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American Morning
GOP Showdown; Garry Kasparov Freed; Life-Changing Surgery for Youssif; Exploding Cell Phone; Broadway Bound; Housing Slide
Aired November 29, 2007 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HUCKABEE: Jesus was too smart to ever run for public office, Anderson.
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KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: And your instant response.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm watching right now from Korea.
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CHETRY: See what the candidates are saying this morning.
Buy a house, get a free car. Troubling new housing numbers and the extremes some are going to make a sale.
Plus, White Christmas. The First Lady shows us Christmas at the White House on this AMERICAN MORNING. Welcome. It's Thursday, November 29th. Glad you're with us on this AMERICAN MORNING. I'm Kiran Chetry.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. I'm John Roberts in St. Petersburg, Florida.
With just five weeks until the first poll that really counts, republican candidates went at it last night on CNN. The questions came right from you through the power of You Tube and they jump started some of the most heated exchanges on issues to date, everything from immigration to Iraq to what would Jesus do?
Our senior political analyst Gloria Borger joins us now with a closer look. Gloria, great to see you this morning. You said going into the debate last night, Mitt Romney was looking in his rearview mirror. Did anybody get past him?
GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: I don't think so. I think he and Giuliani, as you were pointing out, really got into it last night. Romney was the target last night for a lot of these folks because suddenly they're looking. He was ahead in Iowa, ahead New Hampshire and I think Rudy Giuliani understands maybe he needs to win or do well in one of those early states if he is going to win some of those later states on Super Tuesday so they all went after each other. ROBERTS: It was literally on the first question they got into it.
BORGER: Yes.
ROBERTS: On the issue of immigration whether or not Giuliani was in charge of a sanctuary city and what Mitt Romney's record on immigration was. Let's take a quick listen to how they went back and forth.
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MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The policies of the mayor, pursuing a sanctuary nation or pursuing a sanctuary city are ...
RUDY GIULIANI (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We got a ...
ROMNEY: Are wrong.
GIULIANI: He had sanctuary mansion, not just sanctuary city.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Now, did either one of them get the upper hand on that issue? In dial testing that we did the people who were watching did not like this back and forth, this bitter back and forth. They like to hear good thoughts about the issues.
BORGER: When Giuliani said sanctuary mansion, the implication is you employed illegal immigrants, you live in a big house, you're just a rich guy. I sort of went ouch when he said that. Because when you're in New York City and you're the mayor of New York, that might work, but with Iowa and New Hampshire voters who really don't like to see this kind of bickering, it can backfire.
ROBERTS: So was it over the line and did it backfire?
BORGER: I think it could. I mean it's a little too early to tell but I don't think either one of those gentlemen benefited from that kind of back and forth.
ROBERTS: Mitt Romney also took on Mike Huckabee on the issue of immigration and said talking to you about immigration is like talking to a Massachusetts liberal. Is that an indication of how close the race is in Iowa?
BORGER: We're talking about the rearview mirror here. Huckabee might actually be in front of him at this point. There are some polls that show kind of a statistical dead heat between Romney and Huckabee. Romney has spent so much money in Iowa to introduce himself to the Iowa voters. He has been up on the air waves.
Suddenly he has this fellow nobody knew coming up behind him and that is really, John, because those evangelical conservative voters are kind of revolting and saying, wait a minute, we're not going to go for Romney and we don't trust him and Giuliani, we certainly don't trust. Who is this Mike Huckabee? We kind of like him.
ROBERTS: Five weeks from now we'll find out how it all plays out. Gloria, it's always great to see you. Thanks for dropping by -- Kiran.
CHETRY: Well while the candidates were answering your video questions, CNN gathered a group of undecided voters to get instant feedback. They call it dial testing. The lines in blue are the male voters and the yellow lines are the female voters. If they like something they heard, the bars go up and if they don't like it, the bar goes down. One of the high marks was this remark by former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee.
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MIKE HUCKABEE (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The first thing I would get rid of would be the Internal Revenue Service. Getting rid of a $10 billion a year industry. Which I'm not being facetious. If we enacted the fair tax, one of the most research ways to revive our economic future, we would get rid of the IRS.
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CHETRY: There you see it. When the bars dipped, it meant that the undecided voters did not like what they were hearing like the lengthy exchange we're been talking about, some of the bickering that took place among the candidates.
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ROMNEY: If you hear one someone that is working out there, not that you've been employed, but the company has, you hear someone with a puny accent you're supposed to go I want to see your papers. Is that what you're sugaring?
GIULIANI: What I'm suggesting is --
ROMNEY: No, that's what I'm asking you.
GIULIANI: If you were going to --
ROMNEY: Let me ask -- if you are going to take --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, you asked a question and let him respond and we got to move on.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: All right. Well so there you see. That's a look at how undecided voters responded to the debate as it was happening.
Also new this morning, former chess champ and Russian opposition activist Garry Kasparov has been released from prison. He served a five day sentence for leading an anti-Kremlin protest this weekend. President Bush criticized Russian authorities earlier this week for how they broke up the election demonstrations. And troops in the Philippines storming a luxury hotel in Manila overnight, firing tear gas and ramming the hotel with an armored personnel carrier. The whole thing caught on tape, playing out live on TV. Rebels were holed up in the hotel demanding the resignation of the president of the Philippines. Hotel guests were evacuated and the rebels eventually surrendered.
President Bush talked Middle East peace with our own Wolf Blitzer. Negotiators for the Israelis and Palestinians in the U.S. for Annapolis conference set a goal to complete a peace treaty by the end of next year.
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PRES. GEORGE W. BUSH, UNITED STATES: It was a hopeful beginning and it was important but not nearly as important as the days are to come. Our job is facilitate those discussions, to make sure that they stay on track, that they are focused effort. But we can't dictate the results.
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CHETRY: President Bush also said Iran was not invited because it would not have been constructive and Iran wouldn't have come anyway -- John?
ROBERTS: We are following breaking news in Minnesota today where a pipeline blast is pushing oil prices higher. The explosion yesterday killed two workers and shut down pipelines that carry 1.5 million barrels a day. New pictures are coming in to us from Minnesota all morning. The price of oil had gotten as high as $95 a barrel this morning as a result of this explosion but has pulled back a little since then.
Just hours ago, Pervez Musharraf sworn in another term as Pakistan's president. He may announce end to emergency rule by the end of this week we're told. 12 attorneys were hurt in riots with police during Musharraf's inauguration. Many are calling for him to step down ahead of elections scheduled for January.
And a new warning from the FBI about your personal computer. The FBI says 2 million computers have been used by hackers as remote- controlled robots to crash online systems, send spam e-mails and steal user's personal information. The feds say this is a serious and growing problem and has caused more than $20 million in losses -- Kiran.
CHETRY: Well, it's time now to check in with our AMERICAN MORNING team of correspondents for other stories new this morning.
(WEATHER REPORT)
CHETRY: It will be fun to see the snowflakes for the first time at least around us at some point. Well, big gains in the stock market Wednesday and big jump in oil prices this morning. Ali Velshi is at the business update desk. You got your barrel out and we know because of that pipeline explosion we did see a jump.
ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I don't normally have two numbers on the barrel. I'll tell you what happened. Yesterday oil lost more than $4 or almost $4 closing at $90.62. Pretty much wiping out all of the gains we've seen. We've been following oil to a hundred. Then overnight we get news about this pipeline explosion that John was talking about, about 200 miles northwest of Minneapolis. This is a pipeline that takes oil from Alberta through Saskatchewan into the Midwestern United States to Chicago and then to Detroit. This pipeline carries about 1.5 million barrels of oil a day.
As a result of that explosion, a fire, two people were killed while trying to deal with that fire. Look where oil went. $95.17 within the last couple of hours. That big jump just because of these real supply concerns. Now oil has pulled back a little bit. We're between 93 and $94 all morning but that is a real jump. That's not speculation. That is real oil that is not getting to refineries. That drop in oil was one of the reasons we saw a very successful day on the stock market yesterday.
The Dow had its second biggest point gain of the year and its biggest percentage gain of the year. Take a look at that. The only day that there were more points gained on the Dow this year was September 18th and that, you'll remember Kiran, is the day the federal Reserve cut interest rates for the first time, they cut them by half a percentage point. This was a very big day on the Dow. Again, this oil price surge is going to affect things this morning.
We'll keep a tight eye on it for you.
CHETRY: All right. Thank you, Ali.
Now to an update to a story that you helped make happen. You remember the little boy from Iraq, Youssif. He was badly burned by insurgents and about to have his third major surgery and the most dramatic one yet. CNN viewers helped bring Youssif to the U.S. and pay for the medical treatment he is going to be going through.
CNN's Chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta actually scrubbed in and was able to watch Youssif's first surgery. Tell us what he is facing today.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Today is a big day for him and the sort of scheme of things, trying to repair his badly burned face. Today is a very important day.
First of all, I spent time with Youssif and was with him a few weeks ago. You can see some of the images. You see the bulging on his cheek there. You can't see it now but underneath his chin as well. He had these tissue expanders placed which basically stretched some of the healthy skin around his face.
Now, I just want to give you a little idea. What you're seeing here, some of the state-of-the-art burn surgery that has been helping this young boy. He had several scars all over his face. You've seen some of the images and you may have seen some of the images before he was burned. Now you look at him. Obviously, he has these very thick scars and then he has little balloons placed underneath the skin to try to stretch some of that healthy skin.
What is being done today, Kiran, is the tissue expanders, if you will, are going to be removed and some of that healthy skin is going to be used to actually stretch, if you will, over that badly burned face that you're seeing there. It is pretty remarkable. Again, take a look at the images. Obviously on the left, before any of these burns happened. In the middle is before his surgery. On the right you can see the bulging underneath his chin. That is healthy skin that is eventually going to be used.
It is a remarkable type of operation but the most dramatic transformation for him is really going to be over the next few days. I'm actually going to fly out to L.A. and see him as the bandages come off to see what he looks like.
CHETRY: This will be the surgery where you really do see the change in terms of all the scar tissue we've been seeing?
GUPTA: Absolutely. You know, burn surgery is a slow process. And he won't be completely done even after this. It takes some time. You don't get immediate transformations after the first few operations but this is an important one what is happening today for him.
CHETRY: The other thing, it looks like it will be unbelievable, especially along his cheeks. But it seems like it's hard to make your lips, which are totally different tissue, look normal.
GUPTA: Absolutely. Very good point. The lips are one of the more cosmetic areas. You get a real transition from actual skin to your lip area and just defining that border requires a lot of very precise surgery. I talked to Dr. Grossman, Peter Grossman. He felt pretty confident he was going to get a good result with that as well.
CHETRY: It is amazing how far this little boy has come, all he has been through, but he has so much support and so much love out there. Sanjay, we can't wait for you to keep us posted on how he is doing. Thanks.
GUPTA: I should say as well, 13,000 donations and over $300,000. I saw the impact when I was out in L.A. and as you said it was because of CNN viewers. It's an amazing story for the viewers as well.
CHETRY: Wow. All right. And then Saturday and Sunday, there "Rescuing Youssif," December 15th and 16th, 10:00 p.m. eastern and 7:00 p.m. pacific. A special story we're doing here on CNN. You can find out how to help Youssif at impact your world. Logon to CNN.com/impact.
ROBERTS: A call for tougher safety standards at U.S. nuclear labs tops your "Quick Hits." The Government Accountability Office says there had been persistent safety problems at nuclear facilities in recent years, including dozens of serious accidents. Their investigation was triggered by security breaches at a laboratory that blames a lax attitude toward identifying and fixing safety procedures. A cell phone horror story. Could your mobile device actually be putting your life at risk? It's the most talked about story on CNN.com. Our Veronica De La Cruz joins us next to tell you what the danger's all about.
And she's showing, an expecting Christina leaving nothing left to hide, shall we say, on the cover of "Marie Claire." Why she decided to bare it all ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
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Some incredible shots in our "Quick Hits" now. A Mexican restaurant in McAllen, Texas swallowed by fire. Hundreds of people watched as the building burned down. No one was inside thankfully. It's been out of business for years. No one was hurt but some amazing pictures.
Accusing Bolivia's president of running an evil empire, a protester wearing a Darth Vader mask joined a strike against President Evo Morales's government. Schools, stores and public transportation were closed in cities across Bolivia yesterday as demonstrators demanded a constitutional overhaul.
A bottle but no genie in Christina Aguilera's future. The pregnant diva stripped down for the sexy mama cover of "Marie Claire" Magazine. She was keeping the pregnancy secret during her tour. Hard to hide it now. The issue hits newsstands on December 11th -- Kiran.
CHETRY: Could your cell phone being be a ticking time bomb? Our Veronica De La Cruz joins us now with one of those most talked about stories on the web this morning, unbelievable story out of North Korea.
VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Definitely a frightening story. There are questions however today about whether it was actually this exploding cell phone that killed a 33-year-old man in South Korea. The man was found dead at his work place, his mobile phone melted into his shirt pocket. The police believe the lithium ion battery in the cell phone exploded. Koreatimes.com posted a photo of the phone after it melted.
This is what you're looking at here. Next to it is a photo of what that phone would originally look like. The phone was apparently made by LG Electronics, the world's fifth largest cell phone manufacturers. Repeated attempts to contact LG Electronics for a statement have been unsuccessful. We are trying to call them and we asked the president of the watch group, the Wireless Consumers Alliance, about the potential dangers of cell phones.
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CARL HILLIARD, PRESIDENT, WIRELESS CONSUMERS ALLIANCE: Because you have so much energy packed into such a small space, it can explode and when it does, the results are very horrific.
(END VIDEO CLIP) DE LA CRUZ: Doctors in South Korea say the man who died had burns on his chest and fractured ribs and internal bleeding. The Wireless Consumers Alliance told us they get reports about once a month about cell phones exploding in the United States but they've never heard of anyone dying.
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HILLIARD: The message that needs to get out to consumers is these are not toys. These are very sophisticated instruments, they require a lot of power.
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DE LA CRUZ: Hilliard also says the Consumer Protection Agency and the cell phone industry have been looking into this problem and are working toward a solution as to maybe a new battery design. In the meantime, he suggests handling cell phones and laptops correspondingly. I think what he means is use common sense. If your feel your cell phone or even your laptop getting hot maybe power down and if at all possible don't carry your cell phone on you. Try to keep as much distance as possible or carry it in a case.
CHETRY: That's really shocking. I think one of the reasons why it probably is the most clicked on, he said they get one report a month of a cell phone exploding?
DE LA CRUZ: Yes, there was actually a guy who worked in the Atlanta airport and it exploded in his pocket. He was scared that the TSA would think it was a bomb. That was another clicked on story a couple of months ago so this isn't the first time we're hearing about this, unfortunately.
CHETRY: Veronica, thank you.
DE LA CRUZ: Of course.
CHETRY: John?
ROBERTS: Broadway is back in business. The stage hand strike to force more than two dozen theaters to go dark is over. We will tell you when the curtain is rising in a great white way.
And more bad news about home sales and foreclosures. What does it mean for your money? Personal finance editor Gerri Willis has some answers ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
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ROBERTS: Time for our hot shot of the day. Advertising blimp makes a pit stop at a Massachusetts backyard. Take a look at this. Dennis Dedo woke up to find this giant blimp in his backyard. He called the number on it. It turns out, it came from Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. That's 350 miles away. Dennis couldn't help the owner because the balloon took off again later that day looking for new adventures. If you've got a hot shot, send it in to us. The address is amhotshots@cnn.com. Be sure to include your name and where you're from and a little bit about the picture or video and one more thing. Please make sure the image is yours and not someone else's -- Kiran.
CHETRY: All right. Well it seems like every day we hear worst news about the housing market. The ripple effects of that are stretching far and wide. Gerri Willis is our CNN personal finance editor and there are some new numbers we heard about. How bad are they?
GERRI WILLIS, CNN PERSONAL FINANCE EDITOR: I wish I could come here with good news and it never happens that way. We had foreclosures doubling last month over last year's level and 1.7 million people have lost their home this year. Very sad. Largest home price drop in 21 years. The fewest home sales in eight years. Of course, the inventories are building. We've now got 11 months of inventory out there and consumer confidence lowest in two years.
You might be wondering so what does this mean? What are we looking at? When will the housing market recover? We're looking at possibly 2009 for a recovery. Of course, consumers are going to retrench and they're in an important part of the economy. As they retrench, I think you're going to see the possibility of recession out there. We're talking about a lot about this on this show, right?
CHETRY: We have been. As you said we were talking about people getting desperate even though this is not the time of year there is a lot of home buying and selling, people have had their houses on a market for a long time. What do they do?
WILLIS: Absolutely crazy stuff. You were running video today of a broker out in California, Marina, California who's giving away Mustangs to get people to buy these houses. This is like $26,000. As a matter of fact, somebody out there who bought one of those houses actually just took the price reduction on the house.
CHETRY: Instead of keep the car?
WILLIS: They didn't take the car. They took the price reduction on the house. IPods, all kinds of vacations, you name it, people are doing all kinds of things. Another crazy thing that a couple in Pennsylvania did, they said we will give you back the purchase price of the house when we die if you buy our house.
CHETRY: Is the bright spot of this first-time buyers or is that also a difficult tangle because it's harder to get a loan?
WILLIS: It's a difficult tangle because it's harder to get a loan and, as a matter of fact, prices are still dropping. You know the old saying in the stock market, you don't want to try to catch a knife, but it could happen to you in some markets if you're buying right now.
CHETRY: All right. Gerri Willis, even though you bring us bad news, we like to see you anyway. Thank you so much. By the way, be sure to catch Gerri's show. It's "OPEN HOUSE." It's every weekend. She'll be talking about more on the housing market and also how to find mistakes on your medical bills. That's a good one. You know that happens to a lot of people and to get your money back once you do find that out. Also, it's this Saturday, by the way, at 9:30 a.m. eastern. It also runs Saturday and Sunday 3:30 p.m. eastern right here on CNN.
Thanks, Gerri.
WILLIS: You bet.
ROBERTS: A look now at a story coming up in our next half hour you can't miss. You're invited to Christmas at the White House. First lady Laura Bush shows us what is new for the holidays coming up next on AMERICAN MORNING.
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ROBERTS: Well, so much for sunny Florida. Here it is, 8:30 a.m. Eastern time on the Gulf coast in St. Petersburg and we have got fog, fog, fog here. Of course, any day is a lovely day in Florida because the temperature is usually pretty agreeable. Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. It's Thursday, November 29th. I'm John Roberts.
CHETRY: And I'm Kiran Chetry. You do look like your sitting in pea soup. But the only thing that gives it away is that there is palm trees. So, I know you're in Florida that you're not lying to me but boy you could use a little sunshine.
ROBERTS: We got to try to fly back out of this stuff a little bit later on this morning. I'm hoping it lifts.
New this morning. A curtain will rise again tonight on Broadway. Yes, indeed stagehands and theater producers reached a tentative deal overnight to end the 19-day strike. More than two dozen shows will be back in business again this evening. Meanwhile, TV and movie writers will meet with producers again today to end that strike. One late night talk show has decided to return to the air already. Carson Daly crossed the picket line in Los Angeles and resumed production of his NBC show.
A new deadline for families living in FEMA trailers after the disastrous hurricanes of 2005, FEMA wants to close trailer parks set up in Louisiana by the end of May. FEMA says it will help everyone find new rental housing.
Questions this morning about one of the people who asked a question at last night's YouTube debate here in St. Petersburg. It turn out that a retired general had links to the Clinton campaign. Retired Army Brigadier General Keith Kerr asked about the military's don't ask, don't tell policy. After the candidates gave their responses to his YouTube question, General Kerr, who was in the audience, had this to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BRIG. GEN. KEITH KERR, RETIRED ARMY: American men and women in the military are professional enough to serve with gays and lesbians. For 42 years, I wore the army uniform on active duty in the reserve and also for the state of California. I revealed I was a gay man after I retired. Today, don't ask, don't tell is destructive to our military policy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: After the debate, CNN learned that General Kerr had served on Clinton's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender steering committee. He is also a member of her veterans and military retirees committee. I asked the general this morning about his ties to the Clinton campaign earlier this morning on AMERICAN MORNING.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KERR: I have not done any work. Several friends asked me if would allow my name to be listed and I agreed because she is such a strong advocate of gay and lesbian rights.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: A background check did reveal that General Kerr has not made any campaign contributions to any candidates. And in fact, he says he actually has contributed in the past to a republican, Illeana Ross-Lehtinen of Florida. Kiran.
CHETRY: Well, it's time to deck the halls all over and the White House included. A beautiful 18-foot Christmas tree being set up in the blue room of the White House. It's covered with 300 ornaments and they're made by artists from across the country. A beautiful sight there. First Lady Laura Bush joins me now live to give us a sneak peek at some of the new White House holiday decorations. It's great to see you this morning. Thanks for being with us.
FIRST LADY LAURA BUSH: Thanks so much.
CHETRY: Tell us about this year's theme.
BUSH: Well, this year's theme is holidays in the national parks and that is what those ornaments on the big blue tree represent. We sent a big ornament out to every national park, 391 of them, and they had an artist decorate the balls in some way that represent our national parks. So it's really beautiful way to show how beautiful our country is.
CHETRY: It is gorgeous. It's so neat that everybody wanted to take part and do that. How do you decide on a theme, though? Because I imagine it must be a big task to try to figure out what you want to highlight about our diverse nation.
BUSH: Well, every year, just some theme seems obvious and this year, I think the national parks are very important to let everyone know about, because we're coming up in 2016 on the centennial of the national park service and President Bush has and Secretary Kempthorne, the secretary of the interior, have issued a centennial challenge, both to the congress, to the appropriators for more money over the next few years up until the centennial for our national parks and also to private philanthropy to think about giving to our national parks. And so this was a great theme to have. Besides that, I hike in national parks every year and have for the last 20 years and so they are particularly important to me.
CHETRY: Yes, a wonderful natural resource for sure. You know, one of the things that we always enjoyed was Barney-cam, getting a chance to see how the first dogs are enjoying themselves. What are they up to this year? You're celebrating Barney and Miss Beasley.
BUSH: Barney and Miss Beasley are going to be junior rangers with the national park rangers this year and so they will be showing everyone when Barney cam is presented on the web site, all of the decorations and then talking a little bit, if they do talk, about our national parks.
CHETRY: It's funny. They have run of the house. When I interviewed you a few months back, I saw them running around. What do they think of that enormous 18-foot tree?
BUSH: Well, they like it and they especially like all of those great big ornaments on it because they think those are soccer balls for them to push around with their noses.
CHETRY: You guys do everything big at the White House. Of course, there are going to be 20,000 Christmas cookies made this year. Everyone has a favorite. How about yours?
BUSH: Well, this year, the cookies are so adorable. They are of all the different animals and birds that you might see in the national park. They are eagle and bluebird and cardinal cookies, as well as bears and moose and foxes and all of the things you might see in any of our national parks and so they are especially pretty and decorated cookies.
CHETRY: All right. So you're not saying you have a favorite though?
BUSH: Oh, I love those iced Christmas cookies. They are my favorite. Of course, we have other kinds, too. We have unbelievable deserts for the many people that will come to all of the different holiday parties, including, of course, the press.
CHETRY: That's right. The invite for tonight, actually. Turning to presidential politics for a minute, you and the president acknowledged last week that Hillary Clinton's experience as first lady would help prepare her for the next pressures the next president will faced. In terms of dealing with those issues, how much does being first lady prepare you to be able to deal with national security let's say or foreign policy?
BUSH: Well, I think what the president meant was that she is used to the lights that only the president of the United States and his family are under, the huge pressure of the job and she certainly understands and knows that.
CHETRY: Do you think that being the first lady is enough experience to then help you make your way to president?
BUSH: Well, I mean, I think it is certainly some experience. There's no doubt about that in being actively involved in all of the issues that come to the White House. There is certainly that experience. We actually were very, we also had watched somebody we loved a lot in the White House, President Bush and Barbara Bush and that was an advantage for us, I think, that we had been with them, that we had seen them, that we had been here a lot and we had been very aware of the issues that they dealt with when President bush was president.
CHETRY: Good point. Well, thanks so much for joining us this morning and your Christmas tree looks beautiful and we're glad we had a chance to give our viewers a sneak peak. First Lady Laura Bush, thanks so much.
BUSH: Thank you, Kiran.
CHETRY: John.
ROBERTS: Coming up on 22 minutes to the top of the hour. Teacher charged with offending Islam appeared in court today. Your "Quick Hits" now. Jillian Gibbons, a British teacher working in Sudan is being held by police after she asked her class of 7-year-olds to come up with a name for a teddy bear as part of a school project. The students chose Muhammad but that was considered insulting to the prophet Muhammad. The judge adjourned today's proceedings because lawyers for the prosecution didn't show up. She faces 40 lashes and a jail term up to a year. She could also pay a fine.
Richard Roberts said God told him to resign as president of the Oral Roberts University. Roberts is being sued for allegedly misusing school funds to support a lavish lifestyle. He said he didn't want to give up his post but after praying with his father, Oral Roberts, the founder of the university, god insisted that he resign. He plans to return to a full-time healing ministry.
At the CNN YouTube debate last night, you asked the questions, now we're going to find out about what you think about the candidates' answers. Veronica de la Cruz has got the latest from the blogs and your i-reports. That's coming up next.
And the doctor is in. He is reading your e-mails. We put your questions to Dr. Sanjay Gupta ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where the web meets travel on this week's road warriors.
BARNEY GIMBEL, WRITER, FORTUNE: Really frequent travelers who are really comfortable at navigating the intricacies of upgrades and fares, expertflyer.com is subscription web site that starts about $5 a month. It then allows you to see the inventory of each individual plane. You don't have to use your hotel gym when you're on the road.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On athletic-minded traveler.com you can search for workout places in over 60 cities across the U.S. and Canada.
GIMBEL: The service costs $3 a month and that includes information as varied as where to find natural food, grocery stores right near your hotel. If you need to e-mail between meetings...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can search the world's largest directory of free and Wi-Fi paid hot spots at ji-wire.com for no charge.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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ROBERTS: We're back live in St. Petersburg, Florida. And there's the fountain outside the Mahaffey Theater. We got a lovely little marina here and the CNN Election Express parked out in front. A couple of minutes ago, I was stretching about the amount of fog here. We see ever so slightest indication that the sun may be coming out here soon so that is always a good thing.
Yesterday here on AMERICAN MORNING, you might remember we asked you in our quick vote who did you think would do the best of all the republican candidates in the YouTube debate format. 87 percent of you said Ron Paul. We got an enormous number of responses on that. Last night immediately following the debate, I caught up with the congressman and asked him himself how he thought he did.
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RON PAUL (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: For a while, I thought I was left out in the wilderness, you know? Nobody looked at me for 35 minutes and it was getting desperately close to the end where I thought it was very, very unfair. But it was unfair but not terribly unfair, because I got my ad up at the right time and it was a great ad and then I had two questions, so I think we did well toward the end, but the system is a bit biased against our candidacy.
ROBERTS: There's a little more than four weeks left until the Iowa caucuses. What do you attribute that surge to?
PAUL: I've latched on to the movement. Like I actually said there, you know, I'm thankful that I can be part of the revolution in a good sense of the word and that there's a lot of people very annoyed and very upset what is happening in this country. I don't think the other candidates sense it at all. I don't think they've been out talking to the people.
ROBERTS: John McCain took a real swing at you tonight over Iraq. Is that a sign that you're a force to be reckoned with or was he just looking at you as a convenient target?
PAUL: I think he is very emotional about it, and you can tell. And he has emotional energy invested in this. But I've been in the service, I've been in for five years so I know a little bit. I've not gone through certainly what he has, but he has staked his whole political career on defending this undeclared, illegal, preemptive war, going to war to enforce U.N. resolutions and there's no way he can back out.
He has dug in his heels and he has to try to save face. He is sacrificing so much and even it is sort of sad because all I think about is the tragedy of Vietnam, losing 60,000 men and I just don't want to see that happen again.
ROBERTS: You were asked again tonight about the potential that you could run as an independent candidate. Will you, tonight, absolutely rule out any idea of running as anything other than a republican candidate?
PAUL: Well, as close to absolute has been my position and that is I have no intention of doing it. I wouldn't look forward to that.
ROBERTS: But close to absolute isn't absolute.
PAUL: That is correct but I have cautiously said that I have no intention.
ROBERTS: Right. What would entice you to do that?
PAUL: Well, right now, with my mental status about what I'm supposed to be doing, nothing could talk me into addressing that subject right now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: But you see here is the important thing, he did not absolutely 100 percent rule it out, which means it's still a potential possibility. Kiran.
CHETRY: He was also so pleasant. He said no one came to me for the first 30 minutes but that was a bit unfair but then it got fair at the end.
Well, every Thursday morning...
ROBERTS: I told him you are always looking for that big finish, right?
CHETRY: Right, exactly. All right. As you know, we'll show you again with our quick vote. He has a lot of fans. Let's put it that way. A lot of people, Ron Paul fans weighing in on our quick vote question which we will bring you a little later.
In the meantime, every Thursday morning, we turn the show over and let you ask questions to Dr. Sanjay Gupta. He opens up his mail bag and he is here once again from Atlanta to answer some questions that came in. Hey there, Sanjay, good to see you.
GUPTA: Good morning again. CHETRY: All right. let's get to them. One of our viewers, and this was no city list, this is Marie who wrote "I suffered from severe anxiety/panic attacks and I would like to know if they could eventually do damage to my heart?" And this is something you've been fascinated with, new studies that possibly link those emotional feelings to your physical health.
GUPTA: Yes, absolutely. Marie, I am fascinated by this, because this whole idea of taking something sort of in the realm of psychology, psychological well-being and seeing its impact on physical well-being has been pretty well studied. The answer to your question is yes.
In fact, there was a new study just last month saying that if you've had a full-blown panic attack within the last six months, you're actually three times more likely to have some sort of heart problems within the next five years. Now, there could be a lot of compounding factors to be clear about that. But I think the evidence is starting to grow, Kiran, that you actually have an impact in terms of cortisol level, stress hormones and that impact can affect your heart.
CHETRY: And then quickly, what do you do if you're having those then?
GUPTA: Well, I mean, I think the idea that you can actually try to control panic attacks is something that we know a lot about as well, whether it's just through non-medication techniques or sometimes people actually need medications to control severe anxiety. But the idea that it could have longer term impact may prompt to you seek out medical help.
CHETRY: Good advice. Here is a question coming from Micah from Columbia, Kentucky.
CHETRY: I'm a college student and a little on the heavy side and was wondering what suggestions you may have as far as starting an exercise routine to get back in shape and gain more muscle mass?
GUPTA: First of all, Micah, thanks for asking the question. Because, I think obviously, I talk a lot about the obesity problem in this country and I think it's something that we should all be talking about. First, you know, make whatever you start to do enjoyable. You want this to be something that you're going to sustain for the rest your life hopefully in terms of exercise routine. You used to work out and you probably will not get back to where you were that easily so you need to start off slowly and do things that you enjoy.
As far as the muscle mass thing you really stumbled on to something important here. We're such an aerobic society. We like to run. We like to do treadmill and that sort of stuff, that is important. Don't forget the weight training. Add a little bit of muscle mass and you will get exponential rewards. You'll burn more calories just to rest because your metabolic rate will be higher. This is really important, add some weight training to your exercise routine and it will pay off in spades for you, Micah. Good luck. CHETRY: Yes, it is true. It definitely makes a difference. It is true. Here is another viewer question. This is from Cathy in Phoenix City, Alabama.
She writes, are sleep disorders and depression tied together? I've been told that depression and sleep goes hand in hand. Is this true?
GUPTA: Cathy, it is true. In fact, there is one of the questions people ask if they are concerned about depression is how is your sleep? We know that depression can have an impact on sleep, but we also know that it can be vice versa. That if you're having sleep disorders, they can actually lead to some depressive type symptoms. We know that through studies about sleep apnea, people who wake up frequently through the night tends to have higher rates of depression than those people who don't have sleep problems.
So try to correct your sleep. Obviously, this is an hour-long answer Kiran in terms of trying to get better sleep. We did a whole documentary on this. But it's something that to keep in mind, if you're someone who has been more irritable lately or actually have actual depression, you may want to look back at your sleep patterns and see if there is a clue in there that you might be able to address.
CHETRY: All right. Sanjay, as always, it's great when you dip into the mailbag. I know we get tons of these and you try to answer as many as you can. We've put some on TV but please keep writing us and every Thursday, Sanjay will try to answer your question. Good to see you.
GUPTA: Thank you.
CHETRY: The CNN NEWSROOM just minutes away. Heidi Collins at the CNN Center now with a look at what's ahead. Good morning, Heidi.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN, ANCHOR: Good morning to you, Kiran. That's right, the CNN YouTube debate on the NEWSROOM rundown.
We will hear from the strategists and the bloggers. Which republicans gained? Did anybody wane? It was an interesting one. That's for sure.
Also, Robert Sawyers live talking about the baby Grace case. He says the little girl brutally beaten to death is his daughter Riley Ann.
And a run-away shopping cart caught under a big rig. Money from a ladies purse goes flying. Were the cash finders, cash keepers? We will talk about that one, too. Breaking news when it happens. Of course, right here on the CNN NEWSROOM. We get started at the top of the hour. Kiran.
CHETRY: All right. Thanks, Heidi.
Now, let's go back to John in Florida. ROBERTS: Thank you, Kiran. We have been telling you all morning how the candidates fared at last night's CNN YouTube republican debate. But how do you think they did? We'll take a look at what you're saying on the Internet about last night's action. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
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CHETRY: Welcome back to the most news in the morning. So, how did last night's CNN YouTube debate resonate with our web audience? Our Veronica de la Cruz has been monitoring that for us and joins us with more.
VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN, INTERNET CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
CHETRY: Did they like the format? I think so. I liked it. But definitely lots of different thoughts and opinions posted about last night's debate. We're going to start with this clip from Shordan Ben Judah who is a soldier in Korea. He sent us this i-report as he was watching the debate.
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SHORDAN BEN JUDAH, DAEGU, SOUTH KOREA: I got to say the most interesting part of the debate thus far has been the exchange between Romney and Giuliani at the very beginning and I hate that Anderson cut them off because that was really a debate.
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DE LA CRUZ: So there is one opinion. There was a lot of talk on the blogs about that Romney-Giuliani exchange. The Fix summarized it this way.
Giuliani and Romney largely canceled one another out. Each in strong moments but also stumbled at times.
Ambinder of the Atlantic also commented on the exchange thing. "The early fireworks between Giuliani and Romney had a thin quality to it as if they were nitpicking and sniping, rather than debating a point or principle. Does the party want to showcase a confrontation over the finer points of immigration policy."
CHETRY: See that's interesting because one said, let him keep going. So all right, it went too long.
DE LA CRUZ: Lots of different thoughts and opinions. And if you have your own opinion of the debate, you can write the candidates yourself. We have a scorecard online at CNN/politics.com. You can drag and drop your favorite candidates on each issue as well as the overall winner of the debate. Taking a look at what's on line right now. Senior political analyst Gloria Borgor said there was no clear real winner.
Democratic strategic Jamal Simmons picks McCain and conservative analyst Bill Bennett felt that Romney won. And that is online at cnn/politics.com. Just in case you are wondering, the bloggers did notice the absence of Billy and the snowman. Jonathan Martin from politico.com wrote this "the closest thing yet to a snowman, a talking Uncle Sam cartoon asking about the fairtax." So, they missed him.
CHETRY: One cartoon character got in.
DE LA CRUZ: Yes, one or two and the snowman didn't make it.
CHETRY: Veronica, thanks so much.
Well, here's a quick look at what CNN NEWSROOM is working on for the top of the hour.
TONY HARRIS, CNN, ANCHOR: See these stories in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Republican free for all. Reaction to the cnn/YouTube debate. Who scored? Who bored?
A standoff at a hotel plays out on live television.
New surgery for the badly burned Iraqi boy, Youssif.
A missing woman in Kansas linked to Internet porn.
And this woman tasered by police. She is pregnant. NEWSROOM just minutes away at the top of the hour, on CNN.
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ROBERTS: A last look now at this morning's quick vote, who from the debate last night do you think has the best solution for immigration.
Right now, Ron Paul is the runaway winner in our poll with 74 percent of the votes. Mike Huckabee, a distant second at 9 percent. Awful lot of Ron Paul supporters right there, yesterday and today. That's going to wrap it up for us. Thanks so much for joining us on this special edition of AMERICAN MORNING. We'll see you again tomorrow.
CHETRY: All right. CNN NEWSROOM with Tony Harris and Heidi Collins starts right now.
HARRIS: Good morning, everyone. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Tony Harris.
COLLINS: Hi, everybody. I'm Heidi Collins. Watch events come into the NEWSROOM live on this Thursday morning. It's November 29th, here is what is on the rundown. Jibs, jabs and jibes. The CNN YouTube debate, did the republicans make an election connection?
HARRIS: Baby Grace case, Robert Sawyers and his mother, live this hour. He says the child brutally beaten to death is his daughter, Riley Ann.
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