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Rescuers Search for Tornado Victims; Romney Talks to Newspaper Workers; Romney Talks To Newspaper Workers; Obama, Romney Call Each Other Out; U.N. Peace Team Heads To Syria; Child Slaves Used to Make Chocolate; All-Male Policy Overshadows Masters
Aired April 04, 2012 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Live from the CNN headquarters in Atlanta, it is 12:00 noon, 9:00 a.m. on the West Coast. I'm Suzanne Malveaux. Today is Wednesday, April 4th.
Rescue crews are back out in force around Dallas today. They're searching for anyone still trapped after a series of tornadoes swept through the area yesterday. Storms flattened hundreds of homes and businesses, hundreds of flights were canceled at Dallas-Ft. Worth airport.
Dallas affiliate WFAA captured these pictures as this powerful tornado sent tractor trailers swirling through the air at a trucking company. Several people were hurt in the storms but there are no reports of deaths.
The mayor of Arlington, Texas, talked my colleague Wolf Blitzer on "ANDERSON COOPER 360" last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR ROBERT CLUCK, ARLINGTON, TEXAS: We had about 150, 155 homes partially destroyed, some totally destroyed. We had a nursing home that was partially destroyed.
But you know what, Wolf? Three people were transported, and of those three people, two are OK, one is in serious condition. But we dodged a huge bullet today.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: We have a live report from Dallas, the area, just a few minutes from now.
And it is a sea change in the race for the White House. After sweeping three states last night, Mitt Romney now more than halfway to the total number of delegates he needs to clinch this GOP nomination.
Romney has now racked up 654 delegates and he's got a lead over his rivals. The number to win this all, 1,144. We'll hear what the candidate -- we'll hear from him himself live in just a moment.
And Ester starting early at the White House. The president hosted a prayer breakfast this morning with religious leaders from across the country. He used faith as an analogy for fixing the country's problems.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We all have experiences that shake our faith. There are times where we have questions for God's plan relative to us. But that's precisely when we should remember Christ's own doubts and eventually his own triumph.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: The man accused of shooting seven people execution- style in a California religious college, he's going to be arraigned today. Forty-three-year-old One Goh is charged with murder and kidnapping. Last night, hundreds of people attended a memorial service for the victims. Oakland's police chief described the shooting as a calculated cold-blooded execution in the classroom.
Four former New Orleans police officers, they're going to find out shortly if they're going to spend the rest of their lives in prison for killing unarmed civilians. Now, this happened, you may recall, it was on a city bridge in the chaotic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Prosecutors say police shot six unarmed people killing two of them. Sentencing hearing is under way now and a fifth former officer also is going to be sentenced for covering up the crime.
Today in Memphis, it is paying tribute to a civil rights icon. Forty-four years after the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. was gunned down there on a balcony of the Lorraine Motel, Memphis is finally naming a street in King's honor. The location, Linden Avenue. It has special significance. This is where King led a march in support of striking sanitation workers.
And this is a storm and it was the system that slammed north Texas heading east today. Now cleanup under way in several cities and towns near Dallas. There are hundreds of flights that were canceled at Dallas-Ft. Worth airport. More than a hundred planes damaged by the hail as they sat stranded on the tarmac.
CNN reporters captured the sound.
(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)
MALVEAUX: Severe weather expert Chad Myers here tracking the storms, keeping an eye on all things, including air traffic.
What is happening now, Chad? I mean, that was incredible to see yesterday. It came so sudden it seemed.
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It truly did.
There was the big hail threat. We have severe thunderstorm watches, which means hail and wind. And all of a sudden, they were upgraded to tornado watches and then tornado warnings. We saw the first one touched down around Cleburne. It moved on up toward Arlington. The next one touched down about five minutes later.
These were side by side, almost like simultaneous tornadoes moving straight up I-35, one I-35E, one I-35W.
And look at the damage that's been caused. Now, this is Lancaster. This was one of the areas that was hit hard, this is the Dallas County storm where the other storm was the Tarrant County storm.
The Dallas county storm came out of Ellis and the Tarrant County storm came out of Johnson County right on up into -- and luckily at some point in time this never got to be a monster EF-4 tornado. It fizzled out a little bit, but that right now is what I can see EF-3 damage at about 135 miles per hour or a little bit greater than that.
The video was quite I would say breathtaking at times. When we saw the tractor trailers being tossed into the air and you will get this, and we will get more and more video as the day has come in because there were so many people there. Millions of people live in that metroplex.
And, you know, if this entire event happened 50 miles farther to the west, west of Weatherford, you and I wouldn't be having a conversation about this today. It would be insignificant. It would hit a cattle farm, it would knock down a couple trees and a fence line and that's it.
But because a city literally got in the way of the tornadoes, that's when all of this damage occurred. And the video we have, the helicopter shots, this is as it's coming down the Lyndon B. Johnson.
And you see those are the tractor-trailers at a Schneider trucking yard. No one in those trailers -- those were empty trailers just waiting to be filled and moved somewhere else. But watch as we get a little farther into this, there will be orange trailers that will get picked up, I'm not kidding you, 200 feet into the air and they were thrown around like --
MALVEAUX: Wow. You can actually see that.
MYERS: Like an age old train -- like my son throwing a train at me. It didn't even look real at the time.
MALVEAUX: Chad, you know, I got a question here because you take a look at that video and it really is unbelievable. How is it that no one died from what happened yesterday? They said injuries but no one lost their life.
MYERS: Everybody that was inside a home was safe yesterday. They were not tornadoes that we call unsurvivable. What I have seen so far, no one was caught on the roadway and tossed into the air in a car, Because had that not been a tractor-trailer that was empty, had that been a suburban, had that been your SUV, that was picked up thrown down, would have killed somebody.
MALVEAUX: It's just extraordinary.
Well, we wish the people -- the folks there, obviously they have a lot of cleanup ahead, but no one lost their lives.
MYERS: And for today, there's less than a 2 percent chance of anywhere getting a big tornado. So, this isn't going to continue to the east today. There's a chance of some hail and some wind, but we're not going to get big maxi tornadoes today.
MALVEAUX: A quite day. We like that.
OK. Thank you, Chad.
MYERS: You're welcome.
Here's a rundown of some of the stories we're covering.
Next, we're going to go live to Arlington, Texas. That is where -- as Chad mentioned -- people are cleaning up the damage from the storms.
And they call this the woman problem at the Masters. It could be decision time at the biggest boys' club in golf.
And later, check your chocolate. It could be the bitter truth to the basket of Easter goodies.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: I want to go live to Washington, D.C. Mitt Romney is speaking before newspaper editors. This is the same group that President Obama addressed yesterday.
Let's listen.
MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: -- turmoil in your industry, heralding the new voices and the unfiltered or supposedly unbiased sources.
Frankly, in some of the new media, I find myself missing the presence of editors to exercise quality control. I miss the days of two or more sources for a story, when at least one source was actually named.
How your industry is going to change, I couldn't possibly predict. I happen to subscribe to Yogi Berra's famous dictum, forecasting is very difficult, especially when it involves the future.
But I do know this -- you will continue to find ways to provide the American people with reliable information that is vital to our lives and to the nation, and I'm confident that the press will remain free. But further I salute this organization and your various institutions that make it up in your effort to make it not only free, but also responsible, accurate, relevant, and integral to the functioning of the democracy. Thank you for that work.
Now, given the number and the scale of our nation's challenges, this November's election will have particular consequence. It will be a defining event. President Obama and I have very different visions for America, both of what it means to be an American today and what it will mean in the future.
The voters will expect each of us to put our respective views on the table. We'll each make our case buttressed by our life experience. The voters will hear the debates. They will be buffeted by advertising, and they will be informed by your coverage.
And hopefully after all of that they'll have an accurate understanding of the different directions we would take and the different choices we would make.
Of course, for that to happen the candidates have to be candid about their views and their plans. And in that regard President Obama's comments to President Medvedev are deeply troubling. That incident calls his candor into serious question. He doesn't want to share his real plans before the election, either with the public or with the press.
By flexibility, he means that what the American public doesn't know won't hurt him. His intent is on hiding. You and I are going to have to do the seeking.
Now, President Obama's exchange with the Russian president raises all sorts of serious questions. What exactly does President Obama intend to do differently once he's no longer accountable to the voters? Why does flexibility with foreign leaders require less accountability to the American people? And on what other issues will he state his true position only after the election is over?
But instead of answering those vital questions, the president came here yesterday and railed against arguments no one is making and criticized policies no one is proposing. It's one of his favorite strategies -- setting up straw men to distract us from his record.
And while I understand the president doesn't want to run on his record, he can't run from his record either. Now, I have said many times before, the president did not cause the economic crisis, but he did make it worse. He delayed the recovery, and he made it anemic.
When he took office, millions of Americans looked to him to turn around the economy and to lead us back to full employment. He failed these Americans.
The first three rules of any turnaround are focus, focus, and focus. But instead of focusing his attention on the economy, he delegated the stimulus to Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. The $787 billion stimulus included a grab bag of pet projects that languished in Congress for good reason for years. It was less a jobs plan and more the mother of all earmarks.
The administration pledged that their stimulus would keep the unemployment rate below 8 percent. It has been above 8 percent every month since.
The president's attention, it was elsewhere -- like a government takeover of health care and apologizing for America abroad. He handed out tens of billions of dollars to green energy companies, including his friends and campaign contributors at companies like Solyndra. They're now bankrupt.
President Obama's answer to our economic crisis was more spending, more debt, and larger government. And by the end of his term in office, he will have added nearly as much public debt as all the prior presidents combined. No president has ever run a trillion dollar deficit. The new normal the president would have us embrace is trillion dollar deficits and 8 percent unemployment.
Through all of this, President Obama has failed to even pass a budget. In February, he put forward a proposal that included the largest tax increase in history and still left our national debt spiraling out of control. And the House rejected it unanimously.
Of course, no fiscal challenge is greater than the one we face with entitlements. As the president himself acknowledged three years ago, this is not a problem that we can kick down the road any further. I'd be willing to consider the president's plan, but he doesn't have one.
That's right. Three and a half years later, he has failed to enact or even propose a serious plan to solve the entitlement crisis. Instead, he has taken a series of steps that end Medicare as we know it.
He is the only president to ever cut $500 billion from Medicare. And as a result, more than half of doctors say they will cut back on treating seniors. He's destroying Medicare Advantage, eliminating the coverage that millions of senior depend on and reducing choice by two- thirds in the program.
To control Medicare costs, he has created an unelected, unaccountable panel with the power to prevent Medicare from providing certain treatments. The result, of course, will be fewer treatments and services available to patients and nowhere else for them to turn.
A couple months ago we saw a fascinating exchange on Capitol Hill that epitomized not only this administration's inaction on entitlements, but also its appalling lack of leadership. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner testifying before Congress, Congressman Paul Ryan, who by the way unlike the president, has had the courage to offer serious solutions to the problems we face -- he was pressing Geithner on the administration's failure to lead on entitlement reform.
And Geithner's response was this, "We are not coming before you today to say we have a definitive solution to that long-term problem. What we do know is we don't like yours."
Take a moment. Think about that. We don't have a solution. All we know is we don't like yours.
It almost makes one long for the days when the president simply led from behind.
And now in the middle of the weakest economic recovery since the Great Depression, the president purports to have experienced a series of election year conversions.
As president, he has repeatedly called for tax increases on businesses. Now, as candidate Obama he decides that a lower corporate tax rate would be better.
As president, he's added regulations at a staggering rate. Now, as candidate Obama he says he wants to find ways to reduce them.
As president, he delayed the development of our oil and coal and natural gas. Now as candidate, he says he favors an energy policy that adopts an all of the above approach.
Nancy Pelosi famously said that we would have to pass Obamacare to find out what was in it. President Obama has turned that advice into a campaign strategy. He wants us to re-elect him so we can find out what he'll actually do.
With all the challenges the nation faces, this is not the time for President Obama's hide-and-seek campaign.
President Obama has said he wants to transform America. I don't want to transform America. I want to restore to America the values of economic freedom and opportunity and small government that have made this nation the leader it is. It is opportunity that has always driven America and defined us as Americans.
My grandfather was in the construction business and he never really made it himself, but he convinced my dad that he could accomplish anything he set his mind to. My dad didn't have the chance to finish a college degree, and he apprenticed as a lath and plaster carpenter. And based on that excellent experience, he went on to turn around a car company and later became the governor of the state of Michigan.
My father made the most of the opportunities that came before him. By the time I came along -- I was the fourth of four brothers and sisters -- I had the chance to get the education my dad couldn't.
I loved cars and I was tempted to stay in Michigan and go into the car business. But I always knew I'd wonder if any success I might have was due to my dad. So when I got out of business school, I stayed in Massachusetts and got a job with the best company that would hire me, and perhaps more importantly I was married and on the way to having five sons.
Over the next 25 years, my business career had ups and downs -- great successes, definite failures. But each step of the way I learned more and more about the power of the free enterprise system.
Now, I'm not naive enough to believe that free enterprise is the solution to all of our problems. Nor am I naive enough to doubt that it is one of the greatest forces of good the world has ever known.
Free enterprise has done more to lift people out of poverty, to help build a strong middle class, to help educate our kids, and to make our lives better than all of the government's programs put together.
If we become one of those societies that attacks success, then the outcome is certain. There will be less success.
That's not who we are. The promise of America has always been that if you worked hard and took some risks, that there was the opportunity to build a better life for your family and for the next generation.
I'm offering a clear choice and a different path. And unlike the president, I have a record that I'm proud to run on. After my years in business, I used my experience there to help save an Olympics and to help turn around a state.
When I became governor of Massachusetts, the state budget was out of control and the legislature was 85 percent Democrat. We cut taxes 19 times and balanced the budget every one of our four years. We erased a $3 billion budget shortfall and left office with a $2 billion rainy day fund.
I cast over 800 vetoes and cut entire programs. If there was a program or agency or department that needed cutting, we cut it. One TV commentator said that I didn't just go after the sacred cows. I went after the whole herd. And I cannot wait to get my hands on Washington.
Unlike President Obama, you don't have to wait until after the election to find out what I believe. Or what my plans are. I have a pro-growth agenda that will get our economy back on track and get Americans back to work.
This administration thinks our economy is struggling because the stimulus was too small. The truth is we're struggling because our government has grown too big. As president, I'll get the government out of the way and unleash the power of American enterprise and innovation of the American people.
Seven months ago I presented a detailed plan for jobs and economic growth. It included 59 different proposals that would help strengthen the economy. Now, I understand some people are amused that I have so many ideas. But I think the American people will prefer it to President Obama's grand total of zero.
I will cut marginal tax rates across the board for individuals and corporations and limit deductions and exclusions. I will repeal burdensome regulations and prevent the bureaucracy from writing new ones.
I'll unleash our domestic energy --
MALVEAUX: Mitt Romney talking to newspaper editors. Want to talk this -- talk about it with Mark Preston, our political editor.
One of the things we noted when we saw this speech was that he went after -- he's going after Obama's character. He's talking about him being weak. He's saying he's running this hide-and-seek campaign.
It seems like that's the focus now. I mean, he's talking about policy but really talking about what kind of person Obama is as a leader.
Is this the strategy moving forward, do you think?
MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICAL EDITOR: It's certainly the strategy. The takeaway from the speech as well is it was a very somber speech a serious speech. In many ways what Mitt Romney did in this speech is what he has done so well in business as a salesman. He's been a salesman his whole life.
What he was doing was standing before all these very influential journalists from around the world, around the country, and saying to them it's your job now to go and look into President Obama's record. It is your job into the promises he's made and has he kept them. He was looking for some kind of alliance with the media which is very interesting because oftentimes we hear from the Republicans that the media is in the pocket of the Democratic Party.
MALVEAUX: I also notice he's trying to downplay. You know, he's got success and failures. But he said his grandfather didn't succeed in construction. His father didn't finish college." That he's have this balance kind of life.
I imagine that's the kind of thing that they think voters will respond to.
PRESTON: Yes. And it's something that he's had a lot of difficulty with so far in this Republican primary. If we were to look at the exit polls over the past couple of months out of all these contests, Mitt Romney does very well with people who make over $200,000, but he's done poorly with people who make anywhere below that.
He did OK last night in Wisconsin with the numbers. But by and large, he has a middle class problem. Mitt Romney now is going to try to go out and convince these voters, these people who make $50,000 a year, that he's the one that can turn it around.
MALVEAUX: Is there anything he said in his speech that was directed to women? That would appeal to women? I didn't hear anything, and that's one of the gaps with President Obama he's going to have to deal with.
PRESTON: No, we haven't heard that. But of course, he's going to take questions we think before this gathering and that could potentially come up.
The fact of the matter is, what we'll see regarding the Republican problem with women is that those numbers will turn around. We know they're having some issues right now. But once the primary is officially over, we expect those numbers to get better for Republicans and then let's se what Ann Romney does because she really is a superstar. She could really help Mitt Romney connect with women voters.
MALVEAUX: She's got a great sense of humor. I've seen her.
PRESTON: Unbelievable presence, right?
(CROSSTALK)
MALVEAUX: People really like her.
Finally, Mark, I got to ask you this because Wisconsin, Maryland, D.C. -- clean sweep for Romney. Does this essentially mean he's the guy now, right?
PRESTON: Well, mathematically, and certainly if you're the Republican establishment, you believe that to be true. If you're Rick Santorum, you don't believe that to be true. And, in fact, he's holding three events today in Pennsylvania.
Santorum says he's going to continue on, but if you were to look at the numbers right now, Rick Santorum would need about 80 percent of the remaining delegates to win the nomination nice and clean. Mitt Romney only needs about 44 percent.
MALVEAUX: OK. We're moving forward with this thing.
PRESTON: Moving into the next phase.
MALVEAUX: All right. Good deal. Thanks, Mark.
PRESTON: Thanks.
MALVEAUX: Online giant announces a massive layoff. We're live from the New York stock exchange up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: Mitt Romney in Washington, D.C., before newspaper editors taking a few questions. Let's listen in.
ROMNEY: The real issues, the real differences between us, the failures of the last three years, there's no question.
I don't know -- and the president the other day said that his has been a great presidency, in line with great presidents of the past as he defined them. And I don't think this has been a great presidency. As you look at the pieces of legislation he's enacted, they did not get the economy to work again.
And I know some will say but the economy is getting better. Yes, 3 1/2 years after the stimulus has expired. People have -- of course, every recession ends and people come back to work but the rate of recovery under this president, under his recovery, if you will, has been the most tepid.
I saw an article in "The Wall Street Journal" that said this has been the slowest economic recovery, including that of the Great Depression, that following the Great Depression.
So this is hardly a record to be proud of. It's a record I think he's going to have a hard time defending, and it's a vision for America that I'm yet to hear laid out. I mean, how in the world can you be running for president -- can you be president as well and not have put forward a plan to make sure that Medicare and Social Security are solvent?
REPORTER: "The USA Today"/Gallup poll of swing states released Monday showed you leading President Obama by one percentage among men.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The USA Gallup poll released Monday showed you leading President Obama by one percentage point among men, but trailing him by 18 points among women. Why do you think you face this gender gap?
MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, I know that our party has traditionally faced a gender gap. I think the Democratic Party has done an effective job of trying to mischaracterize our views.
I think that in the final analysis I will win by having the support of men and women in the battleground states and across the country. That will be by focusing on the issues that women and men care most about.
My wife has the occasion as you know to campaign on her own and also with me, and she reports to me regularly that the issue women care about most is the economy and getting good jobs for their kids and for themselves.
They're concerned about gasoline prices, the cost of getting to and from work, taking their kids to school or to practice and so forth after school. That's what women care about in this country, and my vision is to get America working again, short-term and long-term.
Look, we're on a path to becoming more and more like Europe. And Europe doesn't work in Europe. It sure as heck is not going to work here and so we're going to have to maintain the -- we're going to have to maintain those unique features that make America the economic powerhouse it has always been, and a strong economy allows us to do a lot of good things.
One, have good jobs, rising incomes, a growing middle class. It also allows us to have the revenue from all the taxpayers who now have jobs to pay for great schools, wonderful care for our seniors, a strong military to defend us, but at the heart of these good things is a strong and vibrant economy.
And the president -- almost without exception if you look at the policies that he has pursued and the acts that he signed, they have made it harder for our economy to reboot. I mean, do you know any businesses that said, let's hire some more people because Obamacare is coming?
Or in the financial services sector do you find smaller banks saying, I'm willing to give more loans because of Dodd/Frank? Or when they heard about cap and trade, that energy intensive industries said let's grow in America? Or when they heard about card check and the Boeing decision in South Carolina that they said, this is a good time to be hiring people?
I mean, almost every measure that the president has taken made it harder for small business to decide to grow in America or big business to stay here. It has been an anti-business, anti-investment, anti-jobs agenda, and I don't think that's what the president intended it to do, but that is what it has done.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Mitt Romney before newspaper editors. You've been listening to his comments as well as taking some questions from the editors. Essentially it's game on in the fight for the White House.
Mitt Romney looking more and more like he will be the Republican nominee. President Obama now is calling him out by name. This is what he said yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: One of my potential opponents, Governor Romney, has said that he hoped a similar version of this plan from last year would be introduced as a bill on day one of his presidency. He said that he's very supportive of this new budget and he even called it marvelous, which is a word you don't often hear when it comes to describing a budget.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: All right, so just minutes ago same stage, same group, Romney striking back.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROMNEY: Nancy Pelosi famously said that we would have to pass Obamacare to find out what was in it. President Obama has turned that advice into a campaign strategy.
He wants us to re-elect him so we can find out what he'll actually do. With all the challenges the nation faces, this is not the time for President Obama's hide and seek campaign.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: Here to talk about it, Republican strategist, Lenny McAllister and Democratic strategist, Robert Zimmerman. So, guys, first of all, let's talk a little bit about what we just heard here.
Essentially hearing Romney going after President Obama's character, he said this hide and seek campaign, leading from behind, this grab bag of pet projects. He wants folks to take a close look at President Obama and his record.
He's almost insinuating here, Lenny, that there's something the president is hiding. Is that actually a smart strategy?
LENNY MCALLISTER, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: The way he's articulating it right now I probably wouldn't do it that way, but I would articulate if you're going to go with this hide and seek approach, say that President Obama's trying to hide behind the feel good right now the economy slowly coming back, and hide what's actually happened in the administration since 2009.
The high unemployment, all the controversy over Obama care, the back and forth that he's had on certain positions, the wars that we've been in, somebody that was supposed to close down Gitmo that did not do that at all.
As a matter of fact, had us in Libya, had us other places as well. That I think is the approach he needs to take if he's going to say hide and seek. If he's going after character alone, it seems like a personal attack, I think it will backfire. If he starts talking --
ROBERT ZIMMERMAN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: That's why Lenny --
MCALLISTER: Looking at the last year it's going to make a difference and it's going to resonate with the independent voters if he goes that direction.
ZIMMERMAN: Lenny, that's why you get more independent voters than Mitt Romney and probably do well in terms of closing the gender gap because you're prepared to talk about issues.
Unfortunately, what we saw from Governor Romney today, what we have seen during the course of his campaign, is to engage in character assassination and personal attacks, which I think really underestimate the American people.
At the end of the day, this campaign is going to be about the definition of the role of government in our society or if we believe in the need for government in our society.
MALVEAUX: Robert, one of the things that he mentioned here, the reporter asked him about this gender gap that President Obama leads by 18 percent when it comes to support from women.
Romney hit back and said that what women care about is the fact that they need to get their kids to and from school and to practice. That type of thing. I imagine it's a lot broader than that.
But he did bring up one of the things that's a weakness here. He talked about gas prices. That's something that everybody is talking about and wants to know what the plan is on Obama's side. Is that a weakness?
ZIMMERMAN: Look, clearly every president is going to be impacted when gas prices go up. In fairness both the Democratic Party blamed the Bush administration as we see now the Republican Party blaming the Obama administration.
But the difference is this president at least can point to a record of a policy where we see domestic oil production at an eight- year high, dependency on foreign oil at a 16-year low. Plus, we're also seeing through fuel efficiency standards the fact that Americans are saving money in terms of their cars because of the car fuel efficiency standards they put in place.
The real challenge is going to be this, whether the Republican Party is going to come to the table and put on the table a program or a policy that deals with more than just oil subsidies for the oil and gas industry.
We've not seen that yet. We've not seen them embrace the idea of alternative sources of energy and we have really the highest -- 12- year high in terms of production of wind, solar, and thermal energy.
MALVEAUX: Lenny, I have to get you in here --
MCALLISTER: But, Robert, the two things that they're not going to put on the table are failures from the Solyndra and failures from Blithe Solar Power where they're wasting billions of taxpayer dollars. That's something the Democrats and President Obama have on the table that Governor Romney and his team are going to have to make sure --
ZIMMERMAN: Are you suggesting, Lenny, that we should ignore investing in developing alternate sources of energy? It's an important policy.
MCALLISTER: If you're going to do it that way, yes. If you're going to involve yourself with crony politics and people that contribute to your campaign, it's a failure for the American people.
ZIMMERMAN: Then would you give Obama, the Obama administration credit for the fact that we have a 12-year high in terms of production of solar and thermal and wind power in terms of alternate sources of energy?
MCALLISTER: If you're going to give President Obama sacred for that you have to give him credit for $4.70 gas going on in Chicago, Illinois, right now and high gas throughout the country as well. And the shutdown and the failure to get the Keystone pipeline going the way it should have been going and playing politics with that too, you can't take some of the credit and not all the credit.
ZIMMERMAN: I agree with you. The Keystone pipeline should have been approved by the president, but you know, as I do, you can't blame the president for gas prices, gas affected by the geopolitical markets.
MALVEAUX: OK, Robert, Lenny, well, obviously the economics behind the energy policy going to be a very important topic on the campaign trail and it looks like these are the two that could be debating it. We'll have you on to discuss it.
ZIMMERMAN: Happy Easter to you both. MCALLISTER: Thanks, Suzanne.
MALVEAUX: In Syria, the U.N. tries again to stop the killing. The Syrian president promises to go along with the peace plan, but then there are more civilian deaths today. We have full details in a live report.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: The United Nations diplomats, they are trying again in Syria trying to stop the fighting, trying to get independent observers there in the country, trying to convince the government to pull troops, big weapons out of these populated areas.
At least 48 people are reportedly killed today in clash was Syrian forces. More than 70 people died yesterday. CNN's Mohammed Jamjoom, he is in Abu Dhabi today watching the developments, the things that are taking place inside Syria.
Mohammed, let's just go down the line here. The U.N. has made very little progress with the Syrians so far. You have no resolution. You have Kofi Annan's peace plan on shaky ground. What does the U.N. hope to accomplish today?
MOHAMMED JAMJOOM, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Suzanne, I should mention that in fact we have updated numbers from opposition groups in Syria saying, as of now, 54 people across Syria killed today because of violence.
That's just one reason why there's so much skepticism that this U.N. plan will do anything to really end the violence there. It's two days since President Assad promised to start withdrawing troops from population centers across Syria.
Now we know that a U.N. advance team is going to be going in on Thursday to try to set up a monitoring mission so they can get this ceasefire going on there. And yet the violence continues.
The activists that we speak with yesterday and today all across Syria say that it's not just Bashar Al-Assad hasn't started withdrawing his forces from across the country. It's that the violence has escalated.
We've seen this time and time again. Whether it's the Arab League or the U.N. they press Bashar Al-Assad, the Assad regime makes promises to stop the violence, to start withdrawing tanks and then even when monitoring bodies or groups arrive, it seems that the violence only escalates and the crackdown only intensifies -- Suzanne.
MALVEAUX: So Mohammed, what is next here? The Arab League, they tried and failed to keep their observer team in Syria because it was too dangerous. You mentioned it could happen all over again if the U.N. gets involved and is on the ground. What's the alternative?
JAMJOOM: Well, the problem is that there is no clarity as to what will happen, as to what the ramifications will be if Bashar Al- Assad doesn't keep his promises once more. We must remember that the six-point peace plan that was agreed upon by Kofi Annan and Bashar Al- Assad, that was based on a U.N. presidential statement not any kind of resolution.
Time and again, the U.N. Security Council has tried to come up with a resolution condemning the Al-Assad regime so that there could be consequences or at least the threat of consequences so that the Al-Assad regime could really feel the full force of pressure from the U.N. and the international community.
But China and Russia that have strong trade ties with Syria, they keep blocking that. So the problem is the Al-Assad regime doesn't feel any real pressure. They feel they still have their allies. They feel they still have their backing and they don't really feel compelled to do anything to stop what's going on -- Suzanne.
MALVEAUX: All right, we'll see if there's the impasse -- if they can get beyond that, but so far not good news. Thank you, Mohammed.
The biggest names in golf gathering for the annual Masters Tournament. So why is this woman dominating all the news off the course? A live report from Augusta up next.
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MALVEAUX: The 76th Masters Tournament opens tomorrow, but not all the talk is about big names like Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. The tournament's home, the Augusta National Golf Club, is now facing new questions about its all-male membership, as well as the traditional honors for tournament sponsor, whose CEO happens to be a woman. Want to bring in Patrick Snell. He's in Augusta.
And, Patrick, we have heard from the Augusta chairman, Billy Payne, today. How is he explaining this?
Oh, we lost him. OK. Sorry about that. We lost him. We're going to try to get that report to you right after a break.
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MALVEAUX: All right. So before you start buying the Easter chocolate this weekend, something you should consider, is it contributing to child slavery. Turns out that most of the world's cocoa fields are in West Africa. Hundreds of thousands of children are forced to work in those fields. David Mattingly takes us to one of the farms in Ivory Coast.
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DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On this farm we find Abdul. He survived three years of work. He's just 10. He earns no wages for his work, he says, just food, the occasional tip from the owner, and the torn clothes on his back. Put in the simplest of terms, Abdul is a child slave.
We move away from the group so he can speak more freely. And through our translator, he tells us his story.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If he had a choice, he wouldn't work.
MATTINGLY: Abdul says he's from neighboring Burkina Faso. When his father died, he says, a stranger brought him to Ivory Coast. Abdul has never eaten chocolate. He tells us he doesn't even know what cocoa is for.
We met Yacu on the same farm, also from Burkina Faso. "My mother brought me when my father died," he tells me." Yacu insists he's 16, but he looks much younger. His legs bare machete scars from hours clearing the bush. The emotional scars seem much deeper. "I wish I could just go to school," he says, "to learn to read and write." But Yacu says he's never spent a day in school.
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MALVEAUX: David Mattingly's report is part of CNN's "Freedom Project." It's a commitment to helping end modern day slavery. The bitter truth behind the chocolate in your Easter basket, it is one of the lead stories on CNN's Eatocracy website. Its managing editor, Kat Kinsman, she is joining us from New York.
So, first of all, I mean it's -- a lot of people would not suspect that this is happening, that this is taking place. If you're buying chocolate, how do you know whether or not it's actually contributing to child slavery, like the little boy we saw there?
KAT KINSMAN, MANAGING EDITOR, EATOCRACY: Well, this is really disturbing and new information to a lot of people, and especially since we're coming up upon Easter, which worldwide is the biggest chocolate buying time of the year, we thought we would come up with a list of tips that people can look at to help guide them toward slavery-free chocolate.
The first one would be to go organic. That's very little chance that any organic chocolate that you're going to buy is going to be made with slave labor. The trees are generally on the Ivory Coast 25 years old and not grown under organic practices and they're not planting new ones. So that's a really great route to go.
You should start to consider the origin of where your chocolate is coming from. And if you're looking -- and because of the Harken Angle Act, it's a little bit easier to find out the origins of the cocoa that is used in your chocolate. So while it might be coming from Asia or from a few other places, it might not be perfect, but it's better than chocolate you're going to find on -- coming from the Ivory Coast.
Now, another thing you can do is to look at the labels. Ethically source chocolate is generally going to have a stamp on it that says that it's either Rainforest Association certified or that it's Fair Trade certified. So look at the label and empower yourself that way.
And actually one of my favorite routes to go is to really go to the local chocolatiers that are springing up all around the country because so many of them have a very direct relationship with the people who are growing the chocolate. And the fewer links in the supply chain, the more accountability there is and the fewer people who are trying to make a buck off the chain. And they're really working with the farmers directly to get them the best price possible. And they're really going to be happy to work with you to develop a taste for this kind of chocolate.
MALVEAUX: And, Kat, that's great. I mean I've got a chocolate place in my own neighborhood that just sprung up. So I know this is pretty popular. Do we have a sense of whether or not this chocolate is like the kind of chocolate we grew up with and if it's more or less expensive?
KINSMAN: You know, it may not be exactly like the chocolate you grew up with, but as Kristen Heart (ph) from (INAUDIBLE) likes to say, one taste and you get it. Maybe two tastes. So it might not have quite the butter fat content in it that you're used to -- or, actually, sorry, the cocoa fat content, but we challenged our i-Reporters to come up with recipes that would make people really just sense what was wonderful about this chocolate. We got everything from sourdough chocolate recipes, to chocolate soup, to chocolate cookies. And people really put their heart and soul into emphasizing what is beautiful about this chocolate. So what you're really looking for is chocolate that is of great quality, but also makes a difference in the quality of people's lives.
MALVEAUX: That's great. That's a delicious combination there. Thank you, Kat. Appreciate it.
KINSMAN: Thanks for having me.
MALVEAUX: Sure.
We're going to bring you up to speed on today's top stories, including new developments on the cleanup after those devastating tornadoes in Texas.
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MALVEAUX: The 76th Masters Tournament opening tomorrow, but not all the talk is about the big names like Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. Instead, the tournament's home, the Augusta National Golf Club, facing some new questions about its all-male membership, as well as traditional honors for a tournament sponsor whose CEO happens to be a woman. That's right. I want to bring in Patrick Snell. He's in Augusta.
Patrick, so we heard from Augusta chairman Billy Payne, right, today. What -- how is he weighing into this? What is he saying?
PATRICK SNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Suzanne.
Yes, we did hear from Chairman Payne in the previous hour. The CEO of IBM as was (ph) generally (ph) the first this year, is Virginia Rometty. And she basically -- a lot of people thought that this might be the opportunity for the famed Augusta National to come out and publicly declare its first female member. But it wasn't to be. The club dismissing it as a private membership category. Let's hear now from the words of Billy Payne.
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