senior administration official telling me obama white house aggressively challenging a decision by the s&p to down grade the government's triple-a credit rating. "cnn presents" starts right now. tonight on "cnn presents" addicted at birth. >> what's she going through? she's just a little baby! and she can't talk and she can't tell me how she feels. >> america's painful ep depthic, the youngest generation. >> we're seeing more babies being born addicted to drugs. >> beasts of war. >> next thank you know i was staring at a porpous right in the face. >> enlisting animals to protect the country? >>> but first, inside a polygamous sect. >> we're dealing with the exploitation of children, of young girls, for sexual purposes. >> gary tuchman takes you where most people never go, exposing polygamy's dirty secrets. >>> the scenery is spectacular. and the polygamist family who is live here along the utah/arizona border have been able to live their lives with little interference from the outside world for generations. stepping into their world is both jarring and surreal. how many brothers and si

inside the obama white house about how big the president should go with his job's plan. the president will outline his proposals for job creation in a major speech next week, but "the washington post" reported today it remained unclear if the president was looking for narrower ideas with a realistic chance with passing the republican-led house or more sweeping stimulus proposals that would excite his liberal base and draw contrasts with the gop. the president himself hinted today that he may actually be ready for a fight with the republicans. in a speech to the american he on he on, the president took aim. >> we're still digging out from the worst economic crisis since the first depression, and even though we've taken steps in the right direction, we have a lot more to do. our economy has to grow faster, we have to create more jobs, and we have to do it faster, and most of all, we've got to break the gridlock in washington that's been preventing us from taking the action we need to get this country moving. [ cheers and applause ] that's why next week i'll be speaking to

me tonight, richard. >> my pleasure, lawrence. >> richard, the struggle for survival inside the obama white has never appeared more difficult than it is right now. but politically, in this game where everybody got damaged, the president as the poll indicates got damaged the least. >> yeah. we in pundit land need to eat some humble pie here. we all thought this rupture with the base that we talked about, with the progressive caucus, would be translated across progressives in general. these polls suggest that the president's bond with his base, with progressives, with not just democrats but moderates. and by the way, not just moderate democrats but moderates across the spectrum, that is still very strong. and that tells you what this narrow path is for the election next year. it's not just the base, but these moderates, not independents, but moderate voters that this president has got to get that coalition together. because those are the people who are naturally with him. >> richard, it seems that despite as you say all the talk among pundits and then among some democratic members of congress

population is christian obama is a christian he's a church goer the white house has a massive christmas tree on its lawn during christmas every single year they do an easter egg roll to celebrate easter obama regularly quotes scripture and references his faith in political speeches so let's not sitting here and act as if the christian population is somehow being neglected by our president and just when you think about conversation can't get any more questions co-host steve doocy decides to jump into the mix. yeah of course the white house historically does have a white house easter egg roll but they didn't issue an official proclamation like they did for ramadan just now there's the president with the easter bunny screenwriter i think he did. briefly in his we can address that weekend of easter in passing but still nothing big christian it is christianity's holiest and the secret likely to the coming as the obama white house power got to issue an easter proclamation we get it now of course they don't mention the easter prayer breakfast or the fact that obama attended church on easter su

. >> responding to accusation that obama white house gave acess to the producers for the hunting of osamain laden . that caused chairman king to voice concerns over acess to such sensitive information . the controversy came about after an arcticle by new york times columnist mauren dawd. that it is timed to give a home stretch boost to a campaign that has grown tougher. makers are getting top-level acess from a administration who tried to put more people in jail for leaking classified information than the bush administration. >> homeland security thinks it is an answer. >> this is a waste of time and taxpayer dollars. because of antipathy . jay carny said don't they have better thing to do than look at movie make ares and that suspect and cynical about the white house. >> they got the information somewhere. >> what is the source of her story and she doesn't say. it would not be the first time that the democratic party wasn't the hand maiden or hollywood was not the hand maiden of the democratic party. >> the remains of the troops who died in afghanistan were brought back to dover air forc

obama. i think. and the white house. the white house officials, that's what they come back to. >> is it color blind or is the focus on his background? >> i think if you look at it through the prizm of class, not race, you see something going on in an interesting way in this country. down market voters, many of whom are white, making under $30,000 a year, who don't have high school educations, migrating to the g.o.p. what you had in the last election, one out of five voters made over $100,000 a year. obama won them by an overwhelming margin. that's an interesting class divide, not so much a race divide. >> that's pretty traditional, the white working class feels threatened by change. what do you say when you hear republicans like reck perry say, we're going to take our country back, not the white house back, what does that mean if it doesn't have a racial ting to it? >> i think it absolutely has a racial ting. that's not the same thing as calling, saying that they're racist. but they are using what activists call, politic

. >> he was in newark, new jersey, as part of his new role as the only celebrity on president obama's whiteions. >> you see the vulnerable young believer who wants a change or a second chance. >> what's more fulfilling, making a difference in the leaders of tomorrow or headlining at major arenas all over the world? >> my job doesn't define who i am. we're still here. we're at the top of the game. we're writing songs that have been a part of the patchwork of american culture for nearly three decades. >> bon jovi says he was always this confidence. even when he was lacking for his first break. >> i went to a radio station on long island in 1982. this guy was on the air and he loved music. so he answered the door. when a kid knocked on it. tell me am i crazy, listen to this tape. he did. he says, you're not crazy, it sounds like a hit song. the song "runaway" was sitting on all those record company guy's desks for a year and got no response. ♪ ooh she's a little runaway >> four years after that trip to the radio station, their album "slippery when wet" was a soaring success. jon's had personal

. >>> it's a working vacation for president obama. white house officials say the obama administration is making progress on the jobs plan expected to roll out after labor day. but as barbara hall reports, the president and other political leaders may have trouble seeing eye to eye. >> reporter: will politics get in the way of creating more jobs? president obama's jobs plan remains a work in progress, even during his summer vacation. >> a lot of folks are still looking for work, so we need folks in washington, the people whose job it is to deal with the country's problems, the people who you elected to serve. we need them to put aside their differences to get things done. there are things we can do right now that will mean more customers for businesses and more jobs across the country. >> reporter: during last week's bus tour, the president was criticized by some for not stopping in communities who need jobs the most. >> i mean, we want the president to go to iowa, but we also want him to come to detroit, want him to come to los angeles, and

obama. chief white house correspondent ed henry tells us it was an unusual end to a difficult period. but as we heard from mike, beginning of more battles to come. good evening, ed. >> reporter: right. it was striking to see the president and solitaire figure in the rose garden, no pep rally or cheering lawmakers with him. they didn't think there was a lot to celebrate here. so instead he was focus today on trying to position himself for the next round of deis it talks and also for the 2012 cam pape ahead. this was the president framing himself as the compromiser in chief. the only guy in the washingto washington. >> it ought to compel washington to corporate and compromise. >> reporter: it's convenient for the president to start looking ahead to 2012 and move beyond the debt ceiling fast, since his old position evolved. while he is now touting the success of deficit reduction, a few months ago his administration was incysting no spending cuts tied to the debt ceiling increase. >> what i'm saying is we support a clean piece of legislation. to raise the debt ceiling. >> white house aid

we'll be calling out chris rock for what he did and didn't do it obama's white house birthday party al gore calls the ouster of rock obama and jay moon joins us from palmer massachusetts for a lesson of a new property taxes and of course you're watching versus them a. little . boy. like. lindsey lowe and bakiev all the detail that is lame duck people are still just speaking she's looking no she says she is stopped. well go back to adam vs the man so the white house yesterday the president has a birthday bash and for his fiftieth everything was planned according to politico celebrities at the party included jay z. tom hanks and his wife rita wilson basketball star charles barkley grant hill actor hill harper and oprah winfrey's best friend gayle king r. and b. singer live d.c. jazz musician herbie hancock and stevie wonder performed in the east room the drudge report out of this morning as it was supposed to be a headline we would be shocked about hip hop in east room like that never happened under clinton oh yeah and this guy was there george bush is still in charge and nobody gives le

but it is, perry is totally right, that it is about the way the white house wants it frame this. president obamaing he wants about an opponent. they will saying in something about him regardless of whether or not it is true. that's the hard part about campaigning. is it is hard for the white house to run against perry and romney. they would rather run against bachmann but that is less likely to be the case. >> we saw a story in politico about the white house was supposedly or at least the obama campaign was going to go through this whole thing of romney being weird and some were speculating that being that we are looking at iowa this weekend, that maybe the obama campaign was trying to help embellish romney a little. you don't buy into that, perry? >> i that i they are going to start criticizing the candidates pretty early on. they are doing that in the -- the obama people are and democratic national committee is. right now in iowa, have nine people saying bad things about obama and obama not defending himself. he is doing this bus tour the next few weeks where he is getting his own record out t

it makes me continue to wonder how the obama campaign can plot its course economically and the obama white house plot its rhetoric when you're going against this rick perry/bachmann world where no reality matters. >> i think what the white house is going to have to do, and again, it's going to be frustrating, but it has to tell the american people how things are right now, what can be done realistically. what must be done to turn this economy around. the president has been saying since the day he was inaugurated, the right fiscal path is going to be a very long process. it's not something that can be done overnight or in one quarter as michele bachmann is promising. it isn't to say the president hasn't made mistakes, for instance, the fiscal commission he put together and ignored their recommendations, but we know lessons of ignoring credible reports, and i think from now on the president is going to have to worry about those folks saying what they are saying during the primary contest, which to a certain point he can sort of ignore them and deal with the republicans he has to deal with to

does that mean he's hearing from the white house that president obama and his team don't want to seeget recalled? take us down that road, what's the story? >> sure. look, the first thing is, i can assure you that the obama white house is not in regular conversation with the scott walker state house. and so that's the governor doing what he has a tendency to do, which is sort of take the partisan spin and add a little bit of his own salsa to it. >> we keep hearing from the white house that they're not for the recall. that's a pretty clear statement that there's been some communication. >> i don't buy it. i think that it is again the governor playing games politically. but i can tell you this, there is a lot of internal debate in wisconsin about when and how to do a recall of scott walker. remember, no matter what you've heard from all the national spin and the spin of the walker supporters, the reality is, that governor walker's approval rating is dramatically lower than that of president obama. he is down in the mid-30s. governor walker's got a real problem. if there is a recall, he'

two administration sources telling me tonight the obama white house is now prepared to explicitly call for the syrian president bashar al assad to step down. the call for regime change the sources tell me is planned for later this week, after united nations security council meeting on the syrian crisis set for tomorrow. these administration sources say the call for assad to step down will be packaged with new treasury department financial sanctions designed to tighten the screws on president assad, his family, and syrian businesses with close ties to the regime. human rights activists say at least 2,000 people have been killed in the regime's brutal crackdown on anti-government protesters over the past several months. as the crackdown has played out, the administration has gone from urging assad to stop the violence and implement reforms himself to of late saying the dictator has lost legitimacy, but until now the administration has stopped short from demanding he yield power. here's how the u.n. ambassador to the united nations described assad's behavior right here on this program las

. >> monica: one other point about tonight, the obama white house, they brought in the nonunion crewsrun this birthday. >> kimberly: how hypocritical. >> monica: amazing. it's in chicago. and they brought in a nonunion crew. >> eric: the uniqueness of the 50th birthday in illinois, chicago, illinois happens to rank 50th as far as bad deficit numbers. the most in deficit state in the union. leave ero up there for mr. obama and keep the five for ourselves. >> bob: you foe what will happen? >> eric: hold the five. >> bob: that will end up in your face. keep going. move on. >> greg: let's move on. good point. talk about the faa shutdown. government will lose $1 billion in airline ticket taxes because the lawmakers left town for a month without resolving the bill. supposed to end a schultdown of the aviation administration. 4,000 employees were furloughed. this is great. anytime the government is shutdown anywhere makes me happy. am i wrong? >> eric: no, you're 100% right. air traffic controller are working. >> kimberly: or sleeping. >> eric: or sleeping. auto mechanics are working. this i

. >> so despite the successes of the obama white house' strategy in libya, protecting forces from danger while simultaneously helping the opposition take control of libya, the president is getting absolutely no support or credit from republicans. in fact, a condescending statement was released "the end of gadhafi's regime was made for -- we also commend our british, french, and other allies and the united arab emirates. americans can be proud of the role our country has played in order to defeat gadhafi, but here we go, we regret the success was so long in coming due to the failure of the united states to employ the full weight of our air power." so that's well-done libyans, thanks britain, france, all our allies and air partners, sentiments that are well deserves, and america, we guess. i don't know if i've ever seen the word "failure" in a congratulatory statement before. many were quick to pile on. lawrence korb joins me to discuss the policies in libya in a few minutes, first, richard engel is in tripoli with the latest on the rebel forces' efforts to completely control that city. >>

white house. this is your exclusive sneak peek at? >> the obamaere are our invites? >> not only did they not invite us, and i say this because the obama white house probably doesn't even want us to be talking about this right now, this is an event in the rose garden. people are already there. you have entertainment, herbie hancock is over there, who played at last night's fund-raiser in chicago. this is a birthday party that was left off the official schedule. though, i was told by the white house that the obamas are paying for it themselves. they would rather you not know and not talk about his barbecue tonight. i think the reason why is after this long, grueling debate over the debt and deficit, the mess over the faa, they don't want to have pictures of obama partying. >> he's paying for it himself. that's an important point to make. i want you to listen to something the president said. he was in chicago as lynn noted, herbie hancock performed, he was raising money for his re-election campaign. and the president understands it's hard to say re-e

and i think ultimately the obama white house will be stuck running a fairly negative campaign basicallyguing that who ever the republican nominee is, whether it's mitt romney, rick perry or somebody else, they're just a continuation of the bush administration, and if you look at the polls and more americans still blame bush for the current economic woes than blame obama, and i think that's going to be the focus of the white house's strategy. >> lehrer: how does that fit into the new poll, yesterday's poll that was out today, cbs "new york times" poll about the low opinion that the american people have of the congress? >> congress as somebody once see serves two purposes, it makes the united nations look efficient by contrast and it makes the president's job rating look good. but we've been through three straight elections in a row, jim, that have repealed one of the great maxims of american politics. all politics is local. all politics is not local. and it is local until it's national. we've gone through three national elections where they've thrown the ins out. 2006 it was the republic

with me now, man who served in the obama white house, jared bernstein, former chief economist to viceresident biden. also joining me is christina friedman. before we go anywhere else, let's talk about standard and poor's. i've had questions, you know, this whole thing, they were going to downgrade early friday. then when they sent the release, we understand the treasury and the treasury said, wait a minute, you didn't factor in 2 trillion. they said okay and in a couple hours they went ahead with the same report. that just doesn't smell right to me. then they made flubbes about things in the past where they've been dead wrong about some things. let's talk about how they've been dead wrong, about mortgage backed securities. it overrated lehman brothers which had an a rating just before going out of business in 2006. it came iceland the same rating that u.s. now has and iceland almost went bankrupt. what credit worthiness do we have from an agency like this? i mean, are they worthy, as george will says of us giving them credit? i've never quoted george will in my life as i promise. >> i

the white house feels as though the response was appropriate. just today we heard president obamark to be done. take a listen. >> it's going to take time to recover from the storm of this magnitude. the effects are being felt across much of the country including in new england and states like vermont where there's been an enormous amount of flooding. so our response continues, but i'm going to make sure that fema and other agencies are doing everything in their power to help people on the ground. >> craig, you may have noticed it was important that the white house to show that the president was working on this during the weekend. as you mentioned he came home from his vacation a day early. we saw some images of him this weekend including when he visited fema and spoke to folks there. also, there was really a bipartisan response. we saw governors, mayors coming out, getting ahead of this storm. we heard governor chris christie of new jersey telling people to get off the beaches. >> kristen welker from the white house. kristen, thank you. >>> that is all for me. thanks for watching.

this is a huge problem for the obama white house, for investors around the country, and for average americanswhether this reflect reflects the headwinds in the economy that might affect them on job front, the unemployment front and also growth. >> john, as we get closer to the closing bell, we watch this systematically ticking down below 600 and since the beginning of talking the you, we have seen the market drop by 34 points already. investors are spooked to say the least. downright panicked would be more like it. did the president's remarks today in your opinion do the distance to calm the fears of what could be a rough week? >> no evidence of it now. but i think that what the administration hopes is that after you get the initial panic, moral blow that the united states has suffered that the markets will calm down a little bit and refocus on the fundamental and certainly the treasuries have been doing well and reflecting the continued confidence in the treasuries as a investment, and the economic fundamentals and while the economy is growing slowly, it is slow, and expected more rapid rate

the obama white house's pattern in the past has been to tune out the washington chatter and react to own timetable. with unemployment in double digits, almost in double digits, the markets in free fall and growth stagnant, is that the best strategy? dee dee myers, former press sect for president clinton. >> dee dee, terry came in here and said he ought to bring congress back. i'm not implying terry got this from bill clinton but i heard this from a lot of democrats, both from the obama world and clinton world, if you want to say there are two worlds in the democratic party, and there are, both suggesting he ought to do something like this. what say you? >> a grand dramatic gesture sounds like a good idea, but you better have something concrete you want to accomplish. to bring congress back, have more gridlock, more debates that don't go anywhere, to have another standoff about whatever it is you're talking about, would be bad for the president and the country. on the other hand, if has a clear agenda and he can get it passed, it would be a way of saying i expect more from washington.

now from an economist who not too long ago was part of president obama's white house team. christina romar back teaching at berkeley. >> you see what is happening in the global markets. on a scale of one to ten, one being no, ten being definitely, how likely in your view is another global recession. >> >> oh, i'm not even going to give you a number. i think what is true is the risks of a recession have clearly gone up substantially. i think one of the things i keep saying is i think people are too much obsessed with the difference between really lousy anemic growth and literally a decline in the economy. both those things are terrible and we should be just as worried about getting our economy and the world economy going with where we are now as if we were falling again. >> and the president came out trying to reassure the markets and the american people. and he called on con not only to get about the business of that super committee, to find additional deficit reduction, but he wants to stepped the payroll tax, he wants to extend unemployment insurance, he wants to create a

hope that there's a turnaround or when you hear from larry summers who not long ago was in the obama whiteing, do you know what, we are on the edge of the cliff and we could tip into another recession, is he right? >> look, it gets talked about. it was talked several months ago. it happens when a bunch of bad economic reports come out, people say it's likely to be the thing. credit is flowing freely and mortgage rates again down a new low. here are the bright signs. demand is down a little bit from the previous month. it's not actually down from last year. oil prices are down, that puts a little bit more money in people's pockets from when gas prices were a lot higher. credit is still flowing. it is available. we're sort of staying afloat. i -- something has to happen. there has to be some catalyst to make people feel better. the one thing that could be helpful is the pullback in the stock market is a buying opportunity for some people and as the market starts to strengthen, it will make them feel better. i don't think there's enough evidence in front of me to suggest we're on the edge of

. >>> s&p serves notice to the obama white house that it plans to downgrade the u.s. credit rating. the government is fighting back. more on that just ahead. [ groans ] you okay? i'm not looking forward to my flight. try this. bayer aspirin? i'm not having a heart attack. it's my back. no, this is new bayer advanced aspirin... clinically proven to relieve tough pain twice as fast as before. what, did you invent this or something? well, my team did. i'm dr. eric first, from bayer. wow. look. it has microparticles. it enters the bloodstream faster and rushes relief right to the site of pain. better? great! thanks. [ male announcer ] new bayer advanced aspirin. extra strength pain relief. twice as fast. test our fast relief. love it, or get your money back. yup, we had a good year at chevy. they gave us a consumers digest best buy award. then they gave us an iihs top safety pick and you... well, you gave us your approval. so we thought, why not give a little back. the chevy model year wrap up. get in on our greatest model year yet. and now, very-well qualified lessees can get a low mil

light moment in the interview and i just want to play that exchang >> during the transition to the obama whiteparently gave some very sage advice to theincoming chief of staff, rahm emanuel. you told him? >> well, we had a meeting convened by josh bolton, our chief of staff, of all the people that previously held that job. at the meeting, we went around the table and asked each person to give a crucial piece of advice to rahm, who was about to take over as president obama's chief of staff. when they got to me, i said look, rahm, first thing you've got to do is make sure you've got your vice president under control, which got a great laugh. >> it's funny, though, jamie, you know, vice president biden has been a pretty strong vice president. maybe not exactly like eney, but pretty strong. >> and dick cheney likes joe biden, by the way. >> right, right. >> he goes on to say. >> keeping the model up and running. >> absolutely. absolutely. >> all right, we're going to take a quick break here. as i mentioned, we'll be right back with more from our roundtable, also the very latest on hurricane irene

white americans is 8.1%. for black americans, 16.2%. president obama, the nation's first black president, is doing nothing about this, some believe. one of these so believers is princeton professor cornell west. >> i think he does have a predilection much more towards upper middle-class white brothers and jewish brothers and has a certain distancing from free black men who will tell him the truth, both with himself and what is going on in black communities, brown communities, red communes, and poor white and working class communities. >> west calls president obama a black mascot of wall street and a black puppet. also, professor west announced he and talk-show host tavis smiley will begin a national poverty tour next month to sharpen the nation's awareness on what they call the failings of the president. african-americans at large agree with west and smiley. the president has dropped by more an 20 points with african- americans, from 77% last year to just over 50% this year. why? jobs. by the way, in 2008, the black volt for president obama was history

immediately following the senate vote, president obama appeared in the white house rose garden to discuss the significance of the legislation. his comments are just under 10 minutes. >> it was a long and contentious debate and i thank the american people for keeping up the pressure on their elected officials to put politics aside and work together for the good of the country. this compromise guarantees more than $2 trillion in deficit reduction. it's an important first step to ensuring that as a nation we live within our means. yet, it allows us to keep making key investments in things like education and research that lead to new jobs and assures that we aren't cutting too abruptly while the economy is still fragile. this is, however, just the first step. this compromise requires that both parties work on a plan to cut the deficit, which is important to the long-term health of our economy. and since you can't close the deficit with just spending cuts, we'll need a balanced approach where everything's on the table. yes, that means making some adjustments to protect health care programs lik

whether the white house and those of us in this body will balance this budget ourselves by wise policy or national bankruptcy and financial ruin will do it for us. from the day barack obama walked into the white house he has with breathtaking arrogance, mr. speaker, absolutely ignored economic and financial reality. it took america the first 216 years of its existence to accumulate the debt that barack obama has accumulated in the short 2 1/2-year span of his presidency. during his short time in office he has increased our federal debt by nearly $4 trillion, mr. speaker. and just to put that nearly $4 trillion in new debt in perspective, let me just put it this way. if all of a sudden a wave of responsibility swept through this chamber and we stopped all deficit spending and began to pay installments of $1 million per day to pay down the nearly $4 trillion debt that barack obama has created in just 2 1/2 years it would take us more than 10,000 years to pay off just the mr. obama's accumulated debt in 2 1/2 years. it would take us more than 10,000 years, mr. speaker, to do that if we paid it off in $1 million a day. and that's if we don't have to pay one dime in interest

but then, hitting 50, in the white house. 2006. and, president obama as he looked before, and as the white house has changed him, on the eve of his 50th birthday. the last three years, and those experiences, etched on his face. >>> and now, our washington watchdog report. president obama isn't the only one heading out of town tonight. congress is heading home, too. summer vacation with pay. even though they left behind thousands of faa employees who are not being paid. and some of them are being asked to work anyway. all because congress could not reach a a ending decision. abc's jon karl set out to get answers. >> reporter: some 200 airport construction projects have been stopped. thousands of workers sent home. >> well, this time, everybody wants to play hardball and hard ball hu hardball hurt us. >> reporter: also cut off, 40 airport safety inspectors. the folks who keep runways safe. the faa has asked them to keep working without pay, citing their, quote, professionalism. what about the professionalism of congress? they just went on vacation. the t

president obama returned to the white house wednesday night but he won't be there long. now that he's wrapped up his economic bus tour he'll head to martha's vineyard for a ten-day vacation with his family. wednesday the president told cbs news's anthony mason he doesn't think there will be a double dip recession but he is concerned about the country's weak job market. >> we are in danger of not having a recovery that's fast enough to deal with what is a genuine unemployment crisis for a whole lot of folks out there. >> reporter: a new gallup poll taken before the president's midwest trip found just 26% of americans approve of his handling of the economy, his lowest rating yet. still president obama insists canceling his vacation now and calling congress back wouldn't do much good. >> i think that if all we're doing is the same posturing that we saw before the debt limit vote, that's not going to encourage anybody. that's going to discourage people. >> reporter: next month the president will unveil a new proposal aimed at creating jobs and slashing the deficit but his re

. >> reporter: the republicans running for the white house wasted no time taking aim at presiden obama. and taking aim at each other. >> you said that the era of small government was over. that sounds a lot more like barack obama if you ask me. >> she led the effort against obamacare, we got obamacare. she led the effort against t.a.r.p., we got t.a.r.p. if that's your view of effective leadership with results, please stop because you're killing us. >> reporter: the eight gop candidates who took part in last night's debate on the fox newschannel fought to stand out in the pack and to keep another presidential hopeful from stealing the spotlight. texas governor rick perry a favorite among social conservatives said just hours before the broadcast he will announce that he is in the race on saturday. most of the republicans who want to be the one challenging president obama for the white house next november are looking ahead to tomorrow's straw poll. it's a key test vote that could give their campaigns a big boost. they are shaking hands and answering questions, hoping to win over voters.

despite opposition from unhappy liberal democrats and tea party republicans. >>> the white house has announced president obama'sor observing the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. white house press secretary jay carney said a short while ago that mr. obama will travel to three sites that were attacked, new york city, the pentagon, and shan shan shanksville, pennsylvania. >>> if you're going to throw a pie, be ready to do the time. it took place at a british par la manhattan hearing last month while murdoch was testifying about the phone-stacking scandal. he's known by his stage name johnny marbles will pay a fine and a victim's surcharge. murdoch was not hurt in the incident. >>> challenging alabama's new immigration law less than one month before it's to take effect. various provisions of the law undermine immigration priorities and objectives of the federal government. the law is also the target of a class action lawsuit. >>> the alabama crackdown on illegal immigrants is scheduled to go into effect september 1st. >>> after a lifetime of pushing the benefits of freezing dead people in the hope that they c