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Romney Delivers Foreign Policy Remarks; Ebola Outbreak Hits Uganda; Reaction to Romney's Trip; Day Two of London Olympics

Aired July 29, 2012 - 16:00   ET

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

ROB MARCIANO, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, and thanks for joining us. I'm Rob Marciano in today Fredricka Whitfield. Let's get right to it.

Mitt Romney's overseas campaign for the U.S. presidency lands him in Israel today where he delivers a "get tough on Iran" speech.

Let's bring in CNN's Sara Sidner from Jerusalem.

Sara, what's the reaction to -- to his remarks.

SARA SIDNER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, look. Romney made very clear how strong he feels the U.S./Israeli relationship needs to be. He talked very frankly about what he thought needs to happen with Iran. He blasted Iran. He said that he believed that Iran was getting closer and closer to trying to obtain nuclear weapons and said that the United States must lead the effort to keep Iran from being able to obtain any kind of nuclear weaponry and also that he backed Israel if Israel would decide that it needed to strike Iran to protect itself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: With Hezbollah rockets aimed at Israel from the north and Hamas rockets aimed from the south, with much of the Middle East in tumult, with Iran bent on nuclear arms, America's vocal and demonstrative commitment to the defense of Israel is even more critical. Whenever the security of Israel is most in doubt, America's commitment to Israel must be most secure.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Now, he said that the security of Israel is also vital to the national security of the United States. You can see here him really making a push and trying to get not only the Israelis who are here, you can hear them clapping, but also of course the Jewish voters back at home to understand how important he believes the Israeli/United States relationship is -- Rob.

MARCIANO: So, Sara, I mean, how did it go relative to Britain? He had a few hiccups there. Were there any missteps perceived in Israel?

SIDNER: There have been a couple. One was kind of inside politics, if you will. Mr. Romney canceled at the last minute a meeting with a couple members of the opposition party. Israeli opposition party. They were very upset with that and they believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu who is in power now had basically stopped that meeting from happening and so they wrote some comments about that.

There's also a comment that Mitt Romney said that got the Palestinians very upset. He said he was deeply moved to be here in Jerusalem, the capital of Israel. And why is that significant? Well, no U.S. president who's -- sitting U.S. president since 1967 has recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital because of the disputed -- dispute with the Palestinians.

The Palestinians have long said they believe that Jerusalem should be their capital in a two-state solution and that has really been a sticking point. There were comments made by the PLO who very, very upset with what Romney said. So a couple of hiccups, but all in all, I think the Israelis looked at this as a very good meeting to show that Mitt Romney backs Israel all the way -- Rob.

MARCIANO: All right. Sara Sidner live for us in Jerusalem. Thank you, Sara.

More reaction to Romney's remarks came swiftly from the Obama campaign. Tim Roemer, the foreign policy adviser to president's campaign, spoke with CNN's Candy Crowley.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TIM ROEMER, OBAMA CAMPAIGN FOREIGN POLICY ADVISER: The threshold for Governor Romney, quite frankly, Candy, is this. Is he's equipped, is he prepared to become a commander in chief, and when he gets off in the first leg of this trip and he goes to Great Britain and he insults the British people and David Cameron, the prime minister, and the mayor of London, both rebuke him, the question becomes this is if he can't engage our allies on a simple topic like the international Olympics, how is he going to be tough enough to stand up to our gravest enemies like Iran?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARCIANO: That is an Obama adviser speaking earlier today with CNN's Candy Crowley.

Well, you can hear Mitt Romney's full speech in Jerusalem next hour right here on CNN.

Now to Syria where rebels and government forces are still fighting to gain control of Aleppo, the country's major commercial center. Here's what's happening there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking in foreign language)

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking in foreign language)

(END VIDEO CLIP) MARCIANO: You see the rebels there taking hold of that government tank and they claim they're making some progress. It's getting very violent as you saw.

Our Ivan Watson is witnessing some of fight firsthand from northern Syria. Earlier he told me about an army base that's been surrounded by rebels.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

IVAN WATSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: For the past hour and a half, I've been watching a rebel attack on a Syrian army base located just outside the northern limits of that city of Aleppo. It started around sunset with a great deal of rocket fire and mortar fire and machine gunfire, and we basically been watching constant tracer fire at night focused on this Syrian army base and emerging from this Syrian army base.

The rebels seem to be attacking this base, which has an estimated 14 tanks and about more than 200 soldiers from many different directions, and I've traveled in the villages around this army base. They are almost surrounded by sympathizers and supporters of the rebels. The army base appears to have called an outside artillery support. It sounds like it's come all the way from the city of Aleppo just a few miles away.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARCIANO: Civilians have been fleeing nearby villages and towns, some of them are even trying to cross the border into Turkey.

To a developing story now in Africa. An outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in Uganda has killed at least 14 people. Health officials are now scrambling to contain it.

Our Nick Valencia has been following the story up for us.

Nick, you talked to the CDC. They're sending a team there. Do they think they're going to be able to contain this inside the borders?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, they have a team there already now. They do permanent -- epidemiological research, epidemiologists there in Uganda on the ground already. They're sending a team of about four or five more people to the region. And right now they just don't know. It's too early to tell, Rob, what's going on if there is a risk for this to spread beyond the bush and western Uganda.

In fact we spoke a short time ago to a CDC spokesman who says he is optimistic because there presence sent and already dealing with the outbreak but there's still a long road ahead.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM SKINNER, CDC SPOKESMAN: In the past when we've seen these outbreaks and we're able to do really good contact tracing as well as perform, you know, good infection control and health care facilities. These outbreaks have a tendency to, you know, sort of stamp themselves out, if you will, if we can get in and sort of stop the chain of transmission.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VALENCIA: You heard there from Tom Skinner. Now this is largely about disease control for them, getting the right people in place so that the locals know how to prevent the spread. It's a highly contagious disease.

MARCIANO: So, I mean, for many of us who's seen the movie 10 or so years ago, pretty scary sight.

VALENCIA: Right.

MARCIANO: What can they or are they going to be doing to try to contain it?

VALENCIA: Well, they're there to research and at first the way this outbreak happened was in a hospital. People -- the incubation period for Ebola is between two and 21 days. So in theory, you could be walking around a local resident in Uganda and just not know that you have it.

There's more concern, we spoke to residents earlier in the capital and these -- there's local reports that people are fleeing from the region, from that bush area in western Uganda, to the capital, so there is concern that people could have the disease and spread in other places. But right now it's just research there on the ground and trying to get this contained to that area in Uganda.

MARCIANO: So, I mean, are they all concerned in Kampala and other large cities that it may spread there?

VALENCIA: Well, there is some slight concern. But right now 20 cases reported, 14 people dead so far, and this -- it pales in comparison to what we saw in 2007 there with 224 deaths and in 2007 37 deaths. CNN reported that earlier. So, of course, there is some concern and a little bit of trepidation. But right now it's just isolated to the Kabala western district of Uganda. And a lot of people hoping that that's where it stays.

MARCIANO: Well, I know you spent a lot of time there reporting for us so you're a good resource. Thanks for the insight. We'll be checking back with you.

VALENCIA: Thanks, Rob.

MARCIANO: Nick Valencia, many thanks.

All right. Israel is just the latest stop on Mitt Romney's three- country tour. How well is he doing? We'll get some perspective on the political impact of his travels abroad.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) MARCIANO: It's 100 days until the election, and today Mitt Romney is meeting with leaders in Israel. It's part of a three-country trip designed to showcase his policy. His foreign policy, that is.

Before Romney delivered a foreign policy speech in Jerusalem today, he sat down with our Wolf Blitzer. They talked about the U.S. relationship with Israel.

WOLF BLITZER, ANCHOR, THE SITUATION ROOM: Rob, there was a little diplomatic excitement here in Israel with Mitt Romney -- Mitt Romney declaring that Jerusalem is Israel's capital. In an interview with me here in Jerusalem, he also went further than that. Listen to this exchange that we had.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Do you consider Jerusalem to be the capital of Israel?

ROMNEY: Yes, of course. A nation has the capacity to choose its own capital city and Jerusalem is Israel's capital.

BLITZER: If you became the president of the United States would you move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem?

ROMNEY: I think it's long been the policy of our country to ultimately have our embassy in the nation's capital of Jerusalem. The decision to actually make the move is, one, if I were president I would want to take in consultation with the leadership of the government which exists at that time. So I would follow the same policy we have in the past. Our embassy would be in the capital, but that's -- the timing of that is something I'd want to work out with the government.

BLITZER: With the government of Israel?

ROMNEY: With the government of Israel.

BLITZER: Whatever the Israel government has always asked every U.S. government to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital and to move the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

ROMNEY: Well, that would make the decision easy but I would still want to have that communication --

BLITZER: So just to be --

ROMNEY: With the governmental leaders.

BLITZER: Just to be precise, if you're president you would consult with the Israeli government and if they said please move the embassy, you would do that?

ROMNEY: I'm not going to make foreign policy for my nation particularly while I'm on foreign soil. My understanding is the policy of our nation has been a desire to move our embassy ultimately to the capital. That's something which I would agree with, but I would only want to do so and select the timing in accordance with the government of Israel.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Now all of this is obviously very, very sensitive diplomatic stuff. No U.S. president since 1967 has recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital. The U.S., as you know, has always kept the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv rather than moving in here to Jerusalem. But Romney is pretty determined on this point. He'll consult with the Israeli government. He says if the Israeli government says they would like the -- the U.S. to move the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, he says then he would go ahead and do that.

The ramifications of that in the Arab world, the Muslim world, the rest of the Middle East, to be sure, could be significant. That's why U.S. presidents have not done so in the past. But that's where Romney stands right now as he gets ready to embark on the next leg of his three-country tour. He was in England. Now in Israel, getting ready to head off to Poland.

That's it for me in Jerusalem.

MARCIANO: You can see Wolf's entire interview with Mitt Romney tomorrow on "THE SITUATION ROOM."

Well, Romney has to walk a fine line on this trip. He wants to engage with world leaders without committing any diplomatic error. So joining me from Washington to talk about the politics of Romney's trip is senior -- CNN senior political analyst Ron Brownstein.

You know, Ron, you heard Mitt Romney's comments to Wolf about his thoughts on Jerusalem's status, as being the capital. He also said, during a speech today, I mean that's pretty touchy territory, isn't it?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Absolutely. But, you know, just to be clear, we've had ore presidential candidates as opposed to presidents say similar things. Bill Clinton in 1992, George W. Bush in 2000. Even Barack Obama at one point in 2008, although he moved away from the language.

There is a law dating back to 1995 that says it is the policy of the U.S. that Jerusalem is the capital but three consecutive presidents have used their authority to waive the provisions of that law for exactly the reasons that Wolf cited, the potential impact so -- in the Arab world.

So we don't know in the long run if Romney wins what would happen. I mean the U.S. relationship to moving its embassy to Jerusalem is a little like our posture toward China and Taiwan. It's one of these places where there's a calculated ambiguity at the heart of American foreign policy. And I think that it would be premature to assume from Romney's comments today that, in fact, he would depart from that tradition as president. All the same pressures that have moved the last three presidents would still be (INAUDIBLE) if he wins as well.

MARCIANO: Well, certainly as a candidate you've got a little bit more freedom to say stronger words. Speaking of which also in today's speech he said that he would respect unilateral Israeli strike on Iran if Iran would develop nuclear weapons. Is he stepping on toes? Is he stepping on Obama's diplomatic efforts there?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, that was striking. And that -- that actually, Rob, that was his spokesman, Dan Senor, who made that comment in a briefing, I think, that he would -- that he would respect a unilateral action. And then Romney, in his subsequent interviews, again, has tried to fuzz that because that would be seen as in essence giving Israel a blank check.

If you look at both of these things together, in essence what Romney is arguing is that he would be more lockstep, more arm in arm with the Israeli government than President Obama who has, like Bill Clinton before him, as Democratic presidents do, somewhat of a prickly relationship with Benjamin Netanyahu.

This I a real historic change. If you think back for most of Israel's history, Republican presidents, whether it's Dwight Eisenhower in 1956 with the Suez, George H.W. Bush in 1991 with housings -- with settlements in the occupied territories or 1982, Ronald Reagan with Lebanon, usually it's Republican presidents who argue they will do more to establish an independent perspective vis-a-vis Israel.

But really that's flipped and now you have the Republicans saying that they are going to be in effect more arm in arm with Israel and Democrats, like Clinton and Obama, arguing that it's in the U.S.' interest and even in the Israeli interest for the U.S. to be kind of a step-back and a little bit more of an independent force assessing the Israeli actions.

MARCIANO: You know, Ron, let's backtrack to the UK. When he was there, he talked about a special relationship but he caught a lot of heat from the British. There's comments about the preparation for the Olympics. And that -- I mean, was that trip positive or negative?

BROWNSTEIN: I think unequivocally a negative. And even more striking, you know, two things first. The foreign trip in the summer for the presidential candidate, kind of a modern tradition, is supposed to be the tennis without a net part of this very difficult process of running for president. It's supposed to kind of elevate you and convince voters here in the U.S. that you're ready to be commander in chief and lead our diplomacy on day one.

He's had a pretty rocky time of it. I mean being criticized by David Cameron who of course is a conservative prime minister of Britain, even more so, Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, who is kind of the William F. Buckley of British politics, the former editor of their conservative intellectual journal. Very critical of this as well.

Even today's comments about Iran from Dan Senor and then Romney kind of fuzzing it, I mean this has not been a kind of demonstration of steadiness that they were hoping to or the message they were hoping to send when they set off on the plane, I'm sure.

MARCIANO: Ron Brownstein, good insight. Live for us from Washington. Thank you. Ron.

BROWNSTEIN: Thank you.

MARCIANO: By the way, you can catch the full speech -- of Romney's speech at 5:00, top of the hour right here on CNN.

Well, it's day two of the Olympics and some of the Americans, the top swimmers at least, are back in the pool and we are following their strokes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARCIANO: In London it is day two of the 2012 Olympic Games and the medals are stacking up for China and the U.S. China is leading with six gold so far followed by the U.S. with three, Italy has two.

And our Becky Anderson is watching it all from London's Olympic Park.

Hi, again, Becky, lots of events on tap today. Swimming, the men, I think and the women, too, are maybe back in the pool. What's on the cards?

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Yes. It's been sensational here. Much of it has been in the Aquatic Center behind me. We've been anticipating the 4-by-100 men's freestyle final. Of course Michael Phelps back in the water for the second of his seven events. Along with his teammate Ryan Lochte for this.

The USA, of course, the defending champions. They've won a medal in this event in every Olympic since 1964 when the -- when the event debuted. But this time, I'm afraid, if you don't know the results, I'm afraid they got the silver, not the gold this time. The French coming good in that centerpiece event here at the London 2012 Games, and the Russians bringing up the rear with the bronze.

Now that might have been my guess because earlier on in the day the U.S. rolled the French over in the basketball, 98-71. So, you know, it was an important event but I guess the French just decided it was going to be their day after all -- Rob.

MARCIANO: You got to throw a guy a little bone, I guess, every once in a while. Hey, let's -- I'm curious, watching it the past day or so, some of these events there's nobody in the seats. Anybody talking about that? What's the committee doing?

ANDERSON: Yes. Yes. It's been -- it's been the story, really, for the last 36 hours. And the organizing committee, the head of the organizing committee, Sebastian Coe, here ahead of these games saying, look, he doesn't want to see empty seats stayed here. He'd seen them in Beijing. He was really disappointed. So it was a real disappointment not just for him but for everybody. When we saw 500 odd seats one block in the swimming event yesterday alone. Another thousand at the gymnastics which is the host nation.

So what they've come up with is an idea to give those tickets away or the seats that are empty when an event beings to soldiers, to kids, and to teachers. Locally you can't really know until the event actually begins whether those seats are going to be empty. They blame the athletes' families, they blame the sponsors to a certain extent, saying that people who have been given these seats ahead of time aren't pitching out for them.

You can just imagine people are incredibly disappointed when they see the shots in television. They're hanging around in the park, hoping to go in, what they're told is being a sold-out event for a year. I mean for months and months. And then they see those sort of seats.

Anyway, I guarantee you're going to see a pretty full stadium going forward.

MARCIANO: All right. Well, it must be frustrating not only for the spectators who want to come there but the athletes want a big crowd, too, I'm sure.

All right, Becky Anderson, thanks very much. A live update from London. We'll be checking back with you.

Well, it's the Super Bowl this week. Well, maybe not the real Super Bowl, a Super Bowl of indicators, but it's still a big deal. We're going to tell you why coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARCIANO: The suspected gunman in Colorado shootings will be in court tomorrow. Prosecutors will file formal changes against James Holmes. He's expected to face 12 counts of first-degree murder.

Holmes is accused of opening fire at an Aurora movie theater killing 12 people, 11 remain hospitalized. One of them, Ashley Moser, we've learned suffered a miscarriage. Moser's 6-year-old daughter was the youngest person killed in the shooting.

As we mentioned before the break the Super Bowl is coming up. It's not the real deal as far as football is concerned. It's economic data. To find out what we can expect, let's bring in our own economic Super Bowl analyst Todd Schoenberger. He's a managing principal at The BlackBay Group in New York.

And you got your chalkboard out there? Let's talk some X's and O's, Todd. Are you ready to go?

TODD SCHOENBERGER, MARKET ANALYST, MANAGING PRINCIPAL, THE BLACKBAY GROUP: Yes, you got that right, Rob. We have quite a bit to get to but this Friday coming up is the economics reports of the summer because it's the jobs report. Every is going to be looking at this and Wall Street is expecting to see 100,000 new jobs in July. However, there some are on Wall Street a little bit skeptical of that number. So we're hoping for a big number. We need something over six digits. And it remains to be seen.

MARCIANO: I can't keep track of all these indicators. There is also something called the Case Shilling Report, I guess it is probably housing prices. And consumer confidence also a big indicator. SCHOENBERGER: That is right Rob. Well look both of those reports will be released on Tuesday. Consumer confidence is a bag number because it's going tell us if American consumers are confident. And there fore it is actually a forward looking indicator. Because if they are confident, they're probably going to go out and spend money, and that's great for the overall economy.

Then you also look at the other side of that, the Case Shiller Index. It's actually the house price index. It takes a look at the 20 of the biggest cities in the country such as Atlanta and New York and it gives you a gauge of how valuable the homes are, whether they're appreciating or depreciating. That's a big indicator. Because what we want to see is some type of an up tick or some type of appreciation that would be great for the housing sector.

MARCIANO: We have just been kind of floating along, all the economics are saying; you know it's not as big of a rebound as we'd like to see. Listen up we're going to talk from macro to micro I guess you would say Todd. I want you to stick around.

We're going to talk about the other big news and a big question this week. It is about facebook. Friday it took a big hit because it announced earnings that were in line with estimates. When we come back, we're going to ask you what you think the chances are of you and me buying some stock. It will be a good deal. Stay right there.

TODD: You got it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARCIANO: I'm back with market analyst Todd Schoenberger. Todd full enclosure. Before I got into this business I spent a few years on Wall Street as a trader. It took not to long for me to figure out that I was bad at that. I am even a worst investor trader. Here is where I need your help.

One thing I remember is they say buy on rumor, right, sell on news, but it seems that they sold on the rumor and sold on the news. With facebook they met their expectations and then the stock went down. At what point is this a good buy for being, you know, the other Americans out there who are thinking about it?

SCHOENBERGER: Well I got to tell you, Rob. You want to wait till it gets down into the teens, and I'll tell you why. The company in that quarterly report that she mentioned that they have new users. They actually saw users increase over 30 percent from this time last year. That's great the problem is is that everybody on there that's new is using the phone and as a result, advertisers have not been able to actually monetize that. How are they going to make money from users actually going to facebook on their iphone? So as a result they have some big challenges ahead. That's why the stock is selling off, and it is probably going to sell off at least in the short term so you may want to hold off for now.

MARCIANO: That's why I like the app. There are no ads on it right now. SCHOENBERGER: There you go.

MARCIANO: There's also been a buzz about maybe getting a real CEO in there. Are they thinking about that or what can they do to turn things around?

SCHOENBERGER: Well you know it's a little disappointing with the quarterly call because you would think they would have been on facebook actually doing that. Showing that they are great for businesses and they didn't do that. So going forward they probably does need somebody like an Eric Schmidt over at Google, somebody with the glasses, the whole thing. Maybe they will have somebody like that down the road and it can only be seen as a positive at least for its image.

MARCIANO: Look is everything sometimes you know as far as you know. You look like you know what you're talking about. You know what you are talking about and we appreciate you coming on the show for the insight with us, Todd Schoenberger. Thanks Todd.

SCHOENBERGER: Thanks Rob.

MARCIANO: Well what concerns you folks about the future of America? A team of CNN radio reporters have been getting answers from people across the country. And they're going share that with us in just a bit.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARCIANO: Well, what issues do Americans care about and what are they saying about their country's future? Two teams of CNN radio reporters have been traveling cross-country as part of a project we called Embed America. John Sepulvado is in Los Angeles and his colleague Lisa Desjardins joins us from Washington.

John let's start with you. What is your goal of this project and what are some of the issues that you discovered that people are most concerned about?

JOHN SEPULVADO, CNN RADIO NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well Rob one of the goals in this project, the biggest goal is to was to connect with voters and to be able to talk to them about the issues that they care about, not to go off of polling information or what the candidates are talking about. Be able to take their lives, the event in their lives connect them to policy and then connect that policy to the politicians that represent them.

So one of the issues for example that we really looked at was inner city education. This has been an issue that hasn't been talked about a lot this election but it's very clear that inner city education needs to be addressed. I spoke with a 17-year-old in east St. Saint Louis. You see some of the pictures there. That's a teddy bear pole where each bear represents somebody that is killed in this neighborhood. And inner city education they care about it and they care about the corruption, they care about the problems with the teachers, they care about the fact that these kids often are underfed and they are not able to go to school in a safe environment and a lot of times there aren't even books in these classrooms. So that's one of the examples of an issue that we found that doesn't show up in polling data.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LOUIS JONES, FROM EAST SAINT LOUIS: It was extremely horrible. The teachers really didn't care. They were basically there just to have a job. They didn't care for the kids. They didn't learn anything. They came out basically with nothing. Nobody ever took books; nobody ever took a back pack. It's almost like as if it wasn't even school. It was just like a day care center.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SEPULVADO: And so that was from Louis Jones, one of the people we talked about. We did this in conjunction with CNN ireport. It was very successful. Being able to identify people that normally political coverage seems to forget or ignore.

MARCIANO: Well you went all over the place. And, Lisa, did you find anything specific with specific parts of the country? I mean what concerns were drawn from different parts of the country versus others?

LISA DESJARDINS, CNN RADIO CAPITOL HILL CORRESPONDENT: Right. I think the difference is it's the same concerns that everyone has but in different regions of the country they understand them better in some cases. For example John went from Miami to Los Angeles and I drove from Maine to Montana. On the way we stopped in Coal Country, Ohio.

That's a place where they really believe this election is going to determine whether their way of life survives. I think that's a story that hasn't gotten covered much. We talked to a wife of a coal miner, daughter and granddaughter and great granddaughter of coal miners, her name is Amanda Fetchmer (ph). There she is with her husband right there and you know she said that she cares about the environment, she knows the coal story but she thinks that there's not another fuel that can replace it right now. I played a clip for her from the envirmentalist; there she is with her kids. Who says you know coal isn't popular. People don't like using it and her response to that clip really surprised me. Let me play that for you. Here's what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DESJARDINS (voice over): Where would you like your electricity?

AMANDA FETCHMER (ph), FROM COAL COUNTRY: I'd like it to come free out of the flowers that I grow.

DESJARDINS: I mean come on. Is coal popular?

FETCHMER (ph): No, it's not popular. It's not easy to mine. It's a dangerous job, it's dirty. You know, I do think they can burn it more cleanly now than they have ever in the past, and I think we should explore more of that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DESJARDINS: So, Rob, I know you've seen a lot of the country, too, and I think the difference here is that Americans really are feeling these issues in a way that I think is not coming across in the campaigns, and I think John feels the same way as I do. We really thought Americans are smart, they're paying attention, they're tired of the politicians, but they're really tuned in and we both felt like there were a lot of voices and a lot of thoughts that are not getting out yet in this election season that we were able to get to.

MARCIANO: Is that the message, John? I mean are voters, citizens frustrated at our political leaders?

SEPULVADO: I don't think that they're frustrated. I think that they are sick of politicians.

DESJARDINS: Yes.

SEPULVADO: But I think that really what they want to see is politician's address the issues that they care about, you know? I was in the Grand Canyon. We stopped and talked to this New Mexican farmer. Nobody's talked about water rights issues. This is a federal issue and this is incredibly important to him and his community and his family and the future of his family farm. So I think there's more of a sense that the major candidates for Senate and things like that, and, of course, the presidential candidates, are just not addressing these issues that are so important to people and that's one of the things that we really try to highlight through this series.

DESJARDINS: Right. If I could jump in real quick, Rob. I think that the thing is that we get so obsessed with covering what this candidate is saying, what that candidate is saying. I grew up in Washington. I've covered politics. John has covered politics too. But I think we've got to get past that. We have to get past the games and that's where the American people are. They want to plan, they want it to be real and that's what this series is about. Like what are the issues really on the ground. Not just kind of what the script is.

SEPULVADO: To jump in just very, very quickly.

DESJARDINS: Sorry Rob.

SEPULVADO: Sorry Rob. The idea that people aren't able to comprehend big policy ideas it's hogwash. People are and they want to see the policy ideas presented.

MARCIANO: You guys can come in any time. Preferably that radio guys and guys especially CNN radio are the best story tellers we have. Embed America it is a report you will find on CNNradio.com. John and Lisa thank you very much.

All right. Turning to Israel now Mitt Romney's campaign visits overseas. The Republican presidential candidate told an Israeli crowd today that he would get tough on Iran. He also declared Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish state. He did not say he would order the U.S. Embassy move from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem if he wins the White House but strongly suggested that in his earlier interview with CNN Wolf Blitzer.

Mitt Romney's visit to Israel is as much about reaching out to religious groups back home as it is about the Middle East diplomacy. CNN.com's religious editor Dan Gilgoff joins me live now to talk about the whole collision in Romney's trip. So Dan where does Romney stand? First of all with the Jewish voters here in the states and what does this trip specifically do for him?

DAN GILGOFF, CNN.COM RELIGIOUS EDITOR: Well traditionally Jewish voters in the United States have been among the most democratic blocks in the nation. So that in 2008 Barack Obama got 78 percent of the Jewish votes. But because of the sometimes rocky relations between Obama and beaters of the Jewish state the Romney campaign feels like it has a real opportunity to peel off Jewish votes which is small but significant in a few key swing states, states like Florida and Ohio and Pennsylvania.

So this week before the departure on his European and Israel trip, you saw Romney castigating Obama, what he said was a shabby treatment of one of our closest allies. And what's interesting is the Obama campaign and the White House are obviously taking this really seriously. So on the eve of Romney's arrival this week, the White House announces $70 million in aid to Israeli for missile defense. So it's a threat that Obama is taking seriously.

MARCIANO: You know, not just for Jews, Dan, but obviously the Christians have a big history in Israel, this is a pretty big deal for Evangelicals, isn't it?

GILGOFF: It is. And politically in my theme more important, a trip like this, for what it says of Evangelical Christians in the United States which are a huge voting block then what it says to American Jews. You know there are a lot of Evangelical Christians who just feel this special bond with Jews that was born in the bible.

There are other Evangelicals who feel in the real sense that Israel needs to be in Jewish hands before Jesus Christ can arrive on earth again. And so this is a real opportunity for Romney who you remember really struggled among Evangelical Christians in the primaries to reach out to them on an issue on which no one questions Romney's support, his support for Israel. Where on issues like abortion rights and his own religion Mormonism, those have caused him some real troubles with the Evangelical community. This is a chance for him to kind of redeem himself in some way.

MARCIANO: Certainly a very religious man. A new but Pew Poll shows Americans have limited knowledge of Mitt Romney and Barack Obama's religious faith. What else did this poll find?

GILGOFF: Well it contains some good news for Romney because there's been all of this speculation about how his Mormonism might hurt him as a candidate. And it found that 60 percent of Americans do know that Romney is a Mormon, and it found that an overwhelming majority of those people, 80 percent were comfortable with it.

But it also found that there's a third of the country who doesn't know that he's a Mormon and about 10 percent who think he's some other religion. And so the question is once those folks find out that he is a Mormon will they have trouble with it. Previous polls have suggested that they might. That people who know less about Romney and don't know that he's a Mormon are more likely to have trouble with his religion when they find out.

MARCIANO: Dan, I want you to stay right there. We're going to switch gears after this commercial break and talk about the Aurora shootings. Also want to remind our viewers that you can hear Mitt Romney's full speech in Jerusalem in the next hour right here on CNN.

As I mentioned, 12 people died in that Aurora shooting inside a Colorado movie theater. Some are asking where god was on that Friday night.

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MARCIANO: Well, this week on the CNN "Belief Blog" readers were asked the question, where was god in the Aurora massacre? That question generated a lot of interest. Within 24 hours there were 10,000 responses to that question. CNN.com's religious editor Dan Gilgoff joins me again live from Washington. Dan, were you surprised by that number?

GILGOFF: I really was but I think when you think about it, it makes total sense when these horrific tragedies happen to sort of ask big questions like "Where was god?" Earlier in the week we just put this question out to our twitter followers at the CNN Belief Blog and we were really surprised with how quickly people responded with their own theories about where was god in Aurora? Maybe this was evidence that god really doesn't exist. I mean could this actually be god's will? Those are the kind of responses we were getting. So we put it up on the blog as a question and in 24 hours we had gotten 10,000 comments and we had never gotten that many responses that quickly on the Belief Blog before so it really struck a chord.

MARCIANO: Let's break down some of these common themes that were expressed. As you mentioned one was that there is no god. Talk about that.

GILGOFF: Sure. Well, you know, Atheists by definition don't have a church to go so. So in a very real way the internet has become their kind of defacto church, it's where Atheists go every day, really, to kind of be with one another, to congregate with one another and to put their viewpoints out there. So many of our commenter's on the Belief Blog at CNN are atheists and we really saw that in this close. So many people chiming in saying how could there be an all powerful god that would actually preside over something as grisly as the Aurora shooting, and so there were a lot of people that were taking to the comment section to say, hey, this is exhibit a about why there can't be an all powerful god. How could they allow this to happen?

MARCIANO: On the flip side there are a lot of people who do believe in god and one of those saying don't blame god. What do they say about that? GILGOFF: Right. It's surprising. Because you remember sometimes in American history and pretty recent history there'll be an earthquake or a hurricane and people, especially televangelists like Pat Robertson sometimes blaming American sin, like they say is the sin of homosexuality for getting these natural disasters. In this instance we saw less commenter saying that and more saying this is evidence that we as Americans have abandoned god you know in a way that we say raise our children or god in schools and government in the public squares and this is what happens not as necessarily divine kind of retribution, but what happens to human behavior once we abandon god. I was kind of surprised at the number of commenters we had expressing that kind of view was pretty prevalent.

MARCIANO: Maybe bringing us all to a single point on that. Interesting stuff nonetheless. Dan Gilgoff, thank you for that contribution there. Viewers, you can share your thoughts on this very question, "Where was god Aurora?" On our Belief Blog at CNN.com/belief.

Well the Olympics have barely begun and there is already a twitter came in. NBC sports analyst has called out by a U.S. Olympic soccer team goalie.

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MARCIANO: A couple of Crystal Springs, Mississippi say they had to find a new place to get married because they are black. They had already printed and mailed the invitations. Just after their wedding rehearsal they say First Baptist Church which they attend regularly said, no, not so fast, you can't get married here.

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TE ANDREA WILSON, WEDDING BANNISHED AT CHURCH: He had people in the sanctuary pitching a fit about us being a black couple. I didn't like it at all because I wasn't brought up to be racist.

DR. STAN WEATHERFORD, PASTOR, FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH: This had not -- had never been done here before, so it was setting a new precedence, and there were those who reacted to that because of that.

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MARCIANO: The pastor who you just heard from ended up presiding over the wedding ceremony at a different church down the street. Some church members tell a local newspaper that they're outraged by what happened. They say it was only a small group of parishioners who protested the wedding. The Wilson's will join Deborah Farick in the 10:00 p.m. hour here in the CNN NEWS ROOM later tonight.

Well note to everyone watch what you say about the U.S. women's Olympic soccer team. Goal keeper Solo hit twitter to call out NBC sports analyst Chestain and former player for criticizing the team's play in a win over Columbia yesterday. Writing this to her nearly 500,000 followers. Quote, "its 2 bad we can't have commentators who better represents the team and knows more about the game. No response from Chestain on twitter. The team has one group game remaining against North Korea in Manchester on Tuesday. We'll all be watching to see how it goes.