latest misstep the beginning of the end of her presidential campaign? by most accounts, bachmann did well in the republican debate taking rick perry to task on his order to girls to get the hpv vaccine, suggesting he was catering to pharmaceutical maker, merck. then she did this. >> i'll tell you this, i had a mother last night come up to me here in tampa, florida, after the debate. she told me that her little daughter took that vaccine, that injection, and she suffered from mental retardation thereafter. it can have very dangerous side effects. the mother was crying when she came up to me last night. i didn't know who she was before the debate. this is the very real concern. and people have to draw their own conclusions. >> that was bachmann on the "today" show recounting what some unnamed stranger said to her. now, we have no reason to doubt someone says this to mrs. bachmann, but it's incredibly irresponsible for her to repeat this as part of her argument against the hpv vaccine and then throw up her hands and say, make of it what you will. keeping them honest, the cdc says there's no evidence that the hpv vaccine has any link to the onset of mental disabilities. it's not a new thing for politicians to stretch the truth. but bachmann is spreading all-out false hoods here. a dangerous falsehood at that. and it's not the first time she's done this by any stretch of the imagination. i want to play you some of her other statements in the past, and keep in mind, there's no political wiggle room on these statements, no gray areas, no spin. what you're about to hear is just flat-out factually incorrect statement. >> i think we know that just within a day or so, the president of the united states will be taking a trip over to india that is expected to cost the taxpayers $200 million a day. he's taking 2,000 people with him. he'll be renting out over 870 rooms in india, and these are five-star hotel rooms at the taj mahal palace hotel. that's why this week, it's ironic and sad that the president released all of the oil from the strategic oil reserves. is that abortion? does that mean that someone's 13-year-old daughter could walk into a sex clinic, have a pregnancy test done, be taken away to the local planned parenthood abortion clinic, have their abortion, be back and go home on the school bus that night? mom and dad are never the wiser. the executive director of planned parenthood in illinois said they want to become the lenscrafter of big abortion in illinois. i find it interesting that it was back in the 1970s that the swine flu broke out then under another democratic president, jimmy carter. and i'm not blaming it on president obama, i just think it's an interesting co incense. like speaker pelosi, who has been busy sticking the taxpayer with her $100,000 bar tab for alcohol on the military jets that she's flying. >> well, the latest cnn orc poll which was done before the debate has bachmann in seventh place as behind sarah palin, ron paul, mitt romney, rick scott, herman cane and newt gingrich. so the question is with the false -- the misstatement the false statements that she made have they caught up with her? do voters care about the truth? joining us live, david gergen and ron carey, bachmann's former chief of staff. ron, thanks for being with us. you were bachmann's chief of staff. why does this stuff seem to happen over and over with her. is it willful on her part? is it carelessness? what is it? >> michelle is very impulsive from a personality standpoint. to her credit, she reads an awful lot of information, but i'm afraid she reads 80 or 90% can change the r forgets the outcome. so her impulsive naturehe somets doesn't digest information as carefully as sh to these kind of impulsive statements that sometimes are just off the mark enough that it makes her into more of a provocative controversial figure. >> are these things written out in advance for her or these are things that are in her head and pop out? >> no. that's one of the challenges i found with working with her and it's consistent with what others said. she doesn't use her staff well. she's pretty much independent and does her own research. she'll be out there on the stump preparing her own remarks and speaking off the cuff with no staff intervention or involvement whatsoever. so, it's really difficult to prep her and help her kind of fact-check before she goes out speaking. she'll be out there speaking and you'll say, where did this come from and it's something that she maybe heard on tv. a great example, i think, just a month or so ago, when she flubbed the elvis anniversary. and she probably heard something on tv that morning about elvis, and she interpreted it as his birthday instead of his anniversary of his passing. that's just really hard for the staff to manage her lack of ability to stay on script. >> and david, certainly, that's one of the minor things, the elvis thing. a lot of the things she's saying are serious issues with serious political ramifications and you shouldn't be making misstatements about, like mental disabilities being brought about by hpv vaccines. it doesn't seem, david gergen, that these things stick thought, that we're constantly pointing out this is factually incorrect, but it doesn't seem, until now, to have had much impact on her? >> anderson, americans are very forgiving and often a person will start who has a sizzling background are well meaning, compassionate as she is. and when they get into the big time and get into -- this is the nfl, in effect, she's playing in, it's a much tougher game. and you're forgiven one or two, but you get a whole string like this and particularly this last one. i think it has done serious damage to her campaign. in this last event about the vaccine, what she has said, in effect, has given further fuel to this whole anti-vaccination crowd that is claiming all sorts of vaccinations cause problems for children, especially getting vaccinated can lead to autism. if you get vaccinated for various childhood diseases, you get autism. that's been proven wrong. a lot of kids didn't get vaccinated as a result and there's a part of the world where the number of deaths went up for children that are attributed to that. so this anti-vaccination, this is sort of an antiscience view that she's embraced here and i think she didn't do it willingly. i mean, i think she just mistakenly did it. it's very dangerous because it encourages parents not to get their children vaccinated. and to go back to this centers for disease control you cited earlier, the cdc is one of the most important scientific institutions we have and they have recommended that girls, young girls, 11 and 12 years old, be vaccinated against this hpv because it is the most common sexually transmitted disease and it can be dangerous for children. and to sort of play against that and say -- no, don't get vaccinated at all, frankly, that's irresponsible and she ought to right away say, i made a mistake on this one. own up to it and move on. >> if i can comment, david. i think is a bit off on the fact that i don't think -- in defending michelle, she didn't say don't get vaccinated. she said parents should have the right to make the decision. not have it mandated by the government. >> but if she's saying that -- i'm using her term, mental retardation and then throwing up her hands and saying, you know, make of that what you will, that's pretty damning stuff to be thrown out there with -- and to have it be medically incorrect information. >> well, i guess i'd like to say is that michelle's been known, ever since she was elected to congress or ran for congress, as making very provocative statements and it really has impacted her in minnesota in -- she has a history of underperforming compared to other republicans on the ballot. and i think the one thing the republicans will agree upon this year is barack obama needs to be a one-term president. but when you look at the field of candidates as we get more serious, we're going to look at candidates as to how electable are they? michelle consistently, in 2006, she was on the ballot with tim pawlen pawlenty, and pawlenty outperformed her by 6%. and in 2010 he defeated her in 14 of the 15 house districts or state house districts. so michele, even though she has a red state district, 24 or 25 state legislatures in her district are republican. so it's a deep red district. but she consistently underperforms other republicans on the ballot and my concern is that these provocative statements drive away independents and moderates who we need to have in republicans to defeat obama in 2012. >> can i come back on that? i agree with what you say. i want to say one thing. the people who warned parents that if they had their children vaccinated they could easily become autistic did terrible damage because it persuaded a number of parents not to have their children vaccinated. and to warn that getting vaccinated for hpv causes mental retardation is making exactly the same mistake and causes -- and particularly when it comes from a leading political figure in the country. >> we got to leave it there, gentlemen. ron carey, good to have you on, david gergen as well. let us know what you think. we're on facebook and follow me on twitter, @anderson cooper. i'm a little behind on the tweeting tonight. i'll try to get caught up in this hour. coming up, accusations of a white house stimulus scandal in washington. did the obama administration rush a loan to the crown jewel of the green energy push, we're keeping them honest. and a stunning blow for the syrian opposition. a blow of anti-government leaders seized by syrian forces reportedly tortured after months of being in hiding, on the run. will his death inspire even greater commitment from the protesters on the streets. we'll talk to a friend of the dead man who is determined to speak out, despite great risk to himself. plus, isha sesay is following other stories. >> stunning new revelation groups casey anthony's father, george anthony. he says he believes his daughter drugged his granddaughter, caylee so casey could go out and have a good time. details from the exclusive interview and much more when "360" continues. ♪ ♪ one, two, three, four ♪ you say ♪ flip it over and replay ♪ we'll make everything okay ♪ walk together the right way ♪ do, do, do, do the crib is already there. great. thank you so much. 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[ male announcer ] we are insurance. ♪ we are farmers ♪ bum, ba-da-bum, bum, bum, bum ♪ tonight "keeping them honest," with president obama on the job selling his $444 billion jobs' plan some are calling stimulus two, there are new questions tonight about stimulus one. a $535 million loan to a company called solyndra, a company that declared bankruptcy, laid off all 1,100 workers and was raided by the fbi last week. and on top of the failure of the business, there's growing controversy over whether the white house actually tried to rush that loan through government channels. e-mails have been uncovered "the washington post," showing in august of 2009, white house officials were consistently bugging the office of management and budget about when they were going to decide on the more than half a billion dollar loan. at that point they approved it, but the omb was still doing a final review. the problem was, the white house wanted joe biden to announce the loan approval for the groundbreaking at the company's factory, so time was of the essence. in one e-mail a white house assistant mentions the upcoming event and asks if there is quote, anything we can help speed along on the omb side and get this response where from a staffer, quote, i would prefer this announcement be postponed. this is the first loan guarantee and we should have full review with all hands an deck to make sure we get it right. now, a lot of people who work in an office might recognize or see that tone and think that they were just trying to cut through red tape. and the white house is certainly characterizing it as that. today, white house press secretary jay carney said what the e-mails show is a, quote, urgency to make a decision about a scheduling matter. but republican investigators for the house energy and commerce committee, which held a hearing on this issue today, came to the conclusion that the pressure from the white house may indeed have changed the way omb reviewed the loan and there was also concern showing that the e-mails show there was red flags about the company's financial viability even before the loan was approved. abc news obtained a particularly damning e-mail between doe staffers and the e-mails predicted, and i quote, the model runs out of cash in september 2011. turns out that prediction was true. the company declared bankruptcy late last month with u.s. taxpayers now holding the bag on a more than $500 million loan. last week, the fbi and agents from the energy department's inspector general's office raided the company's headquarters in california. no one's going on record with what the raid was all about, but the doe inspector general usually investigates allegations of fraud and wrongdoing. still, energy department officials are also defending the decision to back the company, saying the loan application was almost complete before president obama even took office. but at today's congressional hearing the republican congressman steve scalise of louisiana said that solyndra's failure could be a harbinger of things to come. >> while this was one of the poster children of the first stimulus bill, the president right now is touting what i call "son of stimulus", another bill to come through, spend more taxpayer money, to do more things like this. >> when white house press secretary jay carney was asked back on september 1st about solyndra's failure, he said there are no guarantees in any business. >> the whole purpose of this program, which has a broad portfolio of many companies that are -- that are doing well, was to invest in cutting-edge technologies, with some government assistance, with some government loan guarantees, would help us establish a beachhead in the vital industries that will allow america to compete in the future. there are no guarantees in the business world about success and failure. that is just the way business works and everyone recognizes that. >> congressman tim murphy was at the congressional hearing and we'll talk with him in a moment. first, let's take a look at congressman murphy today in an exchange with jonathan silver, the executive director of the energy department's loan program's office. >> we talked -- this staff talked with the company on a regular basis. >> i really want you to stop throwing everybody else under the bus. i hear you throwing all your stuff under the bus. i want to know. you're in charge. you've handled loans of this size and now you're saying it's everybody's else's fault except you and you're in charge. tell me what you did, you're the one in charge, with half a billion of taxpayer's money now saying it's all my staff's fault. i didn't know. i can't do anything about it. >> joining me live from washington, republican congressman tim murphy. thanks for being with us. solyndra represents just over 1% of the loan guarantees under that energy department program. it's the only one that's gone bad. the white house says, look, sometimes businesses fail. in your opinion, what makes this bankruptcy different? >> it makes it different because in january of 2009, the credit group already voted unanimously to say this is not good. it was a couple weeks later that suddenly that decision was reversed. and also, in september of that year, you saw the e-mail that says this whole company is going to be out of money in 2011. mr. silver came on board in november. he said it wasn't my fault. everybody came before me. he also said shortly after that exchange we had that they didn't get one check. the checks kept coming, even though comment after comment was showing this company wasn't doing well, they didn't have the money. they went to restructure loans. and this is when a real bomb went off here, too. the law clearly says, we pass, that they cannot change where their money goes to if the company goes belly-up. it was supposed to be the taxpayers get repaid first. what he said was their lawyers advised them they did not have to pay attention to the law and changed it so the private investors got their money first. so, a number of things began to occur here which shows the taxpayers are out of $535 million and the other investors get their money back. we may not see any of that. so it's all these other elements. it isn't whether or not the company could survive. most of them don't. the issue was there were lots of signs before the first checks were written to say it wasn't going to work, and lots of signs after the checks were written to say, we shouldn't go any further. >> is it your belief that the obama administration, basically, just pushed this deal forward because they so much wanted to be seen as doing something or they wanted to promote green energy, they felt this was like the perfect company to give a large amount of money to? >> well, i don't know what was in the minds or hearts of the obama administration, but it was clear in talking to mr. silver, here's a man that talked with the companies, he had been a major player in, they invest capital -- entrepreneurial capital, he was used to loans of this size and more. and clearly, if you're involved with investing private people's money, at some point if you say, look, we shouldn't throw good money after bad because this company can't survive, you can't do what he simply said but this is all about building the building on time. you have to fill the building with people and products and make it happen. and it was clear to me from what he said is he had information before him from staff saying it couldn't work. and then he said, it's the staff's fault. and when it came time to change the law, he said it was the lawyer's fault, not his, and that's what really troubled us a lot. >> this program existed under the bush administration. was it a problem then or is it the way it's being executed on this particular deal? >> the program came through under the energy bill of 2005. that set it up. the money was actually coming through later on. but what occurred is the folks before president obama took office, in january of 2009, they said, don't go any further. we're unanimously voting not to do this. and it was a couple of weeks later, after the inauguration of president obama it came through. now, let the facts speak for themself. i don't know if there's a link there or not. what i do know is pretty clear. there was substantial and repetitive evidence from people within the organization of doe, department of energy, saying this is not going well. this company can't survive. and they kept putting money into it. >> congressman tim murphy, thank you. >> thank you. and now we have paul begala and jim dike, president of jda frontline, former communications director for the rnc. paul, given what we just heard, how