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American Morning

Kerry-Edwards Campaign; Bush-Cheney Campaign; Interview With Senator Trent Lott

Aired July 12, 2004 - 9:00   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.


ANNOUNCER: From the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Soledad O'Brien and Bill Hemmer.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Or not. They're both gone. But we're here. Good morning, everybody. I'm Heidi Collins...

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm...

COLLINS: ... along with Anderson Cooper.

COOPER: Thanks for -- thanks for having me this week.

COLLINS: Yes. And you're going to do your own show tonight at 7:00.

COOPER: Absolutely.

COLLINS: So we'll talk with you again on Friday, when you're halfway asleep.

COOPER: That's right. We're going to be talking a lot this morning about what's going on in the presidential race. Both candidates out on the campaign trail. There you see President Bush.

Also, John Kerry and John Edwards actually campaigning separately today. We're going to talk about that with Kelly Wallace.

Also, Jack Cafferty joins us this morning.

Good morning, Jack.

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Indeed. Good morning, Anderson. We're taking a look in the e-mail question of what you think the most critical issue in the election might be.

Is it the war? Is it the economy? Is it health insurance? Is it terrorism? Is it prescription drugs? Is it gay marriage?

Am@cnn.com. Drop us a line. We will share your thoughts a bit later.

COOPER: All right, Jack. Thanks very much.

Now, as we mentioned, Senator John Kerry has a full day of events scheduled today in Boston. The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee and running mate, John Edwards, are going to make separate appearances all this week. Meanwhile, some Democrats are touting one of the major gets, as we say in the business, for this month's convention. National correspondent Kelly Wallace joins us with more.

Good morning, Kelly.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

Well, it is the son of the late Republican president, Ronald Reagan. A Kerry adviser saying he will have a prime-time speaking role, talking about the importance of stem cell research. But Republicans say they are not worried. They are touting how they will have a Democrat speaking at their party convention later this summer.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WALLACE (voice-over): A senior Kerry adviser says Ron Reagan's decision to speak at the Democratic convention will have "big appeal to Independents." Reagan has been an outspoken critic of President Bush on many issues, including his decision to limit federal funding of stem cell research.

RON REAGAN, RONALD REAGAN'S SON: They're playing politics with it, and it is shameful. It is shameful.

WALLACE: A Bush-Cheney campaign official said it was not surprising that a "committed liberal would speak at the Democratic convention," and added that George's Democratic senator, Zell Miller, will speak at the Republican convention.

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Will you let me borrow John Edwards for at least four years?

(APPLAUSE)

WALLACE: After wrapping up they're "proving they get along tour" in John Edwards' home state of North Carolina Saturday, team Kerry- Edwards separates this week, launching what aides call the front porch tour focusing on hometown values, with Edwards traveling solo to Iowa, Illinois, Louisiana, Texas, California, Florida and North Carolina.

One question both men were repeatedly asked this weekend, if they regretted their votes on the Iraq war resolution after the release of a Senate report which found the CIA's judgments on Iraq's weapons deeply flawed. Pressed on CBS's "60 Minutes," Kerry eventually said, "Well, I don't regret my vote, and I believe based on the information we had, it was the correct vote."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALLACE: Now, senators Kerry and Edwards will be keeping separate schedules this week. But they both could be in Washington, D.C., later this week, Anderson, if there is a vote on a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. They both will vote against that, saying this is a matter left to the States to decide.

COOPER: I don't know if you saw that "60 Minutes" interview last night. There's going to be a lot of talk today about the wives of these two candidates, their impact on the campaign trail. How does Teresa Heinz Kerry do on the campaign trail talking in front of crowds?

WALLACE: Well, it's interesting, because a lot of people watch her in interviews, they find her unpredictable. Some people sort of feel that she might even be described as odd. But watching her out on the stump, she talks quietly, she introduces herself as a daughter of Africa. She was born in Mozambique. But you do find the crowd listening to her every word. So the sense is they're going to send out Teresa Heinz Kerry and Elizabeth Edwards all across the country to battleground States and see how well they can do winning votes for their husbands.

COOPER: They played a big part in the "60 Minutes" interview last night.

Kelly Wallace, thanks very much.

WALLACE: Sure.

COOPER: Heidi?

COLLINS: About a half-hour ago, President Bush left the White House, beginning a brief trip to Tennessee. And he'll have look at some recently surrendered weapons equipment and will talk about the war on terrorism. Elaine Quijano is at the White House for more on this.

Good morning once again, Elaine.

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Heidi.

President Bush is heading to Tennessee to make the case that under his watch, under his leadership, there has been progress in fighting the war on terrorism. Now, President Bush will tour the Oak Ridge Laboratory facility in Tennessee today. That is where some materials taken from Libya have been gathered, materials that have been gathered as part of its agreement to dismantle its weapons of mass destruction.

Now, the president's trip comes at a time when the White House is facing some harsh criticism over that Senate report citing flawed intelligence in the run-up to the Iraq war. A senior administration official says the president will deliver what they see as a significant speech, touching on a number of themes. The president is first expected to hold up Libya as an example, underlining the fact that in the wake of the Iraq war, the military action carried out to remove Saddam Hussein, that Libya felt the pressure to reach an agreement and move to dismantle -- dismantle its WMDs.

Also, look for the president to remind people of what the administration sees as successes. The president will argue that there is better sharing of intelligence, that the FBI now has a changed mission on focusing on the war on terrorism. But already, critics of the Bush administration, notably the Kerry campaign, are out saying that the White House is very much on the defensive this morning.

Campaign officials saying that the president cannot take credit for all of the success in Libya. The groundwork for that was laid years before the president took office. Meantime, the Bush campaign in response says that John Kerry's camp is simply playing politics with what they see as an important security development -- Heidi.

COLLINS: Elaine Quijano at the White House this morning. Elaine, thanks so much for that.

The head of the NAACP wants its members to help oust President Bush from office. The civil rights group is upset that the president declined to attend its convention this week. Some of its leaders spoke out about the president's decision.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR JOHN STREET (D), PHILADELPHIA: I think it's very unfortunate that President Bush chose to ignore this convention.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KWEISI MFUME, NAACP PRESIDENT: I've written and written and written requesting a meeting or an opportunity to talk about pertinent issues. We've written, inviting him to come and address us. And we've got no response. There's been absolute silence.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: The White House initially said the president had a scheduling conflict, but it also cites "hostile political rhetoric" about the president as a reason. Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry will speak at the convention on Thursday.

COOPER: Well, the Senate Intelligence Committee had released their report last week. There have been a number of comments about it over the weekend from senators who have been involved in the whole process. We're joined this morning by Republican Senator Trent Lott from Mississippi. He is a member of the Intelligence Committee.

Senator, thanks for being with us.

SEN. TRENT LOTT (R), MISSISSIPPI: Glad to be with you, Anderson.

COOPER: You're proposing a number of proposals right now for -- for making cabinet-level positions for a new DCI, essentially. Before we talk about those -- the proposals, though, based on what you now know, based on the fact that they said there were no weapons of mass destruction, and the intelligence was flawed, would you still have voted the same way had you known then what you know now?

LOTT: Well, that's getting to be one of the basic questions that's being asked by the media. And I think it's a legitimate question. Yes, I would still have voted going to Iraq. There were a lot of other concerns. And, after all, we do know that he had weapons of mass destruction. He had chemical weapons. We know that. He used them on his own people, on his neighbors.

We know that in the past he had moved to try to develop nuclear capability. He was a threat to the neighborhood, to his own people. He was supporting terrorism a number of ways. A lot of people are now sort of heading for the woods, saying, well, if I had known more.

Remember now, we all based our decision on the intelligence that was available. And that intelligence turned out to be wrong on a global basis. Intelligence organizations all over the world had the same information. So we based it on the right criteria at the time. But I still think there was sufficient justification to go forward.

COOPER: Senator Rockefeller has said that he doesn't think the entire Senate would have voted the way they did, they wouldn't have had the votes to go forward. Do you think that's true?

LOTT: Anderson, I -- my recommendation would be to give it up. We made the decision. We are there. The information was flawed. We should make sure it's not flawed in the future.

We have men and women from the military and our intelligence community putting their lives on the line today. We don't need to be over here undermining the effort that they're putting forward in Iraq and other dangerous places around the world.

COOPER: You say now that there should be a cabinet-level position for basically a new DCI. Why?

LOTT: Part of the problem in this area has been the Congress. Going back to the '70s, Congress has undermined and undefended the -- the intelligence community. We've allowed also over the years it to become more and more bureaucratic. There are management problems.

I'm glad we're going to be getting a new head of the Central Intelligence community. But I think it needs to be raised to a higher level.

We've got 15 agencies, 80 percent of the budget is not under the CIA or the DCI, the director of the Central Intelligence. I think we need to give them control, more control of management and the entire budget. We need to look at fundamental reforms.

Congress did not adequately fund it in the '90s. And we also undermined human intelligence. And we funded it in the wrong ways.

For instance, we did not fund enough in the linguistic training. So I think it's all right to go through a period of analyzing of what happened, but more importantly is what are we going to do about it.

COOPER: Well, do...

LOTT: That's why I am advocating some reforms. COOPER: Do we have the linguistic training that we need at this point? I mean, there enough -- are there enough people in the pipeline right now? Because that would seem to be a key topic.

LOTT: It is improved significantly in the last couple of years. The Intelligence Committee and others, the Appropriations Committee, we have been talking with the intelligence community. They have gotten more funding. They have rearranged some of their priorities.

I believe we're getting more human intelligence now. And yes, there is more linguistic training. But you've got to be, you know, pretty flexible in that area, because where you need the linguist in one period of time, that can speak Farsi, for instance, the next time you may need them to be able to speak Korean. So we really have to kind of look over the horizon and make sure we're getting the people we need to be able to carry out human intelligence efforts.

COOPER: Is it important for national security that there be a new director of Central Intelligence, a new head of the CIA before the elections?

LOTT: Anderson, you can argue it both ways. But I think that the best thing to do is to go ahead and pick the permanent person, move forward with the changes and reforms that are needed.

If the president doesn't do that, he'll be criticized for not paying enough attention to it should we have a disaster. If he goes forward with it, there will be those that will nit-pick over any person he picks. But I think the right thing to do, once again, is to show leadership and courage.

And I believe President Bush will go ahead, pick the best man or woman that he can find, and we'll -- Congress will be under real pressure to go ahead and confirm that person. So we'll make sure there's not uncertainty in the CIA.

COOPER: I've read that you were upset at the amount of information that was didacted from the Senate intelligence report by the CIA. Are they being reasonable in what they're eliminating and what they're still classifying? And what do you want to change about that?

LOTT: Well, I've really been offended by it. And I think they heaped indignity on the Intelligence Committee by basically trying to redact 50 percent of what we had. And I've seen other reports where they wanted to line out all kinds of things, many of them that really were not a threat in any way to reveal sources or methods. Also, sometime the information would have even been helpful.

After they realized we were serious, and we were going forward, they started negotiating with us in, I think, better faith. And we're down now probably closer to 12 or 15 percent being redacted, which may still be too much. And that's why...

COOPER: Clearly, we lost the video feed there with Senator Trent Lott, but we do appreciated him joining us this morning on AMERICAN MORNING -- Heidi.

COLLINS: All right. It is just about 12 minutes past the hour now. We are going to check in with Daryn Kagan down at the CNN Center for the very latest in all of the other news of the day.

Hey, Daryn.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Heidi, good morning to you once again.

We begin word that a Filipino hostage held in Iraq is still alive this morning. Iraqi insurgents are threatening to kill the truck driver unless the Philippines pulls its troops from Iraq. But government officials say they will not give into demands. Militants said they would kill the Filipino on Sunday, but Iraqi officials say that talks are continuing to try and negotiate his release.

Investigators have discovered that Enron money may have gone toward the redistricting of Texas. "The Washington Post" reports that Texas Republican Senator Tom DeLay pressed Enron for a $100,000 contribution to his political action committee. DeLay's fund-raising has been under investigation. The request in 2001 was before both campaign finance reform and the Enron collapse.

Air travel hitting record highs. According to "USA Today," some major U.S. airlines are reporting full flights for the month of June. And experts predicting increased demand throughout the summer. Still, the airline industry expected to lose about $3 billion this year.

Let's escape to the movies. "Spider-Man 2" is pulling millions of movie fans into his superhero web. Toby Maguire's smash hit pulled in about $46 million this weekend to keep the number one spot at the weekend box office. In just 12 days, the film made $257 million. In second place, Will Ferrell's comedy "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy" bringing in $28 million.

Overall, Anderson, a great summer for Hollywood. Eleven percent up over last summer at the box office.

COOPER: I know, Daryn. Even Jack Cafferty went to see a movie over the weekend, which is like a rare thing indeed.

KAGAN: Love it.

COOPER: Daryn, thanks.

CAFFERTY: Words cannot describe what a turkey "Anchorman" is.

COOPER: Oh, man.

CAFFERTY: Words fail me.

COOPER: I like Will Ferrell.

CAFFERTY: He's fine. But the movie is awful. It's just awful.

COOPER: OK. Wait, Daryn -- I think Daryn -- Daryn, did you see it?

CAFFERTY: Did you see it, Daryn?

KAGAN: I went to a screening here in Atlanta.

CAFFERTY: And?

KAGAN: I liked it. I laughed. It's silly. It's funny. But it's -- it's just silly.

CAFFERTY: It's stupid. And it's -- and it's not funny. And I love you dearly, Daryn, but it's not funny.

COOPER: See, it sounds like she went to a screening. It sounds like she didn't pay for it. So there might be the difference.

CAFFERTY: Yes, that's true. And a bunch of media types with a free ticket and free popcorn.

COOPER: Right. Sure. Sure.

CAFFERTY: And it's like, what are you going to do, not laugh?

KAGAN: There was no free popcorn.

CAFFERTY: See, I paid $9.

KAGAN: There was no free popcorn, Jack.

CAFFERTY: And I was entitled to be disgusted, because I paid $9 to go to it.

KAGAN: And I love you, too, Jack. I do.

CAFFERTY: What's that?

KAGAN: A mutual love for you, even if we don't agree on "Anchorman."

CAFFERTY: Yes. See?

COLLINS: That's all that's important.

CAFFERTY: But we -- but we agree on almost everything else. Don't we?

KAGAN: We do, absolutely.

COOPER: One of the other viewers this morning said that they liked it, but they admitted they only paid $4 for it. So that's...

CAFFERTY: Well, yes, if you pay $4, then you can afford to be a little less critical, I think. You know, you're out quite so much money.

What's the most important issue in the election is actually why I'm here. Is it the economy, the war in Iraq, terrorism, health care, prescription drugs? I've got to get some -- these are awful. I bought these at Duane Reed (ph). Look at this.

COLLINS: You ran out during -- during segments.

CAFFERTY: Sixteen dollars and they're falling apart.

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: Wow.

CAFFERTY: At least I didn't pay (ph) them.

Now, Jean in West Glenville, New York, "The deciding issue in the election will be President Bush's pandering to the religious right, specifically, and the obtuse right in general. He's dead wrong on stem cell research, faith-based initiatives, abortion and a constitutional amendment defining major. And, oh, by the way, on Iraq, too."

Don in Kansas City: "The Florida vote count, along with the orchestrated monkey business of a terror threat at election time."

Brian in Nova Scotia, "The final issue should be who's going to protect the United States and won't think twice about doing it."

Judith in Montreal, "The deciding issue in this year's election will be who is the prettiest."

And M.F. writes, "Don't laugh at the man who thought he was a chicken. I had an uncle who thought he was a chicken. I was going to send him to a shrink, but dad was out of work and we needed the eggs."

(LAUGHTER)

COOPER: Oy, oy, man. Everybody's a comedian this morning.

CAFFERTY: Not bad, but...

COLLINS: That was great.

CAFFERTY: It's not bad. It's funnier than "Anchorman."

COLLINS: Yes.

COOPER: I believed him for a moment, actually.

CAFFERTY: M.F., funnier than "Anchorman."

COOPER: All right. Not paid nearly as much, though, probably, as Will Ferrell.

CAFFERTY: That's true.

COOPER: We have news this morning about a wildfire in south Florida that had forced a major shutdown of a highway near Miami. The flames on the edge of the Everglades burned hundreds of acres, dry gas and trees. Thick smoke shut down 10 miles of Florida's turnpike for a few hours yesterday.

Intense blaze almost reached the highway, sending billowing clouds of smoke hundreds of feet in the air. So far, thankfully, the wildfires have not injured anybody that we know of. And the wildfire (UNINTELLIGIBLE), though, has consumed 6,800 acres.

Let's take a look at what's happening elsewhere in the United States with Chad Myers, who is down in the CNN Center in Atlanta.

Good morning, Chad.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COLLINS: All right, Chad, thanks so much. We'll talk again soon.

As you know, Martha Stewart will be sentenced this week for lying to investigators about a stock sale after a federal judge refused to give her a new trial because of a witness who lied. So while those lies may make many headlines, it is actually zillions of other lies that we tell in our lives that become the fabric of our lives, indeed.

So today, we being a weeklong series exploring lying, why we do it, and who does it, in fact. This morning, we begin with kids. They're not actually born fibbers, but they get pretty good at it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS (voice-over): The headlines never end, swindles, scams and deception at the top. But in America today, could the truth be...

RICHARD MILHOUSE NIXON, FMR. PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I had no prior knowledge...

COLLINS: ... that lying comes easily to most of us?

WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON, FMR. PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I did not have sexual relations with that woman.

COLLINS: One recent study concluded the majority of people told at least three lies during every 10 minutes of conversation.

DR. MICHAEL LEWIS, ROBERT WOOD JOHNSON MEDICAL SCHOOL: All people everywhere do it. It keeps the social fabric connected.

COLLINS: According to Dr. Lewis, innocent little white lies, not the lies that hurt people or cheat them out of money, may be something that we are programmed to tell at an early age to help protect ourselves from punishment and protect the feelings of others.

LEWIS: How many of us would say to our arthritic grandmothers, who have knitted us a sweater, that we really don't like the color and we really don't like the style, and we wish you wouldn't ever knit us another sweater? In fact, there was a movie called Liar Liar," when in fact the truth was told, and it was a disaster.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE, "LIAR LIAR" Everybody's been real nice.

JIM CARREY, ACTOR, "LIAR LIAR": Wow. That's because you have big...

COLLINS: Dr. Lewis' studies show that 65 percent of children by the age of two and a half lie, and lie well. He performed a set of experiments for our camera. So meet the newest group of potential perjurers.

The kids were told not to peek at a toy placed behind their back. Dr. Lewis watched on a hidden camera. Would they tell the truth when asked if they looked? Three-and-a-half-year-old Rowan (ph) peeked...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Don't look.

COLLINS: ... before the tester even left the room.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you peek? Don't peek.

COLLINS: Olivia, age three and a half, tried hard not to look. But it doesn't seem to be working.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm back. Did you peek?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No? OK?

LEWIS: They quickly learn that not telling the truth means that they won't get punished. And what we tell the parents all the time is, look, they're going to lie. That doesn't mean that they should get off the hook.

COLLINS: Dr. Lewis' advice? Focus on the offense, not the lie they told to cover it up.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: We want to let you know about our series tomorrow. We're going to be talking about whether one needs to lie to get ahead in business. So stick around for that.

COOPER: Coming up, we're going to talk to a man from "Consumer Reports" about some tips about buying a new car. We're also going to be talking about -- yes, that's right, let's make a deal. We're also going to be talking about coming up with a Plan B, what should be done if terrorists actually try to derail the election.

COLLINS: And the link between temper tantrums and obesity, a surprising new study there ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Good news if you are in the market for a new car. New car prices are actually headed in reverse. And the big three automakers are giving a little extra incentive now to help you go out there and make that big-ticket purchase.

So, to talk about that a little bit this morning with us is Rob Gentile from "Consumer Reports." Going to talk about what's driving this buyers' market exactly.

So let's get to the good part first.

ROB GENTILE, "CONSUMER REPORTS": Sure.

COLLINS: Which three manufacturers have the best deals right now?

GENTILE: Primarily, these incentives are led by General Motors, Daimler-Chrysler and Ford. Those are the ones that really have led the way, although some of the other imports may be offering some programs as well.

COLLINS: OK. Now, talk to us about the rebate guide. I mean, you want to make sure that you know you're getting the right rebate and the right car for yourself. And there's really a lot of choices to make.

GENTILE: There really are. Right now, you're being sort of bombarded with so many different deals out there that it really becomes difficult to see what's the best deal for you.

For example, you're having either a cash rebate that may be in existence or a zero percent or a low-interest rate financing. In some cases, you're getting offered both. So you really need to determine which is the best route.

COLLINS: Right, and let's talk about that for a minute.

GENTILE: Sure.

COLLINS: We were talking in the break about the zero percent financing that we enjoyed for so long. I mean, that was and is a great deal. But car makers -- or manufacturers, I should say -- are getting away from that a little bit now, aren't they, because of interest rates?

GENTILE: Well, interest rates are climbing, so they may be starting -- you know, they're starting to skew a little bit toward offering rebates. Or another way is to offer low interest rate rather than the zero percent financing.

COLLINS: All right. So how do you know that you are getting the best price and the best rebate? Is there some sort of way that you can just ask the gentleman or sales woman who is trying to sell you this car, hey, is that really the best deal?

GENTILE: Right.

COLLINS: I mean, can you trust them? Or I'm sure there's other places to go to...

(CROSSTALK)

GENTILE: Well, your best route is really doing your homework up front.

COLLINS: Sure.

GENTILE: You should really know which option you're going to go before you even walk a foot into the dealer showroom. Typically, we say that you want to weigh your different options out there. You want to see whether the rebate's better, or the cash -- you know, the financing is better, or both.

There are many calculators out there, and one on consumerreports.org which will help you do that. You can, you know, bump your numbers in and see which is your better route. But ultimately, what you want to do is you want to learn how to negotiate when you're at the dealership.

COLLINS: Yes, that is key, isn't it?

GENTILE: Absolutely, yes.

COLLINS: The old stand up and walk out a few times, right?

GENTILE: Well, what you really -- you may have to resort to that, but ultimately what you really want to start off with doing is focusing on what the dealer paid for the car. And use that as your starting point.

The tendency right now is, when you go into the showroom, they focus on this window sticker, and they'll knock money off that price. So $25,000, we'll take $1,000 off. You never really want to go down that route. Your best bet is really to start with what they paid for the car and then work your way up.

COLLINS: OK. And I know the dealers often try to add on extras. And we talk a lot about this extended warranty. Do you really need one?

GENTILE: We feel -- at "Consumer Reports," we feel you don't, and the reason is because cars are becoming more and more reliable over time. The basic warranties are becoming more generous. Many of them are five years now. And on top of that...

COLLINS: Yes, that's pretty good.

GENTILE: Yes, it is. And on top of that, what you really want to do is you want to focus on a car that has a good track record, good reliability record. If you do that, you may not need that expensive extended warranty.

COLLINS: OK. If you don't go the new car route, though, are the deals on used cars pretty good right now as well? GENTILE: They are, yes. It's actually -- the popularity of all the incentives on the new cars, what it's been doing is been driving the prices of used cars down. And it's fluctuated a little bit, but it's a great time to get a good late-model used car and avoid paying expensive depreciation.

COLLINS: OK. Sounds good, I think. So far, so good, right? Rob Gentile from "Consumer Reports," thank you so much today.

GENTILE: Thank you.

COLLINS: And still to come this morning, it's time to kick off your work week with a dose of "90-Second Pop." Rocker Courtney Love spends her 40th birthday in handcuffs and in the hospital.

Meanwhile, David Bowie has emergency heart surgery. Is it time to call it quits?

Stay with us on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: And the opening bell is just about to ring on Wall Street. The Dow Jones industrial average starts trading at 10,000. There it is -- 10,213, up more than 41 points on Friday. There you see some hard rats ringing the bell.

Also, there at the Nasdaq market site, the composite index opens at 1,946. That is up 11 points.

COLLINS: All right. And good morning once again, everybody. I'm Heidi Collins. Bill and Soledad are both off this week. Anderson Cooper and I are with you this morning.

COOPER: Good morning. Thanks for joining us this morning.

Some of the headlines going on right now, federal officials are considering a plan to postpone the election in November in the event of a terrorist attack. We're going to look at the plans being considered and their many difficulties. And there are a lot of them.

COLLINS: Also, an odd piece of medical news drawing a link between childhood temper tantrums and one of the most dangerous health problems in adulthood - adulthood. We'll explain more about that.

COOPER: Oh, a crying baby.

Also, "90-Second Pop" comes up. Things going from bad to worse for Courtney Love. She was handcuffed, taken to a hospital over the weekend. It is not going so well for her. We're going to look at what happened. That's ahead.

COLLINS: All right. But first, this morning, Anderson, in our campaign countdown, the November 2 presidential election is now 113 days away, just incase you were counting. President Bush is making his 10th trip to Tennessee today at the Oak Ridge National Lab. He'll talk about the war on terrorism and get a look at some of the nuclear weapons parts recently turned over by Libya.

Democrats John Kerry and John Edwards will campaign separately this week. Senator Kerry has a full day of events scheduled in Boston. Senator Edwards will visit several battleground states before the end of the week.

And finally, Ron Reagan, the youngest son of the former Republican president, will speak in prime time at the Democratic national convention. He will address the need for stem cell research, for which President Bush has limited the use of federal funds, citing moral and ethical concerns.

White House officials have discussed the possibility of postponing this year's general election in the event of a terrorist attack. But implementing such a delay could be a logistical nightmare. Here now, Tom Foreman in Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If a terrorist attack came in the final days of the campaign or on Election Day itself, could the voting be postponed? That question is being raised by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission and taken up by Homeland Security and the Justice Department, too.

GRACIA HILLMAN, U.S. ELECTION ASSIST. COMM.: I think that we've been lucky so far that nothing has ever occurred to disrupt the presidential election, but that doesn't mean that something couldn't happen. And we believe prudent planning is the thing that should be done.

FOREMAN: These government officials are mindful of the Spanish train attack, which killed nearly 200 people. Three days later, Spain's prime minister, who supported the war in Iraq, was voted out. Now officials say intelligence suggests something like that could happen here.

TOM RIDGE, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: Al Qaeda is moving forward with its plans to carry out a large scale attack in the United States in an effort to disrupt our democratic process.

FOREMAN: The political fallout from such an attack is wildly uncertain. After 9/11, support for President Bush rose.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I can hear you.

FOREMAN: It is also unclear whether the election can be moved. Homeland Security says, "It would take an act of Congress to amend the Constitution, possibly amendments to 50 state constitutions."

And maybe changes to "voting rules in thousands of counties and towns."

(on camera): In other words, federal officials see the possibility of delaying the election as very remote. And some lawmakers are calling it a pure doomsday scenario. SEN. JAY ROCKEFELLER (D), NEW YORK: It'd be a terrible mistake, a terrible mistake.

FOREMAN: Others believe developing a plan may be wise if it sends a message.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No matter what happens, no matter what terrorists do to our country, democracy's going to go on.

FOREMAN: Yet in the end, even those who support a plan for delaying the election say it's something they want to have and never have to use.

Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: The Election Assistance Commission, which put forth the idea of a delayed vote was created after the disputed 2000 election to help deal with logistical problems in the election. You're going to be talking more about this.

COOPER: Yes, there is. There's an interesting article in "Newsweek" this week by Michael Isikoff. We're going to have him on my show, "360," tonight at 7:00 to talk about it, the idea of postponing the election in the event of an attack.

COLLINS: Yes, what that could mean. Wow. All right. Anderson, we'll be watching, 7:00, right?

COOPER: Yes. Thank you.

COLLINS: 7:00 p.m.

COOPER: There you go.

Kids throwing temper tantrums can make parents fit to be tied, of course. Now a new study finds a link between those fits and childhood obesity. Medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins us from the CNN Center with the details.

Elizabeth, this is a fascinating connection.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It is a fascinating connection. When you think about it, it actually -- it makes sense.

This is part of a study, Anderson, that tried to figure out why do some children become fat while others don't. So they looked to kids in the toddler years, and then they followed them to see who would be overweight by age nine.

And so they looked at all these kids to see whether or not they become heavy. And, as you said, those that had thrown tantrums in the toddler years, ages two through five, were more likely to are heavy at age nine. And these were tantrums specifically over food. Now, they -- the experts say, don't worry about occasional tantrum. This child here, we don't know what he's having a tantrum over, but it doesn't look good. Don't worry about occasional tantrums. But if your child persistently has a tantrum over food, the theory is that parents seem to be giving in. They seem to be giving the kids food. And so years later, they will become heavy children.

Now, that was an interesting finding. But, by far, the single biggest predictor in this study of whether a child would grow up to be heavy was whether or not a parent was heavy. That was the single biggest predictor.

If there was an overweight parent, the child had a 48 percent chance of becoming overweight. If there was a normal weight parent, the child had only a 13 percent chance of becoming overweight.

Another predictor -- and this one was sort of surprising -- was naps. Overweight children slept 30 minutes less during the day than normal weight children. And these are toddlers, we're talking about, ages two through five.

They think that the reason might be that heavy children just aren't active during the day. They're not doing much, so they're not tired enough to take a nap. And it propels itself, and the child grows up to be overweight -- Anderson.

COOPER: So what should a parent do in terms of handling a temper tantrum over food?

COHEN: Right, they're very tough. As a parent, I know, they're very tough to handle. But the first rule is, don't give in.

If your child is having a temper tantrum, saying, "I want this, you have to give me that," don't give in, because it will just go on and on, year after year. Also, don't micromanage a child's eating habits. Don't always be looking over your child's shoulders, saying, "Eat this, don't eat that, you haven't eaten enough, you're eating too much."

Let the child, to some degree, self-regulate. Let them choose what they're going to eat and not eat.

COOPER: All right. Elizabeth Cohen, thanks for that.

COHEN: Thanks, Anderson.

COOPER: Still to come this morning, there is another mad cow scare, but it's got nothing to do with the food you eat. Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business." We'll talk about that.

Also ahead, "90-Second Pop." David Bowie gets a not-so-subtle message to maybe take it easy. Stay with us on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(MUSIC) COLLINS: I think I've just successfully offended the entire pop panel.

TOURE, "ROLLING STONE" MAGAZINE: The whole crew.

COLLINS: Oh, goodness. And in case you didn't know, it is time for "90-Second Pop" this Monday morning, we think. We have rounded up our usual suspects today. Toure, contributing editor for "Rolling Stone."

Hello, Toure.

TOURE: How are you?

COLLINS: "New York" magazine correcting editor Sarah Bernard, as always very lovely. And Andy Borowitz, the creative genius behind Borowitzreport.com.

SARAH BERNARD, "NEW YORK" MAGAZINE: Wow! What an honor to be in your presence.

TOURE: Wow!

ANDY BOROWITZ, HUMORIST: My agent is doing his work.

COLLINS: OK, Sarah, let's start with you. Courtney, what is going on?

BERNARD: I know.

COLLINS: This is not the best way to spend your 40th birthday.

BERNARD: A (UNINTELLIGIBLE) birthday.

COLLINS: Handcuffs, hospital, my goodness.

TOURE: Well...

BERNARD: Well, see, now, Courtney, we know that she's been having some unusual behavior going on. Apparently she was throwing bottles out the window of her Soho apartment. She was wandering the streets, kind of mumbling to herself, trying to bum cigarettes from strangers. And I think what happened is she has like the old rock star manual, which says that you have to be, you know, possibly on drugs, kind of getting yourself in the news for erratic, crazy behavior. And the new pop star manual is get married...

TOURE: As much as possible.

BERNARD: ... have a baby, move to the suburbs...

BOROWITZ: Convert to Judaism.

BERNARD: ... convert to Kabala and all of that. So, she's just on the wrong...

TOURE: Rookie, rookie.

BERNARD: She's just on the wrong end. I mean, it is really sad, we have to say.

TOURE: Yes.

BERNARD: We don't want to make light of it.

BOROWITZ: I'm devastated.

BERNARD: And we're worried about Frances Bean. That's what we were talking about.

TOURE: Yes, yes.

BERNARD: You know, her daughter with Kurt Cobain.

BOROWITZ: You know what? What I liked about it is, you know, so many people when they turn 40 they, you know, make such a big deal out of it. And she decided to treat it just like any other day, which I think is great. I mean, I think that's hilarious.

BERNARD: Thirty-nine, 40, what's the difference?

BOROWITZ: It's the old bottle out the window, get carried away in handcuffs. It's good.

COLLINS: Toure, what's happening with her? Is she trying to get attention or it's that she's out of control?

TOURE: No, I don't look at it as a publicity maneuver. I mean, it's a very sad situation. I mean, for 10 years she's been dealing with the loss of Kurt, you know, various ups and downs in her career. The Frances Bean situation, she just recently -- I mean, she I don't know...

BERNARD: She lost custody.

TOURE: She lost custody.

COLLINS: Right.

TOURE: I mean, can you imagine? I mean, can you imagine what that does to a woman, like to lose custody of your baby?

COLLINS: No.

BERNARD: It causes you to throw bottles out of windows.

BOROWITZ: She was also apparently a little upset that Larry King spent a whole hour with Barbara Eden and not her. So, I think that (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

BERNARD: Maybe you can do something about that.

COLLINS: Let's talk David Bowie, you guys. Also some more hospital talk here. Heart surgery, emergency heart surgery actually, in L.A. last week. He's 57. Is it time for Ziggy to play guitar here or what?

BERNARD: Oh!

BOROWITZ: Oh, no, no, no. Ziggy actually now refers to his EKG. But, you know, I think, you know, 57, he is still in the prime of his career. You know, Jethro Tull is still rocking out. They're in their 80s. I think there is no reason why he should hang it up. I mean, the only thing I feel about it is that -- and I don't want to step on Dr. Sanjay Gupta's territory here.

COLLINS: No, no.

BOROWITZ: But as we age, as rock stars age, it's really important to avoid strenuous activities. For example, instead of like trashing your hotel room, maybe as you check out just tear up the bill, you know, something like that.

COLLINS: Right.

BERNARD: Steal some soap.

BOROWITZ: Yes, steal some soap and maybe some of the toiletries, but really just take it nice and easy. He has to worry about the ticker.

BERNARD: You know, I saw him in concert last year, and he looks fantastic.

BOROWITZ: He does.

BERNARD: He looks better than he ever has. And obviously he's been healthy for a while and clean. But he has said that there are entire periods of his life that he has no memory of.

COLLINS: Right.

BERNARD: If it weren't for his albums he wouldn't have even remembered what he was doing then.

COLLINS: That's sad.

BOROWITZ: He was also apparently kind of upset about Courtney's 40th birthday. And I think that kind of set him back, too.

COLLINS: I was going to say something and then there's nothing to say there.

All right, let's talk Shaq.

TOURE: Yes.

COLLINS: Shaq is expected to be traded to the Miami Heat.

TOURE: Yes. COLLINS: What does this mean for the Lakers?

TOURE: Well, really...

COLLINS: What does this mean to you, Toure?

TOURE: To me personally, well, I'm happy to see the destruction of the Lakers. I was one of the anybody-but-the-Lakers people. And I know there were a lot of them. This is all about Kobe. This is about his ego. I want this to be my team. He orchestrated get Shaq out of here or I'm going to leave.

So, I mean, like this is all about him and his ego. But the thing is when you make these massive trades like this, it never works. It never evens out. The Heat are going to be one of the best teams of the East. The Lakers are going to suck for years to come.

BERNARD: But what's to happen when their star player is possibly jailed and they're not going to have anybody?

TOURE: Right, right, right.

BOROWITZ: You know, why does get to call the shots? That's what I'm really confused by.

TOURE: Because he's 25, and the Lakers think he's going to be great for a while.

BOROWITZ: Right.

TOURE: And Shaq is 32.

BOROWITZ: Assuming he's free to roam.

TOURE: Right.

BERNARD: But are they not thinking that he might not be available to play?

TOURE: I mean, Kobe is so great you can't not take the chance that he's going to be out there.

BERNARD: Oh.

TOURE: But I don't see how you proceed toward Kobe rather than the best player in the league, which is Shaq.

BOROWITZ: Even if he is in prison, he will score 30 points.

TOURE: That's right. That's right.

BERNARD: Somehow he will (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

COLLINS: Who does Kobe want to play with?

TOURE: Well, he says he wants to play with the Lakers. He's entertaining offers, which means...

COLLINS: I see.

TOURE: ... you come to his mansion. The Clippers and the Nuggets can come to his mansion for an hour...

COLLINS: That's amazing.

TOURE: ... and tell them why he should play with them.

COLLINS: Yes.

TOURE: The Knicks want him, but everybody wants him.

BERNARD: I want to know what's going to happen to Jack Nicholson and all of the front row at the Lakers. Are they all going to just going to the Heat games or what? Is Jack going to move to Miami?

COLLINS: We'll have to wait and see about that. Can you imagine?

All right, you guys, we certainly appreciate it this morning. Andy, Sarah and Toure, thanks so much.

TOURE: Thank you.

COLLINS: Anderson, back to you.

COOPER: Thanks, Heidi. Still to come, an update on the running of the bulls in Pamplona. Guess what? The bulls are still winning, more than ever, actually.

Stay with us on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: It is about 46 minutes past the hour. Time for a look at some of today's other news with Daryn Kagan.

Hey, Daryn.

KAGAN: Good morning once again, Anderson.

Officials say the American marine who vanished in Iraq only to show up safe in Lebanon is expected to return to the U.S. within a few days. Military sources telling CNN that Wassef Ali Hassoun has told a team of experts that he was abducted last month. Hassoun is being debriefed at a U.S. military base in Germany.

In Israel, a political move that could potentially speed up a pullout plan in Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and opposition leader Shimon Perez agreed today to try to forge a governing coalition that could push through the Gaza withdrawal plan. Sharon invited Perez's labor party to form the coalition after warning members in his own party that he may call for early elections if they do not black -- back his plan. The final report from the 9/11 Commission is expected to be completed at the end of the week. According to a spokesman, the panel has already started the process of having it declassified for release later this month. The 10 members of the bipartisan commission are trying to reach unanimous support for the final document.

The Senate today resuming debate on a constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage. The measure defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman. A vote could come on Wednesday. President Bush opposes gay marriage.

And things are getting a bit risky today at the bull run in Pamplona, Spain. Score a few there for the bulls. None for the men.

A few people, including an American, were gored today. This is the sixth day of the yearly event. Nearly 50 runners have been injured since the running of the bulls started last week. The festival, thank goodness, will end this Wednesday.

Anderson, back to you.

COOPER: All right, Daryn. So what do you have coming up at 10:00, Daryn?

KAGAN: We are going to be going live to Bangkok. Dr. Sanjay Gupta is live there to tell us the latest on the global AIDS conference, including the controversy that has come up on condoms. An African leader comes out and says they do not work in trying to prevent AIDS. We'll tell you more about that live with Sanjay just ahead.

COOPER: OK. Daryn, thanks very much.

Let's get a look at the weather for the day ahead. Chad Myers is standing by at the CNN Center with the latest.

Good morning, Chad.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COLLINS: All right, Chad. Thanks a lot.

Still to come this morning, the mad cow scare, it's not just about your food anymore. Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business." He'll explain what we're talking about.

Stay with us on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Well, this morning, the FDA is trying to keep mad cow disease out of more than just your food. With that, and a check of the markets, Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business."

Let's talk about -- let's talk about the markets first.

ANDY SERWER, EDITOR-AT-LARGE, FORTUNE MAGAZINE: We'll do that, before we get to the slightly disgusting medical business segment...

COOPER: OK, good.

SERWER: ... which is what I'm calling this. So if you're out West and just getting up, mute the sound. OK.

The Dow's down just a little bit here. Nasdaq is getting beaten up a bit more. Tech stocks under pressure.

Merrill Lynch saying chip stocks are not going to go anywhere the second half of the year. That means intel is not going to be doing so well today, probably.

Big news this morning, though, on Wall Street, is an investment company called Leucadia, which has investments in a lot of telecom companies, is seeking to buy 50 percent of MCI, the second largest telecom company in the world. So -- in the nation, I should say. Excuse me. That's big news. We'll be reading all about that in the papers tomorrow probably.

Let's talk about this mad cow story, though, Anderson. The FDA is catching up with the rest of the federal government here. And it is banning the use of cow brains in cosmetics and dietary supplements. Isn't that nice?

COOPER: Yikes! I didn't know they had cow brains in them.

SERWER: Yes, who knew? Right.

COOPER: Yes.

SERWER: You're putting on your cosmetics, your cream, your cold cream, your after shave, and maybe there's some cow brains floating around there.

COOPER: Oh, man.

SERWER: That's possible. It really is possible, Anderson. They've got it in collagen (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

COOPER: They don't put that in the commercial.

SERWER: No, they don't say that, it's featuring cow brains in this creamy, creamy cold cream.

COOPER: Not a big selling point.

SERWER: Yes. OK. Also, continuing along the same vein here, E.D. wars.

COOPER: E what?

SERWER: E.D I just say E.D. I can't say erectile dysfunction. Oops, I just did.

Cialis here is -- which is one of three drugs now -- there's three drugs, Cialis, Levitra and Viagra, on the market -- this is a real. I've never heard of this for a prescription drug. They're saying if you're not completely satisfied with Cialis they'll buy you prescriptions of Levitra and Viagra.

COOPER: Really?

SERWER: They'll give you -- but, you know, how can you do this with prescription medicine? I mean, don't you have to get a doctor prescribing it?

COOPER: And what exactly does being completely satisfied really mean?

SERWER: This is where a great debate begins that we're not going to have on this program, probably. A panel of experts...

COOPER: In your own experience...

SERWER: Well, not satisfied means just that, Anderson. It really does. And there are a variety of drugs to choose from, now, as we just reported.

COOPER: OK. OK. Maybe -- maybe tomorrow you can do a little review of all the different products.

SERWER: A taste test or sampling.

COOPER: Yes, so to speak.

SERWER: Yes, OK. We'll leave it at that.

COLLINS: I think he's turning red. Look it.

COOPER: All right.

SERWER: I really am. I really am turning -- he did it.

COOPER: If it weren't for all the cow brains smeared over your face...

(CROSSTALK)

SERWER: Bringing it all together. Thank you, Anderson.

COOPER: It all ties together.

SERWER: Yes. All right.

COOPER: All right, thanks.

One programming note. Tonight, on "LARRY KING LIVE," indicted Enron chief Ken Lay will do his first prime time interview tonight. That is at 9:00 Eastern. Definitely want to stay tuned for that -- Heidi.

COLLINS: For now, though, we have all been staying tuned just to see Jack at the end of the show here.

CAFFERTY: Yes. Just looking at all the issues that confront the voters in November and trying to figure out which one you think might be the one that decides the outcome.

David in Charlotte, North Carolina, writes, "Well, Jack, the first decision we need to make is how to get either a Democrat or a Republican that's worth voting for. Then we can worry about the issues."

Carter writes, "I believe the biggest issue of the election will be the economy. Corporate profits are doing well, but the middle class is suffering badly. So many good-paying jobs with benefits were lost during the Bush presidency and have been replaced with low-paying service jobs that won't support a family."

And Jim in Tupelo, Mississippi, the birthplace of old Elvis down there, writes, "The main issues in the election are the ones you anchor people have been gnattering (ph) away at we, the electorate. Michael Jackson, did he or didn't he? Kobe Bryant, did he or didn't he? Scott Peterson, did he or didn't he?"

"Courtly Love -- well, she does, but let's hold her up to ridicule anyway. And, by the way, if you were dumb enough to go see "Anchorman" after seeing the previews on your own show, then you deserve what you got.

COLLINS: Oh, touche.

CAFFERTY: Thank you, Jim. I couldn't agree with you more.

SERWER: Did he or didn't he? He did.

CAFFERTY: An awful movie. Just a terrible movie.

COLLINS: All right. Jack Cafferty, thanks so much.

Coming up next on CNN, buying a new house is a huge decision, and there are lots of choices out there. So how do you make sure you don't get burned? Top five tips are coming up the next hour with Daryn Kagan on "CNN LIVE TODAY."

For now, though, AMERICAN MORNING will be back right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Tonight on "360," new poll numbers releasing late this afternoon that are expected to show how Edwards' choice could swing traditional red states to the Democrats. That's tonight at 7:00 p.m. Eastern.

CAFFERTY: There's a good program.

COOPER: There you go. All right.

COLLINS: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) music, too. Love it. COOPER: Yeah, yeah, all right.

COLLINS: 7:00 p.m.

All right, everybody. That is all from us right here on AMERICAN MORNING, Jack and Anderson and Andy and everybody. We all say good- bye and pass it on over to Daryn Kagan, who is standing by down at the CNN Center.

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


Aired July 12, 2004 - 9:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANNOUNCER: From the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Soledad O'Brien and Bill Hemmer.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Or not. They're both gone. But we're here. Good morning, everybody. I'm Heidi Collins...

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm...

COLLINS: ... along with Anderson Cooper.

COOPER: Thanks for -- thanks for having me this week.

COLLINS: Yes. And you're going to do your own show tonight at 7:00.

COOPER: Absolutely.

COLLINS: So we'll talk with you again on Friday, when you're halfway asleep.

COOPER: That's right. We're going to be talking a lot this morning about what's going on in the presidential race. Both candidates out on the campaign trail. There you see President Bush.

Also, John Kerry and John Edwards actually campaigning separately today. We're going to talk about that with Kelly Wallace.

Also, Jack Cafferty joins us this morning.

Good morning, Jack.

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Indeed. Good morning, Anderson. We're taking a look in the e-mail question of what you think the most critical issue in the election might be.

Is it the war? Is it the economy? Is it health insurance? Is it terrorism? Is it prescription drugs? Is it gay marriage?

Am@cnn.com. Drop us a line. We will share your thoughts a bit later.

COOPER: All right, Jack. Thanks very much.

Now, as we mentioned, Senator John Kerry has a full day of events scheduled today in Boston. The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee and running mate, John Edwards, are going to make separate appearances all this week. Meanwhile, some Democrats are touting one of the major gets, as we say in the business, for this month's convention. National correspondent Kelly Wallace joins us with more.

Good morning, Kelly.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

Well, it is the son of the late Republican president, Ronald Reagan. A Kerry adviser saying he will have a prime-time speaking role, talking about the importance of stem cell research. But Republicans say they are not worried. They are touting how they will have a Democrat speaking at their party convention later this summer.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WALLACE (voice-over): A senior Kerry adviser says Ron Reagan's decision to speak at the Democratic convention will have "big appeal to Independents." Reagan has been an outspoken critic of President Bush on many issues, including his decision to limit federal funding of stem cell research.

RON REAGAN, RONALD REAGAN'S SON: They're playing politics with it, and it is shameful. It is shameful.

WALLACE: A Bush-Cheney campaign official said it was not surprising that a "committed liberal would speak at the Democratic convention," and added that George's Democratic senator, Zell Miller, will speak at the Republican convention.

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Will you let me borrow John Edwards for at least four years?

(APPLAUSE)

WALLACE: After wrapping up they're "proving they get along tour" in John Edwards' home state of North Carolina Saturday, team Kerry- Edwards separates this week, launching what aides call the front porch tour focusing on hometown values, with Edwards traveling solo to Iowa, Illinois, Louisiana, Texas, California, Florida and North Carolina.

One question both men were repeatedly asked this weekend, if they regretted their votes on the Iraq war resolution after the release of a Senate report which found the CIA's judgments on Iraq's weapons deeply flawed. Pressed on CBS's "60 Minutes," Kerry eventually said, "Well, I don't regret my vote, and I believe based on the information we had, it was the correct vote."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALLACE: Now, senators Kerry and Edwards will be keeping separate schedules this week. But they both could be in Washington, D.C., later this week, Anderson, if there is a vote on a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. They both will vote against that, saying this is a matter left to the States to decide.

COOPER: I don't know if you saw that "60 Minutes" interview last night. There's going to be a lot of talk today about the wives of these two candidates, their impact on the campaign trail. How does Teresa Heinz Kerry do on the campaign trail talking in front of crowds?

WALLACE: Well, it's interesting, because a lot of people watch her in interviews, they find her unpredictable. Some people sort of feel that she might even be described as odd. But watching her out on the stump, she talks quietly, she introduces herself as a daughter of Africa. She was born in Mozambique. But you do find the crowd listening to her every word. So the sense is they're going to send out Teresa Heinz Kerry and Elizabeth Edwards all across the country to battleground States and see how well they can do winning votes for their husbands.

COOPER: They played a big part in the "60 Minutes" interview last night.

Kelly Wallace, thanks very much.

WALLACE: Sure.

COOPER: Heidi?

COLLINS: About a half-hour ago, President Bush left the White House, beginning a brief trip to Tennessee. And he'll have look at some recently surrendered weapons equipment and will talk about the war on terrorism. Elaine Quijano is at the White House for more on this.

Good morning once again, Elaine.

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Heidi.

President Bush is heading to Tennessee to make the case that under his watch, under his leadership, there has been progress in fighting the war on terrorism. Now, President Bush will tour the Oak Ridge Laboratory facility in Tennessee today. That is where some materials taken from Libya have been gathered, materials that have been gathered as part of its agreement to dismantle its weapons of mass destruction.

Now, the president's trip comes at a time when the White House is facing some harsh criticism over that Senate report citing flawed intelligence in the run-up to the Iraq war. A senior administration official says the president will deliver what they see as a significant speech, touching on a number of themes. The president is first expected to hold up Libya as an example, underlining the fact that in the wake of the Iraq war, the military action carried out to remove Saddam Hussein, that Libya felt the pressure to reach an agreement and move to dismantle -- dismantle its WMDs.

Also, look for the president to remind people of what the administration sees as successes. The president will argue that there is better sharing of intelligence, that the FBI now has a changed mission on focusing on the war on terrorism. But already, critics of the Bush administration, notably the Kerry campaign, are out saying that the White House is very much on the defensive this morning.

Campaign officials saying that the president cannot take credit for all of the success in Libya. The groundwork for that was laid years before the president took office. Meantime, the Bush campaign in response says that John Kerry's camp is simply playing politics with what they see as an important security development -- Heidi.

COLLINS: Elaine Quijano at the White House this morning. Elaine, thanks so much for that.

The head of the NAACP wants its members to help oust President Bush from office. The civil rights group is upset that the president declined to attend its convention this week. Some of its leaders spoke out about the president's decision.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR JOHN STREET (D), PHILADELPHIA: I think it's very unfortunate that President Bush chose to ignore this convention.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KWEISI MFUME, NAACP PRESIDENT: I've written and written and written requesting a meeting or an opportunity to talk about pertinent issues. We've written, inviting him to come and address us. And we've got no response. There's been absolute silence.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: The White House initially said the president had a scheduling conflict, but it also cites "hostile political rhetoric" about the president as a reason. Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry will speak at the convention on Thursday.

COOPER: Well, the Senate Intelligence Committee had released their report last week. There have been a number of comments about it over the weekend from senators who have been involved in the whole process. We're joined this morning by Republican Senator Trent Lott from Mississippi. He is a member of the Intelligence Committee.

Senator, thanks for being with us.

SEN. TRENT LOTT (R), MISSISSIPPI: Glad to be with you, Anderson.

COOPER: You're proposing a number of proposals right now for -- for making cabinet-level positions for a new DCI, essentially. Before we talk about those -- the proposals, though, based on what you now know, based on the fact that they said there were no weapons of mass destruction, and the intelligence was flawed, would you still have voted the same way had you known then what you know now?

LOTT: Well, that's getting to be one of the basic questions that's being asked by the media. And I think it's a legitimate question. Yes, I would still have voted going to Iraq. There were a lot of other concerns. And, after all, we do know that he had weapons of mass destruction. He had chemical weapons. We know that. He used them on his own people, on his neighbors.

We know that in the past he had moved to try to develop nuclear capability. He was a threat to the neighborhood, to his own people. He was supporting terrorism a number of ways. A lot of people are now sort of heading for the woods, saying, well, if I had known more.

Remember now, we all based our decision on the intelligence that was available. And that intelligence turned out to be wrong on a global basis. Intelligence organizations all over the world had the same information. So we based it on the right criteria at the time. But I still think there was sufficient justification to go forward.

COOPER: Senator Rockefeller has said that he doesn't think the entire Senate would have voted the way they did, they wouldn't have had the votes to go forward. Do you think that's true?

LOTT: Anderson, I -- my recommendation would be to give it up. We made the decision. We are there. The information was flawed. We should make sure it's not flawed in the future.

We have men and women from the military and our intelligence community putting their lives on the line today. We don't need to be over here undermining the effort that they're putting forward in Iraq and other dangerous places around the world.

COOPER: You say now that there should be a cabinet-level position for basically a new DCI. Why?

LOTT: Part of the problem in this area has been the Congress. Going back to the '70s, Congress has undermined and undefended the -- the intelligence community. We've allowed also over the years it to become more and more bureaucratic. There are management problems.

I'm glad we're going to be getting a new head of the Central Intelligence community. But I think it needs to be raised to a higher level.

We've got 15 agencies, 80 percent of the budget is not under the CIA or the DCI, the director of the Central Intelligence. I think we need to give them control, more control of management and the entire budget. We need to look at fundamental reforms.

Congress did not adequately fund it in the '90s. And we also undermined human intelligence. And we funded it in the wrong ways.

For instance, we did not fund enough in the linguistic training. So I think it's all right to go through a period of analyzing of what happened, but more importantly is what are we going to do about it.

COOPER: Well, do...

LOTT: That's why I am advocating some reforms. COOPER: Do we have the linguistic training that we need at this point? I mean, there enough -- are there enough people in the pipeline right now? Because that would seem to be a key topic.

LOTT: It is improved significantly in the last couple of years. The Intelligence Committee and others, the Appropriations Committee, we have been talking with the intelligence community. They have gotten more funding. They have rearranged some of their priorities.

I believe we're getting more human intelligence now. And yes, there is more linguistic training. But you've got to be, you know, pretty flexible in that area, because where you need the linguist in one period of time, that can speak Farsi, for instance, the next time you may need them to be able to speak Korean. So we really have to kind of look over the horizon and make sure we're getting the people we need to be able to carry out human intelligence efforts.

COOPER: Is it important for national security that there be a new director of Central Intelligence, a new head of the CIA before the elections?

LOTT: Anderson, you can argue it both ways. But I think that the best thing to do is to go ahead and pick the permanent person, move forward with the changes and reforms that are needed.

If the president doesn't do that, he'll be criticized for not paying enough attention to it should we have a disaster. If he goes forward with it, there will be those that will nit-pick over any person he picks. But I think the right thing to do, once again, is to show leadership and courage.

And I believe President Bush will go ahead, pick the best man or woman that he can find, and we'll -- Congress will be under real pressure to go ahead and confirm that person. So we'll make sure there's not uncertainty in the CIA.

COOPER: I've read that you were upset at the amount of information that was didacted from the Senate intelligence report by the CIA. Are they being reasonable in what they're eliminating and what they're still classifying? And what do you want to change about that?

LOTT: Well, I've really been offended by it. And I think they heaped indignity on the Intelligence Committee by basically trying to redact 50 percent of what we had. And I've seen other reports where they wanted to line out all kinds of things, many of them that really were not a threat in any way to reveal sources or methods. Also, sometime the information would have even been helpful.

After they realized we were serious, and we were going forward, they started negotiating with us in, I think, better faith. And we're down now probably closer to 12 or 15 percent being redacted, which may still be too much. And that's why...

COOPER: Clearly, we lost the video feed there with Senator Trent Lott, but we do appreciated him joining us this morning on AMERICAN MORNING -- Heidi.

COLLINS: All right. It is just about 12 minutes past the hour now. We are going to check in with Daryn Kagan down at the CNN Center for the very latest in all of the other news of the day.

Hey, Daryn.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Heidi, good morning to you once again.

We begin word that a Filipino hostage held in Iraq is still alive this morning. Iraqi insurgents are threatening to kill the truck driver unless the Philippines pulls its troops from Iraq. But government officials say they will not give into demands. Militants said they would kill the Filipino on Sunday, but Iraqi officials say that talks are continuing to try and negotiate his release.

Investigators have discovered that Enron money may have gone toward the redistricting of Texas. "The Washington Post" reports that Texas Republican Senator Tom DeLay pressed Enron for a $100,000 contribution to his political action committee. DeLay's fund-raising has been under investigation. The request in 2001 was before both campaign finance reform and the Enron collapse.

Air travel hitting record highs. According to "USA Today," some major U.S. airlines are reporting full flights for the month of June. And experts predicting increased demand throughout the summer. Still, the airline industry expected to lose about $3 billion this year.

Let's escape to the movies. "Spider-Man 2" is pulling millions of movie fans into his superhero web. Toby Maguire's smash hit pulled in about $46 million this weekend to keep the number one spot at the weekend box office. In just 12 days, the film made $257 million. In second place, Will Ferrell's comedy "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy" bringing in $28 million.

Overall, Anderson, a great summer for Hollywood. Eleven percent up over last summer at the box office.

COOPER: I know, Daryn. Even Jack Cafferty went to see a movie over the weekend, which is like a rare thing indeed.

KAGAN: Love it.

COOPER: Daryn, thanks.

CAFFERTY: Words cannot describe what a turkey "Anchorman" is.

COOPER: Oh, man.

CAFFERTY: Words fail me.

COOPER: I like Will Ferrell.

CAFFERTY: He's fine. But the movie is awful. It's just awful.

COOPER: OK. Wait, Daryn -- I think Daryn -- Daryn, did you see it?

CAFFERTY: Did you see it, Daryn?

KAGAN: I went to a screening here in Atlanta.

CAFFERTY: And?

KAGAN: I liked it. I laughed. It's silly. It's funny. But it's -- it's just silly.

CAFFERTY: It's stupid. And it's -- and it's not funny. And I love you dearly, Daryn, but it's not funny.

COOPER: See, it sounds like she went to a screening. It sounds like she didn't pay for it. So there might be the difference.

CAFFERTY: Yes, that's true. And a bunch of media types with a free ticket and free popcorn.

COOPER: Right. Sure. Sure.

CAFFERTY: And it's like, what are you going to do, not laugh?

KAGAN: There was no free popcorn.

CAFFERTY: See, I paid $9.

KAGAN: There was no free popcorn, Jack.

CAFFERTY: And I was entitled to be disgusted, because I paid $9 to go to it.

KAGAN: And I love you, too, Jack. I do.

CAFFERTY: What's that?

KAGAN: A mutual love for you, even if we don't agree on "Anchorman."

CAFFERTY: Yes. See?

COLLINS: That's all that's important.

CAFFERTY: But we -- but we agree on almost everything else. Don't we?

KAGAN: We do, absolutely.

COOPER: One of the other viewers this morning said that they liked it, but they admitted they only paid $4 for it. So that's...

CAFFERTY: Well, yes, if you pay $4, then you can afford to be a little less critical, I think. You know, you're out quite so much money.

What's the most important issue in the election is actually why I'm here. Is it the economy, the war in Iraq, terrorism, health care, prescription drugs? I've got to get some -- these are awful. I bought these at Duane Reed (ph). Look at this.

COLLINS: You ran out during -- during segments.

CAFFERTY: Sixteen dollars and they're falling apart.

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: Wow.

CAFFERTY: At least I didn't pay (ph) them.

Now, Jean in West Glenville, New York, "The deciding issue in the election will be President Bush's pandering to the religious right, specifically, and the obtuse right in general. He's dead wrong on stem cell research, faith-based initiatives, abortion and a constitutional amendment defining major. And, oh, by the way, on Iraq, too."

Don in Kansas City: "The Florida vote count, along with the orchestrated monkey business of a terror threat at election time."

Brian in Nova Scotia, "The final issue should be who's going to protect the United States and won't think twice about doing it."

Judith in Montreal, "The deciding issue in this year's election will be who is the prettiest."

And M.F. writes, "Don't laugh at the man who thought he was a chicken. I had an uncle who thought he was a chicken. I was going to send him to a shrink, but dad was out of work and we needed the eggs."

(LAUGHTER)

COOPER: Oy, oy, man. Everybody's a comedian this morning.

CAFFERTY: Not bad, but...

COLLINS: That was great.

CAFFERTY: It's not bad. It's funnier than "Anchorman."

COLLINS: Yes.

COOPER: I believed him for a moment, actually.

CAFFERTY: M.F., funnier than "Anchorman."

COOPER: All right. Not paid nearly as much, though, probably, as Will Ferrell.

CAFFERTY: That's true.

COOPER: We have news this morning about a wildfire in south Florida that had forced a major shutdown of a highway near Miami. The flames on the edge of the Everglades burned hundreds of acres, dry gas and trees. Thick smoke shut down 10 miles of Florida's turnpike for a few hours yesterday.

Intense blaze almost reached the highway, sending billowing clouds of smoke hundreds of feet in the air. So far, thankfully, the wildfires have not injured anybody that we know of. And the wildfire (UNINTELLIGIBLE), though, has consumed 6,800 acres.

Let's take a look at what's happening elsewhere in the United States with Chad Myers, who is down in the CNN Center in Atlanta.

Good morning, Chad.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COLLINS: All right, Chad, thanks so much. We'll talk again soon.

As you know, Martha Stewart will be sentenced this week for lying to investigators about a stock sale after a federal judge refused to give her a new trial because of a witness who lied. So while those lies may make many headlines, it is actually zillions of other lies that we tell in our lives that become the fabric of our lives, indeed.

So today, we being a weeklong series exploring lying, why we do it, and who does it, in fact. This morning, we begin with kids. They're not actually born fibbers, but they get pretty good at it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS (voice-over): The headlines never end, swindles, scams and deception at the top. But in America today, could the truth be...

RICHARD MILHOUSE NIXON, FMR. PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I had no prior knowledge...

COLLINS: ... that lying comes easily to most of us?

WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON, FMR. PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I did not have sexual relations with that woman.

COLLINS: One recent study concluded the majority of people told at least three lies during every 10 minutes of conversation.

DR. MICHAEL LEWIS, ROBERT WOOD JOHNSON MEDICAL SCHOOL: All people everywhere do it. It keeps the social fabric connected.

COLLINS: According to Dr. Lewis, innocent little white lies, not the lies that hurt people or cheat them out of money, may be something that we are programmed to tell at an early age to help protect ourselves from punishment and protect the feelings of others.

LEWIS: How many of us would say to our arthritic grandmothers, who have knitted us a sweater, that we really don't like the color and we really don't like the style, and we wish you wouldn't ever knit us another sweater? In fact, there was a movie called Liar Liar," when in fact the truth was told, and it was a disaster.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE, "LIAR LIAR" Everybody's been real nice.

JIM CARREY, ACTOR, "LIAR LIAR": Wow. That's because you have big...

COLLINS: Dr. Lewis' studies show that 65 percent of children by the age of two and a half lie, and lie well. He performed a set of experiments for our camera. So meet the newest group of potential perjurers.

The kids were told not to peek at a toy placed behind their back. Dr. Lewis watched on a hidden camera. Would they tell the truth when asked if they looked? Three-and-a-half-year-old Rowan (ph) peeked...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Don't look.

COLLINS: ... before the tester even left the room.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you peek? Don't peek.

COLLINS: Olivia, age three and a half, tried hard not to look. But it doesn't seem to be working.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm back. Did you peek?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No? OK?

LEWIS: They quickly learn that not telling the truth means that they won't get punished. And what we tell the parents all the time is, look, they're going to lie. That doesn't mean that they should get off the hook.

COLLINS: Dr. Lewis' advice? Focus on the offense, not the lie they told to cover it up.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: We want to let you know about our series tomorrow. We're going to be talking about whether one needs to lie to get ahead in business. So stick around for that.

COOPER: Coming up, we're going to talk to a man from "Consumer Reports" about some tips about buying a new car. We're also going to be talking about -- yes, that's right, let's make a deal. We're also going to be talking about coming up with a Plan B, what should be done if terrorists actually try to derail the election.

COLLINS: And the link between temper tantrums and obesity, a surprising new study there ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Good news if you are in the market for a new car. New car prices are actually headed in reverse. And the big three automakers are giving a little extra incentive now to help you go out there and make that big-ticket purchase.

So, to talk about that a little bit this morning with us is Rob Gentile from "Consumer Reports." Going to talk about what's driving this buyers' market exactly.

So let's get to the good part first.

ROB GENTILE, "CONSUMER REPORTS": Sure.

COLLINS: Which three manufacturers have the best deals right now?

GENTILE: Primarily, these incentives are led by General Motors, Daimler-Chrysler and Ford. Those are the ones that really have led the way, although some of the other imports may be offering some programs as well.

COLLINS: OK. Now, talk to us about the rebate guide. I mean, you want to make sure that you know you're getting the right rebate and the right car for yourself. And there's really a lot of choices to make.

GENTILE: There really are. Right now, you're being sort of bombarded with so many different deals out there that it really becomes difficult to see what's the best deal for you.

For example, you're having either a cash rebate that may be in existence or a zero percent or a low-interest rate financing. In some cases, you're getting offered both. So you really need to determine which is the best route.

COLLINS: Right, and let's talk about that for a minute.

GENTILE: Sure.

COLLINS: We were talking in the break about the zero percent financing that we enjoyed for so long. I mean, that was and is a great deal. But car makers -- or manufacturers, I should say -- are getting away from that a little bit now, aren't they, because of interest rates?

GENTILE: Well, interest rates are climbing, so they may be starting -- you know, they're starting to skew a little bit toward offering rebates. Or another way is to offer low interest rate rather than the zero percent financing.

COLLINS: All right. So how do you know that you are getting the best price and the best rebate? Is there some sort of way that you can just ask the gentleman or sales woman who is trying to sell you this car, hey, is that really the best deal?

GENTILE: Right.

COLLINS: I mean, can you trust them? Or I'm sure there's other places to go to...

(CROSSTALK)

GENTILE: Well, your best route is really doing your homework up front.

COLLINS: Sure.

GENTILE: You should really know which option you're going to go before you even walk a foot into the dealer showroom. Typically, we say that you want to weigh your different options out there. You want to see whether the rebate's better, or the cash -- you know, the financing is better, or both.

There are many calculators out there, and one on consumerreports.org which will help you do that. You can, you know, bump your numbers in and see which is your better route. But ultimately, what you want to do is you want to learn how to negotiate when you're at the dealership.

COLLINS: Yes, that is key, isn't it?

GENTILE: Absolutely, yes.

COLLINS: The old stand up and walk out a few times, right?

GENTILE: Well, what you really -- you may have to resort to that, but ultimately what you really want to start off with doing is focusing on what the dealer paid for the car. And use that as your starting point.

The tendency right now is, when you go into the showroom, they focus on this window sticker, and they'll knock money off that price. So $25,000, we'll take $1,000 off. You never really want to go down that route. Your best bet is really to start with what they paid for the car and then work your way up.

COLLINS: OK. And I know the dealers often try to add on extras. And we talk a lot about this extended warranty. Do you really need one?

GENTILE: We feel -- at "Consumer Reports," we feel you don't, and the reason is because cars are becoming more and more reliable over time. The basic warranties are becoming more generous. Many of them are five years now. And on top of that...

COLLINS: Yes, that's pretty good.

GENTILE: Yes, it is. And on top of that, what you really want to do is you want to focus on a car that has a good track record, good reliability record. If you do that, you may not need that expensive extended warranty.

COLLINS: OK. If you don't go the new car route, though, are the deals on used cars pretty good right now as well? GENTILE: They are, yes. It's actually -- the popularity of all the incentives on the new cars, what it's been doing is been driving the prices of used cars down. And it's fluctuated a little bit, but it's a great time to get a good late-model used car and avoid paying expensive depreciation.

COLLINS: OK. Sounds good, I think. So far, so good, right? Rob Gentile from "Consumer Reports," thank you so much today.

GENTILE: Thank you.

COLLINS: And still to come this morning, it's time to kick off your work week with a dose of "90-Second Pop." Rocker Courtney Love spends her 40th birthday in handcuffs and in the hospital.

Meanwhile, David Bowie has emergency heart surgery. Is it time to call it quits?

Stay with us on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: And the opening bell is just about to ring on Wall Street. The Dow Jones industrial average starts trading at 10,000. There it is -- 10,213, up more than 41 points on Friday. There you see some hard rats ringing the bell.

Also, there at the Nasdaq market site, the composite index opens at 1,946. That is up 11 points.

COLLINS: All right. And good morning once again, everybody. I'm Heidi Collins. Bill and Soledad are both off this week. Anderson Cooper and I are with you this morning.

COOPER: Good morning. Thanks for joining us this morning.

Some of the headlines going on right now, federal officials are considering a plan to postpone the election in November in the event of a terrorist attack. We're going to look at the plans being considered and their many difficulties. And there are a lot of them.

COLLINS: Also, an odd piece of medical news drawing a link between childhood temper tantrums and one of the most dangerous health problems in adulthood - adulthood. We'll explain more about that.

COOPER: Oh, a crying baby.

Also, "90-Second Pop" comes up. Things going from bad to worse for Courtney Love. She was handcuffed, taken to a hospital over the weekend. It is not going so well for her. We're going to look at what happened. That's ahead.

COLLINS: All right. But first, this morning, Anderson, in our campaign countdown, the November 2 presidential election is now 113 days away, just incase you were counting. President Bush is making his 10th trip to Tennessee today at the Oak Ridge National Lab. He'll talk about the war on terrorism and get a look at some of the nuclear weapons parts recently turned over by Libya.

Democrats John Kerry and John Edwards will campaign separately this week. Senator Kerry has a full day of events scheduled in Boston. Senator Edwards will visit several battleground states before the end of the week.

And finally, Ron Reagan, the youngest son of the former Republican president, will speak in prime time at the Democratic national convention. He will address the need for stem cell research, for which President Bush has limited the use of federal funds, citing moral and ethical concerns.

White House officials have discussed the possibility of postponing this year's general election in the event of a terrorist attack. But implementing such a delay could be a logistical nightmare. Here now, Tom Foreman in Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If a terrorist attack came in the final days of the campaign or on Election Day itself, could the voting be postponed? That question is being raised by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission and taken up by Homeland Security and the Justice Department, too.

GRACIA HILLMAN, U.S. ELECTION ASSIST. COMM.: I think that we've been lucky so far that nothing has ever occurred to disrupt the presidential election, but that doesn't mean that something couldn't happen. And we believe prudent planning is the thing that should be done.

FOREMAN: These government officials are mindful of the Spanish train attack, which killed nearly 200 people. Three days later, Spain's prime minister, who supported the war in Iraq, was voted out. Now officials say intelligence suggests something like that could happen here.

TOM RIDGE, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: Al Qaeda is moving forward with its plans to carry out a large scale attack in the United States in an effort to disrupt our democratic process.

FOREMAN: The political fallout from such an attack is wildly uncertain. After 9/11, support for President Bush rose.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I can hear you.

FOREMAN: It is also unclear whether the election can be moved. Homeland Security says, "It would take an act of Congress to amend the Constitution, possibly amendments to 50 state constitutions."

And maybe changes to "voting rules in thousands of counties and towns."

(on camera): In other words, federal officials see the possibility of delaying the election as very remote. And some lawmakers are calling it a pure doomsday scenario. SEN. JAY ROCKEFELLER (D), NEW YORK: It'd be a terrible mistake, a terrible mistake.

FOREMAN: Others believe developing a plan may be wise if it sends a message.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No matter what happens, no matter what terrorists do to our country, democracy's going to go on.

FOREMAN: Yet in the end, even those who support a plan for delaying the election say it's something they want to have and never have to use.

Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: The Election Assistance Commission, which put forth the idea of a delayed vote was created after the disputed 2000 election to help deal with logistical problems in the election. You're going to be talking more about this.

COOPER: Yes, there is. There's an interesting article in "Newsweek" this week by Michael Isikoff. We're going to have him on my show, "360," tonight at 7:00 to talk about it, the idea of postponing the election in the event of an attack.

COLLINS: Yes, what that could mean. Wow. All right. Anderson, we'll be watching, 7:00, right?

COOPER: Yes. Thank you.

COLLINS: 7:00 p.m.

COOPER: There you go.

Kids throwing temper tantrums can make parents fit to be tied, of course. Now a new study finds a link between those fits and childhood obesity. Medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins us from the CNN Center with the details.

Elizabeth, this is a fascinating connection.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It is a fascinating connection. When you think about it, it actually -- it makes sense.

This is part of a study, Anderson, that tried to figure out why do some children become fat while others don't. So they looked to kids in the toddler years, and then they followed them to see who would be overweight by age nine.

And so they looked at all these kids to see whether or not they become heavy. And, as you said, those that had thrown tantrums in the toddler years, ages two through five, were more likely to are heavy at age nine. And these were tantrums specifically over food. Now, they -- the experts say, don't worry about occasional tantrum. This child here, we don't know what he's having a tantrum over, but it doesn't look good. Don't worry about occasional tantrums. But if your child persistently has a tantrum over food, the theory is that parents seem to be giving in. They seem to be giving the kids food. And so years later, they will become heavy children.

Now, that was an interesting finding. But, by far, the single biggest predictor in this study of whether a child would grow up to be heavy was whether or not a parent was heavy. That was the single biggest predictor.

If there was an overweight parent, the child had a 48 percent chance of becoming overweight. If there was a normal weight parent, the child had only a 13 percent chance of becoming overweight.

Another predictor -- and this one was sort of surprising -- was naps. Overweight children slept 30 minutes less during the day than normal weight children. And these are toddlers, we're talking about, ages two through five.

They think that the reason might be that heavy children just aren't active during the day. They're not doing much, so they're not tired enough to take a nap. And it propels itself, and the child grows up to be overweight -- Anderson.

COOPER: So what should a parent do in terms of handling a temper tantrum over food?

COHEN: Right, they're very tough. As a parent, I know, they're very tough to handle. But the first rule is, don't give in.

If your child is having a temper tantrum, saying, "I want this, you have to give me that," don't give in, because it will just go on and on, year after year. Also, don't micromanage a child's eating habits. Don't always be looking over your child's shoulders, saying, "Eat this, don't eat that, you haven't eaten enough, you're eating too much."

Let the child, to some degree, self-regulate. Let them choose what they're going to eat and not eat.

COOPER: All right. Elizabeth Cohen, thanks for that.

COHEN: Thanks, Anderson.

COOPER: Still to come this morning, there is another mad cow scare, but it's got nothing to do with the food you eat. Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business." We'll talk about that.

Also ahead, "90-Second Pop." David Bowie gets a not-so-subtle message to maybe take it easy. Stay with us on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(MUSIC) COLLINS: I think I've just successfully offended the entire pop panel.

TOURE, "ROLLING STONE" MAGAZINE: The whole crew.

COLLINS: Oh, goodness. And in case you didn't know, it is time for "90-Second Pop" this Monday morning, we think. We have rounded up our usual suspects today. Toure, contributing editor for "Rolling Stone."

Hello, Toure.

TOURE: How are you?

COLLINS: "New York" magazine correcting editor Sarah Bernard, as always very lovely. And Andy Borowitz, the creative genius behind Borowitzreport.com.

SARAH BERNARD, "NEW YORK" MAGAZINE: Wow! What an honor to be in your presence.

TOURE: Wow!

ANDY BOROWITZ, HUMORIST: My agent is doing his work.

COLLINS: OK, Sarah, let's start with you. Courtney, what is going on?

BERNARD: I know.

COLLINS: This is not the best way to spend your 40th birthday.

BERNARD: A (UNINTELLIGIBLE) birthday.

COLLINS: Handcuffs, hospital, my goodness.

TOURE: Well...

BERNARD: Well, see, now, Courtney, we know that she's been having some unusual behavior going on. Apparently she was throwing bottles out the window of her Soho apartment. She was wandering the streets, kind of mumbling to herself, trying to bum cigarettes from strangers. And I think what happened is she has like the old rock star manual, which says that you have to be, you know, possibly on drugs, kind of getting yourself in the news for erratic, crazy behavior. And the new pop star manual is get married...

TOURE: As much as possible.

BERNARD: ... have a baby, move to the suburbs...

BOROWITZ: Convert to Judaism.

BERNARD: ... convert to Kabala and all of that. So, she's just on the wrong...

TOURE: Rookie, rookie.

BERNARD: She's just on the wrong end. I mean, it is really sad, we have to say.

TOURE: Yes.

BERNARD: We don't want to make light of it.

BOROWITZ: I'm devastated.

BERNARD: And we're worried about Frances Bean. That's what we were talking about.

TOURE: Yes, yes.

BERNARD: You know, her daughter with Kurt Cobain.

BOROWITZ: You know what? What I liked about it is, you know, so many people when they turn 40 they, you know, make such a big deal out of it. And she decided to treat it just like any other day, which I think is great. I mean, I think that's hilarious.

BERNARD: Thirty-nine, 40, what's the difference?

BOROWITZ: It's the old bottle out the window, get carried away in handcuffs. It's good.

COLLINS: Toure, what's happening with her? Is she trying to get attention or it's that she's out of control?

TOURE: No, I don't look at it as a publicity maneuver. I mean, it's a very sad situation. I mean, for 10 years she's been dealing with the loss of Kurt, you know, various ups and downs in her career. The Frances Bean situation, she just recently -- I mean, she I don't know...

BERNARD: She lost custody.

TOURE: She lost custody.

COLLINS: Right.

TOURE: I mean, can you imagine? I mean, can you imagine what that does to a woman, like to lose custody of your baby?

COLLINS: No.

BERNARD: It causes you to throw bottles out of windows.

BOROWITZ: She was also apparently a little upset that Larry King spent a whole hour with Barbara Eden and not her. So, I think that (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

BERNARD: Maybe you can do something about that.

COLLINS: Let's talk David Bowie, you guys. Also some more hospital talk here. Heart surgery, emergency heart surgery actually, in L.A. last week. He's 57. Is it time for Ziggy to play guitar here or what?

BERNARD: Oh!

BOROWITZ: Oh, no, no, no. Ziggy actually now refers to his EKG. But, you know, I think, you know, 57, he is still in the prime of his career. You know, Jethro Tull is still rocking out. They're in their 80s. I think there is no reason why he should hang it up. I mean, the only thing I feel about it is that -- and I don't want to step on Dr. Sanjay Gupta's territory here.

COLLINS: No, no.

BOROWITZ: But as we age, as rock stars age, it's really important to avoid strenuous activities. For example, instead of like trashing your hotel room, maybe as you check out just tear up the bill, you know, something like that.

COLLINS: Right.

BERNARD: Steal some soap.

BOROWITZ: Yes, steal some soap and maybe some of the toiletries, but really just take it nice and easy. He has to worry about the ticker.

BERNARD: You know, I saw him in concert last year, and he looks fantastic.

BOROWITZ: He does.

BERNARD: He looks better than he ever has. And obviously he's been healthy for a while and clean. But he has said that there are entire periods of his life that he has no memory of.

COLLINS: Right.

BERNARD: If it weren't for his albums he wouldn't have even remembered what he was doing then.

COLLINS: That's sad.

BOROWITZ: He was also apparently kind of upset about Courtney's 40th birthday. And I think that kind of set him back, too.

COLLINS: I was going to say something and then there's nothing to say there.

All right, let's talk Shaq.

TOURE: Yes.

COLLINS: Shaq is expected to be traded to the Miami Heat.

TOURE: Yes. COLLINS: What does this mean for the Lakers?

TOURE: Well, really...

COLLINS: What does this mean to you, Toure?

TOURE: To me personally, well, I'm happy to see the destruction of the Lakers. I was one of the anybody-but-the-Lakers people. And I know there were a lot of them. This is all about Kobe. This is about his ego. I want this to be my team. He orchestrated get Shaq out of here or I'm going to leave.

So, I mean, like this is all about him and his ego. But the thing is when you make these massive trades like this, it never works. It never evens out. The Heat are going to be one of the best teams of the East. The Lakers are going to suck for years to come.

BERNARD: But what's to happen when their star player is possibly jailed and they're not going to have anybody?

TOURE: Right, right, right.

BOROWITZ: You know, why does get to call the shots? That's what I'm really confused by.

TOURE: Because he's 25, and the Lakers think he's going to be great for a while.

BOROWITZ: Right.

TOURE: And Shaq is 32.

BOROWITZ: Assuming he's free to roam.

TOURE: Right.

BERNARD: But are they not thinking that he might not be available to play?

TOURE: I mean, Kobe is so great you can't not take the chance that he's going to be out there.

BERNARD: Oh.

TOURE: But I don't see how you proceed toward Kobe rather than the best player in the league, which is Shaq.

BOROWITZ: Even if he is in prison, he will score 30 points.

TOURE: That's right. That's right.

BERNARD: Somehow he will (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

COLLINS: Who does Kobe want to play with?

TOURE: Well, he says he wants to play with the Lakers. He's entertaining offers, which means...

COLLINS: I see.

TOURE: ... you come to his mansion. The Clippers and the Nuggets can come to his mansion for an hour...

COLLINS: That's amazing.

TOURE: ... and tell them why he should play with them.

COLLINS: Yes.

TOURE: The Knicks want him, but everybody wants him.

BERNARD: I want to know what's going to happen to Jack Nicholson and all of the front row at the Lakers. Are they all going to just going to the Heat games or what? Is Jack going to move to Miami?

COLLINS: We'll have to wait and see about that. Can you imagine?

All right, you guys, we certainly appreciate it this morning. Andy, Sarah and Toure, thanks so much.

TOURE: Thank you.

COLLINS: Anderson, back to you.

COOPER: Thanks, Heidi. Still to come, an update on the running of the bulls in Pamplona. Guess what? The bulls are still winning, more than ever, actually.

Stay with us on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: It is about 46 minutes past the hour. Time for a look at some of today's other news with Daryn Kagan.

Hey, Daryn.

KAGAN: Good morning once again, Anderson.

Officials say the American marine who vanished in Iraq only to show up safe in Lebanon is expected to return to the U.S. within a few days. Military sources telling CNN that Wassef Ali Hassoun has told a team of experts that he was abducted last month. Hassoun is being debriefed at a U.S. military base in Germany.

In Israel, a political move that could potentially speed up a pullout plan in Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and opposition leader Shimon Perez agreed today to try to forge a governing coalition that could push through the Gaza withdrawal plan. Sharon invited Perez's labor party to form the coalition after warning members in his own party that he may call for early elections if they do not black -- back his plan. The final report from the 9/11 Commission is expected to be completed at the end of the week. According to a spokesman, the panel has already started the process of having it declassified for release later this month. The 10 members of the bipartisan commission are trying to reach unanimous support for the final document.

The Senate today resuming debate on a constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage. The measure defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman. A vote could come on Wednesday. President Bush opposes gay marriage.

And things are getting a bit risky today at the bull run in Pamplona, Spain. Score a few there for the bulls. None for the men.

A few people, including an American, were gored today. This is the sixth day of the yearly event. Nearly 50 runners have been injured since the running of the bulls started last week. The festival, thank goodness, will end this Wednesday.

Anderson, back to you.

COOPER: All right, Daryn. So what do you have coming up at 10:00, Daryn?

KAGAN: We are going to be going live to Bangkok. Dr. Sanjay Gupta is live there to tell us the latest on the global AIDS conference, including the controversy that has come up on condoms. An African leader comes out and says they do not work in trying to prevent AIDS. We'll tell you more about that live with Sanjay just ahead.

COOPER: OK. Daryn, thanks very much.

Let's get a look at the weather for the day ahead. Chad Myers is standing by at the CNN Center with the latest.

Good morning, Chad.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COLLINS: All right, Chad. Thanks a lot.

Still to come this morning, the mad cow scare, it's not just about your food anymore. Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business." He'll explain what we're talking about.

Stay with us on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Well, this morning, the FDA is trying to keep mad cow disease out of more than just your food. With that, and a check of the markets, Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business."

Let's talk about -- let's talk about the markets first.

ANDY SERWER, EDITOR-AT-LARGE, FORTUNE MAGAZINE: We'll do that, before we get to the slightly disgusting medical business segment...

COOPER: OK, good.

SERWER: ... which is what I'm calling this. So if you're out West and just getting up, mute the sound. OK.

The Dow's down just a little bit here. Nasdaq is getting beaten up a bit more. Tech stocks under pressure.

Merrill Lynch saying chip stocks are not going to go anywhere the second half of the year. That means intel is not going to be doing so well today, probably.

Big news this morning, though, on Wall Street, is an investment company called Leucadia, which has investments in a lot of telecom companies, is seeking to buy 50 percent of MCI, the second largest telecom company in the world. So -- in the nation, I should say. Excuse me. That's big news. We'll be reading all about that in the papers tomorrow probably.

Let's talk about this mad cow story, though, Anderson. The FDA is catching up with the rest of the federal government here. And it is banning the use of cow brains in cosmetics and dietary supplements. Isn't that nice?

COOPER: Yikes! I didn't know they had cow brains in them.

SERWER: Yes, who knew? Right.

COOPER: Yes.

SERWER: You're putting on your cosmetics, your cream, your cold cream, your after shave, and maybe there's some cow brains floating around there.

COOPER: Oh, man.

SERWER: That's possible. It really is possible, Anderson. They've got it in collagen (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

COOPER: They don't put that in the commercial.

SERWER: No, they don't say that, it's featuring cow brains in this creamy, creamy cold cream.

COOPER: Not a big selling point.

SERWER: Yes. OK. Also, continuing along the same vein here, E.D. wars.

COOPER: E what?

SERWER: E.D I just say E.D. I can't say erectile dysfunction. Oops, I just did.

Cialis here is -- which is one of three drugs now -- there's three drugs, Cialis, Levitra and Viagra, on the market -- this is a real. I've never heard of this for a prescription drug. They're saying if you're not completely satisfied with Cialis they'll buy you prescriptions of Levitra and Viagra.

COOPER: Really?

SERWER: They'll give you -- but, you know, how can you do this with prescription medicine? I mean, don't you have to get a doctor prescribing it?

COOPER: And what exactly does being completely satisfied really mean?

SERWER: This is where a great debate begins that we're not going to have on this program, probably. A panel of experts...

COOPER: In your own experience...

SERWER: Well, not satisfied means just that, Anderson. It really does. And there are a variety of drugs to choose from, now, as we just reported.

COOPER: OK. OK. Maybe -- maybe tomorrow you can do a little review of all the different products.

SERWER: A taste test or sampling.

COOPER: Yes, so to speak.

SERWER: Yes, OK. We'll leave it at that.

COLLINS: I think he's turning red. Look it.

COOPER: All right.

SERWER: I really am. I really am turning -- he did it.

COOPER: If it weren't for all the cow brains smeared over your face...

(CROSSTALK)

SERWER: Bringing it all together. Thank you, Anderson.

COOPER: It all ties together.

SERWER: Yes. All right.

COOPER: All right, thanks.

One programming note. Tonight, on "LARRY KING LIVE," indicted Enron chief Ken Lay will do his first prime time interview tonight. That is at 9:00 Eastern. Definitely want to stay tuned for that -- Heidi.

COLLINS: For now, though, we have all been staying tuned just to see Jack at the end of the show here.

CAFFERTY: Yes. Just looking at all the issues that confront the voters in November and trying to figure out which one you think might be the one that decides the outcome.

David in Charlotte, North Carolina, writes, "Well, Jack, the first decision we need to make is how to get either a Democrat or a Republican that's worth voting for. Then we can worry about the issues."

Carter writes, "I believe the biggest issue of the election will be the economy. Corporate profits are doing well, but the middle class is suffering badly. So many good-paying jobs with benefits were lost during the Bush presidency and have been replaced with low-paying service jobs that won't support a family."

And Jim in Tupelo, Mississippi, the birthplace of old Elvis down there, writes, "The main issues in the election are the ones you anchor people have been gnattering (ph) away at we, the electorate. Michael Jackson, did he or didn't he? Kobe Bryant, did he or didn't he? Scott Peterson, did he or didn't he?"

"Courtly Love -- well, she does, but let's hold her up to ridicule anyway. And, by the way, if you were dumb enough to go see "Anchorman" after seeing the previews on your own show, then you deserve what you got.

COLLINS: Oh, touche.

CAFFERTY: Thank you, Jim. I couldn't agree with you more.

SERWER: Did he or didn't he? He did.

CAFFERTY: An awful movie. Just a terrible movie.

COLLINS: All right. Jack Cafferty, thanks so much.

Coming up next on CNN, buying a new house is a huge decision, and there are lots of choices out there. So how do you make sure you don't get burned? Top five tips are coming up the next hour with Daryn Kagan on "CNN LIVE TODAY."

For now, though, AMERICAN MORNING will be back right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Tonight on "360," new poll numbers releasing late this afternoon that are expected to show how Edwards' choice could swing traditional red states to the Democrats. That's tonight at 7:00 p.m. Eastern.

CAFFERTY: There's a good program.

COOPER: There you go. All right.

COLLINS: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) music, too. Love it. COOPER: Yeah, yeah, all right.

COLLINS: 7:00 p.m.

All right, everybody. That is all from us right here on AMERICAN MORNING, Jack and Anderson and Andy and everybody. We all say good- bye and pass it on over to Daryn Kagan, who is standing by down at the CNN Center.

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