0 every minute of it. maggie lake, cnn, new york. >> great story and pretty great that he did it, decided i'm going to do it, it's my life and did it. thanks so much for watching and enjoy yourself and have a wonderful halloween, however you choose to celebrate it. earrirerin, thanks very muc. how close we came to having vice president hillary clinton today. there is a game change book and the dump joe biden isn't the only one on it. electronics cleared for take off, i'll talk to the computer geek that helped make the faa change its mind about in flight electronics. a newly discovered tunnel that carries drugs into the united states by the ton. we begin with breaking news. inside the reporting that political core sporespondents k for and they did it with the blockbuster game change and done it again. the new book is called "double down, game change 2012" and loaded with details how the obama campaign explained dumping joe biden and reed got the idea reid didn't pay income tax and more. the book doesn't come out until next week but jonathan martin has all the incite details and joins us now. it's fascinating on your reporting in this. how serious were they looking into having hillary clinton be the vice president? >> it was serious, not that it was intentionally polled and focused grouped. campaigns don't spend the money unless they are seriously exploring something. it was only known but about a half dozen of the top obama senior advisors, people like david axle rod and most notably the chief of staff william daily, then chief of staff who became close to joe biden. they are similar age, similar background. >> similar background. you talked to him? >> i talked hto him on the phon and he confirmed saying he thought it was his due diligence as chief of staff to explain the possibility of what she would mean for obama in 201. they concluded she wouldn't add a substantial effect, she would help but not enough to dump biden. >> so a bump but not big enough to justify the whole drama -- >> that was their conclusion at the end of 2011, correct. >> there is also in the book details about the relationship between president obama and former president clinton and president obama said he likes clinton quote in small doses? >> right, they were playing golf between the two warring camps, finally making peace and obama came off the course and turns to an aid and says i like him, in doses. i think that sort of captured oc obama's wariness. they are going to a fundraiser and president clinton and president obama are waiting in the limbo to go in and president clinton is telling a story and president obama is reaching for the door to get out and president clinton wants to keep telling him that participant of the story and they get to the event, they are scheduled to have dinner, clinton and obama, one on one and president obama grabs some staff because he wants cover and the whole meal talks about kids and families because he can't deal with president clinton for hours at a time. >> that's interesting. >> what is interesting, is ult ult myly president obama comes around and sees his talent and comes to rely on him not just for a big sure jit and as we know, president clinton was a key sure jet for president obama and after that terrible first day president obama had in denver, president obama and clinton are at a big fundraiser at jeffrey's house in beverly hills and the two of them, obama and clinton walk off together, go to the front porch and clinton counsels obama how to recover from the debate. so not only was clinton a big ally on the stump but became a friend, and the first person, by the way, the first person that obama called on election night after hear rg from romney, bill clinton. >> really? >> yeah. >> that's interesting. i want to bring in our chief political correspondent candy corely. as much as they might not have cared for him, he realized he needed him. >> that happens a lot in politics. bitter rivalries and throughout the first campaign, you can count bill clinton being one of the biggest rivals of barack obama, didn't think he was ready for it and thought his wife hillary clinton was ready for it. we had heard rumors through that time that johnson is talking about that oh, maybe the president will replace joe biden with hillary clinton. in fact, i think hillary clinton is probably on the record being asked about it because i have a vague memory -- >> she is. >> the president's numbers were down. you know, all of that kind of thing and i got to thinking today reading jonathan's article about this book that probably one of the happiest people today is hillary clinton for them deciding not to put her on the ticket or ask her to be on it because he's in roush roughly te position poll-wise as the time they were looking around. let me ask jonathan -- >> of course. >> do you get any sense that the president knew that his staff was polling and doing focus groups on hillary clinton? >> well, i asked that very questioned to, candy, as you may imagine to the former chief of staff to president obama. he said he didn't think the president was aware, that it was about a half dozen top aids, but he was not sure 100% at least that president obama knew. he said it's possible that obama knew, but he wasn't positive. in the book they don't have that nailed down 100%, either. so this seems to be the short of high command president obama's white house and campaign, really rough poll numbers. keep in mind in the fall of 2011, president obama's numbers were plunging south and so i think they were looking around figuring out how to change things. >> so you think president obama didn't know? >> possibly. >> joe biden didn't know. >> there is interesting details you revealed in this book on the republican side. mitt romney considering chris christie and the reasons it didn't go further. >> twice. he had him on the first list and crosses his name off because he's leaning toward paul ryan and his top advisor is making a case for chris christie and feeding him video so romney comes to reconsider chris christie and at the very last minute the romney campaign does this crash vetting of chritie and the pay-to-play restrictions in jersey what governors can and can't raise and because of the unanswered questions about chris christi's background they can't make the pick. book has this campaign memo from the romney campaign vetters quoted at length here are the unanswered questions we don't know about chris christie. if we pick him after the fact, we should figure out abcd and e. i think in the end there were so many questions about him. ryan was seen as a safer pick. >> also, jonathan, there is information about where harry reid got that idea that mitt romney hadn't paid taxes for ten years. >> your viewers will recall last year or last summer, actually, harry reid was having great fun for a long time floating this notion with no evidence, by the way, that mitt romney hadn't paid taxes in ten years. turns out it was john huntsman senior, the father of one of romney's rivals and they are long-time rivals, by the way. both families are royalty, deep roots in utah but they were for row shows rivals during the campaign and romney, huntsman himself wanted to run them and huntsman dad wanted him to run them. they have a decade long rivalry come nating in the campaign. romney beats hunts man and then flash forward to later in the election during the summer and huntsman senior, apparently, is spreading dirt to harry reid about romney. >> candy, i know you have a question. >> i want to ask a couple things. first of all, the christie pick and looking at him seriously, we were reporting it wasn't something he wanted to do. is there anything in the book about that and the other thing that strikes me is the person that comes up the worst overall here is probably john huntsman because he seems to have really ticked off both sides. >> your first question, i think christi was certainly interested, not enough i don't think to resign the governorship because that was talked about, actually, because of those pay-to-play restrictions i'm fe forring to in jersey what governors can and can't raise from wall street. he was certainly interested enough at being vice president that he turned over some documents, you know, that did offer that. your second question, candy, is absolutely right on. the chapter on john huntsman in this book reminds me of the reporting in the first book on john edwards, devastating on hunts man, his family and also the campaign. it's just a ton of stuff there. >> sounds like a fascinating book. look forward to it. jonathan, candy, as well, let us know what you think on twitter at anderson cooper. more breaking news into the investigation of benghazi attack that cost four american's lives and keeping witnesses from talking. they seem to be getting the testimony they want. later, authorities say kendrick johnson climbed into a high school gym mat and died there. his parents say he was murdered and federal investigators are getting involved.