impression on the tens of millions of americans watching at home before they head to the voting booths. let's go through what we saw in that debate hall last night at lynn university. the foreign policy issue many predicted would dominate the high, the attack in bengahzi essentially swept under the rug. out of the gate, the candidates focusing on a wide range of issues from iran to afghanistan and for a while even the auto bailout. less than five minutes into the debate, romney mentioned the death of osama bin laden. president obama came out as the aggressor and quickly fired back. >> a we're seeing is a dramatic reversal in the kind of hopes we had for that region. the greatest threat of all is iran, four years closer to a nuclear weapon. and we're going to have to recognize that we have to do as the president has done. i congratulate him on taking out osama bin laden and going after the leadership in al qaeda. but we can't kill our way out of this mess. >> governor romney, i'm glad you recognize that al qaeda is a threat. a few months ago when you were asked what is the biggest geopolitical threat facing america, you said russia. not al qaeda. you said russia in the sirussia. the cold war has been over for 20 years. but, governor, when it comes to our foreign policy, you seem to want to import the foreign policies of the 1980s, just like the social policies of the 1950s and the economic policies of the 1920s. >> candidates were in agreement on a lot of issues last night including on the exit strategy in afghanistan. surprising because governor romney criticized the past for announcing a timeline of 2014 saying he would instead consult military commanders on the ground and be flexible about it. last night romney sided with president obama's plan to pull those troops out by 2014. >> we will be finished by 2014. and when i'm president, we'll make sure we bring our troops out by the end of 2014. the commanders and the generals there are on track to do so. we've seen progress over the past several years. the surge has been successful. the training program is proceeding at pace. there are now a large number of afghan security forces, 350,000 that are ready to step in to provide security. and we'll be able to make that transition by the end of 2014. >> on the question of handling iran and its nuclear program, governor romney agreed the united states should focus on crippling sanctions and consider military action only as a last resort. >> we need to increase pressure time and time again on iran because anything other than a solution to this which says -- which stops this nuclear folly of theirs is unacceptable to america. of course a military action is the last resort. it's something one would only -- only consider if all of the other avenues had been tried to their full extent. >> i'm glad governor romney agrees with the steps we're taking. there have been times, governor, frankly during the course of this campaign where it sounded like you thought that you'd do the same thing as we did, but you'd say them louder and somehow that would make a difference. it turns out the work involved in setting up these crippling sanctions is painstaking. it's meticulous. >> when asked at the debate, president obama shot down the "new york times" report over the weekend that said the obama administration agreed on bilateral talks with iran. in ohio it was no surprise that both candidates dug in their heels when the talk drifted to domestic policy, specifically about the auto bailout. >> i said these companies need go through a managed bankruptcy n that process they can get government help and guarantees, but they need to go through bankruptcy to get rid of excess costs and the -- >> governor romney, that's not what you said. >> you can take a look at the op-ed. i'm still talking. i said we would provide guarantees, that was what was able to allow these companies go through bankruptcy, come out of bankruptcy. under no circumstances would i do anything other than to help this industry get on its feet. the idea that has been suggested that i would liquidate the industry, of course not. of course not. >> let's check the record. >> i never said i would liquidate the industry. >> governor, the people of detroit don't forget. anybody out there can check the record. governor romney you keep on trying to air brush history here. you were very clear that you would not provide government assistance to the u.s. auto companies even if they went through bankruptcy. you said they could get it in the private marketplace. that wasn't true. they would have gone through a -- >> you're wrong, mr. president. >> you're wrong. >> i'm not wrong. >> people can look it up, you're right. >> people will look it up. >> romney argued he wanted to take the companies through a managed bankruptcy where the auto manufacturers would get government help but also acquire private financing, financing romney's critics say was not available at the time. romney made that argument in an op-ed called "let detroit go bankrupt." the romney campaign said time and time again the governor wrote the op-ed but not that headline. remember a couple debates ago we were anticipating mitt romney zingers? the biggest zinger of last night came from president obama. when mitt romney was talking about the pentagon budget >> our navy is smaller now than at any time since 1917. the navy said they needed 313 ships to carry out their mission. we're down to 285. we're headed down to the low 200s if we go through sequestration. that's unacceptable to me. >> i think governor romney maybe has not spent enough time looking at how our military works. you mentioned the navy, and yes, sir have fewer ships than in 1916. governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets because the nature of our military has changed. we have these things called aircraft carriers where planes land on them. we have ships that go under water, nuclear submarines. so the question is not a game of battleship where we are counting ships, it's what are our capabilities. >> the applause in this room are any indication, horses and bayonets was the line of the night. helping us brick that down is mark halperin, the author of "game change." if the first debate belonged to mitt romney, the second debate was president obama stopping the bleeding, what was this debate? >> both guys getting done what they wanted to get done. the president wanted to show the united states he was an experienced commander in chief. you show what you have done, you have the kind of experience, knowledge and intelligence to show people i know how to do this part of the job. i thought the president did that we saw a number of exchanges where he schooled mitt romney to a large extent. romney handled it okay. but the president made it clear, romney sis inconsistent. romney wanted to show people he's fluid in foreign policy. the president is right, there is a lot of holes in things mitt romney said last night versus the past, but he largely would send the signal to some voters i can do this job. i'm credible as commander in chief. getting over that bar is what his goal was so people would move past that question and on to other issues. >> even understanding the romney strategy if you were on twitter last night, reading the analysis afterwards, a lot of conservatives thought romney could have gone too far for applauding the president. i praise the president, i agree with the president actually. was that part of the strategy? >> it was part of the strategy. he may have done it more than his own advisers would have liked. but the point was to suggest mature, responsible, that he would be a steady hand on foreign policy. that he's not a war mongerme mm. by agreeing with the president, he took the edge off of that. the president is not scene quite as favorably as before, and governor romney wanted to get through this debate, having people see him as commander in chief and not have any gaffes. his advisers were relieved that while he had weak moment there's were no major gaffes. he didn't show anything that the press would focus on that would show ignorance about foreign policy or lack of a steady hand. >> where do we go from here? two weeks from today everybody goes to the polls and starts voting. where will you be focusing the next two weeks? is it all about ohio? >> ohio is the key. this state is important, too. governor romney must win florida to win, must win north carolina, almost certainly virginia. if he can win those three southern states, it will be a battle of ohio. you will see them campaigning other places, advertising other places, but ohio is the key to the election. that's why the auto exchange you showed was so important. governor romney might have written the most costly op-ed piece. his proposals, his policies are such that he is still not explaining them well. surprising to me even after last night, after all this time, he still didn't have a clean answer to reassure people in ohio about his position on the industry. ask any republican why is mitt romney still behind in ohio? why might he lose the state as he wins other states in the region? they say it's because of his position on that one issue. last night i don't think he cleaned it up. >> not just the state, but it could have cost them the general election. let's look at your grades. a pair of "b" pluses. >> in the room, the president clearly won. if you scored it on who showed more knowledge of foreign policy who was the more vigorous debatder, tdebat debat debater, the president won. governor romney, three straight debates, not following the ins and outs, he sat with the president and looked the part enough that people could come away saying what do i care about? i care mostly about the economy. do i trust this guy enough to be commander in chief? i think for people he did clear that bar. >> we'll see, two weeks to go. we'll see new two minutes on "morning joe." coming up on "way too early," email the show, you can tweet me, and let me know what you're doing up at this hour and what you thought of last night's debate. we'll read a bunch of them later in the show. still ahead when we come back, the san francisco giants fight back from the three games to one deficit, taking a decisive game seven in the rain at the end. the cardinals melt down. a full rundown of the highlights, and a preview of the world series, plus some monday night football. and the twitterverse weighs in on last night's presidential debate. we'll tell you which moment, which line drew the most attention online. we'll also get a check of weather when "way too early" comes back to rack's in boca. ultra portable, apple's legendary ease of use applied to a consumer device and auto sync. there's been nothing like this before. i can say this with some degree of certainty, this is going to be the hottest gift this holiday season for every mac owner. 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[ female announcer ] people who choose more whole grain tend to weigh less than those who don't. multigrain cheerios welcome back to rack's in boca raton. we want to check your weather from nbc meteorologist bill karins up in new york. bill, surprised to snknow it's sunny and warm here in california. >> amazing crowd. tropical storm this is still the hurricane season. this should be a hurricane crossing jamaica in about 48 hours and then cuba. after that it should weaken to a tropical storm, maybe a hybrid system sometime saturday into sunday. as of now, florida looks safe. maybe some large waves and some rain in miami and boca, for the most part the storm will miss florida. after that, there's a lot of questions of where the storm will head it will get blocked by a big area of high pressure off the coast one system would send it as a hybrid back towards the mid-atlantic or new england, or it may scoot the coast and sneak by new england. we won't know that for a couple more days. the timing if it did impact new england and the atlantic, monday and tuesday of next week, heading towards halloween. elsewhere this morning, light rain across new york state. we could she showers from new york to albany. the rest of the country looks mile. the only problem with the airports, possibly around chicago and st. louis with a thunderstorm. tropical storm sandy, can you believe it? the potential for impacts on the east coast as we head towards movement. >> trick or treating forecast, bill. thank you very much. we'll see you back up in new york tomorrow. the giants came all the way back from a 3-1 series deficit to force a decisive game seven in the national league championship series with a trip to the world series on the line. they had to battle a desperate cardinals team and a driving rain storm. in the second, giants up 1-06789 that's your starting pitcher, matt cain. bounces one up the middle with a runner on second, helping his own cause. gregor blanco comes around to score. giants up 2-0. the giants offense again in the third. hunter pence a broken bat liner past the shortstop for a hit. jon jay mishandles this thing in center field. all three runs come around to score. giants extend the lead to 5-0. blowing this thing open. they tacked on a couple more in that inning. up 7-0. cardinals offense can't get anything going against matt cain. matt freese swinging in the sixth. cain leaving to a standing ovation. two down now in the ninth a driving, pouring rain. giants up 9-0. matt holliday began the series by taking out marco scutaro with a hard slide at the plate. pops one up to scutaro. that ends the game. giants win game seven, 9-06789 heading to the world series, coming back down 3-1 to the cardinals. they will meet the cardinals. the giants the second team in history to win six consecutive postseason games. this will be the 19th world series appearance for the giants, second only to the yankees. they will send barry zito to the mound against justin verlander for game one of the world series, that's tomorrow night in san francisco. nfl, bears hosting the lions on monday night football. scoreless in the first quarter. jay cutler rolling right off the play action finds brandon marshall for the score. scary moment for the bears in the second quarter. jay cutler chased down. slams him to the turf. cutler went down hard. he went out for one play but came back into the game. cutler is tough. lions trying to find the end zone in fourth and goal. matt stafford is picked off by b.j. moore of the vanderbilt university. three red zone turnovers sink the lions as the bears get the win, 13-7. chicago 5-1. lions drop to a disappointing 4-2. the november 5th monday night game between the eagles and saints may have a political lean to it. sports journal reports that president obama and mitt romney have asked to appear on the problem the night before the election. coming up at the top of the hour on "morning joe" right here at rack's in boca, with the final presidential debate in the books, the candidates look to hammer home their closing arguments two weeks now from election day. our "morning joe" crew is here, ready to break it all down for you. plus, conan o'brien has his eye on this battleground state of florida. and put together a special tribute to the sunshine state. the crowd in boca likes it when "way too early" comes right back. so uh this is my friend frank and his, uh, retirement plan. one golden crown. come on frank how long have we known each other? go to e-trade. they got killer tools man. they'll help you nail a retirement plan that's fierce. two golden crowns. you realize the odds of winning are the same as being mauled by a polar bear and a regular bear in the same day? frank! oh wow, you didn't win? i wanna show you something... it's my shocked face. [ gasps ] ♪ [ male announcer ] get a retirement plan that works at e-trade. you mentioned the navy, for example, and that we have fewer ships than in 1916. well, governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets because the nature of our military has changed. we have things called aircraft carriers where planes land on them. we have ships that go under water, nuclear submarines. the question is not a game of battleship, it's what are our capabilities? >> we're back here live inside rack's in boca raton, florida, where president obama and mitt romney engaged in a memorable exchange there about the size of the navy. romney claimed the u.s. navy is smaller now than any time since 1917. if you want to sound smart, tell your friends with 285 ships, the u.s. navy has more now than it did in each of the last four years of the george w. bush administration. 278 naval ships in 2007 marked the lowest active level since 1916. that exchange over the navy and the president's bayonet line is just the latest in a series of debate one-liners that blew up twitter in realtime. with more than 10 million tweets, the first presidential debate became the most tweeted about event in the history of united states politics. the exchange over big bird triggered 135,000 tweets per minute. romney's binders full of women remark boosted the number of tweets in the second presidential debate to 7.2 million. last night, 6.5 million tweets bounced around the web at more than 105,000 per minute. horses and bayonets led the way. and the race to the white house is so close it's set to be decided by voters in just a few key swing states. conan o'brien gave some advice to the voters right here in the state of florida. >> if, yet, another presidential election is decided by the voters in florida i just want to make a quick plea to florida citizens to take their responsibility seriously and get out there and vote. florida, we know you're watching. this is for you. ♪ florida it might be you ♪ can we trust you to make a stand ♪ ♪ you're a state full of great people ♪ ♪ we'll see you in the news ♪ get out and vote if you can ♪ there's a lot to win or lose ♪ it's up to you ♪ florida ♪ florida we're counting on you ♪ ♪ you're a shining example of america ♪ ♪ florida we're counting on you ♪ >> completely unfair representation of this great state of florida. wasn't that unfair? these are nice people in here. they never would crawl through a drive-thru window to beat somebody up. still ahead on "way too early," your sunny tweets and e-mails are next. and "morning joe" live from boca, moments away. 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