Home runs. Pablo sandoval helps the giants tame the tigers in game one of the world series. Will detroit even things up tonight . And her tv career has spanned decades. Melissa joan hart will join us live to talk about her latest projects. Its thursday, october 25th, and starting point begins right now. Welcome, everybody. Our starting point this morning, the high stakes struggle for eight mustwin swing states. The president obama and governor romney tapping into their travel budgets, both men crisscrossing the country, targeting those tossup states that will decide this race. Ohio could be the most critical. And a new time poll has the president ahead there by five points, largely on the strength of early voting in his favor. But the Romney Campaign has something to celebrate this morning as well. Cnn shifting the state of North Carolina from a tossup to a leaning romney column. Lets get right to cnns chief white house correspondent, jessica yellin. Shes in tampa, florida, this morning, shes traveling with the president. Hey, jessica, good morning. Reporter hi, soledad, good morning. The president has just arrived here in tampa, florida. I think hes headed to do some off the record stops, maybe hell stop and get a cuban sandwich before he heads here to the rally. Lets talk a little bit about whats going to happenor him today. We talked about some good news, the nice lead, at least if youre lacking at this specific ti time poll. But challenging news if youre looking at North Carolina. Looks like the romney team is packing up and moving out because theyre so confident of a win and cnn has moved that into the leaning Romney Campaign. Talk about what the analysis of those states is at this point. So thats obviously very good news for the Romney Campaign. They need lock up as many states and put them away, so they can focus on other battlegrounds. The president is taking his tour through six battleground states that the Obama Campaign still feels that they can win or challenge romney to continue to spend money in. And we have been hustling through them. In the last days, weve been in florida, now im here twice, ohio, colorado, well be going to virginia. The president was in nevada last night and hes also been in iowa and hes making a stop along the way to vote, to early vote in illinois, because the early vote is so crucial for the Obama Campaign to turn out their forces. Part of this, soledad, i think is a mind fake, a little bit to get out the to force romney to keep spending money in some of the states where he might actually have an edge, although the obama people wont admit that, states lake florid s likee they insist they still have the wedg edge, the obama folks do, but our polls show that romney might. Lets talk a little bit about what we were discussing yesterday, Richard Mourdocks comments about rape and i guess what he would say, the life, you know, an abortion. A tricky question that was put to him at the end of a debate, which he then answered in a way that had people with a massive backlash. He has, yesterday, clarified his opinion, saying that the lack of clarity in my words came from an impression that those i stated, which is, life is precious and i abhor violence and im confident god abhors violence and rape. If you came away with any impression other than that, i truly regret it. My question to you is a political one. Whats the impact of this upon this race . Reporter well, the Obama Campaign is seizing on those comments to do what they can to sway undecided, the remaining undecided women voters, that the democratic ticket is more going to do more to defend their interests than romney, who has endorsed mourdock and actually taped an ad for the Senate Candidate. And in fact, the president himself made that point when he appeared on the jthe jay leno last night and taped this. Listen. Let me make a very simple proposition. Rape is rape. It is a crime. The second thing this underscores, though, is this is exactly why you dont want a bunch of politicians, mostly male, making decisions about Womens Health care decisions. Reporter so soledad, the president , again, making that direct appeal to women voters and trying to tie the governor though those comments, as much as possible. Again, this is about targeting key demographic groups in these final days. Women, latino voters, and then, of course, getting out that early vote. Soledad . And im sure that you expect to see more of all of this as we enter the final days. Jessica yellin for us this morning. Thank you, jessica, appreciate it. In a few moments, well be talking to congresswoman and dnc chairman, Debbie Wasserman schultz. Shell be weighing in on all of that. But first, john berman has a look at the days top stories. All eyes on Hurricane Sandy, now starting to move into the florida straits. It slammed into cuba as a strong category 2 storm earlier this morning. Two deaths now being reported, blamed on sandy. One in jamaica, another in haiti. Meteorologist rob marciano is tracking sandy. Rob, we want to know, is this coming our way. A powerful category 2 storm right now. In one way, shape, or form, it is. Its going to be a combination of things as we go forward. But first off, still a category 2 storm as it comes off the coast of cuba, into the bahamas. Northerly movement at 18 miles an hour. 105 miles an hour sustained winds now. It will likely decrease in intensity a little bit as it goes further to the north. Speaking of going further north, Tropical Storm warnings have been extended all the way up to Daytona Beach in florida. Youre starting to see the feeder bands getting into miami, into the keys as well, where winds are already gusting over 40 miles an hour. Large circulation is going to batter all this coastline, and potentially curve later next week, in monday, tuesday, wednesday time frame, anywhere from the delmarva up through maine, either a direct impact or going offshore and having an indirect impact in terms of big waves, big wind, and coastal flooding. Well keep you posted. New developments in the september 11th attack on the u. S. Consulate in benghazi, libya. A 28yearold man suspected of taking part is now in custody in tunisia. U. S. Officials say the fbi will be allowed to question him. The suspect was reportedly posting details of the benghazi attack on social media websites as it was happening. We also have new developments in the shooting of antitaliban activist malala yousufzai. Pakistani police say they have six people in custody i, but th man they call the main shooting suspect, Atta Ullah Khan is still at large. Malala is making Good Progress, shes reportedly fighting an infection, but shes able to move her fingers and toes and stand up with help from the nurses. And one man known as the kung fu panda destroyed the tigers in game one of the world series. Pablo sandoval tied a home run record. Hes just the fourth player ever to accomplish this feat. Hes the first to do it in his first three atbats in the world series. And sandoval did hit two of these home runs off of detroit ace, justin verlander, who has been pitching better than anyone in baseball. Verlander lasted just four innings. The giants game once starter, barry zito, he was on top of his game, he kept the detroit lineup at bay the desire game. And he was retired by lincecum. The tigers will try to even the series in game two tonight. This was a surprise. A lot of people thought the tigers were going to win game one. Not me. You always knew the giants had it in the bag. No, i didnt know that, but im kind of happy they did, because the tigers beat my yankees. Back to our starting point this morning, the battle for the white house is being waged in a shrinking number of states now. President obama and mitt romney touring those crucial battleground states, trying to get out every last vote. Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman schultz is a chairman of the Democratic National committee. Its nice to see you this morning. Thank you for talking with us. Appreciate it. Thanks, soledad. Lets first talk about president obama who was on nbcs rock center last night and he was asked about how close this race is and he said this. You guys have some short memories. Folks in your business were writing me off a year ago, saying, theres no way i would win, right . So, you know, these things go in ebbs and flows. And the one thing ive tried to always be is just steady, in terms of what i believe in, who im fighting for, and, you know, i think that one of the qualities i bring to bear in this campaign is people see what did i say i was going to do in 2008, and what have i delivered, and they can have some confidence that the things the i say, i mean. Cnn has just changed North Carolina as a tossup state to now a lean romney state. And our sources tell us that the Obama Campaign officials think North Carolina is moving out of reach, as a possibility, sort of a path for winning that. Where does the campaign stand, considering how tight this is in that particular leaning column for that state . Well, weve been first of all, cnn is entitled to their opinion. Why, thank you. But we dont we dont agree. We know, particularly North Carolina, remember, our convention was in charlotte, North Carolina. We planted a flag there and have had a really strong organization, ground game, that were executing, because early voting has begun there. And we were there from the beginning of the 2008 campaign and have never left. So were very confident in the grassroots strategy that we have, all across the country. But particular in North Carolina. Weve done tremendously well in Voter Registration, and now in turnout. Now, just in general, i would agree with the president , this election, we always knew, was going to be tight. We knew it was going to be close. And our plans and the way weve structured this campaign has been such that were focused on executing the largest, most significant grassroots president ial campaign that really has ever been waged. And so through early voting, and cutting the republicans advantage, which is their traditional advantage in absentee ballot requests, getting voters turned out, really hundreds of thousands of door knocks and phone calls, were confident that our ground game is going to help to carry president obama to vaerictory. We have reports that the Romney Campaign has been closing up shop in that state, correct . Havent they said that theyre so confident i would think that if i heard my competitor felt so good about his chances that hes closing up his campaign shop, because they feel that thats a win well, theyre not going to campaign in a state where they dont think they need to push him over the top. And we got a report today theyre kind of mocking president obama for not going to North Carolina. There will be republicans on a tarmac in North Carolina as president obama flies ahead going from florida to virginia today. But i dont think either democrats, with my apologies to the chairman, or republicans right now think that North Carolina is seriously in play. But it also is important to know that president obama doesnt need North Carolina to win. It is not a key part of their equation. Okay, let me run this videotape by you, if i can, congresswoman. It was released by something called project veritas, and this videotape shows patrick moran, a son of the virginia congressman, jim moran, a democrat from virginia, giving advice to an undercover reporter from this conservative group on how to cast votes for 100 people that he says werent planning to vote. At the time, patrick was field director for his fathers reelection campaign. He has since resigned after this tape became public. I want to play a little chunk of this and then talk about it on the other side. Now, youre going to have, youll have somebody in house, and if they have what you feel is legitimate, theyll argue for you. A lawyer . An ofa lawyer provided by the communities. Its got to look good. Yeah, i think, its going to be a matter of i need to find a computer guy. Thats probably my next step. Yeah. All right. Youre hardcore, jason. What do you think of that videotape . Its just indefensible and he was right to resign. But look, the difference here is that when Something Like that happens, in our on our side, first of all, thats one person, and he was quickly taken out of the campaign and we stressed our commitment to making sure that there is no tolerance for voter fraud. But lets look at the republican party, soledad. In three states, the republicans have gotten caught payi ining nn sprous firm for Voter Registration fraud. My state, virginia, and one other state, where the republicans paid a firm that was caught, deliberately, fraudulently registering voters, tossing out some registrations that were democratic Voter Registrations. So the deepseated, widespread voter fraud that the republicans are seem to have been continuing to contract this firm for, thats whats very disturbing. You know, isolated innocent ed when they come out on they should be dealt with like this one was and theres zero tolerance for voter fraud. Thats the bottom line. Patrick moran, the young man in that video, released a statement to the washington post. He said, at no point did i take this person seriously. He struck me as being unstable and joking, and for only that reason did i humor him. In hind sigt, i should have immediately walked away, making it clear that there is no place if the electoral process for even the suggestion of illegal behavior, joking or not. And his father says, patrick is well liked and was a well respected member of the campaign team. This incident, however, was clearly an error in judgment. The campaign has accepted patricks resignation, effective immediately. I think i have time to ask you about Richard Mourdock and comments on rape. We were just talking about it a moment ago with jessica yellin. How do you think it impacts the race . I think it impacts the race, because its another example of how deeply embedded the extremism is when it comes to Womens Health, whether its todd akins comments about legitimate rape or Richard Mourdocks comments saying that a pregnancy from rape is a gift from god. Hes only had his spokesperson say he hasnt agreed with his views. Mitt romney hasnt asked mourdock to apologize. He hasnt pulled his ad or his endorsement. And thats because mitt romney has said things like he would be delighted to sign a total ban on abortion. So women should be very concerned about whether or not mitt romney would be supportive of their health. Hes clearly, consistently, not been. Hes embraced extremism when it comes to Womens Health, and the Richard Mourdock endorsement and ad is the latest example. Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman schultz joining us this morning. Thank you for your time. Still ahead on starting point, he claims his former employer fed on the fear of clients, called muppets. Coming up next, he will join us to explain the letter and talk about his critics too. Christine, whats happening in business . Bank of america being accused of, quote, brazen fraud. Details on this big new lawsuit. Youre watching starting poi point. Questions . Anyone have occasional constipation, diarrhea, gas, bloating . Yeah. One Phillips Colon Health probiotic cap each day helps defend against these digestive issues with three strains of good bacteria. Approved [ female announcer ] live the regular life. Phillips. Welcome back, everybody. He quit his job in quite a spectacular fashion. It was an oped in the new york tooi times, blasting his employer, Goldman Sachs, accusing the company of being corrupt and toxic. Greg smith raised a lot of eyebrows with that move, including Goldman Sachs, who after several months finally commented. Heres ceo and Lloyd Blankfein yesterday. We went and we investigated and we turned over everything. And you know something, at the end of the day, with all the stress, and i wouldnt want to go through that again, ill tell you, were probably going to be a better firm for it anyway, because we really, really, really did look at everything again. But as far as the book itself, i think the consensus of those who review the book is there really was nothing there. Greg smiths book is called why i left Goldman Sachs a wall street story and hes with us this morning. Nice to have you with us. Thanks for having me. Why did you leave like that . People quit their jobs all the time and they dont write an oped in the new york times, thats pretty scathing. Why that . I was at the firm for 12 years, i was at the forefront for recruiting for the firm, i flied out to stanford twice a year, recruit kids, even appeared on a recruiting video. But i actually saw things that were wrong and wanted the firm to introspect. And as you know, the firm did a yearlong study on conflicts of interest, yet i saw that to be pure lip service. And over a oneyear period, i spoke to nine different goldman officials about issues of ethics and culture. What did you say to them . Because a lot of people have pushed back and said, if you have a complaint, go to your bosses. If you really love the company and hate whats happening, why not speak to your bosses . What did you say . Let me give you an example. Goldman sachs asked me to go to europe to start a new u. S. Derivatives business. I would fly from georgia