0 find folks? they brought us, whole binders full of women. >> well, binders full of women has become this week's big bird. mentioned at every campaign stop in the obama world. >> we don't have to collect a bunch of binders to find qualified talented, driven young women. we don't have to order up some binders to find qualified, talented, driven young women. >> binders full of qualified women, as if, my god, they exist! >> well, in virginia, romney tried to do a little damage control and fire back. >> this president has failed america's women. they've suffered in terms of getting jobs, they've suffered in terms of falling into poverty. >> this morning, the romney campaign is out with a video featuring some of the former governor's women cabinet members. these women were in that binder. >> i was personally struck by his humanity. >> they said we need to take care of those who can't take care of themselves. >> he totally gets working women. >> and today a group of women who work with romney when he was governor kick off a two-day "we know mitt" bus tour through iowa. romney and obama are also engaged in their own war over coal. a fight they kicked off at the debate tuesday night. >> this has not been mr. oil or mr. gas or mr. coal. i was in coal country. people grabbed my arms and say, please, save my job! when the president ran for office, he said if you build a coal plant, you can go ahead, but you'll go bankrupt. >> when i hear governor romney say he's a big coal guy, keep in mind when -- governor, when you were governor of massachusetts you stood in front of a coal plant and pointed at it and said, this plant kills. >> let's remember here, the whole issue of coal has shifted a little bit. five, eight years ago it was not cool to stand with coal in either party. and both of them were using talking points that the other had used to beat up on the other. well, that said, the president has always hedged on coal. why? illinois is a coal state and to the chagrin of environmental ilsil environmentalists, the president has been finding ways to be supportive of coal, but now this fight is really about one state whether it comes to coal -- ohio. in campaigning in southeastern ohio's coal country last night, the president went on an extended coal riff. >> and now he's running around talking like he's mr. coal. does anybody actually look at that guy and think, man, he's really into coal? did you see when he was doing that ad, he's in front of all these miners with hardhats? find out later they had to come. boss made them come. come on. >> that's a reference to an august romney rally which the campaigns have been sparring over since a local radio host reported that mine employees told him anonymously the mine was closed for the romney event. now the fight only escalated when romney began using the video of the rally in a campaign ad. >> policies of the current administration's got is attacking my livelihood. >> the mine was closed. lost the pay they needed. all to be props in romney's commercial. >> in the latest on this ad war -- the coal group is firing back in another ad this week. >> absolute lies. that's what these coal miners had to say about barack obama's claim that they were forced to attend a campaign rally for. >> as you can see, even ohio is being sliced and diced into different things, different conversations. when you're in toledo, you are talking auto bailout. when you're in the southeastern part of the state, you're talking coal. speaking of ads, spending on radio and tv ads has now passed the $800 million mark. of course, we're on page to reach $1 billion before it is election day. this is $1 billion just in the presidential race, folks. just in the presidential race. and just television ads. so far, $810 million has been spent on political ads for radio and television, local, national, cable, broadcast. team romney, which includes the romney campaign and his outside groups that are supporting romney or atashg being the president, is outspending team obama $457 million to $353 million. but the largest single spender, by far, is the obama campaign individually which is outspending the romney campaign individually $299 million tv ads to $164 million. this week alone, more than $58 million was being spent on tv ads. obama leads the pack with $20 million spent but romney close behind at $16.5 million. republican super pac american crossroads is next at $11 million this week. the pro-obama super pac priorities usa has spent just over $4 million. where is all that money being spent whether it comes to the battleground buys? it is all about this week -- ohio, ohio, ohio. 4 of the top 10 most saturated markets this week are in the buckeye state. and -- get this -- for the first time since the week of april 23rd, there is no virginia market in the top ten. by the way, one of the tells we told you about months ago was to keep an eye on where the battle was being waged most intensely in the month of october. if it was going to be in the new south battleground states of florida, north carolina and virginia, advantage obama. if it was going to be in the midwest, advantage romney. well, what does this list of markets tell you, at least this week? the battle right now is in the rust belt and the midwest. that in itself tells you that could be good news for romney. the man accused of trying to attack the new york federal reserve building is now under arrest in an elaborate al qaeda-inspired plot. the suspect was picked up by the fbi allegedly in the process of trying to detonate a 1,000-pound bomb. jonathan, one thing about this is that obviously it was a sting operation from the beginning when they identified this guy and found him over a year ago. but he was not a very bright individual, it appears. he didn't know he didn't have explosives. right? >> well, the fbi set him up with an informant. they met, talked about this, they traveled all the way from bangladesh, enrolled as a student under the guise at studying at a missouri college. then came to new york and scouted targets. police commissioner kelly says he may not have been sophisticated but in his view he was very, very dangerous. they were monitoring him for months as he scouted the new york stock exchange and other targets until officials say he finally settled on the fed. now what's extraordinary about this operation is, he literally drove this van that he believed was packed with 1,000-pound bomb. that's the equivalent of what hit the '93 trade center where six people were killed and 1,000 were injured. he drove that van down long island expressway into manhattan, down broodway, aadwai officials says he literally parked it here and officials were watching it by video in realtime. then he apparently went to a nearby hotel and by remote control tried to set off the explosives. but again, because there were fbi informants who provided some of the materials to this suspect, the bomb was a dud. so the suspect remains in cuddy as the investigation continues. but again, it appears he was a lone wolf. >> they're calling it al qaeda-inspired. it is not clear he had any connection to any of the disparate al qaeda groups, whether it was al qaeda in asia, southeast asia where he's from, or al qaeda in any other al qaeda affiliates. correct? >> right. some of the recordings he boasts that he has al qaeda contacts in banglade bangladesh. they have avenue not found any evidence of that. he was inspired. he read al qaeda's publications, "al qaeda inspire" magazine, followed the publications of anwar al awlaki who was killed in a drone strike and he praised osama bin laden saying he hoped to "destroy america." those are the words quoted in the court documents filed yesterday. >> was this fbi-led or nypd-led or was it really a joint operation? >> this one, joint terrorism task force, fbi agents working alongside nypd detectives and homeland security investigators with immigrations and custom enforcement all working following up the various leads. they continue to follow up who he was in contact with in missouri and california. but again, it appears he was a lone actor. >> jonathan dienst, our colleague at wnbc on the scene for us. coming up, that dreaded deadlock. what happens in the cales of an electoral college tie? folks, this is a real possibility this year. scarily so. plus, democratic congressman chris van hollen will be here in our studio. just 19 days left for the president to convince voters that he does have a vision and deserves a second term. oh -- and there's that little matter of the looming fiscal cliff. he's a budget guy. we'll talk him to about that. paul ryan fumbles a visit to the cleveland browns practice. browns are kind of used to fumbles. anyway, condoleezza rice, grabbed the ball, tried to help him out. but first, a look ahead at the schedules of president obama and mitt romney today. mitt romney kind of having a down day before the dinner. the president using the excuse of new york to sneak up to new hampshire. and i bet you this could be his last new hampshire stop before november. that's just a guess. you're watching "the daily rundown," only on msnbc. 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