taking a look at top stories now the former haitian dictator known as baby doc is back in his home country after spending some 25 years in exile. jean claude duvalier s unexpected return comes as the country struggled to recover from an earthquake, cholera epidemic, and ongoing political crisis. doctors have upgraded congresswoman gabrielle giffords condition from critical to serious. she is off the ventilator and breathing on her own through a tube inserted over the weekend. a fellow lawmaker says giffords is moving both sides of her body and is making progress every day. heavy rains in oregon and washington have triggered mudslides. officials say the warm rains are melting snow packs. taking the public pulse on gun control in the wake of the tucson shootings, paul ste steinhauser live from the political desk in washington. paul, what s crossing now?
it is. there is always something day in and day out with this critical midterm elegation. let s check in with paul ste steinhauser. you re stuck with me for another 18 days, but you and my buddy mark preston, we were talking about that big debate between harry reid and sharon angle. it was a big showdown in washington state between anna rice, and patty murry, and peter
until you head out for these midterm elections. and a lot of people are getting endorsements, they want to brag, i ve got this politician supporting me, i ve got that politician supporting. somebody is getting support from beyond. paul steinhauser joins us for the political desk update. what s going on? t.j., you re absolutely right, if you want an endorsement from a republican in alaska, you want it from ted stevens. but the problem is, ted stevens died in a plane crash. but before that crash, he served with lisa murkowski and also served with her father. she decided not to run that way before the republican primary. but since she lost that primary, she s now decided to run as an independent. she s now running that. in fact steven s daughter comes on in front of this commercial
palin, michael steele for the rnc. saturday, ali, sarah palin on cnn. it s nice to see the top third of steve s head on tv. he s a good friend of mine. let me ask you this. with the president being out, bill clinton has been out, michelle obama was out, is this making a difference in any of the pollliing? i know you two track this very well. paul, are you seeing anything? well, you know, as you said, it s happening right now. let s look at the polls next week. but you re right. these guys, bill clinton all week, you ll see more of barack obama and michelle obama over the next two weeks as well. we ll take a look at the numbers. we ll get back to you next week to see if there s been any change in these states. thanks very much, guys. our tag team of political perfection. paul steinhauser and mark preston. stay with cnn for complete coverage of the races and the issues heading into the midterm elections. we ll bring you another cnn political update in just an hour. it s a new h
so, before you know it, work time becomes well-deserved downtime. apply now at marriott.com/freenightstay. you ve got staying power. personal pricing now on brakes. tell us what you want to pay. we do our best to make that work. deal! my money. my choice. my meineke. there are just 19 days until election day for this critical midterm election. we want to get you updated on the hot topics from the campaign trail. our cnn senior political editor mark preston and paul ste steinhauser are going to sing their political ticker update. uh-oh. okay. okay. no, we re not singing it. i m not touching that, ali.