Biden seeks to calm left -- Ryan to claim misrepresentations by Obama -- New swing-state polls: CO, VA, OH, WI, FL -- Brooke Brower baby Presented by Facebook

MORNING MINDMELD: Conversations with advisers to the V.P. candidates suggest that both will be very aggressive tonight. One of Vice President Biden’s missions is to calm down President Obama’s supporters -- particularly the progressives who, in the view of the White House, have overreacted to the disappointing first debate. Biden plans to do that by making Ryan answer for his own proposals, as well as Romney’s. The V.P. wants to stay more on offense than on defense, and expose and explain contrasts. His style is to demonstrate a mastery of specifics, then step back in “Regular Joe” style to relate to viewers. His prep team in Wilmington, Del., included Ron Klain and Bruce Reed. His mock debates were formal, but aides dressed casually.

PAUL RYAN has been watching game film of Biden, including the ’08 debate with Sarah Palin and the V.P.’s “Meet the Press” appearance in May, to try to get in his head. Since the Republican convention, Ryan has been buried in a pair of debate-prep binders – one for foreign issues, one for domestic. As Ryan rewrote and edited his responses, the drafts were sent to Boston for fact-checking, then added to the binders. Ryan plans to call out the President and Vice President for what he considers mischaracterizations of GOP positions, and will argue that he has worked hard on these measures, and knows they are being mis-described.


Ryan aides argue that Biden should be a great debater, both because of his 36 years in the Senate and decades on the national stage. They point out that in 1988, when Biden was seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, Ryan was in high school.

THE DEBATE is at Centre College in Danville, Ky., from 9 to 10:30 p.m., moderated by ABC’s Martha Raddatz. POLITICO Live coverage begins at 8 p.m., with Jim VandeHei in Danville and John Harris, Lois Romano and Jonathan Allen at HQ. Our post-game show will run from 10:30 to 11:30 on POLITICO.com, NewsChannel 8 and C-SPAN 2.

THE MARTHA RADDATZ stand-in at Ryan’s mock debates was Kerry Healey, Massachusetts lieutenant governor under Gov. Romney. For Biden, Raddatz was played by Shailagh Murray, the V.P.’s communications director, and a former WashPost and WSJ reporter. Ryan watched videotapes of Raddatz interviews and roundtables, to get a sense of her style.

--“5 things to watch in VP debate,” by Maggie Haberman and Glenn Thrush: “1) Can Biden draw blood? … Biden, one of his staffers told POLITICO, is ‘eager to draw the contrast — and very capable of doing so.’ … Ryan’s perceived weakness — his wonkery and penchant for speaking in numbers — may actually prove to be the congressman’s greatest asset, a rope-a-dope tactic that will take voters into the policy weeds and blunt Biden’s attacks on tax policy, spending and foreign affairs. … 2) Can Ryan defend himself and the GOP ticket? … Ryan’s challenge is to defend the Republican ticket without seeming inauthentic in doing so. 3) Will Ryan let his feel-your-pain flag fly? …

4) Good Joe v. Bad Biden: Biden is flat-out the best debater in the 2012 campaign this side of Mitt Romney — more comfortable and limber at the lectern than his own boss, according to Democrats who get paid to prep candidates. And four years ago, he delivered what was arguably the most effective, and restrained, performance of his four-decade career against Sarah Palin in the 2008 vice presidential debate. … 5) How will foreign policy play?” http://politi.co/PpstwX

THE MODERATOR – “Martha Raddatz takes center stage,” by Dylan Byers: “Raddatz has never moderated a nationally televised debate. In fact, she’s never even hosted her own television show. … She is the senior foreign affairs correspondent for ABC … Raddatz’s relative distance from the political horse race, and her experience as an on-the-ground interviewer — rather than an in-the-chair anchor — may be assets in the new debate format, in which moderators are expected to ask probing questions but leave control of the back-and-forth debate to the candidates. … Jon Karl, ABC’s senior political correspondent, [said:] ‘Martha has a no-nonsense approach to interviews, which means she’ll be a moderator who can’t be messed with’ … She’s been married … to Ben Bradlee Jr., the son of the famous Washington Post editor; then to [FCC] Chairman Julius Genachowski; and now to NPR correspondent Tom Gjelten. …

“She joined ABC News from NPR in 1999 as a State Department correspondent and was named senior national security correspondent five years later before moving to White House correspondent for Bush’s second term. (It was during that time that Raddatz landed some of her most memorable interviews, including the one with Cheney in which she mentioned the declining public support for the Iraq war and he simply replied, ‘So?’) …

“The … format will differ … from the first presidential contest … Instead of six 15-minute segments, … there will be nine 10-minute segments. Each candidate will have two minutes to answer a question, and the remaining time to debate with one another. Roughly half the segments will focus on domestic policy, the rest on foreign policy. … ‘Martha is … trying to put herself in the place of the people watching this debate and to engage the candidates in a meaningful discussion,’ [said] Robin Sproul, ABC’s Washington bureau chief.” http://politi.co/Oqart7

QUICK SURF – the debate walk-up stories:

--N.Y. Times’ Trip Gabriel (A16): Ryan “[a]ides reviewed all 14 of Mr. Biden’s 2008 primary and vice-presidential debates; they realized that unlike speeches when he departs from written remarks and gets into trouble, he is focused and effective in the structured debate format. ‘I was stunned by the Palin performance. He was clearly very disciplined,’ an aide said. http://nyti.ms/RQKCCn

--WashPost’s David A. Fahrenthold (A4): “[A] vice presidential debate can certainly be lost — in a way that haunts the campaign or the even the career of the running mate who lost it. ‘I recall pretty distinctly saying, ‘You can’t compare … yourself to Kennedy,”’ said Kenneth Khachigian, a longtime Republican debate adviser, remembering his advice to candidate Dan Quayle in the run-up to the 1988 debate. Quayle liked the analogy: He and former president John F. Kennedy had similar experience in Congress. But Khachigian said no: ‘You’re comparing yourself to a memory.’ Quayle did it anyway. Across the stage, Democrat Lloyd Bentsen was waiting. ‘I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine … Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy.’” http://wapo.st/SNorOe

--Boston Globe’s Brian MacQuarrie (A1): “‘After the president’s performance last week, we know Joe Biden will be coming at us like a cannonball,’ said Brendan Buck, a spokesman for Ryan. … Marc Landy, a Boston College political science professor, said the debate will occur amid a ‘vulture phenomenon,’ in which the news media and TV comics have seized on Obama’s debate performance with a kind of car-wreck fascination.” http://bo.st/QYwq8X

EMAIL DU JOUR, from Ben Beaton, Centre College class of '03: “A few tips: watch out for the red Solo cups -- they hide the Kentucky bourbon and beer in plain sight, a see-no-evil approach to town/gown relations in what was till recently a ‘dry’ county with a very wet campus. The Centre students will treat the debate as a cause for celebration: Debates are the only thing since the Civil War that have cancelled classes! Maybe that's why we held a rally in 2000 in protest of the W campaign's attempt to pull out of the veep debate. Don't be fooled by the new Lincoln statue; he never studied at Centre, which should've erected a statue of SCOTUS Justice John Marshall Harlan, the sole dissenter in Plessy v. Ferguson (‘separate but equal’) and probably the school's greatest alumnus.

“Last, it's a fun time to recall how far we've come since Centre hosted the well reviewed 2000 veep debate. Back then, we thought Lieberman was a Democrat and Cheney was more moderate than W! No bloggers, no tea party, no 9/11, and no bigger controversy on cable political news than the tenor of ‘Crossfire.’ That's as quaint as Centre's Speakers Park!” (Speakers Park, part of Centre’s debate plan, allows student groups and causes to sound off: “your venue … a secure, enclosed area equipped with a public address system and stage.”)

POLLS DU JOUR – NYT/CBS/Quinnipiac: Colorado: Romney 48, Obama 47 … Virginia: Obama 51, Romney 46 … Wisconsin: Obama 50, Romney 47

--WSJ/NBC/Marist (graphic on WSJ A1): Florida: Obama 48, Romney 47 … Ohio: Obama 51, Romney 45 … Virginia: Romney 48, Obama 47 (margin: +/-3.1 points)

--“Morning” Joe Scarborough: “This race is a toss-up.”

--WSJ’s Janet Hook, on A4: “Romney is deadlocked with … Obama in two key battlegrounds—Florida and Virginia—while still behind in Ohio, according to new polls taken after the Republican's strong performance in the first presidential debate. Mr. Romney gained support in all three of those states, especially among men and independent voters, … But the shift wasn't big enough for the Republican to open a solid lead in any of the three states.”

NEW ROMNEY AD uses clips of Romney speaking at the Denver debate, with a looking-down shot of the President. YouTube http://bit.ly/TiuB5b

** A message from Fuels America: The RFS fuels America – America’s renewable fuel industry supports more than 400,000 jobs and has helped reduced our imports of Persian Gulf oil by 25% since 2000. The Renewable Fuel Standard is the reason. Learn more at www.FuelsAmerica.org. **

TO TELL THE KIDS: Today is 10-11-12.

FIRST LOOK: “The YG Action Fund has launched … the first website of its kind for a Super Pac, fully encapsulating multi-faceted technologies that political websites often miss … The YG Action Fund is a Super PAC dedicated to supporting conservative candidates who hold true to the Young Guns movement … The new site was built with a focus on mobile devices, with a responsive web design that responds to the user’s behavior and environment based on screen size. … This technology will provide every user with a fantastic experience [from ]smartphones, tablet, laptop or desktop. It … uses Facebook Registration to allow visitors to sign up for YG Action updates via their Facebook profile.” www.ygaction.com

TOP STORY – WashPost 1-col. lead, “State Dept. faces GOP ire: HILL HEARING ON BENGHAZI DEATHS -- Security pleas rejected, officials concede,” by Anne Gearan: “Security officials on the ground ‘repeatedly warned Washington officials of the dangerous situation’ in Libya, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said. … Committee Democrats provided the lead witness at the hearing, Undersecretary of State for Management Patrick F. Kennedy, an opportunity to explain the evolving accounts of the attack. Kennedy provided little clarity … Kennedy took pains to defend Susan E. Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations …

“Although Issa praised Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton for the department’s cooperation in the ongoing inquiry, the deaths in Benghazi represent a blemish on her tenure. … Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Charlene Lamb, who helps oversee diplomatic security, fumbled to explain how … requests [from diplomatic staff members in Libya for additional security] were evaluated. … Under tense questioning, she acknowledged that she had told the top security officer at the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli … not to bother asking for additional help when the military team was sent home. That officer, Eric A. Nordstrom, was sitting uncomfortably beside her at the hearing. Nordstrom said he interpreted Lamb’s refusal as ‘there was going to be too much political cost.’” http://wapo.st/SNpugX

--WSJ 4-col. lead, “Security Cut Before Libya Raid: Level of U.S. Protection Debated at Politically Charged Hearing on Deadly Attack” … L.A. Times, 1-col. lead of second front: “U.S. WAS URGED TO ADD LIBYA GUARDS: The State Dept. tells Congress that security in Benghazi before the attack was sufficient.”

TODAY’S TRAIL ACTION, per AP: “Biden arrives in Kentucky at 12:15 p.m., Ryan at 12:45 p.m.; Obama speaks in Coral Gables, Fla., at 3:25 p.m. and in Miami at 6:55 p.m.; Romney speaks in Asheville, N.C., at 6 p.m. Debate scheduled for 9 p.m.”

WHAT THE PRESIDENT IS READING – Chicago Tribune 5-col. lead, “TRIBUNE/WGN-TV POLL: Obama solid in Illinois -- President leads Romney 55% to 36%, thanks to strong support in city, suburbs,” by Rick Pearson: “While the president is racking up huge support in Chicago and winning the suburbs, Romney holds a lead Downstate. That's where three hard-fought congressional races are playing out, indicating Obama's coattail effect may be limited despite a map Democrats drew to wipe out Republican gains of 2010. … Questioning began one day after the first presidential debate. … In Illinois, a deeper look into the poll numbers shows areas of unease … of … concern to Democrats who had hopes of reversing the 11-8 Republican advantage in the state's congressional delegation.

“The survey found Obama leading 79 percent to 12 percent over Romney in Chicago, with narrower advantages of 57 percent to 34 percent in suburban Cook County and 54 percent to 41 percent in the collar counties. Among voters in the state's remaining 96 counties, Romney led Obama 46 percent to 41 percent. Romney has made gains among white voters this year. In February, whites favored Obama over Romney 48-41. The latest survey shows that group almost evenly split — 46 … 45 … Part of that trend can be attributed to Obama's slipping support among white suburban women. The voting group … favored Obama 63 percent to 30 percent eight months ago. Now Obama's backing has fallen to 50 … 43.” http://trib.in/SNndSU

WELCOME TO THE WORLD: Brooke Brower, MSNBC’s “Daily Rundown” senior producer, and Kate Andersen Brower, White House reporter for Bloomberg News, announce: “Graham Andersen Brower was born at 12:03 am on Thursday, October 11th (10/11/12 - what a birthday!) Weighing in at 7 pounds 2 ounces, he's doing great and looking forward to meeting everyone. His mom was (and still is) fantastic.”

--Nick Everhart of Strategy Group Media had a second baby with his wife, Jess: a new sister for big brother Graham. Her name is Maren Raye Everhart -- just under 9 lbs. (hat tip: Maggie)

BIRTHDAYS: Katie Boyd, who works in the Speaker's press shop … Bruce DePuyt … John Lipp … John Robinson, E.D. of the Common Sense Coalition and former Gore and Edwards staffer (hat tip: Andy Wright) … Publishers Weekly's Rachel Deahl ... Bruce Bartlett (hat tips: Patrick Gavin) … Elmore Leonard is 87 … former U.S. Defense Secretary William Perry is 85 … Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), is 62 … Pro Football Hall of Famer Steve Young is 51 … actor Luke Perry is 46 (h/ts AP)

BIRTHDAY TOMORROW: Glen Bolger is 5-0 (hat tip: Carl Forti) … Chris Wallace of “Fox News Sunday”

** A message from Fuels America: While the EPA considers waiving the Renewable Fuel Standard, billions of dollars of investments and rural assets are on the line. Waiving the RFS would derail our path to energy independence and jeopardize future investments in America. The advanced and conventional renewable fuel industries have united with national security, clean tech and agricultural groups to protect the Renewable Fuel Standard. Learn more at FuelsAmerica.org. **

Follow us on Twitter Anna Palmer @apalmerdc



Jake Sherman @JakeSherman