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President Obama Launches 2012 Reelection Campaign; Transocean's Big Bonuses After the Gulf Oil Spill; Charlie Sheen Booed in Detroit; More Violence in Afghanistan; International Reaction to the Burning of the Koran

Aired April 04, 2011 - 10:00   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: It is now 7:00 a.m. in the west, 10:00 in the east. If you're flying Southwest Airlines today, you'd better check the web site before you head to the airport. Southwest has canceled about 100 flights today while inspectors check the airline's 737 jets. On Friday, as you know, a hole blew open in one plane during mid-flight. Since then Southwest has found cracks in three more.

The company that owns the oil rig that blew up in the Gulf of Mexico is handing out big, big bonuses to its top executives. Transocean claims 2010 was the best year ever for safety performance. Nearly a year has passed since the explosion. 11 workers were killed and the biggest oil spill in U.S. history followed.

Oh, and Detroit was not too impressed with Charlie Sheen's "Torpedo of Truth" tour. It kicked off over the weekend. And you heard the boo's there. There were plenty of them. Sheen changed the format a bit for his next stop in Chicago when he got a standing ovation there.

It is official. President Obama is asking America for four more years. And he's asking his supporters to have his back. Here's a blurb from barackobama.com.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALICE, MICHIGAN: Unfortunately, President Obama is one person. Plus he's got a job. We're paying him to do a job so we can't say, "hey, could you take some time off and get us all energized?" So we've got to figure it out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Yes. His supporters have to get the democratic voters energized. Let's head to Washington and Jessica Yellin. So the 44th president announced on the fourth day of the fourth month that he wants four more years. That's kind of cool.

JESSICA YELLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I guess that's the ultimate final four, Carol. I'm sure he's hoping to do better in the presidential race than he did in his NCAA brackets.

COSTELLO: Oh, yes. Because he lost big time. YELLIN: Not so good on that one. So the president is the first candidate now to announce officially that he's in the game, although we know that many Republican contenders are constantly in Iowa and New Hampshire. And this is all about raising money and getting the activists energized and engaged again. But the real difference here from last time, Carol, is that this year the money raised is going to shatter records in an eye-popping way. The Obama team itself hopes to raise $1 billion with a b, $ 1billion for the entire re-election because there is just so much money in the game this time around.

COSTELLO: Something else that was interesting about this video online, President Obama doesn't appear in the video. Why do you think that was?

YELLIN: You know, two reasons. One is because they do genuinely want to make it about the supporters. And at this stage, they need to get the folks out there who are working the grassroots, interested, energized again. You know, you've been reporting a lot of liberals have been disappointed. And other people who were excited about government had lost faith in government.

So they really want to activate people again. And also, you know, if they put the president in, we would be re-running video of him talking about his presidential race all day long instead of talking about his job, the economy, what's going on in the Middle East. So they want to keep him in the background as much as possible.

COSTELLO: Gotcha. Jessica Yellin, live in Washington. Thank you.

YELLIN: Thanks.

COSTELLO: More violence in Afghanistan again today. All because of what a pastor did in Florida. Terry Jones from Gainesville put a Koran on trial and then burned it. And with that action sparked deadly protests in Afghanistan and some say endangered our troops. More than 20 people have been killed including seven United Nations workers.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Congress will look into it, although he stopped short of saying lawmakers would pass a resolution condemning Jones' action. Another senator is hinting maybe we need to do something about the first amendment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: I wish we could find some way to hold people accountable. Free speech is a great idea, but we're in a war. During World War II you had limits on what you could say if it would inspire the enemy. So burning a Koran is a terrible thing, but it doesn't justify killing someone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: CNN's Zain Verjee joins us from London. So Zain, what is the international community saying about this burning of the Koran? ZAIN VERJEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, I was going through some newspapers. And let me just give you a flavor. This is what the "Irish Times" headline is. It says "Pastor unrepentant as protests at Koran burning spread." It goes on to describe the protests saying "Protesters waved white Taliban flags, shouting Death to America," burned tires, smashed shops and vandalized a girls' school."

The Australian has another headline, and it really refers to the progress the U.S. has made in Afghanistan. And says "This is a tragic setback for a just cause." It goes on to say "The barbaric slaughter of U.N. workers by a rampaging mob inflamed by the burning of the Koran in a fringe church in faraway Florida is a tragic reminder that the challenges of Afghanistan remain largely undiminished." Carol?

COSTELLO: So, Zain, President Obama came out, General Petraeus came out and condemned this action. I mean, is there anything more they can do or anything Hamid Karzai can do, for that matter, to end this trouble?

VERJEE: Well, you know, from the U.S.'s side, it's a step in the right direction. They had to say that. They needed to say it, and they meant what they said because it really does create a very bad impact in Afghanistan and in other parts of the world to have the image of the Koran being burned.

But I think that what many people will want to see, the ones that are protesting, is some kind of action being taken either by the president or General Petraeus or anyone in the U.S. that would hold the Pastor Terry Jones or the person who burned the Koran and the people that supports it to be held accountable in some respect. They want to see justice.

And that's going to be very, very difficult for a billion people around the world who follow the religion of Islam, it's offensive. But not everyone, the majority of people, obviously, aren't reacting this way. They get it. They get the debate. They get the differences within the United States. But it is disrespectful for them, too.

COSTELLO: Zain Verjee live in London, many thanks.

Deadly unrest in Yemen. Medical staff in the city of Taiz say at least 11 people were killed today and more than 500 injured in anti- government protests.

Today's death and injuries follow similar violent demonstrations yesterday. Protesters want the President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down. Medical sources say one person died on Sunday. At least 830 more were injured. Al Qaeda is believed to be very much involved in those protests to remove Saleh. The Yemeni leader is a U.S. ally in the battle against Al Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula.

U.S. air strikes are supposed to end today in Libya. This comes as opposition fighters withdraw from Brega, mostly because they're running out of ammunition. Brega is one of the country's biggest oil ports. Also, Iman Al Abaidi (ph), the woman who said pro-Gadhafi sources raped her tells CNN she is no longer in government custody and has spent time with family in Tripoli.

Japan is struggling to deal with its nuclear crisis and being frustrated at every turn. We'll have the latest desperate move by workers trying to plug a crack leaking radioactive water after the break.

And the company that brought us the worst oil spill in U.S. history is now rewarding its top executives with big bonuses. That story's ahead, too.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: To Japan now. And its handling of that unnerving nuclear crisis. Workers are having a hard time fixing a crack letting radioactive water seep out. They actually plan to dump about 11,500 tons of radioactive water from the Fukushima Power Plant into the Pacific Ocean. Efforts to seal a crack in one of those damaged reactors failed over the weekend.

The power company says it cannot continue to hold all of that radioactive water. What do you do with it? One idea being considered to stop radiation leaking from the plant is actually to wrap the entire facility in massive sheeting. The latest toll in the March 11th quake and tsunami, more than 12,000 now dead, more than 15,000 still missing and nearly 3,000 injured.

A lot of people worry about that radiation in the water currents. Rob Marciano joins us now. So when you hear that they're thinking of dumping tons of radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean, that's concerning.

MARCIANO: It is. And when you think about what we talked about the end of last week, which was that the water around that plant was already so radioactive, over 4,000 times more radioactive as far as radio iodine is concerned with the waters just off the facility. And that's not as big of a deal as the cesium they found which has a half- life of 30 years versus eight days. That was about 500 times the normal amount. And that was in the Pacific Ocean.

All right. What's going on is that we have these tunnels. And we have other facilities within the turbine building that shouldn't have water, and it has now radioactive water. Now, the problem with that is, they have even more radioactive water in other spots that are filling up. So what they want to do is get the less radioactive water and dump it into the ocean.

Now, when you think about what the ocean is, and all this radioactive water they're going to dump into it, you know, it's just that much into a huge, huge bathtub. But regardless, it's a scary proposition, especially for the folks in Japan. This is a map and animation of the ocean currents around Japan. All right. This is a current that's much like the gulf stream that we have, which rides up the east coast of Japan and then goes out to sea. All right.

So here's where Sendai is, and Fukushima. Notice there's also eddies (ph) that kind of work they way around. So it's not so cut and dry, is that they dump it in the ocean and it goes out to sea and it's instantly diluted but it will be instantly diluted but it probably would hang around the coastline here. And you know, Tokyo's only 150 miles away. So you know, I'm not an expert as far as how that radioactive water's going to get towards Tokyo, what it's going to do to with the food supply there. But it certainly - you know, if they keep dumping it in there, the ocean can only dilute so much, especially close to shore, especially when those currents aren't so straightforward where it takes it out to sea.

COSTELLO: You wonder about the sea life, the fish, like I mean, what if they ingest this radioactive water before it dilutes into the vaster Pacific Ocean?

MARCIANO: Well, this type of radiation can do damage to cells and obviously genetically down the line. And then ingesting that as humans, that's not necessarily a good thing. So that's the huge concern right now. But the number one thing we have to remember is that the ocean is a massive dilutor, and that's what they're banking on. But we need to get it away from shore and away from food supplies.

COSTELLO: Yes. Scary stuff. Rob, thank you.

MARCIANO: You bet.

COSTELLO: Stock market bell rang just about 45 minutes ago. So let's check the numbers. Are we going to? Oh, there are the numbers. I apologize for that. We're up about 7.5 points, not bad. Always good to see it in the plus category.

Transocean is the company that brought us the worst oil spill in U.S. history. Now it's handing out big bonuses to top executives and it's praising its safety record, calling 2010 the best year in safety ever.

Alison Kosik is at the New York Stock Exchange. For a second I didn't think we were going to you but we are and I gave away the numbers already.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm here.

COSTELLO: Good. So you can talk about -

KOSIK: That's OK. We're going to talk about. There's so much to talk about Transocean. I mean, this is a real head scratcher, Carol. I mean, Transocean says it's boosting the salary of its top execs. And on top of that, giving them bonuses. Last year Transocean says look at this, that it recorded the best year in safety performance in our company's history. But lest we forget that last year we had the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

Now, Transocean owned the rig that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 people. Most of them were Transocean workers. And beyond that, it really hit the Gulf Coast economy really hard with the tourism industry and the local seafood industry. And then, of course, came a flood of lawsuits. So now in a filing with the S.E.C., it shows that CEO Steve Newman - look at this - will get a $374,000 bonus. Safety accounts for a quarter of that bonus. His pay is going to be $1.1 million. That's up 18 percent or about $200,000 from the year before, Carol.

So I guess the lesson here is, if you screw up, you get big pay. What the heck, right?

COSTELLO: Well, you know what I'm wondering? Like for those men and women who work on those rigs out there, are they getting bonuses, too? Or extra pay or raises?

KOSIK: I'm thinking not, Carol. And you know what? I've got to be fair to Transocean for a moment. Transocean didn't get awarded or award the total possible safety bonus here. It awarded two-thirds of it. Now, Transocean bases its safety bonus on two things. The rate of incidents and the severity of those incidents. Now, both of those measures actually fell from 2009. It kind of makes you wonder just how bad of a year 2009 was for Transocean. So you know, Transocean says by those standards, it was the best year for safety. I'm talking about last year.

But I'm telling you, really not a good PR move, if you ask me. Carol.

COSTELLO: It's just unexplainable. Alison Kosik, many thanks. We appreciate it.

A rocky start to Charlie Sheen's debut comedy tour.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Insanely bad.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Unreal.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Awful. It's a waste of money.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: It doesn't sound like Sheen was winning over any fans. One city booed the star. And another actually praised him. The latest from his tour next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: It wasn't exactly a winning weekend for Charlie Sheen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Insanely bad.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Unreal.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sell your ticket. It's an awful waste of money.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Fans in Detroit booed the actor off stage during his first show of his live tour. "Showbiz Tonight" A.J. Hammer joins me now. So, oh, A.J., I know the reviews were bad in Detroit, but they got a little better as Charlie Sheen went off to Chicago.

A.J. HAMMER, HOST "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT": Yes, a little better. But, you know, like everything else, after those bad reviews, things do change in an instant for Charlie Sheen. The show Saturday, yes, a total disaster. Sunday, according to a lot of people, he actually had a smash on his hands. Now "Showbiz Tonight" had people at both shows, of course. We can tell you the Detroit show was as bad as you've heard. It was a mess of multi-media presentations, people booing loudly, leaving early.

Sunday in Chicago, though, Sheen totally changed things up. He sat down for a staged interview. He kept the crowd laughing and was really candidly talking about all the things that have kept him in the headlines for the past several months. Talking about getting fired from "Two and A Half Men," talking about his custody dispute with his estranged wife, he even talked about why he uses prostitutes.

In case you were wondering about that, Charlie says "I have millions to blow, and I ran out of stuff to buy." And if you're wondering what happened between Detroit and Chicago, I can tell you because "Showbiz Tonight" just caught up with Charlie's manager and publicist just a short time ago. They just landed in Los Angeles. They were in the limo heading back to Charlie's house. They said that after Detroit Charlie was, as they put it, "dejected but determined." They said that Charlie blamed himself. He spent all day Sunday in his tour bus working on his material. And while they report Charlie was happy about his performance in Chicago, Carol, I'm here to tell you Charlie Sheen thinks there is still room for improvement. So we will have more to talk about as the shows roll on.

COSTELLO: Somehow I won't be buying a ticket to one of his shows, though. Go figure.

Moving on, Katie Couric. I mean, some people were not so surprised by this. She's leaving CBS. So what is she going to do, and what are people at CBS saying?

HAMMER: Well, there's been a lot of buzz about this for a while now. Katie's network, for their part, not saying a whole lot. CBS did release a statement to "Showbiz Tonight." And here is what they're saying. We're having on-going discussions with Katie Couric. We have no announcements to make at this time. Until we do, we continue to decline comments on rumor and speculation.

And for her part, Katie's not saying anything either. Now she's been the anchor on "CBS Evening News" for five years. She was, of course, the first female to ever solo host a nightly newscast. But the buzz now is that Couric is going to start her own talk show which, when you think about it, makes a lot of sense.

Speaking of new talk shows, by the way, Carol, I have to mention it being Monday, April 4th, Dr. Drew Pinsky's show kicks of tonight on "HLN" at 9:00 p.m. Eastern. I've been speaking to Dr. Drew quite a bit about what he has lined up. I think this is going to be a terrific show. I can't wait to watch it. I'm not saying it because I work with the guy. I just find his approach really cool and honest and appealing. And I will be tuning in as a fan.

COSTELLO: I feel like I've met him, too, because they painted his image on all the elevators at the CNN Center here in Atlanta. He's everywhere.

HAMMER: Yes, here in New York, too, I assure you.

COSTELLO: We'll be watching. Thanks so much, A.J..

Want information on everything breaking in the entertainment world? A.J.'s got it tonight on "Showbiz Tonight" at 5:00 p.m. Eastern and 11:00 p.m. Eastern on "HLN."

Taking a look now at stories cross country. First stop, Miami where a bank has an unlikely hero after an attempted robbery. A 66- year-old Helen Dunsberg (ph) otherwise known as grandma, fearlessly tackled a woman to the ground when she demanded cash.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARON LASSIN, WITNESS: I got one year to live. I don't care if I die. She just grabbed the lady, and we helped tackle the person down.

PAT CAVENEY, WITNESS: She just blew up, lost it, grabbed her in a bear hug.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Quite a brave thing to do for an elderly woman with cancer. But she says she did not mind taking the risk.

In Florida, an 11-year-old Nico Saporito climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro. Nico says he saw people climbing mountains on TV one day, and he sort of thought he could do the same thing. So he trained for three years and he did it. His next adventure, taking a dive in the Great Barrier Reef.

The final four is down to the final two. UConn and Butler will play for the championship crown tonight. As you know, many did not predict this matchup.

McDonald's is looking to hire 50,000 workers. We'll have more on that story just ahead.

And the ceiling in a plane tears apart in midflight. And the threat of this problem was brought to the attention of Southwest Airlines years ago. In fact, they were fined millions of dollars for it. So why does it keep happening? We'll find out just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) COSTELLO: U.S. air strikes are supposed to end today in Libya. And there is more word that Moammar Gadhafi's sons might be negotiating a deal for their father to step aside. CNN's Nic Robertson is live in Tripoli with more on that. So Nic, these two sons, they're actually talking about constitutional democracy?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We're not sure of exactly what they're specifically talking about at the moment. We do know that the government has sent its deputy foreign minister to Greece and then on to Turkey for conditions. We don't know the contents of that mission. But we do know from sources very close to the regime (INAUDIBLE) that Moammar Gadhafi will accept a sort of him taking control of country or at least, at the very least - on the crisis that's going on.

And then passing off control to one of his sons (INAUDIBLE) Gadhafi. That son, then, instituting some sort of political reforms to allow for pluralism, steps that the regime here have said that they were always willing to take. But that seems like from the sources that we are talking to, that this is still an offer. We don't know if that's the diplomatic initiative that's sort of being touted around Greece and Turkey by this official at the moment, Carol.

COSTELLO: Interesting. And another bit of developing news out of Tripoli, that this woman who claimed that she was raped at the hands of Gadhafi sources, and we will watch your story about it, what's the latest about her, Nic?

ROBERTSON: Well, the latest is the government vastly tells us they don't know where she is. And a lawyer representing her says she doesn't want to talk. Well, we've been in touch with her today. She said that she was driving over to this hotel to talk to journalists yesterday. She got here. The government security officials grabbed her, arrested her, beating her, took her away for interrogation, for questioning.

And then several hours later released her again. She does want to talk to journalists. Contrary to what the government is saying at the moment and getting access to her to do that is perhaps one of the toughest things in Tripoli at the moment. But officials strictly control and monitor where we go, what we do, how we get there, Carol.

COSTELLO: Awful. Nic Robertson reporting live from Tripoli, thank you.

Checking our top stories now, we're watching new developments in Japan. So much radioactive water at the nuclear plant and nowhere to put it. The power company's plan to dump tons and tons of it into the Pacific Ocean.

McDonald's is looking to hire 50,000 new employees in one day. The company says crew and management positions will be filled nationwide on April 19th.

And a double whammy for passengers on a United flight from New Orleans to San Francisco. They had to turn back because of smoke in the cockpit. And then they ran off the runway on the emergency landing. Fortunately no one was hurt.

Today Southwest Airlines canceled 70 flights. It's also grounding another 79 planes all because of that terrifying flight on Friday. Take a look at this. That's the ceiling panels in one of its 737s. It ripped apart at 34,000 feet. Passengers say it sounded like an explosion and sent the plane into a nosedive.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was texting my sister to make certain that she told my kids that I loved them.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was in back of me to the left. And I did hear it. It sounded like a shot and a lot of air decompressing. It was quick and it was scary.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Since then the airline has found cracks in three more planes. So how did those cracks go unnoticed?

Last hour, I spoke with Mary Schiavo. She's a former inspector general of the U.S. Department of Transportation. Here's what she had to say about the accident.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARY SCHIAVO, FORMER INSPECTOR, U.S. DOT: Two things occurred. One is they allowed visual inspection. Some of these cracks are very difficult to see, and you have to use ultrasonic or sometimes even magnetic resonance. You really have to treat the plane as if it's a body and you're looking for problems. And so the visual inspections cannot find all of these cracks.

And the second thing that occurred after that was Southwest did hire experts to come in and look at the cracking situation. But the experts in Boeing said that some cracking was okay. In some cases, up to six inches.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: We should note that this isn't the first time this has happened. Back in 2009, a Southwest plane was forced to make an emergency landing for the very same thing. That was four months after the airline was fined $7.5 million by the FAA for failing to perform mandatory inspections for fuselage cracks on nearly 60,000 flights.

It is official, folks. Here is the message President Obama tweeted this morning. It announced that he is launching a campaign for a second term. It also drives people to his official campaign Web site in a video entitled "It Begins With Us." Noticeably absent were the familiar slogans which called for change in 2008.

So, let's talk more about this with Dana Loesch. She's CNN contributor and self-professed conservative alternative. Cornell Beltcher is a CNN contributor and Democratic pollster. And Sirius radio host Pete Dominick also joined us for his unique insight into all things political.

And we're trying something new this morning to keep things moving. Twenty seconds on the clock for each of you. So, I'm going to pose a series of questions. Here's the first one. Let's go. So Obama's first message, it begins with us from "Yes, we can," to "It begins with us." Dana, thoughts?

DANA LOESCH, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I'm curious as to what begins with us. I thought it was supposed to have begun after he was elected the first time. I don't know, ws far as campaign slogans go, it seems really just mysterious. It seems like something the sphinx from "Mystery Men" would write. I don't know. I don't know if he's responsible for it. But I think he could have come up with something a little better.

COSTELLO: Cornell.

(LAUGHTER)

CORNELL BELCHER, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I actually like it a lot. I think it fits back in the continuum he started off saying that, you know, we're going to build a movement. We're all going to be a part of this movement. It's not about me, it's about us. I think that's a good continuation of "it's not about me, it's about us" and bringing these people together and sort of having a national conversation and energizing the grassroots out there.

Again, it takes al of us. It's about bringing everyone in and being part of this process.

COSTELLO: Pete.

PETE DOMINICK, SIRIUS RADIO XM HOST: Hey, Carol. This is clearly a grassroots movement for this guy, President Obama. It's us. We're all going to get behind him and raise money for him. There's a reason he didn't put himself in it because he wants it to be about us. I don't see what we're really arguing about. It's about us, of course!

COSTELLO: Of course! OK, on to the second topic. Who will emerge as the GOP frontrunner -- the front running nominee, I should say, in the 2012 presidential race? Cornell.

BELCHER: Here's the thing. None of us have any clue. And anyone who says they know, they're either hubris or they're naive.

That said, here I go. I think the nominee's going to be whomever can sort of really capture the energy and passion of the Tea Party. If you look at what the Tea Party has done over the last couple years in the Republican primary, they are the dominant force in the Republican party right now. You'll have to capture the Tea Party.

COSTELLO: Dana.

BELCHER: I actually agree with Cornell. I think it's so early to say who the frontrunner's going to be. I know, we agree on something! It's so early to say who the frontrunner is going to be. But I do think, I will say, that I think that those who have already announced and thrown their hat in the ring and made it all official and who are making the most noise, I think that we're going to be hearing less from them as the campaigning really kicks into high gear.

COSTELLO: Pete.

DOMINICK: Well, the comedian side of me says I really want Michele Bachmann or Donald Trump. But the political commentator side of me says whoever the GOP throws up against, the "it begins with us" is going to roll right off the ground for the second presidential cycle, sacrificing whoever the candidate is.

COSTELLO: Excellent. Third and final question. Should Congress condemn Terry Jones, the pastor who burned the Koran? Dana, thoughts.

LOESCH: I tell you, I don't think that they should. I believe in free speech. Even free speech of the craziest people and all about letting your freak flag fly because then those people are easier to identify. You can tell who the crazies are.

That being said, I'm curious as to who burned the Koran that brought down the World Trade Center and -- exploded at the Pentagon and all of this stuff and downed a plane in Pennsylvania. Also, I think that with Terry Jones doing it in a mild sort of way -

(CROSSTALK)

LOESCH: -- he became just as bad as they are.

COSTELLO: All right! Cornell.

BELCHER: Dana and I are like soul mates today. We're in such agreement.

(LAUGHTER)

BELCHER: I think that's right. I think we cannot condemn what he says. I mean, freedom of speech means that we've got to let crazy people talk in order to have the smart sort of dialogue. That said, there's got to be some pressure put on this guy to stop this. Because clearly what he's doing is costing lives. It's crazy, and what they're doing on that side is crazy. But you've got to understand that, and he's got to stop it.

COSTELLO: Pete, final word.

DOMINICK: Yes, the congressional symbolic gestures, they really don't go anywhere outside of Washington, D.C. Nobody ever hears about them. Who really cares? I think we in the media should stop paying attention to this guy and his mustache, unless, of course -

(LAUGHTER)

DOMINICK: -- they're talking about Wrestlemania. If he wants to talk about Wrestlemania outcome, then he should be listened to. On other things, I don't want to hear what he or his mustache have to say.

COSTELLO: Dana, Cornell, Pete. A fabulous first edition of "Political Pitch." Thank you so much.

BELCHER: Thank you.

LOESCH: Thank you

COSTELLO: And we'll do it again soon.

One minute it was on the radar, the next it was gone. Now almost two years after an Air France crashes into the ocean, the wreckage has been discovered. But that's not all. We'll have a live report coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Checking stories from "Cross Country" now. In California, five people got healthy kidneys from five anonymous living donors. The swap was life changing for everyone involved.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

APRIL LANGSTRAAT, KIDNEY RECIPIENT: Just an amazing gift.

ALAN LANGSTRAAT, KIDNEY DONOR: It's a rare opportunity, you know. I mean, you live your life and you've got two kidneys, and you don't need them both.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: The operation, known as paired donation, is one of the largest kidney transplants at a single hospital.

In Arizona, a gust sent a bounce house 15 feet into the air with two children inside. A boy and girl were playing at a children's festival when the inflatable castle blew them into the air and crossed three lanes of traffic. Both children were seriously hurt.

(VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: I'm telling you, that looks really fun. In Colorado, Boatercross kicked off during the weekend at Monarch Mountain Ski Resort. People like the man you saw there kayaked down the slopes and into icy water. Just for the fun of it.

The Midwest got hammered by strong winds and tornado-like weather during the weekend. And now that brutal storm is now heading South. Rob Marciano is tracking it. Hi, Rob.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COSTELLO: Keep an ear on the TV or the radio or whatever. Thank you, Rob. Appreciate it.

We could have an air crash mystery unfolding right now. An Air France jet that went down in the Atlantic off of South America nearly two years ago has been found. Along with some bodies. The plane disappeared June 1 of 2009 in stormy weather with 228 people aboard.

CNN's Richard Quest joins us live from London. Richard, what is Air France saying about this?

RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, so far, it is the investigators. And this is a real-life, happening-now air crash investigation. They know where now the main body of the aircraft, the fuselage, is. You just showed there, Carol, some pictures of the engines. They've also found parts of the undercarriage.

And it's all down in 4,000 meters of water -- 10,000 or so feet of water. This is really deep water with phenomenally difficult ability to find it. It's taken them two years and four searches. And even though they found a large part of the fuselage and they've found some human remains, they still haven't yet, Carol, as the BEA investigator pointed out, they still haven't located the crucial black box flight recorders.

COSTELLO: How could they possibly -- I mean, are they planning to bring the plane up to the surface eventually?

QUEST: Yes. Over the next five weeks or so, they will move to the next stage. And they have to. They're going to bring the pieces of the aircraft they've found, they're going to bring those to the surface. And they're going to bring, obviously, the human remains in a dignified fashion as well.

But Carol, they've got to get this thing up because they don't know what happened. Oh, they know how the aircraft entered the water. They know that there was a massive failure of many of the systems on the A-330 that night. And they know that there was some pretty appalling thunderstorms in order to (INAUDIBLE).

But Carol, the mystery remains, none of those things should have brought a modern-day aircraft out of the air. So, this is why it's crucial that they discover what happened. This is one more piece of that jigsaw.

COSTELLO: You'll be following it for us. Richard Quest live in London, thank you.

You might have ripped up your college basketball bracket sheet weeks ago, but a librarian nailed the final four and the final two right on the head. Her skills made front-page news, too. But how on earth did she figure out that Butler and UConn would be in the final two? She will share her secrets next.

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COSTELLO: My favorite story of the morning. A final four with an eighth-seeded team, an 11 seed. Nobody would have predicted that, nobody except Diana. She just scored 5,000 bucks from Yahoo! Sports for being the only entry out of almost 3 million with a perfect final four. Diana is a school librarian in Oregon, and her system for picking winners was, well, let's just say it's unorthodox. Welcome, Diana.

DIANA INCH, WON "YAHOO! SPORTS BRACKET CONTEST": Hi.

COSTELLO: I'm so excited about this. So, tell us how you crunched the numbers.

INCH: Well, it was very scientific. I took my favorite numbers, seven and 11. I took some of my favorite letters, X and V. And then I also took dogs and cats.

COSTELLO: Dogs and cats?

INCH: Dogs and cats, yes. For mascots for the schools.

COSTELLO: So, you basically based your picks on whether you liked their mascot?

INCH: That was part of it, yes. Or I like their coach or if he had an 11 seed or a seven seed. That was also --

COSTELLO: Oh, that's where the number seven and 11 came in. So you're talking to your male coworkers about your methods for making your picks. And they say to you what?

INCH: Well, I don't know if they really initially knew what I was picking, but they said I couldn't come to their pick 'em party. And so I felt kind of, you know, left out. And I thought oh, OK. I'll just do my own bracket and show them. And so I just did something completely silly. Because you know, you don't expect to win anyway.

COSTELLO: So they didn't let you go to the party --

INCH: I had the system.

COSTELLO: They didn't let you go to the party. And so you decided I'll show them. So, you came up with the silliest way ever to pick your brackets.

INCH: I don't know if it's the silliest way ever, but it's pretty silly.

COSTELLO: Silly but brilliant at the same time because it's effective. We can't say it's not brilliant because you're winning. So what are your male colleagues saying now?

INCH: Oh. Jeff Rhodes, who showed me the Yahoo! Pick 'Em brackets last year, he's so excited because he's been playing them since his -- he's been in fifth grade. And then the other ones that were kind of disgruntled and doubted that I actually had chosen the final four, they've come around. They know -- they know me and how I run my library, it's kind of crazy. And they're just along for the ride now. They've been really good sports about it. COSTELLO: OK. Well, let's talk about the final two. UConn versus Butler. So how did you make your pick between UConn and Butler?

INCH: Well, I'm wearing my University of Washington Huskies intramural championship T-shirt that I won sometime in the '90s for volleyball. And I went to the information school there, although it was called the library school at that time. And then I also played women's hockey at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota. They are also -- both teams are the huskies. So, that gave them an edge.

And my dog Z kind of looks like the huskies mascot -

COSTELLO: Oh! So, it's Uconn.

INCH: -- and the Butler mascot, the Butler bulldog looks kind of grumpy. Not the live one. Blue II is very cute.

COSTELLO: I understand.

INCH: But the other one.

COSTELLO: Hey, whatever works. I know you have the brackets with you, your winning bracket. So, just show us. Oh, it's so awesome!

INCH: Well, and I'm not winning. That's the funny thing. I'm not winning because my choices were silly. I had in the first round, I had the Boston University Terriers beating the number one seed Kansas Jayhawks. I know Kansas is good --

COSTELLO: Yes, but it didn't matter. It doesn't matter because you've made all the way it to the final four and the final two. Who does that? I don't know. You're, like, the coolest librarian I have ever talked to. Thank you, Diana, for sharing.

INCH: Thanks.

COSTELLO: We appreciate it.

INCH: Thank you.

COSTELLO: President Obama throws his hat in the ring for 2012. How are Republicans responding to the news he's running for re- election? We're talking politics next.

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COSTELLO: This morning's big political announcement. President Obama announced he's running in 2012. CNN deputy political director Paul Steinhauser is here. Hi, Paul.

PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Morning, Carol. Busy morning.

COSTELLO: It was a busy morning. So, how are Republicans responding to the president's announcement?

STEINHAUSER: Well, the award for the first out of the gate goes to Tim Pawlenty, the former Minnesota governor who's already formed an exploratory committee. He's probably running for the White House. You can bank on that on.

Here's what he said on his Web site. He put up a video and said, "How can we win the future when we are losing the president? In order for America to take a new direction, it's going to take a new president." So, Tim Pawlenty get the award. Also the Republican national committee is fundraising now, Carol, off the president's announcement. They say they want to raise $270,000 in the next 72 hours.

Meanwhile, Vice President Biden on this day when the president officially announced his re-election, where's he? New Hampshire, a very politically important state. Carol, he has an education event but then does a Democratic party event today. Sources tell me this is not a fundraiser, just a thank-you to supporters and a pep talk. Remember, of course, New Hampshire a crucial battleground state in the race for the White House.

COSTELLO: OK, so I'm curious. Where does President Obama stand in the polls as he announces this re-election bid?

STEINHAUSER: Americans are divided. No surprise. Check this out. Our brand-new CNN poll of polls. We took the most recent national surveys, averaged them together. Look at that, 47 percent approve of the job Barack Obama is doing in the White House; 46 percent disapprove.

And go to the next one. This is interesting. Look at the numbers. He peaked a little bit. He was up in January at 52 percent, down to 47 now. That's kind of where he's been over the last -- going back to January of 2010. Upper 40s, low 50s. Carol?

COSTELLO: Paul Steinhauser, many thanks. Live in Washington.

We'll have your next political update in one hour. And a reminder, for all the latest political news, go to our Web site, CNNpolitics.com.

Coming up next on CNN NEWSROOM with Suzanne Malveaux, we'll take you aboard a Turkish ship arriving at a Libyan port to pick up victims of war for treatment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: An incredibly emotional moment here in the opposition Capitol of Benghazi as a Turkish hospital ship filled with 300 wounded people, all of them injured in the fighting in Misrata has arrived here in Benghazi's naval port.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Hear what Libyans aboard that ship are saying about their injuries and about the war. That's in the 11:00 a.m. hour of CNN NEWSROOM.

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COSTELLO: Here's a look at stories coming up later on CNN.

In just a few minutes, the Reverend Al Sharpton will hold events in Memphis on the 43rd anniversary of Martin Luther King's assassination. Additional documents from the Martin Luther King assassination investigation will be posted online.

At 3:00 Eastern, the interior secretary will convene a hearing in Mexico City. It will ask experts to find safer ways to drill for oil and gas in the Gulf.

And at 6:00 Eastern, Osoyoos Rocket will blast off carrying a new crew to the international space station. This mission will last six months.

That does it for me. But NEWSROOM does continue with Suzanne Malveaux. Take it away, Suzanne.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Carol, I can't believe we're not going to see you on this show later today!

COSTELLO: I know! I have to go to opening day in Baltimore to see my Detroit Tigers play the Orioles.

MALVEAUX: Oh! Where are your loyalties, Carol?

COSTELLO: I know, I'm sorry!

MALVEAUX: All right. Well, see you tomorrow, OK?

COSTELLO: OK!

MALVEAUX: OK, thank you.