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Space Skydiver Climbs Into Capsule; Obama Ad Features Big Bird; Romney In Iowa; Sandusky Gets At Least 30 Years; Stacey Dash Gets Tweet Backlash; Religious Belief Diminishes for Millennials; Felix Baumgartner Aborts Jump; Big Bird Featured in Obama Ad

Aired October 09, 2012 - 13:00   ET

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

VICTOR BACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Victor Backwell in for Suzanne Malveaux. This hour in the CNN NEWSROOM, Mitt Romney is gaining ground in the polls. Plus, forget the church choir and the stained glass windows. More Americans are saying no to organized religion. Let's get right to it, but first we're just about let's say 40 minutes from an attempt to set a new skydiving record. But not just any record, one from the edge of space, 23 miles above the earth. At 1:40 Eastern, Felix Baumgartner plans to begin his ascent before his freefall back to earth at almost 700 miles an hour. He'll leap from a specially built balloon and capsule wearing a high tech spacesuit, weighs about 100 pounds. But if this goes wrong, it could go terribly wrong. The jump was supposed to actually happen at 10:30 Eastern this morning. But it was delayed because of windy conditions.

Let's bring in Brian Todd, he is in New Mexico at the launch side. Brian, does it look now that everything is ready to go?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It does, Victor, and this is one of the most exciting moments of this entire mission. You've mentioned the delays, they've been fairly significant with those wind conditions earlier, that's gone away. We're going to zoom into the capsule now. The latest we can tell you is -- as our photojournalist, Mike Glove, takes us into the capsule, is that Felix Baumgartner, our daredevil, has entered the capsule. He is doing checks. He is going through all of the various components and all the checks that he has to do to get ready for this mission. You mentioned the launch time. The launch of the balloon and capsule scheduled for 1:40 Eastern time, 11:40 local time, that's a little less than 40 minutes from now.

And, in the meantime, they're going to be inflating the high altitude balloon. That balloon is laid out on the ground to the right of the capsule over there. You can't see much of it take shape right now, but that should be coming shortly. We're going to start to see the inflation effect take shape as it kind of rises above the surface. This is a massive balloon, 55 stories high, can accommodate just incredible volumes of helium and it's going to take into 120,000 feet above the surface of the earth. It takes him about -- they're estimating two and a half to three hours to get up there.

So, once this inflates and the launch takes place at 1:40, from that point, two and a half to three hours to get to the stratosphere, the highest point of the jump, at that point, Felix Baumgartner will do some other checks. Everything is really planned out to the very minute step and then he steps off a platform and begins his dive. So, that is -- that is the time table we're looking at, Victor. Very exciting right now and those first moments after the jump will be the most dangerous and the most crucial.

BACKWELL: And this is certainly going to be exciting to watch as he kind of kicks his legs out off the edge of this capsule and jumps towards the earth. And it's not just some self-serving effort to break a world record. There's some science involved here. What do we expect to learn from this jump?

TODD: Well, a couple things, Victor, that are very important. One is, you know, we talked about him going the speed of sound, breaking the sound barrier, 690 plus miles an hour. He could actually go as fast as maybe 720 miles an hour. That is faster than a jumbo jet travels. And you imagine, he is just doing this in a high pressure suit. The -- one of the points of that is to test what happens to the body when it goes through the sound barrier. No one's ever done it before. They don't know what happens to the body. Now, they think that because there's very little pressure up there and very little air, that maybe the body could get battered around a little bit, but that it won't really suffer any severe effects. But that's going to be put to the test. Another test is of this high pressure suit. That is really the thing that is -- that is crucial here. If that gets breached in any way, we could have a very bad situation on our hands.

A couple of the possibilities are that he could be exposed to severely cold temperatures, it gets to about 70 degrees below zero up there. If it's breached more severely, the air could get sucked out of his lungs and his blood could boil. We don't want to think about that right now, but these are the things that they have laid out for us as far as possibilities if that high pressure suit is breached. If the suit stays intact, we talked about what they want to gain as far as scientific knowledge. That is really going to be possibly the next generation of spacesuit. When his predecessor, the man who holds this road, Joe Kittinger, did this in 1960, they based the spacesuits for the Mercury and Apollo programs on his suit. So, if this is successful, the next generation of astronauts could be wearing a suit very similar to that of which Felix Baumgartner is wearing.

BACKWELL: All right, let's talk more about the unknowns with Chad Myers, he joins us now. Brian mentioned Kittinger who has the record at 102,000 feet. We're going up to 120,000. There are, of course, some unknowns because no one's ever done this. But what do we know about temperature, pressure, concerns at that level?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: When he jumps out of the capsule, he's not going to start doing tumbles. He's not going to -- he doesn't want to. And he's not going to do black flips. This is not a joke. This is head down, straight down, as fast as he can go for the next couple of minutes trying to get to that sound barrier, trying literally to go as fast as the body can go down. Once it starts to hit air, the atmosphere, the body will slow down. We're going to -- you know, just like a regular jump out of a plane, only about 120 miles an hour. That's as fast as you can go when there is air slowing you down. Stick your hand out the window of a car, you feel that air. That's the drag that he will feel eventually. But it's that first 10 miles that he won't have that drag that that's when he'll try to accelerate to that point. It is a -- it is a big deal for space because of space tourism. You know, we talk about SpaceX, we talk about Richard Branson trying to take people up to the edge of space. If we could have had something like this to get those astronauts that lost their lives in low earth orbit coming back from Challenger and so on, that could have made -- it could've been a huge difference. This is what we're talking about, maybe a life saving apparatus to get people up to the edge of space and then back down. Make it a return trip rather than if something goes catastrophically wrong in one of space tourist things, then where do you go from there? This is a big time science project. Obviously, trying to break a world record yet, but the science behind it is tremendous.

BACKWELL: So, although there is excitement and people will watch that jump, and think about if they had the opportunity to do it, it's not some stunt jump where they've got barrel rolling, because that would be dangerous.

MYERS: Absolutely, he does not want to do that.

BACKWELL: They talked about this horizontal spin that they want to avoid --

MYERS: Yes.

BACKWELL: -- that would put him in some serious danger. Chad, thank you. We'll get back to you when we get closer to 1:40, the still estimated time for this ascent.

All right. A difference from the debate. We're seeing it now in the numbers. A new poll out today suggests that Mitt Romney's performance last week gave him a major bounce. The Pew Research poll has Romney leading the president 49, 45 among likely voters. And you might say, Victor, this is just one poll. All right. Well, Romney's four point advantage is still within the survey sampling error, yes, but make no mistake, it's got people talking.

And even the American Research Group, another polling group, shows that the race tightening to just in -- within one percentage point over the last two weeks. Romney is out on the campaign trail right now in Iowa, a state that could deliver him six critical electoral votes. Jim Acosta is out there with him in the town of Van Meter. Jim, of course good news for the Romney campaign, but what does this mean for the campaign, what changes are you seeing on the road?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Victor, one thing that we have seen over the last several days, the crowds are getting bigger for Mitt Romney out on the campaign trail. We're at an event right now in Van Meter, Iowa, Chuck Grassley, the senator from this state, is on stage getting this crowd warmed up to hear from the GOP nominee. And just before that, Josh Romney, the candidate's son, was at the podium and he said what a lot of Romney family members and even Romney himself has been saying out on the campaign trail, and that is how about that debate last week? They do feel that that debate has energized voters, has also given undecided voters out there who were sort of looking at both candidates at this point, sort of a different look, a new look at Mitt Romney and they think that is also a reason why the poll numbers are moving in his direction.

But we had a chance to listen to a senior Romney adviser on the campaign plane heading in to Iowa. Just about a half an hour ago, Kevin Madden was talking to reporters. And we asked him, what do you think about these new polls? Are you guys getting excited about this? And they said, hey, look, this is campaign that doesn't get it too high on good days and doesn't get too low on bad days. And so, the translation is that they're they're going to ride it out. They're, of course, happy and they're energized by what they're seeing out here, but they know that they also have to be cautious about this. Victor, I talked to another Romney campaign aide yesterday in Virginia who said they would have preferred these poll numbers to come out in November, not October.

BACKWELL: We just also want to let everyone know, CNN, we're going to have our own poll numbers out today in the "SITUATION ROOM" at 4:00 p.m. Eastern. But let's talk now about the Obama team. Are they hitting the panic button right now or are they, just as some people are saying, this is one poll, two polls, still very tight?

ACOSTA: I'm not sure if they're hitting the panic button. I think they're hitting the "Sesame Street" button, that's what they've been doing over the last couple of days. The Obama campaign has been using Big Bird pretty heavily to go after Mitt Romney after that debate performance last week. And what you've seen the Obama campaign do is sort of litigate the post debate argument that Mitt Romney was, in their view, dishonest during that first faceoff with the President. And so, they're going to be hammering him on that. They've been putting Big Bird out on the campaign trail, basically actors in Big Bird costumes. They've got that new add that came out this morning, showing Mitt Romney going after Big Bird.

And we also had a chance to ask Kevin Madden about that on the campaign plane, and he said, hey, wait a minute, this is troubling that this is what the Obama campaign has resorted to. And all morning long, Romney and Republican party officials have been blasting out e- mails to reporters showing what President Obama said back in 2008, when he was Senator Obama, at the Democratic convention when he said, when you're in trouble out on the campaign trail, sometimes you make these campaigns about small things. And that's what they're -- that's what the Romney campaign is accusing the President of doing right now.

BACKWELL: Yes, the President talking about Big Bird and Elmo making a run for the border now. They'll both be in Ohio running across that state border this evening, 18 electoral votes on the line there. We've said it many times, no Republican in modern times has won the White House without winning Ohio. We know it, the President knows it, of course Mitt Romney's campaign, they know it. What are they doing now after the debate performance to switch this into their favor in Ohio?

ACOSTA: Well, Victor, they are pouring a lot of energy and resources into Ohio right now. You're absolutely right, if Mitt Romney were somehow elected president without winning the state of Ohio, he would be the first Republican candidate to so. So, he would be making history in that regard. But I think what you're going to be seeing in the next 24 to 48 hours is poll numbers tightening when it comes to the state of Ohio. That is just a natural extension of what we're seeing across the battleground map. Lots of states, not just Ohio, but Colorado, Michigan, a lot of these states are showing the polls tightening between the President and Mitt Romney.

And what we heard from the Romney campaign, on that campaign plane just a few moments ago, is that they are going to be zeroing in on the economy. You know, they feel like, even though they talked about national security issues yesterday, they've been doing that a lot lately, but the economy is the make or break issue and that's what they'll be focusing in on in these days ahead.

All right, Jim Acosta, travelling with the campaign -- the Romney campaign in Van Meter, Iowa. And today, our Wolf Blitzer has a live interview with Mitt Romney and it's at 6:00 p.m. Eastern, only on CNN.

And Thursday, the next debate, the vice presidential debate, Joe Biden, Paul Ryan together on the stage. CNN special live coverage starts at 7:00 p.m. Eastern, 4:00 Pacific.

Here's what we're working on for this hour.

(voice-over): It's sentencing day for Jerry Sandusky, but the convicted child rapist says he is the real victim.

Plus, none of the above. That's what one in five Americans chooses when it comes to religion.

And backlash for supporting Mitt Romney, actor Stacey Dash is on the defensive after simply tweeting her support.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Mitt Romney is out on the campaign trail today in two pivotal states, Iowa and Ohio. He's speaking right now in Van Meter, Iowa. Let's listen.

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Your interest, dividends, and capital gains, if you're lucky enough to have it. My view is, that if you're making $200,000 a year and less, you should pay no tax whatsoever on interest, dividends or capital gains.

Now, the president and I have different records when it comes -- and viewpoints when it comes to exports. You recognize that about a million jobs in this country are associated with agricultural exports. And over the last four years, the president has signed no new trade agreements with any nation around the world. Even as China and European nations have put together some 44 different agreements, he's done none. What I'm going to do is make sure that I devote my time to getting trade promotion authority, that I use that authority to negotiate new deals so that we open up new markets for American farms and for American goods of all kinds because we can compete on a level playing field with anyone in the world. Now there are differences on regulations, by the way. And you know this. The regulatory burden under this administration has just gone -- has just gone crazy. The president's regulations as it relates to farming are kind of interesting. One is the EPA tried to get into -- well, (INAUDIBLE) the EPA, the government tried to get into regulating rainwater in ditches on farms, all right. It used to be that there was rainwater in Iowa and people cared about that. We hope it's coming back soon. But in addition, they, of course, want to regulate dust, they want to impose duplicate rules on pesticides. There was actually an effort, you recall this, to prevent teenagers from being able to work in certain types of functions on farms.

And then there's pushing cap and trade. I understand if they push cap and trade it will not only massively impact the income of farms, it will take millions out acres out of farming. My own view on regulation is very different. You have to have regulation. You need regulation for markets to work effectively. But I'm going to cut back on regulation. I'm going to put a cap on regulation and any new major regulation will have to be approved by Congress. I'm not letting the politicians off the hook.

BLACKWELL: Mitt Romney in Van Meter, Iowa, talking about regulations as it relates to agriculture and the farming community and a message tailored to the people there in Iowa. And today our Wolf Blitzer has a live interview with Mitt Romney. It's at 6:00 p.m. Eastern only on CNN. Of course, Thursday, the vice presidential debate, Joe Biden, Paul Ryan. CNN's special live coverage starts at 7:00 p.m. Eastern, 4:00 Pacific.

Former Penn State Assistant Football Coach Jerry Sandusky will likely spend the rest of his life in prison. A judge has sentenced him to at least 30 years in prison for sexually abusing boys entrusted into his care. CNN contributor Sara Ganim has been covering this story from the very beginning. She won a Pulitzer prize for her coverage. And she's with me now.

Sara, you were in the courtroom when the judge handed down the sentence today. First off, you know, Jerry Sandusky has had some really -- most people would call them bizarre reactions, some bizarre answers in interviews. How did he react today?

SARA GANIM, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: He didn't react specifically to the sentence, but right before it was handed down, he did get very emotional. For the first time we saw him cry. And that was when he was talking about his wife, Dottie, and being separated from her. He said that he doesn't like being called a child molester, but what really hurts, where the pain really comes from is being separated from his wife and his family. He said -- he talked about this year's wedding anniversary, he rolled over in bed to give her a hug and instead he hit a cinder block wall because he's in jail.

He also talked about clinging to hope and fighting for the people that still support him. He said that he still thinks about kids and daydreams about smiling children, throws kids up into the air and having water balloon fights. So he's still proclaiming his innocence. He did not stray from that at all. It's been very consistent from the beginning.

BLACKWELL: Still discussing kids and water balloon flights and throwing kids into the air. Now, we know that the judge could have sentenced him to a lot more time. He faced a max of 400 years in prison. But why did the judge choose this sentence? What did the judge say about the minimum of 30 years?

GANIM: Judge John Cleland said he recognized that the law allowed him to give Sandusky centuries in jail, but he thought that was too abstract. He wanted to give him a sentence that would show that he wanted him behind bars for the rest of his life, but he also wanted it to have meaning. And that's how he said he arrived at a sentence of 30 to 60 years behind bars. Now that means that the first time that Jerry Sandusky will be eligible for parole is in 30 years. That's when he can apply for the first time. It doesn't necessarily mean he'll get out in 30 years.

BLACKWELL: So we heard from the judge, we heard from Jerry Sandusky today, but we also heard from victims today. Tell us about that.

GANIM: Yes, we heard from three victims in person and then two statements were read into the court by the prosecutor. One from a victim and one from a victim's mother. But I think the most powerful one came from victim number four, who was the first actually to take the stand at trial. And he said to Jerry Sandusky, he looked right at him and he said, I'll never forgive you. But he did ask for forgiveness from the other victims because he was abused in the early 1990s. He's one of the first in the time line that we heard of in court at trial. And so he asked for forgiveness for not coming forward sooner. He said that was his one regret.

And the other victims also talked about their pain and anguish. Victim nine's mom talked about how her son has tried to take his life twice because of this case. Victim five talked about how he didn't want to come forward. He still has flashbacks of Jerry Sandusky's naked body approaching him. But he said he felt it was his civic duty to participate in this trial and put this to an end.

BLACKWELL: Still some difficult years ahead. Sara Ganim, thank you for that.

All this actress wanted to do was support Mitt Romney, but she was slammed for her tweet. We'll tell you what she said.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Actress Stacey Dash tweeted her support for Mitt Romney and that set off a barrage of attacks on Twitter. If you don't know who I'm talking about, this is the woman. You'll recognize the face. She's the actress from the '90s hit "Clueless." She played Dionne. Well, her tweet read, "vote for Romney, the only choice for your future." And it includes a picture of Dash wearing a tight red top in front of an American flag. You see it looks like a plane there also she's leaning on.

Well, the backlash has been fierce. One critic tweeted, "you're an unemployed black woman endorsing Mitt Romney. You're voting against yourself thrice. You poor beautiful idiot."

Here's another one. "Wait, Stacey Dash is voting for Romney? You get a little money and you forget that you're black and a woman, two things Romney hates."

And some went further. One Twitter user even called Dash an "indoor slave."

I want to bring in Amy Holmes, anchor of "Real News" The Blaze. She joins us from New York.

Amy, when I read some of these responses this morning, I could not believe what people were saying back to this woman who just said vote for this guy. Why all these vicious attacks?

AMY HOLMES, ANCHOR, "REAL NEWS" THE BLAZE: I know. It is so discouraging. But first I want to welcome Stacey Dash to the black conservative club. We are a small but hearty and resilient group. It does mean you are going to get this kind of reaction, unfortunately, from some of the very mean spirited people that are out there and apparently they're rage monsters come out in this social media, on Twitter, in comment sections. But I applaud her for stating her values forthrightly, openly, and even responding to some of these critics and sticking to her guns. She's a strong and brave woman and I look forward to hearing more from her.

BLACKWELL: Now, you say the black conservative club is a very small one. I was sitting with the producers of the show this morning and we were trying to think about other black celebrities, not politicians, because we know that there are Herman Cain, J.C. Watts (ph), other black politicians, black Republicans, who support Mitt Romney, but we couldn't come up with another black celebrity whose come out to support Governor Romney. Why is that? I mean is it that there aren't any in Hollywood or they're just afraid of this?

HOLMES: Well, you know, I don't know the answer to that question. Kind of a, you know, it's sort of a chicken and egg problem really. But we do know that the Hollywood community is very left wing and that there is this thought police in Hollywood. Again, why Stacey Dash speaking out is so brave, I mean it is a real risk. I have friends who work in the entertainment industry who have told me stories about people who didn't get jobs because of their politics. It's so competitive. You don't want to have one thing counting against you and being a conservative is apparently the only unforgivable sin for Hollywood left wing, you know, entertainers.

BLACKWELL: OK, Dash tweeted something after all this backlash and we want to put it up on the screen. She tweeted, "my humble opinion, everyone is entitled to one." Her supporters chimed in, as well, to her defense. One tweet says, "all Romney supporters, please follow and support @REALStaceyDash" -- that's her handle. "It appears she'll be voting for Mitt Romney and she's getting some heat over this."

You know, one question I had about this was looking back at the 2008 primary between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, there were some high profile African-Americans who supported Hillary Clinton. Maya Angelou one of them. I remember listening to her radio ad supporting Hillary Clinton. And there just wasn't this kind of backlash. So the question is, is this more about race and supporting someone other than the black candidate or is it more about the policy and supporting a Republican white candidate?

HOLMES: Well, you know, Victor, I think it's a little bit of both. When you reflect back to the 2008 election, what you were talking about were two Democrats. And we know that the African-American community votes overwhelming for Democratic candidates. Ninety percent. In Barack Obama's case, it was much higher. But it's also race and you saw that in the twitter feeds that Stacey Dash being African-American was getting particular vitriol and viciousness because of that. And you read some of the mild tweets, frankly. There were other things said to her and about her that were far nastier and far uglier having to do with race.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

HOLMES: And I think there's also, frankly, a gender element, too. And that was also showing up in the tweets. That being a beautiful woman, a lot of people just -- they can't take it.

BLACKWELL: Some of the things we couldn't say on television.

Amy Holmes, thank you for that.

I want to mention what Mitt Romney tweeted. "Women have had enough of Barack Obama's disappointment. We need new leadership to get our economy growing again."

And you can hear from Stacey Dash herself. She'll be live on "Piers Morgan Tonight." That's at 9:00 Eastern right here on CNN.

Stain glass windows, church pews, the choir. They're all things in the past for a lot of Americans because more people say they have no religion.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Welcome back. I'm Victor Blackwell, in for Suzanne Malveaux.

We have a live look at Roswell, New Mexico. This is that huge balloon connected to Felix Baumgartner. He'll use 23 miles and he'll use the balloon to float back to space -- his parachute actually. This is going up two hours. He's supposed to start at 1:40. So let me give you the time line here. At 1:40, he'll begin his ascent up 23 miles. He'll then try to jump and break the sound barrier, which is 120,000 feet. He'll be moving at 700 miles an hour. And he's tying to break a record that was set back in 1960. We'll watch this from Roswell, New Mexico. Our Brian Todd is there. But again, he's not doing it just for a stunt. There is a lot of science behind this and could make space travel safer. He can do the jump. I can't say the words. Space travel safer. We'll watch Felix Baumgartner in Roswell, New Mexico. A question for you. When's the last time you went to church, temple or synagogue, any place of worship? If your answer is, oh, it's been a while or never, you may be part of the rising number of Americans who say they have no religious affiliation. A new survey by Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found a whopping three million Americans now say they don't have a religion. That's one out of every five Americans.

Joining me now to talk about this is CNN's "Belief Blog" co-editor, Eric Marrapodi.

Eric, why are people telling surveyors that they're turning away from organized religion specifically?

ERIC MARRAPODI, CNN BELIEF BLOG CO-EDITOR: Victor, there were a number of reasons as to why they don't consider themselves affiliated with any religion. One was maybe they weren't raised in a religious household. Another reason they gave was they weren't crazy about the way things were going. They were upset about the religion, and they left. And another one was they were raised in a religious family, but never really got engaged with the religion. Many, they left for college and, when they come back, they would go for services with their mom and dad but, otherwise, they kind of leave it to their parents and have left the religion as they've moved on with their lies.

BLACKWELL: We know now about why people are leaving, but what are we learning about who is leaving, their age, any political of affiliation?

MARRAPODI: There were interesting points brought up, that an awful lot of the folks who left or say they have no religious preference are young. And frankly, when we look at Millennials, those folks born around 1981 and sooner, who are around the ages of 18 to 22, 34 percent of those young Millennials say they have no religious affiliation. And in particular, when we look at their political leanings, 63 percent say they are Democrat or lean Democratic, and 26 percent say they're Republican or lean Republican.

And, Victor, you'll remember this came up during the Democratic National Convention when they removed the word "God" from the party platform. There was a big brouhaha about this and they eventually reinserted it back into that platform. But political scientists, one named John Green, who advised the Pew on this study, who is one of the preempt scholars, he said Democrats would do well to play to this group and they could be just as influential as the religious right folks can be for the Republican party.

BLACKWELL: Taking God out of party platform lasted for just a few hours. But we didn't want people to believe that the folks who are walking away from organized religion are atheists. Because they aren't. They're not a pt of a religious -- organized religion, but they do believe in God apparently. What is the difference for them that we're earning from this survey?

MARRAPODI: This survey did show a big spike in the number of people who are atheists, particularly those who are younger saying they're atheists. And part of that is because there's been a culture shift. It's now OK to say you're an atheist or you have no religious preference. But let me walk you through this. Of those people who said they have no religious preference, a full 68 percent of them still said they believed in God. That's a big number. 68 percent said they still believed in God. 37 percent --

(CROSSTALK)

BLACKWELL: Go ahead. Finish this and I have a question about believing in God, specifically.

MARRAPODI: Sure. 37 percent of those folks said they were spiritual but not religious, something we hear an awful lot. And 20 percent of those folks said they pray every day.

BLACKWELL: It looks like we've run out of time, but I wanted to get to specifically believing in God, and crafting a God that you can believe in, if there are no organized religious rules.

Eric Marrapodi, thank you very much for that.

We're back now to Roswell, New Mexico. Felix Baumgartner about to go up. Scheduled for 1:40, his ascent to 23 miles above the earth where he is going to jump out of a capsule wearing a pressurized suit and helmet. We're told that it weighs about 100 pounds and he's going to head up to try to break the sound barrier using nothing but his physical body.

Brian Todd is there on the ground at the launch site in Roswell.

Give us an idea of what's happening right now, the final moments before the ascent.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Victor, this is very interesting visual to watch as you can see, the inflation of the balloon. We're told that that inflation has about maybe 20 minutes or less to go. Once that is completely inflated, we're pretty much assuming that we'll get a go signal for the balloon and the capsule to be launched. And then once that lifts off, you're talking about 2.5 to three hours of ascent time before it hits the top of the stratosphere and the point where Felix Baumgartner will jump. We're told he's been for the last several minutes inside the capsule doing checks, going through his projections, communicating with Mission Control.

One thing that's very interesting, once the balloon and the capsule start to ascend, the guy in his ear is Joe Kitinger, the man whose 52- year-old record for the longest free fall Felix Baumgartner will try to break. So in the ascent, which should begin possibly in about 20 minutes or so, that's when Joe Kitinger and Felix Baumgartner will be speaking to each other as he ascends to the top of the stratosphere.

BLACKWELL: Brian, we're seeing the balloon whip around a bit and we know this was not the first scheduled launch time. It was delayed from earlier this morning. Tell us more about the conditions there and the concerns for the people, concerns from the people, rather, who were managing this attempt.

TODD: Yes, Victor, early this morning, we were getting early warnings that there were high winds -- not really high. If it's relative. But winds that were too strong for this balloon to really deal with. And those winds existed about 700 to 800 feet above the earth. And they just said that the winds were probably at about 20 miles an hour at their strongest point. Doesn't seem like it's very strong to you and I, but for this particular balloon, that is an issue. It's a sensitive balloon. It's very strong and very big. But it is sensitive to those winds. And they were worry that had maybe the balloon could get too far ahead of the capsule and that it could get whipped around a little bit. You can see it getting whipped around there. Not sure exactly what that means. A lot of this could be expected by the crew once they start to really get this thing going, that it could be susceptible to some surface winds. But right now, we're not experiencing any winds at all. So you can tell just how sensitive that balloon really.

BLACKWELL: We talked earlier about some of the science involved with this, not just the stunt jump or something to get into a Guinness book. The effort is really to make space travel safer. Tell us about what we're expecting to learn from this.

TODD: They really want to learn what the human body goes lieu when I through when it breaks the sound barrier, but another thing probably more critical is for the future of space tourism, space exploration is can the human -- can a human survive for any period of time outside a space vehicle if there is a malfunction. And this is going to go a long way toward providing some of those answers. This high pressure suit that Felix Baumgartner is wearing is incredibly sophisticated. It has been tailored specifically to his body. And just has all sorts of components on it that will enable him to gauge his readings, to where he is, just all sorts of things.

But really the key test is it going to be breached in any way. Because if it is, especially at the highest altitudes, those 30 seconds or so after his jump, there is a lot that could happen that would be very unfortunate. So those first 30 seconds, Victor, they'll really be holding their breath.

BLACKWELL: We see here a split screen. On the right, you have Felix Baumgartner. O the left, you have Colonel Kitinger, who holds the record. We'll see if this goes up this afternoon. We know Felix Baumgartner has trained for seven years to break this record. It looks like he's having to wait a few more minutes. Scheduled to go up at 1:40 eastern, but now at 1:42, still on the ground.

We saw the man there, Kitinger, shaking his head, so we're trying to figure out if it's been scrubbed, if it's been pushed back. You can see facial expressions here. You don't know if it's anxiety or disappointment that it's not going up. You'd imagine that there would be a bit of anxiety when you know that someone you love is going 23 miles above the earth. But we'll see exactly what happens here. Again, this is supposed to go up for about two to three hours and then he'll jump.

We have Chad Myers here now with us.

Chad, we saw the balloon whipping back and forth. Is that the wind you were talking about or are we talking much higher elevations?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: There is higher wind higher up. But that one gust, I saw that balloon touch the ground. And if that balloon touched the ground or even came within a couple of feet, they will have to abort this. They will not be able to take that balloon any farther. It will be done. It's so fragile, its see thin, that literally a pebble touching it could poke a hole in that whole fuselage where you see the inside the bubble of the helium up above. Yeah, in my ear saying that they just confirmed that it has back aborted for today because the balloon did touch the ground.

BLACKWELL: Let's go to Brian Todd. He has more on that.

Considering all the sensitivities that Chad just described, you're hearing that -- OK, let's listen to the commander.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)

Brian, what are you hearing specifically about ending this attempt today?

TODD: We're still kind of waiting to see what the process is going to be. We're hearing that there may be a problem with the radios at this point. And maybe some issue with communication, but not sure about that. You know, the wind situation, as Chad mentioned, will be a very sensitive situation. But they have said, shortly before they started inflating this balloon, that the winds were at a more optimum speed for launch. So we are just kind of waiting to see just what the issue could be at this point. It could be something fairly not quite sure yet.

BLACKWELL: Let's try to listen to Mission Control and see if they're describing what happened.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'll shut down the nerve transmitter. It's pretty warm.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Might as well shut it all off.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need that --

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm going for need to maintain in case they want me on send anymore commands, though.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, yes --that's true.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. 1.0 is selected. Execute.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can turn off the transponder.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Roger that. 1-2-7 selected. Execute. Transponder's off.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have shut down the FAA transponder as well as the nerve system.

BLACKWELL: All right, Brian Todd, we're seeing Felix Baumgartner open his helmet and preparing to climb out of that capsule. So the question is, so it's aborted for today, what's next? Did the balloon get damaged as it hit the ground? Do they have to create a new one? Do they try tomorrow?

TODD: Well, what we're told is tomorrow the weather conditions are a little more uncertain. It's not certain that they can really go tomorrow. Thursday we're told is a better looking day for launch. We're also told that they do have a backup balloon that can be used if there is an issue with this one. So we're going to see what the issue with this balloon has been. You did see Felix Baumgartner unhook some of his components. He may be climbing out of the capsule fairly soon. We're not sure exactly what is going on here. I'm listening to another feed of some of the communications here and we'll hopefully be able to clarify that momentarily.

BLACKWELL: All right. Brian Todd there in Roswell, New Mexico.

We'll take a quick break. The attempt for this skydive from space 23 miles up has been aborted for today and we'll find out more about why, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Who doesn't love Big Bird, especially when he wears his bow tie? He's from "Sesame Street." We all know how to get there. But now the oversized yellow bird could have a pivotal role in the presidential campaign. He's featured in a new ad by President Obama's campaign, mocking Mitt Romney. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AD ANNOUNCER: Bernie Madoff, Ken Lay, Dennis Kozlowski -- criminals, gluttons of greed, and the evil genius who towered over them. One man has the guts to speak his name.

ROMNEY: Big Bird.

Big Bird.

Big Bird.

BIG BIRD, SESAME STREET RESIDENT: It's me, Big Bird.

AD ANNOUNCER: Big, yellow, a menace to our economy. Mitt Romney knows it is not Wall Street you have to worry about, it is "Sesame Street."

ROMNEY: I'm going to stop the subsidy to PBS. AD ANNOUNCER: Mitt Romney, taking on our enemies, no matter where they nest.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Romney mentioned Big Bird and his plan to cut funding to PBS during last week's presidential debate. But the saga continues. Today, Sesame Workshop, which sponsors Big Bird, is asking the Obama campaign to take down that ad.

America's senior citizens won't see much of an increase in their Social Security benefits next year. That's the news from the government federal -- from the federal government, rather, which announced today that Social Security recipients will likely get less than a 2 percent bump to account for cost-of-living increases. That's less than half the increase in benefits they received this year.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi there. Here on the "Help Desk," we're helping you pay off your student loans.

And with me this hour are Liz Miller and Greg McBride.

Greg, here is a question for you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What's the fastest way to pay off my student loans?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSIK: First of all, should she be in such a hurry to pay off her loans?

GREG MCBRIDE, SENIOR FINANCIAL ANALYST, BANKRATE.COM: Look at the private student loans first and focus on getting those paid down. Not only do they tend to have higher and variable interest rates, but lack the flexibility of things like forbearance that lets you suspend payments if you have a period of financial difficulty, federal student loans have that provision in there. Rank your debts from higher interest rate to the lowest, focus on the highest rate obligation. When you get that paid off, focus on the next highest and so on down the line.

KOSIK: Any additional advice?

LIZ MILLER, PRESIDENT, SUMMIT PLACE FINANCIAL ADVISORS: The only other advice that people forget if you're focused and have a lot of debt, you can make a commitment to work in a nonprofit or a number of government service jobs and after ten years of service, the remainder of that debt will be forgiven. A lot of people who feel strapped forget that potential opportunity is out there.

KOSIK: I forgot about that as well. Good advice. Thanks very much.

If you have an issue you want our experts to tackle, upload a 30- second video with your "Help Desk" question to ireport.com.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: 28 days to go until the election and we're looking "In- Depth" at voters in America. Some civil rights activists are concerned about new voter I.D. laws. 31 states currently have voter I.D. laws in place. Tennessee has one of the strictest. And former Marine, Tim Thompson, is angry.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TIM THOMPSON, FORMER MARINE & TENNESSEE VOTER: Hi. I'm Tim Thompson. I'm 56 years old. I'm a former United States Marine. And I live here in Nashville, Tennessee.

I'm against federal I.D. law the way it is written right now. And we knew Super Tuesday was coming up, big scene, and I decided I needed to do something.

I want to go down to the polling place and just show my registration card like I've done for 37 years, and see what they say to me.

And, of course, they didn't allow me to vote. But then I told the polling director that I refuse to show you I.D. because I'm protesting the law.

I'm giving up my right to vote today to fight for the rights of people that don't have this opportunity, that want to vote but they don't have the opportunity because they might not have that I.D.

So the only weapon that an individual has in this country is his right to vote. And it is been to earn them blood. Not some politician that tells you can vote. You earned that right to vote because people have died for your right to vote.

So when you go and you say it doesn't matter, think about somebody that's died in the war. When you have people that don't matter, that I don't vote, it damn well does matter.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: It was good to be with you today.

CNN NEWSROOM continues after this with Brooke Baldwin.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, everyone. I'm Brooke Baldwin.