days of shock and awe, the last u.s. combat troops left the country. it s a great day not just for me, but for everybody. all the sacrifices the united states made. it was a privilege to be part of it. and joining us now this morning, we have once again of course the president on the council of foreign relations, richard haass, associate editor of the washington post the author of imperial life inside the emerald city. also with us editor of time international bobby ghosh and in washington, associate editor of the washington post bob woodward, the author of plan of attack the definitive account of the decision to invade iraq. also joining us, national investigative correspondent
and you heard right there harry reid really laying into republicans saying you guys have not been around. we have nobody to negotiate with. you know, negotiating to come to a compromise. a real interesting plan of attack by harry reid. mitch mcconnell came to the senate flor and said we await to hear from the president regarding any plan that he has moving forward but we re not just going to give a blank check over to democrats because we re on the edge of a fiscal cliff. and harry reid coming down and essentially tearing apart mitch mcconnell saying speaker boehner couldn t pass plan bmpld, you guys haven t done anything. show us where your cards are. what s interesting though is, karen, is what we know about who the house republicans are going to do. they re going to come back at 6:30 p.m. on sunday. eric cantor told them to be prepared to be in session through january 2nd. so remember yesterday we talked about optics, how bad it was for them to look like they weren t going to be i
look at what s next. hi, tamron. hi, andrea. we are following breaking news. president obama is now in new jersey, touring firsthand the damage caused by sandy. with govern or the chris christie. the president is expected to start the ground tour within the hour and bring you details. nbc s first read team says don t be surprised if the losing side whoever it turns out to be ends up blaming sandy as a result. well, the president will return to the campaign trail. we ll talk with a presidential historian regarding how the disaster affected the president s plan of attack moving ahead. also, why the head leans read ohio working class voters could be the key to president obama s re-election.
89 electoral votes are considered toss ups. remember, it takes 270 votes to win the presidency. the latest from the new york times 538 blog gives the president a 78% chance of winning. romney has 30% chance. 5.1 million people have already voted. that includes more than 812,000 people in the key state of ohio. we ll have much more later in the show. but we start with tonight s lead. plan of attack. at a big rally today in florida, the president unveiled a new 20-page plan for the policies he s been talking about all this year. it s his agenda for the future. a detailed look, the american people are not getting from mitt romney. in this campaign, i ve laid
to women, 4 in 10 women saying it was abortion, access to choice, that was the biggest issue for them. i ve never seen numbers like that before. and i think that s very clarifying. it s mobilizing for the democratic base. and it absolutely will be toxic for romney if it comes up tonight. ezra klein, alicia menendez, thank you for your time tonight. coming up, on the day of the big debate, a major blow for right wingers trying to suppress the vote. big news from a key battleground state. and it s the question everyone is asking how aggressive will the president be? we have news on his plan of attack tonight. you will want to hear this. you re watching politicsnation on a big debate night here on the place for politics, msnbc. this is the car that loves to have fun