we begin with the republican's furious assault on president obama's health care reform law and equally determined backlash. mitt romney faced it today going off script after some prolonged boog interrupted his speech before the naacp convention in houston. jim acosta is standing by in the hall right now. jim, show our viewers, tell our viewers, what happened in houston. >> reporter: wolf, naacp leaders told cnn they praised mitt romney for showing what they called courage in coming to this convention today. but safe to say mitt romney did not hide his positions on issues that are dear to the civil rights group. and members of the naacp did not hide their feelings about mitt romney. >> honorable mitt romney this morning is our speaker. [ applause ] >> reporter: at first the applause for mitt romney at the naacp was polite. but that did not last long. when the gop contender pledged to get the national debt under control in part by repealing the president's health care law, the crowd let him have it. >> and so to do that i'm going to eliminate every non-essential expensive program i can find. that includes obama care. and i'm going to work to reform and save -- >> reporter: the boos lasted 15 seconds. the most sustained negative response romney has received in this campaign. the chair of the naacp's national board said members objected to romney's use of the term obama care, a buzz word coined by the critics. >> that was a loaded statement. and the crowd erupted in displeasure. >> they booed. people booed here. >> they absolutely booed. >> reporter: the romney campaign said the reaction came as no surprise. consider the latest gallup survey shows the gop contender trailing president obama by an 87% to 5% margins. romney brought his own numbers. the african-american unemployment rate at 14%, it's well above the national rate. but when he made the case that he's the right candidate to fix that, he was booed again. >> if you want a president who will make things better in the african-american community, you are looking at him. you take a look. >> reporter: romney did hear cheers when he hinted at his opposition to gay marriage. >> i will defend traditional marriage. [ applause ] >> reporter: the outburst did not sit well with everyone in the audience. some naacp members defended their booing. >> he literally came into our house and attacked the issues that are important to us on our turf. >> reporter: you don't regret booing a presidential candidate? >> oh, absolutely not. i was not booing him, but, man, i love all people because i'm a christian. i was booing his agenda. >> reporter: still others said it was embarrassing. >> because i wasn't raised that way. if i invite someone to my house, i treat them like a guest. i respect them. >> reporter: are you a little disappointed that they booed him? >> i was. >> reporter: a romney campaign spokeswoman noted the candidate also got his fair share of applause. just how much applause is in the eye offend beholder. >> three boos out of thunderous applause over and over again, i'll take that. >> reporter: at the end of his remarks mitt romney did receive a standing ovation from about -- we noted to be about half the crowd here in houston at this naacp convention. and mitt romney also got cheers online from conservatives who praised him for not tailoring his message to this much more liberal audience. but, wolf, there was one thing that was made clear today. that is a repeal of obama care -- the repeal of the president's health care law will not go down quietly in a romney administration, i should say. the members of this civil rights group made that very clear today. >> i think it's fair to say though a lot of folks were just pleased that he showed up. that he was there. he came. he paid his respects to the naacp, the oldest civil rights organization in the country. >> reporter: that's right. he could have skipped this event all together. the president is not coming here tomorrow. he's sending vice president joe biden, the white house says the president has a scheduling conflict. so at least mitt romney is coming or did come today. and you have to say, wolf, he did not hide his positions from this group. he basically told them what he would do if he were president of the united states, whether they liked those positions on not. he was pretty straightforward about what he would do. >> jim acosta on the scene for us in houston. thanks for that report. and this just in only a few moments ago, the house of representatives passed a full repeal of the president's health care reform law. it's the 33rd time they voted to kill the law. but aside from scoring some political points, today's vote doesn't really change anything. the debate did provoke plenty of partisan fireworks. >> we have to go repeal health care again for the 31st time. you would have thought the 17th time would be good. maybe the ninth time. 29th time, 31st time, it's like they're going for a record or something. >> our senior congressional correspondent, dana bash, watched all of this unfold on capitol hill. she's joining us now. first of all we have the final vote, right? >> it was 244 to 185, wolf. five democrats switched over and voted with the republicans. a couple of those are retiring. and a few of them are democrats from districts that make it clear that they want to come back here and get re-elected, they need to vote against the president's health care law. as you mentioned, there's certainly not a lot of suspense into what happened today, but there was a lot of drama. >> the screen for five minutes. >> reporter: if it was just political theater, democrats figured why not put on a show. >> i shall read the replacement bill. >> reporter: a greens routine marked repeal-obsessed republicans for not having a plan of their own. >> let me just read half of it first. i shall now read one-half of the replacement bill. now i shall read the other half of the replacement bill. that's the replacement bill. here is the bill that we can read. >> reporter: another democrat evoked grandma's favorite remedy. >> republicans want to go back to the day when chicken noodle soup was the only option for hard-working families who couldn't afford care. the truth is chicken noodle soup might be mmm good for lunch, but as a health care policy, it is mmm-bad. >> reporter: they even tapped into 1980s movie trivia. >> you ever seen the movie "fatal attraction." it's a great film. mr. speaker, i would submit that having now had 30 different debates on this floor over repeal of the health care bill that house republicans have finally hit their boil the bunny moment. >> i hate rabbits -- >> reporter: not to be outdone, this republicans chose '80s character boss hog. >> i call this boss obama care. the only health care that citizens of this country can access are those approved by the boss. >> reporter: democrats are trying to turn this repeal re-run to their advantage with ads against vulnerable republicans. >> tell congresswoman mary bono mack shouldn't repeal our benefits if she wants to keep hers. >> reporter: by the gop count, this is the 33rd vote to dismantle the health care law even though repeal dies in the democrat-controlled senate. so democrats asked over and over why bother. republicans say public opinion is on their side. >> we're going to keep at it until we get this legislation off the books. it was a bad bill. it has become a bad law. >> reporter: to be sure, when democrats were in control of the house, they held their share of votes that were clearly just political, to make political points they knew weren't going to get anywhere. for example, wolf, you remember when democrats were in control, they voted over and over again to bring troops home during the iraq war during the bush administration knowing full well that was not going to happen. >> and you pointed out five democrats voted with the republicans to repeal the president's health care law. i take it all of the republicans reunited. there was no dissent among them, is that right? >> reporter: that's correct. no republicans voted against their party. no republicans did not vote to repeal. they got across the board party line vote for the republicans. >> interesting. thanks very much for that, dana up on capitol hill. let's discuss what's going on. our chief political analyst gloria borger is here in "the situation room." the republicans were totally united about this. >> yes, they were. >> but the polls show maybe it's not such a clear-cut issue. the republicans think it's a winning issue for them. >> they believe it's a winning issue because a majority of americans are still opposed to health care reform. if you look at how the numbers have shifted in the last four months, it's shifting in the other direction. look at this new abc news poll. in april 39% and up eight points to july 47%. now, that's probably because leading up to the supreme court decision and in the aftermath of the decision, what the white house decided to do and the obama campaign decided to do is pick out nuggets from the health care bill that americans really like. and so they were talking about pre-existing conditions, keeping your kids on your health care until they're the age of 26, no lifetime caps. and so they actually explained health care reform some would say better after they passed it than they did before they passed it. so public opinion is shifting a bit on it. and independent voters seem to be shifting even more towards liking the measure. >> as it continues maybe more people will get accustom to it and like it. >> right. >> not going to necessarily destroy their health care system they've come to like. 85% if not more of american people have health care insurance that they seem to like. >> and they may change their mind in 2014 when it all takes effect. of course that's after the electi electi election. >> after the election. listen to this clip. here's romney again at the naacp convention in houston. >> i know what it takes to put people to work, to bring more jobs and better wages. my plan is based on 25 years of success in business. >> that's consistent with what he says on this stuff all the time. >> always. >> but the american people want more. they want more details. >> they do. right now what they're hearing quite honestly from both candidates is a lot of generalities how you're going to create jobs, reduce debt, improve trade. again in this abc news "the washington post" poll, the question was asked, who has presented a clearer plan for dealing with the economic situation. and obama wins that round 43% to 38%. it's not that the president has been that specific, it's just that people kind of have an idea of what he did over the last four years. mitt romney claims he has the business experience, but this poll shows that the public doesn't really understand what he's going to do to fix the economy. at a certain point, maybe it's at the convention, maybe it's in the fall campaign, he needs to get more specific. you can't just run and say, okay, the economy is bad. that's president obama's fault. vote for me. you have to provide an alternative. voters want to know what you're going to do specifically. a 59-point plan is kind of a muddle. they need to know exactly what he would do. >> romney went to the naacp. >> he did. >> spoke to them. there were a couple occasions where he was booed, as we just heard in jim acosta's report. he just reacted a little while ago. he spoke to fox. this is what he said about the reception he received over at the naacp. >> i think we expected that of course. but you know, i'm going to give the same message to the naacp that i give across the country, which is that obama care is killing jobs. and if jobs is the priority, then we're going to have to replace obama care with something that actually holds down health care costs as opposed to causing more spending for the government and more spending for american families. >> so, you know, he i think emerged from that event today in houston. i think he was happy the way it unfolded even though there were a couple not so nice moments. >> as jim pointed out in his piece, there were people in the audience who believed booing was not the right thing. it should not have come as a surprise to anybody in that audience that mitt romney is opposed to what he calls obama care. of course he is. he's been campaigning on it for a year. so having that booed there was i think a disappointment because i think people gave mitt romney a lot of credit for just showing up. remember, george w. bush did not attend the naacp for some time because he knew he would get that kind of a reception. >> we're going to have more on what happened in houston today later this hour. gloria, thanks very much. >> sure. >> there's also sobering news about a threat to the united states military and to israel. standby for details of a newly declassified pentagon report warning that iran's missiles are getting deadlier. also, a hazard of summer thunderstorms every airline passenger needs to be aware of. and a church school forcing little kids to beg for money. cnn's cameras are there. great shot. 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. energy is being produced to power our lives. while energy development comes with some risk, north america's natural gas producers are committed to safely and responsibly providing generations of cleaner-burning energy for our country, drilling thousands of feet below fresh water sources within self-contained well systems. and, using state-of-the-art monitoring technologies, rigorous practices help ensure our operations are safe and clean for our communities and the environment. we're america's natural gas. test test test o let's get to jack cafferty. he's got the cafferty file. jack. >> wolf, as the democrats and republicans get ready to host their national conventions in the next few weeks, you could ask whether it's even worth throwing these big pep rallies anymore. the democrats are facing numerous problems when it comes to their convention in charlotte, north carolina. some democrats aren't even going to attend saying they'd rather stay home and campaign instead. the democrats are millions of dollars behind the republicans in fund raising for their convention since president obama's refusing any corporate donations. the president carried north carolina four years ago, but he's got big problems there this year. voters amended the state constitution to outlaw gay marriage, the unions are steamed because there are no unionized hotels in charlotte, there's a sexual harassment scandal rocking the north carolina democratic party, and the state has a very unpopular sitting democratic governor. probably no coincidence then that the democrats have already shortened that convention by one day. it's not just the democrats though. some republicans are going to skip their party's convention in tampa. the fact is these political conventions are expensive, four-day long parties that still get tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer money. not exactly a top priority for us taxpayers when you think about all the other places the money could go. and it's not like there's any surprise or drama anymore when the candidates and running mates are long before the conventions. haley barber told politico that he thinks three-day conventions are the answer saying, nobody would know the difference besides some bartenders and restaurateurs in the host city. here's the question, is it time to do away with the national political conventions? go to cnn.com/caffertyfile, post a comment on my blog. or go to our post on "the situation room" facebook page. wolf. >> a lot of fun at those conventions. i've been going for a long time. but three days -- is it four days? that's plenty. three days, probably good enough. >> well, maybe they'll shorten it. the democrats have already cut one day off theirs. we'll see what the republicans do. >> all right. we'll see what they do. thanks very much, jack. >> sure. there's an ominous new warning coming in from the pentagon. iran's missiles are getting more accurate. apparently getting more deadly as well. let's go to our pentagon correspondent, chris lawrence, he's got the details for us. what are you learning, chris? >> iran's missiles are getting more accurate, but they may not have to be because they are also getting more deadly. by that i mean they're developing a new payload system that spreads out the destruction over a wider area than a solid warhead. and you've got to remember how many u.s. bases and u.s. ships are in that region. iran's recent missile test showed off their capabilities. in a new report from the pentagon confirms it. iran's ballistic missiles are more accurate, versatile and deadly than ever. the report finds iran may be technically capable of flight-testing an intercontinental ballistic missile by 2015. the type of missile that could hit the u.s. if it works. >> this is going beyond simply being able to strike at other countries in iran's neighborhood. >> reporter: analyst john pike says iran already has missiles that reach more than 600 miles. enough to strike israel's eastern border. but the report reveals iran continues to improve a ballistic missile with a range of nearly 1,300 miles. >> this will give them the ability to attack a number of european countries of which we give them a degree of political influence in a crisis that they might not otherwise have. >> reporter: the real battle may come on the high seas though. within the last few weeks the u.s. navy has doubled the number of mine sweepers in the region to protect the oil supply moving through the persian gulf. the pentagon report says iran is developing short-range missiles that can identify ships at sea and maneuver towards them in mid-flight. iran already has a missile that could reach the u.s. if it could put it on a ship and move it to within 600 miles of the american coastline. >> and if you wonder why it is iran keeps delaying missile they could shoot at long-range against the united states, i suspect maybe it's because they're working on the easier solution the missile fire from a ship. >> reporter: officials say that would be difficult to defend against because some of those missiles could fit in a standard cargo container. and, wolf, there are thousands of ships out there sailing around with those type of containers. >> good stuff. good information. thanks very much for that. chris lawrence at the pentagon. coming up in our strategy session, mitt romney, he got booed today over the naacp convention in houston, but why he still may be accomplishing a larger goal when it comes to african-american voters. donna brazile, anna navarro are here in "the situation room." and horror stories from airline passenger who is are glad to be 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