Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
Senate Begins Debate Today on Troop Increase in Iraq; Deadly Floods: Disaster in Indonesia; Dealing With Disaster
Aired February 05, 2007 - 07:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: War of words. A showdown expected in the Senate today as Republicans try to defend President Bush and his new Iraq war strategy.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The next test for FEMA. Is central Florida reaping the befits of lessons learned from Katrina?
We'll take a live look at the recovery effort this morning.
M. O'BRIEN: And super stamped. Peyton Manning leads the Colts to a Super Bowl win over the Bears. His coach making some history on the sidelines on this AMERICAN MORNING.
Good morning to you. It is Monday, February 5th.
I'm Miles O'Brien.
S. O'BRIEN: And I'm Soledad O'Brien.
Thanks for being with us.
Let's begin this morning with dangerously cold temperatures that are now gripping part of the country. Wind-chill warnings are in effect across the Midwest, into the Northeast. Chicago, minus 6 degrees right now. With the wind-chill it's minus 26 degrees. New York's at 10 degrees, but if you calculate in the wind-chill, it's minus 8.
Minneapolis, story of fire and ice. Firefighters are trying to do their jobs, but the temperature is 16 below zero. That's got to be tough for those folks there.
CNN meteorologist Rob Marciano is in for Chad this morning. He's got a look at some of the chill warnings. He's he in Lady Lake, Florida, of course. That's because he is following up on the aftermath of Friday's tornadoes.
Rob, let's begin with the severe cold. What can we expect this morning?
Good morning.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, this is the coldest air of the season, Soledad, and as you rattled off some of those numbers, it puts in perspective just how cold it is.
(WEATHER REPORT)
S. O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, we're going to talk to the FEMA chief, David Paulison, about his agency's response, and see if they think there's more that needs to be done for tornado survivors -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Now on to the war in Iraq. President Bush is going to hear it on two fronts today, how to fight it and then how to pay for it.
We have full coverage. Dana Bash on Capitol Hill. Ed Henry at the White House.
Let's begin with Dana.
Good morning, Dana.
DANA BASH, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Miles.
And what Democrats say they're trying to do is engage in something that they say is critical and quite simple: get every senator to decide to vote on whether or not they agree or disagree with the president's plan to send more troops to Iraq. Well, the president's allies say it's not that simple. In fact, it's dangerous.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: This is fundamentally a vote of no confidence in the people that we are sending on this mission in harm's way. We are telling them, we support you, but we believe your mission will fail, and we don't support what you're doing. I think that's a vote of no confidence.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: Now, what Democrats and some senior Republicans say is that it is the responsibility of the U.S. Congress to engage in a debate about the number one issue facing this country, and that, of course, is Iraq. So that's why Democrats had hoped to start debate on that later today, but the way things are looking now, Miles, Republicans may block that.
M. O'BRIEN: Dana Bash on Capitol Hill.
Keep us posted on that.
Now to the question of money for the war. President Bush sending his budget to Congress. Ed Henry following that for us.
Ed, good morning.
ED HENRY, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Miles.
That's right, overall, a $2.9 trillion federal budget. The biggest item everyone is attracting, at least, anyway, is for ongoing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The president wants another $100 billion for this year, another $140 billion for next year.
The president has come under fire in recent years because at the beginning of the year he has been low-balling the numbers, in the estimation of his critics, then coming back in the summer and demanding emergency funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to make up the difference. Critics calling it a shadow budget.
So the president trying to preempt those critics a bit, trying to keep -- put out those high numbers up front. But Democrats like Speaker Nancy Pelosi already warning the president they are going to scrutinize every line of this budget.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), HOUSE SPEAKER: Whatever is in the budget, defense or otherwise, will have to be justified. The days of the blank check, for example, for the Iraq war are over. Certainly, let me say over and over again, any opportunity I get, that Democrats will support our troops. We will not cut off funds to our troops.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HENRY: So, the bottom line over the course of the next two years, the president wants another $240 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. That now would put the total tab for both those wars in the neighborhood of $700 billion -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Ed Henry at the White House.
Thank you very much.
(NEWSBREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: Hundreds of thousands of people are out of their homes, a couple of dozen have been killed in that ongoing disaster right now in Indonesia. Days of rain leading to severe flooding in Indonesia's capital, Jakarta.
John Aglionby is on the phone with us now.
John, what do you know?
JOHN AGLIONBY, "FINANCIAL TIMES": It seems that in some areas the flooding is getting better, but it's still raining in many parts of the capital and (INAUDIBLE). So we're seeing no reduction of water levels in many parts of the city.
We're talking 600,000 homes are now without power, up to maybe 400,000 might have lost their -- been forced to evacuate. We're talking about bridges breaking under the weight of rubbish coming down in the rivers. And it seems that everyone is blaming everyone else for -- who's causing this flooding.
M. O'BRIEN: John Aglionby in Indonesia.
Thank you -- Soledad. (NEWSBREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: Coming up on the program, recovery in Florida. Are the lessons from Hurricane Katrina being put to use by the government in current disasters? We're going to talk with the FEMA director, David Paulison.
The most news in the morning right here on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: The most news in the morning right here on AMERICAN MORNING.
In South Korea this morning, the chairman of Hyundai is facing prison. Chung Mong Koo sentenced to three years in prison after being convicted of embezzling $106 million. He is appealing.
And the Indianapolis Colts winners of Super Bowl XLI. They road past the Chicago Bears 29-17 in a rather soggy Miami last night.
Speaking of soggy, it's about quarter past the hour. Let's get a look at the weather. Rob Marciano is in Florida this morning, in the wake of those terrible tornadoes we saw pass through pretty much this time on Friday.
Rob, more rain for Florida today, as if they need it.
MARCIANO: Exactly.
(WEATHER REPORT)
S. O'BRIEN: All right, Rob. Thank you.
In fact, all around Rob's location in Florida relief teams from FEMA are on the ground. What lesson did FEMA learn from Hurricane Katrina, and what do people in Florida need right now?
The FEMA director, who is also a native Floridian, is David Paulison, and he joins us this morning.
It's nice to see you, sir. Thanks for talking with us.
DAVID PAULISON, FEMA DIRECTOR: Good morning.
S. O'BRIEN: Let's talk with what's happening right now. I know you had a number of mobile assistance units making their way to the area. At least one was set up over the weekend.
Where does that sand right now?
PAULISON: Right now, we're working with the state to determine exactly what the housing needs are. We have moved a lot of equipment and people into the area. We moved a lot of blue tarps in, food, water, ice, generators to assist the state. But this is a state-run disaster. And Florida is doing an outstanding job. A lot of devastation. I was down there all day Saturday, toured with the governor, toured with Senator Nelson and Senator Martinez to get a good handle on exactly what was happening. It was just terrible to see the amount of homes that were destroyed, the lives that were lost. Your heart really goes out to these people, so we're going to do absolutely everything we can do to get them back on their feet.
S. O'BRIEN: At least we've been hearing from people that FEMA is getting some really high -- high marks for coming in immediately, not waiting until the disaster got out of hand, which is kind of what we saw in Hurricane Katrina.
Do you feel a special pressure to make it right? I mean, I know you talked about the new FEMA. Is there a special pressure there to fix the mistakes of Hurricane Katrina, do it right this time around?
PAULISON: I think the pressure is to make sure we don't lose those lessons learned in Katrina and Rita, and even in Wilma, that went through Florida couple of years ago. If we lose that, then that would be a tragedy.
We have learned some very valuable lessons, and we've taken those, we've applied those to FEMA. This is going to be a much more nimble, much more agile organization leading forward. But I think the most important thing that I want to stress is we cannot waited for our local community to become overwhelmed before the state steps in and wait for the state to become overwhelmed before our federal government steps in.
We have to go in as partners. And if we do that, if we clearly do that and go in as partners, and lean forward, we will make getting through these disasters much easier for the victims out there.
S. O'BRIEN: The governor asked for aid, the president signed the declaration over the weekend, we know.
How much money, roughly, will people get, and when do those checks start coming?
PAULISON: Well, first of all, they have to register. Right now we've only had a little over 400 people actually register with us.
S. O'BRIEN: Really?
PAULISON: They need to call -- go to the Web site, our fema.gov Web site, and register themselves, or call our 1-800-621-FEMA number and register on the telephone. Then we can get people out to inspect their home, find out what their insurance damage is, because we can't duplicate insurance benefits. And start getting money to them and assistance to them.
S. O'BRIEN: Fifteen hundred people -- 1,500 homes, rather, were damaged, or mostly damaged and destroyed. And yet, when you talk to people about the shelters, they say hardly anybody is in these shelters -- you know, 27, 37 people in the shelters. Do you expect, in fact, that FEMA is going to need to provide housing in the long term when people can't just sort of crash with a relative or a friend?
PAULISON: Well, the state has moved a 25-person housing assistance team into the area this morning, actually, to do an evaluation, see what the housing needs are. We're standing ready to assist if we need to do that, but the state would rather put people in existing vacant homes or existing vacant apartments, as opposed to, say, in the trailer parks. So we'll wait and see what the state wants to do, and we'll move in to assist them as they request our assistance.
S. O'BRIEN: Let me ask you a question about these sirens. And as we all know now, Lake County, Florida, doesn't have sirens, so people really weren't warned with a sort of 15 to 10-minute window to get out when the storm was coming through, and they only cost somewhere between $4 million and $9 million. And Lake County had 20 people who died.
Would you push to make it mandatory for these counties where you have so many mobile homes which basically shred when a tornado comes through, would you push to have those sirens mandatory?
PAULISON: I'm sure the state is going to look very clearly at that issue. We have a lot of those in the Midwest where we have the major tornadoes, and it did not have a warning system in this area. And we should have this entire country covered with some type of warning system.
We are working at FEMA, at the federal government, with the Department of Homeland Security, to put a warning system that goes through a television set, through your radios and through your cell phones, and those type of devices. But clearly, an audible warning system to alert people of these types of disasters is an important part of our preparedness issue for this country.
S. O'BRIEN: For some reason, I guess -- and maybe it's just the price tag is high for some of these communities -- for some reason, though, it seems like an obvious fix, in addition to the cell phone and the TV and the radio stuff. Would FEMA sort of take a more aggressive stance and say, listen, we fully support a mandatory system, just like you guys on your Web site say have water, have food for X number of days, and also a siren could save lives, and we support that?
PAULISON: I think we would support that. Whether they make it mandatory or not, that's outside of our purview. But I definitely would support the fact that we would have an alert and warning system in every community that's vulnerable to these types of disasters.
S. O'BRIEN: FEMA director David Paulison joining us this morning.
Thanks for talking with us, sir. Always nice to see you.
PAULISON: Thank you.
S. O'BRIEN: Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Coming up, we're going to share with you another YouTube highlight. Here's one that -- I guess you could call it a bridezilla moment. She ends up chopping off all her hair. But it's fake. It's another YouTube fake thing.
We'll tell you which company is behind the farce.
Stay with us for more AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody. Top stories we're watching for you this morning.
Great Britain trying to stop bird flu from spreading. They're reacting to their first infection of the deadly virus by sealing off a farm and killing 160,000 birds.
And at least 10 violent incidents in Baghdad today. Twenty-seven people are dead, more than 100 wounded in a series of roadside and car bombings, mortar firings, and shootings -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Can a company benefit from an ad that nobody knows is an ad? We're talking about viral messages now.
Twenty-five minutes past the hour. Ali Velshi with the latest little, subtle YouTube ad campaign.
ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Weird.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes.
VELSHI: A month ago exactly this ad shows up on YouTube. It's a six-minute video, it was posted, and it appears to be shot in a hotel room with two bridesmaids and a braid to be on her wedding day. She's just returned from getting her hair done, and she is having a bit of a meltdown.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Whoa, whoa, whoa!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Stop! Why are you cutting your hair?
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. Everyone calm down.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's fine.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh my god. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's OK. I wanted to have shorter hair anyway for a while.
Why did I cut my hair? Why did you let me cut my hair?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
S. O'BRIEN: This looks so real.
VELSHI: Yes.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes, she could get -- what do they have for YouTube awards? The YouTubey (ph)? She should get a Tubey (ph).
VELSHI: Well, I don't know if it's real or not. I don't have these kinds of issues, but almost three million people have already downloaded this ad.
At least some of them did think it was fake despite a lot of very convincing swearing and acting. It turns out it was fake.
It was an ad created for Unilever Canada. It was part of an ad campaign for a line of products called Sunsilk.
Now, Unilever's idea was that they were going to place more than one of these supposedly real videos and have them go viral, as this one did. And then use clips from the videos in ads showing what Sunsilk can do for you, how it can solve problems like the one faced by this unhappy bride-to-be.
M. O'BRIEN: It's well done. I've got to say.
VELSHI: They decided it was so successful they're not doing any more of them.
S. O'BRIEN: But here's the...
M. O'BRIEN: They don't need to do any more. We're talking about it.
VELSHI: A free ad for Unilever.
S. O'BRIEN: But how do you conduct Sunsilk for your hair to someone who just chopped off all their hair?
VELSHI: Because they're -- I don't know what the Sunsilk does. I don't know if it grows hair, in which case I might actually think about picking some up, but theoretically, Sunsilk is supposed to solve your problems to do with your hair. I'm way out of my league on this one.
M. O'BRIEN: But when you watch the YouTube thing, they don't have any and it's not mentioned.
VELSHI: No, no. They were just -- this was supposed to just go viral, and then they were going to have an ad later on. M. O'BRIEN: Right. Right.
VELSHI: And you'll probably still see it.
M. O'BRIEN: So it's viral embedding into later stuff.
VELSHI: Correct. Like as if it were real.
S. O'BRIEN: It was very entertaining. It's a good six-minute piece.
VELSHI: Six minutes. You got six minutes to spare? It's fun.
S. O'BRIEN: Download and watch it, for sure.
VELSHI: Not for your kids.
S. O'BRIEN: Thank you -- yes.
M. O'BRIEN: They should do an awards thing, the Tubeys (ph). I think they ought to do that.
VELSHI: The Tubeys (ph), I like it.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes.
S. O'BRIEN: All right.
M. O'BRIEN: It's coming.
S. O'BRIEN: Ali, thank you.
Top stories of the morning coming up next. The big chill from the Midwest, right into the Northeast. Bitterly cold temperatures. Going to highlight some of the coldest cities this morning.
And in Iraq, four U.S. helicopters shot down in just two weeks. How is it going to change how choppers are being used in the war zone?
Coming up next on AMERICAN MORNING. The most news in the morning is right here on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(NEWSBREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: Old Man Winter took his time, but he is arriving with a vengeance. Some not fooling around cold from the Midwest to the Northeast this morning. Subzero temperatures, wind chills down to 30 and 40 degrees below zero. Chicago preparing for the whole thing with emergency-warming centers.
Regina Waldroup of our affiliate CLTV is in the Windy City.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) REGINA WALDROUP, CLTV (on camera): I am at one of the many warming centers the city of Chicago has established to give people a place to get in from outside of the cold. But you know, a whole lot of people really don't have a choice. And whether they were gassing up or catching the bus to work this morning, they say they were just doing their best to bundle up and try to cope with the cold, because after all, it is winter in the Windy City.
But it is super cold in the Windy City. Now the high today is expected to reach only zero. Wind chills somewhere between 20 below.
Now, it's the third day of Arctic air in Chicago, and the city has opened up a number of warming centers, even turned police stations, public libraries and park districts into places where people can go and get warm.
Now, firemen and newspaper salesmen, and even bike messengers, and people who rely on the CTA bus and trains, they really don't have a choice when whether it comes to going outside.
But Chicago City officials say if you don't have to be outside, then you really shouldn't. And they are urging people to go inside immediately and not spend too much time out in the cold, and so far Chicago police say there have been no deaths reported because of the intense cold.
Now, as cold as it was, mind you, yesterday it didn't stop at least three Chicago Bears fans from tailgating at Soldier Field, and no doubt, many of them are probably feeling a little colder because of the Chicago Bears' loss.
Reporting from Chicago for CNN, Regina Waldroup.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
M. O'BRIEN: Ahead, Rob Marciano will show us what's going on right now and what's ahead for people ahead trying to survive the freeze -- Soledad.
In Iraq this morning renewed violence to tell you about. Mortars, and bombs and bullets killing more people as the Pentagon announces the death of two more U.S. troops. A massive new security crackdown is about to be launched against insurgents, we're told.
CNN's Arwa Damon has more for us from Baghdad.
Barbara Starr is at the Pentagon for us this morning. Let's start with Arwa.
Good morning, Arwa.
ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
And what we are expecting to see it that new Baghdad security plan intensifying in its efforts to bring the insurgency here under control. It is, in fact, a modification of the old Baghdad plan, otherwise known as Operation Together Forward, that began in the fall and was largely unsuccessful. It was based on the premise of clear, hold and rebuild. This new Baghdad security plan based on that same premise.
However, this time with the increase in U.S. forces that are mainly being brought in to insure that that hold phase does succeed, and with the creation of these joint-security stations that will force the Iraqi security forces to work together, monitored by the Americans. The hope is that this time this plan will succeed. All this, again, of course, in an effort to curb the violence here, violence here which this morning claimed over two dozen Iraqi lives and wounded more than 100 Iraqis. Multiple car bombs in the city killed in one case at least 10 Iraqis. That explosion took place outside an automobile repair shop.
Another twin bombings killed another 10 Iraqis, and perhaps a more disturbing attack of the day was a car bomb that exploded just outside of a children's hospital. This does follow an especially devastating and deadly weekend here in Baghdad when a suicide truck bomber plowed into a busy central Baghdad marketplace and killed more than 120 Iraqis, the single deadliest attack of this war. Everyone here is hoping that this new security plan is going to work. We did just hear from Iraq's Sunni vice president, Tariq Al Hashime (ph), criticizing the American administration for not sending those additional troops to the capital faster -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Arwa, let me ask you a question. I mean, how many more troops are they talking about, because are you talking about the modification of a plan that failed the first time around, that clear, hold, and rebuild plan? So how many more people do they think it's going to take to make it work?
DAMON: Well, Soledad, what we do know from a senior military official is that when this new plan was being put forward, the Iraqi prime minister, along with his military advisers, sat down with senior American military commanders here. They devised a plan, and they tried to calculate how many additional U.S. troops they would need to insure its success and how many additional Iraqi troops they would need. Now, what we are seeing is the U.S. is sending over some 21,500 U.S. forces, 3,500 of those already in country, and two additional Iraqi brigades -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: And what happens if it doesn't work? If the 21,000 or 3,000 with more on the way, let's call it, doesn't make a plan that failed the first time around work this time around? What happens next?
DAMN: Well, Soledad, it really depends on who you put that question to. I was talking to a senior military official here who said, look, if it doesn't work this time around, we'll re-evaluate it, we'll learn from our mistakes, and we'll move forward with a new Baghdad security plan. There have been multiple Baghdad security plans that have been put forward over the last four years. Of course, the results of it not working would be especially devastating for the Iraqi people who are already seeing this ever-spiraling violence, the sectarian violence nearly out of control -- Soledad. S. O'BRIEN: Arwa Damon's in Baghdad for us. Arwa, thanks for the update -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: In Iraq, the military confirming four helicopters that have crashed over the last couple of weeks. All were brought down by ground fire. Insurgents are claiming they have the weapons to bring the aircraft down. Apparently so.
CNN's Barbara Starr joining us from the Pentagon with more.
Good morning, Barbara.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning to you, Miles.
As you say, the military now confirming what everyone had suspected for some days, four U.S. helicopters down in a two-week period, and it was hostile fire that brought them down.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAJ. GEN. WILLIAM CALDWELL, MULTINATIONAL FORCE SPOKESMAN: The investigation of each of those is ongoing, but it does appear that they were all the result of some kind of anti-Iraqi ground fire that did bring those helicopters down.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STARR: Miles, General Caldwell going on to say that the military has already adjusted its flying tactics and procedures. Obviously, he is not going to go into a lot of detail about what that involves, but, of course, we know helicopters generally fly very low and very fast in Iraq, to try and precisely avoid the threat posed by shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles or rocket-propelled grenades. Often, however, that puts them in range of small arms fire from the ground. So in some of the periods of violence that we've seen in recent days, it's just becoming a very tough problem -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: So, Barbara, we don't know what's bringing them down. Surface-to-air missiles, more expensive and would indicate sort of an escalation in the whole insurgency tactics, as well as the kind of weaponry they have. I assume the Pentagon is a little concerned about this.
STARR: Well, the four instances that we've seen actually do concern them from that very standpoint. All of these aircraft have been brought down by different methods in different parts of the country, which suggests perhaps different groups involved. Some of them -- one, the Black Hawk a couple of weeks ago, should-fired surface-to-air missile, but a private helicopter operated by U.S. contractors was brought down over Baghdad by all accounts by small- arms fire. So it's going to be a very tough problem for them to solve.
M. O'BRIEN: Barbara Starr at the Pentagon, thank you -- Soledad. S. O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, here's a question for you, a day after the Super Bowl -- do Super Bowl ads see super big earnings? They cost, like, $2.6 million a pop. So is all the hype worth it for the company that are paying for these ads?
And concussions, all too frequent in football, now there are some hidden consequences coming to light. We've got Dr. Sanjay Gupta standing by with a look at his series called Mysteries of the Brain.
You're watching AMERICAN MORNING. The most news in the morning is right here on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: This morning, the reviews and the results are coming in for the show of shows for Madison Avenue. So was it a bumper crop of -- oh, you're over there. There you are. So was it a bumper crop of Super Bowl spots? You be the judge.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In New York you say, hey, give me a Bud Light. You got a problem with that?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bud Light, you got a problem with that?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In East L.A. you say, give me a Bud Light, Holmes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Give me a Bud Light, Holmes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
M. O'BRIEN: All right. We were going to show you another one, but this is -- actually we were going to show you the slapping one. Matter of fact, that was just one of the -- actually Anheuser-Busch scored with several spots.
SUZANNE VRANICA, "WSJ" ADVERTISING REPORTER: Absolutely.
M. O'BRIEN: And joining us now to run through all of this is "The Wall Street Journal's" advertising reporter Suzanne Bernita.
And, Suzanne, I'll tell you what, let's go to your favorite right away and show that one, which we thought we were going to show at the top. Let's listen. All right, the slap. Let's do the slap now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In New York you say, hey, give me a Bud Light. You got a problem with that?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bud Light, you got a problem with that?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In East L.A. you say, give me a Bud Light, Holmes. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Give me a Bud Light, Holmes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE:
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: More importantly, if somebody asks you for a Bud Light, you say...
CROWD: No speak English!
ANNOUNCER: Refreshing smooth Bud Light.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
M. O'BRIEN: Once again, nary a slap in sight. imagine a commercial where I give you a potato and you slap me. All right, what -- Anheuser-Busch did well.
VRANICA: Anheuser-Bush did amazing. They had nine ads last night. Among the favorites was an ad where a fist bump goes awry, and men start slapping each other.
The other big favorite was what we just watched twice actually, the classroom ad.
M. O'BRIEN: So good.
VRANICA: It was really funny. We had half the country within uproar fits about how funny those accents were, and I think you're going to get a lot of people doing Bood Light today, definitely.
M. O'BRIEN: All right, so what's next? All right, let's do user-generated content. Let's watch the Doritos spot, all right.
There is completely produced by just a guy.
VRANICA: An average consumer. Jumping on the whole YouTube phenomenon, Doritos threw it out to the fans, and the results were so amazing that it actually scared Madison Avenue. At the final moment before the game, Doritos decided to run two user-generated ads because they were so good. So it's pretty amazing that these kids can do this stuff.
M. O'BRIEN: There is some talent out there. I'm sure Madison Avenue is calling up these folks right now.
I think the funniest one of all is the one you're about to see, Kevin Federline proving he actually has a little bit of self- deprecation in his DNA. Let's watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(SINGING)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Federline, fries!
ANNOUNCER: Life comes at you fast. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.
M. O'BRIEN: A Nationwide annuity could guarantee you income for life.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
M. O'BRIEN: That's very funny.
VRANICA: Absolutely.
Nationwide catapulted itself into definitely the Super Bowl history books. The fact of the matter is they did the right job. They came out quick, they came out early. They got tons of press. I think they got something like 1,500 new segments in stories about their ad going into the Super Bowl, which is millions of dollars worth of publicity, which basically helps offset the 2.6 million dollars that people are paying for their 30 seconds of ad time.
M. O'BRIEN: $2.6 million isn't that amazing? But you know, When you think of how the way they leverage did these days, with the advance and post-billing, our discussions now, I probably -- you could do the math on it, and I'm sure it's worth it.
VRANICA: Absolutely.
M. O'BRIEN: I thought this was the surprise spot. Only what, nine, 10 seconds long. Let's watch Oprah and Dave Letterman here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID LETTERMAN: You want the bears, and I want the colts, but we both win because we're in love.
OPRAH WINFREY: Honey, don't talk with your mouth full.
LETTERMAN: I'm sorry.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
M. O'BRIEN: Excellent. Excellent. Of course, long-running feud there.
VRANICA: Completely a surprise. No one knew it was coming. We're polling on WSJ.com, and everybody is calling in, trying to say, how come you don't have Dave and Oprah spot? It was a surprise play that CBS put it on. They shot it, I think, last week really quickly, and I think a lot of the ads were sort of lackluster last night, so as we were calling around, people around the country were, like, oh my God, the promo is actually better than some of the Madison Avenue stuff. Pretty interesting.
M. O'BRIEN: All right. And speaking of lackluster, let's show one that sort of missed the mark. Let's watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Drinking sierra mystery would be a good decision, Ted, but I'm sorry.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Suddenly there's some norm I don't get. You know, it's just...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
M. O'BRIEN: Anyway, it's kind of funny, but it didn't get well received.
VRANICA: Kind of funny. It didn't. But the fact of the matter is Pepsi has such high expectations. They came out and they did Sierra Mist. It was a funny ha, ha, but there wasn't enough of a surprise. People -- their expectations for Pepsi brand are so high at this point, they really need to show it off, and they had stiff competition because their rival Coke was in the game with some clever ads.
M. O'BRIEN: All right, we have the slap or not? We don't have the slap.
All right, we're going to recreate it. Here, I give you a potato, and you go -- all right, excellent. Thank you. That was the commercial.
Suzanne Vranica, thank you, as always, for dropping by -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: I liked it. I liked it. Didn't cost $2.6 million either. Thanks, guys.
(WEATHER REPORT)
M. O'BRIEN: "CNN NEWSROOM" is just moments away. Heidi Collins at the CNN Center with a look at what's ahead.
Good morning, Heidi.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning there, Miles. And good morning to you, everybody.
That's right, we have these stories coming up on the "NEWSROOM" Rundown. Senate showdown. Republicans and Democrats deciding whether they'll go on the record. A politically-risky yea or nay on the Iraq War.
And America's most-wanted host John Walsh calling for police to take another look at his son's 1981 murder. Witnesses linking the case to notorious serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. We'll tell you about that.
And call him a knight in shining armor. A guy not afraid to put on a pair of tights. He gets dressed up to pop the big question. I don't know if that's a good or bad thing, but Tony Harris is joining me in the "NEWSROOM" top of the hour on CNN. I don't know, Soledad. Would you have said yes?
S. O'BRIEN: Heidi, we were thinking the same thing, which is, like, huh, thanks, honey. But I don't think we can get married now that I know this about you.
COLLINS: Exactly. Exactly. The truth comes out right before you get married, if you're lucky.
S. O'BRIEN: You see a red flag, run like the wind. That's what I say.
COLLINS: Yes.
S. O'BRIEN: All right, Heidi, looking forward to that story straight ahead at the top of the hour.
Coming up on AMERICAN MORNING, the mysteries of the brain. Players, of course, get lots of glory for delivering the big hits, but what we don't see on TV are the consequences of some of those head injuries.
Stay with us. You're watching AMERICAN MORNING. We're back in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: We're kicking off a new medical mystery series with our own resident brain surgeon on this super Monday. A million Americans suffer brain injuries every year, and many of them are football players, so what can be done to protect those players?
Sanjay Gupta, part one of his series, "Mysteries of the Brain."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Brute force can lead to concussions, an injury most often caused by a blow to the head, where the brain violently rocks back and forth inside the skull. Symptoms include dizziness, severe headache, vomiting, confusion, memory loss. Multiple concussions can be devastating.
DR. GERARD GIOIA, NEUROPSYCHOLOGIST: If they're in short succession and if they're poorly managed, the long-term consequences can be pretty significant. They can actually have structural damage to the brain.
GUPTA: Pro football players are especially susceptible. The University of North Carolina studied nearly 1,800 retired NFL players. The 200 who had five or more concussions were three times as likely to suffer from depression than players who had none.
Forty-four-year-old Andre Waters, a former player, suffered numerous concussions during his NFL career. Reportedly depressed, Waters committed suicide last November. Dr. Bennet Omalu examined Waters' brain tissue. He said Waters had the brain of an 58-year-old man, and that brain damage from his concussions contributed significantly to his suicide.
DR. BENNET OMALU, NEUROPATHOLOGIST: There were significant loss of brain cells. There were accumulation of abnormal -- large accumulations of abnormal proteins that kill off the brain cells.
GUPTA: Chris Nowinski played college football and was a professional wrestler. He has had at least six serious concussions that he can remember. His last was the most damaging.
CHRIS NOWINSKI, FMR. FOOTBALL PLAYER/WRESTLER: I got kicked in the chin, and my head snapped back, and by the time I hit the ground, I had a terrible headache, and I didn't know really where I was or what I was doing.
GUPTA: He has written a book to educate other athletes about the dangers. It's been three-and-a-half years since his last match. He still has severe migraines, problems with memory, sleeping, and says he'll probably be on medication for the rest of his life.
NOWINSKI: I lost a lot of my ability to think straight and accomplish anything or, you know, be productive. I lost that.
GUPTA: A fate he hopes other young athletes can be spared.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
M. O'BRIEN: Sanjay's series continues tomorrow. Tomorrow he'll look at a rare condition called face blindness, people who literally can not recognize their loved ones' faces -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Strange. All right. And Tomorrow Sanjay is back with that other brain mystery.
Here's a look at what "CNN NEWSROOM" is working on for the top of the hour.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: See these stories in the "CNN NEWSROOM." New violence in Iraq. More than two dozen people dead in Baghdad area attacks. President Bush's nearly $3 trillion budget.
More for the war, less for Medicare.
Internet porn. New research find kids are exposed more than you might think.
And the 1981 disappearance of Adam Walsh. Could the case be linked to a notorious serial killer?
You're in the "NEWSROOM," 9:00 a.m. Eastern, 6:00 Pacific.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) S. O'BRIEN: Many of you wrote telling us just how much you like hearing from Chad's mom, Dottie Myers. You'll remember she lives just about a mile away from where that tornado touched down in Lake County, Florida. And over the weekend, while I was reporting from Florida, guess who shows up, Dottie Myers, along with Chad's dad, Alfie. They brought us cookies.
M. O'BRIEN: Boy, do you see the resemblance. Put that back on there.
S. O'BRIEN: I know, separated at birth.
M. O'BRIEN: Well, so to speak, literally. I think so. Yes, as a matter of fact, that's quite literally what happened.
S. O'BRIEN: Anyway, she brings us cookies, and I asked her what it was like to step in and help us out and report for us really. Here's what she said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DOTTIE MYERS, CHAD'S MOM/EYEWITNESS: It was, No. 1, very interesting. No. 2, very scary. And, No. 3, just was something that I had never seen before. I will never see it again. I hope I never see it again. And that's probably just about what I thought about it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
S. O'BRIEN: Well, she's as lovely and as charming as Chad, too.
Thank you for the cookies, Mrs. Myers. We love you.
M. O'BRIEN: There's some pals of Chad up here, too, just want to let you know. Dottie, if you're out there and you feel like baking, we're here.
That's all the time we have for this edition of AMERICAN MORNING.
S. O'BRIEN: "CNN NEWSROOM" with Tony Harris and Heidi Collins begins right now.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.voxant.com
