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American Morning
Oil's Surge; Pakistan Crisis; Overweight Benefits? Interview with Ron Paul
Aired November 07, 2007 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: A look now at a story coming up on our next half hour that you just can't miss. There's a new rock star on the Internet, 70-something and he got the Midas touch.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, we're talking about Presidential hopeful, Ron Paul. He set a new fundraising record. Why is he such a political rock star? Well, we're going to find out.
He's going to join us live. He's also going to talk about how he can translate this type of Internet appeal into votes. Coming up, the next hour of AMERICAN MORNING starts right now.
ROBERTS: Sky high. Oil closes in on triple digits. How it's costing you. Filling up. Heating the house. And your holiday vacation.
Ballot jackpot, the frontrunner. The $4 million man and the long shot. We're one on one with three candidates for president.
Plus, fat chance. The surprising new study igniting a big debate. Is being overweight so bad for you after all? On this AMERICAN MORNING.
ROBERTS: Good morning. Welcome back and thanks for joining us on this Wednesday, the 7th of November. I'm John Roberts.
CHETRY: And I'm Kiran Chetry. Glad you're with us. We have some important news for your money this morning. Oil prices skyrocketing and that could affect literally everything, from your gas bill to the cost of groceries to flying home for the holidays.
Crude shattered another record in overnight trading, peaking at more than $98 a barrel. And many are asking this morning, why now? Analysts are talking about the demand increasing, of course, as supplies as well as temperatures drop. And now they're saying, it could hit $100 a barrel at almost any hour -- John?
ROBERTS: We're covering the story from every angle this morning. Ali Velshi is watching oil prices for us right now. Alina Cho has got the chilling effect on your upcoming holiday travel plans. Gerri Willis at a gas station in New York City with the impact on your family budget. And Veronica De La Cruz searching for relief, if she can find it online.
Let's begin with Ali Velshi, who's got the latest numbers for us at the business update desk. Good morning, Ali. ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John. On my barrel is the highest price of oil has ever reached. It is a number that was set early this morning, $98.62 in electronic trading.
As we are looking at oil trade right now, it's down a little bit from there. It's still almost $98, and the trading on the floor of the NYMEX has not begun yet. It's going to start in about two hours. I'm going to head down there for that.
At this point, we are waiting for a big report from the U.S. government, a weekly report about oil supplies. Now, this oil rush in the last couple of days has been about the fact that analysts expect that we are not going to have enough oil if we have a cold snap. And the U.S. is going to have to buy more oil import, even more oil causing those prices to go up.
At 10:30 Eastern this morning, we will actually get that report. And depending on whether those numbers are what analysts expect or worse, we may see that surge to $100 a barrel. That is going to have an impact, as Kiran mentioned on everything that you buy, from gasoline to travel to home heating, to things that might even surprise you. We'll be on that story all day -- John.
ROBERTS: All right. Looking forward to it. Ali, thanks very much.
So how will surging oil prices impact your holiday travel plans? Our Alina Cho is looking into this this morning for us.
Good morning, Alina.
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, John, good morning to you. The major airlines led by American have put into place a $20 fare hike on round trip tickets. Now, this may not sound like a lot, but this is the seventh fare hike since Labor Day and the biggest in terms of dollars. So you could be paying a lot more for your holiday travel this year.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, it does bother me, and it hurts in the wallet. But I've got to get to my meetings, and I've got to do my business.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, it's too bad that gas is going up so much. You know, it's too high.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHO: So they don't really like it, but if you got to go, you got to go. Those are some passengers, by the way, that we spoke to just this morning at La Guardia Airport. And to be clear, the airlines do say the recent run-up is a reflection in the rise in oil prices. The price of jet fuel is linked to the price of oil, and jet fuel is the biggest expense for airlines. Now, just for fun, we looked up some round trip fares on American Airlines yesterday. It was one week advance purchase. Here's what we found.
New York's La Guardia to Los Angeles, $639. La Guardia to Miami $354 and to Chicago $423. So you will be paying more this holiday season if you're flying. Much of this does have to do with the rise in oil prices, but it's also an issue of supply and demand, John.
Planes are full these days as you well know. The airlines know it, and they're charging more in part because they can.
ROBERTS: All right. Alina Cho for us this morning with that. Alina, thanks.
CHO: You bet.
ROBERTS: Kiran?
CHETRY: Well, it's Election Day 2007, at least, for some. The results this morning from a couple of races. The Republicans held on to one governorship and lost out on another.
Republican Governor Haley Barber of Mississippi held on, but Democratic challenger Steve Beshear easily knocked off scandal-plagued incumbent Ernie Fletcher in Kentucky.
Voters also chose new mayors. For Pittsburgh, the winner, Luke Ravenstahl. He is still -- remains the mayor. And Sheila Dixon becomes Baltimore's first black woman elected mayor. Michael Nutter, the new mayor elect of Philadelphia, promising to stop gun violence. And in Houston, Bill White easily won re-election.
There are 15,000 people on the terror watch list who say they shouldn't be there and they want off of that list. "USA Today" reporting that some of them are senior citizens, even toddlers. They just happen to have the same names as suspected terrorists.
There are more than 755,000 names total on the list, and the government can't keep up with the requests. They get about 2,000 a month to clear the names.
Illinois State investigators went back for a second time to the home of a missing mother. Twenty-three year old Stacy Peterson vanished ten days ago. Her husband, Drew Peterson, is a Bolingbrook, Illinois, police sergeant.
Investigators reportedly also want to talk to children from his previous marriage. Peterson's third wife drowned three years ago. He claims that Stacy, his current wife, took off with another man. Stacy's aunt says she would never do that. It doesn't add up because she wouldn't leave her two young children.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CANDACE AIKEN, STACY PETERSON'S AUNT: She would not leave her babies that she was so concerned. That's why she was trying to stay together for the family. And if she was going to get out, she was trying to figure out how to take the children.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: A group of about 50 volunteers searched for Stacy Tuesday. They come up -- they came up empty. They're going to be searching some more spots again today.
An increasing concern this morning about a brewing showdown in Pakistan. Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto is saying that she will go ahead with a planned rally on Friday to protest the military crackdown there. She's encouraging supporters to do the same and challenging western nations to show some political muscle in dealing with President Musharraf.
Bhutto says that hundreds of people from her political party have already been arrested.
ROBERTS: The instability in Pakistan could severely hurt the Bush administration's effort to fight the war on terror. Groups like Al Qaeda and the Taliban are expected to try to take advantage of the situation there. So what, if anything, can the U.S. do about it?
Our Kelli Arena joins us now live from Washington with some insights. Good morning, Kelli.
KELLI ARENA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John. You know, experts say that this is really going to fundamentally undermine the efforts against Al Qaeda. As you know, John, even before Musharraf imposed emergency rule, Al Qaeda was gaining strength in those tribal areas of Pakistan, building what was called a virtual safe haven to train for and plot attacks.
And Al Qaeda has publicly stated it seeks to overthrow Musharraf. Suicide bombers killed at least 600 people in Pakistan's urban areas. That was all before this situation, and this is only expected to make it even worse as Al Qaeda tries to capitalize.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Musharraf and the military will now have a priority of keeping order throughout the country, part of which is combating Al Qaeda. But at the same time, they're going to have so many things on their plate. Their hands are going to be so full, they will be distracted at times that Al Qaeda will look for opportunities to exploit.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ARENA: And so is opportunity. As you heard, Bhutto is now calling for a big demonstration, could be an ideal target for Al Qaeda.
Terrorist experts also expect another message from the terrorist group, and all was saying Musharraf's a failure, and they wouldn't be surprised to see a call for foreign fighters to come to Pakistan to add to this chaos. So while all that's going on, Al Qaeda continues in relative peace, obviously not a good scenario, John.
ROBERTS: All right. Kelli Arena for us this morning in Washington with that latest update. Kelli, thanks very much -- Kiran.
CHETRY: Rob Marciano is at our weather update desk tracking some extreme weather. It's all about the lake effect blue. When we look at the pictures, a bunch of snow fell in parts of the Midwest and some of the Great Lakes area, 12 inches. In where, Michigan?
ROB MARCIANO, METEOROLOGIST: Yes, in spots of Michigan, up to 20 inches of snow. Western New York, up to five inches. And eastern and western Pennsylvania as well, up to five inches of snow. So there are some of your -- there's snow itself. On the playgrounds, kids certainly getting fired up.
This is the time of year, by the way, where it does begin to fall. Last year, we had lake effect snows fall as early as October, so getting into that time of year.
All right. And power lines, obviously, an issue as well. Let's go over the snowfall totals. You mentioned that Michigan -- Champion, Michigan, there 12 inches. Stockton, 5.5. Erie, PA, five inches. Definitely cold enough for snow across much of the northeast, but moisture is limited with this system.
You can kind of see the radar is not showing a whole lot popping up, but there is, you know, lake effect snow warning in effect for a couple of counties just to the west or extreme western parts of New York, Jamestown in particular. And snow advisories from Tug Hill Plateau especially up I-81.
What you're seeing today, that's unusual -- this cold front that has driven all the way down to Miami. Tomorrow morning or tomorrow afternoon, they're going to get to 78 degrees so that's down parka you've got, Kiran. You know, folks in southeast may want it with a high temperature of only 78 degrees.
We'll talk more about weather in about half an hour. See you then.
CHETRY: All right. Thanks, Rob. John?
ROBERTS: The startling new study to tell you about. After hearing day after day about America's obesity epidemic, now word that being overweight may not be so bad after all. I know. It's stunning, isn't it?
CNN's chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta here with us to score all of this out.
This runs countered up everything that we've heard.
SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEFMEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and it's going to be one of the more controversial studies that people are going to talk about this week. We want to talk about it as well. Let me say a couple of things.
First of all, language absolutely matters here. So you got to really look at what they're saying. And also, this sort of builds on growing body of evidence that's been out there for some time, looking specifically at obesity versus overweight and trying to figure out just how much of a problem they are for your long-term health in the first place.
First of all, let's take a look at overweight people. All research now agrees that in terms of diabetes and kidney disease, it does seem to increase your risk. But no increased risk, again, with being overweight when it comes to heart disease or cancer. That's interesting.
Take a look at that. That's very important. Decrease was actually from Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Lung disease, that's with being overweight. Now with being obese, which obviously means even more weight, there does seem to be an increased risk of heart disease. There does seem to be an increased risk of dying from diabetes and kidney disease, but no increased risk of dying from some cancers.
So cancer, John, just falls off the map. It doesn't seem to be an increased risk according to this study from either overweight or obesity.
ROBERTS: The study also found that carrying a few extra pounds could actually protect you against some diseases. How is that?
GUPTA: Well, it's interesting, and you're right. Alzheimer's is one of them, Parkinson's, some pulmonary diseases. I think there's two things, and I read the whole study, talked to some of the researchers. Two things seem to be at play.
First of all, how do we define overweight? Some people might have a lot more muscle and bone mass. That actually could qualify them as overweight when in fact they're really not. They're not carrying around as much fat. That's one thing.
The second thing is, is there something about a natural reserve that your body actually has from carrying around a little bit of excess weight? The researchers certainly point to that as a possibility. Could it help you fend off the illness? If you got particularly ill, could a little bit of weight actually help in this case?
ROBERTS: Wow. Hey, we should mention, you had your own little -- it's not exactly illness, but faux pas here. What have you got in your --
GUPTA: Well, yes. This is a -- this is a cast. I actually fell and broke my hand here.
ROBERTS: This was from the fires in California?
GUPTA: Yes, I was covering the fires with you and Kiran out there. And I fell down a flight of stairs and I have a couple of pins sticking out here.
Maybe over the next couple of weeks, I'll show you some of that and show you some of the x-rays if it doesn't make you too squeamish.
ROBERTS: Yes. I look forward to that. Sanjay, it's good to have you back.
GUPTA: Thanks.
ROBERTS: All right. Kiran?
CHETRY: All right. Well, a new era of goodwill in U.S./France relations. President Bush hosted France's President Nicolas Sarkozy at a White House dinner last night. Today, they do some sightseeing at Mount Vernon, and Sarkozy addresses a joint meeting of Congress.
He also told the dinner crowd that he wished to reconquer the heart of America. Relations with France have been strained since the French opposed the Iraq war.
And strained relations in the TV world topping your "Quick Hits" now. The writers' strike shutting down production of ABC's "Desperate Housewives." The show will run out of new episodes before Christmas. "Housewives" star, Eva Longoria, brought pizza to the striking writers in Los Angeles yesterday. At least six primetime sitcoms will also be closing down.
And there's always the movies, though. Jerry Seinfeld's "Bee Movie" now being stung with a lawsuit.
Beeceuticals Cosmetics uses organic honey in its makeup and skin products. And it claims that the movie stole its slogans "Give bees a chance." The company has not decided how much to sue for in damages.
And he is a new media rock star, raising $4 million in just one day on the Web. So what will it mean for the White House hopes of Congressman Ron Paul, and why are so many people excited about his campaign?
And when will that register in the polls? A lot of questions we have this morning for our candidate. Ron Paul will be joining us ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Some of the shots you've got to see in your "Quick Hits" now, a moon shot that you rarely see, rising over the blue glow of earth's atmosphere. It was captured by a crew member on board the International Space Station, while the shuttle "Discovery" was docked there. Now, that's something we see in "Star Trek."
Is it a $300 million mistake? MIT is suing architect Frank Gehry over what it says are design flaws, mold and lab at the university's Stata Center. Gehry once described it as a bunch of drunk robots who got together for a party. The 400,000 square foot building houses labs, classrooms and offices. MIT paid $15 million to have Gary design it. So far, no comment from him about the problems of the design.
A dessert fit for a couple of presidents. This was served at the White House in honor of French President Nicolas Sarkozy's visit to Washington. The cake honors the 250th birthday of French stateman, Marquis de Lafayette.
It was aptly named, "Lafayette's legacy." He came to America to support the revolution. He befriended General Washington, was with him at Valley Forge. And, of course, the park across the street from the White House is named after Lafayette -- Kiran.
CHETRY: Thanks, John. Well, he may not register high in the polls, but Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul is having a seismic effect online. In fact in just 24 hours this past Monday, his campaign raked in a record $4.2 million, most of it gathered through a grassroots push on the web.
Texas Congressman Ron Paul joins me now live from the campaign trail in Manchester, New Hampshire. Great to have you with us, Congressman.
REP. RON PAUL (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Thank you. Nice to be with you.
CHETRY: Well, so your pockets are quite a bit fuller this week, and you're on a fundraising roll. The big question is, how do you translate that money and a lot of the buzz you've been getting into votes?
PAUL: Well, at least we have cash in the bank now, and we can start advertising and do some of the conventional things that you need to do to reach a lot of voters. We will be buying television and getting on the radio and doing I-direct mail and all the things that we do. But quite frankly, the campaign is almost like it's on autopilot just as the fundraising has been.
People are spreading the message through the Internet and by word of mouth, and that's where the real strength of the campaign is coming from.
CHETRY: In fact, were you surprised when you guys hit those numbers? I mean, you shattered one record, I believe, and then for online fundraising. And just within a few hours, you shattered the record for a 24-hour period at 37,000 people donating. Did those numbers take you by surprise?
PAUL: Well, yes, it's very surprising and it's very pleasing. I think I was flying up on the airplane from Houston while that was going on. I think on the trip, the campaign raised about $1.5 million, and I didn't make one single phone call.
I have never made a phone call for a fundraising, and these are just individuals who are speaking out with their pocketbooks, and it just came in spontaneously. So it is rather surprising but very pleasing.
CHETRY: You've been painted as this ideal mix and match candidate for people who don't necessarily follow in the strict party platforms. But can you be a force without the traditional mainstream Republican base that has proven so vital in past elections?
PAUL: Well, what I'm trying to do is revive that base. That base has been lost and they're disenchanted. Then I left the Republican Party.
I mean, why isn't limited government, balanced budgets, a strong national defense without meddling in the affairs of other people, sound money, and all of these things are very traditionally Republican. So I would say that I'm just trying to restore these fundamental beliefs that we used to have. And evidently, there's a lot of people that would like to see that done.
CHETRY: How do you take those beliefs and put them into practice? For example, you've gotten a lot of support because of your anti-war stance, your belief that we should pull out of Iraq. But how would you do that in practicality and make that work at the point we're in now?
PAUL: Well, one thing we know is what we're doing now isn't working. You know, this is our worst year for Americans killed in Iraq. So the surge was an absolute failure, and now, we're no closer to a peaceful country --
(CROSSTALK)
CHETRY: We've seen for the past three months, those numbers actually dramatically decline. At the beginning of the year, we did have a spike in U.S. troops but since then it has declined.
PAUL: Yes. Yes, but the surge has been going on, you know, for more months than that and we have to look at, over the year. But the odds of all of a sudden, us coming up with a unified, Democratic country in Iraq is unbelievable.
When you look at the problems that we have, for the fighting that is occurring between the Kurds and the Turks, and what's happening in Pakistan now, the more we get involved, the more we dictate to others, the greater the incentive is for the Jihadists to grow in numbers, and the greater we are a threat.
And we have to realize, it's our foreign policy that is deeply flawed, and we need to go back to our roots and we need to mind our own business. We need to have free trade and we need to have friendship with these countries, but we don't need to have an empower. We're going broke.
The dollar is on its ropes. The end of an empire always comes when the currency is destroyed. And today, even this very moment, the dollar is crashing on the international exchange market.
CHETRY: I want to ask you about that, as it relates to gas prices now above $3 a gallon. Crude peaking above at $98, as you mentioned, the devalued dollar.
As president, how would you solve what seems to be this growing crisis when it comes to gasoline?
PAUL: You have to stop the spending. You stop the spending by changing the foreign policy and bringing our troops home and save hundreds of billions of dollars and restore confidence in the dollar. You can't have a current account deficit of $800 billion a year and think the currency is going to hold up.
The Chinese, right now, are bringing us to, bringing us down not with a weapon, but the weapon of the dollar, because we've created too many of them. You have to stop the spending. You have to balance the budget. You have to live within our means. And if we don't, the currency is going to be destroyed and all of our domestic programs are going to be threatened.
It's a very, very, serious problem. And if people have to wake up, of course, I think the people are waking up. I think the people need to wake up Washington. Washington is sound asleep about this dollar, and understanding about how the financial system works.
CHETRY: Representative Ron Paul from Texas, Republican presidential candidate, thanks for your time this morning.
PAUL: Thank you very much.
ROBERTS: Awful lot of what he says makes a lot of sense, doesn't it?
Oil prices have shattered another record and they're now flirting with $100 a barrel for the first time in history. Crude prices peaked above $98 in overnight trading that's having an immediate impact on gas prices, air fare, and home heating costs.
So we want to know what you think. How will high gas prices change your habits? Will you: (A) Drive less (B) Buy Less -- you know, overall, not just gas. Drive a more fuel-efficient car or will your habits not change at all? Cast your vote at CNN.com/AM.
Right now, 40 percent of people say that they'll drive less. Thirty-six percent say they'll buy less. Twelve percent say they'll drive a more fuel-efficient car, and the same number say that their habits aren't going to change at all. We'll continue to tally the votes throughout the morning and bring you the results here.
Some big business news just in to CNN. This is a whopper. General Motors just posting a $39 billion loss in the third quarter. That's right. I mean, it makes you swallow hard, $39 billion.
Of course, it raises big questions for GM's restructuring plans. Our Ali Velshi pouring over these numbers, which amount to a little more of about $68 a share compared to 26 cents a share in the third quarter. So we're going to have an update on that coming up.
Simulating America under attack. The missile defense system put through its most difficult test yet. Was it a hit? That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Now checking out the New York tabloids today, it was all that's going on in the world. They were interested in the Beatles. New York tabloids talking about Paul McCartney and apparently his new gal pal.
Here they go. They can't resist the Beatles' puns "Tryst and Shout." Ticket to Ride. There you see it.
Ticket to ride because, why? I think she's a -- oh, she's an MTA, Metro Transit Authority board member.
ROBERTS: There you go. The paper say that Paul's new love is a woman named Nancy Shavel who's separated from her husband, a prominent attorney. Of course, he's in the midst of this messy divorce with Heather Mills but looks like he's got a sympathetic shoulder to lean on...
CHETRY: Yes.
ROBERTS: ... and walk the beach with her.
CHETRY: How about that.
ROBERTS: Sir Paul! Well, there you go.
Here's a look at a story coming up in the next half hour that you can't miss. A 2-year-old girl born with four arms and four legs, revered by some of her Indian villagers as a reincarnation of a Hindu goddess. They actually named her Lakshmi, which is the name of the goddess.
CHETRY: That's right. But, you know, of course, living a life that way would have been very difficult, which is why her parents wanted to help her out with that. And, boy, she came through with flying colors.
A round-the-clock surgery, I think some 40 hours of operating in all to remove the extra arms and legs. Doctors say they're elated at her progress.
And coming up a bit later, Sanjay Gupta is going to share some of the details of that surgery, being called historic surgery.
ROBERTS: It was just incredible. We'll have that in the day's headlines when AMERICAN MORNING returns.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN, ANCHOR: Some news just in this morning to CNN, U.S. automaker GM posting a net loss, totaling billions of dollars. Welcome back. It's Wednesday, November 7th. I'm Kiran Chetry. JOHN ROBERTS, CNN, ANCHOR: And I'm John Roberts. Good morning to you. Our Ali Velshi joins us with more on that and Ali, this isn't just a loss, this is a whopper.
ALI VELSHI, "MINDING YOUR BUSINESS": It's a whopper. $39 billion from the world's biggest automaker. Now, here's how it works. The actual money they lost in the quarter in real money is $1.6 billion, about $2.80 a share but all those losses that GM has had over the years had mounted in tax credits, in other words if they earned money they would get those tax credits to make up for the losses that they had. $39 billion. Well, now what it looks like is they're not going to be able to make the money in the next few years to be able to take advantage of those credits. They were counting on those credits and now GM is saying we're not counting on them. Take that $39 billion off the books. It's a write down; we're not going to get that money. That's got investors very worried, it turned the stock down in pre-market trading and it's got the Dow futures down even further than they were earlier today.
ROBERTS: So, this is a loss of what, $68 a share compared with 26 cents a share in the third quarter of last year?
VELSHI: Yes. And again, I shouldn't make it clear. It's an accounting difference, but the bottom line is this is money that GM is not going to get. They're saying we're not going to make this money, take it off the books. It's a big issue.
ROBERTS: Wow. All right, well keep watching that for us this morning. Ali Velshi.
Former Illinois Governor George Ryan heads to federal prison in Wisconsin today. His bid to remain free on bail while he fights to overturn a racketeering and fraud conviction was rejected. The 73- year-old Ryan is to report to prison tonight for the first night of his six and a half-year sentence.
New Jersey voted against spending more money on stem cell research. They rejected a state plan to borrow $450 million over ten years to finance it. The vote is a defeat for Governor Jon Corzine who poured $200,000 of his own money into television ads supporting it.
A successful test for the U.S. missile defense system. Engineers say it shot down two ballistics missiles at the same time in space 100 miles above the Pacific Ocean. Both missiles were fired within minutes of each other. The system has now succeeded in 11 of its first 13 tests.
CHETRY: Well, presidential democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton is doing some self-reflection on her most recent debate performance in answering questions on whether former president Bill Clinton would step on the toes of her vice president should she be elected? She sat down with Election Express senior political correspondent Candy Crowley. Candy joins us from Des Moines this morning. Good morning. Good to see you, Candy. CANDY CROWLEY, ELECTION EXPRESS, SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Kiran. Good to see you. You know, you can tell if it's caucus crunch time here in Iowa by a couple of things, the temperatures have dropped below freezing, the airways are just crammed with political ads and the front-runner is playing it very cautiously. When we sat down for that interview we talked about a lot of everything, including post debate criticism that Hillary Clinton lacks candor and that she's trying to straddle both sides of an issue. Here's what she had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I wasn't at my best the other night. We've had a bunch of debates, and you know, I wouldn't rank that up in my very top list, but I've answered probably, oh, I don't know, more than 5,000 questions in the last ten months and I've been very clear about where I stand and what I want to do for the country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Interesting.
CROWLEY: Hillary Clinton was accused of trying to play the woman card by suggesting that the men were ganging up on her simply because she was a woman. She says that's not the case that in fact, she knows they're ganging up on her because she's the front-runner. A couple of her supporters, however, have suggested that there was sexism involved. Clinton says, listen, I can't control what other people say. Kiran.
CHETRY: How did she respond to this talk that perhaps, you know, former president Bill Clinton, her husband, would step on the toes of any potential vice president if she won?
CROWLEY: You know that suggestion came from Joe Biden in another interview. He said he didn't want to be vice president and suggested that really that role essentially would be filled by Bill Clinton. She kind of laughed and said well that will come as news to him. She says listen I'm going to rely on him as I will on other former presidents but there is plenty of stuff to be done, she says and she does want a powerful role for her vice president.
CHETRY: All right. Candy Crowley, great job. Thanks for sharing some of that interview with us out there in Des Moines this morning. She's got her gloves on already because it's cold.
ROBERTS: It's cold. Yesterday she was out there with another coat. Glad to see she's got a coat on. Good job with Hillary Clinton as did by the way, too.
Crude oil hit another record high overnight topping $98 a barrel and it could break $100 at any moment. What will it mean for your family's budget this winter? Gerri Willis at a gas station in New York to show us. And Gerri, looking at those prices over your shoulder, it's obviously going to be a big hit for a lot of people. GERRI WILLIS, CNN, CORRESPONDENT: It is a big hit, John. We saw a van pull up and pay $80 to fill up. Look, here's what's happened, gas prices have lagged the increase in oil prices but we've seen increases nonetheless. The average price for a gallon of unleaded gas $3.02, as of yesterday. A year ago it was $2.20. Let's look at the impact of the family budget, consider average family of four, mom and dad are working. They're commuting 29 miles per work a day, that's their commute time. Here's their bill right now at today's prices, $2,600. Last year this time, $700 cheaper, about $1,900 that is. You see big differences for families out there, trying to save money; they're having a hard time doing it. John.
ROBERTS: You know, Gerri, whenever we see gas prices go up, there's this trickle down effect as well. Sometimes it takes a little bit of time to work its way through the system. But could we expect the price of a lot of other things to go up as well?
WILLIS: Oh, you bet. You know, we've been lucky so far. Retailers have not been passing through their increased costs of transportation to us but they can't do that forever. As a matter of fact, economists now forecasting that our prices, consumer prices will go up 1% to 1.5% over the next year. That's a very big change for people, and you can bet people are going to retrench, because their wages are only increasing about 1% per year. You know, you're going to be behind at the end of the year. You think you're gaining ground? Not so fast. John.
ROBERTS: We saw some of these gas surcharges at the beginning of the summer when oil prices were really high and gasoline prices high as well. I expect we'll start to see some of that soon. Gerri Willis for us this morning. Gerri, good to see you, thanks. Kiran.
CHETRY: High oil prices are certainly hurting you at the gas pump. You're going to feel it especially if you live in some of the colder parts of the country when you're trying to heat your home this winter. Our Veronica de la Cruz has found some tips on the web that may help save you some money. We're all ears. Good morning.
VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN, CORRESPONDENT: Something you might not ever think of doing is heading to youtube to save money.
CHETRY: Wow, I didn't think of that.
DE LA CRUZ: Head to youtube, you can watch a bunch of great interactive videos that are going to give you tips on winterizing your home, everything from insulating your hot water pipes to using the best-sized dryer vent. There are also suggestions on alternate ways to heat your home. Now, if you're trying, Kiran, to figure out how to insulate your home, maybe keep that draft out, you might not know where to start, you might not be that handy. Are you handy?
CHETRY: Check and check, yes. No, not at all.
DE LA CRUZ: All right. We're looking at some energy-efficient insulation. Now, we were talking earlier about how to replace your thresholds. Not that something that I would ever know how to do, so you can head to youtube and you can learn how to do it there. Also not just insulating your doors, you might want to think about your windows. We're going to look now at some video from askthebuilder.com. If you search youtube, you're going to find more than 200 videos from askthebuilder.com and that's going to give you a step-by-step tutorial on how to locate that draft coming from the windows. Again, it's all on-line at youtube.com. Right there, it shows you how to use the thermostat, which I don't know. I mean, these are things that, like we're talking about earlier, I'm not really that handy. You might want to learn how to do this, winterize your home before it gets too cold and you're spending a fortune.
CHETRY: I do have fond memories when I lived in Erie, Pennsylvania. Do you remember how you could stick that plastic over your windows and then you use the hair dryer to shrink-wrap it? That was a mess. Thank goodness there were no cell phones videos back then.
DE LA CRUZ: And how did you learn how to do it?
CHETRY: That's the problem, I didn't. Open up the package and start.
DE LA CRUZ: Well, thank goodness for youtube. Now, you could just logon to find out.
CHETRY: All right, good advise. Thanks Veronica. John.
ROBERTS: Coming up to 20 minutes to the top of the hour. Breaking news from Pakistan now. Police apparently clashing in the streets with supporters of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto. She just made her way from Karachi to Islamabad yesterday, urging her supporters to defy a government ban against protests and go ahead with the rally at all costs. Apparently, her supporters are on the streets near the Parliament Building. Tear gas has reportedly been used against them. The government threatens to take action to make sure that the rally against emergency rule doesn't take place. We had heard from people on the ground yesterday that while we saw some protests in Lahore and Karachi, the capitals. Karachi, the largest city in Pakistan and the capital Islamabad, the protests were actually the crackdown and the protests were much worse. We're seeing some of that today. We have our Zain Verjee up and ready to go in about 20 minutes' time to give us the latest on the ground there.
A future in the armed forces despite a criminal past. Your "Quick Hits' now. According to the Associated Press, the Pentagon has been quietly looking at ways to make it easier to enlist people with a history of petty crimes. Recent waivers have been granted to recruits busted for drugs, theft and carrying weapons on school grounds.
Blackwater under fire again on Capitol Hill. A bill expected to be introduced in the senate banning all private security companies in Iraq and Afghanistan. One of the bill sponsors, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has called on the State Department to end Blackwater's current contract.
Historic surgery on a girl in India born with four arms and four legs. We're paging Dr. Gupta about the marathon procedure, that's just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
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CHETRY: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. We want to show you some of the most compelling shots that we found today. One of them is a man trying to save his dog in the village of Villahermosa in Mexico. Catastrophic flooding there. He was wading through chest-deep water with his dog. Some 20,000 people reported to be still trapped on their rooftops. Water as high as nine feet in some areas that forced tens of thousands from their homes. At least 16 people are feared dead in that severe weather.
The Great Lakes looking more like the ocean, this came to us from Justin Marzke from Michigan. He sent in shots of Lake Superior. Now, you see the big waves, high winds howled over the water as the waves slammed the shores.
And how about this one, it certainly is winter, lake effect snow bringing the first snowflakes of the season to upstate New York, coating towns around Buffalo. It's a pretty sight. It may be early for you, it's right on schedule though for the region which averages close to 100 inches per season. 45 minutes past the hour now and Rob Marciano monitoring all of this for us. It's such a pretty picture when you're not the one driving in it.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN, METEOROLOGIST: Exactly. You know, it always comes early in the year. There's always some leaves still on the trees and that just helps weigh down those tree limbs and brings down power lines. So, even if they only get five or six inches it's still, you know, a headache and that's pretty much what they got.
In some spots of Michigan they got up to a foot. Waterford, P.A. got 10 inches. Marquette, Michigan got 6.7, Erie, P.A. 5 inches. Similar amounts in extreme western New York. We also had winds with this. That's what whipped up those waves across Lake Superior. Holland Beach, Michigan, 64 mile-an-hour winds, Muskegon Beach, 58 mile-an-hour, even Green Bay getting into the act at 45 mile per hour winds yesterday. Those are non-thunderstorm winds, those are just winds coming in with this cold front. Still off Lake Ontare we're seeing some fingers of moisture coming across the i-81 corridor.
A snow advisory up for those areas across the Tug Hill plateau into Watertown, New York and extreme western New York. Cattaraugus County and Chataqua County under a snow warning or a winter storm warning for the next several hours. Hey, Space Shuttle is coming in for a landing today. The first attempt will be at 1:00. It looks like it will be OK. North winds 15 to 20 miles an hour, if they get further above that, they may have to recheck that but that cool front got past Cape Canaveral. As a matter of fact, all the way down to Miami, where we'll see temperatures plunge to a high temperature of 78 degrees tomorrow. Kiran, back up to you.
CHETRY: All right. Let's hope it all works out for them and they can get in there on the first try.
ROBERTS: It took 40 hours and a team of some 30 surgical specialists.
CHETRY: Yes, doctors in India this morning are saying the surgery was a complete success. This little girl named Lakshmi born with four arms and legs. They say the extra arms and legs were from a conjoined twin that never fully developed before she was born.
ROBERTS: Chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta is here now to tell us more about this amazing surgery. I have heard of parasitic twins before but I have never heard of a surgery this involved to try to correct a situation.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN, CORRESPONDENT: Yes. First of all, the parasitic twin is very rare, about 1 in 200,000. Doing the operation obviously even more rare. Obviously, these children don't survive or make it to a hospital where an operation like this can be performed. Took 27 hours. Shorter than what they expected. It started 7:00 a.m. on Tuesday and at 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday. 36 different doctors involved with this operation, to give you a sense of what was involved, you obviously see the duplicated limbs there but she actually had duplicated chest cavities. She had duplicated abdominal cavities, duplicated kidneys, duplicated spine. All of that involved obviously a lot of surgery. They were able to remove the extra spine yesterday at some point that was one of the critical junctures in this operation, actually saving the kidney as well, removing that and putting it into Lakshmi so she actually has functioning kidneys and functioning reproductive system.
ROBERTS: So, what's the prognosis here? Is she going to be able to live a normal life? You noticed that a couple of her limbs, which looked like the main limbs, her legs were splayed out to the side. Can they correct those and bring them back in? Would she walk?
GUPTA: It sounds like it. And figuring out which limbs are going to be the most functional seemed to be one of the most critical thing in this as well. Because there's so many limbs you had to figure out which would be the best as she grows, as she ages and remain functional. So, it sounds like they say that she'll be able to stand. She's going to be able to walk. She has normal intestinal and reproductive systems, which is also a big concern.
CHETRY: Yes. There's also lot of superstition surrounding children born like this, I mean, especially in a country like India, where a lot of the gods and goddesses are seen with multiple limbs. How is she being received after the surgery? What was it like for her parents?
GUPTA: I was asking the same thing. First of all, her family was born in Behar, which is a very small town. They make about $1 a day. That's an average salary to give you a sense of their background. They went to Bangalor, which is a very big city. Lakshmi was actually named after a Lakshmi goddess, the goddess of prosperity and wealth. You can see the images there. Look at Baby Lakshmi next to the picture of the goddess. When she was born they thought that maybe she was a reincarnation of the goddess, Lakshmi. And she was actually, they were going to build a temple in deference to this young child, this baby, out of respect for the goddess. There are others though, as you said, who wanted to actually put her in the circus and treat her as sort of a freak if you will and that was obviously a big concern. They hid this child away for so long. She's 2 years old but they hid her away because they didn't want actually have her stolen by people trying to abuse her in some way.
CHETRY: Wow.
ROBERTS: Incredible.
CHETRY: It's unbelievable, 40 hours of surgery and her prognosis.
GUPTA: Walk and stand and be able to have all of the organs functioning.
ROBERTS: What a story. Sanjay, thanks very much.
Hang around, because energy drinks give you that boost but a new study says they also present a risk for people with high blood pressure. Sanjay will be back to give us the lowdown on all of these, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
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CHETRY: 52 minutes past 7:00 here on the east coast and if you're just joining us here's a look at what's happening, new this morning. We have breaking news coming in to us from Pakistan, we're seeing reports that riot police are swinging batons and firing tear gas at supporters of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto. Here are some of the pictures right now. You see a lot of journalists taking photographs as well. Bhutto has been urging her supporters to defy a government ban and to go ahead with a protest rally at all costs. Thousands have been arrested in the brutal crackdown led by Pakistan's President, Pervez Musharraf.
Also happening now, police in Finland responding to their first ever school shooting. One person has been killed, three others wounded after a teenager opened fire at a high school. That gunman is still believed to be inside of the school. Police say some students have escaped but others are still trapped inside. We'll continue to monitor that breaking story out of Finland for you.
Also, oil prices shatter another record overnight and are now flirting with $100 a barrel, for the first time in history, crude prices now above $98 a barrel.
ROBERTS: A follow-up to a story we brought you yesterday, a Homeland Security Department employee has been placed on leave after co-workers complained about his Halloween costume, calling it racially insensitive. He wore dark makeup, dreadlocks and prison stripes. Homeland Security is now investigating whether or not disciplinary will be taken against Julie Myers. She is the immigration customs enforcement supervisor. She threw the party, posed for a picture with the employee and was on a panel that voted his costume most original.
Your "Quick Hits" now, abstinence-only programs have no effect on the sexual behavior of teens, according to a new study. The study was by a nonpartisan group, the national campaign to prevent teen and unplanned pregnancy, it says comprehensive programs which include information on birth control as well as abstinence work better than getting teens to have sex later.
A 13-year-old girl in Missouri suspended from school for two days for hugging. The school has a rule that says displays of affection should not occur on campus at any time. The school says that the student had already been given a warning after a previous hugging incident.
Developing now, the search for a missing mother of two, a new look into her home, and a husband who already had one wife suffer a mysterious death. Why the family says he's the man who watch, that's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
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CHETRY: It's almost the top of the hour right now. A story coming up that you can't miss. Is it an unwanted jolt that you may be getting from those energy drinks?
ROBERTS: These are so popular. Everybody's using them these days, a lot of young people as well, like teenagers. Why the boost may not be worth it for some and add trouble for college-aged kids. Dr. Sanjay Gupta has got the information for you. The next hour of AMERICAN MORNING starts right now.
A sticker shock. Oil flies to new highs overnight. How it's costing you thousands and what you can do about it.
Second search, police back at the home of the Chicago-area cop. His fourth wife missing for more than a week.
Plus, a window into the future. Ditching high maintenance models for a virtual fashion show. On this AMERICAN MORNING.
And good morning. Thanks very much for joining us on this Wednesday, the 7th of November. I'm John Roberts.
CHETRY: I'm Kiran Chetry. We begin this hour with breaking news out of Pakistan
ROBERTS: Yes. Police are now clashing in the streets with supporters of opposition leader, Benazir Bhutto. Bhutto was calling on her supporters to go ahead with a planned rally on Friday to protest the military crackdown there. Our State Department correspondent Zain Verjee joins us now from Islamabad with the latest on this. Zain, how bad is the situation on the streets there?
ZAIN VERJEE, CNN, STATE DEPARTMENT CORRESPONDENT: Well, we understand that the clashes are still going on between Benazir Bhutto's supporters and police forces. We're hearing, according to police sources and witnesses, the police used tear gas against Benazir Bhutto's supporters. They are also targeting journalists. Benazir Bhutto had called for protest today outside of parliament and several hundred people showed up. There have been no arrests, John, from what we know, but it's still going on and we're trying to find out more information. John.
ROBERTS: Zain, is this just a hint of what might lie ahead with Bhutto we said just a couple of seconds urging her supporters to get out there on the streets en masse on Friday?
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