>> glor: jim axelrod, thank you, jim. the weather threat is also throwing presidential campaign plans off course. with nine days until the election, both candidates adjusted schedules. both canceling events in virginia to focus on other swing states. jan crawford reports. >> reporter: in washington, the president was briefed by fema officials working to coordinate the government's response to the storm. >> this is a serious and big storm. >> reporter: sandy has turned campaign schedules upside down, especially as senator mark warner said in his home state of virginia. >> the storm will throw a little havoc into the race. i was supposed to be with the president and president clinton on monday. that rally has been canceled. >> reporter: the latest polls shows virginia now a dead heat and an important state for romney if he's to win on november 6th. he canceled three campaign events today in the state and instead spent the day in ohio with running mate paul ryan. >> let's, today when we get home, put in our prayers the peopl

jim. >> axelrod: elaine, thank you. uhe abu hamza case was as high profile as it gets in great britain. the bbc reported last month even the queen wondered out loud why the radical cleric had not been laced in custody since in her view he must have surely broken some laws. her comments were made during the time abu hamza railed against britain from his mosque in north london. or a fourth stray of straight day, syria and turkey traded tre today. l 's the least sign syria's civil war is now expanding into a threat to regional security. correspondent holly williams is in istanbul. in il reporter: syria's civil war is spilling over its borders. today, the turkish village of guvecci was hurt by two mortar shells. nobody was hurt it & it's thought they were a mistake. the turkish military returns fire for the fourth day in a row. turkey has openly sided with the eebels in syria's conflict, confh so far, it hasn't intervened directly. now some fear that border skirmishes between the two countries could escalate into a regional

i'm jim axelrod. many americans saw gas prices go up a bit this week. californians saw them skyrocket. nationally, the average stand at $3.81 a gallon, up roughly $.supper 2, but in california prices exploded to a record high average of $4.61 a gallon, up d.n.a that's a $.47 in a week and makes it the most expensive gas in the country. as john blackstone reports, this could only happen in california. >> in the golden state, gas

and jim axelrod with an executive who's found a formula for succeeding in a tough economy. it's another at-bat for "money ball." >> we essentially have to have players whose performance is better than what we're paying them. captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: good evening, in ohio police are searching for victims of the meningitis outbreak. in tennessee, they're reaching out with a phone bank. today federal officials estimated 13,000 americans received steroid injections that may have been contaminated with a potentially lethal fung gas. 105 illnesses have been reported across nine states. eight people have died. the steroids were used to treat back pain and joint pain. those who received injections in their spinal columns are at risk for the brain and final infection known as meningitis. dr. jon lapook begins tonight with the state that has the largest number of cases. >> reporter: in tennessee, public health officials are searching to reach people injected with the contaminated vials. >> whether each and every vial was

and jim axelrod with a young soccer player who's replaced a missing leg with gallantry on the field. >> i just want to be seen as an equal. captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: good evening, and we could add happy new year, because this is the first day of the federal government's new fiscal year. but there's not much to celebrate because the nation is headed toward what's being called the fiscal cliff and there are dire new warnings today about what will happen to american families unless congress and the president reach a budget deal by december 31. that is the day that a series of tax cuts will expire and big cuts in federal spend will take hold. tax experts said today 90% of american families are facing what they call unprecedented tax increases. how much? wyatt andrews is in washington tonight. wyat >> reporter: scott, according to the non-partisan tax policy center, the united states is now on the threshold of one of the largest tax increases in history-- a tax hike that could average $3,500 for every american household. witho

as jim axelrod reports discovering the benefits of running is more than physical. >> reporter: you mighteen running from her problem for years. >> it tore my family apart and it caused hardship and heartache and struggles. >> reporter: that wouldn't do justice to her powerful journey. her father was an alcoholic with a gambling problem. the best prescription for her pain she found was to run. every morning she passed a homeless shelter where the men would cheer her on. >> i realized that here i get to be the runner and they get to be the homeless guys. why can't we all be the runners? >> reporter: hoping to build their self-esteem she started a running club for them. >> i felt i could help my dad in a way i couldn't back then by helping these guys. >> reporter: six years later she's the ceo of back on my feet a nonprofit with branches in nine cities helping the homeless restart their lives. she just opened one at the bowery mission in new york. one rule. no slackers. >> you have to sign a piece. paper that says you'll show up three times a week, be on time and come with a positive attitu

jim axelrod has more on this athlete's amazing story. >> reporter: it's not hard to pick out niko joggingates at concord carlisle high school outside boston. he is and always has been the kid with one leg. what is hard to do when watching niko is to believe what you're seeing. >> my disability doesn't define who i am. my disability gives me a challenge every day. >> reporter: born without a right leg and right hip, niko was raised by parents whose only expectation for their son was that he not expect any special treatment. >> there's no you're not taking out the garbage, you're doing everything that every other family is doing. >> do you take out the garbage? >> oh yeah. i hate it, though. >> reporter: he was just 5 years old when he decided a traditional prosthetic leg was holding him back. >> you can go with the forearm crushes, they give you the opportunity to be more mobile. i can run on crutches. i can climb mount kilimanjaro. >> reporter: at 13, niko became the first one-legged climber to reach the top of africa's highest mountain. he skis, dives, and loves volleyball. then there's

jim axelrod, cbs news, detroit. >>> coming up after your local news on "cbs this morning," a look athe latest poll numbers. we'll hear from rudy giuliani. >>> plus, the investigation into the deadly attack at the consulate in libya. more of an exclusive interview with a key witness in charge of security. and actor ben affleck tells us about his new movie "argo." that is the morning news for this tuesday. appreciate you watching. i'm terrell brown. take care, everybody. have a great day. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com it's tuesday, october 9th. m fr >> your realtime captioner: linda marie macdonald. >>> good morning. it's tuesday, october 9. i'm frank mallicoat. >> i'm michelle griego. time now 4:30. president barack obama flies from sfo to homeowner today with a load of campaign cash. cate cbs 5

jim axelrod is investigating. rtin hasrtin has learned that u.s. military forces were moving in case a rescue was ordered the night a u.s. ambassador was killed. kiother senate candidate shakes up the campaign with comments about rape and pregnancy. wyatt andrews is on the story. and ben tracy in los angeles with an american hero. for him, there's no place like this home. >> you just push down and the cabinets come down. captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: good evening. another patient injected with a tainted steroid has died of tiningitis. more than 300 cases have now been reported in 17 states and the centers for disease control says the outbreak is spreading. federal and state officials have s ened an investigations into new england compounding center, the pharmacy that's believed to veve shipped thousands of vials of a steroid that's used in clinics to treat pain. a many cases, the drug was contaminated with a deadly fungus which one investigator said was visible to the naked eye in some of t

jim axelrod is at battery park in manhattan, which was inundated with water. jim, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, charlie. high tide has come here. at least in this part of battery park, the water is not threatening to come over the wall, which is at least one piece of good news in a city that is facing more than its share of trouble. superstorm sandy made landfall late monday. a wet and windy nightmare. >> we knew that this was going to be a very dangerous storm and the storm has met our expectations. >> reporter: actually, sandy exceeded them. around 9:00 pm the storm produced a record surge at battery park in manhattan, 14.88 feet breaching the sea wall and flooding the area. manhattan's waterfront seemed to disappear as the surge rushed over the wall. >> it's the unknown. it's the storm of the century. >> reporter: roads and cars were quickly covered, ground zero was en engulfed and across the harbor in brooklyn, so much flooding at coney island that emergency responders couldn't reach the area. the corrosive sea water headed underground to new yor

jim axelrod has more from lower manhattan. >> reporter: good morning. new yorkers pride themselves on being intrepid. and right now we still have some people walking along the wall here in lower manhattan. in a couple of hours if they're here, we'll have to look for another adjective other than intrepid. the big worry here is that the surge of water could be as high as 11, 12 feet. that would get over the wall, into the subway systems and electrical systems, and that's what the big catastrophic worry is here in lower manhattan. the transit system shut down schools shut down. 375,000 people from the lowest lying areas in new york have been evacuated as the biggest city braces for the impacts of hurricane sandy. charlie? >> thank you. >> thank you. >>> meteorologist from cbs 4 has been watching sandy closely. jeff, this is getting scary based on reports you're pulling in. it sounds like this is getting worse. >> good morning, nor amp good morning, everyone. yeah. this storm is getting a little bit worse in the atlantic now. you see that the core of the sy

jim axelrod is in lower manhattan. jim, good morning. >> reporter: good morning. the sea water that came over that wall and flowed into the underground power stations and subway stations has crippled lower manhattan. and new york city transit officials say this is the biggest disaster to ever hit the transit system. superstorm sandy may have moved on but parts of new york city remain paralyzed in her wake. >> restoring power and mass transit remain the two biggest challenges in the days ahead. that recovery is a mammoth job. >> it's the worst thing that happened to this city certainly since 9/11. >> reporter: new york city subway system which averages more than 5 million commuters per work day is closed indefinitely because all seven subway tunnels linking manhattan to brooklyn and queens are flooded. at some stations near battery park where monday's surge of sea water hit hardest stairwells looked more like swimming pools. >> there was no way to prepare that would have kept the water out. >> reporter: officials say sandy is the biggest disaster to ever hit the ne

jim axelrod is at battery park in lower manhattan which was inundated with water. good morning. >> reporter: when i spoke to police commissioner ray kelly here yesterday, i asked him what his biggest concern was about the approaching storm. he didn't hesitate. blackouts, he said. that's exactly what new yor this morning. super storm sandy made landfall late monday. a wet and windy nightmare. >> we knew this was going to be a great, dangerous storm. the storm met our expectations. >> reporter: sandy exceeded them. around 9:00 p.m. the storm produced a record surge at battery park in manhattan. 13.88 feet. breaching the sea wall and flooding the area. manhattan's waterfront seemed to disappear as the surge rushed over the wall. >> unknown. storm of the century. >> reporter: roads and cars were quickly covered. ground zero was engulfed. across the harbor in brooklyn, there was so much flooding around coney island that emergency responders couldn't reach the area. corrosive sea water headed underground into new york city subway and commuter tunnels. to prevent further

>> mason: jim axelrod, thanks, jim. that was dramatic rescue at sea aboard a ship you may recognize from the movies. and two presidential campaigns are derailed by a hurricane. that's ju,,,,,,,,,,,,,, >> mason: the hurricane forced the presidential candidates to suspend their campaigning for a couple days. john dickerson is our political director. john, with just a week until election day, how is this going to affect their campaigns? >> reporter: well, no candidate wants to look like he's taking political advantage of this cry seusz so with a week before the election this should be a time of frantic political activity but now the campaigns have to pear way back and calibrate every political move. usually at this time the campaigns are trying to hone their message down to a single simple closing argument to punch through the voters. but that's been interrupted and complicated now. both men have canceled a series of campaign events. the president has an official role and his strategists are trying to both highlight that r

i'm jim axelrod. in 24 days, americans will elect a president. according to the latest national gallup poll, mitt romney now leads barack obama by two points, 49 to 47, a statistical dead heat. the state of the race has been shaken up in the last 10 days since the first presidential debate. look at florida, ape crucial state for both men. a poll by two of the state's largest newspapers has governor romney up by seven points, 51 to 44. that's an eight-point swing since september when the president led by one. this creates more pressure for both candidates heading into their second debate on tuesday in new york. let's bring in correspondent nancy cordes with the president in williamsburg, virginia, where he's preparing. nancy, good evening. >> reporter: good evening to you, jim. and polls taken this week also show governor romney pulling even in colorado and virginia. so the obama campaign has cleared the president's schedule the next three days. he is here doing debate prep, and that's about it, a shift from the way he spent his time before the fi

jim axelrod is in lower manhattan with that part of the story. jim, what can you tell us?ion customers are still without power in the new york metropolitan area. power is not expected to be back on until this weekend at the earliest. bus service has resumed in new york city, although subways will be out of service for several days, at least. we have some dramatic video we want to show you of rescues from rooftops in staten island. five adults and a child in total rescued by new york police department helicopters. they were trapped in their homes, made it to rooftops. the rescues carried out by nypd's helicopter 23, which was named after the 23 nypd officers killed on 9/11. of course, this is the biggest challenge the city has faced since 9/11. for as many dramatic pictures as we've been showing you the last couple of days, we have more mundane but just as meaningful picture for folks that are interested in at least some small steps to getting back to normal, pictures of the ferry service resuming from new jersey to this ferry station in lower manhattan. we've been watching

jim axelrod, cbs news, boston. >> coming up after your local news on cbs "this morning," boosting yourain through exercise. i'm terrell brown, this is the "cbs morning news". nyquil (stuffy): hey, tylenol. you know we're kinda like twins. tylenol: we are? nyquil (stuffy): yeah, we both relieve coughs, sneezing, aches, fevers. tylenol: and i relieve nasal congestion. nyquil (stuffy): overachiever. anncr vo: tylenol cold multi-symptom nighttime relieves nasal congestion... nyquil cold & flu doesn't. body washes with paper that reacts like skin. if others can strip this paper, imagine how harsh they can be to your skin. oh my gosh. [ female announcer ] dove is different. its new breakthrough formula changes everything. new dove. this is care. [ woman: ] my father taught me a lot about life... without ever saying a word. when i was a little girl my friends were all just like me. his never were. hello, hello. didn't you bring them? yours? i thought you were going to. no, i brought them last time. you're right! ha ha ha! i forgot. alright, alright. [ woman: ] i used to wonder, why would a je

jim axelrod reports the trouble was just beginning. >> reporter: workers are now taking down the boards that were supposed to keep water out of subway stations and loading sandbags back on to the truck. having done their best in a battle they could have never won. there was no way to prepare that would have kept the water out? >> no, no. no way. how are you going to stop water? water does what it wants to do. >> reporter: seven tunnels linking manhattan to brooklyn and queens are flooded. the signals, switches and third rails are covered with sludge. m.t.a. workman john o'neil went down for a look in the south ferry station and reported back. >> it's probably up to the two poles from the top. full to the top. forget about it. >> reporter: even after the water has gone away, 6,200 subway cars must be inspected along with 600 miles of track and 468 subway stations. >> the m.t.a. last night faced a disaster as devastating at it has ever faced. >> reporter: joe loda is chairman of the metropolitan transit authority. >> sandy wreaked havoc on the entire transportation system, the subways, bu

some of the rail service is now returning, and jim axelrod takes us down under. >> reporter: where are we? >> we're down here at the main exit and entrance of south ferry terminal. >> joe leader took us down for a look at the hardest hit of all 468 new york city subway stations. south ferry, at the southern tip of manhattan. >> we had bar kayed up top with wood plywood and sandbags to keep the water out, but when the surge came, it brought down all this material that doesn't belong here. large pieces of lumber, and that broke through the barrier and allowed more water to come in. >> reporter: that's water just a few steps down from the top of the steps. but the tracks are another two levels underneath that. so as much as the water's gone down, we're still two levels worth of water till we get to the tracks? >> absolutely. >> reporter: it will take a week alone just to pump out the water. but the subway system will begin limited service tomorrow. limited mass transit has left city streets choked with cars, a telling sign of just how badly the city needs to ease the stress on the roads.

norah. >> jim axelrod, thank you. a beach near santa barbara, california is closed this morning after a deadly shark attack. 39-year-old francisco was bitten in his upper torso while surfing pfs he was pulled from the water and pronounced dead on the scene. it happened at surf beach. experts believe the shark was a great white. the same area where another surfer was killed by a shark two years ago. >> "the washington post" reports the obama administration is secretly develop agnew plan to hunt down terrorists. it's a database called the disposition matrix. it contains the name of terror suspects and resources available to track them down. it allows the united states to keep adding names of terrorists to be killed or captured. >> "usa today" says college costs are going up at a slower rate. a new report says prices at four year public universities rose nearly 5% this year. that's much less than previous years but federal grant money also seems to be leveling off and average tuition is still rising a lot faster than fam

but as jim axelrod reports, it's no big deal for the young man behind the goal.be, but a huge deal for everyone else who knows him. any parent who's ever had their child tell them they can't do something, that it's too hard, they may want to show their kid what we're about to show you. >> reporter: it's not hard to pick out nico calabria jogging with his varsity soccer teammates at concord carlisle high school outside boston. he is, and always has been, the kid with one leg. what is hard to do when watching nico is to believe what you're seeing. >> my disability doesn't define who i am. my disability gives me a challenge every day. >> reporter: born without a right leg and right hip, nico was raised by parents whose only expectation for their son was that he not expect any special treatment. >> there's no "you're not taking out the garbage." you're doing everything that every other kid in the family is doing. >> do you take out the garbage? >> oh yeah. i hate it, though. >> reporter: he was just 5 when he convinced his parents that a traditional prosthetic leg wa

jim axelrod has been following this once-in-a-generation event. >> good morning, norah. that may be underselling it. this hasn't been done in 45 years. miguel cabrera is now taking his place alongside some of the greatest names in baseball history. >> getting ready to hit third in this inning. >> he could have sat out the last game since he already had the triple crown. but 29-year-old miguel cabrera chose to play anyway last night. >> and a standing ovation. >> and soaked in the fans' appreciation for his rare achievement. even in kansas city, they were cheering. just 16 years old when the venezuelan was signed by a major league franchise, cabrera earned his place in the history books with 44 home runs, 139 rbis and a batting average of .330. all tops in the american league. >> feels good. it's an unbelievable feeling right now. >> he joins a who's who of baseball greats including triple crown winners ted williams, lou gehrig and mickey mantle. maybe more impressive is the list of those who didn't do it. >> not just that miguel cabrera has been chasing. alex rodriguez,

jim axelrod has been following this. jim, good morning. >> reporter: once in a generation might actually be underselling it. this hasn't been done in 45 years. miguel cabrera is now taking his place alongside some of the greatest names in baseball history. >> getting ready to hit third in this inning. >> reporter: he could have sat but the 29-year-old miguel cabrera chose to play anyway last night and soaked in the fan's appreciation for his rare achievement. even in kansas city they were cheering. just 16 years old when the venezuelan was signed by a major league franchise cabrera earned his place in the history books with 14 home runs, 139 rbis, a batting average of .330 all tops in the american league. he joins a who's who of baseball great including triple crown winners ted williams, lou gehrig and mickey mantle. >> guys like alex rodriguez, manny ramirez, barry bonds, your take a look at any of the great baseball players in the last 45 years, hank aaron never did this. >> reporter: carl yastrzemski was the last playe

. >> the division playoffs continue tonight, and jim axelrod is here with a story of one team's unexpected return to the postseason play. jim, good to see you this morning. >> reporter: good morning, norah. the oakland a's are back in the bay area to take on the detroit tigers. the a's are down two games to none in this best of five playoff series. but they've already beat some long odds to be in the postseason at all. they are the poorest team in major league baseball. with a roster stocked with rookies and low paid veterans pulled off the junk heap. the oakland a's were pegged to finish last in their division. instead -- >> ball game! >> they finished first. >> most people i think predicted not only that we would lose 100, maybe 110. so this has been satisfying. >> reporter: if what general manager billy beane has done sounds like a hollywood story, well, it already was. >> the problem we're trying to solve is that there are rich teams and there are poor teams. then there's 50 feet of crap, and then there's us. >> reporter: brad pitt played beane in "moneyball," based on a best-selling b

jim axelrod is in massachusetts. good morning. >> reporter: good morning. leaky boiler, black spots of fungus visible to the naked eye at the necc. >> the board of pharmacy has voted permanently to revoke necc's license to prit in massachusetts. >> reporter: state officials say their preliminary investigation revealed a failure to follow the most basic laboratory standards. >> examination of necc records indicated a failure of the facility to sterilize products for even the minimum amount of time necessary to ensure sterility. >> reporter: trouble d by the very steroids suspected in the outbreak. >> before receiving their own test results confirming that those lots were sterile. >> reporter: necc released a statement saying they always cooperated with the state pharmacy board and, quote, it is hard to imagine that the board has not been fully apprised of both the manner and scale of the company's operations. there was a long history of complaints against the company, dating back more than a decade. in 2006, the fda sent a warning letter that some of their p

>> we heard again from the campaigns, jim mess siena and david axelrod, e-mails from the romney campaign sides accusing each other of bluffing by -- >> on the state of the race. >> on the state of the race, the ground game, who has the best get out the vote. $2 million by restore our future the super pac for romney into pennsylvania. this is more than -- this is more than a bluff. this sounds real, $2 million is real money. >> here's what's going on here, andrea, i think we have very real evidence of this. is in the nine battleground states, the ability of either candidate to move the numbers has been nearly impossible when either one of them has had some momentum, it's maybe moved their number a point or two, but -- and moved the other guy's number down a point or two but not much. we are seeing almost all of the battlegrounds at some form of a standstill, maybe moving half a point here, half a point there. where you see evidence of romney's uptick in the national polls playing out in the states or in the nonbattleground states, the ones that have been left off, pennsylvania is a classi

, mark halperin went to chicago and talked to a couple of folks -- a couple folks named jim messina, david axelrod. david plouffe pushed back, plouffe calling romney's bluff, i wanted to say that because it rhymes. plouffe says, in terms of the narrative they're trying to develop to all of you, florida and virginia are moving in their direction, their spending and travel schedule doesn't reflect that. if team romney feels so good about florida, pullout. i believe they're overstating their electoral college situation. team obama is convinced they have this. and yet the president is out there giving out doughnuts and also these things, we have official copies of the obama plan for jobs in middle class security which is thinner than i thought it would be. >> not just thin, a lot of pictures. >> that's how you win them over. >> the -- you're absolutely right. the obama campaign feels like they're winning, feel if the election were held today they would win, feel like their position is going to get bet, they feel like they know the electorate and feels like romney knows the electorate and is not tellin

david axelrod blamed jim lehrer. al gore blamed the altitude. but nobody -- nobody blamed the president for being unprepared and outclassed by mitt romney last night. >> dana, take us deep into the psychology. what was going on? he looked like a man defeated. >> he sort of faded into the background initially. then i thought maybe it will get better. at the one hour mark, i thought wow, this is over. i thought romney was very bold. but he was also something different that he was fresh. and there is a huge gulf between the man that had been painted in the media and by the obama campaign for the last seven or eight months. and then the person they saw last night. that's why i think it was so effective for mitt romney because people were so surprised. wait, like who is this guy? this is not the guy we thought he was. and so he had a great debate. incumbents presidents usually don't do well on the first debate in their election year. so obama will have a couple more chances. no doubt, there is only one person in america who thinks he won the debate.

david axelrod, david fluff, jim mussina, they're running the show day-to-day.rs he put in charge of the vp selection, something a gray beard, an older guy, you've seen that decades for with the democrats. mitt romney trusted this adviser to do that. people are focusing on the economy and that's where women -- that's why your seeing the closing gap there with women because that's their number one priority for themselves, their kids. couples are worried about the increased taxes. >> lilly ledbetter an acknowledged supporter of barack obama was on with lawrence last night. let me play this for you. >> when he stated that the woman he did have working, she had to go home at 5:00 because she had to cook dinner, that just echoed in my den where i was watching the television. i couldn't believe he would make a statement like that. >> i mean for lilly ledbetter he this yuz nwas not a legal issue. she was not permitted to sue for equal pay because the stat statute ran out and if you didn't know the men you were working and with were making more money, which many offous

>> first of all, i have to go with what jim, the campaign manager and david axelrod is they have noted any of the television advertisements. so north carolina's still in play. as you know, voters are now able to cast their ballots early. that's the way the democrats won four years ago. so i assume until i hear differently that north carolina is still one of those swing states that they intend to compete in. >> but don't actions speak louder than words, donna? the president's missing in action from north carolina right now. so no matter what the campaign says, if he's not going there, if they're not showing up to campaign, what does that say to you? >> there are many ways to have feet on the ground other than have the president's. it might be other footprints, i haven't looked at their schedule lately, wolf, because i've been traveling myself. i go by what the campaign's saying. every week we're going to hear stories about romney pulling out of pennsylvania, obama pulling out of north carolina. i assume they'll do a lot of head faking. i know what it's like to pull out staff. i know w

jim acosta are joining us as well. let's go to jessica first. you have a guest? >> i do. i'm with david axelrod, one of the most senior advisers in the obama campaign. the president asked mitt romney, the navy, he compared it to bayen ets and horses. now, already the romney campaign is saying this can be put to use in their benefit in norfolk and portsmouth. important swing areas. did the president hand him an open something. >> that's the way they think about all these policies. they think about it in very narrow political terms. they said, we don't have $2 trillion extra to spent on defense, that the pentagon isn't asking for. and we have other needs in terms of rebuilding our country and in terms of our national defense. we have to have a national defense for the 21st century. we don't need the navy of 1916, because we have aircraft carriers and submarines, we have a modern 21st century, strategic scheme that he is unaware of. i think this was just -- the whole night was a case of a president who's a strong decisive commander in chief who knows what he believes, says what he believes, is con

jim acosta with a special guest, marco rubio who supports mitt romney. must be pretty happy. >> that's right, wolf. we had senator rubio listen to david axelrod'say let's not get caught up in the theater of the moment. i'm guessing from your vantage point, it was a good play tonight. >> the only one more frustrated than barack obama is david axelrod. i think it's clear, barack obama pretty uncomfortable talking about taxes, the budget, jobs, the most important things in america. that's what he's uncomfortable about. he doesn't understand the american free enterprise system, how it works, number two, probably doesn't believe it in the way mitt romney believes in it. and has a terrible record. look at the jobs, unemployment rate, the suffering of the american middle class, buied as joe biden reminded us. the policies of barack obama. he turned to the moderator and asked him to change the subject. let's move on to something else. we're not going to move on to something else. this is the issue of the moment. >> at one point during the debate, governor romney acknowledged his plan is basically a voucher program for medicare, and i'm curious how that

seems like both david axelrod on the record and based on my conversations and the president's performance, it seemed like he just wanted to take what was presented whatever topic either jimr or governor romney brought up that's where the president was going to play defense and push back. he did not try to turn anything. i can't really explain why he didn't but it certainly didn't serve him well. there's a reason they've driven women's issue and the 47% and done it feb tifkly, why he thought the debate wasn't the place to drive those, i do not know. >> david brooks column in "the new york times" says that on wednesday night romney finally emerged from the fog, broke with the stereotypes of his party and long last began the process of offering a more authentic version of himself. susan? >> 34 days before the election. talk about waiting until the last minute to do so. you know, one of the things he did, mark made the point that maybe the move to the center wasn't quite as stark as some people are portraying it. wasn't this the tonal change we thought we would see last spring when he clenched -- >> where was the pivot. >> we kept waiting for which did not come until the fir