partner, said something really powerful yesterday. he said, which of these candidates could get 52% of the vote? not 48, 49 and 52. and what he said was, and he s right. it s the challenger, mitt romney. and that tells you that potential that still exists for this race to be a little unexpected. and i think in that way, romney is you re saying basically that romney has a higher ceiling than the president. i believe that. i think that s true. peter hart said it, and i think it s a very powerful and intuitive comment. all right. i want to dig into the polls here. this seems to be a game of turnout, margins, numbers, i m going to throw a couple things up here, fred, very fast. enthusiasm numbers here on hispanic voters went up 11 points from september, october. 57% to 68. voters 18 to 34, 49 to 60. african-americans, 82-83. that is unchanged. what we should point out, though, among hispanics in 18 to 34, those are still lower than 2008. how concerned?
iran on its nuclear program while saying it remains open to talks. romney supporters were quick to criticize the white house on this front. it s another example of a national security leak from the white house. they have done a lot of that. it sounds like the u.s. is taking a position that we re likely to jettison our allies. there is a pattern here. we talk, they enrich. it needs to stop. well, obama campaign senior adviser david axelrod said he had no knowledge about possible talks, defended the administration s iran policy. there is a tremendous disquiet in iran. their currency has dropped in value by 50%. their oil business has dropped by 50%. and they re feeling the heat. and that s what the sanctions were meant to do. another question for tonight. how much will this debate matter? in our new poll, 27% of voters tell us the debates have made them more likely to support romney, compared to 24% who said the same of obama.
little foreign policy experience now looks like a fairer fight. the president s edge on who would make a better commander in chief has slipped from eight points a month ago to just three. he leads romney 44-41 on that issue in our new poll. overall, the president leads romney on who is best equipped to handle foreign policy by eight points. 46-38. but romney is viewed as a viable alternative. tonight s format will break down this way. moderator, cbs s bob schieffer divided the 90-debate on foreign policy into six 15-minute segments. they re on america s role in the world, afghanistan and pakistan, israel and iran, the changing middle east and the new face of terror and the rise of china. the two candidates will be seated tonight, and there will be a two-minute closing statement. the president closes first, romney gets the last word. ahead of tonight s debate, new developments across the middle east on sunday the white house denied reporting by the new york times that the u.s. has agree