who might have helped pay for the ads, people who work for the company the obama camp is hammering. that would be bain capital. and a terrifying discovery. radiation from the meltdown of a nuclear power plant actually built into the foundation of an apartment building. wolf blitzer's off today, i'm gloria borger, and you're in the "situation room." and it could happen any minute now. a suspect finally charged in the disappearance of etan patz. exactly 33 years ago today, the 6-year-old vanished launching a national campaign to find and protect missing children. the suspect pedro hernandez allegedly has confessed to killing etan, but there are many nagging questions still out there. such as what was the motive? did police miss clues for decades? and could they have gotten it wrong now? our national correspondent susan canada yac candiotti is outside the district attorney's office in new york. susan, hernandez is going to be arraigned from his hospital bed? >> reporter: well, it's a possibility, but we have some new updated information on that, gloria. having learned that he is now been admitted to the hospital under a suicide watch, a psychiatric evaluation has been ordered. earlier today he was brought over to the hospital from the jail because he needed some medications that were not available at the jail. not psychiatric in nature is what i'm being told. but when he arrived at bellevue hospital here in new york which does have the psychiatric unit, he began making statements according to law enforcement source including i want to die, i want to die. at that point, the psychiatric evaluation was ordered and you could say that he's now under a suicide watch. so what this means in terms of whether an arraignment will indeed happen today first court appearance or whether it happens by hospital bedside or at all, remains unclear, gloria. but it's one of many things that happens today as investigators continue to look at this case. >> nypd crime scene investigators snapping pictures in manhattan's upscale soho section. the location just blocks from patz' apartment where his parents still live. 33 years ago, the shop was what new yorkers call a bodega or convenience store, it looked out on patz' bus stop. at the time, 19-year-old pedro hernandez was a stock boy. now 51, he's seen here in a photo obtained by "inside edition." >> hernandez described to the detectives how he lured young etan from the school bus stop at west broadway and prince street with the promise of a soda. he then led him into the basement of the bodega, choked him there, and disposed of the body by putting it into a plastic bag and placing it into the trash. >> lisa cohen wrote a book about the patz case. she had not heard of hernandez until two days ago. he was never a suspect. but part of the story might fit with what patz' parents told her about the day their son disappeared. >> i know he had that dollar when he left for school that day or at least that's the story i've always heard from his parents and that he had talked about buying a soda at the bodega before he got on the school bus. >> hernandez came to the attention of police last month after authorities dug up a basement in a different soho building. that dig didn't turn up much, but the publicity prompted a tip about hernandez. >> and he is following etan's disappearance, he had told a family member and others that he had, "done a bad thing and killed a child in new york." >> but hernandez has no criminal record and his arrest is raising plenty of questions. his neighbors in new jersey say hernandez kept to himself. >> he seemed like an all right guy. he had a wife and there was a young daughter. and they were, you know, they said hello and everything. they were always smiling, and, well, this guy -- like they say confessed to it 33 years, he's been living in his own personal hell. >> it's also been a difficult 33 years for patz' parents. flowers and a note saying god bless you, you'll always be remembered greeted stan patz on the stoop where his wife kissed her son good-bye never to see him again. >> reporter: and so more difficult days ahead for the patz family, still so many unanswered questions. gloria? >> thanks, susan. unanswered, indeed. and whatever hopes his parents had of finding their son gave way to pain and resignation as police followed one false lead after another. and now with a suspect under arrest, our mary snow looks at all the twists and turns this case has taken. mary? >> well, gloria, the early hopes that he may be found alive was the initial reason why the family never moved or changed their phone number. this case has taken investigators across the country and around the world. but for 33 years, there's never been an arrest until now. >> when etan patz vanished in 1979, police swarmed the manhattan neighborhood where he lived and disappeared. many people were looked at, but it took three years before a potential break in the case. investigators zeroed in on a drifter named jose ramos. police were led to a drainpipe where he had pictures of little boys. at the time, the lead went nowhere. then in the mid-1980s, investigators turned their attention overseas when a photo of etan patz surfaced in israel. once again, no arrests. then attention turned back to ramos. lisa cohen says ramos had been friendly with a woman who walked etan to school. and she said the renewed interest in ramos came after it was learned ramos molested her son. >> he ultimately said he took a boy to his apartment that day that he was 90% sure was etan patz and he tried to have sex with that boy and then said he let him go. and there have been various other pieces of circumstantial evidence over the years that make him a prime suspect. >> reporter: but prosecutors never had the evidence to charge ramos in etan's murder. he was convicted in another molestation case and remains in jail in pennsylvania. in 2001, etan was declared dead. in 2004, a judge found ramos guilty in a civil suit filed by the patz family. >> this man stole our son's future and he should pay. >> with jose ramos due to be released from prison in november, stan patz insisted in asking prosecutors to reopen etan's case. in 2010, manhattan's new district attorney did just that. this april, investigators dug up a basement in a building near the patz home with police focusing on a handyman. but again, nothing panned out. >> and stan patz has been so convinced that jose ramos killed etan that he said he contacted ramos twice a year in prison asking him what he did with his son. he sends those messages on etan's birthday and the anniversaries of the day he disappeared, which is today. gloria? >> thanks a lot, mary. and let's now bring in our senior legal analyst jeffrey toobin to dig in a little deeper with this. jeffrey, what happens now in this wrongful death suit against jose ramos? >> well, that's one of the many unanswered legal questions here. that judgment is a sitting judgment. it exists now. he owes the patz family $2 million. of course he doesn't have $2 million, he's penniless and in prison. but if he is -- if the new case proceeds, then that case will presumably be dismissed or something will happen to it, but certainly the priority now is the criminal case against -- with the new arrest. >> so let's talk about the criminal case and the new arrest. why has this been so difficult? there are conflicting reports about mr. hernandez and whether he's been on their radar for a long time and disregarded. he has no criminal record, he's allegedly confessed. should we believe now that this is truly the murderer? >> well, i think we have to wait for the judicial system to operate to reach a firm conclusion. but the police have to know that a confession out of the blue after 33 years has to be treated with some skepticism. you know, why confess now? the bizarre fact is false confessions are real. people confess to crimes that they did not commit. that especially happens in high-profile cases. i'm sure many people remember a couple of years ago when a lunatic named john mark carr confessed to killing jon benet ramsey, turned out to be totally false. the nypd certainly has to be aware of that and presumably is convinced that this is a true confession by hernandez, not a false one, but it's going to be very important to see if there is any sort of physical evidence that corroborates this confession. and 33 years later, it's going to be hard to find physical evidence. >> can it be proven without physical evidence? >> it can be. it's ultimately up to a jury and we'll see what they believe. but he is going to get a lawyer and he is going to -- he may or may not fight these charges. if he is truly full of remorse, he may simply plead guilty. but if he decides to go to trial, i would imagine the police are going to have to look very hard for some sort of corroboration because a confession alone is a very thin read in which to support a conviction. >> and he apparently may be charged with second-degree murder as opposed to first-degree murder. can you explain why that would be the case? >> well, that would -- in new york state, first-degree murder only applies to murder of police officers, i think. so second-degree murder is the most he could be charged with under new york state law. and murder is the only crime for which there is no statute of limitations. so even though it's 33 years later, it will be legally permissible to charge him with murder. >> okay. thanks so much. our senior legal analyst jeffrey toobin, thanks for being with us. and president obama is hammering mitt romney for his record as ceo of the financial firm bain capital. you've heard that all week. but it turns out the president has his own connection to people inside that very company. plus, if mitt romney is elected president, will his first term spending plan drive conservative republicans crazy? and vice president biden talks with the families of fallen troops about his own painful, personal losses. >> i got a phone call. saying that my family had been in an accident. and just like you guys know by the tone of the phone call you just knew, didn't you? 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[ baby crying ] ♪ what started as a whisper ♪ every day, millions of people choose to do the right thing. ♪ slowly turned to a scream ♪ there's an insurance company that does that, too. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? ♪ amen, omen president obama put mitt romney on notice this week that he's going to keep hammering away at his record as ceo of bain capital. but it turns out that the president has his own connection to the firm. and that would be a money connection. here's our senior congressional correspondent dana bash. >> well, gloria, the obama campaign has always prided itself on getting contributions small and large from all walks of life. but one source of campaign cash can be described with one word, awkward. >> they closed it down and filed for bankruptcy. >> testimonials like this about bain capital, the private equity firm mitt romney used to run. >> like a vampire, sucked the life out of us. >> the irony, some of the money to pay for this tv ad may come from the same company that mitt romney is demonizing in it. bain capital. it turns out employees had given $124,900 to the obama campaign. and three of those bain capital donors mark nunnelly, stephen pagliuca have given the maximum amount by law, $35,800. in the case of levine, he didn't just write his own check to the president. he's what's called a bund ler. a fundraiser that raises money from others. $125,000 is a lot of money from people who work at a company the obama campaign and its allies vilify, like in this super pac ad. >> bain capital always made money, if we lost, they made money, if we survived, they made money. it's as simple as that. >> all of the nearly $125,000 in donations to the obama campaign from bain employees were made in 2011 well before the president's team started accusing romney of killing jobs while at bain. still, the obama campaign tells cnn they do not intend to return any campaign cash from bain employees. no one aside from mitt romney is running for president highlighting their tenure as corporate buyout specialist as one of job creation when, in fact, his goal was profit m maximizizatio maximizing. here's the democratic chairwoman's answer. >> accepting a contribution from a particular person involved in venture capital and criticizing mitt romney who has made his record as a venture capitalist at bain the central focus of his credibility and his qualification for being president are completely different things. >> now, we put calls in to the bain capital employees who donated to the president to ask if they're going to demand their money back. no one returned our calls, but gloria, a spokesman for bain capital did get back to us and said in a statement it is not a "political organization and take no position on any candidate." he also said that bain capital celebrates the fact that their candidates are active in civil affairs with various policy and political views, gloria. >> dana, but you know, if yore working for private equity and you want to give a political contribution now, do you think twice about it? particularly the obama campaign who seems to be sort of taking a whack at you? >> it's hard to imagine not, particularly -- it's not just private equity, be uh in this particular case, the very company that is a subject, of course, of all of these ads and attacks by the obama campaign. just talking anecdotely to people who i know raise money for the romney campaign for the romney campaign, i should say, they have told me that many contributors who traditionally gave to president obama on wall street are no longer doing it specifically for this reason. certainly getting money from private equity, but some of them are switching over to mitt romney because they're sick of being vilified. yeah, i'm sure they're actively courting him. dana bash, thank you so much. and now let's bring in john king, also the anchor of "john king usa." how does this look for the president with regard to bain capital? criticizing them, taking their money. >> and taking other private equity money. some people say, mr. president, you're trying to have it both ways, wait, mr. president, that's hypocritical. look how quickly james clyburn from south carolina, he said earlier this week, i don't take money from companies that rape other companies. raping other companies. the campaign quickly said we denounce that language. why? because that's essentially james clyburn saying the president's a hypocrite. if he knew that, maybe not, i don't know. we're in a comparative election. they're going to raise money wherever they can raise money. the question is whether governor romney tries to make an issue of that. campaign finance, where you get your money, unless there's a scandal or illegality, doesn't usually sway votes. >> here's my question, when mitt romney's been asked about bain capital, he seems to be deflecting and starts talking about the message on the economy instead of really taking bain capital sort of head on saying actually we helped this company, that company, this company, that company. do you think they're going to start taking it on more directly? they've been attacked on this since the '90s. >> they wrestle this with every day and every one of his campaigns. ted kennedy did this in the campaign. i just talked to rick perry moments ago for my show, he did this just a couple months back in the republican -- >> vulture capitalism. >> he said, well, it won't work. they go through this every time. are they going to have to do more? yes. how much more? that's the challenge. because every second that mitt romney's talking about his record at bain, he's not assaulting the president's three years of presidency in the united states in his record. voters want to make this a referendum on the president not on his record 25 years ago. >> the question is whether this fight over bain is going to resinate with middle class working voters out there or whether it's going to be an argument that seems to kind of not matter to their lives. >> and so we know each candidate's weaknesses. the president has weakness among white, working class voters. we will ask some exit poll question about bain capital. i hope you write it downright now. will we learn from that question whether this had an impact? maybe, maybe not. what do you look at? do people think governor romney's on their side? does he share their values? president obama has a big advantage there right now. >> absolutely. >> down scale white voters tend to be more governor romney's voters. can the president peel enough of them away? he's not going to win down scale white voters. by saying who will fight to keep your job? if the bain attacks are successful and will help the president in the margins there, which means in a place like wisconsin and a place like ohio in battleground pennsylvania, voters with whom in the past the president has struggled. again, he might not win them. if he can change the margins a bit, that'swhere we'll watch that battle. >> and look in the battleground states, it's very competitive. so -- >> it's very competitive and it's very fluid. you have sometimes you see people a bit more optimistic about the economy but then they see something happening in the neighborhood. you have to go state by state, some states are doing better than others. this is a fascinating, close race. right now, this is as close as you get. >> we take it day by day. now get to work and do your own show. thanks a lot. and mitt romney is now suggesting he would not drastically cut spending right away if he were elected president. so is that going to fly with conservatives? and a powerful tribute by joe biden. the vice president gets emotional and very personal with the families of fallen troops. stay with us. now's the time to move from to where you want to go. look up. with u.s. bank let's get the wheels turning. use our strength & stability to open new opportunities. to lend, and lift ...every business...every dream... to new heights of prosperity. good things are happening. just look up. with u.s. bank. and here's what we did today: supported nearly 3 million steady jobs across our country... ... scientists, technicians, engineers, machinists... ... adding nearly 400 billion dollars to our economy... we're at work providing power to almost a quarter of our homes and businesses... ... and giving us cleaner rides to work and school... and tomorrow, we could do even more. cleaner, domestic, abundant and creating jobs now. we're america's natural gas. the smarter power, today. learn more at anga.us. when we got married. i had three kids. and she became the full time mother of three. it was soccer, and ballet, and cheerleading, and baseball. those years were crazy. so, as we go into this next phase, you know, a big part of it for us is that there isn't anything on the schedule. and joining me for today's strategy session, our democratic strategist and cnn political contributor, and former bush white house speech writer and cnn political contributor david fromm, also a contributor to cnn.com as am i. welcome both. mitt romney had an interview with "time" magazine this week in which he said something that conservatives might