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tv   The Situation Room With Wolf Blitzer  CNN  May 30, 2012 4:00pm-6:00pm EDT

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-- captions by vitac -- president obama telephones mitt romney, congratulates him for going over the top in the republican delegate count and over the top comments with supporter donald trump has created a distraction. you've heard trump question the birthplace in "the situation room," now romney is trying to move on. here's our national political correspondent, jim acosta. >> wolf, mitt romney has left las vegas, but donald trump is refusing to leave the campaign stage. >> americans are tired of being tired. >> now that he's crunched the number of delegates to win the gop nomination, it's victory lap time for mitt romney. get the checkered flag this new
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romney campaign video is all about the stars and stripes. >> we're united by one great, overwh overwhelming passion. we love america. we believe in america. >> romney got a call from the president congratulating the official gop nominee. the president said he looked forward with an important and healthy debate about america's future. the chat, according to the romney campaign was brief and cordial. just the opposite of the race to come as romney put it at a fund-raiser that was closed to cameras in las vegas last night. >> and i know the road to 1144 was long and hard, but i also know that the road to 1106 will be long and it's going to be hard. >> donald, i have to say you're beginning to sound a little bit ridiculous. >> no, i think you sound ridiculous. >> greeting him at the finish line was donald trump who managed to steer clear of the
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fixation on the president's birth certificate though he predicted romney would be tougher on the president and china. >> but it was only a moment of self-restraint. today trump swetweeted that he wants to see the president's college records. john sununu says it's the media that's upset with the issue. >> why is cnn so fixated on this? why don't we talk about the jobs issue in this country? >> adding a wrinkle to the drama, they added a copy of romney's birth certificate which noted that george romney was born in mexico which by the trump standard would have made him ineligible to serve in the oval office. >> we believe this is an american-born, job-killing president. >> also at that romney fund-raiser, newt gingrich who has no doubts about the
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president's origins or trump's motivation. >> reporter: is that what it is? >> no. he's an entrepreneur. he's made his fame by being who he is. >> reporter: trump wasn't the only misfire of the day. the romney campaign released a new iphone app which misspelled america. that's one bug that has since been fixed. as for the airplane photo that had everyone talking, tromney nw said it was the airport in las vegas that made the choice to park next to trump's jet. it was a less controversial fund-raiser planned with hewlett-packard ceo meg wittman, wolf? >> jim acosta in las vegas. let's dig deeper with our chief political analyst, gloria borger. a lot of analysts are questioning whether it's worth it. i've spoken with a bunch of republican strategists who are scratching their heads. they're saying okay. maybe donald trump helps you a little bit with some of those
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small donors and maybe he helps you a little bit with the base of the republican party, but they're saying to me, they think that mitt romney's going lose much more. this is a general election contest now, wolf. it's about getting to independent voters and the swing voters are on your side. they're not going to be thrilled with mitt romney standing next to donald trump who has brought up the birth certificate issue again. they believe there is a down side and not seriousness about it and it's not diversionary that takes romney off of his message about the economy. >> having said that, when it comes to money for the republicans, it's a different ball game in 2012 than it was in 2008. that's right. that's why these republicans are curious about donald trump because they're saying, look, mitt romney is going to raise an awful lot of money. the republican party is going to raise an awful lot of money. in 2008, the john mccain
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campaign was outspent by the barack obama campaign 2-1. this time there was a report in politico this morning. we've confirmed it, that republican groups are going to spend $1 billion on the republican campaign and the house and senate races and the obama campaign wants to raise 750 million, but their outside super pacs are not doing as well as the republican super pacs. so he raises a couple million bucks with donald trump? he's going to raise the money anyway. >> you wonder if that's money well collected? >> exactly. or will it damage him more in the long run? >> you know, last week you wrote a good column on suggesting that all of obama's campaign with romney and bain capital, not necessarily that productive and now we see the obama campaign beginning to
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focus more as governor of massachusetts. >> right. i spoke with someone in the obama campaign. oh both of these things are part and parcel of their rollout talking about romney economics. i think it's probably more productive for them to talk about his record as governor of massachusetts and they're coming out and saying he promised he was going reduce the state debt. he was going to lower taxes, he was going create jobs. they say he didn't do that. the romney campaign said we created more jobs than president obama has created. so game on. this is the argument they're going to be having in the campaign, and the president's people, why weren't you running on it? and then the romney people are going say to president obama if your record is so great, why aren't you running on it? so that's going to be our campaign. >> it sounds like it was short and sweet. >> it was a congratulatory phone call, and he goes over the top
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with 1,044 delegates in tampa and texas did it. don't go too far away. right now tens of thousands of jobless americans are bracing for a financial punch in the gut. their long-term unemployment checks are about to end sooner than many of them thought and that's a blow that many others have already suffered. tom foreman is here to tell us who is affected and why. what's going on, todd? >> this is the trap that's sitting out there for mr. romney and president obama because this is huge. right now we have 12.5 million people unemployed in this country and what's happening is the long term unemployment aid they were getting, the specific category in a deal that was struck earlier this year is now being pared back substantially for two reasons, one because many politicians know the economy is getting better and they're trying to get something about the deficit. the result is right now this year more than 400,000 people
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are now out of four benefits and this number will get bigger. look at the states and how bad the unemployment is, and the weird formula where some states are being bailed out and others aren't and every and it's been time and again by congress sxaul of the states have been told no extended benefits by the government and that's what's leaving people out on the lurch right now. >> here's a question, tom. some of those states have enormously high unemployment problems. how and why are they being cut off? >> that's the problem here, wolf. let's look at california. one of the issues is not at what unemployment is. this is well above average, but this is based on movement and unemployment, is it getting worse and by how much? california fell out of this
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program simply because their unemployment did not increase enough in a given period of time. 40% of that 12.5 million, 40% have been unemployed for more than six months. many of them more than a year. this whole system was set up on the premise that every economic problem was short term. this has gone on a long time and it's costing a lot of money and now they're simply running out. so the result is you have simple math here. state and federal emergency here if you add all of that up, that comes up to 79 weeks and an additional 20 weeks of federal extebdzed benefits bringing it to 99 weeks. by september we'll be gone by every single state, and once we get to this and you are out. that means whoever the next president is is very likely a
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massive unemployment problem still, even if the economy is recoveri recovering, if these people are out of work and a lot of financial analysts say that will make the recovery slow down een more. >> tom foreman, good report. thank you. >> mitt romney upstaged by donald trump ready to sound off on the latest controversy. >> and there are other billionaires backing mitt romney. you won't believe how much money they hope to raise for the november campaign. plus, a scary parasitic disease that's a major killer in latin america. many people are infected. what kind of threat does it pose in the united states? actually, the milk from my farm makes it so creamy, right dad. dad can see... boys! don't you think ouffer's steam perfect bag should get some credit? my carrots. my milk. [ female announcer ] new from stouffer's. farmers' harvest steam meals taste so good we'll bet the farm on it.
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primary fight after right wing elements in the republican party, michele bachmann, rick santorum, newt gingrich, you name it. he finally secures the requisite number of delegates to be given his party's nomination to possibly become president of the united states. sweet. what's one of the first things he does? he appears at a fund-raiser in las vegas with donald trump. donald trump, he of the curious hair and even curiouser ideas about the nation's priorities. donald trump who is still insisting barack obama's birth certificate is a phony and in a loud annoying voice trump goes around saying barack obama was not qualified to be president because he wasn't born in this country. nobody is listening. nobody, mr. trump, except mitt romney. if he wants to drive voters away, all he has to do is indulge the lunatic ravings of
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donald trump's rantings, and for mitt romney to align himself with this gas bag with the funny hair is tantamount to wanting to destroy his candidacy before it gets off the ground. except for contributing money there is no way donald trump helps mitt romney become the next president and if mitt romney can't see that, i'd say the lad has serious problems. here's the question, why does mitt romney continue to put up with donald trump? go to cnn/caffertyfile and post a comment on my blog or go to my post on the situation room's facebook page. by the way, wolf, the consensus i talked to is you kicked some ass on that one. you won that on points all of the way. >> thank you very much. i would have preferred not to have to win anything, but it was an important interview. >> it was a good interview. >> we'll have donald trump back at some point to explain his side of the story once again.
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thanks very much. two deadly shootings in seattle. lisa sylvester is monitoring that and other top stories in "the situation room." three dead and others seriously wounded from a shooting at a seattle cafe as well as an apparent carjacking. the gunman ran away after shooting up a coffeehouse in the university district and they're trying to determine if the two are connected and no word on that yet and more details as we get them and the judge in an international court has sentenced former liberian president, charles taylor he's the first head of state to be convicted of war crimes and taylor was found guilty of neighboring in sierra leone and he's appealing his conviction. talk about the rant for nations and illinois lawmaker --
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and he's not afraid to show it. >> total power in one person's hand, not the american way! these damn -- all of the damn time and come out here and try to figure out how to vote for my people! enough! i feel like someone being released, let my people go! my god, they sent me here to vote for them! >> clearly passionate about that issue. passage of the bill is considered a long shot, but we are keeping an eye on the illinois house floor since the debate can be lively, to say the least, wolf. >> let my people go. >> that's some passion. that guy is fired up on that one. >> thank you. >> it's a scary question to ponder, but is there a new, deadly disease out there on the horizon? >> i'd like to call the disease obviously the most important infection you've never heard about. >> the doctor says roughly 10 million people are infected with
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let's get right to our "strategy session." joining us now our cnn contributor, the democratic strategist, maria cardona and the republican strategist mary matalin. did you notice that senator rob portman is off to israel to meet with the prime minister benjamin netanyahu. as soon as you heard that, mary, what went through your mind? >> what a great vice president the senator would be. >> certainly, i said, they're getting him ready to be the vice presidential running mate for mitt romney, sending him to meet the prime minister. >> the republican party has supported israel. he is my personal favorite. he's done more than anybody i know that's on the short list. he comes from a swing state and
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he's a really, really smart guy. >> he's a former special trade representative during the administration, former congressman, now senator from ohio. ohio is very important in the electoral college. no republican in recent times has become president without carrying ohio. now they send him off to israel to meet with prime minister netanyahu. if there will be a debate with joe biden, that will be a big issue. >> i think it will be a big issue and it's very smart for him to be doing so. who knows if it's a coincidence. >> i don't think so. >> that's right. mitt romney needs someone with good foreign policy credentials. he's very weak on foreign policy. >> why do you say mitt romney is weak on foreign policy. >> he hasn't really had experience in foreign policy. >> he was head of a company that
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had business internationally. >> not in the context that you look at presidents. the israel issue is always an important issue in elections and it's always an important issue in the national policy debate. the jewish vote is very important. obama got 78% of that, and i still expect that the jewish vote will be very strong to present to president obama. >> he didn't have a whole lot of national security experience either. >> far less than mitt romney has, and he picked a vice president that had foreign policy credentials. >> joe biden, for 30 years, was a member of the foreign relations committee. >> and almost every single thing that biden supported the president's done the opposite. he's not for partitioning iraq. biden was against going in to get osama bin laden. so ron portman has a resume and a portfolio much deeper than foreign policy. particularly, he has a good,
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fiscal conservative and he knows how to balance budgets and understands the world of trade, and both skill sets and being able to work the hill, both sides, both chambers are very important. >> think ron portman would be a very safe running mate for mitt romney if he decides to pick portman, he's on the short list, and there are many others. >> he refuses to say, and he's submitted the income tax returns and he's not discussing that and we'll watch to see what happens. >> he seems to be the number one pick, not just from mary, but for others. >> a lot of viewers probably never heard of ron portman, but i suspect they will pretty soon. >> everyone has heard of the first lady of the united states and now ann romney has a new ad and it's a poignant ad and it talks about ann romney and her illness with m.s. >> when i was diagnosed with
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multiple sclerosis, both of us dissolved in tears. >> that was my toughest time in my life was standing there with ann as we hugged each other and the diagnosis came. >> my life was in, you know, in jeopardy, and i was as vulnerable as a person could be. >> as long as it's not something fatal, i'm just fine. i'm happy in life as long as i've got my soulmate with me. >> it's a beautiful ad. you have a problem using that personal experience in a campaign commercial? >> i don't, wolf, actually, because i think that this is something that really connotes the humanity, not just of mitt romney, but of ann romney, too, and i've always said she is one of his biggest assets that helps humanize him which is something he need says. i only have a problem with it if it didn't seem genuine. this absolutely seems genuine and a lot of people going through that can relate. >> a lot of thing seems genuine.
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i spent time with the two in iowa, and you can see the warm, loving relationship, and i don't know how well you know them. >> anyone who does know them and has seen them together in public is how they are in private. >> he's said repeatedly and that's my first priority, i don't care of anything else if i can just be with her. that's his priority and they're a great couple. they're an inspiration. >> mitt romney has an excellent partner and an excellent advocate in ann romney, and barack obama has a pretty good first lady, as well. she's out there promoting a new book about gardening and better eating and health care. she's going to be a pretty good asset for him out there on the campaign trail, would you agree? >> she is a powerful voice. she tended to get too far out there, but as long as she stays in the garden with military families, i love gardening and i
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wish i had more time to do it as the first lady. >> she's been on jon stewart last night and the colbert show and "the biggest loser" and all of these shows that americans can relate to. i think she'll be a terrific asset, as well. >> we'd love to have michelle obama in "the situation room" as well. >> i have her hotline. if she's watching right now, the first lady, we'd love to have her, and we can talk about gardening and health. >> you would love it, as you know. >> absolutely. >> thanks very much. >> millions of people are infected right now and it's the leading cause of death in latin america, does this deadly parasitic disease pose a growing threat right here in the united states? stand by.
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donald trump isn't the only billionaire backing mitt romney right now. wealthy conservatives are putting their money where their hearts are and while barack obama set fund-raising records in his first campaign four years
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ago the campaigns' overall fund-raising goal right now is also staggering. lisa's back and she's looking into this part of the story for us. lisa, these numbers are going -- skyrocketing. >> yea. we're talking big numbers here. mitt romney has picked up a lot of friends on wall street, dating back to his days at bain capital. now those 14 friends are writi big checks. romney has friends writing big checks as we have seen. >> mitt romney has reached the magic number to clinch the nomination, but his supporters have reached $1 billion. >> a billion dollars just from the outside groups, the chamber of commerce, the cook brothers and their groups, various super pacs, so that is the big new world after citizens united after the 2010 supreme court decision. that is where the outer limits know no bounds that the point.
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reality tv star donald trump may be the most wealthy famous contributor, and there are others who have written big checks in support, bill koch has a reported fortune of $2 billion. he donated $2 million to the super pac. according to rolling stone magazine, he's known to hand out $100 bills to pan handlers. he handed out money to rick santorum. for mitt romney he's given $800,000, for john perry, pou d poured, this time he has donated $4 million to elect romney. bill marriott are tight with mitt romney, romney has served on the marriott board. they've given $1 million to romney's super pac and hedge fund tycoon and multibillionaire
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john paulson has also given $1 million to the cause. romney's campaign donors draw from different industries. they share a common denominator. romney has followed a traditional stat gee of coalition building. that's how american politics has always worked. all you have to do is agree on one thing and you are part of this campaign. what is that? we want to fire barack obama. >> reporter: here's how the numbers stack up. romney's campaign has raised a little more than $100 million today. obama's campaign has done better with $329 million, but a key difference, the super pac money, those unlimited contributions. the leading pro-obama super pac has raised $10.5 million, compared to the romney super pac at $56 million. romney's small street background gives him a lot of weighty friends to call on. the election will hinge on not who has the deepest pockets, but who can best help the struggling middle class. >> look, i will say this, i
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think this election is going to be about this economy, the future of our country, who will build an company that grow s s secures for the middle class and lasts. that's the focus. >> of course, romney has wall street writing these big checks, but president obama has a lot of heavy hitters in hollywood. we saw the star-studded arc fair with george clooney and that brought in a reported $50 million, so that's not bad. president obama hopes to surpass the $750 million mark which is what he did in the 2008 fund raising and you saw the republican supporters hoping to top $1 billion. >> i suspect the super pac, the regular pac, the regular campaign, the congressional campaign, when you add it up on both sides it could be up to a billion and that's $2 billion and maybe another billion for all of the congressional races
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and house races and gubernatorial races out there. if you own a tv station or radio station, probably in one of those ten or 12 battleground states, you'll make a lot of ad sales. >> no one is talking about publicly funded campaigns anymore. that's all gone. that's not even a question at this point. >> they were restricted to a measly couple hundred million. you're not going do all that well. >> that's right. >>. millionses of people are infected. it's a leading cause of death in latin america. does this deadly parasitic disease pose a threat in the united states? we're getting new information. and a waiter gets a $5,000 tip. we'll tell you the story for this amazing act of generosity. great shot.
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millions of people are infected. it's a leading killer in latin america and it's very, very tough to treat, so does this deadly, parasitic disease pose a growing threat here in the united states? we asked brian todd to take a closer look into the story. what are you learning, brian? >> wolf, there's new concern about this disease because of the number of people infected. there is debate about whether it's a growing threat in the u.s. in some circles it's drawing comparisons to another disease. the scourge of the post-war era killing over 25 million people
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over the decades. is there a new aids on the horizon? experts worry about a disease affecting latin america. i like to call chagas disease the most important disease you've never heard about. >> chagas, it's prevalent in central and south america. dr. peter hotez has written in a respected medical journal. roughly ten million people are infected with chagas. it kills 20,000 people a year. >> is this difficult or impossible to cure? >> there are two medicines available which if you catch it early on seem to have beneficial effect on treating the patient. the problem is once the heart symptoms start, the chagas cardiomyopathy the medicines no longer work very well, problem number one, the medicines are
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extremely toxic. it's contaminated the blood supply. this is ground zero for chagas. experts say the parasite for chagas lives in its guts and it likes to hide in wall crevices and then at night it drops on to people that is sleeping and it likes to crawl on your face, when it injects your bug it excretes the parasite, when you wake up and scratches the itch, the parasite moves into the wound and you get infected. when you move into the severe stage you can develop an enlarged heart or intestines that can burst. >> dr. anthony falchi of the national institute institutes. >> i'm concerned when people talk about the comparison of hiv that it's transmitted like it is with hiv which is just not the
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case. >> fauci says chagas is transmitted by the bug biting you, by pregnant women infecting their children and by people donating blood that's not screened. dr. fauci says only about 20% of people who get infected will go on to get the life-threatening form of chagas. fauci says chagas does not pose a danger to people in the u.s. he disagrees there, saying there's transmission of this disease in south texas where those bugs can be found in south texas and that many dogs in south texas now have chagas. >> he has information about the number of women, pregnant women who have this disease. >> 11% of pregnant women in latin america are infected with chagas and they can transmit it to their children about 5% to 10% of the time and you break that down it may not seem like a lot and it's not concerning at
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this point. >> i suspect we'll be learning about this disease in the months and years to come. thanks, brian. good information. >> new information about the pakistani doctor who helped the united states find osama bin laden. lisa sylvester is monitoring that and some of the other top stories in "the situation room" right now. what else is going on, lisa? >> it appears that shaquille afridi's crime is not what we thought. he set up -- the harsh sentence is related to his, quote, close links to a militant group in pakist pakistan. afridi has been in jail for the last year. and new signs that blackberry is in bad shape. the company that makes the mobile device research in motion has reviewed the company's options which likely means big job cuts and eliminating sectors all together. and samsung. >> talk about a great day on the
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job. a waiter received a $5,00010. there's one catch, the it uppco that tipped him set up specific instructions on what to do with the money. >> he said we'll come in and we're not going to tip you for a while and he said it's enough money to go buy you a nice car. >> the waiter lost his car in a storm several weeks ago and he's been taking cabs or busses to get to work, so somebody, a couple just gave him $5,000 to get a new car. >> it's nice to know that there are people out there doing great things. >> i love those stories. a very, very nice story and thank you for bringing a smile to us with that story. a flight makes an emergency landing when parts of the plane starts raining down on cars. we have new information on the frightening scene.
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the dow dropping 161 points. there are fresh worries about the european debt crisis and investors have their eye on one country right now more than any other, and we're talking about spain. erin burnett is joining us. she's the anchor of "erin burnett out front." there seems to be pain in spain. what's going on? >> serious pain in spain. you have youth unemployment at about 50%. regular unemployment in spain
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just around 25%. it's horrific. it's great depressionlike there. retail sales came out for the month and they were down 1.8%, and it's a record drop. so spain is in real crisis and spain is really important, wolf. we talked about greece and how greece could go be the domino that spread to countries like spain and italy and portugal as they drop out of the euro, but greece is 2, 2.5% of the economy. spain is the fourth biggest economy in the eu. so this is a significant fear and it really does matter to the united states. we always say europe is the biggest trading partner to the u.s. and that does matter because you see jobs at home. 161 points to the down side and the worst month since september and it's down 6% since the month of may. that's the second month in a row. all of that wealth has been taken out of pension funds a ss
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401(k)s and this is significant. if they can't find a solution for spain, this problem can become much more agonizing for us and them. >> we'll see what happens friday morning when they release the unemployment numbers for may, as well. people are bracing for more bad news on that front. let's hope it's good news. thanks very much, erin and you'll have much more at 7:00 p.m. eastern. jack cafferty is back with "the cafferty file. the question this hour is why, why does mitt romney continue to put up with donald trump? >> romney's reluctance to disown trump is a bad, political calculation that targets the crazy, know-know far right fringe of the american voters. this is once again proof of romney's lack of guts and leadership. the obama folks are ordering more popcorn as the republican circus resumes with trump as the major clown. mitt and donald are best friends and they both grew up in the same poor, inner city
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neighborhood with dreams of making it big. mitt watched over him like a brother and worked three jobs to help put mitt through college. miguel in texas writes, i believe he's prepared to deal with difficult people and he needs mr. trump as an ally. what's the saying? keep your friends close and your enemies closer. smooth and smart, perhaps a lesson for us as well. after listening to trump's interview with wolf blitzer it's clear that trump is whatever george will called him a bloviating ignoramus. and that mitt romney it will cause him to lose the election and caused him to wish he never even ran for the office. trump is romney's reverent right. martha in pennsylvania, money, money, money, and crazy as it sounds, trump has his fands.
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cra lard to believe, i know. check the blog out. funny stuff there. and or on the facebook page. >> thank you. does the obama have a last-ditch strategy for doling with the slauter in syria right now? i'll ask the ambassador to the united nations what could be done to stop all of the massacres? and a runway emergency in chicago where a giant cargo jet collides with an airliner. new information coming in on what happened. apple doubling down on secrecy over what it kull call incredible new products. the tech giant on what it's up to. companies have to invest in making things. infrastructure, construction, production. we need it now more than ever. chevron's putting more than $8 billion dollars back in the u.s. economy this year. in pipes, cement, steel, jobs, energy.
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here's a look at this hour's "hotshots." check it out. in china, a woman uses table tops set up as a makeshift bridge to make her way across a flooded street. a boat travels by barge across the host country. in california, baja california. tourists made to look like a pirate trip set sail, and in beijing a young boy poses for a family photo in front of a fish tank in front of an aquarium. hotshots, pictures from around the world. the ceo, tim cook made a rare public appearance at the all things digital conference saying the tech giant has what he calls some incredible products coming and will double down on secrecy. our silicon valley correspondent dan simon is joining us with
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more. let's read between the lines. what do we know? >> reporter: first of all, wolf, steve jobs died seven months ago. since then the company's had several hit products and record revenues along the way and now we're getting a better sense of the man steering the ship. take a look. >> steve was a genius and a visionary. >> reporter: apple ceo tim cook describing what it's been like to follow a legendary icon. speaking in a slow, deliberate tone, steve's death represented the saddest days of his life. >> steve was an original and i don't think there's another one being made. i am who i am and i am focused on that. >> the transition has been a smooth one. apple profits have hit record levels and criticism surrounding abuse of workers at chinese plants is starting to wane a bit amid a series of changes. it prompted changes about why apple products are not made in the u.s. instead they're manufactured
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overseas, mainly in china. >> but manufacturing itself is looked at and said, you know? somebody else can do this as good as we and is that still true? >> it changed? >> i think it's still true. >> will there be an apple product ever made in the united states? >> i want there could be. >> will it is a assembled in the united states? >> even though it doesn't say that today, you could put down there, several parts are from the united states. >> those parts include the glass on iphone screens which are manufactured at a plant in kentucky. as for future apple products, cook gave a few hints and said the country is doubling down on secrecy which is saying something for a company notoriously secretive. might apple some day release its own television. >> cook's only reply, tv is an intense interest for the company. he outlined apple's philosophy when it comes to new products.
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>> we're not a hobby kind of company, as you know. our tendency is to do very few things, put all of our wood behind a few arrows. >> reporter: apple is expected to release a spate of new products in a couple of weeks at its worldwide developer's conference in san francisco. right now those products are created in california, but manufactured overseas. the question, wolf, is whether or not that will change some time in the future. back to you. >> dan simon, thanks very much for that. and you're in "the situation room," happening now, unchecked violence in syria. bodies right now are piling up. it's a massacre of children doesn't lead to military intervention from nato, the ally, what will happen next? i'll speak to the u.s. ambassador of the united nations susan rice. we'll talk about the obama administration's plans of last resort. also, the so-called flame. the flame that could spark the
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next generation of cyber spying. so who's behind this very sophisticated new computer virus? and investigators are trying to figure out right now why pieces of a jet engine fell off in flight. new information into "the situation room" about air canada's scare ask what went wrong. we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer and you're in "the situation room." -- captions by vitac -- the united states and its allies are blatantly accusing the syrian president bashar al assad of having blood on his hands right now, but any talk of military intervention at least for now is still just talk. the united nations observers report finding 13 corpses in eastern syria with their hands
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tied behind their backs. this only days after the massacre in houla that unleashed global outrage. russia and china made it clear they're staunchly opposed to using military force against syria and the obama administration shows no sign that it's ready to change course. our pentagon correspondent barbara starr is standing by dispatched from jordan, along the border with syria. what did you see there that gives you clues on various u.s. options. >> well, wolf, traveling in jordan, talking to top jordanian and u.s. officials in jordan, what you find is syria is the topic front and center. there may be no appetite for military action just yet, but there's plenty of planning and plenty of talk. >> reporter: a new atrocity, the carnage in syria only grows. the obama administration remains focused on diplomacy, monitors and former secretary-general
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kofi annan's negotiation effort. it's the only game plan for now. >> as to what the plan b is for syria, we're still on plan a. the annan plan is part of plan a, but we're not betting the farm on a non-plan. >> reporter: while the obama administration says using force to get al assad out is not an option at the moment, it is on the table. >> my job is to provide the commander in chief with options and i think the military option should be considered. >> reporter: cnn has learned that u.s., british, jordanian and israeli military officials are discussing what to do if syria falls apart. the possibilities include sending in troops to protect syria's chemical and biological weapons and providing massive humanitarian assistance. there is a push by some for more immediate action. >> there are certain things and capabilities the united states has that can in conjunction with
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our arab league partners can provide a tipping point so it would provide certain capabilities to units that we know who are trying to overthrow the assad regime that we can vet and we can test and we can understand more completely that they are. >> reporter: the starting point, persian gulf nations including qatar have talked of arming the rebels. >> the syrian opposition are not going to be in a position to take and hold ground against the syrian armed forces. what they can do is engage in raids, provocations. >> reporter: so, wolf, as we discussed, for the u.s. military there's very little appetite for yet another war, but if it came to that, if they had to, military officials say they've done a lot of planning and they would be ready to go. wolf? >> i assume most of that planning doesn't involve so-called boots on the ground, sending in u.s. or nato forces,
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but presumably doing what the nato and u.s. allies did in libya, using air power, if you will, to send a message to bashar al assad that this can be resolved the easy way or the hardware as far as he's concerned. >> reporter: well, not so fast as they would say what you have laid out would be one of the strategies if you would use military force to force him out of office, but what folks are looking at out in the middle east is what they call the worst-case scenario, the worry that syria falls apart and there is massive disorder and the refugee flows and the weapons of mass destruction are not in control and in that case, in fact, wolf, you might have to send troops into syria from some country. they hope it would be troops from the region and not u.s. troops, but the calculation is exactly that. you would have to send u.s. troops in to restore order, a very worst-case scenario. very complicated situation,
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obviously, barbara, thank you. and the united states ambassador to the united nations susan rice is joining us from new york. ambassador, thanks for joining us. i want to get to that united nations security council statement that passed just the other day following that massacre in houla in syria. among other things it said this, the members of the security council demanded that the government of syria immediately ceased the use of heavy weapons in population centers and immediately pulled back its troops and its heavy weapons from in and around population centers and returned them to their barracks. here's the question. there's no sign the syrians are doing that. if they don't do that, is the u.s. ready to consider the military option to stop the slaughter? >> well, they haven't done it yet, wolf, obviously, and this obviously comes after a horrific massacre, committed by government forces and their
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allied militias over the weekend in houla. we were just in the security council this afternoon and this morning discussing these issues and i said on behalf of the united states that we're really at a point where as kofi annan said yesterday, a tipping point with three potential scenarios in front of us. the first one is the syrian government finally and immediately adheres to its commit ams and obligations and stops the use of heavy weapons and stops the violence and adheres to the elements of the annan plan. that doesn't look like the most probable scenario. the second is that the security council in the absence of the assad regime for fulfilling its commitments comes together in a unified way and decides to impose pressure, sanctions under chapter 7 under the assad regime such that it feels compelled to in fact, fulfill its commitments and indeed we have signalled that we may be approaching that point. in either of those scenarios and
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russia's role is key. they need to put pressure on assad to pull fill its commitments and it's got a great stake in assad doing so and in failing that they need to join the community to put pressure on assad. there's still a potential for there to be a peaceful solution which is what we seek. in neither of those are possible we're facing the third scenario which is the worst case, which is it engufrls the neighbors in the region and takes on sectarian forms and it effectively becomes a proxy conflict between syrian parties supported on the outside aggressively by others and then at that stage we're all compelled to look at what options may be necessary outside of the realm of the security council, but that is a hot, regional war in one of the world's most sensitive areas and we've sought to avoid that even by supporting what we knew at the outset was not a high
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probability mission on the part of kofi annan, but a very important one, because if it can succeed and be done without violence that's much preferable than a wired, regional war. >> so if assad and ms. regime don't back down, what i'm hearing you say as a final last resort, the united states and potentially its allies would use military action to stop the slaughter. >> wolf, i don't think that's what i've said. what i said is the next step would be to put an effort to put maximum international effort on assad including through the security council where we have been clear that we are prepared to see at the appropriate time and effort to impose security council enforcement action including sanctions and pot shally other steps. what i said was should all of that fail or not be possible because it perhaps would be vetoed again, then we're into a situation which is chaotic and in which, you know, the sides
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are -- are going to continue to be supported by outsiders. i'm not going to predict, wolf, what actions we would take in that context. our aim has been to avoid that worst-case scenario because clearly, it is in our interest and in the interest of the region for the conflict in syria, not to escalate and not to spiral into a wider regional conflict including our partners and others. >> mitt romney put out a statement among other things saying president obama's lack of leadership has resulted in a paralysis that has watched assad slaughter 10,000 individuals, and he goes on to say the president needs to pressure russia to stop selling weapons to syria. is the united states pressuring russia to stop selling weapons to syria? >> absolutely. and also, and if you continue to read the statement you'll hear an argument that it's appropriate for the united states to arm the opposition.
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our view has been that we should not further militarize this conflict, that there are plenty of weapons in there. it's deadly enough as it is and the way forward should be to try to resolve this through less militarization and a political process. wolf, even in libya we did not take the very exceptional decisions unarm the decision and we know much, much more about the nature of the position and there's not unified command and control and it's different groups and different cities and there's an extremist element trying to infiltrate the position. to say we're arming the opposition is a very consequential statement, and i don't think that those that are advocating that have fully thought through the consequences. that would mean that we are conceding that the only option is to see the further militarization and to see the
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intensified war which is in the interest of our allies and partners in our neighborhood. >> ambassador rice, thanks very much for joining us. >> thank you, wolf. also across the middle east right now. several countries are dealing with a new super computer virus that allows people to spy on you through the web cams out there. the united states' next target? what's going on? now information coming into the situation room. donald trump is raising some questions about potential candidates down the road having to show evidence of where they were born. a great presentatio. so at&t showed corporate caterers how to better collaborate by using a mobile solution, in a whole new way. using real-time photo sharing abilities, they can create and maintain high standards, from kitchen to table. this technology allows us to collaborate with our drivers to make a better experience for our customers. [ male announcer ] it's a network of possibilities -- helping you do what you do... even better.
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call or click today. jack cavery is here with "the cafferty file." jack? >> wolf, the united states has once again failed to make the top ten when it comes to the happiest countries in the world. the u.s. just missed the cut. we rank 11th in the organization for economic cooperation's recent report on life satisfaction in the developed
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world. the survey measured everything from housing, income, jobs, education, environment, civic engagement, health and work/life balance. denmark ranks as the happiest country on earth, followed by norway, netherlands, swidzer land, austria, israel, finland, canada and sweden. wall street has crunched the numbers in this report to determine the strongest factors related to happiness. it's no surprise that economic prosperity is at the top of the list. the overall regional economies appear to be exceptionally well. government debt as a percentage of gdp relatively low. some of these nations are even running a surplus, imagine that, hard to believe as our country runs deficit and is almost $16 trillion in debt. employment plays a key role and many of these nations have low unemployment rates.
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physical and social well-being factor into happiness, good health and longer life expectancy and strong, social support networks and having enough leisure time and the survey suggests it's not all about money. the u.s. has the highest disposable income in the developed world. >> we have low job security and relatively high long-term unemployment so here is the question. why does the u.s. rank as the 11th happiest country in the world? go to and post a comment on my blog or go to the situation room's facebook page. >> i hope we're in the top ten next year, jack. >> gotta to work on that. a computer virus so sophisticated and powerful it could usher in a whole new age in the cyber espionage battle out there, and it was uncovered by a russian lab. our national senior producer
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susan connelly is here. what can we compare it to? >> remember -- that virus actually re-wrote code and caused those centrifuges to spin out of control, rendering them ineffective. this is different in that it's a gathering spy tool. com bonens have been around for years and what makes it so sophisticated is that it rolls them all together and goes virtually undetected. once on your computer it can record conversations and instant message chats and take screen grabs and putting the spy in the room with you, and you have no idea it's happening. researcher at internet security group semantic says it is so good because it covers its own tracks. they discovered a kill switch that erases the malware from the computer. this is how the tech at the lab
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sdreebed it to us. >> we tried to fool the command and control servers and infrastructure, but it turned out to be more than a dozen servers located in many different countries and they're far from each other and it's why there are no traces pointed to any particular country. >> it's interesting, though, wolf, to know that the code was actually written in english. >> is that a clue as to who may be responsible for it. what other clues are there? >> there are other clues and no one has taken responsibility and if you take a look at the targeted countries you can form your assessments. >> 181 incidents detected in iran and 98 in israel and the palestinian territories. 32 detected in sudan, ten saudi arabia and five in egypt. who could do it? an israeli official said his country has the expertise and didn't go as far as taking
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credit for it and citing unnamed sources, pointing the finger at the u.s. interesting because it's widely believed that israel and the u.s. were behind the stocks. but there are others who could do this as well, wolf, germany, for example. >> is there anything out there indicating the u.s. could be a target of the cyber warfare. nothing yet and we do know that the department of homeland security has issued a bulletin and they won't say who they've sent it to and they've classified it for official use only. the only thing they classify side a statement, dhs is working on the malware and as for iran, they put out a statement this week saying they have found a fix for this virus. >> a fix, as sophisticated as it might be. >> that's what they say. >> i suppose we'll be hearing more about flame in the coming weeks. >> and others like it. >> it's a huge, huge issue. meanwhile, new developments on two stories involving
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airplanes including two planes colliding on the tarmac. how could this happen? >> and remember the mt. st. level helen's eruption? it could get much worse.
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the latest weather advisory of beryl in and lisa sylvester is monitoring that and other top stories in "the situation room" right now. what is it? what's going on? >> good news for the carolinas. the storm system has now lost all of its tropical characteristics, but it hasn't stopped hammering the coast with heavy winds and rain. flash flood watches are in effect and more than 1,000
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people lost power in charleston, south carolina that lost several inches of rainfall before it was all over. a rare expression of anger from the vatican blasting the scandal rocking the roman catholic church. they're calling the theft of private documents a depravity, the pope is addressing the scandal for the first time calling the reports entirely gratuitous. the former rutgers student, appeared in court after publicly arc apologizing for his actions. dharun ravi begins the sentence. ravi's roommate tyler clementi killed himself in 2010 shortly after learning of the recording. new concerns among scientists about super volcanoes potentially with the power to
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destroy human life. according to the press association, a new study suggests they could blow sooner than previously thought. one is said to be simmering at yellowstone national park. an eruption there would reportedly be 1,000 times more powerful than mt. st. helen's in 1980s. it could take thousands of years, rather than hundreds of thousands to erupt. something to think about. super volcano, wolf. >> i'm concerned. you convinced me. donald trump ratcheting up the birther controversy. why is mitt romney joining forces with donald trump for a fund-raiser? we'll ask one of the biggest supporters. stand by for that. >> and the last word on the romney campaign's embarrassing spelling error. graduation, huh ?
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we're told that president obama and mitt romney had a very cordial chat on the telephone today. it was a brief break from their campaign war of words and the renewed fireworks over the so-called birther controversy. let's go to our white house correspondent dan lothian. he's got the latest. >> reporter: first of all, there have been hard punches on both sides. president obama has been going after mitt romney on bain capital and mitt romney going after solyndra. the main issue remains the economy, but that controversy conditions about where the president was born. >> president obama phoned former massachusetts governor mitt romney to congratulate him for clenching the gop nomination for the win in texas. >> he was very collegial and friendly. it was not, of course, particularly long. >> reporter: but that's likely the end of the pleasantries between the two candidates who
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last spoke when mr. obama was senator. romney attacked the president's handling of the economy. >> if you've never spent a day in business you don't understand how government makes business have a difficult time. >> reporter: but as the president signed bipartisan legislation, authorizing the export/import bank, a move aimed at creating jobs, he used the, vent to put pressure congress to help fix a problem the white house maintains they inherited. >> there are steps we can take right now to speed up this recovery, to help create jobs and to restore some of the financial security that families have lost. >> reporter: while both sides promise a campaign focused on the issues, the president's birthplace is still a lingering part of this political season. pete hofstra told a tea party candidate that senator mccain dropped the ball when he had the chance. >> we lost that in 2008.
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>> and on the day he was helping romney raise campaign cash, donald trump picked up where he left off when he was considering a run for president. >> there are many people that don't agree with that dearth certificate. they don't think it's authentic. >> white house spokesman for jay carney -- >> i think one man's attempt to draw attention to himself by en gaming in, you know, this kind of ridiculousness doesn't really change what most americans care about. [ inaudible question ] >> i think so. do you not? >> i'm asking you. >> well, i think it is. >> mitt romney says that he doesn't agree with everyone who is helpful in his campaign, but it was a bit more direct today in being comboing down this issue than he was a few days ago, saying, quote, i believe
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the president was born in the united states. white house aides and campaign aides say that this is not an issue that most americans care about. they're focused on jobs, the economy and national security. wolf? >> thanks very much, dan lothian. let's dig deeper on the race to the white house on the so-called birther controversy and we're joined by jason chavitz, republican. not all that surprised. today he tweeted among other things, these words. i'll put it up on the screen. in his own words, barack obama was born in kenya and raised in indonesia and that way. this statement was made in writing in the 1990s. why does the press protect him? is this another watergate? what do you make of what's going on here? >> donald trump will be donald trump. i was with governor romney all
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day yesterday in colorado and then in nevada. this issue never came up. i sat for hours when he was talking about jobs and the economy. nobody asked questions about this. i was there with governor romney with governor romney and donald trump. this isn't what they talked about. what they talked about was having jobs and the economy. i understand it's somewhat sensational when you're doing boring fund-raisers and this is something more exciting to talk b but really, governor romney is focused on jobs and the economy. >> i understand that. i know he is. here's the question, i assume you're totally with governor romney on where the president was born and you distanced yourself and distanced yourself from donald trump. >> i'm going to way out on the limb and i'll suggest barack obama will probably be on the ballot and my suggestion to republicans as much as we want to move forward, let's focus
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distinguishing the differences about obama's record and what he wants to do with jobs and the economy. i think a week from now people will forget about this and they'll still look at their 401(k)s and they'll look at their mortgage payments and think how can we make this country better and that's the case mitt romney is trying to sxhak i think that is breaking through. >> do you think mitt romney is dead wrong on this issue? >> i think the president was born in the united states of america. when you can look at newspaper accounts there from hawaii, yes, i'm convinced. i think we moved on from that years ago. i've moved on since then, and i think mitt romney was kretal clear and that's not what i believe. earlier republican candidates are in the same page as you and mitt romney. the obama campaign is staying this does raise questions about mitt romney and then he continues to do these fun
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fund-raising events with donald trump. donald trump said what could be better than dinner with mitt romney and me? there's another fund-raising denner that people can do a lottery for. they can be invited to new york and have dinner with donald trump and mitt romney. do you have any problem at all as the obama campaign says you should be continuing on the same platform with mitt romney and donald trump. >> mitt romney is doesing hard questions and no one's accused him of doing illegal or unethical and anything like that. i believe it was jay corny when the president was asked something similar to that vap and the from the's not the standard by which we should be -- you can't hold the president who can raise hundreds of thousands of dollars and it's
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want just mitt romney and barack obama, too. it's a silly standard, but in these 24-hour news cycles, i can understand where some of the silliness has to break through to fill some of the airways. >> unfortunately, my opinion, it got overshadowed yesterday what was truly an historic moment in our country, because he went over the top more than 1,144 delegates for the republican convention. the first time in our history, a mormon will be the nominee of a major presidential party. a lot of us remember when john f. kennedy was the first kath lech to be a major part of the democrats and became flz 1961, four years ago, the first african-american. you're a mormon, tell us how you feel when you felt tangibly that you were with mitt romney yesterday that a mormon would be the presidential nominee. and maybe the next president of the united states. >> i hope to call mr. romney mr.
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president some time soon. >> i remember when geraldine ferraro became the viez vice presidential candidate. and as much as barack obama, i was broproud of the country. i don't want anybody to vote for mitt romney because he's romney. i don't want anybody to vote against mitt romney because he's mormo mormon. the rom no phromney family are good, quality people and as article 6 of the constitution says this should not be a litmus test and it is a good, honest person in mitt romney and so many people will be there to send some precedence in many ways. >> i think it's a source of pride for all of us that the country is able to move on and not pay attention to someone's religion and they want to have a
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good person in the white house four years, first african-american, first catholic and now maybe, a mormon will be in the white house, and i know you're proud about that as everyone should be especially if you're mormon. thanks very much for that. >> thanks, wolf. >> we have new developments involving scary stories involving planes. we're asking how could this happen? also investigators zeroing in on what pars fell off an air canada jet and why. ♪ ( whirring and crackling sounds )
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scary scene at one of the country's busiest airports. two airports colliding over chicago's o'hare tarmac. lizzie o'leary has the details. i guess the question is how could this happen? >> that is the question that they'll be looking into. what we know is two plane, a smaller commuter jet from american eagle and a large 747, an eva cargo plane. you see it there. the eva 747's wing clipped the tail of the smaller american eagle plane as the american eagle plane was coming into the gate. there were 18 passengers onboard and three crew members and nobody was hurt. >> what is that? >> it's a cargo airline. they were moving freight from chicago to anchorage and now the question is whose error this was, whether it was pilot error,
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controller error and there were a lot on the ground controlling traffic on the ground. >> that's ugly, but fortunately no one was hurt. it could have been a lot worse. >> we're also getting new information on the air canada incident. what, an engine had problems and parts were dropping on parking lots? >> now we know that that engine is being sent to europe to be analyzed to figure out exactly what went wrong. >> here are the pictures of the damage to the plane's engine. the charred metal visible from the back. turbine blades appeared ragged and burned. investigators believe this is where the debris came from. the debris has been identified as coming from the turbine section of the engine. basically, what it's indicating to us is we did have a failure in the back end of that engine. >> the general electric engine's pristine front makes it clear
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that nothing was sucked into it. something happened inside the engine and we'll have to dismantle it to figure out what that is. >> reporter: shortly after takeoff, the falling debris shattered car windshields. witnesses told police they saw smoke coming from the right engine on this plane seen here from a photo from last year. >> it was 410, you're aware of that. >> passengers say they heard a noise. >> it was almost leak a loud bump or thump to the one side of the plane. the captain said what you heard was a problem with the engine and we had to turn off the engine and we were able to fly on one engine. >> i was amazed that no one seemed to bat an eye. no one seemed to think anything was odd. >> the plane looped back around flying over lake ontario before flying safely back in toronto. andrew bernstein shot this video
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of the damaged engine as the plane landed. >> we asked robert francis who investigated the twa and valujet crashes. >> an engine coming loose, how serious is that? >> i guess you depend what you mean by serious. it's serious and very expensive to replace, but in terms of safety of passengers or even people on the ground it's pretty remote terms of something really happening. >> reporter: there was a similar incident with a similar plane and a different model of a 777 that happened in 2010, the same kind of engine dropped debris on cars in portugal. the same time they were able to turn this plane around. it's important to note there were a lot of these planes flying and a workhouse engine that 1400 of these engines are in use. bob francisic maing the point that this happens all of the
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time, this is a chance that this happened and we found incident reports of something similar. we hope they fix it and it doesn't happen again. >> mitt romney getting grief for an embarrassing spelling involving the very country he wants to be president of. welcome to idaho, where they grow america's favorite potatoes. everyone knows idaho potatoes taste great. but did you know they're good for you too? they're high in vitamins and potassium. and idaho potatoes are now certified to carry the heart checkmark from the american heart association
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we'll check back with jack for "the cafferty file." >> the question this hour is why does the united states rank as the 11th happiest country in the world? denmark is the happiest of all. c writes >> it probably has something to do the facts that we are seeing the signs of marg as decline everywhere. there is something depressing about seeing it collapsing under its own weight. mark in oklahoma writes, simple, jack. we have lots of money in this country and nothing we can buy will bring us real happiness. many of us lead very empty lives. our lives are fast-paced. our children are spoiled and disrespectful. we have jobs that for the most part are very unsatisfying and we are eating ourselves into triple x large clothing every day. maybe i am missing is something but what is it that we have to be so happy about? neal writes all the countries in the top tens are minuscule economies in comparison with the
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united states. they are far less social diversity, longer history and rarely directly involved in modern conflicts. the u.s. is too large and diverse to make the top ten. number 11 is a great achievement. >> chris in florida writes i'm surprised the u.s. isn't 111th. americanism is like a social disease, we have spineless politicians, crushinging debt, social declay, moral nar cosis, waning educational systems and no plans to provide for the younger generation who is working toward a future that is, indeed, very bleak. >> pete in florida writes many of us aren't appreciative, thankful for grateful for all that we have. we have bought into the idea that too much is never enough. the politicians and media lap dogs have succeeded in dividing us. steven rights, 11th place isn't bad. if you had proper health care and education, you would be in the top ten like us. if you want to read more, go he to or
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through our post on "the situation room's" facebook page. wolf? >> hope you are in the top ten. i am happy. >> i know you are z. >> queen elizabeth is happy. she has enjoyed quite a ride during her six decades on the throne. she will enjoy quite a ride in britain during the diamond julie celebration of her reign. here is max foster, cnn's royal correspondent. >> reporter: the queen's state limousine is one of two made for her by bentley. this is how she is getting to st. paul's cathedral for her thanksgiving service. >> the cloth seats don't get hot, don't get cold. they are nonslip. it is a reasonably neutral color. it doesn't clash with anything she is wearing. >> on her return, the queen will take a month traditional form of transport.
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>> this is the carriage that's going to head up the procession. the 1902 state landoor. the queen's favorite carriage. you may recognize it from a certain royal wedding. the 1902 doesn't come out very often. a lot of the regular carriages have a regular role in most events. it is very nice to have a unique occasion where with you can bring the 1902 out. >> what's the plan if the horse bolts? >> the plan is that the horse doesn't bolt. >> as nice as the 1902 is, it is not much use in the rain. so there is a backup plan for bad weather. this is the australian state coach that will be brought in if there is a need to keep the queen dry. max foster, cnn, buckingham palace, london. >> stay with cnn by the way to experience the celebrations marking 60 years of queen elizabeth's reign. join piers morgan and brooke baldwin, they will be live from
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london sunday beginning 11:00 a.m. eastern right here on cnn. mitt romney's campaign misspells the word america. stuff happens. jeanne moos with the embarrassing gaf going viral. does your phone give you all day battery life ?
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where an agent can help you find the policy that's right for you. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? mitt romney wants to be president of the united states of america but today, the word america is causing him a little bit of grief. here is jeanne moos. >> reporter: the candidate may love singing about it. america, america -- >> reporter: but that didn't stop his campaign from misspelling it. >> how would you pronounce this word? >> amercia? >> who is the genius?
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>> reporter: it was whoever did this campaign app. supporters are supposed to download a better america and put photos of themselves in the frame but instead, there was the apparent typo that no one caught, which, of course, spawned t-shirts and then smart alecs began putting all kinds of things in the background to an etch-a-sketch to a dictionary to a photo of school miss spelled at a school crossing. a do-it-yourself political sat tire. not since dan quayle encouraged a kid to put an "e" at the end of a potato. though many pronounced the typo,
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amercia, a sound you can immerse yourself in. it probably sounds like a beautiful country to the person who treated, if mitt romney wins, i'm moving to amercia. >> we need to see his birth certificate to make sure he is not from amercia. >> to the person that tweeted, if you or somebody you love is suffering from amercia, leading perhaps to innerertia. we can understand how a person can put an extra "e" in this word. >> no wonder kids have trouble spelling words like melatoloj t melatologist. >> also known as amercia the
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beautiful. >> we all need spell check. that was very funny. so far, the romney campaign hasn't commented beyond saying the mistake has been fixed. >> that's it for me. thanks very much for watching. i'm wolf blitzer in "the situation room." the news continues next on cnn. good evening. i'm john king. tonight, game on for the general election. president obama con grad lates mitt romney for clinching the republican nomination as his campaign turns to a massachusetts record team obama says is mediocre at best. alberto gonzalez urges romney to moderate his positions on immigration and consider marco rubio would be a big mistake. as the blood shed continues in syria, governor romney says the president is too passive. romney urging new steps to arm the opposition by stopping short of other republicans that want air strikes.


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