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Live Feed: Obama Honors Fallen Law Enforcement Officers; Grave Exhumed in Vatican Mystery; Man Claims Burger King Fired Him Because of HIV; Mississippi Highway Murders; New Poll: Romney Leading in Women Voters

Aired May 15, 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: And hello, everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips. It's 11:00 on the East Coast, 8:00 out West.

We begin with murders along Mississippi's highways. Right now, police are scrambling to track down a shooter who investigators believe could be using drivers on the state's highways as his targets.

Two drivers have been found dead since last week and police fear that more could be targeted. The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation is looking at a number of scenarios right now, but says that the suspect may be luring his victims by posing as a fake cop, preying on unsuspecting drivers late in the night.

Martin Savidge has been following all the developments closely for us. OK, let's go ahead and take a look. We put together a map of exactly where the two highway murders occurred. We're talking about just three days apart, right? Fifty-five miles away from each other.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's correct.

PHILLIPS: What do we know about the two victims?

SAVIDGE: Well, we're talking about a 74-year-old man who was driving from Nebraska and he was the first victim, 1:30 in the morning. That's Thomas Schlender.

And then three days later, Friday, May 11th, 2:15 a.m., Lori Anne Carswell, 48 years of age, she's a local woman and she is found shot dead outside of her vehicle. Schlender is found shot dead inside of his vehicle. Five shell casings were retrieved from his murder scene.

This is also what we know. It appear that the vehicles were not broken down, yet they were found at the side of the road on the shoulder. So this is why authorities have this --

PHILLIPS: They think it's a cop or someone posing as a cop.

SAVIDGE: Exactly. That's what they fear and the problem is, of course, we're all so very vulnerable, especially late at night, which is what is common with these two cases.

And so you have someone who driving alone late at night, flashing lights maybe comes on behind them, they naturally pull over, and it appears they became victims.

Now, there are no witnesses to any of this. So we're sort of -- this is what authorities are surmising happened.

PHILLIPS: We don't have an M.O.

SAVIDGE: No, we don't, but we have a real strong concern here because of the fact that people would be so vulnerable.

So the warning that's going out from authorities is pretty straightforward. If somebody pulls up behind you, if you get the flashing blue lights, turn on your flashers, drive slowly, go to a public place, a well-lit public place, and call 911.

Rather ironic. You're being pulled over by the police. What should you do? Call the police to make sure it's really a cop.

PHILLIPS: I grew up in San Diego and I remember a case exactly like this. It looked like police lights, they pull you over, it's dark, you roll down your window or you open the door, you trust the person, and there you go.

SAVIDGE: I think that's what makes this so scary is because we can all put ourselves into that circumstance. A dark road, late at night, you're alone, what would you do?

And right now authorities are really stumped. They haven't got any clear indication who this may be. One or maybe more people.

PHILLIPS: All right. We'll follow it. Thanks so much, Martin.

And investigators say that the shell casings from both shooting scenes were sent to the state crime lab and are currently being analyzed. The motive, as we just mentioned, still under investigation.

Well, we're live at the U.S. Capitol where President Obama is taking part in an annual service honoring peace officers killed in the line of duty. He's due to speak in about 20 minutes from now. You'll hear him live right here on CNN.

Well, she's been at John Edwards' side throughout the entire trial and, today, Cate Edwards may be doing more than just watching. She's expected to testify, possibly as early as today as the defense sets out to refute prosecution claims that six-figure gifts from wealthy patrons weren't gifts at all, but illegal contributions to Edwards' 2008 run for president. We last heard there was no decision yet on Edwards himself taking the stand.

Now, with a click of a button, you bring us pretty amazing stories about your family, your life, your community. Now, it's our turn to honor you and the extraordinary work that you, the viewer, do for us.

Just log-on to CNNiReportAwards.com to vote. Tell us who you think deserves this year's Community Choice Award. Here is the nominees for breaking news.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFED MALE: That is the biggest earthquake to date. It is still going. Oh, my god, the building is going to fall.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Just a quick note for those of you heading out the door. You can can't watching CNN from your mobile phone or, if you're heading back to work, you can also watch CNN live from your desktop. Just go to CNN.com/TV.

More fallout from those hugely controversial pardons handed out by outgoing Mississippi governor, Haley Barbour. A grand jury has just charged this pardon recipient with drunken driving leading to a death among other crimes, which could send Harry Bostick back to prison for 30 years.

Charity Smith was killed in a violent accident near Tupelo last October just days after Bostick's pardon application for a previous DUI was approved by the state parole board and sent to Governor Barbour.

Now, get this. Bostick was sitting in a jail cell for the October crash when Barbour OKed the pardon, wiping Bostick's 2009 conviction right off his record.

The governor says he didn't know about the fatal crash and didn't know about Charity Smith, but his office apparently did.

CNN's Ed Lavandera has been on this story for months for us. Ed, why was Bostick even considered for a pardon?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You have to understand a little bit about his background. Harry Bostick is a retired former IRS investigator. From what we can gather, he had been doing some work for various law firms in the Oxford, Mississippi-area, and in the course of doing that work, he came across some rather influential friends.

These were former U.S. attorneys, people very connected in Republican circles in the state of Mississippi who either knew Governor Barbour or knew the secretary of state and through them and when this application process was going on last summer, they wrote glowing letters on Harry Bostick's behalf.

They said that this was a man who had stopped drinking, had gone through a very dark period in his life when he was charged and arrested for DUI three times. He was actually serving the sentence, almost like a probation of that sentence on that third DUI at the time of his arrest.

But these letters were all sent to the governor's office. They claim that he had stopped drinking, had turned his life around, that he had gone through a dark period because his son had died tragically and he was going through a divorce.

But they all vowed, up and down, that he had stopped drinking and all of that was forwarded in the pardon application to the governor's office.

PHILLIPS: What effect, if any, does this pardon for the 2009 conviction have on the new case?

LAVANDERA: Well, the way it works in Mississippi is that if you're found guilty of a third DUI offense, regardless of what it is, it is a felony, up to five years in prison, no less than one year.

He was going through a drug-and-alcohol program that, in many cases, many people in these situations go through. That third felony, essentially, wiped away.

So on September 30th of last year, this application process gets to the governor's office and he was recommended for a pardon by a 3-2 vote and then, a week later, he's involved in this accident, drinking where this 18-year-old girl, Charity Smith, is killed.

He is sent to jail because he had violated the terms of his arrest on that third DUI, but essentially what has happened is that third DUI is gone. This fourth one now would become his third one.

Obviously that -- as this goes forward and the judge -- if he's found guilty, this could affect the sentencing, but what authorities here have done or what the grand jury has done is indicted him of DUI death, a much more serious charge. That alone could face him up to 25 years in prison.

PHILLIPS: Ed Lavandera, thanks so much.

And Charity Smith's mother says she hopes no one gives Bostick any more pardons. She says, "I pray for justice."

Well, she's lost her job. She's been arrested twice. Now, Rupert Murdoch's former right-hand woman is the first person hit with criminal charges in the phone-hacking probe that's shaken Murdoch's global media empire.

Rebekah Brooks faces three counts of conspiring to pervert the course of justice. Maximum punishment? Life in prison.

CNN's Dan Rivers is joining me now from London. Let's remind our viewers exactly what Brooks did within Murdoch's empire and how -- what she did that allegedly got her into so much trouble here.

DAN RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: OK. So she was a rising star in Rupert Murdoch's media empire. She was CEO of News International, which was in charge of a number of newspapers here, but most notably, "The News of the World," the infamous tabloid that was closed down last summer.

What it is alleged she did is effectively conceal evidence from the police who were looking into how widespread phone-hacking was at that tabloid and at other News International newspapers.

Three counts, as you mentioned, she's been charged with, basically concealing evidence from the police, removing seven boxes of material from News International's archives, and also hiding effectively computers, telephones, documents from the police that may have been -- may have contained important evidence about how widespread phone-hacking was and how high up the chain of command the knowledge of phone-hacking went.

So pretty serious charges. Perverting the course of justice is a serious offense here. As you mentioned, it can carry a life sentence. Theoretically, yes, you could get life. In reality, no one has recently been given life for it.

The chances are you'd be looking at a few months, perhaps a couple of years, but nevertheless if she is found guilty, it would be a pretty sensational result and a pretty ignominious final chapter to this whole saga.

The trial will probably be a pretty long way away. I'm thinking more than a year away before we see this go to court.

PHILLIPS: Dan Rivers, thanks so much. And, at last count, 40 people were still waiting to hear whether they will be charged with phone-hacking or corruption in the News Corp scandal.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Facebook goes public on Friday and, according to an inside source, investor response has been nothing short of pandemonium. Expect shares to cost $34 to $38 each, and if it hits the highest range, the company could be worth up to $81 billion.

But as you know, Facebook's power and influence didn't happen overnight. Dan Simon goes in-depth on its extraordinary rise.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It may be the biggest, but Facebook wasn't the first social network.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Thank you, Mark.

SIMON: To understand its rise, you also have to look at the missed opportunities.

GREG GRETSCH, MANAGING DIRECTOR, SIGMA: Facebook has focused like a laser on the quality of the product.

SIMON: Something that wasn't done by rival sites like MySpace and Friendster, according to industry insiders like Greg Gretsch.

GRETSCH: Friendster's problem was performance. When their usage spiked, they had -- their page load times went from almost instantaneous to taking 30, 40 seconds. Users wouldn't put up with that. SIMON: The fall of MySpace was even more pronounced. Rupert Murdoch bought the site in 2005 for $580 million. Last year, it sold for $35 million.

DAVID KIRKPATRICK, AUTHOR, "THE FACEBOOK EFFECT": Those two companies both thought of themselves more as sort of fashion and truly social businesses whereas Facebook through Zuckerberg thought of itself as a company using technology to make the world more social. He didn't think of it and he still doesn't think of it to this day as a quote, unquote, "social network."

MARK ZUCKERBERG, CO-FOUNDER, FACEBOOK: Across what servers?

SIMON: As the competition floundered, Zuckerberg assembled a world-class team of engineers, focusing entirely on the product, constantly rolling out new features.

ZUCKERBERG: We're making it possible to build a completely new class of apps.

SIMON: And allowing other innovative companies to build on top of its platform. Facebook enabled the rise of Zynga which made video games social. Zynga mushroomed into a $5 billion company.

ZUCKERGERG: More than a dozen developers have worked with us to build social music apps.

SIMON: The Facebook tentacles are long. Virtually every company and every new digital service considers its Facebook strategy.

KIRKPATRICK: It has the capacity to bring sort of this social interaction that we have with our friends throughout everything we do in life and the potential of that is vast.

SIMON: But challenges lurk ahead. Facebook has lagged in mobile, part of the reason, it shelled out $1 billion for Instagram.

It also needs to keep growing its advising and its user-base while having to continue actually fend off competitors.

GRETSCH: What Mark Zuckerberg worried about is not the Googles of the world. What he worries about is the upstart, the three guys in a garage that figure out the new social network.

SIMON: With seemingly unlimited money and talent, Facebook appears to have few obstacles, but in the world of technology, it's dangerous to think that way. Just ask the folks at Blackberry and Yahoo.

Dan Simon, CNN, Menlo Park, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: As we mentioned, the Facebook IPO is set for Friday. CNN has extensive coverage all week, leading up to that highly- anticipated event. Let's get a quick check of the markets, shall we? Wall Street started on the upswing today after plunging more than 125 points yesterday. Right now, Dow Industrials down almost nine points.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: If you are out of a job or just starting to look for one, you need a resume that's going to get you noticed. Alison Kosik, joining us from New York, is going to tell us how to craft that stand- out resume.

Hey, Alison.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Kyra. You know how much time it takes to make that first impression? 15 seconds. That's how long recruiting directors will actually spend on your resume.

Now, we spoke with Brad Karsh. He's the president of JB Training Solutions and he says what you need to do is emphasize what makes you unique, list your accomplishments and your unique experiences, but don't include your job creation because Brad told us that recruiters will lose interest if your resume sounds like it could have been written by anybody holding your job.

And it's never worth it to lie or embellish as we've learned with that former CEO of Yahoo. You know, even a small fib can damage your reputation. Brad told us lies are irreversible. Even if you take them off your resume, those who saw it earlier, they may still note it.

PHILLIPS: What about a cover letter?

KOSIK: Those are important. Brad told us that cover letters are the most misunderstood aspect of job searches because, like with your resume, you really need to manufacture emphasize what makes you unique.

Brad says you should keep your cover letter to about ten sentences. Begin with a killer opening line to really hook the recruiter and keep your paragraphs short. The topics that you could include and emphasize include how you became attracted to the field in the first place, include some interesting experience that's related to your field. Talk about a great opportunity that you had or your background in the field.

And, of course, don't forget to mention your passion for the job responsibilities because, if you put all that in the cover letter, you have a better chance of wowing the recruiter.

PHILLIPS: Alison, thank you so much.

And we just mentioned President Obama is on Capitol Hill and he is honoring the fallen officers that have been slain in the line of duty since 2011. The FBI says that that number totaled 72 last year. Let's listen in for a moment. (BEGIN LIVE FEED)

OBAMA: Their families are in our thoughts and prayers as we remember the quiet courage of the men and women we have lost.

These are officers like Detective John Falcone of Poughkeepsie, New York. In February, Detective Falcone responded to a shots-fired call on Main Street and, when he arrived on the scene, he saw a man holding a gun with one hand and a small child with the other.

Now, in a situation like that, every instinct pushes us towards self-preservation, but when the suspect fled, still holding the child, Detective Falcone didn't think twice. He took off in pursuit and, tragically in the struggle that followed, he was shot and killed.

He is survived by his parents, but there's another survivor as well, a 3-year-old child who might not be alive today had it not been for the sacrifice of a hero who gave his life for another.

This willingness to risk everything for a complete stranger is extraordinary and yet, among our nation's law enforcement officers, it is also commonplace.

Last summer the North Platte River was running high near Douglas, Wyoming, when a teenage girl got caught in the current. Deputy Brian Goss of the Converse County sheriff's office jumped in after her. The girl was eventually pulled from the water, but Deputy Goss was swept away and he's survived by his wife, Amy.

Today we remember a man who swore to protect his neighbors and who kept that promise no matter what the cost. I suspect that at that moment Deputy Goss wasn't trying to be a hero. He was just doing his job.

You can find that bravery, the courage to do your duty, day in and day out in so many officers across our country. One of those officers was Deputy Sheriff Suzanne Hopper from Clark County, Ohio. Deputy Hopper was known as the go-to person in her department. No task was too large or too small.

And on New Year's Day 2011, Deputy Hopper arrived at a crime scene and began a preliminary investigation, just as she had done many times during her 12 years of service, but as she was photographing evidence, a man opened the door of his trailer and fired at her with a shotgun, killing her.

Today, we remember not just a fine officer, but a wife, a mother, and a stepmother. Like all those we honor today, Deputy Hopper is also survived by the fellow officers who she meant so much to and who meant so much to her.

Last week, her childhood friend, Sergeant Chris Schultz, posted her flag at a memorial in Ohio. He made a promise in her memory. He said, to honor her, we will keep going and continue to do what we've done no matter how hard it is at times. We will keep going. There's no pledge that better honors the memory of those we have lost, and there are no better words to capture the unbreakable spirit of those who wear the badge. Because even in the face of tragedy I know that so many of you will return home and continue to do what you've always done. Some of you will kiss your husbands or wives good-bye each morning and send them out the door not knowing what might happen that day. Some of you are children and parents, sisters and brothers whose pride is mixed with worry, and, of course, there are the officers themselves.

Every American who wears the badge knows the burdens that come with it -- the long hours and the stress, the knowledge that just about any moment could be a matter of life or death. You carry these burdens so the rest of us don't have to. And this shared sense of purpose brings you together and it brings you to our nation's capital today. You come from different states and different backgrounds and different walks of life, but I know that you come here as a community, one family united by a quiet strength and a willingness to sacrifice on behalf of others. The rest of us can never fully understand what you go through, but please know that we hold you in our hearts. Not just today but always. We are forever in your debt, and it is on behalf of all of us, the entire American people, that I offer my thoughts, my prayers, and my thanks. May god shine a light upon the fallen and comfort the mourning. May he protect the peacemakers, who protect us every day, and may he bless now and forever the United States of America.

(APPLAUSE)

(END LIVE FEED)

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Every American that wears the badge knows the burdens that comes with it. President Obama there on the Hill, taking part in an annual service honoring law enforcement officers slain in the line of duty.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: If you're a fan of Dan Brown, this next story is going to ring a lot of bells, but it's all true. Investigators in Rome are analyzing bones that they dug up yesterday from the burial plot of a notorious Italian mobster. And it all happened on the grounds of a Vatican church. They're looking for clues to the 1983 kidnapping of the 15-year-old daughter of a Vatican employee. Why they suspect a tie to organized crime, what they suspect the girl's kidnappers were up to, and why a mob boss was buried in a Vatican crypt.

All are questions I put to our reporter, Barbie Nadeua, in Rome.

Barbie, where do we even begin? Tell us about this mobster and the missing teen.

BARBIE NADEAU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, it is really a very complicated story, but Enrico was a mobster who was shot in Rome in 1990. Around about 1997 an investigative reporter discovered he was buried inside this Vatican church, which is attached to a pontifical academy run by Opus Dei. There's been lots of conspiracy theories on whether he was involved in a Vatican money laundering scandal. That seems to be the flavor of the days. But the Vatican was very transparent in terms of allowing the investigators from Rome to open up his crypt because they're looking for a way to close the case of a 15-year-old daughter of a Vatican employee who disappeared in 1983. They were wondering if her bones would be found in the crypt along with the mobster. What they found instead were about a dozen boxes of human remains. They found the mobster. He was completely perfectly observed to the extent they could take fingerprints to positive confirm his body. Now they have dozens of boxes of bones they have to analyze. They will probably do a date analysis first to see if they could possibly belong to or be affiliated with anyone of the era --

PHILLIPS: So let me ask you, do they think possibly that's bones could be the bones of this 15-year-old girl who was kidnapped?

NADEAU: That's what they're looking for. You have to remember churches in Rome are burial grounds. The church has been used for 200 years to bury bishops, cardinals, and a mobster. Whether they will find any ties to this girl, it's a real controversy. The investigators at the scene yesterday said it will be easy to date some of those bones quite quickly. We should have an answer in the next few days.

PHILLIPS: One more interesting twist, Barbie, because I think this is fascinating, the fact this American archbishop could figure into all of this as well.

NADEAU: That's right. There have been a number of anonymous callers over the past 15 years who have given clues to what happened to the girl, to the ties to the Vatican, to the ties to a man convicted of the assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II. Whether this American has anything to do with it, the Vatican is definitely being silent on that. They haven't made any particular comment, but he was named by one of the anonymous callers, said that he's the one who ordered the abduction and assassination of this young 15-year-old girl. What we don't know though, what we won't know is exactly what happened to her even if they find these bones or if they find these ties. It's going to take a long time before those particular questions are answered. But her brother was there at the scene yesterday and he was convinced that, you know, that there will be an answer one way or another. He doesn't think they'll find anything to do with his sister in this crypt.

PHILLIPS: It's definitely fascinating, possible break-through in a 29-year-old Vatican mystery.

Barbie Nadeau, thanks so much.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: No employer is allowed to discriminate against the disabled. It's the law. But fast-food giant Burger King is facing a lawsuit for allegedly doing exactly that. We're about to introduce you to Christopher Pena, who worked at Burger King for seven years. A model employee, he says. So much so, Pena says he was promoted several times, eventually becoming the district manager over nine locations in Virginia Beach, even serving as a spokesperson of sorts quoted in press releases while opening a number of Burger King restaurants. Christopher Pena was fired. Why? He says because he told his supervisor he was HIV positive. Pena is now suing Burger King for discrimination under the American Disabilities Act.

Christopher Pena joining me now from Virginia Beach along with his attorney, Victor Viramontes.

Christopher, I want to start with you. Full disclosure here, you are refusing to reveal how you contracted HIV, is that correct?

CHRISTOPHER PENA, SUING BURGER KING: Yes, that's correct.

PHILLIPS: OK. Is there -- could you give me a reason for that?

(CROSSTALK)

PENA: It really has no bearing on my case with Burger King.

PHILLIPS: Got you. Point made. All right. So let's move along here.

You were diagnosed with HIV last April. When you told your supervisor that you were HIV positive, what was the reaction? What did your supervisor say to you?

PENA: When I told my supervisor about my status, there wasn't much of a reaction. It was mainly just an acknowledgment and then moved on in conversation.

PHILLIPS: OK. So according to your lawsuit, Burger King told you you were being fired because of your performance. Did you ever get a poor performance review? Did you ever get any kind of disciplinary action or warning of any type before you came forward and said you were HIV positive?

PENA: No. Prior to disclosing my HIV status, I had never received any type of disciplinary action.

PHILLIPS: OK. So it was after you told your supervisor that all of a sudden issues were being brought forward to you about your performance. What happened?

PENA: Well, that's correct. After I had informed my supervisor, basically the main issue centered around I had a manager who had misplaced or taken money from one of the restaurants who I had dismissed under the guidance of human resources, and that was in large part the basis of why he was -- I was terminated.

PHILLIPS: We reached out to Burger King and they issued this statement.

Victor, maybe I'll get you to respond to this. It says, "The company thoroughly investigated Mr. Pena's allegations and determined he was terminated for appropriate business reasons. The company is confident that as the facts are presented these allegations of discrimination are unfounded and BKC's actions involving Mr. Pena will be fully supported by nondiscriminatory business reasons. BKC prohibits and will not tolerate any such discrimination or retaliation against employees."

Victor, as you pursued this case, what exactly are these business reasons that Mr. Pena was terminated for?

VICTOR VIRAMONTES, ATTORNEY FOR PENA: Well, in any kind of employment discrimination case, a large, sophisticated company like Burger King Corporation is going to come out with some sort of explanation. In this case, they say that an employee with seven years of work history with them who has been promoted multiple times who they have given their corporate stamp of approval all of a sudden became a deficient employee that they absolutely had to terminate. I think they're going to have trouble selling that story in a court of law and I don't think that story is going to fly. That's what make this is a good civil rights case.

PHILLIPS: And Christopher, why did you feel the need to tell your supervisor about your situation, your condition?

PENA: Well, when I told my supervisor, it was just prior to my beginning treatment, and at the time I didn't know what kind of side effects. I had heard several things but I didn't know what the side effects I would experience, so I really just wanted to make it aware just in case, you know, side effects arose from my treatment.

PHILLIPS: And how are you feeling now?

PENA: I'm feeling good. I feel great. Thank you.

PHILLIPS: Definitely. And with regard to the lawsuit, why sue? Why speak out? What do you hope to accomplish here?

PENA: Well, for starters, you know, I really hope that my speaking out will, you know, stop this from happening to any other people. Discrimination is not right on any level. You know, and it took a lot for me to come out and share m story, and, you know, that's why, you know, so that this does not happen to other people.

PHILLIPS: And, Victor, final question for you, you did file a charge of discrimination to the equal employment opportunity commission, the EEOC, but it decided not to sue Burger King directly. Why did you decide to continue to go forward and sue?

VIRAMONTES: This is a very strong case for many of the reasons I articulated. The equal employment opportunity commission gets a large number of cases. They give individuals like Mr. Pena the option to go into federal court if they want to. Not only is this an employment discrimination case but Burger King not only took away Mr. Pena's livelihood, they took away his health care and an HIV situation, that is extremely problematic and creates even more liability for the company.

PHILLIPS: Victor and Christopher, we will definitely follow this case. Please keep us updated. I appreciate your time.

PENA: Thank you.

VIRAMONTES: Thank you very much.

PHILLIPS: You bet.

A similar suit was filed in March against a Los Angeles restaurant where a worker claimed he was fired because he has AIDS.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

The war on women. We heard a lot about it in Washington and on the campaign trail. But what about the war for women? The president rocked the women vote in 2008, then you throw in yesterday's commencement at Barnard College to an all-woman's school, and you would think that he'd have the whole female voter thing working for him. Not so fast. A new poll shows the president is actually trailing Mitt Romney among women. And it wasn't too long ago the president had a double-digit lead in our CNN/ORC poll. There it is, down by two.

Republican strategist, Cheri Jacobus; Democratic strategist, Robert Zimmerman.

Robert, let's start with you. What's going on?

ROBERT ZIMMERMAN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Look, I don't think any one can be surprised, no one expected the gaps in the poll to stay as wide as they were. Obviously as Mitt Romney is now left the carnival of the Republican primary process he's gotten away from a lot of the extreme rhetoric that dominated that particular campaign period. And he's of course the Romney strategy is to try to keep the reference on Barack Obama. Of course, the good news for the president is people are feeling better about the economy. The trajectory is improving but for the Obama campaign now is to make this not a referendum but a choice between both campaigns.

PHILLIPS: Cheri?

CHERI JACOBUS, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: This president has been talking down women for the longest time. In January Romney was ahead of Obama in the polls with recommend, so they started the thing about with claiming there is a GOP war on women, people aren't buying it. Women own small businesses, create more jobs than all of the fortune 50 company began. We don't want him saying we're losers, we're victims, we need government handouts. We want a president with good strong pro business agenda like Mitt Romney, he's going to let us do what we do best which is create jobs, and I think that women in this country just got sick of the negativity of we worked so hard and so long to get as far as we have and we have Obama telling us that well, you know, we can't do anything without a government hand-out. It's just -- (CROSSTALK)

JACOBUS: -- and American women in this country have caught on.

ZIMMERMAN: Quickly, Cheri. Let's remember you said everything about Barack Obama. But didn't begin to discuss what Mitt Romney's record is. His support for the Ryan budget plan, that takes away funding for small business opportunities. Takes away job training. Focuses on --

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: I'll tell you what --

(CROSSTALK)

JACOBUS: -- less regulation, getting government out of the way so we can do what we do best. We don't want all of this, quote, "coverage."

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: Let's talk business. Mitt Romney's record at Bain Capital is back in the spotlight. Got a pair of new political ads. The Obama camp rolling out this one.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Those guys were all rich. They all have more money than they will ever spend. Yet they didn't have the money to take care of the very people that made the money for them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bain Capital walked away with a lot of money they made off of this plant. We view Mitt Romney as a job destroyer.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: In response to the Romney campaign, rolled this one out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AD NARRATOR: Mitt Romney's private-sector leadership team stepped in.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Building a dream with over 6,000 employees today.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If it wasn't for a company like Steel Dynamics, this county wouldn't have a lot.

PHILLIPS: All right. Two different ads. Two different angles. Who's got the advantage?

JACOBUS: This is Romney. First, when they talk about the plant that was closed in Kansas. That was in 2001. Mitt Romney left in 1999. They really need to be more honest on that. Secondly, Mitt Romney is responsible at Bain for creating 100,000 jobs, making money for people. That's the way this supposed to be, that helps everybody. So I think the Obama ad is disingenuous. He gets a bump until people look at the details then not so much. Still this is Romney's plus for Romney.

PHILLIPS: Robert?

ZIMMERMAN: You know, there are enough people from both parties just making talking points on all of the networks, let's understand what these ads are about. It's an effort by the Obama --

(CROSSTALK)

JACOBUS: I don't have talking points, Robert, by the way.

(CROSSTALK)

ZIMMERMAN: It's an effort to try to define the Romney record before the super PAC period where the specialist money lines up trying to define Barack Obama. I think what's most important if you look at these ads is to focus on the fact that the best define how to make America competitive in the world, provide security at home is the person that's going to win the election and mobilize people focusing on the economy. And by the way, sherry, it would be helpful if Mitt Romney said at least twine speeches the same number of jobs he created at Bain Capital. He changes the number.

JACOBUS: The bottom line is this ad on the part of Obama is a lie because Mitt Romney was not at that company, they are disingenuous. People understand that. We've caught this president in this campaign in some --

(CROSSTALK)

JACOBUS: -- a couple of times.

PHILLIPS: Cheri, Robert, you two make me nervous.

(LAUGHTER)

That does it for today, guys.

That's "Fair Game."

ZIMMERMAN: You never make us nervous.

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIPS: I try not to.

We'll be back.

(LAUGHTER)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) PHILLIPS: He was born a free man and he went to his grave as the first African-American federal officer to be killed in the line of duty. William Henderson Foote was lynched by a white mob in Mississippi in 1883. His killers were irate that Foote tried to prevent the lynching of another black man. Foote was a member of the Bureau of Internal Revenue, a forerunner of the Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Foote's great grand niece and other descendents were on hand in Washington yesterday when the ATF awarded him its Gold Star Medal as part of National Police Week. Foote's name is the latest to be added to the ATF's memorial. It says Foote's service and murder had slipped through the cracks of history.

That does it for us. CNN NEWSROOM continues right now with Suzanne Malveaux.