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Subscribe to RSSAfter Tuesday's fiery presidential debate, the heated arguments between GOP candidate Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama showed no signs of cooling on the stump as they tried to cast each other as economic threats to voters in Ohio, Iowa and Virginia. NBC's Peter Alexander reports.
LEESBURG, Va. – In two appearances Wednesday in the critical battleground state of Virginia, Mitt Romney focused on what he called the president's lack of a second term agenda, while avoiding Libya, a major flashpoint from Tuesday night's debate.
"I think it’s interesting that the president still doesn’t have an agenda for a second term. Don’t you think that it’s time for him to finally put together a vision of what he’d do in the next four years if he were elected?" Romney said in Chesapeake, Va. on Wednesday afternoon.
At an evening event in Northern Virginia, Romney continued to work that theme, occasionally revisiting moments from the debate – as President Barack Obama did on the stump after the first debate – with snappier retorts.
"I just have to mention, I remember last night the president also saying about energy," Romney recalled before some 8,000 supporters Wednesday night. "He said, you know, we built pipelines that would go around the earth, and I thought, ‘It's just the one that comes from Canada with the oil is the one that we want, you see?’ And that's the one I'm going to get."
Libya went unmentioned in either appearance on Wednesday.
Alex Brandon / AP
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney speaks during a campaign event in front of a barn at Ida Lee Park in Leesburg, Va. on Wednesday.
The timeline of the attacks and the Obama administration’s response seemed to trip Romney during the debate.
Conservatives had previously said the attacks show the White House’s weakness in terms of foreign policy, and both campaigns spent much of Tuesday night's spin room session with reporters re-litigating the finer points of the administration's declaration of the attack as an act of terror.
"With 20 days left, today was a good day to hammer home the contrast between a candidate who has a plan to fix the economy in Governor Romney and a candidate who doesn't have a record to run on or a plan for the future, that being President Obama," Romney senior adviser Kevin Madden said when asked why Romney didn't talk about Libya Wednesday. "Libya is still an issue with many voters, particularly given the conflicting statements from the president and his administration about the nature of the attack. The American people still have unanswered questions."
Obama campaign spokesperson Jen Psaki offered a different view while discussing the debate with reporters aboard Air Force One today, suggesting that Obama's command of the Libya questions in Tuesday's debate might have shut down conversation on the issue -- for now.
"Our view is that the president – the back-and-forth on Libya last night was one of the best moments for the president, one of the best moments in recent debate history," Psaki said. "And that's because the president made clear that being commander-in-chief is about being a leader. It’s not about political gamesmanship."
Reuters, Getty Images
In the final push in the 2012 presidential election, candidates Mitt Romney and Barack Obama make their last appeals to voters.
With a foreign policy debate coming Monday, Romney did make a point of mentioning other global issues at his second stop Wednesday, highlighting the importance of keeping America's military strong and ticking off a handful of world trouble spots he rarely mentions in a typical stump speech.
"I look around the world at North Korea, with its nuclear capability and a very strange dictator. I look at what’s happening throughout the Middle East and Pakistan," Romney said. "I look around North Africa now, with north Mali having been taken by an al-Qaida affiliate, and I recognize the world continues to be dangerous, and the decisions we make now about our military will determine our ability to defend ourselves in the future."
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Mitt Romney opened up his biggest lead yet in a national Gallup survey, with the latest results showing the Republican nominee up 6 points over President Obama -- with less than three weeks and just one debate left on the calendar before Election Day.
The Gallup survey, which is based on a seven-day rolling average, showed Romney leading 51-45 percent. At the start of October, he was tied with Obama at 48 percent each
By Fox News and the Gallop people are not unbiased.
Shout to women voters who think Romney is the guy.
Watch the movie Stepford Wives, then follow up on
a little history about Mormon wives.
Love it. I know I've trashed the country for the last four years, but you can't vote for Romney; he's a Mormon husband.
when Mit run for Massachusetts governor he "FLIP" I AM SUPPORTED ABORTION RIGHT but when MIT run White House seat he "FLOP" say: I AM NOT SUPPORTED ABORTION RIGHT! can you Open your BLIND EYE$ and see it is the same OLD LIAR!....CANDY????anyone?
Obama looks like a beaten puppet, Romney looks confident and very presidential....
Yeh right up to the Libian Remark and than he lost it. I saw the way he looked at Obama the rest of the debate. I could see the envy in his eyes, that he wished he was as good as Obama.
MItt Romney: I will create 250,000 jobs a month, except I can't tell you how.
IN CHINA
President Obama: I know I told you I'd get this done in 4 years, but what I really need is another 4 years. It has gotten better out there; by better I mean worse.
President Obama: I will hire teachers to save our country. And if that doesn't work...I'll hire more.
Obama I will lose 250,000 jobs a month, Ill tell you how by using my same policies from the last four years, Obama can balme Obama for the last four years.
Thaty's just false me, why can't you stick to reality instead of making things up out of thin air as ROmney does?
Yeah, that guy should post facts...like you do.
Romney said he could have 12 Million jobs. 250,000 jobs a month it will taks 48 months. That is one heck of a long time promise to keep. A lot can happen in 48 months. For those of you who needs a calculator to iigure it out that's 4 years.
Mr. Haake writes,
"The timeline of the attacks and the Obama administration’s response seemed to trip Romney during the debate .."
You're kidding. right?
look at the photo of romney in the middle the one in his black suit, he looks like some kind of funeraL DIRECTOR or some kind of demon from hell, come my son, vote for me and give me your soul!
I'm sure that's exactly what MSNBC had in mind when they selected this shot.
agree bias on their part
Troll why is everything bias with you Clowns?
So much ingracious BS in these comments! I got to get some cyber hip boots!
May God has MERCY on USA>>>>>>>>>>> DOOM DAY ARE COMMING AGAIN!!! ( IF ) MIT WRONEY WIN! CANDY??
Sounds good...unless, of course, there is no god? :)
Of course those Republican religious zealot idiots would love to see DOOMS DAY!! hahahahaha
What Master Joseph ans commie Lien Trinh is trying to say is that there a pair of nobodies without a soul.
I respect them being Religious, but religious or not it's the truth.
Mitt "Shoot First, Aim Later" Romney is losing talking points;
During the second debate, President Obama destroyed Moderate Mitt and revealed the true Conservative Mitt.
Obama 2012
Remember these promises and lies when you get in the voting booth. Obama is a LIAR.
Would have the most transparent administration in History
Didn’t know Jeremiah Wright was Radical
Minimum Wage will increase to $9.50/hr
Obama campaign would accept public funding
No more wiretapping of citizens
Guantanamo bay to be closed within a year
I am not somebody who promotes same-sex marriage.
Unemployment rate will be 8.5% without stimulus.
Health Care deals will be covered on C-span
Cut Deficit in Half by end of first term
Obama says he’ll save average family $8,000 in gas
We shouldn’t Mandate the purchase of health care
The Health Care Package will pay for itself
We have run out of places in the US to drill for oil.
ObamaCare Fee is not a new tax
The health care bill will not increase the deficit by one dime.
Fence between US and Mexico is “Practically Complete”
My budget will cut the deficit by $4 Trillion over 10 years.
Romney and Ryan will gut pell grants for low-income college students.
I don’t Have Lobbyists
I’ll get rid of earmarks
Stock market is about PROFITS, not jobs.
The housing market up statement has been used at least EIGHT TIMES in the past three years.
Unemployment is below 8% because hundreds of thousands have been DROPPED from the unemployed rolls, and have NOT been hired.
And SEALS did that, not Obama. Obama made a decision that EVERY President would have made. Oh and by the way, he was found by the INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY that Obama demonized for two weeks after Libya.
Troops should be coming home TODAY
"8 cases" brought while he was running for re-election and NEVER brought before
I ALREADY HAVE RIGHTS GENIUS. ALL the rights that EVERY American has. I don't need Obama for them, to keep them, or to have gotten them in the first place!
And how is over 20 embassies being attacked, four Americans DEAD, and hundreds of thousands of people in the streets demonstrating against the U.S., burning our flag, and even burning Obama ANY kind of "foreign policy".
Only MORONS think that Obama winning ANY talking points battle. He's a FAILURE that just keeps repeating his "hope and change" mantra from four years ago as we keep going down the toilet.
Yeah but he's gaining votes...Latest nationwide Gallup poll, after the Messianic Resurrection, otherwise known as the second debate...51 Romney, 46 Obama.
Party's over, Hope and Changers.
@Cgent47 where has obama lied? In the last debate the Republicans said Obama lied about oil on Private sector land, Obama told then to drill or get off the permits that they were sitting on so as to hold high prices over our heads later in time. This made them start to drill and I don't know where Romney or the Republicans are making a point of negativity from but I guess I'll have to research that out and proove Romney a lier once again. Why do I have to do all the work? Can't you Lazies do some homework for a change. JeeeeZZee
Obama truly is the WELFARE PRESIDENT
Report: Welfare government’s single largest budget item in FY 2011 at approx. $1.03 trillion. This is a a 32 percent increase from 2008. The data excludes spending on Social Security, Medicare, means-tested health care for veterans without service-connected disabilities, and the means-tested veterans pension program.
Candy needs to stay off Candy for a few decades.
well, well remember OJ case?? you guy find him gulity before the Trail even begin with?? thing on the TV go much faster then FACT, the President don't want to be FORCE to give MIT and GOP answer about LIBYA so they go on used it for political score point, GOP and MIT will not just DESTROY OBAMA they also destroy USA by their LIE$ too, remember MIT say he met the SEAL? Mit used SEAL for his political gain but mother of SEAL Reject his claim! GOP and MIT will say anything to win, so far work GREAT for them becaues some of you just like "WOMEN" you "HOT" and you "COLD" the next minutes don't you? remember the "SONG" ??? " you Hot and you Cold?? Kerry Perry sing? one day you with Mit and next day you with Obama?? huh?
So telling a lie to the American people is a good thing as long as it serves your political future like what Obama was trying to do?
Wait until your taxes get raised and you won't have enough nail salon money to gamble at the Pai Gow table...
Foxnews the one bring up Libya Benghazi to destroy Obama, they seem to forget their Bush boy Gop sin??? LIED to war in IRAQ WMD, no NUKES...no BUSH.I.T!! CANDY??
That was different.
Obama had the opportunity to put Bush and CHeney in jail for treason and war crimes. He chose not to.
GOP has no problem lowering their standards.
Obama boy been deceiving America from day one..
What has Obama lied about?
Not what targets he missed or goals unfulfilled, what has he lied about as Mitt Romney has factually done.
Libya just went through a violent revolution, they are awash in guns and violent groups. In other words chaos. The administration made mistakes early on and wanted to wait until the facts were more clear.
This Dumb FUX NEWS outrage is pathetic, especially coming from the party that told us we had to invade Iraq to protect us from WMD's, we'd be greeted as liberators, out in a year, at a cost of less than $50 billion with minimal loss of life.
Most people see right through dumb FUX NEWS nation's bulllshiiit...
Obama/Biden 2012
most all do not take fox news seriously and know they are just tabloid journalism, kind of like the comedy channels john stewert, all for entertainment value only, rush limbaugh and hanity the same
You fail to mention the fact that a clear plea was made to provide security to the consulate in Benghazi, and it was ignored. That is a clear fact.
You fail to mention that there is video from all over the premises in Benghazi, that showed NO PROTEST was taking place AT ALL, and that the State department had CLEARLY and FACTUALLY determined that this was a preplanned assault by a terrorist organization.
You forgot to mention that Obama and his worker bees trotted all over the networks FACTUALLY and CLEARLY blaming a video for the violence.
You are wrong. There is not just outrage from certain media types that you choose to slander. This outrage is nation wide.
Obama/Biden 2012...Retirement from public service.
notatroll what I see and I watch most of the news networks except rachel maddow because she is a total jerk but I do see a lot of party favorites on all the news shows. One thing I do see more of on fox is they do bring out both republicans and democrats when they do a story. It is not like a lot of other shows that only tell one side of it.And by far most tv news shows are decidely democratic leaning. We really need more news media that does all the news instead of what they think is best for their party. THAT WOULD BE FAIR TO ALL.
americans STUPID enough to BUY GOP and MIT LIE$....yep Foxnews poll up?? you can belived it you should start hope Mit will RE-PEAT what BUSH did to Us 8yrs RECCESSION!!! enjoy...have some "CANDY" too
The masses are, indeed, asses!
Let's just count on the fact that there are enough free thinking voting Americans to give the President four more years!
Please don't call Americans stupid in any facet. We were gracious enough to let your parents come to this country to avoid getting killed or squashed by communism. You can always return home if you are not happy with individual rights.
What the hell are you running at the mouth about?
I was an educator for more years than you were probably alive, and all of them in the USA. Ive seen the morons up close, and they include about 50% of the teachers, and a bit less of the students, and a lot of them in cyberspace.
Why do you think (mostly the Republicans) cut education? Democracy only works with an educated public, and the politicians surely don't want that!
Get real! The masses are asses!
Want PROOF: Most BELIEVE in some god, since they BELIEVE that BELIEVING something makes it true. Do you prefer we call them sheeple? :)
...and Texas. How about all the red, and black and yellow people that died to make this country that is so...
Pull your head out of your ass.
The stock market recovered months ago.
New housing starts are back to pre-recession levels.
Employment has been consistently improving for 31 straigt months and unemployment is lower than the earliest months of the recession, in spite of Republican efforts to obstruct job creation legislation.
Romney keeps criticizing President Obama for the private sector results of the eight silent years' of damage done by a nameless previous administration. The Wizard of Massachussets', architect of job creation failure (47th out of 50 states under Governor Romney) has undergone a metamorphises. He is now a god.
Romney is trying to sugar coat an economic plan that will devastate the middle class and the debate exposed him as being clueless about Libya. His campaign of smoke and mirrors to hide the truth and mask his true intent of destroying the middle class is beginning to unravel and he will continue to be exposed for the liar and con man that he truly is.
spartan
What are the top three points of a plan to "build the middle class out"?
Romney's only foreign policy experience is his Tour De France during Vietnam, and his connections with oversea's manufacturer's who are hoping he gets elected.
Obama Biden 2012
I suppose you would count Senator Obama's foreign policy experience as living in Indonesia? You can bash Mr. Romney on his lack of foreign policy experience, but at the end of the day, it is on par with what President Obama brought to office.
True, but that's not the case now is it. Who do you want to fly the plane, someone who had no experieince 4 years ago but does now, or some one who has no experience now?
Romney on the campaign trail:I will recommit America to the goal of a democratic, prosperous Palestinian state living side by side in peace and security with the Jewish state of Israel."
Romney behind closed doors:The Palestinians have no interest whatsoever in establishing peace and that the pathway to peace is almost unthinkable to accomplish. we kick the ball down the field."
Fair enough.
I am NOT a fan of the U.S. unilaterally writing the "unofficial" international use of drones; especially with a "kill list".
I am NOT a fan of RE-announcing the assassination of Bin Laden a year after the event.
I am NOT a fan of "leading from behind" to leave nations without government in place. And look at Iraq now, after the Obama administration failed to negotiate an extension of U.S. troop presence; you know, when President Obama declared the cessation of the "combat mission".
MJ, the Iraqi governemnt would not provide immunity to US troops. Period. Under those conditions it would be immoral to leave them there.
Leading isn't the correct description. Collaborative leadership is. As an example, Russia and China were critical to imposing sanctions on Iran which by most accounts are having a significant impact. Do you think they would have agreed had Obama taken the "you're with us or against us" attitude? I don't.
Nor do I think that CHina would be so agreeable if Obama had started a trade war that ROmney seems so anxious to start.
I'm Not Too Proud To Beg; I Want You To Vote'
OBUMBO'S speech at Ohio University's College Green Wednesday October 17th, 2012
NOW HE IS BEGGING FOR VOTES???....DISGRACEFUL!!!....DISGUSTING!!!....AND PATHETIC!!!!
GONE FROM HOPE AND CHANGE TO JUST BEGGING FOR CHANGE!!!
DID YOU EVER THINK YOU'D SEE THE DAY WHEN THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA WOULD STOOP TO BEGGING FOR VOTES????
IS THAT all you have? All politicians beg for votes
Five more trillion in spending
I will cut everyone's taxes by 20%
No my church does not want to take over the country
Free rides on the dancing pony for EVERYONE...
**************************************
America buys this nonsense.
Mitt will bankrupt us in a month.
TCWW
I prefer Mr. Romney's plan, if for no other reason than he offers one. The reform of the tax code would have an effect of a stimulus to most Americans.
President Obama's tax plan is to raise the rate on those earning over $250,000; which will not impact the Buffett's & Romney's much.
And are you aware how fast President Obama's deficit spending is? And he still has not offered to reform Medicaid, a plan for Medicare after 2024, nor a plan for Social Security.
It's your choice to double-down for 4 more.
We all float in the same boat.
MJ- which tax loopholes does Romney plan to close?
Oh thats right, we have to wait until after the election to find out...
If you don't think Obama lied about calling Lybia a terror attack, you are a dumba@@@ and I want to sell you a bridge!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He f@cken lied, you knoiw it and I know it, he will be called out on it again on Tuesday, Obama won't be able to shuck and jive his way through it twice!! If his administration comes out with a new story before the debate, which I suspect, you will have to know it is a cover-up!!!!!! Romney/Ryan 2012, We don't have to settle for this SH@T!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
NBC - IS ROMNEY REALLY WING BY 6 POINTS??????????? They sure didn't question the polls when their choice was ahead!! Now did they!!!!!!!!!!!!
But to the main topic. Resume...RESUME!!! Is this all the left wing has to grasp as their Titanic heads to the bottom of the sea????????????? Yes I guess with Libya - the economy - the fact that womens jobs and equal pay have gone by the wayside under Herr Obama - the facts(taxes, fines, lack of care for the elderly,a death panel, and bankruptcy) are dooming us from Obamacare(or the lack there of) has the GREATONE going down to defeat!!!!!!!!!!!
And Candy Crawonherknees to kiss HIS supreme bottocks with her "Yes he said it in the Rose Garden." When two days prior she chastised Oxelrod for claiming the same thing, telling him that Obama's speach was an answer to a general question, shows how in the tank she was for HIM!!!!!!!!!
And interupting Romney three times as much as Obama!!!!! And letting Obama have a lot more time, cowtowing to him everytime her told her it was importatn for HIM to run over his time!!!!!!!!
What a brown noser!!!!!!!!!!
What about his answer to the 61 year-old who asked about the series of events that lead up to the attack on Libya?????? His answer --- When I was about 14 I used to fly a kite... And you can go fly one too!!!!!!!
Good God HE(who thinks of HIMSELF as a God should be down 40 points, but leave it to the democrites(democrat hypocrites - which are about all of them) to back such a slimeball!!!!!!!!!!!!
Did Willard bring his binders of women to the event??
Did President Obama actually practice equal pay; or, just eliminate the statute of limitations on equal pay suits?
Mr. Romney actively raised the participation of women in Massachusetts.
Women paid significantly less in Obama White House than their male counterparts
All of President Barack Obama's employees may not be treated equally in the White House, as recently released financial records show that female employees earn significantly less than their male counterparts.
Using the 2011 annual report of White House staff salaries that was submitted to Congress, an $11,000 difference is clear between the median female employee salary and the median male employee salary.
This news comes on top of continued criticism- of both President Obama and prior presidents- that women are underrepresented in the White House.
Of the administration's 20 top earners, who each took home a tidy $172,200 for their work in 2011, only six of those were women.
The most oft-singled-out leading lady in the President's testosterone-fueled inner circle is Valerie Jarrett who is one of his closest advisors.
That said, she has been with the President since his days in Chicago and is seen as one of his close personal friends as well as a trusted advisor.
The gender differential has been noticed outside of the White walls, and Dee Dee Myers- the first female press secretary who worked under the Clinton administration- feels it is not doing Mr Obama's team any favors.
'Women are Obama's base, and they don't seem to have enough people who look like the base inside of their own inner circle,' Dee Dee Myers told The New York Times.
The hefty salaries, like Ms Jarrett's, were not the norm, however, as the median salary for women in the White House is $60,000 which is 18 per cent less than their male peers whose median salary was $71,000.
This is not the first time that a pay disparity has been present in Mr Obama's White House, as it started as soon as his time in office did.
In 2009, women made 89 cents for every dollar that men made in 'the People's House'.
On average, that came out to $9,390 less.
While that looks like last year's calculations would mean a more drastic increase, those figures were compiled on the median salaries and not the mean so the two numbers are not exactly compatible, but they do show that there has not been a marked improvement in the situation.
Though the White House is not setting a great example, it is doing better than most: a recent national survey claims that women still make 23 cents less than men for every dollar earned.
That may present more of a problem, as the President's platform clearly values equal pay, as Mr Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act only nine days into his term.
The current administration's gender differential is certainly not the first, as former President Bill Clinton only had four women among his 17 top paid employees.
The downward trend continued with President George W. Bush, who only had 35 women among his top 122 workers.
Unlike in previous years, Mr Obama may be held to a greater degree of accountability on the issue now as both parties paint the other as waging a war against women.
Romney said during the debate he initiated the search for women to add to his staff.
That was a blatant lie. He and the democratic candidate were given "binders full of women" before the election by a women's group. That's just a fact.
The guy is a liar, pure and simple.
That's the argument you're going to hang your hat on Mark?
Good luck with winning over voters with that one.
Yes, let's focus on the economy, especially since all indicators show it is doing the best since 4 1/2 years ago which puts it BEFORE he even took office.
5 vs. 8% unemployment... that's a drastic improvement!
http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS14000000
No doubt, we are much better off than 4 years ago