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CNN Live Today

Voters Get Their First Chance to See, Hear Presidential Candidates Face to Face in a National Debate Tonight; "Daily Dose"

Aired September 30, 2004 - 11:29   ET

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

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


CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: OK, so voters are going to get their first chance to see and hear the presidential candidates face to face in a national debate tonight. President Bush is expected to hammer away at his portrayal of John Kerry as weak and indecisive.
White House correspondent Dana Bash joins me now from Miami with more on debate preps -- Dana.

DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, for the second day in a row, the president is taking advantage of the fact here in Florida that he's the incumbent. He went to Stuart, Florida, and went to a federal relief area, where he was hugging victims of the Florida hurricanes, talking about the fact that he believes -- showing that they are getting some federal relief.

Now it's not an official campaign stop, but Mr. Bush's sixth hurricane-related event over the last two months is certainly aimed at voters here, much more focused on hurricanes than raw politics.

And of course the imagery has another purpose. It's to show he's not cramming for tonight's debate, he's going on business as usual. He's certainly is getting some advice from his top officials throughout the day, although there's no former debate prep scheduled, we're told.

The president's lines of offense, as you mentioned, Carol, are no mystery. He's going to try to cement in America's mind what he's been building on for the past several months, that John Kerry, he believes, has had several changing positions in Iraq, therefore, he's not fit to be commander in chief.

But we're told the president has also been practicing his lines of defense. Certainly he defends Iraq war, and his decision for war, at every campaign stop, but this is going to be different. It's going to be much more expansive forum, and a forum where John Kerry's aides have made clear they really want to press him somehow on questions like, why weren't there enough troops perhaps sent to Iraq? Why is the costs more than the administration anticipated? So these are questions, Carol, that the president is waiting for. Certainly, he is preparing some lines to respond to that. And although the president does feel confident and the spinners -- his Bush campaign spinners are certainly working it to a dizzying effect. They do believe he's got to answer these questions well to stay where he is at this time in the polls.

LIN: Dana, are they will to concede any of his weaknesses when comes to his debate strategy? I mean, he is an unconventional debater by style.

BASH: Well, he is an unconventional debater by style, of course. That is something his campaign says is one of his strengths. But as you've heard, Carol, from his advisers, they have been saying -- they've been really ratcheting it up in terms of how -- where John Kerry is versus where he is, saying that John Kerry is an expert debater, and that President Bush sort of speaks more like the American people. That is something that they do think is an asset. We'll see what happens tonight.

LIN: Also lays the ground for the potential for more surprises, Dana, so we'll see what happens.

Thank you.

Well, is it what you say, or how you say it?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Could supply them with nuclear -- nuclear activity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIN: There you go, nuclear. Our Jeanne Moos has some pre-debate tips for the presidential candidate, still to come.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: Well, now to the Kerry campaign. Aides to Senator John Kerry say he is ready for tonight's match-up. And John Kerry says he looks forward to the opportunity to share the truth with Americans.

National correspondent Frank Buckley is with the Kerry campaign in Bal Harbour, Florida -- Frank.

FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, there, Kerry -- Carol.

LIN: I understood you.

BUCKLEY: I'm tired and -- anyway, Senator Kerry is going to do his best, we are told, to try to put President Bush on the defensive tonight, specifically with the issue of Iraq. As you've said, he said he's going to talk about the truth, as he put it. He wants to make the case that President Bush has one, mishandled the war in Iraq, and two, hasn't leveled with the American people about how bad the situation is on the ground in Iraq.

Certainly, the burden is on Senator Kerry to convince voters that they need to change presidents and that he is the better choice to be the president. His advisers say that he has to show his strength in leadership qualities tonight, convince voters that they will be safer with the president -- with Senator Kerry as President Kerry, and that he can, in fact, be a strong commander in chief.

As for Senator Kerry's preparation, he's engaged in four full mock debates, we are told. Those mock debates, including everything from timing devices so he'll get used to that, and those mock debates taking place at night, because the debate is taking place at night, so he'll be into the rhythm of a nighttime debate.

Of course, much at stake, Carol, for Senator Kerry. Historically, this is the time when undecided voters start to tune in, in the last month or so of the election. And the first debate is the one that's widely considered to be the most watched of the debate. So really a chance for Senator Kerry to make a first impression on those undecided voters, who haven't been paying attention, believe it or not, until now.

LIN: Well, the Bush campaign has been making hay about Kerry being a flip-flopper when it comes to issues like funding for Iraq. They have sound of him on tape, regarding different Senate votes. Bob Dole has said, look, it's pretty hard to run for president when you've got a 20-year record in the Senate. You can't really explain all those votes that contradict each other. How is he going to try to contradict that tonight?

BUCKLEY: Well, I don't think he's going to try to explain each and every one of his votes. As Senator Dole was saying, it is a complicated issue when it comes to funding and things of that nature. What he has done and we have seen him do is try to turn it around and suggest that it's President Bush who's been the flip-flopper on various issues related to the war on terror and to the war in Iraq, so I think that we'll try to see him make a pivot there and turn it against President Bush, as we've said, to try to put President Bush on the defensive.

LIN: All right, some rehearsals going on there, apparently...

BUCKLEY: I'm going to try not to get hit by this truck.

LIN: All right, you scoot. Thanks very much, Frank Buckley, reporting live with the Kerry campaign.

Want to let you know, we're still all over this Vioxx story. The company, drug company, Merck withdrawing its popular arthritis drug. I'm going to be talking with a doctor. In case you have it in your medicine cabinet, you need to hear his advice.

Be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: In our "Daily Dose" of health news, more on this morning's stunning announcement that the popular arthritis drug Vioxx is being taken off the market. Jonathan -- Dr. Jonathan Waltuck is assistant professor of rheumatology at Emory University. He joins me on the telephone today.

Dr. Waltuck, thanks for being with us on short notice. I know you're seeing patients today.

DR. JONATHAN WALTUCK, ASST. PROF. OF RHEUMATOLOGY, EMORY UNIVERSITY: My pleasure.

LIN: What are you telling them about the drug?

WALTUCK: Well, at this point, I think what we're telling our patients is much like what most of the physicians in the United States is telling them, which is that due to some concerns regarding cardiovascular side effects, this medication has been pulled from market. I think my advice to patients would be to contact their physicians and be prescribed an alternative medication.

I think it's important to realize that this is not a completely new issue. There have been hints of cardiovascular risks related to Vioxx from several studies in the past, and these have led to some concerns. What's new is a large study looking at prevention of colon polyps, in which Merck specifically assessed cardiovascular endpoints and discovered that there was an increased risk of strokes and MIs -- cardiovascular disease, in other words -- in those patients, given Vioxx. And that's what prompted this decision.

LIN: So, if you've been on Vioxx for a period of time, I think Merck has said within 18 months, but let's say you've been taking it a week, a month, a year, are you vulnerable? And if so, by how much?

WALTUCK: Well, I think we have to realize that this is a statistical risk. This is not in any way a guarantee that any one person is going to have a problem. What Merck noted in this study was that the risk of -- the increased risk of cardiovascular endpoints occurred after 18 months.

LIN: Translate that for me. What do you mean cardiovascular endpoints, and what happened after 18 months?

WALTUCK: Strokes and heart attacks increased -- or worse, there was a significant increase so that it was detectable after 18 months, which means that in the first 18 months there was not a detectable increase.

So, I think people who have been on the medication for a short period of time should feel relatively comfortable. I certainly don't think that anyone needs to panic about this. As I said, there has been some information to this effect in the past. What this is, is a little bit stronger confirmatory evidence that there is a statistical risk...

LIN: But serious enough for a major drug company to pull its drug, a very popular drug, off the shelves. Thank you, Dr. Waltuck. I know you're going to get a lot of questions from your patients today. We appreciate your time.

Also want to let you know that the CEO of the Merck drug company, Raymond Gilmartin is going to be talking with Wolf in about 45 minutes, around 12:30 Eastern today. So, stay tuned for that.

In the meantime, his design won the competition to rebuild the World Trade Center. Now find out what has shaped Daniel Libeskind's architectural vision, and what happened to his vision for the World Trade Center project to begin with.

CNN LIVE TODAY returns.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: Freedom Tower will rise 1,776 feet above the New York skyline, standing tall at the former World Trade Center site. The torque design complements the Statue of Liberty and is scheduled to be completed in 2008.

Of course, the Freedom Tower is the vision of architect Daniel Libeskind. His new memoir, "Breaking Ground," chronicles the design process, as well as his inspiring life story.

Daniel Libeskind joins me now in New York at the Time Warner Center this morning. Good morning, Daniel.

DANIEL LIBESKIND, FREEDOM TOWER DESIGNER Good morning, thank you.

LIN: Why did you decide to write a book?

LIBESKIND: You know, wherever I go on the streets of New York or anywhere that I am, people ask me how did I come up with my ideas. How is the project going? What's going on? And even as an ambassador for culture, where I was appointed by the State Department, ambassador for culture in architecture, around the world, people want to know where did my ideas come from?

So, I wrote the book. It's a story which is really a story of my life, but it's a story of how I came to be the master planner of Ground Zero. And it's also the story of America, because I came here as an immigrant and from a Communist dictatorship. And when I sailed past the Statue of Liberty, I wanted to embody the values that I saw then in the skyline, which was about liberty and freedom, in my design.

LIN: And you learned a lot, not only about architecture, but you learned a lot, frankly, about life.

In your book, you describe your relationship with the architectural firm that's actually going to execute much of this design and construction, Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill, as a forced marriage that you compared to North and South Korea's peace negotiations.

LIBESKIND: Well, it was a tough process. But you know, I also write about my parents, who were holocaust survivors, and what they taught me about how to behave in life, how to compromise, how to be able to move ahead. And really, the book is an aspiring story about how, despite all the fray -- and of course, it's a democracy. Things are tough, and there are so many people who care about Ground Zero. Why should it be easy? But we reached something really inspiring, I think, in the Freedom Tower.

LIN: But give me an example of why you wrote that about your relationship. Because frankly, you have been very politic on the air about all the stories that have been flying about, how you had the vision as the master planner, but you are not in a position to actually execute the design, and the design changes have been made.

LIBESKIND: Well, that's natural for any design. A design which is rigid is just destined to wind up in a book...

LIN: So, give me an example of what changed between your original vision and what Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill are actually going to execute?

LIBESKIND: I think one thing that changed -- because the tower became much bigger at its base -- I lost the Park of Heroes, which I thought was a very important part of the plan. But outside of that, every other component of the design is there.

The slurry wall, with its power to hold back the waters of the Hudson and the (INAUDIBLE) is there. The memorial, with the footprints is there. The Freedom Tower, which is mirroring the Statue of Liberty, is there -- 1,776-foot high, dedicated to the Declaration of Independence, and speaking about human rights and democracy in America and the world -- it's there.

Cultural building, new streets, and new neighborhoods connected to the beauty of the Hudson River, it's there.

LIN: And I want to assure the people that the pictures that you're looking at here are not the pictures of what you're describing, but in fact some of your past works, like the Denver Art Museum, the Imperial War Museum in Manchester, England, that shows that you clearly have a love of glass and a modernist bent.

LIBESKIND: Well, I think architecture has to be contemporary, has to be uplifting, but it also has to be memorable. It has to tie itself to a spirit of the space, a culture, a people. And Ground Zero and what it represents is not just something individual, it's about New York, the values we stand firmly for, and the freedoms that this site will represent to the world.

LIN: Daniel Libeskind, thank you very much for joining us. And yours is a compelling American story.

LIBESKIND: Thank you.

LIN: All right, Rhonda Schaffler, talk about an American story, how are fortunes down there at the New York Stock Exchange?

(STOCK MARKET UPDATE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

LIN: Here's a cautionary tale about protecting your Internet domain name? What's in a name? Well, quite a lot, apparently. We're going to be talking more about that, coming up. In fact, well, actually what you're looking at is Marilyn Musgrave. She's a Colorado Congresswoman, known for promoting family values, and she had a Web site for her 2002 campaign that was designed by a Christian-based Internet company, and then she got a new Web site and let lapse her ownership of the old one. Well, that was a mistake, because now known who types in the old URL will discover it's a porn site.

OK, it may not be what they say, but how they say it, and how they look while they're saying it.

Jeanne Moos takes a look at that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Don't read their lips, watch body language. George Bush prefers pointing his finger. John Kerry is big on making a fist and pointing his thumb. He's even ambidextrous.

KERRY: Red, white and blue.

MOOS: There haven't been any smack downs. But remember this stare down? But it's the way they speak that makes a comedian's day.

BUSH: And America is the new Texas. We will kick your ass.

KERRY: I can't believe I'm behind in the polls to this.

MOOS: Kerry the Brahman versus Bush the Bull.

(on camera) If there's one word that sums up President Bush's speaking style, it's "nucular." Nuclear. "Nucular." Nuclear. He's got me confused.

(voice-over) No matter that "nucular" drives his critics ballistic.

BUSH: ... for nucular bombs.

We could supply them with nucular...

Nucular activity...

MOOS: A Stanford University linguist has even written a book called "Going Nucular." He calls it...

GEOFFREY NUNBERG, LINGUIST, STANFORD UNIVERSITY: Go Bubba. A way of connecting to people, of turning himself into a Texan and washing Andover and Yale from his shoes.

BUSH: Nucular weapons.

Nucular nonproliferation obligations.

MOOS: And though "nuclear" is correct, many in the military prefer "nucular." "Merriam-Webster's" notes that though "nucular" is disapproved of, it's widely used by educated speakers, including at least one U.S. president.

But for Mia Farrow's character, it's a crime.

MIA FARROW, ACTRESS: I've never been seduced by guy who wears loafers and no socks, much less one who says "nucular."

NUNBERG: Well, I think it's a choice. It's like the swagger, something that's become second nature.

MOOS: And then there's Senator Kerry's patrician delivery, even more pronounced when he was young.

KERRY: Razed villages in the fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan.

NUNBERG: He had that real preppy drawl, what people sometimes call the Massachusetts malocclusion.

KERRY: An abnormality in the coming together of the teeth, highly mockable.

COLIN QUINN, COMEDIAN: You see him in the old footage, he's like, "The atrocities we committed were without parallel."

MOOS: Some yearn for a dream debate.

BILL MAHER, COMEDIAN: But a debate between Bill Clinton and Arnold Schwarzenegger, you could put that on Pay-Per-View.

MOOS: But in this debate, if either candidate bombs, it's "nucular."

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: And that's all we have for today, CNN LIVE TODAY.

I'm Carol Lin at the CNN Center.

I'm going toss it off to Wolf, who's down in Miami today, getting ready for the debates.

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 30, 2004 - 11:29   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: OK, so voters are going to get their first chance to see and hear the presidential candidates face to face in a national debate tonight. President Bush is expected to hammer away at his portrayal of John Kerry as weak and indecisive.
White House correspondent Dana Bash joins me now from Miami with more on debate preps -- Dana.

DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, for the second day in a row, the president is taking advantage of the fact here in Florida that he's the incumbent. He went to Stuart, Florida, and went to a federal relief area, where he was hugging victims of the Florida hurricanes, talking about the fact that he believes -- showing that they are getting some federal relief.

Now it's not an official campaign stop, but Mr. Bush's sixth hurricane-related event over the last two months is certainly aimed at voters here, much more focused on hurricanes than raw politics.

And of course the imagery has another purpose. It's to show he's not cramming for tonight's debate, he's going on business as usual. He's certainly is getting some advice from his top officials throughout the day, although there's no former debate prep scheduled, we're told.

The president's lines of offense, as you mentioned, Carol, are no mystery. He's going to try to cement in America's mind what he's been building on for the past several months, that John Kerry, he believes, has had several changing positions in Iraq, therefore, he's not fit to be commander in chief.

But we're told the president has also been practicing his lines of defense. Certainly he defends Iraq war, and his decision for war, at every campaign stop, but this is going to be different. It's going to be much more expansive forum, and a forum where John Kerry's aides have made clear they really want to press him somehow on questions like, why weren't there enough troops perhaps sent to Iraq? Why is the costs more than the administration anticipated? So these are questions, Carol, that the president is waiting for. Certainly, he is preparing some lines to respond to that. And although the president does feel confident and the spinners -- his Bush campaign spinners are certainly working it to a dizzying effect. They do believe he's got to answer these questions well to stay where he is at this time in the polls.

LIN: Dana, are they will to concede any of his weaknesses when comes to his debate strategy? I mean, he is an unconventional debater by style.

BASH: Well, he is an unconventional debater by style, of course. That is something his campaign says is one of his strengths. But as you've heard, Carol, from his advisers, they have been saying -- they've been really ratcheting it up in terms of how -- where John Kerry is versus where he is, saying that John Kerry is an expert debater, and that President Bush sort of speaks more like the American people. That is something that they do think is an asset. We'll see what happens tonight.

LIN: Also lays the ground for the potential for more surprises, Dana, so we'll see what happens.

Thank you.

Well, is it what you say, or how you say it?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Could supply them with nuclear -- nuclear activity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIN: There you go, nuclear. Our Jeanne Moos has some pre-debate tips for the presidential candidate, still to come.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: Well, now to the Kerry campaign. Aides to Senator John Kerry say he is ready for tonight's match-up. And John Kerry says he looks forward to the opportunity to share the truth with Americans.

National correspondent Frank Buckley is with the Kerry campaign in Bal Harbour, Florida -- Frank.

FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, there, Kerry -- Carol.

LIN: I understood you.

BUCKLEY: I'm tired and -- anyway, Senator Kerry is going to do his best, we are told, to try to put President Bush on the defensive tonight, specifically with the issue of Iraq. As you've said, he said he's going to talk about the truth, as he put it. He wants to make the case that President Bush has one, mishandled the war in Iraq, and two, hasn't leveled with the American people about how bad the situation is on the ground in Iraq.

Certainly, the burden is on Senator Kerry to convince voters that they need to change presidents and that he is the better choice to be the president. His advisers say that he has to show his strength in leadership qualities tonight, convince voters that they will be safer with the president -- with Senator Kerry as President Kerry, and that he can, in fact, be a strong commander in chief.

As for Senator Kerry's preparation, he's engaged in four full mock debates, we are told. Those mock debates, including everything from timing devices so he'll get used to that, and those mock debates taking place at night, because the debate is taking place at night, so he'll be into the rhythm of a nighttime debate.

Of course, much at stake, Carol, for Senator Kerry. Historically, this is the time when undecided voters start to tune in, in the last month or so of the election. And the first debate is the one that's widely considered to be the most watched of the debate. So really a chance for Senator Kerry to make a first impression on those undecided voters, who haven't been paying attention, believe it or not, until now.

LIN: Well, the Bush campaign has been making hay about Kerry being a flip-flopper when it comes to issues like funding for Iraq. They have sound of him on tape, regarding different Senate votes. Bob Dole has said, look, it's pretty hard to run for president when you've got a 20-year record in the Senate. You can't really explain all those votes that contradict each other. How is he going to try to contradict that tonight?

BUCKLEY: Well, I don't think he's going to try to explain each and every one of his votes. As Senator Dole was saying, it is a complicated issue when it comes to funding and things of that nature. What he has done and we have seen him do is try to turn it around and suggest that it's President Bush who's been the flip-flopper on various issues related to the war on terror and to the war in Iraq, so I think that we'll try to see him make a pivot there and turn it against President Bush, as we've said, to try to put President Bush on the defensive.

LIN: All right, some rehearsals going on there, apparently...

BUCKLEY: I'm going to try not to get hit by this truck.

LIN: All right, you scoot. Thanks very much, Frank Buckley, reporting live with the Kerry campaign.

Want to let you know, we're still all over this Vioxx story. The company, drug company, Merck withdrawing its popular arthritis drug. I'm going to be talking with a doctor. In case you have it in your medicine cabinet, you need to hear his advice.

Be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: In our "Daily Dose" of health news, more on this morning's stunning announcement that the popular arthritis drug Vioxx is being taken off the market. Jonathan -- Dr. Jonathan Waltuck is assistant professor of rheumatology at Emory University. He joins me on the telephone today.

Dr. Waltuck, thanks for being with us on short notice. I know you're seeing patients today.

DR. JONATHAN WALTUCK, ASST. PROF. OF RHEUMATOLOGY, EMORY UNIVERSITY: My pleasure.

LIN: What are you telling them about the drug?

WALTUCK: Well, at this point, I think what we're telling our patients is much like what most of the physicians in the United States is telling them, which is that due to some concerns regarding cardiovascular side effects, this medication has been pulled from market. I think my advice to patients would be to contact their physicians and be prescribed an alternative medication.

I think it's important to realize that this is not a completely new issue. There have been hints of cardiovascular risks related to Vioxx from several studies in the past, and these have led to some concerns. What's new is a large study looking at prevention of colon polyps, in which Merck specifically assessed cardiovascular endpoints and discovered that there was an increased risk of strokes and MIs -- cardiovascular disease, in other words -- in those patients, given Vioxx. And that's what prompted this decision.

LIN: So, if you've been on Vioxx for a period of time, I think Merck has said within 18 months, but let's say you've been taking it a week, a month, a year, are you vulnerable? And if so, by how much?

WALTUCK: Well, I think we have to realize that this is a statistical risk. This is not in any way a guarantee that any one person is going to have a problem. What Merck noted in this study was that the risk of -- the increased risk of cardiovascular endpoints occurred after 18 months.

LIN: Translate that for me. What do you mean cardiovascular endpoints, and what happened after 18 months?

WALTUCK: Strokes and heart attacks increased -- or worse, there was a significant increase so that it was detectable after 18 months, which means that in the first 18 months there was not a detectable increase.

So, I think people who have been on the medication for a short period of time should feel relatively comfortable. I certainly don't think that anyone needs to panic about this. As I said, there has been some information to this effect in the past. What this is, is a little bit stronger confirmatory evidence that there is a statistical risk...

LIN: But serious enough for a major drug company to pull its drug, a very popular drug, off the shelves. Thank you, Dr. Waltuck. I know you're going to get a lot of questions from your patients today. We appreciate your time.

Also want to let you know that the CEO of the Merck drug company, Raymond Gilmartin is going to be talking with Wolf in about 45 minutes, around 12:30 Eastern today. So, stay tuned for that.

In the meantime, his design won the competition to rebuild the World Trade Center. Now find out what has shaped Daniel Libeskind's architectural vision, and what happened to his vision for the World Trade Center project to begin with.

CNN LIVE TODAY returns.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: Freedom Tower will rise 1,776 feet above the New York skyline, standing tall at the former World Trade Center site. The torque design complements the Statue of Liberty and is scheduled to be completed in 2008.

Of course, the Freedom Tower is the vision of architect Daniel Libeskind. His new memoir, "Breaking Ground," chronicles the design process, as well as his inspiring life story.

Daniel Libeskind joins me now in New York at the Time Warner Center this morning. Good morning, Daniel.

DANIEL LIBESKIND, FREEDOM TOWER DESIGNER Good morning, thank you.

LIN: Why did you decide to write a book?

LIBESKIND: You know, wherever I go on the streets of New York or anywhere that I am, people ask me how did I come up with my ideas. How is the project going? What's going on? And even as an ambassador for culture, where I was appointed by the State Department, ambassador for culture in architecture, around the world, people want to know where did my ideas come from?

So, I wrote the book. It's a story which is really a story of my life, but it's a story of how I came to be the master planner of Ground Zero. And it's also the story of America, because I came here as an immigrant and from a Communist dictatorship. And when I sailed past the Statue of Liberty, I wanted to embody the values that I saw then in the skyline, which was about liberty and freedom, in my design.

LIN: And you learned a lot, not only about architecture, but you learned a lot, frankly, about life.

In your book, you describe your relationship with the architectural firm that's actually going to execute much of this design and construction, Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill, as a forced marriage that you compared to North and South Korea's peace negotiations.

LIBESKIND: Well, it was a tough process. But you know, I also write about my parents, who were holocaust survivors, and what they taught me about how to behave in life, how to compromise, how to be able to move ahead. And really, the book is an aspiring story about how, despite all the fray -- and of course, it's a democracy. Things are tough, and there are so many people who care about Ground Zero. Why should it be easy? But we reached something really inspiring, I think, in the Freedom Tower.

LIN: But give me an example of why you wrote that about your relationship. Because frankly, you have been very politic on the air about all the stories that have been flying about, how you had the vision as the master planner, but you are not in a position to actually execute the design, and the design changes have been made.

LIBESKIND: Well, that's natural for any design. A design which is rigid is just destined to wind up in a book...

LIN: So, give me an example of what changed between your original vision and what Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill are actually going to execute?

LIBESKIND: I think one thing that changed -- because the tower became much bigger at its base -- I lost the Park of Heroes, which I thought was a very important part of the plan. But outside of that, every other component of the design is there.

The slurry wall, with its power to hold back the waters of the Hudson and the (INAUDIBLE) is there. The memorial, with the footprints is there. The Freedom Tower, which is mirroring the Statue of Liberty, is there -- 1,776-foot high, dedicated to the Declaration of Independence, and speaking about human rights and democracy in America and the world -- it's there.

Cultural building, new streets, and new neighborhoods connected to the beauty of the Hudson River, it's there.

LIN: And I want to assure the people that the pictures that you're looking at here are not the pictures of what you're describing, but in fact some of your past works, like the Denver Art Museum, the Imperial War Museum in Manchester, England, that shows that you clearly have a love of glass and a modernist bent.

LIBESKIND: Well, I think architecture has to be contemporary, has to be uplifting, but it also has to be memorable. It has to tie itself to a spirit of the space, a culture, a people. And Ground Zero and what it represents is not just something individual, it's about New York, the values we stand firmly for, and the freedoms that this site will represent to the world.

LIN: Daniel Libeskind, thank you very much for joining us. And yours is a compelling American story.

LIBESKIND: Thank you.

LIN: All right, Rhonda Schaffler, talk about an American story, how are fortunes down there at the New York Stock Exchange?

(STOCK MARKET UPDATE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

LIN: Here's a cautionary tale about protecting your Internet domain name? What's in a name? Well, quite a lot, apparently. We're going to be talking more about that, coming up. In fact, well, actually what you're looking at is Marilyn Musgrave. She's a Colorado Congresswoman, known for promoting family values, and she had a Web site for her 2002 campaign that was designed by a Christian-based Internet company, and then she got a new Web site and let lapse her ownership of the old one. Well, that was a mistake, because now known who types in the old URL will discover it's a porn site.

OK, it may not be what they say, but how they say it, and how they look while they're saying it.

Jeanne Moos takes a look at that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Don't read their lips, watch body language. George Bush prefers pointing his finger. John Kerry is big on making a fist and pointing his thumb. He's even ambidextrous.

KERRY: Red, white and blue.

MOOS: There haven't been any smack downs. But remember this stare down? But it's the way they speak that makes a comedian's day.

BUSH: And America is the new Texas. We will kick your ass.

KERRY: I can't believe I'm behind in the polls to this.

MOOS: Kerry the Brahman versus Bush the Bull.

(on camera) If there's one word that sums up President Bush's speaking style, it's "nucular." Nuclear. "Nucular." Nuclear. He's got me confused.

(voice-over) No matter that "nucular" drives his critics ballistic.

BUSH: ... for nucular bombs.

We could supply them with nucular...

Nucular activity...

MOOS: A Stanford University linguist has even written a book called "Going Nucular." He calls it...

GEOFFREY NUNBERG, LINGUIST, STANFORD UNIVERSITY: Go Bubba. A way of connecting to people, of turning himself into a Texan and washing Andover and Yale from his shoes.

BUSH: Nucular weapons.

Nucular nonproliferation obligations.

MOOS: And though "nuclear" is correct, many in the military prefer "nucular." "Merriam-Webster's" notes that though "nucular" is disapproved of, it's widely used by educated speakers, including at least one U.S. president.

But for Mia Farrow's character, it's a crime.

MIA FARROW, ACTRESS: I've never been seduced by guy who wears loafers and no socks, much less one who says "nucular."

NUNBERG: Well, I think it's a choice. It's like the swagger, something that's become second nature.

MOOS: And then there's Senator Kerry's patrician delivery, even more pronounced when he was young.

KERRY: Razed villages in the fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan.

NUNBERG: He had that real preppy drawl, what people sometimes call the Massachusetts malocclusion.

KERRY: An abnormality in the coming together of the teeth, highly mockable.

COLIN QUINN, COMEDIAN: You see him in the old footage, he's like, "The atrocities we committed were without parallel."

MOOS: Some yearn for a dream debate.

BILL MAHER, COMEDIAN: But a debate between Bill Clinton and Arnold Schwarzenegger, you could put that on Pay-Per-View.

MOOS: But in this debate, if either candidate bombs, it's "nucular."

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: And that's all we have for today, CNN LIVE TODAY.

I'm Carol Lin at the CNN Center.

I'm going toss it off to Wolf, who's down in Miami today, getting ready for the debates.

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