. >> i would say geraldine ferraro and sarah palin were memorable. >> certainly sarah palin's was and geraldine ferraro's was a great symbolic moment, certain >> ifill: okay, thank you, david mark, michael and richard back in washington. our convention coverage continues online where we reach beyond the sky box and offer you an all access pass to events on the floor and around town. watch the main speeches and highlights on our you tube page and catch the entire proceedings from the convention floor on our live stream. >> woodruff: of course, we have much more on our web site. you can follow the conversation on twitter using the #pbselection. and you can explore electoral college scenarios in our vote 2012 map center. hari sreenivasan explains. >> sreenivasan: we're going to take a deep dive into the digital map center you can find on our web site at newshour dot pbs.org. christina bellantoni, thanks for being with us. people notice these yellow states, why are they tossups? >> we've looked at the states the associated press ranks as tossups and they're tossups because it means they'r

just like asking why can't women get on the ticket, like ferraro? if i can do that, why can't other people do it? the whole idea was to be a capitalist for change, to be some ray of hope for tomorrow. when i first ran the big idea was could a black run, should a black run, we just felt all that. but the time 2008 came around, we were knocking down the walls to build the bridges. never surrender! keep hope alive! keep hope alive! >> where we are met with cynicism and doubt and those who tell us that we can't, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people -- yes, we can. thank you. god bless you. and may god bless the united states of america. >> that was on election night. i saw you standing out with the people watching president obama give his presidential acceptance speech. and you were crying. >> there was a lot going on, you know. we were in that same grant park, across the street from where we are, 40 years before then, '68, facing tear gas. so that nigh it was -- it was both the moment and the memory. the moment w

last month, ferraro promised the returns would be made public then last weekend revealed her husbanderself again, after talking with mondale, her financial advisors and her husband. >> the couple released six years of tax forms and showed they owed $53,000 in back taxes and interest on a real estate deal. documents also showed taxes that added up to 41% of their income as well. in the current campaign, former massachusetts governor mitt romney refused to release tax returns other than his 2010 and preliminary one from 2011. this week the former governor's camp said that romney paid a tax rate of at least 13% every year for the past ten years. as for vice presidential candidate paul ryan, he released fwo years of tax returns this week. it showed he paid a tax rate of 20% last year and 15.9% in 2010. >>> switch gears now. must see, must avoid. whitney houston's final film make its big screen debut. teaming up with jordin sparks in "sparkle." >> sparkle, you can have a gift. it's how you use it. >> the film is set in the 1960s, following three sisters, on their quest for girl group star

geraldine ferraro was a bold pick. >> kelly: a lot of us remember jack ke com or geraldine ferraro firsts vice presidential pick. how well do you think congressman paul ryan will resonate with the american people not just the conseralvtie base? >> i think he is likable. he has a young family. he is handsome and energetic. he has big ideas and big issues. he has middle american values. i think he is still not quite a household name yet. she house member. he is not a senator or governomr there will be an introduction of him. it's important for the romney campaign to introrodce hf obama does. >> kelly: give me the difference between ryan and joe biden. sf differences? >> similarities, they are both very smart. they understand domestic policy. they go deep on the issues. joe biden is quite holder than paul ryan. joe biden speaks more from the hiemp he is being known as aggressive truth teller. ryan is more gqurded. i think it be an interesting debated between biden and ryan. >> keloba: also the sf that both men are irish catholics. how may that play from voters from a called background but t

>> bob: $5 million over the weekend raising money for romney, we raised $5 million for geraldine ferrarot was 20 years ago. not surprising that you see money coming in. >> eric: is it surprising andrea mitchell saying the women vote won't go to paul ryan? >> bob: no. >> eric: example number three, this is "60 minutes" and about what they did not show you. last night, bob schaefer asked paul ryan about medicare. great answer from the congressman. hit it out of the park. but cbs left it on the cutting room floor and didn't put it on the show, even though they did put it online where nobody watched. take a look. >> in america, the nature of this country has been giving people more freedom, more choices. that's how we make medicare work down the road. >> you'll have to do a little selling. explain florida. >> our point is we need to prefer their benefit because government promised them they organize retirement. to make sure we can do that you must reform it for those of white house are younger. reforms are good reform. they started from the clinton commission in the late '90s. >> eric: that

ryan has only been a member of congress, haven't had a member on the ticket since 1984, geraldine ferraro. all of the experience he's had just inside the beltway, no vul neblts there? >> romney and ryan have a terrific national security policy team around them. governor romney has traveled extensively internationally and understands these issues extremely well. the ticket before the country, you're going to see a strong foreign policy position and posture. governor romney spent his entire career in global business arrangements, transactions and understanding different countries, cultures and gee graphy. >>> you heard david axelrod talk about the controversial ad by a super pac allied by president obama, also brought up by the romney campaign suggesting that president obama would gut the work requirements within the welfare program. they called it a lie. here's the ad they played in response. >> see that, mitt romney claiming that romney would end welfare. they called it blatantly false. in fact, obama's getting states to move 20% more people from welfare to work. >> they said they're just

this would be the first house member to be selected as a vice president candidate since geraldine ferraro. he's been in congress seven terms, he's experienced a policy launch. he knows policy initside and out, has gone toe to toe with the president obama publicly and privately. this is a major play for the base. something would april ease the republican base that has had concerns about mitt romney. >> right let's stick with the electoral map conversations just a moment. how does this affect ohio? is this so crucial, how does it change the map there? >> i think the campaign because if you look at other swing states in the southwest, it had -- polls show obama is has a huge lead in the southwest. this would be a major play for wisconsin and ohio. and iowa. the heartland. i think you'd see time spent from romney and potentially ryan in that part of the country. and that would be the focus. it would be less of a feekus on states like new mexico and nevada because remember if he picks ryan he's not picking marco rubio. a pick that would probably play very well with hispanics. the ryan pick has

turns out walter mondale was to pick a member of congress, geraldine ferraro. >> yeah, but it's veryre struggling, and we needed to try to break through, so ferraro was a way to shake things up, which worked for a while anyway. but in this case, i'm not sure where romney, what he was thinking about. and unless you just take him at his word, he likes this guy. but it did throw into the debate the medicare issue which, as a friend of mine, a former republican governor said, whenever you get into medicare or social security, republicans never win. so we'll see, you know? he's an attractive candidate, but -- jon: what about that, ed? do republicans never win if you talk about those issues? >> it's hard to say about vps. there's been four congressmen picked, and the past two got in office. john garner, i think, was the last one for roosevelt, speaker of the house. at the end of the day, i think they had a good week for two reasons. one is, ryan is a lot smarter than people who didn't know him, he basically is very good in interviews, he's going to be better as he gets on the campaign trai

the catastrophe of the geraldine ferraro in 72 and the difficulties with sarah palin loom very largeanyone who is vetting a v.p. and there has been a lot of speculation that there are scandals and skeletons in rubio's closet. so i decided to run them down with a really open mind. i checked them all out. i have a column on my web site -- where there is smoke, there isn't any fire. i checked them out. there is the scandal going around in south florida of a lot of congressmen named david rivera and other who is basically lived in part or with a credit card issued by the state republican party. but rubio's not involved in that. he had about 100,000 of charges that people raised questions about. he reimbursed american express for $16,000. the irs sniffed around a little bit, but didn't open an investigation -- >> greta: let -- >> the ethics commission cleared him. but the problem is that the fear of that could inhibit them from doing hathey should do, which is to pick rubio. >> greta: all right. let me go through the list. let me go back to the sarah palin thing, which i looked up recentl

we haven't seen a congressman on the ticket since 1984, geraldine ferraro. it will be interesting to see how he holds up on the national spotlight. >> we'll hear more details from dan about just who paul ryan is. but quickly, you have tim pawlenty on your show. we got word that last monday, he got the phone call from mitt romney that he wasn't going to be his pick? >> second-time runner-up. for tim pawlenty, former governor. he says he's fine with it. he thinks that ryan is a terrific choice. but there's got to be a lot of disappointment. >> all right, george, thank you. be sure to join george later today for a special "this week" when he talks to obama senior campaign adviser david axelrod as well as tim pawlenty. >>> who is this man who would be veep? as we mentioned yesterday, ryan is a father of three young children. he loves boats, led zeppelin and beethoven and he leads congressional colleagues in an extreme workout called p90x. even though ryan has been in washington for years, he never had a home there. instead he stays with relatives or in his offic

hasn't been a signature member of the congress picked as a vice presidential nominee since geraldine ferraro was picked as walter mondale's running mate. does the fact that he doesn't come from a governor's office or a senate seat, does that make a difference or raise any concerns. in. >> personally, i don't think it does. let's look at what he has to bring to the table. i think he complements mitt romney who is a hardcore businessman and a problem solver. and here we have paul ryan who is a fiscally responsible individual. strong on economics. and he believes in principles. we have a president today who believes in government. and so we he want someone who will be a true leader, help put our country in the right direction and i do believe that this is what we could be facing with the next election. >> what about the democratic criticisms and they are out there already saying this is the guy who wants to gut medicare and social security? of course, we remember that famous democratic campaign ad that showed a guy who sort of resembled paul ryan throwing grandma off a cliff in her wheel chair.

mondale picking gerri ferraro and mr. benson. see these names and think, i'm keeping the list that. guy isn't on the list. and dick cheney says -- you know, dick cheney was making the list and he ended up at the top of the list. so he's absolutely right. there is a big list and it doesn't mean a thing. and there is a little list of people who have been vetted and who have been interviewed and are actually under consideration. >> arthel: for sure that little list will be whittled down to finally one. tell me, how crucial is the vp choice to governor romney's chances of winning or not? >> well, i think the short answer is in general, it doesn't make much difference. there have been incredibly unpopular vp choices. with all due respect, dan quayle was not a winner and lloyd benson was much loved and did incredibly well in the debates. but i can honestly tell you, it didn't help the top guy at all. the one thing you don't want to do is have a choice who distracts attention from the presidential candidate and calls his judgment into q

you look at what john mccain did with sarah palin and what walter mondael did with ferraro. nominee is trying to define themselves -- being defined as something else, campaigning. it doesn't bode well for the long term. that said, romney did need this. he was at a point where he was not a defined -- his campaign was being defined about around his wealth and personality. not around any ideas and that was turning into a problem. >> david, what do you see as being that which paul ryan brings to the table that vaulted him over any of the other potential candidates, notably tim pawlenty and rob portman. >> i think mitt romney in the end for the reasons chuck spelled out, wanted some punch or surprise to the announcement and wanted to move the needle and relaunch the campaign at a time when people are paying attention. paul ryan will do that because of his standing in the party, how he energizes fiscal conservatives and he has a laser like focus. those are all of the positive reasons. but if mitt romney has had a problem up until now being defined by president obama, by his record

cabot lodge, william miller, edmund muskie, sergeant shriver, bob dole, walter mondale, geraldine ferraron, dan quayle, jack kemp, joe lieberman, john edwards, and who can forget, sarah palin. even if paul ryan is re-elected to his house seat in november, he will be forced to give up his budget committee chairmanship under the house republican term limits rules for chairman. he will also, of course, be blamed within the party for helping to sink the republican ticket with his radical plan for repealing and replacing medicare. and, so, he will sit in the house of representatives with all of the power of a junior member, plotting his run for president in 2016, or he might reasonably find the power of a junior member so dispiriting, after having had the power of a chairman, that he resigns from the house to plot his run for the presidency from the comfort of the only private sector job he has known working in the ryan family business, a business that has made him rich, the same way paris hilton got rich, through inheritance. some of the same pundits who were foolish enough to think that sara

when geraldine ferrari was the -- ferraro was the first woman to be on the national ticket, that was really a trailblazing sort of event, joe lieberman was the first jewish candidate to be on the national ticket, that was an event of similar importance. and when barack obama was the first african-american to be on the ticket, i think that was an affirmation of american ideals, whether they were voting for mr. obama or not. host: grace is on the line, grace, thank you for waiting. caller: i'm glad the call -- i think it's time to stop the name calling and i -- and i think he can get us back on the issues that we need to focus on to get our country on track. host: when you say the name calling what are you talking about? caller: i'm talking about mitt romney killed a woman. that is just nonsense, the tax returns, that's nonsense. i want to hear about what's going to save our country. i don't want to hear about that. i want to hear about what is going to save my country and put it back in focus. host hoe joel goldstein, she talked about the end of name calling, but typically, isn't the

. >> i pattern my character after a combination of geraldine ferraro, madeline albright and john sonunu. >> sometimes you're the louisville slugger, baby, sometimes you're the ball. >> took one for the team. i went to see the brazilian women against the german women in beach volleyball. >> poor you. >>> the biggest gaffe that romney made, is when he left england without watching his wife's horse in the dressage. >> dressage, which i have declared the sport of the summer for those who use summer as a verb. captioning funded by cbs >>> welcome to "cbs this morning." about three months before election day a new poll has good news for president obama. cbs news is working with quinnipiac university and "the new york times" to measure voter preference in the swing states. our first poll is out this morning. >> it shows the president leading mitt romney in pennsylvania by 11 points right now. in florida, mr. obama holds a six-point advantage and leads by that same margin in ohio. jim axelrod is in the buckeye state this morning in the capital of columbus and he joins us now. good morning to yo

mondale did that with ferraro but it looks a little small ball.t about the ryan budget and he's so heavily identified with the tea party. you've seen from mitt romney he doesn't want to engage -- he wants to keep the tea party at arm's length, get that energy but also sort of be able to position himself as a moderate but you know people like bill crystal are asking mitt romney to go bold. look at paul ryan and look at rubio. >> bill: look at marco rubio. rubio is not on the small list and yet he's the rising star. >> jeb bush very much wants him in the number two slot. i think a more likely slot for him this time around is going to be getting the key -- giving the keynote speech at the republican convention. he's obviously cuban. that will be an important constituency energizing hispanics. he's from florida. he's the future of the republican party. i think in the way that they wanted to showcase obama in 2004 when he was a rising star, i think this might be a good year for rubio as well. >> bill: and democrats the mayor of san antonio. it would be

. >> mondale, ferraro. >> the one i remember is dan quail who overperformed and gave the best speech. country lawyer. i don't know about that. >> they handled the re jjigerin because of the weather. >> it's worked well. >> the storm that missed us in tampa is now over louisiana and mississippi, causing a lot of damage there inskuding widespread flooding. bill karins has the latest. >> the life threatening weather continues. pascagoula has a tornado in town. the threat of tornadoes will be the big threat to lives today. in slidell it was reported that the railroad track levee was breached. that's not the case. the water is coming over the top of it and it's overwhelming the pumps there. there is so much water the pumps can't keep up. we are seeing flooding in slidell. two to four feet of water. evacuations are undergoing. there is breaking news of the storm 36 hours after it made landfall. you can see here the threat of tornados will be in mississippi and alabama today. we have bands coming in off the water. those are the ones causing the threat for tornadoes through the afternoon. rai

had situations james garfield, abe lincoln who was a house member. 20th century two cases geraldine ferraro. mondale wanted to make history and go back to '64 barry goldwater who was a long shot and picked upstate congressman from new york. i think the lack in graph toss. and the other part is lack of foreign policy experience. i think we might hear that with paul ryan as well. house members don't have the stature that senators have when it comes to foreign policy. that's another reason why they tend to get overlooked. >> what about the similarities to sarah palin in terms of attracting youthful voters, in terms of the excitement of sarah palin? is this candidate going to attract that same kind of excitement over time? >> i think there are a lot of parallels to sarah palin in the sense that he is exciting, is he young, he is attractive, is he energizing the base. both the conservative base and tea party base which is really important. is he a fresh face. so i think those are the positives. and then on the plus side for ryan, i also think is he more substantive than sarah palin. he has more

first pick out of the house since geraldine ferraro, do foresee this putting wisconsin into play, james great question. we looked it up. wisconsin went blue for both of the past two president elections. it's not like states vogt the for george w. bush in 04 and president obama in '08. it would could put wisconsin in play. a lot remains to be seen. we will see how the roll out goes. >> james rosen, thank you. rarely does a v.p. pick actually swing a state into a candidate's column. often ends up about being about the top of the ticket. james rosen good to see you this morning. >> good to see. >> you time is 7:34 this saturday morning. meanwhile other headlines making news this morning. a small plane crashes down into a neighborhood in los angeles killing one person. the pilot called unknown emergency shortly after takeoff from santa monica airport yesterday. plane didn't get far. it could have been much worse. >> hit a tree to keep from hitting the apartment building. the way he was coming down twisting like this. he could have hit the apartment building real easy. >> no word yet on how