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High-Stakes Fight for Florida; It Pays to be President; Actor Helps CNN Hero; Politics Of Florida's Housing Crisis; The Reagan Mantle; World Economic Forum
Aired January 27, 2012 - 10:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Live from Studio 7, I'm Suzanne Malveaux.
Want to get you up to speed for this Friday, January 27th.
The fight in Florida heads into the final rounds after the Republican candidates traded blows last night. The CNN debate, it was their final match-up before Tuesday's Florida primary.
Mitt Romney was in top form. Romney was quick to respond when Newt Gingrich tried to attack him over his money and investments.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NEWT GINGRICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Governor Romney owns shares of both Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. Governor Romney made a million dollars off of selling some of that.
MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Mr. Speaker, I know that sounds like an enormous revelation, but have you checked your own investments? You also have investments from mutual funds that also invested in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
GINGRICH: Right.
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: Everyone who got off of the sinking Italian cruise ship is about to get paid more than $14,000 to each survivor. It's a deal reached between the Costa cruise line and consumer groups. Everyone will also get their money back for the cruise tickets and other expenses. The captain who steered the ship into some rocks, he is still under house arrest.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm going to burn it!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: Protesters set an Australian flag on fire outside parliament today. It's the second straight day that people who are angry about Australia's policy towards Aborigines made the news. Yesterday, the rowdy crowd surrounded the prime minister at a political event, forcing her to make a hasty get away. Nobody was arrested at this protest. Burning a flag is not against the law in Australia.
Files are now missing for at least 10 pardoned criminals in Mississippi including four murderers. The attorney general's office says the files were supposed to be turned over by the governor's office. Well, one of the pardoned killers, he's still missing. Authorities are offering a reward to find Joseph Osmond (ph), but the irony here, they can't issue an arrest warrant because he has been pardoned.
In Utah, two high school students have been arrested for allegedly plotting to explode bombs during a school assembly and steal a plane to make their getaway. Police say it's not clear if the 18-and-16- year-olds had the ability to pull this thing off, but they had maps of the school and elaborate plans.
Today, a judge makes it official. Formal sentencing for Josh Komisarjevsky. A jury convicted him of killing a woman and her daughters during a home invasion. You may recall, that was back in 2007. Well, that same jury recommended the death penalty. Komisarjevsky's accomplice, he was also convicted and given the death sentence.
So, a mayor's racial inflammatory "taco" comment sparked outrage around the country, not to mention taco deliveries. Yes, in case you missed it, here's what the mayor said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What are you doing for the Latino community today?
MAYOR JOSEPH MATURO, JR., EAST HAVEN, CONNECTICUT: I might have tacos when go home. I'm not quite sure yet.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: OK. So that mayor made, Joseph Maturo, made that remark after four police officers were arrested in a federal investigation of racial profiling in East Haven, Connecticut. Well, the mayor, he got his tacos. Latino activists carried 500 tacos to the mayor's office. They had asked supporters to text the word "taco" in protest, promising to deliver a taco for every text.
The group received more than 2,600 texts. It plans to donate the remaining tacos to soup kitchens.
I want you to check out this. It is spectacular. It's a natural light show.
It's a powerful blast of radiation from the sun that created this bright green display in the sky over the national park in Sweden. The video was shot over a three-hour period by eight photographers taking part in a photo expedition. That's pretty cool. Here is your chance to "Talk Back" on one of the big stories of the day. You know the names of the four Republican candidates that are in the race for the party's presidential nomination, right? Well, here is another name that we keep hearing pretty often on the campaign trail.
Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROMNEY: I remember the great line from Ronald Reagan. He said, "It's not that liberals are ignorant, it's just that what they know is wrong."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GINGRICH: I worked with Ronald Reagan to create jobs.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
REP. RON PAUL (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I was one of four in Texas, one of four members of Congress that supported Reagan in '76.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICK SANTORUM (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: When Ronald Reagan came down here to Florida, everyone said, oh, no, you've got to pick this other guy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: All right. Ronald Reagan, he hasn't held office in more than 25 years, but a lot of people invoking his memory, as well as his legacy.
Carol Costello with the "Talk Back" question.
Why Ronald Reagan this go-around?
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, Suzanne, the Reagan mantle. Newt Gingrich claims it, you know, with pride, often telling voters he worked closely and cooperatively with President Reagan back in the day. But conservatives ranging from columnist and author Ann Coulter, to former Senate majority leader during the Reagan years, Bob Dole, say Gingrich is exaggerating. There's even a super PAC ad out now asserting Reagan was no Gingrich lover.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NARRATOR (voice-over): Reagan criticized Gingrich, saying Newt's ideas "would cripple our defense program." Reagan rejected Newt's ideas on leadership on character, and Gingrich is no Ronald Reagan. (END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Gingrich blamed that on the Romney attack machine.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GINGRICH: The fact is, I'm thrilled that Michael Reagan has endorsed me and will be campaigning with me here in Florida. I remember very fondly in 1985, when we were at the Goldwater Institute, and Nancy Reagan said, "You know, Barry gave Ronnie the torch and now Ronnie is passing the torch to Newt and his team in Congress."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Gingrich isn't the first politician to fight over who carries Reagan's mantle best, but does it really mean anything? Ronald Reagan is an icon, but he was elected president in the disco era -- what, three decades ago? Many young Republican voters scratch their heads. They're into Ron Paul, and he barely mentions Ronald Reagan.
And you could argue President Reagan dealt with the economic woes of his time in a way Republicans are not willing to do now. Mr. Reagan raised taxes.
At the University of Virginia, Larry Sabato says, "Invoking Reagan's name doesn't tell you anything about what a candidate might do, because Ronald Reagan has become everything, even things he wasn't." Kind of like JFK.
So, the "Talk Back" question for you today: Does invoking Reagan help a Republican candidate today?
Facebook.com/CarolCNN. I will read your responses later in this hour.
MALVEAUX: Thanks, Carol.
(NEWSBREAK)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: The final push is on in Florida. The candidates have just four days left before the Florida primary.
Last night they traded blows in the last debate before voters head to the polls. Mitt Romney seemed to be re-energized after his loss to Newt Gingrich in South Carolina. When Gingrich went on the attacks, Romney was quick to fire back.
I want you to listen to this back-and-forth. This is over illegal immigration.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WOLF BLITZER, MODERATOR: Is he still the most anti-immigrant candidate? GINGRICH: I think of the four of us, yes.
ROMNEY: Mr. Speaker, I'm not anti-immigrant. My father was born in Mexico. My wife's father was born in Wales. They came to this country. The idea that I'm anti-immigrant is repulsive.
GINGRICH: All I want to do is allow the grandmother to be here legally, with some rights to have residency, but not citizenship, so that he or she can finish their life with dignity within the law.
ROMNEY: You know, they're not 11 million -- our problem is not 11 million grandmothers. Our problem is --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: The stakes obviously very high in Florida. Fifty Republican delegates all up for grabs. It's winner take all.
I want to bring in our political director, Mark Preston.
Mark, good to see you.
So, we just heard Romney hitting back at Gingrich on immigration, and we know that Latinos make up one in 10 Republican primary voters in Florida. Who do we think did the best job of winning the Latino vote?
MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Well, even before the debate happened, Suzanne, Mitt Romney got a big boost from Marco Rubio. He's the senator here from Florida. A lot of people think he's on the short list for vice president.
But Marco Rubio came out and defended Mitt Romney, even before the debate, of the accusations that, in fact, Mitt Romney was anti- immigrant. But as we saw from that clip last night, Mitt Romney did a very, very good job of delivering a very sharp and concise answer defending his position on that, so I think you have got to give it to Mitt Romney there -- Suzanne.
MALVEAUX: All right.
Mark, you want to go to the moon here? The future space exploration was something that came up, and didn't really expect it, but Gingrich promoting this plan to build a colony on the moon. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GINGRICH: I will tell you, I do not want to be the country that, having gotten to the moon first, turned around and said, it doesn't really matter, let the Chinese dominate space, what do we care?
ROMNEY: I spent 25 years in business. If I had a business executive come to me and say they wanted to spend a few hundred billion dollars to put a colony on the moon, I'd say, "You're fired."
(END VIDEO CLIP) MALVEAUX: OK, Mark. So, some people, they thought, OK, that kind of makes Gingrich sound a little nutty, but others thought, well, maybe Romney did a good job of showing that he is the fiscally-conservative, budget-conscious guy by saying, I'm not going along with that.
How did that play?
PRESTON: Well, I mean, what Newt Gingrich was trying to do there is to really play into this whole idea that he has grandiose theories, he has grand theories, he's a dreamer, he's a believer very much like JFK was back in the 1960s. The problem is, is that in these tough economic times, people are saying, where are you getting the money to go ahead and do that?
Now, Mitt Romney has been very successful throughout this campaign talking about how he is the strong businessman, he can help to turn the economy around. And what he did last night is he put Newt Gingrich back on his heels by that comment.
He also called him out politically and said that every state that Newt Gingrich has been to, he has offered some kind of grand plan that is very expensive. In Florida, it was a way to revive the space program, and he said that basically, Newt Gingrich was playing politics with that. So, again, Mitt Romney, checkmate on that one.
MALVEAUX: Here is Ron Paul responded to this. I think the audience really liked this one.
PAUL: I don't think that we should go to the moon. I think we maybe should send some politicians up there.
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: Mark, he is probably, like, preaching to the choir. I think a lot of people are thinking that. But he was in rare form last night.
PRESTON: He was. And I've got to tell you what -- line up the spaceships and start putting the politicians on them and send them to the moon, because the American public are very, very frustrated with what's going on in Washington.
But Ron Paul, who really isn't even campaigning in this state, used this as an opportunity to show a softer side, or at least a little bit of levity. A very funny thing he had said last night, too, when we asked him about releasing his medical records. He turned to the other candidates on stage and challenged them to a 25-mile bike ride in the hot heat of Texas. So, Ron Paul certainly did pretty well last night if you were looking for a good laugh.
MALVEAUX: Yes, he was pretty funny.
All right, Mark. Have a great weekend. It is probably the most stressful job in the world those guys are going for, but the perks to being president, well, they are pretty big.
Brianna Keilar reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Being president pays -- $400,000 a year, in fact. There is free transportation on and off the ground, free housing, and other perks like a chef.
When a president leaves the White House, he is still on the government payroll, receiving a pension of about $200,000 a year, health care, paid official travel, and an office. Rent on Jimmy Carter's Atlanta office is about $100,000 per year, according to latest figures available. George H. W. Bush's Houston digs, $175,000. And Bill Clinton's Harlem office, more than $500,000.
But these taxpayer-funded benefits are nothing compared to the big bucks presidents rake in writing books. Bill Clinton's "My Life" netted him an advance of $15 million, believed to be the biggest in history at the time. George W. Bush wrote "Decision Points."
GEORGE W. BUSH, FMR. PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: After the presidency, my life went from 100 miles an hour to zero. And the book gave me a focus and a project.
KEILAR: It also gave him $7 million for first 1.5 million copies.
Jimmy Carter wrote 14 books.
JAMES THURBER, PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: He was broke when he came out of the White House. If you can write, or you can write with someone else, you can write a book and make a great deal of money.
KEILAR: Then there's "Dreams From My Father." President Obama wrote it in his 30s.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Before this book started selling about four years ago, you know, we were living in a condo, myself, Michelle, and our two girls, and we were -- had two cars, but one of them was kind of beat up.
KEILAR: That book flew off shelves when he ran for president. The Obamas went from middle class to wealthy and made several million dollars.
But for the biggest payoff for not too much work, speeches are the way to go. And when it comes to ex-presidents, Bill Clinton is the reigning king of the podium.
WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON, FMR. PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I never had any money when I got out of the White House, but I have done recently well since then. KEILAR: That's quite the understatement. Since 2001, Clinton has earned more than $75 million giving speeches to corporations and organizations around the world. Since George W. Bush left office, the Center for Public Integrity estimates he has made $15 million for speeches.
But all that money raises questions.
THURBER: I think that the American people think that American politics is all about money. And this certainly doesn't change their view about what presidents have after they get out of office.
KEILAR: In 1989, right after President Reagan left office, he was skewered for accepting $2 million for two speeches in Japan, then an economic foe of the United States.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MALVEAUX: Brianna Keilar, she's joining us from the White House.
Brianna, excellent report there. I guess not a bad gig if you want to see a paycheck. But not all presidents get rich after leaving office, do they? Are there some exceptions?
KEILAR: Certainly, there are some exceptions, and it really seems like lately, you know, recent presidents, they can really cash in. It hasn't always been the case.
For instance, Harry Truman, when he left office, Suzanne, he actually had so little money, that he couldn't afford to answer all of the mail and all of the speech requests that he was getting. That was part of the reason why Congress passed pension and other benefits for presidents in the 1950s.
But still, you know, a lot of the presidents -- and I'm sure you realize this -- they come into office basically loaded. They have a ton of money. And I think one of the really interesting tidbits is that if, say you are looking at the Republican field, let's take a look at Mitt Romney, because he's obviously very rich. If he were elected, Suzanne, and you controlled for inflation, he would be the third richest president in history, behind only Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, who would be the wealthiest when you control for inflation.
MALVEAUX: Wow. Rolling in the bucks there. All right. Thank you, Brianna. Good to see you.
No doubt about it, the economy is growing again. But is it going to be enough to sustain the recovery? We're going to take a look behind those numbers.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BUSINESS REPORT)
MALVEAUX: Well, fans of the NBC comedy "The Office" know actor Rainn Wilson as the egomaniac Dwight Schrute. But unlike his character, Wilson is committed to helping others. He actually saw a story about one of our CNN Heroes and he was moved, so he decided he'd help out.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RAINN WILSON, ACTOR: I was literally sitting in my trailer at the office, and I was looking at the CNN Web site, and they had the CNN Heroes. I think it was in the first year, and I saw this story on this guy Aaron Jackson. This is a young kid in Florida who grew up on a golf course, didn't really have much direction in his life. And then he went traveling in the third world and he saw poverty, and he decided to just devote his life to making the world a better place.
AARON JACKSON, CNN HERO: Today, we dewormed an estimated -- maybe a little over 100 people.
WILSON: It's been great to be able to help out Aaron Jackson in planting peace by doing some fund-raisers. I've gotten to introduce him to people and to help raise money, and just help his organization really get moving.
He's the amazing guy who's doing all the really hard work. And, you know, give him the cash and just let him go do what he does best.
They have four or five orphanages in Haiti. And I also went out when they distributed the de-worming medication out in the rural villages and towns.
You're distributing food, aid all around the country. So many kids can be, you know, eating their fill, but because they are so filled with worms, they are unable to digest and process that food, so it's really just kind of a waste.
JACKSON: You deworm a kid, and the worms shoot out within usually 24 to 48 hours. It's amazing. And you see a kid that's highly anemic, not alert at all. And once you rid them of worms, they come back to life. And that's what to me is amazing, and you see an immediate impact.
Since the Heroes segment in 2007, we have actually raised enough money with Rainn's help to deworm every child in Haiti, all 3.2 million kids.
WILSON: Anyone can be a hero. It just takes a little bit of work.
OK. All right. Ah!
If there is one thing I could take away from my experience with CNN Heroes, these stories are incredibly inspiring. They inspire me to step up my game and try and do more to help the world.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MALVEAUX: Well, you can help do more to help the world. Tell us about somebody who is actually making a big difference in your community. It's easy. Just go to CNNHeroes.com. And we could end up honoring your nominee. And just as you've seen, that can have some big results. Go to CNNHeroes.com and nominate a 2012 CNN Hero.
There is cautious optimism from the experts, but is the economy really on the upswing? I'm going to talk to Fareed Zakaria about it. He is with the world's economic insiders in Davos.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: Here's a rundown on some of the stories that's we're working on. When it comes to the global economy, the people in the know are talking to our own Fareed Zakaria, and he is talking to us next.
And then, so many home foreclosures in Jacksonville, some call it a cancer, eating the city from within. We're going to talk about why.
And later, teenage football players risking life-long injuries on the field. Dr. Sanjay Gupta on why high school sports have to be made safer.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: OK. So when almost half of the mortgages in a state are underwater, the housing crisis becomes a big political issue, and that is the situation in Florida ahead of Tuesday's primary.
I want to bring in Christine Romans. She's live from, Jacksonville to talk about the politics of the housing crisis, because Florida is one of the hardest hit when it comes to the mortgage meltdown. How bad is it, and how important is that for the folks who live there?
CHRISTINE ROMANS, HOST, "YOUR BOTTOM LINE": I don't think that anybody is going to be casting a vote in the primary on Tuesday or in the general election is going to go into that voting booth, Suzanne, without some housing baggage with them, because these neighborhoods have been devastated.
I mean even if you are paying your bills, you have somebody down the street or somebody in your family who has lost their home or is fighting with the bank. I mean, everybody is talking about how much fighting and red tape they've been doing with the banks. You know, look, we walked along with a realtor who was going door-to-door.
There he is. His name is Scott Nicholas, going door-to-door to check to see if people are actually living in the homes, because the banks own a lot of these homes. They don't even know if somebody's living there, checking the lawn. If it's not mowed, figuring out if somebody lives there, and what the bank has to do to try to fix it up and sell it again.
In some cases, banks and the people are just fighting over who owns the home or what exactly the status is of the mortgage. We also talked to a guy named Chip Parker, who represents people who are fighting foreclosure, and he put what is happening here in Florida in very, very stark terms. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHIP PARKER, JACKSONVILLE FLORIDA BANKRUPTCY ATTORNEY: Jacksonville is a beautiful, vibrant city, and it is being attacked by a cancer from within, house by house. And what we see in these neighborhoods, established neighborhoods and new neighborhoods, you start to see vacant houses, decaying lawns. You really lose a sense of community when your neighbors. all of a sudden, have gone.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: It's so interesting, too, because, quite frankly, Suzanne, the foreclosure rate has slowed a little bit.
One in 30 homes last month in this state got a foreclosure notice -- 1 in 360, rather, homes in this state got a foreclosure notice last month, but that is slowing but the reason it is slowing is because the banks have slowed down, because they have been under all this political pressure, legal pressure for doing such a horrible job with the foreclosures and the robo-signing scandal where they were foreclosing wrongly on some people.
So this is a front-and-center issue, I think, that no matter what Floridians, housing and jobs, two things that they cannot divorce themselves from when they go to cast a ballot.
MALVEAUX: All right. Christine, thank you. Appreciate it.
Talking about stories from affiliates across the country, it was a busy day for the Coast Guard in Alaska. They had to rescue 11 fishermen from two different boats that ran aground near Kodiak. You can see the ice and the freezing waters there, dramatic pictures. The fishermen are reportedly doing OK, since they were wearing survival suits.
And check out the video, amazing from the Winter X Games in Aspen. This guy taking part in the snowmobile freestyle competition -- whoa, lets go of the sled midair.
Colten Moore managed to tuck his head , land on his back, just in the nick of time, otherwise he would have hit the packed snow on his head. Even more amazing, he was able to walk away from the accident and keep competing. He actually took first place.
Things getting rough at a Florida hockey game, but not on the ice. The Tampa Bay Lightning mascot sprayed Silly String on a Boston Bruin fan. He didn't think it was all that funny. The fans pushed the mascot -- the mascot is called Thunderbird -- Thunderbug, rather.
The mascot was fired, and now there is a Facebook page, dedicated to get her job back. CNN has reached out to her for comment. We haven't heard anything back just quite yet.
We got a lot of responses to today's Talkback question. We asked, "Does invoking Reagan help Republican candidates today?" Carol Costello, she's up next with your responses.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You've been sounding off on our Talkback question about the Republican candidates and their references to Ronald Reagan.
Carol Costello, she's here with some of your responses.
And, Carol, are people romanticizing this or are they -- they're just invoking because they think it's going to drum up support for them?
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Oh, you mean the candidates? Oh, certainly. They want to wear the Reagan mantle, because they think it makes them seem more like Ronald Reagan, who is widely admired in Republican circles. So that's why the question today, does invoking the name of Reagan help a candidate today?
This from Roger, he says, "These guys are all playing on emotion rather than focusing on some substantive plans for realistic solutions. What worked in the '80s is 30 years out of sync. Stop with the slogans and get in touch with reality."
This from Decker. He says, "Of course it helps to invoke Reagan's name. Has he not been elevated to Founding Father status?"
This from Audrey: "They need to focus about the unique issues facing the country now, and make a name for themselves."
This from Leslee: "Every time I hear Reagan's name mentioned by the candidates, I start to hear, 'But mom likes me better than you.'"
And this from Michelle: "Reagan was a liberal movie star. He was only a Republican in name, so, no, he helps no other Republicans. By the way, Reagan is dead. Newt needs to move on. It's time to go to his colony on the moon."
I don't think she's a Newt Gingrich fan, do you, Suzanne?
(CROSSTALK)
MALVEAUX: -- colony on the moon comment, I just (inaudible).
COSTELLO: Ouch. Keep the conversation going, facebook.com/carolcnn. I'll be back with you in about, oh, 20 minutes or so.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. Thanks, Carol.
A new super PAC supporting Newt Gingrich -- we're going to have that later. And we've heard speculation about Hillary Clinton for vice president. What is she saying about her future plans? Details in the "Political Ticker," up next.
And why so many of us are practically tied to our smartphones. Well, imagine getting paid overtime if you answer work emails and phone calls after work? It's becoming a law, but not here in the U.S.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: A new super PAC ad supporting Newt Gingrich, essentially accusing Mitt Romney of Medicare fraud -- Peter Hamby, he's live from the campaign trail in Jacksonville.
So, Peter, tell us what this ad is all about.
PETER HAMBY, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Yes, this is another really brutal ad from this Newt Gingrich super PAC "Winning Our Future" that's going up just today, I'm told.
It's called "Blood Money," and like you said, it accuses Romney of sponsoring Medicare fraud when he sat on the board of directors for a Massachusetts-based medical company that ended up paying an enormous fine to the federal government in civil and criminal fees for basically fraudulently billing the government for Medicare.
Romney was shown to have no wrongdoing in this at all. You kind of get the sense that the Gingrich super PAC is swinging wildly here, throwing whatever they can at him to see what will stick. Remember, this is the same group that put up that Bain Capital ad in South Carolina, attacking Romney's corporate record.
So here's another example of that here in Florida. Will it have an impact? Tough to tell. Romney, especially after last night's strong debate performance, is holding on to a pretty comfortable lead here, Suzanne.
MALVEAUX: Yes, it's getting pretty nasty out there.
Talk a little bit about Hillary Clinton, she is making news again, there's always this back-and-forth about what she is planning to do for the future, and she is responding now. What did she say?
HAMBY: Yes, well, she gave a town hall to employees at the State Department and was asked, you know, do you have any political future in your cards? And here is what she had to say, Suzanne.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: I think after 20 years, and it will be 20 years of being on the high wire of American politics and all of the challenges that come with that, it would be a -- probably a good idea to just find out how tired I am.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HAMBY: I don't blame her. I mean, she is a total machine. She has been traveling all over the world. We both covered her in 2008, Suzanne. We know what a workhorse she is, so, you know, here's the other thing though, people always talk about Hillary Clinton's political potential, and, frankly, with good reason. She will be 69 in 2016. That's not the -- that's not the oldest person to have ever run for president. Look at the Democratic bench. You know, the Democrats have a pretty deep one looking post-Obama.
You've got governors like Mario Cuomo and Martin O'Malley and John Hickenlooper, but with a pedigree like Hillary Clinton, she has enormous goodwill within the Democratic Party. She would immediately jump to the front of the line if she did want to run for president down the road.
MALVEAUX: Yes.
HAMBY: (Inaudible) --
(CROSSTALK)
MALVEAUX: Peter, I don't know about you, but I don't believe her. I mean, you know, she denied it last time that she was -- had political ambitions, and she changed her mind. I mean, knowing her, I just don't believe her. I think she's going to do it. So we will see. We will see. I'm not going to place a bet just quite yet. All right, Peter, thanks.
For the latest political news, you know where to go, cnnpolitics.com.
The White House sees good economic news on the economic horizon. So is it cautious optimism or wishful thinking? Our Fareed Zakaria sat down with the Treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, to get his take on what is to come.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FAREED ZAKARIA, HOST, FAREED ZAKARIA GPS: Let me start with an easy question, what is the United States economy going to grow at this year?
TIMOTHY GEITHNER, SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY: You know, there are no oracles in economics, and it is still a pretty uncertain world, but I think the conventional view of the U.S. now is that we are growing between 2 and 3 percent.
And I think that is a realistic outcome for the United States' economy, as long as we see a little more progress in Europe, and as long as we don't see a lot of risk come from Iran in the oil front.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: All right. So Fareed is joining us from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Great to see you, Fareed, first of all.
Let's take a little -- talk a little bit about economics here. You've got these lukewarm economic reports that are rolling in, still possibly troubles in Europe that could turn everything upside down. Do you get a sense of just how insulated we are from what is going on over there, or are we at risk because of what is happening in Europe?
ZAKARIA: Well, we are not -- we are not insulated from a crisis. If there were a collapse of the euro, or if Greece were to default, or if there were to be some Lehman-like moment, all bets are off. The U.S. financial system is deeply intertwined with Europe's. But if what happened was that Europe muddled along, no crisis, but it went into a recession, that is not as problematic.
The U.S., of course exports to Europe, but that is a relatively manageable problem. So I think Tim Geithner had it right when he said you will probably see reasonably healthy growth out of the United States, absent some kind of a shock to the system.
MALVEAUX: And how stable is our economy compared to the rest of the world?
ZAKARIA: I think we have a -- actually a remarkably broad-based recovery under way. It is not very strong, but if you look at the breadth of the recovery, what you're seeing is manufacturing is recovering, no just high-tech manufacturing but all manufacturing.
Exports are up. You're seeing businesses invest more. Business investment is up almost 30 percent since the crisis. You're seeing American businesses actually in very, very strong positions. As many people know they have $2.5 trillion of cash on their -- on their corporate balance sheets.
What you're not yet seeing is a kind of jobs recovery, though that is happening as well. But that is lagging. I would say that if housing bottoms out, then you will see -- you'll -- or the American economy firing on almost all cylinders and you could end up at the 3 percent end of that 3 percent -- 2 to 3 percent range that Tim Geithner was talking about.
MALVEAUX: Right, right. And you've been talking to world leaders there in Davos. Do we have a sense of which country -- or even region -- is the biggest threat to our economy?
ZAKARIA: Well, here all the talk is about Europe and the European crisis. Everyone is worried about it. I think that European leaders, though, are pretty determined to deal with the issue. They have been -- you know, Europe moves incrementally.
So you'll never see anything quite as dramatic as the passage of TARP or Hank Paulson getting the bankers into one room and telling them they all have to take excess capital. It doesn't work like that. It's, you know, 27 countries, and things move slowly and in very complex ways.
But in their own way, the Europeans have been creating new budgetary discipline to make sure that, you know, they don't get into this problem again. They're trying to do real reforms in places like Italy, so that the economy grows .
And they are building, you know, people are calling a firewall, a big stash of money to convince markets that, even in a worst-case scenario, countries like Greece and Italy will have funding. So I think that, slowly but surely, the Europeans are coming -- are cobbling together a solution. So if I have to guess, I would guess that they will manage to muddle through at least for another year.
MALVEAUX: OK. Fareed, thank you for joining us. If you would like to see Fareed's full interview with the Treasury secretary, it's on a special edition of "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS." It is from Davos, Switzerland. That is Sunday at 10:00 am and 1:00 pm Eastern, right here on CNN.
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MALVEAUX: We've got information. This is regarding the Connecticut home invasion case back in 2007. Sentencing has come down by a judge, sentencing a 31-year-old man to death for his role in the deadly home invasion that killed a woman and her two daughters.
I want to take you back to that story. You may recall, this was back in 2007, when two men entered the home of Dr. William Petit, raped and strangled his wife, tied the doctor up as well, molested one of their daughters and set the house on fire.
The wife, Jennifer Hawke-Petit, she was forced to go to the bank and withdraw money at one point during this ordeal. The two daughters, who were both tied to their bed, died of smoke inhalation. It was William Petit, the husband, the doctor, who was the only one able who managed to escape this whole horrific ordeal.
Well, the sentencing has now come down. Joshua Komisarjevsky has been sentenced to death for his role in that deadly home invasion. We're going to have more.
I want to bring in our producer, Brian Vitagliano, on the phone with us to talk to talk about, first of all, the judge and the sentencing and the reaction from the only survivor, the sole survivor in the courtroom.
BRIAN VITAGLIANO, CNN PRODUCER: Hi, Suzanne. That's right. Judge Jon Blue has officially sentenced Joshua Komisarjevsky to death by lethal injection in Connecticut. He joins his partner in crime, so to speak, Steven Hayes, as the 11th member now on Connecticut's death row.
Dr. Petit actually left the courtroom during a five-minute recess after the Petit family had given their impact statements. They didn't want to be involved in listening to whatever Joshua Komisarjevsky or the defense had to say.
(CROSSTALK)
MALVEAUX: (Inaudible) -- I want to interrupt you just for a moment here because I understand that the grandparents are speaking. The family of Jennifer Hawke-Petit, who were killed, are speaking now. Let's listen in.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) WILLIAM PETIT SR., FATHER OF DR. WILLIAM PETIT: -- and to stay and listen to what Joshua Komisarjevsky had to say.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What did you think about that?
PETIT: I didn't --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We didn't listen.
PETIT: I didn't listen. Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Talk a little bit about -- the first time I've heard you talk about this, that Bill has been so -- you said the Bill we knew is gone as well. Could you talk a little bit about that? I've never heard you say that before.
PETIT: Well, I said it after the first trial and you would have to -- you would have to know Bill as we knew him, you know, it just -- you know, he's starting to come back a little bit now to what he was. He never will come all the way back, or at least I hope he does, but I doubt that he can.
But he's just -- to know -- to know Bill, the brilliant young doctor that he was, the happy young man, the good father, brother, cousin, uncle, all of those things, and son, and then to see him after this, it's just heartbreaking. So I don't know if I can put that into words. But that's what it was. Well, thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: That was sound from William Petit Sr., the father of the sole survivor of that home invasion. I want to bring Brian, if you're still on the phone, to set the scene for us, what took place inside of the courtroom when the judge handed down the sentence.
VITAGLIANO: That's right, Suzanne. As I was saying, the family left after the victim impact statements from Dr. Petit, Dr. Petit's sister, and three videotaped confessions from Jennifer Hawke-Petit's mother, father and sister. And it was very emotional.
I sat through the Hayes' sentencing and it was extremely charged with emotion. There was crying involved, and Dr. Petit just sitting a few feet away from me, visibly shaking his hands before having to read his statement, while listening to the history and the family that was taken and robbed from him.
What Bill Sr. didn't have to listen to was Josh Komisarjevsky saying things during a roughly eight-minute speech or statement that, he said, quote, "I did not rape, I did not pour that gas or light that fire. I will never find peace again. My soul is torn, the clock is now ticking. I didn't want anyone to die that morning. I wonder when the killing will end."
That being said, Judge Jon Blue came back after he issued his statement, and said that this was a terrible sentence, but one you wrote for yourself. He said, "Your fate is now in the hands of others. May God have mercy on your soul."
And when you're in court and you're listening to those words, it's extremely powerful to listen to. So this is now the end of a very long 41/2 years. And you know, as Dr. Petit said it last time, that he never understood the word "closure." There will always be small pieces of his heart that are torn open. But this is a chapter that's now ending in Connecticut.
MALVEAUX: Brian, thank you so much. A tragic chapter for that family. Dr. Petit, the only survivor. And the second accomplice now in that horrific -- that murder and rape now being sentenced to death.
