>> that's not why we're playing it. that's a healthy ego. >> you got to go with the joke. >> i know. we're just teasing. >> just want to honor my man. >> this is in honor of don cornelius. we announced his death yesterday. soul train, did you watch "soul train" ever? am i right, saturday morning? >> did you pass by the channel or actually stop? >> we have a lot to get to. let me introduce our panel to you will cain, john fugelsan, i mangle your name all the time. soledad o'brien -- >> that's cuban irish. >> roland martin is back, as well. all right, take it down. here we go. let's get to our starting point this morning which is mitt romney. yesterday should have been the victory lap, the victory lap. >> but then you had to come in. >> i did nothing but ask a question and a follow up. here's what he said in my interview yesterday morning. >> i'm in this race because i care about americans. i'm not concerned about the very poor. we have a safety net there. if it needs a repair, i'll fix it. i'm not concerned about the very rich. they're doing just fine. i'm concerned about the heart of america, the 95% of americans who are struggling and i'll continue to take that message across the nation. >> i know i said last question, but i'm not concerned about the very poor because they have a safety net and i think there are lots of poor americans who are struggling who would say, that sounds odd. can you explain that? >> well, you had to finish the sentence, soledad. i said, i'm nate concerned about the very poor that have a safety net, but if it has holes in it, i will repair them. >> mr. romney tried to clarify onboard his airplane charter plane what he said. here's what he said. >> my focus and the area that i think is the greatest challenge that the country faces right now is not to focus our effort on how we help the poor as much as to focus our effort on how to help the middle class in america and get more people in the middle class and get people out of being poor and becoming middle income. >> is that tripling down? let's get to mark mckeon who is joining our panel. contributor to "newsweek" former adviser to george w. bush and senator mccain. nice to have you joining our battle. i have never been on fox, msnbc and my own channel and all the evening newscasts in my 25 years as a journalist. yesterday was the day. big misstep? >> that reflects how big a story it is. it is the story everyone is talking about. the big problem for mitt romney, this should have been his biggest and best day of the campaign so far where he was going to leverage his big win in florida instead of a message about why he won and how he will carry that forward, the message became all about your interview and his characterization of the poor. so, it really stepped on his message. it was a huge buzz kill. >> how do you fix that? you had to do that, right? part of your gig has been to help people fix missteps. what would you advise for him? >> the real problem for romney is that this reflects that there has been a real success from the obama team and president obama and focusing their message and getting traction on the middle class. they're in his head on the whole issue of the middle class and that's why there was this unforced error. strategically this game has shifted to the terrain of the middle class. so, the romney campaign has got to stop fixating on the obama strategy and message and get refocused on their message. so, right now the obama camis in their head, their message is in their head and that's why this whole campaign is recalibrated. you could say republicans were running away with this race and win big and now i think it's absolutely a jump ball. >> mark, it was interesting, yesterday when we wedid that interview will cain was like, that's bad. that's bad. and, you know, i want to play it because it was interesting to see both conservatives and liberals jump on this. let me play a little chunk first and then i'll talk to you on the other side. >> let me just say something here. i am fed up with politicians in either party dividing americans against each other. >> yeah! >> i am running to be the president of all the american people and i am concerned about all of the american people. the founding fathers met the very poor who they called americans. >> that was newt gingrich taking an opportunity. rush limbaugh also on his show said "he comes across as the protootypical rich republican." >> the mistake, i'd love to hear mark's feedback on this. yesterday was a mistake. it will be abused politically. people like roland and john will turn mitt romney into ebenezer scrooge that hates rich people. >> a little dig. >> wow. >> i'm just preempting you. >> clearly. >> the true mistake, mark hinted at it, was several months ago. it was in the campaign planning when he decided to adopt this class language. it put him in position where he would inevitably make that mistake. mark, isn't that when the mistake was made? >> that's exactly right. that just testifies, again, to this notion that the obama campaign really kind of turned strategically and really got traction on the idea of this middle class squeeze and how the pie is divided rather than expanding the pie and romney just took that hook and that's the problem now it's become all about the obama message rather than the romney message. romney has to get back on his message and focus on expanding the pie rather than how the pie is divided. >> roland martin here. when george w. bush ran for president and a lot of that spoke to the poor. that came on the heels of newt gingrich, people, especially white suburban women felt he was demonizing the poor and minorities and, so, is this clearly that mitt romney cannot reach out to that wing of the gop with this kind of comment and understand how you pull those two together? >> that's a great point, roland. and, really, emphasizes where the problem is. the reason george w. bush was successful, he expanded the notion of what the republican electorate was like and demographics by reaching out with a message of compassion, and conservatism. that attracted conservative democrats like me at the time to join the republican party and support then governor bush. mitt romney is narrowing the scope and reinforcing the image of the national party that is elite, out of touch and that's why he's having such problems with independent voters. those numbers have flipped. unless the republicans are turn that around, they cannot win this election. >> you know, i want to condemn you, soledad, for getting these gotcha direct quotes out of mitt romney, shame on you. i find that refreshing. i also think this is a great chance for people of faith to bring this into the debate because as long as these candidates are throwing jesus around like a frisbee, let's talk about what christ said to the least of my people because he thought they mattered. >> i just want to say, mark, he complimented my interview and will's comment. and we are moving on. >> he is a texan. there may be a potential end in sight for the u.s.-led combat mission in afghanistan. leon panetta said the u.s. and nato plan to shift to a training and advisory role by next year. some people are saying it's prumature, though. let's get to barbara starr, she's live for us this morning. barbara, earlier i was listening to you talk about this and this is military and policy kind of colliding. >> it is, soledad. not a big surprise inside the pentagon that the nato alliance had already agreed, it would end all operations in afghanistan at the end of 2014. they wanted to have several months to beef up training to afghan forces. sounds an awful lot like iraq. what panetta is saying, combat would end he hopes by the end of next year, 2013, they spend most of the rest of the time training afghan forces. not a surprise, but a surprise that he came out and said it so publicly. he really threw nato for a loop that he came out and said this. they weren't quite ready to announce it. so, now, a bit of diplomatic maneuvering to move the alliance and maneuvering with the afghans and some fundamental military questions at hand here. can the afghans really look after their own security, are you just giving the taliban a deadline? >> the military leaders, petraeus, admiral mullein, they both have used the words, aggressive and incur more risk, i mean, to some degree, it sounds like military leadership and i think that was back in february. i get the time has passed. don't sound like they're 100% behind this strategy. >> well, i think what the real issue is, is they need to have, they need to get the afghans trained and looking after their own security. theirs has been a decade of war. economically unsustainable and militarily unsustainable. they have to get out of afghanistan. you can't stay there forever. but these challenges and pakistan right next door, the safe haven for al qaeda and the taliban. the u.s. will pack up and go, but what will be the state of affairs when they do that? will afghanistan be able to look after itself? if it cannot, does that pose a threat to the united states? >> barbara starr at the pentagon for us. thank you. we'll talk to general wesley clark ahead in our next hour about strategy there in afghanistan. other headlines making news. christine romans has those for us. >> good morning, soledad. a rescue mission off the coast of new guinea and 240 people were pulled from the water after a ferry boat sank there. australian authorities say 350 people were onboard that passenger ship. some fireworks on capitol hill today. that's when fed chairman ben bernanke reports to congress on the state of the american economy. he'll testify before the house budget committee, republicans have been critical, very critical of the fed's efforts to bring the economy back. bernanke's likely to say the slow improving economy needs more help from the fed, not less and cutting the deficit too quickly could backfire. "minding your business" now the dow, s&p 500, nasdaq all slightly lower right now ahead of the opening bell. legendary boxing trainer anglo dundee has died, george foreman, sugar ray leonard. he was 90 years old. a windfall for planned parenthood taking $400,000 in donations right after the top breast cancer charity pulled its funding. the founder of the susan g.komen foundation said they pulled it not due to political pressure. >> as we move forward, we will implement these new strategies which will allow us to serve even more women. we will never bow to political pressure. we will always stand firm in our goal to end breast cancer forever. and who would newt gingrich cast to play himself in the hollywood story of his life? gingrich says, wait for it, everyone, brad pitt. brad pitt as newt gingrich. can you see it, soledad? >> we're trying to figure out if he's kidding. >> dude, jack black, would you stop it. >> okay. you know what i'm going to say about that, christine. moving on -- >> roland martin is already busy, so he can't do it. mitt romney's comments that he made to me yesterday on the poor was also picked up by "daley show" when you're on the show as a reporter, it's a bad, bad thing. not last night, but often. but not last night. >> mitt romney won big in florida cementing his frontrunner status and today was on to the morning shows for a quick little victory lap. >> by the way, i'm in this race because i care about americans. i'm not concerned about the very poor, we have a safety net there, if it needs repair, i'll fix it. i'm not concerned about the very rich, they're doing just fine. >> did you suggest that you don't need to suggest about the very rich because they're fine, but also equivalently the very fine because they're okay, too. the reason the net is there is they are not okay. it's like a doctor going, you know, i'm not very concerned about the very healthy because they're fine or the very sick, because, you know, morphine. you know what i'm saying. maybe i heard it wrong. i could have heard it wrong. obviously, did that sound weird to anybody else? >> you just said, i'm not concerned about the very poor because they have a safety net, i think there are lots of very poor americans who are struggling who would say, that sounds odd. can you explain that? >> tv news person just heard what candidate said and then stopped him and made him explain himself, like a flower blooming in the desert. quick, someone dig that up and get it away from cnn before one of their monitors falls and crushes it! >> you have to finish the senten sentence, soledad. i'm not concerned about the very poor that have a safety net with holes in it. >> you have to see -- that opening line, in terms of, you know, i'm not concerned about them, but, are they really american? and, also, this whole 90, 95% middle class. 15.3% of the country is in poverty. 22 grand for a family of four. mitt might want to go check the math and understand the number of people out there who are having a difficult time. and the last thing, how is the middle class moved? all of a sudden you swear the people make up the middle class in this country. >> should have been, could have been a victory lap and it was not. >> great job, soledad. >> thank you. >> go tell tom i said, hey. >> roland just gets up and leaves in the middle of our show. just all chaos here in the morning on "starting point." ahead this morning facebook ipo getting an inside look at facebook's finances and they are stunningly great, but can we benefit from this ipo. that's what i want to know. we'll ask our next guest about that. a texas teenager was mistakenly deport eddeported. she will join us with her mom right here on our set. from jimmy to freddie to sam sammy, get real. and we're honoring don cornelius this morning. he's the founder of "soul train" with the music from the acts he made famous. we're going to play the music of the people he gave their careers a boost. here's luther vandross, the man i love, with "power of love." this new at&t 4g lte is fast. hey. did you guys hear... ...that mary got engaged? that's so 42 seconds ago. thanks for the flowers guys. 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[ speaking chinese ] [ male announcer ] stay a step ahead with the 4g lte galaxy s ii skyrocket. only from at&t. ♪ ♪ where the sun never goes out ♪ ♪ and the sky is deep and blue ♪ ♪ won't you take me american flight 280 to miami is now ready for boarding. ♪ there with you fly without putting your life on pause. be yourself. nonstop. american airlines. thank you, donna summer, for recognizing that. i am playing this for john cornelius. she was a huge, huge hit. a first look into the inner workings of facebook because, of course, they're going public. here's what we know. facebook reported earning a billion dollars on sales of $3.7 billion in 2011. 845 million active users each month and the company says they turned a prof it in 2009, five years after they were founded. they will use symbol fb. henry joins us and christine romans is standing by, as well. let's start with you, henry. i thought it was so interesting the actual number of users because i think we were all guesstimating around 500 million and it's much higher. >> this company started in a dorm room seven years ago half use it every day. it is just shocking. >> if i want to go out and get facebook stock, is it possible? >> it's possible, but probably too late. people have been talking about facebook stock for years, you had your chance a couple years ago. it trades on the public market but now we have a sense of where it should trade when it goes public and probably a lot of the opportunity is gone, unfortunately. >> you are allowed to click like on it. >> that gets me no actual cash at the end of the day. the big ones, groupon and then google back in 2004 and linkedin, how does this compare to those? >> facebook is going public at a much more mature state. seven years old, $4 billion of revenue last year, a billion of earnings. it is much bigger than google was. going public as a mature company. unfortunately for everyone who wants to jump in the ipo, that takes away from the upside. the time to get in was a few years ago when they fiercely resisted going public. if it's priced reasonably, there should be some upside. >> christine, we just showed google and groupon and linkedin and with the exception of groupon, which was pretty recent, you did well if you got in and got stock early on. what are the expectations for facebook? >> this company has a lot to prove, i'll be honest with you. 85% of its revenue comes from advertising and a lot of consumer groups and people like you and me, we don't want to see changes to our facebook and to privacy. but hedge fund managers and people who own facebook might have different ideas on how this company should make money. so, the thing here is that facebook has so much to prove, i mean, the way i see it right now, it's priced for perfection, everyone is assuming this is going to be a new google, but a sign of a new tech bubble. what can this company do to really grow? right now it has a billion dollars in profit last year. that compared with $25 billion for a very mature, no question, a very mature microsoft and this company has a lot of growing to do to be in the big leagues. >> let me ask henry that, is it -- whatever, does it look like there could be a tech bubble? the other side said they haven't leveraged the opportunity yet. 85% of their revenue coming from advertising. they haven't pushed that to make a revenue yet. >> a wide difference of reasonable opinion of what the stocks are. everyone will look. >> what do you think it's worth? >> $50 billion to $75 billion, which is whell below what peopl were expecting a couple weeks ago. a lot of people will say, oh, no, you have yet to see what they have yet to invent and those folks will probably be the ones that drive it to insane levels on the first day, but markets tend to settle in and i think it will probably settle in around 75. >> henry, appreciate it. christine, always appreciates when you jump in. phil the groundhog, punxsutawney phil -- >> can anybody hear that without thinking of bill murray? >> it's what made punxsutawney phil the most famous of the groundhogs around the nation and around the world. i'll bring you up to speed on those stories straight ahead. stay with us. this is an rc robotic claw. my high school science teacher made me what i am today. our science teacher helped us build it. ♪ now i'm a geologist at chevron, and i get to help science teachers. it has four servo motors and a wireless microcontroller. over the last three years we've put nearly 100 million dollars into american education. that's thousands of kids learning to love science. ♪ isn't that cool? and that's pretty cool. ♪ you know what -- >> that didn't come from this side of the table. >> can we get back to don cornelius. >> we are talking about groundhog day and the myth that stretches back centuries, literally centuries but kept alive by punxsutawney phil who just moments ago made his forecast and we have six more weeks of winter. >> more mildness. >> wow, that's not a cute little -- >> but, phil, aapparently, not alone. of course, people around america now come dressed in like these crazy costumes and they break out their own little phil-like groundhogs because they want to cash in on the tradition. it's incredible. you have general bo regard lee -- there's a groundhog he lives in a game ranch that is outside of atlanta. staten island chuck. past years, he's just a tougher groundhog. past years have been, hey, hey, hey, past years there have been groundhogs named sutton sammy, there's been