and it would be hard to imagine a world where it could change dramatically between now and november. only four more reports are left to come. it was pretty good in the beginning of the year, it started to slow down obviously in the last couple of months. the white house line has been, there s been some improvement, we re not there yoet. romney is seizing on these. the question is, the votesers already know the economy is bad or whether this is a potent reminder to shift numbers. i do think both campaigns are aware as you see that pretty much by labor day people s feelings about the economy are going to be set. after labor day it s very hard to dramatically change people s minds. perry, what do you think is the best political approach for the president as we move forward? also, does the transcription bill hold potentir potential fo on jobs? it probably won t
the process, can you fix this economy. governor, with regard to so we can have a waverunner, too. governor, with regard to the optics of vacation, we have the president and his family vacationing often in hawaii and martha s vineyard, certainly plenty of rich democrats out there. there was a guest i had on earlier who called the pictures of mitt romney kennedy-esque. is this the same thing or does barack obama nod need to try to draw in the middle class and lower class voters? he s already got them so he doesn t have the same problem of the optics mitt romney has. again, i think the optics question is mostly concerned to us. i don t think it concerns the average voter. i think they know mitt romney is rich. that s a calculation they ve already made. you know, he couldn t identify what doughnuts were with. so the fact he s out there wave running isn t going to contribute anymore. they re doughnuts! he couldn t tell the name for doughnuts. look, in the end, i think robert is ex
japan, one arresuspected of mur reporter: we are learning more about the case. tokyo police were holding him on different charges but now holding him on murder charges, looking to advance their case against this unidentified man, unidentified because he s still considered a minor under japanese law. for the minor of fur dg long, an irish exchange student found dead in a tokyo hotel room, strangled to death. the tokyo police say the only other person in the room was the 19-year-old. they are moving forward on a case against another american, blackston, an l.a. native. we spoke to his attorney and he says the tokyo prosecutor s office has officially charged him with groping furlong s friend on the night of her murder. the attorney says that these charges are not valid, that he intends to fight on behalf of his client trying to get his client off. he does not feel there s any sort of validity to this. the attorney also says that at this point he could face, if found guilty, an
yp you juyou just heard to tax returns. mitt romney released histax returns 30 minutes ago. it s no surprise. mitt s a rich guy. here s a look at just how rich. he made more than $21 million in 2010. almost all of it came from incompetent vestments, not wages. he payed $3 million in taxes that year or 13.9%. christine romans is digging deeper into the 1040s. let s start with his offshore funds, christine. we had talked a little bit about that this week, and now we re actually seeing it in this, what is it, 200 something pages i ve got on the table. let me show you. i have it too. this is from 2010. willard m. and ann d. romney. they ve blocked out their social security numbers just in case you re wondering. so it s actually brad malt who handles all their blind trusts and their investments. he s on the phone talking to reporters. he s saying to call these overseas accounts is not right. these are funds. he s got all kinds of foreign stocks, american stocks, foreign bonds,
aren t statistics they are people in pain. we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i m wolf blitzer. you re in the situation room . we begin this hour with what s happening in iowa. right now the state that holds the lead off presidential contest is gauging early support for the republican candidates. we re standing by for the results of the iowa straw poll. the winner could get an important boost heading in to the 2012 primary season. cnn don lemon is joining us from ames, iowa. don? all right. thank you very much for that, wolf. joining me here is cnn candy crowley to talk about all of this. are you hearing anything? back there at thtabulating. i mention we ll hear in the next 15, 20 minutes. we were talking about ron paul, herman cain, rick santorum, michelle bachmann. he said if he didn t place high enough he s is going to get out. the problem isn t so much oh, my gosh this person placed fifth it s that donors look at it and