charlotte en route to portsmouth, new hampshire, and that's where we find our white house correspondent dan lothian. dan, how damaging to the president could this latest jobs report be? >> reporter: well, look, it had the numbers really been more positive than this, then you could argue that it would have moved the needle in a more significant way, especially coming out of the democratic national convention. the president could go out there on the campaign trail and say, look, we are making some significant gains. we expect that what we'll hear from the white house, though, is that there's still a lot of pain. there's still a lot of work to be done. but nonetheless, a little bit of progress is being made. but obviously, this is something that republicans now can go after the president as we've seen already from rience priebus, the chairman of the rnc, who is saying that the president so far has not been able to deliver on his number one promise, and that is job creation. in fact, in a tweet, he tweeted out, quote, no wonder they couldn't fill bank of america stadium. over 300,000 americans left the

dan lothian thank you live for us on the south lawn. you will be able to see president obama address the united nations general assembly. we will carry it live on cnn. you can set your dvr if you like. >>> recent events overseas have given voters more to think about when it comes to foreign policy. mitt romney talked about the challenges during campaign speech last night in denver. >> the president has a foreign poli that has been characterized as leading from behind. by the way, that is another word for being a follower. we have heavy hearts as we lost diplomats overseas in libya and heavy hearts as we see our flag being torn and burned. this is a challenging time as we look around the world. >> what do voters think? in this new poll the majority of voters favor president obama when it comes to foreign policy. there are the numbers there. so moving on a little bit. these caused sparks to fly. don't be surprised if the iranian president, mahmoud ahmadinejad does it again this week and if the remarks cause the u.s. and several other dele

but my other colleague, dan lothian, is awaiting the president at norfolk state university. the theme of the dnc convention, dan, is middle class. and yet all i keep seeing is the president showing up on university campuses and going for that young vote. >> that's right. but when you look around the crowd, you will see a lot of middle class voters, not only here, but in some of the other battleground states where the president has visited in most recent days. i was talking to a campaign senior aide who told me that the president will continue to focus on what he has done to make life better for middle class americans, continue to go after his opponent, mitt romney for as the president puts it, not offering up any new ideas. and he'll be making that pitch again to voters here in the battleground state of virginia, an important state that the president won in 2008. it was the first down that a democrat had done that in more than 40 years so the president trying to keep this state blue. but even as he's touting some of his accomplishments, republicans continue to hammer the pres

. >> dan lothian is in washington. pew research is out with a poll that says president obama's approval ratings when comes to foreign policy has slipped down five points. is the bin laden is deadline no longer resonating as much? >> reporter: well, look. the president still sees the tracking down bin laden and killing him as a major accomplishment of his administration. but you would have to take a look at what else is happening in the world even beyond that. you have a lot of unrest in places like libya and egypt and yemen. these are, you know, these are issues that are causing a lot of people to take a closer look at foreign policy and question the arab spring and what the real value was of that -- that revolt and protest that led to major democratic changes. the president for his part says that they always believed, the administration always believed that the changes in the region would eventually play out. but in the meantime, that there would be some difficult days ahead. and so i think it's probably shortsighted,

i spoke earlier to cnn political analyst david gergen and white house correspondent dan lothian. david, you heard the ambassador talking. obviously he's not going to wade into the u.s. politics in the midst of an election. what do you make of what he said of where israel stands? >> well, i think the first thing was that the deadline has been pushed back to six to nine months, which means there's not going to be an attack during the elections, which from the white house point of view is a great relief. but we've got a very serious issue on the table, the next president. that is, the israelis are telling the united states, look, the red line is when the iranians get the technological capability to build a bomb, we then feel we have to attack. previously, the united states government has been telling israel, no, the red line should be when they actually get a bomb. >> acquire it, right. >> had they acquire it. >> the difference between acquiring and the capabilities. >> exactly. you brought that out in the interview. from the israeli point of view that's way too late. but there's a

dan lothian at the white house. thanks very much, live for us this morning. it merits repeating that they have had a strained relationship almost from day one. here with me to talk about the diplomatic implications, foreign affairs reporter elise levitt. you have been watching this all week and seen all the accusations. is what dan just reported on enough to smooth the ruffled feathers? is this over? >> these guys don't love each other. they don't love the different styles and i think both of them wanted to provoke each other a little bit. the reason they never mitt, prime minister netanyahu saying strong words about president obama and what he perceived as foot-dragging on the so-called red line on iran and so president obama kind of said, not going to meet with you. >> enough of that. >> and i think at the end of the day these two countries, they do work very closely together and the issue of iran is so important, and there are fundamental disagreements not necessarily on the scope and pace of iran's nuclear program but how to go about it and what that thre

our white house correspondent dan lothian has details. dan? >> well, wolf n the key battleground state of ohio where polls show an almost even race, president obama continued the to sharpen his convention message, casting himself as the champion of the middle class. but still going after republicans criticizing last week's republican national convention and mitt romney for what the president said he didn't do. offer any new ideas. the president also offered up his own sports analogy, trying to counter an attack from mitt romney that america needs a new coach. >> on first down he hikes taxes by nearly $2,000 on the average family with kids in order to pay for a massive tax cut for multimillionaires. on second down, he calls an audible and undoes reforms there to prevent another financial crisis and bank bailout. and then on third down he calls for a hail mary. ending medicare as we know it. there's a flag on the play. loss of up to an additional than you get now. i have a piece of advise for you, ohio. punt it away. it won't work. it won't win

. >> my colleague, dan lothian is at norfolk state university. dan, first of all, one of the lines that was interesting, there were people who were booing in the audience when they heard about some of the things coming out of romney's camp, his plans and his policies. the president said, don't boo, go vote. how worried are they that they need to drum up, right, they need to drum up and get those folks out to the polls? >> reporter: well, they certainly are trying to get the base fired up. you saw that not only here, but yesterday when i was traveling with the president in ohio, he's speaking to largely friendly audiences so you're seeing dramatic response from the voterses as he's addressing. by the way, you're hearing the marching band from norfolk state university behind me. so i'm competing with some music here. but the president, as i pointed out, he is addressing these friendly audiences and trying to tout his accomplishments while at the same time saying that republicans are not offering up any new ideas. in addition, though, to the typical

white house correspondent dan lothian live in washington. sident is going to visit kent state and bowling green and not, let's say, ohio state. kent and bowling green are more in blue collar areas of the state of ohio. columbus is more white collar. >> that's right. what you see is the president reaching out to younger voters as you were pointing out. they have strong support among this group. there had been a lot of concern earlier on whether or not the president could recapture some of the enthusiasm that he had among young people back in 2008. some of them were frustrated, disappointed with this administration and had sort of raised some concerns about where their support would come in this election. so you've seen the president spend a lot of time on college campuses talking about pell grants, talking about making it easier for students to be able to afford to go to college. really trying to, again, recapture some of the strong support that he had in 2008 among young people who were critical to that election victory. >> dan, i'm sorry. i'

dan lothian, thanks, dan.ways. >>> just a handful of swing states could decide who is going to win the presidential race. polls showing president obama with alight edge in several of hers. ul, first of alle've go poll numbers, and it looks like somethese swing states are very much still in play. some not so much. what do we know? >> you know, let's not talk about ohio and florida because we've talked about them so much in the last couple of days. let's talk about the other swing states. a brand new poll out in virginia has the president up by just two points. take a look at that. we factored into a cnn poll of polls. this averages all the most recent polls in virginia. we have it at 49% for obama. 49% for romney. so it's a pretty close call -- close contest in virginia. 13 electoral votes at stake there. of course, the president won virginia four years ago. the first democrat to do that since 1964. how about new hampshire? mern research group out. take a look at this. 50% for the president. 45% for mitt romney

so let's look ahead with dan lothian.the president going to do to hang on to hispanic votes? does he need to do thinking snig. >> -- does he need to do anything? >> reporter: he's still pushing very hard. you see the president first of all running spanish language ads in key battleground states, heavy hispanic populations like florida, colorado, and nevada, and in these ads touting his accomplishments. this one that you're looking at right there talking about how president obama appointed the first hispanic to the supreme court. the president pushing very hard. and has spent heavily on these ads, which tracks ad spending, the president's campaign has spent more than $5.1 million on these spanish language ads. mitt romney, who's also trying to get a piece of the hispanic vote, has spent himself $3.1 million on these hispanic ads. of course, you know, you talked a little bit about the polling, the exit polling from 2008. so that's very clear. and what we're seeing now in the most recent gallup polls, the president is pretty

our white house correspondent dan lothian is standing by.ning new video and witness accounts of the attack and the last moments of ambassador chris stevens. cnn senior international correspondent arwa damon is in benghazi. >> reporter: this is the first thing fahud says he saw and filmed at the consulate compound. the cafeteria building up in flames. it was shortly before midnight september 11th. the smoke so thick the compound's main house is barely visible. and then this. after breaking through window men shout they found a body. suddenly one of them cries out, he's alive, he's alive. the crowd cheers. god is great. rushing for a car, they realize it's a foreigner. i was filming the video and i thought it was an american, fahed recalls, but i thought it was a driver or security guy. i never thought it was the ambassador. it's clear from the rest of the video that the man they pulled out was ambassador christopher stevens. fahed says he was alive but barely. he had a pulse and his eyes were moving, fahed says. his mouth was black from all t

. >> white house correspondent dan lothian is with me now.l continue to daunt the obama administration because a lot of people feel that republicans have a point. >> you're right because there has been a lot as you pointed out conflicting information. there have been a lot of questions asked of jay carney, white house spokesman, at just about every briefing and trying to get at how the administration views the attack and for so long he held with the narrative that it was a spontaneous attack that was sparked by this controversial film. then he used the word terrorism. that is something the president himself has not said but as jay carney was questioned yesterday he said he speaks for the president but it is much different when the president actually says that word. the question is why is there that conflicting information and the way that white house aids describe it is that the information they released initially was based on the assessment that was made on the intelligence that they had at the time and that the fbi was doing an investigatio

. >> back with john king and dan lothian traveling with the president and jim costa with the romney campaigndoes the housing issue impact both candidates? s awe said it will come down to a few king states. >> no question. there's been a national crisis. guess what, some of those happen to be in the key swing states. this is foreclosures across the country. if you're seeing light there aren't a lot of foreclosures. let's look here. you see a lot in florida, in michigan, a lot in this part of ohio. a lot in the corners of nevada, northwest corner here. i want to do something. look at these. those are all swing states, florida, ohio, michigan. nevada. watch when we do this. take this off and turn this on. this is guy buy county, presidential four years ago by county. look where i circled. important to the president, important to the president up here and down here. you can make the case the problem is exacerbated. higher foreclosures in places around the country critical to the president. one more point i want to take if you take this out. look nationally at home prices down 166,000 whet presid

. >> i'm dan lothian at the white house.eek for president obama as he faces his gop opponent in the first presidential debate in denver on wednesday. a lot is riding on the performance of each candidate. and both campaigns are trying to lower expectations. now, following the debate, the president will spend the next two days campaigning in the important battleground state of ohio. by the way, president obama will prepare for the debates in nevada where he'll also hold a campaign rally. >>> i'm paul steinhauser on the campaign trail. republican presidential nominee mitt romney flies to colorado tomorrow. he holds a rally in the swing stattomorrow night before hunkering down for final preparations. meanwhile his wingman, running mate paul ripian campaigns at the beginning of the week in iowa. >>> i'm poppy harlow in new york. all eyes will be on the economy this week. the big news for wall street comes on friday with the september jobs report. of course, that is key for the market, but it's also key in the race for the white h

. >> back now with john king, also dan lothian and jim acosta with the romney campaign.ow could the housing issue impact both candidates? it's an important issue nationwide but it will come down to a few key swing states. >> no question, anderson. it's a national crisis but exacerbated in some parts of the country. this is foreclosures across the country. darker the color, the more you have foreclosures. a lot in florida, michigan, this part of ohio. you see a lot here in the corners of nevada, the northwest corner down in here. look at these. those are all swing states, florida, ohio, michigan, watch this when we do this. take this off and turn this on, back in time, this is by county, presidential election four years ago by county. look at where i circled counties important to the president up here and down here. you can make the case that the problem has been exacerbated, higher foreclosures in places around the country that are critically important to the president. one more point if you pull this out, nevada has been hit the hardest. look nationally at home prices,

dan lothian has been traveling with the president.e asked likely voters, which candidate would better handle taxes, what do the numbers say? >> president obama the democrat. at the moment, the president has the edge, a number of reasons why. majority, 51-46. close, but advantage to the president. one of the reasons why. you ask likely voters who attended college, 52% for president obama. we have to match those up as those who describe themselves as moderates. 58% describe themselves as moderates. they tend to live in the suburbs. an important advantage for the president. taxes part of the economic debate. not all bad for governor romney. state of florida, more from our most recent poll. older voters, tend to be more reliable. voters 50 years of age and older. again, more reliable voting group. 54% support governor romney. 42% for president obama, obviously, jobs number one part of the economy. on taxes, at the moment, an advantage for the president. >> governor romney has been criticized by fellow republicans by not raising out enough

dan lothian and jim acosta with the romney campaign.polling, we asked likely voters which candidate would better handle taxes, what did they say? >> president obama, anderson. republicans normally have the edge, but at this moment, the president does. 51% to 46%. close but advantage to the president. here's why. when you ask voters, those who attended college, you see the president, 52% support on the tax issue among those who attended college. now we're going to match that up with those who describe themselves as moderates. 58% of moderates support the president. moderates, college educated people tend to live in the suburbs. it's not all bad news for governor romney. in florida, if you look at older voters, they tend to be more reliable. these are voters 50 and older. 54% support governor romney on taxes and 42% for president obama. so jobs is a number one, but taxes a subset, at the moment, advantage to the president. >> governor romney has been criticized for not laying out enough specifics in the tax plan, particularly what loophol

also national political correspondent, jim acosta and white house correspondent dan respondent dan lothianart with president obama. he promised to wind down the war in afghanistan. where does that stand? >> anderson, he says he wants to wind it down by 2014 and that effort is on the way but a long ways to go. let's take a look by the numbers at america's longest war. if you bring up u.s. troop levels in afghanistan, currently this is a june number, 88,000, we are down to 70,000 now. if you go back in time, remember the initial deployment back in december 2001, 2500 troops. you see the escalation during the early bush administration but here was the big spike. this is president obama's surge, 67, then 97, just shy of 100,000 troops in afghanistan. again, it was down to 88,000 by june. we are told by the pentagon tonight that number is 70,000 with the troops coming out. as we make a point about that, we should also remember the toll of afghanistan, the more than ten years of fighting in afghanistan. you see the spike in fatalities, this is combat deaths, other deaths in afghanistan, military