scientists come forward to challenge her claims about the controversial hpv vaccine. jim acosta is covering the race to unseat perry. shall we say it is a race indeed. >> it absolutely is, wolf, and the only thing missing from the campaign trail this week, michael buffer. the professional wrestler master of ceremonies, who's known for his battle cry, let's get ready to rumble. it's the main event for the gop comes down to rick perry versus mitt romney, stand back. >> just yesterday, that jobs legacy in massachusetts got even worse. >> in iowa, perry is laying into romney's health care plan, pointing to this study from a conservative think tank that concluded the program has cost the state 18,000 jobs. a finding romney aides call deeply flawed. >> it kills toos many jobs and gets between you and your doctor. doesn't make any difference whether it's passed in massachusetts or washington, d.c. it is bad medicine and needs to be stopped. >> his campaign is holding up this gallup poll. the poll found 40% of independents say the remark will hurt him in a general election. >> social security is not a ponzi scheme. social security has worked for 75 years pretty darn well. you guy haves not taken advantage of social security. you contributed to it. >> but perry isn't backing away from the comment. >> it is broken. kids know that paying into something that's not going to be there into the future is called a ponzi scheme. >> after losing her heavyweight status in the polls, michele bachmann is looking for a knockout on perry's decision to order hpv vaccines for texas schoolgirls. in this web video, she's come up with a new name for the new popsy. >> whether it's obama care or perry care, i oppose any governor for president who mandates a family's health care choic choices. >> with contenders like rick santorum, the fight is for attention. >> i get a kick out of hermann kane and mitt romney. we're not the career politicians. you know why? they lost. >> same goes for jon huntsman who's hoping an endorsement will attract moderates. >> i believe jon huntsman is a experien experienced, accomplished and pragmatic leader that america needs now. >> this is all the warm-up for next week's debate. in florida, republicans are gathering for a straw poll -- and wolf, one potential line of attack we have found out from the texas workforce commission, the unemployment rate in the lone star state ticked up to 8.5% from 8.4%, so the texas jobs report is perhaps not as shimmering as it was just a few short weeks ago. >> still below the national average of 9.1%, so that's at least something obviously. there have been a lot of jobs created. the debate and you can correct many if i'm wrong, the debate is are those government jobs, high paying jobs, do they come with benefits, not come with benefits. that's the debate in texas right now. >> this is, but if the unemployment rate is ticking up, perhaps it's not good ammunition for other republicans like mitt romney, whose record was 47 when he was governor and rick perry likes to bring that up, but the fact the unemployment rate is ticking up is potentially a problem for rick perry. if the job situation is getting worse, that does not bode well for him. 8.6, 8.7, 9%. >> thank you. let's go to michele bachmann and questions about whether she has her facts straight when it comes to her claims about the hpv vaccine. this issue is central to her most combustible attack to rick perer pererer, but will she be the wound wounded by this line of attack? brian? >> most observers thought bachmann had scored some points when she challenged rick perry in the debate, but that was short lived. now, bachmann is being challenged by two medical -- and that's adding to her political woes right now. >> hi, everybody! >> the challenges from her gop opponents are tough enough. now, michele bachmann's being challenged by two respected bioethicists to prove a highly charged claim. it was made after the cnn tea party debate. bachmann had challenged rick perry for once trying to mandate that young girls be vaccinated against hpv. she then told "today" show about the woman she met after the debate. >> she told me that her little daughter took that vaccine, that injection and she suffered from mental retardation there after. >> there's no evidence any such link exists. now, arthur kaplan from the university of pennsylvania and dr. steven miles from the university of minnesota, are challenging bachmann. the stakes, they give more than $10,000 to a chart of bachmann's choice. she gives the same amount to a pro vaccine group if she can't. kaplan and miles have both given money to democratic candidates, but it's the science driving in this. bachmann said this. >> i'm not attesting to the woman's comments, only that she made them to me. >> rick perry says he made a mistake in trying to mandate those vaccines by executive order. for perry, it had been a personal issue. he befriended a woman who died of cervical cancer, but for bachmann, it only adds to a series of facts. she told -- she said the founding fathers tried to do away with slavery. she mistakically claimed president obama's trip to india would cost $200 million a day. now this. could this hurt her credibility enough to sink the campaign? >> it is going to be problematic for her. right now, she can no longer focus on her message. >> mark preston and other analysts say factual or not, bachmann's stand on the vaccines may still play well with her base. people who don't want government playing a role in their medical decisions, but say bachmann's got bigger problems right now, mainly the fact that rick perry's managed to grab that base away from her. >> and she has some criticized her. >> ed rollins tells john king it was a mistake for her to relay this woman's story. there was no evidence. she's got to get back to the economy. ron perry tells anderson cooper that bachmann doesn't quote, digest information as well as she could. you wonder how long she can sustain. her standing in the polls is just dropping. >> she's working hard. thanks very much. we're hoping to speak with michele bachmann here next week. let's get to a politically charged issue here in the united states and around the world. we're talking about the palestinian's goal to have their own state. abbas making a renewed appeal today to the united nations before world leaders address the general assembly in new york next week. >> translator: we are going now to the united nations to demand our legitimate fight, which is to become a full member of the united nations as a state of palestine. >> united states and israel are warning u.n. membership would complicate the middle east peace process. richard roth has more on the palestini palestinian's options and obstacles. >> the nations of the world got yet another reminder from the palestinians of their desire for a state of their own. a symbolic seat from palestine was flown in, arriving in new york at u.n. headquarters, accompanied by activists. despite having pressure before the up coming debate, achieving state hood on the world stage is not as easy as staging a photo op. this is the potential first stop for the palestinians to apply for u.n. membership. this is the u.n. security counsel, though this chamber may pose the toughest obstacle. under the rules of the organization and u.n. charter, the palestinians must first get approval from the security counsel in order to obtain membership, however in this room are permanent members who have veto power and one of them, the united states, has vowed to deny any requests for potential membership. >> the only way of getting a lasting solution is there direct negotiation between the parties and route to that lies in jerusalem and not in new york. >> the palestinians are likely to come here at the u.n. general assembly, full of 193 countries. >> if one road is blocked, we will follow another one, but the btive is still the same and as they say, there are many roads that lead and we know that well and we will act accordingly. >> the palestinians have a seat here at the general assembly, but their status is known as observers. the assembly may grant them upgraded estate status, not full membership, but they may get more rights which will allow them to join more u.n.-style organizations, but their status would be on par with the vatican. so, in effect, their pairs to get a full u.n. member state would not be granted. the palestinians may be able to demand action against israel at the criminal court. the palestinian chair could be a hot seat for other u.n. members. >> i'll be in new york all of next week to cover the united nations general assembly. i'll also be interviewing the former president of the united states, bill clinton, at his clinton global initiative congress. my interview with bill clinton next tuesday here in "the situation room." we'll talk about all of these issues and a lot more. meanwhile, gadhafi's loyalists are fighting on and cnn is there as forces for the new government try to root them out. zblnchs and fresh protests and deadly violence in syria, but the country's ambassador to the united states is disputing eyewitness accounts. stand by. we have an exclusive interview. ♪ sent her back to college for her sophomore year ♪ ♪ co-signed her credit card -- "buy books, not beer!" ♪ but the second that she shut the door ♪ ♪ girl started blowing up their credit score ♪ ♪ she bought a pizza party for her whole dorm floor ♪ ♪ hundred pounds of makeup at the makeup store ♪ ♪ and a ticket down to spring break in mexico ♪ ♪ but her folks didn't know 'cause her folks didn't go ♪ ♪ to free-credit-score-dot-com hard times for daddy and mom. ♪ offer applies with enrollment in freecreditscore.com™. 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[ engine revving ] when you pursue industry-leading safety, you don't just engineer breakthroughs in simulation technology, you engineer amazing. ♪ zblfshlgts more on the billions lost for one bank. lisa's monitoring that. what's the latest? >> london police have charged a ubs bank trader with fraud. the 31-year-old suspect who allegedly made unauthorized deals didn't enter a plea. the swiss bank has put its losses in connection with the case at around $2 billion. the credit rating agency, moody's, says it's considering a downgrade of ubs. this comes at a time of turmoil in the european markets. and united nations is granted more to libya's government. the general assembly voted to approve the national transitional counsel at official representative. and pakistan's prime minister has canceled advertihi to the u.s. due to floods that have killed thousands of people. he was scheduled to address the general assembly in new york. pakistan's foreign minister will travel to the u.s. in his place. at least 5.7 million pakistanis have been affected by the flooding. and president obama has signed a bill overhauling the u.s. patents system. the bill creates a first to file system instead of the first to invent approach. also provides better funding for patent approval. currently, there's a 700,000 backlog and three-year list. >> you did an excellent report laying out all the various scenarios. some think this is going to be a disaster. >> that's right. they're afraid it's actually going to increase the number of applications that people are going to have to now start applying at the production stage for a patent, so we'll have to see what happens with that, wolf. >>. michele bachmann is using a new buzz word to attack rick perry today. will the term harry care take off and give bachmann some traction? also coming up, hillary clinton what if scenarios on the minds of voters disgruntled with president obama. whoa! hey! 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