and yes, we will use whatever excuse however flimsy to work that split screen into our show. as for those crazy carp they remain a big problem even when they're not knocking over reporters. we'd much rather see them out of important water ways and living on the "riduculist." . president obama and mitt romney in rah swing state scramble. this morning one of the states is leaning red. another is looking blue. hurricane sandy may be a halloween nightmare. the storm slams cuba and the northeast could be next. you'll want to pay attention to this. a stunning feat for a giants slugger. pablo sandoval does something few others have done on the world series stage. go giants. good morning. welcome to "early start."

i'm zoraida sambolin. >> i'm john berman. eight battleground states and 12 days left to turn them red or blue. both men crisscrossing the country, targeting the toss-up states. ohio may be the most pivotal. in a new poll from "time" magazine, the president is ahead by five points in the buckeye state. early voting is trending in his favor. the romney camp has something to crow about as well. cnn is shifting the state of north carolina from a true toss-up to leaning romney. both candidates are driving home their message to cheering crowds yesterday. >> there's no more serious issue in the presidential campaign than who can you trust. trust matters. who is going to look out for you. >> those debates have propelled our campaign forward in a major way. attacking me is not an agenda

for the future, and america wants a bright and prosperous course ahead. there was another big development overnight. the president want on "the tonight show" last night and jumped hard into the battle over abortion and for women voters. peter hamby joins us live from washington. this has to do with the comments made by indiana senate candidate rich marred mourdock who suggested pregnancy from rape is something god intended. >> democrats are seizing on those comments. republicans saying his words are being twisted. mourdock saying i believe if a woman is pregnant because of rape, it's a gift from god. well, obama, like you said, didn't wade into this. he jumped in hard. this is what he said about it when he was asked on leno last night. >> let me make a very simple proposition. rape is rape. it is a crime. the second thing this

underscores though, is, this is exactly why you don't want a bunch of politicians, mostly male, making decisions about women's health care. >> what le politicians coupled he be referring to? he's making an attempt to point out that mitt romney's running mate paul ryan actually opposes abortion in cases of rape and incest. he's voted that way in the house. this is an attempt again by the president to sort of appeal to women voters. that gender gap has kept him afloat, although it's shrunk a lot in recent weeks. this is a good thing for the obama campaign. they want this in the headlines. one other quick point on this, on anderson cooper last night, john mccain who is campaigning in florida today said mourdock should come out and apologize for these comments. mitt romney has not actually said that. the chance for this staying in the news another day is pretty

good. >> john mccain actually complicates things for mitt romney and richard mourdock on those comments. president obama also waded into this donald trump issue, with his big $5 million donation if the president releases his college record. >> renault asks the president what's trump's beef with you? what does obama have to say? >> this dates back to when we were growing up together in kenya. >> i got to give you that one. >> we had constant run-ins on the soccer field. he wasn't very good and resented it. >> john, this is what of those moments you remember why president obama's likability ratings are higher than mitt

romney's. obama is very good in these environments cracking jokes, being a little self deprecating. >> peter, you have a great piece up on cnn.com. i recommend it to everyone in the audience, talking about the swing states. right now we say there are about eight toss-ups. which are the most swingingest? >> i called it in my story the big ten firewall, ohio, wisconsin, iowa, the three wester states. obama has advantages there. if he can hold on, hills path to re-election becomes easier. you mentioned earlier that cnn moved north carolina lean romney. polls show tight democrats are leading in early sloeting in north carolina, but talking to democrats and republicans, they both say this is very, very

tough state for obama to win. remember he only won it by 14,000 votes, that's it, in 2008. but the good news for the obama campaign here is they don't need that state. remember, their path is a lot easier to get to those 270 electoral votes. obama is actually flying over north carolina today from tampa to my hometown of richmond, virginia, to make campaign stops. the republicans are organizing an event in north carolina on a tarmac to say, hey, president obama, if you are so confident about north carolina as your campaign advisors say, why aren't you stopping here? why aren't you campaigning here? come on down. i don't think president obama is going to do that. >> he can wave from the sky. peter hamby in washington, great to see you. six minutes past the thundershower. reports of two deaths now because of hurricane sandy, one in jamaica, the other in haiti. the storm slammed into cuba early this morning, a strong category 2 storm packing

110-mile-an-hour winds. meteorologist ron marciano very hard at work in atlanta. the national hurricane center just issued a new advisory. what's the latest there? >> 105-mile-an-hour winds. still over land right now. you see the satellite picture behind me, zoraida. it's a strong category 2 storm with 110-mile-an-hour winds. the atmosphere even in late october can still beep up these storms quite ready especially over the caribbean. now it's about to reemerge or emerge into the atlantic ocean here and the bahamas, over the eastern tip of cuba. it's pretty quick, but we expect it to slow down. hurricane warnings are up for the bahamas. tropical storm warnings posted for eastern florida, and that's been expanded all the way up to flagler beach for tropical storm conditions here in the next 24 to 36 hours. already the moisture and rain bands have been feeting into

south florida from miami, key marathon all the way to key west. we're feeling the impacts of this very large storm. we'll have a big circulation that will affect everybody on the east coast. this is turning out to be a monitor storm, especially for this late in see son. here is the forecast track. we'll talk about the uncertainty here. early friday morning we get it into the bahamas. it's not going to make a direct hit on florida at this point. but it will be close enough to give you those tropical storm force conditions. then we get this fall weather pattern to play into the situation. typically this time of year, it's pushed out to see, but we'll get a dip in the jet and that may suck it and retrograde the low back towards the northeast. that's what we're concerned about in the beginning of next week. only shun one heads it out to sea, option two, which looks more likely today, it would bring it somewhere into the northeast from d.c. to maine.

we'll try to pinpoint it more. >> i keep going, this is a serious storm that could hit us next week. >> beyond just getting wet while trick-or-treating. the latest in the shooting of malil la yousef saleh. nine arrest haves been made. the man pakistani police called the main shooting suspect is still at large. his mother, brother and fiancee were among those arrested. malala is said to be making good progress. she is at a british hospital, reportedly fighting an infection. she has been able to move her extremities and she has been able to stand up with the help of nurses as well. we'll get a live report. authorities say it was a great white sharm that killed a surfer in southern california. a just-released photo shows a

photo with teeth marks from the shark. they believe the shark was at least 15 feet long. 39-year-old francis sew solario died at surf beach off vandenberg air force base. bank of america is accused of committing fraud by knowingly selling bad mortgages to fannie mae and freddie mac. they say those defective mortgages cost taxpayers over a billion dollars. this is the first civil lawsuit brought by the justice department. world series game one. i was shocked when i woke up to this. this was a stunner, a night to remember for giants third baseman pablo sandoval. the man they called kung fu panda hit three home runs. >> when was the last time that happened? >> last year actually. the first two runs came off tigers ace justin verlander.

sandoval propelled the giants to a quick 4-0 lead on their way to an 8-3 win. verlander lasted just four innings. the giants beat the ace. barry zito was masterful, shut down the tigers' lineup pitching into the sixth inning. his curveball was majestic. he was relieved by tim lincecum, he was great, too. he's had a rough season. as for pablo sandoval, he talked about being part of history. >> i still can't believe it, man. it's part of the dreams, when you're little kid you dream of world series. being in this situation, three homers in one game, you have key factors, key factor is playing your game. >> babe ruth, reggie jackson, albert pujols last year and now pablo sandoval the only players

to hit three home runs in the world series. the tigers will try to even the series tonight. >> still plenty of time for all you tigers fans out there. a famous 19th century lady is showing off her 21st century makeover. we have an exclusive look inside the newly renovated statue of liberty. that's coming up. >> and she's hot! has the most shade choices, designed to match even salon color in just 10 minutes. with root touch-up, all they see is you. it's real milk full of calcium and vitamin d. and tastes simply delicious. for those of us with lactose intolerance... lactaid® milk. the original 100% lactose-free milk. thor's couture gets the most rewards of any small business credit card. your boa! [ garth ] thor's small business earns double miles on every purchase, every day! ahh, the new fabrics, put it on my spark card. [ garth ] why settle for less?

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to provide a better benefits package... oahhh! [ male announcer ] it made a big splash with the employees. [ duck yelling ] [ male announcer ] find out more at... [ duck ] aflac! [ male announcer ] ...forbusiness.com. ♪ ha ha! welcome back to "early start." she used to have plenty of visitors. the poor, tired masses ferried from manhattan. the statue of liberty had a multimillion dollar makeover. i got an exclusive inside look at the new lady liberty, and i was in really good company. the statue of liberty's crown and interior have been closed

for a year. but for retired remean core larry hughes, it's been longer. the observation level was not wheelchair accessible until today. >> wow. >> a hell of a ride. >> amazing. >> hughes a vietnam vet is taking the inaugural ride in gnawly installed elevator to the statue's observation deck. >> just to be here was something that never really entered into my mind because simply, i hate to be turned down, i hate to be rejected. so i'm no longer being rejected. i'm being here. >> reporter: the new elevator is part of a year-long $30 million renovation that also includes upgrading stairwells and making safety improvements. the end result, a more accessible lady liberty that will allow an additional 26,000 visitors each year a chance to enjoy her spectacular views. >> when these add dapgss are

made, it opens up tremendous opportunities for all of us. >> among the first to see the new renovations, two generations of severely wounded warriors. i joined kirk bauer who lost his leg in vietnam and jesse a costa who suffered injuries to his hip from roadside bomb in iraq on the 16-step climb to the top. >> so you stuck your head out of. >> the crown! >> very cool. what do you think? is this what you expected? >> fantastic. it's more tight than i thought looking up. but it is just an incredible view. >> reporter: the renovation was full of challenges because of the statue's location and because hey had to do it all without drilling into any part of the historic structure. >> it was a challenge, a huge challenge because we had to envision all of this, make this building more safe, more code compliant, more accessible, more welcoming, and do it in a way that respected the historic fabric. >> very impressive what they

did, to see the investment in these days in a world hur taj site to allow those with perceived disabilities, those that need access to be able to see it, touch it and be closer. it's wonderful to be here. >> reporter: for the statue's soup tin dent, david lusinger, this moment among the most memorable. >> to be able to welcome our veterans home and welcome them here and actually get veterans up into the crown and into the observation deck is amazing. >> reporter: grateful construction workers saluting america's heroes on this historic visit. >> we want to give you a token of thanks first for coming out and visiting with us, but most importantly, for the service and the dedication that you've done for our country. >> they were thanking us. we should be thanking them. they are the one that is are

making it possible. they're the hands that made this monument open to everyone including those with disabilities. >> reporter: restored lady liberty truly representing a symbol of freedom for all to enjoy. >> work on the monument is expected to be completed early next year. if you're interested in visiting the statue of liberty's crown, it opens on sunday. demand is so high, the national park service says they're already sold out through the end of the year. i still wish you luck. boy, what an experience. i wish you could have it with these guys, though. that was emotional. >> you are so lucky. you can't get in until the end of the year. i'm sure the shrines will be crazy for the next year or two. you got to see it exclusively before anyone else. >> exclusively through their eyes, especially larry, someone who would never have access. this is me sticking my head out

of the crown. is that amaze sglg you really are a princess. >> oh, please. >> it is 19 minutes after the hour. i'm very jealous. here is christine romans with all the news. >> nothing more american than lady liberty and the presidential election. with the race dead even, mitt romney and president obama are blanketing the battleground states. the president is heading from los angeles to tampa this morning. romney makes three campaign stops in ohio today starting in senate stay. his wife, ann, headlines three rallies in florida. a lot of miles over the next week or so. an update on a story we've been following. george kerry in michigan. a michigan man, his wife lillian died in the fungal meningitis outbreak. he's fighting it himself. initial tests showed he wasn't infected, but he fell ill over

the weekend. 24 people have died. our hopes and prayers are with him. some people barely able to outrun the flames. wetmoore, colorado. 14 homes have been destroyed or damaged. hundreds have been evacuated. >> i am confused about that fungal meningitis story. they said it's not contagious. he must have had the shots, also. >> wow. what are the chances. two family members. 21 minutes past the hour. apple by the numbers. did the iphone 5 and ipad mini translate into big earnings for the company? we'll let you know? ♪

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♪ ♪ we're "minding your business" this morning. u.s. stock futures are up after markets closed slightly lower yesterday. lots of big corporate earnings today including apple. christine has a preview for us. >> we just heard out of the uk, it's out of recession, uk growth -- economic growth in the uk up 1%. that's good news. >> congratulations, britain. >> so many of these european countries and the uk have been in recession or negative growth. also a bank of america story where the government is suing bank of america. that's going to be an interesting case to watch. more on that next hour. but watching tech earnings in particular. sor raid daye da just mentioned apple. facebook had the best day

yesterday that it's had since it went public. apple earnings come out after the closing bell. you know i love to show you the apple stock chart because it has been so good for many investors until recently. it's been faltering from that 700 level. apple has a lot to prove. it's up about 250%. so apple kind of has a lot to prove now under tim cook. we do know it's been rocking the ipad sales, 17 million sold in the second quarter. tim cook said at the ipad mini event, two weeks ago we sold our hundred millionth ipad. a hundred million. so we'll closely watch to say what those earnings say about how quickly things are going. housing has been recovering. you've heard me say it before. foreclosures are down. home sales and home prices are up. we've seen mortgage rates down and stay very, very low.

a new mortgage rate number today. i want to show you quickly a map of florida where we're seeing foreclosures rise, even as across the country they're going down. in some of the swing states they're going into. look at florida. we'll zero in on the housing market more for you in some of the swing states in the next couple days. >> appreciate that, christine. thank you. all talking about the storm this morning. the million dollar question, hurricane sandy, where is she headed next? we'll have the latest storm track coming up. tage. what we need are people prepared for the careers of our new economy. by 2025 we could have 20 million jobs without enough college graduates to fill them. that's why at devry university, we're teaming up with companies like cisco to help make sure everyone is ready with the know-how we need for a new tomorrow. [ male announcer ] make sure america's ready. make sure you're ready. at devry.edu/knowhow.

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two men fighting for just eight swing states. it is still anyone's race between president obama and mitt romney. sunk in a matter of seconds. dramatic video of a tug boat's sudden final moments on the water. a giant among men. san francisco's pablo sandoval with legendary performance on baseball's biggest stage. >> what a moment. >> outstanding. welcome back to "early start." i'm john berman. >> i'm zoraida sambolin. 31 minutes past the hour. a shrinking election map getting smaller this morning. late yesterday cnn changed north carolina from a toss-up to leaning towards romney, meaning there are now just eight battleground states up for grabs. >> that news comes in the middle of a 48-hour campaign blitz for president obama where he'll be visiting a whopping eight cities. he's seen here in a rally in denver yesterday afternoon.

>> cnn political contributor margaret hoover and former clinton adviser richard sock rah tease are here. we love polls. obama hanging on a lead in ohio. this new "time" poll has it as a tie. who has more paths to victory. >> president obama. ohio is way more critical for governor romney than it is for president obama. president obama has an edge in ohio, not just because of that poll which, by the way, is almost within the statistical margin of error and there are other polls that show it much closer. he has more campaign offices there, better ground game there, working on it for four years. whae doesn't have there is democratic registration. democratic registration has declined in the last four years. >> in ohio. >> in ohio. they need all the early votes. remember in 2004 when the exit

polls were wrong in ohio. why were they wrong? democrats voted early and republicans voted later in the day. >> but on the early vote, he has a huge lead according to this "time" magazine poll. it's 2-1 in the early vote, 60% to 30%. president obama himself will be voting early in illinois, sending a message to people all around the country. >> to vote early. >> why is this so important and what do democrats want to do with this? >> the president seems to be favored in early voting and that's because his campaign made a concerted effort to get early voters to the poll. i think margaret's analysis is pretty on point. i think the president is winning in ohio. he's winning or ahead in more of the swing states. he's not conceding anything. he's working hard. he's campaigning, asking people for their vote. he's campaigning all the time, 18 hours a day. that's exactly what he should be doing. let's not forget the reason they're banking on the early voting they need to build up a

lead. on election day republicans can come out stronger especially with the decline of democratic registration in ohio. >> i don't think that's necessarily true. >> awe, spin, spin, spin. >> the campaign released a full transcript, we have a little interesting part of it here. since this is of the,ly be very blunt. should i win a second term, a big reason i will win a second term is because the republican nominee and the republican party have so alienated the fastest growing demographic group in the country, the latino community. do you agree? >> here is what i love about that statement. first of all, i love the way you say latino community. yes, the republican party has a lot of work to do in terms of communicating and connecting with the hispanic community to suggest that we care, we get it and we have policies that are going to be advantageous for the hispanic community.

on the other hand, do you notice the president didn't say i'm going to win because i've done anything for the hispanic community. instead, he said, i'm eve going to win because they suck. >> do you agree with that? >> no, no. >> our agreement ended right there. i don't know why the president thought he needed to say that off the records. it sounds exactly like what he's been saying all along and what we as democrats have been saying all along. that's that the president has a great record on issues that are important to all the minority communities. that is part of where he comes from, not all of where he comes from, but that is part of his experience as a person. and the republicans just don't get it. i mean the republicans are pushing at immigration policies that are unfair to immigrant families, that doesn't recognize our history and heritage. >> then why are we closing the

gap in florida? >> i don't think they're going to win florida. >> i will say the republicans will win florida and the hispanic vote will be closer. >> we only have two weeks to find the answers. >> less than two weeks. >> we'll save that, margaret. >> save that. >> we'll settle this bets. thank you so much. on the "of t. reports of two deaths because of hurricane san different bun in jamaica. the other in haiti. the storm slammed into cuba early this morning as a strong category two storm packing 110-mile-an-hour winds. rob marciano joins us from atlanta. what's the latest? >> 105-mile-an-hour winds, holding onto its strength even after crossing cuba, just about to emerge into the florida straits here, the obamas and the atlantic ocean. northerly movement at 18 miles

an hour. as it gets into the open waters here, it has a chance of at least reorganizing. we're not sure how much stronger lit get as it gets into cooler waters, but the forecast is fairly ominous. already seeing rain bands filter in to south florida from miami back through homestead, key largo, key marathon and even back through key west. this will continue throughout the day today and conditions will deteriorate along the florida peninsula, obviously from south to north as we go through time. one thing that changed at the 5:00 a.m. update, tropical storm warnings have been posted all the way up to flagler beach. everyone will see some form of tropical storm force conditions. here is the latest tract from the national hurricane center, hurricane status, category 1, curving back, probably some hybrid as we get towards the beginning of next week everybody from the del marva up through main has the potential of seeing some impact from hurricane sandy. back up to you. >> rob, high tides on monday

could make that even worse up there. >> or a full moon. lunar, high tide as well. regardless of a direct hit, the waves are going to be huge, the circulation is massive. along the immediate shoreline up and down the east coast is going to be big problems as far as high surf beach erosion and big-time flooding from high tides. >> you've really been following this. >> this storm is a big one and coming to us at a very bad time. 38 minutes past the hour. former goldman sachs board member raja gupta is heading to prison. a two-year sentence and a $5 million fine for leaking information from the goldman board room to a hedge fund manager who is now serving an 11-year prison term. take a look at this video in portsmouth, new hampshire, a tug boat capsizing and sinking into the harbor. it went down in just a few seconds. two people on board managed to jump off in time. >> what happened? >> they don't know.

the coast guard will launch an investigation into why the boat sank and why it sank so fast. >> oh, my goodness. good thing they got off. listen to this. the giants' pablo sandoval belted three home runs to power san francisco to an 8-3 victory in game one of the world series. the panda is the joining the likes of albert pujols, babe ruth and reggie jackson. fret not. game two happens tonight. >> a huge game last night. 39 minutes after the hour right now. he is said to be a key suspect in the murder of four americans in libya. this morning he's under arrest. coming up, more on this man and his alleged role in the benghazi attack. conversations help us learn and grow. at wells fargo, we believe you can never underestimate the power of a conversation. it's this exchange of ideas

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that left four americans dead in libya including ambassador chris stevens. a suspect is in custody in tunisia. the u.s. will be able to question him. cnn intelligence correspondent suzanne kelly joins us. what do we know about the suspect and how he was caught? >> we know he was tunisian and he had left libya and gone into turkey. turkish officials detained him and turned him over to tune's authorities. now the u.s. is negotiating to have access to him, to be able to question him. >> when do you think that will happen? >> it could be a matter of weeks. something like this is a process. there are a couple of issues internally within the u.s. that need to be resolved in terms of how the fbi and intelligence agencies will work together to continue to question him. then they have to approach the tunisian authorities. a process there as well. it could be a couple of weeks. >> yesterday we reported on the e-mails that revealed the u.s. officials were aware of possible link between the benghazi attacks and an islamic military group, ansar al sharia.

there were new doubts on what those e-mails reveal. can you clear that up? >> a lot of it has been the political spin on this about what the white house knew and when it came public with what it knew. the e-mails we're talking about are very specific in terms of what they knew within the first 48 hours of that attack and they knew it was obviously a mortar attack. so that signified there was some sort of military-type role. it was obviously conducted by someone who was well equipped and had the capacity to carry out something like that. ansar al sharia is a group in libya with anti-american sentiments who is very capable of carrying that out. however, in terms of whether or not the white house should have gone public with that is a great question. a lot of those threats come in as you know very early on. a lot don't lead to solid intelligence. >> a lot of groups take responsibility early on as well. so that can cause confusion. >> they do. and come back later sometimes and deny. that's not really solid

intelligence in my opinion in terms of what you should go wub lick with right away. >> suzanne kelly. we appreciate having you in house today. a break in the case of a pakistani teen who defied the taliban and almost paid with her life. that story, an update on her condition coming up. oahhh! [ male announcer ] it made a big splash with the employees. [ duck yelling ] [ male announcer ] find out more at... [ duck ] aflac! [ male announcer ] ...forbusiness.com. ♪ ha ha!

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good morning to you. 48 minutes past the hour. let's get you up to date.

here is christine romans with our top stories. >> just 12 days until americans votes. mitt romney is blanketing ohio today. he'll make stops in cincinnati, worthington and definiance with new poll showing he trails the president by five points in the buckeye state. mr. obama campaigns today in tampa, florida and richmond, virginia before heading to chicago. he'll be the first u.s. president to vote early when he goes home to chicago. a sad sty for you this morning. world war ii vet frank tehanbai. the terminally ill hawaiian man cast an absentee ballot. this photo of him on his death bed went viral. he never missed an election including this one. he was 93. >> vote everyone. >> it's just beautiful story. >> what a great legacy he

leaves. a string of black bear sightings has people in and near providence, rhode island on edge. a black bear has been spotted in yards and driveways. this video shows this black bear is on the move in cranston. a wildlife biologist there is urging people not to approach or feed it. >> very good advice. >> do not feed the wild, scary-looking bear everyone. >> thanks, christine. it is 50 minutes after the hour. police in pakistan have arrested six people in connection with the shooting of malala yousafzai, the 15-year-old girl who spoke out publicly in favor of education for pakistani girls. she's in stable condition at a hospital in birmingham, england. the man pakistani police consider the primary suspect is still at large. journali journalist sima mousan is live

in pakistan this morning. what do we know about the shooter and is he still on the loose? >> so far we know six people are under arrest. they're being detained and interrogated. those six people we believe to be key in this. i spoke to a senior police official in swat yesterday where the attack took place. they tell me they believe these men, all these local men from swat, may have been involved in facilitating this assassination attempt in some way. let me tell you a little more about this main suspect that we found, a bit more detail about this man. his name is atta oall ullah kha. it's a first time we saw a picture of this man who remains on the loose.

police are also questioning, they haven't arrested but are questioning members of his family to try to find out where exactly he is and what exactly his involvement might have been. >> great work on the ground there. what can you tell us about malala's progress in england? >> reporter: well, malala, of course, is still in hospital under careful care in birmingham in the united kingdom. we know she has been able to communicate freely. of course, everyone was holding their breath, hoping that she would be able to come out of that coma, and we understand, doctors say, she has been, as they put it, communicating freely. she stood for the first time last week and she's making what they say is a slow and steady progress. by the way, yesterday in swat i also went to a school where i met some school girls who said malala is an eye con for them. she's brave and they'll continue to go to her name and honor. >> she is an icon for everyone.

saima, thank you very much. we have a change to cnn's electoral map. a swing state no longer a toss-up. it's going pink as the candidates storm the battleground. it's all about the ground game with just a dozen days until america votes. the talk of a northeast super storm as hurricane sandy heads for the east coast. it could be on a crash course with another system which could create a monster. we'll have the latest update from the cnn hurricane headquarters. police on the lookout for the guy who robbed a fried chicken joint with a samurai sword. a samurai sword! if that's not enough, lady gaga's contribution to science. researchers at duke honor the pop diva in a way you won't believe. ♪ ther bottle): hmmm...no... nyquil (stuffy): dude! anncr vo: tylenol cold multi-symptom nighttime relieves nasal congestion... nyquil cold & flu doesn't.

on gasoline. i am probably going to the gas station about once a month. last time i was at a gas station was about...i would say... two months ago. i very rarely put gas in my chevy volt. i go to the gas station such a small amount that i forget how to put gas in my car. [ male announcer ] and it's not just these owners giving the volt high praise. volt received the j.d. power and associates appeal award two years in a row. ♪ appeal award two years in a row. you see us, at the start of the day. on the company phone list that's a few names longer. you see us bank on busier highways. on once empty fields. everyday you see all the ways all of us at us bank

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. welcome back. 57 minutes after the hour. john berman along with zoraida sambolin. >> she has draped herself in meat. now she may have to cover herselves in leaves. botanists at duke university named a new genus of fern after lady gaga. they said they want to do it because of her fervent defense of equality and individual expression. the fern carry a dna sequence that spells gaga. >> the genus is made up of 19 different species of fern found in central and south mayor canned as far north arizona as and texas. >> that was your favorite picture off your facebook page. >> you know you've made it when

you have faern named after you. 57 minutes after the hour. the usual political jokes were flying fast and furious last night on the late night shows. but they got trumped by donald trump. >> he offered the president of the united states a charity gift of $5 million if the president would release his college transcripts. i believe we have the footage of the announcement of trump making it. donald trump called president obama and said i'll give you $5 million if you can release your college records and your passport. here is $5 million, release your college records and your passport. i said, hey, don, i'll give you $5 million if you release that thing on your head. just let it go! let it run free. [ cheers and applause ] a source close to romney revealed he gets a spray tan before major campaigns events. i guess that explains romney's

new secret service code name, the mituation. president obama visited the swing state of ohio for the 17th time. now when he shows up they're like oh, hi, oh. experts say the entire 2012 election could come down to just eight states. the states are confusion, dismay, depression, apathy, shock, disbelief, despair and anxiety. those are the eight states. and it has been -- >> "early start" continues right now. they always catch me in the middle of something. president obama and mitt romney in a swing state scramble. this morning one of those states leaning red, another looking blue. listen to this. hurricane sandy may be a halloween nightmare.

the storm slams cuba, and the northeast could be next. >> i'm watching that very closely. meanwhile, a stunning feat for a giant slugger. pablo sandoval does something s few others have ever done on the world series stage. what a game for sandoval. good morning. >> don't worry, tigers, you still have some time, you tigers fans. >> time is running out. it's just one game. welcome to "early start." i'm john berman. >> and i'm zoraida sambolin. it's 6:00 a.m. in the east. we begin with the key states that are up for grabs and just 12 days left to win them. president obama and mitt romney are burning through their travel budgets, hopscotching the country, strategically visiting the key states that will send one of them to the white house. ohio may be the most critical. a new poll has obama leading on there. the romney camp has something to crow about too. cnn shifting the state of north

carolina from the true toss-up column to leaning romney. there was another big development overnight. the president went on "the tonight show" last night and jumped in hard to the battle over abortion. peter hamby joins us live. this has to do with those comments from richard mourdock, who suggested that pregnancy from rape was something that god intended. >> reporter: right. and this has been thrust into the middle of the presidential campaign, zoraida, because mitt romney cut a tv ad for richard mourdock and of course much of this race has been about women voters. like you said, president obama jumped in hard on this last night when he was asked about it by jay leno. listen to what he said to say. >> let me make a very simple proposition. rape is rape. it is a crime. the second thing this underscores, though, is this is exactly why you don't want a bunch of politicians, mostly male, making decisions about

women's health care decisions. >> reporter: the obama campaign is actually pushing this around to reporters. they sent out a press release about it after obama made these comments. why? if you look at that ohio poll that you just mentioned, obama has a double-digit lead among women. that lead has varied from single digits to double digits depending upon the poll you're looking at. but the bottom line is obama needs that to hold if he wants to win re-election. so you're trying to see him link governor romney to richard mourdock and to other republicans who have a perhaps more conservative position on abortion and a bid to soften romney's gains among female voters in recent weeks, zoraida. >> i want to talk to you about something else that was quite talker. the president also responded to donald trump's so-called october surprise. he says he would give $5 million to a charity of president obama's choice if he released his college records and pass president applications. what did the president have to say about that?

>> reporter: yeah, jay leno asked obama, what is trump's beef with you? why does he keep trying to get these stories into the bloodstream? this is how obama responded to it, zoraida. >> this all dates back to when we were growing up together in kenya. >> yeah. i got to give you that one. >> and we had, you know, constant run-ins on the soccer field. you know, he wasn't very good and resented it. >> reporter: so, i mean, if you look at poll numbers, president obama has a good likability number, like his numbers among female voters, likability is one reason president obama is slightly ahead of mitt romney in a lot of polls, so that's an example of why some of these interviews that he's doing on comedy central or jay leno are actually good for him, because it reminds voters when he when

they see him being relaxed and self-depreca self-deprecating, why they might like president obama. >> it was clever and funny. and so can you share some of the details with us about the swingingest states. >> i think both campaigns agree this race is coming down to ohio. the romney campaign has gained florida, colorado. a path that once looked pretty daunting looks somewhat easier. but obama has the easiest path to win. if he holds ohio and wisconsin, all he needs to do is pick up iowa or nevada and he wins, it's game over. that's why you see the campaign sort of honing in on those few states. you mentioned north carolina earlier. cnn moved that from toss up to lean romney. why? if you talk to democrats and republicans, they say, this was a tough state to begin with for obama. he only won by 14,000 votes in the previous election.

romney's losing among independents there, white voters. it's very tough for him to pull out a win there. republicans, though, are holding a rally in winston-salem today, because president obama's flying from tampa, florida, to richmond, virginia, today. so he'll be flying over north carolina. and republicans are saying, hey, look at us down here, land down here in north carolina if you're so confident you're going to win, mr. president. but i don't think he's going to do that. >> better have some pretty big signs ready. peter hamby, thank you so much. in the next half hour, we'll break down the campaign strategies of both candidates. we have cnn contributor margaret hoover joining us and richard socarides, former senior adviser to bill clinton. five minutes after the hour right now. two deaths being blamed on hurricane sandy. one reported in jamaica, another reported in haiti. the storm is now starting to move off the eastern side of cuba. it slammed into the island this morning as a strong category 2 storm, packing 110-mile-an-hour winds. meteorologist rob marciano joins

us from atlanta now with the latest. and the latest is, where's it headed? >> headed north, skirt around the u.s. coastline. that's the key. the thing blew up to a category 2 storm, almost a category 3 storm overnight. at a cat 2. winds moving rapidly at 18 miles an hour. now, waters in the atlantic, not nearly as warm as the caribbean. plus this time of year, you get into some of the jet stream wind that becomes a little bit stronger in october, november, december, and that may knock it down a little bit. but hurricane warnings are posted for the bahamas and tropical storm warnings have been extended for florida, all the way north of daytona beach. some of the keys reporting gusts of over 40 miles an hour. so conditions deteriorating from key west all the way up through, say, daytona beach, here, as we go through time. here's your forecast track. category 1 storm is what's expected, as it moves through the bahamas. rate now, it's a category 2 storm. and then it begins to interact with fall winds, basically, and

a strong trough or cold air that's going to drive down across the great lakes. and this will actually probably act to draw it closer to the u.s. does it make a direct landfall? that's possible now, in some sort of hybrid storm scenario, or does it go off to the east? that's possible as well. those are the two scenarios that we're looking at. yesterday at this time, about half are going east, half are going west, not more than half are going to the west. we'll have to watch this carefully. best-case scenario, john and zoraida, is that this thing goes off to the east. it's still such a big storm, we'll get winds and waves, damaging waves across the eastern seaboard and also high tides will be extraordinarily high come monday and tuesday. we'll keep you posted. >> rob marciano, we'll be watching this closely every day. seven minutes past the hour. a shark that killed a surfer this week in southern california was a great white. look at this. authorities released a photo showing a bite the shark took out of francisco's surfboard.

they believe the great white was at least 15 feet long. that attack occurred off of surf beach. reverend jesse jackson is a free man this morning. he and a dozen others were arrested after staging a protest at sensata. sensata is owned by bain capital, the firm mitt romney used to run. world series game one was a night to remember for giants' third baseman, pablo sandoval. i want you to read this. >> the man they call kung fu panda, he tied a world series record by hitting three home runs and the first two came against justin verlander, who may be having the best season in baseball. it pushed them to an 8-3 win, and after the game, sandoval talked about being part of history. >> i still can't believe it, man. you know, when you're a little kid, you dream about being in

the world series, but i was thinking being in this situation, three homers in one game, you know, you have to keep focused, keep focus on playing the game. >> babe ruth, reggie jackson, albert pujols, the only other three players to do it in one world series game. the tigers will try to even up the series in game two tonight. >> to hear him talk was really cool too. >> very cool. it is the break that u.s. intelligence has been waiting for since the attack that killed four americans in libya. we have more on a suspect in custody. this is big news, coming up. i don't spend money on gasoline. i am probably going to the gas station about once a month. last time i was at a gas station was about...i would say... two months ago.

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start," everyone. new details this morning about the attack on the u.s. consulate in benghazi, libya, that left four americans dead, including u.s. ambassador chris stevens. a suspect is now in custody in tunisia and the u.s. will be able to question him. meanwhile, new e-mails raise new questions about the obama administration knew about the attack and when. cnn intelligence correspondent susan kelly joins us now. susan, what do we know about this suspect and how he was caught? >> right, well, cnn is being told his name is anna ali anahrab. he left turkey and then was sent to tunisia. and now according to a u.s. government official, is working with the tunisian government in terms of get access to him. and of course both the fbi and u.s. intelligence agencies are going to be very interested in what he has to say. >> the fbi heading up this investigation. when will they be able to ask him questions? >> it could be a matter of weeks, because there's a process

going on here. part of that is internal within the u.s., between the fbi and the intelligence agencies, there is certain information they're looking for, they want to find out who else is involved in this attack, as much as possible, get as much information as they can from this guy. could take a couple of weeks. >> this comes on the heels that some of those e-mails were discovered yesterday. are there any doubts in what these e-mails are going to reveal? >> you know, and later there are reports that they had said, no, we didn't claim any credit for that attack. you have to be really careful with those bits of intelligence that come out, of course, in the first 28 to 48 hours. even the first week after something like this. and that's where we've seen a lot of this become politicized. you know, i highly doubt if there weren't an election in a little over a week now, that you'd see so much of this going back and forth, with what the government knew, when the administration knew it, and what it became public with. >> and importantly, any connection between this new suspect and that other group?

>> one thing we do know, there were some al qaeda affiliates involved, more than just the one we had thought before. so that initial group that led that first attack was about 35 to 40 people. we know that about a dozen of those had al qaeda affiliated sort of connections. one of them, al qaeda in the maghreb, the group that operates in north africa, and then al qaeda in iraq, which is new and kind of disturbing, because they've been doing other stuff, including an attack in amman, georgia, over the weekend they claim credit for. 15 minutes past the hour, with 12 days to go before america votes and the race for the white house dead even, mitt romney and president obama are pressing the flesh in all those battleground states. the president campaigns this morning in tampa, florida, then he'll jet to richmond, virginia, and finally chicago where he will become the first u.s. president to vote early. romney makes three campaign stops in ohio today. he is starting in cincinnati, his wife, ann, will headline three campaign rallies in

florida. this actually happened. police in kansas city on the lookout for a suspect they say kra who used a samurai sword to rob a chicken restaurant. police say he took off in an old chevy pickup and is still on the loose this morning. >> a sword. some people barely able to outrun the flames as a wildfire flames across the town of wetmore, colorado. this is this morning. it is only about 15% contained. more than 15,000 acres have burned so far and more than 15 homes have been damaged or destroyed. hundreds have been evacuated. we're fast approaching the holiday travel season and the bad news is flights this year may set you back even more than last year. >> but if you haven't made your plans yet, do not panic. because christine romans is here with this week's "road warriors." >> the booking site travelocity reviewed thanksgiving fares, and

those fares are costing on average 9% more than last year. a year-long survey by travel site kayak.com showed that booking too far in advance is going to cost you more. according to kayak's data, the sweet spot when you get the best deals is about three weeks before you fly. they found domestic airfares bought 21 days ahead cost, on average, 8% less than fares bought during the previous six months and about 30% less than those purchased the week before. do not purchase the week before thanksgiving. i'm guaranteeing you, it's not going to be pretty. if waiting to buy makes you nervous, you can also use bing's flight predictor. this is a tool to try to anticipate whether your airplane will rise or fall. it checks the fare history of the route and then advises you where to buy now or hold off. and some airlines also have a fare holding option. check your airline's policy first, but american will let you hold a ticket for 24 hours before purchasing. and for a fee, united lets you lock in your fare for seven days. that gives you a little more

time to carry on shopping for prices. >> you have to be flexible, because you have less options the longer you way. >> and 21 days in advance before thanksgiving, if you really know you're going to have to fly for thanksgiving, some people want the peace of mind, maybe paying a little bit more, so they can get all their family on the same flight with the same seats together, if possible. but no one's flying around like the candidates are these days. i'm always thinking, are they guging water from going up and down. >> there's a lot of food. not a healthy life. >> the worst kind of road warrior there is. >> not healthy. the justice department taking on one of the big banks over the mortgage crisis. we're going to have that story, coming up. from currency trading for a few

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top of the morning to you. we are minding your business this morning. u.s. stock futures are up after markets closed slightly lower yesterday. >> christine romans is here. let's get a move on the markets today. >> it's all about earnings right now and this has been a very earnings-driven stock market. and you can look at that when you see the s&p 500. a very rocky week. we heard from a lot of companies this week who say, look, things are looking a little slower overseas. i'm concerned about job cuts, i'm hearing with these earnings announcements. a softening global outlook is something you're hearing. and tech earnings will be a big focus as well. we heard from facebook, they had a good day yesterday, but we'll hear from apple after the

closing bell today. that could be a driver of things overall. so all of that really, you know, really important overall. the s&p 500 has a -- we have a year-to-day chart that shows you some of -- there we go. i was talking about some of the rocky s&p performance, look at the last few inches of that chart there, a technical analyst would say that's starting to look like a head and shoulders pattern, but that can be kind of topping action in a market. that's something that a lot of people are really watching. we're also watching bank of america and this huge civil lawsuit from the justice debate abo about the hustle. it was pushing through mortgage originations so quickly, they were taking down what they called the tollbooths meant to check the status of these loans, meant to check that everything was copacetic. it's a nickname for the high-speed swim lane, pushing these loans through during the bubble, and even after, at a very rapid pace.

and according to this lawsuit, this is because of countrywide. remember, countrywide, bought by b of a, countrywide's only quality control reports showed a 40% defect rate on these loans, which is way more than the industry standard. and instead of addressing the problems, according to this lawsuit, instead of doing that, it actually incentivized people who worked there to make the loans look better. then these loans were sold to fannie and freddie, and who picks up the bill, according to the suit? taxpayers at the tune of $1 billion. so pushing these loans through at a rapid, rapid rate and taking down any kind of safety mechanisms to make sure these loans run. but remember what was happening? a lot of mortgage originators were writing loans for people who had no income, who had no assets, who had no ability to pay them back. loans to people who didn't understand the documents, didn't even know what kind of documents they were signing, didn't even know what a basic mortgage was all about, just pushing them through, selling them to fannie

from and freddie, and they were being packaged and sold again in the atmosphere and it was just a disaster. >> did we know this lawsuit was coming m. >> there have been other lawsuits against b of a against countrywide, this is unique, because it's specifically saying that taxpayers were on the hook because fannie and freddie guaranteed these loans. >> what's the one thing we need to know about our money? >> it has to do with the uk, far across the world, right, but it matters to you because it's out of recession. we just learned its economy grew 1% in the third quarter. it's not much, but healing across the atlantic is critical for u.s. businesses, especially since i'm watching these things in these earrings reports that are talking about softening global growth, good to see at least one major economy is out of recession. >> so congratulations to great britain. well, done. >> congratulations, queen elizabeth. >> jolly good time and all of that. 25 minutes after the hour. in one swing state town, they're talking about birth control, but not for the reason you might think. we will explain, coming up. and if you're looking at your house, you can watch us on your desktop or mobile phone, go

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two men, fighting for eight swing states. it's still anyone's race between president obama and mitt romney. >> a hurricane that could impact halloween, actually, much more than that. forecasters tracking sandy say the northeast could still be in her path. >> you could add ingrid berman tracking it as well. sunk, look at this, in a matter of seconds. really dramatic video of a tug boat's really sudden and final moments on the water. welcome back to "early start." we are really happy that you're with us this morning. i'm zoraida sambolin. >> and i'm john berman. 29 minutes after the hour. >> the list of toss-up maps on the electoral map is getting smaller by the day. yesterday, north carolina was changed from an official toss-up map to leaning towards romney,

which means there are now just eight battleground states that are up for grabs. >> that comes in the middle of a 48-hour campaign blitz for president obama, making appearances in eight cities and stopping in chicago today to cast his own ballot early. >> cnn political contributor margaret hoover and former clinton adviser richard socarides are back with us this morning. nice to have you stick around for us. romney clearly taking an edge in north carolina, which obama narrowly won back in '08. let's put up a poll here. obama hanging on to a lead in ohio. a new poll still has him up five points there. we all know that ohio is crucial to both. who has more paths to victory? >> i think the president has the edge in ohio. and we'll trade ohio for north carolina any day. i mean, ohio, the race is becoming about ohio and a couple other swing states. and the i think president has got a much clearer path to victory. >> look, north carolina a must-win for mitt romney, the president can afford to lose it. ohio is a must-win for both of

them. the president can potentially do it without ohio, mitt romney can't. you see that poll, he's up five points in that you know wi, but you look at all the polls accumulati accumulatively, ohio is up in the air. but voter registration is down about 350,000 votes in the three biggest democratic counties in ohio. that is significantly going to get -- feed into the democratic vote, which is why tlair so focused on early voting. they want to bank up all these early votes to be able to act as a firewall on election day. >> that early vote right now, the spread is about two to one. we have a number from the time magazine poll. p president obama leading in the early vote, 60% to 30%, and i should you say it's within the margin of error, both democratic strategists and republican strategists all say they do believe president obama is ahead. >> he has a slight edge. he's leading, but they're all within the margin of error.

>> the early vote, i want to talk about the early vote, we saw it come into play four years ago, but this year it's even bigger. ohio, nevada, a huge push to get this early vote out. market says it's to mitigate against a bad election day, perhaps. but is there more to that, richard? >> i think what it shows is the president has put a lot of financial resources and a lot of effort into organizing early voters to get out to the polls and organizing his voters. and you know, we've seen in past elections, especially when they're close, that organization, organization, organization early makes all the difference. and if you can get out your voters, you can win close elections. the president is leaving nothing to chance. >> voting early himself. >> voting early himself. and i think the president will win by a close, but comfortable margin of two, three, maybe even four points when it comes down to it. but we're taking nothing for granted. >> i want to talk about women. it's another crucial voting bloc, right? so indiana republican senate

candidate richard mourdock taking heat for a comment he made on tuesday night at the debate, suggesting that pregnancies resulting from rape were intended by god. he spoke to the press yesterday. he said, "i believe that life itself is the greatest gift that god can give us --" oh, we have it. let's play it. >> i believe that life itself is the greatest gift that god can give us and i know because polling shows it, at least 80% of all americans, and i'm sure at least that many hoosiers think that god is the author of all life, and i stand firmly on that belief. >> here's the deal with that quote, in my way of thinking. this is relevant only inso much as this is relevant to women independent voters who are trying to figure out if they're going to vote for mitt romney. that's really significant. clearly, richard murdoch wasn't

saying -- he has a outside of the mainstream view that abortion is only legal -- should only be legal in the case where the life of the mother is in danger. >> i mean, you're analyzing it in a purely political election contest. the truth -- >> this is 14 days before an election. >> it's relevant for people there in indiana who are trying to decide who to vote for. i mean, this guy, there's another republican candidate running for the senate or for the house, who is issuing these staples that are demeaning to women. this is very serious business. anybody who suggests that they know what god intended in any context is kind of off the charts. i mean, this guy is really not only out of the mainstream of american thought, but these comments are offensive. governor romney has got an ad in that state, campaigning for this guy. he has not suggested that this man apologize. i think it's offensive. don't you think he should

apologize? >> he did apologize yesterday. >> we can all read the transcript and see, it's very clear he isn't saying, god intended for this woman to be raped. what he is saying -- >> i'm not clear at all that that's what he intended. >> and it's up to the voters of indiana to decide. i mean, i do think this is not a todd akin situation. this is slightly different. but -- >> because todd akin -- because what todd akin said was much worse, why? because he said that rape was g legitimate. >> he suggested biologically that a rape would be -- like a woman would raise her baby -- >> so todd akin is slightly more crazy than this guy who is crazy and out of the mainstream. >> i think voters are smarter than that, voters can read the transcript and decide that robert murdoch misspoke. >> margaret, does it hurt romney because he's endorsing him? >> if he continues to run ads nationally in that state. >> and the speed with which he distances himself from shows how

nervous and worried -- >> but he didn't call for an apology. >> margaret hoover, richard socarides, thank you so much for joining us this morning. we appreciate your time. it is 35 minutes past the hour. two deaths are now being blamed on hurricane sandy. one is reported in jamaica, the other is in haiti and that storm is now starting to move off the eastern side of cuba. it slammed into the island this morning as a strong category 2 storm. it's packing 110 miles an hour winds. rob marciano joining us from atlanta. >> still a strong category 2 storm with 105-mile-an-hour winds. you see the satellite picture here. as it goes over cuba, it loses a little bit of its muster. temperatures in the water, not nearly as warm as the caribbean, but warm enough to sustain a hurricane for the next couple hundred of miles. it's moving to the north at 18 miles an hour. we expect that movement to continue for the next day or two. all bets are off. a lot of interesting things could happen and a lot of dangerous things as well. hurricane warnings are up for the bahamas. tropical storm warnings have been posted all the way north of

daytona beach for florida. conditions are going to continue to deteriorate across the florida pennsylvania, starting with the keys where winds are gustingover 40 miles an hour right now and making their way up i-95 here. miami, homestead seeing some rain and thunderstorms, and these feeder bands will continue to work their way in throughout the day and expand their way up to the north. here's the forecast track for the national hurricane center. winds this time of year tend to knock it down somewhat. so expect a category 1 storm. it will be close enough to the florida peninsula to give you tropical storm force winds, huge waves, coastal flooding, high surf and beach erosion. that will be a key from miami, really, all the way up to maine. what it does after the weekend, then, gets interesting, because a lot of our kpoocomputer modele turning a little bit closer towards the northeast. that's where questions come up. does it go inland across the northeast, mainly across the delmarva or does it go out to

sea? oddly, the warm air from canada and the warm air from down this way is giving it that chance of making its way toward the east coast as a hybrid storm, a nor'easter combination with the hurricane, and that's not a goo combination, i can tell you that. more than half of our computer models now take it in the general direction of the northeast, and the rest of them take it off toward the east and the open atlantic. that's more than it was yesterday. a little bit more serious situation and we'll continue to update it as we go through time here. >> we're glad that you're tracking it for us, rob. thank you. >> you got it. take a look at this incredible video from portsmouth, new hampshire. look at this. that's a tug boat, capsizing, sinking right into the harbor. it went down in just a few seconds. there were two people on board, they did manage to jump off just in the nick of time. the tug's owner has no idea why the boat sank. the coast guard will launch an investigation. the town of avon lake, ohio, has so many deer that they're considering a number of options

to control the population, including birth control. >> what?! >> officials estimate the situation has become dangerous and the number of car accidents involving these animals is on the rise so they're considering birth control. who gets to have the talk with the deer? the birth control talk with the deer? >> i'm wondering what type of birth control they take? that's interesting. as we hear about american jobs going overseas to china, coming up, the view from the other side, as cnn takes you to where those jobs are now. a factory in china owned by mitt romney's old company, bain capital.

two years ago, the people of bp made a commitment to the gulf. and every day since, we've worked hard to keep it. bp has paid over twenty-three billion dollars to help people and businesses who were affected, and to cover cleanup costs. today, the beaches and gulf are open for everyone to enjoy -- and many areas are reporting their best tourism seasons in years. we've shared what we've learned with governments and across the industry so we can all produce energy more safely. i want you to know, there's another commitment bp takes just as seriously: our commitment to america. bp supports nearly two-hundred-fifty thousand jobs in communities across the country. we hired three thousand people just last year. bp invests more in america than in any other country.

in fact, over the last five years, no other energy company has invested more in the us than bp. we're working to fuel america for generations to come. today, our commitment to the gulf, and to america, has never been stronger. and these come together, one thing you can depend on is that these will come together. delicious and wholesome. some combinations were just meant to be. tomato soup from campbell's. it's amazing what soup can do.

welcome back.

soledad o'brien has a look ahead at what's on "starting point." >> president obama and mitt romney making last-ditch efforts to win over those undecided voters, as one state leaves the toss-up column and leads towards one of the candidates. we'll tell you who's doing better. expert insight this morning from congresswoman debbie wasserman schultz, former congressman tom davis, and senator richard blumenthal will be joining us. and goldman sachs blamed it on fear and greed. now that former investment banker joins me live to explain why he quit and answer those accusations from goldman that he was just a disgruntled tv. plus, melissa joan hart will join us to talk about her new show, "melissa & joey." you're excited? >> she's coming in, in person. she's no longer sabrina the teenage witch. she's much more plaps a mom. >> very cool.

i'll have the camera ready so we can take pictures. >> 43 minutes after the hour right now. outsourcing has become a dirty word in this country, and a real flash point in the race for the white house. with jobs incredibly scarce in america right now and so many of them migrating overseas. stan grant visited one of these chinese factories accused of luring workers away. >> reporter: do you know who mitt romney is? >> no, no, no. >> reporter: you don't know mitt romney? >> no, i don't know. >> reporter: they may not be up on american politics here, but these chinese workers are in the middle of a u.s. political firestorm. they're blame for taking american jobs, shipped to china by a company started by republican presidential candidate, mitt romney. do you like america? >> just so-so. >> reporter: just so-so. the american flag flies proudly, but it's equally a power of chinese power. it's one of the chinese homes of sensata technologies, an auto

parts manufacturer owned by bain capital. workers in freeport, illinois, say this is where their jobs are going. some are camping in tents, protesting the planned closure to have the sensata plan where they've worked for decades. 170 jobs will be lost, and the workers say they suffer while the company profits from cheap labor. here sensata is anything but the bad guy. you speak to the workers and they say this is just the way of the world. china is an economic rival to the united states, it does export, it does manufacture we are, and yes, it takes american jobs. however unfair, that may seem back in the states. it's determined by the market, this worker says. jobs go wherever labor is cheaper. it makes sense. workers say they enjoy good conditions here, regular eight-hour shifts. how much money do you earn in one month? >> it's a secret.

>> reporter: it's a secret?! >> it's a secret. >> reporter: you can see where the money goes, though. this is a tlaifing city of 5 million people. shoppers hit trendy new malls wearing the latest fashion. american business has been good for these people. back in freeport, the future is not so rosy. look around. there's no guessing who they blame. mitt romney left bain capital seven years before it bought sensata, but this has become an impairme embarrassment all the same. outside the american factory, we meet some american workers on rotation in chooun. they're aware of the row over jobs, but just happy to be working themselves. >> i enjoy my job. >> but for how long? >> stan grant, china. 46 minutes past the hour. a suspect is in custody in tunisia, in connection with the september 11th attack on the u.s. consulate in benghazi, libya. the fbi will be able to

interrogate him. it's believed al qaeda in iraq is linked to the benghazi attack that killed four americans, including ambassador chris stevens. hurricane sandy still packing a major punch. it remains a strong category 2 storm, as it begins to move off the eastern side of cuba. the storm is being blamed for two deaths right now, one reported in jamaica, one in haiti, and it is headed to the northeast of the u.s., perhaps. and the giants. pablo sandoval belted three home runs to power san francisco to an 8-3 victory over the detroit tigers in game one of the world series. the panda is just the fourth to hit three homers in a world series game, joining reggie bush, jackson, and albert pujols. >> the giants beat justin verlander. 47 minutes after the hour. a famous 19th century lady is showing off her 12st century makeover. an exclusive look inside the newly renovated statue of

liberty. that's coming up. >> you see the crown? i was in there. [ ross ] we are in the dades gorge,

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welcome back to "early start." it is 51 minutes past the hour. you are taking a live look at the picture of lady liberty. and her torch is nice and lit up there. new york's lady liberty has a new look after a area-long, multi-million dollar makeover. before reopening to the public this weekend, i had an exclusive

tour inside the statue of liberty, along with some of our wounded warriors. the statue of liberty's crown and interior have been closed for a year. but for retired marine corps larry hughes, it's seemingly been longer. that's because the observation level of this iconic symbol of freedom was not wheelchair accessible, until today. >> wow! amazing. >> reporter: hughes, a vietnam vet, is taking the inaugural ride in a newly installed elevator to the statue's observation deck. >> just to be here was something that never really entered into my mind, because simply, i hate to be turned down. i hate to be rejected. so i'm no longer being rejected. i'm being here. >> reporter: the new elevator is just part of a year-long, $30

million renovation, that also includes upgrading stairwells and making safety kbroouchtimpr. the end result, a more accessible lady liberty, that will allow an additional 26,000 visitors each year a chance to enjoy her spectacular views. >> when these adaptations are made, it opens up tremendous opportunities for all of us. >> reporter: among the first to see the new renovations, two generations of severely wounded warriors. i ginned kirk bower, who lost his leg in vietnam, and jesse acosta, who suffered injuries to his hip in a roadside bomb in iraq, on the 146-climb to the top. so you stuck your head out of -- >> the crown! >> reporter: the crown. very cool. what do you think? is it what you expected? >> fantastic. actually, it's more tight than i thought looking up, but just an incredible view. zplp the renovation was full of challenges because of the statue's location and because

they had to do it all without drilling into any part of the historic structure. >> it was a challenge, a huge challenge, because we had to envision all of this, make this building more safe, more code compliant, more accessible, more welcoming. and do it in a way that respected the historic fabric. >> it's very impressive, what they did, to see the investment in these days, in a world heritage site, to allow those with perceived disabilities, those that need access to see some of our historical sites, to be able to touch it and see it that much closer. it's really generous, really wonderful to be here. >> reporter: for the statute superintendent, david loosinger, who has lived on liberty island for more than three years, this moment, the most memorable. >> to be able to welcome our veterans home, and welcome them here, and actually get veterans up into the crown and up into the observation deck is just amazing. >> reporter: grateful construction workers saluting america's heroes on this

historic visit. >> we want to give you a token of thanks, first for coming out and visiting with us, but most importantly, for the service and the dedication that you've done for our country. >> they were thanking us. we should be thanking them. because they're the ones that are making it possible. they're the hands that made this monument open to everyone, including those with disabilities. >> reporter: restored lady liberty truly representing a symbol of freedom for all to enjoy. and work on the monument is expected to be completed early next year. if you are interested the in visiting the statue of liberty's crown, it opens on sunday. tickets are available online. however, demand is so high, the national park service says they are already sold out through the end of the year. but i still wish you luck. because what an experience. >> that was a beautiful piece. and you had a beautiful view. >> i did have a beautiful view and with those guys, i want to say thank you to larry, kirk, and jesse, because they made

this one of the most memorable experiences of my life. it was fantastic. thank you. today's best advice, coming up. president obama: there's just no quit in america... and you're seeing that right now. over five million new jobs. exports up forty one percent. home values... rising. our auto industry... back. and our heroes are coming home. we're not there yet, but we've made real progress and the... last thing we should do is turn back now. 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. so read my plan, compare it to governor romney's... and decide which is better for you. it's an honor to be your president... and i'm asking for your vote... so together, we can keep moving america forward. i'm barack obama and i approve this message.

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have more fiber than other leading brands. they're the better way to enjoy your fiber. we wrap it up with best advice. >> here's christine. >> we asked salsa dancer victor cruz the best advice he ever received. >> the best advice i ever received was my mom telling me that once you start something, finish it. you know, you never want to be seen as a quitter. you never want to be a person that's known to quit things halfway through. so i think that was definitely the best advice she's ever given me, even something not going your way halfway through the