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Pres. Candidates Practice for Debates; Italian Researcher Claims Secret of Mona Lisa; Could Mt. St. Helens Erupt Soon?

Aired September 28, 2004 - 10:28   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.


BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Now in the news, this just in to CNN, take a look at these pictures. Traffic is stalled in Lawrenceville, Georgia, after a truck carrying ammonium nitrate, which could potentially be explosive overturned on Interstate 85. There's the truck right there, you see. It's not immediately clear how this wreck happened or whether the driver was injured. But Authorities have closed down that freeway. They are waiting for hazardous materials crews to arrive at the scene and determine the danger there. But In the interim, some nearby businesses have been evacuated just as a precaution. But as you can see, traffic is backed up on Interstate 85 in Lawrenceville, Georgia this morning, after a truck carrying ammonium nitrate has overturned.
Also in the news, a section of Interstate 85 -- well, we just mentioned that. U.S. warplanes again bombed an area of Fallujah believed linked to Abu Musab al Zarqawi. Iraqi police say at least three people were killed and at least nine others wounded. U.S. military officials say they were tipped off that members of Zarqawi's terrorist group were working in the building at the time of the strike. The U.S. says weeks of air attacks in Fallujah have decimated Zarqawi's network.

Haitians are struggling with the crisis in the wake of Tropical Storm Jeanne. More than 1300 people have been killed. And that number could rise by the hundreds. Some 300,000 people are homeless. Though relief comes in by the planeloads, people are not getting enough food or medical supplies. Impassable roads, looting and fighting over goods are hampering distribution.

American gymnast, Paul Hamm says he is satisfied with the hearing about his Gold Medal. He spoke at an 11 1/2 hour hearing before a sports court in Switzerland. The court will decide whether Hamm should keep his gymnastics all around Gold Medal, or whether it should go to South Korea's Yang Jae-young. The International Gymnastics Federation says a scoring mistake cost the South Korean the Gold.

And a collection of 41 letters written by Ronald Reagan has been put up for sale. Several letters reveal a tougher side than the former president usually showed in public. Reagan accuses Walter Mondale of lying through his teeth. He refers to Senator Edward Kennedy as the "playboy from Massachusetts." And describes the nation's biggest newspapers, as sellers of quote "daily poison." Reagan wrote the letters to another actor turned politician, George Murphy.

A leading Democrat in the U.S. Senate and one of the most aggressive supporters of John Kerry has launched a new attack on President Bush's Iraq war policies. Senator Ted Kennedy says the Bush administration's handling of the war quote "has been a toxic mix of ignorance, arrogance and stubborn ideology." He says the war has made America less safe than before.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: The greatest danger we face in the days, weeks and months ahead is a nuclear 9/11. We hope and pray that it is not already too late to prevent. The war in Iraq has made the mushroom cloud more likely, not less likely, and it never should have happened.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: Bush supporters say the sharpened rhetoric shows that the Kerry campaign is increasingly worried by the president's lead in recent polls. Yesterday, Kerry's running mate, John Edwards, said the Bush-Cheney campaign quote "will absolutely lie about anything." That, too, is being shrugged off by Bush insiders as we heard earlier on CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "AMERICAN MORNING")

KAREN HUGHES, BUSH CAMPAIGN SPECIAL ADVISER: I just have to kind of shake my head. I mean, that kind of talk, there's really no place for that in our political debate. We can disagree on issues. But I don't think we need to run around using words like "lie" and things like that. I think what you're seeing is a little bit of increasing desperation on the part of the Democratic candidates as the polls show that President Bush continues to be in the lead.

I know there's a new CNN poll that shows that President Bush is on the lead on all the major issues of this campaign. On the war on terrorism, on the economy, on Iraq. And I think what you're seeing, hearing is a little desperation creeping into our opponent's voices.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: Now we all know American voters will get to voice their beliefs on Election Day. But what if you had the president's undivided attention. That's the premise of a new book "If You Had Five Minutes with the President." And it puts the question -- this question to 55 celebrities and personalities. Robin Bronk is the executive director of the Creative Coalition which is an advocacy group for the arts and entertainment industry. She joins us now from New York.

Good morning to you.

ROBIN BRONK, EXEC. DIR., THE CREATIVE COALITION: Hi. Good morning.

NGUYEN: Well, a lot of people collaborated as part of this book. But this was your idea. What sparked it? BRONK: Well, what sparked it is the creative (UNINTELLIGIBLE) back-up. I'm the executive director of the Creative Coalition, which is the nonprofit, nonpartisan public advocacy arm of the entertainment industry. And we do a lot of issue work on Capitol Hill, as well as in the state capitals, and we always say, well, you know, when you get your five minutes, or when you're right there meeting with your policymaker, what are you going to say? You've got to think quick and you've got to think what your message is, so what are you going to do in your five minutes? And that's sort of how the idea was born.

NGUYEN: And you've got some really interesting responses. We want to get right to them. The first up is Lauren Holly, an actress a lot of people know from "Dumb & Dumber," and she writes: "Mr. President, do you go to bed every night feeling fulfilled? Is there stuff we don't know about? Are you afraid?"

It seems like she's really focusing on the personal effects of the job. Did you hear a lot of that?

BRONK: It was a real mix of whether people were talking personally about a president's personal experiences. Some took it as this is my five minutes to promote an issue that I care deeply about, and I'm deeply vested into or my community is deeply vested in. One of my favorites is Tucker Carlson, who ends his essay by saying: "Godspeed and good luck, your third year in office will be horrible."

NGUYEN: Tucker Carlson. All right let's go to Eric McCormack, the actor from "Will & Grace." This is very interesting. He says: "I know he's a friend of yours, but God has to go, not completely gone, you understand, but he has got to go to get the hell out of the White House."

That was really quite surprising. Did you get a lot of passionate responses from people?

BRONK: Oh, the book screams with passion, which is great. You -- it's short essays by -- and it's a real mix of personalities, business leaders, liberals, conservatives, middle of the road. It is great -- it's a great cheat sheet for a dinner conversation. It's a great book to read, and then you rant with it, you rave with it, you cry with it, and then you say, you know, I hadn't thought about it that way. And you can footnote the book, too, in your next meeting with the policymaker.

NGUYEN: Everyone has their own opinion, including Tom Arnold. We want to put that one up on the screen for you. He says: "Please make brave decisions, not based on polls, after all, I count on you to be smarter than me."

And one that I found most interesting of the quotes that I looked at was from Mary Stuart Masterson, and she writes: "I would suggest that all meetings with international leaders be conducted after they have given massages to one another. The actual meetings would then be carried out in the nude."

Very interesting from Mary Stuart Masterson. BRONK: It is. Joey Pants, Joe Pantoliano, even tries to solve the Mideast peace crisis in a very creative way. So we encourage people to turn to that page first. It's available in all bookstores across the country. I think it is leaving the shelves rather quickly. So we're excited about that. Or it can be ordered from our Web site at www.thecreativecoalition.org.

NGUYEN: Robin, quickly, we're out of time but I just want to ask you, do you want the candidates to be listening to some of the questions, some of the issues being raised in this book? What's the message to the candidates?

BRONK: The message to the candidates from the book is, yes, we encourage you to read it. We really tackle a number of issues from the arts, education, stem cell research, terrorism, war. And please give us our 10 minutes and read the book.

NGUYEN: All right, Robin Bronk, executive director of the Creative Coalition. We thank you for your time and the interesting insights from all these celebrities in the book. Thank you.

BRONK: Thank you.

NGUYEN: John Kerry will get much longer than five minutes with President Bush in this Thursday's debate. The candidates are expected to exchange strong opinions in the high stakes face-off. And CNN will have a series of reports leading up to the first debate which is, of course, on Thursday. Here's our Boston bureau chief Dan Lothian with a preview of Thursday's face-off.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN BOSTON BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): The Sunshine State, battered by four back-to-back hurricanes, now faces the stormy fight for the White House.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: My opponent has had seven or eight different positions.

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The W stands for wrong.

LOTHIAN: The candidates, for the first time, face-to-face in what Webster's describes as "a formal contest of skill in reasoned argument." The first debate focusing on foreign policy and homeland security is a potentially defining event for candidate...

KATHLEEN HALL JAMIESON, ANNENBERG SCHOOL OF COMM.: Sometimes in close elections they swing votes enough to potentially make a difference.

LOTHIAN: ... and voter.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it's a good opportunity to see what they stand for.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, I think it's a piece of a whole composite.

HALL JAMIESON: Debates signal to the electorate that it's time now to firm up the voting decision that you've already made, or if you haven't made one, to get on the ball and start paying attention.

LOTHIAN (on camera): But even before the first question is asked, the debate over the debates seems to have generated as much attention. It took 32 pages to spell out all the rules. Little details such as who gets to see the timing lights. In this case, even the TV audience. Candidates are prohibited from walking beyond their podium area. Avoiding what Al Gore did, invading George Bush's space in 2000.

BUSH: And I believe I can.

LOTHIAN: In another debate, Gore, while listening to Bush, lost points while doing this some 18 times. That was fixed by doing away with cutaways when a candidate is speaking. Which may also limit the opportunity for a candidate to get caught looking at his watch, appearing bored. There's even a line that ensures an appropriate temperature in the room will be maintained according to industry standards, hopefully preventing sweating, like Nixon experienced in 1960, blamed in part on a bad makeup job. But some people worry too much control may dilute what the voter needs to see and hear.

JAMES FALLOWS, "ATLANTIC MONTHLY": It's like an unbelievable pre-nup.

LOTHIAN (voice-over): James Fallows writes for the "Atlantic Monthly."

FALLOWS: I think it's a linear extension, the way these things have gone year by year or election by election. And each time each side tries to correct something that was left out the last time.

LOTHIAN: That's important to campaigns. because ever since televised general election presidential debates began in 1960, there have been memorable moments that many believe impacted who won.

RONALD REAGAN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There you go again.

LOTHIAN: Sometimes it's the substance, what a candidate says, but didn't mean to.

FALLOWS: When Jimmy Carter was running against Gerald Ford, a very important moment was...

GERALD FORD, 38TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe.

FALLOWS: Gerald Ford appeared to say that he wasn't aware that Poland was under Soviet control. And this sort of fit into an idea that maybe Gerald Ford wasn't on top of all the issues.

LOTHIAN: Carter won the debate and the presidency. But the unexpected moments sometimes have more to do with perception and interpretation than with reality. And that's something everyone agrees not even 32 pages of hotly negotiated guidelines can control.

Dan Lothian, CNN, Boston.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: You'll want to watch the debate right here on CNN, as part of our coverage. We'll use a real time meter to gauge the reaction of a focus group of undecided voters. The debate is Thursday night at 9:00 p.m. Eastern.

First it was road rage. Now cell phone rage. A pregnant woman handcuffed, accused of talking too loud on her cell phone in public.

Also we'll tell you today's price of oil in our check on Wall Street.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Let's tale a look at other stories making news coast to coast. The 700 home run ball hit by Barry Bonds less than two weeks ago is about to land in court. The fan who is seen here, we'll try to get you that video, holding it is being sued by another fan who says the ball was stolen from him during that mad dash.

From the nation's capital a cell phone story that will have people talking. This woman who is five months pregnant says a metro transit police officer handcuffed her and pushed her to the ground. The reason for her arrest, she was talking too loudly on her cell phone. Now police officials are defending the arrest, saying she was loudly cursing and being offensive.

Beginning today, you may have a dash of new color decorating your wallet or billfold. New $50 bills are going into circulation today with splashes of red, blue, and yellow, as you see there. It's designed to foil counterfeiters. Last fall the $20 bill became the first U.S. currency to get the color treatment.

(MARKET REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: It's a mystery a few centuries old. One man and his eternally young woman, forever together, bound by international interest and intrigue. But how did they meet? Our Alessio Vinci canvasses the questions over a very famous canvas.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALESSIO VINCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): She is one of the world's most enduring symbols of feminine allure. And there is even a famous song about her.

Was she the creation of Leonardo's imagination, or was he inspired by a real woman in the street of 16th Century Florence?

Looking for an answer, Giuseppe Pallanti spent more than 25 years researching the city's archives. He came across land and marriage records written in the 1490s which he says prove that Mona Lisa existed.

"These documents prove without a doubt that Mona Lisa's husband was a client of Leonardo's father who was a famous notary in Florence," he says. "And they also show how the families were closely connected and lived very close to each other. This is evidence, I believe, proving what historians wrote in the 16th Century, that Mona Lisa was a real person."

Pallanti took me to one of the places where Leonardo and Mona Lisa may have met, the Church of the Santissima Annunziata in the heart of Florence. Mona Lisa came to Sunday Mass here, and her husband is buried here in the family chapel. It is located next door to the convent where Leonardo was lodging when he began painting the famous portrait.

(on camera): Other historians have acknowledged Pallanti's meticulous efforts to establish Mona Lisa's identity, yet they have also expressed some skepticism. While the documents show that Mona Lisa and Leonardo may have been acquainted, no records today can prove without a doubt that she also was his muse.

(voice-over): Pallanti wrote a short book about his findings and agrees his study may only confirm the existence of Mona Lisa. But after half a millennium, he says, circumstantial evidence establishing a relationship is as close to reality researchers will ever get. And just like that famous song speculates about the mysterious smile, so will historians and romantics wonder for centuries to come.

Alessio Vinci, CNN, Florence.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: Well, this won't make you smile. The last time it erupted more than 50 people died. Now once again, all eyes are on a sleeping giant that some fear may be awakening again. Mounting concern over Mount St. Helens is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: They're probably not trying to make a mountain out of a molehill. Here's a live look, though. But scientists in Washington State want to know what is going on at Mount St. Helens. These are, as we mentioned, live pictures of the volcano south of Seattle. In recent days swarms of small earthquakes have hit, sometimes one or two a minute. Higher hiking trails are now closed and one expert said the energy is just boiling out.

The mysterious quakes are shaking within the volcano's gaping crater, the source of a tragic eruption almost 25 years ago.

Here's CNN's Kim Osias.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) KIMBERLY OSIAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was 1980 when Mount St. Helens finally blew 80,000 feet into the sky, flattening a wooded area the size of Chicago and killing 57 people.

TODD CULLINGS, U.S. FOREST SERVICE: This landslide came down. Gases inside the molten rock rapidly expanded.

OSIAS: It was one of those watershed events, etched forever in our collective memory.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: After the mountain blew, this was just gray up here. It was just totally -- I mean, it was just barren.

OSIAS (on camera): Almost two and a half decades later, the ecosystem is still healing. Most of the animals have returned. The trees are a little bit slower. Here, you can clearly see where the timber companies have replanted, and in the distance behind me where Mother Nature is still struggling to rebuild.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I bet when we hit the 50th anniversary of the eruption, people will be struggling to understand the story just because it's going to so well-hidden by the return of the forest.

OSIAS (voice-over): But there are some areas where trees still lie like matchsticks, part of the spectacle that draws a million visitors a year.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you want to have a really good idea of how big this landslide was, just put your fingers up even with each slope of Mount St. Helens. Where your fingertips meet together, that shows you where the summit of the volcano used to be.

OSIAS: Some visitors keep coming back.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Look, there's still some dead trees standing.

OSIAS: For Sylvia Flores Milson (ph), it's important not to forget.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I want them to see how we all got through this. We all -- and it all came out OK.

OSIAS: The crater still steams. And scientists monitor Mount St. Helens daily. They say it's not a question of whether it will blow again, but when.

DR. STEVE MALONE, SEISMOLOGIST, UNIV. WASHINGTON: If it's going to be in another year, two years, 10 years, or more, certainly it will.

OSIAS: For now, Mount St. Helens looms as a graphic reminder of nature's raw power.

Kimberly Osias, CNN, Mount St. Helens, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: Four states, five days. Keep with CNN's "NEWSNIGHT" and Aaron Brown as he travels across the West to see what voters there think about this year's election. Tonight they're going to Portland, Oregon, to examine the issues of assisted suicide and gay marriage. That is at 10 p.m. Eastern, 7 Pacific.

(WEATHER REPORT)

NGUYEN: When you speed, whether or not you're wearing a seat belt, new black boxes for cars will record that information. And it's making lots of people uncomfortable.

Plus a change is in the wings for "The Tonight Show." We'll hear what Jay Leno has to say about the politics of picking a successor.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Here's a look at what's happening now in the news. Palestinian security forces say a CNN producer abducted at gunpoint may soon be released. The sources say they knew where Riad Ali was being held and had received proof that he was alive. They did not elaborate on who was holding Ali, or why he was abducted.

A fierce gun battle in the Indian part of the Kashmir region leaves three militants dead. Sources say the three were killed when they clashed with police at a village hideout. A fourth militant was shot and killed by Indian security forces in a separate incident.

A House panel is holding a hearing this morning on school safety and teacher background checks. A proposal would give the Department of Education more power to collect information about teachers with criminal records. And it would encourage states to participate in a national criminal information sharing system.

Authorities say a truck carrying explosives has overturned near Atlanta. The incident shut down all lanes of Interstate 85 north of the city. We have not been able to confirm reports that the explosive material is ammonium nitrate.

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 September 28, 2004 - 10:28   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Now in the news, this just in to CNN, take a look at these pictures. Traffic is stalled in Lawrenceville, Georgia, after a truck carrying ammonium nitrate, which could potentially be explosive overturned on Interstate 85. There's the truck right there, you see. It's not immediately clear how this wreck happened or whether the driver was injured. But Authorities have closed down that freeway. They are waiting for hazardous materials crews to arrive at the scene and determine the danger there. But In the interim, some nearby businesses have been evacuated just as a precaution. But as you can see, traffic is backed up on Interstate 85 in Lawrenceville, Georgia this morning, after a truck carrying ammonium nitrate has overturned.
Also in the news, a section of Interstate 85 -- well, we just mentioned that. U.S. warplanes again bombed an area of Fallujah believed linked to Abu Musab al Zarqawi. Iraqi police say at least three people were killed and at least nine others wounded. U.S. military officials say they were tipped off that members of Zarqawi's terrorist group were working in the building at the time of the strike. The U.S. says weeks of air attacks in Fallujah have decimated Zarqawi's network.

Haitians are struggling with the crisis in the wake of Tropical Storm Jeanne. More than 1300 people have been killed. And that number could rise by the hundreds. Some 300,000 people are homeless. Though relief comes in by the planeloads, people are not getting enough food or medical supplies. Impassable roads, looting and fighting over goods are hampering distribution.

American gymnast, Paul Hamm says he is satisfied with the hearing about his Gold Medal. He spoke at an 11 1/2 hour hearing before a sports court in Switzerland. The court will decide whether Hamm should keep his gymnastics all around Gold Medal, or whether it should go to South Korea's Yang Jae-young. The International Gymnastics Federation says a scoring mistake cost the South Korean the Gold.

And a collection of 41 letters written by Ronald Reagan has been put up for sale. Several letters reveal a tougher side than the former president usually showed in public. Reagan accuses Walter Mondale of lying through his teeth. He refers to Senator Edward Kennedy as the "playboy from Massachusetts." And describes the nation's biggest newspapers, as sellers of quote "daily poison." Reagan wrote the letters to another actor turned politician, George Murphy.

A leading Democrat in the U.S. Senate and one of the most aggressive supporters of John Kerry has launched a new attack on President Bush's Iraq war policies. Senator Ted Kennedy says the Bush administration's handling of the war quote "has been a toxic mix of ignorance, arrogance and stubborn ideology." He says the war has made America less safe than before.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: The greatest danger we face in the days, weeks and months ahead is a nuclear 9/11. We hope and pray that it is not already too late to prevent. The war in Iraq has made the mushroom cloud more likely, not less likely, and it never should have happened.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: Bush supporters say the sharpened rhetoric shows that the Kerry campaign is increasingly worried by the president's lead in recent polls. Yesterday, Kerry's running mate, John Edwards, said the Bush-Cheney campaign quote "will absolutely lie about anything." That, too, is being shrugged off by Bush insiders as we heard earlier on CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "AMERICAN MORNING")

KAREN HUGHES, BUSH CAMPAIGN SPECIAL ADVISER: I just have to kind of shake my head. I mean, that kind of talk, there's really no place for that in our political debate. We can disagree on issues. But I don't think we need to run around using words like "lie" and things like that. I think what you're seeing is a little bit of increasing desperation on the part of the Democratic candidates as the polls show that President Bush continues to be in the lead.

I know there's a new CNN poll that shows that President Bush is on the lead on all the major issues of this campaign. On the war on terrorism, on the economy, on Iraq. And I think what you're seeing, hearing is a little desperation creeping into our opponent's voices.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: Now we all know American voters will get to voice their beliefs on Election Day. But what if you had the president's undivided attention. That's the premise of a new book "If You Had Five Minutes with the President." And it puts the question -- this question to 55 celebrities and personalities. Robin Bronk is the executive director of the Creative Coalition which is an advocacy group for the arts and entertainment industry. She joins us now from New York.

Good morning to you.

ROBIN BRONK, EXEC. DIR., THE CREATIVE COALITION: Hi. Good morning.

NGUYEN: Well, a lot of people collaborated as part of this book. But this was your idea. What sparked it? BRONK: Well, what sparked it is the creative (UNINTELLIGIBLE) back-up. I'm the executive director of the Creative Coalition, which is the nonprofit, nonpartisan public advocacy arm of the entertainment industry. And we do a lot of issue work on Capitol Hill, as well as in the state capitals, and we always say, well, you know, when you get your five minutes, or when you're right there meeting with your policymaker, what are you going to say? You've got to think quick and you've got to think what your message is, so what are you going to do in your five minutes? And that's sort of how the idea was born.

NGUYEN: And you've got some really interesting responses. We want to get right to them. The first up is Lauren Holly, an actress a lot of people know from "Dumb & Dumber," and she writes: "Mr. President, do you go to bed every night feeling fulfilled? Is there stuff we don't know about? Are you afraid?"

It seems like she's really focusing on the personal effects of the job. Did you hear a lot of that?

BRONK: It was a real mix of whether people were talking personally about a president's personal experiences. Some took it as this is my five minutes to promote an issue that I care deeply about, and I'm deeply vested into or my community is deeply vested in. One of my favorites is Tucker Carlson, who ends his essay by saying: "Godspeed and good luck, your third year in office will be horrible."

NGUYEN: Tucker Carlson. All right let's go to Eric McCormack, the actor from "Will & Grace." This is very interesting. He says: "I know he's a friend of yours, but God has to go, not completely gone, you understand, but he has got to go to get the hell out of the White House."

That was really quite surprising. Did you get a lot of passionate responses from people?

BRONK: Oh, the book screams with passion, which is great. You -- it's short essays by -- and it's a real mix of personalities, business leaders, liberals, conservatives, middle of the road. It is great -- it's a great cheat sheet for a dinner conversation. It's a great book to read, and then you rant with it, you rave with it, you cry with it, and then you say, you know, I hadn't thought about it that way. And you can footnote the book, too, in your next meeting with the policymaker.

NGUYEN: Everyone has their own opinion, including Tom Arnold. We want to put that one up on the screen for you. He says: "Please make brave decisions, not based on polls, after all, I count on you to be smarter than me."

And one that I found most interesting of the quotes that I looked at was from Mary Stuart Masterson, and she writes: "I would suggest that all meetings with international leaders be conducted after they have given massages to one another. The actual meetings would then be carried out in the nude."

Very interesting from Mary Stuart Masterson. BRONK: It is. Joey Pants, Joe Pantoliano, even tries to solve the Mideast peace crisis in a very creative way. So we encourage people to turn to that page first. It's available in all bookstores across the country. I think it is leaving the shelves rather quickly. So we're excited about that. Or it can be ordered from our Web site at www.thecreativecoalition.org.

NGUYEN: Robin, quickly, we're out of time but I just want to ask you, do you want the candidates to be listening to some of the questions, some of the issues being raised in this book? What's the message to the candidates?

BRONK: The message to the candidates from the book is, yes, we encourage you to read it. We really tackle a number of issues from the arts, education, stem cell research, terrorism, war. And please give us our 10 minutes and read the book.

NGUYEN: All right, Robin Bronk, executive director of the Creative Coalition. We thank you for your time and the interesting insights from all these celebrities in the book. Thank you.

BRONK: Thank you.

NGUYEN: John Kerry will get much longer than five minutes with President Bush in this Thursday's debate. The candidates are expected to exchange strong opinions in the high stakes face-off. And CNN will have a series of reports leading up to the first debate which is, of course, on Thursday. Here's our Boston bureau chief Dan Lothian with a preview of Thursday's face-off.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN BOSTON BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): The Sunshine State, battered by four back-to-back hurricanes, now faces the stormy fight for the White House.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: My opponent has had seven or eight different positions.

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The W stands for wrong.

LOTHIAN: The candidates, for the first time, face-to-face in what Webster's describes as "a formal contest of skill in reasoned argument." The first debate focusing on foreign policy and homeland security is a potentially defining event for candidate...

KATHLEEN HALL JAMIESON, ANNENBERG SCHOOL OF COMM.: Sometimes in close elections they swing votes enough to potentially make a difference.

LOTHIAN: ... and voter.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it's a good opportunity to see what they stand for.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, I think it's a piece of a whole composite.

HALL JAMIESON: Debates signal to the electorate that it's time now to firm up the voting decision that you've already made, or if you haven't made one, to get on the ball and start paying attention.

LOTHIAN (on camera): But even before the first question is asked, the debate over the debates seems to have generated as much attention. It took 32 pages to spell out all the rules. Little details such as who gets to see the timing lights. In this case, even the TV audience. Candidates are prohibited from walking beyond their podium area. Avoiding what Al Gore did, invading George Bush's space in 2000.

BUSH: And I believe I can.

LOTHIAN: In another debate, Gore, while listening to Bush, lost points while doing this some 18 times. That was fixed by doing away with cutaways when a candidate is speaking. Which may also limit the opportunity for a candidate to get caught looking at his watch, appearing bored. There's even a line that ensures an appropriate temperature in the room will be maintained according to industry standards, hopefully preventing sweating, like Nixon experienced in 1960, blamed in part on a bad makeup job. But some people worry too much control may dilute what the voter needs to see and hear.

JAMES FALLOWS, "ATLANTIC MONTHLY": It's like an unbelievable pre-nup.

LOTHIAN (voice-over): James Fallows writes for the "Atlantic Monthly."

FALLOWS: I think it's a linear extension, the way these things have gone year by year or election by election. And each time each side tries to correct something that was left out the last time.

LOTHIAN: That's important to campaigns. because ever since televised general election presidential debates began in 1960, there have been memorable moments that many believe impacted who won.

RONALD REAGAN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There you go again.

LOTHIAN: Sometimes it's the substance, what a candidate says, but didn't mean to.

FALLOWS: When Jimmy Carter was running against Gerald Ford, a very important moment was...

GERALD FORD, 38TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe.

FALLOWS: Gerald Ford appeared to say that he wasn't aware that Poland was under Soviet control. And this sort of fit into an idea that maybe Gerald Ford wasn't on top of all the issues.

LOTHIAN: Carter won the debate and the presidency. But the unexpected moments sometimes have more to do with perception and interpretation than with reality. And that's something everyone agrees not even 32 pages of hotly negotiated guidelines can control.

Dan Lothian, CNN, Boston.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: You'll want to watch the debate right here on CNN, as part of our coverage. We'll use a real time meter to gauge the reaction of a focus group of undecided voters. The debate is Thursday night at 9:00 p.m. Eastern.

First it was road rage. Now cell phone rage. A pregnant woman handcuffed, accused of talking too loud on her cell phone in public.

Also we'll tell you today's price of oil in our check on Wall Street.

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NGUYEN: Let's tale a look at other stories making news coast to coast. The 700 home run ball hit by Barry Bonds less than two weeks ago is about to land in court. The fan who is seen here, we'll try to get you that video, holding it is being sued by another fan who says the ball was stolen from him during that mad dash.

From the nation's capital a cell phone story that will have people talking. This woman who is five months pregnant says a metro transit police officer handcuffed her and pushed her to the ground. The reason for her arrest, she was talking too loudly on her cell phone. Now police officials are defending the arrest, saying she was loudly cursing and being offensive.

Beginning today, you may have a dash of new color decorating your wallet or billfold. New $50 bills are going into circulation today with splashes of red, blue, and yellow, as you see there. It's designed to foil counterfeiters. Last fall the $20 bill became the first U.S. currency to get the color treatment.

(MARKET REPORT)

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NGUYEN: It's a mystery a few centuries old. One man and his eternally young woman, forever together, bound by international interest and intrigue. But how did they meet? Our Alessio Vinci canvasses the questions over a very famous canvas.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALESSIO VINCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): She is one of the world's most enduring symbols of feminine allure. And there is even a famous song about her.

Was she the creation of Leonardo's imagination, or was he inspired by a real woman in the street of 16th Century Florence?

Looking for an answer, Giuseppe Pallanti spent more than 25 years researching the city's archives. He came across land and marriage records written in the 1490s which he says prove that Mona Lisa existed.

"These documents prove without a doubt that Mona Lisa's husband was a client of Leonardo's father who was a famous notary in Florence," he says. "And they also show how the families were closely connected and lived very close to each other. This is evidence, I believe, proving what historians wrote in the 16th Century, that Mona Lisa was a real person."

Pallanti took me to one of the places where Leonardo and Mona Lisa may have met, the Church of the Santissima Annunziata in the heart of Florence. Mona Lisa came to Sunday Mass here, and her husband is buried here in the family chapel. It is located next door to the convent where Leonardo was lodging when he began painting the famous portrait.

(on camera): Other historians have acknowledged Pallanti's meticulous efforts to establish Mona Lisa's identity, yet they have also expressed some skepticism. While the documents show that Mona Lisa and Leonardo may have been acquainted, no records today can prove without a doubt that she also was his muse.

(voice-over): Pallanti wrote a short book about his findings and agrees his study may only confirm the existence of Mona Lisa. But after half a millennium, he says, circumstantial evidence establishing a relationship is as close to reality researchers will ever get. And just like that famous song speculates about the mysterious smile, so will historians and romantics wonder for centuries to come.

Alessio Vinci, CNN, Florence.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: Well, this won't make you smile. The last time it erupted more than 50 people died. Now once again, all eyes are on a sleeping giant that some fear may be awakening again. Mounting concern over Mount St. Helens is next.

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NGUYEN: They're probably not trying to make a mountain out of a molehill. Here's a live look, though. But scientists in Washington State want to know what is going on at Mount St. Helens. These are, as we mentioned, live pictures of the volcano south of Seattle. In recent days swarms of small earthquakes have hit, sometimes one or two a minute. Higher hiking trails are now closed and one expert said the energy is just boiling out.

The mysterious quakes are shaking within the volcano's gaping crater, the source of a tragic eruption almost 25 years ago.

Here's CNN's Kim Osias.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) KIMBERLY OSIAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was 1980 when Mount St. Helens finally blew 80,000 feet into the sky, flattening a wooded area the size of Chicago and killing 57 people.

TODD CULLINGS, U.S. FOREST SERVICE: This landslide came down. Gases inside the molten rock rapidly expanded.

OSIAS: It was one of those watershed events, etched forever in our collective memory.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: After the mountain blew, this was just gray up here. It was just totally -- I mean, it was just barren.

OSIAS (on camera): Almost two and a half decades later, the ecosystem is still healing. Most of the animals have returned. The trees are a little bit slower. Here, you can clearly see where the timber companies have replanted, and in the distance behind me where Mother Nature is still struggling to rebuild.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I bet when we hit the 50th anniversary of the eruption, people will be struggling to understand the story just because it's going to so well-hidden by the return of the forest.

OSIAS (voice-over): But there are some areas where trees still lie like matchsticks, part of the spectacle that draws a million visitors a year.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you want to have a really good idea of how big this landslide was, just put your fingers up even with each slope of Mount St. Helens. Where your fingertips meet together, that shows you where the summit of the volcano used to be.

OSIAS: Some visitors keep coming back.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Look, there's still some dead trees standing.

OSIAS: For Sylvia Flores Milson (ph), it's important not to forget.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I want them to see how we all got through this. We all -- and it all came out OK.

OSIAS: The crater still steams. And scientists monitor Mount St. Helens daily. They say it's not a question of whether it will blow again, but when.

DR. STEVE MALONE, SEISMOLOGIST, UNIV. WASHINGTON: If it's going to be in another year, two years, 10 years, or more, certainly it will.

OSIAS: For now, Mount St. Helens looms as a graphic reminder of nature's raw power.

Kimberly Osias, CNN, Mount St. Helens, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: Four states, five days. Keep with CNN's "NEWSNIGHT" and Aaron Brown as he travels across the West to see what voters there think about this year's election. Tonight they're going to Portland, Oregon, to examine the issues of assisted suicide and gay marriage. That is at 10 p.m. Eastern, 7 Pacific.

(WEATHER REPORT)

NGUYEN: When you speed, whether or not you're wearing a seat belt, new black boxes for cars will record that information. And it's making lots of people uncomfortable.

Plus a change is in the wings for "The Tonight Show." We'll hear what Jay Leno has to say about the politics of picking a successor.

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NGUYEN: Here's a look at what's happening now in the news. Palestinian security forces say a CNN producer abducted at gunpoint may soon be released. The sources say they knew where Riad Ali was being held and had received proof that he was alive. They did not elaborate on who was holding Ali, or why he was abducted.

A fierce gun battle in the Indian part of the Kashmir region leaves three militants dead. Sources say the three were killed when they clashed with police at a village hideout. A fourth militant was shot and killed by Indian security forces in a separate incident.

A House panel is holding a hearing this morning on school safety and teacher background checks. A proposal would give the Department of Education more power to collect information about teachers with criminal records. And it would encourage states to participate in a national criminal information sharing system.

Authorities say a truck carrying explosives has overturned near Atlanta. The incident shut down all lanes of Interstate 85 north of the city. We have not been able to confirm reports that the explosive material is ammonium nitrate.

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