President Obama in the Danger Zone
BLITZER: This hour President Obama is heading out west for his longest campaign tour this year. He'll stop in Oregon tonight, then head to Washington state, California, Nevada, and wrap it up in Minnesota on Saturday. The vice president, Joe Biden, also on a western swing including stops in Nevada, California, and Washington state. And Michelle Obama, the first lady, is following their footsteps, heading to Washington state and California next week. The Democrats' biggest guns are pulling out all of the stops to help struggling incumbent senators, including Patty Murray, Barbara Boxer, and the majority leader, Harry Reid. The first couple also teamed up on an brand new on-line video to try to rally Democrats around the nation.</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Hello, everybody. It's Barack and Michelle.</s>MICHELLE OBAMA, FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: Election day is almost here and people are getting fired up.</s>B. OBAMA: And we need you to stay fired up all the way to November 2cd.</s>BLITZER: All right, let's bring in our senior political analyst Gloria Borger once again. The West potentially could be a danger zone for the Democrats, so they're not taking any chances.</s>BORGER: No, they're not. It's really interesting that the White House has decided they want to send the president to places that he can actually help and not do any harm. And when you have to send your president to a state like California, always reliably Democratic, Washington state, always reliably Democratic, it means you have problems there. And as you pointed out, Barbara Boxer and Patty Murray, two incumbent senators, has some close races there and they actually believe that Barack Obama can help them in those races not only raise money, but help them get out the voters. You know, there are a lot of states where privately members of Congress and senators will tell you, you know, we're happy to have the president raise some money for us. But honestly, let's not have them appear in the state with us, because we don't want to have to make that decision of whether we appear on the podium next to him.</s>BLITZER: It was underscored in our brand new CNN/"Time" magazine poll right now which has the disapproval among likely voters. For example, in Ohio, 53 percent disapprove of the job he's doing; 63 percent in Arkansas disapprove of the job; 55 percent in Florida you see right there as well.</s>BORGER: Yes, you know, that's not going to help. That 63 percent is not going to help Blanche Lincoln much in Arkansas. You know, Wolf, she's been having who out there? Bill Clinton, right, not Barack Obama. But I spoke to a senior advisor. He said, look, there are a few things it president can do. Obviously, as we were talking about, he can raise money. He can raise enthusiasm. He can bring out those younger voters, bring out African-American voters. And they also believe that he can help shape the debate, Wolf, because he is talking about the choice -- the choice between taking the country forward, as he says he will do, or taking it backward, which is what he said the Republicans will do, take it back to the days of George W. Bush. But the senior adviser also said to me, look, Gloria, just remember, the president himself is still polling better than Republicans are polling. That's kind of damning with same praise, but he is.</s>BLITZER: Interesting stuff. All right, thanks very much, Gloria, for that. President Obama is in Oregon today to campaign for the Democratic gubernatorial candidate. The race is statistically up in the air, a position that Republican Chris Dudley should be used to. Dudley played, for example, in the NBA, played center in the NBA for 16 seasons, the latest former NBA player to make the jump to politics. Former New York Knick Bill Bradley ran for president of the United States back in 2000. He was a U.S. senator from New Jersey, as you remember, before that. Sacramento's current mayor is a former NBA all-star, Kevin Johnson. Hall of famer Dave Bing is now the mayor of Detroit. And former Maryland Congressman Tom McMillan played for multiple teams before retiring to pursue a successful political career. By the way, the NBA legend, friend of our show, Charles Barkley, has long discussed running for governor of Alabama, but has never made a formal announcement. But with Charles, Sir Charles, as we like to say, you never know. It's a sound that makes you cringe.</s>BLITZER: That's whooping cough. And now the state of California is suffering its worst outbreak in decades. We're going to tell you what officials are urging people to do right now. Plus, check this out -- this chimpanzee is on the loose and he managed to terrify one neighborhood. We'll give you the details. All that and more.