for the latest we're joined by abc senior political correspondent jonathan karl from norfolk, virginia, where he's traveling with the romney campaign. jon, how much of a surprise is this? >> reporter: well, to those who really know romney it's not that much of a surprise. he has been fascinated with this young, conservative superstar for a long time. but he's only 42 years old, he's incredibly controversial, and to many republican operatives it is seen as a risky choice. but this is something, cynthia, that is going to excite the republican base. he is one of the top stars in the party, somebody who is putting the fiscal health of the country at the top of his priority list, ahead of politics. but that plan you mentioned is one that would drastically change medicare and you can bet democrats are going to come right at him. >> when it came down to it, why ryan? >> reporter: well, ryan is seen as the guy with the plan. romney campaigned with ryan in wisconsin. he was the only of the potential vice presidential candidates that when he appeared with ryan, the two actually got on the stage

for "nightline," jonathan karl at the i wall state fair. >> and things heat up. thanks to jon karl from iowa tonight. >>> and coming up, whitney houston had dreams of a comeback. backstage of the new film "sparkle" she cared so much. [ kyle ] my bad. [ roger ] tell me you have good insurance. yup, i've got... [ voice of dennis ] ...allstate. really? i was afraid you'd have some cut-rate policy. [ kyle ] nope, i've got... [ voice of dennis ] ...the allstate value plan. it's their most affordable car insurance -- and you still get an allstate agent. i too have... [ voice of dennis ]...allstate. [ roger ] same agent and everything. [ kyle ] it's like we're connected. no we're not. yeah we are. no...we're not. ♪ ask an allstate agent about the value plan. are you in good hands? ask an allstate agent about the value plan. i wish i could keep it this way. [ male announcer ] even after a dental cleaning... plaque quickly starts to grow back. but new crest pro-health clinical plaque control toothpaste can help. it not only reduces plaque... it's also clinically proven...

jonathan karl, abc news, washington. >>> hopefully the speculation will end some time next week.what they expect. i want to steer the conversation back to a story yesterday that i don't think got a lot of -- a lot of -- the coverage that it deserved. went into effect yesterday, in terms of the president's health care reform package, particularly because it impacts 50 million women around this country. starting yesterday all insurance companies were required to provide preventative care. women should talk to their doctors what is going to happen there, everything from birth control to hiv, sexually transmitted diseases, domestic violence, a lot of these things are covered here. it is a big deal. >> it is a big deal to women no question about it. i think especially when you're talking about, sort of that preventative medicine and birth control. which there was a study a while ago done i think about how much women do pay, especially college women for birth control and they can't afford it. what does that do to a young woman's life? and actually i got a rebate check in the mail yeste

jonathan karl, abc news, boston. >>> more than a million general electric dishwashers are consideredfe, safety expects say you should unplug them right now if you have one. 1.3 million dishwashers made by ge and sold under six brand names have defective heating elements. sold between 2006 and 2009. at least seven fires have been reported. but thank goodness no injuries. consumers should contact ge for details on repairs, replacements or rebates. >>> tropical storm ernesto is being blamed for two deaths after making landfall in mexico for the second time. ernesto came ashore in vera cruz, damaging homes and dumping up to ten inches of rain leaving people in waist-high water. it could dissipate by this afternoon. >>> nature's fury on display, powerful winds swept through champaign, illinois. so intense they left a freight train in shambles, ripping ten cars right off the tracks. no one was injured. that's some power. >> i mean, on -- >> freight train. >> on its side. >> usually it's the storm that sounds like the freight train. >> exactly. >> so the storm that sounded like the freight

our coverage begins with jonathan karl. >> reporter: mitt romney and running mate at his side and somes campaign. >> day two on our comeback tour to get america strong again to refill the promise of america. [ applause ] >> we are going to recapture something that some people thought was lost. >> reporter: in mooresville, north carolina, packed to capacity inside, several thousand more in overflow area outside. >> paul! paul! >> they were able to pass their entire legislative agenda virtually, and so what we got was stimulus, obama care -- [ booing ] >> you know what, north carolina, we can do better than this? [ applause ] >> reporter: down the road in hyde point, an even bigger crowd. >> our founders made it really explicit -- our rights come from nature and god and not from government. >> reporter: romney's wife ann seemed to be caught up in the excitement. jumping on stage to talk to the crowd for the first time in over a month. >> we are not going to take it anymore. we are taking the white house back. >> ryan's wife janna came on stage, too, but decided not to take the mike. afte

abc's jonathan karl has news tonight about republican candidate mitt romney closing in on his running mate. >> reporter: with mitt romney now back from his foreign trip, abc news has learned at least two of his potential running mates have been told to be ready for an announcement that could come any day. ♪ it's the veepstakes olympics. unlike the one in london, this has just one judge -- and ultimately one winner. who will make it to the podium? here are your finalists. there's rob portman -- mr. experience. senator, former house member. he's twice served in a presidential cabinet. and he's from ohio, the state that could decide it all. tim pawlenty, son of a truck driver. popular governor of minnesota. check it out. he's already appeared in a romney ad. making a late surge, paul ryan, 42, the man with the plan, called the path to prosperity to slash government spending and change medicare, giving seniors the option to buy private insurance instead. ryan is risky, a lightning rod. democrats will call him the man who would destroy medicare. that's the short list. but as dick cheney, w

jonathan karl, abc news, washington. >>> up next, our consumer watchdog report. we have learned that thousands of cars on the road right now are failing a brand-new kind of crash test. the common accident, often deadly. abc's senior national correspondent jim avila tells us which cars and why. >> reporter: the corner crash. when your car hits a power pole, another vehicle at the front fender today is responsible for 25% of america's 10,000 fatal head-on crashes each year. >> it just involves the front corner of the vehicle. it misses the strong energy absorbing structure that's in the middle. >> reporter: today the insurance institute releasing stunning, first of its kind crash tests, dramatically showing that most cars need more protection at the corners. of the 11 cars tested, all of them luxury vehicles with state of the art safety equipment, only three passed. the rest, suffered horrendous damage, that sent the test dummies crushed and banged into hard surfaces. >> that side of the vehicle that's struck is pushed in toward the occupant and your restraints ten

abc's jonathan karl reports on why bill clinton is suddenly so popular with both parties. >> reporter: look at the polls and you would think neither of these guys can win. take president obama, and one poll this week, 2/3 of voters said the country is going in the wrong direction. how does the man in charge get re-elected when so many are so pessimistic? no president ever has. but then, look at mitt romney. in the latest abc news/"washington post" poll, a mere 40% of americans see him favorably. about half just don't seem to like him. no challenger had such low favorability since abc news began polling in 1984. lower even than walter mondale and he went on to lose 49 states. but there is one man who suddenly find himself popular with both sides. >> i want to thank bill clinton. >> president clinton. >> president clinton. >> president bill clinton. >> that's right even mitt romney is looking for a little clinton magic. look who stars in his latest ad. >> america's basic bargain of providing opportunity and demanding in return responsibility. the ad makes the questionable claim that pre

. >> from the speaker of the house, we go to abc's jonathan karl here. tell me exactly where it stands in hard numbers. >> the race is basically tied. virtually tied in every battleground sa state. this vase a coin toss, diane, just like the last three campaigns going into the convention with a race with this tie. >> seems to be the way of politics these days. and they're supposed to come out with a change in that. a balance of how much? >> average is about seven points. they are counting on a bounce. they want a big bounce out of this convention. they want to leave here with a lead and they think they can. >> almost 40,000 people have watched these speeches in the past. it makes a big difference what happens on that stage in the next three days. >> this is the one chance to get the attention of the country to introduce mitt romney. this is who mitt romney is. >> how much is it going to change the dynamic of this all? >> they're full speed ahead. they've got contingency plans to change things. but they're full speed ahead. they're, of course, competing f

let's go to jonathan karl who has been covering paul ryan. lot more excitement, it seems to me, on the floor right now. everything seems to be louder, quicker, bigger? >> reporter: no doubt, diane. and we're in the wisconsin delegation right now. if you look over here, we've got a guy with a cheesehead. i tell you, when ryan comes out, this place will go nuts. wisconsin has been a state that's been very good to democrats on presidential level and they think romney/ryan has a chance to win it for the republicans this time around. ryan has been working on this speech with a team of top speech writers, two veterans of the bush white house. john mcconnell and matthew scully, who wrote the speeches after september 11th for president bush. and what i'm being told, this is going to be an optimistic speech. they say his approach will be smiling. he will be critical of the president, drawing contrast, but he will refer to him as the president of the united states. this will be a respectful speech, not a disparaging one, i'm told. and, as you can see,

jonathan karl reports from charlotte. >>> the next president of the united states -- >> next president of the united states, mitt romney. >> reporter: with a running mate, a burst of energy. >> november 6th, we take our country back! >> reporter: romney touted his pick's blue collar roots and his big ideas. ♪ ♪ >> we're gonna talk about issues and a vision for america and not drag in the dirt like you are seeing from the obama campaign. [ cheering [ >> reporter: the message this is a team with serious -- serious ideas for serious times. >> we won't duck the tough issues, we will lead. >> reporter: not just ideas, like almost all vp candidates ryan took to the role of attack dog. >> unpresident obama, unemployment has gone up. household incomes have gone down and the first time in our nation's history our credit was downgraded. [ booing ] >> reporter: how did ryan get to virginia without anyone knowing he would be romney's pick? while reporters staked out his house friday in wisconsin, ryan snuck out the backdoor and escaped notice by going through a wooded ravine behind his house. ryan

george will, jonathan karl covers congress and politics for us.n jones, former obama adviser. and ann coulter whose book is now out in paperbook. george, let's start out on the economy. coming off friday's employment report. you see good news/bad news for either political side. we have the economy, the economic table is set pretty much going into the election? >> yes, july was the 42nd consecutive month of unemployment over 8%. august, we can be fairly sure it will be the 43rd month. in 2011, we created on average 150,000 jobs a month. through 2012, 51,000 a month. 172,000 this most recent month. that means we're creating 50,000 more jobs a month than necessary just to keep pace with the growth of the workforce. that means if we're going to reduce this notion of unemployment out there, in increments of 50,000 a month, would take us ten years. this is not a happy picture. >> no way it can be under 8% on election day >> i wouldn't say no way. it's 8.2%. it could go down a little bit. the fact is, this was a pretty good month, 160,000-plus new jobs a

jonathan karl, abc news, washington. >> it would just be nice for the speculation to be over. >> theme. i know, i know. >> let's do it already. convention coming up at the end of the month. should be interesting, too. a lot of folks think he is going to go with the safer, anti-palin choice. may if with portman, one because of portman's roots there. could determine the election. seems like a logical choice. portman is strong on foreign policy. such a calculation. you have to wonder which way they'll go. they kept it -- did a beautiful job keeping it secret. >> i think portman makes a lot of sense. >> it does. that would be a pretty strong ticket. he is the safe guy. he is more relatable in a sense than some of the other candidates. >> we'll see what he does. bravo to the campaign. they kept it very close to the chest on this one, last several weeks. so days away now. all right. >>> moving on this morning. jared lee loughner agreed to a plea deal in the deadly shooting outside a tucson shopping center. loughner admitted he killed six and wounded 12 others including, of course, congress

jonathan karl joins us from washington with that. good morning to you. now that romney is back home, how long before we have an announcement here? >> reporter: the campaign won't say. i can tell you this, josh. two people on his list of potential running mates have been told to be standing by to be ready for announcement any day, now that he is back. they are planning a bus tour on august 10th, which looks like a really good place to introduce your nominee. as for how they'll do it, josh, is they released an app called mitt's v.p. it's coming soon. >> who is on the short list, that seems to change by the moment? >> reporter: you have rob portman of ohio. tim pawlenty of minnesota. and paul ryan of wisconsin. others are in the mix. marco rubio, kelly ayotte, and bobby jindal. >> we'll wait to see what the app says there. jon karl, we appreciate it. >>> now, to baseball hall of famer, cal ripken jr. his mother kidnapped, abducted at gunpoint. fortunately, these back home and doing well. now, there's newly-released surveillance tape of the man that could be

it's "your voice, your vote" with abc's jonathan karl. and the roll call to officially nominate mitt romney is this afternoon. all speeches set to go tonight. but a wary eye on isaac. >> reporter: officials are watching as isaac heads towards new orleans. what they're worried about is the image of it slamming the gulf coast, as they have a big celebration here. technically, the convention has already started. >> it's my privilege to proclaim the 2012 republican national convention in session and called to order. >> reporter: the first session lasted just 32 seconds. long enough to take the first swipe at president obama. >> we also want to draw your attention to the unprecedented fiscal recklessness of the obama administration. >> reporter: the storm didn't delay the protesters. they managed to briefly block all traffic around the convention site. paul ryan made one last campaign stop before heading to tampa to accept the vice presidential nomination. a homecoming visit to his native janesville, wisconsin. >> hello, janesville. it's good

i wouldn't count on jonathan karl to ask an honest question. on him to challenge anything the right-wingers say frankly. i don't even watch abc news. i think they're all in the tank for the romney campaign. but hey, doug, just in the interest of time, i really appreciate the call. jeremy, just a final comment on what doug said. that is the problem right? their job is to challenge. if they don't challenge they'll lose their jobs, as far as i'm concerned. >> right. they're providing a public service. i think -- you know, we live in cynical times. i think people do have this notion, both sides do, they're all stretching the truth. they're all trying to create a certain reality. one commenter looked at the paul ryan piece we were talking about earlier asked if this was the most dishonest convention speech ever. so we're looking at kind of pushing into new bounds -- new area of stretching the truth and dishonesty. and again, just saying that we're not going to be dictated to by the fact checkers. it is a real challenge for the media. >> bill: it sho

i am jonathan karl. >> i am david calian. thank you for turning into newsmakers life.oughout our discussions, be sure to tweet us questions. we will try to get a real time questions back to our esteemed panel. >> i have no idea who is running the mitt romney campaign now. we have them right here. neil millhouse, beth myers, eric fehrnstorm. thank you for joining us. i have to start with the weather. obviously you cannot control it. but you can control the convention. do you think we will see with this storm bearing down on new orleans, any further adjustments that have to be made to the message or the schedule? >> we are on track for study in the convention today. we are keeping our schedule acted. we are keeping a close eye on the weather and we will make adjustments accordingly. >> what does that mean? how're you tracking this and what kind of adjustments? >> i think everyone is watching the weather. we will wait and see what happens. >> we have heard of this conference call to your colleague -- not only are you watching it but you are aware there could be some tonal

jonathan, your super pac linked to karl rove. it was monday, i believe, that joe scarborough said listen, karl rove and the other heavyweights of this party will have to get out front and show this man they're not backing him. american crossroads, the president released a statement stephen law saying representative akin faces a simple choice, will he help democrats hold the mccaskill and potentially the senate majority by staying in the race. here we are now, he is still in the race and not backing down. what are your feelings? >> first of all, todd akin's candidacy is dead, whether he realizes that or not. he's probably taking a poll and will be able to determine that condition cluesively. the facts are his candidacy is dead. there's no way he can win. as long as he's on the ballot, we cannot be talking about the issues that matter most to americans, economy, taxes, debt. instead we're talking about todd akin. he needs to leave the ballot for the good of his country. we can move on to bigger and better things. >> you've said dem

. >> karl: 36 combined run, adding to their little league world series record. jonathan seals. that one got him on the leg. he's going to go down to first base. this game has now surpassed the three-hour mark. and for tennessee, we're back to the top of the order. not sure we all thought the lights would be necessary. here's jake rucker, who got this inning started. every time he's led off an inning, he got something started. he's been on base four times. down the line. fair ball. he's on again. rounding second, heading to third. he's being waved in. seals is going score! what an answer for tennessee. after giving up ten runs in the bottom of the sixth. they scored seven of their own in the top of the seventh. safe? >> nomar: no. >> karl: second hit of the inning for jake rucker, who brings us to jason brown who also has a single this inning. >> nomar: i can say unequivocally, the little league world series has never seen a championship like this. >> karl: brock myers, is on deck. will they get to him with two outs? that ball is gone! jason brown joins the home run barrage. the

. >> karl: 36 combined run, adding to their little league world series record. jonathan seals. that one got him on the leg. he's going to go down to first base. this game has now surpassed the three-hour mark. and for tennessee, we're back to the top of the order. not sure we all thought the lights would be necessary. here's jake rucker, who got this inning started. every time he's led off an inning, he got something started. he's been on base four times. down the line. fair ball. he's on again. rounding second, heading to third. he's being waved in. seals is going score! what an answer for tennessee. after giving up ten runs in the bottom of the sixth. they scored seven of their own in the top of the seventh. safe? >> nomar: no. >> karl: second hit of the inning for jake rucker, who brings us to jason brown who also has a single this inning. >> nomar: i can say unequivocally, the little league world series has never seen a championship like this. >> karl: brock myers, is on deck. will they get to him with two outs? that ball is gone! jason brown joins the home run barrage. the

jonathan martin, you -- >> he always does, doesn't he? always start with his politico. >> you had karlsked about the tax return situation. >> right. >> here is what strategist karl rove said. sarah, i want to get your reaction on this, too. >> this is an issue that has hurt romney because, again, it's fed people who already have an instinct and suspicion about him. he's a rich guy. must be hiding something. i've always been a little mistyfied by romney's response. i would have called them earlier and more forcefully than they have. >> jonathan, to sum up -- it was tougher for us to hear. >> i heard it. >> rove mystified about how the romney campaign has handled this situation. >> thought romney had a bad summer, in part, because he was acting strangely when it came to his tax returns. why keep that an issue, drag it out and not put more of them out there to stop the issue? haley barbour, by the way, made similar comments later in the morning and had a very memorable line talking about the obama campaign trying to portray romney as this exotic rich guy. he said they're trying to portray