Transcripts For CNNW The Situation Room With Wolf Blitzer 20

CNNW The Situation Room With Wolf Blitzer August 12, 2011



could affect all of us, including our own mail delivery. i'm wolf blitzer, you're in "the situation room." jtsdzer. it all begins in iowa. right now many of the republican presidential candidates are in that state, a state that holds the lead-off contest in 2012. they're working the crowds at the state fair before tomorrow's pivotal iowa straw poll. and they're taking direct aim at president obama's handling of the debt crisis and the u.s. economy. listen to some of the republican hopefuls, including sarah palin, who insists she still hasn't decided whether to run. >> i think the question should be asked, is the president responsible for the down grade? i would say yes. from the top, that leadership starts from the top. >> look what happened two weeks ago. when barack obama's back was against the wall. what did he do to try to scare americans to call their members of congress? he threatened social security recipients that their money wouldn't be there. he threatened medicare recipients that their money wouldn't be there. why do you think he shoved obama care down to thrust the american public? because he wants his hooks in everybody. >> if you have a pile of debt in order to get growth again and if you're spending all your money on spending the interest. it won't work. you don't bail on bad debt. >> let's bring in candy crowley, she's over there at the iowa state fair in des moines. give us a little flavor, candy, what are you seeing and hearing on this important day? >> well, you know, exactly what you would think at a state fair. i've got, you know, rides to the right of me. really bad for your heart food behind me and politics to the left of me. so, it has everything that you can imagine. you know, live stock, people competing for ribbons. it goes on here in iowa. i used to live in iowa and it is one of those things that everybody waits for. brings their children. it is packed here and will be for the next couple of weeks. so, you know, the politics are, i have to tell you, kind of a side show. a lot of people are interested in the live stock showings. they are interested in taking the kids to the rides, but, nonetheless, they get to come here and come, they have, these 2012 republican candidates and debbie wasserman schultz who at the dnc was also here getting some equal billing and the folks that are listening sit on hay bails and listen to what generally have been stock speeches. some of them took a couple questions. nothing extraordinary happened, but it is, it's what they do in august in preelection years. >> you know, candy, last night two of the candidates, both from minnesota, really went after each other. we're talking about tim pawlenty, michele bachmann and they have a lot riding in tomorrow's straw poll. i want to play this little clip from the republican debate last night. >> as to congresswoman bachmann's record, look, she's done wonderful things in her life. absolutely wonderful things but an undisputable fact that in congress her record of accomplishment and results is nonexistent. that's not going to be good enough for our candidate for president of the united states. that's not going to be good enough for the president of the united states to serve in that capacity. >> governor, when you were governor in minnesota, you implemented cap and trade in our state and you praised the unconstitutional individual mandate and you called for requiring all people in our state to purchase health insurance that government would mandate. third, you said the era of small government was over. that sounds a lot more like barack obama, if you ask me. >> all right, candy, that was just a little flavor. they went on and on. they really went after each other. some are suggesting this is pawlenty's sort of desperation right now. he has to stay in this race and he has to bring down michele bachmann, if you will. >> well, they might not be surprised to set their sights somewhat lower saying they have to do well here. they have to show movement here. pawlenty is really struggled. and, listen, the interesting thing about this is that he has some really good democratic operatives here on the ground in iowa. the folks you talked to say he's got the best organization on the ground, but, you know, the spark, he hasn't caught the lightning in the bottle that michele bachmann has. so, you know, he has been going after her on, you know, he doesn't pass the charisma test with her. she brings in the passion. he's taking her on on her resume saying, what have you done? and contrasting with his and, of course, she's come right back and said, let's take a look at your resume and heefrz what you've done. he operated as governor for two terms and a pretty democratic state. so, there were some democratic issues that he tended to agree with, although now he talks about what he was able to do as a republican in a blue state. so, listen, there's a lot at stake for a lot of people in this way. the ames straw poll doesn't elect people. they're not at all definitive about who's even going to win the iowa caucus. we're talking about a very small number of iowaens. it will dry up the people who doesn't do well. if you don't have any money, it is very hard to continue it. jon huntsman also not catching fire, but he is write himself a check. he's a rich guy. tim pawlenty is not and he's pretty low in his campaign funds. he spent a lot, about a million dollars sort of drumming up some interest in the straw poll and trying to bring his people in. so, if he comes at the end of the straw poll and doesn't do well, it will be very difficult for him to raise money. he says he is going to go on and we take him at his word, but it is going to be very tough. >> candy is on the scene for us and stay on the scene with her all weekend. thanks. our saturday edition will be standing by for all of the iowa straw poll results. we expect those results could come in as early as 6:00 p.m., 6:30 p.m. eastern tomorrow night. so, make sure you tune in to cnn for that. please, also, be sure to tune in sunday for cnn's state of the union from ames, iowa. candy will be there and special interviews with the republican presidential candidates including michele bachmann and herman cain sunday. 9:00 a.m. eastern and also at noon eastern only here on cnn. sarah palin says it's sexist to try to put her against michele bachmann because they're both women. but the two may have somewhat different views on their role as wives who serve in politics. the question, would they be submissive to their husbands if elected president? bachmann was asked about that during the republican presidential debate last night. >> in 2006, when you were running for congress, you described a moment in your life when your husband said you should study for a degree in tax law. you said you hated the idea and then you explained, "but the lord said, be submissive. wives are to be submissive to your husbands." as president, would you be submissive to your husband? >> thank you for that question, byron. marcus and i will be married for 33 years this september 10th. i'll in love with him and so proud of him and both he and i, what submission means to us, if that's what your question is. it means respect. i respect my husband. he's a wonderful, godly man and a great father and he respects me as his wife. that's how we operate our marriage. we respect each other. we love each other. >> all right, today sarah palin also in iowa was asked about michele bachmann's comments. listen to this. >> do you agree with the submission part? >> with her answer? that's her opinion. you know is to her submission to her husband means respecting her husband. you know, i respect my husband, too. >> if todd said, don't run, would you run? >> i can't imagine my husband telling me what to do politically. >> all right, stand by for more on the republican candidates and the president's strategy against them. i'll be speaking with democratic party chairwoman debbie wassermann-shultz. the congresswoman is in iowa right now. now, to a huge source of worry for so many voters. the stock market. the dow closed up 125 points an hour ago. the second straight day of gains. all three major indices were in positive territory at the closing bell. certainly a welcome break from the drumaamatic see sawing tren over the last week. who knows what next week will bring? poppy harlow is joining us now with the final tally of the week. poppy, any consensus of why the market went up again today? >> no. has there been all week, wolf? i mean, this has been, according to one trader i just got off the phone with, the craziest week he has ever seen. this is a quote from a new york stock exchange trader who has been trading for, get this, 43 years. a wild week, no doubt about it. let's look back at the numbers. since we saw the dow fall so significantly. a week ago thursday it was up down, up down. since then giving you just a sense of where we are overall in this big decline. we're still down over 600 points for the dow industrials and, by the way, wolf, we closed higher yesterday. we closed higher today. see those two green arrows at the end of your screen. that is the first time we had two positive closes for the stock market since july 6 and 7th. if you want to look at where we are relatively speaking, we're now at about the same levels on the dow that we were all the way back in april of 2010. it has been a wild ride and we are down overall when you look at what we've seen in the up and down. we're still pretty far down. i want you to take a listen to another trader we spoke to at the new york stock exchange about how he deals with this volatile, volatile market. take a listen. >> i walk into the crowd and i assess how the sellers are. if i sense you're nervous and i'm a buying, i'm going to bid you down because i'm going to test and see how nervous you are. so, when people say, geez, the market's under pressure where are all the buyers. the buyers are here, they're just taking advantage of kind of the fear and the anxiety in the market. >> fear and anxiety in the market. wolf, i will tell you, everyone on main street is feeling this. we got the worst consumer confidence number this morning that we have gotten since 1980. 1980 when carter was president. so, it's been a long time since americans have felt this unsure about what's happening to the economy and the stock market. i will tell you over the weekend another trader told me, we used to be immune from bad news on the weekend. now it seems like all we get is bad news on the weekend. i hope nothing bad happens this week. that's all, of this weekend, that's all i'm hoping. that's the mood on wall street. if they don't get another downgrade, any bad news, they'll take it heading into monday's session. >> last friday after the markets closed we got that downgrade from the s&p, which caused a lot of nervousness all weekend. let's hope it stays quiet this weekend. we can worry about the iowa straw poll. all right, poppy, thanks very much for that. the u.s. postal service says it's in desperate need of downsizing. the cost could cost thousands -- the cuts could cost thousands of jobs and change mail service as we know it. will congress let it happen? a new ruling in the heated legal battle over health care reform signed into law by president obama. lots of news happening today. right here in "the situation room." naturals from purina cat chow. delicious, real ingredients with no artificial flavors or preservatives. naturals from purina cat chow. share a better life. what if we designed an electric motorcycle? what if we turned trash into surfboards? whatever your what if is, the new sprint biz 360 has custom solutions to make it happen, including mobile payment processing, instant hot spots, and 4g devices like the motorola photon. so let's all keep asking the big what ifs. sprint business specialists can help you find the answers. sprint. america's favorite 4g network. trouble hearing on the phone? visit sprintrelay.com. ♪ [ recorded voice ] onstar. we're looking for city hall. i'm sending directions to your car. 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[ baby crying ] ben harper: ♪ what started as a whisper every day, millions of people choose to do the right thing. ♪ slowly turned into a scream ♪ there's an insurance company that does that, too. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? on top of everything else, there's another crisis unfolding right now here in washington. what if, what if america's mail system simply went bust. u.s. postal service says it needs to make drastic changes to keep the agency afloat, including massive layoffs. our brian todd has been looking into the problem for us and how it could affect all of our mail service. brian, what's going on? >> wolf, the postal service is hemorrhaging money and pushing major cuts through its workforce. that will affect everyone from you and me to a gentleman who works his route every day. >> reporter: for three decades delven johnson has been hoofing it on his northwest washington beat. as a seasoned postal carrier, he survived the anthrax scare and other perils of the job. in 30 years, how many dog bites? >> just one. >> reporter: only one. >> after 28 years. >> reporter: if you went 28 years without one. just got one. >> just got one. it comes with the job, though. >> reporter: for delven and his colleagues, dog bites might be the least of their worries these days. the u.s. postal service says it will be insolvent next month and wants to lay off 120,000 people. it's trying to get congress to allow it to waive protections against layoffs for veteran workers and wants to provide its own benefit plans instead of federal plans. are you worried that given the post office's financial situation that maybe it won't work out the way you want it to for your career? >> well, that has been, you know, my wife and i have talked about it. but, you know, we just have to make things, you know, make things work. >> reporter: postal unions are also upset with the potential cutbacks. the national association of letter carriers calls this a pie in the sky proposal. the unions and the postal service itself say the service would be profitable, if it wasn't forced by congress to prefund retirement benefits for the next 75 years. for generations of postal workers who haven't even been born yet. but other reasons for the bleeding. with more of us e-mailing and doing online bill paying, mail deliveries to our doorsteps have stopped over the past few years. i spoke with pete of a watchdog group about the future. if they make these cuts, what will it mean for you and me as far as stamp prices and service? >> if this plan goes through, consumers are likely to find fewer formal post offices, but more opportunities to do postal business at existing retail stores. they're likely to find higher stamp prices but certainly not much higher ones, that would be the case if the layoffs didn't occur. also likely to find service curtailments, perhaps no saturday delivery. >> reporter: but pete says that's still better than a major taxpayer bailout if the postal service didn't make these cutbacks. how fat is the service? he says the u.s. postal service has more retail facilities than mcdonald's, star. bucks 7-eleven and u.p.s. combined. let's look at the cloproble closer. >> hi, wolf. look at the cornerstones of what's happening here. here is the map of the united states. the 3,700 post offices recommended to close, that's an awful lot out there. here's why. we mention the pricing a minute ago in brian's report there. yeah, our letters are cheaper than most places right now. below britain, germany, for example. if we got rid of saturday deliveries, that would save $3 billion a year. the workforce they're dealing with right now. a lot of people out there. more than 500,000 workers and 50%, 50% of those post offices we showed a minute ago are losing money. this is the big one. retirement health benefits. they have to pay in $5.5 billion per year to keep this thing solvent. way into the future, it already has $75 billion in it that is frozen that they cannot access in this difficult time. all of this put together, wolf, adds up into a very, very difficult profit loss schedule. look at this. this is where we are right now. already losing money. by 2020, if nothing else changes, they will have lost accumulative $238 billion. so, wolf, that's the reason they're talking about cutbacks right now and you have to say for the economy, a very tough time because some of the biggest losses have been in government and quasi government jobs. >> looks like the handwriting is on the wall. we'll see what they finally do. thanks, tom, thanks very much. new charge is just filed against those three siblings nabbed in a brutal gun showdown with police. the details coming up. american drone strikes in pakistan have killed hundreds of civilians, many of them children. you're going to want to hear how the united states is responding to these allegations. 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