tonight s town hall debate presents challenges not only for the candidates but also for the moderator. nbc s tom brokaw who moderated the last town hall presidential debate four years ago and tried to keep the candidates on track. gentlemen you may not have noticed we have lights around here. they have red and green and yellow and they are to signal to where i m just trying to keep up with john. john wave like that and i ll look at you. and nbc news special correspondent tom brokaw joins me now from 30 rock. hey, tom. remember that? i remember it very well. i m going to take your audience a little through a little bit of what happens if you re the moderator in the town hall format. please. at least four years ago. i don t know what candy is going through today. gallup does a survey of people near the ven few of the debate, in this case eastern long island. they try to get a representative group.
done. i think president obama needs to do more than that, though. he has to show some spirit and some vision for the next four years, which frankly he did not show in the first debate and his convention speech. he s getting criticism from his own party on that front. how is the next four years different than the last four in specific ways. that s a challenge for him as well. does president obama have to be more specific? we ve talked about earlier with kevin madden, i was talking about how he has to be more specific, which so far he has not been, about how exactly his tax cuts would add up. doesn t the president also, bob, have to be more specific about what he would do differently in the next four years? i don t know that i like the world differently, but he has to be specific and set out a vision for the next four years. i think michael is right about that. he has to talk about what was achieved, but then be very honest and say it to people, that s not enough. we have to do mor
culture, for people to process it and come out of watching it or reading the coverage of it with an opinion. so i think the tightening in pennsylvania, there s tightening in ohio, florida, there s polls that show mitt romney ahead. you mentioned new hampshire. polling in colorado, virginia. what we re seeing broadly is what we ve seen in states at the national level. barack obama mid to high single digit lead at the national level is a tie. i think in most battle ground states he s lost a few points. it s why this debate is critically important for had him. he knows and his team knows he can not put in a performance like he did 13 days ago if he does that, the momentum that is on mitt romney s side will continue to build and my expectation you would see more erosion in the obama numbers both nationally and in swing states. and chris, as you can see right now we re rolling some video which is the president
with monster jumper. i think they re gonna love this, leapfrog leappad2 with games and apps. i say we flip a coin. you mean with your double-headed coin? you know you could put both those things on layaway and pay a little at a time. awesome!! awesome!! high-five? [ mom ] mmm, you and your trick coin. shop now. get the hottest toys on your list today, like leapfrog leappad2 and hot wheels wall tracks. then put it on layaway so you have more time to pay. walmart. so what should we be looking for in tonight s debate? the performances from the two men they ve been practicing, be rehearsing for this big night. two men who have been there before and prepared candidates in the past, bob shrum, democratic strategist and former senior adviser to john kerry s 2004 presidential campaign many
benghazi than barack obama, we have to figure out what happened and make sure it never happens again. but the lengths to which so many people in the republican party are going to play politics with this issue, i think is startling. ambassador stevens own father said this shouldn t be a political issue. we should figure out what s going on. this president and administration have passed on the information that they ve had when they ve had it to the american people. it s not been deceptive, it s not been misleading in any way, shape, or form. let s talk about tonight and the debate. this is a town hall format as you know very well. you helped prepare barack obama for that format four years ago. what is the bigger challenge now tonight given his weak acknowledged weak performance in denver, how does he get aggressive enough to tackle mitt romney and, you know, show his forcefulness, show his leadership qualities and show exactly how he would lead the country at the same time as