paul. >> cowan: bill whitaker in tampa tonight, thanks, bill. mitt romney has a few days to go before arriving in tampa, he was in new hampshire today, at church, after which he went to work polishing the acceptance speech he will give on thursday night. both presidential campaigns recently refocused on the economy with more on that we turn to jan crawford in boston and cbs news political director john dickerson. guys, this may seem like the obvious question here but what is it governor romney really has to succeed at this week? >> reporter: well, this is a chance for the governor to show people who he is, what he stands for, that he can lead america to a better future, a better economy, more jobs, you are going to see a lot of testimonials from people trying to make that point to voters. olympic athletes talking about how he saved the salt lake city olympics, employees are going to say that he helped create their jobs through bain capital and of course his wife ann talking about romney as a family man. going to be very positive and forward look

bill whitaker, cbs news, pass deena. >> schieffer: now time for our nightly warning.you don't want to know what happened at the olympics today this is the time to check the lawn sprinkler. if you do want to know, the american teem of carrie walsh jennings and misty may treanor won their third gold medal in beach volleyball. brittney reese took the women's long jump and allyson felix won gold in the women's 200 meter dash. she finished second in 2004 and 2008. now meet the star of the air show and the young men and women looking to follow in this flight path next. possible side effects include headache, diarrhea, and abdominal pain. other serious stomach conditions may still exist. talk to your doctor about nexium. mine hurt more! mine stopped hurting faster... [ female announcer ] neosporin® plus pain relief starts relieving pain faster and kills more types of infectious bacteria. neosporin® plus pain relief. for a two dollar coupon, visit neosporin.com. . >>> a major fire breaks out. three people fighting for their live st in the hospital. we'll have a live report ne

bill whitaker is on the convention floor with the republican delegates from nevada. bill?> reporter: scott, nevada is a battle ground state. even now two-thirds of las vegas homeowners are underwater. leaving many of them angry and frustrated. >> come back here. >> reporter: dave and sheryl burton worked hard to buy their las vegas dream house in 2007. the perfect place to raise their children, max and chase. >> as soon as we moved in, the market tanked. >> reporter: the house they bought for $700,000 now is valued at $325,000. >> when the market tanked, our mind set was put your nose to the grind stone, keep working hard and it will turn around. well here we are five years later and the end is not in sight. >> reporter: they can't refinance because they're underwater. and their bank wouldn't consider reducing their $680,000 loan. you'll be paying that large sum for a house that will never be worth that? >> you're exactly right. seems kind of foolish, doesn't it? >> reporter: during the boom years las vegas kept spreading into the desert. this gambling town betting it woul

here's bill whitaker.reporter: to phyllis diller, phedy was not pretty. >> i am in the 14th year of a ten-day beauty plan. (laughter) >> reporter: it was sarcastic, ndlf-deprecating and funny. >> i do dinner three places: serve the food, clear the table, hery the dead. >> reporter: phyllis ada driver nas born in 1917. usewife a housewife and mother until her then-husband, who was unemployed, forced her in her late 30s to become a comedian to aupport the family. >> someone had to make a living. urned out it had to be me. ahave a theory that to make a comic you have to have... suffer some kind of a... an abandonment or loss or lack in childhood. i was raised on fear all my life. >> reporter: she was a hit, aning standup in clubs around the san francisco bay area. then, discovered by bob hope, diller started doing t.v. with wrly appearances on groucho marx "you bet your life" and the game show "what's my line?" soon she was on t.v. and nightclubs everywhere. >> i was actually world's >> iest baby. when i was

and bill whitaker remembers phyllis diller. her life... >> i'm in such bad shape i wear prescription underwear. >> o'donnell:... and her laugh. >> (cackles) captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> o'donnell: good evening, scott's on assignment, i'm norah o'donnell. until today, few people outside of missouri had ever heard of todd akin, the republican candidate for senate there. but akin's remarks about rape have put him and the abortion issue in the national spotlight. reblicans and democrats alike-- including mitt romney and president obama-- have condemned his comments. and members of akin's own party are pressuring him to drop out as they battle to win back control of the senate. wyatt andrews begins our coverage. >> reporter: todd akin's comments have been called "insulting, wildly offensive" and "just plain wrong." and that's the reaction from republicans. the question he faced was simple: should abortion be legal in the case of rape? >> from what i understand from doctors, that's

bill whitaker's at the federal courthouse in tucson. bill?: bob, judge larry burns, who has presided over this case since the beginning, said he saw a different jared loughner today. loughner, who shouted and ranted at a hearing last year today was quiet and subdued and spoke with a slurred but understandable voice. for most of the two-hour hearing, loughner sat calmly by his lawyer's side as his court

bill whitaker on the controversial new immigration policy. after the fire-- ben tracy is with a family that lost nearly everything but their memories. >> there's so much sadness and grief and despair. >> schieffer: and the drought's causing a feeding frenzy. seth doane will have a bird's-eye view. >> well, i'm speechless. i am really. captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> schieffer: good evening. scott's off tonight. i'm bob schieffer. well who was that said once mitt romney put paul ryan on the ticket, it meant we would finally have a campaign about two competing visions for the country, a campaign about substance? actually, i was the one who said that, but what do i know? today, we have a campaign that is turning into one of the nastiest and most personal of modern times, one side accusing the other of coming unhinged, the other invoking charges ofanger and hate. nancy cordecord is in iowa. >> reporter: governor romney unleashed one of his harshest critiques of the president to date in ohio and it

reports from byron pitts, mark strassmann, and bill whitaker. will the republicans unite behind their nominee? a frank conversation with mitt romney. some people in your party don't like you. dr. jon lapook on a link between a woman's weight and the risk that breast cancer will return. and as the world remembers the life of neil armstrong, john blackstone will focus on two harrowing minutes when his cool hand made the moon walk possible. >> we knew we were in for a battle. captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley, reporting tonight from tampa. >> pelley: good evening, isaac is not a hurricane yet but soon will be. the tropical storm is slowing down, gaining strength, and seems headed for the moment toward new orleans. ehe center of isaac is over the gulf of mexico, about 300 miles southeast of the mouth of the mississippi river. it's expected to become a hurricane by tomorrow. watches and warnings affecting five million people are up all along the northern gulf coast from florida to louisiana. from space, isaa

bill whitaker's at the federal courthouse in tucson. bill?> reporter: bob, judge larry burns, who has presided over this case since the beginning, said he saw a different jared loughner today. loughner, who shouted and ranted at a hearing last year today was quiet and subdued and spoke with a slurred but understandable voice. for most of the two-hour hearing, loughner sat calmly by his lawyer's side as his court appointed psychiatrist described his slow dissent into schizophrenia. he smiled just once when she mention it had name of his favorite prison guard. over the past year, loughner has undergone intensive drug treatment and counseling. today judge burns said: , when judge burns asked him if he knew what he was doing today, he answered distinctly "yes, i do." he then pled guilty to 19 counts of murder and attempted murder for this january, 2011, tucson shooting that left six dead and 13 wounded, including congresswoman giffords. to each count, loughner answered "i plead guilty." in exchange for his plea, federal prosecutors agreed not to

bill whitaker has the latest pictures from mars and the flight director of the "curiosity" mission. >people were >> people were just surprised that someone with a mohawk would be working at nasa. >> schieffer: her heart was failing but an experimental medical device saved her life. dr. jon lapook on the berlin heart. and... >> i dreamed as a little kid of being an air show pilot. >> schieffer: now seth doane tells us he's leading air national guard recruiting to new heights. >> wow. captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> schieffer: good evening, scott is off tonight, i'm bob schieffer. well, the election is now just 90 days away and new polls out today are giving us a better picture of how it's looking right now. with 270 electoral votes needed to win the white house, our cbs news election team estimates 212 are likely to go to president obama or they are leaning toward him. for mitt romney it is 191. so it will all come down to the 135 electoral votes that we estimate are up for grabs. those votes are in 11 states that could swing to either c

bill whitaker cbs news pasadena. a pet co. and starbucks could make payments cashing of the pass.the latest in consumer convenience. the democrat credit card and home starbucks is aiming to make your daily copy break-even cracker and all you need is your smart phone. >>> stevens has work to the son of some embarcaderos since it opened around five months ago. since then it's been a hotbed for folks looking to get their cap index. it is time there's an event where slams. getting people in and out asap as the " solenodons starbucks is teaming up the squares to allow customers to pay with their smart fun is that the limit to line up faster particularly if he did not spell names because of sparse part. the consumer is going very seismic change in which cast his overtime went the obsoletes starting this fall that will process all the coffee giants debt and credit card transactions. customers to download the pit by scrap would be able to pair of pay for their losses with their phone. did we even open it up and actually show the counter the bar code scanner at the counter. creslan to the

first, bill whitaker with the romney campaign in las vegas. bill. >> reporter: scott, governor mitt romney came to this city with one of the worst unemployment rates in the country-- 12.1%-- and last blasted president barack obama for today's jobs numbers. >> it's another hammer blow to the struggling middle-class families of america. >> reporter: governor romney laid out a broad five-point plan to fix the economy and help the middle class through energy independence, a balanced budget, by strengthening trade, education, and small businesses. >> it will create more jobs and more take-home pay, and i know how to do that. >> reporter: but as he spoke, just down the road, unemployed nevadans lines up at the professional institute of technology for help with resumes and interview skills. >> it's diversified. >> reporter: 64-year-old vietnam vet jim hagen lost his casino job when tourism here plummeted in 2007. he's applied for hundreds of jobs. so far, nothing. >> it is frustrating. >> reporter: he's also disillusioned with president obama and unce

bill whitaker was in the courtroom. gas prices are rising rapidly again.yl attkisson tells us this fire could send them even higher. first came the floods, then the drought. michelle miller on the latest crisis for farmers-- sand. and... ♪ memories... >> pelley: anthony mason on marvin hamlisch and the musical memories he left us. captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> schieffer: good evening. scott's off tonight. i'm bob schieffer. well, it was the picture that once you saw it you could not forget it. jared lee loughner, the 23-year-old college dropout who gravely wounded

bill whitaker is at the federal courthouse in tucson. charlie and gayle. jared loughner arrived here in tucson yesterday, escorted by federal marshals. for the past year, he's been treated for mental illness at a federal facility in missouri. now, the success of that treatment will be the focus of today's hearing. almost immediately after his arrest for the shooting deaths of six people and the wounding of 13 others, including congresswoman gabrielle giffords, there were questions about jared loughner's mental state. soon after the shootings, this videotape surfaced on youtube, putting his bizarre behavior on public display. loughner behind the camera ranting as he walked around his college campus. >> where is all my subjects? >> reporter: after his arrest, psychiatrists at a federal medical prison in missouri found him depressed, paranoid, schizophrenic. last year, judge larry a. burns deemed him mentally unfit to stand trial, but today he's set to tell that same judge he now is competent enough to plead guilty. >> i'm sure the judge is

before we speak with her friend and colleague, joan rivers, bill whitaker looks back at a comedy pioneerar of a ten-day beauty plan. >> reporter: it was sarcastic, self-deprecating and funny. >> i do dinner in three phases -- serve the food, clear the table, bury the dead. >> reporter: phyllis ada driver was born in 1917. she was a house wife and a mother until her then husband, who was unemployed, forced her in her late 30s to become a comedian to support the family. >> someone had to make a living. turned out, it had to be me. i have a theory that to make a comic, you have to have suffered some kind of an abandonment or loss or lack in childhood. i was raised on fear all my life. >> reporter: she was a hit doing stand-up in clubs around the san francisco bay area. then, discovered by bob hope, diller started doing tv with early appearances on groucho marks' "you bet your life" and the game show "what's my line?" soon, she was on tv and in nightclubs everywhere. >> i was actually the world's ugliest baby. when i was born, the doctor slapped everybody. >> reporter: or her mythical husban

. >> john, thank you very much, bill whitaker is down on the convention floor and he is with governorcott walker, who is the governor of wisconsin, paul ryan's home state. bill. >> yes, i am here with governor scott walker and, governor, you and paul ryan have never had conservative credentials questioned but we have had some delegates here who have told us they don't think that governor mitt romney is conservative enough, and is yet to win the trust of some bedrock conservatives. why is that? and how do you change that? >> i would say a few weeks ago in the u.s.s. wisconsin when he picked paul ryan, i think we knew for some time mitt romney as governor, as a private sector leader and someone who had the experience he needed to president, when he picked paul ryan he showed the courage and passion to be an exceptional president and you will hear about that tonight and certainly hear from mitt romney tomorrow and you will see conservative as well as swing voters across the country move towards the romney-ryan ticket in the next few weeks. >> governor, thank you very much. and back to yo

. >> pelley: report reports from rebecca jarvis, bill whitaker, and nancy cordes.images of the suffering in syria come in, our charlie d'agata slips past the syrian army to find the families torn apart by a dictator's war. nasa gets ready to drop in on the neighbors. john blackstone on a daring mission to mars. and elaine quijano goes to the hometown of gabby douglas. >> it makes meantime to push myself harder. >> pelley: the history-making powerhouse of gymnastics. captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: good evening. too many unemployed workers chasing too few jobs-- that is the bottom line in today's repo u

bill whitaker is down on the floor near the utah delegation, where mitt romney is entering the room. bill. >> reporter: scott, governor mitt romney just walked past us, down this aisle, on his way to the podium, where tonight is his last, best chance to present himself to the american people unchallenged and he has been roundly criticized over the summer by the obama administration as a man who is out of touch, a rich guy who doesn't quite get it. well, the people here and the delegates around us are telling us tonight he must stand up and tell the american people who he truly is, not just empathize with them, but connect with them. scott. >> pelley: bob schieffer, as we watch mitt romney, the 65-year-old former governor of massachusetts make his way up to the podium for a moment that he has worked six years for, what do you think he's going to try to accomplish tonight? >> reporter: well, i think what he's got to do is make one heck of a speech because if he doesn't, all people are going to be talking about in the morning is this weird episode involving clint eastwood. i mean, why on

bill whitaker is our roving correspondent down on the floor, making his way among the delegates, and he has made his way over to the michigan delegation, the home state of ann and mitt romney. ad reporter: scott, the road here to tampa has been a rough one for governor mitt romney, a bruise are primary fight, trying to win the love of the republican party. and even now on this floor, there are some factions, the tea party, fiscal keaftz, the social conservatives, who it will be governor romney's job to have them all singing off the same song big book. they will tell you despite their differences they will all be united behind mitt romney, with the hope and prospect of unseating president barack oba obama. >> pelley: bill, thank you very much. bob schieffer, as we mentioned a moment ago, the president 10 percentage points behind-- i should say, mitt romney 10 percentage points behind the president among women. do they have to make up that entire deficit in order to win the election? >> reporter: no, i think that would be unrealistic. you know, republican candidates, there's always bee

bill whitaker is along old tampa bay, about ten miles west of the convention. bill, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, charlie. even though isaac is passing west of here, the outer bands are dropping quite a bit of rain on tampa. the rains subsided for now, but the city is still under flood watch and the republican convention is on storm delay. the massive storm is working its way up the gulf coast, turning the republican party's best laid plans upside down. florida governor rick scott was supposed to address the convention but with isaac whipping past his region, he's overseeing a statewide state of emergency. he said the decision to push back the convention a day was the right one. >> they made the same decision for the individuals that they were involved in as the individuals for the state safety comes first. there's the possibility of bridges closing, wind and rain. the best thing was to postpone for a day. >> with a number of delegations lodging across the bay, if the bridges close down -- >> you concerned you might be stranded out here? >> we certain