UPDATED Saturday, Nov. 24, 2012 at 11:45 am ET: President Obama ranks ninth among candidates for president in electoral-vote averages since 1896, according to a First Read analysis. 

Mitt Romney's 203 EVs puts him 22nd of the 44 candidates who have gotten at least one electoral vote in that 116-year history.

First Read averaged the electoral-vote score of each of the runs for president for each candidate (who got at least one electoral vote).

Ronald Reagan takes the top spot with his average EV score of 507, followed by Lyndon B. Johnson's 486 in 1964 following the assassination of John F. Kennedy. 

Franklin Delano Roosevelt is third with his average of 469 across four successful presidential runs. Dwight Eisenhower follows with an average 449.5 across his two campaigns in the 1950s.

Bill Clinton, who comes in at No. 7, edges Obama 374.5 to 348.5. 

George W. Bush is 15th with his 278.5, two spots behind his father's average of 297.

Al Gore's 266 lands him at 16; John Kerry's 251 puts him at 19.

John McCain's 173 EVs in 2008 put him at No. 24, tied with Jimmy Carter's average between 1976 and 1980.

Note: Prior to the 1908 election, Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, New Mexico, and Washington, DC, did not yet count. Oklahoma was first counted in in 1908. In 1912, Arizona and New Mexico were added. Hawaii and Alaska began being counted in 1960. DC came into play for the first time in 1964. In addition, California began getting at least 40 electoral votes in 1964. In the early part of the 1900s, up until the 1930s, California was below 20 EVs. States like New York have been on a steady decline in electoral votes, while states like Florida and Texas have seen a steady increase.

Presidential candidates, ranked by average Electoral College votes

1. Reagan 507
2. LBJ 486
3. FDR 469
4. Eisenhower 449.5
5. Harding 404
6. Coolidge 382
7. Clinton 374.5
8. Wilson 356
9. Obama 348.5
10. Nixon 346.7
11. Truman 303
11. Kennedy 303
13. H.W. Bush 297
14. McKinley 281.5
15. W. Bush 278.5
16. Gore 266
17. Hughes 254
18. Hoover 251.5
19. Kerry 251
20. Ford 240
21. T. Roosevelt 212
22. Romney 203
23. Humphrey 191
24. McCain 173
24. Carter 173
26. Taft 164.5
27. Bryan 164.3
28. Dole 159
29. Dewey 144
30. Parker 140
31. Davis 136
32. Cox 127
33. Dukakis 111
34. Smith 87
35. Wilkie 82
36. Stevenson 81
37. Goldwater 52
38. Wallace 46
39. Thurmond 39
40. McGovern 17
41. Byrd 15
42. Mondale 13
43. LaFollette 13
44. Landon 8

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this post incorrectly noted Harry Truman's Electoral College score. It should be 303 and is corrected above.

1. Hillary Clinton to Middle East. The big news today is that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is heading to the Middle East to try and help broker a peace in the ongoing fighting in Gaza.

Usually, someone as high level as Clinton isn’t dispatched in this sort of delicate situation unless a deal is imminent. If that’s the case, it would certainly be a feather in Clinton’s cap in her last overseas trip. And it could be a strong credential if she runs for president in, dare we say, 2016.

Samrang Pring / Reuters

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrives for the 4th ASEAN-U.S. leaders' meeting at the Peace Palace in Phnom Penh Nov. 19, 2012.

2. Race cited as opposition to Rice. As NBC’s Frank Thorp and Luke Russert reported yesterday nearly 100 House Republicans wrote a letter to President Obama, saying they would strongly oppose a Susan Rice nomination for secretary of State.

Of course, this has no teeth. Presidential appointments that need congressional approval have to be approved by the Senate. The House doesn’t even get a vote. But it is indicative of how deep the opposition is among hard-right conservatives.

But now Rep. Jim Clyburn, echoing the feelings of many on the left, said on CNN this morning that race appears to be a factor in the criticism of Rice.

“During this recent campaign,” Clyburn said, “we heard [Gov.] Sununu calling our president lazy, incompetent. These kinds of terms that - those of us, especially those of us born and raised in the South, we've been hearing these little words and phrases all of our lives, and we get insulted by them. Susan rice is as competent as anybody you will find. … Say that she was wrong for doing it, but don't call her incompetent.”

Democrats point to the harshest criticism from the right of Obama’s cabinet has been aimed at minorities and women – Attorney General Eric Holder, EPA administrator Lisa Jackson, and Rice, who are all black, as well as HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, who are women.

Republicans would say they have just been involved in some of the more controversial decisions made by the administration, from regulating energy to the implementation of the health-care law to trying to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

3. Labor pushes back. Labor groups -- American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, or AFSCME, the Service Employees International Union, SEIU, and the National Education Association, NEA -- are going up with ads pressuring Democrats to hold the line on domestic spending, the Washington Post reports. The TV ads will run in “Colorado, Virginia, Missouri, along with radio ads in Pennsylvania, Alaska and Missouri.”

From an ad running in Virginia, entitled, “Jobs not cuts”: “How do we move our country forward and reduce the deficit? By creating jobs and growing our economy, not by cutting programs that families rely on most. We need Senators Warner and Webb to continue to stand up for us by investing in job creation, extending the middle-class tax cuts, and protecting Medicare, Medicaid, and education from cuts.”

The key to getting a deal done on the “fiscal cliff” is for both parties to first, get their own houses in order. House Speaker John Boehner certainly has a difficult task ahead of him to marshal his conservative House conference. But the president also has challenges in getting the left on board and finding 60 votes in the Senate to overcome a Mitch McConnell-led filibuster, if there is one.

4. Rubio flirting with running for president. In Iowa, yes Iowa, the FLORIDA senator joked about running for president:

“Let's just address right up front the elephant in the room, because anytime anyone makes a trip to Iowa, people start speculating about what you're going to do in the future, so let me just be blunt: I am not now nor will I ever be a candidate for offensive coordinator of Iowa.”

Rubio played college football, and that got laughs. But he’s done nothing to tamp down that he’s seriously considering running in 2016. Of course, the opposition vetting process is what a lot of Republicans worry about with Rubio.

5. GOP not thrilled with Christie. Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, who is the ostensible reason Rubio was in Iowa – for a birthday fundraiser – took a swipe at New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and his praise for President Obama during the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.

"There are some people that think maybe he could have handled it - been a little less gushing,” Branstad said. “But that's his personality. He has got that New Jersey edge to him, you know, for good or bad."

And Matt Drudge, a big Romney fan, headlines: “Christie Clowns on SNL as Residents Suffer."

But Christie is getting the thumbs up from New York City residents. Asked who did the best job handling Sandy, respondents to a Quinnipiac poll said Christie.

Christie  36%
Obama  22%
NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo  15%
NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg 12%

Those wanting to take shots at Christie probably have little connection to the New York/New Jersey area. Christie saw the places he grew up devastated by the storm. And the furthest thing from someone’s mind who has to govern during a time when your residents are dying and houses are being destroyed should be politics.

6. Ron Paul endorsed secession. Retiring Rep. Ron Paul isn’t going out quietly. He endorsed secession, calling it a “deeply American principle.”

"Secession is a deeply American principle. This country was born through secession....In fact, the recent election only further entrenched the status quo. If the possibility of secession is completely off the table there is nothing to stop the federal government from continuing to encroach on our liberties and no recourse for those who are sick and tired of it."

7. Dems draw from NY, CA. The GOP has taken a lot of criticism as a regional party with its members and power center rooted in the South. Well, almost 30% of Democrats in the House now are from just New York and California, the highest percentage ever, according to the University of Minnesota’s Smart Politics blog. http://bit.ly/QrZqJW

8. A brief history of turkey pardons. As we make our way closer to Thanksgiving, there’s an annual presidential tradition that Obama will take part in once again tomorrow – pardoning a turkey. The quaint exercise, however, does not date as far back as some might think. And even presidents have wrongly cited the first to do so. We break it down.

Charles Krupa / AP

A campaign worker removes candidate signs from in front of Mitt Romney's campaign office in Manchester, N.H., Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2012.

As Republicans nurse their wounds from last week's election setbacks, they’re trying to learn the right lessons from defeat, studying outcomes in various House and Senate races, and pondering how best to position themselves when it comes to the politics of immigration.

Mitt Romney’s poor performance among Latino voters in states like Nevada and Colorado helped undermine his chances of victory in those battlegrounds. As a result, some Republicans are drawing the lesson that their party must find a message and a candidate to ensure they do not end up, as Romney did in Nevada, winning only about one-in-four Latino voters.

Romney lost that state by 66,000 votes, or 6.6 percentage points.

“The handwriting is on the wall,” said Republican pollster Whit Ayres, the co-founder of a group called "Resurgent Republic."

“Until Republican candidates figure out how to perform better among non-white voters, especially Hispanics and Asians, Republican presidential contenders will have an extraordinarily difficult time winning presidential elections from this point forward,” he said.

Warning of a demographic apocalypse for the GOP was Texas Senator-elect Ted Cruz who told The New Yorker, “If Republicans do not do better in the Hispanic community, in a few short years Republicans will no longer be the majority party in our state.”

And since New York and California supply such a huge and utterly dependable source of electoral votes for the Democrats, if Texas joined them in going Democratic in presidential races, which hasn't happened since 1976, then, Cruz said, “The Republican Party would cease to exist.”

But in Nevada, Republican incumbent Dean Heller won his Senate race even as Romney was losing the state – and among Latino voters, Heller won just about what Romney won: about one quarter of them.

However, there were significant differences between the Senate race and the presidential race in Nevada: one was the weakness of Democratic candidate Rep. Shelley Berkley among black voters who accounted for nearly one out of ten voters in in Nevada.

While President Barack Obama carried 92 percent of black voters, Berkley won only seven out of ten. Berkley also under-performed among women voters, getting 48 percent to Obama’s 57 percent, according to exit poll interviews.

Mark Wilson / Getty Images

Latinos and immigrants participate in a rally on immigration reform in front of the White House on Nov. 8, 2012 in Washington, D.C.

And among the three-fifths of the Nevada electorate who believe that most illegal immigrants working in the United States should be offered a chance to apply for legal status, Berkley lagged Obama’s performance by ten points, according to exit polls.

Nevada also has a “none of these candidates” line on the ballot and that option drew 4.5 percent of the voters in that Senate race but only 0.6 percent of those who voted in the presidential contest in Nevada.

In July, the House Ethics Committee announced that it was opening an investigation into whether Berkley had violated the "Code of Official Conduct" or any law by her alleged intervention on behalf of businesses in which her husband had a financial interest. That fact may explain why Berkley lagged Obama.

Independent American Party candidate David Lory VanDerBeek, a small government conservative, also won nearly 5 percent of the Nevada vote, but if anything, his votes came from Heller and not from Berkley.

Now as the Senate looks toward the legislative agenda for 2013, newly elected Republican senators such as Cruz and Senator-elect Jeff Flake of Arizona, as well as returning GOP senators such as Heller, must decide whether to support the Democrats’ Dream Act which would give legal status to young non-citizens brought to the United States illegally by their parents.

Flake told NPR last week that Republicans “need to deal with this issue in ways different than we've approached it in the past ... We need to deal with the very real problem presented by the Dreamers – those who are here through no fault of their own. I think the Republicans can get out front on that issue and offer a long-term solution, not just the short-term solution that's been put forward by the president.”

But an accommodating policy toward legalizing illegal immigrants would raise strategic questions for Republicans: last Tuesday in Nevada, Arizona, and other states, Latino voters supported Obama and other Democratic candidates by a ratio of nearly three-to-one.

If adding millions of younger Latino residents to the legal resident population (and eventually to the citizen voting population) means adding millions more Democrats, then how is that a winning strategy for Republicans?

Tony Dejak / AP

A man walks out of the Ohio headquarters of Mitt Romney campaign office carrying a "Nobama 2012 sign," Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2012, in Columbus, Ohio.

“Who’s to say they’re going to be Democrats then?” Ayres asked, referring to the potential pool of younger immigrants who might eventually gain citizenship if Congress enacts some version of the Dream Act. “They don’t want a handout or a guarantee, they want an opportunity. They’d like to keep more of what they earn; they’d like the opportunity to start businesses and an opportunity to start a family. A great many of those people have the work ethic and the entrepreneurial spirit and the family orientation to be good solid Republicans – if we stop the tone that suggests we don’t want them as part of our coalition.”

The last time the Dream Act was put to a vote, in 2010, only three Republican senators and only eight House Republicans voted for it. If Republicans who voted against the Dream Act just two years ago now reverse or trim their positions on immigration, is every vote GOP candidates might gain among Latino voters offset by a vote they’ll lose among those who oppose giving legal status to illegal immigrants?

Again Ayres has an answer to this. Referring to GOP voters who today oppose the Dream Act, he asked, “Who’s to say they’re single-issue voters? And who’s to say they aren’t capable of being persuaded by the likes of Marco Rubio?”

Rubio is the Republican senator from Florida, and a potential 2016 GOP presidential contender, who has proposed his own version of a legalization program for younger illegal immigrants, but one that is less lenient and expansive than the version Democrats offered in 2010.

One other puzzle Republicans will need to solve if they are to win more elections in 2014 and beyond is how to make smaller government appealing to more voters, or in other words, how to offer voters less in the way of tangible benefits.

But the reason that Republicans were successful in exploiting the Medicare issue during the 2010 midterms is not because they were making a smaller government/fewer benefits argument.

Instead, they were arguing that Obamacare would take away older Americans’ Medicare benefits, since the Affordable Care Act intends to squeeze hundreds of billions of dollars in more savings out of Medicare, partly to help pay for an expansion of Medicaid for poor people.

By a narrow majority in the national exit poll sample, and by a wider majority in states such as Arizona, voters last week agreed with the idea that “government is doing too many things better left to businesses and individuals.” That indicates that perhaps Romney’s message got through to voters on the failed federally subsidized energy firms such as Solyndra and A123 Systems.

In the short term, Flake, for one, is taking a wait-and-see approach toward Obamacare, the most visible symbol of bigger government.

He thinks that parts of it will self-destruct. “There are parts of Obamacare that I think will probably fall of their own weight,” Flake told NPR.

Outright repeal isn’t in the cards, but Flake argued that once people see how expensive Obamacare mandates are for his state and others – and once people see employers refusing to hire more than 50 people for fear they’d have to comply with Obamacare mandates, then voters might see that “the Republican way will be the way to deal with it.”

HILLIARD, Ohio -- At his first campaign event since the release of the final jobs report before Election Day, President Barack Obama reprised his auto-centric Ohio economic pitch, slamming Mitt Romney for what he said were deceptive ads claiming Jeep was moving its business overseas.

He suggested that such a claim, debunked by both Chrysler executives and multiple fact-checkers, made workers here unnecessarily fearful for their jobs.

“You've got folks who work at the Jeep plant who've been calling their employers, worried. Asking, is it true? Are our jobs being shipped to China? And the reason they're making these calls is because Governor Romney's been running an ad that says so,” Obama said, speaking to 2,800 supporters at the Franklin County Fairgrounds here.

“Everybody knows it’s not true,” he continued. “The car companies themselves had told Gov. Romney to knock it off.”

Recommended: Ryan lambastes jobs report: 'We are 9 million jobs short'

He said Romney was trying to cause such controversy as a last-ditch attempt to gloss over his opposition to the auto bailout, to the detriment of workers here.

“I understand that Gov. Romney's had a tough time here in Ohio because he was against saving the auto industry," Obama said, "and it's hard to run away from that position when you're on videotape saying the words ‘let Detroit go bankrupt.’”

He concluded, “You don't scare hardworking Americans just to scare up some votes."

This sort of populist appeal to auto- and other blue-collar workers has paid dividends for Obama in Rust Belt states like Ohio. He’s faring better among white working-class males in those states than he is with that group in the rest of the country.

Obama spent less time here talking about the latest 7.9 percent unemployment figure, touting the fact that companies hired more workers in October than at any time in the past eight months but quickly moving on.

He continued his tour through smaller Ohio towns, stopping next in Springfield, Ohio.

Appearing on TODAY, Vice President Joe Biden said that he was "surprised" by Gov. Mitt Romney's agreement with the president on foreign policy issues in the debate, eschewing his previous criticisms of the administration on international affairs.

"Just a couple weeks ago when I debated Congressman Ryan, Congressman Ryan was laying out the foreign policy with regard to what he and what Gov. Romney believed; the overwhelming criticism of our positions in Syria, Iraq, Iran, and across the board. And tonight, Gov. Romney seemed to be rushing to agree with everything the president had done already."

"I was surprised," he added.

Ryan, who also appeared Tuesday on TODAY, defended his running mate’s debate performance. He said Romney was clear about how his foreign affair policies differed from those of the current administration. He called Obama’s engagement strategy with Iran, Israel and other nations “naïve.”

“Mitt Romney did a fantastic job of spelling out his foreign policy doctrine. I know it sounds like a cliché, but peace through strength is a doctrine,” he said.

Asked about the state of the drum-tight race for the presidency, Biden pointed to swing state polls where Obama appears to be holding a lead.

"I think we will win Ohio," he told Matt Lauer. "I think we're going to win Florida."

Biden, who appeared from Toledo in the middle of a three-day Ohio swing, said that supporters' energy on the ground there points to an Obama win. "The enthusiasm is real," he said. "The polling that I'm seeing is that we're still ahead."

More: Recapping the bayonet battle of Boca Raton 
Food on the trail: Why Obama, Romney must visit this diner  
Video: Ryan: Romney has ‘vision for foreign policy’ 
Video: Actually, Mr. President, Marines still use bayonets

The potential risks and rewards of playing prevent defense, especially when you’re tied… Why a foreign-policy debate might matter and why it might not… Highlighting the clash over the auto bailout; it’s all about Ohio… Unveiling our latest NBC battleground map… Obama’s latest TV ad… And Obama stumps in Florida and Ohio, while Romney hits Nevada and Colorado.

BOCA RATON, Fla. -- Three weeks ago in the first presidential debate, Mitt Romney was the one who was aggressive, while President Obama seemed to be playing it safe -- and, as it turned out, too safe. Last night here in the final debate before Election Day, those roles were reversed: It was Obama who was drawing the contrasts, who looked energized, and who was in control of the conversation. And it was Romney who was playing it safe and often trying to point out similarities rather than differences. Obama was the candidate with more to prove; Romney simply wanted to clear the bar on the minimum height. Using another sports analogy: As anyone who watches football can attest, prevent defenses sometimes work (because they’re designed to prevent a big play and a quick score) and sometimes they don’t (because the defense loses its aggression and appears flat footed). Romney and his campaign clearly made the calculated risk that, with their momentum in the polls, playing it safe was a wiser strategy. If a race is tied, do you really play prevent defense? Only if you believe the race trajectory favors you. And that’s what the Romney campaign believes.

Slideshow: On the trail

*** Why a foreign-policy debate might matter and why it might not: But will last night matter? On the one hand, the subject matter was foreign policy (which has been Obama’s strong suit and Romney’s weak one), and the outcome shouldn’t have been too surprising given that Obama is the incumbent president and that Romney is a former one-term governor. On the other hand, look in our new national NBC/WSJ poll and see where Romney had made some of his biggest gains since the debate season began: He had narrowed the gap on who would be the better commander-in-chief from eight points (47% to 39%) to jut three (44%-41%). In addition, 53% of registered voters said they were comfortable with Romney being president, compared with 50% who said that about him before the debates and 56% who said that about Obama. Yes, foreign policy and national security aren’t the top issues in this election. But they matter when it comes to portraying strength and assessing if someone is prepared to be president. In that respect, last night helped the president and had the potential to hurt his challenger. What could save Romney? There are only two weeks left in the campaign. And given everything Obama has to do, making his affirmative closing argument, does the campaign have the time to two message tracks?

*** Clashing over the auto bailout: Yet perhaps the most significant exchange of the night wasn’t over foreign policy. Instead, it was about the auto bailout -- the very issue with which Obama hopes to win the battleground state of Ohio. Toward the end of the debate, the president blasted Romney on outsourcing jobs to China and for opposing the auto bailout. And the GOP presidential nominee responded only to the latter charge, one of the few times Romney took bait during the debate. “I'm a son of Detroit. I was born in Detroit. My dad was head of a car company. I like American cars. And I would do nothing to hurt the U.S. auto industry. My plan to get the industry on its feet when it was in real trouble was not to start writing checks,” Romney said. “I said they need -- these companies need to go through a managed bankruptcy. And in that process, they can get government help and government guarantees.” Obama then countered, Romney, you keep on trying to … airbrush history here. You were very clear that you would not provide government assistance to the U.S. auto companies, even if they went through bankruptcy. You said that they could get it in the private marketplace. That wasn't true.” Deciding to re-litigate the auto bailout with Obama was a calculated risk for Romney. He’s losing Ohio because of the bailout, period. In order to win Ohio, he has to convince skeptical working-class auto workers in places like Toledo and Akron that he would be there for the auto industry. It’s been a problem for him in Ohio for months. And guess where Obama and Biden are today: in Dayton and Toledo.

*** Latest NBC battleground map: Speaking of Ohio, here is our updated NBC battleground map with just two weeks until Election Day. The changes from our last map: We moved Nevada to Lean Dem; we moved North Carolina to Lean GOP; and we moved Iowa from Lean Dem to Toss-up. That puts 243 electoral votes in Obama’s column, 206 electoral votes in Romney’s, and 89 in Toss-up. Here are our seven remaining Toss-up states: Colorado, Florida, Iowa, New Hampshire, Ohio, Virginia, and Wisconsin. And out of those, according to our conversations with the campaigns, you could argue that Obama holds a slight advantage in New Hampshire and Wisconsin, and Romney has a slight edge in Virginia. Here is the map:

Solid Dem (no chance at flip): DC, DE, HI, ME (3 EVs) MD, MA, NY, RI, VT (70 electoral votes)
Likely Dem (takes a landslide to flip): CA, CT, IL, WA (94)
Lean Dem: ME (1 EV) MI, MN, NV, NJ, NM, OR, PA (79)
Toss-up: CO, FL, IA, NH, OH, VA, WI (89)
Lean GOP: AZ, GA, IN, MO, NE (I EV), NC (64)
Likely GOP (takes a landslide to flip): AL, LA, MS, MT, ND, SC, SD, TX (79)
Solid GOP (no chance at flip): AK, AR, ID, KS, KY, NE (4 EVs) OK, TN, UT, WV, WY (63)

Remember, we base our battleground map on more than polls, but also where the campaigns believe the race is trending in specific states. Just because a candidate is advertising in a state, doesn’t mean they believe the state is headed in their direction.

Rick Wilking / AP

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney listens to President Barack Obama speak during the third presidential debate at Lynn University, Monday, Oct. 22, 2012, in Boca Raton, Fla.

*** Closing time: Appearing to respond to the criticism that the president hasn’t laid out a second-term agenda, the Obama campaign is up with a new 60-second TV ad where Obama looks to the camera and says, “Here’s my plan for the next four years: Making education and training a national priority; building on our manufacturing boom; boosting American-made energy; reducing the deficits responsibly by cutting where we can, and asking the wealthy to pay a little more. And ending the war in Afghanistan, so we can do some nation-building here at home.  That’s the right path.” This is what we’ve heard Obama would be doing in the final two weeks – more making the case why you should vote FOR him and vote AGAINST Romney. By the way, the ad will air in Colorado, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia, and Wisconsin. Meanwhile, Romney has a new TV ad called “Apology Tour.”

*** On the trail: Obama campaigns in Delray Beach, FL at 10:15 am ET, in Dayton, OH (with Biden) at 3:50 pm ET…. Romney and Ryan hold joint rallies in Henderson, NV at 3:15 pm ET and Morrison, CO at 9:05 pm ET.

Countdown to Election Day: 14 days

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Ad spending in the presidential campaign has now topped $800 million and is on pace to reach or come close to $1 billion, according to an NBC analysis of data provided by ad-buying firm SMG Delta.

Jim Young / Reuters

President Barack Obama looks over at Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney during the second presidential campaign debate on Oct. 16 in Hempstead, N.Y.

So far, $807 million has been spent on political ads for radio and television -- local and national, cable and broadcast.

The Obama campaign is one ad buy away from reaching $300 million by itself. But with outside money factored in, "Team Romney" (the campaign plus outside groups supporting him or attacking the president) is outspending "Team Obama" $455 million to $352 million.

The Romney campaign, which has come on since Labor Day, is now the second-biggest spender at $164 million. 

Following the Romney campaign are the combined Karl-Rove backed Crossroads groups -- American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS. Combined, the two groups have spent $124 million ($65 million for American Crossroads, $59 million for GPS). 

GPS's spending has dropped off in the past couple of months, ceding the presidential ground to American Crossroads, which announced an $11 million ad buy just this week.

Other big spenders: Restore Our Future (pro-Romney) $69 million, Priorities USA (pro-Obama) $48 million, Americans for Prosperity (pro-Romney) $46 million, the Republican National Committee (pro-Romney) $24 million, and late-comer Americans for Job Security (pro-Romney) $9 million.

The states seeing the biggest spending are the usual suspects: Florida, Ohio, and Virginia, where more than half of all the money's been spent -- $452 million.

In the last three weeks, Ohio is gaining on Florida for the top spot. Florida still leads at $166 million, followed by Ohio $160 million, and Virginia $126 million.

Also rising fast -- Colorado, Iowa, and Wisconsin.

Colorado has now passed North Carolina for the No. 4 spot at $72 million spent. 

North Carolina, which saw a lot of spending early in the campaign, has seen a reduction of the pace of ads since Labor Day. It now sits fifth at $69 million total.

Iowa is next at $62 million, followed by Nevada $49 million, New Hampshire $34 million, and Wisconsin $32 million.

What's fascinating about Wisconsin is it was barely a blip on the ad-spending radar before the pick of Paul Ryan to be Romney's vice president.

Markets like Green Bay and Madison are now routinely in the top 10 hottest markets by number of ads being run. In fact, this week they clock in at Nos. 1 and No. 5 on that list.

Top Markets:
1. Green Bay
2. Denver
3. Cincinnati
4. Columbus
5. Madison
6. Toledo
7. Cleveland
8. Orlando-Daytona Beach
9. Las Vegas
10. Reno

Despite polling showing the race closing in Pennsylvania and Romney's birth state of Michigan, little to no money is being spent in either state. Neither the Romney nor Obama campaigns, in fact, have spent ANY money at all on ads in Michigan. The Obama campaign spent about $5 million early on in Pennsylvania.

And of the 17 "swing markets," ones won by both Obama and George W. Bush, the only two that have seen little action are Grand Rapids-Kalamazoo and Lansing, both in Michigan.

The Romney campaign has been sending around blog posts (here and here) from conservatives today reporting that a tale Vice President Joe Biden told about playing football at the University of Delaware from 50 years ago was false.

So First Read decided to check it out (especially considering your author is a Fightin' Blue Hen).

The reports seize on Biden's twice-repeated story about a 1963 trip to Ohio University for a football game. During visits to the college town of Athens, Ohio, over the last two political cycles, Biden has related the PG-rated Animal House-esque story of an encounter with police after he says he accidentally found himself in a girl's dormitory -- cause for punishment at the time. 

"I came, I was a football player," Biden said during a recent trip to the Buckeye State town. "I came here in 1963, and I had to go back, I just double checked my memory – you know, you get my age and you’re not so sure of it, you know, your glory days look more glorious than they really were and all that, so we went back on the Internet and I just want you to know, I came here in October 1963, and we beat you Bobcats 29-12…" 

Before launching into the same story during a campaign stop in 2008, he told an Athens audience, "I went to the University of Delaware, and we came out here to play Ohio University." 

So was Biden a “football player”? It appears so, but not quite in the way he appeared to suggest during his trip to Athens during this campaign.

“We don’t have him as lettering for freshman football or varsity,” Kevin Tritt, assistant sports information director at the University of Delaware, told First Read. “We don’t have the freshman team playing Ohio University in 1963. We don’t have any record of the freshman team playing there.”

The varsity team did play Ohio University that year and won. And Biden got the score right.

Biden wrote in his memoir that he played briefly on the freshman team, but quit after one semester because of poor academic performance.

"When my first-semester grades came out, my Mom and Dad told me I wouldn't be playing spring football," he wrote in "Promises to Keep: On Life and Politics." 

Two years later, Biden -- his grades having improved -- once again believed he had a shot at starting on the team, but he told his coach he planned on spending precious weekends with his wife-to-be Neilia instead. 

The Sports Information Office at Delaware says it’s likely Biden did, in fact, play on the freshman team, but not long enough to letter and left the team before the season was over.

Even if Biden were a member of his freshman football team, it wouldn’t have been in 1963. Biden, a 1965 University of Delaware graduate, would have been a freshman in 1961.

It is possible Biden did go to the game in question -- and get into the trouble he joked about he did. But if he did, it was as a spectator.

*** UPDATE *** The vice president's office sent First Read a quote from legendary Delaware coach Tubby Raymond, for whom the school's football stadium is now named after, saying, "He was on the team!"

An aide said Biden did go to the game and, citing his memoir, said he made the varsity team in the spring of his junior year, but did not play in the fall of his junior year when Delaware played Ohio.

"The Vice President went to Athens with the University of Delaware football team to cheer," an aide said. "As he makes clear in his statement, he played football, but not during the fall of his junior year."

From page 94 of Biden's memoir, per the campaign: "I carried 37 hours the next two semesters, with decent grades, even while taking another run at the football team. I hadn’t played for two years, but I surprised the coaches by moving up the depth chart fast. After the annual spring game that April, it looked like I had a shot to start at starting defensive back. I couldn’t wait for next September; I could almost see the fall season unfold in my head. So I was feeling pretty good when I headed to Florida for spring break after our last practice. That trip changed everything."

*** UPDATE 2 *** Oct. 18, 2012: The director of Sports Information at the University of Delaware, Scott Selheimer, clarifies Biden's football career at UD:

"Joe Biden DID play on the 1961 University of Delaware freshman team, but did not finish out the season in order to earn a letter. He later came out for the team in the spring of 1963 and took part in practices, but did not end up playing varsity football in the fall of 1963 when the official competition season takes place. Thus he was not listed on the roster."

Domenico Montanaro is a 2001 University of Delaware graduate -- and also played football at Delaware, with the [Butt]-Kickin’ Chickens, which won the Blue League Intramural flag-football championship in 2000… he thinks.

Carrie Dann contributed to this report. 

Biden, the aggressor … His performance was therapeutic for base Democrats, but Ryan held his own. … It was Scranton Joe vs. Think Tank Ryan, heart vs. head … Both Biden and Ryan accomplished their goals … But Biden struggled on Libya … Ryan struggled on stimulus, abortion … The ball moves to Obama. His challenge – searching for Goldilocks, not too hot, not too cold. … Biden-Ryan didn’t come to blows but Berman-Sherman almost did …and things get nasty in Arizona.

DANVILLE, Ky. -- If there was something both sides agreed on last night, it was this: Joe Biden was aggressive at last night’s vice-presidential debate. Now, Republicans thought he was too aggressive (with his interruptions, laughs, and facial expressions), and Democrats thought he was just right. After last week’s presidential debate, Biden threw the kitchen sink at both Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney -- on issues that President Obama didn't touch in Denver. He brought up Mitt Romney’s “47%” comment. “It [Romney’s opposition to the auto bailout] shouldn’t be surprising for a guy who says 47% of the American people are unwilling to take responsibility for their own lives.”

He brought up Osama bin Laden, resurrecting Romney’s 2007 line that he “wouldn’t move heaven and earth to get bin Laden." And Biden tried to score points on the issue of abortion. “I guess he accepts Gov. Romney's position now, because in the past he has argued that there was … rape and forcible rape.” More than anything, Biden's performance was therapeutic for base Democrats after Obama's dud in Denver.

Alex Wong / Getty Images

DANVILLE, KY - OCTOBER 11: U.S. Vice President Joe Biden speaks during the vice presidential debate at Centre College October 11, 2012 in Danville, Kentucky. This is the second of four debates during the presidential election season and the only debate between the vice presidential candidates before the closely-contested election November 6. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

*** Scranton Joe vs. Think Tank Ryan: So who won? If you judge a debate on who took the fight to his opponent, who best defended his top of the ticket, and who best attacked the other side, you’d have to say it was Biden. (Indeed, by our count, Biden said “Romney” 26 times, while Ryan said “Obama” or “the president” 14 times.)  If you judge a debate purely on style points, Biden might get penalized. And if you judge a debate by who best plays it safe -- especially on issue terrain that’s not your comfort zone -- then Paul Ryan scored well.

Related: Biden plays aggressor in debate as Ryan argues GOP case

That’s probably why the two insta-polls after the debate seemed to indicate a split decision. CBS’s poll of “undecideds” gave it to Biden. CNN’s poll of ALL voters went to Ryan. Both men had two different strategies: Biden was there to energize his side after last week and draw a clear contrast with his opposition, especially on issues like abortion and foreign policy. Ryan, meanwhile, was there to look competent, pass the presidential threshold test and do no harm as we head into next week’s second presidential debate.

Related: Ryan wades deep into lengthy Afghanistan argument

They both accomplished their goals but did it with two very different styles: It was Scranton Joe vs. Think Tank Ryan. Heart vs. head. And as political commentator Matthew Dowd, who worked for the Bush campaign but for Democrats before that put it on Twitter: “Heart wins.”

Slideshow: A look at Biden

A glimpse over the years at U.S. Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del.

Launch slideshow

*** Fine lines: Biden needed to walk a fine line between gravitas and condescension. At times, he accomplished that; at times, he didn't. He did, however, appear more knowledgeable with one GIANT exception – Libya. When he said, stunningly, that the administration was unaware of security requests, it may have been the most significant news of the night (more on that below). Ryan needed to look presidential, and you could say he accomplished that, but he also sometimes seemed overmatched by the more aggressive Biden on foreign policy and even on SOME fiscal issues, like the stimulus. Ryan struggled to explain his letter requesting stimulus money despite criticizing the program. In all, Biden did what he needed to do – re-energize the base after the president's lackluster performance a week ago and stop the handwringing and fretting. He did that. Now, the ball moves back to the president, with a different style than Biden that has more appeal to independents and undecideds. Ryan’s job was not to blow the lead for Romney, become an unexpected problem. And he did that. Now it’s up to Romney to see if he can win two debates in a row, something he needs to do if he’s going to not just draw EVEN with the presidential in the battlegrounds, but surpass him.

*** Ryan struggled on abortion: Where Ryan struggled the most, interestingly, was on abortion. And don’t be surprised if we see Obama pick up the same attack. When moderator Martha Raddatz asked if a Romney-Ryan ticket should worry those who want abortion to remain legal, Ryan replied, “We don't think that unelected judges should make this decision; that people through their elected representatives in reaching a consensus in society through the democratic process should make this determination.” Biden pounced, “The next president will get one or two Supreme Court nominees. That's how close Roe v. Wade is. Just ask yourself, with Robert Bork being the chief adviser on the court for -- for Mr. Romney, who do you think he's likely to appoint?”

Slideshow: Vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan

Larry Downing / Reuters

See images from throughout his career in Washington, D.C.

Launch slideshow

*** Where Biden struggled was on Libya and the Benghazi attack: “We weren't told they wanted more security,” Biden said. “And by the way at the time, we said exactly what the intelligence community told us that they knew, that was the assessment." But as NBC’s Andrea Mitchell has pointed out, the State Department DID know that requests for more security resources had been made -- and were turned down. In fact, a State Department official acknowledged that while testifying on Capitol Hill on Wednesday. Considering the timing of this debate, yesterday’s Capitol Hill hearing and the Tuesday full tick-tock of what REALLY happened in Benghazi, it’s shocking Biden didn’t have a better answer than what he said. His strategy for the debate was, give the minimum answer and move to Iraq and Afghanistan. Not sure that can work for the president.

*** Looking ahead to next week – in search of Goldilocks: The pressure is still on Obama in next week's town hall-style debate in New York. But make no mistake: Biden -- by turning his volume to 11 last night -- takes some of that pressure off the president. If you've followed Obama over the past six years, you know it's not his style to be overly aggressive. Well, Biden last night both gave Obama a roadmap for how to attack Romney-Ryan (on abortion, tax fairness, foreign policy), and he gave him room to do it in the way he feels most comfortable. The question is: Can he deliver? And can Romney deliver another solid performance? Obama is looking for a Goldilocks' performance. Obama in Denver was too cold, Biden in Danville might have been too hot, and Obama, the sequel, has to figure out how to be just the right combination of assertive without being condescending. On to Hofstra!

*** Berman vs. Sherman (literally, folks!): A lot of boxing metaphors are thrown around before and after debates. No one expects there to be a REAL fight. Of last night’s Biden-Ryan showdown, at least you can say they respected one another – enough not to come to blows, anyway. The same CAN”T be said of a debate last night between two DEMOCRATIC congressman. The L.A. Times: “The bitter race for a San Fernando Valley congressional district took a bizarre turn Thursday when Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Valley Village) and Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks) got into a near-altercation during a forum at Pierce College. Video of the event in Woodland Hills shows the candidates exchanging words and Sherman at one point putting his arm around Berman, saying: ‘Do you want to get into this?’ A uniformed officer then came onto the stage and appeared to ask that they move away from each other.” Sherman, by the way, who initiated the touching has apologized.

*** Raising Arizona: And speaking of nasty, don't miss what's happening down in the open Arizona Senate race. Rep. Jeff Flake (R) went up with an ad featuring Richard Carmona’s (D) former boss, who says Carmona angrily pounded on her door in the middle of the night, and it was Carmona. “Carmona’s not who he seems,” she says looking directly to camera. “He has issues with anger, with ethics, and with women. … Richard Carmona should never, ever be in the U.S. Senate.” Carmona responded with an ad of his own, showing pictures of his family, a former female co-worker from his SWAT team, him talking to children, and the famous picture of him rappelling from a helicopter to save a man. “When I see a career politician like Jeff Flake attacking Rich Carmona, who has spent his life helping others, it’s despicable,” the co-worker says. “Congressman Flake should be ashamed.”

*** On the trail: Fresh off of his debate performance, Ryan heads to Ohio where he’ll hit a rally with Romney in Lancaster at 5:40 pm ET… Before that, Romney campaigns in Richmond, VA at 12:10 pm ET… Meanwhile, Joe and Jill Biden stump in La Crosse, WI at 2:00 pm ET.

Countdown to 2^nd presidential debate: 4 days
Countdown to 3^rd presidential debate: 10 days
Countdown to Election Day: 25 days

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A new television ad mocking Mitt Romney for promising to end federal funding for PBS – and sarcastically portraying Big Bird as a corporate villain – shows a lack of ideas by the Obama campaign and an inability to focus on the real issues, John McCain said Tuesday. 

“It may show a paucity of ideas in ways to criticize Mitt Romney,” the Arizona senator and former Republican presidential candidate told Matt Lauer on TODAY. “The fact is, the economy is still in very bad shape, and obviously, the American people are still in very difficult conditions, and the one thing President Obama can’t run on is his record. And so Big Bird is a fun thing to talk about.”

The ad mockingly compares the beloved Sesame Street character (and the breakout star from last week’s presidential debate) to major white-collar felons. Its narrator intones: “Bernie Madoff. Ken Lay. Dennis Kozlowski. Criminals. Gluttons of greed. And the evil genius who towered over them?” As an image of the world’s most famous 8-foot bird, the narrator continues: “Big. Yellow. A menace to our economy. Mitt Romney knows it’s not Wall Street you have to worry about. It’s Sesame Street.”

The humorous commercial definitely will “grab attention,” McCain acknowledged, quipping: “I love Big Bird. I’m for an earmark for Big Bird.”

The last debate may have made a star of Big Bird, but it also helped give Romney a ratings boost. A new Pew Research Center poll wiped out Obama’s previous lead and now gives the Republican nominee a four-point advantage among likely voters, 49 percent to 45 percent.

But McCain said Romney mustn’t get complacent, especially with two more presidential debates still ahead. He criticized the tone that he says Obama has set on the campaign trail since the last presidential face-off, with the president challenging Romney over the truth behind his campaign promises.

“I’ve never seen anything like these continuous attacks. Calling Mitt Romney a liar? That’s not an elevated debate,” he said.

McCain predicted Romney will continue to do well in the debates, but warned against underestimating Obama's next performance.

More:
4 Big Bird tweets that went viral after the debate

Big Bird is made out of cereal in mosaic artist's new portrait

The Web's take on the first Obama-Romney debate

Has the race fundamentally changed? We’ll get a better answer in the next few days… Romney to deliver foreign-policy speech in Virginia at 11:20 am ET… But where are the real foreign-policy differences between Romney and Obama?... The Obama camp -- with new TV ad and memo -- issues its rebuttal to Romney… Obama refers to his debate performance… His camp and DNC raked in $181 million in September… Romney moves to the middle – rhetorically… And Priorities USA’s latest TV ad.

*** Has the race changed? We all assume that the presidential contest has changed following last week’s debate between President Obama and Mitt Romney. The most recent sign: Gallup’s daily tracking, which had Obama up 50%-45% among registered voters in the three days before the debate, but shows the race tied 47%-47% in the three days after. But to see if the race has truly changed, we’re awaiting battleground-state polls conducted over the weekend through today -- to fully let the debate, job numbers, and everything else sink in. The body language from both campaigns suggests that the race did change; you’re seeing 1) a more confident Romney camp and 2) an Obama campaign with a greater sense of urgency. And if the upcoming polls show this, it will give Team Romney another shot in the arm, just like Obama got after the conventions. But it’s also very possible that the race hasn’t fundamentally changed, but simply tightened and is back to where everyone thought it would be six months ago. Where are the battleground states, polling wise by the end of this week? Is Ohio a margin-of-error contest, or is the president still ahead by 4-6 points? What about Wisconsin? Iowa? These are the three states where Romney had fallen far behind and needed to make up the most ground.

*** Talking foreign policy: After his strong debate performance last week and two weeks before the final presidential debate on foreign policy, Mitt Romney today will deliver a foreign-policy speech in Virginia attacking the Obama administration’s response to the unrest in the Middle East. “I know the president hopes for a safer, freer, and a more prosperous Middle East allied with the United States. I share this hope,” he will say at the Virginia Military Institute beginning at 11:20 am ET, per excerpts. “But hope is not a strategy. We cannot support our friends and defeat our enemies in the Middle East when our words are not backed up by deeds, when our defense spending is being arbitrarily and deeply cut, when we have no trade agenda to speak of, and the perception of our strategy is not one of partnership, but of passivity.” Romney also will use his address to criticize the administration's response to the attack on the U.S. consulate in Libya, which killed four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador. “This latest assault cannot be blamed on a reprehensible video insulting Islam… No, as the Administration has finally conceded, these attacks were the deliberate work of terrorists who use violence to impose their dark ideology on others.”

*** Yet where are the real policy differences? But according to the excerpts of the speech, almost every policy Romney will call for -- tough sanctions on Iran, withdrawal from Afghanistan by 2014, a two-state solution between the Israelis and Palestinians, free trade, vigorously going after the terrorists in Libya -- has been pursued by the Obama administration. (The one exception we can see is Romney’s call to arm the Syrian rebels, but the CIA already appears to be doing this covertly.) Indeed, the New York Times today notes that Romney “has yet to fill in many of the details of how he would conduct policy toward the rest of the world, or to resolve deep ideological rifts within the Republican Party and his own foreign policy team. It is a disparate and politely fractious team of advisers that includes warring tribes of neoconservatives, traditional strong-defense conservatives and a band of self-described ‘realists’ who believe there are limits to the degree the United States can impose its will.” The difference Romney appears to be attempting to outline is one of tone and style -- not substance.

Lynne Sladky / AP

Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, right, waves as he arrives with his wife Ann at a campaign rally, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2012, in Port St. Lucie, Fla.

*** The Obama camp’s rebuttal to Romney: Meanwhile, the Obama camp is countering Romney’s foreign-policy speech with a TV ad it’s airing only in Virginia (so it can get into today’s coverage of the speech), which notes the criticism that Romney’s foreign trip and his initial statement to the embassy attacks received. The ad’s kicker: “If this is how he handles the world now, just think what Mitt Romney might do as president.” The campaign also issues a memo stating: “The fact is that Barack Obama has one of the strongest national security records of any President in generations – he has decimated al Qaeda’s leadership, taken out Osama bin Laden, ended the war in Iraq, provided unparalleled support to Israel, produced unprecedented pressure on Iran, strengthened our alliances, and restored our standing in the world.” It continues, “In contrast, Mitt Romney has, throughout this campaign, raised more questions than answers about what he’d actually do as president. He supported the Iraq war and said that removing all of our troops from Iraq was ‘tragic,’ he called Russia - not al-Qaeda - our ‘number one geopolitical foe,’ and he said that he wouldn’t have set a timeline to end the war in Afghanistan.” That said, the foreign-policy advantage the White House THOUGHT it had a month ago is now in question. Every day, a new question arises on how the security situation was handled in Benghazi.

*** Obama refers to his debate performance: At a Los Angeles fundraiser last night, per NBC’s Ali Weinberg, President Obama alluded to his debate performance -- his first public comments regarding his less-than-stellar showing. Praising his opening acts at the Nokia Theater, which included Stevie Wonder, Jon Bon Jovi and Katy Perry, Obama said, “These guys perform flawlessly night after night.” He then added, waiting a beat for comedic timing, “I can’t always say the same.” He then said this about his 2008 campaign, “Everybody always remembers the victory, but they don’t always remember the bumps in the road; things always look good in retrospect. But in the middle of it, we were -- we made all kinds of mistakes. We goofed up, I goofed up, but the American people carried us forward.”

*** Team Obama hauled in $181 million last month: For Team Obama, Friday’s job numbers helped soften the blow from the first debate. And so did its fundraising haul for September. On Saturday, the Obama campaign announced that it and the DNC had raised a whopping $181 million last month -- the largest monthly haul of the cycle by either side. We haven’t seen fundraising numbers for Team Romney, but the Obama/DNC haul suggests that its grassroots army is beginning to flex its muscles.

*** Moving to the middle -- rhetorically: Over the weekend, Politico reported that the Romney camp is running a radio ad in Ohio pitching Romney as a bipartisan fixer who will work across the aisle. And this epitomizes the shift we’ve seen from Romney in the last week since the debate. His policies haven’t necessarily moved to the middle, but his rhetoric has. This began at the debate. Tone is everything when trying to straddle ideology and electability. And Romney, for the first time this campaign, appears to have found his voice on this front. And speaking of finding his voice, another notable move over the weekend: Romney is now sharing personal stories.

*** Priorities’ latest TV ad: The pro-Obama Super PAC Priorities USA Action is up with a TV ad hitting Romney on education. “Take away his toys and he’ll play with a stick. Take away their bikes and they’ll still find a way to get where they’re going,” the ad goes. “But if you take away early childhood education, slash K-12 funding, and cut college aid for middle class families they won’t go far. Yet that’s exactly what Mitt Romney wants to do to pay for a two hundred and fifty thousand dollar tax break for multi-millionaires. If Mitt Romney wins, the middle class loses.”

*** On the trail: Obama is out in California, where he announces the establishment of the César E. Chávez national monument and where he hits fundraisers in San Francisco… Romney gives his aforementioned foreign-policy speech and then holds a rally in Newport News, VA at 5:20 pm ET… Jill Biden campaigns in Pennsylvania… Paul Ryan stumps in Ohio and Michigan… Later this week, both Obama and Romney campaign in Ohio on Tuesday, and the VP debate is on Thursday.

Countdown to VP debate: 3 days
Countdown to 2^nd presidential debate: 8 days
Countdown to 3^rd presidential debate: 14 days
Countdown to Election Day: 29 days

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Text FIRST to 622639, to sign up for First Read alerts to your mobile phone.
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