war. to the reality of conflict in afghanistan today. to a nuclearization of iran. instead they'll try to find anything else to divert from the fact the last four years are tough for the country, years of tumult in the world. we need to see a better direction taken on the part of the nation. >> romney brushed back palestinian charges of racism on what he says were inadequate media reports he told the donors in jerusalem their economy is stronger than the palestinians because of culture. >> i'm not speaking about it. i did not speak about the palestinian culture or the decisions made in their economy. that is an interesting topic that perhaps deserves scholarly analysis but i didn't actually address that. instead i will point out that the choice a society makes have profound impact on the economy. and the vitality of that

society. >> reporter: romney out theed poland economy as antithesis of the big government approach he accuses the president heaping on the u.s. >> rather than heeding false promise of government economy, polish wanted to expand trade, attract investment and live within its means. your success today is a remind they're the principles of free enterprise can propel an economy and transform a society. >> romney visits the tomb of the unknown soldier. and later at a memorial to pope john paul ii despite the somber nature of the moment u.s. reporters shouted questions at him, as he departed. >> what about your gaffes? >> governor romney, do you feel your gaffes overshadowed your foreign trip? >> they were abruptly told in language by an romney aide this is not the place. >> show some respect. >> we won't have another chance to ask him questions. >> this is a holy site. >> romney visited the polish

president. and in a separate meeting thanked poe lan for contribution to iraq war an afghanistan. >> on behalf of the country, i express appreciation for your willingness to fight with us, stand with us and be our friends in times of crisis. >> reporter: in his university speech, he itemized a few of the world bad actors. >> east of here, people of belarus suffer under oppressive weight of dictatorship. syria killed thousands, the brutal dictator responsible for the lives of thousands of islam people. in latin america, hugo chavez movement characterized by the authoritarianism and repression. in russia, once promised to advances toward a free and open society, have faltered. >> aides on romney's plane

tell me he touched down in boston logan effort. before he left warsaw earlier today he said as soon as he gets back on the campaign trail in the u.s. he will go back to drawing the stark contrast with mr. obama, which is romney code for taking the gloves back off an going right at it. bret? >> bret: carl cameron live in warsaw, poland. carl, safe trip home. back at home, the presidential election is 14 weeks from today. 98 days away. that is not a lot of time for president obama to turn around a troubled economy. chief white house correspondent ed henry tells us that the numbers are not getting better. >> reporter: as obama huddled behind the white house with the pollsters and other campaign advisors like david axelrod more bad economic data came pouring in. another sign the recovery is stalling after last friday's news economic growth is stuck at 1.5%.

>> that is the obama economy. the answer is the president's plan is not working and the american people have to understand that. >> reporter: the president bracing for a new jobs report in three days it's trenning downward for the last six months. january and february started strong for the president. with only 200,000 jobs created in each of the months. the pace started to drop sharply in march and april. reaching 80,000 jobs a month by june. >> it is getting worse. it's not improving. that is troubling. it didn't start out looking pretty good but it's deflated. >> with mixed reports today on consumer confidence, gallup claimed it was down, while the conference board said it had unexpectedly gone up, white house aides admit the economy is still not on track and blame republicans in congress. >> the president is not satisfied with where the economy is. the american people are not satisfied with where the

economy is. he is doing everything he can and urging congress to do everything it can. to take action and help the economy grow faster and help it create more jobs. >> while the obama campaign continued to hammer presumptive republican nominee mitt romney over a tax return, spokesperson would only reiterate mitt romney paid taxes in full compliance with u.s. law. >> romney camp unveiled a largely positive spot focused on the economy that has a tag line that takes a dig at the president's "you didn't build that" comment. >> we believe in our future, we believe in ourselves. we believe greatest day for america are ahead. >> believe in the america you built. believe we can build it again. >> reporter: on the positive side for president, housing prices have risen across country in more than half of american cities. starting to turn the corner but long way to go. prices down 35%. from the peak. bret? >> ed henry live on the north

lawn. thank you. markets reacted poorly to the economic news today. dow dropped 64. s&p 500 and nasdaq both lost six. it was not fast. but a new republican congressional report is furious about the now infamous government gun tracking program. they blame an indictment of an operation under the microscope. >> in washington, if heads don't roll, nothing changes. >> republican lawmakers began assessing blame tuesday in operation "fast and furious." singling out five top atf officials. accusing director nelson of being aloof. dropty hoover of being der -- deputy hoover of being derelict in his duties. acuseing others of false testimony. and failing to supervisor. and newell of incompetence. >> are they lying or are you lying? >> sir, in this investigation, we have not let guns walk.

>> the attorney always thought the investigation is political. >> this is a witch hunt, simply about a false premise that guns were walking. >> the report says that death of border agent brian terry could have been prevented. claiming gun smuggler avulla lied about his address when he first purchased fast and furious weapons. that lie would have allowed the atf to stop or arrest him. six weeks before he bought the guns found at terry's murder. "if atf bothered to conduct a thorough review of all the information contained in the dea wire intercepts, "fast and furious" might have concluded a year earlier than it did." >> when gun showed up at the mexican crime scene, rather than concern, they wrote wow, cheeking-a! they were already across the border heading south? they were used to kill the

brother of a mexican state attorney general and atf supervisor wanted to bury it. my thought is not to release any information. >> if there is concern about the border patrol government agent being murdered you can see there is less concern about the murders on the southside of the border. >> the justice department claims it distorts the fact. the next report is weeks away focus on the deputy attorney general. in the time report, attorneyien holder, himself, obstruction of justice. bret? >> bret: thank you. another house panel is claiming the obama administration for a nearly one in five rearrest rate for illegal immigrants who are not deported. the judiciary committee reports 17% of undocumented immigrants arrested for crimes commit new ones within three years of release. the administration admits the

focus is on criminals not the ample illegal immigrant. olympic gold medalist credits the ghost of a late dictator with giving him strength. that is later in the grapevine. up next from boon to bust. in the big valley. [ donovan ] i hit a wall. and i thought "i can't do this, it's just too hard." then there was a moment. when i decided to find a way to keep going. go for olympic gold and go to college too. [ male announcer ] every day we help students earn their bachelor's or master's degree for tomorrow's careers. this is your moment. let nothing stand in your way. devry university, proud to support the education of our u.s. olympic team.

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the calcium they take because they don't take it with food. switch to citracal maximum plus d. it's the only calcium supplement that can be taken with or without food. that's why my doctor recommends citracal maximum. it's all about absorption.

>> bret: we told you at the top of the program that stockton is one of the most populist city to go belly up financially. when you get here, it doesn't take long to find out you're in a town of deep fiscal trouble. spend a night on the tough streets of stock top and you sense the stakes for the city. >> take your hands out of your pocket for me. >> and the 300,000 who live here. life and death. >> you have a nice knife. >> if the officersdy appear the gang bangers would be here in a heartbeat. people look at it to buy their own guns. they are going to have to. >> since 2010, the city slashed a quarter of the police force. >> thigh had to focus on violent crime. >> the mayor, concedes the constituents are less safe. >> we have seen a spike in the violence, frankly in the homicide. >> stockton is a city in the

midst of terrible social breakdowns. not just a fiscal collapse but social collapse. >> manhattan institute fred seigel written extensively about cities like stockton going broke. >> this is a horrible thing to see. >> it's in the middle of the fertile farm land of the valley and inland sea port connected to san francisco bay by 78-mile deep water channel. gold rush town in the 1850s, it grew in a regional transportation hub. they anchored a vibrant 20th century blue collar economy, shipping and heavy industry. by the 1990s, the base and many of the factories were gone. stockton signature water front had become a place to avoid. >> a terrible place. >> ann johnson was on the city council then. >> instead of being the front

door of the community, it was the back door. >> bret: still, california's economy was roaring. driven by dot-com millionaires s in nearby silicon valley. >> the council and mayor at times said we need to fix this problem in the heart of our city. >> bret: with tance' money and the limitless ability to issue municipal bonds, stockton tried to spend its way back to prosperity. >> it's a rough and tumble, honky tonk town would be remade and gentrified as part of the greater bay area. >> $24 million for minor league baseball park. an arena. and $30,000 per slip for yacht arena next door to million dollar townhomes. johnson says she was out of office when they okayed the priciest projects. >> there a failure of leadership that the good times will continue to roll. >> bret: they also didn't say no to the unions.

that helped elect them. salaries, benefit and pension for police, firefighters and other public employees went up and up. >> they felt that the money would continue to roll in, the property values would continue to rise. >> then came the mortgage meltdown of 2008. foreclosures soared, tax revenues dried up and stockton couldn't pay the bills. faced with cuts in staff and salaries the police union of 2010 erected this billboard. the union vice president says no more. >> anything we offer them, they keep upping. >> bret: last february, stockton defaulted on $32 million in bonds, ied build parking garages. it declared bankruptcy. the biggest u.s. city to do so. bondholders have foreclosed on a new city hall. the stadium and marina could be next.

>> we don't have the money. >> bret: the mayor vows no more staff cut to police and fire. her constituents can only hope. they set a state record for murders per capita. a record it's likely to break in 2012. tune in to the f news reporting special cities going broke that airs in two weeks. going inside bankrupt cities coast to coast to expose out of control spending and corruption that devastated the lives of citizens and driving taxpayers to the brink. tune in two weeks. we'll give you specific air dates as we get closer and talk more about the topic later in the show. in international news, another coordinated bombing strike in iraq tops world headlines. two cars exploded in five minutes of each other in upscale shiite neighborhood in iraq. 21 people were killed today. 57 wounded. that brings the july terrorism death count in iraq to 245.

syrian rebels say they will capture the country's largest city within days. opposition forces are outgunned by government troops. activists say the humanitarian conditions are dire with little food and cooking gas. only intermittent electricity. pakistan has formally agreeded to a new deal regulating shipment of supplies to troops in afghanistan. in return, u.s. will release $1 billion in foreign aid. they shut down the main supply route last november over american air strikes that killed 24 pakistani seasonals. still ahead -- the deal that averts a government shutdown this fall. but first, why african-american pastors are warning president obama not to take the black vote for granted.

>> bret: welcome back to stockton, california. a group made up of some of president obama's core supporters came out against him this afternoon. african-american pastors are going up against the president. over one emotional and to them moral issue. senior national correspondent john roberts takes a look. >> in washington today, the president got an earful over his change of heart on same-sex marriage. >> he has not done a smart thing. it might cost him the election. >> they are urging him to reassess his position or it might cost them the election. >> there are thousands of others that will not stand with you with this foolishness. >> same-sex marriage proven boon and burden for the president. the gay and lesbian lobby and hollywood showered him with

accolades and millions in campaign cash. >> doing what we elect presidents to do. he was showing the moral leadership of standing up for the full protection and dig any anity of -- di dignity of every american under the constitution. >> but it could hurt him in swing states like north carolina that voted 61% to been a same-sex marriage. >> key democratic constituencies do not support same-sex marriage. you will see a lack of support from them. and from the middle. >> for romney, the challenge is to convince conservatives he won't change his mind. he briefly flirted with civil unions as governor but now says he's against same-sex marriage and equivalent and signed the national organization for marriage pledge to commit him to support a federal amendment defining marriage between one man and one woman. >> some people want to say no, no, he wasn't strong on the issue. if you actually look at what he did, he stood up, for a state constitutional amendment, fought so the

people could vote. >> in massachusetts the issue never went to the voters but in other states it did. 29 have amendments banning gay marriage. three will put them on the ballot in november. >> younger people support the freedom to marry but in part it's people changing their mind. >> one of the people is conservative david blankenhorn, once outspoken opponent of gay marriage he recently wrote he is now a supporter. >> as a marriage advocate, i feel i can do more to strengthen the institution now by accepting gay marriage. than by conning to oppose it. >> while democrats are pushing full steam ahead for support for same-sex marriage including a plank in the platform. republican opposition is more muted. >> there are plenty of republican strategists that

are inside the beltway that want to run from the issue. delay think it's divisive and don't want to bring it up or talk about it. >> ironically the split in the democratic party may push it forward to the fall campaign. >> bret: supporters of the voter-approved been a on gay marriage in california asked the supreme court for help. they want the justices to overrule a federal appeals court that struck down proposition 8. they found that it violated the right of gay and lesbians. the house is debating a bill to been a abortion in district of columbia after the pregnancy reaches 20 weeks. critics say it encroaches on abortion rights law and d.c. home rule. congress is the ultimate ash tater of the law in the district. the mismanagement of your tax money by the general services administration may be worse than we thought.

the head of the house transportation committee say there are 77 gsa events under the investigation, separate from the revelations about huge financial successes in the meetings in las vegas and arlington, virginia. back in washington, some students are getting a paycheck to go to summer school. we'll explain. the question mark about the period in the obama campaign slogan. grapevine is next. hi, i'm phil mickelson. i've been fortunate to win on golf's biggest stages. but when joint pain and stiffness from psoriatic arthritis hit, even the smallest things became difficult. i finally understood what serious joint pain is like. i talked to my rheumatologist and he prescribed enbrel. enbrel can help relieve pain, stiffness,

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>> bret: now for fresh pickingings from the political grapevine. "wall street journal" reports a tiny detail was the subject of much debate for the

re-election team. "forward" is the slogan for obama 2012. but the period at the end received mixed reviews. advisor austan goolsbee says it's like forward. now stop. republican lawmaker pete king said it's a buzz-kill. but senior campaign advisor david axelrod supports the punctuation mark saying it provides finality. public schools in washington, d.c. have a voluntary program called summer bridge to help incoming ninth graders boost math and literacy skills and earn a half credit. "washington examiner" reports when 95 students signed up the school went to the summer youth employment program and found more than 300 students are being paid $5.25 an hour to attend. when residents raised concern that paying students for summer school may lead them to expect rewards in school year. michael brown said, "that is a

legitimate argument and extremely justified debatable issue and i don't think there is a right answer." finally, north korean weight lifter cole cleaned and jerked three times his body weight sunday. a record 370 pounds total and he won the olympic gold. but apparently he had some help. he says, "i believe kim jong il gave me the record and all of my achievements. it is all because of him." there is precedent to the late dictator athletic prowess. legend had it he scored 11 holes in one the first time he played golf, according to state run media. democrats and republicans agreed on a deal to avoid a government shutdown this fall. correspondent molly henneberg has details from capitol hill. good evening. >> reporter: this is one of the annual issues that ties washington in notes. both sides digging in on what to spend money on an what to cut. today, the top senate democrat and top house republican

agreed to kick the can down the road until after the election. they came up with a temporary budget deal to fund the government for six months. from the beginning of the fiscal year, october 1, through march 31. it will set spending at $1.4 trillion for the year if congress doesn't change it in march. that spending level is significant. house republicans want to cut spending but the agreement keeps the spending level the same as this year. john boehner said the details will be hashed out in the august recess and voted on in september. the top senate democrat said it took the issue out of the way for now. >> it will provide stability for the coming months, be free of riders. this is very good. >> reporter: the white house says the deal is a "welcome development." one of largest tea party groups, tea party patriots slammed boehner and reid,

chastising them for showing "lack of guts" for avoiding what the tea party call a tough vote in an election year. bret? >> bret: molly, thank you. the city we're in tonight, stockton, california, is not the only city in this country facing uncertain financial future. vice president joe biden's hometown is going through the budgetary bends. david milner cranton, pennsylvania. david? >> reporter: the city of scranton made national news when he said he couldn't made payroll and everyone would have to earn minimum wage, $7.25, including the police, firemen, tab mayor. who slashed his own salary. the mayor ignored in court order that said he had to honor collective bargaining agreements. two weeks ago he did reinstate full pay iing that the tax revenue flow increased but he was still facing order and he owed workers back wages.

this weekend, the mayor agreed to pay back $700,000 in back pages. in addition to 6% interest. city workers and union leaders are relieved. >> we hope this is end of it and guys will have stability and know what is in their paycheck for the coming months. >> what made the deal possible? well, the mayor and the city council reach a deal on a financial recovery plan. they are going to raise real estate taxes in scranton by a minimum of 33% over three years. that then takes away for the city to be eligible for a state loan as well as a state grant. the mayor admits yes, it's a bitter pill, but the only way. >> tough situation. i think it's a situation that ruled in our favor. i think the residents of our city. that a plan is put together.

the state agreed to help. we have come to agreement. you remember, the employees are paid. >> just about everyone here will have to carry at least some of the burden. it could have been a greet deal worse. the mayor originally sought a hike of 78%. >> bret: david lee miller in scranton, pennsylvania, tonight. thank you. mitt romney in europe. the reviews have been mixed at best. we'll find out what the fox all-stars think when we get back. this man is about to be the millionth customer. would you mind if i go ahead of you? instead we had someone go ahead of him and wifty thousand dollars. congratulations you are our one millionth customer. people don't li 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 mes you miss out, you need an ally.

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to go along with you. keep dreaming. keep doing. go long. i'm very pleased with what i learned on the trip and the opportunities i've had to speak with leaders and the exchanges we've had. i realize that there will be some in the fourth estate or whichever estate who are far more interested in finding something to write about that is unrelated to the economy. to geopolitics. to the threat of war. to the reality of conflict in afghanistan today. to a nuclearization of iran. they'll instead try to find and try to fine anything else to divert from the fact that these last four years have been tough years for our country. years of tumult in the world. we need to see a better direction taken on the part of

our nation. >> bret: governor mitt romney talking to carl cameron in poland. romney is now book in boston. there was an exchange today, reporters trying to get questions asked about the israel portion of the trill while in poland and romney vited a site with the polish leaders. take a listen to this. >> governor romney, do you have a statement for palestinians? >> what abyour gaffe? >> governor romney the you feel your gaffes overshadowed your foreign trip? >> show some respect. >> we won't have another chance to ask him questions. >> [bleep] this is a tollly site for the polish people. show some respect. >> okay. an aide pushing back there. bring in the panel about this, this trip. steve hayes for "weekly standard."

susan milligan for u.s. news an world report. syndicated columnist charles krauthammer. okay, steve, what do you think of this trip? what do you think of that exchange? >> the exchange was interesting. on the trip broadly, there were several things to pay attention to. one, a couple of good speeches by mitt romney. substantive speeches by romney, israel and poland, i don't think got the attention they should have. they didn't get they get the attention? because of the staff and campaign level from team romney. and the media obsession with the errors. this semiplified in that exchange there. look, i understand the frustration of some of the media. you travel all over the world. in uncomfortable places, gone for a week. you don't get a chance to ask your questions and i've been on the trip. they stink. it's not helpful and not good for the country. on the other hand, i

sympathize with the romney aide. and the sentiments he expressed. and broadly for the campaign, i like the spirit of orga we wan to see more of it from the candidate himself. >> bret: susan, you know, usually you default to reporters asking whatever the question is. but this question, these questions what abyour gaffes? how do you feel about your gaffes overshadowing your trip? solemn visit there. what do you think about that? >> i feel really bad for the romney aide. it's a sad comment on what has happened in campaigns and journalism. this is a story that's ridiculous. i don't mean to get on my high horse here but someone has been shot at and shelled reporting in places and in eastern europe and so forth in iraq, the idea that somebody thinks this is a story that somebody said something mean to them is absurd to me. it makes them look ridiculous.

now ideally, you know, the aide would not have used that language. ideally the reporters would have not shouted out questions in a place that is solemn and i spend a lot of time in poland that was pretty insulting. ideally, governor romney would be answering questions on the plane. at the hotel and so forth so people wouldn't do this. this is unfortunate. in the old days this kind of thing happened all the time. somebody said something to a reporter who said something to a press secretary, one or the other would apologize and buy the other a drink and none of it would end up in the papers. this is a nonstory. for the governor, i mean, press obsession with his gaffe, he gave them a lot of material. he had time to prepare for the trip and he made some very, very foolish comments, that really he can't expect the press to ignore. the reporters behaved terribly today. >> bret: charles? >> well, he had a rocky start for london but i disagree entirely with the consensus of the press. mindless consensus that romney

had a gaffe regarding the palestinians. when he said that culture had a lot to do with the state of one's economy. he was doing nothing more than echoing the words of the u.n., arab development report. this is u.n. report written by the arab intellectuals. issued in 2002 and revised over and over again in which it said culture is the soul of development. they talk about arab culture in particular. lack of human rights, lack of women's rights. official corruption and tyranny at the heart of the arab economy and the heart of the discon ten we see if the arab spring. people are rising up and saying we're not going to put up with this oppression and corruption, et cetera. so there was nothing new here. nothing unusual here. nothing that is obvious and true. palestinians youth is the way to attack romney.

not because of this, but because romney stood for jerusalem that is the capitol of israel. he stood for israel which is strong and has strong relations with the u.s. not make concessions gratuitously and defend itself against iran. this was the truth. something that israelis understand and would appreciate. >> bret: steve, is there a sense that what romney was saying maybe not all across the european trip, but definitely in the case of london, he was giving an assessment of the situation, no matter how diplomatically sensitive it may have been at the time for the brits. >> yeah. respect to what they said on the prince and charles right. but the problem is the romney campaign seems defensive about

the things after the fact and tried to soften and walked back some of the comments. with respect to the palestinian culture is conventional. as charles suggests. something that mitt romney himself said before, argues before. there is no reason to walk it back. no reason to make, no reason to back away from it. >> bret: panel, stand by. next up, the politics of the u.s. economy. what is happening on capitol hill. and cities in crisis. like here in stockton. [ charles ] when you can make a person smile when they taste the food that you cooked it does something to yr heart. i think what people like most about the grilled food is the tast the flavor comes from that oak wood... the shrim the fresh fish, the steaks. it locks in the flavor, it seals in the juices so that when you put the fork in it, it just goes through it like butter. [ male announcer ] visit redlobster.com now for an exclusive $10 coupon.

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the speaker and i and the president have agreeded how we

are going to come together for the next six months. we're going to fund the government for the next six months through the first quarter of 2013. we'll provide stability for coming months, free of ryders. and this looks very good. >> bret: senate majority leader harry reid today on a conning resolution awe greement. in fact, speaker boehner weighed in on that, too saying, "leader reid and i reefed an agreement by which the house and senate will approve a six-month continuing resolution in september to keep the government operating to next year. during august district work period, committee members and their staff will write legislation that can be pass by the house and senate in september and sent to president obama an signed in to law." basically, we're back with the panel, this kicks the can down the road to next year, past the election. susan, good thing for republicans and democrats avoiding this big bat? >> yeah.

it's good for both of them. i know each party thinks the other one will be blamed if it drags on past the election. but the reality is people will just hate congress generically. they will hate incumbents. it's not good for either party if it goes on without any resolution. it's not addressing the debt and the deficit of course but people won't see the library shut down. >> bret: steve, people would look at this maybe and say this is washington. this is what happens in washington. this is, there is frustration already from some groups. including tea party groups and conservatives in congress saying this is not good. >> there was a group of republican senators conservatives, tea party senators, jim demint and marco rubio, rob johnson and others trying to push house republicans to pass something with spending levels at a slightly lower level they thought would reduce the leverage the democrats would have when it comes to raising taxes on the wealthy.

after the election. this takes that away. i'm told to defend john boehner you would say nobody wants to have the fight before the election an we're going to have -- we're going to fight about all of these big issues in the course of the next three-and-a-half months, part of the presidential election i'm sympathetic with the arguement that the republican senators were making. >> bret: big items. that is what both governor romney and the president have been talking about. the economy. we are expecting new jobs numbers in a number of days. listen to the white house press secretary talk about the economy overall. governor romney in an ad. >> the president is not satisfied with where the economy is. he knows that the american people by an large are not satisfied with where the economy is. that is why he is doing everything he can and he is urging congress to do everything it can to take action. help the economy grow faster and to help it create more jo jobs.

>> in massachusetts i found a budget badly unbalanced. we cut the spending. it was 85% democrat. every one of the four years i was governor we balanced the budget. >> i want to use the experiences to help americans have a better future. >> bret: charles, what about the numbers here? how they are adding up for the obama campaign a the romney campaign heading to the next three months? >> you can see how damaging it is. to the obama campaign when you watch carney's response. what can they say? all they can say is it's not a good economy. we believe it's not a good economy. the only possible argument they have is that you have a lot of measures in congress. congress is holding it up. nobody over the age of nine who believes there is anything in the congress now that will change the course of the economy. an you're being serious. so they have essentially no argument whatsoever. on obama's economic stewardship. that is why every time any of

this presidential debate is about the economy, state of the economy, the democrats have nothing that they can offer. i think that is why the romney strategy is to try to stay on message over and over again. what we saw in the romney add a positive way to attack it, without necessarily attacking obama. just everybody understands obama is chargeed and he -- in charge and has been around for four years. if that's what the election hinges on, obama will lose. >> bret: suzanne, i want to talk about the bankrupt cities and the ones that may face bankruptcy. there is a long list and it's growing. in stockton. one of them already declared bankruptcy and a number of them are on the brink. how does it factor in? most of the cities are dealing with the pensions they promise, negotiated in boon times. now they are saying you know we don't have the money. >> yeah, they were always going to be in the worst position with a recession; particularly, at this stage. they can't run deficit like

the federal government can. which is why romney saying he has a balanced budget, everybody has a balanced budget in the state. you have to have a balanced budget. they have a pension obligation and difficult situation. they are in a position to cut police or teachers. the obama campaign would say when the stimulus, you know, when the money for the teachers ran out that is a reason they lost some of those, some of those positions as well. but yeah. a problem for the cities. not sure how it plays out. city like detroit isn't going to necessarily blame the president for that. if they hadn't gotten the auto bail-out they would have been in a worse position. in a no-win situation. >> bret: a lot of the citiesdy overspend as well and made decisions with the city councils. we want to end the panel with this. white house communications director dan cipher apologized to charles for criticizing his cull lum which described removal of a bust of winston churchill in the white house. he posted the apology on the white house website and writes

that there was internal confusion about the fact there were two busts. he said there was no intent to deceive. by ads, "i clearly overshot the runway in my post." all right, charles, reaction there? >> i must say a gracious apology. i was stunned. i didn't expect it to happen. i actually wrote in my column i thought the nationals would win the world series before i'd see an apology. now i suppose the nationals are going to win the world series. but great apology. they are still clinging to a tiny point on this but the argument is over. i appreciate that the correction and retraction. >> bret: we can still have the nationals win the world series. c'mon. you got to believe. all right. panel, thank you very much. , for the brady bunch effort today. that's it for the panel. stay tuned for more about our road show. i've worked hard to build my family.

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>> bret: finally tonight, we invite to you join us tomorrow as "special report" on the road heads down the road a bit to los angeles. we'll focus on the struggling economy in this huge and crucial state that has so much influence on the restf the country. we'll have special panel as well. thanks for inviting us into your home tonight. thanks for all the people here in stockton. that's it for this "special report," fair, balanced and unafraid. >> shepard: this is the fox report a day of highs and lows

for the american swimmer michael phelps. key break the all-time record for olympic medals? now we know. plus, congressional republicans with a new report on the fast and furious gun sting scandal. >> shepard: the report name names and issues blamed. singling out a handful of officials for the gun sting's failures. tonight, the accusations and the fallout from fast and furious. was this swimmer's performance too good to be true? the chinese say there was no cheating here and now olympic officials are responding. plus, a teenager thrown in jail after allegedly tweeting threats to this olympic diver. and a 12-year-old girl was in the car with her grandfather when he had a heart attack. >> i panicked and i started screaming. >> but then she had to save her own life. tonight, a child's bravery at

80 miles per hour. >> shepard: but first from fox this tuesday night. governor mitt romney says he is very pleased with how his big trip overseas went. but one of president obama's top campaign advisors is calling the trip nothing short of an embarrassing disaster. and now one of governor romney's aides is apologizing for telling reporters to shove it the governor had just wrapped up a visit a memorial for john paul ii in poland. the governor took but three questions in but one news conference over the entire event. still, a campaign staff told them the memorial is just not the right place for shouting questions and that campaign staff used what you might call colossal colorful language. listen here,. >> [shouting] >> we haven't had another chance to ask him questions. [bleep] >> this is a holy site