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Romney Delivers Foreign Policy Speech; Interview with Richard Branson

Aired October 08, 2012 - 15:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Four weeks, four weeks until the election. And Mitt Romney pivots with a foreign policy speech.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It is our responsibility and the responsibility of the president to use America's greatest power to shape history, not to lead from behind, leaving our destiny at the mercy of events.

Drones are important tools in our fight but no substitute for a national security strategy for the Middle East.

I know the president hoped for a safer, freer, and more prosperous Middle East allied with us. I share this hope. But hope is not a strategy.

We can't support our friends and defeat our enemies in the Middle East when our words are not backed up by deeds.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Mitt Romney's foreign policy speech was weighted heavily toward the turbulent situation throughout the Middle East. We will examine that and much more here in just a moment in detail.

First, let me give you the big picture. As I mentioned, four weeks from the election here, we are seeing a possible shift in favor of Mitt Romney. Look at the numbers with me, especially in that right- hand column, because you can see what happened since the debate last Wednesday. This is Gallup's daily tracking poll, great for spotting trends. You can see a dead heat 47-47 here in the race for president. That's down, you see the left-hand side, from a five-point advantage for Obama. That's five-point advantage, poof, gone.

This is, again, the Gallup tracking poll. You're asking, what about the state polls? They are the ones certainly that count, especially battleground states, Florida, Ohio, Virginia, and, yes, we are seeing signs of movement toward Romney.

But do keep in mind that before last Wednesday, before the first debate, those three big states were firming up quite nicely for the president. Obviously, you and I will be watching those states very, very closely as we inch toward the election. On the debates, take a look at the calendar here. Keep this in mind. We have a vice presidential debate this coming Thursday, Biden vs. Ryan, then, a week from tomorrow, Obama vs. Romney, then, those two, again, two weeks from today, the last debate before the election on foreign policy as well.

So Mitt Romney, speaking up, today, giving this 20-much speech specifically on foreign policy. You can see here foreign policy not one of Romney's stronger suits thus far. Our latest poll showing him trailing the president by seven points on that item, better on foreign policy.

Joining me now from Washington is Jon Alterman, director of the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

So, Jon, welcome.

JON ALTERMAN, MIDDLE EAST PROGRAM DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR STRATEGIC AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES: Thanks, Brooke.

BALDWIN: And, I don't have to tell you this. You know foreign policy encompasses a big ball of wax. Are you surprised at Romney's emphasis on the Middle East specifically and what does that emphasis tell you?

ALTERMAN: You know, I was.

And part of me is -- as somebody who spends their life following the Middle East, I'm a little flattered. But part of me wonders where is China, where is Russia, where are the sort of rising like Brazil, Turkey, and India, that have good relations with the U.S. that can be encouraged to take a more responsible role in the world?

I would think a big foreign policy speech would address those kinds of issues. Instead, what I think Romney was trying to do was say, say, look, we're much less safe in the Middle East and that's because of this president, we're not leading so much.

I spent last week in the Middle East, I was in Egypt for the whole week. I didn't feel less safe, honestly. And I didn't hear people saying, gee, we really want the U.S. to tell us what should we do. Instead, they said we want things from the Middle East, but don't tell us what to do. How would a President Romney deal with that? I don't know more now than I did this morning.

BALDWIN: Well, Jon, since you were in Egypt, let me ask you about that, because Romney spoke, as we mentioned, focused on the Middle East, talked Egypt.

Let's all remember the U.S. pulled the plug on our ally, Hosni Mubarak, he's gone. Egypt's post-Mubarak president is a member of the militant Muslim Brotherhood. Here is what Mitt Romney said about Egypt today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROMNEY: In Egypt I will use our influence, including clear conditions on our aid, to urge the new government to represent all Egyptians, to build democratic institutions and to maintain its peace treaty with Israel. And we must persuade our friends and allies to place similar stipulations on their aid.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So he mentions the aid, continued aid and we give Egypt a lot of money. I want to say they're the second highest recipient of U.S. foreign aid. But he mentioned conditions, talking to Egyptians. Is that realistic?

ALTERMAN: You can impose conditions. The problem is getting people to fulfill the conditions and the problem then is pulling the trigger if they don't fill the conditions.

If it all fell apart -- and I spoke to people in the U.S. government in Egypt who did worry that Egypt could drift in the direction of Pakistan, and their view is the way to make that happen is to cut the aid, cut the relationship, cut the sort of ties that we have been building with Egypt over 30 years.

I think one of the things you have to do if you're willing to condition aid is you're willing to potentially go down that road. That's what we did with Pakistan.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: What would we be sacrificing if we did that?

ALTERMAN: One of the possibilities is that a government in Egypt would decide to have a different attitude toward Israel, I think more hostile, but certainly not war with Israel.

But I think the border would become less secure. I think it would be harder for the U.S. to put ships through the Suez Canal, it would harder for the U.S. to fly planes over Egypt. All the joint training and operations that we do with the Egyptians to get as used to working with us would be much harder.

And quite frankly, among the Egyptian public, people would say for all these years you supported Mubarak, who oppressed us, and now we have a democratic government and you pull the plug, you're not on our side at all. And, you know, the other thing is he talked about getting support from the countries in the Gulf.

The countries in the Gulf are not going to condition the aid to Egypt and they don't have the same strong interest we have in a resilient vibrant democratic society. How do you square that? It is all really hard.

BALDWIN: And his critique too to the president was clear and blistering and that will be the debate to watch two weeks from today, that foreign policy debate in Florida between these two men.

Jon Alterman, Jon, thank you so much.

ALTERMAN: Thanks, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Before we look that far ahead, though, let me just remind you, this upcoming Thursday, Vice President Joe Biden, Congressman Paul Ryan face off Thursday night for the V.P. debate. Coverage here on CNN begins at 7:00 Eastern.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: As President Obama and Mitt Romney race to the finish...

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I got my start as a community organizer.

ROMNEY: I know how the private sector works.

BALDWIN: ... a new documentary shows not only their most decisive moments, but how their minds work. I'm Brooke Baldwin. The news is now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He knows that every step he takes is a potential land mine.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The backlash against his presidency must be mystifying to him, because he genuinely doesn't see himself as a radical.

BALDWIN (voice-over): I will speak live with a PBS producer behind this film.

Plus, Israel shoots down a drone, but the mystery over where it took off deepens.

And how the discovery of a single spider derailed an entire highway project.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Spaceflight officially entered a new era last night when the first commercial flight to resupply the International Space Station launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida. I Just love the pictures. Just watch this with me.

Richard Branson, the chairman of Virgin Group, has hailed the private sector's role in spaceflight. He even has a company called Virgin Galactic that he says will soon start offering two-hour tours of space for a cool 200 grand a pop, which he promises the price will go down eventually. So you and I cannot hold our breath for too long. He joins me from New York.

Richard Branson, nice to have you back on the show.

When you watch SpaceX, what are you thinking, when you watch this rocket go up? RICHARD BRANSON, CHAIRMAN & CEO, VIRGIN GROUP: I think it is time has come that commercial spaceflight took over from government-run businesses.

Governments have done a fine job for 60 years, but it has been incredibly expensive and I think the likes of Elon and if I may say myself, Elon is going to be taking freight into space next year at a fraction of what it has cost governments in the past -- we will be taking passengers into space next year at a fraction of what it has cost governments in the past.

So a very, very, very exciting era of space travel ahead of us and another historic day today.

BALDWIN: So you say next year. Are you still on track, Virgin Galactic, still on track to launch in 2013?

BRANSON: I will be very disappointed with our team if I don't get a flight myself next year.

I think it is looking more hopeful than not. So I'm putting pressure on, not too much pressure, because I'm bringing my kids up, but everything points to next year being a year that Virgin Galactic will start taking passengers to space.

BALDWIN: Yes. And to be clear, if people have, I don't know, concerns about safety, this being a first for Virgin Galactic, you know, you're going up, and, as you just mentioned, your children are going up in that first flight, correct?

BRANSON: Yes.

And, I mean, you know, my wife loves us all, so she's making sure that we do plenty of test flights before we go. And being a private company, we have got to offer people return tickets, not one-way tickets. There will be an awful lot of test flights done before we actually go up and -- but we have got fantastic technology. It's 60 years younger than most of the NASA technology.

And we're confident that we can create a wonderful spaceship company that, you know, will start with sub-orbital several flights, then go on to ordeal flights, and just give people a chance finally to become astronauts, people who never would have dreamt in their lifetime that they would become astronauts.

BALDWIN: And while all this is incredibly exciting and hopefully you're sparing some seats for journalists, I do want to talk -- I do want to talk politics, because I know you're a Brit, but we're four weeks out from this presidential election and neither candidate really is talking much about space, Richard. What would you want to hear from either of them when it comes to space travel?

BRANSON: Well, the interesting thing is that it's a Democratic president, President Obama, who has said, you know, let's get private enterprise to run space going forward, because it can be done a lot cheaper, can save the taxpayer a lot of money. And, you know, obviously I personally think that he's right about that. I think that, you know, if we can get lots of private companies, you know, coming up with imaginative ways of maybe setting hotels in space, maybe looking at point-to-point travel, which Virgin Galactic is doing so we can travel around the globe much, much quicker than we have been able to do in the past, that's good.

And I think we're going to have a really exciting few decades ahead, where space travel will move much quicker than it has done in the past. So, NASA has done a great job, but I think private spaceship companies will move even quicker.

BALDWIN: Yes. And I remember when SpaceX was first testing this out in may, and we heard from Charlie Bolden, NASA administrator, saying, look, this is a great day, this is a happy day.

I have talked to him and he said, yes, Brooke, we hope we will see bootprints on Mars in our lifetime.

Final question to you, sir. This is your wheelhouse. Let's look beyond space tourism. What else do you think is possible?

BRANSON: Well, look, I really do think that in our lifetime we will start colonizing Mars. That's something which all the team at Virgin Galactic are determined to do.

I'm sure that the team at SpaceX are determined to do, and maybe we might get together and do it together. But what seems completely fanciful only five years ago, I think, as the technology moves forward, is becoming more and more realistic. So -- and from us, you know, who is to know? We have also not registered the name Virgin Galactic Airwaves. We have registered the name Virgin Intergalactic Airwaves. We're optimists. We like to dream.

BALDWIN: Intergalactic.

Richard Branson, I'm excited for you and whoever goes up with you. And maybe I will hitch a ride at some point.

Richard Branson, thank you so, so much.

BRANSON: We will see you up there.

BALDWIN: Thank you.

BRANSON: Cheers.

BALDWIN: Totally switching gears, just in to us at CNN, Mexican officials have nabbed a top drug cartel leader. But here's the thing. He may be linked to the murder of American David Hartley on Falcon Lake, including hundreds of others. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: A Mexican drug cartel leader suspected in the deaths of dozens of people, including an American, has now been arrested. The story here, David Hartley, he was shot and killed while he was with his wife, out and about on this lake, this Falcon Lake, they were riding on their Sea-Doos.

This is right along the U.S.-Mexico border. This was just two years ago, 2010.

I want to bring in Ildefonso Ortiz, a crime reporter for "The Monitor" newspaper in McAllen, Texas.

Ildefonso joins me by phone here.

And, Ildefonso, how exactly did they catch this guy?

ILDEFONSO ORTIZ, "THE MONITOR": Well, they caught him on Saturday, took an all-day effort.

They had received -- the Mexican navy received information around 5:00 a.m. that he was in the city of Nuevo Laredo. And they almost also caught him at 5:00 in the morning. He got away. They spent all day searching for him. And at around 7:00, they were able to arrest him basically and whisked him away to Mexican City. This morning they basically presented him for the media. Basically, you know, we have this gentleman. He answers directly to the head of the Zetas. He's very high up in the chain.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: This is a major drug cartel.

Let me just jump in and ask you, too, because to be clear, from what I understand, we had folks who talked to the sheriff of Zapata County, who said they don't know if this guy was the one that pulled the trigger, per se, but he may be involved, is that correct?

ORTIZ: That is correct. I spoke with the sheriff this morning.

This guy is very high up in the chain, so he was more than likely not at the scene, but he was ultimately responsible for the actions of his underlings. He basically oversaw three states,so everybody answered to him.

So as to his exact role, it's still up in the air, his exact role, but he was ultimately responsible for everything that the Zetas have done in that -- in this time frame.

BALDWIN: OK. What more do you know? I know he was known as the Squirrel. What more do you know about him?

ORTIZ: Well, they're tying him to the murder of 72 migrants back in August of 2010.

BALDWIN: Wow.

ORTIZ: They were found in a warehouse after a firefight, and when the army they fought off the Zetas, they found all these bodies there. Then in April of 2011, there were over 200 bodies found in shallow graves in San Fernando, which is about two hours south of the Texas border. And that is where they found all these bodies and it seems that this guy also was responsible for having ordered all those murders.

BALDWIN: Well, if he was involved, somehow, in this killing, you know, that's -- that's a great sign that Mexico is trying to help us out in all addition to the bodies you mentioned, the killing of an American man.

Ildefonso Ortiz from "The Monitor," Ildefonso, thank you so much for calling in. We appreciate it. We're going to stay on that story.

Here we go, 29 days to go until the presidential election. And as folks in some states cast their votes today, Mitt Romney's big speech slams President Obama as being a follower, not a leader. Wolf Blitzer joining me next on whether we actually have learned anything new.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Voting for the general election getting under way in three more states today. You have California, Oregon, and Indiana. They are now joining 10 other states that have started early voting.

And with all of this here, really, we're less than four weeks from Election Day. Both campaigns are racing to register voters, particularly here in Florida. The voter registration deadline there is one day away and volunteers are definitely feeling the urgency. one door, one citizen at a time. They are encouraging people to vote. But some simply have no interest in voting whatsoever.

John Zarrella reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN MIAMI BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): Jessinia Fernandez and Karen Garcia go door to door. The question they ask is simple but one of democracy's most important.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you registered to vote?

ZARRELLA: In Florida, the deadline is Tuesday. If you're not registered by then, you can't vote in the presidential election.

JESSINIA FERNANDEZ, VOLUNTEER: Sometimes, I get sad because people tell me, you know, "I don't want to vote. I don't like voting." And you know, it's kind of like frustrating sometimes that they do have the right and they can vote; they just don't want to vote.

ZARRELLA: Jessinia and Karen work with a Florida immigrant coalition, one of a plethora of organizations, some partisan, some not, engaged in a last-minute swing-state-signing race to register voters.

Since the state's August primary, more than 133,000 people have registered. At Nova Southeastern University Law School in Broward, County.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you registered to vote?

ZARRELLA: At Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hey, are you registered to vote this year?

ZARRELLA: Outside the courthouse in Plantation, there is no mistaking which candidate Allen Irwa (ph) supports, but he says...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We register anyone that comes along that wants to register.

ZARRELLA (on camera): But you would prefer they register Democrat.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Of course. I represent the Obama campaign.

ZARRELLA (voice-over): Twenty-year-old Jonathan Colon registered.

JONATHAN COLON, REGISTERED VOTER: I'm looking in the future, like ten year, whatever they can do to make their four years count is what I really want.

ZARRELLA: With so much at stake in Florida, there can be a darker side to voter registration.

Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Susan Bucher discovered discrepancies, signatures that looked the same, addresses that didn't appear right on more than 100 voter registration forms.

SUSAN BUCHER, SUPERVISOR OF ELECTIONS, PALM BEACH COUNTY, FLORIDA: We just haven't ever experienced this kind of issue with the registration forms and so that's got us a little disconcerted.

ZARRELLA: The company at the center of what is now a state-wide investigation, Strategic Allied Consulting, hired by the Republican party to register voters, was fired.

Strategic insists the problem was with one individual and that it maintains rigorous quality control measures.

Back in Ft. Lauderdale, not a good day for Jessina (ph) and Karen (ph), only a handful of new registers.

That hurts, they say. You see, neither one is a U.S. citizen.

Both are part of the group called "dreamers," whose parents brought them here illegally when they were children and here they are, trying to encourage people to exercise their right they only wish they had.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Have a nice day.

ZARRELLA: John Zarrella, CNN, Ft. Lauderdale.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BROOKE BALDWIN, ANCHOR, "CNN NEWSROOM": From Florida to Virginia here, four weeks from election day and Mitt Romney, speaking at VMI, slips in a speech on foreign policy.

Romney spoke today in Lexington, Virginia, said that under Barack Obama the United States has failed to lead, especially, he said, in the Middle East.

He said the Obama administration is being reactive, being led around by events, but he offered few specifics on how he would do things differently.

Now, what he did say is that the rebels in Syria need to be getting more arms, but he didn't exactly say from whom.

Wolf Blitzer, back with me now from Washington, and, Wolf, let's begin with something I didn't hear. I didn't hear Mitt Romney say that President Obama is throwing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu under the bus. I didn't hear it.

That has been a staple in so many different speeches, you know, up until now. He actually seemed to soften his tone on that one.

Did you hear that change in nuance?

WOLF BLITZER, HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM": Yeah, that was a line that he used in his acceptance speech at the Republican convention in Tampa, that the Obama administration has thrown Israel under the bus.

He didn't really soften it as far as Benjamin Netanyahu's relationship with President Obama is concerned because he was pretty tough on the president and suggested at one point in a speech that the relationship between the president of the United States and the prime minister of Israel, according to Romney, has suffered great strains.

And then he quoted from an old report going back to the first year of the Obama administration from an unknown source, if you will, in an early meeting that the president had with Jewish leaders at the White House back in 2009, that the president wanted to put some, quote, "daylight" between the U.S. and Israel. Romney referred to that today.

So, you're right. He didn't mention Israel was thrown under the bus, but he didn't back off at all in his insistence that the U.S./Israeli relationship, specifically the relationship between the president and the prime minister, was under strain.

I will point out this. He's right on that. The relationship between Netanyahu and President Obama is under strain, but the U.S./Israeli military-to-military relationship, intelligence-to-intelligence relationship, at least according to Ehud Barak, the defense minister of Israel, and Shimon Peres, the president of Israel -- I interviewed both of them when I was there in July.

They insist the relationship, basically, has never been better. The personal relationship between these two leaders, though, is not good. BALDWIN: And that is what Romney has pointed out.

Up until now and perhaps largely because of the operation that killed Osama bin Laden, it has been advantage Obama when it comes to foreign policy. In fact, I know you've seen this poll, Wolf Blitzer.

This is a pretty recent poll that shows more Americans trusting Obama over Romney on foreign policy.

Do you think, though, that maybe, maybe Team Romney senses an opportunity, an opening here?

BLITZER: Yes, they definitely sense an opening as a result of what happened in Benghazi, Libya.

I think the president has basically been popular as far as foreign policy is concerned as, A, he got all the U.S. troops out of Iraq, no more U.S. troops in Iraq. Americans are war-weary, if you will, and he's got a timeline to getting all U.S. troops out of Afghanistan.

But probably much more important than that, Brooke, is that he managed to kill bin Laden and that is something that's very, very popular.

So, I was a little surprised that Romney went after the president in this speech today on Iraq, because getting U.S. troops out of Iraq has generally been popular, although Romney did make valid points.

The Iraqi government, right now, Nouri al-Maliki is moving closer and closer towards Iran. It's facilitating Iranian supplies of weapons to Syria. This is not a good aftermath of all those years of U.S. struggle in Iraq, to be sure.

But getting Americans out of Iraq, that was basically very, very popular.

BALDWIN: Wolf Blitzer, I know you will be dissecting this speech even further at the top of the hour. We will look forward to it in "The Situation Room." Thank you.

BLITZER: Thank you.

BALDWIN: And are you thinking about selling some of your old items? Well, you may want to do it fast. We have details on a case being heard before the Supreme Court this week, which could make it illegal for you to sell your stuff.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: So, it's Monday. I don't know what you did this weekend, but I bet some of you held a yard sale.

Did you sell anything made in China, France, Canada, anything made abroad?

Listen to this, your right to sell your old stuff is now a case before the U.S. Supreme Court. Yep, the Supreme Court is considering this little known case. It's called Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons.

How could this impact you? Take a look at this. This is a short list put together by a constitutional scholar for "The Atlantic" magazine.

You would be breaking the law if you sold your first-generation iPad on craigslist, you sold your dad's used Omega watch on eBay, if you sold an imported CD that was only released abroad, but legally purchased here.

And here's the one you to pay very close attention it. If you sold your house along with all the fixtures inside that were made in China or France or Canada, maybe you had a little Italian marble in there, you'd be breaking the law.

I know. It's crazy. Sunny Hostin, "On the Case" with us. Back today. So good to see you, first and foremost. It's been awhile.

You know, it seems kind of nuts. I guess it stems from these legal disputes over something called the "first-sale doctrine." What's being disputed?

SUNNY HOSTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: That's right and it's a little difficult to explain. Of course, it is going to be difficult because if the Supremes feel they need to weigh in and this is a really meaty, legal issue.

But it makes sense to go over sort of the beginning of this case and the way it started, Brooke, is Mr. Kirtsaeng in 1997 moved from his native Thailand to attend Cornell University.

And what happened when he got to Cornell? He faced a reality that so many of us that went to college or universities around the country face, the insane cost of textbooks, right?

So, he realizes and discovers that these same textbooks are sold in Thailand for just a fraction of the cost. They're really inexpensive.

So, he gets his family and friends to buy those textbooks in Thailand and, guess what, ship them to him in New York, into Cornell University. He sells them on eBay and makes, get this, Brooke, $1.2 million in profit.

BALDWIN: What? What?

HOSTIN: That's right. And the publisher, Wiley and Sons, finds out about it and they say, you can't do that. That's our money. We have a copyright here and they sue him for copy right infringement.

But he says, no, under the "first-sale doctrine" in United States copyright law, well, you only have control over the first sale. This is the second sale. I can set the price that I want to set.

Well, now the Supreme Court has to deal with it and that's why it has such significant legal implications because think about it. It would almost make eBay illegal. It would make yard sales like black market, right? Craigslist, no more. And so that's why people are really talking about this because it could have real worldwide or United States-wide implications.

And, get this, Brooke. Libraries, my goodness, I mean, they loan out foreign-manufactured books, each and every second of each and every day and, so, libraries could also very much so be affected by this.

BALDWIN: This is huge. Sunny Hostin, we'll be watching it right along with you. All from some textbooks from Thailand.

HOSTIN: That's right.

BALDWIN: Thank you very much.

Now, this ...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Romney has been accused of flip-flopping, but on Mormonism, he will never flip-flop.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And, yet, in politics, he has often tried to keep that part of him behind the curtain.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The backlash against his presidency must be mystifying to him because he genuinely doesn't see himself as a radical.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: What a film this is. This is taking you inside the thinking of these two men who want to be president for the next four years.

Coming up next, an award-winning PBS producer joins me live on this documentary that reveals the most decisive moments in Mitt Romney and Barack Obama's lives.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Less than a month away now before election day and how can we forget political ads? They remind us each and every hour on the hour what's happening right now.

But Barack Obama and Mitt Romney have to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to define themselves for us while, of course, vilifying the other and that's why I want to draw your attention to this documentary, that airs tomorrow night, on PBS.

It is from the folks who bring us "Frontline" and here is just a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: I got my start as a community organizer.

MITT ROMNEY, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I know how the private sector works. I know how jobs come. I know how they go.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For years, these two men have been telling us their stories.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He keeps a lot of his views to himself.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He knows that every step he takes is a potential landmine.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People have great respect for Obama and will still say this is most insular administration in their lifetime.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This October, "Frontline" looks for meaning in the lives, choices and politics of Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Michael Kirk is one of the producers of "The Choice 2012." He's joining me live from New York and welcome to you, Michael.

I read your resume. You have covered just about everything, so I'm kind of fascinated to see this, as you all tout sort of this long view of both these men's lives.

And the promise is that this documentary will take us beyond the sound bites, right? Beyond the ads, the sales pitches.

Tell me, it sounds like you and your crew talked to a lot of people to get inside the lives of both of these men.

MICHAEL KIRK, PRODUCER, "THE CHOICE 2012": More than 100 of them, friends, family, enemies, journalists, authors, almost everybody we could dredge up over the last year for two hours, two-and-a-half hours was the typical interview with most of these people.

I think the challenge was formidable. Who do you tell the life story and new things about maybe the most famous person in the world, Barack Obama, or, in Romney's sense, a man everybody told us was the hidden man. That's the way they described him.

And it was a real treat to finally get inside and finally discover what I think we've discovered and what we've put on our film tomorrow night.

BALDWIN: And to help Americans, of course, make that choice, right, come November 6th?

Let's begin with the so-called hidden man. Let's begin with Mitt Romney.

Let me just play a little bit. This is part of an interview with his wife, Ann.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANN ROMNEY, WIFE OF MITT ROMNEY: He loves his dad, respects his dad, doesn't want to do anything that would not make his father proud.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Now, Romney's dad was a powerful auto executive, a moderate Republican governor.

Did his father, the role of his father, really cast a big shadow over Mitt Romney's early years now and, if so, how so?

KIRK: It's a tremendous burden and promise at the same time. Mitt Romney grew up in a wonderful family, many generations of Mormons where the ethos is parenting is the most important thing you do.

George Romney was an unbelievable role model, a successful auto executive and a great community person and a politician who was very successful as a governor.

He fought Barry Goldwater at the 1964 Republican convention and Mitt had a very strong relationship with him, stronger than almost any of his other siblings, so it's really interesting to imagine what Mitt Romney must think about now.

And we talked to Ann in our film and we talked to many of the people around him and they all said, Mitt, as a Mormon, would believe that he'll see his father on the other side of what they call "the veil" and that he knows the father will look at him and say, you know, Mitt, you did a good job.

BALDWIN: Wow, so this is part of what he believes, again, speaking about his Mormonism.

Here's a little more from your documentary.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mitt Romney's been accused of flip-flopping, but on Mormonism he will never flip-flop.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And, yet, in politics, he has often tried to keep that part of him behind the curtain.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The backlash against ...

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BALDWIN: We know that Romney spent two years in France. I love how somebody wrote it up that the Sisyphean task of not drinking in, of all places, Bordeaux. You know, I chuckled with that as well.

Very close brush with death, as well. How did those years, Michael -- how did that really shape him into who he is today?

KIRK: I think he was not a serious person when he went. He'd been at Stanford. He'd supported his father's pro-war, pro-Vietnam war stance by protesting the protesters, but that was about as close as he came to politics. I think, by the time he gets to France and has that near brush with death, he then -- something happens to him. He becomes much more serious and something else happens to him that has stayed with him. We saw it all last Wednesday night in the debate.

He has so much rejection at the heart of the experience of the missionary endeavor as knocking on thousands of doors, asking people to be Mormons. The last thing many people in France wanted was to see a couple of Mormon missionaries there.

He learned, I think, to be a salesman and to handle rejection. He's had some rejection in his life. He's been a salesman all of his life since France.

BALDWIN: What's the one word, Michael, that you would use to sum up everything you learned about Mitt Romney's character? One word.

KIRK: One word, not ideologically.

BALDWIN: That's two words, but we'll allow it. You're a journalist.

KIRK: OK, ideologically -- not ideological, that's it.

BALDWIN: Michael, I want to ask you, also, about a story you heard about President Obama's younger years. I want to focus on that and his younger days, including his, quote --his role in the, quote, "choom gang."

I know you know what I'm talking about. Hold that answer. That is next.

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BALDWIN: I am back with award-winning PBS "Frontline" producer, Michael Kirk. He and his team have just finished this documentary that really looks at and delves deeply into the lives of both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.

So, before you vote, I mean, this whole documentary is called "The Choice 2012." You know, this is two hours of TV you want to watch if you are undecided or not.

So, before the break, we talked about a young Mitt Romney. What about the president's early years?

Early on, President Obama went by the name Barry, so he was Barry Obama and, Michael, in high school he took part in something called the "choom gang" in Hawaii.

What was that?

KIRK: Well, "choom" in Hawaii means marijuana and his friends -- he'd had just a -- I mean, by my terms, really a horrible childhood and by his.

Even the memoir doesn't go as deeply as I think we went to discover really what it was like, a lifetime of being left and being alone, searching for home, searching for familiar. It really is a sad story, quite the opposite of Mitt Romney's story.

Well, Obama, by the time he gets to high school, is in a very nice, the best high school in Hawaii, but there he has a group of friends that really become his family.

He didn't really have anything like it before that and they were known as the "choom gang" because they consumed a lot of marijuana.

BALDWIN: OK, OK. You also found a lot of letters, journals written by a young Obama. Tell me about them.

KIRK: He goes through a sort of existential crisis through his 20s where he comes to -- goes first to Occidental College in Los Angeles and then comes to New York where he walks the streets, basically, on- and-off for four years in a kind of monk-like existence, carrying Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man" in his back pocket, trying to figure out who he is.

Is he black? Is he white? What is he? Is he an orphan? You know, what kind of person is he? Looking for a community to be in.

He comes up with the answer that, of course, will propel him to the White House in the last year of that, moves on to Chicago and then Harvard law school, but during that time, he forms a kind of theory, which is his big idea, what we call the "national intention" that he sold to all of us, starting with that speech in Boston.

It's a fascinating idea that this guy in the depths of despair, a real existential crisis, sorts it out and comes up with something that makes him the president of the United States.

BALDWIN: Michael, what's the one or two words to sum up Barack Obama's character?

KIRK: I think he's disappointed.

BALDWIN: Disappointed? Disappointed? OK.

KIRK: Watch the show. You'll see why.

BALDWIN: We will watch the show. Remind us exactly when tomorrow. What time?

KIRK: 9:00, PBS. It's in Spanish and in English for everybody in America to see and I hope you do.

And it may help if you're having trouble deciding who to vote for or you just want to feel good about who it is you are voting for.

BALDWIN: Michael Kirk, we will be watching. Thank you, sir. So nice to have you on. Nice to meet you.

And we ...

KIRK: Thanks, Brooke.

BALDWIN: ... will be right back.

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BALDWIN: So, this rare species of spider not seen in decades has now apparently shown up at a Texas highway project, forcing construction to come to a halt over a spider. A biologist found the Braken Bat Cave meshweaver spider -- did you get that -- in a six-foot deep hole at this construction site.

The endangered spider is smaller than a dime. This thing has no eyes and "The Houston Chronicle" is reporting that biologists have been present during the road project for this very reason.

The area is known for its abundance of natural resources and, now, the project has to be redesigned and county commissioners say it may be two to three years before it is complete and it could cost an additional $15 million to $20 million, all because of a teeny, tiny spider, smaller than a dime, no eyes, road project put on hold. How about that?

And with that, I say good-bye to you. Thank you so much for being with me here on this Monday. I'm Brooke Baldwin at the CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta.

Now, let's take you to Washington. Wolf Blitzer, your "The Situation Room" begins right now.

BLITZER: Brooke, thanks very much.