new millionaires. i wish i was in on this deal, wrong thing to get in on. tv news was not one of those things to get in on on the ground floor but google was, facebook was. will you be able to get in on it? we'll tell you how. groundhog phil comes out in a little bit. i have done this story 10 million times in my career as a journalist. we'll have something to say about all the imitators in our get real. "starting point" begins right now. okay. i'm just making sure you know. >> he knows it's the jackson 5. don't give will cain a hard time. >> i was gone a couple days. >> that's not why we're playing it.

that's a healthy ego. >> you got to go with the joke. >> i know. we're just teasing. >> just want to honor my man. >> this is in honor of don cornelius. we announced his death yesterday. soul train, did you watch "soul train" ever? am i right, saturday morning? >> did you pass by the channel or actually stop? >> we have a lot to get to. let me introduce our panel to you will cain, john fugelsan, i mangle your name all the time. soledad o'brien -- >> that's cuban irish. >> roland martin is back, as well. all right, take it down. here we go. let's get to our starting point this morning which is mitt romney. yesterday should have been the victory lap, the victory lap. >> but then you had to come in. >> i did nothing but ask a question and a follow up. here's what he said in my interview yesterday morning.

>> i'm in this race because i care about americans. i'm not concerned about the very poor. we have a safety net there. if it needs a repair, i'll fix it. i'm not concerned about the very rich. they're doing just fine. i'm concerned about the heart of america, the 95% of americans who are struggling and i'll continue to take that message across the nation. >> i know i said last question, but i'm not concerned about the very poor because they have a safety net and i think there are lots of poor americans who are struggling who would say, that sounds odd. can you explain that? >> well, you had to finish the sentence, soledad. i said, i'm nate concerned about the very poor that have a safety net, but if it has holes in it, i will repair them. >> mr. romney tried to clarify onboard his airplane charter plane what he said. here's what he said. >> my focus and the area that i think is the greatest challenge that the country faces right now is not to focus our effort on how we help the poor as much as

to focus our effort on how to help the middle class in america and get more people in the middle class and get people out of being poor and becoming middle income. >> is that tripling down? let's get to mark mckeon who is joining our panel. contributor to "newsweek" former adviser to george w. bush and senator mccain. nice to have you joining our battle. i have never been on fox, msnbc and my own channel and all the evening newscasts in my 25 years as a journalist. yesterday was the day. big misstep? >> that reflects how big a story it is. it is the story everyone is talking about. the big problem for mitt romney, this should have been his biggest and best day of the campaign so far where he was going to leverage his big win in florida instead of a message about why he won and how he will carry that forward, the message became all about your interview

and his characterization of the poor. so, it really stepped on his message. it was a huge buzz kill. >> how do you fix that? you had to do that, right? part of your gig has been to help people fix missteps. what would you advise for him? >> the real problem for romney is that this reflects that there has been a real success from the obama team and president obama and focusing their message and getting traction on the middle class. they're in his head on the whole issue of the middle class and that's why there was this unforced error. strategically this game has shifted to the terrain of the middle class. so, the romney campaign has got to stop fixating on the obama strategy and message and get refocused on their message. so, right now the obama camis in their head, their message is in their head and that's why this whole campaign is recalibrated. you could say republicans were running away with this race and win big and now i think it's absolutely a jump ball. >> mark, it was interesting,

yesterday when we wedid that interview will cain was like, that's bad. that's bad. and, you know, i want to play it because it was interesting to see both conservatives and liberals jump on this. let me play a little chunk first and then i'll talk to you on the other side. >> let me just say something here. i am fed up with politicians in either party dividing americans against each other. >> yeah! >> i am running to be the president of all the american people and i am concerned about all of the american people. the founding fathers met the very poor who they called americans. >> that was newt gingrich taking an opportunity. rush limbaugh also on his show said "he comes across as the protootypical rich republican." >> the mistake, i'd love to hear mark's feedback on this. yesterday was a mistake. it will be abused politically.

people like roland and john will turn mitt romney into ebenezer scrooge that hates rich people. >> a little dig. >> wow. >> i'm just preempting you. >> clearly. >> the true mistake, mark hinted at it, was several months ago. it was in the campaign planning when he decided to adopt this class language. it put him in position where he would inevitably make that mistake. mark, isn't that when the mistake was made? >> that's exactly right. that just testifies, again, to this notion that the obama campaign really kind of turned strategically and really got traction on the idea of this middle class squeeze and how the pie is divided rather than expanding the pie and romney just took that hook and that's the problem now it's become all about the obama message rather than the romney message. romney has to get back on his message and focus on expanding the pie rather than how the pie is divided.

>> roland martin here. when george w. bush ran for president and a lot of that spoke to the poor. that came on the heels of newt gingrich, people, especially white suburban women felt he was demonizing the poor and minorities and, so, is this clearly that mitt romney cannot reach out to that wing of the gop with this kind of comment and understand how you pull those two together? >> that's a great point, roland. and, really, emphasizes where the problem is. the reason george w. bush was successful, he expanded the notion of what the republican electorate was like and demographics by reaching out with a message of compassion, and conservatism. that attracted conservative democrats like me at the time to join the republican party and support then governor bush. mitt romney is narrowing the scope and reinforcing the image of the national party that is elite, out of touch and that's

why he's having such problems with independent voters. those numbers have flipped. unless the republicans are turn that around, they cannot win this election. >> you know, i want to condemn you, soledad, for getting these gotcha direct quotes out of mitt romney, shame on you. i find that refreshing. i also think this is a great chance for people of faith to bring this into the debate because as long as these candidates are throwing jesus around like a frisbee, let's talk about what christ said to the least of my people because he thought they mattered. >> i just want to say, mark, he complimented my interview and will's comment. and we are moving on. >> he is a texan. there may be a potential end in sight for the u.s.-led combat mission in afghanistan. leon panetta said the u.s. and nato plan to shift to a training and advisory role by next year. some people are saying it's

prumature, though. let's get to barbara starr, she's live for us this morning. barbara, earlier i was listening to you talk about this and this is military and policy kind of colliding. >> it is, soledad. not a big surprise inside the pentagon that the nato alliance had already agreed, it would end all operations in afghanistan at the end of 2014. they wanted to have several months to beef up training to afghan forces. sounds an awful lot like iraq. what panetta is saying, combat would end he hopes by the end of next year, 2013, they spend most of the rest of the time training afghan forces. not a surprise, but a surprise that he came out and said it so publicly. he really threw nato for a loop that he came out and said this. they weren't quite ready to announce it. so, now, a bit of diplomatic maneuvering to move the alliance and maneuvering with the afghans and some fundamental military

questions at hand here. can the afghans really look after their own security, are you just giving the taliban a deadline? >> the military leaders, petraeus, admiral mullein, they both have used the words, aggressive and incur more risk, i mean, to some degree, it sounds like military leadership and i think that was back in february. i get the time has passed. don't sound like they're 100% behind this strategy. >> well, i think what the real issue is, is they need to have, they need to get the afghans trained and looking after their own security. theirs has been a decade of war. economically unsustainable and militarily unsustainable. they have to get out of afghanistan. you can't stay there forever. but these challenges and pakistan right next door, the safe haven for al qaeda and the taliban. the u.s. will pack up and go, but what will be the state of

affairs when they do that? will afghanistan be able to look after itself? if it cannot, does that pose a threat to the united states? >> barbara starr at the pentagon for us. thank you. we'll talk to general wesley clark ahead in our next hour about strategy there in afghanistan. other headlines making news. christine romans has those for us. >> good morning, soledad. a rescue mission off the coast of new guinea and 240 people were pulled from the water after a ferry boat sank there. australian authorities say 350 people were onboard that passenger ship. some fireworks on capitol hill today. that's when fed chairman ben bernanke reports to congress on the state of the american economy. he'll testify before the house budget committee, republicans have been critical, very critical of the fed's efforts to bring the economy back. bernanke's likely to say the slow improving economy needs more help from the fed, not less and cutting the deficit too quickly could backfire. "minding your business" now the dow, s&p 500, nasdaq all slightly lower right now ahead of the opening bell.

legendary boxing trainer anglo dundee has died, george foreman, sugar ray leonard. he was 90 years old. a windfall for planned parenthood taking $400,000 in donations right after the top breast cancer charity pulled its funding. the founder of the susan g.komen foundation said they pulled it not due to political pressure. >> as we move forward, we will implement these new strategies which will allow us to serve even more women. we will never bow to political pressure. we will always stand firm in our goal to end breast cancer forever. and who would newt gingrich cast to play himself in the hollywood story of his life? gingrich says, wait for it, everyone, brad pitt. brad pitt as newt gingrich. can you see it, soledad? >> we're trying to figure out if

he's kidding. >> dude, jack black, would you stop it. >> okay. you know what i'm going to say about that, christine. moving on -- >> roland martin is already busy, so he can't do it. mitt romney's comments that he made to me yesterday on the poor was also picked up by "daley show" when you're on the show as a reporter, it's a bad, bad thing. not last night, but often. but not last night. >> mitt romney won big in florida cementing his frontrunner status and today was on to the morning shows for a quick little victory lap. >> by the way, i'm in this race because i care about americans. i'm not concerned about the very poor, we have a safety net there, if it needs repair, i'll fix it. i'm not concerned about the very rich, they're doing just fine.

>> did you suggest that you don't need to suggest about the very rich because they're fine, but also equivalently the very fine because they're okay, too. the reason the net is there is they are not okay. it's like a doctor going, you know, i'm not very concerned about the very healthy because they're fine or the very sick, because, you know, morphine. you know what i'm saying. maybe i heard it wrong. i could have heard it wrong. obviously, did that sound weird to anybody else? >> you just said, i'm not concerned about the very poor because they have a safety net, i think there are lots of very poor americans who are struggling who would say, that sounds odd. can you explain that? >> tv news person just heard what candidate said and then stopped him and made him explain himself, like a flower blooming in the desert. quick, someone dig that up and

get it away from cnn before one of their monitors falls and crushes it! >> you have to finish the senten sentence, soledad. i'm not concerned about the very poor that have a safety net with holes in it. >> you have to see -- that opening line, in terms of, you know, i'm not concerned about them, but, are they really american? and, also, this whole 90, 95% middle class. 15.3% of the country is in poverty. 22 grand for a family of four. mitt might want to go check the math and understand the number of people out there who are having a difficult time. and the last thing, how is the middle class moved? all of a sudden you swear the people make up the middle class in this country. >> should have been, could have been a victory lap and it was not. >> great job, soledad. >> thank you.

>> go tell tom i said, hey. >> roland just gets up and leaves in the middle of our show. just all chaos here in the morning on "starting point." ahead this morning facebook ipo getting an inside look at facebook's finances and they are stunningly great, but can we benefit from this ipo. that's what i want to know. we'll ask our next guest about that. a texas teenager was mistakenly deport eddeported. she will join us with her mom right here on our set. from jimmy to freddie to sam sammy, get real. and we're honoring don cornelius this morning. he's the founder of "soul train" with the music from the acts he made famous. we're going to play the music of the people he gave their careers a boost. here's luther vandross, the man i love, with "power of love."

this new at&t 4g lte is fast. hey. did you guys hear... ...that mary got engaged? that's so 42 seconds ago. thanks for the flowers guys. [ both ] you're welcome. oooh are you guys signing up for the free massage? [ both ] so 32 seconds ago. hey guys you hear frank's cat is sick? yeah, we heard. wanna sign the card? did you know the guys from china are in the office... [ speaking chinese ] [ male announcer ] stay a step ahead with the 4g lte galaxy s ii skyrocket. only from at&t. ♪

♪ where the sun never goes out ♪ ♪ and the sky is deep and blue ♪ ♪ won't you take me american flight 280 to miami is now ready for boarding. ♪ there with you fly without putting your life on pause. be yourself. nonstop. american airlines.

i do, i get up early and i work hard for the money. thank you, donna summer, for recognizing that. i am playing this for john cornelius. she was a huge, huge hit. a first look into the inner workings of facebook because, of course, they're going public. here's what we know. facebook reported earning a billion dollars on sales of $3.7 billion in 2011. 845 million active users each month and the company says they turned a prof it in 2009, five years after they were founded. they will use symbol fb. henry joins us and christine romans is standing by, as well. let's start with you, henry. i thought it was so interesting the actual number of users because i think we were all

guesstimating around 500 million and it's much higher. >> this company started in a dorm room seven years ago half use it every day. it is just shocking. >> if i want to go out and get facebook stock, is it possible? >> it's possible, but probably too late. people have been talking about facebook stock for years, you had your chance a couple years ago. it trades on the public market but now we have a sense of where it should trade when it goes public and probably a lot of the opportunity is gone, unfortunately. >> you are allowed to click like on it. >> that gets me no actual cash at the end of the day. the big ones, groupon and then google back in 2004 and linkedin, how does this compare to those? >> facebook is going public at a much more mature state. seven years old, $4 billion of revenue last year, a billion of

earnings. it is much bigger than google was. going public as a mature company. unfortunately for everyone who wants to jump in the ipo, that takes away from the upside. the time to get in was a few years ago when they fiercely resisted going public. if it's priced reasonably, there should be some upside. >> christine, we just showed google and groupon and linkedin and with the exception of groupon, which was pretty recent, you did well if you got in and got stock early on. what are the expectations for facebook? >> this company has a lot to prove, i'll be honest with you. 85% of its revenue comes from advertising and a lot of consumer groups and people like you and me, we don't want to see changes to our facebook and to privacy. but hedge fund managers and people who own facebook might have different ideas on how this company should make money. so, the thing here is that facebook has so much to prove, i

mean, the way i see it right now, it's priced for perfection, everyone is assuming this is going to be a new google, but a sign of a new tech bubble. what can this company do to really grow? right now it has a billion dollars in profit last year. that compared with $25 billion for a very mature, no question, a very mature microsoft and this company has a lot of growing to do to be in the big leagues. >> let me ask henry that, is it -- whatever, does it look like there could be a tech bubble? the other side said they haven't leveraged the opportunity yet. 85% of their revenue coming from advertising. they haven't pushed that to make a revenue yet. >> a wide difference of reasonable opinion of what the stocks are. everyone will look. >> what do you think it's worth? >> $50 billion to $75 billion, which is whell below what peopl were expecting a couple weeks ago. a lot of people will say, oh,

no, you have yet to see what they have yet to invent and those folks will probably be the ones that drive it to insane levels on the first day, but markets tend to settle in and i think it will probably settle in around 75. >> henry, appreciate it. christine, always appreciates when you jump in. phil the groundhog, punxsutawney phil -- >> can anybody hear that without thinking of bill murray? >> it's what made punxsutawney phil the most famous of the groundhogs around the nation and around the world. i'll bring you up to speed on those stories straight ahead. stay with us. this is an rc robotic claw.

my high school science teacher made me what i am today. our science teacher helped us build it. ♪ now i'm a geologist at chevron, and i get to help science teachers. it has four servo motors and a wireless microcontroller. over the last three years we've put nearly 100 million dollars into american education. that's thousands of kids learning to love science. ♪ isn't that cool? and that's pretty cool. ♪

you know what -- >> that didn't come from this side of the table. >> can we get back to don

cornelius. >> we are talking about groundhog day and the myth that stretches back centuries, literally centuries but kept alive by punxsutawney phil who just moments ago made his forecast and we have six more weeks of winter. >> more mildness. >> wow, that's not a cute little -- >> but, phil, aapparently, not alone. of course, people around america now come dressed in like these crazy costumes and they break out their own little phil-like groundhogs because they want to cash in on the tradition. it's incredible. you have general bo regard lee -- there's a groundhog he lives in a game ranch that is outside of atlanta. staten island chuck. past years, he's just a tougher groundhog. past years have been, hey, hey, hey, past years there have been

groundhogs named sutton sammy, there's been jimmy the groundhog, there's been more concisely named groundhogs chuckles, tumbleweed, gus and this year what is a metaphor for gridlock, potomac phil. he will be on hand for the inaugural celebration of groundhog day, but they did not have their act together. i'm not kidding. did not have their act together enough so they had to use a stuffed animal groundhog. >> the credibility of the entire ceremony, soledad -- >> seriously? >> do i lie to you? >> i don't want to be the human who has to explain this to the aliens when they come. >> potomac phil will be a stuffed animal, which we say not very real. >> we don't believe in climate change science. can we get back to credible issues. europe is way ahead of us. >> and we are moving on. straight ahead this morning

on "starting point" the truth about sugar. apparently, sugar so toxic, some people are saying it is as bad for you as tobacco and alcohol. new study coming out of "nature." deadly riots to tell you about in egypt, some believe they started over a soccer rivalry. this young lady deported to south america. remember we did this story a month ago. 15-year-old girl jakadrien turner, so much to more to her story than meets the eye. we'll sit down and talk to her and her mom and her lawyer, no surprise, in just a little bit. stay with us. maybe this vacation wasn't a good idea vacations are always a good idea ♪ priceline negoti - - no time. out quickly. you're miles from your destination. you'll need a hotel tonight we don't have time to bid you don't have to bid. at priceline you can choose from thousands of hotels on sale every day. save yourself... some money

welcome back to "starting point." headlines, christine romans has those for us. we begin in egypt, a nation in mourning. a three-day observance of the 79 people who died in a riot following a soccer match.

fans stormed the field hitting each other with rocks and chairs. investigators are trying to figure out if it stemmed from a sports rivalry or a political tensions or just what caused this bloodshed. cnn's ben wedemen following the story live for us in cairo. what is the latest, ben? >> yes, christine, well, the egyptian government has launched an urgent investigation into this incident yesterday that, as you said, left more than 70 dead. nearly 1,000 wounded. right now there's a very stormy session going on in the egyptian parliament where the deputies are demanding the resignation of the interior ministry demanding that the military authorities, the so-called supreme council of the armed forces do more to impose law and order in this country. we understand that the head of security, his deputy and the head of investigations have been arrested and they have been charged with dereliction of

duty. the governor has of port said ehas resigned, but it seems that many people are pointing to the violence as an inability of the military to rule this country. christine? >> certainly a tragedy. ben wedemen, thank you so much for that. other stories making headlines. president obama urging congress to pass mortgage relief. he wants to make it easier for americans to refinance at these record low mortgage interest rates. under his plans borrowers could save, he says, about $300,000 a year. president also wants the mortgage process streamlined without the hidden fees. according to a survey conducted by united technologies about two-thirds of americans believe that banks should pitch in by absorbing the refinancing fees. a salmonella outbreak that has made 68 people sick has been linked to taco bell, taco bell that operates 6,000 restaurants in this country says the source of the food born illness still

has not been confirmed. alzheimer's seems to spread from brain cell to brain cell like an infection, but it's a protein that is spreading. scientists say that the discovery has immediate implications for finding new alzheimer's treatments. they believe other degenerative brain developments like parkinsons spread in the same way. a woman defeated hawna in a small claims court. she spoke to us after she filed a claim against honda because she said her honda civic hybrid didn't come close to getting the 50 miles per gallon as promised. her reward nearly 10 grand, $10,000. which makes me wonder, how many people are going to go check to see. >> you wonder if you want to do small claims court or class action lawsuit? christine, thank you for that update. a confusing and

contradictory story about a 15-year-old girl who ran away from home and ended up deported to colombia. the girl was arrested in april of 2011 for shoplifting and claimed to be a colombia citizen. she was handed over to custom enforcement and less than two months later was deported to colombia. jakadrien's mother was able to track her down on facebook and they found no evidence that jakadrien turner tried to provide officers with her real name or claimed to be a u.s. citizen. her daughter must have been told by authorities to deceive authorities. that's what she told me in an interview. >> here you have a 15-year-old girl in a system that she's not familiar with. and she's afraid and, as i said

before, she did what she was told to do. >> jakadrien is now home with her family and she joins us here in the studio along with her mom and her attorney. all right, let me start with mom first. she has been home for a month now, how has that been? that must have been amazing to not only find her after so long but have her back. >> it's a relief. i'm overjoyed and i'm really glad to have her home. >> so, there are so many confusing things in the story and i'll walk through it slowly and i want you to help me understand it. >> okay. >> according to the authorities, i think you were arrested for shoplifting, they bring you in and they say to cnn that you didn't tell them that you were a teenager and you didn't tell them that you weren't clolom been. is that true or not true? >> i told them i was 15-year-olds old and my name was

jakadrien turner. >> what did they do after you told them that? >> they said i looked older. >> any 15-year-old girl would love that. they thought you were lying about the age? >> yes. >> where did the name cortez come up? >> i made it up when i first ran away and did a lot of things and a lot of things happened to me and i made that name up to hide my identity. >> so, at some point you're using the name car tez and did they have any idea that was your name or did they know you were jakadrien turner. >> in order to deport someone you need the colom bian authorities to come in. >> that's where the system starts breaking down. you do need colombian authorities to come in and say, okay, she's a colombian citizen.

she was given citizenship papers expedited, citizenship papers and the people responsible for doing that were fired by the government. >> did representatives working on your deportation papers sit down with you? >> yes, and gave me another name. >> what was that name? >> so, they told you who you were? >> yes. >> at that point did you say, listen, that's not me, i'm 15 years old and i want to call my mom. >> the fact that being in colombia and there is so, i know that a lot of people, a lot of people in colombia did not like americans so i was scared to tell them that i was jakadrien turner. >> before you got to colombia and they were interviewing you to see if they were going to deport you, listen, stop, i'm not colombian. >> i told three immigration officers that i wa jakadrien

turner. after that, i gave up. i didn't feel like i had more chances. >> did you ask to call home? >> i couldn't call my mother, it was a collect call. >> what happens legally now? you end up deported to colombia and your mom ends up being able to track -- this story is so complicated. your mom tracks her down on facebook. how did that happen? >> she followed friends of friends and located her and told me she was in colombia, when she said, i didn't believe it. >> you're like, colombia, maryland? when you landed, who did you meet? who picked you up at the airport? who took you? >> it was a program. no, i didn't know anything about

colombia and didn't know nothing. it was a very big learning experience. as with the program, it was a program called welcome home and i was with people that were deported. >> so, they had you all deport under to a program. >> sure. you know colombia have third party deportation. >> what does that mean? >> it means other people can deport other people who don't want to go to their country to colombia and colombia will accept them and they get $10,000 that they allow to be deported into colombia. >> were they paid for her deportation then? >> where she was there were people from africa and all different countries that were housed in this program. >> so, you have a pretty strong texas accent, which does mean you couldn't be colombian but that might be an additional piece of evidence.

i don't speak spanish. did they ask you if you spoke spanish? they thought you lived in com lombia and then come to the united states? did you speak any spanish? >> no. >> so, the ins said they have you on tape talking about, that you kept saying your name. they have you consistently on tape not using your real name. >> i told multiple officers who i was. i told multiple officers that i was jakadrien turner. >> what happens next? i know you're three months pregnant. i know a lawsuit is probably something you're thinking about. >> a lawsuit is forthcoming. >> against who? >> we're considering every party. particularly i.c.e., homeland security, possibly houston police department and possibly

the colombian government. the real issue here, i think, mrs. o'brien, we protect children from themselves. we don't allow children to get married, we don't allow children to enter contracts, not without having an adult make those decisions for them. here's a 15-year-old girl who is going through a process and she is hearing the words i.c.e., deportation and she doesn't know what any of this means. >> we want to follow the story and if you're happy at home. thanks for talking to us, appreciate it. still ahead this morning on "starting point" donald trump ready to announce a gop endorsement, apparently. we're curious to know who he is going to support. music that you never heard, jakadrien, your mom and lawyer

know who that is. listen to smokey robinson, "tears of a clown." this was the gulf's best tourism season in years. all because so many people came to louisiana... they came to see us in florida... make that alabama... make that mississippi. the best part of the gulf is wherever you choose... and now is a great time to discover it. this year millions of people did. we set all kinds of records. next year we're out to do even better. so come on down to louisiana... florida... alabama... mississippi. we can't wait to see you. brought to you by bp and all of us who call the gulf home. a little bird told me about a band... ♪ an old man shared some fish stories... ♪ oooh, my turn. ♪ she was in paris, but we talked for hours... everyone else buzzed about the band.

there's a wireless mind inside all of us. so, where to next? ♪

welcome back, everybody. ahead this morning on "starting point" donald trump is ready to announce his republican presidentinal dorsement, who is he going to support? do we even care? all that is up next. a terror gang admits to bombing a london landmark. details on this developing story coming up. stay with us, we're back in just a moment. with exercise and ensure muscle health. i've got revigor.

what's revigor? it's the amino acid metabolite, hmb to help rebuild muscle and strength naturally lost over time. [ female announcer ] ensure muscle health has revigor and protein to help protect, preserve, and promote muscle health. keeps you from getting soft. [ major nutrition ] ensure. nutrition in charge! i want to fix up old houses. ♪ [ woman ] when i grow up, i want to take him on his first flight. i want to run a marathon. i'm going to own my own restaurant. when i grow up, i'm going to start a band. [ female announcer ] at aarp we believe you're never done growing. thanks, mom. i just want to get my car back. [ female announcer ] discover what's next in your life. get this free travel bag when you join at aarp.org/jointoday. a little bird told me about a band... ♪ an old man shared some fish stories... ♪

oooh, my turn. ♪ she was in paris, but we talked for hours... everyone else buzzed about the band. there's a wireless mind inside all of us. so, where to next? ♪

welcome back, everybody. politically we are decoding 2012. this morning there are three stories that are making headlines in the gop race so let's start with those. we have ron brownstein joining us by the way. he's not with us, sadly. good morning to you. >> good morning. >> yesterday when you were

sitting with me we through up numbers talking about spending. romney aired 13,000 ads versus the 200 ads for gingrich. that was through january 25th. there are some new numbers going through january 30th. big change in the numbers. romney campaign and super pac combined 19,000 ads versus newt gingrich, big increase for him, 4,000 ads. i believe that's through january 30th. so first and foremost, let's decode that. it's not only negative, there's also a lot and low turnout. >> yeah. i'm glad we've gotten that straightened out. instead of it being an aircraft carrier versus a row boat it was only a battleship versus a row boat. i'm glad we got that sorted out. look, that is reality. that's the reality newt gingrich faces that every state that does matter mitt romney is going to have an overwhelming financial advantage. yes, i think the turnout is kind of interesting. unlike 2008 when you had

antipathy toorge towards george w. bush, despite the very strong feelings against president obama in the republican base, we've seen the big turnout increase in south carolina. the only state with a major increase. that probably does speak to some lack of enthusiasm or at least kind of a burning enthusiasm. >> a lack of a burning enthusiasm. you were sitting next to me when i did this interview with mitt romney yesterday. >> yes. >> of course, he was talking about i don't care about the poor because they have the safety net. >> right. >> we asked him again and he doubled down on t. again, when he was asked on the plane he tripled down on it. >> yes. >> what do you think is -- now, today gail collins, national journal gave a little shout out to us. "the wall street journal" has what he really meant. it was the big story. what is the big impact of all of this? >> there are two points about this. the first one everybody's focusing on is the political point. one of several comments romney has made which he argues are misconstrued about employment

and people, firing people, i like that too. they seem to suggest a lack of connection. a more important point hasn't been discussed over the past 24 hours and that's the substantive one. he said as part of that interview, if there are problems with the safety net, i want to strengthen it or fix it. in fact, at the core of his campaign has been an argument about retrenching it. the base of his argument is that he is, quote, converting us into a social welfare state. he's already talking about converting medicaid which is an entitlement into a block grant and significantly reducing the federal contribution and in "meet the press" he talked about block granting food stamps and federal housing aid as well. and one last point. he's talking about the center of his economic plan is a 20% limit of federal spending, which would be 16% of domestic spending of gdp which would necessitate significant reductions overtime in the very safety net.

>> it shows a conflict, ron, between really true conservative principles, right, which is sort of the second half of what ron said and also a guy who's trying to get elected. >> right offstage. we went through this, roland martin and i. >> you can't debate anything off stage. >> we'll repeat it. >> trivializing deporting teenagers. >> you just nailed it, soledad. this is not only a bad political move but it is somewhat against conservative ideology that you don't divide and pander. you don't divide us into classes and pander. this is a problem in the primary. >> safety net. >> that's the most despairing thing about it. they all divide and pander, but he did it to the middle class in such a way of assuming that middle class americans don't care about poor people. i do think middle class americans have compassion in their hearts for the poor. that was the most cynical thing about it was by -- >> and some of them are becoming poor. >> writing off the poor. so many millions of americans are one crisis away from joining the poor. >> our stats are real clear. more than 50% of americans may

very well fall below the poverty line at least one year in their lifetime. people get it. they have family members in this category. when a candidate says, that's not my focus, you're going to have some issues. you want to be the president for all america, you better have a policy. >> ron brownstein i have to ask you another question about donald trump. he said he's going to endorse somebody. do we care? we being america? >> no. >> no. >> no. >> yes. >> there are 15 million more people in poverty today than when bill clinton left office, 8 million more under bush, 7 million more in the two years under obama. as for donald trump, he has an audience in the populus wing of the republican party, there's no question about it. that has been the constituency for newt gingrich. i can't imagine this is a big deal in terms of the overall trajectory of the race, but gingrich, we have seen a kind of interesting phenomenon over the past week overshadowed by the size of romney's win in florida. as more establishment figures

like bob dole have gathered around romney. sarah palin has come around gingrich. that could give him more of a foundation. >> let's reference to this thing is not ending for a really long time. i have to take a commercial break. >> it's huge. >> you look like you're in the audience somewhere. >> heckling. he's heckling. >> on my show. >> comedian trump in the republican party, what do you want me to do? i'm a heckler at the desk. it's so odd. take a break. ahead this mourning on "starting point", president obama about to speak to the national prayer breakfast. we'll bring it to you live. then the toxic truth about sugar. a new study out says it could be as bad for you as alcohol and tobacco. that's straight ahead. r erases 99% of your most stubborn makeup with one towelette. can your makeup remover do that? [ female announcer ] neutrogena® makeup remover.

until the end of the quarter to think about your money... ♪ that right now, you want to know where you are, and where you'd like to be. we know you'd like to see the same information your advisor does so you can get a deeper understanding of what's going on with your portfolio. we know all this because we asked you, and what we heard helped us create pnc wealth insight, a smarter way to work with your pnc advisor, so you can make better decisions and live achievement.

have 46 grams of whole grains... mmmm. ...and a touch of sweetness. you'll be delighted to discover how good they taste. get your free sample of quaker oatmeal squares on facebook.

get your free sample of quaker oatmeal squares i've tried it. but nothing helped me beat my back pain. then i tried salonpas. it's powerful relief that works at the site of pain and lasts up to 12 hours. salonpas. ♪ a refrigerator has never been hacked. an online virus has never attacked a corkboard. ♪ give your customers the added feeling of security a printed statement or receipt provides... ...with mail. it's good for your business. ♪ and even better for your customers. ♪ for safe and secure ways to stay connected, visit usps.com/mail -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com our "starting point" is bringing an end to the

afghanistan war. defense secretary leon panetta says it's time. also this morning time to buy your home and the fed head ben bernanke is testifying today. the ghetto film school, new professor there, lee daniels, is helping kids in the school and even focused in the bronx and around the globe realize the talent that they didn't necessarily know they had. aspiring film makers get to hang out with a famed director. we'll talk to him about why he's doing it straight ahead. "starting point" begins right now. ♪ got a lot more, a little? >> i want you to understand, this is black history month. >> it is. >> anybody know who that is? >> every month is black history month. >> you are an honorary black

american. that is true. barry white -- >> who named him that? >> he gave it to himself. >> the american way. >> i went to barry white's house once and had chinese food with him and his -- >> seriously? >> yes. a year or two before he died. amazing. >> did he sing to you? >> he did. my girlfriend, my best friend sang right back at him. >> knowing kim, she would do that. >> it was a little embarrassing, yes. we're moving on now. let's talk about the war. potential end might be in suicide site for the u.s. led combat mission. leon panetta on a plane en route to brussels said this, our goal is to complete all of that transition in 2013 and then hopefully by mid to the latter part of 2013 we'll be able to make a transition from a combat role to training and advise. it drew criticism. howard buck mckeon said this. >> announcing a change in mission in afghanistan before we've even validated that they

can maintain stability in the areas we've already transitioned and ahead of the fighting season is premature. well, was it premature? general wesley clark joins our panel this morning. former nato supreme allied commander. 34 years of experience, sir, in the military. when you hear what leon panetta says and lays out, do you think his critics has a point? >> actually, i think leon panetta put it pretty well, soledad. this is a plan we were coming out with in 2013. we have to transition before that time in order to a train, advise, assist role. he's giving fair notice. i think he said it at a time where's going to europe. 's going to talk to the european allies. it's about maintaining consensus and strong support for the mission. it makes a lot of sense when he said it. remember why we went into afghanistan. we went there because of osama bin laden. we got him. president obama made a really tough decision. he got him. he took him down. al qaeda's much weaker and much different today.

so it's time to transition away from this mission. >> okay. but when you look at what pa tray yus and add mierl mike mullen said back in the summer, they were -- they didn't support it then. i'm going to play you a little bit of what they said. >> the ultimate decision was more aggressive formulation, if you will, in terms of the time line than what we had recommended. >> what i can tell you is the president's decisions are more aggressive and incur more risk than i was originally prepared to accept. >> they used the word, sir, at the time, more aggressive, more risk. what's changed? >> well, i think we finished the fighting season. we've seen the results. we know we're working with the pakistanis a little bit on this. there may be some discussions going on with the taliban at some point, we're not sure. but i think that when you look

at the broad stretch american policy, the president has to decide not just on what's going on in afghanistan, but he has to balance all the other national security and national priorities. so he makes the decision. any general is always concerned about increasing the risk, and when i was in nato when i was running these operation, i felt exactly the same way about withdrawing troops. the truth is we've got a pretty good training program over there. we're giving the afghan government and its military, security forces the opportunity. we can't do it for them. we're giving them fair notice and adequate time and resources. they've got to pick up the ball and run with it. >> that's the point, general clark. roland martin here. by putting a deadline, aren't we basically telling them get your act together. it's time for our troops to come home putting some pressure on them step up? >> i think it can be read that way, and i hope it will be taken that way. it's no secret, we're not going to be there forever. so we're not going to be able to

stop every assassination attempt that ever might occur in afghanistan. it's a place that's had a lot of violence and we're trying to train the local people to take care of their own security problems. so it was never the intent the united states would stay there and make this the 51st state. i think we have to keep that in mind when we look at the risks associated with the transition. >> let me send up a poll, 35% favor and 36% don't. the timing really helps the president to say, see, i said i'd hit this deadline and i'm hitting it. maybe more political than making sense poly see wise i guess is what i'm trying to say. >> i think it does make sense in the broad stretch. it does give a deadline. it does put some pressure on the other side. it is a smooth transition out for 2014. remember, again, the original intent going in there was to go

after al qaeda. the taliban are a complex problem. they're partly nationalistic, partly apparently supported by pakistan. pakistan has its own interests. we're working very hard to pull together a diplomatic condominium around afghanistan to help support stabilization. there's a lot going on that you don't see besides just the troops. all of these are factors that can enter the president's decision. so there's nothing wrong with him making a decision that makes good sense strategically if it also makes good sense politically. >> general, they say afghanistan is the graveyard of empires. i've always felt trying to please the pentagon is the graveyard of democrats. do you think secretary panetta has brought about a new culture where the president's initiatives are being met with more open minds? >> i think secretary panetta is doing a remarkable job, and also secretary gates did a great job in the pentagon. the generals are going to do the

best they can to accomplish the mission, but the mission is given by the political leadership of the united states of america. the national command authority is the president and the secretary of defense. so ultimately they're the ones who have to make the decisions, and i think in this case they're making them. that's as it should be. >> general wesley clark is a former nato supreme allied commander. nice to see, you sir, as always. i've interviewed wesley clark for years. got other headlines making news. good morning. >> good morning, soledad. the national prayer breakfast where president obama is speaking. that's obviously not president obama but these are people at the prayer breakfast. it's hosted by members of the house and senate who meet every week for prayer at the capitol. we'll bring you highlights of the president's speech later this hour. all right. rescue mission off the coast of new guinea. nearly 240 people have been pulled from the water after a ferry boat sank. australian authorities say about 350 people were on board the passenger ship. nine radical islamists

admitting in court to a terror plot to strike high profile targets in london including the u.s. embassy. the men were arrested in raids in december. the attacks said to have been inspired by american born al qaeda cleric who was killed, of course, in a drone strike in yemen. american airlines, the parent company wants to eliminate about 13,000 jobs, 15% of its work force under bankruptcy reorganization. the company also saying it wants to cut traditional pension plans. the president of the flight attendant's union called these ideas, quote, unacceptably harsh. minding your business. dow futures, s&p, nasdaq all lower. investors waiting for the weekly jobless claims due out in a few minutes. the bitter truth about sugar. a new study says sugar is a poison that should be taxed and regulated like alcohol or cigarettes. doctors from the university of california san francisco says

sugar is the main reason behind global rates of killers like heart disease and type 2 diabetes. it's ground hog day. just a few minutes ago phil bombed everybody out. >> phil proclaimed, as i look at the crowd on gobblers nod many shadows do i see. six more weeks of winter it must be. >> soledad, earlier you said you've covered this for -- >> 268 years. yes. >> so is phil always right? that's what i want to know. your scientific analysis? >> no. i don't know. it's 50 degrees in new york today. we are in spring already. you know what i want you to do, christine? >> what? >> in our next half hour, what's the financial benefit of doing one of these things? how much money do they make when they bring out -- >> did you see the crowd? >> that's what i'm saying. give me an estimate of how many dollars are raised in this 24-hour period. >> you got it. >> ahead this morning on "starting point."

>> break it down. >> just a couple hours the fed chief ben bernanke will testify in front of the u.s. house budget committee on the state of the economy. i'll speak with two members of that committee. attorney general eric holder in the hot seat going to face tough questions on "fast and furious." we're talking to lee daniels about his latest project. he's teaching aspiring young film makers in the bronx their craft. today we are honoring don cornelius. that was 35 years. >> 35 years. >> he owned the show. so we are honoring his legacy and his memory with the music from the acts that he made famous from listening to marvin gay. >> tammy tur zblel "ain't no mountain high enough." >> best duo ever. >> we're back in a moment. ♪ ain't no mountain high

enough ♪ ♪ ain't no mountain low enough , one, two, three ♪ ♪ count the birds in the big old tree ♪ ♪ la la la [ male announcer ] the inspiring story of how a shipping giant can befriend a forest may seem like the stuff of fairy tales. ♪ ♪ you and me and the big old tree side by side ♪ but if you take away the faces on the trees... take away the pixie dust. take away the singing animals, and the charming outfits. take away the sprites, and the storybook narrator... [ man ] you're left with more electric trucks. more recycled shipping materials... and a growing number of lower emissions planes... which still makes for a pretty enchanted tale. ♪ la la la whoops, forgot one... [ male announcer ] sustainable solutions. fedex. solutions that matter. -three. -one.

two. three. one. -two. -three. -one. -two. -three. [ male announcer ] with the bankamericard cash rewards credit card, earn 1% cash back everywhere, every time. 2% back on groceries. and 3% back on gas. automatically. no hoops to jump through. -it's as easy as...1. -two. -three. [ male announcer ] 1, 2, 3 percent cash back for the things you buy most. the bankamericard cash rewards card. apply online or at a bank of america near you. we have to thank you for the advice on phillips' caplets.

magnesium, right? you bet! phillips' caplets use magnesium. works more naturally than stimulant laxatives... for gentle relief of occasional constipation. can i get an autograph? [ female announcer ] live the regular life. phillips'.

welcome back, everybody. in less than two hours the chairman of the federal reserve, ben bernanke, will be testifying before the house budget committee on the state of the u.s. economy. joining us this morning to talk about that, ranking democrat on the budget committee, maryland congressman van holland. gentlemen, nice to join us. let me start with a question about what you would like to hear from the chairman bernanke today. congressman muldaney, what do you want to hear? >> i think what we'll talk to him first about are the recently stated -- the intentions of the fed to keep interest rates at or near zero for the next two years. it's an unprecedented move in our history. we want to know why that is, especially if we think we're starting to see some sort of recovery in the mashlgts. >> let me stop you for a second if you don't mind. you had said previously that that was a teaser rate. so now that it's extended two

years or three years i've read as well, what do you think of it? >> well, that's what we're going to ask the question. one of my concerns was that he was making it not intentionally but one of the unintended consequences of these low rates is it's very affordable for the government to borrow money. you've seen the president go on his nationwide tour saying we should be borrowing more money not less because interest rates are so low. it struck me the nation is doing some of the same things the homeowners did a couple of years ago with these teaser rates on mortgages. i don't want to go down the same road. >> congressman van holland, what would you like to hear from the chairman? >> i think he's going to make two points. two points i think he should make. the first is that we need to focus on nurturing a very fragile economy. we have to extend the payroll tax cut for another ten months. he will also stress, as he has in the past, the importance of maintaining critical investments that have helped the economy grow, investments in education, science and research, infrastructure.

then the other part of his testimony will be why it's important to come together now on a plan that will reduce the deficit over a period of time in a stable, predictable way, not in a way that shocks the economy but in a way that gives us some assurance that we will get the deficit and debt under control in the long run. i hope we can do that. it should be done in a bipartisan basis and a balanced way. i think those are the themes the chairman will stress. >> so if you look at this chart, which is a graph of the jobless rate over the last 12 months. you can see some improvement, right? it's heading downward but there's no one that can read that chart and say, wow, that's amazing. that's terrific. so what do you think in that kind of long list that you both gave me of the topics you think he's going to cover, what does he have to say that keeps that tail in there going down? why don't you start for me, congressman mulvaney. >> sure. we've already asked him that question when he testified before us last month. he said he didn't think in the long run monetary policy could

solve the unemployment difficulty. what you're seeing are the offshoots of this administration. the reason this graph is not greater is because of the way we've handled it with this dramatic stimulus project. i think you'll see him not talk about the fiscal matters that mr. van hollen just mentioned but the monetary issues are before him, specifically how does he keep growth going and keep inflation under control. >> actually, soledad, in the past ben bernanke has essentially debunked what congressman mulvaney just said about the president's approach. in fact, bernanke has said that the actions taken by the federal reserve and the actions taken by the recovery bill helped prevent a second great depression, helped stop the free fall. we are now climbing out of that. historically it's always tougher to climb out of a recession that's precipitated about you a financial meltdown, and we know that. the good news is that for the last 22 months we've seen 3

million private sector jobs grow. are we satisfied with the pace? of course not, but one of the lessons i think ben bernanke is going to talk about is that it would be a mistake to too quickly take any action that would send the economy into a slowdown. if you cut too quickly in critical investments, you will have that unintended effect. so, yes, we need to come together right now on a long-term deficit reduction plan but, again, don't do anything in the short term that would jeopardize the fragile recovery. again, that's why the payroll tax cut's important. people need a little bit more money in their pockets right now so they can go out and spend on goods and services and businesses, sell things, hire more people. >> thank you both for being with us this morning. appreciate it. >> thank you. >> you can see that -- go ahead. it's a long panel. >> a lot of people have been very outraged about deficits

since january of 2009. it's interesting to see this talk going on. it is true, when mitt romney comes out and says president obama lost 2 million jobs, he's talking about the fact that we were still losing 750,000 jobs a month when president bush left. >> here is the thing. >> the stimulus stopped. >> i think when your average voter looks at a graph and it's just down a little. >> of course. >> that's a problem. >> absolutely. >> look, that is -- >> there's a graph. thank you for running that graph, danny. i appreciate that. >> also what we are dealing with is this. the congressman talked about in terms of how the policies have not helped. we're operating in a new normal. you look at the amount of people who have debt, you look at the folks that are living far above their means. we have this false economy for nearly a generation and we're now having to pay the price. we were not going to get out of this in two years. this is going to be a long haul that folks had better get used to. >> do you want to add? >> private debt has been been one of the cancers in society. ben bernanke is not getting the

credit he deserves. >> looky there. interesting. >> next up, more -- >> that's right. next up mo town on his ipod. still ahead on "starting point", there's a face-off over "fast and furious." the question is was there a coverup. a fire ball in the sky. look at that. what the heck was that? "starting point" is back in just a moment with an explanation. tht in your breakfast cereal, what is? now, in every box of general mills big g cereal, there's more whole grain than any other ingredient. that's why it's listed first. get more whole grain than any other ingredient... just look for the white check.

when we were determined ton than see it through.dient... here's an update on the progress. we're paying for all spill related clean-up costs. bp findings supports independent scientists studying the gulf's environment. thousands of environmental samples have been tested and all beaches and waters are open. and the tourists are back. i was born here, i'm still here and so is bp. ♪ where the sun never goes out ♪ ♪ and the sky is deep and blue ♪ ♪ won't you take me american flight 280 to miami is now ready for boarding. ♪ there with you fly without putting your life on pause. be yourself. nonstop. american airlines.

welcome back to "starting point." in just about an hour the attorney general, eric holder, is going to be grilled on capitol hill about the botched "fast and furious" gun tracking program. congressman esa has threatened to hold holder in contempt. >> good morning, soledad. this is going to get racheted up in an hour with about the sixth time eric holder has appeared before the committee. this political battle has been raging for a year now over the fast and furious program. the latest was a salvo of letters just over the past couple of days, one from holder's deputies back to darryl isa. first he's accusing holder essentially of obstructing his investigation and deceiving the

public over the congressional investigation into fast and furious. darryl issa is demanding a lot of documents be sent to him by february 9th or he says he will hold eric holder and the department in contempt of congress. now the justice department has written back to darryl issa saying that's an impossible request. the scope of documents is too great over the past of year to comply with that request. they accuse darryl issa of, quote, a significant misunderstanding of the documents they've already given them in this case. there will be more confrontation this morning before eric holder and darryl issa. it essentially boils down to issa wanting to know what the justice department knew about that gun running program into mexico and when they knew it. issa has long contended that eric holder and his deputies have withheld information of not giving them the right documents, not giving them enough documents over the past year so that, again, will come to a head probably in the next hour or two, soledad. >> we'll be watching it. brian todd on capitol hill.

still ahead this morning on "starting point", president obama has a new housing plan. how does it help homeowners. we'll take a look at that. plus a scary scene in egypt. these mass riots. they think it began over a sporting rivalry. we'll update you on the story as well. "starting point" continues after this short break. i was literally sitting in my trailer at the office. i was looking at the cnn website. they had cnn heroes. i think it was in the first year. i saw this story on this guy, aaron jackson. this is a young kid from florida, grew up on a golf course. didn't have much direction in his life. then he went traveling in the third world and he saw poverty and he decided to just devote his life to making the world a better place. >> today we've dewormed an estimated maybe a little over 100 people. >> it's been great to be able to help out aaron jackson in planting peace by doing some

fundraisers and just help his organization really get moving. they have four or five orphanages in haiti. i also went out when they distributed the deworming medication out in the rural villages and towns. >> you're distributing food, aid all around the country. so many kids can be, you know, eating their fill, but because they're so filled with worms they're unable to digest, process that. that food's just kind of a waste. >> you see a kid that's highly anemic, not alert at all. once you rid them of worms they come back to life. that's what to me is most amazing when you see an immediate impact. >> since that heroes segment in 2007 we've raised enough money to deworm every child in haiti, all 3.2 million kids. >> anyone can be a hero. it just takes a little bit of work. >> all right. ahhhh! >> cnn heroes inspired me to

step up my game and try and do more to help the world. on my jo, i've learned that when you ask someone in texas if they want "big" savings on car insurance, it's a bit like asking if they want a big hat... ...'scuse me... ...or a big steak... ...or big hair... i think we have our answer. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. and here's what we did today: supported nearly 3 million steady jobs across our country... ... scientists, technicians, engineers, machinists... ... adding nearly 400 billion dollars to our economy... we're at work providing power to almost a quarter of our homes and businesses...

... and giving us cleaner rides to work and school... and tomorrow, we could do even more. cleaner, domestic, abundant and creating jobs now. we're america's natural gas. the smarter power, today. learn more at anga.us.

♪ let's do it ♪ we have just rolled in from the club with the s.o.s. band. >> love that song. take your time, do it right, baby. >> this morning we are honoring the late, great don cornelius. seriousness for one minute. late, great don cornelius. he passed yesterday. this is an act he put on his show "soul train." 35 years of "soul train." >> got up in the morning, did your work cleaning the house up so you can watch "soul train" on time. >> we have to get to headlines. good morning again. >> good morning, soledad. egypt is in mourning today. a three-day observance underway to remember the 79 people who died in a riot following a

soccer match. fans rushed the field hitting each other with chairs and rocks. it's still not clear exactly what sparked this violence. donald trump is holding a news conference this afternoon at 12:30 eastern. we're told he'll be making an announcement. he will be endorsing newt gingrich. washington is poised to become the seventh state to legalize same-sex marriage. the state senate has passed a gay marriage bill that will easily pass through the house there. the governor says she will sign it. planned parenthood raising a $400,000 windfall in donations right after a top breast company pulled its funding. the founder said it's due to a change in policy. it's not pulling its funding because of political pressure. >> as we move forward we will implement these new strategies which will allow us to serve even more women. we will never bow to political pressure. we will always stand firm in our

goal to end breast cancer forever. and this just in right now, jobless claims, they are down 12,000 to 367,000. anything below 400,000 is a sign of healing labor market. let's get a quick check now on weather. meteorologist rob marciano joins us. >> good morning. a little bit of video from the nighttime viewing in texas and oklahoma. dash cam showing a fire ball streaking across. look at that. i mean, that's not your average shooting star, although the faa says it was just that, a meteor that came crashing down. ufo sighting there. temperatures on the northeast are certainly warm enough to make you think the aliens are coming. 67 degrees in trenton, 64 in new york city. record breaking temperatures. a little cooler today. 55 in d.c., 46 degrees in new york city, 69 degrees expected in atlanta. a little bit of light rain. by the way, it was pretty cloudy

across pennsylvania. phil, the ground hog, supposedly saw his shadow, which means six more weeks of winter. but we haven't had much of a winter, have we? we do now. severe thunderstorms potentially today across texas. also we have fog across i-10. with that storm that's developing across texas we'll also see the potential for blizzard conditions eastern colorado, western nebraska. could see over a foot of snow, christine, across denver. there's your winter. i guess phil, albeit probably a little drunk this morning, was right. >> i know. all right. thanks, rob. hey, soledad, phil will be a little rich. he sees money. >> you know, i had a feeling with all of those people gathered around that there was some cash-making proposal involved. how much money? >> it's about, well, a million for the whole weekend. >> just in that one town? >> yeah. there's 2600 rooms in the area. all of them are booked. the way that the travel people in the neighborhood consider it,

$30,000, $200 per r fr per day, 30,000 visitors. that comes out to about 1 million. >> we're doing that here next year. cnn will have their own ground hog. we'll put him on the stage. >> he is an economic stimulus in his own. >> we're getting a cut. >> yes, you will. >> i was making sure. president obama proposing a new program to help homeowners refinance. the idea is to take advantage of the currently historic low interest rates. who will it snep done peoples is a chairman and ceo of the people's corporation. you are the guy to ask for this. a quarter of americans with mortgages are underwater. i think that statistic is accurate. how many people do you think the president's proposal could help? >> about 30 million homeowners. they could take advantage of this by lowering their monthly mortgage payments significantly or building equity into their homes by taking advantage of the lower interest rates. so basically cutting their

payments in many instances as much as to half of their current payment. using the rest to start paying down principal, therefore, building or recovering equity into their homes by reducing interest rates. >> the caveat, of course, is you have to be current on your payments. >> exactly. >> which will rule out a lot of people. >> 30 million people will benefit from that. up to this point all of the effort on the housing market in terms of homeownership protection has been towards those who have fallen behind on their mortgage payments, who have been unemployed or had other setbacks. most mortgages, many of them, we haven't been able to help. what about all of these americans who are current who are acting responsibly but are not being able to take advantage of these historically low interest rates because their homes will not appraise out today simply because of the regulations. the lenders still have these mortgages and they are charging interest rates as much as 100% more than what they would be today. >> house speaker boehner said this. he said sort of we've been here before. seen it.

done t. here's what he said. >> we've done this at least four times where there's some new government program to help homeowners who have trouble with their mortgages. none of these programs have worked. i don't know why anyone would think that this next idea is going to work. all they've done is delay the clearing of the market. >> so before we talk about clearing of the market, there are a couple of programs. there's something called ham p, the home affordable modification program designed to help 4 million people back in february of 2009. it ended up helping just under 1 million people. there's something called harp, the home affordable refinance program introduced in march of 2009 designed to help 5 million people and it helped, again, just under a million. when he assesses that and says, listen, it's not meeting the need already, why do we need this? >>'s he wrong, by the way. we can't let everybody go into foreclosure. this is not a foreclosure program. >> when you say clearing of the market, that means foreclose shush. >> yeah, exactly.

what he's talking about, he's talking about clearing the market. what's happening here is we have 30 million americans who are upside down in their mortgages who are current and responsible and are not going into foreclosure but it'll take a long time for them to build up equity, enough to be able to get out of their house and move somewhere else. people in the northeast who want to move to florida or in the midwest who want to move to nevada can't go anywhere now because they're upside down in their home mortgages. if the interest rates were cut and so take a homeowner who has a $400,000 mortgage and they save 3% -- reduce their interest rate by 3 percentage points, from 7 down to 4. they would save $12,000 a year. that $12,000 a year could go towards paying down the principal amount of their mortgage where they're upside down. >> that could is huge. you're absolutely right. does it or will it go down to paying that down. >> it's twofold. one, i think it should.

the other option, what i think is going to be considered is that money also, that $12,000 a year that the homeowner is paying to pay their mortgage amount and deferring purchases of other goods and services could go back into the economy and infuse additional money into the economy which, again, is going to stimulate the economy. it's a win-win. if the republicans are going to be obstinate on this they will lose ground and america will begin to see that the speaker is not interested in helping america go forward. >> if they're watching this saying, look, here we go helping somebody again. do you think the average person understands that if you don't confront this problem, if they go into foreclosure your property values will go down and you've seen crime go up in those neighborhoods. it will take us even longer if we don't help folks who are in this crisis right now? >> you're exactly right, roland. >> he loves to hear that. don't tell him that. >> congratulate. i'll celebrate. >> he's right. the

♪ get down on it ♪ get down on it ♪ come on and >> i want to thank you for letting me sit next to will. >> cool and the gang open our are nefks up. time for the reveal. mcdonald's is saying it's not going to use pink slime in its hamburgers. that's ammonium hydroxide. it's an ingredient that has fertilizers and household cleaners. with the addition of certain

acids you could turn it into an explosive. i am not kidding. >> many bodies do. >> mix it with meet scraps and then the u.s.d.a. when you do that considers that to be a safe meat product. not only mcdonald's other fast food chains and food companies use that as well. they're no longer going to do that. jamie oliver was one of the first people to bring the pink goo to the public's attention. i didn't know it was a problem. now that i know i'm glad it's not going to be a problem. are you enjoying your breakfast? >> yeah. >> hosni mubara straight ahead this morning, lee daniels, he is helping aspiring film makers in their craft as well. the ghetto film school. we'll talk to him straight ahead when starting point continues. that no one notices you?" and i'm like, "doesn't it bother you you're not reliable?" and they say, "shut up!" and i'm like, "you shut up." in business, it's all about reliability.

'cause these guys aren't just hitting "print." they're hitting "dream." so that's what i do. i print dreams, baby. [whispering] big dreams. for fastidious librarian emily skinner, each day was fueled by thorough preparation for events to come. well somewhere along the way, emily went right on living. but you see, with the help of her

raymond james financial advisor, she had planned for every eventuality. ...which meant she continued to have the means to live on... ...even at the ripe old age of 187. life well planned. see what a raymond james advisor can do for you.

♪ new york celebrating the life and work of don cornelius this morning. our next guest could stay behind the pearly white gates of hollywood. he has a new program through ghetto film school. it uses google plus hangout technology to video conference

in the top directors and artists around the world. director lee daniels joins us. he joins the panel with ghetto film schools fellows graduate and master class moderator, gloria alvarez. it's nice to have you both. lee daniels, i know you have a stack of projects that are calling out for you to direct them. you're working on something with nicole kidman right now. your oo a busy man. why would you want to work with young high school aged film makers? >> because i came from a place where there wasn't a mentor or a teacher and i taught myself. so five years ago i went in and taught and they were so hungry, the faces of these african-american kids. then all of a sudden it became sweden, portugal, haiti. >> because it really is now worldwide. >> it's crazy. >> gloria, the list for this hangout conversation was ruanda, ukraine, israel, sweden, haiti,

china, and a kid from l.a. all joining together. that's incredible. as a moderator, what's your job? what do you do? >> my job is to make sure that the conversation keeps flowing and that the kids get their answers answered by lee. >> are they scared? let me play a little clip. you can imagine, you have your work and this director's there. 's famous and known for being a little hard core. >> huh? >> yeah. let's play a little bit of some poor child having his work reviewed. listen. >> how old is this guy? >> well, in his 20s. 22. >> yeah? jacob, is this a story that you're passionate about? >> yes, very. i haven't really prepared it. i've had little time. >> that's okay. so tell me -- keep going. he's 22. is he gonna die? >> i will trick people into

thinking that he will by having a first scene. >> i am anxious for him. i'm like, oh, god. answer the question that lee is putting to you. >> as an nyu film school graduate, someone sucking up to lee daniels, it's not just about film making, you're teaching story telling to these people in a way that would be impossible in the predigital age when i was in school. >> that's the most powerful thing about the whole technology of google plus is that now we can take the gfs model that has worked for us. >> ghetto film school. >> exactly. the ghetto film school model. >> hands on mentoring and teaching? >> exactly. now we can take it to people all over the world. that to me is just fascinating. >> eight students you're dealing with. is it hard to give mentoring advice sort of from a distance? >> you know, i remember when the cell phone was built. so it's hard for me -- it's like walking into cyber whatever. what is so wonderful is that they still have a common ground and that same common ground is

what i came in to start teaching in the ghetto films school in the beginning was owning yourself, owning and being passionate about the work that you're doing and really standing behind it and having a personal story that you can identify with. it's really a commonality with all of them. >> so it's not just -- you don't just do the pitch, that poor guy is crumbling. >> he circled back. he gave him a second chance and did he amazing. >> you gave him a second chance. >> lee gave them, it's like they have to create. they have to make a creative assignment. that's how they get into the class. so their job was to pitch for 30 seconds their story to lee. and after that pitch lee gave them notes. he was the first one off. >> they have to do a film. it's not like that was a great pitch, next time, good luck. they have to create something? >> yes. that girl from haiti that they had to light, she didn't have any electricity. someone, a relative, lit from a -- >> with a flashlight. >> on her face.

she was anxiously trying to get her story across. it was so beautiful. >> how will you know if this has been a success? at what point do you say it's a success. the list of directors. let me read you the list of directors involved. spike jones, jim jarmush. kathryn hardwick. jason wrightman, ed burns. the list goes on and on. so what's success for you? >> for me success -- it was a success last night. >> it's done. >> whenever we did it. those kids walked away and they're going to make short stories. for you to make a story, for you to hit home with a story that affects anybody, if you have the courage to do it, oh, it's incredible. really exciting. >> nice to have you both. thank you for being with us. we appreciate it. coming up, the "end point" with our panelists. stay with us. we're back in a moment. ♪ [ male announcer ] from our nation's networks... ♪

...to our city streets... ♪ ...to skies around the world... ♪ ...northrop grumman's security solutions are invisibly at work, protecting people's lives... [ soldier ] move out! [ male announcer ] ...without their even knowing it. that's the value of performance. northrop grumman. that's the value of performance. this was the gulf's best tourism season in years. all because so many people came to louisiana... they came to see us in florida... make that alabama... make that mississippi. the best part of the gulf is wherever you choose... and now is a great time to discover it. this year millions of people did. we set all kinds of records. next year we're out to do even better. so come on down to louisiana... florida... alabama... mississippi. we can't wait to see you. brought to you by bp and all of us who call the gulf home. of how a shipping giant can befriend a forest may seem like the stuff of fairy tales. but if you take away the faces on the trees...

take away the pixie dust. take away the singing animals, and the storybook narrator... [ man ] you're left with more electric trucks. more recycled shipping materials... and a growing number of lower emissions planes... which still makes for a pretty enchanted tale. ♪ la la la [ man ] whoops, forgot one... [ male announcer ] sustainable solutions. fedex. solutions that matter.

♪ this will be you and me ♪ yes, sir siree >> wait for t. natalie cole. today we wrap our morning honoring the late, great don cornelius. you know who was great to watch? >> who? >> gladys knight. she was on a lot over those 35 years. >> fabulous. >> wow. >> can i ask you a question? what are you more pleased with yesterday nailing mitt romney with the answer that he couldn't have planned for or lee daniels loving your work? >> that was fun. lee daniels did give me some compliments on my documentaries. i wouldn't say i nailed -- >> it happened on your show. you didn't go after him. i didn't mean it that way. you asked him a question he didn't come up with a good answer to which is more satisfactory? >> you know what i love, i love the fact that you had a young woman who had a little air time who wants to be a filmmaker. they're talking about mentoring people. mentoring never gets any air

time at all. >> none. >> here you have a guy that's famous and successful. he gets a little shout out because he's taking his craft,' in the middle of shooting a movie with nicole kidman. everybody else can watch this. i think that's cool. if i can give that five minutes. how's that for you? >> there you go. >> i don't want to try to get anybody on anything. i asked the question. >> you know that. >> i know. i know. can we get back to the show? first of all, hair, straight. >> like it. >> i'm kidding. i'm kidding. it's time for our "end point." what do you think? last 30 seconds. >> 7 billion people on this earth, almost 1 billion facebook users. one in eight people are on facebook. >> my mom's a 77-year-old ex--nun. she's on facebook. newt gingrich defying the pope on the death penalty and the iraq war but it's all over birth