abc's rachel martin has more on what he said. >> the president sat down friday for five interviews that aired sunday morning on abc, nbc, cbs, and the cable network, cnn and univision. the interview with abc's george step nope louse got testy at times especially when step nope louse claimed that a mandate requiring people to buy health insurance amounted to a backhanded tax hike. >> my critics say everything is a tax increase. my critics say that i'm taking over every sector of the economy. you know that. >> you reject it. >> i absolutely reject that notion. >> on every network he was asked if the hardening opposition to his health care plans was racially motivated. >> part of it is i think the opposition has made a decision they are just not going to support anything. >> uh-huh. >> for political reasons. >> but the sunday media blitz didn't appear to sway republican critics. >> he can be on every news show until the end of time. if he doesn't get republicans and democrats in a room and get off tv we're never gonna solve this problem. >> reporter: after health care the war in afghanista

here's abc's rachel martin. >> reporter: for generations, school meant books. lots of books. >> his search for information begins in his civics book. >> reporter: not anymore. >> we're going to copy that. then we're going to exit out of that. we're going to do to dictionary.com, wait until it loads. >> reporter: around the country, from high school to grad school, books are getting harder to find. no more back-breaking backpacks. now, an entire library can fit in the palm of your hand. this private school outside boston is going bookless. >> we decided that we could best utilize our resources if we decided to go with e-books and e-resources. >> like it says right here in paragraph 4. >> reporter: at this virginia school, this english class is trying out the ipod touch. if the experiment works, the entire school district will switch. >> they took right away to it. there was no adaptation necessary. >> reporter: laptops and ipods cost money, of course, but so do textbooks. at times, hundreds of dollars apiece, and because there is so much free educational materia

>> rachel martin at the white house, thank you. for more on this, let's go to martha raddatz, who joins us now from washington, as well. martha, we heard rachel talk there about the possibility that the israelis could take some sort of military action. what could actually be done militarily against the heavily fortified sites, though? >> reporter: well, there are several options. none of them are good, dan. and this is not an option the u.s. wants to use, and the u.s. does not want israel to use this option, either. but they are working on this bomb, which is called a massive ordnance penetrator. it is not like a regular bomb, that hits the surface, and explodes. what it does is actually penetrates down below. this is a regular bomb you're blows out on the surface. this massive ordnance penetrator, 15 tons would go deeper into the earth and try to find hidden sites. but that bomb is not ready yet. >> we saw in rachel's piece, secretary gates pointedly refused to answer questions about whether the government thinks there are more hid

here's rachel martin. >> reporter: in five interviews on five networks, the president hit everythingrom afghanistan -- >> we lost that focus for awhile. >> reporter: to race relations. >> are there people out there who don't like me because of race, i'm sure there are. >> reporter: but the purpose of this morning marathon was to convince americans that health care reform has to happen this year. something he admitted hasn't been easy. >> i've said to myself, somehow i'm not breaking through. >> reporter: but analysts say inundating the airwachs is risky. >> if you are doing five shows on a sunday, it's far too many. >> no president ever wants to become video wallpaper. people do tune you out because they simply assume you don't have anything new to say. >> reporter: barack obama is about even with george w. bush and bill clinton on the number of press conferences he's given, but when it comes to interviews, clinton had don 46 by this point. bush, 40. president obama? 124. there was only one television network where the president didn't appear today, fox news. that was the only networ

as rachel martin reports, some schools are taking the radical step of moving into the computer age by doing away with books all together. >> reporter: for generations, school meant books. lots of books. >> search for information beginning in his civil ickes book. >> reporter: not anymore. >> we're going to copy that. then we're going to exit out of that. we're going to do to dictionary.com, wait until it loads. >> reporter: around the country, from high school to grad school, books are getting harder to find. no more back breaking backpacks. now, an entire library can fit in the palm of your hand. this private school outside boston is going bookless. >> we decided we could best use our resources if we decided to go with e-books, and e-resources. >> like it says right here in photograph four. >> reporter: at this virginia school, may's english class is trying out the ipod touch. if the experiment works the entire school district will switch. >> they took right away to it. there was no adaptation necessary. >> reporter: laptops and ipods cost money, of course, but so do text books. at t

here's rachel martin. >> reporter: when president george h.w.d he would make a speech in 1991, the only reaction was excitement. >> they were thrilled at the prospect of seeing him, meeting him, and they should have been. >> reporter: cynthia was the teacher in the virginia classroom that hosted the president. >> there's nothing to be afraid of in listening to the president speak. i hope that we listen a lot to what any president has to say. >> reporter: not all educators agree. some school districts are refusing to broadcast the president's live remarks after parents raised concerns that obama is using the address to indoctrinate their children. >> he is not to sit in on this speech, not to participate in the discussion and he sure as hell is not going to sit there and write an essay. >> reporter: the firestorm erupted when the white house put out lesson plans when the white house suggested students write a letter. the administration changed the wording on the lesson plan but the white house was still on the defensive. >> the president's whole

our rachel martin is following this story. and joins us now. rachel martin, good morning. >> reporter: those missile tests are a show of force by iranians, last week were collectively criticized by the community. the news of this hidden nuclear plant has ratcheted up tensions between the u.s. and iran. only one of foreign policy issues president obama had to tackle over the past seven days. climate change. nuclear proliferation. the middle east. the global economic crisis. all front and center as president obama tackled his first big foreign policy test. >> you're popular abroad. you give great speeches. but what do you have to show for it? >> reporter: iran, president obama led an unified condemnation of iran's secret nuclear facility in the city of qom. a message he underscored in his weekly address. >> this is a serious challenge to the global nonproliferation regime. and continues a disturbing pattern of iranian invasion. >> reporter: invasion he says that warrants tougher sanctions. easier to get with a new nod of support from russia. >> n

abc's rachel martin has more from washington. good morning, rachel. >> reporter: good morning, ron. world leaders used the g-20 summit to pledge more cooperation to stabilize the global economy. but the big news came when president obama and other leaders condemned iran for building a secret, nuclear facility. the president put it plainly. iran, he said, is on notice. >> they are going to have to come clean. and they are going to have to make a choice. are they willing to go down the path, which i think ultimately, will lead to greater prosperity and security for iran? or will they continue down a path that is going to lead to confrontation? >> reporter: strong words, delivered with european allies at his side. >> confronted by the serial deception of many years, the international community has no choice today but to draw a line in the sand. >> reporter: the unified rebuke came after intelligence from france, britain and the u.s. revealed a secret nuclear plant, hidden in the mountains, about 100 miles outside tehran. >> this is likely a breakout facility, that iran did not intend t

rachel martin, abc news, washington. >> new york governor david patterson is attending mr.g political pressure in his bid to stay in office. patterson's low popularity has obama administration officials fearing he can't win next november's gubernatorial election. patterson said he is staying in and he intends to win. >> time for your monday weather. a wet day for the great lakes through the southeast with a chance of flooding in detroit, cincinnati, atlanta and tallahassee. heavy rain and strong storms from minnesota to texas. thunderstorms in central rocky. >> it will be mostly sunny and hot out west, 10 in phoenix, 88 in portland. a rainy 74 in detroit, 77 in chicago, 74 in boston, 76 in new york and baltimore. >> starting to get chilly in some places. >> i don't like it. >> you don't? >> i want it to be summer all the time. >> move to hawaii. more than 2,000 people gathered here in new york. >> they formed a massive human hour clock symbolizes the earth's race against time and to highlight the dangers of global warming. >> are they wearing plastic, though? >> looks like

rachel martin, abc news, washington. >>> still ahead, while more schools report new cases in swine fluwe actually have some good news about the virus, plus we'll show you how the tough economy takes its toll on your ability to survive a medical emergency. >>> and the ravens enjoy a successful start to the season, and rob will have more of today's highlight, coming up. >>> a gorgeous day today. wouldn't it be nice to get the rain out of here? we hit 80 degrees today, that's exactly what we forecast, and we do have a 2-degree weather winner. sherrie doneaway. you have an abc2 news umbrella waiting for you, and your forecast waiting for you on the other side of this break. >>> a check on headlines across the nation, includes good news about the swine flu vaccine. americans could begin receiving the shots as early as the first week of october. which is a lot sooner than expected. some early doses should arrive soon. it will help contain the spread of the flu. >>> the tough economy is contributing to a medical problem. blood donations are down, because corporate blood drives are attracting

and abc's rachel martin is following the story and joins us from the white house this morning.ood morning. >> reporter: good morning, bill. media blitz, for sure. yesterday, the president sat down for interviews with abc, cbs, nbc, cnn and univision. he's also expected to make an appearance on "the david letterman show" monday night. the white house is aggressively trying to sell health care reform to the american people, with the president as pitchman. if you turn your tv on sunday morning, you're bound to see the president, talking health care. >> sometimes they vote for me. >> the networks and even a comedy show like letterman, will jump through hoops to satisfy and accommodate the president. >> reporter: which is why the president has made himself the public face of health care reform. >> there's only one comparison. and that is, of course, bill clinton, on health care. like obama, he was a young, new, democratic president, with a lot of energy. and one issue dominating his agenda, health care. >> reporter: but clinton's health care bill failed. and now, obama is facing cri

rachel martin. >>> one more reminder, if you check out one of those interviews, george stephanopoulos will have it right here on "this week," tomorrow. >>> bill, to northern california, where police are using high-tech equipment to comb the house and yard of phillip garro. he stands accused of kidnapping and abusing jaycee dugard for 18 years. authorities also believe he was behind a series of grisly murders. the search is yielding clues. brian rooney has more. >> reporter: investigators say they might digging monday, in a specific patch of phillip garrido's yard, after it attracted cadaver dogs and something showed on this ground-penetrating radar. >> we did learn there was an anomaly noted in the same general area where the cadaver dogs hit yesterday. >> reporter: crews continued knocking down sheds and pulling up concrete slabs. in the process, they found another piece of bone. >> it was in a different location than the bone located on that property earlier in the week. and it's too early to even begin to guess what kind of bone that might be, human or animal. >> reporter: somewher

rachel martin, abc news, >> and another foreign policy challenge on the president's plate is the waread of central command is in washington tomorrow to discuss the worsening situation there. the commander on the ground, general stanley mcchrystal, is asking for more troops but the pentagon says it's going to hold on to that request for now. >> i'm confident that i will have an absolute chance to provide my assessment and to make my recommendations. >> general mcchrystal was very explicit in saying he thinks this assessment, this review that's going on right now, is exactly the right thing to do. he doesn't want it to be open ended or a protracted kind of thing. >> it says that the taliban and al qaeda would see an early pullout as a victory over the united states, much like the humiliating withdrawal by the soviet union back in 1989. >> outrage over the surprise arrest of roman polanski is spreading across europe this morning. he was picked up in switzerland this weekend on charges he fled the u.s. 31 years ago rather than face sentencing for child rape. this morning poland and franc

here's rachel martin >> r repeporter: for generatio hool meant bookoks, lots of oks. >> the search forormation begins in his civics book. >> reporter: not anymore. >> we're going to copy that and exit out of that and go to dictionary.com, wait till it loads. >> reporter: around the country from high school to grad school, books are getting harder to find. no more back breaking back packs. now an entire library can fit in the palm of your hand. this private school outside boston is going bookless. >> we decided we could best utilize our resources if we decided to go with e-books and e-resources. >> reporter: at this virginia school, this english class is trying out the ipod touch. if the experiment work, the entire school district will switch. >> they took right away to it. >> reporter: laptops and ipods cost money of course but so do textbooks, at times hundreds of dollars a piece. because there is so much free educational material online, high tech can sometimes mean low cost. empire high in arizona bought laptops for its students, in part with the money it saved on textbooks. traditi