they arrived. and they found rodney king at the bottom of his swimming pool. the officers jumped into the pool and removed him and began cpr with mr. king. mr. king was unresponsive. rialto fire department paramedics arrived on scene and immediately transported him to the arrowhead regional medical center where he was later pronounced dead at about 6:11 this morning. >> we are joined on the phone now by "los angeles times" columnist pat morrison. pat, thanks for joining us. basically, this was a californian who was clocked by police as speeding. they tried to pull him over. it led to a car chase, topping speeds of over 100 miles an hour. when he was finally stopped, there was a brutal beating, a fight was then tape-recorded by someone who was watching and then led to a year-long tension in los angeles. i wonder if you can put this death and this man's life into perspective as far as history is concerned of race relations. >> i spent a lot of time with rodney king at the end of april, the anniversary of the riots. and here was a collision of an unlikely person with the course of history. it's just kind of a happy-go-lucky ne'er-do-well guy. he had had his own problems with the law already. and the fact that there was a video camera recording this resonated with so many people in the black community who thought this happens all the time, but finally the rest of the world gets to see it. and that was the resonance of the rodney king case. and he was a big guy, but even he acknowledged that his shoulders maybe weren't big enough to bear the burden of that history. >> he also had, while the riots were ongoing and the deadliest riots, i think, in l.a. history, said the famous phrase "can't we all just get along?" and it was his attempt -- in fact, it occurs to me he was crying at the time because these riots were so awful as so many people died in them. that he was this unlikely player in a much larger story. >> he was. and he said that his lawyers -- he told me his lawyers had written the script for him, but he said he wasn't going to read that. this was very spontaneous. he said growing up he went to jehovah's witness hall around latinos and asian people, and they were working together. and that, he said, is where he got that "can we all just get along" speech. >> pat, this life just never came together. as you sort of alluded to. this was a man who sort of was in and out of trouble after that. and i think cnn also did some work on the anniversary. he also talked about having a drug problem that he still had yet to beat. >> he had a drug problem. i think he had pretty much done a good job with that, but he drank. he enjoyed fishing and drinking and those happy-go-lucky pursuits that he was still doing in his 40s. he had talked often about being stopped by police officers who would see his name, or if he didn't have his driver's license, which was often the case, find out it was rodney king, and they'd just think oh, boy, i pulled over rodney king? so he did get a bit of a pass on some of those things. >> and let's talk a little bit about the riots that were ensued. this was a year later, a year after the police officers were found not guilty of wrongdoing. and it sparked days of riots in l.a. and as far as i know, are they not the deadliest riots in l.a. history? >> i believe they are. i believe they are. there's something more than 50 people killed. the exact number, i think, was never found. and it really exposed a lot of fissures in cultures and ethnic divisions in the city and showed for a lot of people who are unaware of it how angry people still were, and it changed forever, the way the los angeles police department does business. >> and pat, if i could as a final question, what is the legacy of rodney king, do you think, to history to race relations? >> we talked about this. and one cop told him once, you know, 100 years after the rest of us are dead and gone, people are going to know your name. his name is a symbol of somebody who was victimized by a corrupt system. and he never really thought of himself as that when people compare him to, say, rosa parks. he was simply abashed by it. but the name rodney king is going to resonate for a long time as a watershed in the history of the city and even in this country with race relations and police conduct. >> patt morrison of "the l.a. times," thanks so much for helping us put this in perspective. >> my pleasure. >> cnn, of course, will continue to follow the details of this story. today, 2013 through 2017 -- >> i ask you to stand with me for a second term as president. >> what would obama phase two look like with senior white house adviser david plouffe. and ten -- >> he's been president for 3 1/2 years. and talk is cheap. >> sizing up mitt romney with former republican presidential hopeful rick santorum. plus, days away from a supreme court decision which could gut the health care law. is there a plan "b"? doctor and senator john barrasso and congressman chris van holland join us. the economy, immigration and the presidential race with cnn chief white house correspondent jessica yellen and matt bye of "the new york times" magazine. i'm candy crowley, and this is "state of the union." there was a showdown of sorts this week. romney v. obama giving dueling economic speeches in ohio, a campaign hotspot if ever there was one. weakening economic growth following tightening polls, white house adviser said the president would use the speech to reframe his economic argument. he tied mitt romney tightly to george w. bush and outlined his goals. >> that's my vision for america. education, energy, innovation, infrastructure. >> flash back almost four years ago to the day, candidate barack obama. >> it's time for a competitiveness agenda built around education and energy, innovation and infrastructure. >> joining me now is white house senior adviser, david plouffe. david, thanks for being here. let me start with the first big question, which is is the fact that the president is saying virtually the same thing that he said four years ago when he was campaigning a recognition that he has not been able to achieve his goals? >> no, the president laid out this week in a very important speech in ohio the choice facing the country about the right things we need to do to grow the economy, strengthen the middle class. and we have a lot more work to do. we have to rebuild -- >> is that the -- is that your economic message, we have a lot more work to do? >> no, candy. the point is what direction is the country going to take? i think we all would admit the economy needs to strengthen. we have to create a lot more jobs. the question is what's the best way to do that? our approach is let's reduce the deficit in a fair and balanced way. let's have an economy where hard work is rewarded and everybody gets a fair shot. and as we reduce the deficit, we have the ability to invest in things like rebuilding this country, a new energy future, make sure we continue to lead the world in innovation. but the important thing is there's a choice here. governor romney and his allies in congress, they want to go back to the same policies that created the recession. we know that won't work. and so really the american people have to die which direction they want to go. >> so those are goals that he's setting out, but it's not a plan. what does the next four years look like? what's the biggied that people are going to vote on in november? >> well, it is a plan. it's about what the right way to get $4 trillion in deficit reduction. >> but you've had had four years to do that. >> first of all, we've accomplished a lot. obviously, education reform, a lot of progress on energy, health care reform. we've cut taxes for the average middle-class person, $3600. so we need to build on that. so the plan is an all of the above energy strategy, make sure we take advantage of our resources here, but doubles down on the clean energy future. make sure that we have an education system that's producing the kind of workers and innovators. >> what makes you think that these things you're talking about -- i take it there's no big idea that's different from what you're doing now. it's stay the course. it's a stay the course message. >> these are all big ideas. this is the direction the country needs to go. >> these are big ideas that he has been trying to do for the last four years, right? >> some we've accomplished, some we haven't, some we need more work to do. >> what makes you think you can accomplish in the next four years that you haven't been able to accomplish now? >> first, some of these challenges predate the recession. this isn't just about recovering from the recession. it's about making sure we have more security and stability for the middle class. so this is going to take a long time. >> how do you do that is i guess why people say what's the plan here? >> how do you do it, you focus on education, for instance. we've engaged in a lot of reforms and a lot of republican support. we need to continue to make progress to bring college costs down. energy, we should be able to come together and make sure that we're doubling down on a clean energy policy. >> but you haven't been able to do that. so my question is what's different -- >> candy, that's not right. we've gotten a lot done. this president has led resurge ebs in a clean energy future, education reforms, health care reform, cut taxes for the middle class. so the suggestion we haven't gotten it done, we've got a lot more done. it was amazing this week. there was a story that republicans in congress were openly saying we're going to basically take the rest of the year off. we're not going to do anything to help the economy because we want to help mitt romney. it's remarkable to see at a time of great need in the economy where we can make a huge difference, the president's job proposals, every independent economist said they'd create a million jobs. these members of congress are sitting on their hands. we've gotten a lot done. we need to get a lot more done. this congress is standing in the way. by the way -- >> are you going to get a better congress? >> yeah. well -- >> there's nothing that looks in the cards to me as though somehow there's going to be a big change in the mix of congress. in fact, you might have a republican senate. so why do you think what the president has been proposing since last september has any better chance in february? why isn't there some need to kind of step back and say, look, here's plan "b," let's go with this in the second term. >> let's start with mitt romney's plan "a." the american people have to make a choice. he will rubber stamp the republican agenda which would take us back to the policies of the great recession and do great harm to the middle class and short change our future. by the way, we've gotten a lot done with congress. we've cut taxes, we've done good things for end partrepreneurs l patent reform. the american people said we need to break the stalemate. i think the message that sends is okay -- and you're beginning to see some compromise potential coming out of the republicans. you see more republicans in the senate in particular talking about, well, maybe they'd be open to higher revenues through tax reform. so i do think that how we reduce our deficit, listen. you have republicans and democrats in both parties in both chambers now, more democrats saying they're open to the kind of entitlement reform, more republicans saying they're open to revenues. we have a great deal of confidence. the american people are going to render a verdict on the direction. we're going to make progress on some of these things building on what we've already done. >> let me ask you about the immigration decision that was made friday. and read you something from george washington university law professor jonathan turley who said the president is using executive power to do things congress has refused to do and that does fit a disturbing pattern of expansion of executive power under president obama. in many ways, he has fulfilled the dream of an imperial presidency that richard nixon strived for. this is a president who is now functioning as a super legislator. why did you "a," wait this long to do this? and "b," isn't the appropriate place to make these decisions congress which passes the laws? immigration law, in particular? >> well, first let's start with this is a decision the department of homeland security made. this is -- so that they have the discretion and enforcement so that we focus on criminals, those that cause or could endanger our communities. that's where the focus of our immigration enforcement efforts need to be. these kids who want to serve in our military who are going to college, who are working in our businesses, they now can apply -- this is not a permanent fix, by the way. >> to go around congress is the point. i understand the policy, the reasons for it. >> we'd be happy to sign the dream act tomorrow. >> but there's three branches of government. you know how this works. >> well, this is fully within our ability. again, this was an endorsement discretion decision. so this is not some permanent -- this is not amnesty. this is not citizenship. this gives these hardworking kids who are here through no fault of their own who are going to staff our labs, start our businesses, serve our military, the ability for a two-year period to apply for a work authorization. we need a permanent fix. the only way to do that, where he we agree, is for congress to pass the dream act. romney said he would not pass it. >> as it currently stands, he was looking at a different one that marco rubio was putting up. let me move on. governor romney and some of your democratic friends said there was a political move. you all wanted to infuse some enthusiasm into the latino voting base. >> this is not a political move. this builds on a lot of steps we've already taken. >> you could have done it last year or the year before or the year before that. >> we've been trying to get the dream act done. we've been trying to pass immigration reform. this builds on a series of steps the homeland security department has already taken. again, this gives our law enforcement personnel the ability to have more discretion and to focus the resources where they should be focused, which is on criminals. >> got it. >> which by the way our deport tags numbers amongst criminals are up over 80%. >> you cannot say it was not done with some political consideration. >> it was not. >> five months before the election. >> listen. who knows how the politics will turn out? >> probably pretty good. >> this decision was the right decision. well, we'll see. i've ceased making predictions on things because we'll see how they turn out. >> let me ask you some quick questions about some other issues. are you confident -- can you say right now that no one in the white house leaked any information about the so-called kill list, the cyberspace attack on iranian nuclear facilities or the presence of an al qaeda mole? >> listen. i'm not going to speak specifically about classified information. i think the author of that book has said that, you know, any of this information didn't come to the white house. there's going to be an investigation. >> do you know that, though, for sure? >> there's going to be two united states attorneys who have been appointed by the attorney general, including an appointee. the president has said he has zero tolerance for any leaks. he relies on information. he's got to have the ability obviously to make sure it's secure. so this investigation will be t thorough, and obviously people need to be accountable if they did something wrong. >> thanks for stopping by. happy father's day. rick santorum seems to have warmed up a bit to mitt romney. >> the concern i had -- i did -- i was very frank about it. was that governor romney would track to the middle. >> but this immigration reform issue might complicate things. of buttons on your tablet. isn't it time the automobile advanced? 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[meow!] [meow!] bundling and saving. now, that's progressive. play rocket cat adventures at progressive.com. joining me is former republican presidential candidate rick santorum. greetings. >> thank you, candy. >> good to see you. >> it's great to be here. >> i want to start out with the news of the week of immigration. you said in a written statement, in part, president obama blatantly ignored our constitution, the role of congress in making laws and the separation of powers. this action today -- these actions today are part of a disturbing and arrogant pattern where he believes that this administration knows better than those who we elect to represent us in congress. now i want to play you what mitt romney had to say. >> well, marco rubio said it well when he said we all agree that we've got to find a solution to kids who came here through no fault of their own, but at the same time people are looking for a long-term solution, and not something temporary through a executive order. >> a big tonal difference here between the two of you. are you happy with his answer? >> well, let me say this. my big concern -- what governor romney was addressing more of the substance than he was the actions of the president. >> the process. >> yeah, the process, and to me, the most outrageous thing was the process in which he did it. the president said i will selectively enforce the law in this country. >> i want to get back the mitt romney, but the laws are always selectively enforced. there are lots of times when police overlook a violation of the law because they are looking to do something -- something else. immigration has a huge, you know, number of things on its plate, so why is this a