Baby Boomers Turn Love of Food into Business
VELSHI: Welcome back. If you missed this weekend's Republican debate in Iowa, you missed the GOP field ganging up on the frontrunner, the new front-runner, Newt Gingrich. Mitt Romney challenging the former House speaker on his controversial comments about the Palestinian people. You'll recall Gingrich called them an invented people. Rick Perry questioning just how trustworthy a candidate can be if he's cheated on his wife. So where does the race go from here with just three weeks to go before the Iowa caucuses, the important Iowa caucuses? Let's ask CNN contributor, David Frum. He's a former speechwriter for President Bush. Penny Nance, she's the president and CEO of Concerned Women for America. Welcome to both of you. Thank you for being with us.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good morning.</s>VELSHI: David, let's start with you. This is Newt Gingrich's first debate performance since he became the frontrunner and a lot of new polls indicate that he's holding that lead quite well. How do you think he did?</s>DAVID FRUM, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: He did well. You could see Governor Romney clearly pondering how to deal with this new challenger. Up until now, the not mitt of the moment has always been someone, Romney could pretty effortlessly dominate in a debate format. Rick Perry, Herman Cain, a lot of very different floor of the building Mitt Romney is on than those two individuals, but with Newt Gingrich, Romney hasn't counted somebody who's as nimble as he is and in some ways nimbler. You could see the discomfort, the nervous laughter of the Romney performance as he confronted this new challenge, which he hasn't yet figured out how to solve.</s>VELSHI: Wouldn't you be steamed if you were Mitt Romney? Like every time somebody sort of implodes in front of you somebody else ends up taking the lead? Penny, you and a group of conservative leaders met with Newt Gingrich last Wednesday. How do you feel that went? What did you learn, what do you think of him?</s>PENNY NANCE, PRESIDENT AND CEO, CONCERNED WOMEN FOR AMERICA: You know, I give him credit. He stood there for two hours and took questions on any subject matter. Nothing was off bounds, and replied graciously and thoughtfully to everyone. You know, I think people left the room with different feelings, but I think that it did move the ball down the field for him. You know, it's important, the issues that he's dealing with, that the American people are grappling with, are key for American women. Women have carried every presidential election since 1964. They've swung in the last election for Republicans for the first time in 30 years, and conservative women are really having to look at all of this. Having to look at not only fidelity to your marriage, fidelity in the constitution, fidelity to conservative principles, and it's very important process.</s>VELSHI: How do you feel he handled that fidelity question? He has admitted to marital infidelity in the past. It came up -- the discussion came up. How do you think he handled that?</s>NANCE: And it came up in the meeting that I was in. You know, he did I think, a good job of expressing his own -- his own repentance. The fact that, like other Christians, I believe in the idea of redemption and grace and so that is part of our thought process. That's part of the thought process for people in Iowa, for Christians in Iowa. If we believe in grace for ourselves, we have to believe in it for our leaders, but also the key issue is repentance. And is Newt a different man and they have to work through that, and that is what is going on right now.</s>VELSHI: And he certainly made that point last night, to say, judge me on who I am now as oppose to who I was then. Let me ask you, David. Let's go back to Mitt Romney for a second. There was a dispute between Mitt Romney and Rick Perry about something that was in -- that Rick Perry said was in Mitt Romney's book, and in a later edition was taken out, having to do with health care. They went back and forth about this. Listen to how it went down.</s>MITT ROMNEY, (R), FORMER MASSACHUSETTS GOVERNOR & PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Rick, I'll tell you what --</s>ROMNEY: $10,000 bet?</s>GOV. RICK PERRY, (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm not in the betting business, but --</s>ROMNEY: Oh, OK.</s>VELSHI: $10,000 bet. I can see -- Penny, I can see you shaking your head. David, what do you --</s>NANCE: Oh, my -- that was a huge gaffe.</s>VELSHI: What do you think, David? It seemed a little out of touch. Who makes a $10,000 bet?</s>FRUM, CNN CONTRIBUTOR & EDITOR, FRUMFORUM.COM: Yes, that was also -- I agree with Penny. I wouldn't even call it a gaffe. What you have there? Romney has, at various moments, tried to bully Rick Perry, a man of whom he obviously doesn't have a lot of respect. We've seen it before. And in the past, he's bullied him with his superior intellect. That's inbounds. In this case, he was bullying him with his superior money. And it's -- maybe interesting to be reminded of the fact that Romney regards $10,000 as not a lot of money, but he clearly regards it as a club. He knows that to Rick Perry, $10,000 is a lot of money. And, you know, this party has gotten to some degree removed from the concerns and attitudes of everyday working Americans. But that revelation of how much you think $10,000 is --</s>VELSHI: Right.</s>FRUM: -- that was a pretty far drift.</s>VELSHI: Penny, you didn't like the idea that these kinds of bets go down? You just didn't like that?</s>NANCE: My point was that culturally he was way off message on that. The good people, the good Baptists of Iowa don't bet. And, by the way, Rick Perry knew that. He comes from Texas. He gave exactly the right answer. So I cringed when I saw that on a number of levels, not just the fact that $10,000, some people barely make that a year. Besides the amazing amount of money he was trying to bet, the fact that he was trying to bet it all just was -- way off.</s>VELSHI: You found distasteful.</s>NANCE: Yes.</s>VELSHI: David, let's talk about Michele Bachmann for a second. She comes out of these things quite well. She usually comes up with something. This time, Newt-Romney. She piled the two front- runners together as being not the conservatives and not the trusted ones as it were. Let's listen for a second to Michele Bachmann talking about Newt-Romney.</s>REP. MICHELE BACHMANN, (R), MINNESOTA & PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If you look at Newt-Romney, they were for Obama-care principles. If you look at Newt-Romney, they were for cap-and-trade. If you look at Newt-Romney, they were for the illegal immigration problem. And if you look at Newt-Romney, they were for the $700 billion bailout.</s>VELSHI: What do you think, David? Did that do anything for Michele Bachmann or did it hurt Newt-Romney?</s>FRUM: Whenever I hear Michele Bachmann talk in these debates, I cannot get past her endless reiteration of the completely false claim that 47 percent of Americans don't pay taxes. We're talking about removing the Republican Party from concerns of everyday people, to say to half the country that the payroll tax, the most important tax for most people, that that tax doesn't count, that if you pay excise taxes on plates and glasses and cheap running shoes, you're not paying taxes. If you're paying your share of the corporate income tax through the higher prices you pay at the store, that you're not paying taxes. It's just writing off half the country as dependents who really are actually paying a very heavy load. And she --</s>VELSHI: You're giving Penny a pained look on her face at the moment.</s>NANCE: Well, I've just got to say, I think Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum did a great job making the case that they have been principled conservatives, consistent conservatives throughout their career. And I thought they both did a -- had a great showing the other night. And I just would hope that Rick's name I.D. would get a little higher so he could actually catch some wind in his sails before it's too late.</s>VELSHI: He's hasn't -- he hasn't caught any wind this entire race.</s>NANCE: And he's not had the same media exposure as other people. He's never gotten above 50 percent in name I.D. and I think it's hurt him. But Michele made some great points. What she was talking was the personal federal until tax. And you know that, David.</s>FRUM: I know that. I know that was deliberately misleading for her to use those numbers in that way.</s>VELSHI: All right.</s>FRUM: Rick Santorum, by the way, has talked more about the concerns of middle-class Americans. I give him credit for that.</s>VELSHI: Well, we're a month away from that very decisive primary in Iowa. Good to talk to both of you. Thanks very much, David Frum, CNN contributor, former speechwriter for President George W. bush. He's the editor of the Frumforum.com. You can go there to see a lot of his writer. And Penny Nance, president and CEO of Concerned Women for American. Thank you both.</s>NANCE: Thank you.</s>ROMANS: Here's a good story for you in a bad economy. Two baby boomers press the reboot buttons on their lives and careers. Both out of work, they turn to their love of food and they find sweet and savory success. Sorry, but that's what it is.</s>RID FRANCISCO, LIZBETH LANE CUISINES: Eating is a very emotional thing.</s>ROMANS (voice-over): Now a livelihood for Rid Francisco and Michael Dernoga.</s>FRANCISCO: Really, really good.</s>ROMANS: Almost two years ago the friend and next-door neighbors cooked up Lizbeth Lane Cuisines. It's a line of all- natural, gluten-free simmer cooking sauces.</s>MICHAEL DERNOGA, LIZBETH LANE CUISINES: These are sauces that we make on a regular basis.</s>ROMANS: In 2008, Rig's advertising business tanked.</s>FRANCISCO: When the phone stopped ringing, I knew I had to do something quick.</s>ROMANS: When Michael lost his job in health care management, he found inspiration from his 12-year-old daughter.</s>DERNOGA: She said, so, Dad, what is to you really like to do? And out of those conversations, was, you know, my love of food.</s>ROMANS: Neighbors and foodies, together with 60 years of work experience, they named their new company, after the street where it all began.</s>DERNOGA: Being two 50-something-year-old guys, we're not afraid to admit that we don't know.</s>FRANCISCO: It was exciting but it was also a little terrifying because of the age. At the time, I was 58 years old. And to reinvent yourself at that age is a pretty drastic thing to do. But I knew if we stuck with it, that it had a possibility of really working.</s>ROMANS: Rid does the design, ads and labels. Michael handles operations.</s>DERNOGA: I'm sort of the suit, and Rid is kind of this creative guy.</s>ROMANS: And it is about profit and principle. They ship their sauce using handicrafters. It is non-profit organization that gives jobs to people with disabilities and other employment barriers. Rid's stepson, Rob, works there.</s>FRANCISCO: There are a lot of parents out there who have special needs children, who lay awake at night wondering, when he gets out of school, what are we going to do with him? And this -- a place like handicrafters really gives them a wonderful opportunity to have a responsible nine-to-five job.</s>ROMANS: Now with 50 stores in 16 states, their boomer reboot is working.</s>FRANCISCO: If we had started this right out of college or, you know, in our late 20s or early 30s, it probably would have been much tougher.</s>DERNOGA: It's so totally different than a nine-to-five job. I've done both and I know where I want to be, and I'm where I want to be.</s>ROMANS: A total career transformation.</s>VELSHI: That's great.</s>ROMANS: And what I love about this story, or it's really two stories, it's two boomers who rebooted after just, you know, being chewed up and spit out by the financial cries, and the recession that followed.</s>VELSHI: Right.</s>ROMANS: Using 60 years of that experience to do this new venture, and they are doing a great job, right?</s>VELSHI: And they are giving these jobs to people who would otherwise would have difficulty. A lot of these --</s>ROMANS: Wouldn't be able to get work experience.</s>VELSHI: That's right.</s>ROMANS: So they are also helping other people fill their resume, especially in this economy, who normally wouldn't be able to get that experience. On two fronts, it's just a really great story.</s>VELSHI: And the sauce is good.</s>ROMANS: Yes, it's good.</s>VELSHI: All right. Still to come this morning, alcohol, drug use, and depression all on the rise for students entering high school. We'll tell you what you can do to safeguard your children. It's 52 minutes after the hour.