his remarks last spring that 47% of americans are dependent on the government, believe they are victims and not his problem to worry about. romney s 47% comment forced his campaign into days of damage control but a usa today gallup poll found 53% of independent voters found romney s comments will make no difference. 29% are less likely and 15% are more likely. susan mcginnis is following it from washington. good morning. reporter: good morning. we did not hear before this hispanic audience romney mention that 47% number. on wednesday it was all about romney saying his campaign is about 100% of america. mitt romney tried to court the hispanic vote wednesday at a rally in miami. this party is the natural home for hispanic-americans because this is the party of opportunity and hope. ours is the party that will bring a brighter future. our party is the party of greatness. this is why hispanic-americans will join this campaign. we ll win because we ll get the support of you
pelley: good evening. there is a growing perception among voters that the economy is improving. and our new poll out today shows that it s helping president obama s prospects for reelection. 48 days now before election day, here is how the race looks. it takes 270 electoral votes to win the white house, and our cbs news election teams estimates 237 are solid for the president toweaning toward him. mitt romney has 206. t for the next seven weeks, they ll be fighting over the remaining 95 votes in the swing states. we re focusing on three of those states tonight in our swing state watch. in wisconsin, home to g.o.p. vice presidential candidate paul ryan. inniquinnipiac/cbs news/ new frk times poll find that the president has tripled his lead in the past month from two points to six. he now leads governor romney 51% nt 45%. in colorado, the president down by five points last month now has a one-point lead, 48% to 47%. and the president is holding on to a four-point lead, 50%
and just as josephine said, our worst fear is to open up the paper or to read a news story where another border patrol agent has been killed or injured with an operation fast and furious weapon. in addition to brian terry, two fast and furious guns were found at a crime scene in mexico where a law enforcement official s brother was killed. the report alleges the atf s phoenix office sought to hush up the fast and furious connection. it quotes e-mails. quote, my thought, agent english writes, is not to release any information. the following month when terry was killed, voth e-mailed back, ugh, things will likely get ugly. it most certainly has. attorney general holder has refused to turn over documents. the house cited him for contempt. william newell denies there ever was a plan or tactic to walk guns. and a recent investigation by fortune magazine concurs. that account, though, is sharply disputed. as for today s report? the justice department calls it a reiteration of d
firearms purchased from mexican drug cartels by so-called straw buyers throughout the southwest. instead, says the report, fast and furious was part of a plan to let those buyers and the guns walk in hopes of identifying and busting entire gun running networks. instead, fast and furious guns began turning up at crime scenes in mexico and here at home, including the killing of u.s. border agent brian terry in 2010 right before christmas. according to the report, agent terry s death came at the end of a long chain of mistakes starting at gun shops. quoting from the report, gun dealers were reawe sured aft was closely monitoring the transactions and interdicting the weapons. that was false. the report focuses sharply on this man. william newell. former agent in charge of the field office in phoenix. republican investigators concluding that agent newel authorized, encouraged and endorsed fast and furious and let it continue long after atf had the goods on the straw buyers. quotin
the report says the operation was quote, marched by missteps, poor judgment and inherently recollectionless strategy. william la jeunesse is on the story in l.a. what else is in the. reporter: report the report has 10,000 documents most obtained under subpoena. paints poor oversight, sloppily significant tiff work and lying. saying director ken melson that he failed to supervise. assistant directors and bill hoover and bill mcmahon complained about sending guns to mexico but never did anything to stop it. it says bill newell, the agent in charge of phoenix, he was accused of running this rogue operation. he was reprimanded for doing it in the past but didn t stop. it finds atf dropped the ball. if atf had bothered to conduct a thorough review of all the information contained in the dea intercept, that fast and fire just may have concluded a year earlier. that atf repeatedly failed to follow up on dea leads. they knew dates, times, places flight numbers of guns being smuggle