here's your stories making headlines this hour. >> that guy is the closest thing to superman that we got. felix bumgarner jumped from earth. he broke the sound barrier. nobody has ever ridden a balloon 24 miles above the eart he parachuted down safely.

lots of sky diving records smashed today. we'll show you a whole lot more of the jump ahead this hour. breaking the sound barrier? no big deal for this man in 1947. 65 years ago today. retired ooir force colonel chuck yeager did something very appropriate. he broke testify sound barrier again. riding in the back seat of an f-15 fighter jet. but wait, there's more. i'm going to be talking to him about it right here general live. general chuck yeager joins me. the meningitis outbreak continues to spread. these two strains of fungus are part of the outbreak that has infected six more people in the last 24 hours. overall 205 cases have been confirmed in 14 states. 15 people have died and the victims received tainted steroid injections commonly given to relieve intense neck and back pain. ahead we're talking to a family grieving. the grandfather is one of those who has died during this

outbreak. the state's work is well underway for tuesday's night presidential debatet hofstra university. president obama and mitt romney will square off in a town hall style format. candy crowly is the moderator and we'll have more on debate preparations straight ahead. america has lost a giant. pennsylvania senator arrest when specter died after a long battle with cancer, elected in 1980 and recommended pennsylvania for 30 years, longer than anyone in the state's history. he was 82 years old. i had this hour, a side of him you've never seen before. a stand-up comedian. >> i wanted teenage activists who stood up to the taliban and inspired a huge rally today. tens of thousands of people gathered to support 14-year-old. he had blogged about the rite of girls to get an education. the taliban members tried to assassinate her on tuesday and she's in critical but stable condition. syria's army retook control of a

historic mosque after fierce clashes with rebel forces. activists say the mosque now has extensive damage of the army set fire to it. parts of the mosque date back from the 12th century. meanwhile, opposition forces say another 220 people have been killed across syria. the space shuttle "endeavor." the endeavor finally arrive at the california science center after crawling 12 miles over l.a. for three days. the 23 days until the election and the presidential candidates are hard to find. we barely got a glimpse of them today at president obama or mitt romney. getting ready for tuesday night's presidential debate. cnn it will cal director mark preston is on site at new york's

hofstra university and my question for him, does president obama have some work to do still for tuesday? >> he does. he has some game-changing to do. he had a very lackluster debate two weeks ago here on tuesday night. he's advisers are telling us that he's going to come with a different game plan. let's listen to what robert gibbs said on "state of the union" this morning. >> he knew when he walked off the stage and he also knew as he was watching the tape of that debate, that he's got to be more energetic. i think you'll see somebody who'very passionate about the choice that our country faces. and putting that choice in front of voters. >> and on the same show this morning on "state of the union" ed gillespie said it does come down to a choice for which direction this country will go into. let's hear what ed gillespie had to say. >> the president can change his style. he can change his tactics but he can't change his record and he can't change his policies and that's what this election is about. >> we have a few weeks until

election day. the race is tight. not only nationally but in the key battleground states. mitt romney has made up quite a bit of ground since his first debate. a lot of people are waiting to see what happens on the stage behind me on tuesday night. >> mark, thank you. candy crowly is the host of cnn "state of the union" and she'll be the moderator of tuesday night's presidential debate. a true honor for a deserving journalist and she has some interesting thanks to say about the taun haul format and how she's preparing for the debate. >> it's interesting. i'm not sure if having an interviewed both of them changes how i would approach either of them. i think it's more that i've interviewed both of them, i've interviewed presidents. i've interviewed candidates and neither one of them scare me in that sense. it is that we are, of course, having this other element of the town hall. so the mixture of all of that

and trying to keep that under control and on target and letting the people's wish from a town hall meeting come through, that's the sort of thing that keeps me awake at night. it's not these two guys. i am hoping that 25 years that i've covered politics. has prepared me and given me the base for this. however, from the minute i knew that i was going to do this, things have become more embedded in my memory than -- day-to-day when you're doing a story you read something and you're like, that's interesting and you kind of move on to the next thing. but with this, you want to make sure that you're in on the campaign dialogue. you're in on the policy debate. that you know when they move. because campaigns don't move sort of minute by minute. they move sort of incrementally over the months and you have to kind of watch it. and so i'm much more, i think,

tuned in. >> presidential contenders square off on tuesday night and we'll begin at 7:00 eastern on cnn. a grandfather in pain goes to the doctor, given a steroid injection and he's dead, likely because of this, fun gal meningitis. we have an exclusive with a heart-broken family, that's next. falling to earth and landing in history. a record-setting sky dive from 24 miles above ground. the pictures are incredible to see! ♪ ♪ introducing a stunning work of technology. ♪ introducing the entirely new lexus es. and the first ever es hybrid. this is the pursuit of perfection. ♪ ...mom's smartphone...

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a kentucky grandfather, got a steroid injection to relieve pain and now he's dead. he walked three miles a day, taught sunday school and worked full time as a judge. lovelace is one of saw people who have died in an outbreak of fun gal meningitis. elizabeth cohen talks with his heart broken family. >> lord give us the strength to go forward. >> reporter: something is missing in this house. five generations gather in mourning. >> i lost all i've got. >> eddie lovelace, husband, father, grandfather, great grand father, nday schoolteacher at his church and a circuit court judge in albany, kentucky, dead, a suspected kay of fungal meningit

meningitis. [ sobbing ] he was the center of our universe. as a family. >> judge eddie lovelace was a healthy 78-year-old man, worked full time, walked three miles a day and when in the middle of september he started feeling dizzy and slurring his speech. >> he didn't get to finish his sunday school lesson and that individual is a longtime member of his sunday school and he said he had never witnessed that happen before. >> he was in the kitchen and he said, my legs don't work right. he said, there's something wrong with my legs. >> lovelace had had a stroke. the vanderbilt said this was one of the drankest strokes they had ever seen. >> they couldn't give me any explanation. they told me that a stroke that occurred in this area of the brain was usually seen by prolonged uncontrolled hypertension, which he did not have. >> lovelace died five days after being admitted to the hospital.

>> he was a nightmare. >> reporter: later, the doctors put it together. lovelooirs has been in a car accident and received three injections with steroids for back and neck pain. the medicine was likely made by the new england come pounding center. after his death, these injections were recalled because of fungal contamination which can cause strokes. now all his family can do is remember the devoted public servant. the grandfather who let his granddaughters play with barbies behind the bench when they were little. >> what kind of man was your dad? >> he was the most intelligent man i met. his memory was uncanny. if you needed advice, irregardless of what the subject was, you could always take his and trust it. >> reporter: his family looks back and asks why. >> the decisions to save money. the decisions not to regulate

drugs. decisions not to oversee these facilities. those decisions affect lives every dand if different decisions had been made at certain points along the way, my father would be here today. >> your father just went in for really, a very routine procedure. >> he did. and he went there for pain relief. he went therto get help. >> and he got -- >> death. >> elizabeth cohen. cnn, albany, kentucky. >> thanks, elizabeth. arrest electric speciflen s. story in one of his advisers straight ahead. so, as we go into this next phase, you know, a big part of it for us is that there isn't anything on the schedule.

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president obama and mitt romney, round two. why will this one be any different than the first one? i talked about tuesday's night big event with will cain and they think the town hall format will be a better venue for

president obama and i asked him why. >> because he'll be able to have the audience there to gauge. he can understand more about the energy level that he has and he'll be able to understand the way he's answering questions have an more immediate impact on the audience and, perhaps, the nation. >> he's getting vibe off of the audience, you agree with that? >> absolutely. >> i agree but for a different reason. i was reading a review of the 2008 town hall debate that barack obama had with senator john mccain at the time. and here are the words they used to describe it. he was dispassionate. he kind of amabled when he chose his words. sounds familiar. i don't know how high his bar on ratcheting up his energy is. i'll say i agree, the town hall format lowers the bar. that confrop terrible aspect becomes more sensitive. people feel that. i don't think they like head-to-head as much it's more about connecting. >> that was tom brokaw's debate in 2008.

he talked about doing a town-hall debate on "meet the press" and he said it was very tough. i'm paraphrasing. maycon do lenses to candy because it's a tough debate to do. let's talk about joe biden for a minute. let's go back to the debate. >> we knew that "saturday night live" would not -- >> four years ago, president obama made a promise. >> [ laughter ] >> that he would bring down unemployment below 6%. >> this guy -- i mean -- >> that's funny. and they were dead on. i have to say, do you think this will be old news by tuesday, lz? >> well, it's old news now. once you've been sn lech nchlsn

same and sarah palin and tina fey, i still watch the clips. >> in terms of having a more immediate impact and the way people view the debate and the way people view joe biden but not the debates or the future debates. >> i totally disagree. i know you didn't want to ask me this don, but you said it. we ussed to view debates through the prism of when they happened, our impressions and then the spin room afterwards and now we have the forever in the internet where you think it's impacted and you're kidding yourself if you don't think people view this as parody and they go with this. >> good or bad, guess who people are talking about? they're talking about joe biden. and they're people that thought he was a caricature of himself but i think that most people kind of think the way -- he offered the best defense of joe biden that i've heard. i want you to listen. >> the fact of the matter is, he

dominated him. people can talk about joe biden but what i think people like about him is he's authentic. the one thing about joe biden is you believe what he was telling you. the only thing we really know about mitt romney is it's unl changing is that he wants to be president of the united states of america. >> when the criticism of this guy, when you say he's rude i don't understand that. >> really? >> he didn't cuss, talk about their mother, that's what people do when they're having a conversation, whether it's somebody on the right or the left. mitt romney was very aggressive in the presidential debate and some pooirm were saying that they were bordering on rude. but guess what? he won the debate. you may think joe biden is rude but that's part of it when you're in a debate. >> you drew a corollary to how people are in life.

that's not necessarily a net positive. but i'll say this. to the -- "meet the press" joe biden did dominate but he motivated both bases. the left and the right. the question is, how are the mannerisms and how that rudeness might play off of independence. and i'll say one more thing we might be confused about the word "authentic." i believe should he walk up right here right now i'll see the guy i saw in the debate but that doesn't mean unimpeachable. authentic and truthful are not interchangeable. when he carried it on to say that they believe what joe biden says, i'm not sure that's a connection. they believe that he's that guy. that doesn't mean they believe everythi he said. >> thanks to will and lz. the man that represented the state of pennsylvania and u.s. senate for 30 years has died. arlen specter had overcome several serious illnesses over the past 20 years but lost his battle with nonhodgkin's lymphoma today at his home in

philadelphia. he was 82 years old. earlier, i spoke with someone who worked closely with him for many years. >> well, he's somebody who was incred bli principled and one of the smartest people in terms of knowing constitutional law. couple anecdotes really quick. he never, in the entire time i worked with him and before and after that, i've never heard of him reading a speech on the senate floor. he always spoke from just a few notes, extemperature rahe did t when he was a chairman. normally they have a big opening statement but it was off the and it was with a lot of preparation. he didn't want to be known as somebody who was scripted and so he was very proud of the fact that he worked on his own statements. f. and the other anecdote, a lot of people don't know he was behind closed doored and in public, one of the funniest people you'll ever come across. >> he was known for being a

fighter but he did have a softer side in the form of stand-up comedy. later in the hour, a different side of a long-time senator. i'm probably telling you something you already know. zombies are everywhere and i'll talk to the guy you can blame this all on. that's next. >> you don't have to be in froe front of a television to watch cnn, go to cnn.com/tv.

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zombies have taken over our world and the walking dead has returned for the third season and if you follow ni twitter feed you know i'm obsessed. house democratic leader nancy pelosi's republican can challenger john dennis released this ad. that's pelosi with blood-coated

zombie. >> and the roadside, warning, zombies ahead. i talked about this with max brooks, son of actor and director mel brooks. about our fascination with zombies and the people that study them. >> zombies are big. they're a megaproblem. it's not like one wear wolf and it's one massive global problem after another. that's sort of on everybody's brain right now. >> how did the 1968 film, "night of the living dead" resurrect the interest in zombies? >> that changed everything. this did for what george lucas did for space movies. this yourselfed to be like the haitian voodoo zombie. but george romero made a global,

plague, flesh-eating pandemic. >> and the cdc has jumped on board and warned people against the zombie apocalypapocalypse. they say it tongue in cheek but still -- whooi do this? >> it gets kids to prepare for natural disasters without realizing it. i get asked all the time, do you have a zombie preparedness kit and i say, yeah? it's the same one i've had in southern california forever. it teaches kids to be prepared for anything. >> i've told you in the commercial break that i went to the set of the "the walking dead." they wouldn't make me a zombie and i don't think you'll make me a zombie but i think the book is being made with brad pitt?

>> including the u.s. naval war college. my question is, whooi do college students need to be aware of zombies? >> well, i think, because zombies are a global problem, i think in a way, it's a great way of the exploring globalization which i think is kind of a dirty word in a isolationist country like the united states. for the first time you have college students talking about global problems in an exciting way. it's not sort of boring economics or global trade. it's talking about zombies. so it's a great way of studying all these global problems in entertaining, fun way. >> yeah. can you help me out? >> don, i went to the set of "world war z" and i couldn't even get made up. so good luck to us both. >> there's a facebook page that says, "don lemon wants to be in there." it's a petition. i'm sending it to the walking dead folks. and another funny question.

why do zombies move so slow? are there fast zombies that can actually catch you? >> there's been a fast zombie craze since the movie "28 days later." but i like the slow zombies because it gives me time to think about how many ways i can die. i'm a in your ro tick guy so i let that go when i'm being chased by 1,000 zombies. >> so give us tips for surviving zombies. i know you have some. >> well, the main one is just take a deep breath and think and don't panic. your brain is your greatest weapon. you can think of creating a weapon and you can't do any of that if you're completely submerged in panic. >> max brooks, thank you so much. talk about a leap of faith. a jump from 24 miles. it's amazing and it takes your breath away. we've got it for you next.

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half past the hour right now. let's take a look at your headline. a meningitis outbreak continues to spread. the cbc said these two strains of fungus and victims receive tainted steroid injections commonly given to relieve intense neck and back pain. they're working on the stage for tuesday night's presidential

debate at hofstra university. this time it is a town hall style formal, president obama's aides say he'll be ready and energied and mitt romney's people say the president can change his approach but he can't change his record. america as lost one of the giants of the u.s. senate. pennsylvania senator arrest when specter died today after a long battle with cancer. he represented pennsylvania in the senate for 30 years. he was, quote, fiercely independent, never putting ideology ahead of the people he was chosen to. he was 82 years old. and a sign of the former senator you may not have seen before. stand-up comedian. >> the space shutting endeavor, once soared 123 million miles through space. today crowds chooered as it's got to its retirement home in los angeles. ter a 12-mile trip across l.a. over three days.

if you have a fear of heights, you should grab ahold of something because a dedicated daredevil finally achieved an amazing feat today. he zoomed faster than the speed of sound and he wasn't in an airplane. that wasn't his only milestone achievement. here's cnn's brian todd with the story. >> reporter: with the heart-pounding hop into the stratosphere, felix baumgartner mooiks history jumping from 128,000 feet above earth, 24 miles up, higher than anyone before him. during free fall he spun for a few harrowing moments but stabilized quickly. >> it spun me around everywhere and i was trying to find out how to stop this. i put an arm out it didn't work. you're always late because of the speed. when you travel at that speed and with the suit it's pressurized, you don't feel the air. >> in the first seconds he broke another record. no one had ever gone outside the sound barrier outside a vehicle and he reached a top speed of

more than 700 miles an hour, well past the speed of sound. free fall lasted 4:19, already his parachute opened, that's short of the record for the longest free fall in history. after he safe live touched down, the man known as "fearless felix" was hailed add an aerospace pioneer. >> it's hard to realize what happened because there's still so many emotions. i had tears in my yoois as i was coming back a couple of times because you thought about that moment so many times. how it would feel and how it would look like and this is the way -- it's way bigger than i anticipated. >> this mission had been five years in the planning and in bum gart her's ear. he had jumped from 102,000 feet in 1960. i interviewed fee lick bfix bum and him earlier this year. >> i'm delighted that he's going

to do it and he'll do a great job. >> mission leaders and space officials hope this jump will show them if astronauts, space tourists or high-altitude pilots survive for extended period outside a vehicle if there's a malfunction. if held up as expected, bumgarner's high-pressure suit could be the next generation. >> what will felix baumgartner do next? he says he now wants to be a helicopter rescue pilot. it might be a bit of a letdown. >> brian, felix baumgartner may have set a few new aviation records but the grandaddy of all aviation record-breakser made some news today. major general chuck yeager broke the sound barrier again at 89 years old. that's quite a feat. i'm going to talk with him right here, live, next. ♪

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today in the skies over las vegas, chuck yeager did it again riding back seat in an air force fighting jet. general jagr is now 89 years old and we're privileged to speak with him from his home in lfgs. general jagr, happy anniversary on your hockey achievement. were you at the controls today when you broke the sound barrier again? general yjagr is not there we'l be back after this break. here, watch this. she nails almost every move. our old camera could never do this. she's so good at ballet. i think she's the best in the class. where is she by the way? in time out. oh. and that one! [ male announcer ] take a photo straight from video and never miss a moment. the htc one x from at&t now $99.99. at&t. rethink possible.

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good news, we reestablished contact with general chuck yeager. we'll bring it to you shortly in the meantime a few stories. p. a young jewish plan got a letter saying he flungsed out of dental school. he had always been a good student. emory university forced him out because he's just wish. it took 60 years to get an apology for the antisemitism and i talked with dr. harry brickman earlier tonight and began by playing a clip from his documentary. >> we got that dreaded letter. and more likely than not, our parents would say, what have you done to me? when you began to try to explain what happened, nobody believed you. they just didn't it. oh, that's impossible.

>> emory? you know -- >> my goodness, dr. brickman joins us now. discrimination didn't stop him. he graduated with honors from the university of tennessee dental school and had a very successful career. thank you very much. you went back and you interviewed fellow students decades after the discrimination. what motivated you to do that. >> i had retired two years before. the year was 2006. and we attended a conference at emory university where they were celebrating 30 years since the first year of judaic studies. since then they've had many more jewish faculty mens and so on. >> when i introduced you, you said when you got the letter you knew you hadn't failed but you said you were not so sure? >> no, i don't think. not just me.

this is the same story everybody tells. you got a letter when you got home. it says either you could come back and repeat or you're out. in my case they told me i couldn't return and there were four jewish boys in my class and in two years all of us were gone. >> did you suspect something or did you just thought you didn't make the grade? >> no, i didn't. i thought i was doing okay. and no one had ever called me into an office. the dean never called me in or the instructors took me to the side. i carved all my teeth. you should have seen some of the things. they break your teeth and throw them out the window. i really did have a rough time. it was a shock. but when i got home, the worse thing was having to tell my parents. >> emory apologized wednesday to you and other jewish students it discriminated against decades ago. listen to the apology. >> i am sorry. we are sorry. >> how do you feel about it? >> i feel great.

emory has been incredible. they'll really have. i showed -- i spent a listening time, maybe four years, getting all my documentation. i am an apple person so i learn how to make movies, i-movies in my lessons and i came up with a movie and i took it to emory and they were shocked, they'll really were and they said, this is not emory. i said, i know, but it was. they said, we have to do something about this. >> do you have advice for anyone who feels discriminated against? as i was telling you in the commercial break there was a guest on earlier and he had kids with him and i said, my perspectives tell me, that's just the way it was, and i say, i don't ups. i wonder what things we'll be saying to younger people about -- that's just the way it was. what were you guys think something what advice do you have for people -- >> things are different now. they're very different. students speak up. we couldn't speak up. there was no way. my father tried to get the dean to, you know, revisit this and

he wouldn't even see him. others were treated very bad. it was a one-sided thing. you didn't have any option to do that. nowadays, kids have advisers and they don't take anything. >> yeah. you said that they've been great and you feel welcome on the campus now. >> i've been there for many years. i live near emory. i never let them define me. even then, i just got up and my dad took me over to tennessee. i had been accepted there to dental school and i just happened to choose emory because i had gone undergraduate there and they treated me great at emory before. so i went over there and the dean put his hand on my shoulder and he said, boy you're going to do all right. he had my grades from before i was accepted and i showed him mytion and i did great. >> it happens and then you move on an you don't let it define you. that's the secret. >> thank you. >> really appreciate it.

>> it was on this date, october 14th, 1947, that chuck yeager flew an experimental airplane so fast it broke the sound barrier. brigadier general chuck yeager is at his home in las vegas. let's home the second time is a charm this general yeager happy anniversary on your historic achievement, how do you feel. >> fine, thank you very much. >> it's an honor to have you on. we're glad we can hear you. you were in the back seat. there were controls were you at the controls? >> yeah. it's not my airplane. it belonged to the air 40s base and i was lucky that they would give me one. i had an instructor pilot in the front seat. i fly from the front seat but it's not my airplane. >> 89 years old! that's so cool that you're doing that. in 65 years later, did today's special flight feel any different than the thousands of hours you've flown before? >> yeah.

it was fun. to me because what i did, i took -- i went down to edwards which was about 170 miles away and made a sonic boom and went across edwards at 1.3 moch number and that laid down a good sonic boom on edward and then i came by and made a low pass over the runway and flew back to dulles and landed. and i really appreciated the air force giving me a brand new f-15 to fly. >> do you get a kick out of that sonic boom? creating that sonic boom every time? >> yeah. you can control it by moch numbers. like like the f-15 today. we had to keep it at about 1.4 and that lays down a pretty good boom. if you want to go up to moch two, you start breaking glasses and knocking in roofs.

>> talk to me a little bit more about flying and being at the controls. this is the more modern plane than last time. how do you compare flying this modern fighter jet to the gr glamorous glynnis that you flew. >> it burned liquid and oxygen and alcohol and it had to be dropped from a b-29 at 25,000 feet and it was a research airplane. it -- you couldn't use it for combat or something like that. what it did, it showed us that if we're going to operate beyond the speed of sound we have to have a flying tail on the airplane. the horizontal stabilizer. and that was -- we -- that's the only way we can control the airplane to mock moch one with the flying tail and it took the british and the french and the soviet union five years to find out that little trick and it gave us quite a jump on the rest

of the world. >> i bet you've been showing those young bucks something out there. thank you, sir. congratulations to you. we're so proud of you. 89 years old and still at it. we appreciate it and tell your wife we said hello. >> hello back. thank you. >> we had so much trouble getting you. >> that's all right. it's television and we're honored to have you back on. >> where are you from, england or australia. >> i'm from here. >> when you do it again. another 65 ars, make sure you come back on, all right? sure. >> take care, guys. we'll be right back. every move i make is a statement... ♪ ...that inspires me to make my mark. ♪ [ male announcer ] the all-new lexus es 350.

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>> he was known for his sharp legal mind but did you know arrest when specter wanted to do stand-up? >> he was a senator for 30 years. a round of applause for senator arlen specter, everybody. >> this is not the arlen specter america came to know. >> i've been in the senate for 30 years practicing comedy. >> it was the man arlen specter was becoming. >> let's go in your office. >> this is a comedy session. we're just going to develop some material here. >> after losing his treasured seat in the senate, arlen specter at the a of 80, was aiming to become a stand-up comic. >> so, now you're embarking on this stand-up comedy career. >> earlier this year spector and i spent team together as he

prepared for his next performance. >> arlen specter's funny? what do you say to those people? >> i say, there's something funny in almost everything. >> spector really does see something funny in everything. our dr. sanjay gupta got a taste of it four years ago when spector was battling cancer for the second time. >> you probably are going to lose more of your hair. >> i'm going to lose all of my hair. i'm going to bald as a billiard ball. >> ector liked to quote churchhill to describe his approach to life. never give in. >> how you feeling senator? >> not so hot. >> what's plugging you today? >> overhead headache. i was up and at 4:00. couldn't sleep. got my squash partners out until 5:30. played a little squash. >> anyone who can play squash

during a headache cannot be dismissed when he says he wants to do standup. >> we're going to go over some of the material that you're planning to use on monday night at carolina lines, correct? >> things are a possibility. >> when i was recuperating from hodgkin's, the doctors told me to spend some time in a hot tub. so i was in this hot tub, lucks jury updating, and in comes ted kennedy. 283 pounds. in his finest. his birthday suit. and like a walrus, he plops into the hot tub and, you know the old story about rising tidal lifts old boots, my head hit the ceiling. newt gingrich. i've known newt a long time. i've known him so long, i knew him when he was skinny.

i've known newt so long i knew his first wife. strom thurmon said, in his deep south carolinian accent, we have sex almost every night, we almost have sex on monday, we almost have tex on tuesday -- i don't know if this is fit for cnn. >> it reminds me of a comment at moynihan at about malcolm wallop. >> malcolm wallop was a center from wyoming. >> by the way, in the future when i say, remind me, that means i don't have a clue, just so you know. >> oh. i thought you knew everything and had made that comment to inform the audience who malcolm wall republican was joe biden. you know how much it costs to buy a seat in the united states senate, $30 million. so when you pay $30 million for

a seat, you like to sit in it. >> spector, the former prosecutor, studied his comedy performances with a critical aye, taking careful notes on which punch lines worked, and which fell flat. >> clearly, you're clearly tuned in to the audience because you were pausing. >> there's a cadence to it and the audience get into the cadence to it. when you pause they laugh. the last time i pause they laugh again. sometimes they laugh automatically. >> in the end, between his long senate career and his short but determined effort at stand-up comedy, and his multiple battles with life-threatening ill innocence arlen specter demonstrated a few things about power. the power of sitting down. the power of standing up. and the power of never giving in. michael shoulder, cnn. >> arlen specter died today after a long battle with cancer