fans have been anxiously waiting for. the iphone 5 goes on sale. lines already have been piling up for days. it's friday, september 21st. and "starting point" begins right now. our "starting point," anti-western anger rising again in the muslim world in response to an american film and a french cartoon that mocks islam's prophet muhammad. overnight protesters torched two movie theaters in peshawar in pakistan. one person is dead. more than two dozen others have been injured. the tension is building in other hot spots, as well, following friday prayer. the u.s. has closed diplomatic facilities in indonesia, in sudan, all as a precaution. let's get to cnn's reza sayah live for us in pakistan. >> good morning, soledad. we certainly expected protests in pakistan today but we didn't expect them to start in the

morning. but that's exactly what we saw. demonstrations in islamabad, peshawar, lahore, some of them turned violent, more than two dozen people injured in peshawar. one person killed, and it's only halfway through on this friday, and more demonstrations are expected. in pakistan, deepening concern for an explosive day of protests. for the second friday in a row, hard-line religious groups have called for anti-western demonstrations. on a day declared by islamabad as a national day of love, for islam's prophet muhammad. by 9:00 a.m. local time, small groups of protesters had already torched toll booths, looted stores, and clashed with police in several cities. friday's demonstrations come a day after hundreds of protesters, and many young men in their teens and 20s, tried to storm the capital's diplomatic enclave. a secured compound that houses foreign embassies. in karachi, pakistan, several

teachers led roughly 100 elementary schoolchildren on an anti-american demonstration. the teachers chanted slogans against the west. the students chanted back. the demonstrations have been small. but growing in number and intensity. both islamabad and washington taking extra steps to ease the rising anger. on friday morning -- cell phone service in parts of pakistan was cut off. an apparent effort to hamper the rallies. on pakistan's radio and television airwaves, in ads paid for by washington, featured president barack obama and secretary of state hillary clinton calling for calm. >> since our founding, the united states has been a nation that respects all faiths. we reject all efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others. but there is absolutely no justification to this type of senseless violence. >> the united states government

had absolutely nothing to do with this video. we absolutely reject its content, and message. america's commitment to religious tolerance goes back to the very beginning of our nation. >> elsewhere, in iran, a senior cleric reportedly upped the bounty for the killing of author salman rushdie, whose book "the satanic verses" sparked global protests more than two decades ago, after the late imam khomeini declared it an insult to islam. >> yes, it was a stupid film, you know. and the correct response to a stupid film on youtube is to say, it's a stupid film on youtube and you get on with the rest of your life. so, to take that, and to deliberately use it to inflame your troops, you know, is a political act. that's not about religion. that's about power. >> we just returned back to the office from the streets of

islamabad, where we saw in several neighborhoods the demonstrations growing. they're heating up. for the most part, they are peaceful. there are some pitched battles, pockets of clashes. and it's critical to point out, soledad, the protesters who were turning violent are young. they appear to be teenagers, young men in their 20s. you don't get the impression when you see the mischievous smile on their face that they're offended by an anti-islam movie. it looks like they're getting a rush out of these face-offs with police. >> reza sayah for us this morning. reza, thank you for that update. in just a few moments we're going to be talking with jamie rubin, former u.s. assistant sect about the violence overseas. first we want to get you a look at the rest of the day's top stories. good morning. >> good morning. it's here. iphone frenzy. the brand-new iphone 5 goes on sale this morning. there are long lines outside apple stores all over the world. tokyo to sydney to london. cnn's maggie lake is live outside apple's flagship store

on fifth avenue in new york city where fans will be able to get their hands on one of these iphones in less than an hour. maggie? >> that's right, john. this is the technology world's version of tailgating. really the only way to describe it. you could order this phone online, and, in fact, over 2 million people did, making it the fastest-selling smartphone ever. but take a look behind me. these people wanted to just be part of the event. a lot of them, hard-core apple fans. some of them have been here for eight days. and we talked to them about why they come out and what the wait has been like. have a listen. >> i came with a friend of mine, he's number two. he's actually sleeping at the moment. so that helped, kind of the buddy system to cover for each other when one of us wanted to shower or change. last three days were more pretty much sleeping here, almost around the clock. there was one night where there was just torrential rain. that was kind of a problem. >> i'm probably a seven. yeah, yeah. i don't have to have everything right away, but i ultimately end up buying everything.

>> and that has been the power of apple, john. we end up buying them. the store does open in about a little less than an hour's time. as we talked about earlier, the new iphone 5 is small, it's lighter, it's the screen is larger but it feels lighter and it's most importantly faster. it's going to be able to let users connect to that faster 4g network so let you use the smartphone a lot faster. mostly glowing reviews for it. a couple people don't like the map app as much. they ditched google maps and some people are upset that there's a new connector. for the most part people can't wait to get their hands on it. >> maggie lake outside the apple store here on fifth avenue. this phone is going to make apple a lot of money. take a look at this. it costs about $649 without a contract. but, it costs apple $206 to make. here's just a portion of where that money goes. the display and touchscreen, $44. the memory, about $20. the battery, $4.50.

and the assembly, just $8. president obama tackling some tough questions an immigration reform during a forum hosted by the spanish television network univision. one of the hosts even insisted the president acknowledge he's failed to keep a campaign promise to push reforms through during his first term. >> my biggest failure so far is we haven't gotten comprehensive immigration reform done. so, we're going to be continuing to work on that. but it's not for lack of trying or desire. and i'm confident we're going to accomplish that. >> the president says he takes full responsibility for the slow pace of immigration reform, admitting he's been sidetracked by the economy during his first term. now, the romney campaign is jumping right in on what it saw as a gaffe by president obama during that univision forum. in response to a question, the president said he's learned you can't change washington from the inside. well, mitt romney tried to capitalize on that right away. >> the president today threw in the white flag of surrender

again. he said he can't change washington from the inside, he can only change it from outside. well we're going to give him that chance in november! he's going outside! >> some tough news for the romney campaign, though, this morning. new polls showing president obama pulling ahead of romney in three key critical swing states. in wisconsin, which is paul ryan's home state, the latest nbc/"wall street journal"/marist poll has the president with a five-point lead, 50-45%. same story in colorado, 50-45. and the lead in iowa even greater, seven points, the president leads -- eight points by my not good math, 50% to 42%. the u.s. troop surge in afghanistan is officially over. this started three years ago when president obama sent in 30,000 additional troops to help neutralize the taliban resurgence. the last several hundred of those surge troops have now been shipped out. that leaves about 68,000 u.s. personnel still stationed in afghanistan. the suspect in the movie theater massacre in colorado

debuted a new look at a court appearance. james holmes no longer sporting that shaggy dyed orange hair from the night he was arrested for allegedly going on a shooting rampage, killing 12 people at a movie theater in aurora. at the same hearing yesterday, prosecutors abandoned their effort to obtain a notebook that holmes sent to a university psychiatrist before the shooting. and then this picture we just can't get enough of, the shuttle "endeavour" ends its mission to los angeles today. on its route it did a loop over tucson, arizona, to honor congresswoman gabby giffords, and her astronaut husband mark kelly. today the shuttle plays to l.a.x. in los angeles with a flyover of downtown l.a. and hollywood of it lands. i wonder if hollywood will even think that's strange. >> must be a movie they're shooting. apparently, the astronauts said that's my spacecraft. isn't that great? nice thing to say. appreciate it. let's get back to some of those tensions that are bubbling now in the mideast and questions over whether the attack on the u.s. consulate in libya was

planned or not planned. press secretary jay carney told reporters yesterday this, it is self-evident that what happened in benghazi was a terrorist attack. that's the first time the white house has characterized this as a terrorist attack. carney, though, also appears to stand by this comment from wednesday. listen. >> based on the information that we had at the time, and have to this day, we do not have evidence that it was premeditated. >> jamie rubin is former assistant secretary of state. he's currently counselor to new york governor andrew cuomo. let's talk about what seems to be contradictory. you hear from jay carney, you hear from the white house, you hear from the state department, it was a terror attack, but not preplanned. you hear from the prime minister of libya that, in fact, it was preplanned. why disconnect on those two fronts? >> i think a lot of the wording is getting a little confused. i think what the administration is trying to communicate is that they don't believe that, say,

six months in advance, a group sat down and said on september 11th we're going to attack the american embassy using this method at this place. but, it does appear that the individuals in the group involve ed had some training, they knew what they were doing, they made some decisions to try to attack the embassy using weaponry, rpgs, rocket-propelled grenades. in that sense they planned their attack. but it doesn't appear that there was an advanced warning of a particular, you know, threat that on this day this group intended to blow up the embassy. >> that advanced warning may be no, but early on we know that we heard from the administration, the sense of demonstration over movie, organic, it just sort of spiraled into. it seems now that that is not the case. and i think it was senator john mccain who every day comes out and says almost literally the same exact thing which is heavy weaponry is an indication that

this thing had more planning than was first given credit for. let's play what he said yesterday. >> i'm state of the unioned that they thought that it was some kind of spontaneous demonstration. it shows the level of their -- abysmal level of their knowledge about fundamental aspects of terrorist attacks and militant operations to say that they didn't believe that it was a terrorist attack to start with and go on every nationwide media outlet and say that. >> so the reason it matters, of course, is that there's an effort to say that red flags were missed, that they were not prepared for a terror attack against the office in benghazi, which ultimately caused the death of four americans. >> well, that's right. and i think this is serious questions have been raised were preparations, were they adequate? were all the intelligence warnings about the region in general, about these part of libya, adequately addressed?

and i think there are going to be -- there is going to be an investigation by the state department, i suspect others are going to take up the investigative duties, and really look into what they knew, and what they did about it. i think the one thing that we do know, and having worked in the state department, i think this is a fair comment. when you have an ambassador like chris stevens who had been a young man who had worked with the rebels during the time that benghazi was under siege by libya, he developed a lot of friendships with the libyan rebels, who are now the government. and he became, in a sense, mr. libya around the state department. and i think his word about his safety, and the comfort level he had, because of his relationship with the libyan leaders probably carried a lot of weight in the system. and in retrospect, i think probably carried too much weight. but that's one of the things they'll have to look at.

it's a tragedy for a man who did so much for libya, and did so much for the revolution of -- democratic revolution to be killed in the very country he was so proud to be posted at. >> there's a new ad that's running in pakistan, apparently at a cost of $70,000. i want to play a little piece of it. >> since our founding, the united states has been a nation that respects all faiths. we reject all efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others. >> let me state very clearly, and i hope it is obvious, that the united states government had absolutely nothing to do with this video. we absolutely reject its content, and message. >> so tease are obviously just strung together press conferences that they're trying to give a message. those who think that the president's been on an apology tour in the middle east have said the apology tour continues.

my question for you, though, is what's the strategy behind that? i mean, does that kind of thing work? >> well, i think for some it doesn't work. look, there are groups in pakistan, in afghanistan, in the middle east, all over, who are looking for reasons to get a group together to protest and to build up their public support. it's a power game for many people. they will find something else if they don't find this particular video. they'll find something else on the internet or some cartoon now in a french paper. and i think what the administration is doing is having clear evidence that while we respect people's right to free speech, we have the right to condemn hateful speech, and clearly these kinds of videos, and these kinds of statements are hateful speech that -- that the administration has thought wise to make that clear. >> jamie rubin with us this morning. nice to have you. thanks for talking with us. appreciate it.

still ahead this morning she was on the fast track at a top bank. says it all slipped away when she became pregnant and went on maternity leave. now this former vp is suing. she's going to join us next to talk about her case. and lindsay lohan accused of hitting a man outside a hotel driving away. there's new surveillance video shedding some light on what happened. ♪ why not get buried in something other than work? get two times the points on travel, with chase sapphire preferred. but why doesn't it last? well, plaque quickly starts to grow back. [ dr. rahmany ] introducing crest pro-health clinical rinse. it actually keeps your teeth 91% clean of plaque even at 2 months after a dental visit. new crest pro-health clinical rinse. [ laughing ]

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warning signs are not the same for everyone. if you think something's wrong... see your doctor. ask about gynecologic cancer. and get the inside knowledge. why not start the weekend before the week ends? get two times the points on dining in restaurants with chase sapphire preferred. welcome back to "starting point," i'm christine romans minding your business this morning. spain may be working behind the scenes for a bailout from the european union according to a new report in the "financial times." that news pushing u.s. stock futures and world markets higher overnight. they're lining up around the world right now for the iphone. the company's stock is up more than $700 per share. that's how much trading in free market trading and the company stock is up nearly 70% just this year. a large part of that, of course,

because of revenue and demand for iphones. and good news if you're in the market for a home. new record lows for mortgage rates, 30-year fixed rate 3.49%. the 15-year fixed, a popular refinancing tool, 2.77%. according to freddie mac. and just yesterday we were talking about how credit scores are getting a little bit better and fewer people are underwater on their loans so maybe more people will be able to take advantage of those rates. >> would you wait in line for an iphone? >> i once did for a billy joel concert. other than that, nothing. >> this morning we're talking about a gender discrimination lawsuit against a global financial giant, accused of what some people call mommy tracking. kelly volcker, vice president with deutsche bank securities, and she was fired this month after 14 years with deutsche banc. mother of two says it started after her second maternally leave when she said the big accounts were taken away from

her and the company tried to demote her. kelly jones is here along with her attorney. so nice to have you. walk us through what happened. this was back in 2010. you already had one child. you were pregnant with your second and you're going to go on maternity leave. >> right. i went on maternity leave and immediately when i went back i was marginalized. i was there was a campaign to get me to -- walk me into a flexible schedule. >> explain to me specifics of marginalized. did someone say listen, we're going to keep you out of -- >> no. they took me off the larger account s of the firm and wanted to put me into a marketing role. >> which is a demotion? >> which is basically a demotion. >> did anybody say anything to you before you went on maternity leave? >> no, nothing at all. everything was fine. i was successful with all of my accounts. my accounts liked me. i got back from maternity leave and they were taken away. how about a flexible work schedule? what about a four-day work

schedule? >> so, the question for you would be, was there a sense that you weren't pulling your weight? now you had two kids, you came back into the office, were you leaving at 3:00 in the afternoon or something? >> no, not at all. i was a dedicated employee for 14 years. and despite great performance reviews, every single one of them, they never promoted me. and eventually they took my accounts away. >> those are the unfortunate stereotypes that we keep seeing in the workplace. and deutsche bank just doesn't get it. i mean, 63% of new moms are actually working mothers. this is a real issue. especially in this economy where families need dual incomes. when you have a company like deutsche bank where all of the board of directors and executive committee are all men, this sort of stereotype, that a woman when they come back from maternity leave is not going to work hard, and is just going to abandon their job is really what's going on. and you see this with kelly. and ultimately, she was fired for complaining about it. >> so let me read the deutsche bank statement. we -- while we take all allegations of discrimination

and retaliation very seriously, we will continue to vigorously defend ourselves against these allegations. that's the statement that they gave abc news on wednesday. is this an issue, christine, only in investment banking where we know the numbers are way heavily more male and certainly in leadership more male? or is this an issue across all industries? >> in banking you have very few women at the very, very pop. and what you hear most from women in banking is that you have to work so hard to prove that you can work as hard as a guy. and you have to really take some of the guy, i would say, stereotypes or guy mannerisms with you as you manage and as you move up the -- up the chain. but for a lot of women, they don't have, especially in the big corporate suites and in wall street, you know, you get to a certain point and they decide, wait, i don't want to play by these rules and so they tend to separate themselves. banks don't get rid of them. they get rid of the banks. >> because they want more flexibility? >> you are not saying listen,

now that i have my second child i'm less interested in working and being promoted. >> absolutely not. >> so you're suing because you say it's discrimination against a woman and you're also suing now because you're claiming you were tire fired in retaliation when you brought your complaint. >> right. i was not promoted in 14 years. i came back, the same job wasn't there, and i filed a complaint and ultimate lip i was terminated. >> under the pretext of the recession. and we keep seeing this, as well. something we call recessionary discrimination. it's companies using the recession as a pretext for discrimination. saying oh, the economy -- >> or cutting back. >> and now we get rid of kelly who is a great performer, rather than her male peers who started after her, who weren't working as hard as her and again because of the stereotype, that kelly is expendable because her husband might be working, the breadwinner in the house. and there have been comments made to kelly about that. why doesn't your husband work harder. >> oh. when is your husband going to get it together so you can stay home with the kids.

comments like that all the time. >> are there other women, do you see other role models of other women in banking, you think, who do -- are working really hard, are, you know, bringing in the deals, are doing a great job, and are also parents to more than one kid? >> yes, i do. and it's funny because a lot of them, after the story broke, came to me, whether you know, in deutsche bank and outside my group, sympathizing with me, the same thing is happening to me. it's really tough. you work really hard, and you're put to the side. >> well, it's going to be interesting to watch this case. obviously you think you have a very good case on these two fronts and we'll see what deutsche bank responds to and watch this case. thank you for talking with us. >> thank you very much. >> we're going to take a short break. still ahead on "starting point," paris hilton, from deutsche bank to paris hilton, she's taken a lot of heat this morning for some comments she made about gays. now damage control is under way. it's our get real this morning. team heading in. welcome, guys. americans believe they should be in charge of their own future.

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welcome back to "starting point" everyone. a quick check of the headlines. august fund-raising numbers are out. everyone's laughing at me for that. thanks very much. >> i'm offended as a woman. >> i know. i just offended everyone at the table around me. let's talk about fund-raising, shall we? the obama campaign raised 84.8 million. team romney nearly matched that with $83.7 million. but that does not take into account a $20 million loan for the romney campaign made to itself. as of august 31st the president had $88.8 million in hit war chest.

romney had over $50 million. but also has about $15 million in debt because of that loan. moving on now, surveillance video released of lindsay lohan's alleged hit and run in new york wednesday. it shows lohan's porsche clipping chef jose rodriguez. rodriguez claims he fell to the side and was in a lot of pain. but, you can't see it in the video. it doesn't really show him falling at all. so there you go. those are the headlines. >> you can't see anything in that video. >> when i discovered it was lindsay lohan behind the wheel, suddenly my leg was killing me. no -- >> she does have a lot of trouble controlling her vehicle. >> why not get a driver? >> this isn't the first, is it? >> she was driving a porsche. >> i think she was driving herself. she has some responsibility. >> no, no, get a driver. >> be careful when you're driving around hot spots and discos and things. >> she reached that kind of celebrity where anybody is going to just see if they can make anything out of it, right? >> right. so she should get a driver. first let's introduce everybody

who's joining us. joanna cult is with us, named the new editor in chief of cosmo magazine, one of my very favorites. richard sacarides, former senior adviser to president clinton. and will cain is a columnist. john berman is with us, as well. you've heard him say chick to all the women at the table. >> thanks. >> action at this point. >> exactly. to more than one person, class action. our get real this morning in all seriousness. reality star paris hilton and her pr machine trying to do some big damage control. caught on tape, paris that is, saying that gay men are disgusting. saying most of them, quote, probably have aids, according to radar online. a new york city cabbie secretly recorded hilton talking about a cell phone app to find hookups, i forget what it's called. >> grinder. >> listen. >> they're disgusting. >> listen.

>> dude, most of them have aids. i would be so scared if i was a gay guy. >> paris' people say she's only expressing the dangers of unprotected sex. recorded by a cab driver, really? that's terrible. >> but also it's clear that she is auditioning for a part in the romney campaign. first of all, she's been caught on tape before. the sex tape. >> right. >> now i think she's watched the mother jones tape of romney. how can i get -- >> but seriously. >> seriously this is not very smart. there's a lot of stereotyping in here that's not true. "a," that hiv does not primarily affect the gay community. it affects communities of color and globally it affects homosexuals much more than gay men. >> not only is she being idiotic, she's being wrong. >> right. and also we can have a debate about whether gay people are more sexual or whether men are more sexual. the stereotype is that men are more sexual. and men are only half the gay

population. >> but rich and i have been debating this all morning. >> do tell. >> all morning. >> can i tell you, i don't know if it's the contrarian in me but i do think people are so willing to pile on paris hilton because we're used to that. because it's easy. she's an easy target. and i think that many of the things she said, richard is right, are lazy, inaccurate stereotypes, but the discussion we're going to be able to have here, richard and i talked about the perception of whether aids is more prevalent in the gay community or the straight community. we talked about promiscuity. are men more promiscuous than women and all of that is worthy of a valid discussion. if it's based on paris hilton's comments, i don't know. she's talking to a gay friend of hers. i don't know how derogatory she is intending to be. >> unprotected sex is a bad thing. that comes out in some of her comments. >> she's talking about a website or mobile app where people connect specifically to have sex and that's it.

i don't think there's any foreplay. >> that's what grinder is. >> but back to my original point, which is really? being recorded by your cab driver? honestly? >> did you not hear what we were discussing in there? >> obviously that's the most inflammatory part, they're disgusting. but she's also talking about these random hookups. i don't know. maybe i'm looking for excuses for paris hilton. i don't know why i would. but i think it's real easy to pile on paris hilton. >> she's a hollywood socialite. it's, you know, 4:00 in the morning, i think, when this is recorded. >> she sounds -- >> she sounds horrible. >> she sounds like she's -- >> she sounds like she's had a couple. >> and we're moving on. i just want to say, recorded by your cab driver? really? why is that sticking with me. >> this is the best "get real" we've had in a long time. >> it is. you did nothing -- still ahead on "starting point," ann romney sticking up for her husband. we're going to tell you two words that she has for the gop.

plus wait till you see what "saturday night live" has done skewering mitt romney in their new skit that aired last night. criticism over the nfl's replacement refs, how did they do last night during the giants/panthers game? i've discovered gold. [ female announcer ] new roc® retinol correxion max. the power of roc® retinol is intensified with a serum. it's proven to be 4x better at smoothing lines and deep wrinkles than professional treatments. roc® max for maximum results. ♪ ♪ one, two, three, four ♪ you say ♪ flip it over and replay ♪ we'll make everything okay ♪ walk together the right way ♪ do, do, do, do presidethis message. barack obama and i approve... anncr: he keeps saying it... mitt romney: this president cannot tell us that you're... better off today than when he took office. anncr: well... here's where we were in 2008... tv anncr: the worst financial collapse... since the great depression... tv anncr: american workers were laid off in numbers not seen...

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welcome back, everybody. you're watching "starting point." protests over an american film and a french cartoon hocking islam's prophet muhammad have turned deadly. overnight protesters torched two theaters in peshawar, pakistan. one man was shot dead, another 25 people hurt. tension is building in other hot spots, as well, following friday prayers. the u.s. closed diplomatic facilities in indonesia and in sudan as a precaution. we're following developments with our team overseas. we're going to bring you the very latest developments as they happen. want to first get right to john berman.

he's got an run date on the day's top stories. >> thanks, soledad. bill clinton weighing in on the impact of mitt romney's 47% comments. he sat down with cnn's fareed zakaria. >> do you think this is a game changer for romney? >> well, i think it puts a heavier burden on him in the debates to talk about what he meant. >> you can see the entire interview with bill clinton on "fareed zakaria gps" this sunday at sei10:00 and 1:00 p.m. on cn. a dozen people injured when a school bus overturned in tennessee. police say the bus flipped over when the driver overcorrected as two tires went off the road. it was no contest in charlotte as the super bowl champs the new york giants soundly beat the carolina panthers in thursday night football. 36-7. the outcome never really in doubt at all. eli manning completed 27 of 35

passes for 288 yards. most of them coming in the first half. running back andre brown ran for a career high 113 yards and two touchdowns in his very first nfl start. the replacement refs didn't seem to pose any major problems, although man fans still say they need to go. also last night, "saturday night live" kicked off his prime-time election specials, weekend update thursday and of course they had a few jabs at mitt romney. first up, the 47% controversy. >> so you have this 47%. that don't pay taxes. and these people are never going to vote for me. and when i talk about these people, who don't pay taxes, i don't mean senior citizens. all right. and i don't mean members of our armed services. and idon't mean southern whites. what i mean is, and real quick, no one is recording this, correct?

no? okay. very important that no one records this. okay, good. because i'm about to say who these people are, and i would prefer to not have that on tape. sorry, sir, is that a camera on the table pointing right at me? okay, great. all right. now when i say these people, i mean black people. >> after that, they played up his reputation for being out of touch. >> yeah, people think i'm fancy, but i like nothing more than to end the day with one of these fine hamburger sandwiches from the good people at mcdonald's. oh, boy that's disgusting! how do you people eat this garbage? oh, my goodness. i complain to the chef but let me guess, no hablas englais.

how do i get this taste out of my mouth? do you mind? oh, my gosh, that was soda pop. oh, here comes the sugar blindness. oh, no! oh! . >> oh, it's going to be a long 47 days or whatever it is till the actual election. >> it's good to get "snl." thank goodness they're doing that. >> we're going to take a short break. still ahead this morning, ann romney says she's not having it when republicans criticize her husband. we'll tell you what she said in a radio interview with her message to the gop. plus he is a mega star standing up for world peace, forest whitaker, the star of the upcoming movie "the butler" is going to join us live to talk about his project and what else he's working on.

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ann romney has two words for her husband's conservative critics. stop it. it's what she said in a radio interview. listen. >> what do you say to your fellow republicans who are -- >> stop it. this is hard. you want to try it? get in the ring. this is hard. and, you know, it's -- it's an important thing that we're doing right now. and it's an important election. and it is time for all americans to realize how significant this election is. >> clearly annoyed and frustrated with some of those critics on the republican side. they've been blasting, some of them, mitt romney this week after those 47% comments. including peggy noonan of "the wall street journal." today she actually has even harsher criticism than the criticism she had yesterday that we were talking about. she writes the romney campaign

has to get turned around. this week i called it incompetent, but only because i was being polite. i really meant rolling calamity. ouch. she just will not let up, and she's really been talking about jim baker coming in, sort of the point of her entire article, if he came in to reframe and run the campaign, that that would -- >> jim baker to the rescue again. >> that was her theory, very clearly. not even theory. go get him, find him, bring him in and have him save you. >> what i really liked about what ann romney said is there's authenticity there. you know, finally there's some authenticity from the romney campaign. i mean, this is -- this is a woman speaking, you know, what she's really thinking. i think she deserves a lot of credit. these campaigns are hard. they are frustrating. and i think it will serve her well. >> what's interesting about the campaign is someone who comes from a country where the campaigning process is a month, and it's over and done, is actually it's an incredible testing ground. and what you're seeing unfortunately for those of who would like to see two really

strong candidates is a candidate who's wrestling with this. and when she says stop it, this is hard. what does she think it's going to be like when he gets to be president? because that's when it gets hard. >> these conservatives critics, i'm conflicted on what she said. because for one i wish he'd stop making it so easy to criticize. i am constantly confronted with some level of disappointment. but on the flip side, you would think that president romney leaving candidate barack obama a really tough mess if you listen to the media. i mean he's leaving barack obama a mess in the middle east, an economy not doing so well. the point is that's kind of a running joke among conservative circles is romney's every miscue is analyzed and blown up while what's happening in the real world, the world that president barack obama is governing over, isn't so great. >> but the real world is running for office and the problem is people like you, will, even though you're very important, is tommy thompson running for senate in wisconsin, dee helen running for senate in nevada, scott brown, candidates, republican candidates turning their back to a sense on mitt romney and they live in the real world. they're the ones with their feet

on the ground getting a sense of public opinion and if more republican candidates turn their back on romney he's got a real problem. >> i don't think it's oh, everyone is picking on. you have a tape like that which the candidates themselves then say i have to distance myself -- >> it's odd that it's not a media attention. i think we ought to analyze how much attention we give to every criticism of the campaign versus what's going on in the real world. what they're campaigning to be in charge of. >> we're looking at someone who is saying guess what? i can do this better. well unfortunately he's not running a good campaign. i don't have confidence when you hear him say oh, 47% of people don't pay taxes. am i the only person left in america at this point who does pay taxes? can we just -- >> i pay taxes. >> thank you. >> a lot, actually. >> i'm tired of feeling like -- >> we didn't see your hand go up. >> i've got to take a commercial break. >> no matter how many times you ask i will not release my taxes. >> still ahead this morning on

"starting point," he's on oscar winning actor who famously played a ugandan dictator. now forest whitaker is taking on the little topic of world peace. we're going to talk about that. he's with us next. you're watching "starting point." mom: ready to go to work? ♪ ♪ ♪

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welcome back, everybody. you are watching "starting point." forest whitaker is a goodwill ambassador for peace and reconciliation. a big announcement to make about that role today. before we talk approximate peace, a little issue of world peace, which i know you're

tackling, i want to talk about your new movie "the butler." tell us the story. >> the butler, who was in the white house for eight presidencies, based on an article written in the washington post on gene allen, a but lettere that served there. it takes and fictionalizes his life. we watch the civil rights movement as it goes alongside with the growth in the white house. >> his own story was so amazing when the washington post wrote that article about eugene allen, it was lerltly breathtaking. he died in 2010. >> he did get to meet the current president, who invited him to his inaugust invasion. that was a big deal for him. to be invited to an inauguration was an honor. >> you don't get to sit down and say walk me through all these things. >> he died recently. his wife died the night before the election and he died a few years after. >> right. let's talk about being the

goodwill ambassador. they're going to ring the peace bell. as i was reading about all your work on this front, i thought could you tackle anything more challenging than world peace? >> so many people are working in peace building and community building all over the world. to be part of it is important. i think, you know, especially at this time -- you guys were talking about earlier to take a second and think about what's going on, what sort of politics are occurring all over the planet, all over the world. not just this last incident but what's been going on for years and years. it's important for us to take a step back. >> foundation is going to focus on these conflicts happening around the world. you focus, i know, a lot on young people. which is i guess i assume because that's where you can make change. >> 60% of the people in these conflicts are under 25 years old. it's important to look at that.

what we're trying to do is to be a support system, a space people can go to add resources to a lot of people to be able to connect with each other and work in that sphere of peace building. >> the truth is, right, that these conflicts that seem so impossible to solve really can be solved when people are in the right mind-set and are in goodwill, yes? >> with careful mediation, with people trying to really look at the problems from each other's points of view, you can find solutions. >> how do you get them to do that? >> they do it all the time. there are intractable situations, so-called intractable situations. you bring in mediators, you start to educate, talk. you try to get those conversations going. i'm not saying that's occurring in all the places that are having conflict right now. >> i feel like i'm sitting with charles swrefrson from fast times. i can't decide which one. if you had one part, forest, that sticks with you your entire

career, your entire life, the one you most identify with, which part is it? >> identify with? >> i don't mean is the most similar to me but that you grew closest to. >> character i played was written for me and i like the character, spirlt balance about life and stuchlt i think bird was really exciting. >> he's picking them all. it's like children. >> it's so unusual for me to hear a hollywood actor of your status sort of talking just across the table. i feel like anyone you sat down -- most extraordinary to your voice that makes me feel like you could just talk to people and it would be peaceful. come to my house and work with my children. >> congratulations on all your work on this front. we've got to take a break. you could also cut corners by making it without 100% real cheddar cheese.

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the only time i've ever had a break is when i was on maternity leave. i have retired from doing this one thing that i loved. now, i'm going to be able to have the time to explore something different. it's like another chapter. morning. welcome, everybody. our starting point is tension overseas, the world is bracing for protests after friday prayers over the publications of cartoons showing the prophet muhammad. and schools are already closed. aan already deadly situation in pakistan this morning to talk about. plus president obama admits his biggest failure. >> so far we haven't gotten

comprehensive immigration reform done. we'll be continuing to work on that. >> he promised comprehensive reform. did he break his word? will that affect the election? we'll take a look with that moderator who operated the forum. good luck getting through those lines. that line right there in new york city. it's friday, september 21st. "starting point" begins right now. welcome, welcome. welcome to our team this morning. joanna coles is with us, new editor in chief of cosmopolitan magazine. former senior adviser to president clinton, will cain, from the blaze.com and johnb berman is sticking around after "early start."

iphone 5 frenzy. literally millions of people are waiting and waiting. what are you thinking? they're trying to get their hayd hands on that iphone 5 from tokyo, sydney, london. the lines go on forever. maggie link is live there in new york at apple's flagship store on fifth avenue. about two minutes ago they started selling those iphone 5s. how is it going? >> reporter: that's right, soledad. frenzy is a pretty good word for t this is the moment that consumers have been waiting for. frankly, this is the atmosphere that the fans come down here for. i just want to show you what's going on. if it's hard to see, that's because there is a line of media, of sort of general new yorkers, tourists gathered around to watch what is a spectacle. that's really what it is. as people -- the employees cheer, the customers, some of whom have been waiting for eight days to get in, are finally get ing a chance. some of them are die-hard apple fans who come regardless, every time there's a launch.

some of them are people who didn't want to wait in line but the preorders sold out. 2 million phones in 24 hours. they were forced to come down here in person. people who are marketing and just want to enjoy the fun of it. certainly this is the best selling smart phone ever. it's gotten pretty good reviews from everyone, tech guys that got a chance to test it out and give it a test drive. it is lighter, a wider screen and it's going to run on that faster 4g network. the only slight complaint seems to be about the math app, but that doesn't seem to dissuade the people here. some people are expecting that apple can sell 50 million of these by christmas. that's astonishing. >> wow! you i think that's a very reasonable estimate. maggie, thank you very much. we'll give you a breakdown of the numbers behind that iphone, if you're actually able to get one. it costs $649 without a contract. it costs apple about $206 to make. take a look. the display touch screen is $44.

memory, $20.85. battery, $4.50. assembly, $8. >> unbelievable. >> they make some serious money on each and every iphone. president barack obama getting a chance to make a direct appeal to latino voters. he appeared on a forum hosted by univision and facebook a day after his rival. the president could be way ahead with latinos in the polls but he certainly didn't get a free pass. the event, certainly didn't get it from the anchors. in miami, joining us this morning, marilena. when i was watching romney's crowd when he was being interviewed and president obama's crowd when he was being interviewed. explain to me how those crowds were different. they felt very different. >> reporter: well, yes, they definitely were different. first of all, good morning,

soledad. happy belated birthday. i know you had a birthday earlier this week. the group was partisan in both cases. in the case of governor romney you had partially students from um, but also you had a very big contingency of romney supporters. in the case of president obama, there were more students, mostly students and they were a little bit more calm. you know, you want to think why is it that republicans are a little more rowdy than democrats? maybe it's justify the fact that it's the president and there's a certain level of are respect. it's not the same thing to be a candidate than to be a president. >> so the candidates had the ability to fill the hall with whoever they wanted to? >> yes, exactly. that kind of changed the dynamic of the sbrou itself. >> right. >> you know what it's like to sit down and do a one-on-one interview with a politician. it's not the same when you have a crowd that's supporting you.

the format really favored, especially, governor romney. >> the sbrou time, how much time did each campaign give you with each candidate? >> governor romney gave us 35 minutes and president obama give us one hour. so the magic of television, we were able to stretch both programs to one hour. as you know. we had some stories, some commercial breaks. so we were able to have a on one-hour program for both. but officially, it was 35 minutes for governor romney and an hour for president obama. >> then let's talk specifically about what i thought was an interesting confession, if you will, from president obama. when he was asked, what's his biggest failure, here's what he said. >> my biggest failure so far is that we haven't gotten comprehensive immigration reform done. we'll be continuing to work on that. but it's not for lack of trying or desire. and i'm confident we're going to accomplish that. >> i thought the clapping was an

interesting thing. do you think people were clapping because they were thinking thank you for admitting that there was a failure there or was it clapping because we're going to take this out on you in the election? thapd that's kind of a big question there, right? >> right. i think being he was surrounded by his supporters, i believe that the clapping was, you admitted it and that's a good thing. this is a question that we've asked president obama, both my co-anchor and i, on several occasions every time we have an opportunity to interview him. we ask him the same question. it's important that in this particular forum, he admitted that it was a failure. and he explained why he wasn't able to make it -- to approve and have that immigration reform in the first year. first, saying that it was exterior factors such as the economy. he needed to focus more on the economy. and then the lack of support from republicans. and it's funny. because i remember when president george w. bush ended his presidency and was asked what he felt was probably his biggest failure, he also

mentioned the lack of immigration reform as one of the things he most regretted, which really goes to show you how difficult it is, how emotional the immigration issue is, where president bush wasn't able to get support from his own party to put through an immigration reform. >> the history of immigration reform certainly is an interesting one. >> right. yes. >> let's talk about what governor romney said when he was being interviewed about deportation, which is another quer you've had for him and others along the campaign trail. here is what he said. >> we're not going to round up people around the country and deport them. that's not -- i said during my primary campaign, time and again, we're not going to round up 12 million people, including the kids, parents, and have everyone deported. our system isn't to deport people. we need to provide a long-term solution. >> he is trailing in the polls among latinos. president obama has 67% support and -- i've go got that wrong. if you look at the latino vote

for president obama was 67% and mccain was 31%. already divided by party, there was a challenge there already. does that help his him close that gap? he is trailing the president when it comes to latino support. >> he didn't really aanswer our question. our question was students that have -- i guess you could call them the dreamers that are benefited by deferred action, he would not commit to saying whether he would maintain the deferred action, whether he would deport them. he just said we will not go out and deport -- we're not going to round up 11 million undocumented immigrants and deport them. he has said that before. he has said his policy or what he would like to see is having them be self deported or self deport themselves. i don't think he answered the question. that question has been asked several times. and there does not seem to be a commitment on the part of governor romney to say whether or not he would pass the dream

act. he has already said before that he would veto a dream act. i don't think it was clear. it just really depends on how people took that, to know if it's going to benefit him or not. there are poll that is have an even wider gap. showing barack obama at 68% of the latino support and romney at 21%. >> it's going to be very interesting to see. >> someone from the rom -- right. they change, of course. >> to go back at the end of this election and see. the latino vote is so critical and will only continue to be more critical. with the population growing exponentially. maria elena, thank you for talking with us. >> thank you, soledad. john has other stories making news. new wave of anger against an american film and cartoon that makes fun of the prophet muhamm

aad sparks r oichlt ts. two dozen others were injured and one was killed in pakistan. the state department is on its heels this morning, facing accusations that it failed to properly secure the u.s. mission in benghazi, despite a number of red flags. u.s. ambassador to libya, chris stevens, and three other americans were killed in an attack on the mission last week. senior state department officials tell cnn there were a lot of concerns about a rise in islamic extremism in benghazi and that a recommendation to close the consulate never got passed up the chain of command. movie theater massacre in colorado, james holmes has lost that shaggy orange dyed hair he wore the night of his arrest in which 12 people died. a notebook holmes sent to a university psychiatrist before the shooting.

long journey into retirement. shuttle is scheduled to touchdown in los angeles this afternoon, headed for public display at the california science center. soledad? >> can't wait for that. it's going to be great. ahead on "starting point" it was one of the most sensational murder trials in history, foxy knoxy. remember, that's what they were calling amanda fox? and her boyfriend was also accused in that murder. he wrote a book. i sat down with him, raffaele sollecito. and don't say cheese. states banning smiles on your driver's license. e spark cash cd from capital one, olaf's pizza palace gets the most rewards of any small business credit card! pizza!!!!! [ garth ] olaf's small business earns 2% cash back on every purchase, every day! helium delivery. put it on my spark card! [ pop! ] [ garth ] why settle for less? great businesses deserve the most rewards! awesome!!!

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american student amanda knox and her boyfriend, raffaele

sollecito, charged with the brutal murder of her roommate, meredith kucher. last year, their convictions were overturned. now he has written a book called "honor bound." i had a chance to sit down and talk to him about that. >> there are people who saw you and amanda knox for the first time and saw images of you kissing and they thought, considering there was an investigation into a murder, that it seemed from the get-go, inappropriate. >> well, no. nobody realized that the cameras were over there. because amanda, in particular, she was shocked. she was completely blown minded. she was standing in the middle of an empty space. that's the reason why i just felt the need to comfort her, to make her feel that i was there for her. >> so when the police started

questioning you, what did you think? >> first one was really comfortable questioning. >> they were friendly? >> they were friendly. i did it in a not so long time. and the last one was completely different. >> the tone had changed completely? >> completely. they were very aggressive. they were overwhelming me. they just wanted to confuse me. >> the theory seems to be that they always thought amanda was guilty and they were going to push you to see if they could get to that end. a lot of people facing solitary confinement in prison would be like, fine. what do you need me to say? what do you need me to sign? does it get me out of jail? i'll say it. why did you not do that? >> because on the plate was prison life, which is almost death. and on the other side there was an offering of throwing amanda under the bus.

how could i walk on the street as a free man, realizing that i'm responsible to an innocent 20 years old girl to be convicted for prison life, all the life in prison because of me? i cannot bear that. it's overwhelming. i almost have death for me. >> did your family give you advice? did they say, listen, save yourself? don't worry about amanda. save yourself. >> i cannot blame my family and my friends. >> did they say that, though? >> yeah, they did. and i cannot blame them at all. because i just dated amanda for almost eight, nine days. no more. and they were just saying to me, telling me, you don't know her. you don't know this girl. >> did you think you were going to be in prison for the rest of your life? >> i was thinking, well, my life now is over. i have lost everything. if my life is still worth

living, it will be for the truth. all the rest is gone. >> do you still see amanda? i know you met up in seattle, right? >> yeah. >> but you're not together as a couple? >> no. >> are you friendly? do you talk? >> yes, we talk. we talk a lot. we exchange e-mails sometimes. and, yeah, we talk about anything. we are friendly with each other. we are in a good relationship no now. >> prosecutors would like to continue with this case. and i guess, in theory, that could mean you could go back to prison. >> it's a little bit far away. it's not -- they cannot do it like that. >> are you worried about it, though? >> i'm a little bit worried but i wrote the book because this is an opportunity to make the people understand the truth. if all the people realize the

truth in this case, then i have nothing to worry again. because i am innocent. >> raffaele sollecito. conservatives coming out. romney, one calling his campaign a rolling calamity. can you turn things around? candy crowley joins us, coming up. states are adopting a no smile policy for driver's license. they say it's for your safety. . [ to the tune of "lullaby and good night" ] ♪ af-lac ♪ aflac [ male announcer ] find out more at... [ duck ] aflac! [ male announcer ] ...forbusiness.com. [ yawning sound ]

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and the candidate's speech is in pieces all over the district. the writer's desktop and the coordinator's phone are working on a joke with local color. the secure cloud just received a revised intro from the strategist's tablet. and while i make my way into the venue, the candidate will be rehearsing off of his phone. [ candidate ] and thanks to every young face i see out there. [ woman ] his phone is one of his biggest supporters. [ female announcer ] with cisco at the center... working together has never worked so well.

welcome back to "starting

point." i'm christine romans. spain may be working on a bailout. if you're trying to refinance the one you've got, new record lows for mortgage rates, 30-year fixed rate is 3.49%. 15-year fixed rate, popular refinancing tool, 2.77%, according to freddie mac. new this morning, general motors is recalling more than 400,000 chevrolet, pontiac and saturn sedans that could cause cars to roll when they're in park. four crashes have been reported from this, but no injuries. gm says they're notifying car owners by letter to get it fixed at the dealerships. watch the mail. >> to roll while it's in park? >> transmission cable problem that means. >> roll forward not roll over. >> oh, roll forward.

>> yes, yes, the tires to roll. >> contacting you by letter. who would open that letter? it's junk mail. why aren't they e-mailing or texting? >> good point. now that you've got the news, you can check. >> joan is outraged. >> i'm outraged. >> we disagree, but you make a point. >> thank you very much. >> christine, thank you. >> you're welcome. still ahead on "starting point" a conservative columnist says the romney campaign needs an intervention. candy crowley will join us to talk about former governor romney's rough week and whether he can recover from there. one of the memphis three sentenced to death then released after years of public outcry. now he's sharing his story about what led to the conviction and his life after death, which is the name of his book. [ male announcer ] most people tend to think more about how they brush than what they brush with.

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you're watching "starting point." we're just 46 days away from the presidential election. romney's campaign stumbling a little bit after those videos where he called half of american s victims were leaked. p peggy noonan says the romney campaign has to get turned around. this week i called it incompetent, but only because i was being polite. i really meant rollie calamity. candy crowley joins us. she will be moderating one of the debates. that is really a damning statement from peggy noonan. what's the impact of that? >> that's what we're talking about, what others are talking b not just peggy, but there are others out there saying what is wrong with this campaign? it seems tone deaf. there have been too many things he hasn't been aggressive enough. he hasn't -- this always happens, shall i say, when a

campaign is faltering. i don't know if you remember the final couple of weeks of the mccain campaign, but it was brutal. and this is now brutal because people sense that this is slipping away from mitt romney. it comes with the territory. the criticism comes with the territory. and in the end, it's the candidate's campaign. but now what are folks looking at? they're looking at the senate races, republicans really wanted to take control of the senate this year. they're looking at house races. nancy pelosi did an interview with her last week and she said i think we're going to win 27 seats. a net of 27 seats, which would give the house to the democrats. now, most experts don't see that coming. i don't see that yet. but they certainly feel -- the democrats certainly feel the momentum is on their side. that means the republicans are feeling like it's slip iping aw. they see more at stake than just the presidency, if you will. you're going to get a lot of this criticism, internally i can

assure you there is also criticism. >> when you say it comes with the territory, something else we clearly see coming with the territory is back and forth, every time a candidate says something, the other side, regardless of what side we're talking about, jump on it. here is what the president said in that uni dvision meet the candidate forum. what lessons he lrned over the past four years. let's play that. >> i've learned some lessons over the last four years. and the most important lesson i've learned is that you can't change washington from the inside. you can only change it from the outside. that's how i got elected. and that's how the big accomplishments like health care got done, was because we mobilized the american people to speak out. >> took about two minutes before the romney campaign had an answer for that. listen. >> the president today threw in the white flag of surrender again! he said he can't change washington from the inside. he can only change it from outside.

well, we're going to give him that chance in november. he's going outside! >> okay. so, does that stick? i mean, obviously, they're trying to get some leverage, if you will, in a misstatement, however you want to characterize what president obama said, shouldn't have said it. what do you think? >> this is the kind of thing you're going to hear more of at this point. they always want to turn each other's words against them. and that's exactly what you see going on here. the larger question that has to be asked of both of them is no matter what you do, you're going to have to work with congress. so you can listen to all the budget proposals and all the tax reform proposals you want. you haven't got a congress that you can work with or that is willing to work with you, you've got nothing. because it's going to be stand still. what the president didn't say here is that within those first two years, sure people were mobilized but, remember, there were pretty divided polls about

health care reform. he did that with an all-democratic congress. so, the question is, are the days gone when you can sort of work with republicans and democrats regardless of who is in the white house and get something done? the key question for both these men is how do you plan on working with congress? obviously, the president would tell you that the last two years have been difficult for him and difficult for are republicans as well. >> i hear a debate question being formed right now, candy crowley. write that down. >> i'm just saying. i think it's a question, right? >> it's a very good question. >> i know we're about to lose candy but both john berman and candy brought up a good point. if i grant you the premise that mitt romney is beginning to fail, does that affect people running for senate races across the country? when we're talking about mitt romney is not an ideological indictment, not of his ideas but of him as a candidate. do those things go downhill,

affect down ballot? >> what do you think? >> it depends on which gaffes you're talking b there's an indictment from conservatives about how he's running his campaign. i think that the 47% comment, they're certainly trying to broad thaen out to those house races. there is nothing in those house races that has been brought up by democrats more than paul ryan and medicare. so, if you attach that to the romney/ryan team, then i think, yeah, it could have an affect down ballot. it's not about mitt romney's a bad candidate but some of the things that have been said that democrats are now trying to stick to their opponents. >> candy crowley, got to let you go. appreciate it. >> john berman bvgs i let you get to the news, what do you think of what candy just said there? >> i think the 47% is more than just another gaffe. it speaks to what critics feel may be his inner beliefs, the

character of mitt romney, which is why it may have more legs than saying something silly or making a $10,000 bet during a debate. all gaffes are not equal and that one speaks more to his character. >> to your point about whether or not there's a knockdown effect, the money moves away from the actual presidential and the big supporters start targeting republicans in specific seats? >> that hasn't started happening yet. >> it feels like it's about to. people i'm talking to say that's about to happen. >> republicans are starting to distance themselves from some of the romney comments. >> gaffes are equal opportunity. and we have seen them on both sides and talked about them on both sides and have a long way to go. let's get to the news. overseas, protest in pakistan over an anti-islam film mocking the prophet muhammad has turned deadly. protesters have set fire in two movie theaters overneat. one person was killed, more than

two dozen people injured. protesters and police have clashed in other pakistani cities also. several countries in anticipation of new unrest, embassies have been closed. 30,000 additional soldiers have been sent in to neutralize the taliban uprising. that leaves about 68,000 u.s. personnel still on the ground stationed in afghanistan. penn state has hired a high-profile law firm, headed by kenneth feinberg to handle lawsuits filed by victims in the jerry sandusky scandal. the university is hoping to settle all suits by the end of the year. and this. wipe that smile off your face, driver. new jersey's motor vehicle commission is telling staff to not let people smile too much in their driver's license photos. the reason, they say, is that

grinning and other expressions can distort the distance between your mouth and your chin. that apparently makes it harder for computers that use facial recognition technology. >> yif you are worried about messing up the facial recognition technology, we're a hair away from -- >> suggesting that the state says we don't smile? >> there's a reason for your i.d. photo, a reasonable look of what your face s they do the same thing in passport photos. the whole goal is to make sure -- there's a reason for it. >> don't smile. the automatons may not be able to tell who you are. >> stop it! it's friday. i just can't take it. >> major retouching. >> all this week cnn has been

looking in-depth on the issues facing the presidential race. today we're focusing on terrorism a terrorism. here is susan kelly. >> reporter: the killing of osama bin laden, undoubtedly the national security highlight of the obama administration. few argue it was a risky move for the president to give the order to invade pakistani air space and go after the al qaeda leader. as a candidate in 2007, romney questioned whether it was worth the time and money it would take to hunt bin laden down, later saying, of course, he would have given the same order. don't expect much of a difference between the two candidates on the issue of drones either. the program started under president bush hit full speed under obama. who relies on the still classified missions to limit the numbers of troops on the ground by launching missiles from the a air. >> president and commander in chief, my main duty is to keep

the american people safe. a whole bunch of tools to bear to go after al qaeda and those who would attack americans. drones are one tool that we use. >> romney supports the use of drones as well. like his rival, even in a case where a u.s. citizen may be the target. >> if one is going to join with a group like al qaeda and declares war in america and we're in a war with that entity, of course, anyone bearing arms with that entity is fair game for the united states of america. >> reporter: there are places where the two candidates differ. mainly over the guantanamo bay detention facility and the use of the interrogation tactic known as waterboarding, where a detainee is made to feel as if he's drowning. >> first executive order -- >> reporter: on the guantanamo question, despite his 2009 promise to return the american people to, quote, morale high ground by issuing an executive order to close the facility, it turned out it was easier said than done for the president. romney, on the other hand, wants to keep guantanamo open for busine

business. on a question of torture, you have to know what it is to know where with the candidates stand. while both have said they're opposed to the use of torture, romney has so far refused to characterize waterboard iing as torture. >> i don't think it's productive for a president of the united states to lay out a list of what is specifically referred to as torture. >> reporter: his lack of a specific definition worries security experts like bruce ridell. >> the governor owe it is to the american people to explain what he means that he won't allow torture but doesn't want to comment on techniques of torture. >> reporter: obama banned the practice as one of his first official acts. >> waterboarding is torture. it's contrary to america's traditions. it's contrary to our ideals. that's not who we are. >> reporter: a recent poll suggests likely voters like obama when it comes to national security issues. when it comes to terrorism specifically, 50% of likely voters polled last month said obama would better handle terrorism.

43% threw their weight behind romney. >> any american president at this time is going to wage a relentless struggle against al qaeda and associated movements because republicans and democrats alike recognize we still have a significant threat coming from al qaeda and its allies. >> reporter: regardless of who occupies the oval office come january, the only certainty, say intelligence experts, is that the enemy will still be there, still plotting to do americans harm. suzanne kelly, cnn, washington. one of the infamous memphis three sentenced to death, then released afteriers of public outcry. he is sharing his story anyway book called "life after death." that's up next. capella university understands businesses are trying to come

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welcome back, everybody. it was a case that shocked the country nearly 20 years ago. three teenagers known as the west memphis three were convicted for the murder of three 8-year-old boys. the third, it damien echols was labeled the ring leader and was given the death penalty. frees them without exonerating them. damien echols talks about his life on death row in his new book "life after death." he joins us this morning to talk about it. you don't discuss the trial in the book at all, which i thought was sort of a big missing piece. why not? >> because it can reach a point, especially after all these years, where people see you as the trial. they don't see you as having an identity outside the trial.

it's almost like you don't even become a person. in the public eye anymore. you know, you become synonymous with what happened to you. and i kind of wanted to break away from that and steer clear of it and go into, you know, whether me and even a little bit of the other two guys, what our lisk situations were like before we went in and now even afterwards instead of just -- >> horrible, horrible. the descriptions of prison in your book -- how old were you? >> i was 18 when i went in and spent 18 years in. so half my life. >> describe for me -- you literally cannot say some of the stuff, we couldn't put it on the air. tell me about the things you can tell us. >> you know the words brutality -- brutality doesn't even begin to articulate t over the years i was there, i had been beaten, starved. there's almost no medical care in there at aall. they're not going to spend a lot of time and money taking care of someone they're putting to death. they're in a lot of pain, lot of misery, lot of suffering. >> you told us a moment ago you spent ten years in solitary confinement.

is there any way you can help us understand what that's like? >> maybe if you were to go into your bathroom and turn off your light and stand there for ten years. that's pretty much what it would be like. i was brought out once a week, allowed to see my wife for three hours. other than that, i was in complete and absolute solitary confinement. >> the room is dark? >> there are artificial lights but i never saw any sort of sunlight, natural light, anything of that nature. >> how hard is it to be out now, to be with people? >> the anxiety can be overwhelming sometimes. especially just things that people take for granted like navigating, finding your way from point a to point b. i was in a box for 20 years and never had to find my way anywhere. so now it's extremely overwhelming. >> you wrote a lot about your wife. she actually wrote you a letter and you met while you were in prison. you said what you liked about her is that she didn't -- she apologized for invading your privacy. tell me about a little bit about how she was responsible, as you've said, to saving your life

in a lot of ways. >> we've been together about 17 years now. she did -- she either did or had a hand in 85% of the work done in this case. she did more work than the attorneys and private investigators combined. at one point, she took out two personal loans just to pay off legal fees. she was the one who just rallied people relentlessly, would not let people forget about this, constantly kept it out there, kept reminding people. >> when you read the book, what comes out of it is this extraordinary unexpected love story between you and your wife. >> uh-huh. people ask me, is there anything good that came of this. or would i go through it again? you know, i would. i mean, there have been -- there was a lot of horror that came out of this situation, but at the same time there have been a lot of blessings in my life because of this. and she was the biggest one. >> are you mad that you're not exonerated ? we talked about the plea, which means technically, you have served 18-plus years of a prison

service for th sentence and now you are out technically, legally. >> i don't think it's anger. to be honest, i'm too tired to be angry about it anymore. it's already consumed almost 20 years of my life. there is something there, something that i can't even quite put a name on. but we can't rest. for us, there's no sense of closure. we have to keep going. we have to keep talking about this we have to keep doing the investigation, because the state isn't going to do anything. >> the book is actually riveting. it's called life after death and the descriptions of the people you were in prison with, we could spend six hours on that alone. tremendous book. thank you for talking with us, dameien echols. congratulations on your freedom, if that's the way you put that. i don't know. >> thank you

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. the top 10 cnn heroes for 2012 have been revealed. you can help decide who is going to be hero of the year. anderson cooper tells us how. take a look. now that we've announced the top 10 cnn heroes of 2012, i want to show you how you can vote for the cnn hero of the year. it's very easy. this is the main page of cnn heroes.com. down here you'll see all top ten cnn heroes. each one will receive $50,000 plus a shot at becoming cnn hero of the year. that's where you come in. here is how you can vote for your favorite cnn hero. i'll randomly click on roazia jan. once you're ready to pick the person who inspires you the

most, click vote. a new page then comes up. it shows you all top ten cnn heroes. choose the person you want to vote for. here, as an example, leo mccarthy, his photo will show up down here under your selection. enter your e-mail over here. step two, enter the security code and you click on the red box right down here that says vote. you can vote up to ten times every day with your e-mail address and through facebook. and then rally your friends by sharing your choice on facebook over here or twitter. remember, you can vote from your computer, your phone, your tablet, pretty much any mobile device with the browser. go to cnnheroes.com. we'll reveal your 2012 cnn hero.

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very good sweety, how do you feel? good. yeah? you did a really good job, okay? [ female announcer ] to nurses everywhere, thank you, from johnson & johnson. presidethis message. barack obama and i approve... anncr: he keeps saying it... mitt romney: this president cannot tell us that you're... better off today than when he took office. anncr: well... here's where we were in 2008... tv anncr: the worst financial collapse... since the great depression... tv anncr: american workers were laid off in numbers not seen... in over three decades. anncr: and here's where we are today... thirty months of private sector job growth. creating 4.6 million new jobs. we're not there yet. but the real question is: whose plan is better for you? the president's plan asks millionaires... to pay a little more... to help invest in a strong middle class. clean energy. and cut the deficit. mitt romney's plan? a new 250,000 dollar tax break for... multi-millionaires. roll back regulations on the banks that cratered the economy. and raise taxes on the middle class. president clinton: they want to go back to the same old...

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