[ cheers and applause ] >> i can -- >> it is a top of the hour. you are watching cnn. i'm don lemon. sarah palin speaking at the tea party in nashville. now she is taking questions. let's listen back in. >> i think this will have to be our last question. if you are president tomorrow, you had everything in place, what three problems would be the first problems you tackle? >> well, we talked about the energy projects that have got to be introduced and progressed so they come to fruition. we are not just talking about them. we talked about the spending cut that is have to take place in the growing debt that we have to get our arms around. i think that -- i'm all for the bipartisan work event effort that is needed in washington, d.c., but i think that one of the issues that has to be tackled in washington, d.c., and if i were in a position to help with this is not make the promises about the bipartisanship -- if the promise can't be fulfilled. if truly there is not an intention to work with the other party on a specific issue, because say they are so fundamentally disagreeable to something, like the takeover of the health care, one-sixth of the economy, don't tell the american people. don't fake like you want to work with the other party on that, because the distrust that is built, and this is what i would work on the i was in this position, the distrust that is built makes us distrust all the decisions coming out of washington and that makes us a less secure nation. >> i know that people out there aren't going to like this, but i know you have to go. so thank you so much for coming down here. we really appreciate it. you may have to fight your way out of here from all the people who don't want you to leave. >> well, i appreciate the opportunity to be here. i have to apologize if i had anything to do with any of the controversy that some of the media spun up. >> what controversy? >> yeah, right. i am happy, honored and proud to take any speaking fee that was ever going to be written out for me via a check and turn it right back around and give it to the cause. this is not about money. it is not about a title. it is not about a leader position here in this movement. it is about the people. i will live, i will die for the people of america. whatever i can do to help. and this party, this party that we call the tea party, this movement, as i say, is the future of politics in america. and i am proud to get to be here today. so thank you so much. thank you, guys. >> thank you. thank you. sarah palin making a very strong speech and having a very strong presence there in nashville, tennessee. just finishing up her q&a in front of the national tea party. she has been a governor, a vice presidential candidate, and now some people across the country are asking, should sarah palin be the next president of the united states? >> i caution against allowing this proouchlt to be defined by any one leader or politician. the tea party movement is not a top-down operation. it is a ground-up call to action that is forcing both parties to change the way that they are doing business, and that's beautiful. [ cheers and applause ] >> this is about the people! this is about the people and it is bigger than any king or queen of a tea party, and it is a lot bigger than any charismatic guy with a teleprompter. more than 1,000 people paid more than $300 to hear her give the keynote address tonight at the tea party in nashville. you saw it live here on cnn moments ago. tonight we ask the question, is this her moment? this hour you'll hear from americans just like you who were there. and we'll have expert analysis from the best political team on television. good evening, everyone. i'm don lemon. it is the perfect political pairing. sarah palin, political maverick in the spotlight as quay note speaker at the tea party. just minutes ago as you saw here on cnn, sarah palin covered the political landscape from taxes, national spending and national security. >> it is not politicizing our security to discuss our concerns, because americans deserve to know the truth about the threats that we face. and what the administration is or isn't doing about them, so let's talk about them. new terms used like overseas contingency operation instead of the word war. that reflects a world view that is out of touch with the enemy that we face. we can't spin our way out of this threat. it's one thing to call a pay raise a job created or saved, it is quite another to call a devastation that a homicide bomber can inflict a man made disaster. and i just say, come on, washington, if nowhere else, national security, that's one place where you got to call it like it is. the events surrounding the christmas day plot reflect the kind of thinking that led to september 11th. that threat then as the "uss cole" was attacked, it was treated like an international spree, not like a war. we are seeing that mindset in washington. that scares me for my children and for your children treating this like a mere law enforcement matter. it places our country at risk because that's not how radical islamist extremists are looking at this. they know we are at war, and to win that war we need a commander in chief, not a professor of law standing at the lectern. cnn's marry snow was in the room for tonight's keynote address. we have a former speech writer for rudy giuliani. also, alex is here with us, a long-time republican strategist. he is joining us via skype from virginia. as someone who is a bit more neutral than our correspondent there, john, i want to ask you, sarah palin, what did you make of your thoughts of her speech tonight? >> well, i think this was really sarah palin's state of the union address wrapped up in a tea party message. but what's really amazing, in the course of the whole tea party convention, it was the palin for president rally. people around me were saying, run, sarah, run. a wide speech covering foreign policy, economic policy and the tea party movement is a core around those themes of a presidential campaign. >> i want to get to alex right now. she's had -- we talked about this earlier, you kind of had some idea what she was going to say. she hit the administration hard and talked about the spending, the stimulus, a lot of the things she said will be fact checked over the next couple days. we are working on it here as well. she talked about the big government. what did you make of her speech? it was really more, not so much policy, i think as more as john said more of a campaign-style speech. >> very much a campaign speech and i think john is write. she anointed herself leader of this movement tonight. she said that this is the future of politics, and she kind of walked in and talk the reigns. i think that there are a lot of people tonight, a lot of republicans, who are concerned about her -- is she the next republican presidential candidate who are still going to have doubts about her as the next candidate, but who will find it hard to disagree with anything she said this evening. it was a very tough message on the democrats, on president obama, i think you are going to see a lot of candidates echoing her message of, if you are not against going against terrorists, you are not going to do well against the in the next election. >> we could see the reception here. did you look around and notice expressions on people's faces? take us inside the room. >> yeah. by my account, i have counted 11 ovations throughout that speech. certainly, this was a friendly crowd toward her. one thing that struck me is that over the past couple of days in talking to people about what they were here for, big government spending was number one on the list. sarah palin really hit national security as a policy in her speech before she touched upon the stimulus and government spending. so that kind of stood out, but certainly she had the crowd on its feet several times. as john mentioned, when she was asked about whether the two words liberals would hate would be president palin, that certainly brought the crowd to its feet and chanting run, sarah, run. >> i want to tell you all that the cnn fact check desk is working on the things she said. if you listen, it was very interesting. she said, we always talked about her as being coquill in her speech. how is that changing for you? if you can't ride two horses at once, you shouldn't be in the circus. so i have some advice to those in d.c. who want to shine in the biggest show on earth. john, your final thoughts on that? >> look, she's an expert at one liners. there were a lot of good once. her speech writer and speech giver is the folksy sarcasm. she has some new one liners in there. >> it goes very well with nose in the crowd. obviously, a crowd on her side. alex, john and our marry snow, thank you. we appreciate it. as we said, sarah palin covered a lot of ground in her keynote speech. here's what she said about the health care debate and the democrats calling for bipartisan ship. >> they need to get government out of the way. if they would do this, if they would do this, our economy, it would roar back to life. for instance, on health care, we need bipartisan solutions to help families, not increase taxes. remember the red reset button that america through secretary of clinton, she gave to putin, i think we should ask for that back and hand it instead to congress and say, no, start all over on this health care scheme and pass meaningful market-based reforms that incorporate some simple step that is have brought support. the best ideas, not back room deals, but things like insurance purchases across state lines and the tort reform that we have talked about. those things that are common sense steps toward reform that the white house and leaders on the democrat side of the aisle in congress, they don't want to consider. so it makes you wonder, what truly is their motivation? what is their intention? if they won't even consider these common sense broad-base support ideas that would work. all right. so we promised every day american who is were in the room tonight, we are going to speak with them in a little bit. they are getting all wired up there, getting it so they can get questions from us. these were the tea partiers who were there tonight. we'll get their response to sarah palin's speech in just a moment. plus, there was this today. the weather. it rained and it poured and the ground gave way and tons of mud slid downhill taking cars and homes with it. our thelma gutierrez is live from suburban, los angeles. boy, oh, boy. it is winter. this is really severe. a really severe storm. this is what it looks like. we'll take you right into the thick of it. and they say they don't subscribe to one party line or another, but did sarah palin's speech sway independent voters? we are getting a whole panel of them to weigh in. also, we want you to weigh in. we are getting responses on twitter and facebook tonight and i'll read them for you. let friskies indoor wet cat food unlock the freshness... and freedom of the outdoors for your indoor cat. specially formulated to promote hairball control... and healthy weight. friskies indoor wet cat food. feed the senses. 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[ steam hisses ] why use more when you can use less? bring it. with bounty. the thick quicker picker-upper. want huge value? try new bounty huge roll. he sure is working up an appetite up there. bet you guys are, too. how about some hamburger helper? cheeseburger mac... how 'bout some after the show? hamburger helper. one pound. one pan. one tasty meal. there were many rounds of applause to sarah palin's speech, and she brought up constitutional rights. we'll talk to those cheering her on. we have two joining us from nashville. this is the first time either of them has attended a tea party event. and from orlando, lloyd marcus, a seasoned tea party rallier who decided to sit this one out. he's joining us tonight from a different spot. we'll go to the ground now and talk to pri sill louisiana, priscilla stewart, what did you think of what sarah palin had to say tonight? >> there was nothing i disagreed with, so i thought she spoke eloquently. i liked what she had to say and her spirit was really positive. so it's been good. >> do you think this set her up for a run in 2012, mr. brown? >> i would hope so. i would love to see her run. everything she said tonight was right on. and we need to get back to our constitution, which is one of the things she brought up. and a smaller government and a financially responsible government. >> what did you make of, was there anything -- i know that you got lots of cheers for things, you know, the folksy lines she says, but her criticism of the administration, did you agree with that at all, prisclilla, did anything make you uncomfortable about that? >> i agreed with her criticism of the lack of transparency. you know, one of the things that i wished there was more light being shed on everything that was being done right now. so i agreed with that, definitely. >> yeah. so do we have lloyd? can lloyd hear us? lloyd marcus, we are waiting to get lloyd marcus in orlando. excuse me, i'm getting guidance in my ear here. we don't have him, but he's been on before. he's a loyal tea party person, but he decided to sit this one out. i'm going back to priscilla and fremont, brown. mr. brown, this is the first time attending an event, at least a convention, you didn't attend any of the events over the summer and the past year, right? none of the demonstrations at all throughout the country? >> no. i was working and didn't have the time, unfortunately. >> where are you from? >> asheville, north carolina. >> so what made you make the trek from north carolina to nashville? >> well, i decided it was time and quit sitting by the side and just talking about it to my customers and get out and join a group of people. just add one more voice to a voice that needs to be heard. i think the tea party has the where will to be speaking enough to get things changed, hopefully. >> sarah palin said tonight she thought if the republican party is smart that they would try to absorb as many tea partiers as possible to try to siphon off the people and bring them into their tent. what do you think of that, priscilla? >> i think she's right, but i think they are going to have to do some work before they can do that. i mean, they have to walk the walk that they are talking. especially to get tea party support. we were watching everything that everybody is doing on both sides. if they are not walking that walk, that's specific to our values. then they don't get our support, either. but if they do, then yeah. >> i want to thank priscilla stewa stewart. my apologizes to you in orlando there. we are trying to get him on. this is what severe weather storms look like on the east coast. we'll take you into the thick of it. and on the west coast, the ground gives way to tons of mud taking away homes and cars. choose any car? 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>> all right. i see that you are almost knee deep if not knee deep in snow in our nation's capital. sarah lee, thank you very much. now to the west coast with a massive mud slide north of los angeles that swept away cars and heavily damaged at least 41 homes. hundreds of families have been evacuated. our thelma gutierrez is live in la canada flintridge where people are dealing with a muddy, mud by mess right now. >> reporter: yes, that's absolutely true. right now what we can tell you is that there are more than 500 families who have been evacuated, and most of the residents out here have spent most of their day shoveling mud and debris just like this right out of their driveways. now, 43 homes have been damaged. 12 completely destroyed. and some of that devastation is up the road from where we are standing right now. now, that area has been closed to traffic because authorities say that there are cars up there. there are boulders that have started to slide, so they are not letting anybody in right now. but we talked to a homeowner earlier today, she told us to come on in. she wanted to show us just how close that mud came to her house. i'm standing in stacy kozicar's driveway. at 5:00 this morning she woke up to a loud roar. she says she felt her home shake. then she walked outside and she saw a wall of mud knee deep coming down her street. some of the mud started to pour down into her driveway. you can see where it ended up there in front of her house in her front yard. stacy had her garage door down, that's why the mud didn't go in, but the water went right through all the way into her backyard. stacy says she ran to her backyard and then noticed that all of her drains were covered in mud and her backyard was starting to overflow. you can see what happened to the pool. stacy, that must have been the most frightening thing to experience. >> it was terrifying. i mean, i came out here. the noise was incredible. the whole house was shaking. i could see it coming in from the front and then the backyard started to flood. it just -- >> reporter: this whole area was covered with mud. >> covered with mud, water and all the drains were plugged up. >> reporter: you are going through this right now, but just a few months ago you were evacuated because of the fires burning out here. >> yep. we were all packed in the car and we were evacuated for four days. then we got back in and had to evacuate again as they lit the backfires along the hills up there. >> reporter: i understand that's exactly why the residents up here are having the problems, because of the fires. it's been terrifying. >> it was terrifying. i didn't know how high it was going to get, i didn't know if it was coming into the backyard, sweep the trees down, the trees hit the house, you just never know. >> reporter: now, 540 homes in three communities are under a mandatory evacuation, but stacy says she is not going, don. she says that she wants to hang back and make sure that if it does rain again she's around to clean off those storm drains to make sure that her property isn't flooded. and many of the other residents we have talked to in this area have said the same. >> thelma gutierrez, thank you so much for. that. two planes slam into each other in the sky over boulder, colorado. one of our i-reporters was on the ground and caught the stunning image. and there's no question sarah palin can rip up a room full of tea partiers, but when it comes to independent voters, is she their cup of tea? 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(announcer) starts working on contact and at the nerve level. to block pain for hours. new capzasin, takes the pain out of arthritis. this is a really, really frightening story. two small planes collided in the air near the boulder, colorado, airport today. three people died in the fiery crash. a cnn i-reporter sent in this video. you can see one of the planes there was pulling a glider and a pilot of the glider was able to detach from the plane and land safely. the u.s. military is actively searching for an american civilian who disappeared last month in baghdad. isis olami is with the u.s. army. a new video surfaced showing the missing american, but cnn has not confirmed the man's identity. a korean american missionary is on his way back home to the u.s. from north korea. robert park was detained for 43 days for illegally entering the country preaching christianity. park had been outspoken about political and religious reform in north korea, but he is now quoted as being ashamed of his biased view of the communist country. there are questions whether parks' statement was coerced. you have five more chances to see a shuttle launch before the entire fleet is retired later this year. and money one of them happens in the predawn hours tomorrow when the "endeavour" blasts off. we are standing live at the kennedy space center in florida. john, this is the last nighttime space launch. it is kind of sad. >> reporter: it really is, don. no question about it. bittersweet here at the kennedy space center, but if you can make it to 4:39 a.m. eastern time, you might want to go outside if you are somewhere in the florida area, a little up or down the east coast, you can get a look at this or watch it on cnn. this is the last time there will be a night launch in the shuttle program. as you mentioned, just five left this year. the last one scheduled to lift off from here in september. now, the "endeavour" is on the lunch pad tonight getting ready for the 13-day mission to the international space station. the astronauts will be getting up and getting ready for the final weather briefing and making the preps to come out here to the pad at about 1:30 in the morning. when they get to the international space station, they will be carrying up with them the final two major components of the station. one is called the tranquility module, which is literally a habitat facility for life support and crew support equipment. a treadmill, the colbert treadmill will be put in there. they are also bringing up the kupela that has six windows. it is a window to the earth. they can look at the earth from there and they can direct remote vehicle that is are going to be docking, cargo carriers docking with the station. they'll be able to maneuver those in for the docking procedures from that area. so the last two major components, when they are done with this mission, the international space station will be 90% complete. and then everyone hope that is the major science that's been promised for so long, don, will finally begin to take place. don? >> all right. cnn's john zarella, thank you so much. we really appreciate it. you can see the shuttle launch live on cnn early tomorrow morning. our coverage starts at 4:30 a.m. eastern. 4:30 a.m. eastern and liftoff is spoezed to be nine minutes later at 4:39. if you are awake, join our morning team. we'll cover it for you. his athletic center was an escape for haiti youth. now it is a refuge for dozens of families after the recent earthquake. we'll introduce you to our cnn hero of the week. and they say they don't subscribe to one partly line or another, but did sarah palin's speech tonight sway independent voters? every week we honor a cnn hero, an every day person doing extraordinary work. tonight we salute a 2007 hero currently working amid the tragedy in haiti. before the earthquake, bobby duvall was serving 1500 kids from nearby slums in his sports and feeding program. now his place is home to more than 100 homeless families. more than two weeks after the earthquake, bobby duvall is overwhelmed. the soccer field he built for kids is now a home for hundreds. >> it's really something. we were already in a hole. now we are much deeper in the hole now. >> reporter: duvall was a cnn hero in 2007. he founded a soccer training center called athletics of haiti giving kids from some of the poorest neighborhoods in port-au-prince an opportunity to get off the streets, play a sport and get a meal. >> the kids never miss breakfast practice. and they are disciplined enough to stay focused on something positive. >> reporter: that program is now a lifesaver. many families of the children who played soccer for bobby have moved onto the field. nowhere else to go. >> we are just trying to keep it clean and to give them some bathrooms set up, set up some water and give them care. that's all. understanding. they are safe here. >> reporter: safe and sheltered. duvall provided what tents he had. those without them have gotten more creative. are these goalposts here? >> goal boasts, goalposts, yes. >> reporter: someone has made a home out of goalposts. some still play soccer to pass the time. families are making due the best they can. >> save as many as you can and serve as much as you can. that's it. an estimated 3 million survivors of the haiti earthquake are still in dire need of food, water and also medical supplies. for more information on how you can help, visit cnn.com/heroes. we are getting some breaking news in here to cnn. you know, there's a lot going on in new orleans. we are talking about the super bowl and also mardi gras, but here's what we are hearing. there was an important election there, a mayoral election, and according to the associated press, governor mitch landry was elected mayor of new orleans. he replaces ray nagin. that's according to the associated press. also, what's interesting here, a white mayor in new orleans since 1978. again, lieutenant governor mitch landrieu replacing ray nagin, the first white mayor since 1978. an elderly woman killed inside a toyota, but not one of the models that was on the recalled list. does toyota need to expan that list? 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(pipe woman) so, you could treat yourself to more time with friends and family or more of whatever you like to do with fewer urges and leaks. ask your doctor today about taking care with vesicare. we turn now to meteorologist bonnie schneider. we have mudslides in the west, snowstorms in the east. what's going on? >> it is part of the same weather pattern, but not the same system. the systems are starting in california and rolling across the country, but they need a steering mechanism in order to do that. in a typical el nino pattern, we get moisture coming into california. it comes up through texas and into areas like the carolinas. sometimes lows develop offshore. that's what happens with this storm we are seeing right now. boy, i have to show you the snowfall totals. the incredible. in baltimore, i just spoke to the national weather service, they are still tabulating the totals. 24.8 inches. unofficially, that just shatter the record, but officially they have not listed it as that. but just note, these are incredible totals that likely, when we get the official reports, did shatter records because this is over the course of storm totals of two days. notice in elkridge, maryland, 38 inches. 38 inches of snow. that's almost as tall as me. i can't even imagine, but that's what people have to deal with shoveling out. the good news is the snow is now all the way offshore. it is finally stopping into philadelphia and washington, d.c. it is tough to travel. we just had the stoppage of complete travel with planes across much of the region. i hope that we'll get everything going again by tomorrow. here's the concern. the winds are blustery in virginia beach. with these strong winds, we'll see the snowdrifts kind of build and lower and then build and lower. it is unpredictable because a strong gust of wind can make all the difference with how high the snow piles when you are shoveling out. keep in mind, temperatures are in the 20s tonight. watch out for ice. everything will freeze over tonight and they frozen for tomorrow. >> it doesn't take much snow to cover you up. you are a little thing. it could be a sprinkle and it would be taller than you. just kidding. thank you, bonnie. we told you about breaking news earlier. we want to take you to new orleans and show you pictures courtesy of our affiliate wvue. this is lieutenant mitch landrieu. he is going to replace mayor ray nagin. he is speaking there again. lieutenant governor, mitch landrieu, elected mayor of new orleans. that's according to the associated press. this is his victory speech. we'll follow it here on cnn. we'll also meet a funny man who was hiding a very sad affliction. why his story is an unusual one in the african-american community. sarah palin was playing to a favorable crowd, but did she connect with people outside the tea party line? specifically, independent voter who is can really sway elections. let's welcome back the independent voter panel we spoke to earlier. joe ganalin is editor and chief of the moderate voice. he is joining us from naple, florida. also, we have nicole in chicago. did sarah palin's message resonate with you, joe? >> part of it. the thing is, i'm candid with you, i'm turned off by candidates once they get into what i call the talk radio political culture. and once she talked about obama being a law professor, it smacked me of rudy giuliani being a community organizer. i felt a window shutting in my mind saying, here we go, another partisan speech. how did she connect with me? i think it was a big step forward. that was a speech that had a lot more substance. on the other hand, i'm listening to that speech and thinking, this is supposed to be a nonpartisan movement? that was almost like a keynote speech to a republican convention. i think -- i realgz she can do a speech with a little more substance when i heard it this time, but i was turned off by the hopey doney thing she said. these are nice lines she said. >> let's play that and we'll talk about it. >> the obama administration promised to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars. remember vice president biden? he was put in charge of a tough, unprecedented oversight effort. that's how it was introduced. you know why? because nobody messes with joe. now -- this was all part of that hope and change and transparency. and now a year later i have to ask supporters of all that, how is that hopey changey stuff working out for ya? >> so listen, nicole, joe said that turned him off hearing that. skid one of the people who was at the tea party earlier, two of the people, if it made them uncomfortable she was so critical. some of the comments we are getting was she was snarky when it came to criticizing the president. what did you think about comments like that? >> i thought it was interesting that she had said that she called politicians out for taking pot shots at other people and she did the same thing that she did in the vice presidential debates talking about joe biden. it was a very red meat speech. i'm not surprised the people there liked it, but she was not trying to win over any converts. she played -- she was among friends and played to that. in terms of appealing to the middlers there was none of that. >> i want to get it clear here. if you can give me one answer, do you think she appealed to independents in the speech? >> no. >> joe, do you think she appealed to independents in the speech? >> absolutely not. >> absolutely not. okay, then what would you -- the thing is, she said here, i think the republican party would be start to try to bring in as many tea party people as possible. so is she -- i don't know, just sort of preaching to the choir when it comes to this, joe? is she speaking to a group already on the side of the republican party or on the side of the tea partiers? >> that's been her party since she was on the campaign, that sarah palin, she does have some real political abilities, but she essentially seems to be continually consolidating the people who already support her. and you think that she would want to reach outside our constituency and try to reach outside the existing constituency of the tea party movement to bring others in, because there are independents who say, we will listen to what you say about big government and taxes about the things you don't like about the obama administration. but if it is snarky, you can hear that on talk radio. i like talk radio sometimes, but i can turn on the radio and hear that. there's more substance than i feared from the speech. i thought it would be a speech that would just be a lot of personal attacks, but she had substance in the speech as well. >> i took notes on it. it was really the assessment of some of the political people here, there was a lot of meat in the speech. there was a lot of substance. nicole, listen, she said at the end, she said what she liked most about tea partiers is that now even democrats may be looking at them and there may be some converts from the democratic side and the republican side and that people are sort of peeling back the curtain and looking. she's going to win more people over. is that -- is that stretching it to say that democrats might join this movement? >> well, i think, obviously, it is a very motivated group of voters. in terms of speaking to the american electorate, i don't think they speak for the americans. i think most americans are moderate, but they are very motivated. they are getting out the vote. they are pushing people over it. when they push the political landscape toward the right, they are forcing republicans to become more conservative. they have also forced democrats to re-evaluate some of the spending priorities. i think it has certainly changed the political landscape, but i don't know -- this was not a politically inclusive speech. we keep hearing about ronald reagan. i would love a compromise to be worked out where the republicans don't talk about ronald reagan anymore and the democrats don't talk about george bush anymore. that would be real change to me. that would be great. this was not inclusive. >> yeah, it seems like both of you are saying, she had the opportunity to win over independents and did not do it. joe and nicole, thank you so much. our independent panel. appreciate it. >> thank you very much. he battled feelings of depression and struggled to share that with his wife. >> she was the only one i could really open up to. but i didn't give her everything because i still wanted her to know that i'm taking care of this family, you don't have to worry about anything. >> we are talking about an issue that often goes undiscussed, depression and its impact on african-american men. let friskies indoor wet cat food unlock the freshness... and freedom of the outdoors for your indoor cat. specially formulated to promote hairball control... and healthy weight. friskies indoor wet cat food. feed the senses. sun life financial has never taken government bailout money, yet no one knows our name. ♪ get down tonight that's about to change. so you'll pay for the tour, but i have to change my name? no, you're still kc, but from now on, they will be the sun life band. it's funky. sooner or later, you'll know our name. sun life financial. tonight in "what matters" our partnership with "essence" magazine. we talk about an issue that often goes untalked about in the african-american community. and that is depression among african-american men. >> let's hear it for lance thompson, yo. make some snouz noise. >> reporter: for lance thompson, making people laugh is his laugh. >> we'll get a cup out of the cabinet, see that it's dirty, we don't put it in the dishwasher. where do we put it? right back in the cabinet. >> reporter: on stage he masters the crowd, but at home it's a very different story. >> i just felt like i was in a dark place. i didn't know what to do. i was -- i was not motivated to do anything. i was at work, i wanted to come home and just go to sleep, just get away from it all. sleep was my escape. >> reporter: there's a history of depression in lance's family and his wife worried that his condition could be severe. >> i was afraid to leave him home with the baby. i didn't know if he was going to -- i didn't know if i was going to come home and he wouldn't be breathing. >> reporter: thompson was pursuing a dream and supporting a family, what most people take in stride, but for some reason the balancing act drove him deeper into feelings of depression. >> i love comedy. comedy is my passion, but it made me feel -- i guess, less of a man to watch her work while i pursued my dream. >> i didn't want him to work. i wanted him to pursue comedy. because he gave me the same opportunity when we were in maryland. he said, just quit your job and go do hair. i'll take care of everything. >> reporter: the author of "the things that make men cry." dr. gloria morrow says thompson is not much different than most men who don't share personal feelings. but for african-american men, it is a bigger challenge. >> for black men, talking about emotional problems is not okay because, first of all, they would have to admit they have emotional problems. and we have been taught in our community that if you have emotional problems or mental health problems, then you are crazy. >> reporter: the black mental health alliance reports 7% of african-american men experience serious depression in their lifetime. but as dr. morrow says, this isn't an exact science because many of these cases go unreported. >> to say that you are suffering from depression would suggest that you are weak and you are not a man. men have been taught to fix problems and to provide for women. so for them to acknowledge that they are struggling in that area, that would be very problematic. >> reporter: so now thompson is talking to anyone who will listen. >> if anybody else is going through it, talk about it is the first step. get it all out and be real with yourself. >> reporter: lance thompson, breaking the silence that stole lives before him in order to save others. >> my name is comedian lance thompson. i appreciate it. thank you very much. thank you. what you are saying about sarah palin's speech tonight coming up. 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[ female announcer ] make the retirement cornerstone annuity from axa equitable part of your retirement plan. consider the charges, risks, expenses and investment objectives before purchasing a variable annuity. contact a financial professional for a prospectus containing this information. read it carefully. whoo hoo! okay. time-out for your comments. you have been going on. please mention that she wrote notes on her hand while mocking teleprompters. a lot of people wrote that,