campaign manager for the obama campaign about the race for the white house which is still very much a dog fight. >> stephanie, thanks for being here, we appreciate it. >> thanks for having me. >> a one sentence message last week, i'm not so different from you as you think, what's the one message you want to get out to the democratic national convention? >> i'm barack obama and i'm putting you first. i'm putting the middle class first. if we invest in our people. if we rebuild an economy meant to last, we are reclaim the security. >> how are you going to make that case when you folks can't answer the question, are you better off than you were four yes ago? >> we can't answer that. i'll answer it for you right now. let's remember where things were four years ago. september of 2008. that's when the whole bank bailout started.

that's when people started seeing their retirement account be depleted because of the crash of the market. we were hitting a high point and people losing their homes. that's when the auto company went on the verge of bankruptcy. let's take a look at where we are today, the president moved swiftly and boldly to help this economy quicker. 4.5million private sector jobs have been selected. now the day that he took office, let's remember, 800,000 jobs were being lost that month. 800,000 jobs. in the six months before he took office, 3.5 million jobs were lost. now today, we have created 4.5 million private sector jobs. that's three times the number of jobs that were created in the bush recovery. >> even with all that, the right track wrong track numbers in the polls speak that the american people are basically looking, perhaps to fire the president. how can you tell them that things are going to be different in the next four

years? >> you know, i don't agree with what you just said. people want to continue rebuilding this economy. and they see in this president, a person who puts them first. who understands what it means to build an economy meant to last. from the middle out, not the top down. and the other thing those polls show is that people don't want to go back. they don't want to go back to the same policies that crashed our economy. that's what mitt romney and paul ryan are promising. last week at their convention, you said the message was, i'm not so different from you. the one thing they didn't tell the american people is exactly how they were going to move this country forward. not one tangible idea was addressed of how to improve people's lives. and you know, that was glaring by omission. >> also be hearing from president bill clinton. i wonder if the two men, not always seen eye to eye on this. what is exactly you are hoping to get out of mr. clinton when he speaks tomorrow?

>> the one thing they do see eye to eye on is how to build an economy meant to last. we did it in the 90s and that involved asking every american to pay their fair share, asking the wealthy to pay just a little bit more in taxes to invest in our economy. it meant investing in education and innovation and research and development. >> stephanie cutter, campaign manager for the obama campaign, joining us from the convention. first lady, michelle obama speech right here on wusa9. the live coverage begins at 10:00 p.m. one person who will not be at the convention tonight is president obama. instead, he had one final campaign stop to wrap up his road to charlotte tour. the president spoke to a crowd of more than 11,000 this afternoon at norfolk state university and there he blasted the republicans. what he says they did and did not do at their convention last week. >> spending less time talking

about their plans. and that's not just because they don't like it, but it's because they know you saw what happened when we tried it. you lived through it and we can't afford to repeat it. >> he will watch his wife's speech tonight on tv with his daughters by his side. mitt romney is staying off the campaign trail during the democratic national convention, but paul ryan headed to the battleground state of ohio today and the gop vp pick told supporters president obama deserves to be a one-termer just like jimmy carter. >> i remember a convention speech, i was a young guy at the time, but i remember a convention speech, remember ronald reagan talking about jimmy carter? are you better off now than you were four years ago? well you know what? we knew it then, we know it now, they fired carter and they hired reagan and we're going to do the same thing.

>> the republican national committee is also out with a brand-new ad slamming the president on unemployment and the economic recovery. it's all part of a strategy to label barack obama as a likable guy, but a guy that can't get the country back on track. more than a dozen neighbors, family, and fellow soldiers turned up at the montgomery county courthouse today to support a 23-year-old iraqi war veteran. 23 neerld nathan is accused of kiddalling a 12-year-old girl for sex. supporters say he's a hero, not a crook. >> a man hailed as a hero two months ago in falls church, virginia, stands accused of kidnapping a 12-year-old girl for sex here in montgomery county. a girl he met online. >> today's supporters, a 23- year-old nathan, a national guardsman who served in iraq, fill ed a courtroom. his lawyer says the victim in the case was posing as an adult

online and he was fooled. >> it shows the dangers of use of social networking, not just by a minor child who could get molested or assaulted, but by an adult who could get placed in the situation. >> he was called a hero by fairfax county officials after he tried to save an lek electrocution victim. folks say he brandished a gun at the victim's sister and her boyfriend after a car chase. his bail was reduced today from $1 million to $300,000. in rockville, scott broom, 9news now. >> a car just sitting in the middle of the road. the engine running and nobody behind the wheel. but get this, in the back, police find an 8 month old girl strapped in her car seat. this all went down in the wee hours of monday night in duple fridayings and police say they have now tracked down the driver. it's a relative from woodbridge and now he is charged with

child neglect and drunken driving. >> one week ago today, hurricane isaac made land fall in louisiana and now we are getting the first official damage numbers from that storm. louisiana's office of emergency preparedness says isaac damaged 13,000 homes in the state. but a spokeswoman says that number can still grow because the assessment teams are blocked. now that is also keeping the power crews from getting the light back on. 38,000 homes are without electricity and 1300 people are stuck in shelters. >> and the remnants of isaac giving us a chance for more rain and storms. we have a yellow alert for the rest of today. anything we need to worry about tonight? >> a couple showers and storms west of us. it's some kind of tropical out here and courtesy of what is left of isaac. let's start with the radar and we'll lack at showers and storms now out southwest of romney. well west of 81.

we'll watch these overnight. some showers and thunderstorms. we'll zoom in a little bit. a couple sprinkles. you aren't seeing any yellow and red. nothing near the ball park. that is good news. right now, 84 downtown. 82 in manassas. 82 in gaithersburg. 84 also in fredericksburg. for tonight, partly cloudy, muggy, a few showers possible. some could be heavy with heavy rain. lows between 70 and 75. we will come back and talk about when we are finally done with the remnants of isaac. >> i can hardly wait. thanks, top. coming up, snow megeddon the sequel? coming up, details on what they have in mind for us. but first, learning a lesson. the really hard way. a former life guard hopes his mistakes reminds everybody what to never do. that story is up next. how does it feel to try smooth,

delicious hershey's chocolate with 30% less fat? new hershey's simple pleasures chocolate.

30% less fat, 100% delicious.

commuters that use the

dulles toll road will get their chance to express their opinions. the air force authority is holding their first public hearing this thursday. it goes 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. in ashburn. two other public hearings are scheduled for next week. the proposal calls for three weeks of height until the tolls took $4.50 in the year 2015. that money is supposed to pay for that new silver line. a former life guard who made a mistake, he always warned others not to do is telling his story tonight. bill is wearing a contraption known as a halo, which is actually bolted into his skull to keep his spine straight. he's had it on since july 4 and made a terrible mistake of diving off a boat into shallow water, water he thought was deeping. he hit bottom, broke five vertebrae, but did not fracture his spinal column. he is hoping his story is a

reminder of others to what you should never do. >> like anybody that jumps in uncharted water, you never know. it might be an old piece of metal. i have always taught that. i was a life guard and always taught that, but i didn't think that -- things do happen sometimes. >> things do happen sometimes. sometimes very rough things. turns out, bill is a friend of 9news report, peggy fox, who shot this story with her iphone while she was on vacation. when will this cycle be done with us? i hope topper tells will be done soon. but first, just art? that's despite clouding over a mural outside a local smoke shop. both sides of the argument are up next.

afghan refugee has struggled for years trying to make a living as a small businessman in america. now, he's in a fight with his arlington landlord over art. here's bruce leshan. >> it's interesting. i'm an artist myself. >> i think it's pretty. >> i wouldn't want them near my business. >> on a block of south 23rd street. >> i think it's nice to have out in public, people to look at. >> a battle rages over a mural painted on the side of ata amin's smoke shop. >> it doesn't fit in this

neighborhood. >> it is beautiful and it brings culture. >> amin spent months fixing up the building, which he says had been vacant for years. inside, he hired young people to sell hooka's and afghan jewelry. >> providing more job and opportunity and live the wonderful american dream. >> landlord was happy when he cleaned up the outside and installed planters, but furious when he hired a couple artists. >> they were out here for a week and a half, day and night, painting. >> to put something catchy on the front. the landlord says that the lease is pretty clear here. it says that there will be no sign outside without prior approval. he also says that amin owes him back rent. >> amin is trying to do the right thing.

the central characters now smoking a whale instead of a cigar. because the county complained that a cigar was advertising. >> smoke now looks like a wave of water. >> he struggled to make a living here since he left afghanistan. >> my hard work, money. >> and now, he fears he'll lose a work of art. in arlington, bruce leshan, 9news now. >> now we tried to get ahold of his landlord for an interview, but we have yet to hear back from him. >> calling on the city to help out victims of this weekend's flooding in the blooming dale neighborhood of northwest. he wants all relevant agencies to use their resources and use a relief fund. and ask for federal assistant. blooming dale and nearby areas had flooding issues for years and mayor vince gray set up a task force. this winter, all that rain could be replaced with another

snow megeddon. that's what the second oldest almanac is telling us. town and country almanac just released its 2013 edition. it predicts a very snowy winter for the mid atlantic. in fact, this almanac calls for snow as early as november 28 and as late as the end of march. two december nor'easters, and as much as 50 inches of snow. i don't know if it means at one time or not. 50 over the whole winter isn't that bad. >> hagerstown averages 40 to 45 inches. so that's not crazy snowy for them and it could snow all day and rain all day here. >> we could live with that. >> that would be horrible. we had a couple quiet winters. >> all right, tropical out there now. in fact, this is the remnants of isaac, with this broken up and extends from the ohio valley. it will give us a chance of

more showers and storms. let's take a live look outside. it's our weather cam. temperature wise, it's nice out. it's only 84. but the dew point, 75. that is tough. this has been as humid as it has been for quite some time. winds out of the south at 9. and the pressure is steady over the past hour, 29.88 inches of mercury. all right, the big picture with the radar, we are watching these storms to the east. these are pushing off to the north and east. these will head towards hagerstown. we're going to keep the chance of a shower or thunderstorm in the forecast. we'll zoom in, pretty quiet around the beltway. a couple sprinkles on the west side of 270, west of germantown, a couple sprinkles near laurel. but everything is light. no reds, no yellows, that is a good thing. temperature wise, 83 great falls. 82 in vienna. 81 in fairfax. 82 in springfield. 83 in bowie. so, still humid and unsettled.

that's pretty much the deal. a few storms tonight and they will continue after the sun goes down. bring your umbrella to the nats game. more storms on wednesday. and a hot finish to the week. we're going to add more heat to our humidity on thursday and friday. for tonight, partly cloudy, muggy, a few storms possible. some could produce some heavy rain. lows between 70 and 75. winds southwest at 10. tomorrow morning, probably a dry morning commute. partly sunny, warm, and humid. a late shower is possible. that's closer to lunchtime. 70s and 80s. winds southwest at 10. by afternoon, partly sunny, hot and humid. shower or thunderstorm possible. either one could produce heavy downpours. high temperatures near 90. and winds out of the southwest at 10. next three days, because the heat and humidity, we're going to keep code yellow. some storms tomorrow, 89. primarily in the afternoon and thursday some storms, 91. friday some afternoon storms, also into the low 90s.

now the next seven days, doesn't really clear out any time soon. afternoon storms on saturday and right now saturday appears to be the better of the two weekend days. a will the of showers and storm osen sunday. temperatures will go down. low 80s on sunday. more storms on monday and cooler on monday and tuesday with lingering storms on tuesday with temperatures in the upper 70s. >> i see drops and lightning and everything on that forecast. >> the cold front going through, the cold front isn't going through. >> exactly. we'll be back in a minute. we want to hear what you think. send your e-mails to mcginty's mail bag. the address is mailbag@wusa9.com. 9news now will be right back. only six degrees separate the body temperature

of chocolate lovers from the melting point of chocolate. so when you take hershey's chocolate and add bubbles, it deliciously melts the moment you take a bite. hershey's air delight. it just might make you melt. mitt romney's position onpprove women's health...it's dangerous. vo:mitt romney and paul ryan would get rid of planned parenthood funding.

and allow employers to deny coverage for cancer screenings and birth control. we can't afford to let him take away our choices... to take away basic health care. vo: both backed proposals to outlaw abortions...even in cases of rape and incest. i don't think that women's health issues have faced a crisis like this in decades. in the mail bag tonight, the tooth fairy.

no, i am not joking. on the facebook page, how much money did you get when you were a kid and how much is the going rate today? and one thing we have learned, inflation is a terrible thing. listen to nancy. i got a quarter back in the 60s and that was a lot. my friends thought the tooth fairy liked me more and wanted to come to my house for sleepovers. my son in the mid to late 90s got $1 for each, except the one that had to be surgically cut out in his gum. it was a whopping $20 tooth. hope you still have that one, nancy. and there was this from ashley. my kids get $5 a tooth, but they are not allowed to buy candy with it. they usually buy something for themselves and their siblings. no candy? what kind of a deal is that? i might take less money if we can write a lemon head exception into that contract. we find erica walin who says i got a quarter and that is what

my kids will get. okay then, that's what i got, too, except in my day, a quarter was worth four or five different packs of candy. what can you buy with 25 cents? $5, that's crazy. but a quarter, that's going to become the subject matter of the stories about thrifty their mom was. tell us your story at wusa9.com. that's our report. i'll be back at 11:00. we'll see you then. bye bye.

now, "entertainment tonight," the worldwide leader in entertainment news. tom cruise and his secret scientology girlfriend? inside the "vanity fair" expose. the reported private auditions before katie. who is the woman who could have been tom's wife? >> never too late. plus, new cruise in croatia and how he's fighting back. a happy prince harry's first public appearance since his naked vegas romp. plus, michelle obama on the scandal. >> everything you say and do these days subject to public skrcrutin scrutiny. >> our one-on-one with the first lady. >> how she's deciding what to wear for her big convention speech. did heidi klum hook up with her bodyguard before splitting from seal?