Obama Campaign Kicks Off May 5
COSTELLO: It's 28 minutes past the hour. Checking our top stories now. Republican Congressman Paul Ryan is getting a chilly reception at Georgetown University where he is now speaking. More than 90 professors and administrators signed a letter accusing Ryan of misusing Catholic teachings because Ryan is Catholic to justify his cuts to social programs. Ryan addressed those concerns moments ago.</s>REPRESENTATIVE PAUL RYAN (R), WISCONSIN: The overarching threat to our whole society today is the exploding federal debt. The Holy Father himself, Pope Benedict, has charged governments, communities and individuals running up high debt levels are, quote, "living at the expense of future generations and living in untruth," unquote. We in this country, we still have a window of time before a debt-fuelled economic crisis becomes inevitable.</s>COSTELLO: Ryan says the poor deserve help, but says big government makes people depend on handouts. He said instead help should come from neighbors, churches and local governments. Guilty, that's the verdict for former Liberian President Charles Taylor. An International Court said he helped Sierra Leone rebels commit war crimes. Taylor is scheduled to be sentenced next month. Attorneys for John Edwards are attacking the credibility of his former aide this morning. Andrew Young is the government star witness in the trial against Edwards. He's accused of using political donations to cover up an affair. "Political Buzz" is your rapid fire look at the best political topics of the day. Three questions, 30 seconds on the clock. Playing with us today, Sirius XM radio host and comedian and all around smart guy, Pete Dominick on the left, CNN contributor, Will Cain, another smart guy on the right, and Chris Moody, you too, from Yahoo! News is in the middle. Welcome to all of you.</s>CHRIS MOODY, POLITICAL REPORTER, YAHOO! NEWS: Thank you.</s>PETE DOMINICK, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST, SIRIUS XM: Thanks Carol.</s>WILL CAIN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Thanks.</s>COSTELLO: Ok, first question, CNN affiliate KIRO TV in Seattle quotes a source who said Secret Service agents got wasted in El Salvador ahead of President Obama's visit there last year. They partied with strippers. And they took the strippers to their hotel rooms and even said we do this all the time. Don't worry about it. The Secret Service is offering no comment this morning to CNN, but the question for you, is this more evidence of a cultural problem -- Will?</s>CAIN: Yes. I think so. It shouldn't come as a surprise. When we heard about the Colombian incident, you know, the fact that 11-plus guys decided to venture into the world of prostitution. I can promise you this. It wasn't a spur of the moment decision. It wasn't 11 guys sitting around saying, hey you know what, there's nothing on TV I've got an idea. This was something that kind of manifested over time. That being said, I would say be careful about this. Because I would like to know when are these guys on and off duty? Are they always on duty when they go overseas? Is it 100 percent of the time you are on duty when president is there or not there? How far in advance of his arrival? Because the truth is at some point these guys are regular human beings as well.</s>COSTELLO: Chris?</s>MOODY: I think one of the biggest problems the Secret Service might have is a flood of applications. This sounds like a really fun place to work, but that's the problem. It's not supposed to be a fun place to work. This is the United States Secret Service, not Sterling Cooper. So these guys, I mean, with the Secret Service really going to need to implement some real policy changes here and it's really going to take some time for I think this culture to change and certainly some restraint as well.</s>COSTELLO: Pete?</s>DOMINICK: No. I mean, listen, these are guys whose job it is to protect the President from -- from getting killed, from -- keeping him from being safe. That would be like me saying you know because Will Cain may or may not like to take a bath with rubber duckies, is that a sign of his ability to leave his childhood behind? No, no, it's not. These guys deserve to blow off some steam, not -- not condoning any way getting prostitutes, but -- but, you know, when they are so focused all the time, in their free time they might do some crazy things. They are security guys, by the way these aren't diplomats. You can imagine these kind of thing may happen from time to time. It's not going to anymore though I'm imagining.</s>COSTELLO: Hopefully not. Second question. Now, President Obama -- President Obama is on the cover of "Rolling Stone." He told the magazine's founder that climate change likely will be part of his campaign in 2012. Climate change is an emotionally charged issue and I'm just wondering this morning why is it such a hot-button issue? Pete?</s>DOMINICK: Why? Why is it a hot button issue? Carol because the button is getting hotter, that's why, because the earth -- because we had a snow storm on Halloween, because a hurricane made it to New York, because the oil industry decided to launch a disinformation campaign paralleling (inaudible) the tobacco industry. Because if President Obama wants to actually pass any kind of legislation the Supreme Court will -- will strike it down saying it doesn't -- it's not covered under the Commerce Clause and then we're going to have to ship everything by sea anyway because that's all we're going to have. That's why it's a hot-button issue.</s>COSTELLO: Holy cow. Will?</s>CAIN: You didn't need an explanation, you got an illustration there with Pete. I would say it's a hot-button issue, because this is like religious belief, it's zealotry. We can't move on to debate over whether or not man is causing climate change move from there to talk about whether or not man can do anything to reduce carbon emissions to move from there and to ask whether or not if it's even worth the cost. And if we could reduce the carbon emissions, if it's worth the cost. We can't have these debates because this debate exists in the realm of religious zealotry. Thought process and critical thinking, shuts off at the moment you start talking about anything beyond a recognition that man is causing climate change.</s>COSTELLO: Chris?</s>MOODY: You know, I'm taking the President's comments with a grain of salt. This is an election year. The economy is at the top of all the public opinion polls, and climate change is often at the bottom. I cannot imagine that President Obama is going to give this more than just lip service on the campaign trail. He's not going to use the political capital that it takes to pass forward a big piece of legislation in this election year. It's just not going to happen. He may mention it a little bit, but this is going to be an economy-driven campaign and that's going to be the main focus.</s>COSTELLO: Ok. On to your "Buzzer Beater" now, 20 seconds each. Newt Gingrich giving up -- he's giving up the ghost next week, he's supporting Mitt Romney. You won't have Newt to kick around anymore. What I want from you, guys, is to name your favorite Newt moment of the entire campaign. Chris?</s>MOODY: There were so many and you know, Newt liked to be kicked around I think a little bit he like to play that game, but I -- I remember it was all encapsulated so well I believe it was the Arizona debate when the moderator asked all the candidates to say -- to define themselves in one word. And Newt kind of smirked a little bit, looked and he said "cheerful". And the whole Press Corps erupted, not because they were -- not because they were laughing at him, but because they knew that deep down it was really true.</s>COSTELLO: Will?</s>CAIN: Mine also comes from a debate, no surprise. Newt shined or -- or was tarnished in every single debate. It was his moments. After he kind of got after John King for asking him about his personal life and scored a ton of political points, Wolf Blitzer asked him about it again and he tried that same trick or he tried to use Wolf Blitzer as his proxy to play the victim and win political points but Wolf wouldn't let him and came right back at him and said, "No, Newt, you brought this into the debate". And it was a good moment.</s>COSTELLO: Yes, especially for Wolf Blitzer. Pete?</s>DOMINICK: Yes. I think -- I think Will Cain might be on "The Situation Room" this afternoon. My favorite -- my favorite moment, Carol, come on. All right, let's start at the beginning when he was honest and said Paul Ryan's budget was right-wing social engineering. What about when he talked about his gazillionaire salary for being a historian. Recently at the NRA convention he said everybody in the world has a God-given right to own a gun. I mean, I don't have enough time for one moment, Carol. He will be missed as a comedian, for sure.</s>COSTELLO: Oh, geez. Chris, Pete, Will, thanks for playing today. We appreciate it.</s>DOMINICK: Thanks Carol.</s>CAIN: Thank you.</s>MOODY: Thank you.</s>COSTELLO: Ok we mentioned that the Secret Service has a new scandal to deal with, this one out of El Salvador. KIRO TV in Seattle reporting that -- Secret Service agents there got drunk and partied with strippers. Well we just got a -- we got a statement from the Secret Service. I'm going to read it to you now, from the Secret Service. "The recent investigation in Colombia has generated several new stories that contain allegations by mostly unnamed sources. Any information brought to our attention that can be assessed as credible will be followed up in an appropriate manner", end quote. And that's all they sent us. We'll have more throughout the day on CNN. Coming up on NEWSROOM, if you are afraid of heights, wow, this next story will give you the chills. A daredevil falling from the heavens. We'll talk with an extreme test jump pilot who is planning to jump from 23 miles up in space. Plus, could age actually be an advantage in a tight job market? Some say yes when it comes to baby boomers. I'll tell you why.