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Obama Campaigns In Pueblo, Colorado; U.S. Could Impose Syria No-Fly Zone; Ex-Girlfriend Had White Power Ties; White Power Groups In U.S. Military; Brand New Pictures From Mars; New Photos from Mars; Islamic Mosque to Open in Murfreesboro, Tenn.; Mitt Romney Expected to Name V.P. Any Day; Starbucks Experiments Paying with New Phone App; LinkedIn Getting More Investors than Facebook; Economy Could Spur New Baby Boom

Aired August 09, 2012 - 13:00   ET

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

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone, I'm Don Lemon, Suzanne is off today. This hour in the CNN NEWSROOM, President Barack Obama speaking in the critical swing state of Colorado. There he is. Let's listen in, shall we?

(BEGIN LIVE FEED)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (live): -- once again, working around that core idea that built this country, the idea that if you work hard you can make it. The idea that in America, everybody gets a fair shot and everybody does their fair share and everybody plays by the same set of rules. The idea that in America we rise or fall together. And government can't solve every problem, and it shouldn't try and it certainly can't help folks who are not willing to help themselves. But there's some things that we can do together, as a people, that makes us all better off, that makes our country strong, and that our economy works best when the middle-class is growing and feels secure.

Now, I have to tell you, over the -- you know, we've only -- we've got less than three months left in this election. Less than three months. Time's flying. And over the next three months, you will see more negative ads, more money spent than you have ever seen in your life. I mean, these super pacs, these guys are writing $10 million checks, giving them to Mr. Romney's supporters. And, basically, they all have just the same argument. They all say the same thing. They say, the economy is bad and it's Obama's fault. Every time -- every ad is the same argument.

Now, let me tell you something. That may be a strategy to try to win an election, but they can't hide the fact that they don't have a plan to grow the economy. They don't have a plan to create more jobs. They don't have a plan to revive the middle-class. I've got that plan. That's why I'm running. So, you know, when you talk the your friends and your neighbors, some of them may think, you know, we'll be better off if we cut the taxes for the wealthy, and get rid of every regulation, settle our sights -- set our sights lower, stop providing the kinds of assistance we need to kids to go the college.

We don't -- and you know, you have to tell them, look, if you think that going the look better, that's how democracy works, you should vote for those other folks. And feel free to try to send them to Washington, but I believe, and you believe, we've come too far to turn back now. We've got too much more work to do. We've got too many good jobs we've got to create. We've got too many teachers we still need to hire. We've got too many schools we need to rebuild. We've got too many students we need toll go the college. We've got too much home grown energy we need to generate right here in Colorado. We've got more troops we need to come home. We've got more doors of opportunity that we need to open for every young person here in Pueblo, here in Colorado, all across the country.

That's what's at stake right now. That's why I'm running for president. That's why I'm asking for your vote. Not just for me but for the country that you believe in. You've got to be registered to vote. We've got folks here who are ready to help you do that. Here, in Colorado, you can register online, you go to gottoregister.com. But don't wait until the last minute. Grab some friends, get online, let's get this done.

You know, back in 2008, I made a -- I made a promise to you, I said, I'm not a perfect man, and I won't be a perfect president. But what I did say is I'd always tell you what I thought. I'd always tell you where I stood, and most importantly, I would spend every waking minute fighting as hard as I knew how for you.

(END LIVE FEED)

LEMON: President Barack Obama speaking in Colorado. He is in Pueblo. And here is what he's doing there. He is appealing to the Hispanic population there, which makes up 27 percent of Colorado's population, to go out and register to vote and then go to the polls on election day. Also, in Colorado, appealing to women. This is the second day on his tour in Colorado. I just want to take a look at just how crucial Colorado is for President Obama and for Mitt Romney. The latest poll by Quinnipiac University, CBS and "The New York Times," it shows Romney ahead of the President by 5 points in Colorado, 50 to 45 percent.

Wolf Blitzer joins me now live from Washington. And, Wolf, the President won Colorado by nine points in 2008. He's trailing Mitt Romney now as we showed. It is an important swing state when it comes to the presidential race. Remember back in 2008, I think he said, so goes Colorado, so goes the rest of the nation. This is a big deal for him.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: It's huge. He really needs Colorado, Romney needs Colorado. Both of these candidates are send spending a lot of time in Colorado. Right now, the president, as you see, wrapping up his speech. And focusing in as he did yesterday on issues involving two key constituencies he really needs to generate in order to get out that base, women voters and Latino voters. If you look at four years ago, the reason he carried Colorado, as far as women are concerned, he carried in the state of Colorado, according to the exit polls, 56 percent of the women voters voted for President Obama, 41 percent for John McCain. It was basically tied among male voters, 50percent for McCain, 49 percent for Obama. That's four years ago.

Also four years ago, he got 61 percent of the Latino vote in Colorado, according to the exit polls, 38 percent went to McCain. He is going to need that huge Latino turnout, that huge women turnout in Colorado if he is going to be able to carry that state, that's why he focused in on women's issues. Yesterday, he was talking about the economy and other issues today. But he's spending a lot of time in Colorado, as is Mitt Romney. This is one of those battleground states they're going to be investing not only a lot of time but a whole lot of money in Colorado as well.

LEMON: Hey, Wolf, that same poll that I talked, and it's in Virginia and Wisconsin, the president is leading Virginia 49 to 45 percent, and Wisconsin 51 to 45 percent. But -- and those that are the -- going to be the critical swing states, the battleground states. Let's get back to Colorado, though, and you talked about women and Hispanics. I mean, can women and Hispanics determine who wins that state?

BLITZER: They could do a lot. And if they come out in big numbers, if that base is energized and they really feel that they want the president to be re-elected, they certainly can go a long, long way in making sure he's re-elected, as they did basically in 2008 when McCain was facing President Obama. Among male voters, as I said, it was basically tied 50 percent McCain, 49 percent for Obama. It was neck and neck. Right now, it's a different story. Among men voters -- according to this Quinnipiac University poll, men -- Romney leads among men. Right now, the Quinnipiac University, CBS News "New York Times," you mentioned 56 percent to 39 percent for president Obama. Among women, Obama leads 51, 43. It's -- It explains, those numbers, why right now, according to that Quinnipiac University poll, Romney is ahead in Colorado as opposed to the president. So, he needs women, he needs Latinos, he needs to do much better with men in order to get himself elected in Colorado.

LEMON: Yes, we are reeling off a lot of numbers here, but, you know, behind the numbers, we're talking about people here. And you and I have been watching these stories play out in the country, the world really. And we're talking about the shootings in Colorado, the shootings in Wisconsin, and, as I understand, you have some new polling numbers on gun control which I think are very interesting. Explain the significance of this poll and tell us what the numbers show.

BLITZER: This is the first poll, national poll, our CNN, ORC poll that was completely conducted after the Aurora mass murder, after the temple -- the Sikh Temple killings over the weekend, and now we've got some new numbers on guns here in the United States and I'll put them up on the screen for our viewers right now. Take a look. All right, when you add up the numbers, whether people want no restrictions or minor restrictions, 50 percent say no restrictions or minor restrictions on owning guns, 48 percent say they want major restrictions or a complete ban on guns. If you add up those numbers, you see the country is very, very evenly divided.

But what's interesting is compared to a year ago, in 2011, before Aurora, before the Oak Creek shootings in Wisconsin, Don, the numbers were basically the same. There has not been much of a change as far as American attitudes towards guns in the country. For the past year, they've basically been the same, an almost equally divided country as far as guns are concerned, how many restrictions should be in place, if any. And so, that's the news out of this brand new CNN, ORC poll. There has effectively been no change in attitude over the past year, despite some of these mass killings.

LEMON: And you can bet both the president and candidate Romney watching these poll numbers and probably their messaging will determine -- this will help determine their messaging on this issue. Thank you, Wolf Blitzer. We'll see you later on this evening here in The Situation Room.

BLITZER: You bet.

LEMON: President Barack Obama weighing what action to take in Syria right now. Rebels have been taking a pounding across the country and recently in Syria's largest city of Aleppo. President Obama's Chief Counter Terrorism Advisor says all options remain on the table to help the Syrian opposition, including the possibility of implementing a no-fly zone.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN BRENNAN, CHIEF COUNTER-TERRORISM ADVISOR, PRESIDET BARACK OBAMA: Various options that are being talked about in the press and sometimes being advocated, these are things that the United States government has been looking at very carefully, trying to understand the implications, trying to understand the advantages and disadvantages off this, and the president has kept us all quite busy making sure that we are all able to do everything possible that's going to advance the interest of peace in Syria.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: And we should tell you, the president has signed a covert directive authorizing U.S. support for Syrian rebels battling government forces.

Here is what else we are work g working on this hour.

(voice-over): The man who opened fire on a Sikh Temple in Wisconsin spent years in the military and while there, met other white supremacists.

We're getting new pictures from Mars as scientists get more excited about the Curiosity rover's journey.

And it's baby making time. Why experts say a big baby boom is just around the corner.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Two children at the Sikh Temple in Wisconsin turned into heroes during the shooting rampage that killed six people. Eleven- year-old Abhay Singh and his nine-year-old sister Amanat spotted the gunman and warned the adults inside the temple. On CNN's "AC 360," they described what they saw when they were playing outside the temple.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ABHAY SINGH, SAW SHOOTER OUTSIDE SIKH TEMPLE: And then all of a sudden, we found this purple taxi or a four-door sedan, and he -- and a white man had come out. And he -- I -- for a second, me and my sister thought, yes, maybe he -- he needed directions or needed -- or he needed help. But then when he was halfway there, he got both of his pistols and he just started shooting randomly. And at first shot, we thought it was like a firework. But then when me and my sister looked at him, then we noticed he was shooting those two people. And then we ran as fast -- as fast as we could inside to warn everybody in the kitchen, and everywhere else, to -- just to warn everybody there's a man outside with a gun. And --

ANDERSON COOPER, HOST, CNN'S "AC 360": Were you scared?

ABHAY SINGH: We -- we were a little bit scared.

COOPER: Yes, I can imagine.

Amanat, how about you? I understand you were celebrating your ninth birthday. Happy birthday, by the way. When you realized that someone was doing something bad and trying to hurt people, what did you think?

AMANAT SINGH, SAW SHOOTER OUTSIDE SIKH TEMPLE: I felt kind of bad.

COOPER: Yes. And you guys hid inside of a pantry and you were very quiet. What happened while you were in there?

AMANAT SINGH: Well, some of the people left the gas on and all of a sudden the door -- the door was shut and smoke was coming in. And it was really hot.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: And for a while they were separated from their parents. Their mother says, we were worried and praying. She also says she's proud of her children's bravery.

Investigators say they haven't found any notes or clues about what caused Wade Michael Page's massacre at that temple in Wisconsin. As they piece together information about his background, they're also looking into the ex-girlfriend and her ties to white power groups. They don't think she was involved in the shooting, but she is facing legal issues of her own. The story now from CNN's Ted Rowlands.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Investigators believe it's possible the only reason Wade Page was in Wisconsin was this woman, 31-year-old Misty Cook. Within hours of the shooting the FBI interviewed Cook first at this restaurant, where she worked as a waitress, less than a mile from the temple, then again in her upstairs apartment in the back of this home.

TERESA CARLSON, FBI: She was cooperative. The police officers, while there, observed a weapon and they arrested her for felon in possession.

ROWLANDS: The arrest, investigators say, was unrelated to the temple shooting. But Cook, like her ex-boyfriend Page, appears to have a history with white supremacist groups. That's her wearing a Volksfront t-shirt. An organization the Anti-Defamation League, which provided these photos to CNN, classifies as a hate group. In this photo, Cook and others have their middle finger up, but look at the person at the end of the table, he seems to be giving a Nazi salute.

Cook also, according to the Anti-Defamation League, posted messages on a hate site in which she repeatedly uses the n-word and other offensive language. This one from 2009 says, "I've been a member of the WP (white power) movement for eight years." Another from the same time period encourages people to, quote, "become an asset to the white community."

JAMES SANTELLE, U.S. ATTORNEY, EASTERN DISTRICT OF WISCONSIN: We will, as appropriate, make a decision about whether or not she will be charged with anything. Right now, that matter is also clearly, let me be clear on this, under investigation.

ROWLANDS: There was no answer at Cook's door Wednesday. Our requests for an interview have gone unanswered. But in an e-mail to "The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel" she said, quote, "if I could say something to ease the pain of the victims and their families, I would gladly do so. Unfortunately, words do not begin to heal the pain they are going through."

A possible connection between hate groups and the temple shooting is part of the FBI's investigation, but there's nothing at this point connecting anything or anybody except Page to the shooting.

CARLSON: And Misty has been very cooperative. We do not believe that she had anything to do with this. I'm not going to say we're ruling out anything. We're still investigating and we're trying to be very through, but we don't believe that she had anything to do with it.

ROWLANDS (on camera): Investigators say they have issued 180 individual subpoenas in their investigation and have more than 100 leads still pending worldwide. They also say that the assailant in this case killed himself and that dash cam video of one of the police officers arriving on scene first shows an officer shooting Page in the abdomen area. However, when Page hits the ground, the video shows that he takes out his gun and shoots himself in the head.

Ted Rowlands, CNN, Oak Creek, Wisconsin.

(END VIDEOTAPE) LEMON: All right, Ted.

And the Sikh temple gunman was trained for war by the U.S. military, but an Army buddy says Wade Michael Page was more interested in waging a racial holy war. And apparently his was not an isolated case. Federal investigators say white supremacist groups have been able to infiltrate the military. Here's our Pentagon correspondent now Chris Lawrence.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Wade Michael Page's belief in white power was tattooed all over his body as this MySpace photo shows. But back at Fort Bragg, you couldn't tell by looking at him.

CHRIS ROBILLARD, FELLOW SOLDIER AND FRIED TO WADE MICHAEL PAGE: He didn't have the tattoos when he was in the Army.

LAWRENCE: But fellow soldier and friend Chris Robillard says Page wasn't shy about sharing his views and ranted against non-white people.

ROBILLARD: He would often mention the racial holy war that was coming.

LAWRENCE: A criminologist who interviewed Page said he started identifying with the neo-Nazi movement while he was in the Army because he thought African-American soldiers got preferential treatment.

PETE SIMI, CRIMINOLOGIST WHO MET PAGE: Specifically what he told me at one point was that, if you join the military and you're not a racist, then you certainly will be by the time you leave.

LAWRENCE: Well before pictures like this were posted on FaceBook, the FBI had identified hundreds of veterans involved in white supremacist incidents. And federal investigators say small numbers of white supremacists have infiltrated most parts of the military. While Page was at Fort Bragg in 1995, three soldiers were caught and convicted of murdering a black couple outside the base. All were identified as neo-Nazi skinheads. The Army cracked down on racists in the ranks and kicked out dozens of soldiers. But the problem goes way beyond one base.

TJ LEYDEN, FORMER MARINE AND SKINHEAD: Every major military installation, you will have at least two or three active neo-Nazi organizations actively trying to recruit on duty personnel.

LAWRENCE: TJ Leyden would know. He's a former Marine and skinhead, who says some military units ignore overt racism.

LEYDEN: I used to hang a swastika flag in my wall locker. And everybody in my unit, all the way up to my commander, knew it. The only time they ever asked me to take it down was when a commanding general would come through, just so they wouldn't get in trouble. LAWRENCE (on camera): Now that's not to say that happens across the board. In fact, even Leyden admits that in his brother's unit, the commander there took an extremely hard line against this kind of racism. He would crack down whenever troops put out anything that had racist overtones, made them take it down and send it home. The Army and Marines have strict rules against this, but ultimately it can come down to how much the individual commander takes a look at it and enforces those rules.

Chris Lawrence, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Now, from Wisconsin to Colorado. The man accused in the Colorado theater massacre is expected back in court about two hours from now. Today's hearing is not directly a part of James Holmes' criminal proceeding. Instead, it will focus on the public release of information. New organizations want the judge to unseal documents relating to the case and lift parts of a gag order.

It has been an exciting time for scientists getting unbelievable new pictures from Mars, from the Curiosity rover. We'll bring you the latest shots.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: What happened to our big Olympic music? All right. Well, the U.S. women's soccer team facing off against defending World Cup champion Japan. It's the final and, of course, well, the winner takes home gold and the loser heads home with silver. I don't know, silver, not quite losing, it's just second place. But for the U.S., this is about redemption. Japan beat the U.S. women last year in the soccer world final. It's going to be interesting.

Tropical Storm Ernesto, now, this is weather news, weakened today as it skirted Mexico's flood-prone southern gulf coast. Hundreds of tourists evacuated from beach resorts along the Caribbean resorts and fishermen abandoned low-lying villages. Officials in Veracruz are still concerned about flooding in streams and rivers, as well as mountainous areas prone to landslides. It's drenching Central America. And oil installations in the Gulf of Mexico are taking precautionary measures as they watch this storm. We'll watch it for you, too.

More amazing pictures, more super excited NASA scientists, and space geeks the world over. Here are the newest photos from the surface of Mars. They're beamed back to earth by the robotic rover called Curiosity, of course. Back here on Earth, the space gurus in Pasadena are already learning about the gravel and the rocks and the dust that Curiosity is sitting on. So we'll let these pictures continue to play for a minute. And, again, we're not exactly sure what they are, but, I mean, it just looks like the horizon and mountainous regions and part of Curiosity. John Zarrella on top of everything at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.

So what are we seeing here, John? JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Don, before -- let me bring you back here real quick before we show you those images again and tell you where they're getting those from. And what they do back behind me, you can see this model of Curiosity, and on the mast there. And on either side of the masts are those circular cameras. Those are those stereo cameras. and they're called nav cameras. Navigation cameras. And they use those to navigate. And then the square cameras in the middle are the mast cameras.

So, now, the pictures that they got today came from both of those different instruments. Now, the nav cameras took the image that shows the deck of Curiosity. And on top of the deck of Curiosity, you see all those pebbles. And they're trying to figure -- in fact, the entry, decent and landing team, you know, now has the job to do to kind of figure out, you know, how all those pebbles got up there. They think it, of course, happened when the rocket engines were firing on the descent stage as it was lowering Curiosity to the ground and kicked up these pebbles. But they're bigger than they thought they were, although they don't think it's going to be any issue down the road for them.

Now, from that nav cam, they also got a shot of the rover in the foreground. And in the background, you can see the rim of the crater out there, the Gale Crater. Again, they're right in the middle of the landing zone. Pretty much exactly where they wanted to be.

And then from the mast cameras, and those are the cameras made by Mike Malin. We talked about him in the past, the San Diego picture Mars photographer who has taken hundreds of thousands of Mars images from all the cameras he's had on different vehicles orbiting Mars and landing on Mars. And it's a color panorama, but it's a thumbnail color parnorama of the martian surface all around.

LEMON: Hey, John.

ZARRELLA: And, yes, Don.

LEMON: Hey, before we run out of time, I want the ask you about these pictures. Anything that they found out of the ordinary or especially interesting? And my next question, I'll give you two at once, when is it going to start moving around and exploring?

ZARRELLA: OK. First question. What they found that was interesting, of course, were those pebbles right off the bat. And then what they had already found, and showed it again in that color panorama, was the spot where everything was kicked up. And it looks like bedrock was exposed from the rocket engines, so they want to go take a look at that.

But now, when are they actually going to get out the start exploring? Another couple of weeks before they check out the entire vehicle and make sure all of the systems are working. And as they mentioned, they want to send up a whole new commands and software to the vehicle, refresh the memory, so to speak, before they set out on the excursions, so a couple of weeks before they do that -- Don?

LEMON: The hinterlands are interesting. But we want to get into the urban areas of Mars and see how those folks live there.

(LAUGHTER)

John Zarrella, and little green men. I am telling you it is going to happen one day. We will see something and say, oh, my gosh, what was that? That is what it is all about though.

Thank you, John.

ZARRELLA: I will not -- you got it, Don. Take care.

(LAUGHTER)

LEMON: A Tennessee mosque has had one heck of a time trying to open in the town of Murfreesboro. After all of the hurdles, a judge said, yes, and it's opening tomorrow. I will talk to a mosque board member who says they have hired extra security to protect Friday prayers.

And don't forget that you can watch CNN live from the computer or while you are at work or on the go or on the iPhone or wherever you want to watch it, CNN.com/tv.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Places of worship targeted in a series of recent attacks, attacks. Just one day after a gunman opened fire at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin. A mosque in Missouri was burned to the ground in what may be the second arson attack there in the last month.

And a Tennessee mosque has seen it all -- arson, vandalism, and bomb threat, and a lawsuit -- all of it meant to keep the mosque from opening. But tomorrow, it will do just that, opening up the doors for the very first time.

Saleh Sbenaty is a spokesman for the Islamic Center for Murfreesboro in Tennessee. He joins us now by phone.

Listen, sir, after facing the fierce opposition that we have reported and many news organizations have reported, both in court and by criminals who have defaced your construction site and set afire there, how does it feel to finally be opening up the doors tomorrow?

SALEH SBENATY, SPOKESMAN, ISLAMIC CENTER FOR MURFREESBORO (voice- over): We are really happy and very, very happy and excited. We hope that everybody would be as excited and happy for us. The children, and the women and the elders and everybody is so excited. Our supporters, also, are very excited, because this shows that the Constitutions of the United States stands firm and supports everybody's plan to practice and worship the way they feel fit.

You know, we feel like we have been homeless for about 30 years or for over 30 years since we have been in this community. We moved from one-bedroom apartment to two-bedroom apartment to a garage, to, you know, a business suite. And then finally, we are hoping to have our building. And we are going to start worshipping there tomorrow. LEMON: Mr. Sbenaty, have you been watching the events in Wisconsin over the past couple of days and, if so, what do you make of it?

SBENATY: We are really saddened. And we were shocked. And we were really in horror about what happened there. We hope that no community will face it. Unfortunately, nowadays, there are people who preach hate and fear. And they may have not realized that, you know, there are some, you know, people who might take actions on their own or they want to take the law into their hands. And we need to be very careful about what we say or the accusations that, you know, these hate group or, you know, organization that sells fear --

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: One follow -- one quick question for you before we go. Are you beefing up security because -- in light of that or anything?

SBENATY: Yes, obviously, because we are really concerned, and we have asked the sheriff of Rutherford County to send more deputies. And also we are taking our own security measures. Obviously, we are all concerned. We are hoping that the best will happen. And we are taking, you know, precautions for anything that might happen.

LEMON: We hope that you are safe. We are sure you are going to be.

Thank you so much, Saleh Sbenaty, in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Appreciate it.

I should tell you guys that are watching that we are expecting Mitt Romney to pick his running mate any day now. There's plenty of speculation about who he will pick. So we are looking at each of the contenders and what each of them would bring to the campaign.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: A big political guessing game in full swing right now. It's called veepstakes. Let her rip. And any day now, we expect Mitt Romney to name his running mate.

Let's bring in our -- can we call him all things politics, me and Wolf Blitzer and everybody else --

(LAUGHTER)

-- our political editor, Paul Steinhauser.

So let's look at the ones to watch. Speculation around Tim Pawlenty, and Rob Portman, Paul Ryan. Is anybody a front-runner at this point?

PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN POLITICAL EDITOR: Well, there are three people who know the answer, Don, Mitt Romney, and his wife, Ann, and Beth Meyer, his trusted aide who is leading the search for a running mate. And they are not talking to me or anybody else. But, yes, the speculation does center on these three gentlemen.

Let's talk about them quickly. Tim Pawlenty, the two-term governor of Minnesota, he ran against Mitt Romney in the battle for the nomination but he dropped out last August. Since then he has been a huge Romney surrogate. What about Rob Portman, the Senator from Ohio, used to be a congressman from there, too, an important battleground state? Also he was in the Bush administration with two cabinet positions there. A lot of people talking about Portman, saying he would be a good fit for Mitt Romney. Neither of the men are flashy, and they're safer picks for Mitt Romney. Then there is Paul Ryan, the House budget chairman from Wisconsin, another important state. A lot of buzz about him. And this pick probably a little flashier. In fact, today, the "Wall Street Journal's" editorial page, very influential with the conservatives, they urged Romney to name Ryan. Ryan beloved by Tea Party activists and fiscal conservatives for his House plan, which would really change Medicare as we know it -- Don?

LEMON: Yes, and we saw the picture of Bobby Jindal, the Louisiana governor, up there. All right. That is all well and good. I don't see any ladies on the list. What is up with that?

STEINHAUSER: Yes, you're right. Jindal is somebody else we are talking about, as is Marco Rubio, and Chris Christie, the governor of New Jersey. Yes, but there don't seem to be many women on what could be the short list. The only name that still comes up is Kelly Ayotte, who is the freshman Senator from New Hampshire. But this seems to be a list dominated by men. But, Don, there could be somebody out there that we are not thinking about. It happened in the past with Sarah Palin.

(CROSSTALK)

STEINHAUSER: There could be somebody out there that we don't know about.

LEMON: Yes. You are talking about the timing, so what about the timing of the Announcement?

STEINHAUSER: I many guess and other people smarter than me say that probably starting Monday. Why? Because the Olympics are over, and more attention by most Americans, average Americans toward Mitt Romney and the campaign. And you have two weeks from Monday until the start of the convention, so I'm saying, any time, starting Monday. Mitt Romney starts a four-day campaign bus tour starting Saturday, so keep your eyes on it -- Don?

LEMON: We should call it the veep-lympics, who gets the gold and the silver and the bronze.

(LAUGHTER)

Thank you, Paul Steinhauser. Appreciate it.

So image being able to walk up to a counter and make a purchase without even taking out your wallet. Starbucks is trying out a product that will allow you the pay with your cell phone. It is new and interesting way to do it. You could do it before, but this is a different way. We will show you how it is done.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Can't get that caffeine fast enough? And caffeine addicts looking for a faster fix at Starbucks, listen up. The coffee giants joined forces with Square, a mobile phone payment platform, and this fall, the chain will begin letting customers pay for the beverages with their phones.

Mario Armstrong joins us.

Mario, you can do that already. I have an app on the phone. Is this something new?

MARIO ARMSTRONG, HLN DIGITAL LIFESTYLE EXPERT: Well, it is a good point that you hit on. Why do we need this? You can pay on your phone with an app, but this is what it is going to do, Don. Vendors and merchandisers and retailers want us to get to a mobile payment future. This helps to make it happen. If you see the square logo all throughout 7,000 or more Starbucks starting to use it, it will bring awareness to mobile payments. It is more about awareness than the convenience, because, as you mentioned, you can already do that.

But Square is popular and a lot of people use the device on existing cell phone. Small businesses, you can take a credit card and swipe it through the device. This is not how is it going to work at Starbucks. But this is how it works today.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: OK. It is multifunctional. You cane it at more than Starbucks and the swiping thing is it.

ARMSTRONG: That's right.

LEMON: So, is there an issue if you lose the phone and someone steals it?

ARMSTRONG: Well, that is a big issue altogether with mobile payments in general. No. There's different things, like Google Wallet, which is a mobile payment program on Android devices. They are putting in layers of protection. Of course, we don't want to have a breach happen, but we know it will at some point. But all of the companies I talked to said they have more than four layers -- at least four layers of security in the devices.

LEMON: Interesting. And I'm so glad that we are doing this because I saw it in the "Wall Street Journal" about social media sites and IPOs, and who is popular and not. LinkedIn is stealing center stage of Facebook when it comes to investors.

ARMSTRONG: Yes.

LEMON: Does it have to do with the bad IPO kickoff? I am sure it does.

ARMSTRONG: And this is like the Olympics. All of the sudden, LinkedIn is emerging with the gold medal. You are like, wait, I thought that Facebook would get the gold? The bottom line is the IPO did what it did. A lot of people thought it was great for the insiders, but for the general public, not so great.

The issue is this. Facebook makes most of its money from advertising. LinkedIn makes the majority of its money from premium subscriptions. People paying for the service. So when you have that, plus H.R. departments doing business with LinkedIn, and the fact that have a very good mobile application that works well, Facebook is still struggling, that makes for a better buy, if you will, or more substance, if you will, for a longer term future with LinkedIn than with Facebook.

LEMON: And when you go public, you're accountable.

ARMSTRONG: Yes, that's right.

LEMON: And people are saying, wait a minute, when they see these new IPO business plans, they say, this is really thin. It's not the traditional --

(CROSSTALK)

ARMSTRONG: That, too. You're right.

LEMON: All right, appreciate it. Thanks.

ARMSTRONG: Yes. Thank you, Don. Appreciate it. Take care.

LEMON: Did you have ever a brilliant idea that would solve an annoying problem or make a household chore easier? If you want to develop it, check out "The Next List."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So I really enjoy the design and the creative process and like pulling little levers there and tweaking little details from a design perspective.

But what really gets me excited is when I literally, like, when I hand an inventor their product for the first time, a product they can see on a napkin and post it on the Internet. And here I am, some random dude handing it to them and it's a real-life physical thing they'll be able to buy at Target next week. That, to me, is the most special part of the process.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: OK, here we go. I never thought in a million years that I would be talking about vibrators on national television. But I will be in just a minute. And somebody's not happy about it in New York.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) LEMON: Mayor Bloomberg and vibrators -- not often used in the same sentence. But when condom company, Trojan, set up pleasure carts like this one in New York City yesterday, the lines began to grow.

(LAUGHTER)

10,000 free vibrators up for grabs, and hundreds of New Yorkers waiting for a piece of the action or wanting a piece of the action. Without a permit, though, the city government had it shut down. But New York City is still buzzing again today. With a hot dog-style stands back --

(LAUGHTER)

-- legally this time. Vibrators and hot dogs. They did have a representative named Weiner.

On now to medical news. A new study says blue-collar employees have bigger health problems than other workers in the U.S. Gallup and Health Ways Report say smoking and obesity causes -- cause health problems for many blue-collar workers. The rate of blue-collar workers who smoke is 6 percent higher than the national average. More than 25 percent of the miner construction workers are said to be obese.

This relates to the story before that one. There could be another baby boom on the horizon, but not with a vibrator though. We'll tell you why.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: A baby boom could be right around the corner. The reason? The economy.

Alison Kosik joins us from the New York Stock Exchange.

What a weird variety of stories I'm doing today. Why a baby boom and how is it linked to the economy?

ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you are doing an interesting variety of stories today, Don, I must say.

Yes, let's talk about babies. A lot of things actually depend on how the economy is doing. If people have money or feel confident about their financial situation, they're more likely to buy a house, go on vacation, have more dinners out, and yes, more likely to have more kids. Look what happened during the recession. The nation's birthrate dropped because people were out of work and were worried about their finances. Well, guess what? The economy is improving every little bit. And analysts tell "CNN Money," we'll soon going to be having a mini baby boom. People have put it off a few years ago now feel more secure, they're really to have kids. Also, there are a lot of women in their child-bearing years. They are the baby boomers' kids, now in their late 20s, early 30s. Don, it's an economic indicator, babies. You didn't know that?

LEMON: I know it is. You know, that's where the term baby boom came from.

KOSIK: Yes.

LEMON: Listen, real quick, because we're running out of time here. Housing market, good news. If you're having a baby, you might need a bigger place.

KOSIK: Exactly. And those mortgage delinquency rates are at their lowest level in three years. That means more people are making their mortgage payments on time. That's important. If someone's behind on their payments, they're more likely to fall into foreclosure. Right now about 5.5 percent of mortgage payments are 60 days late. That's actually an improvement -- Don?

LEMON: Where's the Dow?

KOSIK: Dow is down 15. A little slow today.

LEMON: All right, Alison Kosik, thank you very much. We appreciate it.

The NEWSROOM continues now with the smart and beautiful, Alina Cho.