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Gas Explosion in San Bruno, California; Confusion Over Threat to Burn Koran; Public Schools: Doing More With Less; "Like Something Out of a Frankenstein Movie"; The Stakeout; Social Conservatives Meeting in Anticipation of Elections; Wordplay: Stimulus

Aired September 10, 2010 - 14:00   ET

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

ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: OK. It's a brand-new hour and a new "Rundown." Let me tell you what we've got on it right now.

As your kids head back to school, they're facing fewer resources and much larger classes. But at the same time, they're being asked to perform better than they ever have before.

How do you reconcile the two? I'm going to ask a top official from the Education Department.

Plus, charities stand to make a whole lot of money if small businesses in one big city start hiring more people. A philanthropist is connecting the two, making that his mission possible.

And also, from sparking the economy to burning the Koran, President Obama covered all of that and more in his first full-scale news conference in nearly four months. We're going to check the facts of what he said.

From a neighborhood to nothing, this is our big story, and it is devastating. A gas explosion in San Bruno, California, just south of San Francisco. So far, at least four people are dead, more than 50 injured, and dozens of homes gone. I'm not making this up -- gone. You have got to see this.

The fire is about 75 percent contained right now. San Bruno is just south of San Francisco, just a few miles away from the San Francisco International Airport.

This explosion happened 6:30 local time Thursday evening, 9:30 Eastern Time. The heat was so intense, that it melted car taillights. It sent chunks of concrete flying into the air.

Those are live pictures you're looking at. This is what this thing created.

Pacific Gas and Electric says a gas transmission line ruptured, causing the fire. They're investigating why.

Residents of this neighborhood say they've been smelling -- at least some say they've been selling natural gas in the area for the past three weeks. Now, we're hearing that the blast and the fire happened so suddenly, people did not have time to react. What went wrong her? Let's go right to San Bruno. Ted Rowlands standing there, right by the site. He's far enough away from it that you can't see what you can see in those live pictures. So what we'll do is periodically, while I'm talking to Ted, we'll show you those live pictures in the corner of the screen.

Because, Ted, it's really quite hard to grasp the scope of this disaster.

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and the intensity, the speed in which this explosion and then ensuing fire took place. Eyewitnesses said they all pretty much thought it was an earthquake at first because it was so intense, it rumbled and shook the earth. And whatever building you were in at the time, it shook that.

Now, when they came out and saw the huge inferno, they realized that it was something else. Most people say that they just grabbed what they could and got out.

Now, how did this happen? That's the big question.

We all have these pipes running through whatever city you're living in. What happened to this pipe?

PG&E says they haven't been able to -- and this is a few hours ago, when we had our last update -- get into the area where the explosion took place to analyze it. But experts say one of two things happened. Either it eroded or somehow it was punctured or cut in two. PG&E says they're looking into it.

Now, you mentioned it earlier. There's a gentleman that lives in the neighborhood who has come forward and says he smelled natural gas. In fact, he says PG&E was out in this neighborhood about a week and a half ago.

Let's hear a little bit from him. Tim Gutierrez is his name.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TIM GUTIERREZ, SAN BRUNO RESIDENT: It started around three weeks ago in my neighborhood. PG&E had come out. I was working in my garage.

They had told me to shut the door, shut the garage, go inside, that there was real heavy, strong gases. After being in the neighborhood for a little bit, they packed up and left, but the real heavy smell was right down the street at the next stop sign. Every day after work, I would smell the heavy smell coming from the gutter and sewer right there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROWLANDS: PG&E is looking into these allegations. They said they're going back and looking at their records, and they'll incorporate this into the investigation.

The NTSB is the lead, Ali, in this investigation, and they have sent a team out here. They're just getting going.

Right now, neighbors have come to check on their homes. They've been held way back as investigators have declared a crime scene near where this explosion took place.

They are also still looking for potential victims. They have cadaver dogs out there. And we talked to one young woman who says her 19-year-old friend is missing and was last seen very close to where this explosion took place.

VELSHI: Ted, what do we know about how widespread these comments are from people about having smelled this natural gas? Is it just Tim, who you talked to, or do you think it's more than that?

ROWLANDS: Yes. You know, it's only this one individual who has come out so far. But he says he was there when the PG&E were there.

So, PG&E is obviously going to have record of that. So we'll get to the bottom of that, for sure, what exactly was examined and whether those two things are related. Of course, you can't connect those dots as much as you want to yet until the full investigation, and really until they look at this pipe. That's what they want to do.

VELSHI: Yes, sure. All right, Ted. Thanks very much.

Ted Rowlands in San Bruno, just south of San Francisco.

I want to bring you up to speed with the latest on this development in Florida, this pastor, Terry Jones, who says he's going to burn this Koran, and yesterday said he wasn't going to burn the Koran, and now we don't know where she is.

John Zarrella is covering this for us now.

This seems to have developments on a very regular basis, John. What's the latest?

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Ali. You know, I have to preface this by saying we cannot make this stuff up.

But what you know is and what our viewer probably know is that late yesterday, he said that he -- he claimed that he had a deal with Imam Feisal in New York, that the imam would move the planned mosque and cultural center in New York if he went ahead and canceled this burning. Well, there really was never any deal. There wasn't one in place, quite clearly.

Well, just a little while ago, Terry Jones, Pastor Jones, came back out here, and he was accompanied by K.A. Paul (ph), an evangelist. And both of them issued a challenge to the imam in New York saying that -- giving him basically two hours to call them and to tell them whether or not he was indeed going to move the mosque.

I think we have some sound from K.A. Paul (ph).

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) K.A. PAUL (ph), EVANGELIST: Imam Feisal -- a challenge is crystal clear, and we're going to give two phone numbers. Imam Feisal, as he agreed to meet with Pastor Terry, and the pastor asked me to go with him. We're planning on going to New York. But we want to know and we want to ask the media, you, also could contact him and find out if he has agreed to move the mosque from Ground Zero to another location.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZARRELLA: Now, Paul (ph) said he didn't want any more cat-and- mouse games, that he and Pastor Jones didn't want that any longer, they wanted an answer. They actually gave out two phone numbers where the imam in New York could call them to give them his answer.

VELSHI: Good lord.

ZARRELLA: You know, Ali, that's not -- you can imagine the kind of phone calls they're probably getting on those lines right now.

And I know the question you're going to ask, Ali, is, well, what did they do? Did they say what are the ramifications if he doesn't call them? Well, they wouldn't address that and they said they'll come back out in two hours and let us know whether they got the call and what the next move is going to be. You know, Ali, you cannot make this up.

VELSHI: So at what point -- you and I -- but at what point do you feel like saying to one of these guys, you know, you feel like you're getting played?

ZARRELLA: Yes, enough is enough. And it just keeps getting strung out and strung out. And from one minute to the next, you have no idea what's going to be done next. It's just silly.

VELSHI: We did hear from Imam Feisal earlier, in response to this, saying he invites anybody to talk to him. But he also said that everybody should take this weekend where we're reflecting on the anniversary of 9/11 and sort of just do some reflecting.

ZARRELLA: Right, Monday or Tuesday is what we hear that he would possibly meet with Jones in New York. Possibly meet with Jones.

VELSHI: Right. Yes. All right.

It is a necessary story to cover, so we appreciate you covering it, John. And you have a lot of patience for doing that.

John Zarrella in Gainesville, Florida, on this remarkable story.

Fewer resources, tougher class work, that is what students and teachers across the nation are facing right now as they go back to school. So what do the top folks at the Education Department plan to do about it? I'm going to ask one of them straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) VELSHI: All right. Every day we talk about public education on this show. In "Chalk Talk" today, we continue to look at ways to fix our schools.

Nearly 50 million students are heading off to school. This week they started, 99,000 public and elementary schools in the United States this year.

Now, that's roughly the same it is every year, but the issue here of course is that they are starting with some major, major changes in place. Schools are having to operate with tighter budgets, which means fewer resources, larger class sizes, fewer teachers.

Look, we've all read the stories about kids who have been given lists to show up to school with sanitary cloths and toilet paper and markers and things like that. Bottom line, more is being asked of students and teachers to raise these sliding test scores that we've got in public schools, to improve failing schools, to improve failing grades. Boy, it's a real push and pull.

We're asking more while they've got less to deal with, in part because of the changing face of education in this country, in part because of the recession we're facing. Schools just don't have the same amount of money.

So we want to talk about how we square this hole.

Joining me from Washington is Thelma Melendez de Santa Ana. She's the assistant secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education at the Department of Education.

Thank you very much for being with us again. We had a great conversation the last time you were here, and now we're back in school.

Boy, I don't know if I've been -- if I remember a year where there has been so much change, so much churning going on in the public education system around the country.

THELMA MELENDEZ DE SANTA ANA, ASSIST. SECRETARY, ELEMENTARY AND SECOND EDUCATION, DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION: Yes. It's an exciting year, though, Ali. And I'm sure that you have family members who have started school, too.

VELSHI: Sure.

MELENDEZ DE SANTA ANA: It is challenging, but it's also a time where we feel that we're providing as much support as possible. I mean, we just finished up with Ed Jobs Fund, giving $10 billion out that Congress voted in to school systems across the country to help support classrooms and teachers as they go back into school so our students have a fair shot.

VELSHI: OK. A lot of the changes -- I mean, the federal government, the Department of Education has actually been cited and been instrumental with a lot of these changes, because it's started a remarkable movement, particularly with this Race to the Top, where school districts and states who are short of money are able to access federal money if they do certain things. And those things that you've set out are things that will improve performance on the part of the students.

It is tough though to be asking that of them while they're dealing with smaller budgets.

MELENDEZ DE SANTA ANA: You know, Ali, when you look at the 25 percent dropout rate, and then also look at almost 50 percent dropout rate for minority students, it becomes morally unacceptable for us. And also, it becomes part of -- it's really bad for the economy.

VELSHI: Sure.

MELENDEZ DE SANTA ANA: We need to do -- we need to improve education. I think the president said today, the path out of poverty is education.

So it is a tough time. It is difficult for us. But we have an obligation to our country, to our children, to educate them in the very best way we can.

VELSHI: If you look at all the submissions and all the winners with the Race to the Top program, the people so far who have won and will get money from the federal government, what's the theme? What's the thing that is common to them in their efforts to raise student performance?

MELENDEZ DE SANTA ANA: It's a comprehensive plan to turn around their schools, to focus in supporting them to ensure that students reach the president's goal of 2020, more college completion. That's number one.

Also, that we want to see effective teachers and leaders in schools. We want to turn around those low-performing schools. We want to use data to be able to adapt our schools, our teaching, to support students so that they're successful.

I mean, those are all areas that were very much a part of the Race to the Top. But we had so many states involved, that we changed policies, and across the nation, not just in these states where there were winners.

VELSHI: You are a former teacher, a former principal.

MELENDEZ DE SANTA ANA: Absolutely.

VELSHI: One of the criticisms that have come out about Race to the Top -- and I don't think it's specific to the program, but it's specific to anything that tries to change things based on students' scores -- is that a number of teachers have come out and said this inherently targets teachers. It makes it look like the problem is teachers.

Now, you can either say the problem is teachers, or you can say the best avenue to success is teachers. But what do you believe in the mess that we try and get out of, in our lower-than-expected performance, what role to teachers play in that?

MELENDEZ DE SANTA ANA: Teachers play a very important role. So do parents, so do administrators, so does the community. We all play a very important role in ensuring that students are successful.

And I believe that having been a teacher, having been a principal, having led a school district, that we all have to work together to ensure that students are successful. And that's what we're trying to do with Race to the Top, is to build a comprehensive system that includes states, local school districts, schools, teachers in the classroom, so that we can have an impact in the classroom for our children.

VELSHI: Tell me about -- I don't want to drag you too far into politics, but everything has got a little bit of politics in it. Joe Miller, the candidate for governor in Alaska, has said -- and he's echoed the view of some other conservatives -- that the Department of Education should be done away with.

Now, look, the context there is there are some people who think lots of departments should be done away with. But philosophically, pull back from what we all actually know about how education is run in the United States. It does seem that the Department of Education has taken a substantially bigger role in public education in the last year or two.

MELENDEZ DE SANTA ANA: Well, we see our role as impacting what goes on across the country. My boss, the secretary, has done an incredible job of going state to state -- we all have -- talking about how important it is for us to work together to improve education in the classrooms and to reach the goal of more students completing college.

VELSHI: And does that -- I mean, do you feel that that -- let's just put it this way: should the Department of Education be having a continued bigger role? I guess it's a great role when you can offer money out for people who are struggling and being able to do that. But should there be a greater institutionalized role to set standards that are national?

I mean, a lot of people think it doesn't make sense to have state-by-state, district-by-district standards when you see the performance of our students in science and math compared to other countries in the world. We need to elevate this, and we need to elevate it across the country.

MELENDEZ DE SANTA ANA: Well, we're very excited to see that the Governors Association and the state chiefs, they're the ones that took the lead in developing common course standards. And also, we see our role in supporting. But it is not our role to lead. It's the role of the governors and the state chiefs to do that work.

What we're doing at the department is just providing technical assistance and support, helping share practices across the nation of places where we see that students are achieving and that things are coming together for them.

VELSHI: All right. Well, we will continue to keep in touch with how that's going.

Thank you so much for being with us again. I hope you'll visit with us on a regular basis.

MELENDEZ DE SANTA ANA: It's always a pleasure, Ali.

VELSHI: Thank you very much.

MELENDEZ DE SANTA ANA: Thank you.

VELSHI: Thelma Melendez de Santa Ana is the assistant secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education with the U.S. Department of Education.

All right. How do you keep a safe haven open in the murder capital of the world? One woman is doing it. She's our hero. You're going to meet her next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Close to 2,000 people have been murdered in Juarez, Mexico, so far this year. Those numbers don't keep a 74-year-old grandmother from driving into the murder capital of the world and to the hospital that she started more than 30 years ago.

And because of that, she's our Hero, and she is about to tell you her story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GUADALUPE ARIZPE DE LA VEGA, MEDICAL MARVEL: Juarez was a very nice place. And now nobody can go out. In one weekend, 51 were killed. In this moment of crisis, people have to have a secure place where healing goes on.

My name is Guadalupe Arizpe De La Vega. I started the Hospital De La Familia, and it's in downtown Juarez.

I go to Juarez sometimes five times in a week. We have been working there for 37 years with the community. Every day we have from 800 to 1,000 people. Some of them can pay, some of them cannot pay, but we don't turn anybody away.

I want the violence to stop. Everybody is affected. People have been paralyzed by the fear.

Our hospital has not been touched. Our doctors have not been kidnapped. This is a miracle, of God, believe me. And everybody knows that's a place for healing, for loving, for empowering people.

I believe that health is the most important of human rights. Life is all about empowering people, and it's very important to have an institution giving them hope for the future. (END VIDEOTAPE)

VELSHI: Guadalupe's Hospital de la Familia in Juarez treats an average of 900 patients a day whether they can pay or not.

To see how the hospital has grown into a facility that has delivered more than 100,000 babies, or to help Guadalupe expand health care in Mexico, go to CNNHeroes.com.

All right. Wildfires are blazing through Colorado. They rage on. They may be reaching a big city.

We're talking to you about severe weather on the other side of this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

VELSHI: It started with rumors that two children were fed to crocodiles. It ended in an American couple's dreams. Going up in smoke, the story behind a terrifying reaction in Belize.

I'm going "Globe Trekking." I'm going to tell you about this. You'll want to watch this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Time now for "Globe Trekking."

First: a terrifying and tragic story in the Central American country of Belize. Two young children were reported missing. A village psychic says the kids were fed to crocodiles. That triggers a mob and an American couple's dreams go up in smoke. CNN's Rafael Romo picks up the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN LATIN AMERICA AFFAIRS EDITOR (voice-over): It all started with the disappearance of these two children, 11-year-old Benjamin Rash and his 9-year-old sister Onelia from a small community in the Punta Gorda region of Belize. The children's father says he hasn't seen them since he took them to a bus station.

PEDRO RASH, FATHER OF MISSING CHILDREN: I gone along with them by the junction, I left them and then I continued going. From there, they catch the bus.

ROMO: The children's disappearance took a dramatic turn when, according to local report, a psychic told villagers, the children had been fed to crocodiles. That's when a throng of angry villages decided to burn to the ground a crocodile sanctuary 10 miles away from the village owned by an American couple.

Vince Rose says his whole life is ruined. VINCE ROSE, SANCTUARY OWNER: My community should be very ashamed of themselves. They burned the wrong man's house down and destroyed a future entity for their own Toledo district.

ROMO: Vince Rose and his wife, Sherry, moved to Belize in 2004 with the dream of building a sanctuary for two species of endangered crocodiles. The place they built, little by little over the last six years, is now in ruins. The Punta Gorda police and fire departments are investigating the incident but details are sketchy.

KENYATTA GARNETT, PUNTA GORDA FIRE DEPARTMENT: We're doing our best to find out exactly what caused the fire and how the fire really started.

ROMO: The Roses say they will take legal action against those responsible for the destruction of their sanctuary.

ROSE: Arson, attempted murder, trespassing, all of the above. Yes, I will be taking very strong measures.

ROMO: The children are still missing and the Mayan community has been picketing at the Punta Gorda police station, demanding answers.

(on camera): When the crocodile sanctuary was destroyed, the Roses were rescuing three crocodiles on a distant island, and for now, are staying away from the site. The couple is trying to figure out their future now that their dreams have literally gone up in smoke.

Rafael Romo, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VELSHI: OK. Now, we want to take you to Iran and a story that we have covered very closely for you.

Three young Americans have been held in an Iranian prison for more than a year. You were recall that they were last hiking in Iraq. You can see the border between Iraq and Iran there. They were hiking along the border, somewhere in that area shaded in red, between the Iraqi cities of Arbil and Kirkuk. Well, they apparently allegedly wandered into Iranian authority where Iranian authorities accused them of spying.

They've been held by their families -- they've been -- that's been denied by their families. They've been held by the government. At one point, Tehran hinted that they might release them in an exchange for the release of Iranian prisoners. That never amounted to anything.

Now Iran says it will release Sarah Shourd tomorrow, as is often case with Iran. Reports on their release have been sketchy. Iranian officials have never said which one of the three would go free. But a representative for the Iranian mission at the United Nations told us it would indeed be Shourd.

Be sure to stay with CNN for the latest developments. All right. A novel idea to help end the recession, donate $1,000 to charity for each small business that hires one jobless person and keeps them on the job. We'll talk to the mastermind of this plan that was launched this week. Stay with us, we're talking about it straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: All right. Every day, we bring you "Mission Possible," somebody who's doing something that might inspire you, just sounds like a good idea. And hey, somebody else can do it, too.

I want to introduce you to a guy named Gene Epstein. This guy is amazing. He's joining me from Philadelphia. He's a -- he's a retired real estate investor and he has decided that while it's got nothing to do with him, he's going to do something to try and help the jobless situation in this country.

Gene, welcome to our show. I read about what you did and I thought for a second, well, that's an interesting stunt, but you're actually trying to get people employed. Tell us your plan.

GENE EPSTEIN, REAL ESTATE INVESTOR: Ali, there's 5.7 million unemployed people -- pardon me -- 5.7 small businesses in the United States. Most of those employed -- most of those business owners have -- oh, my God, I'm trying to -- I'm lost for words. I can't believe this.

VELSHI: Well --

EPSTEIN: Most of these -- most of these businesspeople have undecisions (ph) that they can't make, they don't know which way to go with the way --

VELSHI: Right.

EPSTEIN: -- government is leading them. And what they feel is they're sitting on the sidelines. If -- out of the 5.7 million, we can encourage each business to employ one employee, that's the small businesses -- businesses that hire between two and 499 employees -- by adding just one, not only will they be doing something that appears to be altruistic, they'll be doing something that's totally business- minded and in the interest of their company, their employees, by adding one additional person.

If 10 percent of the small businesses in the United States add just one employee for a six-month period, just saying to themselves, let's just do this, what do we have to lose, because there are businesses that aren't making a living, but there are still many of them have cut back. They trimmed themselves so they're lean and mean.

VELSHI: Yes.

EPSTEIN: But at the same time, they're not growing.

VELSHI: OK. EPSTEIN: By adding one additional person, we can have a half a million additional people on the payroll and off of government subsidies with receiving unemployment compensation --

VELSHI: Gene, let me ask you -- let me just ask you: you're basically saying there are a whole bunch of companies that are on the edge, they're not able to make the decision, they don't know which way it's going to go, they don't know if the economy is going to get better -- so you are sweetening the pot in a way. Tell me what you are doing.

EPSTEIN: What I -- what I'm trying to do is encourage them to move off the axis right now. Move and take an aggressive position --

VELSHI: So, what are you doing to do that? Tell me what you're doing. Tell me about your incentive specifically.

EPSTEIN: I've offered the first 250 companies that our family foundation, the Gene and Marlene Epstein Humanitarian Fund, will place $1,000 for each one employee that they hire, will put it into our fund that goes to sponsor homeless shelters, food banks, various places that help the poor and the needy.

At the same time, I want to prove to them that when they're adding that employee, they're going to get a prosperous business because the addition of that employee means that person now has approximately 2 1/2 times the salary or income that they had while they're receiving unemployment. They have a better attitude -- the existing employees in companies, we know, have peaked their point of productivity.

The last two reporting periods, productivity per employee has dropped and dropped because of stress.

VELSHI: So, bottom line is you're going to -- you're trying to tip that scale by telling people, if they employ somebody, they keep them employed for six months, you're going to put 1,000 bucks into that fund. And your foundation by the way funds a number of charities that we've talked about here, obviously: Project Home, the Red Cross shelter, Wounded Warriors.

Basically, you're saying, if you're on the fence, you're going to help them out because you're donating 1,000 bucks in their name to make the right decision.

EPSTEIN: I'm -- I'm doing it, but it's really beneficial to them because when these people get back into the economy, they'll start -- they're not paying -- they're going to be paying taxes to the government.

VELSHI: Right.

EPSTEIN: They -- at the same time, they're generating income and they're creating a positive --

VELSHI: Yes. EPSTEIN: -- mood where the consumer confidence when they see 500,000 people are employed. It's not a movement that only had 60,000 come in --

VELSHI: Yes.

EPSTEIN: -- on the last reporting period, but a half a million will get people back, thinking positive.

VELSHI: Yes. Brilliant idea. I hope people like you who are out of the workforce and who are -- who have made some money catch on to this idea, because if everybody gives everybody a little bit of an incentive -- you're absolutely right, the reward is much better. Money will go toward good causes because you're donating it, and people will find the economy improving.

Gene, thanks very much for what you're doing. We really, really appreciate and it's pleasure to meet you.

EPSTEIN: My pleasure. And I appreciate your time. Thank you.

VELSHI: Gene Epstein is a philanthropist, a retired real estate investor in Philadelphia who's going to put $1,000 into his foundation which funds many of the causes that we speak about on this show for every small business -- the first 250 small businesses who hire one person full time and keep them employed for at least six months.

OK. President Obama, boy, wouldn't he like solutions like that? He holds his first full-scale news conference in months. He touches on everything from the economy to Osama bin Laden. Of course, our Ed Henry got in his own question and he's on the stakeout coming up next

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Time now for "The Stakeout" with our senior White House -- chief, senior -- the boss at the White House, Ed Henry. He's our guy.

Ed, you didn't like it when we had the girl who grew the 75-pound green pepper, you didn't think it was that much fun when we had a dog on yesterday. So I brought this nice man on from Philadelphia who's giving $1,000 to the first 250 small businesses to hire somebody full time and keep them on the job for six months. That's the sort of thing you could do.

ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: It was good. It was a great story, actually. I was kind of -- it was so good, I was at a loss for words and I think he was at a loss for words for a moment there. But you got it right back on track, so I thought it was a good segment.

VELSHI: Yes, he was moved by it. I think this is your opportunity to make some kind of pledge like that.

HENRY: Except, I couldn't hire anyone cause I don't run a small business. But I think he's doing a great thing and I'll have to look more into it. Maybe I'll have to try to match it or something. Not all 250 --

(CROSSTALK)

VELSHI: -- watch somebody's car or something -- drop and give them 50 or something like that.

HENRY: Yes, maybe I'll buy you a tie or something --

VELSHI: There we go. A tie for every -- that is good. We could -- this could go somewhere.

HENRY: Why don't we buy neckties for people?

VELSHI: It would help the economy, which, again, as I said when I finished speaking to Mr. Epstein, I said it would be great if there were these fixes for the economy. The president would have liked to have underscored those this morning cause ultimately, this press conference had to do with the fact, originally, that we've got such a tough economy.

HENRY: Absolutely. And I think at the end of this, there's going to be some critics saying, look, it was boring, there wasn't anything new. But this White House is probably going to see it as a success because if you look at the whole week, he finally got the message back on the economy.

Monday's speech in Milwaukee, Wednesday's speech in Cleveland where he really laid out the stakes and had a contrast with the republican leader, John Boehner, in the House. And then today, first, do no harm is the first rule of press conferences. And you'll remember the time when he talked about Henry Lewis gates last year when he was trying to talk about health care reform and had to have the beer summit after he sort of angered the Cambridge police, et cetera. He didn't make any mistakes like that. Maybe he didn't break any new ground, but at the end of the day, he kept the message on the economy.

And at one point, take a listen to how he sort of laid out the stakes in the election.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: If you want the same kinds of skewed policy that is led us to this crisis, then the Republicans are ready to offer that. But if you want policies that are moving us out, even though you may be frustrated, even though change isn't happening as fast as you'd like, then I think the Democrats are going to do fine in November.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HENRY: So it's interesting how he frames it because he's acknowledging, it's not moving as fast as a lot of people would like. He's got to acknowledge that at this point.

But one of the challenges he's going to face between now and November 2nd is these proposals he was talking about again today. Almost none of them are going anywhere between now and November 2nd. Congress is just frankly probably not going to deal with them.

So the fixes he's talking about now are not really going to help people in the short term, so he's got to keep the focus on the long- term vision he has and we'll see whether it's enough.

VELSHI: Talking about a long-term vision, one of the long term visions that started nine years ago tomorrow was the hunt for Osama bin Laden.

HENRY: Yes.

VELSHI: A recent poll, CNN/Opinion research poll, one that just came out yesterday, says that some two-thirds of Americans do not think that the U.S. will capture or kill Osama bin Laden.

You asked the president about it.

HENRY: Yes, because you're right, the last president famously, infamously said, you know, wanted dead or alive, we're going to get him. And the last administration did not get him. And that's why in my question I noted the last administration had seven years, they didn't get the job done. The president chuckled at me when I said, you've had two years now, has this a failure for your administration? I think, obviously he's probably feeling like, look the last administration had more time.

But what I pressed him on was, look, in the campaign against John McCain, this president said I'm going to wage a smarter war on terror, we're going to get bin Laden. But there have been some experts now saying, bin Laden's not that significant. Who cares if you get him? He's just a symbol, it won't really matter. Al Qaeda will replicate and come up with other leaders even if you capture him.

Here's what the president had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HENRY: Do you still believe it's a critical part of your policy to capture or kill him?

And do you think it's -- isn't ate failure of your administration to -- almost two years in, you campaigned saying you were going to run a smarter war on terror than the Bush administration. You haven't captured him and you don't seem to know where he is.

OBAMA: Well, Ed, I think capturing or killing bin Laden and Zawahiri would be extremely important to our national security. Doesn't solve all our problems, but it remains a high priority of this administration.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HENRY: I think also the next question about the mosque in New York City, he gave a pretty interesting answer. I thought it was his most sort of full-throated defense to the notion, look, if a church can be built near Ground Zero, if a Hindu temple can, why can't a mosque?

And he was also passionate about saying, look, there are Muslim- Americans serving under me as commander in chief in Afghanistan right now. Strong stuff. It's going to cause some controversy with some, but he's standing up and making clear especially --

(CROSSTALK)

VELSHI: You got that comment from him on the Florida coast where he took a very strong position and then he backpedalled. He had taken a strong position the night before and then he backpedalled and everybody's been critical of him. Now, it's like he's gone back to his strong position.

Hey I just want to ask you something. You know I'm a business guy, right? This is sort of my specialty. You've seen my workspace and it looks like everybody else's workspace. What's up -- you're at the Washington bureau, what's up with these nerds that you work with? I mean, this is kind of crazy.

HENRY: Oh, wait. We've got John King over here.

VELSHI: He's hanging around, he's trying to get in the show, I can see that.

HENRY: He's not on TV enough.

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Ali, go easy on this guy. He's already had a long day, you know?

(LAUGHTER)

VELSHI: You've got John there. I think Preston is standing by, right?

HENRY: Yes, Mark Preston is here as well, but he took his jacket off, I don't know what's going to -- he and King are not wearing jackets.

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL EDITOR: This is what happens when you do a lot of work here, Ali. You know, you got to roll up your sleeves, loosen your tie a little bit.

VELSHI: You guys. That is the center of all action in politics. That's pretty incredible.

PRESTON: This is the center of politics right here.

VELSHI: Do we take a break or do I go right to Mark Preston now?

HENRY: Can we hand it off to Mark Preston or just hand it off to "JOHN KING USA"?

(CROSSTALK)

VELSHI: So Ed Henry is our senior White House correspondent with "The Stakeout", but time now for a "CNN Equals Politics" update with CNN senior political editor Mark Preston. He's at the CNN.com- politics.com desk in Washington.

Mark, what is crossing the political ticker right now?

PRESTON: Well, Ali, clearly the biggest story of the day is President Obama's speech, but let's just tick through a couple things heading into November.

First of all, social conservatives, haven't heard about a lot of them this election, we've talked a lot about the economy. Social conservatives, as we speak, are meeting downtown in Washington right now. Newt Gingrich, Ralph Reid, Rick Santorum, a whole host all across the nation all talking about the election.

Not talking about abortion necessarily -- the country's not necessarily talking about abortion, but these folks are. They're not talking about other social conservative issues but these folks are fired up. These folks are key to Republicans winning in November. You can check that out on CNNpolitics.com.

In addition to that, you talked about being a businessman, well I'll tell you, in the last 30 minutes, I just received this in my e- mail box. It is a note of congratulations from the Bipartisan Political Action Committee. They are a business industry group here in town, Ali, and they are saying some very nice things about 20 Democrats. Not often you hear a business group saying nice things about Democrats.

Why they're doing that? Because these are the Democrats who have opposed President Obama on climate change and health care reform.

And let's wrap it up here. If you're looking for your roadmap going into November, you need to look at the CNN 100, these are the top 100 House races of the election. If you go to CNN.com/politics, you'll see today's story. It's about Zack Space, he's a democrat elected in 2006, he has a very tough reelection.

So you're looking for your roadmap, that's where you need to get it, Ali.

VELSHI: That's good, that's actually good to know because that's interesting, if you want to know where these races hinge.

By the way, we're just having cameo after cameo. Gloria Borger just came around the corner there while you were on TV. That is the heart of action. It's only going to get busier over the course of the next two months.

Mark, always a pleasure to see you.

Look -- there she is. Look at this.

PRESTON: There she is. Look, she's coming on over.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Hello, Ali. Can you hear me?

PRESTON: He can hear you.

VELSHI: You guys have way too much fun up there. I'm going to have to come and hang out with you guys.

Great to see you, Gloria, as always, and Mark, as always. A pleasure to see both of you guys.

Be sure to stay with CNN for complete coverage of the key races, like Mark said, and the key issues heading into the critical midterm elections. Your next "CNN Equals Politics" update just one hour away.

"Wordplay" coming up next. I am pretty sure this one is going to ring a bell.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Time now for "Wordplay" and today, we are taking on the "S" word. That is right, stimulus.

Long before it was a dirty word at the White House, it was an innocent scientific term for something that rouses or incites. A ringing bell acted as a stimulus for Pavlov's dog.

This is not Pavlov's dog, by the way. It's the much more photogenic Presley Frank, friend of the show.

Anyway, the Great Recession put this word in the headlines. It was shorthand for short-term, high-dollar government spending aimed at stimulating a comatose economy.

What's wrong with that? The spending part drives up the deficit which is getting lots of attention since the economy is no longer shrinking and midterm elections are a few weeks away.

Unfortunately, the economy isn't booming yet either. That's why President Obama wants to pass new stimulative measures and why nobody is drooling over a second stimulus.

That's it for me. RICK'S LIST with Rick Sanchez live from New York coming up after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)