curiosity in a nonsterile environment. so there may be germs on the drill when it hits the ground and drills into the martian surface. they're saying it cannot now hit water because if there are germs, the water can make it incubate and the germs can stay alive. we don't want to cross-contaminate planets. >> we could be planting the seeds of life. chad myers, always appreciate your insights. thanks very much. let's go to "the situation room" and wolf blitzer standing by. wolf? martin, thanks very much. happening now, we're releasing our brand-new poll on the presidential race. did president barack obama get a convention bounce? you're about to find out. also, mitt romney's now saying some nice things about at least parts of obama care. is he sensing a change in the campaign's momentum? plus, the story behind the bear hug that literally lifted the president of the united states off the ground. i'll talk to the man who did it. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room."

we begin with important news just in to "the situation room." our brand-new poll shows president obama receiving a significant bounce from the democratic national convention. he now leads mitt romney 52% to 46%. that's among likely voters nationwide. all this according to our brand-new cnn orc poll. let's get to our chief national correspondent, john king, over at the magic wall. >> a six-point national lead. the president benefited most from his convention. let's look deeper at the other numbers. let's look here -- here's one of the big reasons why. this is among men. the republicans almost always have a big advantage among men.

the president, this is a tie essentially. the president with a one-point lead among men. but look at the difference. going into the democratic convention, it was governor romney who had a big lead a 12-point lead among men. that's one of the reasons the president comes out of his convention in much stronger shape. then you ask people who's best in touch with the middle class? this has been a huge battleground in this election. a 20-point lead for the president when you ask the question, which candidate is most in touch with the middle class? governor romney's always trailed in this one. but he came out of the republican convention with a bit of a bounce. he's down by 20 points, a huge bounce. this can matter in a close election, which candidate most shares your values, the president now with a seven-point lead over governor romney. this is just before the convention season. when we last asked this question, it was almost a tie. a big lead now for the president. you have the president leading in the horse race, the president leading on these value questions. what about on the big issues that will settle the election?

on the economy, the two candidates are tied. governor romney had a slight lead going into the democratic convention. on foreign policy, on medicare, health care and on taxes, president obama has a decent lead heading into the stretch, only on the deficit does governor romney now top the president. he was even on some of these issues. without a doubt, coming out of the democratic convention in the national numbers, not only in the horse race, i would say even more significant, shares your values, in touch with the middle class, clearly the messaging of the convention, not just the president. president clinton and others, clearly the democrats have a big bounce. the question is, can they make it last. >> the debates will be critical in october as well. gloria borger and ryan lizza is here. what's behind this bounce? >> one of the things that interested me was this question of enthusiasm. i think that's really behind this bounce that we've seen. generally overall during the

primary season and coming up to this point, you've seen that republicans have had more enthusia enthusiasm. now take a look at this. we asked, are you extremely or very enthusiastic about voting in november? democrats now 59%. last week, 56%. so you see up three points. republicans are down five points. now, if the enthusiasm gap shifts, that could be so important to president obama because, don't forget, in 2008, it was the enthusiasm of the democrats that actually pulled them over the finish line. so that's what they need because this time, republicans have been so enthusiastic. now we seem to see a shift. but, again, as john was saying before, it's a big if. the question is, does it last? we don't know. >> everybody keeps saying that conventions don't matter. at least they matter in the short term right now. look at these numbers.

we'll put them up for our viewers. favorability of president obama and governor romney. before the republican convention, about even, 50% or romney, 52% for the president. after the republican convention, 53% for romney. 51% for the president. but look at this, after the democratic convention, romney goes down to 48%. the president jumps up to 57%. that's a significant jump. >> it's huge because in a bad economy, the only thing that can lift an incumbent up and get him across the finish line is that people still approve of obama, they like him. he has an advantage on this simple personality test. if he's below 50% going into election day and less than 50% of the public are saying they don't approve of the president, you're not going to get 50% to vote for you. that is a really important number. just the fact that he got a four-point bounce in an era of polarization where these conventions have not produced bounces, the last five conventions, the bounce was two points or less.

getting four points is a big deal. >> and it means that people are willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. and in a bad economy, that's exactly what you want because what they were talking about at the democratic convention was patience. that was bill clinton's speech, all about patience. if you like somebody, you're more likely to be patient with them. >> i think bill clinton did a good job for the president, at least that's my assessment based on these polls. here's the question, john. you study this very closely. as important as these national numbers are, do they automatically -- we assume they translate into florida, into ohio, north carolina, virginia, colorado, these battleground states, can we assume that the bounce that occurred nationally is also taking place in the battleground states? >> no but would be the best answer. no, you can't assume that. what are the polls out of florida, ohio, north carolina,

other big battleground states. no, they don't specifically transfer. if the president jumps nationally doesn't mean he's jumping in those states. but you can't move the numbers throughout the poll like these numbers have moved without florida, ohio, north carolina. those three stailt states are in the top ten states in terms of population. it's impossible for the president not to be improving in those lower values. romney insists some of these will fade. they insist it will fade some. but these numbers are alarm figure you're in the romney campaign, national numbers. the key test is when we see the state polls. >> you heard some of romney's pollsters suggesting that this was a sugar high for the democrats and it really is not going to have any long-term impact. >> romney is running out of opportunities to put this away. he had a big opportunity with his vice presidential selection. he had a big opportunity when he wrapped up the nomination. he added an opportunity by taking his foreign trip and then

his convention. he has one more big set -- he's got the debates. very important. >> october 3rd. that first debate is going to be huge. >> it's going to be hugely important because this is when the american public sees these two men together. not at their separate conventions when they're preaching to the choir. but they're thinking on their feet, answering questions the american public wants to hear the answers to. >> remember all the volatility in the republican primary season. we started this year thinking, what a volatile year. people are swinging back and forth. since romney settled on a nomination, it's been static. the national race has moved a point or two. if we see a bounce like this, do we have a new volatility? if the answer is yes, the debates are the next big move. >> do we know that all of the public was tuning in during the conventions? labor day, end of august, lots of people watched. but how focused is the american

public on this election? and i think they're going to grow more focused the closer we get. that's when the debates are so important. >> reading through the poll before i came on, it looks like specificity matters to people. people wanted to hear about policy proposals. if you compare obama's speech to romney's, obama he's a's had mo specificity. romney needs to tell people exactly what he's going to do -- >> i would either neither candidate has really told the american people exactly what they're going to do. >> as they celebrate, he is still the incumbent president. and the economic, if you run the economic numbers through any historical model, they tell you he loses. >> but some of those battleground states are doing better than the rest of the country. that could be important to the president also. >> they're pretty encouraged, the democrats, by what they're seeing in ohio right now. no republican has won the white house without winning ohio. guys, thanks, very much.

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improve your lung function. get your first full prescription free and save on refills at advaircopd.com. jack cafferty is here with the "the cafferty file." >> more than 50 million americans couldn't afford to buy food at some point during the past year. stunning and pretty sad. government data shows children in nearly 4 million households didn't have enough to eat at some point during the last year. and almost 17 million americans were at the borderline of not having enough food meaning they had to eat less because the food

they bought didn't last or they didn't have enough money to buy more or both. people said they found themselves in this spot for a few days a month for seven months out of the year. a long time to go hungry. the number of americans in this category shot up by more than 800,000 from 2010. those finding it hardest to buy the food they needed included women living alone, blacks and the poor. with numbers like these, it should come as no surprise that food stamp use is now at record levels. according to the government, 46.7 million people used food stamps in june, up more than 3% from just a year ago. in fact, food stamp use has stayed above 46 million all year long, just as unemployment has stayed above 8%. that's some economic recovery, isn't it? and it's costing all of us. federal food stamp spending neared $76 billion last year. that's a record. nevertheless, president obama's pushing to grow the program even more. the department of agriculture

running radio ads encouraging more people who are eligible to enroll for food stamps. republicans, on the other hand, want to cut back on food stamp spending. here's the question this hour, what does it mean if more than 50 million americans couldn't afford to buy food last year? go to cnn.com/caffertyfile, post your comment on the blog. or go to our post on "the situation room's" facebook page. >> shocking statistic indeed, jack. really is. thank you. mitt romney's going full speed ahead today in the must-win state of ohio. he's mocking president obama's campaign slogan and letting officials of his own campaign deal with the latest polls. here's our national political correspondent, jim acosta. >> reporter: the cnn orc numbers are just the latest in a string of polls showing mitt romney falling behind president obama. but if the gop contender is worried about that, he's not showing it. ♪ mitt romney was all confidence as he returned to the battleground state of ohio.

>> he went out with his campaign slogan. you know what it is. he says forward. forward, that's his campaign slogan. i think forewarned is a better term. >> reporter: recent polls including new numbers from cnn orc show the president pulling ahead by six points prompted the romney to issue this polling memo to donors and supporting. in it, romney's chief pollster writes, don't get too worked up about the latest polling. while some voters will feel a bit of a sugar high from the conventions, the basic structure of the race has not changed -- mitt romney will win this race. the obama campaign came out with new fund-raising numbers for august, revealing it beat romney in a monthly money haul for the first time since spring. to blunt the momentum, romney and paul ryan hit the sunday talk show circuit where the gop nominee offered a more surgical take on health care. >> i'm not getting rid of all of health care reform, of course. there are a number of things that i like in health care reform that i'll put in place.

>> reporter: romney wants to make sure people with pre-existing conditions can obtain insurance, a nuance he's reported before but only on a few occasions. most recently how he condemned the health care law. >> help us defeat obama care and the liberal agenda that makes government too big, too intrusive and it's killing jobs across this country. >> reporter: and romney and ryan declined to specific loopholes they would close. >> give me an example of a loophole that you would close. >> people at the high end, high income taxpayers are going to have fewer deductions and exemptions. >> reporter: the responses were spun into a new obama web video. >> don't voters have a right to know which loopholes you're going to go after? >> mitt romney and i, based on our experience, think the best way to do this is to show the outlines of these plans. >> reporter: republicans are pointing to a new bob woodward book which details the breakdown between the white house and congress that nearly led to a

debt default. in a section of the book, woodward writing, it was increasingly clear that no one was running washington. that was trouble for everyone, but especially for obama. despite the latest poll numbers a top romney adviser says the campaign is, quote n a great position, with less than 60 days to go, the campaign believes the race will come down to the economy. an issue top aides say gives romney the age. >> jim, thank you. cuba suddenly thrown into darkness. millions of cubans suffer a major blackout, including the entire capital city of havana. there are a lot of warning lights and sounds vying for your attention.

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teachers are on strike in the country's third largest school district. lisa sylvester is monitoring that and some of the other top stories in "the situation room" right now. this is a sad story unfolding in chicago. >> certainly true. negotiations are back on hours of teachers in chicago walked off the job. the city's first teachers strike in 25 years was called sunday. about 350,000 students are affected. and parents are now looking for alternatives. almost 30,000 educators are on strike. union negotiators said they were close to a deal on pay with administrators but still far apart on teacher evaluations, benefits and other issues. eastman kodak is cutting

their workforce by 1,000 employees. they did not say where the latest round of cuts would happen. kodak has struggled since the explosion of digital photography. the company has already trimmed 2,700 workers worldwide this year alone. and power is beginning to come back to homes in havana, cuba. much of western and central cuba was affected. hospitals and other facilities with generators remained in operation, though. short local electrical outages are not uncommon because of cuba's aging power grid. but these are rare unless triggered by a large storm. the incident is under investigation. the workers are trying to restore power there. i have to say, i really like our new digs here. viewers have been watching. but it's gorgeous. a lot of folks worked really hard on our studio. >> love the new situation room. moments after former bill

clinton's convention speech, our own contributor, alex castellanos predicted president obama would get a boost in the polls. cnn's new poll suggests alex was absolutely right. here's a question, can mitt romney still turn it around? alex and hilary rosen are standing by live. i had three kids. and she became the full time mother of three. it was soccer, and ballet, and cheerleading, and baseball. those years were crazy. so, as we go into this next phase, you know, a big part of it for us is that there isn't anything on the schedule.

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democratic strategist, hilary rosen, and the republican strategist, alex castellanos. let's talk about this brand-new cnn orc poll. before the democratic convention, after the republican convention, it was tied, according to our same poll. 48%, 48% for the president and for the governor. now after the poll, 52% for president obama. 46% for governor romney. that's a six-point split there. you predicted, alex, and i was there with you, after the bill clinton speech at the democratic convention, you predicted that there would be a significant bounce for the president as a result of that. but the democrats did have a pretty good convention. >> they had a better one than we did as republicans, wolf. wednesday night, bill clinton said, president obama is safe when it comes to money. he's not that big a spender. remember me, trust me. thursday night, the president reminded people of what they liked about him four years ago. and i think part of this bump is just people who were a little

less enthused are now willing to tell the poll, i like that guy. but overall, the democratic c e convention had more energy than the republicans. night by night and overall, the democrats beat the republicans. >> i thought the republicans did have a pretty good convention, too. but they had some bad luck. namely, hurricane isaac which took away the first night and then part of the second night. there was a lot of coverage of isaac. and that probably hurt the republican convention to a certain degree. >> but even the messages, i thought, in tampa were a little disjointed. what i think you saw in charlotte was sort of building up. we had each night for the first four or five hours, we had a lot of pushing back on their culture wars on the republican side. we had a lot of focus on the middle class and some of the issues that really divide president obama and mitt romney. and then in primetime, you had a super narrow focus on, what are our accomplishments? what's the difference between the two? and what does it mean for sort

of those centrist thinkers there? i think the republicans just did not plan very well in terms of their speeches. they couldn't decide whether they were angry or optimistic or wanted to show mitt romney's fuzzy side or wanted to show his handling of the economy. it felt very disjointed. >> that clint eastwood thing was a total blunder, if you will. >> i think having people in shares works much better. >> yeah, that's right. instead of empty chairs. listen to what mitt romney said yesterday on "meet the press". it's generating some commotion out there. >> i'm not getting rid of all of health care reform, of course. there are a number of things that i like in health care reform that i'm going to put in place. one is to make sure that those with pre-existing conditions can get coverage. two is to assure that the marketplace allows for individuals to have policies that cover their family up to whatever age they might like. >> that was this weekend. this was back in june after the supreme court said obama care was, in fact, constitutional.

here's mitt romney back then. >> what the court did not do on its last day in session, i will do on my first day if elected president of the united states. and that is, i will act to repeal obama care. >> alex, obviously, quite a difference in what he said then, what he's saying now, although in fairness to governor romney, he said in the past he does like that notion of the pre-existing conditions to a certain degree, and allowing kids to stay an their parents' policies. >> that's more a conflict of language than of substance. i think what the romney folks would tell you is that governor romney has been for repeal and replace. there are some commonalities, things that both republicans and democrats have had in common. republicans have been for catastrophic coverage, for pre-existing conditions, for letting kids stay on parents' insurance longer. those are commonalities.

if romney is elected, you would see those in republican plans. but there is a bit of a conflict. >> this is mitt romney at war with himself again. and notably what happened yesterday afternoon after that "meet the press" appearance was governor romney issued a clarifying statement saying, well, there's nondiscrimination for pre-existing conditions if you maintain continuous coverage. that means if you already have health insurance, we don't think you can get kicked off of it. very big difference from what president obama provided, which is people who don't currently have insurance can get it. the reason mitt romney did that is because he doesn't have a plan to cover people without insurance. and that is a big hole in his promise to the american people and that's why i think everything he said yesterday is completely hollow. >> i think the president is for a mandate. mandate everybody's coverage. you can cover everybody with pre-existing conditions.

>> a mandate the republicans used to be for. >> the problem is when you don't have that mandate and you don't want to commit to it, it's hard to embrace fully all pre-existing conditions. >> four years ago, you worked for mitt romney and tried to get him the republican presidential nomination. didn't exactly work out. what does he need to do now? we have two months basically until the election. three presidential debates in october. one vice presidential debate in october. what does he need to do? >> well, i think he still has a shot at winning this thing and a good shot because gloria was right earlier when she was saying that america's about to see these two men toe to toe. and we don't know what a president will face. we want to test them in these debates to see how they'll handle adversity in expected situations. what does romney have to do? he has to lead. he has to say, the next four years are going to be different not only than the last four, but the last 12 and the last 20. washington is going to be a very different place. i'm taking money out of

washington's economy and grow your economy. the president is not going to grow your economy. he's going to keep growing washington. there will be no change with obama. there will be real change with me. that's what -- there's a 70% wrong track in this country. people think that 70% of voters think we're going the wrong way. guess who's going to win? the guy who says, no, we're going in a different direction. >> but obama's favorabilities went up in this cnn poll. that was about leadership. president obama is leading the enthusiasm factor for democrats here. and mitt romney is losing the enthusiasm factor on the republican side. that's going in the wrong direction at a time when you want to -- >> but that could still change. a lot of obama supporters, i've spoken to, they are not yet high-fiving themselves, saying to themselves it's over. >> at the first debate, once you see two guys side by side, all of a sudden, they both look fairly presidential. >> it's a leveller. >> i would expect that first debate to be a leveller and for

mitt romney to come out pretty well in that. it will be the first time there's a side by side. it's easy to challenge the incumbent. but ultimately i think president obama moves -- >> it's been so landlocked, nothing's moved. the pressure has built up. a debate like this could release the whole thing in one direction or the other. >> and they're both solid debaters. i moderated four democratic presidential debates four years ago with then candidate barack obama. solid in each one. i've moderated four republican presidential debates. mitt romney, solid in each one. they're both solid, strong debaters. and they don't easily make mistakes. if one is looking for the other one to make a blunder out there or a gaffe, i wouldn't necessarily hold my breath waiting for that because they're both very, very strong. >> romney came back a couple of times in this presidential primary through a debate performance. >> guys, thanks very much. one florida obama supporter is really enthusiastic. so much so that he just had to give the president of the united

states a huge bear hug. still to come, i'm going to talk to the pizza guy turned into a power lifter. ♪ [ acoustic guitar: slow ]

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the top human rights official for the united nations today condemned the mass killings, the torture, the rape which he says have become the norm in syria's civil war. opposition groups report at

least another 102 deaths today. they're also accusing the government of a horrifying new tactic. cnn's mohammed jamjoom is monitoring the crisis from b.a.r.t. in lebanon. he what's the latest, mohammed? >> reporter: opposition activists have told us the syrian regime is resorting to using a new and crude type of improvised explosive device. activists say the regime is using something they're calling barrel bombs. we've seen amateur video online purporting to show some of these unexploded ordinates. activists are saying the regime has been putting tnt, nails, sometimes skewers as well as fuel in barrels and then dropping these barrels from aircraft over different parts of syria. we've also seen amateur video we can't independently verify. but amateur video showing these

barrels dropped from aircraft hovering over parts of syria. and some video emerged yesterday from a district in aleppo purporting to show the aftermath of what activists call a barrel bomb having been dropped on a residential street in that district having flattened a residential district. you see men trying to find bodies or locate survivors in the aftermath of this shelling. wolf? >> mohammed doshgs , do we know these bombs are being used now? >> reporter: well, wolf, the syrian regime hasn't commented on this at all, hasn't responded to any of these reports, we must state that. but opposition agent viss are saying these are much cheaper to make and that they maximize the devastation. they say this has such an impact when it makes its impact that it's causing even more terror than the other types of shelling that have been going on these past several weeks in aleppo as well. >> mohammed jamjoom monitoring the situation in beirut for us, thank you.

it's a horrible, horrible situation. a taliban threat against britain's prince harry. we're going to have details on that. but first, i'll ask the man who lifted barack obama, the president of the united states, off the ground and whether the president or the secret service knew what was coming. ♪ [ 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 70% 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.

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it's the campaign stop everyone's talking about. the president of the united states got a lift, literally, from a super-enthusiastic supporter. watch what happened over the weekend when president obama met scott van duzer in ft. pierce, florida.

watch this. >> come on, man. >> look at this. >> man, i'm so excited. are you a power lifter or what? it's good to see you. how long have you had this place? >> scott is joining us now from ft. pierce in florida. he's the owner of the big apple pizza and pasta restaurant. scott, thanks very much for coming in. what made you hug the president and then lift him up like that in that bear hug? >> hi, wolf. thanks for having me. i guess i got caught up in the moment. i had a brief moment when i knew he was coming. he opened up the door and he was like, where's scott at? as soon as i saw him, he came right at me, shook my hand. and i was so excited i gave him

a big hug and picked him up. it was crazy. >> did you have permission from the secret service to do that? i used to be a white house correspondent. those guys are pretty sensitive when it comes to picking up the president of the united states. >> actually a lot of people think we did. i'm telling you, it was just a spur of the moment. we didn't plan it. we didn't have no communication with the secret service or anything like that. it was just a genuine moment that i was taken aback by. it was an incredible experience. >> what would have happened if you would have lifted him up and you would have dropped him or you would have fallen over? that could have been a big issue. >> yeah, i think that would have been a tremendous issue, right? i felt comfortable being able to pick him up. like i said, the way he came in, just his enthusiasm and he was genuinely excited to be here. didn't feel like it was just another stop on his bus tour. like i said, when he came in, seemed like i knew him for years. and his enthusiasm was contagious.

>> how emotional is it that the president of the united states was actually in your pizza place over there? >> like i said, we had no idea he was coming. and what an honor. i keep saying it all day. whether you're republican or democrat, he's our president, he's the united states president. and it was just a tremendous honor. it's bizarre. we were watching the convention last week. and now here he is. it was, like i said, an amazing experience. i think that's why -- i've never felt like i've been caught up in a moment. but that was definitely a time where i felt like i was truly caught up in the moment and it was just awe-inspiring. >> how much advance notice that you get that the president would be coming over to your restaurant? >> he'd come to my store, i wasn't here. i was out hitting some golf balls. and my manager called me. i had roughly 18 minutes notice before the secret service started locking down the street and the block. i got here as quick as i could.

>> the president came and he wanted to commend some of the charitable work you do. tell us about that. >> well, roughly four years ago, we started a local 501 c3. our goal was to help one family a month through financial tragedies, whether kids with cancer, women with breast cancer, families that couldn't afford to bury their kids. in the last four years, we raised over $600,000 to help our local people. in the last three years, we've created one of the largest blood drives in the country where the emphasis is on educating people and the importance of donating blood. and it's one of the largest drives in the country. and when the president came, he talked about our foundation. he talked about the work that we do at the blood center. i was touched because before he left, he came with a huge media pool. and he had me in the corner and he grabbed my hand. put a hand on my shoulder and looked me in the eyes and truly said, i want to thank you for the job that you're doing

because with a small business, things are hard as it is. but you take the time to give back to the community, it's a moment i'll never forget. i was extremely honored, touched and it was an incredible day. >> i'm told, correct me if i'm wrong, scott, you're a registered republican but you voted for the president four years ago. and i assume you're planning on voting for him again this time. >> i am. that's the question of the hour besides the bear hug. i like his enthusiasm four years ago. i liked his message of trying to obviously get the youth involved, get out and vote. like i said, the biggest thing is his enthusiasm and wanting to make change in the country. obviously now we have problems here in our country. there's trouble worldwide. but at that time, i really felt like he was the right guy at the right time. and seeing him and the enthusiasm when he came in my store, i felt that. the reason why i voted for him. i felt that when he came in here. like i said, this could have

been just another stop on his tour, in and out. but it felt like he wanted to come here, he wanted to make a difference in our daily life here and he did. the president that were in the store, he made a difference to me. >> a lot of republicans say the president's bad for small business. you've got a small business. are you better off today than you were four years ago? how's your small business doing? >> you know what, wolf, i feel i control my destiny, i control my business. i work hard. i don't look for the government to come in and help me. if small businesses look to take care of themselves instead of leaning on help or support, we'd be a lot better off anyway. i am better off than i was four years ago, because i work hard, take care of my family and if other people had that mentality, i think the country would be a lot better also. >> scott, thanks very much for sharing a few moments with us. congratulations. i love the bear hug. i've never seen anyone do that to a president. you're a first. >> wolf, thank you for your time, sir.

>> let's go to jack. he's got "the cafferty file." have you ever seen anyone lift a president like that? >> no. i bet the secret service guys' hearts had to stop for a moment. what a great picture, though. there's some awfully good people in this country. the question is, what does it mean if more than 50 million americans couldn't afford to buy food last year? 50 million. gary in california, it means the reported 8% unemployment rate is understated if 17% of our population can't afford food. think about how broke you have to be in order to pass on the purchase of food. we need to get people back to work. j.d. in new hampshire, means wages are too low. people often lose their jobs or are willing to work for a pittance because somewhere in the world there's a child willing to do the same work for 50 cents a day. we need significant tariffs on off-shored products brought back into this country, a little

corporate patriotism wouldn't hurt either. kim writes, it all goes back to the job market. we don't have jobs, we can't buy food. when working, i would grocery shop. my job loss affected not only my family but those i donated to. it's a vicious cycle. a very vicious cycle. pete in georgia writes, first of all, i don't buy what you're selling. those same people have plastered to their ear a $500 smartphone and their kids are running around wearing a pair of $150 nike sneakers on their feet. let's be real here, jack. ken writes, it doesn't mean anything to the politicians who have bankrupted the country. there are no many good-paying jobs. there is no more money left in the budget because 50% of the population pays zero taxes but gets 100% of the entitlements. matt writes, it means the middle class is disappearing and the have/have not divide continues to grow. here comes the new roman empire.

to read more on this subject, go to the blog, cnn.com/caffertyfile or through our post on "the situation room's" facebook page. chicago striking teachers went back to the negotiating table today. but how soon will they be back in the classrooms? that's coming up. also, see what some tv reporters are running for cover in their own newsroom are doing. jack, you're a little boring. boring. boring. [ jack ] after lauren broke up with me, i went to the citi private pass page and decided to be...not boring. that's how i met marilyn... giada... really good. yes! [ jack ] ...and alicia. ♪ this girl is on fire [ male announcer ] use any citi card to get the benefits of private pass. more concerts, more events, more experiences. [ jack ] hey, who's boring now? [ male announcer ] get more access with the citi card. [ crowd cheering, mouse clicks ]

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in france, workers gather grapes on the first day of harvest. and in nepal, a cnn ireporter catches this shot of an avalanche roaring down a mountain. hot shots. pictures coming in from around the world. the world's largest personal computer maker is cutting more jobs. lisa sylvester is monitoring that and some of the other top satires in "the situation room" right now. >> hi, wolf. not good news for hewlett-packard workers. it plans to lay off 29,000 employees worldwide, 2,000 more job cuts than originally planned. the majority of the cuts will be through a combination of involuntary layoffs and early retirement offers. h.p. employs more than 300,000 people around the world. and the cuts are part of a multi-year restructuring. deadline hollywood reports that a movie about the life of late penn state football coach joer paterno joe paterno and al pacino has been tapped to play joe pa.

as far as the film goes, so far, there's no script, no deal and no director. bats in a tv newsroom is just utter chaos. take a look at these pictures. a bat had been hiding in the building housing cnn's affiliate in omaha, nebraska, for weeks. so it finally spent an hour saturday -- you see it swooping through the newsroom. eventually the humane society was called in and they eventually caught that guy. that bat is now in protective custody. and the newsroom apparently is quiet again. but that's pretty hilarious video. that bat has totally taken over that newsroom. i think probably is going to be doing a newscast soon enough. >> stuff happens. lisa, thank you. and you're in "the situation room." happening now, thousands of teachers fill the streets in chicago refusing to work and

hundreds of thousands of students suddenly have nowhere to go as chicago's teachers go on strike. a taliban threat to kill britain's prince harry, now on the front lines as the pilot of an attack helicopter. and an exclusive look inside an intelligence video. what the air force can learn from the kardashians or from tv control rooms. we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." what a difference a week makes. president obama went into the democratic convention deadlocked with mitt romney. but our new poll shows he got an important boost from all the

hoopla down in charlotte. president obama now leads governor romney 52% to 46% among likely voters nationwide. that's up from a 48% to 48% tie before the democratic convention. let's go live to cnn's white house correspondent dan dan >> reporter: what's interesting is that the president is getting this bump even though unemployment remains above 8% and the economy is still struggling to recover. in a race that's become about who can lock up key battleground states, president obama moved to create more distance between his policies and his republican opponents' plans. during recent trips to new hampshire, iowa and florida. >> what they are selling, we are not buying.

we've been there, we've tried it. it's not working. >> reporter: in the process, he's inching ahead of governor romney, according to two recent surveys. the cnn orc poll has him up six points. a gallup poll has him up. jay carney focused on what has been a tight race. >> we have always believed that this will be a very close race and that it continues to be the president's belief, as well as the belief of those around him. so dp that helps in terms of our assessment of things, that's how we view it. >> reporter: here's how the romney campaign views it. this memo to supporters from its chief pollster. quote, don't get too worked up about the latest polling. while some voters will feel a bit of a sugar high from the convention, the basic structure of the campaign has not changed significantly. the reality of the obama economy will reassert itself as the ultimate downfall of the obama

presidency and mitt romney will win this race. the polls didn't appear to take any of the punch out of governor romney's stump speech. >> forward is his campaign's slogan. i think forewarned is a better term. >> reporter: but it's more than just an uptick in the president's polling numbers. for the first time since april, the democrats outraised republicans. more than $114 million last month for the reelection effort. only $111 million for governor romney. the president's supporters are going out of their way to tout small donors as the engine of their fund-raising efforts. >> we're getting this basic support of individuals across america who believe they have to rally for the president at this point. otherwise the super pacs are going to own the television stations. >> reporter: now, the romney campaign is trying to sway voters by making the argument that they are not better off now than they were four years ago. but the obama campaign counters by saying that progress is being made but that a full recovery will take time. wolf? >> the president this coming

week, any major events on his schedule that we should take notice of? >> reporter: no big major events. tomorrow, obviously is 9/11. so the president will be marking that somber anniversary. and the president will be getting back out on the campaign trail later this week and also next week again, the president will be hitting the road, continuing that theme of pushing for the middle class. >> dan, thanks. the congress is back in action, but not for long. lawmakers returned to capitol hill today after a five-week recess. don't look for them to get much done before they leave on yet another break. let's go to dana bash. what's the late snes. >> reporter: the latest is you're right, there is so much unfinished business here piled up on congress' plate. but we expect them to spend their brief time back here in session doing a lot of politicking and legislating? not so much.

>> the senate will come to order. >> reporter: back to work after summer break with a long, long list of unfinished business and plenty of frayed election-year nerves. so much that the house chaplain opened praying for congeniality. >> help each member to overcome unnecessary emotions that hamper our work. >> reporter: not likely. across the capital, the democrat leader started the day by going after mitt romney's running mate. >> the ryan math doesn't work with his budgets. it doesn't work with medicare. it doesn't work with his tax plan. >> reporter: the senate's number two republican used his time to rebut democratic claims from their party convention last week. >> it is impossible to say that the tax cuts on the rich caused the recession. >> reporter: there is bipartisan agreement that they don't want to be here. they'd rather be home campaigning for reelection.

so expect congress to accomplish the bare minimum during the short two to three-week spurt of preelection work. most important, averting a government shutdown. since congress failed to send the president any of the dozen or so spending bills it's required to pass, leaders agreed to vote on a stopgap measure funding the government for six months at current spending levels. that's something tea party-backed republicans who were elected to cut spending had vowed never to go along with. then there's the farm bill, a five-year measure governing everything from farming to food stamps, which runs out at the end of this month. sources in both parties expect at least a one-year exception and some help for drought-striken cattle ranchers and farmers. yet even issues both parties want to address are trapped in partisan grid lak, cyber security, postal reform and the violence against women act. never mind the tough stuff, namely the so-called fiscal

cliff on december 31st when bush-era tax cuts expire and about $100 billion of mandatory spending cuts kick in unless congress acts. congress is punting on those economic issues that really will have a huge impact on people's wallets until the election, mostly, according to sources in both parties, because they want to wait to see what the political landscape looks like after the election. democrats hope if they do well, they'll have the upper hand. republicans feel the same. >> do you know, dana, if congress paul ryan will come back to washington from the campaign trail to vote on any of these bills? >> reporter: our understanding is the answer is, yes. kevin mccarthy, the house republican whip, told reporters this morning that he does expect mitt romney's running mate to be back here to vote on the so-called continuing resolution, that stopgap measure to keep the government running. be interesting to see how he votes. as a party leader, presumably he votes to keep the party running. but as someone for fiscal

discipline, a lot of republicans say they don't want to vote for it because it doesn't cut spending. >> we'll see what happens. thank you. let's go to jack with "the cafferty file." jack? >> as dana mentioned, congress is back on the hill. although most of them aren't really there at all. rather they're worried about themselves and election day and being reelected. they don't give a damn about you or about me. it's being reelected and election day is only two months away. if it's at all possible for the atmosphere in washington to get any worse, well, now's the time. and while the country's knee-deep in serious problems, congress is focusing on politics. what else is new? look for a lot of meaningless hearings and votes on measures that both sides know won't pass. the republicans want to roll back automatic defense cuts, repeal obama care. the democrats want to vote on a jobs bill with no republican support. and a lot of those votes will echo themes we're hearing on the

campaign trail. pathetic is what these folks are all about. all this as the u.s. hangs at the edge of that fiscal cliff dana was talking about. if congress chooses to do nothing about the deep automatic spending cuts and the inspiring bush tax cuts, economists say it's almost certain the country will be headed for another recession next year. urgent matters, these, to which the response is, ready? the senate might leave town again for another seven-week vacation, as soon as september the 21st. but be sure to vote to reelect the incumbent in your state or your congressional district because they're doing such a great job, aren't they? here's the question. why is congress so good at kicking the can down the road? go to cnn.com/caffertyfile, post a comment on my blog or go to the post on "the situation room's" facebook page. >> thanks very much, jack. mitt romney's math, can he lower taxes for the middle class, not raise them for the rich and balance the budget?

we're checking all the numbers. also, why the death of a top al qaeda leader in the middle east could be a really big deal for the united states. automatically filter justlenses the right amount of light. so you see everything the way it's meant to be seen. experience life well lit, ask for transitions adaptive lenses. energy is being produced to power our lives. while energy development comes with some risk, north america's natural gas producers are committed to safely and responsibly providing generations of cleaner-burning energy for our country, drilling thousands of feet below fresh water sources within self-contained well systems. and, using state-of-the-art monitoring technologies, rigorous practices help ensure our operations are safe and clean for our communities and the environment. we're america's natural gas.

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these are live pictures from chicago right now. those are teachers. they're on strike right now. chicago's public schoolteachers are on the picket lines instead of inside their classrooms on this day. it's happening in the country's third largest school district. now about 350,000 students have nowhere to go. cnn's ted rowlands is in chicago watching all of this. ted, what's the status of the talks? what's going on? >> reporter: well, the talks are ongoing, wolf, which of course is a good thing. however, there's no indication that a deal is imminent, meaning most parents have come up with plan "b" and are expecting that their kids will be out of school again tomorrow.

with their teachers on the picket lines, 350,000 chicago schoolchildren spent the day either at home or places like sweet holy cross church where the doors were open for kids to come to eat breakfast and lunch and watch movies. at this point, money doesn't seem to be an issue. teachers here make an average of more than $70,000 a year and have been offered a 16% raise over four years. the major sticking point is an valuation system that teachers believe will mean job losses. they also are striking because of the way they claim they're being treated. >> teachers are under pressure, nationally teachers are being demonized for the ills of society. teachers need resources and support. >> reporter: the focus of a lot of the anger on the picket lines

seem to be pointed directly at chicago's mayor, rahm emanuel. some teachers believe he's turned his back on them. which he told us today couldn't be further from the truth. you like teachers, right? >> of course. i love teachers and they work in very difficult circumstances. this is not about me and it's not about anybody else. let's focus on what the education system is. about. it's about our children, their learning, their opportunity. >> reporter: the board of education, along with several community leaders, have asked teachers to return to work while negotiations continue. there's no indication at this point that the union will go along with that, which means unless there's a deal reached soon, classrooms will be empty again tomorrow. which of course puts a lot of pressure on the parents of those 350,000 kids because they do have to either stay home from work or find a place for their kids to go as this continues, if it continues for day after day. the pressure is also going to build on both sides for them to come together and make a deal.

>> i can only imagine those working parents, single parents who have another problem they have to deal w. these are live pictures, ted. these are teachers, they're on the picket line right now. is that what we're seeing? >> reporter: yaeshgs lieah, liv pictures. they've been picketing all day. they've gone to different spots as groups. what you're seeing there is a larger group that is at the district administration build, vowing to keep picketing through the evening and every day until there's a deal. >> let's hope there's a deal soon. we'll stay in close touch with you, ted. thank you. it reads like a space novel. code words, government property and more than $100,000 in cash. now a new jersey mayor is under arrest. find out how the fbi brought him down. [ male announcer ] how do you trade?

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the mayor of new jersey's capital now facing corruption charges. lisa sylvester's monitoring that and the other top stories in "the situation room" right now. what happened? >> after a two-year investigation, fbi agents arrested trenton mayor tony mack today. he's accused of accepting $119,000 in kickbacks from a purported developer to sell city-owned property well below the assessed value for a parking garage. court documents say he used code words to discuss the scheme on the phone.

his brother and business associate are now charged and face up to 20 years in prison if convicted. a british bomb squad investigated suspicious items and found nothing hazardous in the home of a couple who were shot to death in the french alps last week. the couple's two young daughters survived the shooting. police briefly evacuated neighbors as they investigated the couple's london area home. it's unclear what the motive was in that killing. florida police are mourning a veteran officer who was killed while helping escort president obama's motorcade. he was traveling through west palm beach yesterday when a ford pick-up hit his motorcycle. a white house spokesman says the president was notified and he sent his thoughts and prayers to the family. the 55-year-old officer leaves behind a wife and four children. good news for sleep-deprived parents of newborns. a new study says two sleep training methods can help

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al qaeda's affiliate of the arabian peninsula is apparently suffering a major blow. yemen says its forces have killed the group's second in command pending dna confirmation. the group was behind the attempted underwear bombing back on christmas day, 2009. joining us now, cnn national security contributor fran townsend. she was the homeland security adviser to president bush and serves on both the cia and homeland security external advisory boards. this individual, al shihri, how important, fran, was this guy? >> hugely important.

he had been captured along the afghan/pak force and sent to guantanamo. he's a saudi. and he was held in guantanamo for many years. he was then repatriated back to saudi, his country of origin, where he was put through a rehabilitation program. and like many of those programs in this country, it failed with him. he wound up then leaving the kingdom, sneaking out of the kingdom, going to yemen and is essentially one of the founders of al qaeda in the arabian peninsula which we've heard government officials describe as the most direct threat to u.s. national interests asround the world. >> in the scheme of things, how much of a setback for al qaeda in the arabian peninsula is this? >> tremendous. he's one of the leaders of al qaeda in the arabian peninsula. the major bomb maker is still out there. but this will really, after anwar al awlaki, al shihri is one of the next most important individuals in that group.

it undermines the leadership of that group. >> is al qaeda of the arabian peninsula still considered a significant threat to the united states? >> absolutely, wolf. you mentioned the underwear bomber but there was also the computer cartridge in the cargo plane, that plot. and there was the more recently disrupted plot of al qaeda in the arabian peninsula as well where they were going to try to debt explosives on a plane. they've consistently tried to target the u.s. and u.s. aviation interests. so this is really -- i think it will be an important victory, especially for yemeni forces if it turns out that the dna confirmation comes through. >> let me switch gears to that navy s.e.a.l. who's written this book. that's the cover of his book. listen to what he said on "60 minutes." >> not talking secrets. not talking tactics.

i don't get into that stuff. u i try to give the reader a sense of what it's like to be there. >> as a former homeland security adviser to a president of the united states, what's your assessment? a lot of damage, no damage, modest damage? what do you think? >> well, look, the pentagon hasn't made sort of an official assessment yet. but what you can't have is each individual making judgments about whether or not what they're going to reveal is harmful in terms of revealing tactics or classified information. that's why there's a process. that's why he signed a nondisclosure agreement that required him to have the pentagon and the cia vet this book before it was printed. there's an argument that there are tactics in there. and so he may have to face consequences even if he made a good faith effort not to reveal them. what i find most interesting, wolf, is he talked about -- this was a capture or kill operation. one of the things we've got heard talked about is if that is indeed true -- and i suspect it is, in fact, true -- there would

have been a capture plan. how were they going to transport him? was bin laden going to be sedated in the helicopter? where was he going to be taken? was he going to be tried criminally? those are questions that get raised as a result of his coming out and having -- making that statement. >> he says his goal was merely to set the record straight for the american public. what do you make of that? >> wolf, look, this is one of the problems when you have a white house and politicians come out and give an excruciating amount of detail which i found pretty dangerous. it was a great victory. what we didn't need to know was every nit and nat that the white house put out there. when politicians do that, you invite this sort of reaction from the ground forces who really showed the courage and commitment to go out and actually execute the mission. that he wanted to set the record straight, if he thought that the

facts had been contorted by politicians is not surprising. it doesn't justify what he did. but i think political people have some responsibility here, whether they put out as much detail as they did and somebody on the ground who was there could say, no, let me tell you what really happened. >> i've heard everything said as far as what the government might do to take the royalty money, for example, take that away, confiscate that from this former navy s.e.a.l. to actual criminal charges. what do you think? >> wolf, as a practical matter, i think all of those options are absolutely on the table. but as a practical matter, can you imagine -- first of all, mark owen has committed most of the profits to charity in support of fallen heroes and their families. can you imagine a guy who put bullets in bin laden were going to try to criminally prosecute him, try to take the proceeds of the book out of the hands of a charity? he's been very smart about -- and slick about the way he went about it. i think the government is not going to want to be put in that

position ultimately. i think they're going to go back and look going forward as a training and policy matter, can they prevent this in the future? but i don't expect that they're going to be able to do very much to mark owen. >> that's his pseudonym. his real name, reported matt bissonnet. prince harry is on the front lines in afghanistan piloting on attack helicopter. but he's also apparently become a target of the taliban. brian todd is here. he's been looking into this store for us. it's a worrisome story. what are you learning? >> this is no cushy deployment for the prince. his helicopter unit will engage in close combat when needed. this does raise serious questions about the safety of the prince and those around him. he's called captain wales in the british military. to most of us, he's prince harry. to the taliban, he's the enemy. with the prince's recent

deployment to afghanistan, the taliban says it will try to c capture him or kill him. >> here comes a high-profile target into their area. >> reporter: thomas sanderson says there is a military need there for prince harry. he's an accomplished co-pilot and gunner in a squad dron of apache helicopters, a feared weapon that engages in close combat with militants often providing cover for allied forces under attack. apache missions in afghanistan are dangerous no matter who's on board. does this put a bigger target on the backs of the soldiers and the forces around him -- >> i think there's a marginal increase in the brits. there are individuals in the taliban who are going to try to score this trophy. but it won't translate into a wholesale change to get prince harry. >> reporter: a source tells us they've thoroughly assessed the threat to prince harry and others around him.

the source acknowledges with the prince's arrival, the taliban might have ratcheted up its intent to strike at british forces but says there's no intelligence to suggest they have any more capability of doing that than they normally have. prince harry will be stationed in southern helmand province, a taliban stronghold. but our source says apaches often deploy three or four at a time. and it will be hard for taliban forces to figure out which one he's on. cnn correspondent says the prince has always wanted to be deployed. this might counterbalance recent headlines about him dancing naked in a las vegas hotel room. >> in the military, he's a different person. i think you're going to see nothing but professionalism from him in the military. perhaps it doesn't harm seeing him in a uniform and being professional instead of at a party in a hotel room. >> reporter: this is scheduled to be a four-month deployment to afghanistan. prince hairs served four years ago there but was withdrawn out of concern of his safety when

news of deployment to an operating base was leaked. >> the british have been closely involved in this. >> a source says they had 22 very dangerous missions over libya during that conflict. in addition to all the missions they've flown over afghanistan, the british, according to thomas sanderson, have never lost an apache helicopter in any of these wars. but make no mistake, they fly very aggressive missions and this is a dangerous deployment for him. >> let's hope prince harry is okay and all of those nato troops are okay as well. thanks very much, brian. mitt romney promising to cut individual tax rates for everyone. we're taking a closer look at his plan to see how the numbers are stacking up. great shot.

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mitt romney raised some eyebrow this is weekend when he seemed to suggest he'd be open to keeping at least parts of president obama's health care overhaul. our chief political analyst gloria borger is here. gloria, it wasn't that long ago you sat down with mitt romney and you spoke about health care reform with him. it was a fascinating conversation. >> it was. and we really talked about health care reform in massachusetts, which, as you recall he passed with a bipartisan majority. i asked him whether that would be a governing model if he were to win the presidency. you'd work with democrats in congress? >> oh, sure. you've got to be able to work with people across the aisle who may have differences on policy but who agree in terms of the goal.

ultimately, you can convince each other. you can find that there's common ground. there are a lot of places you can't. you have to say, we have to agree to disagree. >> tax cuts? >> there are other places you can see, i think we can agree that social security is fine for current retirees and near retirees. but for people in their 20s, we have to come up with a way to make sure social security is there for them. >> democrats and republicans agree with that. we have to be able to do the same on important issues. i was able to do that in massachusetts. there are some lessons i learned in doing that. and if i go to washington, absolutely. i expect to have a very close working relationship with leading democrats and probably some coalitions of democrats and republicans that care about issues i care very deeply about. >> gloria, how are conservatives going to react to that?

>> not so much. they heard him over the weekend talking about keeping parts of the president's health care reform plan. here he's talking about working with democrats. this is clearly -- his target is independents. but conservatives is, as you know from covering those primaries, conservatives are very skeptical about mitt romney to begin with. he was careful in my conversation, i should say, to say that there are areas we're just going to have to agree to disagree. but he did talk about working with democrats. one of the areas, of course, they will have to agree to disagree is the question of extending the bush era tax cuts for the wealthy which he has said there is absolutely no compromise there. but conservatives hearing these words, combined with his words over the weekend, are going to say, you know what, maybe he's not the severely conservative candidate he told us he was. >> because i always grew up to believe that there's nothing wrong with compromise. >> well, i grew up covering congresses that compromised an awful lot.

but i think what you have now in washington are conservatives who came here for a specific agenda, tea party republicans, for example, and they don't have very much in common with lots of democrats. and there are lots of liberal democrats who feel the same way about the tea party conservatives. so you have a much more polarized congress. and people don't think it's in their self-interest to compromise because they come from polarized districts. so working with each other for the public good becomes more and more difficult. >> have you sensed, certainly since the republican convention over these last week, ten days, whatever, that he is trying to adjust a little bit, mitt romney, and appeal towards more moderates out there? >> and we saw that at the convention. at the convention, you heard very little about social issues. i would argue you heard much more about the social agenda at the democratic convention because they were trying to keep their base of the party, than you did at the republican

convention. what i think you're seeing mitt romney trying to do, particularly in the battleground states, is appeal to that sliver of the population that is disaffected with president obama, may have voted for him in 2008 and is still trying to decide whether mitt romney is a good alternative. and so to appeal to those people, he is saying, you know what, those pre-existing conditions, we'll keep that in obama care. conservatives are going to say, you know what, you didn't tell us the truth when you were campaigning in the primaries. >> nothing wrong with compromise, even rond rald reag compromised on many occasions with the democrats in congress. >> and republicans would say, they were different democrats, right? >> we'll see. thank you very much. while president obama came out of the democratic convention with a bounce, mitt romney is trying to pop that bubble to a certain degree with a new campaign offensive. in ohio today, he warned that an obama reelection would mean more

years of high unemployment and a high deficit. but does mitt romney's own arithmetic add up? tom foreman has been studying it. what have you found out? >> the white house is attacking mitt romney on his math s. he's promised to lower taxes for the middle class, not raise taxes for the rich and simultaneously move toward balancing the federal budget. and the white house say it can't be done. romney and ryan have said, yes, it can, you have to rewrite the tax code, lower corporate tax rates to spur investment and close a lot of loopholes. and those loophole are where this gets tricky. the biggest ones and the only ones that would produce enough save administration make this work are sacred cows in washington. for example, the home mortgage credit, if you no longer got a break on your taxes, for all that interest you pay on your

house, the government would pocket about $100 billion a year. do the same thing and eliminate the deduction for charitable giving. that's another nearly $50 billion for uncle sam. cut deductions for health insurance, even more savings for the government, pushing up toward $200 billion. but any of those actions would significantly sting the middle class. accordingly, each would also spur a furious counterassault from everyone trying to defend them, which may be one of the reasons that romney and ryan say they will not touch those particular programs and they have some complaints for the tax analyst who is say the program won't work. but the fundamental problem in their tax reform plan is it does not include enough details and they're not offering much more information to work with, saying those details are something they're going to work out with congress. so we can't really say if the white house is right when they call this bad math. but the numbers are in serious need of some support if people are to believe them.

otherwise, we're just going to argue about this until the cows come home. >> what if they eliminate some of the deductions and loopholes for huge corporations, for example? that's billions and billions of dollars there as well. >> the problem constantly comes around to this. there really are relatively few rich people in this country. and if you go after just the rich people and you say, we're going to get all this, it still doesn't produce enough money to offset all this. ultimately the tax analysts and economic analysts say, you have to hit the middle class if you want to produce those kinds of savings. and that's a problem the republicans are grappling with now and to a different degree, the white house is also grappling with. >> even if you go after exxonmobil and the tax credits they get or ge, some of these huge corporations, still wouldn't be enough money? there have been some suggestions that some republicans have made that some of those deductions and loopholes could be thrown away. >> there are things you could do to remake the entire tax code. but i've often said that's kind of like saying, let's change all the rules in the nfl.

now who's going to the super bowl? you're talking about such huge changes if you rewrite everything in the tax code for everybody, then, again, the problem becomes anyone predicting where you wind up in that process and whether you or i or john down the street pays more or less and how much. >> those writeoffs are proefl. ge has basically paid no federal income tax or some of the benefits at exxonmobil -- and some of these other huge corporations because it's built into the system. >> it's huge and it's controversial and it's worth bearing in mind, the reason they're built into the system is because over the years, very powerful forces have lobbied for all of these loopholes. they didn't appear by accident. so getting rid of them is going to be a titanic battle for whoever wants to do it, democrat or republican, no matter what you say. >> the home mortgage deduction is a sacred cow. but tax breaks for ge, not so much. >> not so much. except to ge. >> to ge. that's right. thanks very much.

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jack's back with the cafferty file. yak? >> why's congress so good at kicking the can down the road is the evergreen question we ask periodically. tom in illinois, i believe no one at any elected government level should have more than one term. i've been voting for 45 years and the only time i can remember

voting for an incumbent was clinton's second term. i believe with fighting corruption. re-elect no one. d. says practice makes perfect. we haven't held them accountable for their actions. we have reached the edge of the fiscal cliff. we pay these misfits and we need to vote them out when they don't do our bidding. dale in massachusetts, none of them has the courage to stand up to their corporate sponsors and do the right thing or anything for that matter. las vegas, because 80% of the congress are in safe seats and have no worry about their performance being evaluated so they don't have any inventive to really do anything. pyetter writes, campaigning, not one elected official will risk defeat by voting for something even remotely unpopular. hence they kick it down the road. john writes because there's no consequence for them. it would be nice if there's a law that said congress had to do their jobs but they're the ones that write the laws and they're certainly not going to write

themselves out of a job. if you want to read more on the subject, go to the blog. or through our post on the facebook page. >> thanks. >> nice glasses, wolf. >> thank you very much. i'm getting reaction. some likes, some not so liked. >> distinguished. >> thank you so much. more on the glasses coming up, jack. stand by. the romney campaign calls it nothing more than a sugar high. how romney is trying to blunt president obama's to men tum. that's coming up in our next hour. all day battery life ? droid does. and does it launch apps by voice while learning your voice ? launch cab4me. droid does. keep left at the fork. does it do turn-by-turn navigation ? droid does. with verizon, america's largest 4g lte network, and motorola, droid does. get $100 off select motorola 4g lte smartphones

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have to evaluate a huge amount of video to decide which images are important. officer drones collect more than a thousand hours of video a day. cnn's pentagon correspondent chris lawrence is joining us right now. chris, what can the air force learn from tv producers? >> reporter: well, wolf, when you start thinking about the reality shows that have dozens of cameras, continuously running, and then the from deucer trying to compartmentalize all of that, you start to get an idea of how much they may have in common with the air force. hard that tlc's "toddlers" -- ♪ or kourtney and khloe -- >> say you're having fun. >> reporter: would have something to teach the air force but the reality is they just might. >> close mike. three.

>> they have looked at espn. different networks. you name it, we're out there looking for whatever we can that can help us. >> reporter: you see, thousands of surveillance drones are bombarding the air force with data so how much video do you see in a day? >> we have about 1,600 hours full of full motion video in a day. >> reporter: we have a look inside the intelligence center at lange lay air base where the video pours in but there's a limit of how much a human can watch. >> you need to get water, get up, unfocus your eyes for a second. >> reporter: the military could learn from shows like "rock of love." >> i would do all of this for you. >> reporter: like the air force, reality tv producers see hours of mundane video with multiple cameras running 24/7. but their software can tag the key scenes. >> [ bleep ]. >> reporter: and to see beyond

the individual computers, the report recommends the tv control room set-up. >> two, one. >> reporter: the clock is ticking. new surveillance systems can spy on entire towns. more advanced sensors capture a lifetime of video in one day. >> so if you sat down and watched movies for 85 years straight high definition movies, this's the amount of information this sensor, unsensor will create. >> reporter: in a couple of years you might need well over 100,000 people just watching this video all the time. >> right. we're not going to get more people. we have to make due with the people that we have. >> reporter: and officials tell us why spend money to develop new software if they can adapt what reality producers already use? and catching just one frame of video can have huge consequences. >> in the end, what it does for us, it makes us provide better

information to the guy on the ground to save his life. >> reporter: the air force is considering dedicating a ground station to watch each area they're spying on instead of beaming all that video back to everyone. it's sort of a same thing as a reality crew watching a bedroom and another crew takes a look just at the kardashian store. so wolf, if you have been telling your friends that you're watching downton abbey" and tivo'g "honey boo boo" it's okay. >> i have no idea when you're talking about. but thank you. happening now, our new poll and the bounce president obama got from the convention. a big shift in the campaign funding fight. who's got more money and why it matters. plus, behind the scenes of the drama between the president and the speaker. new details of how the u.s. wound up on a fiscal cliff. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room."

they took a turn in the spotlight hoping to build momentum for the campaign and now our brand new poll shows a presidential candidate with a significant bounce from his convention. that would be president obama. now leading mitt romney by six points. our chief national correspondent john king at the magic wall for us. john, break down the new numbers for us. >> important to remember, we elect presidents state by state. this is a big bounce for the president. let's take a look at the reasons. first, a look at the numbers. here's what the new poll shows among likely voters. the president 52%. governor romney at 46%. heading in to the convention, a dead heat among likely voters and just before the republican convention, a slight edge for the president. a tie, a tie to a lead for the president plus six dow in the latest poll. a huge gender gap for the president but look at this,

governor romney led among men. in the new poll, wolf, a tie essentially. a one-point lead for the president. last week you see the lead here. governor romney with a 12-point lead among men. you want the look at what's driving us beyond that. look at the key issues in the poll. we pop it out. takes a nudge here. if you look here, who's best in touch with the problems by the middle class? a key question in the election. look at this. among likely voters post democratic convention, the president with a 20-point lead on the big question. heading in to the convention, up just six points. democrats scored big. another big one here, which candidate most shares your values. likely voters, wolf. the president with an edge now, a seven-point edge. just before both conventions, last asked it before the republican convention. essentially a statistical tie. big jump on values, shares your values and in touch with the middle class. if voters sitting around the table for their choice and say

what are the issues to go through and favor on those issues? the president and governor romney tie on the economy. governor romney had been leading in that category and then on foreign policy, medicare, health care, all big themes of the democratic convention. the president leads on taxes and another big theme of the democratic convention, the president leads. only on the deficit, wolf, is romney ahead. >> looks good at least right mow for the president. when's the romney camp saying about all of this? >> they anticipated some of the numbers coming. i suspect because they see it in their own numbers and the campaign's pollster sent out a memo this morning saying it's a sugar high, meaning it's temporary. it will fade in time and they do have a point. again, we elect presidents state by state. no question. looking at the middle class, shares our value, issues scorecard, this is an important gain for the president. is it permanent or temporary in romney campaign said looking at their polling in florida,

virginia, north carolina, ohio, if the president is ahead in those states, only a point or two and still a dead heat with the battlegrounds. we'll watch the numbers. one thing to watch for with post-convention polls from the battleground states. >> debates in october, as well. thanks very, very much. more on the romney cam pin and dismissing as john reported the positive numbers for the president as a quote sugar high. our national political correspondent jim acosta is out on the campaign trail in ohio with the republican presidential nominee. jim? >> reporter: wolf, the cnn/orc numbers late nest a spring of polls showing mitt romney falling behind president obama. but if the gop contender is worried about that, he's not showing it. ♪ mitt romney was all confidence as he returned to the battleground state of ohio. >> he went out with the campaign slogan. you know what it is. he says forward, forward the

campaign slogan. i think forewarned is a better term. >> reporter: recent polls including new numbers of cnn/orc showing the president pulling ahead by six points prompted the romney campaign to issue a polling memo to donors and supporters, the chief pollster writes, don't get too worked up about the latest polling. while some voters will feel a bit of a sugar high from the conventions, the basic structure of the race has not changed. mitt romney will win this race. the obama campaign came out with new fund raising numbers of august revealing it beat romney for the first time since spring. to blunt that momentum, romney and running mate paul ryan hit the sunday talk show circuit offering a more surgical take on health care. >> i'm not getting rid of all of health care reform. of course, there are a number of things i like that i'm going to put in place. >> reporter: he wants the make sure people with preexisting conditions obtain insurancement it's repeated but only on a few

instances. he condemned the law after being upheld by the supreme court. >> help us defeat the obama care and making government too big, too intrusive and killing jobs. >> reporter: romney and ryan both declined to specify loopholes to close to pay for the proposed tax cuts. >> give me an example of a loophole to close. >> i can tell you that people at the high end, high income taxpayers will have fewer deductions and exemptions. >> reporter: responses were spun in to an obama web videos. >> don't voter haves a right to know which loopholes you go after? >> so mitt romney and i based on our experience think the best way to do this is show the framework, show the outlines of the plans. >> reporter: republicans pointing to a new book "the price of politics" detailing the break down of white house and congress that nearly led to a debt default. adapted for "washington post," woodward writes it was increasingly clear that no one

was running washington. that was trouble for everyone, but especially for obama. despite the latest poll numbers a top romney adviser says the campaign is quote in a great position with less than 60 days to go the campaign believes the race will come down to the economy and an issue top aides say gives romney the edge. wolf? >> jim acosta traveling with mitt romney. thanks very much. now kate baldwin monitoring some of the other top stories. new situation room. >> new situation. a lot of stories to get the viewers caught up on today. poll numbers later this hour. hundreds of thousands of parents in chicago are scrambling to arrange child care again for tomorrow as the city faces the second day of a teacher strike. some 30,000 educators and support staff walked off the job today after ten months of negotiations snagged over issues of job security, evaluations and pay and some blame chicago mayor emanuel. listen here. >> and he came in and disrespected the teachers in

this city. we had a contract from the previous mayor when he basically said you're not going to get the raise that we were actual contractually given and turned around and said we don't have the money for that but we have 2% if you work longer. you can't have it both ways. you either don't have the money or you do. >> the strike is affecting about 350,000 students, a fact noted by emanuel. >> don't take it out on the kids of chicago if you have a problem with me. that's wrong. our kids deserve better. >> today the city opened about a quarter of its schools to shelter and feed kids who have nowhere else to go. that was for a few short hours. yemen says its forces killed the second of command of al qaeda in saudi arabia. our national security contributor fran townsend tells us what the death means.

>> he's one of the leaders of al qaeda in the arabian peninsula. major bombmaker best we can tell is still out there but this will really -- he is probably the next one of the most important individuals in the group and does undermine the leadership of that group. yemeni government sourss say they're waiting for confirmation of dna. u.s. declined to surrender detainees to afghan authorities today. the u.s. giving the afghan control of the bagram air base and not an undisclosed number of detainees and it is a big deal and secretary of defense panetta and afghan president talked about the specifics by phone. the treasury department selling off the bulk of the remaining shares of aig which it bought as part of the controversial bailout of the insurance giant in 2008. the sale will likely leave taxpayers with a 20% stake in the company, down from the current 53% and it's likely the

treasury will turn a profit, possibly several billion dollars when the shares are finally sold. and there's an important development in the controversial hunt for offshore oil under the arctic waters north of alaska. royal dutch shell announces prep pra tori drilling for the area under alaska's outer shelf thought to contain reserves of oil and natural gas. the obama administration gave shell the green light on august 30th. shell promises to be sensitive to the environment that this is a long controversial project, wolf. environmental groups are concerned about that tim pact of the drilling. >> should be concerned. >> exactly. we'll watch it closely. >> kate, thanks very much. millions and millions of desperately needed new jobs. president obama and mitt romney both say they have plans to create them. but how? we go in depth next. i'm an expert on softball. and tea parties. i'll have more awkward conversations than i'm equipped for

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campaign speechers. what matter most? cnn is going in depth on the major issues right at the center of the campaign. today, america's jobs crisis. both president obama and governor romney say they will create more jobs but how? cnn's christine romans takes a closer look in depth. >> reporter: over 8% unemployment. 5 million without work for 6 months or longer. more than 8 million only working part time. if there's one thing mitt romney and barack obama can agree on, the economy and more specifically the jobs crisis in america is the issue of this race. mitt romney's philosophy, let the private sector create new jobs. president obama agrees but thinks the federal government must play a larger role by investing in programs that may pay off in the future. romney advisers also claim their plans will add another 7 million jobs over the decade. >> government doesn't create

jobs. it's the private sector that creates jobs. >> reporter: so what's in this romney plan? first, romney wants to overhaul the tax code by cutting marginal tax ratds 20% across the bore. he argues people have money in the pockets to buy more things and jobs will be created and claims that regulations cost private business about $1.75 trillion a year and he says he'll repeal obama care and dodd-frank financial regulation and plan to reform the regulatory system to make sure it balances the benefit to society with the cost to business. finally, by balancing the budget romney plans to inject confidence in to the business environment. however, capping federal spending, it means hundreds of thousands fewer government jobs at the federal, state and local levels. supporters of romney's plan say it will create 12 million jobs conservatively but no president accomplished it in a single term since the data first collected

in the 1940s. now for president obama's plans to get more americans back to work. >> jobs must be our number one focus in 2010 and that's why i'm calling for a new jobs bill tonight. >> reporter: well, that jobs bill never panned out and neither did the $477 billion effort promoted last year both essentially blocked by congress. what does mr. obama want to do moving forward? similar to what he's proposed in the past. >> we need to create more jobs faster. we need to fill the hole left by this recession faster. we need to come out of this crisis stronger. >> reporter: he wants to create jobs in manufacturing and green energy through tax incentives and investment. more spending on infrastructure. signed a transportation bill in july extends mostly current programs through 2014. and the president also proposed spending $35 billion for school, police and fire department payrolls along with another $130 billion to shore up state budgets this was in the failed jobs plan last year. yet to be seen if he's

re-elected whether the plans would have more success than they have in the last three years. both candidates say they want to cut the corp. lat tax rate, expand energy jobs in the u.s. and support small business. whoever's elected will probably have to do all that and much more to get us out of the jobs hole. christine romans, cnn, new york. certainly issue number one in this campaign. the economy and jobs. >> will be a huge issue in the upcoming debating. also coming you be bear hugging the president? actually lifting him off his feet. what was this guy thinking? he tells us next. stay with us. ♪

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kate's here with a quick look at the stories trending right now. >> not only are your glasses, wolf. other things trending right now including hollywood's buzzing about the possibility of oscar-winning actor al pacino headlining a movie about the late penn state coach paterno. reportedly there's still no script or director and no final deal on the making of the film. much more on that to come. also, the taliban are threatening to kidnap or kill britain's prince harry. he's just started a four-month deployment in afghanistan as a gunner in a squadron of helicopters. a source with britain's defense ministry tells cnn they have thoroughly assessed the threat.

toys r us has a tablet just for kids. padded. a 7-inch screen and preloaded with 50 child-friendly apps and access to more. costs $150. cheaper than the other ipads and goes on september in time for the holidays. the florida pizza shop owner whose bear hug lifted president obama off the ground said it wasn't preplanned or cleared in advance with secret service. wolf talked to him just a little bit ago. >> i guess i got caught up in the moment. he -- i had a brief moment when i knew he was coming. he opened up the door and he was like, where's scott at? i saw him and came right at me. shook my hand. and i was just so excited. i just gave him a big hug and picked him up. it was crazy. >> nice guy, scott. >> seems so nice. >> i enjoyed speaking with him. so excited. the president comes in to his pizza restaurant. pizza and pasta, i should say.

all of a sudden he gets motional. picks up the president. >> caught in the moment. good thing there wasn't a scene with secret service. it was all in good fun. >> there it is. show it. there they are. watch this. >> is that ever happened to you? >> no, no. >> so excited. >> i'm sure it's never happened to a president either. >> i think you're absolutely right. quite a video. >> talking about that picture for a while. a fund raising first for the obama campaign. at least in a few months. crunching the numbers plus more on the president's new lead in the polls. that's next. stay with us. you're in "the situation room." and every day since, we've worked hard to keep it. bp has paid over twenty-three billion dollars to help people and businesses who were affected, and to cover cleanup costs. today, the beaches and gulf are open for everyone to enjoy -- and many areas are reporting their best tourism seasons in years. we've shared what we've learned with governments and across

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nice boots! happening now, significant changes in polls and fund raising. is this a turning point in the race for the white house? also, new details of a behind the scenes battle between president obama and house speaker john boehner. and a new jersey mayor arrested by the fbi. now possibly facing decades in prison. i'm wolf blitzer. you are in "the situation room." a clear convention bounce for president obama following the democratic gathering in charlotte. take a look at this. brand new cnn/orc poll. see the president now six points ahead of mitt romney. they were tied before the democratic convention. >> and there's now a one-point obama lead on the critical question of who would better

handle the economy. erasing mitt romney's six-point lead following his convention in tampa. >> let's talk about this with two guests. congressman, a nice little bounce for the president of the united states. neil newhouse, though, the romney pollster put out a memo saying don't get too worked up about the latest polling. while some voters will feel a bit of a sugar high from the conventions, the basic structure of the race has not changed significantly. but i assume these numbers are not encouraging right now. tough do some work. what's the strategy? >> well, the strategy to continue to talk about jobs and the economy because, yeah, they did get a little bit of a sugar high an you get a number of days with unfettered access to the immediate why and american people but when you go mono-e-mono and talk about jobs, the economy and the president's record or a lack of a record i

think the focus then is who's the best to lead us forward and put america back to work and i think that's clearly mitt romney and paul ryan. >> why didn't romney get a sugar high after the republican convention? >> immediately rolled in to the democratic convention. no excuses. october 3rd and then start to have debates and talk about these issues, when the president actually has to come out and talk about where he's going to be on the teachers' union issue and answer difficult questions from the media, then i think you'll start to see mitt romney doing quite well. >> jen, an issue made very big deal by the obama campaign, they really criticized mitt romney not mentioning afghanistan in his acceptance speech in tampa. listen to what mitt romney said just today. >> i was surprised in the president's speech at the democratic convention, he didn't mention unemployment. he didn't mention 47 million people on food stamps. by the way, it's a record number. and not a good record. when he took office, there were

32 million people on food stamps. now 47 million. one out of six americans living in poverty. these are not numbers or people he spoke about during his convention speech. >> now, he's making a strong point there. i mean, we look back at the 2008 exit polls and showed that people making less than $50,000, less than $15,000 overwhelmingly supported and voted for president obama. is he taking this group of voters for granted now? >> i spend every day on the campaign trail with the president and every speech is about standing up for people who need the most. helping people get a job that need a job. helping people send their kids to college. having access to affordable health care. that is little game of silliness on the romney campaign team side. this is the thrust of his campaign and the thrust of his argument and the choice he's laying out for the american people. another interesting number in the poll that you didn't touch on the cnn poll today was that the american people feel there are more specifics in his plan

and more optimistic about the vision for the future and felt that on the trail in florida this weekend. >> silliness she says that what the governor is saying there. go ahead. >> no. that's the key to this campaign is are jobs a ten economy and the reality is 23 million american who is heath either do have a job or looking far job. we took a debt nearly $10 trillion to $16 trillion. we're paying more than $600 million a day in interest on that debt. the president presents his budget to the united states congress, not a single person in the house or senate, democrat or republican, voted for the president's budget and he says he wants to move forward? how bad is your plan when nancy pelosi won't even vote for it? >> go ahead. >> last friday, the romney campaign says they want it to be about the economy. this weekend given the opportunity to explain how he would pay for his $5 trillion tax cut package, neither he or his running mate could do that. instead he stood with pat

robertson and announced he was for keeping in god we trust on the coin. what are they presenting for the economy and middle class? >> approve the keystone pipeline. put thousands of americans to work right away. tax reform. repeal obama care. give every state a baver and making adjusted gross income of $250,000 or less, no capital gains taxes. an immediate impact on the middle class america right away. so there are a lot of specifics to the romney plan. we just need to explain them. >> talk about them. those specifics and listen to this from mitt romney in an interview he did with "meet the press" over the weekend. >> give may example of a loophole you will close. >> i can tell you that people at the high end, high income taxpayers have fewer exemptions and deductions. the numbers come down. >> you are a romney surrogate and a member of congress looking

at these numbers so let's talk specific. what specific tax loopholes is the romney campaign looking to lowe's? >> we have said we want to broaden the base and lower the rate and hundreds of exemptions that shouldn't be there. racetrack owners. rum manufacturers. you go down the list. there are a whole host of them out there that probably should be -- >> mortgage reductions? >> i don't think that's the heart of what they want to do. there are certain places that i think charitable deductions, home mortgage, those things probably are fairly untouchable at this point. but that's what the congress is for. you have to have a president who engages with the congress, works with the ways and means committee. thus far, the president in four years is totally unable to do that. >> i mean, as far as you're concerned, those home mortgage deductions and charitable deductions is off the table as far as the president is concerned? >> right. you can't pay this with eliminating reductions for racetrack owners.

you can't lower the tax rate for everybody without impacting the middle class, without eliminating the deductions you just mentioned. >> her's the difference. house republicans at least have introduced the budget that passed the house. the senate has gone more than 1,200 days -- >> you didn't spell out the deductions and loopholes. paul ryan is the chairman of the budget committee and says that's for the ways and means committee. >> that's the way the process works. what we did do -- >> the big tax deductions for ge and exxonmobil, get rid of those? >> there are a lot of tax credits out door for the so-called green energy that are fundamentally absolutely not working and what america can't continue to do to is just have a bailout mentality to bail out the rest of the country because we have to actually pay the bills at the end of the day. the president totally failed to do this. you can't keep spending money we don't have. >> do you think a lack of specifics is hurting romney campaign? >> no, absolutely. i would argue more specifics in the romney plan than the obama

plan. you have a budget that president obama four years he's been the president. not a single democrat has ever voted to support did president. where is the plan? >> fair point, jen. why has none of the president's budgets ever passed? hasn't even gotten any democratic support sometimes. >> look. sometime there is' some game that is go on in washington but the president has laid out a $4 trillion tax plan that would reduce the debt responsibly with a balanced approach of both sides and willing to put forward cuts that democrats don't like. to some entitle lment programs and we need republicans to put revenue on the tibl. >> this is the difference. they want to raise taxes. mitt romney said we're not going to raise taxes. >> you want to raise taxes eliminating loopholes and deductions, as well. >> we are not one good tax increase away from prosperity in this country. to sere the democrats and republicans say it, we need to raise taxes and everything is

fine. we are spending more than 24 cents of every dollar spent by the federal government. what mitt romney and paul ryan said we have to drag it down to historical norms between 18% and 20%. that's where the country has to be responsible. >> there's no economist to tell you that maintaining tax cuts for the highest income will help stimulate the economy, create jobs, move the ball forward. money doesn't grow on trees. we have to make tough choices. that's what the president wants to do. >> but the president has never introduced the budget that ever balances. paul ryan at least while he was in the house introduced a budget that over time balances and paid off the debt. this is a very, very -- >> over the very long course of time and slashing programs. domestic programs. >> you say a balanced program. the president has never introduced anything to close to balance. >> paul ryan is introduced legislation to -- >> over the course of time. >> over what? how long? how long would it take under the paul ryan budget to eliminate

$16 trillion in the national debt? >> you start to do that over 75-year year. >> 75 years? >> to balance in 2020 something. i have to go back and look at the date but it actually balances. and it's not just what paul ryan is saying and house budget committee was saying which i'm on the budget committee. it's scored by the congressional budget office. the president has never come close to doing this. >> looking forward to the debates. when do you think? >> this f this is an example, i'm very much looking for the debate. >> first presidential debate, october 3rd. is he practicing already the president? >> mitt romney has a bit more practice than the president and done a lot of them recently. >> are you nervous? >> well, when's much better debater. we are better. >> who's better? >> mitt romney. >> you think? >> mitt romney's been doing debates and how many a dozen over the last year. >> that's the quality of the president. he's a better debater. >> i moderated with the president as a candidate four years ago. four presidential debates with

romney. both very, very good debaters. i would say this. >> should be interesting. looking forward to it. >> don't sell the president of the united states short. >> don't tell him i said so. >> thanks very much. a potential election spoiler. which candidate? a closer look at how the libertarian cannot date for president is doing in the polls. which major party might be paying a price. stay with us. [ woman ] ring. ring. progresso.

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all right. time for some other political headlines making news right now. when's going on, kate? first, trenton, new jersey. the mayor of trenton, new jersey, now free on $150,000

bail. tony mack appeared hours after being arrested for allegedly taking bribes of a developer to build on city property. the arrest followed a two-year undercover operation by the fbi. also, bipartisanship, it is still alive in some places. two republican senators endorsing a democratic congressman, california congressman howard berman. redistricting has him running against a fellow democrat. republicans john mccain and graham are backing berman with independent senator joe lieberman. he is a very long shot for the white house but libertarian presidential candidate gary johnson could have an outsized impact on the race. the former new mexico governor draws 3% support among likely voters in our new cnn/orc poll. their inclusion cost president obama just one point and mitt romney three points and that

could tip the balance in an extremely close election. johnson was kind of pushing for support from former ron paul supporters. i don't think he'll make the window. >> new mexico, you know, home state, he could make a difference. >> he could make a difference. we'll see. >> speaking to him live in the next hour and hear what gary johnson has to say. thanks very much. president obama and the house speaker boehner talk about the debt showdown that took the united states to the brink of defelt. you will hear what they told our own jessica yellin about the dra many that wentn behind the scenes. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] you've been years in the making. and there are many years ahead. join the millions of members who've chosen an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan

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as i mentioned erin burnett ready to interview gary johnson

live in the next hour, the libertarian candidate for president of the united states. erin, he could play a significant role if it's really, really close in certain states. he could maybe swing some of those votes. >> that's true. you know, when you look at, wolf, the swing states and how crucial they are, gary johnson could really just take a few percent here or there. change the course of this entire election. it's a pretty powerful position to be in. and we're going to talk to him about that and, well, why he made the decision to do it and which candidate he thinks he may affect the most. in some states, the obama campaign is more afraid of him and the romney campaign in other states. also joined by former congressman patrick kennedy to talk about a man that's a very close friend of his over the past 15 years, congressman jesse jackson jr., who is back in washington and, you know what, wolf? he's got -- they had a very serious conversation about stepping aside. congressman kennedy has said,

you know what? best decision of his life to step aside given all of the issues that he has had, the challenges that he's had with mental illness and addiction and talking about the advice for congressman jackson as he faces some very big decisions. all that coming up. back to you. >> looking forward to it. thanks very much. the behind the scenes gra ma of the debt showdown is revealed in a new book of bob woodward and important new book. >> detail it is collapse of the so-called grand bargain of the white house oval office and the republican-led congress. >> certainly. we have more problems down the road. chief white house correspondent jessica yellin spoke about it with the president and house speaker john boehner. it's dramatic story, indeed. you got the inside story on that. >> well, i talked to both the men and sort of who you blame for this one really depends on where you sit. speaker boehner says the president blew up the deal changing the terms at the last

minute but the president says the speaker is mischaracterizing what happened. >> it was going to be tough for both of us. i'll be the first one to admit but i -- i was willing. go down the path with him because it was the right thing to do for the country. >> reporter: they say they never changed the terms of the deal. so, are you saying they're lying? >> they changed the terms of the deal. the president either lost his courage or lost his judgment. and wanted $400 billion more in higher taxes. >> i think speaker boehner wanted to do something. he couldn't control his caucus i think that some of the tea party language and sort of elements that had come to dominate republican priorities and republican politics made it very tough for him to sell any deal

with me. >> reporter: given your history together, why should the american people have faith that you and speaker boehner can work together in the future? >> my hope is that after this election, if i'm elected to a second term then the priority that some republicans in congress have placed on beating me will recede since i'll no longer i'll no longer be up for re-election and the priority of getting things done for the country will be at the forefront and in that environment, i think we can get things done, but look, there are very real differences between democrats and republicans right now. on how to solve some of these problems. >> now, the facts, i'm told by both democrats and republicans, that just before the grand bargain blew up, the white house did ask for an additional $400 billion in revenue. the democrats say white house negotiators told speaker boehner

if he cannot do it, he should let them know. that's why they say they weren't changing the terms of the deal. they were asking for that and the next they heard he pulled out of the deal. and speaker boehner's office says that's not just now it happened. it's really a he said she said for the ages. >> but kind of fascinating because everyone really wanted to get inside and find out who blew up the deal and how it went down. part of the discussion throughout has been these two men didn't know each other well when they were taking on this negotiation. how much have they been in contact since then? >> they have these meetings when leaders of both houses have gotten together, but not, no direct conversations really seriously beyond that and i did ask speaker painer, they have this fiscal cliff to negotiation. i said, are you going to call the president? he said, he's the president. what does that mean? we'll work it out! sounds like not much has

changed. >> yeah. by the way, wednesday, i'm going to be sitting down with bob woodward and he goes through all this stuff. new details. the interview will air wednesday night. you'll see it. >> great. >> thank you. just in time for halloween, a new candy corn version of the oreo. some say it's yummy. others say not so much. jeanne moos will put it to the test. likehoney nut chex, and chocolate chex... we're in cereal heaven. so thanks. from the mcgregors, 'cause we love chex.

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[car alarm blaring] call now and also ask about our 24/7 support and service. call... and lock in your rate for 12 months today. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? so, bats in the belfry are one thing, but in a tv news room, that seems to be chaos.

a bat had been hiding in the building housing katv in omaha, nebraska. it had been hiding there for weeks. it spent an hour swooping through the news room and the humane was society was called and they caught the bat. the news room is quiet. >> let's hope a bat doesn't fly into our new studio. how do you like our new studio? >> snazzy. >> i tweeted the president is jealous of our situation room. he's telling his folks they need a new situation room. our situation room better than his. >> i'm going tell him that. >> thank you. the makers of the all american cookie, the oreo, a special halloween treat.

candy critics wonder what are they thinking? jeanne moos puts the taste to the test. >> what do you get when you combine america's most famous cookie with its most loved and hated candy? you get gizmoto calls -- limited edition candy corn oreo. about a third of the folks who tested without telling were able to place the taste. >> yeah, i got it. corn. the candy corn. >> i'll give them props for matching the flavor, but i don't like candy corn. >> once a year, love it for about three handfuls. then i'm done. >> reporter: just in time for halloween, nabisco is selling the candy corn at target stores. it has been a target for haters. >> all the candy corn that was ever made was made in --

>> reporter: calls it the worst thing, but to -- >> about all of the candy that i had for halloween. >> reporter: like this? >> yeah, i love those. >> reporter: odd flavors of oreos are nothing new. blueberry in indonesia and green tea for china. they've gotten edgey with their advertising, giving their image -- for gay pride and the latest mars rover, but an actual candy can oreo? >> can i have it? that's a no. >> reporter: one reviewer thought the cookie's taste is so identical to candy corn, that if you can't get your hands on the new oreos, he recommends sticking actual candy corn between the halves of a regular

o oreo. still, some refuse to try it. ahh, the memories. using candy corn for fangs. some only have eyes for oreos, even in the most unlikely places. >> i'm in the bathtub. you want to see my package? >> reporter: that's candy corny. >> i think they're probably delicious. >> can i turn this conversation to something we've been wanting to talk about all day? this new eye wear. is it because of the studio? >> anderson cooper, he's got these similar glasses. a few years ago, he was deciding whether to weather the glasses. if you go online, check out anderson cooper, he's got the silver. he's the silver fox. >> you're the wolf fox. >> we have a new studio. and i said you know, i need new