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American Morning
Caucus Countdown: Both Sides Up For Grabs in Iowa; Crisis in Pakistan: Elections Delayed One Month; Kenya Slaughter; New Hampshire Shift: McCain Ties Romney
Aired January 02, 2008 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. I'm Kiran Chetry here in New York. This is one day to be happy inside a coffee shop. What are the wind chills? It feels like 20 below up there?
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: It is very, very cold here. Yesterday, it was minus eight. They were calling for it to be about the same, maybe a little bit below that this morning. It's not as bad as in 1996, when you could walk out of your hotel with a cup of hot water and throw it up in the air and it would turn to steam before it'd drop and hit the ground, so not quite that cold but very cold.
We're in a very famous place here in Iowa City, which, of course, big political town, big university town. This is the Hamburg in the Hamburg Inn, number two diner. Hamburg Inns go back to the 1930s here in Iowa City. There's a lot of political paraphernalia around here. Bill Clinton came and sat in this booth over here, which the owner points out, is right dead center in the middle of this wall. There's another table over here to the far right where Ronald Reagan once sat, and I imagine that way over there on the far left is the Dennis Kucinich booth or will be allocated one of these days.
So we're going to be here for the next three hours. Kiran, we got a whole lot of fun. We'll tell you about the coffee bean caucus that they're having here as well as we'll lay out for you exactly what's going to happen in Iowa tomorrow night with these caucuses, a very arcane type of process, very confusing for people who haven't been involved in it. And also, in our last hour here on AMERICAN MORNING, the 8:00 a.m. Eastern hour, we're going to be joined by candidate Mitt Romney so all of that ahead for us this morning here, Kiran, live from Iowa City.
CHETRY: I love it. The people behind you are so used to politics with their eggs there. They're just smiling right behind you, not a care in the world. It's just old hat to them to see camera crews up there.
ROBERTS: Absolutely. It's so much fun here. This is a great time to be here in Iowa, you know, 48, 24 hours before the caucuses. There's a real buzz going on here.
CHETRY: Big buzz. No incumbent for the first time in decades. Yes, a lot to talk about. In fact, just moments ago, the new poll's out, and we're one day away from the Iowa voting, just six days to the New Hampshire primary and there are new numbers out, just in on that, and we're going to give you a look at right now. Those new numbers showing the CNN/WMUR polling conducted by the University of New Hampshire has McCain picking up 10 points, now tied with Mitt Romney at 29 percent. Again, this is the Republican choice for voters nominee. Another one showing Rudy Giuliani dropping seven points since last month down to 12 percent now. That's out of New Hampshire once again.
Now for the Democrats, Hillary Clinton four points ahead of Barack Obama in New Hampshire and another dead heat when you factor in the margin of error there. Clinton at 34 percent, Obama at 30 percent, and John Edwards at 17 percent in New Hampshire -- John.
CHETRY: Right now, though, Kiran, John Edwards is focusing his efforts on Iowa. He is midway through at 36-hour non-stop campaign blitz. We're taking a look at the messages that he and the other Democrats are delivering in these final hours as they try to make their closing arguments and closed the deal.
Our Jessica Yellin is in Des Moines for us this morning just about 100 miles down interstate 80 from where I am this morning. Good morning to you, Jessica. What are we hearing from the candidates in these final hours?
JESSICA YELLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, they're making their case. They're trying to get out every last vote because what matters, what will make the difference is turnout. So John Edwards is telling his supporters and all the undecideds he is going to do more to fight for the little guy.
Hillary Clinton is telling folks that she has the experience. She has the track record to make good on her promises, and Barack Obama is telling them to hope for something different, hope for something more than this partisan divide and he can bring Americans together. They're selling their messages, and they've got to get these voters excited enough to bother to caucus on Thursday night -- John.
ROBERTS: And, Jessica, as part of this last ditch effort to try to get those people out to the polls, Hillary Clinton has come up with a new two-minute-long advertisement. Let's take a look at a little snippet of that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I know you've waited a long time for a president who could hear you and see you, and I would like to be that president, so I ask you to caucus for me tomorrow. Put on your coats and call up a friend and help me change America. If you stand with me for one night, I will stand up for you every day as your president.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: We were hearing that from all of the candidates, Jessica, in the last couple of days. Get out and caucus. We'll do anything that we can to get you out there to caucus. It's all about turnout tomorrow night, isn't it?
YELLIN: It is and they have unprecedented large ground operations to turn out the vote. The state has never seen anything like this. I'll tell you. Both Hillary Clinton and Obama are relying on first time caucus goers. In Clinton's case, some of these are people who are in their 50s, 60s and have never caucused their entire lives.
But for her to get this state, she needs them to seem so -- that this one is so important that they'll turn out this night so she really is working in that ad to motivate these people, especially those who have not gone before to believe that they can make a difference and that they have to do it this time around. So they're really trying to drive those folks who have never bothered to actually go out and vote.
ROBERTS: Now, they got about another 24 hours to try to get them all out. Jessica Yellin for us in Des Moines this morning. Jessica, thanks. We'll hear back from you a little bit later on this morning.
And coming up from Iowa City and the Hamburg Inn Number Two Diner here, the results of the coffee bean caucus that they have been running here for the last little while. How bean counting could give us a hint about who might win Iowa and perhaps the White House.
And again, we're also talking with candidate Mitt Romney coming up at our third hour of AMERICAN MORNING, our 8:00 a.m. Eastern hour. But right now let's go back to New York with more news this morning. Here's Kiran.
CHETRY: Thanks, John. Well, also new this morning from Pakistan. President Pervez Musharraf is set to deliver an address to the nation, and there is word the elections there could be delayed at least a month. The decision comes during chaos following the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
This morning's "New York Times" is reporting that Musharraf may also help -- may ask for help from Scotland Yard to investigate her killing. CNN's Matthew Chance following the developments from Islamabad first to the elections. An official announcement expected within the hour there using words like "impossible" to describe holding those elections January 8th because of all of the unrest, Matthew.
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Kiran. We're just waiting now within the next hour to hear from the election commission of Pakistan as to when the actual date of the elections will be. You're right. They've already said that it's basically going to be impossible to stage those elections on January the 8th, when they were scheduled for, following the violence and the confusion that came after the assassination of the former Pakistani Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto.
There are real technical reasons for the election not being possible to be held on schedule. At least 13 voting centers around the country have been destroyed. That doesn't just mean buildings, of course. That means ballot boxes. That means tens of thousands of ballot papers and so if the elections did go ahead, that would be open to the accusation that many of the people, tens of thousands of people would effectively have been disenfranchised.
But the opposition parties here, particularly the party of Benazir Bhutto, the late Benazir Bhutto, say that they want the elections to go ahead anyway, because any postponement they say would merely be an attempt by the government, which backs President Musharraf here, the Pakistani president, to try and cling on to power and to try and avoid a big election defeat, which they're likely to get because of the sympathy vote that's likely to come out in favor of Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party, when this election finally goes ahead.
CHETRY: Getting back to, Matthew, her assassination, Benazir Bhutto's assassination and the question surrounding the investigation, will Scotland Yard play a part, play a role or the U.S. play any role in that investigation?
CHANCE: Well, there's been no confirmation yet from the Pakistani authorities or from Scotland Yard about whether investigative teams will be helping the Pakistani authorities in their investigation into the killing of Benazir Bhutto, but certainly something. This is something that the Pakistani government said is possible.
Only today, the Pakistani foreign minister said that they've had offers of help from various governments, including the United States, including France and including Britain as well, but that no offer had yet been taken up, and so we're waiting to see whether the Pakistani authorities feel the political pressure to take help from these national communities. They're all getting a lot of that from the opposition parties, particularly from Benazir Bhutto's party who say that the government cannot be trusted to investigate the killing itself.
CHETRY: Matthew Chance for us in Islamabad this morning, thank you.
We're also tracking extreme weather today. Utility crews working to try to get power back on to tens of thousands of people living in parts of the Midwest. More than a foot of snow now on the ground in parts of Ohio and Michigan. Holiday travelers are dealing with nightmare conditions in the air and on the road as well. Dozens of schools also forced to extend their winter breaks.
It's the region's heaviest New Year's Day snowstorm on record. Forecasters say snow fell at a rate of at least two inches per hour. Of course, some fun to be had as well with the sledding for the kiddies who were off school. That weather system, by the way, did make its way across the northeast. Up to a foot of snow falling in parts of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. Forecasters say we can expect to see a crazy week of weather. They're predicting over 10 feet of snow in the Sierra Nevada mountain range and temperatures across much of the northeast as well as the southeast are expected to dip below freezing as well. That has citrus growers in Florida scrambling to try to protect their crops. Wind chill factors are expected to dive into the teens tonight and tomorrow morning. Some orange growers say they are ready to flood fields with warm water to try to protect their crops. Farmers say that beans, corn, cucumber, eggplant crops are also in danger of freezing. Governor Charlie Crist also easing restrictions on commercial vehicles taking vulnerable crops to processing centers.
Our Rob Marciano taking a break today. We have Jacqui Jeras at our weather update desk and certainly a lot to talk about this morning, especially those concerns in the southeastern part of the country, specifically Florida with those crops that can't take the freezing weather.
JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, absolutely, and northern Florida really dealing with the freezing temperature this morning, but it's tomorrow morning where the worst of the conditions are going to be moving in.
The cold air right now is really kind of bottles up across the upper Midwest into the northeastern corridor, and that's coming in behind all that snow in the video that you saw there so we've got strong northwesterly winds. You can still see some lingering snow showers there in the northeastern corridor, but most of the snow is coming off the warm lake water so the lake effect snow. That has been going on in the Cleveland area.
Check out these pictures. In Cleveland, downtown you only had about five inches but you head up to the east and there's more favored areas where you typically get lake effect snow. You had more than 10 inches in Ashtabula County, about 10,000 people without power. East of Cleveland, Cleveland still under a winter storm warning, expect an additional three to five before the day is done, not to mention those 33 mile-per-hour wind gusts that you're dealing with right now.
There you can see the warnings that are in place with the vast majority of these especially into the northeast, those are going to be ending by about 10:00 this morning, if not canceled early. And look at those cold temperatures all the way down to the Gulf Coast, 22 in Mobile. We'll talk more about this deep freeze for the south coming up in about a half an hour -- Kiran.
CHETRY: All right. Jacqui, thanks so much -- John.
ROBERTS: What was once one of Africa's most stable democracies is right now one of the most violent places in the world. Extreme chaos following a disputed election in Kenya. Mobs torching a church with hundreds of refugees inside. Witnesses say dozens of people including children were burned alive or hacked to death with machetes. Close to 300 people are dead in just four days.
And there are new fears today that Kenya is in danger of becoming the next Rwanda. Half a million people were killed there in a genocide more than a decade ago. Now, it's up to police in Kenya to keep that from happening again. Our Paula Newton has got the latest for us this morning. She is live in Nairobi and Paula, how close are they to the beginning of a new genocide there in Kenya?
PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thankfully, John, they are not close at this point. The problem is the sporadic violence is absolutely fueled by that kind of ethnic tension. This all started, John, with an election dispute. They had an opposition member belonging to one trip, the Luo tribe. He is disputing the election results.
The president here declared that he is a victor. His tribe has been seen as the holding power in Kenya for far too long and not really sharing those kinds of benefits of the kind of economic regeneration that has come to Kenya, sharing it with the population at large.
John, what is happening here is the government itself knows that they are in deep trouble. That the trigger point could come for that kind of ethnic tension to continue to flare up. We heard overnight that where perhaps more than 30 people were burned alive in that church, that there were another 17 deaths, eight officials there calling for blood transfusions, medical help, oxygen.
Right here today, John, in Nairobi, things are a little bit calmer. Traffic has begun to trickle in but things very tense in this falling slum outside of Nairobi, and that is the big wildcard here. What people need to see here, John, is a gesture of goodwill from the president, with the opposition leader to make sure that the people here have a sense that they are coming to some kind of political compromise -- John.
ROBERTS: Just an extraordinarily troubling situation there this morning. Paula Newton for us live from the Kenyan capital of Nairobi. Thanks very much, Paula. Now let's go back to New York and here's Kiran.
CHETRY: We're also following new details this morning in the San Francisco Zoo tiger attack. The victims are finally giving their side of the story. They say that the zoo ignored pleas for help for more than half an hour.
Famed attorney Mark Geragos is now representing Paul and Kulbir Dhaliwal, the two that were injured in the mauling. He tells "The San Francisco Chronicle" the zoo did not call police until 37 minutes after the deadly attack on Carlos Sousa, Jr. He says the female security guard who was riding in a golf cart shrugged the brothers off even though one of them was bleeding.
Geragos also says the men did not taunt the tiger. That is being disputed, though, by a source who tells the "New York Post" they had a sling shot and that an empty vodka bottle was apparently found in their car. Sousa's father, meantime, says he wants to talk to the brothers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) CARLOS SOUSA, SR., FATHER OF VICTIM: I want to ask them, did you do this? Did you do that? What happened? I've been hearing all this stuff on the media. I mean, I want to know the facts. I simply want to know what's going on. I want to know. That's my son. That was my life, you know.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: A zoo spokesman says it is unusual that Geragos is the only person with the facts when the police have not finished their investigation. The zoo, by the way, is scheduled to reopen tomorrow. However, the lions and tigers' exhibit is staying closed -- John.
ROBERTS: You are watching the most news in the morning here on CNN. Momentum could mean everything, and candidates here in Iowa are going all out in the minutes before the critical caucuses on Thursday night. Just ahead, the issues driving the last-minute campaigning and how the result could change the entire race from now right through until November.
And fire in the skies, smoke and red hot lava erupt from the earth and what goes up, of course, must come down. The race to get out of its way, next on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: One the best shots of the morning to show you. Lava, ash and smoke south of Santiago, Chile as the Llaima Volcano erupts, sent a column of smoke close to 10,000 feet into the air. About 150 people were told to get out of the area. No one hurt. The volcano last erupted in May but has not had a major blast since 1994 -- John.
ROBERTS: We're just hours away now, Kiran, from the Iowa caucuses. Both races too close to call at this point. There are potentially thousands of undecided voters up for grabs out there.
CNN political analyst John Dickerson has been out on the weary campaign trail. He joins me now live from the diner here in Iowa City. Good to see you.
JOHN DICKERSON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Good to see you, John.
ROBERTS: So John McCain now took a new shot yesterday at Mitt Romney, an ad on his Web site talking about some statements that Romney made on foreign policy and that presidents don't necessarily need to be foreign policy experts. Let's take a quick listen to that, and I'll ask you about it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: Mitt Romney says the next president doesn't need foreign policy experience.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Well, it's not exactly what Romney said. He said he doesn't have to be an expert in foreign policy because plenty of people in the state department that are experts and Ronald Reagan, who, by the way, was in this diner back in 1992, was never a foreign policy expert and still handled the Cold War. So is he making a valid argument there?
DICKERSON: Well, he's making the argument he must make because McCain is running on foreign policy experience and he's trying to keep Romney in the two-front war. You know, he's in a dead heat here in Iowa and he's now in your polls a dead heat in New Hampshire. So he's trying to get Romney to talk about something that is McCain's biggest strength.
ROBERTS: It was interesting, too, that we saw Romney yesterday started to ding the Bush administration for mismanaging the war. He's resisted that. Is that also a factor and a function of the fact that they are now tied up in New Hampshire?
DICKERSON: Yes, and it's a factor again he's now playing on McCain's turf. He's trying to say look, I had my own independent thoughts about Iraq, you know, long ago the way you had, John McCain. Because McCain in every town hall is saying look, I was right...
ROBERTS: Yes.
DICKERSON: ... when Rumsfeld was running the war and I should be given credit for being right at the right time.
ROBERTS: Romney has really only criticized the intelligence leading up to the war but sort of stayed away from criticizing how the war was actually handled. What about Huckabee? The "Des Moines Register" poll still has him in the lead here in Iowa. Can he pull off a win here? Is his appeal broad enough?
You know, he's very deep among Christian conservatives who make up more than a third of Republican voters here. But is it wide enough? Do people go to caucus for this? You know, like this bread and butter issues, taxes, immigration, and we like Romney on those.
DICKERSON: This is the great question about Huckabee. He's bleeding right now because Romney has been pounding him for two weeks on the air and the big question has always been, you know, how strong is that support because it is, as you say, among Christian evangelicals, he's leading. How far will he fall against Romney? And that's important in Iowa but it's also important to see whether he can go then take his support to New Hampshire, Florida, South Carolina.
ROBERTS: These recent missteps that he's made on foreign policy potentially hurt him in that ad that he said he wasn't going to run but I'm going to show it to you anyway?
DICKERSON: It looks confused. And, you know, people don't want to see their presidents being confused right before Election Day, so this is a problem for him and it also importantly on these national security issues.
ROBERTS: Of course, this is a big Democratic candidate that we're in right now. You're even following the Democrats around. What have you been hearing as they try to make these so-called closing arguments ahead of tomorrow's caucuses?
DICKERSON: John Edwards has the best closing argument. He is going to fight. Hillary Clinton has been speaking for an hour here last night. She's going to outwork her opponents, and Obama is all about hope.
ROBERTS: Yes, she was actually speaking in our hotel last night.
DICKERSON: That's right. We didn't have to go far.
ROBERTS: Which is always good when you consider how cold it is here, you want to try to stay inside as much as possible.
DICKERSON: That's right.
ROBERTS: John Dickerson, great to see you.
DICKERSON: Thanks, John.
ROBERTS: Thanks for joining us this morning -- Kiran.
CHETRY: Thanks, John.
Well, the late night funny men are heading back to their desks tonight, but the question is how funny will most of them be without their still striking writers? You know, the ones responsible for writing those jokes, writing the monologues. We're going to tell you how different the talk shows could look. We also have an update on the strike as it relates to your other shows that you love watching so much in 2008.
Also, no need for noise makers at this New Year's Eve party because the babies were making the noise. The first babies of 2008, we're going to meet some of them coming up on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: We'll call it brain freeze. It's your "Hot Shot" now. People jumping into the icy waters of Lake Minnetonka in Minnesota, two by two, sometimes three by three. You had to hold on to your partner. Some of them have to grab on poles because they were too chilled to keep on moving. Temperatures had been around zero degrees or lower this week. They actually had to chop a hole through the ice to get into the water.
And if you got a "Hot Shot," send it to us. The address is amhotshots@CNN.com. Be sure to include your name, where you're from, a little bit about the picture and video. And one more thing, make sure that the image is yours and not someone else's. And, Kiran, I know that's the way you started out your 2008, isn't it.
CHETRY: How about it? That's right. We're saying we're getting a lot of pictures. You were out in Times Square, a blast just to be there in person, it's just really once in a lifetime experience so it was a great time.
And we want to show you this as well, the celebration came a few minutes after midnight yesterday for some moms and dads. One of the first babies born in 2008, there she is. That's little Ana Marie Lamadriz. She had a healthy baby girl about an hour after the New Year, but it did not interrupt her plans.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANA MARIE LAMADRIZ, NEW YEAR'S MOM: We watched the countdown, and it was only three of us at the time so then they let the rest of my family come in. You know, we did the countdown, happy New Year's and then they had to go and they said OK, you're going to start pushing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Wow, how about it? You know, that takes a little bit of strength to be able to enjoy the New Year's countdown and push out a baby at the same time.
Little Emma Elizabeth, by the way, is the first baby born in Miami Dade County this year. She wasn't due until the 10th, but her parents were joking that she was not going to wait until the New Year.
How about this one, John? You and I were talking about this possible hope on the horizon for the sleep-deprived. Could we one day live without it at all? It's interesting.
Researchers discover that a nasal spray containing a particular brain hormone apparently cures sleepiness in sleep-deprived monkeys with apparently no side effects yet, basically tricking the brain into thinking it doesn't need sleep. It's all very preliminary and obviously still needs some more study, but are humans next?
And it brings us to this morning's "Quick Vote" question. If science could come up with a "sleep spray" to replace sleep, would you take it? Or do you think it would be better and still get your shut eye?
Cast your vote, CNN.com/AM. Yes or no, would you take it? We'll have the first tally of votes coming up a little later in the hour. What about you, John? I know on days like this you're tempted to, right?
ROBERTS: There is. There is not even an argument, Kiran. At the moment, we're doing it with the Hamburg Inn number two coffee here in Iowa City, but if we had something that you can take, wipe out the sleep deprivation, I'd certainly go for it. The only kind of scary thing about this is, this is all being developed by DARFA, the Defense Advance Research Project Agency of the Pentagon, so it's just something a little scary about that whole thing.
CHETRY: It has the makings of a sci-fi movie?
ROBERTS: I know it. CHETRY: I don't know. Part of me --
ROBERTS: Perhaps. Yes.
CHETRY: We're going to talk to Sanjay Gupta about it coming up in the next hour or two. The other thing is, you know, sleep is so important for your body physically healing itself and your brain sort of healing itself, I'm wondering if it's smart to just do without sleep all together, even if they supposedly claim no side effects. I don't know if I buy it yet.
ROBERTS: Yes. I don't know, but we'll see. You know, it's not going to be in the drugstores any time soon but I'm sure a lot more research will be done on it.
Hey, there's not that many voters in Iowa. In fact, all of the money is over about a pool of about 200,000 people and many of them still haven't made up their minds. We're going to show you what the candidates are doing to try to scratch out every vote today. That's coming up on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. It's Wednesday, January 2nd. I'm Kiran Chetry here in New York this morning.
Hey, John.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, good morning to you, Kiran. I'm John Roberts in Iowa City, Iowa, this morning, as we're 24 hours away from the caucuses. We're here at the Hamburg Inn No. 2 in Iowa City, very famous diner. Got a heritage that goes all the way back to the 1930s. We'll show you a little bit about what's going on here this morning. Real hotbed for politics. But first of all, Kiran has got some more of today's news from New York.
Kiran?
CHETRY: That's right. And we're following the latest developments out of Pakistan. We're expected to hear at the top of the hour, what date the exact date, they're going to hold the upcoming parliamentary elections. Looks like the government is going to postpone them. Election commission spokesperson calling it near impossible to try to pull them off January 8th in the wake of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. The delay follows rioting after her assassination as well. But again, within the hour, we should be hearing when the date will be set.
Also, a report out of the "New York Times" this morning that President Pervez Musharraf may ask for help from Scotland Yard to investigate Bhutto's murder. Musharraf is expected to address the nation in just a few hours.
To Kenya now, where concerns about mass murder after a disputed presidential elections there. More than 275 people reported killed in ethnic violence after a disputed election. Witnesses say that mobs with machetes killed up to 50 people hiding in a church that was then set on fire. The head of the African union is scheduled to arrive in Nairobi today to help mediate the violence.
And more violence in Africa. Sudan's government is condemning the attack that killed a U.S. diplomat and his Sudanese driver in Khartoum. 33-year-old, John Granville, was an officer with the U.S. agency for international development. His car was shot at, his driver also killed. Sudan's foreign ministry is ruling out a terror attack but a U.S. Embassy spokesman says it's too early to tell what motivated that shooting.
Back here in the U.S., the northeast part of the country getting hammered once again by the same winter storm system that ended up dumping more than a foot of snow in Ohio and Michigan. It was a New Year's Day record, made for the holiday travel. Quite a mess there in parts of the Midwest. Still, tens of thousands of people without power, as many homes lost power due to that storm and Maine getting the worst of it today, up to a foot of snow overnight, coupled with 50 mile-an-hour wind gusts. We're going to give you an update on the weather in just a few minutes.
There are some new numbers that just came out within the hour on the presidential race in New Hampshire. They showed a turnaround for Republican John McCain. The newest CNN/WMUR Poll conducted by the University of New Hampshire showing McCain picking up ten points. Now tied with Mitt Romney at 29 percent in the Republican primary voter's choice for a nominee. Rudy Giuliani, dropping seven points since last month to 12 percent.
And then on the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton, four points ahead of Barack Obama in the New Hampshire polling, and yet another dead heat, because it is within the margin of error. Clinton is at 34 percent, Obama at 30 percent and John Edwards polling at 17 percent. So that was a look at the New Hampshire polling. We're going to head back up to Iowa now, where John Roberts is talking about what's going on there. They're the ones that are going first, so a lot of excitement in Iowa this morning.
ROBERTS: It all starts tomorrow night, 7:00 p.m. central time here in Iowa, as the caucuses get under way. 1,781 local precincts. People will be gathering together to talk about who they would like to see as president. You know, they've been talking about that here in the Hamburg Inn No. 2 diner for a while ago. It's called a Coffee Bean Caucus here. We'll tell you more about this coming up a little bit later on. But Barack Obama, looks like, he's doing pretty well. He's got, at least a few cups of coffee beans in his jar.
Folks here, they like their politics. They also like their eggs. It's barely just after 5:30 here and the place is already packed. These folks sitting at a very famous table. Good morning, folks. How are you?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE AND FEMALE: Good morning.
ROBERTS: It's good to see you. Bill Clinton sat here. Clinton came to town. He was here just a little while ago too, wasn't he? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He had breakfast here a couple weeks ago.
ROBERTS: Yes. How are the eggs? It looks like you got...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Excellent. Excellent.
ROBERTS: You got quite the breakfast there as well.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The home fries are the thing to come here for.
ROBERTS: 60 different types of omelets here, I understand. So Bill Clinton's table here, reflecting his centrist policies right in the center of this side. Over here, on the far right is the Ronald Reagan table. Table number six at the Hamburg Inn here, Ronald Reagan, August 8th, 1992. A lot of pictures on the wall as well. How are you folks doing this morning?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good.
ROBERTS: You're sitting over here at the Reagan table. This is Jon Secada. This is a real Democratic county here. Are you taking a risk, here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think we're taking a risk. We might get thrown out.
ROBERTS: All right. We'll good to see you, folks. Are you caucusing tonight?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
ROBERTS: Excellent. All right. So, that's what's going on here at the old Hamburg Inn No. 2. It's a real fun place. A lot of great people. We'll be spending the morning here. We're also talking to Mitt Romney, a little bit later on this morning.
But right now, let's check in on what's going on with the Republicans. The ground game in these final hours focused on a large group of voters who have yet to make up their minds. CNN's Dana Bash shows us how the campaigns had tried to reach them and why each undecided vote carries so much weight. And Dana, I guess the big question this morning, is this Huckaboom that we have been seeing with Mike Huckabee leading in the polls. Dana will be coming up in just a second. We'll talk to her about that. But right now, let's just take a look at what she found.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: These are the frenzied steps of a campaign in search of every last vote.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm Matt with the Mitt Romney campaign. How are you doing?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm just here to remind you about the caucus.
BASH: Door to door through snow, at headquarters, by phone.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We also wanted to remind you of your caucus location.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you know of anyone who you can bring with you, friends or family?
BASH: Only about 100,000 Iowa Republicans actually caucus, so every vote really does count.
GENTRY COLLINS, ROMNEY CAMPAIGN: What we're doing now is trying to make sure that all of those supporters know how to caucus, know when to caucus, know where to caucus.
BASH: Mitt Romney's well-funded organization is now going back to every probable voter. How many voters are in your data base?
COLLINS: Hopefully enough.
BASH: What's enough?
COLLINS: You know, one more than the next guy.
BASH: That other guy, Mike Huckabee, is still feverishly singing up supporters at events.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They have actually signed, making a commitment. We're going to call them and remind them to come and go out.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The reason for my call is to see if Governor Huckabee can count your support and vote in the Iowa caucus on January 3rd.
BASH: Huckabee's campaign is work in the phones too, but relying heavily on home schoolers and evangelicals to rally friends, even first-time caucus goers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've been involved a lot more politically in the last year, than I have in the past.
BASH: But for all the hard work, the "X" factor is this.
BRENDA SAMBURG, UNDECIDED VOTER: I just don't feel really passionate about any one candidate.
BASH: Nearly half of GOP voters are undecided. Do you think you might just walk into your caucus location on Thursday night and just decide then?
SAMBURG: It's possible. It's possible. It's also possible that I just won't go to the caucus.
SAMBURG: Still, each call could help.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Will you vote for Huckabee?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, thank you for your time, sir.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, I got a yes.
BASH: Dana Bash, CNN, Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: So, a large number of undecided voters still in this state on the Republican side, more than on the Democratic side. And a large number of independents here, too, and under caucus rules, independents can go in and participate as long as they declare for a particular party, when they go into the caucus. So, this potentially, a huge pool of voters out there that they could get out and some of these candidates are counting out, some of those first time caucus goers to put them over the top.
And a reminder, this program (INAUDIBLE) here on CNN, Mitt Romney will be our guest, coming up at 8:30 eastern. He is in Des Moines this morning. He'll be speaking to us from there.
Kiran?
CHETRY: All right. John, thanks so much.
Well, they're back. Letterman, Leno, Conan, all of the late night comics returning to work tonight. Some of them are going to have their writers working, so it will be traditionally what you're used to seeing in late night. Others, will not, because writers are still staying on the picket line. Our Lola Ogunnaike is here now to explain how that will change. What you're going to see on TV. It will be very interesting. This is the first test of whether or not, some of the things we're used to seeing can remain successful without the writers. First to Letterman.
LOLA OGUNNAIKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know what? He was able to work out a deal with the writer's guild so his show, and Craig Ferguson's show, which he also produces with his company, worldwide pants, will be able to return. He was able to do that, because he owns his own shows. It's not something that's produced by networks. So, he was able to work out this relationship, which means for him, he will have his monologues, he will have his skits, he will have his top ten countdown list.
So his show will probably look exactly as it did before the strike. He will also have access to better guests, because the Screen Actor's Guild, as well as the writer's guild are encouraging celebrities to do his show and not to cross the picket lines for the other shows.
CHETRY: So, perhaps more interesting is what a Leno-type show is going to look like without the monologues, without the standup and without some of this "A" list guests. And they're not really spilling a lot of beans on how they're planning to compensate for the lack of writers.
OGUNNAIKE: No. They're keeping all of this mum and one of the reasons is, they don't want celebrities to actually end up crossing that picket lines and doing their shows to be intimidated and cancel. So, you know, but Letterman, on the other hand, he is being quite clear about what he's doing. He's going to have Bill Maher on. He's going to Robin Williams on today. He's going to have Ellen Page, the star of "Juno" on his show today. Leno is going to have Mike Huckabee. But, we don't know who Kimmel is going to have on. And we don't know who Conan O'Brien is going to have on and they're not talking about it.
CHETRY: So, this is interesting as well, because we're talking about getting into the heart of the political season. Iowa caucus is a day away. And I bet you that, a lot of the political candidates could get free reign on some these shows because they're not booking as many actors.
OGUNNAIKE: Yes. Well, Mike Huckabee may have 15 minutes on Leno, as oppose to five minutes, because there are no guests. Expect really long interviews. Expect a lot of musical acts as well on these shows. And you know, expect a lot of improvisation here.
CHETRY: Hey, you can play your whole CD, just come on over.
OGUNNAIKE: And it will be interesting to see, how they address the strike on these shows. Letterman, doing a strike in 1988. He called his video executives, jerks and money-grubbing scumbags. So, maybe, there will be a top ten countdown this evening about the strike.
CHETRY: All right. So, you'll be staying up late for us. Watching all of this, giving us the full report tomorrow on what you think.
OGUNNAIKE: Absolutely.
CHETRY: Lola, great to see you, thank you.
John?
ROBERTS: No one could beat the New England Patriots and you can't beat this deal. One Massachusetts couple getting their free wedding ring. Thanks to (INAUDIBLE). That story is coming up.
And the very first votes are in here in Iowa. We will find out who won the Coffee Bean Caucus, right here at the Hamburg Inn No. 2 in Iowa City. That's coming right up. There it is. We'll have the results on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back. Well, New England Patriots perfect season just got a little sweeter for one Massachusetts couple. They're getting a free wedding ring. Worcester jewelry store offered customers a 100 percent refund, if the Pats went 16-0. So, can you imagine? Already huge Patriots fans and now, they're like, praying that the team remains undefeated. Well, it happened. So, Lindsay Donoghy (ph) and Steven Shemogan (ph) will be back again, getting $1,260 in cash. Lindsay says Steven wants to get 16-0 engraved on the ring. That's so romantic.
A Boston area furniture store made a similar deal if the Red Sox won the World Series. And sure enough, they of course won. That furniture store had got $3 million worth of insurance to make sure they could pay all of that off for the folks who bought tons of furniture expecting the Red Sox to go undefeated, to win rather. So, don't feel too bad for the jewelry store. They also became insured, $200,000 on the contest claim. So, congrats to the new married couple and to the jewelry store, I guess, and of course to the New England Patriots, that's grudgingly actually.
Jacqui Jeras is in for Rob Marciano today. If you're a Redskins fan, you know, what are you going to do?
(WEATHER REPORT)
CHETRY: Meanwhile, the caucuses are coming up tomorrow and we have our own, John Roberts. He is hanging out with the Iowans, getting very excited to do their caucusing.
Hi, John.
ROBERTS: Hey, Pety (ph) is going to love the fact you called him Pety (ph) on national TV as well. The caucuses are coming up tomorrow night, but at least, some votes are have already been cast here in Iowa City. We're about to announce the winner of the Coffee Bean Caucus here at the Hamburg Inn No. 2. Dave Panther is the owner of this fabulous establishment. He joins us this morning. This is amazing to see, this many people. It's not even 6:00 in the morning here and you got the place packed out.
DAVE PANTHER, OWNER, HAMBURG INN NO. 2: Well, we've always done real well in Iowa City. It's our 60th year this year.
ROBERTS: Fantastic. So, what's the Coffee Bean Caucus all about?
PANTHER: We started this in 2003 for the last election and it was just a way to tie in to the Iowa caucuses and try to keep Iowa first in the nation and have a lot of fun. So, we have been able to attract several of the candidates to press the flesh with the locals and I think it's a really good grassroots venue for the candidates.
ROBERTS: So, you've got two Coffee Bean Caucuses going on. You've got the local one here, which patrons come in. They pick from this jar here and they put a coffee bean in their candidate of choice. You've also got an online poll as well. People can play across the country. You've been tallying some of the results this morning. What are you finding? It's all very sophisticated, I see. PANTHER: Yes. I started with some of the lower jars first and worked my way up to our eventual winner. Right now, looks like Obama is definitely going to be ahead.
ROBERTS: Ron Paul leading on the Republican side.
PANTHER: Ron Paul did very, very well online. So, he has a strong following in Iowa City.
ROBERTS: And an interesting number right here in the middle. The highest number on this page, so far is the undecided voter, which is an indication that things are still pretty fluid. But if you look at sheer volume, you haven't got to this yet, because you haven't counted them. Barack Obama seems to have the jar that's most full here.
PANTHER: Barack was very popular.
ROBERTS: And Hillary Clinton, quite a ways behind actually. So, he is very popular and John Edwards, just a little bit behind her as well. So, you do see a lot of the candidates here. Mitt Romney was here over the weekend.
PANTHER: We had Mitt Romney on Sunday. And it was frenzy. Shoulder to shoulder and probably 60-plus people outside.
ROBERTS: Obama has come through here. Edwards, John McCain, Chris Dodd, Joe Biden. Do they connect well with people, when they come here? I mean, this is a great place. This is such a friendly and fun atmosphere.
PANTHER: I think they really do. Because in this type of a venue, you don't know what kind of a question you're going to get, and Joe Biden was popped on all issues. Former President Clinton came in. Obama came in unannounced. And that's great for us, because he was starting his speech at the university and started it with "I had a great omelet at Hamburg Inn."
ROBERTS: And Hillary, hasn't been here yet.
PANTHER: She hasn't made it yet.
ROBERTS: She was at the hotel, just down the street. We invited her to come and join us here, but she had other things she had to do this morning.
PANTHER: Well, we're hoping that eventually she'll make a stop.
ROBERTS: Dave. Thanks very much. We'll get to you keep counting up the number of beans to see just how much in the lead Barack Obama seems to be here. As we said, Johnson County, very Democratic county here in Iowa.
PANTHER: Thank you very much.
ROBERTS: Thanks for hosting us this morning. Great to be here. Kiran?
CHETRY: John, thanks so much. Well, the candidates are getting their messages out. Slinging a little bit of mud and maybe not even having to pay a dime. Veronica De La Cruz shows us how, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Candidates are making their last push before the Iowa caucuses tomorrow. A lot of them are using the web to get the message out. Our Veronica De La Cruz joins me now with more. A lot of these campaign ads, sometimes they launch on the web, so we're seeing them for the first time online.
VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, absolutely. You know, they're definitely taking out a lot of advertising time on local television, but like, Kiran, just said, they are using the web to get their message out. Now on Republican side, John McCain, has launched a web only attack out on Mitt Romney. Take a look. It's a pretty graphic ad, that shows an explosion, a body, then is being carried out, and then you finally hear, Kiran, Mitt Romney says, "The next president doesn't need foreign policy experience, John McCain for president." Now, that's something he put on his website. It is a web-only attack ad.
And that isn't the only attack on Romney hitting the web. One day after Mike Huckabee showed the ad, he said that, he wasn't going to show. It showed up in various forms on YouTube. So, really, no surprise there. No word on how it got out. This poster calls it a bootleg copy. But Huckabee either knew or should have known that this was going to happen, which is why some people are little skeptical of his motives. Now, on a side note for the Huckabee campaign. Yesterday, he held an event with his biggest supporter, Chuck Norris. The two gave a big thank you to a room full of bloggers. About 700 of them showed up and were thanked for their support. Especially, early on in the campaign, when Huckabee didn't really have too much money. Also not really a lot of media coverage. So you know, a lot of candidates are trying to take their last-minute jabs.
CHETRY: Yes. It's smart though, because even though they may pay initially for the ad to be on the Internet, in one way shape or form, it spreads rather quickly and they get a lot of views for that, from other sites as well.
DE LA CRUZ: But it's going to be interesting to see how it plays out in Iowans, because mostly Iowans don't like negative campaigning.
CHETRY: That's what they say. We'll find out for sure. I guess, Friday morning. Veronica, thanks so much.
John?
ROBERTS: Thanks very much, Kiran.
2007, a terrible one for the housing industry. Jill Bennett of "BusinessWeek TV" is in for Ali Velshi this morning, "Minding Your Business." Good morning, Jill. How bad was it?
JILL BENNETT, BUSINESSWEEK TV: A very tough year in 2007 and is expected to be in 2008 as well. I mean, we had a number of things, including risky mortgages that were written out. That led to a lot of foreclosures. We had major banks making investments on some of that mortgage-related debt. So, they took a big hit as well. And we really saw a big housing slump. A very tough time to be a home seller. In fact, you can see existing home sales. That sales previously owned homes and condos fell 20 percent in the month of November. We had new home sales down by 9 percent. Builders really trying to toss in some new incentives to try to get some of those homes sold.
And when we have a lot of these concerns out there, we have a lot of homeowners sitting there with some of these adjustable rate mortgages or even subprime mortgages and they're worried about, how to refinance or when to refinance. So really, the key to that, you want to be sure that you find a refinance loan that is at least .75 to one percent lower than your existing rate and that you're going to be in your home for at least eight years. Because, that's really the only way you can make up those refinancing costs, because it's expensive to refinance. You have the lawyer fees. You have all the different fees coming up, so you have to make sure that you're going to get that money back. So, that's why you want to be in your home for at least eight years.
ROBERTS: Jill, initial analysis. Maybe a lot of it was wishful thinking as well, was that this whole thing would shake out in 2008? Is it looking like it still might do that or might it be delayed further?
BENNETT: Well, it really depends who you speak with. Some of them are now saying, we might not see it shake out until 2009. So, really, it's a cloudy crystal ball at this point.
ROBERTS: It's going to be tough. We'll make people feel very wealthy here in 2008 if their home prices are going down. Jill Bennett, this morning, from BusinessWeek TV. Jill, thanks very much.
Was it a bullet, was it a bomb, or was it something that, what killed Benazir Bhutto? Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta has been looking at the doctor's note. He'll show us, coming up at the top of the hour.
Politics, reaching a new high. We will tell you why one candidate is 300 feet up in the air today. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. It's a question a lot of us ask ourselves every morning. Can we live another day without any sleep? Well, researches have discovered that a nasal spray containing a particular brain hormone can apparently cure sleepiness and sleep-deprive monkeys with no apparent side effects yet. It basically tricks the brain into thinking it doesn't need sleep. It's all very preliminary and obviously needs more study. But the question is being raised, could it help humans one day.
And it brings us to this morning's "Quick Vote" question. If science could come up with a sleep spray, would you take it? Cast your vote, cnn.com/am. Right now, only 41 percent are saying yes. But it is interesting, a lot of people in this room thought that everyone would say yes to it. 59 percent say no. Some of us, like myself included, have reservations about whether or not, it's bad for you to never sleep. Well, we'll continue to update the votes throughout the morning. Meanwhile, the next hour of AMERICAN MORNING starts now.
ROBERTS: Which way to go?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just don't feel really passionate about any one candidate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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