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Starting Point with Soledad O'Brien

Scott Walker Wins Wisconsin Recall Election; Woman Slaps Tom Barrett For Conceding in Wisconsin Governor's Recall; Interview with Governor Bob McDonnell; Senate To Investigate "Loose Lips"; Urbina Added To FBI "Most Wanted List"; U.S. Markets Snap Losing Streak; How Much Time Are You Spending On Facebook?; Disney's Junk Food Ad Ban; Mom: Doll Called Me A Crazy B--ch; Sheryl Crow Reveals Brain Tumor Diagnosis; A Real Slap In The Face; Walker Survives Recall Election; Remembering Sergeant Shriver

Aired June 06, 2012 - 07:00   ET

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Our "starting point" this morning, cold, hard slap in the face for Democrats literally. Look at this video, a woman who comes up to, you see that right there? She's slapping the Wisconsin Democrat Tom Barrett in the face, happened last night. She was angry he had conceded victory in the very emotional recall race for governor. The Republican incumbent Scott Walker soundly defeating Mayor Barrett, the first time in U.S. history a governor has beaten a recall, the election happening on the heels of massive protections last year, you might remember, when Walker signed a bill that took away collective bargaining rights from unions in order to get the budget back in line. Yet Walker beat Barrett by a larger percentage than in the original race in 2010, and his victory speech put a national spin on the local win.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. SCOTT WALKER, (R) WISCONSIN: Tonight, tonight we tell Wisconsin, we tell our country, and we tell people all across the globe that voters really do want leaders who stand up and make the tough decisions.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: CNN's Ted Rowlands for us this morning is in Madison. Good morning to you, ted.

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad. You see the video of that woman slapping Tom Barrett, and there was a lot of talk about that, obviously, this morning. We don't know who that woman is and we've been trying to find out who she is and whether or not she was questioned by police or anything, if this was something that did raise the eyebrows of people at the event.

Barrett did comment to a local reporter about it, saying he was shocked about it. He claims the woman asked him just before she slapped him, may I slap you in the face for conceding to early, and he said well I'd rather get a hug from you. So he says he leaned in and she slapped him anyway, so he was shocked, obviously. We still have not identified this woman.

Tom Barrett, obviously loses the recall but he did talk to Walker and he says he told the folks he wants to work with Walker. Walker said in his concession speech says he's planning on having the Democrats and everybody over for beer and brats, because this state as you know, Soledad, has been absolutely divided over this. There's a lot of healing that needs to happen from this point on.

One thing that Scott Walker doesn't have, he has his job still but doesn't have a complete majority. It appears as though there was a tight race last night and it hasn't been officially certified yet but it appears as though the balance of power in the Senate here, the state Senate shifted to the Democrats. So Scott Walker doesn't have a complete majority but obviously one thing he wanted was his job intact which he does have this morning.

O'BRIEN: He has that but he might have some other problems down the road. Ted Rowlands in Madison, appreciate that.

Let's get right Christine Romans. She has a look at the other stories making headlines today. Christine, good morning.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Soledad. Jury selection in the Jerry Sandusky rape trial resumes. In a couple of hours, nine jurors have been seated so far and some potentially explosive evidence is revealed, an ABC news report says Sandusky wrote love letters to one of his alleged victims and showered him with gifts. That victim now 28-years-old is expected to be the prosecution's first witness. Sandusky's charged with sexually abusing ten boys. We'll have a live report next hour.

Romney's campaign confirming it's investigating whether their candidate had a private e-mail account hacked, an anonymous hacker reportedly signed into Romney's old Hotmail account after guessing the answer to a security question about one of his pets. Several e-mails from Romney answer days as governor of Massachusetts appearing in yesterday's "Wall Street Journal."

A U.S. drone strike taking out another top terrorist in Pakistan, the White House now confirming that Abu Yahya al Libi, the number two man in Al Qaeda and most public face of the terror group is now dead. He was seen as a rock star in jihadist circles because of his viral videos and was a key recruiter for Al Qaeda. Al Libi was captured in 2002 and locked up in Bagram air base in Afghanistan, but he escaped in 2005 and then bragged about it on the web.

A rare planetary spectacle. How rare is it? You won't see Venus in transit across the face of the sun for another 105 years. The planet moved between the earth and the sun took some seven hours to complete, so millions of people on this planet were able to watch using protective eyewear and telescopes.

First lady Michelle Obama plugging her new book "American Grown" while delivering the "Top Ten List" on Letterman last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DAVID LETTERMAN, HOST, "THE LATE SHOW": And the number one fun fact about gardening --

MICHELLE OBAMA, FIRST LADY: With enough care and effort, you can grow your own "Barackoli."

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Meantime Mrs. is Obama says she's not in favor of a federal ban on big sugary drinks but praises New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's for his effort to fight obesity, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: That's pretty funny.

(LAUGHTER)

OK, let's get back to the recall race in Wisconsin, many talking about the election having national stakes. We showed you the video of a woman slapping Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett after he conceded, makes it clear as we heard from ted that emotions are running very high in that state. It was an election that literally pitted neighbor against neighbor, family members against other family members.

"TIME" magazine's Joe Klein has been covering news and politics for 42 years, he's doing his third annual election tour of the nation which is going to take him eventually through Wisconsin. Right now he's in Philadelphia. Nice to see you, Joe. Thanks for being with us. We appreciate it.

JOE KLEIN, "TIME" MAGAZINE: Good to be here.

O'BRIEN: Have you ever seen that where a supporter slaps the candidate because she's angry that he conceded too early while people are still in line to vote?

KLEIN: No. You know, I've seen some candidates get kicked in the shins from time to time, but not after they conceded. I mean, usually people know when it's over, and you know, that just speaks to how high-pitched the tempers are in this country right now. It's one thing I'm finding on the road. I've been through North Carolina, Virginia, states like Wisconsin, which are going to be the states that decide this election, and there are deep pockets of blue, deep pockets of red, and people aren't talking to each other.

O'BRIEN: And they're very, very angry and I think sometimes scared, too. Last night Mitt Romney said that tonight's results will echo beyond the borders of Wisconsin. Do you think that that's true?

KLEIN: No. You know, the exit polls yesterday said Obama led Romney 51-45 in Wisconsin. I think what this election says is this. People don't like gimmicks. Scott Walker was elected two years ago. He tried to govern according to the way he saw fit. He did nothing illegal, and the public employees unions, who were used to getting their way, didn't like it, and they tried to unseat him. It's kind of like when the Republicans tried to impeach Bill Clinton in the late 1990s. The public saw it as just a tremendous waste of time and money, and Bill Clinton's popularity remained what it was from the beginning of that process to the end of the process, but the Republican's popularity plummeted.

So we've got enough democracy in this country. People should pay attention when they vote in the real elections. You don't get do- overs in elections, and so I think that the unions and the Democrats got their come-uppance for interfering in the natural process of electoral politics.

O'BRIEN: When I talked to Tom Barrett yesterday he said to me that he thought if enough people turned out he could win. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR TOM BARRETT, (D) MILWAUKEE: I think what we're going to see a huge voter turnout in Wisconsin so a lot of the projections are based on 2010 projections where there was low voter turnout. We are very confident there will be hundreds of thousands of additional voters and that's what buoys our confidence so much.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: When you look at the voter turnout, throw that number up on the screen for you in 2010 it was at 50 percent, in 2012, 58 percent. They got a higher voter turnout and didn't help him. What was wrong with his math?

KLEIN: I think he was misinterpreting the will of the electorate. As I said, people just don't like to be messed with, and I thought that this was a major, severe miscalculation on the part of the unions, who emerge from this in a weaker position.

O'BRIEN: So you have been to North Carolina in your road trip. You've been to Virginia. I know you're in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, today. And I know you're talking to people on all sides sort of politically and independents as well, and much of the election always focuses on how the independents are feeling. What are they telling you specifically?

KLEIN: Well, actually, you know, Soledad, I spent six months covering Republicans during the presidential primaries, and during the first days of this trip, I spent some time with Republicans, but more time with Democrats, because I hadn't spoken to Democrats in a while. And in places like Virginia and North Carolina, they're really, really frustrated that they can't talk to the other side. One woman in Virginia said to me, "My mouth is bloody because I keep on having to bite my tongue." There's just a sense of tremendous frustration, and Obama care keeps on coming up.

I was in the middle of a fierce confrontation at a recovery program, of all places, between a recovering drug addict and a recovering alcoholic, the drug addict wanted to get Obama care, the alcoholic didn't. Turned out he was a military guy. He gets free medical care and so do his colleagues, but he doesn't mind that because he trusts them. They served.

And one thing that people keep on bringing up on this trip is that there needs to be common experiences that we have both left and right, and the idea of mandatory national service, much to my surprise, has come up at almost every one of the town meetings I've had, and there have been 10 of those so far.

O'BRIEN: Interesting. That kind of takes a whole different direction. I'd love to talk to you about that more as you. To travel, the conversation you're hearing on the road. Nice to see you as always. We're looking forward could checking with you on your road trip.

KLEIN: Great, thank you.

O'BRIEN: Still ahead this morning, a top Republican man tossed around as contender for vice president, Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell will talk to us, campaigned for Walker in Wisconsin, we'll talk about implications of this race.

Also, Sheryl Crow, she survived breast cancer and now opening up about her new health scare she thinks is causing her to sometimes forget her lyrics.

And a mom says her daughter's baby doll has a potty mouth. This story is crazy. We'll leave you with Led Zeppelin, "Good Times, Bad Times" off of Joe Klein's playlist. You're watching STARTING POINT and we are back in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(MUSIC)

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: That's Margaret's suggestion off her playlist. Margaret, of course, is the author of "American Individualism." We have to talk about that book one of these days.

MARGARET HOOVER, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I would love to.

O'BRIEN: We talk about it but we never talk about it. Will Cain is a columnist with TheBlaze.com, and Ryan Lizza is a Washington correspondent for "The New Yorker."

Our "Get Real," this morning, if you are not inspired you have no heart and no soul.

WILL CAIN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Set me up for failure.

(LAUGHTER)

O'BRIEN: You will be inspired. This is an act of sportsmanship that track fans in Ohio had a chance to witness over the weekend. Meghan Vogel, the young lady on your right, she's a junior at West Liberty Salem high school in Ohio, just won the 600 meter state champions, and worn out for the 3,200 meters. She was in 15th place when she suddenly notices the runner in front of her in 14th place had collapsed. Two options, she can just run by the girl and not be last, or she can do what she did, which was to stop, pick up the runner, whose name is Arden McMath, pick her up and carry her across the finish line. She pushes a little bit Arden in front of her so Arden finishes in 14th place and in fact, our young lady finishes in 15th place. So Meghan comes in last in the 32 meter having won the state championship in the 1,600 meters. And she says this, she's so modest, she says "Any girl on the track would have done the same for me." I love her.

HOOVER: Not so sure about that that anybody would have done the same thing but kudos to her for demonstrating sportsmanship. I think she wasn't having a strong day and she knew she wasn't going to get in the top three positions, and she then did the right thing.

CAIN: In fact she was in last place but she'd already won the state championship.

(CROSSTALK)

RYAN LIZZA, "NEW YORKER": I think what we're doing, are we hinting had she been in first place I don't know she should have stopped?

HOOVER: I would agree with that.

O'BRIEN: If she hadn't been in first place ranking wise?

HOOVER: If she had been winning that race --

(CROSSTALK)

HOOVER: I won the sportsmanship award in high school so I can identify with Meghan and I think she did the right thing.

O'BRIEN: You carried a teammate across the finish line?

HOOVER: I don't remember what I did to get it to be honest.

CAIN: When I won my sportsmanship award I carried one on my back and one under my arm but this is a nice story, too. Good job, Meghan, seriously, beautiful. She doesn't have to get real. She is real.

O'BRIEN: She is honest.

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: Moving ahead on STARTING POINT this morning, one of the country's top Republicans Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell will talk about the implications of the Wisconsin recall elections.

Also from Ryan's playlist, Arctic Monkeys, "A Certain Romance." We're back in a moment. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Welcome back to STARTING POINT this morning. As we've been telling you this morning, a big win for Republican Wisconsin governor Scott Walker. He defeated the Milwaukee mayor, Tom Barrett, in an expensive recall election which was wildly characterized as a litmus test for the presidential election. Here's Barrett in his concession speech.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARRETT: The state remains divided and it is my hope that while we have lively debates, a lively discourse which is healthy in any democracy, that those who are victorious tonight as well as those of us who are not victorious tonight can at the end of the day do what is right for Wisconsin families. That is what our duty is. That is what we must do to the people of this state.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: So Walker becomes its first U.S. governor to survive a recall. North Dakota kicked out governor Lynn Frazier back in 1921, California got rid of Grey Davis this 2003. Wisconsin's lieutenant governor, Republican Rebecca Kleefisch, will also keep her job, though it looks like Democrats could take control of the Senate.

Virginia's Republican Governor Bob McDonnell joins us this morning. He is the chairman of the Republican Governors Association. He campaigned for Governor Walker. Great to have you back. We appreciate it.

GOV. BOB MCDONNELL, (R) VIRGINIA: Thank you, Soledad, thank you.

O'BRIEN: A very big win. Tick off top three reasons why the governor was able to keep his job and he won.

MCDONNELL: I think it was overreached by the labor unions. This is the third recall. They tried a judge, legislators, and now governor, and I think people realize this is too much.

Secondly and I think most importantly Scott Walker is a man of courage and principle. He said we have a budget deficit and have to eliminate it without raising taxes and he did it and we have a job deficit too high and created 30,000 more jobs and cut property taxes for the first time in a decade. So his reforms, Soledad, actually worked.

And thirdly is the organization on the ground, the Republican Governors Association chipped in about $9 million because we believe in Scott Walker but groups like Americans for prosperity, the NRA and others who really believed this was a microcosm of what was happening in Washington and the issues in the election for president on jobs and spending and taxes and deficit. And so the coalitions were active and worked very well on the ground, and I think that's why he won.

O'BRIEN: There are some people who say the metaphor, for being what's going to happen in November are not necessarily true when you look at the outside money that came in, that's not going to be the same thing that will potentially happen come November. Do you think that's a valid argument?

MCDONNELL: I think it's a big excuse. Nobody said that when President Obama won in 2008, having twice as much money as John McCain and all the outside interests that came in to help. I think that's a bogus argument.

The point is, largely the same issues that mitt Romney and Barack Obama are talking about, the $16 trillion national debt, almost $6 trillion of which created about I this president, and an unemployment rate at 8.1 percent for 40 straight months, unacceptable. And Mitt Romney has got different ideas and it's going to be Romney's ideas against Obama's record, similar to what the referendum was about in the election in Wisconsin. I think the issue matrix is the same.

O'BRIEN: Sarah Palin said this about Democrats and President Obama in. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SARAH PALIN, (R) FORMER ALASKA GOVERNOR: I think that the Democrats there understand that the president's no-show represents the fact that Obama's goose is cooked as more and more Americans realize that what Wisconsin has just manifested via this vote, embracing austerity and fiscal responsibility, is the complete opposite of what President Obama and the White House represents today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: She's talking of course about the fact that at Obama did not show up to help Mayor Barrett. In fact he sent a tweet out encouraging people to vote for hill. Do you think that's true, in fact president Obama's goose is cooked? The polling doesn't seem to indicate that in the state of Wisconsin.

MCDONNELL: Five months is a long time before any goose is cooked, but she's right on a couple things. One is President Obama absolutely ignored Wisconsin. He flew last week from Minnesota to Illinois, almost over the state and declined to get in there and actually make an appearance, although the DNC was heavily engaged with all of their resources and couldn't muster the same results as the ground game.

But I think she's also correct when she says that President Obama's had a different leadership style than Scott Walker. Walker took charge, was honest with the people about spending and debt and taxes and made a difference, and now he's getting results with job numbers and a balanced budget. President Obama has not exercised the bold leadership it takes to get America out of debt and back to work. He keeps making excuses.

O'BRIEN: The exit polls show the same people who elected or let Governor Walker keep his job in exit polling said, and I'm going to support President Obama. I could throw the poll number. MCDONNELL: We'll see.

O'BRIEN: I understand exit polls aren't final polls, 51 percent for Obama -- oh, that's Romney, 44 percent for Romney choice for president in the general election. So the exit polls would indicate there's a little bit of a contradiction in there.

MCDONNELL: Well, I think that may be right. I'll let the pundits analyze that in the next couple of weeks. But this is generally looked at as a blue state. Scott Walker actually won bigger last night than two years ago when he got elected governor for the first time.

I think it helps to put Wisconsin in play given the fact it's about somebody getting results and fixing problems on debt and budget and jobs. That's what Walker did and what Romney is talking about. So I do think in some of the swing states, Wisconsin, Virginia, Florida, Ohio, others, when the debate is about getting America out of debt and back to work, this is good news that this is the message that Romney is going to be driving that voters in Wisconsin responded to and I think nationally will, too, as well.

O'BRIEN: As we started our conversation you said number one the part of the message was overreach, the unions shouldn't have pushed for a recall anyway.

MCDONNELL: True.

O'BRIEN: And also there was a contested democratic primary which weakened Barrett to a large degree as he was heading into the election eventually. So all of those reasons might argue against your own point one, might argue against your bigger point and it might actually come back to jobs.

MCDONNELL: Well, voters in Wisconsin voted for what they thought was best for Wisconsin, Soledad. That's absolutely true. My point is that the issues in Wisconsin are very similar to what the issues are going to be in this race in November. Overwhelmingly voters say, how do we get the greatest country on earth back to earth? With 8.1 percent unemployment rate for 40 months, that's unacceptable. It's time to get results and stop making excuses and blaming Republicans or wall street or somebody else for what's going on, and his policies haven't worked.

The attacks on the energy industry around the country, I'm seeing it in Virginia, I think people are ready to say we want leaders who will say this is what we need to do. We can't afford to have the greatest nation on earth go into debt $5 trillion every three years. We need a new fiscal policy and therefore we need a new president. I'm saying that's the bigger issue that I see from last night that translates into victory for Romney in November.

O'BRIEN: Governor Bob McDonnell, Republican from the state of Virginia, nice to see you. Thanks for being with us. We appreciate that.

MCDONNELL: Thank you, Soledad. Good to be on.

O'BRIEN: Ahead on STARTING POINT we'll tell you why singer Sheryl Crow says we shouldn't worry about the fact she's been diagnosed with a brain tumor. We'll talk with senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen about the risks and the reasoning, too.

Disney teaming up with first lady Michelle Obama to fight childhood obesity, what they've decided to do, what they're going to ban to help children become healthier. That sentence made no sense but I'll explain it on the other side.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody. Let's get right to Christine Romans. She's got a look at the day's headlines. Hi, Christine.

ROMANS: Good morning. Thank you, Soledad.

The Senate is to investigate loose lips. "The New York Times" reports that lawmakers are worried about recent national security leaks to the media including reports about a presidential kill list for terrorists and the use of cyber warfare against Iran.

Next hour, Soledad will be joined by "The Times" chief Washington correspondent who wrote about the secret cyber war against Iran's nuclear program.

A new face on the FBI's 10 most wanted fugitives list, former Chicago resident Fidel Urbina wanted for raping and beating a woman in 1998 has been the subject of a nationwide manhunt since 1999. Urbina is a Mexican national and authorities in Mexico believe he may be hiding there.

"Minding Your Business" now, U.S. stock futures indicating stocks may open higher this morning. Dow futures are up more than 100 points right now. Markets are up worldwide, too, all in anticipation that the European Central Bank will cut interest rates. That's good news for the U.S. since the European and American banking systems are so interconnected.

Are you bored of Facebook, bored of Facebook? A new poll from Reuters ipso says a third of users surveyed are spending less time on Facebook. The top reason, they're bored with it.

Investors seemed to be bored with it a bit. The stock is down about 32 percent from IPO, the IPO price of $38 a share closing under $26 a share. It's up about 2 percent though in premarket this morning so we'll watch the Facebook file today.

The Walt Disney Company delivering a message to its advertisers, get healthy. Disney plans to stop running ads for junk food during children's programming. The new rules for food and beverage ads won't take next until the year 2015. Still first lady Michelle Obama is impressed. She calls the Disney initiative a game changer for the health of America's children. Baby Babble or the "b" word? The mother of a little girl in Texas says a doll she bought at a Toys "R" Us as a Christmas present has a potty mouth. You decide.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROSE PICKENS, BOUGHT DOLL FOR DAUGHTER: I just never paid attention to what the dolls say. They coo, cry, say mama, dada and this particular day I hear "you crazy --" and I turn and I'm like wow.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: The doll is part of the "You and Me" interactive triplet doll set. Toys "R" Us says it wouldn't sell a doll that says profanity and people are confusing something that is supposed to be baby gibberish -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Wow! Overwhelmed by the little baby triplets and overwhelmed by the nasty talk of the little baby triplet. I didn't quite hear that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Got to use your imagination to hear that.

O'BRIEN: I didn't hear that and I listen for those things.

All right, after a battle with breast cancer there's a frightening new diagnosis for the singer Sheryl Crow. Her representatives are confirming that in fact she does have a brain tumor.

Good news it's benign. Let's get right to senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen. Elizabeth, good morning to you. You know, you hear brain tumor and honestly you think, my god, fatal. How serious is the brain tumor that she has?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Exactly, that is in the state that a lot of people make, Soledad. This is a benign brain tumor called the meningioma and our chief medical correspondent, Sanjay Gupta, who is a neurosurgeon, spoke with Sheryl Crow yesterday.

And she says, this is just a bump in the road, and that she is not having surgery, which I know sounds crazy. You think gee you have a tumor, you need to yank it out, but that's not unusual with a meningioma.

If it's small, if it's not growing aggressively and if it's not in any location that's going to be a particular problem, doctors often do leave it in and do periodic MRIs, which she says she's going to do just to make sure it's not growing really quickly.

O'BRIEN: She has talked about and there was this much publicized moment when she forgot the lyrics to her own song "Soak Up the Sun." I'm going to play a little bit of that.

Is there a connection between being forgetful and having a brain tumor in her particular case? Because she said she was beginning to feel very forgetful and this is one of the things that seemed to be an explanation for her.

COHEN: You know, Sheryl Crow told Sanjay that she asked her doctor is there a connection between this memory lapse and my brain tumor and her doctor said no.

He said look, you're 50 years old. You've got two little kids. You're touring all around the country. You know, we forget things sometimes. He said there was no connection to the brain tumor. The brain tumor isn't any place where it would affect her memory.

O'BRIEN: You're old and worn out. You're tired. Get a sitter and take a nap. You'll be fine.

COHEN: I hope I look so good when I'm old and worn out and tired, Sheryl Crow.

O'BRIEN: She's a breast cancer survivor. Is the tumor connected to that particular cancer?

COHEN: You know, it's certainly not a metastasis or a growth of that cancer because the tumor is benign and the breast cancer obviously wasn't.

But there have been studies that show that women who have breast cancer are more likely to later on get a meningioma and it's thought that it's because meningiomas often are connected to hormones.

And so they think, doctors think maybe that's what's going on, breast cancer is involved in hormones, too, so are meningiomas. So they think maybe that's what --

O'BRIEN: Could be potentially linked a little bit. So what does she do, wait and every few months go back and get another brain scan?

COHEN: That's right. That's what she told Sanjay she's doing. She's getting periodic MRIs and they will measure it very carefully and if at any point they say wow, this is growing really quickly, then they might go in and do something.

O'BRIEN: Well, we wish her the very best. That's amazing that you can, you know, be up on stage and have a brain tumor.

COHEN: Right, have a brain tumor.

O'BRIEN: Incredible. All right, Elizabeth, thank you. Appreciate it.

COHEN: Thanks.

O'BRIEN: Still ahead this morning on STARTING POINT, it's kind of the slap heard around the country. Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett loses the recall election. He gets slapped upside the head by a supporter. We'll tell you why this woman was so mad.

Mark Kennedy Shriver is going to join us as well this morning. He's talking about his new book. It's about his dad, Sergeant Shriver, and the day of JFK's funeral.

This is Stony Labrew "Look At Me Fly." Listen to it for a moment and see if you can guess whose playlist this is off. It's $5 for the first person who tweets me and tells me. I'm going big. I'm going big.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The answer is on the screen. The answer is on the corner of the screen.

O'BRIEN: Yes, I forgot about that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: All right, Margaret has us rocking out this morning, Bruce Springsteen "Radio Nowhere" off Margaret's playlist. So to people who supported Mayor Tom Barrett, a slap on the face this morning, we could say metaphorically and then also literally by a female supporter. You can see it right here.

CAIN: The lady smiling?

O'BRIEN: The shorter woman and so you can barely see her because she's not very tall, see right there the brownish hair.

CAIN: When she rubs her shoulder.

O'BRIEN: She's a supporter.

HOOVER: Don't think that's a real, a love slap like I could do it to Will.

CAIN: No, no, no.

O'BRIEN: My gosh, I'm against violence in all forms. But you know what? To me you see it underscored it was not a fake smack.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She seemed like she was angry.

O'BRIEN: She was really mad and she was mad apparently because they were closing the polls. He was giving his concession speech at a time when people were still apparently lined up.

CAIN: From the start this story has been just ripe with emotion and craziness, if we remember back a year ago, when legislators in Wisconsin ran out of the state, went to neighboring states to avoid the vote from start to finish. This thing has been crazy.

O'BRIEN: Crazy because I think there's a lot at stake for people emotionally obviously, and their livelihoods and their careers.

HOOVER: So much for the talk of civility though?

O'BRIEN: Your own supporter, that's a very bad, bad dire sign.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's the low moment, right? When you've invested so much in that election and your guy says it's over and concedes and for whatever reason she felt the race wasn't over and it was.

CAIN: look, the election last night was a resounding victory for Scott Walker. What this is, is another piece of evidence that those who supported it were against Scott Walker on the issue were always very, very, very dedicated.

But did they represent the majority in Wisconsin, now we know the answer to that is no. It doesn't mean they didn't feel very strongly about this issue.

O'BRIEN: This was a resounding victory with an asterisk because you have the State Senate District 21, where John Lehman appears to have won, right? He did his victory speech and that then means the senate now goes to the Democrats. He's a Democrat. He was able to oust Van Wanguard.

CAIN: That would be looking for a caveat in what is obviously a resounding victory. This was an issue about Scott Walker and collective bargaining rights.

O'BRIEN: But what's going to happen down the road, right, it's how he's going to be able to govern is going to be impacted by the asterisk that I just mentioned, which is this guy is changing the direction of the Senate. I don't think it's a completely nothing kind of thing. I don't think it is.

LIZZA: I agree with Soledad on this.

O'BRIEN: Thank you, Ryan.

LIZZA: The Senate is going to be Democrat controlled. This is not going to be a Romney state in the fall unless it's a complete collapse for Obama. No Republican has won Wisconsin in a general election since Ronald Reagan's re-election. The lesson of this is recalls are stupid and don't recall your governor.

O'BRIEN: You heard it from McDonnell a little while ago. The first thing he said was that the union should not have done it.

LIZZA: Absolutely, it was overreach by the unions.

CAIN: The DNC was never behind him. President Barack Obama never behind it because they knew it was a losing issue. By the way, everyone knew it was a losing issue because even the labor unions dropped collective bargaining rights as a flagship issue early on. It wasn't working.

LIZZA: It expanded out to other issues.

HOOVER: There were 150 recalls in state legislatures across the country in the last year, 150. Recalls should be used for misdemeanors and high crimes, not for actually doing what you say you're going to do when you get elected into office.

O'BRIEN: Ahead on STARTING POINT, Mark Shriver is going to join us. Got a new book out about his dad, Sergeant Shriver. He's going to tell us what his father's secret to a successful life was.

Also a former NFL star reveals he's gay, and what it was like to be gay and keeping a secret. His name is Wade Davis. He's going to join news in his first interview. You're watching STARTING POINT.

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O'BRIEN: The accomplishments of the late Sergeant Shriver are remarkable. He helped President Kennedy create the Peace Corps. He was U.S. ambassador to France in the late 1960s. He served as president of the Special Olympics.

But Sergeant Shriver's son says his father was not only great, he was good. In his new book, Mark Shriver remembers President Bill Clinton's remarks at his father's funeral.

Clinton asked this, could anybody really be as good as he seemed to be? Every other man in this church feels about two inches tall right now. The audience roared and more than anything I feel grateful I had a father whose shoes I could never fill against whom I never would measure up yet I felt no pressure to do so.

The book is called "A Good Man, Rediscovering My Father, Sergeant Shriver." The author is Mark Shriver. It's nice to have you with us. It is such a beautiful book and really an incredible testament to your father.

I think who a lot of people would say is great like the capital "G" great. He is a great man. He would write essays about him in elementary school and junior high school. But you wanted to discover the goodness of your father and how he was so hopeful and I guess, optimistic about life. Where did that come from?

MARK K. SHRIVER, AUTHOR, "A GOOD MAN": Joyful. He was really joyful. Many people said he was a good man after he died. I thought it was a nice phrase to say to someone that their dad died, but they were taking the phrase back.

I looked at it and thought, well, was it because he created the Peace Corps and working with my mom all across the globe and it was really because he was married to the woman of his dreams for 56 years, had five kids who adored him, had countless friends, went to mass every day.

And could balance it all and I'm hoping this book as it comes on Father's Day provides keen insights for fathers and mothers about how to balance friends and family and faith and jobs. Try to make a different on a global stage and dad had a lot of keen insights into that. I'm hoping it will help people become better.

O'BRIEN: You write a lot about growing up as a Kennedy and Shriver and just sort of the competition from the cousins, you know, in a sense looking to your incredible -- success of your parents and trying to figure out how you're going to emulate even a portion of what they've been able to accomplish. What was that pressure like? SHRIVER: You know, I think we were -- the family was involved in presidential campaigns from '56 to '80. It's a lot of action over a long period of time. I think when you grow up in that environment you see people succeed on the national and international stage and it makes you think you ought to do that.

Really what I think made my dad unique was he wanted to do that type of work but he knew who he was. He went to mass every day. He thought about and asked for help from God and had a personal relationship with God and he also had great relationship with my mom. He had great balance in his life.

I think that's really the key to success. I think he saw his actions and efforts to really spread hope and love around the world whether it was the Peace Corps or head start or his work in the '50s on racial justice issues in Chicago with Martin Luther King.

He's really consistent throughout his life on what he wanted to do and try to make a difference. I think the book provides that insight on how to create that balance when there are so many different competing interests on all of us.

My wife and I struggle with this every day. We have three little kids and ageing parents.

O'BRIEN: We're all taking notes because everybody -- it's impossible. It's an impossible struggle.

SHRIVER: It's really, really hard.

O'BRIEN: You tell a great story about when your 12 years old. Your father has Secret Service protection because he's running for the presidential nomination and he loses so he loses the Secret Service as well.

SHRIVER: He made the announcement he was dropping out. We get on the airplane and head agent comes over to sign some paperwork. They close the door. We land in destination and the door opens and there's nobody there to greet you.

O'BRIEN: By Secret Service.

SHRIVER: You have to get in a cab to get to the hotel. I realize in politics when you're done, you're done and people that care about you are your family and relationship with true friends because guys that are sucking up to you are gone. That was a good lesson for a 12 year old. That's part of life. What really matters is your family, your faith and your friends.

LIZZA: As a political junky, one of the anecdotes is the diplomacy that your dad has to do between Robert Kennedy and LBJ after JFK's assassination. What was your vantage point? How did you see that unfold and what was that like?

SHRIVER: When I sat back and reflected on it after dad died. It's an amazing thing that he was asked to do the funeral by Jackie, got a call on Friday afternoon. My mom was pregnant with me. I'm born in February. He dies in November.

So my mom had just come back from a doctor's appointment with my brother Timmy and they were eating lunch together in Washington all three of them. They get the call to go to the Peace Corps and then dad gets a call from Jackie.

I think it was just a fact he got along with so many people. He had profound faith. He got along incredibly well with Jackie and with that family but also had a good relationship with Vice President Johnson.

Vice President Johnson gave him a lot of great advice about how to keep the Peace Corps a separate entity away from the State Department and make it clear that the Peace Corps would be different.

So he had the ability to get along with different people and have their respect at all times. He had this incredible talent in so many different ways. He's also smart and strategic in creating the Peace Corps and getting that done.

HOOVER: What would you say was your father's greatest legacy?

O'BRIEN: And riddle too. Ultimately, I think that answers both questions, right. You want to solve the riddle of him.

SHRIVER: It's tough. I mean, I think the riddle is the fact his faith. He went every day and prayed, and acknowledged he was that guy. A lot of guys and women in this country in particular think they have to be the alpha person.

They have to run everything. I think dad realized that he wasn't in charge. He was going to do the best he could with whatever God gave him. That's what he said when he had Alzheimer's to me just before he died. You know, a couple of years before he died, he said I'm doing the best I can with what God has given me.

Every day was a challenge. He tried the best he could. He realized he wasn't in charge. That gave him incredible energy, but also kept him in the moment.

He was focused on you whether you are a CNN correspondent or you are the waitress at his favorite restaurant. He had that ability to be in the moment, which is hard to do, but also had an incredible amount of energy.

O'BRIEN: The book is called "A Good Man Rediscovering My Father Sergeant Shriver" by Mark Shriver. It's nice to have you with us. Beautiful book. I loved it.

SHRIVER: You can say that again if you want.

O'BRIEN: I should hold it here and Father's Day is coming -- it's such a beautiful book. I mean, really, and for mothers too. Honestly, I think anyone who is trying to figure out how are you not striving to be great in whatever it is you're doing, but good in the world. SHRIVER: A lot of great people aren't good.

O'BRIEN: No truer words may have ever been said. I think your father was a tremendous exception to that. It's nice to have you.

Still ahead this morning on STARTING POINT, why did a former NFL player wait so long to reveal he's gay? Wade Davis is going to stop by to talk to us about that.

It's a "STARTING POINT" exclusive and also Sarah Palin on the Wisconsin recall vote. Why she says the results show that President Obama's goose is cooked. Those are her words. You're watching STARTING POINT. We're back in just a moment.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My name is a Taylor Olson. I am an 18-year- old physicist. I was the youngest person in the world to produce nuclear fusion. The reaction I get from everybody even now is you're just a kid. You can't do nuclear science and you don't really know what you're talking about. I don't think it's too long after I start talking to them that they start to realize maybe he can do these things.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think he's one of those people that will change the world in some way.

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