Is the lowest rating for a Vice President ial debate since 2000. Goes, miketyle Donald Trumpse of and his policies and criticism of Hillary Clinton and her policies, when it comes to debating skills, donald trump may have been upstaged by his number two. Pence a narrative mike was trying to not down, where he called donald trump the winner of the faceoff. Donald trump was in a ,redittaking mood in nevada for putting mike pence on the ticket. How many of you watch the debates last night . Pence did an incredible job. I am getting a lot of credit because that is my first socalled choice, my first hire, as we would say in las vegas. He was phenomenal, cool, smart. A look at him. He was meant to be doing what he is doing and we are proud of governor mike pence. Thank you. Speculation in some reporting donald trump did not like the notion he would be called not as good as a debater as mike pence. How do you think donald trump is reacting personally to the reviews . There is another element to this. You mentioned the defense of Donald Trumps policies. That is a cause for him to be upset. Mike pence did not defend a lot of his policies. Today, maybe he is protesting too much. Now, on the basis of what we have seen, and anything i think it hasow, i been overblown, that donald trump has taken offense to the played it. Nce if he realizes he needs to win the debate on sunday, that his campaign is in a tough place, one of the smartest things his staff has convinced smallero, lower taxes, i think he is doing fine and i agree. It is overblown. Donald trump does not have the best poker face. Where donaldy trump has left him. Instances with john mccain, sarah palin overshadow him. Recognizesald trump he was on a bad run. He knows the pressure is on him to perform. , there were a it lot of foreignpolicy issues where mike pence took exception to donald trump. It is not like he is really adopted. On lower taxes, changing washington, critiquing Hillary Clinton. This is the best day they have had in a while. He was talking about the indian amerco, not himself. I think donald trump might feel ought about it, but largely, feeling good. The second president ial debate is this sunday. In ye olde gateway to the west, the place of the fallen red birds, happily denied a place to the playoffs against the mets yay. Were talking about st. Louis. We have seen trump make some campaign advances to the trail. There are some tips to could take from mike pences debate last night. Pence often turn to the moderators questions into opportunities to attack Hillary Clinton. He spoke directly to the camera. Gov. Pence you can roll out the sunny side, but people in scranton and fort wayne know different. One of the last things he mentioned was border security. Thats how washington always plays it. I can make clear to the American People after covering millions of miles as our secretary of state, after being architect of the Foreign Policy of this administration, america is less safe today than it was the day that barack obama became president. John mark, that is a good debater skill. Trump did not do it much in the first debate. Trump could clearly learn from that. Mark amazing that tim kaine failed. John utterly. Mark trying to fight with the moderator and mike pence. John he did not know which camera to talk to. Mark make America Great again, the democrats have turned that into a negative slogan. America is great now. Donald trump sees it as an optimistic thing. And despite some corners of the liberal media calling mike pence as dour, he has this reaganlike optimism. Imagine him talking like this on sunday. Gov. Pence we are going to have a stronger america. When you hear him say we want to make America Great again, when we do that, i truly do believe the American People will be standing taller. They are going to see that real change can happen after decades of talking about it. When that happens the American People will stand tall, stand together and will have the kind of unity that is been missing for way too long. Mark that is the kind of message that donald trump conduct. He was caught up in the negativity of Hillary Clinton. John he could adapt. All of this saying that america is in a hell hole and that he needs to fix it, its optimistic and that he wants to fix the country, but it sounds is pretty darn pessimistic. Another thing that mike pence did well is that he is folksy and plainspoken. We do think that trump could learn something from the colloquial way in which mike pence talks. Gov. Pence i am a small town boy from a place not too different from farmville. I grew up in a cornfield. My mom and dad built everything that matters in a small town in southern indiana. The build a family and a good name. John a couple things about that, when is the colloquialism about it. The other is the biographical nature. Talking in human relatable terms. I did not see much about that from donald trump on the first debate. Mark he likes fast food and was born in queens, but he will never be at the same level of mike pence as being a more ordinary person. Donald trumps life has been anything but ordinary. Welcome back. Our next guest tonight, and there are a lot. Spicy over there. Lets start with this question. If you were looking for a data that would suggest that donald trump is ready to have a stronger second debate, what would you point to . Lis are you looking for a number . Mark just a fact. Lis maybe watching mike pence and learning from him. I dont think that is one of Donald Trumps strong suits. But look, we were talking about this. He always had this reputation of being this blowdried good presentation on tv type of guy. And it came through last night. I think donald trump could learn from it. Mark what would you say . What is something that you have seen that makes you say, he needs to improve. First of all i think we are continuing the trajectory from last week. We will continue to lead the race continuing into st. Louis. Visiting at the west and starting in virginia with veterans was great. Great features and great crowds. He is energized and ready to go. We are ready to talk about national security, the economy. I think the town hall format very much lens itself to donald trump. He is authentic, she is robotic. John a monmouth poll puts trump ahead in ohio, and a reuters poll puts her up by six points nationally. Every battleground state poll has shown her picking up speed. We are up in the l. A. Times, we are up in the rasmussen. The last time they took that monmouth poll, we were down 4. That has trended toward Hillary Clinton. Mark big fan of the upi poll. I did not know there was still a upi poll. [laughter] polls are coming out now nationally driven by the media spin from the last debate. I am not concerned about that. John or what some would call Donald Trumps poor performance in the first debate. I would say media spin because i thought it was a good performance. I call it a reenactment of the hindenburg. Wow. Mark fair enough. I thought you would say it was as rehearsed and spontaneous as a tim kaine line. Liz, you are antitrump. And anticlinton, to be fair. I hate everybody this cycle. Talk from the standpoint of someone who doesnt like either one of the tops of the tickets. John how do you think the president ial the Vice President ial debate played out . It focused on the negatives of clinton and trump. I felt like a great deal of what was said was accurate and i came away feeling demoralized about the terrible choices the parties have put forward this cycle and i hope that people will investigate other options and consider writing themselves in or somebody they like. Or, just skipping the president ial and focusing down ballot. We had people acting the way we expected them to act in a debate, which was refreshing. Tim kaine had a little too much red bull. I expected some fireworks, but i was shocked by tim kaine. Boris, you are the king of interrupting everybody. You are like tim kaine here. Here is what i was going to say before liz decided to jump back in. On style, pence showed himself to be measured and ready to be the next president. s president. Next Vice President. Tim kaine had canned lines and did not seem to enjoy himself. Mark i want to start with liz and the other liz. What is your sense of the trajectory of sunday night for the rematch . I think there will be a drop off. Look, i am not an expert. I would say 70 or 65 million. I have no particular views with ratings. I suspect we are going to see a debate between two people with high unapproval rating. More of the best with all due respect. With us now, phil rocker. Phil rucker. Thank you for joining us. Margaret, how is the Hillary Clinton campaign approaching sunday nights debate . He emphasized they believe donald trump is going to come. Repared that theyredicting dont think he is going to go to the personal attacks, presumably on bill clintons past. They are saying they dont expect him to do that. I would be shocked if she is not preparing for that. The challenge is the different format. To is strong when it comes oneonone combat in this debate style. The venue where she connects with random strangers is tougher for her and something she will work on. Phil, is he doing anything like what a normal president would do in terms of the mock set,es, building the stocking it with questionnaires . He has refused to do a mock debate. He is doing a dress rehearsal tonight in New Hampshire. Is going to be. Here with Chris Christie it will be a chance for him to work on how to interact with voters, with how to build a connection with people when they are asking him a question, and to talk about some of his answers. He is trying to take advantage of opportunities to hit Hillary Clinton. If Cyber Security comes up, talk about her emails and so forth. We will see if it works. I ensure the Washington Post newsroom has turned its attention here. He needs a lot of people to watch it. What is your sense of the newsroom, how much will be focused on politics . Looking at the storms and politics is taking a backseat. Will have to see. A lot will depend on what the impact of the devastation is in florida, georgia. Millions of people are being evacuated. It will be a bigger story if there are casualties. Peoplethoughts are with in the path of the storm. We talked about this earlier in the show. You have two battleground states that could be affected. Talk about the ways you think it could impact efforts on the ground game, efforts for early vote, efforts to rally the base in both parties, etc. Margaret one thing that robby mook said earlier, they are expecting as many as 40 of votes altogether could be cast before election day, and the three states that he really emphasized were florida, North Carolina, and nevada in terms of states that could be decided before election day. Two of the states are directly in the path of the storm. So that becomes a very important proposition for the Clinton Campaign. We saw, the controversy over them, halfway placing an ad with the Weather Channel and and pulling it back. They are concerned with not being seen as politicizing the storm or interfering with Public Safety issues. It will certainly affect the continuity of turnout efforts, doorknocking efforts, that sort of thing, that the infrastructure of the campaign has built in. They say they are communicate indirectly with volunteers and staff in the states saying, your First Priority is to heed, you know, the instructions about evacuation and that sort of thing. But the intensity of the storm, what actually happens, how it affects people, will matter on a couple fronts. Number one, can people get home to vote . Will they be concentrating on voting . But you know, another issue is the public response, both of republican governor in a republican state and the democratic president who remains popular. If minority areas are disproportionately affected by the storm, will that affect voting in africanamerican, hispanic areas both in terms of turnout and in belief and what a Democratic Administration could do versus a republican administration. Finally, once the storm passes, certainly it would make sense to expect visits from both Hillary Clinton and donald trump in which the storm plays a role. Will they visit affected sites, that sort of thing. How they do in that very real, delicate setting may also matter, so the storm will have a huge impact potentially in a couple really important states. Mark as we head toward sunday night, the first debate usually has the highest audience. Do you get the sense between the storm and the fact its the second debate, there is football on sunday, that people will be tuning in anything like the numbers of the first . Phil i cant imagine it will reach the numbers of the first. But i also think it will reach more people than the Vice President ial debate, which had fairly low viewership a couple nights ago, so somewhere in between. But as important as people watching the debate is people tuning in in 48 to 72 hours following, to the media narrative and the coverage, seeing some of the clips online, getting a sense of how trump performed, whether he improved, whether he scored points against hillary or not, so we will be watching. Mark i wonder if either of you have any reporting on this. The Clinton Campaign, following recent history, being super aggressive on social media, surrogates, seem to outdo the trunk campaign to some extent. Any idea if the rnc and trunk campaign are gearing up to be more competitive on winning the debate, after the debate . Phil i assume they are trying. One thing that is striking about the Trump Campaign, as prolific as donald trump is on twitter, his advisers really are not that active on twitter, not like the Clinton Campaign where theres an army of operatives and strategists constantly trying to drive a social media conversation. Mark i dont know if they dont realize it, or they are not executing, but political reporters are heavily influenced by following twitter during the debates and the immediate aftermath. Whether it matters as much as reporters think or not, it is certainly one place where the Clinton Campaign outdoes the Trump Campaign. Phil exactly right. John margaret, last question for you. Bill clinton, he came to the first debate, first time he had been in the hall for Hillary Clinton. Do we expect him in st. Louis, or is it less likely given his a ffordable care act comments . Margaret also, he was so good in his town hall debate, you wouldnt want to see the memory of him upstage the memory of her. But in the first debate it really went down to the wire whether he would be in the room or watching from a hotel room, and the decision to put him out there really was made sort of in the last minute, so i think anything is possible, sort of a game they call on their part. Mark i would like to see him there. John who doesnt like to see president clinton in the hall . Phil the handshake with melania. [laughter] coming up, polls and policy. We break down the latest swing and talk about the issues falling to the wayside during this campaign. When youre on hold, your business is on hold. Thats why comcast business doesnt leave you there. When you call, a Small Business expert will answer you in about 30 seconds. No annoying hold music. Just a real person, real fast. Whenever you need them. Great, thats what i said. So your business can get back to business. Sounds like my rides ready. Dont get stuck on hold. Reach an expert fast. Comcast business. Built for business. Mark welcome back, a new poll looking at North Carolina, which are means an essential part of Donald Trumps never packed to victory in november. In a fourway race, our poll shows Hillary Clinton beating unlikely voters by one percentage point, and clinton is up i the same margin in a twoway race according to our poll. That is slightly tighter than another new poll, where it shows the tar heel state. This is from quinnipiac poll surveys released this afternoon. Take a look at this map. We have Hillary Clinton up by three points, that is among likely voters in North Carolina and new polls put clinton up five points in florida, or to points in and up for pennsylvania, all of those measured in fourway races, but in ohio, trump is gaining ground. Now, there is one more poll that i want to show you. This is in new mexico. A state that would ordinarily be considered safely in clintons column. Clinton yesterday that beat trump by four points, 35 to 31 . How is that possible . New mexico has been blue for a long time. You have to think about gary johnson, a twotime governor of the land of enchantment. He pulled a hefty 24 of likely voters, so look at all that poll, those q polls, our and Albuquerque Journal poll. Which is that leave the electorate mathematic and map . Mark trump had the momentum and had pulled almost even with clinton, where there was a plausible Electoral College path. He must win florida and North Carolina to have a chance. If you look at where she is in these polls and where he is, he can come back, particularly if gary johnson gets a percentage chance to vote. Per attempt to win, he needs a combination besides the big three in iowa, ohio and florida. He needs