first lady michelle obama takes a passionate case for her husband's second term. >> and a car crashes. and nasa gives kids a chance to name a piece of cosmic history. i'm lynn berry. those stories and more straight ahead. this is "first look" on msnbc.

>> we're going to begin this morning with cheerleader in chief. at the democratic national convention in charlotte last night, first lady michelle obama delivered an impassioned speech. tracie potts joins us from charlotte. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, everyone. a bit of the back story here, aides say the ideas you heard michelle obama talk about last night were her own, that she knew exactly what she wanted to say in this speech. democrats bring in their heavyweight tonight, former president bill clinton, the only person more popular in a recent gallop poll, michelle obama. she brought democrats to their feet last night with a rousing speech about decisions based on

family values. >> in the end for barack, these issues and political, they're personal. heap know what is it means when a family struggles. >> reporter: a message aimed at women. >> he believes women are more than capable about making our own choices about our bodies and our health care. he didn't care whether it was the easy thing to do politically. no, that's not how he was raised. he cared it was the right thing to do. >> reporter: not once did she mention mitt romney but plenty of others did. >> here's what we're going to say to mitt romney in november. we're going to say no! >> if mitt was santa claus, he would fire the reindeer and outsource the elves. >> reporter: the women who fought to make sure women don't earn more than a quarter less than men. >> maybe 23 cents doesn't sound

like a lot to someone with a swiss bank account or wayman island ey -- cayman island critics say the f focused on the economy and national debt. >> senior obama campaign adviser gibbs boiled down what he thinks is at stake this election, the health of the middle class. >> we understand the choices made in the next four year if barack obama is in the oval office or mitt romney in the oval office. that's a great thing for us. people want to move the country forward and give the middle class a sense of security.

we tried that once, i don't know why we think it would work any better the second time. >> tune in to msnbc's continuing coverage of the democratic national convention, all day right here on msnbc, the place for politics. >> ahead of last night's convention, a new abc/"washington post" poll showed the president's personal popularity is at a new low. among registered voters, 47% have a favorable view of the president, down about 7% from the president's recent high in april, with 49% viewing the president unpopularly. elsewhere, the new york city reports iran is supplying military equipment to syria and much to the frustration of american officials, those arms are being delivered in planes

flying over iraqi airspace. the ballpark administration pressured iraq not to allow the flights earlier this year but they did resume in the july, allowing iranians to avoid border crossings on the ground controlled by syrian rebels. iraq's tolerance of iran's using of its airspace starkly points out the limits of the obama administration's influence there. vice president biden made an august phone call to the iraqi prime minister to discuss the syrian crisis and a source told the times mr. biden registered concern over those iranian flights. >> here's your first look at other news around america today. surveillance shows this car plowing through a restaurant. no one was inside at the time. only two in the car suffered minor injuries. the bad news, it happened just a half an hour before the restaurant was going to open for its first days of business.

yeah, bad timing. >> in massachusetts more car trouble. an elderly driver was backing into his garage when he hit the gas instead of the brake. that sent his car right into the next door neighbor's pool after it crashed through a fence. he is said to be okay. and in ohio, a fast footed black bear stayed one step ahead of authorities. they did try everything they could think of to blast the bear but nothing worked. the bear just took off on its own and escaped. and finally, in massachusetts it's never hard to find a good bowl of seafood stew but probably not one where you have to use a rake to stir it. more than 6,500 pounds of seafood, bacon, potatoes, veggies all helped put the stew and the students over the top.

here's bill karins with your weather forecast. >> i've always been good with the clams and lobster but the muscles. i've never -- >> really? it's all in the same family. when you mix it together with potatoes, bacon -- >> you can't taste it, so it would be fine. good morning to everyone out there. very humid conditions out there this morning. if you're in the eastern half of the country, the dew points are through the roof. this is about as stiek as it gets. everywhere from, say, kansas city to chicago, especially the big cities of the east coast. it's oppressive air out there. it's a very tropical feeling. that's why it's such a warm morning, too. yesterday we got drenched in charlotte by a thunderstorm.

it's still super humid. up to the north, there are areas of rain in massachusetts, boston a wet commute for you. philadelphia, your drive for the time being, we will see addit n additional showers. some of this will try to push into northern illinois. look likes it may fall apart before it gets to chicago. and happy news in oklahoma city, thankfully, finally some rainfall for you. it didn't hit everyone. weep been one of the driest out there. tra tropical storm leslie not going to affect anyone directly. this storm could be headed for the mayor i times. >> big buzz over apple. facebook falls once given and

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welcome back to "first look." i'm lynn berry. the department of defense says a book by a former navy seal does contain classified information about the mission that killed osama bin laden. the pentagon is still considering whether criminal charges will be filed against the author. >> in canada a gunman was arrested after allegedly firing shots that killed one person at a political victory rally. it happened as the separatist party in quebec returned to power after nine years.

>> and in brazil a fire in a slum destroyed more than 2 hoon shanties, leaving 1,000 homeless there. >> a federal judge in massachusetts has ruled that state prison officials must prove for a advan pay for a transgender sex change. >> the asteroid is given one chance of hitting earth. >> at the white house last night president obama and his two

daughters were watching tv as first lady michelle obama spoke to the democratic national convention. on the heels of last week's chris christie speech at the republican convention, a new poll found new jersey voters are divided on giving him a second term next year as governor. 47% of voters said yes but 46% said it's time for someone else. >> in virginia former republican congressman virgil goode has qualified to be on the presidential ballot in november. goode could take away boats from mitt romney in the battleground state of virginia. identify rolling stone" reports mitt romney engineered a deal that cost the fdic $10 million. >> internet sites were buzzing

with conspiracy theories a social security administration posted a notice it was purchasing 174,000 hollow point bullets. the site claimed they must be for use against social security citizens. >> and chuck norris has put out a video asking people to vote for mitt romney. >> and that's your morning dish of scrambled politics. >> now here is your first at how wall street will kick off the day. the dow closed at 1335. the s&p was down a point but the nasdaq gained 8. in tokyo the nikkei sank 95 points while in hong kong the hang seng plunged to 84.

august manufacturing fell for the third straight month and the sector hired the fewest workers since late 2009. in addition, july construction spending fell the most in the year. in fact, gold hit a nearly six-month high on heightened stimulus expectations. on the bright side august car and truck sales were up 20% over a year ago. honda and toyota led the way compared with earthquake affected sales a year ago. general motors, ford and chrysler each reported more than 10% increases. apple led a late-day rally. netflix tumbled on amazon.com's deal after its agreement with

netflix ended. >> fab hcebook hit a new all-ti low of $38. and keep an eye on 3m, which dropped its acquisition of a consumer office business due to the threat of a government anti-trust group. and finally, mcdonald's is going vegetarian? it's going to open one the meat is forbidden. going to have to go with v-- reggie burgers. coming up, the baltimore orioles slug their way into first place. your first look at sports is straight ahead. i'm freaking out man.

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♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] introducing a reason...to look twice. introducing a stunning work of technology -- the entirely new lexus es. and the first-ever es hybrid. this is the pursuit of perfection. welcome back to "first look." i'm lynn berry. the yankees lost again last night, removing new york's long, exclusive grip on first place. here's fred roggin. in mid july the yankees had a ten-game lead. today that lead is gone. the pin stripes are falling apart at the seams temperature

tampa won it 5-2. tampa made a statement in toronto. mark reynolds hit a three-run shot. baltimore grabbed a share of first place in the east with a commanding 12-0 win. then you've got the nationals. they're more concerned about shutting down stephen strusburg than first place. the nats beat cubs 11-5. miguel cabrera ripped his 34th of the season. the tigers lost to the indians 3-2. could the white sox increase their lead in the a.l. central? no. chicago leads the central by a game. >> thumbs up to the pirates. they pedro alvarez with an infield lie. i got it, i got it. i don't got it.

>> after routing michigan on saturday, alabama has taken over the number one spot in the a. who will. u.s. open came out partin del polt tro. then the heavens opened. the second rain delay of the match pup all andy could do was laugh. that's your first look at sports. >> not so fine for people who had ticket, though. bill, you are watching a very, very important forecast. >> i imagine there's a lot of people on obama's staff watching this closely, too. thursday night about 10:30 in charlotte, thursday president is supposed to deliver his big speech. the weather, they say they're going to go rain or sheen.

this is lar jest it looks like a lot of those thunderstorms pride to see how that all. no opinion is going to be outdoors in an open air stadium. >> thanks so much. coming up snooky's baby a cover boy. and tom's night milely cyrus finds yet another way to say i'm no longary kid star, i'm a grown up. your first he'd on msnbc. at legalzoom you get personalized services for your family and your business that's 100% guaranteed. so go to legalzoom.com today for personalized, affordable legal protection.

so let's talk about coverage. based on this chart, who would you choose ? wow. you guys take a minute. verizon, hands down. i'm going to show you guys another chart. pretty obvious. i don't think color matters. pretty obvious. what's pretty obvious about it ? that verizon has the coverage. verizon. verizon. we're going to go to another chart. it doesn't really matter how you present it. it doesn't matter how you present it. verizon. more 4g lte coverage than all other networks combined.

democratic national convention is going all out to top last week's republican national convention. i heard they're going to have clint eastwood call out a couch. and when asked what it's like dealing with ruthless blood suckers, the bed bugs were like, it's okay, we'll deal with it. >> tonight jimmy welcomes actress ellen barkin and debbie lovato. time now for entertainment news. you have heard about lorenzo? he's now better known as

snooki's baby. he has made his national magazine cover debut. it's on the lates cover of "people" magazine. the 24-year-old mom tells people when she got pregnant, everything changed saying "the partying is long gone, i'm a new person." >> milely cyrus continues to push the grown up envelope. a photographer friend posted tasteful pictures of her nude inside a bath tub. >> and finally good news for those of you that can't decide whether to watch taylor use to.

>> just in case mtv is playing good sen sense, you can now watch. stay tuned "way too early" with willie geist starts right now. after so many struggles and triumphs and moments that have tested my husband in ways i never could have imagined, i have seen firsthand that being president doesn't chang who you are. no, it reveals who you are. >> welcome back to charlotte. where just a few hours ago at the arena down the street from