and make a plan so they understand why they need to show up and vote. and i agree with that assessment. michelle, let me go to you, the woman vote. the woman vote in this case is going to be very important in this race. president obama, according to the nbc wall street journal poll, president obama 51, mitt romney 43. and i think that when you poll saying who is dealing with issues that concern women, president obama even a larger margin, 53, romney 25. is this real, real lead by the president in terms of the women vote, is is ththat going to be deciding factor to you? he will with, romney in recent days has been closing that general ger gap a little bit and he s certainly been trying at last night s debate. it was not the war monger romney on display. it was the soft romney, to the point where he got labeled weak. so he clearly understands he has a problem. always the republicans have to
vote of ohioans. will president obama win ohio this time? well, we think he will s we think he will not because he s a great democrat but because he s a great american. is he right on the issues that matter most in ohio and across the midwest. if you think about this, al, 82 of 88 counties in ohio are directly tied to the american auto industry. a supplier, a plant, a business that provides for that important industry. mitt romney said, let detroit go bankrupt. and then he said this, it s a very important point. get rid of excess costs. you know what that means, al? that means pensions, retirement programs. these are the things that mitt romney sees as excess costs. richard, let me ask you this. along with social security, medicare, medicaid, he d do away with those as well. richard, let me ask you this. you re on the road a lot.
i bet on those workers. i refuse to walk away from those jobs. i understood that americans can compete. i wasn t about to let detroit go bankrupt or toledo go bankrupt. i bet on american workers. i bet on american manufacturing. i will do it again because it s paid off for ohio and america in a big way. it has paid off in a big way but it s no thanks to governor romney. joining us is richard trunker, president of afl-cio and chris, chairman of the democratic party. thanks to you both for joining us tonight. thanks, al. richard, let me start with you. how hard is your membership working to win ohio and what s your sense of where things starnd right now? we re working very, very, very hard because had romney been president when we needed his help, it would have been a disaster in ohio.
out a plan for jobs and middle class security. and unlike mitt romney, i m actually proud to talk about what s in it. because my plan actually will move america forward. and by the way, the math in my plan adds up. i ask folks, compare my plan to governor romney s. see which plan is better for you. and for america s future. the president ripped romney s move to the middle at last night s debate. now, we ve come up with a name for this condition. it s called romnesia.
of it is going to come down to ground game in tight races. it always does. romney says he s avoiding media interviews. he s going to not commit a gaffe. he s done what he needed to do. he s put himself out there as a reasonable reasonable alternative and now he needs to not put his foot in his mouth. obama needs to get out there to look energetic and engaged like he really wants people s votes. now, jamal, i keep hearing this thing about momentum and, yes, the race is tightening but when we look at the poll averages in nine key swing states, president obama leads in five states. ohio, new hampshire, nevada, wisconsin. romney leads in three states. florida, colorado, north carolina, virginia is a tie. now, nbc news poll lit cal unit says if obama wins, just ohio,