days from the president election, and nowhere is the campaign battle being waged more fiercely than in the battleground state of ohio. 18 electoral votes are at stake there. president obama took them in 2008. our brand new cnn/orc poll is just coming in and it shows president obama leading in ohio right now 50% to mitt romney's 46%. but that's within the sampling error. it's a statistical tie in other words. our chief national correspondent john king is joining us. john, break down the numbers for us. no state right now is more important than ohio. >> you can make that case. no state is more important than ohio. you mention it's within the margin of error but yet another poll showing the president with a small lead in ohio. he's had that pretty much across the general election season. what's driving it right now? in a battleground state like ohio, the president is getting democrats, romney is getting the republicans. the candidate to win election day is likely to win the state and at the moment the president has a five-point edge among independents likely voters. president at 49% governor romney at 44%. that's one of the key reasons the president has the small but still a stubborn lead in the state of ohio. now let's look at this age divide if you will. generational divide. among younger voters the president has a big lead. republicans are leading among those 50 and older. but governor romney needs that number to be bigger. he needs a bigger gap among older voters, they tend to be more republican. he is leading though. shows you the republicans are at least weathering most of the attacks on medicare. one other key point wolf, ohio is one of the states where the auto bailout plays. more in michigan but also in ohio. the president standing among white men tends to be higher in the states that are impacted by the auto bailout. 41%, you would say he's losing among white men, yes. but if the president is among 40% among the white vote of the men, especially in ohio very difficult for governor romney to turn it into a victory on election day. >> all right. we're going to talk a bit more about this. john standby. mitt romney returns to ohio tonight after campaigning across the state yesterday. today he was in iowa. that battleground state has six electoral votes. president obama took them back in 2008. the most recent polling there has the president with an eight-point lead in iowa. cnn's national political correspondent jim acosta is traveling with the romney campaign. jim. >> reporter: wolf, in a speech on the economy, mitt romney talked about the big choice facing voters and the big changes he says he would bring to washington. but with the gop nominee now essentially tied with the president in many polls the trick for romney is to avoid any big slip-ups. mitt romney traveled to the important battleground state of iowa to deliver what his aides were building up as a major speech on the economy. but the speech was no big change from romney's theme of the week that he's now the candidate of big change. >> what this requires is change. change from the course of the last four years. it requires that we put aside the small and the petty and demand the scale of changee deserve. we need real change big change. >> reporter: romney also returned to his line of attack that the president has no second term agenda just more stimulus spending. >> a new stimulus three years after the recession officially ended? that may spare government but it won't stimulate the private sector any better than did the stimulus four years ago. >> reporter: but as it turns out, the site of romney's economic speech, kensler construction services in iowa has received stimulus money. according to the government website that tracks the program spending, the company's owner received a small business loan through the stimulus for more than $1 million. romney's speech came on the same day the government announced the economy grew by 2% in the third quarter of this year beating estimates. but worse than past predictions from the obama administration. >> slow economic growth means slow job growth and declining take home pay. that's what four years of president obama's policies have produced. >> reporter: with polls showing romney threatening to take the lead both nationally and in key swing states his campaign hit another detour. when one of his top surrogates and long-time republican leader john sununu suggested former secretary of state colin powell had endorsed president obama because of his race. >> well i think when you have somebody of your own race that you're proud of being president in the united states, i applaud colin for standing with him. >> reporter: sununu later released a statement saying he now believes powell's endorsement is due to the president's policies. earlier this month sununu raised eyebrows with this critique of mr. obama's first debate performance. >> what people saw last night i think was a president that revealed his incompetence, how lazy and detached he is. >> reporter: after a long campaign that's almost reached the end, keeping the candidates straight is also a challenge. as it was for iowa senator charles grassley. >> we will put america on a new path to a new day with a new president, obama -- a new president romney -- pardon me. you know, i want to forget that word. >> reporter: the final stretch of this race could be in for a bumpy ride. not just because of the tough campaign rhetoric but also because of the weather. the romney campaign was forced to reschedule an event on sunday because of a major storm threatening the east coast this weekend. in the words of one romney advisor, we're keeping an eye on it. wolf. >> jim acosta traveling with the romney campaign. thanks. let's dig a little deeper now with our chief political analyst gloria borger. john's still with us as well. they bill this, gloria as a major speech on the economy. but i listened to it, i read it i didn't see any major new initiatives in that speech. >> there weren't any. what it was was mood music for independent voters. essentially saying to them look, give me another look. he admitted it was interesting. he admitted that yes the economy was in a ditch when president obama came into office. but he also said i would have gotten it out faster and differently. and so you have to look at what i want to do. and it was really just about talking to suburban voters talking to women voters and appealing to them as a kind of more moderate mitt romney. >> and he's improved a bit on the question which candidate would better handle the economy. governor romney has improved in that. so when you have a strength, you try to reinforce it. >> the fact he did it in ames, iowa. iowa obviously a very important speech -- very important location. >> the poll show the president with the lead there, most public polls show the president with the lead outside the margin of error. they insist they're going to surprise us on election day. one thing that's happened since 2008 you have parody slight republican advantage and voter registration. small state, but the small states could matter. >> talk about getting 270. in our new poll our cnn/orc poll on ohio we asked likely voters the choice for president men and women. take a look at this, gloria. i want you to assess what's going on. for obama he gets 44% of the men. 56% of the women. that's a significant gender gap right there. romney gets 50% of the men 42% of the women. it looks like that gender gap has narrowed -- actually narrowed a little bit. >> right. but you see romney up with men and the president up with women. i think when you look at this poll though romney needs to be more ahead with men than he is in this poll. >> 54 42 not enough. >> not enough gin the gender gap for women. that's a problem for him. it might be the auto bailout that could be a problem for him. >> even in iowa. >> but -- this is ohio. >> i mean ohio. >> if he's going to lose with women, he has to get that gender gap up with men beyond what it is for the president. >> and you see that -- you mentioned iowa, if you look at the polls in the midwestern states michigan, which nobody views in play right now, the polls have been close a couple times but the president seems comfortably ahead in michigan, ohio wisconsin and even iowa which you don't think of as an auto state but in those states that have had a lot of coverage by the bailout and impacted by the auto industry and the president's standing among white men is a little higher than the rest of the country. >> let me say this in our poll in early october mitt romney was up 13 points with men, he's lost some ground. the president was up 22 points with women. he may be losing suburban women and mitt romney may be losing those blue collar men. >> you make a good point. i keep saying if the president does win ohio it will be at least significant factor will be saving the car industry chrysler and gm. >> there's no question. now, there are other factors out there. the republican governor john casic would like to take coverage governors get credit when the economy improves so does the president. it's a battleground state where in some the numbers aren't so good, but in ohio the economy is -- people are feeling a little better. people are more optimistic. they like incumbents. >> unemployment just above 7%. >> better than the national average. >> better than the national average. economic optimism is good. that always works in the president's favor. >> let's look at these other numbers. john to you first. colorado, another key battleground state independent likely voters choice for president. back in september president obama had a significant 11-point lead 50% to 39%. now it's narrow today 4%. obama -- 1% excuse me. 46%, 45%. i take it this must be a worrisome sign for the president. >> yes. this is the impact of the first debate and the campaign since the first debate. governor romney got a new look especially among independent voters. he improved in the suburbs. the first debate performance where the president simply didn't show up. people for months had seen ads about mitt romney and saw a guy on stage that didn't seem to be that demonic guy the obama campaign viewed him to be. he improved his standing because on the underlying questions do you think he understands you, personal favoritable rating and most importantly who would better handle the economy, governor romney is going up. >> pretty significant within a month. >> it is. the president has lost ground in the suburbs. if you look deeper into this poll, he's lost ground with independent men and women. so that's very important to mitt romney. when you look at these numbers you see that reflected in these numbers. so the president has to make some ground up. >> the question is whether it's continuing to grow for governor romney or flatlined. if it's flatlined the president probably still has a slight advantage in the battleground to get to 270. if it's going in his direction, interesting. >> the most recent polls in colorado show it as close as could be 48 each, right? >> that's one of the states that the romney campaign says the underlying dynamics have broken and don't see them breaking back. we'll see if they're right or not. the obama campaign would not list colorado as one of their better states. >> john if you can go back to the wall. >> sure. >> the magic wall. show us if romney can win this election without colorado. >> without colorado? or without ohio? >> without colorado? >> without colorado, yes. well, he would have to win ohio in that scenario. if you look here, if you give him florida and virginia let's say he wins iowa. if he doesn't win colorado with the latino vote significant, it's hard to see him winning nevada where the latino vote is huge, but he would have to win nevada. that would get him to 260. so you have to get 11 more here. you could do that with wisconsin and new hampshire. so he could win without winning colorado or ohio. the question is that i just showed you it's mathematically possible the question is is it ied logically plausible in the sense here 18 traditional more republican dna when it comes to presidential politics. it's very hard to see mitt romney is losing ohio but winning wisconsin and iowa. these are more democratic states if you will in dna. so if president obama is winning here, history tells you he's most likely winning one or both of these. is it possible? yes. is it plausible? >> all of us are going to be doing a lot of contortions looking at this magic wall. gloria, wrap it up for us. where does it stand right now? >> it's hard to say. john was talking a moment ago about the question of momentum. who's got the momentum. we honestly don't know. our heads are exploding with all these polls. and does momentum mean that, okay, if mitt romney has momentum should he now begin -- should we be seeing him overtake the president in certain polls in certain battleground states? or does he just have enough momentum to get him almost at parody with the president, but then does it fade there? we don't know. we still have a bunch of days -- how many days is that left? eleven days. >> the president's ahead in the national polls. as i like to say, the national polls are not all that relevant right now. what's relevant are the battleground states. >> battleground states. and if they're all this close then it does come down sounds like a cliche, to the turnout operation. and remember remember, the president did not have a primary challenge. they have spent months and millions preparing for one thing, turning out the vote. >> and republicans will say that the voters who have not decided yet, which are also important are likely to go to the challenger. that's the carl rove theory of the world. we'll have to see. >> guys we'll be watching intensively over the next eleven days. other news we're following including a potential superstorm in the making right now. we're tracking two systems including hurricane sandy threatening to unleash massive damage on the u.s. northeast. we'll have the latest from our severe weather center. that's next. when you take a closer look... ...at the best schools in the world... ...you see they all have something very interesting in common. they have teachers... ...with a deeper knowledge of their subjects. as a result, their students achieve at a higher level. let's develop more stars in education. let's invest in our teachers... ...so they can inspire our students. let's solve this. let's say you want to get ahead in your career. how do you get from here... to here? at university of phoenix we're moving career planning forward so you can start figuring that out sooner. ln fact, by thinking about where want your education to lead, while you're still in school you might find the best route... leads somewhere you weren't even looking. let's get to work. 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[ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup. energy is being produced to power our lives. while energy development comes with some risk north america's natural gas producers are committed to safely and responsibly providing generations of cleaner-burning energy for our country, drilling thousands of feet below fresh water sources within self-contained well systems. and, using state-of-the-art monitoring technologies, rigorous practices help ensure our operations are safe and clean for our communities and the environment. we're america's natural gas. hurricane sandy has caused deadly damage across parts of the caribbean. now there are dire warnings that could become a superstorm that no one living in the united states northeast can afford to ignore. "the washington post" quotes a national weather service meteorologist as saying and i'm quoting now "i've never seen anything like this and i'm at a loss for expletives to describe what this storm could do." an accu weather meteorologist warns, once again i'm quoting" this could be a disaster of biblical proportions a multibillion dollar disaster." wow. let's get the latest from our own severe weather expert, chad myers, are these people exaggerating what's going on? is this realistic these dire warnings? >> the potential for that certainly is there. and even last night at 11:00 i looked at some of the models that these guys were looking at and went wow. i've never in 26 years of forecasting have ever seen anything like this. now, the models have backed down a little bit today. the hurricane doesn't look as good today. they're not as dire today as they were about 20 hours ago or so. but it's still a very big storm. and, yes, the potential is there. the storm is right there. that's the center of the hurricane, believe it or not. there's no convection. there's no thunderstorms around it. a bunch of dry air from up here. this happens in the fall because dry air gets here in the fall. you won't get dry air in atlanta in the summer. but the dry air came down all the way to havana and worked its way into the storm. and that ate away at the convection. ate away at the thunderstorm activity. that's why it doesn't look very good right now. we still have tropical storm watches though from north carolina down to florida and a few tropical storm warnings for the bahamas even to the east coast of florida. here it goes. it's a category 1. and it stays a category 1 in most forecasts. there's a potential for it to be a little bit stronger wolf if it heads up here up toward new york because it will stay in the water longer. it will be a little less strong if it comes down here and hits land sooner. this is probably an extra day in the water. and the water's still fairly warm. there's potential that it still could be category 2. the issue with those dire warnings is that we kind of had those same warnings for irene. i don't want people to go oh, they just say that all the time just to get our attention. but, no, there is potential for some dire stuff going on here. and we're talking about power down -- power lines down trees down, all kinds of other things. finally the computers are agreeing. and you can see a couple doing loops. if this thing does a loop right over new york or new jersey or pennsylvania, that means 24 to 36 hours of rain coming down an inch in an hour. do the math. that's a couple feet of potential water. here we go. the potential impacts, i think the coastal infland flooding the biggest. obviously we saw that in vermont from irene. the waves will be larger than 30 feet battering long island, new rhode island all the way to massachusetts and new jersey depending on where it lands. coastal erosion. we could lose homes as the beach gets washed away and power outages could be in the millions taking literally maybe a week to get all those power lines back up. and that could be far enough that it could affect the election. wolf. >> brian todd's working on that part of the story for us in our next hour. so those of us and i'm asking a parochial question, a local question, those of us in the washington, d.c. area how worried should we be? we've lost power before. we've had severe damage to these kinds of severe weher incidence before. a lot of people here in the nation's capitol are very worried. >> and they should be. worried is a good term. i want you to be prepared. what happens if you lose power for two days? for three days? how would you feed your family? how would you get to work? how would you get the trees down that might fall in your yard? all of these things you have to think about because the european model, one of the models we look at and done a very good job this year has it very close to moving over baltimore. that's pretty close to washington, d.c. the amount of trees -- i lived in richmond, virginia, i lived in d.c. the big old trees that's the problem when you start losing power. these trees fall over. they're big, old, half rotten on the inside from termites. that's the thing. you can lose so many power lines, so many trees in that area simply because the wind blowing at 50 and rains a couple of feet, all of a sudden those trees are falling over. don't get alarmed yet. we're still three and a half days out. i'll tell you when to get alarmed. i'll be here all weekend. i want you to understand that the potential is there for a catastrophic event. yes, it is, that's a good word for it probably at this point. but we don't know if that's massachusetts or north carolina yet. so don't -- just keep watching tv and keep listening to your local authorities. >> and one final question chad because we're going to stay in close touch. what are the chances that it could peter out, head out to sea, head out to the atlantic ocean and not necessarily cause a disaster as we're anticipating? >> that's exactly it. even with irene -- i'm going back to the same story, but irene was a hurricane. it looked great coming out of the bahamas. a big beautiful eye weatherwise and then it died. we thought gosh this thing might come back. let's keep watching. keep telling people it's going to be bad because it's going to come back. this thing right here this thing looks terrible. sandy looks terrible right now. if sandy does not come back it will be a significantly lower storm, significantly lower threshold and obviously a lot less power outage and lot less trees down, a lot less wind. it's not there. it's not in the forecast. the computers aren't saying it, but they weren't for irene either. >> we're getting a new forecast at the top of the hour. chad will be back for that. thanks very much. >> you're welcome. up next, a controversial new political ad aiming at getting out the youth vote. our political panel is standing by to discuss that and a lot more. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus presents the cold truth. i have a cold... i took dayquil but i still have a runny nose. 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[ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus. ♪ oh what a relief it is! ♪ [ male announcer ] try new alka-seltzer plus severe allergy to treat allergy symptoms, plus sinus congestion, and pain. president obama: there's just no quit in america... and you're seeing that right now. over five million new jobs. exports up forty one percent. home values... rising. our auto industry... back. and our heroes are coming home. we're not there yet, but we've made real progress and the... last thing we should do is turn back now. here's my plan for the next four years: making education and training a national priority; building on our manufacturing boom; boosting american-made energy; reducing the deficits responsibly by cutting where... we can, and asking the wealthy to pay a little more. and ending the war in afghanistan, so we can... do some nation-building here at home. that's the right path. so read my plan, compare it to governor romney's... and decide which is better for you. it's an honor to be your president... and i'm asking for your vote... so together, we can keep moving america forward. i'm barack obama and i approve this message. 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[ screaming with excitement ] and move out now. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] the all-new cadillac ats. ♪ ♪ a new pro-obama ad aimed at first-time voters women voters especially, is getting plenty of attention. but will it make any difference on or before election day? here's a quick snapshot. >> the first time shouldn't be with just anybody. you want to do it with a great guy. you can pull back the curtain, i voted for barack obama. >> hasn't been enough sex in this campaign right? >> talking about we're insulting it is to women. >> and won women by 13 in 2008. there's very few polls that show him maintaining that advantage. >> planned parenthood, abortion access to contraception and planned parenthood all assets that can help him bring back numbers among women. >> let's get straight to sirius xm radio host pete dominick and our excellent excellent panel. pete. >> thank you, wolf blitzer. let's throw that question right to our panel. esh saw that ad. was it inappropriate? does sex sell when it comes to politics congresswoman? >> i probably wouldn't have seen the ad had it not actually been on the news. that's a good thing. because it actually wasn't targeted to me. i think it actually hit its target audience and people like me never would have seen it and never would have had a chance to comment. >> but it is. this is the thing you can't actually microtarget in that way in the age of you know cable news -- >> you can or cannot? >> you can't. the fact that you did see the ad means that it's playing to a much broader audience than just, you know young women who live in bushwick or brooklyn or something. i'm a huge fan of -- >> who is she? i'm so proud to say i have no idea who she is. >> she's the creator and star of the hbo show "girls" which is this incredibly raunch chi dark look at hinterlands -- >> when is it on? >> it's on hbo. we're educating the audience here. >> but so, i mean the right wing is up in arms about this. >> yeah you know what? we've got a lot more things to be indignant about than this commercial. it's meant to be light hearted. it's meant to be for young women. you know, we can be ig digindignant about a host of things let's be light hearted about this. let's let it go. not give it more attention than it deserves. it is what it is. >> tom, did you use sex to sell yourself when you were campaigning? >> i did not. >> should you have? >> rolled up shirt sleeves right now. >> i think what ana said is right. i think young women are taking this election seriously. everyone's taking this seriously. using a little light hearted fun now and then can be part of communicating. but i think the reason you see a huge gap with young people even republicans thought they might close that this time a gap with women is baz of pay equity access to health care jobs i think people are being serious in this election. and this is a lot safer for the media to talk about than some of those issues. >> let's say hillary clinton rather than barack obama were the nominee for president and you feature an ad using seth rogan. >> the reality is what's on the table has been issues related to women and to young women. and it's about their future. so i think -- >> i'm just asking about the appropriateness of the ad itself. >> that's an interesting hypothetical. but that's not what we're talking about. i think it would probably will less appropriate. can we change gears and -- >> is there a double standard? i think the answer is yes. >> right. i completely agree with that. i don't actually see a ton of right wing outrage about this. i see a lot of right wing bemusement about this. >> there's been a lot of people that are -- >> there's been some outrage. >> for the record, you talk about taking sex seriously and voting seriously but the emphasis is on voting and getting to those issues and i think those issues are very serious. >> i think she's talking directly to me. >> at least she's got clothes on, which is more than she does most of the shows. >> but staying on this issue of women and women voters specifically, has mitt romney made gains with women? does the data bear that out? and if so, why? >> the data absolutely bears that out. i think it was after the debate he made gains with everybody. every demographic group, every regional group because they saw a mitt romney they had not seen before that. they'd seen a mitt romney that had been portrayed in obama campaign ads as a monster and all of a sudden here he was a likable acceptable alternative. also i sometimes think the obama campaign may be overplaying their hand on these issues. because we are not monolithic. we are not ho mo genious. women reserve the right to change their mind. we want to talk about reproductive rights yes, we want to talk about birth control, but we also want to talk about the economy feeding our families, putting gas in our cars. >> the reality is -- and i think you're actually dead wrong about the polls and the distance between women with mitt romney and women with the president. that's really bearing out. >> so you think the polls are dead wrong? >> it's actually bearing out across the board in the battleground states. and the reason is because when women have control of the reproductive health care they're able to make decisions about their education they're able to make decisions about their economic status about what kind of job they'll take, about where they'll take that job, about how they want to plan their families. so the reason that reproductive health care and access to contraception plays out so heavily with democratic -- with president obama and with women is because it's central to the way that we have to organize the rest of our lives. >> that's a one issue group. >> no. in fact, i said exactly the opposite. that in fact the reason that the president i think has so much -- has gained so much with women voters is because he understands that these questions about access to health care access to contraception, pay equity and equal pay has everything to do with women controlling the rest of their lives. >> let a man get in here. let a man get in here and talk about what his wife thinks. because it is perception though. because i think you're both right here. i mean, mitt romney was painted one way. and i think he did himself a favor in the debate and said -- and people are like that's not the guy i've heard he is. but perception matters. and president obama you know, the husband of michelle obama, the father of two little girls, but he can connect with women easily. it seems -- my wife looks at this and so many women you see all this stuff on facebook and all these conversations, they care deeply about their reproductive rights. this stuff really resonates. [ overlapping speakers ] >> what you've just described is that's the democratic's theory of this case. if you look at the historical data, there isn't strong evidence of a big gender gap on issues like abortion. there is evidence of a big gender gap on the economy. women are more economically liberal than socially liberal. which is why i think it's weird it's an interesting gamble and you may be right that it will pay off. but it's a little weird that obama is finishing on the social issues when women usually swing left on economic issues. >> well, the reason is because in this election year you have from the republican party platform to the republican candidates to the vice presidential choice and all of these candidates across the board a laundry list of republicans who have been very anti-woman. >> the situation with the gender gap issue that came up this most recently not because of anything president obama did but things that republican governors and republican congress did and it wasn't abortion, it was redefining rape, it was access to contraception -- >> no. that's actually completely false. it all came up because president obama shifted the administration's policy in regard to -- >> we'll let -- >> doesn't have anything to do with -- >> no. no. no time-out. the policy change was driven by the white house. that's all that the republican congress -- >> nobody has redefined rape. >> it was an effort to do so. >> we'll let our viewers look -- >> that is a very different set of issues for women of different generations. >> we'll allow our viewers to look this up and think for themselves i hope. i hope they do. we will take a quick break and come back and address this and all of us will give you are oun solicit the advice right here in "the situation room." 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[ cellphone vibrating ] [ female announcer ] with cisco at the center working together has never worked so well. hi. my name's pete dominick and i've taken wolf blitzer's situation room for a moment. let's start with ross. >> my advice is for undecided voters in crucial states especially states that might be impacted in any way, shape or form by the monstrous hurricane bearing down on us. whether you make up your minds go for romney go for obama, the libertarians, whoever you want please make up your mind as a block. go all one way or all the other so that we have a nice clear outcome and so we don't have to spend three weeks picking our way out of a massive storm and a recount at the same time. >> how do they make up their mind as a block? meet in an undecided parking lot? >> i don't have a method. >> somebody from florida who's gone through a recount and gone through picking up after hurricanes, i absolutely agree. we cannot handle it simultaneously. >> maybe we can have the undecided voters pick up the hurricane mess and they can meet at some undecided location. congresswoman. >> we're going to continue the theme because my undecided -- >> unsolicited. >> unsolicited advice is for undecided voters and it's for the voters who live in the swing states, particularly the ones impacted by sandy. sandy's not a hair color it's not a beach. it's a storm. you all should go and vote. that is it. and i think that what will happen is if people vote early they have plenty of time to go get their toilet paper and all that other stuff. >> am i missing something? this is going to be next week and the election is the week after. >> recovery. >> you didn't live in washington, d.c. in the aftermath of the last storm. >> no, i grew up in syracuse, new york. >> they're tough. people are ready for these things. here in the mid-atlantic, you heard wolf it's going to get ugly. >> we're pretty tough in virginia. >> a lotd of dreams and they fall down, that's one of the biggest problems. you have flooding and power lines down it becomes a problem getting around. >> vote early. >> if you can, vote early. >> you can vote early in florida. >> i voted already, congresswoman. >> who did you vote for by the way, ana? okay. go ahead. >> my unsolicited advice is for john sununu. john, we are tied at the polls, we are doing well. mitt romney may actually win. be quiet. lay low. and i give the same advice to donald trump. and i'd say to the romney campaign folks, we're about to die from friendly fire. we got to get our allies to understand that we're no longer in a primary. that we're no longer in this rattle rousing, we're trying to appeal to women we are trying to appeal to undecideds, to independents, let's get the cranky guys off tv and put some nicer guys on. >> i like john sununu. i think he's honest. he has no filter. he says exactly what he means when he says colin powell -- >> you like john sununu because you want barack obama to win. >> no. i want mitt romney -- >> i'm shocked you would suggest that. >> no. i want mitt romney to lose. i'm not a huge obama supporter. >> because you're a comedian and he provides better fodder. >> sununu's from new hampshire, live free or die. he's taking the free part a little too seriously. >> tom who's your unsolicited advice for? >> it's hard to follow that. senator george allen in virginia has just taken the largest contribution in virginia and taken it from out of state as closing arguments for who he tries to represent when he goes back to the senate i think it's a complicated one. he may want to give an explanation to the people of virginia of who he's planning to represent particularly when it's a gentleman who would get a $2.3 billion tax cut under the plan he would be likely to support from mitt romney. >> my unsolicited advice here on friday is for white men. don't be scared. don't be scared. america is changing. in a few decades we're all going to be minorities. and i think that subconsciously and consciously they see the change. they see this president. they see this attorney general. they see two women being appointed to supreme court. and we white men wonder what's going to happen to our generational advantage. we've had an advantage for generations in the history of this country in education and in wealth. but that's changing. and that's a good thing. that's called progress. we are going to have to compete with blacks, hispanics and women. and that's a good thing. and maybe in a hundred years if we're all still here, we will be one tan hairless race competing against each other. >> the good news -- we've got you surrounded, but we come in peace. >> i'm welcoming y'all in. i look forward to the competition. that's what this country's supposed to be about i think. all right. well, we're out of time here on friday. thank you all very much. let's throw it back to the great wolf blitzer. it is his situation room. >> good conversation, excellent conversation today. there's other news we're following including from the national hurricane center. it is about to issue an updated forecast for hurricane sandy. standby for the very latest on where this storm is heading, when it could hit. syria's fragile cease-fire is not holding up. lisa sylvester's monitoring that. very few people thought it would. >> that's right, wolf. opposition leaders say more than 70 people have been killed across syria despite efforts to impose a temporary cease-fire for the muslim holiday. the deadly attack was this car bomb that exploded in damascus. the syrian military had promised no operations during the four-day holiday. the government says the rebels broke cease-fire first and it was only responding to the attacks. and federal safety regulators are investigating some older model ford taurus and mercury sables. the throttle can get stuck causing the engine to keep running. it effects model from 2000 to 2003. the u.s. economy got a small boost thanks to consumer spending. gross domestic product increased 2% in the first quarter up from 3% in the second quarter. the number is better than economists expected but not enough to create a strong economy and lower the unemployment rate. and apple's smaller ipad is a big seller. preorders for the ipad mini began this morning and sold out in about 20 minutes. some models are already showing a later delivery date. apple will have the ipad mini available in stores in a week. but if you buy it online, you may have to wait a few more weeks after that. so you can see this was going to be the big i think holiday seller. i think a lot of people are going to be snatching that up for a gift for the holidays. >> big day for all those apple products. thank you. the presidential campaign's giving late-night comedians plenty to joke about. we have lots more of where this came from. >> today colin powell endorsed barack obama for president. the news surprised many elderly americans who thought they were the same person. 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[ applause ] yeah, that's pretty good. but we weren't the only show he did. before he left los angeles he made another appearance on another show. >> top ten thoughts going through that baby's mind at this moment, number ten, make the campaigning stop says baby. make the campaigning stop. number three please don't kiss me. please don't kiss me. number two check my diaper for an october surprise. and the number one thought going through this baby's mind, this is worst than being circumcised. >> obama's been really busy. in fact, tomorrow he's going on mtv to answer questions from college students. questions like will you legalize weed? when will you legalize weed? anybody got any weed? >> today colin powell endorsed barack obama for president. the news surprised many elderly americans who thought they were the same person. and you're in "the situation room." happening now, breaking news. we have the new forecast for hurricane sandy. the massive storm already very deadly could slam a wide area along the u.s. east coast causing major damage and lengthy blackouts. standby. in the final sprint to election day, president obama's doing a lot of tv interviews while mitt romney's focusing in on stump speeches. so who can persuade voters to turn out? and have you ever thought about selling an old smartphone? unloading your junk in a yard sale? or donating clothes to charity? a united states supreme court case may have you thinking twice. we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." all right. just coming into "the situation room" a brand new forecast just issued for hurricane sandy. it's already a killer. and now after ravaging the caribbean, it's heading up the atlantic coast and could strike the northeast as a superstorm bringing widespread disaster. let's go straight to cnn's severe weather expert chad myers in the cnn hurricane center. he's got the very latest. what is the very latest, chad? >> the latest with this 5:00 advisory is that in 12 hours it's forecast to be down to a tropical storm. at least briefly. then get back into the warm water of the gulf stream lose a little bit of shear, lose this dry air that's almost killed sandy today and then regenerate. so we kind of thought this was going on because sandy looks terrible right now. and that's great news. because all night long it was torn apart by wind and also it was sucking in dry air. hurricanes want moist air. they don't want dry air. and then all of a sudden come back up here to the east of the delmarva. there's you in d.c. here's baltimore and philadelphia and new york city. and then turn to the left. it's that turn that is going to dramatically change where this thing makes landfall. let me tell you what that means, wolf. if the turn doesn't happen until here, we know it's going to happen. but does it happening earlier than forecast? does it happen later than forecast? or is it right somewhere in the middle? that's where we don't know yet because this is monday afternoon. and this is tuesday afternoon. so it's still going to be another three, three and a half days before it makes landfall. it's going to be painfully slow watching this thing hoping it goes left or right or hope it just goes right all the way off to the east. i have not seen any models though take it off to the east far enough away from land. every model is bringing it back on shore at some point in time. now, there are still not convinced it's going to be somewhere here in the north -- even one all the way to halifax. but boston all the way back down to about hampton roads we could see that landfall. the computers aren't doing a great job of it yet. it's still so far away. by the time you get three three and a half days away, that cone is still about 600 miles wide. >> that's a wide, wide, wide storm. thanks very much chad. we'll stay in touch with you. states along the atlantic coast, they are already declaring emergencies. cities are strengthening their defenses and preparing for possible evacuations. seems like everyone is expecting the worst. brian todd is looking into this part of the story for us. brian, you're speaking to experts all along the east coast. what are they saying? >> well, wolf, this could get very bad for the sheer scope, the geographical area it could cover, could dump rain and snow in areas. the ominous timing is making an entire region of the country very nervous. a late-season storm that has the east coast bracing. already along the coast there are people filling sandbags bulldozers packing berms. with sandy bearing down, the nation's top forecasters are ramping up. director of noaa's centers for environment prediction. what is the worst case scenario for you? >> well we're very confident now that this storm even it if tracks to the northeast for a while that this storm will start curving back towards the coast. that's a bad situation for a landfalling storm for the bays along the coast. we'll have strong storm surges. >> surges rain, wind everyone the fact that it will hit during a full moon when tides are at their peak combine to make this a storm of historic proportions. we got access to noaa's center for weather and climate prediction a brand new state-of-the-art center. this is the nerve center. from here experts track hurricanes once they make landfall but also pretty much every major precipitation event inside the united states. not only how strong they are and where they're going, but how long they'll stick around. this model tracks hurricane sandy four or five days from when it hits land. and look it shows it still lingering over the northeastern united states. there could be a billion dollars worth of damage with downed power lines and other destruction. the storm could affect the election. maryland's governor says his state's early voting scheduled to start saturday could be impacted. officials advice for those in this storm's path. >> make sure you have a flashlight batteries, sufficient nonperishable food and water, first aid kit, any necessary medications. >> also have radios, phone chargers, cash ready they say, trim branches and trees around your house. clear autumn leaves from storm drains. >> we have a cold air mass coming in from the west. >> so it will join with another storm. >> which they'll join with another storm. which will energize this system. so we'll actually get an intensification of this system. >> now, that's louis's comparison from this storm to the 1991 perfect storm where a nor'easter combined with a hurricane and the subject of a famous movie. the difference here is that the perfect storm of 1991 did not make landfall. and this one will. just like the perfect storm uccellini said this one will be studied for years to come. >> and all the autumn foliage out there right now that could have a severe impact on the potential damage. >> that's right. you still have a lot of foliage on trees and combined with the ground under a lot of trees will be saturated heavy wind and rain will bring down trees. but the problem also is a lot of leaves have fallen. many of them are in storm drains, they're -- you know, clogging people's storm drains. people don't clear them until all the leaves have fallen. now they have to scramble to clear out their storm drains or have a major problem. >> huge. brian, thanks very much. want to go right to our senior congressional correspondent dana bash. she's getting word on the senate majority leader harry reid. what are you learning? >> unfortunately he was in a car accident in his home state of nevada. he was transferred to the hospital. the university of medical center hospital. you're looking at pictures of the scene of the crash. it was a multiple car crash as you can see. his caravan got into an accident with other cars. he is at the hospital we are told by a spokesperson for the nevada highway patrol that the injuries that senator reid suffered do not appear life threatening. do not appear life threatening. and nobody else involved in the accident was transferred to the hospital. and as you can see, there are two lanes blocked on this major street i-15 north in las vegas. this is certainly something that is scary when it comes to any person in this kind of accident but particularly for the senate majority leader. he always has security vehicles. so he was transferred -- he was in a caravan including capital police they generally drive him around. it was that caravan car that drove him to the hospital. separately from the spokespeople from the highway patrol i am told by sources close to senator reid, wolf, that he appears to be okay. but information at this point does -- it's initial. it's a little bit sketchy. bottom line is that senator reid, senate majority leader was in that crash. he was the only person in this crash taken to the hospital. and we're waiting to hear more information from senator reid's office about the state of his condition. one thing i would add is that this is probably a bad deja vu for senator reid because his wife and daughter were in a terrible car accident in 2010 in virginia and his wife actually broke her back after that. she was in very bad condition. she's fine now. but this is -- car accidents are unfortunately -- they've happened in the reid family a very bad one in recent history. >> dana, forgive me you may have mentioned this and i missed it i assume somebody else was driving the car he was in right? >> we don't know for sure. generally that is what happens. senator reid is the highest ranking democrat in the senate. and he has capital police. he has security that tend to drive him around. i've only seen him driven around in washington and also in nevada. we don't know for sure. but we assume that is what happened because he was in a caravan vehicle. >> dana, keep in touch. check in. of course we wish senator reid only, only the best. we'll let our viewers know how his condition is as soon as we find out. harry reid, senate majority leader in a car accident in las vegas. a key romney aide known for raising eyebrows brings race into the discussion about general colin powell's endorsement of president barack obama. you're going to hear what he said and the controversy that has erupted. also, an informant sheds light on a controversial new york city police operation to spy on muslims. us presents the cold truth. i have a cold, and i took nyquil, but i'm still stubbed up. 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[ female announcer ] with cisco at the center... working together has never worked so well. it's a new day. if you're a man with low testosterone you should know that axiron is here. the only underarm treatment for low t. that's right, the one you apply to the underarm. axiron is not for use in women or anyone younger than 18. axiron can transfer to others through direct contact. women, especially those who are or who may become pregnant and children should avoid contact where axiron is applied as unexpected signs of puberty in children or changes in body hair or increased acne in women may occur. report these signs and symptoms to your doctor if they occur. tell your doctor about all medical conditions and medications. do not use if you have prostate or breast cancer. serious side effects could include increased risk of prostate cancer; worsening prostate symptoms; decreased sperm count; ankle, feet, or body swelling; enlarged or painful breasts; problems breathing while sleeping; and blood clots in the legs. common side effects include skin redness or irritation where applied, increased red blood cell count headache, diarrhea, vomiting and increase in psa. see your doctor, and for a 30-day free trial, go to axiron.com. third quarter numbers show the u.s. economy only growing slightly. mitt romney called that 2% figure discouraging and went onto deliver what his aides billed as a major economic speech. >> if paul ryan and i are elected as your president and vice president, we will endeavor with all our hearts and energy to restore america. instead of more spending, more borrowing from china and higher taxes from washington, we'll renew our faith in the power of free people pursueing their dreams. we'll start our plan for a stronger middle class. we'll save medicare and social security both for current and near retirees and for the generation to come. we'll restore the $716 billion president obama has taken from medicare to pay for his vaunted obama care. >> while mitt romney vows big change, his speech fell a little short on specifics. joining us now our chief political correspondent candy crowley, the anchor of cnn's "state of the union." they bill this as a major speech. the obama campaign releases a glossy 30-page brochure. not much new in there either. what's going on here? >> this is the time when they close. they're not going to give us new stuff 11 days out. nobody wants to rock the boat here. this is about getting your folks excited. whether it's saying hey here's a major speech and we're going to do it in iowa. or whether it's here's my glossy new this is what i'm all about. this is for president obama it was about here's my agenda, let's move forward, go out and vote. it's the same thing with mitt romney. this is about right now reminding the folks you know are going to vote for you to get out there and vote especially with early voting. obviously it starts earlier. >> right. >> but that's what they're doing. >> because the whole speech, you know, outlined his goals if he's elected president. but a big chunk of it was simply hammering away at the president's four-year record. >> it's like the condensed campaign now. i mean it's sort of what mitt romney spent the first part of his campaign saying. the economy easter's terrible, who do you think would best handle the economy? mitt romney is up on that. he's going back to what he has always billed as his strength and that's the economy. which he sees as the president's weakness. so it's like he's really blown this and here's what i would do. it's what attracted people to him in the first place. >> so is it more designed to you know, enthuse the base their respective bases out there? or to win over these independent still undecided voters? >> you know i think we're talking about such a small -- in large part both of them are stirring up their certain voters which includes their base. but the people are going to vote for them. there's some independent stuff in there of course. but mainly this is now you know, going forward on the premise that most people have made up their minds. that those swing voters are such a small group that, yes, we heard the stuff about and i'm going to work bipartisan, i'll have people in my office from the other party every week. that's swing vote independent talk. and you need those independents, both of them. but by and large this is about getting your certain voters to the voting booth. >> you've got a big sunday "state of the union" this weekend? >> how could you not have one so close to election? we're going to talk to david axelrod, ranks previous head of the republican party and some others looking at the swing states as well. >> do you know what else you're going to talk about? i'm going to tell you right now. >> okay. the weather. we're actually going to talk about the politics of hurricane sandy. >> people can't vote, or if they lose power -- >> can you imagine if the voting machines don't work? how long do you extend it beyond november 6th? it will be really interesting if it lives up to its billing. who knows. >> see you live 9:00 a.m. eastern sunday morning and live at noon eastern as well. you're going to be busy sunday between politics and weather it's going to be a good show. >> thanks. >> hope the weather goes away. thank you, candy. mitt romney and meatloaf. the rocker turned reality tv star lends his star power to the gop nominee. will it help? stay with us. you're in "the situation room." ♪ (train horn) vo: wherever our trains go, the economy comes to life. norfolk southern. one line infinite possibilities. how does your small business stay top of mind with customers? from deals that bring them in with an offer... to social media promotions that turn fans into customers... to events that engage and create buzz... to e-mails that keep loyal customers coming back, our easy-to-use tools will keep you in front of your customers. see what's right for you at constantcontact.com/try. a deadly start to a religious holiday in afghanistan. lisa sylvester's monitoring that, some of the other top stories in "the situation room" right now. what happened, lisa? >> wolf a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a mosque. at least 40 people were killed as they were leaving morning prayers. reports say children are among the dead. dozens more were injured. worshippers had gathered for the start of an annual muslim holiday. and no one will be awarded the strip from lance armstrong because of a doping scandal. the international body announced there will be no official winner for the years 1995 through 2005 and wants armstrong to give back the millions in prize money he earned from those wins. and hopes for a hockey season continue to melt. the national hockey league announced today it's canceled all games through the end of november. the nhl is trying to agree on a new contract with its players. it's the third round of cancellations since lockout began last month. and this is an unusual story but not many people get to go to their own funeral. but it actually happened to this man in brazil. his family believed the 41-year-old car washer had been shot to death. his brother mistakenly identified the body at the morgue. the man heard about the funeral his own funeral, through a friend and decided to show up terrifying his family. once they got over the shock though, you can imagine they were very happy to find out that he was alive. and, wolf, that is a case of mistaken identity. they thought it was one person and turned out it was somebody else. he heard the funeral was going on. i heard some of his family members actually fled in fear because they thought they were seeing a ghost. >> think about the family of the guy who actually did die? that was obviously a shock to them as well. thanks very much. we're going to have much more on this storm that's beginning to really, really develop potential potentially. some meteorologists saying it could be a storm of epic proportions. is that true? could it bring disaster to the east coast? we're going to have the latest on what to expect. [ female announcer ] the next generation of investing technology is now within your grasp with the e-trade 360 investing dashboard. e-trade 360 is the world's first investing homepage that shows you where all your investments are and what they're doing with free streaming quotes news, analysis and even your trade ticket. everything exactly the way you want it, all on one page. transform your investing with the e-trade 360 investing dashboard. what if there was a new way to deal with money that focused less on fees and more... on what matters? maybe your bank account is taking too much time and maybe it's costing too much money. introducing bluebird by american express and walmart. your alternative to checking and debit. it's loaded with features, not fees. because we think your money should stay where it belongs. with you. the value you expect. the service you deserve. it feels good to bluebird. get it at your local walmart. there's a new report that iran has almost completed work on an underground nuclear enrichment plant that could put it closer to a weapon and could give it bargaining power in any talks with the united states. the "new york times" cites intelligence officials from several countries been reporting progress at the so-called site built under a mountain. joining us is the author of the book "confront and conceal." david, thanks very much for coming in. what does this mean? how much closer are they than we earlier thought to develop to reaching this milestone and developing a bomb? >> well, the milestone is about building the facility for the fuel. and this is the facility where they have been producing medium enriched uranium close to bomb grade but not at bomb grade. and it's perfectly legal the way it is right now. they're allowing inspectors to come in se for the fact that the u.n. security council declared that they had to stop this and all of their other enrichment capabilities. this is a site that worries the israelis and worries the united states because it's fundamentally vulnerable to israeli bombing. >> it's so deep. >> it's more than 200 feet under the ground, under a mountain. it's possible the united states may be able to destroy it from the air, but even that's not a certainty. then the other question is how close does this take them to a bomb? you heard prime minister netanyahu say it would probably be april to june some time. >> he said spring or summer. >> that's right. and that is not the moment when they'd have a bomb but when they'd be ready to actually go produce one in fairly -- >> that's when he drew that red line. >> that's right. >> he said that's the red line from israel's perspective. >> that's right. the sort of cartoon character of the bomb he did there. the issue is how close is he willing or is the united states willing to let iran get to that final moment? the israelis have said they won't let them get to the screwdriver turn away. president obama as we've discussed before has simply said he wouldn't let them get a bomb. >> i heard you say the israelis don't have the capability to do anything about this one particular site. >> that's right. that may well be why it is that mr. netanyahu and his defense minister ehud barack talked that as they did with others earlier in the year. they simply can't get at this site without american help. >> what's going on? the "new york times" has been reporting that there's an agreement in principle or there might be an agreement on principle for direct face-to-face u.s./iranian negotiations on this issue? >> that's right. the u.s. has said for a while it's willing to go do this. president ahmadinejad when he was in new york a month ago said he was willing to after the election. >> after the u.s. election. >> after the u.s. election. i think that he and the iranian leadership like everybody else is waiting to see how the election turns out. but what we also don't know is whether the supreme leader in iran is willing to go ahead with actually making a deal. he may just want negotiations to drag this process out, give them more time to make fuel. >> you know everybody knows about the tensions between iran and israel. fewer people know about the tensions between iran and saudi arabia. i raise the issue not only because there was this report that the iranians wanted to kill -- to assassinate the saudi ambassador here at a washington restaurant in georgetown but now engaged in warfare against saw dee business targets. what's going on here? >> there was attack on saudi aramco the old american and saudi oil operation. american intelligence officials say they believe that attack was iranian in origin. they have not said it was state-sponsored so that could be iranian sympathizers. it could be iranians are trying to make a point just as the united states was able to hit their centrifuges with a cyber attack as i've reported in the past, that they too have a cyber warfare unit that they previously announced that can get out and make an impression as well. >> what do you make of this so-called shadow war? these reports that israel attacked a weapons factory in sudan that was manufacturing weapons for hamas with iranian assistance? >> you know, the shadow war east's been going on for some time. there have been the assassinations of the iranian nuclear scientists, the cyber attacks that go back into the bush administration and accelerated in the obama administration. there have been other attacks which people have suspected were aimed at iranian facilities. it was a big iranian missile plant that blew up late last year. no one's ever quite figured out if that was sabotage or just an accident. so the idea that the israelis would go after an iranian-backed plan outside of iran, perfectly willing to believe it. the evidence is hard to come by. >> yeah. evidence and the israelis are being mum. >> as they always are as they were with the attack in syria. >> david, thanks for coming. >> thank you wolf. >> david sanger of "new york times." up next, we'll have a hurricane expert who will tell us how many people will be affected by hurricane sandy. it's moving up the east coast right now. are any of you who are watching right now at risk? two years ago, the people of bp made a commitment to the gulf. and every day since, we've worked hard to keep it. bp has paid over twenty-three billion dollars to help people and businesses who were affected and to cover cleanup costs. today, the beaches and gulf are open for everyone to enjoy -- and many areas are reporting their best tourism seasons in years. we've shared what we've learned with governments and across the industry so we can all produce energy more safely. i want you to know, there's another commitment bp takes just as seriously: our commitment to america. bp supports nearly two-hundred-fifty thousand jobs in communities across the country. we hired three thousand people just last year. bp invests more in america than in any other country. in fact, over the last five years, no other energy company has invested more in the us than bp. we're working to fuel america for generations to come. today, our commitment to the gulf, and to america has never been stronger. let's talk about the race for the white house in our strategy session. joining us our cnn contributors. democratic strategist donna brazile and erick erickson, editor and chief of redstate,.com. the president has been active on the interview circuit, donna. he's done a whole bunch of interviews. let me play a few clips for you. >> ballpark figure. >> i had to put out a presidential directive on that. this all dates back to when we were growing up together in kenya. >> yeah. [ laughter ] >> these things go in ebbs and flows. the one thing i've tried to always be is just steak. >> what do you think of this strategy going on late night shows doing these kinds of interviews at this last stage in the campaign donna? >> we're in the home stretch and of course to remarkable first lady and second lady there are surrogates all over the country. the campaign really believes to reach the undecided voters to get people to the polls early especially in light of the storm that's going to impact so many battleground states over the next 96 hours the campaign is moving at a very swift speed. and unlike governor romney's campaign, it's just issuing press releases hyping that the polls are tightening, president obama believes that you got to go out there reach out to people where they live, where they work -- >> but donna, let me interrupt. most of these interviews are pretty soft interviews. late-night tv. these aren't exactly hard hitting interviews. >> wolf he sat down with brian williams, diane sawyer. president obama is sitting down with everybody. i hope he sits down with you, wolf, and everyone else. at the end of the day 2 million, 6 million, 10 million people out there that still want to hear from the president. he's still making his closing arguments. i think it's a good thing that the president has gone out there and talking to people and not just relying on 30-second commercials. >> we haven't seen at least in the last few days mitt romney, erick, doing a lot of these tv interviews. i'm sure he could go on late night shows and daytime shows, what do you think? >> i think they're targeting different audiences. mitt romney hasn't done any rallying the base effort really since the republican convention if not a little before that. and a lot of these efforts by the president are rallying the democratic base which suggest to me they think this is a base election and the romney campaign thinks it's an independent election. romney's had more stops on the ground than the president has. the president has done many more of these mostly soft interviews on urban stations, on comedy central, late night shows a few here and there a radio show today today. i think the romney campaign is doing in-person large swing events trying to reach out to independent voters and get them to the polls. >> i want you to listen to a chunk of an interview that was on piers morgan tonight, last night. john sununu who is a surrogate obviously for the romney campaign, he had this exchange with piers on a sensitive subject. >> when you take a look at colin powell, you have to wonder whether that's an endorsement based on issues or whether he's got a slightly different reason for preferring president obama. >> what reason would that be? >> well i think when you have somebody of your own race that you're proud of being president of the united states i applaud colin for standing with him. >> all right. now, that's caused an uproar. sununu issued a statement later saying colin powell is a friend and i respect the endorsement decision he made and i do not doubt that it was based on anything but his support of the president's policies. piers morgan's question was whether colin powell should leave the party. and i don't think he should. i don't know what to make of this. let me let erick weigh-in first. >> oh how about we let donna weigh on that one. i'm not going to defend or condone or even try to explain away what john sununu said. i think he put his foot in his mouth as people sometimes do. >> donna. >> well, erick, you should rebuke it because let me just say this it's offensive. there's no reason why colin powell, you know who is a patriot, a man with impeccable integrity, a public servant, i mean his endorsement speaks for itself. president obama clearly welcomes the endorsement. he welcomes the endorsement of anyone. erick, in case you want to decide to give us some support, we'll take that as well. >> oh that's a bridge tooar for me. >> the bottom line -- i know. but we'll bring you one day across that bridge. but the bottom line is colin powell said that he endorsed president obama because he's led us out of iraq. he's winding down the operation in afghanistan. the economy's improving because he's been a wonderful steward. it's unfortunate that governor sununu had to inject race into the conversation. >> all right. let's talk about another endorsement. very important endorsement for mitt romney. it happened last night. and meatloaf, the rocker, he did it. i'm going to play a little bit of it for you. ♪ america, america god ♪ ♪ >> pretty good endorsement there. all right. erick, i was watching meatloaf but i was watching mitt romney looking at meatloaf over there as well. what did you think of that? >> i'm hoping mashed potatoes and gravy are in better tune than meatloaf. >> he did well. he shows a lot of passion. donna, you've got to admire meatloaf in that performance right there, don't you? >> oh, absolutely. look, wolf i've managed campaigns, i've worked on campaigns. the excitement you get from endorsements, whether it's bruce springsteen out there or george clooney or meatloaf or anybody else, it's about excitement. it's trying to get the american people to feel enthusiastic to go out and vote. that's why the colin powell endorsement of barack obama meant so much to all americans out there who just believed that this is a free country. just enjoy. >> yeah. meatloaf is really getting into it over there. all right. guys, thanks. >> wow. god bless him. >> thanks very much. pretty soon you may have to get someone's permission before you can resell your smartphone. what's going on? this will depend on a united states supreme court case you've probably never heard about but you're about to hear what's going on. anything i'm wearing would that apply? >> it's got a copyright. >> dvd. >> yep. >> iphones. >> yep. >> cars? >> yep. everything with a copyright. hahahaha! hooohooo, hahaha! this is awesome! folks who save hundreds of dollars switching to geico sure are happy. i'd say happier than a slinky on an escalator. get happy. get geico. melons!!! oh yeah!! well that was uncalled for. folks who save hundreds of dollars switching to geico sure are happy. how happy, ronny? happier than gallagher at a farmers' market. get happy. get geico. see life in the best light. outdoors, or in. transitions® lenses automatically filter just the right amount of light. so you see everything the way it's meant to be seen. maybe even a little better. vsp members can save on all authentic transitions lenses including our new transitions vantage and transitions xtractive lenses. experience life well lit. ask which transitions adaptive lens is best for you. a killer storm of extraordinary sizes ripped through the caribbean is now heading up the united states east coast. there are urgent preparations underway. a number of areas already have been declared emergencies. joining us now the accu weather senior meteorologist bernie ray no, what's so particular about this storm? >> you already have a hurricane in sandy. take the worst parts of a hurricane and then take the worst parts of a nor'easter and kind of combine them together. and that's the kind of storm that we're looking at as it heads towards the mid-atlantic coast monday into tuesday. what i mean by that is that we are going to get a large area of flooding rain damaging wind gusts. in fact, winds that will cause knock down trees power lines. and we could see millions of people without power. and where this storm comes on shore just north of it we could be looking at a devastating and destructive storm surge coming on shore as well. >> how many people potentially could be affected by this storm? >> this storm is going to be so large. let's say if the storm system -- and it could come anywhere on shore from about cape cod down toward delaware. let's say it comes on shore down toward delaware. even up in maine they're going to get tropical storm force conditions. so we're talking from maine all the way down into virginia. we're talking millions of people that are going to be impacted. and unfortunately because of the size and strength of this storm as it comes inland i think it's going to be a storm system that is going to be measured as far as damage in the billions of dollars. >> because they say, you know, hurricane category 1, we've gone through other parts of the country hurricane categories 2, 3 even 4. so once again just explain to our viewers because i'm getting a lot of tweets a lot of questions from viewers out there, if this is only a category 1 why should we be so worried? >> because the problem is in a hurricane you tend to get the heaviest rain and the strongest winds in a very small area. this storm is going to be changing its characteristics as it comes inland. and the wind and the rain area's going to be spreading out over hundreds of miles. so instead of it getting hurricane force wind gust 30 to 40 miles around the storm, we can get that 100 to 200 miles. and it's going to be such a large storm that we're going to see damaging wind gusts anywhere from maine vermont new hampshire, all the way across pennsylvania. and i think because of the heavy rain that we're going to be seeing, we could be looking at over six inches of rain. there's going to be flooding. and i do believe that this is going to be knocking down lots of trees and power lines. and also this is the kind of storm that could shut down la guardia, newark jfk ronald reagan international for 24 hours. so it's going to compromise travel across the country as well. this is not a storm we're hyping. this is a destructive historic and hopefully it will not be a life threatening storm. but i think it is. >> what we're seeing is monday tuesday, wednesday those could be the days -- the worst days is that what you're saying? >> the worst of the storm is going to be monday night and tuesday. while we think the storm system again, could come anywhere ashore between cape cod and down toward delaware we are looking toward the central jersey coast as where this storm comes in. right where the storm comes in that's where the worst conditions are going to be. if that storm does come toward the central jersey coast, we could be looking at hurricane force winds in new york city. so this is a storm that is going to cover and impact a very large part of the united states and the mid-atlantic. monday night and tuesday is when it will be its worst. >> we'll be alert and watching it every step of the way. bernie rayno been with accu weather since 1990. appreciate that. update at the top of the hour as well. our own chad myers is standing by. meanwhile an informant sheds light on a controversial new york city police operation to spy on muslims. i just don't think i should have to wait for it! who do you think i am, quicken loans? 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[ male announcer ] break the grip of back or arthritis pain with odor free aspercreme. powerful medicine relieves pain fast with no odor. so all you notice is relief. aspercreme. we want to give you a heads up about an important case coming before the united states supreme court next week. you probably never heard about it before but it may stop you from getting rid of things in your junk drawer or garage. joe johns has the details. >> it's a case that could cause trouble for anyone that thought about selling an old phone or ipad donating clothes to charity, or unloading junk at a yard sale. the issue about to be argued is if the original copyright holder can control your ability to resell the product once you buy it. davis resells products at this ebay consignment store. >> how much is foreign manufactured? >> i would say 85% to 95%. >> >> reporter: here fears it will put him out of business. >> i pushed it out of my mind because how could this happen? >> even libraries are worried a legal defeat could mean they have to seek permission before lending overseas. >> you bought it you own it, you can do with it as you please. >> otherwise, copyright owners could demand a fee every time you resell anything not made in america. >> anything i'm wearing, would that apply? >> if it's got a copyright dvd's, iphones, computers, televisions, cars, jewelry? >> everything with copy right. >> reporter: the lawyers say the rhetoric has gotten a little overheated. >> you know you're on the right side of the case is when they say the sky will fall on the other side. >> reporter: ted olson says this is mostly about books, movies, and other intellectual properties. >> it's protecting the integrity of the copyright system in the united states that was created by the constitution in order to create an incentive for people to create works that make us all laugh, cry, or educate us. >> truth to tell, mike carroll says it's the kind of case politicians might prefer to resolve because the law is so merky. >> they're faced with a very difficult job here because the text of the statute seems hard to reconcile. >> it started with a student in thailand. to pay for his education, his family sent him cheap versions of textbooks to save money he sold them and made money. you'll be covering these arguments next week and we'll see what the supreme court decides. >> looking forward. thank you. if an effort to find and stop potential terrorists, new york city authorities are using some tactics sure to be controversial. they consider it infiltrating mosques and baiting muslims to talk about it. >> how were you approached about becoming an confidential informant. >> i had some misdemeanor arrests for maurn. he was in a holding cell when he was recruited to become an informant. his handler was a man named bob. >> he told me there's terrorism going on in the city, actual threats. he said you're of interest because of your last name. >> he is an american and says cooperating with police was a way to get his life back on track. >> he said, you know would you like to do something good for the city? and i was like, why not. and then he added a little incentive that everybody falls for. we'll pay you good money. >> between $200 and $600 every few weeks. >> with training and guidance, he says he took these photos at the muslim day parade and inside mosques. also with college friends. >> i was pretending to be a muslim, pretending to be friends with them, pretending to agree with everything he said. >> we were unable to corroborate the story because they say they won't confirm identities of anyone. he was told to create and capture information, steering conversations and reporting back to police on buzz words like jihad or violence. >> it's entrapment in all forms. >> entrapment how? >> so you bring up a conversation, something that's inflammatory. something that can be easy misinterrupted, like jihad, revolution, anything that's violent, you know? fight, simple word that's we use in our language that we have freedom of speech to say -- >> a law enforcement official says confidential informants are only used when there is solid information like rhetoric or actions that could potentially lead to violence. >> did you feel you were providing helpful or legitimate information to protect against terror attack? >> no not at all. >> he showed cnn pictures he texted his nypd handler, pictures he believes of people that gave no probably cause for surveillance. >> do you feel you were used by the n.y.p.d.? >> very much so, yes. >> how? >> they were using me to entrap other people that didn't do anything wrong. >> now the nypd does not talk about informants, but they say surveillance only begins once there is evidence of rhetoric or action. the nypd doesn't have the resources to send informants on fishing expeditions. the official telling cnn that the nypd does not quote willy-nilly target people. forecasters say they don't have the words to describe how bad it could be. mitt romney's new economic promise, is it enough to close the deal with voters? and president obama maps out his 1 19 hour campaign strategy. i'll ask vice president joe biden's son about weak spots. i'm wolf blitzer, you're in "the situation room." >> the warnings are getting more urgent here in the north eastern united states, warnings that a storm of so called historic proportions may be coming. hurricane sandy could morph into a superstorm and slam major cities along the coast as soon as monday. nearly 66 million people live in the track zone for sandy. one forecaster says he's at a loss for explatives to describe what the storm could do. chad meyers is joining us now with the latest forecast. it's still going to be downgraded to a tropical storm later tonight or tomorrow but you cannot let your guard down. that is expected. it's also expected that when it gets back over the warmer water and starts to combine with the storm already in the northeast, you know how cool it is those two things will clash. that clash will enhance the hurricane, and it will become that super storm. we call it a hybrid because it's warm and cold. as it's a hurricane it's all warm inside, back here it's cold, when they clash it's i guess, like trying to put vinegar and oil together. they want to celebrate. they clash, and the storm will blow up it's called a bomb, sometimes they're called bombs nor'easters, coastal storms, this is not starting as a storm from the plains it's starting as a hurricane and combining with the storm from the plains. the models are all over from boston to hampton roads, and there's a big difference depending on how far it goes north. the longer it stays in the water, the bigger it will be. if it's going to new york city it will be a bigger storm than if it hits north carolina. we would love for it to go into the ocean, but it's not likely. the best case is for it to not gain any other strength but that could happen the sooner it gets on land and dies. this will knock down trees, put millions of people without power, cancel flights all up and down the east coast. travel on monday may be impossible, tuesday not much better and if we do get millions of people without power, it's going to take a week or so to get all of that power back on. and a week from tuesday is a very important day in america. >> a week from tuesday, november 6th. what about the first effects, we'll now more tomorrow and sunday, but those of us on the east coast, when will we start feeling it? >> you won't feel anything until sunday. you'll feel and see the waves on the east coast of florida. ly show you the model and here it works. all along the east coast of florida and ul the way up to north carolina, the waves could billion 12 to 14 feet on the beach. eroding that beach away, maybe even knocking down homes, as it moves up, it will combine with the cold and turn to the left. that's the left turn that we don't know yet. this model takes it right over long island back into new york and then finally up and away. that would be another devastating consequence. raining an inch an hour for 24 hours, that's two feet of rain. any place that gets that kind of rain there will be a flood so inland flooding, trees down, power down, and an awful lot of erosion. >> all right thanks very, very much. as chad just mentioned, this is coming at a bad political time just days before the election case. a lot of people on the east coast could get handled. >> yes, the zone that is threatened is huge right now. a lot of dire predictions about the storm and it collides with the presidential elections. brian todd is here and he has been following this. federal weather officials gave you access to their climate prediction center, what did you find out? >> they did, this place is fascinating, brand new, state of the art, the top meteorologist and experts tracking 24/7, and they are state of the art. one of them you see there it's called a super rapid scan image. this is coming in from a satellite, putting images together once a minute to give you pictures of the storm almost in realtime. in this realtime transmission, as you see, the eye of the storm there and the clouds swirling off the coast of florida it's that kind of view that allowed their experts to track the storm and tell us what makes this so unusual. i spoke with tom kevins, a satellite meteorologist. >> we have a cold front that's approaching. we also have a blocking system that you see off this map, and energy digging in from the pacific northwest. so you really see the models are pulling it together where the hurricane comes toward the mid-atlantic. >> you see me pointing in disbelief, i could not belief that not only combining with the second weather system currently over land but has he pointed out, even a system in the pacific northwest right now he say social security going to join in, wolf and kate, a perfect storm, maybe three systems coming together. >> a lot of uncertainty and we will know more in the next 24 to 48 hours. what is the potential impact on voting? >> early voting is key, and there are states in this region doing early voting. this is from the website of the national conference of state legislatures. you see that wptthere, the states in green gray and blue, those in green have early voting in person tomorrow. they're looking for alternative voting sugt voting sights. the gray in that picture many of them do not have early voting, that's virginia pennsylvania connecticut massachusetts, rhode island. for them voting in person is on election day. the storm should be cleared by then but the problem is flooding, power outages, that is key. if there are power outages around, and you saw what happened in june, there are power outages a week later, that will be bad if there are power outages still around on election day. >> it was days without power. >> i remember the local power -- they're still getting grief for that. hopefully all of these power companies will be better prepared. >> seeing a lot of prep passionarations already. mb trying to appeal to young voters talking about his fathers, fears, and facebook. better about your favorite flavors. so when you call, tweet, and post, we listen. that's why yoplait light and yoplait original are now made with no high fructose corn syrup. and why we use only natural colors and natural flavors in yoplait original. so, anything else we can do for you, let us know. but you'll keep it to yogurt, right? 'cause we shouldn't really help with your love life. yoplait. it is so good! when we got married. i had three kids. and she became the full time mother of three. it was soccer, and ballet, and cheerleading, and baseball. those years were crazy. so, as we go into this next phase, you know, a big part of it for us is that there isn't anything on the schedule. just 11 days until the election, and we have a snapshot of what's most important to voters and it's the economy. it grew at 2% from july until september. the white house notes it's the 13th straight quarter of growth. a little stronger than expected but still not good enough. mitt romney's campaign calls the figure does appointing and he is doubling down on his economic pitch in these final days of the economic race. jim acosta is joining us now who is in north canton ohio. what's the latest jim? >> reporter: mitt romney and paul ryan will be out here for a joint appearance in a cold drizzle to try and fire up their supporters. earlier in the day, mitt romney was in iowa where he was delivering a speech on the economy, and he laid out what he called big changes coming for washington after he is elected president of the united states. the trick for romney at this point is to avoid any big slip ups as he is getting very close to being tied with the president in many battleground polls. >> mitt romney travelled to iowa to deliver what his aides were building up on a big speech on the economy. but he just said he was the candidate of big change. >> we need change of the course of the last four year rs. that we put aside the small and the petty, and demand the scale of change we deserve. we need real change, big change. >> romney also returned to his lean of attack that the president has no second term agenda just more stimulus spending. >> a new stimulus, that makes bigger government, but it won't stimulate the private sector any bet r than four years ago. >> the site of romney's speech has received stimulus money. according to the government website, the company's owner received a small business loan through the stimulus for more than $1 million. romney's speech came on the same day the government announced that the economy grew by 2% in the third quarter of this year, beating estimates but worse than past predictions by the obama administration. >> it means slow job growth and declining take home pay. >> reporter: with polls showing romney threatening to take the lead nationally and in key swing states, his campaign hit another detour. one of his top surrogates and long time republican leaders suggested that collin powell endorsed president obama because of his race. i think when you have somebody of your own race, proud of being president of the united states, i applaud powell for standing with him. >> he released a statement saying he believes powell's endorsement is due to the policies. earlier this month, he raised eyebrows with the first debate performance. >> it was a president that revealed his incompetence and how lazy and detached he is. >> keeping the candidate straight is also a challenge as it was for iowa's senator charles grassley. >> we'll put america on a new path, to a new day, with a new president, obama -- a new president, romney pardon me. you know i want to forget that word. and it's not just verbal slip ups like that that might make the final stage of this campaign a bumpy ride. it's also the weather to look out for. earlier, the campaign decided to scrap an event coming up on sunday at virginia beach because of that looming threat coming from hurricane sandy. in the words of one romney advisor, we're keeping an eye on all of this. other events may be affected as well. that one event late in the day on sunday. >> i'm sure they will be on monday and tuesday within this could be a real disaster unfolding. jim acosta, thank you very much. on that note, the obama campaign just announced the first lady is cancelling a rally in new hampshire on tuesday. the university holding it is closing because of hurricane sandy. in the meantime, theresident is at the white house today doing his day job, but still clearly very concerned about reaching out to voters. and because of that, he is doing interviews, many interviews. let's bring in our white house correspondent for more on this. >> reporter: voters in battleground states, no surprise there, black voters, and young voters. he did ten interviews today, radio and television, including one that wrapped up just a short time ago with mtv obviously targeting youth voters. he was interviewed about sway callaway, but listen to what president obama said when he was asked about his concerns as a parent? >> what are you most worried about, malia getting a driver's license, malia going out on a date or malia being on facebook. >> i worry about facebook right now only because look i know the folks at facebook they have revolutionized the social networks, but, you know malia because she is well known you know, for -- i'm very keen on her -- protecting her privacy, she can make her own decisions, but even now, just for security reasons, she doesn't have a facebook page. dates, that's fine because she has secret service protection, so -- >> you're not worried about that? >> no i'm not too worried. the one thing i always tell my daughters, and hopefully i'm serving as a good example for this is i want them to be with men who respect them boys who respect them, and value them and you know understand their worth. and you know, if they're -- if the boys are kind to them then they'll be okay. they're competent young women. >> it was obvious in this interview that sway was searching for big answers. young voters are not impressed with incremental ideas. he was asking about what president obama would do in the future, and a lot of the questions that president obama answered instead he talks about what he's done in the past. two of the things that really struck me, or one of the things was the question on same sex marriage. this is something that obviously a lot of young voters are in favor of. sway asked him, kate, this was interesting to me a question about what the next step was, and he prefaced it by saying the federal government intervened frequently to protect equal rights. equal rights and civil rights, and president obama touted his support for same sex marriage, but he didn't think it was the federal government's role to legislate same sex marriage. something that i think perhaps the interviewer and some of those watching were disappointed with. but he struggled most with a question about music. >> i could go buy an album or a cartridge, you know -- >> a cartridge, wow. >> yeah, old school. >> i'll tend you some music that you should tune into. >> so he was being asked, kate what artist that has a political message would he listen to and he struggled to find one, and he talked about getting music from a cartridge saying it's been awhile since he himself was a youth voter. >> definitely someone that came across that president obama has not watched mtv himself in quite awhile. >> agree. >> you can see more of the mtv interview, it will reair at 8:00 eastern tonight right here on cnn. i'll be anxious to see it. new information just coming in senator harry reid's condition after he was injured in a car accident in las vegas. everyone has goals. take the steps to reach yours, with us with real advice, for real goals. the us bank wealth management advisor can help you. every step of the way. from big steps, to little steps. since 1863 we've helped guide our clients, so they can take the steps to help grow, preserve, and pass along their wealth. so their footsteps can help the next generation find their own path. all of us serving you. us bank i want to update you on that accident involving harry reid kate baldwin has that. >> a scare for many people. senator reid was taken to the hospital in las vegas this afternoon. let's get the latest from dana bash. >> we're hearing that senator reid seems to be doing fine. he actually walked into the hospital on his own. senator reid was wearing his seatbelt at the time of the accident. he has rib and hip contusions. it was a six-car accident, four of the cars were part of his caravan. he was the only one to actually go to the hospital although other staffer -- one staffer had minor injuries, and wolf asked if the senator was driving, and the answer is no. >> he often is not, and if he's just making out with a few bruises, that's good news. >> and dirty conditions at the massachusetts compounding pharmacy at the center of a dangerous meningitis outbreak. they found greenish-black matter growing in dozens of vile. they tested 50 of the viles and they were all contaminated. 25 people have died from it. the story just keeps going. also, former ial win minister calls his four-year prison sentence unacceptable. he was found guilty for buying -- cases in italy must pass two levels of appeal before verdicts are final, and she expected to appeal and the guess is that it will pass the statute of limitations so he may not serve any time. thank you, we have a new poll in ohio, that state could be the decider in the presidential race. we're talking to voters in that battleground state as well about what they want. l-size pickups on the road. so, what do you think? 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what's going on? >> i think you know, the major thing that's interesting from these new numbers is the fact that that margin between the two candidates has not changed in a few weeks. the same margin we saw right after that first debate. there has been a lot of talk from other people saying mitt romney had picked up a new momentum and things were changing, but as john points out, it's within the mar gun of error, too close to call, this poll does not seem to indicate a dramatic shift mitt romney's way, and as you move forward if you go on to win the state of ohio, you're likely to go on and win the white house. the key for democrats is the city of cleveland. in 2008 president obama won the state of ohio by a margin of 2626,000. 230,000 of which came from this particular county. that's how important it is. democrats always said for a democratic candidate, if they get 60% of the vote in this county, they will win the state of ohio. now modern times, it's about 65% of the vote. >> they have to do well to be there for sure. the astronomical amount of money being spent in the commercials, it's amazing what's going on. but what are you seeing on the ground? >>. >> staggering $177 million has been spent for television time here in ohio alone. most here in northern ohio. they have spent to date about 88 $88 million. if you want today buy say 30 secs of air time on the 6:00 news the price has gone up 400%. and one other figure if you took all of the ads that ran in the political market since the beginning of october, and you splice them all back to back and watch them you would be sitting and watching them for four and a half days, 24 hours a day. that's why the people here feel just blasted politically. >> good for the local economy and those local tv stations i'm sure. march tun thank you very much. >> still ahead we're learning about emergency preparations for that monster storm. 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[m[mususicic]] imimagaginine e ifif y youou c cououldld alalwawaysys s seeee l lififee inin t thehe b besest t lilighght.t. eveverery y titimeme o of f daday.y. ououtdtdoooorsrs, , oror i in.n. trtranansisititiononss® l lenensesess auautotomamatiticacalllly y fifiltlterer j jusustt ththe e ririghght t amamouountnt o of f lilighght.t. soso y youou s seeee e eveveryryththiningg ththe e waway y itit i iss memeanant t toto b be e seseenen.. mamaybybe e evevenen a a lilittttlele b betetteter.r. exexpeperirienencece l lifife e wewellll l litit asask k fofor r trtranansisititiononss adadapaptitiveve l lenenseses.s. states of emergency right no in effect. declarations were made in maine, pennsylvania, and right here in the nation's capitol. >> hurricane handy appears on track to morph into a potentially devastating super storm. virginia's national guard are authorized to activate personnel if needed. >> and our next guest bob is joining us from boulder, colds. how bad could this be? >> we haven't seen a storm exactly like this in our lifetimes. it's going to be a blend of hurricane sandy, and a winter type storm moving across the country right now and they will be emerging above the gulf stream and it will all lead to a very strong storm system. if you picture hurricane irene from last year that was bad enough in it's own right, this storm will be stronger than irene if forecasts pan out, larger, and moving on a more dangerous path. to new york city, much more at risk for storm surge and high winds. >> many people are not feeling anything yet so give us some perspective on this for the worst case scenario of people in the effected area. >> it's going to feel not that ominous until the storm approaches and gathering strength and it will be developing as it moves toward the east coast. people should not be distressed by whether or not it's a hurricane or not at that point. the risks are substantial, and millions of people could be without power for days. i think the storm surge risk is especially large depending on where the storm strikes. that could be from the norfolk area to boston. >> there's suggestions that this could cost a billion dollars in damage, maybe more, what do you suspect? >> i think that's definitely in line. hurricane irene was $15 to $20 million in damage and this has all of the earmarks of being stronger than that one. no places likely to see category four or five winds. the winds will be gails or cap 1 winds. it will be over several hundred miles in the most populous area of the united states. if millions of people, that will be a big risk, and those inconveniences could last for days. >> hour shortages for 50 or 60 million people out there potentially at risk. some will have serious, serious problems. bob henson, thank you very much. >> thank you. earlier we heard mitt romney's latest attack on the obama administration's handling of the economy. we'll get a democratic response from the vice president's son. i'll ask him if he will accept a back handed compliment from newt beginning rich. everyone in the nicu all the nurses wanted to watch him when he was there 118 days. everything that you thought was important to you changes in light of having a child that needs you every moment. i wouldn't trade him for the world. who matters most to you says the most about you. massmutual is owned by our policyholders so they matter most to us. if you're caring for a child with special needs our innovative special care program offers strategies that can help. mike rowe here at a ford dealer with a little q&a for fiona. tell me fiona, who's having a big tire event? your ford dealer. who has 11 major brands to choose from? your ford dealer. who's offering a rebate? your ford dealer. who has the low price tire guarantee... affording peace of mind to anyone who might be in the market for a new set of res? your ford dealer. i'm beginning to sense a pattern. buy four select tires, get a $60 rebate. use the ford service credit credit card, get $60 more. that's up to $120. where did you get that sweater vest? your ford dealer. [ male announcer ] research suggests cell health plays a key role throughout our lives. one a day men's 50+ is a complete multi-vitamin designed for men's health concerns as we age. it has more of 7 antioxidants to support cell health. one a day men's 50+. in those final days, the obama-biden campaign is becoming under harsher criticism from the mitt romney campaign. let's talk a little about mitt romney's economic speech today. much of it was really devoted to hammering your dad's economic promises and the president's economic policies. i'll play a little clip listen to this. last quarter our economy grew at just 2%. after the stimulus was passed. the white house promised it would be growing at 4.3%. over twice as fast. that means slow job growth and declining take home pay. that's what four years of president obama's policies have produced. americans are ready for change. >> a lot more people are living in poverty today thanes ago. more people require food stamps today. there have been real disasters out there. >> there's no doubt there is people hurting and there is people hurting every day, and that's what president of the united states, as well as my father, have worked to make sure that we work to continue to build the middle class and give people a fair shame and a fair shot, and now from the top down. the top down policy we know for sure and certain that it doesn't work. and more than not working, it is called a great recession. i have not heard oned good idea for governor romney other than giving big tax breaks to the richest among us. i thought at the end of the debate, governor romney was going to endorse the president of the united states. he spent the whole campaign railing on the president about things like afghanistan. now he has embraced it. he called the president's removal of troops and ending the war a tragedy. the list goes on ask the people in massachusetts if he saying what he means and means what he says. a state that has had five of the last six governors that are republican. it's not like a republican cannot compete in massachusetts. people in that state know he is the type of person that is willing to say whatever it takes at the moment to get the vote that he thinks he needs. that's not how you earn the trust of the american people. >> you were on pierce morgan, and you got parade from newt gingrich. it's amazing to me that beau biden is so much more in control than his father. >> what do you think about getting that kind of praise from newt gingrich. >> the congressman's back handed compliments, i'll let them speak for themselves. the reality is, is we have a big decision to make in the next -- on november 6th voting has begun in ohio, iowa north carolina, and in the next two weeks, it's about earning the trust of the american people. and the, you know people who know mitt romney best know that he is willing to say whatever it takes to close the sale. this is not a sales pitch. this is about asking the american people whether or not they can trust you. and he is running for president he's not trying to sell something. when you run for president you have to have a core principals conviction. and governor romney over the last two weeks, as abandoned every one of those things i heard him talk about on the debates you moderated. he took the stage one stage 20 years ago, and was more progressive than ted kennedy, and 20 years later, is trying to be more conservative than newt gingrich. it's contortion on his part, and i think it solidified the narrative on mitt romney that he is willing to say whatever it takes. >> one final question before i let you go, nothing to do with politicking, hurricane sandy, delaware could be in the storm in the next few days, here in washington dc, people are worried, are you ready for whatever happens? >> i'm confident that theour governor, and workers with as we speak are repairing, and it's time for everybody to get ready and listen to the reports on cnn and take this storm very seriously. >> i agree completely. as always, thank you very much for coming in, good tlouk everyone in delaware and in the east coast of the united states, it could go into canada as well. we're watching this storm very closely. >> watching it very closely for a lot of reasons, 50 or 60 million along the east coach will be watching. >> he is a very strong surrogate for his father pip was struck by that loves his dad very much. >> erin burnett and her staff have been crunching the numbers and mitt romney's plan to reduce the deficit. give us a preview. >> last time we looked at the president's plan, he says he's going to cut the deficit by 4 trillion. we concluded it didn't add up. we looked at the the plan today. he said the national debt threatens to crush our future. his numbers don't add up either. we're going to be joined by jim tall lon, former senator of missouri, who is going to take the tough questions on what mitt romney is going to do or not do for our nation's feature. also, we have andy card and john pau des ta going to talk about ohio and did the auto bailout headline let detroit go bankrupt? a headline written by the newspaper in which mitt romney's op-ed was published. not by mitt romney. is that headline going to be what kills him in ohio? that's coming up top of the hour. back to you. >> good question. thanks so much. still ahead, this is the busy season for presidential imposters, if you will. we caught up with some of them on streets of new york. >> i'm hoping it's going to be another bush or bill clinton. that's what i'm hoping for but this guy, he gives me a lot of problems. i gave a good speech for you though. i didn't want to do it. 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[ tires squeal ] and if you get into an accident and use one of our certified repair shops your repairs are guaranteed for life. call... to switch, and you could save hundreds. liberty mutual insurance -- responsibility. what's your policy? so what do you think? basic. at meineke i have options... like oil changes starting at $19.95. my money. my choice. my meineke. the presidential candidates are working over time during these, the closing days before the election. some obama and romney look alikes. they're trying to cash in on the campaign excitement while it lasts. >> reporter: imagine the chaos. >> appreciate your vote. >> before i take anymore pictures -- >> reporter: president obama and governor mitt romney together at the cross roads of the world. >> item going to win. >> reporter: picture taking. >> let's bring the cameras over here. >> reporter: baby holding. >> i think he's a democrat don't you? >> reporter: wait a minute. >> you're all over the map. >> i love big bird. >> nothing against big bird. >> reporter: these aren't the the real candidates. >> good afternoon, how's everything? >> reporter: meet luis ortiz. a dead ringer for president obama. mitt romney, jim goss et who has multiple presidential personalities. >> i'm hoping it's another bush or clinton. this guy gives me a lot of problems. >> reporter: but the race is tight and these two know campaigning at one of the biggest places on earth is the thing. ♪ >> barack hussein obama. >> the naked cowboy will get pants under a romney administration. >> reporter: and if one naked cowboy isn't enough -- >> obama! yo mama! >> reporter: there's always room for two. it's times square, new york, a blue state, where the president is more popular than the governor. >> i can't even get anyone to take a picture with me. this is my town. jay z made a song about that. who's going to run this town tonight? this guy. >> reporter: kidding aside, the impersonation business can be lucrative. what do you charge is this. >> up to $30,000. >> really gets overwhelming, especially when you don't have proper security. you know? especially when you're not really the president, you know? i don't know i look like him. >> reporter: it's amazing isn't it? >> it is. oh, my gosh! this is really him. >> mr. president -- it's the same. >> reporter: there's even a big bird moment. >> this guy doesn't understand us. come on. let's get out of here. >> reporter: we'll know who wins here and the election november 6th. >> this is the worst case of cartoon pandering i've ever seen in my life. >> alina, thank you. so if you are a political junkie, a movie fan or a blitzer fan or a combo deal of all three, heads-up. tonight, wolf, this guy, is co-hosting a special event on turner classic movies showcasing films with political themes. all the president's men is one of the featured films. listen here to wolf talking to ben monkowitz about the watergate scandal. >> at one point, the director was thinking of casting a woman as deep throat and he does something to woodward which was the kind of thing that woodward and bernstein, specifically bernstein in the film, did to a source that he had at the fbi where he essentially said i'm thinking of casting a woman for this. if i'm wrong, don't say anything. for ten seconds and woodward was silent and they're like okay i guess we're not casting a woman. >> i've used that myself. in speaking with sources. i remember the night that richard nixon died. i was the white house correspondent for cnn. and i broke that story that richard nixon was there, but i saw stuff going on in the west wing of the white house and i had to put stuff together. i wasn't sure and i spoke to one very senior official i said look, i'm about to go out on the north lawn of the white house and report that richard mill house nixon is dead. if i'm wrong that's a career ender. you wouldn't let me go out there and make a fool out of myself would you? there was silence. if i don't hear anything from you, i'm going to go out. i wasn't going to do it. he said i wouldn't let you end your career. >> that's good stuff. that's good stuff. that's exciting. >> i've heard a lot of your story, but never that story. that's fascinating. >> the added advantage of being true. so, i'm a movie critic tonight. >> are you a good critic a harsh critic. >> three excellent excellent wonderful political films. >> what's your version of thumbs up thumbs down? three blitzers? >> three wolf blitzers. something like that. and i loved doing it with ben. >> you guys both have great fashion sense in eye wear. >> remember, y

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