AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia

U.S Army soldiers of the 1st Battalion, 22nd Regiment, (1-22) of the 4th Infantry Division, talk onboard their M1 tank in front of a mosque in Tikrit, Iraq.

While recovering from being trounced on foreign policy in a feisty debate performance from Vice President Joe Biden Thursday night, the Romney-Ryan campaign is seizing on soundbites from the night to drive fears of a decreased U.S. military presence.

The Romney campaign is out with a new radio ad for voters in Ohio, attacking President Obama and his right-hand-man Biden for downsizing the nation's military industrial complex.

Biden came out strong in the debate, asserting that the Pentagon—including Defense Secretary Leon Panetta—advocated the cuts. “Look, the military says we need a smaller, leaner Army. We don’t need more M-1 tanks, what we need is more UAVs," Biden said Thursday night, pushing for more unmanned aerial vehicles, a heavily contested strategy known commonly as drone strikes.

The Romney campaign latched onto the latter end of Biden's statement for its new radio ad, playing the soundbite on loop with the vice president's assertion: "we don't need more tanks."

“While the world grows more hostile and unstable every day, the White House wants to take away one of the most vital weapons in our arsenal—made right here in Ohio. Giving our troops the tools they need just isn’t a priority for Barack Obama and Joe Biden. Their own budget would shut down America’s only M-1 tank plant,” the narrator says in the radio spot.

But with the war in Iraq over and the winding down of combat in Afghanistan, the Army says it is done ordering the tanks. In a policy statement issued in May, the Obama administration rejected to authorize $321 million requested for the M-1 Abrams tank, saying they were "unneeded upgrades" in a "fiscally-constrained environment."

The Romney campaign's economic spin highlights the pain on the pocketbooks of factory workers and their communities in Ohio. That is, the political battleground state of Ohio. Not to mention the fact that Romney's running-mate Rep. Paul Ryan, who squared off against Biden in the debate, is the grand architect of the Republican's budget-slashing plan that cripples programs in the social safety net while simultaneously bolstering the military's budget.

"As an Ohioan, you know that's not just an attack against our ability to defend our freedom," the ad narrator says. "It's also an attack against our jobs and our way of life. Two attacks. Which one is worse?"

Since Obama's devastating debate performance last week, Romney has surged in polls in key battlegrounds - all except Ohio. The president held his own in the Buckeye state and is down from leading by eight points to now six in the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll. And the gap is closing.

The European Union was awarded the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize for the 27-nation bloc's history of "advancement of peace and reconciliation," Friday. The award arrives in the midst a crippling debt crisis in the eurozone that has pitted one member country against another as its leaders seek a way out.

The nod to the EU's historic accomplishments—accompanied with a prize worth $1.2 million—is being viewed as a reminder of how the continent rebuilt and rebounded after two devastating world wars while it now works to balance competing visions on how to address economic strains throughout the bloc.

As Reuters explains:

The EU has transformed most of Europe "from a continent of wars to a continent of peace," Nobel Committee Chairman Thorbjoern Jagland said in announcing the award in Oslo.

"The EU is currently undergoing grave economic difficulties and considerable social unrest," Jagland said. "The Norwegian Nobel Committee wishes to focus on what it sees as the EU's most important result: the successful struggle for peace and reconciliation and for democracy and human rights."

The timing of the award led some to question the Norwegian Nobel Committee's choice.

"The award could be a morale boost for the continent struggling with a debt crisis and trying to keep the union together,” Daily Rundown host Chuck Todd said Friday morning.

CNBC's Becky Quick called the timing of the award a "head-scratcher" considering the fate of Greece's continued place within the eurozone remains in a strained balance.

"The idea that this is bringing everybody together, sure during the good times when everybody was succeeding, yes it was bringing people together," Quick said. "But now we see things fraying, and fraying in a very bad way."

Courtesy Morning Joe

P90X poster-child Paul Ryan dons a backward red hat and a bicep curl while showing off his toned physique for a photo spread published in Time magazine this week. 

The gun show is from a series of outtakes of a photo shoot from last year when he was runner-up to the magazine's Person of the Year. Time published the images online Thursday, the morning before Ryan's first and only scheduled televised vice presidential debate.

"It looks like a 1980s sitcom," Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough said Thursday morning. "Saved By the Bell or something... he's AC Slater."

AC Slater, played by Mario Lopez, was the teen high school drama's dimpled, chiseled ladies' man.

Check out his close-up with Time here.

In a powerful three-point punch to her opponent Todd Akin's damning remarks on "legitimate rape," Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill released a blitz of TV spots featuring testimonials from rape survivors.

One ad features Diana—a self-described Republican, pro-life mother, and rape survivor. Another stars Rachel who shares how she was "brutally raped in a home invasion." A third highlights Joanie, another pro-life mother and survivor of an "extremely violent sexual assault."

All three women are uniting with McCaskill to take down Akin in the Missouri Senate race. 

"What Todd Akin said was offensive, but what he believes is worse," Diana says in the ad. "I have never voted for Claire McCaskill. But because of Todd Akin, I will now."

With just four weeks left in the general election, McCaskill is directly hitting Akin on his now infamous remarks that rape victims are able to "shut that whole thing down," in a bid to exemplify not only his character, but the types of policy he would be inclined to initiate. Akin has already voiced opposition to emergency contraceptives—with no exceptions for cases of rape or incest—and McCaskill leaves the door open on the implications for victims of sexual assault.

"Todd Akin apologized for implying there is such a thing as legitimate rape," Joanie says in one TV spot. "He may have misspoken, but I believe he showed his true colors and his true intent of what he intends to do if elected."

"As a woman of faith, I must forgive Todd Akin," Joanie adds. "But as a voter, it's not something I can forget."

Watch Diana's ad above, or Joanie's here, and Rachel's here:

Republican National Committee spokesman Sean Spicer on Wednesday equated his party's push for stricter access to the polls with voter ID laws to that of locking out robbers so they don't break into your house at night.

In a contentious exchange with MSNBC host Thomas Roberts, Spicer defended controversial voter ID laws popping up around the country, saying the idea that Republicans were out to suppress voters was "extremely insulting."

"Let me ask you a question. Do you lock your house at night?" Spicer asked.

"Do I lock my house at night?" Roberts repeated. "Sure."

"You do it not because maybe it has a history of being broken into, but because you regard your property and your personal well-being as something precious and you want to protect it. It's not because there's a history of necessarily your home being broken into. And so I think the question comes down when it comes to protecting our right to vote. It's not necessarily has there been rampant voter fraud in every state that we have to protect. It says this is a precious right that each of us has as an American."

Perhaps Spicer has never been locked out of his own house before.

Roberts pushed back on the analogy that the nation would need a full ADF-style security system to preemptively shut out voters from instances of voter fraud.

"That's basically what voter suppression is: putting a lock on the right and the access for many Americans to vote who may not have the same access to voting to maybe as you or I have because we can afford to go get an ID for ourselves," Roberts said.

Secrets held for decades in the clandestine realms of the CIA are now being surfaced on the big screen.

Actor and director Ben Affleck stopped by MSNBC Wednesday to talk about Argo, his latest film that had the Morning Joe hosts raving. The movie is based on a CIA story that was declassified in 1997, detailing a covert operation to rescue six Americans during the hostage crisis of the Iranian Revolution.

"I thought if I could even execute in a basic way on this, this would be the best thing that I've ever done so far," Affleck said on Morning Joe.

Affleck both directs and plays the leading role of the film, portraying CIA legend Tony Mendez and his 1979 mission to rescue six Americans who sought refuge in the Canadian Embassy after militants took 53 Americans hostage. 

"This was really good," Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski gushed. "This was like my muscles were clenched from beginning to end."

Affleck, who is known to drop the r's in his speech while paying homage to his Boston roots, later went on to stand up for his beloved baseball team with the hosts.

"I love this movie, and you guys want to talk about the Red Sox," Affleck joked.

Argo hits theaters this Friday.

The U.S. unemployment rate is below 8% for the first time since early 2009. But rather than celebrate Friday's strong jobs report, many conservatives are portraying the news as an Obama administration conspiracy. It's been such a thing on the internet today that adherents to the theory already have a name: "jobbers."

One of the more detailed versions of the case, if you can call it that, was laid out by Fox News' Stuart Varney. Here's Varney's argument:

"There is widespread mistrust of this report and these numbers because there are clear contradictions - 873,000 people said they had found work but only 114,000 new jobs were created. That is a contradiction. If you delve a little deeper and it seems that a lot of these people who found work - that is the 873,000 - if you delve deeply, it turns out that 600,000 of these 873,000 people were part time workers. So they came back into the labor force and they pushed the unemployment rate down to 7.8%. But there is a contradiction here between the number of new jobs created and the number of people saying they found work. It was part-time work Bill, that’s what it was."

He added:

Oh how convenient the rate dropped below 8% for the first time in 43 months, five weeks before the election.

So, is there any truth to Varney's theory?

Um, no. Heidi Shierholz, an economist with the liberal-leaning Economic Policy Institute, called the argument "outrageous."

The jobs report is based on two separate surveys: the household survey, which asks people whether they're working, and the payroll survey, which ask employers about their hiring. Shierholz explained that it's not at all unusual that the two surveys differ.

"That happens all of the time," Shierholz said. And even leaving that aside, the 873,000 figure refers to the raw number of people who found work, not including those who lost work. The 114,000 number is the net total—that is, gains minus losses—for the month.

Shierholz said Americans ought to be pleased about the news. "Dropping below 8% is a bright spot," she said. "People would say this would help the incumbent, but honestly, I don't think it matters." 

Shierholz isn't the only expert to debunk the conspiracy theory. See other efforts here, here, and here.

Marty Lederhandler / AP

Jobs numbers released on Friday showed unemployment dropped to 7.8%—the lowest it has been since January 2009. After an awful debate performance Wednesday night, the numbers were a boost for President Obama.

That prompted some conservatives to suggest there must be something fishy going on. Less than hour after the news broke Friday morning, Jack Welch, the former CEO of GE and a Romney backer, sparked an uproar over Twitter by suggesting the Labor Department was cooking the books to make Obama look good.

Fox News's Stuart Varney got into the act too. "There is widespread mistrust of this report and these numbers because there are clear contradictions," he said. "Oh how convenient the rate dropped below 8% for the first time in 43 months, five weeks before the election."

And conservative columnist Conn Caroll tweeted:

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis called Welch’s comments “ludicrous” on CNBC Friday morning. “I have the highest regard for our professionals who do the calculations,” she said.

Mitt Romney's debate one-liners weren't exactly zingers, but the RNC is out to make them sing.

The Republican National Committee released a highlight reel of Romney's performance at the presidential debate on Wednesday, showing the GOP candidate lancing the president. The video's split screen matches the candidates' head-to-head, keying in on how President Obama's facial expressions and mannerisms slowly sink—at points casting the president as smug. The video is entitled "Smirk."

The president's smirk lingers in the early editing of the RNC's video while giving animated reactions to Romney's description of toils for the middle class. 

"My view is we've got to provide tax relief to people in the middle class," Romney says in the ad to a split screen of the president nodding. "The people who are having a hard time right now are middle income Americans."

The RNC goes on to seize the wide consensus that Romney won the style competition of the night against a president known for his oratory skills. In the video, as Romney continues to harp on his newfound populist message by harping on high gas prices and lowered incomes, the screen pans to Obama's reaction. The smirk is gone and he's now looking down at the endless notes he's taking.

Obama's smirk reemerges only for the reference of the "death panel," a GOP talking point that Romney dredged up and wouldn't let die down during the debate. As the crescendo builds, Romney is left saying simply, "It's time for a new path."

Getty Images

After being criticized for not once mentioning America's decade-plus war in Afghanistan during his Republican National Convention speech, Mitt Romney and his campaign are making a push on military voting rights.

The Romney campaign sent letters to election officials in Wisconsin, Mississippi, and Vermont demanding an extension to deadlines in accepting absentee ballots from military and overseas voters. On the behalf of the campaign, former Secretary of Veterans Affairs Anthony Principi charged that at least 30 Wisconsin municipalities failed to send out absentee ballots to military voters by the Sept. 22 deadline.

"No Americans have done more to earn their right to vote than the men and women in uniform, who risk their lives defending the freedoms this nation holds dear," Prinicipi wrote to David Deininger, who heads the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board. "I am writing to express my concern regarding your office's attention to the voting rights of men and women in uniform, and to urge you to take immediate action to correct recent violations of military voting rights." 

Under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voter Act (UOCAVA), election officials are required to send out absentee ballots no later than 45 days before an election, allowing time for overseas voters and members of the military to return their ballots.

In Wisconsin, officials say 27 municipalities failed to meet that deadline by within five days, affecting a total 44 military members and overseas citizens, the Associated Press reports.

The Romney campaign had previously addressed similar absentee voter issues in Mississippi and Vermont where the number of delayed ballots were similarly small.

Vermont Secretary of State Jim Condos, a Democrat, responded by calling the issue political posturing from the Romney campaign that was merely "a show."

A Gallup poll from late May shows Romney leading with veterans with 58% compared to 34% for Obama.

On the eve of the first presidential debate, GOP candidate Mitt Romney is nipping at President Obama's heels in two key battleground states: Florida and Virginia.

Obama's notable September surge in swing state polls has stopped short in Florida where the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll showed the president at a statistical tie with his opponent. Obama leads 47% to Romney's 46% in the Sunshine State, meaning Romney made up ground since mid-September when he was down by five points.

"Romney has tightened in the races where we've seen the most fluidity in all year," MSNBC host Chuck Todd said on The Daily Rundown Wednesday. 

The tight race in Florida reflects similar statistics in Virginia where Obama is up by two points at 48%. Last month, the president possessed a wider lead on Romney at 49% to 44%.

The NBC/WSJ poll also showed Obama continuing to hold a significant lead in a must-win state for Romney: Ohio. The president is favored by voters there 51% to 43%.

Todd indicated Romney would face a difficult decision should he continue to underperform in the Buckeye State.

"In a week, if that doesn't move, Romney is going to have to make that tough decision to pull out of Ohio," Todd said. "He has got to decide where is the money better spent."

Republicans just lost a talking point from their playbook.

Attacks against President Obama's record on job creation lost their zing after the Bureau of Labor Statistics released revised data showing massive job creation under the president’s tenure. The additional employment statistics may now suggest signs of a more robust economy than had been previously estimated.

Approximately 386,000 additional jobs than what were previously recorded were added to the economy from March 2011 to March 2012, giving a total net positive of 125,000 jobs under the Obama administration. That agency had initially undercounted by about 20%. The increase not only completely undermines the Romney campaign's claims that Obama "hasn't created one single net new job since he's been president," but goes on to put the president in a positive net job growth territory for the first time since the economic crash.

The job gains could boost what has already been a strong month of polling for the president's re-election campaign. Both Obama and Mitt Romney have zeroed in messaging to the middle class, but how will voters, particularly those within the white working class, respond to signs of a more robust economy?

For his Saturday show, MSNBC host Chris Hayes pointed to a new survey out by the Public Religion and Research Institute that argues the main problem for President Obama and the Democratic party is not with appealing to white working class voters broadly, but rather with the region those voters live in. The survey found that white working class preferences were relatively split between Obama and Romney throughout the West, Midwest, and Northeast. The clear difference however was in the South. The survey results showed a commanding 40-point lead to Romney’s favor in nabbing 62% of white working class Southerners compared to Obama’s 22%.

Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown from the battleground state of Ohio told a different story to Hayes. On Saturday, Brown said that though Obama's working class appeal topped Romney's in the Midwest, Democrats had themselves to blame for not knowing how to talk to white voters who are not union members.

The latest Quinnipiac/New York Times/CBS News poll from this week found Obama ahead of his opponent in Ohio by 10 points. The president managed to carry the Buckeye State during his first run in 2008, and forecasters predict a narrow path to victory for Romney without the state’s 18 electoral votes.

Brown has his own re-election race for his U.S. Senate seat to worry about, and he said that working class constituents viewed the economy as "increasingly better" but still "not great." He went on to point out that Ohio’s unemployment rate has dropped dramatically since 2010 when the jobless rate was well over 10%. Unemployment there now rests at 7.2% compared to the national average of 8.1%.

"People are still anxious of course," Brown said. "People look around and they see more people hired, they see more manufacturing jobs. They don't see enough yet and that's our challenge."