they film add full day of classes straight ahead. >> steve: kids, give yourselves a round of applause, you were great today! [ applause ] >> gretchen: coming up in the after the show show, log on because i'm going to try out that green drum set over there. >> brian: and if you have to run from the tv, run to the radio. i'll be on from ten 10 to noon. >> steve: see you back here tomorrow. want to start with a fox news alert on day one in charlotte for the democratic national convention. it kicks off on a day that shows voters are not happy. new polling from the hill.com shows a majority of voters believe president obama does not deserve another term. 54% on that polling there. welcome as our coverage continues. hope you had a great labor day weekend. time to get back to work right? martha: time to get back to work. bill: i'm bill hemmer live in "america's newsroom" live at the democratic national convention in charlotte. martha: we'll be in this place all week. i'm martha maccallum. good morning.

great to see you. this poll reflect as message, republicans, no surprise here, are pushing hard this morning. watch. >> the president can say a lot of things and he will but he can't tell you you're better off. simply put the jimmy carter years look like the good ol' days compared to where we are right now. [applause] martha: that line getting a big response from the crowd there. the vice-presidential nominee made a stop in north carolina yesterday. then heads to the key swing state of ohio and iowa. you put the three states together, you've got 39 electoral votes on the road to what they hope will be 270 electoral votes. bill: bob cusack, managing editor of "the hill" in charlotte. good morning to you. what does that number tell us? analyze that. >> bill, it is not good news for the president. this is some indication that mitt romney gotten some bounce from his convention. this is what republicans want to talk about. they want to talk about the

economy. they don't want to talk about mitt romney's tax return or congressman todd akin. they feel if the debate is on this, that's what the democrats struggle with this week, are you better off now than you were four years ago, this poll gets to that and i think it is quite eye-opening. bill: another number in the poll. 52% say the nation is in worse condition. >> yeah. bill: that is a reflection of right track wrong track as well, is it not? >> it is. and bill, the president is saying that the country is doing better than four years ago, still another work to do but the poll also finds less than one in three believe the nation is in better condition under president obama. so that's the challenge for democrats this week. how is president obama going to deal with this in his speech and how do democrats move forward and try to attack mitt romney? they have to make this a choice, not a referendum. bill: here is another challenge. seniors in america, in the poll, rate the highest in dissatisfaction. what would explain that, bob? why is that?

>> well seniors typically support republicans more than democrats. democrats have gone after the gop on medicare. so i think that shows that the democrats still have some work to do on the medicare issue. republicans say they're playing offense on it. i think you may hear a little bit more about social security because the medicare debate right now is still up in the air. seems to be a draw. this poll suggests that the republican message is doing better, last year when democrats last year clearly won the message war on medicare. bill: let's hear from the president. toledo, ohio, yesterday. roll this. >> when governor romney gave you a chance to let you in on the secret sauce of job creation, he did not offer you a single new idea. it was just a retread of the same old policies that have been sticking it to the middle class for years. bill: so then how specific are democrats on a second term if president obama wins this week? >> i think they will

probably be more specific than governor romney. governor romney has taken heat from the right for not being more specific in his speech. republicans are certainly trying to tie president obama to jimmy carter. president obama trying to tie mitt romney to george w. bush. that's the battle going on right now, bill. bill: bob, thank you. biel talk to you throughout the week. secret sauce was on the big mac growing up. remember that. >> absolutely of. love that stuff. bill: thank you, bob. talk to you later. martha: a lot of calories in the secret sauce. watch out for that stuff. look at recent presidential elections in authority caroline. in 2008, president obama became the first nonsoutherner since 1960 to win the state of north carolina. it was one of nine states that president george w. bush won in 2004 but then shifted to president obama. so he really wants to hold that ground in this election as you can imagine. north carolina has 15 electoral votes. without it the road to the white house for governor romney would become difficult as some say.

the southern path, midwestern path, all the paths they're trying to scope out there. let's take a look at this number. as we inch closer to a new benchmark for the nabs debt. the country's red ink is expected to hit the $16 trillion mark, the same day the democrats open their convention which of course is today. let's bring in fox business network anchor stuart varney, anchor of "varney & company". a hallmark of sorts people won't be too happy about. >> around midnight tonight, early tomorrow morning we'll cross the historic $16 trillion mark. this has huge political implications as it comes after first lady michelle obama speaks to the dnc. there is a huge economic warning signal being made here. number one, $16 trillion worth of debt which means we owe more than our economy produces in any one year. our debt is bigger than our economy. secondly, we're now going to be paying close to $10 billion a week in interest

alone. about a half trillion a year. 10 billion a week. up from nine billion last year. and about a quarter of that interest will be paid to foreigners. it will go out of the country. japan, china, britain, they're the three major holders of our debt. they all get about a quarter of all of this interest that is flowing and it will flow out of the country. so political impact, and a big economic danger signal too, martha. martha: we know, it was a huge focus of the rnc last week in tampa. big debt clock that loomed over the proceedings there. you simply don't hear much though about the debt from president obama. do you expect we'll hear hear anything about it at all this week? >> very little because it is a big negative for president obama. the debt was $10.6 trillion in when he took office. it is now 16 trillion give or take a billion. that means a huge run-up in the debt during president obama's term. you can blame some of that on the great recession we're

now coming out of but you also have to blame a lot on the spending, the stimulus, the extra government spending. and the poor performance of the economy under president obama. that takes a large share of the blame for this massive and historic run-up in the debt. martha: boy, the interest is something that when you think about it, it just kind of boggles your mind. all that money going to japan and china and the u.k. as you point out. stuart, thank you very much. we'll see you later today over on the business channel. bill: we want to take a closer look how the debt is adding up. nearly a third of that debt has been added under president obama. that is $5.3 trillion in almost four years. the last trillion dollars in red ink added in less than 11 months time. and america's $16 trillion, larger than the combined copies of europe. whoa. martha: whoa is right. also today the president is expected to focus on mending fences with one of his biggest constituencies, the

labor unions. organized labor not too happy that the democrats chose charlotte as their convention city. north carolina is one of the least unionized states in america. but whatever the discord afl-cio president richard trumka tearing into mitt romney at a labor rally in ohio. president obama in the crowd. watch this. >> his goal is to pit the american people against each other so we won't vote about the things that matter. well, let me tell you something. what mitt romney is doing is wrong. those aren't the values that i grew up with. what he is doing is beneath the dignity of the american people, and we won't let him win. [cheers and applause] martha: so the question raised, is there a rift between the president and the unions who have supported him throughout his political career? democratic delaware senator chris cans will be with us later in "america's

newsroom" on that big question. bill: chicago mayor rahm emanuel, one of the featured speakers late tonight on the stage behind us here. a former white house chief of staff, said his former boss, barack obama, had difficult decisions to make shortly after taking office. remember here? >> i helped him and i want to help him get reelected because i think he is good for the city of chicago and great for the country. he has done a great job. it is vital to the city of chicago and the country to get him reelected. i had a front row seat to those crucial years. how he led this country to the point of what he inherited is not where we are today. we're not where we need to be but that it was because of his leadership. bill: so he is speaking later tonight but then, mayor emanuel goes back to chicago, cutting a short trip to charlotte heading back to the windy city to focus on many issues back home in chicago.

martha: big lineup tonight. in addition to rahm emanuel, there are highly anticipated speakers on the stage right behind us. first lady michelle obama. she was here yesterday. warming up the pod up why. getting used to the feel of it. teleprompters, prime-time speech after the keynote speaker. newark mayor, cory booker, who has bee rising star in the democratic party. he is expected to set forth the democratic platform. he will carry out the role in the proceededdings. booker has been supporting the obama campaign. you remember he made come about private equity. he wasn't at all comfortable with the way the obama campaign went after private equity. that for some period of time, many folks watching this believe that put him in the doghouse to a certain extent with the folks in the many campaign. he will be part of tonight and he is a very powerful speaker. we'll watch for that later today. actress eva longoria will also speak. earlier this year she was made co-chair of the obama

for america movement. no doubt she will get a little attention. she is a very good speaker and. bill: tiny little thing. tonight's keynote speaker is san antonio mayor giulianian castro. the first hispanic selected to the deliver the keynote address at a democratic national convention. he is 37. youngest mayor of a major u.s. city. he made more than a dozen trips to washington during his first term and several to the white house and called on the white house to address immigration and energy. he will be in prime time a bit later tonight. newspaper time. are you ready for this? martha: newspaper time. a little balancing act. bill: "charlotte observer.". michelle's message. first lady steps in the spotlight later tonight to illuminate the president's vision but she won't go on the attack. she will be in the prime time hour 10:00 eastern time live here on fox. martha: couple things on "the new york times." we look at the national papers today, these caught my eye. up in the right-hand corner, democrats say the u.s. is

better off than four years ago. there is lot of back and forth whether or not that is the case. we'll get into that later this morning with one of the romney spokespeople, kevin madden. look at this one. spirit of '08 gone. democrats unite against the gop threat. that is a big question. in terms of hope and change and kind of momentum and passion people had for the president's campaign first time around. always hard to generate that after four years in office when you have a record to look at. a lot of people feel he is not being too specific about that record because he doesn't feel there is a lot of accomplishment there. bill: one headline. who will stop the rain? we had a major rain shower roll through here throughout the afternoon and into the hours tonight. 40% chance of rain at the moment on thursday. thursday is the outdoor arena and 74,000 bank of america stadium here. so we'll see whether or not, what's the contingency plan in case you get one of these fierce rain storms that falls down. they're watching the skies. they're not overly concerned about it just yet but it

could be an issue two days time. >> never know about the weather. that is the thing about it. we'll have to wait and see. we have a jam-packed show from the floor of the convention from charlotte. good be down on the floor for the mourning show. we're in the middle of all the action. major party shift from top political advisor of bill clinton. one. clinton's advisors according to two sources in the "new yorker" that he will vote for mitt romney in november. that will not go down very well for the obama camp. what this could mean for the party. bill: democrats unveiling the platform as the national convention kicks off. the theme moving america forward. the communications directors of both the dnc and rnc are here to duke that out in moments. stay tuned. martha: plus the growing debate, are you better off four years ago than when the president took office? dueling messages from the vice president and his republican rival. a senior advisor to the romney-ryan campaign weighs in next. >> every president since the great depression who asked

americans to send them into a second term could say that you were better off today than you were four years ago except for jimmy carter, and for president barack obama. [cheers and applause] [ mother ] you can't leave the table till you finish your vegetables. [ clock ticking ] [ male announcer ] there's a better way... v8 v-fusion. vegetable nutrition they need, fruit taste they love. could've had a v8...

bill: democrats just announcing the party platform is called moving america forward. expect to hear a lot of that

later tonight but some are wondering about the lack of ideas for a second term if president obama is successful. brad woodhouse, dnc communications director here to defend that. sean spicer, rnc communications director here to rebut his points. gentlemen, good morning to both of you. >> good morning bill. >> good morning bill. bill: what ideas will the president put forward at this convention if he were to win a second term? specifically, what will he do? >> well, look, bill, the president has laid out -- >> let me lead off --. bill: that we was to brad. hang on one second. we'll reload. go for it, brad. >> sure. i mean look, bill, first of all the president will come here and he will lay out on thursday night a rational for why he should get a second term. we know last week in tampa, one. most criticized aspects of his speech he made no rationale for himself. the president will do that. he will talk about creating an economy that is built to last. look he laid these out.

bill: what does that mean? >> weill tell you what it means. balanced approach to deal with debt and deficits. balanced approach to dealing with job creation. not cutting our way to prosperity which is what the other side wants to do. keeping our commitment to senior on medicare. keeping our commitment. not privatizing social security like paul ryan tried to do in the last decade. it means bringing down our debt and deficits. stopping the type of spending that went on in the previous administration. >> what about the last four years. bill: that is laundry list. hang on. i'm trying to get specifics here. i want to he no how specific. hang on, brad. i want to get sean reaction to all this i will come back to you. sean. >> well, i think you're not going to get them because it was four years ago the president was in denver, then candidate obama who said we measure progress how many people have a job. four years later, he gives himself last night in an interview an incomplete because americans aren't better off. there are 23 million americans unemployed.

the debt will hit $16 trillion possibly today. he added up 5.6 trillion since he has been here. gas prices are up. grocery prices are up. college prices are up. health care costs are up. dem president had two years with democratic controlled congress. he could do anything he wanted. took his eye off the ball. focused on obamacare. failed stimulus. now it will be a tax, blame, excuses alibis everything but a second term agenda because he gets incomplete by his own standard. bill: now. give brad to react to this. sean, you know the criticism against president or against governor romney in tampa was he did not provide enough specifics. now, brad, major garrett writes "national journal", obama's invisible second term. suggesting that the ideas are all too vague right now. i just heard the list you ran off but specifically, what will he propose that will be different in the next four years that we don't have now? >> well look, i think some of, bill, there are items on

the table now that congress hadn't acted on. republicans in congress, paul ryan, for example, told john boehner to walk away from a grand bargain, one that would have helped deal with our debt and deficits in balanced way. would have asked wealthiest americans to pay fair their share. the president made this clear. he wants to end tax cuts for the wealthy. >> all you want to do is blame everyone. at what point is the president responsible. all you guys want to do is blame, make excuses. headwinds, paul ryan, congress, boogeyman. it is everybody but the president. president leads. president leads. and people --. bill: hang on gentlemen. one at a time. there is a little bit of delay in the satellite. to our viewers at home be patient. brad, you said something we heard constantly. that is, president obama wants to raise taxes on the wealthiest americans. how is that going to solve our massive problems. >> and small businesses. >> well look, the one of the problems we have is this tremendous debt and deficit that paul ryan ran up when

he was in the congress. the president didn't pass two unpaid for wars. the president didn't pass prescription drug benefit unpaid for. the president didn't pass two sets of tax cuts tilted towards the wealthy. that have run our debt and deficits up. >> make it sounds like the president of the united states is bystander. he is the president. >> sean, this question came to me. he did not --. bill: sean, give sean the final seconds of this delayed satellite. sean, 10 seconds. go. >> the bottom line is the president didn't lead. americans aren't better off. you can't keep making excuses why things didn't get done. need to replace this president with mitt romney and paul ryan who have a plan to move america forward bottom line. >> maybe next time he does a convention speech he have can tell us what that plan is. bill: next time we put you in the. >> mitt romney.com. 59 points to get the economy

moving forward. bill: here's martha. martha: well, all right, we have 63 days to go, folks, until the election and it is all about that narrow slice of folks who have still not made up their mind out there. a brand new poll shows mitt romney with a slight lead in a state that president obama won last time around. which one is it? we'll show you when we come back. more "america's newsroom" live

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martha: the big question why in charlotte? north caroline was a big victory for president obama back in 2008. he won it by the slimmest of all the victory margins. just 14,000 votes gave him victory in north carolina. when you come to charlotte what you see are huge skyscrapers. they represent the big banks

leaders of this town. bank of america. former wachovia build something also in the center of charlotte. they were thriving banking industry that came in here after 2000. between 2000 and 2010. now thousands of people have lost their jobs at those banks, making north carolina a much more challenging environment for president obama and in some recent polls it showed mitt romney in the lead here. raising some big questions whether charlotte was the right pick for the dnc. bill? back over to you there on our set. there you are. bill: come on back over here. martha: i'm coming back over. bill: state unemployment here is high, well above 9%. 9.5, 9.6% in the tarheel state. both candidates making a major push for the all-important undecided voter. brand new polling numbers out of north carolina giving governor mitt romney a slight lead over president obama. the president narrowly winning here four years ago as martha mentioned. our chief washington correspondent james rosen is live in charlotte. how many, if you can, undecided voters are there

in north carolina, james? >> reporter: well, quite a few. in fact fairly high percentage, bill. the latest poll by elon university which is based here in north carolina, found that amongst likely voters in the tarheel state, just under six 1/2% say they have not yet made up their minds. that takes on heightened significance as you consider as we were just mentioning that barack obama four years ago won the state of north carolina, the first democratic presidential candidate to do since 1976 by just over 14,000 votes. factor in the economic conditions in the state as we have been discussing. just posted an unemployment rate in july of 9.6%, well above the already high national average, and you add that all in, you can see why undecided voters are so critical in this hotly-contested swing state. >> when people said they were undecided we asked a portion of them if you had to choose which one would you choose and a proportion of them would choose a candidate. so, in a sense we do get a

pretty good gauge and we found that the undecideds split pretty evenly between the two candidates. >> reporter: one prime reason why the convention is being held here in north carolina is that the democratic party and president obama's campaign hoped to use the data that they collect from every single person who enters the convention center, enters the stadium where the president will speak, take that data to use it to fund raise and mobilize vote he is for higher vote tallies, bill. bill: here in charlotte, just like denver four years ago as you point out. the president speaks to voters inside the stadium james. what are they waiting to hear? >> reporter: well, we spoke to a number of undecided voters here in the tarheel state and what we heard from them principally was two things. anxiety about the state of the economy as you might imagine. but also disappointment with the political discourse itself. >> i'm definitely undecided but i'm, i do know one thing. i'm not happy with the way the situation is right now

where the country is going right now. so, maybe we do need a change. >> being a middle class person, working very hard i just feel like there's just not a lot that is being offered for the middle class and i think that there could, maybe there is better options. so i'm not really sure which way i'm going to go on it. >> reporter: we told you, it is just under 6.5% of voters in north carolina that are unlikely. follow me on twitter at james rosen fnc as soon as i'm done on the live shot i will tweet out the percentage of voters undecided naicswide taken 10 days ago from a "fox news poll". bill: thank you very much, james. live in charlotte for us. martha. martha: we're getting word that some of governor romney's former colleagues at bain will reportedly be featured guests at the democratic national convention. their point of view may not be kind to governor romney as folks are expecting. are democrats trying to go back to the whole bain

argument here in charlotte? we'll talk about that. bill: there is massive flooding in parts of the country. tens of powers without power in this miserable august heat. we're live in the flood zone to see how they're dealing with this in a moment. >> never. been here since '93. never had this experience before. a major disaster. would have been nice if they put levee protection around our area as well as new orleans. all they did was protect new orleans and not protect the outlying areas. so the water had no where to go. so it had to come this way. hey, i love your cereal there -- it's got that sweet honey taste. but no way it's 80 calories, right? no way, right?

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record at that company. it is not expected to be a favorable report of his years there but it has raised a question whether or not it is a double-standard and we'll tell you why we're talking about that. joined by andrea tanteros, daily news columnist. bob beckel former democratic campaign manager. both are co-hosts of "the five." good to see you this morning. charlotte is great. we mess you guys though. >> so do i. >> we're happy to be here. martha: good morning, andrea. hear is the word. let me get your thoughts first on the basic premise that there will be a couple people. we don't know whether they're former bain executives. some names are floating out there. we haven't made that down yet or people from companies taken over by bain. andrea, what do you think? >> the same '94 playbook that kennedy used against romney when they were running against massachusetts. this isn't going to work, martha, and i will tell you why. there is excellent article in "national review" shows obama's base, we're talking

government employees, unions, liberal institutions, everything from the ohio teachers union to the los angeles police department, all of these blue states, government employees, invest in bain capital. they put their money, their retirement fund, their pensions in bain. and so right now bain is responsible for the lively hoods martha, and retirement funds of all of these traditionally democratic workers which make up obama's base. to say somehow the bain vulture capitalist firm doesn't do good work but at the same time obama's supporters are living off bain's profits and so hypocritical and disingenuous. not surprising from a campaign desperate and in distress. martha: big question there, bob. does that information, those revelations in murdoch's piece do they neutralize this argument or still one that resonates with voters. >> doesn't newt al rise at all. remind ted kennedy playbook

worked and beat mitt romney. >> hard to beat a kennedy in massachusetts. >> it is not about bain capital but as much as about romney's participation in bain capital and whether he told the truth what he did or did not do at bain. look, if these are former disgruntled employees they won't have as much influence. if people that are currently employed there, in some cases my understanding may be one of the managers of bain, then i think it may have a lot more resonance. any event the bain capital issue is not resolved, nor is mitt romney telling us the history of it exactly accurate. martha: but, you know, seems when you look at the polls they're barking up the wrong tree. this was a major thrust of the obama campaign throughout the course of this summer and moved their poll numbers practically nowhere. >> that is absolutely right. martha: spent a lot of money on advertising hammering this topic. at rnc, andrea, i want to get your thoughts on this, it appeared the romney campaign put their arms

around the issue and give it a bear hug. brought the guy from staples. we're proud of the background at bain. >> explain away the bain, right? it worked. they should be 110% unpoll getic for bain capital does and what it does for others. they were at the rnc which was a smart move of the as you point out, martha, somehow mitt romney is murderer and didn't play out at the polls. one of the reasons for that, a lot of democrats like ed rendell and dianne feinstein, said hold on, bain is really good company. real quickly, martha. last week in the "wall street journal" it was reported obama's own white house reached out to another private equity firm, carlisle group to save a refinery in pennsylvania to prevent oil prices pro spiking. hypocrisy again. this is political benefit he reaches out to private equity firms to save his own hide. >> is this commercial for bain over yet do i have to

listen to it. >> it is a fact. >> like ginsu knife commercials at 2:00 in the morning. i know you're not on the payroll of bain but please. made this point. it is not about bain. it is about mitt romney and mitt romney not being truthful what he did or did not participate in. now if it could be proven that he in fact did not participate and did in fact get out in '99 he is okay. wait a second. listen, i listened to the bain infomercial long enough. give me a second. the fact is when martha says it doesn't work, that advertising used against him moved romney not one iota, despite three months of heavy campaigning and so it did have impact on people and showing up in the polls. >> they're polling in a dead-heat bob. it didn't do anything. they overreached. >> that is the point, right. >> the murderer point big-time. >> you could argue about that ad. argue about a lot of ads. both these campaigns have run too negative ads. that is the not point the point it held romney down.

there is poll out today, showing 52% of the people don't think obama should be reelected, however nowhere near 50% think that romney should be. and so we're back where we were. we're in a dead-heat race. comes down to three states. >> which isn't good for incumbent president, bonn. shows the negative attacks aren't working. this little hearsay whisper campaign what romney was involved in, he was involved in saving blue chip brands like staples and other companies. good capitalism at work. >> he was involved in getting his taxes put in the cayman islands. martha: clearly one of the big messages we heard in tampa, embracing success. >> yeah. martha: it seemed to resonate with people there pretty well. we'll see how they try to put that -- >> that was a tough sell down there. okay. martha: thanks you guys. >> have a fun week, martha. martha: thank you. thanks andrea. thanks, bob. remember to keep it right here. complete fox news coverage. tonight will be in prime time for the speeches. bill and i will be on the floor following all that action.

megyn and bret up in the studio in the skybox up over to our left as they get that all set to go. bill: it is always, i think it is the best seat in the house that you and i have. you're down among the delegates and you can see, see the speakers and also see the teleprompters. see how they deviate and how they stay on script. it always plays different in the halls than it does on the tv screen at home. i want to get to the flooding in the southeast after isaac. neighborhoods still underwater one week later. patience wearing ever so thin in louisiana. >> it's all completely gone. i'm not going to be able to save much of anything. it is just, it is toast. >> i see it on tv i hear about it but i never witnessed it myself. to see it, really for the first time like this, it is makes your eyes watering a little bit. >> it is out of here now. we're trying to get our lives back together and get our places back where we can live in them. bill: for a storm that rolled in august, continues

into september, casey stiegel in belle chasse, louisiana, outside of. >> or liens. how is it there, casey? >> reporter: bill, we're at a fema center. this is one of five set up in the region the doors opened at the top of the hour. when we got here there was a long line of people sitting on steps waiting to go in. they have now been put inside. we have a steady stream of cars coming through here. this is a busy center because it is in plaquemines parish. just that way across the river, brathwaite. look at pictures again. we've seen them over and over. that community inundated with water. neighborhoods completely under water, up to second story windows. a lot of folks in this community are coming to the fema centers where they can grab a hot meal. they can apply for assistance. they can get things like temporary housing in hotels. as you can see a lot of their homes uninhabitable. at this point, nearly 65,000

people from all across the region have registered with fema, bill. bill: what about oil production? an impact on that because of the storm affecting gas prices, yes or no? >> reporter: yeah of course. the gulf always takes a hit anytime a hurricane comes in. really any kind of tropical disturbance comes in. the latest numbers we have for you, 58% of the total gulf oil production is still off-line as of today, a week after this storm hit. obviously a lot of the rigs and platforms out there had to be evacuated because of dangerous conditions for the crews. some of them likely sustained damage. nine refineries we can tell you are operating at reduced capacity. one of them right here in belle chasse operated by phillips 66. it remains closed because it has no power, bill. bill: wow! casey thank you. we'll talk to you later this week.

casey stiegel there in louisiana. martha? martha: vice president joe biden is now chiming in on this growing debate question, are you better off than you were four years ago. huge focus what we're talking about right now. what he says about that. we'll get live reaction from the romney camp next. bill: also the white house at a big union rally in michigan this week. while some of the nation's biggest unions turning their backs on this convention. now why would that about-face be underway now in 2012. >> we know who built this country and we know who is going to rebuild it. it's you. and instead of vilifying you, we should be thanking you. we owe you. [cheers and applause] and every day since, we've worked hard to keep it. bp has paid over twenty-three billion dollars to help people and businesses who were affected, and to cover cleanup costs. today, the beaches and gulf are open for everyone to enjoy -- and many areas are reporting

their best tourism seasons in years. we've shared what we've learned with governments and across the industry so we can all produce energy more safely. i want you to know, there's another commitment bp takes just as seriously: our commitment to america. bp supports nearly two-hundred-fifty thousand jobs in communities across the country. we hired three thousand people just last year. bp invests more in america than in any other country. in fact, over the last five years, no other energy company has invested more in the us than bp. we're working to fuel america for generations to come. today, our commitment to the gulf, and to america, has never been stronger.

>> it is unions like yours that helped to forge the basic bargain in this country. the bargain that built the greatest middle class and the most prosperous country

and the most prosperous economy the world has ever known. bill: so that was president obama talking in the key swing state of ohio about labor unions and unions in the audience. they have not been happy with democrats picking charlotte for this convention. in 2008 unions donated $8.6 million to the convention in denver. it is far less this time around. senator chris cones of delaware. thank you for your time. >> good morning bill. glad to be with you. bill: how will democrats repair the relationship with unions some of your biggest supporters, senator? >> i think the labor is strongly supporting president obama and vice president biden. rich trumka, president of the afl-cio campaigning with him in toledo, ohio owe. i marched in the labor day parade and the president of of our afl-cio. wrapped his arm around us

and said we love you guys. you fight for the middle class. just as you heard president obama say, it is organized labor that has been a strong supporter of president obama's vision for expanded health care coverage, safe work place and growing manufacturing in the country and it is those policies they support. bill: a lot of them skipped charlotte. look at numbers of donations in denver in '08 and now in 2012. afl-cio gave $100,000 to the dnc then. in charlotte this year, in 2012, zero. labor international union of north america, 20002008, $1.5 million. in charlotte in 2012, zero. international broad hood of electrical workersers in dnc four years ago, $4 million. in charlotte. zero. clearly there is a rift there, senator? >> bill, you're right there is unhappiness over selection of a city not organized. some of the lowest union

membership in charlotte in the state of north carolina of any major state in america but there was a strategic decision made to compete in north carolina. barack obama running for president in 2008 won the state of north carolina, won the neighboring state of virginia. and i think his message of fighting for the middle class, fighting for better working conditions will resonate here in charlotte. one of my hopes is that after this convention there will be real conversations amongst those who are in the service union service, excuse me, sector here in charlotte about how would their lives be different if they worked as a unionized hotel? walking down the street last night i ran into four union organizers from the seiu who successfully organized the folks who clean offices in wilmington at night. there are a lot of union organizers here in town. it may have a lasting impact on those people. we'll see. bill: those people have jobs but in this county alone, mechanic henneberg county, you're at 10%. statewide is 9.6%. how tough of a sell is that when it comes to the jobs

and economy and democratic message this week, senator? >> bill, the main focus you will hear from our nominee, from barack obama, our president and joe biden, delaware's own joe biden, our vice president a relentless focus on middle class, high quality jobs. expanding access to health care. making our financial system more fair and transparent. fighting for the very things that have made the american middle class so strong in the past. that is message that resonates with folks looking for work. folks who are looking for better work and looking to hang on to jobs they have. we have had 29 straight months of job growth. bill: some of those workers say the keystone pipeline was a greatp example how you create good union jobs. i have 10 seconds left. give you last word. >> in my home state of delaware we came together to reopen a oil refinery to restore hundreds of union jobs. in general the platform of the democratic party is strongly embraced about organized labor because it is about fighting for our

middle class. bill: senator, thank you throughout the week. chris cans, thank you, sir. martha? martha: there is a lot of buzz about this. the relationship between president obama and the clintons has as you been a very complex one. word a former political advisor one of clinton friends is changing his vote to romney. we'll be back with that in charlotte [ thunder crashes ] [ female announcer ] some people like to pretend a flood could never happen to them. and that their homeowners insurance protects them. [ thunder crashes ] it doesn't. stop pretending. only flood insurance covers floods. ♪ visit floodsmart.gov/pretend to learn your risk.

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bill: critical component early voting in the presidential race kicks off later in the week. millions of people. some of the critical battleground states will cast their ballots well ahead of election day. that could prove critical as it did in 2008 when president obama's margin of victory greatly relied on early voting. this year as you might imagine the challenger mitt romney looking to build up his share of early votes.

so watch that story in the coming weeks. martha: let's head overseas for the moment. there is breaking news in syria. a u.n. envoy says the conflict there will be nearly impossible to solve. leland vittert is live in our jerusalem bureau. legal land, is there any help for the civilians on the ground that have been suffering so much? >> reporter: they are suffering indeed, martha. the syrian government will allow the red cross into civilian areas to provide humidity humidity assistance. we've been waiting a long time for the syrian government to come through on promises they made to help their citizens. inside syria there is punishing assault on rebel towns and rebel positions by president assad's army. we received word from inside syria, that the syrian army is calling up a number of its reserves, 300,000 strong combat units. they have taken a punishing blow in terms of casualties

from the rebels and these reserves are being called up. on the other hand, a number of reservists saying they are not going to head into battle and kill their own fellow citizens. so that is something that president assad's army will have to deal with over the coming days. the other issue happening right now inside syria, we've gotten latest numbers on the refugee crisis. right now 100,000 people streamed across the border into turkey, jordan and lebanon. turkey has been talking about setting up safe zones for these refugees. but so far, martha, military intervention is not something the united states or its allies is willing to today. back to you. >> leland, thank you very much. leland vittert reporting on that growing awful situation. bill: meantime back in charlotte. big question from the rnc and dnc conventions are you better off than four years ago, america? what voters are saying about that question only weeks before the presidential election. >> america is better off today than they left us when

they left. [cheers and applause] ♪ the one and only, cheerios

martha: fox news alert. a top political adviser to former president bill clinton reportedly will now vote republican in november. his name is douglas band, he's a very well top aide to the former president. he has surprise he a lot of people by saying he will vote for governor romney at this time. that according to a report coming out in the new yorker magazine. the relationship between press and former president clinton has been frosty at times and friendly at other times and complex. we will talk about that with beene lni davis. he knows the clintons very well. we will be glad to talk to him about that coming up. back to the campaign trail a

tough new line of attack against president obama. vice-presidental nominee paul ryan comparing the obama administration to that of jimmy carter. that's how we start a brand-new hour of this special edition of "america's newsroom" coming to you live from charlotte, north carolina. morning, everybody, i'm martha maccallum. bill: i'm bill hemmer. good morning as well. feels like a little more momentum today. martha: it does, ready to go. bill: right. congressman paul ryan mitting on a new yet family train on the republican trail. here is paul ryan from about 200 miles away yesterday in the key swing state of north carolina. have a listen on his message. >> when you take a look at what we're going to hear in charlotte today, the president can say a lot of things and he will, but he can't tell you that you're better off. martha: big theme right now. doug mcelway joins me live in woodstock, vermont. doug, why woodstock vermont this morning? >> just a couple of miles up the

road from where we now stand is where mitt romney is preparing to engage in three days in intensive debate preparation. more on that in a moment. while he is up here in vermont he's leaving the attacks to his surrogate. the romney campaign has assembled a rapid response team to counts any talking points which come out of the democratic convention. the theme of that rapid response has been, are you better off than you were four years ago? but vp nominee paul ryan is digging back a little further into history into the carter administration to drop some uncomfortable parahrels. here is mr. ryan. >> 330,000 businesses filed for bankruptcy in 1980 under jimmy carter. last year under president obama's leadership 1.4 businesses filed for bankruptcy. >> reporter: also participating in the g.o.p. rapid response is g.o.p. senate candidate ted cruz

who won the primary in the state of texas a couple of weeks ago and south carolina nikki haley as well as several dozen staff members listening to every word that comes out of the mode kwrupls at the democra democrat krat particulademocrat krat particular national done srepb convention to key respond to it. martha: what can we expect out of vermont. >> reporter: he has chosen a former summer home, and kerry hailey in west vermont, these where the house is. the house is apparently $3.9 million, it's open and airy and lends itself to being in a room that is much larger than a house would seem. acting as a stand in for president obama in the mock debates is ohio senator rob portman who fielded the same roll four years ago for then senator john mccainment

portman did such a fine job imitating pres president obama, that cindy mccain refused to speak to portman for several days. mccain offers this defense. >> take the offense, defend his record. he cannot defend his record. senator rob portman is playing obama in the practice, i guarantee you portman will prepare him. i hate rob portman to this day because of him playing obama in our preparation for the debates. >> reporter: we hear that mr. romney is not really fond of these formal mock debates. he prefers to learn this especially by studying briefing books and hashing out potential responses with his aides, martha. martha: all right, very interesting with john mccain there having been through the ropes last time around and had rob portman playing that role. enjoy wermont.

beautiful part of the country. we love charlotte but woodstock is great. bill: vice president joe biden taking another shot on governor romney on tax returns while campaigning in detroit just yesterday. have a listen on that message. >> he said the president is so out of touch -- out of touch. how many of y'all have a swiss bank account? how much do you have invested in the caymen islands. out of touch? woe, man. ladies and gentlemen, talk about out of touch. this guy won't even let you see his tax returns. bill: you know that has been a familiar theme for the past several months on behalf of democrats hitting the governor, mitt romney. we will see joe biden in person on thursday night and see whether or not he picks up with more on that theme. martha: as biden talked to motor city voters the president was visiting people in louisiana who are were devastated by hurricane aoeubgz. as fema and local authorities step in after the state lost more than 40% of their

electrical power the president made the point to highlight the quick response and perhaps criticize his predecessor in doing so as well. listen. >> i want to particularly thank fema and the state and local authorities, because sometimes in the past we haven't seen the kind of coordination that is necessary in response to these kinds of disasters. this time we've seen it. martha: the president's visit came several days after g.o.p. nominee mitt romney visited the same area. the white house insists that the timing on all of this was not political. bill: interesting to see him walk side-by-side by bobby jindal too. the city of charlotte is stepping up security in a significant way. it changes by the day literally the route that we take to get to work every day. then again the following day, thousands of extra police are being called in from other cities, oftentimes from other states, including chicago, believe it or not.

a $50 million federal grant paying now for the cost of that security. that includes training and equipment and temporary barriers that are closing uptown charlotte here in north carolina. martha: you just touched on this. 50 of the extra officers here came down from the president's home down of chicago. just last week the windy city asked for federal help combating it's own crime wave. 350 people have been killed on the streets of chicago this year. chicago's police union is also upset saying that they are already having a hard time replacing the one thousand officers retiring in the past couple of years. a chicago police spokesman says the officers in charlotte are there on their own days off. bill: fox news alert right now, because there is a massive wildfire raging in southern california, 12,000 visitors forced to leave after they went to the park for labor day weekend. firefighters trying, doing everything they can to get this fire under control. >> i'm still worried.

i mean, we can't control mother nature. i'm worried about our firemen up there. you know, they are up there in the heat. we've already had one that is not feeling so great, you know, and like look at that. those are the things we worry about the wind picking it up and shoving it somewhere else. bill: my oh my. you've seen the latest where is it burning, adam. >> reporter: we have a couple of months of fire season in southern california. the good news that lady spoke of the winds. the winds are not as bad as we've seen when the ric santa ana winds come. it's the mountains to the right where you come into land at lax, that's where the fire is burning, 4,000 acres so far. that is expected to go up once they get the spotter planes up there. even though there are no homes threaten at this hour the people living below the fire are

extremely worried. take a listen. >> i couldn't even sleep last night. i was up at 4:00 in the morning checking the fire. everything was aglow. >> some people have absolutely no other place to go that are here. they are making it just barely. >> reporter: bill, there are 21 aircraft fighting this fire. 400 firefighters. they don't expect to get containment until at least a week, bill. bill: you wonder when the end is in sight and whether or not you could even see the end to the fire season. how has the weather been? what is the forecast for that, looking weeks or even months down the road. >> reporter: it's going to be hot and dry throughout the west. major fires have been burning in every single major state. fire in wyoming. idaho, california expected to be very hot throughout the next web. the cost of these fires have mounted significantly. take into account these numbers. so far the average acreage this time of year is 5 million acres,

we've burned more than 7 million acres across the country. in states like utah they spent $16 million they normally spend 3 million. washington state spending nearly 20 million, they normally spend 11. montana says their share of the fire budget they'll spend $25 million this year. the good news for those states is the night is i getting shorter, humidity is coming up. in california when those states fire season comes to an end california's fires kick up. we have a ways to go out here in the west before the rain comes and the fire season ends. bill: be patient, be safe. adam housley out there in california. the pop up showers here in the afternoon, it's really hot in charlotte throughout the day. they could use some of that out in california, but for the moment it's not going to happen. martha: they sure could. they've had a tough summer and our thoughts are with them out there. they've lost a lot of firefighters as well. how about this question, the relationship between president obama and bill clinton. it has been a long storied,

complex relationship and we'll see the affects of that in some ways over the course of this week. a top adviser to former president clinton may be adding to the complexity of their story. bill: also the are you better off today, the senior adviser to governor mitt romney weighs in on that question as vice president joe biden makes it part of his labor day campaign. did you hear this? >> you want to know whether we are better off? i've got a little bumper sticker for you, osama bin laden is dead and general motor -tss is alive!

martha: as vice president joe biden adds to the growing debate, our americans better off now than they were four years ago? that's what every voter ultimately has to decide when they step into that voting booth. one top democrat is pulling an about face by answering with a flat out no. biden took the labor day holiday to try to set the record straight despite indecision from very well low memorandum krats a day earlier. speaking about governor o'malley. >> let me say this to the press, america is better off today than they left us when they left. [cheers and applause] >> you want to know whether we are better off? i've got a little bumper sticker for you. osama bin laden is dead, and general motors is alive!

[cheers and applause] >> osama bin laden is dead, and general motors is alive! [cheers and applause] >> osama bin laden is dead and general motors is alive! [cheers and applause] martha: kevin madden joins me now, senior adviser to g.o.p. nominee mitt romney. great to have you, welcome. >> thanks for having me. martha: we will see some version of that bumper sticker at the debates. we know governor romney is busy getting ready doing debate prep as we speak. how do you respond to that to osama bin laden is dead and gm is alive, those are two areas that the obama administration will point to as big successes. >> i think it doesn't speak to the larger question that people are asking in the frame of this election, which is the state of the economy. we -- it also doesn't speak to the fact that we have 23 million americans that are struggling to find work in the obama economy. we are going to see our national debt probably cross over the

16 trillion-dollar mark during the democrat's convention. this president actually oversaw $5 trillion in debt over the last four years. so right now americans don't feel like the country is going to the right direction. they voted for president obama to bring the country together four years ago, and to help jump start the economy, and what we've seen out of washington is a whole lot of partisanship not a whole lot of action on the big issues that the american people care about and the economy is still struggling. if the democrats answer that question accurately whether or not the american people are better off than they were four years ago what essentially they'll do is actually reaffirm the arguments that governor romney is making that we need a change, that we need a new direction for the country. martha: well, you know, one of the arguments that was made after the republican convention was that there weren't enough specifics that were put forth. when you look at the next sort of stage of this whole process it is those debates. now no doubt foreign policy is going to come up in those debates and president obama will

be -- will take the opportunity, i would assume, to talk about the osama bin laden raid and the success of that and how tough his administration has been with drone attacks on terrorism. one of the criticisms brought up was that governor romney didn't even mention the war in afghanistan during his speech. what will he be bringing to the table specifically to answer questions about what his plan in afghanistan would be? >> well, during the convention speak that governor romney gave he did talk about the importance of restructuring and strengthening our nation's military, which has seen a degradation over the last few years. the day prior to his convention speech governor romney traveled to indianapolis, indiana and gave a speech to the american legion at the invitation of the american legion, an invitation that president obama declaimed. he talked about what we needed to do in afghanistan to see that mission through so we have a more stable afghan government so that we can then begin to

drawdown our troops, and to do so with a very clear sense of a mission there. those will be some of the contrasts that we continue to see during the debate. it will be the con cross that we continucontrast as we see debated over the course of the next 60 days as we move through to election day. martha: we'll hear more specifics about that in the debates. back to the question of the economy which you brought up. some are also pressing governor romney to start to be more specific in terms of what he would do in the next four years and it all goes back to you, are you better off question. what would governor romney do to make us better off when it comes to, for example, tax reform? >> well, tax reform is just one side. if you look at governor romney's specifics he laid out a 59-point plan for strengthening the question. a 20% across the board tax relief for the american public, as well as reforming the corporate rate. we have the highest corporate rate in the world and it's making us less competitive.

he talked about other silos that have a tremendous impact on the growth of our economy, namely healthcare and energy. healthcare, he would move to repeal obamacare, it's stifling job kraoe ration and leading higher costs for businesses. on energy, go with the keystone pipeline. we can help reduce our energy costs and help grow the economy. those are a number of things that the governor would do. all inside a 59-point plan. you contrast that again with president obama who really hasn't laid out a second term agenda. we don't know exactly what pedestrians would do, anpress would do anpress present president obama would do. martha: when we step forward from mere i think a lot of questions will be raised, also about spending cuts, kevin. when you look at the spending cuts, paul ryan is known for his very specific plan to cut spending in this country. it was controversial when it

came out. how much of that will governor romney sign onto and where are the areas where governor romney would cut spending to deal with the 16 trillion-dollar debt that you talk about? what would he cut? >> governor romney has talked about an across the board cut for some of the discretionary spending. if you remember back in the primary one of the most important arguments that he made that helped him win in the republican primary was that he would adhere to a cut, cap and balance strategy for the economy. that is one of the things where we have probably the clearest contrast with this administration. over the last four years we've seen 5 thrill dollar $5 trillion added to the deficit. that is more than all of the presidents that came before president obama. the america public if they look at this election through the lense of the economy and the rate of spending coming out of washington, the size of deficits piling up under this president they will have a clear contrast with governor romney and paul ryan running against a terrible record that we've seen from

president obama, and vice president biden. martha: the democrats are in the middle of the first day of their convention, and you are getting ready for the debates. always good to talk to you. >> thanks for having me. martha: let's go to bill who is out there on the convention floor. bill: i'm hanging out here with lady liberty. she looks great on this giant screen. nice looking shot here. julian castro, the mayor of san antonio is on the podium behind us. he's the key speaker tonight, 8:37. biggest moment of his life. michelle obama speaks tonight. all of that in prime-time. in a moment on "america's newsroom," who has the momentum, which party? does either party, democrats or republicans? chris wallace is warming up for that. he's on deck. back in a moment live in charlotte, right after this. are you receiving a payout from a legal settlement

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pennsylvania section with the delegation from the keystone state will be seated on tuesday and wednesday. 20 electoral votes in pennsylvania. you know how important that is in this contest, this presidential race. at this convention a bit of a twist. most of the delegates are seated in the bowl of the arena, oftentimes like in tampa we saw the delegates on the floor right in front of the stage. in this case there are much fewer seats on the floor of the arena looking up to the stage behind me on its multivideo screen. pennsylvania has a pretty good state and so too does the home state. north carolina and it's 15

electoral votes are host state here this week. >> had to figure north carolina was going to be down in front, right. martha: they always get a good seat. bill: my oh, my. martha: virginia has a good seat. bill: virginia. all the usuals. martha: wisconsin is tucked up in the corner. if i'm a delegate in wisconsin i'm not too excited when i find my seat. bill: stay with fox the most in-depth coverage all week. prime-time later tonight as well. charlotte is a terrific town. martha: it's wonderful. bill: it has really been enjoyable. martha: the uptown area. bill: relatively easy to get around given the security. martha: they keep locking down different blocks and they are protecting some of the buildings in the up down area, but they have been so nice to us here, we just love it. bill: we may not come back to new york i think is what we're saying. martha: they'll be playing basketball around us next week. right? we are still here. a rising star in the democratic party is set to deliver

tonight's address in charlotte. julian castro is the mayor of san antonio, he is the first hispanic to snag that slot at the convention at 37 years old. >> reporter: he is an interesting choice for keynote speaker. he he describes himself as a pragmatic politician who reaches across party lines in san antonio to get things don's. he describes himself as a proud democrat and there ar is little question big things lie ahead for him. he is the youngest mayor of a big city. he has been vaulted from ab security to rock star status because of his keynote address. >> i've been having nightmares that i'm going to get laryngitis or trip or stutter or something. >> reporter: his appearance is reminding democrats of 2004 and another's keynote speech. there is talk castro could be the first hispanic president. >> if people are honest they say

yeah, it would be great to be president. at the same time the worst type of politician is somebody who is only gunning for a position because they want that position. >> he really is committed. >> reporter: his closer adviser is brother what keen, a texas lawmaker running for congress. yes, they are identical twins. >> i'm a minute younger. >> reporter: does he let you know that all the time. >> all the time. >> reporter: at school they were serious students skipping 10th grade. it was affirmative action that got them into stanford and onto harvard law. >> my brother made no bones that he didn't score a 1500 on the sat i think he got a 12-something. we certainly benefitted from it. we believe there is a police for it in america. >> reporter: it was their mother who stressed the important answer of education and led them towards politics. >> i've always believed, and i think taught them that inside of everybody there is a leader. >> reporter: as a worker's right activist she ran for city council at age 23 and drilled her boys on the importance of

civic responsibility. it was a tough sell at first. >> she would drag us to campaign alleys, and she would drag us to organizational meetings, and walking neighborhoods, i mean who wants to do that when they are ten years old. >> reporter: in college their mother's lessons took root. a decade after winning his first city council election julian will be launched on the national stage. >> she instilled in me that he could become a leader, a confidence in myself that i was someone who had value, that i had something to add to the conversation. >> reporter: a conversation that tonight will include a grandmother from mexico who dropped out of elementary school and took odd jobs so that rosie castro and her twin boys could have a real shot at life. it's a story about making it in america. and julian castro will bring it to the convention here in charlotte tonight. martha. martha: what a story. what a grit look at the family. thank you so much, john. john roberts, right outside the arena here. bill: he he is front and center

later tonight. millions of people will watch and witness for that. the so-called post convention bump. republicans claim they have the political momentum at the moment but which candidate can see the bigger bump when it's all over? chris wallace on the on deck circle waiting for that. he's next. martha: the always inch trying relationship between thes intriguing relationship between president obama and bill clinton. a top adviser to the former president said to be voting nor mitt romney. that can't be too comfortable. what does this mean? we'll talk to he the special counsel for white house under bill clinton, next.

bill: well the republican party is saying that mitt romney is the candidate now with the momentum coming out of tampa last week, but voters might be asking a different question after this convention. have they enjoyed the last four

years? are they looking forward to the next four years? they are testing the sound system now. we like that because chris wallace is the anchor of fox news sunday and this was made special for you with the music for you chris. good morning to you. >> reporter: good morning. you know i looked at this question of momentum, there are a couple of ways to answer it, bill. first of all gallop has done something for the last few conventions where they asked people at the end, did the convention make you more likely to vote for this candidate or less likely to vote. they subtract one from the other and the answer in the case of romney and the republican convention last week was plus 2. 2% more were more likely to vote for romney after watching the convention than less likely. that doesn't sound like much and in fact it isn't much. for instance, mccain four years ago in st. paul, minnesota, it was plus 5. on the other hand it doesn't always mean all that much. for instance in 2004 bush it was plus 2, kerry, john kerry at the democratic convention that same

year was plus 14. kerry didn't end up as the president, bush did. it's not always dispositive of what is going to come out. let me give you another number, and that may be a better indication of momentum. the real clear politics average of all the polls recently. it shows literally down to the 10th of a point a flat-footed tie. 46.4% for obama. 46.4% for romney. the obama number is coming down, the romney number is coming up. they meet at 46.4, and if you look back the last couple of weeks, bill, to when romney picked paul ryan as his running mate it's been straight up for romney. momentum probably an overstatement, but the direction, the path seems to be better for romney than obama coming into this convention. bill: we'll watch and see where that goes a week from today too. i've heard you talk a lot about the 1964 convention, that you apparently have vivid memories of. you reflect too on 1980 when

ronald reagan asked that quirks are you better off when you were four years ago and you think about paul ryan talking that same question about 200 miles from here in greenville, north carolina just yesterday. you wonder if that is the most relevant question these days, or whether or not there is a more relevant question the following way, did you enjoy the last four years as an american? and are you looking forward to the next four years if president obama gets a second term? what is your view of that, the way that is phrased, chris? >> reporter: i don't know that anybody enjoyed -- maybe in a personal sense they enjoyed the last four years. i'm not sure anybody particularly enjoyed seeing at this point 23 million americans unemployed or under employed and this continuing recession, a very, very tough recovery. i think you put your finger on two things. one of which is how do you view the last four years and how do you view the way president obama has addressed the nation's problems. and here is an area of real

vulnerability in that they need to shore up the democrats, what are they going to do in the next four years. i remember when bill clinton was running in 1996 for re-election, it was all about the bridge to the 21st century. a lot of it was small like school uniforms, things like that. midnight basketball lesion but there waleagues. but there was a sense of i've got ideas where i'm going to take you. this president has very few ideas. he talks about building the middle class, his economic program is basically the jobs act which he laid out last september. he needs to put more meat on the bones oeft next three days. bill: one more question. i have 20 seconds. viewership because down considerably last week for the republican convention in tampa across the board, broadcast networks were down. we'll see whether or not people tune in this week or not or whether or not they tune in to a less degree once the democrats are finished in charlotte. if that necessarily indicates a lack of interest in the overall election, that could determine a lower turn out come november

also. if that is the case, and a lower turn out from 2008 to 2012, does that favor obama or romney, or can we say? >> reporter: well i think i'm going to give you the conventional wisdom, a lower turn out would probably be better for romney and worse for obama because the people who voted for obama in unusual, untraditional numbers, young people, african-americans, hispanics, if they don't vote and you get sort of the poorer likely voters that would tend to favor romney and not be so good for obama which is why you're seeing obama at these college campuses and in a lot of minority neighborhoods, because he's trying to get those folks who don't tradition until lee vote in such big numbers. he wants to get them out again. bill: good to see you chris, see you later today, all right. >> reporter: you bet. bill: chris wallace the anchor the "fox news sunday." martha: there are calls for the democrats to get their own mystery speaker like clint eastwood last week. who do they want?

none other than betty white. 5 a hundred people have signed an online petition and more than 25,000 have, quote, liked a facebook to get the golden girl to speak. the 90-year-old actress, 90 years old, how does she do what she does that betty white. how great is she? there she is with the president in may. so far the dnc has no plans to invite her, though, so maybe they'll change their mind, maybe she'll parachute in. bill: jet pack. there is a woman who could do a lot with an empty chair with the way that her mind runs. martha: absolutely. we'll see. moving right along. the u.s. debt clock we watched it hanging over the republican national convention, today is the day, it's really not much to celebrate, folks but it will tick over $16 trillion hours from now. this as there is a reshuf lynn going on across the pond as worries growing about the untable economy in europe could impact america as well.

amy kellogg joins us live from our london bureau with the latest on all of that. >> reporter: it's an important week in europe, because there will be a european central bank meeting on thursday, and ecb boss wants the bank to be buying some of the european bonds, that in order, martha to keep the borrowing cost tph-s some of the poorer countries down, something that is making for a very unlevel playing field and only exacerbating a very difficult situation. he is saying that he is committed to saving the euro, but that has not stopped jitters around here, and we keep hearing stories about international and american companies making plans for greece's possible exit from the euro, such as lining up trucks to go in and bring cash should there be a hrupb o run on banks. and setting up new accounts. they say they want to stay in the euro but the situation continues to be quite

difficult. we saw a demonstration today, retirees marching on the ministry of health. they have to pay for doctors appointments something the state covered and for medication. they describe the description as tragic and there will be further cuts ahead of this week's ecb meeting. in spain unemployment has gone up again. it is up to 26.7%, that is the highest in the euro zone. people are quite desperate and we are seeing a lot ofds coming over here to the uk to look for work, martha. martha: how are things in britain. >> reporter: in britain we've had this cabinet shakeup because people are concerned and the governor, the prime minister that not enough is being done to deal with the economy. a lot of fiscal conservatives have been brought into the new government. we got some figures today that showed retail down on last august, which was not what we expected, given the boost for the olympic games here, the chancellor was booed when he went out to the par olympic field to handout awards. something that people here

really hadn't expected. martha. martha: thank you so much. amy kellogg in london. bill: a former top aide to hillary clinton announcing that he will be voting for governor romney in november. in a moment a foamer clinton special counsel on the complex relatio relationship between president obama and the clintons. martha: the latest after a secret service vehicle is stolen off the streets of the motor city. >> where can you steal a secret service truck from, first of all. you know, it shouldn't be that easy to get. that's secret service. ♪

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martha: let's get you back to our top story today. this is an intriguing one. a former major political adviser to the clintons, douglas band who you see pictured here, has reportedly said that in this election he will vote for governor mitt romney. that according to a story in the new yorker. alice stewart the former press secretary for the santorum campaign and worked on several national campaigns. and lany davis, a special assistance to former president bill clinton and a fox news contributor, welcome. glad to have you here today. is it surprising that doug band will vote for mitt romney? >> not particularly. it has nothing to do with bill clinton or hillary clinton or me or anybody else. doug band has his own views and attributing doug band's decision to anybody associated with president clinton just violates all sense. he has his own views, it doesn't mean that president clinton

agrees. martha: the notion here and let me just put up a quote from this "new yorker" piece to show you a little bit about where this piece is going and it makes an argument for hillary clinton in 2016. and the writer of this story says, by some measures a defeat for obama in november would leave hillary the undisputed leader of her party. >> if i could just jump in. martha: and propel her toward the oval office that much faster. at least one of bill clinton's closist advisers seems to be backing that strategy. martha: i've never met the reporter and writer of that article, he's responsible for a compound here say statement uttered by someone who passed away, tim russert, who told somebody else who told somebody else that bill clinton said this. he not only wrote that it was published by the new yorker. when he speculates that sentence is entirely fact free, other

than one person telling him that who is not named. with all due respect to a great reporter who i love to read in the new yorker it doesn't mean anything, it's speculation, and as far as i'm concerned i know that hillary clinton and bill clinton and i support barack obama on the major issues they have fought their political lives for. national healthcare. no tax cuts for the wealthy and choice rather than a supreme court justice who will overturn row versus wade, over and out. martha: you know what, you can never seem to stop the curiosity though about the clintons, about their relationship with obama. >> speculation. martha: understood. let me bring alice in here. she's been listening to this back and forth. what do you make of this report about doug band, alice. >> i'm very familiar with the author's work as well and you have to cut through to some of the facts that do shine out in this piece. i think the fact that douglas says he's going to vet for romney says many things.

obviously a frustration with the current administration, but also the fact that the wheels could be in motion for hillary clinton. i do strongly believe that she is setting herself up in many ways for a run in 2016 and that would certainly give the republicans a run for their money. key points noted in the article said that president clinton while he is doing quite a bit out front to help the obama campaign he's sort of going through the motions which is what you have to do. when we know in the past he has expressed his concern about the negative tone of the obama campaign, the fact that they've been so negative on the stellar success of governor romney, saying that he has a sterling record as a businessman and obviously president clinton had problems with the way they were attacking it. certainly he has some concerns about the fact that the president gutted his very successful welfare program that included the responsibility to work. so i think having clinton alongside them will certainly help obama, given that he can claim that this is his role model on the economy but it will

shine a big spotlight on the fact during the clinton years we had economic prosperity and now we have economic doom. martha: that raises a question about bill clinton's speech this week. do you expect we'll hear more about bill clinton and what his presidency was like in that speech or will we hear more about barack obama. will there be a chris christie affect i guess is one of the questions about his speech? >> bill clinton will talk about the policies that he fought for as president, which barack obama stands for. i mentioned national healthcare. president clinton raised taxes in 1993, not one republican supported him, and cut spending. and ended up with 23 million jobs and a trillion dollar surplus. i do agree that both bill clinton and i, and many clinton supporters don't agree with president obama on everything. bee are very disappointed that he didn't endorse his own deficit reduction commission, simpson-bowles, i'm speaking for myself, not for president clinton. martha: you've mentioned that

you'd like to see the president support simpson-bowles. we are running out of time. that's why i'm jumping in here. >> and the tone the campaign, i agree with alice, the tone of the campaign has been much too personal in attacking mitt romney and i hope that obama stops that. martha: lany thank you. alice thank you. we've got to leave it there, thank you guys very much. bill: a labor day mystery has been solved, next.

bill: chicago mayor rahm emanuel will cut his charlotte trip short as his city faces its first teachers strike in 25 years. pressure mounting back home. live at you're bureau in chicago, what is the dispute? >> there is a number of them. emanuel ran for mayor on the

platform saying he was going to extend the school day by at least an hour. he has essentially instituted that, and that's been a huge point of contention with the chicago rub teachers' union and the rhetoric back and forth at least as far as the teachers are concerned has got even heated. >> the only way to beat a bully is to stand up to a bully. [cheering] >> reporter: making the situation even more difficult for the chicago public school system is this. this is today's opening day for the school. they already exhausted their reserves setting up this school year's budget. 432million to plug a hole of over 600 million. they are running a deficit and they are also staring down the barrel of a teachers' strike. bill. bill: what does the mayor have to say about this. rahm emanuel? >> reporter: he was out like the mayor usually is on the first dave school, his predecessor didn't. he was out doing it today. surprisingly the off quoted mayor had nothing to say about the situation pending coming up on monday potentially about the

strike. we are told by the mayor's office that both sides are negotiating on this. but no word of any kind of breakthrough that might aeu skroeumight avoid a strike come monday. bill: that was a strong comment at that rally we just heard. steve brown. thank you. martha: we have the final preps underway. you can hear what is going on behind us at the democratic national convention. our coverage continues live in charlotte. plus the secret service code name for vice-presidental nominee paul ryan and his wife have been revealed. what do you think their names would be? we'll be right back with the answer. bill: we have a guess or two, right? or annuity over 10 or even 20 years? call imperial structured settlements. the experts at imperial can convert your long-term payout into a lump sum of cash today.

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