Let me get right to my first reads of the morning. With just hours left until tonights final debate, our new nbc news wall street journal poll shows how competitive this race has become. An important slice of undecided voters still are not persuaded to rehire the president. But also not convinced, it seems, he needs to be fired. Will anything tonight help these folks decide . Well, the candidates prep their surrogates spoke out sunday, previewing tonights lines of attack. The American People have gotten to see mitt romney up close as he offers his vision of the future, and what he would do as president. But even more startling is the president s complete failure to put forth an agenda for the next four years. People want to know they have a strong, steady hand in the oval office and they dont want someone who is reckless. We all remember his dukes of hazard tour of International Destinations over the summer. But tonights session on Foreign Policy, which sounded weeks ago like a potential mismatch, an incumbent president responsible for the death of Osama Bin Laden in the ring against a oneterm governor with 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 4441 on that issue in our new poll. Overall, the president leads romney on who is best equipped to handle Foreign Policy by eight points. 4638. But romney is viewed as a viable alternative. Tonights format will break down this way. Moderator, cbss Bob Schieffer divided the 90debate on Foreign Policy into six 15minute segments. Theyre on americas 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 twominute closing statement. The president closes first, romney gets the last word. Ahead of tonights debate, new developments across the middle east on sunday the white house denied reporting by the New York Times that the u. S. Has agreed to direct bilateral talks with iran on its Nuclear Program while saying it remains open to talks. Romney supporters were quick to criticize the white house on this front. Its 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 were likely to jettison our allies. There is a pattern here. We talk, they enrich. It needs to stop. Well, Obama CampaignSenior AdviserDavid Axelrod said he had no knowledge about possible talks, defended the administrations 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 theyre feeling the heat. And thats 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. That threepoint edge is a small advantage compared to 2000 and 2004. In 2004, the challenger, john kerry, led george w. Bush 3317. Back in 2000, bush had a sevenpoint gap over al gore. Now, not all ties are equal. In our poll, it shows voters are feeling more optimistic about the economy, but its not helping the president make the final sale. Among likely voters, a tie. 47 . Its a precarious position for an incumbent president who once led on a likely voter number 5045 just a month ago. The question is whether this tie signals a shift away from the president. There is still an Enthusiasm Gap among the wider pool, the president leads 4944. The bottom line, the president may have more room to grow, but hes got to motivate the base and thats a big if. If he is winning hispanic voters by a whopping 45 points, 7025, and enthusiasm among hispanics is improving, 57 now call themselves a 9 or 10 on the interest level. Last month. Now it is up to 68 . Is that enough hispanic voters to turn out to make for the president s problem, among white . Among white voters, 36 back the president. Thats a losing number. In 2008, the president won 43 of the white vote. But romney is opening the door for the president to underperform with whites by losing hispanics by such a huge margin. For the gender gap, its narrow. The president s lead is eight points among women. The smallest lead we have shown all year long. Romney holds a tenpoint lead among all men. The great con nun drum is how improved the Economic Optimism and how it is not helping the president. His Approval Rating remains 489 . 41 say the country is on track, the highest since june of 2009. And just 9 believe the economy will get worse in the next 12 months. Thats the lowest number we have recorded on that question in over 20 years. 45 believe things will get better. The highest number on that score since september 2009. But despite this improving mood, this last chunk of swing voters is just stuck. And the president is barely getting an advantage for being an incumbent. An advantage that he should be getting with these numbers. There are doubts about a second obama term. And its making this election look a lot like the down to the wire 2004 contest between president bush and senator john kerry. While the president is dominating the micro messaging, winning on womens issues, likability and abortion, romney is dominating the macro message on the economy. Voters say romney is better prepared to create jobs and improve the economy by 45 to 41. Just 37 of voters tell us they were quite or extremely confident obama had the right policies for the economy. And just another 22 somewhat confident. For romney, 35 were extremely confident, just another 28 somewhat confident. But he does better on that other score. The obamabiden ticket is barely ahead of romneyryan when asked if they know what candidates would do if elected. Not a good number. And the biggest red flag for the president , 62 of voters want major changes if hes reelected. Only 4 said they want obamas second term to look a lot like the first one. Obama adviser David Axelrod appearing on meet the press said while the polls are getting closer, he believes there are positive indicators for the president. If you look at the early voting going on around the country, its very robust, and its very favorable to us. And we think thats a better indicator than these public polls, which are flankly, all over the map. As for red flags in our poll for mitt romney, theyre there. Whats holding romney back . Voters still arent fully convinced he can relate to them. Romney trails the president badly, by 35 points when voters are asked which candidate is more easy going and likeable. Down by 24 points. When asked who has the compassion necessary to understand average people, romney trails by a 16point margin. On the question of which candidate would do better for looking out for the middle class. That is still the reason why he is behind, if you will, when it comes to ohio. Those three questions tell you everything you need to know about the president s advantage in ohio for now. Back to the debate. Expect a clash over libya tonight as mitt romney gets another chance to portray the benghazi attack as exhibit a of what he says is the president s failed middle east policy. And sunday, marco rubio sunday they shifted the libya story to make sure it doesnt distract from its overall narrative. One of the narratives the Obama Campaign laid out, obama is dead, bragged about that forever, and al qaeda is in retreat. And you start to wonder, did they basically say do not allow any story to emerge that counters that narrative. Well see if romney pursues that line of attack. The president , on the other hand, got a boost from a report that laid out talking points as constructed by the cia, just four days after the incident in benghazi. According to the Washington Post the assessment read as follows. The currently available information suggestion the demonstrations were inspired by the protest and involved a direct assault against the u. S. Consulate, supporting what susan rice told the media the next morning. The wall street journal also reports the president was told on his daily intelligence briefing for more than a week after the september 11th attack the assault grew out of a protest. None of this is stopping criticism of the administration. Joining me now South Carolina senator Lindsay Graham called it failed president ial leadership, a member of the rnc Services Committee joins us on behalf of the romney campaign. Senator dpram, how are you . Nice to see you at the debate site. Let me ask you, what you have been heavily critical of the administration. Why havent you been critical of the Intelligence Community . Its clear, one of two things. Im about to. Okay. Everybody the cia chief, i know, reported up the chain within 24 hours it was a terrorist attack inspired by militants. I wrote a letter to general petraeus, who i admire greatly, 11 days ago. Tell me, senator mccain, what information you had suggesting it was a spontaneous riot spurred on by a video. They give the information, apparently some of it to the Washington Post but not me, a United States senator. Anyone at the cia telling anyone five days later this was a riot by a mob that never there is a video. Release the video of the consulate. There is nobody around the consula consulate. So if theyre going to continue to say this, you need to fire the people at the cia. Its my understanding, and i know the Intelligence Community what you guys were getting briefed on. Exactly. You guys were getting briefed the same thing susan rice was getting briefed in the first five days, my understanding. The cia we left the briefing after she we were briefed after the classified briefing after she testified. What i was being told early on, this was a militia. You dont have a riot with heavy weapons that goes on for seven hours in a preplanned fashion. There was no video inspiring the june attack. Benghazi was in the hands of al qaeda between april and september in larger measure. The reports coming out of benghazi was that the security footprints deteriorating the british left, the red cross left. They didnt leave because of a video. They left because of insurgents and mill litsch i cant taking over benghazi. Senator mccain youre one of the three ameeg, i want to play something senator contain said about libya in july. You said april to september. Heres what he said about the situation in libya in july. I was there for their election. And you know how many people i met who had had their sons, their husbands, their fathers, family members slaughtered by Moammar Gadhafi . And so to somehow say that libya is a failure actually, its a great success. He was talking about libya overall. But you were saying the benghazi situation was in april. Deteriorating. Those werent the reports senator mccain was bringing back, or at least publicly wasnt sharing with the public. On tour in 2011, i went there with senator mccain, rubio and i think kirk. We wrote an oped piece that the key to libyas disarming the militias and creating a National Army in october of 2011, we said we should have a fullcourt press to provide training to the libyan National Army to get the militias off the battlefield. Who is going to do this training . Nato and us. So this was they were willing to pay us back. Okay. And do you believe put your political hat on. Do you believe congress would have supported a situation of sending United States military trainers to yes, i do. I really do believe that it was the right thing to do. You didnt need congressional approval. You were on an island out there. But chuck, i think most americans are warweary but not tired of being safe. It was clear that the militias were the biggest threat to a successful libya. We have done nothing in a year, from october of 2011 to september the 15th, we did almost nothing to deal with the militia problem and help the libyans. Whats the lesson, though, from libya now, considering the time your people involved in the revolution, not sure who youre working with. Whats the lesson for syria heres the lesson im talking about syria, because a lot of people call forearming syria and the same thing happening in libya. You might help al qaeda. The wrong people are being armed. Thats right. Provide capacity to those who have the will to fight terrorism in their own backyard. Arm the right people. Get this over with, and have a followon International Force to go in behind. So there should be turkeys fighting syria. Help turkey help and we come in after . Help the syrians in coordination to get arms into the hands of the rebels we believe will be agents of change. Get the arms to the right people. And when assad follows, realize its going to be a miss. Learn from bushs mistakes. Well, i was just going to ask you that whats your advice to governor romney when hes asked this question, how is your Foreign Policy different from president how is your Foreign Policy different from president bush . I will be more situationally aware. The things i hear about libya, iraq, are the same things i heard out of the bush administration, 2004. Everything is going well. This is just a few dead enders. You dont need end ramps and in 2004 falling apart. Iraq is falling apart today. Al qaeda has doubled in size, iran has more influence. Learn from bushs mistakes. Dont oversell to the American People. Obama is describing theres a disconnect between the narrative that president obama is giving about the world in large and the reality. Very similar to what happened in iraq. Learn from bushs mistake, learn from obamas mistakes. Be smart. Listen to your commanders. Dont oversell. But it does seem like youre calling for kaekt tactical, realistic Foreign Policy. Im talk about a strategic change that says we will provide capacity to those who have the wilt to keep the fight over there. Sometimes thats your moral voice, like in iran. Sometimes its economic aid. Sometimes its military training. Sometimes its special forces. Northern mali is a place we will eventually have to address. Al qaeda has not been diminished. The narrative that killing bin laden has ended this war or made the war recede is not based on reality on the ground. Very similar to what iraq was in 2004. The reality of iraq versus what bush was telling us was totally different. That will be a kfrlgs, i imagine, the two men will have tonight. Senator Lindsay Graham, nice to see you. Much more to come on the daily rundown. Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman schultz and issues that matter domestically to florida voters. First, a look ahead at the schedules. I think you guys know where theyre going to be tonight at 9 00. 7 30 to 9 00, watching the cardinals and giants, im guessing. Youre watching the daily rundown only on msnbc live from Lynn University here in boca raton, florida. No, no, no, stop humans one day, were coming up with the theory of relativity, the next. Stop, stop, stop my car not so much. But thats okay. Youre covered with great ideas like optional better car replacement from Liberty Mutual insurance. Total your car, and we give you the money to buy one a model year newer. Learn about it at libertymutual. Com. Liberty mutual insurance. Responsibility whats your policy . Bp has paid overthe people of bp twentythreeitment to the gulf. Billion dollars to help those affected and to cover cleanup costs. Today, the beaches and gulf are open, and many areas are reporting their best tourism seasons in years. And bps also committed to america. We support nearly 250,000 jobs and invest more here than anywhere else. Were working to fuel america for generations to come. Our commitment has never been stronger. Ahead of tonights Foreign Policy debate, the Obama Campaign released a new ad touting his credentials and promise to end the war in iraq. Take a listen. A decade of war that cost us dearly. And now for president , a clear choice. President obama ended the iraq war. Mitt romney would have left 30,000 troops there. And called bringing them home tragic. Joining me now from the chair of the Democratic National committee and a member of congress here from the state of florida, debber wassermanschultz. Im going get you to respond immediately to something senator graham said. And he said that the war that the implication that the administration has made that the war with al qaeda, that al qaeda is on the run, that you cant make that claim anymore. Considering the rise of al qaeda and libya, the rise of al qaeda in other places. How do you respond to that . The fact is, thanks to Barack Obamas commitment to reestablishing our focus on decimating the ranks of al qaeda, thanks to his successful bringing of Osama Bin Laden to justice, al qaeda is not able to stage massive attacks in multiple places. They are in very, very limited ways able to stage attacks. But theyre certainly creating new instability in the middle east. They seem new outposts of al qaeda. The bottom line, they are dramatically, dramatically reduced in terms of their ability to make significant damage. And that was the importance of shifting bringing o