actual news out of these presidential debates. i think tonight was one of those nights. a cbs flash poll of uncommitted voters found that 53% said that president obama won tonight s debate. 23% said mitt romney won tonight s debate and 24% scored it as a tie. lawrence o donnell is in the spin room with john kerry whose twitter feed has become way more interesting. lawrence? thank, rachel. you played mitt romney in the debate prep. tomorrow. we re finished. when you were playing mitt romney, did you say we are going to be out of afghanistan by 2014? no. why didn t you say that? because mitt romney hasn t said it and he s never said it. i mean, my head is dizzy tonight trying to follow mitt romney. you were shocked when you heard him say it again. i was. because weeks ago mitt romney said, i m going to listen to the generals.
his strategy of refusing to engage the president no matter what. in fact, he let some charges go completely unanswered, not responding to what was a seemingly rehearsed obama line and the line of the night, if you will, of this debate on defense spending. i think governor romney hasn t spent enough time looking at how our military works. you mentioned the navy, for example. we have fewer ships than we did in 1916. governor, we also had fewer horses and bayonets because the nature of our military s changed. we have these things called aircraft carriers where planes land on them. it was amazing, no response from romney on that front. it was a debate designed to focus on foreign policy. the two candidates did their best to steer the conversation back to the economy and domestic policy as much as they could get away with. we ve got to make sure we reduce our deficit. unfortunately, governor romney s plan doesn t do it. when it comes to our economy here at home, i know what it takes
permission, we would not have gotten him and it was moving heaven and earth to get him. president obama trying to disqualify mitt romney as commander in chief by explaining how the united states military term works and boats that go under the water that are called submarines. this must have been planned out in advance. you ll be seeing this over and over and over again over the next few days. our navy is smaller now than any time since 1917. the navy said they needed 313 ships. we re now down to 285. we re down to the low 200s. that s unacceptable. i want to make sure that we have the ships required by our navy. i think governor romney hasn t looked at how the military works. you mentioned the navy and that we have fewer ships than in 1916.
now, i know angela has spent a lot more time dealing with a trainer in a gym i have, and what we learn is your core is your most important muscle you have to work out. where is governor romney s core? on a number of issues, but really important to the american people, he s trying to hide the truth. let me jump in there. you re making a specific allegation. what topics do you think that governor romney hasn t been specific about? actually that line about saying what he means i believe belonged to vice president biden. i ll let angela respond. tell us specifically what think is an untruth. i think that everything romney has said i guess true. no. let s ask jumu. she made an accusation about governor romney not being honest. about what? go ahead. then we ll have angela respond. he hasn t been honest where he stands on the issue of reproductive rights.
states and asking officials in mississippi and vermont to extend deadlines for receivi ballots from military and overseas voters. the romney campaign is doing wisconsin because they say it is not fair the state didn t send ballots to dozens of americans living overseas including military personnel at least 45 days before the election like they are supposed to and team romney claims they are out to defend those folks voting rights alleging members of the military are often stationed in remote dangerous locations there is a likelihood that the violations of law will prevent military voters from receiving completing and returning their ballots in time to have them counted. is not sitting well with republicans is in wisconsin its unacceptable they might be denied the opportunity to choose their next commander in chief.