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American Morning
Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio May Determine Who Spends Next Four Years in White House; New Pictures Giving Scientists Close Look at Saturn's Moon Titan
Aired October 27, 2004 - 09:30 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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. Good morning.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's get right to the stories.
Good morning.
O'BRIEN: Yes, I hear you.
HEMMER: Back to Heidi Collins now, looking at the stories this hour.
Good morning.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Good morning.
HEMMER: Cheerio.
COLLINS: We want to get to straight to Iraq this morning. In fact, major developments there. A British battalion is deploying to a base near Baghdad. The Black Watch troops will free up U.S. forces to fight forces in Falluja and other cities. And Japan says its troops will stay in Iraq, despite threats from insurgents to execute one of its citizen. Officials are working to identify the man and return him safely to Japan.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon says he's standing by his withdrawal plan, despite threats from some of his ministers. The Israeli parliament voted yesterday to back the prime minister's withdrawal plan from Gaza and parts of the West Bank, but critics within Sharon's own party have threatened to resign unless a referendum is held. That could delay the pullout.
For only the fourth time in 50 years, the U.N. Security Council will meet outside of New York. The United Nations will travel to Africa next month to press for peace in the war-torn region of Sudan. The meeting will take place in Nairobi, Kenya. That is where Sudan peace talks are under way now this morning. Good luck to them.
HEMMER: And one way to bring attention to it. Thank you, Heidi. And good morning.
COLLINS: Good morning.
O'BRIEN: Good morning.
HEMMER: Enough.
O'BRIEN: Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, the big three battlegrounds, may determine who spends the next four years in the White House. Senior political analyst Bill Schneider is in Washington with a blow by blow of how things are shaping up in those key states.
Good morning to you. Nice to see you. Let's get right to Florida.
Former President Bill Clinton in Florida, also Vice President Dick Cheney there as well. Give me a sense how this is going to go and whether President Clinton can be a big help to the Kerry campaign, when really you think Al Gore is the one who would be a bigger help?
WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POL. ANALYST: Well, yes, Clinton can help energize African-American voters, no question, but Gore is the guy when Florida voters look at Al Gore, it brings back the bitter memories of 2000 and gets Democratic juices flowing. You know, Florida is close, because it has one of the better economies across the country, and both the president and his popular governor -- his brother, the popular governor of Florida, both named Bush, were there delivering aid after the devastating hurricanes that hit Florida. So the economy is doing OK, but at the same time, Florida has a very rapidly expanding population of minorities, including a lot of non- Cuban Hispanics, particularly Puerto Ricans, who vote Democratic are and not immigrants; they are American citizens. So that state is a real showdown.
O'BRIEN: Poll of Polls in Pennsylvania is actually giving John Kerry a narrow margin lead, 49 percent to 46 percent. Loss of jobs in that state is a big problem for the president. So what does he do at this point with so little time left to try to turn those numbers around?
SCHNEIDER: Well, our colleague James Carville once commented that Pennsylvania is really three states, Philadelphia in the east, Pittsburgh in the west, and he called it Alabama in the middle. Meaning that in the middle of the state, between those two metropolises, there are rural conservative voters, social conservatives, gun owners, religious voters, and those are the voters that President Bush has been appealing to. I keep noticing that he's showing up in places like Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, and I think this weekend, Lancaster, which is in the hear of Amish County, he has to get a big turnout from the middle of the state.
O'BRIEN: Polls are mixed showing who's leading in Ohio, depending on the day, depending on who you ask, but if Ohio is a must win for each candidate then, what do you think is going to happen there in the next couple of days?
SCHNEIDER: Let's call it the battle of Ohio. The state is being flooded with throngs of activists from both political parties. Some organizations are paying for volunteers, their expenses at least to show up in Ohio, to make sure the vote count is accurate. You're seeing poll monitors going to the polls places. Republicans are paying people to show up to polling places to challenge the qualifications of voters, they can legally do this, who they suspect are unqualified to vote because there's been a surge of voter registration. Democrats are thronging Ohio to make sure that Republicans don't, in their view, suppress the vote from legally qualified voters, and of course lawyers on all sides ready to challenge everything, with lawsuits ready to file at drop of a hat. The battle of Ohio is coming.
O'BRIEN: It Sounds like a battle.
Let's talk a little bit about Hawaii. At one point, Hawaii completely dismissed as being just too small to care about. Now it's really back into play and quite a big deal. Why?
SCHNEIDER: This is a real head scratcher. There have been two polls in Hawaii, four electoral votes, isolated state. It's only gone Republican twice, in landslides, 1972 and 1984. But those polls show Hawaii too close to call. That should be a sure bet for Democrats. I'm not sure I can tell you exactly why. They have a Republican governor in Hawaii, Linda Lingle, the former Maui mayor, and she is a popular governor. She came in because of a wave of corruption scandals on the part of Democrats, so maybe she's bringing Republican votes with her. But I'll tell you something, if this election comes down to Hawaii, we'll be happy to go and supervise the recount from a Condo in Maui.
O'BRIEN: And I'm happy to do a show there the day after the election if you need me.
Bill Schneider has got the blow-by-blow for us this morning. Thanks, Bill.
SCHNEIDER: Sure.
HEMMER: Research from Maui forthcoming.
New pictures from deep in space giving scientists closest look yet at Saturn's moon Titan. Our space correspondent Miles O'Brien loves this stuff, and good morning at the CNN Center -- Miles.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Bill.
You know, it's interesting, titan is not a planet, or in this case, a moon, that reveals secrets easily. It is the only moon in our solar system that has an atmosphere, and it is a very hazy atmosphere. First, let's talk about Cassini, the spacecraft, which is operated by NASA's jet propulsion laboratory, and has some European help on some of its instrumentation, which has been in the orbit of Saturn, the second largest planet in the solar system, since June.
Now, what has happened is it has made a close fly-by, beginning yesterday afternoon into the overnight hours, of Titan, and this is a little movie that they put had together. You see those white features there. Those could be clouds. Those also, potentially, could be portions of maybe some kind of land mass there. Not certain; it's very difficult to see through the haze. They had to use very specific filters on their cameras in order to get a glimpse. Take a look at some of the other images, some still images. About 500 came down, and this is just kind of a wide-angle shot, kind of the haze. You get a sense how hazy it is. Is there any surface features there? Scientists aren't certain. Maybe the surface is so similar to the haze, we could be seeing portions of it. Let's look at the next image. We'll give you a little closer shot, almost a purple haze there, with all due respect to the late great Jimi Hendrix, but that's the sense you get as you look through on the edge. And here you see some of those features.
Now what could this be, you might wonder, those dark features right there? Scientists believe those could be liquid pools of ethane or methane. If you would get yourself to Titan, you definitely wouldn't want to smoke there, because it is a methane atmosphere, and it is so cold, 300 degrees below zero Fahrenheit, that those things that are Gases normally here on Earth become liquefied.
Take a look more. And these are -- could this be a coastline on Titan? Not certain, but we, as this continues on, this was the first of 45 close fly-bys. There were about 750 miles away from the surface. Next one's coming up will be even closer. They will get a better glimpse of Titan, which, Bill, is like if you could go to the deep freeze and pull out Earth as it was before life took hold here, it would look a lot like Titan according to the scientists.
HEMMER: Here's the thought. What if you put a probe on Titan, what would you get then?
M. O'BRIEN: Great idea. You could be a scientist -- you could be a rocket scientist, Bill Hemmer. In fact, there's a probe, the Hoigons (ph) Probe, which is a scientific probe developed to do just that. Christmas Eve, Cassini will send Hoigons down toward Titan. There you see it on its way. Middle of January it will land. What's going to happen when it lands? Well, on the its way down, it's going to sample that atmosphere, that methane and ethane atmosphere, parachute will send it down. Will it land on something solid, or will it land on something liquid? Who knows? But this will be interesting, because it has a battery which will last for about 30 minutes, and we will get an unprecedented glimpse if all goes well on what's going on on Titan.
HEMMER: And we'll find out whether or not there's a coastline or a series of clouds.
M. O'BRIEN: I have some real estate I could interest you in.
HEMMER: I bet you do.
Thank you, Miles.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HEMMER: Thank you, Rob.
In between the election talk this week and today, we've heard a lot about acid reflux. Ashlee Simpson blamed that condition in part for forcing her to lip synch Saturday on "Saturday Night Live." But our medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen this morning talks about a new study raising some concern about drugs used to control acid reflux disease. Elizabeth, good morning.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill.
Bill, Ashlee Simpson is not alone. Medicines to help people who have acid reflux are a $20 billion -- that's billion with a B -- $20 billion a year industry. We have some of them here. Some of them are over the counter -- you can get them on your own. Some are prescription. And they can help people who have acid reflux, they can help control ulcers, they can help control some of the pain that's associated with that disease.
However, there is a new study out that looked at 300,000 people, and what they found is that folks who took these medicines had an increased chance of getting pneumonia. Let's take a look at numbers, and then I'll explain why there's a link between pneumonia and acid reflux disease.
Those who took Pepcid, Zantac, Axid, and Tagamet, they had a 63 percent increased risk of getting pneumonia. Those who took Prilosec, Prevacid, Nexium, Aciphex, and Protonix had an 89 percent increased risk. The difference is that those two groups of drugs, they work differently.
Now, the reason why there might be this connection between taking these drugs and getting pneumonia is that stomach acid, although it's definitely no fun, it does kill bacteria. So, if you reduce the amount of acid in your stomach, you could increase amount of bacteria.
Now, we asked for responses from some of the companies that make these drugs, and we got a response from the makers of Prevacid. And they pointed out that, in fact, in clinical trials of Prevacid involving over 10,000 patients worldwide, there was no increase in pneumonia compared to placebo. They did say pneumonia is, however, reported in the Prevacid package insert "as a rarely observed adverse event, less than one percent of patients."
What they are trying to point out is something that also the study authors point out, that even though there was this increased chance that you would get pneumonia if you take these drugs, still the number -- that's the sheer number of people who got pneumonia -- was still quite small -- Bill?
HEMMER: You can do things to reduce the possibility of acid reflux, can you not?
COHEN: Right, you don't have to go on drugs. There are things you can do in your own life to reduce the chances that you're going to get acid reflux. And let's go over some of these.
First of all, lose weight if necessary. If you're heavy, you're increasing the chances that you're going to have acid reflux. Avoid high fat foods, greasy foods. Quit or at least reduce -- preferably quit -- smoking. And cut back on alcohol and coffee. So, again, you don't need to go on drugs all the time. Doing some of those lifestyle changes can really help.
HEMMER: All right. Here's my favorite question of the day -- are you ready?
COHEN: I'm ready.
HEMMER: If Ashlee Simpson says her voice is hoarse because of acid reflux: A, do doctors say can you become hoarse because of it; and B, can it prevent a person from using vocal cords to sing because of it, Elizabeth?
COHEN: Well, I would say from doctors who we've talked to that the answer to both of those is yes. Acid reflux, in fact, can affect your vocal cords and can keep you from singing the way you used to sing or usually sing. It can have that effect.
Whether or not that had that effect in Ashlee Simpson's case, I don't know. We didn't get to talk to Ashlee personally, but that can happen.
HEMMER: Maybe the band had acid reflux.
O'BRIEN: I was going to say what made the band play the wrong song?
COHEN: Maybe we should ship some of these the drugs to her, I don't know.
HEMMER: Thanks, Elizabeth.
O'BRIEN: She's only human, Elizabeth. She's only human.
Still to come this morning, why one toy store is putting away some of its toys, and we're not talking Toys "R" Us. Andy's "Minding Your Business" just ahead.
HEMMER: Also, how would you like to hire Paris Hilton or Nicole Richie as interns? Yeah, a new gig for TV's favorite socialites ahead on "90-Second Pop" in a moment here on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: No chit chatting before we get to the segment. Time for another all-new edition of "90-Second Pop." Here's the cast. In order of appearance this morning, Andy Borowitz -- he's the brains and the beauty behind the borowitzreport.com. Sarah Bernard is contributing editor for "New York" magazine. And Toure, CNN's pop culture correspondent.
SARAH BERNARD, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, "NEW YORK" MAGAZINE: I think Toure's the brains and the beauty.
O'BRIEN: And the brains...
(CROSSTALK)
O'BRIEN: Good morning. Why were we playing "Footloose," anybody know? Am I missing a reference? OK, we're just going to go with it.
TOURE, CNN POP CULTURE CORRESPONDENT: Paris Hilton is footloose across America.
O'BRIEN: Oh, OK.
BERNARD: There you go.
O'BRIEN: Paris and Nicole, season three?
BERNARD: That's right.
O'BRIEN: ... keep stacking them up. She's going to move into an office now. The milking of the cows wasn't gross enough?
BERNARD: No. Now we're going to see her in some cubicle. It's hard to imagine.
O'BRIEN: ... the fax machine.
BERNARD: Well, this time instead of in an Airstream trailer, they're actually going to get on a Greyhound bus, and Paris is not driving this time, which is probably good for everyone.
The conceit is that they're going to be doing internships all over the country, some white collar places, some of the blue collar places. Now, my favorite tidbit about this is they asked "The Wall Street Journal" if the girls could spend some time there. And they, of course, said no.
O'BRIEN: They're like not a chance. But they did offer them some...
BERNARD: Sure, do you want to write anything? Yeah, A-1 story for you guys. But I would just like to say that I could use some help filing and Xeroxing. So, if Paris wants to be an intern at "New York" magazine...
O'BRIEN: And she can come right here to CNN and be my intern, too.
TOURE: Isn't her 15 minutes over?
ANDY BOROWITZ, BOROWITZREPORT.COM: Thank you.
TOURE: There's no talent. She's not pretty. She's tacky. Hello!
BOROWITZ: She's now -- she's spreading herself so thin. Like I just read she's not even going to appear in her new sex tape. She's just executive producing. O'BRIEN: She's casting for it, right?
BOROWITZ: It's unreal to me.
O'BRIEN: Let's talk about The Food Network. They're looking for their new star.
BOROWITZ: Yes.
O'BRIEN: I had no idea that they actually did that. What are they looking for?
BOROWITZ: Who knows?
O'BRIEN: I can't cook, can I be the star...
BOROWITZ: Please. Well, you know...
O'BRIEN: I can microwave.
BOROWITZ: ... this is like their attempt to do a reality show. It's like a search for a new...
O'BRIEN: Right.
BOROWITZ: To me, like if you're going to do a reality show like on The Food Network, it should be like Survivor: Outback Steakhouse. I think that would be so much better. But...
O'BRIEN: The blooming onion...
BOROWITZ: Well, that's exactly. That's the challenge.
O'BRIEN: The blooming onion, that what you eat at those Outback Steakhouses.
BOROWITZ: But they's got -- I mean, they've already got The Iron Chef, The Naked Chef. I think, you know, the biggest food star is going to be out of prison in five months.
BERNARD: I was going to say that.
O'BRIEN: The recently released and furloughed chef.
BOROWITZ: And she's going to have so many awesome microwave recipes. I just think this is the time. This is the prison...
BERNARD: Well, remember she's been picking crab apples and making jelly out of it in prison. So, I think she could actually do a whole thing on prison, you know...
BOROWITZ: Right. And she's been working in a kitchen the size of our kitchens. So...
BERNARD: I have another suggestion, though. What about the "Super Size Me" guy, Morgan Spurlock? Do you think that maybe he could come on and do investigative shows of all the different fast food places?
BOROWITZ: Or the forensics show would be good. Any number of ideas.
O'BRIEN: What is in this?
BOROWITZ: Go to high school cafeterias.
O'BRIEN: Andy, Sarah, Toure, thank you. Bill, back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HEMMER: All right, Soledad, thanks for that.
In a moment, Apple's iPod learns a whole new trick. Andy's "Minding Your Business" with details after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: Welcome back earn were. More reasons to love the popular iPod. With that, and a check of the markets, and we want to thank Andy Serwer for bringing our favorite candy today.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: You're welcome.
HEMMER: Our favorite Halloween candy.
SERWER: You're going to save that for the rest of the week.
HEMMER: This stuff is great.
SERWER: That's got to last.
HEMMER: Look at that bad boy.
You want some?
O'BRIEN: Yes.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: I've been eating them all morning. I'm done.
HEMMER: What's going on?
SERWER: Not so sweet down on Wall Street, stocks lower this morning. Blockbuster falling hard. Let's see, down 22 on the Dow. Blockbuster kind of hitting the skids a little bit. It's numbers weaker than expect. Two stocks moving up. Boeing has some good numbers. And Black & Decker, a power surge going on there, this stock's gone from like 35 to 80 over the past 18 months, up again today. I think people just like the power tools, the Pride of Towson, Maryland.
Let's talk about Kaybee Toys. How many companies are in bankruptcy in the United States we were talking about. This is another one, in bankruptcy, shutting up to 200-plus stores this week. They had 1,200 stores at beginning of the year. Now they've got 600. They say they're going to keep a bunch of them open for Christmas. Wal-mart selling toys, and as Soledad said, people buying online. Between that, these local toy stores, these independent chains are really feeling the heat.
HEMMER: Kind of goes with the Toys 'R' Us story a few days ago.
SERWER: That's exactly right, same kind of deal.
Let's talk about the new iPod. Steve Jobs, sometimes they call him the rock star of the tech world. And he was there with Bono the other day, and The Edge, rolling out the new U2 iPod. So a couple of iPods are -- first of all, this is the U2 iPod, which is black with a red dial. It's a U2 edition, isn't that nice? U2 was one of the first bands to get on board with the whole iTunes business model. Also, the new ones out for $599. That's the new super expanded one with 60 gigs, for all you techies out there, holds 25,000 photos, more and more bigger gadgetry for Christmas for you to spend money on, for your kids and your family to spend a lot of money on.
HEMMER: And they're using Bono in the ads now, too.
SERWER: Oh, yes, I've seen, yes. Looking good.
HEMMER: Thank you, Andy.
SERWER: You're welcome.
HEMMER: All right, it's a beautiful days, right, Soledad?
O'BRIEN: Yes, it is. Jack's got the Question of the Day.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Indeed I do. The question is as follows -- what do you think will be this election year's October surprise.
James in Kyoto, Japan says, "The October surprise will be that Fox News picks Kerry for president and Kerry complains."
Steve in Oak Park, Illinois, "Jack, you can't correct Gisselle (ph) the model's 'as good as me' with your own 'as well as me.' It should have been 'as well as I,' as Soledad correctly pointed out. You now officially have the grammatical capacity a supermodel."
SERWER: That's a cut.
CAFFERTY: And Rex in Toronto writes, "Here's a real October surprise: Bill gets married, Jack gets a hair transplant and Soledad leaves AMERICAN MORNING and joins the cast of 'Desperate Housewives.'"
O'BRIEN: All right, yes. There's a lot of hot chicks on that show.
HEMMER: We've got a big year ahead of us, don't we guys?
O'BRIEN: All right, coming up this morning on CNN, Red Sox nation has been waiting 86 years for this. After tonight, the Curse of the Bambino could be history. In the next hour, you're going to hear from one special young fan who gets to see the game in person, thanks to the Make a Wish Foundation. That's coming up with Daryn and Rick on CNN LIVE TODAY. AMERICAN MORNING is back in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Here is Aaron Brown with a preview of what's coming up tonight on "NEWSNIGHT."
AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you, Soledad. Tonight, on "NEWSNIGHT," maybe not the October surprise, but a surprise all the same, and a big one. It has the White House playing defense in the final week of the campaign. How the case of the missing explosives in Iraq exploded in the media. That story, plus all the day's top news, morning papers, and of course everything else that makes "NEWSNIGHT" "NEWSNIGHT," CNN tonight, 10:00 p.m. Eastern -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Thanks.
HEMMER: We've got to run before we get sick from eating all this candy over here.
SERWER: Save some for tomorrow, I keep telling you. You don't have to eat it all today.
HEMMER: We're doing a pretty good job right now, aren't we?
SERWER: You are. You've...
(CROSSTALK)
COLLINS: ... when you it from your child and you say, oh, no,no, you can't have anymore, then you eat it all yourself.
HEMMER: Delicious.
SERWER: It's for the kids, for the kids.
HEMMER: We've got to run. Here's Daryn and Rick at the CNN Center.
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 27, 2004 - 09:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. Good morning.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's get right to the stories.
Good morning.
O'BRIEN: Yes, I hear you.
HEMMER: Back to Heidi Collins now, looking at the stories this hour.
Good morning.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Good morning.
HEMMER: Cheerio.
COLLINS: We want to get to straight to Iraq this morning. In fact, major developments there. A British battalion is deploying to a base near Baghdad. The Black Watch troops will free up U.S. forces to fight forces in Falluja and other cities. And Japan says its troops will stay in Iraq, despite threats from insurgents to execute one of its citizen. Officials are working to identify the man and return him safely to Japan.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon says he's standing by his withdrawal plan, despite threats from some of his ministers. The Israeli parliament voted yesterday to back the prime minister's withdrawal plan from Gaza and parts of the West Bank, but critics within Sharon's own party have threatened to resign unless a referendum is held. That could delay the pullout.
For only the fourth time in 50 years, the U.N. Security Council will meet outside of New York. The United Nations will travel to Africa next month to press for peace in the war-torn region of Sudan. The meeting will take place in Nairobi, Kenya. That is where Sudan peace talks are under way now this morning. Good luck to them.
HEMMER: And one way to bring attention to it. Thank you, Heidi. And good morning.
COLLINS: Good morning.
O'BRIEN: Good morning.
HEMMER: Enough.
O'BRIEN: Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, the big three battlegrounds, may determine who spends the next four years in the White House. Senior political analyst Bill Schneider is in Washington with a blow by blow of how things are shaping up in those key states.
Good morning to you. Nice to see you. Let's get right to Florida.
Former President Bill Clinton in Florida, also Vice President Dick Cheney there as well. Give me a sense how this is going to go and whether President Clinton can be a big help to the Kerry campaign, when really you think Al Gore is the one who would be a bigger help?
WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POL. ANALYST: Well, yes, Clinton can help energize African-American voters, no question, but Gore is the guy when Florida voters look at Al Gore, it brings back the bitter memories of 2000 and gets Democratic juices flowing. You know, Florida is close, because it has one of the better economies across the country, and both the president and his popular governor -- his brother, the popular governor of Florida, both named Bush, were there delivering aid after the devastating hurricanes that hit Florida. So the economy is doing OK, but at the same time, Florida has a very rapidly expanding population of minorities, including a lot of non- Cuban Hispanics, particularly Puerto Ricans, who vote Democratic are and not immigrants; they are American citizens. So that state is a real showdown.
O'BRIEN: Poll of Polls in Pennsylvania is actually giving John Kerry a narrow margin lead, 49 percent to 46 percent. Loss of jobs in that state is a big problem for the president. So what does he do at this point with so little time left to try to turn those numbers around?
SCHNEIDER: Well, our colleague James Carville once commented that Pennsylvania is really three states, Philadelphia in the east, Pittsburgh in the west, and he called it Alabama in the middle. Meaning that in the middle of the state, between those two metropolises, there are rural conservative voters, social conservatives, gun owners, religious voters, and those are the voters that President Bush has been appealing to. I keep noticing that he's showing up in places like Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, and I think this weekend, Lancaster, which is in the hear of Amish County, he has to get a big turnout from the middle of the state.
O'BRIEN: Polls are mixed showing who's leading in Ohio, depending on the day, depending on who you ask, but if Ohio is a must win for each candidate then, what do you think is going to happen there in the next couple of days?
SCHNEIDER: Let's call it the battle of Ohio. The state is being flooded with throngs of activists from both political parties. Some organizations are paying for volunteers, their expenses at least to show up in Ohio, to make sure the vote count is accurate. You're seeing poll monitors going to the polls places. Republicans are paying people to show up to polling places to challenge the qualifications of voters, they can legally do this, who they suspect are unqualified to vote because there's been a surge of voter registration. Democrats are thronging Ohio to make sure that Republicans don't, in their view, suppress the vote from legally qualified voters, and of course lawyers on all sides ready to challenge everything, with lawsuits ready to file at drop of a hat. The battle of Ohio is coming.
O'BRIEN: It Sounds like a battle.
Let's talk a little bit about Hawaii. At one point, Hawaii completely dismissed as being just too small to care about. Now it's really back into play and quite a big deal. Why?
SCHNEIDER: This is a real head scratcher. There have been two polls in Hawaii, four electoral votes, isolated state. It's only gone Republican twice, in landslides, 1972 and 1984. But those polls show Hawaii too close to call. That should be a sure bet for Democrats. I'm not sure I can tell you exactly why. They have a Republican governor in Hawaii, Linda Lingle, the former Maui mayor, and she is a popular governor. She came in because of a wave of corruption scandals on the part of Democrats, so maybe she's bringing Republican votes with her. But I'll tell you something, if this election comes down to Hawaii, we'll be happy to go and supervise the recount from a Condo in Maui.
O'BRIEN: And I'm happy to do a show there the day after the election if you need me.
Bill Schneider has got the blow-by-blow for us this morning. Thanks, Bill.
SCHNEIDER: Sure.
HEMMER: Research from Maui forthcoming.
New pictures from deep in space giving scientists closest look yet at Saturn's moon Titan. Our space correspondent Miles O'Brien loves this stuff, and good morning at the CNN Center -- Miles.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Bill.
You know, it's interesting, titan is not a planet, or in this case, a moon, that reveals secrets easily. It is the only moon in our solar system that has an atmosphere, and it is a very hazy atmosphere. First, let's talk about Cassini, the spacecraft, which is operated by NASA's jet propulsion laboratory, and has some European help on some of its instrumentation, which has been in the orbit of Saturn, the second largest planet in the solar system, since June.
Now, what has happened is it has made a close fly-by, beginning yesterday afternoon into the overnight hours, of Titan, and this is a little movie that they put had together. You see those white features there. Those could be clouds. Those also, potentially, could be portions of maybe some kind of land mass there. Not certain; it's very difficult to see through the haze. They had to use very specific filters on their cameras in order to get a glimpse. Take a look at some of the other images, some still images. About 500 came down, and this is just kind of a wide-angle shot, kind of the haze. You get a sense how hazy it is. Is there any surface features there? Scientists aren't certain. Maybe the surface is so similar to the haze, we could be seeing portions of it. Let's look at the next image. We'll give you a little closer shot, almost a purple haze there, with all due respect to the late great Jimi Hendrix, but that's the sense you get as you look through on the edge. And here you see some of those features.
Now what could this be, you might wonder, those dark features right there? Scientists believe those could be liquid pools of ethane or methane. If you would get yourself to Titan, you definitely wouldn't want to smoke there, because it is a methane atmosphere, and it is so cold, 300 degrees below zero Fahrenheit, that those things that are Gases normally here on Earth become liquefied.
Take a look more. And these are -- could this be a coastline on Titan? Not certain, but we, as this continues on, this was the first of 45 close fly-bys. There were about 750 miles away from the surface. Next one's coming up will be even closer. They will get a better glimpse of Titan, which, Bill, is like if you could go to the deep freeze and pull out Earth as it was before life took hold here, it would look a lot like Titan according to the scientists.
HEMMER: Here's the thought. What if you put a probe on Titan, what would you get then?
M. O'BRIEN: Great idea. You could be a scientist -- you could be a rocket scientist, Bill Hemmer. In fact, there's a probe, the Hoigons (ph) Probe, which is a scientific probe developed to do just that. Christmas Eve, Cassini will send Hoigons down toward Titan. There you see it on its way. Middle of January it will land. What's going to happen when it lands? Well, on the its way down, it's going to sample that atmosphere, that methane and ethane atmosphere, parachute will send it down. Will it land on something solid, or will it land on something liquid? Who knows? But this will be interesting, because it has a battery which will last for about 30 minutes, and we will get an unprecedented glimpse if all goes well on what's going on on Titan.
HEMMER: And we'll find out whether or not there's a coastline or a series of clouds.
M. O'BRIEN: I have some real estate I could interest you in.
HEMMER: I bet you do.
Thank you, Miles.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HEMMER: Thank you, Rob.
In between the election talk this week and today, we've heard a lot about acid reflux. Ashlee Simpson blamed that condition in part for forcing her to lip synch Saturday on "Saturday Night Live." But our medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen this morning talks about a new study raising some concern about drugs used to control acid reflux disease. Elizabeth, good morning.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill.
Bill, Ashlee Simpson is not alone. Medicines to help people who have acid reflux are a $20 billion -- that's billion with a B -- $20 billion a year industry. We have some of them here. Some of them are over the counter -- you can get them on your own. Some are prescription. And they can help people who have acid reflux, they can help control ulcers, they can help control some of the pain that's associated with that disease.
However, there is a new study out that looked at 300,000 people, and what they found is that folks who took these medicines had an increased chance of getting pneumonia. Let's take a look at numbers, and then I'll explain why there's a link between pneumonia and acid reflux disease.
Those who took Pepcid, Zantac, Axid, and Tagamet, they had a 63 percent increased risk of getting pneumonia. Those who took Prilosec, Prevacid, Nexium, Aciphex, and Protonix had an 89 percent increased risk. The difference is that those two groups of drugs, they work differently.
Now, the reason why there might be this connection between taking these drugs and getting pneumonia is that stomach acid, although it's definitely no fun, it does kill bacteria. So, if you reduce the amount of acid in your stomach, you could increase amount of bacteria.
Now, we asked for responses from some of the companies that make these drugs, and we got a response from the makers of Prevacid. And they pointed out that, in fact, in clinical trials of Prevacid involving over 10,000 patients worldwide, there was no increase in pneumonia compared to placebo. They did say pneumonia is, however, reported in the Prevacid package insert "as a rarely observed adverse event, less than one percent of patients."
What they are trying to point out is something that also the study authors point out, that even though there was this increased chance that you would get pneumonia if you take these drugs, still the number -- that's the sheer number of people who got pneumonia -- was still quite small -- Bill?
HEMMER: You can do things to reduce the possibility of acid reflux, can you not?
COHEN: Right, you don't have to go on drugs. There are things you can do in your own life to reduce the chances that you're going to get acid reflux. And let's go over some of these.
First of all, lose weight if necessary. If you're heavy, you're increasing the chances that you're going to have acid reflux. Avoid high fat foods, greasy foods. Quit or at least reduce -- preferably quit -- smoking. And cut back on alcohol and coffee. So, again, you don't need to go on drugs all the time. Doing some of those lifestyle changes can really help.
HEMMER: All right. Here's my favorite question of the day -- are you ready?
COHEN: I'm ready.
HEMMER: If Ashlee Simpson says her voice is hoarse because of acid reflux: A, do doctors say can you become hoarse because of it; and B, can it prevent a person from using vocal cords to sing because of it, Elizabeth?
COHEN: Well, I would say from doctors who we've talked to that the answer to both of those is yes. Acid reflux, in fact, can affect your vocal cords and can keep you from singing the way you used to sing or usually sing. It can have that effect.
Whether or not that had that effect in Ashlee Simpson's case, I don't know. We didn't get to talk to Ashlee personally, but that can happen.
HEMMER: Maybe the band had acid reflux.
O'BRIEN: I was going to say what made the band play the wrong song?
COHEN: Maybe we should ship some of these the drugs to her, I don't know.
HEMMER: Thanks, Elizabeth.
O'BRIEN: She's only human, Elizabeth. She's only human.
Still to come this morning, why one toy store is putting away some of its toys, and we're not talking Toys "R" Us. Andy's "Minding Your Business" just ahead.
HEMMER: Also, how would you like to hire Paris Hilton or Nicole Richie as interns? Yeah, a new gig for TV's favorite socialites ahead on "90-Second Pop" in a moment here on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: No chit chatting before we get to the segment. Time for another all-new edition of "90-Second Pop." Here's the cast. In order of appearance this morning, Andy Borowitz -- he's the brains and the beauty behind the borowitzreport.com. Sarah Bernard is contributing editor for "New York" magazine. And Toure, CNN's pop culture correspondent.
SARAH BERNARD, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, "NEW YORK" MAGAZINE: I think Toure's the brains and the beauty.
O'BRIEN: And the brains...
(CROSSTALK)
O'BRIEN: Good morning. Why were we playing "Footloose," anybody know? Am I missing a reference? OK, we're just going to go with it.
TOURE, CNN POP CULTURE CORRESPONDENT: Paris Hilton is footloose across America.
O'BRIEN: Oh, OK.
BERNARD: There you go.
O'BRIEN: Paris and Nicole, season three?
BERNARD: That's right.
O'BRIEN: ... keep stacking them up. She's going to move into an office now. The milking of the cows wasn't gross enough?
BERNARD: No. Now we're going to see her in some cubicle. It's hard to imagine.
O'BRIEN: ... the fax machine.
BERNARD: Well, this time instead of in an Airstream trailer, they're actually going to get on a Greyhound bus, and Paris is not driving this time, which is probably good for everyone.
The conceit is that they're going to be doing internships all over the country, some white collar places, some of the blue collar places. Now, my favorite tidbit about this is they asked "The Wall Street Journal" if the girls could spend some time there. And they, of course, said no.
O'BRIEN: They're like not a chance. But they did offer them some...
BERNARD: Sure, do you want to write anything? Yeah, A-1 story for you guys. But I would just like to say that I could use some help filing and Xeroxing. So, if Paris wants to be an intern at "New York" magazine...
O'BRIEN: And she can come right here to CNN and be my intern, too.
TOURE: Isn't her 15 minutes over?
ANDY BOROWITZ, BOROWITZREPORT.COM: Thank you.
TOURE: There's no talent. She's not pretty. She's tacky. Hello!
BOROWITZ: She's now -- she's spreading herself so thin. Like I just read she's not even going to appear in her new sex tape. She's just executive producing. O'BRIEN: She's casting for it, right?
BOROWITZ: It's unreal to me.
O'BRIEN: Let's talk about The Food Network. They're looking for their new star.
BOROWITZ: Yes.
O'BRIEN: I had no idea that they actually did that. What are they looking for?
BOROWITZ: Who knows?
O'BRIEN: I can't cook, can I be the star...
BOROWITZ: Please. Well, you know...
O'BRIEN: I can microwave.
BOROWITZ: ... this is like their attempt to do a reality show. It's like a search for a new...
O'BRIEN: Right.
BOROWITZ: To me, like if you're going to do a reality show like on The Food Network, it should be like Survivor: Outback Steakhouse. I think that would be so much better. But...
O'BRIEN: The blooming onion...
BOROWITZ: Well, that's exactly. That's the challenge.
O'BRIEN: The blooming onion, that what you eat at those Outback Steakhouses.
BOROWITZ: But they's got -- I mean, they've already got The Iron Chef, The Naked Chef. I think, you know, the biggest food star is going to be out of prison in five months.
BERNARD: I was going to say that.
O'BRIEN: The recently released and furloughed chef.
BOROWITZ: And she's going to have so many awesome microwave recipes. I just think this is the time. This is the prison...
BERNARD: Well, remember she's been picking crab apples and making jelly out of it in prison. So, I think she could actually do a whole thing on prison, you know...
BOROWITZ: Right. And she's been working in a kitchen the size of our kitchens. So...
BERNARD: I have another suggestion, though. What about the "Super Size Me" guy, Morgan Spurlock? Do you think that maybe he could come on and do investigative shows of all the different fast food places?
BOROWITZ: Or the forensics show would be good. Any number of ideas.
O'BRIEN: What is in this?
BOROWITZ: Go to high school cafeterias.
O'BRIEN: Andy, Sarah, Toure, thank you. Bill, back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HEMMER: All right, Soledad, thanks for that.
In a moment, Apple's iPod learns a whole new trick. Andy's "Minding Your Business" with details after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: Welcome back earn were. More reasons to love the popular iPod. With that, and a check of the markets, and we want to thank Andy Serwer for bringing our favorite candy today.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: You're welcome.
HEMMER: Our favorite Halloween candy.
SERWER: You're going to save that for the rest of the week.
HEMMER: This stuff is great.
SERWER: That's got to last.
HEMMER: Look at that bad boy.
You want some?
O'BRIEN: Yes.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: I've been eating them all morning. I'm done.
HEMMER: What's going on?
SERWER: Not so sweet down on Wall Street, stocks lower this morning. Blockbuster falling hard. Let's see, down 22 on the Dow. Blockbuster kind of hitting the skids a little bit. It's numbers weaker than expect. Two stocks moving up. Boeing has some good numbers. And Black & Decker, a power surge going on there, this stock's gone from like 35 to 80 over the past 18 months, up again today. I think people just like the power tools, the Pride of Towson, Maryland.
Let's talk about Kaybee Toys. How many companies are in bankruptcy in the United States we were talking about. This is another one, in bankruptcy, shutting up to 200-plus stores this week. They had 1,200 stores at beginning of the year. Now they've got 600. They say they're going to keep a bunch of them open for Christmas. Wal-mart selling toys, and as Soledad said, people buying online. Between that, these local toy stores, these independent chains are really feeling the heat.
HEMMER: Kind of goes with the Toys 'R' Us story a few days ago.
SERWER: That's exactly right, same kind of deal.
Let's talk about the new iPod. Steve Jobs, sometimes they call him the rock star of the tech world. And he was there with Bono the other day, and The Edge, rolling out the new U2 iPod. So a couple of iPods are -- first of all, this is the U2 iPod, which is black with a red dial. It's a U2 edition, isn't that nice? U2 was one of the first bands to get on board with the whole iTunes business model. Also, the new ones out for $599. That's the new super expanded one with 60 gigs, for all you techies out there, holds 25,000 photos, more and more bigger gadgetry for Christmas for you to spend money on, for your kids and your family to spend a lot of money on.
HEMMER: And they're using Bono in the ads now, too.
SERWER: Oh, yes, I've seen, yes. Looking good.
HEMMER: Thank you, Andy.
SERWER: You're welcome.
HEMMER: All right, it's a beautiful days, right, Soledad?
O'BRIEN: Yes, it is. Jack's got the Question of the Day.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Indeed I do. The question is as follows -- what do you think will be this election year's October surprise.
James in Kyoto, Japan says, "The October surprise will be that Fox News picks Kerry for president and Kerry complains."
Steve in Oak Park, Illinois, "Jack, you can't correct Gisselle (ph) the model's 'as good as me' with your own 'as well as me.' It should have been 'as well as I,' as Soledad correctly pointed out. You now officially have the grammatical capacity a supermodel."
SERWER: That's a cut.
CAFFERTY: And Rex in Toronto writes, "Here's a real October surprise: Bill gets married, Jack gets a hair transplant and Soledad leaves AMERICAN MORNING and joins the cast of 'Desperate Housewives.'"
O'BRIEN: All right, yes. There's a lot of hot chicks on that show.
HEMMER: We've got a big year ahead of us, don't we guys?
O'BRIEN: All right, coming up this morning on CNN, Red Sox nation has been waiting 86 years for this. After tonight, the Curse of the Bambino could be history. In the next hour, you're going to hear from one special young fan who gets to see the game in person, thanks to the Make a Wish Foundation. That's coming up with Daryn and Rick on CNN LIVE TODAY. AMERICAN MORNING is back in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Here is Aaron Brown with a preview of what's coming up tonight on "NEWSNIGHT."
AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you, Soledad. Tonight, on "NEWSNIGHT," maybe not the October surprise, but a surprise all the same, and a big one. It has the White House playing defense in the final week of the campaign. How the case of the missing explosives in Iraq exploded in the media. That story, plus all the day's top news, morning papers, and of course everything else that makes "NEWSNIGHT" "NEWSNIGHT," CNN tonight, 10:00 p.m. Eastern -- Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Thanks.
HEMMER: We've got to run before we get sick from eating all this candy over here.
SERWER: Save some for tomorrow, I keep telling you. You don't have to eat it all today.
HEMMER: We're doing a pretty good job right now, aren't we?
SERWER: You are. You've...
(CROSSTALK)
COLLINS: ... when you it from your child and you say, oh, no,no, you can't have anymore, then you eat it all yourself.
HEMMER: Delicious.
SERWER: It's for the kids, for the kids.
HEMMER: We've got to run. Here's Daryn and Rick at the CNN Center.
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