i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com wisconsin residents are voting right now on an extraordinary move to recall the governor scott walker and replace him with tom barrett. this election might be a sneak preview of the november press connection. the effort to get rid of walker was sparked by his move to get rid of collective bargaining rights for public employees. the state is split down the middle, the nasty battle against the tea party movement that has made vast amounts of money. dana bash reports. >> reporter: at a labor headquarters in madison, a frenzied final push to get out the vote. checking and re-checking lists, last-minute phone calls upon. the climax of a lengthy union effort of the republican governor scott walker. >> this is about mobilizing our people and the base and connecting with our voters. >> reporter: it's a similar scene in a walker war room. gop officials claim to have made 4 million calls and all of this comes at an unprecedented price tag, upwards of $63 million raised so far. >> when we come up with the final tally of this race it will be in the $75 to $80 million raised. $37 million just raised in 2010 when walker was sew first elected. >> this is so out of proportion for a state the size of wisconsin. >> reporter: what's also out of proportion, walker has raised 7.5 times than that of his challenger. walker, $30.5 million. a quirk inis wisconsin law let walker raise unlimited funds since he's targeted with a recall and republicans saying this as a preview of the is presidential race. bob perry gave half a million dollars and he -- 70% of walker's donations last month came from outside wisconsin. contributions large and small from all over the country. phil raised money for republicans for 26 years. >> we're wildly excited on both sides. the intensity has gotten so high that people who have never considered getting -- just throwing themselveses into the race. >> reporter: what's the reason? this may have been spurred by walker, all, but doing away with collected bargaining rights and wisconsin moved into a 2012 testing ground for gop party tea party principles. outside groups flooded wisconsin with $25 million. most of that from the democratic side especially unions who gave at least $8 million. a who's who of washington interest groups from planned parenthood to the nra. the republican governors association got $1 million gop high roller david cook. all of this money into a polarizing wes wiss that shows fewer undecideds. both sides focused more resources than ever to get out the vote. >> if we get people, either republicans and conservatives. we think it's a very encouraging sign. and wolf, just before coming on with you i spoke to a state official and officials in both party, everybody is reporting very, very high turnout across the state. both hope that bodes well for them. at one place i was told there is a half an hour wait. i have to tell this story because it speaks what's going on in the state. there is a cad company called union taxi in very liberal madison and offering free taxing rides for anybody who wants to go to the polls to vote. >> expecting 2.5 million people expected to vote in wisconsin. in 2008 when the president carried wisconsin by a huge margin. is that good news for the democrats or good news for the republicans? do we have a clue? >> reporter: i was just talking to top state republican official about that very question, wolf, and he said if there is turnout that high, close 3 million like there was in 2008 then that is good for the democrats and bad for the republicans, but a lot of it depends on where the turnout is high and not high. they're hoping the turnout is very high here. democrats hope it is the same in dade county which is where madison is in northern milwaukee when which is where the democratic candidate is from. overall, a turnout is very high. republicans adnate is good for the democrats. >> tom barrett is the mayor of wisconsin. i'll be co-anchoring with piers morgan at 9:00 p.m. eastern and we'll make a projection once all of the please close. thanks very much. it is not easy to have recalls over the years. every coroner has been tag edded and it is the only california governor ousted in 2003. only one other state governor was recalled by voters and that was in 1921 when with north dakota kicked out frazier. bill clinton raised eyebrows when he said mitt romney had a sterling business record, but he changed his tune during's series of democratic fund raisers in new york. he praised president obama and then said he thought the alternative would be, and i'm quoting now, calamitous for our country and the world. president clinton went all out for president obama last night. listen to these excerpts. >> i care about the long-term debt of the country a lot. remember me? i'm the only guy that gave you surplus years out of eight i set. i hope when i say to you we'll have some weight because i want you to say it to everybody you see between now and november. i don't think it's important to reelect the president. i think it is essential to re-elect the president if we want this country to have the kind of future that our children and grandchildren deserve and here's why. when i left office we returned to the trickle down policies big tax cuts and mostly for people in my income group because i never had any money while i was in the house, and maybe because i had the taxes and i didn't know what it was like. this is a clear election. also, for me, it's important to say in my opinion he's done an amazing job making our country more secure, more safe, more peaceful and building a world with more partners and fewer adversaries and that is very, very important. so -- and he's had to get all this done while people as recently as last week were saying he wasn't born in america. he's had to get all this done with a house of representatives that had one of the tea party members claim that 78 of 81 members of the caucus of the communist party and not one memb member -- and there were one or two living communists walking around. nobody has seen a communist in over a decade. no criticism is too vicious and too fact-free. you have to take the facts out there. take the facts on the economy, the facts on health care, the facts on energy, the facts on education and the fact is we've got an economic policy that has a real chance to bring america back. why do you think long-term interest rates -- remember the republicans on e, that obama is such a big spender, we'll have a weak dollar and interest rates are dlu the roof, you know what the interest rate was today? .25%. they're giving away the money. now you're laughing, but why are they doing that? because people believe america has a solid, economic strategy for the long run. and who would have ever thought that the republicans would embrace the austerity and jobless policies of what they used to divisively called old europe. i never thought i would live and breathe, and say they r 11% unemployment. we can get up there if we try. we're laughing folks, this is serious. too much politics is fact-free. just think about the world you want you children and grandchildren to live in. think about what the 21st century can be. there's nothing wrong with america that can't be fixed and our inherent dwaj advantages and the strength of the system is there, but you have to have the right captain of the ship, and i am depending on you to take care of future generations by making sure that that captain is president barack obama. >> so there he is, the former president of the united states introducing the current president of the united states. jessica yellin is joining us. the tone is very different than what he said on "piers morgan tonight" last week when he suggested that mitt romney's business record at bane capital was sterling. last night he said specifically if romney were elected it would be calamitous for our country and the world. the economics are wrong headed and their economies are work. how much tenth did your remark has been behind the scenes? >> reporter: it did not cause cory booker-level indigestion that's because president obama's aides acknowledge that governor romney has the qualifications to be president and that includes his business record. what they dispute is that his business record can create jobs. the frustration was not with president clinton's remarks although they would have preferred he chose his words a bit more carefully, it was more with the media for spinning up his remarks and trying to equate them with what cory booker said. cory booker's remarks and the president's were very different. >> you heard the birther movement and we've been hearing a lot about that lately, specially about don taald trump. here's the situation that the president can say things that the president can't say. >> reporter: he can mock the president's critics. he is out of office and he pays no price with it and he doesn't have to work with anyone in congress that same way. he did something that was quite new. when he said that governor romney tied them to the republicans in congress and they're embracing the policies of old europe and he's turning the argument on his head. the republican argue that he embraces socialism and he's playing verbal jujitsu and saying you're the once embracing european policies. >> he went against allen west in florida saying there were 78 to 81 communists in the democratic caucus in the house of representatives. you heard what bill clinton had to say about that. he specifically blasted romney and other republican leaders for refusing to blast allen west for those comments. all right, jessica, thanks very much. he still has what it takes for the political rhetoric and don't forget my one-on-one interview and that takes place here in "the situation room." you can send me questions on twitter at wolf blitzer cnn, and facebook page. the white house is calling it the number two in al qaeda. the number two killed in a drone strike. the president's role and "the new york times" david sanger and has an excellent new book. he's standing by live. not queen elizabeth herself is speak out about her diamond jubilee with a rare message and this -- >> i'm john zarella in gainesville, florida. i have the suit on and the safety harness and we'll show you live the power of hurricane-force winds. ♪ how are things on the west coast? ♪ ♪ i hear you... ♪ rocky mountain high ♪ rocky, rocky mountain high ♪ ♪ all my exes live in texas ♪ ♪ born on the bayou [ female announcer ] the perfect song for everywhere can be downloaded almost anywhere. ♪ i'm back, back in the new york groove ♪ [ male announcer ] the nation's largest 4g network. covering 2,000 more 4g cities and towns than verizon. rethink possible. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ jack kf cafferty is here with "the cafferty file." wolf, it's discouraging. almost 60% of parents are afraid of their kids achieving the american dream. six in ten americans dissatisfied for the opportunity for the next satisfaction to live better than their parents did. a sad commentary on the state of this count rye. parents have always dreamed for a brighter future for their children than the one they had. many of us wind up working longer and retiring later than anticipated. the ceo of aig told bloomberg news the retirement age could reach 80 in light of europe's ongoing debt crisis. raising the retirement age is one way to make pensions more affordable. as europe sinks deeper on the massive government debt. it describes young, european a documents as the screwed generation. in countries like spain, greece, portugal and italy, the baby boomers have held on to the good jobs and benefits and left little opportunity for their children. this is stunning, in spain and greece nearly half of adults under the age of 25 do not work. half. there's an increasing sense of hopelessness as they give up on the idea of raising a family and the united states could be next. young americans are crushed with college debt when they graduate and even with degree in hand, a lot of them can't find a job. consider this, a majority of unemployed americans older than 25 went to college. here's the question. what does it mean when six in ten people worry about their children achieving the american dream? go to cnn.com/cafferty file and post a comment on my blog or to the situation room's facebook page. >> good question. buckle up and hold on tight and be blasted with hurricane-force winds. that's what they're going through as part of an experiment to help people understand how powerful and dangerous these storms could be. let's go live to john zarrella joining us from gainesville, florida. i know you have an exciting report for us. >> how many times have you and i over the years said i've been through the wind and rain. here they've set up this wind machine and you can see it here and what they are trying to do with this wind machine is research in order to dispel what they call some wrong perceptions of just how strong storms are. >> the water's getting hire. >> reporter: there i am in north carolina battling the wind and water last year during hurricane irene. >> the wind and the rain. >> reporter: looks pretty bad, doesn't it? the problem is sometimes the perception of the storm's strength are different from reality and that could lead to injuries and debt. >> what we're actually doing here is we're creating constructive unease and that unease is the thing that will propel people to do something differently. >> the university of florida and the federal alliance for safe homes have teamed up to try to understand how people perceive wind, rain and water. are you ready? >> yes! >> reporter: you're sure? >> yes! >> reporter: you don't want to call this off? >> no. >> reporter: all right. it's your funeral. volunteers are strapped into harnesses on top of the platform and then the giant turbines are turned on and they're blasted with six different wind speeds up to 100 miles per hour. sometimes they're hit with wind? water. the participants hand signal their guesstimates to the researcher. >> the highest i estimated 85 miles per hour. >> you know how fast that was? >> 60. >> researchers finding people pretty accurate at the lower wind speeds, but like corinne, most overestimated speeds. >> it's part of humans not having experience in these types of winds. >> reporter: researchers say what's clear so far is people with prior tropical storm or hurricane experience are better estimators of wind speed. the problem is most people have never been through one. >> reporter: all right. so now you know what i'm going do and i've got forrest masters with me, the creator of the wind machine and he'll turn it on in just a second. i don't know how fast he's going to crank it up to, right? >> that's right. >> reporter: you'll crank and i and wolf and i will guess how fast it was. >> hang on tight. >> go! >> reporter: wow! my ifb is still working, wolf? can you hear me okay? >> i hear you fine. you look great over there. how fast do you think you were going? >> reporter: i have a feeling -- my lips feel like it was 100 getting hit with that water. what do you think wolf? i think 100 miles an hour. >> i think a lot worse. we're in the hurricane season. i'm guessing it was maybe 50 or 60. >> reporter: wolf says it's a lot less about 50 or 60, i said it was 100 which would mean category 2, roughly. what was it? >> all of the years of chasing storms was right on the number, 100 miles an hour. >> it's easier when you're actually hearing it, wolf. if you would have been standing next to me, you would have said 100. >> tell our viewers what it felt like when the wind and water was blowing in your face? >> reporter: you can't hear anything. all you hear is the loud roar of just that wind blasting you in your face. the wind, we always talk about how it feels like sand hitting your face. that's exactly what it feel like and again, what we just experienced was the category 2 hurricane on the scale of 1 to 5, that's a fairly moderate storm, but still, if you had been in that hurricane, you would have been in the right place at the wrong time, right, forrest? that was pretty dramatic. no question. >> it was 10, 15 or 20 seconds. you can imagine if you were stuck in there for minutes and minutes and minutes. that is clearly a life-threatening situation unless you really know what you're doing. hurricane season is formally under way, right? june 1 tst? >> hopefully we'll continue to dodge bullets as we have the last few years. >> that would be great. >> thanks very much. a category 1 or category 2 is 100 miles an hour in gainesvi e gainesville. the first lady michelle obama is praising disney and details about what the company is doing with its children's channels and a highway horror story. what happened to the driver and the passengers on this bus. ♪... ♪... ♪... choose the perfect hotel without bidding. how did the nba become the hottest league on the planet? by building on the cisco intelligent network they're able to serve up live video, and instant replays, creating fans from berlin to beijing. what can we help you build? nice shot kid. the nba around the world built by the only company that could. cisco. would you mind if to be i go ahead of you?omer. instead we had someone go ahead of him and win fifty thousand dollars. congratulations you are our one millionth customer. people don't like to miss out on money that should have been theirs. that's why at ally we have the raise your rate 2-year cd. you can get a one-time rate increase if our two-year rate goes up. if your bank makes you miss out, you need an ally. ally bank. no nonsense. just people sense. wanted to provide better employee benefits while balancing the company's bottom line, their very first word was... 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