and about even with former massachusetts governor mitt romney. abc 7's political analyst says those numbers indicate a limited range of outcomes. >> it's a range between losing or a narrow victory. that is the range he's playing in, right now. >> barring a miracle turn around, our political analyst believes that the best possible outcome for mr. obama would be a nair yes victory. and there is an interesting comparison with 2004 campaign of george w. bush coming up at 6:00 we'll tell what you barack obama and george w. bush have in common and how this might just deliver that democratic win. larry? >> if you went back four months ago. americans killed osama bin laden, and that successful military raid. the president number's soared and now, the economy dragged numbers back down. what, if anything can he do to try to boost things back up again? >> they both said the same thing. the president needs to show read leadership on the part of the catch yain that americans care about, the economy. they don't believe he's leading the direction on the economy. and th

>> he is a governor that mitt romney has respect for of we are glad to have the nomination -- the endorsement of tim pawlenty. he is running s conservative in a blue state, and governed as a conservative justice mitt romney did in massachusetts. he was a competitor in the early part of the primaries and we're thrilled at them on board. >> [inaudible] >> i think rick climbed from abc news had a correct when he said that rick perry came into this debate with us also security problem and he left with that conservative problem. he not only had to defend himself on the vaccine decision that made, but also on the taxes that the increase, the spending and debt that one out, and his decision to provide in state tuitions to illegal immigrants. >> but the applause lines that he was getting, romney did not seem to be getting applause. >> mitt romney has a lot of respect for the tea party movement, but he is a republican and is proud to be a republican. [unintelligible] [unintelligible] >> rick perry not only says the right thing, he demonstrates leadership. he understands what it will take to put this country back on the right path to

i know that mitt romney essential escalating his language about jobs yet. is that how you're reading it too? >> good morning, alex. somney is getting ready for this big roll-out on tuesday of his jobs plan, and they're setting this up. really the last couple of weeks since they announced that he would be rolling it out. he continues to step up the criticism of the president. obviously, those jobs numbers yesterday gave him a little bit of new ammunition. although he has been using that today show story for a while about coming back to collect the white house. yet, they're really trying to set the table for tuesday when they can take this chance to roll out their new big jobs plan, that they hope will set the political agenda for the next few days. >> i'm curious how the romney camp is reacting to polls that suggest that rick perry is the frontrunner? >> publicly they're not really addressing those issues. governor romney has asked about this press release a couple of days ago whether or not he saw the whole thing shaping up or whether he was a frontrunner. >> he said i'm one of the guys running. you are seeing espec

s. daring rpg to get in their way. mitt romney unveils his job plan. why start creating jobs now, willard? plus shocking new tapes from inside the tea party retreat. did they really compare president obama to saddam husse hussein? you know it's getting back for michele bachmann when someone on her own payroll says it's all about perry and romney. glee welcome to "politics nation." the president has laid down the gauntlet for republicans. >> we'll see if they'll put country before party. we'll give them a plan and they'll say, do you want to create jobs? then put our construction workers back to work rebuilding america. do you want to help our company succeed? open up any markets for them to sell their products. you say you're is the party of tax cuts, well, then prove you'll fight just as hard for tax cuts for middle-class companies as you do for oil companies. show us what you've got. >> that last part is important. president obama challenged republicans to fight as hard for the middle class as they do for oil companies and the wealthy they sent the p

mitt romney. that is a huge shift. it was 32% to 6% back in july. now, when you put them up against president obama, both romney and perry are back sickly tied with president obama. 's defeating michele bachmann 50% to 43%. only gets 50%, more than 50% when he's running against sarah palin. and when presidents, incumbent presidents are below 50%, they generally lose. now, there is a year to go. >> those are hard poll numbers for him but rick perry clearly a force out there. thank you, george. >>> and that new poll also sent a kind of mayday from the american people to the president. 77%, nearly 8 in 10 americans, say the country is on the wrong track and that much pessimism is a kind of mt. everest for any candidate to climb. abc's jake tapper has more. >> reporter: meet president obama's election nightmare, grace arroyo of lorraine, ohio. she's an independent voter, unemployed. and like 1 in 3 americans in our new poll, says she's worse off financially today than she was before senator obama became president obama. >> i thought he was going to create those jobs he promised, i mean, any kind of job. but it's gotten worse. >> reporter: 6 in 10 americans now disapprov

for instance, one of rick perry's multiple super pac s is run by rick toomey, funded by merck. mitt romney's super pac is run by three former staffers from '08 and the money is increasingly given anonymously, so the public is entirely in the dark. in one instance, a romney donor set up a shell corporation, funneled $1 million through it to romney's super pac, and then d disband the company. the donor was a former colleague of romney's at bain capital. these people have poured money into politics, money that is untraceable unless it is disclosed voluntarily. in 2010, the u.s. chamber of commerce spent $31 million and reported none of it. >> our candidates that we will educate about and be positive about are people that have voted, no matter their party, have voted on issues that create jobs, that are positive for the business community. >> reporter: as for the tea party freshman, renee ellmers, she took her name off the bill, opposed by americans for job security. she claims signing on in the first place was a staff error. was it? or was it an acknowledgement of the new reality in washington,

romney economic miracle both very sick mitt action and unemployment the right to a good day to be. right but own security and while f.d.r.'s second bill of rights never came to fruition his new deal did and so too did lyndon johnson's great society and from after world war two until reagan our nation spent spread freedom to more and more americans by caring for each other by everyone pitching in to create a social safety net including the rich who paid an income tax rate over seventy percent for the first million or so and most of the time above ninety percent and what happened was more and more americans were free to chase down their dreams be artists and inventors to find that perfect job to teach and to build they were free to spend more time with their families to take vacations they were free to dream and to pursue those dreams and the explosion of innovation and opportunity in america during the period from the one nine hundred forty s. to the one nine hundred eighty s. was the result of that freedom that's because they weren't constantly living on the edge constantly living in need they weren't and assess if this me

mitt romney and rick perry tangled over social security and accused each other of flip-flopping on the issue. they took center stage among seven other candidates in g.o.p. presidential debate in orlando, florida. abc7'soldberg has more. >> the debate picked up right about where the last one left off. with the economy. and social security. federal program mitt romney says he wants to preserve and rick perry wants to turn over to the state. >> now not the first time that mitt has been wrong on issues before. the bottom line is we never said that we were going to move this back to the states. what we said is we ought to have as one of the options, the state employees and state retirees. they being able to go off of the current system on to one that the states would operate themselves. >> the exchange between the front runners is typical. different from what the governor put in his book. rick perry out there saying to quote, it says that federal government shouldn't be in the pension business. that it's unconstitutional. unconstitutional and should be returned to the states. you better find that rick perry and get him to stop saying that. >> there were seven other candidates on the stage but for the most

s draw differences with each other, not just president obama. the major candidates will be at a forum in south carolina tomorrow sponsored by tea party groups. on tuesday, mitt romney y is gog to lay out his jobs plan, in part to try to counter the influence of rick perry, the new front-runner, who appears at his first debate the following day. and then thursday, 24 hours later than he wawanted, we're going to have president obama lay out his economic proposals before a joint session of congress. >> a lot for us to cover this week. thank you, rick klein. >>> still ahead on "world news" this sunday, why did he do it? the family of the ft. hood shooter speaks out for the first time in an abc news exclusive. >>> he swapped his hospital i.d. for a prison i.d. we'll tell you why. >>> and happy feet's last voyage. the penguin that got lost 2,000 miles from home heads back out to sea. or does he? oh, we call it the bundler. let's say you need home and auto insurance. you gigi us your information once, online... [ whirring and beeping ] [ ding! ] and we give you a discount on both. great! did i mention no hands in the bundler? bundling and saving made easy. now, that's pro

still push back and say they're still a lot better --s a he's been doing -- they're still a lot better than what you did in massachusetts, mitt romneyy has a much bigger challenge than romney in this debate tonight in terms of presenting himself as somebody who can really take control of the situation. he hasn't been able to do that at times in these debates. he stumbled a little bit. he looks unleaveven on his feet >> i'm in the camp there is no republican establishment. what does the national review establishment want to hear from rick perry to feel more comfortable about rick perry over a mitt romney or vice versa. >> i think that in the previous debates, governor perry has come across as unprepared. he hasn't had crisp, convincing responses to predictable lines of attack. and i think not just my colleagues at national review but a lot of voter interested in electability and like a lot about his record -- >> do you buy he has this low bar? he doesn't have to win the debate he just can't drop a stink bomb? >> i think he's got to do a little better than that. he didn't bomb in the previous debates, but he didn't do well. i think on

mitt romney is inconstitutionally not able to do. they love his rhetoric. you read that book, "fed up" which is i think it s a researchers dream come true. forness the press, it is interesting, we will dig into it. they love that he is calling into question social security and medicare and to say the states should have authority and federal government should be skish need this small significantly less powerful institution. that's good stuff for a republican. >> he said today what obama was to progressives back four years ago? someone who speaks the language, if we don't like w., we think he is not that right, we got the war, we got attitude. >> if he was from texas, yes. a large number of con serves tifs have doubts. te it want to make sure he is bright, that he is different from george w. bush. they want a winner. they hate the president. they want someone who can beat him. they want someone would who can win. >> steve schmidt. i have an interesting back story here. as hemingway said, the back story is interesting. sarah palin isn't running. is she holding back, planning to be the big kingpin or queen pinn

mitt romney or governor perry or congresswoman bachmann. >> both ronald reagan and margaret thatcher. >> under president reagan, our country is prouder and stronger. >> cross our hearts and hope to s>>> the one-day controversy >>> the one-day controversy known as speechgate is over. the president has accepted an invitation to speak to a joint session of congress about job creation next thursday at 7:00 p.m. eastern. that's the day after the first that will include rick perry. next week will be the first opportunity for voters to hear directly within a 24-hour period from presidential candidates and president obama on their ideas to create jobs and their visions for the country and the future. voters will be able for the first time to compare and contrast those ideas and that is exactly what the obama team is counting on. making 2012 a contrast election with the republicans. that is the only way to win re-election during a time of unacceptably high unemployment. in an exclusive today, "time" magazine reports that's the conclusion. bill daley and his senior advisors came to that conclusion after a secret white house staff retreat in june. historian michael beschlosh was invited to c

mitt romney. he's way up to 44%, but this thing is wobbling. a couple weeks back, it was perry with a lead over romney. we'll be right back. s logistics♪ ♪ medicine that can't wait legal briefs there by eight, ♪ ♪ that's logistics. ♪ ♪ freight for you, box for me box that keeps you healthy, ♪ ♪ that's logistics. ♪ ♪ saving time, cutting stress, when you use ups ♪ ♪ that's logistics. ♪ i have to be a tree in the school play. good. you like trees. well, i like climbing them, but i've never been one. good point. ( captain ) this is your captain speaking. annie gets to be the princess. oh... but she has to kiss a boy. and he's dressed up like a big green frog ! ewww. ( announcer ) fly without putting your life on pause. be yourself nonstop. american airlines. >>> that concludes tonight's debate. as a reminder to chris christie, it's wide open, buddy. >> well, welcome back to "hardball." that was a cue. and that was "saturday night live" this weekend, joking about what a lot of republicans around the country are thinking. the gop field this year is still not satisfactory. and the one name that comes up over and over again, i don'

plus, just hours ago republican presidential candidate mitt romney gets an endorsement from a formal rival. will it give him a boost as he face aess s serpblging rick perry? lexus hybrid drive technology is designed to optimize any fuel source on the planet. a serpblging rick perry. because when you pursue perfection, you don't just engineer a future-proof hybrid system. you engineeamazing. ♪ jon: jon scott in the acquisition center where we bring in hundreds of satellite feeds from all around the globe, really. take a look at the blue skies in washington over the capitol dome. the president just announced his jobs plan. he wants to give it to congress for their consideration. that fight begins. over here on remote 261, where is it -- 241, there is it, i'm sorry, that is reflecting absence, the new memorial just opened to the families yesterday on the -- as we mark the 10th year since the 9/11 attacks. new yorkers and others are getting their first look at it today. i saw it yesterday. it's a very powerful, powerful monument. not fall away wall street the dow down 83 points right now. it had -- the expectation was that things could

mitt romney. perry created -- his job gain was 8.9% when we were in a down economy compared to romney's job gain of 1.4% when perry argues that the s&p was actually posting strong gains. we got the sound bite now. here's the interplay from last night. >> governor perry deserve any credit for all those jobs that were created? >> sure. look -- >> you know, i think governor perry would agree with me, if you're dealt four aces, that doesn't make you necessarily a great poker player. >> i was going to say you were doing pretty good until you got to talking poker but the fact is the state of texas has led the nation while the current resident of the white house has overseen the loss of 2.5 million jobs. texas has during my period as governor created over a million jobs. and we did that during some pretty tough economic periods. >> just to back up a little, leading town that question, basically, mitt romney said, yeah, governor perry, texas is doing well because they had plenty of oil. they have zero -- they have no taxes. >> loser pays. >> state taxes. loser pays. he said essentially and wolf blitzer followed up by saying what credit doe

s political analyst. >> what we're seeing is anxiety of the republican party over the current two leaders in the republican field. >> professor caine says the establishment isn't very happy with either mitt romney or rick perry but both are in the race with organizations in iowa and new hampshire. and christie has deep pocket friends, campaigning for meg whitman when she ran he's far behind the rest of the g.o.p. field in terms of money and organization. meg whitman is backing mitt romney's run for president. i asked her if she'd be happy about chris christie deciding to run and using money that he had raised in her house to run against romney. she said it's not going to happen. so... you can add that to the speculation. i bet it continues despite what whitman told us. mark matthews abc 7 news. >> it will continue, thank you very much. >> and still coming up tonight operation cross check. a nationwide sweep of illegal immigrants. hundreds of violent criminals has been taken off the streets. >> ama son unveils kindel fire. tonight the new tablet that just might ignite competition for ipad. >> a young mother shares her story of tragedy so it won't happen to you. i'm michael finney. coming up the

s. that's the line from the republican presidential candidates today who came out swinging against the deficit reduction plan. the two front-runners put out these statements. mitt romneyo raise taxes will have a crushing impact on economic growth. higher taxes mean fewer jobs. it's that simple. this is yet another indication that president obama has no clue how to bring our economy back. and rick perry, the texas governor who's beating romney slightly in the polls said this -- president obama's plan is a bait and switch that offers more than a trillion dollars in higher taxes for a promise of temporary tax relief. you know, jon huntsman called it disappointing, ron paul calling it class warfare, really echoing some of the talking points you heard from mitch mcconnell and paul ryan on the sunday shows yesterday about president obama's plan to implement 1$1.5 trillion are in tax increases on the rich and corporations. so expect this to be a talking point on the campaign trail in iowa, new hampshire, nevada, florida. we'll hear these candidates i guarantee in the coming weeks saying that president obama wants to increase taxes on what they're going to say business owners

mitt romney zeroing in on rick perry. perry first. >> a program that's been there 70, 80 years, obviously we're not going to take that program away. but for people to stand up and s support what they did in it the '30s and what they're doing in the 2010s is not appropriate for america. >> but the question is, do you still believe social security should be ended as a federal program as you did six months ago, or do you want to retreat from that? >> i think we ought to have a conversation. >> we're having that right now, governor. we're running for president. >> and there were a lot of good moments like that one. did you happen to be watching? did you hear any whoppers? eight politicians, two hours, surely someone shaded the truth, just a smidge. tom foreman is live in washington for us, doing a little fact checking. tom foreman, what did you hear? >> well, brooke, here's what i heard. first of all, don't write books. that ae's obviously a mistake because people hold you to it later on. we heard a lot of statements last night. as i always say to people, these are smart pokes. no matter what you think of them, they're smart folks. rarely they'll throw something out

s. the president doesn't really seem to have a grasp on what's need. >> you voted for the president, you've heard mitt romneywhat does the president say, not necessarily in response to mitt romney, but what does he have to say thursday night? >> i think the president needs to take bold and decisive actions about solving the economic problems that the country has and not just the typical solutions mentioned in past speeches, the tax on employment, on wages, and so forth but actually really, you know, coming up with a plan that can really get the economy going. i think what is key is actually lowering the corporate tax rate. i think that needs to be done even though that's a few most democrats would not like. >> jake is in manchester, new hampshire. how are you doing? >> hi, how are you doing? i want to bring jon huntsman into the conversation, i've been a huntsman supporter for a long whim. watching romney's speech, when it comes down to the record and everything, i do not trust romney still. i don't feel he's genuine and look at the record, consider the record, governor huntsman was number one in job creatio