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CNNW Starting Point January 30, 2012



waste of an all-star game. >> you've gotten seconds. >> it's flag football. that would be more entertaining. >> we'll see what else is coming up. state stay tight. >> we'll wait for that. all right. "starting point" this morning we're talk tath florida primary which, of course, is tomorrow. it could be a tiebreaker in the gop race for the nomination. you know there's been three contests with three different winners. santorum won iowa eventually, then it was mitt romney won new hampshire, then newt gingrich who won the state of south carolina. now florida, could end all there, couldn't it? >> no, no, no. >> that was a facetious question. it's not going to send it all because newt gingrich said he's going to the end and ron paul says he's going to the end and santorum said he's going to the end. >> interesting. >> yes, it is. florida is nobody's home state. population is diverse. often they divide the state into four, sometimes three, sometimes five different blocks. the one thing that unites everybody in the state of florida is this economic downturn which has crushed the housing market there. this morning we are joined by republican congressman webster of florida, he is in orlando. he has not yet endorsed a candidate. mr. webster, i'm going to have to put you on hold for a second to fix my awed your because i cannot hear a thing. if you will stand by i'm going to ask these guys to fix my awedee, please. question for mr. webster when he comes back -- and i can hear him, is to look at these latest polls. you can work on it while we're doing this. everybody, this is phil who is fixing my audio this morning. he's the most important man right and even more than reporter land and more than will cain. >> i should have gotten dressed today. >> the only man i really love. oh, look at that. audio. audio, i hear you. okay. i didn't even get to my fist question with the panelist. mr. webster, congressman, thank you for joining us. apologies apologies. can i start with you with a poll, if i can. american research group, when you pop it up you can see that mitt romney is leading in the poll by 43% followed by newt gingrich at 32% and santorum and ron paul finish out that race there. this is a poll that is similar to two other polls. very similar numbers. what do you think is happening here? >> well, i think, like you said, this state is far more diverse than the other three states they've had primaries in. you have to build coalitions and seems like mitt romney has done the best at doing that. you can't rely on one little group or two or three. you have to have a coalition of people and you have to have a broad message and his seems to be the broadest right now. at least it's picking up steam, picking up traction. >> and sometimes a nasty message, to be blunt. i think you would agree with me. let me show you the chunk of the attacks that happened over the weekend. let's listen. >> i just think it would be very, very clear, increasingly over the next few weeks. this party is not going to nominate somebody who is a pro-abortion, pro-gun control, pro-tax increase. look, it's not going to happen. >> i think for each of us if we fail somewhere, if we fail in a debate or fail to get support of people, it's time to look in the mirror. my own view is the reason speaker gingrich has had a hard time in florida, the people of florida have watched the debates and listened to the speaker and said, you know what, mitt romney is the guy we're going to support. >> everyone says they're going to stay in for the time being. do you think this damages the party? >> well, i don't like to see people shooting at each other. i think barack obama is the person that we would like to beat in the general election and that's where their focus ought to be. >> okay. we'll move on from there. orlando, tell me about orlando. lots of latinos or in your part of florida. the stories that i've done in orlando focus mainly on the largely port to puerto rican population. when people talk about latinos, they often talk about immigration. of course, puerto ricans can come to the mainland if they want to. >> sure. you have to remember this area relies on construction. that's mapart of the economy that's down. unemployment rate around latinos is 15%, 16%. it's a big concern to them. in the end, pro family, pro life, but also they want a job and i think that message has got to be the message that these candidates put forth is, what am i going to do about the economy in florida? >> congressman, this is maria cardona. how are you? >> great. >> tlvs a poll that came out from about latino mothers. it's going to be a major swing vote in this election. in florida, 40% of self identified gop latino moms say that none of the candidates are acceptable. among the ones that are going to be voting, mitt romney is on top. how do these candidates speak to this very important electorate, which is latino mothers? >> well, i think the point is here that the general election has not started. once we have a candidate i think things change, the message gets clear and the differences become more strident or separated. i think that's the key. the time to go after the -- that vote is going to be probably in the general election. to me, pick marco rubio. >> congressman roland -- >> you're not the only person who has thought of that sir. >> congressman, roland martin here. you said you don't like seeing candidates take a shot at each other here. the reality is, this is why you go through a primary. don't you want them to show their medal and prove that they're the best candidate to face obama in the fall otherwise you don't know what you get come november. >> well, i think the charges are a little bit sticky when they become personal. i think some degrees it's become personal. that's what we don't -- stick to the issues. >> one has called the other liar. the other one has called the other one a liberal. those things, talking about sticky. congressman, daniel webster, do i have time to ask you a quick question about the budget. he gave almost a million dollars from your budget. you could see that two ways. one, the budgets are bloated if you have an extra million dollars to give back or on the other hand maybe you're doing the right thing with belt tightening. everybody could find some money in their budget. which is it, do you think, sir? >> everybody can do more with lessor at least the same with less. i proved that when i was in legislature, speaker of the house, saved 20% of the legislative budget and i haven't chinged here. to me there's only a few things that i can't do -- or can do that don't require a majority vote in the house and senate and signature of the president and this is one of them, and i did it. >> congressman daniel, nice to see you, stir. my apologies for the audio difficulties. i blame phil. just kidding you, phil. joint blame you at all. >> giving money back is so rare because in d.c. they say never give it back because you might not get it back. >> in business they say that generally, if minute you give money back in budget they think you don't need it. >> it's symbolic and could work for the voters but more importantly they want to see what you're going to be doing for them, not just give the money back but in terms of policies and politics. >> will cain, do you think this is damaging, all this name sort of mud slinging? do you think this ruling is positiving a moment ago that actually it's a good practice for the general election? >> i tend to agree with roland on this. >> of course you do, will. no shock there. >> my dirty little secret. i actually agree with him more often than he would like to believe. it's a good vetting process. you're putting the candidates through a process that they're going to have to deal with the issues now that are going to come back from barack obama -- >> independents are at stake and they're all sitting there and saying -- >> i'm so sick of hearing about, oh, can we please cater and please hold the independents. i am. they just -- look, they're -- >> i didn't -- >> over estimate how many of them are paying attention right now. i'm going to tell you that, too. >> you think -- you call someone a liar and a liberal and voters everywhere who may be the growing independent voters who will be critical in the election will say, oh, yeah, that's all just politics. who cares? >> yes. >> here's the thing, a lot of republicans point to the democratic primary 2008 between hillary and barack obaobama. here's the different. hillary and obama had passionate followers. none's this candidates have passionate followers. >> people were engaged, engaged. >> girls against boys, this morning as my kids like to say. all right. we've got other headlines this morning to get to. christine romans, good morning. >> good morning, soledad. the mayor of oakland, california, says they plan to seek monetary damages from occupy protesters after a violent confrontation with police this weekend. more than 400 people were arrested there. protesters broke into city hall, breaking windows, damaging structure, stealing and burping american flags. officials say city hall will be open for business this morning. d-day for occupy protesters in d.c. they gave them until noon to clear out two camps near the white house or arrested. a youtube video captured police tazering one d.c. protester yesterday. take a look. >> i have done nothing wrong! i have done nothing wrong! >> all right. in florida, a dense smoke advisory is still in effect this morning. 24 hours after a deadly chain reaction pile-up on interstate 75 near gainesville. ten people were killed. nearly 20 injured there. authorities say zero visibility conditions were caused by smoke and fog from a brush fire that may have been arson. it could take up to ten months to remove the wrecked costa concordia cruise ship from the italian coast. rough seas forced another suspension of recovery operations. so far 17 people confirmed dead, 15 are still missing. and robert gibbs back on the president's payroll. reports say the former white house press secretary has been named strategic consultant for president obama's re-election effort. gibbs has been informally involved in the obama 2012 campaign since may. minding your business this morning. concerns about greece's debt problems push world markets lower this morning. u.s. stock futures pushing toward a lower open this u.s. as well. europe, more corporate earnings, big january jobs report comes out friday in the u.s. and facebook buzz. wow. facebook could be filing to go public maybe as soon as later this week. that's according to the "wall street journal." it would be the largest tech ipo in history. facebook looking to raise $10 million. that would value the company between 75 and $100 billion. the facebook buzz, we know it's going to be sometime earlier this year, right, soledad, but everybody wants to know when the this holy grail of ipos happens. >> everybody will be watching it. even people who don't wear about that kind of stuff. >> they will be watching it even though it's people and crying in their soup. that would be all of us. anyway, ahead this morning, we're going to take you behind the bin laden raid. secretary of defense leon panetta said pakistan had to know that bin laden was there. also, it's endorsement number two from herman cain. remember, he endorsed we the people. >> the people. >> if you hold out, he will endorse you eventually. he's going to join us by phone to explain his change of heart because now he's endorsing newt gingrich. and this story, roland loves this story. man buys super bowl tickets, going to propose to his girlfriend and then she dumps him after he is diagnosed with cancer. but, but, but, but it gets worse. wait to hear what she would like now. that's our "get real" straight ahead. ♪ [ female announcer ] life is full of little tests, but bounty basic can handle them. in this lab demo, bounty basic is stronger than the leading bargain brand. everyday life. bring it with affordably priced bounty basic. in your breakfast cereal, what is? now, in every box of general mills big g cereal, there's more whole grain than any other ingredient. that's why it's listed first. get more whole grain than any other ingredient... just look for the white check. delicious gourmet gravy. and she agrees. with fancy feast gravy lovers, your cat can enjoy the delicious, satisfying taste of gourmet gravy every day. fancy feast. the best ingredient is love. when we were determined to see it through. here's an update on the progress. we're paying for all spill related clean-up costs. bp findings supports independent scientists studying the gulf's environment. thousands of environmental samples have been tested and all beaches and waters are open. and the tourists are back. i was born here, i'm still here and so is bp. forty years ago, he wasn't looking for financial advice. back then he had something more important to do. he wasn't focused on his future. but fortunately, somebody else was. at usaa we provide retirement planning for our military, veterans and their families. now more than ever, it's important to get financial advice from people who share your military values. for our free usaa retirement guide, call 877-242-usaa. welcome back. new revealing claims from defense secretary leon panetta about osama bin laden raid in pakistan. no evidence right now to support it but panetta says someone in pakistan's government must have known about bin laden's hideout. here's what he said to cbs last night. >> i personally have always felt that somebody must have had some sense of what was happening at this compound. don't forget, this compound had 18 foot walls around it, 10 foot- in walls in some areas. seven-foot wall on the third balcony of the house. it was the largest cop poumpoun the area. you would have thought somebody would have asked the question, what the hell is going on there. >> good question. peter brooks is the former deputies is assistant of defense, heritage foundation. he nines our panel this morning. he's almost -- he is actually, panetta, that is, laughing when he says, you know, someone had to know that it's absurd to even think that that wouldn't be the case. do you think that's true? >> i think it's true, but i also think his words are quite careless, soledad. >> why? >> i don't know what purpose it served at all in revealing that now so many months later. u.s.-pakistani relations are in a terrible state. i'm not sure they could go any lower except a complete break in the relation spshiprelationship >> there was some backpedalling from it from the pentagon. press secretary george little made this saimt. in an interview with 60 minutes several months ago secretary a net that made clear his belief that osama bin laden had some kind of support network within pakistan. he had indicated in the same interview that he has no evidence that bin laden was supported by the pakistani government or that senior pakistani officials knew he was hiding in this compound. do you think that now it's time to back ped from this? >> i think they are. i don't think they can. i'm sure nobody in pakistan in the government or among the populous heard the fact that there's no evidence of this. i concur with secretary panetta but i'm not sure -- i think it was a mistake to go ahead and say this once again to a national audience when we're trying to oh we you've got to remember, soledad, that the supply routes through pakistan are still closed, that we want them to deal with the akani network and taliban and al qaeda that's growing in the tribal areas of pakistan. we want their help with afghanistan. i'm not sure why saying this now would have been at all helpful. i think diplomacy is what is needed. time to allow the relationship to heal a bit because we still have a lot of very, very important issues on the table. i don't know why he rei'd rated what he may have said previously. >> you were also frustrated in may when there was detail coming out about this raid. i know you blame the white house for that. do you agree with that? >> i wrote about that in the new york post kol klcolumn and i ha former background in intelligence field. despite the desire, the real intense desire of the american people to know all the very interesting details of how these things are, i'm always very concerned about exposing sources and methods of intelligence. you know, how our special forces ops did this sort of thing. they're going to have to do it again. i mean, they just had to do it in somalia. we don't want to tip people off about how we do things. the other thing is this doctor. i'm not sure why this doctor information was revealed, this doctor was supposedly helping us, wittingly or unwittingly with getting dna samples to prove that osama bin laden was in that compound. now he's been arrested. why was that information revealed to the public? it certainly, i would seem to me, certainly gave the pakistanis a lead in arresting him. i have to be very, very cautious about this, despite the need to know of the american people about some things, there are some details of intelligence operations and assets that should not be revealed because of people's security. >> here's what leon panetta said about that doctor. let's play that. >> i'm very concerned about what the pakistanis did with this individual. this was an individual who, in fact, helped provide intelligence on -- that was very helpful with regards to this operation. and he was not in any way treasonist towards pakistan. he was not in any way doing anything that would have u undermined pakistan in. as a matter of fact, if pakistan -- i always said this. pakistan and the united states have a common cause here against terrorism. >> what do you think is the strategy here by going public? is it try to protect the doctor now that he's in custody? >> trying to put pressure on them but i think things are so bad with u.s. and pakistan right now that it's not going to help at all. i do want to give panetta some credit because last may he did come out and say a lot of things that were revealed about the osama bin laden operation was wrong. he said that we all agreed in the situation room, i'm trying to remember here, i can't give you the exact quote, he said that none of this stuff was going to be revealed and a lot of things did get revealed. i think he tried to wash his hands of it last may. now he's trying to once again help this doctor out. i don't want to armchair quarterback this too much, soledad, but my view is, if this person was helping us in getting osama bin laden he and his family probably should left pakistan about the time the operation went down to get to -- ensure his security. now we have this person who helped the united states, who helped the world by, you know, going against osama bin laden here, whether wittingly or unwittingly, and now he may face some very dire consequences in pakistani custody. >> nice to see you. thanks for talking with us. we certainly appreciate it. interesting. >> the story of this pakistani doctor is fascinating. he was supposedly goingen under guides of giving vaccinations house to house where bin laden was hiding. and now it's revealed he was working as an intelligence source of the united states. that doctor is now under arrest, probably undergoing torture. he's been under arrest for quite some time in pakistan. i know pakistan has law working for an foreign agency. the fact that this doctor has been held for so long, probably not under friendly circumstances, contributes to this question, is pakistan our friend or our foe. it lnds the question, did they know something about where bin laden was hiding? ahead this morning, a verdict reached in the canada honor murders. three afghan men found guilty of killing four female relatives. what does this case reveal about the cl

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