other speakers include actor sam waterston and comedians. also, performances by sheryl crow and donny osmond. thank you. welcome, welcome, welcome. thank you for being here. before we got going, i thought we could all join together and stand for the singing of our national anthem. it will be performed by for troops. oh say can you see, by the dawn s early light? what so proudly we hail, at the twilight s last gleaming. whose broad stripes and bright stars and bright stars through the perilous fight, or the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming. and the rockets red glare the bombs bursting in air gave proof through the night that our flag was still there 0 say, does that star spangled banner yet wave? o er the land of the free, and the home of the brave new sony recording artists, this is what is all about. we love you, everybody. beautiful, thank you so much. 4troops! [applause] hello, are you ready to restore sanity? [applause] there are a couple of things
we can t move backwards now. i m dana bash in bridgeport, connecticut. you are watching cnn s ballot bowl coverage of the mid-term elections. for the next four hours, we are going to take you to campaign events all over the country in key races that could influence the policies that affect us all. president obama arrives right where i am soon for a democratic rally. we, of course, will bring that to you live. we ve got four hours of political events coming up. i m jessica yellin in los angeles where the rhetoric is getting heated in this state s tough race for this contested senate seat. we will have the latest on harry reid s efforts to hold on to power. right now in the nation s capital, the rally to restore sanity and or fear. call it what you want. comedy central host, jon stewart and stephen colbert. other celebrities and entertainers are there. you will see it live. we will take you to west virginia where sarah palin has been taking the stage to help the republica
59% think we re going in the wrong direction. on the other hand, we re still 34 days out from this election. you know, just because we in the media or people who are political junkies spent the summer obsessing about the elections and, you know, there were people, frankly, taking vacations and getting the kids ready to geto school. is this the critical time or maybe too little, too late to get that electorate fired up? well, i don t think it s too late. but the question is, what message are you trying to get out as thelma hart spoke so eloquently in atlanta and said directly to the president, i want to support and i m becoming disillusioned and tired of defending you as such. yet, i can tell you that the people i run into on a regular basis, that poll number suggesting the country is not headed in the right direction. i think a lot of people are really questioning where we stand and where are we and who are the leaders that are going to project it for us? it s going to be difficult,
we can t let this country fall backwards because the rest of us didn t care enough to fight. the stakes are too high for our country and for your future and i m going to get throughout and fight as hard as i can and i know you are, too, to make sure we keep moving forward. that was before a raucous crowd last night. now, today, the president wraps up his four-state tour with stops in two more key states. iowa and virginia. mike viqueira is traveling with the president and joins us from des moines and, mike, we have seen him return to this very successful campaign mode that he used to get elected president and he s focusing on youth. talk a little bit about the strategy here. well, it s very quite obvious and the president has explicitly stated along with joe biden. chris, the day after the scolding came the pleading from president obama. he and the vice president the day before yesterday told the base stop, stop whining you have to buck up or everything you worked so hard
breaking point. and ballroom blitz. dancing with the stars kicks off with the hoff, the situation, and bristol palin, all showing off their moves. we have the play-by-play this morning. good morning, everyone. we re going to get to that breaking news out of afghanistan, in just a moment. as reports are coming in on americans killed in a helicopter crash. we re also going to hear from that supporter of president obama who told him she was tired of defending him. and former president clinton weighs in on that and sarah palin. he s in town for his global initiative. and how he felt walking chelsea down the aisle last month. we re going to begin with breaking news this morning. the helicopter crash in southern afghanistan. nine u.s. soldiers have been killed. let s go to miguel marquez in afghanistan with the latest. miguel? reporter: in addition, to the nine soldiers killed, one u.s. soldiered injured, one afghan death, as well. it s just north of where i am, in ka