>>> hands. good morning from washington. it's 22 days until election day and it's monday, october 15th , 2012 . i'm chuck todd . for a few of you, it's another irs deadline. let's get to our reads of the morning. with three reads to go, tomorrow's town hall debate in new york could be a turning point for romney it's an opportunity to clear what has been his biggest hurdle, the likability problem. understand the problems of regular people . meanwhile, the president badly needs to reverse the momentum which is looking more and more like a coin-flip race. no more agendas. the buts are eroding. and the president is in virginia where he will remain until he arrives in long island tomorrow. a half hour trip sunday to a local campaign oh office he delivered pizzas and made phone calls to volunteers.
>> i wanted to call and say thank you. i'm over at the williamburg office and i know you have been working so hard for the campaign.
>> senator john kerry who is playing romney in the debate prep has been spotted carrying a massive binder, multicolored tabs. the presidential campaign says that we will find an aggressive president in round two.
>> ed gillespie responded so that on fox.
>> even if he changes his style, and whatever political tactic the president settles on is being in the best interest , he can't change his record and he can't change his policies.
>> romney has hunkered down at home in massachusetts after a weekend swing in which he claimed what he called a kresh shen doe of enthusiasm for his campaign.
>> about a week ago i had a debate and i did enjoy myself. you know, sometimes in debates the moderators are jumping in and asking questions to try and get you off track but this moderator let us speak about issues that people care about.
>> tomorrow night will be the first time that romney and the president engage each other over libya, by the way, since state department officials testified last week. the one new member of the president's debate team is deputy national security advicer ben adviser ben rhodes . they are still trying to explain these comments that the vice president made about benghazi.
>> we did not know that they wanted more security.
>> of course, those comments directly contradicted state department officials and last week biden was speaking only for himself and the president. on sunday, the advisers were still trying to explain that away.
>> what he was talking about was what he, the president, knew because these matters were being handled at the state department .
>> security requests at our embassies and buildings throughout the world obviously go to the state department . that's -- those are the people who should be making those decisions.
>> so technically the vice president was correct. but was he speaking more broadly in a correct way? also on sunday, lindsay graham went to another level on this. he accused the white house of an actual cover up.
>> senator corker and i were told within 24 hours that communicated up to washington that this is a terrorist attack. they are trying to sell a narrative, quite frankly, that the mid-east, the wars are receding and never believed the media would investigate. congress was out of session and this caught up with them.
>> ed gillespie did his best to drive a wedge between the white house and secretary clinton .
>> what we've been seeing is an effort by president obama and vice president biden to say that it was really sect clinton , it was the state department that you ought to be looking at.
>> well, that is true. every time you ask the white house about this, they say.
>> you've got to talk to the state department about these security concerns. no evidence, yet, that there's a wedge between secretary clinton and the president. she's headed to peru but i have a feeling she'll be doing interviews within the next 24, 48 hours on the various televisions.
>>> paul ryan starts his day with a rally this hour in waukesha, wisconsin . but at noon he'll be back in cincinnati for a rally. not a day has gone by without a stop by ryan or romney in the buckeye state . he visited a soup kitchen in youngstown where he held a town hall . romney held rallies in lebanon, ohio .
>> i need you to get other people that voted for barack obama to join our team. we need ohio . if we get ohio , we'll be able to take back america.
>> but can romney win this election without ohio ? this was ohio senator's rob portman 's take on sunday.
>> look, you can probably win the presidency without ohio but i wouldn't want to take the risk. no republican has.
>> well, let's look at the map. we might as well. rob portman asked us to do it so let's do it. let's give the president ohio . that puts him up to 255. the two other states where he's ahead, that means he would win florida, all of the southern states . he's at 248. give him the west, colorado, nevada, he is still short and needs to find seven others. right now the president is ahead in wisconsin and i haven't seen evidence otherwise. the president appears to be ahead in new hampshire . so look what that leaves us. 269. well, i'll be darn, look how close that is. he can get to 269. he can get there. he'd have to somehow win new hampshire or ohio . this gets very tough without ohio . this sort of upper tier connection there. new hampshire , wisconsin , ohio , those are the three states where it's my understanding that the president has not seen his lead erode down to dead even. all of the other states after the debate, romney has pumped up to either make it even or even take the lead in a place like, for instance, florida or virginia. all right. the obama campaign is leaving nothing to chance. the boss will hit the buckeye state for the president this week. bruce springs teen will team up with former president clinton for a rally on thursday. the boss will also campaign that day in ames, iowa, following the trip to iowa. springsteen isn't the only star weighing in for the president. both campaigns are up with new ads. the president's spot challenges his voice by morgan freeman .
>> every president inherits challenges. few have faced so many. four years later, our enemies have been brought to justice. our heroes are coming home .
>> a new romney clip ad uses a clip from the vice presidential debate featuring a laughing biden while paul ryan talks fiscal discipline.
>> do they come in and inherit a tough situation in absolutely. but we're going in the wrong direction. look at where we are.
>> and finally, two new polls of likely voters have this looking more and more like a coin-flip race. no more buts. that shrinks to one point, 49/48 in a battleground poll. the two surveys show different results out of the battleground states . a poll shows president obama up five, 51/46. romney is up two points. and we'll have to see by how much, it's clear that the first debate did help romney , particularly under the likability poll. 8% say the same of the president. in the gw survey, 34 say they are more likely. 13% say that they are less likely. voters are seeing romney as more likeable. 62% of romney supporters say they are enthusiastic to vote. up ten points from before the debate. those numbers are held steady. still, the portland has some things going for him in both of these polls. his job approval is at 50% in both surveys. and more voters think the country is headed in the right direction. 42% in the post poll. the president and romney are neck-and-neck on who is better equipped to manage the economy. romney is 49/47 in the gw survey. both sort of paint the same picture.
>> i wanted to call and say thank you. i'm over at the williamburg office and i know you have been working so hard for the campaign.
>> senator john kerry who is playing romney in the debate prep has been spotted carrying a massive binder, multicolored tabs. the presidential campaign says that we will find an aggressive president in round two.
>> ed gillespie responded so that on fox.
>> even if he changes his style, and whatever political tactic the president settles on is being in the best interest , he can't change his record and he can't change his policies.
>> romney has hunkered down at home in massachusetts after a weekend swing in which he claimed what he called a kresh shen doe of enthusiasm for his campaign.
>> about a week ago i had a debate and i did enjoy myself. you know, sometimes in debates the moderators are jumping in and asking questions to try and get you off track but this moderator let us speak about issues that people care about.
>> tomorrow night will be the first time that romney and the president engage each other over libya, by the way, since state department officials testified last week. the one new member of the president's debate team is deputy national security advicer ben adviser ben rhodes . they are still trying to explain these comments that the vice president made about benghazi.
>> we did not know that they wanted more security.
>> of course, those comments directly contradicted state department officials and last week biden was speaking only for himself and the president. on sunday, the advisers were still trying to explain that away.
>> what he was talking about was what he, the president, knew because these matters were being handled at the state department .
>> security requests at our embassies and buildings throughout the world obviously go to the state department . that's -- those are the people who should be making those decisions.
>> so technically the vice president was correct. but was he speaking more broadly in a correct way? also on sunday, lindsay graham went to another level on this. he accused the white house of an actual cover up.
>> senator corker and i were told within 24 hours that communicated up to washington that this is a terrorist attack. they are trying to sell a narrative, quite frankly, that the mid-east, the wars are receding and never believed the media would investigate. congress was out of session and this caught up with them.
>> ed gillespie did his best to drive a wedge between the white house and secretary clinton .
>> what we've been seeing is an effort by president obama and vice president biden to say that it was really sect clinton , it was the state department that you ought to be looking at.
>> well, that is true. every time you ask the white house about this, they say.
>> you've got to talk to the state department about these security concerns. no evidence, yet, that there's a wedge between secretary clinton and the president. she's headed to peru but i have a feeling she'll be doing interviews within the next 24, 48 hours on the various televisions.
>>> paul ryan starts his day with a rally this hour in waukesha, wisconsin . but at noon he'll be back in cincinnati for a rally. not a day has gone by without a stop by ryan or romney in the buckeye state . he visited a soup kitchen in youngstown where he held a town hall . romney held rallies in lebanon, ohio .
>> i need you to get other people that voted for barack obama to join our team. we need ohio . if we get ohio , we'll be able to take back america.
>> but can romney win this election without ohio ? this was ohio senator's rob portman 's take on sunday.
>> look, you can probably win the presidency without ohio but i wouldn't want to take the risk. no republican has.
>> well, let's look at the map. we might as well. rob portman asked us to do it so let's do it. let's give the president ohio . that puts him up to 255. the two other states where he's ahead, that means he would win florida, all of the southern states . he's at 248. give him the west, colorado, nevada, he is still short and needs to find seven others. right now the president is ahead in wisconsin and i haven't seen evidence otherwise. the president appears to be ahead in new hampshire . so look what that leaves us. 269. well, i'll be darn, look how close that is. he can get to 269. he can get there. he'd have to somehow win new hampshire or ohio . this gets very tough without ohio . this sort of upper tier connection there. new hampshire , wisconsin , ohio , those are the three states where it's my understanding that the president has not seen his lead erode down to dead even. all of the other states after the debate, romney has pumped up to either make it even or even take the lead in a place like, for instance, florida or virginia. all right. the obama campaign is leaving nothing to chance. the boss will hit the buckeye state for the president this week. bruce springs teen will team up with former president clinton for a rally on thursday. the boss will also campaign that day in ames, iowa, following the trip to iowa. springsteen isn't the only star weighing in for the president. both campaigns are up with new ads. the president's spot challenges his voice by morgan freeman .
>> every president inherits challenges. few have faced so many. four years later, our enemies have been brought to justice. our heroes are coming home .
>> a new romney clip ad uses a clip from the vice presidential debate featuring a laughing biden while paul ryan talks fiscal discipline.
>> do they come in and inherit a tough situation in absolutely. but we're going in the wrong direction. look at where we are.
>> and finally, two new polls of likely voters have this looking more and more like a coin-flip race. no more buts. that shrinks to one point, 49/48 in a battleground poll. the two surveys show different results out of the battleground states . a poll shows president obama up five, 51/46. romney is up two points. and we'll have to see by how much, it's clear that the first debate did help romney , particularly under the likability poll. 8% say the same of the president. in the gw survey, 34 say they are more likely. 13% say that they are less likely. voters are seeing romney as more likeable. 62% of romney supporters say they are enthusiastic to vote. up ten points from before the debate. those numbers are held steady. still, the portland has some things going for him in both of these polls. his job approval is at 50% in both surveys. and more voters think the country is headed in the right direction. 42% in the post poll. the president and romney are neck-and-neck on who is better equipped to manage the economy. romney is 49/47 in the gw survey. both sort of paint the same picture.