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Obama Speaks on Energy in Oklahoma; Questions over Trayvon Martin Shooting, Pressure for Police Chief to Resign; What Will Obama Do About Gas Prices?; New Book on Mitt Romney

Aired March 22, 2012 - 11:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everybody. I'm Kyra Phillips. It's 11:00 on the East coast, 8:00 out west. We've got quite a busy hour ahead and, like Carol mentioned, we're waiting for the president, but let's get to the news while we do await this live news conference in Oklahoma.

It's a rare election year visit to a state nobody really considers a battle ground, by the way. Politically Oklahoma is as red as they come, but Cushing means oil, crude oil, produced and traded in America and piped to Gulf Coast refineries that, of course, turns into gasoline.

Well, right now there's a bottleneck. Oil is coming to Cushing faster than they can get out of there, so the president is fast- tracking the southern leg of the Keystone project that his administration vetoed earlier this year.

Now, this part is not controversial and the feds don't have much to say about it anyway. So, while this may not be a campaign trip, it's still political and we're going to bring you the remarks as soon as he comes to the mike.

And this is day two of the president's "all-of-the-above" energy tour. By the way, he spotlighted solar power in Nevada, drilling in New Mexico.

Later today, he tours the center for automotive research at Ohio State University in Columbus. We are tracking it all for you.

OK, Rick Santorum is ripping into his GOP rivals right now in San Antonio, Texas. He's blasting Mitt Romney over the health care plan that Romney created as Massachusetts governor. He's comparing it to President Obama's health care reform plan.

Santorum says both plans erode Americans' freedoms and that Romney is a candidate without core beliefs. Santorum says that he, not Romney, is best equipped to take over the president on this number one issue in November.

We're going to keep a close eye on this for you and we'll bring you some of what he says a little bit later in the hour.

And whoever thought an Etch-A-Sketch would get so much attention in a political campaign? And it's shaking up Mitt Romney's race for the White House, too.

A Romney spokesperson mentioned it when asked about the campaign strategy for the fall assuming Romney wins the GOP nomination. Well, the next thing you know, you see it here. Etch-A-Sketch's are everywhere, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, members of the media.

Yes, it played right into the hands of Romney's critics as well, accusing him of flip-flopping, changing his mind, starting over on the issues. You get the picture if you've ever had an Etch-A-Sketch.

As for Romney, here is what he says.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FORMER GOV. MITT ROMNEY (R-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Organizationally, a general election campaign takes on a different profile. The issues I'm running on will be exactly the same.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Romney insists he's always been a conservative Republican and he will continue to run as a conservative Republican.

Well, the self-styled al Qaeda jihadist accused of a killing spree in France is dead. Police burst right into his apartment then the 23-year-old came out guns ablazing then jumped out of a window to his death.

He had been holed up for almost 32 hours as police negotiated with him to give himself up.

Mohammed Merah said that he wanted to avenge Palestinian children and had made trips to Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Now, the key question is, did he really act alone as he claimed or are there others behind his killing spree?

It's a call for justice that has now become a national movement. Thousands of people mobilizing in the name of an unarmed Florida teen who was shot to death.

Right now, civil rights activist, Al Sharpton, is heading to Sanford, Florida to lead the rally where Trayvon Martin who was gunned down by a neighborhood watchman.

That watchman, George Zimmerman, is claiming self-defense. He remains free and has not been charged.

The outrage has spilled far beyond Sanford, Florida. This was the scene in New York, the "Million Hoodie March." Protesters were wearing hoodies and carrying Skittles just like Trayvon was the night he died.

And the community is demanding accountability from Stanford Police Chief Bill Lee. The NAACP is demanding that he resign. The city commissioners passed a "no confidence" vote. We'll take you live to Sanford, Florida in just about 15 minutes with the latest.

And the roommate convicted of outing and intimidating the Rutgers University freshman who then died by suicide says he didn't act out of hate and he's very sorry about Tyler.

Tyler Clementi jumped off the George Washington Bridge after learning that Dharun Ravi had spied on his dates with other men via webcam and then tweeted about them.

Last week Ravi was convicted of invading Tyler's privacy and bias intimidation among other counts. He could face 10 years in prison.

In an exclusive interview with the Newark Star-Ledger, he says he'll never regret not taking a plea bargain that would have spared him prison time, but he does regret Tyler's death.

Speaking of plea agreements, defendants who reject them based on bogus advice or no advice from their lawyers can have their sentences thrown out, so says the highest court in the land in two new rulings that directly affect more than 90 percent of convictions in U.S. courts.

In one case, a lawyer for a man who had shot a woman in the back side told him not to take a deal because the state couldn't prove intent to murder if the victim were shot below the waist. That man got 15 years at trial.

More signs the job market is getting stronger. The number of people seeking new unemployment benefits fell to a four-year low last week. Analysts say that's an indication solid job growth will continue this month.

The Labor Department says 348,000 people filed for initial jobless claims, a drop of about 5,000 from the previous week. That's the lowest level since February of 008.

Newt Gingrich in the hot seat for something he didn't say for a change. At a campaign stop in Louisiana, a man called President Obama a Muslim. Gingrich ignored the comment rather than correct it.

Talk about a sharp contrast between a similar incident involving John McCain four years ago back against a voter who said Obama was an Arab saying, quote, "No, ma'am, he's a decent family man."

Here is what Gingrich said when asked why he didn't correct the man at the event.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FORMER REP. NEWT GINGRICH (R-GA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I believe President Obama is a Christian. He says he's a Christian. He went to a Christian church for over 20 years and I believe him.

(END VIDEO CLIP) PHILLIPS: Gingrich spokesperson says that Gingrich has made that point at public events many times.

And more fallout from the Susan G. Komen-Planned Parenthood controversy. New calls for Komen Foundation leader, Nancy Brinker, to resign. There's even an online petition to get rid of her.

Other top executives have already announced their resignations after all of this and all the backlash over Komen's decision to eliminate most of its funding for breast cancer education and screenings at a Planned Parenthood.

Well, he's a Marine with an opinion and he isn't afraid to share it, even on Facebook, but his Armed Forces Tea Party Facebook page and his anti-Obama comments could get him kicked out of the military. That's because it reportedly violates Defense Department rules about criticizing the commander-in-chief.

Here is what Sergeant Gary Stein told "CNN Newsroom."

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

SGT. GARY STEIN, ARMED FORCES TEA PARTY: I was read a preliminary finding from my commanding officer saying that he's going to move to have me administratively discharged from the Marine Corps for violating Article 134 of the UCMJ, which made comments that were prejudicial to good order and then violating DOD Directive 1344.1 which states that political activities of a military member in that I had been running the Armed Forces Tea Party page for the last two years.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Stein went on to say that he was surprised because he said he was open about his tea party Facebook page. The military is reviewing his case.

Proponents say that the 1,700-mile-long Keystone pipeline would bring down oil prices, create hundreds of new jobs, but is that really the case?

Coming up, a reality check. The real impact of the proposed pipeline.

But first, Iron Man and other superheroes are joining forces to fight a different kind of evil, cancer. These little guys are helping raise money for their teacher, Beth Myers.

They are working with the National Foundation for Transplants to help raise money to buy her a plane ticket from Florida, Arkansas, so she can receive treatment.

The best part? They are third-grader and they're using the heroes to help sell their own artwork to raise funds. So, Gulfport Elementary for being students by class time and heroes by recess, you are today's rock stars. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: So is Keystone the key to energy independence, cheaper gasoline, President Obama's "all-of-the-above" energy policy? No, no, and not exactly.

Still, any second now the president will announce that he is fast-tracking the southern leg of the Keystone pipeline that was designed to run from the tar sands of Alberta, Canada, to the refineries on the Texas Gulf Coast.

The administration vetoed the northern leg, but there's broad support for the new line south from Cushing, Oklahoma and my colleague, Steve Hargreaves, joins me now from CNN Money to tell us why.

Steve, getting more oil to the refineries quicker, let's talk about what that means for you, for me, the consumers, the voters.

STEVE HARGREAVES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, as you know, there's a glut of oil in Cushing, Oklahoma right now. That's been partly responsible for depressing prices of U.S. oil. U.S. oil is down about $20, $30 compared to other forms of international crudes.

So what that means is people in the Midwest have been paying a little bit less for gasoline than people on the coasts.

So what this is going to do is this is going to alleviate some of that glut in Cushing. but it could end up driving up gas prices for people in the middle of the country.

PHILLIPS: OK. So, because, you know, common sense, we would think, OK, we make more gas at these refineries then, all right, we're all in good shape, but not necessarily as you just pointed out.

Other parts of the country, particularly the Middle West, may not get those lower gas prices.

HARGREAVES: Right. This is true, but globally this probably will be a good thing. I mean, it could bring down the price of gas just a little bit. You're not talking that much oil here.

But globally, you know, there is a supply bottleneck in Cushing. We have been producing more oil from places like Montana and North Dakota and this oil does need to get out. It does need to make its way to the refineries.

So, this is why the energy wants to build this and this is why the Obama administration is behind it.

PHILLIPS: OK, so, let's back up a little bit and sort of remind our viewers you've got the southern leg and northern leg. Obama and pretty much everybody else supports the southern leg. No controversy there, right?

Let's remind folks, though, why he rejected the northern leg, Steve.

HARGREAVES: Right. He rejected the northern leg because the northern leg would expand production from the oil sands up in Canada and environmentalists in particular are opposed to this.

It's a dirtier form of oil. Mining it or producing it creates more greenhouse gases. People say it could exaggerate global warming. So, there was a lot of opposition to this.

This southern part wouldn't necessarily expand production from the oil sands. It would just kind of alleviate that bottleneck in Cushing.

There isn't nearly as much opposition to the southern part, but there still is a little bit. The environmentalists are still opposed to this. They see this as kind of the first step from increasing production from oil sands.

PHILLIPS: And before I let you go, of course, right behind you, we are promoting the article you wrote. Tell our viewers if they go to CNN.com, in particular CNNMoney.com what they will be able to get from your article.

HARGREAVES: Well, it will lay out exactly what's going on here. You know, some people might see this as a flip-flop on the part of Obama. It's not really. He's been behind this southern leg all along.

It'll drill a little bit more into the gas price debate. It will explain to readers why prices in the Midwest might increase just a little bit.

PHILLIPS: I'm told that it looks like the seal is up, notes have been laid down, which means the president is going to walk onto the stage any second now.

Do you have a moment -- can you stay with me here for a minute here, Steve?

HARGREAVES: Sure.

PHILLIPS: OK, great. So did you get a chance to see his speech? I know it came out just before I got up here on set. Have you had a chance to look at any notes prior to this?

HARGREAVES: I haven't, but I've been told about it.

PHILLIPS: OK. Tell me what you've been told. I didn't get a chance to look at the notes that came out. Kind of give us a preview of what we're going to hear and what we're going to see.

HARGREAVES: Well, I heard Obama will direct federal agencies responsible for doing some of the environmental review on this to work a little faster and to approve this project

You know, obviously Obama has been getting hit from the Republican presidential contenders and from a large part of the public for kind of blocking energy projects.

So what he's doing here is he's going out and trying to use this as an example saying, hey, I'm not blocking these projects. Look here, I'm trying to actually make this one happen faster.

PHILLIPS: And Obama doesn't have veto power here.

HARGREAVES: No, he doesn't. I mean, this is kind of interesting. This is really kind of a states issue. Obama had veto power before because the pipeline, the original pipeline from Canada, went across the national border, so that's really where the executive branch had its authority.

It's not clear at all that Obama could stop this even if he wanted to, so it does seem like he's just kind of jumping onboard here and using it more for political purposes.

PHILLIPS: Steve Hargreaves, writer for CNNmoney.com. Steve, thanks so much.

The president's speech will be starting any minute now. Stay with us. We'll take a quick break and we will take the president live.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Back. Actually live pictures of Cushing, Oklahoma. We're waiting for the president of the United States to step up to the mike and talk energy. We'll take that as soon as he steps up to the mike.

So, while we're waiting for the president, let's talk about the backlash going on, the accountability, the calls for justice. It's all undeniably clear when it comes to Trayvon Martin and his death.

We're not just talking about the shooting of this unarmed teen, but we're also talking about the police department and its response as well. The pressure is now on for this guy, Sanford Police Chief Bill Lee, to step down and the NAACP is demanding that he resign. City commissioners are also losing faith.

And then, of course, the anger from Trayvon's death has become a movement. We've been talking about it every day, how it's been growing, and it's been going far beyond this community in Florida as can you see.

Just last night a thousand miles away in New York's Union Square we saw this, the "Million Hoodie March," protesters dressed in hoodies and carrying Skittles just like Trayvon the night that he was killed by George Zimmerman.

And Trayvon's parents were there. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SYBRINA FULTON, MOTHER OF TRAYVON MARTIN: Our son was not committing any crime. Our son is your son. I want you guys to stand up for justice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: All right. Now, George Howell is in Sanford, Florida, there, Trayvon Martin's community.

And, George, if you don't mind, stand by with me for a second here. We're going to change to the president of the United States now, Cushing, Oklahoma, talking energy.

(BEGIN LIVE SPEECH)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And everybody looks like they are doing just fine.

Thank you so much for your hospitality. It is wonderful to be here.

Yesterday, I visited Nevada and New Mexico to talk about what we're calling an "all-of-the-above" energy strategy. It's a strategy that will keep us on track to further reduce our dependence on foreign oil, put more people back to work, and, ultimately, help to curb this spike in gas prices we're seeing year after year after year.

So today, I've come to Cushing, an oil town because producing more oil and gas here at home has been, and will continue to be, a critical part of an "all-of-the-above" energy strategy.

Now, under my administration, America is producing more oil today than at any time in the last eight years. That's important to note.

Over the last three years, I've directed my administration to open up millions of acres for gas and oil exploration across 23 different states. We're opening up more than 75 percent of our potential oil resources offshore.

We've quadrupled the number of operating rigs to a record high. We've added enough new oil and gas pipeline to encircle the earth and then some.

So we are drilling all over the place right now. That's not the challenge. That's not the problem.

In fact, the problem in a place like Cushing is that we're actually producing so much oil and gas in places like North Dakota and Colorado that we don't have enough pipeline capacity to transport all of it to where it needs to go, both to refineries and eventually all across the country and around the world.

There's a bottleneck right here because we can't get enough of the oil to our refineries fast enough. If we could, then we would be able to increase our oil supplies at a time when they are need as much as possible.

Right now, a company called TransCanada has applied to build a new pipeline to speed more oil from Cushing to state-of-the-art refineries down in the gulf coast.

Today, I'm directing my administration to cut through the red tape, break through the bureaucratic hurdles and make this project a priority, to go ahead and get it done.

(APPLAUSE)

Now, you wouldn't know al this from listening to the television set. This whole issue of the Keystone pipeline has generated a lot of controversy and a lot of politics.

That's because the original route from Canada into the United States was planned through an area in Nebraska that supplies some drinking water for nearly 2 million Americans and irrigation for a good portion of America's crop lands.

Nebraskans of all political stripes, including the Republican governor there, raised some concerns about the safety and wisdom of that group.

So to be extra careful that the construction of the pipeline in an area like that wouldn't put the health and safety of the American people at risk, our experts said we needed a certain amount of time to review the project.

Unfortunately, Congress decided they wanted their own timeline, not the company, not the experts, but members of Congress who decided this might be a fun political issue decided to try to intervene and make it impossible for us to make an informed decision. So what we've said to the company is we're happy to review future permits.

Today, we're making this new pipeline from Cushing to the Gulf a priority. So the southern leg of it we're making a priority and we're going to go ahead and get that done.

The northern portion of it, we're going to have to review properly to make sure the health and safety of the American people are protected. That's common sense.

The fact is my administration has approved dozens of new oil and gas pipelines over the last three years including one from Canada. As long as I'm president, we're going to keep on encouraging oil development and infrastructure and we're going to do it in a way that protects the health and safety of the American people. We don't have to choose one or the other. We can do both.

So if you guys are talking to your friends, your neighbors, your co-workers, your aunts or uncles and they are wondering what's going on in terms of oil production, you just tell them anybody who suggests that somehow we're suppressing domestic oil production isn't paying attention. They are not paying attention.

What you also need to tell them is anybody who says that just drilling more gas and more oil by itself will bring down gas prices tomorrow or the next day or even next year. They are also not paying attention. They are not playing it straight because we are drilling more, we are producing more, but the fact is producing more oil at home isn't enough by itself to bring gas prices down

And the reason is we've got an oil market that is global, that is worldwide. I've been saying the last few weeks. I want everybody to understand this. We use 20 percent of the world's oil. We only produce 2 percent of the world's oil.

Even if we opened up every inch of the country, if I put an oil rig on the South Lawn, if we had one right next to the Washington Monument, even if we drilled every little bit of this great country of ours, we'd still have to buy the rest of our needs from someplace else if we keep on using the same amount of energy, the same amount of oil.

The price of oil will still be set by the global market. That means every time there's tensions that rise in the middle east, which is what's happening right now, so will the price of gas.

The main reason the gas prices are high right now is people are worried about what's happening with Iran. It doesn't have to do with domestic oil production. It has to do with the oil markets looking and saying, you know what, if something happens, there could be trouble and so we're going to price oil higher just in case.

Now, that's not the future that we want. We don't want to be vulnerable to something that's happening on the other side of the world somehow affecting our economy or hurting a lot of folks who have to drive to get to work. That's not the future I want for America. That's not the future I want for our kids.

I want us to control our own energy destiny. I want us to determine our own course. Ye yes we're going to keep drilling. Yes we're going to keep emphasizing production. Yes, we're going to make sure oil gets where it's needed.

But what we're also going to be doing, as part of the all above strategy, is looking at how we can continually improve the utilization of renewable energy sources, new clean energy sources, and how do we become more efficient in our use of energy.

That means ...

(APPLAUSE)

That means producing more biofuels, which can be great for our farmers and great for rural economies. It means more fuel-efficient cars. It means more solar power. It means more wind power, which, by the way, nearly tripled here in Oklahoma over the past three years, in part because of some of our policies.

We want every source of American-made energy. I don't want the energy jobs of tomorrow going to other countries. I want them here in the United States of America. That's what an all of the above energy strategy is all about. That's how we break our dependence on foreign oil. The good news is we're already seeing progress. Yesterday, I went in Nevada to the largest solar plant of its kind anywhere in the country. Hundreds of workers built it. It's powering thousands of homes, and they are expanding to tens of thousands of homes more as they put more capacity on line.

After 30 years of not doing anything, we finally increased fuel efficiency standards on cars and trucks, and Americans are now designing and building cars that will go nearly twice as far on the same gallon of gas by the middle of the next decade. That's going to save the average family $8,000 over the life of a car. It's going to save a lot of companies a lot of money because they are hurt by rising fuel costs as well. All of these steps have helped put America on the path to greater energy independence.

Since I took office, our dependence on foreign oil has gone down every single year. Last year we imported one million fewer barrels per day than the year before. Think about that. America at a time when we're growing is actually importing less oil overseas because we're using it smarter and more efficiently. America is now importing less than half the oil we used for the first time in more than a decade.

So the key is to keep it going, Oklahoma. We've got to make sure that we don't go backwards. We keep going forwards. If we're going to end our dependence on foreign oil, if we're going to bring gas prices down once and for all, as opposed to just playing politics with it every single year, then what we're going to have to do is develop every single source of energy that we've got, every new technology that can help us become more efficient. We've got to use our innovation. We've got to use our brain power. We've got to use our creativity. We've got to have a vision for the future, not just constantly looking back at the past.

That's where we need to go. That's the future we can build. That's what America has always been about, building the future. We've always been of the cutting edge. We're always ahead of the curve. Whether it's Thomas Edison or the Wright brothers or Steve Jobs, we're always thinking about what's the next thing. That's how we have to think about energy. If we do, not only are we going to see jobs and growth and success here in Cushing, Oklahoma, we're going to see it all over the country. All right?

Thanks very much. God bless you. God bless you. Thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

PHILLIPS: The president of the United States there in Cushing, Oklahoma. A rare election-year visit in a state no one considers a battleground but it's an election year and he's talking oil and he's talking gas prices. So it makes sense. Right? He laid out his energy strategy, talking about the fact that Cushing is synonymous with oil, crude oil, produced and traded here in the United States. It's piped right there to gulf coast refineries and turned into gasoline. Once again talking about the future and lower gas prices. President of the United States there in Cushing, Oklahoma. We're going to move along and talk about whether it was self- defense or was it murder. That's the burning question over the killing of Trayvon Martin and it's igniting national outrage, while pressure is mounting on the local police chief to resign. We're live in Sanford, Florida. We're going to go there next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: We're back with a story that's gotten a lot of attention. Talking about the killing of unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.

George Howell is in Sanford, Florida, for us.

Just before the president started speaking, George, we were talking about this movement that has gotten larger and larger by the day, in particular New York City. Now you've got Sanford's city manager and the NAACP on this morning together.

Let's take a listen to this exchange, then I want to ask you about the police chief there in Sanford.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NORTON BONAPARTE, SANFORD, FLORIDA CITY MANAGER: I'd like an independent review by a law enforcement agency that will tell me did the Sanford police do something they shouldn't have done or not do something they should have done. Based on this information, make a determination as to the future of Chief Lee.

BENJAMIN TODD JEALOUS, PRESIDENT & CEO, NAACP: He needs to go right now. The reality is, it's been a month since Trayvon was killed. Thousands upon thousands of parents in this community, they simply don't feel like their children will be safe with the leadership of this chief.

PHILLIPS: So George, what do you think? Will the police chief resign?

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, it's unclear at this point what his next move will be. We did reach out to the police department to get some sort of reaction to that no-confidence vote. We're told the chief has no comment at this time but there is certainly a lot of calls and pressure for him to resign.

PHILLIPS: I was looking at change.org. We've been following this. This petition calling for George Zimmerman to be arrested, it looks like nearly 1 million people have signed it. What's the situation with George Zimmerman at this point?

HOWELL: Obviously, a lot of people coming to town, people who want to see Zimmerman behind bars. As this point, he's not in jail, in fact, free to go wherever he wants to go. We have spent some time trying to track him down, looking at relatives' homes, friends' homes. He's nowhere to be found, essentially in hiding. He could be charged if the grand jury decides to do so on April 10th of the city manager tells me the police department does know where he is and can contact him if they so choose.

PHILLIPS: We're talking about the nearly one million people who have signed this petition. We're showing the rallies taking place, in particular the one in New York City. but also friends of George Zimmerman have been speaking out. There was a neighborhood friend that spoke out on Anderson Cooper last night defending his friend. Let's take a listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FRANK TAAFE, FRIEND OF GEORGE ZIMMERMAN: Whether it be African- American, Latino, Asian, or white, he would have done the same thing. He would approach that person and just asked them, what's your business here. If he just answered him in an appropriate manner, I'm just here visiting, my mother's house is around the corner, and be upfront and truthful, there wouldn't have been any problem.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: George, do a lot of people feel that way in Sanford?

HOWELL: You know, you find a mix of people with different opinions here. Some people in that neighborhood especially believe that Zimmerman was a good watch captain, that he cared a great deal for that neighborhood and was always looking out for problems. But you also find people in this community who believe he was racially profiling that night, looking for black teenagers, a black teenager in this case, a teenager who he admits to shooting and killing.

PHILLIPS: George Howell, appreciate it.

Sky-high gas prices with no end in sight. What's a president to do? Or can a president do anything? We just saw Mr. Obama trying to do something, but is it enough and will it really help? That's next in "Fair Game."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: The politics of petroleum. It's always "Fair Game." Let's talk about it with CNN analyst, Roland Martin, and Georgetown University Associate Dean Chris Metzler.

Guys, good to see you.

ROLAND MARTIN, CNN ANALYST: Good to be here.

PHILLIPS: Roland, happy to see you. It's been a while. Finally, back in the game here with me. I appreciate it.

MARTIN: Have a little fun dealing with Chris.

Chris, you're looking well.

(LAUGHTER)

CHRIS METZLER, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR: Thank you. I knew you were going to say that.

PHILLIPS: He set you up, Chris. He's setting you up.

METZLER: He did.

PHILLIPS: He's being really nice and getting ready to tear you down.

(LAUGHTER)

(CROSSTALK)

METZLER: -- show with Mickey Taylor (ph), so that what it's all about.

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIPS: Let's get to it. You both saw the president talking energy policy at the Keystone pipeline there in Oklahoma.

Roland, is the president trying to outflank Republicans now by saying, hey, I'm doing something, too. I'm talking about gas prices. I don't want to be dependent on oil. I want to drill. I want to be proactive.

MARTIN: First of all, this portion of the Keystone pipeline was not the controversial part. So the president always supported this. In fact, this particular portion, 99 percent of the landowners already approve of it. The controversial part is the northern portion of the pipeline. What today was all about was really more about style as opposed to substance. The president has always talked about renewable energy, has always talked about alternative sources of fuel. So sure, he wants to be able to say I'm doing something about it. But today was not really about the most controversial aspects of the pipeline.

PHILLIPS: The issue did come up. As we know, Chris, every candidate has been talking about gas prices. What's interesting, can you really -- if you look back historically, there have been candidates that have talked about gas prices and keeping gas prices lower. There really isn't a president that has ever been able to say I did it, see, I lowered gas prices, Chris?

METZLER: Yes, that's exactly right. Roland is correct. Here is the situation. The situation is all of these candidates play politics with gas prices and the president continued in that tradition today. There isn't a whole lot presidents can do because they don't control OPEC. So unless and until we come up with a comprehensive strategy that's going to reduce permanently our dependence on foreign oil, there's nothing the president is going to be able to do.

I think what the president did today was play into the politics of see, I support this. When you look at the people building pipeline TransCanada, they basically have said the president is speeding up the permit process is not going to have an effect anyway. It's going to proceed. It's just the politics of oil at this point. MARTIN: Kyra, one word, taxes. One of the reasons why gas is so high is because of local and state taxes. I think the average consumer doesn't even understand what is funded by gasoline taxes.

METZLER: Right.

MARTIN: So when you hear Newt Gingrich say I can give $2.50. Guess what, it's still going to be $3.25, $3.50 because of the local county and state taxes that are applied.

PHILLIPS: Let's go in a totally different direction here. We're going to go old school. Forget your iPad. Let's go Etch-a-Sketch.

MARTIN: No iPad?

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: No iPad. Where is your Etch-a-Sketch? I know you're old school. That and to listen music.

Who would have ever thought this would have become a campaign -- Chris is shaking his head -- a part of the campaign. Let's roll the montage.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NEWT GINGRICH, (R), FORMER HOUSE SPEAKER & PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You have to stand for something positive and you have to -- pardon me. Let me borrow that for a second. Have you to last for something longer than something like this.

RICK SANTORUM, (R), FORMER PENNSYLVANIA CANDIDATE & PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Shake it up and it'll be gone, and he's going to draw a whole new picture for the general election. That should be comforting to all of you voting in this primary. Whoever you're going to vote for is going to be a completely new candidate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: All right, guys. Why is this even a controversy? Why are we talking about it? Why is everyone grabbing the Etch-a-Sketch? Everybody can be blamed for having an idea that goes away and then another idea. Why does this have so much traction, Roland?

MARTIN: First of all, thanks Soledad O'Brien's "Starting Point," because that's where the conversation began with a question to Romney's communications director. If you're Mitt Romney, fire your communications director who created this firestorm by saying that basically we can just, like Etch-a-Sketch, it can go away. They tried to come back and clean it up, but the reality is that played right into the biggest criticism of Mitt Romney in that he will change his position in the blink of an eye. Even when you look at polls from Tuesday, Illinois, it showed people who voted for him still don't trust him and his positions.

PHILLIPS: Chris, you're going to be at the rallies, see a flip- flop in one hand and an Etch-a-Sketch in another.

METZLER: Who likes an Etch-a-Sketcher who wears flip flops?

(LAUGHTER)

This is the problem that you've got. Many Republicans, including myself, absolutely are not all that thrilled with Mitt Romney to begin with. So what he did was he reminded us, just when we thought it was OK to put our toe in the water, we get back to the Etch-a-Sketch thing. What it also reminded me of, John Kerry windsurfing, Mitt Romney Etch-a-Sketching, and Michael Dukakis on the tank. Not good.

(LAUGHTER)

MARTIN: When you start hearing John Kerry and Dukakis in the same sentence with Mitt Romney I know some Republicans going oh, no.

METZLER: Exactly.

PHILLIPS: I'm buying stock in Etch-a-Sketch. I don't know about you guys but I'm getting in on it now.

(LAUGHTER)

MARTIN: I'm cool with it.

METZLER: I'm good with it.

PHILLIPS: Great to see you.

MARTIN: Where is my Etch-a-Sketch app?

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIPS: Stay tuned. The whole Etch-a-Sketch mess is just the latest example of an ongoing problem for Mitt Romney, the problem that he's likely going to face come November. Who is the real Mitt? Coming up, I'm going to ask a man who knows. The author of the latest Romney biography, "The Real Romney." That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, without a doubt Mitt Romney has goofed, gaffed, and desperately tried to recover. Case in point.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FORMER GOV. MITT ROMNEY, (R-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It also means that if you don't like what they do, you can fire them. I like being able to fire people that provide services to me.

I drive a Mustang and Chevy pickup truck. Ann drives a couple of Cadillacs actually.

I'm in this race because I'm concerned about Americans. I'm not concerned about the very poor because we have a safety net there. (END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: But home on a second. Scott Helman is a veteran reporter for "The Boston Globe." He's covered Romney for years.

Scott, we'll talk about your new book, "The Real Romney." But before we get to that, let me ask you, are you surprised by so many gaffes, gaffes that are considered totally out of touch with Americans?

SCOTT HELMAN, REPORTER, THE BOSTON GLOBE & AUTHOR: Yes and no. I mean, as it's been an extraordinary run, you played three of them. You can probably play a dozen or so more. They're not just gaffes, they're telling gaffes in the sense they connect to one of the central narratives against him, which is that he's this very wealthy businessman who doesn't understand the 99 percent.

So it's not just that they're mistakes, but they're mistakes that matter. And if you look back over his career, I mean, he has never been somebody who has I would say connected terribly well with voters on the campaign trail. That's never been his calling card, and in fairness I don't think that's what he's promising now. He's not saying, look, I want everyone to love me. He's saying I'm Mr. Fix It, and I can get this economy going. So it has been --

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: And on a much bigger level. So you interviewed obviously a number of people. There's a number of stories. One that a lot of people are referring to is this one considering an encounter with a woman by the name of Peggy Hayes. Tell us this story and how you sort of use this as an example of the lack of sympathy that many Americans are saying that they see in Mitt Romney.

HELMAN: Sure. Well, Mitt Romney for many years was a very important leader, a local leader in the Boston area in the Mormon Church, and as such he counseled and talked to many members of the Mormon faith. You were essentially the pastor, if you will, of a local congregation. And so there's a woman named Peggy Hayes who Mitt had encountered. She was a single mother, she was pregnant again.

The Mormon Church did not look kindly on single motherhood. They much prefer kids to be raised if two-parent households. She had gone to her apartment as her bishop and said the church wants you to give up your child for adoption. She was horrified and affording to her he threatened her with excommunication if she did not abide by his request. He denied ever doing that.

I think it's an illustration of him having a lack of sensitivity in a sensitive situation. There are plenty of other people who have stories of him being this gracious, warm Mormon leader. I don't want to paint the picture that this is the overwhelming portrait you get, but it is one of them. There have been stories we have about Mitt Romney not always saying the right thing in delicate situations. PHILLIPS: And you also talk -- we have about 20 seconds unfortunately. But you talk a lot about his dad's influence as well, right, Scott?

HELMAN: Yes. His dad was a major influence in his life. He really set out to follow his father's pattern in many ways, and yet they're very different people. George Romney, his father was very outspoken, very blunt, very brash even. Mitt Romney is much more disciplined, much more reserved, much more careful and some would say overly so, much too scripted.

PHILLIPS: Let's get that book up one more time. It is "The Real Romney" and Scott Helman is a veteran political reporter. If you read "The Boston Globe," his book is out.

Appreciate your time, Scott.

HELMAN: Great to be here.

PHILLIPS: Thanks for watching, everyone. CNN NEWSROOM with Suzanne Malveaux continues right after a short break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK).