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Obama Attacks At Debate; Stocks Plunge; Romney's "Butterfly" Versus Obama's "Bee"; Debate Reality Check: China; FDA Investigates Monster Drinks; Overseas Agreement

Aired October 23, 2012 - 14:00   ET

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

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

And there you have it, two men, each trying to convince Americans he should lead the country over the next four years. You're about to hear who stretched the truth and what President Obama and Mitt Romney are saying on the trail today.

But first, I want you to hear some instant reaction, instant analysis. This is moments after the debate ended last night. We'll begin with Wolf Blitzer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN: A much more civilized debate than the second debate. It was pretty (INAUDIBLE). There were a few areas where they got into it, especially on domestic, economic issues. Especially the future of the U.S. car industry. They fought over that issue. You can see the children up there. The kids -- Mitt Romney's five sons, the wives, the grandchildren, are all up there as well. They'll probably stay up on the stage for a few minutes.

This one's a debate where, on foreign policy, ostensivly (ph), they wound up agreeing, even though there were nuances of disagreement, they wound up basically, in terms of the big picture, agreeing on a lot. On Iran, on Israel, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria. Even on China basically the thrust was one of agreement, even though at times they had a little rhetorical flourishes against each other.

Candy Crowley is on the scene for us over there. Candy, what did you think?

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: It was interesting, Wolf. I thought that they came with very different agendas tonight. I think the president came to rough up Mitt Romney. I think he acted like a person that had to sort of stop some momentum by Romney. He went after him. You know, you're all over the map. That's not what you said before. I mean almost every single answer from the president had something to do with Mitt Romney.

I feel as though Mitt Romney approached this like a physician. First, do no harm. I feel like he didn't -- he didn't come in to necessarily win. I think he came in, you know, as a man that has had a certain amount of momentum over the past three, four weeks since that first debate. I'm not wanting to ruin it, but I want to bring in James Carville, our Democratic strategist.

You wonder why we don't see you and Paul in the same time, because (ph) you're the same person. We morph from Paul Begala to James Carville. Ari Fleischer still here with us.

So, your impressions?

JAMES CARVILLE, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, it's obvious that the president came to attack, Governor Romney came to agree. It seems like somebody gave Governor Romney the same drug that they gave the president before the first debate. I mean he just -- he was trying to run the clock out. He agreed with him I don't know how many times. And he -- it was not a -- it was -- I didn't think that it really -- he didn't have very much to say, to tell you the truth.

ARI FLEISCHER, FORMER BUSH WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Well, I don't think this debate's going to change a thing about the trajectory of this race. The first debate set it off. And this debate won't stop it. Mitt Romney's got the momentum. You almost got the sense that the American people are so focused on the economy this cycle, foreign policy debates like this just aren't going to click, they're not going to register, not going to move people.

But, Candy, I do think Mitt Romney had one goal in mind when he came here tonight, and that was to make sure he could appeal to women voters. He had a tone about him, he had a way about him, about talking about peace, going to the United Nations, that -- I think the president wanted to define him as the too muscular Republican in the George W. Bush mold. Mitt Romney wanted to define himself very differently.

CROWLEY: Right, he was not going to be painted as a warmonger.

CARVILLE: Yes, this is -- this -- this is going to the Republican talking point, this debate didn't matter. And the reason they're going to say that because, the truth of the matter is, this debate was a route (ph).

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN: Yes, let's talk to our analysts and our contributors.

You certainly, I think, saw the advantage of being a sitting president and getting briefings for the last four years. Quick thoughts, John.

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The president won on points largely for the reasons that you said, he's the commander in chief, he does this every day, he was more comfortable going around the world and talking about these hot spots. There's no question debate coaches would score this one for the president, I think.

However, I do think it's very important to the point Ari just made, Governor Romney came in here trying not to be pushed to the right and he actually came to the middle. He's the peace candidate. He's the negotiation candidate. He does not want to start a war. And the president, you know, in previous debates, a lot of Democrats are mad that the president has left Governor Romney move toward the center. The president challenged him more on that front. But Governor Romney did have a bit of momentum coming in. The question is, does this impact the race, all this talk about Iran, Afghanistan, Libya and the like? I don't know.

COOPER: David Gergen.

DAVID GERGEN, FORMER PRESIDENTIAL ADVISER: I thought both campaigns could come out of this happy tonight. In the early part of the debate and last part of the debate, I thought Mitt Romney did fairly well. But President Obama dominated the middle of the debate and I think he did emerge winning. On debate points, I think he won. And the president --

COOPER: Some of the best lines of the night.

GERGEN: The best lines.

COOPER: We're going to play them in a moment. The bayonets and (INAUDIBLE), bayonets and horses.

GERGEN: Yes, exactly, five (ph). But I have to tell you, I think Mitt Romney does something that was extremely important to his campaign tonight, and that was he passed the commander in chief test. I think a lot of people could come out of this feeling fairly comfortable -- let's put aside the partisans -- could come out of this feeling fairly comfortable with him in the Oval Office. That's extremely important. I think it leaves a very, very competitive race. I don't know whether it's going to tip it or not. But I -- as I say, I think President Obama clearly has had two very good nights. I thought Mitt Romney, this was one of his weaker nights. But I do think that by doing the very surprising thing, by coming at Obama occasionally from his left, to say, we're not going to kill our way out of this. He avoided that trap of being the warmonger. I think he did that very successfully and I think he came across as a responsible sounding commander in chief.

FAREED ZAKARIA, HOST, CNN'S "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS": No, but I think David's point is exactly right. He actually -- where he attacked him, he attacked him from the left. He said, you don't have enough of, you know, civil society strategy. You don't have enough of an education strategy toward Islamic extremist. You're just -- you're just -- you're the -- you're the cowboy.

What's strange here is this was a version of what Mitt Romney did in the first debate, which is to say Romney surprised Obama in first debate by being more centrist. By saying, I'm not going to do anything to raise the deficits whatever you may have heard about my tax plan. Except this time Obama was ready. And I think that David is exactly right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Let's pick up there. We will in just a moment, those last few words from Fareed Zakaria. But we'll get back to his point here in a moment.

But, first, let's talk today, very quickly. On the campaign trail, first, here is the president. He got in a rally before leaving southern Florida. He hammered away at what he has come to call Romnesia.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If you can't seem to remember the policies on your website, or the promises that you've been making over the six years that you've been running for president, if you can't even remember what you said last week, don't worry, Obamacare covers pre-existing conditions. We can fix you up. We can cure this disease!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: The president speaking in southern Florida. Del Rey Beach, to be precise. He will be back in Ohio before the day is out. Mitt Romney, where is he today? Governor Romney boarded his plane this morning for a flight to Nevada. And we will hear from Mitt Romney in a little over an hour.

But I want to hear right now from this brand-new ad that his team put together overnight. Even has clips from last night's debate. Roll it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The president began with an apology tour of going to various nations and criticizing America. I think they looked 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 to Saudi Arabia and to Turkey and Iraq and you skipped Israel, our closest friend.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: You skipped Israel. That's Mitt Romney. That ad released today. Again, we'll hear from Mitt Romney in just about an hour from now.

OK. Gloria Borger, chief political analyst, let's tear into this thing, shall we. And for those who just caught the replay in which we saw you up late last night, we appreciate you being with us today. We saw -- we saw distinctly different approaches here to the debate on foreign policy --

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes.

BALDWIN: And whether he won or not, the president clearly the aggressor. Let's listen to him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Governor Romney, I'm glad that you agree that we have been successful in going after al Qaeda. But I have to tell you that, you know, your strategy, previously, has been one that has been all over the map. You've said that, first, we should not have a timeline in Afghanistan. Then you said we should. Now you say maybe or it depends.

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: (INAUDIBLE).

OBAMA: Here's one thing I've learned as commander in chief. You've got to be clear, both to our allies and our enemies, about where you stand and what you mean.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So, Gloria, at last three points from the president over and over. One, you're wrong. Two, you're confused. Three, I'm the president, you're not.

BORGER: That's right.

BALDWIN: Why did the president come out swinging last night so much so?

BORGER: You know, think -- think back to Mitt Romney in his first debate where he said, not true, that's not true, that's not true. That's exactly what we heard from the president in this debate. And I think it sort of tells you a little bit about where the campaign feels it is. They felt that the president needed to go on the attack because maybe they were seeing the trajectory of the polls heading in the wrong direction. A lot of those battleground states, the polls were tightening.

So this was the campaign and a candidate who felt they needed to go on the attack. They also understood that foreign policy is clearly the president's strong suit. Whenever you can play the commander in chief card, you ought to play it. I think he did that last night. And it's clear that, you know, Mitt Romney is much more comfortable talking about domestic policy than foreign policy. So for all of the above, he attacked.

BALDWIN: Well, let's get to Mitt -- let's get to Mitt Romney, because if the president was looking for a fight, Mitt Romney seemed unwilling to give it to him.

BORGER: Yes.

BALDWIN: And here he was. Here was Mitt Romney.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Attacking me is not talking about how we're going to deal with the challenges that exist in the Middle East and take advantage of the opportunity there and stem the tide of this violence. We've seen progress over the past several years. The surge has been successful. And the training program is proceeding at pace. It's widely reported that drones are being used in drone strikes, and I support that entirely and feel the president was right to up the usage of that technology and believe that we should continue to use it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So why this strategy from Mitt Romney? Because apparently, you know, he's dialing it back. He was the one, the first one, to bring up Osama bin Laden, congratulating the president on tracking him down, killing him.

BORGER: Sure.

BALDWIN: And the surge in Afghanistan seems to be going well. Endorsing the president's drone strikes. Why do all of that?

BORGER: And he was the peacemaker, if you noticed.

BALDWIN: Why?

BORGER: Right. Well, because women voters are very important in this campaign. He had to walk a fine line. He couldn't -- he had to seem muscular in his foreign policy, but he couldn't seem bellicose. You know, this is a very war weary country. People don't want to continue to spend monies on wars they don't think get us anywhere. And that's what was interesting to me about the war in Afghanistan.

I mean in the campaign -- in his speech earlier in the month of October, Mitt Romney had been talking about withdraw from Afghanistan caveated by the judgments of the generals on the ground. We didn't hear that last night. This was, we are getting out of Afghanistan, period.

BALDWIN: But you think a lot of his peacemaking ways was because of women?

BORGER: Yes, I do. I think it's because women voters and I also think it's because the country, if you look at the polls about whether this country wants to continue to remain at war, while we have huge deficit problems and huge economic problems, the answer is no. So the last thing you want to appear to be as a presidential candidate --

BALDWIN: OK.

BORGER: Is someone who's open to another war, say, with Iran.

BALDWIN: OK.

BORGER: You didn't hear -- you didn't hear him rattle the saber much on Iran. He said they're closer. They're four years closer, he said, to nuclear capability.

BALDWIN: Right.

BORGER: But he didn't take the step beyond.

BALDWIN: Right, we talked after the last debate, they seemed combative, not great for women voters. And now a much different stance. Gloria Borger, thank you.

BORGER: Thanks.

BALDWIN: Can President Obama and Mitt Romney really crack down on China? CNN fact checks both the men on that.

Plus, here we go. The two-week stretch and suddenly it looks like both campaigns are changing their travel plans. Why? Because John King says one state is quickly becoming the very key to this election. Wait until you see how.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Two weeks, folks. Two weeks. That is how long each man has to convince voters he's the guy for the job. But suddenly it seems their travel plans are changing because one state is quickly becoming the key to this election. Here's John King at the magic wall.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is a game of chess. And the president has an easier path. Not an easy path, but an easier path to 270. So when you look at all these tossup states, they will have to make calculations. Where should we land the plane? Whether it's the president or Governor Romney, Vice President Biden or Congressman Ryan? Where do we spend more on TV? Where do we spend less on TV? Where do we need our friends to go in and help us out? Where do we have to gin up the turnout operations?

So, here is what I would say here. If you look at this, I think the president won the battle tonight to mention Ohio more in this debate. And why is that state so important? Well, no Republican has ever won without the state of Ohio. And increasingly, again, I'm going to do a hypothetical, Democrats think, at least coming into the debate, this one was starting to get away, the state of Florida. That North Carolina was starting to get away.

You can be certain even though the president might have had the right answer on policy, we'll debate that one, but the answer about Navy ships will play in the state of Virginia. If this happens, and this is what the Romney campaign thinks is happening, Florida, North Carolina and Virginia going to Republican DNA, how does the president block Governor Romney? This is the key right here. I talked to a top Democrat tonight who said we can't win without it, he can't win without it, Ohio is the big battleground in the days ahead because if the president can keep Ohio and he can win where he's leading now in Iowa, and he can win where he's leading now in Wisconsin, if nothing else changed in the map, that's 271. It gets the president over the top.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: John King, thank you very much.

And as the race comes down to several swing states, CNN hitting them all. Take a look. Ali Velshi starting in Florida as he heads northward on this whole battleground bus tour. We're going to talk to Ali, because as this is happening, the Dow is tanking off of some disappointing reports here from big time companies. Look at it. Down 233 points to go. An hour and a half left in the trading day. Ali has been warning about this for months. We're going to check in with him live next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: All right. Today not exactly a day to check your 401(k). At one point, the Dow was down nearly 250 points. Sneaking out the corner of my eye, it's still down 225 here. The culprit, major U.S. companies reporting disappointing earnings. And all of this is coming, here is our chief business correspondent, Ali Velshi, hitting the road on this battleground bus tour. This is part of our CNN Election Express. Ali is on the road talking to you, voters, specifically in these swing states. And he's hopping on the phone with me to talk about this tour.

But, Ali, I just first have to ask you, and I know this is something you've talked about for a number of months here, but we're looking at the sell-off, we're looking at the Dow down 226 points. Why?

ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Well, you know, there are no economic reports out today. This is all about earnings, right? Earnings happen four times a year. I know your eyes are probably already glazing over. But the thing is, the report card for the companies that either you invest in for your 401(k) or your IRA or who employ you, these are the major companies in the world. The American based companies.

And today we got earnings from (INAUDIBLE), United Technologies, DuPont, UPS, and they all have a similar message, and that things do appear to be slowing down a little bit. The outlook is not as bright as it used to be. In fact, DuPont is seeing lower sales. They make paints. They make a lot of things. DuPont is a chemical company. But they make paints for cars. And they're seeing a lower forecast in the number of -- the amount of paint they're going to sell for cars.

These are all indications that things are slowing down. And you don't feel them as a consumer. You don't feel these things slowing down. You don't know that somebody in another part of the world is buying less of something.

So that's the problem. There's a sense that Europe has had an effect on slowing down growth in Asia. It's all coming around.

BALDWIN: So what it is --

VELSHI: And what the world needs is America to seem very, very strong and very, very stable economically in order to bring things into balance. And unless we see that, this is what you're going to see, investors are going to take their money out of stocks, as they've been doing -- it's been a very good year in the stock market -- and find other places for them until they understand what the market is going to do and what the American economy is going to do, which makes this election that much more important.

BALDWIN: So what is the Europe effect? It is the fiscal cliff fear effect, I imagine.

VELSHI: Yes.

BALDWIN: You're in Florida.

VELSHI: Yes.

BALDWIN: You're going to be, you know, going up the East Coast here talking to voters in these swing states. How is this playing for folks in Florida today? Have you talked to them?

VELSHI: Well, you know what. In Florida today, we think of it as a place with 29 electoral college votes. Of very important votes. I run into a lot of people -- so let's put it this way. Everybody who's a (INAUDIBLE) conservative or liberal, Republican or Democrat, has probably made up their mind. The people who haven't made up their mind are those who say, I need to know which one of these guys is going to be better for either my future or the country's future, and they're not satisfied with all of the answers they're getting.

What they are getting from Romney and Obama are visions of what the future could look like, but they need specifics. And the specifics are playing out in Congress with request -- with respect to the sequester, if they don't get a budget deal, or with respect to the fiscal cliff, which is going to cause companies to lay people off. It's going to put less money in American's pockets.

So there's a lot of uncertainty. They want to know which one of these guys is going to get it done. So, you know, the way I look at it is, you see -- you saw a little bit of economic talk last night in the debate, but it's not satisfying people that they know how Barack Obama or Mitt Romney are going to achieve the goals that they set out. I think that's the work that these candidates have to do to win over the undecided voters here in Florida. And as I move up on this battleground bus tour, in North Carolina, in Virginia, and Ohio, these voters need to know how you're going to get to where you say you're going to get, not just that you want a brighter future. We all want a brighter future.

BALDWIN: I look forward to hearing you talking to these voters. It's one thing to hear from the politicos, but I love hearing just from the American people. Ali Velshi, we'll follow you along. You and John Avlon on the bus. We'll talk to you a little later this week.

VELSHI: Thanks, Brooke.

BALDWIN: And, you know, back to politics here. You watched the debate. Not really not much of a debate last night considering these two men agreed on so many issue. So, we're going to play you a little mash-up of exactly how often they did agree.

Plus, my next guest, who wrote a book on how risky these televised debates are, questions whether President Obama was too relentless.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Here's one take, consider it a poetic take on last night's final debate here. Quote, "Mitt Romney came ready to float like a butterfly, while Barack Obama came ready to sting like a bee."

That is a quote from a new cnn.com opinion piece by Alan Schroeder, a professor who studies these presidential face-offs. He noted in this piece that Romney was much less aggressive, much more agreeable than campaign watchers have ever seen him. Look for yourself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I congratulate him on taking out Osama Bin Laden, and going after the leadership in al Qaeda. They laid out seven steps, crippling sanctions were number one and they do work.

You're seeing it right now in the economy, absolutely the right thing to do to have crippling sanctions. I would have put them in place earlier, but it is good we have them. The surge has been successful and the training program is proceeding at pace.

You and I agreed, I believe that there should have been a status of forces agreement. It is widely reported drones are being used in drone strikes and I support that entirely.

And feel the president was right to up the usage of that technology and believe that we should continue to use it to continue to go after the people who represent a threat to this nation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Professor Alan Schroeder, author of "Presidential Debates: 50 Years Worth Of High Risk TV," joins me live once again from Boston. Alan Schroeder, welcome back to you.

Why do you think Mitt Romney was so, what's the word, pleasant, so nice, you know, compared to maybe that debate number one? You write in your piece, his aim was to project, quote, an aura of unflappability. Worked for him?

ALAN SCHROEDER, AUTHOR, "PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES: 40 YEARS OF HIGH RISK TV": Absolutely. Well, here's the thing. I think it was a case of strategic agreeability. You know, he was being agreeable, but there was a bigger thing he was trying to do there, which was come across as a commander in chief.

I think he also knew he wasn't going to win the debate on substance. Obviously, Obama has a huge advantage over him on that count. So he was trying to do something else more on the personal level. That was the take I had on it.

BALDWIN: OK, strategic agreeability, wanting to look presidential. Here is Obama, stinging like a bee. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: The challenge we have, I know you haven't been in a position to actually execute foreign policy, but every time you've offered an opinion, you've been wrong.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Since Romney was perhaps taking the higher road as his supporters would say, do you think President Obama in pointing out he's never executed foreign policy effective or a turnoff?

SCHROEDER: Well, you know, I think there ware couple of moments where maybe Obama crossed the line into being a little too aggressive and that was one of them, the clip that you just showed there.

I think when he said the thing about you know what an aircraft carrier is, it is a boat where airplanes land. You know, there is a way of disagreeing with your opponent or making your points where it doesn't get petty and personal. And those two particular spots in my opinion, I think, Obama maybe went just a little too far.

BALDWIN: OK, Romney to use your word unflappable, really toward the end. I just want to set up this exchange. We'll play it. They're talking about the auto bailout.

President Obama goes after Romney for Romney's 2008 "New York Times" op-ed piece. Romney wrote about how the government should not have bailed out the auto industry. So that's the setup. Now take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT OBAMA: 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.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: No, I am not wrong. I am not wrong.

ROMNEY: People can look it up.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: People can look it up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: But when they go back and forth like that, it does not work cry babyish for both of them?

SCHROEDER: You know, I think it ends up being a wash for both of them, but isn't it interesting that they're talking about an auto bailout in a foreign policy debate, which absolutely nothing to do with foreign policy.

BALDWIN: A couple of times they shifted back to the American economy.

SCHROEDER: Yes, absolutely. But, yes, I think that, you know, the talking over each other that we saw so much of in the second debate, there wasn't as much of that in this third debate, which is probably a good thing for viewers.

But there was definitely a difference in tone. It felt to me like they were sort of at two separate events with two completely different strategies of how to, you know, present themselves in the debate. Which made it, I thought, a fairly interesting debate to watch.

BALDWIN: Your final line it appears Obama did better for Obama than Romney did for Romney. Alan Schroeder, thank you again for joining us. Two weeks to go. So exciting, I know.

If you would like to read Alan's piece and other opinion pieces on the presidential campaign go, to cnn.com/opinion. Thank you, sir.

And if China is stealing American jobs by breaking the rules, can a president crack down on it. Next, the truth about which states China is hurting most as we conduct a reality check on both President Obama and Mitt Romney's claims.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: In the 90-minute debate, a lot of claims get tossed out there as facts. When Mitt Romney and Barack Obama said they would crack down on China, can we trust what they said? CNN's Tom Foreman checks the debate claims against the facts. Tom, to you.

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Brooke. Both the candidates came into the debate talking a lot about China and the idea that China is effectively stealing American jobs and they got into it during their conversation as well. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT OBAMA: We are going to insist that China plays by the same rules as everybody else.

ROMNEY: In part, by holding down artificially the value of their currency, it holds down the prices of their goods, it means our goods aren't as competitive and we lose jobs. That's got to end.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOREMAN: The pledge from each candidate is clear, I will crack down on China, but can they do that and do they have their facts right? But let's look at the numbers first.

Are we losing jobs to China? Yes, we are, about 2.75 million over the past dozen years, many of them manufacturing jobs. If look at the Economic Policy Institute, you can see it is not even all over the country.

The places with the darker orange color on a percentage basis have lost more jobs to China. So you have Oregon and Texas and look at California over here, 3 percent of their jobs in the past dozen years lost to China.

The candidates say this is largely happening because while America allows its value of the dollar to be set by the free market and that determines the cost of labor, that China manipulates the cost of its currency, the yuan.

So it can control the cost of labor because they have a lot of people they need to employ. They would like to keep labor costs low to attract a lot of business. Now, it is difficult to do a one to one comparison because productivity is very different between the U.S. and China.

Let's look at this way as much as we can. If you had a U.S. factory and you wanted to produce something there, by the time you paid a laborer all the benefits, all the salary and everything else, that's going to come out to about $34 an hour.

To do the same thing in china, it is more like $2 an hour. So the Chinese government has structured its infrastructure and everything else to support this idea, to bring factories in, to take advantage of that cheap labor and to put inexpensive products out to compete on the world market.

And, boy, does it compete. Look at this graph, showing what has happened since 1985. This is how many Chinese products we were importing in 1985. And it has gone up and up and up and up so that this is a recession right here, by the way, that little dip there.

It's now reached levels up here, dropped down a little bit more, but tremendous increase in the number of Chinese products coming into the United States since 1985. But now look at what we're sending over there.

U.S. products in 1985 were about even with Chinese and now not nearly as much. It is far behind. What can a president do about that? They could put some kind of a trade barrier in place to stop the Chinese imports.

But if they did that, China would probably respond with trade barriers to U.S. products going there. They could say to U.S. companies, you can't go over there and take advantage of the cheap labor.

But if that happens, those companies at a greater disadvantage on the world market, on top of which, you have to remember China has been buying a lot of U.S. debt. If China stopped doing that, it could make it hard for the government to borrow money to keep operating.

So when the candidates say I will crack down on china, you can take them at their word. Certainly the president has taken steps. So this is true, but the simple truth is China is a strong competitor.

And it has withstood several efforts to reign it in and will continue doing so. Even though they may mean what they say, it is far from the last word on U.S./China relations.

BALDWIN: Tom Foreman, thank you.

We'll get you back to the presidential race in a moment. But first, this monster of an energy drink, super charged with caffeine and more, now is being cited in five deaths across the country. Elizabeth Cohen has new details on where the government investigation now stands.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Maybe you know what this stuff is, maybe you drink it, this popular energy drink called "Monster." It's super charged with caffeine, drink makers, the name Monster, it is everywhere.

Now the FDA is investigating Monster after it received five reports of deaths in just this past year that may be linked to the drink. One of the victims, a 14-year-old girl, and her family is suing. Here's CNN's Elizabeth Cohen.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Brooke, here's what the lawsuit said. A 14-year-old girl drank a 24-ounce can of Monster energy drink, and then a day later she drank another 24- ounce can and she died.

Now, it turns out this girl had a condition, a heart problem, and that she and presumably her parents knew she had this condition. We talked to a cardiologist and they said there is a long list of different heart conditions where you really need to be careful with caffeine.

We reached out to Monster for a response to this lawsuit from the Fornier family and here's what they had to say, Monster does not believe that its beverages are in any way responsible for the death of Miss Fornier.

Monster is unaware of any fatality anywhere that has been caused by its drinks. Brooke, let's look at how much caffeine is in Monster energy drink. If you look at the two cans, the two 24-ounce cans that she drank, one day apart, that's as much caffeine as in 14 Cokes or 13 Pepsis.

This is important to remember. There are other stimulants in these energy drinks as well. So it is not just the caffeine, you have all sorts of other things that would be stimulating and possibly harmful to a heart, especially if that heart is not already working as it should be.

According to the Food and Drug Administration, there have been five deaths of people who drank these Monster drinks and one person had a heart attack and didn't die. Now what is interesting is that the FDA never made that information public.

It only has come out as part of this lawsuit. So we asked the FDA why didn't you tell people about this, and they said because there is no established link between the drinks and the deaths.

It may just be a total coincidence and that's why they didn't reach out to the public. You know, certainly cardiologists we talked to said if you've got one of these heart conditions, you do need to be careful about how much caffeine you get.

And these drinks have a lot of caffeine, likely way more than many people would think -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Fourteen Cokes, wow. Elizabeth Cohen, thank you.

Back to politics, back to the debate, and the first 10 minutes. Mitt Romney brings up a hot spot in which many American voters were not familiar, but could play a major part of the next president's foreign policy.

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BALDWIN: For all of their disagreements, President Obama and Mitt Romney actually had several similar things to say about several major issues facing American foreign policy including one growing hot spot for terror.

I want to bring in P.J. Crowley. He is a former spokesman for the U.S. State Department. So P.J., welcome back. We're going get to that hot spot here in a moment. But first, we have to begin with Syria. Before we get into the verbatim, which, you know, we've read, it sounded like both these men agreed on a heck of a lot. You agree?

P.J. CROWLEY, FORMER STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN: Absolutely. When you looked across the Arab spring, I think Mitt Romney disagreed more with George W. Bush than he did with Barack Obama.

He made clear he wants to see no more Afghanistans, no more Iraqs. He doesn't see a military mission at the present time for U.S. forces in Syria. And I think there was significant agreement on at least that military aspect of a strategy in dealing with the Arab spring.

BALDWIN: Go with me here for just a moment, P.J. because Max Fisher of the "Washington Post" did this great write this morning, sot of even pointing out the same exact words both men were using on Syria's future.

Obama said, quote, "We are making sure that those we help are those who will be friends of ours in the long-term. Here is what Romney said, "We want to make sure we have relationships of friendship with the people who take Assad's place, steps in the years to come we see Syria as a friend."

One more, when talking about aiding the Syrian rebels, the president said, we need to make absolutely certain we know who we are helping, that we're not putting arms in the hands of folks who eventually could turn them against us.

Romney, we do need to make sure that they don't have arms that get into the wrong hands, those arms could hurt us down the road. Does this not, P.J. Crowley, underscore the quagmire that is Syria today?

CROWLEY: Well, I think also both agreed that working with the Syrian opposition for the day after Assad falls. There are very limited options with respect to U.S. policy in Syria and getting a consensus around, you know what their neighbors want to see happen there.

We also have seen potential danger, the danger of Syria is not only what is happening inside the country, but potential to spill outside. We saw some violence in recent days in Lebanon. If Syria explodes as opposed to implodes that has major implications for the next president.

BALDWIN: Right, we have already seen the retaliation between Syria and Turkey just a couple of weeks ago. I want to turn to what Romney said. He said this about fighting Islamic terrorism, quote, "We can't kill our way out of this mess." Said there needs to be more of a comprehensive strategy to fight extremism. Is he on the right track with that argument?

CROWLEY: Well, sure. And what he outlined in terms of empowerment to women, education, you know, the economy and so forth -- rule of law, those are things the Obama administration has already invested in.

Now, the same token he also near the end of the debate went in the other direction and supported what the president has done in terms of the use of drones, which has been a very effective weapon, but one that has created, you know, increasing international concern about their employment.

BALDWIN: To this theme of agreeing, agreeing, and finally I notice this not just once, but twice, in first 10 minutes. Mitt Romney referenced the north western African nation of Mali. Did that surprise you? And why is Mali -- explain to the viewers why Mali is a player?

CROWLEY: Well, not at all. I mean, if you go back to 2001, before that, what we learned from Afghanistan is where there are weak governments and a political vacuum, those are areas where terrorists or international criminals, they receive time, space and oxygen to do what they do.

There is a civil war going on in Mali. The government has lost control of the northern part of the country. There are a myriad of extremists operating there including those that are tied to al Qaeda.

We also see a similar but less threatening for the moment phenomenon in Nigeria involving a group called the Boca Haran. It is a subtle way for Romney to suggest that while the president has said that Bin Laden is dead and we have seen the decimation of the leadership of core al Qaeda.

It a challenge that is morphing and including groups in Yemen, which we're familiar with, groups in the Islamic Maghreb, which might be tied to the Benghazi attack, but now spreading off Mali and potentially other countries.

BALDWIN: Former State Department spokesperson, P.J. Crowley. P.J., thank you.

And two weeks to go here, coming up next, John King explains why he thinks this election is suddenly coming down to just one swing state.

Plus, people, families, lined up to buy bread today when suddenly they're attacked. Speaking of Syria, we're taking you there next.

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