Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Final Campaign Push Begins; Stock Market Drops

Aired October 23, 2012 - 15:00   ET

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


BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: We're getting reports that Syrian troops shelled a bakery where people were lining up, just trying to buy bread.

You can hear the people screaming, clearly chaos, running. The opposition says today's attack left dozens dead. And I said it happened again because Human Rights Watch says government troops dropped bombs and fired artillery on 10 bakeries in the Aleppo region during the month of August.

Top of the hour. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thanks for being with me here.

Two weeks to go, two. The men begging for your vote hitting the campaign trail today. And both candidates are speaking live this hour. Folks, this is the full-court press. The president and vice president together in Ohio, which could be the key to this election.

Also today, Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, together in Nevada. We're watching the podiums here for you. We will bring you the speeches live in just a moment.

But, first, we begin with this. Mitt Romney has just touched down in Nevada, although we're looking, we have yet to see him. Romney flew from Southern Florida, the scene of his third and final debate with President Obama, Boca Raton, last night. He will be speaking pretty soon. Paul Ryan, as I mentioned, he is with him as well. We will watch for that together.

Also want to let you know, the president will be speaking in Ohio this hour, along with his running mate, the vice president, Joe Biden. And before leaving Florida, the president spoke at a rally. This was in Delray Beach, Florida, where he jabbed his opponent once again as having this is the new word here on the campaign trail lexicon, Romnesia.

Let's push this thing ahead and let's talk again about some of the battleground states where the election, again, two weeks from today will be decided.

We have John King in the battleground state of Virginia in Occoquan.

And, John, let's just listen quickly here to something I know has gotten a lot of play since the debate, and I bet they're chewing on it over and over where you are in Virginia. Watch this. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: But I think Governor Romney maybe hasn't spent enough time looking at how our military works.

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's changed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: John King, a lot of warships in Virginia. I have seen Norfolk, specifically. How is that comment going to play in Virginia today?

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The Romney campaign views this, Brooke, as a huge opening. They say the Romney campaign will play that up, whether in advertising and campaign events, saying the president wants to shrink wants to shrink the Navy or leave it small, Governor Romney wants to grow the Navy.

The Romney campaign believes that will help them in what is now a dead heat state in Virginia. Romney very much needs this state. I'm in the Northern Virginia part now. This is where the president needs his big cushion in the suburbs, not all that far from Washington.

And the Obama campaign and its surrogates are scoffing at this. I talked to Gerry Connolly, and he's a Democratic congressman from this part of the state, the northern part of the state. He says Virginians know the key to the future military is high technology. It is changing. It is being more adaptive. Might be leaner, but it can be meaner and more high tech.

He thinks this will not work. Privately some other Democrats aren't so sure. But make no mistake about it, Governor Romney will try to use it especially as you mentioned down in the coastal communities, Norfolk and the like down there, huge Navy installations.

BALDWIN: Who about this? I told my team, I said I want to see John King talking about the electoral map. I loved how you were explaining the importance of Ohio, Wisconsin, Iowa yesterday and you were riffing on this last night when the debate was over. In case our viewers were not tuned in, here you are talking about Ohio.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KING: 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. Gets the president over the top.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: As we know, magic number 270.

John King, we know the president will be in Ohio this hour. Joe Biden, he's there for the next three days. Should the folks in Iowa, should the folks in Wisconsin, which both states you have mentioned, should they be ready for a lot more love from both campaigns in the coming weeks?

KING: Yes. I think it is impossible now to buy more TV time in Ohio. The campaigns will find some way to figure it out, they will buy cable time, they will buy sports programming, but in time of the noon news or the 6:00 news, that time is sold out.

But, look, I'm in Virginia now. This state is 50/50. The Romney campaign believes it is trending its way. The Obama campaign says hold your horses or your bayonets for that matter, that they can hold on to this state.

But if you just take a worse case scenario for President Obama, and let's say Governor Romney wins Florida, Governor Romney gets North Carolina, Virginia goes back to its Republican DNA and Romney wins Virginia, you say here comes Romney, here comes Romney. The president can stop him if -- right now he's ahead in Wisconsin, he's ahead narrowly in Ohio, he's ahead in the public polls in Iowa, the Romney campaign says that one is more of a dead heat.

But if the president can hold Ohio it is almost impossible, it's not impossible, but almost impossible for Governor Romney to get to 270. I suspect -- we got two weeks to go. Vice President Biden will be paying income taxes in Ohio by Election Day and the president will be through there several times too.

But make no mistake, the Republicans will be rolling in right behind them.

BALDWIN: I know you're in Virginia. Let's not forget Florida, 29 electoral votes there. We know that Florida has a lot of Jewish voters. I just want to play this exchange. This is from last night's debate concerning the state of Israel. It begins with Mitt Romney explaining why he keeps accusing the president of launching this apology tour early in his presidency. Here he was.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Mr. President, the reason I call it an apology tour is because you went to the Middle East and you flew to Egypt and to Saudi Arabia and to Turkey and Iraq. And by the way, you skipped Israel, our closest friend in the region, but you went to the other nations.

OBAMA: If we're going to talk about trips that we've taken -- when I was a candidate for office, first trip I took was to visit our troops. And when I went to Israel as a candidate, I didn't take donors. I didn't attend fund-raisers.

I went to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum there, to remind myself the nature of evil and why our bond with Israel will be unbreakable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: That whole exchange to some degree or another here, really both candidates appealing to Jewish voters, possibly Jewish voters in Florida. Is Florida still in play because it appears to be moving toward Romney.

KING: Moving toward Romney, but still a dead heat.

If you're Governor Romney, you look back three weeks and then where are you today? In all nine of our tossup states, Governor Romney is in better shape today than he was three weeks ago. That doesn't mean he has the election won, but that does mean he has the more recent momentum. Most people think it has sort of flat-lined at the moment. Everybody has stopped moving. But Romney is in a much stronger position including in the state of Florida.

He cannot win without it. The math is just impossible after that, because you mentioned the 29. The Jewish vote there, the president last time got roughly eight in 10 Jewish votes in the state of Florida. This is an election on the margins. If Governor Romney can gin up conservative turnout and bring the president down just a little bit with the Jewish vote, that could put the state of Florida in play, make it more open to Romney.

There is no question Governor Romney has been trying throughout the campaign to say there is too much space between President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu. In the debate last night, as you noticed, on paper they have essentially the same position, tougher sanctions, tougher sanctions, international pressure on Iran. Romney says the Netanyahu relationship is frayed a bit. That's his attempt there to create a little bit of a wedge to get a little higher percentage in Miami-Dade and Broward and the like among the Jewish vote, one of the things we will be watching come election night if Florida is as close as Florida has a history of sometimes being.

BALDWIN: John King in a beautiful, beautiful setting in Occoquan, Virginia. Clearly, fall full swing there, beautiful. Thanks, John. Appreciate it.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: We talk Florida. Want to talk Florida again here because in addition to that, the eyes of the nation, they're also fixed, as we were mentioning, on these Midwest swing states. Iowa, six electoral votes. Candidates are spending tens of millions to get them. And every electoral vote counts as he was pointing out here to that magic number of 270.

And CNN's Miguel Marquez is in Davenport, Iowa, the heart of roller derby country.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: If it's Davenport, it's got to be roller derby. Scott County is just one of several battlegrounds here in America's heartland. In this one county alone, there are enough votes to turn this state blue or red.

(voice-over): The rollers demonstrated their signature move.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. Blocking in front of you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh my God!

MARQUEZ: Oh, and by the way --

You're booty dud block me.

MARQUEZ: They're really tough. These rough and tumbled Midwestern women also voters.

(on-camera): So, it's all about keeping the other side from moving forward.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right.

MARQUEZ: This is like politics, you realize.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're behind you, guys.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): Waitress Connie Hart has worked at the machine shed restaurant for 26 years. Her derby name, Diamond Dust. Her specialty, blocking. Her biggest issue, the economy.

How tough has it been?

CONNIE HART, "DIAMOND DUST": It's been tight. It's been real tight.

MARQUEZ: Because less money, higher gas?

HART: Less money. A lot of people don't want to go out to eat as much as they used to.

MARQUEZ: By day, Carrie De Crane is a social worker helping kids with special needs. On some nights, she's Lady Gotcha, a jammer. That's the one that scores the points.

What is important in this election?

CARRIE DE CRANE, "LADY GOTCHA": I want to make sure there's going to be budgeting for the people who actually need it, jobs as well. I want there to be continued job growth.

MARQUEZ: De Crane says she'll likely vote for third party.

(on-camera) Republicans say this is like 2004 with just a few counties broke their way giving Bush a very narrow victory here. Democrats argue their advantage, the low unemployment rate now just 5. 2 percent, among the lowest in the country. This is a single machine?

PAT POLLACK, GENESIS SYSTEMS GROUP: This is a single machine, and it's only part of the machine.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): Scott County in Iowa rebounded with help from companies like Genesis Systems Group, a manufacturer of industrial robots. Increasingly its business is overseas.

Are you hiring?

POLLACK: We have done some hiring this year. I think we're up about ten people. Overall. But we're still about 10 percent lower than we were in 2007.

MARQUEZ: Scott County, an economic bright spot in the heartland whose voters can be tough to win over.

Oh, my goodness!

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Miguel Marquez trying to learn how to jam here with these roller derby gals.

I will have you know you're talking to battling Brooke Baldwin. I have been known to throw an elbow in my day, just throwing it out there. But it is a great piece. You're talking to these voters here in Iowa, one of these key, key states. What did they think of the debate last night? Did they get what they were looking for?

MARQUEZ: Well, most of them got exactly what they were looking for, which is their side, one side or the other. I don't think it changed the dynamic here certainly. But certainly the candidates, they're going to hear more from the candidates, and President Obama coming here to Davenport tomorrow. A few hours after that, Governor Romney will be in Cedar Rapids, and this place is hot and heavy.

We're talking to people on the street here who have heard from campaigns at their house, door knockers from some of the campaigns, three and four times at one house. So that's how intense it is. This is going to be a campaign to get people out to vote.

Some of these campaigners sound like they're going to grab them out of the house, take them to the poll and make them vote.

BALDWIN: They just have to deal with it for two more weeks, two more weeks. Miguel Marquez for us in Davenport, Iowa, thank you. We appreciate it.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: And just a quick reminder to you, we're waiting for the president, we're waiting for Mitt Romney, both of them expected to speak live this hour from very important swing states, from Ohio, where next we will go live here to check in with this early polling station.

Plus, we will get you a look here at the Big Board. You can see the Dow, it is down 210 points at this hour due to these weak earnings reports. Ali Velshi, he's been talking about this for months. He will join me live from a battleground state with more.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: When it comes to counting electoral votes, campaign aides for both President Obama and Mitt Romney have come up with lots of different paths to victory.

But for both of these candidates, it is tough to find a scenario that does not include winning the state of Ohio. Take a look at the latest here, CNN poll of Ohio polls finds the race in that very state very, very close, 48 percent for President Obama to Mitt Romney's 45 percent.

President Obama and Joe Biden, they will be holding a rally in Dayton, Ohio. We will take that live for you this hour.

But let's go to Shannon Travis. He is standing inside this polling place in Toledo, where I know these early voters already casting their ballots.

And, Shannon, you're talking to them. Obviously, these are the decideds thus far. What are they saying?

SHANNON TRAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They're deciding as we speak, so this is an active polling place, Brooke. I'm going to keep my voice down just a little bit.

But let's set this up. We're here in Toledo, and Toledo is a part of Lucas County, right? It's a county that President Obama won by just over 30 points in 2008. So how will they perform this time will obviously be key for them to keep those kind of margins, so they won't have to run up such a high margin in other parts of Ohio.

Right now, we know both campaigns are pushing for their supporters to bank those votes early, right, to come in. Essentially, that's what these voters are doing behind me right now. I will let you take a look at one of the voting machines right here, Brooke, it's pretty simple. You put in a voter card, you cash your vote, you walk away, all is good.

In terms of what some of the voters might have been -- some of the votes that might have already been banked, cast already, I spoke with a few people outside this polling place, take a listen, one woman who was a pro-Obama supporter, another couple who were for Romney.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just in case, better safe than sorry, want to go ahead and make sure I get out here today and make sure my vote is counted.

TRAVIS: Who are you voting for?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: President Obama.

TRAVIS: And why President Obama?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, because honestly I think he's the best choice for our country.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think the push for me on the early voting part is the fact that I believe in Ohio, and just like any other place, but in Ohio specifically every vote counts and so if you -- the day comes up and you can't vote, you have lost the chance to give your opinion.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I voted for Mitt Romney.

TRAVIS: And why is that, ma'am?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Because I feel like he can take this country in a different direction and we need to go in a different direction. So I'm hoping he's successful.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TRAVIS: Now, Brooke, those are obviously some of the opinions from the voters that we have been talking to, but let's go through a few of the numbers that I found out. Again, we're in Lucas County, we're in Toledo, which is in Lucas County.

In terms of numbers, today at this polling place alone, which, by the way, is the only polling place in Lucas County where you can cast an early vote, we have 499 votes, as of the latest count for today alone.

In terms of this polling place, since early voting began here in Ohio, on October 2, 8,998, so just below 9,000, and you're probably wondering the party breakdown. I have got those numbers for you too, Brooke. Lucas County, 23,155 Democrats have cast ballots, 9,442 Republicans. Again, we don't know whether some Democrats only cast for President Obama or switched over, same thing for Republicans.

So this cannot be said that, you know, all of these are Democratic votes vs. Republicans, but we do know this is the party breakdown so far in terms of early votes for Lucas County.

BALDWIN: OK. Shannon Travis for us in Toledo, Ohio, with those 18 electoral votes up for grabs. Shannon Travis, we appreciate it.

Quick reminder. As you have been seeing, we had this little box on the screen, we're watching, we're waiting, we will take a live picture. It's an empty podium for now. You see the sign, Romney/Ryan, and we're waiting for both of them to speak. This is when we will be seeing Romney since the debate last night speaking in Henderson, Nevada. It's just about 16 miles away from Vegas. As soon as we see them, we will take you there live next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Here we are, the morning after, or I should say afternoon after that third and final presidential debate. Mitt Romney, running mate Paul Ryan, they're together again on the campaign trial. These are live pictures as we're awaiting them on this stage here. The rally about to get under way. This is Henderson, Nevada, just outside of Vegas.

It is another one of those all-important swing states, but most polls show the president is leading in the state of Nevada.

Jim Acosta, as always, traveling, covering the Romney campaign.

And, Jim, I'm sure you talked to folks within the campaign. How do they feel like Mitt Romney did last night?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, of course, they feel like they won last night's debate, Brooke. They laid out to us some talking points on the campaign plane just a few minutes ago when we were coming in for a landing here in Nevada.

As you mentioned just a few moments ago, Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney will be on this stage behind me in Henderson in just a few moments and the two will be traveling on to Colorado after that. And then the race begins. They're going to be hitting a number of battleground states over the next couple of days.

But on that campaign plane, we had a chance to listen to a couple of Romney senior advisers, and one of them was talking about the race ahead and the debate last night. And they feel like what Mitt Romney accomplished last night was basically to stay away from a lot of those attacks from President Obama. And at the same time they feel he passed the commander in chief test, that he appeared presidential on that stage in each of those debates with President Obama, so they do feel like that that was mission accomplished on that front.

Now, as for what's going on today, Brooke, you heard the president earlier this morning in Florida lay out his blueprint for a second term agenda. That did come up on the campaign plane as those advisers were briefing reporters. And one adviser called that new blueprint a glossy panic button in his words. So they're ratcheting up the rhetoric as well as we head into the final stretch.

BALDWIN: You're talking about the 19-page pamphlet that team Obama outlining his plans if he's elected for another four years.

Do me a favor, Jim, and just based upon conversations you have had, tell me what we could be hearing from Mitt Romney as we should be seeing him momentarily and also remind us, when was the last time we saw -- I hear the chanting for Romney. Remind us of the last time we actually saw Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan together on one stage.

ACOSTA: We saw them last Friday night in Daytona Beach, Florida. They were out there together. And you know what is interesting about these post-debate events, Brooke, is you get to hear from the GOP contender in terms of what he thinks went well and what he perhaps did not think went so well.

Consider after last week's debate that town hall debate in New York. There was a big flare-up over Libya and Benghazi. At the next couple of post debate events, Mitt Romney did not talk about that. He was shifting back to the economy.

So that was perhaps a sense that that moment did not go well for him. So we're going to hear from Mitt Romney in just a few moments and we're going to hear perhaps what he feels where his best moments last night. One thing that we did hear from the president earlier this morning, he called -- he talked again about Romnesia, saying that Mitt Romney suffers from third stage -- stage three Romnesia.

(CROSSTALK)

ACOSTA: Stage three Romnesia. And Kevin Madden on the campaign plane accused the president of playing Scrabble with Mitt Romney's name. So maybe we will hear some of that, some of the back and forth that we will be getting into over the next couple of days. That might be a preview of what's to come -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Malarkey, Obamaloney, Romnesia. Two more weeks. Jim Acosta, two more weeks. We will check back as soon as we see them on that stage. We appreciate it.

As we await Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, we're also watching the Dow tank here, coming off of some disappointing reports today from big-time companies.

Ali Velshi, he has been keeping his eye on this from this battleground bus, there he is, on this tour. He's in Florida. We will check in with him next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: The word grim is being used today to describe what is causing the stock market to fall.

The Dow plunged nearly 250 points here after some key companies reported poor earnings today, the worst numbers coming from DuPont, which reported a startling 98 percent drop in profits compared to same quarter one year ago.

And all of this comes as our chief business correspondent, Ali Velshi, he has hopped aboard this battleground bus on this tour here beginning in Florida. He's taking -- taking on these four different key swing states, talking to voters. He's in Lakeland, Florida, for me now.

And, Ali, you've been warning of this sell-off here for months, but a drop in profits of 98 percent for DuPont? They've already announced all these layoffs.

ALI VELSHI, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, it's a big one.

BALDWIN: This makes matters worse, 14 days before the election. What's going on?

VELSHI: Yeah, a drop in DuPont stock right now for those people who hold it in their accounts and, if you've a 401(k) or an IRA that's well-diversified, you probably own DuPont. It's off 9 percent.

Although I have to say, it's unusual for me to be happy that the Dow is only off about 210, 215 points right now because it was down more than 250 earlier today. They've announced layoffs of 1,500 people. They're selling less stuff around the world, including automotive paint.

DuPont is one of the biggest makers of automotive paint. Why would you be selling less? Because they're expecting fewer cars to be sold. This is just one more indicator of a slowing global economy.

So, we've got this two-sided recovery going on. You've got American consumers who are actually feeling, as you and I talked, not so bad about this economy, but you've got your quarterly report card from Wall Street.

This is earnings season. That's why we got this report from DuPont, and they are saying, things are actually slowing down around the world.

And that's what makes us -- brings us right back to the election because Europe is slowing down. They are buying less stuff, which means Asia has slowed down.

We're trying to make Asia into a more consuming economy, but they don't have the jobs to grow their economies. China has slowed down. India has slowed down. Bottom line is everybody is looking to the United States to say, can you improve your economy in the United States?

BALDWIN: So, as you mentioned, DuPont ,specifically, who are the other big losers and are there any winners here?

VELSHI: Well, the one that wasn't too badly off was UPS. I always look to the shipping companies to give me a real indication of what's going on because they know before we do whether people are shipping, buying, sending more stuff.

UPS was OK, but Xerox reported numbers that disappointed a little bit. United Technologies did. 3M did. So, these are the world's big, big companies. Remember, these are U.S.-based companies, but more than half of their revenues come from other parts of the world.

More than 50 percent of their revenues are not in the United States, so we know the global economy is slowing down which means we need to make sure the U.S. economy is growing, which brings us to this battleground bus tour.

We're coming -- we're going 1,800 miles. We started in Boca this morning. We're going to end up in Ohio and we're talking to people about what is going to motivate them to make their decision about who they're voting for, particularly those undecided voters in swing states and swing counties like this one, Polk County, Lakeland, Florida.

BALDWIN: OK, 30 seconds, any highlights so far, talking to voters in Florida?

VELSHI: Yeah, if you were going to be swayed by soaring rhetoric, it would have happened by now. The people who are undecided are looking at both of these candidates and saying, I like what each of them to have to say about what the future is going to look like.

Show me the money. Show me the math. Break it down and tell me exactly how you're going to create 12 million jobs in five years, exactly how you're going to cut taxes, in Romney's case, by 20 percent across the board and not increase the deficit, exactly how, like Obama has said, he's going to create a million more manufacturing jobs or 600,000 more jobs in the natural gas sector.

They need to get specifics. If they want to win over these independent voters, that's what they need to do in the next two weeks.

BALDWIN: Ali Velshi on the battleground bus. Ali, we'll check in with you all week here. Next stop, North Carolina.

Meantime, CNN is profiling the presidential candidates, starting Sunday night, 8:00 Eastern. CNN profiles the Republican presidential nominee. We're calling it "Romney Revealed -- Family, Faith and the Road to Power," followed at 9:30 by "Obama Revealed -- The Man, the President."

Speaking of all this money here, is it really the best time to put money in the bank especially with low interest rates. People just aren't making money on interest and we have "The Help Desk" to help answer that very question.

Poppy Harlow, to you.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, everyone.

Today on "The Help Desk," we're talking about the interest that you earn from money in the bank. It's not very much, but here to help us break it down, Stacy Francis and Lynnette Khalfani-Cox.

Stacy, take a listen to this question.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is it worth keeping money in the bank still, now that interest rates are as low as they are? I'm not making any interest in the bank and I don't know where I should put my money.

HARLOW: And interest rates are going to be low for a long, long time.

STACY FRANCIS, PRESIDENT, FRANCIS FINANCIAL: Well, the bank is better than your mattress. That is true.

So put money in the bank that you're going to use for your emergency fund. That's 3-to-6 months of your living expenses and any other expenses that you might have coming up in the next two or three years that you need to fund.

Other than that, the rest of it goes to the long-term and it should be invested in the stock market.

LYNNETTE KHALFANI-COX, FOUNDER, ASKTHEMONEYCOACH.COM: And we know that rates are going to be low, obviously, for a long time for savers because the Fed has said they're going to keep rates low until at least 2015.

You know, he might also try looking at online savings accounts because those traditionally pay a teeny bit more at least than do traditional brick-and-mortar banks, so websites out there like MoneyRates.com or BankRate.com, they have studies that they do every single year and show historically those online banks will pay you a little bit more.

HARLOW: Yeah. And you have to keep an eye on what rate you're getting because they can change that without telling you and you can just switch easily to a competitor and get a little bit more. Every little bit counts.

Thank you, both

If you've got a question you want our experts to tackle, just upload a 30-second video with your "Help Desk" question to iReport.com.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Poppy, thank you.

The next big thing for Apple, it's actually a mini. IPad Mini, that is. Dan Simon, Katie Linendoll have all the bells and the whistles, the scoop today and what this means for the competition. They are next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Here we go. A lot of hype over one of Apple's latest releases, the new iPad mini. It has a smaller screen than your traditional iPad and a starting price tag of 329 bucks.

And we have Dan Simon and Katie Linendoll, standing by outside this spot where this announcement has just taken place in San Jose.

Dan Simon, first to you, any big surprises?

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know what, Brooke? Thanks to the Internet and all the leaks coming probably from Apple suppliers, we didn't really see any surprises.

You know, they updated the iMac, Katie. We saw the new 13-inch MacBook Pro Retina screen. I guess what surprised me is the price of this iPad Mini, $329. Their competitors are a lot more aggressive when it comes to the price, $199 from Google, $159 from Amazon, so that was surprising to me.

How about you?

KATIE LINENDOLL, TECH EXPERT: That was a big thing for me. You know, as we head into holidays, Brooke, a tablet is going to be a very hot-ticket item and, for me, 329 bucks for the iPad mini? We have Amazon Kindles, as Dan said, starting at $159, Google's Nexus 7, starting at 200 bucks, Barnes and Noble's Nook tablet, starting at 200 bucks.

For a consumer, $200 to $329 is a big difference. So I like to say, let's grab some popcorn and watch this play out because it is going to be interesting what consumers go for.

If they just want e-mail and the Internet, you can do that really with any tablet.

BALDWIN: Why would - I mean, I have an iPad. I enjoy the larger screen size. Why would someone want an iPad Mini? Is it simply the price point?

SIMON: Well, you know what? It is smaller, so that's actually kind of nice to have. You can sort of put it in your pocket.

And guess what? This is what Apple has done with all of its products. They offer cheaper, smaller, faster versions of basically everything.

In this particular case, the iPad Mini isn't faster, but you know what I mean? We saw that play out with the iPod for many years, the iPod Shuffle, the iPod Nano, iPod Touch. You know, this is what Apple does.

LINENDOLL: I think a big thing for me is the portability here. You know, they showed that it's lighter, it's thinner, and you can hold it with one hand.

You think about popping that in your purse or taking that with you, it's kind of a nice little feature in terms of how compact it is.

BALDWIN: OK, so portability.

LINENDOLL: But we have to tell you while we have ...

BALDWIN: Go ahead, Katie.

LINENDOLL: Portability, lighter, and thinner, it's very small. Dan and I love to talk about the event because a lot of people are very intrigued by Apple events and, while this is a little bit of a digression, you've got - when you're heading into the Apple event, you get trampled. I'd just like to let you know.

BALDWIN: Define trampling. I don't want anyone trampling you.

SIMON: It's not quite Walmart after Thanksgiving.

LINENDOLL: It is.

SIMON: Oh, you think so?

LINENDOLL: It is. High-level tech journalists pushing each other to get inside to see what was unveiled today.

SIMON: But the other reason why they came out with the iPad Mini is they're following their competitors.

LINENDOLL: Absolutely.

SIMON: I mean, we see Google coming out with a smaller tablet. Samsung has one. Now, Amazon.

So, they didn't want to be beaten in their own category. They invented the tablet, basically, and see their competitors coming out with smaller products and figure, you know what? We don't want them to sort of steal our momentum, so they came out with their own.

LINENDOLL: And I think at the end of the day, though, Brooke, we have to look at the numbers. You know, Apple released today 100 million iPads have been sold, to-date. Nobody is touching the iPad in the marketplace.

However, now with these smaller, more inexpensive options, we'll have to see how it goes down around holiday.

BALDWIN: All right, well, we appreciate both of you guys taking one for the team and allowing the trampleage to happen to report the important information to the people because they want to know about their ...

SIMON: I'm not hearing anything, are you?

BALDWIN: ... their iPad Mini and, guys, thank you. Dan Simon and Katie Linendoll, appreciate it.

A quick reminder to you, any minute now, we should be seeing President Obama and Mitt Romney, both of them expected to speak at this hour from two very important swing states, including Ohio and Nevada.

Keep in mind, for Romney, this is his first public appearance since last night's debate in Boca Raton, Florida. We will have that for you, live. Stay with me.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Two weeks, this 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 is John King at the "magic wall.:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KING: 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 you 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's 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, gets the president over the top.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: John King, thank you.

As you know, the magic number, 270.

Coming up next, both President Obama and Mitt Romney say, no, Iran will not get a nuclear weapon, but they disagree slightly on how to be sure.

Not only are we reality checking both these candidates here, CNN shows you how Iran could hide a warhead carrier in a bunker or a ship. Don't miss this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: CNN stepping up our fact checks to both candidates after last night's final showdown, including their claims about Iran. Here is CNN's Tom Foreman.

Tom?

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Brooke. Both of these candidates came into this debate knowing that Iran's nuclear program was going to be a very serious issue and that it has been since Barack Obama took office.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: We then organized the strongest coalition and the strongest sanctions against Iran in history. The disagreement I have with Governor Romney is that during the course of this campaign he's often talked as if we should take premature military action. I think that would be a mistake.

MITT ROMNEY, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I think from the very beginning one of the challenges we've had with Iran is that they have looked at this administration and felt that the administration was not as strong as it needed to be.

I think they saw weakness and I think that when the president said he was going to create daylight between ourselves and Israel that they noticed that, as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOREMAN: They agree on many things. Each man says Iran will not get a nuke on my watch, each one says economic sanctions are a good way of pushing Iran and each one admits ultimately it might reach the point where a military strike is needed to stop Iran's nuclear program.

But they very much disagree on what should be emphasized in this equation and, in recent months, that has led each one to suggest my opponent is being reckless about Iran.

Let's consider the two options here. We'll start with the military one because that's one extreme and to consider that we brought in a life-sized digital model of a Shahab-3 missile. We've done this just so you can see what size it is, how mobile it is and how easily this could be hidden in, say, a bunker or perhaps the hold of a ship.

We know Iran has plenty of these, we know they're reasonably reliable, reasonably accurate and we know they're powerful enough to carry a nuclear warhead in that nose cone right up there.

So, if Iran gets a nuke, it does have a way of delivering it. Not to the United States. It's not strong enough for that. Not even to most of Europe. But it could easily reach all of the Middle East and certainly it could reach the American ally, Israel.

Iran says it has no designs on that. It's not even trying to build a nuclear weapon and, yet, it's widely believed that Israel has a contingency plan to attack Iran's nuclear facilities and bomb them, if need be, to keep that from happening.

Here's the danger. There's no proof that such an attack would absolutely work and, if it did not, Iran would still have a nuclear program and they would then have the pretext for saying we need nukes because look at how we've been attacked.

Nonetheless, when Mitt Romney talks about the need for strength, what he means is that the U.S. must send a clear message that, if Israel attacks that way, America will stand behind Israel.

Barack Obama says, let's not rattle the sword so much; let's rattle the piggy bank a good bit more. He's talking about sanctions, the pressure that has been put on the rial. This is the official currency of Iran and, since October of last year, trade sanctions from the United States and other countries have really hammered this.

Look at this. In October of 2011, it took 12,500 rial to equal one U.S. dollar. Now, it's 35,000. Some imported products in Iran now have doubled in cost since a year ago.

A lot of citizens there are very unhappy about it and this is the theory. By creating economic, social and political pressure on Iran's leaders through this, it will force them to the bargaining table to talk about giving up their nuclear program in exchange for the sanctions being lifted.

So, what's the danger here? Well, the danger here is, what if it doesn't work? What if Iran uses this, these negotiations, as a stalling tactic while a nuclear weapon is being built?

So, let's get back to the basic claim here. When these people suggest that my opponent is being reckless with Iran, the truth is we can say they may believe that, but we have to give it a rate of incomplete because nobody knows how this story is going to play out.

Only when Iran gives up the nuclear program or announces it has a nuclear bomb will we know who was reckless and who was right.

BALDWIN: Tom Foreman, thank you.

Quick reminder, any minute now, we're watching both these pictures here, the president, Mitt Romney, both expected to speak from two key swing states, Ohio, Nevada.

Keep in mind, for Mitt Romney today, this is his first public appearance since last night's third and final presidential debate in Boca Raton. And we'll bring both of these to you, live, as soon as we see these guys hop up on these stages.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Stocks on Wall Street have been tumbling all day. You can see the Dow plunging. We are just about three minutes to go here before that closing bell and this could be the biggest one-day loss since June.

Investors are seeing, first-hand, the ripple effect that issues overseas can have here.

Alison Kosik joins me from the New York Stock Exchange. And, in terms of today's selloff, Alison, why? Why now?

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: You know what? The writing has been on the wall, Brooke, that this wasn't going to be a good earnings' season. I'm talking about the third-quarter earnings' season.

But now the thing is we're seeing the effects of the global slowdown right in these companies' bottom lines, you know, big, multinational companies. These third-quarter results are the reason why we're seeing stocks tumble.

There are three companies, in particular, DuPont, 3M, United Technologies. DuPont shares, as we were watching, tumbled more than 8 percent right now. It's the biggest loser on the Dow, the company reporting lower than expected sales because of the slowing demand in both Europe and Asia.

And you know what, Brooke? Demand is what it's all about and it's just not happening for these companies.

BALDWIN: What about Facebook? Facebook earnings? They're just minutes away. I know its shares have lost half of their value since the IPO. Any idea what we can expect?

KOSIK: Exactly. Wall Street's actually a bit nervous about what Facebook is going to say after the closing bell for its earnings report, especially after Zynga recently cut its full-year outlook significantly.

And Zynga, which makes those games like Farmville and Words With Friends -- Zynga makes up a pretty big chunk of Facebook's revenue, so it's really not a good sign that Zynga kind of got those red lights flashing.

Wall Street does expect the social network, though, to pull in $1 billion in sales in the latest quarter. The problem is that's right about where it was last quarter, so if that's actually the number that comes in, it's not really a step forward and investors want to hear how Facebook plans to make more money off of its billion users, but in mobile.

Of course, mobile is the way to go. Facebook needs to figure out how to turn that into money. Investors are also wanting to know how these new features on Facebook, like "gift" and "promote," how they're doing, as well.

All right, the closing bell about to ring. Can't come soon enough. The Dow down 235 points.

Brooke?

BALDWIN: Alison Kosik, we appreciate you there for us, New York Stock Exchange, watching the Dow taking a tumble today. Thank you very much.

And thank you. Here we are, two weeks to go before election day and I know now, as I'm sure Wolf Blitzer will be watching these two events happening in Nevada and Ohio, Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, the president and Joe Biden speaking. He'll have it for you.

Wolf Blitzer, we'll send it to you in Washington.