>> two weeks, you can say yes we can! >> glor: tonight the president on the campaign trail, and he's not the only one. the star power that democrats hope will help turn the tide. i'm jeff glor. also tonight, clear signs that young voters are losing their enthusiasm for the president's agenda. can he rekindle their passion? risky rides -- the dangerous roadway stunts that have killed or crippled dozens dozens of teenagers. and recipe for success-- the strp of one determined man who went from homeless to home cooking with his own barbecue restaurant. captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with jeff glor. >> glor: good evening. woe begin tonight with campaign

2010 and the crucial midterm election just sphaeb days away. one poll this week shows democrats trailing by just three points in 58 battled ground congressional districts but still suffering from an enthusiasm gap. the president is trying to turn that around and he is recruit something very high-profile help. senior white house corresponden. >> reporter: for the next two weeks, president obama travels to democrat strongs holds. >> are you fired up? >> reporter: reaching for a message that will get voters to the polls. stumping for candidates like his friend massachusetts governor keval patrick. >> the conventional wisdom says you can't overcome cynicism in our politics. it says no you can't tackle the biggest challenges but in two weeks you can say yesy, we can. >> reporter: but with his job approval on handling the economy down to 38% in a cbs news poll, there are plenty of democrats who tonight want to be seen campaigning with him. >> there's lots of place where's

obama is not an asset. democrats who are in trouble do not welcome him into their districts or into their states. >> reporter: so the president has enlisted some high-powered help. >> i know that for a lot of folks change hasn't come fast enough. >> reporter: the first lady will be in seven states by election day with a low-key message, and vice president joe biden has been just about everywhere with the same upbeat message. >> everybody loves joe biden. >> the reports of the death of the democratic partly have been greatly exaggerated. >> reporter: but the superstar democrat campaigner this year, former president bill clinton. >> you ought to be there for him on election day. >> reporter: clinton has now done 75 campaign stops, in support of 48 democrats in this election cycle. he seems to call forth nostalgia for a more optimistic, more prosperous time. >> he distribute have any of the baggage of the current recession or any of the problems the government is having today. >> reporter: the democrats' battle to keep control of the house of representatives is

district by district. now, that's where the white house hopes some of these star surrogates will make a difference. jeff. >> glor: all right, bill plante at the white house tonight. bill, thank you. top republicans are also campaigning this weekend, including former alaska governor sarah palin, and national party chairman michael steele, who addressed supporters in owner county, california, late today. the republican enthusiasm is being fueled to a large degree this year by the tea party which is bringing both manpower and money to this campaign. who are the tea party's donors? sharyl attkisson tonight follows the money. >> reporter: when it comes to tea party candidates, small donors are emerging as a major force. their contributions, $200 or less, are arriving in mass numbers. >> the small donor trend for tea partiers is unprecedented. >> reporter: those small donors are helping candidates pay for anti-establishment ads like this. >> this is a bronto sawrus. this is a political inside

insidersaurus. >> reporter: typically candidates get 25% of their funds from small donors. small donors filled about one-third of the cefts chest of pat toomey and tony rubio. and more than half of the early donations given to joe miller and sharon angle. the tea partiers are getting a fair share from big donors, too. their top supporter is the fiscally conservative club for growth, which is paying for ads like this. >> club for growth pac is responsible for the content of this advertising. >> reporter: who is the muscle behind the club for growth? the club for growth gets a lot of its contributions from retirees, and these are not your average pensioners. these are people who former c.e.o.s or leaders in industry. >> reporter: the club for growth has been around 11 years and supported republicans long before there was a tea party. this year, its tom three beneficiaries are tea party-backed republicans running

for senate, including nearly $700,000 for pat toomey. legal last year, he happened to be president of the club for growth. but if it's small donors setting apart the midterms, it's not exclusive to the tea party. senator russ fine gold, a democrat, has raised 42% from people giving $200 or less. his opponent, a tea party-backed candidate named ron johnson, who has become his own big donor. he's injected $4.4 million of his own fortune into his campaign. sharyl attkisson, cbs news, washington. >> glor: to help us put campaign 2010 and the rest of the week in focus, we're joined in washington by political analyst john dickerson. hey, john. so i want to start talking about sarah palin. we mentioned she's out in california again tonight. the other night she took a shot at the first lady, michelle obama. any indication this evening the white house will engage? >> that's right, sarah palin said how can anyone say they weren't proud of their country? hadn't they met anyone in

uniform yet? what she was referring to were remarks by michelle obama during the 2008 campaign where she said for the first time she was proud of her country. michelle obama later clarified the remarks and said for the first time she was proud of the political process rallying around her husband. they're not going to engage in this. michelle obama is more popular than sarah palin but in part that's because michelle obama doesn't get inside of these kinds of back-and-forth fights. >> glor: and michelle obama is out on the campaign trail right now with just about, as of monday, two weeks left before the midterms. there's been talk recently this mini-democratic surge. will it make a difference with only two weeks left? >> there has been a little bit of a surge. strategists in both parties talk about it, in states like pennsylvania, the senate race there, things are getting a little tighter. the senate race in connecticut is looking better for democrats. they also say that's the case in the california senate race. but if things are getting

better, they're also not looking good. democrats are having to move time and attention away from a whole slew of races, essentially leaving them for dead. the president is out on a campaign swing this week. he'll go to important states like california, washington, and nevada. so their hope is that if things are getting better, they're only getting better from a very, very bad election to merely pretty bad election. >> glor: all right, john dickerson nowashington, once again tonight, we'll see you again before the mi midterms. thank you. >> thanks, jeff. >> glor: 31 of the 33 miners rescued in chile this weekend are home with their family. most plan to attend a mass tomorrow morning at the rescue site. the rescue has been a triumph for chile and their president. more tonight on that from seth doane. >> reporter: the stunning success of this operation captivate international attention. so much so, that even the rescue capsule itself could go on world

tour. the images, like the dramatic rescue itself are, stunning. 55 prafers, producers, and technicians, using eight cameras, caught close-ups of are you unite the families. wider shots of the estimated $18 million effort, and subtrainian angles, which allowed the final rescuer to take a bow. >> everything that was planned in a way that it was a news event made for television. >> reporter: the dramatic rescue launched chile into the global limelight. and boosted president sebastian pinera's popularity ratings from prix% before the accident to 57% now. >> chile today is more united and it's stronger than it was. >> reporter: pinera, a billionaire businessman, has been chile's president for just seven months. before he became president, he owned a television network, which he sold to time warner for

$150 million. >> he sees this moment as a media moment, that it was not only important for him politically in chile, but it was also very important for chile's image around the world. >> reporter: but chileans we spoke with felt the coverage was justified. >> ( translated ): i don't think it's a political move. he had 33 people to take care of, ching he genuinely cared about them. >> reporter: today, president pinera landed in london, bringing rocks from the mine as gifts for the prime minister and the queen. this trip, which was already scheduled, may serve as a global victory lap. now, mining accounts for 40% of chile's state earnings. and pinera hopes the success shown to the world will boost international investment in this south american country. jeff. >> glor: from chile once

again, seth doane. seth, thank you. still ahead on tonight's cbs evening news, the debate in france over banning the full islamic vail.

>> glor: an estimated 50,000 people marched in paris today to protest plans by french president nicholas sarkozy to raise the retirement age in france from 60 to 62. he says the pension fund is nearly broke. and french muslims are protesting a just-passed law barring women from wearing full-face veils in public. this controversial ban takes effect early next year, and elizabeth palmer has more tonight. >> reporter: every new terror alert focuses hostile attention on france's muslims, hostile, they believe, is exacerbated by

political attacks like the recent campaign against the full veil led by president nicholas sarsarkozy. "in our country," he said "we can't accept women imprisoned this way." for a pop plus president it was a populist stance. a poll found 82%ment the veil banned in public. it's widely seen as anti-french and a symbol of oppression. but this woman who took up the veil 11 years ago said it's just cheap politics. "this law will stigmatize muslims and it's being used to distract french people from bigger problems." under the new law, women who refuse to take off their veils could be fined over even arrested. "we are guaranteed freedom of lgz here in france," she says. "this ban simply breaking the law." in the whole of france, with a population of 65 million people,

maybe 2,000 muslim women wear a full-face veil. it's such a tiny minority, say critics, it's not really an issue. this law is purely muslim bashing. she says she'd go to jail to defend her veil. but she adds, "it won't happen." "it's ridiculous." ( gunfire ). >> reporter: off the record, the french police agree. after violent uprisings in france's arab ghettos, they've been on a charm offensive, building bridges with the muslim community. police officer say they have better things to do than to arrest veiled women. so at a guess, this law will be enforced as rigorously as another one still on the books in france-- the one that bans women from wearing pants. elizabeth palmer, cbs news, paris. >> glor: just ahead on tonight's cbs evening news, the youth enthusiasm gap shais undermining democratic election

hopes

>> glor: barack obama won the presidency two years ago with crucial help from young voters and their command of new technology and social media. but can his party count on that this time around? that is the focus of tonight's "weekend journal," the enthusiasm gap among youthful voters. >> there's nothing that's exciting to us anymore. >> reporter: eileen o'malley is 23. a college grad and typical of the young voter who helped sweep barack obama into the white house two years ago. this year, she's disillusioned. >> i absolutely think that the young people will be less fired up about voting for the democrats this season. >> reporter: if the democrats have any chance of avoiding a republican sweep at the polls next month, they believe they're going to have to excite young voters like o'malley, and that's

why the president is back campaigning on college campuses. >> we need you to stay fired up. because there is an election on november 2 that's going to say a lot about the future. >> reporter: so far, the signs are not good. a recent poll showed even though the majority of young still support the democrats, the number's falling from 41% in 2008 to 35% today. >> but i think young people are worried about right now are jobs, jobs, jobs. >> congratulations, mr. president ( cheers and applause ). >> glor: omal's' hope for the obama perezidency has been overshadowed by her struggle to find a job. she's applied for 15 with no address and does administration work for a truck company. >> you just fee like the rug's been pulled out from underneath you, the fantasy's over. college has ended. you can't get a job, and you don't have health insurance. and no one's really helping you. >> there are groups of young people, especially those not in college, for whom unemployment

is cat troskly high. >> reporter: peter levine who studies young voters says turnout in that group is always lower in an off-year election. still, he says, if the president loses the coalition he built with them in 2008, he's in trouble. >> they participate in a lot of ways other than just voting in november. they also volunteered in enormous numbers for the campaign. they did loss of grass-roots advocacy. they were very excited. >> reporter: and some, like ian, a student at tufts university in boston, still have that enthusiasm for the president. >> his accomplishments in health care, in financial reform, in those sorts of things are truly clbl. it's just that it's not necessarily sort of the mystical change so many people believed would come. >> glor: it's not, by the way, just youth stleertz democrats need to worry about. a cbs news poll of all voters shows 60% of republicans are more enthusiastic about voting this year compared to just 40% of democrats. actress barbara billingsley of

"leave it to beaver" fame died this morning at her home in santa monica, california. billingsley became a starrals the ald-loving mom in june cleaver on the series that ran from 1957 to 1963. barbara billingsley was 94 years old.

>> glor: they call is car surfing, a reckless activity that's only growing in popularity right now. this stunt and others like it are leaving thrill-seekers often disabled or even dead. susan koeppan has more tonight. >> reporter: the videos are littered across youtube of teens glamorizing risky stunts. car surfing on top of cars, ghost riding with no one behind the wheel. and sciching, riding a skateboard pulled by a moving

vehicle. a variety of terms for a wide range of dangerous and potentially deadly activities. >> injury even at those slow speeds can result in significant nuneurologic disability and even death. >> reporter: according to a cdc report, between 1990 and 2008, 58 people died in car surfing accidents alone, another 41 injured. injuries and deaths are ghost riding and scich having never been counted. >> it feels like i just am in a dream. i can't believe this has happened. >> reporter: craig dolittle's son, cody, lost control of his skateboard after hichg a ride on the side of his firsthand s.u.v. >> he pendulummed, the skateboard probably went forward and he cracked his head open. >> reporter: 18-year-old cody died at the hospital later that day. and there are cases like kalagh, who survived his sciching accident but suffered a traumatic brain injury. >> it was a mess, scary, a

mothemother's nightmare. >> caleb was hospitalized for six months, blind in one eye, deaf in one ear, and a shell of his former self. >> we miss our son, who he was before. >> reporter: you miss your old life. >> yeah, miswhen i wasn't sick and messed up. much better to feel healthy and happy. >> there has to be more education out there to reach kids in thisang bracket to let them know it's not a joke. >> reporter: caleb's mother, sharon, now works to raise awareness to prevent other families from suffering such a trag key. >> glor: up next on tonight's cbs evening news, how this once-homeless man turned his life around one barbecue order at a time.

>> glor: finally tonight, in this time of economic discouragement, you could say one man's story offers food for thought. here's john blackstone. >> this is something most restaurants don't do.

>> reporter: imagine being in harry stuart's predicament. >> what we call that is a steak on a stick. >> reporter: he opened a restaurant two and a half years ago, just as the economy began to tank. >> i thought here we go again because my timing is impeccable. >> reporter: harry had a dream and a recipe, a way to barbecue ribs and beef brisket to perfegz. >> you talk to any old barbecue owner in the world and he'll tell you this ain't easy. >> reporter: very little has been easy for harry. he's had a string of jobs in the last 30 years, working mostly in machine shops for big companies that when the going got tough started laying people off, harry among them. you've lost how many jobs? >> you don't want to look at my resume. >> reporter: for a while, harry was homeless. >> for one winter, in san francisco, i lived in the back of my el camino. >> reporter: a navy veteran, harpy got help from a veterans group, source to plow shares. he saved a little from each of his many jobs. now, as his own boss, he does

everything, from serving tables to washing dishes. >> it's like, you know, riding the tiger. you better hang on. >> reporter: he even kids around with picky california customers who want to discuss the lettuce. >> we don't use iceberg. we're in california. we can't use iceberg. there's a law that says i can't use iceberg. >iceberg. >> thank you for this time... >> reporter: in these tough times, something's working. >> it is comfort food. >> can i get the cowpoke special. >> reporter: it could be the price. >> the total will be $8.78. >> reporter: it could be the recipe. >> look at that. >> reporter: but maybe there's another reason behind his success in this recession. >> just hang in there. you can't give up, but you have to remember a lot of times it's up to you. >> reporter: harry's secret ingredient may be determination. john blackstone, cbs news, almeade acalifornia. >> glor: that is the cbs

evening news tonight. i'm jeff glor, cbs news in new york. go area.. but is it the we care about the people of our country and the people of our state. >> the tea party rallies in the bay area. but is it the candidates or the causes that attracted the crowd? success in eradicating a wine country pest. how the state has managed to rid vineyards of a grape gobbling moth. and a tactic for dealing with disaster. and the drills being performed around the bay area today. cbs 5 eyewitness news is next. ,,