Frank Thorp / NBC News

Erica Lafferty, daughter of Sandyh Hook Elementary School victim Dawn Hochsprung, attends a town hall meeting with Senator Kelly Ayotte in Warren, N.H., on Tuesday.

WARREN, N.H. – Bringing the national gun debate to a tiny New England town on Tuesday, the daughter of the slain principal of Sandy Hook Elementary confronted Sen. Kelly Ayotte at the lawmaker’s first town hall meeting since she voted against expanded background checks on all commercial gun sales.

Erica Lafferty, who first met with the Republican senator in Washington earlier this month after she opposed the compromise negotiated by Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Pat Toomey, R-Pa., was visibly angry as she spoke into the microphone at the meeting, which drew more than 100 people who came to condemn or support Ayotte’s vote.

"You had mentioned that day the burden on owners of gun stores that the expanded background checks would harm. I am just wondering why the burden of my mother being gunned down in the halls of her elementary school isn't more important than that," said Lafferty, whose mother Dawn Hochsprung was gunned down by Newtown shooter Adam Lanza.

Ayotte responded at the Warren, N.H., meeting: "Erica, I, certainly let me just say -- I'm obviously so sorry."

"And, um, I think that ultimately when we look at what happened in Sandy Hook, I understand that's what drove this whole discussion -- all of us want to make sure that doesn't happen again," Ayotte said.

More tension followed at a larger event in Tilton, N.H., later in the day.

"Let the senator finish please!" said the moderator at the Tilton event as gun control advocates shouted from the crowd and waved signs which said "demand action to end gun violence," from Mayors Against Illegal Guns, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's gun control advocacy group.

Ayotte is one of a handful of senators -- others include Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., Dean Heller, R-Nev., Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., and Max Baucus, D-Mont. -- who are facing withering criticism from both sides of the debate.

Gun control proponents want the Senate to reconsider new gun laws, and pro-gun rights groups want the issue kept off the table. And they’re using ads, lobbying, and organizing at events like Ayotte’s town halls to get their points across.

Keeping center stage are the Newtown families, many of whom were on Capitol Hill for the failed gun vote, who have pledged to continue the fight for new regulations on firearms.

The senator's staff were prepared for the onslaught. Ayotte defended her vote at the top of her remarks in both towns, pointing to her background as a prosecutor. “Where we are right now, my focus has been on wanting to improve our current background check system,” she said. “Frankly, we have fallen down on actually prosecuting gun crimes and violations of our current background check system.”

She said that addressing mental health and keeping guns out of the hands of the mentally ill were important going forward.

Outside groups are focusing on Ayotte and others from swing states where polls show background checks are popular. From the TV and radio ads to these small events, both sides are mobilizing like it's a political campaign --  Bloomberg's group circulated printed signs reading "#ShameOnYou" at both town meetings, while Ayotte supporters held the kind of mass-hand-drawn signs often spotted at presidential events.

Poll data is also a focus -- and a point of contention. Some automated polls, which NBC News does not rely on, have shown surveys claiming dropping numbers for people who voted against expanding background checks.

But in the Granite State, Ayotte's supporters are pointing to a recent survey from the University of New Hampshire that shows just the opposite: high approval ratings in the wake of the vote.

Some Republican defenders in the state say that the controversy isn't real and say it won't matter in 2016, when Ayotte is up for reelection to the Senate.

"To the extent it's a controversial issue it's a manufactured one," said Fergus Cullen, a former chairman of the state Republican Party.

There's evidence to support the claim that some groups are using the issue to raise their profiles. In a yard nearby the Warren event, a local resident had placed a large, staked lawn sign with the handwritten message, "Thank You Senator Ayotte." Atop one corner was the Tea Party's preferred flag, the yellow snake with the words "Don't Tread On Me."

But others say it was a difficult decision that could have repercussions down the road.

"I think it was a tough vote. And it was a principled vote," said Jim Merrill, a longtime New Hampshire Republican strategist who worked on Mitt Romney's presidential campaign. "And I think she understood that there would be some blowback for it. Let's just remember it wasn't just Republicans who voted against it."

Ayotte is clearly feeling the pressure, refusing to answer questions from national reporters at the meetings. Aides working on the gun issue on Capitol Hill say she's made it clear that she doesn't want to vote on it again any time soon.

And the atmosphere back home was a big change from Ayotte's typical town meetings -- generally staid affairs that begin with a PowerPoint presentation on the budget. (She does a lot of them, as she's pledged to hold a town hall in each New Hampshire county.)

She stuck with the PowerPoint at Tuesday's meetings, but this time, the opening slides had statistics defending her gun vote.

Alex Wong / Getty Images

Members of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America enter the office of Sen. Kelly Ayotte on April 17 in Washington, D.C.

At town halls, Ayotte typically receives notecards with the name of each questioner and their pre-submitted topic of interest. A selected moderator chooses and reads them. This time, though, that caused a stir. Right before Erica Lafferty spoke in Warren, Eric Knuffke, of Wentworth, N.H., stood and demanded to be allowed a question.

"You can't deny people the right to speak because they haven't filled out a card. I have a question," Knuffke shouted. Supporters of Ayotte shouted back at him.

As Knuffke yelled, Lafferty was sitting in the front row with her hand raised.

"Let Erica speak," said one attendee. "There's a Sandy Hook survivor here," said another.

She had submitted a question in the pile, and Ayotte made sure to let her speak. Lafferty thanked Ayotte for meeting with her the day after senators took the vote on the Manchin-Toomey before challenging her for her vote. After her exchange with Ayotte, Lafferty stood and stormed out of the town hall.

Asked afterward why she had done so, Lafferty said: "I had had enough." 

 NBC's Frank Thorp contributed to this report. 

This story was originally published on Tue Apr 30, 2013 4:05 PM EDT

CONCORD, N.H. – Riding Saturday night’s momentum from their first appearance at a rally together, President Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton took to the small Granite State capital to make their case for the former’s second term.

Introducing the president, Clinton reminded the crowd how good New Hampshire had been to him when he first ran for president, leaving unsaid that the state also voted for his wife Hillary in the 2008 Democratic primary.

“Twenty years and nine months ago, New Hampshire began the chance for me to become president,” Clinton told the 14,000 people gathered in a park near the statehouse here.

But, he added, he was much more enthusiastic about campaigning for Obama now than he was for himself.

“Maybe because I have done this work. Maybe because I know how hard it is,” he said.

And Clinton also played the role of aggressive surrogate for the more reserved president, reviving the “Romnesia” attack line that Obama had deployed in the weeks leading up to the tone-changing Hurricane Sandy.

“As President Obama has told us there’s this great public health epidemic, this virus, sweeping across America causing a condition known as Romnesia,” Clinton said, “and the virus is so rampant that anybody’s vulnerable to gettin’ a little of it.”

For his part, Obama sought to draw a parallel between Clinton’s economic policies, popular around the country in retrospect, and his own.

“Just as we did when Bill Clinton was president, we gotta ask the wealthiest to pay a little bit more so we can reduce the deficit and still invest in the things we need to grow,” he said.

And Obama also gave an unusually detailed plug for some of the state’s down-ballot candidates, a nod to the Democrats’ fight to regain the House, as well as add more governors to the party roster.

“If you want to break the gridlock in Congress, you’ll vote for leaders who feel the same way whether they’re Democrats or Republicans or independents – folks like John Lynch, folks like Jeanne Shaheen, you’ll vote for candidates like Annie Custer, Carol Shea-Porter. You’ll make Maggie Hassan the next governor of New Hampshire,” he said.

Amanda Henneberg, spokeswoman for GOP nominee Mitt Romney's campaign, responded to Obama in a written statement: "With no rationale for re-election, President Obama has resorted to false, discredited attacks and a cynical closing message urging voters to choose ‘revenge.’ The people of New Hampshire, along with the rest of America, will choose Governor Romney’s optimistic vision for our country’s future and will vote for real change so he can get our country back on the right track."

The president continued his frenetic campaign pace, hopping on a plane to Florida after his New Hampshire stop.

NEWINGTON, NH — Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney struck an upbeat note as he opened the final weekend of his campaign in the state where he launched his campaign more than 16 months ago.

"I've got a clear and unequivocal message for you: America is about to come roaring back," Romney told a chilly crowd of more than 1,000 supporters gathered to see him off for a busy Saturday of campaigning.

Romney also thanked the Granite State for its support in the Republican primary, and said they would be key to his presidential aspirations on Tuesday. The latest NBC/WSJ/Marist poll, released this week, shows Romney locked in a statistical dead heat here against President Barack Obama; the president leads 49 to 47 percent among likely voters, within the poll's margin of error.

"New Hampshire got me the Republican nomination and New Hampshire is going to get me the White House," Romney said to cheers.

From here, Romney campaigns across Iowa and Colorado on Saturday, with a packed Sunday schedule to follow that also takes him to four battleground states. Romney will next return to New Hampshire on Monday, but left behind today a team of top surrogates to barnstorm the state in his absence: Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, South Dakota Sen. John Thune, who joined New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte in introducing Romney here this morning.

Romney shortened his typical stump speech this morning, but left room for a critique of Obama, telling his audience here that "talk is cheap," and that the president "wants to convince you to settle."

"Americans don’t settle – we dream, we aspire, we reach for greater things," Romney said. "And we will achieve greater things with new leadership. "

The economy remains the top issue for voters, and a new set of data released Friday paints a picture of an uneven economic recovery in a series of battleground states.

Of the nine states categorized as "battleground states" by NBC News, five had state unemployment rates below the national unemployment rate of 7.8 percent in September, according to preliminary estimates released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The other four states suffered from a higher-than-average jobless rates, the highest of which was in Nevada; the BLS said that 11.8 percent of Nevadans were unemployed through September, the highest unemployment rate of all 50 states. (One U.S. territory, Puerto Rico, had a higher jobless rate.)

Friday's news is the last series of state-level unemployement data voters will receive before Election Day. One last national jobs report is due Nov. 2, the Friday before voters head to the polls.

President Barack Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney have each made jobs the centerpiece of their respective campaigns. The president got a boost earlier this month when the BLS report showed the unemployment rate dropping below 8 percent for the first time in years, disarming Romney of one of his most potent cudgels versus the president.

But as each Obama and Romney travel the country over the next 18 days looking to secure the 270 electoral votes they need to win the White House, economic optimism might be brighter in some states and still dim in others.

The five states with unemployment rates below 7.8 percent included Iowa (5.2 percent), New Hampshire (5.7 percent), Ohio (7.0 percent), Virginia (5.9 percent) and Wisconsin (7.3 percent).

The four battleground states with unemployment rates above the national average are Colorado (8.0 percent), Florida (8.7 percent), Nevada and North Carolina (9.6 percent).

If, for purposes of speculation, Obama were to win the battleground states with jobless rates beneath 7.8 percent along with all of the other states considered more safely in his column, he would win the Electoral College, 288-250.

But politics, of course, are not that simple. For instance, the number of employees on nonfarm payrolls in Ohio actually decreased between August and September, though the unemployment rate dropped from 7.2 percent to 7 percent over the same period.

But as Obama argues that the economy is moving forward and Romney asserts that the recovery has not been sufficiently robust, it's helpful to remember how those arguments might sound different to voters in differing states.

DOVER, NH -- Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan spoke of the need to encourage "self-sufficiency" amid an uproar over Mitt Romney's recently-surfaced comments about voters' dependency on government.

Brian Snyder / Reuters

Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan answers a question at a campaign stop in Dover, New Hampshire September 18, 2012.

Ryan, campaigning Tuesday in New Hampshire, made an oblique reference to the controversial video publicized by the liberal magazine Mother Jones but no explicit mention of the video or its contents.

Related: Leaked video is the latest hit for Romney

The Wisconsin congressman, instead, launched into a more detailed defense of the social safety net and how he and Romney think it is important to move voters off of those programs, and guard against dependence on the government.

“By promoting more dependency, by not having jobs and economic growth, people miss their potential,” Ryan said inside the McConnell Community Center. “We should not be measuring the progress of our social programs – programs like food stamps – based upon how many people receive them. We should be measuring the progress of our social programs by how many people we transition off of them into lives of self-sufficiency and jobs and upward mobility.”

Recommended: How the Romney video leaked: For Carters, it was personal

The congressman continued: “We believe in a safety net. We believe in a safety net that is there for people who truly cannot help themselves so they can live a life of dignity but we also believe in a safety net that is there for people who are down on their luck so that they can get back on their feet. We don’t want a safety net that encourages more dependency because there is no economic growth behind it because what that ends up doing is it drains people of their will and their incentive to make the most of their lives, to tap their potential, to get on their path to prosperity. That is what unfortunately is what we are seeing in the Obama economy.”

Romney himself is still wrestling with the fallout from the video, having hastily arranged a press conference last night to explain that his words caught on tape were "not elegantly stated." The former Massachusetts governor had been set to spend the day in fundraisers, but added a late afternoon interview on Fox News to his schedule today.

Ryan, at his first of two public events today, stood by his running mate -- making the case for how the GOP ticket would reduce the number of Americans who fall dependent on the government.

Recommended: Conservatives reaction mixed to Romney 47 percent video

“Our goal, our mission is to address the root causes of poverty instead of simply treating the symptoms of poverty.  That's very critical,” Ryan said. “You see, by going after the root causes of poverty and trying to break the cycle of poverty, you need economic growth, you need job creation, you need higher take-home pay.”

WEST LEBANON, NH -- Mitt Romney emerged from debate rehearsals in Vermont today to pick up some pizzas, and to deliver his own analysis of the first night of the Democratic National Convention, which he said could not make the claim Americans were better off after President Obama's first term.

"You've heard no one stand up and say that people are better off than they were four years ago," Romney told reporters traveling with him as he picked up several extra large pies at a pizza joint here. "They really can't say that. They can't say it in all honesty. Particularly with the news that has come out this week."

"That news: The national debt tripping $16 trillion dollars for the first time, and the number of Americans receiving food stamps topping 47 million, up 15 million from when President Obama took office," Romney said.

Recommended: Ryan tries to draw wedge between Clinton, Obama

"The American people are not doing better and this president understands that and I think that's why people are reluctant to even talk about it because they know the American people know better," Romney said, echoing his campaign's latest line of attack against the Obama administration, after several top Obama advisers fumbled the "are we better off" question on last Sunday's talk-show circuit.

The comments to reporters marked Romney's emergence from a day of strenuous debate preparation at the secluded Vermont estate of his former Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey. Romney and a small coterie of aides gathered at the house yesterday morning for a series of mock debates with Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, who is playing the role of President Obama for Romney.

"I'm just glad I won't be debating ... Rob Portman in the final debates," Romney said. "He's good."

Slideshow: Democratic National Convention

Here in the mountains, with limited cell phone and Internet service, Romney said he did not watch Michelle Obama's address to the Democratic convention in Charlotte last night, and that regardless he only had praise for the first lady.

"I didn't see her speech, but I certainly respect the first lady and think she's, she's done a fine job as our first lady," Romney said. "Lovely person and I respect her."

The Justice Department approved New Hampshire's new voter ID, a version that is stricter than existing rules in the Granite State, but not as restrictive as other voters ID laws that the DOJ has rejected.'

Recommended: Democrats see complacency and 'crap' as barriers to repeat Florida win

Under New Hampshire's previous rules, no ID was required as a condition of voting. Ballot clerks checked the names that voters announced at the polls, read back the addresses for verification, and handed over a ballot.

Under the state's new law, voters must present a photo ID -- a driver's license, a voter ID card, a military ID card, a US passport, a student ID card, a photo ID issued by any level of government, and any other photo ID deemed legitimate by supervisors at the polls.

A year from now, the list of acceptable ID's will be narrowed to a driver's license, a non-driver ID card, military ID, or passport.  But voters unable to produce the required identification can sign an affidavit, attesting to their identity, and cast a regular ballot. Beginning next year, any voter doing so will also be photographed.

New Hampshire's list of acceptable IDs as of 2013 is actually more restrictive than the set of IDs Texas would have accepted under that state's voter ID law, which a federal court blocked last week.

So why the difference? It seems New Hampshire's decision to also make it possible for voters without the proper ID to cast a regular ballot, provided they sign an affidavit and have their picture taken, allowed enough leeway.

The Voting Rights Act requires federal approval for election law changes in states with a history of discrimination against minority voters.  Most of the states subject to the law are in the South.  New Hampshire's change required approval because 10 townships in the state are covered by the act, even though the entire state is not.

Winslow Townson / AP

President Barack Obama shakes hands with supporters during a campaign stop in Windham, N.H., Saturday, Aug. 18, 2012. (AP Photo/Winslow Townson)

Jim Cole / AP

President Barack Obama waves as he leaves a campaign stop Saturday, in Rochester, N.H.

ROCHESTER, N.H. -- On the same day Republican vice presidential hopeful Paul Ryan defended his Medicare plan in front of a crowd of senior citizens in Florida, President Barack Obama blasted the GOP ticket for proposing to raise costs for the elderly while slashing taxes for the wealthiest Americans.

"Their plan makes seniors pay more so that they can give another tax cut to rich folks who don't need a tax cut," the president said of Republicans on Saturday in front of a crowd of more than 3,500 supporters here.

Since Ryan was tapped as Mitt Romney's running mate Aug. 10, Medicare has become one of the most contentious issues of the election because of the controversial Ryan budget that proposed dramatic changes to the government program.

Obama blasted Republicans for wanting to turn Medicare into a voucher system.

"Meanwhile Gov. Romney and Congressman Ryan want to give seniors a voucher to buy insurance on their own," the president said, citing an analysis that found the plan could cost seniors $6,400 extra each year.

"How many people think that's a good deal?  That doesn’t strengthen Medicare, it undoes the very guarantee of Medicare," he said.  "But that's the core of the plan written by Congressman Ryan and endorsed by Gov. Romney."

The president's remarks in New Hampshire were largely a response to earlier attacks from the presumptive GOP nominee in his first installment of what will become a weekly podcast.

"I think it’s outrageous that the president took $716 billion out of the Medicare trust fund to pay for Obamacare," Romney said.

And shortly after the podcast was released, Romney quickly got some backup from his newest teammate.  Ryan was joined by his 78-year-old mother at a rally in The Villages, Fla., the world's largest senior citizens community. “Here is what the president won’t tell you about his Medicare plan—about Obamacare," Ryan told the crowd. "The president raids $716 billion from the Medicare program to pay for the Obamacare program.”

And while the president was on the defensive regarding Medicare, he also continued to focus attention on tax rates. Throughout his stops in New Hampshire, he asserted that under Ryan's budget, Romney would pay less than 1 percent in taxes. 

"That's a pretty good deal, just paying 1 precent in taxes -- you're making millions of dollars. Here's the kicker, they expect you to pick up the tab," he told the crowd here.

This week Obama campaign manager Jim Messina sent a letter to his counterpart in the Romney campaign, stating Democrats would drop their calls for the former Massachusetts governor to release more tax returns if he made the past five years public.  Romney campaign manager Matt Rhoades quickly responded, calling the letter another attempt for the Obama campaign to distract from a failed economic record.

The Romney campaign was again quick to respond to the president's attacks Saturday, calling them false and another way for the campaign to avoid talking about the president's record. Romney spokesman Ryan Williams blasted out a response: "Following news that 44 out of 50 states saw their unemployment rates rise, it is not surprising the president is launching yet another false attack."

The Granite State will have more action to look forward to on Monday, when Romney and Ryan will appear together in Manchester for a town hall.

Kevin Lamarque / Reuters

President Barack Obama wipes perspiration from his face as he speaks Saturday in a sweltering gym during a campaign stop at Windham High School in Windham, N.H.

WINDHAM, N.H. – Speaking in a hot, crowded gymnasium here, President Barack Obama kicked off a day of campaigning in this key battleground state where he is running neck-and-neck with his challenger, Mitt Romney.

Mary Altaffer / AP

Mitt Romney, right, shakes hands with his newly announced vice presidential running mate, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, after Ryan addressed the crowd Saturday, Aug. 11, 2012 in Norfolk, Va.

This article is based on reporting by NBC’s Carrie Dann, Garrett Haake, Alex Moe, Jamie Novogrod, and Andrew Rafferty. It was written by Dann.

At 11:11 pm on Friday night, political journalists all over America read the subject line of their latest email, blinked, and asked aloud, "Where's Paul Ryan right now?"

There was exactly one person standing on the Republican congressman’s driveway in Janesville, Wisc.

NBC reporter Alex Moe, who had spent 15 days shadowing the onetime dark horse to be Mitt Romney's vice presidential pick, was preparing to leave Ryan's neighborhood for the night when the email blast thundered into her inbox: "MITT ROMNEY ANNOUNCES VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE IN NORFOLK SATURDAY."

The venue for the announcement, according to the press release: the USS Wisconsin. Ryan's home state.

Until a few days prior, speculation for the VP choice had centered around Ohio's Sen. Rob Portman and former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty. But Portman had just given remarks at the opening ceremony for a charity bicycling tournament,  and NBC reporter Andrew Rafferty had seen him return to his hotel in Columbus less than an hour earlier.

Moments before, Pawlenty had just wrapped up a lengthy fundraiser in Manchester, N.H., and NBC’s Jamie Novogrod was at that moment driving behind the black hatchback whisking the governor and his wife back to the Hilton Garden Inn where they were checked in.

Ryan was the question mark.

So, at 11:15 pm, Moe marched up to the side door of Ryan's Wisconsin home -- where the lights hadn't yet been turned off for the night -- and gave a good hard knock.  And then another one.

No answer.

When Pawlenty got the call he wouldn’t be the pick
Three days earlier, Tim Pawlenty woke up to a beautiful vista, and the memory of some disappointing news from the night before.

In Aspen, Colo., for a closed-door conference of national security luminaries, Pawlenty had spent the better part of a nervous week in the shadow of the Maroon Bells peaks, enduring radio silence from Boston.

It was Monday night when he got the call from Mitt Romney and learned that, for the second time in four years, he'd been passed over for the second-in-command job. When NBC reporter Carrie Dann greeted him on the Aspen Institute campus the following morning, he betrayed no disappointment, but he could no longer afford to be very forthcoming about the details of his schedule during the upcoming week.

Pawlenty's hurried manner on the way into breakfast left the reporter's intuition tingling over his halting answers to questions that had previously been met with teasing and tolerance. "Just... my schedule hasn't changed," he told her.

It hadn't. Which meant that he'd need a poker face to field questions from Dann and other reporters for another grueling four days.

All seemed normal in Norfolk
The story was classic Stu Stevens: too unbelievable to be anything but true.

Top Romney strategist Stuart Stevens was telling reporters in the Norfolk Marriott bar a tale about becoming seriously ill while working in Albania and subsequently having to be airlifted to a hospital in Zurich for treatment. By 11:00 pm Friday night, the press corps had long given up on trying to bait Stevens into giving something away about the vice presidential selection process, and war stories abounded instead. The mood was too casual, it seemed, for anything out of the ordinary to be going on.

After Stevens wrapped up the tale, NBC reporter Garrett Haake decided to call it a night early, ready to rest up for the launch of Romney's bus tour the following day. Teeth brushed, he flipped through his emails one last time before bed.

Then he saw the campaign’s advisory for its vice presidential selection.

An hour later, he would be standing on a pier in the middle of the night, staring in disbelief at the waves below.

Portman wouldn’t be the guy, either
Rob Portman missed the call.

The Ohio senator was giving remarks at Friday night's opening ceremonies for  Pelotonia, a charity bike ride to raise money for cancer research, when the phone rang around 7:30 pm. Mitt Romney was on the line, but Portman couldn't pick up.

Two hours later, Rafferty spotted Portman in the lobby of the Columbus Hyatt, clad in a bright red Ohio State Buckeyes polo.  By then, Portman had spoken with the GOP nominee, and he knew that he would be returning to Capitol Hill instead of the White House after all.

When the 11:00 pm announcement came that Romney would name his running mate the following day, it was clear to Rafferty that Portman couldn't be the guy. Was the charity bike tour an elaborate ruse? Was the senator being whisked to a secret location in an SUV, ushered thru hidden loading docks under the dark of night? 

It couldn't be. But he waited in the lobby until 4:00 am, just to make sure the Ohio pol didn't pull the fast one of a lifetime.

Chasing (and then losing) Pawlenty
Feeling just a few miles per hour short of a car chase, NBC's Jamie Novogrod was following a black Volvo carrying Tim Pawlenty and his wife Mary back to Manchester. The couple had attended two fundraisers on Romney's behalf that Friday evening, and reporters had waited in torrential rain to spot the couple's comings and goings.  The friend driving the former Minnesota governor had a New Englander's lead foot, and the reporter following at a safe distance strained to keep sight of the car.

Pawlenty's star had seemed to be dimming in recent days. So when Jamie got the call from a colleague that the pick was set to be announced the following morning, it seemed obvious that the governor couldn't possibly be “the guy” -- after all, he had a full slate of New Hampshire events the following day, with no hint of an abrupt departure for Norfolk.

At the Manchester exit off the highway, his view of the Volvo obstructed in the wet weather, Novogrod spotted too late the car's tail lights disappearing into the night several hundred yards down the road. 

"I've lost him," Novogrod told Dann, who was awaiting Pawlenty at his hotel. "You're on your own."

Blackberry down
On the air and on the web, NBC's reporting unfolded with few hiccups.

But behind the scenes, there was some sprinting that would have impressed the U.S. Olympic team, and at least one electronic casualty.

In Norfolk, Haake rushed down to the site of the USS Wisconsin, the site of the following morning's event that just so happened to bear the name of Ryan's home state.

Sockless and juggling camera equipment, he  heard the request over his cell phone's speakerphone to set up a liveshot of the event site.

Thud.

He dropped his blackberry, speaker blaring, to the wooden pier where it bounced once, twice, three times, over the edge into the bay.

Splash. It was gone.

By then, though, Haake already had some peace of mind. NBC had confirmed Ryan was the pick.

The pieces fall into place
At 12:01 am Saturday morning, after intense phone collaboration between reporters in the field, top correspondents, and seasoned producers, NBC News reported three Romney sources indicating that Ryan had been selected for the VP slot.

Throughout the network's team, the pieces had fallen into place.

Just after midnight, when he returned to his hotel, Pawlenty confirmed to Dann and other reporters waiting for him there that he wouldn't be traveling to Norfolk the following day. He wouldn't say who the pick was, but it was clear there was no chance he was the one. "I didn't enter this thinking I was going to be the vice presidential candidate," he said. "So I'm not disappointed."

Portman was safely in his hotel room. Shrugging a phone to each shoulder -- one for a network conference call and one for GOP sources -- NBC's reporters ruled out other also-rans: Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, and others.

Where was Ryan?
None of them was "the guy."  But then ... where WAS "the guy?"

Moe, now accompanied by an NBC satellite truck and crew, was still at the Wisconsin congressman's house. She'd spoken to Ryan earlier that day and accompanied him home from a memorial service for victims of the Sikh temple shooting in his district. Arriving home at around 2:00 pm ET, Ryan had sheepishly admitted that he'd forgotten his keys and trekked into the backyard to dig around for a spare.

That was the last time anyone in the press saw the Wisconsin congressman until he appeared in Norfolk as a vice presidential nominee.

Because after a week of smoke and mirrors to keep secret the most-sought-after answer in American politics, he did just about the simplest thing in the world.

Paul Ryan walked casually into his backyard -- and kept walking. Out of reporters' sight, navigating through a familiar forest, he emerged to a car waiting to take him to the airport.

And then to Norfolk.