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American Morning

Campaign Countdown; 'State of the Ballot'; '90-Second Pop'

Aired October 29, 2004 - 07:30   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.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, everybody. It's just about half past the hour on this AMERICAN MORNING. Another incredibly busy day for both candidates. Coming up in just a few moments, we're going to check back in with both campaigns, get reaction to some of the stories out this morning, like this videotape we're talking about of U.S. soldiers apparently inspecting explosives in Iraq before those explosives disappeared. A big issue on the campaign trail.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, that's right. Also in the next 30 minutes, in fact in a couple of minutes away now, many Americans doubt that this year's election will go off without a major hitch, a problem that could drag into November 3rd, 4th, 5th...

O'BRIEN: Something you know a little bit about.

HEMMER: That's right. Jeff Toobin is back with us in a moment, looking at scenarios for legal challenges and also how close does it have to be in order to challenge a vote in a particular state. So, we'll talk to Jeff in a few moments about that.

O'BRIEN: All right. But first, let's get a look at what's going on in the news. Heidi Collins at the news desk this morning.

Hello. Good morning again.

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning to you guys. And good morning to you, everyone.

We want to get straight to the latest on the situation with Yasser Arafat. We are getting some live pictures coming in to us now of Yasser Arafat's plane. This is the area in which he will be coming down, going to Paris, as you may have heard earlier this morning, to be treated for a blood disorder. We're going to get some more information on that for you and let you know about it just as soon as we can.

To other news now, U.S. forces are reportedly preparing for major assaults in the Iraqi cities of Fallujah and Ramadi. American troops pounded a suspected safe house in Fallujah overnight. The military says it was a targeted assault on suspected militant Abu Musab al- Zarqawi. Two people were reportedly killed in that attack.

Dozens of people recovering in southern Thailand after a series of early-morning bombings there. Crews were cleaning up from one blast when a second bomb went off just 40 minutes later. At least 20 people are wounded, mostly police. It's not clear, though, who is responsible. There is some speculation Muslim extremists are present in that region.

Here in the United States, Mark Hacking will face arraignment today in connection with the death of his wife, Lori. Her body was found in a Salt Lake City landfill earlier this month after an intensive search that spanned months. Mark Hacking is charged with murder and obstruction of justice. He is expected to plead not guilty.

The nation's oldest civil rights group is reportedly under investigation now for taking sides in the election. According to reports, the IRS is reviewing the tax-exempt status of the NAACP because of claims that its chairman criticized President Bush during a speech at the group's national convention in July. Under tax laws, charities are not allowed to support specific parties in campaigns.

Back over to you -- Bill and Soledad.

O'BRIEN: All right, Heidi, thank you very much.

We are just four days away until the presidential election. The big question this morning: Are those missing explosives in Iraq affecting voters' decisions before they cast their ballots?

Joining us to discuss this issue from Arlington, Virginia, is deputy communications director for the Bush campaign, Jennifer Millerwise.

Nice to see you, Jennifer. Good morning.

JENNIFER MILLERWISE, DEP. COMM. DIR., BUSH CAMPAIGN: Thank you. It's good to be with you.

O'BRIEN: Thank you. From Washington, D.C., Chad Clanton. He's a senior adviser to the Kerry campaign.

CHAD CLANTON, SR. ADVISOR, KERRY CAMPAIGN: Good morning.

O'BRIEN: Now I can hear you. I don't -- there you are. Hi, Chad. Good morning to you.

Let's get right into it.

Good morning.

O'BRIEN: Jennifer, we're going to start with you. The videotape now is showing apparently these explosives, showing the troops inspecting them. So they clearly were there when the explosives were there. Doesn't this completely contradict what President Bush has been saying on the campaign trail, Jennifer?

MILLERWISE: Well, no, it doesn't. Because the fact is, Soledad, we don't know all of the facts. For every story that's out there, there is really information that contradicts it. For example, this tape, we don't know exactly where it was taken. What we do know is it certainly does show the types of weapons and explosives that were all over Iraq. They were in houses. They were in farms. They were in schools. They were in mosques. And we have destroyed or are in the process of destroying over 400,000 tons of these.

O'BRIEN: So, you're saying that that's not the Al Qaqaa area?

MILLERWISE: We still don't know. I know that I was listening to Paul Bremer just a little bit ago. He was saying that he was there and he was on the ground. We don't know whether or not that that's where this video comes from. The Pentagon yesterday put out a satellite photo of trucks sitting outside of the Al Qaqaa location right before the war began. We know that Saddam Hussein had a real track record of always moving these weapons and explosives when he thought they were going to be discovered.

O'BRIEN: But there is videotape of American troops with what the former chief U.N. weapons inspector says was definitively HMX. So, my question to you would be, if it wasn't seized or protected by the U.S. troops, doesn't the administration take the blame on that?

MILLERWISE: No. I think what you're missing is this. What you said is this is pictures of HMX. HMX was all over the country. That's the point. The point is, John Kerry has attacked on the very thing he said that Iraq wasn't a threat, that these kinds of weapons were not a threat. That has consistently been his position, at least since the presidential primary was over. And so, what we're seeing now is, as the facts come out, he's suddenly saying, oh, whoa, wait, this is a real problem.

What we're seeing is desperation here.

MILLERWISE: These are a threat. This is really unbelievable.

O'BRIEN: Chad, why do you think this is desperation? Why doesn't she have a point, which is there are lots of questions? Even when you talk to the chief U.N. weapons inspector, he says everything is not known.

CLANTON: Well, I think that's the real scandal here. The president did not know what happened over there, yet he still refuses to come before the American people and tell us what happened, what's the plan to deal with this.

This is 380 tons of high-grade explosives that have presumably gone into the hands of the enemy. We have the president's chief weapons inspector, David Kay, who was just on your program. He said that this is a conclusive proof of what happened over there. We had a local news report that showed footage that you referred to earlier. Yet the president continues to refuse to take responsibility.

You know, President Reagan...

O'BRIEN: Well, you know...

CLANTON: Let me make one point. President Reagan, when the Marine barracks were bombed, took full responsibility. He said, as your president, I take responsibility for the bad as well as the good. This president isn't doing this. And I think it's going to really hurt him on November the 2nd. O'BRIEN: What the videotape seems to show is the troops examining and not securing necessarily this HMX, at least according to David Kay. So, then is Senator Kerry blaming the troops?

CLANTON: Absolutely not. In fact, I want to read what one of the president's chief spokespersons, Mayor Rudy Giuliani, said yesterday about this. He said, no matter how hard you try to blame it on the president, the actual responsibility for it really would be for the troops that were there. Now that's wrong. Of course, John Kerry would never do that. Let's hope the president of the United States won't do that. But we don't know.

O'BRIEN: Why is that wrong? Why is that wrong?

CLANTON: Because the president...

O'BRIEN: We see pictures of the troops. They break the seal. And what David Kay said was, you know, referring back to the pottery barn rule. You break the seal, you own it in a war zone. So, why isn't that the blame of the troops?

CLANTON: Because the buck has to stop somewhere. And, again, I think that's the scandal here; that we have a White House that says the buck stops over there.

MILLERWISE: But, Soledad...

CLANTON: Not just over there, but way over there. We need a president who will take responsibility. I think it's a big difference between Bush and Kerry.

O'BRIEN: Jennifer, go ahead.

MILLERWISE: Soledad, if I can get in here.

O'BRIEN: Yes, go ahead.

MILLERWISE: Soledad, this is what we have. We do not know the facts yet. We don't know if this was the facility or not the facility. We do know that there were weapons. We know they were everywhere. We know that this president has said that these weapons were a threat. We know John Kerry has said that they aren't.

We also know that before the ink was even dry on "The New York Times" story earlier this week, John Kerry said, hey, I'm going to roll the dice, I don't know what the facts are, I don't care what the facts are. I'm going to attack the military. Because you know what? Hopefully the facts will come out before Election Day.

CLANTON: That's the silliest thing I've ever heard.

O'BRIEN: I believe, Jennifer, he was attacking the president, who he's running against.

(CROSSTALK)

MILLERWISE: That is irresponsible and that is why he should not be the commander-in-chief.

O'BRIEN: I think he was attacking the president, if I'm not mistaken.

CLANTON: Thank you.

O'BRIEN: You guys, we're out of time actually. But obviously this is a debate that's going to continue to rage on as the campaign comes down to these last couple days.

CLANTON: It's going to hurt the president, Soledad. It's going to hurt the president.

MILLERWISE: It's irresponsible, very irresponsible.

O'BRIEN: We will finish there, Jennifer and Chad, thank you very much -- Bill.

MILLERWISE: Thank you.

HEMMER: Soledad, it's now 22 minutes before the hour.

Even before Election Day, there have been a number of legal challenges all across the country over issues regarding ballots. And now we know lawyers for both campaigns are at-the-ready, watching and waiting to see what happens next Tuesday. Well, just what will it take to actually challenge Election Day voting in the courts?

Back to our senior legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin, back with us here this morning.

Good morning to you.

JEFFERY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Good morning, sir.

HEMMER: We call it the margin of litigation.

TOOBIN: The margin of litigation.

HEMMER: How close does it have to be?

TOOBIN: It's a phrase that I think you may well hear a lot over the next 72 hours or a few more days than that. Basically, what is the margin of the vote in any given state that will justify one party or the other going into court? The margin of litigation. How close does it have to be before you sue?

HEMMER: And can we say how much it is? Is that a legal question or a political question?

TOOBIN: Well, I think it's much more a political question, although obviously there is a legal component. You know, many states have recount statutes, that if it's within 1 percent or if it's within .5 percent, there is an automatic recount.

But even beyond that, remember, we have the famous provisional ballots that we've talked about. In Ohio, obviously a big state, in 2000 there were 125,000 provisional ballots cast, 90 percent of which were actually counted in the final totals. If one side or the other is ahead or behind by 10,000 votes and there are 125,000 provisional ballots uncounted, why in the world would anyone concede?

HEMMER: Very true. And it takes the time to count up those provisional ballots. And then you've got the issue of absentee overseas ballots that may come in as well.

TOOBIN: Absolutely. And in Ohio you have a situation where there are 88 counties, each of which is allowed its own procedures to decide how to count them. So that could be 88 different recounts going on where they fight over every ballot.

HEMMER: Here is the other issue that many people, I think, see from afar. There are so many attorneys out there looking for something. Chances are they're going to find something, right?

TOOBIN: Absolutely. I mean, when you send, as the Democrats are, between 10,000 and 15,000 attorneys out there, it's not a question of whether they find something, it's where and when. Attorneys are genetically predisposed to find controversy.

And I think something to keep an eye on is this is not going to wait until the polls close on Tuesday. I guarantee you that on Tuesday, during the day, while the polls are open, there will be lawyers going to court seeking injunctions, saying, get those people away from the polls, let people vote. The controversy will start right after the polls open, not after they close.

HEMMER: And so, ultimately we're looking at turnout to see about the polling stations. How long is it going to take? Are people going to wait six hours to cast a ballot in some cases where it may be on Tuesday? We'll have to see about that.

The other thing, though, is margin of victory. And what is the vote difference between each man in these critical states that may or may not determine recounts?

TOOBIN: Well, I think a lot of it has to do with how many provisional votes are outstanding. But I think, you know, our pal, Mr. Greenfield, has a phrase.

HEMMER: Yes?

TOOBIN: He says, your own guy, when your own guys tell you to give up, that's when they're going to give up.

HEMMER: Got it.

TOOBIN: If the Democratic leaders, if the Joe Bidens of the world say to John Kerry, you know, it's over, that's when the margin of litigation is too big. If the Richard Lugars, if the Pete Domenicis, the elders of the Republican Party say to George Bush, you know, stop fighting, that's really going to matter more than any legal fight. HEMMER: Thank you, Jeff. Talk to you later.

TOOBIN: See you later.

HEMMER: OK. Next Tuesday night, tune in to CNN for complete minute-by-minute results of that presidential race. Our primetime coverage starts at 7:00 Eastern time. We are live in Times Square at the Nasdaq Marketsite. It should be a great night --Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Weather now.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HEMMER: In a moment here, if you watch the Washington Redskins on Sunday, it might help you predict the winner of Tuesday's race. They say it's true. Andy has got that in a moment here.

O'BRIEN: Plus, Jamie Foxx plays a legend in "Ray." But will the role make Foxx a legend in his own right? "90-Second Pop" digs into the weekend's new movies, just ahead. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody. Mr. Jack, you've got the "Question of the Day."

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Trick or treat. Friday before Halloween, the day when most schools used to allow kids to dress up and have little Halloween parties, do a little trick or treating, have some candy. But not this year. Schools around the country, some of them, are placing bans on Halloween parties for reasons ranging from costumes being a safety hazard, to a distraction from learning, to a discrimination of religious beliefs. Phooey!

The question is: Should Halloween festivities be limited or banned in the schools?

Richard writes: "Not everybody believes in the Catholic holidays like Christmas and Easter. So, aren't the schools being biased if they allow those holidays to be celebrated in their schools and not this one?"

Paul in Hellertown, Pennsylvania, writes: "The only thing more frightening on Halloween than having a kid ring my doorbell wearing a Jack Cafferty mask would be Michael Moore arriving for a blind date with my daughter, carrying a bunch of wilted posies and a half-eaten 10-pound box of Kmart chocolates."

It has nothing to do with the question.

O'BRIEN: What?

CAFFERTY: It was pretty funny.

Rene in Elkins, West Virginia: "I would like it to be a fall festival and not Halloween. This is a pagan religious day in actuality. So, it would be appropriate to remove the pagan religious symbols and make it a nicer celebration with children in happy costumes instead of ghouls. I can elaborate more on this subject in- depth if you wish."

Please don't. Just please don't.

Ian in Providence, Rhode Island: "Jack, why stop at Halloween? After all, teaching would be a hell of a lot easier if it wasn't for all those damn students."

Ian is the guy who wrote yesterday and said that I had a face that could back a mule out of a feed bin.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: He's got something for you.

O'BRIEN: Actually, it's a big deal in nursery school. Did you have this issue? In nursery school, there are lots of -- some schools don't celebrate Valentine's Day.

SERWER: Yes.

CAFFERTY: You know, we've gotten so far into this politically correct nonsense that there ain't no yucks in this life anymore. You know, the country is becoming humorless because of political correctness.

O'BRIEN: I'm morally outraged.

SERWER: Yes, me too.

HEMMER: I love Halloween, by the way.

CAFFERTY: Yes, I know!

O'BRIEN: Oh!

(CROSSTALK)

HEMMER: He ate all of the candy.

CAFFERTY: And we have evidence of that, and it will be shown in the "Cafferty File" a bit later in this broadcast.

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: What are you going to be for Halloween this year?

HEMMER: I'm not -- I've got to work!

CAFFERTY: He's dressed up as an anchor guy.

HEMMER: Yes, with glasses.

SERWER: Anchorman.

HEMMER: As the Washington Redskins go, so says Andy, so goes the election. We're looking back at history like 70 years on this, huh?

SERWER: Yes, that's right..

HEMMER: What did they figure out here with the Redskins playing?

SERWER: It always comes down to football in this country, doesn't it, after all?

HEMMER: Yes.

SERWER: I mean, this is something being talked about across the NFL and across the country. When the Redskins play before the election, OK, if they win, the incumbent or the incumbent party always wins. This goes back to 1933. So, basically what's going on this weekend is, the Redskins are playing the Packers at home. So, if you are a Republican, you are rooting for the Redskins. If you're a Democrat, you are rooting for Brett Favre and the Green Bay Packers.

CAFFERTY: I wonder if he'll lay down for the Redskins like he did for Michael Strahan and the Giants. Remember that year Strahan needed the sack record, and Favre folded up like a cheap tent?

SERWER: Yes, well, right. I don't think so. You know, it's interesting, because Coach Gibbs of the Redskins is a Republican and said so. So is the quarterback of the Redskins, Mark Brunell.

HEMMER: What's Favre?

SERWER: We don't know. So, you know, it's got a lot of stuff going on.

We want to talk a little bit more about football, because we have the standings coming up for our anchors here.

CAFFERTY: I don't want to see this.

SERWER: Bill Hemmer has done pretty well, yes, pretty well.

CAFFERTY: Oh, yes.

SERWER: Me and Heidi are tied. Soledad...

O'BRIEN: How did I fall so far in the standings?

SERWER: You're 500. You're 500. That's not bad. You might make the playoffs.

O'BRIEN: Tom was picking for me.

SERWER: You might make the playoffs and Jack -- well, Jack tells it like it is on his program. He doesn't really do football picks.

CAFFERTY: Obviously.

SERWER: OK, as for this week's picks, OK, this isn't necessarily a partisan move. I'm picking the Redskins, not necessarily a partisan move.

CAFFERTY: You always pick them, and they always lose.

SERWER: Not always. I've made some -- you know, not always. OK. Patriots versus the Steelers. I am going with the Steelers, because at some point I'm going to be right. The Patriots will lose. And Jack is also going for the Steelers. Big Ben Russelburger (ph) is going to be tolling, dong, not ding.

OK, and what about the Colts versus the Chiefs? This is going to be shootout. I am picking the Colts. There won't be any punting. This is Peyton Manning versus Priest Holmes (UNINTELLIGIBLE) 57 points. A lot of fun there.

HEMMER: Oh, good stuff.

SERWER: All right.

HEMMER: Thank you, Andy.

SERWER: You're welcome.

O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, your cell phone is now the key to the Billboard Chart dominance for Justin, Beyonce and Usher. The 90-second poppers are going to explain just ahead. We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: I have to say, I love Jamie Foxx. Love, love, love. We're going to talk about him in a moment.

Now it's time for America's favorite pop culture segment, "90- Second Pop." Here to play this morning, Toure is CNN's pop culture correspondent. Sarah Bernard is a contributing editor for "New York" magazine. B.J. Sigesmund is a staff editor for "US Weekly."

Welcome, welcome, welcome. Before we got Jamie Foxx, the man I love, let's first talk about ring tones and "Billboard" magazine, which is now ranking them, weird as that is. First, bring us up-to- speed on what a ring tone is.

TOURE, CNN POPULAR CULTURE CORRESPONDENT: Well, I mean, if have you a 15-year-old, you know what a ring tone is.

SARAH BERNARD, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, "NEW YORK" MAGAZINE: She's got a while to go.

TOURE: Yes. You can download little songs.

O'BRIEN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

TOURE: Yes, and then, you know, it rings your song. So, that's a little Destiny's Child thing I downloaded in about 15 seconds, you know, and...

O'BRIEN: Why would "Billboard" want to chart these?

TOURE: Because the Internet is the future of the record business. Oh, my god! After years of getting slaughtered by Napster and people downloading for free, now they're saying, how can we use the net? So use ring tones. This cost 2.50, and iTunes it just costs 99 cents to get the whole song. But we download 2.50, you know, Outkast...

O'BRIEN: You paid $2.50?

TOURE: No, no, CNN did. But I...

O'BRIEN: Oh, OK then.

TOURE: Outkast just got an award for the most digital downloads. So the...

BERNARD: But this is, like, going to save the record industry basically is what it is.

TOURE: Yes.

BERNARD: Because what's going to happen is the people who have the rights to the songs get money. But when they want better quality, because that sounds a little fuzzy, you're going to have to order true tones, which is like the CD recording of the Beyonce song. And that's going to cause -- I mean, the record companies are going to make a fortune from that.

B.J. SIGESMUND, STAFF EDITOR, "US WEEKLY": And a lot of people don't know that this is already a huge business. Americans downloaded $300 million worth of ring tones just like that last year.

O'BRIEN: All right. Well, you know, let's move on and talk about movies, Jamie Foxx, because I want to get back to him, and...

SIGESMUND: OK.

BERNARD: I think I might love him more than you.

O'BRIEN: I don't think so.

BERNARD: I'm going to have you fight you for that.

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: Fine, because I love him. How do you think he does in this movie? He's playing Ray Charles.

SIGESMUND: You know, yes, well, "Ray" is already getting excellent reviews, but Jamie Foxx is its biggest asset for sure. And he has officially become a front-runner in the Oscar race for best actor.

O'BRIEN: Why does he sing? You know, because sometimes they just dub in the tracks of Ray Charles. And, you know, he doesn't really sound like Ray Charles, although he has a fabulous voice.

SIGESMUND: Well, they have, you know, recreated the songs to show Ray Charles' great artistry. And also, Jamie Foxx is a piano player. He's a trained piano player. So it's all really authentic. He absolutely melts into this part. And it traces -- most people don't know, it's not a try bio pic that goes all the way up to his death in June.

O'BRIEN: And we melt into him.

SIGESMUND: Oh!

BERNARD: He's also getting a record contract after this. I mean, they really realized that he can sing. He's kind of a musician. And he's going to have his own album coming out.

O'BRIEN: Move to love.

TOURE: This is one of those great moments when an actor's whole life changes, right? I mean, this movie will change Jamie Foxx forever.

BERNARD: Yes, Oscar.

O'BRIEN: Let's talk about turning very sharply, the 9/11 Commission report is now going to be a mini-series?

BERNARD: I know.

(CROSSTALK)

BERNARD: Well, NBC and ABC are now having rival mini-series in development that's based on the 9/11 Commission report. I am not sure people are going to be ready to see a mini-series on this. But I have to say that if they are going to use the 9/11 Commission report where it started out with sort of multiple points of view that the same day, if they use that structure, I think it actually could be a great way to get into it, as opposed to just sort of, you know, fictionalizing a family.

(CROSSTALK)

SIGESMUND: Right. Well, you know, they've hired the guy who wrote "Speed," the Sandra Bullock movie, and who was the producer behind "The Band of Brothers." And he had been wanting to do a 9/11- based mini-series for a long time, but didn't feel the time was right until the commission came out, until he found this narrative that begins years before 9/11 that he could structure it around.

BERNARD: Right.

TOURE: I think we're definitely ready.

BERNARD: You do?

TOURE: I think generally the wound is over. I mean, the conspiracy theories you see coming in and the book is -- the 9/11 Commission is just being considered as a book, like just...

BERNARD: Well, I mean, it's still on the best-seller list.

SIGESMUND: Right.

BERNARD: I mean, that's what I think has been the biggest surprise to everyone.

TOURE: You know, it's time. It's OK. Like we can deal with this as a thing...

SIGESMUND: Also, our appetite for destruction, if you will, was like on again two weeks or so after 9/11. I mean, we were ready to see destruction.

O'BRIEN: Oh, we'll see who wins that. All right, you guys, as always, thank you very much.

Let's go back to Bill.

HEMMER: All right, Soledad, in a moment here, the campaign marathon now into a sprint to the finish. And we may see these two candidates in some rather unexpected places. We'll have a look at that, top of the hour here as we continue after this on AMERICAN MORNING.

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Aired October 29, 2004 - 07:30   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, everybody. It's just about half past the hour on this AMERICAN MORNING. Another incredibly busy day for both candidates. Coming up in just a few moments, we're going to check back in with both campaigns, get reaction to some of the stories out this morning, like this videotape we're talking about of U.S. soldiers apparently inspecting explosives in Iraq before those explosives disappeared. A big issue on the campaign trail.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, that's right. Also in the next 30 minutes, in fact in a couple of minutes away now, many Americans doubt that this year's election will go off without a major hitch, a problem that could drag into November 3rd, 4th, 5th...

O'BRIEN: Something you know a little bit about.

HEMMER: That's right. Jeff Toobin is back with us in a moment, looking at scenarios for legal challenges and also how close does it have to be in order to challenge a vote in a particular state. So, we'll talk to Jeff in a few moments about that.

O'BRIEN: All right. But first, let's get a look at what's going on in the news. Heidi Collins at the news desk this morning.

Hello. Good morning again.

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning to you guys. And good morning to you, everyone.

We want to get straight to the latest on the situation with Yasser Arafat. We are getting some live pictures coming in to us now of Yasser Arafat's plane. This is the area in which he will be coming down, going to Paris, as you may have heard earlier this morning, to be treated for a blood disorder. We're going to get some more information on that for you and let you know about it just as soon as we can.

To other news now, U.S. forces are reportedly preparing for major assaults in the Iraqi cities of Fallujah and Ramadi. American troops pounded a suspected safe house in Fallujah overnight. The military says it was a targeted assault on suspected militant Abu Musab al- Zarqawi. Two people were reportedly killed in that attack.

Dozens of people recovering in southern Thailand after a series of early-morning bombings there. Crews were cleaning up from one blast when a second bomb went off just 40 minutes later. At least 20 people are wounded, mostly police. It's not clear, though, who is responsible. There is some speculation Muslim extremists are present in that region.

Here in the United States, Mark Hacking will face arraignment today in connection with the death of his wife, Lori. Her body was found in a Salt Lake City landfill earlier this month after an intensive search that spanned months. Mark Hacking is charged with murder and obstruction of justice. He is expected to plead not guilty.

The nation's oldest civil rights group is reportedly under investigation now for taking sides in the election. According to reports, the IRS is reviewing the tax-exempt status of the NAACP because of claims that its chairman criticized President Bush during a speech at the group's national convention in July. Under tax laws, charities are not allowed to support specific parties in campaigns.

Back over to you -- Bill and Soledad.

O'BRIEN: All right, Heidi, thank you very much.

We are just four days away until the presidential election. The big question this morning: Are those missing explosives in Iraq affecting voters' decisions before they cast their ballots?

Joining us to discuss this issue from Arlington, Virginia, is deputy communications director for the Bush campaign, Jennifer Millerwise.

Nice to see you, Jennifer. Good morning.

JENNIFER MILLERWISE, DEP. COMM. DIR., BUSH CAMPAIGN: Thank you. It's good to be with you.

O'BRIEN: Thank you. From Washington, D.C., Chad Clanton. He's a senior adviser to the Kerry campaign.

CHAD CLANTON, SR. ADVISOR, KERRY CAMPAIGN: Good morning.

O'BRIEN: Now I can hear you. I don't -- there you are. Hi, Chad. Good morning to you.

Let's get right into it.

Good morning.

O'BRIEN: Jennifer, we're going to start with you. The videotape now is showing apparently these explosives, showing the troops inspecting them. So they clearly were there when the explosives were there. Doesn't this completely contradict what President Bush has been saying on the campaign trail, Jennifer?

MILLERWISE: Well, no, it doesn't. Because the fact is, Soledad, we don't know all of the facts. For every story that's out there, there is really information that contradicts it. For example, this tape, we don't know exactly where it was taken. What we do know is it certainly does show the types of weapons and explosives that were all over Iraq. They were in houses. They were in farms. They were in schools. They were in mosques. And we have destroyed or are in the process of destroying over 400,000 tons of these.

O'BRIEN: So, you're saying that that's not the Al Qaqaa area?

MILLERWISE: We still don't know. I know that I was listening to Paul Bremer just a little bit ago. He was saying that he was there and he was on the ground. We don't know whether or not that that's where this video comes from. The Pentagon yesterday put out a satellite photo of trucks sitting outside of the Al Qaqaa location right before the war began. We know that Saddam Hussein had a real track record of always moving these weapons and explosives when he thought they were going to be discovered.

O'BRIEN: But there is videotape of American troops with what the former chief U.N. weapons inspector says was definitively HMX. So, my question to you would be, if it wasn't seized or protected by the U.S. troops, doesn't the administration take the blame on that?

MILLERWISE: No. I think what you're missing is this. What you said is this is pictures of HMX. HMX was all over the country. That's the point. The point is, John Kerry has attacked on the very thing he said that Iraq wasn't a threat, that these kinds of weapons were not a threat. That has consistently been his position, at least since the presidential primary was over. And so, what we're seeing now is, as the facts come out, he's suddenly saying, oh, whoa, wait, this is a real problem.

What we're seeing is desperation here.

MILLERWISE: These are a threat. This is really unbelievable.

O'BRIEN: Chad, why do you think this is desperation? Why doesn't she have a point, which is there are lots of questions? Even when you talk to the chief U.N. weapons inspector, he says everything is not known.

CLANTON: Well, I think that's the real scandal here. The president did not know what happened over there, yet he still refuses to come before the American people and tell us what happened, what's the plan to deal with this.

This is 380 tons of high-grade explosives that have presumably gone into the hands of the enemy. We have the president's chief weapons inspector, David Kay, who was just on your program. He said that this is a conclusive proof of what happened over there. We had a local news report that showed footage that you referred to earlier. Yet the president continues to refuse to take responsibility.

You know, President Reagan...

O'BRIEN: Well, you know...

CLANTON: Let me make one point. President Reagan, when the Marine barracks were bombed, took full responsibility. He said, as your president, I take responsibility for the bad as well as the good. This president isn't doing this. And I think it's going to really hurt him on November the 2nd. O'BRIEN: What the videotape seems to show is the troops examining and not securing necessarily this HMX, at least according to David Kay. So, then is Senator Kerry blaming the troops?

CLANTON: Absolutely not. In fact, I want to read what one of the president's chief spokespersons, Mayor Rudy Giuliani, said yesterday about this. He said, no matter how hard you try to blame it on the president, the actual responsibility for it really would be for the troops that were there. Now that's wrong. Of course, John Kerry would never do that. Let's hope the president of the United States won't do that. But we don't know.

O'BRIEN: Why is that wrong? Why is that wrong?

CLANTON: Because the president...

O'BRIEN: We see pictures of the troops. They break the seal. And what David Kay said was, you know, referring back to the pottery barn rule. You break the seal, you own it in a war zone. So, why isn't that the blame of the troops?

CLANTON: Because the buck has to stop somewhere. And, again, I think that's the scandal here; that we have a White House that says the buck stops over there.

MILLERWISE: But, Soledad...

CLANTON: Not just over there, but way over there. We need a president who will take responsibility. I think it's a big difference between Bush and Kerry.

O'BRIEN: Jennifer, go ahead.

MILLERWISE: Soledad, if I can get in here.

O'BRIEN: Yes, go ahead.

MILLERWISE: Soledad, this is what we have. We do not know the facts yet. We don't know if this was the facility or not the facility. We do know that there were weapons. We know they were everywhere. We know that this president has said that these weapons were a threat. We know John Kerry has said that they aren't.

We also know that before the ink was even dry on "The New York Times" story earlier this week, John Kerry said, hey, I'm going to roll the dice, I don't know what the facts are, I don't care what the facts are. I'm going to attack the military. Because you know what? Hopefully the facts will come out before Election Day.

CLANTON: That's the silliest thing I've ever heard.

O'BRIEN: I believe, Jennifer, he was attacking the president, who he's running against.

(CROSSTALK)

MILLERWISE: That is irresponsible and that is why he should not be the commander-in-chief.

O'BRIEN: I think he was attacking the president, if I'm not mistaken.

CLANTON: Thank you.

O'BRIEN: You guys, we're out of time actually. But obviously this is a debate that's going to continue to rage on as the campaign comes down to these last couple days.

CLANTON: It's going to hurt the president, Soledad. It's going to hurt the president.

MILLERWISE: It's irresponsible, very irresponsible.

O'BRIEN: We will finish there, Jennifer and Chad, thank you very much -- Bill.

MILLERWISE: Thank you.

HEMMER: Soledad, it's now 22 minutes before the hour.

Even before Election Day, there have been a number of legal challenges all across the country over issues regarding ballots. And now we know lawyers for both campaigns are at-the-ready, watching and waiting to see what happens next Tuesday. Well, just what will it take to actually challenge Election Day voting in the courts?

Back to our senior legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin, back with us here this morning.

Good morning to you.

JEFFERY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Good morning, sir.

HEMMER: We call it the margin of litigation.

TOOBIN: The margin of litigation.

HEMMER: How close does it have to be?

TOOBIN: It's a phrase that I think you may well hear a lot over the next 72 hours or a few more days than that. Basically, what is the margin of the vote in any given state that will justify one party or the other going into court? The margin of litigation. How close does it have to be before you sue?

HEMMER: And can we say how much it is? Is that a legal question or a political question?

TOOBIN: Well, I think it's much more a political question, although obviously there is a legal component. You know, many states have recount statutes, that if it's within 1 percent or if it's within .5 percent, there is an automatic recount.

But even beyond that, remember, we have the famous provisional ballots that we've talked about. In Ohio, obviously a big state, in 2000 there were 125,000 provisional ballots cast, 90 percent of which were actually counted in the final totals. If one side or the other is ahead or behind by 10,000 votes and there are 125,000 provisional ballots uncounted, why in the world would anyone concede?

HEMMER: Very true. And it takes the time to count up those provisional ballots. And then you've got the issue of absentee overseas ballots that may come in as well.

TOOBIN: Absolutely. And in Ohio you have a situation where there are 88 counties, each of which is allowed its own procedures to decide how to count them. So that could be 88 different recounts going on where they fight over every ballot.

HEMMER: Here is the other issue that many people, I think, see from afar. There are so many attorneys out there looking for something. Chances are they're going to find something, right?

TOOBIN: Absolutely. I mean, when you send, as the Democrats are, between 10,000 and 15,000 attorneys out there, it's not a question of whether they find something, it's where and when. Attorneys are genetically predisposed to find controversy.

And I think something to keep an eye on is this is not going to wait until the polls close on Tuesday. I guarantee you that on Tuesday, during the day, while the polls are open, there will be lawyers going to court seeking injunctions, saying, get those people away from the polls, let people vote. The controversy will start right after the polls open, not after they close.

HEMMER: And so, ultimately we're looking at turnout to see about the polling stations. How long is it going to take? Are people going to wait six hours to cast a ballot in some cases where it may be on Tuesday? We'll have to see about that.

The other thing, though, is margin of victory. And what is the vote difference between each man in these critical states that may or may not determine recounts?

TOOBIN: Well, I think a lot of it has to do with how many provisional votes are outstanding. But I think, you know, our pal, Mr. Greenfield, has a phrase.

HEMMER: Yes?

TOOBIN: He says, your own guy, when your own guys tell you to give up, that's when they're going to give up.

HEMMER: Got it.

TOOBIN: If the Democratic leaders, if the Joe Bidens of the world say to John Kerry, you know, it's over, that's when the margin of litigation is too big. If the Richard Lugars, if the Pete Domenicis, the elders of the Republican Party say to George Bush, you know, stop fighting, that's really going to matter more than any legal fight. HEMMER: Thank you, Jeff. Talk to you later.

TOOBIN: See you later.

HEMMER: OK. Next Tuesday night, tune in to CNN for complete minute-by-minute results of that presidential race. Our primetime coverage starts at 7:00 Eastern time. We are live in Times Square at the Nasdaq Marketsite. It should be a great night --Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Weather now.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HEMMER: In a moment here, if you watch the Washington Redskins on Sunday, it might help you predict the winner of Tuesday's race. They say it's true. Andy has got that in a moment here.

O'BRIEN: Plus, Jamie Foxx plays a legend in "Ray." But will the role make Foxx a legend in his own right? "90-Second Pop" digs into the weekend's new movies, just ahead. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody. Mr. Jack, you've got the "Question of the Day."

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Trick or treat. Friday before Halloween, the day when most schools used to allow kids to dress up and have little Halloween parties, do a little trick or treating, have some candy. But not this year. Schools around the country, some of them, are placing bans on Halloween parties for reasons ranging from costumes being a safety hazard, to a distraction from learning, to a discrimination of religious beliefs. Phooey!

The question is: Should Halloween festivities be limited or banned in the schools?

Richard writes: "Not everybody believes in the Catholic holidays like Christmas and Easter. So, aren't the schools being biased if they allow those holidays to be celebrated in their schools and not this one?"

Paul in Hellertown, Pennsylvania, writes: "The only thing more frightening on Halloween than having a kid ring my doorbell wearing a Jack Cafferty mask would be Michael Moore arriving for a blind date with my daughter, carrying a bunch of wilted posies and a half-eaten 10-pound box of Kmart chocolates."

It has nothing to do with the question.

O'BRIEN: What?

CAFFERTY: It was pretty funny.

Rene in Elkins, West Virginia: "I would like it to be a fall festival and not Halloween. This is a pagan religious day in actuality. So, it would be appropriate to remove the pagan religious symbols and make it a nicer celebration with children in happy costumes instead of ghouls. I can elaborate more on this subject in- depth if you wish."

Please don't. Just please don't.

Ian in Providence, Rhode Island: "Jack, why stop at Halloween? After all, teaching would be a hell of a lot easier if it wasn't for all those damn students."

Ian is the guy who wrote yesterday and said that I had a face that could back a mule out of a feed bin.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: He's got something for you.

O'BRIEN: Actually, it's a big deal in nursery school. Did you have this issue? In nursery school, there are lots of -- some schools don't celebrate Valentine's Day.

SERWER: Yes.

CAFFERTY: You know, we've gotten so far into this politically correct nonsense that there ain't no yucks in this life anymore. You know, the country is becoming humorless because of political correctness.

O'BRIEN: I'm morally outraged.

SERWER: Yes, me too.

HEMMER: I love Halloween, by the way.

CAFFERTY: Yes, I know!

O'BRIEN: Oh!

(CROSSTALK)

HEMMER: He ate all of the candy.

CAFFERTY: And we have evidence of that, and it will be shown in the "Cafferty File" a bit later in this broadcast.

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: What are you going to be for Halloween this year?

HEMMER: I'm not -- I've got to work!

CAFFERTY: He's dressed up as an anchor guy.

HEMMER: Yes, with glasses.

SERWER: Anchorman.

HEMMER: As the Washington Redskins go, so says Andy, so goes the election. We're looking back at history like 70 years on this, huh?

SERWER: Yes, that's right..

HEMMER: What did they figure out here with the Redskins playing?

SERWER: It always comes down to football in this country, doesn't it, after all?

HEMMER: Yes.

SERWER: I mean, this is something being talked about across the NFL and across the country. When the Redskins play before the election, OK, if they win, the incumbent or the incumbent party always wins. This goes back to 1933. So, basically what's going on this weekend is, the Redskins are playing the Packers at home. So, if you are a Republican, you are rooting for the Redskins. If you're a Democrat, you are rooting for Brett Favre and the Green Bay Packers.

CAFFERTY: I wonder if he'll lay down for the Redskins like he did for Michael Strahan and the Giants. Remember that year Strahan needed the sack record, and Favre folded up like a cheap tent?

SERWER: Yes, well, right. I don't think so. You know, it's interesting, because Coach Gibbs of the Redskins is a Republican and said so. So is the quarterback of the Redskins, Mark Brunell.

HEMMER: What's Favre?

SERWER: We don't know. So, you know, it's got a lot of stuff going on.

We want to talk a little bit more about football, because we have the standings coming up for our anchors here.

CAFFERTY: I don't want to see this.

SERWER: Bill Hemmer has done pretty well, yes, pretty well.

CAFFERTY: Oh, yes.

SERWER: Me and Heidi are tied. Soledad...

O'BRIEN: How did I fall so far in the standings?

SERWER: You're 500. You're 500. That's not bad. You might make the playoffs.

O'BRIEN: Tom was picking for me.

SERWER: You might make the playoffs and Jack -- well, Jack tells it like it is on his program. He doesn't really do football picks.

CAFFERTY: Obviously.

SERWER: OK, as for this week's picks, OK, this isn't necessarily a partisan move. I'm picking the Redskins, not necessarily a partisan move.

CAFFERTY: You always pick them, and they always lose.

SERWER: Not always. I've made some -- you know, not always. OK. Patriots versus the Steelers. I am going with the Steelers, because at some point I'm going to be right. The Patriots will lose. And Jack is also going for the Steelers. Big Ben Russelburger (ph) is going to be tolling, dong, not ding.

OK, and what about the Colts versus the Chiefs? This is going to be shootout. I am picking the Colts. There won't be any punting. This is Peyton Manning versus Priest Holmes (UNINTELLIGIBLE) 57 points. A lot of fun there.

HEMMER: Oh, good stuff.

SERWER: All right.

HEMMER: Thank you, Andy.

SERWER: You're welcome.

O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, your cell phone is now the key to the Billboard Chart dominance for Justin, Beyonce and Usher. The 90-second poppers are going to explain just ahead. We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: I have to say, I love Jamie Foxx. Love, love, love. We're going to talk about him in a moment.

Now it's time for America's favorite pop culture segment, "90- Second Pop." Here to play this morning, Toure is CNN's pop culture correspondent. Sarah Bernard is a contributing editor for "New York" magazine. B.J. Sigesmund is a staff editor for "US Weekly."

Welcome, welcome, welcome. Before we got Jamie Foxx, the man I love, let's first talk about ring tones and "Billboard" magazine, which is now ranking them, weird as that is. First, bring us up-to- speed on what a ring tone is.

TOURE, CNN POPULAR CULTURE CORRESPONDENT: Well, I mean, if have you a 15-year-old, you know what a ring tone is.

SARAH BERNARD, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, "NEW YORK" MAGAZINE: She's got a while to go.

TOURE: Yes. You can download little songs.

O'BRIEN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

TOURE: Yes, and then, you know, it rings your song. So, that's a little Destiny's Child thing I downloaded in about 15 seconds, you know, and...

O'BRIEN: Why would "Billboard" want to chart these?

TOURE: Because the Internet is the future of the record business. Oh, my god! After years of getting slaughtered by Napster and people downloading for free, now they're saying, how can we use the net? So use ring tones. This cost 2.50, and iTunes it just costs 99 cents to get the whole song. But we download 2.50, you know, Outkast...

O'BRIEN: You paid $2.50?

TOURE: No, no, CNN did. But I...

O'BRIEN: Oh, OK then.

TOURE: Outkast just got an award for the most digital downloads. So the...

BERNARD: But this is, like, going to save the record industry basically is what it is.

TOURE: Yes.

BERNARD: Because what's going to happen is the people who have the rights to the songs get money. But when they want better quality, because that sounds a little fuzzy, you're going to have to order true tones, which is like the CD recording of the Beyonce song. And that's going to cause -- I mean, the record companies are going to make a fortune from that.

B.J. SIGESMUND, STAFF EDITOR, "US WEEKLY": And a lot of people don't know that this is already a huge business. Americans downloaded $300 million worth of ring tones just like that last year.

O'BRIEN: All right. Well, you know, let's move on and talk about movies, Jamie Foxx, because I want to get back to him, and...

SIGESMUND: OK.

BERNARD: I think I might love him more than you.

O'BRIEN: I don't think so.

BERNARD: I'm going to have you fight you for that.

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: Fine, because I love him. How do you think he does in this movie? He's playing Ray Charles.

SIGESMUND: You know, yes, well, "Ray" is already getting excellent reviews, but Jamie Foxx is its biggest asset for sure. And he has officially become a front-runner in the Oscar race for best actor.

O'BRIEN: Why does he sing? You know, because sometimes they just dub in the tracks of Ray Charles. And, you know, he doesn't really sound like Ray Charles, although he has a fabulous voice.

SIGESMUND: Well, they have, you know, recreated the songs to show Ray Charles' great artistry. And also, Jamie Foxx is a piano player. He's a trained piano player. So it's all really authentic. He absolutely melts into this part. And it traces -- most people don't know, it's not a try bio pic that goes all the way up to his death in June.

O'BRIEN: And we melt into him.

SIGESMUND: Oh!

BERNARD: He's also getting a record contract after this. I mean, they really realized that he can sing. He's kind of a musician. And he's going to have his own album coming out.

O'BRIEN: Move to love.

TOURE: This is one of those great moments when an actor's whole life changes, right? I mean, this movie will change Jamie Foxx forever.

BERNARD: Yes, Oscar.

O'BRIEN: Let's talk about turning very sharply, the 9/11 Commission report is now going to be a mini-series?

BERNARD: I know.

(CROSSTALK)

BERNARD: Well, NBC and ABC are now having rival mini-series in development that's based on the 9/11 Commission report. I am not sure people are going to be ready to see a mini-series on this. But I have to say that if they are going to use the 9/11 Commission report where it started out with sort of multiple points of view that the same day, if they use that structure, I think it actually could be a great way to get into it, as opposed to just sort of, you know, fictionalizing a family.

(CROSSTALK)

SIGESMUND: Right. Well, you know, they've hired the guy who wrote "Speed," the Sandra Bullock movie, and who was the producer behind "The Band of Brothers." And he had been wanting to do a 9/11- based mini-series for a long time, but didn't feel the time was right until the commission came out, until he found this narrative that begins years before 9/11 that he could structure it around.

BERNARD: Right.

TOURE: I think we're definitely ready.

BERNARD: You do?

TOURE: I think generally the wound is over. I mean, the conspiracy theories you see coming in and the book is -- the 9/11 Commission is just being considered as a book, like just...

BERNARD: Well, I mean, it's still on the best-seller list.

SIGESMUND: Right.

BERNARD: I mean, that's what I think has been the biggest surprise to everyone.

TOURE: You know, it's time. It's OK. Like we can deal with this as a thing...

SIGESMUND: Also, our appetite for destruction, if you will, was like on again two weeks or so after 9/11. I mean, we were ready to see destruction.

O'BRIEN: Oh, we'll see who wins that. All right, you guys, as always, thank you very much.

Let's go back to Bill.

HEMMER: All right, Soledad, in a moment here, the campaign marathon now into a sprint to the finish. And we may see these two candidates in some rather unexpected places. We'll have a look at that, top of the hour here as we continue after this on AMERICAN MORNING.

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