and this is state of the union. four months ago one prominent beltway blog said of newt gingrich s troubled presidential run he looks a lot like the bruce willis character in the sixth sense, everyone but him thinks he s dead. but at last week s washington post/bloomberg debate gingrich remained very much alive and kicking. all of the spending cuts that are built in the debt ceiling bill, all of them are acts of congress. they can all be repealed at any moment. it is nonsense to say we re going to disarm the united states unilaterally because we re too stupid to balance the budget any other way. former house speaker and republican presidential candidate newt gingrich joins me now. very much alive and kirking. good to be with you. let me talk to you first about some things that are in the news. let s pretend that president gingrich is in the white house. you received word and uncover a plot to kill the saudi arabian ambassador to the u.s. in the u.s. there is a
republican front-runner for the president. according to the latest national poll. leaving many analysts wondering if the georgia businessman s plan resonating. all that and more on american morning. good morning, everybody. it is thursday, october 13. it is certainly not a good morning. i can t get messages from people, i can t send messages. mine was down yesterday but back now. mine was up yesterday but i e-mailed this morning. our executive producer said i will be late. that s the e-mail i sent. he is panicking going where are my anchor. if you don t know what we are talking about, millions of blackberry users are without service this morning. now four-day blackout spreads to north america. the outage primarily affects e-mails and internet access, not the ability to make phone calls or text. weird. problem started monday affecting customers in europe, middle east and africa. by tuesday, it has spread to south america and yesterday customers here in the un
all right. first, though, big news today. the trial of the accused underwear bomber begins this morning with earnest with opens statements at the federal courthouse in droit. umar farouk abdulmutallab is charged with trying to blow up a flight on christmas day 2009 with a bomb hidden in his underwear. the defendant is acting as his own attorney. cnn s deb feyerick in live in detroit, where you were the night this all developed and christmas day 2009. deb, what is the situation? reporter: well, ali, christine and carol, we can tell you that he is facing eight charges today. it carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. the charges against him, attempted murder, attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and also conspiracy toy commit terrorism. the nigerian grat witt student turned accused suits bomber is acteding as his own attorney and umar farouk abdulmutallab shown he is defind. during jury selection he invoked his meant, jihad mentor, recently killed in an air
breaking point. where are we weak incentive that s what the author of money ball and the blind side, michael lewis, will give his insights on. finally, solutions, what will fix the problems that ail us? i ll talk to tom freedman of the new york times about his book. also, want to see the hottest new thing on the globe? take a trip to mumbai or shanghai. i ll explain. and of course a few thought on steve jobs. first, here s my take. barack obama busy apparently committed blasphemy. in an interview in florida last week, he dared to say that america had gotten soft. the denunciations came in fast and furious. the american people are pl plenty tough. what we ve got is a soft public. it s not that we ve become soft. it s that he s on our shoulders, and he s too heavy. if you watch the clip, here s what the president actually said. the way i think about it is, you know, this is a great, great country that had gotten a little soft, and we didn t have the same compe
and good morning, everybody. it s wednesday, october 5th. a very cool, crisp day here in the northeast. welcome to american morning, everyone. lots of news to tell you about today. first, amanda knox is back on american soil. what a homecoming it was. knox touched down in seattle shortly after 8:00 last night, p.m. she thanked everyone who supported drew griffin was there. what was it like? reporter: before she even spoke, before anyone spoke, you could just see the relief on their faces. first the attorney addressed the crowd. if the if there were questions. mom and dad addressed the crowd? any questions for them? no. everybody just wanted to hear from her. amanda knox, and when she came to the podium, she said she had to remember, i have to speak in english now. i m really overwhelmed right now. reporter: after spending four years in an italian prison, amanda knox could hardly believe she was back home in seattle. i was looking down from the airplane and it seem