>> i don't know about you, but i don't want my children and grandchildren to have to read the history book, what it was like to live in an american century. i don't want their only inheritance to be an enormous government overtaxed, overspent, overborrowed, to the great people of the second class citizenship. wednesday, august 29, 2012. "squawk box" begins right now. good morning, everyone. welcome to "squawk box" here on cnbc. i'm becky quick along with andrajoe kernen. you have hurricane isaac and the republican national convention. paul ryan will be speaking to the convention tonight. we'll be speaking to tampa to

speak to john harwood. first, let's focus on isaac. last night the hurricane made initial landfall and produced a dangerous storm surge along the gulf coast. then went back out to sea. about 3:15 eastern this morning it hit land again west of port fourchon. scot cohen is in new orleans joining us with the latest. >> reporter: on canal street up -- what you just described, first landfall right at the mouth of the mississippi. the second landfall sort of bouncing along the gulf coast to the west a little bit. and the storm sitting there, dumping this rain on southeast louisiana and ultimately into new orleans. and the wind. you look at what i'm getting, which is probably half of what they're getting to the southeast of here in plaquemines parish

where the levee overtopped and they're talking about severe flooding. just bounding this area over and over for hours and hours. you get a sense of what we're looking at. this is a major event. some 300,000 people without power. that's just the start of things. there is already some street flooding in the new orleans area. this is where the flood protection system that's been put in place for the last seven years since hurricane katrina struck will now be put to at least its initial test. this should be well below their limits of what this system is designed for but we'll see if the $14.6 billion is worth it. right now a lot of blowing. we've seen streetlights fall down, signs hanging here. if that's all they get here in new orleans, that's good. but we'll be taking a pounding all day long. that's what we're looking at. >> scott, yeah, we are -- going to keep a camera on you that's working.

i guess that's something we'll be dealing with most of the morning. let's check in with brian shactman, also in new orleans. let's get a shot of you and see how you are. how are you doing? >> reporter: i'm all right. thank you very much. the mississippi river is right there. we're at the convention center so we're getting this right now. it's been like this for the last couple hours. in terms of what's going on out in the gulf, major oil installations were missed by the major part of the storm. no major reports of damage there. 93% of all oil production is shut down. in terps of a hurricane, if this is category 1, i can't even imagine. jim cantore is a monster for being out in this all the time. this is incredible. >> it's amazing.

we're having trouble keeping lights on you. it's difficult but you're doing yoeman's work down there. i can't imagine if that's a category 1, what a 2 or 3 -- but so far we have our fingers crossed it's not nearly what katrina was. >> reporter: yeah, thankfully. absolutely. in terms of the tenor, i think everybody left in town didn't think it would be as bad as katrina. i'm going to go over here and get out of the wind a little bit. they left town anyway because they didn't want to take the chances and i'm sending it back to you because we're having a lot of technical issues. i will definitely say that we talked to people at hotels that went into hotels instead of evacuating. they just want to do whatever they can. people doing all the precautionary stuff necessary, including all the crews with cnbc and msnbc news.

we'll be out here for a while to see what happens. we're trying to get information from all the oil companies but they're being very conservative with information right now until they get full assessments on their own. >> yeah. brian shactman, that's a better place you're standing there, at least at the most -- >> reporter: i just want to say, obviously, we hope everyone is okay and everyone's safe but there's no one holding my ankles right now, making sure i don't blow away. >> exactly. we'll see you in a while. check back with you. where is isaac headed now? todd gross is checking the storm from our news room and spending the morning in studio with us, one of the advantages, msnbc has the weather channel. good morning. >> good morning. you know, we definitely have a situation where this storm is shifting a little from where it was supposed to. and it's doing a couple of things to new orleans at the current time. what's happening is this, it's

moving basically due west to west-northwest at the current hour. even though it made a second landfall it doesn't appear it's really surging inland at all. it's over a marshy terrain, therefore is not weakening as it would were it over regular land. i expect the rain is going to continue for some time. the good news is it's farther from new orleans than it could have been. there have been levee problems. in plaquemines parish in the southeast corner, yep, that's where we have, of course, one of the levees that's been compromised. waves overtop levee there and last night we reported port sulphur had problems with waves. we don't expect that to affect new orleans area specifically. we're talking closer to the

coastline where the storm made landfall. the rainfall is going to be a big issue. it's not just the amount of wind, the amount of storm surge which has topped off at 6 to 10 feet. looks like we'll be dealing with rain that could top off as high as 10 to 20 inches. it's definitely in the new orleans area the rain has basically stalled. as that storm shifts due west, as i mentioned earlier, this is something that i'm exclusively telling you, basically because it's skirting the southern coast of louisiana, it is not weakening as fast as it could. it keeps the rain going in a very strong way, even longer and it keeps the winds going, keeps that water level very high in terms of the storm surge. the problems are by no means over. that will continue for many, many hours to come into the daylight hours today. you want to see what it looks like? we'll have to go pretty far from the storm center to get you good footage but we could do so in

gulf shores, alabama. you're far enough away that we could take footage overnight and still show you big waves that were happening there. that's many miles from the storm. imagine close to the storm center where it did make landfall last night. every step of the way we'll be with you for this storm this morning. again, right now it's still a hurricane with 80-mile-an-hour winds. it has not weakened to a tropical storm quite yet nor will it in the next couple of hours. >> all right, todd. you've been there a while, i guess. everybody else is down there. you get to come to our cushy studios in engelwood cliffs. how does that work, is that seniority? >> i would prefer to be there but that's a crazy story. >> thanks for being here today. the republican national convention last night, headli headline headliners, ann romney and chris christie. tonight vice presidential candidate paul ryan. john harwood is there and joins us from tampa with the full story this morning.

let's hear what you have to say and then we'll talk a little bit. you must be tired. i watched a lot but i couldn't stay up for everything. >> reporter: i stayed up till the end. these rendell gpublican delegat excited to get this under way. they got under way with a bang. chris christie, known as a very good speaker, came out very powerful delivery in his speech. it was mostly about him and his message rather than about mitt romney. the message he was sending to the american people is it's time for politicians not to sugarcoat things but to tell americans where we are fiscally. >> here's what we believe as republicans and what they believe as democrats. we believe in telling hard-working families about truth about our country's fiscal realities. what they will know, the math of federal spending does not add up. $5 trillion in debt added over

the last four years, we have no other option but to make the hard choices, cut federal spending and fundamentally reduce the size of this government. >> reporter: senior romney strategist told me last night the more important speech and the one that was more effectively delivered was ann romney's. ann romney said -- i'm going to talk from my heart about our hearts. she helped americans get to know her husband a little bit better. that's a crucial connection that hasn't been forged as strongly as it might be. >> i can't tell you what will happen over the next four years but i can only stand here tonight as a wife, mother, grandmother, an american, and make you this solemn commitment -- this man will not fail. >> reporter: one thing in common from both of those speeches, joe, was an appeal to women voters. that was consistent throughout chris christie. ann romney at one point said, i

love you, women. deficit republicans have among women is the difference between whether they win this election or just come close to president obama. they don't need to win women, they just need to come closer than they are right now. >> let's talk about this this morning. we never talk about the deficit barack obama has with men, do we? we never talk about his gender problems. what is he down, 20 point among men? >> reporter: i talk about it. yeah, two sides to it -- >> we never say he has a gender problem. it's like romney has a gender problem. romney just can't appeal to women. obama isn't appealing to men real well. >> reporter: you're wrong, joe. democrats have a men problem. republicans have a women problem. right now the reason barack obama is ahead is that his vantage among women, who are a larger proportion of the electorate than men, is a little bigger. >> and he's got other groups. he's got other groups like minorities, hispanics, african-americans. when you get above 90% in a

group it's certainly helpful. >> reporter: yep. >> i finally went to bed about 8:30. were you there watching for most of the day, john? >> reporter: yeah. >> i just happened to see the utah congressional candidate, mia love. was the applause as loud as it seemed to be? >> reporter: i didn't see the speech but he got tremendous reviews. >> unbelievable. >> reporter: all of my colleagues who did see it. >> it was great. and then i never thought that i would get teary watching c-span. in fact, i never thought i'd watch c-span. >> reporter: what made you teary? >> cher venezuela from delaware, running for attorney general or something, but she had an autistic son 15 years ago. they had to start a business to give the child the support he needed. they said the child probably wouldn't be able to communicate.

probably would be nonverbal. they started a small business, a manufacturing business, that now has 70 employees and a facility, 70,000 square foot facility and her son just finished his first year at university of delaware. then she had to stop and couldn't really -- i mean, it was -- it was a great moment. i even get close to 10:00. >> reporter: i think the speech that brings tears to joe kernen's eyes is the definition of a good speech. >> it was her emotion. she was so strong and such a great advocate for small business and earned success and capitalism. you should have seen it. it was amazing. but she was stopped in her tracks when she said that about her son. it was her emotion. that's what makes great -- you know, in drama, when an actor can exhibit emotion like that, it transmits right to you, as

you know. so, tonight we got paul ryan -- >> reporter: condoleezza rice and paul ryan. with condoleezza rice, she's somebody who can lend some foreign policy credentials to mitt romney and talk about how he would approach that. she also represents some defensety on this stage of the party, which is an overwhelming white party. and the fact she's a woman may again -- a lot of the key swing votes are suburban women outside of places like denver, raleigh, durham, philadelphia, those are the people mitt romney needs to connect with. and condoleezza rice may be able to help him. >> i don't know about derek you know, we talk about social media and the blogosphere, but in the past you say people talk about the nondiverse audience. main stream media are talking about placement of where they

put someone -- a person -- a person of color even, american samoa or whatever. and then people are tweeting when they see a person of color. it's almost they make a joke out of it. finally i saw michelle malkin say republicans will do that at the dnc. and when they spot a taxpayer, they're going to tweet about it. >> reporter: i guess they will. look, the reality in the country is that our parties have become quite polarized racially as well as among many other dimensions. you've got in republicans a party that is almost entirely dependent on turnout and preferences of white voters. with democrats their key is minorities, women especially younger, single women and both sides are trying to drive up

their margins with different groups. >> i know. is it good? anything goes in the blogosphere, tweeter universe, anything goes, anything. i saw some celebrity, famous people expressing a lot of remorse that isaac didn't hit tampa and sweep away all the -- >> who? >> ellen barkin, samuel l. jackson. you've got to be -- >> reporter: i think hollywood justtics you o just ticks you off. >> it does. it does. i don't need to know about gwyneth paltrow as bm. >> reporter: woe! neither do i. i don't want to talk about that on "squawk box.." >> then don't follow her. that's why you don't follow her.

>> your hair is tweeting? >> excellent. and carl's neck tie? what should we -- >> carl's neck tie and -- >> what are we going to -- >> -- and joe kernen's hair. >> what should becky -- just becky's sweet smile, pretty good? >> sure. i'm a little concerned about where we might go with this. i'll take smile. coming up, check out these pictures from new orleans. officials reporting overtopping of a levee southeast of the big easy. a live report from the gulf coast in a few minutes. plus, we'll look at the energy industry and ask what the storm will do to production and prices. at optionsxpress we're all about options trading. we create easy to use, powerful trading tools for all. look at these streaming charts! they're totally customizable and they let you visualize what might happen next. that's genius! strategies, chains, positions. we put 'em all on one screen! could we make placing a trade any easier? mmmm...could we? open an account today and get a free 13-month e ibd™ subscription when you call 1-888-280-0149 now.

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welcome back. if you are just waking up this morning, we're still tracking hurricane isaac. here is the latest. the center of that storm is just now moving inland over southeastern louisiana after making a second landfall. last night it made initial landfall and produced a dangerous storm surge along the northern gulf coast and then went back out to sea. at 3:15 eastern this morning it hit land once again. this time just west of port fourchon, louisiana, had maximum sustained wind of 80 miles an hour. the idea it's been sitting here, pounding that area and continuing to drop so much rain on it, that's what's been causing the problem at this point. nothing like katrina. this was a category 1 hurricane when it came ashore. the big issue will be just how

much rain is dropped on this area. hurricane isaac making waves in the energy markets as well. joining us to talk about that is michael hall, senior exploration and production analyst for robert w. baird. nick pope, analyst for dallman rose. let's talk about who has exposure here. >> we have -- yeah, i think 97%, 93% of total gulf of mexico oil shut in, 90% of gulf of mexico gas shut in. vast majority of producers in gulf are exposed. independents list that i cover, andarco, apache, noble, all have exposure. >> so, i was listening to brian shactman earlier. it takes more than a week to get

things back up and running? >> it's not as easy as opening up the spigot. you have electricity concerns. if you think of gustav, smaller than katrina but had major impact on gas and oil outages. with all these floods, it's certainly something to keep an eye on. >> how do you get your head around what's happening and what to expect? >> the big concern i've this is the size of the waves and the slow-moving trajectory of this hurricane. you know, i think it's difficult to say what the damage is going to be and how long it's going to take to bring some these facilities back online. i think you have to realize some platforms have infrastructure and equipment starting 10 feet above the water. you have waves that seem to be 20, 20-plus feet right now in

the big producing region of the gulf of mexico, right at the mouth of the mississippi. i think a lot will be fairly acute in terms of the damage that we're going to see. it's going to be fairly short lived. a lot of work has been done over the last four or five years in the gulf of mexico to see this idle iron out there start to get removed and shored up. i think what can we see for things like gulf of mexico producers? impact of 5% to 10% of third quarter type revenues being impacted during -- wher we start to see those numbers roll in once this thing passes. >> you brought up a good point about what happens with refineries. that's been a huge concern as well because gas prices were up 4% before this thing even got going. how do you watch this? how do you figure out? what is the situation with refiners already? >> early as i've seen early monday, things got shut down

pretty tight. then it seems as of tuesday, actually, given the storm seemed to be less intense than earlier expectations. some refineries were back up to higher capacity ut zalgts. we'll just have to watch as time moves through, how quickly we're able to get back up to full utilization in the gulf coast region. stockpiles of gasoline, et cetera, have been running well below five-year averages and down toward five-year minimums. you know, that's going to further stress the price environment from that angle. so, just something to watch. obviously, also brings up questions around potential releases from strategic reserves. we've heard a lot about that. seems like it's not a go at this point, if you will. >> if there was a release, that's why gas prices were jumping around, that you could see release of the spr. in your opinion, a, would that be effective? b, how long would a price impact

last in item of trying to bring prices back down? >> i don't know how effective that would be in controlling gasoline prices. >> maybe more effective at crude initially? >> yeah, right. and given the supply disruptions and the further geopolitical tensions, i doenlt that now would be the right time to do it, necessarily, frankly. maybe bigger supply disruptions we need to worry about. >> down the road? >> down the road. >> nick, you talked about how this could be 5% to 10% third quarter revenue for some companies but we get hurricanes every year around this time. how does that match up with what you might traditionally see in third quarter? >> we've haven't seen a big production impact since 2008 where we had a big third quarter impact. in the second quarter we saw small impacts from tropical storms that just had people leaving facilities during the quarter. you know, i think in general it's been fairly quiet and hasn't had a huge impact on

revenues the past few years. i think the last time we really had the impact, 2008, there was a lot of companies out there that because of the timing of it, because of -- because it was late fall -- early fall 2008, i think there were a lot of other financial issues surrounding some of these companies. >> we had our attention on other issues? >> right. if you look at the financial position, a lot of gulf of mexico companies right now, it's dramatically different than what you saw on 2008. high oil prices for the last three years have really helped these companies shore up their balance sheet. they're in a much better position to weather the storm. >> thank you both. >> thank you. coming up -- wow. i'm looking at a jon stewart thing here. i see harwood and me. i can't hear it. anyway, our coverage of isaac continues this morning. that's where we'll talk to the man who runs the port of new orleans. plus brian shactman joins us from the big easy with an update.

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good morning. welcome back to "squawk box" on cnbc. i'm joe kernen along with becky quick. two stop stories, one, hurricane isaac, two, the republican national convention. paul ryan will speak tonight. we'll head to tampa and talk with "times" deputy washington bureau chief michael crowley in a minute. first, let's focus on isaac. last night it made initial landfall and produced a dangerous storm surge along the

northern gulf coast. then it went back out to sea at 3:15 eastern time this morning and hit land again west of port fourchon in louisiana with maximum sustained winds of 80 miles an hour. 18 miles of levee overtopped in louisiana. let's go down to brian shactman. lights go on and off. but we know it's you. >> reporter: there it is. our camera guy has his head lamp on me. we had to move positions, obviously. the storm behind me is no different in term of the power of the wind. we're basically at a cruise ship terminal behind the convention center so we have a huge, huge concrete wall right next to us now. we're much more protected from the wind. wung thi i don't think scott cohen had to

drive to his location. we had to drive across town and the only cars on the road were police cars and national guard. you might remember back with katrina in 2005 the national guard didn't come until well after the storm had left town. clearly, in your conversations with scott cohen, the approach to this storm is far, far different. in terms of getting information, you have that 18-mile breach in plaquemines parish. we did get word no oil installations have been effected, as of yet. that's pretty much all we've got in terms of information that's new. the storm itself from my vantage point has not changed one bit. if it's moving at 7 or 8 miles an hour, joe and becky, we could get a lot of rain for a long, long time. i will say starting maybe 8:00, 9:00 local time last night, it's been raining as hard as it is now. i have no gauge. jim cantore was with us for a while. that man is an absolute crazy man. i can't tell you how much rain

we have but low lying flooding but nothing i would call serious or dangerous at this time. >> you decided to zip up that thing this time. >> reporter: yeah. several rookie moves i could go over with you in terms of me covering a hurricane. there's the clothing issues, extra dry clothing issues, the type of jacket. i mean, i have to go back to the drawing board on this one in terms of my own personal preparedness. we're in good shape to hunker down. >> for reporters in local news, i think you've got -- they have a primer on that, brian. but you came -- you did do that for a while but you've been at cnbc for a while i think you're getting a little rusty. i would have no idea. i can't even get out of this chair. i don't even walk over to where the wall is. >> reporter: i did a marijuana

story in colorado for four weeks and then i was doing the market updates on stocks. i wasn't quite ready for this. from a journalistic vantage point, to see scott cohen, the see the way he operates, his experience in this situation, he was like my mentor last night giving me tips on every little thing. i'm getting up to speed quick. >> i had no idea where you were going with that marijuana story. i thought you were saying, i was trying to do the stocks, i lost my train of thought. maybe you got a little too close to the story. >> reporter: i was in boulder, joe, but i was a long way away from this type of dynamic. that's my point. i went from marijuana to category 1. >> exactly. well, i'm glad we're in a position we can be a little bit -- coverage is a little lighter and levity -- yeah. >> reporter: i don't want to be

flippant either. we're safe right now. we don't have reports of any major injuries from where we are. i want to make that caveat. i don't want to make light of a serious storm. but i thought i would say advantage since we had a moment. >> thanks, brian. joining us right now on the "squawk" news land is gary legrand. why don't you tell us from the port's perspective what you're seeing. >> reporter: from the port's perspective, we're as tight as we can get. we began preparations thursday of last week when we went into phrase one of our preparations. as you well know, the storm stalled over the night, about the time it hit the mouth of the river. that's caused extended havoc. heavy wind.

not as much rain as we anticipated. the port is in good shape. only one report of one ship that broke away from it's morings, slightly upriver from new orleans. it was taken care of in quick order. the port's in good shape. we're just weathering the storm right now. getting pelted pretty well. a lot of flying debris and things of that nature. but otherwise so far, so good. we're waiting for daylight for the sun to come up, hopefully. >> i've been reading about one area where they have seen water running over a stretch of the levee in a parish south of new orleans. there's an 18-mile stretch and they have seen water coming over, flooding the homes there. i don't know how close that is to the port, if you've heard these reports or what you think that mean to someone who's down there, doing storm preparation. when you hear something like that, is it a major concern?

>> yes that's affirmative. i heard an hour ago from listening to it is president of parish, billy nungesser. it was on a back levee from the marshland. the levee did breach in plaquemines, about 35 35, 40, 45 miles below new orleans. the back marsh water was coming if. there is flooding in homes. i understand the parish president, and st. bernard's parish is assisting those with evacuation by providing shelter to those folks. >> the other concern is this storm is hanging around, moving so slow. it was sitting just on the land. moved back out to sea and came back in again. i guess that raises some concerns, too, is how long it's going to stick around and what that could mean, the cumulative effects. >> it's downright loitering, is what it is. it needs to get out of here.

i think the overall effect -- you know, we're not going to know until we get daylight. as i said, there's been a lot of flying debris. i myself am at home. i have damage in my backyard. a few things have ripped away. pretty much, that's it. it's hard telling until we have daylight what the extent of the damage is. there may be parts of roofs that have blown away. i understand we have reports of that those are the types of things again, unless you know, unless you can visibly feel water coming up in your home, something of that nature, it's hard to say anything at this point in time, particularly with all of the power being out. >> is it fair to say at this point the worst case scenario has been avoided at this point? >> absolutely, worst case would have been a category 5. in my opinion, this is certainly more than a category 1 hurricane.

i've observed hurricanes for many, many, many years and i can tell you this one's right up at the top of the list in terms of wind devastation. >> we want to thank you very much for your time. we appreciate you calling in. we really appreciate the updates and hope you continue to stay safe. thank you for your time. >> bye-bye. >> if you have any comments or questions about anything you've seen this morning on "squawk," e-mail us. we'll be heading back to tampa to talk politics. did ann romney and chris christie effectively pitch the gop nomination to the nation and what can we expect from paul ryan tonight? how do you trade? with scottrader streaming quotes, any way you want. fully customize it for your trading process -- from thought to trade, on every screen. and all in real time. which makes it just like having your own trading floor, right at your fingertips. [ rodger ] at scottrade, seven dollar trades are just the start. try our easy-to-use

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partner on this amazing journey, i can tell you mitt romney was not handed success. he built it. >> i know the simple truth and i am not afraid to say it. our ideas are right for america and their ideas have failed america. ann romney and governor chris christie made their convention debuts at last night, speaking to the american people about why governor romney is the right man to take over the white house. so, how did they do? joining us now with his review of last night's events, michael crowley, "times" deputy washington bureau chief. how much of it did you watch yesterday, michael? have you ever watched c-span for so long as you did yesterday? they might actually register some ratings. i was watching c-span at like 6:00 at night. >> i hate to say i have watched chunks as long as this but this is when c-span shines, isn't it?

super bowl. >> no commercials, no interruptions. got to see the entire oak ridge boys -- >> it's geek heaven. >> it really is. what do you want to start with, mrs. romney? >> sure. i think you could say the same thing about romney and christie. what is interesting about these speeches is in a way it's a window into what the campaign perceives their challenges, their vulnerabilities are. they're not going to build up the areas where they feel safe and strong. so with ann in particular, i think you saw a campaign extremely aware of a gender gap. they have a lot of work to do with women. we're all familiar with the obama campaign's message about this war on women and the controversy we've had around mr. akin, the senate candidate in missouri, so on and so forth. she really played hard to that female audience. really trying to make a gender connection and also at the same

time, trying to empathize with the lives of middle class voters. and finally to hit that point that you can trust mitt. i think those three right there with her, three issues the campaign is worried about. the gender gap, the sense the romneys may not understand the lives of ordinary middle class american and also trying to seal the deal. this is a caring, warm, real human being not the robot he's made out to be. in that sense i think she was successful. >> all campaigns operate that way because they have war rooms and they decide what they're trying to get across. what do you think the president will try to get across? i mentioned his gender gap earlier with men. we don't mention his gender gap. the thing with him, he can empathize with middle class and not have any empathy for 250 and above because they don't represent a very big voting bloc. he has a natural advantage there, i would think.

>> yeah, president obama, it's a similar challenge. i think he wants to demonstrate he does understand the daily problems people are having. there have been some effective attacks on him that suggest he's out of touch, in this bubble in the white house. i think another point he'll try to drive home in the closing weeks of the campaign is that he has a plan that will work. people have to give him more time. that his ideas are the right ones. congress is standing in his way. the reason things are not getting better faster is not that his programs are not successful or smart. it's that the congress won't work with him and that they need to get on the ball. that's a key message he has to drive. >> he had them working with him for the first two years and he got everything they wanted and now we're reaping the benefits of some of that at this point. you know what i heard a lot yesterday? small business. if i were a large business i would have felt discriminated against but i heard the word small business mentioned out of

every single speaker. you were looking for maybe who the president needs to appeal to, he needs to appeal to small businesses and say, i do care, i'm not trying to overregulate you into extinction. i do finally grasp some job growths comes from small businesses not the government. and i were -- if david axelrod is listening, i would say, maybe you ought to think about that, david. what do you think? >> i think president obama has made efforts to demonstrate he understands the problems of businesses. i think the white house particularly after midterm elections in 2010 made a push to show they were not hostile to business. he dialed back some of what you might describe as his anti-business rhetoric or business critical of businesses. nothing, i think, you know, popping better in focus groups than small business. people daurg -- generally speaking, swing voters don't want to hear about your empathy for giant, profitable,

multinational corporations so a stand-in to show that you understand how the economy works, you want economic growth, you can talk about small businesses. that gives it kind of a human mom and pop face. it's one of the most cherished buzz phrases in national politics. >> i will admit i did not see chris christie's speech last night. the clips sound like he was giving a strong defense, supporting both romney and ryan. the criticism i've read this morning has been around the idea that he didn't mention romney's name 15 to 17 minutes into the peach. you were there. how did it play? >> you never know what perspective you get in the hall. people. looking at each other, chuckling, shaking their heads, you could see it playing out on twitter, when is he going to mention mitt romney's name? everyone knows he's ambitious. he might be interested in running for president himself in

2016he talked about his own bio, his own record in new jersey. he did take his time getting to romney and ryan. personally i thought he made a good case for his ticket. my issue with christie is i think his passion can seem to cross the line sometimes into anger and the danger is it gets a little abrasive. i think he wants to be careful about that. but i think his goal there was, again, what is the campaign seeing as a problem or vulnerability? i think they may be concerned, what is the vision, what is romney's campaign about? christie did a good job of saying we have hard problems. the political leaders aren't being grown-ups, aren't getting the job done. we need to knock heads with a strong leader. i've done it in new jersey. mitt romney is the guy who can do it in washington. i thought he did a pretty good job making that case and connecting it to the candidate. >> michael, we appreciate it. you'll be there for the -- you're going to be watching and being there, so we may need to check back with you if you're around. >> i'll do it all again next week. yes, i'm here.

thanks. >> thanks. >> when we come back, we are tracking hurricane isaac this morning. let's take a look at some of the latest pictures. these are coming in from the gulf coast right now. the storm is not as bad as many had feared. but we just spoke with the gentleman who runs one of the ports there who pointed out he's been seeing a lot of this for a lot of times. as far as he's the storm is not as bad as many have feared. there is some wind damage, you're not going to know exactly what happens until you start to see daylight there. obviously heavy rain and flooding, we're continuing to watch the levees as well. the head of the mississippi port authority will join us with the latest. stick around. na, na, na -- no! [ male announcer ] now you can take a photo right from video, so you'll never miss the perfect shot.

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hurricane isaac, i know as far as preparations you were able to systematically do everything the right way. for example, most of the stuff was shut down completely by the time the had your canadian hit and i you're reaping the benefits of that? >> we basically locked our port

down to port operations yesterday about noontime, we evacuated all the mayor time containers hopefully out of harm's way. we're at the mercy of the u.s. coast guard as far as our water way be closed and reopened. our focus is to do an assess me ment. also we'll be working closely with other state and federal agency such as the coast guard to get our channel back open. we've been through this drill before. we hunkered down -- it's an overused term but a good way to describe what we do. we'll so what daylight brings. >> you learned from last time around. but you were ready and looks

like it's expensive, though, moving everything to higher ground, clearing the rail yard and all that stuff but obviously something had to be done. >> there's a lot of tenants and users involved in the in the entire evacuation process. we've done this before. it's very expensive. we think it's worth it and we will see the benefits of this when we reopen the port. >> good luck. thanks for calling in today don allee. >> when we come back, we'll continue to track isaac. you know what i love about this country?

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making landfall. >> keeping track of what this storm could mean for the price of oil. >> and the gop making it official. >> we have governor mitt romney and congressman paul ryan and we need to make them the next president and vice president of the united states. >> this man will not fail. >> the republican national convention kicks into high gear and we're keeping score with gop strategist joe watkins and former dnc chair howard dean. the second hour of "squawk box" begins right now. good morning, everybody. welcome back to "squawk box" on cnbc. i'm becky quick along with joe kernen. andrew son vacation this week. we've been watching the futures.

they are barely budging again. no major moves in the stock market. the futures have barely budged. very light volume the last couple of days as well. >> hurricane ice action working its way inland after making land fall in louisiana with winds topping 80 miles an hour. we're visiting with you again, scott. looks about the same as it was. >> it's getting worse, joe, and it's going to continue to get worse. >> we had hits on this camera also a time. >> scott? >> yeah, we got you bsh -- yeah, we have both. >> as you can see, the winds are picking up. it does havoc with the signal. this is canal street.

servicen years ago this was under water when hurricane katrina hit. the real havec didn't come until 4 hours later when the levees broke. one thing you notice around here, the lights are on. they have not lost power in downtown new orleans yet but hundreds of thousands of businesses in louisiana are without power. that's going to be an issue. as we've been reporting in plaquemines parish, a levee miles of levee over top, outside the federal levee, the reinforced levee. people generally are hunkering down as everyone keeps saying in

new orleans. we've heard reports throughout the nights of fires and they can't fight fires in conditions like this and some of the worst squalls coming in. rain, wind battering louisiana. because it's such a slow-moving storm we're going to be feeling this for a while. >> earlier we spoke with gary le grang from the port of new orleans. he said this felt like a little more than a category 1. you've been through hurricanes, too. >> a lot of it has been how it's coming in and the effect of it. the fact that it's slow moving and this area is getting hit by easterly winds. it pushes more and more water into lake pontchartrain, tests those canals and the levees that failed so his rabblely seven years ago. that seems to be, we hope and pray, under control.

but there are a lot of issues here with the path of it or lack of speed of it. it's been stationary for much of the night. that means they keep getting ponded and pounded with rain. the worst of the wind hasn't hit new orleans yet and probably won't for several hours. this is pretty bad, though. >> you always talked about plaquemines parish where it's the water has been going over the levees. were those levees updated after hurricane ka treen? >> a lot of the levees -- there used to be before katrina local levee districts, they expanded that so that there was a little more centralization and all of the levees were reinforced to the extent that they could. it wasn't part of the completely redesigned system up here with the flood gates and the pumps, which are some of the most power

full pump in the world. those pumps are already working, pumping the water out in lake pontchartrain. that's not what they have in plaquemines. that's is a very simple levee and it's just a question of how high the water goes and if that levee holds. it seems that the levee joe topped, it didn't break. that's good thing. it means the levee is holding. as long as the water is up high against that levee, it's getting stressed. it has to hold back this water for a long period of time and that's the trust. >> we'll be checking in throughout the morning add throughout the day. >> the other story, the republican national convention. mitt romney sweeping the republican nomination last night

but it was his wife ann who took center stage to praise him as the man america needs. what was important was to humanize mitt romney. they came at it from different angles. chris christie talked about respect. ann romney talked about respect but she also talked about love. here's ann romney. >> i said tonight i wanted to talk to you about love. look into your hearts. this is our country. this is our future. these are our children and grandchildren. you can trust mitt.

>> now chris christie came at it from a different angle. his speech was quite biographical in tone. he was reaching taught women, talking about the influence of his mother on his life and basically made an argument for the pugnacious truth telling brand of politics he's been practicing. here's chris christie. >> she was tough as nails and didn't suffer fools at all the truth was she couldn't afford it. show spoke the truth bluntly, directly and without much varnish. i am her son. >> becky, chris christie got some criticism because the speech was so much about him rather than mitt romney. i think the bigger problem with the speech or potential problem is that the message that krissy delivered was not mitt romney's message. in a is to say mitt romney is not running a tough truth telling campaign per se. when chris christie said seniors are not selfish, the romney campaign has to hope that

seniors wasn't girding them for the possibility that mitt romney is going to tell them something they don't want to hear because what mitt romney is doing is saying current seniors are going to be protected on medicare and social security. >> wait a minute. all i heard was that the minute that minute that mitt romney picked paul ryan was that democrats were licking their chops because he was going to have to tell the truth. by picking paul ryan, he decided to go down the path of telling the truth. >> the current seniors aren't going to be affected -- >> i know. >> sort of. >> i wouldn't have picked paul ryan if i was going to dissemble and sugar coat things. >> i agree with that. he deserves credit for picking romney -- >> picking ryan. >> but as pointed out last night, they stepped away from the ryan budget after picking

paul ryan and they're not talking about cutting social security, they're not talking about trimming any benefits for seniors. >> we have bruce on here. independent not sure what happened in the bush administration. he's like dowd or paul o'neill. he's got a problem with republicans at this point. he's not even a rhino. >> i don't know if that's true. >> let me ask you. so i finally -- i watched this thing. have you been on jon stewart? you've probably been on him a lot -- >> one time. >> you got to watch last night. we were on for quite a while or it's your fault or i have to give you credit because remember i said we're going to have the hurricane in one box and the rnc in another box and you pointed out i was doing it right at that time. i looked at it. there was on a little thing down in the lower right-hand part of the screen that showed the hurricane and showed where it

was in the gulf. and i was going, oh, yeah, we are doing it, as if the viewer would be distracted by the picture of the hurricane. then he showed all the other information on the cnbc screen normally and he goes you really think this is going to make that cnbc screen busier than it already is? >> there we go. >> can i ask about the most important thing, joe. was i in the stewart bit? >> you were in the entire time. the funniest thing he said who watches cnbc anyway, a fly because of all those eyes they can look. >> i'm now in with my teen-age daughters. >> he looked a little jowly when he was imdate tating me.

>> at becky's braz ear. >> your eye lashes. >> someone also said, john, they're surprised they let new down there. i guess they like everyone in, though, don't they? >> i'm not sure what you mean. >> never mind. anyway, thanks, john. you should be happy. you owe me, being on jon stewart. >> high winds and rains testing the new multi-million dollar levees in new orleans. joining us is joe al pa, the former director of fema. just hearing those things at this point, joe, and it could obviously get worse but overtopping is not the same as breaching, right? is this manageable? >> absolutely it's manageable.

these earthen levees were designed to be overtopped. the question is how long can they withstand the overtopping and the homes that are below the levee that are going to be affected. in plaquemines parish it was between 2,000, 2,200 homes. most of those people have been evacuated but there are still families in their homes. if they're in their homes, they need to stay in their homes, climb to a higher floor. do not get in the attic unless they have a way out of the attic. do not get in the attic unless they have a way out of the attic. folks will get there as quickly as they can. that's the problem, quite frankly, when people don't heed the mandatory evacuation order. wee have a storm that has moved so slowly and has built up so much power, it's going to dump rain and wind for the next day. people need to stay at home.

do not go out sightseeing. there are jobs to do by first responders and emergency management individual. stay at home, watch tv, watch your local information stations and do the smart thing, which is use your common sense. >> overtopping it doesn't say anything about the structure of it. up said it depends on how long it happens. how long can a levee last with overtopping and still stay structurally okay? >> well, quite a while as a matter of fact. i'm not worried about the overtopping as i would be about breaching. that's a totally separate situation. the overtopping can go on for such a long time that it does ultimately breach the earthen dam. i think you all mentioned this particular area in plaquemines was not a part of what the core did over the last seven years. but the lesson of this storm, isaac, is to see whether or not

louisiana -- am i not on? >> you still are. >> i'm hearing a lot of voices here. >> i know, he's pressing a lot of buttons. >> welcome to television. the lesson is to see if we've learned a lesson from katrina. in a lot of ways, even though folks are going to have some hardship, localized flooding, a lot of wind, there will be some damage, i think the greatest lesson that everybody's learned is they have paid attention to the early warnings about evacuation, get to higher ground, button up your homes and businesses and we'll see there needs to be a lot of after action reports and meetings and review. craig fugate, the director of fema, bill carlisle, who runs response recovery along with governor jindal and his team, they're working right now to put in place the plans for the disaster review, which

everybody's on the ground, in place, plenty of food, plenty of water, be just stay safe. and we've already spent millions of dollars prepositions all these assets. >> great. wonderful. we appreciate you coming on today and explaining all that to us, joe. thanks. >> you bet. any time. >> still to come this morning, chris christie making the case for mitt romney last night. we're going to take a look at what political analysts are saying about the gop convention so far. and as we head to a break, take a look at a couple of pictures sent to us via twitter. hmm. there you go. if you want to share some of your isaac experiences, please feel free to do that, send us some pictures, comments, updates jah squawkcnbc, that's our handle. we'll be right back. companies have to invest in making things. infrastructure, construction, production. we need it now more than ever.

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last night we heard from intelligent governor chris christie and romney's wife ann. do d they score with the american people?

howard, do you watch the entire republican convention? how much of it did you see last night? it's like a:work orange, they have to strap you in a chair and -- >> the conventions are not exactly membermerizing. competing with a hurricane is pretty tough. >> how much did you watch and was the sound on? >> yes, the sound was on. i thought they both did a good job for the base. even ann romney, who is a very sympathetic person. i don't think that she probably did a lot to expand the women's vote. she certainly energized republican women and i think christie did a good job on the republican base. but again, from the sort of relatively disinterested, he just came across as another politician of which there are many, many, many on the diocese for the next two weeks. conventions are just not mesmerizing anymore. i think that's why the networks

on cover them for an hour a night. >> did you see any of the earlier stuff? >> which stuff? >> how can anybody say chris christie is an ordinary guy? he's a republican from a blue state who is actually winning there. >> new jersey's kind of a purple state. >> maybe it's purple. >> i agree with you. i think he's done some really fascinating things, he's a really interesting, plain spoken person. i think with that particular speech he just came across as just another person. >> i was bringing it up like kasich was on. i didn't really listen to everything kasich said. i got bored there. i didn't really listen to mcdonald. but the lady from delaware, she

blew me away. i don't know whether you saw her, joe. and mia love, did you see both of them, joe? >> awesome. >> he's probably a better gauge than i was. if i was howard dean i would be watching all of this. >> i'll tell you exactly what i was doing. i was sitting in dulles airport because for three hours because the computers crashed. >> did you have to watch cnn the entire time you were there, too, howard? >> i did. >> i know! that's what happened to me. you know what, they're lucky they do have those airport terminals. i think otherwise -- >> cnbc needs to be on. they need to know what's happening with the economy. >> it was stunning, the entire airport shut down for three hours because the computer program crashed.

>> that was a big deal. it's not the first time they've had troubles with that new computer system. >> it doesn't work on the mileage plus stuff anymore. anyone can screw up i.t. and united is not an exception. >> joe, if you were a big business, would you feel like you're not getting a lot of love? i've heard that from the president, too. it seems like small businesses, everybody wants to admire them, everyone wants to help them, they're the job creators and the multi-national profit nationals doesn't get any love. >>. >> i think they get lots of love. >> i heard small business a thousand times watching c-span during the convention and everybody wants small business, everybody's afraid to say they

want big business. >> they're speaking to the average american, they're speaking to regular folks and saying to regular people can you do this, it can be done. if you elect mitt romney to be president of the united states, he's going to create the kind of environment to get it done by cutting regulation and lowering taxes. and christie's measure is we can do this. it's not impossible to cut the budget and lower taxes, i've done it in new jersey. >> "romney's tax plan can raise revenue." >> martin feldstein was a supply sider. i don't believe anything they say. >> you don't like trickle had much down weather. you luke trickle up poverty. are you a trickle up poverty guy? everybody's going to meet at 46th avenue in a year. we'll have a perfect country if everybody meets at 46,000 a year. it's going to be perfect, right?

>> you should go to romney's version of europe for that. >> the truth is that the republican economics doesn't work, the stock market always does better when democrats are around unemployment is better when democrats are around. it's not so much trickle down economics. >> do you it for nour years and the republicans have to use eight to fix everything. >> takes republicans time to fix it. >> we have 4 million more jobs now than we did when obama took office. >> that's not true. >> it's absolutely true. >> that's 28 months we've added 4 million. in the first 14 months he governed, we lost 8 million. >> trying to -- >> i know but we haven't added 4 million since he took office. don't lie. >> i think that's why obama's going to lose -- exus cues me, i think that's why romney is going to lose. >> okay, mr. freud.

>> steroidian slip. >> we've had 42 months. >> the first 14 months was about recovering from bush. >> the minute we start to add jobs, you can't all of a sudden say we have a net 4 million jobs when we lost 8. >>. >> fair enough. >> how much of a deal are the september jobs report? >> irthey're not. this is what gerald ford's problem is why he couldn't beat jimmy carter. the economy was getting significantly better when ford was running in the last few months. i think people are locking in and they're going to think what they think about the economy. you know as well as i do the unemployment numbers are rear view mirror numbers, they're lagging indicators. it's what people feel about the economy that matters. people are going to feel what they feel now. i got to disagree with joe. big businesses are financing romney's campaign because of citizens united, of course

they're going to do well. and they are doing well. look at prafts and where wall street is now. it's almost double where it was when bush was in office. i don't think that's an accident. big businesses are doing well. it's small businesses that need the help and both parties know it. >> if we could lower that corporate tax rate a little bit, 25% -- >> howard just said it would just end up in the super pacs of united big businesses anyway if we did lower taxes. >> the glass is half full, not half empty. >> it's great having both of you on. it's fun. we'll see you in studio, howard. >> are you still a contributor, howard? >> i am. i'm on the cnbc payroll. isn't that terrible for both of us to be on the cnbc payroll? >> if it's okay with you, it's okay with us, if you don't feel dirty. >> i like cnbc. smart audience. >> when we come barks, new

orleans feeling the effects of isaac. brian shactman is there. we'll be back after a very short break. at merrill lynch, we understand the importance of your goals. today, our financial advisors lead from a new position of strength. together with bank of america, they have access to more resources than ever before. a steadfast commitment to help you achieve your financial goals in life. that's the power of the right advisor. that's merrill lynch.

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good morning, everybody. the region by region of the nation's economy is set to be issued at 2:00 p.m. eastern time. a judge has set a december 6th hearing for apple's request to ban certain products in a wide reaching patent case. we want to let you know about an opinion pace that that mario

draghi wrote in an opinion case today. he said the central bank has to deploy what he is calling exceptional measures to fulfill its mandate of calming prices. the ecb is drawing up a new bond buying plan to lower the borrowing costs facing spain and italy. some of the headlines coming out of it is strong decisions have to be made to manage the euro, germany needs to remain an anchor of the euro and certain economic fields can and should be pooled. this is dropped in a german newspaper. this could have been the message he may have delivered on saturday in jackson hole. he's not going to that. people are saying this is his idea of selling the idea of bond

buying. >> and brian shactman is in new orleans. i don't know how you could be making often calls and finding stuff out, brian, but is that the bottom line? >> you just repeat quickly the bottom line about oil prices, i got most of it. give me that one more time quick. >> that most of the facilities have been spared and that prices are coming done a little bit because it's not going to be as big of a problem as we thought it might. >> that is what i'm hearing as well. you'd be surprised how many things we can do we can do when we're not on air. it's still going to take a week or so for some of the facilities to get back up and running. the coast guard has to give them them the all clear, do the safety checks and get the personnel back in. some of the rigs left the area entirely. that might take longer. what i'm feeling right now is nothing. i walked over with our producer

toward the river as close as we could. it probably two times worse than what it is right here. and the best analogy i can give in terms of when i get that cross wind it's like people throwing 100 skid ls at my face. it doesn't feel like rain, it feels like rocks. i actually talked to the president of plaquemines parish yesterday and they have of course the overtopping of the levee down in plaquemines parish. that's not a breach. it's water going over it. he told me he's confident about the levee system that was upgraded in new orleans. he wasn't sure about the outlying levees. in plaquemines parish, it's south, it's low lying areas, it's sparsely populated. that obviously was the problem today. as far as i've been told, there are no injuries reported down will. it's just a lot of lot of water right now. >> brian, thank you.

we appreciate, you know, you putting it out there for us. i don't know. just standing out there. people don't stand out in the rain normally. >> you cover up -- >> you go inside. >> brian's down there, scott's down there. they're working hard and making sure they keep us up to date on everything that's happening. if you have comments or questions about anything you've seen here on squawk, e-mail us at squawk@cnbc.com. or our new favorite twitter --@joe kernens hair. >> only has 900 followers. let's get over a thousand. it's only the opinions of the hair, though. they're not mine or his. >> well, they're his, they're not yours. the futures of this hour have been hanging in there. the dow futures down at this

hour by about 13 points. we've been watching oil prices as well. they're below 96. we have oil expert john who havemeister coming up. still to come, gas and oil production pounded by hurricane isaac. what it means for gas and identify prices right after the break. i don't spend money on gasoline. i don't have to use gas. i am probably going to the gas station

about once a month. drive around town all the time doing errands and never ever have to fill up gas in the city. i very rarely put gas in my chevy volt. last time i was at a gas station was about...i would say... two months ago. the last time i went to the gas station must have been about three months ago. i go to the gas station such a small amount that i forget how to put gas in my car. ♪ there's natural gas under my town. it's a game changer. ♪ it means cleaner, cheaper american-made energy. but we've got to be careful how we get it. design the wells to be safe. thousands of jobs. use the most advanced technology to protect our water. billions in the economy. at chevron, if we can't do it right, we won't do it at all. we've got to think long term. we've got to think long term. ♪

welcome back, everybody. let's bring in john hoffmeister. when you see a situation like this, how should we be looking at it from the perspective of the oil companies? >> well, every hurricane is dangerous and fortunately all the rigs were evacuated, refiendries were shut down and people are safe. number two, there's such a misdifference between a category

1 and 2 and category 4 and while that while your preparation is the same, the expectation of damage or serious delay or serious repair work is simply a different order of magnitude. one of the things to watch is has tln been damage to port fourcian on the southern tip of louisiana because that's where the rigs are often cared for. if the road itself was damaged, that could slow down the startup. let's see how the power outages might last. by and large, becky, from what i've heard thus far, this should be an ordinary shutdown, a figuring out what happened and then an ordinary startup and it shouldn't lead to any real spiking in the oil or gas prices. >> there have been questions about gasoline prices specifically because the refineries. as you mensed, it's going to take them time to get back up

and running. we were to the looking at great supplies when it comes to how much they've had on hand. >> we've had some accidental happenings, the chevron fire, the venezuela fire. we've had also just a normal demand season where with a couple of refine rye ris that closed on the east coast, there have been -- it's a system that is in i'd call tight supply. so any aberration, anything that goes wrong is going to impact it and you know with any kind of economic strength we're going to see upside pressure on the gasoline price as well because that's just where we are. the system is not robust against a growing economy and we'd better do something over the coming months and years to enable to us have a more secure oil price. let's face it, third year in a row where high oil prices have slowed down the general economy because the disposable income is lost to high gasoline price ps. >> we also have what's been happening on the political side of things internationally, real

concerns about iran and whether or not israel would get involved in a strike against iran to try and shut down their nuclear capabilities. we talked earlier this morning with analysts who thought you could tap the sbr. >> i don't see what the advantage would be. there's no shortage of crude, certainly in the west market. we have plenty of western crude to be refined. it could be a political ploy for the incumbent in the white house to look like something's happening. it's really designed for emergencies. i don't think we're in an emergency situation. the iranian thing could turn into an emergency but currently we've got a pretty decent balance going on between what extra production is coming out of saudi with what production is

not coming out of iran. so i don't think we've got anything but sort of homeostasis right now but it could change. so the spr is if we get into a serious mng. >> you think the real issue here -- the good news is we may see an improving economy. the bad news is gas prices would get pushed higher as well? >> that's right. as long as the u.s. stays so dependent on imports and we're well over 50% dependent on imports, i realize the eia use as different number but we are not producing enough domestic oil in-to-avoid the negative impact of tight global supplies on american gasoline prices. >> you saw "usa today" has a picture of paul ryan. it just got me thinking.

you remember the last vice presidential pick by a republican, maybe it didn't work out that well. >> sale snn. >> yeah. after a week or whatever it's been of this, i don't know what's going to happen in november but i just think master stroke. paul ryan is so likable, so affable, so smart. you look back at -- you could go through his past with a microscope and -- >> he has a serious economic plan. the question is is it a plan -- the republican party -- >> i'm talking about him as a candidate. >> but that's part of -- he's got some serious, serious thoughts, though. >> he's a very serious guy. but we knew him here before he changed his hair style. now when they become a star, i can't get through to him if my -- i could call -- >> i e-mailed him, too, ant and haven't herd back. >> i've got an hour to live, if you could get back to me. now he's got the romney people. >> do you think we're neff going to see him again?

>> and we gave him some credibility. >> you're a little lonely. >> i am. >> coming up, former assistant treasury secretary emily henry. 0 tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 and the streetsmart edge trading platform from charles schwab... tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 gives me tools that help me find opportunities more easily. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 i can even access it from the cloud and trade on any computer. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 and with schwab mobile, tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 i can focus on trading anyplace, anytime... tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 until i choose to focus on something else. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 trade at charles schwab for $8.95 a trade. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 open an account and trade up to tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 6 months commission-free online equity trading tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 with a $50,000 deposit. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 call 1-800-836-8799.

welcome back, everybody. emil, thank you for joining us this morning. >> hey, becky. good morning. >> good to see you. we have been talking about the speeches from last night. i wonder how you think things went, particularly with ann romney. her job was to sell the softer side, trying to appeal to women. how did you think it went? >> we all thought -- we were sitting where we were sitting. we thought it was actually extraordinary. and you learned a lot of really good stuff about mitt. this is a man who is incredibly accomplished, he has never failed, he has never failed. he does what he says he's going to do, he's an extraordinary

family man. and you can trust pim. and he doesn't like to brag about what he does for other people. it's part of his faith. >> emil, we have been trying to focus on the issues, his economic plans compared to president obama's plans. there is a defense for his tax plan by marty feldstein. marty feldstein says you can get there, can you get there by his tax cuts depending on which of the deductions we're talking about. he found a way to make it happen using 2009 statistics. i wonder why we haven't heard more specifics from mitt romney in terms of what deductions he would get rid of to make sure you can make the balances add up with the tax wuts he's talking about. >> he's actually been talking about that all over the country and now that the country begins to focus on the campaign, which is what happens, this is when

most of the country starts to focus, they're beginning to hear about it. i'll just give you a couple of very -- i'll give you some specifics. so, one, lower marginal tax rates across the board by 20%. that's critical to creating growth. growth is the most important element. and also just as you mentioned, eliminate a number of deductions so you broad i don't know the base, you make sure that tax rates on the middle class and ultimate taxes after all that go down on the middle class. lower the corporate tax rate. we're amongst the highest in the world. lower it to 25% so we have a business-friendly environment. allow companies to repatriate the trillions of dollars that are locked up overseas, which this president could have done but by virtue of his tax policy. so it's an extraordinary plan and these are two reformers that are ready to make it happen.

>> although, emil, you know the criticism that's come from the tax policy center. it says you can't lower the rates like that without actually raising taxes effectively on the middle class. they say this because they don't know what tax deductions the romney plan would get rid of. >> that's not quite -- this is a little bit of musing for us. and, first of all, the tax policy group that you mentioned is an adjunct of the liberal brookings foundation. within of the authors was a former obama staffer. when they actually did their analysis, they essentially made up what they thought might be the deductions -- >> right but they were able to make those this evenings up because they're in a vacuum, they're able to put out whatever they want. why not be specific about which deductions you would get rid of so they can't make predictions? >> this is a formulation and it's not amenable to sound

bites. but the insidious thing about that report is created by folks with a liberal orientation, completely made up. this is just fact. they just made assumptions and then the president points to it as fact. >> it's not fact but you understand me point they made up those assumptions because -- >> sure, becky. >> we want to be serious and he has a detailed plans in other areas. it's tough to start talking about popular deductions you would get rid of. would you get rid of the home mortgage tax credit you can get with things? charitable giving. it starts to get into areas -- that's why it's been such a tough issue to tackle to this point because it politically not very popular. >> that may be a fair point but the bottom line is that tax

rates are going to be lowered, the base is going to be broadened. we have 50% of americans now who pay no income tax. just imagine that for a second. with sole little skin in the game, it kind of changes the orientation of our country from what it has been historically. >> emil, to you what is the most important point that you see in romney's plans that you think needs to happen in this country? >> his economic plan, it's exactly what he's talking about. to synthesize it's tax reform and an economic plan to spur growth, stop the spending mess in washington, $1.3 trillion a year, more debt creatednd this president than all of the presidents combined in the history of this country. spending deficits, debt, attack it right on. just like chris christie actually did in new jersey. and then unleash our energy resources, unleash them. we have these -- we are the

saudi arabia -- or near saudi arabia of natural gas now with the shale revolution and this administration is doing everything possible to stop it and the important economic element there is to unleash energy is to spur manufacturing. every manufacturer as one of their key inputs to cost is energy. so allow energy. and obviously strike trade deals with the world because 95% of the world's customers are outside of the borders of the united states. china's created i think 44 trade daes in the last four years. we have done none. >> we want to thank you for your time this morning. >> thank you so much, becky. >> when we come back on squawk, the center of hurricane isaac come moving inland on louisiana. we'll have move coming up at the top of the hour. squawk already right back. lexus enform app suite,ilae

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we have a lot to come this morning. tom stenberg will be joining us and america's richest oil man harold hamm is our guest this morning. we have a busy hour.

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. hurricane isaac making landfall. plus an update from america's

richest oil man. harold hamm will join us to talk about emergency procedures. >> and the republican national convention. >> with $5 trillion in debt added over the last four years, we have no other option other than to make the hard choices. >> vice presidential pick paul ryan to speak tonight. the third hour of "squawk box" begins right now. ♪ ♪ welcome back to "squawk box" here on cnbc, first in business worldwide. i'm joe kernen along with becky quick. andrew ross sorkin is off this week. checking u.s. equity puts, down about 6, 7 points. we lost i think 22 yesterday.

hurricane isaac is working its way inland with winds topping 80 miles per hour. scott cone joi-- cohn joins us m new orleans. >> there's a lot of activity here and i'm not going to be able to hear what you have to say. we've seen a lot of emergency vehicles heading up canal street. i'll let that ambulance pass. the other thing that we've seen in the last half an hour or so, and this could be a hopeful sign, is vehicles from the local utili utility, there are some 400,000 customers without power in louisiana at this point. if those trucks are moving, that's a sign at least they'll bibe able to get to where they need to be. whether they'll be able to work in this, we don't know.

we're still trying to get information from plaquemines parish. the levee is a rural area, it's a levee that overtopped. it didn't breach as far as we can tell. so really what it speaks to is the height of the storm surge, 6 to 12 feet is what they are projecting. as thee rains keep coming in, they're going to keep battling new orleans even as the storm passes. we're on what's known as the dirty part of the storm now, where you gel ought the rain and potentially tornadoes as well, even once that passes there,'s a long line of rain behind that. weep keep you posted. >> scott, thank you very much. we know scott is having trouble hearing. he has been looking into the situation there. we'll check back in with him throughout the morning as well.

our other big story has been what's happening at the rnc. new jersey governor chris christie and ann romney headlining at the convention last night. good morning, john. >> good morning, becky. you had a distinctly different one-two punch last night from ann romney and chris christie. chris christie was clean-up speaker at the end of the night. his message was unusual for a politician saying winning a popularity contest isn't the only thing politicians should do. >> our founding fathers had the wisdom to know that social acceptance and popularity were fleeting and that this country's principles needed to be rooted in strengths greater than the passions and emotions of the times. but our leaders today have decided it's more important to be popular, to say and do what's easy and say yes rather than to say no. >> now, ann romney did everything she could to make mitt romney more popular,

especially with american women, who may be the swing voters in this election. she made the case that the successes that mitt romney has enjoyed in the private sector are ones that he would work tirelessly to bring to the rest of the country and its economy. >> let me say this to every american who is thinking about who should be our next president. no one will will work harder, no one will care more and no one will move heaven and earth like mitt romney to make this country a better place to live. >> of course there's a packed lineup of speakers tonight. one of them is rand paul, whose father ron paul, the libertarian republican, inspired a significant following in the campaign. some of his supporters on the floor yesterday made a little noise. we'll also hear from mike huckabee. he's a very important figure among social conservatives and

the two clean-up hitters, condoleezza rice and paul ryan, the vice presidential running mate, who has energized conservatives in this race. we'll see if he can reach out to independence tonight, becky. >> that's a tough duty, to try and reach out to the independents. what does paul ryan really have to say to do that? >> one of the things that's been effective about paul ryan so far is he communicates a sense of youth and energy and vibrancy. when we get to the end of the campaign, we'll see whether his ideas for medicare and his budget ideas, which are politically difficult to get done and the house republicans, they voted for it but the senate republicans haven't been easy to do it. we'll see whether or not that proves a liability. but rather the way that paul ryan communicates, the sense of direction, purpose and energy that he brings to the ticket are

valuable for mitt romney. >> we'll also be talking to staples co-founder, tom stemberg, in just a few minutes. he'll be speaking at the convention tomorrow. >> the oil history himself plenty on its plate between hurricane isaac, a fire at the reminery. we spoke to dan yergin. we've been watching oil prices. they did get pushed higher overs last couple of days as we waited for -- is that because the immediate threat of isaac is off the table if. >> it's partly because of that, that the huge gulf complex looks like it's okay particularly the offshore production. still don't know about the

refineries and flooding. the other reason prices have come down is because of the statement from the g7 countries warning high prices are a big risk to the global economy and telling the international energy agency that it should be prepared to do something and that something would be some kind of coordinated release involving the strategic petroleum reserve. >> is that a good idea in your perspective? we had others who say something like that should be saved for bigger spikes around the world. >> i think that it's really there to deal with a bigger disruption. the worry is there that we have this slow motion crisis with iran that will get worse. the news that iranian troops are now active in syria points out the further danger. i think if we get through, there's not serious damage from the hurricane, immediate need it

use the petroleum strategic reserve isn't necessary. >> are the prices where they should be given everything we're considering? >> if we look at the weakness in the world economy, you would expect the prices to be somewhat lower. two things are propping up the price. one is the geolit call tension. there's no stable equilibrium here. the other is watch what happens if there is a q 3, signaling what comes out of bern can hes speech on friday, what might happen in terms of stimulus in europe as well as in the united states. and that would kind of tend to lift prices somewhat. but if you look at the actual demand picture and relatively weakness in china, the prices above what the fundamentals would call for. >> it's hard to break these

things down but if you had to figure out the proposal of more quantitative easing of qe3, the die we will be getting more stimulus from the fed, we spoke with bullard, andis idea is if we do see more stimulus, qe3, it's going to be in small tranches. his idea was kind of koum pairing it no terms of quarter percent. if you did see some srt of small package, do you think you'd see oil prices come down even more? it's a tricky thing to try and figure out. >> sure. i think if if you say what's the market expecting, i think it is

expecting bigger. but the other thing that's going to happen is we're going to start to move into this period where the answers are iran having to renewed with the different countries who have cut back by whatever percentages, china, south carolina and for the -- >> a lol tilt meaning look out, anything could happen any day? >> exactly. i think in the market there's a statement that nothing dramatic will happen until after the election, but there as plenty of room here for an event to surprise people. and the focus on syria right now has been on what's happening to syria but that has a lot of implications for the region. if it starts to become a proxy conflict, if there are suddenly iranian troops not far from the

border, then you move into a different situation. >> we also had boone pickens last week. he said he thinks natural gas prices could get up around $4 by the end of the year. do you agree with that? >> that's not what we would be expecting right now. the price reese flekt there's a very big surplus of natural gas and those prices will come up. we use around $4 as our median price. >> all right, thank you. >> coming up tom stemberg is scheduled to speak republican national convention tomorrow, shortly before mitt romney. you are looking at a live shot from new orleans as hurricane isaac makes its way inland. "squawk box" will be back in two minutes. control.

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he were's what we believe at republicans and they believe as democrats. we believe in telling hard working families the truth about our fiscal realities, telling

them what they already know, the math of federal spending does not add up. with $5 trillion of debt added offer the last four years, we have no other option but to make the hard choices, cut federal spending and fundamentally reduce the size of this government. >> that was new jersey governor chris christie. paul ryan is set to speak tonight. joining us is tom stemberg, a managing general partner of the highland consumer fund and co-found are and former ceo of staples. i was thinking of a cough of ways to talk to you about this. some people criticized krissy for not talking about romney over and over and over again. i think for him to tell the truth and to paint the picture that he did, you know, you've been talking about romney for how long, tom. you can say it until you're blue in the face. you've had a preeft

relationship, a business relationship and you've seen how the or side has for trade him so that should be frustrating to you. you can only do that so much before you tell the country what kind of shape he's in. did you find him effective? >> joe, you are right and john harwood is wrong. mitt romney has never, ever in his entire life run away from the facts. mitt runs into the fact, gets them all wellnd control and then acts, unlike the current administration who wants to kick the bucket down the road, whether it's simpson bowls or anything else that would address our tremendous problems of the nation, they want to talk about them and don't want to solve them. mitt does. >> you had staples. you know business. what is that saying that business is war and it's tough. you know romney well. and given what the perception that has been engendered by the

other side is of romney, is politics -- is business anywhere near as nasty and underhaded as poll tex? would you just give it up? you must be tired of the portrayal we have about mitt romney right now? >> mitt's a pretty tough guy. he's used to taking shots and he comes up smiling. as we expose the real mitt romney in this convention and i think ann did a wonderful job talking about her years with mi mitt. anyone who doesn't think mitt is a terrific human being just hasn't lived in this world. >> there's that expression you change your opinion when the facts change. but you've known him a long time. heap has come to different conclusions about certain issues than he had in prior administrations. is there anything to that perception that he's one dimensional and just will do or

say anything to get elected, tom? >> it's just not true. mitt's a guy of present. i had him on my board for 15 years. he didn't change in those 15 years and he hasn't changed since. mitt believes in certain principles, mitt believes in balancing budgets. mitt leaves in dealing with all the facts. believe me, i was a ceo, when he was my boss, the one you never wanted to do with mitt romney was in any way obscure the facts. he wanted to hear all the facts and what you wanted to do with it and then question you about it. i think that's the way he's going to be as president of the the united states. we've got tremendous problems in the nation, 23 million people unemployed or underemployed, trillions in deficits year after year. unlike the current administration at that likes to run away from the problems and give speeches, mitt romney is going to confront the problems

just as chris christie did in new jersey and solve they. ann romney said it very well, he will not fail. >> what time are you speaking? >> i'm speaking at 8:00 but it keep changes. i don't know. >> maybe they're not going to say to you you were involved with the big companies. i haven't heard any good things about big companies. all i hear about it small business. it's almost like big multi-nationals are not what -- they're not what either party wants to seem affiliated with because i guess they just seem to buy influence or something. all i hear about are small businesses. >> well, mitt romney talks about some very important, use for all business and that has to do with a territorial tax and simplifying our corporate tax code. that's critically important to large businesses and it's also important to all americans because we want those trillions of dollars that are being held overseas to come back to the united states without being taxed so they can be invested

and create jobs. the obama administration doesn't want to deal with this fact. mitt romney will. >> are you -- what would you in the administration? are you going to do anything in this administration? >> i'm going to stay the managing general partner of the highland consumer fund bull but i'll have a better back drop to invest in. >> you're frustrated trying to make people understand the mitt romney that you know. do you think he has to turn the focus back to the economy more? is it that he has to present himself as a softer guy that appeals to women? what do you think the secret is for this election? >> i think this election is do we want to confront our problems as a nation. i think paul ryan, chris christie and mitt romney all speak to that fact, that we have to face up to our problems. if americans want to bury our heads in the sand and listen to the slick, small talk of the

president, i guess they'll reelect him. i think america is bigger than that. i think we've gotten to where we are in the country by dealing with the challenges. whether it was getting a man to the moon or making ourselves safe -- >> let's say people talk about 50%, they do pay payroll taxes. let's say you're in the part of the population that is morl on the receiving end of government services. so if someone tells you we don't want to cut any of your services, we're just going to tax the high-nd people, if you get 50% listening to that, that's a problem, tom. >> the fact is, joe, it's a great line on a campaign trail. but the fact of the matter is if you add up all the so-called buffett tax increases on the wealthy, they don't begin to fill the hole we have on our national deficit. it's a mere token.

we can talk about these little things around the edges but they're not the fundamentals. >> are you trying to say we need to raise taxes on the middle class to make up for some of that, then you're going to hear it needs to be everybody making sacrifices coming into it. if you talk about some of those loopholes being closed -- >> mitt is going to lower the rate and get rid of all the special deals. >> he has not been specific on the special deals. >> mitt is still a politician running for office. every one of those special deals has some friends. there's no sense offending the friends right now up front when you haven't got a firm plan and you really want to work it through. mitt's going to do that. believe me, when mitt says he's going to do something, he will. >> i guess that's -- tom, that's been part of the issue. you're right, you can probably get there if you close the right loopholes, it's a tough political discussion to have. in the absence of that, will you

see these attacks that come from other places likes tax policy center saying you can't get there from here. it's difficult because on the one hand you want to have a serious discussion, on the other hand you alienate -- >> the really big issues are entitlements. and on those subjects both mitt has been extremely clear going back as far as his book. he would gradually overtime, not affecting today's seniors raise the -- the age at which you get these benefits. secondly, there's no reason a guy like myself should get free health care. there should be a means test, there should be a means test. >> you're loaded. you should be paying for me and becky. there's no reason you should be getting free health care or overtime. we'd appreciate that if you would, tom. break a leg tomorrow night.

we'll be watching. >> when we come back, we do have breaking data on the economy at 8:30 a.m. eastern time. like our all-in-one trade ticket. we put strategies, chains and positions all on one screen. start trading today with optionsxpress by charles schwab.

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welcome back to "squawk box." we're just seconds away from the

second estimate of second quarter gdp. all these numbers we're watching in a new light with 70 days or whatever it is left of the election. all right, kevin. >> good morning. >> how are you? the numbers please now. >> ooh, 1.7, in change. this is a big ham on rye. the price index unchanged, no revision also. 1.6, joe. that's going to put the market back in looking for headline mode. >> all right, wait a second. these are like one of the things you send me, i have no idea. what do you mean if it's a ham on rye? what if it was a turkey on rye? would that be good? is there cheese? mustard? whats could that -- what does

that mean? >> it means the market was looking for something a little bit better than that. >> like a steak? >> we want steak and sizzle. i think the market should have been revised up. >> what do you mean we're going to be looking for a headline? what was the next thing you said? >> i think the market's been headline driven, most of it coming out of the european mongering. you'd rather sink your teeth into something more real. this was a chance to do that. a bit of a disappointment i think. >> you mean now we're back to following the headlines from europe. >> yeah. not a fan of doing that either but that's certainly the big driver. >> you know, we had harold hamm coming up but we don't have any rye. there he is. if beput that up -- i didn't even get it but they tell me in my ear there's harold hamm.

a look ahead to the jackson hole conference, the former director of the international finance division at the federal reserve, would you characterize this as disappointing, too? did you think we'd be up about 2? >> i think this is broadly consistent with what we've seen for some time. we see an economy moving at about a 2% trend pace. you have a business sector that's very strong but very scared about fiscal policy, taxes, regulation in europe. you put all this together, 2% is what i'm expecting for the next year, year and a half. at some point i think there's stronger growth out there are for the u.s. but it's still a ways away up. >> said the corporate sector is very strong. there's cash, there's strengths? income statement strength? >> i think when you look at --

what about revenue growth and things like that? we must be missing demand. >> i think that's absolutely right. the combination of softness and demand, the consumers are still weighed down by problems with labor markets and deleveraging and credit availability and the like. it hits revenues, as you say. >> is there any reason to think if there was less uncertainty and if there was clear fiscal or tax policy or health care or any of that, is there any reason to think that that would translate to consumers feeling better and increase a demand but i would hope in that world that the corporate feel more comfortable without starting to hire. you can get into a virtuous loop

with more spending and hiring -- >> are they not hiring because there's not demand? >> i think it's both. suppose there were corporate treasures and we're thinking about whether to invest in hire right now. what is the incentive to do that today? there's lots of uncertainty about politics, lots of uncertainty about fiscal cliff. why not just wait and do it next spring. >> and it's unlickly that interest rates are going to be any higher. you have an unemployment rate that's stayed sturn only at 8%. this is a different reality to deal with than as a 5% -- >> it really has. i look at the problems with the labor market as being the central drag on the economy.

this is what the federal reserve is really focused on. >> kevin, you see that number come out and the future don't know what to do. i heard someone yesterday say -- and the market had to deal with qe3 being delayed. that's what someone said. >> it never really permanently gone or permanently on right now. they can -- it's like a carrot. they can dangle it in front of us whenever we need a little bit of a bounce and whenever we get get a bad number, we're back watching for qe3 again. >> i would say this -- the conventional wisdom here, the hope down here, is that they just get out of the markets and let's take a peek at it without them. unfortunately i don't see that happening.

the whole concept in my mind is to use that rhetoric, keep talking about it so you don't have to talk about an end date and reboot it. >> someone is messaging me, was it 1.5 and it went up to 1.7? >> 1.5, 1.7 was the prior. so it's a little bit higher but we were expecting that. so consumption was a little better than what we were looking for from a 0.2 standpoint. i was looking for something closer to 1.9. we'll see if they revise it again. your guest summed it up perfectly for the general viewing audience. that's what i call ham on rye. >> what i heard kevin initially say, we went into the spring swoon and the summer we realized it wasn't as bad as we thought

so we thought maybe things were not as bad as we thought and maybe this next employment point might be a little bit better. we had one decent one in terms of jobs being added. what are we going to get on friday? >> my best guest would be another reading in the 140, 150 range. >> this doesn't change that, even though it's 1.7? >> no. we're now moving into the third quarter. 2%, it's roughly to be quite that rang for any time. >> the 8.3 could be 7.9. we have no idea. >> that's right. we seen the unemployment rate bounce around. i personally have my eyes rich etted on the payrolls number. how many jobs are being created.

if we're consistently seeing numbers that are well above 100,000, i would expect overtime unemployment would trend down. i also think we're in a world where unemployment is coming down that the federal reserve is more likely to watch and wait. >> nathan, thank you. kevin, thank you. >> if you thought those early c-span coverage of those convention speeches were riveting yesterday, wait until you see. tomorrow a a an interview with dennis lockhart. this is going to be interesting. >> we keep hearing from all of

these fed president, their take on whether we'll see qe3 and how big it will be. lacquer was saying the fed can't control unemployment. this will be another big hint tomorrow. when we come back this morning, america's richest oil man will be joining us to talk about the impact on the gas republican instruction. he have an energy adviser for the romney campaign. >> take a look at hurricane isaac as it battles new orleans. squawk will be right back. dad's tablet... or lauren's smartphone... at&t has a plan built to help make families' lives easier. introducing at&t mobile share. one plan lets you share data

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let's get an update from cnbc's brian shactman. brian is joining us from new orleans again. >> i know we're a business network but i want to give people perspective of what's going on in a category 1 hurricane. i'm about 190 pounds, about 200 pounds with all this gear on. i'm really centering gravity as much as i can to stay centered. right now there's about a half a million outages in louisiana and the report is 75% of new orleans is without power. the mississippi river is right

here. the convention center is right here. the national guard is deployed on the other side of it. i had a conversation with a sergeant over there and despite all health insurance going on, he actually said it going better than expected, they're doing routine circles around the city constantly. said about 20 minutes ago no major problems. i also want to touch on plaquemines parish. they're not saying they're not sure if it was a breach or overtopping. it's not part of the refurbished levee problem. it's out of that sfooer. -- sphere.

i don't have any report of major fatalities or injuries. it's the heaviest since i've been outside the last five, six hours. >> what's the temperature like now, brian? i'm wondering what it feels like to be you. >> the funny thing, joe, i was just talking with alex her air rarks our camera guy. it's really warm. it's a very comfortable temperature. i'm soaking wet but i'm not that uncomfortable because of the temperature. with katrina, the water temp in the gulf was about 96 degrees. this one was about 88 so that made it not get more --

>> this is going at 6 miles an hour. you can go faster than that on a tread mill, can't you? >> brian, even if it was breached, that one, you get a category one in new orleans. you would. >> and, listen, history repeating itself, say what you want about it but there's no doubt that from the government on down, they treated this with the utmost respect. just the national guard alone, there a couple of thousand of them in the city in new orleans and we all know how long it took them to show up during katrina. the irony is incredible. seven years later to the day and you're just hopeful, joe and

becky, that that's what a lot of the people are thinking about. we appreciate it your work this morning. >> for more on the impact of hurricane isaac, harold hamm joins us from the republican convention in tampa. he is an energy adviser to mitt romney. it's great to see you this morning. >> good morning, becky. good morning, joe. >> hey-o. >> we are trying to get a feeling of what's happening in the gulf with all of the energy plofrm there is. at least so far it looks like the worst has been escaped when it comes to isaac. what's your take on what this is going to mean to oil production? >> i think we've been very lucky. there's going to be some temporary disruption in supply but not very long. i guess you wouldn't feel

fortunate in your house is flooded but altogether i think it's very fortunate the way if came in. >> brian said even if there isn't damage to the offshore platforms, it's going to take about a week or so to get it running. what does that mean for oil prices? >> it hadn't spiked like it would normally if a strong hurricane came through. so it's minor i think overall. so very, very fortunate. >> you have pointed out, though, when it comes to venezuela, the situation could be a pretty serious one being particularly for the refinery fire there and what that means for gas prices down the road. >> well, you know, that thing has gone on and on here with another meyer breaking out yesterday. and certainly, you know, in

venezuela it going to cause a lot of problems. the rest of the country i don't think will because we certainly don't get too much refined products from there so i don't think we'll feel is very much here. >> we have watched gas prices tick higher and that's a big concern for the american public. where do you think that's headed? back down if we not concerned so much about the refinery fire will? >> yeah, i think that was it. and both of those things come bind made gas prices peek a little bit. what do we do about prices? >> every president since nixon has come out with a policy for

energy independence. this is different, becky. we're talking about north american energy independence. certainly we headed that direction. 43% imports now and expected to be 25% maybe as close as 2015. >> harold, so i keep hearing that there has been an energy -- a domestic energy boom over the past four years. and i know what they're talking about. they're talking about shale. so the president could theoretically take credit for that domestic energy boom, even though we know it's been mostly an emphasis on renewables, like solar what hasn't out quite the same. would you at least give him credit of not staying in the way

or has the private sector done this in spite of the obama administration? >> it's in spite of the obama administration. the president has done everything he could to sector. it's come over 15, 17 years now. it's been coming about due to one thing. that's horizontal drilling. we're able to go get the immobile portion of all oil on earth. we've been using. the immobile portion is larger. so we're seeing that first with natural gas and now with oil. so it's in spite of the administration. the private sector has come up with the technology to do this. it's a great thing. >> i saw the oklahoma governor speaking proudly about you. how many kids are in your family? i'm trying to get my arms around that. >> we have to stop and count once in awhile too. but there's 13 of us. i'm the last of those 13.

>> jeez. that's a lot of -- that's busy. then you were the baby and you still had to -- that is quite a story. that's why she was so undoubtedly proud when she was talking about it. all right. did you see that part? >> i read about it. >> you did. yeah, yeah. beaming. >> harold, we want to thank you for coming on. we'll have you back soon to talk about this energy policy. thanks for joining us today. >> thanks. it's good to be here. we're very proud. >> there are a lot of female governors. if there are as many ceos, it wouldn't be a -- there are a lot. anyway, we continue to monitor hurricane isaac as it makes its way over. until it's 50 it's still below. then heading to the new york stock exchange for the buzz about wall street. in communities across the country.

whether it's supporting a delaware nonprofit that's providing training and employment opportunities, investing in the revitalization of a neighborhood in the bronx, or providing the financing to help a beloved san diego bakery expand, what's important to communities across the country is important to us. and we're proud to work with all of those who are creating a stronger future for everyone. one is for a clean, wedomestic energy future that puts us in control. our abundant natural gas is already saving us money, producing cleaner electricity, putting us to work here in america and supporting wind and solar. though all energy development comes with some risk, we're committed to safely and responsibly producing natural gas. it's not a dream. america's natural gas... putting us in control of our energy future, now.

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let's get down to the new york stock exchange. carl joins us. your new life, you were probably able to watch last night, weren't you? >> a little bit, yeah. interesting. what was your review, your

overall review, in response to the idea it was disjointed and didn't make the case? >> i went to bed at 8:30. i saw mia love. i saw c-span and i thought i'd never boost their ratings. i don't know if you saw the lady from delaware running for office. i did dvr them. i'm going to watch it when i get home. your take was -- you watch ann romney? >> i did not see ann romney, no. i've seen the clips we've been running this morning. >> all right. >> the big night is going to be tonight and tomorrow. ryan tonight, mccain, conde rice. i know cohn and shactman have done great stuff this morning. we'll also take calls on various stocks. oppenheimer guys are saying this buyout of best buy pretty unlikely. >> all right. >> we'll talk to him in the 9:00

as well. >> have you seen the new guy blogging now? at carl's tie clip. >> another one? >> no. i haven't seen that. you dapper, young gentleman you. >> we've been listening to country all morning. this is when joe comes back from vacation with the country. you miss it, don't you? binars and interactive learning, plus, in-branch seminars at over 500 locations, where our dedicated support teams help you know more so your money can do more. [ rodger ] at scottrade, seven dollar trades are just the start. our teams have the information you want when you need it. it's another reason more investors are saying... [ all ] i'm with scottrade.

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wow. stock of the day. joseph a. bank. the quarters earnings topping. double digit revenue growth driven by the internet and catalog sales. margins did narrow amid rising input costs. >> that's a big story. we'vn watching the futures today. they've been hanging around the flat line. a lot of people on vacation, the volumes have been low. we'll see what happens because we have bernanke speaking friday. that's a big deal. we're starting coverage from there tomorrow. we'll be hearing from lockhart who our guest told us earlier today lockhart is probably the best person to listen to in trying to get a centrist view. tomorrow we'll hear from dennis lockhart. we'll have all this