president obama on the campaign trail in sioux city, iowa.et's take a listen. >> it is great to see all of you. [ cheering ] and the only thing that i'm not gog do, though, is get in the middle of an argument between hawkeye and husker fine. i'm not going to go there. now, iowa is our first stop this week on the road to our convention in charlotte, north carolina. [ cheering ] it was important for me to begin that journey right here in iowa because this is where it all began four years ago, right here in iowa. [ cheering ] because it was you all who kept us going, when all the pundits had written us off, and it was in your living rooms and back yards and vfw halls ask diners where our movement for change began. and it will be you, iowa, who is going to make all the difference in the world in this upcoming election. [ cheers and applause ] now, last week the other party, they gave their pitch at the convention in florida. (booing) don't boo. vote. [ cheers and applause ] i've got to say that convention, it was something. despite all the challe

. >>> live pictures from sioux city, iowa. barack obama making a campaign stop in an important swing state. sioux city on the northwestern portion of the state. iowa, world famous for its caucuses but also important this time around for nine states that are considered toss-ups right new. we will have more a little bit later from shannon trent -- let's listen to what he has it say as he said good-bye. excellent timing. as soon as i stop talking, the president stopped talking. the president made his pitch to the middle class. all part of the lead-up to the democratic national convention in charlotte, north carolina. preparations are under way. and we will take you to charlotte next. if you made a list of countries from around the world... ...with the best math scores. ...the united states would be on that list. in 25th place. let's raise academic standards across the nation. let's get back to the head of the class. let's solve this. you walk into a convtional mattress store, it's really not about you. they say, "well, if you wan

we'll begin with kristen welker on the trail with the president in sioux city, iowa. kristen, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, lester. with the democratic national convention just a few days away, president obama is aiming to build momentum in key battleground states like right here in iowa where he's making his seventh visit so far this year. >> hello iowa! >> reporter: president obama kicking off his road to charlotte campaign in iowa, the state that first launched his presidency four years ago. >> it was you, iowa, who kept us going when the pundits were writing us off. and it will be you, iowa, who choose the path we take from here. >> reporter: polls show a tight race here as some white working class voters who gave him an edge four years ago now aren't so sure because of the economy. >> iowa is important, and i think other states will look at iowa and say, if they're turning away from barack obama, that is a harbinger for the rest of the country. >> reporter: today the president reached out to those disaffected voters by slamming mitt romney's convention

he just finished talking with supporters in sioux city.ou are looking at he is still with supporters there. the hawk eye state is key. iowa voted democratic in five of the last 8. and chosen the winner in 6 out of the past eight election and the highlight how important iowa is to this campaign. it is mr. obama's seventh trip and third in two weeks. ed henry traveling with the president tonight . as the president had new attacks he brought out today in mitt romney's big speech. >> he did. i am competing with the president working the rope line . springstein on the speakers. the president realize wills that there is only six electorial votes he has to fight for them. he had over 350 electoral votes. this time he could have the race. you go around the map and country. he will fight for everyone of them. while the white house said the president did not watch the republican national convention, he has a lot of opinions about it. he read about it on the ipad and offered this punch a moment ago. >> nobody every bothered in the three days to tell

we'll have all of that at the top of the hour on his day in sioux city.et with his jobs council since january. now vice president biden is ridiculing one of the council's big ideas for getting new investment funds. a new territorial tax system. a lot of politics after the democratic convention. "special report" from washington starts at 6:00 eastern. now back to new york and my colleagues with fiv "the five"." ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> greg: all right, this is a great news alert. liberal celebrities are a chuckle bucket. >> mitt romney would raise taxes on middle class families to cut his own and mine. and that's not who we are as a nation. let me tell you why. because eva longoria who worked at wendy's flipping burgers, she needed a tax break. but the eva longoria who works on movie sets does not. >> greg: yep, eva longoria wants you the sacrifice because she is doing the same, offering up an entire class of americans who aren't as stinking rich as her. remember, not so desperate housewife makes millions mouthing other people's words. so easy for her to give away other

. >> reporter: president obama hit a sports bar in sioux city, iowa. on a tour of swing states before his convention. earlier in urban dale, he asked, did you watch the republican convention? >> don't boo, vote. >> reporter: mr. obama charged an obsolete message. >> there was a lot of talk about hard truths and bold choices. but nobody ever actually bothered to tell you what they were. they know their economic plan isn't popular. >> romney/ryan. >> reporter: in florida, mitt romney and paul ryan vowed again to tell hard truths. >> we will not duck tough issues or kick the can down the road, we will lead. >> reporter: ryan had been at ohio state on this football saturday. mitt romney in cincinnati, blaming barack obama for america's jobless. >> and again today, 23 million people are out of work or stopped looking for work or underemployed. let me tell you, if you have a coach that's 0-23 million, you say it's time to get a new coach. >> reporter: the current coach claims a winning season. and better ones ahead. >> we have more good jobs to create. we ha

thanks, guys. >> that was governor mitt romney taking some questions from reporters as he lands in sioux cityaving a rally that he's holding there. i want to get this right, in orange city, iowa, a victory rally at northwestern college there later today. but taking questions from reporters there on everything from the jobs report that came out this morning, the lack of bounce that he got from his convention in tampa, and also taking questions about the lack of discussion about afghanistan from his speech and the rest of the speakers at the republican national convention. however, he did defend himself by saying that he did mention the military during his time there in tampa. all right. so we move on and we're talking about sarah palin who? the former alaska governor says she is surprised that senator john kerry even knew her name and that he quote, diminished himself after making reference to her in his speech last night. >> folks, sarah palin said she could see russia from alaska. mitt romney talks like he's only seen russia by watching "rocky iv." >> palin said on fox business she thought i

. >>> frank talk with the folks covering the campaign, the massachusetts governor in sioux city, iowationed a couple of rallies that you will be hearing from him today and not only a campaign stop in sioux city, iowa, but also in orange city, iowa and tonight, in another rally headed to nashua, new hampshire, and the campaign does not stop. that is fertile ground when you get jobs report that is disappoint i disappointing and trying to blunt a very loud message of loud speakerers from the democrat democrat democratic, and then at a news conference you want to give because you want to talk about qe1 and qe2 and the stimulus, and how the qe3 is not going to have the planned economic impact that the democrats are hoping for. we will follow the rallies live and bring them to you live here on cnn. back in a moment. 80 calories, right? no way, right? lady, i just drive the truck. right, there's no way right, right? have a nice day. [ male announcer ] delicious calories. fiber one. ♪ i can do anything ♪ i can do anything today ♪ i can go anywhere ♪ i can go anywhere today ♪ la la la la la la

in sioux city, iowa, president obama criticized mitt romney and the republicans for offering americans nothing new during their convention. >> when governor romney had his chance to let you in on his secret sauce, he didn't offer you a single new idea. so you heard him talk a lot about me. you heard him talk a lot about mitt. he didn't talk a lot about you. >> reporter: romney and running mate paul ryan were in jacksonville, florida, home to multiple military bases. romney told the gop faithful he would cut federal spending to balance the budget, but it wouldn't affect the military. >> he wants to cut a trillion dollars out of our military budget. [ boos ] >> look, that's bad for jobs and it's bad for our national security. the world is not a safer place right now. >> reporter: earlier in cincinnati, romney used the kickoff to college football to attack the president on job issues. >> if you have a coach that's zero and 23 million, you say it's time to get a new coach. >> reporter: for both sides, it's game on as romney tries to continue his momentum after the gop convention and presid

yesterday, he campaigned in sioux city, iowa. he's on a tour through swing states before the convention which starts on tuesday. >>> meanwhile, protesters are preparing to march in charlotte today ahead of the dnc. organizers are calling it the march on wall street south. they are drawing attention to unemployment. the demonstration will focus on economic inequality, social injustice and other issues. it will kick off a week of protests and rallierallies. we'll report live from the convention starting tonight on news4 at 11:00. >>> so in case you didn't know this, paul ryan is known as a workout fanatic. he's pretty buff. but his exercise routine has gotten him into a little bit of hot water. ryan told a radio host last month that he once ran a 2:50 marathon. that's an extraordinarily fast pace, but runners world magazine did a little digging. you can find everything. they discover that ryan only n run -- ran one marathon, there we go, i can't say that. try that. in 1990. they finished -- he finished it in a little over four hour

yesterday in sioux city, iowa, about 10,000 people turned out to hear him speak. they were fired up. they responded with loud applause. when he tried to paint republicans as the party of the past for saying that the republican national convention was basically like watching tv in black and white. on the other hand, alex, he was greeted at the sioux city airport with a huge sign that read, mr. president, we did build this. of course that's a reference to president obama's you didn't build that comment that the romney campaign has seized onto to try to paint the president s a as big government, antibusiness. what it really represents is the electorate is deeply divided in some of these key battleground states that president obama, mitt romney are stumping in in the days leading up to the democratic national convention. and if you talk to political analysts they say what romney did so effectively in his convention speech was to tap into some that have disappointment and to highlight it. so if you talk to surrogates of president obama, his advisers will tell you what

we're joined by governor romney here in sioux city ahead of an event here in iowa. governor, thanks for being here. >> thanks, bret. >> i want to talk about the democratic convention and messaging coming out of there in just a second but today the news about job numbers. 8.1% unemployment going down basically because people got out of the job market and 96,000 jobs created. your thoughts? >> obviously another disappointing monthly figure. the white house says you can't just look at monthly numbers if you if you look over the last several quarters, last several years you look at continued pattern we're not creating jobs we need to create to put americans back to work. for every net new job created about four people dropped out of the workforce. so we're going in the wrong direction. this is a very difficult time for the american people and by the way, wages are also not rising. so no increase in wages. declining wages, declining number of people being able to find work, people dropping out of the workforce. it's another continuation of a very bleak news on the employ

romney reacted to the news and speeches earlier in sioux city, iowa. >> after i said earlier after thety last night, the hangover today, jobs numbers were disappointing for almost every net new job created, approximately four people dropped out of the workforce. nothing that the president has done in three-and-a-half, four years to give the american confidence he knows what he is doing when it comes to jobs and the economy. >> kimberly: all right, so eric, jobs and the economy. strong statement by romney. what do you think? >> eric: the report. every month it comes out and -- stop it, bob. we didn't hear anything about jobs in president obama's speech last night. here are the real numbers. under obama, 200,000 fewer people working today than when he took office. 368,000 have given up hope in the last month alone. in the last three yeah years under obama, 3.5 million people given up hope. if you add that to those who dropped out of the workforce, the unemployment rate should be 11%. the labor force, lowest in 31 years. look at the chart on the next page. bob, you will moan when you see

. >> reporter: the president's next stop today is in sioux city, iowa, and tomorrow he'll speak in boulder, colorado. back to you, fred. >> thanks so much, athena jones. cnn's live coverage of the democratic national convention from charlotte, north carolina, beginning tuesday eening at 7:00 p.m. eastern time, anderson cooper, erin burnett and candy crowley will be joining wolf blitzer for coverage. >>> hoping to build momentum from the republican national convention. the presidential nominee is holding rallies in two battle ground states today, this morning in ohio and then in about an hour he'll be taking to the stage with runningmate paul ryan in florida. jim acosta joining me live in jacksonville where the crowd has gathered, a pretty sizeable crowd there in advance of the two arriving. >> reporter: yea. they'll have a big crowd in jacksonville and they had a very big crowd up in cincinnati, ohio, today. mitt romney and paul ryan were in the battleground state of ohio. paul ryan went to ohio state university and a miami university of ohio football game as is paul ryan's alma mater so i

he's scheduled to speak in sioux city in a little while.'s athena jones is traveling with the president. she's joining us now live. set the scene for us a little bit, athena. what's going on on the road to charlotte. he's coming here in a few days. >> reporter: that's right. he's about to speak in a few minutes, after secretary of agriculture, vilsack, speeches. but he started off today in urbanda urbandale, just outside of des moines. this is the road to charlotte, a series of events leading up to the democratic national convention. and earlier today, he got really fired up by what was a pretty sizable crowd. a fire department official said that the crowd there was about 10,000. let's listen in to what he had to say at that earlier event. >> we got a lot more work to do. we got a lot more work to do. we've got more good jobs to create. we've got more homegrown energy to create. we've got more young people to send to college. we've got more good teachers to hire. and we've got more good schools to build. we've got more troops we've got to b

> ali, i want a chance for mitt romney to respond to the numbers of the report, and listen from sioux city, iowa, moments ago. >> i don't think that qe3 as described is going to have the economic impact they think that the nation is looking for. i think that what we have found is that qe2 was less effective than we had hoped that might have been to create jobs, and frankly, what we are looking for is a kind of commitment in washington to fixing the structural problems that are making it hard for our economy to recover, and some of those problems are put in place by the president. break it down, ali, qe2 and qe3 and the difference? >> well, qe3 is quantitative easing and that is referring to the third installment. we have done it before. what that means is easing the interest rates and making the money more available and the federal reserve goes out to print the money and gives it out there to the banks in exchange for bonds and the banks have more money available to lend and that means more people can borrow the money and expand the businesses and hire people and things like that, and it i

against that backdrop i talked with governor romney a few hours ago in sioux city, iowa.sked him first about the new jobs report. >> well, obviously, another disappointing monthly figure. the white house keeps saying that you can't look at monthly numbers. if you look over the last several quarters, the last several years, you see the continued pattern, that we not creating the jobs we need to create to put americans back to work. for every net new job created, about four people dropped out of the workforce. so we are going the wrong direction. this is a difficult time for the american people. by the way, wages are also not rising. no increase in wages, declining wages, declining number of people able to find work, people dropping out of the the workforce, another continuation of bleak news on employment front. >> bret: do you think that this weak jobs report will spur the federal reserve in to action and how do you think if they do that, that might affect the election? >> it's hard to predict exactly what the federal reserve will do. i don't think there is any action the

that's what it's like when you're walking out the door this morning in duluth, minneapolis, sioux citya shot of cold air. six states have advisories for frost or freeze in those areas. on the west coast, 81 in seattle. portland at 87 degrees. this warmth that's been holding in southern california now has spread into the northwest. so, everyone gets a shot at the warmer temperatures. and that looks like it's going to last into the weekend, as well. one or two places along the coast you won't have the warm temperatures >> also need to mention if you're traveling on the east coast today, you have to stay up with your air carrier. these are going to be strong storms. >> up and down the coast. >> everywhere. >> it is everywhere. >>> and coming up here, cue the music -- which superstar sang this bond theme song? we're going to tell you. plus, is adele joining that we're going to tell you. plus, is adele joining that exclusive club? i love you, james. don't you love me? i'm a robot. i know. i know you're a robot! but there's more in you than just circuits and wires! uhhh. (cries) a machine ca

he's got an event in iowa near sioux city in a couple hours from now. here in new hampshire later on this evening. he is in the air right now and we're here on the ground in new hampshire because quite frankly we wouldn't be able to report to you if we were up in the air all day long. he'll be in the skies for seven hours today. but he did put out a statement earlier this morning. i'll read it to you. we'll put it up on screen if we can. he said, quote, if last night was the party this morning is the hangover. for every net new job created nearly four americans gave up looking for work entirely. this is more of the same for middle class families who are suffering through the worst economic recovery since the great depression. after 43 straight months of unemployment above 8% it is clear that presint obama just hasn't lived up to his promises and his policies haven't worked. what is interesting in that statement you saw mitt romney talked about the number of 8%. mitt romney and the republicans have been talking about this for a couple years now that this

he campaigned yesterday in sioux city, iowa. the convention starts on tuesday. >>> delegatess are already arriving and extra police and southern k-9s are patrolling every inch. it will last through the week for the dnc convention. stay with news4 for complete coverage of the democratic national convention in charlotte. jim vance and tom sherwood will report live, beginning tonight at 11:00. >>> you better keep a closer eye on your speed because the grace period is over for 11 newly installed speed cameras installed in d.c. police officers say that while the fines might be steep, traffic fatalities have gone down get this by 76% in the past decade. the new camera locations include k-street northwest and texas avenue southeast. >>> out with the old to make room for the new. >>> coming up how the d.c. community is welcoming a major change. >>> and the white house goes public with its homemade recipe for the president's beer. >>> and how much rain exactly are we talking as you head back to work and school next week, kim has the exte

i spoke to a republican consultant this week who said it cost just as much to air an ad in sioux cityt. louis, obviously a much bigger market. that's how much the state is being inundated. let's remember it's only six electoral votes in iowa. not a must win. sure, it would help governor romney in particular make some -- get some -- make some headway on the electoral map. but six votes in the scheme of things is not as big of prize as ohio or florida. >> ladies, thank you so much. >> thank you. >>> now new developments in libya. the fbi investigation is under way on the deadly attack on the u.s. consulate there. today the u.s. ambassador to the united nations, susan rice, outlined the latest from the fbi investigation. >> our current assessment is that what happened in benghazi was, in fact, initially a spontaneous reaction to what had just transpired hours before in cairo. almost a copycat of the demonstrations against our facility in cairo which were prompted, of course, by the video. what we think then transpired in benghazi is that opportunistic extremist elements came to the consu

. >> president obama hit a sports bar in sioux city, iowa. earlier, in urban dale, he asked, did you watch the republican convention? >> don't boo, vote. >> mr. obama charged mitt romney and paul ryan offered an obsolete message that lacked specifics and purpose. >> there was a lot of talk about hard truths and bold choices but nobody actually bothered to tell you what they were. they know their economic plan isn't popular. >> in florida, mitt romney and paul ryan vowed again to tell hard truths. >> we will not duck the tough issues and we will not kick the can down the road. we will lead. >> ryan has been at ohio state on this football saturday. >> ohio! >> mitt romney, in cincinnati, blaming barack obama for america's jobless. >> and today 23 million people are out of work or stopped looking for work or are underemployed. let me tell you, if you have a coach that's 0-23 million, you say it's time to get a new coach. >> but the current coach claims a winning season and better ones ahead. >> we've got more good jobs to create. we've got more