Pure Gold; Nursing Nanny State?; Michael Phelps Wins Most Olympic Gold Medals; Interview with Aaron Peirsol
O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody. And 19 gold medals for Michael Phelps, 19. But does it make him the greatest Olympian ever? The man who organized London's games says no, that doesn't make him history's best. Where does fellow Olympic swimmer Aaron Peirsol stand on this debate? We'll ask him that in just a few moments. But first, a look at the day's top stories with Zoraida Sambolin. Good morning.</s>SAMBOLIN: Good morning to you. A shifting terror threat from Al Qaeda to Iran. The first state department report on terrorism since Usama bin Laden was killed. It says a number of worldwide terror attacks last year fell to the lowest level since 2005 and that Iran remains the leading state sponsor of terrorism. The State Department also saying that the death of bin Laden and other top lieutenants put the Al Qaeda network, quote, "on a path of decline that will be difficult to reverse." The University of California Davis police lieutenant who pepper- sprayed peaceful campus protesters last fall is no longer employed by the school. Lieutenant John Pike was vilified last year after being caught on tape dousing demonstrators with pepper spray. Students at the school were protesting rising tuition. U.C. Davis won't say if pike left or he was fired. A nasty collision between a bird and a united airlines flight as it landed in Denver. You can see yesterday's crash left a gaping hole in the nose of the 737. The Smithsonian Institution will now try to identify the bird. It has DNA databases of all bird species in the world. Luckily no one on the plane was hurt. And check this out. Flash mob patriotism.</s>SAMBOLIN: And 400 Kenyans dancing in the streets in a show of support for team Kenya at the 2012 Olympic games. That's cool. And catchy. What do you think, Soledad?</s>O'BRIEN: I love it. I think it's going to go viral if it hasn't already. I want to be part of a flash mob one day. I want to be part of a friendly dancing flash mob. Come on. Wouldn't that be great?</s>HOOVER: There's flash mob proposals happening all over the place, for a proposal, like a man will organize a flash mob to propose to his girlfriend. You could be part of that, Soledad.</s>O'BRIEN: I want to be in a dancing one.</s>HOOVER: No, they are dancing, choreographed and everything. And the guy starting proposing.</s>O'BRIEN: Just so you know, if anybody had proposed to me in that fashion, the answer would be an unqualified, absolutely not. HOOVER Really? You're so romantic.</s>O'BRIEN: You brought people here to dance?</s>HOOVER: It's kind of romantic.</s>O'BRIEN: This would not work out.</s>SOCARIDES: When you least expect it, a panel flash mob.</s>O'BRIEN: Yes. I would love that. Zoraida, thank you for the update.</s>SAMBOLIN: You are welcome.</s>SOCARIDES: Margaret would have to lead us.</s>HOOVER: We'll be back in a second.</s>O'BRIEN: You guys work it out while I do this next interview. The question this morning, is it Michael Phelps the greatest Olympian of all time? Sebastian Coe, who organized London's games, says, no, not really. Just one day after Phelps won his record- breaking 19th Olympic medal, Coe says that Phelps may be the most successful, have the most medals, but he's not the greatest. It's coming down to semantics.</s>SOCARIDES: It sounds like something that Ron would say.</s>O'BRIEN: Last night he won his 18th and 19th medals. A silver in the 200 meter butterfly, and a gold in the four by 200 relay. And he has other races coming up as well. Aaron Peirsol is a seven-time Olympic medalist, three-time Olympian. He was on the same team as Michael Phelps back in 2008. Nice to see you. I have to ask you to weigh in. Sebastian Coe says no. Is Michael Phelps the greatest ever with 19? What do you think?</s>AARON PEIRSOL, OLYMPIC SWIMMER: I think that's one measurement. I think there's probably many. You know, I think that's a lot of medals. No matter how you stack it up. There aren't many -- I mean, there aren't many sports that you can actually tally up that many medals. And I think that's something to keep in consideration. You take in like Muhammad Ali or Jesse Owens or athletes like that. They all have their own kind of contribution to the games. And they are iconic in their own way. Michael is, you know, kind of an Olympian of this era, I think. And, yes, I think he's at least talkable in the same breath as those athletes.</s>O'BRIEN: "Greatest" has a big definition. So he's going to swim this week tomorrow and Friday and Saturday. Do you think he'll continue to break his own records?</s>PEIRSOL: Yes. There's still a few chances for him to medal. He still has a few swims left, and some of his best ones, likely some more gold. So, yes, I mean, you'll be seeing quite a bit of Michael still to come. He's halfway done.</s>O'BRIEN: Let's talk about Ryan Lochte. He started off very strong with the gold. And then he has really struggled a little bit. Talk to me about the psychology of how you come back after that, because he's been tweeting, you know, even his own frustration.</s>PEIRSOL: Right.</s>O'BRIEN: You certainly as an athlete have been through those highs and lows. What do you think he is going through right now?</s>PEIRSOL: Sure. An eight-day meet is a very long meet. But you don't get to that level and swim that many events if you weren't capable of resetting. And what Ryan has done is he hasn't really swum slow. He has swum incredibly well. The rest of the world is just very good. And that does make a difference. You know, a lot of these swimmers that have already touched the wall maybe ahead of Ryan, not many people have heard about them, but they're really good swimmers. And, you know, it does kind of -- at the level of competition, I think it shows what Michael did last time, how impressive it is. But at the same time, what Ryan is doing I think is still incredibly impressive. And the standard with which Michael did that kind of throws off kilter, I think, how amazing being able to swim seven events in an Olympic games really is anyway.</s>O'BRIEN: Right.</s>PEIRSOL: And it's a marathon kind of week for that guy. It's a long week.</s>HOOVER: Aaron, how about Missy Franklin? Can you put in perspective how hard it is? Her winning the gold medal in the 100 meter backstroke 30 minutes after having swum another race, where she qualified in the freestyle. Has that ever happened before in American Olympic swimming?</s>PEIRSOL: Well, that's unique. I'm sure it's happened to some degree. But I think it's special. There's a certain level of fearlessness in Missy. And there's -- you know, what she did last night was -- because of that, but also because she would have won anyway it would have been special, but kind of what she went through to do that, it was just very unique. It's a unique thing unto her. She's got something very much to be very proud of. And it's just -- that was an impressive feat for about 20 minutes there. That's not easy.</s>O'BRIEN: What are you watching outside of swimming? What's your next favorite sport to watch?</s>PEIRSOL: I got to see my U.S. boys play water polo last night. They did really well. Tennis is going on. And Wimbledon is the venue. And I have always wanted to step foot in there. And between volleyball, we're looking over at the Pell dream right now. And the pillow, where they play basketball, I love that name. And hockey. If I could go see it all, I would.</s>O'BRIEN: You're listing everything, Aaron.</s>PEIRSOL: I like that. I'm a kid again. I haven't seen an Olympics for a long time. And it's absolutely incredible. London has done an incredible job with these games. It's -- these are amazing.</s>O'BRIEN: It looks amazing.</s>PEIRSOL: And to see it at home, yes, they are, they are pretty spectacular.</s>O'BRIEN: We are insanely jealous of all our friends who are overseas enjoying it in person. Aaron Peirsol joining us this morning.</s>PEIRSOL: Thank you so much. Thank you, guys.</s>O'BRIEN: Crops throughout the Midwest shriveling because it's one of the worst droughts on record. We're going to take you live inside a general store in Iowa where the farmers are gathering for their daily breakfast of steak and eggs and talk about the harvest. Here's Richard's playlist, a little Janet Jackson for you. "It doesn't really matter." You're watching STARTING POINT. It does matter. It all matters.