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American Morning
Earthquake Hits Indonesia; Walter Reed Fallout; Presidential Candidates to Post on YouTube; Political Family Ties
Aired March 06, 2007 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: We start with breaking news. A powerful earthquake and aftershock in Indonesia to tell you about. Dozens of people dead, and the search for survivors is going on right now.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: A military wife's nightmares come to life at Walter Reed. Congress hears horror stories, commanders apologize. More of the same expected today.
S. O'BRIEN: Benefit or burden? A closer look this morning at Bill Clinton, whether he is helping or hurting his wife's White House dreams.
We're live from Washington, D.C., New York, and Atlanta on this AMERICAN MORNING.
M. O'BRIEN: Good morning, Tuesday, March 6th.
I'm Miles O'Brien.
S. O'BRIEN: And I'm Soledad O'Brien.
Thanks for being with us.
M. O'BRIEN: A powerful earthquake in Indonesia this morning. At least 70 are dead after a 6.3 magnitude quake hit Sumatra in western Indonesia. And there was another quake that followed.
Here's CNN's Kathy Quiano.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KATHY QUIANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): When the quake struck, everyone, the sick and the able, rushed out of this hospital in west Sumatra. Nurses pushed patients out on stretchers and wheelchairs to safer ground. Many remained outdoors for hours. Powerful aftershocks followed the 6.3-strong tremor.
Terrified residents tried to flee to higher ground, fearing a tsunami would follow. The city of Padang, on the southwest coast of Sumatra, is one of the few cities in Indonesia with a tsunami warning system. But this quake, centered a few miles inland, did not trigger a tsunami.
After the initial panic, the damage became apparent. Hundreds of houses and shops were flattened or badly damaged. The injured, many with broken bones, were brought to hospitals. More victims are expected to be found in the hardest-hit areas just outside the capital, Padang.
Kathy Quiano, CNN, Jakarta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
M. O'BRIEN: In Afghanistan right now, NATO troops are making a move against the Taliban. Operation Achilles is NATO's largest offensive so far. Fifty-five hundred troops trying to push back resurgent Taliban forces in the southern part of the country. But in the north, as well, they're also working in the Helmand province, for their -- make stability there so they can continue construction of a strategic dam -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: This morning in Washington, Army medical brass will once again be called on the carpet, this time by a Senate committee, about those scandalous conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. If it's anything like yesterday's session, it's going to be a mix of emotion outrage and some pleas of forgiveness thrown in.
CNN's Barbara Starr live for us at the Pentagon this morning.
Good morning, Barbara.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
Well, at yesterday's hearing, top generals apologized, but didn't have a lot of answers on why they didn't know about the problems at Walter Reed.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEREMY DUNCAN, WOUNDED IRAQ VETERAN: The conditions in the room, in my mind, were just -- it was unforgivable for anybody to live -- it wasn't fit for anybody to live in a room like that.
STARR (voice over): But Specialist Jeremy Duncan lived in such a horror at Walter Reed Army Hospital, in a building with moldy walls, roaches, and mouse droppings, trying to recover from a broken neck and loss of sight in one eye after an IED attack in Iraq.
Annette McLeod's husband suffered a traumatic brain injury. She found Walter Reed's bureaucracy overwhelming.
ANNETTE MCLEOD, WIFE OF WOUNDED IRAQ VETERAN: My life was ripped apart the day that my husband was injured. And then having to live through the mess that we lived through at Walter Reed has been worse than anything I've ever sacrificed in my life.
STARR: A congressional panel went to the hospital to try to find out why nobody in charge noticed poor living conditions and the problems troops had. There were few answers.
The general relieved of duty for his failures apologized. MAJ. GEN. GEORGE WEIGHTMAN, FMR. COMMANDER, WALTER REED: I would just like to apologize for not meeting their expectations. Not only in the care provided, but also in having so many bureaucratic processes it just took your fortitude to be an advocate for your husband, that you shouldn't have to do.
STARR: Still on the hot seat, Lieutenant General Kevin Kiley, the Army's top medical officer and Walter Reed's commander in 2004. Kiley says he just didn't know about the problems at building 18.
LT. GEN. KEVIN KILEY, U.S. ARMY SURGEON GENERAL: Sir, I don't -- I can't explain that. It has been pointed out I live across the street, but I don't do barracks inspections at Walter Reed in my role as an (INAUDIBLE) commander.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
STARR: And Soledad, it remains to be seen whether General Kiley will be able to hold on to his job. Of course, many of the problems emerged while he was commander at Walter Reed. Expect him to get a lot of tough questions as these hearings continue -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: So what do you think eventually when these -- you know, a second day of testimony, and I'm sure it's going to be dramatic testimony again today. What is the next step? What happens next?
STARR: Well, the Army says it isn't a matter of them needing more money or more resources, but it is a matter of trying to straighten out this overwhelming bureaucracy that is really hindering the recovery of some of these very badly injured troops. That's going to be a very tough problem to fix. Many of these young people are so badly injured, they're going to need medical care for the rest of their lives, another 50 or 60 years of medical care ahead -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Barbara Starr at the Pentagon for us.
Thanks, Barbara.
Coming up this morning, 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time, just about 25 minutes, AMERICAN MORNING'S Alina Cho has a look at some of the lackluster care that veterans say they're getting, not only at Walter Reed, but across the country once they return home from war -- Miles.
(NEWSBREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: We told you about YouTube stepping in to the race for the White House. Now videos are rolling in.
AMERICAN MORNING'S Chris Lawrence has been taking a look for us.
Good morning.
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
You know, politicians have always been on YouTube, but it is normally for these "gotcha" moments that show them at their embarrassing worst. Now some of the candidates are trying to manage their own messages on one of the Internet's most popular sites.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LAWRENCE (voice over): When politicians first met YouTube, it was like a rude guest who points out every embarrassing flaw. From bad singing, to just bad judgment.
GEORGE ALLEN (R), FMR. VIRGINIA SENATOR: ... with the yellow shirt, Macaca, or whatever his name is...
LAWRENCE: Now YouTube is inviting those same candidates over for dinner, giving them a seat at the table, so to speak.
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: Keep that faith. Keep your courage. Stick together.
LAWRENCE: YouTube is inviting political candidates to post their own videos as part of a push to educate voters.
OBAMA: We want a positive video for the future.
LAWRENCE: Most of the major presidential candidates are on board.
MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I believe we're spending too much money.
LAWRENCE: But it's the second-tier candidates who could benefit most by broadcasting their message at minimal cost.
ALAN HOFFENBLUM, POLITICAL ANALYST: And this could help a lot of candidates that don't have the big money that the top-tier candidates have.
LAWRENCE: But will anyone watch?
THOMAS HOLLIHAN, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA: Some of them are long, you know, 15, 20-minute films. You've got to really be devoted to want to sit through 15 minutes of that.
LAWRENCE: Professor Thomas Hollihan wrote a book called "Political Campaigns in a Media Age."
(on camera): Do you think some candidates will benefit more than others from YouTube?
HOLLIHAN: Those candidates who are spontaneous, quick on their feet, smile easily, are witty, they're going to really prosper in a YouTube age.
SEN. HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON (D), NEW YORK: My bill would cap the number of troops in Iraq at January 1st levels.
RUDY GIULIANI (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: What I don't get is the non-binding resolution.
HOLLIHAN: Candidates who are ponderous, who need a closely- guided script, who don't -- who don't have good emotional control, they're the candidates likely to suffer in the YouTube era.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAWRENCE: And analysts say it's going to reward candidates who have a lot of energy and enthusiasm. A candidate who comes off even a little bit tired at the end of a long day can end up with a very negative portrayal in a YouTube film.
S. O'BRIEN: Because they're always on, on YouTube.
LAWRENCE: And you know about being tired. Yes.
S. O'BRIEN: Exactly. So what's different then? I mean, you could always -- you want to post your 15-minute campaign speech, you always could. What makes it different?
LAWRENCE: What's different about this is, unlike TV ads, YouTube is free. The video clips are not subject to any campaign finance limits, and you don't need those disclosure statements such as, you know, "My name is Chris and I approved this message."
S. O'BRIEN: It sounds like you're running for something yourself. Are you announcing?
LAWRENCE: One day. One day.
S. O'BRIEN: Make sure you announce it right here on AMERICAN MORNING.
LAWRENCE: Of course.
S. O'BRIEN: Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: He's got our vote for sure.
In politics, family ties can truly be the ties that bind. How the 2008 candidates may suffer or succeed because of those closest to them.
And what set a love-worn NASA astronaut off on a very strange odyssey? Well, we may have a few clues this morning.
You're watching AMERICAN MORNING. The most news in the morning is right here.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: The most news in the morning is right here on CNN.
The search for survivors is going on right now in Indonesia after a 6.3 earthquake happened overnight. Seventy people so far reported killed, hundreds of homes flattened. A wild story in Indiana to tell you about. Police suspect that a man forced his 8-year-old daughter into a small plane, then deliberately crashed that plane into the home of his former mother-in- law. The crash killed both the man and the little girl.
Coming up on quarter past the hour. Chad Myers is watching some cold weather for us.
(WEATHER REPORT)
M. O'BRIEN: And now politicians and their families. Sometimes the candidates' kin can be a plus, sometimes a big drag. And sometimes it's hard to be sure whether to put them on the stage or keep them safely under wraps.
Candy Crowley joining us now.
Candy, we're talking this morning about the Clintons and the Giulianis trying to manage family ties.
Let's begin with Senator Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton.
Over the weekend we saw the former president with the senator in Selma, Alabama. He was there -- right there front and center as they tried to court the African-American vote. As Hillary Clinton looks towards courting, say, women, which we talked about this morning, where does Bill Clinton fit in in that?
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SR. POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, Bill Clinton has, as of late last year in the fall some time, has a 60 percent approval rating. So, one would assume that across the board he is helpful to her.
The problem is, he may -- he may be her biggest asset in some ways. He is a terrific strategic thinker.
On the other hand, he can also be her biggest detriment. It is hard to share the stage with Bill Clinton. He is that good when he goes out to speak.
You're not going to see much of them together. Hillary Clinton said it was going to be a rarity. She needs to establish herself in her own right and not look as though she's using her husband. Nonetheless, he -- even as a silent partner, he is somebody that is highly popular, and that can't help but help.
M. O'BRIEN: It's hard not to look upstaged when you're up against Bill Clinton, who has tremendous political gifts.
CROWLEY: Absolutely. Absolutely. And that's -- that's one of the reasons why everybody says, look, let Bill Clinton have the stage himself because he basically does have it, regardless of who's up there. It's like animals and children. You're just never supposed to be on the stage with them.
On the other hand, behind the scenes he can be very helpful, Miles. He can raise money. He's already made calls on her behalf to some congressmen and senators who he thought might jump to Barack Obama, saying, you know, cool your jets here just a little, give her a chance.
So, he can be very helpful behind the scene. He has lots and lots of contacts, as you might imagine. And he could raise money.
M. O'BRIEN: So you think we'll be seeing plenty of him but probably separate venues?
CROWLEY: Separate venues for sure when he goes public. I just think that his biggest strength will be behind the scenes.
M. O'BRIEN: All right.
Let's talk about Rudy and Andrew Giuliani. An unfortunate thing.
The son saying that he and the father don't have much of a relationship. He said he won't campaign on behalf of his father and that, you know, his mother has been more of an influence on him.
Let's -- before we talk, let's listen to how Rudy Giuliani responded to what Andrew had to say. Let's listen for a moment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RUDY GIULIANI (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: These problems with blended families, you know, are challenges. Sometimes they are. And the challenges are best worked on privately.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
M. O'BRIEN: Would you give him high marks for that response?
CROWLEY: I do. And right before he said that, he also said, "I take responsibility for this."
This is always a sticky wicket here. Everybody has got relatives. In some ways, everybody can relate to people who have problems with relatives.
One of the things I would say is that Ronald Reagan also had trouble with his children in the eight years that he was in office, both with Michael and with Patty, and at times with his other son. So, you know, this has already been something where the sound barrier has been broken. Ronald Reagan was seen nationally as somebody who promoted family values.
So I think this bubble has already been burst. Giuliani will probably be OK on this. The problem, I think, is that it plays into the whole Christian conservative base of the Republican Party, does he share our values? And already in terms of issues, abortion, gun control, gay rights, he is absolutely diametrically opposed to what the base of the party thinks. So this may play into it, but I don't think, per se, it is a huge problem for him. M. O'BRIEN: So, given the fact, though, that he has other issues with social conservatives, which Ronald Reagan did not, it could be a little different than it was for Reagan. And, of course, we're talking also about grown children in Ronald Reagan's case.
CROWLEY: Absolutely. Absolutely. And this is an almost grown child, although anyone who has a child in college knows they're not quite there yet.
M. O'BRIEN: They're still on the dole, Candy. I know you know that.
CROWLEY: Absolutely. Absolutely.
So, you know, in another interview, the son did say -- Giuliani's son did say, "Look, I love my dad. We have got some problems here. I think he would be a good president."
So it doesn't seem to be vitriolic. It seems to be that they have problems with that whole blended family thing.
M. O'BRIEN: All right. Candy Crowley, thank you very much.
Candy is our senior political correspondent. Part of the best political team on television.
Thank you very much -- Soledad.
(NEWSBREAK)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: A jet and my own island to land it. Not bad, huh? That's all I want.
S. O'BRIEN: Oh, that's what I want. Me, too.
M. O'BRIEN: How about you?
I bet you're thinking about some dream purchases on this Mega- Millions morning. All you need is a winning ticket. And tonight's Mega-Millions drawing, the jackpot -- drum roll, please. Thank you, thank you, thank you -- $355 million. That's going to go up throughout the day-, of course, because there is a little bit of frenzy under way.
The winning numbers will be drawn 11:00 p.m. Eastern Time tonight right in Times Square here in New York.
Now, let's -- and if you have your ticket in your hand in Times Square tonight and it wins, hang on tight. As a matter of fact, stay home.
We did a little math overnight. If you take the lump sum payment, which we highly recommend to you, $117.7 million after taxes. Uncle Sam gets a nice bite, huh? If you go the Soledad route, the 26-year payout with annuity, $9.4 million a year.
Crew, what are you doing? Lump sum?
Everybody's going with the lump sum.
S. O'BRIEN: I didn't say I was going to do the annuity. I am just saying, for people who spend a lot of dough, it might be a good way to...
ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I am taking the lump sum, too. And no disrespect intended.
I'm not one of these guys that are going to come back to work.
S. O'BRIEN: Oh, never. Not even -- not even call in.
VELSHI: I got ways -- I got things -- I got plans. I'll definitely keep in touch with you all.
M. O'BRIEN: No you won't.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes, maybe not.
VELSHI: I'll have my people call.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes, you will.
VELSHI: You know what I was surprised by? There are a lot of things that happen in the news that I expect to happen, but this one surprised me, the buy-out of Madame Tussauds Wax Museum by Blackstone. Blackstone is one of these private equity groups which buys all sorts of things, and they went and bought the Madame Tussauds group for $1.9 billion with a "B.". I had no idea it would be worth that kind of money.
S. O'BRIEN: Is there just the one store, or...
M. O'BRIEN: They're all over the place now, yes.
VELSHI: No, no. They've got 50 different attractions.
Now, the group that owns Tussauds has other things.
S. O'BRIEN: So they sold them all.
VELSHI: They've got the London -- yes, they've got hotels. But they sold them all. And when you combine that with holdings that Blackstone already has, they have Legoland and Gardaland -- don't know what Gardaland is...
M. O'BRIEN: Gardaland?
VELSHI: ... that makes it the second biggest theme park group around after Disney. Can you believe that? M. O'BRIEN: Yes.
VELSHI: $1.9 billion. The first Madame Tussauds permanent exhibit in London, by the way, was 1835. They've been making wax figurines ever since.
I've got to say, I'm surprised.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes. Who knew? Wax dummies.
VELSHI: I didn't know there was that much money in that kind of stuff. But there is, so that's -- yes, there's nothing more to that story.
M. O'BRIEN: All right. Thank you very much. Thank you, Ali.
VELSHI: All right.
M. O'BRIEN: Top stories of the morning coming up, and we'll hear about a Senate committee to hear from veterans about conditions at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. The problems go a lot further afield than that. We'll tell you about that.
Also, a sudden exit at the NAACP. Why does president Bruce Gordon want out? Soledad will ask him. He'll join us live in the studio, shortly.
And it can hit millions of us, and most of the time it means suffering in silence. But you don't have to. One young man's inspiring story ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
The most news in the morning right here.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: Good morning. Welcome, everybody. It's Tuesday, March 6th.
I'm Soledad O'Brien.
M. O'BRIEN: And I'm Miles O'Brien.
We're glad you're with us this morning.
S. O'BRIEN: It is a very busy Tuesday morning. A powerful earthquake in western Indonesia struck overnight. At least 70 people are reported dead. Right now search teams are looking for survivors under hundreds of buildings that have been flattened by the quake, and a strong aftershock as well.
M. O'BRIEN: Looking for a leader. The NAACP president is on his way out. Why, and what's next? We'll ask Bruce Gordon. He's sitting just a few feet away from me right now. Soledad will talk to him.
S. O'BRIEN: And you might be surprised by just how many Americans suffer anxiety attacks every day. Dr. Sanjay Gupta has got the story of one man, super achiever, star athlete, but had to overcome his hidden fear to find relief.
M. O'BRIEN: We begin though at Walter Reed. President Bush is calling for a bipartisan panel to look into the situation at one of the hospital's outpatient barracks, and also to see if there are larger problems at other military and veterans hospitals. Here's what some veterans and their family members had to say at yesterday's very emotional hearing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANNETTE MCLEOD, WIFE OF WOUNDED IRAQ VETERAN: My life was ripped apart the day that my husband was injured. And then having to live through the mess that we lived through at Walter Reed is worse than anything i've ever sacrificed in my life.
STAFF SGT. DANIEL SHANNON, U.S. ARMY: The system can't be trusted. And soldiers get less than they deserve from a system seemingly designed to run and run to cut the costs associated with fighting this war.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
M. O'BRIEN: Other veterans are speaking out, as well. And AMERICAN MORNING's Alina Cho has been tracking this story. It just gets you in the gut. Here are these people we put these people and they willingly go put their life on the line and this is what they get.
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A lot of heartbreaking stories, Miles. No matter where you stand on the war, almost everyone agrees wounded soldiers just back from Iraq and Afghanistan deserve the very best care available. The reality is a bit different. Veterans we spoke to say the care they're getting leaves much to be desired. Issues of cleanliness and bureaucratic red tape. We begin with the story of one man we first spoke to a couple weeks ago. We went back to talk to him last night.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHO (voice over): Army Major Chuck Ziegenfuss might be on a second tour of duty in Iraq were it not for the injuries he suffered in an IED attack in 2005.
MAJOR CHUCK ZIEGENFUSS, U.S. ARMY: Both of my hands and forearms up to my biceps were injured. My right leg was -- the skin and the flesh underneath it were completely blown off from the inseam and right above me knee, here all the way to my hip.
CHO: He woke up four days later at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where he says the care he received was first rate. The problem, he says Walter Reed was dirty.
ZIEGENFUSS: After we complained several times to get somebody to just come in and run a mop on the floor, my mom took a towel from the bathroom and got it wet and drug it back and forth across the floor.
CHO: Ziegenfuss was so fed up, he says he filed two formal complaints. Walter Reed was not available for comment.
Today, the 34-year-old is still recovering. When he's not with his wife and two children, he works at the ROTC.
Steve Kraft also served in Iraq. His problems are not physical, but mental.
STEPHEN KRAFT, IRAQ WAR VETERAN: I was a hair-trigger temper. You know, I can't be around people. I don't want to be around people.
CHO: The 34-year-old was diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder a year ago, but says the care he needed was not readily available at New York area veterans hospitals. Kraft says he had to wait months for an appointment with a psychiatrist.
KRAFT: You start to self-medicate and you find yourself in a bar, you find yourself doing drugs, you lash out.
CHO: One hospital where Kraft sought treatment told CNN it could not comment on his case, citing privacy laws. At this Manhattan veterans hospital, director John Donellan promises no one will be turned away.
JOHN DONELLAN, NEW YORK VETERANS HOSPITAL: If the veteran cannot get the care here, we will make it available to them, even if we have to go outside, if we have to go to one of the other hospitals in our network. We'll make the care available.
CHO: Kraft says he finally found a therapist at a veterans hospital two hours away, a sacrifice he says returning vets should not have to make.
KRAFT: Don't appoint a committee to do a review and figure out what happened and, you know, three years down the line fix it. No. Fix it now.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LIN: And one veteran's group director said if you don't think this problem needs fixing right away, remember trainloads of wounded vets are coming home, and as this veteran told us, they are coming to a hospital in a town near you. The government, he says, has a responsibility to care for them. And you know, many veterans we spoke to, Miles, said the buildings, those are going to be easy to fix, the bureaucracy a lot harder to solve.
M. O'BRIEN: They were talking yesterday about 22 separate forms to eight different commands just to document what is obvious, you're missing a limb. It's absurd.
LIN: Right, this bureaucratic red tape they talk about understaffed, underfunded. This is a huge system, just the Department of Veterans Affairs, the largest health care system in the country, 5.5 million vets a year. They're overburdened. So this is getting some attention now, and I think we're going to see some changes.
M. O'BRIEN: All right, if we can afford the war, we can afford to take care of those hurt by it.
LIN: That's what the vets say. Alina Cho, thank you very much -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Here's something else that's getting attention this morning. The nation's oldest and largest civil rights group is looking for a new leader. After just 19 months as leader and CEO of the NAACP, Bruce Gordon is resigning. Now as to why he left and where the organization goes from here, let's ask him ourself. Bruce Gordon joins us this morning.
It's nice to see you.
BRUCE GORDON, FMR. NAACP PRES. & CEO: Good morning.
S. O'BRIEN: Why did you quit?
GORDON: I think that the condition of black folks in America is not good. And I think that the NAACP, the nation's oldest and largest civil rights organization, is important to closing the disparities, the gaps we face as black folks, and it's not working as well as it should. It's not as effective as it should be.
S. O'BRIEN: Some people would say, so you come in as the leader and you change it.
GORDON: Well, and that's exactly what I came in to do, but, frankly, what I've found in my 19 months is that the board and I have different views about how the association could be most effective.
Now I believe that any organization, not just the NAACP, but any organization, can only be effective when the board and CEO are aligned. We are not. In my opinion, that being the case, with the 64-person board that's been in place for a very long time, you can change all 64, or some significant portion of them, or you can change one guy, the CEO. I opted for the latter.
S. O'BRIEN: So you're saying it's a disagreement over sort of the ways to lead, or are you saying it's a disagreement over the shape and the mission of the NAACP itself?
GORDON: It's both, actually. For one, the way that they govern, it's their belief that they really run the organization. I'm sort of like a manager. I do what the board tells me to do. That was actually a quote from one of the board members in the media just yesterday. That's not how I grew up. That's now how I operate. That's now what I do.
But there's also a difference in the opinion of mission. There's a lot of discussion about are we an advocacy organization or a service organization. I think we should be both. We should certainly advocate, for instance, for equal access to quality education. But we should act -- we should also push for equal performance of our students when they get that access, which means to me that we provide services around math and trying to help students perform better in math. We can do SAT tutoring to get kids into colleges that they might not otherwise access. We should advocate for employment. We should work against employment discrimination. But we should also focus on employment as a pathway to wealth creation.
S. O'BRIEN: So two tiers is what you see. What I read from the NAACP, some of the board members who've been quoted sound like really one tier, more of an advocate for things as opposed to necessarily doing social services. Let me tell you a little bit of what Julian Bond had to say. He released a statement. He said, "We wish Mr. Gordon well in his future pursuits. He named the general counsel Dennis Hayes, as interim president. He'd been interim president before...
GORDON: Yes, he was.
S. O'BRIEN: ... when they were looking for you actually. And he also said this, "There are many occasions when it seemed just not to be a perfect fit, but he has many, many great qualities." He's talking about you. "And he exhibited those qualities when he worked for us. I'm disappointed that it came to this." What do you think of that?
GORDON: I'm disappointed that it came to this, too. I went into this role on a mission. And I thought that it was a great opportunity to lead a historic organization to its next level of greatness. But I believe that in order to be great, you've got to look critically at yourself, determine what it is that you do well and continue to do that. Determine what it is that you don't do well and change it. I believe that bureaucracy can keep an organization from being highly effective. The NAACP, unfortunately, is very bureaucratic. The NAACP, unfortunately, has had such a wonderful history -- that's a good thing -- that there's a tendency to want to do what we have done historically. This is the 21st century and I think we need 21st century solutions.
S. O'BRIEN: What do you think, in 19 months, your legacy has been? When people right the book about the NAACP, because 100-year anniversary is coming up. What's your chapter going to say?
GORDON: Well, keep in mind, I only got 19 months worth of effort into this. And so I think that my story is going to a short story. But I'd say this -- we were declining in membership. We were advertised when I went into the job of a 500,000-person organization. It was really something less than 300,000. But today, having developing electronic memberships, we have 100,000 new members. We are now up over 400,000 members. We didn't have that before, on a path toward a million by 2009.
If you visit our Web site, you see an entirely different face of the NAACP. Our interaction with new communities is highly productive. Our relationships with organizations like the National Association of Home Builders, where we are really trying to move around the country and get people not just to get jobs, but to understand that through jobs, through employment, through financial literacy building a path to homeownership is really what wealth creation is all about. I think those kind of things have gotten started, and I hope my successor will finish it. S. O'BRIEN: I've always got time for sort of a one-award answer. And it's kind of an unfair question. Do you feel bitter about your departure?
GORDON: No.
S. O'BRIEN: All right, that's a one-word answer. Bruce Gordon, always nice to see you. Thanks for talking with us.
GORDON: My pleasure.
S. O'BRIEN: The outgoing president of the NAACP - Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Thank you, Soledad. Speaking of bitter, bitter cold in the Northeast. Chad Myers up next with your latest traveler's forecast.
And high anxiety. A lot of people suffer from it and many of them aren't getting the help they need.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta is in the house. He'll show us one man's story and how he found some relief. That's next on AMERICAN MORNING.
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(WEATHER REPORT)
M. O'BRIEN: In this morning's House Call, understanding anxiety disorders. They can hit just about any one. Millions of people suffer from fears and phobias that can rule even the most successful lives.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta has one man's story. He joins us now from Atlanta with more.
Good morning, Sanjay.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Miles.
It's such a fascinating thing doing this story on anxiety disorders. It affects a lot of people, as you said, about 40 million people. Kevin Penwell was your classic type-A personality, Mr. Control, always on the move. A couple years ago, though, he had a meltdown.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GUPTA (voice-over): At 29, Kevin Penwell knew what he wanted. And he got it. He was an all-American ballplayer, ran a marathon, he had an MBA and a prestigious sales job. But two years ago sitting in a meeting he thought he was dying.
KEVIN PENWELL, SUFFERED ANXIETY: I sweated profusely, I began shaking. I thought I was having a heart attack. GUPTA: Penwell had a panic attack, one of many symptoms of anxiety disorders. Others include excessive worrying, shortness of breath and a racing heart for no apparent reason. When a therapist finally diagnosed him, Penwell was shocked.
PENWELL: I never knew that healthy anxiety could turn on me one day and become negative. It was just a negative force that, you know, really pushed me to my lowest point in my life.
GUPTA: Anxiety disorders affect 18 percent of adult Americans. Often that's accompanied by depression and substance abuse.
DR. ALAN MANEVITZ, PSYCHIATRIST: When people have an anxiety disorder, they can be paralyzed to the point where they're not functioning.
GUPTA: Experts look to biology, proper exercise, sleep when looking for causes of anxiety disorders. Also external factors like a bad relationship or job can also have an impact.
The problem may lie here, in the amygdala, a portion of the brain that's the sensory information processor and here, in the hippocampus, which processes threats, where a chemical imbalance may exaggerate a sense of doom.
MANEVITZ: You're taking in all the sensory information and you're coming up with a conclusion that I'm having a heart attack, that we're going to get killed, that we're going to have a blowout. It's a catastrophic conclusion.
GUPTA: According to the American Psychological Association most patients respond to psychotherapy and medications. Penwell used both. He has a cheat sheet in his wallet with phrases like, "Things will not be perfect." Also reminds him, he can't cure his anxiety, but he can control it.
PENWELL: I hope the whole time I was going through anxiety I'd get back to normal. I actually found a better place, became a better person, became a stronger person, and I'm happy I went through this, and I never thought I'd say that.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GUPTA: It's sort of remarkable there are certain places in the brain. We all experience maybe certain senses of doom or threat, but for some reason certain people's brains seem to really amplify those things, and that's at the heart at anxiety disorders. Kevin's doing great. He wrote a book called "Quarter Life Crisis." That was an interesting title. one in five people do have these anxiety disorders. Most people never get it checked out or do anything about it.
M. O'BRIEN: You know, Sanjay, about a year or so ago, I had shortness of breath, so I thought I was having a heart attack. And I can how, you know, your mind starts playing tricks on you, and suddenly you think you're dying. How do I know that's not some more deep-rooted problem, or just something that happened kind of a one-off deal?
GUPTA: Yes, you know, it's sometimes difficult because some of the symptoms, as you're probably already thinking, can be a little bit vague, or sort of mimic other things. Couple of things, if the feeling of anxiety last longer than a few months, six months, that's probably time to go get it checked out.
Also, if you have these panic attacks, which it may have been, Miles, in your case. A lot of people have these sorts of things. If you have two of them in a short amount of time, that's also a sort of harbinger as well, ergo get it checked it out.
There's a Web site ADAA.org. It's an anxiety Web site. If you go to it, there's a self-test there as well. I just went to it a little bit ago. They ask questions and really give you an idea whether or not you're actually suffering from anxiety.
M. O'BRIEN: Does it run in families?
GUPTA: It seems to. You know, the interesting thing about that is we just are now coming to terms about how to diagnose anxiety and a lot of these other disorders as well, so we didn't diagnose them in our parents and our grandparents. But in Kevin' case, for example, he was convinced that his grandmother suffered from what's known as agoraphobia, where she would not go outside. She had a fear of the marketplace, essentially and being around people, so there seems to be a genetic component to it, as well.
M. O'BRIEN: Interesting. Sanjay Gupta, thanks you very much -- Soledad.
GUPTA: Thank you.
S. O'BRIEN: "CNN NEWSROOM" just a couple of minutes away. T.J. Holmes is at the CNN Center with a look at what's ahead this morning.
Good morning.
T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, kind ma'am. Good to see you guys.
We've got a few stories here on the rundown. First, people scrambling in that strong earthquake and an aftershock shake Indonesia. Several dozen people killed, widespread damage.
Also, President Bush goes before the American Legion. He's expected to point to early important signs his troop buildup in Iraq may be working. The speech will be live in the "NEWSROOM." That's at 10:00 Eastern.
And then Heaven in a bottle: An entrepreneur sells holy drinking water, and the label warns centers that the liquid could cause them intense burning.
And, Soledad, I only get intense burning if the liquid is 80 proof or above. S. O'BRIEN: Have you tried the holy water yet, come on?
HOLMES: No, I haven't tried the holy water, but I should be OK. I'm on good standing right now, so...
S. O'BRIEN: OK, people always say that, you know, until that last moment, when they're standing before their maker, but you know.
HOLMES: Oh, Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Especially because you started so nice with that something, something ma'am. But you went very Southern on me suddenly.
HOLMES: I'm a southern boy, I can't help it.
S. O'BRIEN: Oh, we love that. We love that. All right, T.J., thanks. We'll see you then.
Well, they looked like the candidates we're used to seeing, but they sure don't sound like them.
Up next, speaking of accents, a strange way that a trip down South rubs off on the way our candidates start talking. Jeanne Moos takes a good listen. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
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S. O'BRIEN: Do not adjust your audio, you're about to hear presidential candidates speaking in ways that they just don't usually speak.
CNN's Jeanne Moos puts the accent on the positive.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): What seemed to overcome both Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama was a more down home drawl of an accent.
SEN. BARACK OBAMA, (R) IL: Don't tell me I'm not comin' home when I come to Selma, Alabama.
MOOS: Here's Obama in front of a mostly white crowd in New Hampshire.
OBAMA: There's nothing we can't do.
MOOS: And here he was at a black church in Selma, Alabama.
OBAMA: We got too many daddies not acting like daddies.
MOOS: And here's Hillary speaking at a different black church.
H. CLINTON: That pulse that you found so faint, you have brought back to life. MOOS: Her delivery led the drudge report to dub her "Kentucky Fried Hillary." Though the example everyone's been citing was actually Senator Clinton quoting James Cleveland's freedom hymn. Doesn't seem quite fair to portray a soulfully-delivered quote as an acquired accent.
H. CLINTON: I come too far from where I started from.
MOOS: Still, Hillary's modified her delivery before in front of a black audience.
H. CLINTON: It has been run like a plantation, and you know what I'm talkin' about.
MOOS: Someone asked John Edwards the other day how he'd win a couple of Southern states.
JOHN EDWARDS, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, it helps to talk like this.
MOOS: Even presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich was inspired at a Jesse Jackson event to sing that old spiritual ...
REP. DENNIS KUCINICH, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Sixteen tons and what do you get, another day older and deeper in debt.
MOOS: Dialect instructor Sam Chwat coached Robert De Niro in "Cape Fear."
ROBERT DE NIRO, ACTOR: Big, friendly, shaggy.
MOOS: He says politicians make a strategic choice to adapt. So the audience feels he or she is one of us. Even if Barack Obama is already black on his father's side.
OBAMA: Get some of that Oprah money.
MOOS (on camera): The dialect coach we spoke with said Oprah, for instance, has three accents. One for whites, one for blacks, and one for the Academy Awards.
(voice-over): And critics malign Madonna for affecting an accent on Oprah's show.
MADONNA, SINGER: It's pretty shocking.
MOOS: There's even a medical condition called foreign accent syndrome. This woman suffered a stroke and came out of it with a British accent.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I felt like I was going bloody crazy.
MOOS: But she's an American who has never been to Britain. But there's one politician who never changes his accent.
RICHARD CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT: With George Bush as our leader ...
H. CLINTON: I don't believe he brought me this far.
MOOS: It's no wonder politicians adopt an accent.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have a little talk with Jesus.
MOOS: Wonder what accent Jesus would adopt. Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
M. O'BRIEN: That's all, y'all.
S. O'BRIEN: Well, you know, and remember Oprah's South African accent that she got when she was doing her opening for the school?
M. O'BRIEN: Did she do South African really?
S. O'BRIEN: Remember that?
M. O'BRIEN: Here's a quick look at what "NEWSROOM" is working on for the top of the hour.
HOLMES: See these stories in the "CNN NEWSROOM": 5,500 NATO and Afghan troops launching an operation against the Taliban and drug traffickers in Southern Afghanistan. Congress asking questions for a second day about shoddy conditions at Walter Reed Army Hospital.
And Americans lining up and crossing their fingers. Tonight's Mega Millions jackpot a near record $355 million. You're in the NEWSROOM, 9:00 Eastern, 6:00 out West.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: we are out of time on this AMERICAN MORNING.
M. O'BRIEN: "CNN NEWSROOM" with Heidi Collins and T.J. Holmes begins right now.
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