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American Morning
Fight for Iowa: Candidates Last Minute Message; Crisis in Pakistan: Elections Delayed; Tiger Attack; Beauty Queen Indicted
Aired January 02, 2008 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: 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.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Which way to go.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just don't feel really passionate about any one candidate.
ROBERTS: The last-minute push to win votes in Iowa.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The reason for my call is to see if Governor Huckabee can count on your support.
ROBERTS: Just what is a caucus? How you can play along at home.
Election questions. Charges that American terror tools helped Pakistan rig the vote. The shocking report Benazir Bhutto never got to deliver.
Plus, extreme weather. The Midwest digs out from more than a foot of snow. The frosty forecast on this special election edition of AMERICAN MORNING.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: And thanks very much for joining us on this Wednesday, the 2nd of January, and the special edition of AMERICAN MORNING. From Iowa City, Iowa, I'm John Roberts. Good morning, Kiran.
CHETRY: Good morning. I'm Kiran Chetry here in New York and John, you were talking about it in the last hour. It's cold but not as cold as it once was for you, when your coffee literally evaporated when thrown in the air. Almost like that today but not quite.
ROBERTS: I have seen it colder than it is today but believe me, Kiran, it's January here in Iowa, but we have a diner full of people here the day before caucuses here in Iowa. We're at the Hamburg Inn number two diner. We're spending all morning here talking to the folks, talking politics, and we'll get to all of that in just a little while. CHETRY: All right. First, though, we are going to let people know about the new polls that are out. We're one day to Iowa, six days to the New Hampshire primary and there's some new numbers from that state this morning showing a comeback for Republican John McCain.
It's the CNN/WMUR poll. It was conducted by the University of New Hampshire just released about an hour ago, and it has McCain picking up 10 points, now tying Mitt Romney at 29 percent in that state. Rudy Giuliani dropping seven points since last month to 12 percent.
For the Democrats, Hillary Clinton is four points ahead of Barack Obama in New Hampshire, yet another dead heat with the margin of error. Clinton at 34 percent and Obama at 30 percent. John McCain at 17 percent in New Hampshire, so it will be interesting to see how that shakes out and how that changes as the votes and the results come in from the state you're in right now, John.
ROBERTS: Oh, yes. You know, and it's changing all of the time and there are so many undecided voters here in Iowa as well, Kiran. Eleven possible presidents are in this state right now. All of them focused on one thing, trying to convince a number of undecided voters to get out there and participate, also to try to get some first time people out there who may have made up their minds. What message are they selling in these final hours?
CNN's Jessica Yellin is following the Democrats. She's live from Des Moines this morning and Jessica, this has been nonstop for John Edwards. He's been out all night. What's he been up to?
JESSICA YELLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John Edwards has been on a 36-hour barn storming tour of the state. We saw a rally around midnight and stops all morning long. He is selling his message that his passion for change comes from the heart. He says he's the one who is going to help the little guy more than the others.
John Edwards has spent so much time here, since 2004, when he showed such a strong finish in this state. He really wants to get a first place finish here, and he's asking people to make him their second choice, if not their first choice, because that could deliver him the state of Iowa tomorrow night.
ROBERTS: Right. And so many of these campaigns are focused on these elaborate what they call go TV campaign, get out the vote campaigns. What is the Clinton campaign doing trying to get people out?
YELLIN: I'll tell you, John, here we've got a door hanger from Senator Clinton's campaign, telling people that they have to vote. The stakes are so high with foreclosures and the war, this is not a caucus to miss. And here's what we see at the Obama events. They target people by their interest in voting and their interest in voting for Barack Obama. Make them a one, a two, a three, four or a five, and people target them.
Ones want to come out the most. Five is the least, and they sell them different messages. People going for, to knock on doors. Thousands of people have gotten calls, visits and promises that we will drive you. We'll give you child care. We'll shovel your walkway so you could get there. So much of this depends on how many people vote. None of the campaigns want to miss any effort to help get that vote high.
ROBERTS: Oh, yes. I mean, it's all going to turn on turnout. Jessica Yellin for us this morning in Des Moines. Jessica, thanks very much -- Kiran.
CHETRY: All right. We're also tracking extreme weather this morning, John, not only in parts where you are but utility crews trying to restore power to tens of thousands of people in the Midwest. Here's some pictures from Bloomfield Township in Michigan, where more than a foot of snow is on the ground now. Also the same situation is coming to us from WOIO in Ohio. Travelers for the holiday were dealing with nightmare conditions around the New Year's Eve holiday on the air and on the roads as well.
Dozens of schools were forced to extend their winter breaks. Surely, there were no tears over that as the kids had a chance to get out and do some sledding. It was the region's heaviest New Year's Day snowstorm on record, and forecasters say that snow fell at a rate of at least two inches an hour in some parts.
The arctic cold headed south, up to eight inches of snow falling in parts of western North Carolina today. Forecasters say that the bitter cold and strong gusty winds will continue across the mountain region. Wind chills could drop to 10 degrees below zero. All of those dropping temperatures including the ones below freezing in Florida tonight and tomorrow morning worries some citrus growers. They're scrambling to protect their crops.
Some orange growers say they are getting ready to flood their fields with warm water. Governor Charlie Crist of Florida also easing restrictions on commercial vehicles taking vulnerable crops to processing centers.
Rob Marciano is off today, but Jacqui Jeras is at our weather update desk tracking all of this for us. And a lot of concerns for the citrus growers down south and they're trying to prepare ahead of time as best as they can to save those crops.
JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, absolutely. Right now, it's looking like the worst of the cold, you know, the hard freeze where you have 28 degrees or below for a long period of time. It's hopefully going to stay up to the north of there, but it's going to be kind of touch and go. You know, they should get down near that freezing mark for sure.
That cold arctic air, this is really our first blast of arctic air this year, and it has just invaded the upper Midwest, the Great Lakes and the northeast. That's continuing to pull down to the south and that's why tomorrow that's going to be the worst of it in south Florida. Now, you can see the kind of the remnants of our storm system into the northeast. But mostly, what's going on now, you got to look really close to see it as all the snow that's coming in off of the lakes and also a little enhancement due to elevation here.
We've got some pictures to show you in South Bend, Indiana. That's where they've had some extreme snow in the last 24-plus hours. South Bend had about 8 1/2 inches yesterday. That was a record daily snowfall total for you for January 1st, and you had about a total around a foot and you could you see an additional three to five inches before all is said and done for today.
We're going to talk more about this snow and just how cold things are going to be getting across parts of the south. And we're also going to tell you about that storm in the west that's heading that way. You're not going to believe the rainfall totals we're expecting with that one. That's coming up at about the bottom of the hour -- Kiran.
CHETRY: Jacqui, thanks a lot -- John.
ROBERTS: A new revelation this morning about the gunman who killed eight people at the Westroads shopping mall in Omaha, Nebraska, last month. Toxicology tests show the 19-year-old Robert Hawkins had a small amount of the prescription drug Valium in his system, but no signs of alcohol. The autopsy also showed that Hawkins died from a single shot from his assault rifle fired from under his chin.
It was an escape plot straight out of a movie, perhaps a comedy. Police in Massachusetts say the girlfriend of a burglary suspect planned to slip him a handcuff key through a kiss or a hug, but James Miller allegedly discussed the plan during phone calls from jail, all of which are monitored. Is he charged with attempted escape and conspiracy? His girlfriend was arrested and charged with attempting to aid an escape.
And one candidate is taking his platform to new heights literally. Dale Cardwell is right now capped at 300 feet above Atlanta drawing attention to his bid to unseat incumbent Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss. The former television reporter was hoisted up a tower on New Year's Day and says he plans to stay there, "as long as it takes to get his message across" -- Kiran.
CHETRY: All right. We have some new news from Pakistan this morning, including an election commission news conferences that's happening right now, and they just made the decision that they are going to delay those parliamentary elections.
There's a live look right now. The elections commission spokesperson talking about this. This decision comes amid the chaos that followed the assassination of U.S. ally and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Election commission spokesman earlier calling it near impossible to try to pull off a January 8th election with all that's been going on in the country in the wake of her assassination. So again, the decision officially made to delay those elections. Criticism coming from many sides on that as well. Some are arguing that they want the elections to go forward, and that by delaying them, it gives time for people's anger over Benazir Bhutto's assassination to dissipate somewhat, benefiting Musharraf. There is a lot of anger around the president of Pakistan right now.
We're just getting word that the date they have selected is February 18th. So about a month and a half after the date that they originally announced those parliamentary elections, they're giving it about six weeks longer to hopefully get the unrest under control and to allow for those opposition parties to make sure that they're ready to go with the replacements and other things that are, of course, happening now that Benazir Bhutto, who was the clear favorite, has now been killed.
Also, this morning, some questions about whether or not Scotland Yard is going to help investigate her assassination. We're going to talk more about that as well. Still questions over the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. Was it a bullet that killed her? Was it the explosion? What led to the death of former Prime Minister Bhutto, and what could an autopsy tell us?
Well, CNN's chief medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta is at the medical update desk. The decision made not to perform an autopsy so what can you find out anyway or despite that decision, Sanjay?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it is admittedly very confusing, Kiran. There's no question about it. We heard a lot of conflicting reports. First, the question of a bullet or shrapnel wound. Then, the question of actually causing enough force from the head on the sunroof latch to actually cause the sorts of injuries.
And we actually got a hold of the medical report from Rawalpindi Hospital in Pakistan talking specifically about the fact that there was an open head wound and that open head wound led to cardiopulmonary arrests. They're making a lot of these x-rays, Kiran. I'm going to show you something here because this is very interesting and very telling as far as actually trying to decipher this or show you how difficult it is.
We actually have some of the x-rays I believe, the original ones. These are the ones that they're actually releasing from the hospital. First of all, you can sort of tell from these images over here. You're not even seeing the entire sort of skull here. And what they're sort of pointing to is this depression in here causing the possible fracture. It is very difficult to tell. I can tell you as a neurosurgeon to make anything of this.
This other x-ray over here you see this sort of bright spot right in the middle. I'm not even sure what that represents. I want to show you just what normal x-rays look like to give you a sense what have it should look like and how you can get much more information. This is sort of looking at the head from the side. You could clearly see the skull all around here. You can see some of the bones here. You could see the front of the head. That's a very normal looking side view of the x-ray of the skull.
Over here is the front. Again, you could see the eye sort of in this area right here and these are the nasal bones. None of this is seen on the x-ray that they showed us from Benazir Bhutto, so it's very difficult to make any information out of what we have so far, so it's just difficult to draw any conclusions, Kiran.
CHETRY: And so as you take a look at this and as you try to figure out what happened, what about that earlier claim that it was that she hit her head. Could that ever be determined?
GUPTA: Well, so we looked at these videos over and over again to try and make some sense out of that. It is a possibility. To generate enough force, though, to generate enough force from someone actually coming down through the sunroof and then to hit their head against the lever requires a significant amount of force. Could it have been that she was ducking down and then there was a blast injury at almost the same time? Possibly.
It didn't look like it quite matched on the video that we watched, but that's a possibility. Could there have been other injuries and other parts of her body? We're focused so much on the skull, but could there have been a bullet wound, for example, that went through her chest, through her heart? Things like that. These are things that we just simply don't know because the autopsy wasn't performed.
CHETRY: All right. Sanjay Gupta, a lot of questions that may not be answered because she was buried without that autopsy. Thank you. We'll check in with you throughout the hour.
GUPTA: All right. Thank you.
CHETRY: John?
ROBERTS: Kiran, we are finally hearing what the victims of the San Francisco tiger attack have to say, plus new allegations that the brothers may have taunted the 350-pound Siberian tiger, Tatiana, that day. That story is coming up.
Plus, what's on these voters' minds? What do they want to hear from the candidates? We'll ask them. AMERICAN MORNING live from Iowa City is coming right back. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Some of the best shots in the morning in our "Quick Hits" coming to you now. Lava, ash and smoke south of Santiago, Chile. The Llaima Volcano sent a column of smoke close to 10,000 feet up into the air. One hundred fifty people were evacuated, and even though there was an awful lot going up and a lot coming down, no one was hurt.
Roses were dodger blue at the Rose Bowl Parade. This float celebrating America's past time was one of 50 that have to be made of all organic material including millions of flowers. It was a picture- perfect day for the 119th parade in Pasadena, despite the threat from the Santa Ana winds.
And push. A car stuck in a ditch after a monster snowfall in southeastern Michigan. The New Year storm dumped more than a foot there before it moved across the lake to upstate New York and New England. Now let's head back up to New York and here's Kiran.
CHETRY: Wow. That does not look like fun. God bless them. Hopefully they got that car out.
Well, new this morning. We're hearing from the survivors of the tiger attack at the San Francisco zoo. Their lawyer says the zoo ignored their cries for help. Defense attorney Mark Geragos is now representing Paul and Kulbir Dhaliwal, the two who were injured but did not get killed by that tiger.
The "San Francisco Chronicle" is saying the zoo didn't call police until 37 minutes after the tiger attack and killed Carlos Sousa, Jr. According to Geragos, he's also saying that the security guard shrugged the brothers off even though one was bleeding. The "New York Post" is reporting, though, that the brothers had a slingshot with them at the zoo and that an empty vodka bottle was found in the brother's car.
Geragos, their lawyer, Geragos is denying the claim about the sling shot but Sousa's father, the father of the young boy who died, says he wants to talk to the two.
(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's -- that's my life, you know.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: By the way, the zoo is set to reopen tomorrow. The tiger and lions exhibit is remaining closed to the public.
Our legal analyst Sunny Hostin has been covering this for us, weighing in as we go along, and it seems like every day we hear something new.
SUNNY HOSTIN, AMERICAN MORNING LEGAL ANALYST: That's right.
CHETRY: Although these latest accusations coming from Geragos about the fact that perhaps the zoo did not take the brothers seriously...
HOSTIN: Right.
CHETRY: ... seems to be backed up by some of those 911 tapes where it appears that the dispatchers thought they were lying or crazy, they said.
HOSTIN: Absolutely.
CHETRY: Or mentally --
HOSTIN: Mentally unstable. And Kiran, the investigation is still ongoing here and we know that, but we've been hearing this from the very beginning. What we've been hearing is that the wall, the tiger enclosure wall, was not high enough. The recommended height was 16.4 feet. It's 12 1/2 feet. It was four feet well, you know, below the recommended minimum for a U.S. zoo.
We also know that the tiger had mauled a zookeeper a year before. There were no surveillance cameras. The response was completely inadequate here. They locked the police out. We're talking about a zoo employee that ignored a man who was bleeding from the head. This is for me again a slam dunk in terms of the suit that is going to come. And --
CHETRY: Even if, as it turns out, as we said, there is some sourcing about this from "The New York Post" that there is a slingshot found.
HOSTIN: Yes.
CHETRY: If these --
(CROSSTALK)
HOSTIN: It doesn't matter.
CHETRY: If they taunted the tiger...
HOSTIN: Yes.
CHETRY: ... let's say and were drinking, is any of that contribute to their culpability?
HOSTIN: It is, and we know that's why the zoo is going to be playing the blame game here. It's about contributory negligence so a judge or a jury is going to have to balance who was more negligent, the zoo or the brothers?
So let's say they had the slingshot and they were drunk and they were taunting the tiger. Had the fence been as high as it was supposed to have been, maybe we wouldn't have a dead teenager and two, you know, severely injured teenagers. So the bottom line is, maybe they did it, maybe they didn't, but really, who cares? The zoo is going to be found negligent here. We know that the response was inadequate. They have a real problem.
CHETRY: You know, there's another interesting case this morning. It's an Arizona beauty queen. She's also a law clerk to a federal judge.
HOSTIN: Yes.
CHETRY: In some hot water now accused of kidnapping and torturing her ex-boyfriend. Her attorney says the victim is not innocent, has a record of his own, but this case just seems a little bit strange.
HOSTIN: You know it's difficult to explain crazy and you see it all the time, but we have someone that's a law student and a law clerk to a federal judge, and that judge was a former prosecutor and so her law career, as far as I'm concerned, is sort of over before it even began.
We've got a picture of her, and the viewers can see it. She's holding a gun. She's sort of a pin-up girl. Her judgment clearly is off. She's never going to be a prosecutor, not certainly a federal or state prosecutor.
CHETRY: Yes. This one -- her name is Kumari Fulbright and she actually won. She was part of a Miss Arizona pageant.
HOSTIN: Yes.
CHETRY: And a second year law student at the University of Arizona.
HOSTIN: That's right.
CHETRY: But what she's accused of -- tying up this guy along with some other people.
HOSTIN: It's just unbelievable. She's accused of armed robbery, aggravated robbery, kidnapping, two counts of that assault. She apparently tied up her boyfriend. She also bit him. She apparently stuck a butcher knife in his ear, pointed a gun at him, threatened to kill him.
I mean, there are boyfriends that you want to do that to, but you don't do it. Resist the temptation, even though you want to do it. And the bottom line is, you know, she's a trained law student. By your second year, you know what a crime is. It's phenomenal. I think it's a story we should follow but again, you can't explain crazy.
CHETRY: That's right but as you said --
HOSTIN: It's fatal attraction.
CHETRY: Yes. And even if she's cleared, though, when you're in a position like that, it's hard to get your reputation back.
HOSTIN: She's been arrested. Yes, her judgment is off.
CHETRY: Sunny Hostin, good to see you as always. Thanks.
HOSTIN: Good to see you, Kiran.
CHETRY: John?
ROBERTS: You know, you might have a sense that something like that would be a crime in the second grade, let alone second year of law school.
Hey, the strongest thing that we've got going this morning is a good cup of coffee, but do you need a hit of testosterone? Paging Dr. Sanjay Gupta about the risks and rewards associated with testosterone therapy.
And from the kitchen this morning at the Hamburg No. 2 Inn, the Hamburg Inn No. 2 Diner, the long and strange name here, they're getting folks fed this morning here in Iowa City, preparing for the caucuses tomorrow.
What are people thinking about? Who do they want to vote for? What do they want to hear from the candidates? All of that coming up here on this special edition of AMERICAN MORNING live from Iowa City. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: So we're just now 24 hours away from the caucuses. They begin at 7:00 Central time tomorrow night, Thursday. What are Iowans thinking about as they prepare to go to these caucuses and make the choice for presidential preference?
We're sitting down with three Iowan here this morning in the Hamburg Inn No. 2 Diner in Iowa City. We've got Bob and Margaret Hibbs with us this morning and Cheryll Clamon over here. Let me start with you, Bob. You're a Biden supporter. What is it about Joe Biden you like?
BOB HIBBS, VOTING FOR BIDEN: Well, my head's in one spot, John, and my heart is someplace else, because my heart says Hillary Clinton because that's historic and that sort of thing, and experience and so forth, but when it comes down to really who would make the best in the Democratic field, I think it's Joe Biden.
ROBERTS: And a lot of people are saying Joe Biden is the best candidate that will never be president. What about you, Margaret. Who are you leaning toward?
MARGARET HIBBS, UNDECIDED: I'm undecided. I'll vote at the caucus undecided.
ROBERTS: You're one of the undecided voters that the people are targeting now.
M. HIBBS: I am. And in Iowa or in this election year, we have such a good slate of Democrats it's very hard, and I'll be happy with any one of them.
ROBERTS: What about Obama?
M. HIBBS: Absolutely. Absolutely.
ROBERTS: Now, weren't you saying just a while ago you have got a question about his experience? M. HIBBS: Well, he's young. He's young and he's probably low on my list of the six just because of experience, his age. There's a future out there for him, but maybe not this time.
ROBERTS: So what are the issues that really obviously leadership is something that you're looking for.
M. HIBBS: Absolutely.
ROBERTS: What is your key issue here?
M. HIBBS: The war in Iraq.
ROBERTS: Yes.
M. HIBBS: And the economy is next for me.
ROBERTS: But what about you, Cheryll? You're another one of these undecided voters. I'm sure your phone's been ringing off the hook here.
CHERYLL CLAMON, UNDECIDED: Yes.
ROBERTS: And you had every offer to get out to the caucuses that anybody could ever imagine.
CLAMON: But I also agree that there's really not a bad Democratic candidate, and that's a really nice position to be in. I think it depends on what one's priorities are because they all have different strengths...
ROBERTS: Yes.
CLAMON: ... and it depends on which strength meets your priority.
ROBERTS: What are you looking for? If you're undecided, when are you going to make up your mind?
CLAMON: Part of the caucus is strategy.
ROBERTS: Yes.
CLAMON: And who is viable and who is not.
ROBERTS: Yes.
CLAMON: And so, I think you do one candidate to start but you may change as some turn out viable.
ROBERTS: So what will it be that helps you make up your mind?
CLAMON: Well, I think I'll probably going to end up being a Hillary supporter.
ROBERTS: And for what reason? CLAMON: Partially gender, partially experience. I think she can hit the ground running and we are -- we really do have some major problems that need to be dealt with.
ROBERTS: So I trust that all of you folks are going to go out and caucus tomorrow?
B. HIBBS: Oh, yes.
M. HIBBS: Absolutely.
B. HIBBS: We've all been to the candidate. You know, see the candidates at various times and they're all over in Iowa right now. In fact, Iowa City, Hillary was here last night and we got Biden tomorrow afternoon.
ROBERTS: She was here last time. We tried to get her out, and we've tried to get her out here to the Hamburg Inn.
B. HIBBS: Bill Clinton is in here, you know, keeping the crowd.
ROBERTS: And Mitt Romney was here on Sunday so a lot of people show up here. Well, folks, thanks for talking to us this morning. Thanks for playing along.
B. HIBBS: Welcome to Iowa.
ROBERTS: Enjoy your morning. Thank you very much. It's good to be back, and we'll see you at the caucuses tomorrow night.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You bet. We'll be there.
ROBERTS: All right. Kiran?
CHETRY: All right. Very informed these voters, undecided but certainly informed about the issues so it will be interesting to see what they ultimately decide.
Meantime, imagine this -- millions of people trying to send text messages at the same time. You know what happened at midnight, of course, as the New Year rang in, so guess what happened next? If you were someone trying to send a text you probably already figured it out.
Veronica De La Cruz takes a look for us. The next half of AMERICAN MORNING starts after this quick break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN, ANCHOR: Live shot this morning from downtown Des Moines, Iowa. Thanks to our friends at KCCI for that picture. That's where we're going to be tomorrow morning. Right now, Wednesday, January the 2nd, we are in the Hamburg Inn Number Two Diner in beautiful downtown Iowa City. Great college town, a lot of young people here, tremendous amount of energy. Good morning to you, I'm John Roberts. KIRAN CHETRY, CNN, ANCHOR: Hi, John. I'm Kiran Chetry here in New York. You know, it's interesting because we were just listening to you talking to the two undecided voters, very informed. They know what the issues are and they know what they're looking for but still waiting and holding out. As these candidates have been campaigning for months and months, what exactly are they waiting for, up until the final day?
ROBERTS: They're just waiting to see, a lot of these undecided voters, who they are most comfortable with. That's what it really comes down to. And this is such a great place to sort of take the temperatures of Iowans as well. I got to tell you, we're in the middle of Johnson County, which is a very democratic area of Iowa. But over here, a group of Rudy Giuliani supporters and these Giuliani supporters happen to be sitting at the official Ronald Reagan table. He was here back in 1992. Most of the people in this diner are democrats but a group of four republicans and Giuliani supporters over there. So, you get a wide variety of people Iowa, Kiran, and it's great to talk to all of them because they're so well informed about politics.
CHETRY: It's also interesting they said they'd be happy with anybody in the field. That they really didn't think there was a bad choice out there, at least from the democrat side that you've talked to. So, that was interesting as well.
ROBERTS: Just on the democratic side. Some people are saying that they believe in the republican side that Huckabee is going to win. So we'll see what happens.
CHETRY: Yes, and we'll be watching for sure.
Meanwhile, the northeast getting hammered again by the same winter storm that dumped more than a foot of snow in Ohio and Michigan on New Year's Day. Tens of thousands of homes in the Midwest still have no power, and right now, folks in Maine are dealing with a foot of snow, as well as 50 mile-an-hour wind gusts.
A murderous rampage in Kenya, more than 275 people confirmed dead in ethnic violence after a disputed election in the African nation. Witnesses say that mobs of people with machetes slashed people, even children, torching a church full of refugees, killing 50. The head of the African Union is scheduled to arrive in Nairobi today to help mediate the post-election violence.
And Sudan's government condemning the attack that killed a U.S. diplomat and his Sudanese driver in Khartoum yesterday. John Granville was an officer with the U.S. agency for International Development. Sudan's foreign ministry is ruling out a terrorist attack but a U.S. spokesman for the embassy says it's too early to determine a motive for that shooting.
Also new this morning, accusations of election fraud that Benazir Bhutto may have taken to her grave. We're learning just what was in a report that Bhutto planned to hand over to American members of Congress the day she was killed. A top Bhutto official who helped write that report showed a copy to CNN. It accuses the Musharraf government of planning to tamper with ballots and voter lists to intimidate opposition candidates. There are also accusations that Pakistan's government used American-made equipment to eavesdrop on opponents. The Pakistani government denying all of it. Bhutto was to give that report to Senator Arlen Specter and Congressman Patrick Kennedy, who were in Pakistan last week.
And also just in this morning, a new date for Pakistan's election. They were to happen next Tuesday, now they will be delayed until February 18th. That decision comes amid the rioting and chaos that has followed the Bhutto assassination. We get to Matthew Chance who has been following all the latest developments in Baghdad, not a huge surprise that they did decide to postpone them. I guess the question now is the implications of this decision, and also whether February 18th will be enough time to get together a lot of what's been going on and causing the delay in the first place.
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN, CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kiran, the implications are potentially quite serious for Pakistan. Because the main opposition parties in this country, particularly the party of the late Benazir Bhutto, the former Pakistani prime minister, have been absolutely adamant that they don't want any kind of delay, but to the elections that were of course originally scheduled to take place on January the 8th, they say that any delay will merely be an opportunity for the Pakistani government to cling on to power for a little bit longer and perhaps to avoid the resounding defeat that Benazir Bhutto's party feel that they can inflict upon the government party, if elections or when elections are eventually held.
For their part, the election commission, the Pakistani government, say there are real technical reasons why the elections cannot go ahead on January the 8th. The chief election commissioner announced today, as you mentioned that, the elections will instead go ahead on February the 18th because of the law and order situation across the country, because of the damage to election centers that took place in the aftermath and in the violence following the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. Kiran.
CHETRY: And then one of these accusations of voter fraud in that report that was to be delivered to U.S. officials, will anything come of those accusations or an investigation?
CHANCE: It's unlikely that there will be an investigation. Certainly, the Pakistani government has dismissed the allegations contained in that dossier, as ridiculous. They're saying that there's going to be a free and fair election. They're saying there's going to be a big international presence here to monitor the election process. I think the bigger concern in Pakistan tonight is what the reaction of ordinary people will be to the announcement of this postponement of elections. Because there were is so much frustration in Pakistan amongst ordinary people with the political situation, with the economic situation in this country. There's a big loss of trust that's taken place between the Pakistani governments and the people of Pakistan, and so there's every possibility now that this postponement has been officially announced that the country could once again be plunged into chaos, into more violence. CHETRY: Matthew Chance for us live in Islamabad. Thank you. John.
ROBERTS: Kiran, the ground game in these final hours is focus at a large group of voters who haven't made up their minds. They're up for grabs and more republicans, busy here today, are undecided than democrats. You can bet that republican front-runners Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee are working hard for every vote. CNN's Dana Bash is in Des Moines for us live this morning.
Just what are they doing, Dana, to try to win over those undecided voters and some independents who as we said according to caucus rules can sign up right up until the very last minute with one party or another.
DANA BASH, CNN, CORRESPONDENT: Well, first of all their closing arguments, are they're basically trying to close, for the most part, on an upbeat. After a lot of talk of negative campaigning, they're trying to at their last pitch to voters, is about their biographies, about what they would do as president. What's really interesting about the difference in strategy, John, is that if you talk to Mitt Romney's campaign, they say look, they have an amazing data base. They have a very well-organized, well-funded campaign and they say actually right now they're not going after those undecideds so much. They are going after the people who have committed to them. They are making sure that those voters actually get to the caucus and they're doing that by phone. They're doing that with this computer system they have. They say that is the most important thing.
What Mike Huckabee of course his chief rival doesn't have here is that kind of computer system, is that kind of database. So they're relying on some of the unknown, the passion that's out there among evangelicals, among the coalitions that he has, like people who home school and they're really, if you talk to Mike Huckabee himself, he says you really can't track it. We're just hoping it's there.
ROBERTS: Interesting to note, Dana, after this "Des Moines Register" poll came out recently that has Mike Huckabee with a lead over Mitt Romney outside of the margin of error. Romney seem to indicate that he'll be satisfied with a second place finish here. He said, 'I'll take gold or even silver.' But after the amount of time he spent here, the amount of money that he spent here, even some of his own money, would coming in second be seen as a big loss for him?
BASH: Well, it certainly would not help him at all. For the past several weeks he's been calling Mike Huckabee the front-runner because he has been trying to lower expectations, but the reality, John, is what you've said, is that he was here almost a year ago planting his roots here. He has an amazing staff, probably the best if you talk to anybody, the best on the ground here in terms of the know-how in Iowa, and you know, he really did in terms of positions try to make change a bit and try to make himself more palatable to social conservatives on abortion, on same-sex marriage. That was all intended to give him a big win here and propel him into New Hampshire. And part of his problem is that he has, you know, a potential to not come in first here, and now if you look at our new poll this morning in New Hampshire, the place where he also is expecting to win, to sort of get the momentum, he's now running neck and neck with John McCain. So he really does, if you look at history, need to win here, need to do exceptionally well to get the momentum. That was after all his strategy back a year ago.
ROBERTS: OK. Well, as we know from talking to the voters, it's all about the issues, the horse race being driven by the issues so we'll see which candidate has been best on the issues for the voters if you're going to come out tomorrow night. Dana Bash for us this morning in Des Moines. Dana, thanks very much.
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, by the way, is going to join us. He's coming up in our next hour here on AMERICAN MORNING 8:30 a.m. Eastern. Kiran.
CHETRY: All right. Thanks a lot, John. Well, it's a question a lot of us are asking ourselves this morning, can we live another day without any sleep? A nasal spray containing a brain hormone, can apparently cure sleepiness in sleep-deprived monkeys? Researchers have not found any side effects yet. CNN's chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us now from our medical update desk. You're smiling because I know that you'll be the first one to run to the shelves because of your schedule. It seems too good to be true even if these research is preliminary. Is it possible for to us function normally without actually sleeping?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN, CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, I was going to say the same thing about you, Kiran, actually in terms of being first to run to the store. We don't know the answer to that question. Obviously, long-term sleep deprivation studies are hard to do because people wouldn't sleep for a very long time, and so we don't really know the results of those sorts of studies in human beings. What we're talking there is a hormone that you alluded to called arexin A. And this is a brain hormone that we know exists naturally in the brain.
What they did in this particular sleep study with monkeys again was they sleep deprived monkeys between 30 and 36 hours. And then they gave them this arexin-A and tried to figure out the impact it would have on their overall cognitive tests. And what they found out was that the monkeys who were sleep deprived if they got the hormone, they performed just as well on cognitive tests as alert monkeys, monkeys who had gotten regular amounts of sleep. That was what the study was. It is obviously just an animal study and it sorts of gets this idea that there are certain hormones in the brain that if we tinker with them a little bit can alter not only the alertness that we have but the amount of sleep that we might need as well. Exciting but preliminary, Kiran.
CHETRY: I find it interesting, too, because there's just lots of questions not only how it affects your brain but also your body. I mean, isn't our actual act of sleeping a time when cells physically repair themselves?
GUPTA: Yes, absolutely and this is, again, gets to the point that we haven't had any long-term sleep deprivation studies in humans. What we do know, is exactly what you said, Kiran. For example, we know that when we sleep, it improves our cardio respiratory system so our cardiovascular disease risk goes down if we're getting enough sleep. A new study actually came out yesterday talking about the fact that for example if you get three nights of sleep, poor sleep, you can actually affect your sugar metabolism so you're more likely to develop things like diabetes, more likely to gain weight.
I think most fascinating sort of, Kiran, is this idea that when we sleep, that's when we store memories. That's when we store the experiences of our day, of our week, of our month. That's what makes us human beings. If we're not sleeping we never get a chance to store those things. Also, as far as whether this particular medication would ever be available. It's right now just being studied and possibly for narcoleptics, people who don't make enough of this arexin-A hormone. But you know, this could be ten years away still before it's available at a drugstore for you, Kiran.
CHETRY: Yes, we'll see. I mean, I don't know, I was one of the people who wasn't sure about it. Maybe every now and then. But boy, if it turns into a daily thing and no one's sleeping, I don't know. I don't buy it could actually work but we'll see.
GUPTA: I know you got to go to bed at 7:00 or 8:00 every night to get up. Maybe that's still your best bet though, Kiran.
CHETRY: Exactly. All right. Sanjay, thanks. We asked the viewers to weigh in as well. We said if there was this hormone that could trick up your mind, if you could come up with this sleep spray into working, would you take it? And so far the results, 33% saying no. Oh, actually, all right, this just changed. 41% saying they would take it and 59% saying no, they would not take it. So we'll continue to update throughout the morning. Meanwhile, let's head back to John.
ROBERTS: All right, Kiran. Just a suggestion maybe that 59% of people who are answering our question this morning are getting enough sleep. It is the couch potato's dream, a comfy chair, dozens of high def TVs, even all you can eat and drink. But there's a catch. We'll tell what you it is coming up.
And people will gather in schools, firehouses, even grandma's house tomorrow night. The Iowa caucuses, unlike any other election you'll see. We're demystifying it for you. It's a pretty arcane, Byzantine process. What happens? And how does it happen? That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING as we continue from the Hamburg Inn Number Two Diner here in Iowa City.
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CHETRY: Welcome back to the most news in the morning. Think you're watching a lot of college sports on TV this week. Well, check out this folks. Three guys and a girl trying to sit through nearly 70 hours of sports to become the king of couch potatoes. That look so relaxing, doesn't it. They've got the dream setup. It's at the ESPN zone in New York. I knew it looked familiar. Comfy recliners, a dozen high def TVs and all the food and drinks they want. They have to last 69 hours and 48 minutes to set the world records. They can't sleep and they only get one bathroom break every eight hours. Wow. The one who lasts the longest wins. They get a recliner and a high def TV I guess so they can just continue it right at home. It doesn't look half bad though, except for the bathroom break problem.
ROBERTS: No, great prizes, too, so why not. Hey, all you got to do is sit around. Hey, it's not an election. It's not a primary. There's no secret ballot and you can vote for more than one candidate. The Iowa caucuses. CNN political analyst John Dickerson joins me now to explain how it all works and how to follow it all at home and trying to break it down for us here with some simple references.
JOHN DICKERSON, CNN, POLITICAL ANALYST: That's right. First, let's start with the public ones, that's the easy there. Their process is orderly which it hasn't been in this primary but people come into the caucus at 7:00/ They write down their vote on a piece of paper, it's secret.
ROBERTS: Presidential preference.
DICKERSON: This is presidential preference. Let's go to the democrats. It's very complicated.
ROBERTS: We wouldn't want anything simple with the democrats.
DICKERSON: And because it's so complicated this is why the campaigns are working hard to get people out. It's a little daunting. It works in two stages. People come in and we're using props here so we don't offend any of the campaigns.
ROBERTS: Sure. We got the Sweet 'n Low over here, the Smuckers grape jelly.
DICKERSON: And we got the creamers in the middle. So, in the first stage everybody lines up in groups. First thing you notice is it's public. So, if these two are married and they split off into their groups, their neighbors are going to see. So, then there's a count after half an hour and everybody joins up. Now, if one group doesn't get 15% of the total attendance.
ROBERTS: Which is called viability.
DICKERSON: Viability. They are not viable so they then become very, very popular, because both sides then for the next half hour in the second stage try to convince the creamers to go over their side. So the grape jellies will say, we're orderly, we have anti-oxidants, you know, it's our turn. And the Sweet 'n Lows will say no, no, there's never been a pink candidate. It's time to come over here. And so these two, and there may be some negative campaigning, you know. The Sweet 'n Low is artificial, don't go that way. They will then split off and a new count will be taken. And that is the final count. Now, that count is then used to apportion delegates. So, let's say there are 10 delegates at stake and the grape jelly here gets 60 and the Sweet 'n Low gets 40. that means the delegates will be apportioned 6 and 4.
ROBERTS: It's not a winner take all.
DICKERSON: That's right.
ROBERTS: It's proportional disbursement of these delegates.
DICKERSON: You know, that's exactly right.
ROBERTS: And so what is this going to tell us at the end of the night?
DICKERSON: Well, it would tell us who Iowans have picked and it will tell us, you know, who's got the momentum going into New Hampshire but it's not a straight count for the republicans, it is but it is not a straight count preference in Iowa. So, it will tell who the democrats how the delegates will be apportioned for the presidential preference and we'll all read the tea leaves about who won in the rural counties, who won in the cities and what this all means for the race.
ROBERTS: There's a tremendous amount of nuance here and there's an issue that people are beginning to talk about now, and that is what if there is no definitive outcome here from Iowa? What does that do?
DICKERSON: Well, that's exactly right. And then it becomes then a conversation that we all have to have in the press and candidates will be spinning like mad about what this means and going down the road. And you know, expectations are being built even in advance of course of the actual vote. You know, with the various candidacies saying look, we're not going to do so well, we're going to live to fight another day.
ROBERTS: So, here's a question a lot of people outside of Iowa are asking, asking quietly, in a place like this. Governor Ted Strickland of Ohio brought it up the other day. With all of this attention, all of this money being focused on a pool of voters, that's about 200,000 in size, barely 10% of the eligible voters in Iowa. We're spending about $65 million here to court those votes, spent the better part of two or three years here, some of them. Isn't this a little nuts?
DICKERSON: All right. It's all insiders, it's all activists and it's not really one vote democratic process. So yes, it gets a lot of heat but on the other hand, these candidates do get to talk to regular folks here and that's something we like our candidates to talk to human beings instead of just cameras.
ROBERTS: And by the way, I said isn't this nuts, in a very affectionate way. John Dickerson, thanks for trying to make sense out of this this morning. Appreciate it. Kiran.
CHETRY: All right. John, thanks. Well, texting in the new year, millions of Americans tried to text their new year's wishes but not everyone could get through. Our Veronica De La Cruz has that story ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) CHETRY: About seven minutes to the top of the hour now. If you're just joining us, a look at the headline this morning. An air strike by Israel into eastern Gaza this morning. At least six Palestinians are believed dead, many of them members of the Hamas military wing. Israel defense forces say that the attack was launched after a gunman approached Israeli troops.
Also, brand new this morning from Pakistan, the death of Benazir Bhutto forcing the government to delay elections. They set a date, announced it just moments ago. It will now be February 18th. That's more than a month after they were supposed to happen on January 8th.
New safety standards passed by Congress after the Sago mine disaster are still not in place. Congress overhauled mine safety rules after 12 miners were killed about two years ago in West Virginia. The United Mine Workers Union claims federal officials have not yet implemented some of those safety standards like sealing abandoned sections of mines.
There's a new study that suggests race is a factor in how emergency rooms treat patients. The study found that minorities were less likely than whites to get pain killers like morphine. Researchers found the gap in both city and rural hospitals for all types of pain. The study is in the "Journal of the American Medical Association."
Now, you or like many tried to send a text message at the stroke of midnight and it didn't take, you weren't the only one. If your text message wouldn't send again, you were not the only one. Veronica de la Cruz joins us now with a look at some of the texting trouble. We were going over it right now because I have some of them saved. I kept getting the same message. It seemed like every couple of minutes.
VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN, INTERNET CORRESPONDENT: Because the system was clogged so it kept on repeating itself, exact same message over and over and over again.
CHETRY: First you think you're just drunk and then you realize no, there might be a glitch.
DE LA CRUZ: Well, apparently text messaging in the new year a lot more popular than a person might think. Verizon Wireless printed a record 300 million messages sent during a 16 hour period between New Year's eve and the first of the year. And last year Verizon says customers sent more than 284 million messages. So, they expect it to surpass that mark. One report said in total over 1 billion text messages combined were exchanged over the New Year between the nation's four wireless companies.
Now, elsewhere around the world "The Irish Examiner" reported that 41 million text messages were sent in Ireland around New Year's though Asian countries most likely sent the most text messages overall. Like Kiran was just saying the problem, many of those well- wishes couldn't even get through. There are no hard numbers on the situation but we are hearing lots of people say that they had trouble sending or receiving messages, even making calls on their cell phones.
Now, one user on Intermobile.com posted a blog asking if anyone else had problems texting on New Year's and says he noticed the system clogging up, specifically AT&T's Manhattan network and that is not the network that I'm on. I know, not the one you're on either but I was having the exact same trouble. I started at 11:50, could not make a phone call, could not send a message, was getting the error message, the call failed message over and over and over again. Finally got out. The person said that they texted me right away, got their message at 1:20 in the morning.
CHETRY: Yes, I'm looking at the time stamp as well. I got 1:27 p.m. is where a message went through.
DE LA CRUZ: 1:27 p.m., wow.
CHETRY: I thought it was because I was in Times Square and I thought maybe for security reasons you weren't able to text or call, but very interesting.
DE LA CRUZ: People around the world all at the same time.
I mean, not all at the same time, but that's right, on the east coast at least.
CHETRY: It makes you wonder though if there was a big emergency, how would that be affected because of so many people trying to get through. Interesting stuff.
DE LA CRUZ: So we weren't the only ones with the same problem.
CHETRY: Exactly. Thanks, Veronica.
Well, it can build a better body but can it help your health? There is a new study about whether you'd benefit from a boost. We're paging Dr. Gupta at the top of the hour.
And also who owns your music? New scrutiny about everyone who has ever ripped or burned a CD could you be breaking the law and are they actually going to pursue you? We're going to talk more about new laws as it relates to music sharing. Coming up on AMERICAN MORNING.
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