>> reporter: jeanne moos, cnn, new york. i'm wolf blitzer in "the situation room." the news continues on cnn. good evening, everyone, tonight president obama on jobs sending troops off to war and the republicans who want his job. what does he make, for example, of texas governor rick perry's suggestion the men and women of america's armed forces don't respect their commander in chief. >> i'll cut him some slack. he's only been at it for a few days now. >> perry for his part isn't so diplomatic. he blows kisses at his rivals and uses words like treasonous to criticize the chairman of the federal reserve. >> i don't know what you all would do to them in iowa, but we would treat him pretty ugly in texas. >> the texas talk is stirring the presidential race but might some scare voters away? on the trail michele bachmann leads a tribute. >> before we get started, let's all say happy birthday toley to.

happy birthday. >> sweet, right? except elvis was born in january. he died on this day on august 16th, 1977. plus, check this out. the group swarms into a maryland convenience store and robs it in a stunning blur. it is the latest example of crime by flash mob. and we'll talk live tonight to the police chief now hoping the same tools used to organize the outrages help him round up the thiefs. let's begin, though, in iowa, center stage in american politics at the moment. president obama is there and he sat down today with cnn's wolf blitzer. on the critical issue of jobs the president complained the partisan gridlock here in washington is blocking progress, but he also conceded his re-election is at risk if things don't get better soon. >> ultimately the buck stops with me. i'm going to be accountable. i think people understand that a lot of these problems were decades in the making. people understand that this financial crisis was the worst since the great depression, but

ultimately they say, look, he's the president, we think he has good intentions but we're impatient and we want to see things move faster. >> and when wolf recalled the conversation during the last campaign, there was this telling exchange -- >> when we spoke here -- >> yeah. >> -- end of 2008, hope and change. >> right. >> do you know what i see in washington still to this day -- >> more of the same? >> the same old, same old. >> maybe a little worse. >> why? >> well, you know, i think what's happened, you know, there are a lot of theories about this, part of it is you have these congressional districts that are now so democratic or so republican that people don't feel like they need to move to the center and try to find some common ground. they dig in their heels. they're more worried about a primary fight coming from their own party and i think that contributes to it. some of it frankly, wolf, is i think the media's changed, you know, it's much more splintered. >> wolf blitzer live with us tonight from iowa where he conducted that interview. wolf, very telling, the president said it's washington's

fault, it's washington's fault we can't get a jobs bill through, but he acknowledges if the unemployment doesn't go down, he could be at risk, and i thought his point i promised to make washington better and it's even worse was pretty telling. >> yeah. i was surprised he said that. because, you know, he ran on hope and change and it wasn't supposed to be like this, but he knows it is the same old, same old, and as he says it may even be a whole lot worse. he went into some specifics about how the country is so divided right now. redistri redistricting, for example, has created solid republican districts in the house of representatives, solid democratic districts in the house of representatives. he says the media is partially to blame because republicans want to watch one channel, that is, republican oriented. democrats will watch another channel. they won't hear what each other are saying really. it's a whole different world. he's clearly angry and frustrated, john, and hat certainly came through during that exchange. >> wolf, you tried. you pressed him. he said he'll have a jobs plan

soon and a new deficit reduction plan. you pressed him for specifics including how you going to deal with medicare cuts and the like. as you know, one of the knocks from republicans the president says these things and doesn't give us the details, understand maybe why he wouldn't want to give them in a national tv interview, but did you get any sense that he understands the bar on him, the test on him, will be to be very, very specific when he has those plans? >> yeah. and his instinct as you know, john, a lot of our viewers know, is not to come up with a formal plan, a formal blueprint to put that on the table, but to try to negotiate something behind the scenes and hope that that works out and then they would release some sort of final agreement. that's his instinct, but i think he realizes it's too late, he has to come up with a specific plan. he'll do it in september. i tried to get details and my own gut tells me and what i'm hearing from behind the scenes, there's a little fighting going on within the administration and the white house and they haven't come up with the initiatives yet, they still have a lot of work to do before they come up with that plan which is

understandable. but when i asked him what's taken so long, he said, well, i've done all sorts of things, but clearly it hasn't been enough. >> wolf blitzer, a fascinating interview with the president of the united states. more of it coming up tonight on cnn. stay with it. wolf, thank you. and let's digest more here at the moment with jessica yellin and our senior analyst david gergen. thanks, both, for being here. i wanted to start with one of the things the president said. wolf asked him why don't you support a balance budget amendments which is popular with americans and many people would support a balanced budget amendment, and here's the president -- >> the question is why can't congress simply make good choices? why can't the president and congress, working together, get a handle on our debt and deficits? >> it's a fair enough point from the president, jessica yellin, but if you look at the president's own three budgets that he's submitted to congress, he says why can't we make good choices and tough choices, his 2009 had a $1.7 trillion deficit and the next year it had a $1.5

trillion deficit and the year after that a $1.6 trillion deficit. it's easy to say we need to make tough choices but could a republican make the case he has not led that conversation? >> if congress were in session, there would be 100 democrats trying to room into this room screaming your hair on fire, how could you say this, john king, they would say these were deficits run up by the administrations beforehand that the president tried to pay down they are working on paying down, and they had to stimulate the economy, et cetera, et cetera, we're doing the best we can, that's the essential democratic position and the argument you do not want to work in a balanced budget environment because it's not good for the economy. that's an essential democratic position about -- it's a philosophy, so they don't want to alter that. plus, they don't like the balanced budget amendment. it's a view of the world that the democrats come from. the president's taking a middle position which is i'll go a little bit toward the republicans and agree with some deficit reduction. democrats are angry he's gone too far already. so, he's in the middle trying to

negotiate between the republicans and the democrats, and already he's being burned for going too far to the republican side. >> and, david, when you sit down with the president, it's telling, and wolf was trying to get him to talk about things and the president's been out there, he's in campaign mode, even though this officially, officialplofficial p ly, a presidential trip, i want to may a dnc video m.i.itt romn said something on the campaign trail and the democrats jumped it. >> one is the way we can raise taxes on people. >> corporations are people, my friend. everything corporations earn ultimate i hly goes to people. where do you think it goes? >> in their pocket. >> whose pockets? people's pocket. >> the democrat national committee is responsible for the content of this ad. >> the democrats seizing on that romney moment and wolf poses the question to the president, david gergen, and you would think

that's t-ball, here chance to take out his opponent in november, do you get a sharply partisan attack? no. you get this -- >> if you tell me that corporations are vital to american life, that the free enterprise system has been the greatest wealth creator that we've ever seen, that there -- corporate ceos and folks who are working in our large companies that are creating incredible products and services and that is all to the benefit of the united states of america? that i absolutely agree with. if, on the other hand, you tell me that every corporate tax break that's out there is somehow good for ordinary americans, that we have a tax code that's fair, that asking oil and gas companies, for example, not to get special exemptions that other folks tonight get and that if we're closing those tax loopholes somehow that that is going to

hurt america, then that i disagree with. >> to borrow a phrase, i would call that a fair and balanced answer from the president. however, it does not match his own party's political message at the moment. >> absolutely not, john. he pulled his punches on that. and there's a pattern we've seen in the last few days, and that is he aggressively on the stump goes after congress and republicans in congress, being -- making them responsible for all the bad things that have happened especially on the debt ceiling fight. he also is willing occasionally to go after republican contenders as a group. but he's been pulling his punches on individual republican candidates. jessica i think has a theory that he doesn't want to elevate them and put them up on the same stage with him. let them fight it out and he'll go after whoever is left. but there's a real distinction between how he goes after republicans in congress versus how he goes after -- he cut slack today as on -- on -- intentionally on rick perry. he could have not only gone after him about what he said

about the military, he could have gone after him about the comment he made about ben bernanke, but he held back. i assume the theory is what jessica says. >> and so let's listen to one more. here's where i thought the president did something smart. he was talking about -- you remember the earlier fox republican debate and brett bair asked the republicans to raise their hands if you agree with this position, and it was if you opposed a deficit reduction deal even if it had $10 in spending cut for every $1 in tax increases, all republican candidates opposed that, the president reaching from the middle of the electorate jumped on that. >> when i saw our republican presidential primary candidates suggesting that they would not be willing to close a single loophole or close a single special interest tax break even if they were going to get $10 of savings for every $1 of revenue that raised, that is no longer thinking in a commonsense way. at that point what you're seeing

is ideological rigidity that is preventing us from solving problems. >> that's an appeal to independent voters and it proves he's paying a lot more attention to the race than the white house would want us to think. >> basically when he's going against the group, he's saying i have a bunch of extremists against me, they're no different than the people in congress you don't like. they would oppose a compromise on the debt ceiling and on the new deficit commission and these guys are all out to lunch. that's basically what he's saying, but he's doing it in a more presidential way than being on the stump and he's very carefully avoid going after individuals like rick perry and mitt romney even when he had the big openings in the last 24 or 48 hours. >> he's figuring out when do i have to be president and when am i the canned zmadidate. >> he has to walk a careful line, i don't think it's a dilemma at this point.

his job, he's commander in chief focusing on jobs, that's the way it has to look to the public. we'll see him in september out on the road, but he'll be pushing congress on the job proposals and the supercommittee proposals. he'll be in shirt-sleeves and it might be a campaign picture but he won't be talking about the presidential candidates he'll be talking about something else. >> if his daughters were old enough to vote, the president may have given them a reason today to vote republican. >> when i'm re-elected, i'll be getting them a continuation of secret service so when boys want to date them, they'll be surrounded with men by guns. that's their gift. >> an excellent point from the president of the united states. every father and daughter can agree on that. the republican candidate was in iowa today, too, and coming up we'll hear what he was up to and try to translate some of what we'll call his texan-isms.

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the newest big player in the national political debate wears cowboy boots and talks with a texas twang and every now and

then says things that might startle you or at least require a little translation. no, george w. bush is not making a comeback and the current republican governor rick perry hasn't crossed into the dictionary defining land of stra strategery. >> i'm a place from paint creek. it doesn't have a zip code. it's too small to be called a town along the rolling plains of texas. >> david courtney of "texas monthly" is with us tonight to help us translate perry's campaign language and jeff zeleny has been keeping a close eye on how the governor is playing in the key battlegrounds. last night he was talking about the fed chairman, governor perry was, and ben bernanke, and the governor said if the government sent doing that it would be treacherous and treasonous behavior and he went on to say

this. >> i'll take a pass on the federal reserve right at the moment, to be real honest with you. i know there's a lot of talk and what have you about them. if this guy prints more money, between now and the election, i don't know what you all would do to him in iowa, but we'd -- we would treat him pretty ugly down in texas. >> all right, david courtney, treat him pretty ugly means what? >> well, hi, john, thanks for having me. treat him pretty ugly sounds awfully close to opening up a can of you know what on him, whup ass. >> you can say that. it's all right. jeff, when you're out on the road when voters hear this, you know, george w. bush, people took a lot of time to get used to him in some ways, bill clinton had those things when i covered him, he used to say when you see a turtle on the fence post, it didn't get there by

accident. how is rick perry being processed? >> i talked to a lot of voters who said they were coming up to hear him speak and they could hear him sort of a block or two away and they thought it was george w. bush, so he sounds similar but in many ways they're different. and certainly in policies and in terms of the type of fiscal conservative they are, but iowans really are excited that he's here. the voters i talked to. you know, part of it is, though, i think they're just looking for sort of a new player in the race. it's been going on for a while. but he got in a little bit of hot water over his comments on ben bernanke, and the difference is the campaign style at the iowa state fair where he answered every question and he was confident, and today he it was quite striking. his aides hustled him away and he took no questions from reporters. and one thing they'll have to do is instill discipline in the presidential campaign when everything you say is parsed and repeated.

>> handlers. and, david, one of the comments the governor will be asked about, his campaign is being asked about, a comment he made in 2009 at a tea party rally, if washington was behaving the way it was looking, maybe texas will look to leave the country. let's listen -- >> you know, my whole visit america, washington in particular, we got a great union. there's absolutely no reason to dissolve, but if washington continues to thumb their nose at the american people, you know, who knows what may come out of that. so -- but texas is a very unique place. and we're pretty independent lot. >> talk of secession, has that come up a lot in texas? >> it does not. lately it's just -- just from that clip is what we hear it, you know, and i think there is a bumper sticker you'll see with the texas flag and the word on it. but that's about it. >> so, this is just him talking -- talking at a tea

party rally and saying maybe? >> that's right. i think you would call that big talk. >> big talk. what is the -- big hat, all hat or no cattle or something like that? >> right. >> again, jeff, out on the trail you get the sense that people have immediately said this guy is the force, that it's now a romney, bachmann, perry race. when you talk to activists out there, do they want to winnow the field that quickly or are they looking for a little bit more time? >> i think that they're ready to winnow the field to at least the top three or maybe a top five candidate and that's already happening i mean with the iowa straw poll and that process has gone on. but i think what they really want are some specifics and it's clear that governor perry has a great operation around him. he has this great advance team. all of his events looked like they were set up perfectly. it almost has the air of a general election-type campaign, but his policy specifics are not quite there yet. he had a lunch with business leaders in dubuque, a setting of a couple dozen republicans generally and they asked him

specifically what he would do on controlling entitlements and he just sort of gave a broad brush, you know, conservative view but he didn't give many specifics. he wouldn't even commit to, you know, raising the retirement age which a lot of republicans have, so i think he knows he has to get up to speed pretty quickly and especially before the three debates in september, you know, it's going to be critical for him to see how he responds to those. because he is a few months behind here. >> week one of our new latest candidacy, we'll continue to watch it, appreciate your help. still to come, the latest example of crime by flash mob is alarming to watch. the local police chief is hoping the video will go viral and he's here to tell us why. there are grumbling about the president from two critical constituency, blacks and latinos. we'll talk about policy differences over jobs and immigration. helps defends againl constipation, diarrhea, gas and bloating. with three strains of good bacteria to help balance your colon. you had me at "probiotic."

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welcome back. here's the latest news you need to know now. the pentagon says the single largest threat to iraq's security or militia groups backed by iran. the eigiranian-backed militias remain a threat. spanish police arrested a man for allegedly to plot against president benedict's visit to madrid. tomorrow's demonstration is the protest against the cost of the

visit. from mars a new look inside a 14-mile-wide crater so big its distant walls make it look more like a valley. it's the largest crater ever visited by the u.s. rover opportunity. dramatic video of a flash mob robbing a convenience store, and the role social media play in organizing such events. anana] this...is the network.

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this summer it's been harmless and even a fun fad has turned dangerous and illegal,

young people using social networks and text messaging to get organized have been assembling what they call flash mobs. a flash mob of more than two dozen young people showed up at a convenience store before 2:00 in the morning. look at it right there grabbing things off the shelves and off they go, leaving without paying. we are seeing similar things in other cities, some involving african-americans and others leading to violence. chief, this is your jurisdiction, germantown, where this played out. what do you know about how they got organized? i've spoken to the philadelphia chief, charles ramsey recently, he said they are using texting and social media. is that how it happens? >> it's still under investigation. we know that we've gotten some information that some of these kids were at the montgomery county fair when it closed. they took the last bus back to the transit center in germantown, then when they got there, what we're thinking is that's when they started using the social media to get a larger group together to go into the

7-eleven. >> you put this video online. you hope it helps you bust these thugs. on the other hand, do you worry at all it would glorify them, because after an incident in philadelphia google searches for flash mobs peaked, do you think that other kids will say this is a way to get attention and on television? >> we're hopeful the reaction we've gotten from the community quells that. we've gotten overwhelming response from the community, in fact, because of the quality of the video we've identified now over half the kids involved in this and that's from folks who have seen the video and called us with information. >> roland, when you see this, it's obviously ob habhorrent to watch this, and the philadelphia mayor after a violent incident in his city went into an african-american church and he delivered this lecture -- >> you damage yourself. you damage another person. you damage your peers, and quite honestly, you damage your own race. >> do you see it as an african-american problem, a youth problem? >> no, i see it as a youth

problem just like when i see after a basketball game or football game i'll see white kids on the college campus turning over police cars setting them on fire, i don't see, oh, my god, what is happening with white college students. i see it as a college student issue. in this case you have mayor nutter african-american speaking in a predominantly african-american church speaking to the issue in that case you largely had african-americans, so he's making a very pointed issue. the problem here and i do believe this is going to be the problem that it becomes a copycat syndrome. because before philadelphia, it was a problem in chicago. and then it was on michigan avenue and they had a problem there, and so i think when people all of a sudden see they think it's a great idea, but at the end of the day parents and community leaders must say whether they are black or white, they are thugs and it's criminal activity and it's flat-out wrong. >> chief, some have suggested, it's happened in london and the riots, and you have high unemployment and an age of austerity people are cutting government services and in

american cities there are less money for summer jobs and fewer opportunities and the d.c. police chief is in philadelphia now, and here's what he said when i asked if the economy had something to do with it. >> these are ignorant kids doing things they have no business doing. unemployment, education, these are not excuses to go out and randomly target people and beat them up. there's just absolutely no excuse for it. it's just stupid. it's ignorant, and i just can't find any other words to describe it. >> well, these kids were -- many of them were at the county fair up until after midnight, so they had something to do. >> right. >> this was 1:30 in the morning, it's not like that was occurring at 7:00 or 8:00 if you think, well, maybe if we had a program the kids could get involved in a more healthier activity. this happened at 1:30 in the morning. >> this is a knee-jerk reaction, john, i think is a problem because what you then do is when you have real cases of poverty and you need programs, and people say, well, this is part of the issue.

it's nothing to do with it. chief ramsey was absolutely on it. >> when you have this, in your community, you say people are calling in because you have this video up and people are calling in and giving you tips. you've identified half, have you arrested them or are you waiting to build more evidence and get the rest of the names? >> we're continuing to build our case, and the investigation continues. but the final outcome is going to be some of these kids will be held accountable. most of these kids will be held accountable, perhaps in juvenile court, adult court. for their behavior. and i think that's where we send a message that we're not going to tolerate this kind of behavior. >> you send the message to the children. how old are they? >> most of the ones we identified so far are juveniles, so they're under 18 years of age. >> roland, they end up in juvie court, and some if they have a record may have a harsher penalty and most will be told to go away and be fined, i am in the ballpark? >> absolutely. >> can you haul the parents into juvenile court? >> the parents do have to respond to juvenile court, so there is an opportunity for the judge to intervene there if there's some action he thinks

that can help the family. >> john, every parent in germantown needs to confront this. this could affect your child getting into college and on down the road, so they might see it as a one-time deal but it could have lifelong ramifications if they allow it to continue. >> what's your sense? you see this technological explosion and it helps you in a case like this because they're surveillance cameras everywhere and so on the one hand, technology is your friend. and the idea that people can start text messaging and it domino effects and the kids think it's cool somehow to get involved with this gang, how do you as a guy who is, you know, trained to fight crime, cops and robbers, deal with that? >> i think we need to have the same capability as these kids do and i think it will come down to, you know, when some of the messages go out that there's going to be enough folks in the community that understand, do you know what, i can forward this message to the police. they can be there. they can respond quickly. >> so, you need a tip just like there's a guy selling pot on the corner or an adult buying liquor

for kids outside the liquor store. >> the social media watch groups the young folks who say i am willing to help the police be a social media watchdog. >> is there a right, more constitutional questions you have because of all this? >> you know, it hasn't been an issue so far. we've worked with the state's attorney to make sure that we stay, you know, on the right side of this and we don't hamper the prosecution in court. but i think it's there. it's there available to us and we need to take advantage of it. >> how long have you been chief? >> i've been chief here for eight years. >> ever seen anything like that? >> you know -- not in montgomery county. and now we actually had a similar situation in silver spring, that's why the county's wrestling with this curfew less, and philadelphia has looked it as an alternative and it's the perfect example where a curfew could have prevented it happening. >> i'm total in favor of a curfew. i have one question, are you on twitter?

>> the department is. >> what's the handle? >> i should know that. >> do you know what, we'll get that, roland makes a great point, we'll get it and put it on the blog. i appreciate you coming in. who will be the next republican candidate to drop out of the race, one hopeful who said his fourth-place finish in the iowa straw poll should convince you it won't be him. level to help your engine run more smoothly by helping remove deposits and cleaning up intake valves. so when you fill up at an exxon or mobil station, you can rest assured we help your engine run more smoothly while leaving behind cleaner emissions. it's how we make gasoline work harder for you. exxon and mobil.

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an "anderson cooper 360" coming up at the top of the hour. hey there.

>> we're keeping him honest on "ac360," what exactly is being done in washington to create jobs? by the president and by congress. is anything really being done? you'll hear from the president himself and we'll speak with paul begala and ari fleischer. and serious citizens under assault. take a look. the government's crackdown on its own people including a 2-year-old child caught in the cross fire when her parents tried to flee. you'llen rig human rights activists said the father may have been kidnapped. and we'll show it to you. and part two of a "360" investigation, a book written by these people that says god wants parents to spank their children and the spanking should be hard enough to cause physical pain using belts, wooden spoons, and the like. the book was found in the home of parents in california who were convicted of beating their

7-year-old daughter to death. those stories and tonight's "ridiculous" at the top of the hour. >> we'll see you in a few minutes, thanks. for tim pawlenty a third-place finish in iowa's straw poll was devastating, but former senator rick santorum came in fourth and he found it refreshing. and senator santorum with us live from pittsburgh. you say this is a great event for you coming in fourth, and you're a low budget candidacy, you did it on your own shoe leather, but the buzz was romney, perry, bachmann, what do you make of that? >> that was the national buzz but that wasn't the buzz in iowa. the buzz in iowa we did very, very well. i was in waterloo the next night because perry and bachmann were there and, of course, the national media covered perry and bachmann and i worked the tables and had lots of people sign up and volunteer for my campaign. a lot of people even folks who hadn't decided came up and said,

please, we're glad you're here, we don't want you to drop out and we like you and we want to hear more from you and we don't know much about you but mt we see, we like. so, you know, the good thing is new york and washington don't decide who the candidates are going to be and the nominees are going to be. they can decide who to put on television and write about, but the people in iowa and new hampshire and south carolina will make the decision and that's where we're spending our time. that's why we're working hard. it's still five months before the first caucus. we're not going to be anywhere near the lead, but we'll keep building the support and we feel very good about what we accomplished, you know, with being outspent at least 10-1 by everybody above me in the straw poll. >> you talk about spending your time, but as you know you can work iowa and stay there for months, and you might do a pretty good job in iowa, you have to move to the primaries and south carolina and new hampshire and beyond, but that takes money. how much did it imfact fund-raising out of the box? what can you say days later that leads you to say you'll be on tv

in new hampshire? >> and we've got five months to go, mike huckabee it was six weeks after the straw poll was 8% in iowa and was seen as not a factor in the race. and so -- and, you know, couldn't raise any money, couldn't do anything, and obviously he was a huge factor in the race. and our feeling is that we come from a good state of pennsylvania, that's where i am today. and we'll be spending a lot of time here talking to a lot of pennsylvanians and, you know, raising some money here and it's interesting that we had a tick-up of money basically from four states. the states i've been spending time in, iowa, new hampshire, south carolina, and pennsylvania. and because we don't really get a lot of play everywhere else, and that's fine. i'm really not complaining about it, you know, i actually -- maybe it's a little bit of an advantage to keep your head down out of the fire that's flying right now between all the other candidates. and just keep building the base. >> now, if you look at the race, you can make the argument that pawlenty leaving the race, governor pawlenty stepping aside, could be good for rick santorum because governor

pawlenty is pro-life and he wants to appeal to christian conservatives. you made the case i watched you in the debate the other night when i was in the united states senate, yes, i'm a conservative republican but for welfare reform and policy, i worked with democrats. and in comes rick perry who says i can appeal to the republican base and a broad stream. what's your sense of the new energy in the race, if you will, governor perry? >> yeah, certainly governor perry steps in the race and he stepped on it a couple of times already. washington, d.c., is not austin and, you know, my sense is that he's going to have a pretty good learning curve. not just on what it means to run a national campaign and have the scrutiny of the national media that he didn't have in texas. >> what do you mean he stepped on it? >> his comments about ben bernanke, they were completely out-of-bounds. i don't agree with ben bernanke's policies but the reason i don't agree with them i think the fed charter is too

spa expansive it should be focused on unemployment. to me, the rhetoric that rick perry used was the rhetoric that you would expect from a john conyers, you know, talking about president bush saying he should be impeached. we don't do that. we don't impeach people or charge them with treason because we disagree with them on public policy. you might say they're wrong or say lots of things, you know, about misguided the policies, but you don't up the ante to that rhetoric, it's out of place. and hopefully governor perry will step back and recognize that, you know, you know, we're not in texas anymore. >> okay. that's what you say about governor perry. listen here to governor romney who says the republican voters if they want to beat president obama, someone who came out of the united states senate where you served, should look for somebody who is not a career politician. listen here. this is governor romney in new hampshire yesterday. >> i respect the other people in this race, but i think the only other person that has that kind of extensive private sector experience besides me in the republican race is herman cain, and i respect herman cain, but i also think it's helpful to have

had that government experience that i've had. >> mitt romney said he's the perfect model. >> well, i mean, then ronald reagan would have been a pretty bad model. he served a couple terms as governor and was very much in the public policy arena for quite some time. the bottom line is that, you know, rick perry's been in public life for 26 years. that's a long time, you know, i've been, you know, in and out of government and have worked in the private sector, worked in the public sector. i think i've got a good record in both and feel very comfortable to go out there and articulate a strong message. it's not that mitt romney didn't want to be in the public sector, he just lost elections. that's one reason he tried to get into the public sector, he just lost. >> you lost your last election, too, and many people look at the rick santorum comeback and you lost in a very competitive state like pennsylvania, when you look ahe ahead, no question the straw poll hemed you solped you some. do you need a slingshot from

iowa to get under way? >> my feeling is most people would suggestu g you set three tickets punched out of iowa and i have no doubt i'll be one of the three. we'll compete in new hampshire. we've done very, very well and exceeded expectations up there, too, and we're picking up steam there and in south carolina. the phones have been buzzing down there. again, you know, the race isn't in the country right now. the race is in three states. we're focused a lot of time and energy on the states and when people see us have a chance to look at us in the debates or town halls all across, all those three states, they walk away and we get a lot of support, a lot of volunteers and that will continue for the next 5 1/2 months and we'll see where we have are then. >> senator santorum, good to talk to you tonight, hope to see you in the counties in iowa. >> i'll be in every one of them. high unemployment and hanger about the immigration policies could translate to a giant

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in detroit, a jobs forum held about it congressional black caucus, members warn tough economic times could dampen enthusiasm come 2012. across america, protests and demonstrations against the president organized by a latino group mad at a white house poll stha is triggering record high

deportations of illegal immigrants. who big policy challenge that's could translate into political headache for the president's re-election campaign. missouri congressman emanuel cleaver is the chairman of the congressional black caucus. he joins us from detroit. and from san francisco, roberto lav tachlt lavato. congressman, i want to start with you, sir. you're having this five-city tour about it congressional black caucus. the president today is in small town iowa. i will say predominantly small town white iowa. is i planning on attending your events? >> no, the president is not attending any of our events. we'll leave here and go to atlanta on thursday. but the president isn't committed to it. he has endorsed our tour. but we have gotten to a point where we decided we had to do something positive.

and we were tired of just complaining. and so we launched this jobs tour. the president is doing his thing. we got to do our thing. this is a depression level unemployment for african-americans and for latinos for that matter. >> let me bring knew the conversation. your protest specifically is about this program where the administration and deportations escalated dramatically and is asking police, if you pull somebody over, fingerprint them. if you fingerprint them, share that with immigration officials. the administration says this is a good law enforcement tool. what's your problem with it? it's not just my problem, it's a problem facing every citizen in the united states. a program has been rejected by "the new york times," "los angeles times," governor patrick in massachusetts, the governor of new york, governor of new york, andrew cuomo, millions of citizens and 35,000 petitioners we have and many other latinos

have rejected a program that essentially forces police departments everywhere now, not just in some cities, but in all cities in the united states to become imbrags enforcement officials, wasting our policing resources to chase down day labors, gardeners and maids while real criminals run free is not good policy. and at the same time, these raids that are caused because of the s-com program are terrorizing children, separating families to the tune of one million people. >> in the context of the politics, we see the presidential campaign heating up this week. congressman cleaver, to you first. the president of the united states received 95% of the african-american vote. it's not just percentage. it's the enthusiasm and the turnout and the help in the campaign headquarters. if the election were tomorrow, given the economic plight in african-american communities around america, would the president match those numbers or will he suffer? >> well, i think the president would get up in the 90s or certainly the high 80% of the

african-american vote. what we got to do is make sure that the turnout is -- resembles what we did during his first election. if those numbers are down, we're going to have a problem. we're committed to his re-election. it's going to be tough. and perhaps much tougher than it was almost three years ago. >> do you meet people, congressman, who say i was for him. we made history together. but i'm not going to volunteer this time. or i'm not going to vote for him this time. or he hasn't earned my vote. do you meet people like that? >> unemployment will do a lot to people. and, yes, even here in detroit we're running into people who are frustrated and angry over their circumstances. and are less than enthusiastic as we're entering into this next season of high stakes politics. but what i'm saying to them is, look, barack obama may not have lived up to your expectations, but my goodness, there's no question that he's going to try

to support your expectations infinitely, greater than any of those announced who are running on the republican side. >> so pick it up right. there 67% president obama received among latinos. you could look at the electoral college map and look at new mexico and nevada and florida and you could say those are critical voters to the president. if the election was tomorrow, would he get enthusiastic turnout? absolutely not and absolutely not. and that's not our fault. 250,000 members and all the petitioner signers are actually trying to help president obama do the right thing and win his election by not alienating us. you'll lose millions of votes because we're related to people that you're terrorizing and separating their families and president obama should know this. he should fire his campaign people that are doing the latino

outreach. they're absolutely failing an electorate that made a powerful difference, not just in those states you mentioned, but in colorado, new york and other states where one of the most dynamic parts of the electorates energy joyed is demobilized by secure communities and the terror that brings. >> roberto and congressman cleaver, appreciate your insights tonight. again, very important policy issues and very important political ramifications from them. thank you both for coming in tonight. i appreciate it. >> let's button up that conversation by looking at the data points that caused the frustration among african-americans and latinos. first, look at the unemployment as it plays out. the white line this yellow line is african-americans. blue shrine latinos. green is white. you can see obviously unemployment among latinos and african-americans in the country way higher than the national rate among whites. that's one sourcest d of the discontent. here's a way to look at african-american unemployment across the united states. the darker the color, the higher the unemployment. and in states that are the darkest, this marine color, not only is it the highest number of

people but it's also above the national average. you see california, texas, these states up here, all these down here, many of these states critical to the president's re-election strategy. that's african-american unemployment. take with unoff. replace it with hispanic, same color code. the darker the state, the higher the unemployment rate. some of these states, again, pivotal to obama's re-election campaign. he was complaining about the deportations. here's a history of deportations going back to 2000. play it through. these are the two obama years here. you see the numbers are the highest. criminal deportations down here, noncriminal deportations up top. the government setting records. that is a source of the complaints. we'll stay on top of that throughout the campaign much that's all the time we have tonight. hope to you see right back here tomorrow. until then, ""anderson cooper 360"" starts right now.