families are pushing the city to let all the family members know what the plan is and whether they agree with it or not. >> that does it for me, thanks very much for watching. i'm wolf blitzer in "the situation room." john king usa starts right now. >> thanks, wolf and good evening, everyone. breaking news out of libya tonight, and to be honest, we're not quite sure how important it is. at least two of moammar gadhafi's sons are floating a proposal under which one of them would retain power. on state television in libya today, no indication that the elder gadhafi is planning to go. we'll go to our rick robertson in just a moment, he has some new details on this political

operation. he's in benghazi and we're learning tonight that they are floating a political proposal out of tripoli under which at least two of the sons are say ig concern gadhafi will leave. i assume this is a nonstarter. >> absolutely, john, they have flat out rejected it. over the past 24, 48 hours, the talk that perhaps the regime is open to a political solution has been spreading here in the opposition capital of benghazi, but the rebels came out with an emphatic statement today saying any agreement that involves the transfer of power from gadhafi to any members of his inner circle is not acceptable. those members of the circle

including saif. i believe we have sound from a rebel spokesperson who spelled it out for us earlier. >> we'll get to that sound in just a minute. let me ask you to stand by. i believe we now have nic robertson in tripoli. the question here, nic is this the first and final offer? his son would succeed him. the question is it a first and final offer or is this the beginning perhaps of the a sign that the regime wants to negotiate? >> reporter: it's not clear if this is sort of a first and final or if there's more to come. i think what we are seeing is that we're seeing a recognition from moammar gadhafi is his place in leading the country is

over and that he needs to move aside. from the sources we're talking to, i do get a sense that he is thinking about his legacy here in the country and how that is going to be remembered seems to be an indication that he really is psychologically preparing to move aside. the way the regime sees this, and i found talking to this source very interesting, that the regime clearly views that gadhafi will not go under the point of the gun. they believe they still have the support of the majority of the country and the majority of the people in the country and that they can continue to fight on and that the rebels can't militarily defeat them. so anything concurrently is defensible. but what i have learned is that gadhafi really at the moment is trying to sell, not just this idea of passing on to his son, to the international community and to the opposition, he's really trying to sell it to the tribes in the country because

there is pushed back -- >> as you can see, some difficulty with nic robertson's shot there. but you could hear nic explaining the breaking news. apologize for the technical trouble there. colonel gadhafi has put tonight a proposal in which that gadhafi would yield power and saif gadhafi would take power. the question here is that the opposition has had a tough week on the battlefield, perhaps a bit of progress today, but the last 72, 100 hours on the battlefie battlefield, would this perhaps begin a negotiation back and forth or if they are forced to deal with one of gadhafi's sons, is it a never mind? >> reporter: i just don't think so at this point, john. and in the progress that the rebel forces made today, it was pal try, it was meager. and this rejection on the part of the opposition with this political solution makes things murkier because there's only two

ways things can go here, for this conflict to be resolved. one is obviously a political diplomatic solution, one is a military victory and it doesn't look like we're close to either of those options. on the battlefield, neither side seems to have a clear advantage, the rebel forces still outgunned, outmanned, they still don't have a single tank that functions. as far as the regime forces go, they certainly potentially could launch an offensive, but they obviously have to worry about those nato air strikes and with this political solution, neither side seems to be ready to make any kind of concession so a whole lot of questions remain with this conflict and where it's going and how it's going to end, john. >> and let's try again with nic robertson in tripoli. the question is, you were explaining we can't quite be certain where this goes. from your conversations with ranking officials today, where do they see it going? do they have a timetable? are they trying to get the

coalition to stop air strikes while there's a diplomatic and political conversation? >> reporter: it's not clear that they are, but one would naturally assume that they're doing anything to sort of get out from underneath the coalition, because it's a military onslaught that they're facing. there haven't been any here in tripoli and you can see the regime is breathing a sigh of relief from that, some of this sort of immediate pressure has been taken off of them in tripoli. but again, this passing of power to the son, it's clear to me, or seems pretty clear that the regime still hasn't built support among all the tribes here and the concern that gadhafi seems to worry about is that if he steps away from power, then the country turns into chaos. again this sounds like an announcement to anyone who's not

sort of hearing the regime and seeing what they're seeing, but this is a position that he's not going to go at the point of a gun. this regime change, while they're demanding regime change up front, if you l that's what they're looking for. while the regime here sort of thinks about this in terms ofs we'll hand over u, but not when the country is going to fall apart. this is kind of grandstanding if you will by gadhafi. gadhafi wanted to be remembered fondly in history. they seem to be locked into this view right now. so i don't see them getting out from under this view until there's a lot more pressure put on them, frankly, because they see this through their own prism and until they're convinced that this prism isn't working it doesn't seem that they're going to buckle for anything less than what they're asking for right

now, john. >> important reporting from ni k robertson in tripoli. i want to talk about this with general wesley clark and david gergen. if you're the president of the united states, the libyan regime can make this argument, we can laugh at the offer, we can say it's unacceptable, we can say it leaves a gadhafi in power, so it's unacceptable, however they can also say to the international community, we're putting a diplomatic proposal on the table, and why don't you stop those air strikes? >> i think the very fact that gadhafi appears ready to step down, it's doubtful his sons would put forward this proposal unless they had some agreement for the father, because he's such a strong figure in their lives that he would be willing to go along with this. from a washington point of view, that's obviously progress. it doesn't solve the problem,

but it begins to give you something. i think the thing to watch, also is what the response is from the arab world in particular, but perhaps from other nations that are part of this coalition. if there is a serious offer on the table for some sort of cease fire and change, well, some of the arab nations say, well, let's call off the air strikes, let's get not keep up all this military pounding and let's see if we can work this out. i'm not sure if that will happen, but it will be something you'll want to watch in washington. >> and general clark, you're the military commander of nato, but you know from your time in charge, you're also a politician, you've got to keep a coalition together, and if one member of nato objects, that can throw the whole thing off the rails. this is not from what we know of it is a serious, acceptable proposal. but it is a diplomatic proposap. you do have a lot of members of nato who have been skiddish about this, the turks saying

we'll only do humanitarian aid. is this a bluff or a tool? >> you would think that gadhafi would have a three pronged strategy, number one he would want to take out the opposition. by bribes, by threats against his family, threats abroad, by any means could he do. number two, he would be trying to strengthen his own forces by bringing more mercenaries and supplies in from the south and number three he would be buying time with diplomacy. i think we have to have a multipronged strategy. he's not going to succeed in destroying the opposition. i don't think he's going to be able to break through the increasing isolation. >> so if you're the general and you're the commanding general of nato and you say, you know what, this is a bluff, but the first proposal is not acceptable, let's see if we can get a better second proposal.

do you tonight say stronger air strikes? hit them harder? nudge them further? or is that still unacceptable even though the military might help you in the end? >> i would be saying keep the military pressure on because this is a sign that it's having an impact. so tighten it up. shorten the amount of time he can gain for delay by putting increased pressure on his forces. if he thinks he can hold out for months, maybe more pressure lets him understand he's not going to make it for months. so you accelerate this and you have fewer innocent lives lost. >> and yet, david, to the point you were making earlier, if you accelerate this right now, if you can get the support to accelerate this right now, you may fray your coalition and the allies, at least the major allies in this might have a bigger problem on their hands? >> i'm not sure how much you would increase the pressure, you might have some real trouble

with that. but this might be a time to really be to investigate if gadhafi is going to step down, how long before he steps down, how long will his son saif stay in power, how many seats in the coalition government would the other side have? it's a lot about whether you can trust saif here. he's spoke on the a lot of people in the west over the last two or three years, trying to convince people that he would change the face of libya. i was one of those, he spent three hours with me. but when he became the butcher long side his father, you had to believe, what was that all about about wanting to westernize it? the guy seems to be like his father. some of the elements here are i think wes is right, gadhafi is going to go, the question is who's going to succeed and could you live with a brief transition in the hands of the son and how many guarantees do you have on that? >> we'll take a quick break on that point. if you're just joining us, a political offer, a diplomatic offer from one of gadhafi's

sons, that colonel gadhafi ultimately would leave power, is it serious? what could happen on the ground and why is the opposition saying flat out unacceptable? we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] twenty-four hour stuck-on food can be a huge project. but not for cascade complete pacs.

with 70% more tough food cleaning ingredients, it's cascade's ultimate power tool for day old stuck-on food. ♪ [ jackhammer rattles ] [ male announcer ] cascade complete pacs. beyond your wildest clean.

with the rising price of fuel, guess which way shipping costs are going? the u.s postal service has no fuel surcharges. combine that with low online pricing... and your shipping costs... ..could head in a whole new direction. it's time to rethink your shipping.

welcome back. if you're just joining us, breaking news out of libya tonight. a diplomatic proposal from colonel gadhafi's sons, saying colonel gadhafi would eventually leave power, one of the sons, saif could take power. the opposition says it is unacceptable, they do not want a gadhafi, any gadhafi running libya at the moment. but is it the start of a diplomatic conversation? david gergen and wesley clark. peter, you're just joining the conversation. let me let you weigh in here, again it is a diplomatic initiative that on the surface is unacceptable. then do you engage in

negotiations or do you say, no, it's a horrible proposal, maybe we'll talk if we come back with a better proposal? >> one of the preconditions is a mutual recognition of a stalemate. and so if this is the beginning of that recognition, that is the beginning of a real negotiation. another precondition would be an accepted third party negotiator. right now i don't see that in any of this discussion, but could the u.n. be part of that? you know, could the arab league, there are various other potentially third party negotiators that would be part of this. but yeah, this is not to be discounted because this is a first step for gadhafi to offer anything is pretty unusual. >> so david gergen, if you're in this very unusual situation right now, if you're the president of the united states who in recent days has said i'm stepping back, let the brits and the germans take the leadership role. but in a moment of

unpredictability, i'm driving. >> i'm not sure he needs to be way out front, but i do think his team will want to be very active behind the scenes to see just how serious this is. there's no question that we seem to have a military stalemate on our hands. that's not something the administration wants to live with very long and if there is a way toward a diplomatic settlement that would be fu fundament fundamental, it would not be everything you want but some of what you want. i would think there would be some growing interest in that. >> could the president have said 37 days ago that gadhafi has to go, could he accept a settlement that he'll go in three months? >> i think he has to go much, much sooner, maybe they can make it graceful, but it's got to be quick. because you don't want the west to be in a situation where they stop the bombing, and as wes

clark says, he fortifies himself in various ways and then breaks his pledge. that i would think would be totally unacceptable. >> general clark, take a walk with me over here. i want to show the state of play as this happens, we have a political initiative from the gadhafi family, we don't know whether we can trust it or not. here's what libya looked like last week. you see the stripes here, this is the opposition. the opposition is doing pretty good. here's the state of play now, you can see the regime has taken back here. so militarily the last 72 hours, 100 hours have gone in gadhafi's favor, yet we do sense some cracks in the regime. when you see this from a militant standpoint, why does this matter? >> i think it does matter, because i think the gadhafi family does understand the end is inevitable in this. the coalition is powerful enough, got enough people, got enough support, they're not going to get stronger over time,

they're going to get weaker. however this seesaw battle goes in the next few days, the impact of training, arms that are coming in, greater familiarity, it's going to tilt the balance in favor of the opposition. so from gadhafi's perspective, i think that time is not on his side and perhaps they understand this, but if they don't, then i hope that we'll do everything we can to encourage them to that effect. >> you say time is not on their side, on this evening, these two instruments of war are being taken off the table. the a-10, the tank killer can take gadhafi's troops off the ground. it's a very powerful war weapon, the ac-130, again the gatlin guns you see on the side here, this can be an incredibly painful experience that you're the ground forces and this is above you and you're coming in contact with, as of tonight, the

u.s. planes taken out of the no fly zone. you say you would press to get a better political offer. would you keep them in the mix for the next couple of days? >> i think it's important that the united states not be in the lead on this. other forces have got capabilities too, let them show what they've got in there, let them keep the pressure, it's important to understand that gadhafi understand this is not just america, this is the world around libya saying it's time for democracy, give people a chance in your country. and i think that it's appropriate to pull back a little bit that the point militarily. >> we'll continue the conversation up here. peter bergen, you know the -- most of the coalition will say this is unacceptable. public opinion in the arab world, could just the fact that there is a proposal on the table, that gadhafi would ultimately go, could it crack

the opposition support, for example? >> gadhafi has so few friends, i doubt it. gadhafi does have a track record of negotiating with opposition elements. for instance he led the cease fire agreement with the islamic fighting group. he not only led the negotiations, he actually initiated them. he does have the reputation in libya of being slightly more reasonable with his other brothers, prince. >> general clark, david gergen. peter's going to stay with us for a little bit. if you've been following libya closely, you most likely have heard the story of the libyan woman who burst into the trip i tripoli. she was taken from the hotel by regime officials. tonight she spoke to cnn's anderson cooper. she wants to share her story with you, but i want to warn you, some of what you're about

to hear is beyond disturbing, certainly not appropriate for children. again this is the conversation earlier with anderson cooper. >> translator: they had my hands tied behind me and they had my legs tied and they would hit me in my body and they would pour alcohol in my eyes so i would not be able to see and they would sodomize me with their riv rifles. they would not let me eat or drinking and this is because i tried to stop them from raping me. these were all armed men, they had rifles and guns, one man would leave, and then another man would enter. he would finish and another man would come in. they would untie my hands and they would rape me. and one of the men when my hands were still tied, before he raped me, he sodomized me with his rifle. >> more of that conversation tonight on "a.c. 360," 10 p.m. eastern. next here, a major white

house about face on terrorism prosecuti prosecutions. what are you looking at? logistics. ben? the ups guy? no, you see ben, i see logistics. logistics? think--ben is new markets. ben is global access-- china and beyond. ben is a smarter supply chain. ben is higher margins. happier customers... everybody wins. logistics. exactly. see you guys tomorrow. [ male announcer ] how could a luminous protein in jellyfish, impact life expectancy in the u.s., real estate in hong kong, and the optics industry in germany? at t. rowe price, we understand the connections of a complex global economy. it's just one reason over 80% of our mutual funds

beat their 10-year lipper average. t. rowe price. invest with confidence. request a prospectus or summary prospectus with investment information, risks, fees and expenses to read and consider carefully before investing. with investment information, risks, fees and expenses somewhere in america, a city comes to life. it moves effortlessly, breathes easily. it flows with clean water. it makes its skyline greener and its population healthier. all to become the kind of city people want to live and work in. somewhere in america, we've already answered some of the nation's toughest questions. and the over sixty thousand people of siemens are ready to do it again. siemens. answers.

the obama administration announced today that the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, khalid sheikh mohammed will be tried by the military. and another major partal promise. those military commissions are held at the guantanamo bay

terrorist detention center which president obama promised to close within a year of taking office. >> the process whereby guantanamo will be closed no later than one year from now. >> i've been very clear that guantanamo is to be closed. >> i have unequivocally prohibited the use of torture by the united states and i have ordered the prison at guantanamo bay closed by early next year. >> so what are the legal and political ram my facings and could this decision as president obama himself has suggested help al qaeda recruit new terrorists? peter bergen and jeffrey toobin. open court, federal court, to these military commissions, does it change the legal dynamics of the case against them? do they have more rights? fewer rights in these commissions? >> they have fewer rights. it's not a big difference, but there is no doubt that a civilian trial with an

independent judge and a civilian jury is more protective of individual rights than in military commission with a military judge and a military jury. this will look a lot like a regular trial, many of the procedures are the same, defense attorneys, right to cross examine witnesses. but in each aspect that they are different, they are different in a way that favors the government. >> so how about on this question. listen to the attorney general here, because we know in the past, khalid sheikh mohammed has said i'm guilty, i'm guilty. he does not dispute being involved, so if he says that in a military commission, here's the question that was put to the attorney general. >> i think the death penalty can be sought. it's not clear whether someone can plead guilty in a military commission and still receive the death penalty. >> is that a way out of the death penalty? >> given the way the death penalty has evolved, they will be, i think a lot of people are familiar with the guilt phase and penalty phase, even if he

pleads guilty in the guilt phase, i think they will go forward with a personality phase about whether he will receive the death penalty. some of the procedures are simply unknown, they're going have to improvise to a certainly extent. there is no way they're going to simply let khalid sheikh mohammed plead guilty and walk out of the possibility of the death penalty. i just don't see that happening. >> peter bergen, we talked in recent weeks, egypt, all the uprising in the middle east, has put al qaeda back on its heels politically. one of the presidents most powerful reasons of closing gitmo, one of general pet trraps reasons for closing guantanamo is it's a recruiting tool, look at what the americans are doing to us. is this potentially an opening? >> it's not just something that

al qaeda uses as a recruiting tool. seven out of ten muslims in very major polling disapprove of the handling of guantanamo, it's not just about al qaeda, it's about our standing generally. will this affect it more largely in terms of, i don't see this as being -- khalid sheikh mohammed is not someone who's a huge hero in the muslim world. so i don't see this as substantially changing that narrative. what it does -- it just shows the continuity between the second bush term and obama, of which there are many. >> we know the aclu and other liberal organizations want gitmo closed, they would prefer this to be a civilian trial in a civil court. >> i think that's really in the eye of the beholder, but it is a very substantial reverse by the obama administration. i mean, in the world where presidents and presidential

candidates don't make many very specific promises, this was a very specific promise by the then senator barack obama. to close guantanamo and that promise is out the window. whether the fault lies with his own administration for mishandling the process or it lies with cowardly politicians who grandstand about the rirvsk of civilian trials which really were not much risk, we'll never know, but the fact is that promise is out the window, and it is a big change. >> i was going to ask this question, first to jeff and then to peter. so we're almost 10 years since 9/11. and none of these, i'll call them alleged terrorists to be polite have been brought to trial. does this finally, jeff, at least maybe get some closure? >> well, it's at least the beginning of the end of the legal process. it is an outrage. it is a disgrace. ten years of holding people

without trial is something that is really contrary to the american system of justice. whether a military tribunal is an adequate substitute for aivea civil trial, but it's completely unacceptable of holding these people year after year without any kind of trial. at least there's going to be some kind of trial. >> it is tough for the families of the victims to not have had any closure, any procedures, any due diligence in justice for those who were killed to have the alleged perpetrators brought to trial. does it play out in the world? is that part of the argument, they have been holding these guys for years, the united states is not a fair and just society? or does that matter. >> the anniversary of 9/11 is coming up, everybody knows that, as jeff as indicated, i think one of the tragedies here is federal terrorism trials in new york city have like 100% conviction rate, military

tribunals are untested. i would prefer to be tried in a military tribunal than in new york. >> if -- i don't want to speak to sentence. but if you were one of them, you would prefer to be in a military court? >> ironically, military trials have tended to favor the defendants more in terms of the sentencing. >> but you don't expect that in this case, do you, mr. toobin? >> i think a guy that has boast it about his role in 9/11, that only ends with the executioner. >> ahead, you're counting, right, 582 days until the presidential election of 2012. and tonight we have our first official candidate. and is gadhafi handing over control to hiss son saif in and would that be enough for the opposition?

you say you can beat any advertised price on tires. correct. anywhere. yes. like this price? yes. seriously? yes. what about this one? i'll beat it. this one? yes, i will. alright, i have only one more question for you. is one? yes. buy 4 tires, get a $100 rebate. and that's on top of our low price tire guarantee. 3 million tires, 11 major brands, fiona's kind of nice, i don't know why you're not here.

i don't have to leave my desk and get up and go to the post office anymore.

welcome back. if you're just joining us, there's important breaking news out of libya. two of moammar gadhafi's sons are reporting to try and ease gadhafi out of power with one of his sons willing to take control of the government. gadhafi says he will not step down at the point of gun. gadhafi still says he has the support of most of the people and that the opposition cannot

defeat him. he also believes that by transferring power to his son, libya will not descend into chaos. but the opposition says no deal, they want the whole gadhafi family to go. officials at the fukushima nuclear power plant have started dumping radioactive water into the ocean. the federal government faces a partial shut down friday if a short-term agreement is not reached. and southwest airlines cancelled 70 flight s today as it contins to inspect it's airplanes for fatigue. today the faa ordered additional testing of certain older 737s which are still being used by a number of u.s. carriers. southwest airlines flight was leaving here from phoenix, it's destination was sacramento, california. but it made an emergency landing here in yuma, arizona after it

had that rupture. let's take a look at the boeing 737-300. this plane is in common use all around the world. not just here in the united states. 109 feet long, here's where the damage came. a five-foot by one foot opening, right on the top of the airplane. this is the issue here, you can see the rip here, you see the rip on the top. this is why these new inspections are underway to see if there's some problem with the skin in the older aircraft, whether there's a problem of more ruptures in the skin, that is what the faa has ordered, but watch this one as it plays out with southwest canceling more flights today as the inspections are underway. we'll come back to this story. what would you do if you had a billion, that's billion with b, perhaps run for president? we'll get some financial advise after the break.

>> announcer: this past year alone there's been a 67% spike in companies embracing the cloud-- big clouds, small ones, public, private, even hybrid. your data and apps must move easily and securely to reach many clouds, not just one. that's why the network that connects, protects, and lets your data move fearlessly through the clouds means more than ever.

imagine having $1 billion. okay, that's enough, who can imagine having $1 billion besides bill gates and barack obama. the president made it official today, he's running for election. >> there's so many things that are still on the table that need to be addressed. and we want them to be addressed by president obama. >> so why start so soon, especially when there's no major primary challenge on the horizon and not even an official republican candidate yet? three warords, money, money and

money. david axelrod saying the fundraising goal could top $1 billion. >> so it takes time to build organization, it takes time to raise the kind of money to compete with the kind of money we're going to see on the other side. >> what is the ballpark you're talking about? you see people throwing out figures like a billion dollars. >> i'm not going to put a number on it. obviously that would be more than what was spent last time. i don't know if in this economy that's going to be the case. but it would be a lot of money, more than anybody would like to see spent. >> a billion dollars. a billion dollars? what could you do with a billion dollars. let's take a closer look. maybe the president doesn't want to use it. the average annual salary in america, if you took 26,000 people making the average annual salary in america, 26,000 people, that would give you a billion dollars. so that's a lot of money. that's one way to look at it. let's say the president raised a billion and he didn't use it all

up, he could help all these states close their budget gaps. states out of the crisis, at least for this year. that's one way, we're joking. here's another way to look at it. this is one dollar. six inches, take these, one billion of them, stretch them out end to end. guess what happens? they circle the globe four times. let's raise the curtain on 2012. gentlemen, start with this question, buy? and cornel to you first, and since the president's the first one in, the democrat, why does he need a billion dollars? why might there be a record three billion spent on this presidential psych until. >> i think what you're going to see the president do is build

one of the most far reaching organizational groups the country has ever seen. the president said in his announcement, it's about you all, it's about we. it's a continuation of the theme he started two years ago in his presidential election. we're going to build this community by community, we're going to listen to people all across the country, community by community and we're not going to take anything for granted. we're going to be playing in all of these states in all of these communities. >> the more people you get involve the better, but eric, when i hear $1 billion on the president's side, $3 billion total, i say build a bunker. we're going to have some nasty tv ads. >> it's clear the president's already not winning in the south, since he said you all and not y'all. across the board, we're going to have to see grass roots, the republicans really fell behind in 2008, they diminished what president bush started in 2000 and carried over to 2004. the mccain campaign didn't

invest in it the way he should have. not that that would have made a difference, but the republicans have the ability to raisin from structure more than the democrats. i suspect that the 1 billion dlrsz is more hype than reality. >> the president is the first candidate to officially announce for re-election, so each of you take a shot and be as polite as you could. write the bumper sticker, back in 2008, it was hope and change. what's the slogan for 2012? >> you know, given the way david axelrod's been talking the last 24 hours, maybe morning in america. maybe the republicans will spell it mourning in america. >> bill clinton ran on building a bridge to the 21st century. how does the president try to make the case that times are tough, but you're better off. >> we're continuing to build, part of it is, look, when we took this office, the economy

was in a nose dive, we have pulled the economy up out of a nose dive, and we have gotten 12 straight months of job growth. because of the president's actions, insurances can't kick people off of insurance. more people have the ability to have insurance than ever before. we're moving in the right direction and we need to build on what we started. change is here, we got to continue to build on it. >> today is curtain raising day. we're still waiting for an official announcement from a republican candidate. we know a half dozen or so who are testing the waters, when you're the incumbent, sometimes it almost doesn't matter what you're running against. in the next 582 days between now and election day, the president's approval rating and the unemployment rate. look at president obama, he's at 51% approval rate. george w. bush was at 71% at this point back in his

re-election, it's a distorted number, the iraq war, popular at the time had just begun when the president announced hiss re-election campaign. bill clinton was at 44%. george h.w. bush was at 44%. here's a telling number, 8.8% unemployment, george h.w. bush was at 7.1%. that's what i see as the comparison moat worth watching. george h.w. bush argued things are getting better, look at the statistics. we're coming out. pretty much the same argument president obama is going to have to make in this campaign. >> the connection thing is important. people are going to have to feel it. we can't stop talking about where we've come from and where we are right now. the president's approval fum bers are important. if you look at the unemployment statistics and the number of people still anxious about the economy, he has a majority job approval is kind of important and kind of historic. you go back and look at where bill clinton was at 44. we are a long way from there.

incumbents in this country with 47, 48% job approval tend not to lose unless something extraordinary happens. >> when you look at those numbers, carnell does make a good point. 51%, it's not fantastic, but it's pretty good. >> it is. i would say there's an additional indicator there for unemployment that needs to be looked at. and that is wage growth compared to inflation. if you actually correspond unemployment to wage growth, what you find in the past 30, 40 years when wage growth is going down and em unemployment is high, presidents tend to always lose the reelection. we're on the third straight month of wage decline compared to inflation. that number needs to turn around for the president. we can say what we want about unemployment. i think the president and i both hope that's not the case. but if the prevailing wage for people, they feel like they're getting less money per dollar in 2012, the. the is going to have a hard time with reelection.

>> we're going to do a lot of this. now that we have the official curtain raising campaign in 2012. >> in libya, including heavy fight on the frontlines, rebel forces say they have brega surrounded. are air strikes finally taking effect? top safety pick. even better. but they're going fast. so, i guess this is where you tell me i got to hurry or it's gone right? yep. going going gone. get it? it's funny. [ male announcer ] the volkswagen going going gone event. right now, lease the all-new jetta s for just $179 a month. visit vwdealer.com today. and here's what we did today: we put almost three million americans to work... ...adding nearly 400 billion dollars to the economy. generated over two and a half million kilowatts of electricity... ...enough energy to power a quarter of america.

we gave your kids a cleaner ride to school. kept the lights on during a calm day at the wind farm. heated 57 million u.s. homes. simmered grandma's chicken noodle soup. melted tons of recycled glass. roasted millions of coffee beans. provided electricity for nearly 29 million home computers. heated your bathwater. cooked your takeout. lit your way home. we helped america import less of its energy. cleared the air by burning cleaner than other fuel sources, with less pollutants and no mercury. and tomorrow, we could do even more. we're cleaner, domestic, abundant and ready now. we're america's natural gas. the smarter power today. learn more at anga.us. [ male announcer ] an everyday moment can turn romantic anytime. and when it does, men with erectile dysfunction can be more confident in their ability to be ready with cialis for daily use. ♪

cialis for daily use is a clinically proven low-dose tablet you take every day so you can be ready anytime the moment's right. ♪ tell your doctor about your medical condition and all medications, and ask if you're healthy enough for sexual activity. don't take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain, as this may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. [ man ] do not drink alcohol in excess with cialis. side effects may include headache, upset stomach, delayed backache, or muscle ache. to avoid long-term injury, seek immediate medical help for an erection lasting more than 4 hours. if you have any sudden decrease or loss in hearing or vision, stop taking cialis and call your doctor right away. [ male announcer ] ask your doctor if cialis for daily use is right for you. for a 30-tablet free trial offer, go to cialis.com.

>> latest now, breaking news out of libya tonight, two of moammar gadhafi's sons are talking about

trying to ease their father out of power. unacceptable to the opposition so far. meanwhile, let's take a closer look, another busy day on the battlefield. just last week, sthfs the opposition. they made gains moving west. that's last week. the regime has made significant gains right here. there was fighting thank you, brega was the big point today. if you watch this play out carefully right there, opposition troops coming under heavy fire. among those right out there on the battlefield with us was our ben wedeman. let's start with the play on the battlefie battlefield. you were watching some pretty heavy fighting. take us to the scene. >> what happened was we arrived just outside brega with the opposition forces when suddenly we heard these huge thumps as

artillery rounds came -- were coming in. this actually happened three separate times in about the space of half an hour. we and hundreds of opposition fighters pulled way back to get out of range of that artillery. but in the afternoon, what we saw is that, rather than artillery coming from the cat daffy forces, it was the opposition that was firing fairly intense rocket barrage in the direction of brega. i spoke to a commander of the opposition forces who said they had taken over new brega, a residential area next to the town of brega and they expected to move into the town within the next 24 hours. i think we're beginning to see the effects of two weeks of air strikes in the no-fly zone. it's now very difficult for the gadhafi royal forces to be resupplied. it does appear that they may be running low on food and

ammunition. and despite the weaknesses of the rebel forces, they do seem to be making some advances after some fairly dramatic retreats. john? >> and brega obviously would be a strategic town for the opposition to retake. it's been a bit of a football going back and forth. you mentioned the cumulative impact of the no-fly zone and some of the strike, yet we continue to hear complaints from opposition figures that say in the past 24 hours, they don't think they're getting as much help as they would like. is that fair? >> actually, it's more like the last 72 hours, there have been relatively few nato air strikes in this area. we heard the planes overhead. earlier, nato said they weren't able to carry out any air strikes because of bad weather, but today was clear and sunny, barely a cloud in the sky. but nonetheless, at least while we were there, there were no air strikes to speak of. that may be because the gadhafi

forces are in the town itself, in the refinery itself. so there may be some hesitation by nato to drop any bombs in the refinery, and the town itself because of the possibility of civilian casualties. john? >> ben wedeman for us tonight. thanks. this is the state of play. some would call it stalemate. opposition in charge of these towns in the east. dispute in brega. disputed territory in misurata as well. the united states was taking its flights, taking its planes out of the battle. will that continue? supposed to come off the battlefield as of this evening. also the ac-130 here. you can see if you look on the side, the gatling guns that come