This afternoon, how they may decide who wins the white house. All right, topping our political headlines this hour, hunker down today, preparing for mondays third and final debate on Foreign Policy, the president is doing his prep work at camp david. Mitt romney is doing his in florida. Meanwhile, the candidates running mates are out tonight trail, working hard today. Vice President Biden is in the Sunshine State and is still speaking at a rally in st. Augustine, where he went after mitt romney, accusing him of shifting positions on one too many times and too many issues. Congressman paul ryan has events in a pair of battleground states, pennsylvania and ohio, to start the day. In pennsylvania this morning, ryan framed this election as a choice. Take a listen. Look, we have a very clear choice. America cannot afford four more years of president obamas failed policies. We need real reforms for a Real Recovery to get people back to work, to get this kpli going again, to get us back on the path to reaching our ideal. Early voting started in nevada today. All together, early voting is underway in the 29 states across the country plus washington, d. C. More on all these stories throughout the next three hours. Definitely stay with us. All right, vice President Biden in florida today, in st. Augustine, where hes holding a campaign rally. Lets listen to what he said moments ago. When my dad had to leave scranton for a year, to go down to wilmington to get up and get a new job and bring the family down, and things would be okay, ill never forget, my kids, my siblings, it rings in our ears. From that point on, my dad used to say, some other job would come up, he would say, honey, a job is about a lot more than a paycheck. Its about your dignity, its about your sense of selfworth, its about a sense of respect. Its mainly, if youre a parent, to be able to look in your child in the eye and say, honey, its going to be okay. And so many middle class people and working class people have been decimated. Not only in the loss of a job, but financial impact. All right, Vice President joe biden in florida, been skewering the state along with joe biden, he is in st. Augustine. Carrie dan is with the Vice President. She joins us on the phone. You know, the Vice President called out mitt romney for romnesia, that term weve been hearing over the last day or so. Whats the thought here . Are we going to be hearing even more of these oneliners from vice President Biden in the next few days . Which would be fairly consistent, perhaps. Hi, richard. Its certainly getting a big response. Joe biden over the last few days has used that romnesia line that the president produced, as well as saying that he thinks the that romneys plans arent just sketchy, theyre etch a sketchy. Those are his big two zingers over the last two days. And theyve gotten a big response from the crowd thats here. The crowd thats here is obviously supporters, but a lot of the goal is to get these people fired up, so they go into their communities is and mobilize other voters. Its funny, over the last few days and since that Vice President ial debate, where he very famously used the word malarkey to describe what he thinks is the romney ryan plan, the crowds have been chanting the word malarkey. Today he joked about it and said, my irish grandfather is very proud that all of america now knows what this word means. But hes trying to be the truth teller in chief. So the irishism continues. You know, what are you thaerg from vice President Biden along with what we discussed . Because as he does travel through florida, he has gone through some areas with large proportions of senior citizens. Senior citizens, in some cases, like in sun city, in the tampa area, that went two to one for mccain in 08. And with the medicare argument, that seemed to be a strong drum to have been beaten before, are you still hearing that . Reporter well, thats a lot of bidens pitch, no matter where he goes, but particularly in communities where there are a lot of seniors. Hell talk about the idea of voucher care, and hes trying to humanize it when he gives this part of his stump speech. He says, imagine your mother or you yourself getting a voucher in the mail, that says, just go out into the Insurance Market and try to find private insurance for yourself. Hell also make a differentiation between ryans 2011 budget and ryans 2012 budget. In the 2012 budget, it allowed the option for seniors to buy into medicare with that voucher. Biden tries to underline, making the financial argument that the voucher, even if one was able to pay back into medicare, wouldnt be enough to cover seniors medicare needs, wouldnt be enough and then would cost them. He tries to use a lot of facts and figures as well as humanize it to the seniors themselves, saying, this is going to affect your kids and your grandkids. The audiences that are here are getting that kind of argument. Something that biden is hoping will really touch their life and make it understandable for them. Carrie, before you go, wheres the next stop for vice President Biden . Reporter the Vice President will take tomorrow off and then hell be in ohio for three days. Its a state where he spent a lot of time. Thats the place he really tries to make an effective argument about the auto bailout. And hell hold a joint rally with the president , their first appearance since after the Democratic Convention in ohio next week. Business times. Carrie dann traveling with joe biden. Thanks so much. Paul ryan just wrapped up two campaign rallies. Moments ago, he was in belmont, ohio, where he talked about the national debt. Heres what he said earlier. This mounting burden of debt, its not just hurting our economy today. Its not just giving us a threat of the debt crisis which is now plaguing europe, it is guaranteeing that these young people among us here in our audiences, our children and our grandchildren, it is guaranteeing that they have a diminished future. Also on the trail, ron mott travel wing with the Romney Campaign. He joins us by phone from the campaign bus right now. Ron, where are you guys headed and how have the messages been different for paul ryan in the two states this morning that hes been in . Reporter hey, there, richard. Hope you can hear me. Were in the motorcade zipping back to the airport here, flying to the third event of the day. Its been a busy day already for paul ryan and lots of work to do for the rest of the day and through the weekend. Well end the day in nebraska. But already this morning, he spoke at a quick little rally there at the pittsburgh airport. And then we just finished up a rally here in belmont, ohio. Obviously, ohio, a critical, critical state. He talked a lot about coal. This is coal country, eastern parks, western ohio. And we talked about the president s war on coal and said mitt romney would not continue such a war on that industry. The first thing they talk about or paul ryan does on these Campaign Stops in their fivepoint plan for a stronger middle class, he always talks about energy and using energy to put people back to work. That was really top of mind here today. For folks who came out to this rally. Tomorrow we head off to iowa, a day of campaigning there, and monday in colorado before he and governor romney get back together for a joint rally tuesday in nevada, in henderson, just outside of las vegas. And when you go there, youve got to talk about jobs, because that is the epicenter, if you will, for unemployment in this country. The highest Unemployment Rate in the country. Now, as you mentioned, paul ryans got a busy schedule. Governor romney, like the president , is down this weekend, pretty much preparing for the big third and final debate on monday in boca raton. And you know this debate is centered around Foreign Policy, and a lot of folks think that favors the incumbent, because the president obviously has a fouryear head start on intelligence and National Security briefings. Governor romney getting those as well now. But hes only been doing so for a couple three weeks. The campaign is pretty confident that hell be well prepared for that showdown on monday, richard. Ron mott with the motorcade of paul ryan, thank you so much for the latest on that. With just 17 days until the election, the Obama Campaign has some good reason to be optimistic in at least one swing state, critical to its success. Theres a new fox news poll that has the president up in ohio, where earlier inperson voting already has begun. And while there are many factors at play, in a state where the Manufacturing Base is always a major concern, its the president s support of the auto bailout that he keeps pressing in the ads like this latest one. Take a listen. Without president obamas rescue of the Auto Industry, ohio would have collapsed. Mitt romney would have just let us go under. Just let em go bankrupt. Joining us now from washington, anne kornblut, Deputy NationalPolitical Editor for the washington post, and here in new york, adam sorenson, an associate editor at time magazine. Thank you both for joining us. Adam, i want to start with you. You know, the president s lead, you know, we saw the new fox poll there. Hes ahead, but youve been watching the numbers. That has been shrinking. Its somewhat expected as we get closer to election day, but most polls show hes never trailed this year. Now, assuming this does hold, what is romneys strategy, do you think, these last twoplus weeks . I think that he has to romney definitely has to contend for ohio. Its not a place he can simply give up on. He is close and obama was leading before the first debate, probably by as much as five, six, seven, eight points. And now that is a much more narrow race. So i think he can contend there. But really what he needs, he really needs florida and a number of other states to help him close that margin, if he does, indeed, lose ohio, which looks incredibly possible. Yeah, there are some key one or the others out there for him. Anne, to you. Lets talk about what adam was just alluding to. Florida, there are two new polls that show the same trend here. These are the numbers. An obama lead here, evaporating into a narrow romney lead, when we look at the obama versus romney florida poll numbers here today versus september 19th. And that has changed, as you can see here, to flip over. Now, does the president need florida the way he does ohio, in the many scenarios that theyre probably gaming . No, not quite as badly. I mean, the president actually has a number of paths to 270, more than mitt romney does. But even beyond the math, i would say that for mitt romney, ohio has symbolic value, which is that no republican has won the presidency without it. So theres both the merit in going there to get to the numbers and also because if hes seen as losing ohio, if he were to actually pull out of ohio wing that would be seen as overall surrendering. Obviously, theres other big states. Virginia, florida, you can do the math, adding colorado, ohio, even New Hampshire. Those could make a big difference. But are they adding any states from their maps or taking any states away from their maps . So far, we havent seen a whole lot of variation in the states theyre contending in. Adam, have you seen that change at all in the last few weeks as weve seen the debates come out and the polls changing . Have you seen them reallocating their resources . For instance, romney moving resources out of North Carolina, for instance . Yeah, he did. I think youll see minor judgments like that. North carolina is a special case where its really looked the same for a long time. Romney looks strong there. Obama won it by a very narrow margin in 2008, which were, of course, historic margins for democrats. I think thats a special case and you definitely wont see major changes in states like ohio and florida. That being said, i think that there definitely is some kind of aggressive minor tweaking at the last minute here, just to try to squeeze every single last Electoral College vote out that they can. Bottom of the seventh. Anne kornblut and adam sorenson, stay with us. Youll be returning later in the hour. Thank you very much. Still to come, a florida judge rules in favor of a motion filed by George Zimmermans attorney. What that means for the Trayvon Martin case. Weve got that they ahead. And now that the ninth Circuit Court has ruled the defense of marriage act unconstitutional, what can we expect when the issue gets to the Supreme Court . And coming up, has president obama made a clear case for a second term . Well put that question up to his campaign. Youre watching msnbc, the place for politics. [ male announcer ] when it comes to the financial obstacles military families face, we understand. At usaa, we know military life is different. Weve been there. 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Iams adds 50 more animal protein, [ cat 3 ] look at this body under this shiny coat is a lean, mean purring machine [ cat 4 ] i am too hahahaha [ male announcer ] iams. With 50 more animal protein. [ cat 5 ] yum [ cat 1 ] im an iams cat. Feed me what im born to eat. Meow. Two days ahead of a president ial debate that will focus on Foreign Policy. Republicans are pouncing on new details of the president s handling of the attack in libya. Some of those details come from the wall street journal, which reports that even as u. S. Ambassador to the u. N. Susan rice was saying the attack was sparked by protests to an antimuslim video, intelligence analysis were receiving new information that contradicted that account. Thats what was said in the wall street journal. It also goes on to say that they took weeks longer for a new swlenlgs assessment discounting the protest to make its way into public statements from senior officials in the obama administration. With me now is karen kornblut, a former policy director to then senator barack obama. Thanks for being with us today. Appreciate your time, karen. Thank you. Now, this, as you were reading in the headlines yesterday, is on the heels of an ap report that the cia had knowledge a day after the attack that militants were involved. You put this all together, and you know, the president has got a lot of credit for how he handled the issue of libya in the last debate, and so as we see more of these reports come out, does that basically negate that as we look forward to mondays debate . You know, im here to talk about the economy, but ill just say on this topic, that the idea that the administration was playing politics on an issue of this importance is really, its a shameful thing that this is being turned into a political issue. I know susan rice personally, the president ive worked, i know what the state department feels about its ambassadors. The idea that anyone would have been playing politics in the days after a tragedy like this is inconceivable to me, absolutely inconceivable. And i think thats where you saw the anger that the president showed at even the suggestion that that would have been happening in the aftermath of one of these things, theres a lot of confusion, theres a lot of research. I think weve seen that the talking points that the cia was putting out was exactly what ambassador rice was saying. So i wish we would just stop playing politics with something as serious as this. And i do want to get to the economy, because this is pulling some of the message time. And theres only a certain amount of time that you can express these ideas. Yet it is getting perhaps some traction. Theres that new pew poll that shows the president has just a fourpoint advantage when it comes to voters trust with regard to Foreign Policy. And thats now 47 to 43. You can see where thats changed, where he had 53 before. So when you look at this change, how concerned might the Obama Campaign be when the story line, the narrative that they probably would like to carry on is they have done well consistently. Look, the priority that the country has right now is growing a strong economy. The priority is not more tax cuts for the wealthy, who have done really well over the past few years. And the president is trying to get out that message. The Vice President is trying to get out that message. And i think that you see him trying to muddy the waters by reinterpreting what governor romneys plan would do. But hes been extremely clear about his plan. And its not whats needed to really grow a strong economy. Which i think most americans absolutely know that we need to do. Weve got one more jobs report coming out right now. We went down to 7. 8 in the united states, which surprised many watchers, perhaps even you. When were looking at the key swing state