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American Morning
Republicans Playing Nice at Last Night's Debate; No Attacks on Romney: Republicans Take Aim at Obama Instead; President Weighs in on Weiner Scandal; Progress Battling Arizona Wildfire; Missouri River Levees Fail
Aired June 14, 2011 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Seven candidates, one target, Republicans playing nice with each other, blasting President Obama and his policies in their introduction to the nation. Plus, the White House on Weiner-gate. Even the president now saying the sexting scandal is too big of a distraction on this AMERICAN MORNING.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning to you. It is Tuesday, June 14th. Glad you're with us on this AMERICAN MORNING.
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: A lot going on the debate last night.
CHETRY: Yes. There wasn't as many fireworks as I think many were hoping for. It was a pretty calm, civil debate.
ROMANS: It's early. I think this is an introduction, but I think there are also die-hards in the Republican Party this morning who are already naming other names that weren't even up there.
VELSHI: We heard that. Yes. We heard a bunch of people talking about other people, but they did talk about jobs, health care, and boy, did they blast President Obama. Seven GOP presidential contenders facing off last night in the first major debate of the presidential race.
ROMANS: Yes. They went easy on the frontrunner, Mitt Romney, but focused all their fire on the man they're hoping to beat in 2012. Jessica Yellin has the highlights for us.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JESSICA YELLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: At the first major debate of the primary season.
JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: Say hello to your seven candidates.
YELLIN: There were seven different voices but one common message.
MITT ROMNEY, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This president has failed and he's failed at a time when the American people counted on him to create jobs and get the economy going.
TIM PAWLENTY, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This president is a declinist. He views America as one of equals around the world. YELLIN: No surprise, the candidates drew a bull's eye on the president's economic stewardship.
KING: Has he done one thing right when it comes to the economy in this country?
PAWLENTY: Boy, that's a tough question.
(LAUGHTER)
No, no, I can't think of anything.
YELLIN: But what did surprise some, Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty passed up an opportunity to confront Mitt Romney on health care even though just the day before, he had ridiculed the president's health care plan as "Obam-ney-care."
PAWLENTY: We took a different approach in Minnesota. We didn't use top down government mandates and individual requirements from government.
YELLIN: Given a second chance, Pawlenty ducked again.
KING: Why is it not "Obama-ney-care" standing with the governor right there?
PAWLENTY: President Obama is the person who I quoted in saying he looked to Massachusetts for designing his program.
YELLIN: Representative Michele Bachmann made some news.
MICHELE BACHMANN, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I filed today my paperwork to seek the office of the presidency of the United States today.
YELLIN: Former speaker Newt Gingrich avoided his news, never mentioning his massive campaign team defections, focusing instead on the issues.
NEWT GINGRICH, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The Congress this year, this next week, ought to repeal the Dodd-Frank bill, they ought to repeal the Sarbanes-Oxley bill, and they ought to start creating jobs right now.
YELLIN: For former godfather's pizza CEO Herman Cain this debut was something of a national debut.
HERMAN CAIN, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I am not a politician. I am a problem solver. This economy is stalled. Like a train on the track with no engines.
YELLIN: For former Senator Rick Santorum, it was an opportunity to underscore his dedication to social conservative issues.
RICK SANTORUM, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Not only have I been consistently prolife, but I've not just taken the pledge, I've taken the bullets to go out and fight for this and lead on those issues.
YELLIN: All the candidates pledged to stand against abortion rights, same-sex marriage, and to reinstate the ban on gays and lesbians serving in the military. But the main focus of the night --
BACHMANN: We're going to win. Just make no mistake about it. I want to announce tonight, President Obama is a one-term president.
YELLIN: This is the spin room where operatives from each campaign tell us why they think their candidate won. One of the big questions, why was this such a tame debate? The big reason, it's still early days and none of the candidates wants to be seen as too negative, attacking their fellow Republicans, especially when they're only just introducing themselves to their key voters.
Jessica Yellin, CNN, New Hampshire.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: So who won? A poll of GOP insiders says Mitt Romney didn't do anything to hurt his frontrunner status last night, and that's what his goal was, obviously to do no harm. And 51 percent saying he was the biggest winner. Congresswoman Michele Bachmann also scored some big points as well, coming in second when people were asked, who won, 21 percent. She was the only other candidate in double digits.
VELSHI: And joining us now from New Hampshire, from Manchester, CNN's political analyst Gloria Borger. What's your take away from all this last night?
GLORIA BORGER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, what I think about having had a few hours to reflect on it, this is a completely different feeling I get from this Republican field than from the Republican field four years ago. It's much more conservative. It's much more noninterventionist. I remember John McCain, of course, the leading candidate and a nominee last time. You don't have that sort of McCain intervention weighing of the party. You have social conservatives, fiscal conservatives.
So if I'm an independent voter looking at this panel, that's what I'm curious about is just how did they receive this debate last night because not only were they not giving Barack Obama any quarter, but you have Michele Bachmann talking about not voting to raise the debt ceiling. You have Ron Paul talking about no intervention anywhere. So it's a very different Republican party.
ROMANS: What's interesting, Gloria, because we did talk to an independent-minded Republican voter just a few minutes ago and he said he really liked Michele Bachmann but he thinks that whoever wins the New Hampshire primary, he's a New Hampshire resident, wasn't on that stage. Talked about Jon Huntsman and these other names that come up.
VELSHI: Rudy Giuliani, Rick Perry.
ROMANS: And Chris Christie and the like. The fact that we keep talking or hearing about these other names, does it show that maybe that this is kind of a lackluster collection?
BORGER: Well, what it shows you is how divided the Republican Party really is.
ROMANS: Yes.
BORGER: I mean the names that you mentioned, Giuliani and Huntsman, for example, are moderates, OK. Rick Perry, very, very conservative, would appeal to the tea party candidates. So you have a party that is effectively split.
I mean we had a poll yesterday in which we asked Republicans which of these candidates really represents you and your values and what you believe. And the two top ones were Palin and Giuliani whom you know don't share much of anything in terms of their political beliefs.
So it's a party kind of in search of itself and it's divided all over the lot about what it thinks its priorities ought to be. They're all fiscal conservatives, but they want to go about it in very different ways. Mitt Romney it seems to me is a lot more conservative candidate this time around than he was four years ago.
ROMANS: The other interesting thing that seems to happen, Gloria, we know this, you have that remorse factor with oh it could have, should have, would have been this person. It always seems like the people with the most intensity in the primary don't stack up as being viable contenders in a general election. We saw it on the Democratic side with Howard Dean 2008, Ron Paul setting fundraising records. Who actually gives president Obama fight in the general election in your opinion?
BORGER: Well, I mean that's what every Republican is trying to figure out. I don't know. They -- our poll we asked Republicans, seven out of ten said the most important thing is electability. I think at this point, you have to take a look at the fellow who's run before, Mitt Romney, who understands what it's like to go through this entire race, which after all, is an endurance test.
The interesting thing, though, to me that I thought was kind of missing from last night, was sort of an optimism, a hopefulness about the future, which Ronald Reagan always had, which people really liked to see in their presidential candidates. I think that's one of the reasons that Michele Bachmann did so well which is, you saw that coming out of her.
You can't just be a mirror of people's resentments. You have to also represent their hopes and their aspirations as a presidential candidate. And I didn't see a lot of that last night. So, I think we'll see it in the future as we get down the campaign trail and these people have the ability to kind of hone their message.
ROMANS: All right. Gloria Borger. Thank you so much.
BORGER: Sure.
VELSHI: You spoke to one of the voters you spoke to, said, you know, they can't just blame Democrats. I wanted to hear real answers on how we're going to do that. Maybe we're still early?
CHETRY: A couple minutes we'll speak to Governor Tim Pawlenty, and he actually was almost derided yesterday for saying we could have five percent growth each year, if China and Brazil can, we can. And people are saying that's unrealistic.
VELSHI: We'll get a chance to ask him that directly at 7:30 eastern. Also, we're going to hear from Obama team surrogate Robert Gibbs -- Tim Pawlenty 7:15, Robert Gibbs 7:30. And we'll have a breakdown from what happened from David Gergen and Ron Brownstein.
ROMANS: President Obama among those saying another interesting saying Weiner should probably get out, he should leave.
CHETRY: Also some controversy surrounding Tracy Morgan with troubles of him own, trying to make amends of a homophobic rant during his stand-up tour. We'll tell you what he's saying now.
VELSHI: And you'll take a look at these pictures, exactly what you don't want to see up ahead on the highway. Storm chasers right in the middle heavy storm. As Kiran said, it's nine minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. Here's what's new today. Severe storms in eastern Colorado brought heavy rain and hail the size of golf balls. We got video in.
VELSHI: Listen.
CHETRY: I know. The sounds and sights of this, shot by storm chasers on highway 36 near Anten, Colorado. In a second you will be able to see the rainbow that formed during that intense hail storm.
VELSHI: And the rising Missouri river punching two holes in two separate levees along the Iowa-Missouri border. The first breach was 300 feet wide. It could flood the town of Hamburg, Iowa. The second levee failed in Hull County, Missouri, sending flood waters into farmland.
ROMANS: And a mea culpa from comedian and "30 Rock" star Tracy Morgan for a violent homophobic rant delivered ruing a live show in Nashville earlier this months. Morgan's going back to music city next week with a member of GLAAD, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation to apologize face to face to people who were in that audience.
CHETRY: Before last night's presidential debate it was widely predicted the candidates might gang up on frontrunner Mitt Romney. Former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty was a big critic on the Sunday talk shows calling Romney's Massachusetts health care law "Obam-ney care." Last night in New Hampshire, Pawlenty wasn't picking any fights. Here's a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Why would you choose those words in the comfort of the Sunday studio, your rival is standing right there. If it was "Obam-ney care" on "FOX News Sunday," why is not "Obam-ney" care standing with the governor there?
PAWLENTY: President Obama is the person I quoted in saying he looked to Massachusetts for designing his program. He's the one who said it's a blueprint and he merged the two programs and so using the term "Obam-ney care" was a reflection of the president's comments that he designed Obamacare on the Massachusetts health care plan.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Joining us live from New Hampshire this morning is Republican presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty. Thanks for being with us this morning.
PAWLENTY: Good morning. Happy to be with you.
CHETRY: I watched the debate last night and reading a lot of the articles and reaction this morning. A lot of people are wondering why you didn't take the chance to give some hard-hitting criticism of Mitt Romney's health care reform last night when you were with limb on stage.
PAWLENTY: There was a question asked by the audience from Sylvia that I was trying to respond to. When John asked about the "Obam-ney care" reference, I repeated what I did say on the Sunday morning show, which is president Obama was the one who indicated he used the Massachusetts health care plan as the blue pints for Obamacare. So it was restated just essentially the same way as I said it on Sunday morning.
CHETRY: Did you miss an opportunity, though, to more strongly differentiate how you feel about not only the health care bill, but the Massachusetts bill -- the Massachusetts law as well?
PAWLENTY: Well, again, the debate was focused primarily on Barack Obama and his failure as a president. We've got high levels of unemployment, $4 a gallon gas, a federal government that's out of control. There's going to be some differences between the Republican candidates, but the focus last night was on Barack Obama. And I did, again, highlight that President Obama himself is the one who said that the Obamacare was designed after the Massachusetts health care plan.
CHETRY: All right. So bottom line is you and Mitt Romney are going to be competitors at least if either one of you are going to get a shot at challenging the president. Why is your -- why are your ideas about what to do with our health care crisis which we do have, better than Mitt Romney's?
PAWLENTY: Well, I think Obamacare is a top down command and control system that has individual mandates. It has limited choices that government is going to regulate. It's going to tax more.
We took a very different approach in Minnesota. We want health care reform. We were really leading the nation in it. But it's more based on consumers and freedom and market choices and letting people decide what's best for them and their families rather than the government. CHETRY: Is it unrealistic though to think that what works at the state level can work nationwide?
PAWLENTY: Well, what we know works for sure not just at states but nationwide is markets. And when people are given the freedom to choose what's best for them and their families and having accountability not just for volumes of procedures performed but pain providers for value and for results, those are the kinds of reforms we did in Minnesota. They work and they deliver good results. It's very different than Obamacare. It's very different than having mandates and government takeovers. We did it the other way.
CHETRY: A national journal political insider poll last night and they chose Romney as the winner of the debate and they chose you as, quote, "the biggest loser." Why do you think that some of these Republicans are panning your performance? Twenty-six percent say that you were the biggest loser in the debate.
PAWLENTY: Well, I think I saw a poll on your station last night that had me in the top three or four of some national journal experts or the like. But nonetheless, I think people may have been expecting an attack on Mitt Romney and I just repeated what I said on the Sunday show and tried to focus on President Obama.
CHETRY: I also want to ask you a question. You put out a very interesting article about what your economic plan would be for getting us out of our high unemployment, getting us out of the economic troubles we've been in and a Bloomberg op-ed called your tax plan at least, quote, "magical thinking," saying that your plan to cut taxes on business and investment and high earners that would then lead to five percent growth every year for a decade is something that neither the Reagan boom or the Clinton boom could achieve. Can you give me some more detail on how that would actually happen?
PAWLENTY: Sure. And respected economists like John Taylor at Stanford, by the way, Steve Forbes wrote yesterday that my plan actually would work and five percent growth is achievable but it starts with this premise -- what we're doing now isn't working. President Obama's got the country on the wrong track. Millions of Americans are hurting and are underemployed or unemployed and we need to try something positive and optimistic about job growth in this country. And that plan -- my plan lays it out. I'm the only one in the race with a plan and I presented that last night. But it includes massive tax cuts to try to stimulate the economy. It includes reducing spending, but also regulatory reform, permitting reform, energy reform, health care reform. And if you do those things and shrink government, we'll grow the private economy and grow jobs in this country.
CHETRY: The question was asked but I will ask you again, because I know that there were six other people on the stage with you last night. Why didn't that work in the Bush era then? I mean, with the massive, massive tax cuts that, obviously, didn't lead to job growth or we wouldn't be at 9.1 percent unemployment right now?
PAWLENTY: If you look back at the history of tax cuts under John Kennedy, under Reagan, under President Bush the second, we just isolate on the effects of those tax cuts. They do grow government revenues and they do stimulate the economy. But you've got to also look at what else happened during those eras.
We're not proposing to also raise government spending. We want to reduce government spending and reform government in a more pro jobs, more pro-growth direction and if you do that, you'll have a better result. And the folks who've looked at my plan, like I said, John Taylor, Steve Forbes, these are credible seasoned people. They said not only is it going to work, but it's necessary to get the country out of the doldrums that President Obama has us in.
CHETRY: All right. Great to talk to you this morning, Tim Pawlenty, presidential candidate, 2012, as well as former Minnesota governor, thanks so much.
PAWLENTY: Thank you.
VELSHI: Good conversation.
Coming up next on AMERICAN MORNING, hold on to your wallet while your electricity bill could spike by up to 60 percent.
ROMANS: And this has got you all riled up this morning. A new study says thinner women and bigger or more muscular men take home larger paychecks. That leads us to our question of the day. Do size and success go hand in hand?
We want to know what you think. Send us an e-mail, a tweet, tell us on Facebook. We'll read your thoughts throughout the program.
It's 19 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: It's 23 minutes past the hour. "Minding Your Business" this morning.
Right now, futures are up ahead of the opening bell as investors are looking for new economic data out this morning. Retail sales and the producer price index for May come out at 8:30 a.m. Eastern. This afternoon, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke speaks about the federal budget in Washington.
Air Canada's customer service and sales employees walked off the job at midnight last night after they couldn't reach an agreement on the airline with pension plans. Air Canada says the airline is fully operational but warns of long lines at check-ins.
Americans paid almost $5.7 billion in airline fees last year. That's according to the Department of Transportation. Most of that money came from baggage fees and fees to change reservations.
Your electric bill could spike by, get this, up to 60 percent in the next few years. According to an advocacy group, new environmental regulations could make coal-fired generating plants more expensive to operate.
Disney raising ticket prices to their major theme parks for the second time in a year. The biggest increase, a three-day pass to Disneyland and Disney California Adventure Park jumped from $206 to $224.
State budget cuts taking a bite out of this year's Fourth of July celebrations. According to "USA Today," several cities across the country have already canceled this year's fireworks displays to save money for local governments.
Don't forget, for the very latest news about your money, check out the all-new CNNmoney.com.
Coming up, President Obama weighs in on whether Anthony Weiner should resign. AMERICAN MORNING will be right back after this break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Good morning. Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. The House has now granted Anthony Weiner's request for a two-week leave of absence. It was read on the House floor last night. No objections. The New York Democrat said he has -- plans to seek professional treatment after admitting that he sent suggestive messages and pictures to several women over Twitter and Facebook. He's not said that he plans to leave for good.
ROMANS: And now, President Obama is joining the list of people who are suggesting that Congressman Weiner should resign. Ed Henry is live at the White House with that.
Good morning, Ed.
ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christine. You're right. I mean, the bottom line is the president's message can be boiled down to two words, enough already. I mean, he's out on the road. He was in North Carolina yesterday, then on to Miami raising some money, but also trying to talk about creating jobs, trying to beat up on the Republicans a little bit for the changes they want to make to Medicare and instead, Weiner-gate drags on for yet more days.
And what's interesting is that in this interview with Ann Curry for NBC's "Today" show, the president stopped short of directly calling on Weiner to resign. Instead just saying, look, he's a distraction and enough already, let's move on. But he did stop short of calling on a resignation directly. And so not necessarily a shove but at least a push. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Ultimately there's going to be a decision for him and his constituents. I can tell you that if it was me, I would resign.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HENRY: So he basically said he would resign if he was in the same position. Why would he stop short?
Well, number one, if Weiner does not resign, the president doesn't want to look like he's got no juice here and can't force a decision. But secondly, you know, he doesn't want to add even more distraction by directly calling for a resignation. Everyone jumped on that when nobody really knows what Weiner is going to do. He made this gut this out for a bit longer and give the president, the Democratic leaders a bit more heartburn, guys.
VELSHI: Ed Henry, you and I are both big Twitter users, you remember the day, don't worry, I'm not going anywhere bad with this, Robert Gibbs when press secretary launched his Twitter account, he got 30,000, 40,000 people within a day.
HENRY: Immediately, I mean, Gibbs jumped ahead of both of us. It was embarrassing.
VELSHI: It was embarrassing, but guess what, he's coming up in a few minutes to talk about last night's debate. And I'm trying to tweet it as I always want to and his people have said he hasn't decided on a Twitter handle yet.
HENRY: Yes, you know, Jay Carney took the @pressec so Gibbs is without a Twitter handle. So I bet it will be something related to Auburn though. They were just there after winning the national championship. That's his home.
KIRAN CHETRY: Does it have to be something related to Obama since he's heading up the --
HENRY: Especially since he's a surrogate for the campaign. Yes, I think it's going to have to be Obama 12. Something related to that.
VELSHI: When you find it out, tweet it out. Good to see you, my friend.
CHETRY: Meanwhile, we're crossing the half hour right now. Time for a check of the top stories.
They didn't lay a glove on each other. They did go after the president, but seven Republican candidates pummeled President Obama during their first major campaign debate last night in New Hampshire. The attacks focusing mainly on the president's handling of the economy.
Right off the top, Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann announced her official candidacy for president.
Progress on the fire lines in Arizona, slow progress, though. A massive wildfire that's burned more than 700 square miles is now 10 percent contained. It's been burning since Memorial Day and spread across the border to New Mexico, which forced the famous Carlsbad Cavern's National Park to close.
ROMANS: And it's a race to save Hamburg, Iowa, from the rising Missouri River. The river ruptured two levees along the Iowa Missouri border. The first breach was about 300 feet wide. Officials fear it could flood Hamburg. A second levy failed in Holt County sending flood waters into nearby farmland.
VELSHI: Let's go back to New Hampshire. Last night, seven Republican candidates for the White House took turns teeing off on President Obama. Slamming everything from his health care reforms to his economic policies, all while as Kiran said playing very nicely with each other.
Joining us this morning for the response to that Obama bashing, is former President Obama secretary, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs in New Hampshire, to give the president perspective on the debate.
Robert, good to see you. You heard Ed and I talking -- I couldn't tweet out we were talking this morning because you don't have a Twitter handle. What's up with that?
ROBERT GIBBS, FORMER WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Well look, it doesn't seem like an altogether bad time to be off Twitter from what I can gather from the news.
VELSHI: Hear you.
GIBBS: But I'm sure I'll be up doing it soon. It is -- it's a fabulous medium to communicate not in this country, but we've seen the impact it can have all over this world.
VELSHI: Let's take a look at a CNN Opinion Research poll taken June 3rd to 7th of Republicans asking who can beat President Obama and as we know, we think Republicans are saying right now winnability is their biggest concern.
Mitt Romney is on that list, 65 percent of Republicans saying he can beat the president and the next couple on that list are Giuliani and Palin and then Gingrich and Ron Paul. What are your thoughts on that?
GIBBS: Well look, I think last night, up here in New Hampshire, is just the beginning of -- I think what's going to be a very long process. It certainly was four years ago, in trying to introduce yourself to the American people.
Talk about what you've done, and they'll be many, many more things like this before a nominee gets picked. I think you saw last night that Republicans wanted to spend more time trying to bash the president than talking about their own records, you know.
If you're Mitt Romney and you've ranked 47th out of 50 in terms of state job creation when you were governor or Tim Pawlenty who left Minnesota with a $6.2 billion deficit. It's no wonder why you would want to talk about somebody else.
VELSHI: What about those who aren't in there? We talked to some voters this morning who said they think the person who's going to get the nomination and take a swipe at the president isn't -- wasn't on that stage. Whether it's a Chris Christie or Rudy Giuliani or Rick Perry or names like that. Are you more worried about one of those people who aren't in the field getting in?
GIBBS: Well, you know, it's hard at this point to be worried about one specific person. I will say that judging by everything that we see, you can tell that this Republican nomination is at its most unsettled that we've seen it in quite some time.
I think many people are still looking at this and as you mentioned, many Republicans seem to be dissatisfied with the choices that they have currently and would like to see more.
I think back again, four years ago in the Democratic primary, Democratic voters were quite pleased with who they had to select from. This time Republicans are not pleased at who they get to pick.
VELSHI: All right, you talked about Tim Pawlenty and Mitt Romney's records and job creation in their states as governors. Right now, let me give you the same opinion research poll, CNN Opinion Research poll.
Economic conditions today are good, only 19 percent of Americans think so, bad/poor 81 percent. You know, we just saw this May jobs report, 54,000 jobs added.
At some point, back when you were press secretary, you could lay a lot of that blame on the previous administration, but now we're well more than two years in and that doesn't sort of hold as much water anymore.
GIBBS: Well look, I don't think the American people want to figure out who to blame five or six years ago. I will say this though, Ali, I think what you saw last night were candidates espousing the very same ideas that got us into a financial, a fiscal, and an economic mess a few years ago.
Tax cuts, more tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires, the removal of responsibility from our financial system by repealing financial reform. Privatizing Medicare, I'm sorry, privatizing Social Security, slashing Medicare. A lot of these ideas again, they've been proposed and many of these ideas got us into this mess and I don't think the American people think that's how we're going to get out of this mess.
The president was in North Carolina meeting with CEOs about job training, about strengthening the economy, investing in reforming in our educational system. I think all of those will create the foundation for stronger economic growth and job creation.
VELSHI: Less than a minute, let me ask you a question, put on somebody else's hat for a second and I know you're good at doing that. We are talking about job creation and solutions.
The Federal Reserve in Dallas says that Texas accounted for 37 percent of the new jobs since recovery. If you're looking at solutions a lot of people will be looking to Rick Perry.
If you're Rick Perry right now with the defections from Newt Gingrich's team, with these numbers, with the dissatisfaction that Republicans have, if you're Rick Perry's adviser, would you tell him to get in this race?
GIBBS: You know, I probably would because as you mentioned there's a vacuum for somebody with even a half decent economic record on the Republican side.
If you're Mitt Romney or you're Tim Pawlenty, you're not going to walk out there and talk about what Massachusetts or Minnesota has done economically under your stewardship because quite frankly, it's not that impressive.
So I can see how this dangled out would be something that a Rick Perry or somebody else would want to jump into.
VELSHI: Robert Gibbs, good to see you. Thanks very much for joining us. Get yourself a Twitter handle and I'll tweet we had this conversation.
GIBBS: Thank you, sir.
CHETRY: Well, last night's debate was Michele Bachmann's coming out party I guess you could say. She is a favorite of the Tea Party Movement and she announced her candidacy officially yesterday.
The road to the Republican nomination winds through Tea Party nomination, the chairperson of the Tea Party express says in a statement, quote, "the important thing to remember is we are going to give the GOP a candidate. We're not just going to accept what the GOP has handed us all of these years." That's from Amy Kremer.
ROMANS: CNN's Casey Wian watched the debate with a group of Tea Party members in Iowa. Did the candidates make a connection there? Casey is live for us this morning. Hi, Casey.
CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. I'm outside the Elks Lodge in Council Bluff, Iowa, where 75 members of the Tea Party watched last night's debate. This is a place where it was the beginning of their month-long bus tour of the state of Iowa.
They'll be going through several cities and some of those Republican candidates will be addressing the Tea Party in this state. The mood here among the folks of the Tea Party who were watching this debate was somewhat skeptical, somewhat reserved. Here's what they had to say about last night's debate.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A lot of them have said less government. OK. That's one of the concepts of the Tea Party. The other concept that the Tea Party believes in is getting back to the constitution. That's one thing I haven't heard them say. But the idea of getting less government and less taxes, that's what I've heard and that's what I like so far.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A couple people surprised me. One of them is Newt Gingrich. I think he's going to have some campaign staff that maybe he's going to be wanting their job back. So we'll wait and see.
He's a little bit of an impressive fellow this evening. Another one that's impressive is Michele Bachmann. I think she's got a connection to people that's just evident and I really like her style.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WIAN: Now, when organizers of the event asked those in attendance to applaud when they read off the names of the different candidates, Michele Bachmann was one of the folks who received the loudest round of applause from the Tea Partiers.
Perhaps the loudest though was Ron Paul. He's a big favorite here among the Tea Party crowd. What was, perhaps, most striking, though, was not one person in attendance here thought that Mitt Romney actually won the debate.
Perhaps that's because he has basically decided to skip the straw poll here later this summer in Iowa, a lot of folks around here not very happy about that. Back to you, guys.
CHETRY: Yes, and Casey, he spent some money in Iowa last time around and this time just decided he's going to skip Iowa. So I don't know which comes first to people saying he didn't rate for them or --
VELSHI: Or him being there.
ROMANS: Not going there because the people this time around are saying they don't rate for him.
WIAN: He spent some money here last time and did very well in Iowa, but it didn't get him the nomination. He has a different strategy this time.
ROMANS: Thanks so much, Casey Wian. My grandma was born in Council Bluffs.
VELSHI: You've got family from everywhere in Iowa, right? There's nowhere in Iowa that your family hasn't touched.
ROMANS: No. There are 99 counties. There are probably 70 we haven't touched.
VELSHI: Pet allergies, either of you have them?
CHETRY: My pet has allergies unfortunately, which is why his dog food is like 60 bucks a bag.
VELSHI: OK, well, that's definitely not the story we're talking about. If you have a dog or cat as a kid, you may be less likely to develop pet allergies when you're older. We'll tell you about that when we come back. A lot of kids want to listen to this.
CHETRY: Ohio, basking in LeBron James misery even the governor is dishing him. I'll show his official proclamation coming up.
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VELSHI: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. Health headlines. American doctors are reaching for their prescription pads way too often that is according to a new report by Patient Safety Researchers at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.
They say in 2007 alone, there were more than 11,000 deaths in this country related to prescription opioids. The study concludes doctors are too quick to prescribe drugs without considering the side effects of non-drug alternatives. Opioids are --
CHETRY: They are narcotic painkillers.
ROMANS: And you can't really stay on those more than six weeks without developing an addiction, right?
CHETRY: For many people. I mean, there are some who unfortunately because of their illness or their chronic pain have to be on it. But I mean, it's also highly abused as we know.
VELSHI: Yes.
CHETRY: And the study is very unfortunate. The Food and Drug Administration plans to make some changes to the labels on sunscreen products. The idea is to try to get consumers better information about avoiding skin cancer. Right now, SPF claims only refer to protection against certain types of radiation. The FDA plans to implement a four-star system that would clarify what type of protection sunscreens offer.
And I think what they're referring to here is the UVA versus UVB rays. One can prevent burns but the other one actually prevents skin cancers. So you got to read the fine print.
ROMANS: When I take my kids to the beach -- I'm just looking at this video -- when I take my kids to the beach they are covered.
VELSHI: Right, they look --
CHETRY: I know, from head to toe.
VELSHI: They look like tribal dancers.
ROMANS: You can see their knees to their ankles. They even have these Lawrence of Arabia hats on.
(CROSSTALK)
ROMANS: A study says kids who grow up with cats and dogs are less likely to develop allergies to those animals when they get older, as long as they were infants when those pets were introduced to their homes. Researchers found kids who grew up with cats or dogs are about 60 percent less likely to develop allergies to those animals than as teenagers.
We'll Tweet out this exact study so that all of you can -- VELSHI: Every kid here.
ROMANS: -- print it out for your parents.
CHETRY: There is nothing cuter than sleeping dogs or kittens (ph). They're so cute.
ROMANS: I know.
VELSHI: More information on the stories about your health, you can visit CNN.com/health.
CHETRY: All right. Forty-six minutes past the hour. We're talking about Midwest storms continuing.
(WEATHER REPORT)
VELSHI: All right. LeBron James still has no rings and Ohio couldn't be happier about it. One day after the Dallas Mavericks beat LeBron and the Heat in the NBA finals, Governor John Kasich declared the Mavs honorary Ohioans. LeBron bolted for Miami last offseason to play with the super stars Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. He didn't get any further than he did in Cleveland, at least this year.
Do we think all of Ohio is as mad as some people in Ohio are about this?
ROMANS: Well, pretty much everybody I know in Ohio.
(CROSSTALK)
CHETRY: We sent Carol Costello there for the first game he had to face the crowd.
VELSHI: That's right.
CHETRY: You know, there was a lot of anger but just what to do about is a different story. They were just -- I think it would have been really -- it just would have been so bad for them if the Miami Heat won.
VELSHI: I'm not quite sure what the Dallas Mavericks are going to do about being honorary Ohioans.
CHETRY: They've got keys to the city now. They can do whatever they want.
VELSHI: Have at it.
CHETRY: Keys to the whole state.
ROMANS: Up next on AMERICAN MORNING, the buzz is building. Facebook, is it ready to go public? We're going to have details on this new chatter.
CHETRY: There's also a new study out saying that thinner women and bigger men, this could be heavier or it could be more muscular, take home larger paychecks. It leads us to our question of the day: Do size and success go hand in hand?
We want to know what you think. Send us an e-mail --
VELSHI: Great answers we're getting.
CHETRY: A Tweet or tell us about it on Facebook.
Yes, we are getting some good responses and we'll read your thoughts coming up in a couple minutes.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: A whole lot going on this morning. Here's what you need to know to star your day.
Seven Republican presidential contenders faced off last night in one of the first debates of the primary season. They all criticized President Obama's handling of the economy and preached against big government.
President Obama telling NBC News that if he were Congress Anthony Weiner he'd step down. Weiner's reportedly on the fence about whether to resign after sending lewd photos to women.
Floodwaters are right now threatening the town of Hamburg, Iowa, after two levees failed along the swollen Missouri River. So far, no one in that town is being ordered to evacuate.
Facebook could go public next year with a value of $100 billion. That's according to, CNBC, which says it spoke to, quote, "people familiar with the matter."
The Boston Bruins forcing a game seven in the Stanley Cup finals against the Vancouver Canucks last night, beating them 5-2. One thing we know for sure is that the Bruins or the Canucks will be skating around with the cup after tomorrow night's deciding game in Vancouver.
And after months of setbacks and on-set injuries, "Spiderman Turn Off the Dark" officially opens tonight on Broadway. The estimated $80 million production is the most expensive musical to ever hit the great white way.
You're caught up on the day's headlines. AMERICAN MORNING back in 60 seconds.
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VELSHI: See, size does really matter when it comes down to the size of your paycheck. According to a study in the "Journal of Applied Psychology," women who are 25 pounds below the average female weight take home $15,000 more than other women a year. And it's the opposite for men.
CHETRY: That's right. They say men who are 25 pounds below the average weight of a male take home about $8,400 a year less than other men. In other words, heavier men, and this could be muscular or it could be just chubbier, take home heftier paychecks.
ROMANS: And that brings us to our question of the day --
VELSHI: Which is better? Muscular or chubby?
(CROSSTALK)
ROMANS: Wait a minute. Do size -- it's husky. It's husky, not chubby.
VELSHI: Husky. Right, right.
ROMANS: Do size and success go hand in hand?
CHETRY: Yes, and here are some of our responses.
Autumn Rosey Meadows on Facebook. "We try to say there's no discrimination in hiring for things as petty as this, but we all know it's just harder to prove now as employers are more subtle about it. Our culture is based on physical beauty and success. I have no doubt blondes get paid more than average brunettes. American can be very superficial at times."
ROMANS: I don't know. I would think if you're talking about superficial, maybe blondes would be paid less than if you believe her, because, you know, isn't there a stereotype that brunettes are smarter?
VELSHI: I'm living proof that --
CHETRY: Brunettes are smarter?
VELSHI: That success is not based on physical beauty.
All right Maria says on Facebook, "It's amazing that unless you're thin nowadays, you can't get a job. I'm a plus-size woman. I've applied for tons of jobs in the last two years and every time I go to an interview, the guy or woman interviewing me always makes a face. And even if I'm qualified they pass me up just because."
ROMANS: Ouch.
OK, Deborah on the blog says, "The connection between weight and success probably has to do with personality and drive. The same person who works out, skinnier for women, muscular for men, is the same person who is determined in business."
VELSHI: Interesting.
CHETRY: Well, they asked they questions so they ask people to give these quotes about how they viewed people, ascribe sort of adjectives for them.
VELSHI: Right. CHETRY: And for these guys that were more muscular they said best friend, lots of friends, polite, happy, brave, healthy, smart. And then when they talked about the skinnier or slender men, they were described with negative traits, nervous, sneaky, afraid, sad, weak and sick.
ROMANS: Very interesting.
VELSHI: Very interesting.
CHETRY: It is interesting. These are just comments that people were asked.
VELSHI: And your comments are excellent, by the way. We're getting some really good ones so keep them coming.
ROMANS: Send us a e-mail, a Tweet, tell us on Facebook. We're going to read more of your responses throughout the morning.
OK, ahead next hour, incredible pictures of a blimp that went down in flames and the amazing story of a hero pilot who went down with it, but he saved others.
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