welcome, everybody. right to breaking news. two western journalists including an american journalist has been killed in syria. the american is marie colvin who reported from syria for us just hours ago as he was talking to anderson cooper on this network. remi ochlik is a french photographer who was also killed. it happened in the city of homs. we have new videotape to show you. this is showing you the rubble from that videotape where the shelling rather, where the journalists were killed. and last night when she was talking to anderson on "ac 360," mary colvin talked about the murder, as she put it, that she sees happening in that scity every single day. >> this is the worse, anderson, for many reasons. i think the last time we talked when i was what mathere's nowhe to run. the syrian army is holding the perimeter. there's far more ordnance being poured into this city and no way of predicting where it's going to land. >> mary colvin, you see her there with an eye patch over her right eye. that's because when she was in sri lanka covering a story she lost an eye. so a terrible story to have to report. we're going to give you more details as we learn them this morning. also, we are following developments on the rest of the day's headlines. christine romans has those for us. >> good morning. that's right. in kabul, the american embassy on lock down right now. this as protest rage there across afghanistan over the mistaken burning of the koran at a military base. thousands of afghans demonstrated outside the base setting fires and venting their outrage. an official says some of the religious material was removed because detainees were writing on the documents to exchange extremist messages. the u.s. is apologizing saying this was an honest mistake. iran threatening to preemptively strike first anyone who threatens it. that statement coming from a top iranian general. the u.s. and israel has not ruled out strikes against iranian nuclear facilities. it comes as u.n. nuclear talks in iran have failed for a second time this year. a team of u.n. inspectors left iran after being denied access to a military site where nuclear weapons testing may be taking place. lower tax rates in exchange for giving up loopholes. it's a key part of president obama's corporate tax reform plan. that plan to be unveiled today by the administration. it proposes cutting the overall corporate tax rate from 35% to 28%. then eliminating dozens of loopholes and subsidies and adding a new minimum tax on foreign profits. the goal is to keep jobs and manufacturing in the uts. administration officials say the changes are essential for fixing a system that's uncompetitive, unfair, and inefficient. minding your business this morning, stock futures for the dow, nasdaq, s&p 500 all trading slightly lower. the dow briefly, briefly crossed the 13,000 line yesterday. for the first time since may 2008 but it couldn't hold on. markets worldwide are down this morning. investors are concerned the new bailout for greece won't be enough to solve the debt problems in return. secretary of state hillary clinton didn't get the memo. take a look from the group vote to from the g-20. everyone in white except for hillary clinton in lime green. this state department said it wasn't aware of any formal dress code for that photo-op. alked advising mitt romney on the debates. we're excited to have you. a fellow at the institute of politics at harvard's kennedy school of government. nice to have you back. this is like everybody back home again. i like this. and kathy aru, contributing editor at "washington post" magazine is with us. nice to have you all. we are talking this morning first about the new documentary. did you get a chance to see this? it's about the clintons and, of course, it's causing controversy and part of the reason we're talking about it is because it was causing controversy because much of it focuses, of course, on the scanned that took place in the president's oh of during his term in office. here's a little chunk of how it went. >> this is him being a used car salesman, this is a sense of a guy being a charming hick. he was loathed because, first, i think we've all nonsomebody like bill clinton and we don't want them to be president of our country. >> mr. clinton, mr. clinton -- >> the wife was terrifying as well. she was pushy. she was humorous. she couldn't get her hair figured out. there were just so many things about hillary we didn't like. >> as you can imagine when she really, really hates the clintons, decides to give a lengthy interview you kind of know where this documentary is going to go. a long-time friend of the clintons and former white house special counsel lenny davis joins ur panel as well. thanks for being with us. i can't imagine anything that's going to star goldberg, you kind of know where it's going to go. did you end up watching the documentary? >> i ended up watching it with a bag nearby just in case. let me first say that i did not talk to the clintons at all. i don't know what they think of this. this is me speaking as a long-time friend for over 40 years. the fact that they put this evil person with hatred that is ugly to even watch on national television in a documentary on pbs who set up linda tripp to betray a young woman on tape and that is about the clinton presidency which i would like to talk about, the achievements that are completely omitted with bogus scandals covered as that f. they were real, like white water that ended up with nothing, zero, after 3,000 articles in the "washington post" and the "new york times." and that's where they spent their time which i think is really unfair. >> no love loss. there are people who would say, 40 minutes of the documentary is spent on monica lewinsky and the scandal. there are a number of people who are not particularly, you know, partisan who would say, listen, that was a scandal that led to attempts to impeach the president of the united states. that wasn't a white water, that wasn't something that disappeared. that was a scandal that really had the nation pem broied in that conversation. you think that's unfair, that amount of time spent? >> 40 minutes. >> of 4 hours. >> disproportionate. let's give the total picture. there were eight independent counsels in eight years. 116 million dollars spent, before lewinsky. $116 million. nine people investigated. five cabinet secretaries. president and mrs. clinton, and two officials. not one conviction, not one finding of wrong doing after $116 million of media obsession, funded and, i think, energized bipartisan republican investigations. zero results. entire series of four hours. probably spent three-fourths of those four hours on those bogus, completely nothing scandals. whitewater, nothing. foulgate, nothing. travel office, nothing. these were headlines hyped bipartisanship ending up in nothing. the lewinsky matter, yes. certainly personal failing. president clinton acknowledged that. it led to an impeachment. party line vote. the united states senate, 55 republican senators, they couldn't get 51 to vote for either one of the counts from the very partisan house process. so that's really yes, worth mentioning but in that very limited context. >> i think there are people who are going to disagree with you on that. go ahead. >> i think one of the things interesting about this is that it's a pbs documentary. as you know the entire system of public media has often been criticized as a left-leaning institution. so i'm wondering if part of the makeup of this was actually sort of strategic on the part of pbs to say, well, we can also have right wing-leaning content on. i don't know if that's part of it. it also shows that the political past is not the past. the clinton era will be relived again and again. >> here's robert talking -- he was interviewed for the documentary. let me play you a little chunk of that and then tell ask you a question on the other side. >> i've asked myself a number of times why he put himself and his presidency in jeopardy in such a careless way. the presidency is probably the loneliest office in america. bill clinton who so much needed and wanted to be loved couldn't say no to someone who was going to give him affection and wanted affection back. >> do you agree with his assessment and were you asked to be in the doc? >> no, i wasn't. and, of course, i don't know about him and his private life, whether he would want to talk about that in his personal weaknesses. president clinton acknowledged privately and publicly about his personal failings that led to the lewinsky matter. at the end of his eight terms, the american people had their verdict on those personal failings. he created 23 million jobs took a $300 billion deficit and turned it into a surplus and approval raying on his last day in office, soledad, was 65%. so with all of the acknowledgement of his personal failings on the public stage with his family and everything out there and his apologies, the american people got it. achievements in office were more important with the 65% approval rating when he left office. >> when you think back at his legacy, let's say we're having a conversation like this 15 years from now. we will still be talking about monica lewinsky. 65% approval rating, a lot of people wish they would have that right at this moment. you don't even think that by constantly setting the record straight it would help this scandal? >> it's a salacious media that focuses on scandal rather than 23 million jobs and a trillion dollar surplus and 65% approval rating, do we talk about all xantder hamilton's affair, do we talk about john kennedy, is that the legacy of franklin roosevelt, is that the legacy we really talk about? no. the scandal machine in the '90s, the hyper partisanship, a partisan impeachment, ignoring 23 million jobs, welfare reform, and what independent turned out to be the american people's verdict on what you said is a 65% approval rating on the last day in office. the highest approval rating in a two-term president in american history, that's the way history should judge him, not the salacious scandal machine that created bogus scandals. i'm talking about $116 million spent for absolutely zero. so will there be fact versus salaciousness in judging what was really going on, bogus scandals driven bipartisanship. >> we're leaving with that rhetorical question because the answer is we're going to have to wait and see how the history judges the presidency. thank you. still ahead on "starting point," the devil expected to come up in the desert tonight. no question about that. rick santorum talking about satan and then talking about his comments about talking about satan. we're going to get a preview this morning from the moderator john king. also, we told you about the stories of the teachers in buffalo getting free plastic surgery. we'll bring in a teacher to talk to us. she took advantage of the perk and she is defending it and we'll talk about that contract dispute under way as well. adele sending a message without using her musical voice. my play list is "hurricane." have you heard this song? listen. ♪ everything. but why energy? we've got over 100 years worth. is it safe to get it? but what, so we should go broke with imports? look, i'm just saying. well, energy creates jobs. [announcer:] at conocophillips, we're helping power america's economy with cleaner, affordable natural gas. more jobs, less emissions. a good answer for everyone. we gotta be careful. it's cleaner. it's affordable. look, if it's safe, i'm there. [announcer:] conocophillips. over a million people have discovered how easy it is to use legalzoom for important legal documents. so start your business, protect your family, launch your dreams. at legalzoom.com, we put the law on your side. [ technician ] are you busy? management just sent over these new technical manuals. they need you to translate them into portuguese. by tomorrow. [ male announcer ] ducati knows it's better for xerox to manage their global publications. so they can focus on building amazing bikes. with xerox, you're ready for real business. can you enjoy vegetables withg am saucebikes. and still reach your weight loss goals? you can with green giant frozen vegetables. over twenty delicious varieties have sixty calories or less per serving and are now weight watchers-endorsed. try green giant frozen vegetables with sauce. can you get me out of it? of course. travelocity? that's amazing! but i'm still stuck. come on man, dig it! [ female announcer ] travelocity. get great deals on all kinds of beach vacations. ♪ >> this is foster the people "pumped up kicks." >> they perform the with beachboys on the grammys, too. >> i like that. the only debate that is going to happen before super tuesday is happening tonight. it's a cnn republican debate and is taking place in mesa, arizona. beautiful there. when i spoke to john king about it. there's a lot at stake for the candidates. john king is the host. i had a chance to talk to him yesterday about what he is looking from each of these candidates as he goes into it. john, thanks for being with us. so very big pressure, of course, from mitt romney because on the 8th is a state of michigan and a lot of what people are talking about is, you know, can he win that state and if he doesn't what does it mean? >> it's one of the states that matters because he was born there. because he has advertisements and he won the state of 2008. he said i'm the son of michigan. governor, ceo of auto company back in the day. branding test for mitt romney. people say he's a weak front-runner. he needs to prove he can win in a industrial state, where the economy, which is supposed to be his number one issue, is by far the defining issue of the campaign if rick santorum can betemit romney in michigan, that would throw it back to square one and we have a lot of people thinking we don't have a front-runner anymore. >> i was going to say front-runner when you look at the polling, you might say, well, actually it's rick santorum who is the front-runner now. he's got a lot of pressure on him in a different way because he hasn't really gone into a debate as a front-runner. >> i would say there is no front-runner. this is my seventh presidential campaign and it's unlike any other. rick santorum is like the no mem pull. throw out the term front-runner. the guy with the ball right now, the momentum, is rick santorum. his record in the senate, what he said recently about faith and contraception and the like and he needs to prove himself not only as a republican candidate for the nomination but as a potential republican nominee. but at the moment, soledad, he has a very clear strategy. why is he being so strident in his rest rhehetoric about presi obama and what about the general election. rick santorum has one goal right now and it's not about mitt romney. he's trying to knock newt gingrich out of the race. >> all the gingrich people will say, it's not going to happen. gingrich sort of dropped out of the conversation all together. every so often he popped up, he called himself the comeback grandfather. but he has a lot at stake, too. >> he has a ton at stake in the sense that eventual lu you have to start winning to prove you're a viable candidate in the race. speaker gingrich made a tactical decision to not emphasize arizona very much. he has excelled in the debates, raised money off the debates. there's a critically important debate for him and then the week after the debate. let's assume he runs third and fourth in michigan and arizona, that will hurt his fund-raising. super tuesday is the defining day of this contest for newt gingrich. >> let me ask you about the social issues you were just talking about with rick santorum. hess he's been doing well on that messaging but even the communications director for the rnc i spoke to yesterday told me this is an election decided on the economy. rick santorum has not been talking about the economy and it's been a social issues week or two where everybody is talking about gay marriage, talking about contraception, talking about everything else but the economy. >> senator santorum is from the steel town just outside of pittsburgh. he wants to revive the manufacturing base but he has been focusing primarily on the social issues. he has been escalating his rhetoric in the contrast of president obama and governor romney and others on the issues like contraception, social issues. he is drive third quarter debate. if he's not getting attention on the economy right now it's of his own choosing. to the conservative republican base, senator santorum has a lot of appeal. they love his passion. they love his position on the issues. they above the fact -- >> there's a but coming. but, but. >> there is a but coming. but coming in that 50/50 presidential election, if you assume this is an election decided, president obama versus the republican nominee in one or two states, a state like pennsylvania, florida, state like ohio, those states are decided in very close elections in the more moderate suburbs where you might have women voters who are fiscally conservative but socially moderate. the social issues among independents and suburban women are not as much of a winner as in republican primaries. republicans have the jitters when they watch the tone of the campaign over the last few days. >> ron paul has disappeared. >> ron paul is an impact player in this race. he's getting 10% here, 12% here, 18% there. he's picking up delegates. anything he gets is coming from somebody else. however, soledad, you can't be the nominee unless you start winning. and we're now into the double digit number of contests. if ron paul doesn't have a win after the morning of super tuesday he's not a viable candidate for the nomination. that's hard medicine for his supporters to take. he's important in these debates. he will have delegates at the convention. but if he doesn't start winning and start winning soon, he's not a viable candidate for the nomination. it's simple math. >> john king, looking forward to the debate tonight. thanks for being with us. that simple math doesn't necessarily translate into dropping out of the race in any way, shape, or form. watch the debate here on cnn tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern time. we're going to have complete analysis right here tomorrow morning. still ahead on "starting point," our "get real" is the story of an eighth grader expelled over her asthma inhaler. she chose to share it with a friend who was having an asthma attack. also, new york city mayor says he's going to have to keep this country safe and he's defending the nypd's surveillance of muslims. this is a great song. this could vie for my theme song. "right now," van halen. i like the idea of starting the show with van halen. i like that. "get real" this morning. does anyone have asthma? >> yes. >> terrifying, right? i've had sort of asthma like attacks and your chest starts tightening up and you cannot breathe basically. this is a story about a young whom who was in a kind of desperate situation. eighth grade student from colorado leaned over and borrowed her friend's asthma inhaler during gym class because she felt like an attack. she doesn't have to worry about gym class because she's been expelled. according to denver, the girl broke the district's drug policy which forbids the sharing of any prescription drugs. even the girl who lent the inhaler was suspended but she was allowed to go back to the school. the girl's father says he's proud of her daughter and would do it again for choosing a zero tolerance policy over human nature and common sense. we feel that the lewis palmer middle school really should think about this policy. >> however. >> however. >> >> as a teacher, you're about to tell me something. >> i'm a former teacher and i know