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American Morning
Barak Obama Brings Delegates to Their Feet; Teresa Heinz Kerry Takes Center Stage at Democratic Convention
Aired July 28, 2004 - 08:30 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.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Also this half hour we'll talk more about Teresa Heinz Kerry with best-selling author Gail Sheehy. The Americans have seen more of Mrs. Kerry in this last week than ever before.
We'll talk about which side of her personality is the better representation of her character. But for now, back to you.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Heidi. Some Democrats here in Boston -- many of them, in fact, are saying the rising star was on the stage last night -- Barack Obama bringing these delegates to their feet.
His speech about 25 minutes in length. He was billed as the keynote and indeed he delivered last night for the delegates. A short sample from last evening now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA (D) U.S. SENATE CANDIDATE: If there is a child on the south side of Chicago who can't read, that matters to me, even if it's not my child.
If there is a senior citizen somewhere who can't pay for their prescription drugs, and is having to choose between medicine and the rent, that makes my life poorer, even if it's not my grandparent.
If there is an Arab-American family being rounded up without benefit of an attorney or due process, that threatens my civil liberties.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: Yes, Democrats again saying the 42-year-old from Illinois is the future for this party. Really fired them up last night. What do our guys think about him, though?
Good morning to James Carville and Robert Novak here, hosts of "Crossfire." Nice to see you gentlemen. Good morning to you.
JAMES CARVILLE, CO-HOST, CNN'S "CROSSFIRE": Good to see you, yes sir.
HEMMER: What's going on here? Every headline in the country says your party is united.
CARVILLE: It is. I mean, I've never seen anything like this in my lifetime.
HEMMER: Is that a good thing? In the following sense: you put the script together, you come to Boston, and it plays out the way you predict. Very few surprises.
Does that play down the level of excitement that maybe viewers who are not normally drawn into it now are because of a headliner here.
CARVILLE: I'll tell you what. I'd rather be united than divided. You know, given everything, I'll take just where we are. I could not be happier.
ROBERT NOVAK, CO-HOST, CNN'S "CROSSFIRE": Let me tell you. Let me give you a little truth, Mr. Hemmer.
HEMMER: All right.
NOVAK: On this floor, with hardly anybody here, a little before 5:00 yesterday they adopted the Democratic platform by acclamation. No debate. There's nothing in that platform.
There's nothing about global warming, there is nothing about abortion -- partial birth abortion, there are no controversial subjects.
They ignored the huge gap in this party on trade. There are differences. This -- this convention is so far to the left of America and the Democratic Party and they just -- they just roll it over because they want to beat Bush but --what nauseates me is the press is taken in by -- it's always is -- this is a united party.
CARVILLE: The fact that Bob Novak is nauseated means this convention is really going well. I'll tell you. That's one thing we've accomplished.
HEMMER: Howard Dean said it's the most unified party he's seen in seven conventions. True?
CARVILLE: That's the most unified -- I've been to every convention since '88.
NOVAK: I loved Howard Dean's speech last night. It was all about Howard Dean. Did you listen to that speech?
HEMMER: I did.
NOVAK: And the main thing he said about John Kerry -- you know what was good about John Kerry? Howard Dean is for him now.
HEMMER: They say they're stealing a page out of your playbook now. You know they say Republicans have done this so well in the past, and it's about time that we did the same with all of that.
NOVAK: The Democratic Party for many years has had great debates, great platform fights. This is a great institution. Great, brawling party that fights out the issues. This is just an infomercial and that's why -- that's why they have the most...
CARVILLE: If any of our viewers are -- or the people that listen to your show -- if you want to know how this convention is going, just listen to Bob Novak. The fact that he's irritated, agitated, nauseated -- means one thing. The Democrats are going to win big in November.
HEMMER: I understand you have some very hard feelings about the spacesuit.
CARVILLE: I don't have any hard feelings. I think -- I just think it's just the stupidest thing I've ever seen.
HEMMER: The stupidest?
CARVILLE: Yes.
HEMMER: To most people.
CARVILLE: Yes.
HEMMER: Most stupid.
NOVAK: That explains it. James doesn't know much about the news media and I'll explain to him why they made such a fuss over the space suit.
There's nothing else to talk about. Nothing is happening here, so these silly stories get -- get -- in the news you have to talk about something.
HEMMER: Carville's the -- meet Begala -- he's the seven of diamonds.
CARVILLE: Let me say this -- this is like taking a picture of a surgeon, of the surgeon in surgical garb and saying God, doesn't the guy look different. I mean...
NOVAK: Let me say this...
HEMMER: We've got to run.
CARVILLE: I'm going to get out. I'm not going to say anything else.
HEMMER: Hang on one second. Not so fast.
NOVAK: Barack Obama is not the second coming. He's a nice young fellow, very left wing. And the most left wing member of the Ohio legislature.
HEMMER: See you guys later at 4:30 all right? Thanks again. 4:30 Eastern time live from Boston.
Back to Heidi again in New York. Good morning, Heidi.
COLLINS: All right, I told you they were good when they're live, huh?
HEMMER: I'm telling you, yes. How about the eight of diamonds for our friend Carville? See you later, Heidi. No, not an ace.
COLLINS: Oh, Lord. Well, she's outspoken, as well, and unconventional and, of course, proud of it too.
Teresa Heinz Kerry, the woman who would be First Lady took center stage last night at the Democratic Convention to make a case for her husband's election.
Author Gail Sheehy recently profiled Teresa Heinz Kerry for "Mother Jones" magazine, and Gail is joining us now to talk about the woman behind the candidate.
We were going to hear a little bit from last night, but we'll hear it from you. How do you think she did?
GAIL SHEEHY, AUTHOR, JOURNALIST: Well, she certainly had the women in that convention hall mesmerized, because she gave from her voice. She said women have a right to have opinions and not be called opinionated but to be called smart and well informed.
And that took the house down.
COLLINS: It took the house down mostly with the women, though, you say.
SHEEHY: Well, not only. Not only. And the other thing I think that people haven't much commented on is that while Teresa is feisty, she's also feminine. Deeply feminine. And even sexy. She calls herself sexy, her husband calls her sexy. She's five years older than he -- she's 65 years old.
She won't cut her hair short the way everybody seems to think they have to.
COLLINS: Well, what good is that -- how will that resonate, do you think?
SHEEHY: Well, I think when you have a feminine delivery, a soft voice, but you say strong things and you have opinions; it's much easier to take from a woman who is the partner of a candidate.
The stridency factor has always militated against women.
COLLINS: OK, so being strong and then saying shove it and kind of denying that you said something that we all saw on tape her to say -- and then also this sort of persona that she gave last night behind the podium -- which do you think after getting to know her as you did -- which do you think better represents what kind of a person she really is?
SHEEHY: Well, I think they're both good sides of her. She -- you know she comes -- she's the daughter of Africa. She comes from the land of lions. She's fearless. And I felt that fearlessness of her last night. She says what she wants to say. You can't tame Teresa, but she's also very feminine, very traditional. She lived for 53 years -- six years -- of her life as a wife and mother.
Never having any political ambition, raising three sons and being a very much kind of a stay at home mom. And then the other thing people don't know about her is that she's Catholic.
John Kerry is Catholic. They're both very practicing Catholics. In fact their first date, if you will, was he accompanied her to mass in Brazil and then sang in Portuguese, the hymn, in Portuguese which really attracted her attention because of course she is Portuguese.
COLLINS: But there has been a lot of talk, Gail, about whether or not she's actually going to be an asset to this campaign. They call -- some people are saying more of a liability.
SHEEHY: Well, the people who are saying that don't know what they're talking about because they're not following her on the campaign trail. She's been a huge success on the campaign trail. Here's a woman who can speak to Hispanic audiences in flawless Spanish, who can speak in -- to new Americans, as a new American.
And enfold -- she has -- she thinks of herself and the people who work for her think of her as a visionary. One of the things she said last night that caught my imagination was she talked about, familiarly sending probes to Mercury, to Saturn, the Hubble Space telescope out to the very reaches of the beginning of time.
She thinks in those terms. She's worldly, and like John Kerry who grew up the son of a Foreign Service officer. And I think it's interesting that the Kerry's from a -- you know, there are two very different family models on display here.
With the Bushes who are very much down home folks, every opportunity they go back to Crawford, they stick in -- at home. They don't travel outside of the quarters of this country unless they really have to.
Whereas the Kerry's are always moving out. He knows south Asia; she knows all of Europe, Africa, and so on. Latin America.
COLLINS: You have said before she's also very conflicted. So I wanted to give you a quick chance to respond to that.
SHEEHY: Right -- conflicted because she doesn't really think that her life would be changed as First Lady. Which is quite naive.
She has a career. She is essentially CEO of a huge philanthropic network and wants to keep that going, but I think she would run into a conflict and have a fall back position which is she would be a marvelous ambassador around the world to make friends with our old allies and new friends.
COLLINS: All right, Gail Sheehy thanks so much for that insight today. Appreciate it very much.
It is 38 minutes past the hour now. Time for a look at some of today's other news with Daryn Kagan. Hi, Daryn.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Heidi, good morning. In Iraq, first, the deadliest explosion since last month's transfer of power to tell you about.
Iraqi officials say almost 70 people were killed in a suicide car bombing in the city of Baquba. Some 56 others were injured, many of them would-be police recruits.
And in Baghdad a smaller explosion apparently targeting a police station. The attack killed at least one person and wounded six others, all of them Iraqis.
Let's focus here on the U.S. White House officials are expected to soon project a record federal deficit for this year. Congressional aides say the budget gap will exceed $420 billion.
That figure is lower, by the way, than the $521 projected in February, but some Democrats had criticized the president for overestimating the deficit so that he could take credit for improvements in the economy when the real figures came in.
To legal briefs now: the judge in the Kobe Bryant case may decide to release details from a closed-door hearing on the accuser's sex life. The transcripts of the hearing were mistakenly e-mailed to media organizations, but the judge threatened contempt of court against anyone who released the details.
The following comment from the U.S. Supreme Court -- the judge is now hoping to release an edited version to settle a First Amendment fight with the media.
And finally the trial of Michael Jackson will not start until early next year. Defense attorneys for Jackson asked the judge for more time to prepare their case. The trial is now scheduled to begin next January 31. The motion was granted after the judge said he had been overly optimistic in scheduling the trial to start in mid- September.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HEMMER: Ahead here on AMERICAN MORNING, the Rev. Al Sharpton mixing up with celebrities throughout the city of Boston.
A bit later he'll mix it up here on AMERICAN MORNING.
I'll talk with the former candidate about whether or not the Democrats are taking minority voters for granted.
Also, we're paging the good doctor. Sanjay says your salad could be healthier if you added one surprise ingredient.
Much more ahead from Boston and New York City as our coverage rolls on on this Wednesday special edition of AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: We're paging Dr. Gupta this morning about the flip side of fat.
A new study says a little bit of a bad thing is actually good for you. Sanjay joins us now from the CNN Center with details on all of this.
Good morning to you, Sanjay.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Heidi. Yes, you're not going to hear me endorse fat too often but you know they say everything in moderation not a bad thing and that may be true when it comes to taking a little bit of fat with your salad specifically.
If you want to get the most out of your vegetables, out of your veggies, eating it with a little bit of fat might be helpful.
We're specifically talking about two substances commonly found in vegetables lycopene, which is typically found in tomatoes and beta- carotene, which is typically found in orange vegetables such as carrots.
They did this study to try and find out how you can get the best absorption of those particular things and they fed participants in this study identical salads but gave them different salad dressings. Fat free, reduced fat, or full fat.
Those that received the no fat salad dressings absorbed fewer vitamins, specifically the ones we were just talking about.
Without the fat specifically they had no absorption of the beta- carotene or the lycopene. Now those two important substances.
With or without fat, though, the good news -- they still had the same absorption of fiber, folate, and vitamin C. Bottom line, Heidi, and this is no surprise I think. You know moderation of all food groups, always going to be a good thing.
But if you're specifically concerned about trying to increase the levels of those two substances, eating your salads in particular with a little bit of fat dressing might be all right.
COLLINS: This is actually good news, probably, for a lot of people. But still you have to be careful. You don't want to just pour on, you know, the whole bottle or anything obviously. What's the right amount we should be using?
GUPTA: Well, you definitely don't want to be using the whole bottle. In fact I can tell you the right amount. I have a salad here to sort of give you a sense of a sort of normal sized salad and two different salad dressings.
These are the kind of salad dressings that you typically will get from a restaurant or a fast-food place.
This is the fat one on this side. This is two and a quarter tablespoons here. You want to basically take almost the whole thing here of the green one. That's going to probably be just about enough for you to get enough of the absorption of those two substances.
You have to remember, Heidi, a lot of vitamins are actually what they call fat-soluble. They're not going to be absorbed unless you eat them with a little bit of fat, Vitamins A, D, E and K are a couple of examples of that, Heidi.
COLLINS: All right, so we must be able to get this sort of help in order to digest these or absorb these vitamins from other parts of our meal, not just salad dressings?
GUPTA: Right. So if you're loading your salad up with all sorts of other fatty things like bacon bits or lots of cheese or something like that, you may not need as much of the salad dressing, the fatty salad dressing.
So, you know, you can reach for the fat free in those sort of situations. Remember the clear salad dressings -- if you worry about your cholesterol, if you're worried about heart disease, if you're worried about stroke, those are going to be -- the clearest dressings are still going to be the healthiest ones.
And certainly remember there are good fats and there are bad fats. It's always worth pointing out olive oil, canola oil, olives themselves. Those are sources of good fat. Those are going to be your best sources if this is something you're going to incorporate into your diet, Heidi.
COLLINS: All right, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thanks so much for that this morning.
GUPTA: Thank you. All right.
COLLINS: And still to come, one critic calls it big brother meets the Walton's. But there's a lot more controversy surrounding the show, "Amish in the City." A look at that ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Welcome back.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Well, welcome back indeed.
More chicken. That's what this country needs and Andy Serwer's got just the answer, "Minding Your Business."
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Thank you. That was a wonderful intro. I appreciate that.
CAFFERTY: That's right. More chickens. SERWER: Burger King, McDonald's, Wendy's, you know -- they're not going to be burger joints pretty soon, they're going to be known as chicken emporiums.
More and more Americans are eating chicken at these institutions. Last year, chicken sales up 18 percent. Burgers up only 1 percent. What's going on?
Americans are eating healthier, but also these fast food joints are foisting more chicken upon us, advertising more because the price of beef has gone so high lately, Jack, that they're making a lot more money on chicken.
The latest business to get into this is McDonald's, which has just rolled out the Chicken Selects -- they just rolled these out this week -- they're chicken strips by another -- any other name.
Listen to this: they cost $2.89. That's a dollar more than a quarter pounder, OK? Now accounts for 30 percent of all sales at McDonald's. Chicken. Now this is my favorite part about this story, Jack.
The ad campaign for these new chicken strips -- they're going to be rolling out in a couple of weeks is prepare to defend your chicken.
CAFFERTY: Well it's -- what does that mean?
SERWER: I don't know. Prepare to defend your chicken.
CAFFERTY: Let's move on.
SERWER: OK. Defend your chicken. Paint your wagon.
OK. Let's move on.
CAFFERTY: Do not choke your wagon.
SERWER: Yes. I knew you were going to go.
CAFFERTY: Yes.
SERWER: Let's also -- this is another interesting thing about -- yes -- this is really interesting stuff about McDonald's as well. You go into a drive through, you talk into the little screen there and you figure someone inside the restaurant is taking your order?
Not necessarily true. Outsourcing has come to McDonald's.
COLLINS: No.
SERWER: See, that's an outsourcing center. So if you pull into a McDonald's in Minnesota, for instance, the call is routed to a call center in Colorado...
CAFFERTY: Is that true? SERWER: Yes it is true. They're just trying this out. Only about 1 percent of 13,000 restaurants of McDonald's using this. But it's routed on a high-speed line to Colorado. Routed back. They actually take your picture to match the order with your picture and you pull up and supposedly it really...
CAFFERTY: Too much trouble.
SERWER: ... really, really works.
CAFFERTY: Just give me a hamburger.
SERWER: Next stop India. Next stop curry. They're going to serve some chicken curry.
CAFFERTY: Just give me my cheeseburger.
SERWER: Chicken curry.
CAFFERTY: All right, it's Wednesday.
SERWER: Drive through.
CAFFERTY: All right, thank you sir.
SERWER: You're welcome.
CAFFERTY: Things people said in the last week that got our attention, beginning with this.
"One day I got on it naked and worked out really hard. That wasn't good. There were literally puddles of sweat in the foot holes. It was completely disgusting. Maybe I shouldn't have told you that."
This is Jack Black in an interview on slimming down for his role in the new King Kong movie.
SERWER: He needs it.
CAFFERTY: "I'm told there are now entire web pages dedicated to my breasts."
This is the presidential wannabes daughter, Alexandra Kerry, on the attention she got after wearing that see-through dress to the Cannes Film Festival.
Now we don't have any of the Internet links however, unfortunately.
"I was just trying to think what kinds of things George Bush would not know how to do when he arrived."
Stephen Williams on his book, "How to Be the President: An Insiders Guide to the White House" where he tells you where the bathrooms are, how to make calls from the Oval Office, and how to get a new chair. "Time is not on our side." Tom Kean, chairman of the 9/11 Commission urging changes in U.S. intelligence gathering to avoid another terrorist attack and that brings us to this: here's the score.
Number of days since the 9/11 Commission made recommendations for protecting the country against terrorism: six.
Number of recommendations adopted by Congress: zero. The day after the report was issued, Congress left for a six-week vacation.
After telling the country they couldn't possibly get to this until next year -- too busy, they said.
If you think your elected senators and representatives should be working to improve America's security instead of taking six weeks off, you could let them know.
You could write, call or e-mail, or if you happen to run into them at the beach, campground or amusement park, you could mention it to them -- Heidi.
COLLINS: All right, Jack, thanks so much for that.
A new reality show plunges young Amish people into a brave new modern world.
As CNN's entertainment reporter Sibila Vargas explains, the show created controversy that's on its way to Capitol Hill.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: These people are our roommates.
SIBILA VARGAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What do you get when you pair five sheltered Amish young adults with six city kids? Controversy, culture clash, and ratings.
At least that's what the makers of UPN's new reality series "Amish in the City" are hoping.
BARRY GARRON, THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER: It was in a sense kind of like Big Brother meets The Walton's.
VARGAS: The ten-episode series follows its Amish participants during "rumspringa" -- it's a time when Amish youths are allowed to leave the community and experience the temptations of the outside world, and then decide if they want to remain in the Amish religion.
But this fish out of water concept has sparked outrage from one Pennsylvania congressman who signed a petition, along with 50 other U.S. representatives, to urge UPN to drop the show.
REP. JOSEPH PITTS (R) PENNSYLVANIA: I don't think they would do this to young teens of Native Americans, or a group of Hassidic Jews or Muslim teens -- and to target the Amish because they're a small group I think is wrong.
JON KROLL, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: The notion of the show being objectionable didn't come up until these assumptions were made that it would be done in a disrespectful manner. It was not done in a disrespectful manner.
VARGAS: The show's producers maintain its Amish participants were already in rumspringa when recruited to live here in the Hollywood hills and that, if anything, the show was a journey of growth and self-discovery.
KROLL: There's another way of looking at it, which is that if people are truly exposed to both ways of life and they return to the Amish, it's only going to make their faith stronger.
VARGAS: Sibila Vargas, CNN, Hollywood.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: If you want to catch it, the show premiers tonight on the UPN Network.
Just for you, Bill.
HEMMER: We'll be watching. Hey, here's something for you guys. Never enough reporters, right?
Here in Boston they had to clear out 3,000 seats at the Fleet Center. This is just one small portion of the corner where I'm sitting at the Fleet Center. 3,000 seats taken out just to fit all the print reporters and the magazine reporters here.
There are 15,000 reporters all total. That's three times the number of delegates. I tell you: only in political conventions do you find the confluence of Hollywood, Washington, and New York City and they're all here for the next few days, too.
Day three rolls on. Al Sharpton our guest next. Top of the hour here on AMERICAN MORNING as our coverage continues from New York and from Boston live at the Fleet Center in a moment here.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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Aired July 28, 2004 - 08:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Also this half hour we'll talk more about Teresa Heinz Kerry with best-selling author Gail Sheehy. The Americans have seen more of Mrs. Kerry in this last week than ever before.
We'll talk about which side of her personality is the better representation of her character. But for now, back to you.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Heidi. Some Democrats here in Boston -- many of them, in fact, are saying the rising star was on the stage last night -- Barack Obama bringing these delegates to their feet.
His speech about 25 minutes in length. He was billed as the keynote and indeed he delivered last night for the delegates. A short sample from last evening now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA (D) U.S. SENATE CANDIDATE: If there is a child on the south side of Chicago who can't read, that matters to me, even if it's not my child.
If there is a senior citizen somewhere who can't pay for their prescription drugs, and is having to choose between medicine and the rent, that makes my life poorer, even if it's not my grandparent.
If there is an Arab-American family being rounded up without benefit of an attorney or due process, that threatens my civil liberties.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: Yes, Democrats again saying the 42-year-old from Illinois is the future for this party. Really fired them up last night. What do our guys think about him, though?
Good morning to James Carville and Robert Novak here, hosts of "Crossfire." Nice to see you gentlemen. Good morning to you.
JAMES CARVILLE, CO-HOST, CNN'S "CROSSFIRE": Good to see you, yes sir.
HEMMER: What's going on here? Every headline in the country says your party is united.
CARVILLE: It is. I mean, I've never seen anything like this in my lifetime.
HEMMER: Is that a good thing? In the following sense: you put the script together, you come to Boston, and it plays out the way you predict. Very few surprises.
Does that play down the level of excitement that maybe viewers who are not normally drawn into it now are because of a headliner here.
CARVILLE: I'll tell you what. I'd rather be united than divided. You know, given everything, I'll take just where we are. I could not be happier.
ROBERT NOVAK, CO-HOST, CNN'S "CROSSFIRE": Let me tell you. Let me give you a little truth, Mr. Hemmer.
HEMMER: All right.
NOVAK: On this floor, with hardly anybody here, a little before 5:00 yesterday they adopted the Democratic platform by acclamation. No debate. There's nothing in that platform.
There's nothing about global warming, there is nothing about abortion -- partial birth abortion, there are no controversial subjects.
They ignored the huge gap in this party on trade. There are differences. This -- this convention is so far to the left of America and the Democratic Party and they just -- they just roll it over because they want to beat Bush but --what nauseates me is the press is taken in by -- it's always is -- this is a united party.
CARVILLE: The fact that Bob Novak is nauseated means this convention is really going well. I'll tell you. That's one thing we've accomplished.
HEMMER: Howard Dean said it's the most unified party he's seen in seven conventions. True?
CARVILLE: That's the most unified -- I've been to every convention since '88.
NOVAK: I loved Howard Dean's speech last night. It was all about Howard Dean. Did you listen to that speech?
HEMMER: I did.
NOVAK: And the main thing he said about John Kerry -- you know what was good about John Kerry? Howard Dean is for him now.
HEMMER: They say they're stealing a page out of your playbook now. You know they say Republicans have done this so well in the past, and it's about time that we did the same with all of that.
NOVAK: The Democratic Party for many years has had great debates, great platform fights. This is a great institution. Great, brawling party that fights out the issues. This is just an infomercial and that's why -- that's why they have the most...
CARVILLE: If any of our viewers are -- or the people that listen to your show -- if you want to know how this convention is going, just listen to Bob Novak. The fact that he's irritated, agitated, nauseated -- means one thing. The Democrats are going to win big in November.
HEMMER: I understand you have some very hard feelings about the spacesuit.
CARVILLE: I don't have any hard feelings. I think -- I just think it's just the stupidest thing I've ever seen.
HEMMER: The stupidest?
CARVILLE: Yes.
HEMMER: To most people.
CARVILLE: Yes.
HEMMER: Most stupid.
NOVAK: That explains it. James doesn't know much about the news media and I'll explain to him why they made such a fuss over the space suit.
There's nothing else to talk about. Nothing is happening here, so these silly stories get -- get -- in the news you have to talk about something.
HEMMER: Carville's the -- meet Begala -- he's the seven of diamonds.
CARVILLE: Let me say this -- this is like taking a picture of a surgeon, of the surgeon in surgical garb and saying God, doesn't the guy look different. I mean...
NOVAK: Let me say this...
HEMMER: We've got to run.
CARVILLE: I'm going to get out. I'm not going to say anything else.
HEMMER: Hang on one second. Not so fast.
NOVAK: Barack Obama is not the second coming. He's a nice young fellow, very left wing. And the most left wing member of the Ohio legislature.
HEMMER: See you guys later at 4:30 all right? Thanks again. 4:30 Eastern time live from Boston.
Back to Heidi again in New York. Good morning, Heidi.
COLLINS: All right, I told you they were good when they're live, huh?
HEMMER: I'm telling you, yes. How about the eight of diamonds for our friend Carville? See you later, Heidi. No, not an ace.
COLLINS: Oh, Lord. Well, she's outspoken, as well, and unconventional and, of course, proud of it too.
Teresa Heinz Kerry, the woman who would be First Lady took center stage last night at the Democratic Convention to make a case for her husband's election.
Author Gail Sheehy recently profiled Teresa Heinz Kerry for "Mother Jones" magazine, and Gail is joining us now to talk about the woman behind the candidate.
We were going to hear a little bit from last night, but we'll hear it from you. How do you think she did?
GAIL SHEEHY, AUTHOR, JOURNALIST: Well, she certainly had the women in that convention hall mesmerized, because she gave from her voice. She said women have a right to have opinions and not be called opinionated but to be called smart and well informed.
And that took the house down.
COLLINS: It took the house down mostly with the women, though, you say.
SHEEHY: Well, not only. Not only. And the other thing I think that people haven't much commented on is that while Teresa is feisty, she's also feminine. Deeply feminine. And even sexy. She calls herself sexy, her husband calls her sexy. She's five years older than he -- she's 65 years old.
She won't cut her hair short the way everybody seems to think they have to.
COLLINS: Well, what good is that -- how will that resonate, do you think?
SHEEHY: Well, I think when you have a feminine delivery, a soft voice, but you say strong things and you have opinions; it's much easier to take from a woman who is the partner of a candidate.
The stridency factor has always militated against women.
COLLINS: OK, so being strong and then saying shove it and kind of denying that you said something that we all saw on tape her to say -- and then also this sort of persona that she gave last night behind the podium -- which do you think after getting to know her as you did -- which do you think better represents what kind of a person she really is?
SHEEHY: Well, I think they're both good sides of her. She -- you know she comes -- she's the daughter of Africa. She comes from the land of lions. She's fearless. And I felt that fearlessness of her last night. She says what she wants to say. You can't tame Teresa, but she's also very feminine, very traditional. She lived for 53 years -- six years -- of her life as a wife and mother.
Never having any political ambition, raising three sons and being a very much kind of a stay at home mom. And then the other thing people don't know about her is that she's Catholic.
John Kerry is Catholic. They're both very practicing Catholics. In fact their first date, if you will, was he accompanied her to mass in Brazil and then sang in Portuguese, the hymn, in Portuguese which really attracted her attention because of course she is Portuguese.
COLLINS: But there has been a lot of talk, Gail, about whether or not she's actually going to be an asset to this campaign. They call -- some people are saying more of a liability.
SHEEHY: Well, the people who are saying that don't know what they're talking about because they're not following her on the campaign trail. She's been a huge success on the campaign trail. Here's a woman who can speak to Hispanic audiences in flawless Spanish, who can speak in -- to new Americans, as a new American.
And enfold -- she has -- she thinks of herself and the people who work for her think of her as a visionary. One of the things she said last night that caught my imagination was she talked about, familiarly sending probes to Mercury, to Saturn, the Hubble Space telescope out to the very reaches of the beginning of time.
She thinks in those terms. She's worldly, and like John Kerry who grew up the son of a Foreign Service officer. And I think it's interesting that the Kerry's from a -- you know, there are two very different family models on display here.
With the Bushes who are very much down home folks, every opportunity they go back to Crawford, they stick in -- at home. They don't travel outside of the quarters of this country unless they really have to.
Whereas the Kerry's are always moving out. He knows south Asia; she knows all of Europe, Africa, and so on. Latin America.
COLLINS: You have said before she's also very conflicted. So I wanted to give you a quick chance to respond to that.
SHEEHY: Right -- conflicted because she doesn't really think that her life would be changed as First Lady. Which is quite naive.
She has a career. She is essentially CEO of a huge philanthropic network and wants to keep that going, but I think she would run into a conflict and have a fall back position which is she would be a marvelous ambassador around the world to make friends with our old allies and new friends.
COLLINS: All right, Gail Sheehy thanks so much for that insight today. Appreciate it very much.
It is 38 minutes past the hour now. Time for a look at some of today's other news with Daryn Kagan. Hi, Daryn.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Heidi, good morning. In Iraq, first, the deadliest explosion since last month's transfer of power to tell you about.
Iraqi officials say almost 70 people were killed in a suicide car bombing in the city of Baquba. Some 56 others were injured, many of them would-be police recruits.
And in Baghdad a smaller explosion apparently targeting a police station. The attack killed at least one person and wounded six others, all of them Iraqis.
Let's focus here on the U.S. White House officials are expected to soon project a record federal deficit for this year. Congressional aides say the budget gap will exceed $420 billion.
That figure is lower, by the way, than the $521 projected in February, but some Democrats had criticized the president for overestimating the deficit so that he could take credit for improvements in the economy when the real figures came in.
To legal briefs now: the judge in the Kobe Bryant case may decide to release details from a closed-door hearing on the accuser's sex life. The transcripts of the hearing were mistakenly e-mailed to media organizations, but the judge threatened contempt of court against anyone who released the details.
The following comment from the U.S. Supreme Court -- the judge is now hoping to release an edited version to settle a First Amendment fight with the media.
And finally the trial of Michael Jackson will not start until early next year. Defense attorneys for Jackson asked the judge for more time to prepare their case. The trial is now scheduled to begin next January 31. The motion was granted after the judge said he had been overly optimistic in scheduling the trial to start in mid- September.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HEMMER: Ahead here on AMERICAN MORNING, the Rev. Al Sharpton mixing up with celebrities throughout the city of Boston.
A bit later he'll mix it up here on AMERICAN MORNING.
I'll talk with the former candidate about whether or not the Democrats are taking minority voters for granted.
Also, we're paging the good doctor. Sanjay says your salad could be healthier if you added one surprise ingredient.
Much more ahead from Boston and New York City as our coverage rolls on on this Wednesday special edition of AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: We're paging Dr. Gupta this morning about the flip side of fat.
A new study says a little bit of a bad thing is actually good for you. Sanjay joins us now from the CNN Center with details on all of this.
Good morning to you, Sanjay.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Heidi. Yes, you're not going to hear me endorse fat too often but you know they say everything in moderation not a bad thing and that may be true when it comes to taking a little bit of fat with your salad specifically.
If you want to get the most out of your vegetables, out of your veggies, eating it with a little bit of fat might be helpful.
We're specifically talking about two substances commonly found in vegetables lycopene, which is typically found in tomatoes and beta- carotene, which is typically found in orange vegetables such as carrots.
They did this study to try and find out how you can get the best absorption of those particular things and they fed participants in this study identical salads but gave them different salad dressings. Fat free, reduced fat, or full fat.
Those that received the no fat salad dressings absorbed fewer vitamins, specifically the ones we were just talking about.
Without the fat specifically they had no absorption of the beta- carotene or the lycopene. Now those two important substances.
With or without fat, though, the good news -- they still had the same absorption of fiber, folate, and vitamin C. Bottom line, Heidi, and this is no surprise I think. You know moderation of all food groups, always going to be a good thing.
But if you're specifically concerned about trying to increase the levels of those two substances, eating your salads in particular with a little bit of fat dressing might be all right.
COLLINS: This is actually good news, probably, for a lot of people. But still you have to be careful. You don't want to just pour on, you know, the whole bottle or anything obviously. What's the right amount we should be using?
GUPTA: Well, you definitely don't want to be using the whole bottle. In fact I can tell you the right amount. I have a salad here to sort of give you a sense of a sort of normal sized salad and two different salad dressings.
These are the kind of salad dressings that you typically will get from a restaurant or a fast-food place.
This is the fat one on this side. This is two and a quarter tablespoons here. You want to basically take almost the whole thing here of the green one. That's going to probably be just about enough for you to get enough of the absorption of those two substances.
You have to remember, Heidi, a lot of vitamins are actually what they call fat-soluble. They're not going to be absorbed unless you eat them with a little bit of fat, Vitamins A, D, E and K are a couple of examples of that, Heidi.
COLLINS: All right, so we must be able to get this sort of help in order to digest these or absorb these vitamins from other parts of our meal, not just salad dressings?
GUPTA: Right. So if you're loading your salad up with all sorts of other fatty things like bacon bits or lots of cheese or something like that, you may not need as much of the salad dressing, the fatty salad dressing.
So, you know, you can reach for the fat free in those sort of situations. Remember the clear salad dressings -- if you worry about your cholesterol, if you're worried about heart disease, if you're worried about stroke, those are going to be -- the clearest dressings are still going to be the healthiest ones.
And certainly remember there are good fats and there are bad fats. It's always worth pointing out olive oil, canola oil, olives themselves. Those are sources of good fat. Those are going to be your best sources if this is something you're going to incorporate into your diet, Heidi.
COLLINS: All right, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thanks so much for that this morning.
GUPTA: Thank you. All right.
COLLINS: And still to come, one critic calls it big brother meets the Walton's. But there's a lot more controversy surrounding the show, "Amish in the City." A look at that ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
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COLLINS: Welcome back.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Well, welcome back indeed.
More chicken. That's what this country needs and Andy Serwer's got just the answer, "Minding Your Business."
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Thank you. That was a wonderful intro. I appreciate that.
CAFFERTY: That's right. More chickens. SERWER: Burger King, McDonald's, Wendy's, you know -- they're not going to be burger joints pretty soon, they're going to be known as chicken emporiums.
More and more Americans are eating chicken at these institutions. Last year, chicken sales up 18 percent. Burgers up only 1 percent. What's going on?
Americans are eating healthier, but also these fast food joints are foisting more chicken upon us, advertising more because the price of beef has gone so high lately, Jack, that they're making a lot more money on chicken.
The latest business to get into this is McDonald's, which has just rolled out the Chicken Selects -- they just rolled these out this week -- they're chicken strips by another -- any other name.
Listen to this: they cost $2.89. That's a dollar more than a quarter pounder, OK? Now accounts for 30 percent of all sales at McDonald's. Chicken. Now this is my favorite part about this story, Jack.
The ad campaign for these new chicken strips -- they're going to be rolling out in a couple of weeks is prepare to defend your chicken.
CAFFERTY: Well it's -- what does that mean?
SERWER: I don't know. Prepare to defend your chicken.
CAFFERTY: Let's move on.
SERWER: OK. Defend your chicken. Paint your wagon.
OK. Let's move on.
CAFFERTY: Do not choke your wagon.
SERWER: Yes. I knew you were going to go.
CAFFERTY: Yes.
SERWER: Let's also -- this is another interesting thing about -- yes -- this is really interesting stuff about McDonald's as well. You go into a drive through, you talk into the little screen there and you figure someone inside the restaurant is taking your order?
Not necessarily true. Outsourcing has come to McDonald's.
COLLINS: No.
SERWER: See, that's an outsourcing center. So if you pull into a McDonald's in Minnesota, for instance, the call is routed to a call center in Colorado...
CAFFERTY: Is that true? SERWER: Yes it is true. They're just trying this out. Only about 1 percent of 13,000 restaurants of McDonald's using this. But it's routed on a high-speed line to Colorado. Routed back. They actually take your picture to match the order with your picture and you pull up and supposedly it really...
CAFFERTY: Too much trouble.
SERWER: ... really, really works.
CAFFERTY: Just give me a hamburger.
SERWER: Next stop India. Next stop curry. They're going to serve some chicken curry.
CAFFERTY: Just give me my cheeseburger.
SERWER: Chicken curry.
CAFFERTY: All right, it's Wednesday.
SERWER: Drive through.
CAFFERTY: All right, thank you sir.
SERWER: You're welcome.
CAFFERTY: Things people said in the last week that got our attention, beginning with this.
"One day I got on it naked and worked out really hard. That wasn't good. There were literally puddles of sweat in the foot holes. It was completely disgusting. Maybe I shouldn't have told you that."
This is Jack Black in an interview on slimming down for his role in the new King Kong movie.
SERWER: He needs it.
CAFFERTY: "I'm told there are now entire web pages dedicated to my breasts."
This is the presidential wannabes daughter, Alexandra Kerry, on the attention she got after wearing that see-through dress to the Cannes Film Festival.
Now we don't have any of the Internet links however, unfortunately.
"I was just trying to think what kinds of things George Bush would not know how to do when he arrived."
Stephen Williams on his book, "How to Be the President: An Insiders Guide to the White House" where he tells you where the bathrooms are, how to make calls from the Oval Office, and how to get a new chair. "Time is not on our side." Tom Kean, chairman of the 9/11 Commission urging changes in U.S. intelligence gathering to avoid another terrorist attack and that brings us to this: here's the score.
Number of days since the 9/11 Commission made recommendations for protecting the country against terrorism: six.
Number of recommendations adopted by Congress: zero. The day after the report was issued, Congress left for a six-week vacation.
After telling the country they couldn't possibly get to this until next year -- too busy, they said.
If you think your elected senators and representatives should be working to improve America's security instead of taking six weeks off, you could let them know.
You could write, call or e-mail, or if you happen to run into them at the beach, campground or amusement park, you could mention it to them -- Heidi.
COLLINS: All right, Jack, thanks so much for that.
A new reality show plunges young Amish people into a brave new modern world.
As CNN's entertainment reporter Sibila Vargas explains, the show created controversy that's on its way to Capitol Hill.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: These people are our roommates.
SIBILA VARGAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What do you get when you pair five sheltered Amish young adults with six city kids? Controversy, culture clash, and ratings.
At least that's what the makers of UPN's new reality series "Amish in the City" are hoping.
BARRY GARRON, THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER: It was in a sense kind of like Big Brother meets The Walton's.
VARGAS: The ten-episode series follows its Amish participants during "rumspringa" -- it's a time when Amish youths are allowed to leave the community and experience the temptations of the outside world, and then decide if they want to remain in the Amish religion.
But this fish out of water concept has sparked outrage from one Pennsylvania congressman who signed a petition, along with 50 other U.S. representatives, to urge UPN to drop the show.
REP. JOSEPH PITTS (R) PENNSYLVANIA: I don't think they would do this to young teens of Native Americans, or a group of Hassidic Jews or Muslim teens -- and to target the Amish because they're a small group I think is wrong.
JON KROLL, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: The notion of the show being objectionable didn't come up until these assumptions were made that it would be done in a disrespectful manner. It was not done in a disrespectful manner.
VARGAS: The show's producers maintain its Amish participants were already in rumspringa when recruited to live here in the Hollywood hills and that, if anything, the show was a journey of growth and self-discovery.
KROLL: There's another way of looking at it, which is that if people are truly exposed to both ways of life and they return to the Amish, it's only going to make their faith stronger.
VARGAS: Sibila Vargas, CNN, Hollywood.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: If you want to catch it, the show premiers tonight on the UPN Network.
Just for you, Bill.
HEMMER: We'll be watching. Hey, here's something for you guys. Never enough reporters, right?
Here in Boston they had to clear out 3,000 seats at the Fleet Center. This is just one small portion of the corner where I'm sitting at the Fleet Center. 3,000 seats taken out just to fit all the print reporters and the magazine reporters here.
There are 15,000 reporters all total. That's three times the number of delegates. I tell you: only in political conventions do you find the confluence of Hollywood, Washington, and New York City and they're all here for the next few days, too.
Day three rolls on. Al Sharpton our guest next. Top of the hour here on AMERICAN MORNING as our coverage continues from New York and from Boston live at the Fleet Center in a moment here.
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