owns over 26% of the company. gm wants to buy back 200 million of the 500 million shares that the u.s. government bought. at its current stock price of around 23 dollars, the u.s. would lose about $15 billion on the gm bailout if it sold its entire stake. according to reports, gm stock would have to rise above 53 dollars a share for the u.s. to break even and consider the bailout a success. we'll take a more in-depth look at gm's stock later in chart talk. consumer spending is the core component of our economy. high household debt has been a damper on spending, but things are looking up. usa today reports that consumer debt levels are dropping, housing is improving and the lift in the job market could boost consumer spending by 3.5% by the end of 2013. it was out-of-control debt that brought on the recession, but, apparently chastened, we're managing household cash flow a lot more wisely, and are regularly setting money aside to shrink credit card and other debt. corporations could be bracing for a drop in profit. wa

he said the gm plant in his district closed on obama's watch. that was the clear implication that charge he made at the convention. and now it turns out that it closed on george w. bush's watch. now, i don't know how you can say well that's just how he sees it. >> by the way, not only did it close on george bush's watch, paul ryan knew that. in fact, it was on a list to be closed in june 2008 before president obama ever even visited there and then it closed, in fact, before president obama took office. but hold on one second. >> let's get the facts. >> you'll have your turn. i'm giving you a turn. >> you said the facts were a matter of interpretation, you have to run your campaign based on the facts as you believe them. when there's a date of a plant closure, announcement in your state, the expectation is that you would be aware of it particularly after complaining about it after it occurs. >> here are the facts. barack obama came to janesville, that his economic policies would reopen that plant. >> reopen? >> that's what he said. and the third f

get out of the gm and let the market decide if gm prospers or goes broke again. >> despite the administrationing they were not interfering in the managing. whitaker said he could not detect interest on the part of the government to reling quish control. they like to be in control. >> you know what this proves, it moves to ed whitacrwants to see the. >> that is a charge. let me answer. >> who does not want to see 25 percent of the owner get taken out in bottom prices like they can get us out. don't ask us to take the air cut. it has fallen in value . so if the government gets out right now taxpayers would lose buildings. >> he went in and saved a handful of jobs in the automaker and this was political to get votes in ohio. but at the great expense of the economy at large. he debased bond holders and reduced the confidence in our economy and markets. he had a bad move. he owes an apology. >> should the government get out now. >> of course, it is to get out. but it is not going to. it is impossible to look at the bailout. once you take government money you are not in the business of profit. you

the automaker. government kept gm alive with the $50 billion bailout in 2009. it's now at a 26% stake in gm. >> the company doesn't necessarily like the rules that go along with it. it's that stake that has gm worried. leaders of the company say the stigma of being government-owned is a drag on the brand and even hurts the company's ability to hire talented people. selling means the government or u.s. taxpayers could lose $15 billion. joins us is james who says the government should get out now. former clinton white house aide who says selling now does not make sense. good to have you on the program. james, you say the government needs to get out of the auto business. explain. >> the taxpayers have already taken the loss. government's shares are worth considerably less now than when they bought them. whether or not you recognize the loss by selling or not doesn't make that much of a difference. what does matter is having continued government oversight and control of the company. this is america. we don't want the government owning the means of production. >> i g

only one problem for gm, uncle sam does not want to sell the shares. gm you have to deal. not surprised. that is what happens when government buys you out, it does not only own your factories, it owns your soul. and you cannot do a damn thing, that is why gm is chafing, the government is choking, it cannot hire the people it wants at pay it wants, the government has to sign off, you know how company savvy the government is. the folks on lose trillions,a advising pay packages who dare to lecture j.p. morgan executives for a bad tear trades, than ever a acknowledge that is what what they do every day, corporate america, at mercy of politicians who know thousand spread the sheet but very little about spread sheds, it is a little late for gm to be ditchintobe bitching they know g in, they are sick of being called government might ores, they do not like that sticker, they are driven off the cliff by government that rescued it, it has this stigma and the government refuses to let the stigma go and now gm is shocked, shocked that white house will not let it g the same fight house

but what he said about closing the gm plant, about the simpson/bowles, which he opposed, faults barackma for, at some point the truth should matter. >> at every particular and what he said about the gm plant was right. he did not say it closed before obama became president. that was the so-called fact checker at the washington post who got it wrong. he said it was closed in december 2008. in fact it was making trucks in 2009. >> anybody watching that speech, just like the welfare thing, anyone coming away from that believes one thing. he was trying to convey that barack obama was responsible for the closing of the gm plant and that wasn't true. >> lose a major factory, entirely true. >> this kind of factory, with government intervention should be able to open for another 100 years and then it was announced that it would eventually closed it did close after obama was in office not before, no intervention occurred. the whole idea is that this is precisely the type of thing that obama said that he was going to be able to accomplish and he has not. >> but paul ryan supported the auto bailo

you heard congressman ryan on wednesday night, in a stirring speech, blame the closing of a gm plant in his hometown of janesville on the president of the united states. folks, let's look at the facts. the one thing the congressman was right about, and i know from my own community, of the two plants closed in delaware, it was devastating for the people in this community. but what he didn't tell you is the plant in janesville actually closed when president bush was still in office! he didn't tell you that. what they didn't say, but for the sacrifices you all made and the courage of the president of the united states, all those gm plants would be closed. here, all across the country. 200,000 auto workers who have been added to the rolls since reorganization would not be working. we would have lost a million jobs. gm wouldn't have been reorganized. it would have been liquidate ed along with chrysler. and as chairman of the board of ford motor company personally told me, and said publicly, without the reorganization plan we put forward, ford would have been devastated as well. because the

in the and, what is the bill on gm? was the bailout the right thing to do? did they pay their loans? >> this is sort of an example, i think, of the government and the charge of a department taking a perfectly good story and then trying to make it look a lot better than it was for pr purposes, for political purposes. and as a result, you end up with is confused mess that ultimately seems a little misleading. what happens here is that gm had paid back part of its loan. we are still on the hook for tens of billions of dollars for general motors. we'll shares of their stock. but another part in was through her alone. ultimately but they repay that loan, which was made with big announcements on the why house and the treasury department, they used other top money that they had received as part of the bailout from some of that stock that we have and use it to pay off the loan. it was good news that the payback the loan. it was a lot of tarp money sitting around that they did not need in order to get the money afloat, and they used to pay back the loan. that was a g

dehe spite the talk about the gm bailout, and all of those data points, manufacturing is slowing in this country. >> after huge increase that nobody thought we would ever get back to again. >> everybody said that manufacturing is dead in the united states and came back and so you think it's going to come back, even though the trend is going down a bit? >> absolutely. >> okay, that's got to be the last word. thanks, guys. coming up, neil's just back from the conventions and after speaking to nearly everyone on both sides of the aisle, he says the choice is crystal clear. both parties are embracing who they are, but forget red or blue, what does that mean for your green? that's at the bottom of the hour. but up here first. >> the tale of two states, one taking a step towards making collective bargaining a constitutional right and the other getting its financial house in order after reigning in the power of public unions. first day at school. what's in there? he's about to fall over. just anything he might need. there's a box of tissues on the bottom and some band-aids; there's a whole firs

gm at this rate? or maybe it will pull the plug on gm?now is bob lutz, former gm vice chair and former contributor. you know i love you, you know i adore you, you know i have nothing but adulation for your business acumen and your political analysis. but how do you sell a car for $40,000 and lose 49 grand on each car and stay in business, mr. lutz? i don't get it. >> who do you believe? reuters or me? >> they quoted first rate analysts, they really did. >> what the analyst did was took the total investment spent on the volt which was north of half a billion dollars and divided it by the number of volts produced so far. that's like a guy who buildses a $10 million office building, has rental income of $1 million in the first year, and then the analyst says he's lost $9 million on the investment. >> yeah. but we know the building. we know the building is going to be up for a while. i don't know that the volt will be around for a while. >> no, the depreciation and amortization on the volt will be over the lifetime of the volt. i've seen the

what he really said and implied in the speech is this it closed on president's obama's watch, the gm portion aclosed on president obama's which, which is not the case. so he is trying to go back and defend the speech while at the same time justify it and it hut pim put him in a tricky spot. >> with ryan trying to revise the speech, or i wouldn't know how to describe it, he could come on and and describe it and that would be nice. andrea mitchell brought up the line, are you better off four years late now. and it is ridiculous, her words, trying to convince people that their lives are better now. >> i think that question sb since 1980, has been the every four years you have to answer it. i was a little surprised that the obama campaign spokespeople and i'm thinking of david plouffe and a few others, and the president having his game face on and giving a response. i've been asking kwet all afternoon and i think it is a very important question and they need a better answer to it. >> an article, most important gop myths, that president needs to fight. one of the myths he says the presiden

are reinstated or the suspensions are overturned meaning the players why wouldn't the coaches and the gmlowed to continue on with the game or be involved? >> right. it's a different -- with the players it's a collective bargaining agreement and it was pretty obvious that commissioner goodell is not the king. he's merely the commissioner. and the three-person panel, two retired federal judges and a georgetown professor said, you know what? you can make a recommendation. that's about it. i got to tell you, fredricka. this case isn't over. because if the special master recommends to the commissioner that there is to be punishment, we don't know what's going to happen here. yeah, they're reinstated but we don't know what's going to happen ultimately. it's going to go back to the commissioner. so this case is really far from over. it's great for sunday. you got some of those players back on the field. but this case has got a long way to go before we're done with it. >> all right. not long after this decision you know player john that villma did express his emotion on twitter saying victory is

additionally, his brother has a program called empower the kids, because the name of the gm is called empowered. they teach the kids have to deal with bullying issues to give them confidence from those that might be physically bigger or stronger verbally. in realize article. the magazine calling attention, the officers are getting it. it is about us connecting with kids and communities. that may not be considered the traditional police work, but he gets it and he dragged his brother into the gutter,. that concludes my report and i invite of the firearms discharge review board. >> commissioners, the internal affairs -- to the internal affairs division. i am here to talk about items 2 and 3. the 2012 findings and recommendations. the presentation of the investigative summary. since the last report which was given march 20 of 2012, we have had status changes and officer involved shooting investigations to bring to your attention. it is completed now with the admission of the summary report. we opened up for new cases, those are all new investigations currently active in the administrativ

the problem caused four crashes but no injuries so far. owners are asked to bring in cars to gm dealerships to fix the problem. earlier in september, gm recalled 400,000 chevrolet cruzes due to engine trouble. 2.5 years after the deepwater horizon disaster in the gulf, drilling and output are increasing. in fact, an energy consulting company says a gulf oil boom is about to flow. bentek energy predicts within 10 years production will gush 28%. before deepwater, the gulf had accounted for nearly a 3rd of our domestic output. it's now 20%. several oil companies have billions of dollars in new drilling projects planned. right now there are 4,000 platforms pumping oil and gas from 35,000 wells. kfc is closing all stores in pakistan after an attack on a restaurant in lebanon. a krispy kreme store and hardee's restaurant were also attacked in a strip mall in tripoli, lebanon. yum! brands, the owner of kfc franchises, was the first to shut down its restaurants as a precaution. kfc has a large presence in the muslim world. it owns 60 restaurants in pakistan and 11 franchises in the midd

the media is aiding them in this quest. here is chevy volts solyndra on wheels. gm's the road to nowhere fast, and on and on it goes. it's a good thing we have jacki schechner, our current correspondent who will set them straight. >> the "washington post" is the best. we spoke with warren brown who has been writing for 30 years. he called the editorial ignorant shortsighted and down right stupid. he said this is ignoring the fact that all other country are looking into alternative fuels or alternative transportation sources that obviously this is an investment because the oil and gas is going to run out over time. >> cenk: and the prius did fought do well in its first two years. >> and it's doing better than the prius did in the first two years. >> cenk: now it's selling like hotcakes. >> after two nights of charging the volt for 12 hours the car ran out of electricity. i kid you not in the lincoln tunnel both mornings on my way to work. watch. >> there's the change. >> what? >> cenk: it did exactly what it was supposed to do. the gm says it gets 35 miles on a charge,

connell: latest developments on the gm story now. ral motors has said reuters estimate out there of current loss for each volt sold is grossly wrong. this is kind of an interesting story just days after the automaker announced it sold a record number of volts last month, reuters came out with this report and has been saying that the company's losing nearly $50,000 on every volt car it sells. gm comes out again this hour and says reuters is flat wrong with that report. the reuters report also stated that gm is years away from any sort of profit on the volt. company plans to halt production out of detroit assembly plant for a month. that will begin next week. there's the gm stock price today down by 9 cents. dagen: the government's break even on that is $32 a share thereabouts. some new life for a ford plant in michigan as the automaker plans to use the facility to bring production back to the u.s. and make cars that will be sent to the european market. connell: let's join jeff flock at the ford plant. jeff: i remember being told when p

in the end, what's the deal on gm? was the bailout the right thing to do? did they pay their loans off? >> this is sort of an example, i think, of government and the treasury department taking a perfectly good story and then trying to make it look a lot better than it was for pr purposes. as a result, you end up with this confused mess. what happened here is that gm paid back part of its loan. we're still on the hook for tens of billions of dollars for general motors. we own shares of their stock. another part was through a loan. ultimately when they repaid that loan which was made from big announcements from the white house and treasury department, they used other t.a.r.p. money that they had received as part of the bailout from some of that stock we had and used it to pay off the loan. it was good news they paid back the loan. this was a lot of t.a.r.p. money sitting around that they didn't need in order to keep the money afloat. this was a good thing but they didn't disclose where the money came from. part of my job was to rein on the parade a little bit

with the gm bailout helping the president, romney's in a tough spot. >> we'll leave it there. robert costa, thank you very much. >>> coming up on the program, the failure of obama-nomics forces the fed into qe forever. bernanke can't bail out the economy, but will the fed-fueled stock rally re-elect president obama? think of it. our free market panel is ready to go. governor eddie rendell, jimmy and jennifer rubin. every time a local business opens its doors, or makes another sale, or hires another employee, it's not just good for business. it's good for the entire community. at bank of america, we know the impact that local businesses have on communities. that's why we've extended over $4 billion in new credit to local businesses across the country so far this year. because the more we help them, the more we can help make communities stronger. i don't spend money on gasoline. i don't have to use gas. i am probably going to the gas station about once a month. drive around town all the time doing errands and never ever have to fill up gas in the city. i very rarely put gas in m

we're back from that cliff, unemployment coming down, the stock market has doubled. gm comes back alive. we thought the auto industry was dead. it's back alive like gang busters, caught the bad guy and killed him. if bush had done that he would still be in the end zone doing hot dogs, right? these guys don't know how to brag. your thought? >> look, what he said was incomplete because we're going to need four more years to finish this job. we have come a long ways. do you remember what it felt like in september 15th of 2008 when we opened the newspapers and saw that lehman brothers had just gone upside down and banks all over america, all over the world, didn't know what was coming next. we were an american people that didn't know whether we were in 1929 or 2008. and it was this president, who led us out of the great recession. so i would say, it's incomplete, because we got more to do. >> i think mr. axelrod and plouffe should spend evenings with you, sir. just a thought. >> mr. richardson? >> internationally, if the election were held around the world, the internationa

here is the deal. gmonfirmed it has been in talks with treachery to unload that steak since the beginning of the year. this will not likely happen before the november election. here is what they are saying. the tarp rule has hurt us in attracting talent add a page where we can offer executives. it is hard to convince someone to show off to work for the good of the country. that is the bottom line. i will tell you something, they have been under fire for the chevy volt. the bottom line is that taxpayers still owe nearly $230 with the fannie freddie allied financial along with other banks including gm. these losses are still blooming. we have to take a wait and see. it may be premature. that is the bottom line. ashley: thank you very much. tracy: oil prices traded within that $100 a barrel mark. we will talk with an analyst who says the higher oil climbs, the closer we move towards and recession. ashley: let's take a look at ten and 20 year treasuries. we will be right back. ♪ ♪ forz(power!) andiamo! andiam

seems to be growing, economic problems in europe are proving to be a huge problem for the big three automakers here. gm alone lost $200 million in europe during the first half of this year. dean reynolds, cbs news, chicago. >>> general motors next earnings report is october 31st, six days before the election. analysts expect gm will show a large enough profit in north america that will more than offset the continued losses in europe. >>> in canada, a gunman opened fire at a political rally killing one person and wounding another. police captured the suspect late last night after he allegedly started shooting during a midnight victory celebration for quebec's new premier. her party believes the french-speaking provinces should separate from canada was immediately whisked off stage. she was not hurt. the gunman set a fire outside the theater before being caught. >>> to the cleanup from isaac. hundreds of evacuees started returning home. owe fgs officials say the storm, it damaged 13,000 homes, caused serious flooding in ten parishes. 36,000 customers still have no electricity in louisana and more than 20

the gm rescue, well, it looks like that needs a rescue for a certain cost. still pumping out the bailout to the dnc and bloating up. they are celebrating and we are helping. in chicago teachers are wanting to fill their wallets. your kids are in the way. are they breaking the law 4g lte has the fastest speeds. so let's talk about coverage. based on this chart, who would you choose ? wow. you guys take a minute. zon, hands down. i'm going to show you guys another chart. pretty obvious. i don't think color matters. pretty obvious. what'sretty obvious about it ? that verizon has the coverage. verin. verizon. we're going to go to another chart. it doesn't really matter how you present it. it doesn't matter how you present it. verizon. more 4g lte coverage than all other networks combined. >> the bottom line is that we actually want to make education better, we have to come together to solve problems and that is what my union is doing. focusing on quality and fairness. uniting parents and teachers together. neil: the head of the biggest teachers union saying that

eight miles per gallon to the toyota camry. >> neil: gm must totally stink? e focused on the customer. >> neil: do you think looking out gm a's wants to get out of the way of the government's thumb, how wise was it to resist the takeover. you didn't need it. but now looking back are you glad you didn't do it? >> i remember talking to you about it at that time. that was one of biggest decisions we ever made. clearly it would have been a tough situation at that time. >> neil: you were for bailing those others out? >> we actually testified on behalf of temporary help for gm and chrysler because we had concluded like two other administrations it's gm and chrysler went into free fall. they could have taken down the industry and u.s. economy into a depression. >> neil: you don't think you would have survived that or honda with plants here? >> all of us would have been in real trouble. the reason is, now it's 12-15% g.d.p. we could have really contributed to the recession. >> neil: the rescue was a good thing? >> think it was right at the point in time but to your po

the government still has stakes in gm and aig on the books. do you buy or sell those stocks?> the first thing i want to point out is tarp made money, and a lot of money. they put $245 billion into the banks, and they've gotten $266 billion out already, and they still have $10 billion on the books. > > they have no business making money off this. it's not a central bank policy tool. > > do not sell gm at a loss right now. we can afford to wait. we have a little bit of a cushion to wait to see if it comes back up. > > i'm going to stand up and be counted. i still own aig. i'm embarrassed to say that my break-even is about $85 a share, but i'm not the u.s. government. > > that wasn't a trade, that was an investment. because it went against you, you didn't have an exit plan. but, looking at the charts, i think aig is at its highest essentially for the year, whereas gm is finding a good, solid support base at $20. and i believe in america. i don't know about you. > > i believe in america as well, but america has no business using the stock market as a central bank policy tool. it

ryan's speech almost everything in the speech was a distortion or an illusion -- the gm plant was closeddecember of '08. he blamed obama for that. and the hindenberg that was obama too, and the fall of the roman empire no that was biden. >> jennifer: yes. next week what are you looking for in charlotte? >> the same thing only no hurricane. better dancing. i think there will be better dancing. >> jennifer: republican dancing shots were fantastic. listen, pick your foot up and show everybody what you are wearing and talk about white shoes. but any way, will durst thank you so much for joining us. i have to call hypocrisy. right there, folks. mind out if clint eastwtwtwtwtwtwtwtwtwtwtwtwtwtwtwtwtwtwtwtwtwtwtwtwtwtwtw (vo) this is joy. >>who the heck does mitt romney think he is? (vo) this is joy on current tv. >>if mitt romney treats his magic underwear the same way as his tax returns, then he's been going commando for the past 10 years. jennifer speaks truth to power. >>the bottom line is we need an amendment. >>now it's your turn. connect with "the war room" jennifer granholm. >>it's a ca

the gm rescue, well, it looks like that needs a rescue for a certain cost. still pumping out the bailout to the dnc and bloating up. they are celebrating and we are helping. in chicago teachers are wanting to fill their wallets. your kids are in the way. are they breaking the law i know the name of eight princesses. i'm an expert on softball. and tea parties. i'll have more awkward conversations than i'm equipped for because i'm raising two girls on my own. i'll worry about the economy more than a few times before they're grown. but it's for them, so i've found a way. who matters most to you says the most about you. massmutual is owned by our policyholders so they matter most to us. massmutual. we'll help you get there. and what they said is amazing. review 5-hour energy over 73 percent who reviewed 5-hour energy said they would recommend a low calorie energy supplement to their healthy patients who use energy supplements. seventy-three percent. 5-hour energy has four calories and it's used over nine million times a week. is 5-hour energy right for you? ask y

the volt right now, 21,500. that means they've lost per volt at least $55,000. gms saying this report from reuters, the estimate of the current loss per unit for each volt is grossly wrong. in part, because they allocated product development costs across the unit sold instead across the lifetime volume of the program which is how businesses operate and in fact most people that you talk with in the auto industry, say this really is a cheap shot when you look at how many volts they might sell over the lifetime of the vehicle. probably is more about pricing. they sell it for just under $40,000. that includes a $7,500 government rebate. gm is pushing volt leases, however, for as low as $199 a month. why? because selling the volt at almost 40k is a tough sale right now especially when people are looking at the prius or other alternative fuel vehicles, alternative powered fuel vehicles at far lower price. take a look at shares of general motors. real question is whether or not the volt will be a money loser, three, four, five years from now when we have a better sense of

the numbers were, you know, pretty impressive. you look ford up 13%. gmstrikes me is it just the comparison it was an easy comp year-over-year and why is gm the laggard in the group? >> yeah i think partly is because of the comparison. i think there are more important fundamental reasons we're seeing, really improved trend of the because it isn't just this month where we've seen outperformance or beating expectations. it is really been since last summer. and a lot of that has to do with the fact that consumers are less leveraged than they have been since 1993. there is a lot of room to increase spending. there was all that pent-up demand because people put off buying autos during the credit crisis. and banks are more willing to lend now, melissa. they are loosening credit standards. and at the same time, you've got used vehicles which are more expensive. they have a higher cost of maintenance and newer vehicles get better gas mileage. there is a lot more --. melissa: i have to wonder how this was possible? we were talking about are americans better off. l

police are working on the shooting. >>> gm is recalling 2007 to 2009 cobalt along with the 2007 equinox, 2007 to 2009 pontiac g 5. the reason? a faulty fuel pump. cars were sold and registered in seven states. closest one to us is florida. >> it is what dreams are made for. illegal immigrants wanting to go to college. they were knocking on doors urging people to support question four on the ballot innovember. it is the push for the dream act. >> reporter: going door-to-door knocking, dropping off information, some aren't even old enough to vote but they had a voice. >> there are a lots of people who work hard in school and do their best. and try and deserve to go to college. >> reporter: high schoolers made it their mission to support the dream act and ask voters to do the same. on saturday, members of the group the intersection walked through northeast baltimore for a few hours. >> can we count on your support? >> thank you. >> reporter: they are not just asking people to support question four. they are telling them what the dream act is. 2011 law allows illegal immigrants to pay disco

you can expect to hear from her, plus clarifying his comments and doubling down on comments about the gm plant that closed in his hometown. paul ryan explains what he really meant. [ male announcer ] at scottrade, we believe the more you know, the better you trade. so we have ongoing webinars and interactive learning, plus, in-branch seminars at over 500 locations, where our dedicated support teams help you know more so your money can do more. [ rodger ] at scottrade, seven dollar trades are just the start. our teams have the information you want when you need it. it's another reason more investors are saying... [ all ] i'm with scottrade. it's another reason more investors are saying... we believe small things can make a big difference.e, like how a little oil from here can be such a big thing in an old friend's life. we discovered that by blending enhanced botanical oils into our food, we can help brighten an old dog's mind so he's up to his old tricks. it's just one way purina one is making the world a better place... one pet at a time. discover vibrant maturity and more at purinaone.

the fusion is facing high demand. it is currently one of ford's top sellers. meanwhile, over at gm, the chevy volt is a hot seller, but it could be cutting into gm's long-term profits. gm invested $1.2 billion in the volt, but has sold so few of them - fewer than 14,000 - that reuters reports gm is losing around $49,000 on each volt made. congress is back in session. topping the agenda for lawmakers is keeping the government in operation. as the september 30th deadline quickly approaches, the house is expected to approve a bill later this week that will keep the government running. as well as passage by the senate by the end of the month. reports say a threat of a government shutdown sparked by the tea party is looking less likely as upcoming elections draw closer. also on the legislative list, president obama's bill to improve the economy through job growth, including jobs for veterans returning from iraq and afghanistan. the campaign cash race is heating up. president obama was the big winner in august. contributions to the president and the democratic party totaled $114 million.