tory dunnan has more. what's the message? >> reporter: i could tell you they seem pretty energized.he speeches have already started at this point. you're hearing cheering and boost. people are into what the singers are saying. as far as the message, they're focusing a lot on the middle class thiseek, focusing on making sure this is a convention about including people and some of the victories they consider, things like the auto bailout as well as healthcare. there's this brand-new poll tha came out that's going to relate to this. mitt romney got a 1% bump from last week's convention. that moves everything from a virtual tie to an actual tie and president obama is going to have to put on a big performance on thursday night to get bump as well. >> wall, the speeches tonight including governor o'malley at 10:00 followed by a relatively unknown mayor from texas, san antonio. what's this about? >> reporter: yes, san antonio mayor julian castro. not a lot of people know about him but he takes to the national stage tonight. he is 37 years old. he's a rising star in the democratic party and

tory dunnan joins us live from washington. if this is real -- this is really a critical time, especially for mitt romney, correct? >> reporter: kelly, it s he's gearing up for the final stages of his political campaign. first, today he's in colorado and he moved on to another critical battleground state. after a week of criticism from both democrats and republicans, mitt romney is hoping to get back on track. >> i will do better than this president has done for the american people. >> reporter: romney will focus on a hand full of tossup states that will ultimately decide the election. tomorrow he kicks off a four-day six city tour. the president leads 60 to 45%. >> mitt romney attacked 47% of americans who made no income tax. >> reporter: meanwhile the obama campaign is out with a new add hitting romney on the 47% ad in a closed door fund-raiser. >> doesn't the president have to worry about everyone? >> reporter: as for tomorrow the president will address the u.n. general assembly. today obama's opponent is hitting him on his

torey dunnan joins us live from washington. the work begun. >> reporter: the first presidential debate is just five days away. now the candidates are studying they are preparing and trying to lower expectations. >> senator mccain and president bush had a very different judgment. >> reporter: mitt romney and president obama are no strangers to debates. combined participated in dozens of debates over the past two election cycles. a lot is at stake this wednesday in denver. >> i would put medicare and social security in a lock box. >> reporter: in 2000, algore held an 8 point lead over george bush before the first debate. right after his lead vanished, the two were tied at 43. this year, each side is making efforts to lower expectations. this memo obtained, is written by romney advisor, beth meyers, she talks glowingly about the president's debate record, siting where americans declared him the winner over john mccain each time. you make your opponent out to be unbeatable, regardless of what is said, you can declare a victory of s

tory dunnan, live for us in washington. >> forget all those polls. here's the real scientific measure to see who will win the white house. 7 eleven cups for the fourth consecutive -- obama supporter blue cups, romney red cups. the 7 eleven election results have been on target. in 2008 they predicted correctly that barack obama would win. >>> a national award winning humor writer is giving back to her alma matter. she's publishing her first book "finding her dream home" with all the proceeds supporting catholic high schools science programs. this alum is making a difference. >> reporter: michelle "wojo" remembers her days as a student at the catholic high school. today she's front and center talking about her accomplishments as an author with proceeds benefiting catholic high. >> to remember when you start to do well, give back. give back because i have a lot of good memories of being here this helped for me as a young woman and i think it's important to have it come full circle. >> wojo released her first book. she's part of a comedy book, heaven hel

tory dunnan joins us now from the site of this week's democratic national convention in charlotte, northcarolina i know things are just getting underway. tell us what's happening now. >> reporter: organizers at the dnc are making sure things are ready. you have supporters and delegates arriving in charlotte. one thing that will be different is, of course, the message. democrats watched republicans in tampa hammer the president on the economy. >> millions of americans are unsure about their future. >> that money wasn't just spent and wasted it. was borrowed, spent and wasted. >> we must reign -- reign in the skyrocketing cost. >> reporter: with the tough question, whether voters are better off now than four years ago. >> folks, let me make something clear and slay it to the press. america is better off today than they left us when they left. >> reporter: here convention hall democrats will unveil a star studded lineup to match the enthusiasm from four years ago. >> you know my husband has your back. >> reporter: first lady michelle obama on tuesday. former president bill clinton on wednes

tory dunnan joins u live from washington. yesterday it was ohio. where were the candidates taking their message to today? >> they decided to hold events at pretty much the same time. let's take a look hoot the numbers. this is a cnn poll. it shows president obama has a lead over mitt romney 50% to 44%. both decided to criticize each other's economic plans. >> my opponent a big believer in topdown economics. we tried it in the last decade before i was elected president. it didn't work then and it won't work now. >> our economy needs to be reinvigorated and the president has laid out his plan. it's a continuation of the old plan. we can't afford four more years of the last four years, all right? >> reporter: back in 2008 virginia ended up going to obama. he was the first democrat to take the state since 1964. >> troy, both candidates have new ads out. tell us what we can expect to hear in the new campaign ads? >> reporter: let's start with the obama campaign. they release lad scaightsing new ad today -- scathing new ad today. basically it uses those

tory dunnan joins us from washington. set this up. why is the buckeye state so important this year. >> reporter: well, kelly, all you have to do is take a look at map. you can understand why the candidates are spending so much time in ohio. this is cnn's electoral map. 237 to 191. on election day you need to reach 270 for a victory. the tossup states are in yellow. say president obama wins ohio, his numbers go up to 255. say he wins another huge state like florida and he is at 284. all of a sudden it's game over. now you see why the candidates are focused on the buckeye state. >> very different messages for mitt romney and president obama. who are they talking to and where in ohio? >> reporter: mitt romney is in the middle of this campaign bus tour through the state. it's lasting three days. he's doing three campaign rally. this is the latest poll showing president obama with a 51%, 44% lead. >> there's so many in our country that are hurting right now. i want to help them. i know what it takes to get an economy going again. >> report

tory dunnan joins us from convention central in charlotte. on the agenda?he democrats. >> reporter: this is a huge night. former president bill clinton will be speaking hours from now. you can expect him to rally support for president obama. what we know about his speech so far is that he's going to be focusing on bigger issues, the economy, not so much on going after mitt romney but some more information. clinton, as far as he goes, he's a top surrogate for the obama campaign and has appeared in lots of campaign ads. there's a slight risk he may overshadow president obama because he does have that high popularity rating. despite this he will be giving that prime-time speech and formally nominating the president. >> all right. a lot of people are still talking about michelle obama's dress, her speech, what are you hearing about that? >> reporter: people stalking about the dress and some people saying they feel like they have to go work out after seeing that dress and the way this looked. let's talk more about the speech itself because that's way more import

tory dunnan joins us live from washington. hello. we don't often get a chance to hear the scanneds talk about these types of issues, do we? >> reporter: we don't. either candidate mentioned the other but it was clear that politics were at play. >> thank you very much oar while speaking to the united nations general assembly president obama addressed the recent deadly lay tacks in the middle east. >> this violence and intolerance has no place among our united nations. >> reporter: he criticized the video that led to the widespread violence. at the same time obama -- >> i will always defend their right to do so. >> reporter: the romney campaign criticized obama for not being tough enough on iran. today the president sought to silence his critics. >> we believe there is time and space to do so. that time is not unlimited. >> reporter: mitt romney spoke at the clinton global initiative. he argued global stability comes through economic success. >> nothing we cran do as a nation will change lives and nations more effectively and permanent

tory dunnan joins us live from washington. what did we learn today? >> reporter: mitt romney's camming pain promised to release two years of tax return and they did just that. here's a summary of what we found in them. the romneys reported an income of $13.7 million, paid more than $2 million in taxes, a tax rate of 14.1%. the majority of income that year was from investments. the romneys donated $4 million to charity which equates to 30% of their income. this is interesting as well. also released was a summary of returns from the years 1990 to tween. it was in the form of a notetor rised letter from romney's tax preparer. it said over a 20-year period, the average rate was 20%. now people are questioning the timing of this release. remember, it's been a rough couple of weeks for the romney campaign, especially with the comments made behind closed doors at the fund-raiser in may. the romney campaign said, listen, there was no strategy behind this. it was ready, and that's why it was released. >> we saw a showdown on medicare. take us through the highl

tory dunnan has the highlights from today's event. what have the candidates been up to?> reporter: we haven't seen much mud slinging today. both candidates have decided to pull dunn their attack ads for the day as everyone remembers 9/11. >> reporter: president obama put on his commander in chief day. his message, different from what we've seen on the campaign trail in recent weeks. today it was all about unit. >> the true legacy of 9/11 will not be about fear, hate or division. this will be a safer world a stronger nation and a people more united than ever before. >> reporter: mitt romney adopted the same tone at his speech at the national guard association in nevada. >> we remember with heavy hearts, the tragic loss of life and thankfulfulness to those who responded. >> reporter: paul ryan spoke previously to the national guard. >> i just wanted to come mon the anniversary of 9/11 and say thank you. >> reporter: and vice-president joe biden joined families in pennsylvania to remember flight 93. >> it's a bittersweet moment for the indoor nation, for all the -- entire n

tory dunnan, given what's going on in libya, yemen, foreign policy has got to be a hot button. >> reporter: for a second day in a row, the debate over foreign policy takes center page. at a campaign event in virginia, mitt romney continued to criticize the president. >> as we watch the world today, sometimes we're at the mercy of the events. >> reporter: meanwhile, president obama spoke in an event in colorado and stuck to a presidential tone. >> what we see on our television there's still threats to the world and we have to remain vigilant. >> reporter: kelly, the vice-president is also busy on the campaign trail. earlier he made a stop in wisconsin, which has recently become another tossup state and found out that president obama heads there next week for a fund-raiser. >> a little bit out from the conventions. what are we seeing from the poling numbers. >> reporter: the president was in colorado. this is a brand-new poll from american research griew. obama has a slide lead over romney, 49%, 47%. ohio, the president at 48%, romney 47%. that's a dead heat. michigan the president has a 10

tory dunnan joins us from washington. no surprise democrats are jumping over this hidden recording. set this up. >> reporter: all this started yesterday when a liberal magazine called mother jones actually circulated the hidden camera of mitt romney speaking at a private fund-raiser. today it's causing quite a stir but the republican candidate is not backing down. >> it's not elegantly stated. >> reporter: it comes from a private fund-raiser back in may. at one point romney talks about voters who rely on government programs and he argues president obama. >> 47% are with him who believe they're victims, who believe the government has the responsibility to care for them. my job is not to worry about those people. >> reporter: monday night, romney defended the meaning behind his words. >> do you believe in a govement-centered sheet that provides more and more been fits or do you believe instead in a free enterprise society where people are able to pursue their descreems? i believe the latter. >> reporter: the other one shows him joking about his father's background and the influence of