for voice, data or texting plan, a second one is when you hit the limit. all that is in an effort to end bill shock, that sudden increase in your monthly wireless charge but you didn't actually elect to change that. that's happened to at least 30 million americans that we know of. one of the most egregious charges we've seen, you expect $100, $1,000. the most egregious, $68,000. can you imagine talking that much? >> some people in the industry said they didn't have the technology to actual dloi that, but the government pushed, pushed, pushed. oh, yes, there is an agreement. joya dass, thank you. good to see you. "american morning" continues right now. i'm carol costellq carol co. candidates square off. we will preview the debate and break down the poll numbers just

ahead, 477 for what? the lopsided prisoner exchange between israelis and palestinians taking place overnight. hamas calls is a great day. some israelis say the price for a captured soldier is just too high. a live report just ahead. and i'm christine romans, getting congress to pass the jobs bill piece by piece. some say the president's trip is more about one job. saving his own. now president obama is responding on this "american morning." -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com good morning to you. it is tuesday, october 18th. welcome to "american morning." a little chill in the air here in new york, but not where carol is. >> out in the desert, carol costello is getting ready for politics in the desert. joining us live this morning, good morning, carol. >> oh, good morning. you know the best thing about las vegas right at this moment?

>> gambling? >> besides that. it's 3:00 in the morning here, and there's a starbucks open. >> at a casino. >> i'm loving it. and there are people around. yes. it's just like at 8:00. i love las vegas. it is a fitting location, too, for tonight's western republican presidential debate, because this is the city that makes or breaks fortunes every single day. a lot of preparation has gone into tonight's event co-hosted by cnn and the republican western leadership conference. in just three days, a 45,000 square foot set built from the ground up at the venetian center, including two humongous monitors, an enormous chandelier and seating for 400 people. look at that. those people working around the clock since friday. quite the political circus here in las vegas. of course, minus the white tent. tonight at 8:00 eastern, a field

of seven will be in the glare, the las vegas spotlight, highlighted by mitt romney and herman cain, the long shot. look at numbers. romney and cain now in a statistical dead heat with romney add 26% and cain at 25%. rick perry and ron paul well back rounding out the top four. newt gingrich finished fifth with 8% followed by michele bachmann and rick santorum. jon huntsman is last. he's boycotting tonight. let's bring in paul steinhauser live from las vegas his morning. have you been to the starbucks that's open this morning? >> not yet, but i'm going. >> i almost dumped it on myself. let's talk about herman cain, because it's just amazing. it seems he has holding pow are. does he? >> gone from zero to 60 in every poll including ours.

why is he surging in the polls? we'll look at numbers pup said, these are brand new numbers, out moments ago. which candidate among republicans only is more likely to get the economy moving again? look who's on top. herman cain. seven points ahead of mitt romney. who's the most likable candidate? once again, herman cain, 34%. slightly ahead of mitt romney. you can see rick perry pretty far down. two reasons he's zursurged to t top. the next number. you can see. who's most likely to win the nomination. republicans say by far -- by far -- mitt romney at 51%. cain at 18%. perry at 14% and which can win against obama next year, mitt romney. cain a distant second. >> talking to people around here, they say herman cain is funny, says things in a way we can understand him.

we kind of like his 9-9-9 plan but don't get it yet. i talked to the mayor of las vegas. she said, yeah, the 9-9-9 plan sounds good, but seriously we need a plan that starts now. ste doesn't believe the 9-9-9 plan would do that. >> nevada has highest unemployment in the nation. when the debate paps you're going to see herman cain coming under more scrutiny. >> we know herman cain made a few gaffes in the last few days. he has to be careful. can't be quite so plain spoken anymore. >> he has definitely been under the spotlight. >> talk about jon huntsman. he won't be at tonight's debate because he's protesting nevada moving up its caucus. >> that's why he's placing all his chips, a gambling term, on new hampshire. if new hampshire moves its date,

he's not taking part here and not even in the debate. more news on the primary caucus calendar. iowa announcing yesterday they're going on january 3rd, as we thought. take a look at calendar. january 3rd, iowa. january 14th nevada. new hampshire, first in the nation, primary's boxed in. saying to nevada, unless you move back we are threatening to move our primary to december. we'll see how that falls. >> and saying i'm all for it, candidates should be here talking to people in nevada, because this is a microcosm of the nation. different nationalities are here. people from all sorts of socioeconomic backgrounds. she says you can't say that about new hampshire or iowa. candidates here talking face to face and you move that caucus up they're more likely going to be here for a long time. >> they want to be in the primary caucus, seven of the eight candidates here tonight. talking about the calendar. talk about november. cnn just afounding overnight, a

brand new debate. yes another debate. national security and foreign policy in the spotlight. d.c. think tankses, and the heritage foundation, november 15th. >> can't way. exciting, paul steinhauser, thanks. stay with cnn all morning for the best political coverage on television. at 8:45 eastern i will be joined by ron paul who just released his big economic plan. he says he'll make $1 trillion in cuts to government spending and balance the nation's budget in his first year in office. a tall order. we'll ask him about it. join us tonight at 8:00 eastern for live coverage of the western republican presidential debate. anderson cooper will moderate and i'll be there, too, and we'll bring all the analysis to you tomorrow morning on "american morning." >> a great lineup, including ron paul but others on politics all morning. see you in a minute. for a second day in a row president obama hits the road to

tout his jobs plan. the president will be speaking in north carolina and virginia. these, of course, are two states critical to his re-election hopes, and while republicans accuse the president of campaigning on the taxpayers' ti dime, the president insisted he's just trying to put americans back to work. >> look -- i -- i appreciate the four more years, but right now i'm thinking about the next 13 months. because, yes we've got an election coming up, but that election's a long way away and a lot of folks can't wait. a lot of folks are living paycheck to paycheck. a lot of folks are living week to week. >> he said his jobs plan maybe altogether couldn't get it in congress. take apart to pass it one by one. if that makes it easier to do their job. the president's re-election

campaign, reaching a milestone. it received financial contributions from 1 million grass roots donors now. this is happening right now. a highly historic, highly controversial prisoner swap overnight between israel and hamas. take a look. live pictures from ramallah, this is mahmoud abbas, head of the palestinian authority. the israelis have freed 477 palestinians. look at that crowd. they've freed 477 palestinian prisoners today in exchange for one captive israeli soldier. another 550 palestinians are due to be released in another two months. meantime, that israeli soldier, gilad shalit, is returning home as a national hero after five years in hamas captivity. he was 19 years old when he was captured five years ago. cnn kevin flower is following the developments live in jerusalem for us right now. it looks festive on both sides, kevin. what's the situation?

>> reporter: well, five years and four months almost after the day that gilad shalit was kidnapped he was released from hamas captivity today, crossed into egypt and then into israel. a hero's welcome here in israel. he has been sort of at the center of a very public campaign by his family and by many supporters in israel to have him released for years now. there's been this public campaign. there have been on and off again negotiations to come up with some sort of deal. finally that deal was accepted last week. it's a deal that sees, as you said, over 1,000 palestinian prisoners being released. a lot of good feelings on the palestinian side, in the gaza strip and ramallah, the pictures we just showed, some of these palestinian prisoner, coming home, but on both sides, it's

tempered by the fact that this is a deal that certainly satisfies some people, but not all. there are many israelis who say the price being paid for gilad shalit's return is simply too high. that there are terrorists being released who could attack israeli citizens again, and on the palestinian side, a sense that there is still thousands of palestinian prisoners languishing in israeli jails who they believe should be released right away, ali. >> kevin, on both sides, those who don't think this was a fair deal, is that a minority on the fringes? do most palestinians and israelis think that this was, that they got something good out of this deal? >> reporter: i think so. i think both sides at this point -- the positive emotions are overshadowing the naysayers at this point. it is really hard to underestimate the impact that the captivity of gilad shalit has had on israeli society.

he has become sort of an icon of early soldiers successive governments working incredibly hard to try and get him returned, and, likewise, for the palestinian side. to see this many prisoner, almost 20% of palestinian prisoners released in a two-month period is quite an achievement. >> let us know if anything further develops we'll get you back on. kevin flower for cnn. and the power couple. mr. goodman served three terms at the city's mayor then his wife took over. do you think the gop will deliver under those bright vegas lights? >> carol is live there, as you know, all this morning. tonight's the big debate and the save of a lifetime. a little boy dangling from the window of a burning building. a firefighter waiting below with open arms. we'll tell you what happened, and hear from the hero. it's 13 minutes after the hour.

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test. . welcome back. we are live in las vegas for tonight's big western republican debate. take a look at the venetian. doesn't it look beautiful with that big anderson cooper head plastered all over it? seriously now, few places have been hit harder by the recession. under the lights, that city that leads the nation in foreclosure, also in unemployment, people are looking for big ideas tonight. one is betting for the city's future that would be las vegas' past mayor and its current mayor. >> first acquired the building, acquired it for $1. >> reporter: the bill and hillary of las vegas, only some say better. >> don't tell them i think so, too.

>> reporter: the flamboyant and charismatic oscar served at mayor here for three terms. yes, his trademark, show girls. since the wildly popular oscar could not run a fourth term his wife carolyn carried on running for mayor herself and winning. yes, they're glad republicans are debating here but doubt they'll hear a plan that will create jobs now. >> we're first responders and haven't heard any idea yet that will bring this community back to where it was as far as job creation. >> reporter: but mayor carolyn goodman is trying. she's investing city money in health care facilities, a performance arts center and museums. in fact, we're standing in what will be las vegass new mob museum. as in gangsters. promotion has already begun. that's mayor oscar on tv's "csi." >> everybody raise their glass and we'll say, salute.

>> reporter: yes. goodman gets shot in hollywood's version of vegass soon to be mob museum. but as they say, any bub listy is good publicity if it brings attention to a city desperate to recover. i'll let new on a secret. mayor goodman didn't actually die in that "csi" episode. he'll be back to live another day on tv. that's just fine with his wife, the current mayor goodman. she has a tall order, ali and christine. she wants las vegas known for something other than gambling. she wants people to come leer to see a great symphony or an art gallery that's admired around the world, or something like this mob museum that's in downtown las vegas as opposed to the strip. that's a tall order. she says, yeah, we love gambling and all of that, but we need to diversify to get people back to work and get a new kind of tourism into las vegas. >> i think that's starting to happen, carol. had i think of vegas, and i've

been there a few times. people go to shows. people make dinner reservations well ahead of time. they're looking -- and i'm one ever them. i gamble for 15 seconds. no kidding. i don't really like gambling, and i like to do all the other stuff. >> because you're responsible. there are other things, too. great hiking an hour outside of the city. lake meade is quite beautiful. go to the hoover dam and see that wonderful bit of technology. they're teallying all of these other things in order to get people back. what they want from the federal government, they like the infrastructure bank. they want to put money into the infrastructure to get the construction workers long out of work here back to work. >> all construction workers. a big housing boom there. i go out with the guys, a motorcycle ride. the grand canyon, it's really very nice out there. carol, we will be back with you momentarily. good, busy morning for carol in

las vegas. for all of us, of course, a big night with the republican debate coming up tonight. and a real inferno outside of boston. a grandmother holding a young boy out of her third window and losing her grip. so the firefighter, thankfully, this guy was there to make the catch. the 6-year-old boy landed right in his arms. look at this. >> i knew she wasn't going to be able to hold him forever. i said, go ahead and drop. >> crazy. >> wow. >> a dozen people hurt including two firefighters and a police officer. they arrested the man too started the blaze by cutting a gas line and igniting it around 1:00 a.m. monday morning. that's gutsy. cutting a gas line and lighting it on fire. he's lucky to be alive, and criminal and not a good thing to do. >> rob marciano in the extreme weather center. >> sounds like a hollywood

script. speaking of a script, check this out out of -- out of texas. sorry. lubbock, texas. talk about a little bit of a brain, you know -- we are looking at a dust storm out of lubbock, west texas, yesterday. winds were gusting to near hurricane strength as a cold front passed through the area. not a whole lot of rain but a lot of wind that kicked up the dust, knocked out power. did some damage. moved some planes around at the airport. this haboob moved through rapidly and shut down the city at least temporarily with also some of the sparks and power lines that dropped. there were wildfires set as well. windy conditions across texas as well. with this cluster of thunderstorms, some of which are severe across parts of louisiana, heading across the midsouth and rainfall as far north as indiana and rain across parts of south florida. this tropical wave we talk about yesterday.

probably won't get caught up in a whole lot. interact with land. a small chance of becoming a tropical system. regardless, tropical moisture teams with this guy creating a mess heading up over the east coast in the form of heavy rain. here you go. the two get together. the mid-atlantic sees it first and it moves up towards the northeast and then chilly conditions behind this. temperatures drop into the 20s and some cases 30 degrees and a lot of folks feeling the fall effect. guys, back up to you. >> we're going to get 20s and 30s? >> you'll get temperatures that will drop 20 degrees. >> i see. got it. okay. >> don't need to break out the winter parka just yet. >> be in the 30 this morning? probably? >> at least at night. coming up, alarming trend for americans with credit cards. that's right. we'll "mind your business" on that coming up next. it's 22 minutes after the hour. 26 after the hour.

"minding your business" this morning. stocks, a steep sell-off. the nasdaq and s&p 500 all drops and trading slightly over, the dow, because of lingering concerns about europe's debt crisis and worries about bank earnings. in less than an hour, bank ever america which has been running unbillions in mortgage related losses will report its third quarter earnings and we'll hear from rival bank goldman sachs and tech giants apple, yahoo! and intel report earnings later today, so will coca-cola. speaking of apple, it's breaking sales record with the iphone 4s. the company sold 4 million since its launch friday. more than twice as many as the iphone 4 during its opening weekend last year, and a surtax on people making $1 million or more. that portion of the plan provideses $35 billion in aid to states to help preserve or create jobs for teachers and first responders. weren't of the men who helped

with president obama auto bailout has a new job saving the u.s. postal service. ron bloom hired by the national association of letter carrier, the union. the postal service could soon run out of money and is looking to slash $20 billion by 2015. appears americans are having trouble keeping up with their credit card bill. late payments up slightly last month. that would make it the first month since february of 2009, the depth of the recession, so many issuers reported an uptick in late payments. "american morning" will be right back after the break. but did you know they're good for you too? they're high in vitamins and potassium. and idaho potatoes are now certified to carry the heart checkmark from the american heart association for foods low in saturated fat and cholesterol. so they're good for my family, and for yours. heart smart idaho potatoes.

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see what a raymond james advisor can do for you. all right. welcome back to "american morning." it's an 30 minutes past the hour. your top story this morning. after five years in hamas

captivity, gilad shalit returned. in exchange for the israeli prisoner's freedom, israel released 477 palestinian prisoners today. 550 more follow in two months. looking at live pictures out of ramallah. there are reports of clashes between palestinians and israelis waiting to greet prisoners released in the west bank. and turning up the heat on republicans by president obama. north carolina then virginia to pressure lawmakers to has his $447 billion jobs plan, defeated last week, piece by piece. >> with under 14 hours to go before tonight's western republican presidential debate, a new cnn/orc poll has mitt romney and herman cain in a statistical dead heat with the majority of voters saying cain is most likely to get the economy moving again while

romney is most likely to win the republican nomination and beat president barack obama. oh, and let's talk about that debate, christine. seems only fitting the gambling capital of the world is the backdrop for tonight's cnn western republican presidential debate, because the stakes couldn't be higher, quite frankly, and one of these candidates might have to take a few risks in order to be a winner. joining me, the chairman of the western republican leadership conference. his organization is co-hosting tonight's debate along with cnn. welcome, john. >> thank, good morning. >> how excited are you right now? >> oh, we're excited. what better place to be than las vegas? >> i have to tell you, it's gorgeous. everything. inside the venue is gorgeous. outside. lively, people seem excited. >> we're proud of what we do here in our community. the tourism capital of the world. what better place? we want to make sure you enjoy your stay while here, carol. get into the casino, will you? spend some time. >> good advice, i like that. let's talk about the candidates first, because there is so much interest right now in herman

cain. wipe do you think that is? >> i think that contrary to traditional wisdom, you hear the polls republicans haven't made up their minds. i think all the transparency, all the debates are making each one of these events as good as the last if not better because of all the information. so i wouldn't doubt that we see the ebb and flow of these candidates throughout the debates, but i think it's exciting. it's all great. it's really great. >> mitt romney has been a favorite in nevada. right? >> yes. the govern hear been to nevada many times, but i'll tell you, from looking at the polls, it's still early. we are fortunate as republicans. we have depth in our candidates and that's another reason republicans are getting mobilized, especially ground zero in nevada and the western states, what's happening in the economy and challenges for our families. >> getting mobilized, but certainly no decisions. two-thirds of republicans are still undecided? what does that say? >> what's important is that the

majority of republicans are pleased with the depth of the candidacy. right now, again, with the blogs and technology, and the internet and news, like "american morning," i think the republicans are waiting to see, and presidential campaigns are really like a motion picture. they're not a snapshot in time. especially with technology. so i think they're waiting for the next moment, the next move, to see what happens, and i think that's all positive. >> let's talk about the caucus primary war, because you can probably safely say nevada is sort of a kind of political war with new hampshire, because nevada wants to move up its caucus. that's made new hampshire mad. if you're going to do that, maybe we'll move up our primary. so why is nevada doing that? >> well, again, i think what's important is that the presidential candidates see what's happening in nevada and in the west, and i believe that nevada wants to make sure that our challenges are heard in washington, d.c. and, again, i think that this conversation around the caucuses will be resolved, but more

importantly, all the energy and all the excitement about the caucuses and the election is going to help us in november of 2012. >> is moving the caucus more about pumping money into the economy than it is about politics? >> well, we're looking to create jobs. there's no question about it. even our events, the western republican leadership conference, it's important for us to mobilize republicans in the west, because our voice has not always been heard, but absolutely. it's about creating jobs and the economy. we love to have you come to las vegas, because that brings more jobs. so it absolutely has to do with jobs, but we want to make sure the that the western states are heard. 16 states and territories are represe represented. we have unique challenges to the rest of the country. air quality, to public lands, to water. but also it's ground zero for job and unemployment problems. we're happy to have everyone here. >> back to the candidates for a second. because of the caucus primary

war jon huntsman has boycotted. "saturday night live" had an interesting skit on saturday. i don't know if you've seenit. play the clip. >> in a locked janitor's closet 0 congresswoman michele bachmann and a curio from a bygone product, newt gingrich. out in the parking garage, it's texas congressman ron paul. and live from a crowded gay bar in the castro district of san francisco, rick santorum. >> very funny. >> okay. it was really funny, but the point here is, these candidates are not doing well in the polls, they're taking part in the debate. many people i talked to yesterday feel there is so many voices in the debate right now they can't really get to know any one candidate. when might that field of

debaters be wheeled down? >> this is healthy and i think each debate will narrow the field a little bit more, and i think what's great about politics, we can laugh about it and laugh at ourselves, but we have a lot of good folks that have stepped up to the plate and run, and i think debates like we're having here in las vegas are going to help narrow the field and come january and the caucus, i think there will be a different number of candidates running. again, i think it's all about 2012, and especially during our conference here, it's about western states and what we can do to make a difference. >> we can't wait. 8:00 eastern. breaking news. let's toss it back to new york. we have breaking news from libya this morning. secretary of state hillary clinton just arriving in tripoli on a surprise visit. she is the first cabinet-level u.s. official to visit the libyan capital since it was liberated from gadhafi loyalists two months ago. clinton will meet with leaders

of the ruling national transitional council to discuss libya's political future. our jill dougherty is with the second and will join us for a live report from tripoli as soon as we can establish a signal with her. we'll stay on top of that. >> all right. up next -- herman cain trying to mend fences. the candidate saying he was only kidding about that 20-foot high electric fence he'd build on the border with mexico. he's apologizing, but is he sorry? and what is his immigration policy? you decide when "american morning" continues. our 4 new rich & hearty soups really have people talking... [ guy ] ring, ring. progresso... i love your new loaded potato with bacon. that's what we like to hear. ring, ring. progresso... ...switch our phone service? ...no, i think we're pretty happy with our phones. [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup.

the pentagon is insisting that talks with iraq regarding u.s. troop withdrawals have not hit a snag. officials say talks are ongoing and no decision on an agreement allowing some troops to remain next year. currently the plan, drawn down all troops by the end of december. don't be surprised if herman cain talks telling fence jokes. cain claims he was just joking on saturday when he said he'd build a 20-foot high electrified fence with barbed wire along the u.s.-mexican border. cain appeared on "john king usa" while he's not backing down from

his comment, he's offering up this concession. >> john, yeah, i haven't learned how to be politically correct yet. so, yes, it probably wasn't the right thing to say and i did not mean to offend anybody. >> didn't mean to offend anyone but he did say other things that suggested he wasn't joking. he also said, by the way, he was joke wlg he wrote and op-ed a couple of weeks ago, or a couple of years ago saying that tiger woods should be the president of the united states one day. if cain really was joking, michele bachmann is not laughing. the minnesota congresswoman believes in the need for a border fence and doesn't find cain's comments about them funny. >> i also want to say that this is no laughing matter. the border fence. we've seen jokes made by presidential candidates about the fence. it is not a joke. this is a real issue. it's a serious issue. >> immigration border fences are sure to be part of the conversation tonight at the western republican presidential debate.

live on cnn at 8:00 p.m. eastern, anderson cooper moderates. carol costello is there this morning and will be there tomorrow morning for all the morning after analysis. >> and jim acosta will drop by to talk about gop, immigration where it stands and the whole border fence controversy. remember in 2005, congress overwhelmingly passed a law to build a border fence and it's been just -- lots of problems. >> the fence is shorthand for what policy you have. that's probably the bigger issue here. what do they all think we do about immigration policy? >> at that time, the whole idea, if you could secure the border first you could have a grown-up debate about changing american immigration laws, allowing more skilled workers in, making sure you're matching people with what the economy needs. you have humanitarian programs but never secured the border. so all of the same, just a hot rhetoric keeps going on about immigration. jim acosta will be by with more on that. a quick check of this morning's top stories coming up

and a divorce of a major league baseball team. and could your kid pick out the candy, choose between the candy and the medicine just by looking at it? probably not, according to a survey conducted by a couple of sixth graders. why their findings has drown national interest. the things we can't leave home without. ipods are a big one. twitter is the most amazing thing where you have, like, this instant connection with your fans. >> and reading david byrne's book. >> its opened my eyes to the positive things about being a tourist. being somewhere for one day and

admitting what you have no idea about but still finding kind of purpose in t. i make it a priority to buy as many postcards as possible at museums. my postcard collection is pretty mean. it's growing. find as much visual art at possible. >> i buy a lot of posters on tour. prints. i'm a print guy. my tour manager hates that. they get ruined and i get stressed how to take them back on the airplane. >> thanks for spending the road with us on tour. capital one's new cash rewards card gives you a 50% annual bonus! so you earn 50% more cash. according to research, everybody likes more cash. well, almost everybody... ♪ would you like 50% more cash? no!

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top of the hour. here's what you need to know to start your day. breaking news out of libya. secretary of state hillary clinton arriving in tripoli this morning on a surprise trip. clinton will meet with leaders of the ruling national transitional council to discuss libya's political future. it's the first phase of a massive prisoner swap between israelis and palestinians. 477 palestinian prisoners freed by israel today. in exchange, hamas released israeli soldier ga lede shailad

herman cain and mitt romney in a dead heat for the republican nomination. a new cnn/orc poll has romney with 26% of the vote, cain with 25%. for a second day in a row, president obama calling on congress to pass his jobs bill piece by piece. the president will speak today again in north carolina and then virginia. two key states in the presidential race. los angeles dodgers owner frank la cort will keep the team as part of a divorce settlement with his wife. the split dragged the dodgers into bankruptcy. the la corts accused of recklessly using the team's cash on their own personal spending. and the new york jets, demolishing the dolphins on monday night football. 24-6. the cornerback had to intercepti interceptions. the dolphins 0-5 on the year. that's the news you need to start your day. "american morning" is back right after this.

welcome back to "american morning." as part of their school science project, two cincinnati sixth graders found that both kids and teachers had about the same degree of difficulty trying to tell the difference between candy and certain medications. their research has drawn the attention of pediatricians concerned about unintentional ingesting of medication when you think you're having something else. their findings were presented at a national conference in boston yesterday, and one of the students, casey, joins me along with her father, dr. mike

giddleman instrumental in all this. is this a test? called the medical box or candy box? >> this is the test. inside 20sh there's 20 pairs of candy/medicine look-alikes. >> to the row, medicine, this is candy, this is medicine. they look almost identical. >> yes. people had a really hard time telling the difference between them. >> now, in theory, people would have, not a difficult time if things were properly labeled. if you saw chocolate in a chocolate container, a chocolate wrapper or medicine in a medicine container, that couldn't be a problem? >> we don't think it would be a problem, unless the kids can't read. then it would be a lot harder. >> what you found, also interesting, and i've got to understand this now is that some of the teachers had trouble with this. i could see if i didn't see these in packages, how would i know this wasn't a jelly bean when in fact it's medicine, maybe cough medicine or something? >> a lot of the teachers had trouble telling the difference, too, but i think if the

medicines were properly put in the correct containers, the adults would be able to distinguish. >> and kept in the right place. right? >> right. >> like a medicine cabinet for the medicine and somewhere else for the candy. >> yes. >> why did you think this was a problem? why did you think to start doing this? >> well, both my parents are physicians and i hear a lot of stories about these types of problems, and this project was originally for the science fair, and i wanted to do a project that involved candy and pediatrics, so i decided to combine the two topics. >> what a good idea. dr. mike, thank you for being here. i suppose in some cases we have spent many decades designing medicine to look more appealing and perhaps like candy? >> the majority of ingestions that are unintentional to kids occur to children less than five years of age. and so many of them see something, it's shiny. they want to put it in their mouth and as a result end up having an unintentional ingestion. >> what is the best solution to this? should medicine designs be

changed or should parents be more vigilant where they put candy somewhere is there something for kids to learn out of this? >> since most ingestions occur to 1 and 2-year-olds who will put anything in their mouth, the best thing to do, lock up the medicines. keep it out of the children's reach. keep it in its original container and lock it away. >> what did you find, casey when talking to kids, teacher, anyone else, about do you think most have good rules at home where they keep candy versus medications? >> i don't think so. when we surveyed teachers and students and asked if they locked up think medicines, 78% said they didn't. >> we showed pictures of things. a medicine that looks like m&ms. i don't know if we have a picture of that. this is the actual medication on the top, and the bottom is an m&m. another one that looks like a reeses piece. a sinus medication.

medication, i would assume, when kept in its proper containers, there's less of this problem. kids aren't opening up a medication, particularly small kids who can't open them? >> right. if they have safety closures, the kids can't get into it, it helps. the problem is still a parent might leave the medication on the table, rush to the counter, do something else, the phone rings and the child gets into it. the best thing, take your medicine, lock it back in its container and put it out of reach. >> mostly the parents' responsibility, but is there a message kids can have out of this? >> kids need to make sure their medicines are locked up at their house, and they need to know, like, not to take things that--like especially not to take medicines that are not prescribed by a doctor. >> where are we in this -- look, a lot of kids are on medication. do a lot of them take their own medication? should we be sort of emphasizes

for kids on medication, it should be administered by and adult or around an adult? >> more kids are on medications and we're seeing more ingestions, unintentional because of this. parents should just leave the kainer out. kids might end up taking too much. >> frankly, if you look at adult medications not designed to look like candy, there's still a great deal of confusion. for some reason you don't have it in the container in which it came, with the container, i couldn't tell a medication apart. >> you're right. that's why it's really important. a lot of people put them in a mixed container and take pills for the day. you really should keep it in its original container. after you've taken it lock it back up. >> a physician at the children's hospital and american academy of pediatrics on poison you know a lot about this and casey one of the students who created the science project, thanks for

doing that. this is helpful. i've learned a lot from it. good to have you here. >> thanks for having us. out to las vegas. carol is standing by. >> i see big things noor little girl. shep was serious. wasn't she? smart kid. more live from the las vegas strip in the next hour. ahead, tonight's main event, the gop western presidential debate. voters here say they don't want to see a vegas show. they need answers, because the economy here, well, frankly, it's not all that great. it is looking at my watch, oh, about 55 minutes past the hour. we'll be right back. ford fusion hybrid emerges as the clear fuel economy leader over camry hybrid. kimberly?

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las vegas. the backdrop for tonight's big cnn western debate. too many voters went bust in the city and they want jobs now. will they hear solutions? herman cain going into tonight's debate as the gop front-runner according to a brand new poll released an hour ago, but do you really know the man behind the 9-9-9 plan? we'll speak to someone who hired him and someone who worked for him. a reality tv star revealing her battle with breast cancer and raising questions about whether fertility treatments had anything to do with it on this "american morning." -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com all right. good morning, everyone. it's tuesday, october 18th. is it only tuesday? yes, it's tuesday. welcome to "american morning." >> my first day here this week. i'm bright and perky and glad about the whole thing. carol costello is particularly excited today. she has a very big morning today and tomorrow morning.

she's in las vegas. good morning, carol. >> good morning, ali and christine. it's kind of windy here. in fact, a little bit ago i thought the tent was going to blow down. so that could create more excitement. seriously, though, we are at the gambling capital of the world. a fitting location for tonight's western republican presidential debate, because think is a city that makes or breaks fortunes every single day. a lot of preparation has gone into tonight's event co-hosted by cnn and the western republican leadership conference. in just three days, 45,000 square-foot set built from the ground up at the convention center. including two humongous monitors, enormous chandelier and seating for 1,500 people. working around the clock since friday. it is quite the political circus here in las vegas minus the big white tent. lop they have one here in las vegas, they could just ship it over. tonight a field of seven presidential hopefuls will face the glare of the las vegas

spotlight with most of the focus on mitt romney, the standing front-runner and, of course, herman cain, the long shot lightning rod. the numbers tell the story. cain and romney in a statistical dead heat. romney with 26% and cain, one point back at 25%. rick perry and ron paul round out the top four. fifth through eighth, newt gingrich with 8% followed by michele bachmann, rick santorum and jon huntsman. let's bring in cnn's senior political analyst ron brownstein. good morning. sure to be a crazy night. >> or good night. weren't of those. not sure. >> i was trying to count up how many debates we had so far and how many debates to go. there are actually 12 more debates to go. >> absolutely. you know, and the debates are dominating the race, and i think we're really seeing in this election the continuation of a trend that's been going on the last few cycles that amounts to nothing less than a transformation of the way people run for president. wlp i started covering

presidential politics in the 1980s people talked about the year before the first votes in iowa and new hampshire as the invisible primary. the idea, candidates go burrow into those states out of the public eye meeting with people in their homes or coffee shop. now we're evolving into something very difcall it the national audition. everybody is watching the same big events and debates, and these are driving the national numbers, which are in turn affecting the numbers in iowa and new hampshire. the race is nationalized before our eyes. >> at some point won't voters go through something called debate fatigue? >> maybe. right now it has the feel almost of a reality show. each candidate, become an "american idol." who's going to get voted off? the candidates are, you know, acquired their identity, their kind of -- there's a role in the family almost through these debates, and they have been a y away -- simpleatic of the way they're exposed to the same media. witness they started going on

television in iowa and new hampshire, that has the potential to change the dynamic. right now the debates themselves are shaping the race to a greater extent than ever before and really, as i say, continuing this process of changing the way people run for president. >> you certainly could not argue that the debates have been helping herman cain, because that's really been a big part of this appeal. a great debater, charming. gets to show personality and hasn't been challenged so much until maybe tonight. let's talk about herman cain, because you brought us two very interesting polls. from our own poll. we appreciate that. cnn/orc international poll. you see that cain, leads republicans with 33%, but most of his support comes from the tea party with 44%. romney, can't say that. only 20%, 21% of the tea party support romney. what does that tell you? >> look, one of the big story lines, perhaps the biggest story line of the republican campaign so far has been the successive audition for who is going to be the more conservative alternative to mitt romney? essentially, overlapping circles

of the tea party, evangelical christians, blue collar republicans, all resistant to romney and have gone through a process of going through candidates one after the other. the beginning of the year looked like it was going to be sarah palin. then because of a performance in a debate, michele bachmann emerged in the summer, but she could not sustain that support. rick perry then seemed the next most likely to inherit. through his performance in the debates he's lost and now the moving finger has settled on herman cain, emerging as a champion for that more conservative part of the party that is dubious about romney on both, particularly on issues. whether they feel shehe is a tr conservative, a commitment to their causes. right now it's cain. can cain hold it anymore than perry, bachmann or palin, who's not even running? that will be the question. >> the real question, whether romney can gather the support. he hasn't fully embraced the tea

partiant and on the flip site, the audition on the right, the other big story in the race, mitt romney despite candidates rising and falling around him, he's steady but stuck. around 25%, 26% in your poll. when you ask people who agrees with you on the issues, one of the other big questions you asked, only at about 20% and again, on the tea party side i think only at 14% among those voters saying that they agree with him most on the issues. the one positive leading indicator for romney in your poll, beginning to establish some gap with the others when you ask who is most likely to beat obama and win? probably hoping to be in effect the last man standing. you don't have to have a majority of support to get nominated. there may never be a majority in the party that wants to nominate romney. as long as they don't coalesce behind a single candidate -- >> they'll hold their nose and vote for romney because they know he can beat barack obama?

sort of like the last time they held their nose and voted for john mccain. >> i wouldn't quite say hold their nose in the sense that the voters with romney by and large are okay with romney. i mean, he is a strong candidate for the other half of the party, which is more secular, more college educated, more managerial, coastal, more focused on the economy. to those voters, chris christie, a big competitor. those voters are pretty comfortable with romney. the problem, the other half of the party. you see them in the polls. they're not excited about hi economic agenda but critically have not been able to coalesce around a single alternative. that's why even at 25% he's hanging right in there. >> everything could change tonight. such an exciting time here in vegas. ron brownstein, thank you very much. stay with cnn all morning long for the best political coverage on television. 8:45 eastern, joined by ron paul. ron paul has just released his economic plan and says he'll make $1 trillion in cuts to

government spending. nodding his head, saying, sure. and balance the nation's budget in his first year in office. how the heck can he do that? we'll ask him. and join us tonight at 8:00 eastern for the western republican presidential debate. anderson cooper will be the moderator and i'd be there, too, to bring you all the postanalysis wednesday on "american morning." back to christine and ali in new york. >> christine just said, ron paul can do it, do the $1 trillion in cuts, could grind the economy to a halt at the same time. >> turn off the lights and rent off space at all government agencies. >> run congress with candlelight. you know what? good to larhear what he can do. >> let him have his say first. >> absolutely. happening right now, secretary of state hillary clinton is in tripoli to meet with libya's new leader. she arrived in the past hour on a surprise trip. clinton is the first

cabinet-level u.s. official to visit the libyan capital since it was liberated from gadhafi loyalists two months ago. she plans to sit down with the members of the ruling national transitional council stressing american partnership in their political future. this morning both areies and palestinians celebrate an historic prisoner swap. israel releasing nearly 500 palestinian prisoners in exchange for one israeli soldier. gilad shalit, held by hamas the past five year. cnn the kevin flower following all these developments as they're unfolding live in jerusalem for us. good morning, kevin. what's the latest? >> reporter: well, christine, the latest is that gilad shalit has just been reunited with his parents at an air force base in central israel. he was also met by the israeli prime minister who said to his parents as the reunion went on, i have returned your son, and he said, shalom, gilad. welcome back to the state of israel. so this was the moment that the

shalit family and much of israel had been waiting for for five long years. this ye union with his family. so this is -- we'll probably expect to see pictures of this later on today. that will play big in the israeli media here. this story has been followed all day from the crack of dawn. his return from the gaza, his hand jover from the gaza strip into egypt and back into israel and later today he will be on his way home. he has been checked by the military doctors. the initial bill of health is that he is in good condition. obviously there's concern going forward about his mental health, and on the other side of this story, is the return of over -- some 477 palestinian prisoners today. they went both to the west bank and to the gaza strip, and scene of celebration and joy playing out in both of those places, too, as palestinians --

palestinian families welcomed home these members of their families. some of whom had been in prison up to 30 years, on violent attacks against israel and others for a range of other crimes, but this is a really big day for palestinians as well. the issue of palestinian prisoners in israeli jails is one that cuts deep here and is a very emotional issue, christine. >> thanks very much. you'll continue to follow that all morning as this unfolds. still to come this morning, next wall street insider now speaking for the protesters, in fact, he may just have made their manifesto and is here to lay it out for us. plus, either aliens are landing or it's another haboob. a dust storm swallowing a u.s. city. 800, 1,000 feet in the air. >> unbelievable. >> with hurricane-strength winds. >> tell you all about it. i'm not a number.

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all right. welcome back. wall street protesters getting an unexpected visit in the form of a former stock analyst

getting the boot from wall street named in an fcc complaint about conflicts of interest a few years ago actually. gone on to find a website called business insiders recently written a huge post, 4,000 views counting, called what the wall street protesters are angry about. he's here with us. this getting a lot of attention. your first slide, no surprising. unemployment rate showing, highest level since the great depression with the exception of '80s. underemployment. look how dangerous over the past couple of year. a really good one. corporate profit at an all-time high. this infuriates the people. >> ux ta pojuxtaposed unemploym. >> what is this telling you? >> people are getting less. average americans are not seeing the wealth. we hit an extreme with

unemployment over 9%. people are saying, we've had enough. >> are these charts what's driving -- look at this. top 1% of earners share pre-tax income. look how it's climbed. back to the roaring '20s. remember what happened after that. last one. sorry, guys. then you look at what the rest of us are earning and it's going down, down, down. >> right. and we've hit a peak of inquality in the economy we haven't seen since the late 1920s and 106ed unfortunately by the great depression, changes in the tax code. long period of prosperity in the '50s and '60s. a lot of people think we have to tweak things and get more equality. >> does wall street get what's happening in the streets has to do with these sorts of numbers? >> most on wall street look at it saying this is ridiculous. we'll want to sit around in drug-in circles talk about drugs and peace, everything eggs. look back at the 1960s. those protests in ridiculous in many ways. >> peace and love. >> exactly. but the core complaint, end the

vietnam war. people look that now, that was smart. i think the same thing is here. there's a fundamental complaint here that i think wall street has to acknowledge. >> and a change in that movement, the move innocent in the '60s changed the way the whole nenneration thinks. the iranian hikers, and in washington, a group of people stormed the national air and space museum on the mall to protest drones. this isn't about us or wall street. does that hurt the movement? >> sure. everybody has a grievance with anything jumping in saying, finally. people protesting the status quo are getting attention. i'm going to air my grievous, too. the fundamental issue, the inequality in extreme we have not seen in 70 years is worth paying attention to, and i think if the country does not pay attention to it you're going to have more and more social unrest. >> recently wrote on a blog, a blog posting a great ceo white lie they awe believe they're acting in the best interests of

our shareholders. okay. maybe the movement needs to accept that lie and play by those rules. buy a share of the stock. go and occupy the shareholders' meeting, but you're not going to change anything unless you start to think like wall street. >> absolutely true. >> you agree with that? >> i think so, and i think really weren't of the things that's happened is we've gone from the period of the 1970s, wall street, greed is good. good to shake things up. make the economy more efficient. now we have taken that to an extreme where all the emphasis is on the bottom line. corporations need to care about a lot of things besides the bottom line. one is employees, environment, the country, society, and i think you're going to see that emphasis shift. >> at some point those affect shareholder value. >> absolutely. >> maybe until it affects their results in shareholder value, may they don't get it. >> absolutely. >> where does it go? some think it will peter out. the "new york times" had a great pete saturday saying basically a lot of wall street insiders and corporate leaders think -- it's

interesting that these people are unfist kated. >> sure. listen to the fringe of it, a lot to ridicule, absolutely. this complaint, inequality, corporations doing great, rest of the country getting hosed, that is going to continue to rankle people and until the economy starts going again you're going to continue to see unrest. >> everybody loves to hate the banks. a couple of things in bank earnings. wells fargo, loan value up and citigroup all except for house. citigroup lending up a little bit. so maybe that mantra, the banks aren't lending, maybe that's starting to help. >> it is picking up. that's great. every little bit helps. the idea we bailed out the banks years ago to start lending wholesale hasn't happened. >> i'm going to tweet a link to the screens. very, very good. 4 million people click and the screens because they feel like that's sort of the manifest other for the movement. puts it into stark reality. the numbers, good discussion,

thank you. the same engineering team who rappelled down the washington monument are now assessing the national cathedral in washington. assessed the inside and outside of the building yesterday. they say the cathedral is structurally sound. the northeast tower damaged by the earthquake, if you warecall back in august. rob marciano is in the extreme weather center for us now. watching the stuff you showed us, the dust cloud, in lubbock, texas. is that a haboob? >> it is. kicking up the dust in texas. no stranger there. getting closer to halloween, you could say a ha-b-o-o-o-o-b, i guess. good news, not enough to knock down this dust. this thing rolled through, created whiteout conditions. visibilities well above 100 feet and at times knocking don trees and some power lines.

doing damage at the airports. airplanes downed. a red flag warning up in the eastern part. potential fi fire exists there. thunderstorms down across louisiana. that's the storm or the line of storms that rolled through texas last night, and then some of that rain stretches all the way up into indiana. that will combine with this, which is what is a tropical disturbance trying to get itself together. probably won't become too much more. maybe a depression, potentially, but it's the wind and the rain that will combine with this system that came through texas last night, and that will head up the east coast over the next day, day and a half, and hit just about everybody on the eastern seaboard, especially across the mid-atlantic today, tonight and across the northeast, a fair amount of rain and wrap-around with this. nome in the form of moisture but in the form of cold air. tomorrow night, game weren't of the world series, blustering. temperatures probably won't get out of the 40s. ali, christine, back up to you. >> 40s. thanks, rob. check in later. still to come this morning,

who is the real herman cain? we'll talk to one man who worked for him and another who hired him. and banksy cross the country doing something they haven't done in months. we're minding your business next. it's 22 minutes after the hour. look, every day we're using more and more energy. the world needs more energy. where's it going to come from? ♪ that's why right here, in australia, chevron is building one of the biggest natural gas projects in the world. enough power for a city the size of singapore for 50 years. what's it going to do to the planet? natural gas is the cleanest conventional fuel there is. we've got to be smart about this. it's a smart way to go. ♪

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25 minutes after the hour. "minding your business" this morning -- u.s. stock futures are mishgsed. this follows a sharp sell-off yesterday. the dow, nasdaq and s&p 500 all down by about 2% because of these lingering concerns about europe's debt crisis and, of course, continuing worries about bank earnings. now, let's talk about that. bank of america showing some signs of recovery despite running up billions in mortga mortgage-related losses. the bank just released its quarterly earnings and beat estimate ps waiting to hear from rival bank goldman sachs.

also as far as earnings, coca-cola, johnson & johnson, intel, apple, yahoo! releasing earnings later today. and it was banks hit hardest by yesterday's sell-off. the declines fumed by a disappointing third quarter earnings report from banking giant wells fargo. after months of sitting on their hands the banks appear to be lending again. several of the nation's biggest banks including citigroup and wells fargo are making more loans compared to last year. experts say the increase may be because banks have more confidence in consumer, and businesses. apple is breaking sales records with the iphone 4 as4s. they sold 4 million since its launch friday. more than twice at many of the iphone 4 during its opening weekend last year. for the latest news about your money, check outcnnmoney.c. "american morning" back right after the break.

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it is half past the hour. welcome back to "american morning." top stories, secretary of state hillary clinton arrive ing from libya in the past hour. under extreme security. the first to visit tripoli since moammar gadhafi was driven from power. she plans to meet with the national transitional council and offer medical assistance to libya's wounded in the fighting. a swap between israelis and the palestinian. gilad shalit freed overnight. in exchange, israel released 477 prisoners with 500 more to come in the coming months. new this hour, a prosecutor telling cnn italian prime minister sylvia berlusconi acquitted on tax fraud and misappropriation of funds.

influencing tv rights for his media empire, and skimming off the top, to create illegal offshore slush funds was the charge. and the primary season coming into focus. break out the calendars. moving up caucuses from february to january 3rd. that move comes on the announcement from florida its primary will be held january 31st. and in just over 12 hours, seven republicans will take the stage for the western republican presidential debate. a lot of preparation has gone into tonight's event. it's co-hosted by cnn and the republican western leadership conference. in just three days, a 45,000 square foot set built from the ground up at the convention center that includes two huge monitors, an enormous chandelier and seating for 1,500 people. i'm telling you, ali and christine, this venue is amazing. >> yeah, whatever. there goes my raise.

>> you get a raise? >> no. because they built that set. carol, are you in the middle of the street or close to the street? >> i am very close to the street. >> yeah. >> you see behind me, that's the venetian with the big anderson cooper head hanging on it, it's gorgeous. people are actually passing by, even though it's very early in las vegas with the time difference, but people are kind of lucid and they're gambling. >> carol, if you say it's very early in the morning, carol, it's late at night. >> the sun comes up, it's still late-night. >> two more hours you get to bed. >> oh, yeah. herman cain is hot right now. in fact, a new cnn/orc poll has the georgia business executive locked in a statistical dead heat with mitt romney for the republican presidential

nomination. while he did rescue a struggling pizza contain for pillsbury years ago, turning around the u.s. economy is a bigger challenge. let's talk about herman cain with two people who have worked closely with him. spencer wiggins recruited to work at godfather's pizza. joins us live from nashville. jeff campbell, the former pillsbury executive who hired cain to take over the pizza chain. good to see you, gentlemen. spencer and jeff. spencer, let me start with you. one of the things that people talk to herman cain or know herman cain say is that he's -- he's just likable. people seem to like him. he connects with voters very well. is this -- when you first met him, what was your response to herman cain? >> what you see is what you get. when i first met hermen en her, i walked into his office and had

federal reser never met him. he said i've been trying to get you in here the last three days. come over here. let's talk. we talked about two hours. it was like he had known me all my life. >> you were at kraft foods at the time when he brought you over to work at godfather pizza. jeff -- >> i was -- that was at burg are king when he brought me over from kraft foods. >> you were at burger king. i'm sorry. very good. let me ask jeff. let's talk about herman cain being a likable guy, but there are questions about his experience in government. he likes to point out that that's his strength, that he doesn't have experience in government. that he's not a career politician. tell me, having picked him to run godfather's why you think people should pick him to run the country? >> i think the reason that people should take a hard look at herman is the same reason i took a hard look at him all years ago. he's a leader. a natural leader. full of dinoism and energy and

knows what he's doing and the fact he doesn't have a background as a career politician i think given all the issues the country's got to face right now, that may be a big plus, actually. >> let's take a look, jeff, at something that's up on herman cain's website. talked about the time he was a ceo at godfather's and says in just 14 months herman returned godfather's to profitability as he led his team it a buyout of the company. people tried to fact check that. godfather's didn't report its profits as a stand-alone because it was a unit of pillsbury which you ran. how did he do? >> he did very, very well. i asked him to take on that assignment as ceo of godfather's, because the business did need some serious leadership. we had acquired it several months before i asked him to take the job, and we needed to make a change and i needed to find someone who was a dynamic leader, and that dynamic leader was sitting in our philadelphia region at burger king.

and that was herman, and he did go in there and turn it around. >> spencer, what kind of boss was he? what was it like to work with him? >> herman is demanding but fair. he often tells me he'll never put anything on my shoulders that he didn't think i could carry, and he would give you all the rope he could to make sure you were successful and always wanted to make sure we were prepared. no matter what we were doing or what we were presenting, he always wanted to make sure that we were prepared. >> jeff and spencer, let me ask you first, jeff, you say you're independents. would you consider voting for herman cain, jeff? >> absolutely. >> what about you, spencer? >> yes. >> what do you think, jeff, about -- i have to say, it's not been a lot of gas. i mean, he's out there a lot. he puts himself out in the media a lot, but had to say a couple things of the last few day he said were jokes. wrote op-eds a few years ago about tiger woods being president. you know, how do you square

that? how do people who are seriously thinking of voting for this guy as president deal with the fact that he does do some things that step off the line a little bit? >> well, i want to make it clear that i'm not endorsing herman at this point, but i think people need to take a very hard look at him. >> yep. >> his strengths are his leadership skills, and those of us who have known him for 20-plus years know that he is also an honorable person, a good man. in the heat of campaigning and being out there, as you said, putting it out there, you're going to have your bumps in the road. so what we need to focus on is the substance of he's doing, what he's talking about. >> right. >> but he's a serious person. >> he doesn't seem to mind the bumps. he doesn't seem to mind dealing with them. we certainly know as we cover these campaigns that he is somebody who make s himself available to the media. what do we not yet know about herman cain? >> i think you're just going to

have to keep watching. he has lots of leadership qualities. his ability to define reality. his ability to energize other people around, solving problems. frankly, that's the kind of thing we need. we're not getting a lot of leadership right now. so i'm particularly interested in watching what he does going forward. as i think everybody's discovered already, he's great with people, and he's got a great sense of humor. of course that can get you in trouble every now and then in politics, but it's also refreshing as far as i'm spence? you said he's demanding, being president of the united states is tricky. a lot of people that aren't going to agree with you and might not be at qualified as you might like him to be? >> he's been in situations to turn around either a region or company, and he always inspired

the people who worked for him, and inspire you to a point where you would bust through a wall for him. those are the kinds of quality you'll need if you're going to be president of the united states. everybody's not going to agree with everything that you do, however, i think herman has the mettle and the wherewith all to do what he needs to do to lead this country. >> not endorsements as herman cain at presidential candidate, but two good endorsement to herman cain as a businessman and working man. spencer wiggins, jeff campbell thanks for telling us a little about who herman cain is. now, who is ron paul? at 8:45 eastern, joining us live. just released his economic plan and says he'll make a trillion dollar cut and balance the nation's budget in his first year in office. ron paul joins us at 8:45 a.m. eastern, and, of course, joining us at 8:00 p.m. eastern for live coverage of the western republican presidential debate. still to come here on

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good morning, washington. most mostlycloudy. 57. what is that stuff that comes up there? >> in front of like one of those sewer drain things or an exhaust pipe. >> partly cloudy, 73 later on this morning. become back. president obama turning up the heat. making another appearance today in north carolina and then virginia 0 pressure lawmakers to pass his jobs plan. they didn't. now he says, take it apart piece by piece, and if you folks didn't understand it altogether, maybe take one piece at a time and pass it that way. >> he's trying that. how does something like this happen? a truck carries lots of president obama's stuff, including the podium and teleprompter, a truck carrying

that stuff stolen in richmond, virginia, ahead of an appearance tomorrow. a local nbc affiliate says ther was about $200,000 worth of presidential equipment in the truck. by the way, recovered but not clear whether everything stolen was there or if anyone was arrested. >> imagine you're the guy opening the back and you're like, you know what? i think we just need to walk away. you see the presidential seal and say i'm going to walk away before the secret service gets here. senator john mccain is not a fan of the president's tour bus. he slammed the president's bus and his three-day bus trip on the senate floor yesterday. >> so the president has taken to the road, and spent a number of minutes attacking our plan, and i understand that. i think he has the, certainly in a political venue, the right and privilege to do that.

i think the question might be, though, is that appropriate on the taxpayers' dime, since it is clearly campaigning, and i must say again, i've never seen an uglier bus than the canadian one. he's traveling around on a canadian bus touting american jobs. >> canadian buses -- these most big coach buses, many big coach buses in america, are made in quebec. >> we should note, secret service got two. one for the president. one for the republican presidential nominee as well. >> it's volvo trucks that makes that brand of bus, that the canadian, that john mccain is talking about. it's a pretty sweet bus. carol? >> but it's really not that attractive. you have to admit that. >> no, it's not. got a lot of stuff in it, but it's a big, black bus, yeah. >> okay. on to other things. better things. have you heard this claire mccaskill? >> i love this story.

>> about five months ago -- isn't it great? about five months ago the senator tweeted she just need add change. she said she's tired of looking and feeling fat and wanted to lose 50 pounds. this is what she looked like at that time. since then she's used twitter to stay motivated. she started hitting the gym and she started eating healthy. august 11th she tweeted that she passed up the funnel cake at the state fair and that is big, because who can do that? september 9th she announced her divorce with bread and pasta and take a look at her now. the senator tweeted that she has reached her goal. she reached her goal october 8th. ah. doesn't she look fantastic? congratulations. that's just awesome. let's talk about something not so awesome now. shall we? the world series starts tomorrow night. awesome. in boston, system talking how the red sox blew think chance to get to the world series. now starting pitcher john lester is coming clean admitting that he and other starters drank beer

and ate fried chicken in the clubhouse during games when they were not scheduled to pitch, but he says they only ordered about once a month, and it was just one rally beer in the ninth inning. he told the reports in the media clowning around a witch-hunt and there's a simple reason why they blew the biggest lead in baseball history. he says simply, we stunk. although, you always want to think of your baseball -- you know, you want to think of baseball players as heroes. to learn the most popular and best pitcher on your staff was in the clubhouse eating chicken and drink beer while your team is trying to hang in there doesn't sit well. does it? >> carol always has to deviate on fried chicken. >> maybe it's, if i brought the fried chicken up and ate it in the dugout while cheering the boys on it would have been better. >> or wait until the game's over and do it afterwards. do whatever you want. >> exactly. exactly. >> carol, we will see you again

in a few minutes. coming up ahead or "american morning," she's made her struggle to get pregnant public on reality tv. now e! news reporter is revealing another struggle with breast cancer, but is there a link between the two? elizabeth cohen has the answer. and 9.1%, the "romans' numeral." it could be the sign the global recovery is slowing. a number that is the envy of the u.s., but what does it mean for you? 48 minutes after the hour.

it's almost ten minutes to the top of the hour. wheels down in libya.

secretary of state hillary clinton arriving in tripoli this morning on a super secret visit with an offer of u.s. aid to the national transitional council going forward. u.s. futures for the dow, nasdaq and s&p 500 all lower after two banks released quarterly earning over 12 hours go before tonight's western presidential debate, a new cnn/orc poll has mitt romney and herman cain in a statistical dead heat. the majority of voters saying cain is best suited to get the economy moving while romney is most likely to win the nomination and beat president barack obama. the coroner's office saying dan wheldon died of blunt head drama in a fiery crash involving 15 cars on sunday. some racers now questioning the safety of that track. that's the news you need to start your day. "american morning" is back right after this break. [ male announcer ] it's true...

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ali knows the answer of romans' numeral. a number in the news. we were talking about it earlier. the number is 9.1%.

>> i know, the increase in the price of gold. >> it is china's economic growth during the third quarter. believe it or not, that's slower. that's slowing down and an envious number because our growth in the second quarter was 1.3%. >> 1.3%. in the third quarter the estimate is that 1.5% and 2.5%. even if we are at the high end here in the united states, the growth is three times as fast as ours. >> the u.s. and europe just not growing strong at all. >> europe is almost flat. we're worried it might be less than flat. india, 7.8%. that's a slow down for india. shows you how the world is just moving at different paces. >> our part of the world is moving slowly. >> yeah. an "am house call" giuliana rancic shared her struggle to have a baby and after two rounds of inveet vitro. >> possible ties to the disease.

senior correspondent elizabeth cohen has looked into this for us. is it bad to go through ivf, if you have cancer. that's what she has to decide now, i guess. whether she will continue all of this, trying to have a baby and fighting the cancer. >> what usually happens in this situation, christine. they tell the patient, let's put off the ivf treatments and put that aside and treat your cancer and get you healthy and then we'll decide what to do from there. >> you need hormones to do ivf. does that make the cancer better or worse or the treatment, how does that affect it? >> here's the problem. many breast cancers just love estrogen. when you're going through ivf to get pregnant, it's a double whammy. when you're pregnant, you have a ton of estrogen running through your body and that's not great for most breast cancers. number two, you're taking hormones to get pregnant. the concern is that those extra hormones that you're taking as medicines, really, that's even

worse. sort of adds insult to injury. that's why doctors don't want someone with breast cancer to go through ivf. get rid of the breast cancer. she didn't know she had breast cancer. her sadoctor said, you know, before we do another round, let's do a mammogram. many doctors do that and that's when they found the breast cancer. >> so they found it and, now, does the estrogen or the ivf process, does it cause cancer or does it, i guess, make it worse if you have beginning breast cancer? is there any tie or link? >> no, what experts think is what is going on, it wouldn't cause cancer but what it does if there is maybe sort of a cancer that is in the incipient stage. a small cancer or cellular changes that are happening already, it would aggravate that. it doesn't really cause cancer, but make a really small cancer grow bigger. that's the big concern. >> she says she will get cancer treatment and then after the

cancer is gone she'll try again to have a baby. any issues with that? >> you know, it's interesting. doctors have really changed over the years. they used to tell women who had breast cancer and then treatment, we don't think you should get pregnant at all. they don't quite say that. they want to wait some time and they sometimes want women to take certain drugs. many woman who have breast cancer and recover do go on to have children. >> so many women are waiting longer and longer to have children and they have this window closing in on them and this medical experience trying to get pregnant and certainly our hearts go out to them as they deal with both of these things now. let's go to las vegas, carol is standing by. >> that's really disturbing and really inest thering, thanks to elizabeth cohen. just ahead on "american morning," herman cain in a statistical dead heat with mitt romney. we'll look at the challenges he will face in tonight's western

democratic debate. he says he will balance the budget in his first year in office. we'll ask ron paul how he plans to do that. he'll join us live from las vegas live in the next hour of "american morning." ♪ [ male announcer ] how could switchgrass in argentina, change engineering in dubai, aluminum production in south africa, and the aerospace industry in the u.s.? at t. rowe price, we understand the connections of a complex, global economy. it's just one reason over 75% 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. [ inner voice ] establish connection. give me voice control. applications up. check my email and text messages. hands in position. airbags. ten of 'em. perfect. add blind spot monitor. 43 mpg, nice.

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it is 5:00 a.m. in las vegas, 8:00 on the east coast. i'm carol costello live in las vegas. the stage is set for the western presidential debate. what happens in vegas could tilt the race. herman cain and mitt romney now locked in a statistical dead heat and the gloves could come off just 12 hours from now.

take a look at that, isn't that fantastic? >> it is, carol. i'm christine romans. president obama drumming up support for his jobs plan and pushing congress to get on board. but republicans say his road trip is about one thing, saving one job alone, his. i'm ali velshi. secretary of state hillary clinton making a surprise visit to libya to help map out their political future on this "american morning." all right. good morning, everybody. it's tuesday, october 18th. tonight is the big night in vegas, where we're going to see, you know, how this field is standing up. >> almost, almost all the gop candidates debating tonight. we sent carol costello out there, she is live out there this morning for the pregame and then tomorrow morning for the post game. carol? >> oh, it's a little windy out here. i'm glad i'm not out in the middle of the desert. i'm right here in the middle of

the las vegas strip. what happens tonight in vegas could go a long way towards determining who will run against president obama in 2012. mitt romney and herman cain are now locked in a statistical dead heat for the gop nomination. just 12 hours from now they'll take the stage with five other candidates for the western republican presidential debate. look at the latest numbers from a cnn/orc poll. this poll was released two hours ago. if you're wondering why cain is surging so dramatically, here is the answer. he is likable. 5% more likable than romney among republican voters. when those same republican voters are asked who the likely nominee will be, it's romney. no contest. 51% to 18% over cain. who is to beat barack obama? a landslide, again, republican voters choosing romney over cain by a 17-point margin. one candidate you will not see in las vegas is jon huntsman. he is boycotting the debate

instead choosing to hold a town hall meeting in new hampshire. herman cain may have the most to gain and the most to lose in tonight's western republican debate. he's been skyrocketing in the polls, but he's a misstep or two lately. most notably on immigration. jim acosta is here with what could be a very challenging test for cain tonight. i would assume, jim, the other candidates will pounce on herman cain tonight. >> i would think so. carol, the poll you just showed was just the perfect example of how republicans are becoming like vegas oddsmakers. they are starting to see mitt romney as the safe bet for the gop nomination and herman cain as a bit of a long shot and part of that is because of herman cain's outspoken style. take his most recent comments on immigration. it is likely to be the subject of tonight's debate. >> when i'm in charge of defense, we're going to have a fence. >> reporter: herman cain says these comments on immigrants crossing the border did not cross the line. >> 20 feet high and barbed wire on the top and it's going to be

elect electroi electroified. and there's going to be a signen the other side that says, it will kill you. warning. mr. cain, that's insensitive. no, it's insensitive for them to be killing our citizens, killing our border agents. >> reporter: the outspoken conservative businessman says he was only kidding. >> it was a joke, john. i haven't learned how to be politically correct yet. it probably wasn't the right thing to say. i did not mean to offend anybody. >> this is the education of herman cain. he's learning the difference between being a minor league candidate and all of a sudden being at the top of the heat. things you say when you try to get attention that you can't say when people are looking at you as a serious contender. >> reporter: cain made the comments just days before meeting joe arpajo. he says cain was right on

message. >> i kind of like this guy because he's unconvention al, controversial, kind of like me. >> reporter: lutina republicans worry that tough talk will backfire. >> this is the type of rhetoric that has turned off a lot of latino voters in the past and i think that's a bit unfortunate from the republican point of view. but, the fact that he's trying to walk back his comments now, i think, is telling. >> illegals sneaking across our border putting americans' safety and jobs at risk. >> reporter: in nevada, republican senate candidate sharon angle outraged showing latino actors portraying illegal immigrants. harry reid went on to capture nearly 90 emergency room. of the latino vote. the latest poll find cain's style is catching fire. he's neck and neck with frontrunner mitt romney and

nearly traded places with rick perry who is seen as weak on illegal immigration. cain is also a major worry for romney and poll after poll the former massachusetts governor has peaked in support for republicans. >> there is a natural ceiling and if you go back and look at the race last time, he ran into a natural ceiling. >> and one of the big questions for tonight's debate is whether the other candidates on the stage will actually challenge herman cain on these comments on immigration. carol, as you know, the race for the gop nomination is very much a race to the right on this issue of illegal immigration. so, it's possible they may try to be more like herman cain in some of these comments. >> i was just going to say that. herman cain comments certainly resonate with the tea party. >> you heard that applause in the video. >> most of cain supports comes from the tea party, not moderate republicans. why would the moderate republicans attack herman cain at this particular time? >> they've got to attack him on

something. >> well, his 9-9-9 plan. i think that would be easier. >> michele bachmann did say on the campaign trail perhaps the issue of illegal immigration is not a laughing matter a joking matter. some attempts to challenge herman cainen othis issue and the other candidates have big reason to challenge cain. time is not on their side. as we saw with the day for the iowa caucus being moved up to january 3rd. the chance that it could be in december, that puts us two months before the voting begins. these other candidates have to start doing something if they want to get in herman cain's spot. it looks pretty good from up there. >> interesting thing about mitt romney. he was here yesterday and he held an event in a parking lot where he talked to voters, but did not talk to reporters. herman cain, on the other hand, is talking to everybody. mitt romney is certainly playing it safe. herman cain is still going for the gusto. >> mitt romney's strategy at this point is to let the other candidates do what they do. michele bachmann comes up and

she's sort of the unromney at the moment and then rick perry comes along and now herman cain is in that role. it's not bad when you're mitt romney when everybody else is trying to be the unromney. so, really, at this point, play it safe. don't try to go out there and do a lot of interviews with reporters where you could have a majgjor gaffe that could put so doubts out there whether or not you could capture this nomination. 51% of republicans say he's likely to win the gop nomination. that's not a bad number. >> not a bad number at all. jim acosta, many thanks. stay with us for the best political coverage on television. in just a few minutes, we'll be joined by jon ralston. he is considered by many to be nevada's most informed political reporter. we'll get his take on tonight's gop debate. ron paul will join us, the texas congressman has released his economic plan and claims he can balance the budget in his first year in office, if he is

elected president. wow. we'll ask him to explain how exactly he's going to do that. ali and christine. >> we'll be watching, i'll be watching very carefully, christine. >> you take a chain saw and you take the budget and you chain saw it in half. >> you have it just about right. >> well, like herman cain, people like ron paul for how forthright he is and how he says it and how it might not actually be something that sounds likable or huggable, but he will say it and i look forward to hearing it. carol, i'll be back with you. >> but it's true to his libertarian roots. at this point, that's exactly what you would expect ron paul to come up with. >> they're warming up the presidential coach this morning for a second day in a row. president obama will take his push for the stalled jobs bill on the road. he will, again, make stops in north carolina and virginia and while republicans accuse the president of campaigning on the taxpayers' dime, the president insisted he's just trying to put

americans back to work. >> i appreciate, i appreciate the four more years, but right now i'm thinking about the next 13 months. because, yes, we've got an election coming up, but that election is a long ways away and a lot of folks can't wait. a lot of folks are living paycheck to paycheck. a lot of folks are living week to week. >> president's re-election campaign also reaching a milestone monday. the campaign announced it received financial contributions from a million grassroots donors. live pictures now from new york city's zuccotti park. later today some are planning to walk uptown and occupy lincoln center on the city's upper west side, right near where we are. the group is also reportedly planning a worldwide rally

against police brutality on saturday. >> it's where the opera is, right? >> yes. that tends to be a reason. they're trying to access -- and the opera, the opera in new york has actually gone out of its way to do free concerts and put stages out in parks so that people who are not the wealthy can watch, but somehow that's going to get lost in the discussion today. >> the center of -- >> it's the ballet, it's opera, it's the theater. the conversation of people with money. secretary of state clinton on a mission to libya. economic and political assistance for libya's new transitional government. she's the first u.s. cabinet level official to visit the country since gadhafi was driven from power in august. moammar gadhafi's home town of sirte. the only stronghold left standing. libyan's new government troops

say they have taken control. meantime, in tripoli troops began bulldozing the outer walls of the compound. the compound was seized by rebel fighters back in august. a day of celebration in the middle east and gaza. a huge welcome home for nearly 500 palestinians freed in a landmark prisoner exchange with israel. 500 more will be set free in two months from now. in return hamas released israeli soldier who has been held now for more than five years. he hopes the deal is a stepping stone to peace between israelis and palestinians. still ahead, amazing pictures. an epic dust storm. what some of you might call a haboob blackens the skies in texas. wind up to 75 miles per hour. >> you're like a little kid. you want to say that word over and over and over. apple new iphone setting a sales record. guess how many new phones were

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little florida love this morning. wake up, miami. it's 8:15. you don't have to wake up, it's light rain and 81. florida is getting a rough time today, rob. >> i know, that's the worse when you go to florida and suddenly it's not sunny and you're from some place like up here. >> florida other than when they get their tropical storms or depressions, it's usually a nice place. >> you have to feed the rain forest or the everglades. good morning, guys. hey, where they haven't seen a

lot of rain, they got a couple, a little bit a couple weeks ago, but when you get a dry area and you get wind, this is what the result is. dust storm. all right. west texas, lubbock, famous for its wind and it dust, but not like this. come on. visibility is dropping to lower than 100 feet. this thing was hundreds of feet into the air. winds gusting at times over 70 miles an hour, knocking down trees and power lines and doing some damage. some of the planes at the airport were tipped over. a classic haboob is the technical term. this line of thunderstorms now through louisiana and part of the rainfall stretching all the way up as far north as the lower great lakes. this will couple with this rainfall in miami that has been raining for the last day and a half. move into the ft. myers area and get up to sarasota and tampa before the day is done. this is part of what might be a tropical depression before the day is done. just a small chance of that happening and getting picked up

by the lower level winds and that's the moisture source and that's teaming up what is coming through the south of texas. these two systems will come together and have them selves a party across the east coast. beginning across florida and then the mid-atlantic and southeast and into the delmarva and into the northeast before the week is done here. heavier rains in front of and behind this system and note as little bit of white mixing in there, as well. decent amount of cold air behind this, as well. temperatures could drop as low as the lower 20s and for game one of the world series tomorrow might, it's going to be windy and temperatures probably not out of the 40s. if you're traveling today, thunderstorms should slow things down and not too much in the way of red on the map. >> christine was asking me what the word in haboob in arabic means. i think it means dust storm. it didn't mean, like it wasn't some kind of unusual meaning that might be a dust storm.

i think it was some variation of that. >> the term derived from mideast where they get a fair amount of dust storms. >> it's a great word. rob, thanks, buddy. over to carol now in las vegas. >> it doesn't have any dust -- >> but it's windy. >> i said i'm glad i'm not out in the middle of the desert. i would be in trouble. seven candidates for president will take the stage in las vegas for a crucial nationally televised debate. live pictures for you outside the venetian hotel. for mitt romney a chance to prove and for herman cain an opportunity to build on his remarkable momentum. columnist with "las vegas sun" john, welcome. >> morning. >> thanks for waking up so early. it is really early here in las vegas. >> it is early. >> for the strip, not so early. >> the wind is keeping us awake,

too. >> it's a chilly wind. it's interesting. before we talk about the republicans, i would like to talk about the democrats, as in president obama. he won here in 2008, but he's not so popular any more. >> he won the state fairly decisively by 12 points, but he's been having trouble ever since. we have the worst economy in the country, highest unemployment rate. up close to 15% at one time. 60% of the people who live here have their houses under water. this great boom economy. we were growing in population and now we're losing population. people are looking for somebody to blame. they're blaming the president whose numbers here aren't good. >> his big job's campaign tour is it resonating here in nevada? >> i think the problem for the president, especially they're not listening any more. they heard it all and disgusted with washington, congressional approval is at record lows and the president's suffering, too. they had all these promises when they first came in, too, that unemployment was going to drop. we haven't seen it here and we

had senate majority leader harry reid who made similar promises and just got re-elected. a double whammy there. >> people are looking for some big, bold plan to create jobs and that's what nevada needs right now in the short term. herman cain's 9-9-9 plan, is that resonating at all? >> not yet. herman cain hasn't been a factor in this state, although his surge nationally is reflected here. a poll that came out last week that showed he is only five points behind mitt romney in the state. mitt romney won the state in 2008. he is the only one that has an inf infrastructure here. down at the grassroots level there is some support for mccain. a segment of the republican party still looking for anybody but romney. i think cain is now the flavor of how long, a month, a week, six months, we'll find out. >> i was talking to las vegas mayor, mayor goodman yesterday. she said when she sits down to listen to the republican debate tonight, she wants to hear a candidate give her a plan that will create jobs right now and, like you said, herman cain's

plan probably doesn't do that. ron paul came out with a plan, he's going to cut $1 trillion from the federal budget. that's probably not going to create jobs in the short term either. so, as nevada voters sit down and listen, will they be looking for the same things as mayor goodman? >> people are impatient. they want to see some change right away. they've been waiting. this economy has been in the tank for a couple of years now. so, i think that, again, i think tuning out is the real problem that the president certainly has, maybe even some of the republican candidates. 9-9-9 might have visceral appeal for a while and no one is going to read all 59 points in that book. i don't think they're listening and people here talk about diversifying the economy. they just don't want gaming any more. they know we need more here in nevada. they talk about solar energy. the sun is out not at this time of day, unfortunately. they think that will help diversify the economy.

there is no fix and that's the problem mostly for the president, i think. >> let's talk about the latino vote because that's important in nevada and in the west. herman cain, we all heard his comments by now. he talked about that deadly electroified fence he wants to put along the border. let's listen. >> it was a joke, jon. yeah, i haven't learned how to be politically correct yet. yes, it probably wasn't the right thing to say and i did not mean to offend anybody. >> yeah, well, some things last, especially when you're targeting a specific population. so, how, so will the latino voters here forgive? >> first of all, whenever a candidate says something kind of goofy, i can't be politically correct, he knows he said something kind of goofy. the scary thing about the republican electorate, some percentage of it that is, you're right, mr. cain, you're right. the hispanic population is very important here. the republicans have gotten crushed here in the hispanic

population. president obama in 2008 won the hispanic population by 50, 5-0, points. it was a huge deal in 2010 when harry reid was dragged to re-election essentially against a flawed opponent. the hispanic vote was huge for him. the republicans here have now elected a hispanic governor and he did not do well among the hispanic population. they are counting on him to bring more hispanics over to the republican party. brian sandoval still must gringe when he hears herman cain talking that kind of language. >> rick perry is going no where. why do you think he's fallen off the map, so to speak? >> the fact there are so many debates and perry, even people who like him by any measure has performed abys muly. his only hope really is that he raised so much money, $17 million. that could make up for a lot and you can do a lot more with a

30-second ad than you can having to appear in a debate. interesting to see how he does tonight. people do not think he can just keep disappearing and staying articulate in the debates. >> you can't say i'm not good at debating and that doesn't fly. >> so many people watching these debates and let's hope for cnn a lot more people watching tonight. people are getting something out of these debates. perry has to do something better tonight than he has in the past. >> thank you for joining us, jon ralston. coming up in 20 minutes, ron paul will join us live. he just released his big economic plan and he'll cut $1 trillion from the federal budget in his first year in office. he'll explain it all. we're back in a minute. capital one's new cash rewards card gives you a 50 percent annual bonus. so you earn 50 percent more cash. if you're not satisfied with 50% more cash, send it back!

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it's 27 minutes after the hour. goldman sachs just announced its first quarterly loss since 2008. the company losing money for the first time since 2008 largely

because of a huge drop in its investment banking revenue. bank of america's earnings beat estimates showing some signs of recovery despite running up billions of dollars in mortgage-related losses. other earning reports out this morning coca-cola earnings beat estimates and johnson & johnson said its earnings were in line with forecasts. markets poise to open this morning. apple, yahoo! and intel to release their profit reports later today. and wall street still hoping for some good news out of the euro zone about the debt crisis there. the maker of the blackberry announcing it's giving users $100 in free apps as a way to say sorry for last week's service outage. this is not an automatic refund and the bonus applies only to a list of certain applications. apple is breaking sales records with the iphone 4s. the company sold more than 4 million of them since it launched on friday. and lowe's announcing plans

to cut 4,000 employees by next month. the cuts will take place in 15 sfats. john mccain uncensored. the arizona senator has harsh words for president obama's transportation. "american morning" back right after the break. the postal service is critical to our economy--

delivering mail, medicine and packages. yet they're closing thousands of offices, slashing service, and want to lay off over 100,000 workers. the postal service is recording financial losses, but not for reasons you might think. the problem ? a burden no other agency or company bears. a 2006 law that drains 5 billion a year from post-office revenue while the postal service is forced to overpay billions more into federal accounts. congress created this problem, and congress can fix it.

tom stories now. secretary of state hillary clinton on a surprise diplomatic mission to libya. she arrived in libya this morning. she is there to congratulate the libyan people on ousting moammar gadhafi and to help the ruling nati national transition council. the celebration is on in the west bank and gaza after israel released 477 prisoners in exchange for one israeli soldier. the palestinians are returning home as heroes and so is that israeli soldier. he was held captive by hamas for

more than five years. the republican primary season is starting to come into focus. break out the calendars. look at that. iowa republicans have decided to move up their caucuses from february to january 3rd. that move comes on the heels of an announcement by florida that its primary will be held on january 31st. in less than 12 hours, seven republicans will take the stage for the western presidential debate. a lot of preparation has gone into tonight's event. in just three days a 45,000 square-foot set has been built up at the venetian sands, including two huge monitors and enormous chandelier and seating for 1,500 of your closest friends. >> eight candidates, jon huntsman is not participating tonight. president obama turning up the heat on congressional republicans and making another appearance today in north carolina and then going to virginia to pressure lawmakers to pass his $474 billion jobs

plan which, of course, didn't pass. he's saying break it up into pieces and pass them one at a time. how does something like this happ happen. a truck carrying lots of president obama's stuff reportedly stolen in richmond, virginia, in hotel parking lot, we're told, ahead of an appearance tomorrow. wbt says that there was about maybe $200,000 of presidential equipment inside. it was recovered somewhere else, but it was not clear whether everything was there or if anyone was arrested. >> so, imagine this, i imagine the truck doesn't say presidential stuff inside. some kind of unmarked stuff, you steal it and you break open the lock and you open it up and you're like, back away from the truck. >> you see in your mind's eye, secret service with guns and go away. >> not what he thought it would be. senator john mccain is not a fan of president obama's tour bus. mccain who has seen his fair share of campaign buses slammed the president's bus and his three-day bus trip on the senate floor yesterday.

>> so, the president has taken to the road and, i mean, he spent a number of minutes attacking our plan and i understand that. i think he has certainly in a political venue the right and privilege to do that. i think the question might be, though, is that appropriate on the taxpayers' dime since it is clearly campaigning. and i must say, again, i've never seen an uglier bus than the canadian one. he's traveling around on a ca d canadian bus touting american jobs. >> we should note that the secret service bought two of the buses, one for the president, one for the republican presidential nominee. >> so, john mccain can soon be able to complain about two ugly buses at once, made in canada. about five months ago claire

mccaskill tweeted she needed a change. she's tired of looking and feeling fat. she wanted to shed 50 pounds. this is what she looked like at the time. since then she used twitter to stay motivated. she hit the gym and eating healthy. she passed up funnel cake at the state fair. september 9th she announced her divorce with bread and pasta. take a look at the result. here is a before and after, side by side. she reached her goal on october 8th. they always say that when you're trying to lose weight, you need to sort of bring in your friends and say, look, i'm really trying to lose weight. help me out here. that's what twitter is. must be tough for politicians. >> ten years we have known each other and i have been telling you. i respect clare mccaskill for this, not having funnel cake at the state fair. >> it's in your job description. let's head to carol costello. >> i think she had a corn dog, if that makes you feel any

better, ali. still ahead on this "american morning," republican presidential candidate ron paul joins us, in fact, he's right over there. hello, mr. paul. he says if he is elected he will balance the budget in his very first year in office. ron paul, right after a break. [ male announcer ] this is lara.

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welcome back to "american morning." ron paul has a plan. if he becomes president, he claims he will balance the federal budget in his first year in office. and he will do that by cutting $1 trillion in government spending while eliminating five cabinet level departments or government, that includes the department of energy, hud, commerce, interior and the department of education and also the tsa. he also wants to eliminate all foreign aid and all war spending. presidential candidate and texas congressman ron paul joins us live here in las vegas. thank you so much for getting up early. >> nice to be with you. >> you have amazing energy. how do you do it?

>> well, sometimes i think i'm lucky and blessed and other times i work on it by trying to follow some good health habits. exercise every day. >> you should talk to ali velshi. >> except when i have to be on tv early in the morning. >> i know, but i appreciate that. herman cain is riding this wave of popularity right now. people are really into his 9-9-9 plan. what is your strategy tonight as far as herman cain is concerned? >> i'll do exactly what i have been doing for as long as i can remember. trying to get people to understand how we got into this mess, what we have to do, why free markets are better than government managed markets, why sound money is better than printing press money and why we need to change our foreign policy so i can concentrate on policy, economic and foreign policy and monetary policy and that is what i talk about. >> but sometimes you can't get a word in edge wise unless you attack the candidate who is popular at the moment because everybody is going to be concentrating on him. >> i had some advisors tell me

that, go after him, attack him. that's my least favorite thing to do. i will when i'm pressed or challenged. or when they challenge my supporters then i get annoyed and i feel offended when they do that. so, i take that personally. >> yeah, your supporters are very passionate and i'm sure they appreciate that. herman cain's 9-9-9 plan. what do you think about it? >> i don't think it's a good plan. i think it's a dangerous plan. >> why? >> for years and years we had this debate in washington the flat tax versus the sales tax. and just like what we do in washington, liberals want to spend, conservatives want to spend and they're bipartisan. they come together and they spend both. what 9-9-9 does is it compromises in the worst way. issues a sales tax and a flat tax and opens up the door to a value added tax. it's very, very dangerous and

the way i see it, i don't think it's going to tax those who have bigger incomes. it's going to tax, it's a regressive tax. people who are going to get a 9% sales tax and they don't even have jobs right now. so, i think because it's so regressive that it's going to, if we ever came close to it, it would be very, very unpopular and, matter of fact, i think the more people know about it, the more questions will be asked. >> is herman cain qualified to be president? >> oh, sure. i think everybody on the stage is qualified. the big question is, what do they believe in? what are they going to do as president? qualifications have a lot of variations to it. >> i ask you that because herman cain has no government experience. when you look at his economic plan, i mean, the guy who helped him come up with this is a financial guy. so, he hasn't taken the usual road and on foreign policy, he says, you know, i haven't really thought about it quite yet. >> but you would say that, you

know, you could charge me with not having a lot of high-paid economists tell me what to do, but i figured i read about it, so, i don't have to go out and depend on a key adviser. so, that in itself doesn't bother me as much as what does he believe in? i mean, if he believes in a value added tax and sales tax and flat tax and all these things, that, to me, is very important. but the fact that he hasn't had this experience isn't necessarily negative. what worries me is he's had a lot of political experience because he's in the federal reserve system. and you can't do that without being very political. they haven't invited me to become part of the federal reserve system. he's part of that banking establishment and no wonder because he defended the bailouts and t.a.r.p funds and all this. >> he did embrace alan greenspan in the last debate. you had an issue with that. let's talk about your economic plan. you say in your first year as president, you will cut $1

trillion in federal spending. how? >> of course, you have to get support. people have to know what you're doing. they have to know why they're doing it and congress has to give its support. but if elected president, you have to have support of the people and support of the congress to do it. but, you could do a lot on overseas spending. that's where my number one attack is. because of all the overseas spending in the last ten years, our national debt went up $4 trillion. that's a big hunk. so, i want to bring the troops home and have them spend their money here at home. >> part of your plan is to eliminate all foreign aid, but it's less than 1% of the federal budget and it does build good will, after all, if we hadn't helped out japan after world war ii, if we hadn't helped out japan during the tsunami and earthquake there, that wouldn't have built the good will with countries that we need to have with japan. >> i'm working on good will with the american people. people hate it.

besides after all those programs after world war ii, they were never what they were played up to be. a lot of shortcomings. a lot of people says magic. no, recovery came from the markets being recovered. overseas spending is more than foreign aid. i'm talking about as money and the dod department spent and going into places without congressional approval. that kind of stuff has to quit. if we don't, we aren't going to solve our problem. >> the plan cuts out five cabinet departments and the tsa, but you don't mention anything about social security or medicare. and those are the two big things that people are concerned about right now. it's really busting our federal budget. >> on the campaign, i've always said we have enough places to cut, we don't need to attack the elderly. we have made promises, that was a contract. even though it's not the best program in the world, i would work real hard and this is what my program does. cuts else where in order to take care of the people who have

become dependent. but i do deal with social security because i let the young people opt out and that's a big deal. and i think if we cut else where, we don't have to put people out on the streets. so, i have no regrets about cutting all this money overseas and protecting the people who are dependent the social security beneficiaries. >> i have to say that, if you get congress to agree with you, i would be amazed and you would be one heck of a politician. >> but you have to get the people on your side and they influence congress because congress really just are political people. if they think they can stay in office only by supporting cuts, how can we solve the problem of debt? by increasing debt. it doesn't make any sense. and i think the american people understand that. >> we'll hear much more in the debate tonight. thank you so much for joining us so early. we appreciate that. >> you're welcome. >> i hope you can take a nap in between, thanks. morning headlines coming your way next, we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] you are a business pro.

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50 minutes after the hour. here are your morning headlines. secretary of state hillary clinton arriving unannounced in tripoli overnight. to offer american support for the libyan support. markets open in 45 minutes. right now u.s. stock futures are mixed after quarterly losses from goldman sachs were worse than expected. also worrying some investors, china reporting its economy slowed during the third quarter, although still slowed to 9.1% gdp growth. new developments in the case of four mentally challenged adults locked in a basement in philadelphia. the mother of 11-month-old lisa irwin who vanished from her home two weeks ago now says she was drunk the night her daughter went missing. deborah bradley insists her drinking had nothing to do with

the disappearance. the local fbi and police are still searching for baby lisa. dan wheldon died of blunt head trauma in a fiery crash involving 15 cars on sunday. some racers now questioning the safety of the track. that's the news you need to know to start your day. "american morning" back right after this break.

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doesn't the vunesian look beautiful this morning? welcome back to "american morning." we're live in las vegas. in just over 11 hours, seven republican candidates will participate in the republican presidential debate. a lot of preparation has gone into tonight's event co-hosted by cnn and the western co-leadership conference. a set has been built from the ground up at the venetian sands expo and convention center. that includes two huge monitors, an enormous chandelier and seating for 1,500 people. a lot at stake tonight.

herman cain and mitt romney locked in a dead heat. a big performance by other candidate could go a long way towards securing the republican nomination for president. live coverage, by the way, begins at 8:00 p.m. eastern. anderson cooper will moderate and i will be here to bring the you the latest tomorrow morning. it will be interesting to see if the other candidates pile it on herman cain because he is so popular right now with his 9-9-9 plan. yeah, everybody is kind of looking to -- >> i'm sorry to interrupt you. or trying to get out there for themselves. instead of reacting to herman cain will they get out there and get away from herman cain finally? >> here's my question to you, carol, if you were just walking by where you are right now, would you have any way of knowing that anderson cooper was moderating that debate?

>> what, if i were just walking by this beautiful stage we have set up here? >> is that the biggest thing you've ever seen of anderson cooper? >> that's a very large anderson cooper head. >> is that two stories of anderson cooper? >> that is two stories of anderson cooper and there are big cnns everywhere. good promo for us, right? inside the venue, inside the venue it is so beautiful. i can't wait to go inside tonight and sit among the audience and watch that debate and see how the audience reacts because that's really been the most fun part about these debates. if the audience boos or claps or laughs, it's all interesting. >> you brought us some very interesting stuff with your interviews and tomorrow morning, of course, even more of that. we'll get more analysis, more post-game and the bottom line is a lot of people saying there have been a lot of these debates, but moving the needle for some ofh