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Mitt Romney's Lead in Florida Polls; Syria's Protest Movement; Primary Voting Under Way In Florida; "The Power Of Shyness"; Couch Potato App; The Help Desk; Who Benefits From Food Stamps
Aired January 31, 2012 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Top of the hour. I'm Suzanne Malveaux.
It's primary day in Florida. Mitt Romney is the man to beat.
A poll just released today confirms what survey after survey has shown. Romney has a double-digit lead over Newt Gingrich and the rest of the Republican field.
In the American Research Group poll, Romney is at 43 percent, compared to 31 percent for Gingrich. Rick Santorum, a distant third, followed by Ron Paul.
Gingrich campaigns in Plant City, Florida, this hour. He promises to stay in the race, all the way to the Republican Convention.
A brutal crackdown against Syrian protesters is getting bloodier. An opposition group is already reporting 17 people killed today. This video posted online is said to show army defectors in a street fight with government forces in the city of Homs. Rebels say they are seeing heavy attacks today by tanks and artillery on the outskirts of Damascus.
The Occupy movement not going anywhere. That is the message of protesters in Washington. That's what they're pushing after defying a deadline yesterday to pack up the tents and move on, despite a tense standoff with police. No one was arrested. Tents are still standing.
Police have tracked down pardoned killer Joseph Ozment in Wyoming. He's been served with papers ordering him to appear in a Mississippi court on Friday.
Now, a judge is set to decide if his and other pardons were legal. Ozment, he was among 200 convicts granted full pardons by Haley Barbour before he left the governor's office. That happened earlier in the month.
This move has outraged victims' families. A grieving mother, she spoke to our own Anderson Cooper about the governor.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BETTY ELLIS, MOTHER OF MURDER VICTIM: Well, he didn't think about my daughter being gone, and none of us will ever be able to see her or hear her or talk to her ever again. He didn't think of any of that. You would have thought that being a father, that might have crossed his mind.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: In the Florida Everglades, pythons are eating all the animals they can find. That is the takeaway from a new study. So we're talking about rabbits, foxes, raccoons, bobcats, deer. Scientists say in an area where Burmese pythons have invaded, those animal populations have now dramatically dropped.
And here's something to ask your doctor next time you get a checkup -- take my blood pressure in both arms. A new study says a difference in blood pressure between the right and the left arm could mean you have an increased risk of dying from heart disease.
And the fall of home prices continues, according to the latest S&P/Case-Shiller 20-city report. Prices dropped 1.3 percent in November, meaning they are now down 3.7 percent from just a year ago, and off 32.8 percent since they peaked in the summer of 2006.
All right. The accusations, negative ads, name-calling.
Today, the voting in the Florida primary. Newt Gingrich, he is down in the polls, but determined to stay in the race.
Jim Acosta is at a Gingrich campaign stop in Lakeland, Florida.
So, Jim, you actually spoke with Gingrich earlier today. Tell us a little bit about his conversation, the mood he's in. Is he optimistic?
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. I wouldn't call his mood optimistic, Suzanne.
I mean, he came out of the bus with his wife, Callista, into a scrum of reporters and supporters here in Lakeland, Florida. And we had a chance to fire off a few questions to the former Speaker.
I asked him how things are going down here in Florida. And he basically said that he still feels confident that he can win the Republican nomination, and he singled out Mitt Romney's negative advertising in the state as, perhaps, the reason why he will lose this Florida primary. At least the polls show that he may lose this Florida primary.
Here's what he had to say just a few moments ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: Mr. Speaker, do you still see a path to the nomination after Florida?
NEWT GINGRICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Oh, sure. Of course.
ACOSTA: How do you see that happening?
GINGRICH: You unify the conservatives. Romney's not going to get anywhere near a majority here. You unify the conservatives, you win the delegates, and you have the nomination.
ACOSTA: And how do you account for what happened here? Did you let your guard down to Mitt Romney, would you say?
GINGRICH: No. I would say that when you're outspent five to one with ads that are dishonest, that it's a challenge.
ACOSTA: And are you saying he's run a dishonest campaign, sir?
GINGRICH: Well, that's what "The Wall Street Journal" and "The National Review" said.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: And, of course, Newt Gingrich does feel like Mitt Romney has run a dishonest campaign down here in Florida. He has called the campaign run by the former Massachusetts governor as a campaign of big lies.
But this is going to go on, Suzanne. Newt Gingrich said earlier this morning that he sees this campaign going on for another six to eight months, all the way to the Republican nomination.
And they do see a chart, a path to the nomination, going through states that are perhaps more favorable, like states in the South on Super Tuesday. And, you know, a lot of folks are saying, look, let's watch and see what happens out in Nevada, because Nevada is a big Tea Party state.
There is a huge foreclosure crisis out there as well, and the Romney campaign is already signaling they're going to go after Newt Gingrich on Freddie Mac one more time. But that's going to be an interesting dynamic to watch, Suzanne, how the Tea Party vote breaks down out there in that state, which, of course, has its caucuses on Saturday -- Suzanne.
MALVEAUX: Sure. And Jim, it was interesting to watch that exchange with you and Newt Gingrich, because a lot of times, the candidates, sometimes they ignore reporters. You got in there, you got a lot of tough questions to him there.
ACOSTA: Yes.
MALVEAUX: Is it in his benefit now to go ahead and answer those questions and to deal with you and the other guys who are out there now? Do you notice a difference in how he's even dealing with the media?
ACOSTA: Yes. You know, a lot of postmortems are going to be written about the Florida primary here in the next couple of days. And, you know, it's almost like CSI Florida. Maybe not CSI Miami, but CSI Florida.
And so, if you're Newt Gingrich, why not? Why not get your take in there at this point as to why things haven't gone that well? Now, to go after Mitt Romney on negative advertising, that may not go over all that well with a lot of Republicans, because, after all, Newt Gingrich has gone negative against Mitt Romney. And what a lot of conservative and Tea Party voters want to see in this campaign is that alpha dog, somebody who's just going to go after President Obama, and this is sort of the warm-up for that.
So, Mitt Romney sort of won that contest here in Florida after losing in South Carolina, but I've got a feeling that Newt Gingrich is not going to take this lying down -- Suzanne.
MALVEAUX: OK. I've got a feeling you're right there, Jim. Thanks again.
CNN tonight, all eyes turning to the Florida primary. We kick off our coverage at 6:00 p.m. Eastern with a special edition of "JOHN KING USA," followed by complete live coverage of the primary results at 7:00 with Wolf Blitzer, ,Erin Burnett, Anderson Cooper, Candy Crowley, John King, and more.
Here's your chance to "Talk Back" on a big problem facing America and facing a lot of us. What is it going to take to get Americans to lose weight? According to the Centers for Disease Control, it costs American $147 billion a year to take care of obesity-related medical issues.
Carol Costello, she is joining us from Washington with more on this.
Carol, you know, it's a tough struggle for many people to stay in shape, to take good care of yourself. And obesity, it's a big problem.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is a big problem. But, Suzanne, if you want to change someone's behavior, why not scare the pants off them? That's the theory behind a new weight loss ad in New York.
It's all over the Web, but take a look. An overweight man who apparently lost his leg to Type 2 Diabetes, a condition associated with obesity.
Never mind the picture has been altered, this guy is an actor, and according to "The New York Times," he has both legs, but that doesn't matter. The ad makers say the scary message does.
Diabetes can lead to a loss of your foot or your leg or your eyesight. But will fear persuade people to diet or will it lead to a backlash like so many other campaigns before it? I mean, Georgia tried shame.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't like going to school, because all the other kids pick on me. It hurts my feelings.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Some parents despise these ads. They say they exploited children.
Movie stars try to set an example like, let's say, oh, Jennifer Hudson, but many fans were disappointed Hudson no longer embraced her curves. The first lady, Michelle Obama, pushes healthy eating, but some consider her a food Nazi. Some governments try -- state and local governments -- taxing sugary soda, but the big soda companies have very effective lobbyists.
The truth is, there are so many contradictions when it comes to obesity, health and beauty. I mean, we're confused.
Dare I mention Paula Deen, queen of butter, Type 2 Diabetes? I'll just say "Maxim" named Deen sexiest chef a few months ago because of her love of butter.
There's no denying this though -- about one-third of American adults are obese, and approximately 17 percent of children and adolescents are not just overweight, but obese.
So, the "Talk Back" question today: What will it take to get Americans to lose weight?
Facebook.com/CarolCNN. I'll read your comments later this hour.
MALVEAUX: All right. Thank you, Carol.
(NEWSBREAK)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: It's winner take all in Florida's primary, the contest. We're going to give you the winning candidate -- it will actually give the winning candidate a whopping 50 delegates. That is double the number from South Carolina.
The state is also a pretty good indicator of how a candidate is going to do nationwide. It has a diverse population. Almost a quarter of Floridians are Hispanic; about one in six African-American; 18 percent of Florida's population was born outside the United States.
Unemployment, 9.9 percent, which is higher than the national average. Also, Floridians have been hit hard by the foreclosure crisis. They've got the fourth highest foreclosure rate in the country.
Florida leaning heavy for Mitt Romney. Right now, Newt Gingrich is staring down a long road ahead. Four more contests in the next week alone. The winner today will gain a major foothold in the battles to come.
John Avlon, senior political columnist for "The Daily Beast," joining us from New York.
John, you're watching the numbers here. It shows Romney with a pretty big lead over Gingrich. The polls don't close until 7:00, so maybe something could change here. But do you think at this point we have a clear winner? JOHN AVLON, POLITICAL COLUMNIST, "THE DAILY BEAST": Well, look, as you know, the only poll that maters is on Election Day, people voting right now. The polls up today, they're just measuring trends. But there's no question that Mitt Romney, through a barrage of ads that have been blanketing the state, has been able to stop Newt Gingrich's momentum outside of South Carolina.
He's been able to bring his numbers up and looks in a very strong position. But again, the voters in Florida get to decide, and they're doing that right now.
One extraordinary thing about this race, Suzanne, the unprecedented, literally unprecedented nature of negative ads in this state right now. I spoke to the president of CMAC (ph), which is an organization that measures campaign ads. Ninety-two percent of the ads in the last week in Florida have been negative. It's never been that bad in the past.
So, it really is a sign of what the campaigns are doing and a question of how that not only can change trends in terms of popular support, but also whether that has an affect on turnout. It might alienate people and say, I just don't want to bother with this mess.
MALVEAUX: Absolutely.
And I want you to listen to Florida Senator Marco Rubio, what he told Soledad O'Brien earlier this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), FLORIDA: I'm not going to speculate as to who's going to win. We're going to find out here fairly soon.
Here's what I'm comfortable saying, though. I think that the winner of Florida is in all likelihood going to be the nominee of our party. And rightfully so. I mean, Florida, as you just said, is a mini America. I mean, virtually every issue that we want our nominee to be conversant on and convincing on is an issue they've had to confront here in Florida.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: All right, John. Are you willing to back that? Could Florida be the king maker?
AVLON: I'm shocked that the senator from Florida would say that his state is determinative.
I mean, look, in all seriousness, every state in this January primary gauntlet, we see this. You know, the stat that no nominee of the party since 1980 had ever lost South Carolina. Well, we'll see about that.
But Marco Rubio's making an important point. In that January gauntlet, this is the final day of the month, final day of that gauntlet of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Florida. Florida is the state that is by far the largest, it is the most diverse. And it is a very good test of general election electability.
Now, it's a close partisan primary, so Independent voters can't vote today in Florida like they could in New Hampshire. But the state is mammoth, the fourth largest in the nation, and it is a very good general election test.
MALVEAUX: And Romney, real quick here, moving ahead, upcoming contests in states that he won four years ago. So you're talking about Colorado, Minnesota, Maine, Michigan, Nevada.
Can Gingrich in any way make up the difference in the South?
AVLON: Well, you know, that's what he's hoping, clearly. You've got Super Tuesday, and then we've got a lot of states in the South starting to vote in early March. So it's really a matter of getting through this February gauntlet.
And, look, Newt Gingrich could win. A lot of these states are proportional. So, thereby, you know, anyone who's on the ballot can start siphoning delegates away.
Here's the important thing. Before today, Mitt Romney has around 34 delegates, Newt Gingrich has around 26. That's around 2.6 percent of the way towards getting the necessary 1,144. This is ultimately a delegate game, it is about math, not just media and momentum and money.
So, for the candidates that are saying they want to go in and run through all these primaries, I say, good for them. Give the people a chance to vote. They should decide who ultimately gets this nomination.
So it could be a long road ahead. It's tough.
If Mitt Romney wins Florida, he'll have the big mo on his side, he'll have that money and organizational advantage. But Newt can look to states in the South and states with proportional representation and say, you know what? I can make a case up to the convention about why I'm the more conservative nominee.
MALVEAUX: Yes. You know, the big mo could go either way, because you're still just talking about just about three percent of what's needed to win the delegates --
AVLON: Exactly.
MALVEAUX: -- that total you mentioned there.
All right, John. Thank you.
Almost $49 million, that is how much money super PACs have spent so far this campaign season. Today is the deadline for super PACs to file their annual report of donors. We're still waiting for the information. They have until midnight tonight to let us know.
The U.N. may tell Syria's president he's got to go. His forces are pounding protesters. The death toll is now rising, but the opposition is not giving in.
We're going to give you a rare look at the movement in a live report.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: Well, the escalating crisis in Syria, front and center at the U.N. today. The Security Council is going to discuss whether to call on President Bashar al-Assad to step down.
But protesters, they're not waiting. CNN's Arwa Damon gives us a rare look at the activists in action.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARWA DAMON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There are posters and other material hiding in a safe house, along with tiny printed leaflets ready to be scattered. Demonstrators move in groups of two or three to avoid attracting attention.
At the signal, the street erupts into activity. Everyone has a duty. The leafleting rain down line confetti.
Every night the protesters do this. Their numbers are small, their determination is not.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: Arwa Damon is now out of Syria. She's joining us live from neighboring Lebanon.
Arwa, you were there. You realize just how tense the situation is on the ground, and a lot of these activists putting their lives on the line.
Give us a sense of what it was like when you were there, to be there.
DAMON: Well, that particular clip you just showed, that demonstration only lasted for around 10 minutes before pre-positioned spotters that the opposition sets up at various entryways into these neighborhoods sent word back that the security forces had arrived. And that caused everyone to scatter.
That demonstration lasted 10 minutes, Suzanne, but that was still considered to be a success. And the activists really have this down to a science.
They pretty much know in which neighborhood approximately how long they can demonstrate for. And they do realize that albeit short, albeit small in numbers, these types of street demonstrations are really the engine that is fueling, that is propelling the Syrian uprising at this stage.
MALVEAUX: And yet, so many of those activists get killed. The numbers are staggering.
What is next for them? I mean, will they continue to be out there in the streets, demanding that the president step down?
DAMON: They will, Suzanne. And they say that every single death that takes place only fuels their determination even more.
I was speaking with an activist from the flash point city of Homs just a few days ago and asking him that very question. And he said that he had to keep doing it, quite simply, for the families of all of those who had died. Because the only thing that kept those families going was the knowledge that other people were taking up the fight and were vowing to fight until the very end.
There's also a growing realization amongst the activists that they quite simply cannot let up the pressure because they will all be massacred. But they're growing incredibly weary. There is a sort of hope that somehow, some sort of intervention will take place, but at the same time, there's very little belief that that is going to come anytime soon -- Suzanne.
MALVEAUX: All right. Arwa Damon, thank you very much. Be safe.
Mitt Romney hitting the right notes with a lot of Florida voters.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (singing): O beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grains --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: All right. That's not too bad.
Romney leads in the polls on this Primary Day, but how would he do in a sing-off with President Obama. We'll let you be the judge.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROMNEY (singing): America, America --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: All right. We're talking bare-knuckled brawl in Florida, final round. Days of attacks, negative ads, voters heading to the polls in the Florida primary. Polls show Mitt Romney leading Newt Gingrich and the rest of the pack by double digits.
Wolf Blitzer here to talk about that and much more.
Great to see you, Wolf.
WOLF BLITZER, HOST, CNN'S THE SITUATION ROOM: Nice to see you, as usual.
MALVEAUX: Let's talk about Florida here -- 9.9 percent unemployment, a large Hispanic population. What are people looking for when we take a look at those statistics in terms of how that's going to play out in the Republican race?
BLITZER: In Florida, they're looking for everything they're looking for all over the country, which is the economy, improvement in the economy, and creation of jobs. They're worried about their homes, their housing.
These are problems that obviously face a lot of folks. Maybe more so in Florida than in other parts of the country, but it's the same problems that we saw emerging all over the place.
Florida is much more representative of the rest of the United States than Iowa, New Hampshire, or South Carolina was. So this will be a real indication of what the national mood is, because, you know -- you spent a lot of time in Florida -- the northern part of Florida is like the South, the southern part of Florida is like the North. So it's a state that's very much like the United States.
MALVEAUX: And in central Florida, particularly, because --
BLITZER: That's like the Midwest.
MALVEAUX: Right, exactly. So you've got Tampa, you've got Orlando. President Obama captured that. But before then, George W. Bush, twice before, was able to capture central Florida.
I imagine we're going to spend a lot of time in the general election on that particular part of Florida.
BLITZER: We certainly will. That I-4 corridor, as it's called, it's really, really important. And George W. Bush did well with the Hispanic, with the Latino vote, and that helped him, obviously. And we're going to see if Mitt Romney or Newt Gingrich, whoever gets the Republican nomination, can capture that Latino vote. It's a big part of the electorate in Florida.
MALVEAUX: All the polls show that Romney is ahead of Gingrich in significant numbers. Is there anything that we could see happen today that would reverse that, change that, anything?
BLITZER: Probably not, if you believe all of these polls. It's not just our poll or one other poll, it's a whole bunch of polls that show at least an 8 or 9, sometimes a 12 or 13-point spread.
So it's going to be pretty hard and more than 600,000 people in Florida have already voted, about 2 million people when all the dust settles at later tonight, when all the polls in Florida close 8 p.m. Eastern, more than 2 million probably will have voted.
So that's a big chunk. It's unlikely that Gingrich can dramatically narrow it, but if he does, that will help him. He says he's going on. He doesn't have a lot to look forward in February, but Super Tuesday, March 6th, if he's still there, he could do well. A lot of southern states that may be more attuned to his kind of electorate. MALVEAUX: All right, Wolf, I want you to listen to, this was President Obama before he was singing a little Al Green. And now we're hearing from Mitt Romney. Take a listen to this.
BLITZER: It's not even close. That's an unfair competition. The president of the United States has that down. He's strong. Have you heard some of the other songs he's done? We've done a whole compilation of some of the major hits that he's performed.
MALVEAUX: I know people who have that on their ring tone now.
BLITZER: That's really taken off.
MALVEAUX: I can't imagine the Romney ring tone will happen anytime soon.
BLITZER: A lot better than I could do.
MALVEAUX: Good to see you, Wolf.
BLITZER: Thanks, Suzanne.
MALVEAUX: Thanks.
Fifty delegates on the line in Florida, but how much is that number going to matter in the grand scheme of things in the primary race?
John King is going to break it down for us. Hi, John, good to see you, as well, in Atlanta. So tell us how the system works, the delegate system and how this is going to play out?
JOHN KING, HOST, CNN'S "JOHN KING USA": That's the question. We all lived through 2008, the Obama/Clinton marathon. We have Florida up now, but let's switch maps. You and Wolf were just having an important conversation about where do we go from here.
Here we are today. Let's assume those polls are right and Mitt Romney gets the delegates out of Florida. He starts to pull up a little bit, pulls slightly ahead. Remember you have to get all the way over here, 1,144 it takes to win the nomination.
Nobody's even crack 100 after tonight. Then Nevada's up next. Suzanne, let me go through this quickly. Let's just assume that Mitt Romney runs the table in February. Nevada, Colorado, Minnesota, Missouri, Maine, right, February 11th there.
Then you get down later in the month, Arizona and Michigan. Let's assume he runs the table again. Now Gingrich supporters out there are saying, wait a minute. Ron Paul supporters are saying, we could win Maine, I know, this is a hypothetical.
Let's just say Romney runs the table. Well, look what happens. You get about in the ball park at 250. He could pick up some more with some endorsements and Gingrich would be around 50. So you'd see a bit of a lead, but remember you need 1,144 to win the nomination.
So this would be momentum for Romney, it would be an impressive-looking map, but it wouldn't get him anywhere near the nomination yet, which is why Gingrich says he would stay. Why? We go from February into March, first the Washington caucuses.
This is a state Ron Paul could win, a caucus state like that. He could also win up in May. So we're going to give this one to Ron Paul for this hypothetical. Then you move on, Super Tuesday, look down here.
This is when the map turns south and this is where Gingrich thinks he'll be strong. So I'm going to give these states to either Gingrich or Romney. Ohio is a state, maybe Santorum plays there, so we'll leave that blank for now.
You see Romney starting to pull ahead, he's winning some of the big delegate states in the north. Just to save time, I'll flip through the list. Look at this, Wyoming, let's say we split them.
We go through the month of March, Alabama, Hawaii, Mississippi, why does Gingrich want to stay in? He thinks he can win down here in the south. So we'll give him those. Then you come here, Missouri, we'll give it to Romney here for the sake of argument. That could be a hotly contested state.
I'm doing this for the hypothetical to get you here. After Puerto Rico, Illinois, northern state, I'll give it to Romney. Louisiana, bang, let's say Gingrich. And here's why we wanted to do this, District of Columbia and Texas, remember Governor Rick Perry, when he got, he endorsed Speaker Gingrich.
Gingrich is going to want to stay around until April if he can because, Suzanne, he thinks he can get a lot of delegates down there in Texas. If we got that scenario the way I just did it, again, Romney's ahead, but Gingrich is within striking distance.
So he thinks he can stay in for the long haul. That's the question, is it a momentum race after Florida or is it a delegate chase?
MALVEAUX: Wow, very interesting, John. Great to see that. So we think April, April's the time when we're actually going to be able to see that this is the delegate count will make a big difference?
KING: Just remember, Clinton and Obama went to June.
MALVEAUX: I know, how could we forget? Thanks, John.
So are you an introvert or an extrovert? Your answer actually says a lot about you, but it could also say the way presidents make decisions. We'll talk about the power of shyness. It's in our new segment, "Bookmarks."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: Time for a new segment we call "Bookmarks." It's the big ideas from the best sellers that are driving the national conversation. So, do your hands tremble when you speak in public or would you rather stay home alone than go to a big party?
If so, you might be an introvert. By some estimates, almost 30 percent of people have that quieter personality type. It includes a lot of CEOs, rock stars, even presidents. It's the topic of "Time" magazine cover story this week, "The Power of Shyness."
Brian Walsh from "Time" magazine, he's joining us now. You're a senior writer. You served as "Time's" Tokyo bureau chief and you describe yourself as an introvert. You write that you with sometimes find yourself at cocktail parties, hiding in the bathroom, to avoid awkward situations and conversations.
So, Brian, I don't know if you're introverted or extroverted today for us, but how is it possible to be so successful and painfully shy, introverted?
BRYAN WALSH, TIME MAGAZINE: Well, you know win me, I mean, when you're talking about painfully shy, that would be something who's truly so anxious that they can't really go out or it fills them with so fear, they can't go out.
An introvert, they can do that sort of activity, but they find it sort of taps their energy. The real difference between introverts and extroverts is that energy system, where an extroverted person, they love the social sphere, they love those activities, it energizes them.
Where someone like me, a little more introverted, they can do that, but find they need a little break afterwards, and they may have to surrender to the bathroom to take that break.
MALVEAUX: In your article, you say introverts live in an extrovert's world and, you know, our society for the most part demands people be bold, be outgoing. What are some of the advantages to being an introvert?
WALSH: It makes you a little bit more cautious. And I think we know that someone who's risk-seeking, which many extroverts tend to be, that can get you into problems.
I mean, in the crash of 2008, there have been studies that have shown that a lot of traders have very extroverted characteristics. They go looking for risks and they found it and of course, we all know what happened after that.
So the introverted person may be less likely to get into that kind of situation, less likely to get into accidents.
MALVEAUX: Covering Bill Clinton, he was a fun president to cover. He used to go back in the plane, Air Force One in his overseas trips just to chat us off, off the record, of course, but for hours, he would talk about everything.
So much to the point that we'd sometimes pretend that we were sleeping, so he'd go back to the front of the plane. What does that make him here?
WALSH: Well, he's -- Bill Clinton is probably about as extroverted as you can get. That's really the case of someone who draws energy from those crowds, whether it's in that one-on-one interaction with a reporter or in a rope line. He's someone who could do it and to it over and over again.
MALVEAUX: The first time I met George Bush, off the record, he cried, in the White House, very emotional guy, very passionate, playful, and entertaining. What kind of leader, George Bush?
WALSHI: I think he's also definitely an extroverted leader. I mean, in terms of people who study personality in politics, they place him in that way as someone who likes to get along with people, likes social events, sort of outgoing.
But also someone who doesn't really have the patience, necessarily, to spend time on his own, focusing on facts and that's where we can see where the extroverted personality might be a problem for a leader.
MALVEAUX: And covering President Obama, very different. I mean, he gave big performance in front of huge crowds, wildly inspiring, but privately, he was much more reserved, measured, and runs in a very small circle.
WALSH: That's a very classic introverted temperament. I mean, he's someone who, again, is not shy, I mean, you couldn't run for president and be shy, but he's someone who has a history of being a writer, and writers need to spend lots of time alone.
Clearly, he's someone who likes doing that, can do that kind of solitary work, and he's not that interested in those big crowds, or necessarily, in those Washington social events.
MALVEAUX: All right. Let's talk a little bit about the candidates that we're seeing on the Republican side, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich. Mitt Romney seems to be powerfully introverted kind of guy. He doesn't seem to be kind of even very comfortable in crowds. How do you read him?
WALSH: I do read him in that way. He's someone who is a bit introverted, from what we've been able to read about him. Clearly, you know, the feeling you get from him, I think, is someone when he's out in those situations, you can feel it's a bit forced.
You have someone Newt Gingrich, again much more on the extroverted end of the spectrum, someone who's a supernova when it comes to generating attention and getting attention. He's a little bit more of the traditional politician, I think, in that sense.
MALVEAUX: All right, Brian, really nice to talk to you. "Time" magazine's Brian Walsh. Thanks, Brian.
WALSH: Thanks. MALVEAUX: So are you an introvert or an extrovert? "Time" magazine has a quiz you can take to find out. You can find the link on my Facebook page, facebook.com/suzannecnn.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: All right. I'm not sure if this is one of the greatest or the worst apps ever invented. The new app Viggle rewards you for being, yes, a couch potato. You rack up points minute by minute for watching TV shows that you select and you can redeem gift cards. Chad's here to kind of help us explain it.
So this is the app here, right?
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: That's it right there.
MALVEAUX: So, I called this one up because I watch "The Biggest Loser." That's the only thing I watch besides like news stuff.
MYERS: You get --
MALVEAUX: But -- so I get points, right.
MYERS: Two points a minute. Two points per minute, plus the 250 bonus points for watching. And when you get to 7,500 points, you get a $5 gift card.
MALVEAUX: Oh, $5 -- how many -- how many -- how much time is that, Chad, in front of the TV? Now, these are all the programs, right, that you get rewarded for, right? So this one.
MYERS: These are the bonus programs. These are the biggies. These are the ones that give you extra money, extra points for watching.
MALVEAUX: Are you a "Jersey Shore" watcher?
MYERS: I know who that is, but I don't know her name. I --
MALVEAUX: Snooki.
MYERS: Snooki. As soon as you say it, right.
MALVEAUX: OK, so you get 200 points for Snooki.
MYERS: Yes.
MALVEAUX: And, OK, "The Game." That's not bad. So how --
MYERS: But how does it know that you're watching?
MALVEAUX: All right, I'm going to check in and see how that goes. All right. How does it know?
MYERS: How does it know? It's listening to us now on TV. If it hears our voice and recognizes that you and me, on TV, it knows you're actually watching it and it's giving you points for having this on your iPad.
MALVEAUX: All right. And so they know that we're watching these shows. So here's what we get. What kind of good stuff are we talking about here? Gift cards?
MYERS: For 7,500 points, you can get a latte.
MALVEAUX: A latte.
MYERS: So in three weeks, watching three hours a night, you can get a free coffee.
MALVEAUX: That's just not -- how can that be worth it?
MYERS: OK, but go up.
MALVEAUX: OK. There's better stuff.
MYERS: There's more -- there's much more fun.
MALVEAUX: Burger King. I mean I guess you are a couch potato. Burger King.
MYERS: Yes. Yes.
MALVEAUX: Is there something --
MYERS: The funniest one is the Kindle. You can get a brand new Kindle for 175,000 points. Now, we're really thinking, if your -- if you have a Kindle, how much reading are you going to be doing because you already have 175,000 points, how did you get there in the first place?
MALVEAUX: OK. And this is good. Amazon, OK, Score Big, Banana Republic. Can you -- can we get some points for CNN NEWSROOM, don't you think?
MYERS: We already did.
MALVEAUX: We did? Are you serious?
MYERS: I already watched. We watched it for a minute. We got 15 bonus points.
MALVEAUX: No way.
MYERS: Fifteen hundred just for logging on and two minutes for every point. So we're already up to 1,517 points.
MALVEAUX: Is that going to get me a latte?
MYERS: I can get you a tall, black coffee. That's all I can.
MALVEAUX: We have a lot more like (ph) watching to do, I guess, huh?
MYERS: That's right. MALVEAUX: But we're not going to be couch potatoes. We're going to do this and we're going to be doing like push-ups and sit-ups and jumping jacks while we watch.
MYERS: That's -- one of us. You.
MALVEAUX: OK. Thanks, Chad. This is kind of cool.
MYERS: It is good stuff.
MALVEAUX: I like it. Really good stuff. CNN NEWSROOM. You've got to watch CNN NEWSROOM.
MYERS: It's on there.
MALVEAUX: We're getting a lot of responses from today's "Talk Back" question. We asked, what is it going to take to get Americans to lose weight? We've got your responses up ahead.
POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: Time now for "The Help Desk, where we get answers to your financial questions. And joining me this hour, Manisha Thakor is a personal finance expert and Lynnette Khalfani-Cox is the founder of the financial advice blog askthemoneycoach.com.
Thank you for being here. We appreciate it, ladies.
LYNNETTE KHALFANI-COX, FOUNDER, ASKTHEMONEYCOACH.COM: Sure thing.
HARLOW: First question to you, Manisha. This comes from Chris. He writes, "I'm about to retire. I contributed to a 403 account while I was working. I have been told it would be to my advantage to roll that money into an IRA account. Is that true?"
MANISHA THAKOR, PERSONAL FINANCE EXPERT: So a 403 is simply an employer-based retirement plan, similar to a 401(k). And the reason that I personally like seeing people roll them over into an IRA is it gives you more choice. You can choose the financial institution at which you want to open that account. I like to see people have a lot of options for low-cost investment opportunities. Depending on the original plan sponsor, some of the investment options offered to you may actually be taking a pretty big chunk out of your return in terms of fees. If you're in an IRA that you've rolled over, you have complete control over that. So, my vote, roll over.
HARLOW: Roll it over.
All right, Lynnette, your question comes from Aaron in Indiana. Aaron wrote in, "I will turn 18 in a month. I have a part-time job and save around 40 percent of my wages each week. How should I start investing?"
I love Aaron. Eighteen, investing, saving.
KHALFANI-COX: I do not believe this. Yes, I thought this was a great question because I'm thinking, wow, heaven help me if I had started, you know, at age 18, we all probably would have been a lot better. HARLOW: Yes.
THAKOR: Yes.
KHALFANI-COX: First of all, I would say kudos for being able to save 40 percent. I'm assuming he's still living with mom and dad and that's why he's able to sock away so much money.
Mutual funds. It's a great place for him to start. Index mutual funds if he wants to start saving and investigation for the long-term. You know, somebody like this is probably going to be one of those, you know, millionaires in the making who's saving in their 20s just a little bit every single month and it's done -- if you do it with mutual funds, it's a low cost way to get diversification, professional money management, and it makes you not have to worry about picking individual stocks. So that's what I'd say.
HARLOW: And the average person -- the average person who tries to play the market doesn't do as well as the index does usually.
KHALFANI-COX: They just don't do so well, that's right.
HARLOW: All right, great advice. Folk, if you have a question you want answered, send us an e-mail any time to cnnhelpdesk@cnn.com.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: When Newt Gingrich called President Obama the food stamp president, people either got mad or they gave him high fives. Well, now it's in his campaign ad.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE, POLITICAL AD: Only Newt Gingrich can beat Obama.
NEWT GINGRICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: More people have been put on food stamps by Barack Obama than any president in American history.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: Joining us is Jim Chynoweth with the food bank North Florida's Second Harvest.
Jim, there's been a lot of criticism coming from the Republican candidates about the administration being what they call an entitlement administration. That the government help that they give to people is a drain on the economy. You make the opposite case. Can you explain?
JIM CHYNOWETH, SECOND HARVEST NORTH FLORIDA: Absolutely. We really look at food stamps, or SNAP as the program is now called, as an investment in recovery. These are dollars that are being sent on to eligible individuals. It's a very rigorous process. And it's spent at local businesses. This is a great way for tax dollars to help people in need and really help local economies.
MALVEAUX: So for every dollar that -- worth of food stamps, how much is that a stimulus in the economy?
CHYNOWETH: Well, the Department of Agriculture statistics show that $1 of food stamps is equal to $1.80 of economic impact. And that's because of how those dollars then allow other people to keep their jobs and their suppliers and contractors, all through the whole food system, that really benefit from those dollars being put to use.
MALVEAUX: I want to break out the numbers here. Forty-five million people are enrolled in this food stamp program. It is 14 percent of all Americans. Millions signed up during the worst recession since the Great Depression. Now, beyond the numbers here, describe for us who are the people who need food stamps, who are on food stamps, has that profile changed?
CHYNOWETH: Well, I think, frankly, the stereotype exists that it is a person who is unwilling to work or perhaps a homeless individual. But from our work, helping sign clients up for the program, we've found that most of the clients are working families. A lot of them are people who have lost their job in the recession.
I was just talking to one of my workers this morning and she was telling me about two individuals who worked at a bagel shop in Flagler County and they had gone into work one morning and the doors were closed and the owner had had to make the unfortunate decision to close his business and they were left unexpectedly and suddenly without work. And so, fortunately, the SNAP program was there for them and they were able to help get some of the groceries as they looked for another opportunity. These are people who want to work. And that's a common thread throughout all of this.
MALVEAUX: And are these some people --
CHYNOWETH: As far as who they are --
MALVEAUX: Sure. Sure. I was just wondering if there are some people who qualify for food stamps who aren't receiving them?
CHYNOWETH: Well, and that's really one of the things we're looking at. So we run a program in Flagler County to sign up. And currently, according to our data, only 64 percent of individuals who are potentially eligible for the program are enrolled. And so there's a large opportunity.
As we look at the potential economic impact, if every one of those 3,000 plus households signed up, that would be more than $20 million that would be spent in businesses in Flagler County in the course of a year. So that has the potential to be hugely significant.
MALVEAUX: All right, Jim, thank you very much. I appreciate you breaking down the numbers and putting a face to it. Thank you.
You've been sounding off on the "Talk Back" question. What is it going to take to get Americans to lose weight? Chris says, "nothing. You have to want to work out and lose weight. There is nothing the government can do, nor should it do. It's on you if you want to lose weight." More of your responses up ahead. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: You've been sounding off on the "Talk Back" question. What will it take to get Americans to lose weight? Carol Costello, she's joining us from Washington.
Hi, Carol.
COSTELLO: Hi, Suzanne. Here are couple of answers for you.
This from Hansel. "We should take a drastic but very real approach to get this under control. Obese people should have their private medical coverage premiums go up, just like when you have a car accident. You're costing money to care for, therefore you should pay more. Forgive the rhyme."
This from Jeanette. "The main problem is that fast foods are more affordable than fruits and veggies from the grocery store."
This from Joe. "Get out there and move for 30 minutes a day."
This from Cindy. "People will lose weight on a whole grain, plant- based eating plan. Not a diet. Just stop meat and dairy. Easy as pie. Vegan pie." That's easy for you to say, Cindy.
And this from Rooster. "We took cigarettes out of bars, didn't we? Take sodas out of schools. Too simple. And replace those sodas with healthy beverages."
Facebook.com/carolcnn if you want to continue the conversation. And thanks, as always, for your responses.
MALVEAUX: Yes, you've inspired me. I think I'm going to go for a run this afternoon.
COSTELLO: Me too.
MALVEAUX: Keep it up.
COSTELLO: I'm feeling guilty myself.
MALVEAUX: So if you're going to eat, you've got to exercise too. I guess that's the only way to do it.
All right, thank you, Carol. Good to see you.
COSTELLO: Sure.
MALVEAUX: CNN NEWSROOM continues right now with Randi Kaye.
Hey, Randi.
RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: I'll join you for that run, Suzanne. No problem.
MALVEAUX: All right.
