campus of hofstra university. thank you for watching it here with us at msnbc. i m rachel maddow, at msnbc headquarters along with al schultz and al sharpton and chris hayes. we ll be joined by our friend, lawrence mcdonnell, who s reporting from the very overcrowded spin room at hofstra. both campaigns putting literally dozens of surrogates out tonight to spin each candidate s performance. we ll be joined by chuck todd for poll analysis tonight. we ll be joined by ezra klein for policy analysis. and from hempstead, long island, at the site of the debate, it is right now the one and only chris matthews. chris, has another incumbent president had stakes this high in a second debate? rachel, no. and the reason is so deep into the soul of president obama himself. what s missing in the obama campaign right now is not a couple of points on the scoreboard or the polling or even a couple of states that are getting tricky right now, it s a spiritual loss. this campaign, the obama camp needs