you're in "the situation room." their voters no candidate can afford to ignore any longer. and both mitt romney and president obama are reaching out to latinos this week with speeches to a national conference being held near orlando. the president addresses the group tomorrow. mitt romney spoke today. but the presumptive republican nominee has the greater challenge. a gallop poll shows mr. obama with a strong lead among hispanic registered voters. 66% to romney's 24%. but the president's advantage all but disappears in the battleground state of florida where the conference is being held. romney's trailing there by only four points according to a university poll. cnn national political correspondent, jim acosta's on the scene for us right outside orr lan toe. jim, romney spoke about immigration today. how did it go? >> reporter: wolf, a senior romney advisor told me that today's speech was more about laying out broad principles than specific policy proposals. that left some in this democrat-leaning crowd including one undocumented college student who is also an immigration activist feeling disappointed. in a cautious speech to a conference of latino-elected officials, mitt romney held his conservative ground on illegal immigration. the gop nominee pledged to replace the president's recent order that halts the deportation of some younger illegal immigrants with broader reforms. but he offered only a few specifics. >> as president, i won't settle for stopgap measures. i'll work with republicans and democrats to build solution. we may not always agree, but when i make a promise to you, i will keep it. >> reporter: romney noted president obama had campaigned in 2008 on a promise of comprehensive immigration reform but failed to deliver despite having a democratic house and senate for two years. >> he did nothing to advance a permanent fix for our broken immigration system. nothing. instead, he failed to act until facing a tough re-election and trying to secure your vote. >> reporter: as president, romney said he would streamline the immigration process and provide a path to legal status and eventually citizenship for undocumented members of the military. but he took no position on the portion of the dream act that would provide a path to citizenship to illegal immigrants in college. legislation he said during the primaries he would veto. >> the question is if i were elected and congress were to pass the dream act, would i veto it? and the answer is yes. >> reporter: after a speech, romney refused to answer questions about the status of undocumented college students like this woman who said she confronted the gop contender on the issue. >> are you disappointed in that? >> i'm very dis appoiappointed e i want to know what my life's going to be like when he gets elected. i want to know what my family's going to be like if he gets elected. >> reporter: in response to the speech, the obama campaign dubbed romney silent mitt. it's like he's physically incapable of taking a position. romney also steered clear of arizona's controversial immigration law now before the supreme court. a law that was blasted at this democrat-leaning gathering. >> you know what i'm talking about. senate bill 1070 in arizona, hb 56 in alabama, copycat laws in south carolina and georgia. laws that legalize racial profiling. >> i welcome -- >> reporter: but romney wasn't the only republican playing it safe on immigration. former florida governor, jeb bush, showed off his spanish at the conference and then delivered a speech on education. and romney aides stress the gop contender is reviewing other proposals on the immigration like the draft legislation that is being brought up by florida senator marco rubio. that is until he shelled that proposal earlier this week. rubio, like the president, wolf, speaks tomorrow. >> so the general reaction ough from the crowd, what do you think it was to romney's eech? wolf, th applause was polite. it was a polite response, but it was not the kind of thunderous response he gets from really supportive crowds he has out on the campaign trail. but, you know, let it be known a romney campaign aide came up to me afterwards and stressed this was a democratic-leaning crowd. it's a nonpartisan group. it is an organization of latino-elected officials. as you mentioned in the poll numbers at the beginning of this newscast, the vast majority of latinos are on the democratic side, support the president right now. it's no stretch that the vast majority of the democratic leaders here or elected leaders today would be democrats. it was not a hostile response, wolf. there were no boos. but it was, i think, the best way to put it, it was a polite response, wolf. >> jim acosta, thanks very much. nice gesture on his part there to go to that meeting. certainly next month when he goes to the naacp, that's a nice gesture as well even though most of the people there will be supporting the president's re-election. let's dig deeper right now with our chief political correspondent, host of "state of the union," candy kelly. i asked rubio and listen to what he said. >> i think what you're seeing governor romney trying to do is trying to figure out how do we come up with a responsible pro-america, pro-economic growth both humane and compassionate and honors our legacy of immigrants but also understands we do have an illegal immigration problem and we can't be the only country in the world that doesn't enforce immigration laws. i think that's what you saw today from him. not a political speech. not a campaign speech, but a very serious policy speech that i think begins to truly identify the republican party as the pro-legal immigration party. >> the full interview with senator rubio in the next hour. but what do you think of that approach, the gesture he made to the hispanic community today? >> you have to go. we've talked endlessly about what an important demographic this is. he absolutely had to go. and in defense of folks running for president, we don't tend to see the rollout of detailed policy until the fall. that's when they judge the people are paying attention. there's also less time for folks to take hot shots at policy than if you roll it out in the early summer when they look at it and say, look, folks aren't paying attention. so most campaigns roll out detailed policy sort of more towards the fall, the end of summer. so this was an opportunity that mitt romney couldn't miss. is this a game changer for him? no. president obama will win the majority of the hispanic vote. we know that. what mitt romney has to do is to make sure that he gets enough of it that he holds down the president's very large margin at this point and then makes it up some place else. so this is more of, sort of a stopping the hemorrhaging, which really the numbers are enormous. you played them earlier. there's no way he's going to overcome that. but that sort of edge takes decades to overcome. decades. >> but going to a latino meeting like this and the naacp next month, it does reassure a lot of independents out there -- >> absolutely. >> -- he's a decent guy and wants to have an all inclusive. >> absolutely. it wasn't only democratic-leaning. that's a certain democratic group he spoke to. certainly naacp will be. what independents tend to say when you ask them what they don't like about the various parties, what they don't like about the republican party is the idea they have a harsh edge. so this certainly goes some way at least to say i'm willing to listen, i'm going there, trying to reason. >> good point. thanks, candy. >> thanks. >> jack cafferty's here with the cafferty file, jack. >> all right, wolf. so if the 2008 presidential race was an election on steroids, the 2012 race might be on quaaludes? let's face it, the obama/romney faceoff shaping up to be a giant snooze. tough to compete with 2008. remember the fight to the death between barack obama and hillary clinton? the historic matchup of obama against john mccain and the wild card that was sarah palin thrown into that mix? this time around we have mitt romney battling a series of candidates who are hard to take seriously. herman cain, michele bachmann, santorum. now romney seems poised to pick a candidate. after president obama, much of the hope drained out of him after three and a half years. joe biden is about the only interesting thing going for the democratic ticket these days. the critics slam both president and romney of being out of touch with ordinary americans. that's because they are. mr. obama often comes off as ivy league professor and romney businessman. this makes it difficult to june up for the enthusiasm for the contest. where's the fun "where is the shear, heart-pounding, thrill going up the leg tingle that is the hallmark of a u.s. presidential race." simon points out u.s. politics has always been entertaining going back to george washington and abraham lincoln. with that in mind he suggests off the wall tickets that could bring excitement back to the race like hillary clinton, bill clinton, barack obama/michelle obama and last but not least, john edwards, roger clemens. you think we're liars? takes one to know one. here's the question, why is obama/romney so boring? go to cnn.com/caffertyfile and post a comment on my blog. or go to our post on "the situation room" facebook page. wolf. >> you're going to get a lot of comments on that one, jack. get ready. thank you. see you later this hour. we're watching wall street right now where stocks took a major beating today. at the closing bell just a few minutes ago the dow was down more than 250 points. the nasdaq down 70. s&p down 30. all of it can be blamed on fears about the global economy. there was also troubling news emerging today that moody's will likely downgrade some global banks. in the words of one analyst out there that has both traders and investors spooked. four letter words in flashes of nudity, u.s. broadcasters have paid steep fines for them. now the u.s. supreme court has decided whether the government's punishments are legal. plus, the story of president obama's youth and his birth. there's a new version out there with some new revelations, some new contradictions from the president's own memoir. the author will join me here in "the situation room." why not make lunch more than just lunch? with two times the points on dining in restaurants, you may find yourself asking why not, a lot. chase sapphire preferred. how did the nba become the hottest league on the planet? by building on the cisco intelligent network they're able to serve up live video, and instant replays, creating fans from berlin to beijing. what can we help you build? nice shot kid. the nba around the world built by the only company that could. cisco. ♪ what started as a whisper every day, millions of people choose to do the right thing. there's an insurance company that does that, too. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? two major decisions out from the united states supreme court today. one impacting what we all see on television. in an 8 to 0 decision justices rule fcc fines against broadcasters for isolated profanity and sexual content during primetime hours are unfair. and another decision to liberal justices joining the conservative majority in a 7 to 2 ruling against labor unions. let's go in depth with our senior legal analyst, jeffrey toobin. in the supreme court watching this unfold. big day for broadcasters. what does the ruling mean for what can be aired on broadcast tv right now? how far did this go? >> well, unfortunately, wolf, the supreme court on the big issue here kind of punted. as people may remember, nicole richi and cher said some bad words on an awards show. in 2004 the fcc imposed some punishments, some really big fines. this has been kicking around the courts for many, many years. what the supreme court said today was, it was unfair of the fcc to change the rules after the broadcast had been made. they did not address the question of whether the first amendment protects so-called fleeting expletives. bad words that are just sort of said in passing. so on the question that all of us are really interested in, which is whether you can say bad words, they didn't really address that question. they simply said you can't change the rules after the words have been uttered. >> how about the labor unions? they lost their fight over fees for political purposes. how huge of a defeat was this for the labor unions? >> this is another very big defeat for the labor unions. because basically what this case said in a nutshell is, if labor unions want to use dues money, money from members for political purposes and obviously unions care a lot about politics, they have to ask each union member if they want to opt in to the process. previously the unions had said, well, we will let our members opt out, but they will have to take the initiative to opt out. here they have to ask their members to opt in. that in the real world is going to mean unions are going to have less money to spend on politics. and that's very significant. >> were you surprised, two of the liberal justices went along with the majority? >> unions have been doing so badly in the supreme court for so long. it wasn't entirely surprising. but, you know, those two justices didn't fully join the conservatives. so even in this case you saw the usual 5 to 4 split with the 5 republicans against the 4 democrats. the fleeting expletive case was unanimous. it was unusual in that regard. but liberals versus conservatives, that's what we're seeing in the supreme court over and over again. next week, when we finally get health care, arizona immigration, we're looking for those same splits to show up again. >> next week. they got to release their decisions on both of those sensitive issues. health care as well as immigration. thanks. >> got to be done by next thursday. we know that's the end. >> well, they can change their mind if they want to, right? >> well, they really have said that thursday would be the last possible day. they're sitting on monday. it looks like there are too many cases to be resolved just on that one day. so it will probably be monday and one or two other days before thursday. but as for which days and which cases on which days? we don't know. >> you'll be busy. >> we'll be busy. looking forward to it. president obama has a cabinet vacancy to fill and it's because of a bizarre accident. details coming up. and they're used by people in nearly every country in the world, but twitter shut down today. we'll tell you what happened. standby. why not make lunch more than just lunch? with two times the points on dining in restaurants, you may find yourself asking why not, a lot. chase sapphire preferred. oh, yeah? 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[ man ] saw 'em in '83 in fresno. place was crawling with chicks. i got to go. ♪ any way you want it ♪ that's the way you need it ♪ any way you want it ♪ president obama's losing a member of his cabinet. lisa sylvester's monitoring that and some of the other top stories in "the situation room" right now. lisa, tell our viewers what happened. >> commerce secretary john bryson resigned. he told president obama in a letter he's stepping down because of a seizure he suffered two weeks ago. the seizure was linked to his involvement in a couple auto accidents in california. bryson's deputy, rebecca blank, will continue to serve as acting. and jury is now deliberating in sandusky case. he faces 48 criminal counts. during closing argument sandusky's defense attorney, joe amendola, noted inconsistencies in the testimony of a former grad student saying he apparently saw sandusky sod miezing a boy in a shower. sandusky did not testify in his own defense. and the u.s. coast guard is searching for this south florida millionaire whose boat washed ashore in ft. lauderdale. the boat was found yesterday with the navigation lights and engine still on. an employee said he went out on the boat early tuesday evening and that was the last time anyone saw him. he's a philanthropist given millions of dollars to jewish and israeli charities. and twitter was down for little over an hour today. the outage began just after noon here in the east with intermittent service returning shortly before 1:00. it was the longest since last october 7th which occurred during a month of hundreds of brief outages. i know that you are quite the man on twitter now with what is it more than half a million followers? >> i do. #wolfblitzer. >> i'm one of your followers. >> thank you. and i you too. >> this is something twitter has been having a problem with. this is not the first time this has happened. we mentioned the month of october it happened several times. it's a glitch i think they're going to have to fix. hopefully we'll find out more of the why about why this has been happening, wolf. >> at lsylvester. >> it's not long enough. >> 40 characters. >> that's the problem. >> follow me. and follow wolf too. >> of course. i'll talk with author david maraniss about his biography on the president. and newly revealed video and audio tapes leading up to trayvon martin's killing. we're going to learn what george zimmerman told police. 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