tonight on "nightline" -- her nightmare began when she met a predator and a web cam chat room at age 12. three years later after being cyberstalked, shamed and black mailed she took her own life and even after her death the taunts keep coming. tonight, we bring you amanda's story. party crashers. what happens when you take a hard core romney republican and make him watch the debate in a bar full of obama liberals? tonight, it is the great debate swap. and, rod unplugged. that raspy voice, hits like "maggie may" made him one of the best-selling musicians of all time and he's setting the record straight about the women, the rumors and that famous head of hair.

good evening, i'm bill weir. what kind of person bullies a vulnerable child online? most parents with an internet connection realize how naive that question sound, in this age, and the relevant question is what kind of person ridicules a child's memory after she takes her own life? tonight a family doing just that, after a three years of hell that began with their 12-year-old a web cam and one bad decision. he >> reporter: this is 15-year-old amanda todd's desperate call for help. in this video of high school student details three years of torment, bullying and even she says, classmates beating her up.

three weeks after posting the video on youtube, she committed suicide. since her death this video has viewed more than 17 million times. why do you think it is that she snapped and felt the only way out was to take her life? >> she had so much going on, just had enough. >> reporter: he death was a culmination of a three-year nightmare, twhaun started when she ventured on to a web cam site when she was 12 but the shocking thing, her death didn't end the bullying, as she tried to escape the torrent of online taunts. this weekend a candlelight vigil in her memory as friends struggle to make sense of all of hist. >> she was just so happy all of the time and when you first meet her you wouldn't know she had any problems. i won't be able to take to her again.

♪ sign♪ >> reporter: another earlier video amanda posted on her youtube page. ♪ you don't know what it's like ♪ >> reporter: it shows a young girl singing, full of life, like her idol, pop star demi lovato, who last week came to amanda's hometown saying she, too, confronted bullying in school. >> i'm talking to you whoever that is out there, and i'm telling you that this is an issue we can beat, this is something that you gaent through. and this is something that will not bring you down. >> reporter: and that last video post amanda, herself, tells her story. when she was 12, amanda went on a chat website, someone asked her to flash her breasts, she did. and the person on the other side snapped a photo. a photo that opened a door to blackmail. he told me if didn't put on a show he'd send that photo my friends, in the video, and

that's what he did. on christmas police came to my door at 4:00 a.m. and said there is a facebook image of me sent around. that's when the story takes a darker turn. instead of helping her, her classmates began a campaign of cyberbullying. she changed schools three times. she tried to drink bleach, she survived but over the summer she overdosed on drugs and this month she succeed in taking her life. >> you're not alone, those words stuck with me. >> reporter: austin was bullied and amanda helped him through hef wishes he could have done more to help her. >> i called at least three or more times, i was about to call, i looked on facebook and two of my friends posted "rest in peace amanda todd, you didn't deserve this." >> reporter: as recently has did ugly messages, i don't really feel bad for amanda todd.

i think she misunderstood when i suggested bleach to sort out her moustache. the real tragedy is that i can't find her piks anywhere and even this image of her. you thirsty? clorox. >> take the words off her video, haters are haters, please don't hate. it's a choice. it's a choice. >> reporter: a cruel choice so many seem to feel free to make behind the mask of the internet. >> i guess it's just a power trip, i guess. i'm not a psychologist, but like, just over the years they feel insecure and they try to bring pain on others, vicariously, i don't know. >> reporter: amanda's case brought out another ugly side of the online universe. some turned the hunt of her predator into a cyberwitch-hunt, someone from the hacker group anonymous released the name of a potential suspects. police say it wasn't him.

the search continues. >> gather enough evidence to potentially identify an individual that may in some way have played a role in her ultimately making this terrible decision. >> reporter: in life, amanda todd admired demi lovato's ability to overcome her bullying, planning to get the same tattoo that says "stay strong." now it's too lot, now it's online messages. the hate that was too much to bear. >> coming up next, the big election, two weeks from tonight. so, what happens when you take a staunch obama democrat and put him in a barful of romney republicans to watch the debate? we'll swap, next. [ male announcer ] this is the age of knowing what you're made of. why let erectile dysfunction get in your way? talk to your doctor about viagra.

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if. >> reporter: time to think about stalking up on no-doz it could be late two weeks tonight, latest abc news/"the washington post" poll has president obama and challenger mitt romney at less than 1% point apart, so with such a divided nation we decided to start a party crashing experiment for the last debate. here's abc's david wright with the great debate swap. >> there is a big difference between me and m.i.t. ritt romn. not just better hair. >> reporter: tonight it's all over. >> we heard -- our campaign is full speed away. >> reporter: 96% of voters have

made up their mind but neither candidate has the margin of victory yet, all those loftie claims about one nation, indivisible. >> i'm not fighting to create democratic or republican jobs i'm fighting to create american jobs. >> reporter: all those promises to build consensus -- >> my campaign is about the 100% of america. >> reporter: forget by the. at this point either would be lucky to get 50% plus one, winner take all. that's why last night's debate was so important, their last chance to speak to everyone. we wondered, is there any conceivable way for these candidates to change minds that are already made up? not the undecided voters, the true believers, one way or the other who comprise the vast majority. >> i'm dave, i live in colorado. i'm planning on voting for romney/ryan. >> reporter: people like dave, friend of the nra. >> this is my big game rifle. it shoots really nicely.

>> reporter: with a wall of hunting trophies that would make ernest hemingway jealous. >> i live in denver and i traditionally vote for democrats and i plan to do so this year. >> reporter: or travis, 31-year-old gay man who work s t a nonprofit in denver. "nightline" enlisted both men, plus one friend each for a little election experiment. to watch the debate with people of the opposing side. the idea, debate swap. two s forced to mingle. it meant going to the varsity sports bar where monday night football got downsized for one night. >> all of the tv sets -- >> reporter: a group called freedom works held its debate party there. the only person in the room wearing a barack obama button. dave and his stepson, romney voters both agreed to watch with

planned parenthood, at the beauty bar in denver. >> do you feel like you're watching the broncos game in an oakland raiders bar? >> pretty close. that's a good anolg. >> reporter: keep in mind these are folks who like most americans never step outside their comfort zone. dave lives in a sprawling suburb outside denver where the romney lawn signs far outnumber the obama ones. he listened to talk radio. >> rush limbaugh, hanty and fox news all right let's define some terms. what does liberal mean now? >> big government. probably bridges on socialism. >> reporter: travis and monesha, city dweller, talk raid i don't remember for them is on the left side of the dial. >> npr. >> npr. >> reporter: the word conservative, what does that mean to you? >> i think it's being comfortable with the status quo and being nervous about how that could change. >> reporter: they might as well have been watching the debate --

>> it is stronger now than when i came into office. >> reporter: on two different planets. >> unbelievable. >> reporter: afterwards, at the bar, something interesting. >> you really think that the republicans would outlaw birth control? >> yes. >> reporter: genuine debate and discussion. >> i think it's derailed in the last four years -- >> i think it's a steady progression. >> reporter: not that it changed anybody's minds. show of hands, who feels obama won this? and show of hand, romney? >> i'm undecided. can i do undecided. didn't have a chance to really absorb it as much as i probably would if i was at home. i think i'm undecided until i watch it again. >> reporter: among all of you, did you confirm your feelings about the other side or were you surprised by some things? >> what was surprising is that you don't interact much with the

other side. >> at the end of the day just like well behaved fans in a sports stadium. you can respect each other, you're both passionate about football and you find those common things even though you might be rooting for different teams. >> i think members of both groups obviously, like she said, have the same, a lot of the same opinions actually on things. sometimes it's more just a matter of how we get to the end. >> reporter: two weeks from tonight, 50% of this little group will triumph, 50% will be bitterly disapointed. the challenge for the winner, whoever he may be, will be to unite them, if he can. i'm david wright for "nightline" in denver. >> david wright, building bridges. thanks to him. just to him, he's been rocking out for decades and now rod stewart is coming clean about his modeling days, those nasty rumors and how he first got his hair to look like that. ♪ hot legs

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with that gravel voice, that stack of blond hair, rod stewart has been rocking out nearly half a century now. selling quarter billion albums and singles combined and career that long bound to be urban myths, a few female fans. and tonight he clears it all up with abc's juju chang. ♪ young hearts be free tonight >> reporter: rod stewart is no longer a young turk but he still sells out shows with his raspy voice just like back in the '80s. the late '70s was disco. who could forget "do ya think i'm sexy." ♪ if you want my body and you think i'm sexy come on sugar let me know ♪

>> reporter: but rod as crooner made him one of the best-selling musicians of all time. ♪ they can't take that away from me ♪ what propelled him through five decades of success? according to rod he's a man driven by his many obsessions. take that famous head of hair, for instance. it's your signature look. >> yeah, it is. it's good days and it's bad days and it's been like this off and on for 40-odd years. >> reporter: did you really do it up with sugar water when you were a kid? >> yeah, absolutely, yes, the days before hair lacquer. >> reporter: how do you get sugar to -- >> sugar and warm water and rub it in there and then it would stick up erect. >> reporter: erections are -- >> steady. they have been, yes. where is this interview going? >> reporter: he's pursued ladies obsessively too, romancing some of the most beautiful women in the world, including bond girls and cover girls.

what made you attractive to so many of the most beautiful women of the world? >> it beats me to this day, i must admit. maybe it's because rock 'n' roll is so connected to sex and also it's a position of power, i suppose. >> reporter: a position he took full advantage of on multiple occasions like when he seduced a hollywood starlet while dating another super model. he comes clean about his obsessive skirt chasing in his intimate new memoir "rod the autobiography." >> none of us have lived a perfect life and there's always going to be points where you have to confess and own up. otherwise, it would be be like any book that's been written about me by strangers. >> reporter: and contrary to popular belief, rod never played pro soccer, merely tried out. he was never a grave digger, though he did work at a cemetery. but the biggest misconception is that urban legend about getting his stomach pumped after supposedly ingesting bodily fluids.

>> i had a very mean-spirited press man. he was so upset at being fired that he decided to start this ridiculous rumor. >> reporter: an absolute lie? >> yeah. my kids had to live with this for a while. it's hard. wicked, wicked thing. >> reporter: rod pursues everything in life with a singular passion, including his fascination for model railroads. he's meticulously recreated a post-war new york railway. are you a man of contradictions or is this all of you? >> reporter: i am a contradictions, i suppose. how many rock 'n' rollers have a hobby of model railroads? i was ashamed of it it but now, the world can [ bleep ] itself, for want of a better expression. it clears my head. >> reporter: he's wealthy beyond his wildest dreams. growing up the son of a plumber in north london, he wrote songs about life, like losing his

virginity to an older, slightly portly woman, that he embellished into "maggie may." ♪ stole my heart and that's a pain i can do without ♪ at 67, he says he's changed man, having raised grown kids he's married for the third time to former model penny lancaster. >> rod is very honest and said, i've been through a few marriages, i've got kids and i can't see myself doing that again, until one day rod said to me, let's make a baby, just out of the blue. >> all girls want babies, don't they? >> yes, all girls. just about all girls. >> then two babies. >> reporter: family has always been one of rod's biggest obsessions. his youngest two boys are keeping him on his toes. you're having babies again, you're writing songs again. >> i'm one hell of a lucky guy, that's for sure. >> reporter: i'm juju chang for "nightline" in beverly hills. >> you can see rod perform live tomorrow on "good morning america." thanks to juju and thank you for watching.