Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Today

John Kerry Basks in Glow of Super Tuesday; Iraqis Begin Three- Day Mourning Period

Aired March 03, 2004 - 10:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


CAROL LIN, ANCHOR: Live this hour, as John Kerry basks in the glow of the Super Tuesday, House Republican leaders shine a harsh light on the presumptive nominee and his voting record. The news conference outside the Republican National Committee in Washington will target Kerry's stands on big government, tax hikes and deficits.
Presidential candidate John Kerry powers on and John Edwards prepares to bow out. Just a few hours from now, Edwards is due to step down as the Democrat's second place candidate and perhaps step up as the No. 2 man on the November ticket.

CNN national correspondent Bob Franken is in Annapolis, Maryland, one of the nine states that helped seal Kerry's nomination.

Do you think we're going to hear any indication from John Edwards whether he's interested in the position, has been, you know, talking to any of Kerry's people about the job?

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: OK, let's predict here, no. He may say, oh, sure, I'll be interested in talking about that down the line, but first, he wants to talk about his campaign. It was a campaign, Carol, that was fueled by surprises, beginning in Iowa, the surprises and the steam ran out of it here in Maryland and the nine other states in Super Tuesday. As I said, no more steam left.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN EDWARDS, (D-NC), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Equality, civil rights, poverty, all these issues that the American people care deeply about, we have touched their souls again. They feel these issues. We have been "The Little Engine that Could." And I am proud of what we've done together, you and I.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRANKEN: Law of life, big engine can say totally run over little engines. And that's exactly what happened, the big Kerry engine now goes against the behemoth of an incumbent president. President Bush called John Kerry to congratulate him last night, another prediction that would probably be the last kind word that's spoken between the two till at least November.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If George Bush wants to make national security the central issue at the campaign of 2004, I have three words for him that I know he understands, "Bring it on!"

(APPLAUSE)

(CHEERING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRANKEN: And one more prediction Carol, we're going to get sick and tired of hearing the expression, "Bring it on," if we haven't already.

(LAUGHTER)

LIN: Good thing you knew so much, Bob Franken, with that scene behind you, I was wondering how hard you were working. It's a beautiful day in Annapolis.

FRANKEN: It's really hard, tough being out here, yes.

(LAUGHTER)

LIN: Thanks, so much.

Well, John Edwards' concession will pretty much end the nomination process politically if not mathematically. And that means Kerry can narrow his focus on one opponent, the man he wants to bump from the White House.

CNN's political analyst Carlos Watson joins us now here in Atlanta.

CARLOS WATSON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Good to be here.

LIN: Pleasure to have you. Did you have fun last night?

WATSON: I had a good time last night. Although Kerry won in a pretty convincing fashion, there was a little bit of same throughout the night.

LIN: Yes. What do you think -- what are you going to make of what John Edwards has to say? What are you looking for this afternoon?

WATSON: I would look to hear at least two things, one how quickly he's going to come out as an aggressive campaigner. You saw Dick Gephardt get on the road almost right away after John Kerry, where as you saw people like, Bob Graham kind of hold back a little bit. So I'll be curious to see, not only is he going to endorse him, but is he going to be helpful right away?

The second thing I want to hear is not only is he going to help on the stump, but is he going to help raise money? If he does, I think that will be significant.

LIN: Mm-hmm. John Kerry, last night, making nice with a lot of people, including John Edwards and Howard Dean. So what is that about?

WATSON: Easy to be nice when you're winning, when it looks like you've got the nomination all wrapped up. And right now he needs to unify the Democratic Party, not only because he's going to need every vote and then some, but because he's also going to need help raising money. His coughers are pretty getting dry. And starting tomorrow, we the president begin advertising not in one state, not in two states but literally in all 50 states.

LIN: All right. So what does he need from Howard Dean? What does he need from John Edwards? And what about the vice presidential process here?

WATSON: I think he's going take a little bit from both of them. I think for Howard Dean, remember Howard Dean still has a very active e-mail base, more than half a million people. From John Kerry's perspective, it would be great to be able to raise money from those people. But also have those people become active volunteers in his campaign. Because remember, now it's a general election. And you don't just need to have an organization in one state or ten states; you need an active organization in all 50 states. And having a half a million volunteers ready to go, would be super helpful from Howard Dean.

Secondly, what can you take from John Edwards? More than anything, more than the fund-raising, more than the support, you might actually take ideas. If you actually look at the proposals on all of the various candidates on the Democratic side, perhaps the most detailed proposal throughout this campaign came from John Edwards. Now, he reduced them all to two Americas theme, but he had very interesting things to say on minimum wage, earned income tax credit, on housing programs, and on a whole variety of other things, including not just domestic issues but foreign policy. So look for a lot of what was in John Edwards' policy plans to now be spoken by John Kerry.

LIN: Yes. How soon do you think we going to hear about who John Kerry might want to run with him on the ticket?

WATSON: Do you know what, Carol? I think it's going to move in cycles because it's a fun story. It's a little bit of a reality show. So I think we'll hear lots of different names. You know when it's really going to get exciting is, I think, is when not only hear the traditional names we're starting to hear now, but when you start to hear some fresh new names. For example, there's a very intriguing, new governor of Arizona, Janet Napolitano, won four out of five Hispanic votes in order to win office there in Arizona.

LIN: A very night race.

WATSON: Very tight race, summa cum laude graduate of Santa Clara, was former U.S. attorney in Arizona. So tough law and order credentials there. She can be an unusual and a different choice. Another very different choice could be the senator from Arkansas; a very young female Senator Blanche Lambert Lincoln could be another interesting choice. Arkansas, one of those swing states that Clinton and Gore won twice together, but that Gore failed to win this time. So it will be very interesting as we start to hear not just the predictable names but maybe kind of a fresh dollop of whipped cream here.

LIN: Right. Right. You know, because he needs something to keep himself in the headlines now that he's pretty much almost sealed the nominate -- pretty much sealed the nomination at this point. And you're saying he's running out of money. George W. Bush sitting on a big, fat war chest of $120 million and an ad campaign starting tomorrow.

WATSON: It's a very dangerous time. And I'm one of these not very good basketball players who loves to play basketball, and loves even more than that to watch it. You know we're in the heart of college basketball season. And one of the most tragic things that teams often do is they get a big lead and then kind of sit on it. And they use to make fun of the University of North Carolina doing that all the time.

Well, John Kerry can't do that. Remember, only two months ago he was down by 17 points when you matched Kerry against Bush. Now in some polls, he's up by eight, so 25-point swing. The last thing can you do is hibernate, while the president spends millions of dollars worth of ads. So you're right. He's got to stay in the news and he's got to raise money in order to have his own ads and his own events. And roll out new policy proposals. So he has got a lot of work ahead of him in the next couple of weeks. It's not over.

LIN: And so do you.

WATSON: I do.

LIN: You're going to be a busy man.

WATSON: But having fun. Having fun all along the way.

LIN: Yes. It always looks like it. Thanks, Carols. It's so good to see you in person.

WATSON: Yes, I'm glad that we're getting a chance to do this.

LIN: All right, Carlos. Thanks so much. We'll see you soon.

WATSON: Take care. Have a good morning.

LIN: Stay with CNN FOR LIVE for live coverage of John Edwards' announcement that he's ending his presidential bid. That's scheduled for 4:00 p.m. Eastern, 1:00 Pacific.

Now, across the world, worry; Iraqis have begun a three-day mourning period for those killed in yesterday's suicide attacks. At least 117 people died in the attacks; the targeted Shiites, celebrating their holiest days of the year. There have been vows of unity and charges of blame.

CNN's Brent Sadler joins us now from the capital city there in Baghdad. Brent, yesterday there were many fears of possibility of civil war breaking out. How are things today?

BRENT SADLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, things are calmer today, three days of official mourning in observance of those many people, who lost their lives in those twin attacks against the cities of Baghdad and Karbala, where Shiia Muslims were at the height of religious ceremonies. We saw earlier this morning in the city of Karbala, and many hundreds of Iraqis and Iranian pilgrims, as coffins were brought through that city.

There's still no clear idea exactly how many people were killed in Karbala. Coalition officials put the dead at about 85, but doctors say it could be more than 100, because it's difficult to identify mutilated corpses, which are still in the hospital morgue. In Baghdad, there was another outpouring of anger and grief, mostly anger. This was at al Khadimmiya, where the attack took place at a mosque. And there were very angry members of that crowd really chanting slogans against the United States. Blaming the United States for failing to provide the kind of security envelop, not just in Baghdad and Karbala, but throughout the country to prevent these sort of terror attacks continuing.

Now, coalition and Governing Council officials continue to blame a suspected terrorist, Aba Musab al Zarqawi, a Jordanian. U.S. forces intercepted a letter from him last month, in which he said the Shiia should be attacked to try to and foment a civil war. A short time ago, coalition officials were asked at a press conference here in Baghdad, whether or not they had any hard evidence against Zarqawi for any of the recent terror attacks, or indeed, the attacks against Karbala and Baghdad.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIG. GEN. MARK KIMMITT, U.S. MILITARY SPOKESMAN: We certainly have solid evidence linking him to previous attacks in this country. The 25 attacks that he talks about; there's certainly a body of evidence that would point to Zarqawi being the perpetrator of those crimes. As regards yesterday in both Karbala and Baghdad, we are developing that body of evidence right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SADLER: Coalition officials say a combination of explosives were used, including suicide bombs, IEDS or improvised explosive devices, and possibly the firing of mortar shells at Karbala from an undisclosed location. still to get further clarification on that. One more point to make reference to, coalition officials also say that 15 people have been picked up and are being interrogated. Five of them who speak Farsi, that's the language of Iran, and they are being interrogated by both coalition and Iraqi security forces -- Carol Lin.

LIN: All right, a busy day. Thank you very much, Brent Sadler reporting live from Baghdad.

We want to go to another one of the world's hot spot. In Haiti, tensions are rising along with the challenges facing U.S. Marines there. The U.S. troops, along with French forces now on duty there, are sticking close to the airport in Port-au-Prince but say they will expand their patrols. There are growing fears of reprisals against supporters of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the embattled president who was chased into exile over the weekend.

Now, this man is largely responsible for this concern. Rebel leader Guy Phillippe has declared himself the nation's new military chief and is threatening to arrest the prime minister.

Much news today, deciding Martha Stewart's fate for example, the jury gets the case today. We are going to have a live report.

And the battle over gay marriage expands to another part of the country today. Coming up, a live report on new ceremonies and new controversy.

Later, if you want to super size your order at McDonald's, do it fast, because you won't have that option much longer.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: Jurors in the Martha Stewart trial are receiving their final instructions right about now, before they begin deliberations on the fate of the domestic diva. Stewart could face up to 20 years in prison charges on charges that she conspired to cover up an inside tip that led to her dumping her stock just before it dropped in value.

CNN'S Mary Snow has been covering the proceedings in New York.

Mary, what are you hearing out there at the courthouse? Good morning.

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, good morning. And before the jury will begin its deliberations, as you mentioned, the judge is going to be giving the jury its instructions. And the draft page of these instructions consisted of about 70 pages. So it could take awhile before the jury of eight women and four men begin deliberating.

And as Robert Morvillo, Martha Stewart's lead attorney, said yesterday to the jury, Martha Stewart's life is in your hands. And the attorney for Peter Bacanovic, co-defendant and former stockbroker, asked the jurors yesterday to have compassion when deciding the fate of his client.

There are eight counts still remaining. As you recall, one of the counts against Martha Stewart was dropped last week. Each of the counts, there are four against Martha Stewart, including obstruction of justice, making false statements, and conspiracy, each of these count carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. This jury is also going to be deciding the counts against Peter Bacanovic, and he has a count against him that Martha Stewart does not, and that is perjury.

The jury will have a mountain of evidence to go through. The government alone presented 21 witnesses, dozens of documents, e-mails, phone logs, and numerous charts. The Bacanovic defense team presented five witnesses and Martha Stewart's defense team just presented one. But this is some of the evidence that they will be considering. And all sides yesterday encouraged the jurors that if we had questions to go back over that evidence. Deliberations will be under way once the jury instructs -- once the judge instructs this jury. And this is not a sequestered jury so the juror will be going home each day, as they were told, until they reach a verdict -- Carol.

LIN: All right. We'll be waiting for. Thank you very much, Mary Snow in New York for setting the stage for us on that trial.

In the meantime, coming up on CNN LIVE TODAY, problems with voting. This time instead of hanging chads, the hang-up is with electronic machines.

And deciphering the annual report on your investments. Gerri Willis has a few tips to help you do it right.

GERRI WILLIS, CNNFN PERSONAL FINANCE EDITOR: Hey, Carol. There are 15,000 public companies out there, and most them will be sending out glossy, annual reports to all their annual investors. But what do all the numbers mean? We're going to solve that mystery when we come back on CNN LIVE TODAY.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: In the meantime, this is the time of year when many public companies send out their annual reports. For investors, this can be a really important document. You may feel sometimes you need an MBA to decipher it. Well, in today's "Top 5 Tips," personal finance correspondent Gerri Willis of CNN Financial News, explains some of the basics in reading these annual reports.

Which Gerri, I will confess, I tend to throw them out because I really don't know. I just feel like it's something that I should have my broker decipher to me. But you're saying it can be pretty easy read.

WILLIS: Well, you know, they're very intimidating. There are lots of pretty pictures, but most people just page right past it and put the thing down. Or throw it away like you did, Carol. But there are a few things to look for that can be a big help. Start with the letter to the shareholder, that's the No. 1 thing. Now, this is the company's story from the management's point of view. They're going to go over the big numbers from the previous year.

Take a look at what Starbucks did here. You'll see some examples of you know, here's what happened to their revenue over the last few years. You see that 2003 number looking pretty dramatic; a 24 percent increase over the previous year.

But it's not always good news. Sun Microsystems, for example, their CEO Scott McNealy last year said something like this in his letter, "We're not where we want to be yet." Hey, that's a big red flag. Watch out for the word "challenge." Not a good thing to see in your letter to the shareholder.

LIN: Yes, a "challenge." We're facing some interesting challenges this year. Oh! If only we heard that about WorldCom earlier on.

All right. You also say take a look at the income statement. Now, how do you read one of these?

WILLIS: Well, this is not that hard. Don't be intimidated. Income statement is just going to tell you what the company has been getting in revenues from selling products and services, whatever it sells. And also the expenses they have to charge against those. So you can get a sense of how their business is balancing out. You want to know whether those expenses are rising faster than the revenue. That would be critical to understanding just how well the company is doing. And again, this is where you'll start seeing the phrase "earnings per share," EPS, the shorthand the traders use. That will be in the income statement -- Carol.

LIN: And is that different than the ratios?

WILLIS: Yes. It is different from the ratios. So let's move on from the income statement and go to the balance sheet. Balance sheet, totally different animal. This is just a look at the company at a point in time. If you were to take a Polaroid snapshot of the company's financial situation, that's the balance sheet. Two numbers you can look at on this, some ratios you can build incredible easy. First off the current ratios, just take current assets divide it by liabilities. You know what this tells you Carol? Liquidity, how liquid is the company. How much money do they have to cover what their expenditures are? Next...

LIN: Is that sort of like the equivalent of having cash in your checking account or household account?

WILLIS: Yes, that's a good analogy. You bet. You bet. The other one, the quick ratio that you're seeing here. Now the only difference here is you're subtracting inventories from assets because there can be a little wheedling with that. This is refining the number, making it a little, more useful. And it tells you whether the company has enough assets to cover short-term needs -- Carol.

LIN: And you say go even deeper than that?

WILLIS: Go deeper. You know, one big thing that I know the professionals always look at, instead of starting at the front of the book, they go to the back of the book and they look at something called "footnotes." Now, these can be very difficult to understand. But if your annual report is filled with agate type, tiny little footnotes at the back, it's not a good sign generally. One other thing to look for always, the auditor's opinion. You want a clean auditor's opinion. Always have accountants looking at the books making sure everything's on the up and up. If you don't get a clean opinion it's bad news.

LIN: Mm-hmm. And you also say dive into the 10-K. And you're not talking about a race, are you?

WILLIS: No. You know, so I said that the glossy, this annual report is pretty, lot of pictures. You want to strip away all of that. Go to the company's filings on sec.gov and look at the 10-K. You'll find lots of hard-core information that will be a big help. And the marketing hype, it's gone.

LIN: Mm. OK. So you're saying this is better to do yourself than it is to just wait for the summary to come out in a newspaper and have somebody else's interpretation of it.

WILLIS: Well, you know, some investors want to see it all. But the annual report can give you a critical insight into the company's operation and just how well it's doing.

LIN: All right. Thanks very much, Gerri. Good advice.

WILLIS: Thank you, Carol.

LIN: All right. Coming up on CNN LIVE TODAY, getting the word out. President Bush kicks off his campaign and we have a preview of that message with the hopes that it's going to win your vote.

And same-sex couples may have another choice, where to get married. We're going to tell you where they are lining up now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com




Three-Day Mourning Period>


Aired March 3, 2004 - 10:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, ANCHOR: Live this hour, as John Kerry basks in the glow of the Super Tuesday, House Republican leaders shine a harsh light on the presumptive nominee and his voting record. The news conference outside the Republican National Committee in Washington will target Kerry's stands on big government, tax hikes and deficits.
Presidential candidate John Kerry powers on and John Edwards prepares to bow out. Just a few hours from now, Edwards is due to step down as the Democrat's second place candidate and perhaps step up as the No. 2 man on the November ticket.

CNN national correspondent Bob Franken is in Annapolis, Maryland, one of the nine states that helped seal Kerry's nomination.

Do you think we're going to hear any indication from John Edwards whether he's interested in the position, has been, you know, talking to any of Kerry's people about the job?

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: OK, let's predict here, no. He may say, oh, sure, I'll be interested in talking about that down the line, but first, he wants to talk about his campaign. It was a campaign, Carol, that was fueled by surprises, beginning in Iowa, the surprises and the steam ran out of it here in Maryland and the nine other states in Super Tuesday. As I said, no more steam left.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN EDWARDS, (D-NC), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Equality, civil rights, poverty, all these issues that the American people care deeply about, we have touched their souls again. They feel these issues. We have been "The Little Engine that Could." And I am proud of what we've done together, you and I.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRANKEN: Law of life, big engine can say totally run over little engines. And that's exactly what happened, the big Kerry engine now goes against the behemoth of an incumbent president. President Bush called John Kerry to congratulate him last night, another prediction that would probably be the last kind word that's spoken between the two till at least November.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If George Bush wants to make national security the central issue at the campaign of 2004, I have three words for him that I know he understands, "Bring it on!"

(APPLAUSE)

(CHEERING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRANKEN: And one more prediction Carol, we're going to get sick and tired of hearing the expression, "Bring it on," if we haven't already.

(LAUGHTER)

LIN: Good thing you knew so much, Bob Franken, with that scene behind you, I was wondering how hard you were working. It's a beautiful day in Annapolis.

FRANKEN: It's really hard, tough being out here, yes.

(LAUGHTER)

LIN: Thanks, so much.

Well, John Edwards' concession will pretty much end the nomination process politically if not mathematically. And that means Kerry can narrow his focus on one opponent, the man he wants to bump from the White House.

CNN's political analyst Carlos Watson joins us now here in Atlanta.

CARLOS WATSON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Good to be here.

LIN: Pleasure to have you. Did you have fun last night?

WATSON: I had a good time last night. Although Kerry won in a pretty convincing fashion, there was a little bit of same throughout the night.

LIN: Yes. What do you think -- what are you going to make of what John Edwards has to say? What are you looking for this afternoon?

WATSON: I would look to hear at least two things, one how quickly he's going to come out as an aggressive campaigner. You saw Dick Gephardt get on the road almost right away after John Kerry, where as you saw people like, Bob Graham kind of hold back a little bit. So I'll be curious to see, not only is he going to endorse him, but is he going to be helpful right away?

The second thing I want to hear is not only is he going to help on the stump, but is he going to help raise money? If he does, I think that will be significant.

LIN: Mm-hmm. John Kerry, last night, making nice with a lot of people, including John Edwards and Howard Dean. So what is that about?

WATSON: Easy to be nice when you're winning, when it looks like you've got the nomination all wrapped up. And right now he needs to unify the Democratic Party, not only because he's going to need every vote and then some, but because he's also going to need help raising money. His coughers are pretty getting dry. And starting tomorrow, we the president begin advertising not in one state, not in two states but literally in all 50 states.

LIN: All right. So what does he need from Howard Dean? What does he need from John Edwards? And what about the vice presidential process here?

WATSON: I think he's going take a little bit from both of them. I think for Howard Dean, remember Howard Dean still has a very active e-mail base, more than half a million people. From John Kerry's perspective, it would be great to be able to raise money from those people. But also have those people become active volunteers in his campaign. Because remember, now it's a general election. And you don't just need to have an organization in one state or ten states; you need an active organization in all 50 states. And having a half a million volunteers ready to go, would be super helpful from Howard Dean.

Secondly, what can you take from John Edwards? More than anything, more than the fund-raising, more than the support, you might actually take ideas. If you actually look at the proposals on all of the various candidates on the Democratic side, perhaps the most detailed proposal throughout this campaign came from John Edwards. Now, he reduced them all to two Americas theme, but he had very interesting things to say on minimum wage, earned income tax credit, on housing programs, and on a whole variety of other things, including not just domestic issues but foreign policy. So look for a lot of what was in John Edwards' policy plans to now be spoken by John Kerry.

LIN: Yes. How soon do you think we going to hear about who John Kerry might want to run with him on the ticket?

WATSON: Do you know what, Carol? I think it's going to move in cycles because it's a fun story. It's a little bit of a reality show. So I think we'll hear lots of different names. You know when it's really going to get exciting is, I think, is when not only hear the traditional names we're starting to hear now, but when you start to hear some fresh new names. For example, there's a very intriguing, new governor of Arizona, Janet Napolitano, won four out of five Hispanic votes in order to win office there in Arizona.

LIN: A very night race.

WATSON: Very tight race, summa cum laude graduate of Santa Clara, was former U.S. attorney in Arizona. So tough law and order credentials there. She can be an unusual and a different choice. Another very different choice could be the senator from Arkansas; a very young female Senator Blanche Lambert Lincoln could be another interesting choice. Arkansas, one of those swing states that Clinton and Gore won twice together, but that Gore failed to win this time. So it will be very interesting as we start to hear not just the predictable names but maybe kind of a fresh dollop of whipped cream here.

LIN: Right. Right. You know, because he needs something to keep himself in the headlines now that he's pretty much almost sealed the nominate -- pretty much sealed the nomination at this point. And you're saying he's running out of money. George W. Bush sitting on a big, fat war chest of $120 million and an ad campaign starting tomorrow.

WATSON: It's a very dangerous time. And I'm one of these not very good basketball players who loves to play basketball, and loves even more than that to watch it. You know we're in the heart of college basketball season. And one of the most tragic things that teams often do is they get a big lead and then kind of sit on it. And they use to make fun of the University of North Carolina doing that all the time.

Well, John Kerry can't do that. Remember, only two months ago he was down by 17 points when you matched Kerry against Bush. Now in some polls, he's up by eight, so 25-point swing. The last thing can you do is hibernate, while the president spends millions of dollars worth of ads. So you're right. He's got to stay in the news and he's got to raise money in order to have his own ads and his own events. And roll out new policy proposals. So he has got a lot of work ahead of him in the next couple of weeks. It's not over.

LIN: And so do you.

WATSON: I do.

LIN: You're going to be a busy man.

WATSON: But having fun. Having fun all along the way.

LIN: Yes. It always looks like it. Thanks, Carols. It's so good to see you in person.

WATSON: Yes, I'm glad that we're getting a chance to do this.

LIN: All right, Carlos. Thanks so much. We'll see you soon.

WATSON: Take care. Have a good morning.

LIN: Stay with CNN FOR LIVE for live coverage of John Edwards' announcement that he's ending his presidential bid. That's scheduled for 4:00 p.m. Eastern, 1:00 Pacific.

Now, across the world, worry; Iraqis have begun a three-day mourning period for those killed in yesterday's suicide attacks. At least 117 people died in the attacks; the targeted Shiites, celebrating their holiest days of the year. There have been vows of unity and charges of blame.

CNN's Brent Sadler joins us now from the capital city there in Baghdad. Brent, yesterday there were many fears of possibility of civil war breaking out. How are things today?

BRENT SADLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, things are calmer today, three days of official mourning in observance of those many people, who lost their lives in those twin attacks against the cities of Baghdad and Karbala, where Shiia Muslims were at the height of religious ceremonies. We saw earlier this morning in the city of Karbala, and many hundreds of Iraqis and Iranian pilgrims, as coffins were brought through that city.

There's still no clear idea exactly how many people were killed in Karbala. Coalition officials put the dead at about 85, but doctors say it could be more than 100, because it's difficult to identify mutilated corpses, which are still in the hospital morgue. In Baghdad, there was another outpouring of anger and grief, mostly anger. This was at al Khadimmiya, where the attack took place at a mosque. And there were very angry members of that crowd really chanting slogans against the United States. Blaming the United States for failing to provide the kind of security envelop, not just in Baghdad and Karbala, but throughout the country to prevent these sort of terror attacks continuing.

Now, coalition and Governing Council officials continue to blame a suspected terrorist, Aba Musab al Zarqawi, a Jordanian. U.S. forces intercepted a letter from him last month, in which he said the Shiia should be attacked to try to and foment a civil war. A short time ago, coalition officials were asked at a press conference here in Baghdad, whether or not they had any hard evidence against Zarqawi for any of the recent terror attacks, or indeed, the attacks against Karbala and Baghdad.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIG. GEN. MARK KIMMITT, U.S. MILITARY SPOKESMAN: We certainly have solid evidence linking him to previous attacks in this country. The 25 attacks that he talks about; there's certainly a body of evidence that would point to Zarqawi being the perpetrator of those crimes. As regards yesterday in both Karbala and Baghdad, we are developing that body of evidence right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SADLER: Coalition officials say a combination of explosives were used, including suicide bombs, IEDS or improvised explosive devices, and possibly the firing of mortar shells at Karbala from an undisclosed location. still to get further clarification on that. One more point to make reference to, coalition officials also say that 15 people have been picked up and are being interrogated. Five of them who speak Farsi, that's the language of Iran, and they are being interrogated by both coalition and Iraqi security forces -- Carol Lin.

LIN: All right, a busy day. Thank you very much, Brent Sadler reporting live from Baghdad.

We want to go to another one of the world's hot spot. In Haiti, tensions are rising along with the challenges facing U.S. Marines there. The U.S. troops, along with French forces now on duty there, are sticking close to the airport in Port-au-Prince but say they will expand their patrols. There are growing fears of reprisals against supporters of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the embattled president who was chased into exile over the weekend.

Now, this man is largely responsible for this concern. Rebel leader Guy Phillippe has declared himself the nation's new military chief and is threatening to arrest the prime minister.

Much news today, deciding Martha Stewart's fate for example, the jury gets the case today. We are going to have a live report.

And the battle over gay marriage expands to another part of the country today. Coming up, a live report on new ceremonies and new controversy.

Later, if you want to super size your order at McDonald's, do it fast, because you won't have that option much longer.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: Jurors in the Martha Stewart trial are receiving their final instructions right about now, before they begin deliberations on the fate of the domestic diva. Stewart could face up to 20 years in prison charges on charges that she conspired to cover up an inside tip that led to her dumping her stock just before it dropped in value.

CNN'S Mary Snow has been covering the proceedings in New York.

Mary, what are you hearing out there at the courthouse? Good morning.

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, good morning. And before the jury will begin its deliberations, as you mentioned, the judge is going to be giving the jury its instructions. And the draft page of these instructions consisted of about 70 pages. So it could take awhile before the jury of eight women and four men begin deliberating.

And as Robert Morvillo, Martha Stewart's lead attorney, said yesterday to the jury, Martha Stewart's life is in your hands. And the attorney for Peter Bacanovic, co-defendant and former stockbroker, asked the jurors yesterday to have compassion when deciding the fate of his client.

There are eight counts still remaining. As you recall, one of the counts against Martha Stewart was dropped last week. Each of the counts, there are four against Martha Stewart, including obstruction of justice, making false statements, and conspiracy, each of these count carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. This jury is also going to be deciding the counts against Peter Bacanovic, and he has a count against him that Martha Stewart does not, and that is perjury.

The jury will have a mountain of evidence to go through. The government alone presented 21 witnesses, dozens of documents, e-mails, phone logs, and numerous charts. The Bacanovic defense team presented five witnesses and Martha Stewart's defense team just presented one. But this is some of the evidence that they will be considering. And all sides yesterday encouraged the jurors that if we had questions to go back over that evidence. Deliberations will be under way once the jury instructs -- once the judge instructs this jury. And this is not a sequestered jury so the juror will be going home each day, as they were told, until they reach a verdict -- Carol.

LIN: All right. We'll be waiting for. Thank you very much, Mary Snow in New York for setting the stage for us on that trial.

In the meantime, coming up on CNN LIVE TODAY, problems with voting. This time instead of hanging chads, the hang-up is with electronic machines.

And deciphering the annual report on your investments. Gerri Willis has a few tips to help you do it right.

GERRI WILLIS, CNNFN PERSONAL FINANCE EDITOR: Hey, Carol. There are 15,000 public companies out there, and most them will be sending out glossy, annual reports to all their annual investors. But what do all the numbers mean? We're going to solve that mystery when we come back on CNN LIVE TODAY.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: In the meantime, this is the time of year when many public companies send out their annual reports. For investors, this can be a really important document. You may feel sometimes you need an MBA to decipher it. Well, in today's "Top 5 Tips," personal finance correspondent Gerri Willis of CNN Financial News, explains some of the basics in reading these annual reports.

Which Gerri, I will confess, I tend to throw them out because I really don't know. I just feel like it's something that I should have my broker decipher to me. But you're saying it can be pretty easy read.

WILLIS: Well, you know, they're very intimidating. There are lots of pretty pictures, but most people just page right past it and put the thing down. Or throw it away like you did, Carol. But there are a few things to look for that can be a big help. Start with the letter to the shareholder, that's the No. 1 thing. Now, this is the company's story from the management's point of view. They're going to go over the big numbers from the previous year.

Take a look at what Starbucks did here. You'll see some examples of you know, here's what happened to their revenue over the last few years. You see that 2003 number looking pretty dramatic; a 24 percent increase over the previous year.

But it's not always good news. Sun Microsystems, for example, their CEO Scott McNealy last year said something like this in his letter, "We're not where we want to be yet." Hey, that's a big red flag. Watch out for the word "challenge." Not a good thing to see in your letter to the shareholder.

LIN: Yes, a "challenge." We're facing some interesting challenges this year. Oh! If only we heard that about WorldCom earlier on.

All right. You also say take a look at the income statement. Now, how do you read one of these?

WILLIS: Well, this is not that hard. Don't be intimidated. Income statement is just going to tell you what the company has been getting in revenues from selling products and services, whatever it sells. And also the expenses they have to charge against those. So you can get a sense of how their business is balancing out. You want to know whether those expenses are rising faster than the revenue. That would be critical to understanding just how well the company is doing. And again, this is where you'll start seeing the phrase "earnings per share," EPS, the shorthand the traders use. That will be in the income statement -- Carol.

LIN: And is that different than the ratios?

WILLIS: Yes. It is different from the ratios. So let's move on from the income statement and go to the balance sheet. Balance sheet, totally different animal. This is just a look at the company at a point in time. If you were to take a Polaroid snapshot of the company's financial situation, that's the balance sheet. Two numbers you can look at on this, some ratios you can build incredible easy. First off the current ratios, just take current assets divide it by liabilities. You know what this tells you Carol? Liquidity, how liquid is the company. How much money do they have to cover what their expenditures are? Next...

LIN: Is that sort of like the equivalent of having cash in your checking account or household account?

WILLIS: Yes, that's a good analogy. You bet. You bet. The other one, the quick ratio that you're seeing here. Now the only difference here is you're subtracting inventories from assets because there can be a little wheedling with that. This is refining the number, making it a little, more useful. And it tells you whether the company has enough assets to cover short-term needs -- Carol.

LIN: And you say go even deeper than that?

WILLIS: Go deeper. You know, one big thing that I know the professionals always look at, instead of starting at the front of the book, they go to the back of the book and they look at something called "footnotes." Now, these can be very difficult to understand. But if your annual report is filled with agate type, tiny little footnotes at the back, it's not a good sign generally. One other thing to look for always, the auditor's opinion. You want a clean auditor's opinion. Always have accountants looking at the books making sure everything's on the up and up. If you don't get a clean opinion it's bad news.

LIN: Mm-hmm. And you also say dive into the 10-K. And you're not talking about a race, are you?

WILLIS: No. You know, so I said that the glossy, this annual report is pretty, lot of pictures. You want to strip away all of that. Go to the company's filings on sec.gov and look at the 10-K. You'll find lots of hard-core information that will be a big help. And the marketing hype, it's gone.

LIN: Mm. OK. So you're saying this is better to do yourself than it is to just wait for the summary to come out in a newspaper and have somebody else's interpretation of it.

WILLIS: Well, you know, some investors want to see it all. But the annual report can give you a critical insight into the company's operation and just how well it's doing.

LIN: All right. Thanks very much, Gerri. Good advice.

WILLIS: Thank you, Carol.

LIN: All right. Coming up on CNN LIVE TODAY, getting the word out. President Bush kicks off his campaign and we have a preview of that message with the hopes that it's going to win your vote.

And same-sex couples may have another choice, where to get married. We're going to tell you where they are lining up now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com




Three-Day Mourning Period>