Good morning. Welcome, everybody. Were coming to you from boca raton in florida. Our starting point this morning, a more forceful president obama, a more measured mitt romney. Last nights Foreign Policy debate here in florida, right here, in fact, is in the books now. And when it was over, a cnn orc poll of debate watchers favored the president over mr. Romney, 48 to 40 . Lets get right to senior Congressional Correspondent dana bash who was watching that debate. Good morning. Good morning. Look, we know this entire Election Year debates have really mattered. But this one was a little bit tricky because its about Foreign Policy. Thats not high on the priority list for voters. So each candidate really tried to make it a test of leadership. Especially the president. Reporter mitt romney came wanting voters to see him as commander in chief. The commander in chief came determined to make sure that didnt happen. I know you havent been in a position to actually execute Foreign Policy. But, every time youve offered an opinion, youve been wrong. Reporter time and time again the president s Harsh Criticism dripped with sarcasm. A few months ago when you were asked whats the biggest geopolitical threat facing america, you said russia. Not al qaeda, you said russia. The 1980s are now calling to ask for their Foreign Policy back. Because, you know, the cold wars been over for 20 years. Our navy is smaller now than any time since 1917. They said they needed 313 ships to carry out the mission, were at 285. I think governor romney hasnt spent enough time looking at how our military works. You mentioned the navy, for example, and we have fewer ships than in 1916. We also have fewer horses and bayonets. Because the nature of our military has changed. We have these things called aircraft carriers where planes land on them. We have these ships that go under water, nuclear submarines. Before the debate, romney advisers told cnn he would not be the scrappy candidate we saw in the last one. Instead, stay solid and steady. Not take the president s bait. And attacking me is not an agenda. Reporter romney repeatedly blamed the president for failing to lead on global hot spots. You look at the record of the last four years and say is iran closer to a bomb . Yes. Is the middle east in tumult . Yes. Is al qaeda on the run, on its heels . No. Are israel and the palestinians closer to reaching a Peace Agreement . No. Reporter but for the most part, romney was calm in demeanor and remarkably agreeable on policy from syria to egypt to afghanistan. Well, were going to be finished by 2014. And when im president , well make sure we bring our troops out by the end of 2014. Reporter in fact, the republican who democrats try to paint as a war monger used the opening minutes to position himself as a peacemaker. I congratulate him on taking out Osama Bin Laden and going after leadership in al qaeda. But we cant kill our way out of this mess. Reporter romney successfully got under the president s skin by repeating this allegation. And then the president began what ive called an apology tour by going to various nations in the middle east and criticizing america. I think they look at that and saw weakness. Nothing governor romney just said is true. Starting with this notion of me apologizing. This has been probably the biggest whopper thats been told during the course of this campaign. All you had to do was watch the candidates time and time again try to pull the issues back home to the economy, whether it was about the auto bailout, or education, teachers. It was very clear, soledad, that this is a Foreign Policy debate but they know whats on the minds of voters. I think its so interesting, really, in the days after the debate, right, when you see how the numbers move or dont move depending on how the debate went. I think that will be interesting to see as well. Dana, thanks a lot. We bring in Ohio Republican senator rob portman. You were obviously playing president obama in the mock debates. So when you see the candidate who youve been prepping all along in his performance on Foreign Policy, what did you think . Well, you know, i thought it was a good night for governor romney because i think he appeared reassuring and thoughtful and knowledgeable. Having played president obama, i wasnt surprised by a whole lot that he said because its sort of the same lines. He was aggressive. Did you practice that . I mean i did. You kind of expected it. He feels like hes a little behind right now, i think, so we expect him to come out on the attack, and he did. I thought one of the effective lines from governor romney when he said the attack on me is not an agenda. I think that was where the president fell a little short. He didnt offer an agenda or a vision for the future on the International Side just as he did not on the domestic side in the first couple debates. Lets throw up poll numbers, cnn orc poll among debate watchers. The question was who won the debate. It was president obama with 48 , and governor romney had 40 . Then theres another poll about who seemed to be a stronger leader, and the divided it up among men and women, and you can see if you pop it up, women for president obama, a high number. Kind of switched a little bit for governor romney. I guess all of that would leave folks to say theres this gender gap. Are you worried about that gender gap . Well, the polling that im interested in is what do the independent and undecided voters think . And what kind of impression did governor romney leave . Theres another poll, it was a ptp poll which is considered to be a more democrat leaning polling organization and they said among undecided voters, people felt as though governor romney did better. I think thats because, frankly, people are looking at the attack ads, and many democrats, i think, who are advising president obama kind of had them believing those attack ads, as well. Thats not the governor romney they saw last night. They somebody who was reassuring and ready to be commander in chief. We could spend a whole day talking about polls, bought i thought this one was interesting, cnn orc poll, who did the debate make you more likely to vote for. President obama 24 , mitt romney, 25 , and neither with a high of 50 . More people felt like, eh. Well, you know, i think the Foreign Policy issue, as dana said, is not the top issue in the country right now. Its jobs and the economy. They did bring it back to that a few times. Appropriately, really, because our ability to be strong overseas is dependent on our ability to be stronger at home. I think on those issues, governor romney is doing better because hes talking about a vision. Hes talking about a strategy to get us back on track. And even last night when he talked about it, he was able to say, also, on the Foreign Policy side, its important for us to have a vision to deal with the underlying causes, for instance, of islamic extremism. Thats why i think it was a good debate for governor romney. Senator, soledad was talking about women, about the gender gap. How much of the strategy of really trying to be evenkeeled, almost sounded like a dove, governor romney, like a real peace make, not a war monger, how much of that was really, specifically, aimed at the female vote. I dont know if it was aimed at the women vote but i think it was effective. Not just for women but for everybody to understand that the war monger image that democrats would like to have portrayed simply is not true. This is a guy who believes in peace through strength. Yes he believes we should have a strong military, tighten sanctions on iran. But because the diplomatic solution ought to be the one that is successful, and to maximize that you want to have a strong position. So i thought that was a good debate in many respects for governor romney. Probably the best was reassuring, he was thoughtful and knowledgeable and showed hes ready to be commander in chief. I was doing the focus group in orlando which meant a really long drive late last night after the debate and one of the focus group people, actually a couple of them were saying that they felt, it struck them that governor romney agreed with president obama a lot. A number of times during the debate. I want to play a few chunks of that first. I felt the same as the president did. I want to underscore that the same point the president made. The president was right to up the usage of that technology. There have been times, governor, frankly, during the course of this campaign where it sounded like you thought that youd do the same things we did, but youd say them louder. So, is that problematic . When you have both campaigns that have said there are clear differences. This is how youre basically being attacked by a fly here. This is, you know, there are clear differences between the two campaigns. Now you have a chance to make a real, you know, different choice, and, and, a lot of that debate sounded like well, what he said. Yeah, you know, i agree with what he said. Is that problematic . I thought when governor romney did that it was refreshing to a lot of undecided voters who are tired of the attacks back and forth and the politics. And look, when governor romney thought the president was right he said so. He also made it clear, by the way, that although he supported the drone attacks, he supported going after bin laden, that that was not sufficient. And thats when he said we cannot kill our way out of these problems we need to provide a vision and a strategy for the future that deals with the underlying problems here. Of islamic extremism, and the spread of it. Was it contradictory, though . If you look at afghanistan, i think, as a good example from last night. And i think we have a chunk of that. Lets play a little bit. Heres what governor romney said about when he is president. When im president , well make sure we bring our troops out by the end of 2014. The commanders and the generals there are on track to do so. Weve seen progress over the past several years. The surge has been successful. And the Training Program is proceeding apace. So, previously, and i think a number of times, he said, you know, a withdrawal date is wrong. Do not name a withdrawal date. Isnt that a contradiction to now say, 2014. End of 2014. Hes always said that it shouldnt be publicly announced because it helps our enemies. It was just publicly announced. No, he thinks we ought to get out by 2014. The question is how you communicate it and whether you listen to the commanders on the ground about how you get there. He talked about that, as well. Also on iraq he agreed with the president we should have a status of forces agreement. Its what the president wanted to be able to relieve some troops on the ground. The president is now reversing himself on that apparently and saying i guess he didnt want a status of forces aagreement. He tried hard to negotiate one and he failed. So i think what you saw last night was, you know, frankly governor romney saying, look, all along i believed we ought to get out of afghanistan. We ought to do it in a way, though, that is consistent with what our commanders on the ground think we ought to go in terms of the time frame. In terms of how we do it. And he wants to get out in 2014. Kind of hard for the president to say theres a distinction there, he does, again, governor romney does believe that we ought to be listening to commanders about how we get to 2014. He believes we ought to get out. He had a bit of what i thought was a gaffe on sort of a geography, right, when he said syria is irans only ally in the arab world, its their route to the sea, its the route for them to arm hezbollah and lebanon which threatens, of course, our ally israel. And i think if you had a map of, of, youd see that, in fact, theres thats not their only route to the see. That, thats and iran is not and iran has 1400 miles of, of, what do you call it waterfront basically and syria has Something Like 119. Is that an indication of not really understanding the geography of what is a truly critical part of the world, in a truly critical conversation about Foreign Policy . Well, the route to the sea is the route to the mediterranean sea. And in terms of the iranian influence in the region, hes absolutely right. That their most important ally, and whats going on in syria is important to the syrian people. Its important for israel. But its also important in relation to iran, and their interests in expanding their influence. So i think he, you know, he was correct in talking about the importance of syria. All right. Senator portman. Nice to have you with us this morning. Soledad. The sun is rising behind us, which were happy to see. Appreciate your time. Thanks for having me on. At the bottom of the hour were going to be talking democratic reaction with senator john kerry of massachusetts. He played mitt romney in the president s debate working with all the standins this morning. I think kerry and i should go at it. That would make good tv. That would be very interesting. If you missed any of last nights debate you can watch it again today, noon eastern on cnn. Were going to be replaying that debate for you. Want to get back to new york now. John bermans got a look at some of the other stories making news this morning. Good morning, soledad. The outbreak of fungal meningitis is getting worse. Federal officials now report 23 people have died in 16 states. And the total number of cases has gone up to 297. This outbreak has been linked to steroid pain injections made by the new England Compounding Center in massachusetts. Reuters report that Health Officials inspected the company ten years ago due to complaints about those injections. The fda investigating whether Monster Energy drinks may have contributed to the death of five people since 2009. This comes after the company was hit with a lawsuit in connection with a maryland teenagers death. Monster is selling the top selling energy drink in the u. S. It comes in 24 ounce cans. It contains 240 milligrams of caffeine. Thats about seven times the caffeine in a 12ounce coke. The es changed wife who was the target of the shooting rampage at that milwaukee area spa is being called a hero. One of zena haughtons clients told the Chicago Tribune she approached her husband and tried to shield a receptionist as she attempted to defuse the situation on sunday. Police say Radcliff Haughton shot seven women, including three of them whom he killed, including zina. He then shot and killed himself. We have some liftoff. Just minutes ago a soyuz rocket launched from kazakhston sending three new crew members into ash bit. Theyre en route to the International Space station at this very moment. It includes two cosmonauts and nasa Flight Engineer kevin ford. Theyre scheduled to arrive at the space station on thursday. Okay the giants win the pennant. The giants win the pennant. No, it is not 1951. Its 2012. The giants ruthed the cardinals 90 to win the alcs in seven games. San francisco is 60 in games where they face elimination this postseason. The giants will have Home Field Advantage in the world series against the detroit tigers. Game one is tomorrow night in san francisco. Are you ready . Soledad . Yeah, its good to see even when youre not necessarily rooting for the team, my yankees, kind of, whatever. But its always fun to watch when theyre celebrating. All right, john, thank you. Still ahead this morning on starting point, during the debate did mitt romney miss a chance to question the president about the attack in benghazi and that time line . Were going to talk this morning with ambassador Nicolas Burns coming up next. And apple lovers get ready, the company is announcing a smaller version of what of their most popular items today. Youve been busy for a dead man. After you jumped ship in bangkok, i thought id lost you. Surfing is my life now. But whos going to. Tell the world that priceline has even faster, easier ways to save you money. On hotels, flights cars . You still have it. Ill always have it. So this is it . Well see where the waves take me. Sayonara, brah when we got married. I had three kids. And she became the full time mother of three. It was soccer, and ballet, and cheerleading, and baseball. Those years were crazy. So, as we go into this next phase, you know, a big part of it for us is that there isnt anything on the schedule. [ female announcer ] at yoplait, we want you to feel even better about your favorite flavors. So when you call, tweet, and post, we listen. Thats why yoplait light and yoplait original are now made with no high fructose corn syrup. And why we use only natural colors and Natural Flavors in yoplait original. So, anything else we can do for you, let us know. But youll keep it to yogurt, right . cause we shouldnt really help with your love life. Yoplait. It is so good welcome back to starting point. Minding your business this morning, is the ipad about to go mini . Apple making a Product Announcement today and rumors in the tech world, hint the ipad screen could shrink from 10 inches to 7. 8 inches on its new model. Expect it to cost somewhere between about 250 to 350. Were going to find out for sure in a few hours. U. S. Stock futures are down sharply after markets closed flat yesterday. Dow futures down more than 100 points. A lot of worries about the earnings season. Facebook earnings come out after the closing bell. Shares have been cut in half since the company went public in may. Facebooks been having trouble communicating its plans for mobile advertising and how to generate revenue that way. Soledad . All right, christine. Thank you very much. The election now exactly two weeks away. During the third and final debate last night, the gloves were kind of off. Listen. The challenge we have, i know you havent been in a position to actually execute Foreign Policy, but every time youve offered an opinion, youve been wrong. America must be strong. America must lead, and for that to happen we have to strengthen our economy here at home. You cant have 23 Million People strug