>> at a certain point i concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that i think same sex couples should be able to get married. >> as fundamental as these principles are, they may become topics of democratic debate from time to time. with the institution of marriage, marriage is a relationship between one man and one woman. >> i am geraldo rivera. maybe vice president joe biden didn't intented to force the president's hand on same-sex marriage on sunday but the united states for the first time in our history now has a president who publicly and enthusiastically embraces gay marriage. you could call him as news week does our first gay president. after a week in which north carolina joined the 38 other states which resoundedly

rejected the idea and as you know the presumptive nominee restated his if i recafirm oppo gay marriage the raw political question now is which candidate is strengthened by the issue. we ask pollster scott who joins us live. >> welcome. >> a week ago the race said obama and romney 42 three-days after the same-sex marriage they has it today romney 48 obama 44 a huge lift. is that all about gay marriage? >> what we saw is the beginning of mitt romney following the jobs report. the economy is still a driving issue. let me tell you about the impact this has the president's comments has. huge substance but in terms of

ho politics. only 6 percent of americans said social issues like this were the most important in this election. right now 7 percent hold that view. it is an important debate it is presidential poling numbers. >> yet you have ohio, pennsylvania, texas, north carolina all key swing states that have neither laws or constitutional amendments against gay marriage. is it possible you could lose swing states because of this issue? >> anything is possible. >> we won by 14,000 votes. i think it was a quarter of a percentage points. anything could make a difference in a race that close. but we started off by looking at the economic conditions. if the economy is weaker in october, this issue, the same-sex marriage issue will have no impact. if the economy is much stronger it will have no impact. it is a question of who will win

based on economic concerns. in those states that you talked about geraldo, yes there are issues about same-sex marriage, but there are also very real economic concerns. >> thank you for your wisdom. thank you for hustling to get on tonight. >> there are two other developments in the gay marriage. both came on thursday. one is allegation of governor romney's long ago bullying of a classmate in school. the other is president obama's enormous hall later that same day from a gay friendly record breaking fundraiser held at george clooney's house. it is we will talk about one of the sharpest political analysts in in the business today. the author most recently of scrooge dick morris. >> let's deal with the overall

politics of gay marriage and all of the other noise surrounding it. too who's benefit does it accrue? >> i think it is something obama did in order to raise money. there's a limit to the mass kichl of healthy people. they haven't given him a lot of money. he needed to get it from hollywood and gays that's why he took this position. i think gays would probably have voted anyway and anti gays would vote it against. but what i think is going to hurt him is the impression of elitism. the impression of being so by coastal so new york, boston, hollywood and san francisco. and alienating the country in between. to endorse gay marriage after he rejected in by 22 points then fly to hollywood the next day at george clooney's house is so elise ee elitist that i think middle

america is really going to recent it. >> what about the mitt romney allegations? does that feed into his elitist kind of status? >> i tell you right now that when i heard it i have my own ark. i didn't like it when he ran against ted kennedy. it seemed like a kid with a silver spoon. he saves the olympics he comes back saves massachusetts from it -- from itself. >> now it kind of reminded me of he was the kind of kid that never would have been friends with me in high school. >> i don't think this will have nim pact. >> obama was doing cocaine then. i think the only impact is most voters will see that as a low

blow. the story. >> and indicative of the bias that they gave the front page hype. i don't recall a story about obama using cocaine in high school or college. he said he did in his book they don't cover him but they cover romney incredibly. >> we saw jeremiah write and that whole crowd. >> that wasn't high school. >> that was a couple years ago. >> a couple years ago. maybe you are exaggerating. >> you think generally speaking who wins? >> romney wins on the exchange because i think the elitist issue against obama is very, very damaging to him. >> let's turn the tanks to the trial of presidential candidate and john edwards heard the essence of the federal case against him.

>> i know it is not possible that this job could be mine because of the timing of events. it has never been told any money has been made. they improved their lot in this trial. i think the reason they feel that way. >> the letter of the law is very technical federal election standards and laws that is very questionable if they have been broken does this qualify under the law the giving of money to a mistress to keep her quiet as a campaign donation or campaign expense. >> i think they have a reasonable chance. he knows much more than of the dark under belly of politics.

jack abramoff is with us. do you think the feds have proven their case? >> i know the attorney for john edwards had a motion to dismiss which was rejected by the judge on friday. they have had a cough thing to prove the feds that this was not a gift that this was a contribution. there were a lot of facts that go against them. the problem is john edwards is an odius character and when you are a villain in the public's mind it is hard to make it through this kind of process especially if you have a jury that wants to do something to punish you if it wasn't a crime especially. >> are you talking from experience? >> i didn't go to trial but i was a villain. it is hard to get a fair hearing. people in this country how they vote for president and how they vote for a jury i think the law

is in his favor. the weathhether he will survive jury is another matter. >> the fact that they didn't put her on could play to the benefit of the defense. the prosecution is hiding something they didn't put everything up for us to hear. maybe there's something else here. that i be enough to have a sufficient reasonable doubt. >> what do you think about the implications of the edwards trial does it resinate or make democrats look sleazy? >> i don't think it will have an effect on the election one way or the other. in terms of the merits of the case obviously the million bucks was to hold his family together keep his wife, keep his reputation in life be able to live not specifically to get elected president. i have been in a lot of

campaigns and i have never seen a budget line paying off a mistress. >> i bet it's not the first time it has been done, hey, jack? >> probably not. in terms of the gift she paid taxes according to the lawyer. both of them it was intended to be a gift. they kept doing it after the campaign was over. it is really as dick says very much of a strain. >> i have to say one night i would like to swap stories. we could live enup any story in the bar. good luck. thank you. >> action packed show for you. consumer activister rin brockovich is taking on a big chemical company accused of contaminating a new jersey town. accused of sexual assault. suzanne somers took on cancer and is here to tell us how she has regrown her lost breast. we will go inside the adam mayes murder suicide.

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>> image living in a house you can't sell because the ground it sits on is contaminate d and slowly killing you. that's the residents from a small new jersey town as craig reports. >> the town is one of the prettiest in new jersey but the residents of 450 homes here say they have been contaminate bide an old dupont plant. now they want them to clean this lake up. >> the groundwater in the town is poisoned with what are called volatile organic chemicals. >> the residents of pompton lake say pollutants from a dupont plant have left citizens sick and dying. the company nor the federal government have done enough to help them. >> they cannot sell their homes or get mortgages.

they have been denied because of the contamination issues here. >> former councilman are residents dedicated to citizen's for a clean pompton lake. >> we are not people with a lot of money that can just up and leave our homes. in many cases this is all we have. >> their fight with the corporate giant and governmental bureaucracy brought about some change but they say not nearly enough. >> what we need is the epa to come in and rope this entire cleanup into one whole cleanup. >> in a statement the environmental froeks agency are strongly committed to cleaning up the site quickly using the best methods available and having dupont fond the best element of this cleanup. residents say that does little to mitigate the losses. >> this is where you live this is where your wife passed away. >> she is had brain cancer lung cancer spread out through out her body.

she passed away a year after diagnosis. >> i can't comment on individual persons as far as health concerns. >> bob is a dupont spokesperson. >> we had someone say that wife cancer that house cancer. >> had a double mast he can come me. >> that is more than a report that is in fact happening. >> there is a 2011 study that interprets the debate in a different way. i can't speak to it but it is fair. >> strategically located in a valley in the event of a catastrophic explosion the pompton lake's worth is a virtual waste land. vast labs of concrete represent the bones of manufacturing plants where for 92 years bombs were built for 20th century warfare. >> the chemicals were dumped off into the ground into the water and so you are now dealing with 25 years later almost the

effects of those chemicals in the ground. >> what happened traditionally back in those times there are processes that we now know would not have been used. >> for nearly a century carcinogens like led went into under ground aquifers that fed d the community around it for years to come. >> dupont claims they have put in systems done tests put in vapor mitigation systems and filters. what say you? >> very interesting. that's band-aid. it does safeguard our residents. we are getting readings outside of our homes even with the systems on them. >> this is the pumping station, this is where the water is drawn up out of the ground filtered and sent back into the community. >> what kind of contaminants? >> talking about pbc and bbc two compounds that are removed. there are other skon state went we are mitigating. >> they pump it into our homes 3

billion gallons of water 3 billion went underneath their homes. that's why the lake is contaminated. >> residents told me that they consider this -- the pump and dump station. in other words the water is being drawn out but it is still polluted when it comes into their community. >> these types of systems are design to do remove contaminated in the water and comes out as clean water. >> for 100 years, decades they made ammunitions for the government. we can't get the real answers maybe you guys can get the right answers. >> dupont says they have a plan in place to dredge 99 percent of the mercury and sent it to the epa for approval. gave no time line on the project. many are elderly say time for them is running out. >> for decades the garbage done.

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>> they can swim in a poolt without having to worry about a his reck tommy by the age of 20. >> erin brockovich has helped the people in pompton new jersey from an enduring legacy that spans decades. welcome to the program. do you have any doubt that these people are in real peril?

>> i have no doubt these people are in real peril. >> that's the thing that makes it so frustrating. this is something that has been going on for years and decades and been neglected and now we are dealing with the popultion of people who have nowhere else to go. their property values are in the toilet and their health is jeopardized. >> so they are trapped. how much can you reasonably -- can we reasonably expect from the corporations from these legacy horrors that are decades old? >> well, you know, i think i and communities would always like to be more positive that you can hope these companies will come out and do something. often times it's too late and it takes too long and it ends up in some litigation that takes even longer. that is a big frustration for the community. we hope a company will come out and do the right thing.

they don't have to come out and vilify themselves. they appreciate the jobs and they don't want to be poison. they want it to be poison. >> how would you like this one to end? >> oh my gosh. you know how i would like it to end is the company come out and work with the community. we have agency over sight that isn't getting anything done which compounds the problem. the community has to start working at a local level and the company should be there with them. that is what we would like to see them come out and work with these people, deal with the health problems they have. they have a soil vapor gas problem thg going on. they have the groundwater contamination. it's volatileizing in their homes and deal with it. get them out of there and you take over the land but you p can't just leave those people sitting there. i would like to see that process happen where they will come out, deal with these people and do

what is right by them and get them out of harm's way. >> are you satisfied with the job the epa has done? >> no. unfortunately pompton lakes is one of thousands and thousands and thousands of communities across the united states like this. there's this false sense that the epa is going to come and rescue us. nothing could be further from the truth. we are dolliealing with an agen that has upwards of 30,000 sites that haven't been cleaned. this is insanity, called geraldo. it is a very serious, serious problem. the agency for a whole host of reasons whether it is over burdened under staffed let's be honest they are broke. they are not coming out and cleaning up these sites. >> erin brockovich the latest documentary "last call at the oasis." nice to see you again. >> nice to see you, geraldo. >> was john travolta really

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