she's 77 years old and she said time has come. she was okay with it. >> reporter: she's had quite a long time of being the most decorated olympian ever, hasn't she? upsteps michael phelps and it was widely expected to happen. it had been disappointing to this point but he is now the most successful olympian ever after picking up the silver and gold in the relay. the big question here, does that mean he's the greatest olympian ever because he has the most medals, is he the greatest or should that be measured in terms of long he havety or impact on the sport and legacy he leaves. there hasn't been much time to celebrate, he's been back in the pool this morning for the 200 meter and he got through those fairly easily. >> we're looking at the tweet sent from the president to michael phelps and it goes like this. con grats to michael phelps tore breaking the all-time olympic record. you made your country proud and signed it b.o. for barack obama. i'm so tired because i stayed up to watch the women's gymnastics, that was phenomenal. >> it was particularly given the disappoint of the men and given the disappoint that had been all of those tears of sadness after jordyn wieber missed out on the individual all-around final. but they smashed it frankly, the fab five. didn't they? there was really no competition, winning by five points, which in gymnastics terms is absolutely huge. in the run-up they were watching videos in atlanta in '96 for inspiration and that did the job. they started with a three phenomenal vaults and russia just crumbled under the pressure. it's fantastic to see tears of joy so soon after those tears of sadness after disappointment of the men. i have to say now i'm going to talk about team gb, when are we going to win our first gold medal. we've just done it. the women's pair heather stunning and helen glover, they have just stormed to victory in the rowing in the women's pair, which is really quite something. and they weren't even heralded at the start of the day. these are the front pages of some of the tabloid papers, it was all about bradley wiggins, he was the one heralded as the great hope for today. bradley wiggins side burns quite special and "the daily mirror", a whole wig thing, which is kind of interesting. >> you hang on to that. congratulations on your first gold medal for your country. we're happy for you on that. we appreciate the update. coming up in a few minutes, we're going to talk to dominique dawes on that team giving inspiration to this year's team. coming up in the next hour, three-time olympic swimmers his name is aaron piersol. he'll be with us as well. zoraida has a look at the top stories. >> good morning, a shocker in the state of texas, gop voters choosing a new man as it's contender for the u.s. senate. several texas newspapers reporting ted krcruz is the winner. it's being build as a win for a conservative grass roots underdog. he had support from sarah palin and rick santorum. leon panetta arriving in jerusalem this morning for talks with israeli leaders, iran's nuclear program and violence in syria are expected to top agenda. panetta is scheduled to visit israel's iron dome, a missile defense system funded largely by the united states. hollywood is mourning the death of gore vidal, a fixture on talk shows and gossip columns, "lincoln" and tony-nominated play "the best man." he ran twice for congress and lost both times. his nephew confirms he died at his holy wood hills home yesterday of complications from pneumonia. he was 86 years old. a recent college graduate from glenn elenvirginia was able to save her father's life thanks to quick thinking and super human strength. her car was working on his car when the jack slipped. that's when his daughter leaped into action. >> lifted it up right here and kind of kind of threw it like, shoved my body into it as hard as i can and came back and dragged him out and started cpr. >> lauren says an adrenalin rush helped her lift the car off her father. her lifeguard cpr training helped keep him alive until the paramedics arrived. and her father is expected to make a full recovery. an average car weighs about 4,000 pounds. imagine that. >> good for her. what a great story. zoraida, thank you. we're turning to the olympics, two american gymnasts are looking for redemption in the men's individual all around, they follow the womens' team incredible performance. the first gold was back in 1996 when dominique dawes and here teammates took the top spot in the atlanta games. she is an analyst for fox sports.com and member of the first olympics dell game. i'm a big fan. the young ladies who were doing gymnastics last night and got to the gold talked about your team as their inspiration. that must be really a thrill for you, i would imagine. >> it's an honor definitely to know we were able to motivate the team to reach their full potential and get a gold medal. i was in the arena last night and thrilled. their performances took my breath away. the russians didn't get them any competition, when they came to the balance beam it was close then they faltered and continued to falter on the floor exercise, a aly raisman onlied needed a 10.2 and she surpassed it and they won gold. >> they came on the vault the strongest, one after the other the first person's energy and ability kind of inspiring the next person to do an even better job in some ways. i thought mckayla maroney's vaulting was terrific. karolyi thought it should have been a ten. i could not believe it to not reward her with a 10. >> i don't agree with that, bela, we're in 2012, there are no more perfect tens in the sport unfortunately. >> why not? >> well the scoring system has changed so there's no more perfect ten. could she have gotten a perfect score, it would have then been a 17.0. i saw a slight deduction, it was very min unite, she could have gotten a slightly higher score. the perfect score would be a 20 if someone was able to come up with that amount of difficulty. she rocked her fault. she's coaxed by an amazing coach, someone who helped me back in the day. he tried to get me to do that vault when i was a kid and i refused because it was way too hard back then. >> john getter says his team is better than your team, a little trash talk. others might agree, the '96 team might disagree but this is the best team. difficultywise and consistencywise, this is the finest. >> i do believe the fab five is out of our shadows, they have achieved an amazing fete, winning gold off american soil. the magnificent seven was able to win and i think the hometown crowd helped. i think we can compare the two teams but i would love to put on a leotard is and go at it with these girls. but we're going to give them full credit. we don't need to compete anymore. i'm 35, not flipping anymore, i'll give them the props they deserve. >> your fans are older than that and want to see you do that still. dominique dawes it must be so much fun to watch this and be in the stands and not have the pressure on you. >> i'm a nervous ninany, looking forward to the all-around. those two, one of them are going to be america's next sweetheart, reminds me back to the 1992 olympic games and shannon miller stepped up and took the spotlight and i think that will happen in the all-around finals. >> we appreciate it. >> thank you. >> still ahead on "starting point," mitt romney is now back on his home turf and defending comments that angered palestinians when he talked about the culture. our get real, back from owing back child support to penning a children's book. the original bad boy, dennis rodman has a bedtime story for your kids. you're watching "starting point." we're back in just a moment. fo. 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[ whirring and beeping ] it's the at&t network -- doing more with data to help business do more for customers. ♪ [ "human" by the human league playing ] humans. we mean well, but we're imperfect creatures living in a beautifully imperfect world. it's amazing we've made it this far. maybe it's because when one of us messes up, someone else comes along to help out. that's the thing about humans. when things are at their worst, we're at our best. see how at libertymutual.com. liberty mutual insurance -- responsibility. what's your policy? take the steps to reach yours, everyowith usgoals. with real advice, for real goals. the us bank wealth management advisor can help you. every step of the way. from big steps, to little steps. since 1863 we've helped guide our clients, so they can take the steps to help grow, preserve, and pass along their wealth. so their footsteps can help the next generation find their own path. all of us serving you. us bank this is new york state. we built the first railway, the first trade route to the west, the greatest empires. then, some said, we lost our edge. well today, there's a new new york state. one that's working to attract businesses and create jobs. a place where innovation meets determination... and businesses lead the world. the new new york works for business. find out how it can work for yours at thenewny.com. welcome back to "starting point." minding your business, federal reserve policy makers set to make an announcement on interest rates this afternoon. they are expected to keep them near zero percent where they have been since 2008. right now the dow and nasdaq and s&p 500 are pointing up in pre-marketing trading suggesting we could see a bounce at opening bell. the sister of facebook founder mark zuckerberg is working for the enemy. she is now employed by google after the search engine giant bought out her marketing firm wildfire. she worked there as a junior product manager. back to you, soledad. >> you think he could offer her a job, hook her up in the family. get that girl a job. >> here you have insider information perhaps. >> oh, interesting. >> zoraida, thanks. mitt romney is in boston this morning following his three-store tour overseas standing by the controversial remarks where he stated that israel has been more prosperous than neighboring palestine because of cultural differences. in an op-ed, he writes israel has embraced freedom. economic freedom is the only force that has consistently succeeded in lifting people out of poverty and only principle that created sustained prosperity. it is why our economy rose to rival the lead are powers and long surpassed them all. editor in chief of red state.com. thanks for being with us. appreciate it. >> thanks for having me. >> he had to clarify comments he made that angered a lot of palestinians because he talked about cultural differences being the reason for israel's success and highlighted the neighboring palestine as sort of the nonsuccess. >> do you think he had to clarify those remarks? do you think that was critical to do? >> he probably needed to, if only because we're heading into august and august tends to be the hastings crossings for the party where politicians consume themselves and each other with random stories. this had the potential to blow up and consume his campaign for a couple of weeks. he needed to clarify it. no one denies the palestinian authority area has a big fence around it but also palestinians would deny it but it's also fact in their culture a lot of people teach their kids to put on bombs and fire homemade missiles into israel than to go out and try to lift themselves up. they are multifacetted problems there but romney needed to clarify it to stop a story from exploding. >> cultural differences too, you know, can to some degree mean anything. i mean, he didn't mention all of the things that i think the palestinians would mention, all of the things they felt were perceived as racist in those comments. he didn't talk about occupation, didn't talk about settlements or talk about roadblocks or talk about closures, there's a long list that's very correlated. it's not in a bubble. >> the roadblocks and fences are in itecause they had a tendency to blow themselves up on israeli buses. >> what you're saying seems to be the opposite a little bit of what mitt romney is saying. he's saying i'm not going to weigh in on what the palestinians have done in their culture. i'm talking about the israelis, if you're saying what he's saying is a metaphor because of the activities of people who have been fighting against the israeli occupation, sometimes using bombs, suicide bombers, that is ultimately why israel is successful in the palestinian territories or not? >> i think he's commenting on israel but it leaves the vacuum open for what the difference between the two is and i think there's a profound difference. he may not want to go there but i'm perfectly happy to. >> let me ask you a question. mark mckinnen, a republican strategist who you well know, said this in the "washington post." he had a good flight plan. he wasn't wearing a seat belt. he hit a lot of turbulence and lost altitude but in the end he returned safely. this is what he said to the "washington post," talking about the trip that started in london and went on to israel and went on to poland. every part of that trip there was a little bump in the road. would you say it was a successor failure? >> you know, i'm a.m. bif lent about the trip, it happened during the olympics, i don't think any american paid attention to the fact mitt romney went overseas. he wanted to connect to his biography having been a part of the salt lake city olympics. but the things that came out of the trip were not news worthy items other than he got a taste of his foot on occasion. everybody was paying attention to what michael peophelps was dg in london. >> so the question is did anybody care ultimately. >> yeah, i don't think so. >> harry reid -- >> i don't think so, yeah. >> interview in the huffington post, harry reid brings back the tax issue and i wonder if this will be an issue that keeps coming back because we know the romney campaign will not release anymore of the candidate's tax returns. he said this, a month ago, reid said, a person who invested with bain capital, who he did not name, called his office, quote, harry, he didn't pay taxes for ten years, reid recounted the person as saying, he didn't pay taxes for ten years, now do i know that's true? i'm not certain, said reid. but obviously he can't release the tax returns, how would it look. that's from "the huffing ton post" yesterday. do you think things like that will make him change his position and release the taxes? >> i always thought that mitt romney would ultimately cave but not over what harry reid is saying. there's a post that either harry reid is lying or the person who told the story is lying because mathematically is would be impossible from what we know, it couldn't be that way. yeah, i think this story will continue to dog mitt romney. remember, august is the time where monica lewinsky came out, cindy sheeman, veterans for truth came out. it will be a time where they amp up efforts to come out with the tax returns, if he sticks to his guns, i'll be surprised considering how often the pressure builds he does cave. >> and it's only august 1st. just the beginning of august on that one. thanks for your insight, appreciate it. thank you. >> coming up later this morning, we'll talk to maryland democratic congressman chris van hollen, we'll speak to the former gop presidential hopeful and former speaker, newt gingrich. he'll weigh in on governor romney's trip and presidential race as a whole. the nba bad boy, been arrested on suspicion of domestic violence and had his share of child support problems. now dennis rodman is penning a book he would like your kids to read. we'll talk about that with our "starting point" team, margaret hoover, ryan lizza, nothing lasts forever. so true. ♪ ( whirring and crackling sounds ) man: assembly lines that fix themselves. the most innovative companies are doing things they never could before, by building on the cisco intelligent network. one is for a clean, wedomestic energy future that puts us in control. our abundant natural gas is already saving us money, producing cleaner electricity, putting us to work here in america and supporting wind and solar. though all energy development comes with some risk, we're committed to safely and responsibly producing natural gas. it's not a dream. america's natural gas... putting us in control of our energy future, now. with lean cuisine steam bags. get our crispiest carrots and our snappiest peas all freshly steamed in just minutes. steam bags from lean cuisine. be culinary chic. you see us, at the start of the day. on the company phone list that's a few names longer. you see us bank on busier highways. on once empty fields. everyday you see all the ways all of us at us bank are helping grow our economy. lending more so companies and communities can expand, grow stronger and get back to work. everyday you see all of us serving you, around the country, around the corner. us bank. but they haven't experienced extra strength bayer advanced aspirin. in fact, in a recent survey, 95% of people who tried it agreed that it relieved their headache fast. visit fastreliefchallee.com today for a special trial offer. welcome back to "starting point," i'm zoraida sambolin. carrying a baby to safety from raging floods in fephoenix. people were trapped in water 4 feet deep. the area was hit with severe storms last night. starting today, all new health insurance plans will have to provide eight free preventative health benefits to women, it is a requirement of the president's health care reform law, impacting an estimated 47 million american women. it includes contraceptives and breast feeding supplies and prenatal care. a milestone in new orleans where the new $90 million saint bernard parish hospital is getting ready to open its doors next month. it replaces the center that was destroyed during hurricane katrina. >> great milestone. we covered stories because they had no hospital, so i remember once when sheriff's deputies would be injured, that would be a 45-minute drive or more to get to a hospital. horrible for local people. >> it's great news indeed. >> fantastic news, i'm happy about that. our team this morning, richard socarides and margaret hoover, white house appointee in the bush administration and ryan lizza for the new yorker. >> i feel like all you've done is cover it so. >> we're friends. >> we are. >> as are president bush and president clinton. >> yeah, very good friends. >> take that, twitter. >> i think president bush and president clinton are better friends than president clinton and president obama. >> no they are very friendly. i have it on good authorities. >> ryan, everybody is friendly, where you been? >> our get real this morning is about dennis rodman. nba hall of famer, basketball's bad boy, several arrests for drunken driving, domestic violence, the head coach of a topless women's basketball team. problems paying more than $200,000 that he had in child support due until last month. and now, he is penning a children's book. the book is called dennis, the wild bull. and it kind of looks a little bit like dennis rodman has tattoos and piercings according to the website for the book. it will convey good lessons to children based on dennis's experiences as a world class athlete. it focuses on character was told to "the daily news." would you read that to your small children? >> we have the book, go the xpletive to sleep. have you read that book? >> i've never seen that. >> fantastic book. >> i don't know if it is in genre. >> it's a serious children's book. i'm all for redemption, maybe this was part of his therapy in rehab, write a children's book, help get through your childhood and help other children to contin