xfdcb CBS-THIS-MORNING-01
<Show: CBS THIS MORNING>
<Date: August 16, 2012>
<Time: 07:00>
<Tran: 081601cb.410>
<Type: Show>
<Head: Obama and Romney Trade Shots>
<Sect: News>
<Byline: Gayle King, Anthony Mason>
<Guest: None>
<High: President Obama and Mitt Romney trade shots over jobs, Joe Biden and
the politics of anger versus hope.>
<Spec: Politics>
ANTHONY MASON: Good morning. It`s Thursday, August 16, 2012. Welcome to Studio 57 at the CBS Broadcast Center.
President Obama and Mitt Romney trade shots over jobs, Joe Biden and the politics of anger versus hope.
GAYLE KING: Gas prices go through the roof. Rebecca Jarvis shows us a surprising reason why.
Plus, Johnson & Johnson announces plans to remove some chemicals from its product.
ANTHONY MASON: But, we begin this morning with a look at today`s Eye Opener--Your world in ninety seconds.
JOE BIDEN: I know I am sometimes criticizing for saying exactly what I mean. It`s not going to change.
ANTHONY MASON: The presidential campaign gets bogged down in controversy.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: You know, the country is not as obsessed with gas or some stray remark as Washington is.
MAN #1: Republicans are still fuming about Joe Biden`s comments about Romney policies putting people supposedly back in chains.
MICHELLE MALKIN (Fox News): Bozo the VP is out there engaging in the most shameless kind of race clownery.
WOMAN #1: The killer West Nile virus zeroing in on Texas. The Dallas area has been plagued with more than two hundred cases and at least ten fatalities.
MAN #2: They are gearing up to begin aerial spraying for the first time in decades.
MAN #3: We have people dying, okay? We have to have a sense of urgency to get this done now.
ASHLEY MORRISON: A single ticket in Michigan, matched all of the numbers in last night`s Powerball, three-hundred-and-thirty-seven-million-dollar.
WOMAN #2: Dozens of wildfires continue to burn across the West, fueled by searing heat, dry weather and strong winds.
WOMNA #3: In China, a huge effort to rescue a little boy in one peculiar predicament. Yeah, I know that hurts.
TERRELL BROWN: Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water, some fishermen shot this video of a shark lurking in Cape Cod Bay.
ANTHONY MASON: All that--
MAN #4: He got it. A perfect game by the King, Felix Hernandez.
FELIX HERNANDEZ: That`s for you.
ANTHONY MASON: --and all that matters--
JOHN ROBERTS (Fox News): This President cannot run on his record.
MAN #5 (Fox News): Right.
JOHN ROBERTS: And I think John Sununu summed it up. This President is--
MAN #6 (Fox News): Loser.
MAN #5: I like that, John.
BILL O`REILLY (Fox News): I was watching Cavuto yesterday. Somebody forced me.
ANTHONY MASON: --on CBS THIS MORNING.
MAN #7: The President revealed his home-brewed beer bee made at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
JIMMY FALLON (Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, NBC): President Obama drinks it when he goes out campaigning and even more of it when Joe Biden goes out campaigning.
ANTHONY MASON: And welcome to CBS THIS MORNING. Charlie Rose is off. There`s no sign that the presidential race is ready to quiet down. After Governor Mitt Romney told us that the Obama campaign is trying to create jealousy and anger, President Obama is responding this morning.
GAYLE KING: Jan Crawford is following the debate in Washington. Jan, good morning to you.
JAN CRAWFORD (CBS News Political Correspondent; Washington, DC): Well, good morning, Gayle. And good morning, Anthony. Listen, the selection of Paul Ryan. We all talked about it. That was supposed to focus this race more on substance. But in the last week, we`ve gotten just the opposite. The attacks from both sides have been vicious, but it`s Joe Biden who is taking it to a whole new level.
(Begin VT)
JOE BIDEN (Tuesday): Romney wants to let-- he said in the first hundred days, he`s going to let the big banks once again write their own rules. Unchain Wall Street. They`re going to put you all back in chains.
JAN CRAWFORD: Those remarks had the vice president Wednesday on the defensive.
JOE BIDEN (Wednesday): I know I am sometimes criticizing for saying exactly what I mean. It`s not going to-- it`s not going to change.
JAN CRAWFORD: But it was no laughing matter to Governor Romney. Appearing on CBS THIS MORNING, he said Biden`s remarks were characteristic of the recent tone of the Obama campaign.
MITT ROMNEY (R-Presidential Candidate; Wednesday): The President`s campaign is all about division and attack and-- and hatred. My-- my campaign is about getting America back to work and creating greater unity in this country.
JAN CRAWFORD: Later in the day, President Obama and the first lady spoke to Entertainment Tonight`s Nancy O`Dell.
NANCY O`DELL (Entertainment Tonight): Romney just accused you of running a campaign of hate and anger.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA (Entertainment Tonight): Well, Nancy, you`ve been on the campaign trail with me for a day and a half and this is pretty typical of what we do. We`re going around the country, talking about how do we put people back to work, how do we improve our schools? You know, Governor Romney, I think, has had very sharp critiques of me and my policies. And that`s how it should be. That`s the nature of the democracy.
JAN CRAWFORD: But the firestorm over Biden wouldn`t go away. Former congressman Artur Davis, who was an Obama campaign co-chair in 2008 and now supports Romney, said it was no gaffe but deliberate.
ARTUR DAVIS (CNN): I know what Joe Biden was doing yesterday and every black person in that room knew who they all was, they knew what the chains were about, they knew what the metaphor was.
JAN CRAWFORD: Biden`s misstep played right into Romney`s new campaign message--
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Yes. We can.
JAN CRAWFORD: --that the Barack Obama from four years ago advocating hope and change has become the President of anger and division.
REPRESENTATIVE PAUL RYAN (R-Vice President Candidate; on phone): We`re now in attack and blame, smear and fear. The President doesn`t have a record to run on. It`s a terrible record. It`s-- it`s failed leadership, broken promises, so he can`t run on that. He will have to divide, distract, distort in order to try and win this election.
(End VT)
JAN CRAWFORD: Now, senior people in both parties are saying that Biden should go, including Senator John McCain and Doug Wilder, the former Virginia governor who chastised Biden for joking about slavery. Both said that Hillary Clinton would have been a better choice, but both of them also said they didn`t think that would happen. Anthony and Gayle.
ANTHONY MASON: Jan Crawford. Thanks, Jan.
With us now is former Vermont governor Howard Dean. He ran for president in 2004 and later was the Democratic Party`s National chairman. Good morning, Governor.
HOWARD DEAN (Former DNC Chairman): Good morning. How are you?
ANTHONY MASON: All right. Governor, even-- even-- even former Virginia governor Doug Wilder, the first African-American governor in this country said yesterday that-- that Joe Biden`s remarks were divisive. We`ve got eighty-two days to go until the election here, is the restraint already gone from this presidential race and should President Obama being do-- be doing more about it?
HOWARD DEAN: Look, I-- I don`t-- the-- the Republicans are going to do these things, and-- and the Democrats do it too. When somebody says something that`s modestly controversial, the other people feign great indignation and huff and puff and then it goes away. This-- the bad-- this is actually not good for Romney in my view, because Romney`s got to start talking about the economy. He-- he`s picked a controversial vice presidential nominee who wanted to turn Medicare into a voucher program. That didn`t work so well for him. Then he spend a lot of time defending his tax-- the fact that he won`t show his tax returns. He`s got to talk about the economy. So I actually think, well, the Republicans got all in line that how outrages it was that Biden said this or that. They`ve got to start really focusing on the economy and they haven`t done that yet. And they have no chance in this election until they do. So this is an inside the beltway huff and puff. It will be gone the next week and they`ll be on to the next thing. But it really would be nice if they started talking about the issues.
GAYLE KING: I hear you, governor, saying, you know, its huff and puff. I`ve heard some people describe it as tit for tat. Do you recall it being this nasty when you were running?
HOWARD DEAN: No. This is a very nasty campaign. And the reason is that you have a President who is weakened by having a bad economy. On the other hand, you have a nominee who`s out of step with the American people on the Republican side, the tax return stuff and the Cayman Islands bank accounts is really serious. I-- I think Romney is probably a pretty good guy. The problem is, if you don`t play by the same rules as the other America-- the rest of the American does, you can`t expect to be President. That`s his big problem. That not giving out away the tax-- giving out the tax returns is a huge mistake. Then he picks a very nice guy, that a very controversial guy whose views are pretty extreme economically on things like Medicare and Social Security, and that`s a problem for him too. So it`s going to be a really nasty, negative campaign. Then, of course, you`ve got Citizens United, the Supreme Court`s contribution to American Democracy. And yes, I`m being very sarcastic. So hundreds of millions of dollars are going to go behind these ads and it`s going to be unfortunate. It`s going to be a negative campaign. There`s not much we`re going to do about. And I think both sides are going to have to try to do a better job, focusing on the issues.
ANTHONY MASON: Governor Romney is-- is saying he`s running on his budget not Paul Ryan`s budget. But Paul Ryan`s has become very much at the center of the debate theory. Is it fair to tie Romney to the Ryan budget plan?
HOWARD DEAN: Sure. During the primary, Romney said he was going to support Ryan`s budget, he`d sign it if it got to his desk. So this is kind of a revision. It`s history. There`s a lot of that stuff going on. Couple of days ago, Governor Romney said that he wasn`t for deregulating Wall Street. Well, he`s been running on deregulating Wall Street for six months. You know, this is nonsense. There`s going to be all kinds of stuff, trying-- people trying to pretend they didn`t say what they said during the primary season. You know, the American people are going to sort this all out. They really will. They-- they often-- eventually, the American people usually get it right and-- and in this case, re-elect the right person, if I may be very partisan.
GAYLE KING: Paul Ryan says that he welcomes a debate on Medicare, that he`s-- that he`s ready for that. Do you give him at least any kind of credit for taking on what has been a tough issue for both sides?
HOWARD DEAN: I-- I do give him some credit for that. Unfortunately, his solution was totally unnecessary. You don`t have to destroy Medicare and pro-- what they did with Medicare, essentially, is by turning it into a voucher system is transfer the risk of overspending from the federal government where it`s doing us some harm, to individual seniors who can`t afford it. The average price tag for Medicare for an individual senior is going to go up six thousand dollars in the next few years under Paul Ryan`s plan for Medicare, that`s the privatizing Medicare, that`s not a good idea. So I do give him credit for taking on Medicare but I don`t give him credit for the solution he chose which is a really a radical solution that I don`t think the American people are going to buy.
ANTHONY MASON: Governor Howard Dean, thanks for being with us this morning.
HOWARD DEAN: Thanks for having me on.
ANTHONY MASON: For continuing coverage for the race for the White House, log on to cbsnews.com. This morning you can read about the man in the bubble, as some calling Mitt Romney, will Americans really get to know him before Election Day?
GAYLE KING: It`s another morning filled with smoke and flames in the West. Dozens of wildfires are burning out of control throughout the region. Hundreds of people are fleeing two small towns near Boise, Idaha-- Boise, Ida-- Idaho, rather, as large fire threatens more than four hundred homes. Meanwhile, more evacuations were ordered last night around the Taylor Bridge fire in Central Washington. Now that fire has burned about seventy homes. It is one of the worst fire seasons on record with nearly forty- three thousand wildfires reported this year.
A Russian airliner from New York made an emergency landing this morning after a bomb threat. Air fla-- Flight 103 was going from Kennedy Airport to Moscow with two hundred and fifty-three people onboard. The jet diverted to Iceland and landed safely, where it was searched. A Russian news agency reports an anonymous caller told U.S. authorities there were five suitcases filled with explosives onboard. Investigation into the incident continues this morning.
ANTHONY MASON: There is growing concern this morning over an outbreak of the West Nile virus in Texas. The City of Dallas has declared a state of emergency. The worst outbreak in years is blamed for at least ten deaths and two hundred illnesses. As Anna Werner reports, the city has turned to aerial spraying to stop the spread of the virus.
(Begin VT)
ANNA WERNER: This is a sight Dallas, Texas, hasn`t seen since 1966. The aerial assault against mosquitoes carrying the West Nile virus in Dallas County could began as early as today. It`s a controversial move that the mayor says carries more rewards than risks.
MIKE RAWLINGS (Dallas Mayor): I want to take the politics out of it. I want to say this is my responsibility. I will take the-- the heat for it.
ANNA WERNER: Jordan Connor is one of hundreds of West Nile victims in the Dallas area. The rare strand of the virus affects her brain, and at any moment she could lose consciousness or control of her limbs.
EBONIE CONNER (Mother of West Nile Victim): Jordan went from being lethargic to when I woke her up for the doctor, to being narcoleptic.
ANNA WERNER: Despite official assurances, the aerial poisons are safe for humans, some worry about the effect on at-risk patients.
DR. BETH STEVENSON (Obstetrician Gynecologist): We are going under the assumption that this isn`t going to be harmful for mother or for her unborn child.
ANNA WERNER: Texas officials say state-wide there have been almost four hundred West Nile virus infections and sixteen deaths.
For CBS THIS MORNING, I`m Anna Werner.
(End VT)
ANTHONY MASON: And we`re joined now by Professor Michael Raupp is-- who is with the University of Maryland College of Agriculture. Good morning, Professor.
MIKE RAUPP (University of Maryland, Professor of Entomology): Good morning, Anthony and Gayle. How are you guys doing today?
ANTHONY MASON: We`re doing okay.
GAYLE KING: All right.
ANTHONY MASON: Professor, how alarming is this surging infections and-- and what exactly is happening now?
MIKE RAUPP: Well, we`re way ahead of schedule with the West Nile virus. And this is really quite disturbing. Several areas around the country, the Texas, the Gulf States, in the center part of the country, as far West as California, we`re starting to see an increased incidence of this virus and it`s really quite disturbing.
GAYLE KING: Why is it happening in Texas and the states that you mentioned as opposed to--
MIKE RAUPP: Well--
GAYLE KING: --other places in the country?
MIKE RAUPP: Yeah. What happens, to get West Nile off the ground you have to have three things in place: You have to have viremic birds, in other words, bird thats are carrying the virus. You have to have good populations of mosquitoes. And with the recent rainfall and the elevated temperatures in-- throughout most of the country, we now have high temperatures. This means mosquitoes can basically complete twice the number of life cycles--
GAYLE KING: Mm.
MIKE RAUPP: --as cooler temperatures. And you`ve got a susceptible population. In other words, you`ve got people that are susceptible to the disease. And people over the age of fifty are at greatest risk with this one.
ANTHONY MASON: Professor, how effective are these insecticide sprayings ultimately?
MIKE RAUPP: Well, they`re really quite effective. And Texas is not the only state considering this. They`ve already done aerial spla-- sprays in places like New York and also in Massachusetts. I think in Massachusetts, with the mosquito sprays, they were able to reduce their populations by about sixty percent. And this is a really big deal. If you can bring down that transmission rate, in other words, kill that mosquito population, you can greatly reduce the chances of transmitting this virus to humans.
GAYLE KING: Lot of people are afraid of, though, about the insecticides. Should they be?
MIKE RAUPP: Sure.
GAYLE KING: Should they?
MIKE RAUPP: Well, you know, this is a matter of concern. I know the elected officials down in Texas labored over this one quite a great deal. But it`s a risk benefit analysis here, Gayle. Basically, in this case, I think the benefits of these sprays far, far outweigh the risk. We`ve got people dying in Texas.
GAYLE KING: Mm-Hm.
MIKE RAUPP: We`ve got sixteen people in the state now. We have more than seven hundred cases nationwide. The risks of being harmed by these pesticides are not at all unreasonable. The materials they are using are the same pesticides you would use to spray the vegetables in the garden or some of the pests that invade your home. So these are-- are relatively safe materials.
ANTHONY MASON: Professor Mike Raupp, thanks.
MIKE RAUPP: My pleasure.
ANTHONY MASON: What a difference a couple of months can make. Gas prices are surging across the country after falling dramatically in June. And Americans are now spending about one and half billion dollars a day to fill up their vehicles. Rebecca Jarvis is here to show us what`s behind the massive increase. Rebecca, good morning.
REBECCA JARVIS: Anthony, good morning to you. And this is a dramatic change from just a few months ago when analysts were saying we could see three- dollar a gallon gas by the fall. Well, now gasoline is on track for its most expensive year ever, averaging ten cents higher a gallon than last. So what changed things? Well, here`s the breakdown. Since July 2nd, prices are up thirty-eight cents. Now, the bulk of the run-up has occurred in the first days of August. Twenty-five cents of that increase is tied to crude oil prices. They`ve jumped about fifteen dollars this summer. But the big surprise, about three cents is tied to drought in the Midwest. And since ethanol is used in making gasoline, the drought has driven up corn, and ethanol prices are higher. That drives up gasoline as well. The remaining ten cents has to do with increased production cost. It takes a refinery to turn oil into gasoline and there`s been a slew of refinery problems in the Midwest and California; most famously, the major blaze in Richmond last week. Well, these problems are all spilling over into national prices. And now residents in Hawaii, California, Illinois, Michigan and Connecticut, they`re paying above or near four dollars a gallon. There are some places in the country, however, that are much better off when it comes to gas. Can you guess which states get the biggest break on prices? Arizona and South Carolina, each paying about three dollars forty-one cents a gallon on average. Gayle.
GAYLE KING: Thanks, Rebecca.
ANTHONY MASON: Re-- Rebecca Jarvis. Thanks, Rebecca. This morning there`s an overwhelming response to the Obama administration`s program to give temporary legal status to undocumented immigrants. Tens of thousands of young people lined up Wednesday to apply for the program allowing illegal immigrants to work without the risk of being deported. They must be under the age thirty-one and they have to prove they`ve been in the U.S. for years.
GAYLE KING: More than one hundred FedEx workers got sick this morning after they were exposed to concentrated chili pepper. Police say that a forklift driver in Memphis punctured a barrel containing the hot spice, which is used to make pepper spray. The workers complained of chest pains and breathing problems, all but one were treated on the scene.
ANTHONY MASON: Time to show you some of this morning`s headlines from around the globe. The Philadelphia Enquirer says a Pennsylvania judge upheld the state`s new Voter Identification Law. The law requires voters to show a valid photo ID. Opponents claim the law is a Republican scheme to keep Democrats from voting. They plan to appeal.
GAYLE KING: In London, The Telegraph is reporting that Britain`s Prince Philip is hospitalized with a bladder infection this morning. Queen Elizabeth`s husband is ninety-one years old. You may recall that the Prince was hospitalized during the Queen`s jubilee two months ago with a similar infection.
ANTHONY MASON: The L.A. Times says a test flight of the hyper sonic X-51A has failed. The unmanned experimental aircraft is designed to travel up to thirty-six hundred miles an hour. About fifteen seconds into its test flight off Southern California, it couldn`t maintain control and dived into the Pacific Ocean.
GAYLE KING: According to The Boston Globe, the Federal Aviation Administration says wind turbines off Cape Cod will not pose a hazard to the planes. It`s the last federal regulatory hurdle for a controversial project to build the nation`s first offshore wind farm.
ANTHONY MASON: And the Seattle Times says Mariners pitcher Felix Hernandez was perfect Wednesday. He pitched the third perfect game in the Majors this season. The most ever in one year. Hernandez struck out twelve batters and allowed no base runners, beating Tampa Bay one to nothing.
GAYLE KING: Good for him. Perfect is good.
ANTHONY MASON: Impressive.
GAYLE KING: I`ll say. It`s seven nineteen, time for a first check of your local weather.
(LOCAL WEATHER BREAK)
ANTHONY MASON: The little guy versus big insurance. We`ll take you inside a growing customer campaign against one insurance giant. We`ll show you what has so many, so angry.
GAYLE KING: And one lucky person in Michigan holds a three-hundred-thirty- seven-million dollar Powerball ticket. For the people who drew those winning numbers, it was just another night at work.
SAM ARLEN: This is the first shot and for many people it`s live. And this is when you get to see if your two dollars just paid off really big.
GAYLE KING: We`ll show you how the Powerball people do it on CBS THIS MORNING.
(ANNOUNCEMENTS)
GAYLE KING: Apple has dominated the market with its iPhone and its iPads. And now it`s looking to conquer your television set, too. This time, the company is working with cable operators on a new version of Apple TV.
ANTHONY MASON: This morning, Brian Cooley of CNET will show us why they`re calling this a potential game changer. Your local news is next.
(ANNOUNCEMENTS)
END
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