it is scary in the end. stay tuned. we ll tell you exactly what s going op. good morning. welcome to early start. i m john berman. i m zoraida sambolin. 5:00 a.m. in the east. coming one a man who says he has been cured of hiv. dr. sanjay gupta talked to him. you ll hear about that later this hour. really remarkable. plus, brett favre couldn t stay retired after all. he s back in football taking a job you might not expect. we ll tell you all about it. stay tuned. you need to watch before he retires again. i think it s kind of exciting, actually. i wanted to ask you about that. we ll chat about it. first the latest presidential poll numbers are out this morning. they reveal president obama s ahead of mitt romney by six points. the brand-new nbc news/ wall street journal poll shows obama at 49% to romney s 43%. that s a three percentage point increase from just last month. cnn s political director mark preston joins us now from washington, d.c. nice to have you with
that. that is very bold. very bold. can t wait to share the ending with you. good morning. welcome to early start. i m zoraida sambolin. i m john berman. this morning mitt romney is in ohio. so is bobby jindal and jeb bush. parade? coincidence? it is sort of a parade. all about the veepstakes. also the key state of ohio. more coming up. also nelson mandela s 94th birthday. we ll hear from former president clinton who just visited with the icon in a cnn exclusive. that s coming up. first, zoraidzoraida, the b story affecting so much of the country, the weather and the devastating drought conditions that have turned half of the u.s. into a disaster zone. the department of agriculture is declaring natural disasters in 1,000 counties across 26 states. blistering temperatures are making conditions even worse. across the midwest temperatures have topped more than 100 degrees. and heat advisories are reaching up into the mid-atlantic regions. the bone dry conditions
that is the big question. would the president consider comprehensive, something he would sign if it had no path to legalization. skip citizen zip, path to legalization. that is unclear. one thing he said that interesting, clear he is refraining the political argument if he doesn t get something it s the republicans fault. but he seemed to say if we can t get the whole enchilada, maybe we can get the dream act and visa reform. dream act is letting young people brought here as children illegally, so it wasn t under their own will, who enrolled in college. maybe graduated from college or the military. put them on a path to legalization. that got 54% in the lake duck. but some republicans want to be for it. bret: charles? i m sure the president is sincere believing in comprehensive reform, a way to say amnesty do you think he sincerely
be comprehensive reform. that is the big question. would the president consider comprehensive, something he would sign if it had no path to legalization. skip citizen zip, path to legalization. that is unclear. one thing he said that interesting, clear he is refraining the political argument if he doesn t get something it s the republicans fault. but he seemed to say if we can t get the whole enchilada, maybe we can get the dream act and visa reform. dream act is letting young people brought here as children illegally, so it wasn t under their own will, who enrolled in college. maybe graduated from college or the military. put them on a path to legalization. that got 54% in the lake duck. but some republicans want to be for it. bret: charles? i m sure the president is sincere believing in comprehensive reform, a way to say amnesty do you think he sincerely
the next week, et cetera, that may be an issue where john mccain and this president could come together. ron hall game the president mostly, a bunch of categories, he gave the president mostly ds and fs. he gave him an a on don t ask don t tell. he said the president has exerted sound leadership in this area. most of the grades for don t ask don t tell were proetity positive. this is something he got done. people like a winner, even if they re not completely on board with them on the issue. i think part of the reason we saw it finally go through in december during that lake duck session is the public mood has shifted on this, certainly a lot since bill clinton had a very emotional divisive debate about it at the beginning of his presidency. i think attitudes have changed ever so slightly in this country and helped push it through. i think as well last night the president by jumping on something that didn t get a lot of attention, but was a very interesting little note in the speech