Panel: Tight Race to the end

today... and put it on layaway now so you have more time to pay. walmart.

>>> okay, guys, it's 120 hours till election day . the candidates are back on the campaign trail. this has been one of the more surreal endings of a campaign trail. the candidates are hitting four of the battleground states just today. let's bring in robert traynham and michael fieldman michael feldman . mike, you were involved in the 2000 , very close to al gore , the 2000 race. when you look at this final week, do you have flashbacks to 2000 ? do you think this is going to be as close to 2000 and 2004 ? is that the feel you get from this?

>> yes, the posttraumatic stress d disorder is in full swing for my panel. the race has been essentially even since we knew who the romneys were and it hasn't changed. there have been some flexes and movements in the numbers but we go into electoral advantage there and demographic advantage in some ways but the race is close.

>> you know, it's funny. we're all -- there's sort of two schools of thoughts here. you have the data folks and you have the gut folks and you say, this feels like it could break and if it breaks it breaks in one direction. but we haven't had a break since 1980 .

>> right.

>> it's sort of a reminder, we thought, it could break and if it breaks, kerry wins. obama was polling the same way the whole time. in 2000 there was this assumption that it was going to break for bush and it never did.

>> for those of us who work long hours, sometimes it's hard to remember, it's exciting. it's an exciting time, right? it could go either way . i think what you're seeing is part of the reason that it's not. we always talk about a break and then don't end up seeing onenessly. it's all about turnout now. it's all about getting voters to the polls. so who has momentum and who doesn't, it's a momentum game.

>> number two, the break for gore and it was barely -- and the real break happened in democratic senate races.

>> it's interesting, going back to 1984 , very quickly, the difference in that break and obviously we were still in diapers back then --

>> i was out of diapers. maybe i shouldn't have been.

>> veg began appeared to have the confidence and appeared to be the incumbent.

>> i've had romney people admit to me they have to have some momentum. they believe it's a point in turnout. that's why they are really upset about the state polls.

>> you saw that nice little --

>> they were moving.

>> he a it felt like every day they were moving.

>> it puts everything in stasis. a little shaky now that the phones are down and power is down in some areas. i think we're flying blind . the polls are out.

>> there's nothing wrong with that.

>> we're flying live without polls.

>> you're not going through withdrawal?

>> not at all.

>> mike feldman , haley barbour is one that believes that sandy could be the bump that the president needed to get back on the right side of this election.

>> well, look, that sounds like a little pre-emptive spinning of the outcome from governor barbour. i don't know. nobody is smart enough to know how the storm is going to play out politically. it has dominated coverage in the last few days in a critical time of an ee electric of the i was watching last night and the first 15 minutes of the evening newscast was about the storm, as it should be, with president obama and chris christie demonstrating 7:15, 7:20. that was governor romney 's portion of the broadcast. i think that's emblematic of how the country is absorbing their news. it pulls the politics down in the public conscious.

>> the last four days would have simply been, governor romney brings his message of change. president obama defends his first term agenda. that didn't happen.

>> instead, what you're seeing is power of incumbency on display. obama's making the argument to keep the status quo simply by doing his job, whether or not that filters down into the states, you know, we'll see on tuesday.

>> i'm going to make everybody do the battleground math when we come back. when was