[Carol Costello, Cnn Anchor:] The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM starts right now. Stories we're watching right now in the
[Newsroom:] New campaign ammunition for President Obama. Less than two weeks from the election, brand new economic numbers showing the economy improving. It's a weekend of waiting all up and down the East Coast as Hurricane Sandy inches closer towards the United States as heavy rains could turn into heavy snow. Attention women voters. The Obama campaign wants you but does a new ad cross the line? And it's a happy reunion for a Pakistani teenager now recovering from an attempted assassination. She's with her parents at a British hospital and she's talking. NEWSROOM starts now. And good morning. Happy Friday to you. I'm Carol Costello. We start with better news on the economy. I said better, not great. With just 11 days left until the election, we're seeing a new indicator in the economy that it's growing. Maribel Aber live at the Nasdaq market site to tell us what it all means. Good morning.
[Maribel Aber, Cnn Correspondent:] Good morning, Carol. You talked a little bit early about ammunition for the president's campaign. This really could help President Obama's message that the economy is improving, but there's something in here for Romney too. Growth isn't strong enough to really bring down unemployment. We learned that the U.S. economy grew at a 2 percent pace July through September. That's better than that 1.7 percent economists surveyed by CNN Money were expecting. But look at the chart here for some perspective. It's better than the second quarter. The biggest reason growth picked up because Americans are spending more. That really has to encourage investors who have been worried about a slowdown in Europe all week long and the effect that that's having on American companies. You know, the housing sector, the housing sector was a bright spot as was the federal government spending, which is a surprise. But there's still plenty bogging down the U.S. economy. You know, Carol, businesses aren't spending much money and they're exporting less confirming what we've heard this week from the likes of Caterpillar, 3M and Dupont Carol.
[Costello:] All right, quick check of the markets before you go.
[Aber:] Sure. It's a good report, but it's not great. Stocks are up only modestly. Right now, you see the Dow, it's actually down 25 points here. This reading isn't strong enough to boost hiring in a meaningful way Carol.
[Costello:] Maribel Aber reporting live for us from the Nasdaq market site. Now to that massive and deadly Hurricane Sandy, which will slam into the northeast in just a few days. Right now parts of Florida under a tropical storm warning. Huge waves are battering the coast. Some school districts in South Florida have already canceled classes today, told employees not to bother to report to work. Here is Alexa Helms from our affiliate WSVN.
[Alexa Helms, Wsvn Tv Reporter:] The rain has just started to come down. As you can see the winds are picking up as well. I don't know if you can see some of the rain drops. They're going pretty fast. The main issue is the waves. This is what we've been talking about. These waves have not quit at all. They keep rolling in. So they don't look like they're going to be that powerful until you can see all of this sand that they've swept in all the way across the beach. And then the waves dump over not just water, but sand and seaweed and everything in the area onto the sidewalk and in the middle of the road. Now this road A1A from Sunrise to northeast 20th Street completely cut off. And this just kind of came to us right now. You can see this manhole just so you can get an idea of how much sand there actually is here. So it's at least a foot high just in this area alone. Cleanups, they still don't know when those are going to begin. We just spoke with excuse me, we just spoke with the city of Miami. They don't know when the cleanups are going to begin but at this point they don't want anybody driving this area. It's way too dangerous and much less getting in the water.
[Costello:] All right, so that's a report from South Florida. Take a lack at Hurricane Sandy from space. It is so large it would cover the distance from Memphis, Tennessee, to Los Angeles. It's expected to mix with a powerful winter storm, which could make it even stronger. Sandy has already claimed 21 lives in the Caribbean and now it could cause widespread damage in the northeast. Meteorologist Rob Marciano is here. I have heard this storm described as an atmospheric bomb.
[Rob Marciano, Ams Meteorologist:] Yes, you know, a bomb is a technical term that we use that means that when the pressure and the storm falls 24 millibars in 24 hours. So whoever you heard that from is wrong. It's not going to do that. We're already starting low.
[Costello:] I like that you said that because that scared me.
[Marciano:] It is scary. This storm has been called other things, which is scary as well. I want to start off with what happened in Cuba. They got the brunt of this thing as a Category 2 storm. There are some of the damage video, big trees obviously taken down all the power lines, infrastructure damage. We could see some of this across the northeast, not because it's going to be a stronger storm, but because it's going to be a longer duration event and we have other issues to deal with. Let's come back to the map and go over what is Hurricane Sandy. An 80 mile-an-hour winds right now. It's starting its transformation into something other than a hurricane. Wind field is beginning to expand. That means it is going to affect a larger amount of people. North westerly moving about 10 miles an hour, the center is 150 miles or so off the coast of Florida. It will stay off the Florida coast line. But they've been getting tropical storm force winds and wave action as you saw on that video. There's some of the radar on the western edge of the storm as we do expect it to move up the coastline. Tropical storm watch is posted from Charleston right up through Cape Hatteras. There will be some big waves along the outer banks, maybe 30 or 40 footers as we go through the weekend. Here's your forecast track scooting the coastline Sunday night into Monday. We make the turn and now our computer models, which have been hinting at something for the past couple of days are getting a little bit more firm in suggesting that this will make a left turn. We have stuff blocking the action out in the ocean and forcing it back towards the northeast. Here's your solution. Anywhere from Norfolk to Nantucket as a Category 1-like storm, we say that because it's going to be morphed with an influence of a jet stream, which this time of the year, very strong. That will wind it up more. Expand that wind field to the point where we probably will see damaging winds in a 300 mile, maybe 400 mile swath. That is a huge chuck of real estate to see areas of winds over 50 miles an hour. That's what has us nervous. You've heard comparisons, Carol, to the perfect storm of 1991. A little bit similar to that but that one didn't make landfall. That's why meteorologists are nervous. This one is going to make landfall Monday, Tuesday.
[Costello:] I'm looking at the picture of Fort Lauderdale next to you. At least we won't be suffering alone around the country. We'll be suffering together. Rob Marciano, many thanks to you. There's no other way to describe it, just a horrible tragedy in New York's upper west side. A mother, she comes home. She finds her young son and daughter in the bathtub stabbed to death. She finds the nanny on the floor unconscious, bleeding and holding knife. Deb Feyerick has been following the story out of New York. What more do we know, Deb?
[Deborah Feyerick, Cnn Correspondent:] Carol, parents take such a leap of faith whenever they entrust their children to somebody else, whether it's a nanny, a baby-sitter. Anyone, a background check no matter how thorough can't predict if someone will snap. And that is what police believed happened. Detectives are waiting to question the nanny, Josie Ortega. She is in critical condition, heavily sedated in a New York hospital and she is under arrest. She is suspected of killing 6-year-old Lulu Krim and her 2-year-old brother Leo. The mom, Marina, returned home with her 3-year-old daughter after swimming lessons yesterday about 5:30 and she is the one who discovered the horrifying scene. The children in the bathtub bleeding from stab wounds. The nanny was on the floor, a kitchen knife next to her. Police say it appears she tried to slash her own throat, the nanny. The parents are beyond devastated according a source. Kevin Krim is a media executive at CNBC. The company released this statement saying, quote, "The sadness that we all feel for Kevin, Marina and their family is without measure." You're looking at some of the pictures there of those children. The parents were so clearly devoted to all three of them and the family's blog was taken down, Carol, within the last hour. But the pictures and the entries show this happy, loving family and the three of them together in so many photos. You have to remember, there's one child by the grace of God survived because she was with her mother. It's just so tragic. That's why it's resonating with so many people certainly here throughout Manhattan Carol.
[Costello:] I was going to ask you this. I mean, so many women across the country hire nannies or daycare workers to care for their children. I think this is just a really frightening story to hear.
[Feyerick:] Yes, absolutely. It's fascinating because the second we heard about this last night people just started e-mailing saying they were running home to go hug their children even more tightly. You know, nannies are feeling this also because so many are deeply devoted to these children. To have one who does the unthinkable, people are really trying to get their heads around it today.
[Costello:] Deborah Feyerick, thanks so much. Turning our attention to the race for the White House now and a new ad from team Obama that is raising some eyebrows for comparing someone's first-time voting to that first time they had sex.
[Lena Dunham, Creator, "girls":] Your first time shouldn't be with just anybody. You want to do it with a great guy. It should be with a guy who is beautiful, someone who really cares about and understands women. A guy who cares whether you get health insurance, specifically whether you get birth control. The consequences are huge. My first time voting was amazing. It was a line in the sand. Before I was a girl, now I was a woman. I went to the polling station and pulled back the curtain. I voted for Barack Obama.
[Costello:] L.Z. Granderson, we called you specifically to talk about this because we knew you'd understand. L.Z. is a contributor and senior writer for ESPN. He is also a political analyst for CNN. So L.Z., one Republican strategist calls the ad insulting to women. What do you think?
[L.z. Granderson, Cnn Contributor:] You know what, I'm a big fan of the show "Girls" and I think anyone who's a fan of the show "Girls" absolutely loved the ad. I think if it comes out of the blue and you don't know the backgroud, I can see how you would get offended by it. But, look, this isn't an ad directed towards anyone who is undecided voter. This isn't an ad trying to convince people. It's trying to fire up a base and I think it does exactly that. When I saw it I was really laughing. I thought it was great. Then again, I am a fan of the show.
[Costello:] Exactly. You know, speaking of perception, another CNN contributor and Republican consultant, Alex Castellanos, you know, Alex. Well, L.Z., he has an op-ed today on cnn.com about the man he calls cool Obama versus square Romney. He says actually cool will lose the election for Obama. This is a quote. Alex says, "President Obama hangs out with movie stars, makes no decisions without consulting the academic elite and sings like Al Green. Obama is the president of cool America." But when it comes to Romney, Alex writes, "Mitt Romney is the chaperone to be alluded at every prom. He's common sense, parental advice, not counter intuitive, academic insight. He has stepped in. He's fresh and perfect from a Norman Rockwell painting." Alex says there's a silent majority in this country, square like Romney, who's afraid of cool Obama and that's why they're going to vote Romney this time.
[Granderson:] Wow. Well, you know what, I know
[Costello:] You're cool. You have dread locks.
[Granderson:] You know, I know there are three states in the country right now that are contemplating legalizing marijuana. I'm assuming Alex is very excited about that because I can't figure out why he would write that if you weren't high and crazy. No one, I think, is looking at Romney as a fresh face. Someone who's been running for president for the last 10 years is not a fresh face. Someone who has been trying to be in politics for most of their lives is not a fresh face and for him to characterize Romney like that is absolutely crazy. Is President Obama cool? Well, yes, he's cool, but he's cool because he's confident and he's comfortable in his own skin. It's not about hanging out with movie stars. There are a lot of people who are cool who don't hang out with movie stars. It's about being confident. And the reason why President Obama is confident is because he believes in the work that he's doing and that radiates and people are gravitating towards that. The reason why Romney is seen as square it's because he's not confident because he constantly changes what he says. That's what you're picking up. Not the movie stars, not the Al Green thing, but confidence coming out from the candidates.
[Costello:] Well, I think specifically what he's saying is Romney believes in these old-fashioned values of hard work, putting your nose to the grind stone, taking responsibility for what happens in your life. That's what he's saying about square Romney. America is ready for that kind of candidate again. They've had it with this cool dude who's in "Rolling Stone" who is going to say bullshit and he'll be on MTV tonight. For some Republicans that's way too much for a president. It's like he's more interested in cool and image than he is about being presidential.
[Granderson:] Well, Carol, you know, I'm just going to look at it this way. I don't know very many people who come from a single parent background who grew up poor, who didn't know their father, who got to a place of success in their lives without having hard work, without being holding themselves accountable, without being intelligent. I don't know very many people like that, but I do know a lot of people who have gotten far in life by relying on their family to get them there, by having advantages like, I don't know, your father is the president of a large company and things like that. When I look at the two candidates and I think about hard work and preservation I think about, which story seems like they worked harder, the one who came from nothing and became President of the United States. Or someone who grew up in a rich suburb of Detroit, had their father be governor and then they became successful, not saying that Mitt Romney didn't look too hard. But it's very hard to look at those two stories and look at President Obama and say that he didn't.
[Costello:] L.Z., thanks so much. By the way, we did invite Alex on the program, but he had another commitment. I'm sure he'll be talking about this on CNN later today. If you want to read his op-ed, cnn.com. Thank you,
[L.z. Granderson:] Read mine too. Read my op-ed as well please.
[Costello:] Definitely so. We always do. L.Z. Granderson, thanks so much.
[Granderson:] Thank you.
[Costello:] Conservative fire brand Ann Coulter who is not well known for her delicate use of the English language is embroiled in controversy again. After Monday night's presidential face-off between President Obama and Mitt Romney, Coulter took to Twitter to share her feelings. She wrote, quote, "I highly approve of Romney's decision to be kind and gentle to the retards." In response to Coulter's use of that offensive word to describe the President of the United States, Special Olympian John Franklin Stephens wrote a heartfelt open letter explaining just why that word should not be an insult. Here's what he has to say.
[John Franklin Stephens, Special Olympics Athlete:] Dear Ann Coulter, come on, Ms. Coulter, you aren't dumb and you aren't shallow, so why are you constantly using a word like the "R" word as an insult? I am a 30-year-old man with Down's syndrome who has struggled with the public perception that people with disability means I am dumb and shallow. I am not either of those things. I do process information a little more slowly than the rest of you.
[Costello:] You can hear more from Special Olympics athlete Frank Stephens. He'll be live on "PIERS MORGAN TONIGHT" at 9:00 p.m. Eastern. She was the target of a Taliban assassination. Now Malala's parents are by her side as she continues to recover from a gunshot wound and doctors have good news. She's talking.