controversy over his health care law. >> today was a victory for people all over this country. >> as the president tried to close the books on the health care debate, his republican rival was writing the next chapter. >> obama care was bad policy yesterday. it is bad policy dye. -- it is bad policy today. while trying to wring the politics out of it, they were equally trying to put the politics into the botched gun running sting. the republican-led house cited attorney general eric holder in contempt of congress for failing to share documents. >> today make good political theater in some people's minds, but it is a crass disservice to the american people. >> joining me now is white house chief of staff jack lew. thank you for joining us.

i waned to talk about health care a little bit because i wanted to show you a opinion poll taken by "usa today"/gallup, and this is the opinion of the supreme court's ruling that the individual mandate, and most of the entire law is constitutional, and 46% of americans agree with that and 46% of americans disagree with that. why does health care law remain so divisive at this point? >> cancandy, one of the great things about this country is that we have a supreme court and when it rules, we have a final judgment. so there is not a question as to whether or not the law is constitutional, because it is a constitutional and health care has been a divisive issue for several years. it does impact people's lives and the political debate makes it more and less divisive and people are seeing the things day to day that makes a difference. if you have a student who

graduates from college and they don't have a job, they are able to stay on the family health plan. if you are on medicare and you used to spend $600 in the doughnut hole on prescription drugs, you are now covered. if you had a child with a pre-existing condition, you are not -- >> nose a-- those are the good and the president talks about those and those are wildly popular with the americans and what the supreme court has called the tax part and oher this things that i wanted to ask you about the whole idea of the panel tis if you want to call them and the supreme court calls them taxes, whatever, if you do not have health insurance by 2014, the fine for not doing them, and this goes through the irs is $285 or 1% of the income, and 2015 up to almost $1,000 or 2% of the income and 2016, it goes up as well. if part of your health care law is that insurers cannot deny you

insurance on the basis of pre-existing conditions, why would someone pay for health care insurance if when they get sick they can still go buy it? why wouldn't they just pay the fines which are pretty low, rather than pay health care which is like $7,000 or $8,000 a year? >> well, let's just be clear. most americans want health insurance. >> i agree with you. >> most americans have health insurance and they will have health insurance and keep it and those who cannot will get tax subsidies and -- >> well, let me just stop -- >> and let me just answer the question, candy. the group that you are talking about, we have a understanding of the size of the group. in massachusetts where there was a plan like this 1% of the population fell into that group. and the congressional budget office when it looked at health care estimated roughly 1%. and be clear who we are talking about. people who can afford insurance, and decide not to have it. when they get sick and go to the

hospital and the doctor and they are sharing their costs with everyone else. this penalty is a way of si saying, you have to pay your own way and pay your fair share. >> right. my point being, why wouldn't they go on to pay the penalty, since it is relatively cheap, and this is not a huge penalty and then when they get sick go get health insurance? >> well, we have experience in massachusetts that shows us that people want health insurance if they can afford it and the fact that 1% pays the penalty in massachusetts tells you a great deal. this is a plan that governor romney supported. it is something that i would think that he would have been proud of and it is a model at the federal level and the congressional budget office said would have an impact and it is time to get over the debate and implement the law. what the american people don't want is to be taken back to the divisive debate. they want us to get on and focus on the economic growth and creating jobs. that is what we want to do and that what we think that congress ought to do. >> except they do still kind of remain divided about this health

care law and it has hit the campaign trail. i realize that you all don't want that discussion, but the republicans are going to foment that, and one of the ways they will do it is to say, listen, this is a tax hike. the supreme court has said so. do you all embrace the word "tax" as the supreme court did to rule this constitutional? >> well, the law is clear. it is called a penalty. and second of all what the supreme court ruled is that this law is constitutional. and it is time to move on -- >> under the tax act. >> well, they didn't call it a tax. it was using a power dunder the constitution that permits i. it was not labeled. it is a penalty and something that only 1% of the people who could afford insurance who choose not to get it will pay. everyone who wants insurance and chooses to get it will not pay it. they will get lower premiums and good health care and that a good thing for the american people. >> let me move on you on to a different question, within hours

of the victory, the house voted to cite attorney general eric holder in contempt of congress for not turning over some of the documents. he has turned over a great many of the documents, but some of the documents that congress was asking in connection of fast and furious, a gun running scheme that went awry. now, you all claimed executive privilege for eric holder, and saying that the documents that he is handing over are covered by executive privilege, and he does not have the turn them over. this is from an interview with president obama in 2007 with our own larry king and he was talking about george bush invoking executive privilege when it came to his one of his layers and another staff member in an investigation that congress was doing. here is what the president, then a senator, had to say. >> there is a tendency on the part of the administration to try to hide behind executive

privilege every time there is something little shaky taking plac place. >> so why did you all invoke executive privilege when some feel there is something shaky taking place? >> well, candy, back to the facts. the fact is that this is a bad plan the fast and furious and it is something that started in the bush administration and the attorney general did not know about it. it came out of the region and when the attorney general learned of it, he said we are going to stop it and not do it. there was a period of time when the attorney general did not know it, because it was happening at a regional office that a statement was made to congress that had to be corrected and every document e related to the decision up to that point has been shared. this is not a question of finding facts, but a question that since the beginning congress said they will find their investigatory power es in a political way. and this is political. >> is there not something oso

important about the papers that you had to invoke executive privilege from a president who previo previously said, what is the point here? >> candy, this administration has been the most transparent ever. taxpayers can go on line to find out more about the way their government works than ever before. every president from george washington forward has used executive privilege, and the opinions relied on go back to the ray jeagan ed administratio >> why not turn them over? >> because this is a review of policy and turning it into a political witch hunt. they are looking for documents that have nothing to do with what they are asking questions about. there has to be an ability for a president to get advice and there are constitutional issues that this congress should pay more attention to, because they are hurting the very institutions. >> were there things in the documents that involved consultation with the president?

is that why you invoked presidential h prprivilege? >> candy, i won't speak to the documents, because there was cooperation of the documents made up to the correction that congress was given about the policy, itself, and the testimony. what they are looking for now are internal documents that they know are not appropriate. >> let me turn you to the subject of the economy where we think that the election will turn one way or another. what do you expect that the white house, the unemployment rate will be in november at the time of the election? >> candy, i don't predict unemployment month to month, but when we took office three years ago we were losing jobs at 700,000 a month, and we have added jobs and the economy is moving in the right direction and not fast enough. we say that everyday the economy needs to gain strength and we need to create more jobs, but what we need to do is to shift the attention from the divisive

political fights to do what we need to do to create jobs. the president has given congress many ideas of putting policemen and firemen and teachers back to work and helping people refinance who are underwater on their homes, and if congress would pass some of the proposals that the president has submitted there would be a million more jobs. that is what they need to do. >> if you can predict a million more jobs if the president had passed that, you can't take a stab of what the unemployment rate will be in november? 8% or 9%? >> well, we have a arc and the steadily gaining. we made the right decisions 3 1/2 years ago and we have stayed ob tn the path, and there is mo to do. the american people are working from now to november, and we are going to be working from now until november, and so does congress. >> there is a pakistani doctor

who helped the cia in locating osama bin laden and he has been found guilty of treason in a court in pakistan and now in jail serving 33 years and given his role in finding osama bin laden s the u.s. doing anything to help him get out of jail this is. >> i can't speak to the specific details, but this is a case where the rule of law should govern, and justice should be done for the individual. i think that i shouldn't say more than that. >> does the u.s. think that he should be freed? >> well, the charges that we have seen do not seem to have any merit. >> thank you so much, jack lew, white house chief of staff. appreciate your time this morning. jobs down and home prices up, and unemployment flatlining.

[ male announcer ] don't miss red lobster's four course seafood feast,

just $14.99. start with soup, salad and cheddar bay biscuits then choose one of 7 entrees plus dessert! four perfect courses, just $14.99. come into red lobster and sea food differently. the teacher that comes to mind for me is my high school math teacher, dr. gilmore. i mean he could teach. he was there for us, even if we needed him in college. you could call him, you had his phone number. he was just focused on making sure we were gonna be successful. he would never give up on any of us. this is new york state. we built the first railway,

the first trade route to the west, the greatest empires. then, some said, we lost our edge. well today, there's a new new york state. one that's working to attract businesses and create jobs. a place where innovation meets determination... and businesses lead the world. the new new york works for business. find out how it can work for yours at thenewny.com.

it's an article of faith in 2012 that the election will turn on how the economy is doing. more correctly on how voters think that the economy is doing. it's not that easy to figure out or as economists say, the signs are mixed. first time unemployment claims were down last week, but the week before, the figure matched the highest level of the year. record low mortgage rates pushed the sales of new homes to the best performance in two years, but consumer sentiment fell in june to the lowest level this year, an consumer spending stalled in may for the first time in six months. it is a fresh sign that americans are cutting back even as wall street shook off the blues. u.s. stocks ended the first half of 2012 in fine fashion with the dow up 5.3, and the nasdaq surging by 12.5 and the s&p up 8%. so are we up or down? the former ceo of hewlett-packard carly fiorina

and governor jennifer granholm are next. new york state. one that's working to attract businesses and create jobs. a place where innovation meets determination... and businesses lead the world. the new new york works for business. find out how it can work for yours at thenewny.com. we charge everything else... maybe it's time to recharge the human battery. only the beautyrest recharge sleep system combines the comfort of aircool memory foam layered on top of beautyrest pocketed coils to promote proper sleeping posture all night long. the revolutionary recharge sleep system from beautyrest... it's you, fully charged. get a free set of sheets when you buy a select beautyrest mattress. hurry, offer ends soon. one is for a clean, wedomestic energy future

that puts us in control. our abundant natural gas is already saving us money, producing cleaner electricity, putting us to work here in america and supporting wind and solar. though all energy development comes with some risk, we're committed to safely and responsibly producing natural gas. it's not a dream. america's natural gas... putting us in control of our energy future, now. i am joined by former hewlett-packard president carly fiorina, and former michigan democratic governor jennifer granholmp who is the host of current tv show "the war room." it is great to have both of you here. let's talk about the recovery, because it is hard to read the tea leaves and the most important tea leaf is consumer

confidence, because it leads things that are often not in the numbers and what do you think about it? >> well, it is a mixed bag. the numbers are encouraging and the jobless rates continue to decline and the whole 4.3 million jobs that the president has created has an impact, but it is not where everybody wants it to be. i do think that the campaign, itself, is going to be now after this health care decision, focused on the economy. i do believe that the health care decision puts that issue off to the side. now we get to see what the plans are for spurring economic growth, and you know, honest ly i think that if you look at the two candidates, you have to give the edge to the president. >> the republicans are not going to puts a side the health care, and i want to get to that, but let me take advantage of your background in business here, and an estimated $2 trillion sitting around in corporationsp they are doing pretty darn well, and they are not hiring. >> yes.

well, fir, i think thst, as i h other programs, the second half will be tougher than the first, because we are not just a economy trying to recover from the financial crisis, and we now have structural crisis. we have fewer smaller businesses and more failing and fewer starting than at any time in the last 40 years and that is important because small businesses create jobs. big businesses like small businesses are struggling with massive uncertainty and tax code that is neither competitive and is overly complex, and a regulatory structure that is almost impossible to understand now, and yes, obama care is yet another -- >> uncertainty. >> -- blanket of uncertainty. >> and this is part of the republican mantra that big business does not know where the

tax reform is going, and they don't know how much new regulation is going to cost them and what kind of infrastructure they will put in their own and they are sitting on all of the money and not hiring and si a self-perpetuating thing where the job rate stays where it is because the big companies are afraid to spend the money they clearly have. i want to play for you, because i want to get into the health care. this is from congressman gingrey and came right after the supreme court upheld health care. >> i have a smile on my face, because i believe this is going to elect mitt romney the 44th president of the united states. >> this being the constitutio l constitutionality of the health care. >> and good luck to mitt romney, because good luck taking away the ability of people having access to health care with pre-existing conditions and taking away health care for people's kids who have it. and taking that away is not a

good campaign strategy and quick kwly to get back on the small business thing, it is baloney to say that small businesses are worried about obama care, when they are exempt from it. >> those with 50 or under. >> yes, that is 96% of small businesses, so that talking point is just baloney. >> well, sadly, it is not a talking point and that is why the national federation of independent businesses joined many attorneys general in filing suit against this law and why you saw on friday virtually every business commentator saying this is bad for small business. >> well, it is not bad for small business. >> believe it or not, most small businesses want to be big businesses and that i want to grow and succeed and hire. >> and i have seen that if you have 51 employees and you can get along with 49, wouldn't you do that to stay out of the requirement? >> of course. >> but the obama care provides tax credits for small businesses who choose to opt in to make it

mo more affordable -- >> what i find so amazing about this is that health care has never been a -- >> republicans have been. >> well, they will make it, because the polling you showed indicates that there is a huge amount of division in the country about whether this is a good idea. what is interesting is that there has never been any disa disagreement about the goal. the goal is to provide quality health care about the american people, and at least half of the american people deeply fear that a 2700 page bill written by a bunch of folks on capitol hill who are not experts and now trying to manage from washington, d.c. and not from the states, 18% of the economy is going to be a big problem. >> they did something, and we all know -- >> they did something. >> and we know that the consequences lead to all sorts of thingsthings, and you can go and say they have done things on

long-term care in particular, but isn'tb there something that jennifer has pointed out that we are going to see after the july 4th recess the republican-led house of representatives get on the floor to undo obama care. won't go anywhere, because the senate won't follow them, but undo the obama care vote by vote by vote, so you will have as i understand it, republicans on record saying, let's get rid of a requirement that insurance companies must provide insurance to people with preconditions? doesn't that bother you pl politically saying, how do i explain this? >> well, it also bothers me that we have a president who refuses to stand up and defend on its merits the largest new entitlement and tax increase in a long time. >> he has not campaigned on it, she is right. >> he won't, because he knows it is a loser argument. look, i'm a cancer survivor, so i have great personal empathy

for people who have pre-existing condition and can't get insurance. of course, we have to fix that. and there are a lot more effective less expensive ways to fix it than what this bill has done. but as a cancer survivor, i will also say this, it terrifies me that the survival rates for breast cancer which is what i had are so much worse in the uk and canada. why? because they don't focus on prevention and aggressive detection the way we do. >> there there is in the new b >> the protocols that have come down as a resul of obama care would be bad for my own health. we can cherry pick, but -- >> is there a baby and the bath water approach to this? do you have to have a holistic

bill -- >> you do not need a 2,700 page bill come out of the government. >> mitt romney is the father of the individual mandate because of personal -- >> it is ridiculous. >> how can you say that? he is the one who passed it in massachusetts and when he passed it championed the mandate as an element of personal responsibility, and the republicans have gone after welfare cheats and tax cheats and why not go after health care cheats who can afford it and foist that cost on us. and if the democracies of the states are to mean anything, that policies that work on the states can be taken to scale on the federal level, and that is what is happening and to run gai against that is to run against the presidential candidate in your party. >> well, i think that what is going to happen is that republicans from mitt romney on down are going to continue to make health care a front and center issue. it is not separate from the economy, it is part of the economy. >> really.

>> and it is amazing, secondly, that the governor and others in her party dismiss the difference of a state having a plan and the federal government having a plan. there is all sorts of differences in the world. >> they are the same principles. >> there is all of the difference in the world. the states ale loan do high-risk pools. >> well, they didn't, because what the supreme court said among other things is that the federal government could not compel the states to expand their, to extend their medicare program. >> the states can opt out. >> they understood states rights and federal government rights. >> h and the supreme court justice that mitt romney has said is his model for appointing supreme court justices has said that this is constitutional and that the states do have the ability to opt-in, and si exactly the same kind of thing that was passed in massachusetts. >> i hope you both will come back. this has been great. >> we do. we need to talk about the bain issue. >> and i know you have more to

say, and she does too. thank you carly fiorina and jen fe granholm. coming up, fast and furious politics. >> only recourse for the house is to continue seeking the truth and hold the attorney general in contempt of congress. >> i believe that the political motivations behind this resolution are clear and pose a clear and present danger to this nation. ( whirring and crackling sounds ) man: assembly lines that fix themselves. the most innovative companies are doing things they never could before, by building on the cisco intelligent network.

with two times the points on dining in restaurants, you may find yourself asking why not, a lot. chase sapphire preferred. yep. the longer you stay with us, the more you save.

and when you switch from another company to us, we even reward you for the time you spent there. genius. yeah, genius. you guys must have your own loyalty program, right? well, we have something. show her, tom. huh? you should see november! oh, yeah? giving you more. now that's progressive. call or click today.

joining me is "usa today" washington bureau chief susan page and white house correspondent dan lothian. let me pick up where my guests

just left off which is the fight over health care. it seems to me that the white house is quite intent on saying, oh, case settled, done. and the republicans are quite happy to say, well, gosh, the only way to hefix this is to ha a new president. s susan san, i want to put up one of your polls the "usa today"/gallup, and repealing the entire law, 31%, expand the law, 25%, repeal part of the law, 21%, and take no action 13%. so between repeal all or part, you have a majority, and we know that the house will symbolically have votes to repeal it. who wins this fight? >> well, i think that president obama is a big winner clearly from the supreme court decision, because imagine what we would be talking about if the signature achievement had been thrown out. >> and a waste of the whole first year. >> and the 52% wantb to repeal all or part of the law and only 38% want to keep it or expand it, and that means they continue

to not want to talk about this in the election year, but tricky for romney, too, as you could tell from governor gran hoholm' comments of comparing the massachusetts law to the federal law. and mitt romney has been extremely disciplined about talking only about the economy, and e does not want the talk about gay marriage or health care, and he wants to talk about jobs, deficit and debt, and those are the issues he thinks he can win on. >> and mitt romney and the president have something in common, because neither one of them want to talk about health care. >> that is right. i think that the tea party section of the republican party, they want to talk about health care reform. and they want to push, not supporting romney, necessarily as the greatest republican candidate, but certainly someone they believe could get rid of health care reform. and so that part of ttoof the ps push i pushing for it, you are correct, but this is something that i

don't believe is going to be a huge part of the romney campaign. they are focusing on the economy, and yes, you will hear talk about health care reform, but the focus is about jobs. >> yes, exactly. what mitt romney is trying to do is to turn this into an economic issue and it will drive up the debt, and small businesses are not hiring because of it and in fact, get rid of people to to get under the 50 employee cap so it does not apply to them. another tactics that the republicans used coming out of the supreme court decision, this is minority leader, and republican leader mitch mcconnell on the floor right after the vote. >> the president of the united states, himself, promised up and down that this bill was not a tax. this is one of the democrats' top selling points, because they knew it never would have passed if they said it was a tax. well, the supreme court has spoken. this is law is a tax. the bill was sold to the american people on a deception.

>> is there any resonance to this? i just fine, penalty and i love nancy pelosi's reaction. call it an aardvark, it is essentially constitutional. is there any resonance here? >> well, we have to wait and see, the president clearly said on abc news, i believe, where he said it was not a tax. but immediately after the court ruled the republicans jumped all over this, and they are going to continue pushing this. my e-mail mailbox was filled with e-mails from various folks from the republican party saying, tax, tax, tax, and the president said it was not a tax, but now it is. and they hope it resonates with the voters. >> it fits into the story line of that he is going to push taxes on the middle-class, but it seems like we are dancing on the head of a pin. >> that is what people hate about the health care law that

it is such big government and mandate and the federal government telling them what they have to do,ed and so it ses to me that is not the reason that people hate the health care law, but it is about, do i have a job and can my kids move out of my house and get on their own health care, and those are what are driving what americans are worried about. >> i want to move to fast and furious and eric holder is the first attorney general in history to be cited for contempt of congress. there were 17 democrats who voted to hold him in contempt, but several walked out. this is from pennsylvania congressman jason altman and what he had to say. okay. read it, this is a democrat, i could not get around the fact that i'm a member of the house. the house has asked for documents related to the investigation. i understand that attorney general holder does not want the give them and he has reasons to

feel he is not only gated to provide them, but if fact is that he did not provide them, and when there is a vote on contempt, that is something that you have to consider. does the president pay any price for this, do you think? it seems to me to be an issue that has not quite taken hold out there in terms of politics? >> well, i think it is unclear that the president pays a price for this. clearly the republicans are trying to show that the administration is hiding something. if this is something as simple as internal deliberations and it does not have anything to do with the actual investigation of fast and furious, then why not release the documents and the question is, i think that you will continue to hear them asking over the next few weeks, what are they hiding? why not just go ahead and release the documents? and the white house is saying that we are not doing this based solely on the principle. >> susan in the last minute here, i know you had a big interview with ann romney recently, and what would surprise the public about ann romney. >> well, i asked her, and this

is going to be in "usa today" tomorrow, and i asked her if she would write a book and she said yes, she wants to write a book. i sad about the campaign, and she said, no, about her struggle with multiple sclerosis and breast cancer and the challenges she has faced in that, and she says it has reshaped her sense of self and the priorities and that is what she wants to talk about. >> and a lot of talk that ann romney is one of mitt romney's best weapons. do you agree after the interview? >> well, she is warm, and she kind of warms him up and makes him more approachable, but she also has this very expensive horse riding hobby that has been a recovery of her ms and she will be at the olympics watching, and that is a doublef-edged sword for the romneys. >> she does humanize them. i have covered them in local

news, and i think that she does give him the side that the public does not see. >> kind of what tipper gore did for al gore. susan page and dan lothian, thank you. raging wildfires when we come back. [ male announcer ] now you can swipe... scroll... tap... pinch... and zoom... in your car. introducing the all-new cadillac xts with cue. ♪ don't worry. we haven't forgotten, you still like things to push. [ engine revs ] the all-new cadillac xts has arrived, and it's bringing the future forward. delivering mail, medicine and packages. yet the house is considering a bill to close thousands of offices, slash service and layoff over 100,000 workers.

the postal service is recording financial losses, but not for reasons you might think. the problem ? a burden no other agency or company bears. a 2006 law that drains $5 billion a year from post office revenue while the postal service is forced to overpay billions more into federal accounts. house bill 2309 is not the answer. with two times the points on dining in restaurants, you may find yourself asking why not, a lot. chase sapphire preferred. if you made a list of countries from around the world... ...with the best math scores.

...the united states would be on that list. in 25th place. let's raise academic standards across the nation. let's get back to the head of the class. let's solve this. [ male announcer ] ok, so you're no marathon man. but thanks to the htc one x from at&t, with its built in beats audio, every note sounds amazingly clear. ...making it easy to get lost in the music... and, well... rio vista?!! [ male announcer ] ...lost. introducing the musically enhanced htc one x from at&t. rethink possible.

nearly 3 million people across nine states are without power this weekend after violent storms and high winds swept across the midwest and mid-atlantic. winds gusted as high as 80 miles per hour as downed trees and debris littered the roads. the storms are responsible for at least 12 deaths, and the governors off maryland, virginia and west virginia and ohio declared states of emergeb si. temperatures in the mid-atlantic region topped 100 degrees in many areas making the power outages very dangerous as people were left without air conditioni conditioning. it is part of massive system leaving one in three americans baking in scorching heat that is expected to continue for the next several day. the governors of two states

maryland and west virginia are next. then choose one of 7 entrees plus dessert! four perfect courses, just $14.99. come into red lobster and sea food differently. four perfect courses, just $14.99. those little things for you, life's about her. but your erectile dysfunction - that could be a question of blood flow. cialis tadalafil for daily use helps you be ready anytime the moment's right. you can be more confident in your ability to be ready. and the same cialis is the only daily ed tablet approved to treat ed and symptomof bph, like needing to go frequently or urgently. tell your doctor about all your medical conditions and medications, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sexual activity. do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain, as this may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. do not drink alcohol in excess with cialis. side effects may include headache, upset stomach, delayed backache or muscle ache. to avoid long-term injury, seek immediate medical help for an erection lasting more than four hours. if you have any sudden decrease or loss in hearing or vision, or if you have any allergic reactions such as rash, hives,

swelling of the lips, tongue or throat, or difficulty breathing or swallowing, stop taking cialis and get medical help right away. ask your doctor about cialis for daily use and a 30-tablet free trial. i tell mike what i can spend. i do my best to make that work. we're driving safely. and sue saved money on brakes. now that's personal pricing. joining me on the phone is maryland governor martin o'malley, and you tell me that

961,000 customers are without power as a result of the storm. 650,000 now and some power has been restored. be i the end -- by the end of t what are you expecting i assume having talked to the power company? >> well, i expect continuing progress. there is a lot of untangling of downed limbs and wires and all of that sort of tedious work that has to happen. overnight, we have been able to cut by one-third the number of people without power and we hope to be able to cut that by i hope another third within the next 24 hours. we have crews on the way now, candy, from florida and from texas, but unlike a polite hurricane that gives you three days of warning, this storm gaves all of the impact of a hurricane without any of the warning off a hurricane, so we could not predeploy as the utilities often do the mutual aid crew from other states in advance of the wallop.

>> governor, as you know maryland and the company, pepco, the company thats so many marylanders for being under fire from a late study in 2010 one of the worst in terms of comparatives to other big cities in power outages and in restore ing the power. how do you believe they are doing so far? >> well, it is very early in the event, but i do believe they are certainly recognize the problem they had, and our public service commission took them to task, fined them, and they are on a path to bring their, you know, preventive maintenance and the tree trimming and all of of that up to a par so that the lines are better prepared when the storms come through. so far, what is happening right now is that we are able to restore one-third of the people, and the next few days, candy, are going to be trying and it will challenge all of the utility companies in maryland to

meet the expectations that we have of them. not the prevent bad storms from happening, but to get us back up to electrical power within a reasonable time. these are some hot few days ahead of us and we are supporting the utilities to get us back up as quickly as we can. >> are you confident in your state that there are enough resources for those folks who have not just power outages, but homes destroyed and the folks who need to get someplace where it is going to be cooler? >> the -- i do believe that we have a good network here in maryland that of good county executives and i was talking to mayor stephanie rollins blake from baltimore, and many jurisdictions are opening up cooling centers and many of them are preparing for transportation today as this prolonged heat continues. that is really the population that we are most worried about,

the vulnerable people, and particularly the elderly who might not have someone to reach out to, to take the precautions to cool down. this is going to challenge us. it will challenge us, and it will challenge the neighbors of maryland to act like marylanders. >> governor martin o'malley, the governor of maryland, and we wish you luck in the next couple of days and no one more so than i do, because we'd love to have the electricity back. thank you, governor. >> we will do so, candy. i want to bring in the governor of west virginia earl ray tomlin who is on the phone. governor, let me ask you the same question in west virginia tonight, what do you think the situation to be? >> candy, we have had the largest power outage in the history of the state with 53 of our 55 county without power. that serves about 688,000

people. the power is slowly coming back on line. we still have over half a million people without power. yesterday was a tough day with no power with the nearly 100-degree temperature we had. we can continue to tell team stay calm. it's going to take some time. we're working with the power companies and department of highways to get the debris ccut -- kept from the highways. the major roads are open. secondary roads are where we're concentrating now. we urge people to stay off the roads as much as possible. conserve fuel. we have cooling stations set up in all of our counties. the first priority is the hasty of our people and especially those in nursing homes and hospitals. things we're looking at right now is getting power, generators to our municipal water systems to make sure people still have water.

those are what we're doing. a lot of churches who have been having -- aren't having regular services, they're going to thunderstorms make sure their friends, neighbors, especially the elderly, have what they need or, you know, if they're okay. so, you know, that's what we're looking at now. we just once again ask people to be patient. it's going to take a few days. if you have an emergency, call 9 911. we'll get help to you. we have been working hard since friday evening round the clock to make sure we get everyone back to normal as quickly as possible. >> governor, what's your biggest worry moving forward? >> obviously, you know, what our -- our public water systems are down. that's a big concern. with the amount of heat that people are having to endure, you know, when they get in the second, third day, if they do not get to a cooling center or, you know, to some shelter someplace, you know, it concerns me about the health of our --

especially our senior citizens. >> governor earl ray tomlin, west virginia. you've got your work cut out for you. thanks for taking some time this morning. >> all right. thank you, candy. colorado's governor on fighting his state's wildfires next. >> the devastation is enormous, and our thoughts and prayers go out to all the families who have been affected. so you're no mara. but thanks to the htc one x from at&t, with its built in beats audio, every note sounds amazingly clear. ...making it easy to get lost in the music... and, well... rio vista?!! [ male announcer ] ...lost. introducing the musically enhanced htc one x from at&t. rethink possible. what ? customers didn't like it.

so why do banks do it ? hello ? hello ?! if your bank doesn't let you talk to a real person 24/7, you need an ally. hello ? ally bank. no nonsense. just people sense. delivering mail, medicine and packages. yet the house is considering a bill to close thousands of offices, slash service and layoff over 100,000 workers. the postal service is recording financial losses, but not for reasons you might think. the problem ? a burden no other agency or company bears. a 2006 law that drains $5 billion a year from post office revenue while the postal service is forced to overpay billions more into federal accounts. house bill 2309 is not the answer. by what's getting done. measure commitment the twenty billion dollars bp committed has helped fund economic and environmental recovery. long-term, bp's made a five hundred million dollar

commitment to support scientists studying the environment. and the gulf is open for business - the beaches are beautiful, the seafood is delicious. last year, many areas even reported record tourism seasons. the progress continues... but that doesn't mean our job is done. we're still committed to seeing this through.

near colorado spring, firefighters continue to battle a massive wildfire that is responsible for two deaths and the destruction of nearly 350 homes. president obama visited the region friday, declared colorado a disaster area, and freed up federal money to help fight the

largest fires. joining us now, the governor of colorado, john hickenlooper. thank you, governor, busy, busy times for you, i know. but there is this feeling, particularly as you get this one colorado springs fire under control that the worst is over s. that how you're feeling? >> we're certainly feeling that way. now we're beginning to look at how do we rebuild and begin the recovery. but we also know that mother nature will be fickle out here. we're keeping ourselves very alert. >> governor, i know you have -- you have probably flown over a lot of fires. i imagine you've visited scenes of the destruction if you can get close to it. personally can you give us through your eyes what you saw? >> well, it's been difficult, devastating that the waldo fire in colorado springs, when we flew up there tuesday night, it was like your worst nightmare of

a movie set of trying to show what the apocalypse or armegeddon would look like. from a distance we flew in. this was as the fire was going on, this firestorm going on. i thought it was trees burning. as we got closer, it was homes. almost 350 -- almost 350 homes burned in a couple of hours. it was that fast. >> seven wildfires in all, i think. are all of them under control, are any of them out? give us the kind of current situation. >> almost all are under control. we have one out in grand junction, western colorado, that's not completely out of control. but the largest one that was almost 88,000 acres, the high park fire west of ft. collins. it is completely contained. that was the first big one that was a big one. many homes, lovely secluded

mountain homes where people were trying to -- they had a sense of safety that this fire has completely destroyed. >> i was going to ask if you had looking back now that we hope this is under control. are there any coulda, shoulda, wouldas here or is the lesson you can't outfight mother nature if she is ready to unleash the worst of the fury? >> well, you know, the -- there are lots of coulda, shoulda, wouldas. we'll have building codes, no-shake roofs, making sure trees are 75 feet away from homes. all that stuff. we've seen the courage of the firefighters and what an incredible job they've done. and people -- i mean, the victims of this fire, the can von volunteer fire department, when the high park fire first burst into a little -- became a

big fire a month ago, they were defending their one-room prairie schoolhouse. the volunteer firefighters protected the schoolhouse. up the canyon, the homes were going to burn, they kept saving this community treasure. those kinds of act of heroism in a way become so inspiring that it pulls a community together. we say, all right, mother nature's, you know, knocked us around all this time, we've been here before. we're going to come back, and -- this is going to make us stronger than ever as a community. that's what the mayor of colorado springs was articulate when the president of here, talking about how colorado springs -- they're going to come back. >> lots and lots of stories out of colorado this week. individual stories. and the big story. governor john hickenlooper, thank you very much for joining us. >> you bet. thank you, candy. >> if you'd like to help the victims of the colorado fires, visit cnn.com/impact. thank you very much for watching "state of the union." i'm candy crowley in washington. if you missed any part of today's show, find us on itunes.

"fareed zakaria gps" is next for our viewers in the united states. this is "gps," the "global public square." welcome to all of you in the united states and around the world. i'm fareed zakaria. we'll start with politics in the wake of the supreme court ruling on health care. what does it mean for the presidential race, for health care? what about economics? i've got a star-studded panel to discuss all this. then we go overseas to egypt's election of muhammad morsi. what can we expect from an islamist president? two of the top egypt experts tell us. next, how do you count and catalog 1.2 billion people? i'll ask the man creating a revolutionary biometric i.d. for every one of india's citizens. also, the housing bubble caused the crash. will the coming housing boom finally power this