administration officials supposedly stood chest to chest like a schoolyard fight. a new book tells of tensions in a white caught up in a war against terrorism. i'm wolf blitzer, you're in "the situation room." early hours away from a critical vote in wisconsin, an extraordinary i attempt to develop scott walker. the recall was -- stripping most public unions of collective bargaining rights. this war for wisconsin pits unions against tea party loyalists and it's attracted millions of and millions of dollars in outside money. it's also seen as a dress rehearsal for the presidential vote. let's go to the scene. madison's ted rollins is at the scene. >> reporter: you can -- a lot of an tigs pace when the vote takes place. voters have been inundated months, 16 months of eeds and money being spent in their states and the core of this is about unions. we talked to two teachers who are on opposite sides of this vicious battle. michelle and john are teachers in madison. craig is a teacher in milwaukee. they are opposite sides of the political showdown in wisconsin. >> we met michelle and john protesting at the state capitol, they were furious with scott walker and his new bill to cut education funding and unions collective bargaining rights. >> emotions were raw, it was shocking. >> reporter: craig saw it from the other side. he thought walker's plan had merit. >> i think in the long-term, it will be good for the state and good for education. despite weeks of protests, walkers budget bill known as an act pro tem passed. craig says he's only one of a handful of teachers supported it. >> i think fundamentally what scott walker is doing is going to help the state of washington in the long-term and education in the long-term. >> i don't know of any teachers in madison or anywhere who would want larger class sizes, what would want less resources being poured into the classroom. >> reporter: governor walker is in a recall election between milwaukee's mayor tom barrett. the people of wisconsin have been bombarded with political ads. milwaukee talk radio host jeff wagner says the last 16 months have divided the state like never before. he says there doesn't seem to be any middle ground. >> people are down to their last nerve, everybody is just so intense about this. i mean you hear it from the caller, you hear it, it's out there on both sides. >> reporter: wagner says at times the rhetoric has been ugly. listen to how our teachers blame both sitds for getting out of control. >> i have heard hymn being rivered to as a natty. >> it's governor walker's side who comes in and does taunting and poking and trying to incite fights. >> make reference to republicans and tea party types as the barbarians at the gates. >> yelling at any children, you're not communists, you're socialists. >> reporter: whether scott walker keeps his job or not the battle for unions is almost over. >> both candidates wolf are canvassing the state in a last-ditch effort to get people out to the polls. right now the polls show walker with a slight advantage, about three points above the margin of error, so it will come down to voter turnout. >> here's a question, the president of the united states, a democrat, he was in the neighboring state of minnesota the other day, he then flew over wisconsin to go to his home state of illinois, didn't bother to show up in wisconsin any time during these past several weeks and months, so what's the explanation, why didn't the president get involved and try to help the democrats? >> well, we saw bill clinton here over the weekend, but not president obama and a lot of people here have brought that up. why didn't the president come and lend some support to tom barrett, there is a close election, there is a lot at stake, the reason being, we don't know for sure why they decided to get into this, but this is a state issue, and then at this point it looks like walker is going to retain his jobs if the polls show that and maybe the president decided not to dip his toe into this for political reasons, because in the event that walker did go on to win, it may not translate as a political good move for him. a lot of people in wisconsin were expecting a possible individual sit from the president, didn't happen at all and it doesn't look like it's going to happen today or tomorrow. in fact he has said very little about this whole thing. >> we'll have live coverage at 9:00 p.m. eastern tomorrow night once the polls close in wisconsin. the obama campaign today the launching a tough new ad in battle ground states doubling down attacks from mitt romney as governor. it offers some grim statistics from his reported in washington. and he's warning hiss economic policy didn't work then and it won't work now. jessica yellin has got more details. what do you know, jessica? >> reporter: in this new ad, the obama campaign tries to take a two by four to romney's claim that he was a job creator when he was governor of massachusetts and includes some striking choices beginning with the first case you'll see in this ad here. >> instead of hiring workers from his own state, romney outsourced call center jobs to india, he cut taxes for millionaries like himself while raising them on the middle class. now when mitt romney talks about what he would do as president. >> i know what it takes to create jobs. >> remember we have heard it all before. >> i know how jobs are created. >> romney economics. it didn't work then and i won't work now. >> reporter: so the message is clear, the story is a bit more complicated, first on outsourcing as governor, romney vetoed a part of the budget that basically said that the state cannot do business with companies that in turn outsource jobs, he didn't think it would save the state money, and it could still go to other states. on the claim that romney built up debt when he was governor. well, you know, states have to balance their budget every year, but when o' -- you get the picture what they're trying to say that as governor his record was not as clean as he claims it is. so big picture, this is a huge ad buy for the campaign, roughly $10 million we're told in nine battleground states, that's a real commitment to try to tear down that claim by governor romney that he was a jobs creator. >>s there the hypocrisy on the team romney right now. >> david axelrod is saying there's breathtaking hypocrisy, that's a quote, by the romney folks because some of his supporters are insisting, reporters should not look at governor romney's first year in office when calculated how many jobs he created. they say he inherited a terrible economy. when the romney people are evaluating president obama's term in office, they count the president's first year when he inherited a terrible economy. so david axelrod saying that's an extraordinary double standard and trying to drive that point home, why are they trying to live by this double standard. one thing i'm home by campaign supporters, they would like to get beyond the finger pointing so they could have a debate over ideas and different vision force the future, clearly we're not there yet. >> we should hold our breath waiting for that other debate to get going. jessica, jack cafferty is joining us for "the cafferty file." >> the jobs report on friday wasn't exactly glowing testament to the policies of the current administration. what a difference four years make, when barack obama ran against hillary clinton, he was unstoppable. he generated the kind of enthusiasm among voters that is usually reserved for rock stars or hollywood celebrities, not for politics. peel couldn't get enough of his messages of hope, change and yes we can. four years later a lot of that optimism and excitement are gone. there's a column in the "new york times," called "dreaming of a superhero." the president who started off with such dazzle now seems unable to stimulate the economy or the voters. friday's dismal jobs report triggered a stock selloff. as for the voters, a lot of them are disgruntled, including many in his own base. they're frustrated the president didn't followthrough on key promises like closing guantanamo bay complete lly ending the war in the middle east or getting tough on wall street. there are anti-obama ads coming from the left that quote cancer in the presidency. these are from liberals. part of this is due to the ugly reality of government, of course. but you can even see it in the president's campaign events. there were 4,000 empty seats in an ohio arena that seats 18,000 when the president actually officially relaunched his re-election campaign. here's the question, when it comes to president obama, what happened to the magic of 2008? go to cnn.com/caffertyfile and post a comment on my blog or go to "the situation room's" facebook page. the daughter of the cuban president says she backs president obama. christian amanpour has an -- david axelrod and ereck holder. what happened? plus you're going to find out what democratic leader runs for president in 2016. one of the best things about state farm is our accessibility. oh, yeah? [ chris ] you can call us 24-7, get quotes online, start a claim with our smartphone app. you name it, we're here, anytime, anywhere, any way you want it. that's the way i need it. any way you want it. [ man ] all night? all night. every night? any way you want it. that's the way i need it. we just had ourselves a little journey moment there. yep. [ man ] saw 'em in '83 in fresno. place was crawling with chicks. i got to go. ♪ any way you want it ♪ that's the way you need it ♪ any way you want it ♪ until i got a job in the big apple. adjusting to city life was hard for me. and becoming a fulltime indoor cat wasn't easy for atti. but we had each other and he had purina cat chow indoor. he absolutely loved it. and i knew he was getting everything he needed to stay healthy indoors. and after a couple of weeks, i knew we were finally home! [ female announcer ] purina cat chow indoor. always there for you. my recent interview with the american allen gross imprisoned in cuba cast his name back into the limelight. now the daughter of raul castro is proposing a prisoner swap. first listen to what mariella castro told christiana. >> one of the issuings right now a allen gross, who you know where are well, you know about his case you've been asked it many times. let me show you what he said about the prisoner's mother. >> i have a 90-year-old mother who has terminal lung can serks and she's not getting any younger, and she's not getting any healthier. i would return to cube bara, i return to cuba if they let me visit my mother before she dies. >> translator: allen gross has been granted everything he asked for. he's been able to see his wife. he's been able to have matrimonimat moean don just -- very long sentences that must be right. the six must be released, both the five cubans and allan roesz. >> you're saying that they should be released? >> translator: of course i'm referring to the five cubans and allen gross. i believe this would be the happiest solution for all involved. >> christian is joining us from new york. did you get a sense she was speaking on behalf of her father, speaking on behalf of the cuban government, just throwing out these ideas on her own? >> i don't think she was throwing out ysd on her own. she made it perfectly clear that she's speaking to an international audience. she's not representing the cuban government, but she obviously has the ear of the cuban president, her father. i asked her about a humanitarian visit, humanitarian dispensation, she said we're not talking about partial solutions, but she kept saying i want to see all of them released, that would be the best thing. >> the u.s. government t state department and they have rejected any swap, any exchange of these five cuban prisoners for allen gross. i don't know if that's going to have an impact, at least they're talking about it to a certain degree. when you spoke to her about u.s.-cuban relations, but also the impact of president obama. let me spray this clip. >> did you expect more from president obama or has he gone as far as you expected him to go on the cuban issue? do you think he wants to lift the embargo and that there could be a solution between cuba and the president united states? >> i believe obama is a fair man and obama needs greater support to be able to take this decision, if obama counted on the full support of the american people, we could normalize relationships, we could have better relations than what we had under president carter. >> do you want obama to win the next election? >> translator: as a citizen of the world, i would like him to win. seeing the candidates, i prefer obama. >> did she give you any sense of what cuba would do -- this is by the way an endorsement, i suspect, the obama campaign is not thrilled necessarily to v but did she give you a sense of what might happen over the next five months if the cubans wanted to do something to improve their relationship with the united states? >> i think like many people around the world, nobody expecting anything to get done about these massive political solutions before the election. everything is on hold in that regard, we pressed her not necessarily on what might happen between the u.s. and cube barks although she said that the parameters were there to improve relations and frankly to mend relations. she put everything as many cuban officials do in the parameters of the embargo, this 50-year economic blockade that the cubans use as a reason and a justification for just about everything. so she says when that is gone, and as you know that policy has spectacularly failed if the idea was to get rid of the castros, it didn't work. and if the castros are changing so much in the cuban-american community and if the younger people don't have the same hard line attitudes of the old people, but i also pushed her on what's going on inside cuba. remember, in cube barks gays used to be put in reeducation camp, during the aids pry crisis people were into this -- she says that for instance, the idea of civil unions and accepting that is going to be brought up by the cuban parliament, but i asked her about political democracy and pluralism and dissent. she said these are the things that we need to be working on, she point to what raul castro has done since he took over, a little bit of free enterprise, ability to buy your farms and properties and vehicles and things like that and have small businesses. but on the political side, that too needed to be worked on and to be expanded. interesting also in the issue of travel, as you know very well, cubans can't leave without special permission to leave and come back. >> very interesting, i think behind the scenes, some stuff is unfolding, especially in connection with the allan gross case. christiana amanpour -- we're going to talk to the president's willingness to go after bad guys around the world and we're also go to ask him about an alleged fight, almost a fitting fight that broke out between the attorney general of the united states eric holder and the top obama official in the white house, david axelrod. what really happened, stand by. 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