. >>> so right now you you are looking at mooresville, north carolina.is the nascar tech institute. it's going to be the site -- it is the site of the first rally of the day for the newly minted romney/ryan ticket. we have not seen them yet but we know they are there and we are watching it. in the meantime, i want to bring in democratic strategist and cnn contributor donna brazile, along with republican consultant and cnn contributor, alex castellan castellanos. both wrote opinion pieces for cnn.com on paul ryan, the topic du jour. let me start out, alex, with something you wrote and i want to ask you on the other side, you said "until this moment, mitt romney, like president obama, has been playing small ball. the optimistic entrepreneur with the reputation for bringing disruptive, transformative change to the business world had not been leading, only playing it safe." so in the end, this attempt kind of shake up his campaign, you read as an admission that thus far sitting around saying the economy's bad, you need someone else at the helm, has not been

. >> eric: a little background on the town, in mooresville, north carolina, the population, $33,000,n increase of 73%, and the lowe's home improvement folks, their headquarters is there and the town is also known as race city, u.s.a., because it is home to more than 60 nascar teams and race related businesses. jamie. >> jamie: and as they plan their strategy, looking now at just what is at stake at north carolina alone, 15 electoral votes up for grabs this election year. in 2008, president obama won north carolina by just 14,000 votes. about a .3% margin of victory. the president's win made him the first democrat to win the state since 1976 and republicans had endorsed north carolina in nine of ten elections before the narrow victory four years ago. >> eric: in north carolina, today, jamie, mitt romney and congressman ryan will wrap up the big weekend back home on ryan's home turf in wisconsin. the homecoming rally, set for later tonight in the city of waukesha. republican governor scott walker will be among those who will be attending the rally later tonight. governor walker, you kn

we've had hundreds of vision nurse come to mooresville. in fact we host a visit once a month we are out next march all of the visits are booked up. estimate educational tourism. stat we generate a couple million dollars to the local economy. by the mechem mooresville is 30 minutes north of charlotte. nobody goes there by accident. you have to want to go to mooresville. i'm also motivated. my wife and i have three children, we are excited she's working. 22-year-old that just graduated, decided her last semester she wants to be a teacher. we are glad she's back in school. then we have a 12-year-old, got so we can clear that up for you. just got lucky wheat. [laughter] but the bottom line is i don't know what our son will do, but i think if we don't prepare him differently, he will not be employed. he's a great kid and we love him but i want him to be employed at some point. so one of the things we have done, we provide every student through 12th grade with a personal laptop computer and they have it 24/7. we have structured our training prog

new republican ticket, i'm joined by cbs news political correspondent, jan crawford, who is in mooresville, north carolina, this morning. we're learning there was quite of bit of subterfuge involved this keeping this running mate pick under wraps. tell us about it. >> reporter: nancy, it was almost something out of a spy novel the representation they went to keep this a secret. it involved paul ryan when he was going to meet with romney in boston to be offered the pick, almost in disguise, sunglasses, a baseball cap, casual clothes so he could move through the airport and when he was going to virginia to be announced he sneaked out the back of the house and went through the woods to get his ride, and last night on the campaign plane romney and ryan came back and talked to the reporters and seemed almost tickled to death they kept all this a secret. there is clearly a strong, good rapport between these two guys as they were talking to us last night. nancy, i have never seen romney as energized and enthulzed as he was in his campaign speeches yesterday in virginia. and we'll see some of that

. >> eric: mitt romney, having a rally with congressman ryan, in mooresville, north carolina, hitting the major points of the campaign, saying president obama is making us like europe. talking about the economy, the deficit, the fiscal crisis, and unemployment. and, at one point, even quipping about the women, janna ryan and ann romney, they are better and the husbands. a lesson for every american husband to know! we'll be back. sing a traditiona? well, legalzoom came up with a better way. we took the best of the old and combined it with modern technology. together you get quality services on your terms, with total customer support. legalzoom documents have been accepted in all 50 states, and they're backed by a 100% satisfaction guarantee. it's law that just makes sense. >> promising to create, if elected, 12 million new jobs. do you want a just direction or do you want status quo? today, giving us some of the specifics of their plan on issues including health care, education, jobs, and, the economy. the team together, in north carolina, an important battleground state. in virginia,

. >> reporter: in mooresville, north carolina -- packed to capacity inside and several thousand more in an overflow area outside. >> they were able to pass their entire legislative agenda, vishtly. what we got was stimulus. obama care. you know what, north carolina? we can do better than this. >> reporter: down the road in high point, an even bigger crowd. >> our founders made it really explicit. our rights come from nature and god and not from government. >> reporter: romney wife, anne, seemed to be caught up in the excitement. talking to the crowd for the first time in over a month. >> we are not going to take it anymore. we are taking the white house back. >> reporter: ryan's wife, janna, came onstage, too, but decided not to take the mike. >> reporter: after wisconsin, the show splits up with a chance to cover twice as much ground. david? >> jon carl, thank you. >>> president obama weighing in on mitt romney ice choice. kind words and fighting words. david kerley tonight with that part of the story. david? >> reporter: good evening, david. the president walked paul ryan to the ra

together on the campaign trail, mitt romney and paul ryan reached out to prospective voters in mooresville, north carolina. >> the man who has the experience to be that kind of leader we need at this moment is the man sitting next to me. his name is mitt romney and he's going to bet next president of the united states. >> i've got good news for you and that is this nation is going to come roaring back. >> reporter: coming off saturday's vp announcement, advisors to both romney and president obama made the rounds on the sunday talk shows. >> picking paul ryan says we're going to choose someone here who has a record of taking on the tough issues, of facing the challenges that we confront as a country, and providing solutions and answers to those things. >> i think it's helped further define the race. i don't think it's shaken up the race. >> reporter: the republican duo had one more stop in wisconsin sunday, before splight up to campaign on different tracks. kron 4 news. >>> well, today we had fog and some sunshine and, well, we had the fog here, obscuring the golden gate bridge much of the

. >> reporter: in mooresville, north carolina, packed to capacity inside, several thousand more in overflow! >> they were able to pass their entire legislative agenda virtually, and so what we got was stimulus, obama care -- [ booing ] >> you know what, north carolina, we can do better than this? [ applause ] >> reporter: down the road in hyde point, an even bigger crowd. >> our founders made it really explicit -- our rights come from nature and god and not from government. >> reporter: romney's wife ann seemed to be caught up in the excitement. jumping on stage to talk to the crowd for the first time in over a month. >> we are not going to take it anymore. we are taking the white house back. >> ryan's wife janna came on stage, too, but decided not to take the mike. after wisconsin, the ryan/romney show will split up. romney heads to florida and ryan to iowa. with two candidates, a chance to cover twice as much ground. jonathan karl, abc news, high point, north carolina. >> president obama, welcomed ryan to the race during a fundraiser in chicago. at the mention of ryan's name, the crowd go

i want to go live to mooresville, north carolina, on the campaign trail, that's where we find nbc's peter alexander who is on site for the upcoming romney/ryan rally this morning. peter, what can we expect? >> david, before they had both of these two candidates, mitt romney and paul ryan will begin their day here near charlotte. they have another event in north carolina and then this evening a big homecoming rally planned in wisconsin. a campaign adviser told us just a short time ago this will be the end until the convention of the two campaigning to the. they will split off. the effort is to try to maximize the impact of this new announcement, having them go to separate places to try to get better numbers in terms of fund-raising as well as bigger crowds. >> we're learning more about the back story. the secrecy behind this pick in the age of a 24-hour news cycle. what have you picked up? >> reporters are reluctant to acknowledge this, but they outwitted us in the 24-hour news cycle. the twitter news cycle. just to give you a sense, a week ago mitt romney offered his choice of paul ryan i

right now they are heading to high point, north carolina after an event in mooresville. candidates made appearances in virginia yesterday after romney introduced ryan as his running mate. ryan slammed president obama's economic policies. >> do you think the countries on the right track? >> no. >> you know why? >> yeah. >> because president obama is our president and he has put all of his policies in place and they are just not working. >> the candidates will make a total of three stops in north carolina today. they will then fly to ryan's home state of wisconsin for a home coming rally. the duo will continue their bus trip in florida tomorrow. both romney and obama campaigns are spending millions of dollars on new attack ads with less than three months from the election expect to see more ng which states the ads will appear the most and the groups of voters being targeted. >>> san francisco's new pet program is not sitting well with peta. they began paying qualifying pan handerring $75 a week to stop begging and fostering puppies. peta says it's like playing russian roul

i want to go live to mooresville, north carolina, on the campaign trail, that's where we find nbc's petery/ryan rally this morning. peter, what can we expect?