Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Today

Debate Touches on Several Issues That Pointed Up Differences Between Two Candidates; Widespread Concerns Across Country About Voting Process

Aired October 14, 2004 - 10:30   ET

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

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


RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. These are the stories now in the news. Five electoral votes were up for grabs in Nevada, but with the White House race so close, both President Bush and Senator John Kerry are campaigning there today. Kerry addresses the AARP convention in Las Vegas. The president has rallies in Las Vegas, also in Reno, we're told.
U.S. forces again pounded targets linked to the Abu Musab Al Zarqawi terror network. The military says today's airstrikes hit a weapons storage site in a safehouse in Falluja. That Sunni Triangle city has been the target of almost daily attacks by U.S.-led forces there.

Officials are calling it the largest criminal probe of detainee abuse in Afghanistan and probably Iraq, as well. CNN this morning has learned that 28 U.S. soldiers have been named in an Army criminal investigation into the deaths of two Afghan detainees. These deaths, ruled as homicides, happened nearly two years ago. Charges being considered include involuntary manslaughter, assault, and battery. An announcement is expected from the Pentagon, we're told, sometime later today.

And scientists are saying there's still a chance that Mount St. Helens could erupt, although they say it won't be anything like the one in 1980. Lava is oozing out of the volcano, building up a crust in the crater. Experts say the lava movement could go on for days, weeks, possibly months. The temperature of the molten rock is about 1,300 degrees.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: So who exactly won last night's final debate may have no bearing on who wins the White House.

Judy Woodruff reports now, the debate touched on several issues that pointed up differences between the two men.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The last debate of the campaign and the first without Iraq as its centerpiece.

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This president has turned his back on the wellness of America.

WOODRUFF: Pocketbook issues dominated this discussion -- jobs, taxes, health care. GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: A plan is not a litany of complaints. And a plan is not to lay out programs that you can't pay for.

WOODRUFF: One last time, they tussled over taxes.

KERRY: Under President Bush, the middle class has seen their tax burden go up and the wealthiest tax burden has gone down. Now that's wrong.

BUSH: People listening out there know the benefits of the tax cuts we passed. If you have a child, you got tax relief. If you're married, you got tax relief. If you pay any tax at all, you got tax relief.

WOODRUFF: Staying on message, their lines of attack now familiar.

KERRY: This president, incredibly, rushed us into a war, made decisions about foreign policy, pushed alliances away.

BUSH: You know, there's a mainstream in American politics and you sit right on the far left bank. As a matter of fact, your record is such that Ted Kennedy, your colleague, is the conservative senator from Massachusetts.

WOODRUFF: But this debate also, perhaps, gave Americans new insight into the men who would lead them, touching on matters of faith and personal belief.

BOB SCHIEFFER, MODERATOR: Do you believe homosexuality is a choice?

BUSH: You know, Bob, I don't know. I just don't know. I do know that we have a choice to make in America, and that is to treat people with tolerance and respect and dignity.

KERRY: We're all god's children, Bob, and I think if you were to talk to Dick Cheney's daughter, who is a lesbian, she would tell you that she's being who she was. She's being who she was born as.

WOODRUFF: They faced off on abortion, on education and on immigration. The president defending himself against Kerry's charge the borders are less secure than before 9/11. But the end note of this debate season was a light one, with both men asked what they had learned from the women in their lives.

BUSH: To stand up straight and not scowl.

KERRY: I can sometimes take myself too seriously. They surely don't let me do that.

WOODRUFF: Judy Woodruff, CNN, Tempe, Arizona.

(END VIDEOTAPE) KAGAN: Well, as you got from Judy's piece, at one point last night, the candidates were asked if they thought homosexuality was a choice. When it was his turn to answer, John Kerry said he didn't think it was a choice, and he mentioned Vice President Dick Cheney's daughter, Mary, who is gay, as someone who would probably agree that she was born that way.

Well, after the debate her mother, Lynne Cheney, had this reaction to Kerry's reference.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LYNNE CHENEY, WIFE OF VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY: I did have a chance to assess John Kerry once more. And, you know, the only thing I could conclude is this is not a good man. This is not a good man. And, of course, I am speaking as a mom, and a pretty indignant mom. This is not a good man. What a cheap and tawdry political trick.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Mrs. Cheney made that remark while introducing her husband at a rally. The vice president did not talk about the issue.

SANCHEZ: Let's break this down a little bit more for you. The issues did trump questions of character in last night's debate. Our senior political analyst Bill Schneider is here to talk about that a little bit.

Hey, Bill, the first thing we ought to do is maybe put up the numbers from that snap poll, and they do reflect a 52 to 39 advantage for the senator.

Tell our viewers what the significance of a snap poll is. There are so many people going around saying, yes, but that was just a snap poll. What's that mean?

WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POL. ANALYST: It's a first impression. It's among viewers who watched the debate, interviewed immediately after the debate. And I should point out that these viewers were evenly divided, 36 percent Republican, 36 percent Democrat. They thought Kerry won by almost as big a margin as in that first debate, which has been regarded as a decisive Kerry victory. CBS news also polled viewers, found that Kerry came out ahead. ABC showed it much closer.

What's important about these polls is, yes, they are a simple snap judgment, but they are people who are polled before the spin, before they have a chance to read the papers, talk to others, be influenced in their opinions, listen to the television analysis. They're immediately after the debate, so that's a first impression, unspun, so to speak, by the campaigns.

SANCHEZ: What's a cumulative effect of all three debates? Let's put them together now and talk about the effect they're going to have on both of these campaigns? SCHNEIDER: Look at this. The first debate Kerry was seen as having won by 16 points among debate viewers. Second debate was much more narrow, virtually a draw. Third debate, as we just saw, Kerry by 13 points.

Kerry's back in the game. Before these debates, bush was moving ahead, consolidating a pretty sizable lead over John Kerry, because Bush was making Kerry and Kerry's record the central theme of the campaign. But Bush is the incumbent president. And usually if an incumbent president is running for re-election, he's the central issue in the campaign. Do voters want to rehire him, or do they want to fire him?

Well, the debates, I think, were the only -- I know this, they were the only opportunity the voters have in this entire year-long campaign to see the candidates side by side on an equal footing without production values. And what Kerry effectively did was use the debates to cast the campaign as a referendum on Bush and Bush's record, and that has worked to Kerry's advantage.

SANCHEZ: Is there one thing that you've seen throughout the debates that Senator Kerry has used effectively to, as some of these numbers show, succeed so dramatically?

SCHNEIDER: Well, in a couple of the debates, I think he raised the question about Bush's promise to unify the country. Bush ran in 2000 on a pledge to be a uniter, not a divider. And Kerry has pointed out on a couple of occasions he didn't deliver on that promise. However you feel or agree with him on the issues, the fact is the country is now more divided than ever. And there was a year, after 9/11, when Americans were united, and even a majority of Democrats supported President Bush, and John Kerry paid tribute to President Bush for his leadership after 9/11. That disappeared with the war in Iraq, which brought all the old divisions back to the surface. And I think Americans are uncomfortable with this sense of division. Kerry promised that he could unite the country, and that gives Bush a Bit of a dilemma. In order to rally the debates, his base, his conservative base, he's going to have to raise divisive issues once again.

SANCHEZ: It's almost as if it's the president's Achilles Heel at this point, huh?

SCHNEIDER: Yes, I think so, the divisiveness issue.

SANCHEZ: Bill Schneider, thanks so much for that report. We appreciate it -- Daryn.

SCHNEIDER: OK, Rick.

KAGAN: All right, checking the calendar, there are less than three weeks to go now until Americans go to the polls. Still, there are widespread concerns across the country about the voting process. Have we learned anything from 2000?

CNN's Dan Lothian takes a closer look at that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN BOSTON BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): As the clock winds down in the race for the White House, there is growing concern over what the accuracy will be of the final count.

ERIC RUSSELL (ph), VOTER'S OUTREACH OF AMERICA: David thinks he's registered to vote.

LOTHIAN: In Nevada, Eric Russell, a former part-time worker for the Republican-backed group Voter's Outreach of America, alleges supervisors destroyed forms filled out by Democrats, threw out registration receipts and put pressure on workers to only sign up Republicans.

RUSSELL: If you had brought in Republicans or Democrats, you weren't getting paid. I mean, our -- bottom line.

LOTHIAN: He says he kept discarded paperwork as evidence. A Republican consultant with ties to the group says Russell is a disgruntled ex-employee trying to get even. In a statement, the Republican National Committee said, "Anyone who engages in fraudulent voter registration activities should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."

In Colorado, CNN affiliate KUSA found signs of fraud on registration forms, bogus names, Social Security numbers and dates of birth, and forged signatures.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm 100 percent that this is not her signature.

LOTHIAN: They spoke with this woman who claims she not only registered to vote 25 times, but also signed up three of her friends 40 times, all to help her boyfriend who was making $2 for every application, working for Acorn, a group aligned with the Democratic Party.

KIM CASON, GIRLFRIEND: You know, I was just helping the people out downtown. You know, everybody needs an extra dollar here and now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We did have incidents where there were people who were attempting to defraud us.

LOTHIAN: And across the country in key battleground states, like Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida, some worry new voting technology may result in mistakes and fraud, and where there is no paper trail, an impossible task to recount.

Already in Florida, a problem, power failure during Hurricane Jeanne may have damaged computer equipment causing a server to crash. A test of Palm Beach County's electronic voting system had to be postponed.

(on camera): All of these concerns have led to lawsuits and investigations. Various groups and officials working hard to lower the odds of irregularities with less than three weeks to go. Dan Lothian, CNN, Boston.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: As we continue here, is it in the genes? This is something you've been working on.

KAGAN: Yes, we've been talking about breast cancer all week long. We're going to look at why some women may have a higher risk of having breast cancer than others. I'll talk with a genetic expert just ahead, when CNN LIVE TODAY returns.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Welcome back to CNN LIVE TODAY. I'm Rick Sanchez.

More than 200,000 women are diagnosed each year with breast cancer. What typically follows is a long and difficult treatment period. But now there's a relatively new technique that can drastically reduce radiation therapy for some women from weeks to just days.

CNN medical correspondent Christy Feig has that story in today's report for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTY FEIG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Chrisley McCarson's life was turned upside down in May when she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

CHRISLEY MCCARSON, BREAST CANCER SURVIVOR: I had my surgery June 11th, and the rest of the summer would have been taken up with having to have the radiation.

FEIG: Then a friend told her about mammosite radiation therapy, which was approved by the FDA about two years ago, but it's just becoming common in hospitals. It targets only the area where the tumor was removed and does not radiate healthy breast tissue.

DR. JEFFERSON MOULDS, GEORGETOWN UNIV. HOSPITAL: When we treat less than all of the breast, it allows us to treat much quicker. So instead of a course of six weeks of daily radiation treatment, we can deliver the whole course of radiation in one week.

FEIG: McCarsson says the only side effect she had was fatigue.

MCCARSON: If you meet all the qualifications, you should do it.

FEIG: But there are down sides.

MOULDS: All the breast is not treated. If there were tumor elsewhere in the breast, we could miss a tumor elsewhere in the breast.

FEIG: Researchers is also underway to catch the early-warning signs of cancer. Doctors are using a procedure called "ductal lavage," that takes cells from high-risk patients to check for abnormalities.

DR. MARIE PENNANEN, LOMBARDI CANCER CENTER: It enables us to do a better job of assessing a woman's risk for breast cancer so that we can potentially intervene to reduce her risk of ever developing breast cancer.

FEIG: That may help doctors catch the disease years before tumors ever develop.

Christy Feig, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: Also in breast cancer news, African-American women face a disproportionately large risk from breast cancer, and it's even more acute for African women, especially those from Nigeria. Those two groups provide an ideal opportunity to research the causes of breast cancer, especially theories on genetics versus environment.

Dr. Funmi Olopade is among the researchers looking into this puzzle. She is the director for the Center for Clinical Cancer Genetics at the University of Chicago Medical Center. Dr. Olopade is with us today from New York City.

Good morning.

DR. FUNMI OLOPADE, CTR. FOR CLINICAL CANCER GENETICS: Thank you, Daryn.

KAGAN: What do you think is happening genetically with African- American women? And then also, on a smaller set, women from Nigeria?

OLOPADE: Well, you know, African-Americans really derive their genetic material from Africa, predominantly West Africa. And when we started looking at the causes of breast cancer and trying to understand what is preventable, we're coming to the conclusion that some of it is genetic. And since the Genome Project was finished, we've identified genes that predispose women to breast cancer. Genes such as BRC-1 and BRC-2. And women can now have genetic testing to know their risk for breast cancer.

KAGAN: Which is actually kind of a loaded question. I want to get to genetic testing in just a minute. But first of all, the other issue with African-American women. There might be something genetically happening, but also access to health care, especially lower-income women. That is a big problem.

OLOPADE: Well, access to health care is an issue. But we do know that right now, breast cancer is preventable, it's treatable, and it's curable when it's detected early. And so the world we're trying to get out there is yes, there's a lot of research has that really improved our understanding of breast cancer. We can treat it.

And what has really been an issue, especially for low-income and low-literate women is that they're so afraid of breast cancer they don't want to even show up when they find a lump in their breast, and the word that we should be getting out there is that breast cancer is treatable. There are new drugs, new options.

For example, we have a pill, like Zoloda (ph), that even when women have advanced breast cancer, they can take and really have good quality of life. So breast cancer is not a death sentence. We need women to come forward and have good treatment. And there is access to women, as long as they, in fact, go and see a doctor.

KAGAN: Got it. Let's talk about genetic testing. Who should get tested? Do you believe it should be a standard part of any woman who's been diagnosed, part of her treatment to be tested, to find out if she has the breast cancer gene?

OLOPADE: Well, we know that so many risk factors for breast cancer. But after age, a family history of breast cancer is the most important risk factor. So if someone in your family has had breast cancer.

The other day I had a patient in my office who is a quadruplet, and she came in with three sisters, her mother and her aunt, and she came in to ask what should I do to be treated? And her sisters came in to say, what should we do to prevent breast cancer? That's a perfect patient to refer for genetic testing, because this woman obviously has a very strong family history. She was young, and we now know that African-American women are more likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer at a young age, and as a result of that, we need to offer genetic testing to those women.

And so my recommendation is for that family, with six women, one wanting to be treated, the others asking what should we do about our risk? The good news is we have many options. There are things you can do to lower your risk for breast cancer.

KAGAN: We don't just have options; we have a ton of questions, and not just me. I know our viewers. We've been talking about breast cancer all week. It is breast cancer awareness month. So Dr. Olopade, I'm going to ask you to stick around and come back in the next hour.

You have time to do that for us?

OLOPADE: Yes, absolutely.

KAGAN: Excellent. So we're going to put the word out to our viewers, send us your e-mails if you have a question about breast cancer. Does it run in your family? Do you have questions about genetic testing, about a specific type of treatment? Send us your e- mail. The address is livetoday@CNN.com. And Dr. Olopade will be back with us in the next hour to answer those questions -- Rick.

SANCHEZ: Hey, Daryn, guess what?

KAGAN: What?

SANCHEZ: There is snow in them thar hills. The question is where, though, right? We're going to show you the pictures, but we're not going to tell you where it is. We will tell you, though, if you don't change the dial. Your forecast when CNN LIVE TODAY comes right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

SANCHEZ: You liked my drum roll, huh?

KAGAN: That was good. Hopefully more worth it than...

(CROSSTALK)

SANCHEZ: I worked on it for days.

In our next hour right here on CNN LIVE TODAY, there's an investigation into Afghan prison deaths, why some U.S. troops are being implicated. We're going to have a live report from Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr.

KAGAN: Also, we're taking your questions about breast cancer. E-mail us at livetoday@cnn.com, as the second hour of CNN LIVE TODAY begins right now.

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 October 14, 2004 - 10:30   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. These are the stories now in the news. Five electoral votes were up for grabs in Nevada, but with the White House race so close, both President Bush and Senator John Kerry are campaigning there today. Kerry addresses the AARP convention in Las Vegas. The president has rallies in Las Vegas, also in Reno, we're told.
U.S. forces again pounded targets linked to the Abu Musab Al Zarqawi terror network. The military says today's airstrikes hit a weapons storage site in a safehouse in Falluja. That Sunni Triangle city has been the target of almost daily attacks by U.S.-led forces there.

Officials are calling it the largest criminal probe of detainee abuse in Afghanistan and probably Iraq, as well. CNN this morning has learned that 28 U.S. soldiers have been named in an Army criminal investigation into the deaths of two Afghan detainees. These deaths, ruled as homicides, happened nearly two years ago. Charges being considered include involuntary manslaughter, assault, and battery. An announcement is expected from the Pentagon, we're told, sometime later today.

And scientists are saying there's still a chance that Mount St. Helens could erupt, although they say it won't be anything like the one in 1980. Lava is oozing out of the volcano, building up a crust in the crater. Experts say the lava movement could go on for days, weeks, possibly months. The temperature of the molten rock is about 1,300 degrees.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: So who exactly won last night's final debate may have no bearing on who wins the White House.

Judy Woodruff reports now, the debate touched on several issues that pointed up differences between the two men.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The last debate of the campaign and the first without Iraq as its centerpiece.

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This president has turned his back on the wellness of America.

WOODRUFF: Pocketbook issues dominated this discussion -- jobs, taxes, health care. GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: A plan is not a litany of complaints. And a plan is not to lay out programs that you can't pay for.

WOODRUFF: One last time, they tussled over taxes.

KERRY: Under President Bush, the middle class has seen their tax burden go up and the wealthiest tax burden has gone down. Now that's wrong.

BUSH: People listening out there know the benefits of the tax cuts we passed. If you have a child, you got tax relief. If you're married, you got tax relief. If you pay any tax at all, you got tax relief.

WOODRUFF: Staying on message, their lines of attack now familiar.

KERRY: This president, incredibly, rushed us into a war, made decisions about foreign policy, pushed alliances away.

BUSH: You know, there's a mainstream in American politics and you sit right on the far left bank. As a matter of fact, your record is such that Ted Kennedy, your colleague, is the conservative senator from Massachusetts.

WOODRUFF: But this debate also, perhaps, gave Americans new insight into the men who would lead them, touching on matters of faith and personal belief.

BOB SCHIEFFER, MODERATOR: Do you believe homosexuality is a choice?

BUSH: You know, Bob, I don't know. I just don't know. I do know that we have a choice to make in America, and that is to treat people with tolerance and respect and dignity.

KERRY: We're all god's children, Bob, and I think if you were to talk to Dick Cheney's daughter, who is a lesbian, she would tell you that she's being who she was. She's being who she was born as.

WOODRUFF: They faced off on abortion, on education and on immigration. The president defending himself against Kerry's charge the borders are less secure than before 9/11. But the end note of this debate season was a light one, with both men asked what they had learned from the women in their lives.

BUSH: To stand up straight and not scowl.

KERRY: I can sometimes take myself too seriously. They surely don't let me do that.

WOODRUFF: Judy Woodruff, CNN, Tempe, Arizona.

(END VIDEOTAPE) KAGAN: Well, as you got from Judy's piece, at one point last night, the candidates were asked if they thought homosexuality was a choice. When it was his turn to answer, John Kerry said he didn't think it was a choice, and he mentioned Vice President Dick Cheney's daughter, Mary, who is gay, as someone who would probably agree that she was born that way.

Well, after the debate her mother, Lynne Cheney, had this reaction to Kerry's reference.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LYNNE CHENEY, WIFE OF VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY: I did have a chance to assess John Kerry once more. And, you know, the only thing I could conclude is this is not a good man. This is not a good man. And, of course, I am speaking as a mom, and a pretty indignant mom. This is not a good man. What a cheap and tawdry political trick.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Mrs. Cheney made that remark while introducing her husband at a rally. The vice president did not talk about the issue.

SANCHEZ: Let's break this down a little bit more for you. The issues did trump questions of character in last night's debate. Our senior political analyst Bill Schneider is here to talk about that a little bit.

Hey, Bill, the first thing we ought to do is maybe put up the numbers from that snap poll, and they do reflect a 52 to 39 advantage for the senator.

Tell our viewers what the significance of a snap poll is. There are so many people going around saying, yes, but that was just a snap poll. What's that mean?

WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POL. ANALYST: It's a first impression. It's among viewers who watched the debate, interviewed immediately after the debate. And I should point out that these viewers were evenly divided, 36 percent Republican, 36 percent Democrat. They thought Kerry won by almost as big a margin as in that first debate, which has been regarded as a decisive Kerry victory. CBS news also polled viewers, found that Kerry came out ahead. ABC showed it much closer.

What's important about these polls is, yes, they are a simple snap judgment, but they are people who are polled before the spin, before they have a chance to read the papers, talk to others, be influenced in their opinions, listen to the television analysis. They're immediately after the debate, so that's a first impression, unspun, so to speak, by the campaigns.

SANCHEZ: What's a cumulative effect of all three debates? Let's put them together now and talk about the effect they're going to have on both of these campaigns? SCHNEIDER: Look at this. The first debate Kerry was seen as having won by 16 points among debate viewers. Second debate was much more narrow, virtually a draw. Third debate, as we just saw, Kerry by 13 points.

Kerry's back in the game. Before these debates, bush was moving ahead, consolidating a pretty sizable lead over John Kerry, because Bush was making Kerry and Kerry's record the central theme of the campaign. But Bush is the incumbent president. And usually if an incumbent president is running for re-election, he's the central issue in the campaign. Do voters want to rehire him, or do they want to fire him?

Well, the debates, I think, were the only -- I know this, they were the only opportunity the voters have in this entire year-long campaign to see the candidates side by side on an equal footing without production values. And what Kerry effectively did was use the debates to cast the campaign as a referendum on Bush and Bush's record, and that has worked to Kerry's advantage.

SANCHEZ: Is there one thing that you've seen throughout the debates that Senator Kerry has used effectively to, as some of these numbers show, succeed so dramatically?

SCHNEIDER: Well, in a couple of the debates, I think he raised the question about Bush's promise to unify the country. Bush ran in 2000 on a pledge to be a uniter, not a divider. And Kerry has pointed out on a couple of occasions he didn't deliver on that promise. However you feel or agree with him on the issues, the fact is the country is now more divided than ever. And there was a year, after 9/11, when Americans were united, and even a majority of Democrats supported President Bush, and John Kerry paid tribute to President Bush for his leadership after 9/11. That disappeared with the war in Iraq, which brought all the old divisions back to the surface. And I think Americans are uncomfortable with this sense of division. Kerry promised that he could unite the country, and that gives Bush a Bit of a dilemma. In order to rally the debates, his base, his conservative base, he's going to have to raise divisive issues once again.

SANCHEZ: It's almost as if it's the president's Achilles Heel at this point, huh?

SCHNEIDER: Yes, I think so, the divisiveness issue.

SANCHEZ: Bill Schneider, thanks so much for that report. We appreciate it -- Daryn.

SCHNEIDER: OK, Rick.

KAGAN: All right, checking the calendar, there are less than three weeks to go now until Americans go to the polls. Still, there are widespread concerns across the country about the voting process. Have we learned anything from 2000?

CNN's Dan Lothian takes a closer look at that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN BOSTON BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): As the clock winds down in the race for the White House, there is growing concern over what the accuracy will be of the final count.

ERIC RUSSELL (ph), VOTER'S OUTREACH OF AMERICA: David thinks he's registered to vote.

LOTHIAN: In Nevada, Eric Russell, a former part-time worker for the Republican-backed group Voter's Outreach of America, alleges supervisors destroyed forms filled out by Democrats, threw out registration receipts and put pressure on workers to only sign up Republicans.

RUSSELL: If you had brought in Republicans or Democrats, you weren't getting paid. I mean, our -- bottom line.

LOTHIAN: He says he kept discarded paperwork as evidence. A Republican consultant with ties to the group says Russell is a disgruntled ex-employee trying to get even. In a statement, the Republican National Committee said, "Anyone who engages in fraudulent voter registration activities should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."

In Colorado, CNN affiliate KUSA found signs of fraud on registration forms, bogus names, Social Security numbers and dates of birth, and forged signatures.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm 100 percent that this is not her signature.

LOTHIAN: They spoke with this woman who claims she not only registered to vote 25 times, but also signed up three of her friends 40 times, all to help her boyfriend who was making $2 for every application, working for Acorn, a group aligned with the Democratic Party.

KIM CASON, GIRLFRIEND: You know, I was just helping the people out downtown. You know, everybody needs an extra dollar here and now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We did have incidents where there were people who were attempting to defraud us.

LOTHIAN: And across the country in key battleground states, like Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida, some worry new voting technology may result in mistakes and fraud, and where there is no paper trail, an impossible task to recount.

Already in Florida, a problem, power failure during Hurricane Jeanne may have damaged computer equipment causing a server to crash. A test of Palm Beach County's electronic voting system had to be postponed.

(on camera): All of these concerns have led to lawsuits and investigations. Various groups and officials working hard to lower the odds of irregularities with less than three weeks to go. Dan Lothian, CNN, Boston.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: As we continue here, is it in the genes? This is something you've been working on.

KAGAN: Yes, we've been talking about breast cancer all week long. We're going to look at why some women may have a higher risk of having breast cancer than others. I'll talk with a genetic expert just ahead, when CNN LIVE TODAY returns.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Welcome back to CNN LIVE TODAY. I'm Rick Sanchez.

More than 200,000 women are diagnosed each year with breast cancer. What typically follows is a long and difficult treatment period. But now there's a relatively new technique that can drastically reduce radiation therapy for some women from weeks to just days.

CNN medical correspondent Christy Feig has that story in today's report for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTY FEIG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Chrisley McCarson's life was turned upside down in May when she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

CHRISLEY MCCARSON, BREAST CANCER SURVIVOR: I had my surgery June 11th, and the rest of the summer would have been taken up with having to have the radiation.

FEIG: Then a friend told her about mammosite radiation therapy, which was approved by the FDA about two years ago, but it's just becoming common in hospitals. It targets only the area where the tumor was removed and does not radiate healthy breast tissue.

DR. JEFFERSON MOULDS, GEORGETOWN UNIV. HOSPITAL: When we treat less than all of the breast, it allows us to treat much quicker. So instead of a course of six weeks of daily radiation treatment, we can deliver the whole course of radiation in one week.

FEIG: McCarsson says the only side effect she had was fatigue.

MCCARSON: If you meet all the qualifications, you should do it.

FEIG: But there are down sides.

MOULDS: All the breast is not treated. If there were tumor elsewhere in the breast, we could miss a tumor elsewhere in the breast.

FEIG: Researchers is also underway to catch the early-warning signs of cancer. Doctors are using a procedure called "ductal lavage," that takes cells from high-risk patients to check for abnormalities.

DR. MARIE PENNANEN, LOMBARDI CANCER CENTER: It enables us to do a better job of assessing a woman's risk for breast cancer so that we can potentially intervene to reduce her risk of ever developing breast cancer.

FEIG: That may help doctors catch the disease years before tumors ever develop.

Christy Feig, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: Also in breast cancer news, African-American women face a disproportionately large risk from breast cancer, and it's even more acute for African women, especially those from Nigeria. Those two groups provide an ideal opportunity to research the causes of breast cancer, especially theories on genetics versus environment.

Dr. Funmi Olopade is among the researchers looking into this puzzle. She is the director for the Center for Clinical Cancer Genetics at the University of Chicago Medical Center. Dr. Olopade is with us today from New York City.

Good morning.

DR. FUNMI OLOPADE, CTR. FOR CLINICAL CANCER GENETICS: Thank you, Daryn.

KAGAN: What do you think is happening genetically with African- American women? And then also, on a smaller set, women from Nigeria?

OLOPADE: Well, you know, African-Americans really derive their genetic material from Africa, predominantly West Africa. And when we started looking at the causes of breast cancer and trying to understand what is preventable, we're coming to the conclusion that some of it is genetic. And since the Genome Project was finished, we've identified genes that predispose women to breast cancer. Genes such as BRC-1 and BRC-2. And women can now have genetic testing to know their risk for breast cancer.

KAGAN: Which is actually kind of a loaded question. I want to get to genetic testing in just a minute. But first of all, the other issue with African-American women. There might be something genetically happening, but also access to health care, especially lower-income women. That is a big problem.

OLOPADE: Well, access to health care is an issue. But we do know that right now, breast cancer is preventable, it's treatable, and it's curable when it's detected early. And so the world we're trying to get out there is yes, there's a lot of research has that really improved our understanding of breast cancer. We can treat it.

And what has really been an issue, especially for low-income and low-literate women is that they're so afraid of breast cancer they don't want to even show up when they find a lump in their breast, and the word that we should be getting out there is that breast cancer is treatable. There are new drugs, new options.

For example, we have a pill, like Zoloda (ph), that even when women have advanced breast cancer, they can take and really have good quality of life. So breast cancer is not a death sentence. We need women to come forward and have good treatment. And there is access to women, as long as they, in fact, go and see a doctor.

KAGAN: Got it. Let's talk about genetic testing. Who should get tested? Do you believe it should be a standard part of any woman who's been diagnosed, part of her treatment to be tested, to find out if she has the breast cancer gene?

OLOPADE: Well, we know that so many risk factors for breast cancer. But after age, a family history of breast cancer is the most important risk factor. So if someone in your family has had breast cancer.

The other day I had a patient in my office who is a quadruplet, and she came in with three sisters, her mother and her aunt, and she came in to ask what should I do to be treated? And her sisters came in to say, what should we do to prevent breast cancer? That's a perfect patient to refer for genetic testing, because this woman obviously has a very strong family history. She was young, and we now know that African-American women are more likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer at a young age, and as a result of that, we need to offer genetic testing to those women.

And so my recommendation is for that family, with six women, one wanting to be treated, the others asking what should we do about our risk? The good news is we have many options. There are things you can do to lower your risk for breast cancer.

KAGAN: We don't just have options; we have a ton of questions, and not just me. I know our viewers. We've been talking about breast cancer all week. It is breast cancer awareness month. So Dr. Olopade, I'm going to ask you to stick around and come back in the next hour.

You have time to do that for us?

OLOPADE: Yes, absolutely.

KAGAN: Excellent. So we're going to put the word out to our viewers, send us your e-mails if you have a question about breast cancer. Does it run in your family? Do you have questions about genetic testing, about a specific type of treatment? Send us your e- mail. The address is livetoday@CNN.com. And Dr. Olopade will be back with us in the next hour to answer those questions -- Rick.

SANCHEZ: Hey, Daryn, guess what?

KAGAN: What?

SANCHEZ: There is snow in them thar hills. The question is where, though, right? We're going to show you the pictures, but we're not going to tell you where it is. We will tell you, though, if you don't change the dial. Your forecast when CNN LIVE TODAY comes right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

SANCHEZ: You liked my drum roll, huh?

KAGAN: That was good. Hopefully more worth it than...

(CROSSTALK)

SANCHEZ: I worked on it for days.

In our next hour right here on CNN LIVE TODAY, there's an investigation into Afghan prison deaths, why some U.S. troops are being implicated. We're going to have a live report from Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr.

KAGAN: Also, we're taking your questions about breast cancer. E-mail us at livetoday@cnn.com, as the second hour of CNN LIVE TODAY begins right now.

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