>>> good morning. i'm chris jansing . fired up and a feisty debate. it's fueling both democrats and republicans this morning. president obama and mitt romney took the gloves off last night. at times they actually looked like they might got after the other with more than words.
>> but that's not what you've done in the last four years. that's the problem. in the last four years, you cut permits and licenses on federal land and federal waters.
>> not true, governor romney .
>> so how much did you cut?
>> not true.
>> how much did you cut by?
>> we have produced more oil --
>> no, no. how much licenses did you cut?
>> here's what we did. there were a whole bunch of oil companies --
>> i had a question. it was how much did you cut them by.
>> i'm happy to answer the question.
>> this morning their running mates both declare victory.
>> president obama was absolutely at the top of his game last night. and i also think that he was able to clearly draw a picture between a future under obama and a future under romney .
>> he clearly changed his tactic. they said he would. but his answers didn't change. he didn't offer any new idea about how the next four years would be any different than the last four years.
>> arguably one of the strongest moments of the night for the president, certainly one that was getting a lot of attention was after a question about libya .
>> and the suggestion that anybody in my team whether the secretary of state, our u.n. ambassador, anybody on my team would play politics or mislead when we've lost four of our own, governor, the offensive. that's not what we do.
>> i want to bring in roll call associate analyst tucker. and erin mcpike.
>> good to be here.
>> you couldn't be less agresive or less energetic than the president last time. so he stepped up his game by order and magnitude. was that enough for a win?
>> i gave him a narrow win on points . i think compared to the last debate, this is the barack obama that the american people thought they knew and expected to see originally. and he did very good job of bringing the attack to mitt romney . going after him on policy and the areas they have attacked him on in terms of his background. i do think that mitt romney held his own and showed that denver wasn't a fluke in that the mitt romney that talks about the economy that is strong on issues, what he showed in denver still existed. just this time he had real competition. so you had a much different ball game . the political impact of this i think is a draw. but this was important for the president because his supporters and people who are giving him a look and inclined to vote for him is still there.
>> let's talk more about the style. because it was feisty to say the least. here's what frank bruni wrote. at times the candidates communicated such potent disrespect even disdain for each other that you had to remind yourself that one was the president of the united states and one wanted to be. i don't think you could walk away from this thinking these guys were friends or had any level of like for each other. i wonder how that's going to play with voters in ohio or florida.
>> sure. in that libya exchange that you just played a moment ago, it was clear that president obama was seething. he -- we talk about how the president doesn't show a lot of emotion sometimes, that he is aloof. not in this debate. he was thanking voters for taking their questions. and happy in moments. at that moment he said mitt romney i am the commander in chief, you are not. i thought that was huge.
>> let me play more of the libya exchange. this was one of the hottest moments.
>> the day after the attack, governor, i stood in the rose garden and i told the american people and the world that we were going to find out exactly what happened. that this was an act of terror.
>> i think it's interesting the president just said something which is that on the day after the attack he went in the rose garden and said this was an act of terror. you said in the rose garden the day after the attack it was an act of terror.
>> please, proceed.
>> is that what you're saying?
>> please proceed, governor.
>> i want to make sure we get that for the record because it took the president 14 days before he called it an act of terror.
>> he did, in fact, sir. he used the word -- he did call it an act of terror.
>> do you think after that, david, that mitt romney seemed a little more off his game? do you think he was rattled by that?
>> i think that the exchange didn't go the way he wanted. i think he was rattled for a moment, but i thought he recovered. and he'll have another crack at this on monday. and it'll be interesting to see in the foreign policy debate how this goes.
>> they're not going to drop this. that's clear.
>> of course not. and i thought the president really knocked that whole issue out of the park within that debate. and ironically, the same way i expected joe biden to really knock libya out of the park against paul ryan and it didn't work that way. i didn't expect that here. but i do think while it was an important moment for the president for the overall debate last night, this election is still being fought on economic territory and i don't know what the lasting impact of this will be. at least until we see how the foreign policy debate goes.
>> well, speaking of the economy, the other certainly most talked about moment last night came when are m romney started answering a question about equal pay for women . he pivoted how he tried to hire women for his cabinet when he was governor for massachusetts.
>> it took a concerted effort to go out and find women who had backgrounds to find women who were qualified to be members of our cabinets. they brought us whole binders full of women .
>> everywhere you look, binders full of women . it was being tweeted. was that awkward?
>> mitt romney does have awkward answers here and there. and the democrats are very good at exploiting them and manufacturing a big movement like they have with this binders of women comment.
>> it's the big bird of this debate.
>> sure. the larger answer he offered was actually very good in that he realized women were not applying to work in his administration and he wanted to see more of them. by and large i thought that was fine for him. but no, he doesn't answer questions in some cases very eloquently.
>> let me bring in senator kay bailey hutchison . welcome back.
>> thank you.
>> mitt romney did not answer the question last night what would he do to make sure women are getting fair pay . he took a lot of heat for the binders full of women , but was it clear to you?
>> absolutely. i think he should be applauded for saying i'm not looking for people who supported me politically. i'm not making this political. i'm going to make sure we have qualified women in my cabinet. i think he deserves credit for that. i think that's exactly what he will do when he's president. he will make sure there are qualified women at the top levels to have the white. exactly like he has in his campaign.
>> do you understand why some women seem to take that as a little condescending or out of date to say -- and maybe a question can be raised about why did he even have to ask for binders full of women . who are the people who are vetting the cabinet for him that they didn't give him a single woman ?
>> i think he should be given credit for saying wait a minute, i'm not taking what i'm given. we're going u to show what we have in massachusetts, the diversity. i give him total credit for that. i think he has shown in his campaign staff that haes got top women that he listens to that are key. a woman did the vetting for his vice presidential candidate . he relies on her. i just think this is what was important in that debate is that president obama still says things are bad, but it's going to be more of the same and it's going to get better. and mitt romney is giving a plan. he is saying are you kidding me. we have --
>> can i ask you about that plan?
>> we have lower income for middle class people. we have picker premiums in our health care . and we have unemployment high. are you kidding? we're going to do four more years of this?
>> it's one thing to criticize the president, and he did do that. the other question is what is he going to do that's different. he also did not give a specific answer to a question from a woman who asked about deductions he would eliminate. here's what john kerry said on " morning joe " today.
>> he's trying to fake it to the american people because he doesn't want to tell you about the home mortgage, college credit , doesn't want to tell you about state and local taxes. he fakes it. you have a man running for president on the central issue of our time and he's not being straight with american people .
>> he is. he does have specifics. he talks about his specific plans. he is going to open up small business to hire people. he's going to stop the over-regulation. he's going to keep taxes low on everyone that makes $250,000 or less. and he's not going to change the deductions for those people.
>> but the nonpartisan group said if he does a 20% cut across the board like he said last night, you essentially give the wealthy a multibillion dollar tax break . because then it's the richer paying less. independent analysis have suggested the numbers don't add up.
>> i heard president obama say last night, well, he's talking about increasing spending and then lowering taxes. and mitt romney has not talked about increasing spending. he is talking about getting the deficits down. and he's talking about lowering taxes on the middle class so that the money will go out in job creation . it is job creation that mitt romney is focused on and yet the president keeps saying we're going to do more of the same. we're going to make those rich folks pay more. well, you know what? they're already paying more. and what we have is joblessness at the middle class level. president romney will make sure that we do have jobs created by lowering the regulatory burden by bringing our businesses back home so they can do business in america. he is talking about making the middle class not suffer like they're suffering now. and create jobs the old fashioned way and that is freeing business to do it.
>> senator kay bailey hutchison , always wonderful to have you on. thank you.
>> thank you.
>> another thing we heard repeatedly about last night was china. they talked about it several times. let me play this one little back and forth.
>> mr. president, have you looked at your pension? have you looked at your pension? mr. president, have you looked at your pension?
>> you know, i don't look at my pension. it's not as big as yours. it doesn't take as long.
>> who won that one, do you think, david?
>> i think mitt romney would have been better off letting that one go, however one of the president's strengths is his likability. i think with a lot of suburban swing voters who are looking for solutions when you see that solution that romney is attacking that the president comes in with a good one liner, i don't think it helps him either. it was a quick exchange and they moved on. it's going to be long forgotten.
>> what surprised me and i'd be interested in what you both think. the one thing i thought they didn't do is i never sensed either of them really made a connection with one of the questioners. i don't know if there was some reason that they both decided strategically. why don't you say to that college student what is it that you want to do and what are your goals in life and why don't you say to the people who say i voted for you in 2008 , why don't you say first of all thank you for your vote. i felt like neither mitt romney for the president engaged in a way -- somebody wrote what woul bill clinton do. they're not bill clinton , but having said that, did that surprise you?
>> they both had a lot of points to make from the get go. and in that first answer to the college student , president obama brought up the auto bailout. that was all about ohio . the polls are tightening there. he does not want to lose his lead there. so they got into a back and forth over the auto bailout and how mitt romney would have approached it differently. and president obama won that exchange which is an important thing for the polls in ohio over the next week.
>> do you think that's right? my question is do you go for the win on points ? or do you go for.
>> reporter: we --
>> well, no. you go for the win on the audience watching around the country. if you're politically talented enough as few presidents have been in the past 20, 30 years. you can both make that really good connection with the town hall participant like you mentioned and then turn it to a broader communication to the country. but if it was that easy, everybody would do it. and i think both of these guys simply wanted to communicate and get their agenda across. and that's why usually these town hall formats, the voters are props. not bad props but props nonetheless. the question was there's always a reason to talk about everything other than the question.
>> another debate next week. thanks to both of you.
>>> no rest for the candidates.
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