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Chicago Teachers Strike; President Obama Leading in New Polls; Fear Grows in Syria

Aired September 10, 2012 - 15:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: Republican Mitt Romney has stepped to the mike at a rally in Mansfield, Ohio. Romney is back full force on the campaign trail. He laid low last week as the Democrats convened in Charlotte.

This is a live image that you're looking at right here in Mansfield between -- let's look at it, by the way, between Columbus and Cleveland on I-71.

But, first, I want to show you a campaign poll. And, well, I think you will know why it's noteworthy. This is a Gallup tracking poll post conventions, President Obama leading Mitt Romney by five percentage points, 49 percent for Obama to 44 percent for Mitt Romney.

Five percentage points, not a huge deal in itself, but it is the biggest such lead we have seen for either candidate in this particular poll in quite a while. The numbers at the top reflect the five-point lead that the president has now. During the three previous weeks, the biggest lead in the race was just two points in early August. That was by Romney.

And then here's another way of seeing how close this race has become. The green line is Obama. The blue line is Romney. The five-point lead Obama has now is the largest lead of the race, as we said, since April 26, when the president held a seven-point lead. It lasted for a day.

Again, this is the Gallup tracking poll. Obama now has a five-point lead.

Jim Acosta, who is on the scene there with the Romney rally in Ohio.

Jim, what are the Romney folks saying about this Gallup poll and the five-point lead the president has opened up?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Martin, I have to tell you it is quite loud here in Mansfield, Ohio, where Mitt Romney is addressing a crowd of supporters.

So I will do the best that I can. But this whole issue of the polling coming out of last week's Democratic Convention sort of hit our in- boxes this morning. The Romney campaign's polling director sent out a polling memo to reporters and then out to its wider e-mail list, to donors and donors, basically saying, hey, don't get too worked up I think was the first line of the memo about these latest poll numbers. And I had a chance to talk to a top Romney adviser about this earlier this afternoon and they say that they feel like they're in -- quote -- "a great position right now heading into this fall campaign," that basically the economy in their view is the top issue, that that's where voters will be deciding this election when it all is said and done.

And I have to tell you right now, Mitt Romney is throwing out some pretty new lines of attack that we have not heard out on this campaign trail until this point, Martin. We just Mitt Romney a few moments ago talk about the president's campaign slogan of forward.

He said forewarned is more like it. And then there is one other thing that he said that was very interesting, Martin. He said that the president did not mention the unemployed in his speech at the Democratic Convention, which seemed to be a response to Democratic criticism of Mitt Romney for not mentioning the troops during his speech at the Republican Convention, so a little bit of tit for tat out here on the campaign trail, Martin.

SAVIDGE: Jim Acosta doing a good job speaking over the crowd noise there.

The president's team says that Romney and Ryan are mathematically challenged on the budget, and they're saying you can't keep cutting taxes on the wealthy and keep pumping money into the Pentagon and lower the budget deficit as Romney says he will.

Let's listen to President Obama speaking yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You already have deficits. You add $5 trillion of new tax cuts, $2 trillion in new defense spending, and somehow you are going to close the deficit without raising taxes on middle-class families. They did take their arithmetic course.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: What is the Romney camp saying about that?

ACOSTA: I think you could just look back to the comments made by both Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan on the Sunday talk shows yesterday.

Mitt Romney was asked a couple of times to name a loophole that he would close to help pay for his tax plan, which includes substantial tax cuts across the board and Mitt Romney simply was not really answering that question.

Now, over on ABC on the "This Week" program, we did hear Paul Ryan asked basically the same question and the way he answered the question is essentially has Mitt Romney has also answered the question in the past. They're saying what they will be putting out is a general framework and you heard Mitt Romney talking about this yesterday, saying that there are some deductions for higher earners that may be scaled back somewhat for wealthier Americans.

So I think what they're trying to do at this point is not get nailed back on specifics that could come back to haunt them later. We heard Paul Ryan saying yesterday what they want to do is lay out a framework for Congress so that when they come or if they come into office, they will have something to work with, that Congress coming in as well.

But the president has said that they're not offering a lot of specifics on that particular issue. And at this point, the campaign -- the Romney campaign, the candidate has not done that as of this point -- Martin.

SAVIDGE: Jim Acosta, thank you very much talking to us from Mansfield, Ohio.

Speaking of Congress, it is back in session this week facing a long list of unfinished business. The only measure that must pass, a short-term resolution to fund federal agencies, because both parties hope this avoid any pre-election talk of a government shutdown.

Leaders in both parties struck a deal this summer, but they still need to pass the legislation before the funding expires at the end of the month. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney pointed the finger at Republicans.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAY CARNEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: You can't get everything you want. You cannot stand on maximalist position and just hold your breath.

And what we experienced and what we continue to experience is the adamant refusal of Republicans, led by House Republicans, to accept that millionaires and billionaires ought to be part of the deal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: But there are slew of other issues that are likely to go untouched as the motivation to resolve them before the election is running pretty thin.

CNN senior congressional correspondent Dana Bash is on Capitol Hill.

And, Dana, what's some of the other legislation that they could or should tackle?

DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I have been talking to sources just before coming on.

And my sense is that the thing that they probably will do in addition to making sure the government is funded, which is Congress' basic function, is deal with the farm bill.

And that is a very, very big piece of legislation. It lasts for five years and it expires in about two weeks, at the end of September. And that governs not only farm policy, but also food stamps, aid to people who really need the money and the food the most.

So I'm told the most likely thing they will do between now and the time that they go home to campaign at least a one-year extension and perhaps some help for drought stricken cattle ranchers and farmers.

SAVIDGE: Big point because it should be pointed out a lot of those swing states are very big in agriculture.

We say shortfall session. How short is short?

BASH: The House will be in session for about two weeks, this week and next week. They're saying they might come back the following week, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

And then when it comes to the Senate, I was talking to some people in leadership in both parties saying if the House isn't here, what are we going to do here? And the Senate can approve some judges and do other things that they have in their purview that the House doesn't. But I think two weeks is about the window we're looking at before they're all out of here to go back and campaign.

SAVIDGE: And the fiscal cliff we have heard so much about, where do we stand on that?

BASH: That is the big issue that Congress will punt until the end of the year or at least until after the election for a few reasons.

One is because it is just so bitterly partisan right now, it would be very difficult for them to come together unfortunately on these issues, which are the Bush tax cuts which are expiring at the end of the year and the mandatory spending cuts, about $110 billion, half from defense, half from domestic spending.

These are things they have to deal with by the end of the year, but again sources in both parties say they're not going to even try to tackle it because the atmosphere will likely be very different depending on who wins and who loses the election, both in Congress and at the White House -- Martin.

SAVIDGE: Absolutely true. Dana Bash, thank you very much, joining us from Capitol Hill.

Let's go Syria now and a French doctor just returning from working at a rebel-controlled hospital in Aleppo says he was surprised by the number of foreign militants there whose sole reason for fighting is to create an Islamic state.

I asked CNN's Jim Clancy to join us now. He's from CNN International.

Jim, I have to say I have heard the doctor's statements here and he says he's surprised. I don't think I'm that surprised.

JIM CLANCY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, not at all. Well, maybe a little bit at the sheer numbers, because he's talking about 25 percent, 35 percent of those on the ground fighting where he was, where he was treating people, as being foreign fighters.

There are a lot of Islamists involved in here. We saw it in Iraq. I haven't been inside Syria, but I have talked with Ben Wedeman, I have talked to Ivan Watson. I have talked to correspondents on the ground and I have talked to the activists themselves. Yes, the foreign militants are inside the country.

There is also -- and this is significant -- a large number of homegrown jihadists who fought in Iraq against the American occupation there that are involved on the ground. And, yes, it's true they are looking forward not to the fall of Bashar al-Assad, but creating that American emirate that we heard so much about all across the Middle East among the jihadists.

SAVIDGE: Is this al Qaeda?

CLANCY: Not necessarily at all.

And I think you have to put it in perspective that these are people that have come to fight for their own reasons. There are some from Europe, and that's one of the surprising things the doctor said, was that there were so many fighters that he saw coming in from France or other European states. You look at the unemployment level there, young men with no jobs, people that feel like they have no meaning in their lives.

Just like Iraq, this become as magnet for them to go and to fight. Ivan Watson told me he flew into Turkey on a planeload that was Libyans on board that plane. So they are present. They are on the ground. But it doesn't mean al Qaeda. And remember this. What was the fate of those jihadist fighters in Iraq?

I saw them lined up on their knees with Sunni Muslims behind with AK- 47s. They were forced to leave the country or they were killed outright.

SAVIDGE: Well, and, of course, the Obama administration has said Syrians should determine their own future. But should the U.S. be concerned about Islamists getting in as part of...

CLANCY: I think it's too late, because when I talked to the activists in Homs, for example, they said we have asked for everything. You have promised we will get communications gear, this non-lethal weaponry. They did not get it. They haven't gotten anything.

And they say we have to take help where we can get it. There's no no- fly zones, no safe havens, no military aid that is coming into us. We're in a desperate battle for our lives, our families' lives. We will the help wherever we can get it.

SAVIDGE: Is there any kind of bargaining chip the U.S. might have to reduce the influence of the Islamists?

CLANCY: Right now, I think time is what will be the determining factor. How entrenched the Islamists become, how many of them become involved in all of this. If and when Bashar al-Assad falls, what is the attitude of the Syrians? But the U.S. hasn't wanted to play a card. Europe hasn't wanted to play a card. If anything, they have tried to stay as far away from what they see as a quagmire as they possibly can. And as a result, they don't have much leverage.

SAVIDGE: All right, Jim Clancy, thanks very much. Always appreciate your insights.

CLANCY: Good to see you, Martin.

SAVIDGE: You, too.

A lot more news developing this other, including this:

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SAVIDGE: (voice-over): As Chicago deals with crime scenes, another crisis. Its massive school system shut down, as 30,000 teachers walk out.

Plus, the feds reportedly spending big bucks on a new high-tech system to fight crime. This one recognizes your face.

And in Syria, rebels accuse the government of dropping TNT barrels. And they say craters like this one prove it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SAVIDGE: This afternoon, instead of dismissal, Chicago is marking an ugly moment in its education history, the first day of the first teachers strike in 25 years.

Now the nation's third largest public school district is in crisis, 29,000 teachers and staff picketing, and 350,000 students are not in class. And Chicago's mayor says it all didn't have to happen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAHM EMANUEL (D), MAYOR OF CHICAGO: This is in my view a strike of choice. And it's the wrong choice for our children.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: But the good news, the two sides are still negotiating today.

CNN's Casey Wian is live in Chicago.

And, Casey, we talked to an education expert who says that issue gets down to job security vs. merit pay. And I'm wondering, is that what you're hearing teachers say on the picket lines?

CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I don't know that teachers would characterize it that way.

But in its simplest terms, I think that education expert is probably exactly right. What the teachers say they want is an end to this new proposed way of evaluating teachers which they say is too heavily reliant on test scores and would cost about 6,000 teachers their jobs over the next year or two.

The mayor's office, the city of Chicago, school officials say they don't know where that 6,000 number comes from. They say that that's not necessarily true. The other issue, Mayor Rahm Emanuel wants principals in local schools like the one behind me to have the power to hire and fire teachers as the principals feel is appropriate. He wants a decentralized approach.

The teachers want more protections, more seniority, and more control from downtown Chicago. That is the main impasse right now. Teachers say they're also concerned about health benefits. The teachers haven't officially accepted the school district's pay proposal, but they say they're close. So those clearly are the two remaining issues.

SAVIDGE: And what are parents doing with their kids in the meantime?

WIAN: It's been a real struggle for a lot of parents.

The school behind me is one location where the city set up that parents could drop off their children for four hours between 8:30 and 12:30 this morning. A lot of parents didn't want to bring their kids here to cross the picket here that was here for several hours this morning.

There are also churches that have opened up their door, also parks, community centers that have opened up their doors. But a lot of parents have been struggling and trying to figure out what to do with their children. Let's listen to what a couple of them had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TENISHA MOTEN, PARENT: I'm concerned because, number one, we have kids. Kids are more than just a test score. I want my baby to know -- I want her to get her education, but it will never happen if they don't get -- from the looks of it, as you can see, it will never happen if they don't get the raise.

VALICIA HILL, PARENT: Come on, now. Our kids shouldn't have to suffer for that. Our kids need their education. It's bad enough that they don't get the education they need because of -- under conditions.

We suffer through poverty. We suffer through gang battles, everything. Our kids have to be out of school? That's the only safe haven they really have right now. For us parents that want to get a job, that want to work, that want to go to school, it's ridiculous. I think they need to come on. Our kids shouldn't have to suffer for them.

(END VIDEO CLIP) WIAN: And given what the city of Chicago has gone through this year with the murder rate that's up 32 percent over last year, that's another concern for many parents, kids that are running around on the street without a school on go to in some cases unsupervised. They're worried about that increasing the violence of those kids becoming victims of violence.

SAVIDGE: Casey in Chicago monitoring the strike there, thank you very much.

A new book suggests that President Obama got so mad over the debt ceiling talks, he showed off -- quote -- "pure fury." And the candid, behind-the-scenes details don't stop there. You're about to hear them.

Plus, the feds today arresting the mayor of a major city in New Jersey. The charges involved corruption and a parking garage.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SAVIDGE: Breaking today: the feds arresting the mayor of Trenton, New Jersey, in a major corruption case.

Democrat Tony Mack accused of setting up bribes from a developer for a park garage project, a project that was supposed to be on city property. We're told he used code words and avoided phone conversations to set up the scheme. The arrest comes less than two months after the FBI raided the mayor's home and city hall. At that time, Mack said he didn't do anything wrong.

Hundreds of hours of recorded pages of transcripts all for one book that details some of the most intense moments of last summer's debt ceiling battle.

Author Bob Woodward's latest book, "The Price of Politics," gives a behind-the-scenes look at the negotiations between the president, that's President Obama, and congressional leaders.

CNN White House correspondent Brianna Keilar is at the White House.

And, Brianna, Woodward harshly judges both President Obama and House Republicans.

And I'm wondering, how is the White House reacting?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: They are reacting.

They were asked about it today. This book, "The Price of Politics" by Bob Woodward, which will be out tomorrow, Marty, in it Bob Woodward says essentially that President Obama and particularly House Speaker John Boehner and House Republicans really punted on tough decisions that would have put the American economy on better economic, better fiscal footing.

And, today, when Jay Carney, the press secretary here, was asked about that, he defended President Obama, not a surprise, saying that he really helped avert a calamity which would have been a default if the debt ceiling had not been increased. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARNEY: He was absolutely committed as commander in chief to preventing a default by the United States for the first time in its history on its obligations, a default which would have led to serious economic consequences both in this country and around the world, a default which sadly some elements in Congress, Republicans in particular, I mean, all Republicans, notably in the House of Representatives, seemed to relish the prospect of coming about.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Now, of course, ultimately the grand bargain that President Obama and Speaker Boehner were attempting fell apart.

And then we saw set in motion spending cuts because Congress couldn't come to agreement, Martin, spending cuts that are set to kick in at the end of this year. And what Woodward says in this book is that neither President Obama nor House Speaker John Boehner handled this particularly well, that they weren't able to set aside partisan politics and he said rather than fixing the problem, they postponed it -- Martin.

SAVIDGE: One of the moments getting a lot of attention is the current Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan's reaction to a speech President Obama gave ahead of that debt ceiling deal.

KEILAR: That's right. This was in April of 2011, and there was a speech that President Obama gave at George Washington University here in D.C.

And unbeknownst to him until he arrived at the venue, Paul Ryan and some other top House Republicans were sitting in the front row to watch his speech. They had been invited by the White House.

And the speech was certainly to the ears of Paul Ryan and his colleagues very harsh. It really hit on his budget, really his vision of where he would certainly want to take government spending. And President Obama actually said at one point that it would have hurt people on Medicaid, but also that it would have hurt kids who had autism or Down syndrome.

And in this book, this is something that kind of struck me, Woodward's words here, he said: "Ryan felt betrayed. He'd expected an olive branch. What he got was the finger," is what Woodward writes.

And he describes a scene after the speech of Ryan just kind of walking off with the other Republicans and a top aide to President Obama, Gene Sperling, running after him, saying, this wasn't a setup. We weren't trying to do this.

But Ryan accused the White House there of poisoning the well. And that sort of set the scene a little for what was really a tough slog of a battle ahead of the debt ceiling deal, Martin.

SAVIDGE: Yes. And it's a battle that continues today.

Brianna Keilar at the White House, thank you very much.

New developments today in a brutal family murder case in the French Alps. Investigators searching the victim's home in England find something suspicious and decide to evacuate the neighborhood.

We get an update on the mystery that is making headlines around the world.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SAVIDGE: A multiple murder in France is drawing international headlines, not just because of its brutality, but because a 4-year-old little girl survived by hiding under her dead mother's legs for hours.

The girl's Iraqi-born, but British-naturalized parents were found dead last week inside of a car in the French Alps. The body of an older woman, possibly the child's grandmother, was also found in the car. Nearby, a cyclist lay dead -- each victim shot in the head twice.

The girl's seven-year-old sister is fighting to live after being beaten and shot. So far, French police have no motive and they've got no suspects.

CNN's Atika Shubert is outside the family home in England where investigators are looking for clues.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ATIKA SHUBERT: Well, it's been about three days since British police have been combing through the home of the al-Hilli family, hoping to find any clue, anything that might stand out as being unusual, that might point to why the family was targeted in these execution-style killings.

They have brought in a number of equipment into the backyard as the search expands into a workshop at the rear of the garden, but so far, nothing seems to have been found.

There were a number of materials that police feared might be hazardous and, for that reason, a bomb disposal unit was brought in, but it was determined that these items were not hazardous or dangerous after all.

In the meantime, French police are hoping to question this seven-year- old girl who survived the attack, despite being shot in the shoulder. She was in medically induced coma. She has now been brought out of that, but is still under sedation. As a result, police say they may not be able to question her for a few days yet.

Her four-year-old sister, in the meantime, survived by hiding under the legs of her mother for several hours after the attack. She has now been brought here to Britain and she is with her closest relatives, but so far, police say they have no suspect, no motive and the mystery has only deepened.

Atika Shubert, CNN, Claygate, England.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SAVIDGE: Thank you very much, Atika.

Well, welcome to the future, facial recognition. The FBI looks to spend millions of dollars for new software to catch criminals, but is there cause for concern for the good guys, as well? We're "On the Case," next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SAVIDGE: "Stand your ground" could be a shaky foundation for George Zimmerman and then getting lost in the crowd could soon become much harder.

Sunny Hostin is "On the Case" and, Sunny, let's start with the George Zimmerman case, a case we're both very familiar with.

Zimmerman, of course, is charged with shooting and killing 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in the Sanford area of Florida back in Florida. Zimmerman's using Florida's controversial "stand-your-ground" law as a defense.

He is saying that Trayvon Martin came after him and that he feared death or great bodily injury and, because of that, he was well within his right to use deadly force against the teen.

But there's a new judge, Judge Debra Nelson, and she rejected a "stand-your-ground" defense when it was used in another case, earlier this year.

So, Sunny, if I am the defense team, how am I feeling right about now on this new judge?

SUNNY HOSTIN, LEGAL ANALYST: Well, you're certainly feeling better than in front of Judge Lester because the bottom line is the most important person in the courtroom for the "stand-your-ground" hearing is the judge because those hearings, Martin, as you know, are only before the judge, unlike a criminal trial where George Zimmerman would be in front of a jury.

And, so, Judge Lester, the previous judge, had, in a scathing opinion, felt that George and his wife, Shelly, had lied to him and had perjured themselves.

Certainly, that is not the judge that this defense team wanted the "stand-your-ground" claim in front of and, so, it was well played to ask for a new judge. They have this judge, Judge Debra Nelson.

She's only heard one previous case and you're right. In that previous case, she did reject the "stand-your-ground" claim, but I think they're on much firmer ground with this judge than they were with Judge Lester.

SAVIDGE: And there will have to be a "stand-your-ground" hearing and I don't believe we've got a date yet set, but I imagine that is going to seem almost like a full-on trial, at least from the defense's point of view.

HOSTIN: There's no question about it. I mean, this will be a mini- trial. The defense has indicated that they will ask for the trial, probably -- the "stand-your-ground" hearing probably after the first of the year.

It is a hearing that George Zimmerman will testify at and, so, I suspect that we will be covering that, Martin, both of us, and no question about it, we will hear what happened on that night from the very mouth of George Zimmerman.

SAVIDGE: And, real quick, once that hearing is done, if it rules in favor of George Zimmerman, there is no trial, right? It ends there.

HOSTIN: That's right. It's over. He gets immunity not only from criminal prosecution, but civil claims, as well.

So, it's almost sort of that "bet-your-farm"-type litigation that we hear about all the time.

SAVIDGE: OK. Before we run out of time, we want to get to facial recognition, this new software the FBI is now wanting to use, the next generation of identification.

The long and short of it is that the cameras can scan a crowd and use biometrics to match faces with faces that the feds already have in the today the bases.

The FBI says the program's aim to help reduce, of course, terrorism and criminal activities, but what do you think, Sunny. Any privacy concerns here?

HOSTIN: Well, to be sure, this is going to be challenged on constitutional grounds, once it rolls out in 2014. No question about that.

But this could be, Martin, a really significant tool in the crime against -- in the war against terrorism. It could be a terrific law enforcement tool for criminals.

We know that some of these really high-end facial recognition programs are effective and accurate at about 90 percent, so can you imagine how useful this could be not only to the FBI, but also law enforcement?

But, absolutely, there are going to be some challenges on privacy grounds, on Fourth Amendment grounds. We're going to hear a lot more, I think, about this sort of next-generation identification.

SAVIDGE: Yeah, and I think, like it or not, it's here. So. Sunny Hostin ...

HOSTIN: That's right.

SAVIDGE: Thank you very much for joining us. Good to talk to you. HOSTIN: Thanks, Martin.

SAVIDGE: Less than two months before the presidential election and we take a loser look at the big issues. Just ahead, a breakdown of how the president and Mitt Romney promise to create more jobs.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SAVIDGE: Living off the land in this day and age, it is still possible. An organic farm growing all its own food, generating its own power and fueling the kitchen with methane gas from waste.

The pioneer behind it all tells his story on "The Next List." Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUAN SOSTHEIM, OWNER AND FOUNDER OF RANCHO MARGOT: Sustainability is basically using resources, but not compromising them for future generations. We, as a human race have not been very sustainable.

Hello, everyone. My name is Juan Sostheim and I'm the owner and founder of Rancho Margot.

It's a living university in so many ways. Basically, we're off the grid. We produce our own food. We make our own furniture. We produce our own energy, electricity and cooking gas. We compost waste and heat water with it.

At the same time, we produce a luxury environment for people to come and enjoy themselves and it's all within an environment that we can say, wow, I can't believe I'm not doing any damage. I can't brief I'm actually doing some good.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: Don't miss "The Next List," this Sunday at 2:00 p.m. Eastern on CNN.

You will hear plenty of noise and lots of spin on the campaign trail around the big issues, so CNN is going to help you figure out where President Obama and Mitt Romney stand.

For three weeks, one issue at a time, we are going to examine the candidate's words and actions. Today, CNN's Christine Romans breaks down the Obama and Romney plans to fix the struggling economy and create new jobs.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Over eight percent unemployment, 5 million without work for six months or longer, more than 8 million only working part-time, if there's one thing Mitt Romney and Barack Obama can agree on, the economy and, more specifically, the jobs crisis in America is the issue of this race. Mitt Romney's philosophy -- let the private sector create new jobs. President Obama agrees, but thinks the President Obama must play a larger role by investing in programs that may pay off in the future.

MITT ROMNEY, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I have a plan to create 12 million new jobs.

ROMANS: Romney advisers also claim their plans will add 7 million jobs over the decade.

ROMNEY: Government doesn't create jobs. It's the private sector that creates jobs.

ROMANS: So, what's in this Romney plan? First, Romney wants to overhaul the tax code by cutting marginal tax rates 20 percent across the board. He argues that people will have more money in their pocket to buy things and, in turn, more jobs will be created to meet the demand for those goods and services.

Romney also claims that regulations cost private business about $1.75 trillion a year, so he says he'll repeal ObamaCare and Dodd-Frank financial regulation, much of which is still yet to be implemented.

He also plans to reform the regulatory system to make sure it balances the benefit to society with the cost to business.

Finally, by balancing the budget, Romney plans to inject confidence into the business environment. However, capping federal spending means hundreds of thousands fewer government jobs at the federal, state and local levels.

Supporters of Romney's plan say it will create 12 million jobs, conservatively, but no president has accomplished it in a single term since the data was first collected in the 1940s.

Now, for President Obama's plan to get more Americans back to work ...

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Jobs must be our number one focus in 2010, and that's why I'm calling for a new jobs bill tonight.

ROMANS: Well, that jobs bill never panned out and neither did the $477 billion effort he promoted last year, both essentially blocked by Congress.

So, what does Mr. Obama want to do moving forward? Similar to what he's proposed to the past.

OBAMA: We need to create more jobs, faster. We need to fill the hole left by this recession, faster. We need to come out of this crisis, stronger.

ROMANS: He wants to create jobs in manufacturing and green energy through tax incentives and investment.

More spending on infrastructure, the president signed a more than $100 billion transportation bill in July. It extends mostly current programs through 2014.

And the president also proposed spending $35 billion for school, police and fire department payrolls, along with another $130 billion to shore-up state budgets. This was in his failed jobs plan last year.

Yet to be seen, if he's re-elected, whether those plans would have more success than they've had in the last three years.

Both candidates say they want to cut the corporate tax rate, expand energy jobs in the U.S. and support small business.

Whoever is elected will probably have to do all that and much more to get us out of the jobs hole.

Christine Romans, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SAVIDGE: In Syria, rebels say the government dropped a bomb on a kindergarten and they claim it is one of these attacks in which TNT and nails are put inside of barrels. We'll explain, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SAVIDGE: As brutal and deadly as the Syrian crackdown has been, there is a new allegation and I want you to take a look at one of many videos that have been surfacing on YouTube recently.

This one allegedly shows which have become known as "TNT barrel bombs." This one didn't explode. And I need to say here that, of course, CNN cannot independently verify this video.

Members of the Syrian opposition claim Syrian government forces are filling these barrels with TNT, nails and fuel before dropping them on civilian areas.

CNN's Mohammed Jamjoom is following this story and he joins us now from Beirut.

Mohammed, bombs are bombs, are they not? And, so, what is the opposition saying about these particular bombs? What makes them worse than any other bomb?

MOHAMMED JAMJOOM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Martin, it's very hard to verify this. The Syrian regime certainly isn't talking or responding to any of these reports, but the opposition activists have been saying for the few days that, in the last couple of weeks, the Syrian regime has resorted to constructing these very crudely-made bombs. They're calling them improvised-explosive devices.

The opposition is saying that the regime is taking nails, sometimes skewers, fuel, TNT and other explosive devices, putting them into a barrel and them dropping them from aircraft.

And the opposition is saying that this is really maximizing damage, that these bombs are wreaking more damage and more devastation where they're being dropped.

Now, yesterday, as an example, online video is purported to show the aftermath of what opposition activists say was an area where barrel bombs were dropped. This is some of the video that we're looking at now from Hanano which is in Aleppo in Syrian.

You see what appears to be a residential building that was completely flattened and then there are men that were trying to dig victims out of that rubble, looking for bodies, looking for survivors.

And the opposition activists are saying that this new, very crude tactic not only is maximizing devastation, but also just causing more terror because people are more afraid of these bombs now than they were of the other bombs. And they were already so afraid because there's been so much shelling and so much bombing going on, especially in Aleppo, these past few weeks.

Martin?

SAVIDGE: And with the increased use of air support, I'm wondering, where do things stand as far as any kind of international no-fly zone?

JAMJOOM: Well, Martin, we know that in the last few weeks we've heard indications from the U.S. and Turkey that they're studying their options and one of those options might be the creation of a no-fly zone.

And, certainly, there have been more calls from the international community and from big players within the international community to go ahead and create or try to create a no-fly zone.

But the fact of the matter is it doesn't look like it's going to happen anytime soon. The countries that have said they might explore it at some point say there's still a lot of studies that need to be done before this could be created.

And then you have the problem of the U.N. security council still being deadlocked, Russia and China, still supporting the Syrian regime. Because of that -- they have veto power.

There's been no consensus amongst these countries about what to what to do and that's where the dilemma lies. There's still a diplomatic activity, a lot of flurry of diplomatic activity going on, trying to come up with a political solution to the crisis in Syria to the civil war, but it hasn't yielded any kind of solution either.

And, essentially, what's going on in Syria right now is a war of attrition, this brutal civil war, and it doesn't seem to have any end in sight or the creation of a no-fly zone anytime soon.

Martin?

SAVIDGE: Mohammed Jamjoom, thank you very much for joining us tonight.

The effort to find water on the planet Mars. What could be a sign of life could now spell trouble. Chad Myers tells us why, next.

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SAVIDGE: Right now in Burbank, California, family and close friends of actor Michael Clarke Duncan are saying their last goodbyes at a private memorial service.