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American Morning
Christopher Reeve Dead at 52; Crunch Time for the Presidential Candidates; Debate Impact; Hot-Air Balloon Becomes Entangled in Radio Tower
Aired October 11, 2004 - 8:01 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: The actor known forever as Superman, Christopher Reeve, has died. His latest contributions came after that debilitating accident.
Twenty-two days before the presidential vote and the candidates now zeroing on where they think the election will be decided.
And stranded atop a 700-foot tower, the three passengers who went on a wild balloon ride tell us their story on this AMERICAN MORNING.
ANNOUNCER: From the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Bill Hemmer and Soledad O'Brien.
COLLINS: Good morning everybody. I'm Heidi Collins, in for Soledad.
Surprising and some very sad news this morning, of course. We have been talking about Christopher Reeve and the fact he died this weekend.
The actor and activist fell into a coma on Saturday after developing a serious infection from a pressure wound. It's a common problem for people living with paralysis. Sanjay Gupta will be with us coming up in just a little bit to explain that condition and what exactly happened.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: He showed so much strength. His wife, too, so public and so open.
In a moment here, also back to politics. Bill Schneider with us today.
We're roughly the halfway point between the second and third presidential debates. The impact of number two starting to be felt just as the maneuvering for number three is taking hold. Number three happens Wednesday night. Bill Schneider is here in a moment on a Monday morning to join us.
COLLINS: Jack Cafferty is here, though, right now.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: You know who else is here? I just saw her downstairs.
COLLINS: Who?
CAFFERTY: Soledad.
COLLINS: Wow!
HEMMER: Yes,
CAFFERTY: Soledad is in the house.
HEMMER: All right.
CAFFERTY: Come in, get -- yes.
(CROSSTALK)
HEMMER: She's going to have to start working again in a week.
CAFFERTY: She lost a lot of weight. Did you know?
COLLINS: Well, that happens.
HEMMER: Had two kids.
CAFFERTY: Yes.
Coming up on "The Cafferty File" in less than an hour, we'll have a peek at how much money celebrities are donating to Bush and Kerry, why the city of Livermore should be handing itself in shame. And a couple of weeks ago I did this kind of a cheap joke at the expense of Air America, that left wing liberal radio, or whatever you call it. And it was like hitting a hornets' nest with a stick.
I mean, they've been all over (INAUDIBLE) like white on rice ever since. So we're going to do a clarification on the Air America situation in "The Cafferty File."
COLLINS: Oh.
CAFFERTY: And Soledad's here.
HEMMER: Yes. Yes. Tell her "hello." Will you send her up here, by the way?
CAFFERTY: No. But I'm going to go down and tell her you said, "Hey."
(CROSSTALK)
HEMMER: Over the weekend.
CAFFERTY: Yes, she does look good. She looks great.
Have we talked about what we're doing next weekend? Is that...
HEMMER: No. No, no, no, no, no, no. Keep a lid on it.
COLLINS: It's a big secret, Jack.
HEMMER: Don't let the steam out of the pot just yet.
CAFFERTY: Oh.
HEMMER: Here's Kelly Wallace.
CAFFERTY: Of course not. Why would we talk about it a week before it happens?
HEMMER: Easy.
Good morning, Kelly. How are you?
KELLY WALLACE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Suspense, Jack. Suspense.
Good morning to you. Good morning, everyone.
We begin in Iraq, where Iraqi insurgents in Sadr City are beginning to surrender their weapons this hour. Members of radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army are turning in their grenades and machine guns to the Iraqi police. In exchange, the donor gets a coupon for cash from the Iraqi government. The operation is expected to last five days.
In Afghanistan, German leader Gerhard Schroeder meeting with interim president, Hamid Karzai, this morning. Schroeder praised the peacekeepers in Afghanistan, saying their work helped avoid violence during the country's first direct presidential election. But the election is not without controversy. A vote count is not expected to start for several days, and there are charges of election fraud.
Here in the United States, an autopsy will be performed today to find out the cause of death for a baseball star, former baseball star, who admitted to using steroids during his career. Former San Diego Padre Ken Caminiti died yesterday. His agent says Caminiti had a heart attack.
Caminiti said he used steroids during his 1996 MVP season. He also faced other drug--related troubles since his retirement. Caminiti was 41.
And the Senate is set to approve a major overhaul of corporate taxes before it adjourns today. Senators reached an agreement over the weekend to approve the tax Bill. It includes tax breaks for manufacturers to balance out export subsidies that companies in the European Union receive. The Senate will also approve spending measures for hurricane relief and national security.
That's a quick check of the headlines. Back to Heidi and Bill.
COLLINS: All right, Kelly. Thanks so much.
The top story this morning the death of Christopher Reeve. As an actor, Reeve was best known for his role as "Superman" in four films back in the late '70s and '80s. But it was a horse riding accident in 1995 that changed Reeve's role in life forever. As a quadriplegic he dedicated his life to spinal cord injuries.
He spoke with CNN's Larry King last summer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LARRY KING, HOST, "LARRY KING LIVE": Do you still think you will walk again?
CHRISTOPHER REEVE, ACTOR: I certainly have the motto that nothing is impossible. I think that the question of whether I will walk is going to depend on politics. It's going to depend on collaborations between scientists around the world. It will depend on economics. A lot of factors that I knew very little about when I was injured eight years ago.
And I think my purpose when I was 42 in saying that I would walk by the time I was 50 was to be provocative, to be a voice saying, "Why can't we do this? Don't tell me the reasons why not."
Well, now I understand some of the difficulties not only in terms of the science, but the other forces that I was just mentioning. But I do think that these can be overcome. I just can't put a specific date on it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: On Saturday, Reeve went into cardiac arrest and then a coma. He died yesterday at age 52 from heart failure.
In recent days, Reeve had also developed an infection stemming from a pressure wound common among people with paralysis. Senior medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta is live at the CNN Center in Atlanta with more now on this condition.
And Sanjay, you know, we spoke with this rehabilitation neurologist who had worked with him about five years. He made a good point and said, "We don't want to focus exactly on all of the details that happened to him when he died because he made so many other contributions." But this really was a surprise. So, medically speaking, explain that to us a little bit about what happened.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it was a surprise in many ways, Heidi. You know, first of all, he sort of had some problems over the last month are so. I learned that from talking to his doctors or something, in and out of the hospital a couple times with infections. Although it looks like he was rebounding pretty quickly.
What happened in this particular case is he had a pressure wound, if you will. It's sort of just a skin wound that can develop in people who are having trouble moving. And therefore, they can't adjust themselves. Those wounds develop on certain parts of the body and they can become infected.
So severely infected, sometimes, that the bacteria, the infectious agent can get into the rest of the body. Subsequently cause a heart to even fail, as was the case here. Lapse into a coma, and sometimes that's something you cannot rebound from.
One thing I should point out, Heidi, is that most times when this sort of -- when this sort of -- sort of sequence happens, it usually happens within the first year or so after someone develops a spinal cord injury. Many patients don't live beyond the one or two years after such a significant spinal cord injury, the type that Chris Reeve had. So nine years later for him to develop this I guess was sort of a surprise for everybody -- Heidi.
COLLINS: And maybe another indication, too, Sanjay, of his partial recovery and how unusual that really was. I mean, he had feeling in all of his body.
GUPTA: Yes. You know, and I talked a lot to his doctors about this. And certainly being a neurosurgeon, I've taken care of a lot of patients with spinal cord injuries.
A couple of things to keep in mind. Firs of all, he never received stem cell therapy. I know there's been a lot of speculation about that.
He never received that. I've confirmed that with the doctors that were taking care of him so long.
He -- they really focused on some things -- as you can see the images there -- something known as activity dependent -- activity dependent myelination, meaning what they are basically doing is continuously making his muscles, his body move.
Again, a lot of patients never get to this stage because they haven't survived beyond one or two years after this type of spinal cord injury. So in addition to making his muscles move, the thought was that you could send a signal back to the brain to tell the brain, yes, look, everything is still working, and maybe he would eventually start to get more and more movement.
I think everybody concedes that it is unlikely that he would have ever walked again. But still, obviously the recovery that he did have, pretty remarkable at nine years -- Heidi.
COLLINS: Yes, no question about that. With Sanjay as a neurologist, we're happy to have you with us this morning, that's for sure.
We are going to talk with you again a little bit later on. Sanjay, thanks -- Bill.
GUPTA: Thank you.
HEMMER: In the meantime, it is crunch time. Twenty-two days until November 2, the presidential election, and little time left now for the candidates to get their messages out. And that means plenty of pressure on both sides. Our national correspondent, Kelly Wallace, back with us this morning here.
Good morning, Kelly. WALLACE: Good morning, Bill.
This is a time those campaign strategists get a few extra gray hairs, if they are not gray already, right?
HEMMER: Yes.
WALLACE: And they know any decision could alter the dynamic in this very close race. So what are the strategies? Well, we wanted to put together a little tip sheet to help you at home over these next three weeks.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(voice-over): First, look at where they are going to figure out the states that could decide the race.
SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Hello, New Mexico! How are you?
WALLACE: Senator John Kerry in New Mexico, spending all day today and tomorrow in a state with only five electoral votes, but a state Al Gore won by just a 366-vote margin four years ago. The president's itinerary today also includes New Mexico and Colorado, a state he comfortably won in 2000, but a state where the race is now neck and neck. Both men in Arizona for their final showdown, and then on to Nevada, another state Al Gore narrowly won.
Second, look at what they are saying.
GEORGE W. BUSH (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: On issue after issue, my opponent showed why he earned the ranking of the most liberal member of the United States Senate.
WALLACE: The president increasingly using the "L" word to fire up the GOP base and plant seeds of doubt in the minds of undecided voters.
KERRY: They can't come here and talk to you about the jobs that they created.
WALLACE: Senator Kerry charging that team Bush offers, "more of the same," a message aides say is resonating with women, college- educated men and Independent voters. And third, look at what they are pitching and where.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How can Kerry protect us when he doesn't understand the threat?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's time for a new direction.
WALLACE: Dueling messages about the war on terrorism on cable, but domestic issues, like taxes...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They voted to raise our gas taxes 10 times.
WALLACE: ... and stem cell research...
KERRY: At stake are millions of lives.
WALLACE: ... dominating in the most competitive battlegrounds.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(on camera): And our final tip for you this morning, look at what happens after this third presidential debate Wednesday night. Bill, you know this. The candidate viewed as being the winner is going to go into the next three weeks with something invaluable in such a close race, momentum.
HEMMER: Thank you, Kelly. Kelly Wallace -- Heidi.
COLLINS: The presidential candidates are looking at last Friday's debate to prepare for their third and final show down Wednesday night in Arizona. Senior political analyst Bill Schneider in Washington now to tell us how the campaign rhetoric has changed since Friday's debate.
Bill, good morning to you.
WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning.
COLLINS: I know you have watched these debates like a hawk, as you do. But you say one of the things that has come out of this -- one of the things that has changed, in fact, is something that Bush has been saying. And now he says, "You can run, but you can't hide."
Why is he saying this? What is he trying to prove here?
SCHNEIDER: He's trying to prove that Kerry is a liberal, that he has a liberal voting record. He's voted to raise taxes and increase spending over the years, voted against defense spending, while Kerry is running as a moderate. His argument is he can't run away from his liberal voting record, as Kelly just said.
It's a way of trying to rally the conservative base by calling Senator Kerry a name, what has become a terrible name in American politics, "liberal." And that is at least the view of Republicans. And frightening swing voters.
But Kerry essentially is saying these labels don't mean a thing. Just look at me, look at what I stand for. Look at what I'm proposing.
COLLINS: But, you know, the campaign since Friday, at least, has really seemed to shift now to domestic issues. We've heard an awful lot about taxes and health care over the weekend, probably because this next debate is going to be talking about those issues. But you say this is actually pretty good news for Senator John Kerry.
SCHNEIDER: Yes, because domestic issues, particularly the economy, are where President Bush is most vulnerable. Job losses, people who have lost their health care, gasoline prices soaring, those are issues that voters worry a great deal about.
Look at what happened in the debate Friday night. When Gallup interviewed voters before the debate and asked them, "Who do you think would be better handling the economy," they favored Bush by about six points. But then after the debate was over, the same people were interviewed again and asked who would better handle the economy, and look at the right hand column.
It was a tie. Kerry scored points. He went up about five points.
Bush lost a point. And the debate afterwards was a tie because a lot of it discussed the economy, which wasn't the case in the first debate. So Democrats feel when this moves to domestic issues, ah ha, that is where we can get Bush.
COLLINS: Yes, and you mentioned the economy, and to some people, obviously, that -- that also means jobs. I know you were on fact- checking duty on Friday night on this very issue. We talked a lot about it over the weekend, too, got the jobs report out on Friday.
What is the truth? I mean, it depends on who you are listening to, right? Which side?
SCHNEIDER: Yes. Well, the truth is that Bush will become almost certainly the first president since Herbert Hoover, about 72 years ago, to have fewer Americans working at the end of his term than at the beginning of his term. Jobs -- a net job loss.
Now, Senator Kerry says 1.6 million jobs. But what he really means is private jobs. The actual number of jobs lost is about half that, because there have been some recovery of public sector jobs. But there have been jobs lost.
President Bush, when he talks about jobs, he talks about a 1.5 million jobs gained over the past 13 months. I think 1.7 million gained. But that's only over the past year or so.
Senator Kerry talks about the numbers of jobs lost since President Bush took office in January 2001. And President Bush's response is a lot of those jobs were lost because of 9/11.
COLLINS: Bill Schneider, as always, thanks for breaking it down for us.
SCHNEIDER: OK.
COLLINS: Appreciate it.
The presidential debates, the candidates will debate for the third and final time, as we said, this Wednesday in Tempe, Arizona. CNN's prime-time coverage begins at 7:00 p.m. Eastern.
HEMMER: Get a break here. In a moment, high drama at a balloon festival in New Mexico. Watch the videotape, too. You will hear from the pilot and his two young passengers stranded almost in mid air. Back in a moment with that -- Heidi.
COLLINS: Very high up indeed.
Well, who has the most on the line now in Wednesday's final presidential debate? We'll have reports from the campaign trail ahead.
HEMMER: Also, much more on the passing of Christopher Reeve. We have a report at the hospital this morning where Reeve died over the weekend.
Back in a moment, as our coverage continues after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: High drama in the sky over Albuquerque, New Mexico, on the final day of its famous hot air balloon festival. A balloon became entangled in a radio tower yesterday, forcing the pilot and his two young passengers to climb most of the way down a nearly 700-foot tall structure. You see it there.
Joining us now this morning from Albuquerque to talk about this ordeal, balloon pilot Bill Chapel.
Bill, good morning to you. Glad you are with us today.
BILL CHAPEL, BALLOON PILOT: Good morning. Thank you. Good to be here.
COLLINS: Fourteen-year-old Troy Wells -- yes -- he's one of the passengers, and his father, Scott, is back there behind him. And then the other passenger, 10-year-old Aaron.
Aaron, you can wave, if you want. Aaron Whitacre, along with his father, Mike. There he is, about to wave his hand. OK.
So glad, first of all, seriously, that all of you are here with us this morning. Because when we look at this video, unbelievable. Seven hundred feet in the air that you were, and you had to climb down from that radio tower.
Mr. Chapel, I want to start with you. As the pilot, what was going through your mind when you realized that this balloon was just heading straight for that tower that we're looking at now?
CHAPEL: I think the safety of my passengers was my main concern. And that was the first thing I began to think about and get them secured and at least as calm as I could possibly do it in a matter of a few seconds.
COLLINS: What did you do immediately after you hit that tower? I mean, what can you do at that point?
CHAPEL: Well, good -- good question. We just made sure we were all OK. And I kind of settled us all down and made sure -- took a look at the upper structure of the balloon, and the basket was fairly secure to the tower.
And I held on to the tower, and the boys climbed out, got out. Troy went first, and then Aaron, and then I climbed through the tower.
COLLINS: Did you have any gear or anything to climb down safely? Or was this just -- it looks like a free climb to me.
CHAPEL: That's what it was, a free climb. We didn't have -- no, we don't -- you don't carry gear like that in a balloon.
COLLINS: Well, Troy, I want to ask you now, quickly, I know you were a volunteer at the balloon festival. How is it, though, that you ended up getting a ride in the Smokey the Bear balloon?
A lot of people might not know that there are many characters that fly in the balloon festival, Energizer Bunny is another one I can think of. But these are kind of special balloons that everybody sort of has their eye on. How did you get to have a ride, Troy?
TROY WELLS, RESCUED FROM BALLOON: I got pretty much got lucky. I know (INAUDIBLE) for the entire time. So, yes, he just let me on the last day.
COLLINS: Feel lucky now?
CHAPEL: Part of my crew.
WELLS: No.
COLLINS: Tell me what you were thinking, Troy, when you were up there and you knew that the only way down was to climb down that tower?
WELLS: Well, when we hit it, I immediately got down and held on to the ropes inside of the basket. And then as soon as I asked Bill if we should get on to the tower, and he told me to get on to the tower.
So I got on and helped him out. As soon as we were on the tower, it wasn't too scary. It's just when we hit.
COLLINS: Wasn't too scary.
Aaron, do you agree? You're 10 years old. You were up in that balloon. How did you feel climbing down that thing?
AARON WHITACRE, RESCUED FROM BALLOON: I wasn't that scared because I knew when I climbed down somebody would come to get us.
COLLINS: You are a faithful man.
Well, we appreciate all of you being here. And I know your fathers are right behind you, you guys. I'm sure that they are very glad to have you there with them safely this morning.
We appreciate your time and sharing your story with us. And maybe you can have that traditional bottle of champagne that you crack open with a sword now that you're down safely, right? Thanks again, Bill Chapel, Troy Wells and Aaron Whitacre. Thanks, guys -- Bill.
HEMMER: What a story. Heidi, thanks.
Twenty-two past the hour. In a moment, stuck with a gas guzzler? If so, a look at the best alternatives in a moment. Back with Andy and Jack after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: Gas prices rising again. The EPA says the most fuel efficient car is the Honda Insight. The manual transmission version of the hybrid Insight gets about 61 miles a gallon in the city -- wow -- 66 on the highway.
On the other end of the scale, the Dodge Ram Pickup is the biggest gas guzzler. Nine in the city, 12 miles per gallon on the highway.
There you have it. Back with Jack now here.
COLLINS: "Question of the Day."
CAFFERTY: "Question of the Day" -- four years after the Florida debacle, vis-a-vis the presidential election, the process has still not been fixed. The fly this year in the ointment could be something called provisional ballots.
All states must provide these to voters. If they can't be found on registration lists, they show up on the wrong polling place, or they don't have proper identification, their votes will then be separated from the others until identities can be confirmed, something that will probably take more than an hour, like six months, maybe.
We lost somewhere between 1.5 and three million votes in the last election. This year could be worse.
The question is this: How confident are you that the election will be accurate? The answers are as follows.
From Bob in Piscataway: "The reason the voting system in Florida, California and elsewhere is so screwed up is because for the first time it's based on a federal plan and mandate. Whether it's education, health care or anything else, when the feds get involved, things get worse."
Nicole in Woodbridge, Virginia: "How accurate do I think the vote will be? Close enough for government work."
Greg in Colorado Springs: "Zero confidence. We have hackable voting machines, corrupt election processes, and intimidation of registered voters, a president who was never elected in the first place, and a public that doesn't care. What's not to trust about the election results?" And Jim in Whiting, New Jersey: "The vote will be accurate enough. It's a democracy. Dead people, cats, and dogs will always have vote. You want perfect? Saddam used to have perfect elections."
Good point.
HEMMER: Ninety-nine percent, wasn't it?
CAFFERTY: 99.999.
HEMMER: Can't get better than that, can you, baby?
CAFFERTY: Yes.
COLLINS: Yes. All right. Thanks so much, Jack.
Still to come this morning, more on the death of Christopher Reeve and the legacy he leaves behind. Stay with us here on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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Aired October 11, 2004 - 8:01 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: The actor known forever as Superman, Christopher Reeve, has died. His latest contributions came after that debilitating accident.
Twenty-two days before the presidential vote and the candidates now zeroing on where they think the election will be decided.
And stranded atop a 700-foot tower, the three passengers who went on a wild balloon ride tell us their story on this AMERICAN MORNING.
ANNOUNCER: From the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Bill Hemmer and Soledad O'Brien.
COLLINS: Good morning everybody. I'm Heidi Collins, in for Soledad.
Surprising and some very sad news this morning, of course. We have been talking about Christopher Reeve and the fact he died this weekend.
The actor and activist fell into a coma on Saturday after developing a serious infection from a pressure wound. It's a common problem for people living with paralysis. Sanjay Gupta will be with us coming up in just a little bit to explain that condition and what exactly happened.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: He showed so much strength. His wife, too, so public and so open.
In a moment here, also back to politics. Bill Schneider with us today.
We're roughly the halfway point between the second and third presidential debates. The impact of number two starting to be felt just as the maneuvering for number three is taking hold. Number three happens Wednesday night. Bill Schneider is here in a moment on a Monday morning to join us.
COLLINS: Jack Cafferty is here, though, right now.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: You know who else is here? I just saw her downstairs.
COLLINS: Who?
CAFFERTY: Soledad.
COLLINS: Wow!
HEMMER: Yes,
CAFFERTY: Soledad is in the house.
HEMMER: All right.
CAFFERTY: Come in, get -- yes.
(CROSSTALK)
HEMMER: She's going to have to start working again in a week.
CAFFERTY: She lost a lot of weight. Did you know?
COLLINS: Well, that happens.
HEMMER: Had two kids.
CAFFERTY: Yes.
Coming up on "The Cafferty File" in less than an hour, we'll have a peek at how much money celebrities are donating to Bush and Kerry, why the city of Livermore should be handing itself in shame. And a couple of weeks ago I did this kind of a cheap joke at the expense of Air America, that left wing liberal radio, or whatever you call it. And it was like hitting a hornets' nest with a stick.
I mean, they've been all over (INAUDIBLE) like white on rice ever since. So we're going to do a clarification on the Air America situation in "The Cafferty File."
COLLINS: Oh.
CAFFERTY: And Soledad's here.
HEMMER: Yes. Yes. Tell her "hello." Will you send her up here, by the way?
CAFFERTY: No. But I'm going to go down and tell her you said, "Hey."
(CROSSTALK)
HEMMER: Over the weekend.
CAFFERTY: Yes, she does look good. She looks great.
Have we talked about what we're doing next weekend? Is that...
HEMMER: No. No, no, no, no, no, no. Keep a lid on it.
COLLINS: It's a big secret, Jack.
HEMMER: Don't let the steam out of the pot just yet.
CAFFERTY: Oh.
HEMMER: Here's Kelly Wallace.
CAFFERTY: Of course not. Why would we talk about it a week before it happens?
HEMMER: Easy.
Good morning, Kelly. How are you?
KELLY WALLACE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Suspense, Jack. Suspense.
Good morning to you. Good morning, everyone.
We begin in Iraq, where Iraqi insurgents in Sadr City are beginning to surrender their weapons this hour. Members of radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army are turning in their grenades and machine guns to the Iraqi police. In exchange, the donor gets a coupon for cash from the Iraqi government. The operation is expected to last five days.
In Afghanistan, German leader Gerhard Schroeder meeting with interim president, Hamid Karzai, this morning. Schroeder praised the peacekeepers in Afghanistan, saying their work helped avoid violence during the country's first direct presidential election. But the election is not without controversy. A vote count is not expected to start for several days, and there are charges of election fraud.
Here in the United States, an autopsy will be performed today to find out the cause of death for a baseball star, former baseball star, who admitted to using steroids during his career. Former San Diego Padre Ken Caminiti died yesterday. His agent says Caminiti had a heart attack.
Caminiti said he used steroids during his 1996 MVP season. He also faced other drug--related troubles since his retirement. Caminiti was 41.
And the Senate is set to approve a major overhaul of corporate taxes before it adjourns today. Senators reached an agreement over the weekend to approve the tax Bill. It includes tax breaks for manufacturers to balance out export subsidies that companies in the European Union receive. The Senate will also approve spending measures for hurricane relief and national security.
That's a quick check of the headlines. Back to Heidi and Bill.
COLLINS: All right, Kelly. Thanks so much.
The top story this morning the death of Christopher Reeve. As an actor, Reeve was best known for his role as "Superman" in four films back in the late '70s and '80s. But it was a horse riding accident in 1995 that changed Reeve's role in life forever. As a quadriplegic he dedicated his life to spinal cord injuries.
He spoke with CNN's Larry King last summer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LARRY KING, HOST, "LARRY KING LIVE": Do you still think you will walk again?
CHRISTOPHER REEVE, ACTOR: I certainly have the motto that nothing is impossible. I think that the question of whether I will walk is going to depend on politics. It's going to depend on collaborations between scientists around the world. It will depend on economics. A lot of factors that I knew very little about when I was injured eight years ago.
And I think my purpose when I was 42 in saying that I would walk by the time I was 50 was to be provocative, to be a voice saying, "Why can't we do this? Don't tell me the reasons why not."
Well, now I understand some of the difficulties not only in terms of the science, but the other forces that I was just mentioning. But I do think that these can be overcome. I just can't put a specific date on it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: On Saturday, Reeve went into cardiac arrest and then a coma. He died yesterday at age 52 from heart failure.
In recent days, Reeve had also developed an infection stemming from a pressure wound common among people with paralysis. Senior medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta is live at the CNN Center in Atlanta with more now on this condition.
And Sanjay, you know, we spoke with this rehabilitation neurologist who had worked with him about five years. He made a good point and said, "We don't want to focus exactly on all of the details that happened to him when he died because he made so many other contributions." But this really was a surprise. So, medically speaking, explain that to us a little bit about what happened.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it was a surprise in many ways, Heidi. You know, first of all, he sort of had some problems over the last month are so. I learned that from talking to his doctors or something, in and out of the hospital a couple times with infections. Although it looks like he was rebounding pretty quickly.
What happened in this particular case is he had a pressure wound, if you will. It's sort of just a skin wound that can develop in people who are having trouble moving. And therefore, they can't adjust themselves. Those wounds develop on certain parts of the body and they can become infected.
So severely infected, sometimes, that the bacteria, the infectious agent can get into the rest of the body. Subsequently cause a heart to even fail, as was the case here. Lapse into a coma, and sometimes that's something you cannot rebound from.
One thing I should point out, Heidi, is that most times when this sort of -- when this sort of -- sort of sequence happens, it usually happens within the first year or so after someone develops a spinal cord injury. Many patients don't live beyond the one or two years after such a significant spinal cord injury, the type that Chris Reeve had. So nine years later for him to develop this I guess was sort of a surprise for everybody -- Heidi.
COLLINS: And maybe another indication, too, Sanjay, of his partial recovery and how unusual that really was. I mean, he had feeling in all of his body.
GUPTA: Yes. You know, and I talked a lot to his doctors about this. And certainly being a neurosurgeon, I've taken care of a lot of patients with spinal cord injuries.
A couple of things to keep in mind. Firs of all, he never received stem cell therapy. I know there's been a lot of speculation about that.
He never received that. I've confirmed that with the doctors that were taking care of him so long.
He -- they really focused on some things -- as you can see the images there -- something known as activity dependent -- activity dependent myelination, meaning what they are basically doing is continuously making his muscles, his body move.
Again, a lot of patients never get to this stage because they haven't survived beyond one or two years after this type of spinal cord injury. So in addition to making his muscles move, the thought was that you could send a signal back to the brain to tell the brain, yes, look, everything is still working, and maybe he would eventually start to get more and more movement.
I think everybody concedes that it is unlikely that he would have ever walked again. But still, obviously the recovery that he did have, pretty remarkable at nine years -- Heidi.
COLLINS: Yes, no question about that. With Sanjay as a neurologist, we're happy to have you with us this morning, that's for sure.
We are going to talk with you again a little bit later on. Sanjay, thanks -- Bill.
GUPTA: Thank you.
HEMMER: In the meantime, it is crunch time. Twenty-two days until November 2, the presidential election, and little time left now for the candidates to get their messages out. And that means plenty of pressure on both sides. Our national correspondent, Kelly Wallace, back with us this morning here.
Good morning, Kelly. WALLACE: Good morning, Bill.
This is a time those campaign strategists get a few extra gray hairs, if they are not gray already, right?
HEMMER: Yes.
WALLACE: And they know any decision could alter the dynamic in this very close race. So what are the strategies? Well, we wanted to put together a little tip sheet to help you at home over these next three weeks.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(voice-over): First, look at where they are going to figure out the states that could decide the race.
SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Hello, New Mexico! How are you?
WALLACE: Senator John Kerry in New Mexico, spending all day today and tomorrow in a state with only five electoral votes, but a state Al Gore won by just a 366-vote margin four years ago. The president's itinerary today also includes New Mexico and Colorado, a state he comfortably won in 2000, but a state where the race is now neck and neck. Both men in Arizona for their final showdown, and then on to Nevada, another state Al Gore narrowly won.
Second, look at what they are saying.
GEORGE W. BUSH (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: On issue after issue, my opponent showed why he earned the ranking of the most liberal member of the United States Senate.
WALLACE: The president increasingly using the "L" word to fire up the GOP base and plant seeds of doubt in the minds of undecided voters.
KERRY: They can't come here and talk to you about the jobs that they created.
WALLACE: Senator Kerry charging that team Bush offers, "more of the same," a message aides say is resonating with women, college- educated men and Independent voters. And third, look at what they are pitching and where.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How can Kerry protect us when he doesn't understand the threat?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's time for a new direction.
WALLACE: Dueling messages about the war on terrorism on cable, but domestic issues, like taxes...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They voted to raise our gas taxes 10 times.
WALLACE: ... and stem cell research...
KERRY: At stake are millions of lives.
WALLACE: ... dominating in the most competitive battlegrounds.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(on camera): And our final tip for you this morning, look at what happens after this third presidential debate Wednesday night. Bill, you know this. The candidate viewed as being the winner is going to go into the next three weeks with something invaluable in such a close race, momentum.
HEMMER: Thank you, Kelly. Kelly Wallace -- Heidi.
COLLINS: The presidential candidates are looking at last Friday's debate to prepare for their third and final show down Wednesday night in Arizona. Senior political analyst Bill Schneider in Washington now to tell us how the campaign rhetoric has changed since Friday's debate.
Bill, good morning to you.
WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning.
COLLINS: I know you have watched these debates like a hawk, as you do. But you say one of the things that has come out of this -- one of the things that has changed, in fact, is something that Bush has been saying. And now he says, "You can run, but you can't hide."
Why is he saying this? What is he trying to prove here?
SCHNEIDER: He's trying to prove that Kerry is a liberal, that he has a liberal voting record. He's voted to raise taxes and increase spending over the years, voted against defense spending, while Kerry is running as a moderate. His argument is he can't run away from his liberal voting record, as Kelly just said.
It's a way of trying to rally the conservative base by calling Senator Kerry a name, what has become a terrible name in American politics, "liberal." And that is at least the view of Republicans. And frightening swing voters.
But Kerry essentially is saying these labels don't mean a thing. Just look at me, look at what I stand for. Look at what I'm proposing.
COLLINS: But, you know, the campaign since Friday, at least, has really seemed to shift now to domestic issues. We've heard an awful lot about taxes and health care over the weekend, probably because this next debate is going to be talking about those issues. But you say this is actually pretty good news for Senator John Kerry.
SCHNEIDER: Yes, because domestic issues, particularly the economy, are where President Bush is most vulnerable. Job losses, people who have lost their health care, gasoline prices soaring, those are issues that voters worry a great deal about.
Look at what happened in the debate Friday night. When Gallup interviewed voters before the debate and asked them, "Who do you think would be better handling the economy," they favored Bush by about six points. But then after the debate was over, the same people were interviewed again and asked who would better handle the economy, and look at the right hand column.
It was a tie. Kerry scored points. He went up about five points.
Bush lost a point. And the debate afterwards was a tie because a lot of it discussed the economy, which wasn't the case in the first debate. So Democrats feel when this moves to domestic issues, ah ha, that is where we can get Bush.
COLLINS: Yes, and you mentioned the economy, and to some people, obviously, that -- that also means jobs. I know you were on fact- checking duty on Friday night on this very issue. We talked a lot about it over the weekend, too, got the jobs report out on Friday.
What is the truth? I mean, it depends on who you are listening to, right? Which side?
SCHNEIDER: Yes. Well, the truth is that Bush will become almost certainly the first president since Herbert Hoover, about 72 years ago, to have fewer Americans working at the end of his term than at the beginning of his term. Jobs -- a net job loss.
Now, Senator Kerry says 1.6 million jobs. But what he really means is private jobs. The actual number of jobs lost is about half that, because there have been some recovery of public sector jobs. But there have been jobs lost.
President Bush, when he talks about jobs, he talks about a 1.5 million jobs gained over the past 13 months. I think 1.7 million gained. But that's only over the past year or so.
Senator Kerry talks about the numbers of jobs lost since President Bush took office in January 2001. And President Bush's response is a lot of those jobs were lost because of 9/11.
COLLINS: Bill Schneider, as always, thanks for breaking it down for us.
SCHNEIDER: OK.
COLLINS: Appreciate it.
The presidential debates, the candidates will debate for the third and final time, as we said, this Wednesday in Tempe, Arizona. CNN's prime-time coverage begins at 7:00 p.m. Eastern.
HEMMER: Get a break here. In a moment, high drama at a balloon festival in New Mexico. Watch the videotape, too. You will hear from the pilot and his two young passengers stranded almost in mid air. Back in a moment with that -- Heidi.
COLLINS: Very high up indeed.
Well, who has the most on the line now in Wednesday's final presidential debate? We'll have reports from the campaign trail ahead.
HEMMER: Also, much more on the passing of Christopher Reeve. We have a report at the hospital this morning where Reeve died over the weekend.
Back in a moment, as our coverage continues after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: High drama in the sky over Albuquerque, New Mexico, on the final day of its famous hot air balloon festival. A balloon became entangled in a radio tower yesterday, forcing the pilot and his two young passengers to climb most of the way down a nearly 700-foot tall structure. You see it there.
Joining us now this morning from Albuquerque to talk about this ordeal, balloon pilot Bill Chapel.
Bill, good morning to you. Glad you are with us today.
BILL CHAPEL, BALLOON PILOT: Good morning. Thank you. Good to be here.
COLLINS: Fourteen-year-old Troy Wells -- yes -- he's one of the passengers, and his father, Scott, is back there behind him. And then the other passenger, 10-year-old Aaron.
Aaron, you can wave, if you want. Aaron Whitacre, along with his father, Mike. There he is, about to wave his hand. OK.
So glad, first of all, seriously, that all of you are here with us this morning. Because when we look at this video, unbelievable. Seven hundred feet in the air that you were, and you had to climb down from that radio tower.
Mr. Chapel, I want to start with you. As the pilot, what was going through your mind when you realized that this balloon was just heading straight for that tower that we're looking at now?
CHAPEL: I think the safety of my passengers was my main concern. And that was the first thing I began to think about and get them secured and at least as calm as I could possibly do it in a matter of a few seconds.
COLLINS: What did you do immediately after you hit that tower? I mean, what can you do at that point?
CHAPEL: Well, good -- good question. We just made sure we were all OK. And I kind of settled us all down and made sure -- took a look at the upper structure of the balloon, and the basket was fairly secure to the tower.
And I held on to the tower, and the boys climbed out, got out. Troy went first, and then Aaron, and then I climbed through the tower.
COLLINS: Did you have any gear or anything to climb down safely? Or was this just -- it looks like a free climb to me.
CHAPEL: That's what it was, a free climb. We didn't have -- no, we don't -- you don't carry gear like that in a balloon.
COLLINS: Well, Troy, I want to ask you now, quickly, I know you were a volunteer at the balloon festival. How is it, though, that you ended up getting a ride in the Smokey the Bear balloon?
A lot of people might not know that there are many characters that fly in the balloon festival, Energizer Bunny is another one I can think of. But these are kind of special balloons that everybody sort of has their eye on. How did you get to have a ride, Troy?
TROY WELLS, RESCUED FROM BALLOON: I got pretty much got lucky. I know (INAUDIBLE) for the entire time. So, yes, he just let me on the last day.
COLLINS: Feel lucky now?
CHAPEL: Part of my crew.
WELLS: No.
COLLINS: Tell me what you were thinking, Troy, when you were up there and you knew that the only way down was to climb down that tower?
WELLS: Well, when we hit it, I immediately got down and held on to the ropes inside of the basket. And then as soon as I asked Bill if we should get on to the tower, and he told me to get on to the tower.
So I got on and helped him out. As soon as we were on the tower, it wasn't too scary. It's just when we hit.
COLLINS: Wasn't too scary.
Aaron, do you agree? You're 10 years old. You were up in that balloon. How did you feel climbing down that thing?
AARON WHITACRE, RESCUED FROM BALLOON: I wasn't that scared because I knew when I climbed down somebody would come to get us.
COLLINS: You are a faithful man.
Well, we appreciate all of you being here. And I know your fathers are right behind you, you guys. I'm sure that they are very glad to have you there with them safely this morning.
We appreciate your time and sharing your story with us. And maybe you can have that traditional bottle of champagne that you crack open with a sword now that you're down safely, right? Thanks again, Bill Chapel, Troy Wells and Aaron Whitacre. Thanks, guys -- Bill.
HEMMER: What a story. Heidi, thanks.
Twenty-two past the hour. In a moment, stuck with a gas guzzler? If so, a look at the best alternatives in a moment. Back with Andy and Jack after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: Gas prices rising again. The EPA says the most fuel efficient car is the Honda Insight. The manual transmission version of the hybrid Insight gets about 61 miles a gallon in the city -- wow -- 66 on the highway.
On the other end of the scale, the Dodge Ram Pickup is the biggest gas guzzler. Nine in the city, 12 miles per gallon on the highway.
There you have it. Back with Jack now here.
COLLINS: "Question of the Day."
CAFFERTY: "Question of the Day" -- four years after the Florida debacle, vis-a-vis the presidential election, the process has still not been fixed. The fly this year in the ointment could be something called provisional ballots.
All states must provide these to voters. If they can't be found on registration lists, they show up on the wrong polling place, or they don't have proper identification, their votes will then be separated from the others until identities can be confirmed, something that will probably take more than an hour, like six months, maybe.
We lost somewhere between 1.5 and three million votes in the last election. This year could be worse.
The question is this: How confident are you that the election will be accurate? The answers are as follows.
From Bob in Piscataway: "The reason the voting system in Florida, California and elsewhere is so screwed up is because for the first time it's based on a federal plan and mandate. Whether it's education, health care or anything else, when the feds get involved, things get worse."
Nicole in Woodbridge, Virginia: "How accurate do I think the vote will be? Close enough for government work."
Greg in Colorado Springs: "Zero confidence. We have hackable voting machines, corrupt election processes, and intimidation of registered voters, a president who was never elected in the first place, and a public that doesn't care. What's not to trust about the election results?" And Jim in Whiting, New Jersey: "The vote will be accurate enough. It's a democracy. Dead people, cats, and dogs will always have vote. You want perfect? Saddam used to have perfect elections."
Good point.
HEMMER: Ninety-nine percent, wasn't it?
CAFFERTY: 99.999.
HEMMER: Can't get better than that, can you, baby?
CAFFERTY: Yes.
COLLINS: Yes. All right. Thanks so much, Jack.
Still to come this morning, more on the death of Christopher Reeve and the legacy he leaves behind. Stay with us here on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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