>> steve: we'll be back tomorrow and you don't want to miss it. texas governor perry will be with us, and ditka from da bears. we'll talk about da birds in the after the show show. >> brian: the birds, friday night football be canceled in hawaii because it makes the birds confused and get eaten by cats. >> steve: yeah, that's it. >> gretchen: put a little shelter on that, you might solve the problem. log on right now. see you tomorrow. bill: good morning, everybody, hope you had a great weekend, do you know who you are voting for, november 2nd? 8 days to go until tleks, tipping the balance of power, and, an ap poll shows 27% of likely voters still are not entirely sure, who to send to washington. folks, what are you waiting for! i'm bill hemmer. welcome to "america's newsroom," how are you doing. martha: i'm doing well, how are

you doing. good morning, i'm martha maccallum. good to have you with us, and it is home stretch time, folks and these two men, may or may not have job security after november 2nd. first up, republican party chairman michael steele. he says time for a change, check it out. >> the ideas put on the table, light of them from -- propounded by folks like john boehner and eric cantor and paul ryan, were summarily rejected and in fact as you recall, david, republican leaders, particularly specific members could not even get a met meeting with net and tried after sending letters and requests to see how we could help and hope for a better relationship between the white house and the republican congress, come january. bill: guys like steele are not sleeping this time of year and so, too, is tim kind, chairman of the dnc who claims it is anyone's game. >> do you think you'll keep the house. >> i do. it will be close, as you point

these races are close but from this point forward it is about turn out and ground game and we are seeing good early voting trends and have work to do but we think we can do it. bill: rule number one, bob cusack, editor of the hill in washington, don't look weak and express confidence, how do you measure it. >> in 2006, republicans knew they would lose the house and probably the senate as well and you cannot look pessimistic, you have to put on the good face and tim kaine says, it is going to be close and that is to get out the base and, the turnout will be key and these things could be decided by a thousand votes. bill: very likely in many of those races. look at the travel schedule, follow it like a bouncing ball, this week president obama will finish up his travels in pennsylvania, connecticut, illino illino illinois, and ohio and in a

traditional year you do not find a democratic president campaigning in the state of connecticut and illinois. that tells you what. >> they are worried about the wave and the wave is coming on november 2nd. a matter of how big it is, bill, and you see that president obama is not going to stop, he won virginia and north carolina and you don't see that, you see him in blew statue states, trying t the majority in the house and senate and has gone out to save barbara boxer and, democrats are playing a big time defense now. bill: you made a comment with our producers about '08 and '06 when it came to who is fighting back and being tough. and you say 6 years ago, in 2004, democrats learned a lesson. because they were not tough enough. what has changed since then, bob. >> two big things, charles schumer who took over the campaign committee in the senate and rahm emanuel, who is now

running for the mayor of chicago, they said, you know, 2004 we were too soft, the swift boat attacks, went after john kerry and he didn't fight back and we need to play bare knuckle politics and democrats won two elections in a row and, certainly we have seen the last couple weeks have been playing tough and can be criticized as nasty but, at this point in time it is all about winning. and, negative politics wins. bill: you wonder if turning tough will save seats, and if so, how many. bob cusack, thank you, week from tomorrow, martha, when is next. martha: clearly one of the most combative races in the country, in the final debate, florida senate candidates marco rubio, charlie crist and kendrick meek squaring off one last time, folks, before election day and seems everybody was determined to get the last word in here, look at some of this: >> let me say this -- let me say this. all right, we know why the governor is running as an independent. because he couldn't beat marco

rubio. put it that way. that is okay. no. no. no. wait -- >> let me ask the audience, you'll cut into our time and they want to talk. >> let me -- >> i want to speak on this pointed. >> you spoke, governor. >> wait' minute it. >> go ahead and finish your time, i promise you -- >> the reason i'm running as an independent is because it is what the people want and what is right with my own heart. martha: that got interesting, that was kendrick meek going after the now independent charlie crist and crist also went on the offensive and accused marco rubio of questionable financial dealings when they talked about tax cuts. >> why won't you release your rpo -- >> clear this up. >> the -- as i say -- >> your reporting income. >> this is one litany of false facts after another. >> maybe, why don't you -- can you answer the question. >> across the state of florida for the past year. >> why not release the full irs records and credit card statements. >> the question has been answered since february.

my tax returns are public and i have gone well beyond the point of disclosure and the bottom line, people want to focus on the issues because they are wrong on the important issues and the country has a $13.5 trillion debt senate he doesn't want to release them, he doesn't believe in transparency, i created the office of open government in the governor's office for the first time in the history of our state. >> i never had a heckler at the stage, i always had them in the audience. >> the way it is. welcome to the nfl. >> go ahead. >> i apologize, i've had the heckler going on two minutes now, this is a national talking point, the democrats adopted across the country. martha: how about that. marco rubio calling the governor of florida a heckler, saying he had been heckled two minutes there and he's ahead in the polls by a big margin, over crist and has meek trailing in third place. bill: we'd like a little more of that. fiery words from former president bill clinton at a campaign stop for michigan and

governor candidates, virg bernero, the democratic heavy weight telling voters to the to shoot themselves in the foot by putting republicans back in office and also blamed republicans for the country's fiscal mess and said democrats like him can fix the mess. >> this is one of the most frustrating, perplexing elections in america. if you look at the records of the candidates, if you look at the positions of the candidates, you would think that every democrat, every republican and never independent would vote for virga -- virg bernero. bill: wherever you are, download the america's election headquarters iphone app, at

foxnews.com or at the app store next time you are on-line. every day, every afternoon and every night, the next day day. martha: how about this, simmering debate whether or not to extend the bush era tax cuts, taking a new turn today, the white house hinting that some sort of negotiations on this could extend the cuts to higher income households. president obama said the nation cannot afford tax breaks for the wealthy, he said it over and over again and republicans want to extend the cuts for everybody. stuart varney has been looking into this at the fox business network and joins us. good morning to you. >> good morning. martha: perhaps given the election climate here not all that surprising we are starting to hear movement made towards making the rich number, moving it up the scale, maybe up to a million dollars and then you would still have the -- not that he have tax cuts. >> that is exactly what we are talking about and there are two developments to report. up until now, all senior

democrats have said yes. extend all the bush tax cuts but only up into household next of $250,000 a year or more. only to that threshold. now, along comes senator schumer and he says, extend the tax cuts, for everybody up to $1 million. and, over the weekend, vice president joe biden says raise that threshold, raise it above 250-k, in other words, they are saying, we're prepared tose on break, next year. they are raising the threshold which they stuck to rigidly until now and, these are senior democrats and stuck to 250-k and now are beginning to compromise and raise that bar. >> let's look at these full screens that show, if these cuts all stay as-is and do expire here's what will happen, a family making $50,000 will see the tax bill raised by $2900. that is a lot of money, in that

case, $100,000, family sees their taxes go up $4500. this will kick in, in january, stuart. that is a big bite. >> oh, yes. and what you are looking at is the threat. if there is no compromise, everybody who pays taxes will see their tax rate go up by the amount you put up on the screen. that is the threat. that is what will happen if there is no compromise of any kind. tax rates for everybody go up and, now, with that that's background threat, you are beginning to see movement towards a compromise on who will get the extended bush tax cuts. martha: all right, stuart varney, thank you so much. coming up on varney & co at the fox business network, a few minutes away. bill: more breaking news on the economy, crossing, the mortgage companies cut corners on their own when they moved to foreclosure on american homes? a question now coming from the fed chair ben bernanke. remarks prepared for delivery to

a housing finance conference in arlington, virginia, just hitting the wires now, stephen moore on the "wall street journal," we'll get him up in 20 minutes and get him to react to this and see whether or not there is a case to be made. major concerns, three of the big banks in the country, jp morgan one of them, onslaught, coming rush of all of these foreclosed homes, was it too much for the banks to manage? and manage properly? we'll get to all of that and ben bernanke, weighing in on that, takes it to a new level. coming up. martha: and both parties doing last minute power courting, to see who will control congress next year, coming up we'll have a closer look at the critical votes of independents, and which party we're now getting new indications they may be favoring. bill: also, shock in the olympic swimming world following the tragic death of a young competitor, what caused the 26-year-old american to suddenly collapse and die?

martha: harsh words from president obama, the wife of a missing u.s. tourist killed on this border lake, by gang members. >> mexico doesn't let us in and let us help their hands are tied, they can only do what they can do and so now we're at the mercy of mexico. martha: find out what she wants from the president. next. ñnvw]7>çgo[ñn:[wntñ

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martha: breaking news out of the war crimes tribunal, at guantanamo bay. a detainee there, omar khadr pled guilty to five charges of terrorism, he's accused of throwing a grenade that killed a u.s. soldier in afghanistan, and now pled guilty to five charges of terrorism, at the war crimes tribunal in guantanamo bay, more on that, as we get it. bill: more independents say they are ready to beat the party in

charge, a battleground poll out of politico.com shows republicans hold a lead among democrats when it comes to independents, when asked are you leaning toward republican or democrat, 47%, 42% and put together with what we hear about the youth vote and bob beckel, democratic political analyst and a conservative columnist, have been thinking about these topics all weekend long, haven't you, guys. >> all weekend. bill: what does it suggest, independents are leaning towards the republicans, and, the. ♪ vote is not come out, as hoped, it usually only comes out, the youth vote, every four years and if you are a politician, looking to hold power you are looking in every corner for vote, whether a college campus or someone, age 25. >> that is why you see the white house going after the coalition that is traditionally supporting them, women, you saw the white house making a huge push,

because they see that women, younger voters, some hispanics, slightly have been a dip and the independent voters you mentioned, it was the obama coalition and they have left him and are trying to get them back and these independents are very key. i mean, the mind of the independent voter is, they are not monolithic and not a monolithic voting bloc and don't like big government and are concern, number one, with the debt and the deficit and because there are $3 trillion under obama's watch, that he spent, you ethem breaking out to republicans and i would argue, bill, it's not necessarily the republicans, inspiring them, it is the tea party movement republicans co-opted the message, and, they have been able to co-opt independents because of that. you see the independents are out there, 3 and 5, the hill says, believe democratic leadership is way too left. bill: they determine the outcome of so many races, 50-50 nation, bob, what about it. >> first of all, independents

don't turn out in large numbers in midterms, obviously as a general election for president, but having said that, there is other disturbing news from my side in this poll, one is that in suburbia where the democrats picked up remarkably the last decade has slipped back to republicans but, more importantly is you notice the difference between independents is 5-4, 47 to 42, i think it will be larger, the fact there are that many undecided, you generally don't see that many undecided, this close to the midterms and it is so negative on both sides, that it has driven voters now to none of the above, frankly. they are going to vote and probably will end up voting and holding their nose and voting republican and this is not a republican election, it is an anti-democratic, anti-obama election. bill: is that the case. >> absolutely, everyone who claims it is anti-incumbent, you

have to be in office to be voted out, yes, that tries, it is an anti-liberal, bob is right, anti-obama election, and it is not a pro g.o.p. election. they tired, sick and tired of leadership in the democratic party, 3 in 5 independents in the hill said the democratic leadership is too left and what is fascinating about the independents, when you poll them about obamacare and stimulus, pull ten points higher, disapproval on health care and stimulus, than everybody else does. that's another thing republicans have been able to really tie obama care and the stimulus... bill: and bob, the last word there, andrea's point, where you find the motivation and vote and make a difference. >> yes, i think that is right. except you're in a sticky situation. you have the house probably going republican, and the senate is up in the air, that never happened before, when you have a big wave election and both bodies, have gone that way and what is keeping it close like this? i get back to the negative campaign and undecideds is far

out, not your typical base enhancing last week of an election, and it is unusual. bill: bob, thanks, andrea, thanks, nicely done, both of you. all right. martha: a really sad story this morning, tragedy hit the u.s. national swimming team. a 26-year-old athlete in his prime, died in the middle of a race, the fox news a-teamer with us to bring us the latest details and try and explain what happened here. >> he couldn't do enough for anybody. if you wanted a friend you if you wanted him to be your friend and i left the family and his teammates from uva and that was all we talked about.

bill: say good buddy to fall, folks in portland, oregon getting an early blast of snow,

areas near mt. hood, as much as a foot of powder and others haven't caught by surprise ending up trying to dig their cars out of the mess. i bet they were surprised! third week of october, where is august, martha. martha: i'm not ready for that yet. let's move on to the story, sad, there are new development in the death of a u.s. national team swimmer, united arab emirates officials say fran crippen died of overexertion, in a race south of dubai and swimmers were the first to respond when he failed to reach the finish line. >> they were sad, weeping openly, because one of theirs went missing and now they found him and they knew what was obvious. they had gone around the world and suddenly find one of them is no longer. it was pretty sad to see. martha: very sad to see, reports suggesting the award-winning swimmer told his coach at one point during the race, that he

was not feeling well and here's one of his former coaches, speaking about how hot the water was, during the race. >> fran went under with about 1700 meters to go, they didn't realize it at the time, and, two hours later they found his body. >> if the water is too warm and salty, your dehydration level goes up so much faster. martha: dr. marc siegel joins us, a member of the medical a-team. that is exactly what you said to me. the saltwater combined with the high temperature of the water could have killed him? >> right. and we think of water as something which cools you and we have to remember water at this temperature, close to 90° and the swimmers said air temperature of 100° is enough to cause heat exhaustion and as you said, saltwater is high in salt. so instead of sweating out the salt, you absorb the salt and end up with your blood getting more and more salt and can fill your lungs with fluid. you could have a low potassium

level and have a heart problem and your heart could stop and these are probably the ideas of what may have happened. he seemed to have probably had a high temperature from the heat. called heat exhaustion, developing into heat stroke and that, too, can cause you to be confused and your heart can stop beating from severe dehydration and heat stroke. martha: he was a promising young man and swimmer, great swimmer and loved by his teammates, an out-pouring of affection for the young man, and it always raises the question, is there, perhaps, an underlying health condition that could have contributed to this, but, he had three other swimmers that were sent to the hospital with swollen hands, which is an indication that they were -- some of the -- the sodium, right. >> i want to make two points, first, there doesn't have to be an underlying health condition, i'm disturbed that he said 8 kilometers into the race, i don't feel well, competitors, always, because they are competitors don't know when to stop, and, they should have

stopped him, and, quick resuscitation might have made a difference and, 500,000 people in the u.s. with underlying heart disease and congenital heart disease and could he have had a problem with the vessels leading to the heart, the heart walls and it raises the suspicion and is something the autopsy will show us but it is a reminder for people to compete get tested by a physician before you do anything of high competition. martha: all right. marc siegel, thank you very much. always good to see you. bill: sad story. 27 minutes past the hour now, we're getting brand new numbers, one of the hardest fought senate races you will find in november. who has the double-digit lead now, with only days to go in connecticut? also, how the polls are shaping up. in key battleground states, also, martha. martha: could the taliban hold up or stop the planned u.s. troop draw down in afghanistan? what one general is now saying about the july 2011 deadline, you will want to hear this. you will want to hear this. we'll be right back. captioning performed by mediacaptioning.com

bill: top stories at 9:30 now here on a monday morning, vice president joe biden attends his 100th campaign event in the current election cycle today, something for new hampshire candidate ann mcclain cruster, in a tight race with challenger charlie bass. opening statements expected in the murder trial of washington intern chandra levy, an illegal immigrant is charged with urdering levy in a d.c. park, nine years ago. southeast asia, indonesia, dangerous volcano

forcing thousands out of their homes, officials say she could go at -- blow at any moment. here's martha. martha: well, alaska senate candidate bill miller admitting he was once disciplined for violating policy while working as local government attorney, he revealed during a debate yesterday he was suspended once for three days for participating in a private poll during his lunch hour, he says he learned from that mistake, the admission came after a judge ordered miller's personnel filed released, miller faces democrat scott mcadams and current republican senator lisa murkowski, running as a write-in candidate in this tight race. the latest poll average shows this is a nail biter. take a look at these numbers. miller has what was once a decent lead, now just a one point lead over lisa murkowski who people would have to physically write her name in on that ballot but this one shaping up to be much tighter than anyone

thought. bill: from alaska to maryland, a fight for the governor's seat, bringing out former mayor rudy giuliani. robert erlick is trying to take his job back from the democrat who unseated him four years ago, martin o'malley in 2006 and true to form, giuliani did not mince words. >> you have doubled unemployment in the state of maryland. that's a disgrace! you shouldn't even be running for reelection. if i had a record like that as mayor, they would have thrown me out of new york. bill: probably! according to the labor department maryland's unemployment, 7.5 percent, governor o'malley for his part has the endorsement of current new york mayor michael bloomberg, the latest polling shows o'malley with a double digit lead over erlick in the state of maryland. martha: there's a look at those numbers. a former marine com wasn't says he doubts u.s. troops will pull out of afghanistan

by that july 2011 deadline the president has in place. according to usa today, retired general james conway says he believes soldiers fighting taliban militants in the south cannot be held to time straints. let's bring in michigan republican pete hoekstra on the house committee on intelligence. good to have you here, sir, welcome. >> thank you, good morning. martha: good morning to you. i want to go back to general conway's comments and get your comments specifically, he says counterinsurgencies take time, i hope the focus is not tile strapbts as much as the will to win, he says i thought we were in this thing to win it and he talks about the fact that he believes marines are gaining momentum in the south now so clearly, he wouldn't say these things if he wasn't concerned there might be a pullback in terms of determination here. >> i think that's exactly right. you know, i was in the room when the president announced his strategy to congressional leaders

earlier this year and as the president outlined the surge and the other elements that were going to go on in afghanistan, i think most of the people in -- most of the congressional leaders in the room were with him and he kind of said by the way, they're going to come home in july 2011, and that the point in time, he lost a number of the congressional leaders who said you don't run a war based on a timetable, you run it on winning, you run it on conditions on the ground, and i thank that's exactly what we're seeing here, and i think the president's strategy will evolve, they will stay there, our troops will stay there until the job is done, the timetable thing will go away. martha: you know, that's very interesting. we have seen the president in many ways continue the bush bush administration's philosophy on how to win wars in afghanistan and iraq, he's gotten most of what he wanted, he wanted 40,000 troops in the surge, i should say, general mcchrystal and then petraeus and they got 30,000. do you believe they have what we need at this point in terms of troops and do you think there's any argument for more troops there that the president

might accept? >> i think it's very interesting in the comments that you just went through. clearly, the military commanders, at least this military commander is not saying -- saying it's not an issue about whether we have the troops, it's about strategy and whether it's conditions-based or time-based. i think the other thing we're seeing, a pattern from this this -- this president. he makes a protphaoubs moon -- pronouncement about what he wants the way things to be. martha: in fairness they said they would evaluate and start to bring back some troops, not that everybody would be pulled out in july 2011. >> like i said, i was in the room and i think the impression people got is the troops would start coming home in july 2011 but he said the same thing about gitmo, gitmo would be closed within a year, it's now been opened two years after he's been in office, and he's not changed his position. he said, you know, the defendants at gitmo would be tried in new york city,

that's not going to happen. the president, you know, again, says things the way he wants them to be. i think the troops will stay in there until the job is done, and i think that's exactly the right strategy, and i think the president ought to be more clear and more -- and define that more clearly, that that is now his strategy. martha: but you know, we all remember that general -- the general mcchrystal situation and the rolling stone article and that led to his firing and putting general petraeus in charge. one of the criticisms was that the president wasn't communicating a lot with the general there, that at least that's what surface that story and mcchrystal said he regretted a lot of what came out in that story. do you think that the relationship has improved with general petraeus, do you think that the president listen toss petraeus and will do on the ground what he says, as was president bush's philosophy always on that issue? >> well, i sure hope so. i think it's absolutely critical that the president be in close communication with his field commanders, that they have a level of trust and respect, that they

can have honest disagreements, but that they will work through the process. our men and women on the ground depend on that. i would expect that the relationship between this president and his commander in afghanistan right now is a good relationship. they may have their differences, but they both have the same objective in mind, that is to be successful and do everything that they can to make sure that our men and women on the ground have the tools to be successful. martha: all right, congressman pete hoekstra, always between to have you here, sir, thank you very much. >> hey, thank you. bill: fox news weather alert, if you're in the area and a lot of states involved, north carolina, south carolina, state of georgia, you can see on the radar the states affected by two tornado watches and one severe thunderstorm watch. i mentioned numerous states. tennessee is included in that. so, too, back in alabama, and the florida panhandle. so a wide area being affected by these thunderstorms moving through. apparently they just passed through the city of atlanta, but there is a possibility now that tornadoes could be

spawned as a result of this storm. we're watching it from our extreme weather center, too n. a matter of moments, we'll keep you updated, especially for the folks directly affected on this monday morning now. twenty-two before. martha: this is just breaking here in "america's newsroom", federal reserve chief ben bernanke is now saying the feds will investigate whether mortgage companies cut corners on all that paperwork you've been hearing about during the foreclosure crisis. what effect this might have on this whole mess on homeowners across the country and on the american economy as a whole. bill check this out now, a car stuck in the path of an oncoming train. what happened only moments before impact.

la martha: a terrifying scene

in iowa, caught on a dash cam camera. check this out. what you cannot see in that video is a police officer rescued a man from that car that you see get smacked broad side on the track there, just moments before he meets the end of that train as it plows through. police say the driver got stuck on the tracks, how he got there is uncertain. police are investigating and they say the driver could soon face charges in this case. we'll see what happens with that one. bill: see who wins that walgts -- battle, huh. fed chief is getting involved in the mortgage mess, at issue, did a handful of big banks cut moves when it comes to foreclosing homes. attorneys general in 50 states are investigating the foreclosure fraud mess. steve forbes with can --

steve does, that take the story to a new level, what did does it mean? >> this -- it does. this is such a tragic story because people are essentially receiving eviction notices from homes who have actually been paying mortgages and that's an inexcuseable problem by the banks. i've been talking to some of the main spokesmen at some of the big banks where this is happening and bill, this is not an excuse, but what they were saying is they just didn't have the infrastructure to deal with this deluge of foreclosure. bill: you don't buy that excuse, you think that's acceptable? >> i think that's an explanation for why it happened but i don't think it's acceptable, i think it's completely unacceptable for a bank to -- bill, can you imagine that is correct you're paying your morton time, then you get a notice from your bank that you're being evicted from your home? that's an outrageous -- >> bill: my assumption was the only reason the banks contact these people in the first place is because they were either facing foreclosure or were delinquent. >> this is a good point, bill, i want to be clear on this. it turns out about

95 percent of the people who got the -- what they're calling the robo foreclosure notices, about 95 percent of those people actually were not paying their mortgages on time and actually the notices were sent correctly. but there were those, you know, 5 percent of the cases where people were paying their mortgages on time and they got these notices, and there will probably be lawsuits as a result of that. but i want to give you a scary statistic in that news story today that i found really eye opening, which is that 20 percent, one out of every five mortgages today, bill, is under water. what that means is that these are people who have negative equity in their house. that's a really frightening statistic. it means that foreclosures are going to go up considerably in the next few months. bill: meaning they owe more than their home is worth. >> that's right. bill: part of the reason why the foreclosure rate went the way it did. >> that's exactly right. bill bill people saying i win by walking away, not by staying here. >> that's right. if you heard the term jingle mail, people, instead ofheir mok into the bank, they're

sending the keys to the house, and this is a big problem, because it's continuing to cause real estate values to fall as people just walk away from their homes. but 20 percent, bill, we're talking about millions of homeowners who don't have any equity in their house today. bill: i -- it is a staggering figure. here are some other numbers that will blow your mind, stephen. americans today, 3 million plus foreclosures expected this year. >> yes. bill: in addition, 5 million mortgages now delinquent. that means you missed a payment, you missed two payments, foreclosure is when you miss three payments, and 50 states now pursuing investigations. >> you got to get this under control. otherwise, the economy is just going to flounder. >> we do. you know, what step one is, bill, you know me, i'm an old fashioned guy, you know what we have to go back to? 20 percent down on the homes. this is all a result of those subprime lending procedures where basically people were putting zero, one, two, 3 percent down. we got to go back to the

old-fashioned way of doing it where people have a stake in their home, they put equity into it, i think that's ultimately the solution. bill: is that a rule -- sorry, is that a rule that's set up by the bank individually, or is that a rule that, you know, has to face legislation on the hill? >> i'm not talking about legislation, i'm saying good, sound underwriting practices. i mean, this is the way it was done in the '50s, '60s, '70s, you wanted to buy the house, you had to have the cash to put down so you could afford to buy it and the other idea to get rid of is this idea of tpr*pl and freddie mac and fha providing 100 percent fax pair guarantee on these mortgages because remember, bill, the tragedy for people who are just taxpayers watching this, when we talk about this massive amount of foreclosures, who do you think is going to underwrite a lot of the lawsuits? unfortunately it's going to be you and me and taxpayers. bill: and we're going to tonight to foot the bill until the place is stabilized. is there a way of knowing, stephen? as you canvas the country, as to whether or not some of the hardest hit areas, maybe it's in florida, maybe it's

outside las vegas, are we starting to see stability? >> not yet. you know, it's those states you mentioned, we call them the fan states, florida, arizona, nevada, california, those are the states that are hardest hit and they still haven't hit bottom yet. bill: built on sand, you could say. >> exactly. bill: stephen moore of the "wall street journal," good to have you in on such short notice, given the breaking news on that. look for the comments from the fed chair. something not clear about this. always we're happying -- hoping to hear from our viewers, shoot me an e-mail, hemmer, knox fuse.com, also twitter me, bya, because you asked, and plenty of questions about the economy and also, martha, what happens after this election, how are you able to right the ship and whose polices will win out ultimately. martha: we're going to talk about that actually quite a bit in the coming panel in the 10:00 hour. in the meantime, the woman who says her husband was shot to death by mexican drug gangs has a very stern message about what's happening across the border

for president obama. tiffany hartley says he needs to, quote, wake up. the rest of her statement is straight ahead. bill: also a monster twister, take a look at this fury from mother nature on camera. the aftermath, only moments away.

bill: another fox news alert now, there is new videotape we're getting just now from a deadly shooting near the u.s.-mexican border, a witness saying the gunman stormed a drug rehab clinic, forcing patients to lie on the floor and spraying them with bullets, when the smoke cleared, 13 people at least were shot dead. it's just breaking. earlier today, the sreups were in the recovery phase of their drug abuse program. an awful story, just showing

how violent the drug war has become in mexico, and in this case, southwest san diego and tijuana. more on that moments away. martha: along that same lines, new very tough words from the president from a woman who says that mexican pirates shot and killed her husband when they were out jet skiing on a border lake in texas. she is now back home after spending most of the month near falcon lake. tiffany hartley now urging president obama to take on the mexican drug cartels. will be listen to this: >> i had to leave him. i had to make that choice of leaving him and saving my own life. and that was the hardest decision ever, because i didn't want to leave him. i wanted to be able to take him, but i knew if i had stayed, my family would be going through what david's family is going through. but i want people to realize that this is going on in our back yard. i mean, we all focus on

what's going on across the ocean, but we're not focusing on what's going on here. i think what happened to david might be that turning point. to get people to start realizing. martha: tiffany hartley, using what happened to her to make a stand and make a statement about what's going on on our border, david hartley, her husband, disappeared on that lake back on september 30th. she is now back home. a rare bright spot in a nation filled with struggling dealerships, car sales, pwaoling, right here in new york city, manhattan's auto bon alley has a stretch of dealerships exploiing models from germany, detroit, japan. what does this mean for our road to recovery, is it a truly cognitive sign? we sent rick leventhal to check it out on manhattan's west side where there are lots of these big car dealerships. rick, is it a real sign that things are improving? >> reporter: the dealers and car manufacturers certainly hope so, martha,

they're spending more on 11th avenue in new york city on car deepships than they have in ten years and we're seeing improvements made to places like the ford dealership where you can see the cars on street level. the sales across the nation have not been good for the past few years and the last year alone they closed 1500 dealerships nationwide. but in new york city, sales were up this year, 16 1/2%. nationwide, up 3 percent. so not great, but certainly getting better, thanks in large part to wall street and an always thriving new york economy. listen: >> we think we've seen the bottom, which was last year, about 10 1/2 million unit units will be about 11 1/2 million units this time, when we see 14, we'll see a lot of happy dealers and you'll see the automobiles i believe coming back. >> reporter: that comeback happening here now, martha. martha: what about mercedes? i understand they're making a very big investment as

well. >> yeah, if you want to see it, it's across the street on 11th and 54th street, that is a brand new state of the art flagship dealership under construction, mercedes building $1.4 billion nationwide, over $200 million on this place alone, they call it the autohaus, 330,000 square feet, two stories above ground, two stories below ground, $220 million, their spending on a car dealership in new york. mercedes says if you're going to spend money and show off your product in new york, you got to do it right. martha: that's good news for new york city, that's for sure. rick lenen -- leventhal, thank you very much. bill it was over in seconds, a 19-year-old pulled up under the wave necessary california and reportedly killed by a great white shark. how safe are the swimmers as the beaches reopen today? >> martha: he won the state over as governor but west virginia's joe manchin is having a tough senate race against challenger john

raese, how manchin is backing away from the president, his vote on health care. listen to this: >> the health care reform is far reaching over things i don't agree with, the mandates, also it's not strong enough to abortion. i'm prolife and we're a different type of democrat in west virginia. martha: there you go. how wealth hair -- health care is playing out in these races with eight days to go. we'll be right back. that would be... really, really bad. [ male announcer ] with banof america's zero liability guarant, you're not reonsible for any frdulent charges on your card. guaranteed. bank of america says they'll credit any fraudulent charges back to my account s soon as the next day. the next day! that makes me feel bet about using these cards. they've got my back. they've got my ba. [ male announcer ] the opportity to worry less abt fraud with the zero liility guarantee from bank of ameri.

>> it's neck and neck in the battle for a crucial democratic strong hold in the united states senate. a dead heat right now, in west virginia. take a look at -- could the numbers be any closer? just about a week to go, little more than a week to go, joe manchin, originally considered a shoo-in for the senate seat vacated with the death of robert byrd and now is dead-locked the with a business man, whose name

is john raese and the republican hitting joe manchin hard on his ties with president obama, and, with a 68% approval rating as governor in the state, they love him as the governor of west virginia, and is doing all he can now to distances himself from the commander-in-chief and to see if that can help him define himself in the senate race, and that is how we start a brand new hour of "america's newsroom," great to have you with us, i'm martha maccallum. bill: good morning, 8 days, huh. martha: 8 more days. bill: talking about -- what will we talk about when it's over. martha: and polls which we love. bill: there will be actually be plenty. ago, joe manchin appearing on fox news sunday over this weekend with chris wallace and he was clear on his ties to the president: >> let me tell you this: i had to inform my opponent that president obama's name will not be on the ballot for u.s. senate in west virginia, it will be joe manchin. the health care reform is far ov overreaching in areas i don't agree with, 1099 part of that and the firewall is not strong

enough for abortion and i'm pro-life and we are a different type of democrat here in west virginia. martha: seems like a lot of people want to be a different type of democrat in tight races and joe manchin claims the mantle for himself, carl cameron joins now me from morgantown, west virginia, how reflective of the national landscape is what is going on right now between john raese and joe manchin? >> reporter: it is raining here, good morning, martha. it is reflective but it's not. joe manchin is not reflective of the national democratic party. he's very conservative. both socially and fiscally. he's endorsed by the national rifle association. and endorsed we the chamber of commerce which the democratic party spent a lot of time criticizing this year. he's socially conservative, you heard that he opposes abortion in most cases and does not support many of the ways in which roe vs. wade was decided, he has been critical of these things and he is not a typical

democrat and john raese on this other hand as a republican candidate has run for office a number of times before here and doesn't qualify, necessarily as the outsider with no experience in politics. he's a successful business man in west virginia, and he's also known as a combative guy and the race is absolutely tied, going down to the wire. joe manchin and john raese are trying to avoid mistakes desperately and republicans acknowledge his combative rhetoric could be a problem the last 8 days of the election and joe manchin's past membership in the democratic party is hurting him in his current race as a democrat and argue, he'd be a better republican or independent based on his positions. martha: when the race is this tight both sides are trying to force a game-changer. if there is one out there. what is it for the state of west virginia, carl. >> reporter: it is turnout, undeniably, in close races across the country, the ground game and now there is early voting and absentee voting in

states across the country and democrats had an advantage on that but, not the advantage they've had in past years. so, when you hear the democrats boasting about, hey, our absentee ballot in early voting ing republicans, not in the way they had in the past and, here in west virginia it is absolutely a ground game, and, both sides are really arming. they are bringing in outside resources from the democratic and republican side and not just for election day, this is a very, very important, martha, they are lawyering up, too, in anticipation of the possibility of a recount or a race that close they are already preparing the attorney airlift from the around the country to west virginia, the day after the election. martha: looking at the polls across the country we may see a lot of that. carl it will be a long night to say the least. thank you so much in a rainy morgantown, west virginia, covering the race for us and we touched on this with carl and looking at the joe manchin race, how is health care playing in these races around the country? let's bring in radio talk show host mark levine for his

thoughts on that. mark, welcome. you saw a little bit of a tangle for joe manchin there, chris wallace played some of his earlier statements, in support of health care reform. and now he's trying to keep the president and the health care reform bill as far away from him as he can? >> i think, there are two reasons, one is carl cameron is right. west virginia is different from the rest of the country. in fact west virginia actually voted more for john kerry than president obama. and, i think joe manchin also realizes that most americans don't know what is in the health care bill and what is interesting, when you ask americans who don't know what is in the bill, whether they like it, the vast majority don't. when you tell americans what is in the bill and ask them about the specific provisions, like health care company, can't cut off someone for being sick or children are covered until they are 26 or medicare prescription drug prices go down, then, 60 to 80% of americans support the bill and people like russ feingold informing his people in wisconsin what's in the bill to get support and joe manchin

recognizes, the media mostly doesn't see that. martha: you can presents those elements of the bill, in a way that anybody, of course would say, sure, i would rather not have my health care coverage cut off but the reality on the ground we are seeing from companies in many places in america, they are admitting they have to raise their premiums or drop their coverage, because of the health care reform bill. let's -- hold on, pull up the radios mous rasmussen poll, 53% of americans think the health care law is bad for the country and you don't have any democrats, mark, running with, you know, see wasn't it great we had health care reform. as an advertisement. >> sure, russ feingold. martha: 1-2, that's not a lot and you have democrats in tough races and they are not touching it with a ten foot pole. >> the reason, as i said, the rasmussen poll didn't look at the elements o health care bill, just asked people, overwhelmingly if this support the bill and don't tell them what is in it --

>> you are not giving people credit for understanding the elements of this bill. everybody knows that preexisting conditions, you can't be dropped for preexisting conditions, kids will be covered until they are 26 and those are good things but at what cost, americans are not dumb and they understand what is in the bill more than joe manchin thinks and perhaps more than you seem this think and overwhelmingly say in the polls, they don't like it and want to see it repealed and that is why democrats are not running on the success of health care. >> it's not that they are dumb. they are uninformed, and most media outlets focus on the up and down of the race and the tax credits for small businesses to make it cheaper to provide coverage and employer mandate and there are many elements of the bill, break it down and take a rasmussen poll on each of the elements of the bill and every poll shows 06 to -- 60 to 80%, it reduces the deficit -- >> that is not evident in the financial models now coming into reality.

>> the congressional budget office says, i mean, they are the -- a nonpartisan group. martha: put certain numbers in and you get results out and what we see on the ground. i mean, it's not me saying this. look at the candidates. they don't believe what you are saying and are not using it to run on. it is a platform for them and that is why they are staying away from it, clearly? right. >> you are right, when people look at the bill overall and are not told what is in it, the majority of americans oppose it and joe manchin says, i will not be able to go against the media, which isn't telling the americans, for the most part what is in the bill and i will not go against that and i can't convince them to learn everything in the bill and would rather go with the overall thing there but when people know they support it. martha: mark, thank you very much, joining us today, radio talk show host. a sticky issue, health care reform and we'll see how it pans out after november 2nd. bill: a week from tomorrow it will be a late night, too, part of the reason it will be is the state of california, with great battles, too, we have new

polling from over the weekend, we're putting in the mix right now. on the senate race, first of all, here in california, you know how it has gone between barbara boxer and carly fiorina, they are at it day in and day out and at the moment, average all the polls together, boxer has a 2.5 point lead, over carly fiorina. the democrat over the republican. the other thing we are seeing, so far, in the race for the governor's office out in california, we'll get that up here in a moment, here, bing! the governor's race between jerry brown and meg whitman, it has gone back and forth as well. but the latest polling we're seeing with jerry brown, it is edging more in front of meg whitman, traditionally a democratic state, california is. brown, the democrat here, whitman the republican, average all the polling together today and this is what you get. brown has about a 6 point lead in the polling over meg whitman andy factor in turnout and how critical that is, for both sides, and anita vogel is on

that live en l.a. watching things from southern california. good morning out there, anita, to you. >> reporter: good morning, bill. just a little more than a week to go and already more than a million votes have been cast here in california, now, both parties know the most important thing they can do, is get those voters to the polls on election day. and, so with very little time left both party loyalists and volunteers are stepping it up into overdrive. from walking the streets... >> i'm your congressman... >> reporter: to working the phones. >> can we count on your vote? >> reporter: democrats and republicans are working overtime time to get out the vote. >> we're knocking on doors, making calls and contacting people through social media and giving people an opportunity to choose a direction they can best reach voters. >> reporter: the california g.o.p. says it is going the grassroots route. with more than 30,000 volunteers. democrats are also taking advantage of social media. young democrats are using sites like facebook, twitter and

youtube. sponsoring contests where students make their own political ads. >> i think it is easier for young people to become involved in politics and get the word out, to younger generation of people that normally wouldn't be exposed to political efforts or candidates or anything like that. through facebook and social media. >> reporter: pollsters say in the blue leaning golden state get out the vote efforts will benefit democrats more than republicans. >> democratic electorate as a whole tends to be an electrical that sometimes will vote and sometimes doesn't vote. they have to have a reason to vote and so, i think democrats rely on get out the vote efforts more than republicans, because we have to. the democrats have to. >> reporter: so, early voting is going on here in california, right now. still a lot of voters consider themselves to be undecided. here's what we know, 42.9% of the people who voted so far are democrats an 39.7% of those

early votes belong to republicans. now, keep in mind that democrats have a whopping 13 point edge in terms of voter registration and likely republicans are hoping for low voter turnout on election day. bill: could be a late night, thanks, anita vogel live in los angeles. martha: stocks a bit higher and it may have something to do with that. new housing numbers have come out, sales of existing homes, look at this, a pretty good number, folks, up 10% in the month of september, that is a very big jump from what we saw, a dismal home sales number over the summer. more than 4.5 million previously occupied homes sold last month and the number is still down, to put it into perspective, down 19%, from the same time, overall number, last year. bill: buyers market, right. martha: yes. bill: and, if you got the money. martha: if you have the money, buy it. >> you can buy this house if you

like, apparently. 8 days and counting... a lot of money. martha: a lot of money, pricey. bill: new poll numbers on the toss-up center races, and scott rasmussen was crunching numbers over the weekend. martha: ever been this close to a raging twister? you'll get closer folks and i promise you will be safe, after the break. bill: a deadly shark attack on the beaches of suddenliy southern california. including a look at what the boogie board looked like just after the struggle as a young life was lost.

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what soup can do.™ enough plastic water bottles to stretch around the earth over 190 times. each brita filter can take up to 300 of those bottles out of the equation. bill: here's a "fox news alert." take you down to central texas. we mentioned this weather system moving through the carolinas. here is evidence on the ground already, this is rice, texas 45 minutes south of dallas. you'll see not just these folks walking around the yard but the homes to the right have been absolutely ripped apart by what appears to be a tornado. martha: we are just getting this

video into the newsroom and it shows extensive damage and here's what happened. that created all of this and the camera is panning a little bit right and you can see what looks like rooftops, ripped off of buildings and vehicles overturned, in northeast texas, in rice, texas and damaged several homes and a school, and as i said, tossed a bunch of vehicles around including trains off the tracks, in an area nearby to this as well and causing an unknown number of injuries as well, still trying to figure out who was injured in this and get to those people and make sure everybody is okay. this is an area of course that is a stranger to this kind of tornadic activity, but this one, was huge and we also have some pictures of it as it came through and look what they are waking up to. bill: there's a truck on i-45, overturned, struck a car, four people there, nonlife-threatening injuries, and that is good news. and also, you had freight train cars derail and that tells you it is a strong system moving

through. martha: and the path went from rice to 80 miles northeast of rice and they also had a lot of damage and rice, elementary school had the roof ripped off, no school for those kids and the high school football field sustained damage as well and will have to be repaired. bill: we have some home video, too, we can share with you, roll this, and we'll try and tap into it and see what we can pick out. this is home video from rice, texas, that was shot just a short time ago. bill: as we wait on that, now, some of the video out of rice, showing the huge chunks of debris, swirling through the air, there we go, if there is sound on that, we'll listen to it and you can feel the effects, right through the t.v. martha: look at that. martha: this may be the elementary school we're looking

at. you know, people were very close to the flying debris, they are lucky they were not hurt shooting that. northeast texas, we are looking at, rice and this is coming in as we speak and we have aerial shots as they look for damage as well and as we said, it stretches over to roanoke as well and schools damaged and cars tossed around like they were matchbox cars. in this extensive damage from the hurricane. bill: oftentimes when the local affiliates go up into the helicopter they are really on a search mission to find out where the damage is. they have found some of it already but, clearly, there will be more. again, 45 miles, south of dallas, texas, and we're keeping an eye on that for you, in addition, we mentioned another weather system moving through the east coast and many states affected by it, alabama and georgia and north carolina and south carolina and tennessee and there were tornado watches posted in many of these states, and, we'll watch that for you, too. conditions are ripe in the southeast for more of what we saw in texas, keeping a sharp eye on it. martha: in the meantime, a

horrifying events on a southern california beach. this young college student, riding waves on a boogie board went under and sadly, did not come up. >> seven guys, scrambling to the beach and saying there was a shark and around here it is normally threshers or something, nothing to worry about. martha: what is this? a great white attack? a shark expert on that, next.

bill: get a load of this. the democratic candidate for governor of rhode island telling president obama to take his endorsement and, quote, shove it. martha: oh, my. bill: his words, frank caprio, on a radio program reacting to news despite a visit to the state later in the week the president will not endorse

anyone. he calling it, quote, washington insider politics, at its worst, one of his opponents, former republican senator, running as an independent, had endorsed obama's presidential run in 2008 and real clear politics.com has caprio holding a narrow lead, over him and that -- over lincoln chafee. martha: laying it on the line, we have new poll numbers coming into the newsroom and they could shake up the balance of power in the u.s. senate, it's all about these senate seats and here's ras mous rasmussen reports, 48 democrats and 46 republicans an toss-up, 6, right now, and, means those are the ones leaning democrat, leaning republican and toss-up down the middle and scott rasmussen joins us, how many seats do republicans pick up.

>> they need to pick up five of the six toss-ups to gain control and looks like they'll fall short of that and at the moment have five seats moving in our direction and will get to a total of 7 or 8. martha: they have five and need five more to get the total, ten to give them the majority and you think they'll fall shy and let's go boom, boom, boom, through the list and look at your new numbers and everyone is following it. let's start with connecticut, blumehthal opened up a significant lead here. >> this is a race that was not supposed to be close and became closer after blumehthal made mistakes and linda mcmahaon spent money and a double-digit lead for him and, it is likely democrat. martha: this is a story, connecticut, is a blue state and no matter what he did he was going to be okay. >> almost no matter what he did and did a good effort of trying to make the race more competitive and stumbled in debate and said things he shouldn't have said, but it looks like it will go to the democrats. martha: let's go to california and the last slew of ads have come out in california, carly fiorina has a new ad that shows

barbara boxer in the dark image, this one, looks very -- too close to call. >> absolutely, too close to call. i have been waiting for weeks for barbara boxer to finish it off, it is a democratic state and the president is still popular out there and you have to give her the edge but there is hope for carly fiorina. her support is more intense and 45% of voters in california say boxer, the incumbents senator's views are outside the political mainstream. martha: i'm guessing in california, if boxer voters stay home and sit it out on the democratic side it will make the difference. >> what we'll watch for most closely in election night is voting in the minority precincts. minority turnout is a big question in california for this election and a big question across the country and if they decide to sit home, that is good news for carly fiorina. bad news for barbara boxer. martha: and we know president obama has been backing michael bennett in colorado. this is a tight race. and most of the numbers i have seen have been leading, you have him leading by a sliver.

>> he was up 4, 5, 6 points earlier and -- >> what narrowed this one. >> buck made mistake along the way and said a few things she shouldn't have and, colorado is a state and democrats invested heavily in, heading into 2008 and now the governor's race is also creating problems for the republicans. dan mays is hanging onto 10% support and we don't know what impact it might have on the senate. martha: that is another interesting story and illinois, you have yegiannoulias and kirk. kirk seems to be gaining ground. >> it is a race he'd feel better about, except two facts, they are called president clinton and president obama who will be in illinois and this is a state where democratic presidents can have an impact and can potentially increase the support for the democratic candidates. martha: and, arguably one of this most significant races to watch is nevada. let's look and harry reid and

sharron angle. it has been close but, pretty much every poll i've looked at in this race continues to have her slightly ahead. >> that's right and the significant thing was, they had their debate over a week ago, sharron angle held her own and exceeded expectation and recently i've noted harry reid began attacking her himself rather than having surrogates do it which suggests -- >> and she decided to convince people she was not a kook and super extreme. >> she did that and more and what has been happening, light of people think harry reid is the extreme candidate in the race and sharron angle didn't look like the demon she was portrayed as and it is easy to exceed expectations. martha: everybody trying to stir up the turnout. that is what it will be about. thank you so much, always great to have you on and look at your new numbers, thank you, see you soon. take care. bill: breaking news out of texas, south of dallas, the

after effects of what could have been a tornado, ripping through several homes down there. this is some of the home videotape we're looking at now, back to the story in a moment and also, wicked storm in the east coast, in a moment, too. and the winners of next week's elections will wake up with very cold facts on their first day, the brutal truth we face in the new year will make some of them wish they stayed in bed. challenges are huge, america. martha: pull up the covers! bill: right!

martha: we were telling you about this moments ago and got this into "america's newsroom," the fiery interview where gubernatorial candidate says that obama can, quote, shove it, in terms of his endorsement. listen to this back and forth, the democrat running for governor in rhode island, frank caprio. listen to this: >> you know, i have never asked president obama for his endorsement and what is going on here is really washington insider politics, at its worst, you have two former senators, senator chaffe and former senator obama who have behind the scenes tried to, you know, put together an endorsement for senator chafee and maybe there will be one coming and i never asked for president obama's endorsement and he can take his endorsement and really shove it as far as i'm concerned. martha: strong words. from the democrat in rhode island, and, this is a tense race and lincoln chaffee

supported president obama in the presidential election and clearly the president is not willing to back the democrat in this case, frank caprio and you can understand his feelings about that. bill: i wonder if people will repeat that on camera, wpro, radio station there, earlier with the interview and the question then becomes, leading analysts say, the election day, winners could feel like losers when the bill collector comes calling and they are set to face budget nightmares across the country, not just in washington, michael goodwin, pulitzer prize winning columnist from the "new york post," good morning, michael. you laid it out quite well here. the winners are going to inherit massive deficits and as far as i can tell the american people are just impatient folks, right now. >> right. bill: they want change and want it to happen right now and the pressures on them are what? >> i think, bill, overall, there could be as many as 100 new members of congress will have -- we'll have a lot of new governors and state legislators and they'll have massive deficits, particularly the big industrial states and

washington. i do believe, however the public is ready to be treated as adults, that is what the election is about, about shrinking government, lowering the cost of government and, in years past you couldn't get elected if that is what you ran on. now, you have to run on that. or you will not get elected this time. we have had a complete flip in the -- >> what do you mean taxpayers are ready to be treated as adults? what does that mean. >> is the appearance of the last two years has taught a lot of people that the credit boom was a disease. really. that americans everywhere went too much in debt. and the governments included and now, this kind of unsustainable course that we're on with pensions and spending and deficit payments and the federal budget is 40% borrowed money and people look at that and say that is crazy and china is our banker and we know china doesn't wish us well. there is a sense that we have to reverse the course we have been on, that is why i think the new members of congress, new governors are going to have a

big challenge, but i think they are going to have a little bit of time because the public really wants it, all they -- >> you think they do have time? that was the point i was trying to make in my initial question, people want this to happen now. how much time do you get. >> you'll have two years, but i think, in the meantime, what is important is to show progress, not to raise taxes, not to offer new programs, entitlements but to begin the process and i think people will be adults about it and will not expect it to happen overnight but will want to see steady progress in one direction and one direction only. bill: 8 days from today we'll find out the strength of the tea party movement. how truly -- how much influence they have. your guess on that is what. >> i think the republicans will take the house and i think the new members who come in will be committed to the course and the tea party organizers, a movement, not a party, are planning to make sure the new

members stick to the knitting and are not co opted by washington and i would say, too, look at new jersey, where governor crist christie, republican, elected in 2009, has managed to begin to whittle back new jersey's deficit without raising taxes, and he's kept popular support for that, and that ills a good example of what can happen, and, the key is to governor, the -- to governor effectively and stick to the promises. bill: with that in mind, now, when you consider the tea party and how they are not integrated into the republican party. if the g.o.p. cuts a deal with the white house, if they cut a deal with other democrats in congress, what happens to them? does the tea party send someone to butler county and target john boehner as soon as it is signed? you think that is the reality. >> this is not a one year movement. this i think is a generational change in the electorate. the american public is now -- has decided it doesn't want the big, expensive government and we don't know how far it wants to roll it back but the pressure is

going to be onto keep rolling government back, and virtually not just washington, but virtually every state house as well. bill: for those who thought it will be over, come election night, guess again. >> it just begins. bill: we have big issues in the country to decide, michael goodwin, thanks for your thoughts today. okay. "the new york post." martha: we have a fox news weather alert now, a tornado watch is now in effect for the atlanta area. there is a string of powerful thunderstorms that are surging across the state and you can see the box on your screen. meteorologist maria molina is in the fox weather center. good morning. >> you are absolutely correct. we do have these powerful storm systems, continuing to move east war and the line of storms on the radar, that you do see, with several watches, that in yellow is a severe thunderstorm watch and the one in red are tornado watches and not -- lots of tornadoes possible and we also have reports of large sized hail and also damaging wind gusts, a lot of power outages, have been

reported and also, some trees down and will be a concern going on here throughout the rest of your day and as the storms continue to move eastward we have another threat, another watch, issued out across eastern portions of georgia and also south carolina. throughout later on today. these watches that you see on her are in effect until about 1:00 p.m. eastern time. so, that is the concern and we saw delays, in and out of heartfield and the airport, due to the heavy rainfall, with the storms, now back to you, martha. martha: all right, maria, thank you very much. we'll be watching those boxes throughout the day, and as we have been saying here, for quite sometime there is a lot riding on the midterms, in particular for president obama. how will he respond after november 2nd? what kind of president will be in the white house? will he change and tack in a different way after november 3rd? what will the play book be? we have a great panel to discuss what happens after that day.

1 bank martha: and we want to hear from you, how will the president's agenda change after the election? send me a tweet, an e-mail, however you like it, foxnews.com/"america's newsroom" or reach me @marthamccallum. more after the break. let me tell you about a very important phone call i made.

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bill: jon, thank you, see you at the top of the hour, several beaches along california's central coast may reopen today, shut down on friday after a shark attack. killed a college student, he was out swimming on his boogie board, with his friend, matthew garcia, 100 yards offshore and the shark bit through his board and caused a massive fatal injury to his left leg. garcia said the shark looked like it was 18 feet long and some experts believe it may have been a great white shark and, the shark advisor for the discovery channel and director of the biological programs for the national aquarium in baltimore, good morning to you, do you think it is a great white. >> when you look at the location and the cold waters of the california coast, most certainly a great white shark. bill: he lost an entire leg and you find with the sharks they are going after sea lions, right, not human beings.

but it together. >> that is cricket. the great white sharks in the area are targeting seals and sea lions and oftentimes they spend a lot of times on the surface, like boogie boarders and surfers and we believe cases like this are mistaken identity and, bites a human and realizes its mistake and swims off and in this case, tragic story. bill: you say they are not multi-attack creatures. how do we know that. >> typically, a case with a great white shark you have one swift attack, meant to debilitate the target animal, seal or sea lion and oftentimes when we do have cases with human beings, we realize the shark swims off, soon as it realizes it has not bits en a seal or sea lion. bill: they don't go back to strike again? >> typically, no, the majority of cases, with great white sharks there are not multiple attacks, single strike, the shark realizes it and swims off for the real intended target.

bill: the reason why they'll reopen the beaches in all likelihood and you mentioned the cold water and the coast of california, it is usually that way 12 months out of the year and you are saying we are finding more and more incidents of great white sightings, in places we have not before. what would explain that. >> if you look at the past summer we had a lot of great white shark sightings off massachusetts, and we have done a good job of protecting them and the other side is we have done a great job of protecting our marine mammals and the sharks are following the mammals in closer to shore and keep in mind, it is still far more dangerous to drive to the beach than to swim at the beach. bill: we'll leave that on a positive note and our best to the young man's family, too. struggling with this, now, andy, thank you. 14 minutes before the hour. martha: president obama's working at it all weekend, and, through this whole week, pushing hard to keep this election so

democrats stay in power and there are many questions out there, what happens if republicans do take control of the house? what if they get the house and the senate? what does the morning of november 3rd look like at the white house, then? are you receiving a payout from a legal settlement 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. key lime pie, pineapple upside down cake. no, i've actually lost weight... [ female announcer ] over 30 delicious flavors atround 100 calories each. [ wife ] babe... i gotta go. [ female announcer ] yoplait, it is so good.

martha: on noech the -- on november 3rd the white house may be dealing with a different set of cards on capitol hill, the president may have to harken book to these words he spoke in january when he promised bipartisanship at his state of the union address. >> president barack obama: let's show the american people we can do it together, i'd like to begin monthly meeting with democratic and republican leadership and i know you can't wait... [laughter].

martha: tim saltzman high school mike huckabee's campaign manager and doug schoen, would your opinion there the morning bill bill clinton woke up in 1994 and, learned he had a different set of cards to deal with. what was it like. >> he recognized, martha, he needed to deal with the republicans both for political reality and to governor and knew he had to do a balanced budget, and cut spending, and, resolve the debt, and deficit crisis, and knew he had to do it otherwise he could not and would not be reelected and knew he had to reposition himself and fundamentally the presidency changed after that election, and, i think barack obama has to do the same thing if he is going to get reelected in 2012. martha: a lot of people say the president is not a schmoozer and doesn't call the equivalent trent lott in the middle of the night and say how can we work

together. that is not how he is, do you think he can change or will he change. >> he'll have to. the day after the election there will be a lot of coffee and aspirin and suffering from the abuse of power hangover and we'll have to reach out to republicans and bill clinton was amazing at the schmooze factor and republicans didn't agree with his policies, but they liked him personally and, obama will have to do that or find himself a quick one-termer. martha: is he capable of that. >> he said he was in the state of the union and during the campaign when he spoke of not a red america or a blue america but a united states of america and he has to do it and he has to change policies. it is more than just schmoozing, he has to commit to the a balanced budget and getting entitlement programs under control. martha: i was struck when he talked about that and said we'll have to get serious about the deficit and this is something that has been sort of underlying in several of his speeches over the years, has never been a front burner issue and i believe the white house would say that

is because of what happened in the economy. but, he said we'll have to have a very tough conversation about cutting the deficit. are those action words? chip? >> yes. but not -- nonaction words for barack obama and we have known he gives a great speech and his words are impressive and when you look at his actions you see something completely different and you talked about cutting the deficit and he added trillions of dollars to the deficit in two years and talked about those monthly meetings with republicans, never happened, and i think he talked to the republican leader once or twice, over the last few years and will have to change a lot of that, and they'll have to fundamentally change how they do business and he'll have to find his nafta issue like bill clinton did which really changed fundamentally how he did his presidency and obama has to find his, doug, one of the things that is fascinating to talk about is what is better for democrats and republicans, for republicans if they get the house and don't get the senate, is that a better scenario for republicans? and i'm ask our democrat here,

doug schoen going into 2012 for the white house. >> we're talking hard-headed politics here, martha, and hard headed politics is the republicans want to basically avoid control of both houses and obama wants the republicans to have full and equal responsibility. martha: and then you can say, you guys screwed up and i wasn't able to do anything. >> that is exactly right. martha: chip, do republicans secretly not want to win the senate for that reason. >> well as much as i hate to agree with doug, and to be honest, doug is the best person to talk about hard headed politics, republicans want control of both but when we do that, obama will have something to run against in 2012. which makes it better for him. martha: yes, all right, doug the thing that fascinates me the most and i want to get one last thought from you is the deficit, idea of cutting spending, john boehner is out there saying we want to cut one program a week i think it is and president obama is talking about having a tough conversation and likes to have conversations and likes to talk

about things but somebody has to do something. >> it will be horse trading and we that he have balanced budget commission reporting in december, front page of the "wall street journal," tough questions being asked about entitlements and the home mortgage deduction and we'll have to do horse trading and tough bargaining, we have to do it among both sides, to get a problem under control that literally threatens our well being as a nation and hopefully we can. martha: we're watching it play out in germany and england. >> you said it, sure. martha: and may find ourselves in the same situation. great to talk to you, doug shone, mr. hard head over there. thank you guys, we asked you what you think about the white house's agenda after the midterms and here's your responses, send tweets: i doubt that it will change much. if at all. and, tony said: he'll do what clinton did to get reelected, work with the g.o.p. speaker and that would be interesting, and all will be interesting to watch and that is what we do every day, right, bill. bill: why we show up, right. martha: why we show up. bill: breaking news out of southeast asia, it could be a

big deal. crossed on the wires moments ago, a earthquake weather a magnitude 7.5 struck off the island of sumatra, in indonesia, the same area the monster tsunami rolled through five years ago and since that time the latest alert came through a tsunami warning is issued and now label it a 7.2 magnitude tremor which could have a major impact on the size of a wave or not, and this size of the tremor or not, when you drop down, a tenth of a point, it can power tend good news, 7 -- portend good news, and, this is southeast asia and we're back on the story, right after a quick commercial back, back in three minutes on america's newsroom.

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