and new reality show. sarah palin kicks off. is it the beginning or end of a white house run? i've got to say, robin. i don't know the answer to my question there. you see sarah palin going to alaska. never before have we seen a presidential candidate and her daughter doing reality show. bristol on "dancing with the stars." sarah palin on tlc. >> that definitely is a first. and a lot of firsts for people heading to capitol hill. >> that's right. coming back to washington art midterm elections. also president obama back from his ten days in asia. it's really something. it's very diverse. they've got everybody from a pizza maker to a rancher. they are ready to shake up washington. and probably, robin, one of the top challenges is taking it on. remember, they released a controversial proposal. this morning, the chairman of that commission is live. we'll be talking to erskine bowles, the president of the university of north carolina. a u.s. base is on fire after being hit by rocket-propelled grenades. this after getting word at that u.s. will take a major step in combat operations. martha, what are we learning right now? >> reporter: right now, ten vehicles are on fire at this base. really a huge fire. fortunately no injuries there. as for this plan, this plan will be presented later this week at a nato summit. it calls for gradually transferring areas of afghanistan to the afghan forces over the next two years, with the goal to pull out all u.s. combat troops by 2014. it's a plan modeled on the withdrawal plan from iraq, where you have a substantial number of troops that stay. but not primarily in a combat role. this is a very ambitious plan, given the level of violence in afghanistan right now. as you saw this morning. and is dependent on the training of afghan forces. but it also reflects the mood of the american people about this war, robin. they don't want to be there indefinitely. >> that does reflect that mood. and this also comes on the heels of the new warnings from the afghan president karzai. >> that's true. afghan president karzai said over the weekend it's time for the u.s. to reduce numbers and stop operations raids. this morning in "the washington post" general david petraeus expressed what was called astonishment and disappointment over karzai's comments. a little tense there. there's some talk that karzai threatened to resign. we'll turn to that tragedy in mexico. an explosion ripped through an upscale mexican resort full of mexican and canadian tourists on under it. matt gutman is on the ground with the latest. matt? >> reporter: good morning, george. we're here right outside the main gate of the hotel where yesterday morning, people came out at breakfast, they were going to the vip lounge when that explosion just shattered the tropical calm here. within seconds, tiki huts burst into flames and guest chairs had to be used as stretchers to cart off the wounded. the explosion sent guests shooting through the restaurant. >> it was a crater. >> it was a crater in the ground. >> reporter: those said shrapnel including five canadians, among them a 33-year-old groom and a 9-year-old boy. it collapsed walls and sent people flying. two americans were among the wound wounds, including the state department, with the wounded screams, waiters and guests, needing triage. they documented it. >> this was just unbelievable. >> reporter: it was said of one woman -- >> she was thrown out of her chair. another couple were literally shrapnel, they were quite seriously injured. >> reporter: the sprawl of the hotel were packed with vacationerers. they beefed up security. >> everyone shared the same fear. you know, fear is, was this deliberate? >> reporter: it was not. the sfraprawling resort with ney 700 rooms sits on a swamp where gas had been building up for years, according to mexican authorities. those blasts punched a refrigerator size hole through the concrete. robin, those two americans are in stable condition. they were not among those who were severely injured. hundreds of people were removed from this hotel. evacuated because authorities here are still concerned about gas trapped beneath the surface here. robin. >> and rightly so. all right. matt, thank you. back here in the u.s., a desperate search for the missing family in ohio turned up a 13-year-old found in the home of the man now charged with her kidnapping. but there's still no sign of the girl's mom, brother and a family friend. barbara pinto has the latest from ohio. good morning, barbara. >> reporter: good morning, robin. matthew hoffman is said to appear in court today. so far the only link between him and a 13-year-old girl charged with kidnapping is that his parents live within walking distance of her home. a s.w.a.t. team found sarah maynard in matthew hoffman's basement, ten miles from where she disappeared. the teenage girl was bound and gagged but alive. >> she is currently in the hospital with nonlife threatening condition. she has been interviewed somewhat, but the details of what she's telling us can't be revealed. >> reporter: police believe sarah was under hoffman's control since her disappearance last wednesday. but there's still know sign of her 10-year-old brother kody, her mother tina herrmann and her friend stephanie sprang. >> right now, we have no one that we're aware of who is deceased so it continues as a missing persons investigation. >> reporter: neighbors say hoffman's girlfriend and her son recently moved out and describe his behavior as odd. >> it was kind of weird. he was climbing trees and stuff like that. >> reporter: hoffman has served prison time before in colorado for arson. sarah and her brother were last seen at school on wednesday. her girlfriend didn't show up for work thursday. neighbors called the police. >> i think something bad happened? >> why. >> because the way things are going down. >> reporter: a massive hunt and this fall on facebook have turned up little. on "good morning america," stephanie's father pleaded for her safe return. >> we love you and we need you. we will find you. >> reporter: friends are clearly worried. >> i just don't want letter out there alone. whatever it is, we don't want her to be alone. >> how anxious family members and investigators were hoping that matthew hoffman would lead them to the two women and 10-year-old boy who are still missing. so far no luck. investigators say he is refusing to cooperate. robin. >> hopefully, that will change sometime soon. thank you. we turn to washington. president obama is back in the white house after the ten-day asian trip, this was the new republican freshmen class in the house is heading to capitol hill. they want both sides to work together but is that what they're going to get? jon karl reads the latest tea leaves from washington. >> reporter: good morning. the congress here said they found a president who said he is ready to work with republicans. talking to reporters on air force one, president obama acknowledged a, quote, obsession with his own policies. >> in that obsessive focus on policy, i neglected some things that matter a lot to people and rootingly so. maintaining a bipartisan tone in washington. >> reporter: now, he facing a republican majority with a different obsession, stopping his policies. they started arrived sunday, washington's largest freshman class in a generation. 109 of them new to congress. 35 of them of them have never before held elected office. >> change the way they run. >> washington is completely lost. >> reporter: to washington, their political amateurs and proud of it. the pizza man. from illinois. >> my new stomping grounds. >> reporter: dr. paul gosar, dentist, from arizona. >> just getting back to that. >> reporter: the football player, tackle from new jersey, 6'7", 300 pounds of him. >> it's rhyme to get to work. >> reporter: and the rancher, kristi noem from asked asked. >> asked askedians make better decision what to do with the money than the government does. >> reporter: to most, that means rolling back much of what president obama has done over the past two years. >> we can't afford any more taxes. we don't need any more overregulating. >> reporter: as for the democrats, the new minority party in the house is expected to re-elect nancy pelosi as leader. >> we just came off the largest devastating loss of the democratic party in a century and to be able to put speaker pelosi as minority leader is truly unacceptable for our party. >> congressman schuller said he will run against pelosi if nobody else does. support is strong. there aren't that many moderates to run against her. the president is granting them with an olive branch of sorts. >> that's right. jon. the president saying he wished he would have pushed that harder last year. thanks very much. of course, those earmarks are just a tiny fraction of what it will take to tackle the country's debt and deficit problem. just how hard it will be to bring down that when the chairman issued their recommendations. and joining fire from all sides, now in his first television interview to answer the critics, we're joined by the chairman of the panel, erskine bowles. thanks for joining us, mr. bowles. >> i'd glad to be here. i hope you're doing good. >> i'm doing well. you have put everything on the table last week. huge cuts in discretionary spending, $200 billion. taking away popular home deductions. like the home mortgage deduction. raising the retirement age. i wonder if you could boil it down in a sentence or two for everyone at home, they're going through tough times right now. why is it necessary to make these sacrifices? >> because the problems we face is real. the path we're on is unsustainable. this debt is like a cancer, it will literally destroy our country from within if we don't tackle it. george, by 2020, we'll have over $1 trillion in interest payments alone. can you imagine that amount of money flowing out of this country to build better school, better roads, to do high-value research in other countries, rather than doing it here? this is a problem that we have to face up to. we have no choice. >> you know what you're making these proposals. but congress is about to come back and talk about whether to extend those tax cuts passed by president bush. by extending them, that's going to cost $1 trillion. couldn't they save by keeping the tax rates where they were, letting them go back to 1998 when you were white house chief of staff? >> george, first ever all, i surely don't believe that people like you and me need a tax cut. but putting that aside, what we are proposing is to wipe out a whole bunch of these tax expenditures. then we were broaden the base, simplify the code, actually bringing the rate down and reduce the deficit. can bring rates down to 8, 14 and 23, and take $100 billion a year to reduce the deficit. i think that is kind of smart economics as opposed to what they're talking about today. >> some of your critics disagree. paul krugman said taking away the deduction for home mart, the deduction for health care will end up playing increases that are tax cuts for the wealthy and tax increases for the middle class. your response? >> i think if you'll look at a distribution analysis. you'll see, "a," that's not true. but, "b," what we say is, let's take these out. bring rates down to 8, 14 and 23. then if you want to add about back like the mortgage interest deduction, then tell us how you're going to pay for it. >> so you are willing to have some compromise or tradeoffs going down the line? >> yeah, we say that in the report very clearly. >> so far just you and your co-chair, alan simpson, the republican, have signed on for the proposals. the idea is to get 14 of the 18 commission members to sign on before you can get a vote in the congress. but many of the other commission members have yet signed on. do you think you can get the 14 by the december 1st deadline? >> i'll tell you, i'm hopeful. what we're trying to do is to listen to other people's ideas to see how we can improve this package. the president asked to us get a deficit to gdp ratio down to 3% by 2015. and then to address these long-term imbalances. we've gotten lots of cooperation. we've spent months and months listening to people on both sides of the aisle. and that's the way you build up trust and you find compromise and you find a way to really solve what is a very, very difficult problem. >> you actually tweeted president obama that you've probably listened to more republican proposals as chairman of this commission than he has as president. you said at the beginning of this process that you're confident that president obama is going to sign on to these proposals. are you still confident about it? he wouldn't comment last week. >> i don't think i tweaked him. the only way you find out where people are is to spend literally hours, months and months, listening to them, trying to find that common ground, trying to build up trust. that's what we tried to do. we spent a lot of time with both republicans and democrats. the president has said very clearly, george, upon his return to the country that what he wants to do is to have these proposals which we made which he says are quite serious, reviewed, discuss and see what comes out of the commission. >> if you don't get the 14, the 18, what happens next? >> then what we have done is lay a predicate for the next congress to deal with where we have $3 of spending cuts for every dollar of revenue. >> mr. bowles, thank you for your time. >> good to talk to you. >> sam champion is here with the weather. here's where the heaviest rain will be, northern alabama area. middle tennessee as well. 3 to 4 inches of rain. in general, this could be a 1 to 3-inch rainfall. d.c. area in that rain. there's some cold air. from a hit of snow, believe it or not, this area has snowy, icy roads. remember, we had a feeling there was going to be snow in minnesota? big snow. about 14 inches of snow over the weekend. brand-new system moves into the northwest today. that heavy rain is a big story in the deep south. >> temperatures are right on target in the southwest, from l.a. all the way into san diego today. also nice day in the northeast, robin, today. rain moves in tomorrow. so make sure -- >> tomorrow? i see it on the window already, the rain. it's not waiting. >> maybe a little drip on the air conditioner. >> yeah. but it was a gorgeous weekend. all right, sam, thank you. program note for you now, president obama wrapped up his asian tour sunday saying the region is eager for american leadership. but many say asia already has a leader. it's china and that's is where diane sawyer is broadcasting from tonight. she joins us from shanghai. good morning, diane. >> hello, everyone, on "good morning america." i'm showing you the scene first. robin and george, take a look. this is from back in 1990, of the land i'm about to show you now. here we are. take a look. this is the new shanghai, china. and that's why we came here, to learn how they did this in 20 years. and what is the rocket fuel behind this economy, this growth in china. the kind of growth that can build up 15-story buildings in just six days. what is it like to be a land of 1.3 billion people and how do you lift 300 million of them out of poverty in one generation? one thing, of course, is education. we're going inside this school because there are now more people who speak english in china, than there are people in america. and some of them are pretty small people at that. ♪ and another question we have had since we've been here and we toured old shanghai and had a chance to think again about the differences between chinese culture and american culture. is how can americans take advantage of this huge appetite for growth here in china? well, you're going to see what happens when mary kay, and we all nomary kay cosmetics, when suddenly, they decide they're going to go door to door in china, which, by the way, turns out you don't do. we're there as they gather together 30,000, 30,000 people to be trained in selling mary kay cosmetics. but we also had a chance to go to mcdonald's and learn how this premiere american brand is building one new mcdonald's every other day in china, and they're just getting revved up. we're go doing show you how american businesses can operate some china, of course, eventually, we hope that means american jobs. and we're as going to tell you more about how the chinese see us and what lessons we learn from that. a lot coming up tonight. and it's all coming up on "world news." we'll see you all on "gma." >> you can see more of her reporting from china beginning tonight on "world news." coming up here, sarah palin's reality, what her new show may mean for her political future. plus, are dogs really blue ribbon bedbug detectors? we put them to the sniff test. and celebrating from upcoming milestones. then sam comes also. we're talking about 50. why are we talking about 50? yes, you next, sam. while a body in motion tends to stay in motion. staying active can actually ease arthritis symptoms. but if you have arthritis, staying active can be difficult. prescription celebrex can help relieve arthritis pain so your body can stay in motion. because just one 200mg celebrex a day can provide 24 hour relief for many with arthritis pain and inflammation. plus, in clinical studies, celebrex is proven to improve daily physical function so moving is easier. and celebrex is not a narcotic. when it comes to relieving your arthritis pain, you and your doctor need to balance the benefits with the risks. all prescription nsaids, including celebrex, may increase the chance of heart attack or stroke, which can lead to death. this chance increases if you have heart disease or risk factors such as high blood pressure or when nsaids are taken for long periods. nsaids, including celebrex, increase the chance of serious skin or allergic reactions or stomach and intestine problems, such as bleeding and ulcers, which can occur without warning and may cause death. patients also taking aspirin and the elderly are at increased risk for stomach bleeding and ulcers. do not take celebrex if you've had an asthma attack, hives, or other allergies to aspirin, nsaids or sulfonamides. get help right away if you have swelling of the face or throat, or trouble breathing. tell your doctor about your medical history and find an arthritis treatment that works for you. ask your doctor about celebrex. and, go to celebrex.com to learn more about how you can move toward relief. celebrex. for a body in motion. ♪ just love me ♪ oh oh oh ♪ just hold me ♪ oh oh oh ♪ just kiss me ♪ oh oh oh ♪ just want me ♪ l-o-v-e ♪ love, love, love 7:26 and we are looking at towson elementary school west towson. 47 at the greece and we have thick fog in some spots. it's actually cut down to a quarter mile visibility as we hoe reduce visibility in reisterstown at 48. eastern shore dense fog advisory this morning. cecil through kent and queen ann's county, we have got a 90-minute school delay caroline county 2 hour delay. reduced travel speeds on highways and by ways. partly sunny skies and a big storm out of gulf of mexico will spread our way with heavy rain tomorrow. today partly sunny and two degree guaranteed high of 60. >> reporter: the fog is making for a slower commute this morning with the redeuced visibility on area roadways. not look bad on the beltway minor days around the west side of the outer loop. checking the maps, we are work serious accident in sparks that has york road closed in both direction right there expect a see bailout traffic op the harrisburg expressway. an accident in notingham bel air road and we are dealing with an accident pulaski at white marsh boulevard. here's james which with the morning news update. up there we will be covering that accident.