we re getting reports on both sides of the argument, political argument, that s being made by the candidates at the moment. where does it favor who does it favor at the moment, if either of the two? sure. i think it s right that obama had a very good moment in the town hall debate. he talked about it not being a political issue, that he s the one who has to greet the caskets when they come home. that being said, i think the issue overall is quite bad for him. and it s not at all surprising that romney would want to bring it up again on monday night. simply because it s you know, foreign policy is always tied to the president. and whoever or wherever the fault lie
anne, to you. let s talk about what adam was just alluding to. florida, there are two new polls that show the same trend here. these are the numbers. an obama lead here, evaporating into a narrow romney lead, when we look at the obama versus romney florida poll numbers here today versus september 19th. and that has changed, as you can see here, to flip over. now, does the president need florida the way he does ohio, in the many scenarios that they re probably gaming? no, not quite as badly. i mean, the president actually has a number of paths to 270, more than mitt romney does. but even beyond the math, i would say that for mitt romney, ohio has symbolic value, which is that no republican has won the presidency without it. so there s both the merit in going there to get to the numbers and also because if he s seen as losing ohio, if he were to actually pull out of ohio wing that would be seen as
washington, anne kornblut, deputy national political editor for the washington post, and here in new york, adam sorenson, an associate editor at time magazine. thank you both for joining us. adam, i want to start with you. you know, the president s lead, you know, we saw the new fox poll there. he s ahead, but you ve been watching the numbers. that has been shrinking. it s somewhat expected as we get closer to election day, but most polls show he s never trailed this year. now, assuming this does hold, what is romney s strategy, do you think, these last two-plus weeks? i think that he has to romney definitely has to contend for ohio. it s not a place he can simply give up on. he is close and obama was leading before the first debate, probably by as much as five, six, seven, eight points. and now that is a much more narrow race. so i think he can contend there. but really what he needs, he really needs florida and a number of other states to help him close that margin, if he doe
aggressive minor tweaking at the last minute here, just to try to squeeze every single last electoral college vote out that they can. bottom of the seventh. anne kornblut and adam sorenson, stay with us. you ll be returning later in the hour. thank you very much. still to come, a florida judge rules in favor of a motion filed by george zimmerman s attorney. what that means for the trayvon martin case. we ve got that they ahead. and now that the ninth circuit court has ruled the defense of marriage act unconstitutional, what can we expect when the issue gets to the supreme court? and coming up, has president obama made a clear case for a second term? we ll put that question up to his campaign. you re watching msnbc, the place for politics. [ male announcer ] when it comes to the financial obstacles military families face, we understand. at usaa, we know military life is different. we ve been there. that s why every bit of financial advice we offer is geared specifically to curre
0 years of president obama s failed policies. we need real reforms for a real recovery to get people back to work, to get this kpli going again, to get us back on the path to reaching our ideal. early voting started in nevada today. all together, early voting is underway in the 29 states across the country plus washington, d.c. more on all these stories throughout the next three hours. definitely stay with us. all right, vice president biden in florida today, in st. augustine, where he s holding a campaign rally. let s listen to what he said moments ago. when my dad had to leave scranton for a year, to go down to wilmington to get up and get a new job and bring the family down, and things would be okay, i ll never forget, my kids, my siblings, it rings in our ears. from that point on, my dad used to say, some other job would come up, he would say, honey, a proportions of senior citizens. senior citizens, in some cases, like in sun city, in the tampa area, that went two to one for m