hands. plus, an election of evil and a major change of course by a leading ally, france elected it's first socialist president in two decades, we're looking at what it means for the united states. i'm wolf blitzer, you're still in "the situation room." the vice president joe biden said over the weekend he's fine with gay marriage and arnie duncan says he believes gay and lesbians should be allowed to marry. putting him at odds with the president of the united states. jessica yellin is working the story for us. jessica, causing quite an uproar there, what's going on? >> reporter: this is clearly an unwelcome topic for a white house that pronounces to make all decisions based on principle not on politics. it certainly looks as if the vice president supports gay marriage. >> who do you love? the president sets the policy. i am absolutely comfortable that the fact that men marrying wo i and women marrying women, are entitled to all the civil rights and the civil liberties. >> reporter: but the president is vague. >> my feelings about this are constantly evolving. i struggle with this. >> reporter: this is a flash point election. to argue biden's comments weren't new. >> i think they were entirely consistent with the president's position which is that couples who are married whether they're gay or heterosexual couples are entitled to the very same rights and very same liberties. >> reporter: the vice president's office even put out a statement to clarify the vice president's meeting. but the message to gay and lesbian is supporters, it's convoluted. >> i have heard efforts from the vice president to say that the president and the vice president have the same position. so one can conclude that therefore the president supports marriage equality. >> all the while, the president has raised millions from gay and lesbian donors and many believe he would support gay marriage in a second term. >> you're fighting for the id idea -- everybody deserves to be able to live and love as they see it. >> i heard him today, he strongly opposes efforts to restrict rights to repeal rights for same-sex couples. >> these attendees at the president's ohio rally are there because of his position on the issue. >> my daughter is a gay american and so gay marriage right now is kind of the biggest thing on my -- >> if you can hear me okay, where do we go from here in terms of clarifying, is there any indication that the president is going to issue a public statement yay or nay on this issue? >> reporter: if the briefing today was any indication, the president remains in a state of evolution on this issue. one of the things that i was pointing out at the end of that piece is that some of the public polling shows that in this election year, a majority of americans do not support gay marriage. key voters, african-american, older voters, people over 50. in a tight election, this is a campaign that people would not want to risk alienating and perhaps that could be a factor at play in taking such a vague position on this issue right now. wolf. but to your question, absolutely no indication that the president wants to wade into these waters any further at this time. a seismic political issue in france. it's a strong rejection of two years of austerity and the kind of uncertainty that usually sparks anxiety among u.s. investors. tell us a little bit about in new president, most of our viewers here in the united states have never even heard of him. >> reporter: right and most viewers probably outside of the united states haven't heard from him. francois is not a man who's been a minister, he's been around politics his whole life, he's a leader of the social isz part. he conducted a very safe campaign inspired by the way, in part by the 2008 obama campaign. his campaign manager told me a few days ago that they met with some of the campaign strategists from the obama campaign, we have some advise on how to campaign on the internet. and also door to door campaigning. it worked out for them in the end since he was elected yesterday. he has promised this and his campai campaign is telling us when he goes to the nato summit in a few weeks that that is a discussion he's going to have with president obama. that might be an open question, but the intent is there and the campaign of the now president electric say they intend on following through on that, wolf. >> on the economic wolf, the main policy i take it was to get rid of all of the austerity measures and basically go back and raise taxes on rich people, is that right? >> reporter: it's partly right, i think really what the socialists are saying today, isn't that we want to destroy the agreement that was taking place between nicolas sarkozy and the president of germany, an angela merkel. we need to find a way to allow these economies to grow. but where will the money come from? that's where the source -- it may be his first overseas trip on may 15. >> we'll be looking forward to seeing him here in the united states as well. thanks very much. >> i want to dig a little bit deeper right now. president bill clinton's white house chief of staff. >> he won the primary to won, he's a pact kl guy, he's not flashy, but probably what france needs right now is more growth and less bling. what's going to be the difference if any in u.s.-french relations if he's succeeding sarkozy. >> his economic plan is more aligned with what president obama has tried to do which is invest in infrastructure. he's pledged to balance the budget in five years in france, but he wants to do it by adding to the competitiveness, so he's put off things like infrastructure bond as a way to boost job growth and boost the competitive back in the euro zone. >> the u.s. wants another 2 1/2 years, but he wants him out by the end of this year. >> the president will have a chance to talk to him about that. the president has succeeded in putting the u.s. on a path of reducing and eliminating the combat mission in afghanistan. it's important to give stability to afghanistan. at the nato summit and when he meets with him in at a dance. do you have any sense of how the political spillover, what happened in france will play out in the u.s. is there any correlation? >> i think it will be direct, but i think the proposals that have been put forth, particularly in the ryan program is not working in europe. it's caused a double dip recession in the uk, it's caused an increase in unemployment. the euro zone has had gain since 2010. so i don't know if the american people will draw that conclusion, but i think the distippingation that's been drawn has led to more stagnation angher unemployment. >> to russia now, where vladimir putin was voted out. he won a reported 65% of the vote. but independent monitors reported widespread irregularities. this comes a day after citizens clashed in moscow. several top opposition figures were arrested. kidnapped by al qaeda now seen pleading for his life. an american man appealing directly to president obama. also the president on race relations. and former nba star charles barkley sends a message to president obama, according to barkley, we're going to beat you like a drum. donna brazile is standing by. 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as scary as a fastball is to some of these kids. but my coach had hit that pitch before. turning data into useful answers. we're 78,000 people looking out for 70 million americans. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare. fore! no matter what small business you are in, managing expenses seems to... get in the way. not anymore. ink, the small business card from chase introduces jot an on-the-go expense app made exclusively for ink customers. custom categorize your expenses anywhere. save time and get back to what you love. the latest innovation. only for ink customers. learn more at chase.com/ink let's go to jack cafferty here with "the cafferty file." this country still has a long road to travel when it comes to race relations. the "new york times" reports that race remains a power line factor among a small minority of voters, particularly in poor areas, with a lot of white working class people. that would include the battleground state of ohio where just a few votes one way or the other could make a big difference. in one ohio county, five people raised race as a reason they will not vote for president obama. that's only 10%. others didn't mention race directly, but indirectly, as suspicions of obama's background and faith. the president recently described race in america as, quote, complicated. he said he never bought into the idea that the country was entering a post race relational area. more than half of americans in 2008 said race relations would improve as a result of obama's election. fast forward to 2012, that view has changed dramatically. a recent "newsweek" poll shows only 32% think race relations have improved under president obama, while 60% say the race relations have either stayed the same or gotten worse. whites are especially critical of president obama. some say it's tough times like high unemployment or the war overseas and can then serve as an excuse for social anxiety. here's the question, how much has america's first black president changed race relations. wolf? >> looking forward to the answers, that's an excellent question, jack. the battle ground states are intensifying, with mitt romney focusing in on ohio where the two men are locked in a tight race, according to the polls. jim acosta is in cleveland. what's the latest in ohio? >> reporter: well, wolf, as we saw over the weekend, president obama launched his first official campaign rally here in the state of ohio, today was mitt romney's chance to hit back, and he did on the economy, one of his campaign surrogates and a woman in the crowd got off message and personal. >> the next president of the united states, mitt romney. >> not enough people have been finding good jobs and a lot of people have lost their homes, that's a promise he wasn't able to keep. >> romney stayed on message, jobs. >> we need to have a president who understands what it takes to get the economy going again, not with policies of the passes that don't work. >> the unemployment rate 8.1%. romney's new speech follows a key spot that zeros in on the nation's sluggish ecoverry. the economy was in free fall when the president took the oath of office. >> america's economy spiraling down. >> the biggest pointop that's ever been seen in a day. >> all before this president took the oath. >> on a conference call, a top strategist revealed plans to spend $25 million on more ads this month, saying it's the only way to respond to political super pacs. >> to rornd to attacks t u expect to continue from not just rm any's campaign. >> neck and neck, not only in national polls, but in swing states, as well. with the race this close, it's no surprise romney is sticking to his focus on the economy. he did not respond to the president's pointed jab at the go gop contenders now well known line. >> i don't care how many ways you try to spin it. corporations are not people, people are people. >> reporter: it was ohio state's senator who -- >> glad that he has -- is dead. bin laden, that is. >> yes, he also slammed the first family's vacations to martha's vineyard and hawaii. >> reporter: now we should also -- we should also note that during that town hall, a woman stood up in the crowd and asked mitt romney if he thought that president obama should be tried for treason. that prompted a response from the obama re-election campaign, wolf and i'll read it to you, it was pretty strongly worded. it says if he is the leadership on the campaign trail, this is mitt romney, coming from the obama cam pape, what can the american people expect from him at commander in chief. the romney campaign has also responded to this back and forth over this woman who stood up at this town hall meeting. a lot of people say that president obama does deserve credit for taking out osama bin laden and also said that governor romney's statements stand on this woman who said that he should be tried for treason, saying looking at romney's statement, no, he does not believe that the president should be tried for treason. >> he doesn't seem to understand that maximizing profits by whatever means necessary. whether it's through layoffs or outsourcing or tax avoidance or union bussing, might not always be good for the ampverage amerin or for the american economy. >> i wonder if romney is responding to those accusations by the president. >> he was not really going tit for tat with the president on what the president had to say over the weekend. it was a pretty striking, sort of nonresponse to the president. what we heard from mitt romney, almost -- was going after, zeroing in on the economy, this record during the sluggish recovery that basically started months after president obama took office, mitt romney is saying time and again out here at these campaign events that the recovery would be doing better if president obama were not in office right now. they're looking at those polls right now showing it's very much neck and neck right now and they don't want to get off message. that woman in the crowd, that's not the direction the romney campaign wants to go. >> thanks very much, jim acosta in ohio. he's going to be spending a lot of time there over the next six months. and the white house is scrambling to explain comments from two top officials. we're going to talk about that and more in our strategy session. and the former nba great charles barkley doing some trash talking about mitt romney, we're going to tell you what he had to say. o at liberty mutual, we know how much you count on your car, and how much the people in your life count on you. that's why we offer accident forgiveness, where your price won't increase due to your first accident. we also offer a hassle-free lifetime repair guarantee, where the repairs made on your car are guaranteed for life, or they're on us. these are just two of the valuable features you can expect from liberty mutual. plus, when you insure both your home and car with us, it could save you time and money. at liberty mutual, we help you move on with your life, so get the insurance responsible drivers like you deserve. call us at... or visit your local liberty mutual office, where an agent can help you find the policy that's right for you. liberty mutual insurance, responsibility -- what's your policy? joining us the democratic strategist and cnn political strategist donna brazile and alex stewart. here's one of the sound bites from vice president joe biden yesterday on "meet the press" that has caused this commotion. >> look, i am vice president of the united states of america. the president sets the policy. i am absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men and women marrying women and heterosexual men marrying women, are all entitled to the same civil liberties. >> we put together some of the preside president's responses. >> i have no update on the president's personal views. the president said that he was evolving, the president's position is well known, i don't have an update to provide you on the president's position. i just tell you what the president has said in the past. i just don't have an update for you. his views have not change and i have no update to give you on them. the next time the president has a news conference, if you want to ask him that, you're certainly welcome to. >> they did not let up, they come barreded him with question after question after question, you heard some offensive answers that went on and on and on. it is it time for the president to come out and say i such port gay marriage or i oppose gay american? >> i think every american needs to come to these positions -- the president has stopped defending section three of doma. >> that's the defense of marriage act? >> he ended don't ask, don't tell. i think every american understands who is a champion for all. >> i'm not sure when it comes to marriage equality. >> i have seen the but, but we need to get to an and. others have said that we need to vote with north carolina because it already outlawed same sex maerj. this would be enshrined in the constitution. and what the vice president said is what we have known all along about his basic crews in ral wrights for all americans. >> he says flatly, he opposed gay marriage. >> he's for traditional marriage between a man and a woman. saying that he's evolving on this issue, that's not coming clean on this. is this going to be another issue like he spoke to the russian president, where when he's re-elected people will have for next snbl people who are for gay marriage and who's against gay marriage. this is why the american people certainly should not support a president who is not going to come clean on these issues. >> where he's at is moving this country forward on a very important issue, but we should not have any discrimination. >> this is a trial balloon. >> what's a trial balloon? >> they threw this out there yesterday to see how this would stick. >> i disagree with you, i think the vice president was just talking. i'm sure they didn't want this to come out right now as an issue. but the liberals, they support the president, he doesn't have to work aggressively to get their support. he's concerned about the centrists who may be on the fence. >> the real issues that people are concerned with are jobs and the economy. >> one thing you've got to learn about vice president biden. but joe biden has been a championship for civil rights quality. and this is a man who's always stood on those principles. i'm not surprised he would come out forcefully and strongly as he did yesterday. he says his life is in president obama's hands, we're taking a look at the emotional video of an american held in pakistan we believe by al qaeda. how bout ya, joe? let's go ahead and bring it online. attention on site, attention on site. now starting unit nine. some of the world's cleanest gas turbines are now powering some of america's biggest cities. siemens. answers. what ? customers didn't like it. so why do banks do it ? hello ? 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