commander in afghanistan. and this is a critical time, as president obama figures out what to do with those remaining 68,000 combat troops, u.s. troops set to leave afghanistan by the end of 2014. the thing is, as the hill, as democrats and republicans come back to the hill this week, the confirmation hearing for general joseph dunford who is set to replace general allen, that was scheduled for thursday, as well. and it will go ahead as planned, even though the confirmation hearing has been delayed. >> brianna "the washington post" has a report speculating who may replace secretary of state hillary clinton, and also who may move in to the defense department. what can you tell us about that. >> that's right. so a lot of people, zoraida, as you know, were talking about senator kerry, perhaps he might be someone who would replace hillary clinton. everyone knew that this was a position that perhaps he had his eye on in 2008, and hillary clinton took that position. but, "the post" is reporting that president obama

commander in afghanistan. general john allen now under investigation for alleged flirtatious and inappropriate e-mails sent to jill kelley. the petraeus family friend who unwittingly exposed his affair with paula broadwell. >>> right now general allen's nomination to be the next nato supreme commander in europe is on hold. >>> all three people aboard a piper pa-32 were killed when their plane went down tuesday. look at those pictures. it was shortly after takeoff. this is in jackson, mississippi. the plane slammed into a house, injuring one person on the ground. the owner of the plane says all three men on board the single engine aircraft were pilots and ironically they were heading to an faa safety conference when their plane went down. >>> many new jersey homeowners are already paying the price for hurricane sandy, and they can expect to pay more. republican governor chris christie says residents of towns that require extensive rebuilding efforts can expect to see their property taxes go up. >> there's no ma

taken the economics, you could taken the auto, you could have taken the financial, you could have taken afghanistan, you could have taken iraq. usually, there's an "a," a "b." what happens when all five are as? >> it was basically awful. >> in the months leading up to inauguration, economic adviser austan goolsbee watched in horror as the stock market dropped more than 500 points in a day. >> there was a bottle of bourbon sitting there in the campaign. it had been there for a year and a half and i said, man, if there ever was a day to have a drink of this emergency bourbon, it's today. >> and then it got worse. >> the next day dropped another 500 points. and then late in the campaign, it happens again and somebody says, where's the bourbon? i said, the bottle's empty. >> the emergency bourbon was gone, and the economy was in dire shape. one month before his inauguration barack obama called an urgent meeting during a chicago blizzard. >> the president meets for the first time with all his economic advisers as a group for four hours. everybody in the room is struck with the gravity of the situation.

he had very kind words for general petraeus and his service, not only in afghanistan, iraq, but also at the cia. >> from my perspective, at least, he has provided this country an extraordinary service. we are safer because of the work that dave petraeus has done. and my main hope right now is that he and his family are able to move on and that this ends up being a single side note on what has otherwise been an extraordinary career. >> the president said that at this point, there's no evidence that any classified information was compromised, but when pressed on other details, such as timeline, the president says that this is all part of the fbi investigation. >> all right. dan lothian in washington, thanks so much. >>> it is three minutes past the hour. a major development in the petraeus sex scandal, and it leads back to square one. we now know the identity of the fbi agent who helped start the investigation that eventually led to the former cia director's resignation. he is frederic humphreys ii, he's 47 years old, and a veteran investigator. also, two investigators say paula broadw

and ending the war in afghanistan, so we can... do some nation-building here at home. that's the right path. so read my plan, compare it to governor romney's... and decide which is better for you. it's an honor to be your president... and i'm asking for your vote... so together, we can keep moving america forward. i'm barack obama and i approve this message. soothes you to sleep with ingredients like melatonin. it's safe with no side effects, so you wake up... ready to go. [ male announcer ] unisom natural nights. >>> morning, welcome, everybody, i'm soledad o'brien and you are watching a special election-day edition of "starting point." we're coming to you live from our nation's capital. it is decision day. right now it's 7:00 a.m. on the east coast. the polls are open in a total of 26 states, and in washington, d.c. today millions of americans will vote and choose the next president of the united states. will president obama get four more years? will mitt romney be the next leader of the free world? the best political tv -- team on tv has it covered. >> i'm john berm

and ending the war in afghanistan, so we can... do some nation-building here at home. that's the right path. so read my plan, compare it to governor romney's... and decide which is better for you. it's an honor to be your president... and i'm asking for your vote... so together, we can keep moving america forward. i'm barack obama and i approve this message. >>> welcome back, everybody. just under 18 hours until election day. welcome back to our special coverage coming to you live from washington, d.c. for the candidates it comes down to one word, ohio. both candidates are going to spend part of the day today in that state. they were there yesterday, as well. there are 18 electoral votes up for grabs in ohio. no republican has won the presidency without winning the state of ohio. cnn's latest ohio poll shows president obama with a three-point lead, within the margin of error. rob portman is a republican senator from the state of ohio. he played president obama in mitt romney's debate prep. thank you for talking with us. appreciate it. >> soledad, good to be on with you