"starting point." maybe we'll have to start it right here. >> a little kissing right here at "starting point." >> i'm so glad i'm not going to be here. >> ryan -- >> it would be a same-sex kiss-in. >> or just a kiss-in. >> i just want to encourage the viewers to tune in tomorrow for "starting point" kissing day. that's my "end point ". "cnn newsroom" with carol costello begins right now. we'll see you back here tomorrow morning. save me, carol. >> i'll bail you out. happening now in the newsroom, seconds from disaster, three jets put on a collision course at reagan international airport just moments from a mid-air accident. we'll hear what's going on in the control room. health alert. a comeback of the cough. new concerns that current whooping cough vaccine might not be strong enough. what your family needs to know, straight ahead. swimming shocker. winning by .01 of a second.

nathan adrian beating the aussie missile in the 100 meter freestyle finish. you've just got to see it. when is gold actually green? olympians being taxed for their gold, silver, and bronze. does first place really mean a $9,000 tax bill? skipping, pirouettes, the extended trot. a 15-year-old mayor enters the olympic sport of dressage today. why is this news, you ask? rafalka is ann romney's horse. "cnn newsroom" begins right now. good morning to you. i'm carol costello. thank you so much for joining us. just in this morning, a collision narrowly averted at reagan national airport near washington, d.c. it involved three jets carrying a total of 192 passengers. two planes took off tuesday afternoon heading toward a third plane, which was already cleared to land. the planes were seconds away from crashing.

when an air traffic controller realized a mistake had been made. >> 3329, stands by. hold on. we're trying to figure this out too. stand by. we have a temporary stop on all departures right now. >> we've got to get on the ground here pretty quick. >> everybody stand by. we have a cple of opposite direction arrivals, so it's going to be a little bit of a delay on your departures. >> athena jones has more, including the fa a's explanation. >> it was a scary situation at reagan international airport here in washington, d.c. it was during heavy rains that air traffic controllers decided they needed to change the direction of planes that were taking off and landing. they were going from south to north on runway one. they decided to change that so that planes would come in and depart on runway 19 headed from north to south. the problem is they failed to

communicate that change to all of the parties that needed to be notified, which led to this incident. you had two planes getting ready to depart from runway one, and this other plane that was coming in to runway 19. should i tell you the standard separation requirements for planes is three nautical miles laterally and 1,000 feet vertically. that first plane taking off was about half that distance. the second plane was a little further away, but of course the large planes, heavy planes, traveling at high speeds, it's still pretty scary. the faa says they are investigating the incident. carol? to syria now. where after a 16-month crackdown that the u.n. says has killed nearly 17,000 people, syrian rebels are set to receive help from the united states. officials telling cnn that president obama approved giving clandestine support, secret support by the cia and other agencies. the order comes after a failure by the u.n. security council to approve tougher sanctions o the

regime of syrian president bashir al assad. mohammed jamjoom is in abu dh i dhabi. the order is secret, but we are getting details. first off, when did the president authorize this action? >> reporter: well, carol, u.s. officials say that president obama signed this action within the last several months. but it is still unclear as to exactly what type of aid is being specified here. now, the obama administration has ruled out arming the rebels so far. the u.s. administration has said on many occasions that they don't want to further militarize this conflict, that they don't want to be arming the rebels and making the situation even more precarious in syria because of the violence, because of the clashes all across that country. but the syrian rebels and the opposition have maintained from pretty much day one that they want more arms, they want the international community to provide them with more weapons. i was just at a press conference a few days ago here in abu dhabi

where the head of one of the main opposition groups in syria said, hey, we need anti-aircraft guns, anti-tank guns, we need the international community, including the u.s., to step up and provide us with weapons. and they say that the international community will bear the responsibility if there are more massacres that are going on in syria if the international community hasn't stepped up and provided them with weapons. but that having been said, we must point out that in the last couple of weeks, we know that the syrian rebels are getting better armed. there have been several instances in the past few days when the syrian rebels, especially in places like north syria, have been able to take over bases. they have been able to take out ammunition and seize tanks from regime forces that they have defeated. and they are now using those tanks and weapons against air bases in the north of syria. so even though the rebels are more organized and better armed right now, they're saying we still need weapons, we still need more support. they are maintaining that the international community must step up and do more to help them. >> any idea how the united states might be helping, like

the cia, if the united states isn't providing arms to the rebels? >> well, we know that the u.s. has said that they'll provide nonlethal support. they'll provide communication equipment. also a lot of humanitarian aid. there is a humanitarian disaster going on in syria right now. refugees fleeing across the border to neighboring countries. we also know that the u.s. is cooperating with countries like saudi arabia and qatar. that u.s. officials they say are providing weapons to the rebels there. right now u.s. is trying to assess what more they can do to help the rebels, to identify rebel groups they can provide more aid to as well. >> mohammed jamjoom reporting live from abu dhabi this morning. in you drive a toyota, listen up. there's a massive recall involving 780,000 vehicles, rav 4s and lexuss. there's a suspension problem that could cause crashes. how serious is this, and what

model numbers are we talking about? >> well, it really depends. if you drive one of these cars, and you have taken your vehicle in for work recently. the issue would be more pressing for those drivers, and that's because toyota says this is not a manufacturing defect, but instead it's something that happens when you take your car in to get its wheels aligned. if the nuts on the rear suspension arms aren't tightened properly during this wheel alignment service, the arms can come loose or separate. so the big question is, how will you know it? well, toyota says you'll most likely hear a strange noise coming from the back of the car if your car is affected. so you want to know which cars are affected. the recall is for the toyota rav 4s from 2006 to early 2011 model years, and 18,000 lexus hs 250 h from the 2010 model years. there have been nine crashes and three minor injuries alleged to be related to this problem. carol is this >> alison kosik reporting live.

it's the london debut for ann romney's horse in the dressage competition. ann romney, who of course as you know is the wife of republican presidential nominee mitt romney, is at the london games to watch her horse compete. she is taking her racket and going home for good. i'm sorry. this is another story. ann romney is watching her horse at the london games. mitt romney is not. he remains here in the united states campaigning for president. in other olympic news, she's taking her racket and going home for good. yu yang is one of the eight badminton players kicked out of the olympics, accused of throwing matches to draw easier opponents in the next round. zain verjee is live to tell us more. zain, she's only 26. she says she's had it? >> yeah. she says she is done with badminton. she says her dream was heartlessly shattered, and she blames the badminton world

federation for destroying all the hopes she ever had. she said this on her chinese account equivalent to twitter. she said farewell, my beloved badminton. what she also said was she blamed the new rules for what happened. what they did in this competition, which was different from other olympics, is that they created this round robin tournament. so it wasn't like a knockout that was previously the case. so what it meant was that it allowed players to kind of do what they did, to decide whether they wanted to really win or lose. now the chinese coach has said we are really sorry, and the chinese themselves have criticized the players. but it looks like for yu, she is hanging up her badminton racket. >> zain verjee live in london for us this morning. u.s. winners at the olympics get something extra, a tax bill. you may not know that they get a cash award, $25,000 for gold, $15,000 for silver and $5,000 for bronze.

medal winners are taxed on those amounts, but they are also taxed on the value of the medal. the group americans for tax reform says gold medallists could have to pay upwards of $9,000, but one analysis has a big caveat. it depends on how much each athlete earns outside of the olympics. if you're michael phelps with all the endorsements, of course you will pay higher taxes than all of the others. and marco rubio introduced a bill to i.eliminate the taxes o medalists. there is a tie on the leaderboard. china and the u.s. are now tied medals. u.s. swimmer ricky berens won gold tuesday, so how did he

celebrate? he hit the mcdonald's in the olympic village. and here's what he ate. two quarter pounders with cheese, one big mac, one six-piece nuggets, two medium fries and a medium mcflurry. if you're counting, that's 3,330 calories. wow. but he exercises a lot. you may soon be getting a big fat raise. you say really? pay raises are expected to go up for nearly everyone next year. and there's more good news too.

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it is 14 minutes past the hour. a frightening moment near reagan international airport. three commercial airplanes almost collided in the sky on tuesday. one plane cleared for landing was heading towards two planes that had taken off. the planes came within 12 seconds of crashing. the faa is now investigating. crowds flocked to chick-fil-a restaurants around the nation for appreciation day organized by former governor mike huckabee. it was all to show support for the company after its president says he is against same-sex marriage. >> i'm here to support the traditional marriage of men and women. >> i'm here to support the owners of this business. and their christian values.

>> i think that he's the owner of a private company, and has the right to say what he wants. but i have the right not to eat chicken at his restaurant. and i won't eat chicken at his restaurant. >> the event was not organized by the restaurant. a spokesperson says it will not release sales figures either. in money news, you may be getting a bigger pay raise next year. a new survey shows employers may expect to increase salaries on average by 2.9%. that's actually up from 2.7%. fewer companies are expected to freeze salaries, though. and a horrifying scene in taipei. a sink hole opens below a man walking on a street. rescue crews tried to save him but he died. the sink hole was caused by heavy rain. the storm killed 23 people in the area. several homes in connecticut are filled with water this morning after five inches of rain fell in one hour in

naugatuck yesterday. the mayor declared a state of emergency. whooping cough. it can kill. and it is killing babies. >> and every year we are seeing more cases of the disease in the united states even though we have had a vaccine since the 1950s. but solving the problem isn't just about vaccinating children. here's cnn's mary snow. >> reporter: pa loma rodriguez says she's never heard of whooping cough. that is until the day she gave birth to her son, devon. doctors warned her about it then and there. she says she didn't hesitate to get devon vaccinated as soon as he was 2 months old. >> i'm very worry because i heard that that causes a lot of -- you know, it can choke him and possibly he could turn blue. >> reporter: the concern comes as the centers for disease control reports more than 19,000 cases of pertussis or whooping call so that are if year.

that would be a 50-year record outbreak. it can cause violent rapid coughing, pushing air from the lungs and leaving those battling with it to inhale with the distinct whoop sound. it can be fatal in some infants. nine babies in the u.s. have died this year from it. increases in whooping cough are reported in 47 states, with the highest rates so far in washington and wisconsin. >> and the protection wears off even slightly faster. pertussis is really transmissible. if you send someone into a room with 100 people and that person has pertussis, about 15 people will get it. >> the vaccine is being closely examined following changes made to it back in the 1990s. and a new study from australia found that the newer vaccine was not as effective as the older one. clark says while the study is a small one, he believes it's important. and says the cdc is working to confirm those results.

meantime, doctors are raising awareness of whooping cough, which at first can mimic the symptoms of the common cold. >> infants are at greatest risk of pertussis or whooping cough. >> reporter: this pulmonologist says that in babies, coughing is not necessarily always a symptom. a 6-week-old baby came in and she stopped breathing for seconds at a time. >> yes. >> and you knew right a away it was whooping cough? >> exactly. >> reporter: she encourages mothers to get the children vaccinated. babies can't get it until they are 2 months old. at 4 months, devon is on round two of five doses of the vaccination. his mother hopes it will protect him from the disease she is now becoming an expert in. the cdc is encouraging adolescents and adults to get a booster dose, and the newest recommendation is that pregnant women do the same. until babies can get a vaccine and build up immunities, they are dependent on the people around them to protect them from getting sick. mary snow, cnn, new york.

another stump speech in battle ground ohio. but why is the presidential race so tight in all of the swing states? it's our talk back question today. you see us, at the start of the day. on the company phone list that's a few names longer. you see us bank on busier highways. on once empty fields. everyday you see all the ways all of us at us bank are helping grow our economy. lending more so companies and communities can expand, grow stronger and get back to work. everyday you see all of us serving you, around the country, around the corner. us bank.

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now is your chance to talk back on one of the big stories of the day. the question for you this morning, why is the presidential race so tight in the swing states? president obama stumped in ohio yesterday for the ninth time this year . and what was the one word he kept repeating? the word "built." >> america is not built from the top down. america is built from the middle out. america is built from the bottom up. america is built by farmers and factory workers and small businesses and companies that send american products overseas, not jobs overseas. >> hmm. does all that talk of building have something to do with the president's now infamous you didn't build that line from a new weeks ago, you know, the one republicans have been using to bash the president? well, that attack might be

resonating among voters in swing states like ohio, where despite an uptick in ohio's economy, the hungry are still flocking to local food banks. >> i'd say we're going into the middle of the middle class now, reaching up to the suburban people, to people who used to have a nice home, a nice car. it is worse than it was three years ago. >> this despite the fact the president's auto bailout helped ohio with jobs. it has an unemployment rate of 7.2%. that's below the national average. a new quinnipiac cbs news "new york times" poll shows a majority of voters backing the president in three critical battle ground states, ohio, pennsylvania, and virginia. but it's not all good news for the president. according to the poll, although obama is gaining support, it's mostly because of his personal likability or empathy. most people say they trust governor romney more than the president to help their financial situation. so the talk back question today why is the presidential race so

tight in the swing states? facebook.com/carolcnn. i'll read your comments later this hour. his family horse is competing in the olympics. but mitt romney may find it better for his white house bid to stay right here in the united states instead of in the stands by his wife's side in london. our political panel talks about what some say is romney's struggle to relate. we also have zero free time, and my dad moving in. so we went to fidelity. we looked at our family's goals and some ways to help us get there. they helped me fix my economy, the one in my house. now they're managing my investments for me. and with fidelity, getting back on track was easier than i thought. call or come in today to take control of your personal economy. get one-on-one help from america's retirement leader. wouldn't it be nice if there was an easier,

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we're coming up on 30 minutes past the hour. good morning. i'm carol costello. opening bell on wall street. stocks set for a solid open this morning. investors keeping a close eye on the european central bank to see what action it might take on preserve the euro. ringing the opening bell today, economics teachers from new york city. general motors releases second quarter earnings of $1.5

billion. that's a 41% drop from last year. the world's largest automaker blames big losses in europe. still the 90 cents per share profits are well ahead of what analysts had expected. a frightening moment tuesday near reagan international airport. three commercial airplanes almost collided in midair. one plane cleared for landing was heading towards two planes that had taken off. planes came within 12 seconds of colliding. the faa is now investigating. it's a big day for the romneys as the family horse rafalca makes its olympic debut. ann romney cheering on the horse she co-owns in london, but where's mitt? he's back here in the united states, preparing to pick a vice president, and possibly trying to avoid charges that a sport involving horse ballet might not make him the most relatable candidate for the average voter. and things like this don't help. >> no surprise the liberal critics call dressage elitist.

just because the uniform makes you look like lady mary suter from "downton abby." i expected this from liberals but not this from conservatives. >> i'm not sure why the horse has to be in the most upper class, hoity-toity olympic event ever invented. it's unnecessary. they are running for the presidency. >> how dare you, sir! dressage is not hoity-toity! it is frufru. get your facts straight. a new poll shows that voters in three critical states shows that mitt romney does not care about the needs and problems of people like them. and that is a problem for mitt romney. joining me now john avalon, a cnn contributor, who is independent, and roland martin, who leans left.

>> i'm going to lean right today. >> are you? oh, i can't wait for that. >> yeah, what the heck? >> let me ask you the first question then, roland. mitt romney is here in the united states. ann romney is in london watching her horse perform. you know, on a personal level, i'd want my husband to be with me. >> horrible optics. no, no, he shouldn't be there because he is running for president. but it's horrible optics. i find it interesting that if you are conservative you will criticize president obama for vacationing on martha's vineyard, but then have you this image of ann romney and her horse in this particular olympics. look, the obama campaign has done a very effective job of defining the narrative of the kind of guy that mitt romney is. we criticize negative campaigning. this is precisely why they have painted him as a rich out of touch guy who cannot speak to the everyday voter. and so that's going to be a crucial component in the next 96 days. >> well, john, you knew roland wasn't going to lean right. is there another side?

>> no, that's the just easy and fair analysis. >> look, i think these negative narratives work best when they rip off something real. and what american doesn't like to kick back with a beer on the couch and watch a little horse dancing? it is the most elitist sport you can come up with. so it's a real fundamental problem because it reinforces that narrative. >> well, why did they enter the horse in the olympics? >> because this is ann romney's big shot to have her horse compete in the olympics. >> but it's her husband's big shot to be president. >> they didn't know mitt romney was going to have the nomination perhaps. it's unfortunate. but this news cycle will not define the election race. but this isn't the conversation they are looking forward to back in boston. >> well, romney did release this new ad, and i want to play it for people. he is in an suv, in a plaid shirt. let's watch. >> my own experience was i got the chance to start my own business. i know what it's like to hire people and to wonder whether

you're going to be able to make ends meet down the road. freedom and free enterprise are what -- >> ok. so this ad will run in the swing state of virginia, where romney really needs to win that state. so does this kind of thing soften his image at all? roland? >> they are trying to soften his image, but when he says -- because you notice, i started a small business. i hired people. i don't think a small business owner out there will put themselves in the same category of a bain capital. i doubt it very seriously. and, again, one of the things that romney has always had a problem with, he has always had a problem just being able to sit down and interact and communicate with just regular ordinary voters. remember in pennsylvania, when he criticized the cookies of the pennsylvania bakery? of course it was owned by a republican. so he has to be able to somehow connect that way. but it's difficult. i called him plastic man in 2008. and that's part of the problem. >> in fairness, i remember when

barack obama tried to bowl during the 2008 campaign. >> yeah. >> he didn't connect with anyone. >> yeah, bowling -- >> because it is real. >> first of all, a bunch of regular people can't bowl. but my point is -- >> i'm a great bowler. >> but how do you communicate with a person in everyday conversation? that's romney's struggle a bit. >> john, go ahead. sorry to interrupt. >> the whole point of this ad is to humanize and soften the candidate. and make people understand that mitt romney, the man. and he has a very compelling story in many respects. but the problem is 100 days out, this is not the ad you necessarily want to be running at this stage of the campaign because it does indicate a need to humanize the candidate. and the fact that he immediately embarked on the swing state tour and releases ads like this does show that his campaign is taking this challenge seriously. new polls of likely voters in key swing states show that at a time when voters are starting to make up their mind, the numbers are not trending in their direction. this is an attempt to address that. and it's an important one, because people need to feel a

sense of connection with a candidate before they make him president. >> you know, the only thing that i will say about this ad is that this poll also shows that people do admire mitt romney's business acumen. and maybe that will spark something in people. and he's talking about a businessman. isn't that what he should be talking about? >> yes, he should be talking about that. but he should be having events where he literally is talking to homeowners, tain talking to peo who are renters, talking to people out there trying to get a credit line because they have a business. so he has to be able to interact and show that. remember he said before that it was his wife and his sons who were going to also humanize him a bit more. it's a little hard to humanize him when she's over in london looking at this horse. and, again, that's part of his problem. and so he's going to have to connect in a much better way to compete against president obama

who can be very smooth. he's not the greatest communicator with everyday voters as well, but he does a better job than romney and. >> thank you so much for the conversation this morning. >> let's go bowling, carol. >> i bet you're a good bowler, too. >> i'm ok. >> ok. >> we'll have a bowl-off. >> bring it. >> roland martin and john avalon. thanks. a 911 call, police, guns, and miley cyrus. this morning what police are saying about the call and the singer's home. in here, every powerful collaboration is backed by an equally powerful and secure cloud. that cloud is in the network, so it can deliver all the power of the network itself. bringing people together to develop the best ideas -- and providing the apps and computing power to make new ideas real. it's the cloud from at&t. with new ways to work together, business works better.

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a big scare in the los angeles neighborhood of pop star miley cyrus. police and paramedics rushed to the singer's home after reportedly getting calls of a kidnapping and shooting. there was just one problem. it was a prank. aj hammer is in new york. this is terrible.

>> yeah. really, really terrible, carol. thankfully it was a big false alarm, and that's likely a relief to miley cyrus herself, who has been the victim of threats and stalkers in the past. but the calls seem to fall in line with at prank known as swatting, which involves callers attempting to tricking law enforcement officials to responding to emergency situations by making up a serious crime like this one. just before 7:00 p.m., police responded to a 911 call for what they believed to be a home invasion and kidnapping in progress with possible shots fired at a home belonging to miley cyrus. now, officers swarmed the property. they means they arrived and established a perimeter. and then with guns drawn, they approached the house where they found everything was quiet and nobody was home. miley is actually reportedly in philadelphia right now where her fiance liam hemsworth is shooting a movie. police say it was a 911 abuser.

they are investigating. the person responsible for the hoax could face serious criminal charges. the entire event shook up her neighbors, as there are reports of helicopters flying overhead. so thankfully it wasn't a real event, not a real crime. but why someone would put other people through this is really, really hard for me to understand. >> you're also taking the time of emergency crews who could be responding to real emergencies. so, yeah. the very same thing happened to erick erickson, one of our cnn contributors. police came to his house. >> terrible, terrible situation. >> aj, thanks so much. aj will be back with us next hour for an update on that new orleans bar incident with cuba gooding jr. a store clerk was stretching, bored at work, when a car crashed through the wall and smashed into him. he was almost killed. what led up to the crash. [ female announcer ] want to spend less and retire with more?

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[ feedback ] attention, well, everyone. you can now try snapshot from progressive free for 30 days. just plug this into your car, and your good driving can save you up to 30%. you could even try it without switching your insurance. why not give it a shot? carry on. now you can test-drive snapshot before you switch. visit progressive.com today. it is 43 minutes past the hour. checking our top stories now, a frightening moment tuesday near reagan international airport.

three commercial airplanes almost collide in the sky. one plane cleared for landing was heading toward two planes that had taken off. planes came within 12 seconds of crashing. the faa is now investigating. a store clerk in texas is lucky to be alive after a car crashes through the wall of his store. oh. he was thrown 15 feet across the room, and he is a-ok. this crash happened on july 23. police say the driver had been drinking. he stepped on the gas instead of the brake. the 36-year-old woman driver is charged with intoxication assault with a vehicle. in money news, it's better to buy than rent. that's according to the real estate listing website zilo. in almost every market in the country, if you're going to stay put for at least three years, you're better off buying instead of renting. a tropical depression a heading towards the caribbean. it's slowly gaining strength and may become a tropical storm by saturday.

rob marciano is here to tell us the odds. >> pretty good. but it's going to be a slow developer it looks like. it's been four weeks of pretty much nothing. we had four named storms very early on. and now we are getting back into the swing of things. it is august now and things will ramp up for sure. here it is. it's getting more active in the last couple of hours. winds of 35 miles an hour. so almost a tropical storm status. moving westerly at 21 miles per hour. just around 100 miles from barbados and some of the lower greater antilles. so we do expect it to strengthen strikeo somewhat, but it's up against some pretty head strong winds. so the forecast from the national hurricane center, a little bit unsure as far as the strength goes. but we do think it will become a tropical storm at some point with winds of 45-plus miles an hour, maybe becoming a hurricane. but the track is what is the most concerning here because it's a pretty good bet that it gets well into the caribbean and

potentially just south of the gulf of mexico by the middle of next week. and then all bets are off. we'll have to see how this thing develops. but it would be ernesto, carol, if it does become a tropical storm, which is quite possible in the next day or two. >> well, i hope not. thanks, rob. michael phelps races against ryan lochte today for the final time in their careers. the 200 meter individual medley gives phelps a shot to increase his olympic record medal count. when phelps won his 19th gold tuesday night, it set off a global debate about this. is michael phelps the greatest olympic athlete ever? sebastian coe, the london games chief and former four-time medalist said probably not. carl lewis, who won 10 olympic medals including nine gold, thinks athletes should be judged just by their era. lewis was on cnn's piers morgan. >> and we're so often and so quick to say here is the greatest winner of all time, instead of allowing him to define their generation. michael is defining this

generation in a way that no one's ever done before. and, you know, i wouldn't say anything. but the person that affected me the most was without question jesse owens. no doubt about it. but i think we should focus more on who defines a generation and who carries the memories of their time. >> we'd like dr. ross tucker to join in the debate. he is an exercise physiologist at the sports institute of south africa. welcome. >> thanks, karlg carol. >> so you study the science behind exercise. is phelps as a swimmer the greatest olympian? >> honestly, i don't think science answers that question. for me, i think carl is being a little bit conservative in the way he is categorizing it. i think what defines the greatest olympian depends on how you categorize it. because there are olympians who have made an impact that is broader than just the sport. and jesse owens stands out. carl lewis stands out as repeating that feat.

i think sir steven redgrave of great britain who won five medals. in terms of longevity of someone like baerga tricia who won six gold medals in the same event for germany. you think of athletes that achieved amazing things within one olympic games. and then of course you look at phelps, who over the course of three different olympic games has been the world's preeminent swimmer. for me, phelps probably is the greatest ever, based on the number of medals he's gotten. and just the fact that he's done them in such competitive sports and such a competive environment over so long. >> but people really want to boil it down to physicality. for example, is swimming as tough as track? >> if you ask a swimmer, yes. if you ask a track runner, no. so that's a subject of debate. swimming allows multiple events to be done, so in that respect, it's not. there is no way, for example, that a track runner is going to

be able to run four or five events within the same olympic games. just not physically possible. whereas a swimmer can do it, because they can come back over and over. lochte tonight he'll win potentially two gold medals within half an hour of one another. that can't happen in track. and that's a physical difference. so for me, in that respect, swimming probably loses out. >> that's fascinating. you know, the other thing i really wanted to ask you about is when will the time come when athletes will no longer be able to break records. are we approaching that time? >> i remember about 14 years ago, sports scientists said that we were, and everyone who said it back then now looks like a fool. so if i said that we're getting to the point where records will no longer be broken, probably in the year 2050, people will be telling me that i was wrong. but i do think that we are getting to the flat end of that curve. you can imagine that athletes get better and better and better, and eventually it must level off. i think we are starting to see

that now. obviously, once in a generation, you'll get an athlete like usain bolt and he knocks the record down. or you'll get a phelps in the pool. but i think in general you're starting to see a slowing down in that trend. and i would be surprised if there are more than a few generations left before we start to get to the point where we're going to see one world record every few years. at the moment, we see world records yearly, sometimes many times a year. i think that will start disappearing and we'll regard world records with a lot more luster as a result of how rare they become in the future. >> well, we'll save this tape. and test it out in 20 years. dr. ross tucker, thank you for joining us this morning.over-th tape. so, what set her off? tourism season in years. in florida we had more suntans... in alabama we had more beautiful blooms...

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if you've ever had a bad experience with a store clerk, you might want to have your cell phone camera ready the next time it happens. a man did in florida. and cnn's jeanne moos shows us what happened. >> reporter: we've all experienced bad service, but what do you call it when you're served a middle finger? >> [ bleep ] you! >> reporter: holdinghe camera was a guy named chris, who came into this 7-eleven in orlando, florida, with his 3-year-old son. a worker asked the boy if he wanted a ride on the broom she was using. the dad said no. he said she started yelling. >> i asked her to stop. i said, if you don't stop, i'm going to record you and put it on youtube, and she kept going. >> get out of my face! >> she just gave me the finger and cursed me. don't touch my phone. >> reporter: chris complained to

the manager. >> she just gave me the finger. i have it on video. >> show it! >> i have the whole thing right here on video. >> show it! >> reporter: but this was only part one. after chris left the store, guess who showed up once again with an up-raised finger? you can hear chris's son asking a very good question. >> what doing? >> this lady's chasing us in the car. here she is again. she's chasing me down in her car. >> reporter: maybe this is her idea of curb service. >> i've got the whole thing on video. >> reporter: but both drivers stayed in their cars. >> i'm being followed by this lady. i'm an armed citizen. >> reporter: while he may say he was armed, but at least no shots were fired. actually, the only thing fired was the employee, which explains the "now hiring" sign. we weren't able to track down the worker to get her version of events, but neither the 7-eleven's manager nor corporate headquarters would comment, but chris had this reaction to the employee's firing. >> i'm very happy with it. by her actions, she should have

been arrted. >> reporter: instead of pressing charges, chris pressed his case in the court of public opinion, aka, youtube, where he musically chewed her out for chewing him up. ♪ oh, here she comes, she's a man-eater ♪ >> reporter: at least you can't say this worker never lifted a finger. >> [ bleep ] you! >> reporter: jeanne moos, cnn, new york. >> wow. next hour of "cnn newsroom" next hour of "cnn newsroom" starts after a break. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com

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good morning. i'm carol costello. thank you for joining us this morning. happening now in the newsroom, seconds from disaster. three jets put on a collision course at reagan national airport, just moments from a midair collision. we'll hear what was going on in the control room. money in the bank. your job and your paycheck. cnn has new numbers on how much of a raise you could expect next year. the war on terror.

three suspected terrorists captured in spain. the interior ministry calls this the biggest operation against al qaeda in that country. and soaring high, american gymnast danell leyva climbing back and capturing bronze for the united states. what an amazing story. we are going to talk to him in ten minutes. "newsroom" begins right now. just in this morning, a collision narrowly averted at reagan national airport near washington, d.c., involved three jets carrying a total of 192 passengers. two planes took off tuesday afternoon heading toward a third plane already cleared to land. those planes were seconds away, 12 seconds away from colliding in midair, when an air traffic controller realized a mistake had been made. >> 3329, stand by. we're trying to figure this out, too. stand by.

>> okay, we really don't have fuel for this. >> and we're trying to figure it out. >> we've got to get off the ground pretty quick. >> everybody stand by. we've got a couple of opposite direction arrivals, so it's going to be a little bit of a delay on your departures. >> all three plane reached their destinations eventually. athena jones is live at reagan national airport to tell us what the faa is saying about this this morning. >> reporter: good morning, carol. well, the faa says that there was a miscommunication, which i guess is fairly obvious, a miscommunication among air traffic controllers. they're continuing to look into this. what happened on tuesday afternoon is that air traffic controllers during this bad rainstorm decided to switch the direction planes were taking off and landing. they had been taking off and landing on runway 1 in a direction south to north. they changed that to land north to south on runway 19. we should note that runway 19 and runway 1 are the same runway. they just have different numbers because of the direction that planes are landing, but that's where the mishap took ace. and as you mentioned, those

planes were very, very close to possibly getting into trouble there. now, the faa is cautioning us against that specific figure of 12 seconds, but clearly, these huge airliners, heavy, going very, very quickly, there could have been a big problem there if the controllers hadn't realized their mistake. >> something else that i noticed in listening to the control tower tapes. one, one of the pilots said, "what happened?" and you never really want your pilot to say that while he's flying a plane. and two, he mentioned that fuel was critically low on board his plane and he might not be able to make the maneuver required. how concerned should we be about that part of the radio communication? >> reporter: well, it certainly raises eyebrows. i think listening to the air traffic control recordings are so fascinating because you really get a look into what was going on. certainly, one would hope that an airline wasn't coming in, an airplane wasn't coming in with absolutely fumes, so it's possible the pilot was trying to communicate that they weren't

going to be able to circle for minutes and minutes and minutes. we should learn more as we learn more of the story and as the faa continues to investigate it, carol. >> so, we'll let you do that. athena jones, thank you so much, reporting live from reagan national airport near washington, d.c. turning now to the ongoing crisis in syria, and news this morning the u.s. will provide covert assistance to rebels who are battling like this. [ explosion ] [ speaking foreign language ] >> sources telling cnn president obama signed a secret order authorizing the action in the last several months. let's bring in mohammed jamjoom in abu dhabi. so, the president, you know, issues this order. what kind of help will the united states provide these syrian rebels? >> reporter: well, carol, it's unclear with this order exactly what type of aid will be

provided. it's just not -- we're just not sure, we haven't gotten specifics on this specific order. but in the past, the u.s. has said that they've provided nonlethal aid to the syrian rebels -- communications equipment, humanitarian aid, intelligence on movements of syrian troops that could be provided to syrian rebels, things like that. the obama administration has said many times in the past that they're not ready to arm the rebels. they don't want to further militarize this very bloody conflict, one that's so chaotic in this syrian civil war that's been going on. that having been said, though, the syrian rebels and the opposition have stated very consistently the last several months that what they want more than anything else from the international community, and especially from the u.s., are more weapons. just days ago in abu dhabi, i was at a press conference, the head of the syrian national council, one of the opposition groups, stated that clearly what was needed for the rebels more than anything else were antiaircraft guns, antitank

guns, saying the rebels were fighting with primitive weapons and that the international community, friends and allies of syria would bear responsibility for any more massacres in syria carried out by the regime against the rebels. what's interesting is in the last week, it's become clearer that syrian rebels have become better organized, that they have better equipment, better weapons. and in the last few days, they've seized caches of weapons and even bases that were occupied by syrian troops. they've taken tanks, they've taken ammunition, and they're using those weapons now against the regime. they're even going after an air base in northern syria now, so, even though the syrian rebels are better armed right now, they're still saying they need more help from the international community, and specifically, they want more weapons. carol? >> mohammed jamjoom reporting live for us this morning. in spain, the government announces new arrests against al qaeda. three suspected terrorists were rounded up over the last two days, and with the spanish government calls it one of the biggest operations against the terror network.

the suspects had information about remote-controlled airplanes and some had even experience making explosives and car bombs. to tennessee, where a high-security nuclear weapons site is going to continue its plan to cut more than 30 security jobs. that's despite catching three peace activists, including an 82-year-old nun, trespassing on saturday. the three were arrested, accused of vandalizing and spray-painting a uranium facility. federal officials tell oakridge today staff cuts will not affect security. crowds flocked to chick-fil-a restaurants across the nation for preeshlsiappreci, organized by former governor mike huckabee. it was to show support for the company after its president came out and says he is against same-sex marriage. >> i'm out here to support the traditional marriage of men and women. >> i'm here to support the owners of this business and their christian values. >> i think that he's the owner of a private company, has a

right to say what he wants, but i have the right not to eat chicken at his restaurant and i won't eat chicken at his restaurant. >> the event was not organized by chick-fil-a, and a spokeswoman says it will not release sales figures for yesterday. if you drive a toyota, listen up, there's a massive recall involving 780,000 vehicles, rav4s and lexuses. at issue, a suspension problem that could cause crashes. the recall involves certain rav4 models and lexus models. toyota says the potential problem occurs on cars that have had wheel alignment service. motorists say they may hear a strange noise coming from the rear of the vehicle. just take a look at that graphic. you'll see the models affected, toyota rav4s 2006 through 2011 models and the lexus hs 250h, the 2010 model year. those are the vehicles affected. some good news for you this morning. call it an early christmas gift from your boss. a new survey shows that next year, american workers from teachers to service providers

can expect an average pay raise of 2.9%. that's actually up from 2.7% last year. and there will be fewer salary freezes expected in 2013. alison kosik is live at the new york stock exchange. 2.9% isn't much of a raise, but it's a raise. >> reporter: nothing to shake your nose up at, that's for sure. this is the moment, though, carol, to get your boss's attention, because you have to get them to jump on board, right? this is from a survey from mercer, a consulting firm. they surveyed 1,500 mid-to-large sized businesses and they found that almost all of them, about 95%, say they actually plan to give raises next year, but the size of your pay bump is really going to depend on what type of employee you are. look at this. the survey found that if you're a top performer, you can expect a 4.5% raise next year. if you're considered an average worker, which by the way, is considered the biggest chunk of

the workforce, you'd get an increase of about 2.5%. and if you're viewed as a weak performer, you're looking at an increase of just 0.1%. what the survey found is that if you work at an oil or gas company, you're expected to get the biggest raises because workers there have a very specific skill set and companies feel like they have more pressure on them to reward their employees. plus, those places are typically pretty cash-rich. you know that, carol. education and health care sectors, those are going to see some raises, too, though they're not going to be as big. and you know what this is about. this is all about attracting and keeping your good employees. hear that, boss? >> oh, yeah. i like those words. what about perks? >> yeah, and companies know about perks and they knowhat base pay, carol, isn't just part of the equation. if they want to keep their best employees. you know, workers want incentives too, and mercer says many companies plan to keep offering these extra perks, like signing bonuses, cash rewards and bonuses for hitting certain

targets. though in the current economic climate, let's all get real here, a lot of these things are just a cherry on top. the unemployment rate at 8.2%, almost 13 million people out of work. i'll tell you what, carol, many people are just happy to have a job. we can all relate to that, carol. >> that's absolutely true. alison kosik reporting live from the new york stock exchange. ann romney, she's cheering on her beloved horse, rafalca today, as the horse debuts in the olympics in london. rafalca is participating in the dressage competition, sort of a horse ballet competition. ann romney is in london to watch. her husband, mitt romney, remains here in the united states so he can continue his campaign for president. and one of those badminton players kicked out of the olympics says she is quitting the sport entirely. yu yang wrote this on her chinese twitter account -- "farewell my beloved badminton." a total of eight players were accused of throwing matches to get more favorable draws in the next round. if yu does retire from the game,

she leaves behind a world number one ranking with her doubles partner. you've heard of come-from-behind stories in sports. well, u.s. olympian danell leyva has a great one to tell. the gymnast was competing in the men's all-around event, was mired in 19th place, and guess what? he makes a charge to grab a bronze medal. danell joins us from london to take us through the comeback. welcome. >> hi. how's it going? >> good. congratulations! >> thank you. thank you very much. >> so, you were in 19th place. it seems impossible that you could bounce back and win a bronze. was the thought that it was impossible to win a medal ever in your mind? >> um, at some point it was, definitely, you know, for sure, especially after that pommel horse routine. i didn't do the dismount i was supposed to do, or the way i was supposed to, rather, and the score ended up being very low. and i'm pretty sure a lot of people ruled me off, but i just

kept telling myself to keep going no matter what, and i kept telling myself, you're going to get a medal, you're going to get a medal, and it definitely helped. >> so, while you're performing, you know, and that takes immense concentration, is any of that in your mind? >> yeah, i definitely used that whole situation, you know. i kind of bald it up and used it as positive energy for my upcoming events. plus the fact that i knew that my last two were my strongest two, so i really just had to go out and have fun and show off and do the best routines i could. >> so, you're wearing your bronze medal. where are you going to keep it, do you know yet? >> i have no idea. i'm pretty sure my dad is going to put it somewhere to make sure i don't lose it or something. >> let's talk about your dad, because he's also your coach, and you have a ritual, you two, before you perform. tell us about that. >> oh. i don't know, i think we have quite a couple. i don't think there's just one.

i think it's quite a couple of them, but i don't know. it's not like something that we practice, it's just something that we do, you know? >> well, i'm talking about the one where he kisses you on the forehead and then grabs your ears. >> oh, that one. yeah, well, you see, he's been doing that not only with me, but with all of his athletes since we were very small. and here we would do it, or you know, he's not here, unfortunately. but i don't know. like i said, he's been doing it since i was really small, so it's kind of been -- i've been very accustomed to that. >> so, is it more for you or for him? >> i think it's for both of us, to be completely honest. it's funny, because the earlier days, you know, for the preliminaries and for the team finals, he wasn't on the floor with me. he was up in the stands watching. so, we were joking around with the team and with the coaches, and i was like, all right, which one of you guys is going to kiss my head and stuff? and they're like, no, no, no! no, we're not going to do that.

>> that's funny. i have to talk about your towel, your lucky towel. it has stars on it. the towel even has its own twitter account and the towel is quite prolific. some of the tweets -- "oh, my god, it's a fluff piece all about me." another says "i look damn good on tv." your towel has 10,000 followers. what is the towel's secret? >> i have no idea. i don't even know who it is that has that account. it is hilarious that it has its own account, though. to be honest, it's more than just a lucky towel, you know. it's definitely developed into more than just that. i use it to keep me concentrated and keep me focused in my training -- sorry, in my routines and in the moment, because otherwise, i get distracted too easily, and you know, i'd be watching and be like, oh, my god, it's my turn! and i'd be caught off guard. >> you're kind of like a baseball player. you have superstitions. you have your towel, you have to have the ritual with your coach and your dad before you perform.

that's kind of cool. >> yeah. i mean, to be completely honest, all gymnasts have their own rituals on each event, and they're all different, you know. we all have our own little superstition type of thing that we kind of need. >> i understand that perfectly, i do. on a serious note, can you tell us about your work with up-and-coming gymnasts? >> yeah. you know, it's great to be part of -- you know, one of my sponsors is helping me now to get back to one of the programs that helped he get where i am. the program is called future stars, and it really helped with the transition of being, you know, a compulsory athlete into being more of an optional, more of an elite athlete. like i said, it really helped me with my work ethic, with seeing what kind of work i needed to put in. citi is the one who is helping me. and it's a huge honor to know

that i'm the face for them for that program, because like i said, you know, it did so much for me. and you know, it's cool, because i'm not the only athlete that they're working with. they're working with 13 in total, and hopefully, everyone will support me on, you know, my team. you just go to citi.com/everystep. it's called the every step of the way program, and it's definitely, it's an amazing program. i'm very glad to be part of it. >> great. well, congratulations, again, and america's proud. thank you for being here. >> thank you so much. thank you for having me. u.s. winners athe olympics are getting something extra with their medals, a tax bill. oh, i should have asked danell about that. you might not know that medal winners get $25,000 for gold, $15,000 for silver and $5,000 for bronze. medal winners are taxed on those amounts but also taxed on the

value of the medal. the group americans for tax reform, the grover norquist group, says gold medalists could have to pay upwards of $9,000, but a politifact analysis has one big caveat. the tax bill would depend on how much each athlete earns outside of an olympic event. if you're michael phelps with all your endorsements, of course you will pay more than the others. and by the way, senator marco rubio has introduced a bill to eliminate the tax on medals, saying our olympians should not be punished for their success. there's a state of emergency in parts of connecticut. wait until you hear how much rain fell in an hour. ] off to w! did you know honey nut cheerios is america's favorite cereal? oh, you're good! hey, did you know that honey nut cheerios is... oh you too! ooh, hey america's favorite cereal is... honey nut cheerios ok then off to iceland! [ music plays, record skips ] hi, i'm new ensure clear. clear, huh? my nutritional standards are high. i'm not juice or fancy water, i'm different.

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it is 20 minutes past the hour. checking our top stories now. a frightening moment near reagan national airport outside of washington, d.c. three commercial airplanes almost collide in midair. two planes had taken off heading toward a plane already cleared for landing. the planes came within 12 seconds of colliding. the faa says it is investigating. in money news, the postal service is moving ahead on plans to cut hours at more than 13,000 post offices. most of these cuts are in rural areas where there's less

broadband internet and little reliable cell phone service. the postal service failed to make $5.5 billion prepayment for employee health benefits. several homes in connecticut filled with water this morning. that's after five inches of rain fell in just one hour in naugatuck. the flash floods turned roads into rivers and created huge sinkholes, prompting the mayor to declare a state of emergency. and heavy rain from a powerful typhoon floods parts of taiwan in the philippines. at least 33 people were killed. the storm expected to make landfall in china in just a few hours. and take a look at this in taipei. a huge sinkhole opened up below a man walking on the street. rescue crews tried to save him, but the man died. new developments this morning out of spain, where three suspected al qaeda members have been arrested. the interior minister calling this one of the biggest operations against al qaeda in

spain. nic robertson has more from london. good morning, nic. >> reporter: good morning, carol. apparently, at least two of these operatives who were hauled off a bus yesterday headed northwards in spain from a southern city, were believed to be russians or chechens. they didn't have any documentation documents them, but the apartment that they left behind in cadiz, according to police, had had explosives there. the police are now searching for those explosives, but what the interior minister, what the police are telling us now is that these two men pulled off the bus had had training in explosives, in weapons in pakistan and afghanistan, may have been connected to a pakistani jihadi group, and that they had plans on how to fly light aircraft, and the police telling us that they believe they could have been using some kind of motorizes paraglider to

move enough explosives to blow up a bus, to fly that potentially into possibly a spanish or u.s./spanish military base, naval base on the coast in southern spain. so, the spanish authorities taking this very, very seriously, carol. >> nic robertson reporting live for us this morning, thanks. another day, another stump speech for the president in ohio. why can't the president close the deal in swing states like ohio? it's our "talkback" question today. ♪ [music plays]

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now is your chance to talk back on one of the big stories of the day. the question for you this morning, why can't president obama close the deal in swing states? the president stumped in ohio yesterday for the ninth time this year, and what was the one word he kept repeating? built. >> america's not built from the top down. america is built from the middle out. america is built from the bottom up. america is built by farmers and factory workers and small businesses and companies that send american products overseas, not jobs overseas.

>> hmm, does all that talk of building have something to do with the president's now-infamous "you didn't build that" line from a few weeks ago, the one republicans have been using to bash him? well, that attack may be resonating on voters in swing states like ohio, where despite an uptick in ohio's economy, the hungry are still flocking to local food banks. >> actually, we're going into the middle of the middle class now. we're reaching up to the suburban people, to people who used to have a nice home, a nice car. it is worse than it was three years ago. >> this despite the fact the president's auto bailout helped ohio with manacturing jobs, it has an unemployment rate of 7.2%, below the national average. a new quinnipiac/cbs news/"the new york times" poll shows a majority of voters backing the president in three critical battleground states, ohio, pennsylvania and virginia, but it's not all good news for the president. according to the poll, although mr. obama is gaining support, it's mostly because of his

personal likability or empathy. most people say they trust governor romney more than the president to help their financial situation. so, the "talk back" question this morning, why can't the president close the deal in these swing states? facebook.com/carolcnn. i'll read your responses later this hour. you've heard this saying, there's no crying in baseball. uh-uh, there's a lot of tears these days, especially at the olympics. we'll discuss. i'm one of six children that my mother raised by herself, and so college was a dream when i was a kid. i didn't know how i was gonna to do it, but i knew i was gonna get that opportunity one day, and that's what happened with university of phoenix. nothing can stop me now. i feel like the sky's the limit with what i can do and what i can accomplish. my name is naphtali bryant and i am a phoenix. visit phoenix.edu to find the program that's right for you.

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of colliding. the faa now investigating. city of san bernardino, california, has officially filed for bankruptcy. that's after a $45 million budget shortfall. it joins two other california cities, stockton and mammoth lakes, that are also bankrupt. the city will still provide services, though, from police and firefighters. chick-fil-a reports record sales from yesterday's appreciation day organized by former arkansas governor mike huckabee. alison kosik is at the new york stock exchange, and what's chick-fil-a saying? >> well, chick-fil-a, as you said, is saying that it saw a record day of sales yesterday. the thing is, the restaurant is not giving any specific numbers. and again, it doesn't have to. this is normal because chick-fil-a is a private company. it doesn't have to publicly report its results like the companies we report on, let's say first and second quarter earnings so far this year for these other companies. now, chick-fil-a is saying, they have a statement they've issued. they said "we appreciate all of

our customers and are glad to serve them at any time. our goal is simple, to provide great, good, genuine hospitality and have a positive influence on all who come into contact with chick-fil-a." so they are trying to, i guess, spread the love. and you know, they say they're very humbled by the turnout. and you said it, you know, this turnout, a lot of it came from after mike huckabee, former arkansas governor, went ahead and got the momentum going on facebook. more than 500,000 people signed up beforehand showing their support after dan cathy came out with his controversial remarks about gay marriage. so, not such a huge surprise that chick-fil-a is showing this much support after, you know, in such a polarizing issue. >> yeah, chick-fil-a was also quick to say, you know, we, the company, didn't organize this appreciation day. >> exactly. >> this was organized by others. they're thanking customers for coming in yesterday. of course, as you know, alison,

tomorrow there is going to be a kiss-in. >> yes. >> gay rights groups are holding protests across the country. i don't know if they'll go in and -- you know, i don't think they're going to buy any products, but they're certainly going to be outside the restaurants. >> and it's at least now their time to grab the headline, right? >> right, and chick-fil-a is also saying, hey, everything will be peaceful, all customers are welcome, we don't discriminate. so, we'll see what happens tomorrow. >> exactly. >> alison kosik live at the new york stock exchange. ricky berens won gold for the united states, then he might have broken a record at mcdonald's. we'll talk about his 3,300-calorie meal. and oh, yeah, his gold medal award-winning swimming. [ female announcer ] the best things in life are the real things. nature valley trail mix bars are made with realngredients you can see.

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turning now to politics and the ongoing battle over who built american businesses. president obama seeking to turn the backlash over remarks he made last month into a boom for

his campaign, telling ohio voters that governor romney's policies would benefit the wealthy and hurt the middle class. >> hello! america's not built from the top down. america's built from the middle out. america's built from the bottom up. america's built by farmers and factory workers and small businesses and companies that send american products overseas, not jobs overseas. >> notice he did not insert the line "you didn't build that." >> no, didn't do that. >> david johnson is chief political correspondent for "politic 365" and professor of political sirns at hiram college in ohio. welcome. >> thank you. >> you were in akron for that rally and were telling me some fascinating things during the commercial break. so, when -- i mean, who comprises the audience at these events like the one the president had in akron? >> right. it's not spontaneous. you have people who go in and they're interested and they're

volunteers, but all campaigns shuffle the people behind the president, they shuffle the people in front of the president, because they want to present the right demographic picture. so, he wants it to look like akron, ohio, so they made sure he had a number of blue-collar people, some moms, young people. it's all fixed. >> how do you discern who's blue collar and who's white? like, how exactly do you do that? they have a blue color on. >> exactly. >> so, they don't necessarily choose the people who are going to be at the event, but they arrange them. >> right, exactly. it's kind of like, you know, you invite a bunch of people to your wedding but you set up the tables individually, and that's pretty much what they do at a campaign. i had a vip ticket. i would have sat in the front row had i been there, just to observe. and people in the background, they want young people, older people, they want people who brings out what they want the campaign to bring out. >> does it bug you? >> well, no, because everybody does it. george bush was doing that, bill clinton was doing it. it's all part of the charades, the theater of american campaign. >> a recent poll taken by, i think cbs news, quinnipiac, showed that president obama is

inching up in support in swing states like ohio. >> right. >> not by much, i mean, but he's ahead of mitt romney. why do you think that is? >> i can tell you in ohio in particular, he's got more people on the ground. mitt romney only has about 150 paid people on the ground. the obama campaign has about 500, and supposed to go up another 100, 200 people in the next month. mitt romney's spending his money on the air, obama on the ground. that seems to be helping obama in the key swing states, at least right now. >> all those ads, because my parents live in ohio, they're just being bombarded by ads. so, that's not necessarily the best strategy when it comes to oh ohio. >> not when you're trying to get people out to vote. you have to have somebody knock on your door, press the flesh, have your neighbor say vote for romney, vote for obama. it's much more effective. obama learned that in '08. that's how he wound up winning close states. >> in ohio, the unemployment rate is 7.2%. >> right. >> which is below the national average, but it doesn't seem the vast majority of ohioans are giving the president credit for that. a lot of them saying no, it's because of our republican governor, john kasich.

>> it's really weird, john kasich was really unpopular for going after unions, but he's become more popular because his state's building. you see more construction in cleveland than the last two years. you see things in akron, in columbus. so ohio is doing better, but the president never gets enough credit and always get too much blame for the economy. but in the end, mitt romney hasn't convinced people he's responsible for it, either, so it's not helping him. >> quickly, last question, the polls. they don't mean much now, do they? >> until people start paying attenti attention. nobody cares until after the olympics, so the polls don't mean much. >> i know! jason johnson, thank you so much. >> always a pleasure. ricky berens won gold for the united states and then may have broken a record at mcdonald's. you cannot believe what he ate in one sitting, 3,300 calories. we'll talk to him next.

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and where businesses lead the world. the new new york works for business. find out how it can work for yours at thenewny.com. swimmer ricky berens won a gold medal for the u.s. tuesday night, his second overall in the london games and the second gold of his career. but he seems to be getting as much attention for what he did after the meet. we're talking about what may be a record-setting postgame meal. ricky joins us now from london. hello! >> hello there. how are you doing? >> i thought you'd be wearing your medals. >> they're tucked away right now. >> some athletes wear their

medals and some don't. why do you choose not to? >> you know, i have them around. i personally, i'm walking around the olympic park right now, i don't want them on, but i've got to keep them safe. >> i understand. used actually wear mine because i'm just like that, but i admire you for being modest. tell us what it was like to swim on the relay team with michael phelps. you all did such a fantastic job. what did that feel like when you're standing on the winners' podium? >> having michael phelps on a relay is probably one of the most confidence things you can have, the world's greatest swimmer. it's something special. in 2008, i was part of the epic eight gold medals, and to be part of that was a dream come true, and now to be part of michael phelps's 19 overall medals, it's incredible and something i'll tell my kids about. >> so, did he reward you? i mean he should have gotten you a gift because you helped

him out a lot. >> you know, he's helped us out more than we've helped him. without him, i wouldn't have the olympic medals that i do. >> what did he say before the race? dedid he say anything to you? >> you know, he really just told us he had just come out of the 200 fly where he got upset by a couple hundredths, which i know he was upset about, and he just came to the ready room and he said, you know, we're one right now with every single person in the relay. let's do this together. i'm going last, so just kind of a 2 fly, so give me a huge lead, and that's what we did. we went out there, hammered it from the start, got him a big lead and he finished it off. >> i know, you did a fantastic job. okay, we have to talk about what you ate at mcdonald's after a close swim. two quarter-pounders with cheese, one big mac, one six-piece nuggets, two medium fries and a medium mcflurry. if you're counting, that's 3,330

calories. how could you possibly eat all that in one sitting? >> i didn't eat it all. you know, we worked so hard to get to the olympic games, to get a gold medal. we sacrifice so much, and now when you're finally finished, all you want to do is relax. you want to eat the foods that you haven't had a chance to in the last couple years. and it's really just our time to enjoy, and that mcdonald's being the olympic dining hall, it's just been calling our name this entire games, so it was, connor bryant and i went and pigged out over there. >> did you feel a little nauseated after you ate all that? >> yeah, that was kind of like a shock to the system. >> thank you, ricky berens, for joining us. we appreciate it and congratulations. >> thank you. thanks for having me. you've heard the saying there's no crying in baseball. well, there's lots of tears these days, especially at the olympics. we'll discuss. ♪ cide of youamericale in has an impact on all of us.

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so, let's talk more olympics and the crying game and i don't mean that in a a cruel way, just that crying has become just not part of the olympic games, but all sports. the agony of defeat startling clear at the olympics. no matter the sport, tears often flow with every loss, perhaps the most heartbreaking spectacle, american gymnast jordyn wieber. nbc couldn't resist, the cameras stayed on weeber so long a "new york times" columnist wrote the coverage was not only intense, borderline sadistic. the real housewives of the uneven parallel bars." her on-camera distress is not limited to olympic teenagers and not a new phenomenon. michael jordan cried, wayne

gretzky cried. yes, athletes have cried for a long time and the cameras love it. brett favre, anyone? >> i'd like to thank the packers for giving me an opportunity, as well. i hope that a every penny -- >> reporter: wide receiver terrell owens teared up after the giants lost, but back in the day, elite athletes didn't cry much, at least publicly. remember the movie "a league of their own"? it took place during world war ii. >> are you crying? >> no. >> there's no crying in baseball! >> reporter: today, there's plenty of crying in baseball, mike schmidt, anyone? tennis, andy murray. basketball, lebron james. the list goes on. and joining us to talk more about this is sports psychologist dr. rick van

haveron and tiki barber. welcome to you both. >> thank you. >> so, tiki, i have to ask you, have you ever cried publicly? >> i think i have, actually. when wellington marra one of our team owners passed away and we played a game against the washington redskins the next day and i had a great game and extremely emotional experience and we were all close to him as a man and for also what he represented. after being successful, sometimes you can't contain that emotion and it comes out in the form of tears. it's not a bad thing. >> i know it's not a bad thing, it's just that it seems to be always captured on camera and i wonder if that bothers athletes. >> well, you know, i doern't thk it bothers athletes. i think we as a society is so voy ristic and we crave emotion. we crave to see the human side of these at letes who we built up to be invincible. at the end of the day, we are all just human and the athletes that you're seeing at the

olympics are human. they cry when they're successful and they cry when they're -- >> we are looking at poor jordyn wieber and it goes through your mind, is she too wrapped up in her sport? is this too much for her to bear? >> i don't think it's too much. like tiki mentioned, in some way athletes are unique, but in other ways they're people like everyone else and they have emotion. when they do well, when they don't do well, they will have those type of emotions. >> couldn't your whole identity be wrapped up in this sport and if it's over for you, let's say at the olympic games, could that mean like possible trouble down the road? >> well, definitely. if an athlete's identity is too involved and the whole identity in the family is too involved. then an athlete might have problems down the road dealing with loss. some research shows that athletes who have a high identity experience an injury

and their career is over, they typically have more difficulty coping than athletes who have more of a balanced identity. >> it's not just the gymnast who is losing, her whole family is losing because they poured their finances into this young athlete and all of their time and the athlete then, she bears the guilt of losing not only for herself and her team, but her family. >> that's correct. that's a lot to manage, especially for some of the younger athletes. they might be 17 years old and doing very adult-type things and adult roles but they are still teens and they have the coping skills and some of the emotions of any 17-year-old. >> going back to the world of pro sports, tiki, remember, i'm sure you remember lou gehrig, if anyone had reason to cry during his moving good-bye speech, lou gehrig. instead, he said he was the luckiest man on the face of the earth. instead when athletes retire, the tears flow. when did that change? >> i think it was different with lou gehrig. he had a terminal illness and he

wanted to present this stowic and in control person and it was important and now we've gotten so wrapped up as athletes as to what it is to be an athlete. at a very young age, your develop is rested. arrested development of a normal upbringing. so, when it's gone, it's very hard to accept that. now you have to become a normal person and you see a lot of problems for athletes, especially those that play professionally for a long time as they try to transition into the real world. >> so, does anyone help you guys with that? >> well, there are a lot of resources that the nfl and other leagues put out there to help athletes make that transition, but it's hard. you have to almost see yourself as invincible and infallible that i can play this game forever otherwise you doubt yourself and risk not succeeding. when that goes away and that facade goes down, it's very, very difficult to act like a normal person, again. but i think there are resources out there, if guys would accept it.

>> dr. rick, tiki barber, thank you for joining us this morning. it was a great conversation. i'm carol costello. thank you for joining us. "cnn newsroom" continues after a short break with kyra phillips. . i'm going to... drink this... on the porch! ♪ give me just a little more time ♪ [ female announcer ] mops can be a hassle, but swiffer wetjet's spray cleaner and absorbent pads can clean better in half the time so you don't miss a thing. swiffer. better clean in half the time. or your money back. and for dry messes big and small try swiffer sweeper vac. [romney singing]: oh beautiful, for spacious skies, i'm barack obama and ig approve this message. for amber waves of grain, for purple mountains majesty, above the fruited plain, america, america,

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