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American Morning

Democratic Debate Issue: Iraq War; Winners & Losers; Cancer Screening in Babies

Aired April 27, 2007 - 06:00   ET

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

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Batter up. This morning, who scored, who stumbled in the Democrat's first big game.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He hit it out of the park.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's not as good a debater as he is a stump speaker.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: The candidates and their top aides join us live, with the best political team on television, on this AMERICAN MORNING.

And good morning to you. It's Friday, April the 27th. I'm John Roberts in Washington, D.C.

A huge day in politics today, Kiran.

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: It really was. It was a long night, as well, since we were all up watching the debates and the analysis. I'm Kiran Chetry here in New York. We're going to have much more on that.

Also some other stories on our radar this morning.

If you have a family history of cancer or a genetic illness and you could actually prevent your unborn baby from getting it, would you? Well, it's a very real question now. They can screen embryos for cancer, but does it pave the way for designer babies in the future? We're going to talk about that with an ethicist a little bit later, John.

ROBERTS: Yes, big controversy about that.

Former CIA Director George Tenet hung out to dry or dodging his role. He's firing back against the White House, particularly the White House's claim about him saying it was a slam dunk, the intelligence on Iraq. We're going to hear from Tenet coming up shortly, Kiran.

CHETRY: He says he was the scapegoat for that.

Also, it's the kiss that could get Richard Gere arrested. He planted a big kiss, a long kiss -- there it is -- on a Bollywood star. They were speaking publicly. And that's a big no-no in India. Well, we're going to hear from him because he talked about it last night.

ROBERTS: Amazing. Violates rules of indecency. Unbelievable.

Hey, the curtain came up in the 2008 race for president on the Democratic side months ago. Eight Democrats grabbed the stage and little time for any one candidate to stand out at last night's debate. The highlights now from our senior political correspondent Candy Crowley.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): No blood spilled in this first of umpteen presidential debates. You had to listen hard for the low impact jabs.

JOHN EDWARDS, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Senator Clinton and anyone else who voted for this war has to search themselves and decide whether they believe they voted the right way.

SEN. HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And I've said many times that if I knew then what I now know, I would not have voted that way.

CROWLEY: Fresh off a vote to authorize more spending in Iraq with a deadline to bring troops home, nearly all agreed the president should sign the bill, except for the most anti-war lawmaker in the group.

REP. DENNIS KUCINICH, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Because every time you vote to fund the war, you're re-authorizing the war all over again.

CROWLEY: Questions ran the gamut from Iraq to abortion, from health care to what they would do if two U.S. cities were attacked by al Qaeda.

CLINTON: I think a president must move as swiftly as is prudent to retaliate.

CROWLEY: Answers differed in the details, but not the broad stroke. So it was a largely cordial gathering. Much of the heat came from the second tier trying to puncture the rarified atmosphere around the front runners.

GOV. BILL RICHARDSON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think the American people want candor. They don't want blow-dried candidates with perfection.

CROWLEY: As interesting moments go, the hands down winner was a little-known former senator from Alaska who more than once shook up the stage.

MIKE GRAVEL, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Who -- Barack, who's -- who are you wanting to nuke?

SEN. BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm not planning to nuke -- I'm not planning to nuke anybody right now, Mike. I promise.

GAVEL: Good. Good. We're safe then.

CROWLEY: In the end, no fopaus (ph), no unretrievable errors. The eight Democrats running for president cleared their first debate pretty much unscathed.

Candy Crowley, CNN, Orangeburg, South Carolina.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTS: And we can arrest easy, Barack Obama not planning on nuke anybody in the near future.

Coming up, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson joins us at 6:45 Eastern. Then Senator Joe Biden in our 7:00 hour.

Kiran.

CHETRY: Well, both the House and the Senate have spoke and they've passed that war spending bill that ties money for troops in Iraq to deadlines to bring them home. That bill, though, won't make it to the president's desk until next week and, as he said, it won't go any further than that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANA PERINO, DEPUTY WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The president will veto this legislation and he looks forward to working with congressional leaders to craft a bill that he can sign. It is amazing that legislation urgently needed to fund our troops took 80 days to make its way around the Capitol, but that's where we are.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: Well, Democrats might not deliver the bill to the president until Tuesday. That would be the fourth anniversary of his "mission accomplished" moment on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln.

At Brigham Young University in Utah, about 100 people protested Vice President Dick Cheney's BYU commencement speaker. They held signs denouncing the administration's war policy. The vice president was cheered during his speech. He steered clear of politics. He urged graduates not to let doubt get the best of them.

ROBERTS: Former CIA Director George Tenet is speaking out, criticizing the White House for misconstruing his words when he called the case for war in Iraq "a slam dunk." Tenet says it was a passing comment made well after the decision to go to war had been made. He says he was really talking about information that could be used to make the case that the CIA thought Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. When WMDs were not found in Iraq months later, Tenet says the comment was leaked and taken out of context. He told CBS' "60 Minutes," that ruined his reputation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GEORGE TENET, FORMER CIA DIRECTOR: I remember picking up the phone and calling Andy Card, who is a terrific human being and somebody I've always trusted.

SCOTT PELLEY, CBS "60 MINUTES": This is the president's chief of staff at the time.

TENET: The president's chief of staff. I called Andy and I said, you know, you know we believe -- I believed that he had weapons of mass destruction and now what's happened here is you've gone out and made me look stupid. It's the most despicable thing I've ever heard in my life. Men of honor don't to this.

PELLEY: Men of honor don't do this?

TENET: You don't do this. You don't throw people overboard. You don't do this -- give me -- you don't call somebody in. You work your heart out, you show up every day, you're going to throw somebody overboard just because it's a deflection? Is that honorable? It's not honorable to me. OK. And that's how it feel. Now how it happened and who orchestrated it and what happened, you know, at the end of the day, the only thing you have is trust and honor in this world. It's all you have. All you have is your reputation built on trust and your personal honor. When you don't have that anymore, well, you know, there you go, trust is broken.

PELLEY: Between you and the White House?

TENET: You bet.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Words there from George Tenet. And he is going to join Larry King on Monday for his first live interview, first prime time interview as well, about his new book coming out.

CHETRY: Well, for the first time, we have confirmation that humans may be involved in the pet food contamination. The California Department of Food and Agriculture is now confirming that humans have eaten pork from pigs that ate food possibly contaminated with melamine. It's a big confusing, but they say these pigs were slaughtered and the products made it to supermarkets. Forty-five people bought those products and they contacted about 24 of the customers. Twenty-two of them say they ate the possibly contaminated pork. It does not appear that anyone got sick. We're going to break it down a little later in the hour with CNN's medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen.

Jack Valenti, a former White House aide who became a powerful lobbyist for Hollywood, died yesterday at his home in Washington, D.C. Valenti died from complications after a stroke he suffered in March. Valenti will be best known for creating the movie rating system. Jack Valenti was 85.

ROBERTS: That's a shame, Kiran. I was talking with Dan Glickman, who's the new head of the MPAA, at the White House Correspondents Dinner about Jack on Saturday. He said he wasn't doing well. Obviously doing worse than even many people who knew him thought.

Today, that Chicago cop caught on tape beating a female bartender finds out what criminal charges he faces. Anthony Abbate is already stripped of his police powers for the off-duty beating in February. A bar surveillance tape showed the 260 pound Abbate punching and kicking the woman. Abbate could be charged with felony aggravated battery. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison.

Testimony from a former girlfriend in the Phil Spector murder trial in Los Angeles. Dorothy Melvin testified that she was terrified when the rock producer threatened her with a gun after a night of heavy drinking in 1993. Spector is charged with shooting actress Lana Clarkson in his mansion. He claims Clarkson committed suicide. That trial resumes on Monday.

CHETRY: To some, a kiss is just a kiss. So others, it's enough to set off an international incident. Richard Gere appeared on "The Daily Show" talking about this controversial smooch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JON STEWART, "THE DAILY SHOW": You kissed an actress at an AIDS benefit on the cheek and gave her a hug and now there's an arrest warrant.

RICHARD GERE, ACTOR: There is for her and for me. She's -- there's a -- we were talking about this before, but there's a very small, right wing, very conservative political party in India.

STEWART: We're talking about India.

GERE: In India. Yes.

STEWART: Oh, OK. Sorry. I just -- I didn't know what you were talking about. Forgive me.

GERE: And they are the moral police in India. They do this kind of thing quite often.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: All right. Well, there it is. The judge in New Delhi who issued that arrest warrant says that the two of them committed an obscene act. So Richard Gere, he's actually pretty clam about it. He's not the least bit worked up, John. He said he's sorry if he offended the sensibilities, but it was just a kiss.

ROBERTS: I mean it was just a kiss on the cheek. A rather energetic one though that included a dip, as well. But, obviously, they didn't read the local laws before they went for it there.

CHETRY: Yes. Remember, who was it, Adrien Brody, I think, at the Oscars, kissed Halle Berry that time on the lips and that set off a little bit of an uproar here. No one got arrested. Some thought it was a little inappropriate.

ROBERTS: And remember when Britney Spears and Madonna kissed.

CHETRY: Yes, that was another one.

ROBERTS: Hey, coming up, the smoke and flames of that raging Georgia wildfire are threatening another major highway this morning. An update on where that's all headed.

Plus, a Mississippi mayor takes a sledgehammer to a crack house. He could have gone to jail for 50 years. We'll tell you how his trial turned out.

And the first presidential debate history. Coming up, we'll talk to Democratic Candidate Bill Richardson.

You're watching AMERICAN MORNING. The most news in the morning is on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING.

Firefighters still struggling to keep a 12-day wildfire away from U.S. Route 1 near Waycross, Georgia. About 1,000 people have been asked to leave their homes. Sixty-one thousand acres burned so far and 18 homes destroyed. The fire believed to be sparked by a downed power line.

And some extreme weather in the Midwest. In LaPorte, Indiana, a tornado tossing a patrol car 150 feet. The lucky officer was able to walk away with only minor injuries. Tornadoes also hurt at least seven people in Tennessee. Several mobile homes and two houses destroyed. A lot of downed trees and power lines there as well. And some twisters also reported in Illinois.

Twelve past the hour now and we check in with Chad Myers to find out more about the extreme weather across the country.

Hi, Chad.

(WEATHER REPORT)

ROBERTS: This morning, after the Democrat's big debate, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson is up bright and early. And given the fact, governor, that you're still on New Mexico time, this is something really impressive. Thanks very much for being with us. How you doing this morning?

GOV. BILL RICHARDSON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm fine. I'm fine, John. I'm ready.

ROBERTS: Hey, what was your goal in the debate last night? And did you achieve it?

RICHARDSON: My goal was twofold. One, just to introduce myself to voters around the country, because I'm virtually not that well known. And secondly, I wanted to establish my clearest position on Iraq among all the Democratic candidates. That is that I favor a complete withdraw this calendar year with no residual troops and with diplomatic efforts to give Iraq a chance at reconstruction and a coalition government.

Those were my two objectives. And I felt I achieved them. I wish we had had more time. I wish I had been picked on to answer questions more. But I have no complaints.

ROBERTS: Hey, when you've got eight people on stage, it's difficult to get a lot of time, even when you've got 90 minutes for the whole thing.

But let me pin you down on this Iraq position that you've got. I mean, you are even more aggressive in this position than a lot of your Democratic colleagues are. But in staking out this position, are you ignoring the reality of what would happen on the ground this year if the U.S. were to pull out? General Petraeus was on The Hill yesterday saying, if we pull out now, the whole place is going to hell in a handbag.

RICHARDSON: Well, John, I was U.N. ambassador. Eighty percent of my time was spent in Iraq. I negotiated hostage releases from Saddam Hussein. So I know the region. I know what I'm talking about.

This is a civil war right now. This is a sectarian conflict right now. And what I believe the problem is, our troops, who have done a magnificent job, have become targets. And if we leave, we take away the terrorist propaganda tool that we are there in a situation where we are causing, I believe, a lot of attacks on our own people.

So, John, I believe the best step is to redeploy those troops in the gulf where we -- to deal with any contingencies, to redeploy them in Afghanistan where we do have al Qaeda and the Taliban and the terrorism emerging stronger. So that's my clearest position and I want to distinguish myself from the other candidates.

ROBERTS: But governor, I know that you know the area well and you dealt with it while Saddam Hussein was there, but it's fundamentally different now. And this civil war, as you say, between the Sunnis and the Shiites. If American forces were to leave, do you think that stability would suddenly break out or would these two sides really start going at each other?

RICHARDSON: Well, I can't guarantee any definitive success, but I believe with diplomacy, I would get, through U.S. leadership, the Sunni, the Shia, the Kurds, in a national reconciliation effort that would have a coalition government, divide oil revenues, find ways that specifically you have stability in three regions. That's the best shot we have. I'd invite Iran and Syria, Muslim countries, European countries, to be part of reconstruction, but Iraq has to take care of their own security.

This is a country with 200,000 man army. This is a country with elections under its belt. This is a country with oil revenues. It's not exactly helpless. And I believe the entire area could be dealt with in a measure of stability.

ROBERTS: Hey, governor, I just want to change gears for a second here. Alberto Gonzales, you hesitated a little bit in calling for him to resign. Last night during the debate, you explained why you hesitated. Let's take a quick listen to that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICHARDSON: I know the guy. Did it affect that he was an Hispanic in what I said? Yes, it did. And I said so. I think the American people want candor. They don't want blow-dried candidates with perfection. That was the reason I held back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Governor, that was a very candid answer. But in a forum like that, is that something that could come back to hurt you?

RICHARDSON: Maybe so. But I think the American people want the candidates to speak from their heart. I admitted that because I knew Gonzales, I liked the guy, he's Hispanic, he came up from nowhere, that I gave him maybe another two days before I'd call for his resignation. Now, the two days were based -- I wanted to hear his testimony. I wanted him to defend himself before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

He didn't do well. He wasn't candid. It was clear he had politicized the department. It was clear that he'd lost control of his department. So then I called for his resignation. But that's the way I am. I'm not a consultant-driven candidate. You know that. I'm going to just tell it like it is.

ROBERTS: Well, governor, we thank you for getting up early for us this morning. Really appreciate it. We look forward to seeing you at the CNN debate coming up in June. Appreciate your time.

RICHARDSON: I look -- thank you very much. I'll make every debate, every debate.

ROBERTS: I'm sure you will. Thanks. Appreciate it.

Kiran.

CHETRY: I admire his energy, for sure.

Well coming up, a mayor on trial for taking the law into his own hands and a sledgehammer to a suspected crack house.

And Wall Street is at it again. Another record high. How long will it last? Ali Velshi "Minding Your Business" ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: A jury of his peers has weighed in on the mayor of Mississippi's largest city. Jackson's mayor, Frank Melton, and two bodyguards accused of taking a sledgehammer to a suspected crack house. They're off the hook. But it turns out there were no drugs inside and maybe not a warrant either. AMERICAN MORNING's Sean Callebs was there for the verdict and he joins us from Jackson.

What exactly went on here, Sean?

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is something, by all accounts, if you talk to the people in this city. But really the fact that there's been so much attention to this, it's been like a cloud that's been hanging over this city for the past eight months while these charges went on before the trial started. It all began when the mayor decided to descend on a house that he called a crack house, tearing it up with a sledgehammer. Now the mayor called it a war on drugs, but the prosecution called it a crime.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CALLEBS, (voice over): As mayor of Jackson, Mississippi, 57- year-old Frank Melton cultivated a tough-guy image. He dressed the part in his war on drugs.

Then, in late August, Melton and two of his bodyguards laid waste to what they called a crack house, located in a rundown section of the city. These photos were taken with a cell phone the night the major led the raid on the house using sledgehammers. The district attorney said the gun-toting club-wielding mayor went too far.

FAYE PETERSON, JACKSON DISTRICT ATTORNEY: They went to that home without a search warrant, without probable cause, while this individual was watching TV in his home, and broke in and kicked in the door. Then they proceed to demolish his property under the pretext of looking for drugs that they never found.

CALLEBS: The D.A. charged Melton with a string of felonies that could have put him away for 50 years. The defense didn't deny the home was damaged, but said no crime was committed because the mayor was trying to clean up the city. After a three-day trial . . .

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not guilty.

CALLEBS: Melton and his bodyguards were acquitted of all charges.

DALE DANKS, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I think that he understands now that there's a process that he has to comply with. I will encourage him to comply with it.

CALLEBS: The prosecution says the ruling is a disappointment, adding she can only hope this eight-month ordeal will reign in the mayor.

PETERSON: A lot of things that he does, they do seem like things out of a movie. And you think that the law does not apply to you.

DANKS: It's got to humble anybody. And it's something I certainly wouldn't want to go through and I'm sure he doesn't want to go through it again. And that's why I think that he's learned his lesson.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CALLEBS: Yes, indeed, Melton's defense attorney said that the mayor left the courtroom yesterday a very humbled man. But this is the second time that Melton has run afoul of the law during his term. He's only been in office a couple of years right now. Perhaps the local newspaper summarized it best in a morning editorial saying "Melton, today, should thank his lucky stars."

Kiran.

CHETRY: John, I'm just curious, is he popular? Is he a popular mayor?

CALLEBS: He is popular. He is an individual who's been the head of a local TV station here for some time. And a lot of people really support what he is doing because there's no question Jackson is dealing with a huge influx in crime. But even his supporters kind of roll their eyes, why do you take a building and devastate it with a sledgehammer? Run through the legal channels if you want to attack something that you're convinced is a crack house.

CHETRY: All right. Well, I think he's learned his lesson after your report.

Thanks so much, Sean Callebs.

CALLEBS: We'll see.

CHETRY: Yes, we'll see, that's for sure.

Twenty-six past the hour now. Ali Velshi is "Minding Your Business."

You had a little trip down to Wall Street yesterday.

ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I did.

CHETRY: Just to make sure things stayed above 13,000.

VELSHI: Just to see what it was like. And they did. They did just by a smidgin. The problem with all-time highs is that even when it goes up a little bit, yes, another all-time high on the Dow yesterday.

Take a look at this. It was just up 15 points, but 13,105. And, you know, it's like a baseball stat, this is the first close ever above 13,100. Folks, it's just a number, but it's a trend you should look at.

The Nasdaq, that was also just up a smudge, but that's a new six- year high for the Nasdaq. But, look at that, the S&P 500, 500 stocks, wasn't up, although one point, not a big deal. These markets have been trending up because of earnings. Yesterday we had another one. It was after the bell, but it was Microsoft. You all are buying a lot of software. Microsoft quarterly profit was up 65 percent. Two-thirds over the same quarter last year. Why? Because of Vista.

So we've had Apple this week. We've had Microsoft. I'm going to come back and tell you about Exxon Mobil. We've got Chevron today. Its earnings time and the companies of America are doing well because you folks keep on shopping and buying things.

So while we talk about housing, we talk about gas prices, fundamentally, Americans are not spooked, they're not worried that this is going to turn the wrong direction. Americans are -- you know, talk about a sledgehammer, that's the only thing that's going to stop the American shopper. Nothing stops the American shopper.

The thing that should have, back in September 11, 2001, they thought that was going to crash it. No. That was one of the busiest holiday season in years because consumers like to shop in America. As long as money is cheap, interest rates are low, they keep shopping. And that's what these earnings are showing.

CHETRY: All right. Good news.

VELSHI: I'll be back with more later.

CHETRY: Ali Velshi, thank you.

ROBERTS: The top stories of the morning are coming up next.

Signs that humans may be at risk in the growing pet food investigation.

Plus, if you could prevent your child from getting cancer even before he or she is born, should you be allowed to do it? Couples in a fight that crosses medical and possibly ethical lines.

And more extreme weather to tell you about. Heavy rain, new flooding, this time in the Northeast, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. The most news in the morning is on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Onward to '08. The first big debate for the Democrats hoping to be president. So, did it change any minds? We have full coverage from the best political team on television on this AMERICAN MORNING.

And it is Friday, April 27th.

I'm Kiran Cheery, here in New York.

ROBERTS: And I'm John Roberts in Washington, D.C., where it's a big day. Lots of stuff to tell you about. And stories on our radar this morning. Extreme weather in the Northeast right now. Lots of heavy rain, flooding, new pictures coming in. We'll check in with Chad Myers at the severe weather center to find out if that's all gone for the day or if there's more in store.

CHETRY: Yes, he said 10 different tornadoes spotted yesterday.

ROBERTS: It's incredible.

CHETRY: A tough day.

Well, if you have a family history of cancer, a genetic illness, and you could prevent your unborn baby from getting it, would you do it? It's a very real debate right now. They can screen embryos for cancer, and they're asking the question, does it pave the way for designer babies in the future?

We're going to be talking with an ethicist about that a little later.

ROBERTS: And some confusion for "American Idol" fans. Remember the other night they had that benefit, that fundraiser? Well, apparently, a wrong number was given out or some wires got crossed somewhere. Some calls not making it to the show and to the place where they were supposed to go.

They made it to a private home. As you can imagine, they got thousands and thousands of phone calls. We'll tell you how it all happened.

CHETRY: Can you imagine being that couple sitting at home and the phone's ringing off the hook for "American Idol"?

ROBERTS: You would be like that guy, Ryan Fitzgerald, who put his name out there on YouTube saying, call me, call me, call me.

CHETRY: Right.

ROBERTS: No, but he wanted people to call.

CHETRY: He did.

ROBERTS: Hey, if you've got anything that you want to know about the news, the stories we cover, or how we cover them, we want to hear from you. "Ask AM" is what we call it.

E-mail us. Send us your questions or suggestions at AM@CNN.com. We'll be picking some of them, finding out more, and we'll give you the answers as we go along here on this AMERICAN MORNING.

(NEWSBREAK)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Well, round one is over for the Democrats. The first of many presidential debates took place last night. Eight Democratic candidates squared off at South Carolina State University. Much of the time was spent talking Iraq.

Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON (D-NY), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: How do we try to persuade or require this president to change course? He is stubbornly refusing to listen to the will of the American people.

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Now, if the president is not going to sign the bill that has been sent to him, then what we have to do is gather up 16 votes in order to override his veto.

GOV. BILL RICHARDSON (D-NM), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This war is a disaster. We must end this war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: Well, "TIME" magazine's Karen Tumulty was at the debate, and she joins us now from Columbia, South Carolina, this morning.

Hi Karen. Good to see you.

KAREN TUMULTY, "TIME" MAGAZINE: Hi, Kiran.

CHETRY: Well, it was pretty tame last night. That's what they're saying, this debate. Did anyone, in your opinion, shine above the others?

TUMULTY: You know, absolutely not. I think the top three contenders in the race, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, basically went on stage not wanting to make any mistakes.

The format was very, very limited. Each candidate had 60 seconds to make their answers. They were not allowed to engage with each other. And the real problem, quite frankly, is that there were eight of them up there. And it's really difficult for anybody to get beyond the sound bites and the slogans in that sort of setting.

I think there was a second tier of candidates, Bill Richardson, who you just talked to a few minutes ago, senators Joe Biden and Chris Dodd. These are the candidates who really need sort of a breakout moment, and none of them got that, either.

CHETRY: Yes. And the other interesting thing you mentioned, A, is that these types of debates at the beginning give us a chance to see even the long-shot candidates who are often ignored in the day-to- day coverage. So last night it was Mike Gravel of Alaska.

Let's take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE GRAVEL (D), FMR. SENATOR: Oh, Joe, I'll include you, too. You have a certain arrogance. Who the hell are we going to nuke? Tell me, Barack, who is -- who do you want to nuke?

OBAMA: I'm not planning to nuke anybody right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: So he was sort of a flame thrower, if you will. What impact do those types of candidates make on the debates?

TUMULTY: Yes, I know. A few times last night it felt like you were in the middle of that movie "Network" and he was Howard Beale, you know, mad as hell and he's not going to take it anymore.

You know, I think that candidates like that do not really help debates, and I think that that becomes a real problem, because they become sort of the entertainment value. And, you know, it's people who not only don't have a shot, but don't have any particular ideas or plans for the issues that they can even sort of throw into the mix. So I really do think that the -- both parties would be well served if they would kind of keep it to the candidates who are in the race for sort of serious reasons.

CHETRY: Well, I'm sure Dennis Kucinich would take issue with what you said, because they're saying...

TUMULTY: Well...

CHETRY: ... their argument is the reason they can't move up and move ahead in the polls is because no one will listen to us.

TUMULTY: Well, could I say, I do not include Dennis Kucinich in that group, because, in fact, Dennis Kucinich has a point of view that he wants to get out there, he has a plan. He's -- for instance, at one point, one interesting point last night, was when Dennis Kucinich was asked about his proposal that Vice President Cheney be impeached.

CHETRY: Right.

TUMULTY: And, you know, it was a chance for the moderator to sort of get everybody else on the record that they don't agree with that.

CHETRY: I got you.

Now, you wrote an article about Hillary Clinton having to do some adjusting to counter for the surprise momentum of Barack Obama. What are her biggest vulnerabilities, and what is she changing?

TUMULTY: Well, she -- one thing, her campaign was absolutely shocked at Barack Obama's first quarter fundraising numbers, and not just the amount of money he collected in small checks and over the Internet. But what he was collecting from big donors, the people who have been really the Clintons' base for 15 years.

So she has really stepped up her pace of fundraising and trying to sort of go after a lot of her own donors and get them back. But she has some bigger problems there, as well.

The chief one being what the Obama people are calling the enthusiasm gap. There's a lot of excitement around his campaign, there's a lot of excitement around John Edwards' campaign. But right now, Hillary Clinton's negatives in the latest Gallup poll are up to 52 percent. She has got to do something to get people really enthusiastic about her candidacy, even as she remains the frontrunner.

CHETRY: Right, because that's about 20 percent higher than the other two at this point -- Obama, as well as John Edwards.

Karen Tumulty, thanks so much for being with us today.

TUMULTY: Thank you very much.

CHETRY: And coming up in just a few minutes, we are going to talk with another one of the candidates who debated last night, Senator Joe Biden of Delaware.

ROBERTS: Forty-seven minutes how now after the hour. Chad Myers in the weather center down there in Atlanta.

(WEATHER REPORT)

ROBERTS: Parents trying to protect their unborn children from cancer, but could it lead to designer babies? The ethical debate ahead.

Stay with us on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Fifty-one minutes after the hour. As you can expect, the blogs are just buzzing this morning about last night's debates, the highlights, the lowlights, of course the winners and losers.

CNN's Jacki Schechner with us now.

What have you got for us in the blogs this morning?

JACKI SCHECHNER, CNN INTERNET REPORTER: Do you want to push the button here? This is the unofficial, unscientific Daily Kos poll, who won the debate.

ROBERTS: Oh, who won the debate. There we go.

SCHECHNER: Push the results button. There you go. You'll see how that pans out.

And they've got Edwards in at 19 percent.

ROBERTS: Right.

SCHECHNER: Obama came in second, with 18 percent. And Clinton, 12 percent. Now, here's what's interesting. Net roots don't like Clinton. In all of these polls it comes into, "I have no idea," Clinton falls below that. So interesting that she came through last night.

There was a poll on Daily Kos yesterday, which is the top liberal blog, that had "Who are you rooting for?" And Edwards was first. So it's not surprising he came out ahead, but...

ROBERTS: Yes, well, they do like Edwards, too, because they think he represents a little more liberal views than Barack Obama does...

SCHECHNER: Yes, definitely.

ROBERTS: ... who still somewhat is an unfinished story.

SCHECHNER: But gaining steam online, which is actually kind of interesting. They say he may have a little bit of the Howard Dean effect online.

So we went over to Daily Kos for the first one. MyDD another top liberal blog. This was all over the place -- who won, who lost.

In the loser column, they had Edwards. You can see that right there. But then there were other comments that said that Edwards came in first. So, a lot of the big bloggers didn't weigh in themselves.

ROBERTS: Right.

SCHECHNER: What they did is leave it over for comments, and people could weigh in as it went along. So -- and I just want to bring up real quickly, a lot of people just thought the whole thing was god-awful boring, and they thought that Mike Gravel was the highlight with all of his sort of antics and...

ROBERTS: He was sort of the William Stockdale of this debate.

SCHECHNER: That's what they were -- Admiral Stockdale, yes, absolutely.

ROBERTS: Who am I and what am I doing here? Yes.

SCHECHNER: But it was interesting. And it was entertaining in that regard.

ROBERTS: All right. Well, we'll keep checking back with you...

SCHECHNER: Sure, please do.

ROBERTS: ... to see if the comments change, winners and losers. Great.

SCHECHNER: We'll check in with the conservatives in the next hour, too.

ROBERTS: Terrific. Looking forward to that. Thanks, Jacki.

CHETRY: If you had a chance to prevent cancer in your child before that child was born, would you do it? And why would some people think it's not a good idea?

Phil Black has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Two British couples have asked the country's embryo watchdog agency for permission to undergo a controversial screening. The procedure involves extracting a single cell to screen embryos for a defective gene that can increase the chances of breast cancer in women by as much as 80 percent.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're just offering this purely for a very serious condition. Remember, cancer is a killer.

BLACK: In both cases, one prospective parent carries the cancer gene and has watched generations of women in the family die from breast cancer. Dr. Sahal (ph) says the screening would be a world first and, he says, the right thing to do.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They have to go, A, with the stress of the idea that they might develop cancer, and B, with the anxiety that they will have a 50-50 chance of transmitting this to their children.

BLACK: But critics argue that embryonic screening is a slippery slope and will lead to designer babies, where couples will test for everything, including eye color, sex, I.Q., even athleticism.

DR. PETER SAUNDERS, CHRISTIAN MEDICAL FELLOWSHIP: The bar is being lowered all the time, and we're seeing this technology being used to screen out embryos for increasingly trivial conditions.

BLACK (on camera): The scientist who developed this procedure rejects the expression "designer babies" as unhelpful and emotive. They say there's a big difference between screening embryos for eye color and wiping out a serious disease from a family line.

(voice over): The critics point out that advances in medicine have led to better treatments of serious disease and in some case, cures.

SAUNDERS: In 30 to 40 years, breast cancer may well be a curable condition. A lot of breast cancer is treatable now.

BLACK: British authorities have agreed to the screening in principal, which each request to be assessed individually. The two British couples should have an answer in about three months.

Phil Black, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE) ROBERTS: Well, coming up here on AMERICAN MORNING, the first Democratic presidential debate is over. We'll hear from the campaigns the morning after.

Plus, toxic meals. An alarming report that the chemical poisoning your pet's food may have made its way into the human food chain.

You're watching AMERICAN MORNING. The most news in the morning is on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Well, it is now two minutes before the top of the hour, and our Ali Velshi is "Minding Your Business".

Some problems for Ford Motors.

ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. You know, all of these earnings news, you know, it kind of gets varied. But Ford came out with its earnings yesterday morning, and it lost money. It lost more than a quarter billion dollars in the first three months of this year, but that was a big improvement over the more than a billion dollars it lost in the same three months of last year.

The company is doing better, but a lot of it is restructuring. It's trimming its losses, but it's not making money in its North American auto unit.

The biggest-selling vehicle in North America remains the F Series truck. But that continues to drop. Ford is making money overseas in its premier automotive group, those European cars it owns, and in its luxury automakers.

Nissan saying the same thing. America, which is the biggest auto market in the world, continues to sink. It continues to have problems.

So, even though we're seeing some improvement on Ford, it joins the other two Detroit automakers as still being in a lost situation. Not a bright future for American automakers right now.

We'll have more on that and other business stories coming up.

And the next hour of AMERICAN MORNING begins right now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTS (voice over): Eight is enough. Did any of the Democrats connect in their crowded debate?

RICHARDSON: I wish I'd been picked on to answer questions more.

ROBERTS: Plus, not just pets anymore. People now affected in a growing investigation of contaminated food on this AMERICAN MORNING.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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