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Obama Launches New Ad Blitz; New Romney Ad: The "Apology Tour"; Romney, Obama Debate Foreign Policy; Running Mates' Debate Spin; Amazon's Outage; Selloff On Wall Street; FDA To Expand Meningitis Warnings; No Jail Time In Hazing Death Trial; Obama Begins "America Forward" Tour; Dow Drops 200+ Points; Obama Kicks off Big Tour; Candidates Clash over China; Two Stretches to Ease Back Pain
Aired October 23, 2012 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now in the NEWSROOM, the last face off complete, Mitt Romney and Barack Obama trading jabs over foreign policy and everything else in the final presidential debate.
The campaigning doesn't stop for either man. Both men hit key battleground states today and both have new attack ads out and each sets a completely different tone.
One of the world's most reliable web sites, but even Amazon goes down occasionally. When it does it can take another big name sites with it.
Waiting for the Apple's big announcement today, many believe we'll see a smaller iPad. Will going smaller mean bigger profits? NEWSROOM starts now.
Good morning. Thank you so much for being with us. I am Carol Costello. Just hours after millions of Americans watched the final presidential debate, we're learning both campaigns are scrambling to reach millions more.
This morning, we're learning Obama is rolling a brand new advertising campaign over the air waves, on the internet and on glossy pamphlets. The sales pitch describing in detail what he would do in a second term.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Here is my plan for the next four years. Making education and training a national priority, building on our manufacturing goal, boosting American made energy, reducing the deficits responsibly by cutting where we can and asking the wealthy to pay a little more.
And ending the war in Afghanistan so we can do nation building here at home, that's the right path so read my plan. Compare it to Governor Romney's, and decide which is better for you. It is an honor to be your president, and I am asking for your vote. Together we can keep moving America forward. (END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Ali Velshi is with CNN's Election Express in Boca Raton, Florida. It is interesting, Ali, that the president puts out this big plan 14 days before the election like where was it before?
ALI VELSHI, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you know what I think it was? The focus until last night was on foreign policy. We knew that was going to be a big foreign policy debate. It was an area that Mitt Romney had been going at the president on.
But as soon as that was over, it comes out this is a fax copy, the president just down the road in Delray Beach, but this is a 19-page glossy brochure and it's called a plan for jobs and middle class security.
The president wants the last two weeks of this election focused on the economy. You played a little of what he said, Carol. But what he is doing is I think he is playing off criticisms of Mitt Romney that Mitt Romney has this big plan that is short on specifics.
So what the president is doing is putting out specifics. He talks about manufacturing jobs. He has put a number on it. He said by the end of 2016, he wants to create one million new manufacturing jobs, wants 600,000 jobs in the natural gas sector alone.
He wants to strengthen education. He said that in the little piece you played. He is talking about recruiting 100,000 math and science teachers. We heard that number before. He also says they want to train 2 million workers for real jobs at community colleges and cutting tuition growth, the cost of tuition in half.
He talked also about cutting four trillion from the deficit over the next decade. That is something we've heard, but he is emphasizing that he can do that without ending guaranteed benefits in Medicare and Social Security.
That's something that will play very, very well here in Florida where as you know a large part of the population is over the age of 60 and of course, he has reiterated Obamacare stays as it is.
So he is making a big push to put this back on the economy to discuss specifics. Carol, if there is any criticism of it, it is the same criticism of both campaigns and that is goals are fantastic.
And at least to give somebody something to latch onto, I want to do this because that's what the president wants to do, economic realities are sometimes a little bit different -- Carol.
COSTELLO: I'm just intrigued by the glossy pamphlet. That's a little like bayonets and horses, isn't it?
VELSHI: When the announcement came out he has a 19-page glossy pamphlet. That was exactly my reaction. Who does glossy pamphlets anymore? But as you showed, there is a YouTube ad. It will go on the air waves and it is on the internet and I have to tell you, Carol. I had trouble getting this. Somebody had to fax me a copy so I could see it because how do you actually get a glossy pamphlet from 5 miles across town. There you go glossy pamphlets.
COSTELLO: I love you, Ali. You're a lot of fun. Thanks so much.
Mitt Romney's campaign is also launching a new appeal to voters today. He scolds the president for launching what he is calling an apology tour grovelling to other world leaders and apologizing for the United States. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MITT ROMNEY, (R) PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: The president began with an apology tour of going to various nations and criticizing America. I think they look at that and saw weakness. The reason I call it an apology tour.
You went to the Middle East and you flew to Egypt and Saudi Arabia and Turkey and Iraq, and you skipped Israel, our closest friend in the region.
You said that America had dictated to other nations. Mr. President, America has not dictated to other nations. We have freed other nations from dictators.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: CNN's senior congressional correspondent Dana Bash joins us from Boca Raton. It is not a glossy pamphlet, but it's a message that resonates certainly with the conservative base.
DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It absolutely does. This is the age-old argument that conservatives have made against Democratic presidents and candidates for years.
I want to actually play for the viewers that exchange taken really within minutes clearly from the debate last night, but also how the president reacted. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROMNEY: The president began what I call an apology tour of going to various nations in the Middle East and criticizing America. I think they looked at that and saw weakness.
OBAMA: Nothing Governor Romney just said is true. Starting with this notion of me apologizing, this has been probably the biggest whopper that's been told during the course of this campaign.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: Now, there were a lot of moments in that debate, Carol, where the president looked a little miffed, nothing like that particular moment. It was clear that Mitt Romney got under his skin with that and to be fair, because to say that the president made an apology tour isn't exactly fair.
He didn't do all of those things that Mitt Romney suggested that he did, and the president did come back and say that when he was running for president, that he did go across Europe and went to the Middle East.
And he also did go to the state of Israel and visited Yabushem, which of course, is the holocaust museum. You know, at this point or any point in the campaign, there have been questions about the veracity of these ads and this is definitely one of those times.
COSTELLO: Definitely so. I want to circle back to last night's debate. In your mind, what were some of the hits and misses?
BASH: Well, let's start with the president. I think first of all, there is no question that he -- that the president dominated the debate and that was his intention. He put Mitt Romney on the defensive in a pretty stark way.
He was -- the president was very aggressive. Kind of a 180 from the way he was during the first debate. That really set him back in the polls across the country and in particular in key swing states. Those are kind of the pluses if you will for the president.
The irony is the negative is the flip side of the plus. Yes, he was aggressive, but he also got pretty snarky and if you look at the dial testing that Soledad O'Brien was doing with the focus group in Orlando.
Women in particular who both of these men are going after big time for their votes, they didn't love that so much. They didn't like the snarkiness and the snide comments one after the other.
Let's go to Mitt Romney. His goal was to stand toe to toe with the commander in chief, be somebody who is credible as a commander in chief, and he did accomplish that.
I think Democrats privately will admit that. If you look at our poll, it shows that 60 percent of Americans say they could see him as commander in chief.
He didn't take the bait, which you could see he was almost biting his tongue in the last hour. He talked about the fact he was maybe sweating a little bit, perhaps that was why.
That was I am told absolutely one of the main things he practiced in debate prep to try to stay calm and cool and steady and not take the bait when the president went after him. What's the negative?
The fact that he did let the president dominate in a big way and kind of let him, the president school him in a lot of different areas saying that he air brushed history and so forth. That was a negative for Mitt Romney as well.
COSTELLO: Thanks. Dana Bash reporting live this morning. Short time ago, the running mates gave their morning after spins on the debate performances.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. PAUL RYAN, (R-WI) VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: What we saw with this debate, we saw that Mitt Romney is ready to be a great president. We saw a man with a command of the facts, with a temperament and demeanor that makes for a great president.
We saw a man with a vision for foreign policy. There are areas where we agree. There are clearly areas where we disagree and I think we flush that out well in this debate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Vice President Joe Biden spoke of then Senator Obama's experience on the Foreign Relations Committee.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He had a world view of where America's position should be, how we should interact in the world, how we needed to rebuild alliances, et cetera. He acted on those from the time he came in. Governor Romney didn't demonstrate any breath of understanding and it was a little bit quite frankly surprising.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Joe Biden is back on the campaign trail by the way. At the bottom of the hour, he will be speaking at the University of Toledo that's in Ohio while Paul Ryan joins Mitt Romney for events later today in Nevada and Colorado.
You can watch a replay of the debate in case you missed it last night. It will air today in its entirety at noon Eastern on CNN.
Just the name Amazon sounds big. Amazon.com is one of the internet's dominant web sites. When it goes down, apparently so do others. Alison Kosik is live at the New York Stock Exchange. This caused some consternation.
ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, yes. When we talk about Amazon, most of us know Amazon as the massive retailer, but did you know it also rents out storage space to store web data?
So what happened yesterday is an outage of one of its Cloud computing center knocked out a bunch of popular web sites. You may have run into problems if you tried to go on Reddit, Pinterest, Four Square, even TMZ and Instagram were having issues.
Some speculated it was another cyber attack likes the ones we've seen on bank web sites in recent weeks. In fact a member of the hacker group anonymous claimed via Twitter, of course, to be the one behind the outage.
But Amazon says, no, that is not the case. An attack did not happen. In fact they say that the problem seems to have come from what they call degraded performance at one of its centers in Virginia.
Now the sites didn't go down for all users. Problems were mostly resolved by the end of the day yesterday. Still, a lot of people wanting to stream a TV show or pin some recipes were mighty frustrated and really, really unhappy -- Carol.
COSTELLO: I know. They had to do something unheard of like read a book or something.
KOSIK: Go figure.
COSTELLO: I know. There has been a sell off on Wall Street today. How is it going now?
KOSIK: The tumble continues. The Dow is down 189 points. Some disappointing earnings from big multinational companies came out from Dupont, from 3M.
And the thing is they're not just reporting lower than expected sales being way down by slowing demand in Europe and Asia. They're also, Carol, lowering their outlook.
So this is really worrying Wall Street ads to what's going to happen in the future. You know what this really shows? It really shows how what's going on overseas affects us -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Alison Kosik at the New York Stock Exchange.
It is the morning after, the final presidential debate. Both candidates already back on the campaign trail. Right now, President Obama is in Delray Beach, Florida. We'll take you there live.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: It is 15 minutes past the hour. Checking our top stories, the FDA will expand warnings about drugs potentially contaminated with fungal meningitis. They listed more than 1,200 hospitals and clinics that used drug from the New England Compounding Center. These products are associated with 297 illnesses and 23 deaths in 16 states.
In Florida, Brian Jones will not go to prison after all for the hazing death of Florida A&M University band member Robert Champion. Instead, a judge sentenced Jones to 200 hours of community service, two years of supervised probation and six months of community control. Jones is the first defendant in the indication to be sentenced.
In weather news, Jamaica and Haiti are expected to get wind and rain this week from Tropical Storm Sandy. Tropical storm formed yesterday. The Atlantic hurricane season officially ends November 30th.
President Obama is back on the campaign trail this morning. Right now, he is at a campaign event in Delray Beach, Florida. We're there. Those are the pictures you are seeing.
When the president starts speaking, of course, we'll take his comments live. Our chief White House correspondent Jessica Yellin is traveling with the president. She joins me now. Did you get your hands on a pamphlet?
JESSICA YELLIN, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I did actually get my hands on the plan to be jobs and middle class security. This is part of the president's final push to Election Day, a message to voters, undecided voters, and frankly the media to send a message that he does have a plan for a second term agenda.
When you flip inside, it is a lot of glossy pages and pictures and a lot of information about what he accomplished over the last three and a half plus years. Then some of the same details we have heard him talk about before.
His plans to revive manufacturing, to invest in education, get the U.S. out of Afghanistan, tax reform, and more. Anybody can go and look it up online. Not new ideas about his second term agenda.
But the idea here is a message that he does have a plan going forward and that's part of the contrast. He's tried to draw this message, you know, that Mitt Romney wants to take the nation in a different direction.
But the president is campaigning trying to get people out early to vote, to the supporters, vote early, and really driving home to undecided voters that he is the guy who can turn this economy around -- Carol.
COSTELLO: It is interesting that he puts out this plan because the big critique about him has been that he has no plan for a second term. He keeps going over what he terms as accomplishments and nothing will really change in a second term. I am wondering why it took him until 14 days before the election to put a plan out.
YELLIN: Well, I wouldn't put it that way because he put this out before, just never in a booklet like this. We heard the same details at the Democratic Convention. We've heard them from his mouth on the campaign stump for days and months and weeks and so my point is there is not anything significantly new in here.
It is just all compiled in a nice booklet now, so we get the point that there is something, but you can still critique it for lacking details about will he pursue immigration reform, what specifically would the tax reform plan look like drilling down into the details, energy reform.
And let's frankly say you could say the same about Mitt Romney, neither man wants to commit to too many details at this point for any number of reasons, but that's how it goes in politics these days. Fewer details seem to get you more votes, I guess -- Carol.
COSTELLO: I guess so. So this pamphlet, are they handing it out at rallies? Why a pamphlet?
YELLIN: Well, it is something concrete. They give it to the press, and, you know, I think what you will hear and they will be giving it out at local offices to volunteers, et cetera. I think what you are going to hear is it symbolizes the push forward that you're going to see from the president as he begins traveling through battleground states. He will now go from here to Ohio and a key state for him and for Mitt Romney as they battle.
And then to a number of battleground states through the end of the week. Nevada, he will visit Las Vegas, Colorado, Virginia, Ohio again, and as he pushes in this more than a week and a half before the election to try to get those undecided voters on his side.
And the final message is he accomplished a lot and he has a vision going forward, hence the pamphlet.
COSTELLO: All right, Jessica Yellin, we'll get back to you when the president begins speaking. Thanks so much.
Also this morning, many Americans are asking where did the fall go? Where is autumn? We'll tell you where it is looking more like winter.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: OK, we wanted to go back to Florida because do you recognize this man? He is introducing President Obama who soon to take the stage. This is Scott Van Doozer.
He is the guy that gave President Obama that big bear hug in September. He owns Big Apple Pizza and is giving quite the campaign rally speech for the president this afternoon. Let's listen to a little bit of what he has to say.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- so are a lot of other businesses thanks to the president's 18 small business tax cuts. But we have a lot more work to do. Our president knows that, too. That's why he has been traveling the country talking about his real specific achievable plan to move us forward in his second term.
COSTELLO: All right, let's jump away. We'll go back to Florida when President Obama begins speaking. Have to pay some attention to Wall Street right now because the Dow continues to drop. It is down 203 points right now. Let's check in with Alison Kosik again. Hi, Alison.
KOSIK: Hi, Carol. Unfortunately stocks are at their lows. You're seeing the Dow fall 219 points. We have been talking about the debt crisis forever it seems like, the debt crisis in Europe, talking about the slowing global growth, especially in Europe and Asia.
And what you're seeing happen now as the multinational companies report their earnings, you're seeing all of those issues, the debt issues be the flows growth issues come home to roost in the earnings reports.
And that really is what is spooking the market today and not really the numbers that are missing and worrying Wall Street. It is the outlooks the companies are putting forward. They're concerned about the future. They're worried about bringing in new revenue as the economies continue to slow, and here is the thing. The U.S. economy, it is not as a strong enough point yet, where it can sort of pick up the slack and make up for what's being lost overseas.
So you're seeing that worry play out in the markets. By the way, we're also seeing oil prices drop a good amount, 3 percent, sitting at $85 a barrel -- Carol.
COSTELLO: That might mean good news for gas prices, I would assume?
KOSIK: It could be. But you know, it is also a worry because it shows about the concern about the future that there is going to be less demand for oil meaning fewer people will want to fill up the tanks and go out there and shop. So it sort of causes that ripple effect. You don't necessarily want to see oil prices plunge very quickly.
COSTELLO: Alison Kosik, thank you.
KOSIK: As much as we want see gas prices fall.
COSTELLO: Governor Romney and President Obama running a tight race in Ohio. Foreign policy took center stage. We'll get reaction to what the two men said from the state of Ohio.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Back to Florida now. After a big bear hug from Scott Van Doozer, the pizza guy, the president.
(BEGIN LIVE COVERAGE)
OBAMA: -- they're not Democratic values. They're not Republican values. They're American values and that's what this election is all about.
Now, two weeks from today Americans in all 50 states will step into the voting booth, but here in Florida you get to start voting on Saturday. As Scott just told you, if you need to know where to vote, you go to vote.barackobama.com, but I need you to vote. Because you have a very big choice to make, it is not just a choice between two candidates or two parties. It is a choice between two very different visions for this country that we love.
Now, last night we had our third and last debate. And -- I -- I hope -- I hope that during the debate I made those differences very clear. Because the greatest responsibility I have as President is to keep the American people safe. That's why I ended the war in Iraq so we could go after the terrorists who actually attacked us on 9/11.
That's why we decimated al Qaeda's core leadership and brought Osama bin Laden the justice he deserved. That's why we're ending the war in Afghanistan because after a decade of war it is time to do nation building here at home. In a world of new threats and profound challenges, America needs leadership that is strong and is steady. Governor Romney's foreign policy has been wrong and reckless. Last night he was all over the map. Did you notice that?
During the debate he said he didn't want more troops in Iraq but he was caught on video saying it was unthinkable not to leave 20,000 troops in Iraq, troops that would still be there today.
Last night he claimed to support my plan to end the war in Afghanistan. I'm glad he supports it, but he's opposed a timeline that would actually bring our troops home. Early in this campaign he said would do the opposite of whatever I did in Israel. But last night I reminded him that cooperation with Israel has never been stronger.
Last night he said he always supported taking out Osama bin Laden. But in 2007 he said it wasn't worth moving heaven and earth to catch one man.
Now, we have come up with a name for this condition. It is called Romnesia.
(END LIVE COVERAGE)
COSTELLO: All right, we'll jump off here with the mention of Romnesia. As you can see the President going over the points in last night's debate reiterating to that crowd in Florida, a very appreciative and cheering and cheering. Governor Romney by the way is on a plane on the way to Henderson, Nevada. When Mr. Romney lands and appears as his campaign event of course we'll take some his comments live as well.
In Ohio and other states with manufacturing jobs the auto bailout was a big deal. 18 electoral votes are up for grabs in Ohio. President Obama and Governor Romney wasted no time talking about the bailout last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: I think anybody out there can check the record. Governor Romney, you keep on trying to well, air brush history. You were very clear that you would not provide government assistance to the U.S. auto companies even if they went through bankruptcy. You said that they could get it in the private marketplace. That wasn't true. They would have gone through a --
ROMNEY: You're wrong, Mr. President.
OBAMA: No, I am not wrong.
ROMNEY: You're wrong, people can look it up, you're right.
OBAMA: People will look it up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: CNN's Shannon Travis is live in Toledo, Ohio, where a lot of auto manufacturing is going on so tell me, did any of that resonate for voters there?
SHANNON TRAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It actually did resonate. I mean you know Carol that the auto industry looms large here in Ohio because there are just so many jobs that rely on the auto industry which is why you saw last night and you have been seeing in recent debates and even on the campaign trail this pitch back and forth between both candidates in terms of whose plan was better in terms of helping American auto workers save their jobs. Another thing though that was really, really major key in last night's debate was China, the issue of trade. That was another thing that the candidates sparred on.
Take a listen at this exchange, Carol.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: That's the reason why we have brought more cases against China for violating trade rules than the other -- the previous administration had done in two terms. In fact just recently, steel workers in Ohio and throughout the Midwest, Pennsylvania, are in a position now to sell steel to China because we won that case.
We had a tire case in which they are flooding us with cheap domestic tires or cheap Chinese tires, and we put a stop to it and as a consequence saved jobs.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TRAVIS: Now Carol, I had a chance to go out after the debate and talk to some voters, some Ohioans and see how they felt about the issues like the auto bailout, trade and China as it relates to Ohio. I spoke with a few people obviously who had some support for Mitt Romney but here in Toledo a few people I spoke to, the majority of the people that I spoke with, actually were supporters of President Obama.
One man startlingly enough told me that he is a Republican, did not vote for the President in 2008, but has already voted for the President this go-round because he feels that Mitt Romney doesn't relate to him and he took exception to Mitt Romney's position on the auto bailout in particular.
One last thing of note, obviously the President is in Florida right now he will be joining Vice President Biden here in Ohio. This is a Biden rally right now that's about to start up soon but the two of them will meet later today in Dayton for a rare joint appearance -- Carol.
COSTELLO: I think Joe Biden should just rent an apartment in Toledo. That's just amazing. Shannon Travis that's true. Shannon, thank you.
Nationwide, though, the line of the night from last night's debate was this one.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: You mentioned the Navy, for example. And that we have fewer ships than we did in 1916. Well, Governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets because the nature of our military has changed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Oh, but Republicans took issue with that. They jumped on the President's remark.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: The third and final debate is in the bag and depending on your perspective Mitt Romney won because he looked presidential or Mitt Romney lost because he presented nothing really coherent or original about Syria, Iran, or Afghanistan. Actually, at times Governor Romney in the end seemed to agree with most of Mr. Obama's policies.
Perhaps the most scathing review, though, came from "The New York Times." And I'm going to read that for you. This is an editorial from "The New York Times": "At his worst Mr. Romney sounded like a beauty pageant contest groping for the answer to the final question."
With us now to answer those charges Romney campaign adviser and his former Lieutenant Governor, Kerry Healey. Thank you so much for being with us.
KERRY HEALEY, ROMNEY CAMPAIGN ADVISER: Thank you.
COSTELLO: I got to say it was a harsh op-ed this morning in the "New York Times." Did you happen to read it?
HEALEY: Well, I haven't seen that, but I did see the debate and so what I can tell you is that what the American people saw as they were watching the debate last night was Governor Romney who was presidential, who is ready to step up and be Commander-in-chief, who has a very fluent command of foreign policy issues and has a real plan about what he is going to do to make the world a safer place.
And he articulated that vision and I think it was enormously effective.
COSTELLO: Well many people say he did not articulate that vision. In fact, he mentioned the Middle East strategy, but he did not really say what that Middle East strategy was. Can you explain what it is to us?
HEALEY: Absolutely I Think governor Romney was very clear about what he was -- what his goals were in the Middle East. First and foremost, it is to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power, from getting a nuclear bomb and to stop the enrichment.
(CROSSTALK)
COSTELLO: What's the strategy?
HEALEY: He laid it out in several steps, in fact. He said tightening sanctions, making the use of force credible, which is something that the Obama administration can cannot do because of their cuts to military spending, because of their hedging and distancing themselves from Israel and from Prime Minister Netanyahu and we see that the President would not even meet with Prime Minister Netanyahu when they were both together at the United Nations.
Instead, the President flies off and goes to a fundraiser. I think that when Iran --
(CROSSTALK)
COSTELLO: Well let's go back to specific policies because I think that -- I think that -- excuse me. I think that the criticism about Mitt Romney is he gave these long, long answers, but in the end agreed with President Obama's policies. For the most part the two men appeared to have the same foreign policy.
HEALEY: Any credible candidate for President is going to want peace in the world. They're going to want peace in the Middle East. They're going to want our soldiers safe at home. They're going to want to prevent Iran from having a nuclear weapon.
The question becomes who's credible in -- in reaching these goals and -- and who has the proper approach to doing that? Governor Romney laid out a credible approach to reaching those goals where as President Obama has had four years to start this process, to finish these processes. For the last two years there have been no negotiations toward peace between Israel and Palestine. For four years Iran has been moving closer and closer to obtaining a nuclear weapon. We have seen the Russian reset fail.
(CROSSTALK)
COSTELLO: I think ma'am, I think Americans really understand that, but those are really talking points. And as far as the specific strategy, again, it seemed in the end that the strategy that Mitt Romney laid out was pretty much like President Obama's. So I'm just wondering --
(CROSSTALK)
HEALEY: It's a question of who is going to be effective. We've tried President Obama's approach and while he talks a good game about bringing Iran to the table to discuss stopping enriching uranium, it has not happened. We have had four years of more and more centrifuge of spinning --
(CROSSTALK)
COSTELLO: But the answer from Mr. Romney about that was -- but the answer from Mr. Romney about that was imposing tougher sanctions. That's the same as President Obama's.
HEALEY: It is not. Unfortunately President Obama delayed the tough sanctions that are now in place, and in fact there are still some 20 exemptions from sanctions that could in fact be tightened and -- and Governor Romney mentioned some of those last night.
It's one thing to say something but just saying it doesn't make it true. President Obama has not done everything he can do to stop the enrichment of Uranium in Iran.
COSTELLO: And just a final question because some analysts say that Mitt Romney sort of played it safe. He needed only to appear presidential. He needed only not to make a huge gaffe. He succeeded in those two initiatives and really when you get right down to it, he did indeed win.
HEALEY: Well, we certainly believe that Governor Romney did win because he was able to reach out to voters across the country, speak directly to them, and cut through all of the noise that is out there, all of the misrepresentations that the Obama campaign has been putting out about Governor's record both on foreign policy and domestic policy.
So last night for us was a win.
COSTELLO: Lieutenant Governor, thank you so much for joining us this morning.
HEALEY: Thank you.
COSTELLO: Coming up, we'll hear from some undecided voters to get their perspective on what was said and what was not said last night.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Last night the President and Mitt Romney went toe to toe in the final presidential debate. So who won? The real question is does it really matter? At some point the President got down right snippy, attacking his opponent and Mitt Romney kind of seemed to agree with the President on a lot of his foreign policy decisions.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: You mentioned the Navy for example and that we have fewer ships than we did in 1916. Well, Governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets because the nature of our military has changed. We have these things called aircraft carrier where planes land on them. We have these ship that go under water, nuclear submarines.
ROMNEY: Attacking me is not an agenda. Attacking me is not talking about how we're going to deal with the challenges that exist in the Middle East. I just want to take one of those points, again, attacking me is not talking about an agenda for getting more trade and opening up more jobs in this country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: So let's talk to some voters to find out what they thought. Joining me now is Lorena Mora Mowry, editor and owner of MujerLatinaToday.com and a Democrat; and Skip Becker a registered Republican from presidential and a semi-retired small businessman. Welcome to you both.
SKIP BECKER, REGISTERED REPUBLICAN: Thank you, Carol.
LORENA MORA MOWRY, MUJERLATINATODAY.COM: Thank you.
COSTELLO: OK. So, I guess my first question, this is the third and final debate. I didn't sense as much excitement from people about this particular debate. Am I right, Skip?
BECKER: I don't think so. Foreign policy is a very complicated and hard to understand even at best. So the very mention of foreign policy sort of puts a pail over your face and you're bound to pay I think a little less intense attention to it.
COSTELLO: So did you get anything out of it? I mean do you know where Mitt Romney stands on let's say his policy in the Middle East?
BECKER: I think it is reminiscent, I believe, of Teddy Roosevelt. Teddy said walk softly and carry a big stick. I think that is essentially what President Obama gave us last night, walk softly and carry a big stick. I think that Governor Romney said walk loudly and carry a bigger stick. So we had that comparative as we go forward.
COSTELLO: I love that, Skip. That's awesome.
OK. Lorena, a lot of people said the President was downright snarky last night. He didn't appear presidential and that bayonets and horses line while it resonated online was just not necessary. What do you think?
MOWRY: I think that the President was very Commander-in-chief. He was strong. He knew what he was talking about, and I was proud to have him as a president, and he really understood and understands foreign policy, and I was very pleased and he surprised my expectations.
COSTELLO: We have this little thing on the bottom of the screen when the candidates talk and it sort gauges how men and women feel about the conversation. Many times when President Obama got extraordinarily aggressive, that didn't please a lot of female voters, the green line went down. Do you think that will hurt, help?
MOWRY: Either way, foreign policy, we need a strong president. We need somebody to understand and knows foreign policy. As a woman, as a Latina, I really liked what I saw last night and I do believe that he is the right choice for the President. I think it is important to re-elect President Obama because he knows about these issues. As a woman, I agree with him.
COSTELLO: So Lorena, are you a Democrat through and through, Obama supporter and nothing can change your mind at this point, right?
MOWRY: Oh, no, now I am more than ever I'm Democrat. I see a president including Latinas, that he is in the 21st century. That he understands the Latinas, the 50 million Latinos we are now here and we need to be incorporated. That are not invisible anymore. I liked the way he invites Latinos to be part of the administration. I really that this is the President of today and the future. I really like President Obama. COSTELLO: OK. Skip, you have been undecided although you are a registered Republican. The bayonets and horses thing, did that resonate for you?
BECKER: Well, I think that they have both now evened their score on snarkiness. I thought -- as I mentioned I think on our previous interview that Governor Romney edged in a little bit on the snarky side. And I think that in this case so also did President Obama.
I think the fact of the matter is that the ability of our weaponry on the scene, the air, any other place, it is so far improved over what it used to be even ten years ago, that small numbers don't mean much. It is just we're so capable at this point of destruction and mayhem that a few ships can do today what a thousand ships can do 15 years ago.
OK. So you have been undecided through this long election season, 14 days to go, Skip. Have you decided?
BECKER: I am kind of moving now in a direction. I do think as has been mentioned before, that what we got last night was a fairly- balanced foreign policy position on both one a little bit more aggressive than the other, but not so distinctive one from the other so I think I am migrating but we'll see.
COSTELLO: We're going to have to have you back. I am dying to know. Lorena Mora Mowry and Skip Becker, thanks so much for sharing your thoughts with us this morning. We appreciate it.
BECKER: You're welcome.
COSTELLO: And by the way, you can see the debate again in case you missed it. It airs today at noon Eastern on CNN.
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COSTELLO: All this sitting in line can cause fitness in your back. In today's "Daily Dose" celebrity yoga and Pilates Kristen McGee shares two simple stretches to ease the pain.
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KRISTEN MCGEE, YOGA AND PILATES EXPERT: When we sit all day long or when we have kind of poor posture, our hip flexors are tight and they pull on our lower back. We want to keep length and space in the front of our thighs. The crescent lung is a wonderful stretch you can do to open up the quad and the hip flexor and to lengthen the lower back.
So imagine you're traveling 15 under and then just feel that nice stretch in the front of the thigh and start to lean forward a little bit from your hips. And then a wonderful way to strength ebb and support the back is something we call birddog. Stretch one leg bag. The opposite arm forward.
Now again, you have to tap into your abdominals, you have to really lengthen your spine and back and you feel that lengthen one arm on the opposite leg and try these postures, maybe three, five times a week whenever you get a chance and you will notice a huge difference in any of your back pain.
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COSTELLO: I will try it. I am Carol Costello. Thank you so much for being with us today. Thanks for your talk back responses. Always appreciate them. CNN NEWSROOM continues in just a minute with Ashleigh Banfield.
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