Romney Enters Presidential Race; Tornadoes Slam Massachusetts; Romney Enters Presidential Race
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Top of the hour. I'm Suzanne Malveaux. Want to get you up to speed. You are looking at live pictures at Bittersweet Farm. That is in Stratham, New Hampshire, where Mitt Romney is about to make it official. The former Massachusetts governor will formally announce his 2012 campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. He will also take some jabs at President Obama. We have live coverage momentarily.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let me in! Let me in! Let me in!</s>MALVEAUX: Terrifying moments in western Massachusetts, where rare tornadoes leave at least four people dead. The governor sent 1,000 National Guard troops to western Massachusetts for search and rescue. Damage is spread across 19 communities. Some homes were flattened.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The front of the building collapsed, and she would have been dead.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Big, heavy wind and a lot of banging. Just, you can hear the debris hitting cars, windows. Alarms started going off.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm very horrified. I'm a Springfield native, and I've never seen nothing like this ever.</s>MALVEAUX: The Army Corps of Engineers is preparing to release huge amounts of water into the upper Missouri River. That's expected to create flooding for the Dakotas, Iowa, Nebraska, and eventually Missouri. Heavy winter snowfall and spring rains have reservoirs on Missouri filled to the brim. In Orlando, day eight of testimony in the murder trial of Casey Anthony, the young mother charged with killing her toddler. Anthony's brother told jurors about an explosive fight between his sister and mother. Lee Anthony says it ended with his sister admitting that daughter Caylee had been missing for a month. He also became the third family member to describe a decaying odor in Casey Anthony's car.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do you recall about the smell of the car?</s>LEE ANTHONY, CASEY ANTHONY'S BROTHER: Just that it was very potent, very strong.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Was it an offensive smell?</s>ANTHONY: Yes.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you approach the car?</s>ANTHONY: I had to walk by to get to the door, but otherwise not by choice.</s>MALVEAUX: The husband and wife who kidnapped 11-year-old Jaycee Dugard in 1991 are being sentenced in California today. Phillip and Nancy Garrido pleaded guilty in April. Both have agreed to lengthy prison terms and waived any appeals. Phillip Garrido fathered two children with Dugard during her 18-year captivity.</s>MALVEAUX: Distant gunfire breaks the night silence in Yemen. Government forces battling tribal fighters for 11 days now. Witnesses say that hundreds, perhaps 1,000, tribesmen are advancing on Sanaa now to join the fight against President Ali Abdullah Saleh. With the anti-government protesters standing their ground on Syria's streets, Syrian troops are said to be shelling Rastan today, an historic town dating to the Roman Empire. Dozens of people have been killed in the latest rounds of protests, and human rights groups say 900 have died since protests erupted in March. Russia today banned all fresh vegetable imports from European Union countries. Officials also ordered supermarkets to clear European produce from their shelves. An E. coli outbreak has killed 16 people in Europe and made 1,000 people sick. Chinese scientists call this particular strain of E. coli bacteria super toxic. Dow Jones stocks are skidding again today, blue chips are down by 89 points or so. The Dow tumbled 280 points Wednesday, the biggest drop we've seen in 2011. Investors worried after economic reports this week indicate the recovery may be now stalling. More now on the political story unfolding right now, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney formally announcing his run for the White House. Many consider Romney the early frontrunner in the race for the GOP nomination. CNN Chief Political Correspondent Candy Crowley, she's joining us live from Stratham, New Hampshire. That is where Romney is making his announcement. Candy, great to see you. I know it's still a little windy out there for you. Romney plans to, from what we know in some remarks released, really go after President Obama on jobs and the economy. What do you make of that early strategy?</s>CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I make of it that he wants to be seen as the frontrunner, because when you're the frontrunner, you go after who you hope will be your eventual adversary, and that of course is President Obama. So there is that, especially when you have an announcement. You know, you don't take out after your Republican colleagues, you take out after the person who you're actually targeting, so there's that. There's also this place to what the Romney camp believes is their strength, and that is his business acumen. They say this is a guy who has created jobs, this is a guy who understands how to take failing businesses and make them successes. This is a guy who turned the Olympics around in 2002 in Salt Lake City, when everyone thought it would be a financial bust. So they want to play on that resume really heavily and contrast it to President Obama, and say look, you know, we took a chance on this young man and he didn't have that much experience. And now look, he's failed. The economy is a failure and here's what we need to do. So that's what you're going to see today, because this is not a man who particularly wants to talk about the social issues or anything else. He thinks the number one issue when voters go to the poll a year from November is going to be the economy and jobs.</s>MALVEAUX: Candy, what is it like out there? Can you paint a picture for us? What is the mood?</s>CROWLEY: Well, you know, actually, what's interesting is that while this is certainly what former governor Romney wants to pivot on, is the economy, that's what everybody here is talking about. I will tell you that. But, you know, it's picnic, it's a gorgeous day. We have the requisite hay bales which work both in New Hampshire and Iowa, by the way. We have the barn. We have the picturesque stuff, and the folks waiting for the candidate who is going to partake of some of the food here, which includes his wife's chili recipe. So it's your basic big-time down-home, you know, sort of feel to it, and this is how campaigns start. What can I tell you?</s>MALVEAUX: Sure. And what do we think about the last go-round? We know that Romney's Mormon faith was an issue for some voters. Do we think that's going to be an issue this go-round?</s>CROWLEY: Listen, you know, it was an issue last time, but looking at some of the stats that came in afterwards, it was a marginal issue. So if it's a marginal race, then yes. And where does this hurt him the most, if it does hurt him, his Mormonism? That's with Evangelical Christians. So, if, say, Romney comes through New Hampshire and he wins, but not big, or there's some reason to say, oh, the race is still cloudy, when he goes south, which would be South Carolina, then maybe you have the possibility that he can't have, like, a clean win, a knockout win. But most people that have looked at the last race say, yes, it was a factor, but largely the people who are bothered by the fact that he's a Mormon are bothered by other things, at what they see is his changing positions on gay marriage and on abortion. So he didn't have the voters anyway, at least that's how the theory goes.</s>MALVEAUX: OK. Candy Crowley, thank you so much. Enjoy the afternoon, perhaps partake in a little chili or something.</s>CROWLEY: Thanks.</s>MALVEAUX: All right. We'll check back in with you in a bit. Thanks. Here's a look at what's ahead this hour "On the Rundown." Tornadoes slam Massachusetts. How some people had to run for their lives.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let me in!</s>MALVEAUX: And Congressman Anthony Weiner, his political and personal story. Then, the Casey Anthony trial, her brother taking the stand. And Detroit's public school system, it has been called a national disgrace.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've lost over 50 percent of our students. We have got to right-size this school system here.</s>MALVEAUX: Finally, what does it take to become one of the best spellers in the country? We're going to talk with a former contender.