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American Morning
Attack at American Embassy in Kabul Kills One; Freed American Hikers Criticize Iranian Government for Detention; American Convicted of Murder in Italy Undergoing Retrial; Federal Government Faces Shutdown over Disaster Relief Funding; Bill Clinton Claims President Should Not Raise Taxes; Shooting at a U.S. Embassy in Kabul; Obama's Big Sell; Government Shutdown Looming; Why is Our Government So Broken?; Romney Captures Michigan Straw Poll; Cain Captures Florida Straw Poll; An Interview with Herman Cain; Rules to Dating in a Tough Economy; Hurricane, Fire Victims Hang in Balance of Budget Debate
Aired September 26, 2011 - 06:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): A government shutdown looming again.
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Oh, it can't be.
COSTELLO: Oh! I'm sorry it is. Gridlock over a federal budget and a battle over FEMA funding which has become its own disaster.
VELSHI: And Herman Cain goes from pizza king to upset king with a key win in a critical state. The Perry camp is left wondering this morning.
COSTELLO: The Amanda Knox appeal wrapping this week. Could the American student convicted of a brutal murder in Italy be home by Thanksgiving?
VELSHI: Love me for the money. The millionaire matchmaker, herself, on how this economy has changed dating and love for better or for worse on this AMERICAN MORNING.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Good morning and Happy Monday to you. It is September 26th. Christine has the day off. Welcome to AMERICAN MORNING.
VELSHI: That is highly convenient to have a Monday off after a weekend.
COSTELLO: I know.
VELSHI: I hope you're having a good time, Christine, wherever it is you are. We got everything under control here.
COSTELLO: You know she's sleeping. VELSHI: Yes. If she's just woken up, we've got some news, breaking news, actually, a shooting at the U.S. embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. Two people are dead. One of them is an American citizen. Let's get right to CNN's Nick Paton Walsh. He is monitoring the situation from Abu Dhabi. Nick, an apparent breach of security. It's a heavily guarded complex in Kabul. What can you tell us about what happened?
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is an annex of the already very secure U.S. embassy compound, which is even more secure, believed to be where have CIA operatives function out of. What happened around 9:00 last night local time is an Afghan employee of that particular annex opened fire according to one official in various directions. As a result of that gunfire, one U.S. citizen, also an embassy employee, was killed, and another was injured. He's been taken to the hospital and it's believed he is going to survive his injuries.
The real concern, though, is exactly how did this come to happen? How did that Afghan employee go through security? Was he a Taliban plant as happened in the past, or did he simply get into a dispute with an American coworker? Huge questions really about how this happened and in what should be the most secure part of the American presence in Afghanistan.
VELSHI: Even if it were a dispute, it would be hard to believe someone could be in there armed who isn't supposed to be armed or whether this was an armed employee under normal circumstances. But it does focus our attention on this American complex in Kabul. It was weeks ago where we were witnessing this Haqqani group's attack, this shootout, the standoff on this embassy left a lot of people wondering. With all the U.S. presence there for ten years, people can still pull stuff like this off?
WALSH: We don't know if today's attack is linked to the insurgency or whether it is just, simply, a personal dispute. It does give the wrong psychological impression to Afghans frankly asked to handle their own securities at U.S. begins to leave. The psychological impact is enormous. This is the Taliban choosing targets and choosing to say we have a reach right inside NATO's most secure areas.
And quite frankly, that's what's got many Afghans concerned. The previous attempts, which you mentioned, the recent attack of an assassination in his own home by a man hiding a bomb inside his turban, and then today's attack. We don't know exactly what happened. There is no indication as of yet the insurgency is involved. But still some Afghans will be left with that worrying psychological feeling that things aren't as safe as they could be in the heart of Kabul, Ali.
VELSHI: Nick, when you learn more information, let us know. We'll get you right on TV with it. Nick Paton Walsh in Abu Dhabi for us.
COSTELLO: Washington counting down to a government shutdown again. The House and Senate unable to agree on a spending bill. It's gotten so bad on Capitol Hill, Democrats and Republicans can't even come together to help hurricane and wildfire victims. Kate Bolduan is live in Washington this morning. So The Senate is scheduled to vote later today, right? What do you suppose will happen?
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Both the House and Senate, remember, carol, are actually scheduled to be on recess, but the Senate will be back in this evening to vote on what Senate Democrats are calling a compromise measure. Basically, they're saying they'll go along with the House-passed short-term spending pill providing money to federal disaster relief. That's less than Democrats wanted.
But they won't go along, they say, with the offsets that Republicans are standing firm on and saying must be part of this deal, and not surprisingly at this point, the finger pointing continues. Listen here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. MARK WARNER, (D) VIRGINIA: Some of these tea party Republicans who say on every issue we're going to make this a make or break. We saw it on the FAA when they shut down the Federal Aviation Administration. We're seeing it now on this debate about FEMA.
SEN. LAMAR ALEXANDER, (R) TENNESSEE: Give the Senate democratic leader most of the credit. He manufactured a crisis all week about disaster when there's no crisis. Everybody knows we're going to pay for every single penny of disaster aid that the president declares.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLDUAN: Bottom line, Congress needs to pass a short-term spending bill to keep the government running past the end of this fiscal year, which is this Friday. Lawmakers also want to approve additional funding for FEMA in the wake of all the international disasters the country has seen in recent months. Those two things they agree on.
But after that, there has been very little agreement on how much money FEMA should get and if it should be paid for. Often emergency aid like this is not offset. Democrats are very much against how Republicans in particular want to pay for the federal disaster aid in this case, by cutting money from clean energy programs, including one linked to the now bankrupt solar company Solyndra. Unclear so it is unclear how things will go from here.
COSTELLO: It's unclear, so -- but if Democrats hold firm, Friday, we could be in trouble?
BOLDUAN: That's true. In the short term, the big question, where do things go from today? If this Senate moves forward up for a key test vote tonight, technically it could quickly go through the House if House Republican leaders agree. But again, it's not clear that's the case that Republicans would agree to it. So it's not clear how they'll resolve this fight even though they all say they have to figure it out somehow.
Another deadline is important to remember that FEMA has warned their disaster relief fund could run dry early this week, Monday, Tuesday, maybe Wednesday. So the deadline for that is even sooner than the government shutdown.
COSTELLO: And all of those people in need of government help. All of those people whose homes have been devastated by floodwaters, let's say, they'll just have to wait and see. That just stinks.
BOLDUAN: At this moment, everyone is watching the Senate right now.
COSTELLO: Kate Bolduan, thanks.
VELSHI: Mitt Romney's fortunes may be rising. The former Massachusetts governor scored a victory over Rick Perry in Michigan's straw poll over the weekend. Romney is a Michigan native. His father was the governor there. He registered nearly 51 percent of the vote. Texas governor Rick Perry finishing far back in second place with 17 percent.
COSTELLO: Perry also finished a distant second in Saturday's Florida straw poll to businessman Herman Cain, Cain with a surprising 37 percent of the vote to Perry's 15 percent. Romney finishes third with 14 percent. Perry was considered by many to be the frontrunner until his disappointing performance at Thursday night's GOP debate.
So how did Cain pull off this upset and what does it mean for the GOP race? We'll ask Herman Cain himself. He'll join us live at 7:40 Eastern.
VELSHI: President Obama is on the road out west pushing his jobs plan and taking a more aggressive attack on the GOP. At a Democratic fundraiser in Seattle last night the president blasted Republicans saying their vision for the country would cripple America.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We can either go back to it same ideas that the other side has peddled, old, worn-out ideas tried throughout the last decade, or we can build an America that we talk about in 2008, an America where everybody gets a fair shake, and everybody does their fair share. And that's what this election is about.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: Well, this morning the president takes part in a linked in town hall meeting in California. Later he'll attend Democratic fundraisers in San Diego and Los Angeles.
COSTELLO: Two freed American hikers now back on U.S. soil and slamming their Iranian captor. Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer were held for 781 days, accused of spying. After arrive home they told reporters they weren't just prisoners of Iran. They were political pawns.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSH FATTAL, FREED AMERICAN HIKER: We want to be clear. They do not deserve undue credit for ending what they had no right and no justification to start in the first place. From the very start, the only reason we have been held hostage is because we are American.
SHANE BAUER, FREED AMERICAN HIKER: In prison, every time we complained about our conditions, the guards would immediately remind us of comparable conditions at Guantanamo Bay. They would remind us of CIA prisons in other parts of the world and the conditions that Iranians and others experienced in prisons in the U.S.
We do not believe that such human rights violations on the part of our government justify what has been done to us. Not for a moment.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Shane Bauer called their trial in Iran a total sham. Among those they had to thank for their release actor Sean Penn. Penn reportedly lobbied Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, an ally of Iran, on behalf of the hikers.
VELSHI: It's a national pass-time, or national fiesta, as they call it in Spain. The city of Barcelona has hosted its final bullfight. Tickets were going for 1,600 euros for the event, about three times the face value. The parliament there voted to ban the sport in the Catalonia region, a sport that has been going on there for 600 years there. They decided it is too brutal. But bullfighting remains legal in other parts.
COSTELLO: A symbolic milestone and a cultural change in Saudi Arabia. Saudi women have gained the right to vote and run for office in future local elections for women. There are elections being held on Thursday, but the Saudi king says the rule change won't take effect until the next elections. That's likely 2015. The women will have to wait to enjoy their new rights.
VELSHI: We'll see how that pans out.
Still to come this morning, a critical day in the Amanda Knox appeal in Italy. The convicted murdered is back in court this morning in Italy. The trial is wrapping up. She could be days away from freedom, or not. It may all be in the DNA. We'll be talking about that.
COSTELLO: And our "talk back" question this morning, is Bill Clinton helping or hurting President Obama? What he said that has Republicans cheering him.
It's 10 minutes past.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Well, it's a critical day for Amanda Knox. The American student is accused of gruesomely murdering her housemate in Italy.
COSTELLO: A verdict in her appeal could come this week. Joining us now is CNN legal analyst Paul Callan. Good morning, Paul.
CALLAN: Good morning.
COSTELLO: OK, so bring us up to date. What might happen today?
PAUL CALLAN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, fascinating developments in the case. The case is on appeal, but in Italy it's not like the United States. Of course, we have jury trials here and then there's an appellate court that reviews the jury trial to determine where the mistake were made.
In Italy, you get a brand new trial, except appellate judges sit on the juror. So we have two judges and six lay jurors who have heard the case for a second time. But a very, very good development for American student Amanda Knox because in the second trial the judge in charge of the trial ordered a brand new analysis of the DNA evidence, which really was the only important piece of physical evidence that had linked her to the case.
And those experts came back and said this is nonsense. You cannot rely on this evidence. It should be thrown out. So Amanda Knox supporters are feeling somewhat optimistic.
VELSHI: But here's the thing. The prosecutors came back and made disparaging comments about the DNA experts. Why are we discussing what's valid and not in DNA? I would have gotten the impression we're past that, that there's a way of determining whether there's enough DNA, whether it's contaminated. They seem to be having philosophical discussions about DNA in this case.
CALLAN: They are. And they shouldn't be having these discussions. In the United States, for instance, this amount of DNA was so absolutely tiny, minuscule, that it wouldn't be admitted it any American court. It doesn't fit international and national standards for reliability. It's just too small.
And the Italians say there's blood on the knife and that links Amanda Knox. I don't think an American court would accept that evidence, yet in Italy they're arguing about it.
COSTELLO: There was an article in "Rolling Stone" said pride and image is also part of this trial so that prosecutors had been mistaken so badly about this DNA evidence, those judges are trying to figure out a way for them to save face.
CALLAN: They are. They're very worried about the situation, Carol, because in this case what really happened was they missed the true murderer. And we know this because an individual named Rudy Guede, who was the actual killer, eventually was brought back from Germany to Italy and pled guilty to the murder.
VELSHI: He's serving time? CALLAN: He's serving time, although he's the only one who's pled guilty in the case and admitted to the crime. They've reduced his sentence down to 16 years. There are some experts who say he might be out on work release in three years. So his sperm was found in Meredith Kercher, the victim. And yet despite all that they're going after Amanda Knox.
VELSHI: To Carol's point, the prosecutors are asking for longer sentences? So this whole concept about a second trial versus and appeal, they're actually asking for Amanda Knox and her boyfriend to spend the rest of their lives in prison.
COSTELLO: And Amanda Knox should spend part of that in solitary confinement, months?
CALLAN: Yes. In America you go to trial, you get sentenced. If you take an appeal they don't punish you giving you an increased sentence.
VELSHI: Right. Would you rather get that or something less?
CALLAN: Now this case goes up on appeal and she criticizes the verdict, and they're saying, all right, we want solitary confinement for you.
And let me add another thing, that on the appeal, the police and another individual have brought civil charges against her, a suit for money damages. That has been combined with the criminal case. Both cases are being tried together. So the civil lawyers who are trying to collect money in the case for Amanda having the audacity to criticize the police are also summing up, which is why the case is going on for a full week. It is the most crazy setup you've ever seen in your life.
And somebody is being tried for murder in this case, and a young American student could spend the rest of her life in prison if she's convicted. It's just astounding.
COSTELLO: But it is looking good for her. We should make that clear. It is.
CALLAN: Well, it' i looking good for her from the standpoint of the evidence, from somebody who is reasonably and responsibly evaluating the evidence. But I don't know what this jury will do. By the way, they get to read the newspapers, too, and the tabloid press has always been out to get her. And it's just -- it's not an isolated, carefully controlled process like it is in the United States. It's the wild west --
VELSHI: We don't necessarily think of our system as isolated and carefully controlled, but when you compare it to this, you realize the benefits of our system are.
COSTELLO: Although I think the Italians would disagree.
CALLAN: I'd better stay out of Italy after this. VELSHI: Paul, good to see you. Thank you so much.
(WEATHER BREAK)
COSTELLO: Now it's your chance to talk back on one of the big stories of the day. The question for you this morning, is Bill Clinton helping or hurting President Obama? Bill Clinton, the last two-term Democratic president, may have thrown cold water on President Obama's bid for a second term. Clinton told a conservative website News Mac that now is not the time to raise taxes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL CLINTON, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: I personally don't believe we ought to be raising taxes or cutting spending, either one, until we get this economy off the ground. This has ban dead, flat economy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: But wait. What about the so-called Buffett rule, the touchstone of Mr. Obama's deficit cutting plan? That won't solve the problem, Clinton said. As you might imagine, conservatives are thrilled. Congressman Eric Cantor saying, quote, "I hope President Obama will heed the advice of President Clinton and drop his demand for one of the largest tax increases in American history."
And hold on. In an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, Clinton said he would actually support the millionaires' tax and blasted Republicans for their anti-tax ideology. As for Obama's jobs Bill, President Clinton said he's all for it.
Of course, this isn't the first time Clinton sent mixed messages that could derail a presidential candidate. Hillary Clinton anyone? Remember, in South Carolina the former president set off a firestone of criticism for comments some considered racially insensitive. Obama won that primary.
GOP strategist Jerry Jacobs writes on TheHill.com, "Slick Willie does it again. He has now managed the fancy footwork of both agreeing and disagreeing with President Obama at the same time."
The White House isn't commenting, but the "talk back" question for you today, is Bill Clinton helping or hurting Obama? Facebook.com/Americanmorning, Facebook.com/Americanmorning. I'll read your comments later this hour.
VELSHI: Someone else who is getting a lot of attention in politics today, Herman Cain. He was the former head of Godfather's pizza, former CEO. He pulled off an upset in the Florida straw poll this morning. We'll talk to him about how he did it. He joining us live in 20 minutes right here on AMERICAN MORNING.
It's 22 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) VELSHI: It's 26 minutes after the hour. Welcome back. On "Minding your Business," right now, we could be in for a nice start to the trading day after the Dow's worst week since 2008. Right now U.S. stock futures are higher. Markets in Europe are also trading higher on expectations further measures will be taken to tackle the region's debt crisis.
Speaking of the European debt crisis, U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner warns it's, quote, "the most serious risk now confronting the world economy." In a statement to the IMF Geithner says European leaders have got to do more to address the region's problems.
One upside to the worries, lower oil and gas prices. For the first time in months gas prices have reportedly fallen below $3 in parts of Texas, Michigan, and Missouri. The price of oil also down $79 a barrel right now.
Good news if you're flying this holiday. Several of the biggest airlines are reducing the number of days they'll hit you with those peak travel charges down from 18 to six. That's according to bestfares.com. The reason, ticket prices are higher and the sluggish economy.
And Netflix appears to have scored a win after some expensive blunders. The ""New York Times" is reporting that Netflix has signed a deal with DreamWorks to stream the studio's films starting in 2013.
"The Lion King 3D" holding on at the top spot of the box office over the weekend. The animated re-release took in an estimated $22 million, about $1 million more than "Moneyball" starring Brad Pitt. "Dolphin's Tale" came in third with $20.3 million, and it's all about the circle of life.
AMERICAN MORNING will be back right after this break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: And good morning to you. It's just about half past the hour. It's time for a look at this morning's top stories.
A shooting at the U.S. embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. Two people are dead and an embassy spokesperson says the dead include a U.S. citizen and an Afghan citizen. Another American was wounded. The motive, or how this was allowed to happen, is not yet clear.
VELSHI: President Obama spends the day in California selling his job creation plan and his plan to get re-elected. The president will appear at a town hall event hosted by the Linked In networking site. Later on, he'll attend a Democratic fund-raiser in San Diego and two in Los Angeles.
COSTELLO: And the Democratic-controlled Senate is scheduled to vote later today on a stop gap spending bill to keep the government operating through mid-November.
The measure funds FEMA for disaster relief efforts without offsetting spending cuts, something the Republican-controlled House is refusing to do. If a compromised plan cannot be reached by Friday, funding for the government will run out.
VELSHI: When the Republicans and Democrats can't even get together to help hurricane and wildfire victims as we're seeing this week with this standoff, it's clear that the government is broken badly.
The question we're asking this morning, can it be fixed and if so, how? Let's ask CNN contributor, David Frum. He's with us live from Washington this morning. David, good to see you.
DAVID FRUM, CNN.COM CONTRIBUTOR: Thank you, Ali.
VELSHI: David, you've written a piece for cnn.com, where you outline that look, government, to some degree, bipartisan has been broken for some time.
But there are just things about what's going on in Washington now that are not representative of the way this government was designed to operate. Give me some of the examples.
FRUM: Right now, there are two vacancies on the board of the Federal Reserve, seven-member board, the most important economic policy making institution of the United States government. And it needs quorum of four. It's got five.
I think what happened this summer being minutes away from default on the obligations of the United States that was unprecedented. And people want to say, well, it's always been like this, and remember the Alexander Hamilton.
But over the last time of most people now, the performance of the U.S. government has been getting worse and worse and worse over time. It's probably best summed up by a line of Tip O'Neill's when he retired from Congress in the 1980s.
He was asked how Congress had changed over 30 years. He sasid the people are better. The results are worse.
VELSHI: And what you're seeing now, in fact, you suggested in your article that we've really crossed the line into dysfunction, but as I said in the intro, we're trying to figure out how we solve this.
We've got the same political parties as we've had for generations. What is it that we have to do differently to try and make Washington a little more functional?
FRUM: Well, remember I said, the people are better. So this is not about improving the human capital or getting people to have dinner getting together more often. We need institutional change.
What is going on here is that the American system of government is acting like the British system of government. We have two parties that are more and more disciplined, that have harder and harder ideological disagreements and won't cooperate.
But the problem is, this is a system of government that is not the British system of government. There isn't a prime minister and an opposition leader. Who's the leader?
President Obama or the guy who runs the larger party of the House of Representatives, what you call Prime Minister John Boehner if he were in Britain. The system needs all of these bodies to work together and increasingly the parties don't want to do that.
VELSHI: There's something you said in your column, which caught my attention. You were saying back then, I guess you're talking about the '80s. There were a larger proportion of elected officials in Washington that served in the military. And there were some sort of sense, the cold war created some imperative that you do more together, get more done?
FRUM: At the beginning of the Reagan administration, about two thirds of the members of the House -- sorry, one-third of the House and almost three quarters of the members of the Senate were veterans.
Today that has plunged. Now only about one quarter of the members of the Senate are veterans, and similar proportions -- similar decline in the House. They had a common culture, and the United States was engaged in a global struggle and the result was the president of the day could command on foreign policy great deference.
That affected the way the whole government ran because the way money was raised that was to finance the conflict with the Soviet Union. There was a limit on what could be done. There were some common ethics and people had been through a common experience.
Right now this is a country where people are more different from one another. One last statistical point on this that I cite in the article, there's a fantastic book called "The Big Sort" by a writer named Bill Bishop who makes this point.
In 1976, only about 1/5 of Americans lived in a county that went overwhelmingly for one party or another. Today in 2004, almost half the country lived in a county that went for one party or the other by 20 points or more.
VELSHI: I just got a tweet from somebody who said that I'm incorrect in saying the political parties are the same as we've had for years obviously because of the Tea Party. That's a good point.
But according to what you're writing, the Tea Party is more a symptom of this than a cause. Are they exacerbating it or are they an outcome?
FRUM: Well, look, there's an attempt to present the Tea Party as some new third force in American politics and that's not it at all. Every study the Tea Party shows these are the most intense Republicans. These are socially conservative people.
They may have been out of politics for a little bit before, but they are core Republican voters. What they're doing is pulling the Republican Party to the right in the same way the groups like moveon.org pulled Democratic Party to the left in middle of 2000s during the Bush years.
VELSHI: David, always a pleasure to talk to you. The column is great. If you like to read David Frum's column on broken government, just go to cnn.com. That was David Frum. He's the editor of frumforum.com, CNN contributor and obviously a former speechwriter for President Bush.
COSTELLO: Always a fascinating discussion with him. He scored an upset win in the Florida straw poll this weekend. Coming up next, Republican presidential hopeful, Herman Cain will join us live.
VELSHI: Also is a fascinating conversation.
COSTELLO: Yes, he has a good sense of humor, that's for sure. It's 35 minutes past.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: It's 39 minutes past the hour. Good morning, Washington. Cloudy skies right now, 72 degrees. Later today the sun will shine, though, a high of 78.
In the world of politics, Mitt Romney returning to his home state this weekend and he got a big boost scoring an overwhelming victory over Texas Governor Rick Perry in a Michigan straw poll.
Former Massachusetts governor is a Michigan native and he got some much-needed home cooking registering just over 50 percent of the vote with Rick Perry finishing far back in second place with 17 percent. No other Republican registered in double figures.
Joining us now from Atlanta this morning, the surprising runaway winner of Saturday's Republican straw poll in Florida, Herman Cain. Welcome.
HERMAN CAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Good morning. Thank you.
COSTELLO: I mean, you didn't just win the straw poll. You creamed everyone. You won with 37 percent of the vote, more than Rick Perry and Mitt Romney combined. So you must be feeling great this morning?
CAIN: I feel great, but I feel even greater, because the voice of the people is bigger than the voice of the media with all due respect. And here's the second thing. The message is more powerful than money.
Both of my contenders that came in second and third, they spent a considerable amount of money try to influence the outcome of that vote. I rented a bus, traveled all over the state.
Did some stops sharing my message of common sense solutions and specifically sharing my message about how I would boost this economy with my 999 plan. That's what resonated with people. Not just the media hype.
COSTELLO: Some are saying, of course, they're your opponents, some are saying you're a smooth debater, you're a good talker. Rick Perry had a terrible debate on Thursday. That's really why you pulled ahead in this Florida straw poll.
CAIN: You have to be in an effective communicator. If I were not an effective communicator, that would be a big weakness, but you also have to have some substance. People are resonating with my ideas.
I just don't give generic responses to what we need to do about the economy. I have given a specific plan, 999, which is different from any of my other competitors because they are tying their plans for boosting the economy to the existing tax code.
My plan is bold, because it throws out the tax code and opposes a business flat tax of 9 percent, a personal flat tax of 9 percent and national sales tax of 9 percent.
It replaces all of the taxes that now people grapple with and it provides certainty to the business community, which is what they're looking for in order to grow this economy.
COSTELLO: Let's talk about something that's going on right now in Washington, and that would be FEMA funding. There's a danger that the government could be shut down again on Friday. What is your feeling?
I mean, Democrats want to fund FEMA without offsetting spending cuts. Republicans want those offsetting spending cuts. Do you think there should be offsetting spending cuts to fund FEMA, even though historically that's never been the case?
CAIN: First of all, we should not play politics with tragedies. You're talking about human beings out there not a group of statistics so the fact that they want to play politics with it beings, I would blame both parties.
Secondly, you and I both know that there's plenty of money in Washington, D.C. to offset anything that we need to spend on FEMA. I would make sure that FEMA got the money that it needed, and if I have to go find the offsets later, go find it later. Stop playing with people's tragedies.
COSTELLO: You're saying right now we should just fund FEMA and forget about the offsetting spending cuts and maybe later, if we find them, go back and get the deal done that way?
CAIN: Yes. Why not have a gentleman's agreement? I know that might be an anomaly in Washington, D.C. Why not have a gentleman's agreement? We're going to fund FEMA, if it makes sense, if it's the right amount of money.
We're going to have a gentleman's agreement that we will find the offsets, rather than putting, finding the offset right in the middle of it making it a political football.
COSTELLO: OK, so I want to play for you what Senator Mark Warner of Virginia said this weekend. He said that the funding for FEMA should be a no-brainer, just like you, but we're gridlocked over it.
So Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, he actually blamed the House Tea Party for the delays. Listen and then we'll talk about it on the other side.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. MARK WARNER (D), VIRGINIA: There is a group, and I do believe it is mostly centered in the House in terms of some of these Tea Party Republicans who say on every issue, we're going to make this a make or break. We saw it on the FAA when they shut down the Federal Aviation Administration. We're seeing it now on this debate about FEMA.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: So this is only 0.04 percent of the federal budget. As a Tea Party supporter, why fight over this, this small part of the budget?
CAIN: Like I said, I would not make this a battleground. There's an old saying, pick your battles and pick your wars. This is one I would basically try to, you know, fall on the sword for. Go ahead and do what's right for the people.
See, here's one of the things that (inaudible) from a lot of other people that are running for the nomination for president of the United States. I focus on the problem first then I focus on what the solution is.
Put politics aside and deal with that while you present the solution. The solution is, fund FEMA. These people are suffering. They should not have to suffer because of the political bickering.
And to blame the Tea Party group for being the ones that are holding this up that's just more politics as usual. This nation is starved for some leadership --
COSTELLO: But -- but don't House members --
(CROSSTALK)
CAIN: And sometimes the media (ph) has to say something differently.
(CROSSTALK)
COSTELLO: -- who belong to the Tea Party, aren't they the ones pushing for these offsetting costs?
CAIN: It doesn't matter. They may be the ones pushing for the offsetting costs. Looking for someone to blame for the political gridlock is what I'm saying, as calmly as I can, should not be the issue. The issue should be, how do we get the relief to the people that need it the most now?
COSTELLO: So are these House Tea Party leaders wrong to fight, if indeed they are blocking this bill from going forward?
CAIN: I am not going to weigh in on who's wrong and who's right. I'm sure you have people on both sides from both parties who have different feelings on this. Leadership rises above the politics when there is a need. We have a need here. I would focus on the need.
COSTELLO: Herman Cain. Thanks so much. We appreciate it.
CAIN: You're welcome. Happy to be here.
COSTELLO: You, too. Congratulations again.
CAIN: Thanks.
COSTELLO: Be sure to join us on October 18th when Republican candidates gather in Las Vegas to debate. That's Tuesday night, October 18th, live at 8:00 Eastern, right here on CNN.
I know it's not for a while, but we couldn't help it.
(LAUGHTER)
VELSHI: All right. Coming up next, love is tough enough. So when you add money to the mix, the equation gets a little more complicated. How do you manage the two in this economy? What are the rules when it comes to dating in a tough economy? We're going to ask her, "Millionaire Matchmaker," Patti Stanger.
Forty-six minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Good morning, New York City. It is cloudy and -- it was actually pleasant out this morning. Wasn't it?
VELSHI: It was. It was very nice. There's going to be storms. There's going to be more rain.
COSTELLO: I know. I was just going to say, it's going to get nasty. Sorry. Thunderstorms and 79 degrees later.
VELSHI: Oh, well.
Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. It's been said that love can move mountains.
COSTELLO: Ah.
VELSHI: But even the strongest relationship can crack because of money problems. Christine, who you might notice is off today, Christine and I sat down with the "Millionaire Matchmaker," Patti Stanger.
We watched her. She is so great.
(LAUGHTER)
VELSHI: And we found out what effect the economy is having on relationships, and whether the rules of dating have changed in this economy, the way it is now. Listen to what she told us.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Got millions unemployed, struggling to pay down debts. If you're out of a job, do you let your date know that? Do you let them know that you've got $35,000 in debt?
VELSHI: I figure they're going to find out at some point.
ROMANS: Do they need know the 580 credit score?
PATTI STANGER, MILLIONAIRE MATCHMAKER: OK, the problem is going to be that the women, OK, if you're downtrodden, the man wants to rescue you.
VELSHI: Ah.
STANGER: So that is attractive sometimes to the millionaire man. He likes the woman that doesn't challenge his opinion, doesn't have a better job than him.
ROMANS: Sounds boring.
STANGER: And it's -- I know. But that is biology. Now, if you're a man and you say that to a woman, what would we do? We'd run. We'd run for the nearest exit.
VELSHI: Has that changed in this economy with more people unemployed?
STANGER: No. No.
VELSHI: With more people with debt? How do you discuss that?
STANGER: You shouldn't be dating anyway, because you can't take a girl out for dinners or cocktails, or even Olive Garden, you shouldn't be dating.
VELSHI: Let's talk about online dating. I saw a statistic somewhere that one in five relationships begin online now. What do you think?
STANGER: I think that's fabulous.
ROMANS: People can lie about themselves too.
STANGER: Yes.
ROMANS: They can lie about how much money they have. They can lie about how successful they are. So you have to be --
(CROSSTALK)
STANGER: It's just like the bar.
ROMANS: Right.
STANGER: When you go to the bar, you have to screen the person you met, right? It's no different. You have to screen people. Be in public places when you date. And, yes, one in five is true, and that is a good thing because we are meeting people we would never, ever meet, never associate with.
VELSHI: Once you're in this relationship, once you've gotten past the first few days, what do you suggest? Do you -- do you suggest that people handle money issues a certain way?
STANGER: Yes. When you're exclusive, and now you have pooled your resources together, especially if you're living together or married, you have to make a decision. If the woman makes more money than the man, which was my case in the last relationship, we had to say, I'm going to pay more for the mortgage, but you're going to have to pay for the electric bill, you're going to have to bring the groceries home. When we went on vacation, I always upgraded us to first class. So you have to give and take.
VELSHI: Right.
STANGER: And that's something that -- you want to live a nice life, and you don't always want to be fighting being money.
ROMANS: Fighting about money, I think, is really dangerous in a relationship.
(CROSSTALK)
STANGER: Then the sex goes out the window.
(LAUGHTER)
ROMANS: And sometimes savers are attracted to spenders and vice versa. So when you're courting and you see someone's generosity, and then when you're in a serious relationship or married, you say, wow, you're spending money we don't have, or you're being too liberal with our money.
STANGER: Right. You're expensive, right.
ROMANS: And it's gone from what you admired about the generosity because you're kind of stingy, now you're upset about it.
STANGER: Well, Kim Kardashian is going through with this Kris Humphries, as you can see on their upcoming wedding special. He is very cautious. He makes X amount of dollars a year. He is young to the team. And she's making gazillions of dollars, and she's like, wait, what do mean, we can't buy this, we can't do this, and he's like, no. We don't know what tomorrow's going to bring.
ROMANS: Right. Right.
STANGER: And that's good that there's balance. But then you should have a money mediator.
ROMANS: Look at census numbers. And quite frankly, fewer people are getting married -- fewer young people are getting married now.
VELSHI: They are just living together.
ROMANS: They're just living together. Is that ok?
STANGER: It is, because financial security, and they don't want to pay out at the end of the day. That's why Hollywood, 90 percent of them, are not married.
VELSHI: Patti, great conversation.
STANGER: Thank you so much for having me.
VELSHI: Good to have you here.
STANGER: I really enjoyed being with you guys.
ROMANS: You're so fun.
VELSHI: Pleasure. Well, you want more?
STANGER: You're ready for love, right?
VELSHI: Absolutely, I am.
STANGER: What about you?
(CROSSTALK)
VELSHI: -- both married people who are good with money.
ROMANS: You know, I'll tell you something. You can always earn money. You can't always fall in love with somebody.
STANGER: Oh. Can I steal that?
ROMANS: You can.
(CROSSTALK)
ROMANS: But I really think you can always lose money. But if you work at it, you won't lose love.
STANGER: That's right. Love will always be there.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VELSHI: Who knew Christine was such a good love coach. COSTELLO: I know, it's like Christine-isms. I've got to cement them in my mind.
VELSHI: You can always marry -- you can always marry money, but you can't find love.
(CROSSTALK)
VELSHI: And you can lose money, but you can lose love.
COSTELLO: Whatever.
VELSHI: Something like that. It was quite interesting.
COSTELLO: I think once you fall in love, you fall in love, and that other stuff doesn't matter for a time. Right?
VELSHI: Right. And so she is saying you should make it matter. But I think that must be tricky in the initial days of dating in a tough economy. What's the point at which you bring up, hey, look, I really don't have much.
(LAUGHTER)
And it's not looking like it's getting any better.
COSTELLO: I'm $100,000 in debt. Will you marry me?
(LAUGHTER)
VELSHI: If she loves you, she will.
COSTELLO: Yes, right.
OK, let's get to our "Talk Back" question this morning. The question this morning, is Bill Clinton helping or hurting President Obama? He makes a lot of money, but then, so does she. So they're probably fine, right?
VELSHI: They -- the money part's OK.
COSTELLO: Yes.
(LAUGHTER)
VELSHI: I don't know about the rest.
(CROSSTALK)
COSTELLO: Stop that. We can't go into that now.
Anyhoo, this is how you responded to our "Talk Back" question.
This is from John. "A past president's voice is only relevant when the USA is dissatisfied with the current president. It's clear Mr. Clinton is stuck between Democratic ideology and what's best for the country. Should he be listened to? You bet. He weathered the storm as well as any Democratic president of the last 60 years."
This from Monty. "Former President Clinton can believe what he wants and he can say what he wants, but it has never been fair for the middle class to pay a higher percentage of their income than the wealthy pay. It is necessary that we pay off the national debt. Once that's done, everyone can pay lower taxes."
This from John. "Laughing out loud, is former President Clinton hurting President Obama? No, he's helping. Clinton remembers how the GOP tried to sabotage him when they won control of Congress."
Keep the conversation going, Facebook.com/Americanmorning.
VELSHI: All right. We've got top stories when we return, including a big first step for Saudi women's rights. The king giving women the right to vote for the first time. But not just yet. I'll tell you about it when we come back.
It's 55 minutes after the hour.
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