patrick hendry, senior director of consumer advocacy, mental health america; john o'brien, senior advisor for behavioral health financing, substance abuse and mental health services administration, u.s. department of health and human services. john, healthcare reform, why was it necessary? what benefits are we going to see out of it? well, ivette, we have about 50 million individuals in this country who don't have any insurance at any given point in a year. a number of them use emergency rooms and/or hospitals and that has a very significant cost for both people who have insurance, as well as employers who pay for insurance. we spend about $17.2 billion dollars on uncompensated care for those individuals. we also know that there is a significant number of people with substance abuse disorders who have benefits and don't access care, but there are a significant number of individuals who can't access care because they don't have insurance benefits. and richard, what are the major ways the affordable care act will affect the behavioral health system? the affordable care act, the behavioral h

some of the things that keep me motivated or from john o'brien.e tell me something early on this whole campaign cycle. he said there are only three things that matter about the next candidate i am going to support. number one is can he beat barack obama? number two is can he beat barack obama? number three is can he beat barack obama? that was definitely my opinion. i heard from governor romer and what he was saying about the for ways that campaigns run. you also have to be realistic. it is not a fantasy world. i did the whole fantasy thing before with ross perot, and that did not work out too good. if you look for the perfect candidate, that person does not exist, because we are human. you have to go and see who can win this beauty contest. this guy obama has a billion dollars to spend on negative campaigning. when i asked all the candidates, i would always finish with, -- roemer has his idea why the country is in trouble. i think the main thing that is killing this country is political correctness. we cannot say what we think. the president you

some of the things that keep me motivated or from john o'brien.e tell me something early on this whole campaign cycle. he said there are only three things that matter about the next candidate i am going to support. number one is can he beat barack obama? number two is can he beat barack obama? number three is can he beat barack obama? i think we think the same thing. that was definitely my opinion. i heard from governor roemer and what he was saying about the ways that campaigns run. you also have to be realistic. it is not a fantasy world. i did the whole fantasy thing before with ross perot, and that did not work out too good. there's no perfect candidate. if you look for the perfect candidate, that person does not exist, because we are human. you have to go and see who can win this beauty contest. this guy obama has a billion dollars to spend on negative campaigning. when i asked all the candidates, i would always finish with -- are you willing to play smash mouth with barack obama? roemer has his idea why the country is in trouble. i think the

you know that senator john mccain joining us live on "starting point with soledad o'brien" in the 7:00 hour. >> also, we have a packed show, talking to christine o'donnell in the 7:00 hour as well. remember her? tea party darling? "i'm not a witch"? she endorsed romney, but will the rest of the tea party follow suit? i'm curious what that bloc is going to do. i feel like they've fractured all over the place. >>> almost 12 minutes after the hour. u.s. markets rose from earlier losses to close mixed by the end of business day yesterday. so, the dow was up 21 points while the nasdaq and s&p 500 closed flat. christine romans, one of my favorite people in the universe, is here. >> closing flat was a good thing, quite frankly. people were worried about europe and -- >> you're more excited about that than being called my favorite person in the universe? >> self-efacing or what? >> okay, so, business to talk about. sort of a government appointment that skirts congress. >> yeah. >> the consumer financial protection bureau. >> the money police, basically. now look, this is the hallmark of the pr

. >> john avlon, thanks for joining us. >>> soledad o'brien just headed right to south carolina.m sure your show is ripped apart. >> i think i should go to south carolina. wow, south carolina, i'm seeing south carolina in my future. oh, right, debate. primary. good morning, ladies. "starting point" is just about ten minutes away and because we hear from the debate, you guys have been tackling it all morning and we're also going to talk about the real romney. the authors of a new book about mitt romney look at the man as a candidate and the human being. his past and maybe his future, as well. also in our get real segment this morning, mark wahlberg, the actor is reacting for remarks he made in a magazine about the 9/11 attacks and hear what he said would have happened if he was aboard one of those planes. that's all getting under way. >>> the praking news being that mitt romney didn't win iowa by the numbers, instead santorum and it wasn't newt gingrich either. because also in south carolina, they're going to see the same abc tv interview of gingrich's ex-wife mary ann who will sa

john zarrella. >> there you go. sure. >>> make sure you also stick with cnn through november for the best political coverage on tv. soledad o'brienng one-on-one with marco rubio. and tonight is the prime time coverage. begins, i'm sure john zarrella will be working hard, but others are coming on, too. john king with a special edition at 7:00 p.m. eastern and 1/2 and anderson and erin and candy and best political team on television will guide you through the florida results. it will be fascinating. wrestling match. >>> it is 6:05 in the east. it's the obama administration unplugged. first we have defense secretary leon panetta revealing to "60 minutes" a key pakistani informant in the hunt for bin laden. now president obama in a town hall openly sharing details of the cia's controversial drone program in pakistan. >> we are able to pinpoint strike an al qaeda operative in a place where the capacity has met military in that country may not be able to get them. so obviously a lot of these strikes have been in the fatah and going after al qaeda suspects who are up and very tough terrain at the border between afghanistan and pakistan.

with soledad o'brien, she's going to talk to eric cantor,ae hoi y hoyer, and john mccain.hanks for staying up with us. if you missed the president's state of the union address, you'll see it up full coming up next. >> announcer: with nothing but cut! [ monica ] i thought we'd be on location for 3 days -- it's been 3 weeks. so i had to pick up some more things. good thing i've got the citi simplicity card. i don't get hit with a fee if i'm late with a payment... which is good because on this job, no! bigger! [ monica ] i may not be home for a while. [ male announcer ] the new citi simplicity card. no late fees. no penalty rate. no worries. [♪...] >> announcer: with nothing but his computer, an identity thief is able to use your information to open a bank account... in order to make your money his money. [whoosh, clang] you need lifelock-- the only identity protection company that now monitors bank accounts for takeover fraud. lifelock-- relentlessly protecting your identity. call 1-800-lifelock or go to lifelock.com today. you name it. i've tried it. but nothing helped me b

o'brien... &pwill take the job.o'brien has no apparent ties to the school... that was left rockkd by a sex abuse scannal... that cost several coaches their jobs. anembarrassing moment for senator johnn... when he endorses the áwrongá guy for president. president.see. mccain: "i am confident with the leadership and the backing of the american people, president obama will turn this country around. we believe in pest days are ahead of us..." gov. haley: "president romney." sen. mccain: "president romney. excuse me! president romney. president romney. ppesident--"romnny::"not to be coofused!"sen. mccain: "-- romnny! argh! president romney! president romney will turn -- will turn this around." around."the slip-of--he-tonguee &pmoment happened during a campaign stop for mitt romney in south carolina.mccain accidentally gave his ennorsement to resident obama... instead of romney.he was quickly nntified of the mistakk. ttaffic can be a pain... but &pone man's plan to bypass it all... brings his skeleton out of the closet. closet.a washington state man says he was jealous of all the drivers that got to commute using the h-o-v lane... so he decided to get his own passenger.that passenger jus

john podesta. he is going to talk to soledad o'brien at 8:00 a.m. that is a really tough job, folks. make no mistakes. if you don't know what the white house chief of staff does, he is gatekeeper or she is gatekeeper and it is not fun. lots of room for, you know, angst. >> yeah. a lot of times not the popular person in the room. it is 13 minutes past the hour. u.s. markets closed higher yesterday. the s&p 500 and the nasdaq were up just a bit. closing almost flat. >> hi there. >> it's interesting that a budget guy taking over. it shows you how money is the thing the economy is the thing that is so front and center. so chief of staff, former budget guy. >> i tend to think that is not a job that a lot of people want either. >> or they do because it's a certain -- it's a real -- serbly in an election year, too. talking about stocks this morning, stock futures rup. oil is up as well. weeping watching to see how the meetings with afrpg la america will and nicholas sarkozy are going on the debt crisis. so we're still an eye to europe and also looking at home. the new numbers from the fed t

o'brien has accepted the position. the defense coordinator for the patriots. he'll stay with the patriots through the playoffs. johngood to see you. senior investigative reporter for sports illustrated. program that's under this much scrutiny, why take this job? >> well, it's still a prominent program and you'll notice when the scandal broke, we heard urban meyer was going to take the job. they were floating these candidates, the man who got this job is not a high pro file coaching candidate, so it wasn't as though they were lining up outside state college for this job. it's still a head coaching job, so it's a risk, no question. >> what does penn state think that o'brien will bring to the table to help the team move past the scandal? the football program there is really sort of in shambles in uproar. >> yeah. what he brings is a fresh start. here's a guy who has no real track record, no ties to penn state. most people don't have opinions about him personally. most people can't identify him. here's a guy where he goes in with a complete clean slate. that's probably the best they could ask for right now. >> i had to

o'brien starting at 7:00 a.m. eastern time. >> i'm voting for romney. >> i'm drinking a sam adams with lagger, and i'm voting for john huntsman> how some voters in new hampshire are picking presidents. that's straight ahead. but first this, it's time to begin our annual search for cnn heroes, honoring everyday people who are changing the world. you can nomination someone special at cnn.com, and you can help them expand their work and others. and also get them the recognition they deserve. here's anderson cooper showing you how to do it. >> tonight we gather to honor the best that humanity has to offer. >> if you join us, we'll be unstoppable. >> cnn heroes are looking for every day people who are changing the world. how do we find these everyday people? you can nominate someone right now at cnn.com. maybe your hero is helping the environment by protecting the atlanta or helping people overcome obstacles. >> there will be no man left behind as long as we are this nation. >> or finding a unique approach to solving a problem. whatever their cause, nominating a cnn hero is easy. first go to cnn heros.com. then click nominate. we

let's take a listen to what con than o'brien had to say about mccain's endorsement of romney. >> big story johns endorsed mitt romney for president. now it didn't help that mccain began his endorsement by saying, from the man who brought you sarah palin -- >> so what do you guys think? do endorsements matter? ron? >> i think they do matter. clearly the romney campaign calculated this out. they wanted to bring in john mccain who won new hampshire in 2008. they thought it would be a good idea to fill that day up with a key message. these guys are very calculated. they've won iowa and clearly this is working for them. >> robert? >> the joke in political circles is that john mccain had to decide amongst the choices to endorse who he hated least. he came up with mitt romney. the reality is, yes, endorsements like that create a good degree of media excitement and political buzz but the real trick is whether it puts troops on the ground and pull a vote. let's not forget senator kennedy endorsed barak obama with great fanfare. hillary clinton swept massachusetts in the democratic primary. >> dean? >> i

o'brien. you are watching our new show which is called "starting point." senator john to explain his endorsement of mitt romney. what's changed since they did battle in this state back in 2008? then this story deported by mistake. the government accidentally sends a runaway teenager to colombia. even though she is an american citizen, she does not speak spanish. more on that story coming up in just about ten minutes. >>> first, though, a look at some of the other stories making news this morning. christine romans has that for us. live at cnn headquarters. >> good morning. that accused hollywood arsonist, harry burkhart, is charged with 37 felony counts. police alleged he set more than 50 fires over new year's weekend. they say that arson spree was triggered by his mother being taken into custody. she's wanted on a warrant in her native germany. >>> armed intruders broke into her home new year's eve, sarah mckinley, mother after newborn baby, put down her little boy and picked up the phone and a shotgun. >> i have two guns in minute hand. is it okay to shoot if he comes

already potentially john a record republican turnout in a primary perhaps a quarter of a million voters in this republican contest. in fact, i'm going to go over to soledad o'brienng place in nashua. soledad, what are the staffers over there saying about turnout? >> reporter: yeah, you know it's hard to tell at this point because they've been open since 6:00 in the morning and they won't close until 8 clock. we stay open here later than anybody else. here at the amherst elementary school, you can see obviously they're doing things in the gym basically. the system will work like this. the 4800 registered voters that they have, they'll come, line up. they'll get one of these ballots. so far it's under 1700 people have taken the opportunity to vote. we're not seeing a big rush as you are reporting in other places to get the ballots. 30 people on this ballot. what they have to do is go over here into one of these booths behind the curtain, fill it out. it takes 30 seconds. then they'll go over to this black machine over there. looks like a photocopier. there's a guy in the black jacket there. it's a tabulator. they will feed this form into the tabulator and all thos

john king. that is tonight at 7 sclk p.m. eastern time. we hope you'll watch. that's it for "starting point" with soledad o'brien. we turn it over to kyra phillips at the "cnn newsroom." >> good morning. good morning, everyone. it's a critical day for the republican candidates. voting is now underway in new hampshire. in just ten hours results will start pouring in from the first primary of the 2012 race. the very first votes were actually cast this morning just after midnight in tiny dixville notch. here's the results. mitt romney and jon huntsman scored two votes each. newt gingrich and ron paul one each. rick santorum and rick perry, goose eggs. if all the polls are correct the question isn't whether mitt romney will win new hampshire, it's a question of how wide a margin. dan lothian is outside one polling place there in manchester. dan, how is the turnout? >> reporter: well, it's been pretty steady. we're at ward 1. you step inside where voters started showing up about 6:00 this morning. right now you see a few of the voters here. you haven't seen the long lines, but a steady stream of folks coming in here.

john mccain over mitt romney, too. >>> and secretarixual misconduce air force academy. separate sni incidents over the last six months, separate incidentses. >>> and bill o'brien interviewed with penn state officials yesterday for the position that was joe paterno's. >>> and still ahead a new development in the girl deported by mistake to colombia. we have some developments on that. >> good news. she doesn't have to stay there the rest of her life. she can come back and get her usa citizen shl. >>> a weird story out of the french quarter of new orleans. if you're under 15 years old, don't be out after dark. curfew's coming. why are some people saying, this is racist? >>> you're watching "early start." hey, i'm really glad we took this last minute trip me too. you booked our room right? not yet, thanks for reminding me. wait, what? fret not ma'lady. i have the hotels.com app so we can get a great deal even at the last minute. ah, well played sir. download the free hotels.com app and get exclusive mobile deals. hotels.com. be smart. book smart. discover visine® tired eye relief with hydroblend™, only from visine®. just one drop instantly soothes and revives tired, overworke

kevin o'brien is the creator of millicruit.com, on-line job fair for veterans and shary is the president of diversity at sears holdings and johnuiting director for progressive. let's start with you -- let's start with you, john. tell us exactly about the web site first. >> absolutely. so it is a fantastic way for us to have a virtual presence which is different than other career fairs and folks can very easily get out, find information in companies like progressive and find the type of jobs we're listing and do it from the comfort of their own homes. >> what do do veterans do? i'm going to be returning in three months. let me go to the web site. what do they do? >> whenever they have an interest, if it's something where they're looking even a year in advance, they can absolutely come out. see what types of jobs are available. learn more about companies and it's like a regular career fair. you can come out and browse, talk to recruiters, representatives of companies and learn more about the companies on the site as well. >> all right. we're showing a picture of the site right now. let me go to sherri, this wouldn't work if it w